On Sunday April 29, the Associated Press reported that over 300,000 Turks had taken to the streets of Istanbul in a mass protest demanding resignation of the government. In Ankara, at least 300,000 rallied two weeks earlier, citing the same complaint: that the Turkish government, while priding itself on maintaining a secular society, is nevertheless Islamic-based, and is increasingly fundamentalist. That which Turks see as the government’s increased cooperation with radical Islamic elements may be undermining modern Turkey, forcing it back into the type of medieval life in play in nearby Islamic countries. “They want to drag Turkey to the Dark Ages!” complained one elderly protestor. A banner read, “Neither Sharia (Islamic Law) nor coup, but fully democratic Turkey!” The crowd chanted that the government was now “closed to imams”.

 

Westerners should watch the conflict in Turkey closely in coming months - for the situation in this one country reflects the greater conflict across Europe and Middle East. The ways in which Turkey resolves or cannot resolve the issue may predict coming conflict with Islamic communities across the globe for the next several years or even decades.

Turkey is unique in the world of Islamic nations, and indeed in the history of the world. It is tied closely to the histories of all three great monotheistic religions: Christian, Jewish and Muslim. As Anatolia, it was the cradle of the early Christian church, seeing the birth of official Christian doctrine at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. St Paul crossed Anatolia several times during his missions, and popular Christian belief is that Mary spent her last days there. The seven major churches mentioned in the New Testament are all in modern-day Turkey. The Roman Emperor Constantine established it as the Christian Byzantine capitol, a position it enjoyed for over 1000 years before falling to Muslims in 1453. Last November, Pope Benedict XVI caused an international stir when he visited Turkey to advocate openly for unity of Christians and better treatment within Turkey of its Christian, Jewish and other religious minorities.

After 1453, the Muslim Ottoman Empire in Turkey tolerated religious differences. Jewish and Christian communities existed in great numbers, and were allowed to establish their own community governments, their religious heads being responsible to the Sultan for the behavior of the community. However, the Islamic principle of Dhimmi prevented their full equal treatment with Muslim citizens. With the coming of Islamic “ethnic-religious nationalism” in the 19th century, the safety of these minorities was further compromised, and most fled to newly-established nation-states like Armenia, Bulgaria, and Greece, leaving modern Turkey 99% Muslim. In the 1920’s women were granted the right to vote, Islamic dress was banned, and Turkey began its romance with Western progress.

Since, Turkey has strived to establish a reputation unique amongst Islamic countries for promoting a secular state. Recently, it has emphasized its history of secularism when struggling with economic membership into the European Union. EU member countries argue that although modern Turkey has indeed been secular in government, religious minorities are treated badly. Dhimmitude trumps religious freedom in the Turkish mind: while minority communities are allowed to exist, they are not helped to exist. Like Dhimmitude did in the Middle Ages, it establishes laws which make it impossible for a religious minority to thrive and, in fact, cause it to dwindle and die out over time.

The problems with the modern Turkish government may have begun in the 1970’s, with the seeds of the rise of modern Islamofascism. While other Islamic countries became increasingly religious in nature (let’s not forget that Islam is a political as much as religious system), Turkey fought to remain secular. Today for example, the wearing of religious garb in public places - even universities - is prohibited. The government supervises all religious activity, and major clergy of any religion is considered employed by the government. All funding for religious activity and property comes from the government, and is administered by the same. Proselytizing is prohibited by law.

But the modern seeds of radicalization couldn’t be resisted entirely, even in Turkey. The 1970’s saw, for example, the forced closing of Christian seminaries. The enigmatic nature of the conflict is illustrated by the conviction of a radical philosopher Islamist - Fethullah Gulan - to three years in prison for “pro-Islamic activities”. (Gulan had been granted something called a “State Preacher’s License” in 1959 - the Islamic loophole for free proselytizing.)

By 1997 the Turkish military had secured its reputation for being the enemy of radical Islam, when it helped to end the attempted establishment of the first real Islamist government and ended two other attempts since the 1960’s. In 2000 a major scandal occurred in Turkey, when some audio tapes were released of Gulan’s sermons, which suggested that he aimed to overthrow the government in favor of Islamic fundamentalism and to impose Sharia Law. In these tapes, he spoke directly to supporters within the government, cautioning them to put on a deceptive face of diplomacy and cooperation while working to undermine the structure, waiting for the day when the government would fall to Islamism.

It is helpful for a Westerner to consider the parallels here between Gulan’s stance and historical and current efforts to overthrow non-Islamic governments. Gulan was simply following an age-old formula: use the Islamic doctrine of taqiyya - that is, deliberate and morally-sanctioned deception in order to advance the cause of Islam - to undermine a society and overthrow its government. The same principal is in play when a modern mullah says one politically correct thing to national media, painting Islam as “the peaceful religion” and terrorist-funding organizations as “charities”, and then goes into a mosque and preaches hatred and war in Arabic.

This principal is in effect when mullahs buy property, control banks and social organizations, and insinuate themselves into public education, undermining a society even as they pretend to be a friend.

When Gulan’s tapes were made public, he fled to the U.S. for “medical treatment” but in fact did not return to Turkey and was tried in absentia. A long legal process ended when in 2005 Turkish law was amended to soften the criminal code against acts of terror: Gulan was acquitted. Gulan runs a $25 Billion (USD - 1999) project, which has established over 500 educational institutions in many countries outside Turkey, including a University in Virginia. He publishes newspapers and owns radio and TV. He owns banks, employees’ unions and runs student organizations. To believe his schools devoid of Islamist ideological influence is naive: Gulan’s earliest years as a “preacher” targeted teens and young people. He is known to have - while expressing heartbreak over the events of 9-11 - openly denied the existence of “Islamic terror”. (Taqiyya at its finest.) He remains a thorn in the side of a Turkey trying to find a place in a modern economy and political forum, and he remains high on their military’s list of troublemakers. Still, in a world where radical Islamic support is easy to find, he remains a powerful influence.

Today, Turkey finds itself in increasing conflict, wedged between the hope of modern economic power with EU membership, and the rise of fundamentalist factions within its borders. Mullahs are increasingly visible in the government machinery. The wife of one official appears at state functions in Islamic headdress, infuriating the populace. Says one elderly woman at Sunday’s protest, “We don’t want a covered woman in the presidential palace. . . we want civilized, modern people there.”

Today, Pope Benedict XVI decries the laws in Turkey which forbid the building of Christian churches, allow confiscation of church property, forbid the import of non-Muslim clergy or the training of new clergy. Authorities report youth who attend any Christian meeting, and those who leave Islam, are persecuted, even violently. In 1981 it was a young Turk who shot John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square. This past February, a teen Turk shot a Catholic priest kneeling in prayer in his church in Turkish Trabzon, killing him. The radical youth was angry over the publishing in Europe of cartoons of Mohammed.

Turkey is at a crossroads. The path it chooses will not only map its own future, but that of the rise of Islamofascism in the West, the rise of Islamist nations, and the safety, freedom and survival of Muslims and non-Muslims living in Muslim societies and communities all over the world. We would be wise to stay tuned.

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Susan MacAllen runs political blog & a contributor to Family Security Matters. She has written on wide topics over the last 20 years.