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Turkey: When Secularism and Democracy
Collide
June 26, 2008 Letters To the Editor: Re “The Fight for Turkey”
(column, The New York Times on the Web, June 23): Roger Cohen expresses his support
for secularism in Turkey and for the decision by Turkey’s highest court to
overturn the governing party’s legislation allowing women to wear the hijab, or
head scarf, at universities. While Mr. Cohen acknowledges that
“women of college age should be allowed to wear what they like in accordance
with their personal convictions,” he then says that “on balance, I side with
the court.” The court’s decision was
distinctly illiberal in its infringements on personal rights. And it ran
counter to the fact that a policy decision by the current government, which was
elected by some of the widest margins in Turkey’s history, was overturned on
transparently flimsy grounds. Turkey is a country at war with
itself. A corrupt, decrepit, chauvinistic secular core is facing off against a
vital and honest Justice and Development party, or AKP. To stand with the
secular old guard is to stand with those who have consistently opposed the
advancement of liberal democracy in Turkey. Bisher Tarabishy To the Editor: The secularism at stake in Turkey
would be immediately rebuffed in the United States, as it would interfere with
the free exercise of religion. Roger Cohen acknowledges this
sentiment, and yet supports the court decision that required the hijab ban as a
necessary impediment to the unyielding and irreversible effects of Islamism. The ascendancy of Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his party, Justice and Development, or AKP, has not
been without impediments from the secular forces in the Turkish government,
most notably the military. Mr. Cohen’s fear of the AKP seems
based on guilt by association with other Islamist parties, and thus he supports
continuing a policy of opposing democracy to support secularism. The United States’ support for
secular, undemocratic governments in the Middle East has led to the Iranian
revolution, the Algerian civil war and to much of the political strife in
Pakistan. We continue to pursue this trend, and it continues to let us down. Secularism is not necessarily a
moderating or stabilizing force, as shown by the examples of Communist Russia
and China. Meanwhile, democracy, by holding the government accountable to the
people, arguably is. But this stability is only
possible if we get over the politics of fear and guilt by association that is
widespread in the debate between Islam and democracy. Fauzia Shaikh To the Editor: Roger Cohen says that the court
ruling in Turkey enforcing a ban on women’s head scarves in universities “is
unacceptable,” but he ends up accepting it because he’s “confident that in the
medium-term, Turkish women will win the right to wear head scarves wherever.” And so, yet again, a woman’s
right to wear what she wants, do what she wants and believe what she wants is
brushed aside in favor of a dominant ideology. Is this so different from the
Islamist policies Mr. Cohen opposes? Tom Hitchner • To the Editor: Roger Cohen compares “secular
fascists” and “Islamofascists” in Turkey. His ruminations on the benefits of
“an occasional dose of ‘secular fascism’ ” in Turkey are interesting and not
without merit. But what I think he really means
is “secular authoritarianism” and “Islamo-authoritarianism.” The distortion of the term
“fascism” is unfortunate. Even though WordNet and other dictionaries may give
sanitized definitions for fascism like “a political theory advocating an
authoritarian hierarchical government (as opposed to democracy or liberalism),”
the roots of fascism lie in the perversion of representative government by the
interests of business. As Upton Sinclair wrote, “Fascism
is capitalism plus murder.” Maybe if people would draw
clearer lines between fascism and authoritarianism, it would be easier to drive
both out of Turkey and the rest of the world. Andy Deck http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/opinion/lweb26cohen.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin |
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