Turkey's 80th birthday mired by rows over secularism

Turkey is marking its 80th birthday this week, but celebrations are mired in growing hostility between a belligerent secularist elite and Islamist-leaning rivals of increasing political strength.

A government led by former members of a banned Islamist movement was hardly part of the future Mustafa Kemal Ataturk envisaged on October 29, 1923 when he proclaimed the republic on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire and moved to transform it - with an iron fist - into a secular Westernized nation.

Crushing all opposition, he purged religion from the state and education system, placed religious activities under control, replaced the Arabic alphabet with the Latin one, granted civil rights to women and even changed the way Turks dress, banning the fez, the traditional red, soft-felt cap.

http://www.etaiwannews.com/World/2003/10/27/1067217491.htm

placed religioius activities under control by banning some and locking up the religious khankas and schools of the Sufis. The only reason the Mevlevis are still allowed to do the Turn in Konya is because it brings in tourist dollars (they are the famous 'whirling dervishes' for those who don't know). A friend of mine went to Mevlana's tomb and did a slow turn, always aware that the police were watching him. I am glad that here in America the religious ceremonies of the different Sufi orders are allowed to be practiced.

I am not disagreeing that Ataturk helped his nation enter the twentieth century. But I think there can be a balance between religious and secular freedom. When that balance doesn't exist, there is a tension, and the tendancy to go from one extreme (secularism that bans/curtails religion) to the other (religious states).