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Turkey’s Muslim President
Some stupid headlines:
AFP: Turkey elects ex-Islamist as president
The Turkish parliament on Tuesday elected Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as president, making him the secular republic’s first head of state with an Islamist past.
Reuters: Ex-Islamist Gul elected Turkey’s president
There is nothing "ex-" with Gül’s believes. He is just as "islamist" (what does that mean by the way?) as he has ever been. He didn’t stop praying and visiting the mosque.
The predessor of Gül’s current AKP party, the Welfare Party, did win the elections in 1996 against a rightwing, militaristic and corrupt coalition. A year later it was pressed out of the government by the Turkish military for alleged attempts to endanger the secular state. In 1998 it was forbidden which led to the foundation of the AKP which officially puts a little less emphasis on religion.
The political spectrum in Turkey is pretty rightwing. Within that spectrum the AKP is on the left. (There are parties further left, but without much chance to play a role at all.) The Turkish military is traditionally far right and is supported by and supports the big industrialists.
The AKP’s economic-social position is working against those
interests and towards the interests of the less wealthy. It achieved to
stop the endemic hyperinflation that plagued Turkey for three decades
and it launched some good programs for the rural peasants and urban
poor.
When the ruling AKP first tried to elect Gül for president, the
military threatend to intervene and to lauch a coup. This time the AKP
answered pretty smart. It called for new elections and instead of the
34% of votes it had before the election, it now gained 45% of all
votes.
The Turkish military yesterday again issued dark threats against Gül’s
election. But it will be much harder to do something against Gül and
the AKP now with their public support clearly evident.
The whole "islamist" stuff was played up as a boogieman by the right
wing and the military. Instead of looking at the political-economical
record, the western news agancies followed those soundbites. Now that a
NATO member and EU aspirant with a muslim population finally has a
practicing muslim president, they stumble over themselves to explain
that he is "ex-islamist".
He isn’t and it doesn’t matter at all. Politics in Turkey, like
about everywhere, are overwhelmingly defined by left- or right-wing
economic policies, not by religiousness.
Congrats to Gül. Congrats to the Turkish people.
@ralphieboy
Fortunately, Christian Theocrats still make up only a small part of the religious and political spectrum, whereas Islamism is on the rise.
In the U.S., only 14 percent of adults thought that evolution was “definitely true,” while about a third firmly rejected the idea.
National Geographic
Our Western view of religion is a personal matter, one is free to practice one’s beliefs to the extent that they do not violate national law. Under Islamism, the Sharia is the law.
There is tremendous variance in the interpretation and implementation of Islamic law in Muslim societies today. Liberal movements within Islam have questioned the relevance and applicability of sharia from a variety of perspectives; Islamic feminism brings multiple points of view to the discussion. Several of the countries with the largest Muslim populations, including Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan, have largely secular constitutions and laws, with only a few Islamic provisions in family law. Turkey has a constitution that is officially strongly secular. India is the only country in the world which has separate Muslim civil laws, framed by Muslim Personal Law board, and wholly based on Sharia.
Most countries of the Middle East and North Africa maintain a dual system of secular courts and religious courts, in which the religious courts mainly regulate marriage and inheritance.
Contemporary practice of Sharia law
And whereas civil law is clearly seen as the product of human action, subject to revision and change according to conditions, the Sharia, and the Koran on which it is based, are seen as a revealed truth, subject to various interpretations, but in essence unchanging and inviolable.
As there are no hierarchies or clergy in Islam, consensus, ijma’, is required to apply the law layed down in quran, hadith and as interpreted through ijtihad or qiyas. A group of people expresses ijma’ simply by following a specific scholar’s or school-of-law’s interpretation.
On Variations of Islamic Law
And except for a few Christian fundamentalists, most Westerners have long since looked on the Bible as the work of human hands, perhaps divinely inspired, but nonetheless to be seen has having been created in a definite historical, social and political context.
see evolution link above
This view is generally lacking in Islam: the Koran is still broadly regarded as the Revealed Word of Allah, and even the paper and ink used to write it down are held sacred.
I just searched for pictures of christians shitting on the new testament – why didn’t I find any? hmm … something lacking in christianity?
—
projection (or projection bias) is a defense mechanism in which one attributes to others one’s own unacceptable or unwanted thoughts or/and emotions. Projection reduces anxiety by allowing the expression of the unwanted subconscious impulses/desires without letting the ego recognize them.
Psychological projection
Posted by: b | Aug 28 2007 20:17 utc | 4
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