Which Way?

What are they going to do about Turkey's membership in the E.U.?

Here is a country (although it is a proud member of N.A.T.O.) that is almost 95% in Asia, not Europe, and is predominately a Muslim country (Not Christian) that is ruled by a secular, militarily backed government.

Back in 1932 when modern Turkey was founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in W.W. ll, Ataturk considered Islam incompatible with the goal of developing a modern European state!

He ended the Islamic caliphates, got rid of religious schools, gave women the vote and replaced the Arabic writing system with Latin script.

All of this was fine except the fact that the general population was, and continues to be, poor muslims who follow ancient ways and don't really want to be part of the 21st century.

Multi-party politics were introduced in 1947 and the first Islamist party came on the scene 23 years later. Since that time the military has found it necessary to intervene and remove four different governments that were deemed too Islamist.

The possibility of an Islamist-rooted party controlling the executive and legislative branches has dramatically increased anxieties and fuelled nationalists suspicions of a "hidden agenda" to return Turkey to an Islamist state.

With a country that is controlled by a secular government but a population that is overwhelmingly fundamentalist, and dissatisfied, the future of Turkey is not all that rosy.

Not only for joining the E.U. but also to continue as a modern, Western influenced country.

Your ever-topical scribe;
Allan W Janssen

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God-101 (what the church doesn't want you to know!) at; www.God-101.com
And the petition to have people mind their own business instead of yours at; http://www.petitiononline.com/moses/petition.html