Turkey will hold elections on July 22. If I could vote, I would support the Justice and Development Party (AK) despite the fact that it alarms the secularists in Turkey and elsewhere. The reason that the AK deserves all our votes goes well beyond what is about to happen in this one nation. AK is a moderate Muslim party, made up of exactly the kind of Muslims we should be supporting as the best antidote to the extremists.
Much has been made out of the fact that the wives of the party leaders were head- scarfs. So do 55 percent of all Turkish women. Moreover, nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of Turks believe that it is wrong to ban such headgear. Furthermore, the AK (which is now in power) has introduced more laws and policies aimed at ensuring equality to women than the generations of secular governments which preceded it.
There is no need to deny that the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leader of the AK party, did initially support criminalizing adultery, but he quickly relented. He also favors creating alcohol-free zones.
Stephen Kinzer, a former Istanbul correspondent for The New York Times, put it well when he said that the "so-called 'Islamist'" AK is "extremely moderate by worldwide standards" and its members would be "ostracized as infidels" if they were to be transplanted to Afghanistan or Iran.
Above all, more and more Turks favor a moderate Islamic society and are no longer enamored with a dominantly secular one. (After all, secularism was imposed on Turkey in the first place by a fierce autocrat and the military.) When the AK won an outright majority of seats in Parliament in 2002, it became the first non-secular Turkish party to have done so in 15 years, overcoming eighty years of government promoted secularism.
Most importantly, the same change of strategy must be applied to other parts of the Muslim world. Large segments of it are not satisfied with secular government. To counter extremists, it is best to support the moderate Muslims found in large numbers in nations such as Indonesia, Bangladesh and Malaysia, rather than to support only secular parties. Just as Social Democrats were often a better antidote to Communists than were conservatives, so the texts and leaders of nonviolent, moderate but religious parties are the most promising way to curb Islamists. The notion that if you are a true believer you must favor violence is belied by the fact that the majority of Muslims reject terrorism.
President Reagan used to say that God should not be kept out of the classroom -- as if a bunch of educators could prevent his presence. Politicians should take note: they cannot keep God out of politics, either. Often, their choices will be limited to a question of which of His messages they will object to if sought by the voters: those that sanctify suicide bombers and car bombs -- the God of the terrorists -- or those that call for humility, modesty, teaching of the scriptures and non violence? Those who call for jihad as a holy war to kill all the infidels and those who see jihad as a spiritual journey of self improvement?
Comments