Retributions  

Should Secularism be imposed?

Turkey’s Islamist dominated parliament has voted to overturn the ban on head scarves on women attending Turkish universities.  The ban, a legacy of Kamat Ataturk’s secular Turkish state has great symbolic value as it signifies the growing conflict between the country’s military-judicial elite, sworn to uphold the country’s strict secular constitution and the increasingly powerful and religious middle class.

Is Turkey’s artificial secularism–defended in the past by military bayonets–an ideal worth defending?  From a strictly democratic point of view, the answer is a resounding no. If the women in Turkey wish to wear head scarves, they should be allowed to do so.

Nevertheless, the adamant refusal of the secular elite to give into the demands of the Islamists is based on a real fear: Islamic parties have frequently used democratic institutions to capture power. Once safely ensconced in power, and being anti-democratic in nature, they quickly dismantle the same institutions which had catapulted them to power in the name of perpetuating the rule of Islam.

How democracy adjusts to totalitarian parties–many of them religious–without affecting their essential nature and violating notions of fair play and freedom is a challenge countries in the 21st century may increasingly face. In that light, what happens in Turkey may hold important lessons for the rest of the world.