Cyprus-Forum.com

[CBBB]

Secular Turks 'facing prejudice'

By Sarah Rainsford
BBC News, Istanbul

Woman with headscarf in Istanbul
There is more pressure on women to wear headscarves, the report says

A report in Turkey has highlighted "very worrying" evidence of increased discrimination against secular Turks.

The study, called "Being Different in Turkey", links this directly to the presence of the religious conservative AK Party in government.

It details widespread social pressure on non-devout Muslims to attend Friday prayers, fast during the month of Ramadan or wear a headscarf.

It was conducted by the Open Society Institute and Bosphorus University.

It suggests that a government policy of making appointments to local administrations on the basis of political and religious beliefs, rather than competence, is forcing non-devout Turks to change their habits in order to protect their business or their jobs.

The AK Party has its roots in Political Islam, but has always insisted its views have changed.

Last year, the party survived an attempt to close it down, as a threat to Turkey's strict secular system.

Social pressure

The study documents what many secular Turks have complained about in the years since the AK Party came to power.

Based on interviews with almost 5,000 secular Turks, Alevites and Christians in 12 cities, it concludes that religious conservatism is flourishing, breeding increasing intolerance of those outside the Sunni Muslim majority.

It claims that the appointment of AK Party devotees to local administrations, schools and hospitals is changing the social atmosphere in Turkey in what it calls a very worrying way.

The report cites page upon page of examples: non-religious nurses put on permanent night shift; landlords refusing to take female student tenants unless they wear a headscarf; secular civil servants bypassed for promotion.

It talks of increased social pressure to attend Friday prayers and fast during Ramadan, and documents the difficulty in many cities of obtaining licences to sell alcohol.

The report's authors accept that much of the Turkish heartland has always been socially conservative.

But they blame the AK Party for failing to promote tolerance for other groups' rights and freedoms while in government.

Instead - the report says - the government's practices have had quite the opposite effect.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7792239.stm

[Tim Drayton]

I have read about this report. In my opinion conservative parts of Turkey were like this twenty years ago, so it is not a great revelation to me.

[Cem]

Yes, in my opinion too, Turkey is getting both more islamist and nationalist.
That means shittier day by day.
What worries me are the parallel developments taking place in the north cyprus.

[Oracle]

I thought it was a myth that Turkey was ever secular.

Even Kemalism just serves to protect the Sunni Muslims by "outlawing" all other practices ... so it was only ever religious intolerant and never truly secular.

The ease with which they recently banned Internet sites with access to discussing Evolution, proved they are not secular.

The Imams are paid by the State and given their sermon to deliver by the State as well aren't they?

[Tim Drayton]

I have just read today's column in the Radikal nespaper by a commentator whose views I respect, İsmet Berkan, in which he discusses this question.

http://www.radikal.com.tr/Default.aspx? ... egoryID=97

He describes his impressions as one who had grown up in a modern Istanbul family when as a young sports reporter he travelled around Anatolia in the early eighties. He echoes my above view in saying that many parts of Anatolia were extremely Islamic and conservative in those days, such that they felt alien to somebody from Istanbul. Yet, he sensed that there was a kind of tolerance then - he says, for example, you could always find a restaurant open even in an extremely conservative place like Erzurum during the fasting month of Ramadan. He gets the impression that now, 26-27 years later, these same places have been taken over by a more oppressive, less tolerant form of conservatism.

[Oracle]

Perhaps this is a survival instinct backlash, against equally oppressive dunderheads like Bush, threatening Islam.

[miltiades]

Perhaps this is a survival instinct backlash, against equally oppressive dunderheads like Bush, threatening Islam.

Nonsense , Bush NEVER threatened Islam , only the Islamic fanatics who target innocent people , men women and children .

[Tim Drayton]

Yes, in my opinion too, Turkey is getting both more islamist and nationalist.
That means shittier day by day.
What worries me are the parallel developments taking place in the north cyprus.

I believe you are right. However, reading coverage of this report, I can't help feeling that they have included a lot of frivolous things.

http://www.radikal.com.tr/Radikal.aspx? ... egoryID=97

For example:
A young man is subject to ridicule in the streets for wearing an earring (in Kayseri),
A tradesman complains that Sunni Muslims do not shop with him because he has an Alevi-sounding name (in Erzurum),
A student wishing to rent a room is asked by his prospective landlord if he attends prayers (in Trabzon).

These are very conservative places and I am sure that pressure of this kind has always been present there.

[Oracle]

Perhaps this is a survival instinct backlash, against equally oppressive dunderheads like Bush, threatening Islam.

Nonsense , Bush NEVER threatened Islam , only the Islamic fanatics who target innocent people , men women and children .

Yeah right! ..... Bush acting like a Bull in a China shop

[Floda]

Nonsense , Bush NEVER threatened Islam , only the Islamic fanatics who target innocent people , men women and children .

So, (according to the above statement) ALL those innocent men,women and children that were slaughtered at the behest of Bush and Blair whilst they slept in their beds, completely unaware of the death and destruction that was about to be rained down upon them as a result of an unlawful attack upon them, were ALL Islamic fanatics.

Seems to me that the pair of those murderous schemers, made a serious mistake, the result of which has placed the whole world in danger.

You certainly have a very strange way of interpreting the ultimate intentions of those who, like yourself, blindly follow the lead of lunatic leaders.

Have a nice Christmas miltiades, millions will NOT enjoy the festive season as a result of the evil actions of those who profess to be pious followers of their respective faiths.

IMHO (of course)