Prospect Magazine has announced that Fethullah Gülen, the leader of an influential Turkey-based global Sufi-oriented Islamic movement, has won the international poll to choose the World’s Most Influential Intellectual. While Gülen and his ideas are widely admired, he also is feared and hated by some in Turkey who see his enormous reach and publishing […]
Excerpts from Newsweek article on Turkey (click for full article):
Turkey’s Constitutional Court recently overruled its National Assembly and declared that two constitutional amendments passed in February were in fact unconstitutional. The Assembly is entitled to amend the Constitution with a 65 percent majority, and the judges conceded that I’s had been dotted and T’s crossed. […]
On April 16, Professor Henri Barkey’s gave the 2008 Campagna-Kerven Lecture on Modern Turkey at Boston University: “Where have Old Friends Gone? US-Turkish Relations Since the Iraq War”. To see a video of his well-received lecture, click here.
From Mustafa Akyol’s column:
[Serif Mardin] argued that, in the past decades, the official ideology of the Republic (i.e., Kemalism) has been overshadowed by the teachings of Islam. Using the “imam” and the “teacher” as symbols for religious morality and secular ethics respectively, he flatly proclaimed: “The imam has won over the teacher.” …
The reason why […]
The deputy head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate insisted yesterday that, despite people’s reference to religious requirements to keep their daughters home, there was no religious reason for not sending girls to school. Rather, Islam demands that every Muslim, men and women, seek knowledge and science from birth to death. Society’s discrimination has forced […]
I couldn’t have said it better!
Soli Ozel’s excellent article in today’s Financial Times (click here)
An excerpt:
Turkey’s constitutional court is considering a case to close the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) and ban 71 of its politicians from politics….
Many voters are offended by this crude attempt to nullify their vote. It is the judicial equivalent […]
Photo by DPA
The German news magazine Spiegel predicts street protests after the expected banning of Turkey’s ruling AK Party around September. Other observers point to the widespread passive acceptance of the closing as a fait accomplis (A coup? “Oh, no, not again!” Shrug.) and the maneuvering that has already begun to get around the closure […]
Excerpts from an article by M. K. Bhadrakumar (former Indian ambassador to Turkey) in Asia Times (click here for full article)
… It seemed for a fleeting moment that last year’s elections in Turkey would lead to engendering a balance between Islam, democracy, secularism and modernity. The AKP secured its mandate as a party […]
I would like to thank a reader for calling the following article to my attention:
Two liberal theologians have taken Turkey’s most famous Islamic clothes designer to court, alleging the couturier is exploiting religion for personal profit. The case is highlighting the growing tension between Islam and the country’s market economy.
Dubbed “Allah’s tailor” by the press, […]
With a vote of nine to two, Turkey’s Constitutional Court decided yesterday to annul constitutional amendments that would have allowed women to wear the Muslim headscarf at Turkish universities. This decision came despite the fact that last month the court rapporteur Osman Can had recommended that the case be thrown out, arguing that while […]