Secularism, the State and Turkey

Turkey is a very interesting country to keep an eye on if you are interested in the relationship between religion and power and equality. I first got interested as a HE chaplain involved in discussing policy on religious diversity. One of the models of secularism we referred to was the "hard" secularism of Turkey (and in the other corner, the "soft" secularism of India). This International Herald Tribune article gives some background and some surprising information too.

The position in Turkey since Ataturk has been this:

"Political power is to remain in the hands of the secularist elite. Thus the 'secular republic' equals the 'republic of seculars' - not the republic of all citizens. Moreover, the secular elite holds itself responsible for preventing religion from flourishing; it is the proper role of the state, they believe, to suppress religious communities, restrict religious education and ban visible signs of observance such as the head scarf."

So you can understand that we were not very happy about that model of secularity for a university: the feeling was that some recognition of religious identity was fine and was arguably the best interpretation of the EU regs which were bringing about the rethink about the place of religion in university life.
The interesting thing is how religious parties have responded in Turkey.

The AK party's evolution is an interesting story. Islamic circles in Turkey have long hoped for a return to the glorious Ottoman and Islamic past in order to rid themselves of the ruling autocracy, which they regarded as the West's evil gift.
However, since the 1980s, thanks to their growing interaction with the rest of the world, they have come to realize something significant: The West is better than the Westernizers.
Noting that Western democracies give their citizens the very religious freedoms Turkey has denied its own, Muslims of the AK party have rerouted their search for freedom. Rather than trying to Islamize the state, they have decided to liberalize it. That's why in today's Turkey the AK party is the main proponent of the effort to join the European Union, democratization, free markets and individual liberties.

In effect this is what a lot of Muslims in the West have come to think too. The problem for Islamic views, as I understand it, is that democracy and inter-communal equality are not really foreseen and legislated for in the Qur'an and Sunna. What that means is that some Muslims are trying to think beyond the usual categories of Muslim control of the state or another religion controlling which are the main situations envisaged by the Islamic sources. Are there resources in the tradition where the Muslims are regarded as partners, on a par with others? And if so, what effect do they have?
The threat is secular fundamentalism - International Herald Tribune: