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One-way religious freedom moves forward: You are free to be as observant a Muslim as you possibly can. But if the shoe were on the other foot, would they be as forthcoming in granting rights to those who don't care to wear the headscarf?
From Reuters:
Turkey's ruling AK Party, which has Islamist roots, signalled plans to ease a ban on the wearing of the Islamic headscarf in universities under a new draft constitution.
"This (new) constitution will solve the headscarf problem in a more libertarian spirit," Dengir Firat, a deputy chairman of the AK Party, told CNN Turk television.
No compulsion in religion. But again, what about in lack of religion?
The AK party has hinted many times that it wants to modify or if possible remove the headscarf ban, which also applies to government offices.
Any moves to scrap the ban is sure to revive tensions between Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's centre-right AK Party government and Turkey's secular elite, which includes powerful army generals, top judges and university rectors.
The secularists view the headscarf as a symbol of political Islam and, therefore, as a direct challenge to Turkey's separation of religion and state.
They also distrust the AK Party because of its Islamist past and the fact the wives of Erdogan and other senior ministers wear the headscarf.
[...]
The AK Party is due to publish its draft constitution on December 15.
It has said the draft, due to replace a text dating back to a time of military rule in the 1980s, will boost individual freedoms in Turkey, a European Union candidate.
Firat said the government wanted a wider debate about the principles and aims of the new constitution, adding that opponents were trying to whip up secularist fears artificially by concentrating solely on the headscarf issue.
"The headscarf is an extension of freedom of belief," he said.
So is not wearing a headscarf. Would that preference be honored if the Islamists had their way? That is at the root of the secularists' concerns.
Posted by Marisol at December 7, 2007 7:19 PM
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'Liberating' the believing Muslims to wack the not so fervent believers into submission. Masters of turnspeak, these advocates of Islamic 'freedom under the sharia'-.
Won't be long now before Turkey becomes a caliphate, the 'Islamic Republic of Turkey' '
seems inevitable.
Posted by: sheik yer'mami![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 7, 2007 8:08 PM
Let is pretend we are aliens visiting Earth.
The issue of whether a human female wears a headscarf or not appears to have life-or-death implications on Earth. A headscarf is a piece of material that is used to cover part of the body of Earth's "intelligent" life forms. Wearing or not wearing a headscarf simply means that part of the human female's body - her hair and some part of her non-hairy skin in the anterior head region - is visible or not. According to the beliefs of some humans, this makes all the difference between correct behavior and incorrect behavior. This difference, according again to some humans, means the difference between being deserving of approval or being subject to disapproval that may result in sanctions up to and including loss of life.
Conclusion: these humans are insane.
Posted by: Wimbledon Womble at December 7, 2007 10:06 PM
Tiptoeing into a theocratic gulag is no better than marching in boldly.
You end up in the same intolerant hellhole.
Turkeys must love to be basted.
Posted by: profitsbeard at December 7, 2007 10:20 PM
Marisol wrote:
"But if the shoe were on the other foot, would they be as forthcoming in granting rights to those who don't care to wear the headscarf?"
The shoe is already on the other foot. Simply cite examples of Islamic theocracies like Iran and Saudi Arabia and the hypocrisy hits you like a brick in the face.
It really is that apparently obvious.
at December 7, 2007 10:48 PM
Very true-- though I meant that as a rhetorical question (don't worry-- I enjoy answering them, too).
Posted by: MarisolJW at December 7, 2007 10:53 PM
Good. Let sly Erdogan,his smiling hijabbed Missus
& Gul show their REAL AGENDA. Nothing less than
a Caliphate, I suspect. If George W & his draft doging friends had the savvy-they would be arming the Kurds who would happily slaughter their hated
Turkish masters. But as usual, America supports the wrong side,naive enough to believe, they can
'control' the Turks. Anyone who thinks Muslims are
friends of Infidels deserves the beheading knife...
at December 7, 2007 10:56 PM
Wimbledon:
Superb observation. Any "supreme" Being (throwing aside all theology) would rule that the 'mammalian' species should have died out during the great Cataclysm 65 million years ago.
But, that did not happen. We "pre-Humans" survived and evolved. And now we have to deal with all that evolution, baggage and all.
So here we are, in the the 21st Century of the Cristian Era (and modern reckoning), we (the West) have put men on the Moon (no credit to Islam), sent objects to every planet in our Solar System (and beyond)and have photographed events 5-10+ BILLION years old (with the Hubble Space Stelescope.)
Funny, that I don't find this knowledge in the Qur'an.
If the Qu'ran is so perfect ,then why did the Profit not say so (as recited by his illah)?
As the 'Perfect' Being from the star system Gamma x19, and if given the choice, I would choose:
THUMBS DOWN!
Posted by: boneshack at December 7, 2007 11:18 PM
The plans proceed pian piano, so as not to alarm the Turkish army.
Posted by: Hugh at December 7, 2007 11:56 PM
Poor Ataturk! He tried to save what was left of the Ottomans and pull them out of being the "Sick Man of Europe." His charisma and will helped make Turkey a reasonably livable nation in the Islamic world. Now Kemal must be rolling in his grave. Turkey is on track to becoming another Islamist hellhole.
Islam certainly has a very strong gravitational pull. That is what makes it so dangerous.
Posted by: Wimbledon Womble at December 8, 2007 12:09 AM
Time for the military to step in again.
Posted by: RoobartSbunsar at December 8, 2007 7:26 AM
boneshack said,
We "pre-Humans" survived and evolved.
Well, some of us did, anyway.
Posted by: ImNoDhimmi at December 8, 2007 7:59 AM
Some people say headscarves are mandated by the Koran, others say that the practice of wearing headscarves is merely cultural. Either way, it seems to be closely associated with the practice of Islam for one reason or another. Could someone at JW fill us in on whether this practice is in the Koran, or a hadith, or what?
Posted by: Karl at December 8, 2007 8:11 AM
""The headscarf is an extension of freedom of belief," he said."
...so much so that in Muslim Countries, women who do not wear headcoverings because they are non Muslims whose religon does not demand head coverings are subject to violent assault or execution....this says much about the Muslims allowing other religions right to dress according to their religions traditions and beliefs...
....Muslims are so one dimensional...."it is my way or you die"...
Ban Muslim Immigration
at December 8, 2007 12:18 PM
It is things like this that go so far towards convincing me that Turkey is a "secular" muslim country. Sure it is!
Posted by: HereticInfidel at December 8, 2007 6:07 PM
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