Recognizing "hidden" Turkey

Submitted by Ted (United States), Jan 12, 2011 at 00:02

Dr Pipes:

Rebecca Moulds correctly identifies that recognizing hidden Turkey that "wants to bring Islam in a major way in Turkish way of life" is difficult for people who visit a country for short durations or those who visit Turkey's main cities. In principle, there is nothing wrong if Turkey adopts some good Islamic cultural and ethical values (even US takes pride in its Judeo-Christian values after all). The problem is that Turkey and many other countries in Turkey's umma do not differentiate between the Church and state. There is a simple solution to that problem: if a country includes the name of religion in its name, just avoid doing business with that country as much as possible. Very small countries that are intricately related to some religions like Israel, Vetican, and, a future small Islamic enclave around Mecca can be treated as exceptions and that too when they show enough democratic and humanitarian values.

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