HEARTS AND MINDS IN TURKEY
by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Los Angeles Times
May 9, 2007 Wednesday
Home Edition

SECULAR AND LIBERAL Turks have had a rude awakening from years of
deep slumber. Kemal Ataturk’s heritage is about to be destroyed —
not by an invading power but from within, by fellow Turks who yearn
for an Islamic state.

Ever since Ataturk, Turkey has been divided into those who want to
run state affairs on Islamic principles and those who want to keep
Allah’s will from the public space.

The proponents of Islam in government, such as Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and their Justice
and Development Party, have been remarkably successful. They have
exploited the fact that you can use democratic means to erode
democracy, employing a powerful strategy.

Three pillars of that strategy are worth discussion.

The first is Dawa, a tactic inspired by Islam’s founder, Muhammad.

Dawa means to preach Islam as a way of life, including a way of
government, perpetually and with conviction. Every convert is obligated
to preach Islam to others, creating a grass-roots movement.

The secularists in Turkey underestimated this pillar and thus
neglected competing with the Islamists for the hearts and minds of
the electorate. Polls suggest that 70% of voters might still elect Gul
president if Erdogan succeeds in changing the constitution so that the
president can be elected directly. Any protest from the secularists
against this evident popular will sounds irrational and undemocratic.

The second pillar is the improvement of the economy. No one can deny
that when the secular parties were in power, the Turkish economy
was in tatters. Since Erdogan took office, growth has been strong,
with inflation down and foreign investment high.

The third pillar is taking control of two types of institutions in a
democracy: those designed to educate civilians (education and media)
and those designed to keep law and order (police, justice and the
secret service).

After an initial attempt at Islamic revolution failed in 1997, when the
military engineered a "soft coup" against elected Islamists, Erdogan
and his party understood that gradualism would yield more lasting
power. They surely realize that Islamizing Turkey entirely is possible
only if they gain control of the army and the Constitutional Court,
the two institutions that have helped preserve Turkey’s secular state.

The recent Constitutional Court ruling annulling the nomination of Gul
for the presidency, after the military warned that it is the guardian
of secularism, is only a temporary setback for the Islamists. Erdogan
and Gul have another trick up their sleeves.

If they show the same restraint and patience that have brought them
this far, they may achieve their aim by continuing to court membership
in the European Union. Well-meaning but naive European leaders were
manipulated by the ruling Islamists into saying that Turkey’s army
should be placed under civil control, like all armies in EU member
states.

In hindsight, Turkey’s secular liberals have only themselves to
blame. They underestimated the power of Dawa, they failed at growing
the economy and they have not realized that members of the EU have
been manipulated.

An important trait of liberalism, however, is the opportunity to
learn by trial and error. Turkish secular liberals must start their
own grass-roots movement, one with the message of individual freedom.

They must restore the confidence of the electorate in entrusting
Turkey’s economy to them, and they must reconquer the institutions
of education, information, police and justice.

They must also make EU leaders understand and respect the fact that
the army and the Constitutional Court — besides defending the country
and the constitution — are also, and maybe even more important,
designed to protect Turkish democracy from Islam.

Bringing back true secularism does not mean just any secularism. It
means secularism that protects individual freedoms and rights,
not the ultra-nationalist kind that breeds an environment in which
Adolf Hitler’s "Mein Kampf" is a bestseller, the Armenian genocide is
denied and minorities are persecuted. Hrant Dink, the Armenian editor,
was murdered by such a nationalist.

It is this mix of virulent nationalism and predatory Islam in Turkey
that makes the challenge for Turkish secular liberals greater than
for any other liberal movement today.

AYAAN HIRSI ALI, a former Dutch legislator and women’s activist who
now lives in the U.S., recently published her memoir, "Infidel."