AN ELECTION, A MILLION MARCHERS AND A MASS MURDER
By Rod Benson – posted Monday, 7 May 2007
On Line opinion, Australia
May 7 2007
Events in the Republic of Turkey have attracted recent media
attention. Three events raise important questions for Turkey’s
political future, for the small minority of Christians who live and
work there, and for every community threatened by radical Islam.
First, Turkey is in the midst of Presidential elections. The nation
has been a secular democratic republic since its establishment in 1923
under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk following the fall of
the Ottoman empire.
In recent years Turkey has sought increasing political integration
with Western Europe while remaining socially and culturally Islamic.
According to government statistics, over 99 per cent of the 70
million people living in Turkey today identify as Muslim, and less
than 1 per cent as Christian. Officially Turkey is a secular state,
but Islam retains strong popular support, and that support may be
taking a radical turn.
In the first round of Presidential elections Foreign Minister Abdullah
Gul, a "former Islamist" from the ruling Justice and Development Party
(AKP), narrowly missed being elected to the top job. The AKP dominates
the 550-seat parliament but lacks the required two-thirds majority
it needs to elect Gul. The opposition boycotted the parliamentary
vote on the basis of Gul’s Islamist past.
The Islamist AKP won elections in 2002, but a previous Islamist
government was removed by the military in 1997. Following Friday’s
vote, the army – always a force to be reckoned with in Turkish politics
– issued a statement saying it was determined to protect Turkey’s
secular political culture and would "take action" if the need arose.
The prospect of Mr Gul becoming head of state has alarmed Turkish
secularists who fear the erosion of the strict separation of state
and religion, and the creeping of radical Islam into all fields of
Turkish life.
Second, The Australian reports that, in response to the political
uncertainty, more than a million Turks took part in a mass rally in
Istanbul on April 29 in support of secularism and democracy. The
demonstration followed a similar march in the capital, Ankara, on
April 14 that attracted up to 1.5 million people. This is a sign of
a healthy political culture in Turkey. The aim was not to banish
religious views from political discourse but to uphold the formal
separation of state and religion introduced by Ataturk in the 1920s.
It is almost unthinkable that any politically-motivated crisis would
draw such numbers in Australia. What this suggests about the current
health of Australia’s political culture is discomforting. It is
testament to the current strength of democracy and freedom in Turkey
that, despite being an overwhelmingly Muslim country, anti-Islamist
demonstrations of such huge size can be held at short notice – and
remain peaceful.
One wonders, though, whether the apparent popular support for Western
ideals will be sufficient to maintain Turkey’s traditional secularism
without military intervention. There have been four military coups
in Turkey since 1960. One also wonders how long Turkey’s intellectual
leadership will retain its independence in the face of growing pressure
from international Islamic interests. Mr Gul remains a devout Muslim,
and at the same time a strong advocate of Turkish membership in the
decidedly non-religious European Union. Perhaps he and his backers
have continental ambitions.
The third Turkey-related event would probably have passed unnoticed
unless a friend had sent me an email the other day, drawing attention
to the alleged horrific, religiously-based torture and murder of
three Christians in Malatya, Turkey, on April 18 (reported here
and elsewhere). The report possessed some of the characteristics
of an Internet hoax, but its essence appears genuine. The news of
the killings was carried (albeit far more briefly) by the BBC, The
Australian, and other media agencies. Ironically, Malatya is the
hometown of Mehmet Ali Agca, who attempted to assassinate Pope John
Paul II in May 1981.
The taking of innocent life can never be justified or condoned. But
we know the tragic reality of our world. These three murders –
premeditated, sadistic and barbaric though they were – pale into
statistical and moral insignificance in the face of the mounting
death toll from war in Iraq (more than 3,300 combatants and at least
tens of thousands of civilians, according to Reuters news agency),
the estimated 200,000 dead in Darfur, or the 30,000 children who die
every day as a result of extreme poverty.
Yet the tragedy in Malatya highlights the dangerous and unpredictable
environment in which many Christian missionaries work today. And the
gracious response of the bereaved families serves as a reminder of
the radical difference, in practice, between a faith based on love
and a religion based on law.
True, there are fundamentalists on both sides of the divide, and
there is the historical embarrassment of the Crusades and other low
points of Christian history. But I cannot imagine that a genuine,
sane follower of Jesus would ever be driven to killing strangers in
cold blood on the basis of religious convictions.
At its heart Islam is ambivalent about the advocacy of violence
toward "infidels". And there is the disputed matter of the Muslim
doctrine of abrogation, whereby early pacifist passages in the Koran,
written while Mohammed lived in Mecca, are nullified or reinterpreted
by later passages advocating violence, written during his residency
in Medina. Scholars and others selectively apply abrogation to suit
their audience and politics.
When Islamists gain political power in the West, and incrementalism and
abrogation are no longer necessary, it will be too late: everyone loses
– especially Christians and women, but also capitalism, democracy,
justice and peace.
What then can we do? Review our own spiritual convictions and
confessions. Develop a more informed interest in the wider world,
especially geography and politics (for example, try this or this).
Take a more activist role in our own political institutions. Talk
to Muslims in our workplace and community. Be alert to the danger of
creeping Islamism. And pray for the people of Turkey.
Reviewing the fate of the church in Turkey in 2004 for Christianity
Today, Collin Hansen concluded:
The state of the contemporary church in Turkey, home to so many
seminal moments in Christian history, looks bleak for now. Perhaps
integration into the European Union will galvanise the small Greek
Orthodox community in Istanbul and allow the Turkish government
to honestly examine the grizzly fate of the Armenians. Hopefully
the spread of religious freedom there will ease hostility toward
missionaries and converts from Islam to Christianity. Regardless, we
should heed the warnings of history – beware the dangers of political
infighting between Christians with earthly interests at heart, and
never underestimate the seriousness of Islamic jihad.
Time will tell what political and religious changes sweep through
Turkey. Recent events are alarming and the immediate future does
look potentially bleak. Still, on the whole, Turkey has for many
years managed to forge a workable partnership between Western-style
democracy and Islamic culture, and the rest of the world can learn
much from that achievement.
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