Muslims Turkey

One image captures many of the contradictions that characterize Turkey's taboo-breaking First Lady, Semra Ozal, and her countrywomen. Wrapped in a white cloth, the wife of Turkish President Turgut Ozal appeared a picture of Muslim modesty during a recent pilgrimage to Mecca. But then she stood shoulder-to-shoulder with her husband, ignoring other Islamic customs by which women should be more deferential.

What is an Islamist foreign policy, exactly? Is it identifying with Muslims and their suffering, or is it identifying with anti-Western regimes even at the cost of Muslims' best interests? Turkey's foreign policy under the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government demonstrates that far from protecting Muslims and their interests, it is the promotion of a la carte morals -- bashing the West and supporting anti-Western regimes, even when the latter hurts Muslims. AKP leader and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to meet today with President Obama in Washington.

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's secular party was leading Turkish elections Sunday, but an ultra-rightist group appeared to be making big gains. According to early results, the Islamic Virtue Party--the largest party in parliament--suffered a major drop in votes. Analysts said the party's friction with the staunchly secular military might have led voters to abandon it and choose the ultranationalist movement, which is also deeply religious.

The nation's top court on Friday barred Turkey's leading Islamist politician from holding a seat in parliament, dashing his hopes of becoming the next prime minister. The ruling--the latest in a string of legal challenges hampering Recep Tayyip Erdogan's bid to govern Turkey--is widely seen as part of a broader campaign led by military leaders and the judiciary to stamp out Islamic political movements in this largely Muslim but officially secular nation.

Turkey's president asked the country's Islamist leader to try to form a new coalition after months of political gridlock in the overwhelmingly Muslim but secular nation. But political analysts said Islamist leader Necmettin Erbakan's chances of doing so appeared slim. Erbakan, whose party has the largest number of seats in the assembly but lacks an overall majority, will struggle to find coalition partners from among the five other parliamentary groups, all of them secularist.

Turkey warned Iran not to meddle in its affairs after Tehran's Shiite Muslim government again criticized Turkey's decision to ban Muslim-style head scarfs at Turkish universities. "It is impossible to accept outside efforts to become a party to Turkey's internal affairs which solely concern its own people and state," the Foreign Ministry said. On March 7, Turkey's highest court annulled a parliamentary bill that would have allowed women to wear head scarfs on campuses.

The nation's top court on Friday barred Turkey's leading Islamist politician from holding a seat in parliament, dashing his hopes of becoming the next prime minister. The ruling--the latest in a string of legal challenges hampering Recep Tayyip Erdogan's bid to govern Turkey--is widely seen as part of a broader campaign led by military leaders and the judiciary to stamp out Islamic political movements in this largely Muslim but officially secular nation.

A car bomb killed one of Turkey's best-known newspaper columnists Sunday, plunging the country into shock at the death of a tireless campaigner against Islamic extremism and anything else he believed was damaging this 70-year-old secular republic. Several Islamic groups claimed responsibility for the murder of Ugur Mumcu, 50, who died instantly when a bomb that had been planted under his car exploded as he started the automobile outside his apartment in Ankara, Turkey's capital.

Unidentified gunmen, believed to be Islamic fundamentalists, killed a prominent Turkish politician outside his home in a suburb of Ankara, the capital, police said. The victim, Muammer Aksoy, was a former member of Parliament and a leading secularist. Several newspapers reported that anonymous callers, who said they were members of the Islamic Revenge Organization, claimed responsibility.

Prime Minister-designate Bulent Ecevit warned political rivals that his failure to form a government probably will return the Islamist opposition to power. He predicted that the collapse of his talks with bickering parliamentary rivals over forming a coalition government could bring back the Islamists, who were forced out of power 18 months ago by the powerful military.

Turkey on Thursday became the first predominantly Muslim country to commit troops to the war in Afghanistan, saying it would send about 90 elite soldiers in response to a U.S. request. Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said it would be "unthinkable for Turkey to stand back in the war against terrorism" and that the troops would be sent to northern Afghanistan as soon as possible.

An Islamic sect leader was charged with inciting religious hatred by claiming that the killer earthquake in August was Allah's revenge against Turkey for secularism. Mehmet Kutlular denied the charges in an interview with CNN Turk, a joint venture with CNN. If convicted, he could receive up to three years in prison. Kutlular is one of the leaders of the Nur Cemaati sect, which published a booklet calling the Aug.

Long suppressed by Turkey's secular government, Islamic activists are looking for political opportunity in a growing public outcry over the state's bungled handling of earthquake relief. Well-organized activists from the Virtue Party, the main Islamic political group, and from a variety of Muslim aid agencies mobilized from the first hours after the Aug. 17 quake. They provided comfort and assistance to victims while the government relief efforts were slow to get going.

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's secular party was leading Turkish elections Sunday, but an ultra-rightist group appeared to be making big gains. According to early results, the Islamic Virtue Party--the largest party in parliament--suffered a major drop in votes. Analysts said the party's friction with the staunchly secular military might have led voters to abandon it and choose the ultranationalist movement, which is also deeply religious.

Prime Minister-designate Bulent Ecevit warned political rivals that his failure to form a government probably will return the Islamist opposition to power. He predicted that the collapse of his talks with bickering parliamentary rivals over forming a coalition government could bring back the Islamists, who were forced out of power 18 months ago by the powerful military.

Mukaddes Erzeren's parents threw a party to celebrate her enrollment last fall at the super-competitive Tevfik Ileri junior high--but not because attending the school would be a smart career move for an aspiring engineer. "They rejoiced because I could become a good Muslim and cover my head," said the gangly 12-year-old, her bespectacled face framed by a tight white scarf identical to those of her classmates. "This scarf is part of my religion."

Long suppressed by Turkey's secular government, Islamic activists are looking for political opportunity in a growing public outcry over the state's bungled handling of earthquake relief. Well-organized activists from the Virtue Party, the main Islamic political group, and from a variety of Muslim aid agencies mobilized from the first hours after the Aug. 17 quake. They provided comfort and assistance to victims while the government relief efforts were slow to get going.

An angry Muslim mob burned down a hotel in eastern Turkey on Friday, killing 35 people and forcing the target of its protest, the Turkish translator of Salman Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses," to flee by a fire department ladder. Aziz Nesin, 78, was in the conservative eastern city of Sivas with other intellectuals for a symposium to commemorate the hanging of a 16th-Century Ottoman poet who wrote against repression.

Turkey's president asked the country's Islamist leader to try to form a new coalition after months of political gridlock in the overwhelmingly Muslim but secular nation. But political analysts said Islamist leader Necmettin Erbakan's chances of doing so appeared slim. Erbakan, whose party has the largest number of seats in the assembly but lacks an overall majority, will struggle to find coalition partners from among the five other parliamentary groups, all of them secularist.

Cries of "Allahu Akbar!"--God is great!--greeted the news Tuesday that the pro-Islamic Welfare Party had captured the mayor's seat in Ankara, Turkey's capital, in one of a series of municipal election victories that have shaken the 70-year-old republic to its secular roots.