[R-G] Azmi Bishara: "Questions for the Arab 'Secularists' after the Islamic Victory in Turkey"

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

<http://www.mideastwire.com/topstory.php?id=17257>
2007-07-26 00:00:00 : Middle East > Opinion

"Questions for the Arab "secularists" after the Islamic victory in Turkey"

Azmi Bishara, an ex MP in the Israeli Knesset, wrote in the
independent Saudi owned newspaper Al Hayat on July 26:

"The "Justice and Development" party won in Turkey. The Turkish
republic has never known such prosperity and stability as under its
reign. The party pledged directly after the victory to preserve the
secular constitution of the country. I contrast this against a memory
I have of one of the symbols of the moderate movement inside the
Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood who testified at the trial of the
murderers of the Egyptian writer Faraj Al-Audah, as a witness for the
defence, where he claimed that such a murder by overzealous youth is
justified because secularism is equivalent to recanting one's
religion.

"There is a major difference between a party that announces its
commitment to the secularism of the regime and another that doesn't
settle for disagreeing with secularism but also considers it a form of
blasphemy. But the central Islamic movements are celebrating this
Turkish victory secretly and publicly while knowing that this attitude
that the party announced would have been considered blasphemy in their
regions. The "Justice and Development" party is neither liberal nor
leftist but I know not of any Turkish liberal or republican or leftist
party who ruled Turkey better than this one. Despite this, the party
was dissolved and forced to change its name and then suffered from a
wide ranging campaign against it by the right and left which met under
the slogans of secularism.

"There are many factors that pushed this Islamic party towards the
parliament. There is also no doubt that the army put an end to its
ambitions. The cultural identity of the people and their struggle to
assimilate [with] globalization are also factors. But, what is
important remains the fact that this party didn't lose its balance and
managed to adapt itself to the rules of the game. Europe has a serious
problem on its hand as these developments in Turkey show once again
that it is a racist Europe that refuses to allow an advanced country
with a democratically elected government to become one of its members…
But while this Islamic party, which won democratically, is expressing
more moderation, pragmatism, and reasonability than all the secular
parties opposed to it, we are witnessing in the Arab world a weird
retreat from democracy both in speeches and slogans.

"This retreat is suspect because it is full of hidden agendas and is
accompanied by a sudden realization of the importance of secularism
and the unity of the secularist forces. It is well known that the
majority of the regimes in the Arab world are secular but not
democratic and that most of the corruption is secular in nature … The
reality is that secularism for most of the Arabs is a way of life and
not a regime to separate religion from state. It often turns out that
most of them are not secularists at all as they often replace religion
with narcissism as soon as they are criticized… Thus these regimes use
"secularism" as a title to keep the Islamists out of power. Therefore
they can't rule democratically as democracy is impossible with the
exclusion of these large swathes of Islamists who come from various
social classes…"

- Al Hayat, United Kingdom

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<http://www.daralhayat.com/opinion/07-2007/Item-20070725-fe7d1b98-c0a8-10ed-0169-5e999d2dcf1b/story.html>
--
Yoshie