Dean writes about Turkey:
Modern Turkey is a good nation in many respects but the lack of religious freedom there is deplorable.
I am not sure which religious freedom Dean is talking about here. I think he means that women cannot wear scarves and certain institutions are militantly secular.
However, regardless of that (and of how they treat the Kurds, which does need to be addressed), Turkey is doing exceptionally well:
I'm up for work and I am listening to some random British sounding guy on the Radio (BBC World Update) talking about the Pope in Turkey and after talking about the Pontiff they actually discuss some meaty issues. You can listen to the program here, goodluck figuring out how, I get it on the Radio. But here are some interesting points made by some Turkish think-tank:
9% of Turks favor Shariah, 91% favor a non-Shariah state.
Yet, 2/3 of the country is "Islamist" and 1/3rd "more secular."
Yet the "Islamists" are "not fundamentalist."
Secularists and Islamists work together without conflict. They marry each other.
In fact, the "Islamist" parties don't consider themselves Islamic, so much as Conservative. They are known as Conservative Democrats.
Most people want to be part of the European Union.
Headscarf wearing is down from 71% to 65% over the past few years. Yet, the common perception is that headscarf use is up.
Turkey has defined its economic development an "Islamic Duty" and is shooting up the International Monetary Fund rankings.
As to the Pope, 3 Turks said:
a) I'd like to see him here.
b) I don't want him here because of his speech.
c) I'd like to see him here because it's good for tourism.
They talked to some kids at Bosphorous University. They say the word "family" like how Borat does. One engineering girl said that Turkey didn't need the EU, and Turkey was not European, it was Turkish Identity, and they could construct all of these things like democratic identities on their own. She said that Europe was trying to assimilate Turkey. The BBC guy then said "but you look European!" She said that her attitude was different because she is concerned that to become part of the EU, Turkishness would become something different. Another student jumped in and said that Turkey could use the Human Rights values of the EU. He also said that being part of the EU won't change Turkish traditions. Then the girl jumped in and she said that the EU wanted Turkey to accept the Armenian genocide by force. Damn, this girl talks too much. The other guy jumped in and said that the EU was a good opportunity for Turkey to make money. That's my man. "If you do not create technology, you can't construct an economy."
And here is an excellent Diary about more stuff on Turkey. See especially the link to the Prospect article. It essentially argues that the Turks are picking up where the Ottomans left off (as Heads of the Muslim World), except this time in fashion that merges secularism and Islam.
The reason I think that Turks can pull this off is because the Ottoman system always had two systems of law: the religious, and the Sultanic (which wasn't really religious but based on what he and his advisers wanted).
