Obama’s Cairo Speech vs. the Veil or the Turban Problem

[Prof. Dr. Mukerrem Hic]

Obama’s speech in Cairo concerning the Muslims and the Muslim world
has to be applauded on all fronts. This includes allowing Muslim girls
covering their hair to the schools and universities in Western
countries. I leave this topic out as a bone of contention between
Obama and Sarkozy. Turkey, however, provides a real case of exception.
I should underline below the pertinent points on this subject.

Firstly, Muslims in the Western countries do not pose any threat for
that country to move towards a religious (Muslim) state. Nor does it
provide a means of pressuring other, more specifically, non-Muslim
girls to cover up. The case is, however, different in Turkey where
there is an increased risk or threat at present of transforming into a
Sharia state. The risk has been deliberately increased through the
attempts of not only the AKP in power but also of Fettullah Gulen
living in the USA and who, many Turks are convinced, is actively aided
by the US administration – or by circles in the USA – in his attempts
along similar veins. Gulen has already penetrated into the Turkish
police organization (through his schools and illegitimate ways) with
the purpose to provide a stopping force against the “laicists” (those
who rightly do not want Turkey to revert back to the Sharia state).
Thus, underlining that Turkey is a laicist state (as by Hillary and
Obama) and then supporting Gulen is simply inconsistent, hence
unconvincing.

In Turkey, many Turkish girls who do not really want to wear the
turban are actually forced to do so by their fathers, fathers -in- law
or elder brothers, or else some of them because of pressures coming
from the particular district they live in. Many avoid the
constitutional ban on wearing the turban in the Turkish universities
either by wearing a chic hat or a peruke. Do not doubt that once
allowed, it would be utilized to force other girls (with laicist
upbringing) to wear the turban too. So, the freedom of education is
only an excuse on the surface but the real intent is to move one step
further – to win one more battle – towards AKP domination and
eventually to a religious state.
And supposing the religious movement finally takes hold – aided by the
wrong policies of the USA and the EU – then it will no longer be a
freedom to wear the turban but a mandate to wear it, going further to
covering the whole face with the veil, while all the women’s rights
attained in the laicist (secular) Turkey will be wiped out.

I would, therefore, hope that the US administration does not only
refrain from defending the turban and the veil for Turkey but also to
examine supporting AKP as well as Gulen. The US administration should
bear in mind that if in case Turkey sinks down to a Sharia state then
it will also definitely turn anti-American; this in spite of the fact
that with Obama, the rating of the USA in public opinion polls in
Turkey has risen conspicuously compared to the past Bush period. And
again beware for the rest of the Muslim world that Obama’s recent
opening in Cairo is not going to change the religious hard-liners in
their stand against the USA. The decrease of the weight of hard-
liners, on the other hand, can be achieved only in the very long run.
Thus, the Obama effect is definitely positive but do not expect much
change in the short-run – unless some striking achievements, like
peace in the Middle East is achieved. But for Turkey things in the
short-run can sink instead of getting gradually better.

Should I repeat here that Christianity does not give rise to any risk
of a religious (Christian) state but Muslim religion, because of its
actual course of history – and not because of verses of Koran properly
interpreted – does give rise to such a risk. And many naive foreign
experts miss this crucial difference.

Furthermore, according to many broad-minded interpreters of Koran it
is doubtful whether it explicitly mandates covering the hair and face
of women with the veil or the turban. But definitely turban in Turkey
has become a “political” symbol of favoring AKP. And the risks is, it
could go all the way up from there to a Sharia state by eventually
strengthening the hard-liners.