Mild Islamism will not stay mild

[Prof. Dr. Mukerrem Hic]

There are many people in US administration as well as EU authorities
who support AKP openly and despise all other parties in Turkey. They
believe that Turkey under AKP will remain as "mildly Islamist", hence
democratic, able to obtain EU membership and as an example to copy for
other, fanatical Islam nations and groups to become mild. Such a
speculation or hypothesis lacks hard core proof or even any sort of
empirical evidence.

In fact, evidence suggests that mild Islam will encourage more rigid
forms of Islam and eventually they will prevail over the "mild" Islam.
An observation in Turkey shows that religiosity and hatred of Atatürk
and laicism has been on the increase since the '80s; the second wave
in this period having been created by AKP: The rise in the number of
religious people, those who hate Atatürk had been induced by Imam
Hatip Okulları (schools training religious prayer leaders and orators)
and Koran courses where teachers continuously condemn Atatürk and
laicism. Activities by tarikats allowed de facto during this period is
another important major factor. And finally AKP in power have always
encouraged the religiously-oriented in employment, in both government
and private contracts.

AKP after 2002 displayed more restraint concerning religious moves and
was more careful to show that they follow center-right policies. After
the 2007 elections and election results that gave them a landslide,
they shifted their attention to religious issues: The flagship of that
movement was to abolish the banning of turban in universities, where
their attempts have been overturned by the Constitutional Court. They
were also more arrogant towards the judiciary and towards other
parties, and more divisive.

The case brought against AKP at the Turkish Constitutional Court by
the Chief Prosecutor for breeding anti-laicism is a result of this
divisive tone. Turkish Constitution clearly states that political
parties cannot support ethnicity or a move toward a religious state.
So it is not a coincidence that AKP's actions resulted in the case
against them.

Unbelievably, this was met with disapproval from both the EU and the
USA authorities. The support lent by EU and USA authorities to AKP in
this regard openly displayed double standards; it showed disrespect to
the Turkish judiciary, and lacked a deeper understanding of Turkish
history and the Islam.