Religion, Secularism & Politics

The Constitutional Court of Turkey agreed to consider a case calling for the banning of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and for the prime minister to be barred from office. The prosecutor believes that the AK Party is trying to promote the religion into the secular life. One of the evidence is that AK Party tries to ease the strict ban on the wearing of headscarves in universities.
It is a very interesting case. In Turkey, the bureaucrats want a secular society. As a result, they are quite sensitive towards any move towards a religious life. That is not wrong per se. On the other hands, there are huge amounts of people who hope to keep their religion in life. Most people accept that they at least should have the right to keep religion in their personal life, which is widely accepted by the criterion of the modern civilization.
The problem lies in the logic that accuses the act to ease the ban on headscarves in universities as a kind of mixing religion with secular life. The university is a public place, but it does not mean that everything related to the university is a public issue. Among those issues, wearing is of course a kind of private thing. Even if someone may use the crisis when Prince Harry wore Nazi costume several years ago to argue that wearing may become a public issue. The difference is that Harry’s case is immoral according to the standard of modern civilization, but the latter has no such problem. “What is the difference between having headscarves in shops or on streets and at a university?” Hannes Swoboda, vice chairman of the Socialist group in the European Parliament commented.
It would be rather confusing if the right to wear headscarves is deprived, how can we understand the freedom of religion in modern world?
The decision of the Constitutional Court of Turkey is thus quite political. The bureaucrats in Turkey always have strong opposition towards religious politicians. Since 19070s, Turkey has shut at least four pro-Islamic parties. Among them are army and a lot of judges. The crisis has lasted for months. The final decision of the Constitutional Court of Turkey this time may become a decisive step which influences the entry of EU and the international trust towards Turkish government.