The Importance of Laicism for Turkey
M. Orhan Tarhan
December 02, 2007
In this country most people do not understand what Laicism is. Many believe it is the same thing as secularism.. This has very serious consequences. Let us first define properly these two concepts.
During the last 400 years Europe fought religious wars: the 30-Year-War, the 100-Year War, many massacres an finally in the 19th century Western and Northern Europe settled with the Christian churches: Both The State and the Church would co-exist in the public domain, but would be separate from each other and would not interfere with each other. In the United States, this was expressed as the separation of Church from State. That means that the Church would not get into politics, and the State would not interfere in religion. This was called “secularism.”
In France the Revolution of 1789 broke the backbone of the Catholic Church. There was no settlement with the Church. The Church was simply totally excluded from the public domain. The public domain belonged completely to the State. That was called “Laicism”.
In order to understand why Ataturk chose Laicism for Turkey, we need to study a little history. In 1905 -1906 a class of General Staff officers, including Mustafa Kemal and my own father M. Hayri, were worrying about the future of the Ottoman Empire. They were wondering why European states are flourishing and the Ottoman Empire is crumbling. They knew their own country well. So, they studied the European history of the last 300 years and read the books of the French enlightenment writers. At the end of this study, Mustafa Kemal reached the conclusion that to be fit to survive in the 20th Century, Turkey had to be just like Europe. That meant that Turks had to be educated. They had to learn to make their daily decisions based on science and not on religion, tradition, and superstition. Mustafa Kemal found that the Islamic religion was part of the problem: The Sheria that defined human relations had to be outlawed, women had to be emancipated, religious schools had to be closed and replaced by schools that teach math, science, Turkish, foreign languages, history, geography and philosophy. The Koran could not be discussed, or interpreted, it was considered an absolute truth. It states that all knowledge and science is contained in it, and there is no science outside it. This part of the Koran had obviously to be disregarded in order to do science. To the contrary, in science one had to question everything in order to find the truth and advance. Thus, Turks could not allow any part of the Muslim religion in the Public Domain, because in many cases it contradicted what the State schools were teaching.
Of course, in 1906 Mustafa Kemal was just a young captain and could not save the Ottoman Empire. But after he founded the Republic of Turkey, he made everything to become like Europeans and the Turkish State became very strong and survivable. Secularism which was perfectly feasible with Christianity was impossible with Islam, because, if allowed to be co-equal with the State, soon Islam would take over the State. Islam just could not be tolerated in the Public Domain and Ataturk had no other choice than to choose Laicism for Turkey. A nation that is over 99 % Moslem could become a modern nation only by curtailing Islam to personal beliefs, by outlawing all Islamic human relations (Sheria, incl. polygamy, etc), and by excluding the religion from the Public Domain.
I often read in the American press that Turkey is a proof that Islam and Democracy can coexist. It is simply not true. Democracy can coexist only with an Islam devoid of Sheria, and excluded from the Public Domain. It cannot coexist with the full Islam.
Laicism has been put into the Turkish constitution, because it is the guarantee of modernity and survivability in the modern world. That is why the Turkish military wants to preserve it at any cost.
Turkish politicians of the last 70 years disregarded some of Ataturk’s advice, for example they re-opened religious schools. As time passed, these schools multiplied and created a citizenry identifying themselves with islam and not with Ataturk’s modernity. As a result, since 2002 Turkey is governed by a religious government which has promised to abide by the Laicism clause of the constitution. Actually they swore by it upon admission in to the Parliament. Now the president of the republic is also one of them. He is Aptullah Gul. These people came to power by fully democratic votes. They were, earlier part of an extremist Islamic party, led by Erbakan, that was closed by the government. A number of the old Islamists saw that a fully Islamist government could never be elected in Turkey. They redefined themselves as “Religious people, who are willing to live by the Turkish constitution, and not working for an Islamist regime”. In 2002 the Turkish people were already disgusted from the corrupt and incompetent mixture of rightist and social-democratic coalitions, totally fired them in the election, and elected the new religious party, because they believed their promise. Surprisingly, these new people did a few good things: they made the government work, they reduced the inflation rate from over % 50 to single digits. They improved the economy. But their heart was still in Islam. Because they had promised solemnly to abide by the existing constitution, they could not do things that could be interpreted as hurting laicism. So they decided to keep on making small changes in the direction of Islam, wait until it is “digested” by the public and do the next little change, and so on. So far it has worked well for them. Little by little Turkey has been Islamized quite a bit.
We remember from the above that, Islamization reverses the reforms of Ataturk to make Turkey survivable in the modern world. Therefore, even though the present government has done some good things, such as reducing the inflation rate and improving the economy, they are doing a very bad thing by making Turkey less survivable. Survivability is of course much much more important than economics.
The highest percentage of votes received by the religious A.K.Party was 46 %, that means more than half of all Turks have not voted for them. Yet, that big majority is not united, does not have intelligent and competent leaders, and does not have a plan to win for laicism . The A.K.Party is now behaving like a single party government. Turks, have to awaken and get organized, find their new leaders and work hard to win the trust of the laic majority. Of course, Turkey can be saved only by Turks.
During the last 400 years Europe fought religious wars: the 30-Year-War, the 100-Year War, many massacres an finally in the 19th century Western and Northern Europe settled with the Christian churches: Both The State and the Church would co-exist in the public domain, but would be separate from each other and would not interfere with each other. In the United States, this was expressed as the separation of Church from State. That means that the Church would not get into politics, and the State would not interfere in religion. This was called “secularism.”
In France the Revolution of 1789 broke the backbone of the Catholic Church. There was no settlement with the Church. The Church was simply totally excluded from the public domain. The public domain belonged completely to the State. That was called “Laicism”.
In order to understand why Ataturk chose Laicism for Turkey, we need to study a little history. In 1905 -1906 a class of General Staff officers, including Mustafa Kemal and my own father M. Hayri, were worrying about the future of the Ottoman Empire. They were wondering why European states are flourishing and the Ottoman Empire is crumbling. They knew their own country well. So, they studied the European history of the last 300 years and read the books of the French enlightenment writers. At the end of this study, Mustafa Kemal reached the conclusion that to be fit to survive in the 20th Century, Turkey had to be just like Europe. That meant that Turks had to be educated. They had to learn to make their daily decisions based on science and not on religion, tradition, and superstition. Mustafa Kemal found that the Islamic religion was part of the problem: The Sheria that defined human relations had to be outlawed, women had to be emancipated, religious schools had to be closed and replaced by schools that teach math, science, Turkish, foreign languages, history, geography and philosophy. The Koran could not be discussed, or interpreted, it was considered an absolute truth. It states that all knowledge and science is contained in it, and there is no science outside it. This part of the Koran had obviously to be disregarded in order to do science. To the contrary, in science one had to question everything in order to find the truth and advance. Thus, Turks could not allow any part of the Muslim religion in the Public Domain, because in many cases it contradicted what the State schools were teaching.
Of course, in 1906 Mustafa Kemal was just a young captain and could not save the Ottoman Empire. But after he founded the Republic of Turkey, he made everything to become like Europeans and the Turkish State became very strong and survivable. Secularism which was perfectly feasible with Christianity was impossible with Islam, because, if allowed to be co-equal with the State, soon Islam would take over the State. Islam just could not be tolerated in the Public Domain and Ataturk had no other choice than to choose Laicism for Turkey. A nation that is over 99 % Moslem could become a modern nation only by curtailing Islam to personal beliefs, by outlawing all Islamic human relations (Sheria, incl. polygamy, etc), and by excluding the religion from the Public Domain.
I often read in the American press that Turkey is a proof that Islam and Democracy can coexist. It is simply not true. Democracy can coexist only with an Islam devoid of Sheria, and excluded from the Public Domain. It cannot coexist with the full Islam.
Laicism has been put into the Turkish constitution, because it is the guarantee of modernity and survivability in the modern world. That is why the Turkish military wants to preserve it at any cost.
Turkish politicians of the last 70 years disregarded some of Ataturk’s advice, for example they re-opened religious schools. As time passed, these schools multiplied and created a citizenry identifying themselves with islam and not with Ataturk’s modernity. As a result, since 2002 Turkey is governed by a religious government which has promised to abide by the Laicism clause of the constitution. Actually they swore by it upon admission in to the Parliament. Now the president of the republic is also one of them. He is Aptullah Gul. These people came to power by fully democratic votes. They were, earlier part of an extremist Islamic party, led by Erbakan, that was closed by the government. A number of the old Islamists saw that a fully Islamist government could never be elected in Turkey. They redefined themselves as “Religious people, who are willing to live by the Turkish constitution, and not working for an Islamist regime”. In 2002 the Turkish people were already disgusted from the corrupt and incompetent mixture of rightist and social-democratic coalitions, totally fired them in the election, and elected the new religious party, because they believed their promise. Surprisingly, these new people did a few good things: they made the government work, they reduced the inflation rate from over % 50 to single digits. They improved the economy. But their heart was still in Islam. Because they had promised solemnly to abide by the existing constitution, they could not do things that could be interpreted as hurting laicism. So they decided to keep on making small changes in the direction of Islam, wait until it is “digested” by the public and do the next little change, and so on. So far it has worked well for them. Little by little Turkey has been Islamized quite a bit.
We remember from the above that, Islamization reverses the reforms of Ataturk to make Turkey survivable in the modern world. Therefore, even though the present government has done some good things, such as reducing the inflation rate and improving the economy, they are doing a very bad thing by making Turkey less survivable. Survivability is of course much much more important than economics.
The highest percentage of votes received by the religious A.K.Party was 46 %, that means more than half of all Turks have not voted for them. Yet, that big majority is not united, does not have intelligent and competent leaders, and does not have a plan to win for laicism . The A.K.Party is now behaving like a single party government. Turks, have to awaken and get organized, find their new leaders and work hard to win the trust of the laic majority. Of course, Turkey can be saved only by Turks.