Turkey Balances Islam and Modernity, East and West

The Rising Power

By: NESLIHAN CEVIK
Published: October 09, 2011
Courtesy Of "The Richmond Times-Dispatch"

Throughout the Arab Spring, from Egypt and Tunisia to Jordan, numerous opposition leaders, clerics and politicians have styled themselves as "not like the Taliban but like Tayyip Erdogan," the Turkish prime minister.

Turkey is now the rising power of the Middle East. With its stallion economy, effective democratic governance and liberal society that has found a balance between Islam and modernity, it's a model of Muslim democracy, inspiring Muslims in the region and beyond.

In Turkey, for example, you can be a devout, veiled Muslim woman but choose your own spouse, embrace women's rights, choose your career over marriage or go to yoga classes. Aspects of modernity, from fashion to civil action, no longer offend the Muslim conscience.

Pious groups use both Islamic law and the U.N. Human Rights Convention to promote civil rights. The free market is vigorous, but Islamic expectations around honest and socially responsible business conduct also remain strong.

In this balancing act, Turkey has shown the Muslim world that it is possible to have a liberal secular society without oppressing Islamic sentiments or excluding religion from the public sphere. This is a large part of the Arab attraction to Turkey.

The other part is Turkey's independent foreign policy under Prime Minister Erdogan and his Islam-inspired party, in power since 2002.

Prior to Erdogan, Turkey vacillated between East- and West-facing policies, depending on the election fates of more secular or more religious governments.

In contrast, Erdogan's government has struck a balance between East and West and created a new and independent foreign policy.

His government sided with the Arab Spring's democratic revolts, promotes free markets, agreed to host an anti-missile defense system for NATO and has supported the U.S. on Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Libya, but it also leads the Organization of Islamic Countries and is harshly critical of Israel.

During his recent visit to New York, Erdogan called out Israel for violating human rights in Palestine — but also condemned the Syrian government's oppression and violence against unarmed protesters.

Erdogan has also been willing to strike out on his own, as in Somalia, where Turkey provides financial aid, food supplies, health care and educational development, spreading Turkey's influence beyond the Middle East.

As a testament to Erdogan's successful straddling of West and East and balancing of Islam and modernity, his regime has been criticized from both the right and left, both domestically and in the larger Muslim world.

Some Islamic fundamentalists accuse his government of collaborating with non-Muslims against its own Muslim brothers, while some old-line secularists have criticized his government for turning away from the West toward the East.

Turkey is a beacon for the region because it promotes conciliation by bridging the typically sharp divisions between religion and secularism, and between Muslims and the West.

Such a balance has never been more needed in the region, which yearns for modern lifestyles and democratic governance that still retain a proper place for religious practice. With the opening provided by the Arab Spring, if other Arab nations can replicate Turkey's balancing act, they will sow the seeds of a new era of stability, peace and economic growth for the region.

Turkey's growing influence and leadership in the region may prompt Turks to tackle their own thorniest domestic issue: longstanding conflicts with Kurdish and Alawite minorities. Finding a long-term solution will be crucial to secure Turkey's pluralism, cultural tolerance and democracy, the pillars upon which Turkey's new influence in the larger Arab world have been built.

Former Fulbright Scholar Neslihan Cevik left her native Turkey at age 21 to study in America and is now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. She has written for major papers in Turkey, and her work focuses on religion and politics in Turkey.