{"id":23528,"date":"2010-10-16T11:43:27","date_gmt":"2010-10-16T09:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=23528"},"modified":"2014-01-05T21:06:10","modified_gmt":"2014-01-05T19:06:10","slug":"turkey-needs-to-re-interpret-secularism-senior-mp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2010\/10\/16\/turkey-needs-to-re-interpret-secularism-senior-mp\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey needs to re-interpret secularism \u2013 senior MP"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_23529\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-23529\" style=\"width: 465px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23529\" title=\"(Photo: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan watches his wife Emine voting in a constitutional referendum, in Istanbul September 12, 2010\/Osman Orsal)\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/tayyip_emine_erdogan_voting.jpg\" alt=\"(Photo: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan watches his wife Emine voting in a constitutional referendum, in Istanbul September 12, 2010\/Osman Orsal)\" width=\"465\" height=\"316\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/tayyip_emine_erdogan_voting.jpg 465w, https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/tayyip_emine_erdogan_voting-300x204.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 465px) 100vw, 465px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-23529\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photo: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan watches his wife Emine voting in a constitutional referendum, in Istanbul September 12, 2010\/Osman Orsal)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Turkey has to re-interpret its principles of secularism to adapt to a changing society, an AK Party member in charge of drafting a new constitution said, joining a growing debate over the Muslim country\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n<p>Turkey, a rising regional power which aspires to join the European Union, was founded by Kemal Ataturk as a secular republic on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. But a power shift led by a new middle class of observant Muslims which forms the backbone of the AKP government is challenging Turkey\u2019s ability to reconcile Islam and secularism.<\/p>\n<p>In the lastest twist of a long-running dispute, Turkey\u2019s Higher Education Board last week ordered Istanbul University, one of Turkey\u2019s biggest, to stop teachers from expelling female students who wear the Muslim headscarf from classes.<\/p>\n<p>The headscarf, banned at university and public institutions, is one of the most touchy issues in the culture wars.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWe respect Turkey\u2019s principles of secularism, but these need to be re-interpreted,\u201d <\/em>said Burhan Kuzu, chairman of the constitutional commission in parliament, controlled by the AKP.<em>\u201cThe headscarf issue for example is not about secularism, but about individual liberties. Turkey\u2019s new constitution should focus on democratic values and individual rights.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/in.reuters.com\/article\/idINIndia-52167920101013\">Read the full story here<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Turkey has to re-interpret its principles of secularism to adapt to a changing society, an AK Party member in charge of drafting a new constitution said, joining a growing debate over the Muslim country\u2019s identity. Turkey, a rising regional power which aspires to join the European Union, was founded by Kemal Ataturk as a secular [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":23529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[1328],"class_list":["post-23528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","tag-secularism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}