{"id":4309,"date":"2008-09-18T12:25:50","date_gmt":"2008-09-18T09:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2008\/09\/18\/should-muslim-world-be-voting-for-turkey\/"},"modified":"2013-10-12T22:28:12","modified_gmt":"2013-10-12T19:28:12","slug":"should-muslim-world-be-voting-for-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2008\/09\/18\/should-muslim-world-be-voting-for-turkey\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Muslim world be voting for Turkey?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I HAVE just returned from what us old hacks (and hackettes) like to call a \u201cfact-finding mission\u201d to Turkey.<\/p>\n<p>Turkey, as we all know, is positioned at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, and is \u201ca veritable melting pot of cultures, often called the cradle of the civilised world\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Who calls it that you\u2019re wondering. Why, the bloke who wrote the brochure I pinched it from, that\u2019s who.<\/p>\n<p>But today Turkey is at its own crossroads. As a secular Muslim state ever since the great Ataturk took power in 1923, it guarantees freedom of religion and is, if you like, a model of what modern Islam might become \u2013 if the fundamentalists are faced down. The powerful Turkish military has already warned the Islamic government it will face a backlash from the armed forces if it tries to alter the country\u2019s secular system. General Isik Kosaner, one of the most senior commanders, has pledged to defend \u201cthe fundamental characteristics of the republic\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Which is good news for Turkey\u2019s women who are not bound by the burka or fears of fanatics.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.walesonline.co.uk\/news\/columnists\/2008\/09\/17\/should-muslim-world-be-voting-for-turkey-91466-21832873\/\">Should Muslim world be voting for Turkey? &#8211; WalesOnline<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I HAVE just returned from what us old hacks (and hackettes) like to call a \u201cfact-finding mission\u201d to Turkey. Turkey, as we all know, is positioned at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, and is \u201ca veritable melting pot of cultures, often called the cradle of the civilised world\u201d. Who calls it that you\u2019re wondering. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":68113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309","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=4309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}