Turkey, an overwhelmingly Muslim country, should have a constitution based on Islam rather than a secular constitution, the speaker of the Turkish parliament has said in a speech. Secularism has been the cornerstone of modern Turkey for decades.
The founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, reshaped the collapsing Islamic Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. He founded the state on Turkish nationalism and Western-style secularism, or separation of the state and religion.
However, the currently ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) apparently wants to get rid of one of the pillars of Kemalism ideology.
“We are a Muslim country and so we should have a religious constitution,” said Turkish Parliament Speaker Ismail Kahraman on Monday, lamenting that the name Allah is not mentioned even once in the country’s founding charter.
“Secularism would not have a place in a new constitution,” he said. [RT News] Read more
