Two different questions, dipstick. No one's going to change the world here. This is an OPINION board.
Perhaps you should consider that putting Western values and tolerance to Muslim societies on the same level is a total fraud. You seem to have a problem with free speech, are you sure you didn't convert to Islam? LOL
I'm tempted to deny you the answers to your questions, because of the deprivation you bestow on mine.
But I'm reassured about your sanity if your goals are simply "awareness"
And honestly...that region could use more cool heads.
As for free speech. It's actually alive and well within our exchange. You've expressed your opinions, and backed them up with why you have them. I have rejected them, and your sources, and expressed my opinions. Then you rejected my opinions, and so on.
As for converting to Islam, once when I was in love...I asked the local Sunni preacher, as I called him, if it would benefit my wife to covert. He said my reasons were wrong, and advised against it. He was probably right, because we got divorced in the US 5 years later. She now lives with a conservative redneck in Texas...go figure.
But such a thing as free speech does not exist in Muslim countries. Never did, and never will.
And again, you are talking about Turkey, a secular country which at some point in recent history banned Islamism to the point that even it's official language was changed to Latin / Greek. Now of course, it's taken a turn for the much worse with this new leadership. What I'm saying is the act of a Christian man marrying a Muslim woman without first converting to Islam, is punishable by death in many Muslim countries. I'm wondering how even in Turkey, you guys were issued a marriage certificate. Perhaps you married in US.
There is no such thing as a cool head when it comes to Muslims (generally speaking). There is a certain capacity for rational thought and reason, which for some reason or another Islam seems to wipe out of the human brain. Having been around Muslims I know this to be a fact. Why do you think there seems to be an endless amount of people in the Muslim world willing to put on a suicide vest and go blow themselves up? Picture the act and then ask yourself, is it poverty, education, or is it the degree of the grievance? You have people under worse conditions that never did the kinds of horrific things Muslims do. The answer can be one thing and one thing alone: it's the ideology. Let's be honest and call a spade a spade.
I don't know who you're hearing what you're hearing about Turkey from...but my experience was different, because I was there.
Neither Islam nor Christianity is banned in Turkey, and nobody is proposing either.
Marrying a Muslim woman without being a Muslim, in Turkey, Iraq, and Syria, is not punishable at all. We did raise some eyebrows but we carried around our marriage license, and when we would check into hotels all around the region (NOT JUST TURKEY) that license would put the managers at ease. They were mostly concerned that she was a hooker.
We were married in a civil ceremony because the Mosque wouldn't do it. Kind of like how rednecks won't marry gays in churches over here.
There are tons of cool heads all over the middle east, and most people have them.
My take.....the people in the middle east who are ass holes, would probably have been ass holes if they were Christians or whatever else.
Like I said a Turkey was and probably is different. I have not been there but have studied enough. Many of my friends and family have been there for vacation. Heard its beautiful, but I'm not setting foot in any Muslim country ever again. Have you read about Turkey's history? This is the reason a non Muslim can marry a Muslim. Unfortunately many of the reforms have been reversed. Read this and ask yourself, why did a Muslim nation ABOLISH Islam from its national psyche? Perhaps FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE? The Shah of Iran and his father were very similar rulers before the Islamist animals took over and destroyed the country:
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (pronounced
[mustäˈfä ceˈmäl äˈtäˌtyɾc]; 19 May 1881 (
conventional) – 10 November 1938) was a
Turkish army officer, reformist
statesman, and the first
President of Turkey. He is credited with being the
founder of the
Republic of Turkey. His surname, Atatürk (meaning "Father of the Turks"), was granted to him
in 1934 and forbidden to any other person by the Turkish parliament.
[1]
Atatürk was a military officer during
World War I.
[2] Following the defeat of the
Ottoman Empire in World War I, he led the
Turkish National Movement in the
Turkish War of Independence. Having established
a provisional government in
Ankara, he defeated the forces sent by the
Allies. His military campaigns led to victory in the Turkish War of Independence. Atatürk then embarked upon a program of political, economic, and cultural reforms, seeking to transform the former Ottoman Empire into a modern and
secular nation-state. Under his leadership, thousands of new schools were built, primary education was made free and compulsory, and women were given equal civil and political rights, while the burden of taxation on peasants was reduced.
[3] His government also carried out an extensive policy of
Turkification.
[4][5][6][7] The principles of
Atatürk's reforms, upon which modern Turkey was established, are referred to as
Kemalism.
Domestic policies
Mustafa Kemal's basic tenet was the complete independence of the country.
[63] He clarified his position:
“ ...by complete independence, we mean of course complete economic, financial, juridical, military, cultural independence and freedom in all matters. Being deprived of independence in any of these is equivalent to the nation and country being deprived of all its independence.
[64] ”
He led wide-ranging reforms in social, cultural, and economical aspects, establishing the new Republic's backbone of legislative, judicial, and economic structures. Though he was later idealized by some as an originator of sweeping reforms, many of his reformist ideas were already common in Ottoman intellectual circles at the turn of the 20th century, and were expressed more openly after the
Young Turk Revolution.
[65]
Mustafa Kemal created a banner to mark the changes between the old Ottoman and the new republican rule. Each change was symbolized as an arrow in this banner. This defining ideology of the Republic of Turkey is referred to as the "Six Arrows", or
Kemalist ideology. Kemalist ideology is based on Mustafa Kemal's conception of
realism and
pragmatism.
[66] The fundamentals of nationalism, populism and
etatism were all defined under the Six Arrows. These fundamentals were not new in world politics or, indeed, among the elite of Turkey. What made them unique was that these interrelated fundamentals were formulated specifically for Turkey's needs. A good example is the definition and application of secularism; the Kemalist secular state significantly differed from predominantly Christian states.
Civic independence and the Caliphate, 1924–1925
Abolition of the Caliphate was an important dimension in Mustafa Kemal's drive to reform the political system and to promote the national sovereignty. By the consensus of the Muslim majority in early centuries, the caliphate was the core political concept of
Sunni Islam.
[72] Abolishing the
sultanate was easier because the survival of the Caliphate at the time satisfied the partisans of the sultanate. This produced a split system with the new republic on one side and an Islamic form of government with the Caliph on the other side, and Mustafa Kemal and İnönü worried that "it nourished the expectations that the sovereign would return under the guise of Caliph."
[73] Caliph
Abdülmecid II was elected after the abolition of the sultanate (1922).
The caliph had his own personal treasury and also had a personal service that included military personnel; Mustafa Kemal said that there was no "religious" or "political" justification for this. He believed that Caliph Abdülmecid II was following in the steps of the sultans in domestic and foreign affairs: accepting of and responding to foreign representatives and reserve officers, and participating in official ceremonies and celebrations.
[74] He wanted to integrate the powers of the caliphate into the powers of the GNA. His initial activities began on 1 January 1924, when
[74] İnönü, Çakmak and Özalp consented to the abolition of the caliphate. The caliph made a statement to the effect that he would not interfere with political affairs.
[75] On 1 March 1924, at the Assembly, Mustafa Kemal said
“ The religion of Islam will be elevated if it will cease to be a political instrument, as had been the case in the past.[76] ”
On 3 March 1924, the caliphate was
officially abolished and its powers within Turkey were transferred to the GNA. Other Muslim nations debated the validity of Turkey's unilateral abolition of the caliphate as they decided whether they should confirm the Turkish action or appoint a new caliph.
[75] A "Caliphate Conference" was held in Cairo in May 1926 and a resolution was passed declaring the caliphate "a necessity in Islam", but failed to implement this decision.
[75]
Two other Islamic conferences were held in Mecca (1926) and Jerusalem (1931), but failed to reach a consensus.
[75] Turkey did not accept the re-establishment of the caliphate and perceived it as an attack to its basic existence; while Mustafa Kemal and the reformists continued their own way.
[77]
On 8 April 1924, sharia courts were abolished with the law "Mehakim-i Şer'iyenin İlgasına ve Mehakim Teşkilatına Ait Ahkamı Muaddil Kanun".[65][78]
The removal of the caliphate was followed by an extensive effort to establish the separation of governmental and religious affairs. Education was the cornerstone in this effort. In 1923, there were three main educational groups of institutions. The most common institutions were
medreses based on Arabic, the Qur'an and memorization. The second type of institution was idadî and sultanî, the reformist schools of the
Tanzimat era. The last group included colleges and minority schools in foreign languages that used the latest teaching models in educating pupils. The old medrese education was modernized.
[79] Mustafa Kemal changed the classical Islamic education for a vigorously promoted reconstruction of educational institutions.
[79]Mustafa Kemal linked educational reform to the liberation of the nation from
dogma, which he believed was more important than the Turkish War of Independence.
“ Today, our most important and most productive task is the national education [unification and modernization] affairs. We have to be successful in national education affairs and we shall be. The liberation of a nation is only achieved through this way."
[80] ”
In the summer of 1924, Mustafa Kemal invited American educational reformer
John Dewey to Ankara to advise him on how to reform Turkish education.
[79] His
public education reforms aimed to prepare citizens for roles in public life through increasing the public literacy. He wanted to institute compulsory primary education for both girls and boys; since then this effort has been an ongoing task for the republic. He pointed out that one of the main targets of
education in Turkey had to be raising a generation nourished with what he called the "public culture". The state schools established a common curriculum which became known as the "unification of education."
Unification of education was put into force on 3 March 1924 by the Law on Unification of Education (No. 430). With the new law, education became inclusive, organized on a model of the civil community. In this new design, all schools submitted their curriculum to the "
Ministry of National Education", a government agency modelled after other countries' ministries of education. Concurrently, the republic abolished the two ministries and made clergy subordinate to the
department of religious affairs, one of the foundations of
secularism in Turkey. The unification of education under one curriculum ended "clerics or clergy of the Ottoman Empire", but was not the end of religious schools in Turkey; they were moved to higher education until later governments restored them to their former position in secondary after Mustafa Kemal's death.
Atatürk with his
Panama hat just after
the Kastamonu speech in 1925.
Beginning in the fall of 1925, Mustafa Kemal encouraged the Turks to wear modern European attire.[81] He was determined to force the abandonment of the sartorial traditions of the Middle East and finalize a series of dress reforms, which were originally started by
Mahmud II.
[81] The
fez was established by Sultan
Mahmud II in 1826 as part of the Ottoman Empire's modernization effort. The
Hat Law of 1925 introduced the use of Western-style hats instead of the fez. Mustafa Kemal first made the hat compulsory for civil servants.
[81] The guidelines for the proper dressing of students and state employees were passed during his lifetime; many civil servants adopted the hat willingly. In 1925, Mustafa Kemal wore his "
Panama hat" during a public appearance in
Kastamonu, one of the most conservative towns in Anatolia, to explain that the hat was the headgear of civilized nations. The last part of reform on dress emphasized the need to wear modern Western suits with neckties as well as Fedora and Derby-style hats instead of antiquated religion-based clothing such as the veil and turban in the
Law Relating to Prohibited Garments of 1934.
Even though he personally promoted modern dress for women, Mustafa Kemal never made specific reference to women's clothing in the law, as he believed that women would adapt to the new clothing styles of their own free will. He was frequently photographed on public business with his wife
Lâtife Uşaklıgil, who covered her head in accordance with Islamic tradition. He was also frequently photographed on public business with women wearing modern Western clothes. But it was Atatürk's adopted daughters,
Sabiha Gökçen and
Afet İnan, who provided the real role model for the Turkish women of the future. He wrote: "The religious covering of women will not cause difficulty ... This simple style [of headcovering] is not in conflict with the morals and manners of our society."
[82]
On 30 August 1925, Mustafa Kemal's view on religious insignia used outside places of worship was introduced in his
Kastamonu speech. This speech also had another position. He said:
“ In the face of knowledge, science, and of the whole extent of radiant civilization, I cannot accept the presence in Turkey's civilized community of people primitive enough to seek material and spiritual benefits in the guidance of sheiks. The Turkish republic cannot be a country of sheiks, dervishes, and disciples. The best, the truest order is the order of civilization. To be a man it is enough to carry out the requirements of civilization. The leaders of dervish orders will understand the truth of my words, and will themselves close down their lodges [tekke] and admit that their disciplines have grown up.
[63] ”
On 2 September the government issued a decree closing down all Sufi orders and the
tekkes. Mustafa Kemal ordered their dervish lodges to be converted to museums, such as
Mevlana Museum in Konya. The institutional expression of Sufism became illegal in Turkey; a politically neutral form of Sufism, functioning as social associations, was permitted to exist.[
citation needed]
The abolition of the caliphate and other cultural reforms were met with fierce opposition.
[75]
Modernization efforts, 1926–1930
President Kemal at the 1927 opening of the
State Art and Sculpture Museum.
President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk introducing
the new Turkish alphabet to the people of
Kayseri on 20 September 1928.
Present Mustafa Kemal Atatürk at the library of the
Çankaya Presidential Residence in Ankara, 1929.
Attending a class at the Law School of the
Istanbul Darülfünunu in 1930.
In the years following 1926, Mustafa Kemal introduced a radical departure from previous reformations established by the Ottoman Empire.
[88] For the first time in history, Islamic law was separated from secular law, and restricted to matters of religion.
[88] Mustafa Kemal said
“ We must liberate our concepts of justice, our laws and our legal institutions from the bonds which, even though they are incompatible with the needs of our century, still hold a tight grip on us.
[89] ”
On 1 March 1926, the Turkish
penal code was passed. It was modelled after the Italian Penal Code. On 4 October 1926,
Islamic courts were closed. Establishing the civic law needed time, so Mustafa Kemal delayed the inclusion of the principle of
laïcité until 5 February 1937.
Ottoman practice discouraged social interaction between men and women in keeping with Islamic practice of
sex segregation. Mustafa Kemal began developing social reforms very early, as was evident in his personal journal. He and his staff discussed issues like abolishing the
veiling of womenand the integration of women into the outside world. The clue on how he was planning to tackle the issue was stated in his journal on November 1915;
“ The social change can come by (1) educating capable mothers who are knowledgeable about life; (2) giving freedom to women; (3) a man can change his morals, thoughts, and feelings by leading a common life with a woman; as there is an inborn tendency towards the attraction of mutual affection.
[90] ”
Mustafa Kemal needed a new civil code to establish his second major step of giving freedom to women. The first part was the education of girls and was established with the unification of education. On 4 October 1926, the new Turkish civil code passed. It was modelled after the
Swiss Civil Code. Under the new code, women gained equality with men in such matters as inheritance and divorce. Mustafa Kemal did not consider gender a factor in social organization. According to his view, society marched towards its goal with men and women united. He believed that it was scientifically impossible for him to achieve progress and to become civilized if the gender separation continued as in Ottoman times.
[91] During a meeting he declaimed:
“
To the women: Win for us the battle of education and you will do yet more for your country than we have been able to do. It is to you that I appeal.
To the men: If henceforward the women do not share in the social life of the nation, we shall never attain to our full development. We shall remain irremediably backward, incapable of treating on equal terms with the civilizations of the West.
[92] ”
In 1927, the
State Art and Sculpture Museum (
Turkish:
Ankara Resim ve Heykel Müzesi) opened its doors. The museum highlighted sculpture, which was little practised in Turkey owing to the Islamic tradition of avoiding idolatry. Mustafa Kemal believed that "culture is the foundation of the Turkish Republic."
[93] and described modern Turkey's ideological thrust as "a creation of patriotism blended with a lofty humanist ideal." He included both his own nation's creative legacy and what he saw as the admirable values of global civilization. The pre-Islamic
culture of the Turks became the subject of extensive research, and particular emphasis was laid upon Turkish culture widespread before the
Seljuk and
Ottoman civilizations. He instigated study of
Anatolian civilizations--
Phrygians and
Lydians,
Sumerians and
Hittites. To attract current public attention to past cultures, he personally named the "
Sümerbank" (1932) after the Sumerians, and the "
Etibank" (1935) after the Hittites. He also stressed the folk arts of the countryside as a wellspring of Turkish creativity.
In the spring of 1928, Mustafa Kemal met in Ankara with several linguists and professors from all over Turkey where he unveiled to them a plan of his to implement a new alphabet for the written Turkish language based on a modified
Latin alphabet. The new
Turkish alphabet would serve as a replacement for the old
Arabic script and as a solution to the literacy problem in Turkey. When he asked them how long it would take to implement the new alphabet into the Turkish language, most of the professors and linguists said between three to five years. Mustafa Kemal was said to have scoffed and openly stated, "we shall do it in three to five months".[
citation needed]
Over the next several months, Mustafa Kemal pressed for the introduction of the new Turkish alphabet as well as made public announcements to the upcoming overhaul of the new alphabet. On 1 November 1928 he introduced the new Turkish alphabet and abolished the use of Arabic script. At the time, literate citizens of the country comprised as little as 10% of the population. Dewey noted to Mustafa Kemal that learning how to read and write in Turkish with the Arabic script took roughly three years with rather strenuous methods at the elementary level.
[79] They used the
Ottoman Language written in the Arabic script with Arabic and
Persian loan vocabulary.
[79] The creation of the new Turkish alphabet as a variant of the Latin alphabet was undertaken by the
Language Commission (
Turkish:
Dil Encümeni) with the initiative of Mustafa Kemal.
[79] The tutelage was received from an Ottoman-Armenian calligrapher
Hagop Dilaçar.
[94] The first
Turkish newspaper using the new alphabet was published on 15 December 1928. Mustafa Kemal himself travelled the countryside in order to teach citizens the new alphabet. As he predicted, the country's adaptation to the new alphabet was very quick, and literacy in Turkey jumped from 10% to over 70% within two years.[
citation needed] Beginning in 1932, the
People's Houses (
Turkish:
Halk Evleri) opened throughout the country in order to meet the requirement that people between the ages of four and 40 were required to learn the new alphabet as mandated. There were congresses for discussing the issues of copyright, public education and scientific publishing. Literacy reform was also supported by strengthening the private publishing sector with a new law on copyrights.
Mustafa Kemal promoted modern
teaching methods at the primary education level, and Dewey took a place of honour.
[79]Dewey presented a paradigmatic set of recommendations designed for developing societies that are moving towards modernity in his "Report and Recommendation for the Turkish educational system."
[79] He was interested in
adult educationfor the goal of forming a
skill base in the country. Turkish women were taught not only child care, dress-making and household management, but also skills needed to join the economy outside the home. Turkish education became a state-supervised system, which was designed to create a skill base for the social and economic progress of the country.
[95] His "unified" education program was designed to educate responsible citizens as well as useful and appreciated members of society.
[79] Turkish education became an integrative system, aimed to alleviate poverty and used
female education to establish
gender equality.
Mustafa Kemal generated media attention to propagate modern education during this period. He instigated official education meetings called "Science Boards" and "Education Summits." to discuss the quality of education, training issues and certain basic educational principles. He said, "our schools [curriculum] should aim to provide opportunities for all pupils to learn and to achieve." He was personally engaged with the development of two textbooks. The first one was
Turkish: Vatandaş İçin Medeni Bilgiler (1930). The second,
Geometry (1937), was a text for high schools. The
Vatandaş İçin Medeni Bilgiler (
Civic knowledge for the citizens) introduced the science of comparative government and explained the means of administering public trust by explaining the rules of governance as applied to the new state institutions.
On 5 December 1934, Turkey moved to grant full political rights to women, before
several other European nations. The equal rights of women in marriage had already been established in the earlier Turkish civil code.
[109] Women's place in Mustafa Kemal's cultural reforms was best expressed in the civic book prepared under his supervision.
[110] Mustafa Kemal said that
“ There is no logical explanation for the political disenfranchisement of women. Any hesitation and negative mentality on this subject is nothing more than a fading social phenomenon of the past. ...Women must have the right to vote and to be elected; because democracy dictates that, because there are interests that women must defend, and because there are social duties that women must perform.[111]
