Turkey

The Republic of Turkey, established in 1923, is the successor state to the Ottoman Empire with a population of 73 million. Citizens 18 years and older have the right to vote, and Turkish women have enjoyed suffrage since 1933. Although the predominant faith of its citizens is Islam (roughly 75 percent being Sunnis with a 25 percent Shia minority) the nation itself is fiercely secular. This was made explicit in 1928 when the line "The Religion of the State is Islam" was removed from the Turkish constitution. Freedom of religion is protected for individuals, and while the existence of religious organizations is protected, they are forbidden from participating in political activity. Headscarves are forbidden in schools and civic/government buildings. The wearing of religious symbols are likewise forbidden. Right-wing, religious political parties have assailed official secularism at times, desiring to move Turkey in the direction of becoming an Islamic state. Four times the army has intervened with coups when theocrats gained the upper hand, restoring secular governments to power. The current ruling AKP party has strong Islamic ties and currently maintains a cautious relationship with the military, lest overt efforts to implement an Islamic state trigger another coup. It is interesting that secular Turkey is arguably the most stable, modern, diversified and prosperous of nations with Islamic-majority populations.

So when a religious conservative in the U.S. makes a blanket statement like "There is no separation of church and state in Islam" as if to cut off debate and silence critics with irrefutable, sage insight, I have to wonder what the speaker's point is. Is the U.S. superior to these heathens because we have separation of church and state? Or is this something for the U.S. to aspire toward? It's utterly confusing in light of the continual distaste this segment of the U.S. population holds for the concept of separation of church and state in the U.S. Never mind that the original assertion regarding Islam is patently false, and that the most theocratic Islamic states are also among the poorest and most oppressive in the world. Right-leaning fundamentalists are invariably supporters of the First Amendment's right to freedom of religion, as long as it is their religion. In that, I suppose, we can thank Puritan malcontents, who didn't land at Plymouth Rock for freedom of religion but rather for the freedom to establish a bleak, oppressive theocracy that would be considered a barbaric, draconian cult by today's standards. The First Amendment, apparently, should be subject to majority rule, a democratic vote, as evidenced by the right's railing against a proposed Islamic center to be built kinda sorta near the site of the World Trade Center. A project, incidentally, most New Yorkers aren't bent out of shape about. But since so many folk in the hinterland believe that religious freedom in New York City should be put up to a popular vote, let's just take it one step further.

The religious right--generally including, but not limited to, fundamentalist Christians--insist there is no "separation of church and state" in the U.S., that the framers of the constitution never intended such a concept (nevermind that Thomas Jefferson, he who wrote the constitution is also the selfsame person who coined the contentious "separation of church and state" phrase). The U.S. is a "Christian nation" (as opposed to a nation of Christians) and that Christianity is our defacto national religion, and any government action to the contrary amounts to religious oppression. Fine. Let's have a vote on that: What shall be our National Religion, fully in line with the right's interpretation of the First Amendment.

Counts votes.

Ladies and gentlemen, you are all proud members of the Catholic United States of America! What? Don't look so surprised--Catholics make up 25 percent of the U.S. population, or 68 million people. When it comes to democratic vote, it's not even close. Southern Baptists, the next-largest denomination in the U.S., total a paltry 16 million members, and Methodists check in with just a hair under 8 million. And you folks always wondered why Baylor and SMU couldn't ever sell out their football stadiums while Notre Dame has it's own television network! I expect all of you to get yourselves to confession right away, and your penance will be to pray the Rosary daily, pending the pope's encyclical on the matter. Now, now! It's no use complaining, the democratic vote was held fair and square, just as you insisted. Besides, you should be happy we Catholics exercised our democratic rights to save your souls from eternal damnation, Protestants being bastardizations of the One, True Religion after all. Only the Vatican wields the true authority of Jesus Christ, handed down in an unbroken succession from St. Peter the Apostle himself.

If you don't like it, you can always go to one of those blighted, secular states that practice the separation of church and state. Like Turkey.

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