Madam, - Mary Fitzgerald, writing about the conflict between Muslims and Kemalists in Turkey, makes the following observation: "The religious camp is building its own élite, an educated Islamic bourgeoisie that works hard, goes to restaurants and resorts and wear Versace headscarves. They want to work within Turkey's secular framework and that unsettles the Kemalists" (Under the Crescent, September 8th).
It should unsettle the rest of us also. For the secular constituency in Turkey has good reason to feel uneasy. The days when the religious/Islamic community could be viewed as an almost feudal vestige confined to eastern Turkey are long gone. No wonder the Turkish military is increasingly involved in the debate on Turkey's future. After all, its main role since the foundation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 was to safeguard the new social and political dispensation of Ataturk.
For us in the West this is not merely an academic exercise, for this new brand of capitalist Islam is now pioneering Turkey's application to join the EU. It could be the Trojan horse poised to do the division of church and state. However, in the place of Roman Catholicism and Calvinistic Protestantism as our tormentors, Islam would take an increasing role in our social and economic life. The rights won by women would be gradually undermined.
It is therefore imperative that any moves to integrate Turkey into the EU be suspended until we can be sure that the secular forces in that country emphatically triumph. - Yours, etc,
SEAN WHELAN,
ROISIN WHELAN,
Nenagh,
Co Tipperary.