Word: bans
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...wades through the 2,455-page indictment and decides whether to hear that case, Turkey's constitutional court is considering a no less explosive trial against the government itself. The country's chief prosecutor has petitioned the court to outlaw the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, and ban 71 of its members from politics for five years - including Erdogan. Their alleged crime: trying to destroy secularism and create an Islamic state in Turkey. A decision against the AKP is widely expected in August. That could force Erdogan to step down, and his party to regroup under...
...extra measure of animosity has existed since April of last year, when the party sought to install one of its members, Abdullah Gul, as Turkey's President. The military objected, but Erdogan called early elections and appointed him anyway. The AKP then passed a constitutional amendment to lift a ban on head scarves in universities. Since many secularists view head scarves as a political symbol of an Islamic lifestyle, that amendment - struck down by the high court last month - became a key exhibit in the case against...
Even many Turks who don't support the AKP view the latest secularist saber-rattling with distaste. "You can't ban the most popular party in the country. It's a joke," says Alpay. "This is not really about the threat to secularism; it is about the military using the threat to sustain its position in the country...
...Banning the AKP won't neutralize the attraction its positions hold for millions of Turkish voters. And the mere threat of a ban has already drawn international condemnation, and has contributed to a slowdown in foreign investment as well as a weakening of Turkey's currency. That said, political Islam would indeed pose a future threat to the modern lifestyles of many Turks - and, despite the AKP's protestations, it's not unreasonable to suspect that the party might want to strengthen Islam's role in political life. Still, it's worth keeping such worries from spiraling out of control...
Does that mean even today's minuscule exposure levels are too much? The science is still murky, and human studies are few and far from definitive. So while Canada and the Democratic Republic of Wal-Mart are moving to ban BPA in baby bottles, the Food and Drug Administration maintains that BPA products pose no danger, as does the European Union. Even so, scientists like Mel Suffet, a professor of environmental-health sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, say avoiding certain kinds of plastics is simply being better safe than sorry...