Word: islamist
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...presidency heralds the start of a new era for Turkey, it's far from clear what that new era is going to hold. "Is this the beginning of a new period of compromise, or the start of secularist-Islamist strife?" wrote columnist Mehmet Ali Birand. A former foreign minister, Gul is widely known as a coalition builder who played a key role in Turkey's European Union membership bid, but his background in political Islam makes him unpalatable to secularists...
...coming weeks. When he tried, in March, to dismiss Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on allegations of misconduct, the move backfired on Musharraf. Massive rallies in support of the suspended judge swept the country, and moderate Pakistanis who had previously tolerated Musharraf as a bulwark against corruption and Islamist extremism began to view him as a ham-fisted dictator attempting to remove a potential obstacle to his plan to remain in office. Chaudhry was reinstated by the Court last month, and today's ruling is an indication of the willingness of the bench to flex its muscles...
...writes. He also reaches further back into history, questioning the U.S. decision to leave Vietnam. And his views on Israel sound to the right even of the Bush Administration: "It is not in the interest of the United States, at a time when it is being threatened by Islamist terrorists, to assist in the creation of another state that will support terrorism," he writes...
Last Friday, the lights went out in Gaza because the electric bill wasn't being paid. The European Union which, for humanitarian reasons, is financing the Palestinian enclave's power supply, suddenly refused to continue the subsidy because of allegations that Gaza's government - run by the Islamist party Hamas - was about to tax electricity to bolster its armed militants. Ever since those same militants ousted the forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last June - thereby creating two Palestinian territories, in Gaza and in the West Bank - Western governments have refused to send aid that would in any way assist...
...Some analysts have begun to talk about the "Musharraf option" - a Pakistan-style military dictatorship under a strongman willing to pursue U.S. interests. Sunni politicians have openly said they would prefer this to a Prime Minister from the Shi'ite Islamist parties. But none of Iraq's military commanders has looked a likely candidate, and the U.S. is unlikely to back a coup...