Word: secularity
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...part of the mildly apathetic global Gen X brigade, but like many an urban Turk, I was raised on a solid diet of modernist mantras. The secular zeal of Turkey's nation-builders runs in my blood. As an air force pilot, my grandfather fought alongside Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, modern Turkey's founder, in the country's war for independence. After it was won in 1923, his job was to help build Turkey's first fleet of biplanes. My grandmother was what's called an "Ataturk girl" - like many others, she was put on a train to Germany...
Even if wearing the headscarf expressed political opposition to secularism, continuing to ban it may be the riskier move for the secular republic. Powerful interest groups, as well as the general public—60 percent, according to one opinion poll—oppose the headscarf ban, and over 400 members of Turkey’s 550-member parliament voted for its repeal. Maintaining the ban despite such opposition would only foster further resentment against the government and its secular policies. The past generation has witnessed the ferocious backlash that can result against a blanket secularism imposed tactlessly, most notably...
...government really were threatened by women wearing headscarves in universities, a ban on that act would constitute the worst kind of censorship. A government that quashes opposition to itself is a tyrannical government. A free society must tolerate the speech of those who would destroy it, just as a secular society must allow the expression of religious beliefs opposed...
Last Saturday, the Turkish Parliament voted to overturn a long-standing ban on Islamic headscarves in universities—a ban that has long protected the secularism of the classroom from the growing influence of religious conservatives. Tens of thousands protested the repeal, arguing that a repeal on the ban is the first step to increasing Islam’s influence on society and a serious threat to a non-religious public life. While the ban may seem anathema to Western liberal countries that prioritize freedom of religious exercise, the unique political and demographic characteristics of Turkey have made...
...these caricatures, commissioned by Jyllands-Posten to fuel a debate on freedom of expression, that caused Muslims worldwide to burn Danish flags and embassies and boycott Danish produce. It became one of the most heated chapters in what many were calling the cultural and ideologal clash between the secular West and the Islamic world...