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Not all Islamists are the same

Political parties that regard the tenets of Islam as their central credo have tried unsuccessfully to achieve sustained dominance in several democracies. In most instances, parties of this ilk have held power for brief spells before they collapsed on account of their own frailties or were ousted by permanent establishments. A new situation seems to be unfolding in Turkey. The Justice and Development Party (AK to go by its Turkish initials) appears set to take on the military-centred establishment and there is a good chance that it will win eventually. The AK, headed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, challenged the military, which regards itself as the keeper of Kemal Ataturk's legacy, by nominating Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul for the presidential contest. Since the President has the power to appoint judges and deans of universities, the holder of the post has the capacity to determine whether the secular traditions fostered by Ataturk live on or not. Unsurprisingly, the head of the Turkish military warned the Erdogan cabinet that religion should not be allowed to intrude too deeply into the political realm. The AK held firm by telling the military to keep out of politics. After the constitutional court blocked Mr. Gul's candidacy, the party called an early parliamentary election. This election could be a virtual referendum on the AK's right to nominate whoever it wants.

It might appear strange to the rest of the world that Turkey's avowedly secular parties rallied to the military's support. While the position taken by these parties casts doubts on their democratic credentials, they do have genuine concerns. The fear is that the Islamists will use the institutions of parliamentary democracy to capture power and then shift to the authoritarian mode. In particular, it is feared that they might whittle down the rights of women and religious minorities and impose draconian social codes. The AK, which has run the government since 2002, focussed mainly on economic issues during its first term. It represents a new class of people who, drawn by new economic opportunities, moved from rural Anatolia to the cities over the last decade. There is little evidence that this class opposes modernisation. The secular and democratic hope is that the AK will not choose the reactionary path since Turkish Islam draws inspiration from the sufi-dervish cells of Konya rather than more doctrinaire schools.

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