Regimes Can’t Be Imposed

BY CUNEYT ULSEVER
HURRIYET- Washington, DC hosted a very interesting conference this week called ‘Islam, Democracy and Secularism: Turkey’s Experience.’ The most interesting aspect of the gathering was its organizers, Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and Turkey’s Journalists and Writers Association, whose honorary president is Fethullah Gulen. On the one hand there is a foundation founded by an individual but outlawed by an official ideology, and on the other hand a prestigious university.
One of the most interesting presentations was University of Utah’s Hakan Yavuz’s classification of seven Islamic ‘zones,’ contrary to Samuel Huntington’s assumption of one Islam in his theory of the ‘clash of civilizations.’ Yavuz states that Turkey’s Islam differs from the Islam of the Arab world and Iran. Ankara should support this concept.
I have bad news for those who expect the United States to request help from Turkey in its Greater Middle East Initiative. Scholars attending the conference were near unanimous in arguing that no regime can be imposed on another country and that the Turkish experience couldn’t be imposed on the Arab world.
Another important speech was made by State Minister for Religious Affairs Mehmet Aydin. Aydin emphasized that religion and the state are both parts of life and so must co-exist. Therefore, the question is to determine how their relationship works. The best choice, according to Aydin, is both the state and religion refraining from getting involved in each other’s affairs, with the state treating all religions impartially. Gandhi once made a very important observation: ‘Those who say that politics and religion can’t live together know neither religion nor politics.’ Aydin’s most important statement is that Islam is an individually oriented religion. ‘Since man has to give an account of his own actions, one has to make every contribution to individual improvement,’ said Aydin. This statement emphasizes the serious errors of both fundamentalists and secularists.