BY CUNEYT ULSEVER
HURRIYET- I’m surprised to hear liberal writers and scholars interpreting the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decision on Turkey prohibiting the wearing of headscarves in state schools as meaning ‘Europe is shying away from Islam.’ Few openly spurn the concept of ‘threat perception.’ I think those who do so are acting instinctively, because the concept has its origin in the state during the February 28 process [leading to the 1997 downfall of Turkey’s first Islamist government]. However, the ECHR decision limits freedoms via others’ freedoms and refers to displays of religion as a ‘perceived threat’ to other people.
Those protesting the decision are reacting to the state, using the concept as a pretext for pressure and even a coup d’état, but none have asked whether this threat perception exists among an important segment of society. There is a headscarves threat perception among Kemalists, secularists, nationalists, atheists and what have you. Even some citizens not belonging to any of these groups believe that women wearing headscarves are threatening them through implication. This feeling rose after the September 11 attacks. I don’t agree with these people’s fears, as I believe they are being discriminatory and excluding people. But… the mission of liberal democracy is to seek common ground in society and at length social peace. Therefore, liberal democrats, even if they exclude religious people, must also find a solution for these people.
What should be done? Should women wearing headscarves as required by their beliefs abandon the Koran’s commands and instead obey the rules of liberal democrats? God forbid! What should they do then? Our Islamists should rid themselves of the influence of Arab intellectuals, based on state control and the domination of one ideology, to which they turned as a reaction to leftist intellectuals during the ‘70s. The essence of the headscarf, which has become a symbol, is Middle Eastern (Iranian/Arab) fashion, and women in Turkey wearing them in accordance with the rules of Islam didn’t know much about headscarves. Headscarves spread with the rise of Islamism and became an ideological symbol in Turkey. Unfortunately, every women wearing headscarves is perceived this way.