The tyranny of secularism 2

If you consider yourself open-minded you should not just be willing questioning Islam…since it is merely fashionable to do so nowadays…but also you should also question the contemporary ideologies such as secularism and un-restrained capitalism. After all, if the belief system revealed by God is not sacrosanct, then certainly no contemporary system should be considered so.



If a man with a beard forces women to wear the headscarf to school, it is called Talibanism and is subject to air strikes from the US military. However, when you call yourself a secularist and force women NOT to wear a head scarf to school…..it is called being modern and this denial of personal freedoms to women is considered very much acceptable. They do not allow the individual to choose whether or not to wear a headscarf…the secular state has decided that no one should be permitted.



Many of us believe that secularism is synonymous with tolerance but history has proven that religion is does not have a monopoly on intolerance and that secularists have been responsible for more death and destruction than all religious groups combined in the 20th Century. Some famous secularists of the 20th century include Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Kissinger, etc. We know that Kamal Ataturk terrorized those who believed in Islam and did his best to eradicate the Muslim identity from Turkey….at least at the official level. His actions were no different from those of Mullah Omar of the Taliban except that they took place from the opposite end of the faith spectrum. Today, even the majority voting for a mildly Islamic party does not qualify in this democracy….since this democracy is secular and that means that votes only count if they are cast for secular parties. This system is held in place through the force of the Turkish military even though several Islamic parties have been voted into power and have tried to respond to their constituency’s demand for more even-handidness. However, the military has prevented all elected representatives from over-turning the repressive secular system and leading western magazines have written with headlines such as “Battle for the Soul of Turkey” to support the military’s decision to force secularism on the nation. This means that even though the public and several state institutions have voted that banning of the headscarf is unacceptable, the military and secular institutions have still managed to trample the rights of the people and continued the ban.



Secularism is supposed to be the absence of ANY ideology at the state level. It was never supposed to mean that those who do not believe in religion have the right to terrorize those who do and deny them their right to practice their religion individually and collectively. However, any logical evaluation of the end result of secularism would lead to the same conclusion; that it permits atheists and agnostics to terrorize believers under the guise of maintaining a level playing field for all belief systems. It is simply not possible for there to be an ideal secularism since it is not possible for human beings to be absent of any ideology whatsoever….we all believe in something or some paradigm.



Turkey was once the capital of Islam. From this it should be abundantly clear that secularism will show no tolerance to the religion that defines us and that we all believe in. They are two diametrically opposed belief systems which simply cannot be reconciled. It may seem alarmist to raise such warnings now, but that would seem so only to those who refuse to evaluate the facts and picture the logical conclusion. The issue of secularism is yet another tricking time bomb that threatens to create further instability in our part of the world in the near future. The intelligent thing to do would be to look at our own belief and way of life and seek to adapt them to the contemporary world. Islam has within it a complete system of laws, economics and governance. It is a complete way of life which was the basis for one of the great civilizations of human history and for us to miss the opportunity to build upon that would be an unforgivable failure on all our parts. Its time to shred that colonial complex that has plagued our people for generations and to have pride in our own history and way of life.









Turkish court upholds ban on headscarves in universities


ANKARA, June 5: Turkey’s top court ruled on Thursday that headscarves could not be allowed at universities because that would violate secularism.

The decision is a defeat for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamic-oriented government, which tried to allow the scarves at universities as a matter of personal and religious freedom.

But the Constitutional Court verdict issued on Thursday said constitutional amendments that were passed by Parliament in February violated secular principles.

The headscarf issue is an explosive one for Turkey, where the government is locked in a power struggle with secular groups that have support from the military and other state institutions.

The verdict is likely to bode ill for the government. Turkey’s chief prosecutor is seeking to disband the ruling party because it is “the focal point of anti-secular activities” in a separate case at the Constitutional Court. He has cited attempts to allow headscarves at universities as a case in point.

Many see the headscarf as an emblem of political Islam, and consider any attempt to allow it in schools as an attack against modern Turkey’s secular laws.

There was no immediate comment from the government on the ruling. Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said the government would like to see the court’s reasoning before saying anything.

A brief statement from the court said the amendments were annulled because they were in violation of some articles of the Constitution, including one that states that “The Turkish Republic is a secular state.” and another that says that altering the secular nature of the state “cannot even be proposed.”

Onur Oymen, a senior lawmaker of the opposition Republican People Party, said the verdict spelled the end of such amendments.—AP