"Belief in Democracy 1/8
Belief in Democracy 1/8
Views of people from Turkey and Holland on statements made by Newsweek journalist Fareed Zakaria, Turkish president Abdullah Gül and prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the Dutch VPRO documentary 'Turkije - Het Dilemma van de Democratie': 'Turkey - the dilemma of democracy' that will broadcast on 8th of October. Daily at Sargasso from October 5th until October 12th, at 13.00h (Amsterdam time, 14.00h Istanbul time). This blogging project is part of the Dutch democracy week WijZijnDeBaas (WeAreTheBoss): the Dutch contribution to the International Week for Democracy. More information here.
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Is Europe a home for an alliance of civilizations or is it a Christian club?
Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
prime minister of Turkye,
April 16th 2007, in 'Der Spiegel'
My reaction:
"Aside from the fact that I am not too keen on the idea of civilization, this is a rhetorical counter-attack. Well, you see we are Muslims and we are not threatened with living with others but can EU do that, too? Once I believed the EU was the most secular political entity in the world, now i have doubts. Not because of the EU elites per se but the right-wing populist politicians like Merkel and Sarkozy encourage a Christian imaginary for the EU".
