A Religious Candidate Is Ascendant in Turkey

After being shut out of the presidency last spring, Abdullah Gul, a religious man in the assiduously secular realm of Turkish politics, allowed himself a little soul-searching.

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“Has the government limited women’s rights?” Mr. Gul, 56, asked a panel of newspaper editors on national television, hoping to persuade Turkey’s establishment that it had nothing to fear from his candidacy.

After all, he argued, his party was already in power, but “has the government closed down places where young people or modern people go? Has the government done some secret things and those been disclosed? What happened?”

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As he saw it, he had done everything right.

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But for Turkey’s secular class, all that was beside the point. Mr. Gul came from a party that espoused political Islam, his wife wore an Islamic head scarf and the fear that inspired outweighed his accomplishments. A high court blocked his candidacy at the request of the main secular opposition party.

So Turkey is suffering from its own kind of Islamophobia?

Why doesn't anybody want to give the man a chance? Why is he judged and sentenced before anything happens?

In another article Gul asks to trust in democracy.

"The democratic system within which citizens elect their own representatives is a structure based on the universal principles of law where ways of legal recourse are open and fundamental rights and liberties can be thoroughly enjoyed both individually and collectively," he said. He also said Turkey should set becoming an open society as a priority for itself. "Becoming an open society is the bare minimum for the development of countries and the fulfillment of individuals," the newly elected president said, adding, "The freedoms of thought, expression, religion and conscience stipulated in our Constitution are, at the same time, the guarantee of a dignified life for our people."

He said fundamental freedoms were the most "vital values under all circumstances" and that change and diversity should be celebrated rather than feared. Gül also stated that ensuring complete gender equality and active participation of women in all fields of life should be a primary objective for Turkey. He expressed that "a prevailing sense of justice among citizens is one of the most important elements for ensuring sustainable economic development and continued social harmony."

Does that sound like a fanatic speaking?

So words are cheap and he can say anything and then change his mind later on, but actions speak louder than words, so give the man a chance to become active before branding him a backward Chauvinist Islamist!!