Description
The most contradictory social movements imaginable are touching off deadly tensions in the land of Turkey. We see the European oriented, “enlightened” elite, often educated in government schools, in which women enjoy the freedom to make decisions and set the direction of their lives; we also see the vast numbers of followers of traditional Islam with its conservative separation of men and women into prescribed roles; and we see a combination of radical nationalism with religious extremism which repeatedly responds to a perceived threat from the “Christian” West with violence. This last group perceives in the mere existence of Christians on Turkish soil an immediate assault which threatens to undermine the unity and character of the Turkish nation, and this threat becomes unbearable when Christians proclaim their faith. |