Don't want no religious terrorists

MQM rally flays 'self-styled' Sharia By Imtiaz Shah

Karachi: Tens of thousands of protesters gathered yesterday here in a rally called by the pro-government Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) to protest the self-appointed Taliban-style anti-vice campaign being launched by a religious school in the capital Islamabad.

The authorities have been at odds with the clerics and their followers at the Jamia Hafsa madrassa and Lal Mosque over attempts to halt government moves to demolish mosques built illegally on public land.

The self-exiled leader of MQM, Altaf Hussain, in a telephonic address from London, called upon the religious scholars to raise their voice against the acts being perpetrated by the management of Lal Masjid and students of the madrassa.

"The people of Islamabad are insecure and under threat due to the activities of these religious terrorists," said Hussain.

Hussain said the rally was aimed at presenting the "true spirit of Islam".

"Islam is a religion of peace, and it does not need Kalashnikovs and sticks," he said.

The row over the illegal mosques escalated last month when, in behaviour reminiscent of Afghanistan under the Taliban, burqa-clad women students from the madrassa raided a house they said was a brothel.

The students have also pressured owners of music and video shops to close down their businesses.

150 Graduates of Pat Robertson's College in Bush Administration By Jeff Musall

Some have accused the Bush Administration of being far too cozy with the religious right and the agenda of dominion that they ascribe to. Others have reacted that the accusations are unfounded. The fact that the Bush Administration has 150 graduates of Pat Robertson's low rated and just recently accredited law school might suggest the former. This revelation isn't news to the faithful, it is even on the Regent University website. It is news to those of us concerned that the Bush Administration is in bed with the far right of the religious base.

On its own website's admissions page, Regent states that it seeks to admit "students who are serious about the critical roles they will assume as future counselors, conciliators, defenders of the faith, effective client advocates and followers of Christ." Later it adds "Regent Law seeks men and women who are dedicated to becoming Christian leaders who will change the world for Christ."

ANKARA PROTEST OPENS WINDOW ON TURKEY’S BREWING CULTURE WAR by Nicholas Birch

Draped in flags, 370,000 Turks rallied in Ankara on April 14 against their religious-minded prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It was a demonstration that emphasized both the intense opposition that Erdogan will face if he stands for president, and the depths of Turkey’s cultural division.

Among the slogans chanted by protesters as they marched to the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey’s founder, were: "Turkey is secular and will stay secular" and "We don’t want an imam in the presidential palace."

Erdogan hasn’t yet announced whether he wants to take over as president on May 16, replacing the incumbent, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who is retiring. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. If he does, Erdogan is virtually assured of election: the chief executive here is selected by the parliament, where the prime minister’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) holds a huge majority. Under Turkey’s constitution, Turkey’s president is largely a figurehead. Yet, the chief executive does possess some important prerogatives, including the authority to confirm the appointments of governmental officials.

Sezer, an arch-secularist, has used his presidential powers to slow AKP efforts to expand its influence over the machinery of state, blocking the nominations of hundreds of senior bureaucrats proposed by the government. If Erdogan takes Sezer’s place, and the AKP wins parliamentary elections later this year, "Turkey would look like a single-party state", Soner Cagaptay, a Turkish expert at the Washington Institute for Near-East Policy, argues in a recent paper.

During the protest in Ankara, it was not constitutional niceties that people were worried about; it was Erdogan’s political views. A former Islamist-turned-"Muslim democrat," Erdogan’s management skills have impressed many political analysts since his party came to power in 2002. Turkey’s economy has grown by nearly 33 percent over the past four years. In addition, his government managed to push through reforms that opened the way for the country’s European Union accession process, 40 years after Turkey first knocked on Brussels’ door. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

But many Turks remain convinced Erdogan’s pro-market, pro-western make-over masks an Islamist core. These critics are quick to point out that Erdogan is a man who once said, "thank God, I’m for Shar’ia [Islamic law]." Recent tax hikes on alcohol, efforts to alter the country’s secular educational system, and a failed attempt to criminalize adultery provide additional evidence that Erdogan still harbors a conservative Islamist agenda, and is just waiting until the pillars of Turkey’s secularist institutions are sufficiently undermined before he moves to implement it, critics say.