Turkey, the West, Secularism and Fanaticism

Abstract:     
The presentation of different nationalities and religious movements in the press varies given the source of the publication and the background of the reporter. Walter Lippman (1914) produced the first comprehensive discussion of this problem nearly 100 years ago during another period of international crisis. Edward Said (1981) addressed the current form of the problem in the general context of Islam and the Western press. In this essay, I briefly focus the analysis on the Western press and Turkey, with regard to the relation of religion and secularism comparing both to Turkey and nations in the West. The means of defining or measuring the degree of influence of religion is diffuse and by using some current standards the USA would be considered a fundamentalist nation. An examination of the Armenian Question is also included. I also examine these problems and the related idea of the conflict of cultures that so profoundly undermines the means of securing a constructive international dialogue on the crisis of our times.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 40

Keywords: Turkey, secularism, Islam, fundamentalism, Armenian Question

JEL Classification: P50

working papers series