Turkey’s Conundrum: Are the Country’s Versions of Secularism and Political Islam Compatible? (WP)

Two concepts of secularism are on trial in Turkey, where the Constitutional Court is studying a case to ban the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP). Whatever the outcome of the case, triggered by the government’s reform to allow female students to wear an Islamic-style headscarf on university campuses, it will intensify the growing cleavage between the AKP and the secular establishment (the military, the judiciary, large parts of the civil service, the urban professional classes and the intelligentsia) and hence have repercussions on Turkey’s already protracted bid to become a full member of the European Union (EU)