By Salama A Salama Inside the pavilions at the International Frankfurt Book Fair, a large display of Arab cultural output was doing its best to deepen the dialogue and solidify the bridges of understanding between the East and West. On the other side of the walls a tumultuous hue and cry has gone up against the European Commission's decision to invite Muslim Turkey to negotiate membership in the EU. Although the decision, which still has to be ratified by an EU summit in December, indicated that the negotiating process could last for years and that it may not necessarily end with Turkey's admission, it brought to the surface a battle that Europe has long been trying to keep under wraps. Ankara has been fighting for acceptance into the EU for four decades now. Every application it has submitted has been returned with a refusal disguised in the form of a number of conditions that Turkey has to meet first in order to qualify for membership. But the true and unspoken reason for the constant rejection of Turkey's petitions resides in the fear of allowing that critical Islamic entity into the vast Western Christian sea. How will Muslim Turkey ever be able to assimilate into European culture and civilisation? Such is the gist of the reservations. Yet, finally, the government of Prime Minister Erdogan and his Islamist Justice and Development Party has succeeded where all its secularist predecessors have failed. It has abolished the death sentence, amended the penal code, abolished the state security courts, curtailed the powers of the military, strengthened the powers of parliament, enhanced women's rights, made inroads in resolving the problem of the Kurds... In short it has met a full range of conditions on the EU's, albeit perhaps endless, list of demands. Erdogan has demonstrated that there is no inherent contradiction between the Western concept of democracy and Turkey's historical roots as the seat of an Islamic empire that until not that long ago had ruled the entire Middle East. Nevertheless, as uncommitted as the EU commission's decision was the conservative right in France, Germany and Austria was incensed. Opinion in France was so divided that President Chirac said he would hold a national referendum on the issue. Moreover, before a heated national assembly the French prime minister declared that neither Europe nor Turkey was ready for the inclusion process and that Turkey would remain economically, politically and socially apart from Europe. France is the most vehemently opposed European country to Turkey's membership in the EU -- opinion polls have cited figures as high as three-quarters of the population against. Clearly, the furore in France has more to do with French identity than the actual subject at hand -- France has a larger Muslim minority than any other European country, which brings us back to the patently obvious truth regarding European anti-Muslim sensitivities and fears as the underlying motive behind Turkey's continued exclusion from the EU. None of the Eastern European countries that had recently joined the EU had to contend with a list of conditions anywhere near as extensive and demanding as that put to Turkey. Nevertheless, Erdogan accepted the European Commission's decision as "fair", perhaps putting into practice the Egyptian proverb: "Stick to the liar until you get to his front door!" Some maintain that Turkey has resolved the European complex that has haunted it since the days of Ataturk 80 years ago. In fact, however, Erdogan has simply tossed the ball back into the European court, leaving the Europeans to prove that their claims to freedom of thought and cultural diversity are not just hollow boasts. In effect, he is calling their hand and forcing them to expose their true xenophobic face. The Europeans are readily obliging. Even as the dialogue of civilisations was buzzing inside the Arab wing at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the state parliament of Hessen, whose capital is Frankfurt, passed a law prohibiting Muslims -- only Muslims -- from wearing Islamic dress and emblems in public schools and government offices. Will the Arabs, their leaders and their intellectuals ever find a solution to the problem?
