Walking around Sultanahmet nowadays, the predominantly tourist centre of Istanbul, Turkey's capital for many centuries, one is immediately struck by the greatness and the majesty of the buildings, which all speak of Islam. On one side of the vast square is the Mosque of Sultanahmet, the “Blue Mosque.” On the other side is Haghia Sophia, the “Church of the Holy Wisdom” built by the emperor Justinian, which in its day has been both an Orthodox Basilica, a Latin Cathedral and a Mosque. Ironically, it is now a Museum, dead in every sense and devoid of any spiritual feeling at all. Just along the road from Haghia Sophia is the magnificent palace of Topkapi, home to the Ottoman Sultans and centre of their vast government machine. How, then, did Islam manage to get from this splendour, in which Ottoman rulers controlled half of Europe and North Africa, to a situation today where the voice of Islam is quiet in Turkey and reviled throughout much of the world? The answer is partly in the buildings themselves. They are truly magnificent. No words can do justice to how magnificent they really are. No expense was spared in their building and nothing denied in their upkeep. Such extravagance, though, was ultimately one of the reasons for the collapse and breakup of the Ottoman Empire itself. History has shown us time and time again that when Muslim leaders became too concerned with gold and silk, palaces and buildings, they are surely destined for a fall. In reaction to Ottoman rule, Ataturk wanted Islam to play no part in the nation's life. If Turkey was to re-build itself, he thought, it would only do so as a secular nation. Islam could only hold it back. So it was that he systematically took out Islam from all the organs of state and turned many religious buildings into museums. Never again would Islam, or any religion, he believed, be allowed to dominate a modern Turkey, holding it back in terms of education and scientific progress. In many senses, though, what he created was something without life. The empty shell of Haghia Sophia is a paradigm of what life is like without its spiritual soul. Across the Bosporus from Sultanahmet is another area of Istanbul, Taksim Square. No mosques or Ottoman palaces here. All you find in this predominantly business area are Western retail outlets, fast food restaurants and thousands of people going about their business. It could be London, Paris or New York. There is hardly an Islamic headscarf or a long beard to be seen. Muslim writer and intellectual, Harun Yahya, believes that “secularism is the safeguard of Islam.” Instead, he says, of the hypocrisy of women with very little religion, dressed in long black robes, or men in white robes and long beards, we must distinguish Muslims by the integrity of their lives and the goodness of their characters. Secularism, he believes, allows those with no religion to be identified as such, whilst sincerely believing Muslim men and women are allowed the freedom to practice their faith. It is important, though, to differentiate between two different understandings of the words “secular” and “secularism.” In the Arab world and in Turkey they have both come to mean “godless.” A secular society, according to this mindset, is a society without religion. In Western eyes, however, secularism is something different. It means that organised religion does not have an influence on the functioning of government, although the citizens are free to worship as they wish. In the United State of America, for example, the Constitution specifically creates a distinction between Church (or any religion) and State. Yet, despite this, most Americans are religious people. Talking about religion comes naturally to them. Even though religion in public schools is forbidden by the US Constitution, most young people are happy to pray for America and are comfortable to hear their Presidents and Congressmen doing the same. Candidates at present hoping to secure the Republican nomination for President will leave religion out of their discourse at their peril. In the Muslim world, Religion and the State are often inseparable. Islam is a whole way of life, not just a religion. No one would deny, though, that the modern Islamic world has indeed become very polarised. Men and women are judged by the way they dress. Even Muslims are ostracised by other Muslims for not belonging to a particular brand of Islam. In our modern age, legislation cannot make people religious, nor can people be made to be good by the passing of laws. However, there is something that does not quite ring true for a Muslim by the vast crowds of young people in Istanbul's Taksim Square, lured by the attraction of Western clothes, Western music and, indeed, Western manners. If secularism means that these young Muslims are left to sink or swim in a world without the spiritual, then they are indeed being deprived of something that is their right. As adults we need to present them with an Islam that is both attractive and relevant. Muslims read in the Holy Qur'an in Surat Al-Hashr: “Had We sent down this Qur'an upon a mountain you would indeed have seen it humbling itself and breaking asunder out of fear of Allah. We propound such parables to people that they may reflect”. 59:21 Turkey's secular debate, then, is something which gives us all, Muslim or not, cause for thought. We cannot make people be good, nor can we force them to be religious. Doing so produces vast numbers who go through the motions of religion, but for whom it has no meaning. However, leaving people to stumble upon the truth for themselves is often to leave them at the mercy of those who hate religion and spirituality altogether. For all its faults and all its weaknesses, the period of the Ottoman Empire was a time when Islam had the chance to flourish in people's lives. If people are denied access to its sources, Islam will not take root in their hearts. A real flowering of Islam, a renaissance of Islam, is what the Muslim world is surely looking for and it is what Turkey has been arguing about for some years. It is the same argument that will tax Egyptians in the years to some. In respecting the values and beliefs of all its citizens, the new Egyptian Constitution must steer a course between respecting the values which drive the lives of the majority of the people, and allowing those with other values not to feel excluded. What is clear is that legislation will not make people perfect. The most it can do is to try and prevent them from doing what is wrong. Making people better is the role of preachers, not legislators. One thing that is perfectly clear, though, is that Egypt does not need interference from abroad to steer the way the nation will go. Funding NGO's to promote Western values and lifestyles is not the answer. Such obvious interference will always be rejected. For thirty years it was possible for foreign governments to pay their money and get the kind of Egypt they wanted. Not anymore. The current debate about religion and society is a debate for Egyptians alone. There is no need for foreign voices. The January 25 revolution was an Egyptian revolution, even though many have tried to hijack it ever since. It is for the new parliament and the new President, little by little, to re-write the way the country will be run. Inshallah, all of Egypt's people will see a place for the divine in the way they live their lives. The challenge for people of faith is to find ways to encourage this. British Muslim writer, Idris Tawfiq, is a lecturer at Al-Azhar University . The author of eight books about Islam, he divides his time between Egypt and the UK as a speaker, writer and broadcaster. You can visit his website at www.idristawfiq.com.
