Women soldiers in Turkey will now be able to wear a headscarf as part of their uniforms, according to a new regulation prepared by the Defense Ministry to expand the scope of previous rulings on the much-debated issue. (Agencies)

Comment:

Actually, the point is not if women are allowed to wear the headscarf in all fields of life and in all institutions of the state, be they schools, universities, the civil service, police or eventually the armed forces, because wearing the headscarf is not a human right, as claimed by secular democrats.  It is not a right given by secular democracy, the republic, the kingdom, or whatsoever… It is even not a right or freedom that the Khilafah would give.  For it is an individual obligation upon the woman as commanded by Allah سبحانه وتعالى, while it is the duty of the state and politics to facilitate the environment where women can fulfil their obligations towards their Lord. Moreover, it is an obligation upon the state to build the personality within the women and men in the society which makes them feel and embrace the responsibility and need to fulfil Allah’s commands towards their Lord, towards their own persons, and the society and the state. All in order to gain His pleasure and the best of the rewards in the Hereafter…

One point must be clear for everybody who reads this: the soldiers in the Turkish Army are our valuable sisters and brothers whose intensions inshaallah are pure, and who just like the rest of this Ummah seek to gain Allah’s Paradise. So it is not them that we have to account. Rather we have to account those who command over them, their superior officers, the chief of general staff, the Prime Minister and President of Turkey, and the scholars who keep silent about their deeds, plans and aims.

And they at the moment make vows over vows to protect and maintain the democracy and secularity of the Republic of Turkey. Last week the President of this Republic in an interview with al-Arabiya even invented a new term, “La Deeny” – La for No in Arabic, and Deeny for religious in Turkish derived from the Arabic word Deen, in order to express that he does not regard “secularism as ‘LA deeny’, as religionlessness”.

So this is also the reason why it took the AKP almost 15 years to lift the headscarf ban.  They removed it partially and not at once, although they had the power to do this. But instead they chose to give little crumbs piece by piece, always short before an important election. And with the referendum ahead for the Presidential system, this was the last piece they were able to hand out. The question now is what will they do when another important election or referendum comes?! Their only aim is to maintain power in Turkey, for they are the best insurance of secularism and democracy.  This week AKP MP’s refused the banning of TV marriage shows by voting against it in a parliamentary vote – although the majority of its electorate disdains these shows. The most recent and most effective step in secularizing Turkey was undertaken in the curricula changes over the last few weeks. While on the one hand the Evolution Theory was removed from the Biology lessons, and lessons about Atatürk were reduced throughout the curriculum, democracy and secularism lessons and subjects have been intensified. Even the religion lessons received their share. The Religion lessons curriculum has been modified with a more intense emphasize on Secularism, describing it as the “Insurance of Freedom of Thought and Faith”, “Eradicating of Exploitation of Religion”, “Disallowing Priesthood”, “Ensuring Equality before Law and Legislation”, “Establishment of a State based on the Rule of Law Principle”, “Ensuring the Effective Utilization of Scientific Principles and Cutting-Edge Technology”.

So, it is not what is ON the Heads, rather what is IN the heads that shapes a society. However, a society is more than the sum of the individuals. It is the individuals, their common concepts and common emotions, plus the common system that is implemented upon the individuals, which constitutes a society. So without doubt, any individual in this country who claims to be a Muslim, is a Muslim! So is any politician, any teacher, any lawyer, any police officer, or any personnel in the Armed Forces of Turkey. And each of them is eager to gain the reward of Allah سبحانه وتعالى.

However, the society of Turkey is a secular, a capitalist, and a non-Muslim society, for it is based upon a non-Islamic ideology, governed by non-Islamic concepts, politics, rules, laws and aims, which cause all the illnesses, all the destruction and failures in every field of life of Western societies, from corruption in society, economics, domestic and foreign politics, to disastrous failures in education, science and technology.

The Turkish society has to decide if it is truly to accept this personality disorder and this split personality – in a metonymic sense. Because, if “If you do not live what you believe, you will end up believing!”

Zehra Malik