Title: Turkey's Radical (Not So Fringe) Fringe
Time/date: Mon, Dec 13, 2004 at 4:00:39 pm

Here’s a disturbing piece on the rise of radical Islam in Turkey, with an unusual degree of candor for an Associated Press story: Turkey’s Radical Fringe Returns to View.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - It’s the sort of scene that rattles Turkey’s Western-looking establishment: angry demonstrators raising fists for Islam and waving posters supporting Chechen separatists, the Iraq insurgency and hard-line Palestinian factions such as Hamas.

“Islamic resistance will win!” chanted nearly 400 protesters, including women wearing green headbands with Quranic verses — similar to those worn by suicide bombers in farewell videos.

And yet, when students at UC Irvine wore the same type of green headbands, mainstream media went out of their way to assure us it wasn’t connected in any way with extremism.

Statements like this, from a Turkish political science professor, give the lie to claims that the extremists are a “tiny minority:”

“Turkey is like a firewall between radical Islam and the West,” said Dogu Ergil, a political science professor at Ankara University. “The consequences if the firewall comes down are scary.”

Here’s a portrait of the “tiny minority” of extremists, who’ve taken over the tiny neighborhood of Carsamba in tiny Istanbul:

Istanbul’s Carsamba neighborhood is a case in point. Nearly the entire place pushes the panic buttons of the nation’s secular circles.

Men openly wear skullcaps and religious-style robes — technically illegal for everyone but clerics inside mosques. Bookstores offer volumes about perceived “Zionist” conspiracies against Islam and extolling the Palestinian intefadeh. Street peddlers hawk CDs about Muslim commandos in Chechnya waging “holy war” against Russia and sermons from firebrand Turkish imams silenced by the state.

Nearly every woman has a head scarf and many wear a full chador that hides all but their eyes. A five-minute cab ride brings the Turkey that EU proponents want the world to see: miniskirts, designer stores and wine bars.

“Islam is reclaiming its rightful place in Turkey,” said Kenan Alpay, an organizer at Ozgur Der, or Freedom Association, a conservative Islamist group. “We have been on the sidelines of politics and society too long. That’s ending.”

The group is one of many in Turkey raising funds for Iraqi and Chechen civilians, but Alpay denied sending money or personnel to any militant factions.

“We are for our Islamic brothers and sisters,” he said. “We don’t send anyone to fight. But people go on their own because of injustices. It’s hard for Muslims to stand by and see the suffering in Iraq and other places.”