I am in Turkey right now on vacation and I can tell you that the ruling party had people influencing the legality trial. The AKP has long been a fundamentalist Islam party (not unlike America’s religious right) and is essentially a movement towards Sharia law in this country. They require party members to pray at mosques at least once a day (illegal for a party in a secular state) and have a history of being corrupt. They are the spawn of older, much more outspoken Islamist groups who were declared illegal in previous trials.

They are working on banning alcohol and weapons as well, and are quite fascist in their approach to privacy. There are more cameras on the street corners here than in the US. It’s Turkish secularism that has brought this country up from out of the dark ages. And while the AKP’s economic policies have been quite beneficial, it’s social policies are bringing this country back.

I’m ashamed that both of my countries (I’m a citizen of both the US and Turkey) are slowly bending to religious social policies that do nothing but harm and bind people. I hope there isn’t a coup again to restore secularism, but I would sympathize with the military if it happened.

The law has a lower chance of passing than it does failing. However, the line “protect the children” has a lot of power in our politics and it could turn those odds around. I can only hope that the Turkish government will do the right thing and not only kill the law, but set a precedent that will keep religious pressure out of Turkish lives.