Today's Zaman - "Expert:Religious freedom hot topic everywhere"

There is great controversy in many European countries over religious expression, and Turkey is not alone in its debates on this issue, according to an expert in international law specializing in religious liberty.

"The strict separation of state from religion [in Turkey] reaches to the point that it necessitates the state to control religious expression. And when you have state control of religious expression, it often necessitates that the state should choose between different ideologies to promote," according to Angela C. Wu, international law director for the US-based non-profit law firm Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

She said the Turkish and French models are similar but that in the United States secularism is more about state neutrality.

"But even there, there is a conflict between separationists and accomodationists. The accomodationists would say that the state should accommodate different religious expressions, but in a neutral way. Separationists go closer to the Turkish and French models and say the state should remain apart from anything having to do with religion," she said in an interview with Today's Zaman while visiting Turkey to exchange views with academics on the issue of religious freedom.

She cited the example of lawsuits against the state filed by atheists to have the expression "In God We Trust" removed from US currency because they argue that it violates the state's separation from religion.

When it comes to Turkey, she said, "As a lawyer, it's interesting to see in Turkish law that the identity of the state is more important than individual rights." She added that the Turkish public needs to decide for itself what kind of public square it wants and what the state's role is going to be as far as secularism is concerned.

Wu pointed out that European states have too much control over religion. Referring to the case of Leyla Şahin, who was expelled from İstanbul University's medical faculty because she wore a headscarf, Wu said the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg avoided the issue of an individual's freedom of religion in its ruling and backed Turkish precedent in the case, which pleased the Turkish secularist camp.

"The court essentially avoided the issue by saying that Turkey should be able to define its own secularism, but it did not set parameters around that. And it did not confront the question of individual rights," she said. According to Wu, this is because there is a great struggle in many countries of Europe over religious expression.

"Turkey is absolutely not alone," she said. "In the EU, Britain, France, and somewhat in Germany there are major discussions about what roles religious communities should have and how far the protection of their expression should go."

What does Shariah mean?

Wu added that when the topic of Shariah enters into the discussion, the discourse becomes even more heated because the interpretation of this word varies widely.

"For some Muslims Shariah could mean living as a good Muslim, a personal submission to the will of God. In other places Shariah is more about communal expression," she explained.

"Does it mean that your family works according to Shariah and everybody reads the Quran together and prays five times a day and does all of these things that are necessitated by Islamic law? Or does it mean that an imam settles local disputes through private arbitration and gives you a scholarly opinion to settle a dispute with your cousin?"

She said within European countries this debate is raging because people do not know what kind of Shariah is being talked about.

"It's not clear what people mean or what their words mean. That has a lot of influence on how courts behave. So the easiest thing for them to say is that each country decides for itself," she added.

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