On ‘Muslim democracy’

Journalists and commentators often describe Turkey as a “Muslim democracy” or a “predominantly Muslim country.” Ezra Klein is the latest, in a smart post on Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan’s recent offer to broker talks between Iran and the Obama administration. I’ve even done it before, in one of my columns at the Wildcat. These sort of phrases are tough to avoid when writing about Turkey, especially when official statistics claim that 99 percent of Turks are Muslims. But they are terribly facile. Consider a few improvements:

• Turkey is a predominantly Sunni Muslim country with a heterodox population that includes a significant Alevi minority.
• Turkey is a predominantly Muslim country with deep historical ethnic divisions between Turks, Kurds, and other groups.
• Turkey is a predominantly Muslim country where newborns are listed as ‘Muslim’ by default in public records.
• Turkey is a predominantly Muslim country with a laïcist government frequently criticized by fundamentalist Muslims around the world.
• Turkey is a predominantly Muslim country that once ruled most of the Islamic world, but didn’t always keep its subjects happy.

It’s fair to call Turkey “predominantly Muslim.” But it’s unwise to give this fact too much geopolitical importance. After all, Austria is “predominantly Christian,” but that doesn’t give it a whole lot of heft with Bolivia.