17 The Daily Star Turkey’s model may be a slippery slope Soner Cagaptay April 18, 2011 -- The so-called “Turkish model,” in which an Islamist party heads an ostensible democracy, has been touted in recent weeks as the likely outcome in post-authoritarian Arab countries. Likely, maybe, but Turkey’s experience under the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, suggests that such a path may also be a slippery slope. The AKP does not aim to create a fundamentalist state in Turkey, but the ruling party’s conservative policies might inadvertently lead to precisely that. For several years the AKP has been transforming Turkish society by making religion the moral compass of the country’s body politic. This does not mean that the party wants to turn Turkey into a theocracy. But once narrowly defined faith becomes a guiding principle in formulating policy, fundamentalists claiming ideological purity become more competitive politically. Their demands for an even stricter implementation of religion-based rules and values risk pushing Turkish society toward radicalization. History teaches us that fundamentalists always defeat conservatives in any competition for ideological purity. In the 11th century, the religiously conservative Almoravid movement swept the Muslim kingdom of Andalusia in reaction to its liberal ways, especially its embrace of progressive thought and acceptance of non-Muslims. Upon taking over Andalusia, the Almoravids enshrined their illiberal interpretation of Islam as the moral compass of society. But the Almoravids’ brand of conservatism was soon viewed as too lax by Muslims who were even more fundamentalist. The Almohads HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_023503