Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the weekend stepped up the war of words between his Islamist-rooted government and the country’s secular president, saying Muslims had a place in politics. “Religious people also have a right to practice politics . . . you cannot stop them from doing so,” he told a gathering in Istanbul on Saturday. “If you want to keep the faithful out of politics, the people will never forgive you,” he added.President Ahmet Necdet Sezer on Wedneday warned that Turkey faced a mounting risk from Islamic fundamentalists bent on undermining the secular administration. “Turkey’s only guarantee against this threat is its secular order. Religious fundamentalism is trying to infiltrate politics, education and the state,” he said.
The remarks drew fire from the government, with Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin chastising the president for tackling the subject in public without consulting the government. “It is the duty of us all to develop democracy in Turkey and meticulously defend the principle of secularism without making religious people uneasy,” he said.