A Secular Deity?

Today I was sitting at a cafe forcing myself to read some Pamuk one last time, but I finally decided to give up.

As my idle mind wondered to thoughts and my eyes to the streets, I saw a familiar face.

I called out and he took a seat. This was Jared a.k.a. J-Date (he recently decided to only date Jewish girls).

Jared is a new acquaintance of mine. He is a graduate student at Columbia University and is spending his summer in Istanbul. His field of focus is on the sociological interrelationship of the nation and religion in Turkey.

Turkey is a secular Muslim republic founded by the national hero, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.


After the Ottoman Empire fell, the Turkish Republic rose with radical changes implemented by Ataturk. The ideology of Kemalism is the foundation that this country was built on. One of the vital fundamentals of Kemalism is secularism.

Ah.. now we begin.

Ataturk was a staunch secularist. He abolished The Caliphate and sought to 'modernize' and 'Europeonize' the new found nation.

Kemalism supported the equality of all religions by keeping them equally distant from state affairs.

Now if you don't know what Mustafa Kemal Ataturk looks like, you will find out the first second you step on this land. His image is EVERYWHERE. And by everywhere, I mean it.

In every office of every department of every&all (non)official buildings.

There is a statue of him in every town or city. His image appears on the currency. Even on the walls of streets throughout Istanbul, there are pictures of his days in power hanging.

Hero.

To deny or diss him is a crime because he transitively represents the state; therefore you insult the country.

Ataturk, father of the Turks, is this country. Turkiye is Ataturk.

But what J-date and I found so interesting about this (not just national) personal hero of mine is that there are confusing parallels between him and a deity.

J-date brought up a partıcularly interesting example of how a Turkish friend of his was told when she was young that she wasn't allowed to draw a picture of Atatürk. Why? Because it would never be good enough. And although that may not be the same reason a Muslim isn't allowed to recreate the image of Muhammad (Muzzies are against iconography for people might place the prophet before Allah) both of us couldn't help but get a little excited about the connection.

He is the creator.