|
Decision
for the Copenhagen summit- Muslims in a Christian
Europe?
By
Jonathan
Power
November 19, 2002
COPENHAGEN - Enlargement of the European Union to
bring in the former communist nations of Eastern Europe
and after that Turkey was never meant to be so tense an
affair. When the Berlin Wall came down opinion makers in
Western Europe were breathless before the quite
unexpected overthrow of tyranny and were falling over
themselves in their attempt to wave broadly stretched
arms of welcome to those who could join the historic
mission of making Europe one. In the event the
incorporation of these nations into NATO (where Turkey
has long been an unquestioned member) was easier to pull
off than economic integration into the EU. It needn't
have been. It wasn't the economics of the argument. It
was the politics: in the military arena politicians
simply have more independent room for manoeuvre. And
anyway president Bill Clinton was pushing for it for his
own internal political reasons- he needed the east
European ethnic vote. In a few weeks time at the summit
in Copenhagen of European leaders the final details about
most of Eastern Europe's admission will be settled and
grudgingly, too grudgingly, the clock will start to tick
to entry day.
Most of us small band of commentators who write about
European affairs were waiting for Copenhagen to raise the
next question: what about Turkey? But Valery Giscard
d'Estaing, the former president of France and now the
president of the conference writing a constitution for a
united Europe, has jumped the gun with an acidic article
in Le Monde that says "it will be end of the European
Union" if Muslim Turkey is allowed to join. At the same
time we learn that Giscard has been in Rome to meet the
Pope where they apparently agreed between themselves that
the new European constitution should contain a reference
explicitly stating that Christianity is essential to the
historic identity of Europe.
This takes us back to a famous BBC broadcast to a
defeated Germany in 1945 by the poet T.S. Eliot. "I do
not believe", he said, and "that the culture of Europe
could survive the complete disappearance of the Christian
faith". Otherwise, one can say, what is Europe but a
peninsular of Asia? Even non-believers like me have no
trouble in seeing that much of Europe's rich literature,
art, architecture and music are grounded in the Christian
faith, not to speak of its morality, even the twisted
morality of the utopian beliefs of Marxism and Nazism
that led to the worst wars the world has ever
experienced. Indeed, what is good in Christian Europe is
breathtakingly beautiful and wonderful, not just in
artistic forms but in say the creation of Scandinavia's
national health services, Spain's lack of racism, Italy's
refusal to bear a historical grudge or the British sense
of tolerance and fair play. Yet what has been bad has
come from the same sources. The Germans (and their
Austrian cousins) are second to none in their creation
and love of all artistic forms since the days of the
Enlightenment, not least in music, but their politics has
been despicable and evil. The Germans, it should be
underlined, were influenced at the time of their worst
mistakes by nothing from outside Christian Europe.
The European Union, founded by Germany and France, was
also a Christian creation. The early engine drivers were
Christian Democrats and Socialists. This was their
inspired answer how to end future wars in Europe, by
binding the various peoples of Europe so closely that war
could never be a practical or necessary proposition.
Now the European Union can look back on half a century
of its evolution to what it is today about to become -
the broadest political and economic alliance in world
history that has developed almost unwittingly an anti-war
culture, for which the recent German election is the best
witness.
Thus Europe has changed, and in many other ways too.
It has given itself more personal freedoms, in sexual
behaviour and artistic freedom not least, and has put
such a stress on human rights that the rest of the world
finds itself almost bowled over by Europe's
enthusiasm.
Thus, as the frontiers of Europe are pushed outward in
social and economic waves, why shouldn't they be in
political matters too? Are we Europeans really so
self-consciously Christian these days that we can't take
in a neighbour if they share the same values? Turkey has
become so westernised that even its fundamentalists are
rather less fundamentalist that some of those in Western
Europe and North America- look at the important role of
women in Turkish politics. Despite the victor in last
week's election being an avowed Islamic party, it is
determined to lead a modern Turkey into a modern Europe.
The carrots which have the last few years been
substituted for the stick by the European Union have
worked wonders. Under the out going government human
rights standards have been ratcheted up and the attitude
towards Kurdish self-expression has begun to change. It
is clear from everything that Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the
victorious leader, has said that this process will be
speeded up. It will accelerate even further if European
leaders don't go around uttering the kind of anachronisms
spoken by Giscard d'Estaing. If Orthodox Greece, not so
long ago Turkey's bitter enemy, can become the first to
champion Turkish entry it shouldn't be too hard for
Catholic and Protestant Europe.
I can be reached by phone +44
7785 351172 and e-mail: JonatPower@aol.com
Copyright © 2002 By
JONATHAN POWER
Follow this
link to read about - and order - Jonathan Power's book
written for the
40th Anniversary of
Amnesty International
"Like
Water on Stone - The Story of Amnesty
International"
Tell a friend about this article
Send to:
From:
Message and your name
 
|