Adrian Hamilton: When wearing the veil is a progressive act - Independent Online Edition > Adrian Hamilton

Trust the Turks to pose an ever-pressing problem for Europe - and
for themselves. Just as the French presidentials have thrown up the
possibility of an occupant of the Elysée Palace, Nicolas
Sarkozy, strongly opposed to Turkey’s membership of the European Union,
the Turks have produced a presidential crisis of their own which, on
the face of it, would confirm all Europe’s worst fears of an Islamist
state besieging their secular portals.

It’s a row that is peculiarly Turkish - whether an avowedly Islamic
politician can head a fiercely secular state - but also has much wider
implications as to whether Europe is right to regard Muslim movements
as essentially regressive and whether, indeed, we should be hastening
or stopping altogether Turkey’s negotiations to join the EU.