The Fatal Glass of Beer

Much to the consternation of the Turkish secular establishment (is that anything like our liberal establishment?), the Turkish government, now completely under the control of the Muslim party, is allowing Muslim women to wear head scarves in universities (equivalent to the hijab). Liberal opinion in the West is of course hailing this as a triumph of democracy over the autocracy of the secularists, likening it to Jewish boys wearing yarmulkes, or Sikhs wearing turbans, to a public school in the US. Some things to consider on this argument:

• Jews and Sikhs are tiny minorities in Western countries; the possibility that their wearing religious symbols to class will be the foot-in-the door in imposing their religions on others is nil.
• US liberals are obsessed with stamping out all Judeo-Christian religious symbols in American public schools, to ensure secularism (in the interest of "diversity", naturally, they don't have any objections to the "other" displaying their religious or cultural symbols; to the contrary, they encourage such displays). But for the Turkish secularists, of course, it would be "undemocratic" to deny the Muslim majority the right to flaunt Islam in a Muslim MAJORITY (90% of the population) country, in order to safeguard strict secularism and the right of minorities not to be stigmatized. A double standard there?
• Just maybe, the Turkish secularists, through a long and painful history, know something that western liberals do not: That Islam is an aggressive, "conquering", religion and that Muslim believers, in an overwhelmingly Muslim country, will not stop at this first "request" for indulgence of their religion. Indeed, this would be The Fatal Glass of Beer that you must never give an alcoholic.

Islam is a religion for addicts. Don’t give them that first drink... not in Turkey... and NOT IN AMERICA!