Should Turkey be the leading muslim country?

[Banana Jelly]

Turkey, perhaps the most developed muslim country, with it's economy, secular state, developing justice system, military. Perhaps Turkey is the role model country for muslims to follow? You might say why I am calling Turkey a "Muslim country" when it's secular, but let's just call it that for the sake of this thread (97% muslim country).

Anyone agree/disagree? If so can you post your opinion please?

Edit: Oh and for the sake of the debate, I am not saying Turkey should be the leader of the "muslim world" or muslim countries, but I am saying should it be an example.

[roy34543]

Im not too sure the other muslim countries would be happy about that.
About as happy as any european would be saying that america is the leader of the free world.

[elusivecorn]

About as happy as any european would be saying that america is the leader of the free world.

Yeah just because it makes them doesn't mean that it ain't true =P

America is the leader of the free world.

Along with our trusty sidekicks Australia and Britain who have followed us into pretty much every military engagement post WW2

Hell, even Vietnam

[Their Law]

Yeah just because it makes them doesn't mean that it ain't true =P

America is the leader of the free world.

Along with our trusty sidekicks Australia and Britain who have followed us into pretty much every military engagement post WW2

Hell, even Vietnam

I think whatever claim the US had to leader of the free world was removed under the tenure of the Bush presidency.

[elusivecorn]

I think whatever claim the US had to leader of the free world was removed under the tenure of the Bush presidency.

Just because we've had some slip ups, doesn't mean we lose our spot.

Out of all the countries in the world, which one is more free than us?

Bush was a good president, until he decided to support the bailout.

Hopefully we will make it through Obama, get our employment rate back down, and get back on the right track.

Every country has her ups and downs, but Americans are the most patriotic and freedom loving people on the face of the planet.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Yosemite]

Just because we've had some slip ups, doesn't mean we lose our spot.

Out of all the countries in the world, which one is more free than us?

what's next

the air in the USA is more free than in the rest of the world?

[CiviC]

Out of all the countries in the world, which one is more free than us?

Lots of countries. US is 18th in democracy index for example, 13th in human development index, etc.

Why is that war named 'independence war'?

Logically it would be "independence from occupying powers at the end of WWI", like UK, France and Italy. But as far as I understand, Turkish nationalists even claim that Turkey declared independence from Ottoman Empire too, making Turkey the sole country in the world that declared independence from herself.

[Zhangir]

I voted Yes

Turkey historically was the leading nation among the Muslim world, and its successful development (relative) so far has been nothing but an example to certain states.

[Banana Jelly]

I hoped we would not get tangled up by which Muslim countries would like this, because this is just a theoretical thread. It's not going to come true. Sure other countries might become mad, but the truth would be the truth, and if other countries are jeolous/mad then they should try to "fix" there country and lead it better. Were not saying other countries are inferior, just that as a country that is most developed, it should be using itself as a role model for other countries to become developed.

[roy34543]

I hoped we would not get tangled up by which Muslim countries would like this, because this is just a theoretical thread. It's not going to come true. Sure other countries might become mad, but the truth would be the truth, and if other countries are jeolous/mad then they should try to "fix" there country and lead it better. Were not saying other countries are inferior, just that as a country that is most developed, it should be using itself as a role model for other countries to become developed.

You cant be a "leader" if no other country acknowledges it.
You can be the leading country even if noone else acknewlodges it, but thats not the same.Anyway ,the UAE is by far the richest country in terms of its citizens, Sure they basically throw money away on useless crap, but they can basically afford to throw free money at all their citizens. If thats not success then i dont know what is.

[Banana Jelly]

You cant be a "leader" if no other country acknowledges it.
You can be the leading country even if noone else acknewlodges it, but thats not the same.Anyway ,the UAE is by far the richest country in terms of its citizens, Sure they basically throw money away on useless crap, but they can basically afford to throw free money at all their citizens. If thats not success then i dont know what is.

Lol, mostly what I meant by this thread, not that other countries would recognize it that way though, just saying within the fact's we have now, which would be deemed as a leading country. UAE is in fact rich, but there military/justice system/religious tolerace (secular state) needs improving. UAE isn't a secular country, which means a little bit more religious oppression?

[roy34543]

Lol, mostly what I meant by this thread, not that other countries would recognize it that way though, just saying within the fact's we have now, which would be deemed as a leading country. UAE is in fact rich, but there military/justice system/religious tolerace (secular state) needs improving. UAE isn't a secular country, which means a little bit more religious oppression?

True but ethical concerns are all relative, some may see secularism as a form of weakness and some say that a lack of religion in legaslation and public life is just as restrictive as the abundance of it.
But you cant really argue with money.

[Banana Jelly]

True but ethical concerns are all relative, some may see secularism as a form of weakness and some say that a lack of religion in legaslation and public life is just as restrictive as the abundance of it.
But you cant really argue with money.

Secularism at the same time though in my opinion increases literacy/science/knowledge country-wide. The establishment of a religion in a country would just interfere with science. I am not an atheist, but I still have concerns over the free speech problems that most religion established countries have. Which would be a problem with modern countries. To be "developed" in the modern world, you have to let ideas free. Some religion established countries may limit that. Turkeys literacy rate is in-fact higher then UAE's, with a larger population size, that is quite a good rate.

Economy wise, UAE dominates the muslim world. There GDP per capita is top 20, but there growth, as Turkey are in the negatives, and isn't still looking any good in the future. UAE has a better employment rate as well.

But let's now talk about military. The Arab's have under-trained/untrained soldiers, which most have never fought before. Turkey is the un-disputed country with one of the best armies so far. Really no arguing with that.

[Exarch]

first of all, some arabs might not like th idea of turkish hegemony again;
pan arabism/islam might be served better with say....an more islamic friendly israel as its heart

[The Noble Lord]

You cant be a "leader" if no other country acknowledges it.

Correct, and in this case it's really impossible to envision Turkey as the leader of the Muslim world simply because Arabs, Persians, Pakistanis, Indonesians and other Muslim countries and nations would not accept it! Heck, even Turkic countries of Central Asia would not go for it. Maybe countries like Albania, Azerbaijan, and Muslim-Croat Federation would go for it but they hardly represent the opinion, intention and desire of the entire Muslim world!

[CiviC]

There is no leading "Christian" country, why should be a Muslim one?

[Tiberios]

There is no leading "Christian" country, why should be a Muslim one?

This.

[Heavy Weapons Guy]

USA is only leader of corrupted world.

[Yosemite]

There is no leading "Christian" country, why should be a Muslim one?

indeed

should be middle east "leader"

[Caliph]

Turkey should be an example of how Muslim states can be as democratic as many Western countries.

The influence of Turks in the Arabic world is increasing though. Not politically, but culturally. More and more Turkish TV series are being exported to Middle Eastern countries

Turkey is getting nothing but praise in the arabic world as of late, mainly because of the growing influence of Iran and maybe secondly because of Turkey's changing stance towards the israeli-palestinian conflict... The channel launched in arabic by the turkish government is so far a success too.

though I'm not sure if they cut out the sex scenes.

They do

The muslim world is far too fragmented to be led singularly by Turkey or anyone else for that matter. Any sort of unity must be done in a co-operative sipirt for it to work, with the strongest politically, Turkey as it is, taking a leadership role - any sort of direct control on weaker states will fail miserably. There is a lot of room for co-opeative work between majority muslim states, such as fine-tuning an islamic banking system between the states, which just concluded a meeting in Azerbaijan. They have really great goals for the member states, though I'm unsure if they're achievable. Here in Bahrain, we have the AAOIFI (Accounting & Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions) HQ, which is working extensively with the Malaysia, a country we have nothing in common with except Islam; which I find to be a great example of how a co-operative setting would work best instead of a purely political hegemony.