As a Predominantly muslim country, should Turkey be allowed to join the EU?

Question

I was reading the Catholic Times today and saw an article that stated that the Pope does not believe that Turkey should be allowed to join the E.U. based upon the fact that it is a Muslim country and the EU is predominantly Christian. There are plenty of reasons why Turkey shouldn't join the EU but I do not believe that discrimination based on faith is one. What does everyone else think?

Answer 1

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer...

Answer 2

Turkey being Muslim is not the issue. The issue is that the Turkish people have voted [against their tradition] for a Muslim let political party which may at some stage turn Turkey into a Muslim state as opposed to the present non-religious state, a republic, created by Atta Turk. There is also the problem of certain writers in Turkey being taken to court for criticising the government and people of Turkey. This is seen as undemocratic in Europe. To join, the Turks must make considerable changes to the way in which they do things and must stop arresting people who do not agree with the government.

Answer 3

Turkey should not be accepted into the EU - at the moment. Religion is not and should not be a matter for the European Union, it is purely an economic and political union. And we all know what happens when politics and religion are combine *cough Bush cough*

Turkey is at the moment fairly unbalanced in terms of economic capability and distribution, most economic activity is in the west or coastly regions. Human Rights must also be addressed as do the issues of the Kurds and the lack of recognition of the South Cypriot government.

Religion, Ethnicity or Culture is not a barrier to becoming a member of the EU. Geography, poltical and economic instability are.

Answer 4

I don't believe that the EU should exist. So, it is a difficult one for me to answer. The main problem for western democracies, and viewed from their perspective, is that Islam is more than a religion, it represents an indivisible construct of Faith, Politics, Culture, a whole secular way of life. It's adherents will not compromise any of these components, making integration with other countries virtually impossible. I think that we are seeing this already.

Answer 5

Modern Turkey is a good nation. Joining EU shouldnt be about religion. Its about Union of countries with high moral standards, human values, and most importantly responsibility, Turkey lacks some of them thats why they are having hard time joining EU.
They dont have freedom of speech, not even for the facts or history. More than 80 writers, journalist and historians have been convicted for "insulting turkishness". One one the most famous is Ohran Pamuk for mentioning the Armenian Genocide while being interviewed in 2005 by a Swedish journalist. Charges were later dropped because of international pressure on Turkey. Ohran Pamuk recieved Noble Prize for literature last week. He deserved it! If you say anything in turkey that "insults" turkey you will be prosecuted and jailed. I wonder whats the big deal that France passed a bill making it a crime deial of Armenian Genocide same thing as denial of Jew holocaust. Turkish government was in uproar even though they have the same bill for years.
In order for Turkey to join EU they need to change the radical governmet, accept responsibility like a man.

Answer 6

I agree that there are many reasons why Turkey should not be allowed to join the EU and that faith should certainly not be an issue. There are a few countries that are being brought into the EU, such as Romania, that have appauling human rights records, terrible welfare provision and immense poverty and debt (mainly to the EU...) but if our gates are open to such countries then why not to Turkey?

The Pope is a professional bigot. He should be banned from the EU.

Answer 7

i became below the impression that the ecu became a grouping especially for financial motives for the enhance of all the member international locations, so i won't rather see what relevance a rustic's faith has to do with something, rather as there are 1000's and 1000's of Turkish human beings residing and working throughout Europe. So confident, i could consider you, rather i think of that if Turkey is excluded because of the fact of religion it may be the worst style of discrimination.

Answer 8

No, they should not be allowed to join the EU. But this has nothing to do with their religion. First, the Turks are not Europeans; and second, except for one little tiny piece of land, Turkey is not part of the European Continent. Turkey's main land mass is Asia Minor not Europe.

Answer 9

Yes they should, and at the same time we should come out of the E.U. and let some other poor baxsted put up with with all the red tape.

Answer 10

No, I don't think they should be allowed to join. We have seen the trouble which Islamic countries have caused all over the world, and the prospect of having one as part of the EU horrifies me. All the other countries in the Union are either Christian or secular and it works well, but having an Islamic country in the Union would cause a lot of problems in my opinion as such countries have nothing in common with us either culturally or spiritually.

Answer 11

Yet again, the Pope is a dope...

Whether or not the EU is "predominantly Christian" is entirely coincidental. It stands for the European Union and if the EU decides that Turkey is European, then it's up to them to allow their membership. Why the Pope thinks anyone would give a crap about his opinion on the matter is beyond me.