It brings to mind the activities of the Taliban in Afghanistan or the bloody war in Algeria. But there are other alternatives. A country that seems poised to experience constitutional' Islamisation is Turkey. The first non-Western country to be modernized by its own people along Western, secular lines, it now has a government dominated by Islamists. Despite appearances, and desptie occassional armed involvement in its affairs, turkey has been relatively stable for the last 70-odd years.
Turkey knows many internal divisions.
It is simultaneously European and outward-looking, and Asian and traditional. Its landmass has great divergences in climate and geography. It records enormous regional variations in economic performance between say, the impoversihed Kurdish South-east and the lush tourist resorts of the Aegean. Its political and financial resources have also been stretched by the protracted and bitter war with the Kurds. It is further claimed that the country, straddling two continents as it does, has an identity crisis, and always has had.