The Clash of Civilisation Debate.

So across Western Europe, there are debates about whether women should be wearing the full face veil, there was a court case in Northern England regarding a woman wanting to wear the veil whenever she was in the presence of a male teacher.

There is massive debate about whether Europe should let Turkey join the European Union. This debate has two sides to it. The first side is simply that Turkey is a secular country, that is broadly supporting the West and we don’t want to push them to Islamic extremism. I find this argument slightly childish and naive….
Turkey is a relatively rich country with a long history, because it won’t be allowed into the European Union it will suddenly become an extreme country seems to be slightly simplistic. The British Muslims have lived and worked inside a western European country for many years; they first started arriving in the 1950s, yet on the streets of northern cities with large Pakistani populations the impression can be they are more radicalised than they were 20 years ago.
There is also a danger when the intellectual elite move too far away from what the people on the street think, the door is left open for extremist to enter. So should Turkey be allowed into the European Union, in short I do not know, but the debate about the EU has to be far wider, more inclusive, more honest with arguments that appeal to more than we have to support Turkey, because they are our only friend in the Middle East. We also have to look at the social problems that may occur if large numbers of Turkish immigrants begin to arrive in European cities, many of which are seeing a resurgence of rather distasteful political parties. We have to look at whether an EU can function as it continues to increase in size, without reforming.

We should also treat Turkey fairly openly and trasparently. Discuss our worries not operate a two value system, what we say to our populations internally and what we say to the Turks, this is surely the worst thing.