Erdogan’s election win – a unique interaction of religion and politics

RELIGIOUS NEWS AGENCY (REDNA) – President Erdogan of Turkey has won another five years in office in a “unique example of the interaction between religion and politics”, according to Catholic commentator and academic, Professor Ian Linden.

Writing in The Article,  he charts the way Erdogan appealed to Islamic piety and culture, convincing the rural poor and working class.

Hannah Lucinda Smith, writing in The Times, explains the way he brought Islam back into the state, by expanding religious schools, lifting the ban on the headscarf in universities and public office, encouraging new mosques to be built culminating in turning the Hagia Sophia, once a church and then a museum, into a mosque.

This was the location of his last campaign visit. Criticised over his mishandling of the economy, record on human rights and ambivalent attitude to NATO, he has none the less been congratulated on his re-election by world leaders.