I’ve previously argued that the success or failure of the European Union in integrating Turkey will be the crucial test of relations between Islam and the West. Not surprisingly, I was unimpressed by French ex-president Valery Giscard d’Estaing’s claim that Turkey is not a European country. This response from Peter Preston of the Guardian captures my views pretty well, in a piece reproduced by the Age.
Update Nathan Lott has a lot more on this and on the Turkish election outcome. Well worth reading.