He had a strong belief in God, sometimes to the point of upsetting more secular constituencies.
His estimation of the Salafists' popularity was undoubtedly overstated, but more secular constituencies seemed taken aback by the size of the rally.
He has consistently alientated the ultra-Orthodox -- an essential building block of any right-wing dream coalition -- by demanding civil-marriage and modified Jewish conversion legislation favored by Lieberman's ultra-secular constituency.
They are a byproduct of a strong military tradition which protected the interests of the secular-nationalist constituency.
Now the leaders of popular uprisings in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere face the challenging task of protecting hard-won freedoms in the face of diverse demands from political, regional, secular and religious constituencies.
He is an observant Jew serving a largely secular and non-Jewish constituency, something that official Jewish law has dealt with only informally.
The sudden assent of Islamic-democracies in post-authoritarian states in the Middle East has engendered a sense of urgency within secular, liberal, and nationalist constituencies in Turkey.
These reforms must address the underlying cause of unrest in Turkey, that is, the AKP's monopoly over political power and the inability of the political opposition to represent the interests of secular, nationalist, and liberal constituencies in parliament.
Left unprotected against the will of the majority, from behind their barricades in Taksim and in front of the Parliament in Ankara, secular, liberal, and nationalist constituencies are crying out for representation, for a say in the determination of Turkey's future.
