Also, there's plenty of room for debate: In this part of the world, the term "secular" means very different things to different people.
To many Muslims, secular means godless and wayward.If the demonstrators were to topple the government, they could draw on capable technocrats to form an interim administration.
Much art made by Muslims is and always has been secular, meant to be admired for its craftsmanship and contemplated for its intellectual and sensuous, as well as spiritual, stimulation.
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is a journalist and a founder of British Muslims for Secular Democracy To me, secularism means more than simply living a life without religion.
"Does seeking an independent, democratic university structure and secular education mean you favor military coups?" Prof. Aysel Celikel, deputy director of the education association, said at the funeral, which was broadcast live.
Two out of three students from the secular institutions (mean) thought that humans have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years without God's intervention, but almost three out of four students from the religious institution believed that God guided this process (choices A and B, Fig. 10).
True enough (if by "secular" you mean "without any reference to God"), but the rub for many who identify as conservatives, I think, is that for them, secularism only comes in one flavor: liberal.
And the few who do know what a secular state means are terrified to advocate for it because there is the threat of Salafist extremists.
"By spiritual or non-secular I mean a belief system which goes beyond that which can be perceived by the senses or ascertained by the application of science.
But terrorism should not turn liberals into simple-minded missionaries; being a secular liberal means accepting that the world is a difficult place.
