The European Court of Human Rights recently ruled that the Turkish government was justified in banning the Welfare (Refah) Party of Turkey. The Welfare Party was a political entity with Islamic ideals and views and enjoyed a large following in the country. The ruling therefore must be taken to show this European institution's prejudice against Islam.

The Welfare Party was an Islamist party dedicated to establishing an Islamic state in Turkey. This is not an undemocratic idea, since Turkey is over 98% Muslim. The Welfare Party has participated in elections and their leader, Necmittin Erbakan, was prime minister of Turkey from June 1996 to June 1997.

The Turkish Constitutional Court banned the Welfare Party in January 1998. The Virtue Party was formed as a successor party. It was banned in June 2001. The Saadet (Felicity) Party was formed as yet another successor party. It has not been banned, yet.

The Saadet Party deputy chairman, Mehmet Bekaroglu, said, "The European Court of Human Rights has disowned its own principles. This is a double standard and a political decision." He added, "The European Convention is valid only for certain countries."

Former Welfare Party MP Bulent Arinc said, "The European Court has deviated from international norms and passed a verdict designed for Turkey. This is interesting."

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Turkey had not violated Article 11 of the European Convention, which guarantees freedom of assembly and association, because the Welfare Party had declared its intention to introduce Islamic law (sharia), which is against the convention.

This is a most unusual idea. The European court is stating that their idea of democracy is a system in which 98% of the people of a country should be denied the right to vote for a party and system which represents their own culture. This is not human rights.

It is utter hypocrisy that a court calling itself a human rights court should declare that it does not recognize Islamic law. Will they soon declare that the religious laws of other peoples are also a violation of their concept of human rights?

In this Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations, when peoples are trying to come together in a spirit of mutual respect, this is a totally unacceptable action. The Europeans have voiced their approval of the ban on the Welfare Party. Will they soon advocate a ban on Virtue?

The actions of the secular Turkish government show that they are so desperate to join the European Union that they are willing to abandon their own culture and adopt the cultural norms of the West. The Turkish government has done many other treacherous things recently to prove their loyalty to the West, such as entering into an alliance with the Zionist regime and allowing NATO jets to use bases on Turkish territory to launch air raids against Iraqi civilians.

The people of Turkey will not passively accept these affronts to Islam. Many are protesting against Zionist Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's upcoming visit to Ankara, scheduled for August 8. Turkey is a devout nation whose people will not abandon Islam.