I didn't know countries like this existed

Doubtless if you have been following the news, you have probably heard of the current controversy in Turkey over the election (by the parliament) of an Islamist to President. I wasn't particularly intrigued by a story of internal politics in a random country, but then I saw this article and this article. Honestly, I was dumbfounded - the miliary defending secularism rather than some sort of right-wing dictatorship? People coming out to defend "the secular republic"? With all of the news on religious fundamentalism spiralling out of control all over the world over the course of the last 20 years, I had honestly forgotten that there are places where people actually respect humanistic principles of secularism and understand the importance of preserving the modern rationalistic worldview which increasingly seems threatened.

There are still aspects to this story I am uneasy about. I don't know all the background, obviously, but I don't know if its acceptable for the military to force an apparently non-threatening, democratically elected party out of the parliament, even if it is religiously affiliated - non-secular people's religious choices should still be respected, although in a framework in which they cannot infringe on the rights of others. And in other stories I have read, the Turks seem to be quite fiercely nationalistic, which I view in almost the same light as religious fervor. Still, I applaud these people for bravely standing up for the cause of secularism, and I will be rooting for them in the coming weeks and months.