Current discussions on the political developments in Turkey frequently frame the strugglesbetween the military and religious parties as a war between secularism and Islam and draw outincommensurable differences between the two sides. Indeed, the military establishment, whichcasts itself as the guardian of the secular republic, succeeded in 1997 in having the Supreme Courtban the Welfare Party, the first openly religious party ever to form a government in the TurkishRepublic. The generals justified this seemingly undemocratic move by claiming that that this partywas trying to reinstate the sacred shari[ayin]a law.