On Turkish streets, local battles over Islam's role

Since those elections, secularists have been quick to provide examples of AKP-run municipalities trying to introduce Islamic "lifestyle changes," from efforts to ban alcohol sales to brochures distributed to newlyweds which claimed, "Women who don't wake up early ... and a horse that doesn't obey your commands are useless."

Metin Heper, a professor of political science at Ankara's Bilkent University, says he believes examples like these have been blown out of proportion.

"I don't think those things have been orchestrated by the AKP leadership," he says. "I think those are isolated events and when the leadership found out what happened, they tried to stop it. I don't think a capital case should be made out of it."

Adds Prof. Heper: "Unfortunately, in this country, some people think that if someone is, in one way or another, a practicing Muslim, that someone would be enthusiastic to bring back a state ruled by Islam, and that is just not true."

In a recent interview in Newsweek, Gul, who has withdrawn his presidential candidacy after it was blocked, said charges of a hidden Islamization agenda on AKP's part are false.

"We have worked harder than any party in Turkey's history to make Turkey a member of the EU," Gul told Newsweek. "Why would we do this if we are trying to Islamize Turkey?"

AKP leaders rein in local officials

In his wood-paneled office, Hasan Can, the AKP mayor of Istanbul's sprawling Umraniye district, says he believes what the opposition really fears is the party's success on the local level, going on to describe the AKP's well-oiled political machine that provides coal and food to the poor and that has in the last three years built eight cultural centers in a borough that previously had only one.

Umraniye, on Istanbul's eastern edge, is rapidly swelling with migrants from Turkey's conservative Anatolian heartland. Once filled with ramshackle homes, today Umraniye has one of Istanbul's hottest property markets, with high-rise apartment complexes now ringing the area.

"The people want a more modern life, one filled with culture," says Mr. Can. "They would like to be able to fill their stomachs and live a modern life.... That's what the AK Party is giving them."

Asked about fears that the AKP is injecting religion into its work, the mustachioed Can smiles. "I have been talking for an hour; has there been any religion in what I said?" he asks. "This is a political discourse that's not based in reality."

Still, the AKP's leadership appears to aware of the impact, at least in symbolic terms, of its party's local activity, recently warning mayors and local leaders to refrain from using religious references in their publications. It may also try to purge some of its more conservative members before the upcoming elections, say analysts.

"Until now, they have been pretty loose with the local administrations, but I think that is going to change," says Mehmet Ali Birand, a commentator for CNN Turkey.

"If one municipality does something, another one thinks it's a good idea to do it as well," he says. "It generates a momentum, and the party needs to do something to discipline them."

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