Weekend reading tips

Here are some fresh reading tips for those wanting to catch up and reflect on Turkey, the EU, Europe and Islam:

James Traub has an extensive biographical sketch of Turkey's Foreign Minister, Ahmed Davutoğlu, in the New York Times Magazine. He ties the FM's visions and personality to broader issue of the orientation of Turkish foreign policy.

On January 6 & 7, the Harvard International Review published an online feature on Turkey, Europe, and Islam. Among others, the issue contains a piece entitled "Europe was yesterday" by Mabel Berezi of Cornell University, which echoes my concerns about the inward direction taken across the European continent. In Berezi's words:

The current European mood is undeniably national and is eerily backward, rather than forward, looking.

The feature also includes an examination of Turkey-EU relations by Bahrı Yılmaz of Sabancı University and a piece on Turkey and European identity by Dimitris Keridis and Constantine Arvanitopoulos (Panteion University, Athens and University of Macedonia, respectively). Jan Rath of University of Amsterdam debates multiculturalism and Raphaël Liogier shows how Islam has become a "scapegoat for Europe's decadence."

I'm hoping to post a commentary on these articles, but that will have to wait until another day. Perhaps then I will be joined in a discussion by any readers who will then also have read and thought about some of them, too.