"BLOOD AND FAITH
In Turkey, a Judge's Murder
Puts Religion in Spotlight
A Teacher's Headscarf
Led to Protest, Violence;
Muslim vs. Public Life
By PHILIP SHISHKIN
March 30, 2007; Page A1
ANKARA, Turkey -- One morning last spring, a young lawyer parked his Opel car on a busy commercial street next to Turkey's top administrative court, threw a Glock handgun into his bag and went inside.
Reaching the fifth floor of the drab courthouse, Alparslan Arslan followed a tea server toward a chamber where five judges were meeting. The 28-year-old Mr. Arslan paused to look at their faces.
A few months earlier, these judges had ruled that a kindergarten teacher was rightfully denied a promotion because she wore a Muslim headscarf near the school. A covered instructor set a bad example for impressionable young students in a secular state and undermined the foundations of the Turkish Republic, the verdict said. The ruling upset many religiously conservative Turks. But it pushed Mr. Arslan over the edge."
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