"Turkey's Elected Islamists Fan EU Angst, Ire of Secular Leaders
Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Sheik Hafiz Kasim, with a gray, floor- length robe draped around his crossed legs, sits in front of about 100 worshippers at the Mevlevi sect's lodge in Urfa, Turkey, and prays for God to help Muslims oppressed by the U.S.
``Soviet Russia has collapsed,'' he explains after the service. ``God willing, the U.S. will disintegrate and crumble, too. The time is near.''
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has allowed groups like Kasim's, banned since the creation of the Turkish republic in 1923, to resurface, feeding criticism from opposition leaders that he is moving the country of 70 million people toward Islamic rule. Erdogan, whose Islam-influenced party won a landslide victory in 2002, says he is merely promoting religious freedom."
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