The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood movement accused the European Court of Human Rights on Thursday of bias against Muslims for backing Turkey over its decision to outlaw an Islamist party, said reports.
"Europe has revealed its extreme hatred and hostility towards Islamists and Muslims," said the brotherhood, which is banned but partly tolerated in Egypt, in a statement, cited by AFP.
The European Court of Human Rights has upheld Turkey's decision to ban an Islamist party because it allegedly violated the country's secularist principles.
The Refah (Welfare) Party, which became Turkey's single largest party in a 1995 general election, and three of its former leaders, had argued that Ankara's decision to ban it in 1998 contravened the European Human Rights convention.
Necmettin Erbakan, a former prime minister and Refah Party head, and two other former Refah leaders, Sevket Kazan and Ahmet Tekdal, had also contested the decision by Turkey's Constitutional Council to remove them from Parliament and ban them from political life for five years.
But the European Court judges on Tuesday voted four to three in favor of rejecting the case, saying the ban was acceptable under Article 11 of the Human Rights convention, which enshrines the right to assembly and expression so long as this does not endanger the fundamental interests of a democratic society.
"The sanctions imposed on the claimants can reasonably be considered as responding to an imperative social need for the protection of the democratic society," the judges said in a written ruling, Reuters reported.
"The idea that a theocratic regime might be established is not completely without foundation in Turkey."
The decision represents a rare win for the Turkish government, which is regularly slammed in human rights cases.
Refah, which was outlawed on the grounds that its leaders sought to institute Islamic law and lift a ban on the wearing of head scarves by women students and civil servants, can appeal the decision.
Kazan called the verdict a surprise and said he and Tekdal would appeal.
"In the past, the European Court used as a guideline the question of involvement in violence, but now even suspicions are considered enough to close a party," the Associated Press quoted Kazan as saying.
Turkish Islamists said the verdict violated principles of free speech that the European Court was supposed to uphold.
Seref Malkoc, a former Refah Party lawmaker who is now an independent member of Parliament in Ankara told AP: "Europe has trampled on its own principles."
The European court said the Refah Party under Erbakan wanted to institutionalize Islamic law, which it said "was in marked contrast to the values embodied in the (European) Convention."
The Islamic movement reached its height in 1996 when Erbakan became prime minister in a coalition government.
That coalition fell after just a year in office under heavy pressure from Turkey's powerful army.
Ilter Turan, professor of political science at Istanbul's Bilgi University, said the court's verdict could mark the end of Erbakan's political career.
The Islamist-based party that followed the Refah Party, the Virtue Party, recently ran into a government measure effectively banning its activities – Albawaba.com
The Strasbourg court ruled on Tuesday that the Turkish government's decision to outlaw the Islamist Welfare Party did not violate human rights.
"The Muslim Brotherhood considers the ruling to be a simple expression of Europe's bias against Muslims and their right to legislation under the tolerant Islamic law," the statement said.
The court said some of the values advocated by Welfare Party leaders, such as planning to introduce Islamic law and legitimising a holy war to achieve religious ends, were not compatible with the European rights convention
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
