Yes, Turkey has a very strong secular component, which began with the rule of Atat?rk after WWI. He also forced the country to use the western alphabet rather than Arabic. He believed that Western secularism was responsible for the advances that we’ve seen here, and wanted to see them as well in his country.
Turkey is an odd country in this regard—the army is actually the defender of secularism there; the idea being that they are empowered to topple the government if it becomes too theocratic.
I am very much of two minds about this system, but so far it appears to have worked relatively well for them.
Peter the Great did something roughly similar in Russia, fighting against the rule of the ultra-conservative Orthodox church.
BTW, if you want to edit your former posts, you can click the “Edit” box in the upper right hand corner.
