secularism in turkey

After browsing around on Wikipedia and other websites, I found out quite a bit of information about Turkey (and read quite a bit that I already knew). One of the more interesting things I found was an article on Wikipedia about the issue of secularism in Turkey.

An overwhelming majority of the Turkish population is Islamic (something like 99%) but the nation has no official religion. Therefore, Turkey is a secular state which prohibits the integration of religion in politics. Nevertheless, there have been many accusations throughout the past century that the Turkish government has been following an Islamic agenda. Several political parties have even been shut down after being suspected of fundamentalist activities. Most recently, the Virtue Party was shut down in 2001 by the Turkish Constitutional Court for Islamic activities and attempts to "redefine the secular nature of the republic".

The constitutional rule that prohibits discrimination on religious grounds is taken very seriously in Turkey, according to this Wikipedia article. One thing that really struck me was the fact that it is considered illegal for men or women to wear religious headcoverings and theo-political symbolic garments in government buildings, schools, and universities. I think that this is a pretty strong statement in the name of secularism, because even in the U.S. we allow people to wear their religious head coverings wherever and whenever you want. Ironically though, the Identity document cards of Turkish citizens must include the specification of the card holder's religion. This is obviously a symbol that the Turkish government is not entirely secular.