Bush: Turkey proves Islam and democracy compatible

"Our determination for democracy has been tested in the Middle East. This issue should be the main focus of U.S. foreign policy in future decades," said Bush.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul’s speech at the meeting of the Organisation for Islamic Conference (OIC) in Malaysia the previous month was on the U.S. House of Representatives’ agenda last week.

According to diplomatic sources, Democrat Party member Alcee Hastings contrasted Gul’s speech with the one by former Malaysian prime minister Muhammed Mahathir at the OIC meeting.

Hastings presented Gul’s speech at the House of Representatives last week, saying the speech was overshadowed by Mahathir’s remarks.

The former Malaysian prime minister made a clearly anti-semitic speech getting a lot of attention from the world’s news media at the OIC meeting.

Hastings said they condemned Mahathir’s speech which included rude and irrealistic expressions against Israel.

Instead of Mahathir’s notes, the speech of another Muslim leader, Abdullah Gul should have been focused on, Hastings said praising Gul’s speech for being more tolerant and long-sighted.

Gul claimed in his speech that Islam and modernization was compatible, pointing to Turkish experience as a model in this sense.

He noted his government’s recent success in passing EU reforms, "At first sight this was perceived as contradictory by many people; a political party based on traditional values has started a campaign of a series of economic and political reforms. However this is no contradiction since we believe that a Muslim society could transform and improve itself while protecting its own values and identity."

Turkey’s Parliament has pushed through in recent months a series of democratic reforms in a bid to increase its chances of joining the EU which Turkey perceives an important step in its 80 year process of modernization.