I’ll cut to the chase.
Islam is an ideology that is bound together with an invented religion that is a mish mash lf pre-existing religions including paganism. Next do I call Christians Jesuits? No, I call Christians Christians because just as Christians venerate Jesus Christ so Mohammedans venerate Mohammed.
Next the history of Judaism and Christianity. Islam can’t even get that right. There’s error after error in the Koran regarding both religions and as each and every Sefer Torah is an exact copy of each other one, and has been so since waaay before Mohammed was selling camels let alone inventing Islam.
To claim therefore that it contains “errors” that have crept in is simply an excuse to explain why Mohammed got it wrong when he tried to base his book of recitation on it.
In fact each Sefer Torah actually has some characters written small due to flaws in the original Scroll that first memorialised the Pentateuch,
To claim the presence of Muslims in pre – Mohammed epochs is fallacious. Because despite claims to the contrary Islam does not resemble Judaism, and certainly does not resemble Christianity the people who predate Mohammed’s ideology most certainly were not Muslims.
In fact the only similarity between Islam and Judaism and Christianity is that Islam has plagiarised aspects and some moral teachings from both, has frequently got it wrong in the process, and passed it off as its own, much as you have attempted by plagiarising whole tracts from Wikipedia without even crediting the source.
(Wikipedia is one of the less reliable source of information on the web, and really only of value as a means of finding where to look in an orthogonal manner in order to get to the facts.)
Now Turkey.
It is true that Atatürk did establish a democratic and secular state however it is also true that the people are predominantly Muslim and so the legislation that is passed is far from having the total freedom that a TRUE democratic state can enact if for no other reason than to do so would be to deny Shar’ia.
What is also true is that Turkey is getting less and less secular day by day.
As regards the Gastarbeiter, their popularity was initially down to the Turks supporting Germany in WW1, and being cheap after WW2. In recent times “Gastarbeiter” is an insult, a thing that I learned while working for a Bundesanstalt and once referring to myself as being such. I was SOON put right!
In fact for a long time legislation was in place in Germany precluding Turkish Gastarbeiter from remaining in Germany after their work had ended, from being granted voting rights, and from having any easy way of becoming nationalised German citizens so ‘popular’ they were. Even kids born in Germany to Gastarbeiter were not granted German citizenship but instead awarded the status “Aufenthaltsberechtigung” meaning they had the right to remain in Germany until the parents returned to their homelands.
So but me no buts about Turks in Germany. I’ve been there, done it, and have several “Tee shirts”.
As for Turkey bringing the US and Iran “to the table”, until the infamous Iranian regime is deposed there should BE no table, let alone a meeting take place at one.
As for “still having a lot left to accomplish” that is precisely what causes concern. Just what Turkey would want to accomplish within the EU that the people of the EU would want. Looking at Turkey today I would say the answer is nothing. Nada. Zilch.
In any case how can an agreement that is in any way meaningful take place when one side sees compromise as surrender ,and any treaty valid only so long as it suits their needs. The existence of the “Holy Hypocrisy” involving Taqiyya and Kitman devalue any agreement based on trust alone.
Sorry Turkey, be our neighbour and leave it at that. Your interests go way beyond the interests of the EU, and in many cases run counter to being in the best interests of the EU.
Please don't disrespect and presume things about my religion without knowing anything and just reading and learning from your biased sources and ignorance. I don't want to sound hypocritical but in fact although Christians and Jesus are mentioned and respected in the Quran and in Islam, it is in fact known by Muslims that Christianity is the made up religion as the true teaching of Jesus himself were lost in the centuries as many priests from the Catholic, Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox, etc. sects changed and re-wrote the original Bible according to their own interests and views. The main purpose of the Quran was due to recollect the texts written in the Bible and the Torah in Christianity and Judaism that were lost or changed throughout the centuries. That's why Christians and Jews are called "people's of the book" and they have many similarities between each other. Yeah right, when did you become the expert on world religions? Again such disrespect, ignorance and distorted claims I don't even know when to start. Islam and the Quran explains the original texts from the Bible and Torah that were lost or changed in the centuries. I'm not gonna say anything else. No the Bible and Torah contain errors because they have been constantly changed and distorted by priests and other people who were against the messages and teachings in the original texts so they were recollected and explained in their true essence in the Quran, believe it or accept it or not, this is fact. Like I told the other guy, Islam mean "total submission to God" in Arabic and does not necessarily apply to only Muslims but even Christians and Jews. So since they all believed in one god whatever way or form they believe it in are considered "people's of the book" meaning they all believe in the same message that was declared in the original texts of the Bible, the Torah and the Quran. So all prophets including Abraham, Moses and Jesus are considered part of Islam because according to Islam's meaning they all believed in God so therefore Islam existed way before than when Prophet Muhammad declared it in 610. Again you couldn't be more wrong, Islam is very close to Judaism and resembles Christianity in some ways, in both Islam and Judaism for example, it is forbidden for the believers to eat pig products, to drink alcohol and to have sex before marriage, they both make similar pilgrimages to their holy places and etc. Wikipedia is accurate enough to summarize and explain any topic. Everyone puts stuff there but they have to cite their findings and facts so it's very accurate and whatever you or anyone searches, the first finding that comes up is wikipedia. I can find many other sources if you like but wikipedia is the quickest and fairly accurate way to show the proof for my claims and facts. Yes Turkey is up to this day predominantly Muslim (99%) but according to a recent survey conducted, only about 20-30% of Turks follow their religion and are religious. Since 1923 when Ataturk formed Turkey, this change has occurred. Only in Eastern part of the country where Kurds and some Arabs live, are this small group of religious people and some Turks in throughout the country. No that's not true either, whatever you or people might think, the current government does not have the power, goal or legality to declare Turkey an Islamic country like Iran or Saudi Arabia. In fact the current Prime Minister Erdogan's continued attempts to push for Turkey's accession into EU alone prove that he wants Turkey to continue modernizing and westernizing which has been the country's ultimate goal. Turks were invited by the German government formed after WWII to fill in the void that the German population shortage suffered due to Nazi Germany's costs of the war where about 10 million Germans died. The Turks there worked, studied and lived there and many do until today to support a nation that they didn't have to despite them being allies in WWI. Today Germany possesses about 2-4 million Turks who live there and the only reason they are being looked bad at is due to some of these German Turks being intensely nationalistic or religious and their actions and demonstrations, etc. within Germany. They do no represent all Turks. See that's where the Western world fails to understand how Iran works. I do not support Iran's current regime and do think they are a threat to everyone including Turkey but unless US and it's allies in Europe fail to work together with Iran to resolve their issues, they will not be able to stop their militaristic nature. Didn't US and Europe learn from Iraq and Afghanistan that other countries especially Muslim and countries with different ideologies and values may or do not want what the Western world's "democracy" has to offer. It does not suit every nation so unless a revolution occurs to overthrow the Islamic Iranian regime by a secular aspect of society the West will not be able to attack and defeat Iran as Russia and China support them, so if the West tries to invade and attack Iran there will be a third world war, why do you think Israel and US have not done anything regarding the issue? Turkey wants to finalize it's ultimate and historic goal of modernization and westernization and that's why they want EU accession. They want to share their own and Europe's accomplishments for mutual progresses and results. EU and Turkey are the main trading partners of each other other than US and Turkey has a large and growing successful industry, infrastructure and resources that Europe, US, etc. enjoy through trade with Turkey and vice versa for Turkey. Turkey has the 17th largest economy in the world in nominal GDP, 15th in GDP PPP and part of G20 (the highest and richest Islamic country in the world and its GDP is higher than many European nations such as Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, etc.) and their economy is a rapidly growing economy so their economic rise and trade benefits would help Europe progress more than it does right now. In military terms, Turkey is considered between 8th-10th most powerful militaries in the world, the strongest and most influential military in the Muslim world, Middle East and Central as well as Western Asia and also like their economy have a very growing and powerful military which would add to Europe's combined military power to counter growing Chinese, Russia and Indian military power in the world. Well that's not really the case, Turkey is already part of many western organizations like OECD, G20, NATO, etc. and like I mentioned earlier are a major trading and economic partner as well as an attractive market for EU. The only thing EU has to not accept Turkey into EU is that they are a Muslim country ignoring the fact that they are a secular democracy and not an Islamic country ruled by the Sharia Law. If the EU gets past it's racist, ignorant and senseless view and description of Turkey they will understand that Turkey would be a good addition into EU. No actually it doesn't. Turkey has many common goals such as making Middle East more stable, has several economic and other projects and joint interests in the area and the world.