A Maverick Goes Mainstream

When the state security court sent Istanbul's Mayor Recep Tayyip Erdogan to jail in 1998, his pro-Islamic Virtue Party wept crocodile tears. The courts, guardians of the secular Turkish state, had been lying in wait for the charismatic Erdogan. So when he recited a well-known poem at a political rally, it was their chance to pounce. Their verdict was that quoting "minarets are our bayonets"; amounted to using religion to incite hatred — but many believe his greater crime was appealing to voters who wouldn't normally opt for a...