ABSTRACT
Secularism or the laicist policies ofthe Turkish Republic did not emerge through a sudden need to convert Turkish citizens to nationalism. Turkey is one of the very first Muslim countries that encountered the modem west and its civilization and that attempted to respond to the challenges posed by the Western power and civilization. The questions surrounding these challenges, how to respond to them, preventing the collapse of the Ottoman State, modernization and transplantation of western institutions have always been on the agenda ofthe Turkish intellectuals.
