Sir

I read with great interest the Commentary article “Time for enlightened moderation” by A. Rahman and A. Nasim (Nature 432, 273–274; 2004), which calls for Islamic nations to renew and reaffirm their commitment to science, in order to achieve socio-economic modernization and to combat fundamentalism, extremism and terrorism. It gives an excellent historical perspective on the relationship between science and Islam, provides accurate statistical facts and figures related to the scientific output of Islamic nations and outlines a realistic agenda for the future.

However, it misses two key elements that recent history has proven to be essential in moving forward in science: secularism and a working democracy, as exemplified by Turkey.

As the Commentary acknowledges, Turkey is the only member of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) states with universities ranking among the world's top 500, and it leads OIC states in terms of annual output of research papers, according to Thomson ISI.

Turkey's leading position among the OIC member states owes much to the reformer Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who established the modern Turkish Republic in 1923. A unique feature of modern Turkey, among OIC members, is the constitutional secularism that forms the basis of the state. This is further strengthened by a genuine democracy that has its roots in the transition to a multi-party democratic system, steered by Ismet Inönü, after the Second World War.

In addition, the Turkish Republic has given the utmost importance to university education. For example, the university reform introduced by Atatürk in 1933 was a significant step forward in the pursuit of scientific excellence, and Istanbul University became a refuge for many renowned Jewish scientists who fled Nazism in Europe. Later, the ‘university project’, led by Ihsan Dogramaci as president of the Council of Higher Education from 1981 to 1992, increased the number of Turkish universities to a level that nearly tripled the per capita figure for the OIC's inhabitants. At the same time, the establishment of university research funds and of the Technical Research Council were instrumental in increasing Turkey's output of scientific papers.

Turkey can be a role model for Islamic nations, striving to correct the false image of Islam as being linked with extremism, fundamentalism and terrorism.

Iclal Büÿükderim-Özçelik, Tayfun Özçelik UNICEF National Committee and Bilkent University, Bilkent, Ankara, 06800, Turkey