Turkey, one of the most rigidly secular Islamic states and one that would like to join the European Union, has plenty of Muslim citizens who are angry with the Prophet Muhammad cartoons.

An exerpt from the Globe and Mail story:

That the anger is felt even here in modern, West-looking Istanbul demonstrates the extent of the damage done by the caricatures that were originally printed in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten newspaper and then republished in other newspapers across Europe.

Turkey also has a determinedly secular constitution, one that forbids the mixture of religion and politics, and empowers the military to step in if the line is crossed. The ban is so strict that Emine Erdogan, the wife of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is not allowed to attend official functions because she wears a Muslim head scarf.

But Turks are nonetheless angry and offended. It's difficult to find anybody here, even among those selling drinks to tourists in the backpacker bars, who accepts the European argument that this is a freedom-of-the-press issue. Hundreds have taken part in demonstrations outside the Danish consulate and French cultural centre here.

For a country that aspires to join the European Union, Europe's seemingly insensitive response to the crisis -- the leaders of Denmark and other countries have apologized for insulting Islam, but not for publishing the caricatures -- has doubled the damage done.

As the furor grows, some Turks have started asking a question that was already percolating in Paris, Berlin and Vienna: Is there room for a country of 72 million Muslims in the secular, but predominantly Christian, European Union?

"The reason for this attack is racism. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, racist sentiment against Muslims, and in this context, Turks, soared dangerously in Europe due to al-Qaeda terror," columnist Gunduz Aktan wrote in the centre-left Radikal newspaper. "We should know that there is no place for us in such an EU."