Sri Sri Ravi Shankar seems to be one of India's biggest export products these days. His popularity already being huge in India itself, many positive reports in several (above all American) media outlets make the guru hugely popular world wide. His popularity reminds us of other best seller gurus before him, like Maharishi or Osho. But these examples in turn remind us perhaps that we should be cautious when it comes to multi-millionaire gurus.
It is a general tendency these days to regard Turkey as the best or the only example of a secular Islamic country. In technical political terms this might be true. But to think that this means that Turkey is the only country where a moderate Islam is the mainstream, or where a predominantly Muslim society searches for ways to enlarge 'democratic' values, is far from correct.