The Catholic archbishop of England and Wales on Thursday questioned whether Turkey, a predominantly Muslim and secular country, should join the European Union. Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, the archbishop of Westminster, is disputing Prime Minister Tony Blair's strong advocacy of Turkey's membership. "There may be another view that the mixture of cultures is not a good idea," Cardinal O'Connor said in an interview with BBC radio. Cardinal O'Connor questioned whether "a continent that, fundamentally, is Christian" would benefit from admitting a large predominantly Muslim country to the Union. "I speak also in a sense for the people of this country," 70 percent of whom say they are Christian, he said.

In related news, former Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey also expressed reservations about Turkey joining the EU. "I think the jury is still out on Turkey at the moment. I look at its record on freedom of speech and so on, what it is doing to writers in Turkey who want to speak out, and some of them are in jail," the Anglican leader said, reported AP.