The question is raised again – by Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor:

Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, the archbishop of Westminster, took issue with Prime Minister Tony Blair’s strong advocacy of Turkish membership.

"There may be another view that the mixture of cultures is not a good idea," Murphy O’Connor said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Murphy 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.

George Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, also expressed reservations about Turkey’s 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