Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip’s recent visit to Turkey was a hailed a great success. The 82-year-old monarch won favour with the local people by describing Turkey as a ‘confident and dynamic democracy’ and praised close ties between Ankara and London. She underlined British support for the country's bid to join the European Union, showed respect for the past by visiting the tomb of modern Turkey's secularist founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in Ankara and for the present government by covering her hair when she visited an ancient mosque in Bursa and listened to a reading of verses from the Koran.

The Turkish press on the whole recounted the visit as the Queen’s second to Turkey the first having taken place thirty seven years ago in 1971. At that time too the public response was positive and excited crowds surged past protective barriers and swarmed the royal party’s open top cars. She took the opportunity to present a trophy to the winner of a horse race held in her honour back then and on this visit was surprised and pleased to discover that the Queen Elizabeth Cup Race has continued annually since then. Some members of the press speculated that this was actually her third visit a secret visit having taken place in 1961 when she apparently came on a secret mission to plead for clemency towards for some Democratic Party politicians sentenced for execution. Apparently she was turned down and left having seen no more than the airport. Despite odd rumours like this one Turkey and the UK have on the whole a cordial friendship with the UK having at times been Turkey’s only suporter for EU accession. One particular member of the Royal family, Prince Charles has come under suspicion of having his own particularly strong connection to Turkey.

In October 1996 the Evening Standard quoted the grand Mufti of Cyprus who claimed that the Prince had converted to İslam; ‘it happened in Turkey. Oh, yes, he converted all right. When you get home check on how often he travels to Turkey. You'll find that your future king is a Muslim.’ There have been various proofs offered for the conversion myth. Over and over again in the last three decades Charles has spoken to support both Muslims and İslam. İn 1989 when the İranian Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against Salman Rushdie Charles reacted to the death decree by reflecting on the positive features that Islam has to offer the spiritually empty lives of his countrymen. İn 1993 speaking at Oxford University he said; ‘Our judgement of Islam has been grossly distorted by taking the extremes to the norm. The truth is, of course, different and always more complex. My own understanding is that extremes, like the cutting off of hands, are rarely practised. The guiding principle and spirit of Islamic law, taken straight from the Qur'an, should be those of equity and compassion. Islam can teach us today a way of understanding and living in the world which Christianity itself is poorer for having lost.’

In a June 1994 television documentary he declared his preference to be known as ‘Defender of Faith’ rather than ‘Defender of the Faith’ prompting then Prime Minister John Major to comment; ‘it would be a little odd if Prince Charles was defender of faiths of which he was not a member.’ In a speech at the Foreign Office Conference Centre on December 13, 1996, he called on Islamic pedagogy and philosophy to help young Britons develop a healthier view of the world; ‘There is much we can learn from that Islamic world view in this respect. Everywhere in the world people want to learn English. But in the West, in turn, we need to be taught by Islamic teachers how to learn with our hearts, as well as our heads.’ İn 1997 the Daily Mail reported that he had set up a panel of twelve ‘wise men’ (in fact, eleven men and one woman) to advise him on Islamic religion and culture. No comparable body was established to advise him on any other faith in his future realm.

He is vice patron of the Centre for Islamic Studies at Oxford University, a center built by a $33 million Saudi gift with the stated aim of putting Islam at the heart of the British education system. In 2003 Prince Charles went to America for an eight-day tour. His mission was to persuade George W. Bush and the Americans of the merits of Islam. He has voiced private concerns over America’s confrontational approach to Muslim countries and its failure to appreciate Islam's strengths. He thinks United States has been too intolerant of the religion. Charles has travelled to Turkey repeatedly, most recently in 2005 for to mark the 90th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings and again in 2007 with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall for another four day tour.

Whether or not he has converted, which is of course strongly denied by Buckingham Palace spokesmen, he is an immensely popular figure throughout the Middle East. The Saudi’s regard him as a candid friend of the İslamic World, John Casey of Cambridge University says the Prince of Wale’s hero status in the Arab world (for his pro İslamic comments and actions) is permament and that; ‘No other Western figure commands this sort of admiration.’

Cynics claim his friendship is based on upper class hobnobbing with the Dubai polo set and others believe that the Foreign Office capitalise on his popularity and use him as a point man for British business interests in Muslim countries. John Casey commented in the Daily Telegraph that; ‘the Charles of Arabia phenomenon is here to stay, for it helps assure British commerce with the Muslim world’. Whether or not a conversion did take place in Turkey will probably never be known, Charles is unlikely to give up his claim for the British throne by making a full disclosure. He may even encourage the image of himself as a spiritual dilettante flitting from faith to faith to hide an especial leaning toward Islam.