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SECULARISTS OUTFOXED IN TURKEY’S QUIET REVOLUTION
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Turkey is in the middle of a political crisis that has pitted the Islamic-rooted civilian government against the military, following reports of an alleged move by military leaders to overthrow the government.
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by Ameen Izzadeen
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Note for WoP Readers: Turkey’s current experiment i.e. a blend of modern secularist Turkey with Islam (not in religious sense but purely a politico-administrative one) is what best suits the Islamic world.
Unfortunately Islam in the beginning was given the shape of a ‘fundamental’ Islam by the Mullahs who to a major extent even use it today as an ideological weapon, for it brings ordinary Muslims to their fold. Later it were the British who with their governmental hold, intensified the religious sentiments of the mainstream to retain their grip over people who were in every regard different from them (color, creed, region, language, culture, and above everything the soil itself), so they had to strengthen divisions between different regions, different religions, different castes, and clans and that’s exactly what they did.
On demise of the Empire, Americans took over and did further havoc to our strongly religious roots (which had however, always been humane, and liberal). A major factor that has always been rife in the soil of Pakistan to accept and absorb so many faiths, so many religions, so many cultures before it came finally to the fold of Islam.
In our recent history too, we did never experience a single case of Sunni Shia murders or Islamic Madrassas creating students who would take bombs and explode these devices destroying innocent men and property, even turning their own bodies to smithereens. All this is a product of US specialists of the N.W.O., a legacy of which we are now experiencing in today’s Pakistan.
The following post by Ameen Izzadeen is an excellent sum up of what is happening in present day Turkey, but am only afraid that it may not turn up one day Turkey indeed becoming an Islamic state, yet her Islam not originating from its own roots and instead emanates from the womb of Am-Brits neo-imperialism. Should this be the case, I only visualize once they would disengage themselves from Turkish Islam, the phenomena of destabilizing the oil rich Muslim world (as it did in Iraq, in Afghanistan and is now doing in Pakistan) complete its full circle. The supra-religionists of Turkey may then start repenting one day as did our brothers in the Jamat-e-Islami of Pakistan who too aligned themselves once with the US mission of dismembering the Soviets (and who now themselves feel how mercilessly they were / have been misused against the Soviet infidels in the name of Islam).
Another aspect which irks my mind is Mr. Fethullah Gülen,the Turkic multibillionaire who is spearheading the Gülen movement. If one would believe what Sibel Edmonds says in her interviews, he is a CIA man and this has been disclosed during court proceedings in which Gülen’s application for a Green Card has been rejected on basis of the evidence produced in the court. [Nayyar]
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Ameen Izzadeen who was in Turkey last month meeting journalists, civil society leaders and political activists, reports on Turkey’s changing socio-political scenario.
Is Turkey facing a military coup? No way, says a journalist whom I met in Istanbul, Turkey’s most populous city which reminds visitors and citizens of the country’s glorious Islamic past.
During my conversation with journalists, academics, political activists and businessmen, I was shocked to hear them criticise Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey. A few years ago, none dared criticize him in public or in conversation with outsiders.
Things are changing in Turkey. History is being rewritten. Even the last Ottoman sultans whom the Kemalists — supporters of Mustafa Kemal and Turkey’s secular system — blamed for all the ills of Turkey in the early 20th century are being hailed as “good and honest leaders”. Media freedom has undergone a qualitative and quantitative change for the better. They are daring to speak now.”The army won’t be able to topple the government,” the journalist said. “If it does, it knows there will be public uprising and street protests,” he said.
“Can I quote you,” I asked him. “No problem, go ahead,” he said.
But I told him that I would not mention his name, because I did not want any harm befall him.
A highly respected leader of the Fethullah Gülen movement, which emphasizes Islam’s universal love and tries to make Islam compatible with the country’s secular order, told me that a “quiet revolution is taking place” in Turkey, hundreds years ago a superpower reverently addressed as the Great Ottoman Empire.
[Below right, Fethullah Gülen, a name shrouded in the mist of espionage (labelled a CIA man), Wealth (he is a multibillionaire), Fame (highly respected and acclaimed as a leader of Islamic renaissance in Turkey), Sufism (reported to be a follower of Bediuzzaman Said Norsi & Maulana Rumi)].
The revolution is: A government elected by the people is daring to look into the eyes of the “deep state”, which, in Turkish political terminology, means a state within a state, while more and more people are discovering their Islamic roots, which the secular elite have been trying to erase for the past 86 years.
Turkey, where democracy had been often disturbed by regular military coups since the Republic was set up in 1923, is moving towards more democracy, with the government sending a message to the military that its role as a state within the state is ending.
Very little is known about Ataturk’s family background or what his faith was. Was he a Muslim or a Donmeh, a word used for a member of a secretive Turkish society? Donmehs are the descendants of the Ottoman era Jews who, along with their leader Sabbatai Zevi, converted to Islam in 1666 and took Muslim names but secretly followed their Jewish rituals. The orthodox Jewry, however, has condemned the Donmehs as heretic because they worshipped Sabbatai Zevi as the messiah and an incarnation of God.
[Left, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk,founder of modern Turkey. Was he a Donmeh? [Donmehs are Turkish Jews who accepted Islam during Ottomans’ rule, but secretly practiced Jewism. Though they have Muslim names, they worship Sabbatai Zewi, their leader whom they consider an incarnation of God. Orthodox Jewry declared them heretic].
“It is very difficult to identify a Donmeh in today’s Turkey because they have well assimilated into Turkish society and there is no difference between a Donmeh and a highly westernized Turkish Muslim,” a journalist from Turkey’s Cihan News Agency said. But he declined to answer my question whether Ataturk was a Donmeh.
A Google search, however, produced a number of web articles on Ataturk’s alleged Jewish links.
Ataturk was an officer in the Ottoman Army. Hailing from Salonika, the birthplace of Donmehs, he was one of the commanders who defeated the British and the French forces during the Gallipoli campaign in 1915. Later, he joined the Young Turk rebellion and played a key role in the military coup that overthrew Sultan Abdul Hameed II at a time when Western powers such as Britain and Zionists had deeply penetrated into the corridors of power in Istanbul. The Zionists were particularly angry with the Sultan, for he refused to meet the father of the Zionist movement, Theodore Herzl, when he visited Istanbul in 1901. The Zionists also tried to pay him money and buy Jerusalem, which was then under Ottoman rule.
The Sultan told one of his officials, “Advise Dr. Herzl not to take any further steps in his (Zionist) project. I cannot give away even a handful of the soil of this land (Palestine) for it is not my own, it belongs to the entire Islamic nation. The Islamic nation fought jihad for the sake of this land and had watered it with their blood.
The Jews may keep their money and millions. If the Islamic Khilafah (state) is one day destroyed then they will be able to take Palestine without a price! But while I am alive, I would rather push a sword into my body than see the land of Palestine cut and given away from the Islamic State. This is something that will not be. I will not start cutting our bodies while we are alive.”
[Left, the young Sultan Abdul Hameed II: Portrayed as a vicious tyrant, Turks are rediscovering their history. ManyTurks now believe the Sultan was an honest & pious leader who became the victim of British & Zionist sinister schemes].
This part of history has failed to find its way into Turkey’s curriculum. Instead, officially recognized history books are full of blame for Sultan Abdul Hameed. They have painted him as a vicious tyrant. But senior journalists and academics whom I met during my week-long visit to Turkey say things are changing and people are beginning to see Sultan Abdul Hameed as an honest and pious leader and as a victim of the British and Zionist sinister schemes.
Ataturk later abolished the Caliphate (Sultanate) and with the help of the rival parliament in Ankara, he became the founder President of the Turkish Republic in 1923. He changed the country’s Islamic character and confined Islam to mosques. Thousands of Islamic scholars were either banished or killed. The Arabic script was replaced with the Latin alphabet — a move that made 99 percent of the Turkish population illiterate overnight. The move, however, helped the westernized elite to dominate politics and covet top positions in public administration and the military. Eighty six years after the setting up of the republic, the elite who still continue to live with their erroneous belief that Turkey belongs to them feel threatened. The signs are ominous.
During my stay in Turkey last week together with veteran Sri Lankan journalist Latheef Farook on an invitation from the Cihan News Agency, a major political upheaval was taking place after a newspaper exposed a secret military document that gave details of a plot to overthrow the civilian government led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan and discredit the popular Fethullah Gülen movement, which is regarded as the power behind Turkey’s current Islamic renaissance.
The exposé came against the backdrop of the arrest of several ex-military and civil servants last year for their alleged role in a plan to topple the democratically-elected government of Erdogan, who is the leader of the AK Party (Justice and Development Party). Erdoagan’s Islamic credentials are an anathema to the deep state, which feels it is fast losing its place in Turkish politics.
Erdogan, who, as a teenage boy, sold lemonade and sesame bread on Turkish streets before he graduated from Istanbul’s Marmara University, was a hard line Islamist. In the past, the military has toppled several Islamic-leaning governments. Former prime minister Adnan Menderes was tried in a military court and hanged. Another popular Islamic-leaning president, Turgut Ozal, died mysteriously. The official version was he died of a heart attack. But others say he was poisoned.
A controversial poem by Erdogan ruffled many feathers a few years ago and continues to hang over his administration like Damocles’ sword. Here are the first lines of that poem.
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“The mosques are our barracks
The domes our helmets
The minarets our bayonets and
The faithful our soldiers…”
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Of late, largely due to the influence of the Gülen movement, Erdogan has distanced himself from his hardline Islamic views and is taking Turkey towards more democracy in an effort to gain full membership of the European Union. His moves towards more democracy have apparently irked the secular elite, for whom more democracy means more Islam. The secularists accuse him of having a secret agenda to turn Turkey into a religious state. But Erdogan is emerging strong. He is presiding over a government that has made Turkey one of the fastest growing economies of the world.
Last month, his government dared to arrest Colonel Dursun Cicek, who allegedly signed the military document that called for the toppling of Erdogan’s government. Later, a court in Istanbul ordered his release, pending further investigations. In another move, parliament passed legislation to curb the powers of the military court in civil matters. The government said that such a measure was necessary to meet EU membership requirements.
These moves have added to the tension between Erdogan’s government and the military, the self-assumed guardian of the secularist system.
Contd…
Next: Secularists outfoxed in Turkey’s quiet revolution
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I started to read your story but I had to stop where you praise the last Sultan. How can you say that he was honest and a patriot while he sat and did nothing to stop the British Navy coming to Istanbul while Mustafa Kemal was fighting against them? Besides he didn’t started a military coup in 1919. He fought against attackers and asked for Sultan’s help which he refused and declared Mustafa Kemal an outlaw. Is this what you understand to love your country? To let invaders come and get it and stop the man who fight against them?
Excuse me Sir but all you wrote about the Turkish Republic and Mustafa Kemal are biased and doesn’t contain a bit of fact. You don’t learn the history from journalists, you learn it from the books written at that era. If you are that ignorant not to know that fact you should stop writing.
@ Stop lieing,
The views epressed in the post are those of the writer Ameen Izzadeen. Plz don’t blame him or anybody else unless you have read a post and understood what the writer actually means.
In the post Ameen Izzadeen has reported the views held by Turkey’s Islam oriented public. Whether this view is right or wrong, is another matter.
Am sorry you have tried to attribute views to our writer which he no where has expressed.
Thank you for your post.
Why Mustafa Kemal is a great leader? I am asking it in th present tense because his vision, principles and foresights still have value, valid and current.
For example the following his reasoning on abolishing the Caliphate.
The question also remains unanswered as to why he did not accept the seat of Caliph when he was offered and asked to take the position and the title [of Caliph].
Why did he not want to have this absolute power?
Mustafa Kemal….
“………I must call attention to the fact that Hodja Shukri Effendi, as well as the politicians who pushed forward his person and signature, had intended to substitute the sovereign bearing the title of Sultan or Padishah by a monarch with the title of Caliph.
The only difference was that, instead of speaking of a monarch of this or that country or nation, they now spoke of a monarch whose authority extended over a population of three hundred million souls belonging to manifold nations and dwelling in different continents of the world. Into the hands of this great monarch, whose authority was to extend over the whole of Islam, they placed as the only power that of the Turkish people, that is to say, only from 10 to 15 millions of these three hundred million subjects.
The monarch designated under the title of Caliph was to guide the affairs of these Mohamedan peoples and to secure the execution of the religious prescriptions which would best correspond to their worldly interests. He was to defend the rights of all Mohamedans and concentrate all the affairs of the Mohamedan world in his hands with effective authority.
The sovereign entitled Caliph was to maintain justice among the three hundred million Mohamedans on the terrestrial globe, to safe guard the rights of these peoples, to prevent any event that could encroach upon order and security, and confront every attack which the Mohamedans would be called upon to encounter from the side of other nations. It was to be part of his attributes to preserve by all means the welfare and spiritual development of Islam.
The absurd ideas which ignorant people like Shukri Hodja and his companions were disseminating about the actual condition prevailing in the world under the power of “religious prescriptions” with the intention of abusing our nation, are not worthy of being repeated here.
In the course of centuries there have been people and there are still people to-day inside Turkey as well as in foreign countries who profited by the ignorance and fanaticism of the nations and try to make use of religion as a tool to help them in their political plans and personal interests. The fact that there are such individuals unfortunately compels us again to go into this question.
So long as the sentiments and knowledge of mankind with regard to religious questions are not yet freed from myths and purified in the light of true science, we shall find historians everywhere who play a religious comedy. We must actually belong to those “beings who live wholly in God,” like Shukri Hodja, not to be enlightened about the absurdities of the illogical ideas and impracticable prescriptions which they sow and broadcast in all directions.
If the Caliph and Caliphate, as they maintained, were to be invested with a dignity embracing the whole of Islam, ought they not to have realised in all justice that a crushing burden would be imposed on Turkey, on her existence; her entire resources and all her forces would be placed at the disposal of the Caliph?
According to their declarations, the Caliph-Monarch would have the right of jurisdiction over all Mohamedans and all Mohamedan countries, that is to say, over China, India, Afghanistan, Persia, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Hedjas, Yemen, Assyr, Egypt, Tripolis, Tunis, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan etc.
It is well known that this Utopia has never been realised. The pamphlet itself signed by Hodja Shukri emphasises that the Mohamedan communities have always separated from one another under the influence of aims that were diametrically opposite to one another; that the Omayyads of Andalusia, the Alides of Morocco, the Fatimides of Egypt and the Abbassides of Baghdad had all created a Caliphate, that is to say, a monarchy of their own.
In Andalusia there were even communities embracing a thousand souls, each of which was “a Commander of the Faithful and a Torch of Faith.”
Would it have been logical or reasonable to pretend to be ignorant of this historic truth and to designate under the title of Caliph a ruler destined to govern all the Mohamedan States and nations, some of which were independent, while most of them were under a foreign protectorate?
Particularly the fact that a mere handful of men consisting of the population of Turkey, burdened with the anxiety of supporting such a sovereign, would it not have been the surest means for strangling this people?
Those who say: The attributes of the Caliph are not of a spiritual kind,” and the basis of the Caliphate is material strength, the temporal power of the Government,” proved thereby that for them the Caliphate was the State.
And thereby it could easily be perceived that they pursued the aim of putting at the head of the Turkish Government some personality bearing the title of Caliph.
The attempts of Hodja Shukri Effendi and his political colleagues to conceal their political designs and to represent them under the form of a religious question which concerned the entire Mohamedan world had the only result that this puppet representing the Caliphate was still more speedily swept off the stage.
I made statements everywhere that were necessary to dispel the uncertainty and anxiety of the people concerning this question of the Caliphate.
I formerly declared: “We cannot allow any person, what ever his title may be, to interfere in questions relating to the destiny, activity and independence of the new State which our nation has now erected. The nation itself watches over the preservation and independence of the State which they have created, and will continue to do so for all time.”
I gave the people to understand that neither Turkey nor the handful of men she possesses could be placed at the disposal of the Caliph so that he might fulfill the mission attributed to him, namely, to found a State comprising the whole of Islam. The Turkish nation is incapable of undertaking such an irrational mission.
For centuries our nation was guided under the influence of these erroneous ideas. But what has been the result of it? Everywhere they have lost millions of men.
“Do you know,” I asked, “how many sons of Anatolia have perished in the scorching deserts of the Yemen? Do you know the losses we have suffered in holding Syria and the Irak and Egypt and in maintaining our position in Africa? And do you see what has come out of it? Do you know?”
Those who favor the idea of placing the means at the disposal of the Caliph to brave the whole world and the power to administer the affairs of the whole of Islam must not appeal to the population of Anatolia alone but to the great Mohamedan agglomerations which are eight or ten times as rich in men.
New Turkey, the people of New Turkey, have no reason to think of anything else but their own existence and their own welfare. She has nothing more to give away to others.
To enlighten the people on still another point, I employed these expressions:
Let us accept for a moment that Turkey would take this mission upon herself and would devote herself to the aim of uniting and leading the whole Islamic world and that she would succeed in achieving this aim.
Very good, but suppose these nations whom we want to subject and administer would say to us: You have rendered great services and assistance to us for which we are thankful to you, but we want to remain independent. We do not want any body else to interfere in our independence and sovereignty. We are capable of leading and administering ourselves.
In such a case will the efforts and sacrifices made by the people of Turkey result in anything more than earning thanks and a benediction?
It is evident they intended that the people of Turkey should be sacrificed to a mere caprice, to a fancy, to a phantom. To this effect the idea of attributing functions and authority to a Caliph and a Caliphate can be comprehended.
I asked the people: Will Persia or Afganistan, which are Mohamedan States, recognize the authority of the Caliph in a single matter?
Can they do so or would they do so?
No, and this is quite justifiable, because it would be in contradiction to the independence of the State, to the sovereignty of the people.
I also warned the people by saying that “the error of looking upon ourselves as masters of the world must cease.”
Let us put an end to the catastrophes into which the people had been dragged by following those who deceive themselves and misjudge our real rank and position in the world. We cannot conscientiously permit this tragedy to continue.
The English author Wells has written an historical work which was published two years ago. The last pages of this work contain some contemplations under the heading of “History of Mankind in the Future”.
These contemplations relate to the question of the establishment by the Governments of a World League.
In this chapter Wells develops his ideas as to the form the Government of a World League would take, and speaks about the essential fundamental lines of such a State. He depicts what might become of our earth under the Government of justice and a uniform law.
Wells says: “Unless all the sovereignties amalgamate into one single sovereignty, unless a higher power than nationalities appears, the world will perish,” and he continues as follows:
The real State could not be anything but the Government of the United States of the World, which are necessarily brought together by the conditions of modern life,” and “it is certain that sooner or later, men will be compelled to unite if they do not want to succumb under the weight of their own inventions.”
He also says that, “We do not know yet exactly what must be done and what must be prevented finally to attain the realization of the great thought of human solidarity,” and that a world federation of States will only succeed with difficulty in letting those powers join whose external policy has traditionally an aggressive character.
Let me also quote the following observations made by Wells: “The joint sufferings and needs of Europe and Asia will, perhaps, to a certain degree, contribute to bring the peoples of these two continents nearer to one another,” and “it is possible that a number of individual federations will precede the World Federation.”
I will by no means deny the beauty of the idea of the “United States of the World” the establishment of which would produce the result that the experience, knowledge and conceptions of mankind at large would be developed and uplifted, that mankind would abandon Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and that a pure, spotless, simplified religion, understood by all and of a universal character, will be established, and that men will understand that they have lived hither to in a place of misery amidst disputes and ignominy, their desires and gross appetites, and that they will decide to eradicate all infectious germs which have hitherto empoisoned both body and soul.
In our midst also a conception partly equaling this plan has been formed for the purpose of satisfying the adherents of the Caliphate and a Pan Islam, on the condition, however, that it would not become
a source of difficulties for Turkey.
The theory put forward was this: “Mohamedan communities dwelling in Europe, Asia, Africa and in other regions, sooner or later in future will attain the liberty and faculty of acting according to their will and carry out their wishes.
And then, if they think it expedient and advantageous, they will find certain points of union and concord in accordance with the exigencies of the century.
Every State, every community undoubtedly has needs that could be satisfied and protected by other States and communities; the
States have reciprocal interests.
If the delegates of these hypothetical independent Mohamedan States would unite in a congress and declare that this or that relationship has been established between certain States, that a committee had been formed for the purpose of maintaining such mutual relations and securing joint action under the conditions established by these relations that the Mohamedan States united in this manner would be represented by the president of this committee, then they will, if so desired, give to these United States of Islam the title of Caliphate and to the person elected to be president of this united assembly the title of Caliph.
But neither common sense nor reason will ever admit that any individual Mohamedan State will confer on any man the authority of guiding and administering the affairs of the whole of the Mohamedan world. ……”
What I failed to understand why Ataturk as Crypto-Jew emerges in this article?
It is well known fact that his mother wanted him to be religious scholar while his father was though moderate but also a practicing Muslim.
Furthermore conspiracy theories should not be entertained in the article. You gave sources of internet which obviously cannot be taken under consideration, had there been a reference of any book, it would had put weight into this piece.
Lastly the only thing which helped Islamists to re emerge on Turkish political scenario was failure of Ataturk in economy.
The way he transformed the social & political fabrics of his country, had he done some with the economy, there would have been no way of Mullahs bouncing back in mainstream politics.
Other than deep state or more likely “Establishment”, there is another strong Kemalist wall still stand in the way of the Mullahs. the wall of Bureaucracy which has also proven stubbornly loyal to Kemalist ideology.
Lastly the failure of Secularism in Turkey will only bring ideological support to far right movements in Muslim majority nations. Result, what I see, is only destruction.
Regards