The Turkish prime minister would find a soulmate in Nabil Bebawi. From TurkishPress.com, with thanks to Nicolei:
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan said that terrorism did not have any religion, language, race or country.
The expression ”moderate Islam” was also wrong, Erdogan stated.
Erdogan said, ”Turkey is not a country where moderate Islam prevails.” …
Reacting to the expression ”moderate Islam” used by panelist Harmon, Erdogan said, ”Turkey is not a country where moderate Islam prevails. This expression is wrong. The word Islam is uninflected, it is only Islam. When you say moderate Islam, then there will be another alternative like nonmoderate Islam. As a Muslim, I can’t accept such a concept. Islam rejects extreme concepts. I am not an extreme Muslim.”
Fair enough, Erdogan. I use “radical” and “moderate” to denote those who pursue violent jihad and those who do not, but I acknowledge that both groups read out of the same books. Yet I too have read those books, and I don’t see how they teach peace and tolerance, even though you seem to be insisting that the rest of the world assume that they do.
Reacting to panelist Bernard Lewis, who used the expression ”Islamic terrorism”, Erdogan said, ”this expression will sadden not only the Muslims but also those who believe in other religions. None of the religions allows terrorism. Therefore, it is very ugly to put the word Islam before terrorism. You may say religious terrorist but you can’t say Islamic terrorist.”
I’d like to see how Erdogan would explain the copious references to the Qur’an and Sunnah in the writings of Osama and other radical Muslims. They themselves quite explicitly operate in the name of Islam. The PM seems to be zealous not to combat their version of Islam, but only to make sure that the rest of the world doesn’t commit the faux pas of noticing their use of Islam to justify terrorism.