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Turks increasingly turning to Islamic “extremism”

Jun 29, 2009 1:02 am By Marisol Seibold

Tiny Minority of Extremists Alert, as still more “misunderstanders” of Islam emerge. The article provides a good account, however, of how the perceived “moderation” in Turkey is not because of Islam, but in spite of it, and due to the competing ideology of Turkish secularism. “Turks increasingly turn to Islamic extremism,” by Sebastian Rotella for the Los Angeles Times, June 28:

Reporting from London — In an audio message from a hide-out in South Asia this month, an Al Qaeda chief did something new: He sang the praises of an ethnic group that once barely registered in the network.

“We consider the Muslims in Turkey our brothers,” said Mustafa Abu Yazid, the network’s operations chief. Lauding Turkish suicide bombers killed in recent attacks near the Afghan-Pakistani border, he declared, “This is a pride and honor to the nation of Islam in Turkey, and we ask Allah to accept them amongst the martyrs.”

The message is the latest sign of the changing composition of Islamic extremism, anti-terrorism officials and experts say. The number of Turks in Al Qaeda, long dominated by Arabs, has increased notably, officials say. And militant groups dominated by Turks and Central Asians, many of whom share Turkic culture and speak a Turkic language, have emerged as allies of and alternatives to Al Qaeda in northwestern Pakistan.

“We are aware of an increasing number of Turks going to train in Pakistan,” said a senior European anti-terrorism official who asked to remain anonymous because the subject is sensitive. “This increase has taken place in the past couple of years.”

Turkey’s secular tradition and official monitoring of religious practice for years helped restrain extremism at home and in the diaspora. But the newer movements churn out Internet propaganda in Turkish as well as German, an effort to recruit among a Turkish immigrant population in Germany that numbers close to 3 million.

“We are seeing almost as much propaganda material from these Turkic groups as we are from Al Qaeda,” said Evan Kohlmann, a U.S. private consultant who works with anti-terrorism agencies around the world. “Turks were perceived as moderate with few connections to Al Qaeda central. Now Germany is dealing with this threat in a community that could be a sleeping giant.”

Germany is especially vulnerable because it has troops in Afghanistan. The threat could also intensify in other countries with Turkish populations, such as France, Belgium and the Netherlands, whose anti-terrorism agencies focus on entrenched extremism in large North African communities.

Despite Turkey’s population of more than 70 million, however, Turks were once among the smallest contingents in the network.

“I used to tell the Germans they are very lucky because you couldn’t find much radicalization among Turks,” said Zeyno Baran, a Turkish-born expert on Islam at the Hudson Institute, a think tank in Washington. “No one was paying much attention to Turks because they were considered the safe group.”

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