Erdogan’s desire to restore the Ottoman caliphate has long been clear, and now it is becoming increasingly open. This is why he never strongly opposed the Islamic State: he had hoped to incorporate its caliphate into his own. The Islamic State caliphate is gone, but Erdogan’s caliphate dreams are undimmed.
“Caliphate is Erdoğan’s, Islamist columnist says,” Ahval News, March 4, 2019 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Turkish Islamist columnist Abdurrahman Dilipak has told viewers that, having been voted in as president in 2015 and brought the country to an executive presidential system last year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has earned the title of Caliph.
The title was originally bestowed on the successors to the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, and caliphs were considered the rightful leaders of the Muslim people. Over centuries the title has been claimed by political leaders of Muslim territories, sometimes in parallel to one another. The title was claimed Ottoman Sultan Murad I in 1517 and held by his successors until after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, abolished the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924. However, Dilipak argued on fundamentalist Islamist news outlet Yeni Akit’s programme “Deep Truths”, the secular leader’s abolition of the position was not valid.
“With the advent of the presidential system, the Caliphate now rests with President Erdoğan,” Dilipak said….
David Grisez says
It is true that Recep Tayyip Erdogan has aspirations to bring back a Neo Ottoman Empire. However in today’s world the Muslims are spread all over many countries in this world. Also Muslims are very divided among themselves. So it is possible that some Muslim leader may claim the title of Caliph, and claim that he leads the caliphate, but a number of Muslims will not accept him as a Caliph. This is especially true of the Arab Muslims in Arab Nations are not likely to accept a Turkish Caliph. The main continuing problem we still have is Muslims carrying out Jihad to establish Islamic rule around this world.
Terry Gain says
No. The main continuing problem we have is Islam. Muslims must be coming to the realization that Jihad is counterproductive to their goal to rule the world. They will succeed through migration, propaganda and patience. Our only hope is to exclude them
Lilith Wept says
I do wish there was a way to do this with laws…like passing a law that removes Islam from the protection its has undear The First Amendment …..the reason
either Islam is not a religion but a totalitarian ideology with some elements of religion , but more of a political movement,
or that no “ religion” who’s core text and doctrine poses a direct threat to the security and safety of American and American citizens is allowed to be considered a legitimate religion ….
To somehow stop the spread of Islam in America by removing the tool moslems are using to spread this influence , and that’s the First Amendment.
I honestly can’t figure out any other peaceful way to stop the spread of Islam and the process of the slow Islamification of America. After all moslems aren’t going to just stop making America into an Islamic country just because we don’t want this or tell them politely to please stop.
But I don’t believe that the liberals or Moslems in America would allow us to enact laws like this. So where does this leave us? To violently stop the Islamification of America?
Moslems are here in our country, and their pouulation is growing fast thanks to the high birth rate….so unless we can figure out a way to stop the spread of Islam , then it’s a question of “when” not “if”…..the Islamification of America is inevitable.
The way I understood it is only the ruler of the moslem world, the caliph can ORDER a Jihad that is obligatory for all the world’s moslems …that other wise it’s just individuals who are obeying the command of the Koran to fight kaffir. And that if any Moslem in the world was “oppressed” by kaffir or not allowed to fully practice Islam, then the world’s moslems were should retaliate anaknats any and all kaffir, but no one could order that jihad, only a caliph
A_M_Swallow says
The separation of church and state may have to be an active law. From the First Amendment.
Muslims are using force to establish their religion, banning other religions particularly Judaism and abridging the freedom of speech by prevent criticism of Islam. It must be possible to turn a ban on those three actions by a religious group into a law. The law will have to be made water tight.
Richard says
You make a very good point, David. Around the time of World War I, the Arabs had risen in revolt against their Turkish occupiers who fought them brutally: massacring the women and children in their camps while their men were out fighting. T.E. Lawrence (“of Arabia”) convinced the Arabs to switch to use guerilla warfare and made them puppets of Britain and its allies to some extent. He has written that the Arabs could have easily driven out the Turks, but that Britain wanted the Turks to remain tied down in Arabia, draining their men and supplies that would otherwise have been used on other fronts. Regarding the article above, I am a bit confused, because I have understood that the Caliphate was started by Saladin (who was a Kurd) and was passed down to his descendants. That could be true if his line was then replaced by the later caliphs. They had a lovely system by the way. All the sons of the caliph were kept in the haram until the reigning caliph died, whereupon the eldest son succeed him and had his brothers all strangled.
gravenimage says
Yes–we could end up with duelin’ Caliphs…it’s happened before.
Diane Harvey says
Does he now get that fancy hat?
Like the ones they wear in the Three Stogies short, Malice in the Palace?
Indiana Tom says
No, he gets a Minnie Pearl hat with a price tag still on it.
Halal Bacon says
a noose around his neck would be more fashionable
Indiana Tom says
Not there yet, but he is working on it.
Rarely says
Wise move by the journalist. He’s just “paying” his life insurance premium.
gravenimage says
Most Turkish Muslims are true believers in Islam–including “journalists” there.
FYI says
Once upon an Ottoman Time…..,it was Suleiman the Magnificent…
Now,it is Erdogan the Not So Magnificent..the Malignant…
gravenimage says
Suleiman the Magnificent was pretty malignant himself…
mortimer says
“With the advent of the presidential system, the Caliphate now rests with President Erdoğan”. This is a declaration of war against the entire world.
Richard says
Absolutely. As a Muslim, he as no choice.
Ron Woodward says
Strongly agree! That’s why Islam is the problem for America!
gravenimage says
Turkey: Columnist says that Erdogan has earned the title of caliph
…………..
Erdogan has not been shy about wanting this…
Richard says
Can you blame him? Well, yes!!! But morals aside (and, brother, can they put them aside!), it would make him God’s commander in chief and the head of all Muslims on earth – although I doubt most of them would obey him. No matter: Islamic Pakistan has atomic weapons and Iran and others may have or be on the way to getting them – and they are not afraid to die.
gravenimage says
We’ve seen duelin’ Caliphs before, Richard.
elee says
Background on journalist responsible for this declaration: he’s one of Erdogan’s toadies, full of all the hatreds and scurrilities one would reasonably expect. But wait there’s more: this man actually got so nasty that even a Turkish court punished him for his violent anti-Semitism. There’s a big money judgment out there from a Turkish court, which he has never attempted to satisfy and which Erdogan’s government chooses not to enforce. An evil hateful creature who excels at focusing the evil and hatred of his culture. Oh and readers here already knew that an official of Erdogan’s Islamist party has already promised that Erdogan would be Caliph by 2023, right?
sheliak says
Someone should tell the Saudis about this.
Westman says
Yes, this is outright absurd, the equivalent of collecting all the Christian churches of the world under a Pope. We will never see Islam or Christianity under their own single banners again. That era is gone.
Someone should also alert Indonesia, with its 237 Million Muslims, that the new caliphate has arrived. Erdogan’s arrogance is seems familiar, like Benito Mussolini.
elee says
Our Saudi allies are engaged in a war with a Persian proxy force in Yemen while Erdogan makes nice with Russia and Persia. Remember, the part of the world the Muslims have subjugated is Dar-es-Salaam, the abode of peace, while countries yet to be conquered constitute Dar-al-Harb, the lands of war. Oh and if Erdogan becomes Caliph he will be exempted from the hajj to Mecca, because it is accepted as law that the Caliph is never to be at peace with the kafirs for a period exceeding a day short of a year.
Anjuli Pandavar says
“the Caliphate now rests with President Erdoğan,”
—
Angela Merkel respectfully agrees.
A_M_Swallow says
I hope we can avoid war with Turkey. It was not on my list of Middle Eastern countries to fight.
Telh says
Go for it Erdogan. You will end up like your predecessor al Baghdadi. Your ‘allah’ we be about as helpful to you as he was to him. Haven’t you noticed that he never shows up?
Brian hoff says
In south and southeast asia there where many caphic states that co exist peaceful. Indonesia and Turkey are friend. They both donot bend down to saudic arabic. In fact both Indonesia and Turkey have more economical wealth an Saudic Arabia have in GNP term.
gravenimage says
Whenever multiple Caliphs have declared themselves, Muslims have been slaughtering each other. Often they don’t even wait for that, as we can see from Syria, and Yemen, and Iraq and so many other bloody stretches of Dar-al-Islam.