Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sees himself as the natural leader of the Muslim world. Last year saw published in his mouthpiece, the newspaper Yeni Safak, his plan for a pan-Islamic army that, with its huge collective armory of planes and tanks, and more than a million men under arms, would be able to attack and destroy the Jewish state. He was surprised when his plan was not applauded by other Muslims, but instead was greeted with a telling silence. Erdogan had overlooked – or more likely refused to recognize — the resentments still felt by many Muslim Arabs at their mistreatment by the Ottoman Turks.
His latest attempt to claim leadership of the Umma against Israel are seen in statements this past June by Turkish officials warning Israel against any attempt at “annexing” Jerusalem. The story, at the Jerusalem Post is here.
Turkey’s Minister of Religious Affairs Ali Erbas vowed over the weekend that “our struggle will continue until Jerusalem is completely free.”
The powerful religious scholar and voice in Turkey who is close to the country’s leadership and leading party, was speaking to an online forum of Palestinian scholars. The comments were reported in Turkish on T24 media.
He said that Jerusalem is a universal value [sic] and that “Islamic civilization has a memory of historical knowledge and values, and that it is never possible for Muslims to give up on the blessed city.” His views echo those of Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who told a recent June 10 executive committee meeting that Turkey was putting its full support behind Palestinians against Israel’s annexation. “The ummah [Islamic community] will never give up on a sovereign Palestinian state with Quds al-Sharif as its capital.”
Apparently not all the states in the Umma agree with this maximalist position by Turkey. Several Arab states – Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE – have been grateful for Israeli intelligence cooperation against a common enemy, Iran, and against the Muslim Brotherhood as well. The ambassadors of three Arab countries, the UAE, Bahrain, and Oman, attended the White House roll-out of Trump’s peace plan, which has been interpreted as a clear sign of approval. The Saudi Crown Prince has even been quoted as telling Mahmoud Abbas to stop his tantrums and accept whatever deal he can from the Americans and Israelis.
The Turkish Minister of Religious Affairs fails to recognize that the Temple Mount’s status will not change under the Trump Plan. It will remain part of the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf (a religious trust) under Jordanian custodianship, while Israeli security control will also continue.
Erbas, who is also a professor, has as his Twitter background a photo of Jerusalem, not Mecca, which shows how Turkey’s government is trying to adopt the Palestinian cause and make Jerusalem an “Islamic” cause to rally the Middle East against Israel. It is part of an increasing Islamist rhetoric coming out of Turkey, where military campaigns have been compared to “jihad” and where Turkish-backed fighters call their enemies “atheists” and “infidels.” The rising rhetoric has also begun to suggest turning Hagia Sophia, the ancient church in Istanbul, into a mosque again.
The re-islamization of Turkey by Erdogan has been demonstrated by several developments. Most important has been his promotion of the Imam Hatip schools, which began as vocational schools but now have been infused with a heavy dose of religious training. These public schools are now attended by 1.5 million students; they are lavishly funded by the state, provided with at least double the support of regular public schools. And Erdogan sees them as key to his re-islamization efforts, to create a de-kemalized “pious generation.” He has also built nearly 20,000 new mosques in Turkey so far during his tenure, adding to the 75,000 that already exist. Under Erdogan, Turkey has been building thousands of mosques overseas, as well, from Accra, Ghana (the largest mosque in West Africa) to Maryland (an Islamic complex said to be the largest of its kind in the entire Western Hemisphere), to Bishkek, Kyrgystan (the largest mosque in Central Asia). In all of these mosques abroad, the sermons are supplied by the Turkish Ministry of Religious Affairs, and are identical to those heard, at the same time, in every Turkish neighborhood, village, and city.
Another example of re-Islamization is the attempt to turn back into mosques the two great edifices, richly decorated with Byzantine paintings and frescoes, that had originally been built as churches and then, after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, became mosques, only to be turned, after Ataturk’s secular reforms, into museums. Turkey’s Supreme Court ruled in December 2019 that any structure that had once been a mosque must remain a mosque. The government has applied this ruling to the Church of St. Savior at Chora, which became a mosque – the Kariye Djami – after the Muslim conquest in 1453, but having ceased to be used as a mosque in 1948, became a museum in 1958. Now it has again become a mosque. On July 10, Erdogan announced that the Hagia Sophia, for nearly a millennium the grandest church and largest building in Christendom, had also “reverted” to its status as a mosque.
Erbas wrote on June 10 that “conquest expresses a great ideal and moral value in Islamic thought; it is a blessed struggle.” The word “struggle” here to bless the conquest of Istanbul appears to be used in the same religious context as the vow to “struggle” for Jerusalem. The secular Turkish government had once eschewed these religious goals, but the current leaders of Turkey see their cause as increasingly religious. Turkey has met with Iran and Malaysia and other countries to discuss an Islamic currency and Islamic television station over the last year.
As so often with Erdogan’s grand schemes, nothing has come of the “common Islamic currency” idea, nor is an “Islamic television station” in the offing. But it must have been fun to discuss such dreams, the same way that Muslims cheer themselves up by predicting that “Europe will be taken over by Islam by 2030.”
The comments by Turkey’s top religious official is an indication of how Turkey wants to oppose Israel’s plans for annexation. Erbas says that “those who occupy Jerusalem find courage because they see Islamic societies as scattered and weak.” This language is a reference to Israel and appears to hearken back to the period of Saladin, the Islamic leader who rallied the community against the Crusades.
Jerusalem has been a Jewish city, inhabited uninterruptedly by Jews, for more than 3,000 years. They are not “those who occupy Jerusalem,” but those who live, rather, in the city that has been identified with Jews and Judaism since 1000 B.C., when King David conquered the city and made it the capital of the Jewish kingdom. But why should Erbas care about anything that happened in the pre-Islamic period, the Jahiliyya or Time of Ignorance, to people who, the Qur’an tells him, are as Infidels “the most vile of created beings”? Erbas’s reference to the Jews finding courage from seeing Islamic communities as “scattered and weak” again brings to mind Erdogan’s earlier plan to remedy that, with a pan-Islamic army to be led by – who else? – Turkey.
The Turkish official appeared to channel the antisemitic comments that Malaysia’s leader Mahathir Mohamed is known for, accusing Israel of leading “the world to war and turmoil.” Mahathir had said in 2003 to the Organization of the Islamic Conference that “the Jews rule this world by proxy… not only are our governments divided, the Muslim ummah is also divided.”
The Turkish leadership now calls for Palestinian issues to be emphasized in education in Turkey and to strengthen the country’s connection to Al-Aqsa mosque and Jerusalem. “Our president [Erdogan] advocates the loudest for the case of Jerusalem. Turkey will always be with all Muslims from East Turkestan [Xinjiang province in China] to Palestine.” The speech didn’t appear to mention Israel, suggesting that Turkey’s officials are increasingly spreading a message denying that Israel exists, similar to the messaging that Tehran’s regime uses.
Turkey “will be with all Muslims”? Turkey is certainly not “with” the nearly 40 million Muslim Kurds in Syria, Iraq, Iran and, especially, in Turkey itself, who desire an independent Kurdistan, as was once promised the Kurds after World War I. Nor is Turkey “with” the Muslim Syrians fighting in the civil war on the side of Bashar Assad; the Turks have been steadily attacking them in Idlib Province. Nor has Erdogan, who likes to present himself as the defender of oppressed Muslims everywhere, “been with” the ten million Muslim Uighurs. He was long silent about their mistreatment: “Turkey under Erdoğan has consistently stood with the Chinese oppressors,” says Salih Hudayar, the founder and president of East Turkistan National Awakening Movement. Then, after more than a year of silence, not Erdogan, but a low-level official in February 2019 chastised China: In a statement the Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said the reintroduction of internment camps and the systematic assimilation of Uighur Turks represent “a great shame for humanity. It is no longer a secret that more than 1 million Uighur Turks incurring arbitrary arrests are subjected to torture and political brainwashing.” And that was it. Turkey said no more about any mistreatment. Worse still, when Erdogan was on a visit to China in July 2019, he said that “Turkey firmly supports the One China policy, and it’s a fact that residents of all ethnicities in China’s Xinjiang are living happily amid China’s development and prosperity.” Of course, he’s not been alone in his moral pusillanimity; other Muslim nations have also refused to complain about China’s re-education camps for Uighurs, choosing not to antagonize the Chinese whose investments they seek. But given his pose as Defender of the Faith, more had been expected of Erdogan.
mortimer says
Excellent analysis by Hugh Fitzgerald: “Erdogan had overlooked … the resentments still felt by many Muslim Arabs at their mistreatment by the Ottoman Turks.”
I believe Erdogan’s hubris and his coterie of highly-paid yes-men blind him to reality. The HATRED of Turkey still felt by Muslims of other countries is quite shocking! Turks are not welcome in most of those places.
The United States began its international military history with attacks from privateers sent out by their Ottoman bosses in Turkey. The US has every interest in undermining and helping to overthrow this primitive caveman posing as a world leader. Erdogan wants to revive those dark days.
The US should be aiding all the resistance and opposition forces within Turkey and increasing its propaganda budget to get correct information to Turkish voters about the corruption at the top.
Erdogan has intentionally spit in the face of West. He is an out-of-control loose cannon on deck who is appealing to the lowest, most ignoble and most thuggish element in Turkish society.
He is behaving like a mad dog and looks like one.
Tony Naim says
I wished the men and women running our government understood it like Mortimer.
A primitive caveman is a savage and a mad dog is a rabid dog, in either case, rationality is obsolete, treatment is futile.
Eradication is the cure.
Beverly says
I’ve been saying for quite some time that Erdogan wants to be Caliph and EU has helped him place his Army well forward.
David says
Beverly: Perhaps Erdogan would like to be chief of the ‘mythical’ EU army, which could enlist the millions of muslims living in the EU. Just a thought.
mortimer says
When Ali Erbas vowed that “our struggle will continue until Jerusalem is completely free”, he really did not mean that Jerusalem will be ‘free’. He meant the TURKEY will once more enslave and RULE OVER the ENTIRE MIDDLE EAST and the Arabs will once again become the slaves of Ottoman Turkey.
David says
Erbas probably means “our struggle will continue until Jerusalem is completely free of all Jews”
Ordinary Joe says
The dangerous fool is becoming a despot and will be remembered as one.
Mobuyus says
The re-islamization of Turkey will only lead to more islamic turkeys.
gravenimage says
🙂
Michael Copeland says
Ali Erbas speaks of “Islamic civilization”.
Excuse me?
Slavey, daughter-killing, stoning, amputations, death for leaving, no freedom of speech, no equality before the law, FGM, forced child marriage, wife-beating and more.
No.
Islamic regime, yes, but not civilisation.
Michael Copeland says
Erdogan’s Presidential Palace, built in an area that was supposed not to have any building, is the eloquent testimony to his grandiosity.
See: “Erdogan’s New Palace is the Biggest in the World”……
https://armedia.am/eng/news/12803/erdogans-new-palace-is-the-biggest-in-the-world.html
Brian Hoff says
You all are bigot. First ottoman where mostly good muslim.. So the museum is turn back into than mosque than place of player to Allah. The president of Turkey is than wise man.
Deeperinfo says
Murderous imperial islam expanding its Caliph empire through subjugation and genocide.
mohammed owned Sex Slaves. His “allah” was down with that.
The Church is not a mosque.
islam is not peaceful; it calls for murdering people.
NOT cool!
gravenimage says
*Of course* “Brian Hoff”–really, “DefenderofIslam”–considers it “bigoted” to object to his savage coreligionists slaughtering Christians and other Infidels, and using the survivors as forced child soldier slaves and as sex slaves.
And what else would he consider Muslim supremacism to be but “than wise man”?
What else would we expect from this vicious Mohammedan?
James Lincoln says
gravenimage,
Do you think that anyone as thickheaded, dimwitted, and brainwashed as Brian Hoff could be “deprogrammed” out of Islam?
gravenimage says
Let’s just say I sadly doubt it, James. He’s a good example of a dedicated Muslim–ignorant, threatening, and semi-literate.
The most chilling thing he has said is that when Muslims take over the United States that it will be easy for him to get women.
.Bridgette says
No such thing as a peaceful muslim unless he’s an apostate in which case he is NOT a muslim anymore. 109 verses at least in the koran preach to muslims to kill non muslims. Go fuck yourself.
.Bridgette says
Listen muhammad, the pres. of Turkey is a greedy power hungry murderer.
GreekEmpress says
Ottomans were mostly good Muslims? My Greek/Armenian family history says otherwise.
gravenimage says
Your family and Robert Spencer’s. as well, GreekEmpress.
James Lincoln says
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan could quite possibly be the most dangerous man in the world.
And to think that he rules a country that is part of NATO…
OLD GUY says
Erdogan is following the footsteps of Hitler and world power. Turkey should be removed from NATO and put on the terror list.