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Why so many Turks are losing faith in Islam

April 17, 2018 By administrator

 

Turks are losing faith in Islam

Turks are losing faith in Islam

Mustafa Akyol,

On April 10, at the Turkish parliament in Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did something unusual during his usual weekly address to the deputies of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). He suddenly paused during his address and called the national education minister, Ismet Yilmaz, to the podium. The two men then murmured for about half a minute in front of the huge audience. Muted microphones did not catch the whole conversation, but the minister was heard speaking about “the report on deism” and “the thoughts of our youth about this.” “No,” Erdogan was heard saying in a definitive tone. “That is wrong.”

The report in question, which was discussed at a workshop by the Ministry of Education branch in Konya, a conservative Anatolian town, had made the news in early April. Titled “The Youth is Sliding to Deism,” the document shared surprising observations about the very young people that Turkish society often expects to be the most religious: the students of the state-sponsored religious “imam hatip” schools. The report says that because archaic interpretations of Islam cannot persuade the new generation on issues such as the “problem of evil” (why God allows evil to take place), some imam hatip students have begun questioning the faith. Instead of adopting atheism, the report added, these post-Islamic youths embrace the milder alternative: “deism,” or the belief in God but without religion.

The report surprised and also angered Turkey’s conservative establishment. Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the Nationalist Action Party, which is supposed to be an opposition party but has lately become a staunch Erdogan ally, lashed out against those who prepared the report, for “putting on the Turkish youth the stain of deism, which is one stop before atheism.” A few days later, Turkey’s top cleric, the head of the Directorate of Religious Affairs, also spoke on the deism controversy. Explaining that the term implies “a philosophy that denies prophethood,” the theologian hopefully added that once they really understand what deism is, “no member of [the] nation will accept such a deviant thought.”

In fact, the deism controversy has been on Turkey’s agenda even before these recent outbursts by prominent figures. One of the first intellectuals to draw attention to this issue was Mustafa Ozturk, a progressive Islamic theologian who writes a column in the daily Karar. In an April 2017 piece titled “The Footsteps of Deism,” Ozturk argued that despite the conviction among religious conservatives that they are in the midst of a golden age, something very fundamental is slipping out of their hands, as “the new generations are getting indifferent, even distant, to the Islamic worldview.” Most of the people who claim to represent Islam in Turkey offer a very archaic, dogmatic notion of religion, Ozturk explained, and this leads to secularization among the more cosmopolitan, questioning youths.

Since then, the erosion of Islam among young people has been an oft-repeated theme in the Turkish public sphere. At a conference in March, a conservative academic at Istanbul’s Medeniyet University said he has students who wear the Islamic headscarf because of their family environment, but “who confess in private that they are not even deists but atheists.” In the past several months, dozens of articles in the press discussed the “deism plague,” and even TV shows highlighted the issue. Yet there is no data on how many Turks have abandoned Islam to jump on the “deism” bandwagon, though plenty of anecdotal evidence suggests that this is no imaginary matter.

The most interesting question is why so many Turks are losing their faith, especially at a time when Islam seems more ascendant than ever. Answers vary, especially according to political stance.

For the staunch supporters of the government, deism seems to be just one of the many conspiracies that Western powers have cooked up against the glorious Turkish nation. Yusuf Kaplan, a columnist for the pro-government daily Yeni Safak, said deism was spreading among the children of conservative families, while the children of more secular families were going for the more radical edge: atheism. The underlying reason, according to Kaplan, was the hedonistic, materialistic and degenerate culture coming from the West. Turkey had to stand up to this cultural erosion by further Islamizing its education and media, or else “the imperialists could occupy the country, mentally, from within.”

For other Turkish commentators, however, the real reason for the loss of faith in Islam is not the West but Turkey itself: It is a reaction to all the corruption, arrogance, narrow-mindedness, bigotry, cruelty and crudeness displayed in the name of Islam.

This view is often supported by opposition voices, but even some reasonable pro-government voices in the media have given it a thought. One such voice is Kemal Ozturk, another columnist for Yeni Safak, who wrote that the rise of deism in Turkey is an unmistakable fact “observed by anyone who follows society.” He added that the religious conservatives who explain this away as slander against their beloved government or as a “foreign conspiracy” against Turkey were making a mistake. The real problem was within the very sphere of Islam, within the deep contradictions between the conservatives’ alleged ideals and actual practices, as well as within the “dogmatic clerics” and the “ignorance, animosity and immorality” among Islamic communities.

Another commentator, Akif Beki, comes from a pro-government background but has lately turned critical. Beki pointed to a more specific problem: the unabashed exploitation of Islam for political ends. A recent example, according to Beki, was a propaganda speech by Ali Murat Alatepe, a member of the ruling AKP and the mayor of Esenyurt, an Istanbul municipality. “If we lose here,” Alatepe told a large audience, referring to his municipality, “then we will lose Jerusalem, we will lose Mecca.” So, accordingly, the dominance of the AKP is indispensable to Islam. Or, in other words, Islam is indispensable to the AKP’s dominance.

I agree with Akif Beki and other like-minded Turkish commentators on why so many young Turks are losing faith in Islam. It is precisely because Islamists are empowered, and, by their own behavior, they are pushing people away from the faith they claim to uphold.

I had predicted this, in fact, in an Al-Monitor article back in March 2015 titled “Turkey is becoming more secular, not less.” “The AKP experience, including its dreams of re-Islamizing Turkey,” I then wrote, “is likely to be counterproductive and will serve to further accelerate secularization.” Today, after three years of further deterioration, the counterproductive effect seems to be in full swing. It even has a famed banner now called “deism.”

 

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: faith, Islam, Turks

German Interior Minister: “Islam Does Not Belong to Germany”

March 17, 2018 By administrator

Islam Does Not Belong to Germany" Horst Seehofer, Germany's new interior minister

Islam Does Not Belong to Germany” Horst Seehofer, Germany’s new interior minister

by Soeren Kern,

  • “Islam does not belong to Germany. Germany is shaped by Christianity. This tradition includes work-free Sundays and church holidays and rituals such as Easter, Pentecost and Christmas…. My message is that Muslims have to live with us, not next to or against us.” — Horst Seehofer, Germany’s new interior minister
  • “Many Muslims belong to Germany, but Islam does not belong to Germany. Islam is at base a political ideology that is not compatible with the German Constitution.” — Beatrix von Storch, Alternative for Germany (AfD)
  • “The state must ensure that people feel safe whenever they are in the public realm. People have a right to security. This is our top responsibility. It means that there should not be any no-go areas — areas where no one dares to go. Such areas do exist. We must call them by name. We must do something about it.” — German Chancellor Angela Merkel, RTL television, February 26, 2018

Germany’s new interior minister, Horst Seehofer, in his first interview since being sworn in on March 14, has said that “Islam does not belong to Germany.” He has also vowed to pursue hardline immigration policies, including the implementation of a “master plan” for speedier deportations.

Seehofer’s remarks prompted an immediate firestorm of criticism from the self-appointed guardians of German multiculturalism, including from Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has repeatedly insisted that “Islam belongs to Germany.”

The backlash will raise questions about how much Seehofer — a former minister-president of Bavaria and a vocal critic of Merkel’s open-door migration policies — will be able to accomplish during his tenure.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Germany, Islam

Turkish Imam Gulen Schools, Islam and Your Children

March 16, 2018 By administrator

Gulen Schools, Islam and Your Children

Gulen Schools, Islam and Your Children

There is a war going on in America, for the hearts and minds of our youth. Gulen Charter Schools are sweeping the nation, and in so doing, are hard selling a watered down version of Islam to our nation’s children. Why? Because enslavement, conversion and an American caliphate is always just two generations away and the Islamic masters of the Gulen schools know this. They advance Sharia Law in America through the indoctrination of the children, in order to wage Jihad, under the parent’s noses and under the radar. Sharia Law, the driving force behind Islam, mandates that each Muslim expand the reach of Islam and in so doing, all non-believers are to be afforded the opportunity to convert to Islam, become a slave to Islam and pay a heavy tax, or be executed. However, Islam and the Gulen Movement within it, recognize that to be successful, they must convert or enslave others, for the financial gain, to continue to advance the cause, as beheading non-believers is effective, but not financially.

Fethullah Gulen, founder of the Gulen Movement, Imam and most powerful religious leader in Turkey, is a resident of Pennsylvania. From the 1970’s until today (and with no end in sight), the secretive, Gulen Movement has spread its tentacles into every continent but Antarctica. The Gulenists have a strict political, religious and economic goal, all of which center around the advancement of Islam and Sharia Law. Gulenists use psychological pressure and coercion tactics, much like a cult, in order to recruit young people. Former members have described these tactics for NOVA. Under the guidance of Imam Gulen, the Gulenists have established publicly funded charter schools that, on the surface look as if they are secular, but covertly engage in cult like activities and even the Rand Corporation identifies them as being almost all boys’ schools, with fundamentalist Islamic teachings. In 2008, the Department of Homeland Security tried to deny Imam Gulen a green card, but not only did the Rand Corporation and his cult like followers demand he be given one, the CIA also intervened on the Imam’s behalf.

Read more: https://notliketheotherslaves.wordpress.com/2018/02/10/gulen-schools-islam-and-your-children/

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Gulen Schools, Islam, Your Children

France president Macron Vows to Reform Islam in France

February 13, 2018 By administrator

Emmanuel Macron, President of France. (Photo by Dan Kitwood

Emmanuel Macron, President of France. (Photo by Dan Kitwood

“It is time to bring in a new generation.”

by Soeren Kern

  • The overall objective of President Macron’s plan is to ensure that French law takes precedence over Islamic law for Muslims living in the country.
  • The plan, as currently conceived, is vague and short on details, but appears to involve three broad pillars: determining who will represent Muslims in France; delineating how Islam in France will be financed; and defining how imams in France will be trained.
  • “It is time to bring in a new generation. We have seen fifteen years of debate to defend the interests of foreign states.” — Hakim el-Karoui, a French-Tunisian expert on Islam who is advising Macron on the reforms.

French President Emmanuel Macron, in a declared effort to “fight fundamentalism” and “preserve national cohesion,” has promised to “lay the groundwork for the entire reorganization of Islam in France.”

According to Macron, the plan, similar in ambition to Austria’s Islam Law, is aimed at seeking to “better integrate” Islam in France in order to “place it in a more peaceful relationship with the state.”

A key priority is to reduce outside interference by restricting foreign funding for mosques, imams and Muslim organizations in France. The plan’s overall objective is to ensure that French law takes precedence over Islamic law for Muslims living in the country.

In a February 11 interview with the Journal du Dimanche, Macron said that the plan, which is being coordinated by the Interior Ministry, will be announced within the next six months: “We are working on the structuring of Islam in France and also on how to explain it,” Macron said. “My goal is to rediscover what lies at the heart of secularism—the possibility of being able to believe as well as not to believe—in order to preserve national cohesion and the possibility of having free religious conscience.”

Macron also said that he was consulting a broad array of experts and religious leaders for their input into the reform plan: “I see intellectuals and academics, such as [French Islam expert] Gilles Kepel, and representatives of all religions, because I think we need to draw heavily on our history, the history of Catholics and Protestants.” He added:

“I will never ask any French citizen to be moderate in his religion or to believe moderately in his God. That would not make much sense. But I will ask everyone, constantly, to absolutely respect all the rules of the Republic.”

Macron’s plan, as currently conceived, is vague and short on details, but appears to involve three broad pillars: determining who will represent Muslims in France; delineating how Islam in France will be financed; and defining how imams in France will be trained.

Representation of Muslims in France

A key aspect of Macron’s plan is to reform the French Council of the Muslim Faith (Conseil français du culte musulman, CFCM), the official interlocutor between Muslims and the state in the regulation of Islam in France. The organization, which represents approximately 2,500 mosques in France, was established in 2003 by then Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.

The CFCM has long faced criticism for being ineffective and contentious, largely because the rotating presidency has allowed interference by foreign countries—mainly Algeria, Morocco and Turkey—seemingly to prevent Muslims from integrating into French society. Macron said the objective was to end what he called “consular Islam” and to open the CFCM to “the most integrated” Muslims.

“It is time to bring in a new generation,” said Hakim el-Karoui, a French-Tunisian expert on Islam who is advising Macron on the reforms. “We have seen fifteen years of debate to defend the interests of foreign states.”

The Interior Ministry intends to have its reforms in place by 2019, when the CFCM will hold elections to renew its leadership. “The moment is propitious for advancing the necessary reforms,” said Anouar Kbibech, former president of the CFCM.

Macron’s plan also reportedly involves establishing a “Grand Imam of France,” modeled on the position of Chief Rabbi. The individual would have the “moral authority” to represent Islam in front of the state. It remains unclear how such an individual would reconcile the competing strains of Islam to be able to represent them all.

Financing Islam in France

Macron’s second priority is to “reduce the influence of Arab countries,” which, he argues, “prevent French Islam from returning to modernity.” His plan would restrict foreign governments or entities from funding Muslim places of worship and training imams in France. Hundreds of French mosques are being financed by countries in the North African Maghreb and Persian Gulf.

The new plan would also attempt to illuminate the financial dealings of mosques by bringing them under the jurisdiction of a French law that regulates cultural associations. French mosques currently adhere to a law that regulates non-profit associations, which allows for more opaque bookkeeping.

Macron raised the possibility of revising the 1905 “Law on the Separation of the Churches and State,” which established state secularism in France. The 1905 law, among other provisions, banned government funding of religious groups in France. Addressing the prospect that French taxpayers might soon be asked to pay for Muslims to worship in France, Macron said: “The 1905 law is part of a treasure that is ours, but it did not consider the religious fact of Islam because it was not present in our society, as it is today.”

Macron’s plan reportedly also envisages establishing a so-called Halal Tax, a sales tax on halal products to finance Islam in France. The proposal faces fierce resistance from French Muslims, 70% of whom are opposed to establishing the tax, according to an Ifop poll for JDD.

Training Imams in France

Several hundred imams in France are civil servants whose salaries are paid by foreign governments. Interior Minister Gérard Collomb said the French government “should intervene” in the training of imams so that they are “imams of the French Republic,” not “imams of foreign countries.”

In an interview with Radio France Inter, Collomb said: “We can see that today we have a number of difficulties simply because nowadays everyone can proclaim himself to be an imam.”

Macron’s plan has been received with a mix of optimism, skepticism and derision.

Ghaleb Bencheikh, a French-Algerian Islamic reformist and a former president of the Great Mosque of Paris, said that Macron’s approach was “legitimate” and “interesting.” In an interview with Radio France, Bencheikh said:

“There is a terrible paradox that you have to know how to break. We are in a secular state and this sacrosanct principle of secularism stipulates that political authority should not interfere in the structure of a cult, whatever it may be. At the same time, there must be structure and privileged interlocutors of political power. The Muslim leaders are cautious, pusillanimous, they have not managed this structure. As a result, it is legitimate for both the President of the Republic and Interior Minister Gérard Collomb to insist on a healthy structure.”

Le Figaro noted with skepticism that previous French presidents have made similar pledges which ended in failure:

“Will Emmanuel Macron succeed where his predecessors have failed? The urgency, in any event, is very real. Last December, a Muslim leader from Bouches-du-Rhône declared: ‘The Salafists have taken control of the ground in France. There is a void, notably with the problem of imams who do not speak French.'”

In an interview with Les Echos, National Front Leader Marine Le Pen said she was worried about a possible challenge to the law separating churches and state: “There are a whole series of tracks, some of which are unbearable, unacceptable: for example, the idea of ​​a Concordat, the idea of ​​touching the law of 1905.”

She called for France to take hard line on foreign financing of Islam: “I suggest stopping foreign financing of mosques and closing Salafist mosques. Any foreign imam who makes a speech contrary to the values ​​of the Republic must be expelled.”

Florian Philippot, former vice president of the National Front and a Member of the European Parliament, said that Macron’s plan was not aimed at returning to a “secular Republic” but to “protect Muslims.”

In early January, during a meeting at the Elysée Palace with representatives of the six main religions in France (Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist), Macron announced that he would deliver a “major” but “dispassionate” speech on secularism during his presidency: “My wish for 2018 is that France become, with you, a model of secularism, knowing how to listen to the country’s voices in their diversity, capable of building on this diversity a great nation reconciled and open to the future.”

Less than a week later, however, Macron abruptly backtracked. The speech apparently was “removed from the agenda” because talking about secularism “in the context only of Islam” would be a “fatal mistake.”

Columnist Hélène Jouan accused Macron of trying to play both sides against the middle:

“Emmanuel Macron is credited with holding a subtle balance between unfailing attachment to Republican principles, and absolute firmness vis-à-vis radical Islam.

“The president prefers to evade. I’m not sure that this will last. A tragic event in France would push him, of course, to reveal himself, at the risk, then, of alienating those who would judge, from the right or left, that he does too much or not enough, to lose his position of ‘centrality’ which he thinks he holds on the question. In the meantime, however, he buys time.”

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: France, Islam, Macron

The West’s Steadfast Misunderstanding of Turkey and Islam

December 24, 2017 By administrator

Turkish regimes committed their greatest attacks on Anatolian Christians during the 1914-1923 genocide against Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians (Syriacs/Chaldeans). Sadly, there has been no public protest in Turkey against the government’s refusal to acknowledge the genocide, in which at least three million Christians were killed. Pictured above: Armenian civilians, escorted by Ottoman soldiers, marched through Harput, April 1915. (Image source: American Red Cross/Wikimedia Commons

  • by Uzay Bulut,
  • Fundamentalist Muslims in Turkey — and elsewhere — do not see jihad, forced conversions or other forms of persecution against non-Muslims as criminal. On the contrary, their religious scriptures openly command them “to chop off heads and fingers, and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding,” among many other openly violent teachings.
  • Hence, what the rest of the world would describe as “genocide,” “massacre,” “terrorism,” or “ethnic cleansing” is viewed by radical Muslims as a “righteous” way of spreading Islam and of liberating kafir (infidel) lands. Erdogan is clearly such a radical, which is why he takes pride in his country’s criminal history, while chastising and rewriting that of other states, such as Israel.
  • The West’s misunderstanding of this knows no bounds.

Since the Trump administration’s official recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been ramping up his anti-Israel rhetoric, calling the country “a state of occupation and terrorism.”

This is worse than ironic. The Jews are not “occupiers” in their ancient native homeland, where they have lived for more than 3,000 years. Turks, on the other hand, 3,000 years ago were most likely in Central Asia, nowhere near the area that is now Turkey. To add hypocrisy to injury, Erdogan also said about his own country, “Let it be known that there has never been any holocaust or genocide in this nation’s past. There’s no campaign of ethnic cleansing, massacres, persecution, or torture in this nation’s history.”

Oh really?

The cities in today’s Turkey — most of which are in Anatolia (Asia Minor) and the Armenian highlands — were actually built by Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians; and Jews have lived there since antiquity. Turkic jihadists from Central Asia invaded and conquered the Christian Byzantine Empire in the eleventh century, thereby paving the way for the gradual Turkification and Islamization of Anatolia and Armenia. The Ottoman invasion of Constantinople (Istanbul) in the fifteenth century brought about the complete destruction of the Byzantine Empire.

Throughout those years, many Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians in the region converted to Islam to escape death, exile, or the exorbitant “protection” tax, the jizya, imposed on non-Muslims. As a result, only around 0.3% of Turkey’s population remains Christian or Jewish at this time.

According to Dr. Bill Warner, director of the Center for the Study of Political Islam:

“The process of annihilation [of Greek Christian civilization in Anatolia] took centuries. Some people think that when Islam invaded, the Kafirs [non-Muslims] had the choice of conversion or death. No, absolutely not. Sharia law was put into place and the Christian dhimmis continued to have their ‘protected’ status as People of the Book who lived under the Sharia law. The dhimmi paid heavy taxes, could not testify in court, hold a position of authority over Muslims and was humiliated by social rules. A dhimmi had to step aside for the Muslim, offer him his seat, could not carry a weapon and defer to a Muslim in every way. In all matters of society the dhimmi had to yield to the Muslim. Over the centuries, the degradation, lack of rights and the dhimmi tax caused the Christian to convert. It is the Sharia that destroys the dhimmis.

“Today, Turkey is 99.7% Muslim. The Christian and Greek civilization of Anatolia is gone. It is annihilated.

“What is tragic is that it seems that no one knows or cares…”

Even today, expansionist Islamic raids against non-Muslim peoples have been and are accompanied by mass murder, rape, sex slavery, forced conversions, looting, plundering and deportations, by Islamic State, Boko Haram and others.

The goal of this jihad is to expand Islam and submit people worldwide to sharia [Islamic law] and Islamic supremacy. Once under Islamic rule — such as during the Ottoman Empire — Christians and Jews become dhimmis: third-class, “tolerated” citizens forced to pay a tax in exchange for “protection.” No matter how much money they pay, however, dhimmis are never allowed the same religious rights or freedoms as Muslims.

This is something that Turkish school children are not taught. Instead, they learn in school about the “glorious” Ottomans, and how bestowing dhimmi status on non-Muslims was an example of Ottoman mercy, justice, and compassion — not a tool for humiliating and enslaving them.

Far more recently, as Erdogan knows but aggressively denies, Turkish regimes committed their greatest attacks on Anatolian Christians: the 1914-1923 genocide against Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians (Syriacs/Chaldeans). Sadly, there has been no public protest in Turkey against the government’s refusal to acknowledge the genocide, in which at least three million Christians were killed.

There are several reasons for this:

State propaganda

Turks are continually exposed to the denial of the genocide in school, the media, and in parliament. Millions of Turks have been brainwashed to believe that what took place was not genocide, but rather a legitimate act of self-defense against “treacherous” Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian elements.

Myths about Turkish nationhood

According to official myths, the Turks have never wronged or victimized any other people; it is they who have been wronged and victimized throughout history. As a result, according to these myths, any and all violent actions they may have committed were carried out in self-defense.

Economic concerns

Turkey fears what it calls derogatorily as the Armenians’ “Four T” Plan: Tanıtım, Tanınma, Tazminat ve Toprak (Propaganda, Recognition, Compensation, and Territory). The government worries that if the Armenians are successful in their efforts to obtain international recognition of the genocide, they will demand money and land. This concern is shared by those who inherited property seized from the victims of the genocide. Such Turks fear losing the wealth they amassed through the spoils of mass murder.

Islamic culture

The political doctrine of Islam, which was largely responsible for the Christian genocide, still plays a role in Turkey’s denial of it.

In his contribution to a recently released collection of essays on the topic — “Genocide in the Ottoman Empire: Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks, 1913-1923,” edited by Professor George N. Shirinian — historian Suren Manukyan writes that the planners of the Armenian genocide:

“… activated social forces by the policies they pursued, including the proclamation of jihad at the beginning of World War I, to mobilize religious fanaticism among the population of the empire.

“After the proclamation of jihad on November 14, 1914, the killing of Armenians was seen to bear legitimacy in religious terms. In many areas, clerics led the columns of Muslims and blessed them for punishing the unbelievers… One slogan was repeated everywhere: ‘God, make their children orphans, make widows of their wives… and give their property to Muslims.’ In addition to this prayer, legitimization of plunder, murder, and abduction took the following form: ‘it is licit for Muslims to take the infidels’ property, life and women.'”

The Ottoman Tanzimat reforms in the nineteenth century had “abolished” the dhimmi status accorded to non-Muslim subjects. Regardless of this official change, non-Muslims continued to face various forms of institutional discrimination. Similarly, when the Republic of Turkey was established in 1923, non-Muslims no longer possessed the legal status as dhimmis, but their unofficial dhimmitude continued, if not intensified.

In 1934, there was an anti-Jewish pogrom in eastern Thrace; in 1941-1942, there was an attempt to enlist and enslave all non-Muslim males in the Turkish military — including the elderly and mentally ill — to force them to work under horrendous conditions in labor battalions; in 1942, a Wealth Tax was imposed to eliminate Christians and Jews from the economy; in 1955, there was an anti-Greek pogrom in Istanbul; and in 1964, Greeks were forcefully expelled from Turkey. All of the above contributed to the previous ethnic cleansing of Turkish Christians and Jews.

Not only has the Turkish government not recognized, apologized for or given reparations for any such incidents in its history, but there is little media coverage of the current intimidation of and violence against Christians, Jews, and Yazidis in Turkey.

In addition, fundamentalist Muslims in Turkey — and elsewhere — do not see jihad, forced conversions or other forms of persecution against non-Muslims as criminal. On the contrary, their religious scriptures openly command them “to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding,” among many other openly violent teachings.

Hence, what the rest of the world would describe as “genocide,” “massacre,” “persecution,” or “ethnic cleansing” is viewed by radical Muslims as a “righteous” way of spreading Islam and of liberating kafir (infidel) lands. Erdogan is clearly such a radical, which is why he takes pride in his country’s criminal history, while chastising and rewriting that of other states, such as Israel.

The West’s misunderstanding of all this knows no bounds.

Uzay Bulut, born and raised a Muslim in Turkey, is a journalist currently based in Washington D.C.

Filed Under: Articles, Genocide Tagged With: Islam, Steadfast, Turkey, west

Armenian parliament official warns of Azerbaijani attempts to add religious context to Karabakh conflict

December 20, 2017 By administrator

A senior Armenian parliament official on Wednesday voiced his concerns over Azerbaijan’s attempts to impart a religious or geopolitical context to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, calling instead for an international reaction to those policies as a real hazard to the country’s future.

In a speech at the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Committee’s 17th session in Yerevan, Head of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Foreign Relations Armen Ashotyan (ruling Republican Party of Armenia) cited Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s attempt to link the issue to religion in his recent speech at the Islamic conference in Istanbul.

“It poses a real hazard, as the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has nothing to do with religion. Armenians are scattered across the Islamic world and they are good citizens in different Islamic countries. Just think for yourselves of the hazards the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict would pose against the backdrop of the Islamic State’s upsurge. This would heat up the hell by yet another degree. This kind of misunderstanding must be prevented. It will be very dangerous indeed if the civilized world takes no action at all to hamper [Azerbaijani President] Ilham Aliyev’s efforts, allowing him to represent the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as a religious conflict,” he said.

Ashotyan further cited the European Parliament Resolution on the Situation in Soviet Armenia (1988), highlighting its importance as a document “reflecting the Council of Europe’s support to the Karabakh movement and the [ethnic] minorities’ demand for reunification with the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia”.

“The Council of Europe condemned the Armenian pogroms in Sumgait. The Nagorno-Karabakh movement was considered a democratic, national movement then,” Ashotyan said, describing the resolution as a clear-worded legally binding instrument reflecting the European political establishment’s position on the conflict resolution scenario.

“I would like to also underline that Nagorno-Karabakh has thousands of residents who must really enjoy the fundamental rights granted by the United Nations. I don’t speak about political rights. Those rights are being enjoyed as it is. We need instead to emphasize the importance of engaging them in cultural, educational, environmental and other projects, which those people are practically deprived of today. The status quo prevents the people in Nagorno-Karabakh to take part, for example, in EU funding projects. The Artsakh youth is not eligible for the Erasmus+,” Ashotyan added.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Islam

German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel calls for ban on Islamist mosques

January 6, 2017 By administrator

Social Democrats leader and German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has called for tougher measures against Islamist trends in Germany. His demands come just weeks after the “Islamic State”-claimed terror attack in Berlin.

In an interview with German weekly Der Spiegel, German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said that “Salafist mosques must be banned, communities dissolved, and the preachers should be expelled as soon as possible.”

“Those who encourage for violence do not enjoy the protection of religious freedom,” the Social Democrat (SPD) leader added, stressing that he had “zero tolerance” in combating Islamism.

‘Cultural fight’

Radical Islamism is regarded as the fastest-growing extremist movement in Germany. Its followers are convinced that Islam and modernity can not be reconciled.

“If we are serious about the fight against Islamism and terrorism, then it must also be a cultural fight,” Gabriel told Spiegel.

This means strengthening the cohesion of society and ensuring that “urban areas are not neglected, villages are not degenerate and people are not becoming more and more radicalized,” the vice chancellor added.

Half of the followers of the so-called “Islamic State” (IS) who have travelled to Syria, are Germans, often with German parents, Gabriel said.

Berlin IS attack

The vice chancellor’s calls for tighter measures against Islamists come just weeks after Berlin was victim to an IS-claimed terror attack. Twelve people were killed and almost 50 were wounded after IS-sympathizer Anis Amri rammed a truck into a Berlin Christmas market.

During his time in Germany, Amri, a Tunisian refugee, is believed to have mingled in Islamist circles. He was also linked with Iraqi preacher Abu Walaa, who was arrested in November along with others for seeking to recruit fighters for IS.

Despite German authorities’ originally monitoring the 23-year-old, surveillance was dropped in September after it was determined he did not pose a security threat.

Amid the apparent intelligence failure, Merkel pledged in her new year’s speech to conduct a “comprehensive” analysis on everything that has gone wrong in combatting Islamist terror.

ksb/kms (KNA, epd, dpa)

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: ban, Germany, Islam

Temporary Marriage ‘Nikah Mut’ah’ in Islam – Part XV

October 15, 2016 By administrator

Temporary Marriage ‘Nikah mut’ah’ in Islam. Photo: Twitter

Temporary Marriage ‘Nikah mut’ah’ in Islam. Photo: Twitter

Gulbahar — Exclusive to Ekurd.net

Temporary marriages (Mut’ah) in Islam are known under various names. The term Mut’ah means “profiting by, or taking pleasure of” in fixed-term “marriages.” It is distinguished from the non-fixed-term marriages. In laymen’s terms, the man takes a “temporary wife,” has sex with her, and does this knowing he will soon divorce her. We could say it is little better than having a girl friend. It simply legitimizes the sex act.

Although there are great theological differences between Shiites and Sunnis, none is more prominent than their differences on the concept of temporary marriages. This difference is also evident between one school of Shiites, those who hold the belief of the twelve infallible Imams [45] and the other Shiite schools of thought.

Read more on: http://ekurd.net/temporary-marriage-islam-2016-10-15

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Islam, marriage, nikah mut'ah, temporary

Erdogan Launches Offensive Against Trump, praise Barack Obama says who “is on the side of Muslims”,

June 26, 2016 By administrator

erdogan 1Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for the immediate removal of the ‘Trump’ name from the Trump Towers Istanbul.

The Turkish leader made this announcement during an evening event hosted by the Industry and Business Association, according to Yeni Safak newspaper.

Erdogan “[Trump] has no tolerance for Muslims living in the US. And on top of that they used a brand in [Istanbul] with his name. The ones who put that brand on their building should immediately remove it,” Erdogan said, the Turkish Sun reports.

Trump Towers Istanbul was opened in 2012 by Turkish tycoon Aydın Doğan who paid Trump in order to use the brand name.

It should be noted that the then-Prime Minister Erdogan was one of the dignitaries attending the towers’ opening ceremony, 

During his speech, the Turkish president also accused the European Union of Islamophobia

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Erdogan, Islam, Obama, Trump

UK: Islam is incompatible with UK values say 56% of Brits – poll

June 10, 2016 By administrator

© Darren Staples / Reuters

© Darren Staples / Reuters

(RT) More than half of Britons polled believe Islam is incompatible with British values, according to a study carried out on behalf of a Muslim community organization.

The polling firm ComRes asked 2,012 people over the age of 18 for their views. The study was carried out on behalf of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and was revealed at the ‘Caliphate in the 21st Century’ conference.

It found that one respondent in three thinks Islam promotes violence in Britain, while 72 percent feel the religion is viewed negatively in the UK.

Some 32 percent believe Islam promotes peace in Britain and 56 percent think the faith is incompatible with the country’s values.

The sect that commissioned the study is itself dedicated to its own version of a caliphate in the UK. Unlike extremist groups such as Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s version of a caliphate is dedicated to peace.

“The task of the Ahmadiyya Caliphate is to continue pursuing the peaceful objectives laid down by the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Community, which is essentially to worship God and serve humanity,” Farooq Aftab, the community’s spokesman, told the Express.

“And so, under the guidance of the Institution of Caliphate, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has continued this work for more than one hundred years,” he added.

Aftab said the community is very concerned about extremism and is fighting to deal with the issue “through a range of initiatives such as education, recreational and sports to break down barriers and give members the true teachings of Islam.”

“We have on a number of occasions said that in Mosques, Imams and leaders should use sermons to condemn ISIS. And make it clear that going to join them is totally wrong and against Islam,” he said.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: compatable, Islam, not, UK

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