The GOP's war on Gülen

The Trump presidency is just two days away and all eyes are on the United States. The Islamic world is no exception.

Having hailed Barack Obama as a source of hope, Muslims around the world find themselves deeply frustrated eight years later. After all, Mr. Obama's legacy in the Islamic world has been nothing more than blood and tears. In fact, he has been such a major disappointment that people were actually happy when Donald Trump, who isn't known as a big fan of Islam, won the presidential election in November.The same goes for Turkey. Although the country's relationship with the United States had been problematic at times, the crisis had never been deeper and more serious than in recent years. No administration had pushed the Turks to such limits or ignored their experiences. As such, there is a sense in Turkey that the Trump administration will normalize relations with Ankara. Until now, we have seen two positive signs from Washington: First, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn likened Fetullah Gülen, the July 15 coup attempt's mastermind, to Osama Bin Laden. Then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the U.S. needed to re-engage Turkey.

Last week, Republican heavyweight Denny Rehberg – the former Lieutenant Governor of Montana and seven-term congressman – published an op-ed in The Hill to call on the United States to work more closely with the Turkish leadership. "As the U.S. prepares for the incoming administration," he stated, "the hope is that President Trump and his officials will cultivate more closely a diplomatic relationship with Turkish President [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan than President Obama had left fallow over the past eight years." Rehberg also took an unprecedented step to refer to the Gülenists as the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) and urge U.S. authorities to extradite the man in Pennsylvania to Turkey. On the extradition request, he wrote: "Nothing has been done despite Turkey's ongoing official requests, the Turkish Justice Ministry sending various files and evidence of Gülen's crimes, and Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ's visit to Washington, D.C. to meet with U.S. Attorney General Lynch in efforts to expedite Gülen's extradition last October." The United States and its citizens should be concerned, Rehberg added.

Let me finish by quoting Mr. Rehberg again on what the Trump administration should do: "The United States and President Trump have a responsibility to their allies. We have a responsibility to assist Turkey in keeping their country stable by extraditing Fetullah Gülen back to Turkey and working together with our NATO ally and President [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan."