Challenging the jinn

Citing deficiencies in press freedom, U.S.-based watchdog Freedom House recently released a report downgrading Turkey's press from "partly free" to "not free," placing Turkey among undemocratic countries such as North Korea and Iran. The subjective report was not based on any scientific criteria but rather on malevolence and Western standards.

There is a story told by the Egyptian Muslim intellectual Muhammad Abduh from the years of the British invasion of Egypt. It is about a practice used to get rid of unwanted guests. A reportedly haunted mansion in Egypt was used mostly to host such guests.

The story goes that at a certain time during the evening entertainment for the guests, the jinn would appear with their own entertainment. Seeing the jinn, the guests would leave the mansion without so much as a backward glance.

One day, a guest who was subjected to this routine procedure threw a wrench in the works. When the jinn started their own high-jinx, instead of running away, the guest started to clap his hands and challenge them, shouting "Come on, come at me!" At that moment, he was showered with gold.

Abduh tells this story to teach those Egyptians who did not resist the British invasion of Egypt a lesson. However, it is possible to expand the message of this story and adapt it to the West with a specific focus on Freedom House.

The main theme of the story is that he who stands tall without fear reaps his reward. The biggest treasure is to rely on one's own strength, for which one wins dignity, independence and successes.

With his stance against Freedom House's declaration, the prime minister has exhibited an attitude that may be added to the message of the story.

Instead of acting like the former politicians in front of the jinn (i.e.Western states and organizations), the prime minister has acted like the man who challenged the jinn.

Indeed, he has ensured that his nation is showered with treasures. This challenge is the reason why the global hegemons don't like him at all.

When a country relies on its own capacity and own strength it begins to be showered with the treasures of welfare, justice, dignity and independence.

Turkey has realized its own capacity and power in the last 10 years. It has found courage to object when necessary instead of submitting as it used to.

Turkey and countries like Russia, China and South Africa that have realized their own strengths and been unjustly labeled the "fragile five" also hold the keys to their own treasures in their own hands. They are now strong enough to challenge the West, and they do not yield.

However, the West is unaware of this development; it is blind to these countries' intellectual capacity as well as their economic capacity. Therefore, it supposes, in its old arrogance, that it can treat these countries as if they were colonies.

But it is terribly wrong - that's all water under the bridge now. It seems that they never understood the philosopher who said, "One cannot bathe in the same river twice."

Since the West was the center of civilization in the good old days, every warning from the West was important and everybody tried to garner congratulations instead of criticism.

However, that the West assists development of such countries to further exploit them and, moreover, the selfquestioning the West calls post-modernism today, have broken the spell. And thus, the West has lost value for its double standard that dragged it to moral corruption.

No one will credit Freedom House anymore, because everyone knows that it works for American hegemony.