President Erdoğan's 'New World Manifesto'
Erdoğan's latest remarks serve, so to speak, as a new world manifesto for Muslims as well as for people of other faiths and no faiths
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's last three speeches need to be collected and turned into a reference guide. I do not know whether the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) or another institution would assume such a responsibility, but someone should definitely do it.
Not only Turkey, but the entire Islamic world has been wasting its energy on three subjects for years, as he underlined.
Sectarianism, racism and terrorism are given as justifications for inner conflicts. There is secularism that guarantees beliefs and the Islamic world's need to be self-critical, which has existed for the last couple of centuries.
Erdoğan's remarks on these three subjects serve, so to speak, as a new world manifesto for Muslims as well as for people of other faiths and no faiths.
As a matter of fact, these are only the repetition of what he has said before. However, for the first time, all three have been said together at a significant period of history and in a "loud and clear way," in late President Turgut Özal's terms.
This is the reason of the influence and depth of his words.
First, I would like to bring to mind what was said in the secularism debate that were forgotten after Erdoğan's 2011 speech in Egypt but recently reinvigorated by Parliament Speaker İsmail Kahraman .
"Secularism requires a state's equal treatment to all beliefs and all groups, including atheists, and all belief groups are required to be guaranteed by the state as part of secularism. What need is there to put a special emphasis on Islam? The subject is closed if I, as a Muslim, can live according to my beliefs and perform my ritual practices as I wish. The point is everyone should live according to their own faith and as they wish, regardless of whether they are Christian, Jewish or atheist."
Erdoğan's profound analysis of sectarianism, racism and terrorism, which he conceptualized and referred to as "three seditions," serves as a measure for Turkey and the larger Islamic world.
His following remarks are crucial, particularly in this period when a special effort is exerted to align Islam with terrorism.
"The middlemen such as DAESH, al-Qaida, Boko Haram and al-Shabaab are producing propaganda tools for anti-Islam campaigns by exploiting Muslims' problems and sensitivities."
He also impressively described what kind of a choice Muslims have to make: "It is not fair to force Muslims to make a choice between tyrant dictators and even more cruel terrorist groups."
But should we put all the blame on foreign forces, namely imperialists?
As a matter of fact, this is the question for which an answer is highly sought in the context of our previous political history. Answering the question: "Do Muslims have no part in all that has been going on?" which is especially asked by those who view Islam from the outside, is critical.
A president of a Muslim-majority country answered this question clearly maybe for the first time:
"We must keep in mind that we cannot condone the damage caused by imperialists, who suggest that a drop of oil is more valuable than a drop of blood. We will reveal the hypocrisy of those who see democracy as a right for their own citizens while seeing it as a luxury for the [Middle East] region's people. However, we should not miss an even more crucial point while doing that, which is self-criticism. We have to criticize ourselves [and] soul search. If we look for the source of the problem only outside, if we take such an easy way, we would fetch up nowhere."
All the people in Turkey, including secularists, conservatives, nationalists and leftists, must make the self-evaluation Erdoğan suggested. So why is an intense smear campaign being conducted against Erdoğan both inside and outside although he has insistently been issuing such remarks for years?
I am waiting for your response to discuss it in another article.
Not only Turkey, but the entire Islamic world has been wasting its energy on three subjects for years, as he underlined.
Sectarianism, racism and terrorism are given as justifications for inner conflicts. There is secularism that guarantees beliefs and the Islamic world's need to be self-critical, which has existed for the last couple of centuries.
Erdoğan's remarks on these three subjects serve, so to speak, as a new world manifesto for Muslims as well as for people of other faiths and no faiths.
As a matter of fact, these are only the repetition of what he has said before. However, for the first time, all three have been said together at a significant period of history and in a "loud and clear way," in late President Turgut Özal's terms.
This is the reason of the influence and depth of his words.
First, I would like to bring to mind what was said in the secularism debate that were forgotten after Erdoğan's 2011 speech in Egypt but recently reinvigorated by Parliament Speaker İsmail Kahraman .
"Secularism requires a state's equal treatment to all beliefs and all groups, including atheists, and all belief groups are required to be guaranteed by the state as part of secularism. What need is there to put a special emphasis on Islam? The subject is closed if I, as a Muslim, can live according to my beliefs and perform my ritual practices as I wish. The point is everyone should live according to their own faith and as they wish, regardless of whether they are Christian, Jewish or atheist."
Erdoğan's profound analysis of sectarianism, racism and terrorism, which he conceptualized and referred to as "three seditions," serves as a measure for Turkey and the larger Islamic world.
His following remarks are crucial, particularly in this period when a special effort is exerted to align Islam with terrorism.
"The middlemen such as DAESH, al-Qaida, Boko Haram and al-Shabaab are producing propaganda tools for anti-Islam campaigns by exploiting Muslims' problems and sensitivities."
He also impressively described what kind of a choice Muslims have to make: "It is not fair to force Muslims to make a choice between tyrant dictators and even more cruel terrorist groups."
But should we put all the blame on foreign forces, namely imperialists?
As a matter of fact, this is the question for which an answer is highly sought in the context of our previous political history. Answering the question: "Do Muslims have no part in all that has been going on?" which is especially asked by those who view Islam from the outside, is critical.
A president of a Muslim-majority country answered this question clearly maybe for the first time:
"We must keep in mind that we cannot condone the damage caused by imperialists, who suggest that a drop of oil is more valuable than a drop of blood. We will reveal the hypocrisy of those who see democracy as a right for their own citizens while seeing it as a luxury for the [Middle East] region's people. However, we should not miss an even more crucial point while doing that, which is self-criticism. We have to criticize ourselves [and] soul search. If we look for the source of the problem only outside, if we take such an easy way, we would fetch up nowhere."
All the people in Turkey, including secularists, conservatives, nationalists and leftists, must make the self-evaluation Erdoğan suggested. So why is an intense smear campaign being conducted against Erdoğan both inside and outside although he has insistently been issuing such remarks for years?
I am waiting for your response to discuss it in another article.