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April 24, 2007
Abdullah Gül Is the Perfect Choice
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Let me say it loud and clear: The naming of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül as the AK Party’s candidate for president is a perfect decision. It is nearly certain that Mr. Gül will be Turkey’s next president, and I am pretty certain that he will be a good one.
There are many reasons. First, Mr. Gül is a very experienced and refined statesman. His career in academia, finance and politics is impeccable. Moreover, in the past four years, he directed Turkish foreign policy quite successfully and has earned respect and reputation in many foreign capitals — both in the West and the East.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 4:53 PM | Comments (4)
April 19, 2007
Intelligent Design [and Me] in The Economist
The week’s The Economist magazine ran a story titled "Evolution and Religion: In The Beginning," which explored the global controversy over Darwinism and Intelligent Design. The article also mentioned Turkey’s first ID conference, and my work, as follows:
Whatever the defeats they have suffered on home ground, American foes of Darwin seem to be gaining influence elsewhere. In February several luminaries of the anti-evolution movement in the United States went to Istanbul for a grand conference where Darwin's ideas were roundly denounced. The organiser of the gathering was a Turkish Muslim author and columnist, Mustafa Akyol, who forged strong American connections during a fellowship at the Discovery Institute.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:40 PM | Comments (6)
Enough with Christophobia
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
A handful of monsters walked into a Bible publisher in the Turkish city of Malatya the other day. They found three innocent people inside: Two Christian missionaries and a worker. They tied the hands and feet of their victims, tortured them, and then slit their throats. It was a yet another day of barbarism in the dark side of Turkish history.
This heinous crime, which the police is still investigating, is latest one in the horrible chain of attacks against the Christians in our country. And although it was perpetrated by a few young fanatics, there are many other “respectable” people that deserve to be blamed for. They, of course, did not (and would not) support this carnage, but they undoubtedly inspired the killers by continuously spreading a sick ideology: Christophobia, i.e., the fear of Christians and Christianity.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 5:28 PM | Comments (13)
The Poverty of Marxism-Sezerism
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Communism is an ideology with different shades and tones. Throughout the 20th century, we have seen its moderate versions such as the one in Tito's Yugoslavia, and its horrible versions such as the one in the Khmer Rouge's Cambodia.
Yet still, communist regimes have some basic common characteristics. First, they are against economic freedom; they want to limit private property and free trade as much as they can. Since Marx argued for the collectivization of the “means of production” (produktionsmittel) in order to avoid “exploitation” by the bourgeoisie, all Marxists have aimed to take them under the control of the state.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 5:22 PM | Comments (4)
April 16, 2007
Render Unto Atatürk
[Originally published in First Things]
When thousands of furious Muslims rallied in the streets of the West Bank, Pakistan, and Indonesia to protest Benedict XVI’s Regensburg address, many commentators spoke with pessimistic alarm about the “clash of civilizations” that had now become increasingly manifest. The reason for this peril, it was claimed, was religion of any kind. Thus, Sam Harris-a dreamer who hopes to achieve the wishful title of his book, The End of Faith, by atheist proselytizing-declared that the pontiff was “merely giving voice to his religious inanities,” which could “start a war with 1.4 billion Muslims who take their own inanities in deadly earnest.”
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:25 PM | Comments (3)
April 13, 2007
Why Erdoğan Is Right on Hitler
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
In his TDN column, “Erdoğan's Turkey, Hitler's Germany,” my colleague Burak Bekdil argues that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan revealed his “genetic/ideological incompatibility with secularism” when he said, “Hitler's Germany, too, was secular.” With all due respect, I totally disagree with Mr. Bekdil. I rather think that Mr. Erdoğan made a completely valid and important point by noting that secularism alone is not a redeemer for nations.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:04 PM | Comments (2)
April 12, 2007
The Political Economy of Turkish Ultra-Secularism
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
It is no secret that many of the political wars in Turkey are related to the age-old conflict between the secularists and conservatives. The current heated debate over the possible — and very likely — presidency of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan is just one of the many symptoms of this permanent clash between these two camps. (As well known, the secularists simply don't find Mr. Erdoğan secular enough to be Turkey's next president. Mr. Erdoğan's supporters, on the other, find the secularists not democratic enough to accept a president who is not one their kin.)
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:24 AM | Comments (1)
April 11, 2007
Yet Another Illiberal Step by Europe on 'Genocide'
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
One of the interesting themes that conservative and libertarian U.S. intellectuals have been emphasizing in the recent years is the growing gap of freedom in Europe. According to these critics, in continental European countries such as Germany and France — the backbones of the EU — there is a strong tendency towards protecting the welfare state at the expense of individual freedoms.
Samuel Gregg of the Acton Institute (a libertarian think tank in Michigan) even argued that there are signs of a “soft-despotism” mindset in the continent, which was apparent in the now-defunct European Constitution. “[The EU Constitution] does not limit itself — as any sound constitution should — to outlining the origins, divisions, and limitations of state-power,” Gregg noted. “Instead, its 511 pages embrace a plethora of subjects ranging from fishing, humanitarian-aid, space policy, sport, tourism, to financial assistance to the former East Germany.” This was a mindset, according to Gregg, which gave the EU officials the right to “meddle in almost anything.”
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:15 PM | Comments (1)
April 5, 2007
Interview by To The Source: Fixing the Blindspot
A popular American Christian website, To The Source (which challanges "hardcore secularism with principled pluralism") made interview with me on issues relating to Islam, Christianity and what to do to establish better relations between the two. I am very grateful both To The Source, and also to Dr. Benjamin Wiker, who arranged and made the interview with me. The text, titled “Fixing the Blindspot” is both available here at the TTS website, and also down below.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:18 PM | Comments (2)
April 4, 2007
Thus Spoke the Zarathustrian Kurds
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Mehdi Zana, the former mayor of Diyarbakır and a prominent figure among Turkey's Kurdish nationalists, has made the news twice in the past weeks with his claims on Kurdish history. First, he argued that Kurds simply had a brighter record before Islam. Second, as we read in the weekly news magazine Aksiyon, he claimed that the authentic religion of the Kurds is Zoroastrianism. They later converted to Islam, according to Zana, “due to the fear of the sword,” and “as a big mistake.”
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:11 AM | Comments (6)
