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May 5, 2007
The Latest Jewish Conspiracy: 'Moderate Islam' & AKP
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
Did you know that Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan and his wife are crypto-Jews who secretly collaborate with the Mossad? And that they are trying to cook-up “moderate Islam” and destroy Turkish secularism for the sake of serving the elders of Zion?
Well, I had no clue about that terrible conspiracy either, until I went into a major Istanbul bookstore last weekend and checked the bestsellers list. There were a few usual titles telling stories about how the beloved Secular Turkish Republic is targeted by internal and external plots — a highly popular and powerful paranoia in the country these days — but none of them were as informative as the one penned by a die-secularist named Ergün Poyraz.
“The Children of Moses” is the title of Mr. Poyraz's masterpiece, and in its subtitle, there are two unexpected names: “Tayyip and Emine.” On the book's cover, there is even a more stunning graphic message: a huge Star of David encircles the photos of Mr. and Mrs. Erdoğan.
Of course a sane and educated person does not even need to turn the cover of the book to figure out that this is totally insane. But I decided to be lenient on the author and decided to buy and read his “investigative book.” Ah, it was quite hard: The “writer” could not write five sentences in a row without a spelling or grammar mistake. (Apparently his “editor” was no better.) The bizarre claims he made throughout the text are not documented, footnoted, or anything. The “method” he uses is to cherry-pick irrelevant facts and build wild speculations on them. Any Jewish organization that Mr. Erdoğan has spoken to (such as the Anti-Defamation League or the American Jewish Committee) are given as “proofs” of his alleged “secret connections” with “global Jewry,” whom the writer obviously sees via the lenses of his forerunners in Okhrana— the secret police of the Russian Empire, which, according to many experts, penned the infamous anti-Semitic hoax, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
“The Children of Moses” sounds not only anti-Semitic but also Kurdophobiac. While exposing the alleged Jewish roots of the Erdoğan family — and how he does that is really beyond me — the writer also fervently unveils the Kurdish origin of some of Mr. Erdoğan's current or previous advisors, as if it is something that one has to be ashamed of. It is clearly, and unabashedly, a racist book.
Nuts As Mainstream
Why do I care about a single book, you might ask. After all, each county has its nuts, and these nuts fabricate all the crazy conspiracy theories you can imagine. That's true. But in most countries, nuts are recognized and treated as nuts. In Turkey, however, they are becoming quite mainstream.
You just need to look at the back cover of Mr. Poyraz's book to see that. It presents two powerful endorsements. The first one is from journalist Emin Çölaşan. “I started to read this book and could not drop it, Ergün Poyraz is a magnificent researcher,” Mr. Çölaşan says. “My request from you is to read this surprising book; when you read, you will thank me.”
Well, I haven't thanked him yet, but if you plan to do, you can find his contacts from Hürriyet, Turkey's no. 1 daily, where he is a very well established and prominent columnist. (To be fair, I should note that mainstream Hürriyet has several other columnists who strongly disagree with Mr. Çölaşan on many issues.)
The second endorsement at the back cover of “The Children of Moses” comes from a less direct but a much more powerful source: It is from Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkey's founder! “My suggestion to my esteemed nation,” Atatürk said according to Mr. Poyraz, “is that it should not give up examining the real core of the blood and the conscious of the men whom it will choose as its leaders.”
Wow… That's quite a suggestion. And it apparently justifies Mr. Poyraz's obsession about the “real core of the blood” of Mr. Erdoğan and other personalities in his party, the AKP.
For the rest of us, the Atatürk quote at the back cover of a racist, anti-Semitic and anti-AKP book points to a very interesting fact: that the dogmatic Kemalists of Turkey, who are the driving force behind the current paranoia about secularism, have come to the point of fascism. In my previous columns I have criticized Turkey's “illiberal secularists” who do not respect the freedom of religion of our citizens — whether they might be Muslim or Christian. The book “The Children of Moses” represents the mindset of the most radical wing in this illiberal camp, and actually the term “illiberal” is not enough to define their worldview. To borrow a term from President Bush and to give it a little pun, I would rather call them “secularo-fascists.”
Secularo-Fascism Versus ‘Moderate Islam'
I hope the Western world will understand that the current political conflict in Turkey is not between “Islamists” and “secularists,” as some commentators put it. No, the two poles in the conflict are actually Muslim democracts and secularo-fascists. The latter group has potrayed itself as the Westernizing force in Turkish society for so many decades, but it was actually never Western in the democratic and liberal sense. Moreover, in the past five years, especially in response to the pro-EU stance of the Muslim democrats, it has become growingly anti-Western, and, as Mr. Poyraz's lunatic book indicates, even anti-Semitic.
You can observe that not only in Turkey's bookshelves, but also in its streets. The giant rallies held in Ankara and Istanbul in the previous weeks in order to protest against the AKP government was full of anti-American and anti-European slogans. The “moderate Muslim” AKP was denounced as the collaborator of Western imperialism and global capitalism, which both supposedly aim to take Turkey away from Atatürk's supposedly socialist and authoritarian model. Some secularists carried giant posters denouncing Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül, the AKP's candidate for president, with a pun: “We want no ABD-ullah as president,” their posters read. The initials “ABD” are the Turkish equivalent of “USA.” In other words, they were calling him “USA-ullah.”
This imagined alliance between the USA and the AKP started when some US officials praised Mr. Erdoğan and Mr. Gül's movement as an example of “moderate Islam.” Well, in the whole world, “moderate Islam” is a good thing. But for Turkey's secularists, it is heresy. “We are not a moderate Muslim country,” many secularist Turkish officials and pundits angrily proclaimed, “we have nothing to do with Islam.” They actually want to see a totally secularized society in which religion has no visible presence. The only publicly free faith should be, according to them, the official cult of personality built around the country's founder.
But why is that, you might ask. Why Turkey's secularists can't stand to see anything Islamic, while the Western world has concerns only about the radical interpretations of the faith? Well, one needs to explore Turkey's century-old modern Islamophobia to answer that question. But that's the topic of another column.
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at May 5, 2007 10:32 AM
I am Jewish yet have always been loyal to Turkey. I even protested in front of the Armenian Embassy in Washington, DC with Azeris and Turks in the cold. Ask any Turkish person in DC that knows me and they will tell you that I am so pro-Turkish that they would consider me basically an English-speaking Turk. Yet to see all Jews denounced in this manner disturbs me. Jews are the most loyal minority group in Turkey. They are not like the Armenians, the Greeks, and the Kurds. On what grounds does this guy have to denounce them? It does not make any logical sense.
Posted by: Rachel Salomon at May 5, 2007 9:18 PM
blockquote>Why Turkey's secularists can't stand to see anything Islamic, while the Western world has concerns only about the radical interpretations of the faith?
Living in Sydney, Australia, and witnessing the enormous rumblings of trouble eminating from the rapidly growing regressive elements of our small Muslim population, we are quickly developing our own Islamophobia. I am very interested in Turkey's experience. At this point in time we are watching Turkey with interest, because the West is very naive and paralysed by multicultural madness that seeks to tolerate everything except overt terrorism.
"Ask the experienced, not the learned".
Posted by: Darren at May 6, 2007 5:50 AM
I am sure that Americans who read this article will quickly recall some of the most shameful piece of their history relating to "McCarthy Era" persecuting an innocent without a proof despite inconclusive or questionable evidence, and the level of threat posed by legal machine and society at large.
One can say "well this should be understandable during an election period". No it is not.
Because the mastermind and support behind this farce is blood sucking-media, Kemalist Bureaucracy and ever reigning military elite... not another political party or person.
Posted by: Haydar at May 9, 2007 5:00 AM
Is it wrong to have Jewish descent, even if the claims are true? Shouldn't that book be considered anti-semitic or racist? Why is it a problem to have Jewish ties for some and not enclosed for others? Wasn't Ataturk Jewish also?
Posted by: metin at May 9, 2007 8:25 AM
Apparently the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the US also has a problem with 'moderate Muslims'. Go here http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/05/film_review_islam_vs_islamism.php to read about a documentary that was canceled by PBS for being aesthetically inferior (you can see a clip of the film to make your own judgment.) Apparently it is politically incorrect at PBS to infer that moderate Muslims may need help battling the Islamists.
Posted by: Martin Bebow at May 11, 2007 4:22 PM
Ms Salomon
What do you mean when you say you are ‘loyal’ to Turkey? It seems to me you are saying you are willing to accept and promulgate the official views and ideology of the Turkish state, without reflection or criticism. That is not ‘loyalty’, that is slavery. Nor is ‘loyalty’ the demand of a democratic regime, it is the demand of a totalitarian one. What do you mean when you say Greeks and Armenians showed no ‘loyalty’ to Turkey? Turkey extinguished or expelled its Armenian and Greek populations, and not because they weren’t ‘loyal’, but because they weren’t Turkish.
I am astonished that you are so surprised by Turkish anti-Semitism, and I hope your discovery makes you reflect. Are you not familiar with the 1934 pogrom of Jews in Eastern Thrace; the property taxes and labour camps Turkish Jews – like Greeks and Armenians living in Turkey – were victims of during WW2; and don’t you know that the well-documented and well-planned pogrom in Istanbul in1955 was aimed not just at Greeks, but also at Jews and Armenians? It is a shame that you, as a Jew, should stand shoulder to shoulder with Turks and Azeris denying the Armenian genocide. You should understand Armenian pain and sensitivities. Are you sure you are not being used?
Posted by: alexander at May 14, 2007 12:25 AM
What kind of Islam teaches its followers to hate anyone with some kind of link to Judaism? Surely it cannoy be the Islam of Muhammad (s.a.w.).
Are you going to now promote a book that claims our beloved Prophet was part of an evil Jewish conspiracy because he married Umm al-Mu'mineen Safiyya and allowed Abdullah bin Salam to act as his adviser?
If this is the best of intellectualism Turkish Islam can offer, perhaps they need a few extra decades of martial law.
Posted by: Irfan Yusuf at May 15, 2007 7:53 AM
Woops, I just read the balance of your review and realised we are both on the same side!! This is what happens when one rushes to judgment.
Posted by: Irfan Yusuf at May 15, 2007 8:00 AM
Rachel Solomon,
I don't agree 100% with "Alexander" but I would say you are doing no favors to Turkey or the development of our country.
You are in fact voicing support for old and thankfully eroding policies of the government, many of which involve stifling our freedom of speech, and threats and harassment of academics and historians etc.
We don't need "friends" like that.
You are not "loyal" to Turkey.
Posted by: Nulifer at May 23, 2007 6:31 PM
Let's not forget how Buyukanit's supposed Judaism was ousted when his nomination for the country's top post was announced (see relevant Economist article). Or how well the Protokols and Mein Kampf sell in Turkey. Or that other masterpiece Iron Storm about a Turk nuking Washington. Or that other book where the Pope gets iced on his visti to Turkey. Or that literary masterpiece which gives a modern take on the siege of Vienna where Turkey ends up controlling most of Europe by 2050. Or...well you get the picture.
And yeah, I will agree with Alexander, a Jew working against the recognition of the Armenian Genocide is a pathetic creature indeed. Which probably doesn't reflect too well on the Jewish lobbyists who helped defeat no less than four motions to recognise the Genocide in the Congress and Senate (again you can look up the relevant story on the Economist), because Turkey is such a good ally to Israel. Which btw is, according to Mr. Erdogan's opinion*, a terrorist state.
* Said opinion was, of course, expressed in Turkish as his interpretation of Islam forbids him polluting his mind by learning foreign languages. But his is not a fundamentalist or anything.
Posted by: Yiannis at June 1, 2007 9:30 PM
I disagree with you mister Yiannis and Alexander.Because like any other country in the world Turkish government can make mistakes but you cannot claim that Turkey is a fascist country and just for that reason expelled Greeks and Armenians.The main reason was the crimes commited by the Armenian and Greek guerillas especially in the years of WWI.There may be mistakes done by the then-government of the Ottoman Empire such as expelling innocent Armenians and Greeks too ; but how can you be sure that who is innocent and who is not in the years of a world war?As a citizen of Turkey I do not have any biases towards neither Greeks nor Armenians but I wish they hadn't betrayed to the country in which they had lived in peace for long years.But whatever happened in the history we give you olive branch and say forget the contra blamings and look ahead to the future.We don't need to see you as enemies ,i hope you too.
Posted by: Murat at June 2, 2007 12:33 AM
;)The one who says it cannot be done should never interrupt the one who is doing it.
Posted by: sadie at July 7, 2007 9:03 PM
when dealing with the insane, it is best to pretend to be sane.
Posted by: steve at July 26, 2007 1:43 PM
I am an Indonesian, What do you think that in deed erdogan was a part of Ikhawanul Muslimin or Hamas????
Posted by: Me at March 19, 2008 3:57 PM
This book is a typical "Extremist Secular Turks" books! Secular Turks are very strange and extremist people! They are absolute facist monger morons! Turkey is OTTOMAN and Turkey is MUSLIM, FACE IT, and stop trying to run from your own Truth and history, Turks should be PROUD to be MUSLIMS, they brought Islam to Europe..Without the Ottomans, there would be no Istanbul...
AKP are the perfect model for a Moderate Secular goverment *who happen to be Muslims*
The people of Turkey spoke and they want ISLAM and they want AKP! so the Secular Turks who are ashamed of their own history should go move to another country, or go kiss some more European butt while the Europeans spit on them!
Posted by: Modern Pharaoh at June 20, 2008 8:48 AM
Islam itself is a jewish conspiracy. Not only Islam but christianity also. To humiliate the valiant Arabs, Jews send Mohameed also called the Prophet. Their idea was to Judaise the valiant Arabs so they can adopt Jewish heroes as their own. For ex: they consider moses as hero who is nothing but an ancient ben gurion, they also consider david as hero who is nothing but ancient Ariel Sharon.But they did not introduce Judaism per see but Judaised the Arab people through a semetic religion called Islam.In west Jews are failure because Western people rediscovered ZEUS after Renaissance
Posted by: aditya at July 1, 2009 12:54 PM