'if you Turks are afraid of Islam, what ... the Netherlands?'

November 8, 2008
From Jihad Watch

Arie Oostlander is the EU Rapporteur for Turkey. Here's what he said in an interview given on 18 November 2005 in Arnhem, about his work as that EU Rapporteur for Turkey:

"My approach was, strict, fair, and open. There are very humane consequences to Turkish EU membership, if Turkey is really able to change into a constitutional state. And I really believe that people can change. It is very Christian to believe that, and very un-Christian not to believe that. …

Turkish nationalism, the education of judges and the police, the violation of individual human rights; - all this has to change in Turkey. When Turks told me they were afraid to push the army to the barracks because this vacuum might lead to fundamentalist Muslims taking over, I said, 'if you Turks are afraid of Islam, what then should I tell my constituency in the Netherlands? And if you are right, then there is indeed a structural problem between Turkey and the EU."

Don't you think you should have asked that before opening your borders to Islam? Hugh Fitzgerald ...

The fact is that the Qur'an is taken as the literal word of God not by a handful of marginal Muslims, but by all Muslims other than the Muslim-for-identification-purposes-only Muslims. And because of this, and because there can be no rearrangement or reordering of the Hadith, and no changes made to the life of Muhammad, the Model of Conduct (uswa hasana), the Perfect Man (al-insan al-kamil), Islam will forever remain Islam: immutable despite the Arie Oostlanders of this world who are so deeply convinced that "everyone can change." (But Islam is not an "everyone"; Islam is a Total Belief-System). If Arie Oostlander had meant that Muslims can cease to be Muslims, that would be one thing. Then he would have to tell us in what way, by what means, those Muslims would cease to believe what Muslims have believed for 1350 years. He would especially have to explain how they would give up believing in Muhammad as a Model for all time, and in the duty of participating, directly or indirectly, in the "struggle" or Jihad to remove all obstacles to the spread and then the dominance of Islam...

But this is not what Arie Oostlander did, because, you see, Arie Oostlander is, like everyone else, non-Muslim as well as Muslim, incapable of changing or "reforming" Islam. It has not been done. Ataturk did not "reform" Islam. Ataturk systematically weakened Islam, as a political and social force, in Turkey...

Notice how Oostlander himself pooh-poohs the worries of secular Turks, Turks who are supporters of Kemalism, who worry constantly about the resurgence of Islam among the primitive masses who in all Muslim countries form the overwhelming majority...

He's a perfect example of the mentality one can see all over the Western world, among political and media elites (and in such places as the World Council of Churches): people who cannot look at the evidence, cannot be logical, because to do so would force them to conclusions that for them would be too painful. And the threat then recognized would require too much effort, and what's more, ironically, require those "Christians" of Arie Oostlander's same ilk to "change" their assumptions about all kinds of things, and especially about the supposed benefits of every kind of unexamined "diversity" and "multiculturalism."

This Mr. Arie Oostlander can't do. He can't, you see, discover new things, recognize new threats. He can't change in that way. It's just not in him.

Erdogan warns of terror wave if EU rejects membership

December 13, 2004

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, the Turkish Prime Minister, has told European Union leaders that they will pay a heavy price in continued and escalating violence from Islamic extremists if the EU rejects Turkey as a member and confirms itself as a Christian club.

“Accepting a country that has brought together Islam and democracy will bring about harmony between civilisations. If, on the other hand, it is not welcomed, the world will have to put up with the present situation,” he said, referring to terrorism by such groups as al-Qaeda — whose local affiliates hit Turkey last year, bombing the British consulate and three other targets in Istanbul.

“That is the very clear and present danger and it is all around us today. There is nothing we can do if the EU feels that it can live with being simply a Christian club . . . but if these countries burn their bridges with the rest of the world, history will not forgive them.”

Mr Erdogan’s powerful warning came just days before the EU summit that will decide whether to start formal accession talks with Turkey and against a furious European debate about the effects of incorporating Turkey’s 70 million, mainly Muslim, population into the Union.

'Moderate' Erdogan using Al Qaeda to justify entry into EU. Yes, that's moderate.

Turkey's Islamists Inspire a New Climate of Fear

August 2, 2008

Government surveillance of AK Party critics and leaks to media of personal phone conversations have created a climate of fear. There is concern among some liberals that the country is becoming a police state. The foundation of a healthy democracy -- the right to dissent and hold an elected government accountable -- is gradually being undermined.

When asked about mass wire-tapping, Minister of Transportation Binali Yildirim gave a Kafkaesque response: "It is not possible to prevent being listened to; the only way is not to talk [on the phone]. If there is nothing illegal in our actions, we should not be concerned about such things."

Some examples of recent intrusive practices in Turkey include the appearance on YouTube of voice recordings of prominent figures either from the military or antigovernment circles. Several anti-Islamist senior military officers have reportedly resigned over the past few years when faced with the possibility that their private conversations would be leaked. The leaks involve some top-secret military documents, so they are also highly illegal and might pose a serious security breach for the NATO alliance.

In this context, several aspects of the so-called Ergenekon trial are worth highlighting...

The message that many people took from the indictment is that those critical of the government are officially on notice...

... the timing of this case, as well as the movie-like aspects of the indictment, have aroused suspicions that the AKP or its supporters are behind a campaign of intimidation -- and that they are striking back in the legal arena against the same people who tried to ban the party...

While AKP and its supporters claim the two cases are not related, those in opposition see the two closely linked, and point to the headline of the strongly antimilitary daily Taraf the next day: "Founded in 1923, cleansed in 2008" -- i.e., it declared the collapse of Mustafa Kemal's secular Turkish Republic...

... the leading opposition paper Cumhuriyet seems to be a key target. The phones of its senior journalists have been tapped, and some conversations deemed anti-AKP leaked to the press ...

If ... it turns out to be mostly a show trial, then those concerned about Turkish democracy and rule of law need to reconsider where Turkey is headed.

Turkey sounds stuffed. The Islamists finally have control of the military. Ataturk sold the secularists a lemon. They shouldn't have listened to him. When the Ottoman empire was dissolved, secular Turks (if there were any at the time) should have demanded their own state and separated themselves from Islam, permanently. Ataturk was a fool to think he could restrain Islam. And so are all the Western leaders who are starting to entertain similar ideas.

Coup plot suspects to stand trial, Turkey

July 26, 2008

EIGHTY-six people accused of plotting to overthrow Turkey's Islamist-rooted Government will go on trial on October 20, media reports said today...

The probe has targeted several senior journalists and academics known to be harsh government critics, fuelling accusations that it is being deliberately stretched to silence opponents.

Some say the probe has become a means of revenge against secularists after a prosecutor asked the Constitutional Court to outlaw Erdogan's Justice and Development Party for undermining Turkey's secular system.

Turkey in danger of an "intolerant" Islamic takeover

July 28 2008

A senior Turkish prosecutor has raised tensions ... by warning that it is in danger of an "intolerant" Islamic takeover.

In an interview with the Guardian, Omer Faruk Eminagaoglu, chairman of the association of judges and prosecutors (Yarsav) and deputy to Turkey's chief prosecutor, said the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) was seeking a system of sharia law that would destroy the country's secular system and transform it into an Islamic state.

He claimed the government had exposed its true agenda in a series of measures, including attempts to establish halal standards in food production, signing bilateral agreements underwritten by "Islamic laws" with fellow Muslim countries, increasing religious education at state schools and trying to allow female students to wear headscarves at university.

The moves were aimed at reviving an Islamic consciousness dormant since the end of the Ottoman Empire, Eminagaoglu warned, leading to a religious society where secular lifestyles were discouraged and women denied equal status...

Eminagaoglu insisted the case heeded EU regulations and said European critics understood neither Turkey nor Islam. "Islam is not like Christianity. It doesn't just aim to be practised in the realm of belief but also to regulate and rule the state," he said.

Robert Spencer: Turkey's Dilemma

July 31, 2008

The Turkish court has good reason to suspect that the AKP is working to undermine Turkish secularism and impose Islamic law over the country. According to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), while Mayor of Istanbul in the 1990s (and a prominent member of the Welfare Party), Turkey’s current Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan railed against Turkish secularism. “If the people want it,” he declared, “of course secularism will go away. You cannot rule this people by force; you don't have the power to do that. This [i.e. secularism] cannot work in spite of the people.” And the people, he suggested, wanted Islamic law: “But the fact is that 99% of the people of this country are Muslims. You cannot be both secular and a Muslim! You will either be a Muslim, or secular!...For them to exist together is not a possibility! Therefore, it is not possible for a person who says ‘I am a Muslim’ to go on and say ‘I am secular too.’ And why is that? Because Allah, the creator of the Muslim, has absolute power and rule!”

His saying that Allah “has absolute power and rule” was not merely an expression of piety. Islam has historically always been a political and social system as well as an individual religious faith. Islamic law, Sharia, is a comprehensive system governing every aspect of individual behavior. It also contains laws for the governance of the state and the ordering of society. If it is imposed in Turkey, women and non-Muslims would be subjugated under a system of institutionalized discrimination; the freedom of conscience and of speech would be restricted; and the relatively Westernized aspects of Turkish society would wither away.

Court rejects closure of ruling Islamist party: Turkey

Jul 31, 2008

The Constitutional Court on Wednesday ruled against closing the governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party) for having turned into a "focal point" of anti-secular activities but ruled to impose partial financial penalties on the party...

Six of the court's 11 judges ruled for the party's closure; one vote short of the number necessary to actually close down the party. Kılıç said this was a "serious warning" to the AK Party. Only Kılıç himself voted against any sanctions against the AK Party, while four of the other judges voted to cut Treasury aid. He also said he believed the AK Party "would make the necessary analysis and learn the necessary lesson." Judge Kılıç started his announcement criticizing Turkey's politicians for not passing a regulation that would make it more difficult to open closure cases...

"We would like to see this resolved through negotiation between political parties without launching a suit," he said. He called on politicians to make the necessary legal changes to avoid a similar crisis in the future. He also called on them to work to ensure the conditions where all segments can live together in the society and make the effort to relieve the tension prevailing in the country...

Their power struggle with the AK Party flared up in January when the government lifted a ban on female students wearing the headscarf on university campuses. The Constitutional Court later annulled the reform.

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But the ruling seemed to have something for everyone, clearing the air politically and allowing even Turkey's most adamant secularists to claim it as a victory.

"AKP can no longer continue with its previous line in politics," said Onur Oymen, the deputy chairman of the secular opposition Republican People's Party. "They have been granted a chance. In order to make the best of it, they need to go through some serious self-critique."...

Baskin Oran, a professor of international relations at Ankara University, said the ruling was a sign that Turkey's judiciary, long believed to be well in the sphere of the secular establishment, seemed to have broken ranks.

The three-way stalemate continues: Islamists, secularists and Kurds.

Video: AK case highlights Turkey’s political tensions

July, 2008

The Turkish chief prosecutor’s decision to seek a ban on the ruling AK Party and banish its senior figures to the political wilderness has exposed the deep divisions running through Turkish society.

Representing the secular establishment, the prosecution maintains the AK is trying to impose an Islamist agenda on Turkey — a claim it forcefully denies.