{"id":17069,"date":"2018-04-23T11:18:47","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T08:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onisilos.gr\/?p=17069"},"modified":"2018-04-24T15:29:03","modified_gmt":"2018-04-24T12:29:03","slug":"the-islamization-of-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onisilos.gr\/?p=17069","title":{"rendered":"The Islamization of Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"

By <\/b>Rauf Baker*<\/b><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

April 22, 2018<\/span><\/p>\n

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 805, April 22, 2018<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan is focusing his Islamization policy on the education system in his bid to raise a \u201cpious generation\u201d. \u201cJihad\u201d has become a frequent reference in the Turkish regime\u2019s rhetoric, while Syrians in the country and in areas controlled by Turkish troops in northern Syria are eating off the same plate. The international community should act to stop a \u201cTurkish bin Laden\u201d in the making and al-Qaeda-like authoritarian rule.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The Turkish regime is gradually transforming into a developed, complicated, and more dangerous version of the al-Qaeda organization. The rhetoric and approach seem convergent or even identical. The difference is that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan is leading a country of significant geopolitical importance, not a militant group scattered across Afghanistan\u2019s mountains.<\/span><\/p>\n

If al-Qaeda succeeded in spreading fear across the globe through its terrorist operations, one can only imagine the extreme damage Erdo\u011fan can cause to the MENA region and even the world, particularly in view of his increasing political paranoia and totalitarianism. As he seeks to stay in power indefinitely following a referendum that granted him sweeping powers to run the country largely uncontested, Erdo\u011fan is trying to leave a legacy that will last for decades. To that end, he is using the education system as a repository in which to sow seeds to be harvested later.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Islamization of the state has been going on systematically, quietly, and slowly for many years, but its pace has increased since the coup attempt in July 2016, with a focus on the education system. Last year, the ruling Muslim Brotherhood-inspired Justice and Development Party (AKP) led by Erdo\u011fan made substantial changes to school curricula, amending more than 170 topics. The Ministry of Education eliminated evolutionary concepts such as \u201cnatural selection\u201d and added subjects related to \u201cjihad\u201d. Erdo\u011fan\u2019s government fired more than 33,000 teachers and closed scores of schools over claims that they had ties with those involved in the coup attempt. At the same time, it increased the number of religious schools (\u201cimam hatip\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n

The ministry described the changes as \u201can emphasis on a values-based education\u201d that promotes Erdo\u011fan\u2019s goal of raising a \u201cpious generation\u201d. AKP MP Ahmet Hamdi \u00c7aml\u0131 stated last year that \u201cit is useless to teach math to students who do not know jihad\u201d. Prior to the overhaul, the number of students in 537 religious secondary schools reached 270,000 in 2012. In 2017, there were 1,408 and 635,000 students. When we add the 122,000 students attending religious schools in the open education system, the number of students in all religious schools in Turkey reaches 757,000.<\/span><\/p>\n

Erdo\u011fan has noticeably increased the number of Islamic references in his speeches. He made \u201cjihad\u201d the fountainhead of the war on the Kurdish city of Afrin in Syria, using verses from the \u201cAl-Fath\u201dchapter of the Koran. That chapter uses the Prophet Muhammad\u2019s victory over his enemies to justify military operations. Friday prayer sermons called for \u201cjihad\u201d against the Kurds. When the Turkish army captured Afrin, Erdo\u011fan did not hesitate to call his troops \u201cIslam\u2019s last army\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two months ago, during a televised congress of his party, Erdo\u011fan invited a little girl in military uniform onto the stage and told her she would be \u201cmartyred\u201d if she were killed while fighting. Several weeks ago, Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozda\u011f described Erdo\u011fan as a leader \u201cwho exerts himself for the sake of God\u201d. Last year, \u015eevki Y\u0131lmaz, a columnist for the government mouthpiece \u201cYeni Akit\u201d and a close confidante of Erdo\u011fan\u2019s, described al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden as a \u201cnational hero\u201d. Y\u0131lmaz also said voting \u201cyes\u201d to the constitutional referendum to replace the parliamentary system with a presidential one would be to act as the \u201cAbabeel\u201d did. In the Koran, the Ababeel were heavenly birds sent by God to throw rocks on an army that marched upon Mecca intending to demolish the Kaaba.<\/span><\/p>\n

All the above comes in parallel with a growing number of public attacks on women under the pretext of that they are wearing \u201cinappropriate clothes\u201d. A video circulated on December 31, 2016 showed two bearded young men handing out leaflets to passersby in the city of Izmir on the prohibition of New Year\u2019s celebrations in Islam.<\/span><\/p>\n

The issue does not only affect Turks. Around half a million Syrian students in Turkey are influenced by Erdo\u011fan\u2019s education policy. Authorities ignore, and sometimes encourage, practices of Syrian school administrations in Turkish cities that focus on religious topics, employ veiled women only, prohibit teachers from wearing nail polish, and enforce a strict Islamic dress code for female students.<\/span><\/p>\n

The picture is similar in schools in Turkish-controlled areas in northern Syria, where the Turkish state is following a policy of Islamization and Turkification. Many of these schools are named after Turkish military officers killed during battles in Syria, while the Turkish language is imposed as the language of education. Around 170,000 students in these areas go to schools that have been restored through a campaign called \u201cTake Your Brother\u2019s Hand\u201d. Aid and education material for the campaign were provided by IHH, an organization linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and which was the owner and operator of the three flotilla ships that were involved in the convoy meant to breach the sanctions slapped on Hamas in Gaza in May 2010. IHH has also shipped weapons to Islamic factions associated with al-Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood in northern Syria, according to leaders of some factions and Russia\u2019s late UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin.<\/span><\/p>\n

The rise of jihadists in Syria and Iraq, partly as a result of official Turkish facilitation, has provided a fertile environment for radicalism to grow in a Turkish society already divided amid complaints of marginalization and political exclusion, with the arbitrary dismissal and prosecution of nearly 152,000 civil servants and teachers accused of sympathizing with the coup, based on UN reports. This could drag Turkey into civil war. It should be recalled that there are around 25 million weapons in the country, at least 85% of which are unlicensed. It is thus not surprising to witness incidents like the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Ankara in 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n

If the international community does not deal with the fact that Erdo\u011fan is turning into a Turkish bin Laden who seeks to fulfill his resurrectional vision, it will have to face the dire consequences with which he threatened Europeans last year: that they \u201cwill not be able to walk safely on the streets across the world\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

*Rauf Baker is a journalist and researcher with expertise on Europe and the Middle East.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

source:https:\/\/besacenter.org\/perspectives-papers\/islamization-turkey\/<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rauf Baker* April 22, 2018 BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 805, April 22, 2018 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan is focusing his Islamization policy on the education … <\/p>\n

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