Turkey"s Erdogan: There Is No Moderate Islam

Authord by Burak Bekdil via The Gatestone Institute,

• "Erdogan"s claims that "There is no Islamic terror" have left several Islamic terror organizations heart-broken. A press release from al-Qaeda"s press office read: "The prime minister"s remarks are very discouraging. We are doing our best!"" – Zaytung (satire website).


• In 2010, Barack Obama referred to Turkey as a "great Muslim democracy". Obama should have seen that a democracy is a democracy -- without any religious prefix. He would see in later years the difference between a democracy and a Muslim democracy.

Turkey"s strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, may have exhibited all possible features of political Islam since he came to power fifteen years ago, but at least he has been bold and honest about his understanding of Islamism: There is no moderate Islam, he recently said again.

This comment does not mark any U-turn, or a radical deviation from his earlier freshman-self back in the 2000s. The problem is that his Western "allies" have stubbornly preferred to turn a blind eye to his poster-child Islamism. Worse, they still do.

Several years ago, Erdogan"s ideological-self clearly stated that "Turkey is not a country where moderate Islam prevails." In the same speech, his pragmatic-self -- the one that wanted to look pretty to a chorus of Western praise -- added that, "We are Muslims who have found a middle road". But which "middle road?"

In the several years that followed, Erdogan proudly exhibited another feature of Islamism in a make-believe assertion: Muslims never do wrong; if a Muslim does wrong then he is not Muslim.

In 2009, when Sudanese paramilitaries committed acts of genocide against the population of Darfur, and Sudan"s president, Omar al-Bashir, was guilty of the crimes for which he was indicted by the International Criminal Court, Erdogan simply said: "It is not possible for those who belong to the Muslim faith to carry out genocide." Instead, he said, Israeli "war crimes" in Gaza are worse than anything that has taken place in Sudan. As he said that, victims in Sudan had already numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

In February, at a meeting in Ankara, Erdogan slammed German Chancellor Angela Merkel"s phrase "Islamist terror". He angrily said to his guest, "Islam means "peace," it can"t come with "terror"".

When Erdogan (then prime minister) famously claimed that "there is no Islamic terror" in 2010, the satire website Zaytung fabricated a story, the lead paragraph of which read: "Erdogan"s claims that "There is no Islamic terror" have left several Islamic terror organizations heart-broken. A press release from al-Qaeda"s press office read: "The prime minister"s remarks are very discouraging. We are doing our best!"".

In 2011, when Hamas" charter called for the annihilation of the State of Israel by means of violence, Erdogan claimed that "Hamas is not a terrorist organization." Instead, he said: "I don"t see Hamas as a terror organization. Hamas is a political party -- it emerged as a political party that appeared as a political party. It is a resistance movement trying to protect its country under occupation".

In February, at a meeting in Ankara, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed German Chancellor Angela Merkel"s phrase "Islamist terror". He angrily said to his guest, "Islam means "peace," it can"t come with "terror"". (Image source: Ruptly video screenshot)

In a similar show of ideological wishful thinking, Erdogan has often come out in defense of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, despite international pressure against the movement, particularly from the United States, which has debated listing the group as a terrorist organization. Erdogan said he did not consider the Brotherhood one because "it is not an armed group, but is in actual fact an ideological organization".

The Obama administration sounded as if it were trying to deal with the Turkey it wished it had, instead of dealing with the Turkey it had.

In a 2010 interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Obama referred to Turkey as a "great Muslim democracy". Obama should have seen that a democracy is a democracy -- without any religious prefix. He would see in later years the difference between a democracy and a Muslim democracy.

But it took Obama many years to see that. In 2011, Tom Donilon, Obama"s former national security advisor, said that the U.S. president regarded Erdogan as "a man of principle, and also a man of action." In a 2012 Time interview, Obama named Erdogan as one of the five world leaders with whom he had the strongest bonds.

Seven years after Obama"s pathetic diagnosis about the kind of democracy Erdogan brought to an otherwise secular country, the Turkish president said that "There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. There is only one Islam." Worse, he claimed that the term "moderate Islam" had been fabricated by the West in order to weaken Islam. From the Muslim democracy to the former U.S. president, with love...

The U.S. ambassador to Ankara from 2003 to 2005, Eric Edelman, said, "We basically have turned a blind eye to Erdogan"s drive towards an authoritarian, one-man system of rule in Turkey". The journalist Jeffrey Goldberg wrote in The Atlantic"s April 2016 issue:

"Early on, Obama saw Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, the president of Turkey, as the sort of moderate Muslim leader who would bridge the divide between East and West — but Obama now considers him a failure and an authoritarian..."

The Trump administration has two options: It can either deal with the Turkey it has or the Turkey it wished it had.

Fox News Anchor Heather Nauert Named State Department Spokeswoman

Confirming a Bloomberg report from early March, on Monday the State Department issued a statement that Former Fox News anchor and correspondent Heather Nauert will be the new U.S. State Department spokeswoman.

"The Department of State is pleased to welcome Heather Nauert as the new State Department spokesperson," the announcement said.

"Nauert comes to the department with more than 15 years of experience as an anchor and correspondent covering both foreign and domestic news and events, including the 9/11 terror attacks, the war in Iraq, and the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Heather"s media experience and long interest in international affairs will be invaluable as she conveys the administration"s foreign policy priorities to the American people and the world."

Taking the job that CNBC"s John Harwood would have been delighted to land had Hillary Clinton won, Nauert reportedly accepted the job last month although it was not confirmed until now.

Nauert has been a news anchor on "Fox & Friends" since 2012 and has been with the Fox News and local New York Fox affiliate Fox-5 for most of the past 20 years, save for a two-year stint at ABC News from 2005-2007. Before announcing his candidacy, President Trump had appeared on the Fox morning show as a weekly guest over the course of several years. 

During a recent press conference, Trump specifically praised "Fox & Friends" for having "very honorable people."

Nauert"s hiring would represent the second Fox journalist to jump to the State Department recently. Jonathan Wachtel, who served as the network"s United Nations correspondent, was named spokesman for the U.S. mission to the U.N. on Feb. 25.

Nauert graduated from Mt. Vernon College for Women and earned her master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

'Terrified' CTO of Uber, Thuan Pham, Compares Trump to Tragedies in Darfur, Does Not Accept Him as His Leader

If I had to craft a satirical letter about a butthurt mega rich silicon valley executive complaining over the Trump victory, I could not have done a better job than the real letter the CTO from Uber, Thuan Pham, sent to his fellow employees.

In what could only be described as a rift at Uber, in light of their CEO, Travis Kalanick,  agreeing to join Trump"s select group of business advisers, Mr. Pham has made it clear that he does not agree with his CEO, and he most certainly does not accept America"s democratically elected leader, Donald J. Trump.

Here is the email Pham sent out to his employees, which is now spreading across the internet like an infectious form of cancer.
 

Likewise, I could hardly sleep at night. I am still shocked and numbed from the absolutely illogical outcomes of this election. When the election outcome certifies the dumbing down of America, the racist, divisive and hateful attitudes, the politics of obstruction and destruction, our country has taken a huge step backward that might take decades to course correct (especially when it comes to the make up of the Supreme Court justices and the issues that will come before them).
 
It is absolutely illogical and insane to believe that we can solve the hardest diplomatic, policy, and societal problems by putting in charge a person who doesn"t know much about any such thing. How can we sleep peaceful at night for the next 4 years knowing that the biggest societal problems rests on his lack of intellectual curiosity, judgment and temperament? It is indeed terrifying! This is an emperor with no clothe [sic], and things will get very ugly before his reign is over.
 
We can weep at this momentary loss, but we cannot allow ourselves to wallow in misery for long. We need to call up our inner resolve to get back up and keep fighting for a better world. The fight will be hard and long, but we just have to do it. In two years, all the people who were conned into voting for this person will see the harm he will have done and there will be an opening to move the Senate toward the blue side to check his power. And then we"ll have to work hard to make sure the next president in 4 years will be a Democrat and wins in a landslide.
 
Unless this ignoramus triggers a nuclear holocaust that wipes out civilization as we know it, the long arc of history will continue to bend toward more social justice and equality and a better lives [sic] for people around the world. We are already living in a far more tolerant and inclusive world today than 50 years ago, than 100 years ago, etc... And the quality of life and comfort for an average person today already far exceeds the Kings and Queens just a few centuries ago (we have telephone, electricity, modern medicines, car & plane transportation, etc.). But we all need to keep charging forward to create and fight for the future that we want, technologically and socially.
 
Occasionally, the world takes a step backward with such things as world wars, Mao Tse-dong, Khmer Rouge, Darfur, W. Bush and his wars, etc., and now this. But I am optimistic that the world will correct itself, even if [sic] takes another catastrophe for American [sic] to usher in the next Obama as our president. In the mean time, for the next four years, I will not even utter the name of this deplorable person because I do not accept him as my leader. I will instead do everything I can to help defeat him and his destructive agenda over the next few years.
 
Time to put on our Champion"s Mindset and pick ourselves off the floor. There is much work that we can do to help make this world a better place, through what we do here at work and in our society.

/Thuan

 
In case you"re wondering, yes Thuan Pham did just compare the deaths of over 500,000 people in Darfur to the most heinous event of Donald Trump being democratically elected President of the United States. Or, even better, Pham, in his infinite wisdom, put Mao Tse-dong, a man responsible for the deaths of at least 45 million people during the Chinese civil war, on the same playing field as both George W. Bush and Donald Trump -- whose only crime, hitherto, was getting elected President of the United States with the promise to make America great again.

You cannot make this stuff up.

During the last UberExchange program, Pham offered this advice to aspiring entrepreneurs.

1. Money will come when you do something that impacts a lot of people. If you chase only money, you will be really unhappy.


2. Building something that can impact and change people’s lives across the world will always keep you motivated.


3. Don’t take yourself too seriously and you will not hesitate to take bold risks in life. Have fun along the way.


4. Give back. Developing people will really make you satisfied at the end of it. Developing young ones in your teams who can lead and impact hundreds of lives – even after you’re gone – will leave you satisfied.

 
Great advice, especially #3.

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