The West's Steadfast Misunderstanding of Turkey and Islam

by Uzay Bulut
December 24, 2017 at 4:30 am

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    Fundamentalist Muslims in Turkey -- and elsewhere -- do not see
jihad, forced conversions or other forms of persecution against
non-Muslims as criminal. On the contrary, their religious scriptures
openly command them "to chop off heads and fingers, and kill infidels
wherever they may be hiding," among many other openly violent
teachings.

    Hence, what the rest of the world would describe as "genocide,"
"massacre," "terrorism," or "ethnic cleansing" is viewed by radical
Muslims as a "righteous" way of spreading Islam and of liberating
kafir (infidel) lands. Erdogan is clearly such a radical, which is why
he takes pride in his country's criminal history, while chastising and
rewriting that of other states, such as Israel.

    The West's misunderstanding of this knows no bounds.

Since the Trump administration's official recognition of Jerusalem as
the capital of Israel, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been
ramping up his anti-Israel rhetoric, calling the country "a state of
occupation and terrorism."

This is worse than ironic. The Jews are not "occupiers" in their
ancient native homeland, where they have lived for more than 3,000
years. Turks, on the other hand, 3,000 years ago were most likely in
Central Asia, nowhere near the area that is now Turkey. To add
hypocrisy to injury, Erdogan also said about his own country, "Let it
be known that there has never been any holocaust or genocide in this
nation's past. There's no campaign of ethnic cleansing, massacres,
persecution, or torture in this nation's history."

Oh really?

The cities in today's Turkey -- most of which are in Anatolia (Asia
Minor) and the Armenian highlands -- were actually built by Greeks,
Armenians, and Assyrians; and Jews have lived there since
antiquity. Turkic jihadists from Central Asia invaded and conquered
the Christian Byzantine Empire in the eleventh century, thereby paving
the way for the gradual Turkification and Islamization of Anatolia and
Armenia. The Ottoman invasion of Constantinople (Istanbul) in the
fifteenth century brought about the complete destruction of the
Byzantine Empire.

Throughout those years, many Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians in the
region converted to Islam to escape death, exile, or the exorbitant
"protection" tax, the jizya, imposed on non-Muslims. As a result, only
around 0.3% of Turkey's population remains Christian or Jewish at this
time.

According to Dr. Bill Warner, director of the Center for the Study of
Political Islam:

    "The process of annihilation [of Greek Christian civilization in
Anatolia] took centuries. Some people think that when Islam invaded,
the Kafirs [non-Muslims] had the choice of conversion or death. No,
absolutely not. Sharia law was put into place and the Christian
dhimmis continued to have their 'protected' status as People of the
Book who lived under the Sharia law. The dhimmi paid heavy taxes,
could not testify in court, hold a position of authority over Muslims
and was humiliated by social rules. A dhimmi had to step aside for the
Muslim, offer him his seat, could not carry a weapon and defer to a
Muslim in every way. In all matters of society the dhimmi had to yield
to the Muslim. Over the centuries, the degradation, lack of rights and
the dhimmi tax caused the Christian to convert. It is the Sharia that
destroys the dhimmis.

    "Today, Turkey is 99.7% Muslim. The Christian and Greek
civilization of Anatolia is gone. It is annihilated.

    "What is tragic is that it seems that no one knows or cares..."

Even today, expansionist Islamic raids against non-Muslim peoples have
been and are accompanied by mass murder, rape, sex slavery, forced
conversions, looting, plundering and deportations, by Islamic State,
Boko Haram and others.

The goal of this jihad is to expand Islam and submit people worldwide
to sharia [Islamic law] and Islamic supremacy. Once under Islamic rule
-- such as during the Ottoman Empire -- Christians and Jews become
dhimmis: third-class, "tolerated" citizens forced to pay a tax in
exchange for "protection." No matter how much money they pay, however,
dhimmis are never allowed the same religious rights or freedoms as
Muslims.

This is something that Turkish school children are not
taught. Instead, they learn in school about the "glorious" Ottomans,
and how bestowing dhimmi status on non-Muslims was an example of
Ottoman mercy, justice, and compassion -- not a tool for humiliating
and enslaving them.

Far more recently, as Erdogan knows but aggressively denies, Turkish
regimes committed their greatest attacks on Anatolian Christians: the
1914-1923 genocide against Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians
(Syriacs/Chaldeans). Sadly, there has been no public protest in Turkey
against the government's refusal to acknowledge the genocide, in which
at least three million Christians were killed.

There are several reasons for this:

State propaganda

Turks are continually exposed to the denial of the genocide in school,
the media, and in parliament. Millions of Turks have been brainwashed
to believe that what took place was not genocide, but rather a
legitimate act of self-defense against "treacherous" Armenian, Greek,
and Assyrian elements.

Myths about Turkish nationhood

According to official myths, the Turks have never wronged or
victimized any other people; it is they who have been wronged and
victimized throughout history. As a result, according to these myths,
any and all violent actions they may have committed were carried out
in self-defense.

Economic concerns

Turkey fears what it calls derogatorily as the Armenians' "Four T"
Plan: Tan#t#m, Tan#nma, Tazminat ve Toprak (Propaganda, Recognition,
Compensation, and Territory). The government worries that if the
Armenians are successful in their efforts to obtain international
recognition of the genocide, they will demand money and land. This
concern is shared by those who inherited property seized from the
victims of the genocide. Such Turks fear losing the wealth they
amassed through the spoils of mass murder.

Islamic culture

The political doctrine of Islam, which was largely responsible for the
Christian genocide, still plays a role in Turkey's denial of it.

In his contribution to a recently released collection of essays on the
topic -- "Genocide in the Ottoman Empire: Armenians, Assyrians, and
Greeks, 1913-1923," edited by Professor George N. Shirinian --
historian Suren Manukyan writes that the planners of the Armenian
genocide:

    "... activated social forces by the policies they pursued,
including the proclamation of jihad at the beginning of World War I,
to mobilize religious fanaticism among the population of the empire.

    "After the proclamation of jihad on November 14, 1914, the killing
of Armenians was seen to bear legitimacy in religious terms. In many
areas, clerics led the columns of Muslims and blessed them for
punishing the unbelievers... One slogan was repeated everywhere: 'God,
make their children orphans, make widows of their wives... and give
their property to Muslims.' In addition to this prayer, legitimization
of plunder, murder, and abduction took the following form: 'it is
licit for Muslims to take the infidels' property, life and women.'"

Turkish regimes committed their greatest attacks on Anatolian
Christians during the 1914-1923 genocide against Greeks, Armenians,
and Assyrians (Syriacs/Chaldeans). Sadly, there has been no public
protest in Turkey against the government's refusal to acknowledge the
genocide, in which at least three million Christians were
killed. Pictured above: Armenian civilians, escorted by Ottoman
soldiers, marched through Harput, April 1915. (Image source: American
Red Cross/Wikimedia Commons)

The Ottoman Tanzimat reforms in the nineteenth century had "abolished"
the dhimmi status accorded to non-Muslim subjects. Regardless of this
official change, non-Muslims continued to face various forms of
institutional discrimination. Similarly, when the Republic of Turkey
was established in 1923, non-Muslims no longer possessed the legal
status as dhimmis, but their unofficial dhimmitude continued, if not
intensified.

In 1934, there was an anti-Jewish pogrom in eastern Thrace; in
1941-1942, there was an attempt to enlist and enslave all non-Muslim
males in the Turkish military -- including the elderly and mentally
ill -- to force them to work under horrendous conditions in labor
battalions; in 1942, a Wealth Tax was imposed to eliminate Christians
and Jews from the economy; in 1955, there was an anti-Greek pogrom in
Istanbul; and in 1964, Greeks were forcefully expelled from
Turkey. All of the above contributed to the previous ethnic cleansing
of Turkish Christians and Jews.

Not only has the Turkish government not recognized, apologized for or
given reparations for any such incidents in its history, but there is
little media coverage of the current intimidation of and violence
against Christians, Jews, and Yazidis in Turkey.

In addition, fundamentalist Muslims in Turkey -- and elsewhere -- do
not see jihad, forced conversions or other forms of persecution
against non-Muslims as criminal. On the contrary, their religious
scriptures openly command them "to chop off heads and fingers and kill
infidels wherever they may be hiding," among many other openly violent
teachings.

Hence, what the rest of the world would describe as "genocide,"
"massacre," "persecution," or "ethnic cleansing" is viewed by radical
Muslims as a "righteous" way of spreading Islam and of liberating
kafir (infidel) lands. Erdogan is clearly such a radical, which is why
he takes pride in his country's criminal history, while chastising and
rewriting that of other states, such as Israel.

The West's misunderstanding of all this knows no bounds.



Uzay Bulut, born and raised a Muslim in Turkey, is a journalist
currently based in Washington D.C.

Follow Uzay Bulut on Twitter