MUSLIMS PRAISE KEY MIDEAST LEADER ‘LIKE GOD’
World News Daily
April 6 2015
Supporters say he has ‘all the attributes of Allah’
Leo Hohmann
Reports continue to pop up in Middle East publications that Turkey’s
leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is seen within his ruling AK Party as
more than just a president.
Consider the following reports out of Turkey:
A billboard has appeared in the GölbaÅ~_ı district of Adıyaman
province inviting people to attend a “holy birthday” event to celebrate
Erdogan’s birthday. The negative reaction this billboard received
on social media stems from the fact that such an event is usually
held to celebrate the birth of the Prophet Muhammad. The billboard
was an invitation to “a program of unity and togetherness organized
on the occasion of the birthday of our president.” The event was
organized by the GölbaÃ…~_ı Municipality, reported Today’s Zaman,
a secular Turkish newspaper. No government officials or supporters
have objected to the billboard or the statements.
AK Party Bursa deputy Huseyin Ã…~^ahin said touching Erdogan is a form
of prayer, while AK Party Duzce deputy Fevai Arslan said Erdogan has
“all the attributes” of God.
Last year during a political rally, as a woman fainted, Erdogan
gestured to the crowd to carry the woman up to the platform, where he
touched her, causing her to shake out of her spell, shouting, “Allah
Akbar!” The headline at Vocativ.com read: “Prime Minister ‘heals’
sick woman on campaign trail.” (Watch video of the “healing” here.)
A March 30 article for Al Monitor by columnist Mustafa Akyol notes
that devotion to Erdogan or “Erdoganism” is “morphing into an ideology
unto itself, disillusioning veterans of Turkey’s Islamist movement.”
Akyol, whose articles also appear in the International New York Times,
the Wall Street Journal and the Turkish Hurriyet Daily News, wrote:
“Pro-Erdogan propaganda, to which almost half the Turkish media is now
fully devoted, has taken the shape of a cult of personality, which is
also not a typical Islamist phenomenon. A recent book, ‘Recep Tayyip
Erdogan: The Sun of the Age,’ proudly refers to him as ‘an idol for our
youth,’ which would sound bizarre, if not heretical, to the average
Islamist. In 2011, an AKP deputy declared, ‘Even touching Erdogan is
a form of worship,’ and in 2014 another AKP deputy proclaimed that
Erdogan ‘carries all the attributes of Allah in himself.’ Such views,
heretical from a traditional Islamic perspective, were criticized and
ridiculed by Erdogan’s opponents, but he conspicuously said nothing.”
Voice crying in the wilderness
Joel Richardson, author of “The Islamic Antichrist” and director of
the documentary film “End Times Eyewitness,” does not believe Erdogan
is the Antichrist. But he has been warning for years that something
is going on in Turkey worth watching, and that this country of 78
million people and home to the region’s largest army could ultimately
be more dangerous than ISIS or even Iran. In short, it is fertile
ground for an antichrist figure to rise up and lead a large portion
of the world’s 1.5 million Muslims.
The acclaimed documentary film “End Times Eyewitness” explores what
Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders in the Middle East are saying
about the times in which we live, the prospect of rebuilding the
Jewish Temple and the return of a messianic figure in the last days.
It’s available in the WND Superstore.
It should be remembered that the death toll caused by ISIS, which
has shocked the world with its brutality toward Christians and other
religious minorities, is still miniscule compared to the genocidal
feats of the Ottoman Empire, which slaughtered 1.5 million Armenian
Christians and another million or so Greek Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox
and Protestant Christians. The 100th anniversary of the Armenian
genocide is being commemorated on April 24.
What do YOU think? Where will the Antichrist come from? Sound off in
the WND Poll
More than four years ago, while being interviewed for Glenn Beck’s
documentary, “Rumors of War Part 2,” Richardson made the statement
that in Erdogan, “We have the modern-day Adolf Hitler of the Middle
East emerging right before our eyes.”
This seemed like an extreme statement to make at the time. But in
light of recent developments, Richardson’s assessment of Erdogan now
appears less controversial.
“He is a megalomaniacal dictator of the worst stripe, in a nation
where nationalism is a religion, and that celebrates excessive exalted
leadership like their Sultans of the past,” Richardson told WND.
It is nearly impossible for most Americans to grasp the degree of
nationalism that exists in Turkey, he said.
That’s why he tried to provide a taste of the leader-worship during a
rally he filmed for “End Times Eyewitness.” Richardson gives viewers
of this documentary a front-row seat at an AKP rally in which a sea of
adoring fans wave flags and chant songs to exult their leader, Erdogan.
Watch clip of Nazi-like rally in Turkey captured by the documentary
“End Times Eyewithness.”
“When we look back at the Nazi rallies, we recoil at the way Germans
had an almost religious devotion to their nation and to their leader,
Adolf Hitler,” Richardson says. “Although there is a strong contingency
of those who do not support Erdogan in Turkey, for those of the AK
party who do, their support for him is nearly religious.”
Man of the hour?
Not only is Erdogan the embodiment of Turkish success over the past
decade, but more importantly, he is the embodiment of Turkey’s future
aspirations, specifically at a time when many Muslims believe Islam
is rising up to take its rightful place in the world.
It remains to be seen whether Erdogan’s god-like appeal among his
own party in Turkey will translate beyond his borders. Right now
he is just one of several international Muslim leaders competing
for influence among the wider “uma” of Muslim believers. Abu Bakr
Al-Baghdadi, the leaver of the ISIS caliphate, would surely have
something to say about who leads the restored Ottoman Empire.
“As so much of the Muslim world now believes that we are on the very
cusp of the messianic age or the age of the Mahdi, Erdogan is looked to
(by his followers) as the chosen one, poised to lead the Turks into a
position of exalted leadership over the Islamic community, and thus
the world,” Richardson said. “In the eyes of many religious Turks,
Erdogan is the one who will forever enshrine the Turkish people as
divinely ones, the race called by Allah to lead the world.”
Some Christian prophecy watchers, such as Walid Shoebat, believe
Erdogan is essentially claiming to be God by not rebuking those who
have anointed him with such lofty status.
Richardson doesn’t go this far.
“This isn’t really true, although he is most certainly pushing the
boundaries of orthodox Islam and upsetting some imams in the process,”
he said. “In the same way that President Obama imbibed upon and played
up the messianic devotion that swirled around him during his candidacy,
so also is Erdogan playing the Mahdi card.”
The similarities between Nazi Germany and present-day Turkey can be
seen in numerous ways.
It is plainly evident in the philosophy of Turkey’s prime minister,
Ahmet Davutoglu, who is the architect of the Islamist party of Turkey’s
rise to success over the past decade.
In his 2001 book, “Strategic Depth,” Davutoglu draws upon the political
philosophy of German Karl Haushofer, who popularized the idea of
Lebensraum, or living space, a phrase employed by Germany during
the 1920s and 1930s to emphasize the need to expand its borders into
Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia and beyond.
Davutoglu believes the nations established after the breakup of the
Ottoman Empire are artificial Western creations.
“Turkey must reclaim these nations in order to carve out its own
Lebensraum – a phrase he uses unapologetically throughout his book,”
Richardson said. “Davutoglu argues that reclaiming the nations that
comprise the former Ottoman Empire is an act of saving them. He
believes it would bring about the cultural and economic unification
of the Islamic world, which Turkey will lead into the messianic era.”
And every messianic era needs a messiah.
“In the imagination of many Turks, Erdogan is the man to fill this
role,” Richardson said.
“In the years ahead, the world must keep its eyes on the profoundly
dangerous combination of Islamism and messianic nationalism that has
arisen in Turkey,” he said. “Never before have we seen a moment where
so many dangerous trends are all emerging at the same time.”
From: Baghdasarian
http://www.wnd.com/2015/04/muslims-praise-key-mideast-leader-like-god/#azZP5WmUgs44KyXq.99