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Turkish Quest to "Liberate" Jerusalem
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your friends to like this.
Turkish
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu delivered the opening speech of the
"International Meeting on the Question of Jerusalem" held in
Ankara in May.
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Turks have a different understanding of what constitutes an occupation
and a conquest of a city. The Turkish rule is very simple: The capture of
a foreign city by force is an occupation if that city is Turkish (or
Muslim) and the capture of a city by force is conquest if the city
belongs to a foreign nation (or non-Muslims).
For instance, Turks still think the capture of Istanbul in 1453 was
not occupation; it was conquest.
In a 2012 speech, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (then Prime Minister)
said: "Just like Mecca, Cairo and Istanbul are cities of the
Qur'an." In truth, there is no mention of any city's name in the
Qur'an. Never mind.
"Conquest," Turkey's top Muslim cleric, Professor Mehmet
Gormez, declared in 2012, "is not to occupy lands or destroy cities
and castles. Conquest is the conquest of hearts!" That is why, the
top Turkish cleric said, "In our history there has never been
occupation." Instead, Professor Gormez said, "in our history,
there has always been conquest." He further explained that one
pillar of conquest is to "open up minds to Islam, and hearts to the
Qur'an."
Most Turkish Islamists think they
have an Allah-given right to take infidel lands by the force of sword.
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It is in this religious justification that most Turkish Islamists
think they have an Allah-given right to take infidel lands by the force
of sword -- ironically, not much different from what the tougher
Islamists have been doing in large parts of Syria and Iraq. Ask any
commander in the Islamic State and he would tell you what the jihadists
are doing there is "opening up minds to Islam, and hearts to the
Qur'an."
Both President Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu have
declared countless times that Gaza and Jerusalem (in addition to Syria,
Iraq, Egypt, Somalia and the Maghreb) are Turkey's "domestic
affairs."
This author wrote
in this journal on Oct. 30:
In reality, with or without the
normalization of diplomatic relations between Ankara and Jerusalem, the
Turks have never hidden their broader goals in the Arab-Israeli dispute:
that Jerusalem should be the capital of a Palestinian state; and that
Israel should be pushed back to its pre-1967 borders. Until then, it will
be 'halal' [permitted in Islam] for Erdogan to blame Israel for global
warming, the Ebola virus, starvation in Africa and every other misfortune
the world faces.
As if to confirm this whimsical view, Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin
Akdogan has blamed Israel for democratic failings in the Arab world.
"Israel works with [undemocratic] regimes and keeps its ship
afloat." So, it is because of Israel that Arab nations have never
established democratic culture -- before or after 1948; or before or
after the Arab Spring revolts. But fortunately, Palestinians have a new
"protector."
From Prime Minister Davutoglu's public speech on November 7:
Al-Aqsa [mosque in Jerusalem] will one
day be liberated. The Israelis should know that the oppressed Syrians
have a protector. The oppressed Palestinians too have a protector. That
protector is Turkey. Just as Bursa [the Turkish city where he spoke]
ended its occupation, the honorable Palestinians, honorable Muslims will
end the [Israeli] occupation. Just as Osman Gazi [a sepulchre in Bursa]
was liberated, al-Aqsa too will be liberated. Al-Quds [Jerusalem] is both
our first prayer direction and has been entrusted with us by history. It
has been entrusted with us by Hazrat Omar. The last freedom seen in
Jerusalem was under our [Ottoman] rule. Al-Quds is our cause. It is the
occupying, oppressive Israeli government that has turned the Middle East
into a quagmire.
Echoing that view, President Erdogan said that protecting Islamic
sites in the Holy Land is a sacred mission (for his government), and
bluntly warned that any attack against the al-Aqsa mosque is no different
than an attack on the Kaaba in the holy city of Mecca.
Spot
the difference: In the eyes of Turkey's political and religious
leadership, Istanbul and its Hagia Sophia (once a Greek Orthodox
Basilica) were legitimately "conquered" by the Muslim
Ottomans, while Jerusalem and its al-Aqsa mosque (built atop the ruins
of the Jewish Temples) are illegally "occupied" by Israel.
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No doubt, after Gaza, al-Aqsa (and Jerusalem) has become a powerful
Turkish obsession, and a treasure-trove of votes, especially in view of
Turkey's parliamentary elections next June. And do not expect the Turkish
leadership only to corrupt facts. Plain fabrication is a more favored
method. All the same, someone, sometimes, would unwillingly reveal the
truth often when trying to corrupt other facts.
Since Davutoglu claimed that "Jerusalem has been entrusted with
the Turks by Hazrat Omar," it may be useful to refresh memories.
Hazrat Omar is Omar bin Al-Khattab (579-644), one of the most powerful
and influential Muslim caliphs in history. Within the context of
"conquest vs. occupation," he was referenced by the top cleric,
Professor Gormez in a 2012 speech:
After Hazrat Omar conquered al-Quds
[Jerusalem], he was invited to pray at a church [as there were no mosques
yet in Jerusalem]. But he politely refused because he was worried that
the [conquering] Muslims could turn the church into a mosque after he
prayed there.
Since medieval historical facts cannot have changed over the past two
years, the top Turkish ulama [religious scholar], referencing a
most powerful Muslim caliph, is best witness that when the Muslims had
first arrived in Jerusalem there was not a single mosque in the city.
Why? Because Jerusalem was not a Muslim city. Why, then, do Turkish
Islamists claim that it is Muslim? Because it once had been
"conquered." Would the same Turks surrender Istanbul to the
occupying forces that took the city after World War I because its capture
in 1920 made it a non-Turkish city? No, that was not conquest, that was
occupation!
Had Messrs Erdogan and Davutoglu been schoolchildren, such reasoning
might have been called bullying and cheating.
Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a columnist for the Turkish daily
Hürriyet and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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