Erdoğan's
Coup Survival: Don't Call It Democracy
IPT News
August 3, 2016
|
|
|
|
|
Share:  
|
  Be the
first of your friends to like this.
 Nihad Awad, the
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) executive director, is in
Turkey this week. It isn't clear why, but Awad is taking advantage of his travels to post upbeat
photographs celebrating that country's recent failed military coup.
Last month, a faction of Turkey's military tried to oust Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,
who has consolidated power and steered his country away from the secular ambitions laid out by modern founder Mustafa
Kemal Ataturk toward a decidedly Islamist state.
As Natalie Martin explained in Newsweek:
"For almost ten years, Turkey has been drifting towards
authoritarianism. Life has become distinctly uncomfortable for anyone who
doesn't support Erdoğan and his party, the AKP. The government controls the
news media, has undermined the rule of law and clamped down harshly on any
kind of peaceful protest. So while Turkey is still
democratic—in that Erdoğan is elected—it is not a liberal country."
 Last Friday, Turkish
journalist Mahir
Zeynalov captured one aspect of Erdoğan's latest crackdown, the arrests
of dozens of journalists, in a series of Twitter posts that garnered immediate international attention.
 Awad hasn't seemed
to notice or doesn't care. On Saturday, he posted a photograph of a bridge where, he said,
"the army surrendered to the will of the people." Monday evening,
he snapped a selfie in Turkey's Taksim Square, showing
what looked like a rally of flag-waving Turks "guarding
democracy."
True, Erdoğan was elected president by popular vote in 2014. But his
actions, seizing opposition media outlets, purging military, the
courts and government of potential foes and increasing Islam's role in
Turkish society, predates the failed coup.
But Erdoğan's crackdown, described by the New York Times as "nearly
unprecedented" in modern history, has not stopped his American
Islamist supporters from fully embracing Turkey's tilt toward a more
theocratic state.
In a series of White House rallies that started the night of the failed
coup, speakers including Awad cast Turkey as a beacon of freedom.
"This military coup is an affront, not only to the Turkish people,
but to everyone who believes in democracy and the free will of the
people," Awad said at another White House rally July 15.
Hussam Ayloush, who runs CAIR's Los Angeles office, posted video of a July 17 rally on Facebook. It shows Ahmed Bedier, a former CAIR official, led the modest
crowd in a call-and-response chant:
Bedier: What do we want?
Crowd: Democracy!
Bedier: When do we want it?
Crowd: Now!
Another chant had more trouble catching on:
"Turkey's what democracy looks like!"
Is it?
 Before the outcome
was known, CAIR's San Francisco chapter director Zahra Billoo wrote that she "will always support democracy over
military coups." Three days later, she seemed dismissive over calls for restraint in any
Turkish reaction. The United States would do the same thing, she wrote.
Billoo is an attorney and serves on the National Lawyers Guild's board of
directors. Yet, she asserts the United States might conduct mass arrests of
military personnel, academics and journalists.
Media reports indicate that Turkish troops rounded up for suspicion of being tied to the
attempted coup have been tortured.
Amnesty International criticized Erdoğan's government for accelerating its
assault on critics, especially "on a media already weakened by years
of government repression." The latest response "leaves little
room for doubt that the authorities are intent on silencing criticism
without regard to international law."
The statement also included a tally illustrating the breadth and
severity of Erdoğan's counter-actions. Among the items:
Over 1,000 private schools and educational
institutions have been closed and 138,000 school children will have to be
transferred to state schools
Awad, Bedier and their fellow American Islamists have held their tongues
about this systemic abuse, despite their claim of support for human rights.
And Awad is actively hyping Turkey as a place worthy of support.
Last month, before the coup attempt, we documented the close ties between American Islamist
groups and Erdoğan.
 Awad was
photographed with Erdoğan during the Turkish president's April visit to the
United States. A coalition of U.S. Islamist groups, including CAIR, issued
a statement in 2015 taking Turkey's side in the debate
over the 1915 massacre of Armenians in Turkey, which rails at any
government or entity which dares to call it genocide.
"As Americans, we are concerned about alienating a key ally,
Turkey, through one-sided declarations that political and religious leaders
have made on this subject," the statement said.
Erdoğan also has shown love for the founding wing of the Muslim
Brotherhood, which was created in Egypt in 1928 with a goal of restoring a
global Islamic state. Turkey opened its doors to Brotherhood officials chased out of
Egypt a coup ousted President Mohamed Morsi, the head of the Muslim
Brotherhood's political party.
Turkey also rolled out a welcome mat for senior leaders of the Hamas
military wing, including those responsible
for bloody terror attacks. Since early last year, Turkey also has been home to Sami Al-Arian, the former University of South
Florida engineering professor who moonlighted on the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's
governing board.
Al-Arian all-but accused Israel of being involved in the coup and defended
the resulting government crackdown in an English-language Turkish
television interview.
Awad's involvement with the Muslim Brotherhood in America was exposed by
the FBI in 2007 as a result of its investigation of Hamas-financing by the
Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.
A telephone list covering members of the Brotherhood's
"Palestine Committee" in the United States included Awad and
fellow CAIR officers Omar Ahmad and Nabil Sadoun. This and other evidence linking CAIR to
the Brotherhood's Hamas-support network prompted the FBI to cut off interaction with CAIR "until we can
resolve whether there continues to be a connection between CAIR or its
executives and HAMAS."
When American Islamists take to social media, or to demonstrations, to
support Erdoğan, these connections are at least as relevant as any lip
service they may pay to the ideals of democracy. In the end, they are
arguing an Erdoğan-style, authoritarian theocracy and democracy are
compatible
Related Topics: , Turkey
coup, Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, CAIR,
Nihad
Awad, Ahmed
Bedier, Zahra
Billoo, Mahir
Zeynalov, free
press, Taksim
Square, Muslim
Brotherhood
|
Print
Send
Comment
RSS
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment