The Swedish blog, Jihad i Malmo, has a report on recent statements by Turkey's foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu. He is talking about a restoration of the Ottoman Empire. Just what the world needs; a restored "Sick Man of Europe". The below article is in Swedish, but you can switch to a passable interpretation into English.
http://jihadimalmo.blogspot.com/2013/03/vart-mal-ar-ottomanska-rikets.html
"We will do so
without going to war, or calling anyone an
enemy, without being disrespectful to any
border, we will again tie Sarajevo to Damascus,
Benghazi to Erzurum to Batumi. This is the core
of our power, "he said" These may look like any
different countries to you, but Yemen and Skopje
were part of the same country 110 years ago, or
Erzurum and Benghazi."
Davutoglu also referred to Turkey's big asset-the millions of Turks residing outside of Turkey.
5 comments:
This is what is otherwise known as the "Ummah"... It is what binds loyalty from this guy to Lord Ahmed and the 10s of millions of them in between, including Osama Bin Laden.
There may be a few outliers, IMHO, but this universal, Sharia controlled, transnational entity is the ultimate wish and goal of Muslims.
I doubt if they will deny this.
This is completely unlike any proselytizing ANY other religion has done in the last 500 years or so. The Axis powers in WWII may have aspired to more empire and were brutal but again, nothing with this religious obligation attached.
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Miggie,
You know that we have to distinguish the political ideology aspect of Islam from the religion (worship of God). They should be free to worship God as long as they don't impose their views and laws on other people. Even within their own umma, they should not be allowed to enforce sharia in the west when it comes to things like women's rights, apostasy, blasphemy, adultery and homosexuality. We have to draw the line. Let them do it in their own countries.
Gary,
I don't know that you can separate the political from the religious in this particular religion. From the onset, converts were acquired by conquest. As far as I know, this is the only circumstance in modern times when the political goals were so intertwined with the religious imperatives.
Certainly they should be free to worship as they wish here as long as it does not impose on anyone else. We tolerate Wickens, Snake Charmers, and numerous other religions and cults as long as they respect our laws.
I have a problem though with your final sentence of "Let them do it in their own countries." I think there are universal standards of right and wrong... things that are absolutely evil. It is wrong to behead for adultery accusations or cutting off limbs for theft.
I also don't want to waste our blood or treasure to fix those societies for righteous reasons but that is different than accepting moral relativism... namely, that is what they routinely do in their societies and so we don't care.
Americans have a history of missionary work for about 150 years, not for conquest but for humanitarian reasons alone.
Point well taken, Miggie, but like you, I don't want to spill our blood and treasure trying to reform things. The proper course is to isolate it.
What the foreign minister omits is that all those people thoroughly despised their Turkish overlords. That's why an eccentric British officer acquired a moment of fame leading Arabs against the ruling empire. That's why Kemal Attaturk was left with a rather small territory inhabited by Turks, Greeks, Armenians and Kurds to compress into "Turkey." Invite the Ottomans back? Not a chance.
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