By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Only several days after world leaders converged on Paris to express solidarity with the French People and remorse for the victims’ families of recent terrorist attacks there, Turkish President Recip Erdoğan provided the world another gaffe that nested between the bizarre and the mysterious.
Though Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu attended the memorial led by numerous heads of state in a parade rally, a significant step backwards occurred when President Erdoğan later proclaimed that Muslims have never taken part in terrorist massacres.
We previously reported a few of these strange utterances, such as: Muslims discovered the Americas before Columbus; those using birth control are “traitors”; and declaring that Turkey had the greatest level of press freedom.
His latest is not just inaccurate, but a sure sign of how he views, or at least declares he views, a reality that exists certainly not within a realm one would expect of a secular leader or a rational individual for that matter.
“As Muslims, we’ve never taken part in terrorist massacres. Behind these lie racism, hate speech, and Islamophobia. French citizens carry out such a massacre, and Muslims pay the price. The West’s hypocrisy is obvious.
Take note that the acts of terror are not carried out in a vacuum. The acts follow a predetermined script and we should be [aware of a] a plot against the Islamic world.”
The Turkish President’s words come during a speech after having received Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a state visit. Beforehand in a move that drew much ridicule among his political opponents, Erdoğan descended a grand staircase of his new fifteen hundred room palace. He was flanked by several men donning medieval Ottoman armor and bearing swords.
Certainly there will be more to come. Elections in Turkey are forthcoming.
By Darren Smith
Source:
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
Bill:
The Atsina were forced out of Montana into Canada by their enemies, the Cree and the Blackfeet. The Powhatan wiped out the Chesapeake tribe. The Anasazi lived in the Southwest, and had to abandon their villages for the rock dwellings of Cliff Palace to escape their enemies, the Navajo and Apache.
What did you think, they were all smoking a peace pipe and saying, we’ll just starve because the buffalo migrated from our area, or there’s a drought, but the food is on your land???
Did you never take an anthropology class or pick up a National Geographic or tour a Native American museum?
Karen – the Anasazi had moved out of their cliff dwelling during an extended drought in the 1300s. The Hohokam and the Salado disappeared at the same time. Most ethnologists don’t put the Navajo and Apache in Arizona until just before or after the Spanish arrive in Arizona. They were driven there by the Comanches.
Karen – the Anasazi had moved out of their cliff dwelling during an extended drought in the 1300s. The Hohokam and the Salado disappeared at the same time. Most ethnologists don’t put the Navajo and Apache in Arizona until just before or after the Spanish arrive in Arizona. They were driven there by the Comanches.
Okay Paul C. Schulte Maybe you can clear something up for me with your extended knowledge. I am in an argument with an Anasnazi right now that tells me there is no such thing as a Blackfoot tribe nor has there ever been, She says that her tribe is in Alberta, Canada now and they and 5 other tribes speak Blackfoot.
I have a relative that moved up there named Pellum (Pelham) that I am trying to trace right now because my family claims native heritage on my Fathers side but everyone is dead and she says it is folklore and technically she is correct. I just question this information about there never being a Blackfeet Tribe. ???
happypappies – I am not sure what an Ananazi is but would love to know.
This may have to do with how the Blackfeet organize themselves. There are four nations (not tribes) and they form a confederacy. The only Blackfoot nation in the United States is in Montana. The other three are in Canada. I think she may be playing semantics with you.
Paul C.Schulte Spelled it wrong
Asdzání
Temporary stupid brain 😛
happypappies – not sure what expertise a young Navajo woman would have about the Blackfeet. They were not in the same territory. Blackfeet are northern Plains. Navajo are originally from Canada, but not the same area. And in the US they are Four Corners area, generally considered raiders by other tribes.
Bill – maybe you should take a tour of the Smithsonian?
Karen S
Did you get your version of history from reading Howard Zinn?
Nick – I agree. We need to stop treating tax revenue like it’s free money. If everyone thinks of it as “Grandma had to pay this out of her tiny annuity” every time we decide whether to spend money, I suspect we would make better decisions.
Bill:
“Most terrorists are Mossad, brainwashed Muslims, or home-grown
right here in the land invaded by illegal aliens aka Pilgrims – supposedly just
wanting o be free to practice their own vesion of re;igion: slavery and greed.”
Let me acquaint you with history. The US used to be inhabited by the Clovis Indians, who were wiped out by a natural disaster. The few survivors were either killed or absorbed by the next wave of settlers, of a descent similar to the Mongols.
These tribes were mostly hunter/gatherers, although some agriculture developed among certain tribes. The hunter/gatherers required vast amounts of land to survive, and followed the herds. They competed for resources with other tribes by . . . you guessed it . . . fighting. There was a vast array of traditions among these tribes, many of which you will have never heard of because they were wiped out by other tribes competing for resources. They massacred each other, took slaves, tortured prisoners, sometimes to death. Many tribes valued a warrior’s ability to withstand pain and kill enemies. So . . . there were a lot of beautiful attributes to the Native American way of life, but they weren’t PeTA, and they weren’t Quakers. That is reality.
Who “really owns” the CA? Is it those of Clovis descent only? Which tribe has the best claim? Because land changed hands many times. Is it Spain? Mexico, which held it less than 30 years? Which of the Native American tribes actually “illegally” settled by wiping out a weaker tribe and taking over its hunting grounds?
Which brings me to another reality. Slavery. Every single major human society engaged in slavery, including Native Americans and Africans. In fact, slavery STILL exists in Africa, did you know? African tribes at war with each other (which still rages on today, hundreds of years later), sold captured slaves to slaving ships, of which Portugal was the most infamously prolific. A surprising number of free black people owned black slaves in the US.
So, what makes the US different from the rest of civilization? We are the only society documented to have fought a bloody civil war in order to free the slaves. Africa didn’t do that, nor ancient Rome, Egypt, Turkey, the Vikings, etc.
Slavery was terrible, and a blight on mankind’s history. But as stated earlier, it universally was practiced. Now it’s not. That’s a wonderful sign of progress. But this persistent attitude that it was “America” who practiced slavery is woefully ignorant. There were a lot of attitudes and practices over the past few hundred years that would not pass today’s values.
Myself and Karen often scream about corporate welfare. I just wrote a letter to the editor about the proposed corporate welfare football stadium a Republican mayor in San Diego just proposed in his State of the Union. There is NOTHING more disgusting to me than hard working citizens building cathedrals for billionaires. I’m really not a right winger though, just a libertarian.
Karen, We will never be Greece, although folks like Obama would like it. Here’s the reality those on the left who can see clearly know. Obama has taught those who were on the fence that the govt. cannot run things. The govt. is incompetent and crooked. The healthy skepticism and distaste for govt. has been well reestablished in the US. Now, we have taken a hard hit. We have printed money like we have OCD. But, things will swing back.
Why is it that when right-wingers call for cuts in spending, they never include
the blosted military and corporate welfare? They only want to cut spending on programs that benefit the 99%? And why are right-wingers so opposed to the economic boost that would result from INCREASING SS benefits?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/11352817/Greece-heads-for-a-Euro-collision.html
Meanwhile, on the Greek front, we have another example of why fiscal conservatives like me oppose Liberalism.
In exchange for a massive (160 billion) EU bailout, Greece agreed to severe austerity measures, because they had been giving away money and benefits by the bucketful and went broke. Since they weren’t able to restrain their spending when it would have been easy, they waited until it was hard. (We all know people who do this, financially.) The current center-right leader finally hit the goal, and they had their first budget surplus.
What was the response? A loud, “Whew! That was hard, but we’re finally out of trouble and have learned our lesson!”
Why, no. A hard Leftist is slated to win by a landslide unless he is abducted by aliens. His platform? 70% of Greece wants to stay in the Euro. The price for doing so was those austerity measures. That’s what they promised, to clean up their act, in exchange for a boatload of money. So this candidate ran on the promise that he would demand that the debt be wiped clean, and no more austerity measures. Granted, that was the basis for the entire bailout, but who cares when you’re making campaign promises! And if they DO somehow, by some miracle, pull it off and get the EU to forgive the debt that they sacrificed to give them, what do you think the chances are they will pony up more money when Greece goes back to its old habits and puts its hand out for more?
Well, thank goodness the Greeks learned their lesson from the bitter pill they had to swallow. Do they not teach math at all in Greek schools?
This is a lesson for the US. Liberals will spend until we’re in deep trouble, then it will be up to the fiscal conservatives to save the country from economic ruin. But those policies, which will be much harder than they would have been if enacted earlier, will be wildly unpopular. It will be the Liberals, promising freebies (like 26 forms of free birth control for rich, helpless women!), who are popular, because of all the “stuff.”
At least nowadays, Liberalism is synonymous with spending as if there are no consequences, and money doesn’t matter. To a fiscal conservative, it’s like you have an adult child who takes your credit card, says you have no right to tell them how to spend their money and you are a bad person if you don’t agree with their choices, but they keep presenting you with the bill every month and demanding you pay it.
The Muslims may or may not like the West, but Israel owes a lot to one of its founders; this man:
ChipS, He left here in a huff a few weeks ago, vowing never to return, after getting his ass kicked. I had ignored him for months until he got nasty. I agree to ignore, but he is a needy troll, so be prepared for the long haul of ignoring.
What is the FINAL SOLUTION to your Muslim FEAR?
What is the immediate palliative for your aversion to simple facts?
There’s a fairly wide range of implications for Paul Hutchinson’s comment that falls well short of what you’re clumsily intimating.
But it seems to make you feel good about yourself to scream at your screen, so I don’t really anticipate a useful discussion.
Max-1
IMO, the final solution is handing over all of the natural resources in Mooslimland – not necessrily without a fight. Gotta keep the MIComplex
rich and made to feel useful for something other than Homeland security (sic).
Most terrorists are Mossad, brainwashed Muslims, or home-grown
right here in the land invaded by illegal aliens aka Pilgrims – supposedly just
wanting o be free to practice their own vesion of re;igion: slavery and greed.
What is the FINAL SOLUTION to your Muslim FEAR?
The lack of wisdom in blaming a religion for what some terror group does is only done choosing to repeat history.
Blame the “other” for your fears… Forgetting your fears are just that, your fears. Why force the world to live in your nightmare?
This thread is a screed AGAINST an entire faith.
Say, 80 years ago, would those populating this place had called on Jews to solve Hitlers problems?
@Chip S: Whthatat you noted is in fact what mainstream Muslim Scholars are continuing to underscore as noted in my comments in response to Paul Hutchinson’s Comments. As such, despite the disappointment I noted earlier in Edrogan (including the war on the freedom of the press), that’s the case.
Davidm
I had the same thoughts. I’m also wondering how long it will be before this guy has some sort of “accident” courtesy of someone looking out for NATO’s interests.
Issac
Unfortunately fear of “thuggery” does not play as well as fear of “Muslims” when politicians are using fear for political advantage.
Consider the source of the comment. Mr. Erdogan, as shown in his earlier “educated” statements, is not playing with a full deck.
. . . uniforms from when those soldiers considered themselves auto-men. I didn’t realize they had cars back then, but a whole empire was formed around them, I understand.