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.
nickos: The Frogs might have indeed done a lot of atrocities in Algeria back in 1950 to 1972. Yet since then they let all the Algerians who wanted to come to Frogland in. Now they have them. Wages of sin.
Chip S,
Here’s an interesting blog link, Lakota Voice (Rosebud RST South Dakota)
Hot topics:
1. Attorney General fired. Need new AG.
2. Looking for police chief and more police.
3. Methamphetamines crisis.
4. Utilities shut off power to elders during winter.
5. Keystone XL oil pipeline act of war.
Lots of legal wrangling here to make lawyers happy and get clients.
http://www.lakotavoice.com/
the atrocities of Israel and our military committing every day on their soil.
Daily atrocities? I eagerly await your links.
BTW, “our military” is under a CiC who’s reported to be more involved in the targeting of drone strikes than in any other aspect of his job.
Chip – our CinC does take time off to golf, so that gives targets a sporting chance to move.
Nickos, I might add all the acts I listed were done my Muslims who did not deny they were Muslims but showed pleasure in that fact.
paul hutchison .. all of the attacks on your list are not even close to the atrocities the French committed in north Africa between 1950-1972 …not to include here the atrocities of Israel and our military committing every day on their soil. You must be naive or blind not see this happening. If you just read a bit about the French atrocities in Algeria you will see for yourself …. they raped young girls, killed entire families, executed innocent people on the street …. by the hundreds of thousands if not millions …
That’s true, and your three examples naming the French, Israel, and our military as villains can not be denied, and in some cases cannot be justified. We can go back in history and cite hundreds of such examples. However, the impetus of this story line was the Turkish President saying the Paris violence were not committed by Muslims. Were they Muslims or not? If you have a view explaining to me they were not Muslims I would like to hear.
Paul, I understood the history of the Anasazi to be in the same time period as you stated. The Apache and Navajo came along much later, and were each in a different area.
Karen, and Bill, I’m curious as to what these tribes have to do with the President of Turkey. Just a loose tangent?
Love your music like always Barkindog 😉 reminds me of the good ole days and my boyfriend who used to be a pest and make up stuff like that all the time?? Is that you Jeff?? lolol
[from the song about the Jets in that NYC movie]
He’s a dork, he’s a dork!
He’s a dork all the way!
From his first dump of poop to his last dying day!
[music sung to the tune of Henry The 8th I am , I am by Herman and the Hermits]
I’m Erdogan the 8th I am, Erdogan the 8th I am, I am!
I got married to the widow next door.
She’s been married seven times before… and
Everyone was an Erdogan.
It wouldn’t be a Willy or a Fred.
For there ain’t no name like Erdogan!
Erdogan the 8th I am!
He reminds me of Kim Jong Un who is making everyone change their name that has his name. Don’t you think they resemble one another? Spiritually? Nothing to do with religion here just totally psychotic.
And speaking of Jamaica, I recall visiting the grim Rose Hall, which was owned by a Black Widow of the British Empire. I’ve seen the entrance to the “dungeon” of this upstanding member of the UK, where slaves had to crawl in the dark. There was a terrible history there.
So I fail to see the moral superiority of the rest of the world.
We paid an enormous price to end slavery, one I doubt any other country would have been willing to pay.
Wade:
“Are you praising the US because it took the Civil War to end slavery? Have you considered the British history where it wasn’t necessary to kill hundreds of thousands of fellow citizens to outlaw the practice – all before 1864? You might find that history interesting.”
Are you kidding? Amistad is one of my favorite movies!
Great Britain abolished slavery in 1833, after a massacre in Jamaica from a slave rebellion. There was an inquiry that led to the Slavery Abolition Act. Slavery was abolished in GB’s colonies I think 10 years later.
Would Great Britain have been willing to go to war in order to stop slavery? Especially if the economy of half the country had grown dependent on slavery, rather than a colony? Who knows? We are the only one willing to buy the freedom of other people with the lives of more than half a million people.
Are you aware that the Portuguese were heavily into slave trading? And yet, we don’t hear the Portuguese labelled as slavers forever. Or the African tribes that took slaves before the Europeans came, and sold them to them when they arrived. Or any other culture in the past 30,000. Why not? Because it was a horrible practice almost universally practiced of a time long ago.
Bill:
“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?”
Actually, I’m for cutting waste. There is waste and duplication of effort we can cut from the military. For example, there are obsolete tanks that are manufactured as a pork project that the military no longer even wants, but the government keeps buying them.
Considering the world is seeing more and more violence, reducing our standing military makes no sense unless you also increase the reserves.
I also agreed with Nick that it’s terrible to use taxpayer money to fund another stadium.
I don’t vilify the poor, the middle class, or the rich. I judge on actions rather than bank balance (or lack thereof.)
I believe the tax system is absurdly complex. We get higher taxes to pass Congress by also writing in all these loopholes and tax breaks and deductions, until an honest citizen has to hire an expert and pray they know what they’re doing just to pay taxes every year. And then all the tax preparer commercials all have the same slogan – “Maximize your return! Don’t pay a dime more than you owe! We can save you on taxes!” (But if you’re wealthy and your goal is not to pay a dime more than you owe, you are a bad, bad person!) A better idea would be a flat tax (much like the sales tax is a flat tax) for everybody and make paying taxes the simplest activity you’ll do all year. No more tax breaks for anyone, taxes would be more affordable, and we would collect more because there would be no more point to having tax shelters. Or we could compromise and do a graduated tax that is still very simple and affordable.
If increasing SS benefits would get the economy roaring as people had more disposable income, just think what reducing the tax burden on everyone would do. People would have more . . . wait for it . . . disposable income to put into the economy, start a small business, pay for health insurance, buy food. And make government stick to its basic responsibilities.
Karen – I totally agree with you and being a Classical Liberal Person belonging to no party I would like to point out that the Right and the Left are both guilty of the Corporate Welfare bandwagon as every good Liberal should know that General Electric re Ameren UE does not pay income tax under the shelter of Green energy shelters.
I am always hearing something where the left does not do their homework like the Keystone pipeline. That is another favorite of mine. Yes, they are stealing that land (Texas railroad land) those Canadian Companies and just a Few wealthy people will Benefit. Owed by those Nasty Koch Brothers. Well that’s not what I came up with when I did my research.
Anyone with a lick of sense know that if you move on property by an interstate, railroad or an airport that you might have to sell your house to the government some day. That is common sense. And if the Right was the ones complaining about it (and they are but to leftist journalists who are putting a twist on it and twisting their heads around and giving them a victim mentality) it would be a different story. The Right would be considers stupid and should know better and uneducated.
Then you get to hear how the energy and oil is financed by Canada. Yes – I did some research on that – real research not looking into what someone else said on their stupid graph and Enbridge is the largest company in Canada for energy – as far as them being owned by a wealthy few – total bull – 96 percent is public traded and 4 percent private
this is their pie
Canadian Institutional 42%
Canadian Retail 14%
US Institutional 29%
US Retail 3%
Foreign Institutionial 12%
Enbridge Management 1%
So I guess I don’t understand why the misinformation keeps coming in Karen?
http://www.enbridge.com/InvestorRelations/StockInformation/Ownership.aspx
Karen
Are you praising the US because it took the Civil War to end slavery? Have you considered the British history where it wasn’t necessary to kill hundreds of thousands of fellow citizens to outlaw the practice – all before 1864? You might find that history interesting.
Good one, Isaac!
If you remember Khadafi in the early years, he lived in tents, rode horses and generally played the part of the medieval liberator. It started off as a coup, took over the government, with the army, then slowly slipped into a delusional state. Hopefully Turkey will get rid of this turkey before he goes for the coup.
Whatever is going on inside of Edogan’s head, it sounds like it is rapidly deteriorating. He makes no sense what so ever.
Bill:
“I’ve been there- have you? Sounds like you accept official stories and avoid
independent, critical thinking and alternative sources of information.”
Ummmmm, no, Bill. I looked it up. Learned interesting things in anthropology classes. Went to South America. Went to museums. Read a lot.
The only person who is accepting “official stories” and refusing to verify is you, Bill.
Bill – yes, I’ve been to the Smithsonian, and several Native American museums.
What is it that I’ve said that you think is mistaken? The barest amount of effort on your part can verify it. Try looking up the history of the tribes that I’ve mentioned.
You can’t really believe that Native Americans never fought with each other, can you?
Bill – or you could learn about CA history. It’s charter is archived, and the length of time Mexico held it after Spain relinquished the territory is a matter of record. The Clovis Indians are quite interesting to study. And, there are videos of maps of tribal lands that show the boundaries changing. There weren’t “state” boundaries that were set in stone, and tribes didn’t file suit in federal court for eminent domain. They just went to war and took it. And surely you’ve heard of scalping? Why is such violence viewed as normal for the time if they occurred in Native American, Eurasian, or indeed any other country than the US? It’s anachronistic to judge the past by today’s standards.
And Native American history is very interesting. The images painted on horses and dwellings had special meaning, and the tradition in some tribes of Braves raiding neighboring villages for horses and women. It rather reminded me of the Scottish Clan tradition hundreds of years ago of stealing cattle from rival clans.
KS,
I’ve been there- have you? Sounds like you accept official stories and avoid
independent, critical thinking and alternative sources of information.