We have followed the rapid decline of civil liberties under the authoritarian rule of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the past few years as well as his empowering of Islamic parties in the once secular state. When Erdogan first ran, he assured Turks that he was committed to the secular traditions and constitution of the country. He then did precisely the opposite in power by chipping away at secular laws, introducing Islamic governing principles, and assuming authoritarian power. After the attempted recent coup, Erdogan has arrested thousands of his opponents. He has suspended civil liberties and shutdown the free media. He has also replaced academics and other professionals with Islamic party stalwarts. Now, we have a chilling story of just how Erdogan’s government has wiped out secular values. Dr. Abuzer Meral, an employee of a private hospital in the Turkish city of Yalova, was fired after merely objecting to mandatory religious studies for children.
When Meral objected to the lessons, teachers reported his views to radical Islamist and pro-AKP daily newspaper Akit. The newspaper then ran an article entitled “What kind of a doctor he is!” The answer is that he is a father who cares about his son and wants his son to be able to choose whether he prays at school. However, according Meral, government officials contacted the school and forced them to fire Meral. Meral announced from his Facebook account that he was fired:
“As of tonight, I have been fired from the hospital I was working. I certainly do not blame them. High-level authorities called them. Eventually, that is a commercial institution. Hundreds of people are living on it. An empire of fear has subjugated everyone. Those who ordered me to be fired from job, and those who threatened me will be called to account. I will apply to all legal actions.”
It is unfortunately part of a long pattern of Erdogan destroying both secular values and human rights in Turkey, a country that was once the very symbol of a new emerging, enlightened government in the Middle East.
No need to be concerned about this. The BDS, the world’s leading humanitarian organization dedicated to peace, freedom, liberty, and the advancement of civilization, is already looking into this and they will be taking action shortly.
Reblogged this on Citizens, not serfs.
Mr. Erdogan, as I have noted previously, desires to establish a theocratic state, and he is well on his way to doing so. The issue for us is whether his vision is compatible with membership in NATO. My view is that it is not.
This is so sad. Istanbul used to be so cosmopolitan. Granted, a Turkish prison has always been a sentence you were lucky to survive, hence recidivism is quite low.
But this is a very terrifying trend for non extremist Turks at this time.
More than half of Turkey supports Erdogan, the Media keeps representing him as have few followers, but it’s your neighbor who will turn you in, just like Cuba.
Hmmm. Maybe “forced worship” is what America needs. It has to beat the damn craziness we have inflicted on ourselves trying to be cosmopolitan and tolerant. Maybe the Democrats are actually doing us a favor trying to import the heck out of Muzzies to the country.
Mark Steyn wrote in one of his books, that most conservatives could live quite easily with many Islamic tenets, but that liberals, feminists, gays, drug users, and criminals were going to have a very tough go of it
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Spend some time and unpack the cosmopolitan and tolerant aspect of your last comment for us , or at least for me, please.
Muzzies? Did that come from the Jim Jefferies part of your brain?
Close, but you are just lobbing verbal angst grenades.
Elaborate please.
How do you really feel?
OK, let me elucidate by analogy. Take arranged marriages and forced marriages. The West “evolves” to the point where this is considered totally wrong, and that marriages and sexual relationships should be based on a particularized feeling of “love” between the participants, even between those of the same sex. And that to do any other thing would shatter individual rights. And, deprive us of happiness!
I would look at that and ask if a 50% divorce rate, near 40% overall illegitimate birth rate with all the attendant problems of crime and poverty, millions of abortions, a 35%+ rate of STDS, some fatal, sad old single women living in poverty and cats, and the fact that half the frigging country is on some kind of drug, legal or otherwise, to cure our depression, and make us happy—-and after seeing all that, I would ask if the whole arranged and forced marriage thing was really all that bad? At least, people knew who they were, and they did not expect “blissful sexual happiness” as some sort of a right.
Now, with that in mind, I would admit that arranged and forced marriages are not a panacea for what ails us. Some people will be downright miserable in their relationship, and some people who actually are happy in “romantic” relationships, would possibly be deprived of that satisfaction under the Old Ways. But what about the effect on the population as a whole? As a whole, are we necessarily better off with “romantic” relations, and more to the point, is it totally stupid to even question the current arrangement?
Now, on to forced worship. Same questions. Yes, we would be deprived of our rights to be atheists and agnostics, but would the population as a whole be more, or less happy? Is it totally stupid to muse on whether the current situation is optimal?
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
I would look at that and ask if a 50% divorce rate,
We do not have a 50% divorce rate. About 40% of all marriages end in divorce. The ratio is lower for 1st marriages.
Mark Steyn failed to consider that Islam opposes usury, that would take out many Conservatives and Liberals.
There is a long history of interest-free sharia-compliant banking in the Islamic world. It’s a rather rococo way of doing business, but it works for them.
Time to get the hell out of Dodge, Doctor, while you still can. The writing is on the wall with this maniac.
That’s what I was thinking. If he is fond of occasionally seeing the sunshine, he had best leave sooner rather than later.
Looks like Erdoğan has like-minded tyrants governing in Canada as well.
http://thefederalist.com/2016/12/07/canadian-law-erasing-moms-dads-state-documents-reduces-children-chattel/?utm_source=The+Federalist+List&utm_campaign=277d93d0ac-RSS_The_Federalist_Daily_Updates_w_Transom&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cfcb868ceb-277d93d0ac-79248369
Is your world flat step? does the sun go around the earth?
Again, if that helps you feel better, that’s fine. Just quit being a pest.
You might want to check out the “Civility Rule” at the top of this (and every) page of this web site. Here are the first few sentences to give you a leg up because it’s very difficult conceptually for people who suffer from perceiving themselves as too clever:
This blog is committed to the principles of free speech and, as a consequence, we do not ban people simply because we disagree with them. Indeed, we value different perspectives and do not want to add another “echo chamber” to the Internet where we each repeat or amplify certain views. However, the Turley blog was created with a strong commitment to civility, a position that distinguishes us from many other sites. […] We do not tolerate personal attacks or bullying […]
You might want to check out the “Civility Rule” at the top of this (and every) page of this web site.
No I cannot be bothered.
Thanks for the humbug. It’s been an education.
As Fishwings devotes his life to Star Wars and Harry Potter, they fill a void.
It’s a lesson for all of us in terms of the separation of church and state.
It is nothing of the kind.
Steve,
That would be a very myopic lesson to be learned from this. The greater lesson would be the threat a weaponized, administrative state is to the security of ALL our natural, unalienable rights.
Folks, your’e kidding yourself if you think it will not happen here. Radicalized christian fundamentalists are and will be pushing their ideas here too………..
If fantasy helps you feel better, fine. Just don’t pester your elders with it.
Radicalized ANYTHING will happen and it will gain ZERO momentum within the American culture.
Turkey does not need a secular state. They might benefit from local control and an Islamist movement which understood that you win some and you lose some. Fifteen years ago, Martin Kramer offered that the Justice and Development Party might just be the Islamist party so chastened by previous dealings with the military that it would respect legal norms and not abuse the opposition. Guess he was wrong. If the Kemalist military returns, one thing they’re going to have to do is arrest every person on the membership rolls of the Justice and Development Party, strip them of their citizenship, and deport them to any place that will take them.
Perhaps the one aspect of Christianity that has allowed it to survive is its ability to recreate or evolve itself into a single religion composed of varying degrees of various sects or interpretations. The era where this or that was the only way to worship or you’re dead has long since vanished. Christians who are as completely convinced of bizarre elements of their religion as are Muslims of theirs, exist but the more bizarre the more sequestered they are in Western society, the most evolved society. Most Christians in Western societies are capable of discussing varying answers to life’s first questions.
Given that it is a younger by 700 +/- years, Islam may evolve as well into a religion of sects all subservient to the society within which they are found and by which they are protected. However, even in the most religiously relaxed societies Islam presents itself as, not only the only answer but a belligerent one at that. The softest Muslim will be as adamant as the most fervent Christian in stating that there is only one of these and it’s this way or the highway.
Whether one needs to believe that one’s place on the planet is the ‘only’ way or whether one can intellectualize the situation of needing answers and guidance along with fantastic stories seems to depend on the social evolution of the place. Regardless of whatever advances that were made by the pre-Islamic world, Islamic world, or whatever, the countries from where Islam is sourced are backward, medieval, and unfortunately heavily populated and with pockets of unlimited wealth. For Islam there is only evolution to look to. For the rest of the world this parallel universe exists to represent an example of what can happen when power is merged with religion or fairy tales. Governments built on lies, exaggerations, and misrepresentations represent the beginning of the end of centuries of societal evolution, the true man made religion. We must forever be vigilant and recognize this evil, even when it is disguised as freedom.
A quick read from the book of The Revelation (chapter 13) depicts the “mark of the Beast” as some form of future forced worship. (Probably pagan sun-god worship?) Our Founding Fathers were familiar with this forced worship scenario in The Revelation and therefore gave us the First Amendment which protects Americans from any forced worship. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” Erdoğan’s schemes aren’t welcome here. Sorry dude.
Islam is incompatible w/ Western culture. I’ve probably said that at least 50 times here..I know.
Where you have a political class which sides with its people when push comes to shove, the problems caused by Muslim minorities can be contained. India and Israel have larger Muslim minorities than any occidental country is ever likely to have. What they do not have is an elite addled by virtue signalling and leapfrogging loyalties, which is what we have. When the message is clear – that you live here and can enjoy the benefits of living here, but you mind your manners and we’re not your bitch – the Muslim population makes workable arrangements with the rest of society. When you live in an ersatz official culture wherein the default reaction of the media-academic-legal-government complex to bad behavior by Muslims is to insult non-Muslims over a non-existent backlash, the lout segment of the Muslim population will push the envelope. Our biggest problem is our disgusting elites.
Islamic refugees have been brought into this country, however few Christian refugees from the same area. They are imposed on small towns, which they take over. This is coming to a neighborhood near you.
Tyranny is in the eye of the beholder. Religion is in the grasp of the beholden. Erodgan is what is right for Turkey and all places East of Corfu. The Ten Commandments Don’t Apply when you are East of Corfu. All those areas need dictators and if not a dick tator then an alligator.
Religion is tyranny.
The irony is strong with this one. Dave, to believe what you just said, the logical next step would be to ban all religion and thus making you the tyrant you accuse the religious to be. Banning freedom of conscience when it does not infringe on the rights of other IS the very definition of tyranny.
I believe Jesus had a very different take on tyranny, especially as he hung on the cross.
He said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
To paraphrase Rick James, just substitute Islam for cocaine.
He staged the coup to grab more power. He is a tyrant and hopefully the Turkish military takes him out soon.
Btw did you see this yet?
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/12/06/boston-college-faculty-want-to-ban-trump-inspired-hate-speech/
Boston College Faculty Want to Ban Trump-Inspired ‘Hate Speech’
In response to Donald Trump’s victory in November’s presidential election, nearly 50 faculty members at Boston College have signed a letter demanding that the university ban all forms of “hate speech.”
A letter signed by almost 50 Boston College faculty members condemns Donald Trump for failing to address the hate crimes “that his campaign emboldened.” They also condemn Trump for failing to apologize for the remarks he made about sexually assaulting women.
The letter opens: “In the wake of the presidential election, we as faculty at Boston College declare our
This should come as no surprise as Boston College is a private Jesuit Catholic research university. Their Agenda 2030 plans took a big hit when Americans voted for the nationalist candidate over the globalist candidate.
Ah, the degenerate ruin of an institution founded by that gnostic cult, the Society of Jesus. Maybe one day we will have a real Pope who will toss that lavender mafia out on their ears.