Islamofascism's Creeping Coup in Turkey

By Aussiegirl

Turkey has long been touted as the model showing that Islamic countries could become successful and modern democracies in the Western tradition. Increasingly, however, Turkey is being radicalized under a new Islamist political movement. The interesting thing here is that the article points out that it has always been the Turkish military which has been the guarantor of a secular government, sometimes even at the expense of democratic rule.

This is primarily the problem that the current Iraqi regime faces -- without a credible and effective military the recently elected government will remain ineffective and without influence. At present the Iraqi military completely lacks the ability to operate alone -- they have no logistical capabilities nor do they have air or other supports that any military needs. For these things they still rely exclusively on the Americans. It's not enough that they go out on patrols with our GI's -- they are incapable of planning, launching, supporting and carrying out actions on their own. Instead what we have there are an increasing number of ad hoc militias under the control of various imams and factions and not under the control of the central government.

The only reason Turkey has survived this long as a modern secular state is that Attaturk forcibly de-Islamicized it -- that now appears to be changing. Likewise, unfortunately in Iraq, Sharia is incorporated into their Constitution, and we see increasingly that everywhere in Iraq women are now covering their heads -- something not seen under the regime of the despotic, but secular Saddam Hussein. A small sign, but nevertheless a significant step away from secular rule.

If the EU brings Turkey into their fold they are sealing their doom and greasing the slide into eventual Islamization of Europe as a whole.

FrontPage magazine.com :: Islamofascism's Creeping Coup in Turkey by Frank J Gaffney Jr.

Arguably, among the most pressing questions of our time are: Can Islamic nations enjoy the benefits of secular, tolerant and accountable government - and, if so, will they be able to do it in the future?
A Test Case: Turkey

A bellwether may prove to be Turkey, the modern and very secular state created some eighty years ago by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk on the ashes of a theocratic Ottoman Empire defeated in World War I. His legacy has been one of the best hopes for believing that Muslims could practice their faith without being subjected to the dictates of repressive theocracy.

It is important to note that the guarantor of that secular government in Turkey - sometimes at the expense of democratic rule - has historically been the country's military. For this reason among others, the armed forces remain Turks' most highly regarded institution.

Ending Ataturk's experiment and restoring the Muslim caliphate it supplanted has long been a goal of Islamofascists, adherents to a dangerous political movement whose global reach and terrorist methods have largely been made possible thanks to decades of investment by the world's repressive Islamist regimes, led by Saudi Arabia. The rise of Islamofascism has prompted some in the West to hope that Turkey would continue to serve as a model for the Muslim world, even after an avowed Islamist named Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2002 parlayed a minority of votes into a monopoly of power.

This delusion contributed to the European Union allowing its negotiations for Turkish accession to the EU to be skillfully used by Erdogan to checkmate Turkey's military. Thus, had the armed forces acted to prevent Erdogan's creeping Islamofascist coup against the country's secular institutions and traditions, they would have been blamed for keeping Turkey "out of Europe."