Bluff & Bluster Re Jerusalem

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan has of course been making fire and brimstone noises regarding Jerusalem lately (video with English subtitles here).

And (hat tip: Vlad Tepes blog) there has been much flexing of muscles in Turkey regarding Islam and the Ottomans.

Writes Ankara-based Burak Bekdil, a columnist for the Turkish daily Hürriyet: 

'.... Jerusalem has always had a spectacular place in a Turkish Islamist's heart and mind. But pre-election fervor in Turkey has lifted their "Jerusalem fetish" to new heights....

[For the Turkish president and his prime minister] Jerusalem did not exist before 1187. If it did not, why do the Turks talk about its "conquest," a euphemism they always seem to prefer to avoid the word "occupation" or "invasion."

..... [A]ccording to the president, [Jerusalem]"is the holiest place of Muslims and it belongs to the Palestinians."....

[I]n a speech on May 15, Erdogan said that: "Unfortunately we the Muslims lost our aim to head towards Jerusalem. The water of our eyes froze, making us blind, and our hearts that were destined to beat for Jerusalem are now instead conditioned for rivalry, in a state of war with each other."

In other words, Erdogan is calling the ummah [the Muslim community] to end its conflicts in order to unite behind a jihad march toward Jerusalem. This is not surprising for Turkey's political Islam, whose Arab ideological next-of-kin is the Muslim Brotherhood.

 Mohammed Badie, Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, declared in a public message published by Egyptian daily, Al-Ahram, that "the Zionists only understand force," and that Arabs cannot hope to achieve justice from the Jews "through the corridors of the United Nations or through negotiations." ...

Is Erdogan that one man around whom the Islamic nation should unite for the sake of Jerusalem and Palestine? Erdogan may be thinking that he is the 21st-century reincarnation of Saladin. So may be his Muslim Brothers and Qatari allies. For the rest of the Muslims, all that is merely "fairy tales from Uncle Tayyip."'

Read the entire article here