01-05-2005, 09:15 PM
<b>I also believe we are engaged in a struggle with Islam. Since the collapse of communism, Islam presents the only coherent challenge to our way of life. </b>
But it is primarily an ideological war and I do not believe, as Tony Blair and George W Bush seem to, that it can be won by imposing western democratic institutions upon Islamic countries with bombs and troops.
It might be won, however, by smothering Islamic countries with the accoutrements of western affluence, such as affordable white goods, television and the other gentle vices of western civilisation. The ordinary adherents of all ascetic creeds, of which Marxism and Islam are but two, tend to be susceptible to the softening temptations of avarice.
If we can buy off Islam in such a way then Turkish membership of the EU will have been a success and we might extend the invitation to other Muslim countries. So those curious whirling dervishes could even become symbols of hope.
<b>Warning against the Lures of Shaytan</b>
Allah warns the Children of Adam against Iblis and his followers, by explaining about his ancient enmity for the father of mankind, Adam peace be upon him. Iblis plotted to have Adam expelled from Paradise, which is the dwelling of comfort, to the dwelling of hardship and fatigue (this life) and caused him to have his private part uncovered, after it had been hidden from him. This, indeed, is indicative of deep hatred (from Shaytan towards Adam and mankind). Allah said in a similar Ayah,
[أَفَتَتَّخِذُونَهُ وَذُرِّيَّتَهُ أَوْلِيَآءَ مِن دُونِى وَهُمْ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ بِئْسَ لِلظَّـلِمِينَ بَدَلاً]
(Will you then take him (Iblis) and his offspring as protectors and helpers rather than Me, while they are enemies to you What an evil is the exchange for the wrongdoers.) [18:50].
[وَإِذَا فَعَلُواْ فَـحِشَةً قَالُواْ وَجَدْنَا عَلَيْهَآ ءَابَاءَنَا وَاللَّهُ أَمَرَنَا بِهَا قُلْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لاَ يَأْمُرُ بِالْفَحْشَآءِ أَتَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ مَا لاَ تَعْلَمُونَ - قُلْ أَمَرَ رَبِّي بِالْقِسْطِ وَأَقِيمُواْ وُجُوهَكُمْ عِندَ كُلِّ مَسْجِدٍ وَادْعُوهُ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ الدِّينَ كَمَا بَدَأَكُمْ تَعُودُونَ - فَرِيقًا هَدَى وَفَرِيقًا حَقَّ عَلَيْهِمُ الضَّلَـلَةُ إِنَّهُمُ اتَّخَذُوا الشَّيَـطِينَ أَوْلِيَآءَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ وَيَحْسَبُونَ أَنَّهُم مُّهْتَدُونَ ]
(28. And when they commit a Fahishah, they say: "We found our fathers doing it, and Allah has commanded it for us.'' Say: "Nay, Allah never commands Fahishah. Do you say about Allah what you know not'') (29. Say: "My Lord has commanded justice and that you should face Him only, in every Masjid and invoke Him only, making your religion sincere to Him. As He brought you (into being) in the beginning, so shall you be brought into being again.'') (30. A group He has guided, and a group deserved to be in error; (because) surely, they took the Shayatin as supporters instead of Allah, and think that they are guided.)
<b>People of the Scriptures try to extinguish the Light of Islam</b>
Allah says, the disbelieving idolators and People of the Scriptures want to,
[أَن يُطْفِئُواْ نُورَ اللَّهِ]
(extinguish the Light of Allah). They try through argument and lies to extinguish the guidance and religion of truth that the Messenger of Allah was sent with. Their example is the example of he who wants to extinguish the light of the sun or the moon by blowing at them! Indeed, such a person will never accomplish what he sought. Likewise, the light of what the Messenger was sent with will certainly shine and spread. Allah replied to the idolators' desire and hope,
[وَيَأْبَى اللَّهُ إِلاَّ أَن يُتِمَّ نُورَهُ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَـفِرُونَ]
(but Allah will not allow except that His Light should be perfected even though the disbelievers (Kafirun) hate (it)) [9:32]. [Linguistincally] a Kafir is the person who covers something. For instance, night is called Kafiran [covering] because it covers things [with darkness]. The farmer is called Kafiran, because he covers seeds in the ground. Allah said in an Ayah,
[أَعْجَبَ الْكُفَّارَ نَبَاتُهُ]
(thereof the growth is pleasing to the [Kuffar] tillers)[57:20].
Let's corrupt Turkey, it'll be the saving of them
Rod Liddle
December 19, 2004
All those of us committed to the notion of a culturally diverse Europe will be delighted that Turkey is about to be admitted to the EU.
Our continent is becoming drab and monocultural: it is difficult, sometimes, to tell a Swede from a Croat or a Lett from a Basque. They all wear the same clothes and listen to the same bland music, eat the new homogenous Eurodiet of pasta-lite, speak passable English and believe in nothing. The arrival of Turkey will add some welcome exoticism, an agreeable whiff of the orient.
We will embrace not merely the 50m or so implacably conservative Turkish Muslims from the weird and dusty moonscapes east of Istanbul, but also one of the world’s last communities of whirling dervishes.
These interesting and endangered people, disciples of the Mevlevi order of Sufi mystics, will, whirl in a counter-clockwise direction to escape the material encumbrances of this world and bring them closer to God. That’s a bit more fun than our traditional Christian services, isn’t it? They put on a whirling show every week in Istanbul and it is proving to be quite a hit with western tourists, or “travellers” as I suppose they would prefer to be known. In this globalised world increasingly we soft and affluent Europeans crave what the French call la différence.
The dervishes are renowned for their peaceable and affable disposition, which sets them apart from an awful lot of Turkish menfolk. In a recent opinion poll, more than 40% of Turkish men thought it was right to “discipline” and “punish” women for real or imagined transgressions.
According to an Amnesty International report this year, between one-third and one-half of Turkish women confess to having been beaten up by their loving husbands regularly. Others have simply been killed or forced to commit suicide. This long-standing tradition of persecuting women has, until recently, been aided by the civil code and the judiciary.
They in turn have all been informed by Islam, of course. I will not get into a theological discussion concerning precisely what the Koran, or Muhammad’s Hadiths, insist is the correct etiquette to be observed towards women. Perhaps we can just agree on the broad point that countries which are either Islamic or have a civil code drawn largely from Islam tend to view their women citizens in a manner that would not accord with the views of, say, Germaine Greer.
There has been much cheering at the fact that we will also welcome Turkey’s armed forces, which are very large in number and as we might recall from the traumatic first world war battle at Gallipoli, ferocious.
But remember, we’ll get the Turkish police force, too. And the “security services”.
Another Amnesty International report stated the following: “Torture in police custody remained widespread and was practised systematically.” By “torture”, the report referred not to the regrettable verbal bullying and bad manners which is without doubt imposed upon our own custodial charges, but, and I quote, “electric shocks, beatings, hanging by the arms”.
We will also welcome into our arms the “Turkish” Kurds. Or let me rephrase that; we will welcome into our arms the rest of the “Turkish” Kurds.
Somewhere in the region of 50,000 of them are here already, living largely in Stoke Newington and Turnpike Lane in northeast London. We let them in because we thought with some justification that the Turkish government might be inclined to persecute them.
Officially the Turkish government reckons it has killed 23,000 Kurds over the past couple of decades or so, which is right up there with the numbers of Kurds dispatched by Saddam Hussein in neighbouring Iraq. The Turkish government calls the people it killed terrorist separatists but the Kurds believe the majority were civilians.
Asked to choose between the Kurds and the Turks we might well become confused. Whatever the legitimacy of territorial aspirations of the Kurds, it is beyond doubt that the pre-eminent Kurdish party, the PKK, was an antediluvian Marxist terrorist organisation engaged in lucrative drug-running operations. It will be interesting to see if our Kurdish population trots back to Turkey when Ankara is admitted to the EU. Personally I doubt it.
And, once again, welcome Turkey. As we have seen, Denmark it ain’t. It is a singularity even alongside other potential or arriviste EU nations — Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova. Participation in the Eurovision Song Contest and the European Champions League seems to have convinced both the Turks and the EU that Europe starts not at the Bosporus, but just to the east of Lake Van.
I have no quarrel with this, any more than I have with the radical school of anti-colonialist African geographers who insist that Spain and Cyprus are part of what was once called the dark continent. Let everybody decide which continent they wish to belong to. Let democracy triumph over narrow geographical determinism.
The EU wishes Turkey to stop being beastly to the Kurds, hopes it will wean the Turkish police off re-enacting scenes from Midnight Express and best of all, wants Ankara to recognise Cyprus. All of which seem reasonable caveats to Turkish membership of a federal Europe.
But the EU might also drop any pretence at cultural equivalence, despite the protests from Ankara. Turkish women, Turkish atheists and Turkish homosexuals should be entitled to live their lives free from domestic or cultural oppression, and if that means a swift revision of the norms of Turkish society, so be it.
All of which marks me down as a bit of a hypocrite. I am usually no supporter of a federal Europe, partly at least because I object to the inevitable standardisation of hitherto sovereign and distinct states that has occurred over the past 30 years. In other words, I’m an anti-federalist because I object to precisely what Ankara is
objecting to now.
I also believe we are engaged in a struggle with Islam. Since the collapse of communism, Islam presents the only coherent challenge to our way of life.
But it is primarily an ideological war and I do not believe, as Tony Blair and George W Bush seem to, that it can be won by imposing western democratic institutions upon Islamic countries with bombs and troops.
It might be won, however, by smothering Islamic countries with the accoutrements of western affluence, such as affordable white goods, television and the other gentle vices of western civilisation. The ordinary adherents of all ascetic creeds, of which Marxism and Islam are but two, tend to be susceptible to the softening temptations of avarice.
If we can buy off Islam in such a way then Turkish membership of the EU will have been a success and we might extend the invitation to other Muslim countries. So those curious whirling dervishes could even become symbols of hope.
Source: The Sunday Times