February 2, 2010
Why The Kemalists Hate Capitalism
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Do you think that Turkey would be better off if it achieves "economic independence"? Would we Turks be wealthier if, for example, we drive all foreign companies out and "nationalize" the whole economy?
I don't know how you would answer these questions, but some circles in Turkey certainly answer them very positively. These are often the Marxist-Leninists, and other shades and grades of the radical left, who believe that global capitalism is a monster that plunders the nations it breaks into.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:55 PM | Comments (1)
January 30, 2010
The Shariah of Love
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
One of the popular themes in our popular culture is that peculiar feeing called love, and the way it sometimes torments people. Love stories with unhappy endings are quite common, and the heartbreaks they cause are quite bitter. No wonder so much music has been devoted to this trouble. "Love hurts," a famous song warns, "love scars."
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:06 PM | Comments (0)
January 26, 2010
Kemalism Needs to Be Disarmed - and Privatized
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Turkey's latest national controversy over the alleged coup plan codenamed "Sledgehammer" will probably remain as just that: a controversy. The generals who seem responsible will probably not face any trial, for the military remains as an untouchable institution, especially after being saved last week by the Constitutional Court from civilian scrutiny. A bit like the ancient legal maxim, "The prince is above the law," Turkish laws place the generals above the justice system that we, the lesser mortals, are subject to.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:11 PM | Comments (0)
January 23, 2010
Does The Turkish Military Make Plans to Kill Turkish People?
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Have you taken a look at the recent exposure about the amazing adventures of Turkey's Dr. Strangelovish generals? It is a must-see.
What I am referring to is the action plan called "Balyoz" (Sledgehammer) that the liberal daily Taraf published a few days ago. The extensive document, whose full name is the "Sledgehammer Security Operation Plan," was apparently drafted in 2003, a little after the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, came to power.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:37 PM | Comments (1)
January 19, 2010
Toward a Liberal 'Political Islam'?
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Political Islam, as you probably have noticed before, is a dirty term. It often refers to angry men who impose veils on women and ban anything that is fun. It even reminds us of the horrific reign of the Taliban, whose heaven on Earth in Afghanistan looked rather like hell for most of us.
There is a good reason for this notoriety of political Islam. Its main proponents, such as the Pakistani thinker Abul A'ala Mawdudi (1903-1979), defined it as the effort to create an "Islamic state," whose main mission would be the imposition of shariah, or Islamic law, within its most rigid and medieval interpretation.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:33 PM | Comments (0)
January 18, 2010
An Open Letter to Israelis (From a Concerned Turk)
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Dear friends,
I hope all is well in the Holy Land. Things are not too bad here in Turkey. Yet one thing that certainly does not look great is relations between our countries, which hit an ugly low this week.
In fact, since the beginning of your government's "Operation Cast Lead" in Gaza, which happened a year ago, a continual war of words has been going on between your leaders and ours.
Continue reading "An Open Letter to Israelis (From a Concerned Turk)"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:32 AM | Comments (8)
January 13, 2010
The Trouble With Islamo-Tribalism
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Nasty things are happening in Malaysia. Nine Christian churches have been vandalized or burnt just over the last weekend. Thank God, nobody has been hurt, yet, but the terror unleashed is terrifying enough for the Christian minority of this overwhelmingly Muslim nation.
Continue reading "The Trouble With Islamo-Tribalism"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:47 AM | Comments (4)
January 11, 2010
Ahmet Davutoğlu: Yet Another Crypto-Armenian?
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Ahmet Davutoğlu, the former academic who has been mastering Turkish foreign policy since 2003, is a remarkable man. First as an adviser to the prime minister, and recently as foreign minister, he really transformed the way Ankara does business in the world. His strategies of "zero problems with neighbors," "pro-active engagement," or "multi-lateral foreign policy" made Turkey a much more influential actor in its region. You might like or dislike the results of this new paradigm, but it would be only fair to acknowledge the depth and creativity of its vision.
Continue reading "Ahmet Davutoğlu: Yet Another Crypto-Armenian?"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 2:26 PM | Comments (0)
January 6, 2010
Should Muslims 'Slay The Mockers of Islam'?
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Alas, it happened again. An extremist Muslim attacked a Westerner to punish him for "mocking Islam." This time, the victim was the Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, whose controversial caricature of the Prophet Mohammed had sparked a worldwide storm five years ago. A 28-year-old man of Somali origin broke into the cartoonist's home last Friday, wielding an axe and a knife. "We will get our revenge," he reportedly yelled, before being shot by the police and taken under custody.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:30 PM | Comments (4)
December 31, 2009
Why Muslim Culture Needs More Fun
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
It happens toward every year's end. The more Westernized part of Turkish society warms up for New Year's Eve. Decorations are put up, parties are organized, and restaurants advertise eat-and-dance-all-night-long programs. Santa Clauses and pine trees show up in upscale malls. The Turks who embrace these Christmas symbols often have no idea about Christ. They just like the lifestyle of the wealthy, happy and joyful people they see in Hollywood movies.
Continue reading "Why Muslim Culture Needs More Fun"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 2:32 PM | Comments (0)
December 25, 2009
From the Archives: The Year of Darwin
Well, it took me some time to post this on this blog -- who said I have a good sense of time -- but down below is comment from me in the "Year of Darwin" special file of the Nature magazine, dated Nov 2008. (Read here, or download the PDF right here.) The cartoon above, meanwhile, is Nature's nice piece of artwork that supplemented the file, and the funny fellow at the left end seems to be me.
Continue reading "From the Archives: The Year of Darwin"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:06 PM | Comments (0)
From the Archives: A Governing Sharia
Yet another belated post: My book review of Islam and The Secular State by Prof. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im. It was published in the December 2008 issue of First Things, a monthly theology magazine.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 9:04 PM | Comments (0)
Why The Turkish Caesar Crucified The Ecumenical Patriarch
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew recently said on American TV that he feels "crucified" in Turkey. And many Turks got upset with him.
His All Holiness is right, though, to complain about the Turkish Republic. The latter has kept the Halki Seminary, the only institution to train Orthodox priests in the country, closed since 1971. Even the title "ecumenical" is lashed out at by some Turkish authorities and their nationalist supporters. Every year, international reports on religious freedom point to such pressures on the Ecumenical Patriarchate with concern, and they are right to do so.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 7:12 PM | Comments (0)
December 23, 2009
Why Is It So Easy To Insult Atatürk?
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
If you want to see something truly amazing about Turkey these days, take a look at the recent "insulting Atatürk" case opened against Can Dündar.
Mr. Dündar is a renowned public intellectual. He writes a column for the daily Milliyet, an established center-left paper, and hosts a TV show on NTV, a centrist news channel. He is a secular democrat and is certainly among the admirers of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the godfather of Turkey's secularism.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:48 AM | Comments (3)
December 21, 2009
Appreciating Christmas As a Non-Christian
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
A few weeks ago I had the chance to visit Antakya, the southern Turkish city whose name derives from the ancient city of Antioch. The latter, as New Testament readers would know, was a chief center of early Christianity. Evangelized by both Peter and Paul, the two main founding fathers of the new faith, Antioch was actually the place where the very word "Christian" was born.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:06 PM | Comments (4)
December 19, 2009
The Fundamental Design Flaw of The Turkish Republic
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
On May 1, 1920, Mustafa Kemal, who would soon be the founder of the Turkish Republic, delivered an important speech at the Parliament in Ankara.
"The people who have formed this supreme assembly are not just Turks," he said. "They are also Circassians, Kurds or Laz. They are all different components of Islam. They all respect each other, and each other's ethnic, social and geographic rights."
Continue reading "The Fundamental Design Flaw of The Turkish Republic"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:16 PM | Comments (3)
December 14, 2009
Will Turkey's Caste System Survive?
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Orhan Pamuk, Turkey's Nobel laureate in literature, has an interesting passage in his cherished book, "Istanbul." He recalls his childhood days in the '50s, and tells how the urban upper class he grew up within looked down upon their practicing co-religionists. "The nation-state," he writes, "belonged more to us than to the religious poor."
Continue reading "Will Turkey's Caste System Survive?"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 8:53 PM | Comments (15)
December 9, 2009
AKP Is Not Islamist, But Somewhat Muslimist
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan visited President Obama in the White House the other day. It was, apparently, a good meeting. Obama praised Turkey's efforts at home and abroad, and even said Ankara could be an "important partner" in resolving the growing crisis with Iran's nuclear program.
Yet we all know that Turkey's stance on Iran is actually a concern for many people in Washington. Erdoğan recently irritated them by declaring Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as his "friend," and seeming to almost avocate Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Continue reading "AKP Is Not Islamist, But Somewhat Muslimist"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:30 AM | Comments (8)
December 8, 2009
Are Minarets 'Our Bayonets?'
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
The recent Swiss ban on minarets has the bad potential of being a watershed event in terms of Western-Muslim relations. Therefore, there is a lot to say about it.
First, the ban is clearly a violation of religious freedom. It would be a violation of religious freedom, too, if crosses were banned from church roofs or Magen Davids from those of synagogues. That's why the whole affair is simply a "disgrace," as a recent New York Times editorial aptly defined it.
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Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 11:58 AM | Comments (6)
December 2, 2009
Aryan Supremacy Reigns Supreme in Switzerland
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
You must have heard that the open-minded people of Switzerland took to the polls last weekend to ban minarets - in a country where there are only four of them. These days, the global news is full of stories and commentaries about this apparently democratic, yet shockingly illiberal decision. But if you really want to understand the undercurrents that led the majority of the Swiss society to this unbelievable point, I would suggest watching a 1940 film, "Der Ewige Jude."
Continue reading "Aryan Supremacy Reigns Supreme in Switzerland"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 10:30 AM | Comments (12)
November 25, 2009
Tearing Down the Ankara Wall (In Slow-Motion)
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
Twenty years ago, in November 1989, the Berlin Wall came down. It took just a few weeks to tear it into pieces. It took only a little more than that to disestablish the East German state apparatus. In January 1990, the infamous Stasi, "The Ministry for State Security," was stormed by people who demanded the destruction of their "personal files," and, ultimately, the end of communism.
Continue reading "Tearing Down the Ankara Wall (In Slow-Motion)"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 1:14 AM | Comments (0)
November 21, 2009
How the Turkish Military Conspires Against Turkish Society
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
As most tourists discover in just a few days, Turkey is an amazing country with great history, beautiful nature, and delicious food. But one needs to spend a little more time to discover that its powerful military is pretty amazing as well.
Continue reading "How the Turkish Military Conspires Against Turkish Society"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 2:14 AM | Comments (1)
November 18, 2009
How Turkey Massacred the Kurds of Dersim
[Originally published in Hurriyet Daily News]
After five months on book leave, it is nice to be back in the Daily News.
I hope all has been well for everybody since June. As for Turkey, many new events and debates seem to have unfolded, but the scene is pretty much the same. Once again, one of the taboos of our not-so-democratic Republic is being hotly debated. (This time it is the "Kurdish question.") Once again, our incumbent "Islamist" party, despite the reckless machismo of its leader, proves to be more liberal and reformist than its secularist opponents.
Continue reading "How Turkey Massacred the Kurds of Dersim"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 2:14 PM | Comments (7)
June 1, 2009
Lecture at Boston University on 'Brave New Turkey'
I gave a lecture titled "Brave New Turkey: Yes We Can!" at Boston University on April 15. From this link you can watch the full lecture, including the questions & answers session at the end.
The speech apparently raised some controversy in some blogs, most notably in Dr. Jenny White's (must-see) "Kamil Pasha," here and here. Not a big surprise: Turkey is a country of controversies, and Turks within different political camps are often very harsh against each other. But just to set the record strait in the face of some ad hominem attacks, let me reiterate this: I am not a follower of any Islamic community (cemaat), order (tarikat), or any other religious or political group. (That's why my Facebook profile notes I am a "freelance Muslim.") I even don't have the slightest sympathy with some of the groups mentioned in those blog debates - such as the one led by Adnan Oktar.
I am not a "creationist," too, because I think that term implies an effort to manipulate science according to religious belief, something which I find wrong. (I just think manipulating science according to materialist belief is wrong, too.) I also think biological evolution is an established fact. I just don't think that it is totally random and devoid of meaning and purpose, as evolutionary atheists such as Richard Dawkins claim.
As for the lecture, I suggest seeing it for yourself and making your own judgment. I tried not to make it too boring.
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 12:44 AM | Comments (6)
May 31, 2009
Fascism, Anti-Semitism and All Sorts of Turks
[Originally published in Hürriyet Daily News]
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a man full of surprises. He surprised the world four months ago in Davos by bashing Israeli President Shimon Peres for "killing children" in Gaza. The way he stormed the international forum came as a relief to most Middle Easterners, but raised eyebrows among many Westerners. Last week Erdoğan made another surprise move, defending the right of an Israeli company to invest in Turkey, and criticizing the history of his own country, and his own political tradition, for having a "fascist mindset." While this comment came as a relief to Turkey's liberals, it not only raised eyebrows, but also prompted heated protests among the country's more numerous nationalists.
Continue reading "Fascism, Anti-Semitism and All Sorts of Turks"
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at 4:00 PM | Comments (3)
Previous entries...
Revisiting Kemalism's 'Western Orientation' May 17, 2009Islam, Apostasy and 'Erdoğanists' In Malaysia May 9, 2009
A More Radical Government? ... Not Really May 7, 2009
Turks and 'Meds Yeghern' Apr 30, 2009
Why Do We Have a Children's Day, Really? Apr 25, 2009
Discrimination Alla Turca Militare Apr 23, 2009
From 'Turkish People' to 'People of Turkey' Apr 18, 2009
Turkish Libido Versus Halki Seminary Apr 16, 2009
Not At War With US, Either Apr 12, 2009
To Get Turkey Right, Hear What Obama Said Apr 9, 2009
ALL ARTICLES »
