Will he go first?

by Eze Eluchie

Despite the semblance of peace and tranquility which some level of economic stability may portray for a people, it only takes a little scratch of the surface for true societal feelings to manifest in an environment with an enlightened populace.

For close to a decade since he mounted the saddle of leadership, Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has enjoyed a continuously rising international profile and an uncanny ability to navigate the murky landmines the Turkish Military had always represented in Turkish politics.

By deft maneuvering, Erdogan was able to not only rein in the erstwhile powerful Turkish military which had served as guarantor of the secular characteristic of Turkey, but also proceeded to detain and put on trial several high ranking Turkish Generals – a feat that was hitherto unfathomable. Having dispensed with the guarantors of secularist Turkey, Erdogan embarked on a course to curb freedoms the Turks had over the decades taken for granted.

At the international level, Erdogan leveraged on the strategic importance of Turkey to military campaigns in the Middle East to extract favors at will from the West, sought to position himself as the Global Leader of Islamic states (amongst other things, ensuring that the world media was present when he landed in Somalia to inaugurate Turkish Air’s flights to Mogadishu as the first scheduled international flights to the war-torn country by a commercial airliner) and incredulously pontificates against Israeli treatment of Palestine’s in Gaza whilst at the same time meting out worse treatment to Turkeys minority Kurdish population and aggressively denying the genocide perpetuated against the Armenians.

A further testimonial of Erdogan’s craftiness could be gleaned at by his position on Syria’s al-Assad and the ongoing conflict between the Syrian State and rebel insurgents. Desirous to eliminate his nearest rival in terms of political clout within the region, Erdogan had been in the fore-front of apostles for United States intervention into ensuring the ouster of the al-Assad regime. Amongst other things, surreptitiously ‘helping’ to identify when the Syrian regime had crossed President Obama’s proverbial ‘red line’.  A few days to his State visit to the United States in May 2013 to convince Obama on the need to get more involved in Syria, Erdogan had despite clear indications that elements from Syria could be behind the twin bomb blasts in the Turkish city of Reyhani which had killed over 40 people and injured more than 100 others, publicly affirmed the reluctance of his government to get militarily involved in Syria saying Turkey will “maintain our extreme cool-headedness in the face of efforts and provocations to drag us into the bloody quagmire!”

Really? You do not want to get involved with your neighbors affairs, yet you invite outsiders from thousands of miles away to get involved? Good thinking!

All that guile is apparently being torn to shreds over plans to commercially develop a piece of park land in Istanbul. The initial protest from ordinary Turks which was met with high-handed draconian response from the Turkish police has since snowballed into a national conflagration threatening democratic governance in Turkey. Like all pretenders to democratic leadership, Erdogan has continually described the protesters as ‘terrorists’, ‘political touts’ and ‘misguided youths’.

A close look at the initial days of popular protests throughout the countries affected by the Arab Spring will reveal similar categorization of protesters by the dictators then in office such as Qhadaffi, Mubarak and Ben Ali. These were actually the same phrases used by al-Assad to describe the Syrian rebels over 18 months ago.

For anybody with knowledge of Turkish society, an indication of how deep Erdogans troubles are could be gleaned at from the fact that for once, supporters of the three main soccer teams in Istanbul, Fenerbahce, Besiktas and Galatasaray, have for once in their violent and acrimonious relationship with one another, teamed up to demonstrate against the present Turkish government. The riots keep on spreading and expanding in size.

Will Erdogans police replace tear gas canisters with live bullets?

Will Taksim Square become the next Tahrir Square? The next Tiananmen Square?

It is thus quite germane to inquire if Erdogan will actually go the way of those before him. Will Erdogan go before al-Assad?

Picture: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey

Will they ever learn?

by Eze Eluchie

From a conservative capitalists view point, money, like the Bible, the holy book of the Christians suggests, answereth all things. Under this school of thought, everything and everybody, has a price. For the right price, you can purchase loyalty, patriotism, service and whatsoever. Grandiose and sweet sounding as this adage may seem, reality often times proves that money may not be such a powerful tool as often touted.

The value system of every society or people goes a long way in determining the efficacy of money or other material possessions as a stimulus. To a people inexplicably attuned by dogma on a hereafter infused with promises of unimaginable divine riches, satisfaction of the most intimate physical and amorous pleasures and an eternity of idleness and fun, the worth of transient cash here on earth will no doubt be minimal.

Islam and Global Peace.

by Eze Eluchie

To a writer who is interested in getting feedback from society, the social media, particularly Facebook and online Blogs, remains one veritable medium from which one could elicit responses to issues from segments of society one may ordinarily not be opportune to interact with.

An issue which is increasingly becoming a source of concern to all well-meaning people is the explosion of violence across the Middle East and North Africa – areas with predominant Muslim populations. In addition to populist revolutions which led to the exit of totalitarian regimes in the wake of the Arab Spring, wars have been raging near endlessly across that region in the course of the past three decades. From the Iran–Iraq wars to the present bloodbath in Syria and in the unending conflagrations in post-Saddam Iraq, the region and its people seem to epitomize anger and violence.

The violence in the region has been exported all over the world in the guise of inter religious conflicts. It’s either Muslims attacking Christians in Nigeria, Egypt or wheresoever or Muslims taking on Hindu’s in India. In Burma, it is the Muslims and the Buddhists, whilst the Muslims make out time to engage those engaged in indigenous religious beliefs in Darfur and several entities where such practices florishes. In the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, strife between Islamic sects dating back several centuries, remain at the root of irreconcilable and never ending battles between the Sunni and Shi’a sects of Islam. 

Islam seems at war with itself and  rest of the world.

Remarkably, with the exception of Muslims, other religious groups seem to cohabit in relative peace, one with the other, without much altercations or violent conflicts.

It was thus with a view to understanding more about the Islamic faith that I posed an innocuous question on my page on Facebook, to wit: “Is Islam compatible with Democracy?”

After a few days of silence on my wall, I got a rather terse response from a Facebook 'friend': “The question should be ‘is Democracy compatible with Islam?’”

Hmmmmm

As I reflected on the response, I felt a cold chill trickle down my spine. Embedded in the response, as I later discovered upon more discourse with the author of the response was the question: ‘Was the world compatible with Islam?’ and not 'if Islam was compatible with the world!'

Considering that Islam claims allegiance from close to a billion people, it was only rational to seek to understand the faith more by delving into its sacred books, particularly the Qur'an, a book Muslims believe was a revelation from Allah (the creator) through Angel Gabriel to Prophet Mohammed (sallallahu alayhi wasallam – peace be upon him).

The sense of worry did not abate. The emphasis on violence, subjugating and or conquering 'non-believers' until they are subdued/converted/killed which flows through the literature was rather unsettling and questions the veracity of assertions by those commonly referred to as ‘moderate’ Muslims that the extremists and those who rely on terror and violence in the name of Islam are not reflective of the faith.

Is it rational to divorce those who bomb, kill and maim adherents of other faiths (such as the unfortunate victims of the suicidal attacks/bombings in Malali, Zaria, Suleja, Abuja, Kaduna, {Nigeria}, Beslan School-North Ossetia, Moscow Metro {Russia}, '9-11' New York, Boston marathon {USA}, Mumbai, Kashmir {India}, Woolwich, London transportation {UK}, US Embassy buildings in Nairobi {Kenya} and Dar-es-Salam {Tanzania} and all over) under the guise that they are 'extremists' or 'terrorists' whilst the Quran seemingly enjoins all adherents of the faith to do likewise? Could there be other meanings to what the Holy Quran provides its Chapter 9:29 – 31 and in various portions?

As our Muslim brothers and sisters prepare for the Holy month of Ramadan (which commences on the 8th of July 2013), one can only join them in prayer and expectation that they are able to meet the rest of the world halfway as we expect deeper reflection into the faith and a call to all adherents to sheath the sword?

Adherents of the Islamic faith should be able to cohabit in peace with the rest of the world?



Picture: Muslims praying

Picture: Muslims praying