Jihad Waged Against 'Infidel Europe'

Erdoğan's Jihad On "Infidel Europe"

Burak Bekdil via The Gatestone Institute,

The jihad against Europe by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is probably based on both ideology and opportunism. Fierce anti-Western rhetoric is an ideological sine qua non for Turkish political Islam; it is also a secure vote-catcher targeting conservative and nationalist masses.

Erdoğan's jihadism is not seasonal or a newfound system of political ideas. It is also not a reflection of peaceful sufism. Erdoğan comes from the ranks of Turkey's militant political Islamism that emerged in late 1960s under the leadership of the ideologue, Necmettin Erbakan, Turkey's first Islamist prime minister and Erdoğan's mentor. In Erbakan's rhetoric universal politics is simply about a struggle between the righteous (Islam) and a coalition of Zionists and racist imperialists -- all else is just details. In his thinking, the Zionists support Turkey's membership in the European Union in order to "get Turkish Muslims to melt in a pot of Christianity."

In a 2016 speech, Erdoğan talked of European countries: "These are not just our enemies... Behind them are plans and plots and other powers." Also in 2016, he said that jihad is never terrorism. "It is resurrection.... It is to give life, to build... It is to fight the enemies of Islam." In 2017, Erdoğan added that the German government's actions resembled those of Nazi Germany.

Last month, the Gaza-based leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Dawood Shihab, said that Turkey was the bravest Muslim country to fight French President Emmanuel Macron's hostility toward Muslims. Turks thought flattering words from PIJ were not enough crucify an infidel disguised as the president of a big European nation.

Erdoğan had to take the stage. Venue: A party convention in the heart of Anatolia. Décor: Huge posters of Erdoğan and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev. Two more photographs: Azeri landscape and the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. Slogan: "Karabakh and Al-Aqsa mosque [in Jerusalem] are waiting for us!" [Nagorno-Karabakh is a disputed territory under Armenian occupation since the 1990s.]

The sultan speaks: "What is Macron's problem with Islam? What is his problem with Muslims? Macron needs some sort of mental treatment." Erdoğan apparently thinks that Macron has gone clinically insane because the French president vowed to crack down on radical Islamism in France, after the country was shaken by the beheading of history teacher Samuel Paty on October 16.

Erdoğan also accused the West of supplying arms to one of the warring parties only, Armenia, in the most recent military conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Nevertheless, a bit hypocritically, Erdoğan is also proud that Turkey has been equipping the Azeri military with drones, various other weapons systems and training.

Middle Eastern politics is always a trap for radical ideologues. In Erdoğan's mindset, the "infidel West" is militarily helping Armenia (the evil) and Turkey is militarily helping Azerbaijan (the righteous). Fine. What other nation is militarily helping Azerbaijan? A nation on the side of the righteous? Israel, a country Erdoğan deeply hates.