Erdogan and the revival of the clash of civilizations
الاثنين، ٢٠ يوليو ٢٠٢٠
To prove his fondness and passion for the return of the era of the Ottoman Sultanate with all its historical disasters, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was only missing to make this decision that ignited a clash of civilizations that rationalists in the world have fought a lot in the past few years to get it extinguished.
It is known that the clash of civilizations is the hateful theory established by Samuel Huntington in the nineties to frame his vision of a post-Cold War world following the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, considering that the world will witness wars on cultural, civilizational and religious grounds, and noting conflicts between Muslims and people of other religions, claiming that Islam has “bloody borders”. This theory has gained momentum from the practices of “ISIS” and other terrorist organizations in various regions of the world.
Because the advocates of the clash of civilizations have retreated after defeating the terrorist organizations and eradicating their roots from Iraq and Syria, the narrow ideological background and reference of Turkish President Erdogan has overpowered him and pushed him to give advocates of inter-religious strife and conflicts a new oxygen dose with a decision very strange in terms of both subject and timing; Erdogan decided to convert the Hagia Sophia Museum into a mosque.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has not yet realized that what he considers a mistake cannot be remedied with a counter-error. Sometimes, it is not possible to correct what some believe to be mistakes and to get things to return to their original state, as Erdogan says in justifying his decision that the authorities of his country are the ones who turned the Hagia Sophia into a museum by a wrong decision in the past, adding, “Here we are bringing it back to become a mosque again”, after he apprehended the ruling of the Turkish Supreme Administrative Court, overturning the decision of the Council of Ministers issued on November 24, 1934, to transfer the Hagia Sophia from a mosque to a museum.
Erdogan was not satisfied with that, but he spoke in response to Western criticism of his decision as a cleric and not a statesman, and at best it seems that he is trying to wear the dress of the sultan or caliph he dreams of to mix the “religious”" with the “political” in his official speech expressing the Turkish official position. He pointed out that the places of worship for non-Muslims in Turkey exceed 4 or 5 times the number of mosques in Europe, and that there is one place of worship for every 460 non-Muslims in Turkey, compared to one mosque for every 2000 Muslims in Europe.
Erdogan says that the decision is the sovereign right of Turkey, and this is true, but in other cases where it is not surrounded by such a huge amount of political and religious sensitivities. The issue here does not relate to the rights of countries and peoples as much as it relates to the situation of social peace and security, and inter-religious coexistence in Turkey itself before it is in other countries!
In fact, Erdogan's position on the Hagia Sophia issue stems from purely personal political calculations and has absolutely nothing to do with Islam or Muslims. The mosque will not increase the strength of Islam in Turkey nor will it deduct anything from the enemies of Islam, it will rather only contribute to opening a new front of conflict between Islam and other religions, and give the extremist right in Europe a new excuse to attack Islam, work against Muslims, and fuel the Islamophobia trend in the West in general.
The truth is also that the emotional alignment that overshadowed many reactions in Arab and Islamic countries towards Erdogan's decision has drifted behind the slogans of political Islam that are still trading with the dreams of peoples and tickling the emotions of simple people with religious slogans and a sweeping nostalgia for the past.
It is interesting to note that President Erdogan himself was in the recent past among the opponents of turning the museum into a mosque, but it appears that he grabbed the court’s ruling and found in it what could help him restore his collapsed popularity, even if it is a decision fraught with dangers and risks. He also found in that an opportunity for taking revenge from the widespread Western rejection of Turkey's Erdogan policies, the refusal of Turkey's accession to the European Union and the closing of Europe's doors in its face permanently.
And whoever followed the political discourse issued by the leaders of the ruling Turkish Justice and Development Party in celebration of the Hagia Sophia decision, will readily finds a narrow ideological organizational spirit, not political or even partisan, all talk is about liberating the mosque and achieving a victory for Islam and that this paves the way for the restoration of Muslim mosques in Andalusia and Europe, which is one of the slogans raised by extremist organizations in their struggle with their peoples and the whole world! It is the usual ideological discourse of extremist terrorist groups, especially the Muslim Brotherhood.
The most dangerous aspect of this absurd decision is that it restores Turkey to identity conflicts again, as it ignites the conflict over religion and its position in the political construction of the State, and raises strong doubts about secularism, which was the basis for the stability of the Turkish central State since the beginning of the twentieth century. Erdogan also ventures the stability of his country in order to save his troubled popularity, and tickles the emotions of millions of simple people with a decision that will only add more isolation and enemies to Turkey and its people, a very hazardous step that cannot be taken by a statesman who is able to assess situations and build the correct strategic estimates about the results of his decisions.
It is known that the clash of civilizations is the hateful theory established by Samuel Huntington in the nineties to frame his vision of a post-Cold War world following the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, considering that the world will witness wars on cultural, civilizational and religious grounds, and noting conflicts between Muslims and people of other religions, claiming that Islam has “bloody borders”. This theory has gained momentum from the practices of “ISIS” and other terrorist organizations in various regions of the world.
Because the advocates of the clash of civilizations have retreated after defeating the terrorist organizations and eradicating their roots from Iraq and Syria, the narrow ideological background and reference of Turkish President Erdogan has overpowered him and pushed him to give advocates of inter-religious strife and conflicts a new oxygen dose with a decision very strange in terms of both subject and timing; Erdogan decided to convert the Hagia Sophia Museum into a mosque.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has not yet realized that what he considers a mistake cannot be remedied with a counter-error. Sometimes, it is not possible to correct what some believe to be mistakes and to get things to return to their original state, as Erdogan says in justifying his decision that the authorities of his country are the ones who turned the Hagia Sophia into a museum by a wrong decision in the past, adding, “Here we are bringing it back to become a mosque again”, after he apprehended the ruling of the Turkish Supreme Administrative Court, overturning the decision of the Council of Ministers issued on November 24, 1934, to transfer the Hagia Sophia from a mosque to a museum.
Erdogan was not satisfied with that, but he spoke in response to Western criticism of his decision as a cleric and not a statesman, and at best it seems that he is trying to wear the dress of the sultan or caliph he dreams of to mix the “religious”" with the “political” in his official speech expressing the Turkish official position. He pointed out that the places of worship for non-Muslims in Turkey exceed 4 or 5 times the number of mosques in Europe, and that there is one place of worship for every 460 non-Muslims in Turkey, compared to one mosque for every 2000 Muslims in Europe.
Erdogan says that the decision is the sovereign right of Turkey, and this is true, but in other cases where it is not surrounded by such a huge amount of political and religious sensitivities. The issue here does not relate to the rights of countries and peoples as much as it relates to the situation of social peace and security, and inter-religious coexistence in Turkey itself before it is in other countries!
In fact, Erdogan's position on the Hagia Sophia issue stems from purely personal political calculations and has absolutely nothing to do with Islam or Muslims. The mosque will not increase the strength of Islam in Turkey nor will it deduct anything from the enemies of Islam, it will rather only contribute to opening a new front of conflict between Islam and other religions, and give the extremist right in Europe a new excuse to attack Islam, work against Muslims, and fuel the Islamophobia trend in the West in general.
The truth is also that the emotional alignment that overshadowed many reactions in Arab and Islamic countries towards Erdogan's decision has drifted behind the slogans of political Islam that are still trading with the dreams of peoples and tickling the emotions of simple people with religious slogans and a sweeping nostalgia for the past.
It is interesting to note that President Erdogan himself was in the recent past among the opponents of turning the museum into a mosque, but it appears that he grabbed the court’s ruling and found in it what could help him restore his collapsed popularity, even if it is a decision fraught with dangers and risks. He also found in that an opportunity for taking revenge from the widespread Western rejection of Turkey's Erdogan policies, the refusal of Turkey's accession to the European Union and the closing of Europe's doors in its face permanently.
And whoever followed the political discourse issued by the leaders of the ruling Turkish Justice and Development Party in celebration of the Hagia Sophia decision, will readily finds a narrow ideological organizational spirit, not political or even partisan, all talk is about liberating the mosque and achieving a victory for Islam and that this paves the way for the restoration of Muslim mosques in Andalusia and Europe, which is one of the slogans raised by extremist organizations in their struggle with their peoples and the whole world! It is the usual ideological discourse of extremist terrorist groups, especially the Muslim Brotherhood.
The most dangerous aspect of this absurd decision is that it restores Turkey to identity conflicts again, as it ignites the conflict over religion and its position in the political construction of the State, and raises strong doubts about secularism, which was the basis for the stability of the Turkish central State since the beginning of the twentieth century. Erdogan also ventures the stability of his country in order to save his troubled popularity, and tickles the emotions of millions of simple people with a decision that will only add more isolation and enemies to Turkey and its people, a very hazardous step that cannot be taken by a statesman who is able to assess situations and build the correct strategic estimates about the results of his decisions.