George Soros Condemns the Victims of Jihadist Terrorism for Fighting Back - Joseph Klein

by Joseph Klein

Self-proclaimed “god” blames the United States, Europe and Israel.

 
Leftwing radical billionaire George Soros fancies himself as “some kind of god.”  He believes in the delusion that he is endowed with special insight into what is best for the world, even as his declarations defy reality and any objective distinction between good and evil.

Soros’s latest example of self-righteous tripe was his op-ed article, appearing on December 28^th in The Guardian, in which he blamed the “hysterical anti-Muslim reaction to terrorism” for helping jihadist groups recruit more fighters to their cause. He wrote that “the fear of death leads us and our leaders to think – and then behave – irrationally…when we are afraid for our lives, emotions take hold of our thoughts and actions, and we find it difficult to make rational judgments. Fear activates an older, more primitive part of the brain than that which formulates and sustains the abstract values and principles of open society.”

Sorry to pop Soros’s balloon, but open societies will not be “open” for long if the jihadists succeed in expanding their Islamic supremacist ideology to the West. It is both a rational judgment of free peoples and a perfectly understandable human emotion to want to fight and destroy those who want to kill us.

Yet Soros has claimed that “the war on terrorism cannot be won by waging war.” Winning the war on poverty and letting go of the idea of American exceptionalism, according to Soros, are the keys to ending the threat of jihadist-inspired terrorism. It is the United States that is the “main obstacle to a stable and just world order,” Soros has declared. “The rest of the world dances to the tune the United States is playing, and if that continues too long we are in danger of destroying our civilization. Changing the attitude and policies of the United States remains my top priority.”

The self-proclaimed Soros “god” is dead wrong. Global jihad is the primary danger today to Western civilization, not American efforts to defeat it. Soros wrongly assumes that jihadism is entirely a situational ideology that can be defeated with more economic opportunities and a more humble America, rather than one rooted in the fundamental tenets of sharia law. Success is what fuels the recruiting of more fighters to ISIS’s cause. And as long as we do not wage war on ISIS with the objective of complete victory, ISIS’s ranks will continue to swell.

When Soros has not been busy trying to neuter the United States in the face of the global jihadist threat, he has turned his focus to Europe and Israel.

“Islamophobia in Europe is an affront to inherent European values,” Soros tweeted. His concept of “European values” is that Europe agree to accept at least one million so-called “refugees” annually. The “refugees” would be free to go wherever they choose. And he wants the EU to provide nearly $17,000 a year for each of the first two years to support each “refugee.”

If some European countries want to protect their national sovereignty and borders, and resist shelling out billions of dollars in welfare payments to self-proclaimed “refugees,” that would amount to Islamophobia as far as Soros is concerned. “Our plan treats the protection of refugees as the objective and national borders as the obstacle,” Soros wrote in response to concerns raised by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Soros's Open Society Foundation, through which Soros has funded many of his pet projects, has lashed out against what it considers to be “the discriminatory effects of an ideology of cultural superiority similar to racism in which attitudes, behaviors, and policies reject, exclude, vilify, or deny equal treatment to Muslims.” Soros advocates the opening of national borders to virtually anyone, which defeats the purpose of having borders in the first place. He castigates opposition to such an open borders policy that would block the influx of unidentifiable Muslim “refugees” as evidence of Western “cultural superiority.”  He ignores the jihadist ideology of Islamic supremacy that brands all “non-believers” as “infidels.” He ignores the fact that jihadist groups such as ISIS have declared their intention to take advantage of open borders, embed themselves in the “refugee” population and endanger the free, open societies that he claims to espouse. As the Paris massacres in November proved, that is already happening.

Soros also has his own dangerous ideas on how Israel should treat Hamas, the jihadist group with its roots in the Muslim Brotherhood that is dedicated to the complete destruction of the Jewish state. Incredibly, he blamed Hamas’s rise on former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s unilateral decision to withdraw from Gaza in 2005, without negotiating with the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority. In other words, it’s all Israel’s fault that Hamas has become such a threat to Israeli civilians.

Soros’s contention is preposterous on two counts. First of all, what was there to negotiate, given that Sharon pulled Israelis out of Gaza lock, stock and barrel? Isn’t that precisely what the Palestinians wanted to happen in Gaza? Secondly, the Israeli government did work out with the Palestinian Authority a mutually agreeable security arrangements at relatively open crossings, which became worthless once Hamas rose to power in Gaza and threw out its Fatah rivals.

Not content with distorting history, Soros called for the United States and Israel to recognize the legitimacy of a unified Hamas-Palestinian Authority government. Soros was confident that Hamas’s refusal to even recognize the existence of Israel could be treated as just one of the items to negotiate in an eventual settlement. In other words, in Soros’s world, Israel is expected to negotiate even whether it will be permitted to exist or not.

George Soros acts out of a sense of his own self-admitted “potent messianic fantasies.”  More than twenty years ago, Soros admitted that a “psychiatrist once told me how dangerous it is to act out fantasies and I am beginning to see what he meant.” That moment of self-reflection has long since given way to Soros’s complete egocentrism which, in its own way, resembles the egocentrism of the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Joseph Klein

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/261337/george-soros-condemns-victims-jihadist-terrorism-joseph-klein

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

ISIS Campaign Targets Saudi Arabia, Calls For Attacks Against Saudi Monarchy, Shi'ites, And Polytheists - M. Khayat

by M. Khayat

The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM)

Introduction  

The Islamic State (ISIS) has exerted much effort in the last couple of weeks to attacking Saudi Arabia and its ruling and religious echelons in an extensive and well-coordinated media campaign it launched against it. The campaign included the unprecedented release of 15 official ISIS videos from ISIS's various provinces, along with similarly prolific content released from the ISIS-affiliated Al-Battar media company over social networks and jihadi forums. The campaign was aimed at Saudis in general, attempting to "open their eyes" to the Al-Saud's – the Saudi ruling family (who are referred to by the derogatory term of "Al Saloul," referring to Abdallah bin Saloul, a known hypocrite from the time of Muhammad) - supposed treachery and corruption. The Al-Saud family is presented as a body foreign to the Arabian Peninsula, and as unworthy rulers of it. The campaign calls upon Saudis to join the jihad under ISIS's banner in order to target them, their clerical backbone, and Saudi military personnel. It also rallies Sunni Saudis against their Shi'ite counterparts, who are accused of being given a free hand (by the Al-Saud) to live and practice their religion freely in the country. The campaign also makes repeated references to Sunni prisoners in Saudi Arabia, promising them that ISIS shall come to their rescue.  

This is not the first time that ISIS has focused on Saudi Arabia. In May 2015, ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi lashed out at the Al-Saud for their collaboration with the West, namely the U.S. He also criticized the Saudi military campaign at the time against the Houthi Shi'ites in Yemen, calling it a Saudi attempt to please the U.S.[1] Shortly thereafter ISIS operatives in Saudi Arabia called for targeting the Shi'ites in the country while claiming that ISIS was the only true protector of Sunnis against them.[2] In his most recent, December 2015, speech, Al-Baghdadi denounced the recently established Saudi-led Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism and threatened all its member countries with retaliation.[3] 

 

The campaign's organization and presentation carried several of the hallmarks which by now have become a staple of ISIS's online operations, including volume, coordination, and persistence. ISIS relies on volume, in which the same message, or variants of, are presented repeatedly to a given audience, to make an impact. This approach is particularly evident in issues that are of importance to ISIS, and has been used in previous campaigns as well.[4] This message over-saturation, however, can be criticized as being overkill, or even a desperate attempt by ISIS to drive home a message that could otherwise be done more easily with a single video. In the current anti-Saudi campaign, all 15 videos and supplemental material echoed the same basic messages, albeit with varying emphasis and presentation. The campaign was well-coordinated, with the content being released online steadily over several days, and on a number of platforms, including the Shumoukh Al-Islam forum, Twitter, and Telegram. The content was also republished whenever it was flagged or removed. Format-wise, each video featured primarily Saudi fighters who would personally address Saudis back home. The videos varied in length, ranging from five minutes to over half-an-hour in duration.

Promotional banners from the various ISIS videos   

ISIS's official videos were complemented by a series of releases from ISIS's-affiliated media company Al-Battar. Its content comprised two videos, eight articles, and 50 posters. Al-Battar's campaign was in complete sync with ISIS's campaign, and was even made available in a single 6GB downloadable CD thereafter. The CD would later be used by ISIS on the ground during public display of its campaign.  

One of the articles from Al-Battar media against the Saudi monarchy, titled "The Serpent's Head [Is] Al Saloul" 

A poster from Al-Battar media, it reads: "Al-Saud do not rule according to the shari'a, and if they did implement Allah's shari'a, then they apply it only on the weakened, so which legitimacy concerning their rule are you [i.e. Saudi] talking about?"

Al-Battar media promoting its campaign's CD

 

ISIS using Al-Battar's CD in a public presentation in Aleppo (Source: Shumoukh Al-Islam, December 31, 2015)

ISIS's campaign is based on three main elements: Delegitimizing the Al-Saud and their clerical backbone; instigating attacks against them, Saudi military personnel, and Shi'ites; and rallying Saudis to undertake ISIS's cause and participate in the jihad against its enemies.  

More specifically, the campaign conveys the following messages:

- It labels the Al-Saud and their security forces, namely Saudi soldiers, as apostates and heretic. The former's apostasy is established on multiple grounds: their failure to rule according to the shari'a; their work with and membership in global heretic organizations like the UN; their collaboration with the "Crusaders," i.e. the U.S. and Western countries in general; and their war on Islam and Muslims, namely the "mujahideen;"

- It exposes the Al-Saud's clerical backbone community as hypocritical and deceiving on multiple grounds: It accuses them of protecting their patrons, i.e. the Al-Saud, and of justifying their un-Islamic actions; it accuses them of criminalizing jihad and the mujahideen, and of dissuading Saudis from joining both; it criticizes them for their double standard vis-á-vi Shi'ites, namely their criticism of Shi'ites living outside Saudi Arabia, while, at the same time, their apathy towards those living inside the kingdom;   

- It accuses the Al-Saud and their security apparatuses of protecting the Shi'ites and turning a blind eye to their activities and presence in the country. It also decries Saudi authorities for providing the Shi'ites with the freedom to live and practice their religion freely;

- It denounces the unbelievers' (kuffar) and polytheists' (mushrikeen) presence in the Arabian Peninsula, and reiterates the Prophet's hadith that calls for expelling all polytheists from it. ISIS places Christians, Jews, and Shi'ites under the term polytheists;  

- It calls for attacks against the Al-Saud and Saudi soldiers; 

- It denounces the Al-Saud's rule over the Arabian Peninsula, and calls for its uprooting;  

- It calls upon Saudis to rebel against the Al-Saud, and to join the jihad against them. It also warns them that if they fail to do so, Sunnis in Saudi Arabia will be subjugated to the Shi'ites in time, like their counterparts in Iraq and Syria have been;

- It calls upon Sunnis in Saudi Arabia to join ISIS's sectarian war against Shi'ites;

- It rallies Saudi tribes against their government, calling upon them to use force to free their prisoners. It also notes that protests and other peaceful measures are fruitless in bringing about change, and that only force can make a difference;  

- It urges Saudi prisoners to remain steadfast, while promising them that ISIS shall soon come to their rescue;

- It threatens Saudi soldiers with a similar fate to that of captured soldiers elsewhere, i.e. death;    

- It calls upon Saudi Sunnis to awaken from their apathy regarding the plots being planned around them; the misconduct of the Al-Saud; the presence of Crusader military bases in the country; and the hypocrisy and misleading of Saudi clerics;  

- It praises ISIS's attacks and operations in Saudi Arabia thus far, and calls to intensify those.  

The following is a review of some of ISIS's official videos:   

Video From Ninawa Province, Iraq, Criticizes Saudi Tyrants As Accomplices Of Christians And Shi'ites, Vows Revenge

The Ninawa province video, which is 6:21 minutes in duration, is titled: "Be Patient, Land of the Two Holy Places," and features three speakers. The first speaker directs his message to all Muslims in the Arabian Peninsula, urging them to rise up and fight their tyrannical rulers (i.e. the Al-Saud); the second speaker addresses ISIS soldiers in the Arabian Peninsula, urging them to hold out in their war against the rulers, and persevere their efforts to free jailed prisoners; the third speaker sends a confrontational message to the Al-Saud's soldiers, threatening them that if they continue to protect the house of Al-Saud, the caliphate soldiers' swords will reach them. 

The video opens with a description of the takeover of the Arabian Peninsula by the "tyrants" of Al-Saud, the "agents" of the "Crusaders." The narrator notes how the "the country from which the light of Islam spread to the entire world" constitutes today a base for the war against Islam, and a place where malevolent plots are planned against Muslims. He also notes how the Arabian Peninsula had become a place for Crusaders' military bases and for Rafidites' (a derogatory term for Shi'ites) worship places. He further notes that ISIS's soldiers have decided to sacrifice themselves until Islam is reestablished in the Arabian Peninsula. 

These previous themes are repeated in many of the campaign's videos.

Abu Khattab Al-Jazrawi, the first speaker in the video, directs his message to Muslims in Saudi Arabia, exposing the Al-Saud's apostasy, calling for attacks against them, and urging Saudis to join the jihad or make hijra to the Islamic State. He says: "Have you not discerned the apostasy of Al-Saloul, who work in the Crusaders' service? And have you not discerned that they made an anti-Muslim alliance with them?! Have you not distinguished the Crusader planes taking off from your land in order to bomb the Muslims in Iraq and Syria?!... Have you not noticed how their soldiers beat Muslim women and arrest them?! So if their apostasy is apparent to you, why do you sit by and refrain from fighting them and killing them, or making hijra to the lands of the Caliphate? Prepare your tools of war in order to purify the land from the defilement of Al-Saloul and their lackeys." Abu Khattab also implores Muslims in the Arabian Peninsula not to be seduced by the false sermons of "the asinine religious scholars and preachers," the yes-men of the royal family, he says.
The second speaker, Abu Muhammad Al-Hashimi, addresses ISIS operatives in the three Saudi provinces claimed by the group - Najd, Hijaz, and Bahrain - calling upon them to remain steadfast in the war against the country's tyrants, to attack them, and to free Muslim prisons there: "Slash their necks, cut off their limbs because they are impure…" He also threatens the Crusaders and Shi'ites: "Let our Rafidite enemies, the hostile Shi'ites and Crusaders, know that we have sharpened the knives and we are very close to their necks."
The third speaker, Abu Al-Bara' Al-Khath'ami, sends a menacing message to Saudi soldiers: "I have sworn that we will come to slaughter you, O enemies of Allah. Either repent and return to your religion or the sword will reach you. I have sworn that we will take revenge for the Muslim prisoners in your jails; we will take revenge for the jailed women in your prisons…" 


Abu Al-Bara' Al-Khath'ami  

Video From Al-Anbar Province, Iraq, Tells Saudis: 'There Is No Easier Way To Kill Them [i.e. Polytheists] And There Is Nothing More Delicious Than Spilling Their Blood'

A 15:26 minute video released by the media office of Al-Anbar province, Iraq, features four men:

The first speaker, Abu Khalid Al-Jazrawi, denounces the presence of Shi'ites in Saudi Arabia, expressing his dismay at how the Saudi government allows Shi'ites to proselytize Shi'ism and to practice their religion freely. Similarly, he decries Saudi prisons for being filled with Sunnis rather than Shi'ites. Al-Jazrawi also calls upon Sunnis to rise up against the Al-Saud, noting, inter alia, the latter's lack of implementation of the shari'a and their collaboration with the West as reasons for it. He also warns Saudis not to be fooled by Saudi clerics who denounce the mujahideen and jihad.  

Abu Khalid Al-Jazrawi  

The second speaker, Abu Anas Al-Hadithi, condemns Saudi scholars' hypocrisy, specifically that they've condemned ISIS's attacks against Russia and France and expressed sorrow for those attacks' victims, yet have said nothing about the scores of Muslims that are being killed in Syria and Iraq.  

A third speaker calls Saudi scholars "traitors" who falsely claim to stand besides Sunnis.   

A fourth speaker, Abu 'Azzam Al-Jazrawi, calls upon ISIS supporters in Saudi Arabia, including those seeking martyrdom among them, to target the enemies of Allah, and notes how easy it is for them to do so. He says: "They are among you and on your streets, there is no easier way to kill them and there is nothing more delicious that spilling their blood, so kill the polytheists wherever you find them…" He also calls ISIS operatives in Saudi Arabia to target Saudi soldiers and to "tear them to shreds."    

Video From Aleppo Province, Syria, Informs Saudis: 'By Allah We Are Coming [To Saudi Arabia] So Prepare The Path For Us And Support Us'

A 14:11 minute video released by ISIS in Aleppo province notes the desecration of the Arabian Peninsula by the Al-Saud, who, it says, have welcomed the unbelievers, Crusaders, and apostates. It denounces the various Saudi regimes' roles in the wars against Islam and Muslims, and accuses them of being behind all conspiracies that aim to combat the Islamic State. The video reiterates the Saudi government's complacency in allowing Shi'ites to live normally in the country, and to desecrate holy Sunnis places of worship. The video also notes that ISIS has established a "foothold" in Saudi Arabia, as is evident in its three provinces there (Najd, Hijaz, and Bahrain) and urges ISIS's soldiers there to escalate their attacks against ISIS's various enemies there.  

Muslima Al-Jazrawi, the first speaker, notes the apostasy of the Al-Saud, which, he says, is due to their lack of implementation of the shari'a; their alliance with the unbelievers; their protection of the Shi'ites living in Saudi Arabia; and their placing precedence on nationality (i.e. being a Saudi) over association with a creed (i.e. Islam).   

Al-Jazrawi calls upon Saudis to act in order to release imprisoned men and woman held in Saudi prisons. "How will [come to the aid of] those prisoners if you sat down with your family, wife and children?" he says.  

He praises ISIS's attacks in Saudi Arabia targeting Shi'ites, and says: "Your blessed operations have pleased the hearts of the monotheistic [men]." He urges them to terrorize the "enemies of Allah" further, and "to kill them and fight them, and to tear them to shreds with explosive devices, silencers, and explosive belts." 

Muslima Al-Jazrawi 

The second speaker, Abu Ammar Al-Hijazi, refutes Saudi government claims that it managed to eliminate the Islamic State's mujahideens from the country, and notes that there is an entire generation in Saudi Arabia that is sympathetic to the Islamic State. He also warns Saudi soldiers, including family members of his who serve in the military, that if they don't repent and end their collaboration with "America's agents," then "your moves are being watched, and [the addresses of] your homes are known." 

Abu Ammar Al-Hijazi  

The third speaker, Abu Al-Mugheera Al-Jazrawi, urges Saudis to join the jihad against the Al-Saud while denouncing their apathy over the presence of Shi'ites in the country. He says: "Here they [i.e. the Al-Saud] have begun arresting our brothers and sisters [while they] left the polytheists Rafidites and their worshipping places in Al-Qatif and elsewhere [alone]. By Allah we are coming [to Saudi Arabia], so prepare the path for us and support us."

Al-Mugheera Al-Jazrawi  

Video From Al-Falluja Province, Iraq, Decries Saudi Arabia For Becoming A 'Prairie For Atheists, Secularist, and Polytheistic Rafidites, And A Safe Haven For The Crusaders.'

A 14:41 minute video released by the media office of Al-Falluja province, Iraq, reiterates the treachery of the Al-Saud and their scholars, and decries Saudi Arabia for becoming a "prairie for atheists, secularist, and polytheistic Rafidites, and a safe haven for the Crusaders."

A speaker in the video, Abu Baraa' Al-Jazaa'iri, notes the duty of expelling the polytheists from the country, and says: "Forcing out the polytheists from the Arabian Peninsula has been established by the rightly shari'a, for no two religions shall coexist in it [i.e. in Saudi Arabia]; [and] no [two] worshiping places shall be built in it ... for the [Arabian] Peninsula is a blessed land chosen by Allah, so no unbeliever can enter it." Al-Jazaa'iri also decries the "desecration" of Saudi Arabia by the "kuffar," and says: "Sadly, [the Arabian Peninsula] has become today a ground for the biggest Crusaders bases, and is flocked by the kuffar, with all their colors and religions, to work or reside in, or for tourism and vacation, in order to desecrate it with their heresy, crosses, and debauchery."

  
Al-Saud's hospitality toward the "Crusaders" 

Video From Al-Baraka Province, Syria: 'Allah Willing, As We Established The Departments Of Zakat And Agriculture [In Syria And Iraq] … We Will, Allah Willing, Establish The Department Of Hajj And Umrah The Coming Year In Muhammad's Peninsula'

A 12:26 minute video released by the media office of Al-Baraka province, Syria, notes that the Islamic State will be the one to abolish polytheism in the Arabian Peninsula, and rule it as Muhammad did, according to the shari'a. It also denounces the Al-Saud's role in "rescuing" the American economy by signing the petrodollar agreement.[5]  

The "tyrants" of the Arabian Peninsula throughout history engulfed in flames  

The first speaker in the video, Rab'ii Al-Ghamidi, who is a former inmate in Saudi prisons, praises Allah for allowing him to join the jihad after coming out of prison. Speaking to ISIS operatives in Saudi Arabia, he exhorts them to remain steadfast and to target Saudi soldiers. "The soldiers of Al-Saloul have corrupted the land… Thus attack them for they kill the Houthis in Yemen, yet they welcome them [i.e. Shi'ites] in Muhammad's peninsula under the name of national solidarity."

He promises Saudi prisoners that ISIS shall come to their rescue soon: "By Allah we have never forgotten about you, and we are preparing to release you… And soon, with the will of Allah, we shall be on the walls of your prisons…" 

Addressing the Al-Saud, he promises them that ISIS's men shall soon return to Saudi Arabia as victorious conquerors: "We shall raise the banner of 'there is no God but Allah' over your palaces … and by the will of Allah we will force out the Jews, Christians, polytheists, and Rafidites from Muhammad's peninsula." He also threatens the Al-Saud with revenge for their ill-treatment of Sunni prisoners, and says: "By Allah, we will not forget, O Al-Saloul, what you did to us in your prisons, and, by Allah, we shall return [your mistreatment] to you doubled… We shall tear to shreds your bodies via booby-traps, and smother you with silencers…" 

Al-Ghamidi also calls upon Saudis to target Saudi soldiers, accusing them of protecting the Shi'ites and allowing them to "roam freely" in the country. He says: "Target the soldiers of Al-Saloul, for they enabled the polytheist Rafidites in Muhammad's peninsula, [where they] roam freely in Al-Medina, Mecca, Al-Qatif, and Najran; while, on the other hand, they have imprisoned the truthful scholars and sincere mujahideen and sentenced them to death." 

Rab'ii Al-Ghamidi  

The second speaker, Abu Saleh Al-'Awfi, urges ISIS supporters in Saudi Arabia to remain steadfast despite their small numbers. He also promises them that the Islamic State shall, within a year, take over Saudi Arabia and establish its various governing departments there, like, he says, the department of Hajj and Umrah (pilgrimage).  

Abu Saleh Al-'Awfi  

Video From Sinai Province, Egypt, Refutes The Al-Saud's Claims Of Upholding Shari'a Law

The Sinai province video, 9:07 minutes in duration, is titled "A Message to Our People in the Land of the Two Sanctuaries," and features three speakers who lash out at the Saudi government and call for attacks inside the kingdom.  

The first speaker, Abu Osama Al-Muhajir, opens with a message to the clerics of the Saudi religious establishment, accusing them of selling out to the government. "You stand on the side of falsehood," he tells them. He also informs clerics who are imprisoned in Saudi that ISIS will come for their aid: "Soon the walls will be broken and the jails will be conquered, as they were in Iraq and Syria." 

The second speaker, Abu Fatima Al-Jazrawi, urges ISIS operatives in Saudi Arabia to carry out more attacks and to avenge Muslim prisoners: "Attack them with all your might, 'scatter [them] by [making an example of] them those who are in their rear [Quran, 8, 57],' in revenge for the Muslims in prisons. Pressure them, for you have brothers in the prisons who are awaiting your aid." Al-Jazrawi also urges Saudis to join the fight and cease to "sit and submit." He also points out to them the Saudi government provides bases for "the forces of the Cross." 

The third speaker, Abu Ja'far Al-Ansari, justified fighting and killing the Al-Saud and their security forces, noting that they have committed apostasy by aiding the West, allowing Shi'ites to hold their rituals in public, and more. He also notes that the Al-Saud's claim of upholding shari'a law in the country is intrinsically invalid. 

Video From Al-Janoub Province, Iraq, Calls On Saudi Clerics To Come Out Against The Al-Saud

In a 5:28 minute video released by the Al-Janoub province media office in Iraq, a speaker named Abu Shakur Al-Shami addresses the "tyrants" of the Al-Saud and those clerics working for them. He points out the Saudi government's contradicting stance regarding Shi'ites in the region, namely its attack against the Houthis in Yemen at the same time of its protection of Shi'ites living in its country. Turning specifically to the clerics, Al-Shami informs them that they will have to answer for their actions in front of Allah on the Day of Judgment, and calls upon them to come out against the Al-Saud. Al-Shami also urges Saudis to adopt the path of jihad and calls upon them to come to the aid of imprisoned Muslims there.   

Abu Shakur Al-Shami 

Video From Al-Jazeera Province, Iraq, Informs Saudi Prisoners: 'Remain Steadfast… For Your Brothers Are Coming … From All The Provinces' 

An 8:35 minute video released by Al-Jazeera province in Iraq laments the takeover of the Arabian Peninsula by the "gang" of Al-Saud. It also accuses them, inter alia, of spread moral and economic corruption, and of allowing the unbelievers to establish a foothold in the country.  

The first speaker, Abu Talha Al-Ansari, denounces the Al-Saud's treatment of Muslims. "You are harsher on Islam than the Jews and Christians," he informs them. He also notes the Al-Saud's departure from Islam because of their association with the Jews, Christians, and Shi'ites, saying: "You are the guardians of the polytheistic Rafidites, heresy, and apostasy in your country. You have [many] embassies for the Christians and Jews, and you have [many] worshipping places for the polytheistic Rafidites. You feed them from your food, sate them with your drinks, and harmonize with them and they harmonize with you… Don't you know that whoever associates with the Rafidites, Christians, or Jews, becomes one of them?" 

Abu Talha Al-Ansari  

Al-Ansari also promises imprisoned clerics in Saudi of ISIS's forthcoming aid: "Your brothers are coming, Allah willing… Are coming with the strongest and fiercest men. Are coming from all the provinces. So be patient and await, for we are waiting with you."

Speaking to ISIS operatives in Saudi Arabia, he calls upon them to target their enemies: "Brothers, any apostates, unbelievers, or polytheists, you kill shall amass to [your deeds] on the Day of Judgment." He directs a similar call to Muslims in general in Saudi Arabia: "O Muslims there… Kill the kuffar and polytheists … for their status [according to Islam] is similar to that of the Jews and Christians." 

Moving to the Al-Saud, Al-Ansari threatens them with attacks in various locations in the country: "Be careful of us, be careful of our deceit, for, by Allah, you will not feel the matter until [the moment that] we are standing by you, in the [Saudi] provinces and everywhere, in [street] sections, on the streets, in your societies and in your organizations, you shall find explosions there, Allah willing…"  

Video From Barqa Province, Libya, Accuses Saudi Soldiers Of Heresy And Apostasy  

In a 5:28 minute video released by the Barqa province media office in Libya, a speaker named Abu Jarrah Al-Ansari laments the fact that the Muslim ummah has been afflicted by Arab and non-Arab tyrannical rulers, and adds that those are led by the tyrants of Saudi Arabia. Al-Ansari accuses them of heresy and apostasy, inter alia, due to their collaboration with the Christians and Jews, and for their failure to implement the shari'a. 

Al-Ansari addresses Saudi soldiers, accusing them also of heresy and apostasy. He says: "So O you soldier who works for the tyrants of the Arabian Peninsula, know that you are a kafir and an apostate." 

Speaking to Muslim prisoners in Saudi Arabia, he informs them they are in ISIS's thoughts and prayers. He also hopes that ISIS will one day come for their aid.  

Turning to ISIS's men in Saudi Arabia, he urges them to target the Shi'ites, apostates, and their allies. 

Abu Jarrah Al-Ansari  

Video From Hadhramout Province, Yemen: 'No Way To Deter [The Al-Saud] … But Only Through [The Use Of] Bullets, Raids, Ambushes, And Assassination'

An 11:18 minute video released by ISIS's Hadhramout province in Yemen reiterates the group's call to "ignite the flames of jihad" in Saudi Arabia, and calls upon Saudis to come to the aid of their imprisoned brothers and sisters by attacking the Al-Saud and their soldiers. "[Make] the tyrants and their soldiers taste an assortment of torments, [and] spread terror in their hearts…" it informs them. It also notes that "only through [the use of] bullets, raids, ambushes, and assassinations" can the Al-Saud be deterred.    

The first speaker, Mus'ab Al-Azdi, threatens the Al-Saud with an imminent retaliation, "I swear that our flames shall engulf you soon … and that we shall conquer the [Arabian] Peninsula," he says. At a later point in the video, Al-Azdi directs a stern warning to Saudi soldiers. Seen standing behind two captured Yemeni soldiers who are executed on the spot, he says: "This shall be the fate of the apostate [Saudi] soldiers, O Al-Saloul."  

Mus'ab Al-Azdi (center) threatening Saudi soldiers with the same fate of Yemeni soldier about to get executed 

The second speaker, Abu Hashem Al-Najdi, attempts to rally Saudi tribes against their government. Appealing specifically to tribe members with imprisoned children, Al-Najdi plays on sectarian-related grievances among them. He says: "O people of tribes, O you who are proud of your tribes, where is your chivalry? Where is your magnanimity? Your sons are in prisons, and your daughters are taken captive from you from your [own] homes? [All the while] the Rafidites are not confronted by the Al-Saloul… If you were men, then take your rights with force. You will not be able to free your children with protests or peacefulness, but [only] with force like this [Al-Najdi raises his clenched fist] will you [be able to] take your children [back]."  

Abu Hashem Al-Najdi 

Video From Homs Province, Syria, Notes That The Al-Saud's Promotion Of Religious Dialogue Constitutes A 'Clear Heresy'

An 11:14 minute video released by the media office of Homs province features three men:  

The first speaker is a former Saudi army officer named Abu Osama Al-Jazrawi. Similar to other speakers in the campaign, he threatens the Al-Saud, specifically denouncing their promotion of religious dialogue, which he says constitutes a "clear heresy." He also threatens the Al-Saud with retaliation for their war against the Islamic State: "O Al-Saloul, this war [against the Islamic State] will open its doors upon you from every direction," while adding: "You fool no one but yourself, and you mock [no one] but [the] men at whose hands … is your imprisonment, killing, and cutting off of your necks."

Addressing Saudi soldiers, Al-Jazrawi denounces their work for the Al-Saud, and offers them a chance to repent. 

Speaking to Saudis in general, he cautions them from believing Saudi scholars who work for the Al-Saud.  

Abu Osama Al-Jazrawi 

A second speaker, Abu Mu'adh Al-Jazrawi, denounces the Saudi government's membership in the UN, as well as its turning to the latter over various issues. That, he says, indicates that the Saudi government submits to the UN, and not to Allah and His shari'a, over matters of ruling, and as such, Saudi rulers are apostates and heretics. Al-Jazrawi presents similar arguments regarding Saudi Arabia's complacency in the war against Muslims. Turning to Saudis, he says: "O servants of Allah, don't you see these [military] airplanes that land and take off from the airports of your homeland? Where do they go, and whom do they bomb? Don't they bomb Muslims? Sure, and by Allah you know that."  

Abu Mu'adh Al-Jazrawi 

A third speaker, Abu Hudhayfah Al-Jazrawi, reiterates ISIS's promise to rescue prisoners in Saudi: "By Allah, we haven't forgotten about you… And Allah willing, the prisons shall be demolished, the shackles released, and [after which] you will exit to implement the shari'a of Allah in the peninsula of Muhammad."

  

Video From Al-Furat Province, Syria-Iraq: The Al-Saud Are 'More Evil Than The Jews And Christians'

A 12:17 minute video released by the media office of Al-Furat province, Syria-Iraq, features two Saudi ISIS operatives: 

The first speaker, Abu Nour Al-Jazrawi, lists the Nawaqid Al-Islam (Nullifiers of Islam)[6] in which the Al-Saud have fallen, naming four: their resorting to other entities besides Allah over matters of judgment; their ruling not according to the shari'a; their making permissible that which Allah had forbade; and their associating and allying with the unbelievers against Muslims.

The second speaker, Jarrah Al-Jazrawi, calls for attacks against the Al-Saud, and attempts to even rally Saudi women who are looking to carry out suicide attacks, saying: "Where are the female suicide bombers, [and] where are the booby-traps? Use [explosive] belts and grill the flesh of the Arabian Peninsula tyrants…" Al-Jazrawi also exhorts those Saudis who are willing to attack members of the Saudi monarchy to "show no mercy," for they, he says, have shown no mercy toward the believers. He also notes the inhumane treatment of prisoners in Saudi Arabia: "By Allah, their [i.e. the Al-Saud's] prisoners have harsher torture than that [employed] by the Jews and Christians, [to the extent] that some brothers held in their prisoners, [and] who [previously] were in Guantanamo prison … would say: I wish I can return to Guantanamo and not stay in Al-Ha'ir prison." Al-Jazrawi concludes by noting that the Al-Saud are "more evil than the Jews and Christians [in their battle] against Muslims." 

Jarrah Al-Jazrawi 

Video From Al-Khayr Province, Syria, Highlights Socio-Economic Grievances To Undermine The Al-Saud, Rally Saudis Against Them

The Al-Khayr province video, the longest in the series at 34 minutes, echoes similar notions about the Al-Saud's treachery and heresy, as well as the need for Saudis to attack them, their military personnel, and Shi'ites. 

The video also notes various socio-economic grievances and phenomena experienced by Saudis, in an attempt to recruit them into ISIS's ranks, destabilize Saudi society, and instigate attacks inside the kingdom. For example, it notes the high rates of poverty in the country and the vast economic gap between the rich – which the Al-Saud symbolizes - and the poor. "Billions were spent by those pigs [i.e. the Al-Saud] on the war against Islam and Muslims, [which] was better off to be given to the needy," it notes. The video also rallies Saudi youth to join the jihad and abstain from taking part in activities which ISIS sees as a waste of their time. One speaker notes in that regard: "Where are you, O youth of Saudi Arabia? Has all your focus turned to soccer, having fun, and playing around? [Has all your focus turned to watching] movies, [going to] clubs, and dancing?" Another speaker also denounces soccer, and says: "O youth of Saudi Arabia, don't let Al-Saloul preoccupy you with the stupidest of matters like soccer and the such, for they are planning to drown you with your desires in order [to make you] forget the issues of your ummah and in order to keep you away from it." 

  
Some of the activities denounced by ISIS as keeping Saudi youth from jihad, like dancing, watching soccer, and tafheet (Saudi drifting)

*M. Khayat is a research fellow at MEMRI.

Endnotes: 

[1] See MEMRI JTTM report In New Audio Speech, Islamic State (ISIS) Leader Al-Baghdadi Issues Call To Arms To All Muslims, May 14, 2015.

[2] See MEMRI JTTM report ISIS Message Calls On Saudi Sunnis To Fight And Kill Shi'ites, Topple Saudi Regime, May 31, 2015.

[3] See MEMRI JTTM report ISIS Leader Al-Baghdadi Criticizes Newly Created Islamic Coalition, Threatens All Countries Bombing Its Territories, December 26, 2015.

[4] See Inquiry & Analysis Series No. 1195 ISIS Campaign: Encouraging Palestinians To Carry Out Lone Wolf Attacks, October 20, 2015; Inquiry & Analysis Series No. 1187 The Islamic State's Frantic Response To The Wave Of Refugees Fleeing Syria,  September 28, 2015.

[5] Signed in 1973, the agreement provides Saudi Arabia dominance in oil sales in U.S. dollars in exchange for U.S. protection and armament. 

[6] Acts or beliefs that lead a Muslim to being excommunicated from Islam, thus becoming an unbeliever.

M. Khayat

Source: http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/8926.htm

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

The Intifada of the "moderate" PA chairman - Giulio Meotti

by Giulio Meotti

The Italian daily Il Foglio is able to give a name and a face to one of the main puppet masters of this Third Intifada.

Translated from Italian by the writer who published it in Il Foglio today, Jan. 5.

There is evidence of Mahmoud Abbas' responsibility in the terror attacks that killed 30 people in Israel. This is how the officials of his Presidential Guard manage the platforms of hatred:

 

In April 2002, at the peak of the Second Intifada, the Israeli army carried out a raid in Ramallah. In the Fatah offices, they found documents that proved the passing of orders from Yasser Arafat to Marwan Barghouti, tracing the entire chain of terror. Money, TNT belts, weapons, all written down.

Besides the call for “martyrdom”, Arafat knowingly supplied money to prepare the attacks of the al-Aqsa [Martyrs’] Brigades. This evidence was used to sentence Barghouti to 5 consecutive life sentences, (a year ago, a New York Court also sentenced the Palestinian Authority for its direct involvement in six attacks). 

However, such documents cannot be used to explain the “Third Intifada”, which, in the last two and a half months, has caused thirty deaths and three hundred injured among Israelis. Nowadays, with a dollar in Ramallah one can buy the kitchen knives used to stab Israelis. On the streets with the same sum, one can buy CDs with the “music of the Intifada” and, rather than being on paper, today the orders are given online.

“Is Palestinian-Israeli violence being driven by social media?” the BBC asks.

The answer is “yes”, and the evidence leads straight to the “Muqata” in Ramallah, the palace of Mahmoud Abbas, Chairman of the Palestinian National Authority.

Almost all of the perpetrators of this last wave of terror have left messages on Facebook. The first was Muhannad Halabi, the Palestinian terrorist who stabbed two people to death in Jerusalem. He posted on his Facebook page the motive behind the double homicide: “According to what I see, the Third Intifada has erupted. What is happening to al-Aqsa Mosque is what is happening to our holy sites, and what is happening to the women of al-Aqsa is what is happening to our mothers and women. I don’t believe that our people will succumb to humiliation. The people will indeed rise up and it will be Intifada.”

Up until now, as “evidence” of Abu Mazen’s involvement, the media and analysts have used figures such as Ahmed Ruweidi, the President’s Advisor on Jerusalem affairs, who stated: “I am proud of the fighters who, using blood, arrests, attacks, and beatings, succeeded in expelling them [the Jews, editor’s note] with their bodies... Truly, all my respect and appreciation to them.” But this is the exhortation to hatred by the “moderate” Abu Mazen, and while the world is backing him, he names squares after terrorists, and allows his TV channels and his websites to be filled with incitement. 

In this exclusive, my Italian daily Il Foglio is able to do much more: give a name and a face to one of the main puppet masters of this Third Intifada.

One of the main indoctrination channels for the knife and car attacks carried out by Palestinians, is a Facebook page whose title can be translated from Arabic as “Strictly forbidden for drunk people”. The logo is a Palestinian boy wearing a keffiyeh and holding a knife, with the sentence: Watch over Palestine with the knife.” 

To date, the page has collected one and a half million likes. It is listed under the “Arts and Entertainment” section and it was launched in 2011, during the so-called “Arab Spring”.

Since the Third Intifada was promoted, at the end of September, the page has recorded a daily growth in visitors. A careful analysis of this page reveals inflamed anti-Semitism and a daily call to kill Israeli Jews.

On October 14th, Palestinians are asked to “bulldoze” the Israelis waiting for the bus, and the post is even accompanied by an odometer: “Children of Palestine, stab and run over with the car”.

On December 11th, another post reads: “I invite you to Palestine to witness the revolution against the Zionist occupation”. And also: “Sons of bitches (speaking to Jews, editor’s note), may Allah damn you”.

There are images of the attackers all over the page: “His soul is in paradise”. An Israeli soldier? “S.O.B.”. On December 12th, photographs of Palestinians attacks on civilians and soldiers are posted: “To those who doubt Palestine and its state, look how heroic.” 

On December 9th, alongside photographs of Israelis taken away by ambulance: “Allah the Great has killed a Zionist”.

Two days ago, a timely post appeared, praising Nashat Melhem, the terrorist who killed Israeli young people on Friday at a Tel Aviv cafe: “May Allah protect him”.

All over the page, Jews are called “sons of monkeys and pigs”. On December 31st, an original wish was posted: “All await New Years eve. We await Netanyahu’s head in the hands of the Palestinian resistance.”

Who is behind this terrorist platform? Husam Nabil Adwan. He is a Palestinian Arab, born and raised in 1988 in Al Azariya, a southern suburb of  Jerusalem. Why is this important? Because since 2006, Adwan has been wearing the tabs with curved swords of Abu Mazen’s Presidential Guard, the elite team tasked with the security of the Palestinian President and his foreign guests visiting Ramallah.

On his Facebook page there are pictures of him standing in front of the al-Aksa Mosque, holding the Quran in one hand and a Kalashnikov in the other. There are also photographs of him together with the most well-known faces of Palestinian politics and security, including Arafat’s historic body guard, Mohammed Daya, and former Prime Minister Abu Ala.

This Third Intifada is far from “spontaneous”, but rather it boasts a precise algorithm - the incitement to hatred, and the high-ranking officials and praetorians of the Palestinian National Authority, who manage the main platforms of this “silent war”.

A few days ago, the Head of the Trauma Unit of Jerusalem’s Shaare Tzedek Hospital, Dr. Ofer Merin held a press conference about the victims of the Third Intifada: “The attackers always know where to strike, the wounds we see are never random”. 
They always strike to kill.


Giulio Meotti

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/18184#.VovbzVKzdds

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

What the cultural and political establishments can't grasp about Donald Trump - Selwyn Duke

by Selwyn Duke

What the old USSR taught us that the American establishment forgot

Perhaps it’s not surprising that Time magazine named Angela Merkel its “Person of the Year.” With her flooding of Europe with Muslim migrants, the German chancellor may, after all, go down in history as a primary destroyer of Western civilization. Yet there’s no question in my mind who is Man of the Year: Donald Trump.

After underestimating the businessman early on, some are starting to understand Trump’s ascendancy and staying power. Yet, even now, few truly appreciate what Trump represents: a political and cultural phenomenon heretofore unseen in America. His rise is historic, amounting to something even more astounding than the Reagan Revolution. This is true, and will be true, whether he ultimately wins or loses, whether you love him or hate him, or whether it turns out he’s driven by principle or personal ambition.

There are the obvious factors here: how Trump has tapped into anger against the Establishment and over immigration, and how he’s a plain-spoken breath of fresh air. Then there’s the astute observation made by the Weekly Standard’s Julius Krein in September:

“What differentiates Trump is not what he says, or how he says it, but why he says it. …He does not apologize for having interests as an American, and he does not apologize for demanding that the American government vigorously prosecute those interests.”

In other words, Trump professes a palpable politically incorrect nationalism in a time of prostrate, politically correct treason -- or, as some put it, “internationalism.” Yet even this is just the iceberg’s tip.

Many have said that Trump is not a conservative -- and they’re right. Nor is he a “liberal.” He is a populist. You only become a populist by exploiting what is popular, and in this the Trump phenomenon reveals a great truth about the great lie of our time:

What’s popular isn’t political correctness.

Why did politicians and pundits underestimate Trump? Why didn’t some other presidential aspirant beat him to the politically incorrect punch? A major reason is that they fell victim to the illusion that political correctness (PC) is far more popular than it is. They lost sight of what Reagan called the difference “between critics and box office.” And why? Because the academia/media/entertainment (AME) Axis -- the Cultural Establishment -- has us living in a Matrix-like faux reality in which elite swill masquerades as popular will. Agree with the idea or not, for example, relatively few Americans are actually “offended” by the proposal to halt Muslim immigration.

But while PC isn’t popular, it is potent. It’s much like the state ideology in the old Soviet Union: few average people subscribe to it in doctrinaire fashion. But most everyone is afraid of the ideological machinery of the state (“thought police” in our time). And this brings us to perhaps the most significant factor in Trump’s popularity.

Taking the Marxism analogy further, imagine it’s the old Soviet Union, and there’s a colorful dissident saying everything other citizens want to say but fear to. Now imagine the government sends its secret police to silence him, and they just get consumed. Bullets have no effect on him, and with every assault he simply becomes bigger. Imagine how frustrated and fearful the Kremlin commissars would become.

And imagine how the people would be in his corner.

(Oh, they might not always be willing to voice their support, but their hearts would be with him. And we see the same phenomenon today: a recent analysis indicated that Trump was under-polling because certain people, particularly the college-educated, were afraid to support him publicly due to social pressure -- which, mind you, will be absent in the voting booth.)

And Trump is that dissident. He’s the man saying things Americans want to say but fear to, stifled by the social code, PC, enforced by the AME Axis and elitist political establishment. Trump is their crusader against those hated oppressors. In fact, he is the first and only such champion they’ve ever had. The AME Axis destroyed Joe McCarthy. It pummeled Richard Nixon. It discredited Dan Quayle. (It didn’t destroy Reagan, but he never quite so brazenly bucked PC.) It guillotined all who dared oppose its diktats, boasting an unbeaten record.

That is, until Trump came along. 

To understand why Trump is Superman and his adversaries Lex Luthor without Kryptonite, consider what typically happens when someone crosses the PC thought police. The media may demonize him, the elite political establishment may try to destroy him, and any high-profile position he has will be lost (e.g., ex-Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich, former Atlanta fire chief Kelvin Cochran). Obscure individuals also suffer at the hands of PC companies fearing bad press and lawsuits. And once cast to the winds, the victim can mount a soapbox and eloquently plead his case, but without media coverage he’ll be the tree falling in a forest with no one to hear it.

Why is Trump immune? First, he’s mega-rich. And the main impact this has is not, as many think, that he can’t be bought (many billionaires, such as George Soros, seem like the sort who would sell their own mother for another billion).

It’s that he can’t be bullied.

Trump has lost business -- notably a Macy’s contract -- for opposing PC. But he has what I’ll refer to as, avoiding the vulgar descriptive, go-pound-sand money. But he’s not just any old billionaire (they’re a dime a dozen now, aren’t they?). Most of the mega-rich are somewhat PC themselves or aren’t interested in politics, and most of the rest couldn’t effectively wage a propaganda war against the Establishment. But Trump has transcended his profession and even his wealth; he has long been a member of the glitterati, a celebrity in a celebrity culture, a natural-born character, the man who can colorize a drab news day. He’s one of the people People can’t do without, and note: that magazine has greater circulation than any news publication.

Thus, the media can’t wither Trump on the vine. Even if, let’s say, The New York Times aimed to and ignored him, it would simply wither its own exposure. So the media cover him big, and he uses it in a big way because he has a big personality; he likes the camera as much as it likes him. Yet there’s one more critical factor.

Imagine you went to a John Wayne movie years ago and the Duke, instead of being an intrepid champion of good, sheepishly apologized to the villain. You might have wanted your money back. For a hero stands up for what’s right, against all odds and even in a hail of bullets. And were he to back down, he would relinquish hero status.

Yet backing down is par for the course when confronted by the thought police. People will cower and apologize -- thus relinquishing any support they might have had. Why would fellow citizens stand up for you if you won’t even stand up for yourself? And virtually everyone makes this mistake.

Except Donald Trump. Not only doesn’t he apologize, but he gets in the thought police’s face, doubles down and may demand an apology from them.

And his supporters go wild. Obama said in 2008 "We are the ones we have been waiting for." But, no, the Trump phenomenon is what oh-so many have been waiting for: a crusader who takes on hated PC, can weather the storm and doesn’t back down. This is why people flock to Trump. He’s the one who’s got Mussolini hanging upside-down and is beating him like a piñata. And when you have a hero, leading the troops in the heat of battle against a despised oppressor, you don’t worry about his marriages, past ideological indiscretions or salty language. You charge right behind him. 

This is what the cultural and political establishments don’t fully grasp and why they’re apoplectic. Their PC weaponry, heretofore deployed to such devastating effect, is as nothing. Trump is like The Blob: the more trash the thought police throw at him, the bigger he gets. And this is because PC has always been trash, foisted on us by cultural illegal dumpers who, proceeding contrary to the people’s will, have acted as undemocratically as the KGB.

Trump is taking out the trash. And the more it tries to burn him, the more people will want to see it burn.


Contact Selwyn Duke, follow him on Twitter or log on to SelwynDuke.com

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/01/what_the_cultural_and_political_establishments_cant_grasp_about_donald_trump.html

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

President Erdogan and the Turkish Reich - Robert Ellis

by Robert Ellis

Two-faced Turkey shows its true colors.

Turkey’s President Erdogan has referred to Hitler’s Germany as a model for a new presidential system, but this should come as no surprise.

Totalitarian leaders of the 20^th century were known variously as Der Führer (Germany), Il Duce (Italy), Generalissimo (Spain) and El Maximo Lider (Cuba) and now neo-Ottoman Turkey has its Reis (leader), Recep Tayyip Erdogan. There will even be a Turkish film about Erdogan with the same title.

After the defeat of Ottoman Turkey in the First World War, Turkish general Mustafa Kemal and his fellow nationalists laid the foundations of a modern, secular republic in 1923, but this process has gradually been reversed since Erdogan and his AKP (Justice and Development Party) came to power in 2002.

The AKP came to power with the promise of clean governance but before long it was business as usual with an amnesty to cover tax fraud and an amended public procurement law to render state tenders opaque.

The AK party set out to redress the imbalance created by Atatürk’s reforms and restore the role of religion in public life. Both the preamble and Article 24 of Turkey’s secular constitution stipulate that no one shall be allowed to exploit religion for the purpose of personal or political influence, but nevertheless this is what they have done.

Four years ago Erdogan stated that it was the AK party’s aim to raise a religious generation, and this is what they are well on their way to doing. There has been an explosive increase in the budget allocated to the Religious Affairs Directorate and in the number of Koran courses. Religious high schools (imam-hatip schools) also play a major role in the AKP’s plans to transform Turkish society.

In 2002 they had 60,000 students but now there are more than one and a half million. Originally planned to train imams, they are intended to provide the cadres for “the new Turkey”. President Erdogan is himself an imam-hatip graduate and their alumni hold key posts in the administration.

The gradual control by the AKP government of all aspects of Turkish society resembles Nazi Germany’s policy of ‘Gleichschaltung’ (coordination). Like Hitler’s elimination of Ernest Röhm and his Brownshirts, Erdogan has turned on his former ally, Fehullah Gülen, a Turkish cleric resident in Pennsylvania, and his followers in the Hizmet (‘service’) movement.

In 2007 the Turkish military declared themselves to be “the absolute defenders of secularism”, but with the support of members of the Gülen community in the police and judiciary Erdoğan crushed military and secular opposition in a series of show trials. However, the revelations of large-scale government corruption two years ago led to accusations by Erdogan of “a judicial coup” by the Gülen movement, which has led to a purge of thousands of police officers, judges and prosecutors, who Erdogan claimed formed “a parallel state”.

Like the Nazi ‘Sondergerichte’ (special courts), specially authorized courts were established to deal with the AKP government’s political opponents, but these have been replaced by special criminal courts, where extensive authority is granted to single judges. This move is part of a restructuring of the legal system, which has strengthened the government’s control of the judiciary.

A symbiotic relationship has also developed between Erdogan, the AK party and the business world with a system of “crony capitalism”, where companies are awarded lucrative contracts in return for donations to, for example, the Youth and Education Service Foundation (TÜRGEV), where Erdogan’s son Bilal sits on the board.

Consequently, companies that do not toe the line are made to feel the government’s wrath. In 2009 the Dogan Media Group, Turkey’s largest, was hit by two massive tax fines after coverage of corruption in AKP circles, and Bank Asya, which was connected to the Gülen movement, and the Ipek Media Group have been taken over by the government. There is also an ongoing purge of journalists, academics and anyone critical of Erdogan’s regime, who are denounced as traitors.

The main threat to Erdoğan’s rule is Turkey’s faltering growth together with the increase in unemployment and inflation. There is also the blowback from Syria as a result of Turkey’s ideologically determined support of groups such as ISIS and al-Nusra Front. In addition, Erdogan’s hateful rhetoric and an escalating war against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) now threaten to split Turkey and leave the country permanently divided.


Robert Ellis is a regular commentator on Turkish affairs in the Danish and international press.

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/261344/president-erdogan-and-turkish-reich-robert-ellis

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.