written by Sibel Ozdemir printable version send your friend

Monday, 23 March 2009

With President Barack Obama’s new administration taking office in the US, neo-cons are worried about his more open policies toward other nations and religions. Since he is trying to develop a “new relationship” with the Muslim World, President Obama was blamed by some as “embracing of sharia”. [1] 

Frank Gaffney, President of the Center for Security Policy and a columnist for The Washington Times, wrote an article on Turkey last week. [2]  As we have already known about The Washington Times’ approach and Gaffney’s hard line right wing ideas from his previous writings on Turkey and other Islamic nations, it was not so surprising when we read his warnings to Obama not to visit Turkey. Similarly, three years ago he wrote some articles calling Turkey’s leaders Islamofascist. [3] As an answer to his writings, the head of the Turkish Jewish Community, Silvyo Ovadya, sent a letter to Washington Times Editor, Wesley Pruden, refuting Gaffney’s allegations of pressure on Turkish Jews and anti-Semitic behavior against Jews in Turkey. [4] Ovadya did not accept Gaffney’s accusation of the flow of green capital in Turkey either and he said that in the privatization process not only Islamic capital, but also investors from Canada, Israel, Russia and Europe, have been coming to Turkey.

A member of the Coalition to Stop Sharia, Gaffney’s imagination has run wild as US officials have been reviewing the principles of Islamic finance in order to improve the US banking system in light of the financial crisis. He believes that the Saudis may seize his country’s capital markets. Furthermore, he sees himself as an ‘expert’ on Turkey and Islam insomuch as that he is concerned about the future of Turkey as well.  With a superficial knowledge of the dynamics of the countries of the region, their cultures, and their cosmopolitan structure, the ‘soft power’ approach is not so meaningful for him.

Like the question of the chicken and the egg, people are asking the very simple question today: “What comes first?” If the US employs its soft-power, how will the region’s countries react? The second question is: “Who radicalizes whom?” if it were up to Gaffney, Muslim investors, Saudis in particular, would be barred from entering his country. For his part, most of the Saudis are “barbaric people” just because they are Arab or Muslim. However, he behaves as if he does not know that almost half of the Gulf countries’ population is not Arab, and many in this foreign population are not Muslims. In his fanatical opinion, he thinks that Islam is different from other religions and “financial jihad” and “jihad with money” are complementary features of Muslims’ “violent holy war”. [5] He even says that “Saudi Arabia is arguably the most intolerant nation on earth.” According to him, shariah is equal to “sedition.” [6]

In Gaffney’s narrow vision, Obama is embracing the Muslim Brotherhood’s agenda with his “new relationship” with the Muslim world. [7]  Even after the Bush administration’s unsuccessful applications and deterioration of the US’ image abroad, it would be surprising to hear these words from an ordinary US citizen, let alone a public figure. It seems that he has not had even a simple dialogue with the region’s people.

Everyone knows that Arab citizens can not define their own destinies due to their governments’ strong alliances with the US. The US turns a blind eye to these regimes to preserve the region’s stability. And the circle continues to repeat itself while the regimes and the US nourish themselves and the process alienates the region’s people from politics.

The last worrying issue for Gaffney is Obama’s visit to Turkey in April.[8] He alleges that Turkey is moving away from its secular tradition of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. But he forgets that many people in Turkey are very pragmatic and they vote for their socio-economic interests in parties, not for the establishment of a religious state. With its more than 80-year-old regime, Turkey reached its maturity with the contribution of the bureaucratic inheritance from the Ottomans. Turkish citizens have no intent to establish a Caliphate system as he mentioned in his writings. [9]

Actually we wonder about Gaffney’s advice to the Obama administration. It seems that he will advise him not to have any relations with Turkish government or to visit Turkey. As in the past, Gaffney times his comments to coincide with US officials’ visits to Turkey and the renewal of Turkey-US relations.

By Sibel Ozdemir