Erdoganistan: The New Islamic Superpower?
Authored by Giulio Meotti via The Gatestone Institute,
“It was a very special day, July 24 [2020],” said France's leading expert on Islam, Gilles Kepel.
“It was pilgrimage time to Mecca and, due to the pandemic, no one was there! It was the anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne, the origin of modern Turkey within its current borders. Erdogan was about to twist the arm of the secular Ataturk, who had turned the old Hagia Sophia basilica into a museum that he had donated ‘to humanity'. Erdogan… turned it back into a mosque”.
This was the moment, remarked Kepel – who just published a new book, “Le Prophète et la Pandémie” [“The Prophet and the Pandemic“] — that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan became the new leader of the umma, or global Islamic community. “Erdogan is trying to appear as the champion of Islam, just like Ayatollah Khomenei in 1989”.
Phi Beta Iota: Turkish is a primary language in 17 countries. Most people don't know that.
