Biden’s Pier Is a Gift to Hamas Terrorists

Biden’s Pier Is a Gift to Hamas Terrorists

There are mounting concerns that the Biden administration’s pier plan could ultimately boomerang, especially, as Netanyahu himself has warned, if the US aid and the port itself end up in the hands More »

Ubwami bw’Ubupersi na bamedi (Persian’s Kingdom and Med’s Kingdom)

Ubwami bw’Ubupersi na bamedi (Persian’s Kingdom and Med’s Kingdom)

‘Yoseri’ Museveni ari kumwe n’ababyeyi be, Kuki Museveni yanga u Rwanda akomokamo? Umugambi w’Abatutsi bo munzu (y’Abasinga, Abashambo. Abega, Abashingwe) mu karere kibiyaga bigari uhereye mu gihugu cy’Ubuperesi (Uganda) aho bafashe ubutegetsi More »

Hamas’s Industrial Murder: Why Is Senator Chuck Schumer Not Demanding a Change of Leadership in Hamas and Iran?

Hamas’s Industrial Murder: Why Is Senator Chuck Schumer Not Demanding a Change of Leadership in Hamas and Iran?

When the terrorist organization Hamas murders, tortures, rapes and abducts Jews in Israel, do not be surprised that the Jews of today will respond with the righteous might of a nation that More »

Israel’s Strategic Game of Survival

Israel’s Strategic Game of Survival

“They wanted Israel’s counterattack, and then they wanted to hold in the tunnels and use the hostages just to buy time for the international community namely, the United States to stop the More »

“Biden’s actions are a violation of Israel’s sovereignty.”

“Biden’s actions are a violation of Israel’s sovereignty.”

  Israel Betrayed? It seems clear that the Biden administration would like to see the rapid creation of a Palestinian state or at least a “Palestinian unity government” — unfortunately composed of More »

 

Uwishe Gen.GISA FRED RWIGEMA yaramenyekanye.

Amakuru agera ku kinyamakuru inyangenews,nkuko bitangazwa nabari barabigize ibanga,noneho ntibikiri ibanga,byashyizwe ahagaragara,yuko Col.Rev.Twahirwa DODO,ko,ariwe wishe General major Gisa Fred Rwigema,kumabwiriza ya perezida Museveni na Major Kagame.


 

Uyu Rwigema tubibutse yuko ariwe washinze umuryango wa FPR,uyu munsi witirirwa perezida Paul Kagame,nkuko ababigizemo uruhare babitangaza,baravuga yuko,nyuma yuko Rwigema,arambiwe kwitwa impunzi mu gihugu yaharaniye cy’Ubugande,kandi perezida Museveni akaba yaratangiye kubahoza kunkeke z’uko Atari abene gihugu,byatumye Gisa Fred rwigema afata icyemezo gishimishije cyo kubohoza Urwanda.

Bivugwa yuko iyo migambi yayikoze atayumvikanyeho na shebuja ariwe Museveni,maze Museveni amurwara inzika cyane ko yamutinyaga,akaba yarazi ubutwari bwe,bityo agatinya yuko,naramuka afashe igihugu,ashobora kuzagaruka akamukura ku ngoma.

Niwe wahitanye shebuja Gen.Gisa Fred Rwigema.

Barimo bumvikana ko,batagomba kwishyira hanze,kubera Gen.Kayumba Nyamwasa.

Ibyo byatumye perezida Museveni atangira kwiyegereza uwari maneko mukuru wa Uganda ariwe perezida Kagame icyo gihe wari major mu ngabo za Uganda,Gisa akimara kubona uwo mugambi nk’umukuru w’ingabo yahise ategura,amahugurwa yohereza kagame kwiga amahugurwa akomeye muri America yibwira ko,bizagirira akamaro abanyarwanda.

Museveni nawe yahise yihutira gushaka uwo yakoresha kugirango ahitane Gen.Gisa Rwigema,amakuru avuga yuko ngo yahise ategura Col.REV.Twahirwa DODO,waje gusohoza umugambi mubisha wokwica Gisa Rwigema,akaba yaraje kubihemberwa ahabwa ipeti rya Col,maze ako kanya Museveni ahita atumiza kagame muburyo bw’ibanga rikomeye ngo aze kuyobora ingabo za APR,zaje guhinduka EDF.

Muri uru rugambi perezida Museveni yakoresheje kagame kwica abakuru b’ingabo za APR,bagera kuri 41,bari bakomeye cyane kubera kugira ishyari yuko bashobora kuzakomera kandi ariwe ubahaye ugukomera,ariko akibagirwa yuko yagiye kubutegetsi abushyizweho nabanyarwanda babaga mu gihugu cya Uganda.

Yahuje abatari kuzumvikana na rimwe,ariko kubera inyungu za politike yamabandi,bemera kongera kumvikana.

Ibi byaraje kumenyekana kuva Gen.Kayumba Nyamwasa ahungiye igihugu,aho Museveniyahise amucisha akamugeza muri Afrika y’Epfo,maze kagame nawe ahita amena ibanga aribwira ibikomerezwa bya RPF,kugirango bamenye intangiriro y’ikibazo cyo kutumvikana kwe hagati ye na Museveni.

Amakuru avuga yuko Tito Rutaremara yihutiye kubagira inama yuko,bakora ibishoboka byose bakumvikana kubera yuko hari inzigo y’intambara ya KISANGANI,bityo bemerere Kaguta akomeze ababere umubyeyi aho kugirango abakure ku ngoma kandi bari bamaze gufatisha akariro.

Abatanga amakuru bakomeza bavuga yuko,ngo Col.Rev.DODO uyoboye itorero rya CLPR hamwe na Col.Nyamurangwa nawe wakoreshejwe kwica Major Birasa kumabwiriza ya Kagame,bahise bagira ikibazo gikomeye bitewe ni uko bari bazi uko kagame akorera abo yagiye aha imirimo nk’iyo,maze Twihirwa yitabaza kaguta ariwe Museveni.

Ntibyatinze Museveni yahise ahamagara kagame amubwira yuko niba ashaka kumushyira hanze nawe ko,agiye gufasha Kayumba kugirango abakure ku ngoma maze babwerebwere,ubwo amakuru avuga ko,bahise bategura inama yihutirwa aribwo Museveni yahise aza Irwanda,nyuma yoguhusha Kayumba Nyamwasa,maze,bumvikana yuko Dodo agomba kugira mahoro kandi agasubizwa imutungo ye yari yatswe,cyane abibutsa yuko umwanya kagame arimo yawuhaye na Dodo wakoze deal yo kwica gisa.

Ubwo kagame yahise agabira inka 10, perezida Museveni,maze Kayumba warugiye kugira imbaraga aba abihombeyemo,niyompamvu,muri politike byose bishoboka,there’s no permanent friend,there’s no permanent enemie,but permanent profit or interest.

Nkuko ijambo ry’Imana ribivuga,ngo byose urabikora ukagirango mpwanye nawe,ariko igihe cyiraje kandi kirasohoye aho byose nzabishyira imbere ya maso yawe,ngo byose ari ibyavugiwe murwongororene byose bizashyirwa hejuru y’inzu uko byakabaye.

Niwe wahitanye Major Birasa mukuru wa maneko Fruit Nyagasaza Innocent wicishije umunyamakuru Ingabire Charles.

Imyaka ibaye myinshi Twihirwa Dodo na Nyamurangwa babaye abapastor mu itorero ryashinzwe na Pastor Rugumbuguza Meshack ubu ubarizwa mubuhungiro kubera gutagaguza umutungo w’itorero,aho yariye amadollar ibihumbi $100.000,y’America,ajyanwa murukiko nabanyetorero kuko yarafite visa yari yarabonye ubwo yajyaga mubukwe bw;umuhungu we,uba muri America yahise yicikira anyura mu gihugu cy’uburundi.

Itorero aba arisigiye abasirikare gutyo,abanyamurenge bene wabo bakuramo akarenge gutyo kuko batari bakiri kwibere,aha rero abanyarwanda bakaba bibaza ese umuntu amara imyaka nimyaniko akorera Imana,yaranze kwihana?Ubwo se ni ijuru ryande bazajyamo.

Dodo amaze kubona yuko ibye byamenyekanye,yatangiye kurwanya umubyeyi wa Gisa kugirango bamusenyere akazu yari yaraguze nyabugogo bitwaje yuko iyo nzu yubatse kuburyo bunyuranije n’amategeko,ubwo sinakubwira Joy mushiki wa Rwigema we,bahise bamukenesha kuburyo yahise agurisha za saloon yarafite kuri KBC ku kimihurura,niyindi yarafite mukiyovu cyaba boss.

Bakoze kampanye yo kumwangisha abagore bakomeye ibyo byakozwe na mukakagame Umwmikazi Nyiramongi,kugirango babirukane mu mujyi wakigali maze bazabone uko babica,aya magingo rero munkundura turimo yoguhindura amatwara ,abakoze ibyaha babitumwe nabashebuja batangiye gushyira ahagaragara ibikorwa bakoreshejwe batabikunze ahubwo ar’ukubera akazi.

Ikinyamakuru inyangenews kikaba gisaba Dodo nka Pastor gusaba imbabazi umubyeyi wa Rwigema akavuga buryo ki,yahawe amabwiriza yo kwica uwari umuyobozi,ibyo akazabikora munyunguz’umurimo w’Imana akora,kugirango azabone ijuru,byaba tari ibyo hehe n’ijuru.

Na Nyamurangwa nawe ni uko,agomba gusaba imbabazi abavandimwe ba maneko Nyagasaza Fruit Innocent wicisheje umunyamakuru Ingabire Charles,kuko nawe yarahemukiwe Fred Nyamurangwa yica mukuru we wari major icyo gihe bamwiciye ahitwa Ibyumba,birasa akaba yarazize kuba yararwanyaga imikorere mibi ya Nziza,bityo abigwamo nyuma yo guhabwa ikiraka cyo kwica akaabyanga nkana avuga ko,adashobora kwica umututsi mwene wabo.

Gusa baca umugani ngo ibyara mweru na muhima,birababaje uburyo Ingabire yishwe na Rene hamwe na Fruit bamuziza ibitekerezo bye,no gukora umurimo w’itangazamakuru,mu gihe nabo ababo bahitanywe nizo nkora maraso barangiza bakajya kuzikorera kandi arizo zabahemukiye.

Ibyisi nagahoma munwa,ntibyumvikana ukuntu uwakwiciye ariwe wongera akaguha akazi ko,kwica abo udafite icyo upfa nabo,ibiraka biragwira,mbwira rero ubumwe n’ubwigunge buvugwa mubanyarwanda bungana iki? Reka bishyire hanze ibibazo byari byarabuze igisubizo bibonerwe umuti,tekereza ko Joy yagiye gusengera muri CLPR agasanga dodo ariwe wayoboye amateraniro agahita yisubirirayo.

Ubuse niba abicanyi aribo bayoboye amatorero,noneho tuzahurira hehe,ubwo Rugumbuguza Meshack yahise ajya gusura Joy amubaza impamvu ataboneka mu materaniro undi amubwira ko ,afite akazi kenshi,tekereza aho umukiristu atinya kukubwira ikibazo cye kubera ko,udafite ihishukirwa ryo kumenya uwo wahaye umurino n’ingaruka zizavamo.

 

Utazi ikimuhatse!

Amakuru agera ku kinyamakuru inyangeNews,aturuka mu gihugu cya Kenya,mu murwa w’icyo gihugu Nairobi,aravuga yuko,perezida wicyo gihugu yaraye agiranye ikiganiro n’abanyamakuru”Media Press”akababwira yuko,ngo bibabaje kubona igihugu cy’igihangange nk’America,kirirwa gihakinga tel z’abaperezida bagize umuryango w’Africa y’Uburasira zuba,ubwo n’ukuvuga,Kagame,Kaguta,Kenyatta.


Perezida Uhuru Kenyatta,yakomeje avuga yuko ngo igihugu cy’America gikomeje kubagenda runono,kigambiriye gusenya ubumwe uyu muryango umaze kubaka,bitewe ni uko ngo baba badashyigikiye ko uyu muryango ubaho,ngo ibyo bakaba babiterwa no gushaka kwiharira inyungu rusange zako karere aho igihugu cy’America gishaka kubayobora buhumyi batareba icyerekezo cy’akarere kabo.

 

Twabibutsa yuko ibi atari bwo bitangiye kugaragaza ko,igihugu cy’America kitakivuga rumwe n’igihugu cya kenya ,ahubwo hagiye gushira imyaka igera ku icumi badacana uwaka kubera yuko,kenya yafashe amasoko yose,America yabonaga muri icyo gihugu,iyaha igihugu cy’Ubushinwa,ibi bikaba byarabaye ku ngoma ya perezida Mwai KIBAKI,aho yakoranye nabashinwa kugeza manda ze ebyeri zirangiye.

 

Uyu mubano waje kuzamo agatotsi mu gihe perezida Uhuru na Ruto batangiye kwiyamamariza umwanya wa perezida wa repubulika,kandi bari bamaze kuregwa ibyaha bijyanye n’ubwicanyi bwabaye muri 2007-2008,bwahitanye abaturage batari bake bo muri icyo gihugu,igihugu cy’America cyikaba cyaragiriye inama igihugu cya Kenya ko,byaba byiza,aba bagabo bombi tuvuze hejuru batiyamamaje kuko nibaramuka biyamamaje bagatsinda,igihugu cya Kenya,kizahura nibibazo byo kutazahabwa imfashanyo cyangwa inguzanyo bitewe ni uko bafite ibyaha baregwa murukiko mpuzamahanga I LA HAYE muBUHOLLANDE.

 

Amakuru avuga yuko iki kibazo cyaje guhumura kumirari aho mukwezi gushize minister w’intebe w’igihugu cy”Ubushinwa,yaje gusura igihugu cya Kenya,bagasinya kumasezerano yogukora umuhanda wa gari ya moshi,aho uwo muhanda uzatwara miliyali $ 300,ibyo byabaye ari kuwa gatandatu,kucyumweru kumunsi ukurikiyeho,Kagame Kaguta nabo bahise baza gusinya kuri ayo masezerano yogukora uwo muhanda wa gari ya moshi.

 

Iyi migambi igihugu cy’America cyikaba cyarabibonye cyera,aho cyatangije intambara muri Sudani y’Amajyepfo binyuze muri Riek Machar wari Visi perezida wa Salve Kiir,waje guhagarikwa na perezida Kiir kubera kumutinya no kuba bigaragara ko,amurusha imbaraga mubaturage ndetse nomubasirikare,ibi igihugu cy’America cyabikoze kugirango kizaburizemo umugambi waba bagabo bombi nyuma yuko Riek aza amaze kuba perezida wa sudani y’amajyepfo bizaba biciye mu matora.

Ibi perezida Museveni akimara kubimenya,yahise nawe asinya itegeko rihana abahuje igitsina bita Anti-guy,ako kanya America yabaye iya mbere mu guhagarika imfanyo bageneraga icyo gihugu,hamwe nibindi bihugu,byaje gutuma perezida Museveni yikoma abanyamerica nyamara yibagirwa ko kuba akiri ku ntebe aribo abicyesha.

 

Kumugaragaro yahise atangaza yuko agiye kwikoranira naBarusiya,maze gukorana n’America akaba abishingutsemo atyo,ariko kandi yibagiwe yuko “utazi ikimuhatse areba?”icyo gitsure rero nicyo gitangiye kumugiraho ingaruka,ndetse n’umuhungu we,perezida kagame umwakagara utajy’uvugirwamo,dore ko nawe iyo ntebe ayikesha abanyamerica,rwose we,kumugaragaro ntagicana uwaca n’America,ndetse kuva Obama yajya ku ntebe ya White House ntabwo yari yigera amuha karibu,ngo nibura yumve yuko amufitiye ikizere,ibyo arabiterwa ni uko afite amafaranga menshi akaba ntacyo agiteretana n’America,ariko ahanini akabiterwa n’Amadollar bamuhaye yogushoza intambara muri Congo ababeshya ko,azunguka,none yabacyuje umunyu.

Abazungu rero ntibajya bahomba,iyo utabishyuye barakurimbura,ibi byose biraterwa nakamenyero kagame na kaguta bamaze kumenyera aba bagabo bakomeye mu isi yabazima,usibyeko iminsi yabajyanye kuburyo gukomera kwabo gushobora kurangirana n’intambara ya lll,y’isi yose ishobora kuba mu minsi ya vuba baramutse batarebye neza.

 

urkey: Victim of Its Own Enthusiasm for Jihad by Burak Bekdil

  • “Infidels who were enemies of Islam thought they buried Islam in the depths of history when they abolished the caliphate on March 3, 1924 … We are shouting out that we will re-establish the caliphate, here, right next to the parliament.” — Mahmut Kar, media bureau chief of Hizb ut-Tahrir Turkey.

  • “The magazine [Dabiq] creates propaganda for [ISIS]. It has an open address. Why does no one raid its offices?” — Opposition MP Turkey’s Parliament.

The government big guns in Ankara just shrugged it off when on June 5, 2015, only two days before general elections in the country, homegrown jihadist militants for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syia (ISIS, or ISIL or IS) detonated bombs, killing four people and injuring over 100, at a pro-Kurdish political rally.

Again, when IS, on July 20, 2015, bombed a meeting of pro-Kurdish peace activists in a small town on Turkey’s Syrian border, killing 33 people and injuring over 100, the government behaved as if it had never happened. After all, a bunch of “wild boys” from the ranks of jihad — which the ruling party in Ankara not-so-secretly aspires to — were killing the common enemy: Kurds.

Then when IS jihadists, in October, killed over 100 people in the heart of Ankara, while targeting, once again, a public rally of pro-peace activists (including many Kurds), the Turkish government put the blame on “a cocktail of terror groups” — meaning the attack may have been a product of Islamists, far-leftist and Kurdish militants. “IS, Kurdish or far-leftist militants could have carried out the bombing,” the prime minister at the time, Ahmet Davutoglu, said. It was the worst single terror attack in Turkey’s history, and the Ankara government was too demure even to name the perpetrators. An indictment against 36 suspects, completed nearly nine months after the attack, identified all defendants as Islamic State members. So there was no “cocktail of terror.” It was just the jihadists.

In the last year, there had been further jihadist acts of terror, targeting Turks and foreign tourists, but with relatively few casualties up to now. At an Istanbul airport, however, a mysterious explosion, which the authorities hastily attempted to cover up, was probably the precursor of the latest mega-attack in Istanbul. The management at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen Airport said on Dec. 23, 2015 that: “There was an explosion at the apron and investigation regarding its cause is progressing … Fights have resumed.” That unidentified explosion consisted of three or four mortars fired at a passenger plane parked at the apron. The attack killed one unfortunate cleaner.

The incident was quickly “disappeared” from the public memory. One person dying in a mysterious explosion was too minor for a collective Turkish memory that had grown used to casualties coming in the dozens. It was, in fact, a powerful message from the terrorists: We will target your lifeline — air traffic.

Every year about 60 million travelers pass through Istanbul’s main airport, Ataturk. Turkey is now building an even bigger airport that will host 150 million passengers a year. Completing the mission from December’s “minor and unresolved” attack at the Sabiha Gokcen Airport, the terrorists visited Ataturk Airport on June 28, killing at least 45 and injuring hundreds of people.

Travelers are shown fleeing, trying to escape the terrorists attacking Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport, June 28, 2016. (Image source: ABC video screenshot)

Turkish prime minister, Binali Yildirim, said that it was “probably” an attack by IS. Days later, the suicide bombers were identified as jihadists of Central Asian origin.

In a state of perpetual denial, Turkey’s Islamist rulers are still too bashful to admit any linkage between political Islam and violence. Ironically, their denial exposes their country to the risk of even more Islamic terror. Worse, the political Islam they fuel in their own country is growing millions of potential jihadists at home. In November, a Pew Research Center study found that 27% of Turks (more than 20 million) did not have an unfavorable opinion of IS — compared to, say, 16% in the Palestinian territories.

In March, only three months before the latest jihadist attack in Istanbul, thousands of supporters of Hizb ut-Tahrir — a global Islamist group, viewed by Russia and Kazakhstan as a terrorist group but that defines itself as a political organization aiming to “lead the ummah” [Islamic community] to the re-establishment of the caliphate and rule with sharia law — gathered at a public sports hall in Ankara, courtesy of the Turkish government, to discuss the re-establishment of the Islamic caliphate. In his speech, Mahmut Kar, the media bureau chief of Hizb-ut Tahrir Turkey said:

“Infidels who were enemies of Islam thought they buried Islam in the depths of history when they abolished the caliphate on March 3, 1924 … We are hopeful, enthusiastic and happy. Some 92 years later… we are shouting out that we will re-establish the caliphate, here, right next to the parliament.”

It was not a coincidence that an opposition MP on July 1 took the speaker’s point at the Turkish parliament, showed a copy of a magazine, Dabiq, largely viewed as IS’s press organ, to an audience and said: “This is [IS’s] official magazine. It is published in Turkey. Its fifth issue is out now. The magazine creates propaganda for [IS]. It has an open address. Why does no one raid its offices?”

That question will probably remain unanswered.

urkey: The Purges Continue by Burak Bekdil

  • What makes Turkey look more like North Korea than a European democracy is the legal authorities’ reflex to launch probes into anyone accused, without evidence, of terrorist activity or insulting the president.

Philipp Schwartz was a Hungarian-born neuropathologist who worked for the Goethe University in Frankfurt for 14 years until he was fired in 1933 for being Jewish. After his — and other scholars’ — dismissal, he convinced the then decade-old modern Turkish Republic to admit persecuted German professors to positions at Turkish universities. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the secular founder of the Turkish state, enthusiastically agreed to Schwartz’s proposal. Turkey quickly admitted 150 German Jewish professors. Schwartz was appointed as director of the Department of Pathology at the University of Istanbul. More than seven decades after, a German initiative that bears Schwartz’s name is returning the favor.

In the first week of 2017, another 631 Turkish researchers and professors were dismissed from their universities, adding to thousands who were purged during the second half of 2016. Several Turkish scholars are now reversing Schwartz’s path: In the fall of 2016, the Philipp Schwartz Initiative received more applications from Turkey than war-torn Syria or any other country. Turks now account for 46% of all applicants worldwide. As the Brussels-based European affairs weekly newspaper Politico put it: “Turkey loses its brains.”

Turkey’s problem is bigger than just literally losing its brains. The country apparently is also figuratively losing its brains. News headlines are so confusing that often one cannot decide whether he is reading a real newspaper or the Turkish version of The Onion, reflecting a collective, socio-pathological frenzy — ironically Schwartz’s work of science.

An Islamist and militantly pro-Erdogan newspaper, Yeni Akit, ran the photo of what looks like a main battle tank, claiming that this weapons system had been developed by Aselsan, a state-controlled defense company, and was capable of “even stopping an atomic bomb.” Yeni Akit belongs to an “elite” group of media outlets whose editors often find a seat aboard Erdogan’s private jet when he travels abroad for state visits. What is more worrying than the absurdity of Yeni Akit’s claim is that few Turks would question the story’s authenticity.

Erdogan-mania can take other weird forms, too. Another news story recently revealed that a legal investigation has been launched into 18 residents of a small village in southern Turkey, after the village headman informed authorities that the men engaged in “terrorist activity” and insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It became clear that the 18 suspects were merely the village headman’s election rival and his relatives and friends. The village headman’s behavior can be explained by “human psychology and political greed.” What makes Turkey look more like North Korea than a European democracy is the legal authorities’ reflex to launch probes into anyone accused, without evidence, of terrorist activity or insulting the president.

In Turkey, village headmen, like most villagers in Anatolia, are generally known to be Erdogan loyalists. After the Turkish lira’s unprecedented depreciation against major currencies since the beginning of 2017, the president blamed the slide on “manipulators and terrorists” who keep foreign currency portfolios. “There is no difference between a terrorist who has a weapon or bomb in his hand and a terrorist who has dollars, euros and interest rates in terms of aim,” Erdogan said on January 12. In a show of support for Erdogan, a group of village headmen in Turkey’s southeastern city of Adiyaman burned stacks of one dollar bills, protesting the U.S. currency’s sharp rise against the lira. Nice show. But the angry village chiefs were not generous enough in expressing their wrath for the dollar: During their show, they burned fake dollar bills.

Elsewhere, the headline “Top press rights defender in Turkish court for terror propaganda” was another Turkish peculiarity. Erol Onderoglu, the Turkey representative for Reporters Without Borders, along with rights activist Sebnem Fincanci and journalist Ahmet Nesin, has been charged with “making pro-Kurdish terror propaganda and aiding terrorists,” risking years in prison. The indictment proposes as evidence only the fact that the suspects had guest-edited a pro-Kurdish newspaper after its editors were put in prison.

Erol Onderoglu (left, meeting with European Parliament President Martin Schulz), is the Turkey representative for Reporters Without Borders. He was recently arrested in Turkey, with rights activist Sebnem Fincanci and journalist Ahmet Nesin. They are charged with “making pro-Kurdish terror propaganda and aiding terrorists,” because they guest-edited a pro-Kurdish newspaper after its editors were jailed. (Image source: European Parliament)

On January 16, Turks sighed with relief when, after a 16-day manhunt, Turkish police caught the jihadi terrorist who gunned down and killed 39 people at an upscale nightclub in Istanbul shortly after midnight on New Year’s Eve. The man was caught alive in a special-forces operation, together with an Iraqi man and three women from Somalia, Senegal and Egypt — all believed to be members or supporters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). He confessed to the attack, and his fingerprints matched with those at the scene of crime. His four-year-old son was missing from the safe-house where he and others were caught. The poor toddler is believed to have been sent to another safe-house in Istanbul. Wherever he is being kept, he will never have a safe life in Turkey despite his innocence. The Turks treat him as a terrorist in absentia. Cemil Barlas, a pro-Erdogan journalist, tweeted that “… in whatever way he should be used [implying torture], that child should be used to make the killer talk. There is no moral harm in that.”

Burak Bekdil, one of Turkey’s leading journalists, was just fired from Turkey’s leading newspaper after 29 years, for writing what was taking place in Turkey for Gatestone. He is a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

urkey: Is It Religiously All Right to Lust for My Daughter? by Burak Bekdil

  • The Directorate for Religious Affairs, or Diyanet in Turkish, enjoys an annual budget bigger than those of more than 10 other ministries combined — and its president, a government-appointed cleric, enjoys a $400,000 chauffeur-driven car.
  • Turkey accuses those who protest lusting for one’s daughter of hating religiosity.

  • “[G]ossip and holding hands, not allowed in Islam.” — Fatwa from Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs.

Turkey has a government agency that regulates “religious affairs” [read: Sunni Muslim Affairs]. It is run by the country’s top Muslim cleric and reports to the prime minister. The Directorate for Religious Affairs, or Diyanet in Turkish, enjoys an annual budget bigger than those of more than 10 other ministries combined – and its president, a government-appointed cleric, enjoys a $400,000 chauffeur-driven car.

Among its duties is to issue “fatwas,” or to tell Muslim Turks what is religiously permissible and what is not. Its current president, the top cleric, also enjoys making long, doctrinaire speeches. Sometimes they sound reasonable, sometimes not.

When, a year ago, Islamist extremists in Paris were putting the final touches on their gruesome plan to kill a dozen cartoonists and attack the Charlie Hebdo magazine, Diyanet was busy issuing fatwas and publishing a religious calendar for three million or so desks and walls in offices and homes. Diyanet, at that time, also issued a fatwa that urged Muslims who have tattoos to repent if unable to erase them. Another fatwa in Diyanet’s 2015 calendar said: “Do not keep pet dogs at home … Prophet Mohammed once said: ‘Angels do not visit homes where there are dogs and paintings.'”

In those days of Parisian chaos — even before the jihadists killed over 130 people in November — Diyanet’s president and Turkey’s top cleric, Professor Mehmet Gormez “did not believe” jihadists could kill innocent people. Speaking to a press conference in the aftermath of the Paris attacks, Gormez said that the use of Islamic symbols by the perpetrators of the attack was a sign of “manipulation.” In other words, Professor Gormez was telling the world that someone else was carrying out the attacks and putting the blame on Muslims.

Mehmet Gormez, President of Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs. (Image source: İlke Haber video screenshot)

Diyanet, generously funded by the Turkish taxpayer — Sunni, non-Sunni and non-Muslim — hit the headlines recently with two fatwas that both irked and amused secular people around the world, not just in Turkey.

In the first fatwa, Diyanet said that engaged couples should not hold hands or spend time alone together during their engagement. The fatwa read: “In this period, it is not inconvenient for couples to meet and talk to get to know each other, if their privacy is considered. However, there could be undesired incidents with or without their families’ knowledge … such as flirting, cohabitating or being alone. This encourages gossip and holding hands, not allowed in Islam.”

Now think about that. The top clergyman in a NATO member and EU candidate, Turkey, rules that: Flirting, cohabitating or being alone for engaged couples are ‘undesired incidents;’ and Islam does not allow gossiping and ‘holding hands.’

That’s fine. Every monotheistic clergy could be equally conservative – one could presume. But the second fatwa of the week — which Diyanet, under fire now, denies — caused a stir.

Diyanet’s second fatwa, appeared briefly on the fatwa section of its website (until it was deleted), in answer to readers’ questions. An anonymous user asked whether, from a religious perspective, a father having sexual desire for his daughter should result in the cancellation of his marriage.

The ulama [scholars] answered that, “There is a difference of opinion on the matter among Islam’s different schools of thought.” The fatwa read: “For some, a father kissing his daughter with lust or caressing her with desire has no effect on the man’s marriage.”

The response continued by saying that in one Islamic school of thought, Hanafi, the mother would be “forbidden” to such a man. “Moreover,” the fatwa went on, “The girl would be over nine years of age.”

Possibly too embarrassed by its own fatwa, Diyanet first deleted its ulama‘s answer to the query and claimed that its answer was deliberately “distorted” through “tricks, wiliness and wordplay” aiming to discredit the institution. It then closed its “queries” section and posted a warning saying the page in question was “under repair.”

As thousands of Turks decried Diyanet’s scandalous fatwa and accused the ulama of encouraging child abuse, a helping hand to Diyanet came from Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag. In his twitter account, he called the accusations a “character assassination” against the religious body. The “assassins,” according to Bozdag, “were those miserably types who are annoyed by religion and the pious.”

Turkey, once a secular Muslim country and the world’s only hope for interfaith dialogue, has reached a point where the justice minister defends a fatwa that says some Islamic schools of thought would NOT command divorce if a father had lust for his own daughter [but if she is over nine?]. Turkey also accuses those who protest such a thing as lusting for one’s daughter of hating religiosity. One can only wonder what will be the next insanity.

Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hürriyet Daily and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

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