Here Comes A False Turkish Don Quixote Ordogan!!

He is delusional!!  Working hard toward the Turkishization of the Arab Spring, especially in Egypt.  I knew that something was missing:  One finger in his right hand as he raised it in a Rabaa salute!!  And why a Rabaa salute by Sultan Ordogan: an approving nod towards the Muslim Brotherhood as it waged a coup in 2012-2013 against secular Egypt.

Don Quixote saw in Spanish windmills hostile knights to be attacked.  In his mold, Ordogan sees in the Egyptian Revolution of June 30, 2013 a tidal wave drowning his dream of a Caliphate.  Ordogan's problem does not lie within what he does within Turkish borders.  His constant attacks on the New Egypt reflects his being on the wrong side of history.

Our Turkish Don Quixote is welcome to have his palace of 1000 rooms (estimated cost at $750 million); to have his troops welcome Abbas in Ankara in uniforms of 16 stages of the Ottoman Empire; to declare his support for the Palestinian cause.  But Ordogan has no business interfering in the internal affairs of Egypt.  Especially as Egypt transitions to what El-Sisi calls "a strong State."

Having taught in Cairo modern Egyptian history, including Ottoman rule, I find Ordogan woefully lacking in knowledge of why the Ottomans collapsed.  The Empire (and the caliphate with it) did not fall because of its opposition to Jewish settlement in Palestine.  This is what Ordogan told Abbas during that recent state visit.  It collapsed because it became hostage to three evils: internal corruption; oppression of the Arabs and of minorities; and succumbing to the fatwas of ignorant ulamas (scholars).  Those ulamas advised the Sultans that training of the armed forces by non-Muslim trainers was un-Islamic.  The same stupid thesis of Nigeria's Boko Haram (western learning is un-Islamic).

By contrast, Egypt even while under Ottoman suzeranity, welcomed training by non-Muslims.  Thus Egypt twice was on the verge of burying the Ottomans under an Egyptian flag.  Though the Ottomans occupied Egypt as of 1517, Egypt declared its independence from the Turkish yoke twice.  Once in 1769 under the leadership of Ali Bek Al-Kabeer whose sway extended from Yemen to Damascus, passing through Jedda, Mecca and Medina.

The second, opting out of the Empire was in 1840 under Muhammad Ali, whose son, General Ibrahim was about to occupy Constantinople in 1839.  He was forced by England and France to retreat out of fear of a dynamic Egyptian empire replacing "the sick man of Europe" - the Ottoman empire.  As of 1840, Egypt continued to be nominally within Ottomanism.  But Cairo looked upon Constantinople only as a notary public for the selection of the successors of Muhammad Ali.

The Arab rebellion of 1916 against Turkish rule was a water shed in Arab history.  That rebellion was led by the Hashemites, not by Lawrence of Arabia.  By joining the Allies against Turkey during World War I, the Arabs put their aspiration for independence ahead of staying within a nominally Islamic Caliphate.

The Ottomans forced the Arabs to make that historic choice.  For it was the Young Turks who reneged on their treaty of 1912 with the Arabs which called for Ottoman recognition of Arabic as the Arabs national language.  After all, Arabic is the language of the Quran.  This Turkish chauvinism went further amok.  Great Arab national leaders were hung to death in 1915 in Damascus public squares.  That was in addition to the Turkish massacre of Armenians due to unfounded suspicion of collaboration with Russia.

So, Sultan Ordogan, please treat yourself to a refresher course in the history of the Ottoman Empire.  Simply leave the New Egypt alone.  Non-interference in the internal affairs of other States is the best recipe for regional and international peace.  Good fences make good neighbors.

Believe me!!  If you want to parade your honor guard in costumes going back to the 14th century, Egypt might retort by sending you papyri of ancient military Egyptian uniforms going back 7000 years.  Including chariots and charioteers!!  But I doubt that the New Egypt would fall for the trap of Ordogan theatrics.

The Turkish Ministry of Education has decided to introduce the old "Ottoman" language to its educational curriculum.  Egypt, since the discovery of the hieroglyphic language through the Rosetta Stone unearthed in 1801 by the great French archaeologist Champolion, has kept it alive.  Contrary to the purpose of reviving Ottomanism by Ordogan, Egypt values the teaching of hieroglyphic as well as the Coptic language at its universities.  In this respect, Egypt's reason is for culture not for hegemony.

While Egypt is working for the strengthening of its new axis with the Gulf, Turkey's Ordogan is working toward compensating for the European Union refusal to admit Turkey to its membership.  Hence the Ankara alliances with cul de sac pan-Islamic movements.  While the New Egypt was welcomed at all levels during El-Sisi's visit to Kuwait, including unambiguous Kuwaiti statements of support for the new Egypt, Turkey was critical of Egypt's calls on Qatar to account for its funding of the Muslim Brotherhood.

In the context of Egypt's emphasis on internal development, Abdel-Wahab Al-Badr, head of the Kuwait Development Fund noted the following:  "The creation in Egypt of an additional Suez Canal to be inaugurated in August 2015 is expected to turn Egypt into a new Singapore.  80% of world transit trade shall go through Suez."

As the Young Turks cracked the whip against non-Turks in their dying Empire, the oppressed began to exit in droves seeking safe refuge.  To where did they flee?  To secular and tolerant Egypt, the permanent rebel against the Ottoman Caliphate.  In Cairo and Alexandria, the Lebanese Christians set the example.  They launched modern Egyptian journalism, including Al-Ahram, now the official printed medium of the Government.  They issued the great periodical of Al-Resalah.  On Al-Resala's high literature, we were nurtured in high school.  They established the modern theatre, cinema and comedy; made Egyptian songs the lingua franca of the entire Arab world.  And they propelled Arab nationalism on a distinctive secular course.

Thus the loss of the Ottomans was the gain of the Egyptians.  What remained in Egypt from Ottoman days were mere relics: The fez, the titles of Pasha, Bek and Affandi.  More durable are the jokes in Egyptian cafes about Turkish oppression symbolized by "the whip," over-taxing the poor, and empty fanfare.

At Davos (2015), El-Sisi, at that World Economic Forum, spoke poignantly about the New Egypt.  He stressed the national focus on making it a haven for foreign investors.  Reason: virgin possibilities, and legally insuring profit repatriation.  While acknowledging terror as a global menace, he assured his world audience of Egypt's capacity to undertake the twin tasks:  Development and combating terrorism.  

While Sultan Ordogan was on a visit to Somalia, a failed State, his nemesis, the Egyptian President had a mission with a real future impact.  At Davos, El-Sisi was deftly making an apt distinction.  Between faith as a private right, and interpreting faith to the masses, as a communal responsibility. Sadly, Sultan Ordogan chooses not to espouse that distinction.  His Islamism is under attack internally in Turkey.  It is also being challenged externally by his formidable opponent, Gullen.  Gullen is a Turkish Islamic powerhouse residing in Pennsylvania and calling for investigating Ordogan's corrupt practices.

Shouldn't Ordogan, in his foreign policy, give priority to securing Turkey's eastern border against the free movement of foreign jihadis?  By the thousands, those misfits pour via Turkey to join ISIS.  By contrast Egypt's eastern border has become a priority security issue.  A buffer zone has been created in Sinai with the aim of degrading the Friends of Jerusalem and their Hamas cohorts who are declaring Sinai an "ISIS Emirate."

Mind you, Ordogan is not the only aberration on the scene of globalized Islam.  More graphic events are taking place.  From the barbaric, as in the case of ISIS, to the ignorant or malicious, as in the multiple cases of self-declared experts in the Islamic faith.  Here follows some examples of the latter breed.

• Thomas Friedman declares recently in his Op. Ed column in the New York Times that "there is no real Islam."  Tom: There is, especially if you become at least versed in Muslim culture and the Arabic language.
• A so-called security expert on TV channel MSNBC (liberal) appeared on February 17 to make a startling declaration.  On the reputable talk show of Chris Matthews, that security expert has an incredible explanation for ISIS beheadings and immolation.  He declares that "it is important to remember that Islam spread by violence and the sword."  No, Mr. Expert!!  Islam does not recognize "offensive war."  Only self-defense is permissible, as in every other legal tradition.
• In regard to the air bombing by Egypt and the Emirates of ISIS in Libya, CNSNews.com carries a startling report on February 17.  "The United States does not support Egyptian and Emirati air strikes against Islamist militias in Libya."  Amazing!!  On the one hand, how can Egypt and its allies not forcefully respond to the massacre at its western borders of 21 Egyptian Christian citizens?  On the other hand, Washington, D.C. does not dictate Egyptian sovereign decisions, nor has Cairo ever interfered with US drone attacks in Yemen, 15000 miles away from D.C. 
• A statement of condolences was issued on February 17 by the Egyptian Consulate-General in New York.  It reflected Egypt's reasons for national mourning, and added: "We emphasize that that heinous act perpetrated at the hands of terrorism in Libya shall not weaken the unity or the stability of our homeland.  On the contrary.  Such barbarism shall only enhance Egypt's determination to uproot terrorism.

It is gratifying to note that there are also American voices of sanity reflective of a sympathetic understanding of Islam.  Even prior to the assassination of 3 Muslim students in the Carolinas, a well-known cartoonist in Arizona, Steven Benson contributed to the on-going debate on Islam and global security in a very impacting cartoon.  In the Arizona Republic, Mr. Benson published two frames: One with ISIS operatives clad in black, with swords raised; the other with anti-Afro-American Ku Klux Klan (KKK) clad in white with burning crosses.  The captions reflected the whole debate objectively through comparison.  Benson wrote: "ISIS is to Islam what these guys are to Christianity."

So please, Don Quixote Ordogan: Feel free to raise your hand in "the Rabaa salute" (four fingers) anytime you wish.  It reminds us not only of the defunct Muslim Brotherhood.  It also reminds us of the Nazi salute.  The only difference is that the Nazi salute kept the five fingers of the raised hand together.  In your Rabaa salute, I am puzzled as to where you hid the missing finger.  

You too, Sultan Ordogan is among the latest and meanest aberrations in the enduring Islamic faith.