As I look at what is happening in Turkey I am wondering if it is wise in the long wrong. I am wondering if you end up possibly making susceptible to radicalization.
They are perhaps our worst ally.
Ataturk’s Turkey doesn’t really exist anymore.
I know they are not good. They are just above Russia in regards to friendship. But they are only smashing Apple products for now. But I wonder what the long term effects will be if they are hurt to bad economically. Poor angry people are easily radicalized.
Now replace Turkey with a country with many more people and the second largest nuclear arsenal in the world.
They are already getting radicalized. It is Erdojan’s base.
Turkey is a hard nut to crack. They are in full swing despotism, but they are a military ally.
Nuclear powers don’t go to war with each other.
If they do… it isn’t for long.
In all fairness, not buying Apple (and I’m an old Apple owner) is a nice way to avoid the accelerated obsolescence that is the company’s policy.
It was once the case that my old Macs could use more stuff that was my own lagacy crap with good stability, and run the old software, than most PC owners could hope for. Now they just try to suck cash out of their victims.
They’ve become just more vampires of the computer world.
True, they don’t seem to slurp data as bad as a certain OS company…
Turks wont be radicalized. Erdoğan and his party dont even want radicalization. They want islamic fundamentalism but with reason… like the old Ottomans. They are not the types who believe in being martyrs.
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I have to agree with Ish on this one. Think Saddam Hussein lite.
“Araturk’s Turkey doesn’t really exist any more.”
And that is a problem, why?
We aren’t making Turkey our enemy. They’ve taken an American hostage and finally, “we” have someone in office that will not tolerate this. Hopefully the whole world is watching, are noting what’s going on and will leave not attempt to kidnap our citizens. Turkey knows they’re in the wrong but it’s the huge ego pride thing that’s in their way, not us.
Which Turkey would you rather have? A secular modernizing state or an Islamic dictatorship?
I’d rather have a Turkey that doesn’t penalize an individual’s wish to be either a secular human being, or one who chooses to practice a faith.
One rarely hears of, say, young women in secular Turkey who were everything from denied state jobs to harassed in public for choosing hijab as their manner of dress.
I would never be one to defend Turkey’s “justice” system, but calling Brunson a “hostage” is a stretch… He has lived in Turkey for 23 years and was applying for permanent residence in Turkey when he was arrested. It’s not like he was a casual tourist on holiday…
I don’t follow what your point is.
One hears plenty of stories of young women being beaten or worse in Muslim majority countries for not dressing with modesty.
However, it’s rare one hears of the abuses that take place against Turkish women in particular choosing to practice & display their faith. Religious Muslim women were even denied a place in the Turkish Women’s Movement.
Google “abuse of Muslim women in secular Turkey.” There should be an interesting paper from Bridgewater State University about the subject, stating in part, what I just did.
And to answer would I rather see a “modern” secular state or an Islamic dictatorship, the answer is neither. Neither forced religion, nor secularism, are any good.
I didn’t find the paper you were referencing, but I can’t imagine that women’s rights are better under Erdogan’s rule than it was before he took power.
Nope, no Erdogan fan here. I’ve problems with him shutting down the free press, as well as supporting the “Islamic” state, ISIS. He even wants a say in what goes on in mosques, forcing them to broadcast the opening prayer over loudspeakers (it’s normally the Call to Prayer that’s broadcast).
However, I don’t think Ataturk’s forcing of religion into the private sphere is liberating. Women may not have been forbidden from hijab, but they were highly discouraged, in manner such as employment discrimination. A modest woman who is just as educated as her husband must depend on him because it’s permissible to not hire her for her way of dress?!
And it’s an acceptable perception that those who choose visible observance are backwards, regressive, uneducated? A letter was sent to Erdogan’s wife saying if she didn’t “modernize” her way of dress, she should just stay home.
As a non fan of Erdogan, these so called modernists should at least leave his wife alone.IMO both forced secularism & religion are evil.
