Erdogan is trying to sell a product that only finds buyers in his own country and in a few Middle Eastern capitals: self-delusion around the theme of Sunni Islam's "perfection."
"As Muslims, we have never taken part in terrorist massacres." Then Erdogan, once again, reverted to his "my-tribe-is-perfect-and-only-yours-is-bad" rhetoric.
"[T]he Turkish presence was incredibly awkward. Though the Paris march honored journalists killed in the attack on the monthly satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, Turkey currently has more reporters in jail, 40, than any other country, even Iran and China." — Karl Vick, Time Magazine.
A reader sent a link to a news story that quotes a member of parliament, from Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party [AKP], as saying that the Paris attacks were "staged."
The MP was implying a "false flag" operation carried out by non-Muslims and aimed at defaming Muslims. The reader sent an accompanying note:
"He is right. I staged the Paris attack. I killed the miners in Turkey. I stopped Muslim scientists from receiving Nobel prizes. I created ISIL and now I'm undermining the government in Turkey to stop it from becoming a superpower. It's been a very busy year. It's amazing what one semi-retired, 57-year-old Jew from northern Queensland [Australia] can do."
When that reader sent the message, the Turkish absurdity over the Paris massacres was relatively "shy." After he confessed to his evil plans, Turkey's Islamists turned more creative.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who had earlier
claimed that "Islam was the fundamental element in the European continent," geared up to claim that "Islam is Europe's fundamental religion." At the current pace of Turkish Sunni supremacism, Davutoglu -- a professor of political science by profession, mind you -- can soon claim Islam is Japan's and America's fundamental religion too.
Apparently, for Davutoglu, the real problem of violence in Europe is not Islamist terror but Islamophobia. Davutoglu said that he would
like to see a rally, like Sunday's solidarity march in Paris, to be organized against Islamophobia. He should not worry. If a bunch of fanatic Europeans murdered Muslim cartoonists because they had drawn blasphemous caricatures ridiculing Christianity or Judaism (or atheism), Europeans will exhibit the same solidarity and defend free speech.
Bur Davutoglu's self-ridicule was dwarfed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's "not-even-sky-is-the-limit" absurdity.
He condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for "daring" to attend the Paris march, and accused him of leading "state terrorism" against the Palestinians.
According to the Turkish president, Netanyahu "had no right to be there after the deaths of 2,500 Palestinians in Israel's onslaught on Gaza this summer."
