Daoud Kuttab is a Palestinian journalist. He was born in Jerusalem in 1955. He is a former Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University in the United States. Mr. Kuttab is the former director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al Quds University in Ramallah, Palestine and the founder of AmmanNet, the Arab world's first internet radio station. His personal web page is www.daoudkuttab.com.
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Daoud Kuttab
Jerusalem/Amman, Jordan
Daoud Kuttab is a Palestinian journalist. He was born in Jerusalem in 1955. He is a former Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University in the United States.
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Let me give my brief assessment of what's going on in Turkey, which admittedly may only skim the surface of the issues.
After WWI ended the Ottoman Empire and took the Caliphate with it, Kamal Attaturk established Turkey as a secular nation. As a result of that basic decision, Turkey finally emerged in recent years as a full-blown democracy. No country is perfect, but overall, Turks enjoy the blessings of liberty and civil rights such as freedom of expression. They also enjoy the prosperity that goes along with democracy and free enterprise.
But Turkey's population is predominantly Muslim. And Islam in regard to democracy and personal freedoms is like a big black hole: it sucks up everything within its reach and imprisons it in the vortex, never to be seen or heard from again. Islam is never content to accept democracy and freedom. Islam sees such things as alien to its very soul. Islam sees itself as at war with democracy, and for Islam, it's a sum-zero game. There must be a winner and a loser. The black hole at the heart of Islam must suck up and imprison every aspect of modernity and democracy.
What we are witnessing in Turkey is the inevitable expansion of that black hole. Even after 90 years of secularism, modernity and democracy are too weak to escape its grasp.
The Turkish people are now doing something that we Westerners find inexplicable. They are voluntarily surrendering their freedoms and their democracy. They are, in increasing numbers, showing their willingness to sacrifice their rights on the altar of Islam. The Turks, with eyes wide open, are re-establishing a 7th century theocracy to rule over them. The religious mentality once more triumphs over secularism and rationality.
Outsiders, in the end, will be unable to do much to reverse this trend. The main lesson we Americans should draw from the Turkish experience, especially when it is combined with the experience of West European governments with their Muslim populations, is the danger of allowing a too great an expansion of the Muslim population in the United States. We are creating a big black hole, which will eventually begin devouring everything in its path.
PostGlobal is an interactive conversation on global issues moderated by Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria and David Ignatius of The Washington Post. It is produced jointly by Newsweek and washingtonpost.com, as is On Faith, a conversation on religion. Please send your comments, questions and suggestions for PostGlobal to Lauren Keane, its editor and producer.
All Comments (1)
Let me give my brief assessment of what's going on in Turkey, which admittedly may only skim the surface of the issues.
After WWI ended the Ottoman Empire and took the Caliphate with it, Kamal Attaturk established Turkey as a secular nation. As a result of that basic decision, Turkey finally emerged in recent years as a full-blown democracy. No country is perfect, but overall, Turks enjoy the blessings of liberty and civil rights such as freedom of expression. They also enjoy the prosperity that goes along with democracy and free enterprise.
But Turkey's population is predominantly Muslim. And Islam in regard to democracy and personal freedoms is like a big black hole: it sucks up everything within its reach and imprisons it in the vortex, never to be seen or heard from again. Islam is never content to accept democracy and freedom. Islam sees such things as alien to its very soul. Islam sees itself as at war with democracy, and for Islam, it's a sum-zero game. There must be a winner and a loser. The black hole at the heart of Islam must suck up and imprison every aspect of modernity and democracy.
What we are witnessing in Turkey is the inevitable expansion of that black hole. Even after 90 years of secularism, modernity and democracy are too weak to escape its grasp.
The Turkish people are now doing something that we Westerners find inexplicable. They are voluntarily surrendering their freedoms and their democracy. They are, in increasing numbers, showing their willingness to sacrifice their rights on the altar of Islam. The Turks, with eyes wide open, are re-establishing a 7th century theocracy to rule over them. The religious mentality once more triumphs over secularism and rationality.
Outsiders, in the end, will be unable to do much to reverse this trend. The main lesson we Americans should draw from the Turkish experience, especially when it is combined with the experience of West European governments with their Muslim populations, is the danger of allowing a too great an expansion of the Muslim population in the United States. We are creating a big black hole, which will eventually begin devouring everything in its path.
February 12, 2008 7:26 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 12, 2008 07:26