Muslim Minorities' Dangerous Flirt with Erdogan

For a number of Muslim minorities and diasporas, Erdogan appears to be an oasis for politically orphaned people in search for direction, esteem, funds and leadership. Whereas their flirt with Erdogan is nothing but a sleepwalk into a dangerous mirage. It is about time these groups and their organizations wake up to the realites and refuse being used as gap filling material in the PR of a despicable regime.

The years that followed the 9/11 attacks were marked by a global wave of interfaith activism. This wave enabled a sizebale component of the Muslim minorities to abandon the ghetto mindset and reach out to the larger segments of the socities they lived in. Their outreach was kindly reciprocated with similar gestures by the non-Muslim majorities. While the terror attacks that shook New York, London, Istanbul and Madrid were being interpreted as the advance shocks of a Clash of Civilizations by some, to many others they were bitter wake-up calls to engage in meaningful dialogue with the other before things could get even worse. The efforts of the latter proved fruitful, as much was achieved in the academic, media and civil society realms in favor of mutual understanding, respect and pluralism.

Though, unfortunaltely not all problems were solved. In some cases, spoiling voices on the extreme ends kept confusing the masses. Yet in others, dialogue was hardly more than brief ceremonial exchanges with little to take back to the larger constituencies. In the meanwhile, an enabling global political-economic environment began shifting into an unfavorable one due to a chain reaction of major shocks; namely the financial downturn of 2008, a grave loss of confidence in multiculturalism at home and multilateralism abroad, the ensuing rise of populism, and the massive refugee crisis as the Arab Spring turned into a nightmare. Isoliationist tendencies resurrected and barriers reemerged among as well as within countries, not only in the economic terrain but also in intercommunal relations. Muslim minorities, some already perplexed and feeling humiliated, were once again vulnerable to manipulation between Islamophobia and radicalism.

It is this atmosphere that Erdogan  with his self proclaimed Islamic mission, has been capitalizing on successfully. Taking utmost advantage of perceived or real divergences between Muslim minorities and the larger groups they live in, he is asserting a fake messianism based on a skilfully crafted cosmetic image of "defender of Muslims" or even "commander of the faithful", signaling his "caliphetic" ambitions. By adopting a highly populist language of intercivilizational antagonism, Erdogan is making the best use of Islamophobia for his platform at home and abroad. Admittedly, as a gifted orator and campaigner, he is utilizing a cheap, arrogant yet well working we-they discourse vis a vis the West, in other words mimicking the very Islamophobes he keeps criticising. For Erdogan, Islamophobia is not an ill to be eradicated. It is rather a source of free political adrenalin to be used as a smokescreen to cover his corrupt and antidemocratic enterprise at home and a pretext to pose as human rights defender abroad. Hence his inflammatory rhetoric against the West and disdain for any meaningful dialogue with non-Muslims. Erdogan's reckless West-bashing on grounds of Islamophobia is not a solution oriented approach but rather a deliberate choice to keep the tension high. This puts Muslims in further trouble as the term Islamophobia is abused for short term political ends instead of being recognized a universal human rights threat just like anti-Semitism.

In this whole situation, some Muslim minorities and organizations that represent them end up in a limbo, unable to reach out to the host society and without a political patron to rely on. These groups are struggling with day to day integration or coexistence challenges and have long been suffering a real or perceived trauma of political defeat and humiliation by the West. This is when Erdogan comes into the scene, abusing their grievances and claiming to be their protector. To this end, he generously mobilizes a vast spectrum of financial, diplomatic, media and embedded civil society instruments. From Asia-Pacific region to North America, Erdogan regime is pursuing an ambitious campaign to lure Muslim minorities into the orbit of his fascist regime and build legitimacy thereof. It is this well engineered charm offensive that enables him to hold large demonstrations in the Balkans or receive red carpet treatment at some American Muslim conventions. Sadly, an academic stream of critical scholars in the West also gets tempted by the anti-imperialist aura of this campaign.

Yet flirting with Erdogan is a costly adventure. As these groups are constantly provoked against their non-Muslim neighbors, illusioned by fantastic stories of a neo-Ottoman comeback, showered with generous funds and endoctrinated with extreme interpretations of Islam, their already fragile relations with others are put into further risk. Such alignment with an authoritarian regime also jeopardizes the democratic credentials of Muslim advocacy groups and paves the way for their isolation in times of need for democratic allies.

Moths use natural light of the moon in order to navigate. Whereas artifical light of the bulb turns to be a fatal attraction for them. I urge fellow Muslims to interpret Erdogan's AKP's logo through the analogy. Those who embrace Erdoganism today might not be able to escape the stigma during the inevitable de-Erdoganisation in the future.