Islamic Christianophobia: The world ignores the persecution of Christians in the Muslim world.

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2010/January08/0862.html

In Egypt, seven Coptic Christians were murdered yesterday by a Muslim gunman as they filed out of a midnight mass in the southern town of Nag Hamadi. In Pakistan, more than 100 Christian homes were ransacked by a Muslim mob last July in the village of Bahmaniwala. In Iraq that same month, seven Christian churches were bombed in Baghdad and Mosul in the space of three days.

Such atrocities—and there are scores of other examples—are grim reminders that when it comes to persecution, few groups have suffered as grievously as Christians in Muslim lands. Fewer still have suffered with such little attention paid. Now a new report from the non-profit ministry, Open Doors USA, shines a light on the scale of oppression.

In its annual World Watch List, Open Doors ranks eight Muslim countries among the 10 worst persecutors of Christians. The other two, North Korea (which tops the list) and Laos, are communist states. Of the 50 countries on the list, 35 are majority Muslim.

Take Iran, which this year ranks as the world's second-worst persecutor of Christians. Open Doors reports that in 2009 the Islamic Republic arrested 85 Christians, many of whom were also mistreated in prison. In 2008, some 50 Christians were arrested and one Christian couple was beaten to death by security officials. At least part of the reason for the mistreatment appears to be the result of Muslim conversions to Christianity: Apostasy carries a mandatory death sentence in Iran.

In Saudi Arabia (No. 3), all non-Muslim public worship is forbidden. The state forbids the building of any type of non-Muslim house of worship, and Christian expatriates in the kingdom must practice their faith in private. The same goes in the Maldives, where the report notes that all citizens must be Muslim; "the handful of indigenous Christians are forced to believe in complete secrecy." Similarly in Mauritania, conversion to Christianity or any other religions is formally punishable by death.

Little wonder, then, that once-thriving Christian communities in the Muslim world have now largely voted with their feet by fleeing to safer havens, often in Europe or the United States. That's true even in religiously important communities such as Bethlehem, where the Christian majority has largely fled since the arrival in the 1990s of Yasser Arafat's repressive government and the ascendancy of Islamist groups such as Hamas. By contrast, Christians practice their religion freely and openly in Israel, just a few miles distant.

It might seem natural that at least some attention would be paid in the West to the plight of these Christians. Instead, attention seems endlessly focused on "Islamophobia," not least at the U.N.'s misnamed Human Rights Council. In November, much of Europe went berserk over the Swiss referendum to ban the construction of minarets (though not of mosques). But the West's tolerance for its large Muslim populations stands in sharp contrast to the Muslim world's bigotry and persecution of its own religious minorities. That's a fact that ought to be borne in mind the next time Westerners berate themselves about their own supposed "intolerance."

Questions for Every Muslim

http://www.citizenwarrior.com/2009/12/questions-for-every-muslim.html

The following was written by Bill Warner and originally published December 14, 2009

WHEN YOU STUDY the incident of Major Hasan at Fort Hood, you realize that there were some questions that needed to have been asked. But, no one knew what to ask, since the wrong questions might seem, well, politically incorrect. No one wants to be politically incorrect. We don't want to offend.

If you look around you will find that no one is asking any Muslims hard questions. Never mind the Major Hasan types, no one asks questions to the Muslim at work. It turns out that there are many questions that each and every Muslim should be asked. These are simple ones that deal with the core of Islam. Every Muslim knows the answers.

"Do you believe that the Koran is perfect?" This is not offensive. Muslims must believe that the Koran is perfect, without error. They also believe that it is eternal and universal. Most of all, it came from the lips of Mohammed.

"Is Mohammed the ideal Muslim? Should Muslims pattern their life after Mohammed?" Again, don't worry that Muslims will find this awkward. Mohammed is admired, looked up to, and idealized. He is the perfect father, husband, friend, warrior, wise elder and best companion that could be.

These questions establish the Islam of the believer. Every Muslim believes that the Koran is perfect, and Mohammed is the ideal human.

Islam is only partially based on the Koran. Far more of a Muslim's life is governed by Mohammed than the Koran and Allah. Why is this so important? The practical way to understand Islam and what Muslims believe and think is to know about Mohammed. This is very good news. Anyone can understand Mohammed's life.

However, once you get to know Mohammed, the perfect Muslim, Islam becomes problematic. From the first days of being a prophet Mohammed not only preached a better way of life, but he attacked all those who did not believe him. He created a new type of human being called the kafir, usually called unbeliever, but this is not an accurate translation. A kafir is the worst person in the world; an unbeliever is just someone who does not believe. A kafir can be mocked, deceived, tortured, enslaved, murdered, robbed, raped, and plotted against. Kafir is the worst word in the human language.

Now we are ready to ask a Muslim another question. "Am I a kafir?"

The only answer is yes, but that is not the answer you will get. If you are a Christian you will be told no, you are a person of the Book. That sounds nice, but if you don't believe that both Jesus and Mohammed were the prophets of Allah and that the Gospels are false, then you are a Christian kafir. They also might say that you are a non-Muslim, but that is not what the Koran says. The Koran says that you are a kafir.

Now we come to more questions that should be asked, but most people do not have the knowledge to ask them, since the questions are based on knowing Mohammed's life. As an example, Mohammed repeatedly advised Muslims to deceive kafirs if it would advance Islam. So: "Have you ever deceived a kafir?" is appropriate to ask.

Mohammed assassinated kafirs, tortured, enslaved, robbed and plotted against them. His entire life as a prophet was an attempt to make kafirs submit to Islam by any means possible. It is proper then to ask: "How do you feel about what he did?"

If you are a Christian, ask: "Over 60 million Christians have been killed in jihad. Christians are persecuted daily in Islamic lands. Have you ever apologized for this?"

If you are a black American, ask: "Islam sold slaves on the West coast of Africa, the east coast of Africa and the Mediterranean. You enslaved over a million Europeans. Why do you never take any responsibility for slavery?"

If you are a Jew, ask: "How do you see the war against Israel as jihad?"

The other reason we do not ask questions is that we have become a nation of deceivers under political correctness. We don't ask Muslims any question that would make them feel "uncomfortable."

It is completely reasonable to ask anyone about their ideology. Christians, Jews, liberals, conservatives and every other ideology have to answer questions about what they believe. Why not Muslims?

That is the true question for kafirs: "Why are Muslims the only people in the world who don't have to be asked difficult questions about what they believe?"

All Muslims must answer questions about Islam, questions about Mohammed and the Koran for the only way to know a Muslim is to know their Islam.

Bill Warner

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SELECT VERSES PORTRAYING ISLAM IN THE BIBLE

Genesis 16: 11-12 KJV

11. And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.

12. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

Daniel 7:25 KJV

25. And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws.

Daniel 11:37-39 KJV

37. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.

38. But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.

39. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.

John 16:2-3 KJV

2. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

3. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.

1 John 4:1-3 KJV

1. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

2. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

3. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

Revelation 20: 4 KJV

4. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God.

Axis of evil

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/12/axis_of_evil.html

By Alexander Levkovsky

The wide sidewalk in front of that majestic building was occupied, on both sides, by stacks of books, leaving just a narrow path for numerous visitors, obviously interested in literature. Not any literature, but ultra-nationalist, chauvinistic one, and, particularly, the most popular brand of it - the anti-Semitic writings.

From 1994 to 2003, whenever I found myself in the capital of my former homeland, Moscow, I used to come without fail to that place in order to replenish my library of paperback and hardcover books, devoted to elaborate and multifaceted Jew-hating. This marketplace of bigotry and hatred (which, by the way, didn't attract even the slightest police attention) was located in downtown, in front of an institution, whose name sounded lofty, dignified, and even noble - The Moscow Museum of History.

It was an old structure, sitting at the intersection of Red Square and Manezh Plaza. Before the collapse of "the first proletarian state" in 1991, the museum was abundant in exhibitions of spectacular past of the Imperial Russia and glorious present of the Soviet Union.

Nobody, however, could have imagined at the time the filthy nature of this anti-Semitic market/exhibition, which would occupy, several years later, the sidewalk next to the museum entrance.

In my mind, I've long ago invented a name for it - The Axis of Evil Exhibition.

Remember the famous Axis of Evil speech, pronounced by President George W. Bush? On January 29, 2002, Mr. Bush proclaimed: "...States like these [North Korea, Iran, and Iraq], and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, [threatening] the peace of the world..." With just three states, denounced by the former President, it seemed to be quite a short axis, indeed. Even with the additional roster of such patented evildoers as Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas, Sudan, and Al-Qaida, the axis is still not very long.

Not so with my axis. Both in space and time, this axis is as long as the history of the world itself. And it's not the history of states I'm talking about; it's the history of book authors - some famous, others obscure; some ancient, others contemporary - who devoted so much time and effort accusing, belittling and denigrating Jews as people and Jewish faith as religion.

They all sit on a shelf in my room, side by side, as if feeling some sort of camaraderie -- the old company of famous Jew-haters. I see their names on the spines of the books: the Roman historian Tacitus, the French philosopher Voltaire, the American inventor Thomas Edison, the Russian writer Dostoyevsky, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, the Russian Emperor Nicolas II, the American industrialist Henry Ford, the British playwright George Bernard Shaw, the American writer Theodore Dreiser...

I remember how I selected these authors. Standing in the crowd of jingoistic Muscovites, I leafed through the books, reading with the increasing sense of disgust the most outlandish and outrageous anti-Semitic declarations.

Then why did I pay my hard-earned money for all that mud? Why did I continue to collect this muck?

Because I had to see -- face to face -- the bigots and jingoes who hated me. Because in order to fight your enemies, you should know them.

An emaciated, wrinkled, and toothless old man, known as Uncle Vasya, was one of the regular peddlers at this foul market. On my last visit to Moscow, in 2003, he sold me a hardcover tome of Hitler's Mein Kampf and a paperback edition of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Of course, he didn't know I was a Jew, and he had no idea he was dealing with an American. As usual, he was half-drunk. Waiving his hand, he greeted me, grabbed me by the sleeve, and shoved two books into my hands. I glanced at the covers: Richard Wagner, Jewry in Music and Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Two Hundred Years Together.

"You'll like the books, believe me," said Uncle Vasya; the strong smell of vodka emanated from his mouth.

I knew beforehand what kind of "love" I would feel toward these books. Nevertheless, I readily paid for the volumes, and left.

On my return home, I went through each and every page, trying to comprehend what on earth had forced those famous figures to take up the pen and add their loud voices to the centuries-old anti-Semitic choir.

One writer spent a lot of energy trying in vain to prove that Jews, just because they were Jews, couldn't be good composers.

The other produced more than one thousand pages filled with numerous libelous distortions of two hundred years of Russian-Jewish coexistence in the Imperial Russia and its heir, the Soviet Union.

Both books are now sitting on a special shelf in my room, within a comfortable company of other bigots and jingoes. Both have now become "honorable" members of my Axis of Evil.

Lately, the Russian authorities decided to remove the foul-smelling market from downtown. Obviously, there had been complaints on the part of some bewildered tourists, not accustomed to see such an open exhibition of bigotry. Now the flourishing market and its branches are scattered around the capital, some only a couple of blocks from downtown.

I have the feeling that very soon (probably, on my next visit to Moscow) my collection of Jew-hating books would be replenished. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that some stories, appearing on several Ukrainian Web sites, had claimed that Israel had brought 25,000 Ukrainian children into Israel over the past two years in order to use their organs for medical purposes. And a certain Sergey Ratushnyak, one of the current Ukrainian presidential hopefuls, publicly blames the Holocaust on the Jews, saying they has stolen German property, and warns of the same thing happening now in Ukraine. I think he would probably write a book, with a foreword most likely to be penned by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or David Irving.

Don't Slack Now — Our Efforts Are Working

Posted: 28 Nov 2009 01:37 PM PST @ citizenwarrior.com WE'RE IN a difficult fight. Many of our own fellow citizens are resistant to hearing about Islamic Supremacism, and until a large number of us know about the terrifying brilliance of Islam, we can't protect ourselves from its relentless encroachment. In any difficult fight, it is important to celebrate the successes, to keep up our courage, to prevent discouragement. And to answer this need, in a recent article at PajamasMedia.com, Phyllis Chesler listed some of the recent successes in the free world: 1. Canada explicitly spelled out in its citizenship guide for immigrants that it will not tolerate barbaric practices, spousal abuse, honor killings, or female genital mutilation. This is a specific injunction against the importation of Islamic practices. 2. Canada recently sentenced Yusef Al Mezel for threatening serious violence against his daughter. 3. Britain just created a special police unit to deal with honor killings. They are empowered with the authority to find and bring back any British citizen who has been taken against her will to "a foreign country such as Pakistan. The special unit can hide potential victims of honor killings with a witness-protection-like program. 4. Scotland Yard has begun to reopen legal cases that they now suspect were honor killings (they didn't have such a category at the time the case was first tried). Europeans are reawakening their desire to protect the hard-earned rights of their citizens — including the daughters of Islamic immigrants. They're slowly finding the limitation of blind multiculturalism, and discovering we in the free world have a culture and it's worth defending. 5. New debates are arising across Europe about how much Muslim encroachment should be allowed and where the line should be drawn, particularly on issues like welfare handouts, honor killings, the building of new mosques, wife beating, and forced marriages. This barely scratches the surface. The tide is changing. It is slow-going because so few non-Muslims know anything about the teachings of Islam. As more people find out, the momentum will increase. So don't stop your efforts. We're having an effect. But you know from personal experience that a vast majority of our fellow citizens still know almost nothing about Islam, and some of what they think they know is dead wrong. So keep up your education and persuasion efforts. Some people have told me the media needs to do it. They implied, "I'm just one person and I can't reach a vast audience, and since that's what we need, it's futile to try." But nobody made a greater mistake, wrote Edmund Burke, than he who did nothing because he could only do a little. Here's how it's going to work: You educate your friends and family, even if it takes a year. Some of them educate their friends and family. The process starts to accellerate. The market for this kind of information will grow, and the media will respond (they follow the money), and the process will accellerate even more. As more people understand what's happening, the pressure on politicians will increase to change policies to protect our freedoms. This process is already well underway. What can you do to help? Start here: What One Civilian Can Do To Stop Islam's Relentless Encroachment.

‘Window to the Future’

http://www.joelstrumpet.com/?p=2342

Newsweek: Expect to hear a lot more of the name Ahmet Davutoglu. The former university professor who became Turkey’s foreign minister last year is the man behind Ankara’s landmark new diplomatic outreach, including a previously unimaginable rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia and a new warmth with Syria.

Some Western analysts are dismayed at these developments, interpreting them as a sign that Turkey is turning East at the expense of the West. The mild-mannered Davutoglu typically gets angry at these suggestions, saying these comments come from those who begrudge Turkey its expanding role in the region.

Yet while Davutoglu is no stranger to Turkish politics—he began serving as chief foreign-policy adviser to the ruling AKP in 2002—he remains something of a cipher, even in his home country. To remedy that, NEWSWEEK’s Turkish-language partner, NEWSWEEK Türkiye, recently examined the forces that shaped Davutoglu and how he is changing relationships with Turkey’s neighbors in the Middle East, the Balkans, and the Caucasus.

Some of the highlights from the magazine’s comprehensive profile, written by Yenal Bilgici with reporting by Semin Gümüsel and Nevra Yaraç:

Davutoglu risked the deadly Izmit earthquake to save the manuscript of his signature book, Strategic Depth: Turkey’s International Position, which lays out the conceptual framework for what he now calls his “zero problems with neighbors”policy. When the shaking started on Aug. 17, 1999, he managed to flee his endangered Istanbul home unharmed—but then ignored warnings of aftershocks to dash back into the house and eject the computer disk containing his years of work. Now in its 30th printing, the book brought him national and international recognition.

The foreign minister is a somewhat reluctant politician. After Turkey’s ruling AKP won the elections of 2002, he turned down requests to serve in the government and opted instead to continue his university work while serving as an adviser to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Five years later, he was on the verge of a full-time return to academia when rebels from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attacked the Daglica military post in Turkey’s eastern city of Hakkari, killing 13 soldiers. “I cannot leave now,” Davutoglu told his inner circle. Instead, he stayed on to take up the position of foreign minister and facilitate recent agreements aimed at granting long-denied rights to the Kurdish minority and ending two decades of attacks by the PKK.
The peripatetic minister went to 13 countries in October alone, raising Turkey’s diplomatic profile to its highest level in years. Indeed, Davutoglu won unprecedented praise in Arabic media, like the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper, where a columnist begged the foreign minister to help solve Lebanon’s problems as well. “You carry ideas, aspirations, solutions, and medicine in your luggage,” wrote the columnist. “You are the window to the future.”

Davutoglu may be known for his temperate demeanor, but he has little patience with Ankara’s political elites and their unassertive approach to diplomacy. “These rootless elites are conditioned to not being noticed and not taking initiative rather than coming to the front and being decisive during critical periods,” he wrote in an uncharacteristically sharp tone in Strategic Depth. “They think of being passive as a safer and risk-free policy.” These criticisms, writes Bilgici in NEWSWEEK Türkiye, are a beginner’s guide to understanding Davutoglu and his policy. The second pointer to his character: the minister’s constant use—and embodiment—of the term “self-confidence.”

Davutoglu is also known for his work ethic and self discipline. A family friend told NEWSWEEK Türkiye that, while working on his book, the professor once spent three straight days without leaving his chair. A former student says Davutoglu believes that sleeping eight hours a night is a luxury. “We do not have the right to sleep this much,” he frequently told the student.

Davutoglu’s conscientiousness manifested itself at a relatively early age. As a high-school student at the prestigious Istanbul High School for Boys, where he was taught by German teachers who had come to Turkey during World War II, he presented his teachers with ambitious reading lists of dense philosophical and scientific works that he thought would serve him well in the future. His instructors advised him and his friends to go out and play ball for a while instead. Davutoglu took the advice to heart; even after he’d become a professor, he continued to play soccer with his students (as a highly regarded forward), right up until he was appointed foreign minister.

While honing his soccer prowess, Davutoglu was refining his language and academic skills too. In addition to the German learned in high school, he took all-English programs to graduate from the economics and political sciences department of Bogazici University. He learned Arabic while studying on a scholarship in Jordan, worked on his doctoral thesis at Cairo University, and learned Bahasa Malaysia while a professor at Malaysia’s International Islamic University. His thesis, a comparative analysis between Western and Islamic political theories and images, was published in 1993 by American University Press with the title Alternative Paradigms: The Impact of Islamic and Western Weltanschauungs on Political Theory. Davutoglu’s postdoctoral work included critiques of the theories of Samuel Huntington (clash of civilizations) and Francis Fukuyama (end of history).

Colleagues say that Davutoglu’s oratorical skills are equal to his writing ability. “There is no one the minister cannot make drop their guard in 10 minutes,” one high-ranking team member told NEWSWEEK Türkiye. One example: when Ankara refused to allow U.S.-led forces cross Turkish territory for the 2003 invasion into Iraq, a local Jewish leader came over to read Davutoglu the riot act. The visitor initially said he could only stay 10 minutes—partly because he needed to prepare for a fast the following day—but ended up spending three hours with Davutoglu after being won over by the minister’s erudite discourse about Jewish culture, history, and the background to the upcoming fast. Next time, the Jewish leader said, he’d like to stay for the day.

Davutoglu is not without his critics, who have accused him of double standards for criticizing Israel’s actions in Gaza while failing to condemn the approach of a fellow Muslim—Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir—in Darfur. But even those who don’t support him see him as a statesman who is both a thinker and a doer. And right now, he’s the talk of more than just Ankara.

Find this article at
http://www.newsweek.com/id/224713

Triumph of the Turks: Turkey is the surprising beneficiary of U.S. misadventures in the Middle East.

http://www.joelstrumpet.com/?p=2341

Newsweek: Archibald Wavell himself could scarcely have imagined how horribly accurate his prediction would prove to be. Having watched in dismay as the victorious European powers carved up the Ottoman Empire after World War I—”the war to end war”—the British officer commented that they had instead created “a peace to end peace.” And sure enough, the decades since have spawned a succession of colonial misrule, coups, revolutions, and an epidemic of jihadist violence. The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 could be viewed as a last-ditch attempt by the world’s sole remaining superpower to impose order on the region. Instead, the net result was to create a power vacuum, leaving Iraq too weak to counterbalance its neighbors and threatening to destabilize the whole map.

Turkey, the old seat of Ottoman power, did its best to stay out of that fight, refusing even to let U.S. forces cross Turkish soil for the 2003 invasion. Still, it’s the Turks—not the Iranians, as many observers claim—who are now emerging as the war’s real winners. In economic terms Turkey is running neck and neck with Iran as Iraq’s biggest trading partner, even as most U.S. businesses sit helplessly on the sidelines. And in terms of regional influence, Turkey has no rival. The country’s stern-faced prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is working to consolidate that strength as he asserts Turkey’s independence in a part of the world long dominated by America. Next week he’s in Washington to meet with President Obama, but only a few weeks ago he stood shoulder to shoulder with his “good friend” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran and defended Iran’s nuclear program.

That’s only one example of the behavior that’s disturbing many of Turkey’s longtime NATO partners. Among the biggest worries has been the souring of ties with Israel, once Turkey’s close ally, over the military offensive in Gaza earlier this year that human-rights groups say killed more than 1,400 Palestinians. Erdogan walked out of the World Economic Forum in protest over the deaths, and recently scrapped a decade-old deal allowing the Israeli Air Force to train over Turkish territory. At the same time, the Turkish prime minister has repeatedly supported Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, claiming he couldn’t possibly be guilty of genocide in Darfur because he’s a “good Muslim.” Right now there are “more points of disagreement than of agreement” between Washington and Ankara, says Philip Gordon, Obama’s point man on Turkey at the State Department.

What scares Washington most is the suspicion that Ankara’s new attitude may be driven less by the practical pursuit of Turkey’s national interest than by thinly concealed Islamist ideology. Erdogan has always denied mixing religion and politics, but his ruling Justice and Development Party (known by its Turkish initials, AKP) has been investigated repeatedly by Turkey’s top courts on charges of undermining Turkey’s constitutional commitment to a strictly secular state. But official policy notwithstanding, Turkish attitudes toward Europe have displayed a marked cooling over the past five years, and a corresponding rise in hostility toward Western institutions like the International Monetary Fund. “No one in the government has made any attempt to reverse rampant anti-Americanism in Turkey,” says Kemal Köprülü of the independent ARI think tank. “The government cannot admit it, but most decision making in foreign and domestic policy simply doesn’t take Western values into account.”

On the other hand, Turks could be excused for thinking that Western decision makers don’t always lose sleep over Turkish interests. During the Cold War, Washington did anything necessary to stabilize the region and keep the Kremlin from gaining ground, often backing nominally pro-Western despots like the Shah of Iran and the Turkish generals who seized power from civilian governments three times in as many decades. The result was a disaster for America; it ended up with unreliable allies who were hated by their own people. In Turkey, the cumulative anti-U.S. resentment peaked in 2003 when the Bush administration pressed Ankara to let U.S. forces invade Iraq through Turkish territory—a plan that was derailed only at the last moment by a parliamentary revolt.

That was the low point of Turkey’s relationship with the United States. But it was also the start of Turkey’s rise to economic recovery and regional influence, and the beginning of a new kind of relationship with Washington. Indeed, Turkey’s new standing in the region has a chance of transforming the country into something far more valuable to Washington than a subservient tool or proxy. The Turks say they’re seeking to become what Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu calls a “partner to solve the region’s problems.” Whatever ambitions they may have harbored in earlier years, it’s only in this decade—especially since 2002, when Erdogan and the AKP came to power—that Turkey has had the economic and political strength, as well as the military presence, to fill such a position.

Turkey’s economy has more than doubled in the past decade, converting the nation from a backwater to a regional powerhouse. At the same time, its financial focus has moved closer to home: Turkey now conducts more trade with Russia, Iraq, and Iran than it does with the EU. Energy politics have also favored the Turks, who find themselves astride no fewer than three competing energy supply routes to Europe—from Russia, from the Caspian, and from Iran. Years of reform and stability are paying off as well. Ankara is on the verge of a historic deal with its Kurdish minority to end an insurgency that has left 35,000 dead in the past quarter century. In turn, Turkey is making peace with neighboring countries that once supported the insurgents, such as Syria, Iran, and Armenia. The principle is simple, says a senior Erdogan aide who’s not authorized to speak on the record: “We can’t be prosperous if we live in a poor neighborhood. We can’t be secure if we live in a violent one.”

The advantages keep compounding. Thanks to judicious diplomacy and expanding business ties throughout the region, Turkey is close to realizing what Davutoglu calls his “zero-problems-with-neighbors policy.” The new stance has boosted Ankara’s influence even further; the Turks have become the trouble-ridden region’s mediators of choice, called in to help with disputes between the Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah, between Iraq and Syria—even, before Erdogan’s outburst in Davos, between Israel and Syria. Speaking at a recent press conference in Rome, Erdogan expressed little hope that Turkey could do more for Syria and Israel. “[Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu doesn’t trust us,” he said. “That’s his choice.” But others in the region still welcome Ankara’s assistance: Turkish diplomats are excellently trained in conflict resolution.

That can scarcely be said for Iran. The Tehran regime remains paralyzed by infighting and is far from loved in most of the Arab world. Saudis in particular think back fondly to the Ottomans facing off against the Persians, not to mention their feelings about Sunni Turks versus Shiite Iranians. “Saudi Arabia is welcoming the new Turkish comeback,” says Jamal Khashoggi, editor of the influential Jidda daily Al-Watan. Not the least important part of the charm is that Erdogan’s government has a distinctly Islamic (and by Saudi lights, a distinctly Sunni Islamic) coloration—”even if no Turkish officials would say that publicly, because it is politically incorrect,” says Khashoggi.

Still, the Turks believe they’re wise not to play an antagonistic role, and officials in Ankara insist that Erdogan’s warm words to Ahmadinejad are no more than atmospherics. At base, they say, Turkey shares the West’s goals regarding Iran’s nuclear ambitions; it’s just doing things in its own way. “We have been dealing with [Iranians] for centuries,” says the Erdogan aide. “We show them the respect and friendship they crave. Would our being hostile to Iran do anything to solve the problem of their nuclear program?” When the International Atomic Energy Agency offered Iran the option of exporting most of its low-enriched uranium in return for French-made fuel rods in October, Erdogan offered Ahmadinejad a deal (apparently with Washington’s blessing): Iran could store its uranium in Turkey rather than send it to a non-Muslim country.

Tehran ultimately said no, but the effort demonstrated that Turkey is prepared to do its part to keep the region peaceful and safe. Ankara insists that its new friendships in the region are no threat to its longstanding ties to the West. “NATO is Turkey’s strongest alliance, and integration with Europe is the main objective of Turkish foreign policy,” insists Davutoglu. “But it doesn’t mean that because of these strong ties, we can ignore the Middle East, we can ignore Asia, Central Asia, North Africa, or Africa.” The world has changed radically since the fall of the Ottomans, and Turkey is unlikely ever to regain the imperial power it wielded for 350 years, from Algiers to Budapest and Mecca. But as the world tries to move, at last, beyond the 90-year-old peace that ended peace, no other country is better positioned to pick up the pieces.

With Sami Kohen in Istanbul

Find this article at
http://www.newsweek.com/id/224676