PoliGazette

Meet Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan (quotes from speeches delivered by him from 1994-1998 when he was mayor of Istanbul):

PM Erdogan on Secularism:

“If the people want it, of course secularism will go away. You cannot rule this people by force; you don’t have the power to do that. This [i.e. secularism] cannot work in spite of the people.

“And anyway, for the love of Allah, what is this secularism? You ask them to define it. They can’t. They say that it varies from place to place. So what sort of a strange thing is this [secularism]?

“Today, for every concept there is a definition in the dictionary. Every concept must have a definition […] The interior minister comes and says that the state can interfere with religion. What about the rest? Why don’t you say the rest? No! He does not say that the religion can interfere with the state.

“Yesterday I was at the Bosphorus University; and some of the - probably impressionable - young people there asked me, ‘Mr. Mayor, what do you think about secularism? There are concerns that secularism is disappearing. What will happen?’

“This is what I said to those young friends: ‘In the West they say, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s. But this country’s interior minister says that Caesar has rights but God does not!’

“But the fact is that 99% of the people of this country are Muslims. You cannot be both secular and a Muslim! You will either be a Muslim, or secular! When both are together, they create reverse magnetism [i.e. they repel one another]. For them to exist together is not a possibility! Therefore, it is not possible for a person who says ‘I am a Muslim’ to go on and say ‘I am secular too.’ And why is that? Because Allah, the creator of the Muslim, has absolute power and rule!”

On the Turkish Constitution and Democracy:

“”As for [the motto of Turkish democracy] ‘Sovereignty belongs unconditionally to the people.’ Now, look here. This is a lie! And it’s a huge lie! We [former PM Erbakan's Islamist RP (Welfare) Party] suggested this to them for their constitution: We said ‘Let’s put brackets next to ’sovereignty belongs unconditionally to the people’ and write within the brackets, ‘once every five years.’

“They began to laugh. I asked them why they were laughing. Do the people have such a privilege, other than once every five years? Then what’s-his-name says - and where does he say this? - it is in 1985 and we are having a discussion on the constitution in a meeting in the Marmara Hotel. He gets up and says ‘No, this is not right.’

“At that moment, the former finance minister, who was completely drunk, also joins in to give advice. I told them that they must have prepared this constitution at the same table [at which they together consume alcohol]. Why? Because they do not prepare these constitutions with sober heads, but with drunken heads! That is why their constitutions last no more than two years.”

Some other nice quotes:
- “There is no need to stand up to honor Ataturk”
- “They [secular Turks] make such a big fuss every November 10th [the anniversary of Ataturk’s death]”
- “We will turn Istanbul into Madina”
- “I am the Imam of Istanbul”
- “Our reference [guide] is Islam. Our only goal is an Islamic state. They can never intimidate us. If the skies and the earth open up, if storms blow on us, if the lava of volcanoes flow on us, we will never change our way. My guide is Islam. If I cannot live according to Islam, why live at all? [Turk], Kurd, Arab, Caucasian cannot be differentiated; because these peoples are united under the roof of Islam.”

What in the world were the Turkish people thinking when they voted for this man? “He changed…” Yeah right, that’s because Islamists often change their ways, right? I mean, he wouldn’t be acting to have changed just to be able to push through some of the reforms he deems necessary (to re-establish the caliphate)… rrrright?

Oops: and here’s the YouTube video, only problem… it’s Turkish, for translation click on the link above.