Corruption is incompatible with Islamic faith: Turkish Experience!

-DR. ABDUL RUFF COLACHAL

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When Muslim rulers, taking cue from the most corrupt non-Muslim rulers, engage themselves in anti-humanity practices and corruption another forms of crimes against people, they indeed fail in their primary duty as leaders of human beings.   They are rogues and animals with human form.

Even if they do not believe in heaven or hell, rewards or punishments in their lives hereafter, the Muslim rulers are supposed to govern the nations and people in the most decent ways.

Enemies of Islam across the globe, led by USA and other top terrocracies, target any Muslim nation that seeks to implement Islamic law and help people imbibe Islamic way of life.

These enemies of Islam very cleverly use many Muslim nations and Muslims. 

Afghanistan was invaded and destabilized by US led NATO rogues because they could not tolerate Islamisation of Afghanistan. Millions of Muslims have been slaughtered in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and elsewhere by western fascist forces nations. Parisian has been destabilized with thousands of Pakistan killed on their own lands by US led NATO occupation forces. 

When Pakistani regime allowed Islamic law  to be implemented in Swat region,  USA instructed Pakistani stooges  serving the NATO cause of Islamophobia to scrap  the system in Swat and  detain and kill all leaders there trying to  make people Muslims  by faith. 

It seems Turkey, ruled by Islamist party- the Justice and Development Party (AKP) -has not learned anything lessons from  attacks on Muslims in Arab spring or  invasion of Libya, Afghanistan  or Iraq or  Pakistan.

Corruption crime

The corruption scandal, involving the Islamist leaders and their families, is a shame on Turkey’s Islamist regime.

And the greatest threat yet to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan desiring to be the president of Turkey comes from a former ally, a Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen with whom the regime leaders executed plans.  With Erdogan's permission, the Gulen movement manipulated the trial to eliminate political rivals in the government and civil society.

Fethullah Gulen, who is said to be nearing 72, lives in exile in Pennsylvania, may have political ambitions in turkey. He fled Turkey in 1999 when the then anti- Islamic government accused him of attempting to Islamize the country. Gulen even began giving instructions to Turkish military as routine matter, especially directed to attack Kurdish separatists.

Gulen and his influential (now as influential as Erdogan) followers seem determined to accomplish what the recent protest movement could not: overthrowing the current regime. Gulen got his start as an imam in Ederne and Izmir, and soon persuaded pious businessmen to make donations. With this he financed schools, and his supporters founded student housing known as "lighthouses," which are a fundamental part of the organization. His some 8 million supporters run schools, media companies, hospitals and an insurance company in 140 countries,  including Germany. The network "controls major business, trade, and publishing activities, has deeply penetrated the political scene -- including AKP at high levels." It is the "most powerful Islamist grouping" in Turkey, according to US State Department diplomatic cables made public by WikiLeaks in 2010.

When the ruling AKP assumed power in 2002, the prime minister saw an ally in the Gulen organizations. He promoted the movement by appointing members to important positions in law enforcement and the judiciary. Together, Erdogan and Gulen ousted the military, which until then had acted as guardian of the secular state.

Corruption scandal that rocked Turkey and Mideast the deadliest challenge Erdogan has faced during his political life. Since becoming prime minister in 2002, Erdogan has faced several challenges to his rule and, in each case, has prevailed.  Shortly after taking office, he faced down the military after several top officers allegedly plotted a coup.  Sporadically, secularists have argued that specific government measures undermine the secular authority that is the basis of modern Turkey.  Last year, controversial economic development plans trigg ered mass street protests that exposed a new vulnerability.

Late last year, a new scandal emerged that threatens the prime minister in ways that the others did not. On Dec. 17, a series of raids resulted in the detention of at least 50 people on charges of corruption, bribery, money laundering and related offenses.

Hidden agenda

Turkey in Europe has been surging ahead with Islamization of the society and enemies cannot just tolerate it.  As Turkey survive the Arab Spring tactfully that encompassed Mideast, the enemies have used the Gulen elements to help their cause of anti-Islamism.

Turkish intelligence could not detect the secret operations of Gulen in Turkey maybe because it didn't see anything wrong with the operations by the regime ally. More than two years ago, Gulen urged his followers to infiltrate the Turkish state in a sermon that was captured on video. "You have to penetrate the arteries of the system without being noticed," he said. You have to wait for the right moment, until you have seized the entire power of the state." Gulen has been executing his agenda with the help&nb sp;of US embassy in Istanbul. These are hardly neutral jurists at work, but rather Gulen followers. " The community is not governed by rule of law and democracy," says Sener. "They want influence and money."

Every illegal and immoral nexus between a friend of Islam and a foe of Islam Gulen would collapse as its destiny. The alliance between Erdogan and Gulen began to crumble after the parliamentary elections of 2011.  In summer 2013 Gulen criticized Erdogan for his brutal handling of the Gezi protesters. But only after Erdogan threatened to close the tutoring centers did the conflict escalate. And, Erdogan said the movement could no longer be relied on. Gulen's followers, for their part, said: "Erdogan became a burden for  us" Thus they drifted.

While saying he would not tolerate corruption, Erdogan responded to the arrests by firing or reassigning 70 of the police officers involved in the investigation, including the head of the Ankara police who oversaw the detentions.  550 police officers, including senior officials, were dismissed by the interior minister, who has since stepped down himself. some 350 police officers in Ankara, including chiefs of the financial and organized-crime units, were sacked  and 16 provincial chiefs . Erdogan branded the investigation a “dirty plot” against his government.

Erdogan has called the scandal an “attempted assassination” and a “judicial coup” that targets “the future, the stability” of Turkey. He says foreign powers and his political opponents are behind a high-level corruption scandal that has forced the resignations of three ministers and a cabinet reshuffle. His comments come as protests against the government continue in the capital Ankara.

Speaking to a large rally of supporters in the western city of Manisa, Erdogan brushed aside the fraud allegations, saying they were part of an international campaign to discredit the government. He said he would not tolerate any corrupt officials, and urged his supporters to vote for his Justice and Development Party in elections scheduled for March. In addition to denouncing “certain organizations acting under the guise of religion” to try to form a “state within a state,” Erdogan has asserted that there are “international dimensions” — outsiders who want to “halt our fast growth.”

The Turkey prime minister directly blames Gulen has at least 1 million followers, many of them senior members of the police and judiciary, and whose Hizmet (“Service”) movement runs schools and charities in Turkey and elsewhere in the world. Gulen denies any involvement in the investigation.

Meanwhile, the US embassy in Ankara Wednesday refuted any U.S. role in an ongoing graft probe in Turkey, warning against putting ties with Turkey in danger.

The split between Erdogan and Gulen, ostensible allies, has been triggered by government efforts to rein in Gulen’s followers scattered throughout the bureaucracy as well as by reports that the government would shut down the exam prep schools that provide Hizmet with significant sources of revenue and recruits.

Among the detained were some of the country’s top businessmen, the sons of three Cabinet members, the mayor of one of Istanbul’s biggest districts, the general manager of Turkey’s second-biggest state bank, Halkbank, and a number of civil servants. In one widely played video, $4.5 million in cash is taken from the house of the bank manager. All the accused, unfortunately,  are connected to the current government. The three Cabinet ministers have resigned, and Erdogan has been forced to reshuffle his entire Cabinet as a result. According to public prosecutors, the move was the culmination of three separate probes, one of which took place over 14 months. More significantly, the arrests took the government by surprise.

Cost

Islamist regime failed to gauge the  under currents  in the country being exploited by Gulen.

Turkey’s economy has tripled in size under PM Erdogan’s administration, although growth slowed significantly last year. But the recent problems have rattled investors.

An impression  has been generated by media that the government is going after the investigators instead of the alleged lawbreakers.

The corruption scandal has shaken investor confidence in Turkey at a time when its lira currency is languishing at record lows, inflation is rising and growth slowing. As much as its Islamist-rooted ideology, AK Party’s support has relied on its avowed commitment to fight corruption and its economic record.

Uncertainty caused by the scandal could hit economic growth in the short term,  a prolonged crisis could weaken Turkey’s creditworthiness. Western powers have voiced concern that Turkey’s growing money-laundering and bribery scandal will affect the country’s rule of law and economic stability. The European Union expressed concern about developments in Turkey on January 8, where the government is embroiled in a massive graft scandal that has triggered a purge of the police.

Turkish EU Minister and Chief Negotiator Mevlut Cavusoglu has publicly assured the European Union that the rule of law is being met in his country, and called on the 28-nation bloc not to make unilateral and impatient statements via media. No one should have any concern about Turkey’s commitment to the principle of rule of law and obligations stemming from the EU accession process. Cavusoglu took over as EU Minister precisely from Egemen Bagis, following the large Cabinet reshuffle on December 25. The outspoken Bagis was one of the four ministers implicated in the graft probe with claims of bribery.

EU has now gained upper hand in slamming Turkey seeking membership. The recent steps (removing, reassigning or firing police officers and investigators) are a matter of concern, said a Commission statement. “We urge Turkey, as a candidate country committed to the political criteria of accession, including the application of the rule of law, to take all the necessary measures to ensure that allegations of wrongdoing are addressed without discrimination or preference in a transparent and impartial manner,” said the statement, adding that any action which undermines the effectiveness of investigations into these allegati ons should be avoided. Earlier, E.U. Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule urged Turkey “to take all the necessary measures to ensure that allegations of wrongdoing are addressed without discrimination or preference in a transparent and impartial manner.”

Assuring that Turkey remains a trusted ally, US State Department has “expressed concerns about some of the events that are happening on the ground directly, publicly and privately.” “In our conversations with all stakeholders in Turkey, we continue to make clear that the United States supports the desire of the Turkish people for a legal system that meets the highest standards of fairness, timeliness and transparency,” spokesperson Ms. Paski said.

It seems the government is also reviewing some of the trials of military officers that occurred earlier in Erdogan’s tenure. That could signal the beginning of an alliance between the prime minister and the armed forces.

Observation

Muslim rulers are duty bound to deliver judicious governance without taking or prompting corruption. They have to project the genuine interests of people without prompting corruption in any format. 

Any systemic corruption is always a poor choice for the Islamist rulers of Turkey. The loyalty of the government should be to justice and the rule of law.

The political and social fissures in Turkey are varied and deep. There is tension between civilian leaders and the military; secularists and supporters of a more Islamic-oriented society; the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who heads an Islamic party, and the military; and between Islamic groups themselves.

Perhaps most important, the corruption charges go to the heart of one of the pillars of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which Presidential hopeful Erdogan fronts: its clean image. The shakeups that followed the December arrests look like a government that is trying to cover something up.

A clean break with this burgeoning scandal will be crucial to his prospects for the country’s presidency later this year, as Erdogan is thought to have eyes on the country’s presidency. The next test for the government will be local elections in March. That ballot will be a vote of confidence.

While the advancements Turkey has made so far have made Islamic world proud, current corruption scandal and immoral political links with agents of enemies of Islam puts Islamic world into shame.

 Hopefully, Turkey, the former Ottoman Empire, will show better light to the Islamic world, by getting rid of corrupt practices that are not tenable with Islamic faith and law.