The Brotherhood: America's Next Great Enemy by Erick Stakelbeck

Author:Erick Stakelbeck [Stakelbeck, Erick]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Political Science / Political Ideologies / Conservatism & Liberalism
ISBN: 9781621570332
Google: Egws8Aeq-60C
Amazon: B00APDG0OW
Barnesnoble: B00APDG0OW
Goodreads: 15824267
Publisher: Regnery Publishing
Published: 2013-07-14T22:00:00+00:00

Of course not—and that’s exactly the point. It’s all part of Erdogan’s strategy to reestablish Turkey as a global player and regional giant while at the same time spreading Islamist ideology far and wide. And Muslims across the Middle East and North Africa—many of them starved for a new caliphate led by a bold leader who will take on Israel and the West—are taking notice. Erdogan was greeted by adoring crowds during a strategic, September 2011 solidarity tour of Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt—three “Arab Spring” countries where his Islamist allies were newly ascendant. He received a hero’s welcome from thousands of cheering Egyptians as he arrived at Cairo airport in a public spectacle that the Muslim Brotherhood helped organize.51

Erdogan used his Egypt stop to once again lambast Israel (always the surest way to win an impressionable Islamist’s heart) and called on Egypt’s new Brotherhood overlords to cultivate a secular Islamic democracy similar to what his AKP has supposedly established in Turkey. Muslim Brotherhood leaders ended up perturbed by Erdogan’s advice on governance and more than a bit unnerved by the confident swagger of their non-Arab guest. “We welcome Turkey and we welcome Erdogan as a prominent leader,” Essam el-Erian, deputy leader of the Brotherhood’s ruling Freedom and Justice Party, huffed. “But we do not think that he or his country alone should be leading the region or drawing up its future.”52

Likewise, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad—who, as of this writing, was still clinging to power amid that country’s bloody civil war—may be a murderous tyrant, but in his assessment of Erdogan, at least, he is on target. “Erdogan thinks that if the Muslim Brotherhood takes over in the region and especially in Syria, he can guarantee his political future. . . .” al-Assad told an interviewer in 2012, referring to Erdogan’s open support for Syria’s Brotherhood-heavy rebel factions. “He personally thinks that he is the new sultan of the Ottoman [Empire] and he can control the region as it was during the Ottoman Empire under a new umbrella. In his heart he thinks he is a caliph.”53

Jordan’s King Abdullah has expressed a similar view of Erdogan. A 2013 profile of the Jordanian monarch in The Atlantic magazine reported that he is “wary” of Erdogan and views Turkey, along with Egypt, as part of a new “Muslim Brotherhood crescent.” According to the piece, Abdullah correctly “sees Erdogan as a more restrained and more savvy version of Mohammed Morsi.”54

El-Erian, al-Assad, and Abdullah are no dummies. Although each comes from a vastly different ideological viewpoint, they all realize that Erdogan is a force to be reckoned with: a hugely popular figure in the Muslim world who, as head of a NATO member nation, also has the ear of Western leaders. Not to mention Turkey boasts a strong military, growing economy, and a long and fairly recent history of leading the caliphate. Fronted by an ambitious, politically astute despot who is fawned over by the U.S. president and idolized by legions of restless young Muslims worldwide, Turkey is an emerging juggernaut.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.