[Hurriyet Daily News] Paradoxically, the end of the secular republic in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... also marks the end of Islamism or Islamist politics in Turkey and elsewhere. The Turkish Parliament is currently voting on a constitutional change that will usher in a so-called Turkish type of presidential system, or "President of the Republic System" as the governing party dubs it. This system is nothing but an authoritarian executive regime that not only promises less democracy, but also hints at the end of the secular regime once established. The supporters of the Islamist ruling party have already started to question the legitimacy of the secular political system, suggesting "a native sort of alternative democracy" more openly than before.
We democrats and I, for one, supported the Islamists’ critique of the rigid understanding and implementation of secularism in Turkey, especially in the 1990s. It was all in the name of democracy to challenge the idea of rigid republican secularism, since rigid republicanism refused to recognize the rights and freedoms of religious conservatives. Both in Turkey and elsewhere, the debate about the "republican emphasis on secularism against democratic rights and freedoms" has been a major intellectual and political issue for a long time. At the time, the Islamists who presented themselves as "moderates and democrats" denounced not only violence and radicalism, but also the idea of an Islamic state. At the end of the 1990s, the majority of Turkey’s Islamists further denounced their ex-Islamist politics and declared themselves to be on the center right as "Conservative Democrats." The early 2000s were the years of the triumph of the happy idea of not only THE compatibility of Islam and democracy, but even the compatibility of Islamism and democracy. It was so especially after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 when Islamist movements needed to distance themselves from radical Islam in general and al-Qaeda in particular.
The dream ended with the delusion of the Arab Spring, especially after Islamist rulers, which came to power after the so-called spring, turned out not only to be ineffective but also authoritarian in Egypt and even in Tunisia. The other major disappointment was the failure of the "Turkish model" after the ruling Islamist party abandoned "conservative democracy" and slid toward authoritarian politics. Now we have two types of Islamist politics; on one hand, there are radical violent Islamist groups, and on the other, we have Islamist authoritarianism which failed in Egypt but succeeded in Turkey. The case of Egypt has been disastrous since the Islamist government was not defeated and followed by democratic politics but was ousted in a military coup, presaging authoritarian military rule. Fortunately, Turkey survived a coup attempt in July last year, but the victory of democratic resistance against the coup could not be harnessed to democratize Turkey. On the contrary, it was used to further legitimize authoritarian politics under emergency rule.
Nevertheless, we can hardy call it success in the name of Islamism, since the whole affair ended with the "ordinary politics of nationalist and religious authoritarianism." The starting point of Islamist politics was to challenge the politics of modernity in the name of justice and dignity, but ended up producing the worst version of modern politics. Islamists managed to challenge the power of the secular republican system and have come close to ending it altogether in Turkey, but only at the cost of surrendering themselves to nationalist authoritarianism with more religious flavor rather than challenging the politics of modernity altogether. It is also true for Islamism in general, since it proved unable to suggest any alternative for a better future for Moslems and humanity.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
the emperor has abolished the imperial Senate, the last vestiges of the Republic have been swept away
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/16/2017 9:32 Comments ||
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#2
The Turkish Parliament is currently voting on a constitutional change that will usher in a so-called Turkish type of presidential system, or "President of the Republic SystemPresident for Life" as the governing party dubs it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/16/2017 11:47 Comments ||
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#3
Dunno__ Erogan is gonna have to have some plastic surgery before anyone will be able to call him "The Sublime Porte" without giggling.
[WD.com] Weaver has been watching Rep. John Lewis along with the NAACP, Al Sharpton, and the Democratic Party sell out black America, so they won’t gain footing on securing their place in America.
#2
Well worth watching. Interestingly, the single former Black Panther I know personally is a very nice, thoughtful, gentle woman who disagrees strongly with the idea that the group was violent rather than political. She was a member of the youth branch at her performing arts-oriented public high school, and it very much was a political talk shop rather than the violent inner circle history has recorded. She currently owns a small massage therapy business with several other massage therapists working under her. So this gentleman's personal story makes perfect sense.
[LI] Democrats are clearly planning to keep playing the "illegitimate" card on Donald Trump. Jehmu Greene is a FOX News contributor who has been active in the Democratic Party for years.
On Friday, she announced her candidacy for DNC chair. She also appeared on FOX and Friends at which time she used the word "allegedly" to describe Trump’s election.
From Real Clear Politics:
DNC Chair Candidate Jehmu Greene: Trump Was "Allegedly Elected," Dems Have "Mandate" To Resist
HOST: What do you make of these remarks from John Lewis? Obviously, he is a Civil Rights icon, but now is claiming that Donald Trump is not legitimate. What say you?
JEHMU GREENE: He’s truth telling. I don’t think this is about just Democrats. This is Americans. Anyone with a smidgen of common sense can remember Donald Trump looking into the camera encouraging Russia to hack into our electoral process, cheerleading them on. And the idea that whatever information these members of Congress are getting out of this classified briefing had them storm out of that room makes it very clear that the decisions that the FBI made that were unprecedented to get involved in the election against Hillary Clinton, pick a winner, pick a loser when they had so much information that was so damaging. What have we been talking about since this man was allegedly elected?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/16/2017 11:39 Comments ||
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#5
Best take on this and all the other wailing and flailing was in Day by Day Cartoon this am:
"Democrats haven't been this angry since the last time Republicans freed their slaves."
#8
Ms Greene is what -- the seventh or eighth to step forward for the DNC chair job? It seems there are plenty who object to a Black Muslim/Muslim Brotherhood member representing them, whether because they think it looks bad or because they think it is bad.
[GP] Demand Protest says they are strategists mobilizing millennials for protests and training. The contact phone number is a San Francisco number.
4Chan users say Demand Protest is linked to Soros but there is no way of knowing from their website. It is hard to tell if they are associated with Soros but considering all of the violent protest movements are Soros funded, #BlackLivesMatter and #Occupy, it is a safe bet that Soros is also funding this radical leftist group.
And note: The leftist mob is NEVER grassroots. It always includes paid activists.
#1
The day Soros dies cannot come soon enough - it will make the world a better place by his absence. Hopefully his heirs will do what most rich heirs do and piss it away.
Syria is dying, Islamists are murdering European civilians, ISIS and affiliated groups are on the rampage in the Middle East, food and water are in short supply in Africa. And so it is remarkable that the nations of the world have gathered against tiny Israel in order to dispossess Jews of what little land they have in order to create a twenty-third Arab state called Palestine.
Indeed, it is all the more remarkable when one considers the fact that the Palestinian Arabs have no historical, cultural or legal rights to the land of Israel.
That the Palestinian Arabs are endowed with so much international and economic patronage by the United Nations, the United Kingdom, the European Union and the Obama White House is testament to the world’s perpetual hatred towards the Jews. How did the Palestinians and their international backers manage to achieve such a feat? Why does the world revolve around the Palestinians?
...Kurdish independence, the Syrian crisis, chronic starvation in Africa, Islamic State, child sex slavery, and so on, are apparently (and shamefully) very low down on the world's list of priorities. Given that there are so many pressing issues, it is deliberately perverse of the nations to pursue the creation of an autocratic state (or worse still an Islamist republic) called Palestine, which will be the only place on the planet that is officially Judenrein, i.e. "cleansed of Jews."
It is clear that the world's desire to create an anti-Semitic Palestinian state ‐ regardless of the human cost and at the expense of more urgent issues ‐ is driven by an obsessive hostility towards the Jewish people and Jewish culture, as well as a hatred for Judaism. To put it another way, it is racially and religiously-inspired anti-Semitic bloodlust.
In each and every generation they rise up against us to destroy us
Feelgood story of the day.
Now with executive powers, a compliant attorney general and a lily-livered Congress. Trump's reign will probably be awash in investigations and prosecutions of journalists for doing their jobs, stirring up the ugliest of class wars along the way. It's our job to stir up ugly class wars.
He will relentlessly manipulate. For example, Trump's first news conference as president-elect last week featured a crowd of paid staffers who cheered his every statement, creating a false picture for viewers. And what about all the photos of The Donald surrounded by a halo? Oh, wait...
Journalists are in for the fight of their lives. And they are going to have to be better than ever before, just to keep their phony-baloneydo their jobs. The last resort: accurately reporting the news. No!!!
Posted by: Matt ||
01/16/2017 11:01 ||
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#1
I've acquired my view of journalists & journalism during Intifada I: enemies general of the humankind, to be dealt with as wolves are.
#2
There job was to report 'facts'. Unfortunately for them, their editing, manipulation, and burying of 'facts' to suit their narrative has become way too obvious. Now enough people don't care what they have to say.
#4
For example, Trump's first news conference as president-elect last week featured a crowd of paid staffers who cheered his every statement, creating a false picture for viewers.
As opposed to the unpaid cheering section in the fold-down seats in front of the podium for the past eight years...
[VictoryGirlsBlog] Entertainers’ refusal to perform at the Inauguration is their right. It’s also a big FU to America. If that action weren’t enough, multiple social justice warriors are planning to actually disrupt the event. Both groups are doing their part to undermine the American tradition of peaceful transfer of power. Two sides of the same coin.
Some entertainers, and others, have refused outright to perform at the Inauguration. Some have accepted, then backed out after they were criticized by those on the Left. The stated reasons boil down to wanting to retain their "integrity" by separating themselves from performing for Donald Trump. Trump is so terrible they cannot be associated with him. (The true reason is that they have been bullied into compliance).
Some of these virtuous performers are a Rockette(s), Elton John, Gene Simmons, Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli, Garth Brooks, Justin Timberlake, Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, Aretha Franklin, David Foster, Ice T, Charlotte Church, and the latest, Jennifer Holliday.
#2
The reason many of them aren't doing this is that they and their families are getting death threats from radical gay groups and left wing extremists.
Charming, open minded people, wot?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
01/16/2017 8:19 Comments ||
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#3
Brown shirt indeed. Always with the Freudian Projection, they are.
#4
Why does any entertainer have to perform? Its not a half time show, its the peaceful transfer of power. Who really tunes into the inauguration to see some joker lip sync and dance?
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
01/16/2017 10:15 Comments ||
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Apparently the Millennials and other Lefty Progressives were counting on it, Sam.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/16/2017 12:37 Comments ||
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I lost heart whenI read that Jennifer Holliday wouldn't be performing.
Who the hell is Jennifer Holliday?
Posted by: Matt ||
01/16/2017 12:57 Comments ||
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#7
Who the hell is Jennifer Holliday?
Posted by Matt
#10
I propose a science experiment. Riot police will be issued AA-12 assault shotguns, the full auto ones. The first drum expended will use birdshot. If the rioting vermin remain, then the next drum will have one shot size up. Continue until rioters have fled or are in the proper form for being squeegee'd into the storm drains.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[LI] Democrats are clearly planning to keep playing the "illegitimate" card on Donald Trump. Jehmu Greene is a FOX News contributor who has been active in the Democratic Party for years.
[GP] 
[VictoryGirlsBlog] Entertainers’ refusal to perform at the Inauguration is their right. It’s also a big FU to America. If that action weren’t enough, multiple social justice warriors are planning to actually disrupt the event. Both groups are doing their part to undermine the American tradition of peaceful transfer of power. Two sides of the same coin.
