I know Islam is the cry-baby of organized religions, but the Turkish state (specially the secular military junta tha runs the show) uses these sort of thought crimes to both silence opposition, and also to pander to the right-wing factions.
We think you're guilty, so we'll toss you in jail. But we can't come up with your charge right now because we're in the process of writing it. But you're a flight risk so it's okay.
I'm fine with people being punished for crimes but a lot of people were kept in for years before they were even charged. Some of them barely maintained their health and sanity. This is the sort of fascist-style suppression AK and Erdogan regularly engage in to make an example of people.
This is not very comprehensive but okay: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergenekon_(organization)#Debat... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suspects_in_the_Ergene...
Meanwhile, I get extremely angry when Erdogan and his gang enjoy hero status in the Western press because they have taken steps to allow headscarves in government institutions. They did this not because of human rights, they did it to appeal to their heavily anti-secular constituency. Never mind the Ergenekon case and other horrors that AK is part of!
For a long time, he's vocally sought to increase tax on or ban alcohol, he's also suggested that everyone have multiple children, and recently his administration has spoken out against abortions, saying that he shall ban them. Whether this will happen is doubtful but I hope it sheds some light into what sort of people we're dealing with.
Second, they run a pretty Nazi-like agenda: pure Turkish blood ideology (when it comes to marriages), supporting demographic pressure, strict top-down government, militarization, ideological intolerance, brutal assimilation of Kurds and other minorities, one can even count their recent anti-Israel doctrine and their attempts to establish themselves as the protector of Muslim interests and their volkisch politics to protect the Turkish immigrants in Western Europe (where they clearly influence politicians of Turkish origin and use their network of mosques and religious institutions to steer "their" population). It's a neo-Osmanic power game similar to what the Nazis did in the 1930s.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/09/16/turkey.press....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41935210/ns/world_news-europe/t/...
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/16/business/turkey-seizes-219...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/06/26/idUSL2690587920070...
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/default.aspx?pageid=438&...
http://www.economist.com/node/17155758
They have popular support for this. They have been re-elected twice, gaining millions of votes each time.
The crackdown on dissent in the military is important because under the 20th-century regime, the military had the duty of maintaining the secular character of the state and would regularly overthrow governments that seemed to become Islamic. The charge that people in the military are planning to overthrow the government is immediately believable, but so many people have been arrested and the evidence against them is so thin that it appears like a partisan purge. Here is some commentary:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/burhan-gurdogan/turkey’s-ergene...
http://rodrik.typepad.com/dani_rodriks_weblog/2011/12/güleni...
Soner Cagaptay has been the most prolific writer on the subject:
https://duckduckgo.com/html/?q=soner+cagaptay+ergenekon
Turkey has recently begun also arresting officers involved in the 1997 coup against the same Islamic party. They waited ten years to collect the power to do this.
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/world-article.php?yyyy=2012&...
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-279788-saner-the-impaler-amo...
Turkey's military has since surrendered its command.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/turkey/8671...
Meanwhile in Parliament, a member of the ruling party can assault an opposition member and the legislature will vote to approve of the attack.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-parliament-sees-fre...
Turkey is currently the base of operations for the rebel forces of Syria who are largely Islamic fascists. I do not believe this to be a coincidence.
http://content.usatoday.com/dist/custom/gci/InsidePage.aspx?...
http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/news/11762/wjc_analysi...
http://pjmedia.com/barryrubin/2011/10/22/scoop-obama-adminis...
http://araborthodoxy.blogspot.com/2012/03/christians-expelle...
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2012/06/save-syria-demand-...
Islam prefers violence (to the extend a religion can prefer anything).
The first statement is backed up by the war on christmas hysteria every yeah as well as christianity is oppressed meme. Both of which are crybaby bullshit.
As for Islams tendency to commit violence, numerous examples can be named, such as the USS Cole, the embassy bombings in Africa and the murders of Theo Van Gogh.
These modern prejudicial stereotypes you're subscribing to come from demographics, geopolitics and relative power differentials, IMO.
Are some issues, such as the issues surrounding Israel, a lot more complicated than religious differences? Absolutely. Are all of them? Absolutely not.
Facts are simple for people who choose their frames of reference. Reality, nothing is simple. When I read about the past of Mohammed Bouyeri, I see a displaced kid looking to find something solid to hang on to, to build his life around and gain respect. I think he was misguided and that he chose the wrong path. But I think religion is just a scapegoat; it's a convenient way for people to ignore the underlying social mechanics, to avoid dealing with the issue directly, dismissing a whole group on a prejudicial basis. And the irony is that this prejudicial approach will breed more violence, because it fosters the very alienation that caused this kid to feel like his identity was being attacked.
Atatürk tried very hard to pull Turkey out of the Middle Ages. But Turkey, from an outside perspective, seems intent on heading back.
There is no such descent I think, it is just that the new ruling classes of the country is more religiously conservative than their predecessors. The old ruling classes were actually more conservative but in racism, totalitarianism and militarism.
> Atatürk tried very hard to pull Turkey out of the Middle Ages.
This is a very common misconception. Modernization of the Empire/Turkey had begun long before Ataturk was even born. He is an important figure in Turkish history for sure but you can't attribute the progress of a whole nation to him.