In Town, Turkish Writer Mustafa Akyol

A photo I took of Mustafa Akyol at the lecture

I was invited to go to a lecture by Turkish writer Mustafa Akyol at my old university week before last.  Basically I only knew of him by name through a couple of blogs I used to read.  I haven't read his book or even his writings on his website.  I mentioned on Twitter that he was coming here, that I hoped to go, but that I knew nothing of what his ideology is. Then one of my Turkish followers Tweeted in my direction, 'He's against evolution theory, supports ID. He supports democracy, sharia law and jihad, but is against Islamic extremism.'  I had to look up what ID was an abbreviation for and recalled once I found it that I'd seen it before, "intelligent design."  I didn't know the details of the meaning of the term, but I was aware that it referred to a theory of creationism.   I am familiar with creationism as taught by the Bible, which is the only theory of it that I've had any real in-depth exposure to.  I've never believed in evolution, so there was no conflict there.  As for sharia law and jihad, my reaction to those words were not tempered by the usual Western panic.  I have studied enough about Islam and sharia in a general sort of way to know they are not what the average American thinks they are.  So I decided to keep my plans of seeing what Mustafa Akyol was going to talk about.

Mustafa Akyol's lecture was an hour long, and he basically gave a brief history of the Middle East in the last century after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.  The conflict between secularists and Islamists were also talked about.  He said that most of the Arab governments that became independent from European colonialism after the collapse of the Ottomans were secular.  According to him, for years the secularists had oppressed the Islamists, so he claimed that one of the reasons for the Arab Spring was due to years of strong arm tactics that leaders like Gamal Abdel Nasser, Saddam Hussein, and Muammar Gaddafi had used. He really didn't say very much about Libya, and I can understand why, but still I wish he had.  What has gone down in Libya has become a blot on the entire so-called Arab Spring.  I follow some people in the Middle East and others with origins there along with some Africans, and the ones I follow were skeptical at the beginning of the Libyan conflict, and after it became so outrageously bloody they have expressed disgust. Perhaps two months into these revolutions I had also become skeptical and was suspicious of forces both inside and outside the region that were trying to propel these revolutions.  What happened in  Libya was no doubt a counter revolution.  I was appalled and sickened by what went down in Libya from the beginning when it became obvious that networks like Al Jazeera and CNN were siding with the rebels and trying to sway public opinion.  Already there were stories of how racist these rebels were raping and killing black Libyans and black migrants. There was early evidence of their brutality on YouTube.  Neither the huge demonstrations in support of the Jamahiriya (Green Libyan government) were ever shown on TV.  They could only be seen online.  

Mustafa Akyol said that he was hopeful for Tunisia out of the entire group, however.  He said absolutely nothing about Bahrain or Yemen, which I also found disappointing.  There was little said about Syria.  

I told my Turkish friends I agreed with ninety to ninety-five percentage of what he talked about, but now that I've had over a week to reflect, I would say I now feel that a lot of questions were not answered.  No doubt Mustafa Akyol is a good speaker to listen to, but I feel too many pieces to the puzzle were not interlocked.  He said that he agreed with some but not all of the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood.  I don't know whether to be alarmed by that or not since I don't know enough about that particular movement.  I am alarmed that he seems to still feel favorable towards Obama and said he likes Obama's tactic of "leading from behind" which was first heard in regards to Libya. I think "leading from behind" is just a new phrase for Dick Cheney's "going to the dark side."  I never bought into the US was only providing England and France with "moral" support."  The US had a major hand in attacking and destroying parts of Libya and disrupting the country.  I believe Gaddafi was the chief target from the beginning and that the next step was to loot the coffers of that country.   I had lost what respect I had for Obama when he refused to have people from the previous administration prosecuted for war crimes.  After Libya, what little if any respect I had was dead and gone.

There was a question and answer session after the lecture, and I was tempted to ask Mustafa Akyol "Sir, are you a neo-Ottomanist?"  I have suspicions that he might be to a slight degree.  All these governments that have dipped their hands in the so-called Arab Spring are jockeying for power, no matter all the slogans and propaganda that they hide behind. The US and EU are on their last leg of 500 years of global domination, both societies and economies are in moral and financial disarray, and they will not go quietly.  Arab states like Saudi Arabia and Qatar fear Iran and want to be powerhouses.  Iran has quietly become a regional power and the US and many Arab states don't like this.  Turkey has been told it is a model for the region in various quarters and is acting on such praise, but even Mustafa Akyol doesn't completely agree with that idea.  He confessed that all is not well with Turkey either.  

There were a number of questions in my head, but I felt a little shy about speaking out in such a large group where I didn't know most of the people.  There was a book signing afterwards of his book Islam Without Extremes,  but I didn't buy a copy.  Perhaps I will read it in the future.   I was glad I got an opportunity, however, to see this writer speak, but there is much more I need to learn.