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.

Bring in the Parrots: Language Predictability and Other Insanity

The average person is pretty unimaginative.  The average is just that...Average.  Everyone does about the same thing when it's all average.  Everyone waits to copy the next boring or vulgar idea when it's all average.  Everyone says about the same thing, uses the same words when it's all average.  We live in a very average society that's falling even lower where mediocrity and evil are concerned. Not being able to communicate very well and listening to feel good messages with no depth are all very much part of the now in America.  

I'm thinking about overused words and phrases that a lot of people use.  Language can have so much beauty and depths of meaning even in a very utilitarian language like English.  No, English is not Mandarin Chinese, Arabic or Persian, but we could do much better than we do in our use of it. We could stop the linguistic laziness we've fallen over into and try to arrange our words creatively and with more thought. 

When I was younger, black people were sometimes criticized regularly for using bad English. Then when I was in graduate school, a new term came out called "Ebonics" which gave a name for black slang and BAD English.  One thing black people did manage to do and never got any credit for was make English in this country a little more colorful and complicated.  Racism and being in a kind of a isolation from the majority group, led many blacks to rebel and not want to "talk like white folks".  Black people did their own thing with English by making it colorful, raw, poetic, humorous, even deliberately changing the spelling.  Some of us even would get angry with other minorities who decided to assimilate and use terminology and voice intonation that imitated white people.  

Still I just drifted over into the race and language issue before it knew it. Really this is about words and phrases that really get on my nerves because they are over used, and when I hear people my age who are middle aged or older using them I think they must be going through a mid life crisis.  Fewer and fewer people want to grow up in America anymore, so woe to the children.  I see it everyday too when I'm not living the life of a part time hermit.

These are the overused words and phrases I keep hearing and reading, and that I despise with untold passion.

*kicking the can down the road--- A favorite with our mainstream "journalists", economic "experts," and our politicians (the respectable mafioso).  When I hear them say it I get visions of a Norman Rockwell painting the subject a little redheaded boy in overalls, barefoot, kicking a can down a dirt road that runs between two farms.  Maybe the phrase is coded. The "journalists", economic "experts", and mafioso politicians want us to be unaware and asleep to the present.  If we are naive and innocent like that little redheaded boy and believe in fairytales and wait with our bowls held out for their feel good messages not based on reality, we're more easy to handle.  

*at the end of the day--- Another favorite with the trio mentioned just above.  Maybe they think by using this near the end of their comments, they sound rhetorical or dramatic. They do kind of lean back in their chairs, if they are sitting, and nearly sigh, "at the end of the day," so languidly.  Ahhh, the actors.

*the 1% and the 99%--- These two overused statistics appeared with the Occupy Wall Street Movement which was inspired by the so-called Arab Spring or as some call it The Islamic Awakening.  We Americans don't put much thought into what we do or who we follow.  We just jump in like adolescents emotional and sentimental sans research and follow the titanic down the drain.  Yes, I'll admit that I believed in the "revolution" when it started in Egypt.  Being who I am, I haven't had a totally cushy existence that I can identify with an oppressor, but I noted the warnings from unconventional sources rather early, so now that Egypt is ruled by a junta and some say the Muslim Brother is bad news, Libya ruled by atrocity and mayhem, and some say it ain't all that terrific in Tunisia, along with the other horror shows that are playing out in the Middle East moving down from North Africa south, east, and west into sub-Sahara Africa, the thrill is totally gone.  Besides being driven by sinister elements and entities and the pitifully gullible and young, I just see it as a tragic farce, I mean fad. How do the Occupy Wall Street crowd know the rich comprise 1% for sure.  They could be .1%.  Sorry bro, but I like facts myself.  Can they prove to me we are the 99% or the 99.5%.  See what I mean?  People just jump on a bandwagon and roll.  If they had really been smart, they would have never modeled their "revolution" after the "Arab Spring".  But what do I know?

 *awesome; amazing--- I can kinda accept a teenager or someone in their 20s using these two even if it is a little grinding to hear and read over and over. I've even thrown out hints on my Facebook page to find a synonym for these words.  I'm an English teacher by profession.  I've taught in three countries and on four continents.  I come from a poetic background that goes back to reading nursery rhymes when I was a little girl to Shakespeare in high school and majoring in English literature.  I don't like to see the language trashed and brought down to the minimal.  I became even more radical about my beliefs on language being used well and expressively and not repetitiously when I began reading Sufi poetry.  

We've lost the art of conversation and debate in this culture. We just hop up with some little slogan or platitude too frequently for my tastes.  In some ways social media like Facebook cause us to communicate less and express ourselves less.  I try to use Facebook as an educational tool, and what I post is controversial at times, but I am just a fanatic about putting information out there for people to use and to contemplate.  I want people to think critically, so they can truly be free.  I don't know where "awesome" and "amazing" came from.  I suspect a movie or TV show, but it is overused.  When I hear people my age and those in their 60s using it over and over I cringe because hearing it repeatedly ain't cool.  It's past time to stop running with the crowd like you did when you were in grade school and college, and talk like an adult.  

My message in the end is to be yourself even where language is involved.  Be an individual with your own gifts that God gave you.  Stop being bland and a carbon copy.