Islamic Democracy=One man, one vote, one time?

Submitted by Facts not Fantasy (Canada), May 6, 2008 at 21:14

Islamic democracy? Surely you are jesting! And what is Islamic Turkish Democracy…democracy for traditionalist ethnic Turks, but no else? Right! Let us look at the basic Islamic theory of information. The principle of "Fitnah" is that of punishing heretical "wrong" thoughts that are unacceptable to Mohammed and Allah. It could be merely any thought which, though true, is inconvenient to Islam, bad for PR and thus needs to be suppressed ASAP, so that Islam may get on with world domination.

Ideally, such "wrong" thoughts should be punished by death, thus ridding the world of Fitnah. (A good example would be talking about the Armenian genocide.) Moslems are the thought police of the world. And Turkey is the home of the allegedly racially superior Turkish race who by means of their noble warrior spirit (genetically imprinted, no doubt, within every Turk through divine providence) has exemplified the pure Islamic ideal for over 1,000 years.

It is this "Turkish national trait" that must be protected by law (Article 301 of the Penal Code). This is the sentiment behind the words of Turkish Ambassador Namik Tan: "We hold dear freedom of expression so long as it stays within decent boundaries of criticism." "Indecent" apparently means anything that contradicts Turkish genetic racial-religious superiority. Laughable, if they weren't serious!

Denying Turkish superiority is not only hard on their pride, it is tanamount to the religious crime of "Fitnah". Let me interpret Ambassador Tan, if I may: "We like freedom of expression so long as we agree with the sentiment."…That is: we support freedom of expression for MY GROUP ONLY, freedom of expression for traditionalist, racially-pure Turks. I hasten to quote Noam Chomsky: "Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you're in favor of free speech, then you're in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise. Otherwise, you're not in favor of free speech."

Oliver Wendell Holmes said: "The principle of free thought is not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought we hate." Justice Robert H. Jackson expressed it best for me: "The price of freedom of religion, or of speech, or of the press, is that we must put up with a good deal of rubbish." Turkey's infamous Article 301 was recently changed to say one may not insult the TURKISH NATION (or institutions) but one MAY NOW insult "TURKISHNESS" (whatever that is…)

But seriously, weren't they simply saying Turks were the Islamic version of the master race? So, intellectuals, don't say the Turkish police was overly rough, the military made mistakes or the legal system needs reform. You could end up in jail. You can't criticize the "Turkish Nation" that runs those things. By the way, the punishment is worse, when you say nasty things about the "Turkish nation" outside the country!

Listen up, Turks. No one shares your thoughts about your racial superiority, so join the rest of the world. I'm not holding my breath, though. The Turkish PM still believes Turkey has a divine mission to take over the world. The first step needs to be convincing everyone of your superiority. Then we'll all beg you to take over, no doubt. I'll believe in "Islamic" democracy when cabinet ministers, judges and military leaders in Turkey and other Moslem states are members of other groups, i.e. Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, etc. just like we do it in civilized countries. There is no "religious brand" of democracy…only democracy. (I am not irreligious, by the way.) A political party may have certain religious principles, but as with freedom, either you have democracy or you don't.

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