The "Jihad" against the entente

Submitted by Gerard (United States), Jun 29, 2012 at 10:56

"And it was also a British that wrote the death fatwa against Kemal in 1919 and not the caliph and his sheikh ul-Islam?"

Can it not be argued that the sheikh ul-Islam was as equally traitorous as the caliph, placing their own interests over the interests of the general population?

"Third, Turkey lost a war which it had started by bombing Russian Black Sea ports and by declaring jihad on the Entente."

The declaration was a political move, intended to inspire Muslims in India to rise up against the British and to discourage the Arabs from siding with the British. T.E. Lawrence noted the failure of this declaration as it was repudiated by the Arabs because the jihad had been declared with an infidel Christian nation (Germany) has an ally. Members of the young turks (not all of them muslims), while being disdainful of Islam, had no qualms leveraging it in order to attack their enemies. In fact, the Young Turk propagandists tried to portray the German Kaiser as being descended from Muhammed and having gone on pilgrimmage to Mecca (I cite Aaron Aaronsohns "With the Turks in Palestine").

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