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Moderate MoslemsReader comment on item: A Million Moderate Muslims on the March Submitted by guy leven-torres (Agricola) (United Kingdom), May 24, 2007 at 05:12 Saddam was moderate in Islamic terms! Saudi Arabia is moderate in Islamic terms! Syria is moderate in Islamic terms! Perhaps the question should be what end of the spectrum of Islamic moderation do all these regimes exist at? The Russian invasion of Afghanistan was a 'progressive' step since it freed women from the religious fanatics for a while! The result of the NATO invasion has pushed the Taliban back but it still exists, treating women like rodents! So what is moderate in Islam then? women burning themselves to death to escape rotten husbands they are forced to marry? The destruction of art and archaeology. Is that moderate Islam? Turkey is schizophrenic; she cannot make up her mind. She is a police state while she pretends not to be, she persecutes Christians in order to whip up nationalist feeling. She wants to join the EU, or at least the AKP Party in Parliament does, because it means that jilbabs and the veil will be allowed under EU law. Ironic isn't it that the Islamists want to join while the nationalists feel the EU is playing games? As I said before, we need Turkey on side as a foil to Iran and the other fruitcakes in the region like Iran and Syria. If Turkey leaves NATO the eastern Mediterranean will become a 'no go area' for the West. Turkey has always been the key to the Eastern Question since Persia invaded Greece in 490BC and was defeated by Athens at the Battle of Marathon. So vital to Persian interests was Asia Minor and Greece, because she wanted her as a client buffer state to prevent barbarian tribes infiltrating her empire, she invaded again in 480BC when Leonidas died with his 300 Spartans and a few hundred others at Thermopylae. Real Politik recognises inconvenient facts like the above. Today Turkey is a vital piece in the grand strategic jigsaw in the region. She is a US client state keping her eyes on a Russia seeking a warm water port. Her position on the Bosphorous is vital to prevent or monitor Russian attempts to pursue such policies. This has always been the Russian way since the days of the Tsars, when she tried to infiltrate the British Raj stretching rom Egypt to the Far East across India, or Hindustan if the purists would like us to call it. New Rome or Constantinople was founded by the late Romans on the Bosphorous for the very same reasons that it was a vital strategic key to control of the East! Britain annexed Cyprus as an important jigsaw in the regional grand strategy. That is why today Britain maintains a colonial presence within the Sovereign base areas. Turkey is vital to ours and the interests of NATO. With the rise of Iran with nuclear weapons (that she already has by the way but not the delivery systems), Cyprus and Turkey must be kept on side! The whole of the Fertile Crescent is so vital to western interests as the source of oil but more importantly because it is the bridging point between East and West. It is vital for trade, and excahange of ideas. It was through herein that metallurgy and writing came from India. This was why persia wanted Asia Minor as did the Romans, who incidentially combined Cyprus and Asia Minor into one province for exactly the reasons described above! In 1956 general Greevas of Eoka was funded by the Russians and the Moslem Brotherhood to kick the British out of Cyprus, in order to deprive NATO of an important part of its key stategy in the area. My own father an RAF officer designed and built the listening devices placed on Mount Olympus to 'listen in' on Russian radio traffic and missile launches. We were their during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis when we were informed that Cyprus was a key nuclear target. I even remember doing nuclear attacck preparation drills at school. Today Cyprus and Turkey continue to play the same role as they did in the past. Cyprus and Turkey are also the bases, from which any strike will be made by NATO against any attempt to destroy Israel by the Moslems surrounding her! Israeli aircraft have often used US bases in Trkey to attack her Moslem neighbours from an area they do not expect to be, namely the North. So there we have it, at least in my humble opinion. Any Moslem is moderate as long as it serves our strategic interests! Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments". << Previous Comment Next Comment >> Reader comments (336) on this item
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