muslim turkish attitudes towards zionism & israel

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Muslim Turkish Attitudes towards Jews, Zionism and IsraelAuthor(s): Jacob M. LandauSource: Die Welt des Islams, New Series, Bd. 28, Nr. 1/4 (1988), pp. 291-300Published by: BRILLStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1571179Accessed: 11-03-2015 04:42 UTC

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2/11

Die Weltdes Islams

XXVIII

(1988)

MUSLIM TURKISH ATTITUDES TOWARDS JEWS,

ZIONISM AND

ISRAEL

BY

JACOB

M.

LANDAU

Jerusalem

Introduction

In

this brief

paper,

I

discuss

neither the

history

nor

the essence

of fundamentalist Islam in

Turkey.

Rather,

I

prefer

to

consider,

in

a

preliminary

manner,

one

aspect

of

that

Islamic

fundamentalism

whose overall

significance

has increased so

strikingly

in

the

Republic of Turkey. From the perspective of a student of political

science,

one

cannot

avoid

being

impressed by

the

successful

adap-

tability

of

Islamic movements

to

changing

political

conditions

in

Turkey.

Driven

underground by

the

Kemalists'

commitment to

the

secularization of state and

society

in the

Republic's

first

generation,

spokesmen

for

Islam

have

emerged

as

an

important

political

force

in its

second

generation.

Their

entry

into

the

political

arena

culminated during the 1970s with their joining and exploiting the

secularists'

rules-of-the-game-chiefly

by establishing

the National

Salvation

Party.

Using

political

elections and

parliamentary

maneuvering

to its own

advantage,

it

became

the

country's

third

largest political

force

and

participated

in

Cabinet Coalitions

from

1974

to

1977.

Although

this

party

was

disbanded

by

the

military

in-

tervention of

September

1980,

its

supporters

are now

finding

new

ways

to

maintain their influence in

Turkish

politics.

Of

particular

interest is the "villain

image"

which Islamic circles

have

ascribed to their

opponents.

This

issue

has

apparently

re-

ceived insufficient

attention in

investigations

of fundamentalist

Islamic

ideology

in

Turkey

and

perhaps

in

certain

other

states

as

well. This

omission

is

strange,

as the

"villains"

may frequently

be

more

interesting

than

their accusers. In

other

words,

I

will consider


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3/11

JACOB

M. LANDAU

briefly

what the credo

of those Islamic

leaders involved

in

Turkish

politics

is

against,

rather

thanfor.

In our

particular

Turkish

case,

I

believe that these exponents of Islam have a special problem. While

in

such states

as Saudi

Arabia or

Iran,

for

example,

there are no

limitations

on

fulminating against

secularism and its

evils,

in

Turkish

law this could

lead to-and has

in

practice

led to-

prosecution

and

severe

penalties

for

introducing religious

prop-

aganda

into

politics.

Evidently,

this

propaganda

has

attacked

violently

the

ideologies

and

way

of

life of

both

Western

democracies

and Communist states. However, it has found only limited appeal

among

the uneducated

masses,

towards whom much of this

prop-

aganda

was directed.

For these

masses,

foreign

ideologies

are

not

always easy

to

evaluate,

although

the

foreign

way

of life

may

often

seem attractive to

them.

Consequently,

a sizable share of the

propaganda

of

Islamic

leaders

involved

in Turkish

politics

has been directed towards

a

more

complete

villain

image,

in which local elements were com-

bined with the above

foreign

ones. The villains included

freemasons,

Christian

missionaries and

Jews-all

of whom have

in-

ternational

connections

which this

propaganda

deems noxious to

both Islamic and

Turkish interests.

In

the

Jewish

case examined

in

this

paper,

such

propaganda

was

hampered by

the

relative

scarcity

of antisemitism

in

both Government

policy

and

popular opinion

in

the

Republic

of

Turkey.

However,

by bolstering

their

anti-Jewish

propaganda with frequent quotations from the Koran and Hadlth,

and

by incorporating

into it

anti-Zionist and anti-Israel

invective,

the Turkish Islamists

have turned

it into a cardinal

part

of their

ideology

and

have been

fostering

a villain

image

which

appeared

to

increase their

popular

support.

Several

examples illustrating

this

trend will be considered

below.

Muslim Politics in Turkey

Insofar

as

can

be

ascertained,

Muslim

circles

were

generally

cautious

in

their

public

pronouncements

during

the

first

generation

of the

Republic.

In the

newly

founded secular

state,

Islam was

disestablished

and deinstitutionalized.

In

Turkey's

urban

areas,

at

least,

erstwhile leaders

of

Islam were

virtually

forced to the

292




4/11


5/11


6/11

MUSLIM

TURKISH ATTITUDES

newly-proclaimed

liberalization

policies limiting censorship

on

publications.

In

1961,

the

former

authored

Siyonizmin

gayeleri9

The

Aims of Zionism). Intended to warn the entire world of the 'Jewish

danger',

this is

mostly

a collection of

so-called documents-

compiled

from the

Bible,

Talmud

and the

press-about

'what

Zionism

really

is';

the

alleged suffering

of

Muslims

in Israel

is

highlighted.

In

1963,

the latter

wrote Tevrat'a

gore

Siyonizm'in

ana

prensipleri

ve

protokollar'0(The

Basic

Principles

and Protocols of

Zionism

According

to

the

Bible),

which

he

enlarged

somewhat

in

a

second

book, published

five

years

later and entitled

Tarih

boyunca

inkildplar-ihtildller

ve Tevrat'a

gore

Siyonizmin

ana

prensipleri,gayeleri,

protokollar"

Revolts

and

Revolutions

Throughout History,

and the

Basic

Principles,

Aims and

Protocols

of

Zionism

According

to

the

Bible).

Both volumes

present

the

Jews

as the

source

of all

trouble

in

the world-and

particularly

in

Turkey-throughout

the

ages;

they

end with a Turkish translation of the

spurious

'Protocols

of the

Elders

of

Zion'.

Turkey had several centers of Islamic-inspired propaganda, of

which the most esteemed

one

was

most

probably

the

Faculty

of

Theology,

the

Ilahiyat

Fakiiltesi,

at Ankara

University,

set

up

in

the late 1940s. Its

professors

and lecturers

attempted

to

provide

a

scholarly

aura to their

research

on Islam and its dissemination to

both the academic

world

and the

general public.

Two have

pub-

lished several works

relating

to

Jews.

Both had

studied

the

rudiments of modern Hebrew at

a

Jerusalem ulpan, on an Israeli

government grant,

in

1962,

returning

to teach at their

Faculty

on

the

assumption

that

they

had

become

experts

in

Hebrew-a

language

not

commonly

known

in

Turkish

academic circles.

The

younger

of the

two,

Yasar

Kutluay,

later became a

dofent

at

the

Faculty,

and

died

young through

accidental

drowning.

His

first

book,

published

in

1965,

was entitled Islam ve Yahudi

mezhepleri12

(The

Islamic and

Jewish Religions,

or the Islamic and

Jewish

Doc-

trines).

This was a somewhat

pedestrian

treatment of the

subject,

aiming

to

demonstrate

the

superiority

of Islam and the 'fact' that

9

Ankara,

Hilal

Yaylnlarl,

1961.

10

Istanbul,

Bilgi Yaylnevi,

1963.

"

Istanbul,

Ugdal

Nesriyat,

1968.

12

Ankara,

A. U.

Ilahiyat

Fakiiltesi

Yaylnlarl,

1965.

295




7/11

JACOB

M.

LANDAU

Islam has borrowed from

Judaism

much

less than is

commonly

thought.

His second

work,

published

two

years

later,

was entitled

Siyonizm ve Tirkiye13(Zionism and Turkey). Its title notwithstan-

ding,

the

bulk of this

volume,

no less than

264

out of its

296

pages,

consists

of a translation into Turkish

of selections

from Herzl's

Tagebucher-not

all of

which

relate

to the

Ottoman

Empire.

The

rest

is a

superficial

enumeration of

events,

without

any attempt

at

analysis.

Thus,

one

is

told that the

'Palestine War'

started follow-

ing

the November

29,

1947

decision

of the

United

Nations'

General Assembly to establish aJewish state-without any mention

of the fact that the

Jews

accepted

this decision

and the Arabs did

not. The book also states that the

Arab armies

'inexplicably

retreated

in

1948,

after

approaching

Tel-Aviv',

conveniently

forgetting

that these

armies were beaten back

by

Israel.

Never-

theless,

Kutluay's

works,

although demonstrating

some

bias,

are

not

pervaded by

animus towards

Judaism

or

Israel.

This is not true

of

Kutluay's

senior

colleague,

Hikmet

Tanyu,

who lived to become a

professor

at the

Faculty

of

Theology

and

wrote

a two-volume work entitled Tarih

boyunca

Yahudiler e

Tiirkler'4

(Jews

and

Turks

Throughout History).

The size

of

this

huge

book

(its

first

1976-1977 edition

comprises

1348

pages;

a

second,

enlarg-

ed

edition

came out

in

1979)

is

perhaps

its

only

merit,

if

any.

The

entire work

serves

as a constant reminder

of

the correctness

of Alex-

ander

Pope's

dictum that

'a

little

knowledge

is a

dangerous thing'.

This does not apply merely to Tanyu's familiarity with Hebrew,

avowedly

a

difficult

language;

a

rudimentary

knowledge

of current

conversational

Hebrew

is,

alas,

hardly

adequate

for

reading

modern

literary

Hebrew,

afortiori

biblical

and other classical texts.

Unfortunately

for the end

product,

however,

Tanyu's

knowledge

of

Jewish

material,

as

well as his

understanding

thereof,

is

also

fre-

quently incomplete

and erroneous.

It

would

be

tedious

to list all

the author's

errors,

starting

in

the

first

chapter

with the statement that

Judah

was

Jacob's

eldest son

(sic )

and

ending

with the assertion

that the

total number of

Jews

in

today's

world is

twenty

million ... More

relevant to our discus-

sion are

Tanyu's

oft-repeated

theses:

The whole course of

Jewish

history

centers on

Jewish

efforts to rule the world

and,

in

the

pro-

cess,

regain sovereignty

over

Palestine;

the

Jewish

'plot'

was

296




8/11

MUSLIM

TURKISH

ATTITUDES

directed

at

undermining

other

religions, especially

Islam,

and at

unsettling

political

entities,

which

stood

in the

way

of their

grand

design, such as the Ottoman

Empire.

Within this

general

theory,

the

author

'explains'

the activities of Karl

Marx,

Freud,

Darwin

(sic )

and

others,

as well

as

Jewish 'cooperation'

with

Freemasonry,

Bahaism

and International

Communism,

all

allegedly

orchestrated

by

a

Jewish

leadership.

Since

Jewish

names

appeared among

members

of

Communist

groups

in

Turkey

and

abroad,

masonic

lodges

and such

organizations

as

The Lions or international

business firms, the 'proofs' were there. It was less easy to demon-

strate the links

of

World

Jewry

with Bahaism

or

Jehova's

Witnesses,

but this did not

prevent

Tanyu

from

trying

to

do so.

Zionism is

presented,

of

course,

as the

contemporary

version of

the

Jewish plot,

with the

State

of Israel

as

its base-and the

United

Nations' infamous

decision on racism

quoted

as

one instance

(Zionism

is

compared

with

Nazism)

and Israel's

Palestinian

policies

as

another. Needless

to

say,

Tanyu's sympathies

are all on

the Arab side, to no small extent because of common

religious

beliefs.

Islamic

premises,

no

less than

frankly

chauvinistic

ones,

in-

deed,

condition

the

author's

value

judgments.

Not

co-incidentally,

his

concluding

paragraph

calls for

a

'Turkish Islamic

synthesis'

for

contemporary Turkey.

Some of these

arguments

have

previously appeared

in

the works

of

Ozcan,

Uygur,

Kutluay

and

othrs.

Although hardly original

and

based on a variety of at least partly dubious sources, Tanyu's work

provides

a

Turkish Islamist

attempt

at

systematizing

anti-Jewish,


arguments

and

combining

them in an

overall

theory

of an

international

plot.

Unbased and

ridiculous as

this

theory

is to

any

unbiased,

objective

researcher,

it

has

served

as

a

working

hypothesis,

to

be

exploited

by

organized,

political

Islamists in

Turkey

of

the 1970s.

We

consider

the

pronouncements

of

spokesmen

and

organs

connected

with

the

Party

for

National

Order and

especially

with its

successor,

the National Salvation

Party.

13

Konya,

Selenk

Yaylnlar,

1967.

14

Istanbul,

Yagmur

Yayinevi,

1976-1977.

297




9/11


10/11


11/11

JACOB

M. LANDAU

Conclusion

While it is

difficult

to sum

up processes

which

appear

to

be still

in full

swing,

some tentative

conclusions

may

be

attempted

nonetheless.

Active

propaganda

and

political

moves

against Jews,

Zionism

and

Israel remain

marginal

in

the

Republic

of

Turkey

and

have

not

been institutionalized

either

among

the

top

decision-

makers

or the state

bureaucracy.

In a

country

which has been tradi-

tionally

hospitable

and tolerant

(with

few

exceptions),

the

press

ac-

curately

reflected

an

increasingly

politicized

society.

Indeed,

right-

of-center, openly chauvinist groups have consistently attacked

foreign

elements

in

Turkey-which

has made

Jews

and

Zionism

an

obvious

target.

Radical

left-of-centre,

Marxist

groups

have

joined

the chorus

of

anti-Zionist,

anti-Israel accusations.

However,

it is

the

Islamists who have

been the most

extreme. Nurtured

by

early

Islam's animus towards

Judaism,

Islamist

exponents,

more

than

others

in

Turkey, integrate

their

invective

against Jews,

Zionism

and Israel. Their

arguments

have

been

taken

up

first

by

free-lance

spokesmen;

then

by

would-be-scholars

who

attempted

to

bolster

their conclusions

by

using

spurious

source

materials;

lastly by

organized

groups

with a marked

Islamist

character,

which

employ

anti-Jewish,


slogans

and

arguments

in

their

political

speeches

and

press

as a means

of

promoting

their

own

brand

of

propaganda.

In

so

doing,

Islamist bias in

Turkey

is

increasingly

directed

against Jews,

Zionism

and

Israel,

simultaneously-in general without attempting to distinguish be-

tween

the three

targets.

This

combination has

proved particularly

effective,

propaganda-wise,

from the

Islamists'

point

of view. It

has

exploited

the

general

atmosphere

in a state and

society

whose

political

leadership

initiated

a

cooling-off

of relations with

Israel,

in

the last

few

years;

conversely,

Islamist

propaganda

has

encouraged

this

cooling-off

and contributed

to it

in no little

degree,

by

suc-

cessfully shaping a villain image in which the Jews, Zionism and

Israel

were essential

components.

300

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