The restoration of the colonial order in the Islamic world: enmity towards Arabs and Turks

Let us first be clear on this: xenophobia itself is an ideology foreign to Türkiye, to Turkish culture, history, faith and social fabric. The thousand-year culture and civilization of these lands bear witness to it. Setting aside every kind of bombast and romanticization of history and culture, the social and cultural diversity preserved in Türkiye for a thousand years shows that the concept most foreign to these lands is "foreignness."

After the Turks accepted Islam, just like the Arabs who accepted Islam, they were filled with a sense of gratitude toward it, and this feeling raised them higher and higher. When the Turks took the banner from the hands of the Arabs, who had grown weary in the race of i'layi kelimetullah (exalting the word of God), they continued to display in the cities they founded the religious tolerance that the Umayyad and Abbasid civilizations had displayed wherever they carried the banner.

The miracle belonged neither to the Arabs nor to the Turks. The miracle belonged to Islam itself. That God made "brothers" out of people who were enemies of one another is worth citing as the most revolutionary aspect of Islam. All strategies of power work to destroy the enemies they target and define. They base their existence on hatred of their enemies. Yet the Book of this religion planted affection toward one another in the hearts of people who were enemies, who were trying to kill and destroy one another in savage slaughter, and by God's blessing made them brothers to one another. The blessing of this brotherhood (friendship) did not touch only those who became Muslims; non-Muslims too received their share of the politics of friendship that embraced these former enemies, now brothers, and were able to go on living freely, in their religions, languages and cultures, under this political umbrella.

The Muslim's feeling, even toward non-Muslims, is not one of hatred. No hatred, no exclusion has been shown toward anyone who does not oppress or show hostility toward them. The Creator of both the Muslim and the non-Muslim is God, and God has allotted to everyone, without distinguishing between Muslim and non-Muslim, their sustenance, their right to life, their will, their freedom. Even if a Muslim knows that he is on the path of truth, he is not a stranger to the reality that God has granted people the right to be as they wish by their free will.

For a believer accustomed to seeing signs in the differences within creation, there is in any case no stranger and no strangeness.

As one moves away from the blessing of this religion that made brothers out of enemies, it becomes inevitable that brothers will become enemies of one another. Because in place of this beautiful blessing the racist mind of jahiliyya is preferred, and from that mind nothing issues but arrogance, hatred, hostility. The rancor and hatred issuing from this mind are not directed only at persons defined as foreigners; once one is mired in this swamp, there is no limit to whom it will be directed at, and it is not known where it will stop. Racism is a fall from the noblest station given to man, a straying from the finest knowledge, a heedlessness of the deepest consciousness.

The senselessness that presents Arabs as foreign to Turks is foreign to Turks. But the loud-mouthed bluster of the ignorant who try to make us familiar with this foreignness has unfortunately reached the point of doing great harm to Türkiye. Those who practice racism in the name of the Turks are, oddly enough, in cooperation with those who practice racism in the name of the Arabs, trying to make the Arabs and Turks, whom God's blessing made brothers, strangers to one another.

Long before the racist hate campaigns against Arabs recently carried out in Türkiye began, an intense campaign with the same aim was being conducted in the Arab media. This campaign tried to keep Arabs from going to Türkiye, from loving Türkiye. That campaign never stopped but it was never effective, because our Arab brothers, whose hearts are full of love for Türkiye, did not fall for this game. With the campaign we are now witnessing, those who practice racism in the name of Turkishness have joined those ignorant ones who practice racism in the name of Arabness. Together, the two are trying to make Turks and Arabs cool toward one another again, to drive them apart. This means nothing other than the restoration of the colonial imperialist project that descended upon the Ottoman lands, which began a hundred years ago.

Let us say that those who carry out racist anti-foreigner campaigns in Türkiye are a minority foreign to the Turks. In contrast, the great majority of the people of Türkiye are aware of these racist policies and never give them credit. Because racism is directed from a treacherous center, it is organized and loud. The majority, who see racism as an attitude hostile to humanity, are not organized and so make no noise. But with each passing day they are beginning to raise their voice.

The other day a solidarity action against racism was held in Fatih Saraçhane Park. In the action, in which many civil society organizations took part, Özgür-Der President Rıdvan Kaya, speaking, said that the process that began with one-party fascism expresses itself today as hostility to refugees, while "no such examples have ever existed in the history of Muslims." Kaya underlined that hostility to refugees in Türkiye is closely related to the grudge and hatred felt toward Islam, and said that the circles targeting refugees express themselves this way because they cannot openly target Muslims.

This action and the reactions of which we see more and more examples show that Türkiye will not surrender to this racist terror that a handful of scoundrels are committing against Türkiye. On this matter, President Erdoğan is saying what needs to be said in the clearest way. What he said in one of his recent speeches is this: "We absolutely cannot allow the insidious games that destroy our social fabric, from the provocations of terrorist organizations and some politicians to the poison of racism and xenophobia, to take root. We will bring down on their heads the efforts of three or five charlatans organized on social media to set our nation against one another and turn our country into a place on fire."

We have said it before, let us repeat: the hostility to Türkiye and the harm of these racist discourses targeting our Arab brothers are at the same level as those of the PKK and DAESH terrorist organizations. The measures against them should proceed from the same starting point, and the President's strong stance and discourse on this matter should turn into a policy of the same strength.