Is political correctness a cult of ignorance? Gülen’s and Obama’s Administrations
- KurdishMedia.com - By Aland mizell
- 12/05/2009 00:00:00
Is political correctness denial of the truth or is it suicidal of the culture or willful ignorance? Or does it steadily commit suicide of the culture How did Europe reach a dead end? With the hope that Islam will be reformed from the extremism of 9/11, today the American government is funding the Gülen Community, a so-called moderate Islamic organization, and in their publications, and speeches. The guise of moderate Islam is the deceptive tactic Gülen uses to spread Islam, claiming that his movement is about bringing faiths together and toleration of each other’s beliefs. If America continues to fund the Gülen Islamic sites, America will soon become another Europe. Under the political correctness regiment, religious freedom, as well as academic and political freedom, is being handicapped. Political correctness, like a disease, employs various forms of social, economic, academic and even legal pressures to ensure compliance. Also, like a pan endemic, political correctness in the American society will bring this society down. Gülen well knows the weakness of Westerners and particularly Americans, the penchant for “democracy.” He uses democratic values as an effective weapon against the West and America. In short, political correctness is denying the truth and promoting and defending an unexamined social and political ideology. Political correctness undermines free speech and clear thinking; it is a contagious disease that leads to moral and intellectual blindness and ultimately to a theocratic society. Anyone holding a contradictory position automatically is accused of Islamophobia. The aim and purpose is clearly to destroy Western cultures, replacing the traditional society with Gulen’s ideology and underpinnings but also preventing Westerners and Americans from standing against such threats.
Currently President Obama hired the first headscarfed Muslim, a woman from Egypt, to be his advisor. She is already closely connected with the Gülen community and she used to work for John Esposito, the spokesperson for the Gülen movement not only at Georgetown University but also in print and in national conferences. President Obama’s new Muslim advisor gave her first interview to Gulen’s Magazine Aksiyon. By showing the world that the White House now has an advisor who wears a headscarf, the administration is demonstrating that our nation is tolerant. However, this symbolism sends the wrong message to other secular countries like Turkey, where the headscarf is not allowed in public schools or universities, so that Turkey’s Islamic government under Erdogan will soon come back and say, “Look, even America lets the headscarf be worn in the White House. Why don’t we in Muslim nations showcase the headscarf in public?” Does Erodgan have a Christian advisor? Does the King of Saudi Arabia have a Christian advisor? Would Turkey give a Christmas party at the Presidential palace to offer goodwill to the Christian minorities? Would the Turkish Parliament or any legislature from any Muslim country allow an official to swear on the Bible instead of on the Quran? Will Turkey or other Muslim countries open any Christian or Jewish prayer chapels in their schools or airports? Or will Turkey or any other Muslim country allow Christians to build a church building? Will Turkey or any other Muslim country pass hate speech legislation for Jewish people? Many Muslims, including Turkey’s Prime Minister, still believe that Israel is a terrorist state. Multiculturalism, interfaith dialogues, and political correctness are great tools in the hand of Gülen and Muslims, and if the USA doesn’t do anything now, it will pay a dear price like the Europeans are.
If every idea is of equal value, then what is point of talking about contrasting ideas since none has more merit than another? Is multiculturalism a tool for Muslim missionaries to spread Islam, for example, as Gulen’s missionaries opened Turkish Cultural Centers, schools, etc. to teach about Islam? Political correctness and multiculturalism are dangerous forms of censorship and oppression imposed upon the free world citizenry with the ultimate goal of manipulating, brainwashing, and putting an end to the free world’s society, bringing instead an Islamic tyranny. Gülen is trying to change the American society from within. How many Christians who have converted to Islam in America are being murdered because of their new religion? How many Christians who have converted to Islam are hiding because of fear that they will be killed as apostates? Isn’t Gulen’s situation telling in that he himself is a refugee in the USA because he was accused of replacing the secular system of the Turkish government with his Islamic system of government? With obvious exceptions, don’t you think it is the nature of Western civilization to be tolerant regardless of faith, color of skin, gender etc. Why do Interfaith Dialogues happen here in the West? Shouldn’t these discussions be taking place where there is no room for tolerance? So the purposes of the missionaries are clear in Interfaith Dialogues, Rumi Forum, and Gülen conferences because they are a platform for conducting their missionaries’ activities since they use them here rather than where they are actually needed.
The problem today with Western civilization is its belief in the individual’s capacity to develop great ideas. At the root of the Gulen community is the theory that all valid ideas come from social group of the masses, that the individual is nothing except as he embraces the community’s ideas. Gulen argues that terrorism is the same as atheism in that both are murderers who would spend eternity in hell. I wonder how much the liberals in the West and in America know the true face of Gulen and his followers? Under multiculturalism all cultures and their practices are equal and without grounds for any objections to others. Does that mean that Americans or Westerners should allow Muslims to execute women for sex outside of marriage, to demand evidence from two women to count as heavily as evidence of one man in court, or to chop off the heads of those enemies captured? Under multiculturalism those are kindly endorsed because the culture allows those behaviors. If a person believes in the democratic, Western, liberal consensus with all that entails in terms of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, women’s rights, minority rights, etc, then he or she cannot also believe in a culture and a system which denies those liberties. An important rule of logic is that two contradictory positions cannot both be right.
The way to destroy the Western civilization is to undermine its foundation by taking away the rights of those individuals who have contrasting ideas. Spreading the idea of political correctness disseminates the notion that vocalizing beliefs, particularly about stigmatized groups, is disrespectful to others and must be avoided to make up for past injustice. Mr. Gülen is not what he says he is. Instead, he is a dangerous man with an ideology and a global monopoly of power. If his influence is not contained now, in the future it will be very hard to stop him. Many academicians, some politicians, and a number of journalists embrace Gülen and cheer his stated vision of an Islam valuing tolerance and a pro-Western outlook. His followers describe him as a reformer. Some argue he is a twenty-first century Rumi; others call him Mehdi or Messiah. Some of the universities even honor him as a peacemaking hero alongside Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, and the Dalai Lama, but again Said Kurdi is missing from the list. Gülen has taken over Turkey, controlling real estate, banks, NGOs, news media, schools, universities, the police, and now the military as well as the Turkish secret intelligence MIT and, of course, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). Still people believe Gülen, but is he really telling the truth? That is how Gülen came to power without telling his true nature and his goals.
Gülen says he believes that religion is best kept to the individual rather than to the state’s sphere and that he advocates separation of church and state, but he does not equatem, for instance, a state’s secularism in its lack of belief in God with a legitimate political system. Islam is the state. According to Bernard Lewis, “During the first formative centuries of existence, Christianity was separated from and indeed antagonistic to the state, with which it only later become involved. From the lifetime of its founder, Islam was the state, and the identity of religion and government is indelibly stamped on the memories and awareness of the faithful from their own scared writings, history, and experience“ (Islam and the West, 1993). Islam sees the world holistically with a unity of law, society, and all aspects of life itself. In this view there can be no such thing as separation.
The pillars of political correctness and multiculturalism are the willful ignorance and steadfast refusal to face the truth. Political correctness does not legislate tolerance; it only organizes hatred. Author Bodie Thoene once said,” Apathy is the glove into which evil slips its hand.” When the apathy of citizens combines with the self interests and agendas of elected officials, the security of that nation and the well being of its people are in grave danger. When Former President Bill Clinton openly praises Gülen for his contribution to society and to America, it is a clear indication that Gülen has already secretly infiltrated American higher bureaucracies and by other evidence, the CIA, NSA, FBI among others. Some of the tactics Gulen‘s Muslim missionaries use to Islamize Americans are to (1) terminate America’s freedom of speech and replace it with the hate crime bills, (2) wage war as a war of words online, in the media, at universities, through NGOs --all orchestrated to promote Islam, for example the Zaman Daily News and Ebru Television, (3) engage the American public in ecumenical dialogues, discussions, debates, and conversations among universities’ colleagues to teach Islam, (4) use radio, television, churches, and mosques to claim that, like other religions, Islam is a monotheistic faith. Other examples include Interfaith Dialogues Institutes, Gülen Institutes, Raindrop Turkish Culture Centers, Rumi Forum, Turkish Culture Centers, Boniuk Center for the Study and Advancement, and the Niagara Foundation, etc.
(5) nominate Muslim sympathizers to political offices for favorable legislation for Islam or blocking vote and forming a strong lobby; (6) take control of Hollywood, the press, TV, media, and internet;) buy corporation-controlling stocks to have economic independence, (8)penetrate the White House by placing Muslims there, particularly those who will represent Islam as a religion of peace and articulate its ideas well, for example Obama’s new Muslim advisor, Dalla Mogahed, a veiled Egyptian American, (9)accelerate Islamic demographic growth, through immigration, marrying American citizens and converting them to Islam, as well as targeting angry minorities, such as African Americans, immigrants from southeast Asia and Africa, in addition to Latino groups. Today there are thousands of graduate students coming from Turkey to study in the USA who get scholarships at the top ten universities as well as continue to do their Islamic missionary activities and disseminate Islam and Gulen’s theology. In education the organization uses the methods of (10) reading, writing, and research on Islam in the American education system; charter schools; and preschool preparation. Gülen even managed to have a day declared Turkish Day and also performed the Ottoman mehter march, the march played when the Ottomans conducted war. They (11) open Islamic centers in the university to promote Islam, such as at Colombia University, Georgetown University, Rice, Jill Carol, etc. The Gülen community opens these NGOs and schools using American taxpayers to support their ideas. They insist that especially freshman students take a course in Islam, making sure the professor is an American scholar, like John Esposito.
Political correctness causes people to lie silently instead of saying what they think is true. People are being brainwashed under the platforms of interfaith dialogues, tolerance, multiculturalism, or political correctness. If a dissenter doesn’t agree with what they believe, then they call him intolerant. For example, if a person does not belong to Gulen’s community in Turkey, they will call him an not true muslim and consider that since he is not one of them, he must not be trustworthy, and the person will be condemned to hell. For example, Nurettin Veren was one of the Gulen’s closest friends and the first one who started this movement with him; he worked with Gülen for more than three decades. Later he disagreed with some of Gulen’s ideas. Gülen excommunicated him, and even at some point he lost his family and children because he objected to Gulen’s notions. No one can challenge Gülen because he teaches his followers that when he speaks, it is absolute truth; no one can object to him even if he is wrong. If one of his community objects to Gülen, it means he is committing a big sin. All of Gulen’s community called Nurettin Veren a betrayer because he disagreed with Gülen. No one can object to Gulen’s view, so that everyone thinks that whatever he says is 100% correct and that he speaks no fallacies, so what kind of tolerance is this? If a leader does not tolerate any different opinions, then like Gulen’s use of political correctness, it is tyranny with a happy face. In the conferences being held by Gulen’s cult organization, none of them disagree with his ideas nor oppose them. Why can’t they invite reaction papers to be presented as well, like Nurettin Veren’s? A former President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, once said, “There can be no fifty – fifty Americanism in this country. There is room here only 100% Americanism, only for those who are Americans and nothing else.” Can a leader in the twenty-first century position himself as being 100% sure in all areas?
The President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, stated, “Multiculturalism is a tragic mistake of the current Westerns civilization for which we all pay dearly. A good example would be the UK, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and Canada, and now the USA. If there is one ideology and one monopoly of power, wouldn’t it be dangerous and wouldn’t it lead to despotism?” Borrowing from Malcolm X’s analogy, multiculturalism is when you have some coffee that’s too black and thus too strong, what do you do? You integrate it with so much cream in it that you won’t even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot; it becomes cool. It used to be strong; it becomes weak. It used to wake you up; now it puts you to sleep. That’s how Gulen’s Muslim missionaries operate in the West and in America. Is he working to gain power by slowly putting the world to sleep and thereby getting power, so that they will not notice? Like he utilized in Turkey, political correctness is causing government actions to have a detrimental impact on American security and on its freedom of speech. The goal of Gülen and his followers is to have all people of the world under Islamic theocracy. Many in the West and in the USA still believe, whether naïve or rigid followers of multiculturalism, that Gülen is moderate, tolerant, and peaceful and that his religion has been hijacked by extremists. Those people who ignore the growing movement should read Nurettin Veren’s book about Gulen’s intolerance and how they tried to kill him when he attempted to visit Gülen in the USA. Today many Westerners and Americans are too politically correct to see the movement’s danger or to raise their voice or stand against the extinction of their culture, heritage, and democratic values. Let’s wait five or ten years to see the real power of Gülen’s missionaries in America.
Aland Mizell, a regular KurdishMedia.com writer and with Minority Care International. Can be reached via email aland_mizell1@hotmail.com
- KurdishMedia.com - By Aland mizell
- 12/05/2009 00:00:00