God's War on Terror: Islam, Prophecy and the Bible

by Walid Shoebat

  And when 15 British sailors were taken captive and held hostage by Iran in March of 2007, who was there offering mediation? You guessed it again. It was Turkey. “Turkey’s bid to mediate in the escalating crisis between its eastern neighbor Iran and NATO ally Britain reflects [Turkey’s] ambitions to act as a bridge between East and West, analysts said on Friday. ‘As a country that has the confidence of both (Britain and Iran), Turkey is trying to ease the crisis,’ said Arzu Celalifer, a researcher at the Ankara-based think-tank USAK.”8

  But for the purpose of our study, this next story is simply amazing. In February of 2007, Muslims all over the world openly expressed their outrage, claiming that Israel was violating or sabotaging the Temple Mount through its excavation work at the Mughrabi Gate. Who was called in to mediate the crisis and inspect the site? After a series of meetings in Turkey that month, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to let a Turkish delegation inspect the excavation site.

  “Olmert had shown [Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan] photographs of the construction work near the Temple Mount during the Prime Minister’s two-day trip to Turkey. However, the Turkish Prime Minister said Olmert had failed to convince him that the work would not harm the holy sites there… Olmert said that anyone who wanted to come look at the work taking place at the site was invited to do so, and that Israel had “nothing to hide.” The issue has attracted a great deal of attention in Moslem Turkey, and before Olmert’s visit Erdogan warned Israel not to increase tension over excavations at the site, saying it would lead to an uproar in the Islamic world.”9

  Think about this: in order for Israelis to do any archeological work around the Temple Mount, the ancient home of its own holy Temple, in its own country, they had to go through Turkey for permission. Truly, Turkey’s political efforts to establish itself in the region as the premiere mediator nation have worked very well.

  On a more global scale, when the situation in Iraq began to look as if it might not be stabilized by the United States, where did the experts turn? According to Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis, an expert on the Middle East, writing for the American Chronicle, Turkey is “America’s only honorable exit from Iraq.” According to Megalommatis, “Only Turkey can avert an Islamic Terror Volcano Explosion in Iraq… Turkey can prevent the Iranian rise in power, and… impose Order and Democracy in Iraq… Turkey can help establish Order, Freedom, Democracy, and Justice in Iraq… [with] its centuries old know how, with its Ottoman experience, self-criticism and correct perception of the Wahhabi danger for the entire Mankind, with its Kemalist version of Secular Democracy for Muslims, with millions of Circassians, Turkmens, Turks and Azeris in Iraq and Iran as its natural allies.”10

  Perhaps Megalommatis is correct; perhaps in the end, it will be Turkey that will help the United States exit Iraq and restore order in the region. But the price will be heavy. Turkey will gain a foothold as a regional superpower and will increase its demand to acquire nuclear weapons. Every time the West depended on a Muslim country to neutralize another, the neutralizing country ended up becoming a ravishing beast. Afghanistan and Iraq are excellent examples. Ridding the world of Communist Russia by aiding Afghanistan ended up creating the Taliban. Aiding Iraq to neutralize Iran ended up with a war in Iraq the West still has to deal with.

  Recep Tayyip Erdogan

  Nov. 12, 2007

  Looking to Mideast, not West, Turkey plays role of mediator

  Israeli President Shimon Peres meets with Turkish Prime Minister

  By Yigal Schleifer

  Ankara, Turkey (JTA)—Lately, the diplomatic traffic in the Middle East seems to have found a new avenue: the Turkish capital. On Monday, both the Israeli and Palestinian Authority presidents addressed the Turkish parliament, marking the first time an Israeli head of state has spoken in the legislature of a Muslim country.

  Days before that, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah was in town for the second visit to Turkey by a Saudi monarch in the past 40 years. That trip came just a few weeks after an official visit to Ankara by Bashar Assad - the first Syrian president to have come to Turkey.

  This all would have seemed nearly inconceivable only a few years ago.

  For decades, Turkey kept the Arab and Muslim countries of the Middle East at arm’s length as it focused on cementing its alliance with the West and distancing itself from the Ottoman Empire’s Islamic past.

  But now Turkey, led by the liberal Islamic Justice and Development Party, known by the acronym AKP, is trying to strengthen ties with its neighbors while at the same time recasting itself as a mediator in the region.

  “This has always been part of their game plan,” said Professor Henri Barkey, an expert on Turkey from Lehigh University in Easton, Pa. “The AKP has always felt that Turkey has punched below its weight internationally, that it had been too timid and sat in the corner.”

  Now the AKP is promoting Turkey in the role as peace broker.

  In his speech to the 550-member parliament in Ankara, Israeli President Shimon Peres suggested Turkey’s growing regional involvement gives it a role to play in helping solve the Middle East conflict.

  “Turkey can make a unique contribution as both a global architect and a local actor,” Peres said.

  “We may be saying different prayers, but our eyes are turned toward the same sky and toward the same vision for the Middle East,” he said in Hebrew, with translation into Turkish.

  Peres and P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas came to Ankara to sign an agreement creating a joint industrial park on the West Bank-Israel boundary that is to be operated with Turkish help.

  Cengiz Candar, a leading Turkish political analyst, says the industrial park project is indicative of the niche role Ankara - which has strong ties with Israel as well as Syria and Iran - would like to carve out for itself in the region.

  “This whole exercise is a display of Turkey projecting ‘soft power’ in the Middle East,” Candar said. “Turkey can play the role of a facilitator.”

  Turkey’s newly vigorous Middle East foreign policy is not without risks, analysts warn.

  Its reputation on Capitol Hill suffered damage in February 2006 when the country hosted a visit to Ankara by Hamas’ leader in exile, Khaled Meshaal. Israel and members of the U.S. Congress immediately denounced the visit.

  On the domestic front, Ankara’s growing relations with its Muslim neighbors has led some critics from the secular establishment in Turkey to accuse the government of pursuing an “Islamic” foreign policy in the Middle East that would reorient Turkey eastward.

  “Domestically there is both excitement and concern about this new foreign policy in the Middle East,” said Murat Yetkin, an Ankara-based columnist for Radikal, a leading daily newspaper. “The excitement comes from rediscovering a geographical area you were once familiar with. On the other hand, there is concern about getting engaged too much.”

  For Israel, despite the remarkable visit to parliament by Peres, Turkey’s new Middle East approach presents a mixed bag.

  While it offers opportunities, such as Ankara playing the role of intermediary between Jerusalem and Damascus, the approach also diminishes some of the closeness Turkey and Israel have enjoyed in the past as isolated allies in a generally unfriendly region.

  Over the last few years, the AKP government often has been more critical of Israeli actions than previous Turkish governments.

  “The Turkey-Israel relationship is a lot less comfortable for Israel than it was six or seven years ago,” said Alon Liel, a former Israeli diplomat in Turkey who later became chairman of the Turkey-Israel Chamber of Commerce.

  Liel attributed the change to the rise of figures such as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, whom Liel said “are much more balanced in their relations with the Arab world than their predecessors.”

  Nevertheless, any expanded role Ankara wants to play in the Middle East, particularly that of a mediator in the Arab-Israeli conflict, will force Turkey to maintain its strong relations with
Israel, Lehigh’s Barkey said.

  “The Turks have a potential role to play,” he said. “The one very smart thing that the AKP has understood is that if you are going to have influence among the Arab countries, you have to have good relations with Israel.”

  92

  Turkey The Military Might

  One of the main reasons Westerners believe that the Antichrist is western, is that he must have a powerful military force, and only Western nations meet this requirement. Yet, few in the West are aware of the fact that Turkey has one of the largest and most powerful militaries in the world. Among the 26 NATO member nations, Turkey has the second largest army, second only to the United States.11 Turkey’s army far supersedes the militaries of Germany, Spain, Italy, and England combined.

  While the United States has roughly 2 million soldiers in its combined forces of Active Service Personnel and Reserve Troops, the Turkish army has over 4 million troops.

  Because Turkey sits in such a vitally important and challenging geographic region, a powerful and agile military has also always been equally vital. Turkey is located in the Center of the Caucasus, Middle East and the Balkans; the most unstable region in the World. It is also a focal point where international geo-strategic lines and routes intersect. Turkey controls the strategic Turkish Straits; furthermore, it is positioned well to control the Suez Canal and consequently the maritime traffic in the region. Beyond all of this, in this age of uncertainty, the threat to the security of Turkey is not merely comprised of the various regimes and military powers in the region, but also of political, economic and social instabilities, border disputes, and terrorism. In light of all of this, the Turkish military has always remained strong and highly capable.

  Regarding the second requirement the nation that will lead the Antichrist Kingdom must fulfill, Turkey once again meets it perfectly. Turkey most certainly has the military capital necessary to back up any comprehensive Middle East Peace plan. Turkey also has the military capabilities to attack and defeat any number of other nations in the region. Of course, Turkey’s ability to attack Israel would be significantly amplified once she is joined by several other nations.

  93

  Turkey The Hater

  ANTI-SEMITIC AND ANTI-CHRISTIAN

  Historically, until very recently, it is estimated that Muslim Turks have slaughtered an estimated 2.8 million Christians. Stanley Cohen, Professor of Criminology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, writes:

  “The nearest successful example [of collective denial] in the modern era is the 80 years of official denial by successive Turkish governments of the 1915-17 genocide against the Armenians in which 1.5 million people lost their lives. This denial has been sustained by deliberate propaganda, lying and cover-ups, forging documents, suppression of archives, and bribing scholars. Just as recent as 1974, secular and supposedly moderate Turkey invaded Cyprus, moved in Muslims, and ordered the Greeks to move out within 24 hours. Churches went up in flames or were converted into mosques. Seventy percent of its industry is now under Turkish control.”12

  Despite Turkey’s western ties, her history is deeply underscored by an anti-Christian and Anti-Semitic spirit. Western appeasement of Islam in Turkey is based on the false assumption that Turkey, with its Kemalist views, is moderate. This view provoked fighting against Christian Serbs and Macedonians in order to support Bosnian and Albanian Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo. Iranian Islamists and Chechens aided these groups in an attempt to re-Islamize the Balkans. And despite the supposed friendship that has existed between America and Turkey throughout much of the last few decades, this relationship taken a drastic turn in the other direction. Just before the Iraq War, the Turkish Grand National Assembly vetoed a bill to allow passage to some 60,000 American troops through Turkish territory into northern Iraq. Americans were bewildered because the Turks had always been seen as a reliable friend and partner. The Turks, however, felt America had ignored sensitivities regarding the status of northern Iraq, which borders Turkey and is often used as a launching ground by Kurdish separatists who infiltrate Turkey and carry out terrorist attacks.

  Adding to this wedge, a few months later, and Turkish-American relations again took a serious blow when eleven Turkish Special Forces officers on a surveillance mission in the northern Iraqi town of Sulaymaniyah were arrested by American forces and taken to Baghdad. This became known as the “Hood Incident” because the Turks were all seen being transported with black hood-like bags over their heads. Most Americans thought very little of it. The Turks, however, who are very proud of their military and their country, were humiliated and felt enraged at the United States’ disgrace of their soldiers. This was an unforgivable act in the eyes of many Turkish citizens and is remembered by them with great contempt. No official apology was ever extended apart from a note signed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld saying that America regretted the incident. This infuriated the people of Turkey, and relations between the U.S. and Turkey have suffered as a result.

  GROWING HATRED

  A Turkish movie entitled “Valley of the Wolves Iraq” debuted in 2006, revealing Turkish sentiments toward America. The story opens with a reference to the “Hood Incident.” According to the plot, one of the arrested Turkish officers commits suicide out of shame and leaves a note for his friend Polat Alemdar, the protagonist, asking him to avenge his dishonor. Complying with the wishes of his friend, Alemdar follows the Christian fundamentalist American commander who is responsible for both the “hood incident” and the mass slaughter of thousands of innocent of Iraqi civilians. The movie stars Gary Busey, who plays a Jewish-American doctor who harvests the organs of Iraqis to be sold in New York, London, and Tel Aviv. This movie became one of Turkey’s greatest theatrical hits of all time. People lined up outside of theaters to view it again and again. Turkish hatred for America and Israel is growing more each day. Many Turks believe that this movie depicts the truth about America and Israel.

  Other examples of growing anti-Semitic and anti-Christian attitudes are evident in two of Turkey’s best-selling books. Adolph Hitler’s Mein Kampf (My Struggle) which has been subsidized and sold very cheaply by multiple publishing houses in various translations has recently become a bestseller. Another bestseller is entitled Attack on the Pope: Who will Kill the Pope in Istanbul? The cover of the book features a man firing a rocket propelled grenade at Pope Bendict. A study examining the rise in anti-Semitism in Turkey conducted by The Stephen Roth Institute for Contemporary Study of Anti-Semitism and Racism points out that in various mainstream newspapers, it is common to read anti-Semitic slurs and conspiracy theories that demonize Jews. Holocaust denial is also common. According to the study: “Translations of classic anti-Semitic tracts such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Henry Ford’s International Jew, are sold at well-known bookstores.13

  Clearly, both anti-Semitism and anti-Christian sentiments are on the rise in Turkey.

  94

  Turkey Fallen To The Islamists

  In my book Why I Left Jihad, I quoted Serge Trifkovic, the director of the Center for International Affairs, who commented on Turkey:

  “The simmering Islamic volcano in the villages of Anatolia and in the poor neighborhoods of the sprawling cities makes us wonder not ‘if’ but ‘when.’ If and when Turkey becomes a fully fledged democracy, that instant it will become Islamic.”14

  I also quoted Stanley Cohen, a professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who said: “It’s still considered part of NATO and a ‘friend’ of the U.S. regardless that Turkey’s past is rising up, as from a wounded beast, and turning into a ravishing monster. It is no wonder that The CIA’s 1997 State Failure Task Force Report identified Turkey as a nation in danger of collapse. The West needs to come to grips with the realization that Turkey is not a democracy, and any efforts to establish a democracy in it will prove fatal since democracy, like the attempts in Iraq, will only be used for electing an Islamic Sharia-driven system.”

  Both Trifkovic and Stanley’s words
predicted the situation perfectly—Turkey has now fallen to the Islamists and is it not amazing to see Stanley, a secularist, use the phrase, “wounded beast” to describe Turkey? This is precisely how the Bible describes the wounded defunct Ottoman Beast Empire that will revive at the end of the age. It will be near impossible for the United States to deal with Iran’s nuclear weapons, the Iraq War, and Turkey’s decline into Islamism simultaneously. Yet that is exactly what America is now facing. At the time of this writing, in August of 2007, the AKP Islamist party of Turkey, through completely democratic means, won the final election necessary to seize control of the entire Turkish government. This is monumental. The longest standing secular democracy in the Muslim world fell to the Islamist Party. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the newly elected President Abdullah Gul now lead the AKP. The AKP also now holds a majority of Parliamentary seats. Consequently, an openly Islamist party now dominates the Turkish government and leverages Turkey’s system of checks and balances completely in their own favor. Now, all they need to do is take control of the military. In order to understand the significance of this, one needs to understand who these leaders are and what they represent within the historically secular Muslim nation of Turkey.

  Elisabeth Eaves of Forbes Magazine explains: “It all started on April 27th [2007] when Turkey’s parliament, dominated by the governing Justice and Development Party, or AKP, nominated Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul for the presidency. Gul, like AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has his roots in Turkey’s Islamist movement. In recent years, AKP has taken actions seen as religiously motivated, like trying to ban adultery and encourage religious schools. Though Gul has pushed forward talks with the European Union and is widely seen as pro-Western and diplomatic, his opponents within Turkey regard him as an Islamist and thus a menace to secular government.”15