“Clash Of Civilizations” Fervor Grips Turkey — A Boost For Islamists

-Analysis-

ISTANBUL — The ceasefire for the hostage exchanges was brief. Israel is back to carrying out massacres in Gaza with utter disregard for the women, children and elderly they may kill. Since the war began, there is no doubt that Israel committed a series of offenses that would logically be within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

The international community has been either silent or ineffective, even as millions of individuals around the world took a humanitarian and moral stance by protesting against Israel’s war and the support granted to it by their own respective governments.

Still, there are people on both sides that have made a point of evaluating the current events in the Middle East as an extension of the so-called “clash of civilizations.”

Here in Turkey, the massacres committed by Israel in Gaza, and the support granted from Western countries, seems to have augmented a belief that the historic “clash between East and West” is accelerating. Most of those who support the Palestinian people and condemn Israel also see the West as the accomplice to an Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Moving outside the traditional Israel-Palestine question, the current war in Gaza has turned into a conflict between the cross and the crescent.

This may be a deliberate argument manufactured and spread strategically by people and groups with certain interests. But it may also be the natural reflection of people with a certain historical-cultural disposition towards the West. The end result is the same: more and more people are now inclined to read what’s happening in Palestine, the Israeli attacks and the role of the West as a conflict between Islam and the West.

Samuel P. Huntington wrote “The Clash of Civilizations” in 1993 but the history of this “clash” in people’s memory goes way back within these lands. It extends back to the time of the Crusades.

A deep narrative of the conflict of the cross and the crescent was awakened within the Islamic geography that included Turkey during the time of Western colonialism, eventually building the modern Islamist movement. However, what is being built on this historic memory is not just Islamism alone, it’s the de facto Muslim identity.

Hear our voice

Outside of the field of religious faith and worship, average Muslims find a voice in the Islam-West conflict. The 100 years of secularism under a republic regime in Turkey did not change this common attitude. It’s known here as the “Sevres Syndrome,” a belief that foreign powers pulling the strings is how decisions for the country are ultimately made.

The power of this narrative, which the government has been using in recent years, is hidden deep in the cultural and historical background of the past century. The chant of “Europe, Europe, hear our voice!” that we hear at football matches is a popularized version of the same narrative. The leftist anti-imperialism stance in these lands is also linked to this legacy.

People don’t only show solidarity with Palestine, they also rediscover or deepen their Muslim identity.

The war in Gaza brings a very clear and dramatic opening to the narrative of Islam versus the West. It happens either with a deliberative push or naturally, but the people don’t only show solidarity with Palestine; they also rediscover or deepen their Muslim identity in the face of the West that supports Israel. Therefore, the cultural and religious identity becomes politicized and expressed as anti-Westernism. We may also call this the politicization of religion for ordinary Muslims.

Islamists in reverse

This politicization occurs with such a widely shared narrative and values that it’s almost impossible to challenge it without being marginalized. And the Islamists see an opportunity. The marginality of Islamism in Turkey over the past century is being reversed, now with the assistance of the massacres in Gaza.

The “clash of civilizations” narrative serves neither the socialists nor the nationalists in Turkey.

It gets easier to choose between Islam and the West when you see innocent Muslim children and civilians being slaughtered in Gaza. On whose side would a normal, average citizen of the Republic of Turkey stand? Islam would be a reasonable and correct choice not only culturally, historically and from a perspective of faith but also politically as well.

This is what is happening now: we are living through a historical moment when the societal norms are being redefined and the political consequences arrive later.

The “clash of civilizations” narrative based on anti-Westernism serves neither the socialists nor the nationalists in Turkey — it’s just more good news for the Islamists who already in charge.