Animals posing as humans

What is the element that distinguishes humans from the rest of Earth’s creatures? Animals also possess varying degree of communication. Some animals have a higher ability to smell, some can see better… some definitely hear far better than humans. Sea mammals, for example, have incredible sonar capabilities. Some animals feel tremors several minutes before humans realize an earthquake is coming. Conscience, perhaps, is the most important virtue humans might have.

Why does Muslim religious culture underline that “human beings are the noblest of all creatures?” Indeed, there is an acute problem in that saying, but that is the “sublime” position the Muslim world has been giving to men – paradoxically while also subjecting some humans to the worst kinds of torture, including beheadings, in the name of Allah. Seeing the incredibly graphic content abundant on the Internet regarding the performance of the “warriors of Allah” in Iraq, Syria, or at Atatürk Airport in Istanbul, I have serious problems understanding how such evil undertakings could be staged in the name of religion, particularly a religion that professes to be aimed at spreading peace, understanding, love and cohesion between all which was created because “we love the created because of our love for the creator, as every human is a reflection of the creator.”

It is of course meaningless to ask what crime was committed by the 41 people killed or over 240 wounded which would lead those three terrorists and their masterminds to choose them as target. Terrorism aims to spread panic and chaos in large segments of a society and thus hold a society hostage and force governments to accept their vicious demands. What were the aims and demands of the Atatürk Airport attackers? Probably they did not have any aim other than “teaching Turkey a lesson” that targeting terrorist dens in Turkey and abroad cannot go unpunished. Was it that? Or was it some sort of punishment because Turkey no longer supported the zealots, stopped tolerating them and started hunting them? Such questions must be asked by opposition parties and the media while those in government or occupying key security positions must answer why since October 2015 Turkey has suffered five major – and many small - terrorist attacks, losing over 500 people in those attacks.

The Turkish government has no intention of allowing the critics, opposition parties or the media to ask such questions or even if they ask them, to deliver answers to such unpleasant inquiries. Instead, acting with an “offense is the best defense” mentality, each time they feel somehow cornered the ruling political Islamists of Turkey start attacking the opposition parties and of course the media.

If over 500 people were killed in terrorist attacks in a country and if not even one key security bureaucrat, not one governor, the intelligence chief or related minister considered resignation, if the government never ever accepted a possible intelligence flop and if only after more than 500 people lost their lives in terrorist incidents the government generously declared a half-day of national mourning, would it be wrong to ask whether that country was normal?

Can it be an acceptable attitude for a government member to react to such horrible developments by saying, “Hopefully, God will save us and these sad events won’t affect our government?” 

Can it be acceptable behavior for a ruling deputy – and former journalist – to try to place the blame of the terrorist attack on the main opposition party leader? What might be the state of mind of a politician who, at such a terrible moment, could say, “These [terrorists] are bedtime fellows of [Kemal] Kılıçdaroğlu [the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party – CHP],” adding: “He has always been supportive of them?”

Obviously, every journalist who believes journalism is to inform the people by reflecting like a flat mirror the developments in the country cannot subscribe to the idea of the right of the state to restrict access to the Internet, clamp down a news blackout or slow down the Internet speed. The media must of course refrain from exposing nasty and graphic details of a blast scene. The media must of course respect the individual rights of those who were attacked and refrain from turning the cameras on such graphic details that would enrage society and further hurt those slain or wounded. But, in no way can a journalist support censorship of any sort.

Could it be possible to accept a former journalist MP who wished to God that those who criticized news blackouts imposed after terrorist attacks became victims of terrorist attacks?

Conscience must be a human value… Some animals might have some degree of it, so say the scientists. But, definitely, either there are some humans devoid of it, or some animals posing as humans.