We respect your otherness as long as you are not the other

It is very kosher, according to endless statements reflecting the pragmatic selves of our leaders. Not very much so, according to endless behavior reflecting their Islamist selves. Seven years of Islamic rule must have taught any journalist, except for the ‘missionaries,’ not to be appalled if Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused a certain ethnicity of “knowing how to kill,” or another of “near genocide,” all depending on Mr. Erdoğan’s heart-felt sentiments about ‘the other’ in a religious connotation.

It’s like a journalistic reflex, if you happen to be in this trade in Turkey, not to raise an eyebrow to a news headline that might tell you “motorbike crashes into car, four dead.” You must learn not to be curious at such bizarreness and automatically assume that half a dozen people must have been riding the ill-fated motorbike when the accident happened. Actually, this is precisely what happened a few days ago: Four dead and four wounded, when a motorbike with five people riding together crashed into a car.

I was therefore perplexed when our colleagues were perplexed because a fiercely pro-Erdoğan columnist recently complained that “the Alevites unfairly occupied too many bureaucratic seats in proportion to their ‘size.’” What kind of a sect is this, inquired the columnist in support of the Sunni elite he probably hoped to impress. But that, too, should be all too normal in a land where talk of multiculturalism is a great thing, but its practice is a rare commodity.

What should we understand of multiculturalism? Political views have been diverse. According to Voltaire, “If there were only one religion in England there would be danger of despotism, if there were two, they would cut each other's throats, but there are thirty, and they live in peace and happiness.”

But according to Vaclav Klaus, former president of the Czech Republic, “Multiculturalism is a tragic mistake of the current Western civilization for which we all pay dearly.”

In the land of the Crescent and Star, President Abdullah Gül told an audience recently that “our differences are our richness” in what was apparently a direct reference to Turkey’s Kurds. No doubt, this would be a beautiful sentence in any language, but anyone who knows a little history cannot help to ask if our differences are a point of divergence generating cleavages that might even lead to civil wars, or are they really our wealth which might help to build a stronger national unity? Of course, we all can take what we want from this sentimentally optimistic sentence, but ideally what we ‘say’ should be at least not too different from what we ‘do.’

Sadly, we are always very good at rhetoric, and not so good in action. Was it not Mr. Erdoğan who, in another beautiful sentence, said that it was wrong to judge people by how they look? But, yes, that was a reference to secularist discrimination against women who wear the Islamic turban. Turban or no turban, Mr. Erdoğan was right – in words. What about a little bit of consistency, for God’s sake?

A recent story tells us not to rush to premature optimism of anyone’s fancy lines. As the prime minister was being driven in a motorcade, according to various accounts, he noticed a group of rockers queuing up for a concert. Here comes the controversial part. According to the official account, these rockers protested Mr. Erdoğan with insults (described as ‘rockers’ salute’); but according to the protestors, that was just a peaceful protest. But we certainly know that whatever method the protestors may have chosen, it was not violent.

The rest of the story hardly complies with Mr. Erdoğan’s rhetoric and preaching that “we should not judge people by their looks.” An angry Mr. Erdoğan took the platform shortly after the incident and complained about “youths being degenerated/demoralized.”

So was that not ‘judging people by their looks?’ What about the sacred right to protest? How does Mr. Erdoğan know that a young man dressed differently from a ‘good Muslim’ and protests the prime minister is a degenerated young man? 

The protestors were immediately detained and ‘thoroughly’ questioned by the police. The interrogation included McCarthyist questions like “Which party did you vote in last elections?” and “Did you show up at the republican (anti-government) protests (in 2007)?” 

Perhaps Mr. Erdoğan, the ‘good Muslim,’ should learn more about Islam. He can always start re-reading some of the essential Koranic commandments. For instance: “O unbelievers, I serve not what you serve and you are not serving what I serve, nor am I serving what you have served, neither are you serving what I serve. To you your religion, and to me my religion!” (The Holy Koran, 109:1-6).