ANKARA
Turkey’s president is the first leader to recognize the leadership and response of New Zealand’s government in the wake of recent terror attacks, a global expert on between Islam and the West said Friday.
Speaking to Cathy Van Extel on her morning Radio show on ABC Australia, the Director of the Centre for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA) at Istanbul’s Zaim University, Dr. Sami A. Al-Arian said Recep Tayyip Erdogan was sending a stern message to those like terrorist Brenton Tarrant after the massacre of 50 Muslims last Friday in Christchurch.
“Basically he was sending a message that if anybody of the same ilk is going to come to Istanbul they will be met with response and won’t be allowed to do whatever they want,”. Al-Arian said in reference to a manifesto of the New Zealand terrorist.
CIGA is a think-tank affiliated with Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University that works on geopolitics, Islamophobia, relations between Islam and the West, issues related to the development of Muslim societies, and policy making.
The CIGA director said Erdogan recognized the response of New Zealand government led by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to the terror attack at many places in Turkey during the March 31 election campaign.
“President Erdogan is the only leader who sent his vice-president and his foreign minister immediately to talk to the prime minister and thank her for the response.”
There is no other government that did that, Al-Arian said. “The two top [Turkish government] officials came to New Zealand within very few hours,” he said.
Last week, at least 50 Muslims were killed and as many injured when Australian-born Tarrant, 28, entered the Al Noor and Linwood mosques in Christchurch and shot indiscriminately at .
Tarrant has been charged for the massacre and is being held at a maximum-security prison in Auckland.
Among the victims were four children aged 3 - 16 who were shot dead in cold blood. Other children are still being treated at nearby hospitals.
“It has been a shock for people around the world and especially here in Turkey. People did not expect these things to happen especially in a place like New Zealand,” Al-Arian said.
“And they were more shocked by the manifesto that came with that killer and how he was trying basically to start a religious war by his incessant references to Turkey, to President Erdogan, to history, to the type of religious hatred he espoused as well as to references to Istanbul and to modern times,” the director said.
On the emergency Organization of Islamic Conference meeting in Istanbul on Friday, Al-Arian said that “this phenomenon of white supremacism and far right wings group attacks have been proliferating throughout Europe, United States, as well as in Australia, and now in New Zealand. The world needs to put a stop to it.
“There has to be a strategy where governments have to be involved,” he said, adding, “we can’t let this one go on otherwise we’re going to see more of these [attacks] and there may be other people who might start shooting at different religions, different races… it is going to get out of hand. So, there has to be a coordinated effort where all governments have to be involved and they have to put a stop to it.”
The CIGA director said governments need to start with cooperation. “We need to see the leadership of the prime minister of New Zealand. She has really shown herself to be an example of what real leadership can be… and out of these dark there could be opportunities for more understanding and more cooperation.”
Al-Arian said the whole world has united in condemning the New Zealand attacks and “basically in rejecting the message of hate and hostility that the perpetrator was trying to push and promote.”
“We need to see some real policies … there are of policies around the world and one can see in today’s United States’ Trump where they are trying to use towards each other for political reasons. The Muslim ban that [Trump] has espoused and many policies we can see [that] some governments are trying to institute … these are very dangerous precedents,” he said.
The global expert on and engagements within and outside Muslim societies, Al-Arian further said that there would be more “coordinated efforts to stop this [hatred] and also to roll back the influence of some leaders who espouse Islamophobia in all kinds of settings and as well as not only with regard to government policies, but also try to see something positive not just on the defensive side but also to see more programs where they promote religious tolerance, cooperation, real understanding of the different religions and different issues where people are trying to exploit these differences out of ignorance in order to promote hatred, hostility violence”.
Reflecting upon the criticism meted out to Erdogan’s statements after New Zealand terror attacks, Al-Arian said the Turkish president considers himself obviously as the voice for Turkey, but also for the whole Muslim world at large as well.
“Some of these [critical] voices that came through this manifesto and different groups, they try to use some words as well as some positions in order to start a religious war and what the President [Erdogan] is trying to say is that this will fail,” Al-Arian explained.
“President Erdogan does not believe that it is a ‘lone wolf kind of a thing’; he believes that there are some forces behind him [New Zealand terrorist] and they are trying to push him, he may be a front.”
Al-Arian believes Erdogan is trying to send out a message that any act against Turkey would be met with a strong response. “But that does not mean he is trying to address governments … [but] he is trying to send a message to these [racist] people in particular.”
On showing the video of the terror attack at one of the election campaign rallies of Erdogan, Al-Arian said people should read the manifesto of the terrorist.
"If people do not read the manifesto of the killer terrorist, they may not understand where Erdogan is coming from. The terrorist was trying to allude to sending armies, white supremacist, to get back Istanbul and of he used the old name – Constantinople – and what Erdogan was trying to say is that ‘this will never happen’,” Al-Arian explained.
He said the terrorist was in Istanbul twice in the past months. “The Turkish government is still investigating as what he was trying to do here,” the director said.
On Erdogan’s global outreach, the noted academic said the Turkish president is seen as of the Muslims around the world. “Look at his history,” Al-Arian said of Erdogan. “When the Arab spring [2011] came about, he was the loudest voice championing the peoples call for change throughout the Arab world,” he said.
The Turkish president, Al-Arian until today has not recognized the 2013 military coup in Egypt which toppled the country’s first elected President Mohammad Morsi.
“[Instead] he has opened his country’s doors, for asylum, for all the people who have been basically targeted for political reasons.”
