Contraversial Turkish Schools Bill

[kılıç_mehmet]

While you paint him with the brush of infidels

Well, in purely religious terms, he is a "kafir". In my terms, he is a moslem if he claims to be one. He could be a christian if he claimed to be one. Who am I to claim otherwise?

I'd like to point out you have as much legitimacy in painting him like that as he does of you.

I don't, actually. I really don't care what his religious views are. All islamists hold a certain form of ummah sympathy. I oppose this, as this is not just a religious, but a political ideal.

A mandate of heaven, if you will.

Again, in purely religious terms, that would require him to hold the title of Caliph.

I'd also like to point out that several branches of our government tried to remove him -- however, it appears that he has friends in higher, more shadowed places.

That much is certain. We can already see this from all the havoc that was caused for nothing. However, I think that his primary goal for now it to simply cover up his tracks. The army has been ejecting each and every of his thralls from the ranks of his officers.

Geo-politically-wise, it does make sense to support this man, if only for the chaos he causes in Turkey. However, it is rather questionable to the US to allow any religious group to rise to the top -- the intelligence arm thought the Taliban would be fantastic neighbors, for example. That did not turn out well at all.

It did turn out to be well, actually. It still turns out to be well. The US has at least an excuse to keep NATO inside Afghanistan.

It is weird how you pit liberals and islamists together, as liberal ideology often conflicts with Islamist ideology -- perhaps these are not liberals you speak of? I find it hard to believe that liberalisms like "freedom of speech" and "freedom of religion" would be welcomed by the Islamists.

It doesn't. In Turkey, it doesn't. Liberals and (neo)islamists are rather equivalents of eachother. They are all cheap populists.
Besides, liberals welcome freedom of speech as long as it conflicts with the foundations of this country, as long as it aids in the demonisation of the army, as long as it destroys nationalistic tendencies. They do this because it is very much in favor of their interests. Liberals are nothing more than simple pragmatists. They ally themselves with the neo-islamists in Turkey, as it allows them a free hand on politics, along with filling their pockets. Besides, neo-islamists do welcome freedom of speech and freedom of religion as long as it fits their purposes. Besides, neo-islamists are not even focused on the creation of a theocratic state anymore. I'd put them in the same shoes with the christian-democrat parties in Europe, however, unlike these parties, they do not try to undermine the foundations of their respective countries, to change it with a US-aligned, economically "liberalized" state of affairs.
This is what they hold of democracy, liberty and freedom.