THE OTTOMAN TURKS & ISLAM
During this October 2023 standoff between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and the US obstinate backing of Israel, Erdogan of Turkey promptly stood up for the Palestinians by supporting Hamas with his naval fleet in the eastern Mediterranean. His words suddenly shed light on a consistent trend since the days Turkey was the Ottoman Empire. He declared, “As Moslems, we stand with our Muslim brothers in Palestine.”
There is no geography for Islam. There is no singular ethnicity or barrier. Since 2015 in sub-Saharan Africa, I have come across many Africans with Christian names claiming to be Moslems. They are young and vulnerable, the majority between 13 and 20, struggling autonomously to carve a precarious future for themselves. The common thread is that they all have secured lodging and feeding allowances in their respective countries, unlike their peers who have to share scanty accommodation and cook together to make ends meet. Familiar with their local cultures, I know that any adult African in such circumstances, will either “adopt” them, integrating them into his family, or simply provide them somewhere to stay on his commercial premises, for cleaning or security services they will offer.
But securing accommodation and feeding for free with an expatriate is certainly for other services. If the expatriate is French, we all know that it is for sexual services. In this case, it is elderly and single Turkish men, indoctrinating them into Islam — without excluding the pedophilic penchant the Turks are historically famous.
My concern is their targeting of African youth within a certain age group and of abjectly poor backgrounds. In my opinion, Islamization may be part of the cover-up in a society where conventional morality standards are high. An unmarried man at an advanced age is somewhat frowned upon, and living with young men makes him a suspicious character. The act of charity is commendable in assisting a less fortunate youth and may be the only obstacle for the community to take up the matter with their local assembly. However, this consistent profile of Turkish expatriates, and African youth through the common dnominator of Islamization is not a valid enough reason to bat an eye.
In my interrogations, they not only teach them Arabic to study the Holy Koran, but they also teach them the Turkish language thereby creating a communication incomprehensible to others. This I find worrisome. Could they be grooming these youths for more obscure purposes? On the surface of it, the attachment is filial, visibly and morally religious, but that sentimental bond (and I am not referring to sex) is a little too strong. In the sense that in African culture, the honor and respect accorded to the elderly is almost reverential but not paternal.
I cannot claim to know, but rather to suspect that the common objective is recruitment. I am curious to know for what purpose, but I think that it will only be apparent over time as the children grow into adults. I only hope and pray it will be for their good and the improvement of their society as a whole.
Sammy RNAJ
WhatsApp +96170499352
Medium — @srn.abuj &/me/
LinkedIn — /in/Sammy-rnaj-5847b8287
Twitter/X — @SammyRa97511456
Facebook (Remote Hub) — /profile.id=100080997426450
Facebook (The Reader’s Corner) — /profile.id=100094246617227
Quora — /profile/Sammy-RNAJ
