Inviting AKP To Rule Islamically

The Erdoğanist media continues to portray me as someone who has betrayed his country and claims I made anti-Islamic statements in the US. They have fabricated a lie that says I am not pleased with people's Islamization. They continue to manipulate my actual understanding of Islam, which sees the current situation as an imposition of Islam in a top-down fashion (a la Iran) through the use of state power against the true spirit of Islam. They argue that when I am in the US, I am an anti-Islamic laicist, and that when I am in Turkey, I am a practicing Muslim.
As a response to their dangerous defamation campaign (journalists can easily be killed in this country), I wrote here in this English-language column, which can be read by Westerners, that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) must rule Islamically. I have asked the Erdoğanists and the AKP to allow for the opening of private imam-hatip schools. I also insisted that the AKP and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan completely ban the lottery and gambling, which are totally against Islam. I also stated strongly that Erdoğan must completely ban prostitution and close down officially recognized brothels.
Another demand I had regarding the Islamization of Turkey has been to ask Erdoğan's government, banks under state control and banks controlled by his friends in the business world to stop dealing with interest (riba), which is against Islam. I have also demanded that Erdoğan not allow his friends' newspapers, such as Takvim, to continue to publish pictures of naked women.
I have also asked Erdoğan and his supporters to behave Islamically and not swear, as they sometimes go as far as using the Turkish equivalent to the F-word. This is totally against Islam. To further their Islamization, Erdoğan, his friends, his media and his colleagues must stop telling lies. Lastly, I asked Erdoğanists to stop manipulating public tenders, urban zoning practices and construction licenses. All these have been declared sinful by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, too. Thus, they must stop doing these anti-Islamic things.
So far, the Erdoğanists have preferred to ignore these demands, which I repeated in Turkish on the S Haber TV channel 10 days ago. They know very well that their Islamization argument is only based on rhetoric, and that many things they have been doing are against Islam. They have simply been fabricating the consent of the masses by employing religious language, as if they were Islamizing Turkey. However, under their rule Turkey has become less religious, less honest, more corrupt and more sinful.
Even practicing Muslims now justify all sorts of anti-Islamic acts with a perverted logic that has been taught to them by the Erdoğanists. I have been in the US for a few days, speaking at conferences, luncheons and roundtable discussions. I have explained all of this to my American audience, who have been curious about the AKP's assault on the Hizmet movement.
In my speeches, I have also invited the AKP to rule Islamically in Turkey. This invitation is based on an academic paper, titled “How Islamic are Islamic Countries?” by Scheherazade S. Rehman and Hossein Askari. In their paper, they investigate whether self-declared Islamic countries, as indicated by membership in the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation), embrace policies founded on Islamic teachings.
They first present the characteristics and scaffolding of an “Islamic” country based on the Quran and the life, practices and sayings of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). Respect for human rights and human dignity; the freedoms of belief, speech and expression; and respect for nature, the rule of law, accountability and pluralism are justifiably coded as Islamic characteristics.
Based on these they developed an index to measure the “Islamicity” of 208 Islamic and non-Islamic countries by analyzing their adherence to Islamic principles using four sub-indices related to economics, legal systems, governance, human and political rights and international relations.
New Zealand, Luxembourg, Ireland, Iceland, Finland, Denmark, Canada, the UK, Australia, the Netherlands, Austria, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium and Sweden are the most Islamic countries. Malaysia is the most Islamic country among OIC members, though it is ranked 38th. Turkey ranks as the 103rd most Islamic country, while Saudi Arabia is 131st and Iran is 163rd. I challenge Erdoğanists and demand they Islamize the Turkish state as soon as possible so that Turkey is on top of this list, not at the bottom.

İHSAN YILMAZ (Cihan/Today's Zaman)