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ISLAMIZING NIGERIA, THE REPUBIC OF TURKEY EXAMPLE
Spy Ghana, Ghana
March 9 2015
Mar 9, 2015
by Joe Onwukeme: Writes from Enugu
The historian's duty is to separate the true from the false, the
certain from the uncertain, and the doubtful from that which cannot
be accepted- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
nigeria map
Never knew some presumptuous apologists of the ruling government are
very vast in history until 2015 presidential election campaigns began,
you must have watched so many documentaries, programmes, jingles,
advert or whatever name they call it on local television stations with
an intention to discredit individuals, groups and even religion. What
kind of history are they teaching the younger generation and what do
they intend to gain in propagating such history?
Many christian groups have joined the propaganda train, some profiteers
of the government amongst them and some shallow minded preachers
have been obfuscating in ignorance with their debased and baseless
preachings, that a vote for a change is a vote to Islamize Nigeria,
using Turkey's decline in christian population as an example.
It was because of such lies and deceit that the late afro beat maestro
Fela Kuti sang the song, "teacher don't teach me nonsense".
As postulated by late IVAN PANIN- "The great historian is he that
can distinguish what is done from what happens-
As a student of history, I was privileged to have been taught by
dedicated and committed grey haired lecturers that have traversed
the world in search of knowledge.
My first correction is this, to those that are referring Turkey as a
once christian nation, part of the place being referred to as Turkey
today was a conglomeration of different regions. The region before
1923 was referred to as Asia minor, or the Anatolian peninsula. Turkey
only became a republic in 1923.
Christianity has a long history in Anatolia-Asia Minor and Armenian
Highland (now part of Turkey), which is the birthplace of numerous
Christian Apostles and Saints, such as Paul of Tarsus, Timothy,
Nicholas of Myra, Polycarp of Smyrna and many others.
Antioch was also the place where the followers of Jesus were called
"Christians" for the first time in history, as well as being the site
of one of the earliest and oldest surviving churches, established by
Saint Peter himself. For a thousand years, the Hagia Sophia was the
largest church in the world.
During my third year at the University, in one of our courses:
"The Middle East In International Affairs", one of our revered and
erudite scholar, Dr Okechukwu E. Okeke. In his book- "The Middle East
Since 1917," averred that the capture of Constantinople capital of
the Byzantine Empire, by an invading army of the Ottoman Empire on
Tuesday, 29 May 1453, (and two other Byzantine splinter territories
soon thereafter) marked the end of the Roman (Byzantine) Empire, an
imperial state which had lasted for nearly 1,500 years. The Ottoman
conquest of Constantinople also dealt a massive blow to christendom.
The Ottomans renamed the Byzantine capital Istanbul, converted it's
biggest churches to mosque.
Hagia Sophia one of the biggest church in Constantinople (present
day Istanbul) was conquered by ottoman turks in 1453. By that point
the church had fallen into a state of disrepair. Today, the church
has been turned to a musuem and is currently the second most visited
musuem in Turkey.
When Constantinople (Hagia Sophia) fell in 1453 three years later the
edifice of Church Of The Holy Apostles which was in a dilapidated
state was abandoned by the patriarch and in 1461 it was demolished
by the ottomans to make way for the faith mosque.
One thing our pastors and other peddlers of Turkey's decline
in christian population are ignorant of is that the capture of
Constantinople in 1453 ushered in the "iconoclastic era", during
which majority christians in the area abandoned their buildings and
migrated to neighboring regions, most of those ancient churches were
in decrepit before they were converted.
Captured territories don't maintain their religions. The captured
Byzantine Empire and its capital Constantinople was not an exception.
Today, however, Turkey has a smaller christian percentage of its
population than any of its neighbors, including Syria, Iraq and
even Iran. What made the disparity so obvious was because of the
major atrocities and genocide that were committed by the Ottoman
government with the support of "Central Powers" against the christian
dominated Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks during the World War
I (1914-18) and the subsequent large scale population transfers of
Turkey's christian population to other regions. This was followed by
the continued emigration of most of the remaining indigenous christians
over the next century.
After World War 1, the Turkish War of Independence (1919-22), initiated
by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and his colleagues in Anatolia, defeated
and abolished the Ottoman Sultanate in 1922. The defeat allowed the
Turkish National Movement Government in Ankara to become the sole
governing entity in the nation, officially founding the Republic of
Turkey the next year in 1923 with Kemal Ataturk as its first president.
On assuming office, Ataturk initiated a series of radical reforms in
the country's political, social, and economic life between 1924-1938
that aimed at rapidly transforming Turkey into a modern state.
According to Dr E Okeke, chronology of Reforms of Kemal Atartuk:
1922 Sultanate abolished (November 1).
1923 Treaty of Lausanne secured (July 24). Republic of Turkey with
capital at Ankara proclaimed (October 29).
1924 Caliphate abolished (March 3). Traditional religious schools
closed, Sheriat (Islamic Law) abolished. Constitution adopted
(April 20).
1925 Dervish brotherhoods abolished. Fez outlawed by the Hat Law
(November 25). Veiling of women discouraged; Western clothing for men
and women encouraged. Western (Gregorian) calendar adopted instead
of Islamic calendar.
1926 New civil, commercial, and penal codes based on European
models adopted. New civil code ended Islamic polygamy and divorce by
renunciation and introduced civil marriage.
1927 First systematic census.
1928 New Turkish alphabet (modified Latin form) adopted. State declared
secular (April 10); constitutional provision establishing Islam as
official religion deleted.
1933 Islamic call to worship and public readings of the Kuran (Quran)
required to be in Turkish rather than Arabic.
1934 Women given the vote and the right to hold office. Law of
Surnames adopted - Mustafa Kemal given the name Kemal Ataturk (Father
of the Turks) by the Grand National Assembly; 1935 Sunday adopted
as legal weekly holiday. State role in managing economy written into
the constitution.
Today, Turkey is among the few secular nations in the middle East that
respects the secularity of their nation. Just the way it is here in
Nigeria, there are always clash of interest in secular states between
dominant religions, Turkey is not an exception.
Though there have been great disparity between majority muslims and
minority christians since the beginning of modern Turkey in 1923,
they have been able to manage series of religious crisis within their
country without much threat to World peace, unlike Nigeria where we
have recorded over 13, 000 deaths in the last 5 years alone in the
North East over religious crisis.
If a particular religion is to be blamed for the decline in christian
population in Turkey, who do we blame for the steady decline in
christianity and the dereliction of churches and chapels in Europe
and the Americas?
Religious superiority played an important role in World War 1, that
explains why a century after, religion seems in many places to have
maintained it's power to exacerbate strife but lost its capacity to
calm and restrain it.
According to Philip Jenkins, a distinguished professor of history-
The war triggered "a global religious revolution," and in the process,
"drew the World's religious map as we know it today."
Here in Nigeria, majority christians have become irreversibly paranoid
with the change mantra because their pastors are increasingly of the
opinion that a muslim president will Islamise Nigeria. They are yet
to tell us how possible it is for one man to unilaterally bypass the
constitution, the legislature, the judiciary and the Nigerian people
and impose sharia and islam on everybody.
Most of us can't read or do independent research when we are a
supporting a man because our pastors who have obviously gotten their
share of the #7 Billion largesse have told us to support a particular
candidate because he is a christian.
I think it's time we should start educating our pastors and save them
from ignorance.
A South East governor has been in the news for the wrong reasons
according to report, he built a mosque for muslims and has been of
great help to the muslim community in his state since he became
governor in 2011. When ever news about this particular South
East governor appears on social media, the ignorant ones hurl all
categories of insults at him, to many he's promoting Islam in his
state, we forget there are christians even in far North where they
have majority muslims, they don't worship in the bush, they worship
in churches built on land given or approved by muslim governors,
have we thought of what will happen to such christians if the muslim
governors decide to turn their backs on them? So what is the big deal
if a South East governor replicates such gesture?
It hurts to read, watch or hear us bicker and insult one another
over mundane and irrelevant issues, these things ought not to be
so. What we should be cognizance of as a nation is how to get out of
these quagmire we have found ourselves in the past 16 years and to
achieve this feat, we all need to come together as one regardless of
our ethnic, religious and party affiliations.
History can come in handy. If you were born yesterday, with no
knowledge of the past, you might easily accept whatever the government
tells you. But knowing a bit of history-while it would not absolutely
prove the government was lying in a given instance-might make you
skeptical, lead you to ask questions, make it more likely that you
would find out the truth.
-HOWARD ZINN
http://www.spyghana.com/islamizing-nigeria-the-repubic-of-turkey-example/
Spy Ghana, Ghana
March 9 2015
Mar 9, 2015
by Joe Onwukeme: Writes from Enugu
The historian's duty is to separate the true from the false, the
certain from the uncertain, and the doubtful from that which cannot
be accepted- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
nigeria map
Never knew some presumptuous apologists of the ruling government are
very vast in history until 2015 presidential election campaigns began,
you must have watched so many documentaries, programmes, jingles,
advert or whatever name they call it on local television stations with
an intention to discredit individuals, groups and even religion. What
kind of history are they teaching the younger generation and what do
they intend to gain in propagating such history?
Many christian groups have joined the propaganda train, some profiteers
of the government amongst them and some shallow minded preachers
have been obfuscating in ignorance with their debased and baseless
preachings, that a vote for a change is a vote to Islamize Nigeria,
using Turkey's decline in christian population as an example.
It was because of such lies and deceit that the late afro beat maestro
Fela Kuti sang the song, "teacher don't teach me nonsense".
As postulated by late IVAN PANIN- "The great historian is he that
can distinguish what is done from what happens-
As a student of history, I was privileged to have been taught by
dedicated and committed grey haired lecturers that have traversed
the world in search of knowledge.
My first correction is this, to those that are referring Turkey as a
once christian nation, part of the place being referred to as Turkey
today was a conglomeration of different regions. The region before
1923 was referred to as Asia minor, or the Anatolian peninsula. Turkey
only became a republic in 1923.
Christianity has a long history in Anatolia-Asia Minor and Armenian
Highland (now part of Turkey), which is the birthplace of numerous
Christian Apostles and Saints, such as Paul of Tarsus, Timothy,
Nicholas of Myra, Polycarp of Smyrna and many others.
Antioch was also the place where the followers of Jesus were called
"Christians" for the first time in history, as well as being the site
of one of the earliest and oldest surviving churches, established by
Saint Peter himself. For a thousand years, the Hagia Sophia was the
largest church in the world.
During my third year at the University, in one of our courses:
"The Middle East In International Affairs", one of our revered and
erudite scholar, Dr Okechukwu E. Okeke. In his book- "The Middle East
Since 1917," averred that the capture of Constantinople capital of
the Byzantine Empire, by an invading army of the Ottoman Empire on
Tuesday, 29 May 1453, (and two other Byzantine splinter territories
soon thereafter) marked the end of the Roman (Byzantine) Empire, an
imperial state which had lasted for nearly 1,500 years. The Ottoman
conquest of Constantinople also dealt a massive blow to christendom.
The Ottomans renamed the Byzantine capital Istanbul, converted it's
biggest churches to mosque.
Hagia Sophia one of the biggest church in Constantinople (present
day Istanbul) was conquered by ottoman turks in 1453. By that point
the church had fallen into a state of disrepair. Today, the church
has been turned to a musuem and is currently the second most visited
musuem in Turkey.
When Constantinople (Hagia Sophia) fell in 1453 three years later the
edifice of Church Of The Holy Apostles which was in a dilapidated
state was abandoned by the patriarch and in 1461 it was demolished
by the ottomans to make way for the faith mosque.
One thing our pastors and other peddlers of Turkey's decline
in christian population are ignorant of is that the capture of
Constantinople in 1453 ushered in the "iconoclastic era", during
which majority christians in the area abandoned their buildings and
migrated to neighboring regions, most of those ancient churches were
in decrepit before they were converted.
Captured territories don't maintain their religions. The captured
Byzantine Empire and its capital Constantinople was not an exception.
Today, however, Turkey has a smaller christian percentage of its
population than any of its neighbors, including Syria, Iraq and
even Iran. What made the disparity so obvious was because of the
major atrocities and genocide that were committed by the Ottoman
government with the support of "Central Powers" against the christian
dominated Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks during the World War
I (1914-18) and the subsequent large scale population transfers of
Turkey's christian population to other regions. This was followed by
the continued emigration of most of the remaining indigenous christians
over the next century.
After World War 1, the Turkish War of Independence (1919-22), initiated
by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and his colleagues in Anatolia, defeated
and abolished the Ottoman Sultanate in 1922. The defeat allowed the
Turkish National Movement Government in Ankara to become the sole
governing entity in the nation, officially founding the Republic of
Turkey the next year in 1923 with Kemal Ataturk as its first president.
On assuming office, Ataturk initiated a series of radical reforms in
the country's political, social, and economic life between 1924-1938
that aimed at rapidly transforming Turkey into a modern state.
According to Dr E Okeke, chronology of Reforms of Kemal Atartuk:
1922 Sultanate abolished (November 1).
1923 Treaty of Lausanne secured (July 24). Republic of Turkey with
capital at Ankara proclaimed (October 29).
1924 Caliphate abolished (March 3). Traditional religious schools
closed, Sheriat (Islamic Law) abolished. Constitution adopted
(April 20).
1925 Dervish brotherhoods abolished. Fez outlawed by the Hat Law
(November 25). Veiling of women discouraged; Western clothing for men
and women encouraged. Western (Gregorian) calendar adopted instead
of Islamic calendar.
1926 New civil, commercial, and penal codes based on European
models adopted. New civil code ended Islamic polygamy and divorce by
renunciation and introduced civil marriage.
1927 First systematic census.
1928 New Turkish alphabet (modified Latin form) adopted. State declared
secular (April 10); constitutional provision establishing Islam as
official religion deleted.
1933 Islamic call to worship and public readings of the Kuran (Quran)
required to be in Turkish rather than Arabic.
1934 Women given the vote and the right to hold office. Law of
Surnames adopted - Mustafa Kemal given the name Kemal Ataturk (Father
of the Turks) by the Grand National Assembly; 1935 Sunday adopted
as legal weekly holiday. State role in managing economy written into
the constitution.
Today, Turkey is among the few secular nations in the middle East that
respects the secularity of their nation. Just the way it is here in
Nigeria, there are always clash of interest in secular states between
dominant religions, Turkey is not an exception.
Though there have been great disparity between majority muslims and
minority christians since the beginning of modern Turkey in 1923,
they have been able to manage series of religious crisis within their
country without much threat to World peace, unlike Nigeria where we
have recorded over 13, 000 deaths in the last 5 years alone in the
North East over religious crisis.
If a particular religion is to be blamed for the decline in christian
population in Turkey, who do we blame for the steady decline in
christianity and the dereliction of churches and chapels in Europe
and the Americas?
Religious superiority played an important role in World War 1, that
explains why a century after, religion seems in many places to have
maintained it's power to exacerbate strife but lost its capacity to
calm and restrain it.
According to Philip Jenkins, a distinguished professor of history-
The war triggered "a global religious revolution," and in the process,
"drew the World's religious map as we know it today."
Here in Nigeria, majority christians have become irreversibly paranoid
with the change mantra because their pastors are increasingly of the
opinion that a muslim president will Islamise Nigeria. They are yet
to tell us how possible it is for one man to unilaterally bypass the
constitution, the legislature, the judiciary and the Nigerian people
and impose sharia and islam on everybody.
Most of us can't read or do independent research when we are a
supporting a man because our pastors who have obviously gotten their
share of the #7 Billion largesse have told us to support a particular
candidate because he is a christian.
I think it's time we should start educating our pastors and save them
from ignorance.
A South East governor has been in the news for the wrong reasons
according to report, he built a mosque for muslims and has been of
great help to the muslim community in his state since he became
governor in 2011. When ever news about this particular South
East governor appears on social media, the ignorant ones hurl all
categories of insults at him, to many he's promoting Islam in his
state, we forget there are christians even in far North where they
have majority muslims, they don't worship in the bush, they worship
in churches built on land given or approved by muslim governors,
have we thought of what will happen to such christians if the muslim
governors decide to turn their backs on them? So what is the big deal
if a South East governor replicates such gesture?
It hurts to read, watch or hear us bicker and insult one another
over mundane and irrelevant issues, these things ought not to be
so. What we should be cognizance of as a nation is how to get out of
these quagmire we have found ourselves in the past 16 years and to
achieve this feat, we all need to come together as one regardless of
our ethnic, religious and party affiliations.
History can come in handy. If you were born yesterday, with no
knowledge of the past, you might easily accept whatever the government
tells you. But knowing a bit of history-while it would not absolutely
prove the government was lying in a given instance-might make you
skeptical, lead you to ask questions, make it more likely that you
would find out the truth.
-HOWARD ZINN
http://www.spyghana.com/islamizing-nigeria-the-repubic-of-turkey-example/