By Walid Shoebat
Antichrist does not honor the desire of women and will also harbor hatred towards Egypt (Daniel 11) and the news coming out of Turkey shows that such hatred is on the rise.

Firstly, ties between Cairo and Ankara have deteriorated since the army ousted Morsi, a key ally of Turkey. Egypt has accused Ankara of “backing terrorism,” while Turkey has dubbed Morsi’s ouster a “coup”. And now President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan harshly criticized Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Monday after Egypt asked Interpol to issue a red notice for a Qatar-based pro-Muslim Brotherhood cleric, saying science cannot be subservient to politics.

“This person, who came to power through a coup, shows up and gives instructions to Interpol. A step has been taken with an order to Interpol to seek the chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, Youssef al-Qaradawi, with a red notice. What kind of act is this?” Erdoğan asked during an address at the 5th Religion Council hosted by Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate, adding: “Science cannot be subservient to politics; but politics can be subservient to science.”

Interpol issued a red notice for Qaradawi last week upon the request of Egypt’s coup regime. According to Interpol’s website, the notice on the 88-year-old Egypt-born cleric was issued on charges of “incitement and assistance to commit intentional murder, helping prisoners to escape, arson, vandalism and theft.”

The leaders of Egypt’s banned Muslim Brotherhood, who were asked to leave Qatar in September after pressure from other Gulf Arab countries, relocated to Turkey, following a welcoming statement by President Erdoğan, according to reports circulating in Turkish media.

Ankara is one of the most vocal critics of the Egyptian administration, which came to power after the military toppled former President Mohammed Morsi, a politician from the Muslim Brotherhood, last summer. President Erdoğan has been taking every opportunity to criticize Egypt’s former military leader and current President Sisi.

Turkey’s refusal to accept Morsi’s ouster prompted the new Egyptian leadership to cut ties with Turkey and expel the Turkish ambassador from Cairo. Ankara responded in kind, declaring Egypt’s ambassador to Turkey persona non grata.

Foreign Ministry officials tried to mend ties with Egypt recently through a meeting in New York on the sidelines of a United Nations summit in October. But the planned meeting between the Turkish foreign minister and his Egyptian counterpart was canceled by the Egyptian side after Erdoğan’s highly critical remarks about Sisi at the UN General Assembly.

And this week Egypt has imposed restrictions on male citizens travelling to Turkey and war-torn Libya to stop them joining jihadist organisations like the Islamic State group, a security official said Wednesday.

Men aged between 18 and 40 years who plan to travel to the two countries need prior clearance from Egyptian immigration under the new rules which came into effect on December 3.

“We are adopting these measures to protect our sons from joining terrorist groups abroad,” the official said. “Now every man travelling to these countries must clearly state the reason to the authorities.”

Turkey, a vocal critic of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has denied accusations that it tolerates the flow of foreign fighters into Syria.

Erdogan, who took over Turkey’s presidency in August after serving as prime minister for more than a decade, is accused of becoming increasingly authoritarian.

Critics have long accused his Islamic-rooted government of seeking to erode the country’s secular principles and limiting the civil liberties of women. Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, who won the Nobel prize for literature in 2006, denounced what he called a climate of “fear” in his country, in an interview published Sunday, December 7.

Nobel Prize winning author Orhan Pamuk

“The worst is that there’s a fear. I find that everyone is afraid; it’s not normal…. Freedom of expression has fallen to a very low level,” Pamuk told the Hurriyet newspaper.

He accused the government of pressuring the media and especially deplored the harassment of opposition journalists.

“Lots of my friends tell me that such and such a journalist has lost his job. Now it’s even journalists who are very close to the government who are getting harassed,” said the 62-year-old novelist, who has repeatedly clashed with the Turkish state.

He also expressed dismay over recent remarks by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asserting that men and women are not equal, which grabbed world headlines.

Pamuk said his just-published novel “Kafamda bir Tuhaflik” (Something Weird in My Head) “in fact deals with the oppression suffered by women in Turkey…. If we were to criticise Turkey from the outside, it would be the place of women in society.

“Our politicians make thoughtless statements on this point as if they want to start a fight,” he said in a thinly veiled reference to the president.

Erdogan as it seems does not honor the desire of women.

Even sharing personal photos on social media is now considered inappropriate according to Islam, Turkey’s Directorate for Religious Affairs (Diyanet) has announced.

“It is improper in religion for a person to expose their privacy on virtual platforms and share it with other people,” the Diyanet said in its monthly magazine, according to daily Habertürk.

“People should be cautious against this danger. It is necessary to pray to God and worship in order to avoid sins, and to be busy with more useful things. Friendship circles should be formed according to this [principle],” it added.

Both men and women have a right to use the Internet, but people must protect the scale of their lives, the Diyanet said, underlining that living within the framework of Islamic morality and lifestyle is important for a Muslim.

The Diyanet’s advice has received a mixed reaction among prominent religious thinkers in Turkey.

The former Mufti of Istanbul, Professor Abdülaziz Bayındır, expressed his support for the warning.

“Nobody has right to expose others’ lives. We only have one suggestion to those who share their own privacy: Don’t do it, it is wrong. But in the end it is up to them,” Bayındır said.

Another professor, Talip Özdeş, also approved the warning, saying the concepts of halal and haram are equally valid in the virtual platform.

However, Ankara University academic Haydar Kırbaşoğlu has questioned whether there were political motives in the Diyanet’s remarks, while journalist Ayşe Sucu suggested that the Diyanet even considered photos of women and men holding hands to be sinful.

The Antichrist system in not honoring the desire of women and also harboring hatred towards Egypt (Daniel 11) and Turkey’s rise to Islamism fulfilling these is no longer only a concern, but has become a reality.

SOURCES
Today’s Zaman
Hurriyetdaily