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             Turkey Launches International Mosque-Building Program

   by Dorian Jones

   During his visit to Cuba in January, Turkish President Recep Tayyip
   ErdoÄan requested that his government be allowed to build a mosque in
   Havana.

   Turkey currently is building 18 large mosques across the globe,
   including one in Tirana, Albania, that will hold more than 4,000
   worshippers. Mosques also will be built in the United States, Russia,
   Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, the Palestinian
   Territories and Somalia.

   Observers see the effort as part of ErdoÄan's goal to establish the
   country as leader of the Muslim world, a mantle it held during the
   Ottoman Empire, from the late 13^th through early 20^th centuries.

   ''"ErdoÄan cares very much for his historic legacy and his global
   legacy," said Asli Aydintasbas, a political columnist for Turkey's
   Milliyet newspaper. "... In many ways, he does want [to] see, in Turkey
   and globally, himself as a person who has advanced the interests of
   Islam and Muslims around the world. So he very much cares about the
   mosque-building project."

   Imperial underpinning

   Experts say there are imperial aspirations behind this strategy.
   Returning Turkey to the glories of its Ottoman past is a common theme
   of ErdoÄan and his ruling AK Party, according to Yuksel Taskin, an
   expert on center-right politics at Istanbul's Marmara University.

   He said within the party "there is a very popular term,
   'medeniyetcilik,' which means civilizations, regarding the golden age
   of Islam. They are trying to create an image that Islamic civilization
   will be on the rise again. Naturally, Turks will be the vanguard people
   of this rebirth."

   The Diyanet, the Turkish state body that administers the Islamic faith,
   has seen its international office markedly expanded under ErdoÄan's
   rule. Along with mosque building, promoting theological education is a
   key element in the drive for greater international influence, with
   offers of scholarships to Turkish universities and student exchanges.

   But Turkey has found itself in competition with other Muslim countries,
   especially Saudi Arabia, which has for decades has been spreading its
   oil money around the Islamic world. Turkey's mosque offer to Cuba
   followed a similar one from Saudi Arabia.

   Balkans at center of conflict

   But the Balkans is the main region for rivalry between Ankara and
   Riyadh, according to Istar Gozaydin, a professor of religion and
   politics at Istanbul's DoÄuÅ University.

   "It has been a competition, especially [in] Bosnia, constructing
   mosques and trying to gather the communities in those mosques," she
   said. Gozaydin said she thought the two countries' efforts at one point
   were complementary. "But now again I believe it's more competition."

   Underlying the rivalry with Saudi Arabia are historical tensions that
   extend across the region. Taskin said many in the ruling AK Party
   mistakenly think countries colonized by the Ottomans share the same
   positive view of the imperial past.

   "The Turkish political elite around [the] AK Party rarely understands
   the Middle East and Middle Eastern people's discontent coming from
   their colonial past," he said.

   Ambitions reflected in rhetoric

   But observers say ErdoÄan may well be looking to the language of the
   street to transcend such obstacles. Increasingly, his speeches appear
   to be aimed at the Muslim grassroots both at home and abroad, and
   feature heavy populism invariably laced with a strong anti-Western
   rhetoric.

   Political columnist Aydintasbas claims the president is behaving as if
   he already leads the world's Muslims.

   "If it was up to the people, ErdoÄan believes, he would be elected as
   the leader of the Muslim world in free and fair elections across the
   Muslim world," Aydintasbas said.

   Erdogan is increasingly campaigning against what he claims is the
   growing threat of Western "Islamophobia," as well as demanding a
   permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for a Muslim
   state.

   Observers warn that such rhetoric is likely to continue as Ankara seeks
   to secure a leading role in the Islamic world.
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   building-program/2674972.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/turkey-launches-international-mosque-building-program/2674972.html