Chastitystan

The Turks are not rebels. The prime minister can slap one and win an apology in return. But they are certainly proud people – at least social research says so. According to a most recent survey, Turks are proud of their country’s accomplishments, even though there is no empirical evidence to justify this feeling: Proud without a cause.

The survey, titled “Nationalism in Turkey and the World,” part of the International Survey Program, has found “Turks are proud, but they don’t know why.” It also found that religion is the primary factor shaping Turks’ “national identity.” Where are you from? Islam. Which country? Islam, nice to meet you.

It is certainly a source of pride that, for instance, Prime Minister (and soon-to-be president) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently scored a hat trick during a ceremonial football game. Perhaps he should never have abandoned his professional career in football. Today, he could well have signed up with Olympique Hamas or Jihad United and earned more than what the fabricated audio recordings revealed he has. 

Turks are also proud to have a deputy prime minister who has declared “women should not laugh loudly in public.” Where are you from? Chastitystan. But Bülent Arınç, deputy prime minister, was angry because the world media picked his sermon on chastity at a time when people were being killed. “Do you know what is happening in Gaza?” he protested newspapers that quoted him as preaching on at what decibel women could laugh in public.  

There is sadly no evidence to show whether the Turks are proud because 1,000 of their countrymen (Muslims) are being killed each day in their country (Islam) and 90 percent of the killers...

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