What Turkey fails to understand about IS
Conspiracy theories keep Turkey’s new ruling class in a bubble of self-delusion, blinding them to the bitter and complex realities that Turkey faces.
Since the deadly attack June 28 on Istanbul Ataturk Airport, Turkey has become more alert about threats from the Islamic State (IS). Turkish police arrested more than 20 suspected IS members in a search for the group's secret cells; meanwhile, the Turkish military began hitting IS targets inside Syria with its jets and artillery. In other words, as belated as it is, Turkey has begun taking a bolder stance against the terror organization that now threatens the world.
However, Turkey also needs a war of ideas against IS. Sadly, Turkey’s ruling religious-minded class seems to have little willingness and potential to do that. The reason is not any love affair with IS or any sympathy with its carnage. The reason is that most of Turkey’s Islamic opinion leaders who have the means to counter IS ideology instead choose to blind themselves to the nature of the problem and explain it as a Western conspiracy against Islam.
