Springtime for Bülent

As reported here earlier, on Monday morning EMISCO (the European Muslim Initiative for Social Cohesion) sponsored a side event at the OSCE/HDIM conference in Warsaw. It was chaired by Bashy Quraishy, the General Secretary of EMISCO, and featured remarks by Turkish Professor Bülent Şenay, a founding member of EMISCO. It was entitled “The Consequences of Islamophobic Discourse in the European Political Parties”.

A better title would have been “The Bülent ’n’ Bashy Road Show”. The two prominent Islamophobia-phobes acted out different roles in their production. At stage left we see Bashy and the Technicolor Dreamscarf, looking like a revolutionary meld of Che Guevara and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Sitting in stark contrast at center stage is Prof. Bülent, who resembles a college professor with his fashionable goatee and shaggy, tousled hair. In comedic terms, the former is a nyuk-nyuk-nyuk-nyuk Curly, while the latter is a stern and retributive Moe.

All joshing aside, though — there’s a hard edge under that affable college-prof veneer. When you listen to Prof. Şenay in this video, you’ll hear the steel core of Ottoman arrogance. Appearances notwithstanding, a similarity with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is easy to discern. It’s the Turkish variant of Sunni Islamic supremacism.

And it’s a serious, even ominous topic. These men want to criminalize what I say. Not just discourage it, not just write letters to the editor and boycott our sponsors, but criminalize our speech. They want people who say “Islamophobic” things to be arrested, prosecuted, and fined or thrown into prison. Which, incidentally, is currently the norm in Turkey.

And they’re the ones who constantly describe us as “Nazis”.

Bülent Şenay delivered his remarks after the question-and-answer period, thus making sure that his was the final word. He had dismissed questions about the undefined term “Islamophobia” as unimportant — “We all know what it means,” hence “I won’t define it,” and “We must define Islamophobia as a crime.” He spent the rest of his allotted time describing the alarming rise of “Islamophobia”, which is increasing everywhere in Europe. He made a point of telling the audience that he had consulted with all the major European political leaders in Europe, and they agreed with him — “Islamophobia” is a huge problem. When he talked to them about anti-Islamic expressions in the media, they responded that the media are independent, and not under state control. But he had doubts that they were being truthful with him — implying that the “Islamophobia” in European media (does anybody remember seeing any?) is state-orchestrated, and that therefore the state could crack down and eradicate it.

This is what we’re up against in Warsaw. It would all be burlesque theater, just a big laugh, except for the fact that venues like OSCE generate policy papers and action proposals that are uploaded to the United Nations and eventually adopted as legal instruments by the member states. So this is deadly serious stuff.

For more background on Professor Şenay, here are the notes from the video:

The OSCE Council member who responded to Stephen Coughlin’s question is the Turkish diplomat Professor Bülent Şenay, a founding member of the Governing Board of the European Muslim Initiative for Social Cohesion (EMISCO) and Diplomatic Counselor for Religious and Cultural Affairs at the Turkish Embassy in The Hague from 2008 to 2012. The authority he is afforded can neither be ignored nor underestimated.

Şenay has defined Islamophobes as “cultural terrorists” engaging in “psychological terror” and using such weapons as “film, video, audio cassettes, music, photocopiers, printed words, pictures…”

While he openly recognizes the status of the OIC, the most important data point you must know about Bülent Şenay is that he defines human rights as being subject to Shariah.

A final note — on the display screen in the background you’ll see an enlarged version of this image:

It makes a man quietly proud…

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

For links to previous articles about the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, see the OSCE Archives.

13 thoughts on “Springtime for Bülent

  1. How is that quote I read in one of the comments here not long ago? Oh yes:

    “Islamophobic is a word created by fascists, used by cowards, to manipulate morons.”

    • Whoever said that provided a succinct description/definition. BTW, iirc the word came out of the terrorists who took over Iran and deposed the Shah way back when. Anyone who opposed them was an i-phobe.

      • Well I am a proud Naziphobe, Communistphobe and Islamophobe. Oh and I am also a certified deplorable too! 🙂

        • That’s a nice Basket of phobias – a deplorable shame that it ain’t all that common…

  2. Dear Gates of Vienna
    I wrote a comment on your blog but you did not have the courage to print it.
    What a Freedom of Speech, you practice?
    Anyhow it is funny for GOV to put Senay and me – two of the most ardent anti-racist campaigners in Europe – in front of Nazi flags is very humorous, especially coming from you who practice Nazi ideology in daily writings.

    Anyhow, I do not expect any less from Islamophobes and anti-Muslim haters.

    Kind regards

    • Mr. Quraishy,

      I have approved every single comment you have posted, so I’m mystified by what you say here. Perhaps you would like to post it again…?

      I guarantee you: as long as it doesn’t contain any naughty words or incite violence, it will be approved/

    • Nazis. Is that the best you can do? I suppose to come up with any sort of better insult, or better yet, actual reasoning to make your case Mr. Bashy would be considered innovation, ( Bid’ah?) and therefore ‘haram’.

      But still. Such an illustrious personage as yourself and the best you can do to refute claims about your totalitarian intentions for Western civilization is to accuse of being, well the classic example of Western totalitarianism.

      I don’t need to point out to readers of this site that actually, it was the Muslims who sided with the Nazis to try and take out classical liberalism. You know, us. But it might be fun to point out that even if it was true, Nazis at least like representative art, great architecture as opposed to just copying the Hagia Sophia over and over again, and of course music.

      Something Islam attempts to stamp out everywhere it gains enough ground.

      So even real Nazis, which we are not, come out several points ahead on the scale you pretend to use as a rhetorical device, than Muslims do.

      Why not try again? Its free, and you will get a large audience.

      Nice hat by the way.

      • That beret, a “nice hat”? Pfft! It’s pedestrian at best (though it *is* redeemable worn at that rakish angle…)

        But the scarf? Mais oui! Très gai, non?

        Everyone ought to have a costume.

    • Dear Mr. Quraishy,

      I see you’re still desperately seeking to apply Godwin’s law, or “reductio ad Hitlerum”, in order to “win” the debate. But one point leaves me puzzled…

      Hitler wanted to conquer much of the world, and killed almost all Jews in Europe for supposedly “betraying Germany”.

      Mohammed also wanted to conquer the world, and killed or enslaved the whole Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza, after they had surrendered, supposedly for “betraying” him.

      Perhaps you may be able to explain the difference between the two?

      Regards,

      A proud “Islamophobe”.

    • Ps you mention that “Islamophobia” has existed in Europe since the 8th century AD, since the Islamic conquest of Spain.

      Very strange indeed… to continue your favourite topic – the Nazis – one wonders if the inhabitants of territories threatened with conquest by the Nazis also developed a “Naziphobia” as a result??

    • Dear Bashy
      Your interest in National Socialism is curious, but the topic is certainly worth understanding. Many good books exist that describe the rise and fall of the Third Reich, I shall not recommend a particular one. But let me make one suggestion that has quite extensive implications even today – the collaboration between Hitler and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini:
      https://www.firstthings.com/article/2005/08/hitlers-mufti

      Then, if your interest is in name-calling rather than understanding the evils of National Socialism, let me suggest something: Don’t worry about using ‘Nazi’, ‘National Socialist’ or even ‘Socialist’ – that won’t be accepted. Try instead ‘Jeffersonian’ or similar. This could lead to genuine mutual understanding and agreement – the Baron is the ultimate judge of my idea, of course.

  3. Think of “Islamophobia” this way: if you witness someone standing in a highway and an 18 wheeler truck is bearing down on them, you say to the person “get out of the highway or you will be run over!”

    But in our case, we have someone telling us “if you say anything you are a bigoted “truckophobe” and spreading hate and fear about 18 wheelers”!

    The whole purpose of the “Islamophobia” scam is to criminalize people’s instinct for self-preservation. I doubt if the concept will have any traction: at least with sane individuals.
    Delta Mike 67

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