Stratfor, I Apologize and I Take it Back
I don't think George Friedman is losing any sleep over my opinion, but a sense of fair play forces me to say this. I was laughing about the "but everyone here knows this" quality of the leaked e-mail messages until I came across one titled Gülen Movement: Turkey's Third Power.
In one sense, yes, everyone here knows this. However, I've been struggling to write a piece for City Journal about this very subject, and I failed completely to present this kind of clear summary in my first draft. Brian Anderson rightly sent it back saying he couldn't make heads or tails of it. I just couldn't do what Reva Bhalla succeeded in doing. She figured out what the most important parts of the story were and presented them in a cogent way.
Why wasn't I able to do that? I'm asking myself. Partly it's information overload: I know far too much about this, and an e-mail like this doesn't do justice to a subject that deserves a book (and about which many have been written). Partly it's because I became a bit overwhelmed with a sense of responsibility; on the one hand, the movement has some exceptionally sinister aspects, on the other, there are a lot of very decent people in it, and I didn't want to write anything that would cause them as a group to be maligned, either here or in the United States. Her objective was obviously different from mine, in that she didn't intend for this e-mail to be published, so she didn't have to weigh that consideration. Partly, I'm just too close to the subject--I have a sensitivity about "arrested journalists," as most journalist do. That's probably why Brian found my tone strangely paranoid and hostile.
I can't corroborate every word of the e-mail (no one can, which is part of the problem), but I think it's the best summary I've seen so far. You'll definitely learn something if you read it through. George Friedman was right to pay her to do this and not me. Chapeau, Reva Bhalla, and my sincere apologies.
Gülen denies the report and plans to sue the Turkish newspaper that reported it, Taraf. That's delicious in all kinds of ways, given that around here we call Taraf the "Center for Excellence in Plot Reporting."
(Brian, that's pretty much what I was trying to say. Maybe I could just smooth out the prose in some places, claim I wrote it? What's Stratfor going to do? They're committed to a policy of neither confirming nor denying that these things are theirs, right?)
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Comments:
Oct '10
Re: Stratfor, I Apologize and I Take it Back
While acknowledging that one can value (and pay for) aggregation of open source material such as Stratfor's, I repeat my earlier thought from a related thread: I have long suspected that Stratfor delivers less value than people are paying for. Friedman is, however, an excellent marketeer.
Oct '10
Re: Stratfor, I Apologize and I Take it Back
Two things I'd like to know more about, having read the 'Stratfor' memo, are:
Apr '11
Re: Stratfor, I Apologize and I Take it Back
If, in the future, you want to link to a wikileaks document, do you think it would be possible for you to copy and paste it into a non-wikileaks website that you then link to? This seems like an interesting subject, but I'd rather not provide them with web hits. The New Republic and other leftists are fine, particularly given the trivial amount of support for the opposition that our eyeballs provide, but wikileaks are vile murderers and supporting them leaves blood on our hands.
Apr '11
Re: Stratfor, I Apologize and I Take it Back
Great stuff. The FGC are Sufis, that part of Islam we seldom hear mentioned. In my corner of the world, upstate NY, there are a number of Sufis - western, American born - who seem to have converted or adopted their beliefs relatively recently. They seem to me to be closer to new age types than what conventional wisdom considers strict Muslims. I wonder what the Salafists think of mystical Muslims?
I noticed repeated references to taqiyya or some Sufi variant of taqiyya or Islamic dissimulation.
I was not familiar with Narcu tariquat. I found this very short introduction:
http://www.eurel.info/EN/index.php?pais=54&rubrique=447
Some scholars I have read view Sufism as a possible counterweight to Sunni or Shia fundamentalism.
Is is also very interesting that the real locus of the FGC is in the US.
Here is short overview of Sufism in the world:
https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/16908/ISIM_13_Sufism_and_the_Modern_in_Islam.pdf?sequence=1
Jun '10
Re: Stratfor, I Apologize and I Take it Back
Viator: Great stuff. The FGC are Sufis, that part of Islam we seldom hear mentioned. In my corner of the world, upstate NY, there are a number of Sufis - western, American born - who seem to have converted or adopted their beliefs relatively recently. They seem to me to be closer to new age types than what conventional wisdom considers strict Muslims. I wonder what the Salafists think of mystical Muslims?
...
Just for interest here is a wonderful musical clip that comes from the Indian movie, "Jodhaa Akbar" -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt93yH689Dg.
India supports a "New Age" in Islam.
It's a song of praise to a Sufi saint. The Sufis moved to India a long time ago to get away from the intolerant Persian Shiites. India has a long history of syncretism, and many Muslim and Sufi saints are revered by Hindus and vice versa.
The whirling dancing alone is worth watching this clip. Akbar is seen being very moved by the song and dancing and then taking part in it and having a spiritual epiphany or mystical experience. Akbar tried to change the closed minded Muslims of his era but after his reign everything relapsed.
Nov '10
Re: Stratfor, I Apologize and I Take it Back
I'm more concerned about the whitewashing of the man himself and how Gulenism is being sold in the West and -- uncharacteristically for this sort of problem -- in his homeland itself.
Some of the crazy statements Gulen has made on-record about the "Muslim lands" needing to acquire weapons of equal power and might to match those of the unbelievers belie his reputation of a sort of Islamic Gandhi . And that narrative is having some subtle, and disturbing, consequences.
I got a glimpse of this recently when I read in our denominational magazine that our church organizations had gotten involved with a refugee claim by a fellow from Turkey who was here on a student visa and didn't want to go back, because apparently he would have to serve time in the Turkish army.
We Anabaptists have a fast ticket to conscientious objector status in the U.S. and the argument was, that since he was a follower of Fethullah Gulen, he was the equivalent of an Anabaptist and conscription in Turkey was religious persecution. The court agreed. I suspect he only wanted a free pass to the U.S., where Gulen is organizing his ex-pat followers.
Nov '10
Re: Stratfor, I Apologize and I Take it Back
I'd like to to point out that Sufis are not necessarily pacifists. By and large they're not. Several of the bloody Mahdist uprisings, including the takeover of the great mosque in Mecca in 1979 were sufist. Many of the stories of alarming muslim behavior in the news take place in Sufi areas. Remember the British teacher who went to Africa and allowed a class of children to name her teddy bear "Mohammad", and almost lost her life as a result?
Sufism is a form of mysticism. Mystics may be peaceful. But mysticism can also feed a virulent, violent mindset that is extremely dangerous because it is not constrained by reason. All other things equal, I'd face the violent non-mystic before the violent mystic.
Re: Stratfor, I Apologize and I Take it Back
R. Craigen: I'm more concerned about the whitewashing of the man himself and how Gulenism is being sold in the West and -- uncharacteristically for this sort of problem -- in his homeland itself.
Some of the crazy statements Gulen has made on-record about the "Muslim lands" needing to acquire weapons of equal power and might to match those of the unbelievers belie his reputation of a sort of Islamic Gandhi . And that narrative is having some subtle, and disturbing, consequences.
I got a glimpse of this recently when I read in our denominational magazine that our church organizations had gotten involved with a refugee claim by a fellow from Turkey who was here on a student visa and didn't want to go back, because apparently he would have to serve time in the Turkish army.
Craig, would you be kind enough to post the link to this story?
Sep '11
Re: Stratfor, I Apologize and I Take it Back
She was British, so let me do it. This is a link to Wikipedia (usual disclaimer).
Mar '12
Re: Stratfor, I Apologize and I Take it Back
I concur. I got Strafor a while back because, as CB found, they do well with summaries for laymen. For stuff that my husband or I have more than a layman's knowledge, their stuff is thin.
Feb '12
Re: Stratfor, I Apologize and I Take it Back
I am glad Stratfor got it right on Turkey. Their comments on Russia are so silly, that it became material for comedians regardless of political persuasion. In fact, many believe that Stratfor "leaked" the materials themselves as a marketing strategy. Sorry, sanctimonious platitudes of George Friedman match those of his NY Times namesake.
So, it's a completely bipartisan annoyance - and coming from someone having several Friedman cousins. Oy vey! Happy Purim to those who celebrate!