Good post.
Can you comment on Atatürk’s (Father of the Turks) and his success in turning the Muslim expression of Islam inward as an internal faith to be fought inside a person’s own self rather than in outside acts of aggression? He seemed to have created a secular society that resulted in modernization of Turkey (although they are backtracking now).
Briefly...Atatürk was a product of his time, during one of the weakest periods of Islamic history. He held office from 29 October 1923 – 10 November 1938. Author Bat Ye’or explains the political restructuring between ME & European policies during post WWII reconstruction in her book “Eurabia”. Islam was busy during this post war period building beach-heads in Europe and then after the Siege of Mecca in ‘79 (coincident w/Iranian hostage crisis) Saudi Arabia’s hand was forced to use it’s oil wealth to expand Islam’s influence throughout the world (beyond Europe)in order to remain protector of Islam’s holy places. The world is a very different place with the rapid expansion of “Islam is Peace” machine.