Secular versus theocracy. Until relatively recently, the country of Turkey had managed to suppress the radical Islamic factions, and ran a country that, by Middle East standards, was pretty much a viable state.
But once the Jihadists get in control, they tend to excesses not seen in Western countries since the effective end of feudalism. For the fanatics, there are three distinct classes - the Noble Islamic Gentlemen, the imams and ayatollahs, and the dhimmi, plus another form of “monkey-people”, the kufir or infidels, somehow subhuman and subject only to slaughter.
It is an error to term this conflict with the Islamic Jihadists as a “war on Terror”. The name of the enemy is the Jihadists, and they have already unilaterally declared war on the rest of humanity. “Anti-Jihadist” has become the new countervailing force in the world.
With the relatively fading influence of Communism, the spectre of Islam as propagated by the Jihadist faction has loomed much larger in the affairs of mankind, and threatens human dignity and wisdom in ways that lead back to some kind of Dark Ages.
great post !
Thanks for explaining that so clearly.
Dark Age, indeed. I feel it coming.