NATO: It was Turkey which offered to host radars

[Gaara]

Please re-read what I said. When we mention our former glories why is that we talk about Al-Andalus or the Reign of the 4 Rightly Guided Caliphs or Saladin or even the Mughals as Our Empires. Why is it that we say that in the past Muslims were really something special and now we've been reduced to the place we have been ? When we, as Pakistanis, haven't s**t to contribute to any of those Empires. And I dunno about you, but I'm neither an Arab nor a Kurd nor a Central Asian...so I can't even claim them as my ancestor's empires even from an ethnic point of view, and yet I am fiercely proud of the Ottoman Empire and of Saladin and of the glorious civilization of Andalusia. Why ? Because, Islam transcends all of those ethnic, linguistic etc. barriers - we are one. I said this in an other thread : If Saladin was asked about an Azad Kurdistan or Suleiman the Magnificent about Turkish Nationalism or the Mughals about a Pakistan, they'd wouldn't know what the heck we're talking about. Because, their politics varied greatly from our politics - they didn't work around the concept of a nation-state and modern day notions of nationalism. We're Pakistanis, we're Turks, we're Arabs etc. but our ancestors are the same and they belong to all of us. Avicenna and Averoes are just as mine as Baba Bulleh Shah (Punjabi Sufi poet) or Rumi belongs to an Arab.

So I stand by what I said, I take great pride in the Ottoman Empire and Suleiman was my Caliph too.

All your analyses are great and your understanding of Turkey's position (a muslim majority western country, a part of NATO) is very clear. Thanks.

By the way, if you ever want to come to Istanbul, I expect you to be the guest of the writer of these lines.. I hope you won't say "NO"..

 

[Armstrong]

All your analyses are great and your understanding of Turkey's position (a muslim majority western country, a part of NATO) is very clear. Thanks.

By the way, if you ever want to come to Istanbul, I expect you to be the guest of the writer of these lines.. I hope you won't say "NO"..

Thank you sir, I'm honored and likewise if you'd ever come to Lahore, I too would love to have you as my guest, brother !

 

[Zulkarneyn]

The only thing that I was trying to emphasize in my previous posts more than anything was not to espouse the greatness of the Persian, the Ottoman, the Arab or the Mughal Empire - but simply that the ethno-nationalism that we so very fondly evoke every now and then and claim such and such an empire as ours because they were Turks or Arabs or some other nationality would be historically fallacious because Suleiman the Magnificent, Saladin or Umar bin Khattab or even Akbar, would have thought us mad if we had talked to them about present nationalism and how each of us claim these great man exclusively as our own simply because one of them is a Turk, the other a Kurd, one an Arab and the last a Central Asian/Indian.

Superbly written! You have articluated what should be the point view of every single Muslim person. Correct, every Muslim empire (4 Caliphates included) had flaws, but we have to look at the bigger picture, instead of focusing on the tiny negativity. I hope some day Muslims will come to understand the ethno-nationalistic idea that so many Muslims take pride in, is nothing but a dirty creation of European colonialists. Welcome to this forum my friend, it is so refreshing to see enlightened persons as you with us.

 

[amalakas]

Superbly written! You have articluated what should be the point view of every single Muslim person. Correct, every Muslim empire (4 Caliphates included) had flaws, but we have to look at the bigger picture, instead of focusing on the tiny negativity. I hope some day Muslims will come to understand the ethno-nationalistic idea that so many Muslims take pride in, is nothing but a dirty creation of European colonialists. Welcome to this forum my friend, it is so refreshing to see enlightened persons as you with us.

we are still paying for their mistakes and crimes.