A Refutation to the Modern World Far from Protecting Human Dignity

In the Preamble to the Constitution of the French Republic, adopted by the National Constituent Assembly of France on September 29, 1946 and ratified by the French electorate in a referendum held on October 13, 1946, "Victory" (Victory, Triumph) is defined as "the victory of free nations over regimes which have forced the human personality to submit to them and attempted to discredit them." (1) 

In short, doesn't 'victory' mean liberating the nation from being pushed around, from being despised, from bondage, from captivity? That is why, as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk succinctly put it, victory is also the manifestation, the image of a sense of belonging. In other words, "Victory is for those who can say victory is mine. Success, on the other hand, belongs to those who start by saying that they will succeed and finally say that they have succeeded." This is why the people who filled the fields after their liberation from captivity and imprisonment took great pleasure in making the "V" sign with their index and middle fingers, after the "V" in "Victory". It is such a "V" that the security forces trying to prevent the illegal demonstration almost try to shove it in the eyes. The suggestion that this sign was inspired by the name of Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister during World War II, is just a mere figure of speech. As a politician and a man of the people, he too benefited from the "V" in "Victory", but in vain. Because of the losses in the Gallipoli War, the people of Great Britain organized marches in London and held banners saying "we don't want to send a single one of our sons to Gallipoli anymore" and showed their reaction to him and the government. Inspired by the Gallipoli Victory and seeing that the Land of the Never-Setting Sun could be defeated, countries in the Far East such as India and Afghanistan revolted, which brought Churchill to his end. 

Ambition was one of Churchill's traits more than anything else in politics. This characteristic of his made him the only hope of his country in the Second World War. So much so that his ambition for power and love of victory was described as "nothing else in life can give the taste of victory in war." Yes, dear readers, victory is one of the most important characteristics of nationhood and nation building. As we all know, with the liberation of Izmir on September 9, 1922, Turkish lands were liberated from Greek occupation. Although the occupation troops left the borders of the country later, August 30 symbolically represents the day when the country's territory was taken back.

After its great victory, the French nation openly declared to the world that every human being has inalienable and sacred rights, regardless of race, religion or belief. (1) However, this is exactly what the colonialist, expansionist French have done to other nations in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and America, and this is exactly what they have written in their constitution. 

Even though France has entered the post-colonial period, the colonizer-colonized relationship with the countries that gained their independence is still in full swing. When France withdrew from the colonies in Africa, two issues were mandatory: First, French as the official language of the country and the language of education, and second, compulsory formal education in French. Educational institutions from primary school to university were shaped in the way France wanted. France prevented its former colonies from severing their ties with France by establishing the Community of French Speaking Countries. The headquarters of 'La Francophonie', the community of French-speaking countries, is in the capital Paris. Africa is the continent with the highest number of French speakers in the Community of French Speaking Countries. Nearly 100 million people speak French on the African continent. French is the official language of 27 of Africa's 54 countries. A French language and culture dissemination organization called "Francophonie" has been established with various satellites and affiliated organizations supervised by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, France committed so many crimes against humanity during the colonial period that it has not only avoided confronting this issue in real terms, but has also been in an effort to perpetuate the nightmare of 'Neocolonialism' in Africa. France is so convincing on this issue that African elites who grew up in French former colonies - let's call them "calibrators" for short - argued for years that colonialism was good and that they should not be independent. Colonialism was so ingrained in the bones of Africans that they came up with the idea of "EuroAfricanism", which opposed independence. France should at least apologize to Africa for the riches it plundered, the millions of people it enslaved or killed, and the genocides it committed, and yet it taxes them. (3) 

Let us say that the French treasury earns 500 billion dollars annually from Africa. (4) Of course, we can't just bless this with the French nation, as the foundation of freedom is clearly built on human dignity and dignity above all else. This is no different in Germany, for example, where the foundations of the Nation-State were laid. The German Constitution summarizes human dignity and its activities as follows: 

"Human dignity is inviolable. It is the duty of all state authorities to respect and protect it."

Isn't that beautiful? But is it? Europe does not take a humanitarian approach to those who seek refuge in their countries from non-European countries, including Turkey, but displays a Third Worldist approach as a supremacist jacobinist. In other words, if you don't have money, you cannot have your share of human dignity, honor and reputation, and you are always asked to sacrifice your dignity and your human dignity is under your feet. There is an approach that the dignity of a person can be touched as if it is a special right, when they have no money, when they are powerless. We see it being touched all together. Let's put it bluntly, the system has made it a duty to touch dignity. 

The irregular migrants crossing to the Greek islands in the Aegean not only from Turkey but also from countries such as Libya, Egypt and Tunisia are pushed back into Turkish territorial waters in life rafts and rubber boats, which is a crime against humanity as stipulated in the "UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide", let alone honor and dignity. In recent months, the Aegean Sea has turned into a sea of death for migrants from different countries seeking refuge on the islands off the Aegean coast of Greece with dreams of Europe. In a migrant report prepared by a Norwegian non-governmental organization, 19,000 migrants have been pushed to their deaths in the Aegean Sea in 8.5 months, Greece has been accused of torture and sexual abuse, and the EU has also been criticized for remaining indifferent to the cruelty. (2) Yes, dear readers, unfortunately, the world public opinion has also been silent against this cruelty and is somehow complicit in the crime.

There is clearly a sharpening hatred, a diverging, hostile, increasingly polarized Christian-Islamic conflict. This clearly manifests itself in the form of Islamophobia. Islamophobia is so integrated with hatred of Islam that one can almost feel the Protestant-Catholic conflict of the Christian world of the past in all its aspects. So what should be done to prevent polarization? First of all, it is clear that Europe will suffer if the polarization continues in this way. But first of all, it is worth noting that the US is fueling nationalism in Europe with this divergence. What should be done in the face of this situation without delay? I regret to say that orientalists and occidentalists are being used by warlords to the fullest extent for their own ambitions. Humanity needs orientalists like Edward Said. But unfortunately, the western world displays a discriminatory, divisive, modular culture-making orientalist approach towards Islam. 

This paradigm is completely wrong. Trying to bring a rational approach to the East by arming oneself with Western sciences means rejecting intuitive reason. In other words, it is completely wrong to attempt to solve the problems in the East through western glasses. The reverse is also true for the Islamic world. The Islamic world, which places intuitive reason at its focal point, is dominated by the same feelings of hatred in its approach to the West with occidentalism. In a nutshell, "Humanity needs Orientalism and Orientalists who combine "Rational, Vehbi and Kesbi sciences"." The necessity to take a multidisciplinary look at the current events is precisely the focal point of this analysis. It is the ideas of great philosophers such as Goethe, Schiller and Tolstoy that will enable this moderation. It is these great philosophers who will moderate the Islamic world and the Western world. And above all, it is clear that Rainer Maria Rilke (Born: December 4, 1875, Prague, Czech Republic: Died: December 29, 1926, Montreux, Switzerland), with his passionate spirit in a puny body, this "Son of Nobody" (Niemandes Sohn), will make a great contribution to the acclimatization of both worlds. Why? Let us tell you. Because the former German Chancellor Schröder addresses the German people with the poem "Autumn Day" by this lover of the Qur'an, and Lady Gaga has Rilke's verses tattooed on her arm, who is deeply devoted to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).  Rilke's sentiments have been a refuge for those who have come to terms with Christianity in frustration and anger as they fled the steel and cold face of modernism and materialism in search of a spiritual embrace. Rilke, one of the famous names of German literature, who met Muslims in Africa, where he traveled for a period, and learned Arabic from them, admired the Prophet Muhammad like Goethe. Rainer Maria Rilke's contact with Islam was not difficult in a climate where Goethe's works on the belief in unity took shape. And after meeting the Qur'an in the home of a true orientalist, he took it upon himself to write the poem "The Risalet (Invocation) of Muhammad" to the Prophet of Islam:

THE SUPPLICATION OF MUHAMMAD

Though where he hid, the most exalted

When he enters, he is the angel recognized at a glance

Upright, majestic and glittering:

He begged, renouncing all pretensions,

To be allowed to remain a traveler

Like before, as an absent-minded merchant;

He had no education - it was too much for him,

Such is the word of the wise to see.

The angel, as if commanding, was showing

To him who begs what is written on his slate

He was showing and asking again: Read.

And he read: so much so that the angel was amazed.

He was already called a reader,

He was the one who could, the one who listened and did. 

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875- 1926) (Germany) 

Translation: A. Turan Oflazoglu (5)

His poem "The Prophecy of Muhammad", in which he expresses his admiration for the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) with feelings as enduring as Goethe's, clearly reveals this. Rilke's poem is a rejection of the modern world that reduces reality to mere experience, experimentation and observation. It is the last literary objection, the last cry against the materialism of the 19th century that has ended and the 20th century that has just begun. Isn't it still needed today? Isn't it possible? A century later, there is a great need for its unifying, integrating and moderating qualities in today's world. Lev Tolstoy, a well-known name in Western literature, Friedrich Nietzsche, one of the most important philosophers of history, and many others have expressed their admiration for the Prophet (PBUH) like Goethe. Although the history of the West tried to hide this admiration for the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and Islam and hid what was written for a long time, this truth has come to light sooner or later and will continue to do so. So much so that it has been revealed not only in their own works but also in the works of the writers they influenced (6) dear readers.

Footnotes

(1) Bülent Nuri Esen, "Constitution of the French Republic", Istanbul University Journal of the Faculty of Law; https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/634412/Erişim Date 08.07.2023/

(2) Latest News "Greece's record of crimes against humanity" 23.09.2022; https://www.ensonhaber.com/gundem/yunanistanin-insanlik-sucu-karnesi/ Accessed 08.07.2023/

(3) Mustafa Efe, "The French nightmare in Africa - I: Historical Background", Anadolu Agency 05.02.2020

(4) Mustafa Efe, "France's nightmare in Africa - I: New Colonialism", Anadolu Agency 06.02.2020

(5) http://www.siirparki.com/rmrilke20.html/ Access Date 08.07.2023/

(6) Maaile, "A Deep Inner Journey to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH): Rainer Maria Rilke!" October 18, 2021; http://maailedergi.com/hz-muhammede-sav-uzanan-derin-bir-ic-yolculuk-rainer-maria-rilke/ Accessed 08.07.2023/