Erdogan?

I have travelled in Turkey extensively and dealt with Turkish people in depth. I don't know Erdogan at all personally but what I can tell you is that I witnessed with my own two eyes the days when girls used to smuggle clothes in their bags, sneak out during lunch, make Wudhu pray and then put their skirts back in to get back to school after lunch.

I remember the days during summer when Beer/Alcohol was more common then water in Istanbul.

I remember the days when those in Sunnah were rare and looked down upon, you HARDLY EVER saw a woman in Hijab (let alone Niqab) in public areas of Turkey. The rural areas and villages of Turkey were always cultural. I almost got arrested by the military for calling the Adhan in an abandoned Mosque because we waited and waited and waited during Maghrib and nobody came to the Mosque

The Imam/Muadhin were NOWHERE but the military/villagers/Imam came to beat me up just because I called the Adhan.

Mosques used to be the centre of cards and amusements (visit Germany and many Turkish Mosques still are). The graduates of Government Darul-ulooms were ignorant of basic teachings of Hanafi Madhab.

TODAY, Turkey looks nothing like what it looked like even 15 years ago.

It has not become a Shariah state (and it won't in 20 years either) but there is a difference of night and day between Turkey of old and Turkey of today both in terms of economy and Islam.

Europeans used to make fun of Turkey trying to get into EU because of their stagnant economy, you don't see EU laughing now! They won't let Turkey in because of Islam but no more due to economic issues.

 Before Erdogan, Turkish Government tightly controlled (still do) Mosques, Imams etc. NOBODY could say anything or have a program etc without Government approval. We were in a village and time for Maghrib came, we waited, waited and waited and nobody came to the Mosque.

We checked the timetable and if I recall correctly may be (20 minutes) after Maghrib had passed. We should have just prayed and left INSTEAD we decided to turn on the loud speaker and call the Adhan.

When the voice of Adhan echoed in the village, the villagers came informed the Military and they all started coming to the Mosque.

Ottomans always built the Mosque on the highest point and most prominent region of the city so it had to take them some time to get to us. All the mountains and hills echoed with Adhan and we started praying and prayed quickly the 3 Fardh.

We could see Jeeps arriving and people coming up the mountain so we promptly ran from the other side of the mountain.

“Islam” in Turkey was (and still is) is very ritualistic i.e. Imam has to make specific Dhik’r at specific times etc while we just called Adhan and prayed which was unacceptable. We were breaking the law by operating the Mosque without permission which was a huge deal in Turkey (before Erdogan). 

Pakhtoons have good qualities but they are also a bunch of racist bigots who ill treated many who migrated to Afghanistan for the sake of Islam.

Try being a dark-skinned African living under the Taliban and you will see the treatment of the Pakhtoons (first hand).

Anyone who disagrees or want to argue about this point is delusional and immersed in (false) Pakhtoon (race baited) ideology.