IS THERE REALLY A GROUP READY TO HANG ERDOGAN OUT
TO DRY?
Intibah Kadi 30 April 2020
Australian Investigator and Reporter, Chris Ray,
has written an excellent piece [1]on
Syrian born Imam Fedaa Al Majzoub, a graduate from the world's most prestigious
Muslim institution, Al-Azhar University, and who, until recently, enjoyed a
privileged position in the Sunni Islamic community in Australia as a leader and
academic and was presented as a "moderate".
Like many of Majzoub's peers,
he engaged with government and NGO's in "interfaith" activities [2],
reassuring the Australian government and public of unity, fraternity and equal
regard for the law [3]and governance of Australia ,
glossing over, or in fact denying any contradictions vis-à-vis their hardline
Takfiri agenda and where loyalties ultimately lie, also perhaps underplaying
the decades-long role Saudi Arabia has played in the Muslim communities of
Australia[4].
Some of the positions this Imam held in Australia were; Adjunct
Lecturer at a public Australian university, Religious Advisor to the Islamic
Council of NSW (the most populous state in Australia), Deputy Chairman of the
NSW board of Imams, Member of the Fatwa Board on the Australian National Imams
Council and Head of Muslim Chaplaincy within the NSW Government Department of
Family and Community Services.
My interest in the subject of the Al Majzoub family
began back in 2012 when they received media coverage and government sympathy in
Australia. They were well known for their opposition to the Syrian government.
Several people produced exposes of two brothers of the family including Fedaa
Al Majzoub, and corporate media in Australia even repeated those allegations
and defended the family. In closed forums the background was discussed and
explored regarding the father of the family Hassan AlMajzoub, Syrian born,
educated further in Egypt and Saudi Arabia and having lived and worked in
Pakistan and Afghanistan where he came and went from Australia for a period of
time.
When allegations broke out in late 2014 in Australia about the academic
and cleric, Imam Fedaa Majzoub, the subject of Chris Ray's current article,
government leaders and the major media rushed to defend him.
The prestigious,
conservative paper, a prominent newspaper,The Australian, published an article
titled "The Respected
Aussie imam smeared by Assad regime." [5], referring with outrage to alleged Syrian
Government allegations against him. One of the allegations was that Majzoub was
implicated in massacres, one which Ghassan Kadi and I described in English from a Syrian, Arab language
documentary.[6]
Notwithstanding Chris Ray's excellent article on Al
Majzoub and his alleged activities, including a previous piece on the two
brothers written in 2014 [7], it appears that part of the
sources he drew from, namely that of author Abdullah Bozkurt, could be
problematic but, even if it does, it provides an interesting story in itself.
Bozkurt produces stunning exposés on Erdoğan, one
after another. They are quite delightful to read. Many of his articles are
excellent. Nevertheless, Bozkurt appears to have his own dubious agenda. The
recent news regarding documents implicating Fedaa AlMajzoub, which Chris Ray
has picked up on, seems to only originate from one source; Bozkurt [8].
Perusing Arabic, English
and Turkish language media, there appears to be nothing about Fedaa AlMajzoub
being in trouble with Turkish authorities. I stand to be corrected, but I will
not accept to be corrected if there are reports or the subject covered by
any Gülenist media or supporters because of their history. This is because I
believe Bozkurt is working with or sympathetic to the Gülenists.
In Sweden,
after evacuating from the 2016 attempted coup in Turkey where he was the Ankara bureau
chief of the Gülen-friendly "Today's Zaman Daily, Bozkurt established the
media outlet https://www.nordicmonitor.com/.
From Sweden, Bozkurt made his
claims regarding connections between Al Majzoub and Erdoğan, replete with documents described as genuine.
Abdullah Bozkurt, professes to have recently come
across or been furnished with leaked memos allegedly from Turkish police and
intelligence compiled way back in 2012. They appear to not contain letter heads
and, according to some observers, are not written in a style recognised as
typical of Turkish officials.
Of interest, the documents don't implicate any
Western powers despite it being well-known that the war on Syria and Libya was
prosecuted primarily by the West and that with regard to Syria, Turkey was a crucial
enabler for its NATO allies and terrorists’ to access Syria.
Bozkurt, being an experienced
media man, a former Bureau Chief of a large Turkish newspaper with many
contacts, could well be telling the
truth about the reliability of these documents, particularly if they have come
from dissidents, including Gülenists, who have or still are deeply embedded
into the Turkish apparatus, a weeding out task seemingly almost impossible for
Erdoğan.
Gülenists have been used by the CIA in intelligence operations and are
referred to as Gladio B operators[9] and naturally, they are not
going to expose the dirt of the West and their allies in the going-ons
regarding Syria or anywhere else. Gülenist articles on international or Turkish
affairs may seem attractive, but they are yet another side of the coin when it
comes to terrorism.
Bozkurt's
claim is that the classified intelligence documents he states he received,
reveal a jihadist group called the Ben Ali Group, led by an Abdaladim Ali Mossa
Ben Ali, a Libyan with close ties to Al Qaeda, having participated in transferring
foreign fighters and weapons from Libya through to Turkey and that links
existed between this group and Erdoğan who was Prime Minister at that time.
The documents presented as
genuine, show a close working relationship between Ben Ali and Fedaa Al Majzoub,
which it alleges was in touch with Erdoğan's then chief advisors, namely Ibrahim Kalin, now
the Presidential spokesman, and Sefer Turan, now the chief Presidential
advisor, during the process of arranging the transfer of foreign fighters and
weapons.
None of this news is new information to those up-to-date on the
attempts to take down the sovereign state of Syria. The surprise lies in the
total absence of Bozkurt implicating any role of Western forces behind the
events he reports on and their close relationship, particularly at this period,
with Erdoğan.
At the time of these documents which were claimed
to have been created in 2012, any such concerns expressed within them by
Turkish authorities would have been laughable as all the enemies of Syria
worked together for as long as they were moving forward in achieving their
individual aims.
Clearly until the break between Qatar and Saudi
Arabia in 2017, memberships in terrorist groups largely were interchangeable
and often based on who provided the best or most exciting opportunities.
Ghassan Kadi explained to Sputnik in 2015 [10] that "…members walk in
and out of these organizations all the time, and in effect, there is no difference
between them at all". Their relationships only fell apart when they failed
to take down the Syrian government and scrambled to look for whom to blame for
their own failures. Even well after this alleged police and intelligence
report, numerous exposés appeared on Erdoğan's
own son and son-in-law's business ventures with ISIS regarding Syrian oil.
Perusing many of Bozkurt's articles in turkishminute.com, clearly a Gülenist
mouthpiece or strong sympathiser media site, there is no evidence [11]of Bozkurt mentioning any
Western players in bed with Turkey with regards to any of the mischief and
mayhem going on with Syria and all the bands of terrorists involved. His
Twitter account renders no satisfaction either on this deficit.
Had the Western enemies of Syria decided it was time to take down Erdoğan, surely this
article and its contents, and maybe some others by Bozkurt, would suddenly have
gained prominence, making it to "news flash" status. Fetullah Gülen
is no longer a favourite tool of the Americans; some of his key people and
enablers spend more time in court than doing anything else in the US. Or,
perhaps it is early days and the news, if true, hasn't been taken up by entities
of America's choosing.
If the documents are genuine and have only recently come
to the attention of Erdoğan, surely the paranoid megalomaniac would be on another purge within his government and all its
apparatuses; that is unless it is being kept very quiet. However with
opposition to Erdoğan around the world, keeping the lid on any purge might be difficult.
Investigations I carried out on Feeda AlMajzoub
placed him clearly with the FSA and if the 2012 Turkish reports are true, he
would have worked with all kinds of people and entities committed to taking
down the Syrian government.
It was publicly stated by AlMajzoub’s own people
that he was the “only Australian “[12] on the Syrian National
Council, the political wing of the FSA, at that time funded by Qatar and Saudi
Arabia. He was allegedly in the terrorist area when his brother was killed [13]
and there are many photos of him with militants from all over the world.
However, once Saudi Arabia and Qatar fell out, the
FSA and its affiliates were funded primarily by Qatar, with Turkey facilitating
and allowing all the physical logistics such as training camps and, most
importantly, access into Syria. Saudis no doubt from the beginning would have
felt uncomfortable that they could not control all aspects of the war on Syria
due to the longest border with Syria being that of Turkey. Whilst Saudi Arabia
controls Jordan, Jordan's long border with Syria could not provide in any way
the logistics and attributes possessed by Turkey. It is common knowledge that
Syria would never have been invaded without the key help of Turkey due to its geography[14].This reality was a boon for
Turkey's (Erdoğan’s) dream to gain world Sunni leadership [15].
So why, according to Bozkurt's article, is Turkey
turning on alleged assets such as this Imam, when the regime itself is and has
for a long time been deeply involved in the actions described in Bozkurt's exposé?
If this is true, perhaps one explanation could be offered that such individuals
have served Erdoğan's purposes. If that
is the case, Erdoğan would likely want to
identify all who were loyal and co-operative with him on Syria but who also
took money and orders from Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom Erdoğan wishes to wrestle the title of "Leader
of the Sunni world" from and, who Erdoğan
these days, along with Qatar, stands against.
If these claims of Bozkurt are
true, and if a Turkish "crackdown" on Al-Qaida has indeed been taking
place, given that Al-Qaida, also identified as Al Nusra, which has been a
crucial asset to Erdoğan, surely it would
merely be a tokenistic action for Western consumption.
Boztkurt's exposé intimates that the lid is about
to blow off on the activities of Erdoğan in respect to this Ben Ali Group and
associates. No evidence of such an impending event seems to exist, nor does
potential collaboration by powerful entities or states seem to transpire around
these allegations, let alone any sign of a developing action brewing in an
attempt to set up Erdoğan for a fall. When
the time for Erdoğan to take a tumble
arrives, we may get a surprise as to who will be responsible.
References
and Footnotes:
[1] Chris
Ray. "Moderate" Australian Imam names in Syria Arms Trafficking
Operation
[2]
Footnote: Chris Ray's article picks up an important point of a strategy used in
Australia by the hidden radical leadership in the Sunni community, that being
the activities of "Interfaith" meetings. Such meetings, encouraged
initially by the Jewish B'nai B'rith movement, were embraced by Government and
relevant NGO's and educational facilities as a celebration and affirmation of a
harmonious, diverse and culturally rich Australia. Concurrently this raised the
profile of government "approved" and endorsed, mostly highly
qualified, articulate Islamic leaders in the country, ignoring the fact that
not all of the country's Muslims were Sunni. Not only did they become the
"show ponies", trotted out each time Australian authorities or NGO's
wanted to express harmony, they were also used to quell the public anxieties
after 9/11, subsequent attacks attributed to "Islamic terrorism" or
any disharmony such as the Cronulla Riots in 2005. Fedaa Al Majzoub was up
there with Prime Ministers and people of influence. Note the fifth last
paragraph of the report below regarding a high level interfaith event; "Interfaith Dinner honouring His Grace Bishop Kevin
Manning as the 2010 Champion of Cultural Inclusion", 9 June 2010
[3]Dinner Meeting between the Imams and the
Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, Mr. Tony Negus 25 December 2010
[4]
Footnote: Saudi Arabia's role in strong business relationships with Australian
government and companies and as a strong US ally, gave them a powerful inroad
to radicalising Muslim communities, including emerging refugee communities.
Saudi Arabian Wahhabi missionaries could easily enter Australia and go about
their activities. Funding for Islamic based activities was substantial. This
included funding universities, mosques, study groups, promoting to government
particular Islamic leaders, inculcating Saudi Wahhabi culture into communities
in place of their traditional cultures, just to mention some of their
strategies to replace Sunni Islam with the Wahhabi version. Some links” "Revealed: the Saudis' paymaster in
Australia", Sydney Morning Herald, 10 September, 2005; https://www.smh.com.au/national/revealed-the-saudis-paymaster-in-australia-20050910-gdm1ko.html ,and "How to be a useful idiot: Saudi funding in Australia", Mervyn
Bendle, 13 October 2008, updated 29 September 2010; https://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-10-13/32626 and "NATIONAL SECURITY:Secret Saudi funding of Australian institutions",Mervyn Bendle (reviewer) 21
February 2009 http://www.newsweekly.com.au/article.php?id=3808. All this time, it appeared
Australian authorities in general, possessed little of no capacity in
appreciating the nefarious undercurrents to many of these events, culminating
in recruitment opportunities for Wahhabis for the wars and conflicts that
interested them.
[5]
Respected Aussie Imam Smeared by the Assad Regime, The Australian, December
2014
[6] OGARITE DANDACHE'S AUGUST 2013 DOCUMENTARY
ON LATTAKIA MASSACRE
[8]Al-Qaeda group in Libya had close ties to Erdoğan,
intelligence documents reveal, Adbullah Bozkurt, 20 January 2020
[9] The
Origins of NATO's Secret Islamic Terrorist Proxies. Tom Secker, 11 March 2013
[10]
"Moderate Islamism" Washington, Brussels Playing with Fire in Syria,
Iraq. Ghassan Kadi, Sputnik,12 December 2015 https://sptnkne.ws/x3Zy
[12] Popular Sydney Sheikh Mustapha Al Majzoub martyred
in Syria, Muslim Village, 20 August 2012; https://muslimvillage.com/2012/08/20/27205/popular-sydney-sheikh-mustapha-al-majzoub-martyred-in-syria/
[13]
Footnote: In 2012 the younger brother of Imam Fedaa AlMajzoub, Sheikh Mustapha
AlMajzoub was killed in a terrorist held part of Syria. He was a
"Sheikh", a school teacher responsible for cultivating the minds of
young Muslims in Australia and, on his Facebook page, boasted about the capture
of 72 Syrian government loyalists. Under his post a friend asked if they had
been "slaughtered" yet. The then Premier of NSW, Barry O'Farrell,
allegedly, according to Arabic Newspaper, An-Nahar, published on 27 August
2012, offered his condolences for the "killing” of Sheikh Mustapha Al
Majzoub. This is despite on the 22nd of August 2012, The Australian publishing that
the Sheikh was " ... known to police and intelligence services because of
his "extreme" views" https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/sydney-sheik-killed-in-syria-an-extremist/news-story/795ec65ea88ecf84f0622b84e08a6aa4 . The grieving father Hassan
AlMajzoub travelled to the terrorist held area where his son was killed to
visit his grave.The headstone says "Al
Shahid Mustapha Al Majzoub". The father posted a video on his Facebook page of
his visit https://www.facebook.com/hassan.almajzoub.31/videos/310864785734275/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUKkfhfK2lZeHTBMp5Z_JM9y_nmpWkOiHq6DUuo9B_uWgbB72S38q6xaXp9SUYvvQ7QrUza_-_cfDLMuT2ctlurWw-ElbqHXUQ2J4pUkPhPBSQMZBmXiPZwVfBMeCwee8cKigq-hiQCxN5nzxe6S_Ws&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-y-R
