The next Flotilla to Gaza may well include Latin Americans and with them their governments support of Hamas
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עברית (Hebrew)
BY J. Millard Burr and Rachel Ehrenfeld
Since the fall of the Morsi government, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s efforts have doubled to elevate his stature in the Muslim world and turn Turkey into the new center for the International Brotherhood (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun). While the Ikhwan penetration of Europe has advanced for a half-century, little attention has been given to Latin America’s Muslims.
To remedy the situation, for the first time in the history of the Ikhwan, the organization’s leadership has extended a hand of friendship to Muslim leaders of Latin America. In 2006, Erdogan’s push into the Latin continent came in handy. On November 11th, last week, Istanbul welcomed some seventy-one Muslim leaders to a four-day gathering labeled the First Latin American Muslim Religious Leaders Summit.
Turkish deputy Prime Minister, Yalçın Akdogan, urged those present to “take action against anti-Islam propaganda across the world.” Turkey’s dominant Directorate of Religious Affairs (DIB) played host to representatives from all Latin American countries. The President of Religious Affairs, Professor Mehmet Görmez, opened a conclave that was based on the theme “Building Our Tradition and Future.” Görmez opened the meeting with remarks on “the current global problems Muslim communities face as a community,” noting in particular the oppression of minorities, internal conflicts, and economic problems that beset the Islamic community (ummah).
As often is the case, especially these days, the presence of the Ikhwan was downplayed and obfuscated, and this summit’s organizers claimed their agenda was not “to impose any ideology, or shift the current conflicts in Muslim regions to other lands, but rather to initiate a dialogue to discuss the opportunities for cooperation, and relationship building in religious, historical and cultural areas, as well as sharing experiences in religious education and services.”
