Secularism: Another face of Masonic Lodges? PART FOUR

By Naveed Tajammal      

The young Turkish Sultan, entered on his reign nominally as an independent sovereign, his minister, Rashid Pasha, who had gained, in an unusual degree the confidence of western statesmen, do these lines sound familiar ,from 1947 to date, we have too, been victims of ministers thrust upon us. The real policy makers, who have implemented, economic and educational policies sub servant to the western mindset, the theory of global village being part of it, with Europe as the policeman. Amongst our intellectuals even the concept of nationalism barely exists, hence only a few oppose these so called reforms in our country, Reverting back to Turkey, of post 1839,so Rashid Pasha, passed an edict, called “Hatti-shariff of Gulhane” which announced the speedy establishment of institutions “which were to ensure to all subjects of the sultan, a freedom, which was not awarded to them before “the military continued to be the target of the reforms, with the Janissaries out of the way, only the old Ottoman Army now stood in the way for the western powers. Measures were taken to introduce and replace the “Mektab & Medrese” system of education. A new system based on the French Model was now introduced, called the’” Millet System”, which gave autonomy, in the religious matters to the Christians of the empire. It also allowed the western business groups to enter the Turkish markets, which later proved to be a serious threat to the progress in Turkey. Under this new system the non-Muslims were also allowed to have their own, legal and educational systems. The Christian missionaries opened western educational schools, by the end of 19th century, 1500 such institutions were all over the Turkish Empire, with no intellectual worth his salt, left to oppose the new thought process. The Freemasons, and other Christians, changed and created a new class of men, the champions of a new order called “Secularism”.

The same Turk who under the leadership of, Kara Mustapha, the Grand Vizer, was at Vienna, in 1683,who with an army of 500,000,was thinking of making Germany his new north western, province of the Empire, now had Sultans ,attending, like Abdul Aziz. The Paris exhibition of 1867,and later going to London to receive from the Queen of the British, Victoria, “The Order of Garter” meaning thereby, “the prime order of Christendom “which was awarded to the following five: The Prelate, or the Bishop of Winchester: The Chancellor, the Registrar, the King of Arms, or the Chief Herald(servant)at Windsor, the seat of the British Monarch, and lastly to the Usher, the man in charge of the “black rod:”An ebony stick which had a gold top of lion, the symbol of British Monarchy. The Usher was the Sergeant at Arms of the monarch in the House of Lords,.

Thus such a fate befell, the caliph of Muslims and the Sultan of the Turks, when he stooped to accept the ‘Order of the Garter’ from the British Queen, it was this Sultan and his team of advisors, who bankrupted the state too, for the services rendered to the west he was allowed the privilege of joining their self created elitist club. Itwas in 1853,that the term, ‘the sick man’ was coined by the west and the process of the Empire’s balkanization started. Here in our own country, which too, is a target of western onslaught, and already maps of balkanization, are afloat of Pakistan .The movement amongst our misdirected regionalist leaders, and champions. Naturally, as was the case in Turkey then, they too, have blessings of some powers. The Europeans had concentrated in Lebanon and western Balkans, and repeatedly Muslims were massacred in these lands, with no janissary’s left, and the old Turkish army likewise clipped, and poor leadership at the statecraft level what else could one accept, but the arrival of a new thought, process, called secularism.

Unfortunately, in the last 20 years of the 19th century, all major industries of the Turkish Empire had been handed over to the foreign firms, the railways, mines, and the armament industries. Throughout, these 20 years Turkey had been gradually sold out and pawned off to foreigners. Can anybody also compare a set similar to what had happened a100 years back in Turkey? A secret revolutionary society had been formed in the period of Ali Pasha, the Grand Vizier, around 1867 or so called the young, “Ottomans” poets like Namik  Kemal Bey, and Zia Pasha, had fled to Paris, and were inciting the public. Good men and a few honest statesmen had held the tottering empire. On the other hand, under the shelter of these capitulations, British, American, French and ,later, Germans stared schools. The later famous Robert College at Istanbul and the American University at Beirut  arose out of the tanzimats. The mektab and madrassah died ,they were blamed for being in the way of progress of a new Turkey. What the Turk failed to realize was that it was this very education well established with which, they were at the doors and inside Europe, whenever they wished. With the new mode of education the Turk not only lost the empire but himself too. The cause of success had been the education and the “esnafs “or the guilds, these esnafs, were provided special privileges ,thus trade and handicrafts obtained an important status and a system of self government among part of Muslim population of the empire as far as their occupational rights were concerned. As foreign matters and products were allowed to enter the markets, the old guilds died. But then this will also happen in our own country when India will be allowed to dump their products. They have already entered in the vegetable and livestock market. The gradual, decay in the Ottoman Empire, cost here between, 1878 and 1882, an area of  232,000 square kilometers of territory and a loss of 6 million subjects too.

Thus started a movement in Salonika called The Committee of Union and Progress. The Turkish soldiers in Macedonia, surrounded as they were by a large Christian in community, became part of this set up ,headed by the Jews and the Freemasons of Salonika, and the Germans. Young officers were freely invited to attend these meetings. And as they rose in power, so did the German influence too, and, Germany appeared as the champion of the young Turks. Meanwhile the forces of reaction were gathering, and, seeing the weakness both the liberals and the young Turks, struck, and occupied the Assembly Building on 13 April 1909.However,a detachment of 25,000 Macedonian Army under Mahmud Shevket Pasha ,marched on Istanbul(Constantinople), his Chief of Staff, was Mustapha Kamal. And so Mustapha came on the scene.

(The writer has over 26 years of experience in Investigative Historical Research).