Photo Credit:
Al Qaeda suspects captured in early 2013 in Turkey.

You know, you don’t have to fight every injustice under the sun, but you do have to fight for a fighter who stands up to an injustice which is crouching like a lion in your own neighborhood, ready to pounce on you and eat you up.

There is a Muslim lady doing just that, fighting for Israel’s right to exist, for Jews to defend themselves against suicide bombers and other terrorist. She even asserts that Jews have the right to ascend to the Temple Mount and walk around and pray in peace and security. She asserts that Jews have every right, even every obligation to stream in from all over the world and become Israelis and populate the country. That’s very Zionistic. She is the Executive Director of a Turkish TV station and her name is Sinem Tezyapar. The name is not Jewish. She is Muslim. Her mentor, Adnan Oktar, is also Muslim.

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A bit about Mr. Oktar:

Adnan Oktar, to whom Ms. Tezyapar looks for guidance, has evolved over the years in his thinking about Jews and Israel. Reputed to be a “Holocaust denier,” though he had fought that claim in court, as it was based on a book he has denied authoring, he had, over the years, come to clearly affirm the reality of the Holocaust in all its horrors for the Jewish people.

In 2004, the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism at Tel Aviv University, reversing its findings of 2001, asserted that “he now works towards promoting inter-religious dialogue,” and that he is calling upon all Muslims to have “a tolerant and friendly attitude toward other religions.”

In 2006, Bilim Araştırma Vakfı, (BAV), the Turkish Science Research Foundation, an organization Oktar had founded to champion Creationism and combat Darwinian and all other forms of evolution (which he believed destructive to Turkish society), published a book strongly affirming the historic reality of the Holocaust.

The book, “Holocaust Violence,” states: “The Nazis subjected European Jews to indisputable and unforgivable cruelty during World War II. They humiliated, insulted and degraded millions of Jewish civilians, forcing them from their homes and enslaving them in concentration camps under inhuman conditions… Certainly the Jewish people, of whom 5.5 million died in concentration camps, were the worst victims of the Nazi barbarism.”

Ms. Tezyapar has also been very clear about her commitments. She writes:

“…For hundreds of years, Jews have known suffering, pain, and have never been at ease. Since the Diaspora, they have been expelled from almost every place they ever went for centuries. And now there are some who say they want the Jews to leave Israel also. The question arises, Where are they supposed to go? The Jews, the people of Israel, have the right to live in the Holy Land, in peace and security; indeed, it is so commanded by God Himself in the Qur’an: ‘And thereafter We said to the Children of Israel: Dwell securely in the Promised Land.’ (Surah Al-Isra, 104)

She does not write these things, in the isolation and security of a Swiss chalet high in the Alps, but in the heart of where such writing could hurt her the most – Istanbul, Turkey.

From there she invites for interviews on A9TV some of the leading figures in the religious and government echelons of the State of Israel, such as the former Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel, now Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Rabbi Meir Lau, on October 18, 2011.

Rabbi Lau is one of the most respected rabbis in recent times, and the youngest survivor of the Nazi labor and death camp Buchenwald. His whole family was exterminated. He came to do the show.

There were also Rabbi Yeshayahu Ha Kohen Hollander, Rabbi Haim Druckman, Rav Avraham Yosef, Rav Avraham Sherman, Rabbi David Stav, Rabbi Ben Abrahamson, Jerusalem Post Editor Samuel Sokol, and MK Moshe Sheetrit. No feather weights, to be sure.

They all came after careful deliberation. Politicians and public figures don’t make commitments without checking first.

But not everyone is happy with Sinem Tezyapar. Though an outspoken supporter of Israel, there are voices coming out of Israel and elsewhere that view this Muslim lady as an apologist and a “shill” for Islam, an activist against the interests of Israel, a charlatan.
But is this so? Is Ms Tezyapar a Trojan horse who has gained entrance into the Troy of Jerusalem?

But as loud and insulting the Jewish and Israeli critics of her have been, they’re nothing compared with the ugly and far more deadly voices and now actions against her coming from her co-religionists on the Muslim “right,” the radicals, and Al Qaeda.

Here is what her public friendship with Jews and Israel and anti-terrorism stand has brought her:

It is now been made public that an Al Qaida ring had been smashed in Turkey’s two main cities, Istanbul and Ankara, and also in the smaller Corlu district, with stashes of weapon and explosives.

Turkish police and counter terrorist units arrested 12 people, including eight Turks, two Azeris and two Chechens, and seized 700 kilos (1,500 pounds) of explosives, along with assault rifles, ammunition, bomb-making instructions and detailed maps of Ankara and the floor plans of attack targets.

Forensic analysis of seized computers and printed documents revealed preparations for bomb attacks on the American embassy, the private Rahmi M. Koc Museum, and a synagogue in the Balat district of Istanbul. Found also was an assassination plan against Adnan Oktar, along with the floor plan of his home.

This is a statement from the official police report that was issued:

“Within the scope of investigation (No. 2012/229) carried by Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Anti-Terror Branch Office performed an operation against the Al-Qaeda Organization in Tekirdağ and Istanbul on February 27, 2013. As a result of the examination made on the digital data obtained from the homes of the targeted people, it is determined that the addresses of the houses and offices of Adnan Oktar were scouted.”

The Al-Qaeda members were captured with 22 kilos of A-4 explosives. The Hurriyat News ran the headline “They were going to cover everywhere with blood.”

Here is the Turkish original:

Emniyet Genel Müdürlüğü Terör Daire Başkanlığı’ndaki bilişim uzmanları, dizüstü bilgisayarların şifrelerini kırarak içindeki dosyalara ulaştı. Uzmanlar tarafından deşifre edilen bilgisayar dosyalarında, televizyon programcısı Acun Ilıcalı ile kamuoyunda Adnan Hoca olarak bilinan Adnan Oktar’a ait ev ve işyerlerinin fotoğrafları, istihbarat notları çıktı. Ayrıca örgüt üyelerinin bombalı eylemler için hazırlık yaptıkları Koç Müzesi, Amerikan Büyükelçiliği ve Balat’taki bir Sinagog’a ait krokiler de bulundu (Hurriyat News)

Ms Tezyapar told me at the time, over the phone: “My point is that we are committed with our lives, youth, time, energy, money—whatever it takes. We do not earn anything from our activities, we see this as a service to God and people who are in God’s service should never expect any recompense… This is necessary so that people have no doubts about our sincerity, because we are not in this for any kind of personal benefit. On the contrary we have been constantly defamed, plotted against, slandered.

“This is an honor for us because all Prophets and their followers have been persecuted, slandered. Prophet Moses had Pharaoh against him, Prophet Abraham had Namrud against him. When you are preaching the truth, and you are influential in that, your enemy becomes stronger.

“Mr. Adnan Oktar has gone through nine assassination attempts, Allah protected him every time… There are almost endless threats… and constant psychological warfare”

It is apparent that Al Qaeda does not look favorably upon Ms Tezyapar and that is why she and her mentor and others have the right to request Turkish protective security measures. They have not requested this. It is upon all of us, if we are not fighters ourselves, to be fighters for the fighters. That’s how the world works. That’s how it should work. That is how we too can make a contribution to the fight against the ugly face of terrorism, and hatred. It is a function of love and of righteousness.

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Born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1938, semi retired, lived more than 20 years in Israel, now living in Tallahassee, Florida. B.A. from Brooklyn College, M.A. from New York University. Taught at the Dept. of Religion of Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville NY, and the English Dept. of Tel Aviv University. Clergyman of the Aramaic Church.