Would Lindsey Graham fight a war in the name of any religion?

American Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, speaking to the press in Israel—the forward outpost of Zionism—once again says, “this is a religious war.” When we search the phrase used in the statement, “this is a religious war,” in English, some very interesting articles come up. One of them was published in The New York Times Magazine in 2021. Digital sources describe the author, Andrew Sullivan, as a “British-American conservative political commentator.” In the headline of Sullivan’s column, the definition of a religious war stands out, yet in the very first sentence he includes the following clarification: “This is indeed a religious war, but not a war between Islam and Christianity or Judaism; rather, it is a war of fundamentalism against all faiths.” Sullivan’s column predates Israel carrying out one of the greatest destructions in its history in Gaza. At that time, Mahmood Mamdani’s distinction between the “Good Muslim” and the “Bad Muslim” was still functioning. Accordingly, they were still trying to reap the outcomes of investments made in conflicts among Muslims. In this respect, it is striking that US Republican Lindsey Graham’s statement—“this is a religious war”—comes without any caveat like Sullivan’s. After October 7, 2023, no one in the Anglosaxon world paid attention to the “Good Muslim–Bad Muslim” distinction. For this reason, Graham also felt no need to make such a distinction.

In the periods before October 7, 2023, concepts such as the civilizing mission, a clash of civilizations, and the export of democracy were brought to the fore. We could predict that one day they would openly call it a religious war, but as long as proxy structures serving the Anglosaxon world were strong, it was clear that the “Good Muslim–Bad Muslim” distinction would not be abandoned. This was because the fate of those proxy structures had not yet been fully determined. In countries like Türkiye, the roots of proxy structures ran very deep and could not be easily uprooted. Because of this depth, the problems created by proxy structures in Türkiye and Syria reached alarming levels. Egyptians experienced these problems as well. The events following the Arab Spring must certainly be evaluated as a struggle between proxy structures and indigenous, national thought. In Türkiye, the MIT trucks incident—following the Gezi Park protests of 2013 and the December 17–25 events of 2014—revealed the power of proxy structures. Unfortunately, the frightening scale of the problems caused by these proxy structures was never fully exposed. Because the process was ongoing, the issues were constantly shifted to different arenas. Even the FETÖ issue was addressed within the context of decree laws (KHKs). This means we were constantly drifting away from the broader context. Those who defined it as a religious war were able to open up a legitimate space for their domestic extensions. For a long time, they too spoke of a “war of fundamentalism against all faiths.”

Unfortunately, even after October 7, this definition of a religious war still finds an audience “on our side.” On both social media and traditional channels, we encounter statements implying, “they’ve finally said out loud what they were thinking.” I regret to say that such expressions are contextless delusions. Zionism is not a religion; it is a colonial ideology. Jewish theology is among the sources of Zionism, but this does not mean Israel is engaged in a religious war in our geography. Quite some time ago, adapting a sentence from the late Cemil Meriç’s book Bu Ülke to the worldview of Zionist Israel, I said, “pigs do not feed on holy books.” Thinking that Britain and the United States wage war in the name of religion would lead us seriously astray. They do not feed on holy books either. Still, it is understandable that figures like Graham try to frame the steps taken to rebuild Syria under Ahmed al-Sharaa’s administration as part of a religious war. Because in Palestine, they have thoroughly smeared both their religions and so-called Western values, and it is impossible for them to cleanse this stain. We did not forget the First Crusades for a thousand years. What is happening today in Gaza and the West Bank is something we will not be able to forget for at least another thousand years. This stain will also not be accepted within what is called the Western world, which is in fact not a cohesive whole. They think they can cleanse this stain by labeling it a religious war, but they can no longer make anyone accept this. Such approaches can only inflame German and British racism. These delusions should find no audience “on our side.”

For us, this is not a religious war; our struggle is an anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist one.