Since the deadly attack June 28 on Istanbul Ataturk Airport, Turkey has become more alert about threats from the Islamic State (IS). Turkish police arrested more than 20 suspected IS members in a search for the group's secret cells; meanwhile, the Turkish military began hitting IS targets inside Syria with its jets and artillery. In other words, as belated as it is, Turkey has begun taking a bolder stance against the terror organization that now threatens the world.

However, Turkey also needs a war of ideas against IS. Sadly, Turkey’s ruling religious-minded class seems to have little willingness and potential to do that. The reason is not any love affair with IS or any sympathy with its carnage. The reason is that most of Turkey’s Islamic opinion leaders who have the means to counter IS ideology instead choose to blind themselves to the nature of the problem and explain it as a Western conspiracy against Islam.

This tirade is most visible in the pro-government media sector, which reflects a large part of the Islamic camp. As explained in a recent Al-Monitor piece, several articles appeared in this sector after the attack on the Istanbul airport, putting the blame on “the CIA.” Moreover, there is a whole narrative explaining the very rise of IS as nothing but a Western plot to create a Trojan horse within Islam in order to stain the religion and advance Western imperialism in the Middle East.

A recent gem reflecting this narrative is a new book titled “DAISH: The Code of World War Three.” (DAISH is the Arabic acronym for the “Islamic State of Iraq and Sham” and is conspicuously preferred by Erdogan and his supporters to eliminate any visible reference to Islam.) The book is written by Betul Soysal Bozdogan, a popular female anchor on state TV TRT, with interviews with some 19 academics — most of whom are unmistakably pro-government. It was promoted with heavy advertising including a slick video, which states the following: