Reactions to George Floyd murder reveal Islamist fragility in Turkey
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticizes the United States for racism while pro-government media alleges that the anti-fascist groups in the protests are being supported by outlawed groups in Turkey.
George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died in police custody on May 25 in Minneapolis, became a household name in Turkey overnight. As protests in the United States took a violent turn, images of police brutality began bombarding Turkish news.
Radical Islamists, ultra-nationalists and left-wing media all had a say about why racism is so prominent in the United States and what needs to be done.
On May 28, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan posted a series of tweets in English about the “racist and fascist approach that led to the death of George Floyd.” Erdogan sent his condolences to Floyd’s family and made references to hadith (Prophet Mohammed’s recorded words) about how there is no room for racism in Islam.
Over the 10 days that followed, pro-government media oscillated between exaggerated views of “America burning” and criticizing the United States for racism and the lack of press freedom; it made mind-boggling allegations such as the support of the Gulen movement and the Kurdistan Workers Party (the PKK, which is deemed a terrorist organization in the United States and Turkey) for the uprising in the United States.
