Europe - Will It Go The Way of All Flesh? Has It Already? Too Soft! Kasich, No Mensch.

Kasich's inability to be a Mensch!
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Dror Eydor makes some valid observations regarding the revolution we need. (See 1 below.)
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A Palestinian muses about the cost of  Israel's disappearance and Geert Wilder's muses about Europe's demise.. (See 2 and 2a below.)
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Who says building a border wall won't work?

The Chinese built a wall over 2,000 years ago and they still don't have any Mexicans.

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Maureen Scott has defined Obama for me. (See 3 below.)

(Maureen Scott is an ardent American patriot,  was born in Pittsburgh , PA , and retired to Richmond , VA , in 2000. 

Free from the nine-to-five grind of writing for employers and clients, she began writing political commentary to please herself and express her convictions.

The accomplishment of which she is most proud is her volunteer work at an Army base where she looked into the eyes and hearts of the service members who protect our country.)
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Which way may Turkey go? (See 4 below.)
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This week is critical not only for Trump but for the nation.

Kasich, who I voted for in the Georgia Primary, because I thought his record of achievements was evident though his personality and delivery were weak, pledged to support the Republican Nominee. He has reneged on his pledge and will not be present though he is the Governor of the host state, which, electorally, is a crucial one.  For this, he should be ashamed. He is not the man I thought he was.

As for Trump, he must transition from the candidate who knocked out 16 adversaries in a bizarre manner which has come back to both haunt and define him.  Now he must stay on message, while not altering his convictions and message but deliver them in a style that attracts rather than drives away and offends Can he do it and gain more of the middle?  That remains to be seen.

He has just much going for him except his tendency to go off the handle and engage in self congratulatory prattle.

Hillary is not trusted and liked.  She is stiff and as false as a 6 dollar bill.  She has a questionable trail that is as long as any candidate in recent American history. She follows a president who has been a total failure both domestic and foreign unless you are so indebted to The Democrat Party you are incapable of objectivity.  Much of his failing foreign record Hillary helped create and advised.

The American economic recovery has been one of the weakest in history, social order borders on chaos and American self doubt is off the charts in regard to whether America is heading in the right direction.

Against this background comes Donald Trump seeking to get the votes of many the press portrayed him ticking off with his out sized comments.

Trump is not a racist, his view of illegal immigration is rationale and sane, his solutions are somewhat ill defined and challenging but he has accomplished a great deal, he has built a unique structural empire, he has a wonderful and loving family from all appearances and he is the outsider at a time when we seem to have had our fill of establishment types and failures.

Can Donald pull it off is the question?  The opportunity is there.  Can he make hay like the color of his hair?  Stay tuned because if he can The Republican Party will not be the same and all the uncompromising will be outside, hanging on while looking in and pouting.  Many of them have a proven record of losing elections  and their recent behaviour simply reinforces the fact  they are truly losers and Romney and a Texas family sadly lead the pack.  No wonder they could not withstand Trump's attacks. They come across as too soft for these hard times.
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Dick
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1)

WE NEED a REVOLUTION of CONSCIOUSNESS

Dror Eydar

We need a revolution of consciousness Anyone who thinks that the French or Israeli Left, and certainly the arrogant American Left, will wake up now and announce that "our fathers have inherited nothing but lies" and join the astute masses who clearly see danger of the Islamism that is growing stronger and leaving its dark corners for the main cities, where it slaughters and slaughters in the name of a murderous religion, doesn't understand to what extent liberal Western civilization has adopted a mechanism of oppressing free thought and using guarded language in recent years. In a process that took place over many years, the natural existential consciousness of peoples and nations has become imprisoned in sophisticated philosophical phrasings that have nothing to do with reality, but which photograph well and are praised by the media. In 2006, when a wave of riots engulfed Paris, the philosopher Alain Finkielkraut dared to tell the truth about the nature of the violence, and was violently attacked in return by the guardians of political correctness. He was forced to retreat and surrender. Nine years later, in June 2015, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls uttered the phrase "a war of civilizations," and the revolution of consciousness still hasn't happened. Even now, for most of the policymakers in Europe and the U.S., for most newspapers, and for humanities and social sciences departments at most Western universities, these murderers don't have any ideology, religion, or global nationality, because we "mustn't generalize," and because no one incident is similar to the next, and because we aren't as primitive as they are -- you know, the ones who scream themselves hoarse. And anyway, who wants a religious war? Go backward in history, are you crazy? "We" also know perfectly well why murdering French, English, and American citizens is different from murdering Jews in Israel. There is one well-known reason for the murder of Jews: occupation. Like the French in Algeria, the Jews invaded Palestine -- of all the countries in the world -- after being under our generous protection for thousands of years. Now they're abusing the Palestinian nation that has been living on this land since the Big Bang. Read the Bible and you'll learn that 3,000 years ago, kings from the Abbas and Erekat line reigned in Jerusalem. It's understandable why the oppressed Arabs murder "them." But "we" -- what did we do to our murderers to make them behave like this? And just who are "our" murderers? Well, they're a pack of "lone wolfs without an identity," the fruits of "Western colonialism" and its "oppressive intervention" of so many years in countries that don't belong to it, to the point where they had no choice other than to fly a plane into the Twin Towers in New York and plant bombs in London and Madrid; where a poor frustrated guy sprays bullets into club-goers in Orlando, Florida, or Bali, Indonesia; where a truck driver who "suffered from depression due to his divorce" plows into a crowd of thousands of revelers; or where someone shoots because he was offended by a cartoon. And what about the hundreds of thousands who are being murdered in Africa and the Middle East? Come on, that's an internal matter for those countries, tribes and religious factions. Of course. These murderers are everything except what they really are. We are so sophisticated and deep that, unlike the Neanderthal hordes, we have the ability to distinguish between one kind of murderer and another and between one massacre and another, and we won't let anyone ruin our theory, even if "our" casualties continue to mount. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2)If Israel Disappears..... by Mudar Zahran We Arabs have wasted seven decades of our existence awaiting Israel's demise. It is time to think of the future, and whether Israel's "disappearance" should be our ultimate wish. Since 1948, we Arabs have been taught that all we need to do is get rid of the Jewish state, and everything else will go well after that. Our dictators took full advantage of this idea. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser locked up and executed his opposition members using his famous excuse: "No voices are to be allowed except for those for the war with Israel." Iraqi President Saddam Hussein adopted the Palestinian flag and had it printed, distributed and flown alongside his own flag, and even said, "Palestine and Iraq share the same identical cause." In short, we Arabs have put 70 years of our existence on hold while awaiting that "glorious day" when we defeat Israel and "feed the Jews to the fish." But that day did not come, nor does it seem to be coming, as Jordanian opposition figure Emad Tarifi once told me: "It seems the fish in the sea are not betting on us feeding them Jews." In addition, we Arabs have given our dictators carte blanche to impoverish, terrorize, oppress and destroy us all in the name of "the great Arab struggle to end the Zionist entity." The outcome of this has been clear: While Israel made 10 new breakthroughs in cancer and cardiac treatments in the last two years alone, we Arabs developed new execution methods. The latest is death by drowning in a cage, as shown in an Islamic State group video two weeks ago. We Arabs have wasted seven decades of our existence awaiting Israel's demise. It is time to think of the future, and whether Israel's "disappearance" should be our ultimate wish. Being the son of two Palestinian-Jordanian refugees, I find myself inclined to fear for the future. Regardless of my stance toward Israel, I have to think: What would happen if, one day, Israel were to disappear? While it does not seem feasible, it is the day around which entire Arab political, social and economic systems revolve. It is not only Arabs who want Israel gone. There are others who seek the same, for example anti-Semites in the West. Just last week, neo-Nazis marched in London with swastikas and the Palestinian flag. The organizer of the march claimed it was a protest "by all of those who have suffered because of Israel." There are groups calling for a boycott of Israel "for the sake of the Palestinian people." There are countries whose entire foreign policy seems to revolve around opposition to Israel. We Palestinians might have believed that these groups and countries actually care about us, but they take no interest in the fate of the 150,000 Palestinians being starved to death in Syria's Yarmouk refugee camp, nor in an estimated 5.8 million Palestinians in Jordan (as indicated by a U.S. Embassy cable) who live as second-class citizens and are banned from government jobs and any form of state benefits while paying full taxes. If these Israel-haters got their wish to see Israel disappear, what would happen? First, Israel is the only reason Iran does not yet have nuclear weapons. Iran could buy the technology to produce them, or could learn it quickly the way Pakistan did. Why has Iran been slow in doing so? Because it learned a lesson from the experience of Saddam's Osirak reactor, which Israeli jets reduced to rubble in 1981. Then, almost everyone, including George H. W. Bush who was vice president of the United States at that time, were furious with Israel's move. But 10 years later, when the U.S. fought to liberate Kuwait, the situation would have been totally different if Saddam had kept his nuclear program -- and the only reason he did not was Israel. Further, Iran already controls at least a third of Iraq and its resources through a pro-Iranian regime. If Israel were to disappear, Iran would extend its influence into Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain the next day, as it would not have to fear an Israeli reaction. Iran could then bring the world to its knees by reducing oil production. Iran is not the only evil power in the Middle East: We also have Islamic State, which has now spread across Iraq, Syria, Sinai and Libya, with clear ambitions to enter Jordan. Islamic State has not entered Jordan yet, and this is not because of any fear of the Jordanian army. After all, the Global Firepower website ranks Jordan's army at the same level as the Iraqi army, which Islamic State has defeated many times. Islamic State does not dare enter Jordan for one reason only -- its fear that Israeli jets would catch up with it 15 minutes later. If Israel were to disappear and be replaced by a Palestinian state, the Palestinians would most likely end up with another Arab dictatorship that oppresses them and reduces them to poverty. We have partially seen that with the Palestinian Authority and the "liberated" areas it rules. I regularly visit the West Bank and have interviewed scores of Palestinians there. I can confirm that, as much as they hate Israel, they still openly yearn for the days when it administered the West Bank. As one Palestinian told me, "We prayed to God to give us mercy and rid us of Israel; later, we found out that God had given us mercy when Israel was here." To those Arabs, Muslims, Westerners and others insisting that Israel must be erased from face of the planet, I say: Don't bet on it, as Israel is becoming stronger every day through its democracy and innovation, while Arab countries are getting weaker through dictatorship and chaos. And be careful what you wish for, because if you were to get it, you too would most likely disappear, unless you yearn to be ruled by Iran or Islamic State. In short, if the day were to come when Israel falls, Jordan, Egypt and many others would fall, too, and Westerners would be begging Iran for oil. We can hate Israel as much as we like, but we must realize that without it, we too would be gone.                     Mudar Zahran is a Jordanian-Palestinian who resides in the U.K. (See Google)  2a) The Lights are Going Out All Over Europe          By Geert Wilders Dear Friends, Thank you very much for  inviting me.  I come to America with a mission.  All  is not well in the old world.  There is a tremendous danger  looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic.       We might be in  the final stages of the Islamization of Europe.  This not  only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe  itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the  West.  The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing anIslamic Europe.                 First I will describe  the situation on the ground in Europe .            Then, I will say a few  things about Islam.  To close I will tell you            about a meeting in Jerusalem   . The Europe you know is  changing.    You have probably seen the landmarks. But in all of these  cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist  destination, there is another world. It is the world of the  parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration.   All throughout Europe a new reality is rising:entire Muslim neighborhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It's the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figure-less tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or  slaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With mosques on many street corners. The shops have signs you and I cannot  read.  You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious  fanatics.   These are Muslim neighborhoods,and they are  mushrooming in every city across Europe . These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger  portions of Europe , street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city.      There are now thousands of  mosques throughout Europe With larger congregations than there  are in churches. And in every European city there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church in the region.   Clearly the signal is: we rule.      Many European cities are  already one-quarter Muslim: just take   Amsterdam , Marseilles and Malmo in Sweden . In many cities   the majority of the under-18  population is Muslim. Paris   is now surrounded by a ring of  Muslim neighborhoods.   Mohammad is the most popular name among boys in many   cities.  In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also    mean mentioning the pig, and that would be an insult to Muslims.      Many state schools in Belgium and Denmark only serve halal food to all pupils. In once-tolerant Amsterdam gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslim women routinely hear 'whore, whore'. Satellite dishes are not  pointed to local TV stations, but to stations in the country of origin.  In France school teachers are advised to avoid authors  deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the   same is increasingly true of Darwin . The history of the   Holocaust can no longer be taught because of Muslim   sensitivity.     In England sharia courts are now officially  part of the   British legal system. Many neighborhoods in France   are   no-go areas for women without head scarves. Last week a   man  almost died after being beaten up by Muslims in   Brussels , because he was drinking during the Ramadan.     Jews are fleeing France in record numbers, on the run for   the worst wave  of antisemitism since World War II.  French   is now commonly spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv and Netanya , Israel .I could go on forever with stories like this.   Stories about Islamization.      A total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe . San Diego University recently calculated that a staggering 25   percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim just 12   years from now.  Bernhardt Lewis has predicted a Muslim   majority by the end of this century.     Now these are just numbers  And the numbers would not be   threatening if the Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire   to assimilate. But there are few signs of that The Pew   Research Center reported that half of French Muslims see   their loyalty to Islam as greater than their loyalty to France . One-third of French Muslims do not object to suicide  attacks.  The British Centre for Social Cohesion reported  that one-third of British Muslim students are in favor of a  worldwide caliphate.  Muslims demand what they call  'respect'.  And this is how we give them respect.  We have Muslim official state holidays.  The  Christian-Democratic attorney general is willing to accept  sharia in the Netherlands if there is a Muslim majority.          We have cabinet members with passports from Morocco   and Turkey.  Muslim demands are supported by unlawful   behavior, ranging fro  petty crimes and random violence, for example against ambulance workers and bus drivers, to small-scale riots.   Paris has seen its uprising in the low-income suburbs, the   banlieus.  I call the perpetrators settler's. Because   that is what they are.  They do not come to integrate   into our societies; they come to integrate our society into   their  Dar-al-Islam.  Therefore, they are settlers.   Much of this street violence I mentioned is directed   exclusively against non-Muslims, forcing many native  people to leave   their neighborhoods, their cities, their countries.   Moreover, Muslims are now a swing vote not to be ignored.    The second thing you need to know is the  importance of   Mohammed the prophet. His behavior is an example to all   Muslims and cannot be criticized.  Now, if Mohammed had   been a man of peace, let us say like Gandhi and Mother   Theresa wrapped in one, there would be no problem. But   Mohammed was a warlord, a mass murderer, a pedophile, and   had several  marriages - at the same time.Islamic   tradition tells us how he fought in battles, how he had   his enemies murdered and even had prisoners of war executed.   Mohammad himself slaughtered the Jewish tribe of Banu   Qurayza.  If it is good for Islam, it is good. If it is bad for Islam, it is bad.     Let no one fool you about Islam being a religion.  Sure,   it has a god, and a here-after, and 72 virgins. But in its   essence Islam is a political ideology. It is a system that lays   down detailed rules for society and the life of every person.   Islam wants to dictate every aspect of life.  Islam means   'submission'.   Islam is not compatible with freedom and democracy,  because what it strives for is Sharia.  If you want to compare Islam to anything,compare it to communism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarian ideologies.        Now you know why Winston Churchill called Islam 'the most   retrograde force in the world', and why he compared Mein   Kampf to the Quran. The public has wholeheartedly accepted   the Palestinian narrative, and sees Israel as the   aggressor.  I have lived in this country and visited it   dozens of times.  I support Israel .  First, because it  is the Jewish homeland after two thousand years of exile up  to and including Auschwitz .  Second because it is a   democracy.  And third because Israel is our first line of   defense.     This tiny country is situated on the fault line of jihad,   frustrating Islam's territorial advance.  Israel is   facing the front lines of jihad, like Kashmir, Kosovo, the   Philippines , Southern Thailand, Darfur in Sudan , Lebanon , and Aceh in Indonesia .  Israel is simply in the way.   The  same way West-Berlin was during the Cold War.     The war  against Israel is not a war against Israel .  It  is a war against the West.  It is jihad. Israel is simply   receiving the blows that are meant for all of us.  If   there  would have been no Israel , Islamic imperialism   would have found other venues to release its energy and   its desire for conquest.  Thanks to Israeli parents who send   their children to the army and lay awake at night, parents   in Europe and America can sleep well and dream, unaware of   the dangers looming.     Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel in order to   address the grievances of our Muslim minorities.  But if   Israel were, God forbid, to go down, it would not bring   any solace to the West.  It would not mean our Muslim   minorities would all of a sudden change their behavior,   and accept our values. On the contrary, the end of Israel   would give enormous encouragement to the forces of   Islam.    They would, and rightly so, see the demise of Israel as  proof that the West is weak, and doomed.  The end of  Israel would not mean the end of our problems with Islam, but  only the beginning. It would mean the start of the final battle  for world domination. If they can get Israel , they can  get everything.  So-called journalists volunteer to label any  and all critics of Islam as a 'right-wing extremists' or 'racists'.  In my  country, the Netherlands ,   60 percent of the population now sees the mass   immigration of Muslims as the number one policy mistake   since World War II.  And another 60 percent sees Islam as   the biggest threat.  Yet there is a greater danger than   terrorist attacks, the scenario of America as the last man   standing.  The lights may go out in Europe faster than   you can imagine.  An Islamic Europe means a Europe without   freedom and democracy, an economic wasteland, an   intellectual nightmare, and a loss of military might for   America - as its allies will turn into enemies, enemies   with atomic bombs. With an Islamic Europe, it would be up to   America alone to  preserve the heritage of Rome , Athens   and Jerusalem .         Dear friends,Liberty is the most precious of gifts.  My   generation never had to fight for this freedom, it was offered to us on a   silver platter, by people who fought for it with their   lives.  All throughout Europe , American cemeteries remind us of the young boys who never made it home, and whose memory we cherish.     My generation does not own this freedom; we  are merely its      custodians. We can only hand over this hard won liberty to Europe 's    children in the same  state in which it was offered to us. We cannot  strike a deal with mullahs and imams. Future generations would never  forgive us.  We cannot squander our liberties.  We simply do not   have the right to do so.  We have to take the necessary  action now to stop this Islamic stupidity from destroying the free world  that we know.    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 3) The Architect of Destruction By Maureen Scott Barack Obama appears to be a tormented man filled with resentment, anger, and disdain for anyone of an opinion or view other than his. He acts in the most hateful, spiteful, malevolent, vindictive ways in order to manipulate and maintain power and control over others. Perhaps, because, as a child, he grew up harboring an abiding bitterness toward the U.S. That was instilled in him by his family and mentors…it seems to have never left him. It is not the color of his skin that is a problem in America . Rather it is the blackness that fills his soul and the hollowness in his heart where there should be abiding pride and love for this country. Think: Have we ever heard Obama speak lovingly of the U.S. Or its people, with deep appreciation and genuine respect for our history, our customs, our sufferings and our blessings?  Has he ever revealed that, like most patriotic Americans, he gets "goose bumps" when a band plays "The Star Spangled Banner," (no he gets goose bumps when he hears the  ''Muslim call to prayer" (his words) or sheds a tear when he hears a beautiful rendition of " America the Beautiful?" Does his heart burst with pride when millions of American flags wave on a National holiday - or someone plays "taps" on a trumpet? Has he ever shared the admiration of the military, as we as lovers of those who keep us free, feel when soldiers march by?  It is doubtful because Obama did not grow up sharing our experiences or our values. He did not sit at the knee of a Grandfather or Uncle who showed us his medals and told us about the bravery of his fellow troops as they tramped through foreign lands to keep us free. He didn't have grandparents who told stories of suffering and then coming to America , penniless,  and the opportunities they had for building a business and life for their children. Away from this country as a young child, Obama didn't delight in being part of America and its greatness. He wasn't singing our patriotic songs in kindergarten, or standing on the roadside for a holiday parade and eating a hot dog, or lighting sparklers around a campfire on July 4th as fireworks exploded over head, or placing flags on the grave sites of fallen and beloved American heroes. Rather he was separated from all of these experiences and doesn't really understand us and what it means to be an American. He is void of the basic emotions that most feel regarding this country and insensitive to the instinctive pride we have in our national heritage. His opinions were formed by those who either envied us or wanted him to devalue the United States and the traditions and patriotism that unites us. He has never given a speech that is filled with calm, reassuring, complimentary, heartfelt statements about all the people in the U.S. Or one that inspires us to be better and grateful and proud that in a short time our country became a leader, and a protector of many. Quite the contrary, his speeches always degenerate into mocking, ridiculing tirades as he faults our achievements as well as any critics or opposition for the sake of a laugh, or to bolster his ego. He uses his Office to threaten and create fear while demeaning and degrading any American who opposes his policies and actions. A secure leader, who has noble self-esteem and not false confidence, refrains from showing such dread of critics and displaying a cocky, haughty attitude. Mostly, his time seems to be spent causing dissension, unrest, and anxiety among the people of America , rather than uniting us (even though he was presented to us as the "Great Uniter"). He creates chaos for the sake of keeping people separated, envious, aggrieved and ready to argue. Under his leadership Americans have been kept on edge, rather than in a state of comfort and security. He incites people to be aggressive toward, and disrespectful of, those of differing opinions. And through such behavior, Obama has lowered the standards for self-control and mature restraint to the level of street-fighting gangs, when he should be raising the bar for people to strive toward becoming more considerate, tolerant, self-disciplined, self-sustaining, and self-assured. Not a day goes by that he is not attempting to defy our laws, remove our rights, over-ride established procedures, install controversial appointees, enact divisive mandates, and assert a dictatorial form of government. - Never has there been a leader of this great land who used such tactics to harm and hurt the people and this country. - Never have we had a President who spoke with a caustic, evil tongue against the citizenry rather than present himself as a soothing, calming and trustworthy force. - Never, in this country, have we experienced how much stress one man can cause a nation of people - on a daily basis! Obama has promoted the degeneration of peace, civility, and quality of cooperation between us. He thrives on tearing us down, rather than building us up. He is the Architect of the decline of America , and the epitome of a Demagogue. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 4) Turkey Faces Its Iran 1979 Moment Empowered by surviving a coup, Erdogan may be tempted to encourage an Islamist counterrevolution. By Soner Cagaptay Turkey is at a pivotal point in its history following the failed coup attempt of July 15. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, having survived the coup plot, won fresh legitimacy and gained a new ally: religious fervor in the streets. Mr. Erdogan can use this impetus either to become an executive-style president, or he can encourage the forces of religion to take over the country, crowning himself as an Islamic leader. Though the incremental acquisition of power has been more his style in the past, the powerful eruption of Islamic support for him over the weekend may prove too tempting. This is Turkey’s Iran 1979 moment—will a brewing Islamic revolution overwhelm the forces of secularism? As the coup plot was unfolding on Friday night, Mr. Erdogan appealed to religious sentiments in the country, rallying his supporters to launch a counter-coup. On his orders, calls for prayer were issued from Turkey’s over 80,000 mosques at 1:15 a.m.—not a time when people are supposed to be praying. The strategy worked, the call to prayer acted as a call to political action, and religious Turks took to the streets in defiance of the secularist military. Together with pro-government police forces, they overpowered the military’s botched effort. Since July 15, pro-Erdogan sentiments in Turkey have been running high. Calls to prayer continue throughout the day (Islam requires only five calls to prayer at set times daily), reminding religious Turks of their political duty to stand with the president. Mr. Erdogan, a politician with an Islamist pedigree, came to power in 2003 as prime minister and head of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). At that time, he followed a policy of economic growth to build a support base. He also moved away from Islamist politics, instead embracing reform and seeking European Union membership. After winning electoral victories in 2007 and 2011 on a platform of economic good governance, however, Mr. Erdogan turned staunchly conservative and authoritarian. He now regularly cracks down on freedoms of expression, assembly and association. He has shut down or taken over media outlets. He bans access to social media, locks up journalists and sends the police to harass opposition rallies. Mr. Erdogan also promotes efforts to impose religion: In December 2014, Turkey’s Higher Education Council, a government-regulated body, issued a policy recommendation that mandatory courses on Sunni Islam be taught in publicly funded schools to all students, even ones as young as age 6. In 2014, Mr. Erdogan, acceding to term limits, stepped down as prime minister and as the head of the AKP. He instead assumed the presidency—a formerly weak office that he has been steadily transforming. The coup gives Mr. Erdogan an excuse to press ahead with his plans to cobble together a parliamentary majority; he intends to amend Turkey’s Constitution and take over the posts of prime minister and AKP chairman in addition to being president. This process, which would make Mr. Erdogan the most powerful person in Turkey since the country became a multiparty democracy 1950, fits into his gradualist approach to consolidating power. At the same time, it presents a risk: In the two most recent elections, Mr. Erdogan’s AKP has maxed out at 49.5% support, and although the president’s popularity has risen since the coup, there is no guarantee that this bump will last until the next elections, which, depending on when Mr. Erdogan calls them, could be as late as next year. Enter a second, quicker path to power: Islamist revolution. Erdogan supporters—who took to the streets to defy the coup, and who have continued to rally throughout the country since then—are not the garden-variety conservative AKP supporters, but rather Islamists, and even jihadists. Over the weekend, pro-Erdogan mobs captured and beat soldiers who had supported the coup. Images were reportedly posted online, in the Islamic State style, of a soldier who had been beheaded. Unfortunately, jihadist sentiments in Turkey have become increasingly noticeable lately, in no small part due to Mr. Erdogan’s education policy, as well as his Syria policy, which has allowed Islamist radicals to use Turkey as a staging ground. According to a recent poll by the Pew Research Center, 27% of Turks don’t view Islamic State unfavorably. Mr. Erdogan can now harness these forces to usher in an Islamist revolution. Revolutions don’t require majorities, but rather angry and excited minorities that are willing to act violently to take power. Following the failed coup plot, Turkish politics has not settled down. Mr. Erdogan is still not in charge of the whole country, which is why as of Sunday afternoon he hadn’t returned to the Turkish capital. It is not yet safe for him. Religious fervor is running high; mosques continue to call for prayers throughout the day. Islamists and jihadists who are angry at the military roam the streets, while most Turks of other political outlooks are scared to leave their homes. If Mr. Erdogan were to pump up religious fervor further, he could convert the religious counter-coup d’état into an Islamist counter-revolution, ending Turkey’s status as a secular democracy. Adding to the temptation is the fact that the military, divided and discredited in the public eye following the failed coup, is in no position to prevent a counterrevolution. But an Islamist revolution would carry risks. Turkey would be stripped of its NATO membership, exposing the country to nearby enemies, including Russia. It would also almost certainly lead to an economic meltdown, hurting Mr. Erdogan’s power base. The first scenario, in which Mr. Erdogan uses the coup to consolidate power, is more likely than the second, but the chances of an Islamist revolution have never been higher in Turkey. Mr. Cagaptay is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++