Why Many Muslims Now Hate Trevor Noah

Daily Show with Trevor Noah

I got to know Trevor Noah in December 2016, I was breezing through Youtube videos. I came across a particular video where Trevor was lambasting Donald Trump prior to the elections and I loved it. I am
no democrat supporter but I abhor the guts of Trump. From then on, I appreciated Trevor believing he was among those non-Muslims to like. 

Following further, I observed how Trevor came to the defense of Muslim in America especially as regards stereo-typing and ‘the war on terror’. 

Though I realized that I didn’t share all of Trevor’s views particularly his tolerance for gays, I felt ‘well, we cannot agree on everything’. But on a fateful day, I was enjoying my Daily show videos on Youtube as usually when I stumbled upon a video titled ‘What is happening in Turkey’. 

As a great supporter, lover and loyalist of Recep Tayyip Erdogan even from my country, Nigeria, I was greatly interested. I sometimes wish I never clicked the video but I thanked ALLAH I did.

There Trevor Noah was on a satirical onslaught on the man held in the Muslim world as the most important Figure, Recep Tayyip Erdogan (The President of the Republic of Turkey). I was heartbroken, dispirited; I experienced more intense synonyms. 

Trevor was talking in relation to the referendum that was held in Turkey on 16th April 2017 on the powers of the Turkish president. A move that was simply going to make a Turkish President have the same powers as an American president. Trevor made comments that made the Turkish people look like morons. Trevor spoke of the detention of Turkish soldiers and generals without mentioning the fact that they attempted a military coup.

Trevor then went on to play videos making a mockery Erdogan. Trevor even suggested that it would have been okay if the CIA went in to eliminate Erdogan.

Trevor kept trying to draw similarities between Erdogan and Donald Trump, that was highly vacuous Trevor!

51.41% of voters (25, 157, 463) voted in favour with 48.59% (23, 779, 141) voting against. Majority of Turks want a more power Erdogan.

Who is Recep Tayyip Erdogan?

Erdogan has been at the helm of affairs in Turkey since 2002. Prior to Erdogan’s ascent to power, Islam was relegated to the background in Turkey and often scoffed at by Turkish public officials. Erdogan lifted the ban on headscarves in Turkey and today, Muslim women wear hijabs without fear of being harassed by security personnel.

Erdogan lifted the hijab ban on university campuses in 2010. Female students were allowed to wear hijab in state institutions from 2013 and in high school in 2014. Since October 2013, female parliamentarians have been allowed to wear hijab in parliament. In 1999, Marve Safa Kavacsi won a seat in parliament but was heckled out of the chamber because she was wearing hijab.

On 30th August 2015, Turkey’s first hijab wearing minister, Ayse Gurcan, was sworn into the cabinet as the Minister of Family and Social Policy. In August 2016, Turkey allowed female police officers to wear the headscarf as part of their uniform.  Civilians employed by the armed forces have been able to wear the hijab since 2016 and in 2017 the Erdogan led government commenced plans to allow women in the armed forces to wear hijab.

Under Erdoğan, the Turkish government tightened the laws on the sale and consumption of alcohol, banning all advertising and increasing the tax on alcoholic beverages.

The Turkish government under Erdogan took it upon itself to train and export imams to other European countries to propagate Islam.

Erdogan is also an outspoken critic of the Zionists’ oppression of Palestinians. On several occasions, Erdogan has openly called Israeli Prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, a terrorist for his overseeing the murder of Palestinian. In the wake of Israel passing the ‘nation state’ law which states that being a Jew is more important than being a citizen of Israel, Erdogan described Benjamin Natanyahu as a Hitler incarnate.

Erdogan deems the government of al Sisi in Egypt an illegitimate one for monstrously overthrowing the Islamic government of Muhammad Mursi in 2013.

Erdogan also never misses the opportunity to lambast the Burmese government of Aung San Su kyi for its ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims with Erdogan’s wife, Emine Erdogan, visiting the oppressed Muslims at least twice.

These are only some of the feats of Erdogan and for this; he is loved by hundreds of millions of Muslims worldwide.

There is no way Trevor Noah would ‘speak in defense of Muslims’ and at the same time insult the Muslim’s number one man. Trevor called Erdogan “a dictator” and failed to mention the fact that from Erdogan’s days as Mayor of Istanbul in the 1990s, he has never lost a free and fair election. As a matter of fact, in every election, he gets more votes than in the previous one. Dictators don’t win free and fair elections Trevor!

This means whatever Trevor sees as cruel, the Turkish masses see as progress and victory for the Turkish state which is why Turks came out in the millions to repel an attempted coup against Erdogan on 15th July 2016.

One thing that almost made me punch my screen was when Trevor likened Erdogan supporters (devout Muslim) to Trump supporters; that was disgusting Trevor!

In a moment, Trevor turned from ‘defender of oppressed minorities’ to democrat. In the Muslim world, we don’t distinguish between democrats and republicans. 

Currently, many have a very different perception of Trevor. A part of me believes Trevor only speaks in defense of Muslims to pull Muslims into the ‘Coalition of Minorities Against Trump’.

Slurring Erdogan makes it likely that Trevor is a Zionist sympathizer, and till I see something, this image of Trevor will remain in my head and will continue to work with it irrespective of the sweet things Trevor will say about Muslims.

Here are some of the achievements of Recep Tayyib Erdogan of the leader of Turkey.

ECONOMY

• Erdoğan inherited a debt of $23.5 billion to the IMF, which was reduced to $0.9 billion in 2012. He decided not to sign a new deal. Turkey's debt to the IMF was thus declared to be completely paid and he announced that the IMF could borrow from Turkey.
• In 2011, Erdoğan's government made legal reforms to return properties of Christian and Jewish minorities which were seized by the Turkish government in the 1930s. The total value of the properties returned reached $2 billion (USD).
• The cash-flow into the Turkish economy between 2002 and 2012 caused a growth of 64% in real GDP and a 43% increase in GDP per capita.
• In 2002, the Turkish Central Bank had $26.5 billion in reserves. This amount reached $92.2 billion in 2011.
• During Erdoğan's leadership, inflation fell from 32% to 9.0% in 2004.

EDUCATION

• Erdoğan increased the budget of the Ministry of Education from 7.5 billion lira in 2002 to 34 billion lira in 2011, the highest share of the national budget given to one ministry. Before his premiership the military received the highest share of the national budget.
• Compulsory education was increased from eight years to twelve.
• In 2003, the Turkish government, together with UNICEF, started a campaign called "Come on girls, let's go to school!” The goal of this campaign was to close the gender-gap in primary school enrollment through the provision of a quality basic education for all girls.
• In 2004, textbooks became free of charge and since 2008 every province in Turkey has its own university.
• During Erdoğan's Premiership, the number of universities in Turkey nearly doubled, from 98 in 2002 to 186 in October 2012.

INFRASTRUCTURE

• Under Erdoğan's government, the number of airports in Turkey increased from 26 to 50.
• Between the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 and 2002, there had been 6000 km of dual carriageway roads created. Between 2002 and 2011, another 13500 km of expressway were built.
• Despite a growing population, the number of auto crashes reduced by 50 percent.
• The construction of Marmaray, an undersea rail tunnel under the Bosphorus strait, started in 2004. When completed, it will be the world's deepest undersea immersed tube tunnel.