On such a special and special day for the Turkish people, and for Muslims around the world, from the Mosque of Seville Foundation we want to take this opportunity to give our most sincere congratulations to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the government and the people of Turkey for the result of yesterday’s elections.
\nThese have been presidential and parliamentary elections, where the Turkish people have set an example of democratic awareness with a turnout of close to 90%.
\nA percentage that contrasts sharply with many of the Western democracies, where the percentage of participation is between 40% and 60%.
\nAnd yes, there are countries where the percentage of the population that votes is also around 80% and 90%, but, in most cases, it is because doing so is mandatory and not doing so entails sanctions.
\nWith this level of participation, which has given victory to Tayyip Erdogan with 53% of the votes, it is difficult to understand the unfounded criticism and doubts that are poured from the media about these elections and their result.
\nThis may be due to the difficulty of many Western politicians, intellectuals and elites to accept the fact that there may be other countries that have a more developed democracy, or mature democracy, as they say, than Western ones.
\nAnd especially if it is a Muslim-majority country, since this debunks the argument that Muslims cannot function within a democratic society and that Islam leads to a rejection of current circumstances and brings extremism closer.
\nBoth the recent elections in Malaysia, where Dr. Tun Mahathir was the winner, and the Turkish elections, show that this argument does not hold up and that we must look for the reasons for certain endemic problems in some countries far removed from Islam.
\nAnd that is one of the key points.
\nErdogan has repeatedly spoken out on many issues that concern Muslims around the world and that no one else wants to talk about, he has been very vocal in defending Muslims, wherever they are.
\nThis is without going into detail about the care that Turkey has offered to the 3.5 million refugees who have arrived at its borders, which has been exemplary.
\nTo this must be added an average growth of the economy of 6% per year in the last 14 years, being one of the few countries in the world that does not have debt with the IMF, or that government debt is only 42% of GDP, when in Spain we have it at 99%.
\nTayyip Erdogan has positioned himself, through his service and dedication, as a leader appreciated and loved by Muslims around the world.
\nThat is why it is always good news that he has once again won the elections and something that Muslims around the world celebrate.
\nWe hope that this will have a positive impact on the Turks, those who have voted for him and those who have not, the Muslims wherever they are and peace and stability in the world. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On such a special and special day for the Turkish people, and for Muslims around the world, from the Mosque of Seville Foundation we want to take this opportunity to give our most sincere congratulations to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the government and the people of Turkey for the result of yesterday’s elections. These have been …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7192,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[523,599,600],"class_list":["post-20214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news","tag-turkey-en-2","tag-democracy","tag-elections"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Tayyip-Erdogan-gana-las-elecciones-con-una-participacio%CC%81n-del-90.jpg?fit=827%2C465&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}