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[ by Charles Cameron — truth can still be a casualty, even when not at war ]
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President Erdogan called the 1100+ academics who signed a petition "vile & despicable". Now, news of many arrested. https://t.co/dDcXuPZoPH

— Zeynep Tufekci (@zeynep) January 15, 2016

That was January 15th.

It didn’t take too long for Erdogan to get around to projecting onto Biden precisely the sort of thing he was in fact doing himself.

Here’s January 23rd:

Turkey pro-gov't papers: FBI arrested 75 US profs as 9/11 truthers & Biden approved. Tweeted by officials, too. ? pic.twitter.com/EN8Bz1kFYT

— Zeynep Tufekci (@zeynep) January 23, 2016

Psychology — psyche — be thou my muse!

[ by Charles Cameron — Hagia Sophia and the Mezquita, Cordoba, with a glance at Guadalupe / Tepeyac ]
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Interiors of the Mezquita, Cordoba [left], and Hagia Sophia, Istanbul [right]

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Opening paras of my latest from LapidoMedia:

HERITAGE watchers are waiting to see whether Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Minister, Yalcin Topcu, who has called for the reopening of basilica-turned-mosque-turned-museum Hagia Sophia as a mosque, has retained his job.

Topcu, an independent, was given the interim post in the negotiations that followed the AKP’s failure to achieve an absolute majority in an earlier round of elections in June.

Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP or Justice and Development Party won a landslide victory in last Sunday’s elections, but as we went to press, posts still remained to be re-allocated.

You can — should, eh? — read the rest here.

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Exteriors of the Mezquita-Cathedral, Cordoba [left] and of Hagia Sophia, Istanbul [right]

[ by Charles Cameron — Oak Ridge, Albi, Bushehr, a Sinan mosque, clouds formation, the Karmapas ]
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Cheryl Rofer very kindly suggested a DoubleQuote to me today, comparing and contrasting the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, Oak Ridge:

and the Cathedral of Albi — heart of the district in which the Albigensians / Cathars briefly and most interestingly flourished:

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I particularly appreciate this juxtaposition because of an earlier DoubleQuote I posted, drawing a similar comparison between Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant:

and the Mosque of the Conqueror in Istanbul:

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Also notable as a DoubleQuote today is this image at the top of a Lion’s Roar post titled Is that the Karmapa’s Dream Flag over Colorado?:

The Karmapa Lama is the holder of the oldest lineage of reincarnated high lamas in Tibetan tradition, and head of the Karma Kagyu stream of teachings. The flag of the Karmapas can be seen below:

Here’s the brief video from which that cloud-image was taken:

h/t Jacob DeFlitch

Note also the resemblance to what is probably my personal favorite DoubleQuote, comparing & contrasting van Gogh‘s night sky and von Kármán‘s vortex street:

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It may be worth adding that the Buddha is not above using cloud metaphors, as this celebrated verse from the Diamond Sutra, here in Red Pine‘s translation, illustrates:

As a lamp, a cataract, a star in space
an illusion, a dewdrop, a bubble
a dream, a cloud, a flash of lightning
view all created things like this.

[ by Charles Cameron — in which 359 turns out to be just a degree closer to zero than 358 is ]
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For those Zenpundit readers no more fluent in Turkish than I am, Acting Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu‘s interview above was reported by Today’s Zaman:

During the interview on Wednesday night Davutoglu also commented on the Ankara bombings on Saturday which left nearly 100 people dead in a suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attack. “There is a 360-degree, not 180 degrees, difference between the Islam we defend and daesh has in its mind,” the acting prime minister said in an apparent gaffe that sparked a series of tweets mocking his statements which meant the government and ISIL are on the same page on their interpretation of Islam. Daesh is the Arabic acronym for ISIL.

“Davutoglu said there is a 360-degree difference between ISIL and them. They would sue others who would say that,” academic Koray Çaliskan said.

“Professor Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, a closed disc has 360 degrees,” Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader Cem Toker tweeted, recalling that Davutoglu is a professor.

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Today’s Zaman also quoted the “famous Turkish geometry teacher” whose classes on YouTube have garnered him an impressive following, Mustafa Mete Ekolan aka Ekol Hoca. Ekol tweeted the following graphic illustration today:

360 derece pic.twitter.com/uBBawFWHeb

— Ekol Hoca (@ekolhoca) October 14, 2015

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It’s worth noting that Today’s Zaman Editor-in-Chief Bulent Kenes was released pending trial today. A fine legal point made by his defense lawyer:

Gunaydin said in the petition to the court there is no crime in the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) for “sending tweets.”

[ by Charles Cameron — will these end times never end? ]
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Back in November of last year I noted that a site that promulgates the prophecies of “one of the most significant Islamic books that have ever been written” had updated its estimation of the arrival of the Mahdi from “late 2013” to some time “either in 2015 or 2016” with variants
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On a variety of sites this group has claimed, eg:

Most likely, the beginning of the End of Time is in 2013, the appearance (arrival or coming) of the Imam Mahdi (Mehdi) is in 2013, and Jesus Christ (p)’s return [or second (2nd ) coming as referred to by Christians] is going to be in 2022, in-sha-Allah.

and:

On Our Numerical Based Analysis Of The Quran And Hadith, The Official Beginning Of The End Of Time And The Coming Of The Imam Mahdi Will Most Likely Be In 2014 And Jesus Christ (p) Will Come Down From Heaven To Earth In 2022, In- sha Allah (if Allah is willing).

and:

The beginning of the End of Time, including the emergence of the Imam Mahdi (Mehdi), will most likely be either in 2015 or 2016 (possibly on September 22 or 23, 2015), while Jesus Christ (p)’s return [or second (2nd) coming] is in 2022, in-sha-Allah (if God is willing).

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And as September 22 and 23 2015 were rapidly coming up on us, I thought it was important to note that last version.

In my earlier post, I mentioned some specific references to IS and al-Baghdadi which had featured in a page that’s no longer available except on the Internet Archive:

So their eschatology has an Islamic State component, as indeed does Al Baghdadi’s.

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Here’s how their quantitative prophetic estimates have vared as dates pass and prophecy fails:

June, 2014:

Oops! September, 2015:

Oops! In fact there’s an update posted just three days ago…

We squeaked by September 23rd, and now 2015, of which less than three months remain, is edging out 2016 in the odds.

Les jeux sont faits, rien ne va plus?

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Ah, so!

Meanwhile, Erdogan of Turkey may be seeing himself, as some of his followers apparently see him, as either a prophet or divine figure — according to Today’s Zaman, an organ of the Gulen movement.

Will these end times never end?