At a Boy, Newt!

It seems Newt Gingrich has long admired modern Turkey's founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. He has often written articles concerning Ataturk and revered him as a model statesman.

Gingrich has heaped such honors on Ataturk that the "Ataturk Society of America" gave Gingrich an award in 2006 for his contributions to publicizing Ataturk's legacy.

However, Turkish reporter Mustafa Akyol* wonders if the American Republican candidate really understands Ataturk's legacy. "Ataturk was the greatest and the strictest secularist in our region. He defied the will of his people to create a state free of religious interference, even banning religious garb in the workplace." writes Akyol.

In the US, Gingrich claims secularism is "a nightmare". To quote Gingrich, "A country that has been, since 1963, relentlessly in the courts driving God out of public life shouldn't be surprised at all the problems we have." Gingrich says "anti-religious bigotry" is responsible for a decline in American morals.

So how can Gingrich state that Ataturk is a hero when he was the "militantly secular founder of a European one-party state?"

This is where the rubber meets the road. You can't claim to be an intellectual when you are illogical plus you deal in double standards and hypocrisy.

* THE WEEK magazine, February 10, 2012