From 669-718 the Umayyads, under the banner of jihad, mounted a series of sieges against Christian Byzantine Constantinople all of which failed during the first period of Islamic Jihad conquest under the first Caliph, Abu Bakr, the first Muslim ruler after Muhammad. Since the Muslim understanding of jihad demanded that successful conquest, as ordained by God, must be inevitable, it eventually was! Although Turkey, on paper, has been considered a secular state, anyone of the remaining Christians living in Turkey that hasn’t been murdered yet will tell you that long ago, the Muslims have been running things from the street level to the military. Hence, discussing the political future of Turkey in terms of when it will become a one Religion state seems fruitless since it’s only a matter of time before the Islamist take political control by force or by numbers.
