RUTHFULLY YOURS

One year ago today, Turkish President Recep Erdogan was in the Washington, D.C. area to open a new $100 million mosque complex funded by the Turkish government and operated by the Diyanet, Turkey’s religious affairs ministry.

Needless to say, the opening of the Diyanet complex received national and international media attention:But on the one-year anniversary of the opening of the Diyanet Center of America, questions about its true purpose are being raised. There are ongoing investigations by European officials into widespread spying allegations implicating Turkish government-funded Diyanet mosques across the continent — just like the one opened outside of Washington, D.C. The investigations center on whether the mosques are spying on behalf of the the Turkish intelligence service, the Milli Istihbarat Teskilati (MIT).

Yesterday I reported here at PJ Media on the investigations in Germany, where authorities have conducted raids targeting Diyanet imams and high-ranking officers of the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), the official arm of the Diyanet in Germany.

In Germany there are 900 Diyanet mosques and 970 employees serving the three million German nationals of Turkish origin or Turkish citizens living there, representing 70 percent of the German Muslim community.

There, DITIB officials have recently admitted spying on behalf of Turkish intelligence.And it was reported yesterday that a German government probe of senior DITIB officials had been launched into the spying affair.

That is just the tip of the iceberg, however.

Spying affair investigations into Diyanet mosques and imams are reportedly ongoing in Belgium, Holland, Austria, France and Switzerland, and some Diyanet officials have returned to Turkey as the government probes in these countries continue.