Hindutva's Islamic echo

Mr Peer's book shows that the parallels between two leaders are striking

Less than a fortnight after an imam mounted the pulpit of the Hagia Sophia to deliver the Friday khutba after a gap of 86 years, a bhoomi pujan was conducted in India on the ruins of a four-centuries-old mosque to consecrate the birthplace of the Hindu god Ram, ending a seven-decade controversy. Some 5,000 km separate Istanbul and Ayodhya, but the political impulses linking the two events couldn’t have been closer. 

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a former prime minister who engineered his rise to a dictatorial presidency in 2014, attended in suit, tie and mask (but no cap), at the July 24 prayers