I have encountered numerous articles with strikingly similar wording and arguments, almost always written by Pakistani Islamist commentators. This approach tends to be unfactual, non-scientific, and rooted more in wishful thinking than in empirical evidence. It is also demonstrably inaccurate and highly distorted.

Even conservative, Erdoğan-supporting segments of Turkish society do not generally aspire to a governing model in which religion and the state - mosques and government - are intertwined.Support for extremist Islamist frameworks, such as adopting Sharia as a constitutional basis, remains a marginal position in Turkey, representing at most around 12% of the population. This is supported by PEW Research and several other credible studies.

I have also concerns that certain Islamist publications, run by members of the Pakistani diaspora both in the West and in Pakistan, might be receiving funding from Turkish government to produce such content - using public resources derived from Turkey’s secular, hardworking middle-class taxpayers.

In the period leading up to the 2023 general elections, I observed an unusually large number of similar articles published across various Muslim-majority countries. The consistency in both messaging and wording suggests coordinated public relations campaigning rather than commentary or news reporting.