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The Grand Turk

Turkey's Christians In Danger

2010-07-08

For all the attention Turkey has gotten lately, very few Americans are aware that the Roman Catholic bishop serving as apostolic vicar of Anatolia was stabbed to death and decapitated last month by an assailant shouting, "Allahu Akbar! I have killed the great Satan!" There are fewer than 60 Catholic priests in all of Turkey, and yet Bishop Luigi Padovese was the fifth of them to be shot or stabbed in the last four years, starting with the murder of Fr. Andrea Santoro in 2006, also by an assailant shouting, "Allahu Akbar!" (An Armenian journalist and three Protestants working at a Christian publishing house -- one of them German, the other two Turkish converts -- were also killed during this period.) Whats going on? Why has traditionally secularist Turkey, with its minuscule Christian community (less than 0.2 percent of the population), lately become nearly as dangerous for Christians as neighboring Iraq? And why has this disturbing pattern of events so far escaped notice in the West? In a nutshell, all these violent acts reflect a popular culture increasingly shaped by Turkish media accounts deliberately promoting hatred of Christians and Jews.

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Europe

RC Bishop Stabbed To Death In Turkey

2010-06-03

A Roman Catholic bishop was stabbed to death in southern Turkey on Thursday, a day before he was scheduled to leave for Cyprus to meet with the pope, officials and reports said. Luigi Padovese, 63, the apostolic vicar in Anatolia, was attacked outside his home in the Mediterranean port of Iskenderun. The killing was not believed to be politically motivated. Dogan news agency video footage of the scene showed the bishop lying dead in front of a building. Mehmet Celalettin Lekesiz, the governor for the province of Hatay, said police immediately caught the suspected killer. He said the man, identified only as Murat A., was Padovese's driver for the last four and a half years and was mentally unstable. "The initial investigation shows that the incident is not politically motivated," Lekesiz said. "We have learned that the suspect had psychological problems and was receiving treatment." Padovese, who is the equivalent of the bishop for the Anatolia region, was scheduled to leave for Cyprus on Friday to meet with the pope, who is visiting the island, and fellow bishops from around the region to prepare for a synod of Roman Catholic bishops in the Middle East. The synod is scheduled for October. The Vatican-affiliated Asia News agency cited unnamed witnesses as saying the driver appeared to be "depressed, violent and threatening," in recent days. No one answered phones at his church in Iskenderun. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, told The Associated Press in Rome that the Vatican felt "immense pain, consternation, (and) bewilderment" over the death and noted that it showed the "difficult conditions" of the Catholic community in the region. He said the pope's upcoming visit to Cyprus and the upcoming synod of bishops on the Middle East showed "how the universal church is in solidarity with this community." The killing is the latest in a string of attacks in recent years on Christians in Turkey, where Christians make up less than 1 percent of the 70 million population. In 2007, a Roman Catholic priest in the western city of Izmir, Adriano Franchini, was stabbed and slightly wounded in the stomach by a 19-year-old man after Sunday Mass. The man was arrested. The same year, a group of men entered a Bible-publishing house in the central Anatolian city of Malatya and killed three Christians, including a German national. The five alleged killers are now standing trial for murder. The killings -- in which the victims were tied up and had their throats slit -- drew international condemnation and added to Western concerns about whether Turkey can protect its religious minorities. In 2006, amid widespread anger in Islamic countries over the publication in European newspapers of caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, a 16-year-old boy shot dead a Catholic priest, Father Andrea Santoro, as he prayed in his church in the Black Sea city of Trabzon. The boy was convicted of murder and sentenced to 18 years in prison. Padovese was appointed to his post in 2004. Mustafa Sinanoglu, the mufti or top Muslim cleric for Hatay province, told the Anatolia news agency that he and Padovese had been working together toward establishing closer dialogue between their faiths. "I have been deeply affected by the death of a colleague with whom I had been working together on projects for the region, Turkey and world peace," he said. "These kinds of incidents are damaging our country's image." Asia News said the Bishop was also involved in work for the unity of the Christian church and to revive the tiny Christian community in Turkey. Turkey's Culture Minister Ertugrul Gunay paid tribute to Padovese saying he had "made important contributions to the culture of tolerance through his services in Hatay." The Foreign Ministry said the death of Padovese was an "important loss from a religious and scholarly point of view," adding that the Bishop had written extensively on Turkey. In a 2006 telephone interview with the AP, following another knife attack that injured another priest, Padovese expressed concern over the safety of Catholics priests in Turkey. "The climate has changed," he said. "It is the Catholic priests that are being targeted." Any bets that he was 'depressed' over the flotilla?

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Europe

Turkish police reportedly foil plot to kill priest

2008-01-01

Turkish police have foiled a plot to murder a priest, in a case that recalls other attacks this year against Christians in Muslim but secular Turkey, newspapers reported on Monday. Police in the coastal resort of Antalya detained a young man on Sunday on suspicion of preparing to kill Orthodox priest Ramazan Arkan, who is a Turk, the Milliyet daily said. The suspect, who was due to appear in court on Monday, told police he had been influenced by a television serial "The Valley of the Wolves", popular among Turkish ultra-nationalists, the paper said. Police confirmed a young man had been taken into custody but said they could not comment on details of the case. Two weeks ago, an Italian Catholic priest was stabbed at his church in the port city of Izmir in western Turkey by a youth. The priest, Adriano Franchini, survived the attack. In April, assailants slit the throats of three Christians -- a German national and two Turks -- at a Bible publishing house in the eastern town of Malatya. Last year, Italian Catholic priest Andrea Santoro was shot dead in his church in the Turkish Black Sea city of Trabzon. Many Turkish nationalists see Christian missionaries operating in Turkey as a threat to national security. Some Christians say they feel less safe in Turkey than before. The European Union has long complained that Turkey, an EU applicant, fails to fully protect the religious freedoms of its tiny Christian minority, which numbers barely 100,000 in a total population of nearly 75 million.

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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Turkish teen sentenced in priest killing

2007-10-04

A Turkish teen will spend more than 10 years in prison for killing a Catholic priest as the man knelt in prayer, state-run media reported Thursday. The 16-year-old, identified only as O.A., had pleaded guilty to shooting the Rev. Andrea Santoro at a church in the Black Sea port city of Trabzon in February 2006. The killing occurred at a time of widespread anger in the Islamic world over the publication in European newspapers of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. The teen was sentenced to more than 18 years in prison — a decision upheld Thursday, the news agency Anatolia said. However, legal experts said he will not serve the entire sentence and is expected to be released after about 10 years. Is this because the Turks are adopting a Y'urp-peon penal code which forbids imprisoning people for longer than 10 years (because it's cruel and unusual, you know), or is the kid getting a break because, after all, he only murdered an infidel?

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Europe

Italy protests music video of Turkish singer praising priest's murder

2007-09-19

Rome, 19 Sept. (AKI) - Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi has strongly criticised a video clip by a famous Turkish folk singer singing about the death of priest Andrea Santoro. According to a statement, Prodi telephoned the Italian Ambassador Carlo Marsili in Ankara on Tuesday and "expressed his displeasure, and that of the Italian government, following the news of a music video where the homicide of Don Santoro is celebrated". In the clip posted on YouTube.com folk singer Ismail Turut's voice can be heard singing the song "Do not make any plans" with lyrics by poet Ozan Arif. The song is accompanied by images showing Ogun Samast, the teenager who allegedly shot dead ethnic Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink in Istanbul on 19 January as well as a suspected accomplice, Yasin Hayal, who was also implicated in the 2004 bombing of a McDonald's restaurant. Monsignor Luigi Padovese, apostolic vicar in Turkey, in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI) called the video a "repugnant act" which does not express the feelings of the community. Other images include those of a wolf, apparently symbolising the ultra-rightwing Grey Wolves group, and one of the group's most notorious members, Mehmet Ali Agca who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II in 1981. Prosecutors are considering whether Turut, Arif or the unknown person who created the video could be charged with inciting hatred. "If they find me guilty, I am ready to serve the punishment. However, I am not guilty" Turut has said in response to the probe. The image of Dink, an advocate for the claim that the mass deaths of Armenians under Ottoman rule during the World War I period was genocide - appears when the lyrics "whoever betrays the country, he will be finished off" are sung. The images on the video showing the murdered Italian priest have been removed, and the Italian Ambassador has pledged to continue to work closely with the local authorities to avert future similar cases. The clip has received considerable media attention in Turkey and has outraged activist groups with two, the Human Rights Association in Turkey and the Association of Solidarity for Oppressed People, announcing they would file lawsuits against Turut and Arif.

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Europe

Slain evangelists were tortured, says Turkish doctor

2007-04-20

MALATYA, Turkey -- Three Protestants murdered at a Christian publishing house in Malatya, Turkey, were tortured for three hours before their assailants slit their throats, a press report said Friday, quoting one of the doctors involved in the grisly case. Dr. Murat Ugras, a spokesman for the Turgut Ozal Medical center, told the daily Hurriyet of hospital surgeons' fruitless efforts to save Ugur Yuksel, one of the three victims of the massacre at the Zirve (summit) publishing house, which distributed Christian literature. "He had scores of knife cuts on his thighs, his testicles, his rectum, and his back," Ugras said. "His fingers were sliced to the bone. It is obvious that these wounds had been inflicted to torture him," he said. The two others who were killed, Necati Aydin, pastor of Malatya's tiny Protestant community, and German Tilmann Geske, a Malatya resident with his wife and three children since 2003, were also tortured, press reports said. The abuse lasted for three hours as the five men detained at the crime scene interrogated the three on their missionary activities, they said. "We tied their hands and feet and later gagged them," the mass daily Sabah quoted one of the suspects as telling police. "Emre slit their throats," said the youth, who was not named, referring to Emre Gunaydin, the alleged leader of the gang, who is at the same hospital in serious condition after jumping out of the publishers' third floor office in a bid to flee police. Gunaydin, 19, had reportedly made several visits beforehand to the publishing house to gain the confidence of the people working there, newspapers said. The daily Radikal said that the German was the first to die and the two Turks were slaughtered only when police arrived at the door after receiving a call from a member of the Protestant community who grew suspicious when he found the office door locked. Proselytizing is not banned in Muslim, secular Turkey, but is generally viewed with suspicion. Newspapers linked the Malatya massacre to other recent attacks against minorities in Turkey, including the murder last year in Trabzon of Italian Catholic priest Andrea Santoro and the assassination in Istanbul in January of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. The reports said that the killers were believed to be members of a cell of nationalist-Islamist fanatics recently set up in Malatya and similar to one based in Trabzon that has been blamed for the Dink murder. Newspapers also said that three of the five main suspects - police have detained 10 people in all - were taken into custody two days before the killings for shooting air guns in an empty lot, but were released after paying a fine. Geske's wife Suzanna, meanwhile, told a television channel that she "forgives" her husband's killers and that she intends to stay on in Malatya, where her husband will be buried. Interesting the writer had to put scare quotes on forgives. The killings shocked Turkey and were strongly condemned by the international community, prompting Germany, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union Turkey is seeking to join, to call on Ankara to take greater measures to protect religious freedoms.

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Europe

Turkey denounces grisly murders, Christians decry 'witch hunt'

2007-04-19

Turkey on Thursday condemned the gruesome murder of three people at a Christian publishing house, as church leaders warned of a "witch hunt" against their tiny minority in this largely Muslim nation. Police detained 10 people over Wednesday's attack in this conservative eastern city in which three people, among them a German, were tied to chairs and had their throats slit. "This is an attack against Turkey's stability, peace and tradition of tolerance," Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said in Ankara, as he voiced concern for the country's image abroad. "There have been similar attacks in the past... We will certainly take stricter measures," he added. Turkey is under pressure to guarantee the protection and freedom of non-Muslim minorities as part of its efforts to join the European Union. Non-muslim minorities happened to be once a majority, even during the ottoman rule, and they were quite sizeable in the early 20th century, but they've been driven to practically nothing by the "secular" new turkish nation, through genocide and persecution. The Zivre (Summit) publishing house, which distributes bibles and publishes Christian literature, had previously been the target of protests by nationalists, media reports said. In remarks to the Italian daily La Stampa, the papal envoy to Turkey linked the killings to upcoming presidential elections, noting the "presence of well-known fanatical, ultra-nationalist groups." "Events like this have already happened during electoral campaigns," Monsignor Antonio Lucibello said. Pope Benedict XVI made a landmark visit to Turkey in November -- his first to a Muslim country -- during which he stressed that respect for religious freedom must be a criterion for EU membership. Ambassadors from the 27 EU member countries met in Istanbul on Thursday, after which the envoy from Germany, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency urged Ankara to take measures to protect religious freedoms. "We see the murders as an attack not only against individuals, but also against the principles of freedom and tolerance," German Ambassador Eckhart Cuntz said. Turkish newspapers said all those arrested at the scene were carrying copies of a letter that read: "We did it for our country. They are trying to take our country away, take our religion away." Protestant leaders here spoke of a growing intolerance towards Christians, which they said was being fuelled by politicians and the media. "Today in Turkey, there is a missionary hunt, just like the witch hunts of medieval times," Ihsan Ozbek, a leader of the Alliance of Protestant Churches in Turkey, said. "Turkey is facing dangers and threats unprecedented in its history. The fact is that Turkey has become a place of unprecedented intolerance and rejection," he said. Speaking to reporters in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, European Parliament member Joost Lagendijk said the killings would send Europe a negative message. "Europe will perceive the killings to mean that those who attempt to seek converts to other faiths in Turkey will face a similar fate," Lagendijk said. "It is very important for the government to appeal for the acceptance of different religions and ethnic backgrounds." The dead were identified as German Tilman Geske and Turkish nationals Ugur Yuksel and Necati Aydin, the pastor of Malatya's 30-strong Protestant community. Proselytizing is not banned but generally viewed with suspicion in Turkey, whose population is 99 percent Muslim; small Greek Othodox, Catholic, Armenian and Jewish communities are concentrated mainly in Istanbul. The Protestant community consists of some 3,200 people, Ozbek said. In February 2006, Italian Catholic priest Andrea Santoro was shot dead as he prayed in his church in the northern city of Trabzon. A teenager was convicted of the murder and jailed for nearly 19 years. In January, journalist Hrant Dink, a prominent member of Turkey's Armenian community, was gunned down in an Istanbul street. A 17-year-old, detained along with 11 other suspected ultra-nationalists, confessed to the killing.

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Olde Tyme Religion

Pope Rage in Istanbul

2006-11-28

By Robert Spencer Pope Benedict XVI is set to arrive in Turkey on Tuesday, and tensions are running high. Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turk who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, wrote to Benedict: “Your life is in danger. You absolutely must not come to Turkey.” And several weeks ago, a Turk named Ibrahim Ak stood outside Italy’s consulate in Istanbul and fired a gun while proclaiming his desire to strangle the pope. As he was arrested, Ak shouted: “I am happy to be a Muslim!” He said that he hoped the Pope would decide not to come to Turkey, and that his actions would inspire other Turks to violence: “God willing, this will be a spark, a starter for Muslims ... God willing, he will not come. If he comes, he will see what will happen to him.” Turkish officials are trying to make sure nothing does. According to the Associated Press, they have “mobilized an army of snipers, bomb disposal experts and riot police, as well as navy commandos to patrol the Bosporus Straits flowing through Istanbul.” However, Meliha Benli Altunisik, a professor at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, questioned whether such precautions were necessary at all: “Will there be protests? Yes, of course. But I cannot take seriously the notion that he is in physical danger. He will rather be ignored.” Certainly Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan originally planned to ignore him. Erdogan will be attending a NATO summit in Latvia on the first two days of the Pope’s visit and at first announced that he would not meet with him during the last two days, either. “You can't expect me to arrange my timetable according to the pope,” Erdogan huffed, and of course he’s right: how could anyone expect him to rearrange his busy schedule to meet with someone so unimportant as the Pope? (However, on Monday he did finally change his plans and agreed to meet with Benedict.) The real reason why Erdogan did not want to meet the Pope, of course, is the same reason why security is so tight: Turks are enraged over the Pope’s speech at the University of Regensburg on September 12, 2006, in which he quoted the fourteenth century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologos: “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” There were riots all over the Islamic world over these remarks in September, and several Christians were murdered in Iraq and Somalia. In Turkey, tempers haven’t cooled. Turkish politician Salih Kapusuz said: “The owner of those unfortunate and arrogant comments, Benedict XVI, has gone down in history, but in the same category as Hitler and Mussolini....It looks like an effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades.” The Crusades were on Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahri’s mind also: he likened Benedict to Pope Urban II, who called the First Crusade in 1095. Unfortunately, the danger of and anger over the Pope’s visit to Turkey has overshadowed both the real focus of the visit, and what should be its major preoccupation. The main purpose of the Pope’s trip is to meet with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the Orthodox Church. One may hope also that the Pope will take an opportunity to shed some light upon the woeful condition of religious minorities, principally Christians, in what is nominally a secular state that allows for religious freedom. Two converts from Islam to Christianity, Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal, are currently on trial on charges of “insulting ‘Turkishness’” and inciting hatred of Islam. What seems to be behind the charges is that Tastan and Topal were proselytizing – which, while not officially illegal, is frowned upon and has sometimes resulted in beatings of Christians trying to hand out religious literature. On November 4, a Protestant church in western Turkey was firebombed, after months of harassment that was ignored by Turkish authorities. The murderer of a Catholic priest, Fr. Andrea Santoro, last February in the Turkish city of Trabzon was recently sentenced to only eighteen years in prison. (The killer shouted “Allahu akbar!” as he fired shots at the priest.) All this bespeaks a Turkish officialdom that is hostile – at best – to non-Muslim forms of religious expression, Turkey’s guarantees of religious freedom be damned. The institutionalized subjugation and second-class status of religious minorities under the Ottoman Empire was bad enough, but Turkish secularism has been, if anything, even worse. Constantinople was 50% Christian as recently as 1914 (its name was changed to Istanbul in 1930); today, it is less than one percent Christian. The Catholic Church has no legal recognition; Catholic churches, like other churches, remain inconspicuous so as not to draw the angry attention of mujahedin. Even the recognized Churches are not allowed to operated seminaries or build new houses of worship – in accord with ancient Islamic Sharia restrictions on non-Muslims in an Islamic state, which restrictions paradoxically enough still have at least some force in secular Turkey. The righteous fury with which the Pope will likely be greeted in Turkey will shift attention from the shame Turkish authorities should feel over the mistreatment of Christians in their land that nominally allows for religious freedom. The mainstream media will focus on protests against the Pope, and pay scant attention to anything he may say, if he says anything at all, about the oppression of Christians in Turkey. And that, in the final analysis, may lead the Turkish government – for all its security precautions -- to hope that the protestors will turn out in force.

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India-Pakistan

Let's also ban Winnie the Pooh

2006-02-22

Let's also ban Winnie the Pooh Blasphemy doesn't begin with caricatures of the Prophet nor does it end with lampooning Islam, says Kanchan Gupta The violent protest by Muslims across the world against the publication of 12 caricatures of Prophet Mohammad in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten is showing no indication of petering out. Regardless of abject apologies by Danish authorities and the attempt by some Muslim leaders to calm passions, each day brings its share of stories of Muslims going on the rampage and clerics encouraging the faithful to slaughter the cartoonists and reap rich rewards for the murders in both this and the other world. While there has been no outpouring of support for those who have been attacking Danish diplomatic missions and burning that country's national flag, the flood of commiseration for hurt Muslim sentiments is truly awesome. Condemnation of the wilful attempt to mock the Prophet is entirely justified, as is the demand that those who decide media content should exercise greater caution in future. There can, however, be no support for those Muslims who have been indulging in wanton violence -- looting of Hindu shops, as happened in Hyderabad after Friday prayer or the murder of a 60-year-old Catholic priest, Fr Andrea Santoro, in Turkey, apart from the torching of Danish missions -- nor should any legitimacy be accorded to the call for killing the cartoonists -- Al Qaeda has announced a bounty of 100 kg of gold, a Pakistani cleric has offered $ 1 million and an animal fat trader who enjoys the exalted position of Minister for Minority Welfare in Uttar Pradesh has promised Rs 51 crore to those willing to murder in the name of Islam. But those who are seeking to play a pro-active role in assuaging "hurt" Muslim sentiments, including the UPA Government which has preposterously conveyed a formal protest to Denmark, the Congress Government of Andhra Pradesh which has equally ludicrously dragooned the State Assembly into passing a resolution condemning the cartoons and what AP has described as "Muslim supporters of Hindu right wing nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party" burning the Danish national flag in a pathetic me-too-outraged response, are unwilling to accept that blasphemy does not begin with caricaturing Prophet Mohammad, nor does it end with lampooning Islam. In 2002, Egyptian and other Arab television channels telecast a 41-part serial, A Knight Without a Horse, based on the spurious document called "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", a work of fiction produced in Russia in 1903 to incite and legitimise anti-Jewish pogroms. Under pressure from American Jews and the Government of Israel, the US lodged a half-hearted protest with the Egyptian Government and Arab regimes where the programme was telecast. Predictably, the 'protest' was ignored by both Arab palace and street. As if that were not enough, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, funded by liberal Governments in Europe and hailed as a symbol of secular knowledge, put on public display what it claimed to be an ancient copy of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion". There was no outrage, not even a whimper of protest by secular Governments at this insidious attempt to legitimise anti-Semitism. Nobody dashed off letters of protest, nor were resolutions passed condemning this disgraceful incitement of anti-Jewish sentiments. On the contrary, the overwhelming sentiment, more so in Scandinavian countries, was that of "serves the Jews right". "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" owes its origin to anti-Semitism of early-20th century that paved the way for Adolf Hitler's gas chambers and the Holocaust. It purports to be a secret blueprint prepared by Zionists to establish Jewish control over the world. It is sufficient to incite the cruellest of passions among those who have been taught from childhood to hate Jews. It is as spurious as the Islamists' cockamamie claim that 9/11 was a Jewish conspiracy. It is as despicable as the sly inclusion of a photograph of a pig squealing contest, organised by farmers in rural France, in the inflammatory booklet that has been put out by clerics of Denmark to draw the ummah's attention to the caricatures of the Prophet. But it is not Jews alone who have had to suffer anti-Semitism in silence with the liberal world refusing to condemn the hateful propaganda of Arabs and thus mollycoddling spiteful Muslims who make no effort to hide their contempt for the faith of others. Copts in Egypt dare not display the symbol of their faith or its substitute, a fish, because it would invite instant violent retribution. An Indian Hindu expatriate who died in Cairo and whose family did not have the resources to fly her body to India for cremation, had to consign the mortal remains to the flames of a garbage incinerator. Next day, local newspapers criticised the Government for allowing such pagan practices. Elsewhere in Arabia, public display of any faith other than Islam is prohibited; violation of the law could lead to public decapitation. The hugely influential Sunni imam Youssef al-Qaradawi, who as a guest of London's Red mayor Ken Linvingstone praised suicide bombers at an official reception, runs a popular website which lists several fatwas justifying jihad against Hindus and Hinduism and encourages Muslims to join terror brigades to fight India's infidels. In Iran, newspapers routinely organise competitions to caricature Jews and deride their faith. No Islamic country acknowledges the Holocaust which Muslim scholars wave away as Jewish propaganda. Such blatant abuse, of course, has never invited the mildest criticism, nor have the hate-mongers been rebuked in a manner remotely similar to the reprimand to which Jyllands-Posten and the Danish cartoonists are now being subjected. Hate speech is illegal, as it should be, in most European countries, including Britain. But Muslims are spared from its purview on the specious plea that the hate they spew is integral to their faith. Yes, this is ridiculous. But so is the move to impose a ban on Christmas, Santa, kissing in school plays, piggy banks and Winnie the Pooh because they "hurt" Muslim sentiments. As Daniel Pipes writes in one of his incisive articles, "The benefits department at Dudley Council, West Midlands, instructed employees that all pig-related novelty items are henceforth banned from its offices, so as not to offend Muslim staff. This includes pig toys, porcelain figures, calendars, and even a tissue box featuring Winnie the Pooh and Piglet." The reason for such capitulation that has emboldened the tribe of Haji Yaqoob Qureshi can be found in Youssef al-Qaradawi's boastful claim, "We must tell Europeans, we can live without you. But you cannot live without us." He might as well have said the world can't live without being in thraldom of frightful Islamist retribution. For evidence, look at the violence that has been unleashed in the name of protesting against caricaturing the Prophet.

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International-UN-NGOs

Vatican: Leading bishop condemns silence over anti-christian violence

2006-02-22

Rome, 20 Feb. (AKI) - A leading Italian bishop has slammed as "unacceptable" the silence of states and international organisations over the fate of Christian minorities in Muslim states in an interview published on Monday. Auxiliary bishop Rino Fisichella of Rome told Italy's best-selling daily Corriere della Sera that, "not only is the destiny of Christian minorities living in the Muslim world at stake, but everyone's freedom, the way they can exercise such freedom and the civility of international relations." Fisichella, who is also the dean of the Lateran Pontifical University, added that it was the duty of state governments and international organisation "to implement the principle of reciprocity." Fisichella's interview followed violent anti-Christian protests over the weekend. On Saturday, violence against Christian targets in Nigeria left 16 people dead while on Friday, some 150 people staged a demonstration in front of the Danish embassy in Tehran and set a crucifix on fire. The episodes came after weeks of Muslim protests against cartoons satirising the Prophet Mohammed published in European papers. Commenting the demonstrations, Fisichella said that, "these episodes stress how difficult it is for Muslim socities to accept the principle of religious freedom which is for us a acquired right." "It's hard to understand why these societies fear freedom and are afraid of Christians who preach fraternity and forgiveness," added the bishop. In a reference to the murder on 5 February of an Italian priest, Andrea Santoro, in Turkey, allegedly killed by a Muslim radical, Fisichella also noted that, "it is impossible to put on the same level a cartoon and the murder of a priest." Fisichella called in particular on the Arab League, the European Union and the United Nations to "remind the societies and governments of countries with a Muslim majority of their responsibilities." Sixteen people were killed in northern Nigeria on Saturday during protests by Muslims over the cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad. The riots in Nigeria are the first violent protests in the country over the cartoons. Most of the deaths occurred in clashes in Maiduguri, capital of north-eastern Borno state. One person died in similar riots in north-central Katsina state. Witnesses said most of the dead were from Maiduguri's minority Christians. Eleven churches were set on fire during the protests and Christian businesses targeted. The country is nearly equally divided between Muslims in the north and Christians.

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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Turkish Interior Minister: Bullets that Killed Priest Target Turkey

2006-02-12

from the Turkish Daily News Turkey extended condolences to the Catholic world for an Italian priest slain by a teenage assailant while praying in his church in the Black Sea province of Trabzon, as the cleric was laid to rest in a ceremony in Rome. “There can be no religious, philosophical or humane explanation for the murder of a man of faith in a house of worship,” Interior Minister Abdülkadir Aksu told a press conference in Trabzon, where Father Andrea Santoro was killed by a 16-year-old high school student. “The bullets fired at Santoro were not only aimed at him but also at the atmosphere of stability Turkey enjoys.” You might say they were fired at Turkey from the Ottoman Empire. In Rome, Italy's most senior cardinal said at the funeral that Santoro has all the makings of a Christian martyr and should be put on the road to sainthood. Christian martyrs don't explode... “Right from now, inside me, I am convinced that Don Andrea's sacrifice has all the elements needed to make him a Christian martyr,” Cardinal Camillo Ruini said to prolonged applause from hundreds of mourners gathered for the priest's funeral Mass. Killed for his religion, that's kind of the definition of a Christian martyr. The murder of the priest shocked Turkey, which sees itself as a bridge between civilizations. “I think this was an isolated incident,” Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül said in an interview with Italy's La Repubblica daily. He said the government was combating extremists who were trying to sabotage Turkey's EU bid. I think the extremists are more important than Turkey's EU bid, and I don't see it as an isolated incident. I see it as something that's a constant danger to Turkey.

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Europe

Arrest over Turkey priest killing

2006-02-07

Turkish police have arrested a teenager in the northern town of Trabzon as the suspected killer of a Catholic priest. Father Andrea Santaro, an Italian, was shot dead in his church on Sunday. Turkish politicians have condemned the killing and say they hope there is no link to the widespread outrage over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. After a major manhunt, police detained a 16-year-old high school student early on Tuesday morning. A gun was seized at the house they raided. The gun has been sent away for ballistic tests to determine if it is linked to the murder. Father Andrea Santoro was shot in the chest on Sunday. Witnesses say the gunman shouted "God is great" as he fled. Police say they still have no clue what motivated the killing, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford reports from Istanbul. There has been widespread speculation that the murder may have been an act of revenge linked to growing protests around the world by Muslims angry about cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad which appeared in the European press. Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he hopes there is no link. He has expressed his deep regret for the murder. The priest's work with prostitutes in the area has also been suggested as a possible motive for the attack.

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