Turkey policies on minorities spark debate

One would think that Turkey has chosen a bad time to harass the Ecumenical Patriarch, but the Turkish government probably figures -- correctly -- that it won't matter to anyone in Europe, and that the West will knuckle under presently. From AP, with thanks to Keith Roderick:

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - A furor in Turkey ignited by the title of a Christian spiritual leader on a U.S. embassy invitation has underscored concerns about the largely Muslim country's treatment of minorities two weeks before the European Union decides whether to open membership talks with Ankara.

The problem revolved around the status of the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, a Turkish citizen and ethnic Greek. He is considered "first among equals" of the world's Orthodox patriarchs and directly controls several Greek Orthodox Churches around the world.

But Turkey has long refused to accept any international role for the patriarch and rejects his use of the title "ecumenical," or universal. It argues the patriarch is merely spiritual leader of Istanbul's dwindling Orthodox community of less than 3,000.

So when the U.S. Embassy sent out invitations for a reception on Thursday hosted by Ambassador Eric Edelman that referred to Bartholomew as "ecumenical patriarch" - a term long accepted by the United States and Europe - Turkish officials were furious.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government, which has made EU membership its top priority and hopes to open membership talks with the bloc next year, ordered public officials not to attend the reception.

"We find it wrong that although none of our citizens has such a title, that invitations are issued in this form," Erdogan said in a television interview on Wednesday, adding that the patriarch's status was determined by an international treaty signed in 1923.

The issue goes to the heart of questions about Turkey's commitment to European values. The EU has said that improved rights for ethnic and religious minorities would be a condition for Turkey's EU membership.

Turkey's desire to contain Bartholomew's influence to Istanbul stems from a deep mistrust many Turks feel toward the patriarchate because of its traditional ties with Greece, Turkey's historical regional rival.

But the dispute has flared at precisely the wrong time for Turkey - ahead of a Dec. 17 summit that will decide whether to begin membership negotiations for its entry into the EU. In October, a parliamentary bill to criminalize adultery also raised questions about Turkey's commitment to European values, just as Brussels was considering a preliminary recommendation on opening talks.

The crisis was defused when Erdogan, whose party has Islamic roots, persuaded lawmakers to back away from the law. But the EU report that eventually cleared the way for the Dec. 17 decision suggested that improved rights for ethnic and religious minorities would be a condition for membership....

In Athens, the head or the Orthodox Church of Greece, Archbishop Christodoulos, defended the patriarchate Thursday and accused Turkey of violating its obligation toward the EU.

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Now you know why Greeks vehemently oppose Turkey joining the EU. Falls on deaf ears in Brussels...

OT - Sorry!

UK Action Alert: Educating Robert

Tonight I had the pleasure of (almost) hearing a denunciation of Jihadism on BBC Radio 4 (The UK’s ‘station of record’). Robert Killroy Silk (an MEP and erstwhile BBC chat show host) was on the panel of ‘Any Questions’ a weekly discussion program.

He made some pretty strong statements against Arab states, same kind of stuff that got him fired from his role as a BBC presenter. He was then invited to declare that all cultures are equal which he refused to do (referring to the treatment of women in the Middle East). At the last moment he blinked. When the sycophantic presenter almost begged him (listen for yourself!) to say that it is not about Islam he lapsed into some moral equivalence.

Still this was one of the clearest challenges to the PC thinking about Islam that I’ve ever heard on Radio 4. Judging by the hysterical reaction of some in the audience it almost gave them a heart attack. We need more of this!

Muslims in the audience came up with the usual stuff. ‘You don’t understand the concept of Jihad’ and ‘Islam is a peaceful religion’ (Which the dhimmis nervously applauded!) You could tell they were rattled though.

Regardless of what you think of Killroy’s politics, he needs to be encouraged to keep saying these things. He also needs to be nudged to cross the last PC frontier: Identifying Islam as part of the problem. Something he declined to do tonight, but which he came very close to!

Again you don’t have to be his greatest fan, but remember: This is a guy that knows how to grab and keep media attention. He has to potential to be a key leader in the anti-Jihadist struggle in the UK.

Can I encourage you to help me in ‘Educating Robert’ especially if you’re from the UK.

You can do the following:

* Send him an e-mail. Better still buy him a copy of ‘Islam Unveiled’ and send it to him. Don’t worry if you think he’ll receive more than one. We need this book out there! His contact details can be found here:
http://www.kilroymep.co.uk/contact.php?TB=home7

* Listen to the programme and send him your response. You can find it at the following link but only after the repeat is broadcast (13:10 Saturday – UK time). Be prepared to listen to a discussion of UK domestic politics before you get to the relevant section.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/anyquestions.shtml

* Long shot but may you can take part in the phone in after tomorrow’s repeat. It is called ‘Any answers’. You might find it tough to get on though – this is the BBC after all. Maybe you should practice a bit of taqiyya of your own and praise the ‘prophet’ to get on!

On November 28th a Greek newspaper named Eleftherotypia ran an article interviewing Greek Cypriot teachers who taught enclaved Greeks living in the Turkish governed North.

Here is the most important paragraphs translated which reveal the conditions of dhimmitude under modern Turkish rule:

... [Greek Cypriot teacher]:"We do not want publicity. We just want to do our work," he told us when he saw our photo camera. It was not difficult for us to understand what side effects could arise from the visit of journalists to the school.

"They justified their scruples we thought, as it did not take much time, for them to inform us in Nicosia that the occupation authorities intervened also in the educational program: they removed fifty pages from the History book about the Greek Revolution of 1821[when Greeks rose up against muslim rule to liberate Greece], while pages were also cut from other books." ...

Compare this situation which I translated a glimpse of, to how the muslims in Greece were fanatically protesting a TV series being filmed in Echinos, as was picked up by Dhimmiwatch. Contrary to the muslims in Greece who showed extraordinary outrage for a trivial matter as a non-muslim women being near a mosque, the Greek Cypriots who are sent to the Turkish occupied North to teach are scared to even talk to journalists because of what the Turkish authorities will do. According to a Council of Europe report on the condition of Maronites and Greek Cypriots under Turkish rule in Cyprus:

... "The surveillance effected by the authorities even extended to the physical presence of State agents in the homes of Greek Cypriots on the occasion of social or other visits paid by third parties, including family members." ...

What are they trying to hide bybarring journalists? What are they trying to hide by ripping out pages about the Greek revolution? That it is possible to live without sharia law and muslim rule. If Turkey is let in the European Union, with the liberalism of the Europeans and the muslim absence of decent civilization on the part of Turks and the muslim migrants to Europe, Europe might sadly become Allah's plunder without a bullet fired.

We should be thankfull that Islam has stifled for centuries , academic thought, science and the arts.
Imagine if some Islamic Isaac Newton had reflected on the falling of dates and presented his theory of Islamic gravity to an Islamic cleric! He probably would have been stoned to death within hours.
Or an Islamic Faraday, discovering the wonders of electricity and the electro magenetic forces.
Or an Islamic Gallileo brought before the caliphate for blasphemy would not have been given the option to "recant".
And so western civilsation managed to distance itself through scientific advance and hold the muslim hordes at bay.
And there they would have stayed were it not for the oild deposits beneath the desserts, desserts as barren as true Islamic civilisation itself.

If science is a brick wall, to which bricks are added by the cream of succesive generations, Islam destroyed even the first brick of that wall.
What it achieved it did through the enslavement of civilisations and the theft of their cultural achievements.
Even today we see the enslavements of those who work in the Arabian gulf countries, who are there to serve their Islamic masters and keep them in Luxury.







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