Tunis march against Islamists, for harmony after Polish priest murdered
About 15,000 demonstrators have protested in Tunis against the country’s Islamist movement, calling for religious tolerance a day after the Interior Ministry announced a Polish Catholic priest had been murdered by an extremist group.
“We need to live together and be tolerant of each other’s views,” said Ridha Ghozzi, 34, who was among the protesters carrying signs and chanting slogans on Saturday including “Terrorism is not Tunisian” and “Religion is Personal”.
Tunisia’s Islamist movement has shown signs of organising since the overthrow of former President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who had surpressed them during his more than two decades of rule, and have pressured authorities to shut at least three brothels in recent weeks.
The Polish priest was murdered in the Tunisian capital on Friday, state media cited the Interior Ministry as saying, the latest sign of rising religious tension since last month’s revolution.
Fr. Marek Rybinski was found dead at the School of Our Lady in Manouba where he worked, Tunisia Africa Press reported. His throat had been cut. The school is run by the Salesian order of priests. The Polish section of the Salesians said on their website he was 34 years old and had worked in Tunisia since 2007. They also said the priests at the school had received a death threat in an anonymous letter on January 31.
“The Ministry of the Interior condemns this act and regrets the death. Based on results of the preliminary investigation, including the method of assassination, it believes a group of terrorist fascists with extremist tendencies was behind this crime,” the ministry said.
“These extremists are taking advantage of an exceptional situation to disturb national security and plunge our country into violence,” the ministry statement said. It did not say what form of extremism it suspected.
Islamists emerge as powerful force in the new Tunisia
They are at pains to assure Tunisians this is no Islamic revolution. They do not seek the presidency. They will run alongside other groups in the democracy that replaces Zine al-Abdine Ben Ali’s police state.
Tunisia’s main Islamist group may not have played any role in the revolution that toppled Ben Ali after 23 years, but any doubt that Ennahda would emerge as one of the largest players was dispelled with the return of its leader Rachid Ghannouchi.
Thousands thronged Tunis airport to see Ghannouchi, dwarfing any reception laid on for other exiles and alarming those Tunisians who want to keep Islam separate from the state in this French ex-colony used to decades of officially imposed secularism. They will be watching closely in the coming months to see if Ennahda’s actions match the moderation of its rhetoric.
“Tunisia will not change to adapt itself to the Islamists and their ideas. The Islamists must adapt to modern Tunisia,” said Neji Bghouri, head of the journalists union. “There is a trend in Ennahda that began to adjust to this reality but there are those who are more extreme. This is an issue of great sensitivity among Tunisia’s political elite.”
Despite a crackdown that saw thousands of their members jailed or exiled from the 1990s, Ennahda’s supporters already appear to be more organised than any other political groups.
Read the full analysis by Lin Noueihed here. Follow FaithWorld on Twitter at RTRFaithWorld
Dracula goes dry as Turkey’s new drink rules bite
Guests at the Istanbul premiere of a new vampire film were among the first victims of new curbs on alcohol that have raised secularist fears Islamic strictures may be encroaching on everyday life.
The rules, announced earlier this month by the tobacco and alcohol watchdog, tighten up licence requirements for serving alcohol, impose restrictions on alcohol marketing and limits sales to designated areas in stores.
But the move has revived secularist accusations that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government is interfering in people’s lifestyles and imposing Islamic values. The Ankara Bar Association — part of a judiciary that has become a last bastion of Turkey’s secularist old guard — said it had lodged a challenge to the new regulations in the country’s top administrative court.
“The aim of these regulations is not the public good, but to impose a new lifestyle on society,” the Ankara Bar said in a court petition, obtained by Reuters.
The restrictions appeared to take hold at a comedy horror film loosely based around the Dracula story, “Sacred Demijohn Dracoola”, which held its premiere on Wednesday evening. The film’s producer Senol Cengiz told Reuters the cinema had asked them not to serve alcohol for fear that they would be fined, and saw such measures further polarising Turkish society.
“The government has promised more freedom and democracy but their actions have been signalling a contrary attitude,” Cengiz said. “It would be okay if we could believe these measures are really taken to protect kids, but it seems these are efforts to restrict lifestyles,” he said.
Muslims in Azerbaijan protest for right to wear headscarves
Hundreds of people protested in Azerbaijan on Friday for the right to wear Islamic headscarves in schools, challenging the strictly secular regime. Around 800-1,000 people took part in the demonstration outside the Ministry of Education, far more than Azerbaijan’s opposition has mustered in recent years to demand reform in the tightly-controlled former Soviet republic.
Some Islamic communities in mainly Shi’ite Azerbaijan complain of discrimination by a regime analysts say is anxious to stem any challenge from politicised Islam or radicalism as a potential threat to stability in the oil and gas exporter.
There is no explicit ban on the wearing of headscarves in schools, but the government this year introduced a standard school uniform which precludes traditional Islamic dress.
The country of 9 million people is bordered to the West by Turkey, where a secular state must accommodate growing conservative religious influences, to the south by the Islamic Republic of Iran and to the north by Russia’s North Caucasus, gripped by an Islamist insurgency against Moscow.
“The Jury is Out”: WikiLeaks shows U.S. trying to understand Islam in Turkey
The WikiLeaks documents from the U.S. embassy in Ankara show several attempts by American diplomats to understand the role of Islam and the Islamic world in the political stand of the governing AK Party of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. Their efforts can be summarised in a subtitle of a cable in 2007 purporting to show “the truth behind the AKP’s “secret Islamic agenda.” It said simply: The Jury is Out.”
Following are some interesting excerpts, with links to the full documents:
20 Jan 2010 — WHAT LIES BENEATH ANKARA’S NEW FOREIGN POLICY
¶1. (C) There is much talk in chanceries and in the international media these days about Turkey’s new, highly activist foreign policy … The ruling AKP foreign policy is driven by both a desire to be more independently activist, and by a more Islamic orientation…
¶2. (C) Does all this mean that the country is becoming more focused on the Islamist world and its Muslim tradition in its foreign policy? Absolutely. Does it mean that it is “abandoning” or wants to abandon its traditional Western orientation and willingness to cooperate with us? Absolutely not. At the end of the day we will have to live with a Turkey whose population is propelling much of what we see … Turkey will remain a complicated blend of world class “Western” institutions, competencies, and orientation, and Middle Eastern culture and religion.
¶9. (C) Various factors explain the shifts we see in Turkish foreign policy beyond the personal views of the AKP leadership:
In a small way, this reminds me of both Voltaire’s Letters on The English, and Tocqueville’s America. This should have never been classified information.
Allah’s tailors gaining profile in Turkey with chic headscarves
Along Istanbul’s busy Eminönü waterfront, women swathed in dark coats and scarves knotted once under the chin jostle past others clad in vivid colors and head coverings carefully sculpted around the face. Two decades ago such a polished, pious look scarcely existed in Turkey. But today it has the highest profile exponents in First Lady Hayrünnisa Gül and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s wife Emine, and the brands behind it plan ambitious expansion.
The headscarf remains one of Turkey’s most divisive issues. Everything from the way it is tied and accessorized, to the poise and demeanor of the wearer, is laden with meaning in this majority Muslim but officially secular country of 74 million. From a simple headcovering, stigmatized in the early days of the Turkish Republic as backward and rural, it has become, in the last decades, a carefully crafted garment and highly marketable commodity, embodying the challenge of a new class of conservative Muslims to Turkey’s secularist elites.
“It was hard to find anything chic for the covered women 10 years ago, but fashion for pious women has made huge progress in the last 6-7 years,” said Alpaslan Akman, an executive in charge of production and marketing at Muslim fashion brand Armine.
Armine is known for its high-impact campaigns. Huge posters have hung in the heart of Istanbul’s bar and nightclub district — the serene models contrasting with the commotion below. The brand teams colorful scarves with figure-skimming coats, pert collars, big buttons and ruffled sleeves.
“We are much luckier than previous generations, we have more designs and colors of scarves to choose from,” said 30-year-old Filiz Albayrak, a sales assistant in an Istanbul scarf shop.
Pope in Spain urges Europe to keep spiritual roots
Pope Benedict, on a lightning trip to Spain, urged Europe on Saturday to re-discover God and its Christian heritage and also denounced the country’s liberal abortion laws.
“Europe must open itself to God, must come to meet him without fear,” he said in the sermon of a Mass for more than 20,000 people in the square of Santiago de Compostela, which has been a major pilgrimage destination since medieval times.
Spain’s Roman Catholic Church, whose image was stained by its close relationship with Francisco Franco during his 36-year dictatorship, has clashed with the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero over gay rights and abortion. Read the full story by Cristina Fuentes-Cantillana in English here and in Spanish here.
One of the main themes of Benedict’s papacy — and an aim of the Spanish trip — has been what the Church calls the “re-evangelisation” of Europe, an attempt to urge people to return to their religious roots despite living in highly secularised societies.
Upon arrival on Saturday morning, the pope spoke of the need to defend “the most defenceless,” and in the afternoon he decried “public silence with regard to the first and essential reality of human life” — references to abortion. Click here for his sermon in Spanish or in English translation.
Santiago de Compostela, in northwestern Spain, has been a major pilgrimage destination since medieval times and is seen as a symbol of Europe’s Christian heritage.
Naksuthin, you need to get your facts straight. First, there were nowhere near 50,000 people killed during the 500 years of the Inquisition. There are meticulously kept records of the trials and sentences. The actual number is around 6000. While inexcusable, this is a far cry from the estimated 100 million Hindus slaughter by the Muslims during their occupation of India during the same period of time. On average, the Inquisition sentenced 90% of people to “canonical penance.”[JEWISH historian Steven Katz] Of those convicted and sentenced to death many, as much as half, were sentenced to be burned in effigy. Pope John Paul II already issued a Papal apology, saying “Forgive us Lord, never again.”
Instead of concentrating on and exaggerating the sins of the Church in the past why don’t you look at the present evil? The Taliban executed more people in the infamous Kabul soccer field over three years than the Inquisition did in all of Europe over 500 years.
As for pedophile priests, that is also inexcusable, but then again look at the facts. The Church has removed those priests and subjected them to prosecution, yet in Islam it’s condoned through “marriage.” The Church has apologized and recognized the evil of the problem; Islam condones it. As a man who spends his life fighting the war on Terror, which is nothing less than a war against the 1500 years of Islamic jihad, I have a hard time understanding you people. Think for a moment who you’d rather live under, a fundamentalist Imam enforcing Sharia or western civilization? Think about that before you condemn the foundations of our society. Flint Wolfe
Don’t preach to us, Hamas tells secular West
The West is floundering in immorality and has no right to criticise the Islamist movement Hamas over the way it governs the Palestinian territory of Gaza, a veteran leader of the militant group said. Hamas strategist Mahmoud Al-Zahar told Reuters in an interview that Islamic traditions deserved respect and he accused Europe of promoting promiscuity and political hypocrisy.
“We have the right to control our life according to our religion, not according to your religion. You have no religion, You are secular,” said Zahar, who is one of the group’s most influential and respected voices.
“You do not live like human beings. You do not (even) live like animals. You accept homosexuality. And now you criticise us?” he said, speaking from his apartment building in the densely populated Mediterranean city.
Hamas, which is an acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement and means “zeal” in Arabic, won a fair, 2006 Palestinian parliamentary election and then seized control of Gaza in 2007 after routing rival forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas.
Sitting in a cavernous reception room, with an old Mercedes saloon car parked in one corner, Zahar denounced European states, such as France, for recently barring Muslim women from wearing full face veils in public.
“We are the ones who respect women and honour women … not you,” he said. “You use women as an animal. She has one husband and hundreds of thousands of boyfriends. You don’t know who is the father of your sons, because of the way you respect women.”
Egypt’s new religious fervour breeds ghetto mentality
A wave of religious fervour and a backlash by secular liberals has left some ordinary Egyptians feeling like strangers in their own country, and civil rights activists warn of a dangerous drift into sectarianism.
Banker Hussein Khalil says organising something as simple as an evening out with friends has turned into a headache.
“These days in Egypt, either you go out with people who are very strict and agree not to go anywhere that serves alcohol, or you go out with others who just want to get drunk,” said the 27-year-old. “Moderates are unable to enjoy their lives… We’re under pressure to join one of the two extremes.”
Egypt’s legal system is based on Islamic sharia law yet the country has a large Christian minority and the state has sought since independence to cement national identity by promoting an ideal of citizenship that transcends religious affiliation.
Religious observance was seen widely as a matter of personal conscience until the 1980s, when growing numbers of Egyptians started working in Saudi Arabia and began promoting the strict Islamic ways back home.
When thanked, most Egyptians used to say: “You are welcome”. This has been replaced by the more pious phrase: “May God reward you with goodness”. Some women have stopped shaking men’s hands, saying it is forbidden.
Islam part of Germany, Christianity part of Turkey – Wulff
When German President Christian Wulff recently declared that Islam “belongs to Germany,” Christian Democratic politicians there howled and Muslims living in Germany and Turkey cheered. Now Wulff, on an official visit to Turkey, has told the Turkish parliament that “Christianity too, undoubtedly, belongs to Turkey.” This time there was applause in Germany, and silence from the Turkish deputies listening to him in Ankara on Tuesday.
In both cases, Wulff’s words could not have come at a better time.
Germany is in the grip of an emotional debate about Islam and Muslim integration. When Wulff said in his Oct. 3 German Unity Day address that Islam was now part of German society, given the large number (about 4 million) of Muslims living there, it was demographically obvious and politically risky. Several of his fellow Christian Democrats have challenged his view and insisted Germany had a “Judeo-Christian heritage” that Islam did not share. But Wulff, who was considered something of a lightweight for the ceremonial role when he was elected last July, has taken a clear stand on a political and moral issue — just like Germans want their head of state to do. He is, as the Financial Times Deutschland entitled its editorial on Wednesday, “Finally A President.”
The overwhelmingly Muslim but officially secular state of Turkey is slowly reconsidering the tight restrictions it has long imposed on its tiny Christian minority. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government has made a small and cautious opening to Christians, allowing religious services at a historic Greek Orthodox monastery and Armenian Orthodox church, allowing an art show at a forcibly closed Orthodox seminary and helping the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch’s succession problem with citizenship for foreign prelates.
Despite this, Christians in Turkey — one of the historical cradles of the faith — fear their communities are dying out. One of the names often cited at the current Synod on the Middle East at the Vatican is that of Luigi Padovese, the Italian-born Roman Catholic bishop for Anatolia who was murdered at his home in southern Turkey last June.
So it was interesting to see that the Christian minority issue came up at the news conference that Wulff and Turkish President Abdullah Gül held after the German leader’s address to parliament. A journalist referred to Wulff’s comment that he was also the president of Muslims living in Germany. Gül responded: “We have non-Muslim citizens, we have Christian and Jewish citizens. I am also their president. There is no discrimination. We respect our citizens’ religion and identity. I don’t believe there is a problem here.”
“the sunni terrorist de facto state of Turkey!” Perhaps you should take your pills before completely losing it.
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