Looking at the posters above on this threat agree to disagree on just about everything EXCEPT for the current Turkish dictatorship.
We can agree on where the trouble coming from. And of course you will all expect me to go further than Daniel Pipes .... and I could ... but I'll focus on Islam instead.
Bastardised versions of Islam have been around for a long time. Religions tend to get over politicised just as Christianity was once Romanised to fit the elite of the Empire at that time. The problem has never IMHO been deeply religious people of any faith. Chaos unravels whenever religion is used to push totalitarian political agendas.
Wahhabism is for one example of this. The misinterpretations of this cult were further exacerbated by the Saudis who used oil money to essentially redraft Islam into the Saudi totalitarian construct. An now, just as Saudi Arabia is belatedly showing signs of coming back to its senses, the Turkish leadership has picked up the baton of Islamo-Fascist radicalism and is running with it as a means of extending political power and influence.
As a consequence of all of this I often find myself defending many traditional interpretations of Islam while lambasting the myopic, anger laden versions.
All I know is that Muhammed never claimed to be God, never claimed to be perfect, was far more of a feminist than most current day Salafi or Wahhabi Muslims and that Muhammed's flexible mind contrasts completely with the morons we see running around with black banners.
Back to Turkey. The Turks need regime change. Should peaceful regime change actually occur at some point a more sensible leadership may realise that good relations with neighbours are not mutually exclusive and that a good way to deal with opponents is to provide them with a soap box and then take time to enjoy the debate.
