Israel Matzav

Islamism is popular in Turkey

Lest anyone get the idea that the Islamist direction being pursued by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is unpopular....

More than half of the population of Muslim-majority Turkey opposes members of other religions holding meetings or publishing materials to explain their faith, according to a recently issued survey.

Fully 59 percent of those surveyed said non-Muslims either "should not" or "absolutely should not" be allowed to hold open meetings where they can discuss their ideas. Fifty-four percent said non-Muslims either "should not" or "absolutely should not" be allowed to publish literature that describes their faith.

The survey also found that almost 40 percent of the population of Turkey said they had "very negative" or "negative" views of Christians. In the random survey, 60 percent of those polled said there is one true religion; over 90 percent of the population of Turkey is Sunni Muslim.

...

The survey includes significant nuance. While 42 percent of the population agreed with the statement that religious people should be tolerant, 49 percent of those surveyed said they would either "absolutely" or "most likely" not support a political party that accepted people from another religion. But 20 percent of those surveyed said they had "very positive" or "positive" views of Christians - 13 percent "very positive," and 7 percent "positive."

Erdogan threatened Israel again in an interview with an Egyptian journalist that was published on Thursday morning.

Responding to a question concerning rumors that Israel had entered Turkey's airspace for espionage purposes, Erdogan said that such a thing had never happened, but that the consequences would be dire if it did.

"[Israel] will receive a response equal to that of an earthquake," he cautioned, urging Israel's leaders to refrain from "using the relationship they have with [Turkey] as a card to wage aggression on a third party."

Ankara would not be a neutral party and stand aside with its arms folded, he said.

It's time to stop pretending: Turkey has gone Islamist. They no longer behave like a Western nation.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:41 PM