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Turk Shoots At Italian Consulate Over Pope Visit

From those defenders of the (Muslim) faith at Reuters:

Exemplary Religion Of Peace practitioner Ibrahim Ak shouts slogans as he arrives at a hospital for a medical check up after he was detained in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2006. Ak fired shots into the air outside the Italian consulate to protest an upcoming visit by Pope Benedict XVI. The suspect later told television he wanted to ’strangle’ the pope with his bare hands.

Turk shoots at Italy consulate over Pope visit

Thu Nov 2, 2006

By Daren Butler

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A man fired a weapon in front of the Italian consulate in Istanbul on Thursday to protest against Pope Benedict’s visit to the predominantly Muslim country later this month, raising concern over the Pontiff’s safety there.

"I did what every Muslim has do to. God willing, the Pope will not come to Turkey, but if he does he will see what will happen to him," 26-year-old Ibrahim Ak told the DHA news agency while sitting in a police car after he was detained…

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, a pious Muslim, has decided not to meet the Pope because of a busy schedule, a move Italian commentators said amounted to a diplomatic snub.

Vatican observers said they could not recall an occasion when a head of government did not meet a visiting pope…

The Pope has even been warned to stay away by the man who attempted to kill his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, in 1981.

"As someone who knows these matters well, I say your life is in danger. Don’t come to Turkey," said Mehmet Ali Agca in comments released in September by his lawyer. Agca is now serving a jail sentence in Istanbul for murder and robbery.

Pope John Paul publicly forgave Agca four days after the shooting in St Peter’s Square and again when he visited him in his cell in 1983. Agca was pardoned at the Pope’s request in 2000 after 19 years in an Italian jail…

"We do not want the Pope to visit our country. It is time for democratic reaction to protect the unity of the secular republic of Turkey," Kemal Kerincsiz, a powerful nationalist lawyer and member of the Great Lawyers Union, said on Wednesday.

Violence against Roman Catholic clergy in Turkey has risen in the past year. In the most serious incident, a youth shot dead an Italian priest while he prayed in his church in the Black Sea port of Trabzon. A French priest survived a knife attack in Samsun, also on the Black Sea and a Slovenian Franciscan friar received death threats.

People stand near a banner that reads ‘We don’t want the Pope in Turkey,’ hung by anonymous protesters on a bridge in Istanbul, October 23, 2006.

What is it with Turks shooting Popes?

Again, try to imagine the endless outrage if a Christian had taken pot shots in front of a Muslim site or threatened a prominent (let alone top) Islamic cleric?

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This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Thursday, November 2nd, 2006 at 4:18 pm. You can leave a response.

3 Responses to “Turk Shoots At Italian Consulate Over Pope Visit”

  1. SG
    November 3rd, 2006 at 10:43 am

    A related story from Italy’s Asia News:

    Two converts to Christianity accused of “insulting Turkishness”

    3 November, 2006

    The two men are charged under Section 301 of the Penal Code of trying to convert teenagers. Nobel Prize laureate for literature Orhan Pamuk was also charged under the same section, which is challenged by the European Union.

    Ankara (AsiaNews) – Turan Topal and Hakan Tastan, two converts to Christianity, are facing trial on November 23, and could get six months to three years in prison for “insulting Turkishness”, inciting hatred against Islam and secretly compiling data on private citizens for a local Bible correspondence course.

    Both men, who reject the accusations, were charged under Section 301 of Turkey’s Penal Code which makes “insulting Turkishness” an offence. This is one of the thorniest issues on Turkey’s path to entry in the European Union.

    Turan Topal, 46, and Hakan Tastan, 37, are not the only Turkish citizens hauled into court for allegedly violating Section 301—97 other preceded them, among them the 2006 Nobel Prize laureate in literature Orhan Pamuk.

    Haydar Polat, attorney for the two Christians, told Compass Direct News, a Protestant news agency, that his clients are accused of approaching grade school and high school students in Silivri on the Marmara Sea coast, 70 kilometre (45 miles) west of Istanbul, and attempting to convert them to Christianity.

    According to the written charges, the three plaintiffs, identified as Fatih Kose, 23, Alper, 16, and Oguz, 17, claimed the two Christians had called Islam a “primitive and fabricated religion” and had described Turks as a “cursed people.”

    They also accused the defendants of opposing the Turkish military, encouraging sexual misconduct and procuring funds from abroad to entice young people in Silivri to become Christians.

    Tastan and Topal deny all charges.

    Not until 8 am on October 11, when two carloads of police officers arrived with a search warrant at Tastan’s home, did either of the men knew they were under investigation.

    Tastan, who is married and has two small children, was informed that a complaint had been made against him claiming he had unlicensed guns and was conducting illegal missionary activities.

    When he was told to come to his small Istanbul office to find Turan, he found out that he had been under surveillance for a month, secretly photographed and taped. At the office, police confiscated two computers and an array of books and papers.

    During their interrogations, the two Christians realised that the charges were based on three or four trips they had made to Silivri months earlier to meet a teacher and several high school students who had contacted an Istanbul-based Bible correspondence course requesting a visit.

    Just four days after the two were released some newspapers carried stories about the affair, reporting that parents of some Silivri students had complained that the two men were promoting missionary activities among grade school students. The papers claimed that their office, linked to the Taksim Protestant Church, had compiled names and detailed private data on 5,000 residents in the Marmara region.

    One paper, Zaman, even claimed that the two Christians were connected to Hakan Ekinci, the man who on October 3 hijacked a Turkish Airlines plane to Italy where he claimed to be Christian and a conscientious objector, and had appealed to Pope Benedict XVI for asylum.

    For the spokesman for the Alliance of Protestant Churches in Turkey, Isa Karatas, there is no evidence against the men. Charges filed against them are based only on verbal allegations without any proof.

    http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=7656

  2. doingwhatican
    November 3rd, 2006 at 5:43 pm

    An Islamic-style welcome to Turkey.

  3. Professor_Repulso
    November 3rd, 2006 at 9:39 pm

    Why would al-Qaida want to exterminate these two famous idiots? I have to admit to having mixed emotions about this story. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pag.....ge_id=1773
    I wouldn’t wish that sort of fate on anyone, but it would be a good thing for those two assholes to get a jolly good fright thrown into them.


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