Turkish Forum

Category: UK

  • “Terrorism Supporter” to be the Secretary General of NATO?

    “Terrorism Supporter” to be the Secretary General of NATO?

    By Sedat LACINER

    NATO has started to take on new roles, especially after the Cold War period, among which combating international terrorism is its first priority. The expansion of NATO’s operation area from the former Yugoslavia to Afghanistan is also a new development NATO is operating among religiously and ethnically diverse populations from numerous regions. Hence, the Organization’s operation locations ”at an equal distance from all religions and cultures” is of the utmost importance in accomplishing its mission. NATO is currently preparing to welcome its new secretary general, and Denmark’s Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is in the lead, among the other strong candidates, in consideration for this post.

    The US, Germany, and other significant NATO members have already asserted their support for Rasmussen. Moreover, Denmark has been conducting lobbying campaigns in support of its prime minister. Yet, since Rasmussen has an unfavorable record in combating terrorism and in conducting dialogue between civilizations, he is the worst candidate for the NATO or any organization of this kind:

    * Copenhagen Is Broadcasting “Terrorist TV’

    First, Rasmussen tolerated the PKK’s (Kurdistan Worker’s Party) activities in Denmark, and gave permission to the terrorist organization launching a television channel in Copenhagen: Roj TV, perceived as a culture channel by the Danish authorities, which enhances the so-called suppressed Kurds’ language and culture. However, to ignore the close relations between Roj TV and the PKK, one should be blind or malicious.

    The TV channel repeatedly broadcasts PKK terrorists to the screen. Moreover, most of these terrorists are well known some are leaders of the Organization or even suspects on Interpol’s wanted list.

    Moreover, the TV channel calls Kurdish people to perform acts of violence and terrorism against Turkey every day. Despite the fact that inciting violence is banned by the EU and Danish law as well, Denmark did not take any measures to discourage this persistent malice.

    Turkey has warned Denmark on the matter numerous times. Not only Turkey, but also the United States (US) has pointed to dubious relations between Roj TV and the PKK and called for the channel to be shut down. Yet the Rasmussen Government did not take these warnings seriously, only postponing the solution by saying, “The police are investigating the issue,” or “our judges are going to focus on the matter.”

    The terrorist relations between Roj TV and the PKK were obvious and the Danish government did not need any clues to figure out this connection. MED TV, the first channel established by the PKK, was banned by the British television authority ITC in 1999. The terrorist organization then moved its TV channel to France, under the name “MEDYA TV.” However, the France did not welcome the channel either, and it was closed down by the court after a short period of broadcasting.

    The PKK moved to Denmark after the UK and France and found a government willing to help its cause. While Roj TV was broadcasting from Denmark, it was banned in Germany due to its terrorist roots. The PKK’s reaction to Germany’s stance was to kidnap German mountain climbers in Turkey. However, Germany did not yield to the PKK’s blackmailing and insisted on its decision on banning the TV channel. Indeed, the PKK is labeled in Danish law as a “terrorist organization” as it was by the US, the EU, the UK, Germany, and Turkey. Yet, Rasmussen continues to protect the terrorist organization’s activities by tolerating them. Thus, the PKK and its branches have freely carried out their activities in Denmark as if it was a civil society organization.

    Now, the prime minister of this government, who has turned a blind eye towards terrorism, and is even seen as a supporter of terrorism, is preparing to be the head of NATO which regards combating terrorism as one of its primary missions. If Rasmussen becomes the Secretary General of NATO, this could possibly affect numerous NATO policies, especially those related to combating terrorism. Moreover, this could lead many countries including but not limited to Turkey, to question their confidence in the Organization’s policies.

    * Cartoon Crisis

    Rasmussen’s stance during the “Cartoon Crisis” is another fact which makes him a weird figure for the Secretary General of NATO.

    Just after the release of the caricatures in Jyllands-Posten newspaper on September 30th, which picture Muslims and their prophet as terrorists, Turkey warned Denmark to be aware of the incoming danger. Ambassadors of ten Muslim countries pioneered by former Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to Denmark sent a signed petition to the Prime Minister Rasmussen to protest the events. The ambassadors asked for a meeting with Rasmussen to evaluate the crisis and call for the peace atmosphere. Turkey aimed to bring the representatives of the Muslim countries in Copenhagen and the Denmark Government together during that crisis. However, Rasmussen did not appraise Turkey’s good will and his government implied that they did not need Turkey’s mediation on the issue. Rasmussen rejected the meeting request rudely. The caricature crisis spread to all Muslim countries as a result, and more radicals like Iran became dominant in anti-Denmark campaigns gradually, yet decisively. Whilst Denmark’s interests started to be damaged from these campaigns, Rasmussen declared that he personally condemned the caricatures, yet, he continued to evaluate the issue within the context of freedom of speech. His management of crisis was not only unsuccessful but also was narrow sided. Rasmussen ignored dialog and underestimated Turkey and its soft power. Today, for many Muslims, Denmark is a country which insulted their Prophet.

    Is not the Rasmussen’s taking post going to disrupt NATO’s operations in Afghanistan while the perception toward Denmark is highly problematic among the Muslim countries?

    * Turkey’s EU Membership

    Rasmussen’s opposition to Turkey’s EU membership on the ground that Turkey has a different cultural-religious background is the third reason which damages Rasmussen’s image in the eyes of Turkey and Muslim countries. For Rasmussen, who seems as if he does not make religion based politics, Turkey does not have a place in the EU.

    Rasmussen had a significant role in Denmark’s opposition to Turkey’s EU membership as contrary to the stance of other countries in the Northern Europe. The Prime Minister also chose to support Turkey’s opponents whenever Turkey had a disagreement with other countries. His behavior towards Turkey was scorning and perception of Turkey for Rasmussen was “an Eastern country waiting at the EU’s door.” Resembling to Europe’s fanatical rightist politicians, Rasmussen became a problematic figure who discourages Turkey on the way to the EU membership.

    Since he has been opposing Turkey’s EU membership as the first Muslim country to be in the EU, it is not hard to guess to what extent Rasmussen would damage the relations between the NATO and other Muslim countries.

    ***

    Indeed, it is like a bad joke

    While we were happy for getting rid of the Bush administration, Danish version of Bush is preparing to be the head of NATO during the Obama presidency.

    slaciner@gmail.com

    Sedat LACINER: BA (Ankara), MA (Sheffield), PhD (King’s College, London University)

    ***
    Translated by Dilek Aydemir, USAK
    Language Edit by Kaitlin MacKenzie, USAK

    Source: Journal of Turkish Weekly, 26 March 2009

  • Why we must all do God

    Why we must all do God

    Tony Blair

    Published 19 March 2009

    Religion has never mattered more to the world than it does now, says the former prime minister, launching our new occasional column on faith

    Blair on the role he believes faith can play in the 21st century
    Blair on the role he believes faith can play in the 21st century

    My faith has always been an important part of my politics. While in office, it was best, in my view, not to shout that too loudly from the rooftops, lest it be thought that I was trying to claim some kind of moral superiority for myself or my party. On the rare occasions when I did talk about religion, it tended to be misrepresented to suit the political purposes of others. That was the reason why “we did not do God”.

    Out of office, seeking to make a contribution to important public and policy debates in a different way, I feel no such restraints. Indeed, as the years of my premiership passed, one fact struck me with increasing force: that failure to understand the power of religion meant failure to understand the modern world. In western Europe this may sound counter-intuitive. Almost everywhere else, it stares you in the face.

    Briefly, consider the statistics: more than two billion Christians worldwide, almost 1.5 billion Muslims, more than 900 million Hindus, 400 million Buddhists, 24 million Sikhs, 13 million Jews. And these figures exclude adherents of other faiths. In most places these numbers are growing. In Africa, for example, there were ten million Christians in 1900; by 2000, there were 360 million, the largest quantitative change ever. And people of different faiths are being brought closer and closer together. Walk down many UK high streets and you see a microcosm of the world’s faiths in a few yards.

    In this globalised world, we are more than ever interconnected, but we are also more uncertain. What were firm boundaries of race, culture and identity are becoming fluid. In such a world the involvement of religion becomes ever more crucial. It can either play a positive role, helping to deepen understanding and working for the common good, or it can be exploited to become destructive, emphasising difference and reinforcing distrust of the “other”.

    Religious faith and how it develops could be of the same significance to the 21st century as political ideology was to the 20th. It could help guide and sustain the era of globalisation, lending it values, and, in bringing faiths and cultures to a greater understanding of each other, could foster peaceful coexistence. Or it could be a reactionary force, pulling people apart just as globalisation pushes people together. Whichever route develops, it does mean that all leaders, whether of religious faith themselves or not, have to “do God”.

    I set up the Tony Blair Faith Foundation with the aim of promoting greater respect and understanding between the major religions, to make the case for religion as a force for good, and to show this in action by encouraging interfaith initiatives to tackle global poverty and conflict. We hope to show the relevance of faith to the challenges of the 21st century and its ability to bring people together, not force them further apart.

    We are focusing on five main projects initially, working with partners in the six main faiths.

    First, we have developed Faith Acts Together, a programme already involving supporters in more than 30 countries on six continents. We are working across religious divides towards a common goal – ending the scandal of deaths from malaria, and thus contributing to the Millennium Development Goals. We shall work initially in selected countries in Africa, bringing different faith communities together to distribute bed nets and offer training in their use, the most effective and the cheapest way to eliminate the preventable death toll from malaria. And, initially in the UK, US and Canada, we are appointing 30 Faith Act fellows, young leaders who will build grass-roots campaigns and coalitions across all the main faiths to support the work in Africa on the ground.

    Second, we have established Face to Faith, an interfaith schools programme to counter intolerance and extremism. This will link classrooms around the world through structured and facilitated video conferences. Children of one faith and culture will have the chance to interact with children of another, getting a real sense of each other’s lived experience. The syllabus will focus on leading contemporary topics, such as the environment, exploring what the great faith traditions have to contribute on the issues. The programme is being piloted now in five countries on three continents.

    Third, we are developing a deeper intellectual understanding of the dynamics of faith and globalisation. My foundation and Yale University have developed a course on this, which I co-taught last term. Our aim is to build a global conversation between a dozen world-class universities on these issues. We are now discussing with three others how they will take up the course, with more to follow. Each university will bring its own intellectual traditions and regional perspective, but all will explore the relations between religion and economics, politics and society, and how the great faiths might do more to humanise a globalised world.

    As part of this we are also exploring the issue of values and the financial system in the light of the financial crisis, examining how our financial systems might be reconnected with some basic values from which they have become largely detached. We have contributed to the global debate, at President Sarkozy’s Paris conference and at the World Economic Forum; we are now exploring ways of translating the debate into concrete action.

    Finally, we are working with the Coexist Foundation and Cambridge University to develop the concept of Abraham House. This will be a world-class place of encounter for the three Abrahamic faiths in London, but also open to all of any faith or none. It will provide a national and international focus for a movement of creative thinking and exploration, leading to new action and deeper understanding.

    The 21st century will be poorer in spirit and ambition, less focused on social justice, less sensitive to conscience and the common good, without a full and proper recognition of the role that the great faiths can and do play. I hope my foundation, in its own way, can work with others in those faiths to help harness their full power to transform our world for the better.

    Source:  www.newstatesman.com, 23 March 2009

  • Poll reveals public doubts over Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution

    Poll reveals public doubts over Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution

    Belief in creationism is widespread in Britain, according to a new survey.

    By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent
    Last Updated: 5:02PM GMT 06 Feb 2009

    More than half of the public believe that the theory of evolution cannot explain the full complexity of life on Earth, and a “designer” must have lent a hand, the findings suggest.

    And one in three believe that God created the world within the past 10,000 years.

    The survey, by respected polling firm ComRes, will fuel the debate around evolution and creationism ahead of next week’s 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin.

    Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist and author of The God Delusion, said the findings revealed a worrying level of scientific ignorance among Britons.

    In the survey, 51 per cent of those questioned agreed with the statement that “evolution alone is not enough to explain the complex structures of some living things, so the intervention of a designer is needed at key stages”

    A further 40 per cent disagreed, while the rest said they did not know.

    The suggestion that a designer’s input is needed reflects the “intelligent design” theory, promoted by American creationists as an alternative to Darwinian evolution.

    Asked whether it was true that “God created the world sometime in the last 10,000 years”, 32 per cent agreed, 60 per cent disagreed and eight per cent did not know.

    The findings – to be published tomorrow in a report by Theos, a theology think-tank – follow a row over the place of creationism in education.

    A recent poll of science teachers found that one in three believe creationism should be taught in science classes alongside evolution and the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe.

    However, Michael Reiss, a biologist and Anglican cleric, was forced to resign as the Royal Society’s director of education after suggesting that creationism should be discussed in lessons “not as a misconception but as a world view”.

    Speaking at the British Association Festival of Science at the University of Liverpool last year, Professor Reiss estimated that about one in 10 children was from a family which supported a creationist rather than evolutionary viewpoint.

    He said his experience had led him to believe it was more effective to include discussion about creationism alongside scientific theories, rather than simply giving the impression that such children were wrong.

    The research for Theos shows that the level of support for creationism is much higher than Professor Reiss’s estimation, but also indicates that many people who believe in God also consider evolution to be the most realistic explanation for the origins of living things.

    Paul Woolley, the director of Theos said: “Darwin is being used by certain atheists today to promote their cause.

    “The result is that, given the false choice of evolution or God, people are rejecting evolution.”

    While many fundamentalist Christians believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible’s account of the earth’s creation, the Church of England last year issued a statement conceding it had been over-defensive in dismissing Darwin’s ideas in the past.

    The Church launched a website promoting the naturalist’s evolutionary views on which it said: “Charles Darwin: 200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still.”

    Prof Dawkins expressed dismay at the findings of the ComRes survey, of 2,060 adults, which he claimed were confirmation that much of the population is “pig-ignorant” about science.

    “Obviously life, which was Darwin’s own subject, is not the result of chance,” he said.

    “Any fool can see that. Natural selection is the very antithesis of chance.

    “The error is to think that God is the only alternative to chance, and Darwin surely didn’t think that because he himself discovered the most important non-theistic alternative to chance, namely natural selection.”

    Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, accused Dawkins of evolving into a “very simple kind of thinker”.

    He said: “His argument for atheism goes like this: either God is the explanation for the wide diversity of biological life, or evolution is. We know that evolution is true. Therefore, God doesn’t exist.

    “I’m an evangelical Christian, but I have no difficulties in believing that evolution is the best scientific account we have for the diversity of life on our planet.”

    Source: www.telegraph.co.uk, 06 Feb 2009

  • Invitation to talk Turkey

    Invitation to talk Turkey

    March 18, 2009

    COMPANIES looking to trade with Turkish firms are invited to a free advice clinic in Manchester next week.

    The session will be held on Monday at the Royal Bank of Scotland’s offices in Spinningfields. It is being organised by international trade advisers from The Export Network and representatives of Istanbul-based training and support outfit Doga Innovatory. Companies can book a 45-minute slot to talk over issues.

    Turkey is the 15th largest market in the world, and exports from Britain totalled £5.5bn in 2007. Around 1,800 UK companies have interests in Turkey.

    For more information, contact Simon Watson at the RBS via simon.watson@rbs.co.uk.

    Source:  www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk, March 18, 2009

  • Only 25% of Britons believe evolution

    Only 25% of Britons believe evolution

    EVOLUTION SURVEYS UNDER THE MONOPOLY OF THE DARWINIST DICTATORSHIP

    An opinion poll was conducted in Britain. But the result came as a shock to Darwinists. The level of belief in the theory of evolution, in Darwin’s homeland, Britain, where Richard Dawkins’ atheist and Darwinist propaganda is most intense, emerged at a mere 25%. Britain’s best-known dailies immediately carried the story. This important and major development came as a real shock to Darwinists. It was the loudest declaration of Darwinism’s defeat.

    The result of the survey, carried out nationwide on the Guardian website on 2 February, 2009, was announced as follows: “Only 25% of Britons believe Darwin’s theory of evolution”. This headline, which reflected the poll findings, was altered within a few hours.

    This defeat being carried in the headlines was unacceptable to the Darwinist dictatorship. For that reason, the headline to the report carried in the publications in question was swiftly changed in a matter of hours.  The new report did not repeat that the level of belief in Darwinism was very low. The poll findings were distorted. The genuine report, which was carried for a brief period of time, was suddenly changed. Once again, people had been deceived under the influence of the Darwinist dictatorship.

    The incident did not end there. The results of this poll in Britain must have been particularly unwelcome, for Darwinists lost no time in resorting to another method in order to cover them up. “We have conducted a new poll,” they said. They gave the result of the poll they claimed to have conducted among 2000 people to the press. Under the influence of the Darwinist dictatorship the captions in the British press were swiftly altered. The British people were announced to be “evolutionist” by this false poll based on the opinions of 2000 persons.

    The fact is that this was a dirty trick by the Darwinist dictatorship that has taken the whole world under its sway and deceived people for many years.

    These intrigues have long been an effective technique for this sinister dictatorship that strives to spread Darwinist propaganda. Formerly, Darwinists used to draw pictures of imaginary ape ancestors, discover perfectly complex fossils of extinct life forms and claim that these were transitional fossils and maintain that a whole country was evolutionist, and people would duly believe them. That was because Darwinists kept the real scientific evidence carefully hidden away and nobody knew that Darwinism was a lie. They imagined that the equine series they saw in museums and the peppered moths they read about in school books were true, and were duly convinced because they knew nothing more. Whatever the Darwinist dictatorship said, went.

    But then something happened that Darwinists never expected.

    THE DARWINIST DICTATORSHIP WAS DEALT A BODY BLOW: BY ATLAS OF CREATION.

    The fossils so carefully hidden away were suddenly revealed. THERE WERE 100 MILLION FOSSILS THAT PROVED CREATION.  These all belonged to perfect, flawless and complex life forms, and many were living fossils. People realized that a tiger is the same today as it was 50 million years ago. A squid is the same today as it was 100 million years ago. And people also realized THAT NOT A SINGLE TRANSITIONAL FORM FOSSIL EXISTED.  Most important of all, they realized THEY HAD BEEN DECEIVED. The scientific facts were before their eyes. There was now no way of deceiving people by holding back the scientific proofs. Unable to produce any scientific evidence, and thus forced to rely on propaganda alone, Darwinism was abandoned.

    Demagoguery and propaganda are old Darwinist techniques. But that age is now over. It has no more influence over people who are now aware and have seen the scientific evidence.  People are abandoning evolution in droves and turning to belief in Allah (God). This is now showing itself very clearly and with powerful evidence in all countries. That is why Darwinists are in such a panic and such despair.

    Darwinism has been totally routed. It has been demolished. The Darwinist system that regarded people as ignorant and insignificant has realized that it can no longer deceive them. Nobody falls into the traps of the Darwinist dictatorship any more. They can make as much propaganda as they like, but nobody in the world really believes in Darwinism any more.

    Mar 17, 2009

    Source:  www.harunyahya.com, Mar 17, 2009

  • 2009 ANNUAL DUES, DONATIONS and Book Sales

    2009 ANNUAL DUES, DONATIONS and Book Sales

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