By Robert Spencer
Sharia descending upon once-secular Turkey: “Turkish Pianist Faces Prison for Tweets,” by Kendra Srivastava for Mobiledia.com, April 12 (thanks to David):
A Turkish pianist is facing prison time for anti-Muslim tweets, raising questions over the state of religious and Internet freedoms in less than secular countries.
“Less than secular countries.” It was just recently that Turkey was a paragon of secularism, the trail-blazer of secularism in the modern world, the proof that Islam and democracy were compatible and that Islam could be genuinely moderate on a societal level. Above all, Turkey was the secular model that all Muslim countries were soon and inevitably to follow, and so concern about jihad and Islamic supremacism was just fearmongering.
How quickly Turkey has devolved from all that into a “less than secular” country that throws people into prison for violating Sharia laws regarding saying something impermissible about Muhammad or Islam.
Note also that this story calls what he wrote “anti-Muslim tweets,” as if criticizing the religion is equivalent to threatening the people. This is a tried-and-true element of the victimhood game that Islamic supremacist groups play, with willing help from the mainstream media.
Fazil Say, a virtuoso pianist and composer, faces an investigation over tweeting remarks considered offensive to Muslims, Christians and Jews. Say used Twitter to question whether Islamic heaven is like a brothel or a pub, citing Qu’ranic [sic] verses that describe rivers of drinks and beautiful women for those admitted to paradise.
How is a place featuring rivers of drinks and beautiful women whose sole purpose is to be used sexually not like a brothel?…
Filed under: Freedom of Speech, Islam, Turkey Tagged: | freedom of speech, injustice, Islam, Turkey
