Turkey: Prominent Writer on trial for “insulting Islam”

by Infidelesto on April 17, 2009 · Comments

I’m starting to have a lot of doubts about Turkey.  It’s supposed to be the model of a “Secular Islamic State” but that doesn’t seem to be the case in stories like these:

Paris - Turkish writer Nedim Gursel is to go on trial in Ankara for insulting religious values in his latest novel, The Daughters of Allah, Gursel confirmed to the German Press Agency dpa on Friday.

 ‘The authorities accuse me of insulting religious values and thereby being a danger to public security,’ Gursel said in Paris, where he is research director of comparative literature at CNRS and professor of Turkish at the Oriental Language Institute.

 The trial is to begin in Istanbul on May 5, but Gursel said he will likely not appear at it before May 26.

In a report, it described The Daughters of Allah as ‘insulting and sarcastic, humiliating Allah, the prophets, divine religions, worshipping, holy books and religious principles,’ and concluded that ‘this cannot be explained in the scope of freedom of thought or criticism.’

The 58-year-old Gursel is one of Turkey’s most prominent – and most controversial – writers.

hattip: ZIP

Related posts:

  1. Dutch Supreme Court Rules Geert Wilders Must Stand Trial for Insulting Islam
  2. Afghanistan: Man Gets 20 Years in Jail for Insulting Islam
  3. Hope for Turkey as trial is approved to outlaw Islamist party
  4. Kuwait criminalizes “insulting Islam” on the Internet
  5. Turkey: Man to be tried in court, for killing gay son to preserve ‘honor’
  6. UK: reality tv star in hiding after “insulting Islam”
  7. Jordan arrests poet accused of insulting Islam
  8. Turkey: Police arrest Al-Qaeda suspects
  9. Turkey: Press, Islam attack women through books
  10. U.S. Senate Report: Over 400 Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007
Want automatic updates?
4 choices: Twitter, Facebook, RSS feed or get daily email updates
  • moraq
    Are'nt we Westerners magnificent and perfect!
    James Joyce was persecuted for blasphemy in GB in the 20. century.
    So I think this issue should be treated with a little more modesty and self-criticism out of which a little more tolerance could stem.
    Hopefully
  • Beejj
    Shukri, here's Islamic Democracy at work. Gives you a warm glow of pride, doesn't it?
  • Beejj
    Martians or salt water crocodiles would be more appropriate to the the European Union than Turkey. Turks are of the Islamic fold, so they have their own axe to grind. Admittance of such a backward nation, despite what that idiot Obama says, would be a step so retrograde that the Union would never recover. Clowns such as Gordon Brown would think they were statesmen of the highest calibre at the moment of admittance of these neanderthals, but their grandchildren would stick pins in their effigies. To admit Islamic Turkey into the Union is to seek to be infected with an incurable disease. These people are Muslims. Doesn't that say it all? Do the "enlightened" people of Europe believe that Muslims are just Christians who wear funny clothes and that they can exert a worthwhile and beneficial influence upon European life? Do they see them as an enriching influence? Islam is enriching??? The West lacks something for not embracing Islam? Does Gordon Brown wish to see his daughter married to a man who will wrap her from head to foot in a tent, to be beaten and forced into intercourse and divorced at a whim? Is this what Britain's leader is happy to accommodate? The answer, as far as I can judge is YES. Gordon Brown is not Churchill, is he?
  • JEWHAWK
    Is THIS a serious candidate to become an EUROPEAN COUNTRY?It's LAUGHABLE,
    it's preposterous.
    Sarkozy said to Obama to stay out from Europe's decision to accept or not this backward
    nation into the European realm.

    European experience with Islam isn't a good one,specially now,that european women
    has climbed up into the political positions and as CEO's of major companies...Islam would
    turn the clock BACK into the time,to say the least.
  • Storm_Rider
    Our founding fathers were, almost to a man, religious; but also rational. They combined the best most essential aspects of Judeo-Christian religious law with the best most essential aspects of Western secular law; and the result was our Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights.

    According to our founding fathers God grants man an absolute right to human liberty; with freedom of speech, even in religious matters, as its most essential ingredient. God, according to our founders, is the Author of human liberty; and is therefore rational.

    According to Political Islam, Allah forbids human liberty, particularly freedom of speech in regards to religious matters. Allah, according to Political Islam, is an enemy of human liberty; and is therefore irrational.

    "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Declaration of Independence

    "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Amendment 1, Bill of Rights

    An American law outlawing Political Islam (as opposed to purely religious practice such as prayer and charity) would not violate the first amendment, because free exercise of Political Islam is a threat to the free exercise of all other religions as well as a threat to freedom of speech, press, assembly and petition of government.

    “God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?” Thomas Jefferson

    “If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” George Washington
  • SirWilhelm
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanic_Verses. I'm guessing the Daughters of Allah is more about this. Considering the violent reactions to The Satanic Verses, this a mild reaction. But I understand the concern when a religion can exert this kind of influence on a secular govt. But then Isalm as a religion has many problems. This is just another example of how imperfect their prophet and his book really are. And yet their followers kill and die in their names.
blog comments powered by Disqus