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Turkey: Many Celebrate the Burning of the Cathedral of Notre Dame
Gatestone Institute ^ | May 18, 2019 at 5:00 am | Uzay Bulut

Posted on 05/18/2019 12:00:26 PM PDT by robowombat

Turkey: Many Celebrate the Burning of the Cathedral of Notre Dame by Uzay Bulut

The official Facebook page of Turkey's pro-government daily, Sabah, for example, is filled with praise for the destruction of the cathedral.

Sadly, Islamic supremacism not only targets the churches of Western Christians. It targets Yazidi, Zoroastrian, Buddhist and Hindu temples too. These religious minorities in the Muslim world are completely vulnerable, defenseless and severely persecuted.... In many Muslim countries, Muslim-on-Muslim violence is also quite commonplace. The Islamic hatred of different religious groups is not about geography -- the East or the West. It is about religious faith.

What is heartbreaking is that arson and other forms of desecration of churches have been going on in France and other countries on a regular basis, with barely a mention by the media or Western governments.

Pictured: Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris burns as firefighters battle the flames, on April 15, 2019. (Photo by Veronique de Viguerie/Getty Images) French authorities were quick to rule out arson as the cause of the devastating blaze at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on April 15. Whatever the final investigation reveals, many extremist Muslims in Turkey were equally swift in their celebration of the fire that has demolished large parts of the historic structure.

The official Facebook page of the pro-government daily, Sabah, for example, is filled with praise for the destruction of the cathedral.

Reader comments included:

"While it was burning, I prayed to God, saying, 'Burn it even more, oh God, curse and ruin it.' You wonder why? One feels like rejoicing over the burning of the colonialist, brutal France, which shed the blood of about 1.5 million Muslims and then 1 million additional Muslims; which beheaded them and exhibited their heads at museums; and which falsely accuses Turkey of massacring Armenians.... What can one even say to France that mocks our prophet and wants to change the verses in the Koran?"

"If you don't respect my mosques, my holy book, my prophet, then you experience your punishment in a worse way. I am not sad at all."

"They've destroyed the monuments in the Middle East that belonged to us. Maybe this will be a lesson to them."

"Why should I feel sad? They destroyed Baghdad; so many mosques and madrassahs [Islamic schools] are gone. Let them [Christians] be in an even worse situation. I hope such beautiful news comes from the Vatican, God willing, as soon as possible."

"Who cares? So many Muslims were killed in New Zealand and are still killed. It is just a building. They can build it again. Or maybe they themselves burned it. Maybe they wanted to renovate it but could not get permission for that, so they burned it."

Others called for the destruction of other non-Muslim monuments and nations:

"That is such a beautiful sight. May other places of icons meet the same fate." "Send me the ashes. I will plant beans. I can spread the ashes underneath [the beans]. "Let's grab a few pieces of wood. [The cathedral] hasn't been burned to ashes completely yet. Let us help [the fire]..." "May the whole of France burn down. They're enemies of Islam, enemies of humanity." "May [the cathedral] be reduced to ash. Then may a storm break out and make even the ashes disappear, God willing." Several described the fire as punishment for "crimes," such as the mosque attacks in New Zealand, France's military actions in Muslim countries, the French government's recent designation of April 24 as "a national day of remembrance for the Armenian genocide" and the French intellectuals' 2018 manifesto calling to declare violent Koranic verses "obsolete".

There is so far no evidence at all that this fire was the result of Islamic extremism. In general, however, if one tries to understand the theological basis of the underlying hatred that is so often seen, it is hard not to ask what extremist Muslims would do if they had enough power. After centuries of jihadist behavior that are still culminating outspokenly religiously-motivated attacks such as America's 9/11, Britain's 7/7, Spain's train bombings, Sri Lanka's church bombings on April 21 and on and on, are we really supposed to believe that it is it we who have genocidal motives or they? To many Muslims, it is always the kuffar [non-Muslims] who are criminal, murderous and corrupt. To them, Muslims are always innocent. Their understanding of history and current events often seems wholly self-referential.

Imam Suleiman Hani, for instance, a hardline Islamic cleric from Michigan, USA, claimed on his program in 2015 on Huda TV that the kuffar [non-Muslims] will suffer the "abode of hellfire. ... This is what they gathered from their evil." He stated that "the disbelievers, these are the evil people.... they will be beaten and hammered and turned to dust and then returned back. They will be given a bed of fire, full of darkness."

There are countless similar examples. Such views, sadly, are widespread -- and still encouraged -- across the Muslim world.

Moreover, there are several verses in the Quran about Allah's hatred for non-Muslims and the punishment that awaits them for their disbelief. The Quran, for instance, tells Muslims to "fight in the way of Allah" (verse 2:190), "urge the believers to battle" (verse 8:65), "kill them [disbelievers] wherever you find them" (verse 2:191) and "fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness," (verse 9:123), among many other violent verses.

While some other religious scriptures also have violent verses, those verses are historical in nature, referring to a specific incident, and are descriptive; rather than prescriptive. Also, as the author Bruce Bawer wrote:

Sometimes, when one points out these rules, people will respond: "Well, the Bible says such-and-such." The point is not that these things are written in Islamic scripture, but that people still live by them.

Many people evidently still regard these verses as divine instruction. Unfortunately, it seems from the frequent cries of "Allahu Akbar," and various Muslim opinion polls that many in the Muslim faith still support political violence in the name of religion and sharia law.

Sadly, Islamic supremacism not only targets churches of Western Christians. It targets Yazidi, Zoroastrian, Buddhist and Hindu temples too. These religious minorities in the Muslim world are completely vulnerable, defenseless and severely persecuted. Yet, their places of worship are seen by extremist Muslims as symbols of "idol worship" that need to be destroyed. In many Muslim countries, Muslim-on-Muslim violence is also quite commonplace; Sunni Muslim extremists attack Shia mosques and Shia extremists target Sunni mosques. The Islamic hatred of different religious groups is not about geography -- the East or the West. It is about religious faith.

In line with this worldview, the pro-government Islamist newspaper, Yeni Akit, headlined its gleeful report on the fire: "The famous Notre Dame Cathedral of France burning furiously," then attributed it to France's recognition of the "so-called 'Armenian genocide.'"

Other pro-government outlets, such as Haberturk and Gzt.com, implied that since the Notre Dame Cathedral was unable to be conquered and Islamized by the Ottoman Conqueror Sultan Mehmet, it eventually got destroyed as a result of the fire.

Targeting non-Muslim monuments has been a widespread Islamic practice since the seventh century, regrettably rooted in the Koran and hadith to prevent shirk, the worship of objects or anything other than Allah.

According to Dr. Bill Warner, founding president of the Center for the Study of Political Islam:

"The language of Islam is dualistic. There is a division of humanity into believer and kafir (unbeliever). Humanity is divided into those who believe Mohammed is the prophet of Allah and those who do not.

"Kafir is an actual word the Koran uses for non-Muslims. It is usually translated as unbeliever or infidel, but that translation is wrong. The word unbeliever is neutral, while the attitude of the Koran towards unbelievers is very negative. The Koran defines the Kafir as hated by Allah. A Muslim is never the true friend of a Kafir. Kafirs can be enslaved, raped, beheaded, plotted against, terrorized, and humiliated. A Kafir is not a full human.

"When you read the complete Islamic doctrine of Koran, Sira (the biography of Mohammed), and the Hadith (the traditions of Mohammed), you will find that Islam is fixated on the Kafir. Over half of the Koran is about the Kafir, not Muslims. It is the stated purpose of the Islamic textual doctrine to annihilate every Kafir by conversion, subjugation or death. Jihad can be waged against the Kafir."

It is therefore not surprising that radical Muslims in Turkey and elsewhere celebrated at the sight of the Notre Dame Cathedral in flames. What is heartbreaking is that arson and other forms of desecration of churches have been going on in France and other countries for centuries, with barely a mention by the media or any Western government.

Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: cathedral; christianity; france; islam; koranimals; notredame; paris; turkey
More reasons to loath muzzards.
1 posted on 05/18/2019 12:00:26 PM PDT by robowombat
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To: robowombat

Destruction and murder is the basis of their entire belief. They find no pleasure in anything else. They have a saying, “Jihad is our way”.


2 posted on 05/18/2019 12:07:49 PM PDT by Telepathic Intruder
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To: robowombat

Incredible.

Was their supposed age of tolerance somewhere in the 12 or 1300s a reality or a lie?

If there’s any truth to it, it didnt last.

I thought Turkey was somewhat normal once


3 posted on 05/18/2019 12:10:49 PM PDT by dp0622 (The Left should know if.. Trump is kicked out of office, it is WAR)
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To: dp0622
I thought Turkey was somewhat normal once

Like Iran was, during The Shah. but even then, Islamic Fanaticism is always bubbling just below the surface.

4 posted on 05/18/2019 12:13:39 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

That’s what I figured.

The flip (and good) side are communist countries on the surface seeming like atheist countries when in fact SO MANY Christians are worshipping under threat of prison. Or worse.


5 posted on 05/18/2019 12:23:49 PM PDT by dp0622 (The Left should know if.. Trump is kicked out of office, it is WAR)
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To: robowombat
The Islamic hatred of different religious groups is not about geography -- the East or the West. It is about religious faith.

TOTAL BS!!!

Religion is the excuse, conquest of geography is the goal.

6 posted on 05/18/2019 12:26:09 PM PDT by Roccus (When you talk to a politician...ANY politician...always say, "Remember Ceausescu")
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To: robowombat

Not much hope for turkey. I once had hope that it could be a civilized muzzard country, but instead it has proven that this a contradiction in terms.


7 posted on 05/18/2019 12:38:17 PM PDT by I want the USA back (Islam, not a religion, a totalitarian political ideology aiming for world domination. -Wilders)
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To: robowombat

The only people who are surprised are those who have not bothered to read the koran.


8 posted on 05/18/2019 1:02:35 PM PDT by fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again,")
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To: dp0622

A lie.

At no point did Muslims stop their wars of aggression, piracy and slave raids until they faced those who could defend themselves. Peace is just a time to rearm. That’s why it took colonialism in Africa to end as much of the Islamic trade in human flesh as was ended:

And, no, I’m not ignoring the brutality of the Belgians in saying that, nor that the freedom loving French seemingly tolerated their flag’s use to slave traders.

Simply, Africa had been crippled to resist since the earliest advances of Satan’s Islam, never mind those like the Mali who grew rich from the lives of other Africans.

Muslim “tolerance” in general also only came after Muslim conquest and destruction of ancient library after library from wherever they went. Their “golden age” was vampiric, sucking both the life blood and brilliance from other areas and captive peoples.

Out of this golden age Muslim scholars managed to produce an ideology that rejected things like cause and effect.

Had Mohammad been lynched for being the false prophet that he was the Lord only knows what those he led astray might have accomplished. But as it stands Islam has been, is, and will always be a killer .. until Christ returns and removes its taint from the earth.


9 posted on 05/18/2019 1:15:52 PM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: fella

Especially those who have listened to the platitudes and lies from the likes of the Muslim Brotherhood and their front organizations. Those folks have their heads so far up their asses over Islam they are in danger of disappearing entirely and tearing tiny rifts in the fabric of reality in the process.


10 posted on 05/18/2019 1:20:39 PM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: Rurudyne

Well that leads it up! :)

Thanks

And yet another lie in the history books.


11 posted on 05/18/2019 1:22:19 PM PDT by dp0622 (The Left should know if.. Trump is kicked out of office, it is WAR)
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To: dfwgator

Bloody savages!!! They’ll kill us all if they get the chance.

We `Kafirs’ need to lose our distaste for killing that which comes to kill us.


12 posted on 05/18/2019 1:40:00 PM PDT by elcid1970 (No matter how bad things get, it can only be worse in New Jersey!)
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To: dp0622

I’ve heard it said, and it seems plausible, that it was advanced in Europe as a way to undermine Christianity, an Islamic golden age to paint the Christians as backwards ... because the secularists were not worried about Islam in far off countries.

Of course that necessarily meant ignoring the effects of Islamic aggression in causing the disruptions of society and commerce that caused much of the dark ages.


13 posted on 05/18/2019 1:45:50 PM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: elcid1970
We `Kafirs’ need to lose our distaste for killing that which comes to kill us.

An aphorism that could be put to good use on our southern border as well.

14 posted on 05/18/2019 3:08:54 PM PDT by Roccus (When you talk to a politician...ANY politician...always say, "Remember Ceausescu")
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To: robowombat

Islam may come to be remembered as the threat that united Christian, Jew, Yazidi, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Hindu, agnostic, and atheist in a common mission.


15 posted on 05/18/2019 8:47:27 PM PDT by clearcarbon
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