today

With Germanic determination Benedict is marching resolutely into a potential lion’s den, armed with stated good intentions and positive messages but also carrying the liability (though I would say 'advantage') of his penchant for using blunt language, a trait that has gotten him into trouble in the past.

In Turkey there was the decline of royal rulers and the arrival of strongman Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who forged the modern nation of Turkey in 1922. Ataturk succeeded in part by creating a strictly secular government that imposed strict control over religion - until Ataturk was safely dead.

Now we have Islamism and fundamentalism in Turkey. The Turk who attempted to kill the late Pope John Paul II (and was termed 'mad' by Western media) Mehmet Ali Agca believes the head of the Roman Catholic Church is seeking to polarise the world along religious lines but is confident that "this Nazi remnant will fail in his policies of grudge and hatred." On Sunday, at least 20,000 demonstrators protested the Pope’s visit. This, of course, is not an enormous number but enough, together with other details all over the news, to be reminiscent to the world cartoon riots, on which it has to be said that though the actual Danish cartoons were harmless enough, some of the pornographic filth being spread (perhaps by Islamists and other criminal spammers) of Mohammed and his very young wives and indeed baby children, was fairly annoying. The fact that some would see a grain of truth in it, just makes it even more repellant. The (current and probably bogus) socalled 'Lesbian duos of Barbara Bush and Paris Hilton' or even 'Donkey love with Barbara Bush' pale in comparison.

Whether or not the Pope's visit to Turkey is 'successful', and that seems unlikely, the idea of Turkey successfully joining the EU now seems patently absurd for a very long time. Turkey will have to become more mature for that to be reasonable. Islamism is the main factor of course, but the Armenian genocide, Turkey's attitude to the Kurds, Cyprus and so many other factors now seem to make any further movement to accession seem against everyone's interests. This is a pity, and much can be done, suppressing Islamism even more tightly than the Armenians and the Kurds were suppressed being just one thing to save the situation, but I still see flying pigs as a more likely possibility. There are other alternatives but not for me to dwell on them.

IMO:I have no Islamophobia, but Islamism drives out syncretism. For many centuries, Islam has been able in many places to happily co-exist with other religions and to add to and benefit both them and itself. But Islamism itself could be regarded as the worst form of Muslim heresy, and perhaps Islam itself is best placed to deal with it to everyone's advantage. Islamism is perhaps a gross 'misrepresentation of the faith of Islam' and as such ranks with 'idolatry'.