Turkey as an example for Islam

Submitted by Selim Aamado (Israel), Jul 30, 2002 at 23:52

Indeed, the evil is not the Islam. It is the distortion of the Koran by the fundamentalist mentality that makes the evil.
The Ottoman Sultans were, for more than 400 years the Khalif's of the Moslem world. They are those who opened the doors to the Jews expelled by Spain because of Catholic religious intolerance. Not only they allowed Jews to live in their lands, but the Jewish religion flourished in Ottoman cities. Nothing happened to them as Jews, they even kept the Spanish language, not to speak their free religious practice. Turks and Jews lived together, worked together. There were few sporadic exceptions, but more for nationalistic reasons and not because of religious intolerance.
And not to forget the Turkish Republic, founded in 1923 by Ataturk, who accepted the separation of the mosque from the state, in other words the secularism (laicism) with equality for all citizens, no matter what their religiousor ethnic background was.
The only moslem country that represents the "enlightened" Islam today is Turkey, strongly criticized by fundamentalists. Turkey maintains strong relations with Israel and is, in my opinion, the proof that "the Evil isn't Islam"

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