Turkey's Erdogan: "Islamophobia" should be recognized as a crime against humanity

The West should be filled this week with politicians speaking up in defense of the freedom of speech. No such luck. Its days are numbered. "PM Erdogan: Islamophobia should be recognized as crime against humanity," by Mustafa Ünal in Today's Zaman, September 16:

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that Turkey recognizes anti-semitism as a crime, while not a single Western country recognizes Islamophobia as such.

Speaking to journalists in Sarajevo after a series of visits to Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Erdogan commented on the 14-minute trailer for "Innocence of Muslims," an obscure film that mocks the Prophet Muhammad, which sparked violent riots across various Muslim nations.

Erdogan said he will talk about the movie that has angered Muslims on Sept. 25 at the UN General Assembly. He noted that the reaction against the movie in Turkey has been restrained. "In the last past 10 years, extremes [in Turkey] have been curbed. In a way, we acted like a lightning rod.”

He said the Turkish government has made its statement on the movie, giving messages in Yalta, and later during his visit. He said reactions against the movie continued and increased, noting statements from Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi, who defined the movie as an "aggression on Islam,” has played a role in this.

Erdogan said he will continue to give messages at the next UN General Assembly meeting about adopting international legislation against insulting religion. "I am the prime minister of a nation, of which most are Muslims and that has declared anti-semitism a crime against humanity. But the West hasn’t recognized Islamophobia as a crime against humanity -- it has encouraged it. [The film director] is saying he did this to provoke the fundamentalists among Muslims. When it is in the form of a provocation, there should be international legal regulations against attacks on what people deem sacred, on religion. As much as it is possible to adopt international regulations, it should be possible to do something in terms of domestic law.” (continue reading...)