In an email exchange with reader Ahsileri, I commented upon the Pope viting Ahsileri’s home nation of Turkey and the trumped up protests that were publicized over the weekend here in the states. For a bit of a background, this was the pertinent part of my email to him.

It’s been interesting watching the news coverage of the Pope’s visit to Turkey here in the States. Our media was certain something would happen, be it an assassination attempt, mass riots (not protests) or something else entirely horrible. Nothing of that kind has happened, that I have read naturally, which is what I expected. Sure, there are protests and I think they are misguided protests when AQ in Iraq states the Pope is on a “crusader campaign” showing all Turks what they really should be protesting, but that’s it. It continues to baffle me why some people would hold religoiusly based protests against a man who resides over a church they don’t worship, but when a group that at least pretends to be followers of their faith call for violence, there are no protests.

Ahsileri responded (edited for spacing only):

I’m glad to see the Pope in country…and hope that his visit goes by peacefully. It has thus far!

He is currently just a few hundred yards from where I am at the office, we are “landlocked” ie in the zone where all traffic is blocked.

I thought this would’ve been an excellent opportunity for the gov’t to push forward on the meeting of religions/cultures issue…but these folks (and most of the public as well!!) have such a warped idea of his speech this summer and what he was referring to…that they could not see past the “trees” …

In any case the PM’s meeting at the airport was well done…tho’ the decision to be there should not have taken such delibaration on the part of his party …or himself for that matter.

Had he wanted to impress the world (as he says he is doing!!??) and impress upon the world Turkey’s importance, he personally should have been the one to host Pope benedict around in his pilgrimage (as the Vatican calls his visit!).

The NATO meeting in Riga could have waited (as it did) for the PM to fly in and out for this special visit…probably the event for a generation or so!

I was unhappy about the way the media (local and foreign) portrayed the protests in Istanbul this past Sunday…yes the protests were par for the democratic course…but I think they meritted much less coverage (which is what was wanted by the meetings organisers) and much less colorful coverage…colorful in the sense of flags and beards and the typical islamist model…

This is in fact NOT Turkey…it is how some of these radicals would wish Turkey to be. The “anatolian” figure is nowhere near this picture, nor is the Istanbul-ite…yes the country is mostly moslem and yes people will have different views on religion…

However, what was seen on the coverage and protesting is definitely not Turkey… crowds of max 25K people that were “coerced/paid” to be there by a political party (Erbakan’s former Saadet or welfare party…islamist and of which the present gov’t is an off-shoot…Erbakan was sentenced to prison a few months ago on an immense “green” fund conglomerate scam…him and his “ilk” milked thousands of Turks in Europe for millions of Deutsch Marks and Euro’s over the past 15 years in a defunct stock and dividends scheme…that’s the “national view” (milli gorus) and the muslim brotherhood…!)

Regular readers know I was born and baptized Catholic, but they also know I don’t take whatever the Pope says nor the teachings of the Catholic Church as law. When I saw the Pope’s comments, and I still have not seen a full transcript of his speech to find out what else he said that was not reported, I knew there would be Islamist groups who took the more publicized words as evidence of a grand attack upon Islam. Sure enough, they did, and they even threw the United States and Jews with the Pope as if the U.S. or Jewish people have anything to do with the Pope.

It’s desparation on the Islamists’ part really; nothing more, nothing less. And that’s what makes the coverage of the Pope’s visit to Turkey so humorous to me. We are told all Turks are protesting the Pope’s visit, but it is just a small fraction of Turks who actually did the protesting. If all Turks and all Muslims were really peeved by the Pope’s comments, why would one Turkish Muslim work while the Pope was just a few blocks away from his office?