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Turkey: Sales of Pope Murder Book Soar Ahead of Benedict XVI's Visit
ADNKI ^ | November 23, 2006 | Vah/Aki

Posted on 11/24/2006 7:30:34 AM PST by presidio9

Sales of a controversial Turkish novel on a conspiracy to kill Pope Benedict XVI are on the rise ahead of the pontiff's historical visit to Turkey beginning next Wednesday - his first to an overwhelmingly Muslim nation. 'The Plot Against The Pope' is a highly speculative potboiler narrating how the conservative Roman Catholic society Opus Dei, a subversive masonic lodge and the CIA collude to make the pontiff's murder a pretext for a US attack against Iran.

Yuvel Kaya's book, which features Benedict XVI in front of a burning cross with a bearded gunman aiming a rocket launcher at him, is on sale at major Turkish bookstores such as D&R, Kabalci, Pandora.

Despite the absence of any promotional campaign - no billboards, posters or pamphlets at bookstores - sales are rapidly picking up, according to Lale Yilmaz from Kabalci, one the country's biggest book stores. However she told Adnkronos International (AKI) exact sales figures could not be released to the public.

"More copies of the book have been bought over the last 10 days than any other time," Zeynep Yaman an employee with Alfa Dagitim, one of the six companies distributing the books, told AKI.

To date some 10,000 copies of the book have been sold, a relatively modest figure by some international standards but for Turkey, "in its category, more than average," Yaman said.

The book, despite it fictional content, adds further unease to Benedcit XVI's visit to Turkey which comes just two months after a speech by the pontiff on Regensburg, Germany angered many in the Muslim world.

On Wednesday police used tear-gas to break up a protest against Benedict XVI by a group of ultra-nationalist Turks in Istanbul's symbolic Hagia Sophia. An ancient Eastern Orthodox Church, the Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque by the Ottoman Turks after they conquered Constantinople. In 1935 the building was turned into a museum but remains a focal point of sectarian rivalry in Turkey.

In February a Muslim teenage boy shot dead an Italian Roman Catholic priest in the northern city of Trabzon. The killing which appeared to be religiously motivated took place at the height of worldwide protests by Muslims againt cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published in European newspapers.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: catholic; itsareligionofpeace; opusdei; popebenedictxvi; rop
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To: presidio9
I do not require your help.

You are the one missing the point. The da Vinci code is a work of FICTION - get it? Limited only by the author's imagination.

You state - as if were a proven fact - that only someone who had read Dan Brown's work would cast Opus Dei in the role as villain. That is just your opinion - not a hard fact.

You are entitled to your opinion - as I am to mine.

Live with it!

61 posted on 11/27/2006 9:47:29 AM PST by Churchillspirit (We are all foot soldiers in this War On Terror.)
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To: Churchillspirit
You are the one missing the point. The da Vinci code is a work of FICTION - get it? Limited only by the author's imagination.

Just keep trying to change the argument. It won't help you. The only way anyone, especially a Muslim author who is fantasizing about an assassination would get the idea that Opus Dei would involve itself in geopolitics or hierarchical or doctrinal issues is from Dan Brown's book. In the real world, that's simply not their bag. Again, there are other Catholic groups that lend themselves to this sort of intrigue, but if you know anything about the organization of Opus Dei (you clearly don't), you understand that they make an exceedingly poor choice. The author seems to share your ignorance, which makes the source of his information pretty obvious.

What happened here is that you have seen other people have the fight that you are trying to have with me (whether the author has the "right" to use real world individuals or organizations in a work of fiction), but I'm not interested in playing.

62 posted on 11/27/2006 10:20:45 AM PST by presidio9 (Tagline Censored)
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To: presidio9
You are repeating yourself and are becoming very boring.

Keep singing the praises of your Opus Dei if you wish. You no longer interest me. I enjoyed the debate for awhile - even making allowances for your juvenile name calling, but you have nothing new to add.

63 posted on 11/27/2006 11:19:43 AM PST by Churchillspirit (We are all foot soldiers in this War On Terror.)
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To: Churchillspirit
You no longer interest me.

Correction. I never interested you. You had a silly argument with yourself to which you kept trying unsuccessfully to link me. I agree that name-calling is generally to be avoided, but stupid is as stupid does I guess.

FWIW, I never "sang the praises" of Opus Dei, and its not "mine," as I am not a member. You just wanted me to, so you could deliver your unwarranted pinhead sermon about works of fiction. With the reasoning skills that you've displayed here, its little wonder that you would rush to the defenses of such an idiotic book and author.

64 posted on 11/27/2006 11:58:26 AM PST by presidio9 (Tagline Censored)
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To: presidio9
Boring!!!
65 posted on 11/28/2006 8:13:22 AM PST by Churchillspirit (We are all foot soldiers in this War On Terror.)
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