Posted on 12/25/2007 2:42:14 AM PST by Wiz
Istanbul, 24 Dec. (AKI) - Turkey's 100,000-strong Christian community was on Monday hoping that Christmas this year would pass uneventfully without further sectarian attacks such as that earlier this month against an Italian Catholic priest - the latest of several in little over a year.
As schools and offices in the overwhelmingly Muslim majority country will be open on Tuesday, 25 December will simply be a day that comes between Eid al-Adha (the Islamic festival of sacrifice) and the New Year celebrations.
Christmas trees decked in glass baubles and Christmas lights have been put up in some streets and shop windows. "These are signs of a blending of Christian and Muslim cultures that have nothing to do with the substance of Christmas," Monsignor Luigi Padovese, apostolic vicar in Turkey, told Adnkronos International (AKI)
The knife attack by a Muslim youth last Sunday against an Italian Catholic priest, Adriano Franchini, in the Turkish port city of Izmir, has undoubtedly marred the festivities for Christians and left many in a sombre mood.
Franchini is out of danger and the Turkish authorities have described the attack as an isolated incident. But many Christians feel threatened, recalling many other incidents, such as the fatal shooting at point-blank range in February last year of another Italian priest, Andrea Santoro, by a teenage youth in the Black Sea port city of Trabzon.
Santoro's successor, French priest Pierre Brunissen, was also stabbed in an attack in Samsun on the Black Sea in February last year.
(Excerpt) Read more at adnkronos.com ...
No such thing.
Moderate islamists? The words are mutually exclusive, and thus the term is an impossibility. Just like islam itself being moderate is an impossibility.
LLS
(And note tagline.)
^^^^^
Iraqis Crowd Churches for Christmas Mass
Associated Press | 12-25-07 | ELENA BECATOROS
Posted on 12/25/2007 7:36:59 PM EST by george76
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1944203/posts
Turkey thanks US for aiding airstrikes
Times Online | 12/27/2007 | N/A
Posted on 12/26/2007 6:45:00 PM EST by a_Turk
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1944512/posts
Kurdish president refuses to meet Rice (US-Kurdish relations at crisis)
Voice of Iraq via Iraq Update | 2007 Dec 20
Posted on 12/25/2007 6:01:00 AM EST by Wiz
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1944048/posts
Hate campaign leads to attack against priest
Asia News | December 17, 2007 | Mavi Zambak
Posted on 12/18/2007 9:28:45 AM EST by NYer
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1941180/posts
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