Tuesday April 16, 2013

I've Been Thinking:

Turkey tried, convicted and sentenced a world class concert pianist named Fazel Say to 10 months in prison. His crime was tweeting.
Actually, it was what he said in his tweets. His tweets were disrespectful to Islam.

The pianist, who has played with symphonies around the world including NYC, poked fun at the Muslim call to prayer. The call is only 22 seconds long. Say suggested that maybe the Muslim men were running to their mistresses or running to grab a Raki, a type of licorice alcoholic drink.

This all takes place in the supposedly democratic state of Turkey. And this is not the first time where people in Turkey who challenge or make fun of established tradition are imprisoned.

As Westerners we must remember that even the most democratic of Muslim states - like Turkey, is still a Muslim state.

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