"Freedom of speech is important, but its more important what is holy to me"

Turkish islamist premier, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, visited Denmark last week. He made a highly interesting remark during the visit in reaction to the drawings of the alleged prophet Mohammed in Jyllands-Posten (source: Politiken, my translation):

"Freedom of speech is important, but it is more important what is holy to me"

The article continues

In a speech, that almost solely dealt with building bridges between the West and the moslem world, he urged to show respect for one another ..

"Turks have, as a moslem people, always respected the symbols that are holy to people of another faith than ours. We have never attacked other people´s religious or cultural inheritance"

Ehr? For one example, take the Ayasofya mosque in Istanbul. Before the Turks forcibly converted it to a mosque, it had been one of the most beautyful churches of Eastern Orthodoxy for 9 centuries.

Even if we take his claim at face value, what does it help if you respect people´s religiour of cultural inheritance, when you kill the people themselves based on it? Fex the massacre of a million plus Christians 1915-23. A small reminder of what I am talking of, Tayyip:


Toleration as loong as it suits you.

Henrik