Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Ankara : To kill a man of God is Blasphemy

A 16 year old boy was arrested yesterday for the murder of the priest in Trabzon. A Turkish government official defends his country's religion:

"While official investigations into the movements of Fr. Andrea Santoro's assassin continue, Turkey's deputy minister for religious affairs Mehmet Gormez has appeared on national television appealing for calm and for a closer study of the Koran, Islam's sacred writings. The deputy minister maintains that a true follower of Islam would never permit himself to disrespect other human beings or institutions over what he termed as "stupid cartoon strips". Above all, referring to the killing of Fr. Andrea, a true believer would never murder a man of God in the house of God."

"The Turkish press writes that a broadly circulated identikit, have led local police to a youth who, Saturday last in the company of 4-5 friends entered the church where Fr. Andrea was celebrating mass intent on its' disruption. The group were removed from the premises by the priest. Anadolu press agency reports that at 3.00 am local time, police raided a house in the centre of Trabzon, where they found a sixteen year old high school student in hiding with relatives and in possession of a fire arm. The youth was arrested as a suspect in the case, the pistol has been sent to the near by city of Samsun for ballistic testing."

>>> AsiaNews.it <<< Ankara : To kill a man of God is Blasphemy

No comments: