'Good Muslims' should listen to top cleric - Turkish Daily News Jun 18, 2008
Recently, we were forcefully reminded that we all must love Atatürk -- or we face prosecution and must stand trial. Insult and blasphemy can always be discussed, but “loving/not loving someone no matter who he is” should be a matter in which the state should not get involved, especially in the form of lawsuits and prison sentences.
That "someone" can be Atatürk or Prophet Mohammed. In democracies people should have a right to chose whom to love or not love, including the founder of the state or a prophet.
The truth is, if we are talking about democracy and civil liberties everyone should be able to express love or hate for the founder of the state, the state, the monarch if there is one, the prime minister, the president, the chief of general staff, the Pope and even a prophet – "holiness" cannot give religion immunity against "people not loving it." Avoiding forceful conversion of non-Muslims or atheists into Islam is one of the virtues of the religion of Mohammed.
Prosecuting someone because she does not love Atatürk is so amusingly childish. And so is the Kemalist columnist who writes that “… the prosecution is stupid but the girl who does not love Atatürk must be insane.” Just like someone who does not love Atatürk should not be prosecuted, s/he cannot be humiliated as an "Islamist loony." Sadly, the Turks, regardless of which side of today's ideological division line they belong to, are centuries away from the basic notion of tolerance. In fact, that sharp division is only driving them away from tolerance./blockquote>
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