Turkey's Top Muslim Cleric Calls Pope Francis "Immoral" For Armenian Genocide Comments

[trotsky]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/20/pope-francis-armenia-immoral-_n_7100944.html

ANKARA, April 20 (Reuters) - Turkey's top cleric on Monday described comments by Pope Francis that the 1915 mass killing of Armenians was genocide as immoral and said the Vatican should look to its own history before leveling accusations of casting stones.

Francis this month became the first head of the Roman Catholic church to publicly call the killing of as many as 1.5 million Armenians "genocide," prompting a row with Turkey, which summoned the Vatican's envoy and recalled its own.

"The Vatican will come out as the biggest loser if we are all giving account for past sufferings and pain caused," Mehmet Gormez, head of the Religious Affairs Directorate, the highest religious authority in largely Muslim Turkey, told Reuters in an interview.

...

"I find the Pope's statement immoral, and can't reconcile it with basic Christian values."

[samsingh]

1. i don't think he understands - killing 1.5 million people is immoral.

[trotsky]

2. The strange thing is, I don't think he actually disputes that.

He seems to take more offense at the Vatican making the accusation. And given its bloody history of violence and genocide, he does have a point.

[still_one]

4. Actually Turkey does not accept any responsibility in the whole sad

episode, and they have maintained that position

[Warren Stupidity]

14. He is a religious leader, not an official of the Turkish government.

Turkey indeed denies that any genocide occurred and they have acted on a diplomatic level to express their outrage that anyone would criticize them for murdering all the Armenians they could manage to murder while they had the chance.

[samsingh]

6. they can accept that both histories are true

[still_one]

3. Perhaps a little honesty is important? Pope Frank never denied the suffering caused

by the inquisition or other persecutions, including the crusades.

The problem is Turkey has maintained no responsibility, and that is the problem

[beam me up scottie]

5. "The Vatican will come out as the biggest loser if we are all giving account for past sufferings...

I'd love to hear the pope's response to this.

Is this going to be another 'your past atrocities are worse than mine' battle?

[Cartoonist]

7. Even Hitler recognized the genocide by Turkey

That's why he thought he could get away with the same.

[Leontius]

9. Yes but he was wrong. We do remember the Armenians.

[Cartoonist]

11. No, he was right

Turkey has gotten away with it.

[Leontius]

12. Was going to show the quote and how it was used but several sources

maintain that he never said it.

[Cartoonist]

13. You crack me up

You dismiss something due to lack of hard evidence, but accept the Bible as truth.

[Leontius]

16. And I expect nothing more from you.

You never disappoint. And we still remember the Armenians.

[msongs]

8. a duke out between two mouthpieces of brutally thugish religions! bring it on nt

[struggle4progress]

10. For first time, Turkey will let Armenians hold memorial for 1915 victims (20 April 2015)

BY ROY GUTMAN
McClatchy Foreign Staff
April 20, 2015

For the first time ever, Turkey will permit Armenians to hold a religious service this week to commemorate the massacres and deportations of a century ago, Turkish officials said Monday. Turkey will even send a senior government official to attend.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu disclosed the gesture as he issued the second annual statement of condolences for the deaths of “innocent Ottoman Armenians” in what most call a genocide.

Officials said the government moved up the announcement of the service, scheduled for Friday, after the German government said it would support a motion in the German parliament to recognize the 1915 deportation and massacres as a genocide, something only 20 nations — not including the United States, Britain and Israel —have refused to do ...

http://www.fresnobee.com/2015/04/20/4486835/for-first-time-turkey-will-let.html

A number of people have been prosecuted under Article 301 for "insulting the Turkish nation" by discussing the Armenian incidents, so this is progress.

[Warren Stupidity]

15. Our friends here should be all supportive of these statements:

"Islamophobia should be considered a crime against humanity, just like anti-Semitism," he said.

Gormez also said violence carried out by groups such as Islamic State, Boko Haram, Al Shabaab and al Qaeda was a consequence of ignorance and poverty, as well as of the exploitation of the Middle East and Africa for two centuries.

Mockers to the Hague! Plus all those islamic jihadists massacring people - that has nothing to do with religion.

[MellowDem]

17. The Pope is an Islamophobe...

According to Erdogan. Kinda completes the circle of religious hypocrisy. Points out the stupidity of the term Islamophobe, a term often used by privileged powerful majorities to defend a bigoted belief system, and genocide as well, not surprising, as Islam promotes worship of a genocidal God, just like the Pope does. And wow, the impotence of Pope Francis' criticisms, after all, you can't offend people's religions and not expect a punch, right Franics? Fucking idiots all of them, and disgusting hypocrites.

Maybe Francis knows of what he speaks though, after all, the Church was complicit in the Holocaust, and fostered the attitude towards Jews over millennia.

But that's all better now, the Church has accepted barely any responsibility for its role. And besides, that hasn't stopped them from supporting a slavery and genocide endorsing God. Really, genocide is OK, as long as God is for it.

That's what these fuckers believe.

[rug]

18. If you believe the use of the term Islamophobe is "stupidity", why are you using it?

Because it's the Pope and not Sam Harris?

[MellowDem]

20. I'm not...

Just pointing out Erdogan did, and how it highlights the stupidity of the term. Think of it like saying "fascistphobe".

[nil desperandum]

19. Well then,

there is nothing really quite as entertaining as religious leaders poking each other over their respective "morality" especially in regards to the murdering of millions of other humans.

I was under the impression that their gods supplied the foundation for their morality and we non-believers were the ones incapable of morality because there was no god to provide us with the appropriate foundation to understand complex and godly morality.

I'm uncertain as to how I came to be a moral person without such aid from minds like these to expose me to the value of morality of this nature.