Quotes: Erdogan & Northern Cyprus

Not surprising, but I didn’t know this was going on, to considerable protest: the aggressive Islamification of Turkish Cyprus:

When the Hula Sultan mosque in Nicosia opens its doors this year, it will be able to accommodate 3,000 worshippers. Many faithful will be settlers – mainland Turks brought in initially in the 1970s as part of efforts to “Turkify” the north.

“It is not only that Turkish Cypriots have become a minority in their own country, they are now trying to replace the secular education system with religious schools,” said Elcil. “Over 400 imams have been sent here as missionaries to target the children of settlers. Instead of English, lessons in Arabic and the Qur’an are being taught. Religion has never been a point of conflict in Cyprus, nationalism, yes, but not this.”

Read the whole story.

On Brunei’s Sharia Law

Others have begun to note Brunei’s implementation of Sharia (see my earlier article here or here). Among them are entertainers Ellen DeGeneres and Stephen Fry, who are organizing a boycott of ten luxury hotels owned by the Sultan and his family: The Dorchester, The Beverly Hills Hotel, Plaza Athénée, Hotel Meurice, Principe di Savoia, Hotel Bel-Air, Coworth Park, 45 Park Lane, Le Richemond and Hotel Eden.

I know they’re entirely well meaning and I applaud and support the effort.

But Ms. DeGeneres’s tweet, “I won’t be visiting the Hotel Bel-Air or the Beverly Hills Hotel until this is resolved” – somehow, I don’t know, it just doesn’t strike me as fighting fire with fire.

You know what though? I’ll show ’em. Neither will I!