Quotes: Erdogan & Northern Cyprus

Posted on January 6, 2018 by Bill Murray

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.

Friday Photos #51: Faith and Worship, a Photo Tour

Posted on January 15, 2016 by Bill Murray

Here is a good long photo tour that shows whatever their origin theory and wherever they are, people believe in a greater power, a force beyond. Click to enlarge any of these, and please enjoy them:

We begin in Bhutan, at a ceremony in the watchtower of the Tongsa Dzong, Tongsa.

This is the elaborate interior of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland.

Prayer flags fly above prayer wheels at Changu (Tsomgo) Lake, Sikkim, India.

These are worshippers at Trinity Ethiopian Orthodox church, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Elders venerated (we guess) at Ahu Tongariki, Easter Island (Rapa Nui).

Whirling Dervish ‘Sema’ performance at the Seljuk caravanserai at Sarihan, Turkey.

This is a Buddhist temple in the Cholon district of Saigon, Vietnam.

A service in St. Michael’s Orthodox Cathedral, Kyiv, Ukraine in March, 2013.

Monks at Angkor Wat, Cambodia.

Catedral de la Virgen María de la Concepción Inmaculada de La Habana, Havana, Cuba.

Prayer wheel in Buddhist monastery, or datsun, in Ivolginsk, Buryatian Autonomous Republic, Siberia, Russia.

14th century Trinity Church (Tsminda Sameba) near Mt. Kazbek, Caucasus mountains, Republic of Georgia.

Shwemawdaw pagoda, Bago, Burma.

The Fearsome Hallgrim’s Church, Reykjavik, Iceland.

Wat That Luang, Vientaine, Laos.

Yak butter lamps, Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, Tibet.

Interior of Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat, Oman.

Orthodox Jewish men at the Western Wall at night, Jerusalem, Israel.

Pope John Paul II in the Popemobile, Dubrovnik, Croatia.

The Duomo di Milano, Milan, Italy.

Orthodox Church at the Russian settlement of Barentsburg, Svalbard.

Men at mosque, old city, Fez, Morocco.

The ceiling at St. Nicholas church, Prague, Czech Republic.

Khor Virap Monastery, Armenia and Mt. Ararat, Turkey.

There are more photos in the Worship section of EarthPhotos.com. And see all the other fifty weeks of Friday Photos.

A good weekend to all!

On Brunei’s Sharia Law

Posted on May 2, 2014 by Bill Murray

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!