I am dedicating this to the member(s) who thinks everything is about the crusades.

Let´s get over with this Crusade-phobia

The most tragic-comic news story of this week came from the central Anatolian town of Kayseri. A film crew was shooting a documentary about the medieval past of the town, and they decided to use the city´s ancient castle as a stage. But when they put a Crusader´s banner, a white plate with a red cross, on the walls, all hell broke loose. Dozens of Kayserians gathered under the castle to protest against the irritating banner. This is Turkey, one man yelled angrily, and we want only the Turkish flag.

  One side of the problem here is simple ignorance. It is about not comprehending what a film is and how it differs from real life. In the past, there have been similarly funny incidents where some Turkish bystanders that were watching the shooting of an action scene on a street got so excited that they physically intervened to save the endangered actress from the bad guys. This naïveté seems to be the advanced version of the reaction to the first film ever, The Great Train Robbery. When the final shot of a gun was fired toward the camera in that silent movie, it is said that some in the audience pulled out their firearms and shot back. 

Crusades, Crusades, everywhere:

  The Great Train Robbery was in 1903. In the Turkey of 2008, though, the only problem is not this funny lack of distinction between fact and fiction. The deeper problem that relates to the incident in Kayseri is a paranoia about the Crusades, which is prevalent not only in Turkey but also in the broader Islamic world. The knights and armed monks of the middle ages are long gone, but they are too much alive in the minds of many Muslims.

  ...
  Yet the world has changed a lot since then. Today the West is not launching crusades anymore, ...
  any Turks think of French or British men when they hear the term missionaries. Yet more missionaries are coming today from countries like South Korea. If there was really a link between Western imperialism and Christianity, as leftists love to emphasize, it is very much a thing of the past now.

  In short, to see today´s world through the lens of the crusades is an illusion. Yet it is also a very popular one. Many Muslims just need to hear the C word in order to start building up conspiracy theories about the evil intentions of the Christian West. When President Bush used the term crusade against terrorism right after Sept. 11, 2001, the same theories started to pour into Middle Eastern media, including the Turkish media. ...
 

Living in history:

  That brings us to a fundamental problem that one can come across in the contemporary Islamic world: living in history. History is actually a great source of wisdom if you get it right. A secularist could tell you at this point that it is the Islamic culture which is responsible for this mind-blocking nostalgia.
  ...They dogmatically believe that all enemies of Mustafa Kemal  the Greek invaders, the European colonialists, and the internal collaborators  are just alive and kicking today. No wonder the Crusade-phobia is also shared by Turkey´s Kemalo-nationalists.
  ..
  Apparently you can be delusional within any world view. As you can also be sensible within them.

full article  

Who are they?

Of course! well put

 Bush and Plain

Palin, not Plain

 Thx dear cat,but actually that is what she also is..Plain

İ can give her that much,the woman doesnt hide and doesnt say different than she believes!

And this also for member(s) who seems want to convince us that USA wanted/wants realy to help İraq

For you handsom

http://www.turkishclass.com/forumTitle_33694

 They refused to be accused of invading İraq for oil..nope ,they are not greedy,but its a mission from GOD !

 God know what next mession will be that God will whisper it to them !

But YES,absolutely,shame on us...being delusional we are .

Ps:hey handsom,better ask Palin,not to be that Plain!

Thanks for that Canli

To be honest I said what my thoughts are on the subject of ´if iraq war was a crusade´ in various threads and the recent one was :

http://www.turkishclass.com/forumTitle_33901

and this is what I said and I stick to it

btw. I was not thinking of you when I was dedicating this thread to some member(s)

But good to know your views on the issue ...

 Yes handsom,i know that too

Beside i have said my views on such issues many times before,its not we are dicussing this for the first time  

Quoting thehandsom

 

and this is what I said and I stick to it

 

Quote:

I am not sure if you can say that the terorism in Iraq is ´christian terrorism´ weather Bush says it is or not.

It is so obvious that the war in Iraq is nothing to do with the religion.

As long as Iraq is neighbour with Iran and SA , instead country of carrot, they are the country of oil, USA would invade Iraq.

And of course it is nothing to do with democracy either!!

What I am trying to say is that even  Iraqies were worshipping  "Eris, the Goddess of Discord" as opposed to Allah, same thing would have happened to them. (Same thing goes to Bush as well. He could have been worshipping potatoes instead of  God. it would not matter)

And of course handsom i respect your opinion,if you believe you know it better than the one who said,and who apply that kind of action ´invading İraq´ in the name of his government

And also ,if you know it better than the one who is supposed to be part of the department which trying to be following him

Then...its your business !

Btw handsom..i have never thought about it as Crusade untill Bush said it,and even then i thought what a silly thing to say,it must be a bad choice of the words

But after Palin ...and knew then how silly i was !

Canli

It is usa..it is where capitalism rules in its wildest form.

Money/capital (and consequently power as the result) is almost everything to them.

You trust me on that.

Yes... I have to agree with this completely! This is absolutely right...

if the usa and american capitalism is very bad and if we Turks (or many of us) hate usa, then why do thousands of Turkish people participate in a lottery to get a green card in order to live and work in usa? I mean if that system is the source of all evils, then why do we want to be a part of it? that reminds me a Turkish saying: kedi ulasamadigi cigere mundar dermis. (Can any one translate this in English?)