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Turkey opposed to any supporter of Israel: Erdogan
www.pi-media.co.uk
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed a recent wave of terror and bloodshed waged by Israel against the Palestinians, saying Ankara will oppose anyone who supports the Tel Aviv regime. “Whoever is on the side of Israel, let everyone know that we are against them,” said Erdogan while addressing senior provincial
officials from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Ankara. The remarks came amid a new wave of Israeli crackdown in the occupied Palestinian territories as regime forces continue with demolition of the Palestinian houses in occupied areas in the West Bank and in the Jerusalem al-Quds. Israel came under renewed
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international criticism last month after its forces stormed a neighborhood of the Sur Baher village in the West Bank and destroyed Palestinian homes. Tel Aviv claims the buildings had been constructed illegally and built too close to Israel’s apartheid wall in the region. Palestinians, however, say Israel is using security as a pretext to force them out of the area as part of longterm efforts to expand settlements built on occupied Palestinian land and roads linking them. Governments and rights campaigners have slammed the demolitions as a serious blow to international efforts to reach peace in the occupied territories. Erdogan said Turkey will continue to promote the Palestinian cause regardless of efforts to undermine it mainly by supporters of the Israeli regime. “We do not approve of silence on the state terror that Israel blatantly carries out in Palestine,” said the Turkish president. www.pi-media.co.uk
Muslims urge removal of ‘offensive’ artwork in Norwegian city InMCisasseedYItou
The Muslim Joint Council, which numbers some 8,000 members, has called for a plate set up in Norway’s third-largest city of Stavanger to commemorate Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus to be removed from the ground. The rationale is that the award winner shares names with Islam’s holy prophet, and trampling upon the holy man’s name is a sign of utter disrespect. The Bronze plate to honour Muhammad Yunus, who won the 2006 Peace Prize for his pioneering work with microcredit loans, was set up seven years
ago. Similar installations exist in Stavanger in honor of fellow peace prize winners Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama and Al Gore. “Here it lies on the ground, people step on it, and no one sees what it is,” Summer Ejaz, spokesperson for Muslim Joint Council Rogaland, told national broadcaster NRK, calling the name Muhammad “respectable and gracious”. Criticism from fellow Muslims has been pouring in for several years, together with calls to elevate the bronze plate from the ground to eye level, he said. “Stavanger is a diverse city
with inhabitants from 200 different countries. It is therefore important that the municipality safeguards the minority population’s feelings in this matter. It has to do with well-being and people’s mental health,” Ejaz explained. 79-year-old Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist, and civil society leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for founding Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance, that is, loans given to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans.