Erdogan reminds Merkel of the misleading nature of the phrase 'Islamist terrorism'

I started going to a very left-wing university, and realised the error of my ways.

Trump isn't the only Western leader to be making diplomatic faux pas, it seems.

Turkish President Erdogan on Thursday rebuked German Chancellor Angela Merkel for using the expression "Islamist terrorism", saying the phrase was not correct and saddened Muslims.

Speaking after a critical bilateral meeting with Erdogan, Merkel spoke of the need for Turkey and Germany to cooperate even further to fight against terror, including "Islamist terrorism".

"We spoke in detail about... the questions of the fight against Islamist terrorism, against every form of terrorism," she said alongside Erdogan at his palace in Ankara. "We agree we want to cooperate, we are all affected by this. We agreed to have closer cooperation in the future."

Erdogan, sitting next to Merkel, was stony-faced as she spoke.

Muslims oppose the ham-fisted equating of Islam and terror, arguing those who commit crimes purportedly in the name of Islam have nothing to do with the religion, which espouses peace.

"This expression 'Islamist terror' seriously saddens us Muslims," Erdogan replied. "Such an expression is not correct because Islam and terror cannot be associated. The meaning of Islam is peace."

He said it would be "saddening" if the term was used because of the crimes of the so-called Islamic State (IS) extremist group, which some have blamed for a string of attacks in Turkey over the last year.

"Please let's not use it. As long as it is used we need to stand against it. As a Muslim president personally I cannot accept that," he said.

The president's comments came after the two leaders tackled a series of hugely sensitive issues during the one day visit to Ankara by the German chancellor, at a time of rising tensions between Ankara and Berlin.

The phrase is controversial and previous US president Barack Obama recognised that the phrase "Islamic terrorism" distorted and perverted Islam.

But new President Donald Trump has not shied away from using the term, speaking of "radical Islamic terror" during the election campaign and even condemning Obama for not using the term.

Indicating that her use of the phrase was no accident, Merkel used it again at her later news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, saying she had discussed the threat of "Islamist terrorism" with the premier.

https://www.thelocal.de/20170202/erdogan-tells-off-merkel-for-using-phrase-islamist-terrorism

Erdogan is not a tryrant. He has the support of a clear majority of Turkish voters.

As for stirring up a healthy debate, yes, that is the purpose of this subforum. Problem is that most users unfortunately aren't debating in a healthy manner. Its good to be a devils advocate just to keep this place from becoming a giant circlejerk.

Erdogan is not a tryrant.

Trump isn't the only Western leader to be making diplomatic faux pas, it seems.

Turkish President Erdogan on Thursday rebuked German Chancellor Angela Merkel for using the expression "Islamist terrorism", saying the phrase was not correct and saddened Muslims.

Speaking after a critical bilateral meeting with Erdogan, Merkel spoke of the need for Turkey and Germany to cooperate even further to fight against terror, including "Islamist terrorism".

"We spoke in detail about... the questions of the fight against Islamist terrorism, against every form of terrorism," she said alongside Erdogan at his palace in Ankara. "We agree we want to cooperate, we are all affected by this. We agreed to have closer cooperation in the future."

Erdogan, sitting next to Merkel, was stony-faced as she spoke.

Muslims oppose the ham-fisted equating of Islam and terror, arguing those who commit crimes purportedly in the name of Islam have nothing to do with the religion, which espouses peace.

"This expression 'Islamist terror' seriously saddens us Muslims," Erdogan replied. "Such an expression is not correct because Islam and terror cannot be associated. The meaning of Islam is peace."

He said it would be "saddening" if the term was used because of the crimes of the so-called Islamic State (IS) extremist group, which some have blamed for a string of attacks in Turkey over the last year.

"Please let's not use it. As long as it is used we need to stand against it. As a Muslim president personally I cannot accept that," he said.

The president's comments came after the two leaders tackled a series of hugely sensitive issues during the one day visit to Ankara by the German chancellor, at a time of rising tensions between Ankara and Berlin.

The phrase is controversial and previous US president Barack Obama recognised that the phrase "Islamic terrorism" distorted and perverted Islam.

But new President Donald Trump has not shied away from using the term, speaking of "radical Islamic terror" during the election campaign and even condemning Obama for not using the term.

Indicating that her use of the phrase was no accident, Merkel used it again at her later news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, saying she had discussed the threat of "Islamist terrorism" with the premier.

https://www.thelocal.de/20170202/erdogan-tells-off-merkel-for-using-phrase-islamist-terrorism

Erdogan is a psychopathic dictator. Are you seriously relying on him to score points for your morally hollow worldview?

What dates have you left and returned? There have always been waves of bannings.

Erdogan is not a tryrant. He has the support of a clear majority of Turkish voters.

Someone has to. I think only FullOfSurprises and yudothis are pro-Islam, out of the regular posters.

I think they tend to ignore this forum now. IIRC, both of the rather extreme Islamists were banned a while back, and haven't returned.

We also seem to get very few of those holocaust threads, which is nice, although we get spammed with the most random **** from Chat now.

Tbh, I found it interesting to see how Islamists thought.

Might happen outside of this subforum, but I haven't seen that for a very long time. Then again, the topic rarely comes up - the omnipresent Trump trumps all debates, despite the mods' misguided attempts to create other discussions around mundane events, which add absolutely nothing to the quality of threads here.

Honestly, its gone pretty downhill.

There used to be a large demographic of muslims on here, some were pretty radical and would get loads of reps for saying the most disgusting crap. Have they moved to another forum? Also used to be quite a lot of Islam apologists.

A lot of them were idiots really with some pretty poor points, I don't dislike/hate Muslims, but the points by the apologists (or whatever people want to call them) made were stupid like the nonsense about how only Israel commits war crimes when Palestine does equal back and tried wiping them off the face of the Earth.

Tbh, any argument which has its basis in defending or supporting an absurd ideological system is usually going to be absurd itself.

Erdogan is not a tryrant. He has the support of a clear majority of Turkish voters.

As for stirring up a healthy debate, yes, that is the purpose of this subforum. Problem is that most users unfortunately aren't debating in a healthy manner. Its good to be a devils advocate just to keep this place from becoming a giant circlejerk.