Spiritual Turkey
- 29 Nov 06, 12:26 PM
I'm sat on the rooftop of the Blue House Hotel in Istanbul, the view is nothing less than amazing with the Blue Mosque just to my right..
But it's the sound of the late afternoon call to prayer that I can hear from the Blue Mosque and the neighbouring three mosques over the loud speaker that make this venue a truely spectacular venue for our next programme from Istanbul...
We've left Taksim and our hosts at cafe 57 and moved closer to one of the central points of Pope Benedict XVI visits.
In an apparent gesture to Muslims after his remarks in September linking Islam and violence, Benedict XVI will visit the Sultanahmet Mosque, better known in the West as the Blue Mosque. It is one of Istanbul's largest, its six minarets dominating the skyline of the Golden Horn's southern shore.
He will also visit the Hagia Sophia which is close to the Mosque. This visit may be more contraversial.
Built in the 6th century by, Hagia Sophia, which means Holy Wisdom in Greek, it was converted in to a mosque in 1453. But once a secular Turkey was founded the mosque was turned into a museum in 1935.
The building remains dear to both Christians and Muslims, but some Turkish Islamists see the papal visit as an indication that Christians want to reclaim Hagia Sophia as a church and have held demonstrations calling for it to be reopened as a mosque.
Enough if the history lesson though, here's what we are doing tonight..
We've invited some more people from around Istanbul to hear what they think of the Pope's visit so far. He's made comments about creating an authentic dialogue between Christians and Muslims, but what does that mean to the people of Turkey?
According to the Turkish Prime Minister who met the Pontiff yesterday, the Pope gave Turkey support for its bid to enter the European Union. But as cardinal, he said Turkey shouldnt join. We spoke about this briefly on the show yesterday, and many viewed it quite sceptically. Why the change of heart now?
On the EU issue we've just heard that the EU enlargement chief Olli Rehn, has said that Turkey still has time to resolve its standoff with Cyprus and avert a European Union decision to partially suspend Turkey's entry talks. But does Turkey really want to join..? How will it benefit?
And finally we want to get your response to a new in the UK about wearing the veil. Where do you stand on the isuue?
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must have been nice.
Turkey deserves to enter the EU. It made a mosque into a museum-that should say something about its character.
Turkey is trying to prove Islam is tolerant and can be beneficial to the Western World. Too bad the West doesn't think so. Why would the people even support a EU bid? Money, again, does talk.
The Pope's character's however is too shady for me. If he didn't support the bid before and now he does, how can he be trusted? After making inciteful remarks about Islam-which Turkey is, or atleast was once upon a time was, he appears to be playing with the psych of the an ambitous, albeit, misdirected, people. He, being a religious figure, comes off gross.
And the issue with the Veil should make the Turkey rethink its quest for unity with the non-muslim world. The poll results are not suprising given the threat the West, both people and governments, feels senses from Islam.
The Veil and it oppressive nature should be discussed by the women and men of Islam-not by outsiders.
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the pope arrives in istanbul, and so do thousands of tourists everyday. so what? he will not apologize, and so what? this proves that he does not want peace and harmony .
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Turkey is a moderate muslim country but soon if the west europe is going to be discriminative as they are doing by laying hard terms for them will make the population warm(during elections) up to the hardliners which is wat has happened to many middleeast countries.
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It must have been great! I always dreamt to go to Turkey or any muslim country and see how they live. I hope i soon will.
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I wonder if the people who are embroiled in the veil issue are aware of the word secular.
If we go by the standard oxford dictionary, it ought to be no body's business whether a lady chooses to wear a veil or not to wear a veil.
Any authority which bars wearing of the veil or any other religious symbol can be anything but secular,
unless,there is a Turkish arient of the meaning of secular - Anti Islam.
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