Turkish government: Christianity no longer a religion

(Ankara) The ruling Islamist party (AKP) in Turkey has since it arrived into power fostered onto what was a secular country their values on Islam. Which is why it has started becoming a less tolerant place. We see that with how Turkey turned away from Israel and turned towards... Syria. Well, that turned out well didn't it. We see that in how criticism against the government is deemed as... un-Islamic.

Well, that polarization took another step into becoming opaque this week when at a conference hosted by the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) Women's Groups saw the Environment and Urbanism Minister Erdoğan Bayraktar inform the fawning (hopefully, all covered up) audience that:

"Christianity has ceased to be a religion but has become a culture of its own."

Yes, it seems that the faith which Islam claims to be of the book (along with Judaism) and thus afforded equality (but only on Islamic superiority terms) is no longer in the eyes of the faithful a religion and thus (by default) to be denied all the protections that being a religion (under Islam) is to be afforded to it. Bayraktar finished this off with:

"The biggest three countries in the world are not Muslim countries. China, India – only the U.S. believes in a single God. ...There are 2.5 billion Christians in the world. Christianity is no longer a religion. It's a culture now. But that is not what a religion is like. A religion teaches; it is a form of life that gives one peace and happiness."

Can you imagine the response if a Christian had said something like that about Islam? Why, the shit would hit the fan. Yet Muslims feel free to say what they want in the knowledge that what they say will be defended as... free speech.