November 27, 2006 in Nation/World

20,000 jam square to protest pope’s visit

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Associated Press photos photo

Demonstrators display anti-pope banners and wave Islamic Felicity Party flags during a protest Sunday in Istanbul. Below, a Turkish woman wears a headband that reads: “The ignorant and sneaky pope who insulted Islam and our Prophet should not come to Turkey.”
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ISTANBUL, Turkey – In the largest protest yet against the impending arrival here of Pope Benedict XVI, more than 20,000 Turks filled a town square Sunday to denounce the visit as an affront to Islam.

Emotions are running high in this predominantly Muslim nation over a speech the pope made in September that was widely construed throughout the Islamic world as an insult to the Muslim faith and its founder, the prophet Muhammad.

Amid tight security, youths waving red Turkish flags and brandishing placards that read “Pope don’t test our patience” chanted “Allahu akbar” (God is great) as speakers took turns to slam the pontiff over his remarks.

“The pope’s speech was a provocation. It is part of a devilish plan to prevent the tilt toward Islam,” said Recai Kutan, the head of the Islamist Felicity Party, which organized the event.

Benedict is scheduled to arrive in Ankara, the capital, Tuesday for a four-day pilgrimage that will take him to a shrine to the Virgin Mary near Izmir and to Istanbul. Small, vocal groups of hard-line nationalists and radical Islamists have been protesting the visit.

This is by far the most problematic destination thus far in Benedict’s 19-month-old papacy.

His primary purpose is to reach out to Istanbul-based Orthodox Christians, who split from the Roman Catholic Church 1,000 years ago. But especially after the speech in Regensburg, Germany, the trip also is meant to improve relations with Muslims.

The Vatican has made clear that the pope is traveling to Turkey chiefly to meet the leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, an ethnic Greek. Although he is a Turkish citizen and has lobbied for Turkey’s membership in the European Union, Bartholomew is mistrusted by many as a “Greek agent” seeking to re-establish Christian influence.

Wary of the public mood, Turkey’s moderate Islamic-led government has shied away from according the pope the hospitality customary for visiting heads of state. Many Cabinet ministers, including Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, will be out of town when he arrives.

Benedict, in an effort to placate his Turkish hosts, agreed to meet with the top official in charge of the country’s religious affairs at the official’s Ankara headquarters. Sunday, the Vatican announced the last-minute addition to the pope’s schedule of a stop at Istanbul’s landmark 17th-century Blue Mosque.

Speaking at his weekly Angelus address at St. Peter’s Square, the pope said he wished to convey his “esteem and sincere friendship” to the Turkish people, a nation “rich in history and culture.”

Also Sunday, the Turkish news agency Anatolia quoted Benedict’s spokesman as saying the Vatican was not opposed to Turkey joining the EU. Benedict, before becoming pope, said he opposed Turkey’s inclusion in the EU because its Muslim character positioned it “in permanent contrast to Europe.”

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