61653 HTAFC
Veteran Member
Turks totally disrespect the minutes silence to Paris atrocity by chanting allahu -akbar no real shock as Turkey is deeply involved in a lot of the trouble we're currently getting.
I am surprised that the football authorities thought it would be a good idea to do this in an Islamic country that is no friend of Europe.
Modern Turkey was (much like modern France) founded on ideals of pluralism and secularism. For the best part of a century these values were broadly upheld despite the vast majority of Turkish people being Muslim. (That's not to disparage Islam above any other religious group, just to recognise that it's easy for a religious majority to dominate in any society).
The worry is that in the last decade or so a government of extreme nationalism coupled with islamist fundamentalism have become popular. Erdogan has re-ignited the war with Kurdish separatists (the PKK) who are a key player in the fight against Da'ish along Turkey's Southern border. In my job I worked with a Kurdish man recently who described Erdogan as "the Ottoman Hitler". He was only half tongue-in-cheek.
Back on topic, after Wembley demonstrated the good that football, for all its faults, can still offer humanity it's a real shame that certain sections of fandom are still stuck in the 1970s.
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