Atheist pianist to turn back on Turkey; disillusioned by rise of conservative Islam

[rug]

Last Updated: Mon Apr 23, 2012 13:25 pm (KSA) 10:25 am (GMT)

By AFP
ANKARA

The acclaimed composer and pianist Fazil Say said Monday that he was turning his back on his native Turkey and would live in exile in Japan after becoming disillusioned by the rise of conservative Islam.

In an interview with the Hurriyet daily, Say spoke of how he felt completely ostracized by Turkish society since he declared that he was an atheist and that the criticism he had received had highlighted a growing culture of intolerance.

“I think it’s time for me to move to Japan,” Say told the daily.

“When I said that I was an atheist, everyone insulted me and the legal authorities jumped on everything that I wrote on Twitter. I am perhaps the first person anywhere in the world to be the object of a judicial inquiry for declaring that they are an atheist.”

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/04/23/209696.html

[DonCoquixote]

1. France blew a chance

Turkey is the one Muslim nation that tried to agressively modernize, thansk to kemal attaturk, but france kept trying to run Turkey out of the EU, insisting Turks were not Europeans (despite the fact they were the Trojans back when, and have had a long history in European culture.) Now, if the Jihadists get Turkey, EU will have nobody to blame but themselves. PS: too bad we do not have the Ottomans back, you know, the ones that kept the peace in the Middle east for about 800 years.