Say receives much int’l support regarding indictment against him

Turkish pianist FAZIL SAY has recently received much international support  regarding his indictment by the prosecutor for having insulted the Muslim religion.

It is not diffciult to see that Turkey will be exposed to a lot of and harsh criticism which would lead to a very negative image globally, as Mr. SAY is a world-wide known artist with a lot of master work and so many awards.

It is very understandable that everybody is equal before the law in democracies and nobody should be exempt if there is a crime committed based on the prevailing laws of a country.

However, if there is a chance of interpretation in  a more tolerable manner (at least) – even in a strict regime that is –  it would be the task of a “wise” administration to make the best of this opportunity to waive further and irreparable conflicts for the good of the country.

Coming back to the indictment in question, the prosecutor characterizes Mr. Say’s statements as “a serious insult to Islam and the Muslim who follow this faith.”

The prosecutor says  “It was determined that Mr. Say’s tweets were meant to denigrate religious values by needlessly offending the sensibilities of adherents to the three major religions, in relation to concepts such as Allah, heaven and hell in a way that suggested these concepts were meaningless, needless and worthless. This was more than simple criticism within the context of freedom of speech and makes no contribution to public debate that would benefit the development of human relations.”

The prosecutor  goes on to say, “In light of the response and controversy sparked by the content of the texts, which continued for days among numerous individuals and civil society organizations of different persuasions, the texts written by the defendant were deemed to be of a nature that could lead to the breakdown of public order.” SOURCE:WASHINGTON TIMES

As will be understood from above expression Fazıl SAY is accused of some very serious crime such as “disturbing public order and peace”. This could even be further related riots, civil disturbances, unrest and uprisings etc.

As for the consequence awaiting Mr. SAY, the indictment requests a prison sentence ranging from 9 months to 1.5 years. In the statement Mr. Say made to the Istanbul State Prosecutor on May 15, 2012, he rejected the charges, but admitted to writing the tweets.

To recap, followers of Fazıl SAY as well as people able to look at the issue through calm eyes do hope that the authority can do something to stop this neither very logical nor useful course before Turkey faces another wave of strong negative criticism from all over the world and adds up to political issues it has already been struggling with for ages.

04.06.2012
Editor; BTT

Further reading about SAY on WASHINGTONTIMES.COM