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| Sharia revolt in Konya: 2,000 people stoned bars | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 22 2010, 09:07 AM (40 Views) | |
| Deleted User | Dec 22 2010, 09:07 AM Post #1 |
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Deleted User
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Sharia revolt in Konya: 2,000 people stoned bars I first would like to share with you a news story about an incident that occurred this weekend: “Some 2,000 people gathered together to stone bars that employ waitresses, claiming that they cause moral deterioration and prostitution. The Konya-based Moral Rights Federations organized a march titled ‘Resist deterioration; Do not aid it.’ During the march, the protesters threw stones at three bars which they claimed employed waitresses, breaking their windows. The group, consisting mainly of women, shouted slogans such as, ‘It is a thing of pride to be an inhabitant of Konya. Bars should be shut down. Say “no” to degeneration,’ as they hurled stones at the windows of bars. “The angry mob came together at Dökümcü Street in the Gemalmaz neighborhood and marched toward the city center. Some people of them stood in front of nearby bars and protested their employment of waitresses. Abdurrahman İslamoğlu, a protester from the group, called on bar owners to convert their places into restaurants. Noting that so far five people died from excessive alcohol consumption at bars, İslamoğlu said: “250 people were stabbed in similar places in the past ten years. These bars caused 88 families to disintegrate last year. The owners of these bars should read this violence correctly because the people of Konya do not want to sacrifice any more young people.” “Meram Mayor Kenan Şahin noted that a similar problem arose in their district, which they solved by resorting to intense ‘neighborhood pressure.’ Explaining that they had paid home visits to bar owners to pressure them, Şahin stressed that bad lifestyles won’t produce good decisions. Şadiye Tutkal, another protester who read the press release on behalf of the group, said that the owners of those bars should pay more attention to the voice of the public, claiming that families fall apart because of waitresses at bars. ‘Hundreds of men beat their wives and treat their children without care simply because they spend their income at these places. Today, the most dishonored practice is the use of women’s bodies as a commodity for prostitution. Those who see women as assets to bring money employ 45 women in nine such places,’ she said. “After harsh reactions from conservative people, nine bars that employed waitresses in Konya laid off all of them. İsmail Şişe, the proprietor of Berduş Bar, who employed a waitress for the first time, said that he would never employ a waitress again. ‘We sent her away even before the demonstration. We are no longer planning to employ waitresses, yet there is something that does not make sense to us; Although we laid off our waitress, our place was attacked and our windows were broken. Our workplace was damaged. We no longer employ waitresses and we plan to convert our business to a restaurant for everyone to come and enjoy,’ he said. “Sinan Şişe, who works with his father at Berduş Bar, noted that they had previously employed waitresses. ‘In the face of escalating reactions -- read this as “neighborhood pressures” -- we sent them away. There were no waitresses working at our place during the march and protests. We don’t know why we got such a reaction,’ he said. Explaining that there were rumors in Konya that waitresses engage in prostitution, thereby creating moral degeneration, Şişe said: “The waitresses who were previously working at our place were only serving the customers. There was never prostitution involved. They were working just to earn their living. I don’t accept this. We will employ waitress no more, but I can’t say anything about other work places. All of the nine places who were employing waitresses have sent them away.’ “Responding to the protests, Konya Metropolitan Municipality closed three of the bars who employed waitresses for an indefinite period. Konya Mayor Mukadder Kıymaz, a female mayor from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), commenting on the closure of these bars, said that they did what the laws preach. Indicating that bars’ employment of waitresses is the result of social degeneration, Mayor Kıymaz stated: ‘Actually, there are many bars in Konya, but only nine of them were employing waitresses. We are not against people’s choice over consuming alcohol. There are bars that do not employ waitresses and there is no problem concerning these. The nine bars where waitresses were employed are not being run as normal bars. The public reacts to them because they indulge in other matters. All the people in Konya see the bars that employ waitresses as the true source of degeneration in the city. They see them as the cause of domestic violence. The fathers who attend these places get disinterested with their wives and kids. The men who attend these bars beat their wives and kids when they return home. They cause tangible and intangible harms, naturally the public react to them.’ “The Konya-based Islamic Culture Academy Association Chairwoman Hatice Atmaca, indicated that she, as a woman, is against employment of women at bars. ‘Also from a political point of view, I am against employment of women at these places, because women are used there not only spiritually, but also physically at these places. We, as inhabitants of Konya, are against exposure of women bodies at bars. This is something that does not befit Konya,’ she said.” The foregoing incidents occurred exactly as described last weekend, but for some reason, infamous Turkish media organizations -- which would use every opportunity to launch media attacks against the ruling AK Party, claiming that it is exerting “neighborhood pressures” on people who consume or sell alcohol -- failed to exaggerate these incidents as they would habitually do, and did not give any space to the alcohol revolt by this angry mob. In addition, they did not threaten the regime in the top item of their news bulletin, nor did they air special debate programs about it. Interestingly, no one claimed that Turkey is getting more and more Islamic and conservative under the rule of the pro-Islamic AK Party government and no one implied that the country is heading toward a Sharia rule, becoming more like Saudi Arabia, Malaysia or even Iran. Moreover, we did not see a “worried modern” intellectual expressing deep concerns about this attempt to deprive women of their right to work wherever they like. We can understand why politicians and Kemalist/secularist civil society organizations (CSOs) keep silent, but we cannot understand why our General Staff, which is the watchdog of our regime, is silent about this revolt against alcohol consumption and establishments serving alcohol, which have become symbols of modernism and Atatürkism in our country. A real alcohol memorandum against the government was what we would normally expect from them. Frankly, this came as a disappointment. Is this proof that our fears had become a reality, that the reactionary mentality that has been exerting pressures on bars and other establishments serving alcohol has eventually dominated our favorite institution, the General Staff? What a pity! Wait, wait! Do not panic. I made a great mistake and I acknowledge my guilt. I falsely imagined that the above-mentioned incidents had occurred in Konya, and misled you, too. Thankfully, these incidents did not occur in “conservative” Konya, but in secular Tunceli, where mostly intellectual Alevi citizens, as the sole supporting force of our Kemalist/secularist regime, live. I should have immediately understood that there was some weirdness about this story. This is because if such an incident had really occurred in Konya, Kayseri, Kahramanmaraş or somewhere else in Turkey, then not only a series of media campaigns would have been launched, but the military would have overthrown the government. Remember, a few months ago, a small incident -- similar to those in Tunceli -- broke out in the Tophane neighborhood of İstanbul, and the media and political circles made much noise about it, as if there were a regime change in Turkey. By the grace of God, this nefarious attack against the alcohol drinking establishments and the women working there had occurred in our illuminated and modern city, Tunceli, which is the guarantee of our secularism. Otherwise, I don’t even want to imagine what a psychological warfare tool it would make at the hands of the pro-Ergenekon and pro-Republican People’s Party (CHP) media. link http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist-230316-sharia-revolt-in-konya-2000-people-stoned-bars.html |
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1:13 AM Jul 11