Turkey has blocked blooger.com

(Cartoon by Cem Yalcin; "“Testing, 1,2 , ich bin haynnin siwanynin, hmm, sound test 1,2,3,4, Heil Tayyipler, hmm this will succeed!”)

Turkey has added a new worldwide known blog base; blogger.com to the internet banning history of the country on this Friday. Bloger.com is a blog publishing system first crated by Pyra Labs. and owned by Google in 2003.

Today, many internet users in the country were shocked to see that they can not access to Blogger.com which is was ranked 16 on the list of top 50 domains in terms of number of unique visitors in 2007 in the world.

Millions of blog user updating their sited regularly and sharing new ideas, publishing their own thoughts, sometimes about minor things about daily life but sometimes about the news which are skipped by the main stream TV channels and newspapers in the world.

According to the news of Today’s Zaman; “there are currently 853 Web sites banned in Turkey, including video-sharing site Youtube and dailymotion.com, placing Turkey in the league of countries such as China and Saudi Arabia, famous for restricting freedom of speech.”

Local Criminal Courts of Turkey do have the right to ban a web site and some of the sites have been banned without no justification such as gundemonline.com. The sites are generally banned on the grounds of claims of insulting the founding father and the First President of Turkish Republic Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, or having sexual content, containing violence, gambling etc. Youtube.com was banned more than six months this year and now the world wide meeting point of blog users; www.blogger.com is also banned. No justification has been made by the court yet on the ground of the decision.

Turkey is not alone in its antidemocratic attempt to ban the free thought and expression right of internet users in the world. China, Armenia, Iran, Tunisia, Indonesia, Syria and Saudi Arabia have the similar kinds of banning record.
Government of Turkey, does not seem to be taking any part in making regulations in order to put Turkey into the league of shame in 21st century and more than the videos of insulting Ataturk, current ruling politicians of Turkey seems to be disturbed by the criticisms they are receiving from internet.

Prime Minister Erdogan also known as taking Musa Kart and his newspaper, Cumhuriyet, to court after he was portrayed as a cat entangled in a ball of wool. He also launched a lawsuit against a small, local newspaper, Sakarya, which reprinted the cartoon. Few weeks ago, he also called the whole nation to protest and not to buy and read the newspapers owned by Aydin Dogan. It is highly luckily that Justice and Development Party this time is disturbed by the bloggers writing against them.



There are still ways to access to banned sites

Thanks to international platforms such as ktunnel.com and vtunnel.com which allow internet users of Turkey to access the banned sites. Because of the banning of the courts well known web sites, popularity of the bridge web sites has increased rapidly and according to the statistics of August, they are ranked as 37th most visited sites.
Gokhan KURTARAN

“Islam in Finland” Seminar in Turku

“Islam in Finland” Seminar took place under the theme of “Muslims and Researchers in Dialogue” on Tuesday, at 10.15, in Axelia, Auditorium Salin of Abo Academia in Turku, Finland with the support of 1001 Actions for Dialogue, The Anna Lindh Foundation. Leading researchers in the field and students took part in the interactive seminar and had the chance to search for a possible co-operation between different religious groups. “Islam and Suomessa” (Islam in Finland) book is also released in the before the seminar written by Tuomas Martikainen, Tuula Sakaranaho & Marko Juntunen.

In the morning part of the seminar, Tuomas Martikaninen from Abo Akademi greeted the participants and Marko Juntunen, Tuomas Martikainen, Minna Säävälä, Antero Leitzinger, Hanna Virtanen, Mari Maasilta, Karin Creutz-Kämppi continued with their views in the matter. Ahmed Akar fom Kulttuurikeskus Caisa of Finland also shared his view in the frame of “Islam in Finland”.

Islam in USA: Contemporary Trends in Religion and Immigration

Second part of the seminar was chaired by Prof. Antti Laato and Prof. Alex Stepick from Florida International University, USA made his presentation on “Contemporary Trends in Religion and Immigration” which really contributed another approach from the examples of US experience of immigration and adaptation of immigrants in their new environment. Generally, he started with the researches done on the “understanding of religion and God” in US and in comparison with Europe. According to him, more or less, religion is important to %60 of the Americans in USA, while it’s only 20% of in Europe. In USA, %63 the respondents also stated that they know God exists and in Europe around %20 of the respondents stated that they know God exists. According to statistics, %44 of the respondents attend the worship at least once a week, while in Europe it is around %15. In conclusion, “religion is very important in social life in US” stated Mr.Stepick.

He also supplied information on Islam in US and gave approximate numbers on Muslims living in US. According to him, there are over 12,000 mosques and more than half of them are founded in last 25 years. Islam is still the fastest growing religion in US and approximate Muslim population is around 5, 8 million and %30-%40 of them are African Americans (non-immigrants), 25% of them are South Asians, around 25% of them are Arabic speaking and rest is from N.Africa. First Muslim settlement was N. Dokato in 1900’s and later on Indiana Islamic Center was founded in 1914 in Iawo, the oldest American mosque still exist there and actively used. What was interesting is both states are in the heartland of US, still known as the most conservative parts of US.

Prof. Alex Stepick went on by giving information on immigration waves of US and on average Muslim goers. In 1924, US shut down all the immigrations, and 3rd wave immigration started only in 1947, dominantly from Pakistan and India. 4th wave followed in 1965 with mainly highly qualified professionals due to the immigration regulations. According to Mr. Stepick, average Muslim goers today “has a Bachelor degree of higher”, “earns around 74 thousand US dollar”, and “married with children” in US.

Prof. Alex Stepick: Path towards Integration

According to Prof. Alex Stepick, tension between religiously differed groups is inevitable. But “cooperation can be encouraged” and “positive context of reception” can be attainable and integration process might be successful with “strong leaders” and “cooperative activities”. Spots, music, food can well be used as a common international bridge between different groups.

He also emphasized the importance of “welcoming” immigrants in their new environment. It generally produces a smooth integration process and well adapted immigrants at the end. The other way to “reject” them and this act highly luckily to crates reactive response, and emphasizes on differences rather than commonalities.

Prof. Alex Stepick stated that he found Bush having a positive response toward US Muslims after September 11 was worked well to distinguish the terrorism and Muslims living in US. Certainly this example was highly debatable on. He concluded his words summing up his core points; such as “religious leadership”, “projects moral authority”, “links congregants with power or people who come to power”, “cooperative activities that effect solidarity” (such as food, dance, music, sport, education and our communication rhetoric”.


Dr. Sean McLoughlin :Muslim Leadership and Public Engagement in Britain

Dr. Sean McLoughlin from University of Leeds, UK took the stage and overviewed his presentation under the topics of “Muslim in Britain”, “From Race to Faith: The State Multiculturalism”, “From Local to National: Old & New Movement”, “The Rise and Fall of Muslim Council of Britain” and “The State & Muslim Leadership after 7/7”

He pictured the current Muslim demography in UK and stated that 1/3 of all the Muslims of UK live in London. According to Religious Question 2001, there are around 1,6 million Muslims living in UK and the number grew up around %60 since 1991.Generally Muslims are in UK described as “less mobile and more conservative” than other groups and the word of YUMMies (Young and Upperly Mobile Muslims) often used to describe the new generation.

In the “From the Race and Faith Relations”, Dr. Sean McLoughlin made an outline of immigration, citizenship, race and ethnic relations in UK. First started with Post Colonial Commonwealth Citizenship and race riots of 1950’s. Immigration legislation from 1950’s and discrimination legislation after 1966 were important attempt to create a base for unity in diversity. Multiculturalism was seen as a way out from most of the problems by the liberals starting from 60’s and the same thinking went for quite a long time. Dr. Sean McLoughlin continued his presentation with “From Race to Faith Relations” and gave the examples of “Riots in Northern mill towns”, “failure in multiculturalism”, “islamaphobia”, and possibility of “shared experiences and common citizenship to minimize the further disorder”.

He also overviewed the attempts of Muslims to be organized in UK under an umbrella organisation such as a council or a council in order to defend their rights. This came to real in 1997 with the name of “Muslim Council of Britain” as something similar to Jewish Board of Deputies”, but the council lacked representatives of Pakistani Sufis while the majority of the Muslims in UK are Pakistani originated. At the end, in 2006 Sufi Muslim Council appeared on the stage as a power. They called themselves as “the silent majority” but lacked the institutional expression. Meanwhile traditional Islamist took the stage under the name of “struggle for Islam”. Generally Dr. Sean McLoughlin stated that there seems to be tendency towards “wider trends since Sept. 11, mature, self critical, cosmopolitan Muslim voices”.



Dr Anas Hajjar:Finnish Muslims and Dialogue of Religions

Dr Anas Hajjar from Islamic Council of Finland started giving information on his background as an immigrant who came to Finland 22 years ago. He overviewed the history of Islam in Finland by referring to Tatars who came from Russia in 19th century to Finland as Muslims. In 1940, Tatars even found their first mosque in Järvenpää. Later on 1980’s, a new wave of immigration started mainly from Middle East and Africa to Finland and in 1990’s Somalians, Kosovians and Bosnians came as immigrants due to the conflicts in their own regions. Muslim population is thought to be around 40.000 and Dr Anas Hajjar stated that 7000 of them are registered members of Islamic Council of Finland and rest prefers to be free believers of Islam rather than having any ties with any council or associations.

He stated that, after September 11, President of Finland and leaders of religious groups wanted to meet more often to know more about each other and have talks about a possible cooperation. Dr Anas Hajjar stated that it is about cooperation not about bossing to prove who is better than the other, or who is more right, but mainly for dialogue between religions on an equal level and understanding of each other in order to work together for a better society. He stated that the regular meeting between the leaders of different religions still taking place in Finland.

Director Seppo Rissanen :The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Dialogue

Director Seppo Rissanen from The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission also informed the audience about his background and told that they are having regular meeting with the countries; Lebanon, Syria and Iran for cooperation. He stated that dialogue attempts are quite new not because they did not want but it was because there were not a Muslim community existing other than Tatars. According to him, all together number of Tatars and Jews were around 2000. But the whole picture started to change in homogeneous Finland in especially 90’s with new immigrants. Especially with the rise of religious extremism, dialogue stated to be a new challenge. “Peace between religions can not be taken for granted” Director Seppo Rissanen stated. Because the whole situation can turn into intolerance, discrimination, and violence at the end.

He gave an example of an actual case happened few years ago in south west of Finland; young Finns and young Muslims had a fight on the street and after the fight the leaders of religious groups condemned the action all together. According to Mr.Rissanen, moment of crises can be used as a starting point of active cooperation. He also stated that they have open invitation to other religions to come together and discuss and cooperate. He said twice a year, they are having such meetings and so far there has not been any tense argument. He said they are aware of they are major differences in their beliefs but it does not prevent them to respect each other. “Personally I am convinced dialogue is becoming part of our life” stated Director Seppo Rissanen.

Gokhan KURTARAN

Economical Crisis; finding a way out within complete chaos

Right in the middle of the most chaotic days of the economic crises, there are many crucial questions to be asked and answered immediately. Immediately, because it seems that the world does not have a long time to think, negotiate, vote and decide in the European standards. The domino effect of the crisis is faster than precautions and the complete chaos is spreading from Wall Street to even villages of Finland.

Is it really end of capitalism and the liberal values in the world, with serial state intervention into the market and strict regulations and flow of financial support to the banks in order to stabilize the current situation? It is still discussable. But there are various theories and most of them are related with the lessons taken from the biggest economical disaster in west; Great Depression. Some says that the world will never have a similar experience again, but if we have not something in similar way, maybe a minor model of the crisis, would the people able to survive while the life conditions might change rapidly? Is west really ready for that in upcoming years?

Is another Great Depression on the way?



A prominent journalist and columnist of Turkey, Altan Oymen (Radikal, 11.10.08) stated “ let’s look after 1929; USA somehow managed to be solving the problem in the democracy, UK and Switzerland, and Scandinavian countries almost did the same way, they managed to put the things right. But Germany could not do that. They found the way out of unemployment and other disasters related with crisis, in Hitler’s Nazism. And some other European countries also undergone through dictatorial regimes. Italy was already in Mussolini’s fascism. Mussolini used the crisis to reinforce his power in Italy and region. USSR also emphasized “how Marxism was right” and used the crisis as the proof of the “fact”. The crisis worked well for Stalin in over there too.”

He also emphasizes that there is a great change in everything in today’s age, so it does not mean that the same things will happen again in Europe or in any part of the world. But what is not thought and analysed today, who might be benefiting in today’s economical crisis? What sort of political movements might use the crisis as a scenario of the last day of the world, in order to gain the public’s support? How would the whole situation affect the actors of the world in the political-economical-sociological senses?


When will Europe act together?



It seems that every economic and political change in the world is a test for Europe’s acting together or independently. Unfortunately, the system which does seem to be perfect, does not really work in the practice since EU first could not agree on a common reaction after the Georgia and Russia Conflict broke out on 08.08.08. There are variety of opinions with in EU about the situation, such as the one of the Finnish Ambassador stated "Europe has been watching the actions of Russia in a state of paralysis, and has taken hardly any concrete action in the matter” in his two pages of assessment on the situation in the world asked by Finnish Foreign Minister Stub. According to the news of another Finnish ambassador also wrote “Europe is increasingly dependent on energy from Russia, and in Georgia, Russia showed how easy it would be to cut off the important pipelines to the west as well. Russia has already used the energy weapon in its foreign policy, when the state-owned company Gazprom turned off the taps to its pro-Western neighbour Ukraine for some time” in his assessment. The description is really telling a lot about the current situation in EU; “paralysed” by the Finnish Ambassador.

The second biggest test about the unity of EU was the economical crisis and it seems that one more time member nations are acting independently rather than acting as one actor. It seems that the decision taking process with in EU makes the actions to be take immediately almost impossible and the leaders of EU are finding the only way out by securing their own garden with the fences, not thinking about the neighbourhood that they are living in.

Changing roles and new infrastructure

Whether we like or not, it is time for questioning the economical and political pillars of EU, rather then praising “how good we are” then the other parts of the world. “The others” of Europe for centuries are finding their own ways and whether they are democratically ruled or not, countries are like Chine, India and Russia seems to be the new economical fore leaders of the world. They do consider all the options and they play this chess game according to its own “liberal rules”. Certainly, meanwhile this economic power does not stay as “innocent economic power” but evolve into a strong, willing and daring political power. We can see that clearly, day by day Chine and Russia having more “say” in every matter and “Russia” is so much aware of the west to be dependent on new energy sources. The whole matter might lead us to the question; is it really still matter to be part of EU or not? If the nations of EU will act independently in major cases as we have seen in Russia-Georgia Conflict and current economical crisis, does it still carry a meaning to be called a “union”? Sooner or later we will learn the answers of these questions, hopefully not through sad experiences.

Note: In the second picture, unemployed people are lined in order to get food and drink in 1927.


Gokhan KURTARAN