Dear Log,
«So the day after his interview appeared, the Turkish press launched a fierce attack on Pamuk, branding him a traitor, accusing him of having used the virtually illegal word genocide (although he had not) and inviting 'civil society' to 'silence' him. Following several death threats, he went into hiding abroad. He returned to Turkey late last spring, hoping it had all blown over. It had not. Last August, an Istanbul public prosecutor charged him with the 'public denigration of Turkish identity'. The trial is set for 16 December. If convicted, Pamuk faces three years in prison.Yes, it would behoove Turkey to move away from having persistently oppressive laws, and instead join the warm community of nations that do their pouty oppressing either off the books, with armies, or with a persistent parade of temporary oppressive laws. Progress, not perfection![...]'These laws should be changed, and changed fast, before the EU and the international community puts pressure on Turkey to do so. We have to learn to reform before others warn us.'»
--"I stand by my words. And even more, I stand by my right to say them...'"
Meanwhile, in the Little Britain neighborhood of Farce-on-Avon:
«British Asians despair of [Hizb ut-Tahrir's] cultish recruits. On the opendemocracy.net website Huda Jawad writes [right hnyuh] of being badgered by young men at her university. 'They thought that the way to achieving Islamic nirvana was to grow a beard, pepper their talk with Muslim-Arabic and aggressively illustrate to the "misguided" sister how she is contributing to the genocide of her fellow Muslims by choosing to wear trousers, make-up and, heaven forbid, have non-Muslim male friends!'»I don't like Moonies with bombs anymore!--"When Harriet met Hizb: What does an MP do when members of a totalitarian sect drop into her surgery?"
