French manifesto on Quran 'barbarism, deviance'

By Mehmet Tosun

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish government ministers have blasted a French proposal to remove some verses from the Quran.

On Twitter, Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag slammed the French proposal, which took the form of a manifesto signed by 300 French authors and politicians, saying that the signatories "are the Western versions of Daesh" terrorists, suggesting that they too have distorted Islam.

"It is literally barbarism and deviance that 300 people, including former President Nicolas Sarkozy and former Prime Minister Manuel Valls, prepared a declaration demanding some expressions in the Quran be removed," Numan Kurtulmus, Turkey's culture and tourism minister, said on Twitter overnight Sunday.

Stressing that the manifesto drew limited support, Kurtulmus added, however, that it was concerning that the manifesto was signed by people seeking to govern the country.

"The level of racism and anti-religion [approach] is initially insulting Europe's own values," Kurtulmus added.

Kurtulmus explained that trying to hold the Quran and the societies terrorized by global power wars responsible for violence is an expression of the guilt feelings of the environments that were the true perpetrators of the violence and chaos.

"I strongly condemn for the sake of their shabby political calculations this accusation of the Qur'an, the sole source of truth for the Islamic religion which means peace and of the members of this supreme religion,” Kurtulmus said, adding that he would not respect what he called a “fascist” declaration.

On April 21, 300 prominent French figures including Sarkozy and Valls signed a manifesto published in French daily Le Parisien demanding that some parts of the Quran, which they claimed contain violence and anti-Semitic references, be removed.