Misguided proselytising and a big band

The latest atrocity stemming from the wave of religious intolerance that has gripped the world we know in a deadly stranglehold happened last Wednesday in a Turkish town called Malatya. Three people were ritually slaughtered by five young and, no doubt, brainwashed Islamic extremists for the "crime" of printing Presbyterian bibles. Malatya, incidentally, is the home town of Ali Agca.

Now, I really do not know what these two Turks and a German national were doing printing bibles in the middle of soi-disant secular Turkey where everyone knows the Christian religion, despite the Pope's much publicised reconciliation visit last November, is looked at with a pretty jaundiced eye. The "crime" we have been told is not the practice of the Christian religion but the proselytisation threat posed by the distribution of bibles which, regrettably, to a Muslim, represents the beliefs not only of the Christian denominations but also, because of the Old Testament, the Jewish one too which, I suppose, to a fundamentalist Muslim is like a red rag to a bull.

Although the Turkish government has officially condemned this atrocity it is under serious criticism for not doing very much about it. Islamic ritual slaughter is a horrible thing that some of us watched in total horror happening on our PC screens during the first years of Iraqi occupation. Remember my namesake poor Mr Bigley anyone?

Taking the cross into the land of the crescent has always been a risky affair. When, about a quarter of a century ago, long before 9/11 turned us upside down and inside out, some friends of mine who were working in Saudi imported a French Catholic priest as a plumber and were found out, the priest was unceremoniously deported and my friends were warned that the next priest they tried to smuggle in would be imprisoned or worse.

It is no small wonder that Muslims with this sort of background are under the impression that our own relative indifference to mosques in our midst means we are weak and do not care deeply about our own religion which is not far from the truth, is it? It depends what religion we are talking about, of course. If one means the religion instituted by Rome and its derivatives that has been superseded by the religion of true freedom, equality and fraternity that was instituted by all those thinkers, philosophers, revolutionaries, writers and trade unionists who have devoted their lives and works to create the free Europe we know and respect today.

In this day and age when priests have to go about with an armed escort in Istanbul I strongly feel that, horrendous though the price paid was, the proliferation of bibles was a foolhardy exercise. We have, of course, accepted this latest throat-slitting exercise with Christian resignation at best and an agnostic shrug of the shoulders at worst. However, if we think of it, the event is just another brick in the wall that should keep Turkey out of Europe for good and all.

I have said it before and I will say it again: Whether you are a believer or not, your way of life is being seriously threatened. We must keep Talibans, Al Qaedas and Hizbollahs out of Europe and, in turn, all Europeans who decide to meddle in the religious affairs of countries like Turkey, do so at their own risk.

Yes, it has come to this! Despite Ataturk's secular legacy by which one is Turkish first and foremost irrespective of religion, there is a growing number of young people who wish to introduce Sharia law. We all know that Turks have carried honour killings into Europe; all these people, who have infiltrated by the million into countries like Germany, need to know is that their motherland has become as Islamic fundamentalist as Iran and they will, mark my words, run amuck among us before we have time to blink.

Since the time that Xerxes was beaten at Salamis, the Near East has tried to dominate the West and vice versa. This has happened time and again throughout history with Western reaction creating those blots on its escutcheon that we call the Crusades, the dire consequences of which we still are paying for dearly today.

What is happening today is nothing new in the broadest sense of history being a continuous and unbroken chain reaction. The only difference today is that, for the first time since 410AD, Europe is as united as it was under the Roman Empire and, therefore, it can act powerfully and in concert to curb and control any adverse and wholly anachronistic cultures that may affect the liberties and freedoms that our European ancestors paid for with their lives. This is the EU's sacred duty.

It is also high time that the West stopped interfering with the Near East and that Iraq is left to its internecine fate for there is nothing, but nothing, that can be done to stop the continual and escalating bloodletting that the invasion has caused. The biggest blunder since the Gallipoli campaign and with far more dire consequences!

Freedom of conscience, freedom of worship, freedom of expression was bought at a blood price and I for one refuse to surrender any of it to anyone. Militant Islam is a threat to the democratic world we have built up, slowly and painfully, since the Ancient Greeks invented it. As countries like Turkey cannot guarantee any of the above freedoms it simply cannot be let into Europe; period! It is out of the question. It is not even to be discussed no matter what Josè Manuel Barroso says!

When right winger Georg Haider was elected to the Austrian Parliament some years ago there was a huge stink from Brussels that pervaded the four corners of Europe. Till Herr Haider was effectively neutralised, the stink did not stop; so Brussels knows how to act when it wants to, and therefore there is to be an end to pussyfooting about illegal immigration, legal immigration and any other sort of immigration unless the EU can guarantee that all those who opt to become EU citizens will in no way pose a threat to what Europe stands for.

All you have to do is take a stroll down Republic Street, in Valletta, to read the banners that have been put up on the occasion of the EU's 50th anniversary. You will see there the achievements of the fathers of modern Europe who out of the devastation of World War II managed to create a confederation of countries that have vowed to end all wars within Europe's confines forever. We now have an ideological civil war on our hands that threatens to blow up everything that has been achieved over the last 50 years as effectively as Al Qaeda blew up those hundreds of poor people in Algeria last week.

Still, not all is lost and there is also a tremendous amount of good that is invariably overshadowed by the tsunamis of tragedies that occur in our sad vale of tears every minute of the day. My friend Sigmund Mifsud is directing a 16-piece Big Band Concert at the MITP on May 4 and 6 at 8 p.m. to raise money for the Eden Foundation, which, as we all know, has, since its creation almost two decades ago, transformed the lives of hundreds if not thousands of Maltese families and has provided hope when before there was none at all. For all those who love Latin American music and jazz, this is a treat not to be missed. This is what life is all about; helping others with Mary Poppins's proverbial "spoon full of sugar". This is what our civilisation is all about. We must defend it at all costs.