As Americans, we respect human dignity, even when we’re threatened, which is why I’ve prohibited torture, and worked to make sure our use of new technology like drones is properly constrained. It’s why we speak out against the deplorable anti-Semitism that has resurfaced in certain parts of the world. It’s why we continue to reject offensive stereotypes of Muslims — the vast majority of whom share our commitment to peace. That’s why we defend free speech, and advocate for political prisoners, and condemn the persecution of women, or religious minorities, or people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. We do these things not only because they’re right, but because they make us safer.

https://medium.com/@WhiteHouse/president-obamas-state-of-the-union-address-remarks-as-prepared-for-delivery-55f9825449b2 – 1/20/2015.

Leaving aside the well-known meaning of the Battle of Gallipoli or the questionable role of Turkey in World War I and World War II, one shall recall that peace and friendship first and foremost shall be based on the courage to confront the past, on the historical justice, as well as on recognition of full-fledged universal memory but never on selective approach.

Alas, Turkey continues its traditional policy of denialism.

http://news.am/eng/news/248158.html – 1/16/2015.

It doesn’t matter which Islamic text, whether it is a Qur’anic or jurisprudential text, or a text recounting the sayings of the Prophet Mohammad; the killers do not kill for nothing, they kill in the name of books, fatwas, ayahs and age-old tradition. All of these things are inseparable parts of true Islam. They will remain Muslims as long as they pronounce the shahada and as long as the religious institution doesn’t dare to modernize the criteria for being a Muslim.

These killers are us. They are our religion at its most extreme.

Koteich, Nadim.  “We Are All ISIS: These killers are us.  They are our religion at its most extreme.”  NOW.  January 13, 2015.

I wanted to encourage Muslims entering the mosque to join those Muslims who renounce jihad, denounce Islamist terror and stand by the right of free expression, even of people who insult our Prophet.

Only a handful responded to my call. Most of my comrades from our life-long struggle against Islamism were terrified and bailed out at the last minute. Only the president of the Muslim Canadian Congress, writer Munir Pervaiz, and two Kurdish exiles, Keyvan Soltany and Hadi Elis, braved the snow to stand beside me.

http://www.meforum.org/4974/muslims-shouldnt-pray-to-defeat-non-muslims – 1/13/2015 by Tarek Fatah.