From: kutluk@ccl.umist.ac.uk (Kutluk Ozguven)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: Ugur Mumcu was a Muslim-rights supporter.
Date: 27 Jan 93 15:38:51 GMT
Organization: Manchester Computing Centre

In <1993Jan25.101852.25835@ugle.unit.no> Ramin Shamsili, Dep. Inorganic Chemistry,7034,Trondheim,Norway (Ramin G. Shamsili) writes:

>Question : Is there any where in Islamic instruction and rules which makes it
>HalAl or MobAh to take the life of a journalist with different way of thinking
>and what will the supporters of Islamic goverment ( any kind of it, or is there
>only one type?) do to free press and media and journalists (like Ugur Mumcu)
>eventually after comming to power?

Since Mumcu was not heading an army of genocide against Muslims, there
is no religious rule that requires a death penalty. Therefore his
murder has nothing to do with Islam.

Ugur Mumcu was among the few left-wing intellectuals who supported
human rights for Muslims. Among those, he stood by the right for the
Muslim women to keep their head-cover during university education, and
he strongly proposed the abolishment of the item-163 of the Turkish
Penal Law, which prohibited any political organization based on Islam.  

His pursuit of an international conspiracy involving Saudi royal
money and western secret agencies should also be considered far from
direct attacks on Islam. He had also attacked the drug barons, Mafia,
freemasonry, Kurdish separatism, non-Ataturkist left-wing, liberals,
the CIA and many other groups.

When I was in Turkey last summer, in a political TV chat show, he
expressed his disapproval towards such international impositions on
Turkey, but unlike Coskun Kirca, he was respectful to the ideas
of the Islamic side of the argument. So harmonous was the chat-show
that the host,   Nazli Ilicak, had to make the joke: "now Ahmet Ozhan
is singing for the proleteriat with scarves." Mumcu was not a small
minded anti-Muslim but a man who supported all human rights.

His anger at the Saudi/American/Turkish/Mafia connections did not
originate from his reservations for Koranic verses, quite the
contrary, it comes naturally from his strong belief in the
full-independence of the nation.

He was increasingly at odds with the rest of the left,
particularly on the Kurdish question and the PKK. Therefore one cannot 
categorize Mumcu along with the  [now] pro-American, pro-PKK,
pro-market, anti-Islamic left-wing. As international agencies
reported, his was researching who was behind the PKK before he was
shot. His death is a loss for the religious or non-religious all
independent minded Turks who are fed up with the external interference
in Turkey. 

One should also question the curious unity of the Turkish media in
blaming the religious right for the murder, while finding evidence seems
less than unlikely for that idea. However within 48 hours, well organized 
masses against "fundementalism" have marched down from the Istanbul
press centres. 

Leftist, rightist, Muslim, secular, everyone of us loses if the existing
medium of dialogue disappears. Instead of blaming religion, ideology,
or the citizens, one has to play carefully and show restraint that
such murders should not play into the hands of those who want an
authoritarian government in Turkey. 

Attacking people without evidence is equivalent to supporting the
motives of the murderers. 

Kutluk Ozguven
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish