Some politics, some religion, some history

Darcy can get easily bored, so his previous determination to continue on the subject of religion per se has been lightly put to one side. Instead, Darcy would like to write post this remarkable picture that he found on http://www.occidentalis.com/. A very interesting site, set up "pour que la France ne devienne jamais une terre d'islam". Darcy recommends a visit, and a read. There are many gems in that site. While Darcy believes passionately that Islamic fringe groups ought to have a dose of their own medicine administered to them, he is catholic in his discrimination, loathing the American religious right as much as nutcases in Judaism, Islam, Buddhism (oh, yes) and so on and so forth. To put it another way, Darcy is an equal opportunities discriminator against all extreme forms of religion.

Which is why I like England and why I like Turkey. Most writers at occidentalis would probably disagree, but Darcy long ago gave up on the possibility of having a logical argument with a man of passionate religion. Much as Darcy believes that the nature of God - if It exists - is not knowable, he finds that the points to which religious idiots refer are beyond the capabilities of human language and logic. Back to the site: Darcy was particularly amused by the comment "Ne glausons pas, [l]a Turquie de 2007, c'est la France de 2015, le rempart de l'armée en moins...". To which he can only respond with a Gallic shrug.

By the standards of the posters at occidentalis, the United Kingdom must be the most European nation. After all, while Turkey's flag boasts the crescent and star, and other European countries have at best only one cross (interesting to note that France has none), the UK boasts no less than three crosses: those of St George (England), St Andrew (Scotland) and St Patrick (Ireland). Though occidentalis presumably would prefer to gloss over the facts that St George was a soldier in Asia Minor (i.e. modern Turkey), St Andrew was the patron saint of Istanbul (and the Patriarchate) long before the Scots arrogated him and that only St Patrick has little connection with Turkey. So - the UK flag being 2/3 Anatolian - one could argue that two intruders have slithered into Europe, not one. Equally amusing is that the combination of crescent (and sometimes star) have figured in representations of Isis, Diana, the Virgin Mary, Byzantium and Islam, before being prominently placed on the Turkish flag. Darcy loves Turkish syncretism.

In the meantime, life continues as normal in Turkey today, without much reference to the EU. Except that today is national holiday - on a weekend, tant pis. Youth and Sports Day, to be exact, which sounds eerily like some Soviet festival, except that it was set up to commemorate the start of Turkish resistance to occupation in 1919. A flag day, therefore. Flags fluttering from window sills and balconies. Flags waving on the television. Turks certainly love their flags. No further public holidays in Turkey until 30th August, again tant pis.