printIn “Benedict the Brave,” I mentioned that “only one of the 98 Islamic countries in the world has religious freedom.” Readers inferred that it was Turkey.
Since when?
With an Islamist government itching to restore Islamic law, the army is entrusted to uphold secularism. Buddha! Religious freedom is a very fragile thing if it depends for its maintenance on a tug of war between these two arms of the state.
No, Turkey is not the religiously free, mystery Muslim country. It’s in fact quite an oppressive place—for the fanatics especially. According to Father Joseph D. Fessio, whom I mention in the piece, the honorific “religiously free” goes to Mali, “where Timbuktu is.” It’s in a desert, so you can hardly count it,” father Fessio added, with apologies to Malians.