Erdogan vows to teach Turkish children Muslim discovery of Americas

[Blue_Tires]

Last edited Wed Nov 19, 2014, 05:59 PM - Edit history (1)

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has instructed Turkey’s educational institutions to adopt a policy of highlighting the contribution of Islam to global science and arts, including the discovery of the American continent by Muslim sailors some 300 years before Columbus.

“I have to be clear that there is an important responsibility falling on the shoulders of our Education Ministry and YÖK [the Higher Education Board]. An objective writing of history will show the contribution of the East, the Middle East and Islam to the science and arts. As the president of my country, I cannot accept that our civilization is inferior to other civilizations,” Erdoğan said in his address to students at the opening of a religious school in Ankara on Nov. 18.

He also slammed criticisms from columnists and cartoonists mocking his claims that Muslim sailors discovered the Americas and constructed a mosque in Cuba centuries before Columbus.

“Why [do they not believe it]? Because they have never believed that a Muslim can do such a thing. They have never believed that their ancestors could manage to launch ships in the Golden Horn after transporting them across land,” Erdoğan said, referring to Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II’s conquest of Istanbul in 1453.

“They have never believed that their ancestors ended the Dark Age and opened the New Age. That’s a lack of self-confidence,” he added.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/erdogan-vows-to-teach-turkish-children-muslim-discovery-of-americas.aspx?pageID=238&nid=74485

[msongs]

1. meanwhile he sits by idly watching muslims slaughter each other one foot from his southern border nt

[eissa]

2. Well, it's not like revisionist history is a new thing in Turkey

Armenian genocide? What's that?

[hunter]

3. Meh. The Americas have been "discovered" many times.

There were people living here in the Americas long before the majority Native American cultures and languages arrived.

It's been 40,000 years plus since humans became world wandering storytellers.

There are so many stories lost, suppressed, or untold.

Columbus was a poser.

[seveneyes]

4. "their ancestors ended the Dark Age"

Seems like many of that religious bent are trying to relive the dark ages.