President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan inaugurated on Saturday the the Turkish-funded Diyanet Center of America located in the state of Maryland near Washington, D.C., where he highlighted the rise of Islamophobia in the United states and called on international community to not discriminate against terror.
“There is terrorism in Paris and terrorism in Brussels. But do not forget that the terror in Turkey, terrorism in Lahore is not comparable in scale to these places. We have been fighting against terrorism for past 35 years. We have lost 40 thousand people to terrorism,” the president said during his inauguration speech.
Meanwhile, Erdoğan added that despite the calls by the Turkish authorities to the U.S. and European countries for sending the terrorists wanted by Turkey, they have been ignored.
“There is no religion, ethnicity, race, or nationality of terrorism. Terrorists get this adjective attached to their names for the crimes they commit against humanity.”
Highlighting the rise of Islamophobic tendencies in the West, particularly in the United States after 9/11, “It is shocking to see some U.S. presidential candidates are using terrorism allegations against Muslims,” he said, adding “Just like other communities, Muslims are contributing to strengthening the United States.”
“Muslims living in the U.S. cannot be forced to make the choice between being a Muslim or an American,” President Erdoğan said, criticizing the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trumps’s call to ban Muslims from coming to the United States.
President Erdoğan also called on Turkish media to show sensitivity to the developing events in Nagorno-Karabakh region, between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Erdoğan said that Azerbaijani journalists shed tears over Turkey’s recent sufferings and that he hope the media in Turkey will not turn a blind eye to the events in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Erdoğan added that the new center, in addition to its architectural beauty, it will also serve as a complex that will serve to all civilizations.
