Desperate with Leopard Tank, Desperate with NATO membership

Entire European Union members and NATO members may be really pissed, desperate why duo Chancellor - (new) Defense Minister (Scholz - Pistorius) insist “no green light” for Leopard 2 Tank (you can read here). Scholz, 5 days ago, in a Bloomberg Exclusive interview, highlighted “prevent broadening war, NATO - Russia war”, when he asked about Germany support for Ukraine including (issue of) Leopard Tank.

But mentioning another issue, a very unrelated issue, to matchmaking anger to Scholz, is weird. 11 Days ago, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo tried to resolve the (black, dark) past about human rights (you can read here). And specific in 2013 (1 year before Indonesia’s Presidential Election 2014), actually not happens some incident related with (violating) human rights in Indonesia. 

It’s funny, absurd, when “Germany refused to send Leopard” to try to connect with “Indonesia received Leopard despite its bad ranking / bad rating on Human Rights.” 2 (Very) Different Issues. Summoned potential. 

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A (potential) bigger diplomatic spat, maybe cut ties diplomatically, actually happens between Sweden and Turkiye. Burning books is not democratic freedom, as we know very well from Berlin in 1933. Burning a Quran / Koran or a Bible or a Torah under police control in front of a country's embassy is basically the same hateful racist state approach of 2023.

In April 2022, Danish extremist bigot Rasmus Paludan's announcement of a Koran burning "tour" for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan sparked riots across Sweden. Today, Rasmus Paludan burned a Quran / Koran in front of the Turkish embassy in Sweden. 99.4% Turkiye population are Muslim.

1 Week ago, Erdogan effigy caused controversy in Stockholm, again, because Swedish people were desperate about NATO membership. Turkish Foreign Ministry summons Sweden's Ambassador to protest after effigy of President Erdoğan hung upside down by its legs in Stockholm, and summons again because Paludan burned a Holy Quran / Koran. 

I try to imagine how desperate Swedish people are to get a NATO membership (also Finnish) because Turkiye is stubborn and an obstacle for the scrutiny process of NATO membership (you can read here). But, burning the Quran (because) Turkiye stubborn is “wrong logic.” US Ambassador to Turkiye says the Biden Administration is not linking the sale of F16 jets to the Turkish Govt's approval of Sweden and Finland's NATO membership bids. Although this doesn't rule out the fact that members of US Congress might try to do it (you can read here).

When meeting Secretary Antony John Blinken in DC, Turkiye Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said the issue of F-16s, and Sweden and Finland's NATO membership should not be linked. Not too surprising as both Nordic countries have been going through this process effectively 'hand-in-hand'. Both speakers were not directly making decisions in their NATO membership processes.

Last time “Viking / Scandinavian / Nordic nation felt Islamophobia, “Breivik Tragedy” , happened in July 2011. Ultra Far Right Fjotolf Hansen (born 13 February 1979), better known by his birth name Anders Behring Breivik and by his pseudonym Andrew Berwick, he killed eight people by detonating a van bomb at Regjeringskvartalet in Oslo Norway, then killed 69 participants of a Workers' Youth League (AUF) summer camp in a mass shooting on the island of Utøya.

The New York Times reported that a lecturer showed a painting of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and lost her job. The lecturer was Professor Erika López Prater at Hamline University who actively chose to show images of Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) face during her seminar-like class with around 30 students.

While Islamically, this is prohibited as the Prophet is usually represented as a man with noor (light) covering his face, Professor López Prater hoped to utilize the content to educate her students. The main problem is not whether her Muslim students approved or disapproved; rather, it is the fact that she committed the act in the first place, like Rasmus Paludan committed to burn the Quran / Koran. She (Lopez Prater) / He (Rasmus Paludan) knew it was wrong and she / he knew it would upset some Muslims. Their mistakes should not impede someone’s religious belief. I’m not giving money for someone to make callous decisions at the expense of someone’s faith.

Within religion, we do not harmfully scrutinize others, but rather, think of 70 excuses on their behalf.