1. Workers Party (PKK) in the Turkish capital on Saturday. Supporters of the PKK and members of the group’s youth wing, the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDGH), left fires burning throughout the capital’s streets, with police firing rounds of teargas and deploying water cannon.
2. Massacre of aviation system in the bombing targeted the vegetable market in Douma Rural Damascus
Harsh scenes of the wounded
3. Turkish police in Constantinople war with PKK youth in the streets
4. From church to mosque: Syracuse Islamic group cuts crosses, tries to connect to neighborhood
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Two gray church spires grow out of a bumpy plain of city rooftops along Park Street. The skyline is the same as it has been for the better part of a century until you look closer at Holy Trinity Church: There are slim copper crescents where, for 100 years, there had been crosses.
The six crosses were removed and replaced at the end of June. Four of them were massive: 600 pounds of concrete each, and more than 4 feet tall. The step was the last, and most visible, in the building’s change from church to mosque.
The transformation has been a series of careful choices aimed at balancing the forces of two religions in a neighborhood that is shifting. The North Side, once full of Italian and German immigrants, is increasingly home to new Americans who are refugees from countries where Islam is the dominant religion.
Even as the crosses were cut from the church spires on the outside, and 10,000 crosses were painted over on the inside, the new owners of 501 Park St. tried to leave what they could, and reuse what they couldn’t.
The wood from the pews has been repurposed to fix the floor, which is where Muslims sit to pray. Painters worked to make the minbar, the pulpit where the imam stands, blend in with the stonework. The name of the mosque is Masjid Isa Ibn Maryam, which translates to Mosque of Jesus Son of Mary.
(Talk about a rhetorical trick. As if the muslim version of Jesus bore any resemblance whatsoever to the Christian one)
Inside the mosque, a hand-colored fundraising thermometer was taped to the wall for the better part of the past year. “Masjid Isa Cross Removal” is written across the top. The goal: $50,000.
(Now that is a lot more honest)
Paul Waelder said the high-profile job came with two stipulations: no talking to the press and no pictures or video of the cross removal.
(Gee I wonder why? Its safe money to bet that they will change the name of this masjid as soon as they feel the current name has done its job, to stop opposition to its transformation. I would guess within 2 years)
5. Weapons found in mosque in Turkey.
(Is that even news? Mosques are part beachhead part arsenal)
Police sources claim weapons hidden by Kurdish separatists
MARDIN, Turkey
Turkish security forces on Sunday uncovered an arms cache in a mosque, according to police sources.
Weapons, including several assault rifles, at least one grenade launcher and petrol bombs, were found at the Haci Semsettin Yusma mosque in Nusabayin, a town on the Syrian border in Mardin province.
According to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the stash was hidden by supporters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and discovered as police conducted searches following an explosion that injured two police officers on Friday.
Documents related to the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU and U.S. – were also found.
The PKK’s renewed campaign against the Turkish state has seen more than 40 security force personnel killed since the July 20 Suruc bombing.
Thank you M., Dan F. and all who sent links and left comments. More to come
