The coach of the Turkish national soccer team has said one of the most poignant things I have heard recently, where the War on Terror is concerned. Let me set the stage for you, or you can read about the matter here.
Turkey and Greece played a soccer game in Istanbul last week. There was a moment of silence for the dead in Paris. Some fans (not of the dead) booed, or shouted “Allahu Akbar!” etc.
After the game, Coach Fatih Terim said, “We’re staging a moment of silence for people who have died. Can’t we be patient for one minute? When we go abroad, we’re not able to explain this. It doesn’t reflect well on us at all.”
There are lots of Muslims like the coach — countless of them. But we tend not to hear from them.
P.S. I can’t help noting — inappropriate as it is in a post like this — that the game ended in a zero-to-zero tie. I keep trying not to be a soccer Grinch, but it’s hard.