NEW YORK - Head of Turkey`s Religious Affairs said Wednesday that Turkey was a unique country where different religious groups coexisted in peace and harmony in past and at present.
Prof. Ali Bardakoglu delivered a speech titled "Muslims, Christians, and Jews - Ottoman Experience of Peaceful Co-existence," at the Columbia University in New York.
Bardakoglu said different ethnic and religious groups enjoyed religious freedoms in five centuries following the conquest of Istanbul.
"At a time when nobody even talked about human rights, religious groups lived in great religious freedoms, elected their own religious leaders, managed their own alters and opened their own schools," said Bardakoglu.
Bardakoglu said the same tradition of tolerance continued in modern Turkey and pointed out that under the secular structure of the Republic of Turkey, Muslim and non-Muslim citizens were equal before the law and enjoyed equal rights.
Bardakoglu said Turkey`s Religious Affairs was an institution providing people with accurate knowledge on Islam, one that was protecting religious freedoms.
Bardakoglu said he supported Turkey`s EU bid and Turkey`s accession constituted a great opportunity in promoting true Islam. He said this would save EU from a single religion and broaden its horizons.
(OZG-MS)