Just How Tolerant Are Turks?

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has a well-documented habit of using international forums to lecture from a moral high-ground and to blast at intolerance toward Muslims in the West with loaded, often controversial language. He's found an appreciative audience in Turkey and the Islamic world, given that prejudice and racism against Muslims, Turks and Arabs in the West is fact of life.

Erdogan has now dropped Turkey into another such controversy with his remarks during the UN’s recent “Alliance of Civilizations” conference in Vienna, where he likened “Islamophobia” to “Zionism” and called for it to be considered a “crime against humanity” like "anti-Semitism and fascism.”

Erdogan’s words resulted in an immediate dressing-down from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who said through his spokesman, "It is unfortunate that such hurtful and divisive comments were uttered at a meeting being held under the theme of responsible leadership."

Referring to the same topic during his visit to Ankara earlier this week, at a joint press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, US Secretary of State John Kerry stressed “the urgent need to promote a spirit of tolerance,” adding that this “includes all of the public statements made by all leaders.”