Turkish PM: Murdoch’s tweet reminiscent of Nazi collective punishment

ANKARA

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News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch’s controversial tweet suggesting that all Muslims are responsible for the massacre at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is reminiscent of the collective punishment imposed during Nazi rule, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said.

Referring to Murdoch’s tweet, Davutoğlu said he did not even want to utter the media mogul’s name.

“This understanding of collective crime is the reason for the emergence of the Nazi movement,” he said on Jan. 13, on his return from a visit to Europe during which he also joined the solidarity march in Paris to commemorate 17 people killed in fundamentalist terror attacks last week.

“We believe that people are innocent at birth. No matter which religion they are from, they are innocent,” Davutoğlu said, referring to the Muslim belief that people are born free of sin and bear no responsibility for other’s sins and indirectly referring to the Catholic doctrine of original Sin, which says everyone is born sinful.

The tweet posted by Murdoch on Jan. 10 came after the killing of 17 people, including journalists and police officers, in three days of violence that began with the shooting attack on Charlie Hebdo on Jan. 7 and ended with the deaths of four hostages at a kosher supermarket on Jan. 9. The three gunmen in the incidents were also killed.

“Maybe most Moslems [are] peaceful, but until they recognize and destroy their growing jihadist cancer they must be held responsible,” Murdoch tweeted.