Turkey’s deputy prime minister suggested that Lebanese militant group and political party Hezbollah should change its name to the “party of Satan.”
Hezbollah, which means “Party of God” in Arabic, has been blamed for killing Syrian civilians recently.
Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag blamed Hezbollah for killing thousands of people in next-door Syria, reported the Today’s Zaman newspaper.
“Those who stand by the Assad regime and kill their own Muslim brothers and indiscriminately kill women and children in the battlefield should not appeal to Islam and the Quran to legitimize their actions,” Bozdag told the paper. Bozdag made the remarks at a conference in Ankara over the weekend.
“The pharaoh gave orders for the killing of innocent children and their mothers to maintain power. What is the difference between what the Pharaoh did and Assad is doing?” he questioned.
He also said that racism is driving a wedge between communities in the Muslim world.
“Racism is a sickness that threatens Turkey and other countries in the Middle East. If someone decides to kill a man based on racist feelings, then he rejects” the tenets of Islam, he said.
On Sunday, two rockets slammed into a Beirut neighborhood controlled by Hezbollah, reported The Associated Press. Officials suspected that Syrian rebels were behind the attack.
The rocket attack came a day after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the group would get involved in the Syrian conflict.
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