I'm no racist brah. Turks can never be a racist. At the height of Ottoman Empire, there were 20-25 different ethnic groups living among us. The concept of "multiculturalism" was copied from the us in the western world. When the empire collapsed, almost 40 different states, nations were formed. What I am doing is merely criticizing the degeneration the Americans are going through, how they let them selves go so much that they lost all their identity and what it means to be an American. Their culture is changing rapidly and its adapting new low forms of acts, languages and gestures. Quite sad really... they've become fat, lazy and clueless.
" One of the distinctive attributes of the Ottoman Empire, particularly in the context of multiculturalism, was the Millet system which was strengthened under Mehmed II. He acknowledged the practice already well established in the Ottoman states of permitting Christians to retain the independence of their religious community. Likewise, he recognized Jewish and Armanian Gregorian communities. These groups were called Millets, which meant a community or a nation of people with a socio-cultural identity within the Ottoman Empire (Ortaylı 2006:117).
As one of the earliest acts, Fatih Sultan Mehmed placed his confidence in the Greek clergyman, Gennadius, who had long been popular with the Greeks of the city. Mehmed recognised him as a patriarch and a leader of the Christians in Istanbul, and ordered the vizier and officers to accord him proper respect. Gennadius was also charged with the responsibility fort he obedience, conduct and life of the Greek people and their relationship with the Ottoman state. Thus, in many different ways, Greek Christians were encouraged to reside in Istanbul and were allowed to live according to their own ways and laws, as long as they did not infringe upon or come into conflict with the administration of the government and the lives of Muslim subjects.
It is important to quote an interesting event, “when the prince of Serbia asked Hunyadi, the Hungarian patriot, what he would do with the Orthodox Greek Church if he made himself master of the province. The reply was, ‘I will establish everywhere Catholic Churches’ (Khan 2000:403). The reply of Mehmed II to a similar question was ‘By the side of every mosque a church shall be erected in which your people will be able to pray’ (Eversley 1959: 95). This act of tolerance was far ahead of political ethics of the Christian powers of Europe at that time. The Spaniards drove from their their country the Muslim Moors, who had refused to adopt the religion of their Christian victors. Thus sought to make his capital a microcosm of all the races and religious elements. Many Jews were welcomed while they were facing a new wave of prosecution in other countries. goat lovers and other communities were encouraged to participate in trade and industry. In the Balkans, the Christian peasants were left on their lands (Shaw 1976: 61).
Each Millet had the legal right to use its own language, develop its own religious, cultural and educational institutions, collect taxes and maintain courts for trying members of the community in all cases, except those involving public security and crime. The Millet system was specifically created for non-Muslim communities such as the Armanian, Syrian, Greek or Serbian Orthodox, or Jewish. This had two effects. One was that the religious communities under this system were freer than those under most Christian rulers as ecclesiatical bodies they became prosperous and powerful. Secondly, members of the top echelons of the Millets became as reactionary as the ulema and they too were against change in the Ottoman Empire. "
