Turkey’s top cleric to discuss Islamophobia with Pope Francis

Turkey’s top cleric has said Islamophobia will be high on the agenda of his upcoming meeting with Pope Francis during the latter’s landmark visit to Turkey in late November.

Some are presenting violent acts committed in the name of Islam as violent acts produced by Islam or all Muslims, Mehmet Görmez, the head of the Directorate for Religious Affairs (Diyanet), said in an interview with the NTV news channel, adding that the topic would be an important part of his meeting with Pope Francis.

“The turning of the presence of Islam in Europe and the world into a problem of security will be one of the most important issues that should be dealt with in the coming years,” Görmez was quoted as saying on Nov. 13. “I don’t presume that politicians can overcome this alone.”

The interview with NTV was held on the occasion of the first ever Muslim Leaders of Latin America Summit held in Istanbul this week.

Holding his current post since November 2010, the outspoken Görmez has consistently raised the issue of Islamophobia as a problem. Back in September, he drew attention to steadily rising attacks against mosques in Germany and urged the Pope to "translate words into deeds regarding the misperception and misinterpretation of Islam.”

Pope Francis is expected to touch down on Turkish soil on Nov. 28, arriving in Ankara before he visits Istanbul on Nov. 30. He will be the fourth pope to visit Turkey, following Pope Paul VI in 1967, Pope John Paul II in 1979 and Pope Benedict XVI in 2006.

“The entire world is facing a very important problem that is actually being overlooked with globalization. All cultures have intermingled across the whole world; all religions have become neighbors with each other and...