I Was Taught to Hate Islam (Part 1) - How a Greek Woman Embraced Islam

I Was Taught to Hate Islam (Part 1)
-By Tina Styliandou
How a Greek Woman Embraced Islam

I was born in Athens, Greece , to Greek Orthodox parents.

My father's family lived in Turkey, Istanbul for most of their lives, and my father was born and raised there.

They were wealthy, well–educated, and as most Christian Orthodox who lived in an Islamic country, they held on to their religion.

A time came when the Turkish government decided to kick the majority of Greek citizens out of Turkey and confiscate their wealth, houses, and businesses. So my father's family had to return back to Greece empty-handed. This is what the Turkish Muslims did to them, and this validated, according to them, their hatred towards Islam.

My mother's family was living on a Greek island just on the border between Greece and Turkey. During a Turkish attack, the Turks occupied the island, burnt their houses, and in order to survive, they escaped to the Greek mainland. Even more reason to hate the Turkish Muslims then!

Greece was for more than 400 years occupied by Turks, and we were taught to believe that for every crime committed towards the Greeks, Islam was responsible. The Turks were Muslims and their crimes were reflecting their religious beliefs.

This was actually a very wise plan of the Greek Orthodox Church (religion and politics in Greece are the same thing) to build hatred in the hearts of the Greeks against Islam, in order to protect their religion and prevent people from converting to Islam.
So for hundreds of years we were taught in our history and religious books to hate and make fun of the Islamic religion.