Turkish Jewish novelist Moris Farhi MBE was the Special Guest Reader last week at a literary event organised by the TCCA Mentoring Project. Farhi who was born in Istanbul in 1935 grew up within the Jewish community in a multi-racial Turkey. The award winning author, poet and essayist read from a wide body of work on 16th May 2007 at the Turkish Cypriot Community Centre, whose esteemed guests included Haringey Mayor Gina Adamou, Alev Adil, Peray Ahmet and TCCA executive committee members Aycan Saracoglu and Hasan Baskal. He read extracts from his book Young Turk (2004), which has been descibed as " a mosaic of ethnicities.....infused with a passionate romanticism" in which "the weave of voices and stories that emerges speaks of the interconnectness of fates" ( Alev Adil, The Independent, Review). Young Turk was one of Farhi’s most successful works, as it grabbed the attention and interest of the Jewish Community and other readers and critics. Farhi shared published and unpublished poems and essays with guests at the TCCA last Wednesday. In the latter part of the evening, guests were invited to participate in a general discussion about Farhi’s work and in particular his stance on religion.

Farhi argued religions are aimed at dividing people, "if you join then you are ok, if not you are the ‘other’." The ‘other,’ he added is always persecuted by religion. Farhi also critisized the outlook of the West regarding Islamic Fundamentalism, without confronting Christian fundamentalism on their door step. Farhi claimed Christian organisaions particularly in the United States often try to frighten people into joining, claiming that they will be punished if they don’t.

However, Farhi later expressed an interest in Sufiism, arguing that unlike other religions, Sufiiism did not aim to "conquer or commit" its followers, but rather to reach to the sub-heavens. However, some of the guests present argued that religion is a necessary binding force in society. The evening, which began on positive note ended on a positive note as Farhi read one of his latest poems.