Turkey's Erdogan warns Muslims against birth control
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on Muslims to reject contraception and have more children.
In a speech broadcast live on TV, he said "no Muslim family" should consider birth control or family planning.
"We will multiply our descendants," said Mr Erdogan, who became president in August 2014 after serving as prime minister for 12 years.
His AK Party has its roots in Islamism and many of its supporters are conservative Muslims.
In Monday's speech in Istanbul, the Turkish leader placed the onus on women, particularly on "well-educated future mothers", to not use birth control and to ensure the continued growth of Turkey's population.
Mr Erdogan himself is a father of four. He has previously spoken out against contraception, describing it as "treason" when speaking at a wedding ceremony in 2014. He has also urged women to have at least three children, and has said women cannot be treated as equal to men.
Turkey's fertility rate is one of the highest in Europe and the country's relatively young population (compared with other European countries) is still growing. The population is just under 80 million. Additionally, there may be as many as 10 to 20 million Turks living in Europe. The United Nations Population Fund says Turkey has a "substantial" unmet need for quality family planning. One fifth of married women use abortion as a way of controlling their fertility, it says.
He is encouraging women to have babies and help boost his country's population, and his religion's population. This harmful and irresponsible attitude is one of the causes of overpopulation, and is the greatest cause of pollution and extinction of other species as well as a decreasing quality of life for humans. Other countries' must respond by saying a strong "NO" to immigration from Turkey and any country that encourages population growth. The world needs to lower population, not raise it, and we cannot afford a religious or nationalist population race, which is what Turkey appears to want and which can only lead to religious war and a lower quality of life, destruction of lives and families, and of course to extinction of all species and an increase in pollution and diseases. This must put an end to the European stupidity in even thinking that Turkey might be allowed to join the European Union. The European Union, as well as the entire world, is seriously overpopulated, and population densities are far too high in Europe.
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