Istanbul, Turkey – On Friday, alternative rock band Radiohead held a worldwide streaming event of ‘A Moon Shaped Pool,’ their acclaimed album shared in May. During the listening event in Velvet Indieground Records in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, people attending were attacked by a group of Islamists.
A group of about twenty men entered the store and attacked with sticks and bottles the customers and employees of the store at the listening party. This because the record store was offering alcohol drinks to the attendees, and during Ramadan, Muslims are supposed to fast all day, and Islamists forbid the consumption of alcohol.
Most people managed to flee, and no serious damages for the store were registered, only the main door that was smashed. At least one injury was reported, bleeding from the head, after allegedly being hit with a bottle. A picture of the person with a shirt covered in blood posted on Twitter, along with a widely circulated Periscope video, posted by a store owner. “They were determined to kill us,” he claimed on Reddit. Various insults can be heard on the video, like “Are you not ashamed doing this in Ramadan?” “I’ll kill you” and “I will burn you alive inside”.
Two of the attackers were detained, and released on Sunday
The same day, Radiohead reacted to the attack through a statement: “Our hearts go out to those attacked tonight at Velvet IndieGround in Istanbul. We hope that someday we will be able to look back on such acts of violent intolerance as things of the ancient past. For now, we can only offer our fans in Istanbul our love and support”.
Condemnation from the Local mayor Ahmet Misbah Demircan was also registered: “The fact that this incident was associated with fasting and that lifestyle, the way this incident was serviced, is a planned assassination of social peace.”
In response to the attack, a protest was held on Saturday night in Cihangir neighborhood. Around five hundred people gathered not only denouncing the attack but claiming against Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accusing him of being a thief and a fascist.
To disperse the protest, buses of riot police and even water-cannon vehicles arrived the place and combated the crowd with teargas and rubber bullets. Though there were no injured reported, two protesters were arrested. After the protest was dispersed, men with sticks were seen marching through the neighborhood, while chanting “takbeer” and “Allahu akbar,” a Muslim prayer that translates into “God is greater”.
Ramadan ends on the 5th of July.
Source: The Telegraph