What did Sicilians call non-Catholics???

[TrueMacedonian]

Mafia Allies by Tim Newark

I've been reading this book on and off for a week now and found this part very humorous. It almost coincides with similar topics in the Exposing Lies portion of the forum.

[Daskalot]

It sure is funny, why would they do that? From where does this habit of theirs originate?

[George S.]

Correct me if i'm wrong it's called stereotyping people are called anything & everything,
Considering all this at least they are called something,as far as greece goes we don't exist.Reality must be bought home that whilst it's funny & humorous to call people turks in reality they are not & it's stereotyping to lump people into one race..
George S.

[Soldier of Macedon]

They probably identified Orthodoxy with the Ottoman Empire given that traditionally East Christian lands including Constantinople were under the rule of the Turks.

Interesting text nonetheless, I suppose it is a similar generalisation to what the Macedonians had during Ottoman times, whereby any Muslim, be they Turk, Gypsy or Albanian were known simply as 'Turks'.

[BigMak]

They probably identified Orthodoxy with the Ottoman Empire given that traditionally East Christian lands including Constantinople were under the rule of the Turks.

I dont think that is right considering that the first christian church in sicily or the whole of italy was brought there by Constatine the Great and was a Orthodox church.

Constatine the Macedonian as he is still named by the local people of Siracusa

This was the original and first church inside the catacombs a period way before Christianity was a accepted religion in this region and Hence hiding in the Catacombs etc

way Before the construction of San Giovanni Cathedral in the 6th century directly above the much older Orthodox church in the catacombs below

[Soldier of Macedon]

Hi BigMak, that may well be true about the first church in Sicily, however, the text in question refers to events in the 18th/19th/20th century I presume, as it is related to Italian immigration to the United States. That is about 15 centuries (give or take) after Constantin and the first church in Sicily that you mention. The text above clearly groups all non-Catholics as Turks, I therefore retain the belief that it was in reference to Orthodox Christians for the reasons outlined in my previous post. If not them, who do you think is being made reference to?

Do you have any sources or links to 'Constantin the Macedonian'? Sounds interesting.

[BigMak]

Yeah good point SOM,

Considering the considerable time frame of around 15 centuries from what I referred to.

I would not be surprised many of these immigrant from Sicily referred to all non-Catholics as Turks because of the nature of work from the Sicilians very much like the Makedonski pechalbari they also travelled for work abroad such as Libya etc, would not be surprised if this was associated with work from the Ottoman empire.