Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Turkey’s Protestants face attacks, anti-missionary threats - (BP)

"A Protestant pastor in the Turkish industrial city of Izmit woke up May 18 to find a huge red swastika painted on his apartment door, with a handwritten hate letter shoved underneath, according to a report by Compass Direct news service.

The letter threatened the safety of Wolfgang Hade and his family unless they leave the country within a month, Compass reported. A German citizen, Hade is married to a Turkish national of Christian background.

The hate letter questioned whether Hade is really serving Christianity or being “used” to attack Turkish values.

“Your efforts to wear us down -- as the inheritors of a great race -- and alienate us from our values will come to nothing,” the writer declared. “Please forward this to the headquarters directing you.”

"The string of Izmit attacks are not isolated cases, according to Compass. Over the past six months, vigilante groups in at least four other Turkish cities also have threatened Protestant church workers and attacked their places of worship.

Simultaneously, the Turkish media has fanned intense criticism of Christian missionary activity, Compass reported. Even government ministers have spoken out, claiming that foreign missionaries had political motives aimed at damaging the social peace and unity of Turkey.

A government-approved sermon read in Turkey’s mosques at Friday prayers on March 11 specifically warned worshipers against Christian missionaries, accusing them of pursuing political agendas to “deceive and convert” people, Compass reported.

Despite the democratic image presented by Turkey’s current government in its drive to enter the European Union, “Their comments have simply added fuel to the nationalist fire,” Ihsan Ozbek, an Ankara pastor chairing the Alliance of Protestant Churches in Turkey, told Compass."

"Meanwhile, a Turkish Christian living in Istanbul’s Maltepe district told Compass he has been threatened twice in the past year to stop hosting fellowship meetings in his home. In the most recent letter, attached to the window bars of his ground-floor flat two months ago, he was told, “This is a Muslim country,” and he was urged to leave. If he loved his family, the letter advised, he should resettle in a Christian country.

“I don’t know how much of a real threat this is,” he admitted. “I’m not afraid of people’s reactions, but I am afraid of threats against my family.” He said he never reported the incidents to the police because his brother had been told by a policeman that the authorities were “secretly watching” his group."

"None of the attacks against Protestants have received coverage in the national press, in part because local Christians admit they are reluctant to be identified and harassed even further.

“But if there is no response to these incidents of violence and to the youths doing it, they will just continue,” Isa Karatas, press spokesman for the Alliance of Protestant Churches, told Compass. “It’s necessary to bring it up as an issue,” he said, particularly since officials in the local governor’s office and police force can often identify the troublemakers involved.

Turkey’s miniscule Protestant community consists of an estimated 3,500 Christians gathering in 55 designated places of worship, along with 40 other known house fellowships."
Turkey’s Protestants face attacks, anti-missionary threats - (BP)

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