Yakup Cindilli
Posted on 11/28/2003 11:29:26 PM PST by miltonim
A Turkish convert to Christianity was severely beaten for distributing New Testaments in his hometown of Orhangazi in northwestern Turkey. He later slipped into a coma and remains in critical condition. Yakup Cindilli, 32, was hospitalized on October 23 after a savage attack by three individuals who inflicted heavy blows on his head and face. Both Cindilli and a colleague identified as Tufan Orhan were reportedly distributing New Testaments at the time of the attack. According to an October 26 account in the national Milliyet newspaper, Cindilli and Orhan were beaten for “doing missionary propaganda.” Local police have identified and apprehended three suspects in the crime, all jailed by order of the public prosecutor reviewing the case. One of the suspects, Metin Yildiran, is president of the local chapter of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). A far-right political party accused of “neo-fascist” activities during Turkey’s violent 1970s, the MHP has historically linked its platform with an Islamic-tinged version of nationalism.
Yakup Cindilli
Turkish Evangelists Beaten As Islam Rises
( ANS) -- On October 23, Yakup Cindilli (32), a Turkish convert to Christianity, was savagely beaten for distributing New Testaments in his hometown of Orhangazi in northwestern Turkey.
Cindilli was hospitalized but has since slipped into a coma and is in a critical condition. The coma resulted from a blood clot that formed in his brain as a result of his injuries.
Cindilli’s companion, Tufan Orhan, was also savagely beaten. Turkish media reported the incident as “Two Youths Beaten for Doing Missionary Work” or “missionary propaganda”. Local police have identified and apprehended three suspects in the crime, but as yet no date has been set for a hearing.
Compass Direct reports, “Yakup Cindilli first expressed interest in Christianity about two years ago when he made a telephone call to ‘Alo Dua’, a prayer hotline ministry begun by local Protestant Christians after Turkey’s devastating 1999 earthquake.
After reading the New Testament and coming to faith in Christ, Cindilli began writing poems and songs. He occasionally traveled to Bursa, about 30 miles from Orhangazi, to visit the Protestant fellowship there. His family was opposed to his new faith, throwing out all his Christian books and warning him that he must give up his new beliefs.”
Turkey, as a bridge between Europe and the Muslim world, is a very strategic nation, yet it is also the largest unreached nation in the world. Turkey was once a bastion of Christianity, then a bastion of expanding Islam. Today Turkey is torn between secular Europe and the Islamic world.
To be Muslim (no matter how nominal) is an essential part of Turkish identity, hence Christians have always been subject to a degree of social hostility and contempt. A legalistic drive for secularization, that has included the banning of headscarves, actually backlashes and causes more contempt of non-Muslims. This problem is escalating as Islamist sentiment and identification rises in response to the “War on Terror” and war in Iraq.
The rise in Islamist sentiment and identification was clearly demonstrated by the November 2002 landslide election win to the Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) which has its roots in a banned Islamist movement.
The AKP won over the ruling, staunchly secular, Republican People's Party (CHP). AKP leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan (48), had been banned from holding the position of Prime Minister due to a 1998 conviction for ‘Islamist sedition’, for publicly reciting a poem that the courts concluded incited religious hatred.
Political maneuvering after the AKP election victory enabled the constitutional changes necessary for Erdogan to become Prime Minister in March 2003.
There is much debate about the directions and intentions of the AKP. Two things, however, are certain; the war on terror and war in Iraq have caused Islamist sentiment to rise in Turkey; and there is also a great hunger for the gospel as many are searching for spiritual truth.
© 2003 Assist News Service
© 2003 Maranatha Christian News Service
Remember, Islam is the religion of peace. </sarcasm>
Indeed, and sadly there will be no outcry from the "world community" against this obvious genocide the Islamic fanatics are so intent upon doing all over the world.
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