UPI reports that 35,000 Turks became Christians last year — a major social movement in that country. There is a certain poetic justice to this, as the report suggests that many are the descendants of Christians who were forced to become Muslims during the time of the Armenian genocide and the persecution and expulsion of the Greeks. However, these Christians still have to be quiet and “not make waves,” even in that enlightened, secular, moderate Muslim nation. Now why is that? (Thanks to Susan.)
Some 35,000 Turks converted from Islam to Christianity last year,with most joining evangelical congregations the newspaper, “Milliet,” reports. If true, this would amount to a mass movement, considering Christians make up only 0.2 percent of Turkey’s 68 million population. “This is news to me,” said the Rev. Holger Nollmann, the German Protestant pastor in Istanbul.
However, Ihsan Ozbek, president of the Council of Independent Protestant congregations, said more and more Turks were turning toward Christianity. “However, given the Islamic environment in which we live, most Turks coming to our congregations do not wish to make waves.”
The German protestant news service Idea reported most converts are descendants of Orthodox Christians who ostensibly became Muslims to avoid being killed in Turkey’s 1914-22 genocide of its Armenian minority.