Shhhh! Do not speak of this! “Talk about extreme, militant Islamists and the atrocities that they have perpetrated globally might undercut the positive achievements that we Catholics have attained in our inter-religious dialogue with devout Muslims.” — Robert McManus, Roman Catholic Bishop of Worcester, Massachusetts, February 8, 2013. Those “positive achievements” don’t include doing a thing to stop this sort of thing, even in modern, moderate Turkey.
“Hostilities at Catholic Church in Istanbul, Turkey Leave Parishioners Fearing Worse,” Morning Star News, July 15, 2014:
ISTANBUL, Turkey (Morning Star News) – Members of a Catholic church in Istanbul fear an attack after Muslims verbally assaulted and threatened them during a baptismal service and destroyed church property in the last two months.
After two incidents at St. Stephanos Church, parishioners said they are waiting to see if hostilities will escalate into violence during what remains of Ramadan, when religious persecution has been known to increase in Muslim-majority areas. The annual Ramadan, an Islamic month of day-time fasting, ends in Turkey on July 28.
The two previous attacks have caused some members of an already small congregation to stop participating in services, at least temporarily. In May a group of young men under cover of darkness destroyed audio equipment, stole other items and set a fire in the building, and on June 15 Muslim intruders pushed their way into the baptismal service and yelled obscenities, with one brandishing a knife and threatening to stab a parishioner.
Though not inflicting physical injury, the attacks reopened psychological wounds in light of fatal attacks on Catholics and other Christians in Turkey. With anti-Christian hostilities growing in Turkey, one church member said more attacks are expected.
“It’s not the first, and it won’t be the last,” said the parishioner, who requested anonymity for security reasons.
In the incident during the baptismal service, congregation members said, eight Muslims came onto church grounds and screamed obscenities and anti-Christian epithets at those inside. Some members of the group went into the church building and, as they walked around, shouted at those in attendance.
The Muslims told those at the church to “Go away” because “Turkey is Muslim.”
The church’s facility manager was able to turn the group outside, but in the church courtyard, one of the Muslims pulled out a knife and lunged at him. The Christian managed to avoid injury, and the group fled.
Some of those attending the service called police during the attack, but officers who were in the neighborhood giving out traffic tickets arrived long after the assailants had left, according to church members.
St. Stephanos Church is located in Yeşilköy, an Istanbul neighborhood where Christians, though still a minority, make up a significant amount of the population. There are two churches in the small coastal neighborhood, and only one mosque. Until recently, members of the congregation said, Muslims and Christians got along peacefully and cordially.
Church members were eager to describe what happened, but none of them gave Morning Star News permission to use their names out of fear for their safety, or because they didn’t have permission from church leadership.
In the previous incident, men in their late teens and 20s entered the church building at night, ripped out most of the church’s audio equipment and destroyed what they couldn’t carry away. They then took some of the ceremonial candles, lit them and started setting items in the rear of the building on fire. They stacked all remaining candles into a pile, lit them and left.
The fire from the candles spread in that section of the building, but no one noticed it until a member of an Orthodox congregation that also uses the facility smelled smoke and yelled for help. He and others extinguished the fire before it caused any serious damage. One of the Catholic parishioners said if the Orthodox Christian hadn’t noticed the fire, it would have been a disaster.
“If he hadn’t said something, this whole thing would be gone,” he said, motioning to the inside of the church building.
The Orthodox congregation uses part of the church building to hold services because they are unable to construct their own building, due to limited resources and the lengthy, difficult process in Turkey of obtaining permission. Although no one was injured in the attacks, those who attend St. Stephanos are concerned more attacks are coming, and that they will escalate until someone is killed or seriously injured.
Such violence has occurred in other Catholic churches in Turkey. In February 2006, the Rev. Andrea Santoro was shot dead in Santa Maria Church in Trabzon by Oğuzhan Akdin, 16. Akdin shot Santoro in the back of the head while he was kneeling, praying inside the church. Akdin later claimed he shot Santoro because he was angered over a series of cartoons, published five months earlier, allegedly mocking Islam’s prophet, Muhammad; Akdin was sentenced to almost 19 years in prison for the murder.
In July 2009, Gregor Kerkeling, a Catholic from Germany who visited Turkey regularly, was stabbed outside The Church of St. Anthony of Padua in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul. Kerkeling was stabbed directly in the heart and died in the courtyard of the church. The Muslim accused of killing Kerkeling, Ibrahim Akyol, later told prosecutors he “wanted to kill a Christian that day.”
In June 2010, Murat Altun, a Muslim driver for a church in Ikerendum, slit the throat of Bishop Luigi Padovese, 63, in his Ikerendum home. The reasons behind the killing are still shrouded in mystery. Before his trial, Altun gave numerous reasons for killing Padovese, including being mental ill or that he was following the demands of Islam. A court ultimately sentenced him to 15 years in prison for the murder. At the time of sentencing, legal experts told the Turkish media they expect him to serve a fraction of the sentence.
In addition to the killings, Catholic churches in Turkey have been the sites of numerous other non-fatal knife attacks, including the stabbing of the Rev. Pierre Brunissen in July 2006 in Samsun, the stabbing of the Rev. Adriano Frachini in 2007 in Smyrna, and the Rev. Roberto Ferrari being threatened at knife-point in March 2006 in Mersin. Estimates of Catholics in Turkey run from 35,000 to 46,000 of the country’s 76 million people.
A member of St. Stephanos said that every time an attack has happened, either to Catholics or to members of other denominations, he and other Catholics have felt it “in his heart.”
He said the problem stems from what people are taught from their youth in Turkey. More that 99 percent of the country’s population is Sunni Muslim, and religion is closely tied to feelings of Turkish nationalism. According to numerous Turkish Christians, many Turks see Turkish Christians as being spies, traitors or foreign agents of some sort.
“They are not open-minded,” the St. Stephanos member said. “They lack education or have been educated in a very bad way.”
What way us that?
Jovial Joe says
The things people do when they’re feeling a bit peckish.
mortimer says
Please do not trivialize these jihad-inspired murders by theocratic, racist supremacists.
Turkish supremacism is based on the racist theory that Allah replaced the Arabs with the Turks as the master race destined to rule the world.
This is a mass psychosis shared by millions of Turks.
Jovial Joe says
I can assure you it was not meant to trivialise. It was an expression of ironic mockery of the muslim’s heightened rage during Ramadan. No offence intended.
Richie says
Constantinople was once one of the greatest cities in all of Christiandom, Most Muslims are so ignorant and illiterate of history they don’t even know this
dumbledoresarmy says
OH, in Turkey, I *bet* they know.
I bet they are *proud* of their mohammedan mobster forebears having invaded, and occupied, and mass-murdered and raped and force-“converted” and battened upon the indigenous Christians; and they are *proud* of having sacked and trashed Constantinople.
I bet they all know that Anatolia was once a Christian land inhabited by Greeks and Armenians and other peoples, all of them mostly Christian. They know.
But because they are Muslims they don’t recognise or accept that any Infidel anywhere has any right at all to life, land or liberty. Because they – the Mohammedan Mob – believe (high as kites on malignant narcissism) that the whole world belongs to their infernal allah and therefore to *them*…all that is left for them to do is to *seize* what they regard as their rightful property, and force all of us dirty rebel infidels to submit…and if we don’t, they have the right to punish us and kill us.
The Muslim Mob greedily wants “lebensraum”…i.e. all of planet earth, from pole to pole. The rest of us…Jews, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Confucians, Taoists, animists, atheists, agnostics, you-name-it…we’re illegal occupiers, enemy aliens, dirty filthy wicked rebels against the diktats of infernal allah the arab demon of blood and war, and of the Head Thug mohammed ha-meshugga (Mohammed the Mad).
Champ says
Brava, DDA! …great comment
Richie says
It seems nearly all the ‘Muslim world’, from the Middle East to Africa to Asia, Muslims are the occupiers, having invaded and wiped out or oppressed the indigenous religions- yet they ad their leftist enablers go on an on about others occupying ‘Muslim land’, implying Muslims were there first
Charli Main says
Good, historically correct post. The only Muslim land is the land around Mecca. In EVERY other country these Muslims are invaders that have systematically set about the extermination of the indigenous population, if they refused to submit Mad Mohammed´s gang of thugs.
Sovereign Man says
Dumble, not disagreeing with you, but the Catholic crusaders sacked Constantinople first, and were every bit as brutal as the Muslims (if not more-so). This sacking definitely hastened the eventual victory of the Turk armies. Which fits perfectly with the current theme of Western civilization: a race to self-destruction with the vacuum filled by the invading Muslims.
Charli Main says
The Venetian inspired sack of Constantinople in 1204 AD was almost certainly the final nail in the coffin of Orthodox Christian Anatolia.
The Turkish Muslim rage against Anatolian Christians, is the rage of a race of invaders, who know they are illegally occupying another people´s land.
Mazo says
Constantinople was a Greek Orthodox city like how Manila in the “Philppines” was originally a Muslim Tagalog Kingdom ruled by Muslim King Rajah Sulayman before the Spanish invaded and forced the Tagalogs to convert to Catholicism, and now the Tagalog Filipino Catholics are busy oppressing Moro Tausug and Maguindanaon Muslims.
The northern Philippines, including Kingdom of Maynila and Luzon, used to be both Muslim and animist. Now it is Catholic because of Spanish imperialists. But liars like you pretend that its Moro Muslims who want to expand and conquer Filipinos, when its Filipino colonialists who are oppresing Moros.
The Tagalog Filipino Catholic imperialists actually erected a monument to Rajah Sulayman in Manila to commemorate anti-Spanish resistance.
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMAY5X_Rajah_Sulayman__Manila_Philippines
RAJAH SULAYMAN
(Manila, d. 1571)
The brave Muslim ruler of the kingdom of Maynilad (Manila) who refused
the offer of “friendship” by the Spaniards which actually meant the loss
of the freedom of his people. He fought the Spaniard under Miguel Lopez
de Legasi twice in 1570 and 1571, resulting in the burning of his kingdom.
on the second battle, the Battle of Bankusay on June 3, 1571.
Rajah Sulayman perished with 300 of his warriors.
Its a shame these Filipino Tagalogs are copying Spanish imperialism and practicing it on the Moros.
It is you who is lying and and are ignorant and illiterate of history. You complain about Turkish conquests, and celebrate Spanish conquests, your filthy double standards have been exposed.
Mazo says
That must be why you are stalking me and semeru like an obsessed homosexual, trying to find every single comment of mine and Semeru in order to post an insult.
Mazo says
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/07/china-islamic-jihadists-murder-six-farmers/comment-page-1#comment-1088352
Philip Jihadski
July 16, 2014 at 3:27 pm
I’m done with you. You’re a waste of my time. Go back to your hut and take your meds.
Fr. Basil says
Constantinope and the rest of what is today Turkey was Orthodox Christian before the mahometans came.
eib says
Oh, they know it. They’re just frightened of a Christian Reconquista.
Richie says
Constantinople was once one of the greatest cities in all of Christiandom, Most Muslims are so ignorant and illiterate of history they don’t even know this
Richie says
Duplicate post, feel free to delete
Myxlplik says
I found an interesting audiobook online, which some of you might be interested in.
“The Crusades Through Arab Eyes”, I hope people aren’t offended by me placing this link here but I got a real feel for how dark and old this history is from listening to this. Kind of hard for me to wrap my head around the enormity of all this history, repeating itself.
https://archive.org/details/TheCrusadesThroughArabEyes
voegelinian says
Hatune Dogan is a Turkish-German Orthodox Christian nun. She grew up in Turkey, now lives in Germany, to where she fled because of Islamic persecution in her homeland Turkey. She travels widely (she recently toured the Middle East bravely to see with her own eyes the persecution of Christians by Muslims; and more recently was part of a conference in Florida to raise awareness about that issue).
In this video, she describes her experiences in Turkey, and at one point, she says:
“The Turkish people are the most fanatic there is… To others — when they speak — it’s secular, liberal, European rights, but when they act, it’s the most fanatic people on earth.”
http://hesperado.blogspot.com/2014/02/but-turkey-is-secular.html
Carmen Sporidis says
Lies after lies for a cruel murder, shooting a man on his knees. Turkey is no real allie to the West, and it will never be. 1956 they raped the womans from Greek Nato officers in an riot in Izmir, nice guys. This is Turkey as an allie, what will they do as enemies? – Akdin shot Santoro in the back of the head while he was kneeling, praying inside the church. Akdin later claimed he shot Santoro because he was angered over a series of cartoons, published five months earlier, allegedly mocking Islam’s prophet, Muhammad;
Jay Boo says
Ref to:
“Akdin later claimed he shot Santoro because he was angered over a series of cartoons, published five months earlier, allegedly mocking Islam’s prophet, Muhammad;”
Carmen
This is so typical of the Muslim mindset.
Mocking Muhammad is not the problem.
Apologizing profusely by appeasers for the occasional mocking is like trying to feed an ungrateful bear.
The true solution is not to apologize for the occasional mockery but instead open the flood gates to mockery as soon as any Muslim leader dares to impose their sharia based criticism against mockery. The threat of a no holds-barred blitzkrieg reprisal of mockery will insure that CAIR and their fanatic Muslim loudmouths will behave like fairly decent human beings.
The half-step approach followed by two steps back appeasement guarantees that this Islam “bear” will be emboldened to chew at anything vulnerable in its path.
bernie says
The thing is, the Danish cartoonists and newspaper editors and publishers who drew and printed the cartoons probably weren’t even Christians, or at least not practising ones (most Danes are non-religious).
Caesar Augustus says
There was a time during the Russo-Turkish wars when Russia (Christian orthodox russia) wanted to and almost reclaimed Constantinople (yes then constantinople but now Instanbul) from the hands of Islam to its rightful owners. But the British government decided they didn’t like a Russian empire that would be at the edges of Asia minor. And so they did what they are known to do best, and that is take side with the Real Enemy, for selfish reasons, just because they don’t want any form of competition.
The British government and most of its citizens are still appalled at the expulsion of the muhammedans from Spain (1492)( which is one of the most Honorable gifts Christiandom and the catholics gave europe)
I’m am still optimistic however that Constantinople will Return to Christiandom.
Prinz Eugen says
Need more people to call out the Turks — they are OCCUPIERS in the extreme! How often have they overrun Christian lands and tried to conquer Europe? Now the EU is so dumb they have accepted the Turks into NATO and could let them infest the EU. Self-destruction from spineless socialist Europeans knows no bounds.
The USA, US Constitution and the much vilified Koch Bros. are not even close to the greatest evils on earth — that badge of dishonour belongs to communism and islam.
Reality Check says
And these are the people that some idiots in the West want us to accept in the EU. I hope something happens – a miracle – and they remain for ever a part of Shoddy Barbaria.
Gardener says
Not surprising. IS(IS) already has an operative presence in Turkey and recently attacked a Shia mosque in Istanbul, but the attack was swept under the carpet by authorities.
Turkey is a trip and a half. Sections of its population are ultra-conservative (Islamic of course), some famous jihadi nasheeds were recorded by Turkish singers, there is the Kurdish population (which could become the majority demographic in the long run unless the Kurds get their own country), there is the Islamist movement famous for women who look like Barbie dolls, and then there is the urban liberal youth, there are the tourist resorts that don’t really mind debauchery, there are adamant secularists, staunch Kemalists, and of course the intelligentsia observing it all from their ivory tower and quite incapable of comprehending that there are people who actually believe in Islam. I’m not going to even try to predict what happens in that country in the future.
Gior Mustapha says
Some Turkish are following Saudi and Muslim Brotherhood teachings now, Islamist ideology is creeping in to that country, I hope their seculars intervene before it becomes another one of those countries, you know what I mean?
John Magee says
Meanwhile migrant Turks in Germany (the country with the largest ethnic Turkish Muslim population in Europe estimated to be at about 4 million) allows Muslim Turks in Germany total and complete religious freedom. It would be nice to see Germany lead the world in protecting the tiny Christian minorities in Turkey today and as an added act of support of Turkish Christians ask that 1,500 year old Hagia Sophia cathedral in Instanbuhl and other churches and monasteries in Turkey be returned to their rightful Christian owners. Especially those taken over after the Armenian and Greek Christian genocides committed by the Muslim Turks from 1914-1921 in Turkey.