An American pastor who has been jailed on bogus terrorism charges in Turkey for more than five months is pleading with President Trump to help secure his release.
Following the coup attempt, Turkey was said to be cracking down on Protestants. Aykan Erdemir, a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former member of the Turkish parliament, referred to Turkey as “anti-American” and explained that “Protestant or Christian churches are seen as an American influence.”
Analysts have also observed that “President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has been targeting American Christians in retaliation for the refusal of the United States to extradite Pennsylvania-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, as demanded by the Turkish government.”
Erdogan, however, is anything but predictable, except in his zeal to expand his own powers as a regional despot and further his caliphate ambitions. These ambitions, however, apparently are leading him to ramp up his persecution of Christians. Last year, his government “stepped up its war on Christianity by seizing all the churches in one city and declaring them state property”; then Erdogan virtually declared jihad earlier this month when he stated that the European headscarf ban had “started a clash between the cross and the crescent.”
The American Center for Law and Justice has stated of Andrew Brunson:
The U.S. government must take a more active role in fighting for Pastor Andrew’s release. He has done nothing wrong. He is a U.S. citizen wrongfully imprisoned in a foreign land because of his Christian faith.
“‘Please Help Me’ — American Pastor Imprisoned In Turkey Asks Trump To Fight For Him”, by Chuck Ross, Daily Caller, March 29, 2017:
An American pastor who has been jailed on bogus terrorism charges in Turkey for more than five months is pleading with President Trump to help secure his release.
“I plead with my government — with the Trump Administration — to fight for me,” Andrew Brunson wrote in a letter to the Trump administration from his jail cell near Izmir.
Brunson, a North Carolina native, has been in custody since October after he and his wife were detained on immigration violation charges. At the time, the Brunsons were operating a small Christian church in Izmir, a city on Turkey’s western cost. They have lived in Turkey for 23 years.
Brunson’s wife, Norine, was soon released, but the pastor remained in custody and soon saw his charges upgraded to a terrorism rap.
Brunson has no known ties to terrorist groups, and the Turkish government has not produced any evidence to show that he does. Prosecutors have suggested in court hearings that Brunson is being held on suspicion of being a follower of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric living in self-exile in Pennsylvania.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has labeled Gulen a terrorist and believes he was behind a failed coup attempt in July.
There has been some speculation that the Turkish government is holding Brunson as a bargaining chip in its effort to force the U.S. government to extradite Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric living in self-exile in Pennsylvania. The Erdogan regime has begged both the Obama and Trump administrations to deport Gulen back to Turkey to face trial.
In his letter, which was given to U.S. embassy officials during a recent meeting with Brunson, the pastor calls himself a political prisoner and says that the Turkish government should face consequences for jailing him without cause.
“Will the Turkish government face no consequence for stubbornly continuing to hold an American citizen as a political prisoner?” Brunson asks in the letter, which was published by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a non-profit group helping the pastor.
Since being imprisoned on Oct. 7, the “Turkish government has produced no proof and has rebuffed numerous attempts by the American government to secure my return to the United States,” says Brunson.
“In fact they are treating the US government with contempt and paying no price for it.”
“I plead with my government — with the Trump Administration — to fight for me. I ask the State Department to impose sanctions. I appeal to President Trump: please help me. Let the Turkish government know that you will not cooperate with them in any way until they release me. Please do not leave me here in prison.”
ACLJ echoed Brunson’s call.
“The U.S. government must take a more active role in fighting for Pastor Andrew’s release. He has done nothing wrong. He is a U.S. citizen wrongfully imprisoned in a foreign land because of his Christian faith. He deserves to be free,” the group said in a statement.
The Confessions says
Persecution and extinction of Christians in Dar-ul-Islam continues. Sincerely hope this pastor will be ok. By the way, Hizb ut-Tahrir in Turkey has called for restoring the Caliphate – we live in dangerous times.
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https://theconfessionsweb.wordpress.com/
Pal says
“Freedom and democracy have ‘no value’ in Turkey!”:
Recep Erdogan, a president
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/president-erdogan-says-freedom-and-democracy-have-no-value-in-turkey-amid-arrests-and-military-a6938266.html
Instead “Turkey is 99% Muslim!”:
http://www.karar.com/gundem-haberleri/erdogandan-putine-turkiyenin-yuzde-99u-zaten-musluman-56380
A sensible delight!
mortimer says
TURKEY and ERDOGAN are giving an example of the life Christians will face EVERY DAY under Islam and under Sharia.
Islam is SYSTEMIC PERSECUTION of women and ‘others’ with the blessing of the Islamic jurists and clergy.
Angemon says
Fethullah Gulen, the bogeyman whose mention seemingly justifies any and everything. Want to deprive someone out of their constitutional rights? Fethullah Gulen!!!
john spielman says
how can a Christ follower have anything to do with Gulen or any other muslm cleric-light ( Christ ) has NOTHING in common with darkness ( islam. Satan)
Alula says
Man . You can not say like that .because ,the catholics are two faced and anti christ.even hitler was inspired by islamic ideology.well done
Jeanette says
Alula,
God says, “Love one another”
Allah says, “Kill everyone who disagrees with Islam”
Which command sounds like something Satan (or Ba’al or Moloch) would say?
(Hint: This isn’t rocket science.)
Dennis says
We should arrest a Turkish Muslim cleric. For every church which is closed down we should close down a Turkish sponsored mosque and explain to it members why we are doing this and that the fault lies with Turkey. Also, American missionaries should leave turkey immediately.
Jeanette says
If we were doing what we should be doing, the US would be closed to Muslims, and we would be preparing to send every last one of them to their countries of origin, or to whichever Muslim country they prefer.
It wouldn’t be right of us to dump them on the people of non-Muslim countries, even if the elites of those countries want to infest their countries further with more Muslims.
There is NO sane reason to keep in our country people who follow a book that commands them to kill us.
I have a bad feeling that we aren’t going to do what we should be doing, short of winning a revolution against the ruling globalist elites.
no_one says
Erdogan is truly mentally ill. He is obsessed with Islam and power. He wants to be a sultan. Setting a foot in Turkey is not a good thing.
Jeanette says
He’s no crazy; he’s EVIL.
Why let the evil off the hook by giving them the excuse of mental deficiency?
Irene Brekelmans says
It’s the same situation as before the 2nd world war,people thought that nobody would do something so horrific against the Jews, gipsies and gays. They just could not believe that humans could do that and then after these things against the Jews, there was the Warsaw getto and then there was no way out.
The same is happening now, Americans never had to defend themselves against these horrible people,who step by step are fighting them from inside and outside. The same is happening in Europe,but it was all schemed. Now, you dom leftists liberals, if you don’t want to see it for yourselves, than at least see it for your children. Get your troops back from everywhere, you might need them yourselves pretty soon. Your children have to wear a jihab and live under Sharia law, your children have either to become the 4th wife or marry an 80 year old man and can never get a normal divorce they have to eat Halal etc.. Are you seeing blind or deaf, not hearing and stay silent. What goes around, comes around, only when? Wake up, Disney world is over !!!!
Jeanette says
Irene, Get the women you know to watch from 29:00 to 35:00 –
http://bing.com/videos/search?q=ann+barnhardt+video+islam+sexual&view=detail&mid=78659C23DF2A43376AC778659C23DF2A43376AC7&FORM=VIRE
If most of the non-Muslim women in the world saw this, we would have an uprising against Islam the likes of which has never been seen.
But because the subject matter is not polite dinner conversation, most non-Muslim women remain abysmally ignorant.
EmHotep says
Rex Tillerson met with sultan erdogan, I am sure he said something about the arrested pastor.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-turkey-usa-idUSKBN1710WD
http://s2.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20170330&t=2&i=1178650270&w=&fh=&fw=&ll=780&pl=468&sq=&r=LYNXMPED2T0JG
TH says
Erdogan wants to make himself the new Caliph and probably take over Europe beginning with Germany, which is making it very easy for him. Germany during the Cold War had a decent army. Now they are converting the military into a humanitarian NGO and they don’t even have bullets for the guns they still have. Trump has a job in his hands to put Erdogan in his place and either make Germany pay up of rNAtO disband it. Why should America be defending Europe when the wimpy Europeans don’t want to defend themselves? Belgium spends less than 1% of its GDP on defense and a quarter of that on pensions for ex-soldiers. No wonder it is a jihadi’s paradise and the police are not allowed to arrest jihadis at night.
Richard Paulsen says
There can not be a big threat against Turkey from Christians with just some 48 churches and some 79.000 mosques in the country.
The number of churches decreasing despite so few, while numbers of mosques increasing by some 7500 the last decade or so. Mosques being built in the Western World increasingly while no churches in the islamic world.
How can countries sending so much help be called hostile? Strange. Dangerous in the non Christian world for Christians and non-Muslims.
The other day two UN workers found dead in DCR Africa. An american citizen Michael Sharp and a swedish UN worker Zaida Catalán. She was found decapitated. Four others of african origin helping them allso being killed.
UN Secretary Antonio Guterres has confirmed.
True Christians are regarded as enemies against and in the islamic world. Islamic world very dangerous place nowadays. Instead of cooperating and developing.
Hope that Turkey will listen to reasons releasing the pastor. Enough of hate against Christians.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/03/bodies-suspected-workers-drc-170328151604155.html
Richard Paulsen says
Correction. 2013 there were 82,693 mosques in Turkey. 3,113 in the Istanbul area. Increasing by 7,324 2003-2013.
Jeanette says
It’s looking more and more like human rights belong only to substandard humans.