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Turkey: Hundreds of ex-Muslims who secretly converted to Christianity in Iran seek asylum

Aug 15, 2017 10:22 am By Christine Douglass-Williams

Some 500 Christian converts from Iran have sought asylum in Turkey following persecution by the authorities.

A young convert stated:

It is a fact that the government of Iran is an Islamic one, yet our youth are getting executed. In Iraq the same…. There is ISIS and [they] are killing people in the name of Islam, and there are vulnerable people who are being beheaded there. They have fled to Turkey, and we came to Turkey. That is why I did not see any good from Islam.’

The evidence is ubiquitous that there is a fierce global struggle with normative Islam, and still Westerners ignore it. The violent persecution by organized Islamic forces against religious minorities and even against Muslims who are considered apostates is daily news.

In looking at Christian persecution, 13 out of the 14 of the worst offending countries are Islamic, according to Open Doors USA’s World Watch List.

Iran is punishing many Kurds with the death penalty, although many of them share the same religion.

Even in Britain, where there are now 85 Sharia courts, “Islamic families in Britain have abused and attacked their own children for choosing to refuse the teachings of the Koran.” The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain “revealed young people have turned to them after being hurt by their loved ones,” and “cases include a former Muslim girl who was threatened with death by her own mother for rejecting Allah.”

The torrent of victims globally rises daily while the willful blindness continues. Western authorities pretend to care about human rights as they present their people with the “anti-Islamophobia” Trojan Horse.

“Hundreds of Christians who secretly converted in Iran seek asylum in Turkey, claiming persecution”, by James McIntyre, Christian Post, August 15, 2017:

Some 500 Christian converts from Iran have sought asylum in Turkey following persecution by the authorities, according to the Middle Eastern news website Rudaw.

Rudaw published a video from Van in Turkey, close to the Iranian border, in which Kurdish Christian converts refused to appear on camera or reveal their names, with one man and his family who converted to Christianity from Islam saying that they used to practise their faith in secret.

In Iran, ‘there is not an accurate figure to say how many people have become Christians because everything is secret,’ he said. ‘When a Muslim converts to Christianity, they do so in secret. Rituals are secret since they are in danger…ours was secret, too.’

Another young man who converted only after he arrived in Van said that he did not think he could be the person he wanted to be if he remained Muslim. He added that he is now feeling ‘comfortable’ as a Christian.

And another said Iran is punishing many Kurds with the death penalty, although many of them share the same religion.

He claimed that hundreds of Kurdish youth in Iran have abandoned Islam and embraced Christianity.

‘I changed my religion because I did not see anything in Islam. Whatever I saw was wrong,’ he said.

‘It is a fact that the government of Iran is an Islamic one, yet our youth are getting executed. In Iraq the same,’ he continued. ‘There is ISIS and [they] are killing people in the name of Islam, and there are vulnerable people who are being beheaded there. They have fled to Turkey, and we came to Turkey. That is why I did not see any good from Islam.’

According to Rudaw, there are around 1,500 Kurdish asylum seekers in Van, some of whom cite political, ethnic, or cultural reasons as their reasons to leave Iran, alongside the nearly 500 of them who have converted to Christianity.

The majority of those who spoke to Rudaw said they wanted to go to the US, Canada or Europe.

The majority of Iranian Kurds follow Sunni Islam, while the majority in Iran are Shiites.

Open Doors USA says that Iran considers Christianity to be a ‘western influence’, adding: ‘Converts to Christianity from Islam make up the largest group of Christians and experience the most persecution.’

The Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Tehran, Ramzi Garmou, told AFP in December that people are grateful that they live in peace in the country as opposed to the rest of the Middle East.

‘Thanks to God, we really live in peace and security, but our neighbours live in anguish and violence,’ he said.

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Filed Under: Iran, Muslim persecution of Christians, Turkey Tagged With: Van


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Comments

  1. C T says

    Aug 15, 2017 at 10:31 am

    Christianity a “western influence”? I suppose Semitic people are a little westward of Persians, but that’s really a weird claim. Westerners were pagans until Christianity was brought to them by missionaries and warriors.

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 15, 2017 at 5:49 pm

      I think I can explain this, C T–even though Christianity has been in Iran–Persia–for almost two thousand years, there is a meme that implies that Christianity is purely a recent import from the modern West. Even Muslim countries that were wholly Christian before the Islamic invasion have made this claim.

      The reason is obvious–both to delegitimize Christians in the Muslim world, and to imply that their existence there at all is due to aggressive Western proselytizing.

    • Ned Kelly says

      Aug 16, 2017 at 6:04 pm

      One reason I believe we should only allow Christian immigrants into our western countries. + WHy would these new Christians go to Turkey, which is now run by Muslims.?

  2. miriamrove says

    Aug 15, 2017 at 10:38 am

    Thanks to God, we really live in peace and security, but our neighbours live in anguish and violence,’ he said.

    Hello all! I just returned from Iran a few weeks ago. The statement above should not be taken out of context. He is saying to merely save his Christians fellows as if he does not say this there is a price to pay. He knows all too well how badly the Christians are persecuted in Iran. As for everything is done in secret is true. Drinking/dancing/celebrations/ sex out side of the marriage/prostitution/ gay and lesbian relationships/parties etc…It is all happening under ground. M

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 15, 2017 at 5:50 pm

      All true, miriam. Thanks.

  3. Kepha says

    Aug 15, 2017 at 10:39 am

    Granted, there probably weren’t that many ethnic Assyrians and Armenians in Iran, but if converts from Islam are now the largest Christian group in Iran, I pray that God would continue to bless and grow his church in that way–while at the same time giving renewed health and vigor to the older Assyrian and Armenian communities.

  4. Peter Buckley says

    Aug 15, 2017 at 10:52 am

    Here is the original article:

    http://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/turkey/14082017

    As I keep repeating, the world is not yet aware of the huge numbers of Iranians leaving Islam either for Christianity or for Atheism/agnosticism, even for Zoroastrianism:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTVVb1Cxypw

    When the mullahs lose control, the world will realise that Iran is no a “muslim country”..

    You read it here first………….

    • ElderlyZionist says

      Aug 15, 2017 at 3:55 pm

      With speed, and in our days!

    • blitz2b says

      Aug 16, 2017 at 10:47 am

      True…. Historically, Christianity thrived and exploded under prosecution.

      Christians in the west have become complacent and therefore have nothing better to do with their time so they have useless interfaith dialogues with adherents of Islam. instead of spreading the Gospel they facilitate the spread of Islam…… Disgraceful!

  5. R Russell says

    Aug 15, 2017 at 11:49 am

    Wrong country to seek asylum. Erdogan has wracked up the persecution of Turkey’s Christians and now the former Iranian Shias – to Turkey’s Sunnis have entered the serpents lair.

    • Sons of Liberty says

      Aug 15, 2017 at 2:34 pm

      Exactly, Turkey is no friend to Christians ! Erdogan wants Sharia Law in Turkey and a new Turk Caliphate. The United States should allow these persecuted Christians to come here , certainly after… Obama… KEPT THEM OUT FOR 8 YEARS. OBAMA only wanted MUSLIMS to be allowed in… 97% of the time.

    • ElderlyZionist says

      Aug 15, 2017 at 3:57 pm

      Indeed, Christian Kurds fleeing to the increasingly Islamic Turkish Republic must be truly desperate. We must help these people.

  6. Peter Buckley says

    Aug 15, 2017 at 12:36 pm

    Kurds also leaving Islam in big numbers:

    “We Muslims have a lot of problems with our religion, for a lot of reasons,” the words of Sanger Najim, a young man living in Erbil, echo the sentiments of a growing population in the Kurdistan Region who struggle with questions about their faith.

    Many Muslims are confronted by the violent extremism of the Islamic State (ISIS) and wonder how to reconcile their personal beliefs with the actions of the extremist group.

    The Kurdish population is approximately 94% nominally Muslim. Recently, however, there have been many reports of Kurds leaving Islam or converting to other religions.

    The Zoroastrian movement claims to have as many as 100,000 followers in Iraqi Kurdistan. Christian organizations assert that thousands in the region have been seeking out Christianity as they reject ISIS’ interpretation of Islam. There are also reports of growing numbers of atheists and agnostics.

    The disillusionment with Islam is a spike in a gradual movement that rejects all organized religion that has been happening over decades, according to Dr. Muslih Irwani, professor of sociology at the American University of Kurdistan in Duhok.

    “The MAJORITY OF PEOPLE are, now I see from a sociological perspective… they are losing their faith,” Dr. Irwani says. “Some elements of their religion, they no longer believe in those. This is a change over time.”

    http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/07022016

    • S Kevin Wojtaszek says

      Aug 15, 2017 at 4:45 pm

      Gay guerilla group forms to fight back against ISIS, raises rainbow flag in Syria

      https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/gay-guerilla-group-forms-fight-back-isis-raises-rainbow-flag-syria/#gs.2Su4wjQ

  7. Ade says

    Aug 15, 2017 at 1:08 pm

    Personally I would love to believe them …
    BUT is it wise to believe what they say when islam sanctions deception ?
    and furthermore, how can we know that apparently moderate peaceful muslims
    are all that they appear to be …. for the same reason

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 15, 2017 at 6:14 pm

      Ade, it is *so* dangerous to be a Christian in Turkey–and even more so in Iran–that I very much doubt Muslims would say this. Besides, how would using Taqiyya help them with the Muslim Turks?

  8. gravenimage says

    Aug 15, 2017 at 5:23 pm

    Turkey: Hundreds of ex-Muslims who secretly converted to Christianity in Iran seek asylum
    ……………………

    Turkey is only somewhat safer than Iran. We should given them asylum in the free West.

  9. Tom says

    Aug 16, 2017 at 11:03 am

    Why aren’t western refugee systems focussing on these and others like them who are more apt to integrate into our society instead of those who are being allowed in who simply want to change the host country into a reflection of the Islamic hell hole that they left.

    It is a rhetoric question because we know it is due to the left wing and George Soros agenda to create chaos through mass migration of incompatible people into the west and then to create a one world government. Unfortunately those in Islam will have other ideas and will have mass executions of those left wing idiots once they gain their Islamic Caliphate throughout the world.

  10. Clara says

    Aug 19, 2017 at 12:43 am

    just wondering if they would accept asylum in any east or central european country as iraqi christians escaped from poland and the czech republic and some even returned to Mosul… they had all… accommodation work safety but perhaps they expected more ??? 2

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