By Judi McLeod
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Violence against Christians continues to claim innocent lives worldwide.
Turkey's tiny Christian minority is under attack. In the latest spate of violence, persons unknown tied up three people at a publishing house that distributes Bibles in Turkey then slit their throats on the same day that the so-called "multimedia manifesto" of Virginia Tech mass murderer Cho Seung Hui was televised with the 23-year-old Virginia student staring into the camera and spewing anti-Christian rhetoric.
The killings in Turkey occurred in the City of Malatya, in central Turkey. Malayta, the hometown of Mehmet Ali Agca, the gunman who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul 11 in 1981, is notorious as a hotbed of Turkish nationalism.
Malatya Gov. Ibrahim Dasoz confirmed that two of the victims at the Zirve publishing house were found already dead and the third died after being rushed to hospital. All three had their throats cut and their hands and legs were bound.
Desoz said police detained four suspects and were investigating whether another man who suffered head injuries when he jumped from the window of the publisher's office may have been involved in the attack. He was reported undergoing surgery for his injuries."
One of the victims was Turkish, another was German, but the nationality of the third person killed could not be confirmed.
Zirve employees recently had been threatened. "We know that they have been receiving some threats," Zirve's general manager Hamza Ozant said, but could not say who made the threats.
Nationalists who accuse it of proselytizing in the Muslim dominated country had targeted the publishing house.
Christians make up less than 1 percent of Turkey's 70 million people with Christians increasingly becoming targets.
Public outrage resulted when in February of 2006 a teenager fatally shot a Catholic priest as he prayed in his church. Two more Catholic priests were attacked within months.
Early in 2007, a gunman killed Armenian Christian editor Hrant Dink.
In November the Vatican worried about the safety of Pope Benedict XV1 on an official Turkish visit, after he had made comments in a speech that Muslims said insulted them. The Pope, who refused to cancel the trip, was greeted with nonviolent protests.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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