We need not feel threatened by Christians.

last updated 8 January 2015

Turkey

Ertugrul Ozkok

Anti-Christian sentiment is spreading in Turkey, said Ertugrul Ozkok in Ankara’s Hurriyet. Christians make up barely 1 percent of the population, hardly a threat to Muslim dominance. Yet they are increasingly harassed for their beliefs. Just last month, three young employees of a Bible publishing firm—a German and two Turkish nationals who had converted to Christianity—had their throats cut. The police quickly found the killers: 10 students armed with knives who had gone to the company’s office to “teach them a lesson.” These kids weren’t thugs or Islamic terrorists; they were just ordinary young men who said they wanted to “protect Turkey and Islam.” Somehow, they got the idea that the mere presence of Christians was an intrinsic threat to Turkey’s Muslim character. How different that attitude is from that of the Germans, who have allowed the Turks living in their country to build thousands of mosques and worship openly. “If we can’t tolerate even a handful of Christians in our midst, what does that say about Turkish civilization?”