* TURKISH BELIEVERS "SATANICALLY
TORTURED" BEFORE BEING KILLED - There was increased concern Thursday, April
26, about the plight of active Christians in Turkey after investigators revealed that
three evangelical believers were "satanically tortured" last week before being
killed.
The influential American human rights group International Christian Concern (ICC) with
website www.persecution.org told BosNewsLife that the circumstances surrounding the deaths
of German Tilman Ekkehart Geske, 45, and Turkish Christians Necati Aydin, 35, and Ugur
Yuksel ,32, at the Christian Zirve publishing house were even worse than thought.
ICC, based in Washington DC, said the troubles began on Easter Sunday when five of the
alleged killers had been to a service that Pastor Necati arranged in the eastern town of
Malatya, the capital of Malatya province.
The men were reportedly known to local believers as searching for the faith in Christ.
The suspects, one of whom is the son of a mayor in the Province of Malatya, are part of a
tarikat, or a group of "faithful believers" in Islam, ICC added.
Tarikat membership is "like a fraternity membership" and means that "no
one can get into public office without membership" of such a group, ICC said.
"On the day of the killing, the young Muslim men had arranged to meet the Christians
at 10:00 am [local time] to ostensibly learn more about the Bible. They had gathered guns,
bread knives, ropes and towels [as] they knew there would be a lot of blood, ready for
their act of service to Allah," ICC stressed.
After Necati read a chapter from the Bible the assault reportedly began. "The
young men tied Ugur, Necati, and Tilman’s hands and feet to chairs as they videoed
their work on their cell phones," ICC said, adding that what "followed in the
next three hours is beyond belief."
Warning: The following is very graphic.
ICC said the men were "disemboweled, and their intestines sliced up in front of
their eyes. They were emasculated and watched as those body parts were destroyed."
The group added that "fingers were chopped off" and "their noses and mouths
and anuses were sliced open" as part of what it called "satanic torture."
It added that "possibly the worst part was watching as their brothers were
likewise tortured. Tilman was stabbed 156 times, Necati 99 times and Ugur’s stabs
were too numerous to count."
Finally, their throats were sliced from ear to ear, and their "heads practically
decapitated," ICC said.
Several hours later at 12:30 local time a fellow Christian reportedly arrived at the
publishing house but discovered that the door was locked from the inside. After he called
cell phones of the men, Ugur apparently answered his phone saying: "We are not at the
office. Go to the hotel meeting. We are there. We will come there." Yet as Ugur spoke
he heard in the background weeping and a strange snarling sound, ICC said, citing its
investigation.
After he phoned police the nearest officer arrived in about five minutes and pounded on
the door shouting: "Police, open up,!" reports said.
Initially the officer apparently believed it was a domestic disturbance, but when he
heard another snarl and a gurgling moan he understood that sound as human suffering, ICC
explained. The officer "prepared the clip in his gun and tried over and over again to
burst through the door. One of the frightened assailants unlocked the door for the
policeman, who entered to find a grisly scene."
Reports said the attack happened following Muslim protests against the distribution of
Bibles and other Christian literature by the publishing house for which they worked.
One of the victims, Necati Aydin, a husband and father of two young children, was also
an actor who reportedly played the role of Jesus Christ in a theater production that
TURK-7 network aired over the Easter holidays.
Prosecutors have asked a court to allow jailing 11 suspects, 10 young men and a woman,
pending trial over the gruesome murder of the three Christians. A 12th suspect, allegedly
the leader, remains in hospital with a serious head injury after jumping from the
third-floor office of the Christian publishing house in Malatya where the victims were
killed, to escape arrest.
At least four of the suspects have reportedly been charged with "founding a
terrorist organization and murder within the framework of the organization." In a
first reaction, Tillman’s wife publicly forgave the those who killed her husband
saying "they know not what they do."
ICC President Jeff King said he was impressed by the "contrast between the acts of
the killers and the forgiveness of Tillman’s wife." He said it was "glaring
and in the end seems to be at the center of this story for us. For in the end, these
events serve as a stark reminder of the difference between Islam and Christianity."
He added that, for "the 'faithful' Muslims, following their god meant brutally
killing three men [with the excuse] "we did this to protect Islam". For the
faithful Christians, following God meant forgiving the men who had tortured and murdered
their loved ones."
The attacks have added to concern among Turkish Christians who comprise about 0.2
percent of the mainly Muslim nation of over 71 million people. The murders followed the
January murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and the shooting of Italian Roman
Catholic priest Andrea Santoro in the town of Trabzon in February 2006. (Worthy News &
Persecution.org, 27 Apr 2007) (to index)
* INTERNATIONAL PRO-LIFE VICTORY – On 18 Apr 2007 the
US Supreme Court upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act (5-4) that was passed by
Congress and signed into law by President Bush in 2003. This federal law will prohibit
partial-birth abortion in all US states and is the first time a US Supreme Court has
banned a specific abortion procedure. The decision is the first major abortion related
case in which newly appointed, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito have
ruled.
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion: The opponents of this Act
"have not demonstrated that the Act would be unconstitutional in a large fraction of
relevant cases." Chief Justice John Roberts, Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas
and Antonin Scalia sided with the majority, facilitating the 5-4 pro-life victory.
In the minority opinion, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote, "Today’s decision
is alarming." Bradley Mattes, Executive Director of Life Issues Institute, said,
"The only thing alarming is that the Court allowed this gruesome, gruesome procedure
– killing a baby during delivery – to continue this long. Today’s decision
is a welcome change that may someday pave the way for protecting the 3,200 preborn babies
killed every day by abortion."
To read more about partial-birth abortion and the history of the Partial-Birth Abortion
Ban Act, go to
