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Turkey

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Turkey is 99% Muslim
rachaelvoorhees / CC BY-SA 2.0

Present-day Turkey includes the area where the seven churches of Revelation are located. Turkey, known to the Romans as “Asia Minor”, saw Christianity spread rapidly during the first century after Jesus’ death and resurrection. It was here that several of the early Christian communities, such as the Ephesians and the Galatians, were found. The city of Istanbul used to be Constantinople, the capital of the Christian Byzantine Empire.

Today this rich Christian heritage is mostly confined to ancient ruins, and Christians comprise a tiny minority of the total population. Turkey’s image is now one of a modern, secular country, but this belies the danger in which many Christians there have to live. Promises made in 2011 that Christians would be better protected by the country’s constitution do not appear to have led to improved conditions for them.

In March 2012, Turkey was newly named as one of the world’s worst violators of religious freedom in the US Commission on International Religious Freedom’s (USCIRF) annual report. “Turkishness” is held to include being a Muslim, and so Christians are viewed with suspicion. There has been an increase in attacks on Christian individuals and communities, ranging from harassment and vandalism to death threats.

After an Easter service in 2012, Semiyh Sertek, a pastor in Istanbul, was attacked in his church by a group of Muslims, who beat him and threatened to kill him unless he recited the Islamic confession of faith, thus – in the eyes of his attackers – converting to Islam. Several other pastors are under police protection after receiving threats. Converts from Islam are also particularly at risk of harassment, as are Christians who share their faith or teach Christianity to children.

Christians face government restrictions on their rights to own property, conduct worship services, and open schools, hospitals and other institutions. Because some theological schools have been closed down, it is almost impossible for some Christian groups to equip new leaders to guide and encourage the Church. Christians are often portrayed very negatively in the media. 

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  • Two Christian boys in Egypt were found guilty on 4 February of “showing contempt for Islam” by allegedly desecrating pages of the Quran. Nabil Farag and Mina Risq were aged just 9 and 10 at the time of the alleged incident on 30 September 2012. They were accused of tearing up and urinating on pages of the Quran in the village of Ezbat Marco. The youngsters were convicted despite evidence being produced in court that they are illiterate and therefore not able to identify Quranic text. Give thanks that Nabil and Mina were not punished; they were only remanded to the custody of their parents. Pray that the boys will suffer no further repercussions from this incident; they may be vulnerable to attack or subject to discrimination. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed 1 hour ago

  • In another chilling sign of Egypt’s move towards becoming an Islamic state, it was announced in March that a religious police force had been established to uphold Muslim morals. The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice shares its name with the notorious religious police of Saudi Arabia. For some months previously, vigilante Salafist gangs had been operating as self-appointed enforcers of morals, raiding shops and harassing staff and customers. The Christian community is concerned that it may now be subjected to the demands of sharia law. Pray that this will not happen and that the Islamisation of Egyptian society will be checked and then reversed. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Wed, Jun 2013 00:00

  • Christian girls in Egypt are extremely vulnerable to being kidnapped by Salafists who forcibly convert them to Islam and marry them to Muslim men against their will; over 500 have been victims of this heartless campaign since the revolution of January 2011. The Association of Victims of Abduction and Enforced Disappearance (AVAED), an Egyptian Christian organisation, says that the authorities collude with the Salafists. Give thanks for the safe return of Agape Essam Girgis (13), who was abducted from el-Ameriya on 23 December 2012. Sadly, most cases do not have a happy ending. Pray that the Lord will comfort those families whose daughters are still missing and intervene mightily to deliver the Christian girls from the hands of their captors. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Tue, Jun 2013 00:00

  • Pray for our brothers and sisters in North Africa living in the shadow of militant Islamism. Following the French intervention against Islamist groups who had taken over large parts of Mali, militants attacked a gas facility in Algeria in January and killed 37 people. An Algerian employee who managed to escape said, “We were told that because we were Muslim we would not be killed, and it was only the Christians they were after.” The Islamists associate Christianity with the West, so Christian targets and individuals as well as Western ones are especially vulnerable to attack. Ask that the Lord will protect Christians in the region against violence and the oppressive grip of sharia law. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Mon, Jun 2013 00:00

  • “I had just cooked my last meal, and there was no food in the house, nor money, nor any other way of obtaining grain. Thank the Lord for this aid, which has saved me and my children.” Bâh Kamaté, a Christian widow with six children in Mali, was “completely overwhelmed” when her pastor told her that she was going to receive corn and rice funded by Barnabas. Thousands of Christians fled the north of the country after the Islamist takeover in 2012, and their plight was worsened by food shortages resulting from drought. But praise God that Barnabas has helped to supply food for more than 5,100 Christians, as well as meeting other needs. Pray for His continuing provision for His people as Mali continues to face an uncertain future. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Sun, Jun 2013 00:00

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