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| Europe |
| Turkish Moslems Debate With Turkish Christians About Religion |
| 2005-07-14 |
| From Compass Direct A criminal court in northwestern Turkey will assess new medical reports next week on the condition of Turkish Christian Yakup Cindilli, still recovering from severe injuries inflicted by ultra-nationalists accusing him of âmissionary propaganda.â A former Muslim who converted to Christianity, Cindilli was subjected to a severe beating in October 2003 which left him hospitalized in a coma for six weeks. When he regained consciousness and was sent home to recover, he could not walk unassisted and sometimes failed to recognize his closest relatives. .... His three attackers were initially jailed on charges of battery and assault. They include the Orhangazi chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), released after a month, and two younger assailants released on bail after three months. According to local newspapers, Cindilliâs assailants had accused the Turkish Christian of passing out New Testaments and doing âmissionary propagandaâ in his hometown. Neither accusation is a criminal offense under Turkish civil law. .... When the injured Christian last appeared in the courtroom on March 25, 2004, his right arm was still partially paralyzed and he walked slowly with a shuffling limp. On the emotional level, he appeared in relative control of himself, although sometimes mentally confused. At that time, the young manâs religiously conservative Muslim family had flatly rejected all offers from his Christian friends to help provide legal counsel on his case or arrange for needed physical and psychological therapy. But since January of this year, Cindilliâs family has allowed members of the Bursa Protestant Church to take their son for a doctorâs complete medical examination and regular physical therapy. Coupled with regular weightlifting and walking exercises, the therapy has improved the range of movement and coordination in his right arm and considerably lessened his limp. .... Defense lawyers for the MHP attackers put several local individuals on the witness stand, attempting to establish evidence that Cindilli had provoked the incident himself by distributing New Testaments and talking about his Christian faith in the community. Cindilliâs family reportedly wants his court case to conclude at the July 8 hearing, without trying to obtain compensation from his attackers for his long-term disabilities. But that decision now remains with Cindilli, who has recovered sufficiently to speak for himself next week, when he appears before the court. .... Although he has done some janitorial work for the church in recent months, he is still not able to take a full-time job or live on his own, the pastor said. Despite pressures from his family to renounce his faith, âYakup is very committed to stay faithful to Jesus, in spite of what happened,â a member of the Bursa church noted. |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #5 I think he's been booted from whatever blog he crawled to |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-07-14 23:54 |
| #4 Tom, you've a point about hogging... he could have get a blogger account, post the articles, and post here synopsis with links. But I think that, perhaps, "UN-knows-the-best-Mikey" happened on these articles and they shocked him, that's why the spur to post the series. Because many people tend to think that the violent aspects of Islam are represented by the jihadi terrorists and the 'moderates' are benign, tolerant creatures. The difference between killing and near killing is rather marginal. |
| Posted by: Sobiesky 2005-07-14 22:58 |
| #3 I just don't think Mikey-the bandwidth-hog needs to post a whole series of these "debate" articles about Moslems abusing Christians when we're already flooded with plenty of articles about Moslems KILLING Christians and Jews and everyone else. |
| Posted by: Neutron Tom 2005-07-14 21:58 |
| #2 Tom, you can counteract by an arcticle every time Koran distributor gets beaten up. |
| Posted by: Sobiesky 2005-07-14 21:52 |
| #1 You gonna post a "debate" article every time a New Testament distributor gets beaten up, Mikey? |
| Posted by: Neutron Tom 2005-07-14 21:43 |