Christian Persecution – Europe

Parliamentarians in the Netherlands have urged the government to investigate reports of death threats against former Muslims who converted to Christianity, a Dutch Christian daily newspaper reported Tuesday, May 2.

Fanned by local media and a Muslim mufti, an anti-missionary witch-hunt targeting Christians in Turkey’s eastern city of Bingol left a Muslim woman beaten in her tailor shop last month while police allowed her attacker to walk free.

In a country where media often portray the tiny Protestant community negatively, some news organizations here took notice when Muslims threatened Christians at a book fair last week.

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 “missionary propaganda.”

Intelligence agencies within the Turkish state have concluded in a new report that Christian missionary activities inside the country have a second motive, parallel to their spread of Christian propaganda.

In step with months of intense media focus on missionary activities in Turkey, the government’s Religious Affairs Directorate coordinated a symposium this spring in conjunction with a local university to present academic research on the controversial topic.

A Protestant pastor in the Turkish industrial city of Izmit woke up yesterday morning to find a huge red swastika painted on his apartment door, with a handwritten hate letter shoved underneath.

Human rights group Open Doors has warned Christians in the Netherlands they may soon be persecuted, an influential Dutch evangelical newspaper reported.

Representatives of the Paris Elim Church will be going to court in order to continue worshipping in their current location. Paris Elim church representatives are going to be in court on Wednesday, January 19 and Friday, January 28, 2005.