Murder in Turkey

Malatya Province, Turkey. On 18 April of this year, two Turkish Christians, Ugar and Necati, and Tilmann, a German Christian living with his family in Turkey, were brutally tortured and killed at a Bible study they were leading that morning. The killers were five Muslim youths, all under age twenty and members of a tarikat, or group of "faithful believers". To these young men, being faithful believers meant torturing their peaceful, albeit infidel, neighbors for nearly three hours, using knives, guns, ropes, and towels. They recorded their acts via their cell phone cameras, then finally slit the men's throats as police finally arrived on the scene, having been called in by another Christian who realized the men where missing.

Although these murders were particularly gruesome, the persecution and killing of Christians is not uncommon in Turkey. Since 2001, the National Security Council of Turkey has considered evangelical Christians to be a national security threat, thus encouraging popular violence against them. Tarikats are widespread and socially respected. As in the case of April 18, youths are increasingly becoming the perpetrators of these violent acts, often with the consent of proud parents; minors are subject to less harsh legal penalties if convicted, and they also recieve greater public sympathy. It is not surprising that Europeans are wary of allowing Turkey into the EU.

In sharp contrast to the violent "faithfulness" of her husband's murderers, Suzanne, the wife of Tilmann and mother of their three children, offered a different type of faithful devotion. Speaking to reporters, she said of the killers, "Oh, God, forgive them, for they know not what they do."