Pastor Emre Karaali escapes an assassination attempt in Turkey
Assassins infiltrated a Turkish congregation in a plot to murder the pastor of the Izmit Protestant Church, but were stopped by Turkish counter-terrorism units.
Police arrested 14 suspects in the attempted assassination of Pastor Emre Karaali and planned to attack Christians during a series of evangelical meetings in January, according to Barnabas Aid.
Two of those arrested had been attending Izmit for more than a year in order to become close to the pastor and his wife; maps of the Karaali home and his church were discovered in searches of the suspects’ homes.
A Human Rights Violations Report by the Association of Protestant Churches listed at least ten incidents involving Christians last year; in one such incident, a pastor in Istanbul was beaten outside his church by a group of youths shouting: This is a Muslim neighborhood; no church is allowed.
Islamic extremism appears to be returning to Turkey, a country where Christians — who comprise less than 0.1 percent of the population — now endure severe discrimination and unreasonable restrictions.
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