Christian satellite television sees growth in Turkey

TURK-7 is an exciting Christian television channel broadcasting quality programming to Turkish-speaking people worldwide. TURK-7's Michael Glenn says it's a good fit because the Turkish people are hungry for media. "They are second only to the United States in the number of television channels. So they draw in this stuff, in an eager way. Half the population is under the age of 30. They're more media savvy, more in-tune to this kind of thing. Right now, we're doing four hours a day of broadcasting, and our goal is that within two and a half years, we can go 24/7

Labels: Christianity, Turk-7, Turkey

The lost history of the Crusades - by Robert Sibley

Western guilt over, and apologies for, the Crusades ignores one crucial fact: The West actually lost.Like many postmodern westerners, the politician suffers from a peculiar psychic disturbance -- western-guilt syndrome -- that regards the history of the West as an unmitigated horror show of slaughter, conquest and imperialistic domination. The Crusades are cast as among the darkest of dark episodes in the history of European civilization. Too bad it's wrong. "The crusades are quite possibly the most misunderstood event n European history," says historian Thomas Madden. "The Crusades were in every way a defensive war. They were a direct response to Muslim aggression -- an attempt to turn back or defend against Muslim conquests of Christian lands." The West may now dominate the Islamic world, but that has only been the case since the late 18th century, when a young general, Napoleon Bonaparte, conquered Egypt and temporarily imposed French rule. This initial European penetration into one of the heartlands of Islam was "a terrible shock" to Muslims, says historian Bernard Lewis. Until then, they had thought of themselves as the victors in the Crusades.

Labels: Christianity, Crusades, Islam

FIRST TURKISH MARTYRS SINCE 1923: German Seminary investigates Malatya murders of Necati Aydin, Ugur Yuksel, and Tilmann Geske - by Elizabeth Kendal

Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel are the first known Muslim converts to Christianity to be martyred, since the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923. Ugur Yuksel was buried according to Islamic/Alevitic rituals at the orders of his family which vehemently denies his Christian faith. The German victim was buried on 20 April in the Armenian cemetery in Malatya, following the wishes of his widow. This occurred after a bitter fight with the local authorities who unconditionally wanted to prevent Geske's burial in their city. Because of pressure applied by the German government, his burial was only delayed by three hours. Necati Aydin, who was pastor of the local Protestant church in addition to his work in the Zirve Publishing House, was laid to rest on Saturday, 21 April, in his home town of Izmir.

At a press conference a day after the attack, Pastor Ihsan Ozbek (from Ankara), President of the Association of Protestant Churches in Turkey, said "Turkey was buried in the darkness of the Middle East." He compared the common, country-wide, widely hawked conspiracy theories which accuse Christians of conspiring against Muslims with the medieval witch hunts in Europe.

Labels: Christianity, Turkey