DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - DHIMMA/UMMAH: IS IT GETTING WORSE FOR CHRISTIANS AROUND THE WORLD?!?

WEA Religious Liberty Commission on Turkey, Europe & the Challenge of Islam

Christian Today speaks to Johan Candelin, the head of the World Evangelical Alliance's Religious Liberty Commission, on Turkey, Europe and the challenge of Islam.
by Maria Mackay

The recent horrific killings of three Bible workers in Turkey once again threw the international spotlight on religious liberty and the ongoing persecution of Christians in many countries around the world.

Christian Today spoke to Johan Candelin, head of the World Evangelical Alliance’s Religious Liberty Commission, to find out more about some of the challenges facing the worldwide Christian community.

...

CT: And nationalism is a big challenge in Turkey where the three Bible workers were recently murdered. What implication is that going to have for Christians living in Turkey?

JC: Well, I think what happened in Turkey was no surprise and I met with a couple of Christians a few weeks ago when I was there who said this is not the beginning of the end but the beginning of the beginning and that there will be more of this.

Turkey is very different from all other nations because for historical reasons Turkey has a very split identity. You have one part promoting Islam but then you have another part which is very strongly nationalist. And then in the middle you have a group of very Western-minded Turks who would love to see Turkey join the European Union. So there is a fight within Turkey for the mind of the new generation and it would be interesting to see who will come out as the winners.

But the losers are the Christians because they are targeted. The ugly word in Turkey is ‘missionary activity’. When you ask them how they understand that, they say it means an agent for a foreign country who is paid by that nation to split the Turkish nation. They don’t see it in religious terms at all, as we do, but in completely political terms.

But if Turkey joins the European Union then it will surely have an effect on other nations with a Muslim majority. It could be a prototype for a new kind of partnership. But it is a long way to the European Union for Turkey.

CT: Researchers are predicting that the Muslim population in Europe will overtake the Christian population within a few decades. Do you expect that to result in more persecution for Christians in Europe?

JC: It is clear that the Muslim population is growing much more than the Christian population. It is possible that there will be a Christian wake-up movement. But I don’t think Europe will be a context where Muslims will persecute Christians.

However, I think that in Europe there is already a movement where secular fundamentalists are trying to violate the religious freedom of Christians and they are doing it in a very tricky way. They are saying that you cannot as a Christian quote the Bible and say something that someone else will be offended by. And that is like drawing a line in the water because anyone can be offended by anything. The law must be based on what has actually been said and written.

Christians should of course support any denial of hate speech but if you quote the Bible on a question related to homosexuality and so-called same-gender marriages then homosexuals can say we feel offended and take Christians to court and that is a violation as I see it of both the freedom of expression and of the freedom of religion.

That is coming very fast now in countries like France, Sweden and the UK and that is deeply concerning. The result is that very often Christians are just quiet and that is very dangerous not to oppose it any way because if we are quiet they will go a step further.

Persecution grows in three steps. It starts with disinformation and negative information about Christians. Then it goes to discrimination because Christians are bad people and can’t have certain posts in the army or as teachers and then it goes to persecution.

You can easily see this around the world. When the media starts to demonise Christians then you know what is coming up. It’s a sort of brainwashing. A lot of secular media is trying to do that against Bible-believing Christians.

Christians who have no morals at all are not targeted because they are not dangerous to secularists. It is the believers who are really dangerous to secularist fundamentalism.


CT: Is that changing the nature of your work within Europe?

JC: The European Evangelical Alliance is doing good work from Brussels and the European Union and they are doing what they can. Secularisation is really a strong trend in the western parts of Europe.

The new thing of course is that the countries from the east that have joined the European Union, the countries with a strong Catholic tradition will play an interesting role in the future.

I think in the future it’s actually the Catholic Church in Europe that will be the strong voice for the Christian faith and the Bible while the Protestants are very split and very weak and we are unfortunately very quiet.

CT: Looking to the future and to regions like the Holy Land or countries like Iraq, is there a chance of these areas re-populating with Christians?

JC: No. I think that the war in Iraq has created the biggest movement of people in the Middle East since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. And I think there is no turning back. I think Iraq is a lost area for Christians and I think Christianity is a lost treasure for Iraq - unfortunately. I do not see democracy in Iraq for the next 20 or 30 years. In fact I think there will be democracy in Iran before there is democracy in Iraq.

...


Pertinent Links:

1) WEA Religious Liberty Commission on Turkey, Europe & the Challenge of Islam

2) World Evangelical Alliance