By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent.
ANKARA, TURKEY (
Worthy News)– Two wolves who infiltrated a Turkish congregation were among more than a dozen suspects arrested as police foiled a plot to assassinate the pastor.
The plot to kill Pastor Emre Karaali of the Izmit Protestant Church was thwarted by Turkish counter-terrorism units that arrested 14 suspects who 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.”
Formerly a secular state, Islamism is now returning to Turkey, a country where Christians — who comprise less than 0.1 percent of the population — now endure severe discrimination and unreasonable restrictions.
