[Goetz_von_Berlichingen]

There may be more to this story than meets the eye. The Turkish government is militantly secular, and clamps down as hard on fundamentalist Moslems as it does on Christians who might be perceived as having a potential to disturb the peace.

If it is true that Christians constitute only 1 % of the Turkish population, then the number of extremist Moslems who have run afoul of the law is probably numerically greater than the number of Christians against whom action has been taken.

[Cleburne]

This is more in keeping with Young Turk sort of thinking than hardcore Muslim. The Protestants particularly, as they comprise a small, yet potentially vocal minority, pose a threat to national homogenity, which is desired by most authoritarianish (though the Turkish government is hardly as bad as many other military-oriented governments). This was the underlying factor behind the Armenian genocide- as opposed to the Sultan's localized massacres in the 1890's, which were the result of a Muslim-oriented system.

While I am certainly against the government's decision, and hope it is reversed, one can smoewhat empathize with their mindset. With Muslim radicals running loose and doing random acts of violence, the ingrained fear of minority populations is obviously going to be heightened, and quite likely inflicted upon Christian minorities, whether they pose a threat or not. And one should realize Christians have hardly ever been popular with either the Muslim or secular governments that have controlled Turkey over the years.