In the Balance: Secularism and Islam Compete for Allegiance Behind Turkey’s Veil

by Stan Guthrie

When Mustafa Kemal Ata-turk founded Turkey’s modern republic 74 years ago, the jury was out on whether a secular democracy could long survive in a predominantly Muslim nation. It still is.

When Mustafa Kemal Ata-turk founded Turkey’s modern republic 74 years ago, the jury was out on whether a secular democracy could long survive in a predominantly Muslim nation. It still is.

In December, 1995, Refah, an Islamist political party, dismayed the country’s secularist majority by grabbing more votes than any other in national elections. This was not a total surprise, however. Refah candidates had already taken over the mayorships in Istanbul and 29 other cities.

Refah’s leader, Necmettin Erba-kan, who employed fiery anti-Western rhetoric and promises of clean government and Muslim moral renewal to draw votes from disenfranchised urban slum dwellers in Ankara and elsewhere, was chosen to head a coalition government in early 1996. His party, Refah, also known as the Welfare Party, was named to head the government a year ago after a shaky coalition designed to keep it at bay collapsed. Since then Refah has introduced a series of measures designed to radically remake the cosmopolitan nation of 65 million people. These people, torn between their past and an uncertain future, at present are balanced uneasily between Europe and the Middle East, accepted fully by neither.

Erbakan, the prime minister, is pushing for the construction of two showplace mosques, one in Ankara, the capital, and the other in historic Istanbul. He is seeking to remove from the books laws that prohibit women at public universities from wearing the traditional Muslim head scarves. More worrisome, Erbakan has placed like-minded people into positions of authority in the government. He has also invited several militant Islamic leaders to dine with him at his official residence and has begun using Welfare Party bodyguards—not government security agents—for his own protection. He has also endorsed the idea of graduates of religious schools being allowed to enter the now secular military.

But after the Iranian ambassador, during a January speech in Sincan, ordered Muslims to obey the sharia, the military had seen enough. The generals sent a column of tanks rumbling through the streets of Sincan on February 4. This was no idle threat. The military intervened in the country’s politics in 1960, 1971, and 1980. In March, the generals forced Erbakan to sign a document that stated, “Secularism is not only the state but is also the guarantee of social peace, democracy, and a way of life.” The military is demanding new laws against “anti-secular crimes.”

Still, few observers believe that the Islamists have relinquished their agenda for the country, which is 99.8 percent Muslim. Some 1,500 mosques are being built annually in Turkey, many of them with outside money.

“A veil is lifting in Turkey,” an Ankara-based foreign specialist in Islamic ideology told the New York Times. “As it lifts, we’re seeing that this country is more religious than people think, and a million times more than secularists would like. The idea of a greater role for religion in public life has widespread support in Turkey. So, as the country becomes more democratic, you see more Islamic influence.”

One long-time observer of the scene stated, “There is tremendous disillusionment with politicians, with everything. I feel that Turks are in danger of losing hope.”

“Turkey could be on the verge of a civil war,” this source added. “If the situation carries on without the intervention of the Lord . . . (it) could deteriorate so that Turkey becomes like Iran or Algeria.”

LITTLE IMPACT SO FAR
Evangelical workers in the country, many of them there on tourist visas, say that the fundamentalist government has had little or no impact on their work of evangelism and discipleship so far. If anything, some say, it has helped by forcing the nominal Muslim majority to think hard about religious issues.

“It has had two effects,” said Lynn Green, Youth With A Mission’s director of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. “One is in polarizing society—secularists becoming more secular and the religious becoming more religious. Two, it has brought religion moreprominently into the public debate.”

Many Turks do not like what they are seeing of Islam. “I observe an ever-increasing polarization of society in recent years,” stated the leader of outreach efforts by one agency in Turkey. “The fundamentalists’ claiming that only they are true Muslims is causing moderate and nominal Muslims to either react clearly against Islam—’If that is Islam, I don’t want anything to do with it!’ — or to scurry around trying to create a whole new Islam with a modern, tolerant, humanistic, relativistic face. Most Turks . . . are embarrassed by what they see as the fundamentalists’ efforts to pull society back into the Middle Ages.”

Dave Wilson, who has served in the country for 16 years, and who currently works in Istanbul for Good News Publishers, a Turkish-run firm, says he sees a growing openness to the gospel, fueled in part by a utilitarian analysis of what Islam has (and hasn’t) done for people, the economy, and the society. “I’d say there are hundreds of thousands who are totally dissatisfied with Islam, if not millions,” Wilson said. “I think they see the bankruptcy of Islam.”

Such dissatisfaction with Islam doesn’t automatically translate into interest in Christianity, however. In fact, some Turks have been turned off on all religion. Still, the net effect on Christian outreach appears to be positive, and workers report progress among what some call “pro-Western, post-Muslim” Turks, who dwarf the 21.3 percent of the voters who cast their ballots for the radicals.

INCREASING MOMENTUM, NEW BOLDNESS
Even aside from the current controversy, cross-cultural workers and the Turkish evangelical church have enjoyed increasing momentum because of a confluence of factors. Perhaps the primary one is a new boldness on the part of Turkish believers. They got a big psychological boost from 1989 to 1990 when the government, at the request of Fred Catherwood, an evangelical representative of the European Community, granted Protestants the right to buy or rent property in which to worship. Then in 1995, Ankara gave official recognition to evangelical churches, which allows them to register as religious organizations. As such, they receive free water and electricity courtesy of the government.

“Since the law was changed,” noted Patrick Sookhdeo, director of London’s Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity, “people are no longer arrested for attending small Bible study groups. They may still get an adverse reaction from their neighbors, but they can meet openly, as their activities are now legal.”

Expatriate Christian workers, numbered at between 500 and 600 and from many countries, have also enjoyed extra elbow room for their ministries. While harassment for Christian activities by local police (usually acting on citizen complaints) has sometimes led to detention and deportation, the Turkish legal system generally has been a bulwark in protecting the rights of Christians to engage in their religion. After two years in the courts, in 1991 and 1992 a judge ruled that foreign residents of Turkey cannot be denied residence visas or deported for activities related to “legal Christian propaganda,” according to Sookhdeo.

Dave Wilson found himself at the center of the controversy. After being arrested and deported, he thinks, four times, Wilson and some colleagues grew tired of being treated as “undesirable characters.” But instead of getting mad, they hired a lawyer, and got even.

“You can do anything basically if you’re willing to take a little hassle in the beginning,” Wilson said. “In the court cases we were always declared totally innocent because we weren’t breaking any laws.”

Still, workers do not have carte blanche. On April 6, 1996, secret police arrested a Korean Christian, Seido Kim, for distributing copies of the Gospel of John at the Ataturk International Airport. According to the Rutherford Institute, an organization specializing in religious liberty, authorities beat Kim and interrogated him for 42 hours before he and his family were deported.Last March Turkish police deported two Korean women for distributing Bibles.

A GROWING CHURCH
Most workers estimate the presence of about a thousand Muslim converts in the country, with much of the growth occurring in the last five or six years. Others say there may be as many as 1,500 to 2,000 Turkish believers, although many of these extras would be “secret” believers. Thirty years ago there were between 20 and 50 believers from Muslim backgrounds, and these few kept a low profile. One source estimated that there were no more than half a dozen converts from Islam in the early 1970s.

Today they are doing evangelism more openly, although believers still must use sensitivity and caution. One worker says that participants at a recent gathering of expatriate and Turkish workers agreed that there are between 15 and 20 Turkish congregations meeting in the country. At a minimum, such congregations have five to 10 people regularly attending. Believers have started fellowships in every major city. There is a strong emphasis in many of them on worship and prayer.

“Several congregations have more than 50 Turks in attendance each week,” he said. “Some congregations meet in homes, some in historic church buildings, and some in rented or purchased flats or storefronts.”

(In addition to the Turkish Christians, workers in the country estimate the presence of a few thousand more believers, mainly from the Armenian, Syrian Orthodox, and Greek minorities.)

As the numbers of Muslim converts have increased, so has their confidence. A church in Ankara that was started by expatriate workers from several agencies at the beginning of the 1980s now has all Turkish leadership and only a few foreign families. This church has grown to 70 or 80 believers. Two other churches of similar size also have all-Turkish leadership.

In 1995, Protestant believers bought a campsite for the use of all Christians in Turkey. Since October of that year believers have published a Christian children’s magazine. Protestant lay leader training has been available since 1990. In 1996, a local security department approved the opening of a residential Bible college.

“Although the Christian church as a whole is declining in numbers because of the emigration of minority communities, significant growth is reported in Turkish evangelical fellowships,” Sookhdeo said. “Turkish leaders are beginning to take over from expatriate workers, and the fellowships are renting or buying property.”

UNIFIED EVANGELISM
The pressure and problems of being in a Muslim society have kept the expats and local believers unified. One source noted, “Missions in Turkey has a very long history of unity and working together, more so than most countries.” The Turkish believers see themselves no longer simply as recipients of ministry, but also as agents of outreach.

“The Turkish church is starting to get in a number of churches a critical mass of Turks who are excited about their faith and are sharing more openly,” Wilson said. “It’s exciting to see the church starting to get a vision, not just to reach their neighbors, but the whole country.”

Believers of Muslim background are starting churches in some of the smaller cities, launching publishing houses, and even becoming more vocal about their faith in the secular press. In the past, however, Muslim converts have often been met with beatings, imprisonment, and torture, so many are tentatively testing what the limits are today. There seems to be less pressure, but few believers are aggressive in what they do.

“Believers have become increasingly bold in recent years in ‘coming out of the closet,’” stated Kirk Johnson, a former worker in Turkey who heads the Gospel Letters program of Turkish World Outreach (formerly Friends of Turkey). “Some of this is due to the fact that the Isa Mesih Inanlilar—believers in Jesus Christ—have become much more vocal and open about their faith. Some have even agreed to be interviewed by secular journals and newspapers, even radio and TV. Of course, many of the newsreports have been negative.”

In February, Turkish Christians and their foreign coworkers held a countrywide seminar on church planting. They agreed to the goal of starting a Turkish fellowship in each of the country’s 73 provinces by the year 2000. “There’s a lot of unity amongst us all,” Wilson said.

MANY MINISTRIES
Both Turks and expats have a lot of tools at their disposal. Foremost among them is the Bible correspondence course founded by Operation Mobilization. The course, operated legally and in the open by Good News Publishers, advertises in several newspapers and magazines. Turks also learn about it through open-air book tables and via displays at Christian music concerts. Many believers, both visiting workers and Turks, use the course in their ministries. Turkish World Outreach used to provide course workers with most of their contacts through its own Gospel Letters program, in which Western believers mail evangelistic letters to Turkish citizens. But the program has been eclipsed by newspaper ads, which result in about 50 phone calls for information a week.

“The most effective means of outreach to Turks over many years has been the Bible correspondence course,” Johnson said. “An effective form of follow-up has been for workers and fellowships from many agencies to utilize these contacts for outreach efforts, both for existing Turkish fellowships and for new church-planting efforts.”

While mass evangelism has not been tried, Christian rock concerts have sparked interest in the gospel—and even some conversions—among Turkish young people. Christians have opened Bible book stores in several cities. The autumn book fair in Istanbul, which draws 300,000 people annually, has been another high-profile avenue of literature distribution. Short-termers from Operation Mobilization have passed out thousands of tracts. Christian radio is another means; one Turkish believer even started an FM station. An updated Turkish New Testament is for sale and is widely available. Some 100,000 copies of the New Testament have been distributed in the last two years. It has helped not only with evangelism, but also discipleship.

“The availability of the New Testament has had a profound effect on the growth of believers in the last 10 years,” stated a former resident who makes frequent visits to the country. “They have been able to feed (spiritually) in a way that previous converts couldn’t.” Translators are about two-thirds of the way through the Old Testament.

The New Testament is also available on cassette. The “Jesus” film has been a big help in the ministry of many agencies.

“It is something that most Muslims are open to watching,” the U.S. director of one agency said. “They hear and see the gospel presented in a way that they are much more receptive to. It really challenges them. The private showings of the film are generally a little tense at first because of the long-term and intense inoculation they have against the gospel.”

Besides the Turkish version, the “Jesus” film has been translated into Kurdish. Turkish World Outreach and others distribute both versions. Kurdish guerrillas, who have been locked in a bloody conflict with the Turkish military for years, recently made the Kurdish version via a pirate satellite station available to the homes of an estimated 25 million people.

EMPHASIS ON RECONCILLIATION
As with most efforts to share the good news with Muslims, today’s outreaches among Turks must overcome a history of enmity between Christians and Muslims that stretches back beyond the Crusades. Many Turks still harbor bitter feelings toward Christians for the wrongs inflicted on their ancestors in the name of Christ. Rubbing salt in their still open wounds is the hands-off treatment their country continues to receive from the political leaders of Europe. They still feel the sting of anti-Muslim discrimination in the way Turkey is kept out of the European Union.

Attempting to apologize for the wounds of the past is a ministry called the Reconciliation Walk, started by YouthWith A Mission to mark the 900th anniversary of the Crusades. In it, teams of walkers retrace the route of the crusaders to the Holy Land. The first team of walkers began the journey in April, 1996, from Cologne, Germany. Carrying a one-page confession, they arrived in Istanbul in October, where they were enthusiastically greeted by the mayor’s office and the local press. The walks will continue throughout Turkey this year and next, culminating in a gathering in Jerusalem in July, 1999, 900 years after the Crusaders captured the city from the Muslims.

“The experience of those on the Reconciliation Walk has served to underline the fact that Turks are very open to learn more about Jesus Christ,” stated Green, who besides his duties with YWAM is director of the Reconciliation Walk, which is now a stand-alone ministry. “They are, however, deeply resentful about the way they have been treated by the so-called Christian nations, and the disenfranchisement they feel in today’s world.”

“They are used to Christians relating to them from a position of self-perceived superiority,” Green continued. “Through the Reconciliation Walk thousands of Turks are meeting Christians who come in powerlessness and humility.”

A Christian worker resident in Turkey estimates that 70 percent of Turkey’s people have heard about the Reconciliation Walk, which, although not an evangelistic ministry, may nevertheless open hearts to look at Christians in a new light.

“The walkers have presented a completely new model of Christianity, which has been widely reported in the press and received very positively,” she said. “I feel that the Reconciliation Walk could be a tool in the Lord’s hands which could bring about the breakthrough which we have longed for.”

One thing is sure. As Turkey’s future hangs in the balance, the kingdom of God is making impressive strides. For that, evangelicals are giving thanks.

—–

Copyright © 1997 Evangelism and Missions Information Service (EMIS). All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from EMIS.

Comments are closed.