Turkey: 5 jihadists who tortured and murdered Christians finally sentenced to jail — but walk out of court free men

Despite the conviction and sentencing, however, all five walked out of court free men while their case awaits higher legal review, infuriating Turkish Christians.

Gokhan Talas, close friend of the three slain Christians and witness at the murder scene, said……They need to be in jail right now…This process is unjust. There’s no justice for Christians in this country. This is the proof of that.

How much justice is there for Christians (and other infidels and apostates) in any Muslim country? But Turkey has, of course, long been known as “moderate”; as recently as 2012, Turkey was referenced as a “new model.” The Brookings Institution declared:

In Turkey, a tradition of free and fair elections and capitalism has encouraged Islamic parties to play by the rules. Turkey’s radical secularism, enforced by the military, has also tamed the strident religious dogma that once landed Islamic politicians in trouble—and even in prison.

Now, however, as Erdogan’s Turkey is casting off secularism and Islamizing, Westerners are still often fooled into believing that Turkey remains a moderate ally to the West and even a security partner. In contrast, persecution Watchdog Open Doors reported a few months ago on the real face of Turkey:

Fifteen Turkish Protestant congregations and their leaders have been targeted by a strident campaign of death threats sent to their Facebook, email, websites and mobile telephones. One of the messages warned: ‘Perverted infidels, the time that we will strike your necks is soon. May Allah receive the glory and praise’. ….A link was also posted for an Arabic video subtitled in Turkish on YouTube entitled, ‘The religious proofs why apostates should be killed’.

Even more recently — since the Turkish coup attempt — Christians reportedly have been paying a stiff price “as extreme Islam surges.” Recall that Erdogan has also virulently denied the Armenian Genocide.

Erdogan’s unjustified and “unhinged” hatred of Israel is yet another troubling matter. In fact, Jews are the target of most hate speech in Turkey.

Given the reality of Turkey’s anti-democracy, anti-Christian, anti-Jew record,  and its advancing Islamization, it would be advisable to withhold celebrations of justice until the “Killers of Malatya Martyrs” actually make it into Turkish prison.

After a nine-year legal saga, a Turkish criminal court today sentenced five men to life in prison for the torture and murder of three Christians in southeast Turkey in 2007.

The Malatya First Heavy Penal Court found Salih Gurler, Cuma Ozdemir, Abuzer Yildirim, Hamit Ceker, and Emre Gunaydin guilty on three counts each of premeditated murder, and sentenced them all to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Despite the conviction and sentencing, however, all five walked out of court free men while their case awaits higher legal review, infuriating Turkish Christians.

Gokhan Talas, close friend of the three slain Christians and witness at the murder scene, said he was “okay” with the decision, but was angry that the convicted men walked away free while the sentence is reviewed by higher courts.

“They need to be in jail right now,” Talas said. “This process is unjust. There’s no justice for Christians in this country. This is the proof of that. They are just hiding behind the laws. These people are killers.”

In a press release issued by the Association of Protestant Churches in Turkey, chairman and pastor Ihsan Ozbek echoed Talas’s dismay that the perpetrators were free despite being handed life sentences.

“Of course the legal process will continue as the case passes to the Regional Administrative Court, and then will go to the Supreme Court. This process can take years, and the killers of our brothers brutally murdered can move around freely for years to come,” Ozbek said. “The continuous postponement of the punishment they deserve severely wounds confidence in justice.”

On April 18, 2007, in the office of the Zirve Publishing House in Malatya in southeastern Turkey, Gurler, Ozdemir, Yildirim, Ceker, and Gunaydin killed Ugur Yüksel, 32, and Necati Aydin, 36, both Turkish converts from Islam, as well as Tilmann Geske, 45, a German national. The five Muslim, Turkish nationalists bound the three men, interrogated them about their Christian activities, mutilated them, and then slit their throats, according to court evidence and testimony.

Police arrested the five men almost immediately after the crime was reported. Gunaydin attempted to escape police by jumping out of an upstairs window of the office and suffered serious injuries. Several others were later arrested in connection with the crime, including Turna Işıklı, Gunaydin’s girlfriend.

According to several Christians close to those killed, one or more of those arrested cultivated relationships with the victims. Several Christians said Gunaydin went so far as to pose as being interested in the Christian faith or even becoming a Christian to get as close as possible to the three men.

When they were arrested, at least one of the suspects had a note claiming they committed the slaying for their country.

“They are trying to take our country away, take our religion away,” the note read in part.

Gunaydin today showed no remorse. According to Ozbek, Gunaydin told the court regarding the killing, “I am thankful that I did not shame my country or cause any embarrassment.”

Today’s hearing was the 115th hearing in the trial. The number of hearings, and the fact that the case took so long to prosecute, was the source of a great deal of anguish for Turkey’s Christians.

In 2008, the court held its first hearing in the case, but the proceedings were problematic and difficult from the start. The judges and prosecutors were changed more than once, causing significant delays, and subpoenaed witnesses simply refused to show up in court to testify without legitimate reason and without being punished later for contempt of court.

Most significant in delays was the attempt to explore links between the killings and a larger alleged attempt by the Turkish military to subvert the Justice and Development Party-led government. There was much speculation that arrests of lawyers and judges in the wake of a coup attempt in July would further delay proceedings.

From the beginning of the trial, Gunaydin was portrayed as the leader of the attack, with links to nationalist groups and to nationalist writer Varol Bulent Aral. According to testimony by Gunaydin, Aral urged the killing of the Christians and said he would have support of the state, meaning hardcore nationalists within the military.

In 2009, the murder case was linked to the Ergenekon file, concerning a suspected cabal plotting against the government. As a result of this, a host of new witnesses were called into court, including a colonel in the gendarmerie and three army officers.

Ozbek referred to the efforts to investigate those connections in his press statement.

“Today the judge explained the verdict saying that the murders could not have taken place without connections to a [criminal] organization, but it was important for the court to admit that they had not exposed this connection,” he said, adding that the court ruled, in its own words, “Yes, there is an organization, but [the court] did not find the link.”

Especially galling to families of the victims was that the five suspects on March 10, 2014, were released on bail under a new reform law that reduced the allowable period of pretrial detention from 10 years to 5 years. Under public pressure, authorities required them to wear electronic monitoring devices, a practice that continues after the conviction. But the release has caused extreme distress among the families and friends of the victims.

The suspects had in the past threatened family members of the victims. At one point after the release in March, Talas’s wife suffered a nervous breakdown due to stress and was hospitalized, Talas told Morning Star News. He said the continued freedom of the now convicted killers leaves him “very concerned.”……

Egypt: Islamic State jihadis murder six police in Sinai

Nothing to be concerned about. Obama says they’re not Islamic and on the run.

“Suspected IS gunmen kill 6 police in Egypt’s restless Sinai,” by Ashraf Sweilam, Associated Press, October 2, 2016:

EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) — Suspected Islamic State militants in Egypt’s turbulent Sinai Peninsula ambushed a taxi in which off-duty policemen were traveling back to their units on Saturday, killing five of them before fleeing, according to security and medical officials.

They said the incident took place just south of the coastal Sinai city of el-Arish.

The policemen were returning to duty from home leave.

Earlier on Saturday, a roadside bomb planted by suspected IS militants hit a police armored personnel carrier in northern Sinai, wounding nine inside, the local police headquarters said in a statement. One of the nine later died of his wounds in hospital.

A statement by the local police headquarters said the attack took place just outside the border town of Rafah.

The attacks are the latest in a war of attrition waged by militants led by the Islamic State’s affiliate in Sinai, where security forces have battled insurgents for years. The insurgency by the militants in Sinai grew more intense after the 2013 ouster of elected Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

Also Saturday, police say the severed head of a man who had been abducted by suspected militants for his alleged cooperation with authorities turned up in Rafah.

Separately, security officials said suspected IS militants on Saturday kidnapped four clerics belonging to the mystic Sufi sect of Islam from their homes in the village of Nagaa Shabanah on the Egyptian-Israeli border south of Rafah. The four, according to the officials, had repeatedly spoken out in public against the killing by IS militants of local civilians suspected of links to security forces….

Pakistan: Muslim leader calls for jihad against India, vows its “destruction”

There is a U.S. bounty on Hafiz Saeed’s head, and his group has been declared a terror organization by the U.S., but our friend and ally Pakistan lets him roam around freely, and even operates special trains to carry people to his conference. Why does Pakistan receive even a penny of American aid?

“Hafiz Saeed’s Friday sermon in Lahore; calls for jihad against India, says 1971 war will be avenged,” Financial Express, September 30, 2016:

Hafiz Saeed on Friday launched a terror rally in Lahore in which he called for ‘Jihad’ against India.

Hafiz Saeed on Friday launched a terror rally in Lahore in which he called for ‘Jihad’ against India, according to a Times Now report. From requesting Pakistan to stay united in the matter of national defense to talking about avenging the 1971 war, he tweeted all on his Twitter handle (which is not verified but is being quoted by all the TV channels). He wrote, “Freedom of Kashmir will be the beginning of India’s destruction. A lot has to be avenged including #1971.” He requested politicians, religious groups to stand united. “I would request politicians, religious groups to stand united in the crucial matter of national defense.” “We have offered funeral prayers in absentia of our brave soldiers who were martyred yesterday by Indian provocation at #LOC. This comes a day after India annouced [sic] that it conducted surgical strikes across Line of Control (LoC) causing significant casualties to the terrorists. Nine Pakistani soldiers and 35-40 terrorists, who were planning to infiltrate into India to carry out attacks, were killed in the operation by the Indian Army.

Earlier, Pakistan has asked the chiefs of terrorist organisations operating from its territory to lie low for the time being. It seems that Pakistan is fearing that the Indian army may now attempt to eliminate the terror chiefs. Sources told India Today that there is a strategy behind Pakistan’s plan of not publicly acknowledging the surgical strikes conducted by the Indian Army. The strategy is in consonance with the fact that Pakistan has never accepted the presence of terrorists on its land. That the country has never “owned up to Pakistani jehadi factory or a terrorist.” hence, it can’t be expected that Pakistan would accept that terrorists were killed in surgical strikes by India. As that would be “a sign of admission that there are terror camps”, in Pakistan, India Today reported….

In a public address in Faisalabad, the JuD chief and mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attack warned India of a “befitting response” for its military operation in PoK, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi will now know what is meant by “surgical strikes”. “We will tell you what is a real surgical strike…and you will get the deserved response soon,” Saeed said.

“I want to tell Indian media to see soon how Pakistani Jawans conduct surgical strikes. Let me tell you…the US will not be able to help you,” he said. “Now it is Pakistan’s turn to give a befitting response to India. Narendra Modi will now know what is meant by surgical strikes,” Saeed said.

Australia: Muslim stabs his wife to death for converting to Christianity

Welcome to the new, multicultural Australia. Isn’t it wonderful?

“They wish you would disbelieve as they disbelieved so you would be alike. So do not take from among them allies until they emigrate for the cause of Allah. But if they turn away, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them and take not from among them any ally or helper.” (Qur’an 4:89)

A hadith depicts Muhammad saying: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57). The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence.

This is still the position of all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence, both Sunni and Shi’ite. Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the most renowned and prominent Muslim cleric in the world, has stated: “The Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished, yet they differ as to determining the kind of punishment to be inflicted upon them. The majority of them, including the four main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali) as well as the other four schools of jurisprudence (the four Shiite schools of Az-Zaidiyyah, Al-Ithna-‘ashriyyah, Al-Ja’fariyyah, and Az-Zaheriyyah) agree that apostates must be executed.”

Qaradawi also once famously said: “If they had gotten rid of the apostasy punishment, Islam wouldn’t exist today.”

“Hairdresser, 35, ‘stabbed to death by her Iranian husband in a Sydney apartment because he was angry she converted to CHRISTIANITY,’” by Belinda Grant Geary, Daily Mail Australia, September 29, 2016 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

A 35-year-old hairdresser was allegedly stabbed to death by her husband inside their apartment because he was upset she had converted to Christianity.

Amir Darbanou was charged with the murder of his wife Nasrin Abek after her body was found inside their apartment in the affluent suburb of Potts Point on Thursday.

The 42-year-old, from Iran, was allegedly enraged that Ms Abek had recently converted to Christianity and killed the hairdresser in a frenzied knife attack on Wednesday night, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Police made the gruesome discovery when they forced entry into the couple’s home at about 6.20am on Thursday after Ms Abek’s father raised concerns for her welfare.

Mr Darbanou had allegedly called his father-in-law in Iran to tell him Ms Abek was dead on Wednesday night and was arrested after her body was found the next day.

Ms Abek’s father said his heartache over her death had been made worse by the fact he had to contact police ‘several times’ before they would act.

He said he became concerned when he had not heard from her for a ‘prolonged period’, Nine News reported.

The 42-year-old, who reportedly ‘stalked’ his wife, did not enter a plea or apply for bail when he appeared in Sydney’s Central Local Court on Friday.

Police said there was no known history of domestic violence between the couple, who had been living in Australia for four years on bridging visas, but neighbours had reported hearing screaming coming from the apartment on Wednesday night….

Iran: children’s theme park markets jihad against America and Israel

A military theme park called “the park of the revolution’s children” has opened up in Iran…. The designers of the park tried to copy Iranian military sites which resemble those which existed during the Iraqi-Iranian war

Children are trained in the park to shoot virtual fixed and moving targets. The targets carry the flags of countries which Iran view as their enemies, including the US and Israel.

A top park official stated the purpose of the park is “to train children on intelligence group work in the fields of war and sacred defense.” In other words, training children up in jihadi warfare against Israel, America and other democracies that Iran considers enemies.

Last winter, Iranian officials organized the “Sixth National Children’s Memorial”, an event to prepare children for possible war against Israel and America. About 1,200 children, some as young as six, are said to have taken part.

As abhorrent as this child abuse may seem to Westerners, this is “honorable” in Islamic terror-sponsoring states. For example, children’s summer camps in the Gaza strip, called “Vanguards of Liberation,” are also training children for war against Israel. A staggering 25,000 children were reported to have attended these Hamas-sponsored camps, where:

More than 500 Hamas members of Hamas’s armed wing, Ezaddin al-Qassam, are supervising the military training and religious education in the camps to train future jihadis in the war against Israel. Hamas’s religious education is aimed at teaching the children about Islam and its sharia laws.

As part of the children’s training to kill Israelis, they learn how to make bombs and become sharpshooters. They also learn special tactics in terror. The summer graduation ceremonies feature dignitaries.

Robert Spencer reported last week about how child soldiers of jihad are deemed to be privileged, in contrast to the fact that Westerners will rightly view them as abused children:

This is essentially a guarantee of Paradise to those who “kill and are killed” for Allah. This verse has become in the modern age the rationale for suicide bombing. The mainstream and revered Qur’an commentator Ibn Kathir explains: “Allah states that He has compensated His believing servants for their lives and wealth — if they give them up in His cause — with Paradise.”

Another Qur’an commentator, Ibn Juzayy, adds: “It is said that it was sent down about the Homage of Aqaba [an early pledge of Muslims’ willingness to wage war for Islam], but its judgment is general to every believer doing jihad in the way of Allah until the Day of Rising.”

“Military theme park in Iran markets war, violence”, by Masoud Alzahid, Al Arabiya, September 30, 2016:

A military theme park where children play with weaponry has opened in Iran’s city of Mashhad, the capital of Khorasan, for the second year in a row.

The local authorities called it the “park of the revolution’s children.” In the park, the children are trained in shooting virtual fixed and moving targets. The targets carry the flag of countries which Iran view as their enemies, including the US and Israel.

The Iranian-speaking website shahrvand-yar commented on opening this park by asking: “What future do you expect to these eight-year-old children who are being trained on carrying and using weapons at this age? What do you think the aim of these drills is?”

Meanwhile, Hamid Sadeqi, the chief of the department which manages this park, said: “In this park, we try to train children on intelligence group work in the fields of war and sacred defense (of land) through playing games and practicing their hobbies.”

Some of the photos that are taken at the park show children virtually firing at their “enemies.”

The children are divided into groups and each group has a military leader whom they must follow his orders. He leads them through different rooms such as “the revolution room” and the “Iraqi-Iranian war room.” As they play, they cross over a virtual mine field and barbed wars and clash with a virtual enemy.

The designers of the park tried to copy Iranian military sites which resemble those which existed during the Iraqi-Iranian war and which Iran celebrates its anniversary this week.

Iranian activists circulated photos of this park on social networking websites and some of them compared these drills to what the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) organization is doing as it recruits and trains children on fighting and plants hatred and violence in them.

Iran has recruited thousands of children and sent them to war fronts during the Iranian-Iraqi war. The military propaganda encouraged children to volunteer in the ranks of the Basij affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Many of these children were killed while others were held captive. Late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein however released them later in response to calls made by international humanitarian organizations such as the Red Cross.

International organizations accuse Tehran of recruiting Afghan children to fight in Syria through the Fatimids militias which the Iranian Revolutionary Guards formed and which includes Shiite Afghans. During the flow of refugees into Europe in 2015, an Arabic-speaking Swedish radio station reported that Afghan children arrived in Sweden and other European countries unaccompanied by their parents and sought refuge.

The report confirmed that most of these children had arrived from Iran and not from Afghanistan, adding that they escaped to Europe out of fear of being recruited by Iran to fight in Syria…..