To make matters worse, the Bible distributors were tortured for three hours before they were mudered.
A court jailed five suspects Sunday on murder charges linked to the killings of three Christians who were tied up and had their throats slit at a publishing house which had drawn protests by nationalists for distributing Bibles.
Six others were released pending trial, the court said. It was unclear what charges the six faced and a trial date has not yet been set. A 12th suspect, who tried to escape from police by jumping from a fourth-floor balcony at the scene of the killings, remains hospitalized in stable condition and was expected to be charged later.
The three victims—a German man and two Turks who converted to Christianity—were killed Wednesday at a Christian publishing house in Malatya.
The attack added to concerns in Europe about whether the predominantly Muslim country—which is bidding for European Union membership—can protect its religious minorities.
Christians make up just a fraction of 1 percent of Turkey's population of 71 million.
Christian leaders said they are worried that nationalists were stoking hostilities against non-Turks and non-Muslims by exploiting growing uncertainty over Turkey's place in the world.
The uncertainty—and growing suspicion against foreigners—has been driven by the faltering EU bid, a resilient Kurdish separatist movement and by increasingly vocal Islamists who see themselves—and Turkey—as locked in battle with a hostile Christian West.
So selling a Bible is an act of hostility...they must be afraid the Christian population will increase to 2%. The muderers admitted they did it for their religion.
"We didn't do this for ourselves, but for our religion," Hurriyet newspaper quoted a suspect as saying. "Our religion is being destroyed. Let this be a lesson to enemies of our religion."
Let it be a lesson to those who say that "jihad means inner struggle" ...or murmur, "religion of peace". NeoCon Command Center also chimes in on this topic.
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