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| Europe |
| Moslem Visits Church, Drinks Tea, Chats, Sets Church on Fire |
| 2004-08-11 |
| From Compass Direct An apparently deranged young Turk barricaded himself inside the Diyarbakir Evangelical Church in southeast Turkey on July 19, breaking windows and setting fire to curtains, Bibles and cassette tapes until dense smoke finally forced him to surrender to the police. Identified as Medet Arslan, 27, the young man had stopped by the Protestant church that afternoon in Diyarbakir's Lalebey district, where some of the church members offered him tea. As he sat and talked with them, he began to intersperse his conversation with loud quotes of Quranic verses, saying several times that he wanted to become a martyr. Raising his voice, Arslan began shouting against the mistreatment of Muslims in Iraq, declaring he wanted to kill people and vowing to go to America and fight. Quickly one of the church staff left the fireside room where they were sitting and called the police. Moments later the visitor pulled a long butcher knife out from under his coat and chased after a youth who dashed out of the room, managing to hold the door shut until keys were found to lock the man inside. After several more telephone calls, local police arrived a half-hour later. Arslan barricaded the door, and the police proved unable to reason with the him. Cursing loudly, the man began burning up New Testaments, bookshelves, curtains and whatever else he could find in the room. He also smashed and broke out all the windows in the room. A fire truck finally came to the scene, where more than 20 police officers had gathered along with local press, but even hosing down Arslan through the windows failed to dissuade him from his standoff. It was only three hours later, when heavy smoke from burning cassette tapes and CDs filled the room, that the attacker begged to be let out of the room and allowed himself to be led away by the police. "After the smoke cleared a little, we went in to find the fireside room charred and burnt books lying around in the water," American Jerry Mattix told Compass. "The walls were black with soot and the stench stifling." |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #12 Zenster: Brilliant! |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-08-11 16:33 |
| #11 Murat, my own point was that, as a gesture of reconciliation, it would be a commendable move for local Muslims to organize private compensation. Forgive me if that's not the way I'm betting, however. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-08-11 16:33 |
| #10 Don't leave me alone when my mind starts to roam and spasms in my lobes will play Or haven't you heard my brain's disturbed I'm out to lunch and there to stay Full blown and deranged where lunatics and manics stray And seldom is heard "operable or cured" I'm out to lunch and there to stay |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-08-11 16:29 |
| #9 Home, home on derange . . . |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-08-11 14:59 |
| #8 Hey Murat,long time no see. |
| Posted by: Raptor 2004-08-11 10:04 |
| #7 Probably another Fine Product brought to you by the Madrassas of the Religion of Peace. |
| Posted by: Oldspook 2004-08-11 09:07 |
| #6 #4 'mentally deranged' or just fresh out of Quran classes? Posted by: Howard UK 2004-08-11 05:25 Bingo |
| Posted by: Deb 2004-08-11 07:44 |
| #5 Well if somebody has a history of mental problems he or she is usually classified as 'mentally deranged' Howard, at least here in Turkey. |
| Posted by: Murat 2004-08-11 05:46 |
| #4 'mentally deranged' or just fresh out of Quran classes? |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2004-08-11 05:25 |
| #3 I think the church can apply for compensation at the insurence company if she is insured for fire or get some form of compensation from the municipality. Normally the church should sue the arsonist but I wonder if they can get anything by court from a mentaly deranged person. |
| Posted by: Murat 2004-08-11 05:08 |
| #2 I wonder if concerned Muslims will step forward to help raise money for the church's repairs. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-08-11 02:54 |
| #1 " shouting against the mistreatment of Muslims in Iraq, declaring he wanted to kill people " This is rich - Muslims are doing the mistreatment and killing of each other. |
| Posted by: Oldspook 2004-08-11 00:11 |