Bible sellers murdered

Following Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Turkey last November -- the homeland of the man who tried to assassinate his papal predecessor -- there was optimism that Turkey would begin to treat its religious minorities better. (I wrote about it here.) Benedict was such a believer that he backed Turkey's bid to join the European Union. But the predominantly Muslim nation keeps finding ways to stand out as a bastion of intolerance.

Wednesday, three Bible publishers in Istanbul had their hands and feet bound and their throats slit. Police arrested five Turkish zealots, each was carrying a letter that read: "We five are brothers. We are going to our deaths."

Clearly, things are not getting better for non-Muslims in Turkey.

Last February, a Catholic priest was executed gangland-style. Two Protestants Turks went on trial shortly before the pope arrived for "insulting Turkishness" and Islam. And in January, crusading Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was assassinated by an ultra-nationalist teen.

Next week the world will remember the Armenian Genocide -- beginning in 1915, Ottoman Turks slaughtered an estimated 1.5 million ethnic Armenians. Turkey refuses to recognize the butcherings as genocide. (So does the United States.)