The young Turks rejecting Islam - BBC News 5/9/18 (Excerpted)

Losing their religion: How some young Turks are turning their backs on Islam

"This is the only thing left that connects me to Islam," says Merve, showing me her bright red headscarf.

Merve teaches religion to elementary school children in Turkey. She used to be a radical believer of Islam. "Until recently, I would not even shake hands with men," she tells me in an Istanbul cafe. "But now I do not know whether there is a God or not, and I really do not care."

In the 16 years that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party has been in power, the number of religious high schools across Turkey has increased. The young Turks rejecting Islam more than tenfold.He has repeatedly talked of bringing up a pious generation. But over the past few weeks, politicians and religious clerics here have been discussing whether pious young people have started to move away from religion.

One day, Merve's life changed when, after waking up very depressed, she cried for hours and decided to pray. As she prayed, she realised to her shock that she doubted God's existence. "I thought I would either go crazy or kill myself," she says. "The next day I realised I had lost my faith."

She is not alone. One professor has been quoted as saying that more than a dozen female students wearing headscarves have come up to him to declare they are atheists in the past year or so.

Bekir, theology student

Until recently I was a sympathiser of radical groups such as the Islamic State or Al Qaeda. Today, I am an atheist. I initially wanted to find some logic in Islam, but I could not. Then I started questioning God too. I used to support the Islamist government here. But oppression breeds revolution. They wanted to oppress us and we started to react.

But it is not just atheism that students are embracing. At a workshop in Konya, one of Turkey's most conservative cities, there have been claims that students at religious high schools are moving towards deism because of what they referred to as "the inconsistencies within Islam", according to reports in opposition newspapers. Deism has its roots back in Greek culture. Its followers believe that God exists, but they reject all religions.

While there are no statistics or polls to indicate how widespread this is, anecdotal evidence is enough to worry Turkey's leaders.

Let’s pray that Turkey’s youth will increasingly hear about Jesus Christ and turn to Him.

Pray for those seeking to make Jesus known inside the nation that God will lead them to those who are spiritually empty and are seeking after Him.

Pray also for those Christian workers that have been imprisoned that they will be released ASAP and that religious freedoms will be restored to the nation.