The Messiah of Turkey

This is the amazing story of Shabbatai Sevi, the Messiah of Turkey. Among the many charismatic religious groups in today's confused world, there is one whose founder started life as a rabbi, then converted to Islam and eventually reverted to Judaism. Sabbataeans, as the followers of Shabbetai Sevi are known, follow the path of continuous conversion. It is incredible to acknowledge that when the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire challenged the man who large numbers of Jews recognised as the Messiah, to convert to Islam or die, his submission was seen by many of his followers, not as cowardice but as the fulfilment of a divine journey. As a result, to this day, some Sabbateans believe that apostasy from Judaism constitutes the sacred process of watering their spiritual roots. They have successively embraced Hinduism, Islam and Christianity reverting eventually to their own unorthodox brand of Judaism.Following a visit to Istanbul the author was able to verify that the Sabbataeans number some forty thousand individuals. Many of them, to this day, show a public persona as Muslims but privately follow their own secret religion. Their sacred literature is the Zohar, the principle book of Kabbala and to this must be added the writings of Shabbatai Sevi and his followers. The Sabbataeans maintain their own website on which they invite their followers to soul search and which they believe will alone take them to the Messiah. Before we dismiss them as being of no consequence we must remember that it is common knowledge in Turkey that influential political leaders in the two major political parties of Turkey are also Sabbataeans.