After publishing this yesterday I was having second thoughts about the legitimacy of Sister Hatune’s foundation, so I pulled the post for a while to do some checking. Something just doesn’t ring true…
Unfortunately, I can’t find a whole lot of information to allay my suspicions. There aren’t many corroborating stories in other trustworthy publications. (Shoebat.com – referenced below – is a site which mentions Sister’s ministry several times, but they lean a bit too much toward sensationalism. Maybe it’s a cultural thing?)
Several searches for her foundation turned up only HatuneFoundation.com – which right off the top is odd, because non-profits almost exclusively use the “.org” extension for their domain names – not “.com”. Further, the site seems amateurishly generic. It could easily just be one of those faux fund-raising operations.
On the other hand, this is a foreign–based charity, and the group really doesn’t have any paid staff, which could account for rather unsophisticated look.
 
So I don’t know… Sister Hatune’s story certainly is impressive. But is she for real? Or do I just hope so?
I’ll leave it up, and let you decide.
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This inspiring story from WorldNetDaily caught my attention a couple weeks ago: Nun pleads for Christians raped, sold, killed by ISIS.
 
Amid the ongoing violence against Christians and other “infidels” in the Middle East, Sister Hatune Dogan is a fearless, unwavering source of support. According to WND, Her international foundation includes some 5000 volunteers serving the needy in over 35 countries. But she feels especially called to inform westerners of the horrifying realities of radical Islam ~

Sister Hatune arrived last Thursday at the Atlanta airport for a stopover on her way back to Germany. She was dressed in traditional black garments and a habit covering her hair. She wore a simple wooden crucifix around her neck and carried with her a well-worn copy of the Quran, which has become her constant companion wherever she goes to teach about the current situation in the Middle East.
 
She believes Christians in the West should learn what is written in the Muslim holy book. If they did, they would realize that the Islamic State, also called ISIS, is not doing anything that hasn’t been done in the past by devout Muslims who have conquered a people they see as “infidels.”

A Syrian Orthodox nun who speaks 13 languages, Sister Hatune Dogan is a tireless advocate for Christian victims of Muslim persecution in the Middle East. And she’s dedicated to spreading the truth about the threat from radical Islam – both here in America and abroad.

 
Sister Hatune was in the U.S. last month to seek donations for her foundation which ministers to the persecuted minorities of Iraq, Syria, Egypt and India. But she also came with an urgent message for those Americans who don’t quite appreciate the magnitude of the threat we’re facing ~

“America is inviting its own slaughterers to its door,” she said, referring to the U.S. policy of taking in Muslim refugees through the United Nations refugee program.
 

“You have already a parallel society in America,” Sister Hatune said. “In 50 years they will kill your grandchildren before your eyes. The Middle East is already here. It is here. It is not far from here. It is at your door.”

 
After heading back to her home convent in Germany for a couple days, Sister Hatune returned to the Middle East in time to celebrate Christmas with persecuted Christians ~

She was with them in November when she visited refugee camps in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. She also sneaked into Syria to meet with Christians there.
 
“They need your support. Without your support they can’t continue,” she says in a video showing her with a group of Yazidi refugees. “They live like animals. Starving. No food. Unsanitary. No one should have to live like this.”
 
It’s a plight she is all too familiar with. Her question “What happened to all the Christians?” is purely rhetorical and completely personal. Her family lived through the genocide of 1915 in Turkey, the country from which her parents fled in 1985.

Earlier this year Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff spoke with Sister Hatune about her life growing up in Turkey, and how her own experience motivates her work as a voice for the persecuted. Oddly enough, the video of that interview was HERE – I just watched it two days ago – but now it’s been pulled due to “copyright infringement”… weird* (the full transcript of the interview is still available though). I did find several others on YouTube, including this one ~
 
Up-date 1-6-15:
The original (and better) video is back up. (Thank you Vlad Tepes!)
Well worth the 18 minutes ~
 

 
*Doubly-weird because a similar video (from a different source) included with the WND story was also just taken down… All of a sudden, seven months later, there were “multiple third-party notifications of copyright infringement” ?? Or maybe someone doesn’t want Sister Hatune’s message getting out? Hmmm…

 
Related:
Sister Hatune Dogan Speaks of Inhuman Atrocities after returning from Trip to Syria (March 2014)