Rome, Italy, May 18, 2007 / 12:40 pm (CNA).- The editors of a Catholic website claim their site was brought down by Muslim hackers residing in Turkey.

The website — www.totustuus.it – was hacked May 10, but is again operational. Editors of the website, named after the motto of the late Pope John Paul II, believe it is a religiously motivated attack.

"In the past two months we had already suffered 70 attacks," David Botti told AKI. Botti is the president of the Totus tuus network. He told AKI that 80 percent of those attacks were carried out by Islamic hackers, and of those 25 percent were by Turks belonging to Turkhacks.com.

Botti said that the source of a hack can be determined by the hacker’s signature, for example a propaganda message with which they replace the original text. “The most frequent is the Islamic crescent symbol with words offending the Holy Father," explained Botti.

Botti said prayer, rather than technological protection systems, is the key to staving off further hacking. Readers, he said, need to pray for Europe.

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