Forced to convert to Islam, a group of Cypriot Greeks continued their Christian faith in secrecy after the invasion of the Turks in 1571, and to escape from the stigma of forced conversions, they formed a sect – The Linobambaki. A group of them had realised that the two one-god faiths were similar in nature – and yet since the Crusades, the Moslems and the Christians had been fighting each other. They were determined to infiltrate the higher echelons of government to influence both great religions. It was a very slow process but they incredibly maintained the secrecy of their sect over more than 400 years. In recent years as the sect had moved from a religious to a more political arena, they had been meeting in Venice and other cities once a year. It had never been their goal of becoming religious leaders for they settled for influence through their business connections. The Linobambaki had migrated from their Cyprus birthplace to countries like the UK, Germany, USA, Australia, Egypt, Turkey, Jordan... and many of them had managed to obtain citizenship. Once they accepted the Linobambaki prophecy, it was their duty to obtain success in business or politics in their adopted countries… and by late 1990s they had achieved a dominant position in business… three of their sect being among the top 500 richest persons in the world. One of them was a judge in the UK. Another had been elected to the European Parliament via his German constituency, another had become a close advisor to the US President, yet another was the Secretary General for one of the Arab World's NGOs and another had just been granted citizenship from a Gulf country for his role in building a brand new city.
