Iran: Human Rights’ official defends stoning

Mohammad-Javad Larijani

Of course, he is a “mullahcracy” supported guy.

Iran’s top human rights official has come under fire for defending his country’s use of stoning adulterers and others designated as criminals under Islamic law, claiming it is a “lesser punishment” than execution because it allows people a chance to survive.

Mohammad-Javad Larijani, a senior envoy and chief of Iran’s Human Rights Council, rejected international condemnations of the practice which has included censure by the U.N., and he described stoning as a controlled legal procedure.

“Stoning means you should do a number of acts, by throwing the stone in a limited number, in a special way.…In the eyes of some people, stoning is a lesser punishment than execution because there is a chance you should survive,” Larijani said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published today.

Iran has been under international pressure over stonings since the sentencing of Sakineh Ashtiani, 43, for a 2006 adultery charge.

via Outrage Over Iran Human Rights Official’s Defense of Stoning – ABC News.

As a commenter wrote in the link, you can survive with brain damage…

Background:
Woman’s stoning put on hold.
Hami Ramadan defends stoning because it’s “dissuasive”.
Protests all over the world in support of Ms. Ashtiani.
European Parliament VP wants to organise women in support of Sakineh.
Iran: Spanish journalist expelled.
Spain: “Extremist” imams’ ideology blamed on “disorganized Islam”, according to El País.
Germany is worried about the two detained journalists.
Son and lawyer of condenmed woman “tortured”.
Iran: Sakineh Ashtiani will be executed today (UPD).

Nasrallah: “There is no Persian civilization in Iran”

Iranian bloggers are not very happy about Nasrallah’s words. For example, Azarmehr:

So there we go! Now we know exactly what is going on in Iran and who is ruling in Iran. Thank you Sheikh Nassrollah for stating the obvious. Our country is under occupation by foreign usurpers who are threatening our identity, heritage and culture. But don’t be too happy Sheikh Nassrollah, Iran has dealt with worse usurpers than you and turned them into Iranians. You too will not be successful. Iran will never die.

UK: Muslim pupils suspended over online threats to kill ‘UK troop supporter’ classmate

A white girl and five Muslim students have been suspended from the Sidney Stringer Academy in Coventry after they threatened to kill one of their classmates for his facebook comments in which he paid tribute to the UK soldiers who lost their lives while defending Britain.

On November 11, Darius, whose father is Asian, wrote on Facebook: “RIP to all the lads who never made it home.” He also posted two pictures showing British troops on Armistice Day.

The gang of 12-year-old pupils had reportedly threatened 13-year-old Darius Gill with knuckle-dusters and knives for his support. One of them reportedly posted a picture of him holding an AK47 rifle and threatened to hijack a plane. On November 12, one of the accused wrote: “You better watch what the **** flies outta ya mouth. Or I’ma hijack a plane and fly it into your house, burn your apartment with your family tied to the couch. And slit your throat, so when you scream, only blood comes out.”

via Muslim pupils suspended over online threats to kill ‘UK troop supporter’ classmate – Nuevo Digital Internacional.

Wow, they begin early, hein?

I underline that part of the “white girl”, because this is the problem with people generalizing about race. The problem is not race but violence, and that is only justified ideologically. I would like to know more about that girl, really.

Australia: woman to appeal jailing over burqa incident

An Australian Muslim said Friday she would appeal the six-month jail sentence handed to her for falsely accusing a Sydney police officer of trying to pull off her burqa to verify that she held a driving licence.

… In video evidence presented to the court, Matthews called the officer a racist for asking her to show her face to see if it matched that in the photograph on her driving licence.

‘You look at me and see me wearing this and you couldn’t handle it,’ Matthews said. ‘All cops are racist.’

via Australian woman to appeal jailing over burqa incident – Monsters and Critics.

More commentary here. She has been jailed for 6 months over the incident.

Wow, gorgeous. So  now, asking to verify your identity is racist?

This is the type of case that convince me even more that banning burqas is necessary. If you want to wear it, go to Afghanistan. I’m told the living standards don’t match Australian/Western ones, but what the hell? You will be able to live in a non-racist society where you can wear the burqa and not being asked to verify your identity! With other minor details, like the Talibans next door…

 

US: First Guantanamo civilian trial delivers string of acquittals, and a conviction

Ahmad Ghaliani

A civilian jury has acquitted a former Guantanamo Bay inmate on multiple terror charges, but convicted him for plotting to bomb the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Among other charges, the defendant was cleared of 276 counts of attempted murder, due in part to key evidence being deemed inadmissible by the court.

“We respect the jury’s verdict and are pleased that Ahmed Ghailani now faces a minimum of 20 years in prison and a potential life sentence for his role in the embassy bombings,” a spokesman for the US justice department said after the trial.

Critics of President Barack Obama‘s policy of trying Guantanamo Bay detainees in civilian courts, rather than by military tribunal, say the trial has highlighted the flaws in this strategy.

“We are at war with al Qaeda,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said after the verdict was announced. “Members of the organization, and their associates, should be treated as warriors, not common criminals. We put our nation at risk by criminalizing the war.”

Ahmed Ghailani‘s case had been chosen for civilian trial, in part, because it was deemed one where a conviction was considered particularly probable. A further 174 terror suspects are being held at the military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, awaiting trial.

“Going forward, I once again strongly encourage the Obama administration to use military commissions to prosecute enemy combatants, particularly the 9/11 conspirators like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,” Senator Graham said.

via First Guantanamo civilian trial delivers string of acquittals, and a conviction | World | Deutsche Welle | 18.11.2010.

There is a debate about whether Ghaliani could face a life sentence. If that’s so, then supporters of civil trials (as the ones linked), consider that military trials won’t be necessary for other GITMO inmates. But the trial has lacked of some evidence that should have been shown at trial as pointed out by Flopping Aces:

They couldn’t introduce the man who sold explosives to Ghailani. They couldn’t introduce the fact that he admitted to the charges.

I don’t think either these guys are normal convicts. They are not like shoplifters or ordinary murders. So, their consideration as “civil guys” is something I don’t really understand. Of course, they should be tried, and as soon as possible. But not by whatever means.

NOTE: I can’t watch the video FA has inside as it has a restriction here that prevents us from watching it.

Netherlands: Catholic journalist receives torture, death threats for pro-life letter

Lifesite news report that Mariska Orbán de Haas, a Dutch Catholic pro-life journalist, has‘received hundreds of death threats and more than ten threats of torture. Her ‘crime’ against Dutch sensibilities was to write an open letter to pro-abortion parliamentarian Representative Jeannine Hennis-Plasschaert.

Lifesite news report:

‘The letter, published on October 27, sparked outrage in the largely liberal, pro-abortion Netherlands. Orbán soon offered a public apology, but that has not prevented her from receiving an avalanche of angry responses. French journalist Jeanne Smits reports that the letter has generated 350,000 tweets on Twitter, and various sites have created distorted pictures of her face, portraying her as a devil.’

Mariska Orbán had written an open letter to Hennis-Plasschaert because she had called a letter from Bishop Everard de Jong ‘disgusting’ for asking ‘representatives to stop the killing of the unborn in the face of impending budget restrictions, pointing out that defunding “bloody abortion clinics” would save money and help preserve future generations who could care for the elderly.’ Along with the letter the Bishop had also sent a plastic model of a fetal humanbeing.

Orbán wrote to the representive publicly, pointing out that both she and Hennis-Plasschaert have experienced the suffering of miscarriages, and that the fetal model she received from Bishop De Jong would resemble their lost children at the time of their deaths.

“In that light,” asked Orbán, “is it not ‘disgusting’ that our society permits us to abort more than thirty thousand babies in the Netherlands every year?” She noted that children who die by abortion are “exactly the same as the mysterious little lives that we expectantly carried within us.”

via Catholic journalist receives torture, death threats for pro-life letter in Liberal Holland « Protect the Pope.

So strong with pro-life peaceful journalists for saying the truth but then not so brave with Islamists, aren’t we?

Anyway, it’s disgusting that someone voices her opinion and what she gets is death threats and torture threats. Tolerance for other people’s opinions is basic in a democracy. And showing what’s really a foetus when they are aborted is showing the truth.

Iran: Military tests own model of Russian S-300 missile

Ohh, that peaceful mullahcracy!

Iran has successfully tested its own version of a missile system that Russia declined to supply amid concerns Tehran might be seeking nuclear weapons, a military official was quoted as saying on Thursday.Russia infuriated Iran in September when it canceled the S-300 missile order after heavy lobbying from the United States and Israel, which said the system could be used to help Iran shield its nuclear facilities from possible future air strikes.

State-run Press TV quoted a commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards as saying Tehran had adapted another Russian-made missile system to perform like the more sophisticated S-300.

“We have developed the system by upgrading systems like the S-200 and we have tested it successfully,” Brigadier General Mohammad Hassan Mansourian said, according to Press TV’s website.

Some Western analysts doubt Iran’s ability to replicate the S-300, a precision, mobile, long-range air defense system that can detect, track and destroy ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and low-flying aircraft.

via Iran says tests own model of Russian S-300 missile | Reuters.

Man accused of blasphemy shot dead in Pakistan

A man accused of blasphemy was shot and killed near his home in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore shortly after being granted bail by a court, according to a media report.

Imran Latif, 22, was accused of burning pages of the Quran in a case registered at Sherakot police station in Lahore and spent five months in jail.

He was released on bail on November 3 after the man who filed the complaint of blasphemy told the court he was not sure that Latif was guilty.

Latif was shot by armed men near his home on November 11 but police learnt only later that he had been accused of blasphemy, the Express Tribune newspaper reported.

Inspector Rafique Ahmed, who is investigating the murder, said Latif’s killing was likely linked to the blasphemy case. “No Muslim tolerates a man who commits blasphemous acts,” he said.

Latif’s family had not mentioned the blasphemy case when they reported the murder, he said.

via Man accused of blasphemy killed in Pakistan.

(Found).

Religion of peace, indeed…

Suspected Bomb Discovered In Suitcase of German Bound Plane

And again…

A suspected bomb in a suitcase checked in on a German-bound plane was intercepted in Namibia, Germany’s Federal Crime Office (BKA) said Thursday, one day after Berlin raised its terror alert level.The BKA said the suspicious baggage had been seized Wednesday at the international airport in Windhoek before it was due to be loaded on to a flight to Munich.

via Suspected Bomb Discovered In Suitcase of German Bound Plane : Homeland Security News.

First they were coming from Yemen adn were intercepted in UK, while the packages were being transported to US. Now Germany is the target. Unhappily this won’t be the last, at all.

Background:

1. German terror plot.
2. Islamic terrorism update: German and Austrian plots (…).
3. Terror Investigation: German Islamist resurfaces in video in Afghanistan.
4. Suspected leader of Sauerland terror cell confesses.
5. Sauerland cell planned bomb attacks on airports.
6. “Killing Germans is a duty”, Sauerland terror suspect says.
7. Sauerland terror cell sentenced.
8. Arrested man confesses in court to terrorism charges.
9. Germany: Terrorist suspect arrested in Sauerland region.

Austria: Turkish ambassador in Vienna sparks diplomatic row

Diplomatic tensions have flared up between Austria and Turkey after the Turkish ambassador in Vienna publically criticized Austria’s stance towards integrating Muslims. The Austrian chancellor is said to be “outraged.”

Austria has protested to Turkey after the Turkish ambassador suggested Turks living in Austria were treated “like a virus” and were denied the chance to integrate.

Ambassdor Kadri Ecved Tezcan also told Die Presse daily newspaper in an interview published on Wednesday that Austrian politicians were not doing enough to counter the rise of the far-right movement.

The row erupted in the wake of elections in the Austrian capital Vienna in October, when the far-right Freedom Party won 26 percent of the vote on a xenophobic and anti-Muslim platform.

via Turkish ambassador in Vienna sparks diplomatic row | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 10.11.2010.

So, is he going to apologize for the appalling mistreatment of non-Muslims in Turkey? I don’t think so, do you?

Background:
Turkey: the Islamist danger.
Turkey: a Christian bookshop is vandalised while several “Islamic scholars” call for “Global Jihad” against Israel.
Creeping Islamism in Turkey.
Turkey: alleged torturers and killers of three Christians don’t attend court hearing again.
Cardinal Joachim Meisner: “restrictions on Christians in Islamic nations have led to aversion against Muslims“.
Turkey: Human Rights Court Rules in Favor of Church.
Turkey: European Court rules Religion ID, against Human Rights.
Turkey: Europe asks Ankara to recognise the Ecumenical Patriarchate and other religious minorities.
Erdogan Calls Israel ‘Principal Threat’ to Middle East Peace.
Report: Iran aggrees to give $25million to Erdogan’s AKP.
Turkey: demographics and Govt’s policy could cause the end of Constatinople’s Patriarchy.
Turkey: Mob attacks art galleries’ parties allegedly for “alcohol consumption”.
Turkey: Nationalist Party holds prayer in Armenian Cathedral.
Synod: “Turkish extremists were behind Bishop Padovese’s murder”, Bishop Franceschini charges.
Turkey: Senior Minister calls Christian “Kuffar”.
Germany: President Wulff urges Turks to ‘actively integrate’ in Germany in his visit to Turkey.
Turkey: Christians Acquitted of ‘Insulting Turkishness’.
Turkey: Christian graves vandalised on the island of Imvros.
Turkey: Commission for education proposes mandatory Islamic values in Turkish schools.

UK: Paying GITMO detainees to avoid processes

It is a story very much of our time. A dozen or so people, some of whom had been given asylum in this country, were detained in Afghanistan or Pakistan while allegedly providing support to our enemies, and now are to be given large sums of taxpayers’ money. Why? Because they claim to have been kidnapped and tortured – not by British officials, but by the security agencies of other countries.

They sued the British Government, saying that MI5 and MI6 officers were “complicit” in their alleged torture and rendition because they had provided questions for them to answer. The two agencies deny that – but defending themselves against the allegations would take too long, be too expensive and divert too many resources. More than that, it could compromise national security by divulging secret information, further harming our crucial intelligence relationship with the United States.

So the Government has decided to settle the claims, even with those whose connections to this country were tenuous, and even though – for all the brickbats hurled at our security services – their complicity in torture has been neither demonstrated nor conceded. That is now a matter for the inquiry announced by David Cameron – though if it finds that the allegations are untrue, the compensation will not be repaid. All told, the Government has adopted a pragmatic position. But that does not make this outcome any easier to accept.

via Terror suspects: pragmatic payouts – Telegraph.

More here.

Afghanistan: Trial of convert to Christianity will be held next Sunday

This is an update of this story:

An Afghan national, in prison since May because of his religion, will be put on tried this Sunday. However, he has been denied legal counsel. Local sources say no one knows what charges will be laid against him when he goes before a judge.

The authorities arrested Said Musa, 45, on 31 May, a day after a local station, Noorin TV, broadcast images of Christians praying after being baptised. This was followed by a wave of arrests against Christians in what local sources describe as a manhunt. Apparently, Said Musa is the only Christian to go on trial.

Leaving Islam for another religion is a capital offence under Afghanistan’s Islamic law, despite the fact that the Taliban lost power in 2001.

In June, the authorities forced Musa to abjure his Christian faith publicly, on television, but still kept him in prison without informing him of the charges against him.

In prison, Musa said he was a follower of Jesus, local sources report.

Last month, Musa was able to get a letter out, addressed to the world’s Churches, to US President Barack Obama and the chiefs of NATO forces in Afghanistan.

In it, he wrote that he was “physically and verbally abused” by his captors and other prisoners at Ouliat Prison in Kabul.

He alluded to the lack of justice he faced, saying that the prosecutor had given the judge a false report about him and had demanded a bribe.

Local Christians, human rights observers and religious freedom monitors fear that Musa might be made an example to show that Sharia rules in Afghanistan rather than international agreements.

via AFGHANISTAN Afghan Christian to go to trial on Sunday for his faith – Asia News.

Well, if that’s the case, what are we waiting to give Afghanistan back to the Taliban? I really hate them, but it the things are just the same, why are we spending so much lives, money and effort there?

Iran: Sotoudeh Ends Hunger Strike Following Trial Session

This is an update on this story:

Nasrin Sotoudeh’s first trial was held today at Branch 26 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, presided by Judge Pir-Abbasi. A source knowledgeable about Sotoudeh’s prosecution told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that, “She was very weak and has lost a lot of weight. After the trial, she took the advice of her lawyers and husband and agreed to break her hunger strike.”According to this source, Judge Pir-Abbasi agreed to reconsider the order to renew Sotoudeh’s detention. “The trial was held in the presence of Sotoudeh’s lawyers, Abdolfattah Soltani, Mina Jaafari, and Nasim Ghanavi. The lawyers presented their defense in relation to charges of ‘acting against national security,’ ‘collusion and gathering with intent to disturb security,’ and ‘cooperation with the Defenders of Human Rights Center,’” he told the Campaign.

Reza Khandan, Sotoudeh’s husband, was not allowed to attend the court session but was able to talk to his wife for a few minutes afterwards. Sotoudeh’s next court session is scheduled to be held on 24 November 2010.

via International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran – Sotoudeh Ends Hunger Strike Following Trial Session.

Egypt: Muslims Attack Christians over Romance Rumors

Muslim-Christian tensions broke out on Monday in southern Egypt, where a Muslim mob stormed a Christian neighborhood in the mixed city of Abu Tesht and set fire to several homes. The arson attack followed rumors that a Christian man was romantically involved with a young Muslim woman.

None of the town’s Christian residents were hurt in the mob attack. Police were sent to the area to restore calm.

The Christian man and Muslim woman who became the subject of rumors after being seen walking together have been arrested. Police say they will investigate.

Last year a Christian man was accused of raping a Muslim girl. The alleged assault led to Muslim demonstrations and ultimately to violence, when six Christians and one Muslim guard were murdered at a church.

via Egyptian Muslims Attack Christians over Romance Rumors – Defense/Middle East – Israel News – Israel National News.

More here.

More here.

France: Govt accuses Iran of violence at Tehran embassy

France has accused Iranian security services of committing “unacceptable acts of violence” on French diplomatic personnel in the Iranian capital.

The entry to the French embassy residence in Tehran was blocked by unidentified officials on Sunday, said the French foreign ministry.

“[They] proceeded to arrest guests of the French ambassador and carried out unacceptable acts of violence against French diplomatic personnel,” it said.

Iran has not commented on the claims.

Correspondents say the incident is the latest signal of ongoing tensions between France and Iran, partly strained by France’s tough stand on Iran’s nuclear program

via BBC News – France accuses Iran of violence at Tehran embassy.

 

Asia Bibi: Pope appeals for “full freedom”

Asia Bibi

An appeal for the restitution of “full freedom” to Asia Bibi was launched today by Benedict XVI, at the end of the general audience. He noted that “the international community is following with great concern the difficult situation of Christians in Pakistan, often victims of violence or discrimination.” The Pope expressed his “spiritual closeness” to Asia Bibi and her family and called for the liberation of women. “I pray - he concluded - for those who are in similar situations that their human dignity and their fundamental rights be fully respected.”

via VATICAN Pope appeals for “full freedom for Asia Bibi” – Asia News.

Asia Bibi, her lawyer has told, was offered by the same judge who has condemned her, to walk free if she converted to Islam. She answered: “I prefer to die as a Christian than to live as a Muslim“. See? This is a true martyr and not the people that commit suicide to kill others.

Background:
Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy.
Pakistan: Your signature to save Asia Bibi and Pakistan.

US: Muslim who shot soldier in Arkansas says he wanted to cause more death

The brainwashing this guy has is absolutely shocking:

What I had in mind didn’t go as planned but Allah willing He will reward me for my intentions. 

…

From a black Ford Explorer Sport Trac, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, a Memphis native, watched two soldiers in fatigues smoking outside a military recruiting center in Little Rock. He aimed an assault rifle out the window and fired.

Muhammad sped away, hoping to flee 150 miles to Memphis where he would switch cars. But a wrong turn in a construction zone led him to police.

He stepped out of the SUV wearing a green ammo belt around his waist.

“It’s a war going on against Muslims, and that is why I did it,” an officer heard him say. “You see how I gave up with no problem.”

…

It’s a war out against Islam and Muslims and I’m on the side of the Muslims point blank … The U.S. has to pay for the rape, murder, bloodshed, blasphemy it has done and still doing to the Muslims and Islam. So consider this a small retaliation the best is to come Allah willing. This is not the first attack and won’t be the last.

…

We believe in an eye for eye not turn the other cheek. …We are all brothers under the same banner fighting for the same cause. … (T)he war has no boundaries as you can see. … Unless the U.S. government pulls fully out of Iraq and Afghanistan and stop(s) helping Israel in (its) massacre of Muslims, blood will flow in the U.S.A. like tap water.

…

Melvin Bledsoe, Muhammad’s father, believes his son was brainwashed and that he only claims affiliation with the terrorist group so he can be executed and become a martyr.

Far as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula I won’t say much but yes, I’m affiliated with them. And it’s more of a Islamic Revivalist Revolutionary Movement than an organization. Same with other Al-Qaeda fronts. Our goal is to rid the Islamic world of idols and idolaters, paganism and pagans, infidelity and infidels, hypocrisy and hypocrites, apostasy and apostates, democracy and democrats and relaunch the Islamic caliphate … and to establish Islamic law (Shari’ah) – Allah’s law on earth and anyone who strives for this is affiliated with the movement.

So yes I’m Al Qaeda and proud to be.

…
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

I knew this would end with the enemies of Allah killing me. But the good thing is – Martyrs don’t die! Allah says, “Don’t think of those who are killed for the sake of Allah as dead. Rather they are alive with their Lord and they have their provision!” (Qur’an 3:169) And that’s what I believe. The jihad lives on. May Allah accept my jihadi operations and grant me what he promises all of the … (martyrs) Ameen.

via Muslim who shot soldier in Arkansas says he wanted to cause more death » Knoxville News Sentinel.

By the way, that call to “get rif of so many people”, isn’t a call for genocide?

Turkmenistan: Appeal denied for Ilmurad Nurliev, Pentecostal pastor convicted by false evidence

Speaking about religious freedom:

A sentence of 4 years in jail on false evidence for pastor Ilmurad Nurliev, in a court sentence that has been “hidden” to prevent an appeal. Fears are mounting that he will be sent to a labour camp known for its use of psychotropic substances on inmates. His wife Maya Nurlieva launches an appeal to denounce the persecution against Nurliev Light to the World Pentecostal Church, which the state has repeatedly refused to register. In the country unregistered religious groups can not hold activities, or even meet to pray.The woman told Forum 18 that the court refused to give her a copy of the ruling issued on October 21, needed for an appeal to be lodged within 10 days, saying it would only be given to her husband, by court order of Judge Agajan Akjaev . Not even his lawyer has been given access to the written sentence.

Thus it has not been possible to appeal against the sentence to four years in prison for aggravated fraud, a charged based solely on very dubious testimonies of people who say they entrusted money to him. One of the witnesses, Aybolek Akmuradovna Gurbanov claimed to have given Nurliev money on January 1, 2010, but F18 found that on that date he was in prison on a previous conviction.

The trial was held behind closed doors, not even a single representative of the U.S. Embassy was allowed to attend.

The pastor is in jail since Aug. 27. The ruling also ordered that he be submitted to “forced medical treatment” like that of a drug addict, despite medical tests performed on October 5 showing that he does not need it. The fear is that he and Jehovah’s Witness Ahmet Hudaybergenov, also convicted, will be sent to Seydi labour camp, where there is evidence of torture against Baptist Christians and Jehovah’s Witnesses prisoners with psychotropic drugs.

via TURKMENISTAN Appeal denied for Ilmurad Nurliev, Pentecostal pastor convicted by false evidence – Asia News.

Saudi Arabia: man condemned to 500 lashes and 5 years’ imprisonment on homosexuality charges

A 27-year-old Saudi Arabian man is reported to have been sentenced to 500 lashes and five years’ imprisonment by a court in Jeddah for the criminal offence of homosexuality, among other charges. He was already serving one year’s imprisonment after being convicted earlier this year on a separate charge of homosexuality, among other offences.

The man, whose name is unknown, was reported in the press to have been sentenced in recent days by a court in Jeddah to five years in prison, 500 lashes and a fine of 50,000 Saudi Arabian riyals (approximately US$13,000) for the criminal offence of homosexuality, as well as offences of imitating women and possessing pornographic videos.

He was reported to have been sentenced after allegedly appearing in a video that was posted online and showed him dressed as a woman and talking about sex. The video was purportedly taken inside Briman prison in Jeddah, where he was serving his previous sentence of a year’s imprisonment, but the prison administration was reported to have denied that the short clip was filmed there.

via Saudi Arabia: man condemned to 500 lashes and 5 years’ imprisonment on homosexuality charges.

Background: UN Anniversary: “no more seats for oil”.

Related: Saudi Arabia: gay man condemned to 1000 lashes for recording gay video.

France: another Catholic church, attacked

After the Carcassonne’s attack, an scalade of vandalism has targeted the Church of St. John in Avignon.

Wednesday, Church of St. John. Father Gabriel, the parish priest, speaks to the press, almost in desperation. For several months, his church has been the target of obscene and offensive tags, excrement-throwing … And last week, the cypresses adjacent to the religious building were set on fire, threatening to spread the flames to church. For this priest, “these acts have a direct link with what is happening in Iraq where Christians were attacked.” At the outset, Father Gabriel talks about inter-community tensions and denounced a “climate of increasingly aggressive and violent maintained by a small group of young people 12/13 years up to 16 years.” At first, Father Gabriel was believed to “incivility” of unemployed youth in the neighborhood. Nonsense of teenagers in need of provocation.Then a few days before the fire of cypress, a youth entered the church during mass, urinating on the porch with while shouting this terrible sentence, “We’ll toast you all, you and your church.” The parish priest complained to the police on Nov. 9.

How the set of facts as serious attacks against places of worship, could pass so unnoticed by authorities? At the town hall, the chief of staff pleads “shocked and stunned.” ”We learned the facts by the press this morning himself“, the mayor’s office acknowledges. Stunned by the facts themselves, but also by the lack of relay and the lack of feedback from the neighborhood to the town hall … “We have traced all the letters received by City Hall in recent months, nothing on the Church of St. John. “

Another reason for astonishment, that the archdiocese did not call directly to the mayor to report these acts classified as “intolerable“.

Acts which, for some residents of Saint John, would be the face of the iceberg deploring a “religious proselytizing.” Inter-community tension must be taken into account by the archdiocese and the representative of Muslim worship. Locally, we learned tonight that Father Gabriel will have an 8 am town hall on Monday 30, his schedule did not allow him to go before. ”We’ll set up a working group composed of national police and municipal technical services but also of the city to respond as quickly as possible in this situation,” concluded the chief of staff.

Having failed to reach the Archbishop’s palace tonight, we will, hopefully, learn his position tomorrow.

(Found).

Dhimmi/Catholic/non-Muslimphobia in action.