Daily Archives: 06/24/2011

Afghanistan: Video released shows Taliban beheading Christian convert

by Claudia
Front of the Quran

Image via Wikipedia

A video released in recent weeks, and made available to WORLD this week by two separate Afghan sources, shows four Afghan militants beheading a man believed to be a Christian in Herat Province.The militants, who claim to be Taliban, captured the victim, a man in his 40s named Abdul Latif (according to Obaid Christ, who provided translation of the video), earlier this year from his village outside Enjeel, a town south of Herat.

In the two-minute video, the men, wearing explosive belts (or suicide vests) and kaffiya head scarves to cover their faces, recite verses from the Quran while forcing Latif to the ground and pinning him with their feet. “You who are joined with pagans . . . your sentence [is] to be beheaded,” read one of the militants in Farsi from what looked like a paper decree. “Whoever changes his religion should be executed.” The passages refer to Sura 8:12 (“I will instill terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks . . .”) and the hadiths, or sayings of Mohammed.

As Latif fought his captors from the ground, one of the militants thrust a medium-sized blade into the side of his neck. With blood flowing onto the ground the militants shouted “Allahu Akhbar” or “God is great” over and over until Latif was fully beheaded and his head was placed on top of his chest.

via WORLD Magazine | Brutal beheading | Mindy Belz | Jun 22, 11.

Whoever considers that this is equivalent to a soldier, is either an idiot or a scoundrel. :mad:

Found at Markedmanner Blog.

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The War Against Girls

by Claudia
India sex ratio map en

Image via Wikipedia

Mara Hvistendahl is worried about girls. Not in any political, moral or cultural sense but as an existential matter. She is right to be. In China, India and numerous other countries (both developing and developed), there are many more men than women, the result of systematic campaigns against baby girls. In “Unnatural Selection,” Ms. Hvistendahl reports on this gender imbalance: what it is, how it came to be and what it means for the future.

In nature, 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. This ratio is biologically ironclad. Between 104 and 106 is the normal range, and that’s as far as the natural window goes. Any other number is the result of unnatural events.

Yet today in India there are 112 boys born for every 100 girls. In China, the number is 121—though plenty of Chinese towns are over the 150 mark. China’s and India’s populations are mammoth enough that their outlying sex ratios have skewed the global average to a biologically impossible 107. But the imbalance is not only in Asia. Azerbaijan stands at 115, Georgia at 118 and Armenia at 120.

What is causing the skewed ratio: abortion. If the male number in the sex ratio is above 106, it means that couples are having abortions when they find out the mother is carrying a girl. By Ms. Hvistendahl’s counting, there have been so many sex-selective abortions in the past three decades that 163 million girls, who by biological averages should have been born, are missing from the world. Moral horror aside, this is likely to be of very large consequence.

via Book Review: Unnatural Selection – WSJ.com.

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Saudi Arabia: Catholic Human Rights group wants full probe in Rizana Nafeek case

by Claudia

A Catholic activist today joined human rights groups calling on the government to conduct a full probe in the case involving Sri Lankan housemaid Rizana Nafeek, who is on death row in a Saudi jail.

“Rights groups in Sri Lanka have joined hands with Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) to call on the government of Sri Lanka to conduct a full probe,” said Catholic priest Priest Father Nandana Manatunga, head of the House of Torture Victims in the diocese of Kandy.

Hong Kong-based AHRC said last week the housemaid signed a statement two years after the incident, saying she was forced to admit to the killing after being beaten up by local police, and that she signed a confession under duress.

Meanwhile, Indonesia has stopped sending maids to Saudi Arabia in protest for this execution.

Related:

US: Muslim arrested near Pentagon videotaped himself shouting “Allahu Akbar”

by Claudia
The Pentagon, looking northeast with the Potom...

Image via Wikipedia

A Marine Corps reservist arrested for suspicious activity near the Pentagon last week has been charged in connection with a spate of shootings at military sites in the Washington, D.C., area last fall, federal officials said Thursday.

Yonathan Melaku videotaped himself shouting “allahu Akbar” after firing shots at the US Marine Corps museum and documents concerning bomb-making were found in his home…

via Always On Watch: Semper Vigilans: Yonathan Melaku: \.

More here:

Add ABC’s World News and the NBC Nightly News to James Taranto’s list of news outlets (“Losing His Religion: A Pentagon terror scare and a media taboo”) which refuse to identify Yonathan Melaku, who was caught in Arlington Cemetery with suspicious material and a notebook praising the Taliban, as a Muslim.

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Indonesia: Activists criticize ‘hate speech’ during Friday prayers

by Claudia
Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta, Indonesia

Image via Wikipedia

Rights activists have criticized what they characterize as hate speeches delivered by Muslim leaders during Friday prayers.Chairul Anam, deputy head of the Human Rights Working Group, said the offending speech in mosques was part of a larger problem.

“There are three trends nowadays; namely, intolerance, violence and hate speech. These have made us worried,” he said during a seminar yesterday organized by the Indonesian Human Rights Monitor and attended by about 50 people.

Hate speech was particularly dangerous, he said, because it is used to declare other religious groups as heretical and fueled intolerance and violence.“We need a regulation to control it.”

Anam added that police have been particularly negligent because they allow such speech during Friday prayers and have made no attempt to intervene.“I hope that police will not be trapped in any religious sentiments.”

via Activists criticize ‘hate speech’. Author – Konradus Epa, Jakarta | Indonesia | ucanews.com.

Netherlands: Geert Wilders acquitted but the plaintiffs won’t stop

by Claudia
Geert Wilders

Image via Wikipedia

A Dutch court on Thursday acquitted populist politician Geert Wilders of charges of inciting hatred against Muslims, in a case that tested freedom of speech in the traditionally liberal country.

The court case has attracted attention, not just because of Geert Wilders’ controversial comments about Islam — which he compared to Nazism — but also because of the increasing influence of his political party, which supports the minority Dutch government on economic and other issues.

Found here.

Wilders had stressed that his statement was a criticism of the Islamic faith, not of any individuals. He greeted the court verdict with satisfaction, telling supporters that he was relieved to know that public criticism of Islam remains legal in the Netherlands. The court’s decision, he said, was “a victory for freedom of expression.”

But the plaintiffs won’t stop here:

While even the public defender’s office has previously requested he be cleared of all charges, the plaintiffs in the case are now considering bringing the issue to the UN and European courts.

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Pakistan: Christians demonstrate to call for the release of kidnapped Anglican pastor

by Claudia

Persecution against Christians continue:

Christians took to the streets of Attock–a city of 260,000 in Punjab province in northern Pakistan–to call for a more serious police investigation into the May 14 kidnapping of Robin Javed, an Anglican pastor.

“We do not know the reason why he was kidnapped, nor have we been asked for a ransom,” a local Christian told the Fides news agency. “This silence worries us greatly.”

Members of the Taliban are suspected of carrying out the kidnapping.