Every five minutes, a Christian is killed in the world

Massimo Introvigne. Image via Wikipedia

Every year 105,000 Christians are killed because of their faith.

This shocking figure was disclosed by Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne, representative of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) on Combating Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians, at the “International Conference on Inter-religious dialogue between Christians, Jews and Muslims,” sponsored the Hungarian presidency of the European Union (EU) in Gödöllo, near Budapest.

“Every five minutes”, Introvigne said in his speech, “a Christian is killed for his faith.” The figure does not include the victims of civil wars, or wars between nations, but only the people put to death because they are Christians.

“If these figures are not cried out to the world, if this massacre is not stopped,” Introvigne continued; “if it is not recognized that the persecution against Christians is the first worldwide emergency with regard to religious discrimination and violence, dialogue between religions will only produce wonderful symposia but no concrete results.”

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Spain: Barcelona, nest of counter-jihad spies

Barcelona. Image via Wikipedia

The Catalan capital has become a major center of operations of the intelligence services of all countries who are suffering and generate Jihadist terrorism and have diplomatic representation in Spain. The operation goes beyond Barcelona and extends to areas with high density of Muslim population.

The reason why Barcelona has become a nest of spies has its origin in the consideration of Catalonia as a source of primary importance to jihadists based in Europe.

… Among the reasons for considering Catalonia as a “the most dangerous nest of radical Islamists in the Mediterranean, the U.S. Secret Service pointed to the high percentage of legal and illegal immigration from North Africa-Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria- as well as Pakistan and Bangladesh, which in their view is a “magnet for recruiting terrorists. ” The concern has even led authorities meetings of experts and members of various intelligence services accredited in Spain, like the one held in Madrid a few weeks ago. A meeting just to talk of Catalonia as “new epicenter of jihadism. “

Found here.

Background:

UK: 40 Universities are breeding ground for terror

Officials have identified 40 English universities where ‘there may be particular risk of radicalisation or recruitment on campus’.

A soon to be published Whitehall report – seen by the Daily Mail – will point to a string of examples of students going on to commit terrorist acts against this country or overseas.

Alarmingly the Prevent review says that ‘more than 30 per cent of people convicted for Al Qaeda-associated terrorist offences in the UK… are known to have attended university or a higher education institution.

‘Another 15 per cent studied or achieved a vocational or further education qualification. About 10 per cent of the sample were students at the time when they were charged or the incident for which they were convicted took place.’

The report, prepared by Home Office officials, warns of hardline Islamic groups specifically targeting universities which have large numbers of Muslim students in order to peddle a message of hate.

Students are even ‘engaging in terrorism or related activities while members of university societies’.

But it says the universities are not doing enough to respond to this threat to national security. Fewer than half of universities are engaged with the police.

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Indonesia: Bashir rejects terrorism charges

This is an update on this story:

Prosecutors have sought a life sentence for Bashir, who co-founded the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah network, which is blamed for some of Indonesia’s deadliest suicide bombings.
Bashir, 72, denies involvement with the training camp but has repeatedly defended it as legal under Islam.

The white-bearded cleric told a Jakarta court that the case against him was fabricated and witnesses that testified by teleconference were doing so under pressure.

“Therefore their testimonies could not be trusted,” he said.

Citing verses from the Quran, Bashir said he rejected the trial as against Islam.

Read more here.