Italy: Muslim destroys the statue of the patron saint of Agrigento in Sicily

Image by eli_chan via Flickr

An immigrant from the Maghreb has entered the sanctuary of Saint Calogero and has destroyed the image of the patron saint, last July 9th.

The church was open for the 7:30 mass, when the immigrant, of North African origins, has entered and gone directly into the sacristy, where the statue of Saint Calogero was. He took it and threw it violently against the wall, destroying it completely.

A believer who was at the church had tried to arrest the immigrant, but was hurt. Four policemen were needed to control the man and then to arrest him.

Saint Calomero, a Greek saint, lived in the city in the Vth century, evangelised Sicily and is much revered in the island. He is always represented as a black man. In fact, the Agrigento’s archbishop has praised him as “an example of integration between people”.

Video (Italian):

Egypt: Christian Girls Kidnapped and ‘Sold’

Two teenage Coptic girls, cousins, were recently kidnapped and then “sold” in Minya, Egypt—the same region where a Coptic church was recently attacked and desecrated. I tried to find this story in English-language media and, as expected, found nothing, except for one report in Al-Masry Al-Youm titled “Clashes between police and Coptic protesters in Minya”—as if that’s the important story (as usual, the media prefers headlines portraying harried Christian minorities as equally culpable as their Muslim persecutors, thereby justifying use of the preferred phrase, “sectarian strife“).

At the end of the Al-Masry Al-Youm report, we get a trailing sentence alluding to “claims” that two Christian girls “were abducted by Muslims and forced to convert to Islam” as the reason why Copts were demonstrating and clashing with the police in the first place.

… The two girls, Christine Azat (aged 16) and Nancy Magdi (aged 14) were on their way to church Sunday, June 12, when they were seized. Their abductors demanded $200,000 Egyptian pounds for their release. The people of the region quickly put their savings together and came up with the ransom money; but when they tried to give it to the kidnappers, they rejected it, saying they had already “sold” the girls off to another group which requires $12 million Egyptian pounds to return them.

via Egypt: Christian Girls Kidnapped and ‘Sold’ | FrontPage Magazine.

Should I expect a worldwide condemnation of this? 😡

Found here.

Related articles

• Egypt: Muslims attack Coptic church, Copts are sentenced to 5-yrs imprisonmnet for poseesion of firearms and pocket knives (teaandpolitics.wordpress.com)
• Egypt: Christians begin to flee the country (teaandpolitics.wordpress.com)

Iran: U.S. hikers to be tried on July 31, says their lawyer

Evin Prison

Iran will hear the case against three Americans detained for nearly two years on spying charges on July 31, their lawyer told Reuters on Tuesday, and he said he hoped a final decision on their case will be made then. Josh Fattal, Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd were arrested by Iranian forces on July 31, 2009, on suspicion of spying after crossing into Iran from neighboring Iraq.

via Iran says U.S. hikers to be tried on July 31: lawyer – Yahoo! News.

Related articles

• U.S. hikers ‘abused’ in Iranian prison (edition.cnn.com)
• Iran: US hikers tortured (teaandpolitics.wordpress.com)

Egypt: Muslims attack Coptic church, Copts are sentenced to 5-yrs imprisonment for possession of firearms and pocket knives

A Military court in Egypt has sentenced three Christian Copts to 5-years imprisonment on charges of possession of firearms and pocket knives. The Court released all other Muslims and Copts arrested following clashes on May 19 over the re-opening of St. Mary and St. Abraham churches in Ain Shams West (AINA 5-24-2011). Copts Emad Ayyad and Ayman Youssef Halim were convicted of carrying firearms. Emad Ayyam’s son, Ayad Emad Ayad, was convicted of carrying a pocket knife.

Eight Copts, mostly students, were arrested in Ain Shams West and charged with rioting, violence and causing injury to citizens. Three of the Copts were also charged with possession of firearms and knives. Police arrested three under-age Muslims on charges of throwing stones at the army.

Defense lawyer Abraham Edward said “This is a very unjust, severe and cruel verdict.” He said that as lawyers they are unable to fathom what is going on. “Today’s case is very strange, a case where there is not one shred of evidence to indict them. If this case went in front of the International Court of Justice they would all be set free.” He criticized the five-year prison sentence handed down to Ayad Emad Ayad for carrying a pocket knife. According to the law this is punishable by a six months suspended sentence.

Found at Egypt: Christians Still Do Not Get Any Justice.

Background: Egypt: War against Copts

Related:

• Egyptian Copts demand end to post-revolution sectarianism
• Dozens injured after Copts attacked during protests

UK: Govt appoints envoy to Islamic OIC

Unbelievable: From Undhimmi:

The British government has appointed Mohammed Shokat as the UK special envoy to the 57-member Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) (the ‘Muslim UN’) in a major bid to boost ties between the two.

The OIC and the UK have also announced plans to develop a joint framework of dialogue and cooperation in selected areas and evinced keen interest to hold regular consultations on issues of common concerns, said a British Embassy spokesman in Riyadh Sunday.

The move to promote relations with the OIC is significant for both sides as Islam is the second largest religion in Britain, with an estimated Muslim population of 2.5 million.

The UK is also a permanent member of the UN Security Council besides being a developed country and the world’s sixth largest economy. On the other hand, the OIC, the second largest inter-governmental organization after the UN, is the collective voice of the Muslim world.

Jewish and Islamic law: why they aren’t equal?

From Melanie Philips h/t to BCF:

Jews are very properly sensitive to the dangers of prejudice and discrimination against other minorities. And very often they see in Muslim communities echoes of their own. After all, they say, don’t we Jews also sometimes dress in strange and distinctive ways, follow religious practices that are not understood by the population in general and have our own religious courts, just like the Muslims?

The answer to that last point, however, is an emphatic no. For the big difference between British Jews and Muslims is sharia law.

Contrary to the popular misapprehension, sharia is not like halachah and sharia courts are not like the batei din. Jews believe that the law of the land is the law. Decisions of the batei din are therefore essentially informal rulings; any binding decisions about family or other matters are made in accordance with the law of the land, which is acknowledged to hold sway.

By contrast, Muslims promoting sharia believe that Islamic law must supersede the law of the land because sharia is divinely ordained and recognises no superior secular authority.

Related articles

• Islamic Liberalism More Dangerous that Radical Islam? (teaandpolitics.wordpress.com)
• Australia: After uproar, Muslim says mistake to mention sharia law (creepingsharia.wordpress.com)

Egypt: Christians fleeing from Eritrea face horrible suffering

Eritreans who have fled one of the world’s most repressive regimes are facing unimaginable suffering once they arrive in Egypt, where an estimated 200 have fallen into the hands of human traffickers.

“They are in great danger from their government, which is one of the most severe persecutors of Christians in the world, and if they flee in the hope of a better life elsewhere, they face imprisonment, kidnap, torture, rape, beatings and even death,” said Patrick Sookhdeo, the international director of the Barnabas Fund, which provides aid to persecuted Christians. In addition, some refugees have reportedly had their organs harvested.

Read here.

Both Pope Benedict and Christian Solidarity Worldwide have both of them denounced this problem. I hope other international organizations also denounce it the sooner the better.

Afghanistan: Taliban activate phone for complaints

Image via Wikipedia

The Afghan Taliban have activated a citizen phone service for complaints after learning that a group of false insurgents is extorting the population in eastern Afghanistan, a Taliban spokesman said today.

Rebel leaders have reacted this way to the growing number of complaints that have taken place in the eastern province of Nangarhar by the action of a group of suspected rebels, using the name of the Taliban, extort the population.

“They are collecting money, extorting and even kidnapping on our behalf, but they have not received any instruction from the ‘mujahideen’,” rebel spokesman Zabiullah Mujahi said.

More here.

Iraq: Christian beheaded by his kidnappers

The decapitated body of a Christian man has been discovered in Kirkuk, northern Iraq, a few days after he was kidnapped. Ashur Yacob Issa, 29, was abducted late Friday night or early Saturday morning (13 or 14 May) and his mutilated body was discovered last Monday morning (16 May).

His family had been asked for a ransom but was not able to pay the sum of more than £61,500 the kidnappers demanded.

Speaking to Aid to the Church in Need, the charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians, Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk condemned the killing, and went on to pay tribute to the strength and faith of his community despite the continuing threat of violence.

Archbishop Sako said: “In all these years, I have never heard of a single Christian converting to Islam, despite the many threats.”

More here. Found here.

Erdogan wins… but not enough

Image via Wikipedia

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) won Turkey’s parliamentary elections with around 50 percent of the vote, a resounding victory that forces the country’s pluralistic democracy to face some cold hard facts.

With voter participation exceeding 84 percent, the results are a democratic legitimation of the AKP’s third consecutive election victory since 2002. Over the course of the past three elections, the AKP’s support among voters has grown from 34 percent to just under 50 percent, leaving the opposition well behind.

The rest were also-rans: the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP) garnered around 25 percent of the vote while the right-wing extremist Nationalist Action Party (MHP) came in with a meager 13 percent. In contrast, independent candidates, many of them supported by the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), managed to secure a respectable 35 parliamentary seats. Among the independents are also non-Kurdish critics of Erdogan, who are currently in prison awaiting trial on charges of plotting a coup.

More here.

Related articles

• Recep Erdogan wins by landslide in Turkey’s general election (guardian.co.uk)

“There is no compulsion on religion”

Well, something like that…

The infidels are all one and the same. [4] There is a difference between this and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, even on war. The war of the Muslims is better than the peace of these dogs. [5] ….

Allah says no coercion in Islam. One is free to be faithful or unfaithful. That is the starting point, but it allows someone who converted to Islam to change their minds? No, not allowed. …

That is a totally different story. A person who converted and received a sample of the perfection of Islam is not allowed to leave the fold of Islam when he feels like that. …

First, we kindly ask a person who repents. If it does – it’s ended. When the mujahideen are fighting against a country, they tell your people: Convert to Islam. That’s our only requirement. We no longer want any more of you – do not want your money or your country. All we want is to enter Paradise with us. Is there something higher than this? …

Would they kill the infidels if they refuse to convert? No, they wouldn’t. Muslims would say: Let’s be friends. You pay the jizya tax to us and we will make sure you’re safe and sound. We could easily fight you and take care of your country, so you are better off paying the jizya and we will protect them. … [6]

It says: If they refuse to pay, seek Allah’s help and fight them ‘You are asked to become – they refuse. You tell them to pay the jizya – they refuse. That means they have bad intentions. Well, we will fight against them. …

Oh, yeah, the religion of peace, wasn’t that the motto?

PS: MEMRI has translated excerpts from a Muslim religious program with the EgyptianMuslim cleric Mazen Al-Sarsawi, which aired on television channel Al-Nour Jaliyiah TVon January 3, 2011. By the way, the guy is so stupid that mixes up Vietnam war with the II World War, saying that US dropped the atomic bomb there. 🙄

Egypt: another journalist sexually molested

Found here.

Kenya: preacher accused of Al-Shabaab recruitment among youths

Image via Wikipedia

Not surprising:

“The preacher (name withheld), visited Somalia in 2009 and received military training from foreign jihadists in Somalia with affiliation to Al Qaeda. He also received training on radical brand of Islam where the core tenet is that there can be no harmonious co-existence between Muslims and other faiths,” the sources stated.

According to people close to the preacher, the recruitment of the youth is done at a mosque in Majengo in Mombasa, where he holds weekly lectures. “The content of the lectures portrays the Somalia clan wars as the ultimate jihad, where anyone who dies in such wars will be a martyr and the heavens is the permanent abode,” stated the preacher’s allies.

Related Articles

• American militant in Somalia releases martyr’s rap (ctv.ca)

Al-Qaeda: Al-Zawahiri speaks about Lybia

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SITE said Zawahiri split his lecture into three distinct parts, addressing in turn the uprisings in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia.

“I want to direct the attention of our Muslim brothers in Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and the rest of the Muslim countries, that if the Americans and the NATO forces enter Libya then their neighbors in Egypt and Tunisia and Algeria and the rest of the Muslim countries should rise up and fight both the mercenaries of Kadhafi and the rest of NATO,” he said, according to SITE.

Zawahiri stated Al-Qaeda’s backing for the ousted Tunisian and Egyptian presidents and also accused the Egyptian government of “separation from Islam” and “subservience to the West,” the monitoring group said.

The video was the fifth installment in Egyptian-born Zawahiri’s series titled “A Message of Hope and Glad Tidings to Our People in Egypt.”

More here.

Related Articles

• Al Qaeda Deputy Surfaces in Video (abcnews.go.com)

Spain: poll shows citizens against Govt policy on Cuba, Morocco

Good:

The Spanish are not too in tune with the policy the Government is doing in relation to countries like Morocco or Cuba. This is the result of the 25 annual poll of the Elcano Royal Institute Barometer released today. In the survey they weren’t asked on the Executive position about those two particulars, but their responses reflect, among other things, that 80 percent believe that those two countries do not respect human rights and show the people are quite dissatisfied with the attitude of Executive.

Egypt: “anti-Christian persecution has reached a new level with Talbiya’s attack on Christians”

The Copts are still in jail (including 20 children). Coptic Christians are protesting against this new level of persecution bby Egyptian authorities:

Aidan Clay, regional director for the Middle East for ICC, said: “While most attacks against Egypt’s Coptic Christians are committed by Muslim mob violence, the Talbiya attack on unarmed protestors was the first incident in recent memory authorized by branches of the Egyptian government and carried out by Egyptian security forces. Anti-Christian persecution in Egypt is reaching a new level, as Copts are no longer merely discriminated against, but are in fact being targeted and murdered by the government. We urge President Hosni Mubarak to take immediate action by bringing those who authorized this attack to justice and by releasing those who have been arrested unjustly, especially the children. If action is not taken, it will be clear to all that Mubarak’s regime and Egyptian courts condone, and even support, government induced violence upon Christians”.

via EGYPT Protests over block on church of the Pyramids. “The government discriminates against Christians” – Asia News.

Background:
Egypt: Islamists lay siege against Coptic church in Giza, 1 Christian killed.
Egypt: Security Used Live Ammunition on Christian Coptic Protesters, 4 Killed.
Egypt: Wounded Christians from Talbiya attack, mistreated at state hospitals.
Egypt: House Converted Into Mosque Overnight In Egypt to Prevent Church Services.

Afghanistan: ISAF confirms Taliban leader killed in precision air strike

DVIDS – News – Update: ISAF confirms Taliban leader killed in precision air strike:

“The International Security Assistance Force confirmed Fedayi, a Taliban military senior leader who conducted attacks against Afghan and coalition forces as well as intimidation campaigns on Afghan civilians and government officials, was killed in a precision air strike in Baghlan province Tuesday.

Fedayi had worked with the Taliban shadow governor for Burkah district and was the Taliban leader in Baghlan-e Jadid District before being forced by coalition forces to relocate.

Based on intelligence sources, coalition forces tracked a group of insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades to a remote area in Burkah District. After verifying insurgent activity and careful planning to avoid civilian casualties, coalition forces conducted a precision air strike.”

Netherlands: "Don’t be anti-Islam or else…" Taliban tell new Govt

A senior Afghan Taliban official has warned of an attack against the Netherlands if its new government implements the agenda of anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders, the Volkskrant daily reported Monday.

“If the Netherlands maintains or intensifies its anti-Islam policy, it is certain that the Netherlands will be the target of an attack by a jihadist group,” Zabiullah Mujahed, a long-time Taliban spokesman, is quoted as having told the newspaper. 

“If he (Wilders) succeeds in manipulating the Dutch parliament to pass more anti-Islamic legislation … there is no doubt that Muslims from other countries will take action to help their Muslim brothers and sisters,” Mujahed said.

He added that the Taliban was “very careful in its relations with the Netherlands” because “it was the first country that decided to stop the occupation of our country“

Source (found)

Afghanistan: Leader of "The Islamic Army of Great Britain", "droned"

Telegraph:

A senior Pakistani security source told BBC’s Newsnight programme that Abdul Jabbar was a British citizen who has a British wife and was living in Punjab, Pakistan.

According to the source, Jabbar was living in Punjab, and was chosen as the leader of a new group, to be called The Islamic Army of Great Britain.

The decision was apparently made during a meeting in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan three months ago, attended by 300 militants and monitored by intelligence agencies.

The source said the new group was set up to organise synchronised terrorist attacks in the UK, France and Germany. It was this intelligence that led to the missile strike by a US unmanned aerial drone on September 8 which killed Jabbar and three others.

Background:
8 German killed while receiving terrorist training.

YAHOO NEWS ON THE DIABOLICAL DESIGN OF THE GROUND ZERO VICTORY MOSQUE, "HOMAGE TO OTHER RELIGIONS"

You gotta be kidding me? I thought for sure the media would simply ignore this story, or even more likely, deny it, and call those of us who brought it up paranoid and insane.

Instead, they are admitting it, and calling it a tribute?

How long, oh Lord, how long?

From Atlas Shrugs:

Developers release renderings of controversial Park51 community center | The Upshot Yahoo! News (Hat tip J.C. Barile)

The developer behind the controversial Park51 Islamic cultural center has released the first official renderings of what the 16-story building will look like when built. The Islamic Center will have a sleek, modern design, and will be covered in hexagonal shapes that resemble a honeycomb.

However, as has been the case throughout the controversy surrounding the project, critics are finding other messages in the design plans. Conservative blogger Pam Geller, a leading foe of the project, has denounced the honeycomb design as a representation of “crashing Stars of David,” and described the design plan as “diabolically audacious.”

Other, less polemically-minded critics have interpreted the conceptual plans as a statement on the project’s broader interfaith message. Ed Pilkington, a writer for the UK Guardian, contends the structure’s Star of David echo is one among several design elements crafted consciously in “homage to other religions”; the overall effect of the drawings, he argues, is to render Park51 “decidedly upbeat and galmorous [sic]  building, more festive than threatening.” Meanwhile, a Park51 spokesman said through Twitter that the hexagons aren’t intended as any sort of reference to the Star of David, but rather come from an Arabic architecture technique called Mashrabiya.

Now the Jewish star is not a Jewish star? More Islamic falsifying of any other religions.

Here’s the image of the interior:

Ane here’s another interior view of the project:

(Photos: Soma architecture.)

Pastorius comment: I also want to point something else out. The other day, a reader was challenging me, commenting, “But Pastorius, all Islamic art, other than calligraphy, is geometric in design.”

This is true. 

Islamic art, according to Sharia law, may not be representational. Muslims may not draw pictures of human beings, birds, trees, mountains, or anything which is representative of any object in the real world.

So, almost by default, Islam has used geometric design as a platform and inspiration in its artwork.

Now, the problem with claiming that this Ground Zero Mosque design rests wholly within the tradition of the Islamic use of geometric form is this:

Islamic art is, in general, made of symmetrical geometric designs. 

The Ground Zero Mosque design, on the other hand, is asymmetrical in nature. It is absolutely un-Islamic in it’s aesthetic. It is purposefully Postmodern in style. It is chaotic by design, decadent, asymmetrical, anarchic and debauched in style.

Can anyone gaze at the design and see anything but calculated confusion?

The building looks like a building crumbling, because it is a tribute to two crumbling buildings. 

Simple as that.

It is not a tribute to the world’s religions. It is a tribute to the dissolution of the primary belief systems of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

And, of course, they threw in the Pentagons for good measure.

The Ground Zero Mosque design is a celebration of a culture in crisis. And, it is important to note, that when we speak of the design, we are speaking only of the facade. This building has a very noteworthy quirk as architecture. That is, it designed in such a way that it’s facade is dominant. As it is, we see nothing of the structure underneath. This is noteworthy, because it corresponds to the Imam Feisal Rauf’s stated Mission to the United States. 

You see, The Imam Rauf’s book was originally entitled “A Call To Prayer from the World Trade Center Rubble: Islamic Dawa in the Heart of America.”

The facade of the building is meant to convey the same meaning as Rauf’s book; Islam will rise out of the rubble of Western Culture. The facade will crumble away, and the reality of Islam will be left standing there for all to see.

This is the closest thing to a Trojan Horse gift the modern world has ever seen.

We would be fools to accept it.