Egypt: Muslims threaten to kill priest in Egypt

More peaceful guys:

Image via Wikipedia

The Assyrian International News Agency reports a Coptic priest in the same region was threatened late last week by a mob of Muslims that surrounded the church of St. George.

Father George Thabet was serving the morning mass when hundreds of Muslims, some armed, surrounded the church vowing to kill him.

Eye-witnesses reported the Muslims chanted, “We will kill the priest, we will kill him and no one will prevent us..” One Muslim said they would “…cut him to pieces.”

Security forces arrived and escorted Father George in a police car to the Coptic Diocese in Minya. Youth from the church remained to defend the building from the Muslims.

via The Voice of the Martyrs Canada: Muslims threaten to kill priest in Egypt.

Australia: Burqas to come off under new laws

Image via Wikipedia

Absolutely logical after this:

Police will be given new powers to require motorists and others suspected of committing crimes to remove any head coverings so they can be identified.Mr O’Farrell said there should be no discrimination – in favour or against any race – when it comes to helping police identify people suspected of criminal breaches.

“I don’t care whether a person is wearing a motor cycle helmet, a burqa, niqab, face veil or anything else – the police should be allowed to require those people to make their identification clear,” he said.

“I have every respect for various religions and beliefs but when it comes to enforcing the law the police should be given adequate powers to make a clear identification.”

via Burqas to come off under new Australian laws « Creeping Sharia.

The roots of backwardness in the Arab world

By a Bahraini intellectual, Dhiyaa al-Musawi. A real intelectual and a must see video.

Unfortunately, this guy won’t probably be their leader…

Watched here,

Funny news of the month

Bush’s approval rating over Obamamessiah‘s:

The ex-President’s approval rating rose to 47% in recent weeks according to a Gallup poll released Monday, which is one point higher than Obama’s rating in a survey also taken this week.

The poll results represent a surprising rebound for the once fiercely unpopular Bush, whose approval rating was just 25% just a little over a year ago.

Ouch!

 

Wikileaks: Saudi youth ‘frolic under princely protection’

The full range of worldly temptations and vices are available — alcohol, drugs, sex — but strictly behind closed doors. This freedom to indulge carnal pursuits is possible merely because the religious police keep their distance when parties include the presence or patronage of a Saudi royal and his circle of loyal attendants

…

Religious police/CPVPV (Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice) were nowhere to be seen and while admission was controlled through a strictly-enforced guest list, the partygoers were otherwise not shy about publicizing the affair. According to a young Saudi from a prominent Jeddah merchant family, the Saudis try to throw parties at princes’ houses or with princes in attendance, which serves as sufficient deterrent to interference by the CPVPV. There are over 10,000 princes in the Kingdom, albeit at various levels and gradations

…

Alcohol, though strictly prohibited by Saudi law and custom, was plentiful at the party’s well-stocked bar, well-patronized by Halloween revellers. The hired Filipino bartenders served a cocktail punch using “sadiqi,” a locally-made “moonshine.” While top-shelf liquor bottles were on display throughout the bar area, the original contents were reportedly already consumed and replaced by sadiqi. On the black market, a bottle of Smirnoff can cost 1,500 riyals when available, compared to 100 riyals for the locally-made vodka. It was also learned through word-of-mouth that a number of the guests were in fact “working girls,” not uncommon for such parties.

…

One contact, a young Saudi male, explained that up to a few years ago, the only weekend activity was “dating” inside the homes of the affluent in small groups… As one high society Saudi remarked, “The increased conservatism of our society over these past years has only moved social interaction to the inside of people’s homes.

via US embassy cables: Saudi youth ‘frolic under princely protection’ | World news | guardian.co.uk.

Venezuela: Chávez’s relatives are millionaires in the US

Hugo Chávez, laughing after knowing how much he and his family have in bank accounts across the world

Weapons, parties, concerts, jewelry, cars, travels, changes of look are part of the lifestyle of the family of the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, who is a staunch defender of socialism and a tough anti-capitalist.

DEA reports from 2008, indicate that you have identified five bank accounts in U.S. financial institutions amounting to nearly $ 140 million belonging to the brothers and mother of the president of Venezuela.

But you know? Then he will insist he is a suporter of the “socialism of the XXI century” and talk about the “Bolivarian revolution”. And people like Sean Penn will of course, support him.

Anyway, looking on the bright side. As he has blamed “criminal capitalism” for the recent heavy rains that have fallen in Venezuela, we can, safely, blame his family for them… and for global warming!!

Stupid quote of the month

Media mogul Ted Turner has encouraged world leaders to adopt an international norm restricting families to just one child. He claims this step is necessary to global survival.

Of course, he is not giving up using his jet, his limousine, his huge mansions, etc., etc. But the rest , we have even to be forbidden to have children or at the most to have one. Wow!

Saudi Arabia Fueling Religious Persecution And Extremism

If yesterday we were speaking about Saudi private donors being one of the main sources of Islamic terrorism, today we know more about textbooks inciting hate against non-believers produced by Saudis and exported throughout the world.

America’s top financial counter-terrorism official, Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey, believes there’s a strong link between education and support for terror. As he wrote in the Washington Post last June, to end support for such terror, among other steps,

“we must focus on educational reform in key locations to ensure that intolerance has no place in curricula and textbooks. . . . [U]nless the next generation of children is taught to reject violent extremism, we will forever be faced with the challenge of disrupting the next group of terrorist facilitators and supporters.”

Saudi Arabia is one such “key location.” The kingdom is not just any country with problematic textbooks. As the controlling authority of the two holiest shrines of Islam, Saudi Arabia is able to disseminate its religious materials among the millions of Muslims making the hajj to Mecca each year. Such teachings can, in this context, make a great impression.

In addition, Saudi textbooks are also posted on the Saudi Education Ministry’s website and are shipped and distributed free by a vast Sunni infrastructure established with Saudi oil wealth to many Muslim schools, mosques and libraries throughout the world. In his book The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright asserts that while Saudis constitute only 1 percent of the world’s Muslims, they pay “90 per cent of the expenses of the entire faith, overriding other traditions of Islam.” Others estimate that, on an annual basis, Saudi Arabia spends three times as much in exporting its Wahhabi ideology as did the Soviets in propagating Communism during the height of the Cold War. From the Netherlands and Bosnia, to Algeria and Tunisia, to Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to Somalia and Nigeria, nationals of these countries have reported that over the past twenty to thirty years local Islamic traditions are being transformed and radicalized under intensifying Saudi influence. The late President of Indonesia Abdurrahman Wahid wrote that Wahhabism was making inroads even in his famously tolerant nation of Indonesia.

To understand why Jim Woolsey and other terrorism experts call Wahhabism as it spreads through the Islamic diaspora “kindling for Usama Bin Laden’s match,” it is important to know the content of Saudi textbooks. They teach, along with many other noxious lessons, that Jews and Christians are “enemies,” and they dogmatically instruct that that it is permissible, even obligatory, to kill various groups of “unbelievers“ — apostates (which includes Muslim moderates who reject Saudi Wahhabi doctrine), polytheists (which can include Shias and Sufis, as well as Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists.), Jews, and adulterers. The texts also teach that the “punishment for homosexuality is death” and discusses that this can be done by immolation by fire, stoning or throwing the accused from a high place.

…

Four years ago, the Saudis gave a solemn and specific promise to the United States. Its terms were described in a letter from the U.S. assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs to Sen. Jon Kyl, then chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security: “In July of 2006, the Saudi Government confirmed to us its policy to undertake a program of textbook reform to eliminate all passages that disparage or promote hatred toward any religion or religious groups.” Furthermore, the State Department letter reported that this pledge would be fulfilled “in time for the start of the 2008 school year.”

Saudi Arabia has failed to keep its promise to the United States. One Wikileak cable from the US embassy reports that Saudi education reform seems “glacial.” In its newly released 2010 annual report on religious freedom, the State Department itself asserted, albeit with diplomatic understatement, with respect to Saudi Ministry of Education textbooks: “Despite government revisions to elementary and secondary education textbooks, they retained language intolerant of other religious traditions, especially Jewish, Christian, and Shi’a beliefs, including commands to hate infidels and kill apostates.”

via Saudi Arabia Fueling Religious Persecution And Extremism.

Iraq: Writers Protest Against Club Closure and Alcohol Ban

Dozens of Iraqi writers and poets took to the streets of Baghdad Friday to protest at the closure of social clubs that serve alcohol in the capital, arguing that it harkened back to Saddam-era repression.

Holding up placards with the phrases “Freedom first” and “Baghdad will not be Kandahar,” they staged a demonstration near the Iraqi Writers’ Union (IWU) building in al-Wattanabi in the city centre.

“We don’t need a Khomeini state or a Taliban state in Iraq,” said IWU chief Fadhel Samer, referring to Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the Afghan Islamist group respectively.

“What is happening to personal freedoms in this country is akin to what happened during the dictatorship. … It reminds us of the practices of the old regime.”

The protests were sparked by the closure of a cafe near the IWU building where writers and intellectuals often gathered to smoke sheesha water pipes and drink alcohol.

Baghdad provincial authorities argue that they are only enforcing a decree, issued during dictator Saddam Hussein’s religious campaigns of the 1990s, which said no restaurants or hotels could serve alcohol.

The ban, which exempts alcohol stores, was initially enforced last year. Under Iraqi law, only Christians and Yazidi-Kurds are allowed to sell alcohol.

“The government should end all this repressive behaviour — it restricts individual rights,” said Ali Hussein, one of the protesters.

“What is happening brings us back to religious campaigns launched by Saddam during the 1990s.”

via Iraqi Writers Protest Against Club Closure and Alcohol Ban.

Wasn’t Saddam a non-religious ruler? So, why that alcohol ban? Of course, he wasn’t like the Taliban but it’s interesting to see this type of behaviour.

Iraq Attack Kills Elderly Assyrian Couple and their Daughter At Home

Of course, you’re not going to read this in any major MSM.

Iraqi police are reporting a new attack on Christians in Baghdad by gunmen who broke into the home of an elderly couple and killed them.It was the latest in a series of attacks on the country’s Christian minority, which has been fleeing the country in droves since an Oct. 31 assault on a Catholic church that killed 68.

…

Police said four gunmen raided the home in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood Sunday evening and repeatedly shot the couple with silenced pistols before escaping. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.

AINA Update: the daughter of the elderly couple was also killed in the same attack.

via Iraq Attack Kills Elderly Assyrian Couple At Home.

But this hasn’t been the only attack against Christians in Iraq in recent weeks:

Anti-Christian violence and persecution continue in Iraq. Two days after a Christian home was attacked in Mosul (northern Iraq), two Iraqi Christians were killed in the city’s Sina’a neighbourhood.

Sources told AsiaNews that unknown thugs entered a store owned by two Christian brothers, Saad and Waad (Raad) Hanna, 43 and 40 respectively, and shot them in cold blood. Waad died instantly, Saad, two hours later.

via IRAQ Two Christian brothers killed in Mosul – Asia News.

And more: Deadly Attacks on Iraqi Christian Assyrians Continue:

On Monday evening, police found an elderly Christian woman strangled in her home in central Mosul.

The attacks on Christians started October 31 in Baghdad have extended to the northern parts of the country, such as Mosul.

Last week, a bomb attached to the vehicle of a Christian man detonated in eastern Mosul, killing him and his 6-year-old daughter, local police told CNN.

The November 16 attack came one day after two Christian men in adjacent homes were killed after gunmen stormed their houses.

Also on November 15, a bomb detonated outside a Christian home. It caused damages but no injuries.

Yesterday the Pope prayed for murdered Christians in Iraq (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11) and in Egypt (1, 2, 3) and for kidnapped Christians in the Sinai desert (via):

Islamic countries: Poll shows growing majority favor Sharia Law, more Islam in public life

A majority of Muslims around the world welcome a significant role for Islam in their countries’ political life, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, but have mixed feelings toward militant religious groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

According to the survey, majorities in Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan and Nigeria would favor changing the current laws to allow stoning as a punishment for adultery, hand amputation for theft and death for those who convert from Islam to another religion. About 85% of Pakistani Muslims said they would support a law segregating men and women in the workplace.

Indonesia, Egypt, Nigeria and Jordan were among the most enthusiastic, with more than three-quarters of Muslims polled in those countries reporting positive views of Islam’s influence in politics: either that Islam had a large role in politics, and that was a good thing, or that it played a small role, and that was bad.

Turkish Muslims were the most conflicted, with just more than half reporting positive views of Islam’s influence in politics. Turkey has struggled in recent years to balance a secular political system with an increasingly fervent Muslim population.

Many Muslims described an ongoing struggle in their country between fundamentalists and modernizers, especially those who may have felt threatened by the rising tides of conservatism. Among those respondents who identified a struggle, most tended to side with the modernizers. This was especially true in Lebanon and Turkey, where 84% and 74%, respectively, identified themselves as modernizers as opposed to fundamentalists.

In Egypt and Nigeria, however, most people were pulling in the other direction. According to the poll, 59% in Egypt and 58% in Nigeria who said there was a struggle identified with the fundamentalists.

via MUSLIM WORLD: Poll shows majority want Islam in politics; feelings mixed on Hamas, Hezbollah | Babylon & Beyond | Los Angeles Times.

Egypt: Wounded Christians from Talbiya attack, mistreated at state hospitals

Disgusting:

Christian Aid reports that “Muslims have attacked children in schools and people going to church. It ‘s like a war between police and Christians.”

Also there are other horrific events going on: “some hospitals have refused to assist the wounded Christians who had the choice to die or be hospitalized in private hospitals which are very expensive. But there are few who can afford to go to private hospitals. Christians wounded patients in other state hospitals were tied to beds to be delivered to the police once healed. In addition, the police denied permission to their families to visit them“.

Christian Aid wrote yesterday: “Another injured is dead. The families fear for the fate of the 156 arrested, and who do not respond to call. Nobody knows where they are.”

Found here.

(Translated by T&P).

Background:
Egypt: Islamists lay siege against Coptic church in Giza, 1 Christian killed.
Egypt: Security Used Live Ammunition on Christian Coptic Protesters, 4 Killed.

Afghan Convert’s Trial Rejected by Judge; Corrections Ordered

As you know, Sayed Mousa was arrested after converting to Christianity. Father to six children, one of them disabled, is an amputee and had worked for the Red Cross for the last 15 years helping others. His trial has already been delayed on several occassions and he has not been sent the affidavit containing the charges laid against him.

An Afghan judge temporarily rejected the trial of a Christian man who converted from Islam to Christianity and ordered unknown corrections to his file, according to the convert’s lawyer.

…

“We understand this to mean that the judge ordered the Attorney General to effect some correction of what is on file,” explained the lawyer, Washington-based International Christian Concern reported Monday. “In terms of Afghan law, Said is entitled to receive a copy of the indictment and to peruse the evidence, if any on file, so as to file affidavit(s) countering any damaging allegations therein. Said had not received such a document and our own inquiry at the Attorney General had no success.”

via Afghan Convert’s Trial Rejected by Judge; Corrections Ordered | Christianpost.com.

Abuse in Muslim families: no statistics, no help

These girls were raped and abused by one or several relatives (parents, brothers, cousings…), and yet it was them who were “violating the family honor“. Isn’t that twisted, huh?

Their stories are different but they also have much in common. All had four or five years when they were abused by a relative. The girls were silent under the pressure of threats, above all, for fear of violating family honor. And the risk that their families are to blame and were ging to be repudiated. Reporting the incident to the police was something that did not crossed their mind. Even now it is a step too radical.Rabea was abused by her father at an early age. She was traumatized and became unruly, “It’s unnatural. When you bully or on the street you go to your parents or teachers. But this is your father. Schemes are broken. I did not know how to describe it or to whom. I ran the risk of ending up in prostitution but luckily I got rid of it. Support from other people and faith in Jesus Christ finally gave me the strength. ”

Zohra kept his story for years. Relates that he was raped by her cousin in Morocco five years: “I was staying with my aunt and my cousin took care of me. Everything that happened that day is etched in my memory. I took everything I had. My aunt saw us. I was not allowed to tell my parents. She would have denied it. Nobody would believe me. I lost all trust. Sexual violence leaves a wound, but I’ve learned that it can also be healed.”

Kristina Aamand has heard similar stories. She works in an urgent care center for girls in Denmark, where there are many Muslim immigrants. ‘This occurs in alien and indigenous families. I never put the focus on Muslims. During my study I learned that there was nothing to learn about sexual abuse in Islamic countries because incest is forbidden by Islam, and therefore does not occur. A sample of great ingenuity. Taboos, secrets, silence and shame and a gated community is almost a recipe for abuse. ”

Ibtisam was abused almost daily by his brother between she was six and twelve. ‘If I would have told it, he would have said that it was my fault. I would be killed or expelled. I felt dirty, unhappy and rejected by my family and I felt very alone. I was a girl who had no life. Breathing, nothing else. “Abuse stopped a year after she threatened his brother to tell everything.

Sidon was the victim of several men, and still suffers the consequences. ‘From my four until my twenty years I have been abused by several people. They left me mentally and physically destroyed. I was scared. I still find it impossible to accept intimacy of men, I can not fall in love. I had no youth or normal puberty. “The doctor declared her mentally ill. A few years ago, Saida began working on a project and discovered that there were many other girls and young Muslim females who were abused and did not dare to tell their story.

… Zohra‘s stories, Rabea, Ibtisam and Sidon are not the only signs. There are others that suggest sexual abuse within Muslim families. Fier support center welcomes Friesland violence related to honor. They observed that half of young women who were received between 2008 and 2010 (45 of 86) had also been abused by a relative. These were usually girls of Moroccan or Turkish, but there were also young Iraqis, Afghan and Kurdish.

(Translated by T&P).

UK: Queen’s state visit to Abu Dhabi

Queen Elizabeth in Abu Dhabi, head covered

William Hague and his wife in Abu Dhabi

Daily Mail: Queen is shoeless and dons “beekeeper” hat on Abu Dhabi mosque visit.

Found here.

Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood threatens to sever Israel ties

We are totally unhappy with the illicit marriage between Cairo and Tel Aviv,” said Mohammed Badie, the leader of the group which spawned Hamas.

The London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported Saturday that Badie threatened to “cause a stir in many values that have caused Egypt to hit rock bottom in recent years, during which the leading party has reigned“.

“Leaders of the regime know that if we rise to power we will change many aspects of its policy, first and foremost relations with Israel, which have contributed significantly to the maladies that have ailed us,” Badie said.

“We will not allow the Palestinians to die of hunger and close the door on them while opening it to Israelis who can enter Sinai whenever they so choose.”

via Muslim Brotherhood threatens to sever Israel ties – Israel News, Ynetnews.

According to journalist Tariq Hassan, who writes for Government supported daily Al-Ahram, Muslim Brotherhood wants to continue the path began by Hamas in Gaza:

“The Brotherhood, as Hamas, doesn’t acknowledges any legitimization to the Parliament that ratified the peace treaty with Israel, nor to the state which ratified those agreements, because from their point of view, that state is a traitor which is working for the foreign interests and which doesn’t represent its people. From those statements, we conclude that the Hamas’ problem is not limited to Gaza only, but it’s also in Egypt, and that the Brotherhood has the same positions and uses the same ideas and statements, used by Hamas to give the coup d’état against the government and to proclaim Gaza as a rebel region under their command.

Here in Egypt the Brotherhood brought the hooded militias to the Al-Azhar University, and in Gaza, Hamas used them. Here they changed Egyptian flag and removed the Republic’s eagle and there they removed the Palestinian flag and used the green flag of Hamas. What can we hope for?“

Firstly, Hamas is a branch from the Muslim brotherhood, so it’s not the least surprising they actually are using the same tactics. Secondly, this is just the result of making agreements regarding succession, isn’t it, Mr. Mubarak?

____

By the way, remember the “Coptic riots” following the illegal stop to the construction of a church near Giza? Well, as you would probably guess, there is only one responsible: the Mossad… Islamists have nothing to do with it… 🙄

Iran: Court Sentences Converted Christian Pastor To Death By Hanging For Apostasy

This is an update of this story:

A detained pastor of a major network of Christian house churches in Iran will be executed by hanging for “apostasy”, or abandoning Islam, according to translated court documents seen by Worthy News Wednesday, November 24.The 11th Chamber of The Assize Court of the province of Gilan said Iranian pastor Yousef Nadarkhani had proved his “apostasy” by “organizing evangelistic meetings and inviting others to Christianity, establishing a house church, baptizing people, expressing his faith to others and, denying Islamic values.”

Nadarkhani is “an apostate [and] will be executed by being hung…Somehow his soul is taken from him,” the court wrote.

He was arrested after protesting against the enforced reading of the Koran, viewed as a holy book by Muslims, to Christian children including his own. His wife Fatemeh Passandideh was released October 11 by a court in Gilan province, after she was detained on similar apostasy charges, Christians said.

In comments accompanying the death sentence, the court claimed Nadarkhani confirmed he converted to Christianity from Islam, despite possible execution. “Even in his last defense…when he was asked [by the prosecutor] ‘from the age of puberty until the age of 19, what religion have you had?’, he replied… ‘Since I was born in a Muslim family I was Muslim until I converted to Christianity at the age of 19‘.”

via Holger Awakens: Iranian Court Sentences Converted Christian Pastor To Death By Hanging For Apostasy.

I hope Obama, Zapatero, Ban Ki-Moon at al will also raise their voices to protest this huge abuse of Human Rights.

Yeah, I know, it’s Iran. 🙄 I’m sure this is not the last man killed because of his faith in Iran. And this will be an example for other backwards bastards to sentence more people to death by this “crime”.

I’m sure the islamophiles that some times end up here, will say that, “well, this has nothing to do with Islam, this is just a very “conservative” country”. As if all conservatives would defend killing apostates.

There is no mention of death penalty for apostates in the Qu’ran, though there are several verses about “those who break their oaths“ in which something very similar is stated:

009.012
YUSUFALI: But if they violate their oaths after their covenant, and taunt you for your Faith,- fight ye the chiefs of Unfaith: for their oaths are nothing to them: that thus they may be restrained.
PICKTHAL: And if they break their pledges after their treaty (hath been made with you) and assail your religion, then fight the heads of disbelief – Lo! they have no binding oaths – in order that they may desist.
SHAKIR: And if they break their oaths after their agreement and (openly) revile your religion, then fight the leaders of unbelief– surely their oaths are nothing– so that they may desist.

009.013
YUSUFALI: Will ye not fight people who violated their oaths, plotted to expel the Messenger, and took the aggressive by being the first (to assault) you? Do ye fear them? Nay, it is Allah Whom ye should more justly fear, if ye believe!
PICKTHAL: Will ye not fight a folk who broke their solemn pledges, and purposed to drive out the messenger and did attack you first? What! Fear ye them? Now Allah hath more right that ye should fear Him, if ye are believers
SHAKIR: What! will you not fight a people who broke their oaths and aimed at the expulsion of the Messenger, and they attacked you first; do you fear them? But Allah is most deserving that you should fear Him, if you are believers.

009.014
YUSUFALI: Fight them, and Allah will punish them by your hands, cover them with shame, help you (to victory) over them, heal the breasts of Believers,
PICKTHAL: Fight them! Allah will chastise them at your hands, and He will lay them low and give you victory over them, and He will heal the breasts of folk who are believers.
SHAKIR: Fight them, Allah will punish them by your hands and bring them to disgrace, and assist you against them and heal the hearts of a believing people.

Wikipedia says:

The medieval Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence were unanimous in holding that apostasy by a male Muslim is punishable by death, differing only on whether to execute the apostate immediately or grant the apostate an opportunity to repent and thus avoid penalty. They also differed on the punishment of a female apostate: death or imprisonment until repentance.^[2] Abu-Hanifa and his followers like the jurist Sarakhsi refused death penalty for women^[3] supporting jail for them till re-embracing islam. The four major Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence (Madh’hab) differentiate between harmful apostasy and harmless apostasy (also known as major and minor apostasy) in accepting repentance.^[4]

In mainstream Islam, many contemporary scholars oppose any penalty for apostasy: Gamal Al-Banna (brother of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood),^[5][6] Hamza Yusuf,^[7] Yusuf Estes,^[8] Jamal Badawi,^[4] Javed Ahmad Ghamidi,^[9] Hassan al-Turabi, Shafi`i Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa,^[10][11] Shabir Ally,^[12] and Maliki jurist Abu al-Walid al-Baji and Shi’a Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri,^[13] They have either completely opposed any penalty for apostasy, or believe that penalty can only be applied when apostasy is coupled with attempts to harm Muslim society.^{[14][15][16][17]}

So, not all of them oppose it. In this case, they can support it, because Nadarkhani was actually “harming Muslim society”, while he was preaching and speaking about Christianity and was, as the documents say, “denying Islamic values“.

PS: By the way., Montazeri‘s opinions are not important for the Ayatollah’s: he was a dissident, who was kept under arrest in his home till his death last year, after which there were severe riots, all over Iran.

Female genital mutilation is also an issue in Europe, activists say

Practiced in Africa as well as in certain countries in the Middle East and communities in Asia and Latin America, female genital mutilation is the internationally-acknowledged name for the practice of cutting women’s genitalia. Girls are subjected to FGM for a variety of reasons, explained Christine Loudes, director of the EndFGM campaign at Amnesty International.

“FGM is performed for non-therapeutic reasons,” Loudes said. “It’s done in the name of tradition, in the name of aesthetics and sometimes in the name of religion.”

FGM involves partially or completely removing the external female genitalia, and the practice is usually performed under unhygienic conditions and without anaesthesia on girls from their birth to 15 years of age. FGM represents a severe violation of human rights.

“It constitutes torture and degrading treatment; it violates women’s rights, and it violates rights to physical integrity as well as to children’s rights, to name a few,” Loudes added.

Africa is the most notable perpetrator regarding FGM, with some 30 countries subjecting girls to the practice. But girls are threatened by the practice on other continents as well. According to the European Parliament, roughly 500,000 girls and women in Europe have already been subjected to FGM or are in danger of becoming victims. That number includes 75,000 girls and women in the UK, 65,000 in France and 30,000 in Germany. As Loudes explains, it’s difficult to prove that FGM is actually being carried out on the ground in Europe, but Amnesty International does not want to rule out the possibility.

via Female genital mutilation is also an issue in Europe, say activists | Environment & Development | Deutsche Welle | 25.11.2010.

Me neither. In fact, there have been reports of “parties” to practise it in the UK.

Egypt: Islamists lay siege against Coptic church in Giza, 1 Christian killed

Copts and Egyptian security forces clashed on Sunday outside the Saints Mary and Michael Church in Talbiya, near the Pyramids, Giza. Police want to stop the church construction, which is in its final stage. This is the second time in ten days that security forces try to enter the religious compound, which is under 24-7 protection by priests and worshippers. The siege began at midnight, and lasted six hours. As of 9 pm, the church was full of worshippers praying, aware that security would try to move in.

Security forces surrounded the church compound and seized four concrete mixing vehicles on their way to the site. The concrete was spoiled.

At the same time, some 2,000 Copts joined those already in the church. Demonstrations and sit-ins took place in front of police.

Christian religious authorities said that the church would continue to be protected until the matter is not settled.

Naguib Ghobrial, president of the Egyptian Union of Human Rights, issued a statement calling for the dismissal of the head of the local government in Omraniya who ordered the security forces in.

“The Church has all the permits,” he said. “By this behaviour, the chief of the local authority is encouraging Islamists to fight with Christians because of the Church. This encourages sedition.”

via EGYPT Islamists lay siege to Coptic church near pyramids – Asia News.

A 19-year-old Christian was killed during the fight that followed this second siege. Christians, enraged, charged against the police with stones and other objects. After the news of his death were known, 3,000 Christians gathered outside the church to protest, chanting religious slogans and some against Muslims.

Religious Freedom: The ACN Report is released

The 2010 Report on Religious Freedom in the World by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) was released yesterday in Rome. It shows that the situation is serious in many parts of the world, particularly in Asia. In the Near East, Iraq represents an especially bad case where anti-Christian violence is taking on the form of systematic persecution, as the latest episodes indicate. In Egypt, despite the fact that it is a major tourist destination, there have been many acts of violence against the Christian minority in 2009-2010. Lebanon shows how difficult it is for foreign religious staff to enter the country. The situation of Christians in Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip is getting worse with episodes of explicit persecution.

In India, ethnic and religious violence is rising as well. The year 2009 clearly illustrated the problem. However, China is certainly among those nations where religious freedom is denied in all its facets. However, information about what happens in that nation remains limited and hard to obtain. The state is officially atheist and suppresses all form of religion through arrests and detention in concentration camps. The case of Mgr Julius Jia Zhiguo is one of the better known. The underground bishop of Zhengding (Hebei) was arrested by five police officers on 30 March 2009; he was eventually released 15 months later.

In Pakistan, the blasphemy law is used as weapon against religious minorities, especially Christians who are the victims of Muslim fundamentalism. In Afghanistan, the government is not able to ensure effective religious freedom. In Bangladesh, where Islam is also the state religion, several cases of discrimination and attacks against minorities have been recorded with security forces showing little interest in protecting them.

via ASIA The ACN Report on religious freedom in the world is released – Asia News.

When I find the report in English I will post the link here. It’s necessary that these facts are reported and really known outside those countries.