French minister calls for full ban on burka: report
French minister Fadela Amara, speaks to journalists
LONDON — A ban on wearing the all covering burka in France would stem the spread of what French minister Fadela Amara called the "cancer" of radical Islam, a report quoted her as saying Saturday.
Egyptian MP, Mostafa El Fiky, Threatens Coptic journalist with Lawsuit and Calls her a Traitor
Dear friends and colleagues: below is my blog on an interesting encounter with Dr. Mostafa El Fiky, head of the foreign affairs committee of the Egyptian parliament, who is currently visiting Washington DC. I welcome your feedback.
Mostafa El Fiky—Fraudulently Elected MP Tells Coptic Community in Washington He Wouldn’t “Mind” a Coptic Prime Minister (no such luck for a Coptic president) & Accuses me of Being a Traitor (apparently still sore over his dishonorable mention in the WP)
Princess facing Saudi death penalty given secret UK asylum
Woman feared she would be stoned after giving birth to an illegitimate child in Britain
Saudi Arabia, ruled by King Abdullah, is home to about 30,000 Britons
A Saudi Arabian princess who had an illegitimate child with a British man has secretly been granted asylum in this country after she claimed she would face the death penalty if she were forced to return home. The young woman, who has been granted anonymity by the courts, won her claim for refugee status after telling a judge that her adulterous affair made her liable to death by stoning.
Iran holding two young women in prison because they're Christians
The two Iranian Christian women, Maryam Rustampoor (27) and Marzieh Amirizadeh (30) continue to be held in Evin prison in Iran because of their Christian faith, unfairly labeled as ‘anti-government activists’, because of the hostility of the government towards practising Christians.
But twins will keep father’s Muslim identity in their records, creating future problems.
A Christian mother in Egypt has won custody of her twin sons from her estranged husband, who had converted to Islam and claimed them according to Islamic legal precepts.
Egypt's parliament has passed a law allocating a quota of 64 seats in the lower house to women, in what a minister said on Monday was aimed at promoting their role in society.
The new law adopted on Sunday will give women more than 12 percent of the seats in an expanded parliament after the next election due in 2010, Minister of Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Mufid Shehab said.
Pakistan: Christian Murdered for Drinking Tea From a Muslim Cup
International Christian Concern
WASHINGTON -- International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that radical Muslims running a tea stall beat a Christian man to death for using a cup designated for Muslims on May 9. The young man, Ishtiaq Masih, had ordered tea at a roadside stall in Machharkay village, Punjab, Pakistan, after his bus stopped to allow passengers to relieve themselves.
Maher Al-Gohari was refused his request to convert to Christianity on his ID card
United Copts GB
The disappointing verdict by the High Administrative Court in Cairo today has dealt a severe blow to Freedom of Religion to Muslims who would like to come out of Islam and convert to Christianity in a country who persistently and relentlessly claims to be secular and apply “civil Laws”.
The judge Hamdi Yaseen rejected Maher Ahmed Al-Mo’tasem Bellah Al-Gohari application to change his religious affiliation from Muslim to Christian on his ID card; the verdict was based on the Islamic Sharia which prohibits conversion of Muslims to any other religion and “disruption to Public order”.
RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's first woman cabinet minister cannot appear on television without permission, a newspaper quoted her as saying on Monday.
Noura al-Faiz's appointment in February as deputy minister for women's education was hailed as a big step for the integration of women in conservative Saudi Arabia where a puritanical form of Islam bans women from driving, voting and mixing with unrelated men.
Egyptian Copts to Obama: Reconciliation is a Two-Way Street
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
(IsraelNN.com) Members of the Egyptian Coptic diaspora urged American President Barack Obama to remember the Middle East's oppressed non-Muslim minorities during his upcoming trip to Cairo. Several members of the U.S. Congress echoed the Copts' concerns.
Justice Egyptian style; Police officers get 5 years for murdering Christians.
From M. Abdelmassih
Giza Criminal Court has handed down 25th May 2009 a five-year prison sentence to the two Police constables who killed the Copt Nasser Gadallah, by throwing him out of a window.
The Gadallah family's legal team objected to this lenient sentence, and asked the Court to reclassify the charge as 'wilful, premeditated, and deliberate killing.'
Egyptian Convert Airs Declaration of Priest’s Innocence
Christian woman tells TV audience imprisoned clergyman did not know of false ID.
By Roger Elliott
ISTANBUL, May 22 (Compass Direct News) – An Egyptian convert from Islam who forged Christian identification papers and later used them to marry a Coptic man has appeared on a television show declaring the innocence of a priest serving a five-year sentence for marrying the couple.
Mosque registrations up but female Commission staff face barriers
At least 124 more mosques have registered as charities since the Charity Commission’s Faith and Social Cohesion Unit began to focus on Muslim groups, despite its female outreach officers encountering hostility in some quarters.
Two Christian Copts detained for a third time under Emergency Law.
AINA
Two Christian Copts, brothers Refaat and Ibrahim Fawzy Abdo, who were falsely accused last May of killing one of the militant Muslim raiders on the Abu Fana, Monastery, have been detained for a third time.
In spite of having been released again by a court ruling this month and the Ministry of Interior losing its appeal against this ruling, Minya State Security Services issued a new detention order, and the brothers were transferred back yesterday for the third consecutive time, to the New Valley detention camp. They were awaiting the implementation of the Court verdict to release them at the Minya prison.
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will make representations to the Government of Egypt about reports that their state security forces demolished the services building belonging to the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Masrah Matrouh, assaulting the Coptic priests and Coptic women and men, on 26 April at 7.30 am. [HL3479]
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