Pope baptizes famous Muslim convert, Egyptian Journalist Magdy Allam
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict led the world's Catholics into Easter on Saturday at a Vatican service where he baptized a Muslim-born convert who is one of Italy's most famous and controversial journalists.
It is just a few days until Easter, the most important date in the Christian calendar. But for 700 Muslims who have gathered in a rural caravan park, this week has a different religious significance.
Three senior appeal judges have refused to recognise a Muslim marriage that took place "over the telephone", even though the union is valid according to sharia law.
They said the union, between a 26-year-old autistic British man, identified only as IC, and a woman in Bangladesh was "potentially highly injurious".
Tehran, 19 March (AKI) - In its first session since last week's general elections, the new Iranian parliament is expected to discuss a law that will condemn to death anyone who decides to leave the Muslim faith and convert to other religions.
CAIRO, Egypt: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned Tuesday that continued insults to the Prophet Mohammed will just make the situation worse for everyone, while at the same time criticizing the extremists using these insults to justify their actions.
In Oxford, Muslim call to prayer sounds strained note
2 days ago
OXFORD, England (AFP) — Famous for its university and quintessentially English "dreaming spires," the city of Oxford has been plunged into controversy over the sound of Muslim call to prayer from a local mosque.
Those church spires have been joined by a minaret, with a loudspeaker on top which has triggered protests from locals concerned about the influx of a foreign culture.
Reuters - Saudi Arabia's most revered cleric said in a rare fatwa this week that two writers should be tried for apostasy for their "heretical articles" and put to death if they do not repent.
Sheikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak was responding to recent articles in al-Riyadh newspaper that questioned the Sunni Muslim view in Saudi Arabia that adherents of other faiths should be considered unbelievers.
A retired Kuwaiti superstar singer has recently left the Gulf emirate for Afghanistan to join ranks with al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in fighting foreign troops there, according to a press report published Saturday.
CAIRO EGYPT (BosNewsLife)-- A Christian bookshop employee in Egypt faced possible police interrogation Monday, March 17, after being detained over the weekend by security forces who also confiscated books, compact discs, and issues of a Christian newspaper, a religious rights group said.
Shenouda Armia Bakhait was arrested Saturday, March 15, after undercover police "stormed" the Nile Christian Book Shop in Cairo, reported Advocates For The Persecuted, a US-based nonprofit organization that advocates for religious minorities in the Middle East.
Armed police raced to a major security alert at the UK's biggest airport when a man sprinted on to a runway at Heathrow.
The intruder, who was subsequently arrested, was clutching a bag and is thought to have scaled a perimeter fence by the west London airport's northern runway.
10 years imprisonment for a Christian who married Ex-Muslim
From United Copts GB sources
Approximately 3 years ago, Bolis Rezek-Allah, a pharmacist met the Muslim convert Enas Yehya Abdel Aziz, loving relationship was established and the couple wanted to get married. The obstacle was the Egyptian law does not allow a Christian man to marry a Muslim woman but the opposite is permitted.
Lord Patten asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will make representations to the Government of Egypt concerning the right to freedoms of expression, thought, conscience and religion for Mr Mohammed Hegazy, who was told on 29 January by a court that it was only lawful to convert to Islam, and not to another religion, in his case Christianity. [HL2135]
CAIRO, March 10 (Reuters) - An Egyptian court sentenced a journalist to one year in jail on Monday for libelling imprisoned opposition leader Ayman Nour and his wife.
But Nour, who is serving a five-year sentence on what he says are baseless fraud charges, asked the court to drop the custodial sentence because he does not approve of jailing journalists for publishing offences.
London (PTI): Young Muslims in Britain are increasingly getting inclined towards radical Islam as it presents a more "comprehensive and coherent" ideology than the one advocated by local mosques, a report has suggested.
Egyptian authorities have rounded up hundreds of members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood in a crackdown apparently designed to stop the Islamist movement from taking part in local elections next month.
Speaker of Egyptian Parliament blasts Ayman Nour at international law forum
March 6, 2008
Washington, D.C. – The Leadership Council for Human Rights (LCHR) calls on the U.S. government and the international human rights community to address distortions made by the Speaker of Egyptian Parliament, Dr. Ahmed Fathi Sorour, about the case of imprisoned parliamentarian Ayman Nour. Dr. Sorour, who addressed the American Society of International Law (ASIL) Wednesday evening, focused his remarks on the need to balance terrorism prevention with respect for human rights. However, when asked to address the rights of Nour, who has been recognized by world leaders, including President Bush, as a political prisoner, Dr. Sorour claimed that the world had been duped.
NEW YORK (AP) -- A former Pace University student who twice threw copies of the Koran into a toilet at the school after disputes with Muslims pleaded guilty Monday to disorderly conduct in connection with the incidents.
Stanislav Shmulevich, 24, pleaded guilty as part of a deal in which he must do 300 hours of community service. He has completed about 80 hours of the service at a hospital, his lawyer said.
Shmulevich, of Brooklyn, admitted he tossed the Muslim holy books into toilets at Pace on Oct. 13, 2006, and Nov. 21, 2006. A criminal complaint says the Koran that was recovered in the October incident "was covered in feces."
In both cases, a teacher found the books in a men's room on the second floor of the school's main building in lower Manhattan.
Muslims consider the Koran a sacred writing that contains the direct word of God, and desecrating it is seen as an offense against God.
Detective Faisal Khan, who prepared the complaint, said Shmulevich told him "he committed the acts out of anger toward a group of Muslim students with whom he had a recent disagreement."
Shmulevich, a business major and immigrant from the former Soviet Union, initially was charged with two counts of criminal mischief as a hate crime. The charge is a felony punishable by up to four years in prison.
His lawyer, Glenn Morak, said he believed the disorderly conduct plea was an appropriate disposition.
"There was no hate crime here," Morak said. "He accepts responsibility, and he is repentant."
Shmulevich, the lawyer said, is no longer at Pace, which has about 14,000 students on its campuses in New York City and Westchester County.