Unknown gunmen kill father of five for leaving Islam.
NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Gunmen in central Somalia on Saturday (Dec. 8) killed an underground Christian who had been receiving death threats for leaving Islam, area sources said.
Two unidentified masked men shot Mursal Isse Siad, 55, outside his home in Beledweyne, 206 miles (332 kilometers) north of Mogadishu, for leaving Islam, Muslim and Christian sources told Morning Star News. The assailants fled immediately after the murder.
Egypt court jails blogger Alber Saber for blasphemy
Human rights groups have called for the release of Alber Saber (left)
A court in Egypt had sentenced a blogger to three years in prison for blasphemy and contempt of religion.
Alber Saber was arrested in September after neighbours accused him of posting links to a film mocking Islam that led to protests across the Muslim world.
Mr Saber, an atheist from a Coptic Christian family, can appeal against the ruling if he pays $167 (£100) bail.
The BBC's Wyre Davies reports from outside the presidential palace where the situation is "incredibly tense"
The army in Egypt has called for dialogue to resolve a crisis over President Mohammed Morsi's new powers, warning it will intervene to stop Egypt going into "a dark tunnel".
In its first statement since protests erupted, it vowed to protect public institutions and innocent people.
It came as protests continued outside the presidential palace in Cairo.
U.N. Rights Chief Cites ‘Disastrous’ Situation in Egypt
By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE
GENEVA — Navi Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, expressed alarm on Friday at the rising casualty toll in Egypt’s deepening political turmoil and said flaws in the substance of its draft constitution and the process of preparing it were a major cause of the “disastrous situation” unfolding there that has resulted in at least six deaths.
The constitution proposed by President Mohamed Morsi, which is to be put to a referendum next week, includes “very worrying omissions and ambiguities” that could mean it is weaker than the 1971 Constitution introduced under ousted President Hosni Mubarak it is supposed to replace.
70-year-old woman in critical condition. By Pakistan Correspondent
LAHORE, Pakistan, December 3, 2012 (Morning Star News) – A 70-year-old Swedish Christian worker is in critical condition after unidentified gunmen shot her as she returned home from her office in Lahore today, sources said.
Birgitta Almby, who has been serving as area director with Full Gospel Assemblies (FGA), was returning home for lunch from the FGA Bible School in Lahore’s predominantly Christian Bahar Colony when two unidentified assailants riding a motorcycle opened fire at her as she stopped the car outside her house in the upscale Model Town area.
Egypt's ruling party is paying gangs of thugs to sexually assault women protesting in Cairo's Tahrir Square against President Mohamed Morsi, activists said.
They also said the Muslim Brotherhood is paying gangs to beat up men who are taking part in the latest round of protests, which followed a decree by President Morsi to give himself sweeping new powers.
It comes as the Muslim Brotherhood co-ordinated a demonstration today in support of President Mohamed Morsi, who is rushing through a constitution to try to defuse opposition fury over his newly expanded powers.
Danger: women protesting in Cairo's Tahrir Square face the increased danger of sexual assault by large gangs of men
Egypt’s Islamists hurriedly vote on new constitution, stoking already deepening crisis
CAIRO — Islamists on Thursday rushed to approve a draft constitution for Egypt without the participation of liberal and Christian members, aiming to pre-empt a court ruling that could dissolve their panel and further inflaming the clash between the opposition and President Mohammed Morsi.
The move advances a charter with an Islamist bent that rights experts say could give Muslim clerics oversight over legislation and bring restrictions on freedom of speech, women’s rights and other liberties.
Egypt’s top Islamist expects assassination of liberal figures
Nageh Ibrahim, the ideologue of the Gamaa al-Islamiya, said his expectation “was based on an analysis of the political situation not on information.” (Photo via Nageh Ibrahim’s Facebook page)
By AL ARABIYA
A senior member of Egypt’s former militant Islamist group al-Gamaa al-Islamiya has warned that liberal politicians and intellectuals who oppose President Mohammed Mursi’s latest constitutional declaration could face a campaign of targeted assassinations starting from December.
Nageh Ibrahim, the ideologue of the Gamaa al-Islamiya, which took up arms against ousted president Hosni Mubarak's regime in the 1980s, told Al Arabiya that his expectation “was based on an analysis of the political situation not on information.
Leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood calls for Jihad against Israel
Mohammed Badei slams peace treaty as ‘game of grand deception’
Mohammed Badei (photo credit: screen capture/France24/Youtube)
CAIRO (AP) — The top leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood denounced peace efforts with Israel and urged holy war to liberate Palestinian territories on Thursday — one day after the country’s president, who hails from the movement, mediated a cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians to end eight days of fierce fighting.
“The enemy knows nothing but the language of force,” said Mohammed Badei. “Be aware of the game of grand deception with which they depict peace accords,” he said in a statement carried on the group’s website and emailed to reporters.
Muslim Brotherhood leader blasts peace efforts with Israel after Morsi helps broker cease-fire
Associated Press
The top leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood denounced peace efforts with Israel and urged holy war to liberate Palestinian territories on Thursday — one day after the country's president, who hails from the movement, mediated a cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians to end eight days of fierce fighting.
"The enemy knows nothing but the language of force," said Mohammed Badie. "Be aware of the game of grand deception with which they depict peace accords," he said in a statement carried on the group's website and emailed to reporters.
‘Blasphemy’ Case against Pakistani Girl Ruled a Fake
Judge decides firmly against ‘mockery of justice.
By Pakistan Correspondent
LAHORE, Pakistan, November 20 (Morning Star News) – As of late Tuesday night in Pakistan there were no reports of Islamic extremist unrest following today’s dismissal of blasphemy charges against a Christian girl in Islamabad.
Accusations of blasphemy in Pakistan commonly involve clamoring crowds of Islamists, but extremists appeared resigned that the case against Rimsha Masih had little likelihood for success. With a medical report showing her mental age was younger than her 14 years and her accuser himself accused of desecrating the Koran in an attempt to concoct evidence against her, Rimsha received an outpouring of international support.
Egypt security uncovers militant group’s ‘caliphate’ plan to conquer state
The “Conquest of Egypt” offers a detailed account of a plan by militant Islamists to seize power in Egypt and establish an Islamic caliphate. (Al Arabiya)
By AL ARABIYA
Egyptian security has recently uncovered a document circulated among armed groups and which details a plan to “conquer” Egypt and restore the Islamic caliphate.
The document, entitled the “Conquest of Egypt,” was handwritten by a militant called Karim Ahmed Bedeiwi, who was killed in a recent police raid on a flat in the district of Nasr City in eastern Cairo.
French nationalists protest in Paris against radical Islam, allege Muslims won’t integrate
Thibault Camus/Associated Press - People hold a banner reading: ‘islamic fascism shall not pass” during a demonstration in Paris, Saturday Nov.10, 2012. France is home to Western Europe’s largest population of Muslims, estimated to be at least 5 million even though the government does not provide official figures. Many have family roots in former French colonies in northern Africa.
By Associated Press,
PARIS — Hundreds of French nationalists have demonstrated in Paris against Islamist extremism, chanting the French anthem and saying the religion has no place in the country.
Destroy the sphynx and the pyramids’, says Egyptian jihadist
An Egyptian Islamist leader with ties to the Taliban has called for the "destruction of the Sphinx and Giza pyramids", suggesting these "idols" contravene the laws of Islam, reports Al Arabiya.
Murgan Salem al-Gohary, who served two jail sentences under former President Hosni Mubarak for inciting violence, called on Muslims to remove the ancient Egyptian relics in an interview broadcast Saturday.
"All Muslims are charged with applying the teachings of Islam to remove such idols, as we did in Afghanistan when we destroyed the Buddha statues", he said, speaking on a popular Egyptian private television channel.
Pakistani Christian Preacher Jailed for Sermon at Funeral
Muslims accuse him of ‘blasphemy,’ order relatives to leave village or be set ablaze.
By Pakistan Correspondent
LAHORE, Pakistan, November 9, 2012 (Morning Star News) – An evangelist accused of defaming Islam was telling mourners at a funeral about the sacrifice of Christ when Muslims present took offence, his son said.
Karma Patras, a 55-year-old resident of Chak 113-RB Bado Malhi of Punjab Province’s Nankana District, has been languishing in jail since Oct. 13 for allegedly “outraging the religious feelings” of Muslims at the funeral of a Christian where most of those present were church members. He faces a sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine under Section 295-A of Pakistan’s widely condemned blasphemy statutes.
1 of 3. Egyptians chant against the Muslim Brotherhood and demand for the constitution to be dissolved in Cairo in this October 19, 2012 file photo.
Credit: Reuters/Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Files
By Yasmine Saleh
CAIRO (Reuters) - Mohamed Talaat didn't like the fact Christian music was being played at a party to promote interfaith harmony in the Egyptian town of Minya south of Cairo, so together with a group of like-minded Islamist hardliners, he showed up to put a stop to it.
It was simply un-Islamic to broadcast Christian songs, Talaat explained.
Suicide Bombing at Church Takes More Lives in Nigeria
Within two days of inter-faith peace effort, suspected Islamic extremist attacks.
Special to Morning Star News
KADUNA CITY, Nigeria, November 2, 2012 (Morning Star News) – A suicide bomb explosion that killed seven people at a Catholic church here on Sunday (Oct. 28) was the fourth such attack in Kaduna state in four months.
Less than two days after a festival aimed at reconciling Muslims and Christians in this northern Nigeria city, the suspected Islamic extremist rammed a car full of explosives into St. Rita’s Catholic Church in the Malali area of the Kaduna state capital, killing seven and injuring 145 others including the parish priest, an official from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) told Morning Star News.
Muhammad Saad Al-Azhari, an Islamist member of Egypt’s constitutional assembly, took to Al-Nas TV recently to give his opinion on the controversy surrounding the creation of Egypt’s new, post-Arab Spring constitution.
Though it was said that the Egyptian revolution would lead to greater freedom and democracy, the country’s Christians and more secular citizens are becoming increasingly isolated as the Islamists in the constitutional assembly gain more and more power– and Al-Azhari is one of those Islamists.
Speaking with sympathetic television personality Sheikh Khaled Abdallah, Al-Azhari explained why he is against rules outlawing sex trafficking and domestic abuse.
