GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — A jury of six military officers convicted Usama bin Laden's former driver of supporting terrorism Wednesday in the first war crimes trial at Guantanamo Bay, but cleared him of conspiracy charges.
Police in Saudi Arabia have arrested a man working for the country's vice squad who is accused of having six wives, two more than allowed under Islamic law.
Ayman Nour, not among prisoners pardoned by President Mubarak, declares hunger strike
July 23, 2008
The Leadership Council for Human Rights (LCHR) received a message and press release from Gameela Ismail, wife of political prisoner Ayman Nour, today. LCHR remains gravely concerned about Nour’s health and is deeply disappointed by the decision not to release him. Both the message and press release are printed in their entirety below. They can also be accessed on LCHR’s website, by clicking here.
Britain's highest appeals court is scheduled to decide this week whether a divorced woman and her son should be deported to Lebanon, where she claims her abusive husband will gain custody under Sharia law.
PAKISTAN: GIRLS KIDNAPPED, ALLEGEDLY FORCED TO CONVERT
Condition and whereabouts of two sisters, 12 and 10, unknown.
A Christian father in Pakistan is in a legal battle with kidnappers for the custody of his pre-teen daughters, who allegedly have been forced to convert to Islam.
Yesterday a judge in Pakistan’s Punjab province ordered further investigation into the kidnapping of Saba Younis, 12, and Aneela Younis, 10, who went missing on June 26 in the small town of Chowk Munda.
Police interrogate converts to Christianity about faith, political activity.
Iranian authorities have detained two converts to Christianity in the southern city of Shiraz for eight weeks on suspicion of “apostasy,” or leaving Islam. In Iran, apostasy is a crime that can be punishable by death.
Mahmood Matin, 52, and Arash Bandari, 44, remain imprisoned in a secret police detention center known by its address, Sepah Street 100, located in the center of Shiraz since their arrest on May 15 (previously reported as May 13).
Iraqi Christians have been in Iraq since the time of Christ.The majority of them are Chaldean Catholics.They are our brethren.
BAGHDAD, IRAQ (Chaldean.org) - Senior research fellow, Brian J. Grim, paints a harrowing picture of the ongoing persecution of Iraqi Christians.
The research expert on religion and world affairs with the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in Washington, D.C. reports that the situation for Christians in Iraq is worsening.
TURKEY: ALLEGED MASTERMINDS OF MALATYA MURDERS NAMED IN COURT
Defense turns trial of slaughter of three Christians into missionary witch-hunt.
By Barbara G. Baker
Plaintiff lawyers Ozkan Yucel
and Erdal Dogan (right) outside courtroom
MALATYA, Turkey, July 9 (Compass Direct News) – Despite new court testimony naming a web of ranking local officials behind the slaughter of three Christians in Malatya last year, defense lawyers for the alleged murderers attempted to turn last week’s hearing into an investigation into Christian missionary activities.
Officials give no viable alternative to church caught in land dispute.
Bulldozed Cirebeum village church
JAKARTA, (Compass Direct News) – Public Order officials on June 26 demolished a church building in Cimahi regency of Bandung district, West Java, to make way for a new shopping mall and bus terminal after church leaders failed to convince authorities that they owned the land on which it was built.
The President of the northern Italian city of Milan, Filippo Penati, has triggered widespread debate with a controversial proposal to fine Muslims who pray on the streets outside the city's mosque.
The President of the northern Italian city of Milan, Filippo Penati, has triggered widespread debate with a controversial proposal to fine Muslims who pray on the streets outside the city's mosque.
Toddlers who turn their noses up at spicy food from overseas could be branded racists by a Government-sponsored agency.
The National Children's Bureau, which receives £12 million a year, mainly from Government funded organisations, has issued guidance to play leaders and nursery teachers advising them to be alert for racist incidents among youngsters in their care.
Police sniffer dogs will have to wear bootees when searching the homes of Muslims so as not to cause offence.
Guidelines being drawn up by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) urge awareness of religious sensitivities when using dogs to search for drugs and explosives. The guidelines, to be published this year, were designed to cover mosques but have been extended to include other buildings.
A postcard featuring a cute puppy sitting in a policeman's hat advertising a Scottish police force's new telephone number has sparked outrage from Muslims.
GENEVA: Muslim countries have won a battle to prevent Islam from being criticised during debates by the UN Human Rights Council. Religions deserve special protection because any debate about faith is bound to be “very complex, very sensitive and very intense”, council President Doru-Romulus Costea said Wednesday.
Coptic Christians and their supporters will demonstrate on Parliament Hill at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 5, 2008 against the Egyptian government for continuing to allow criminal elements to wage regular attacks on Egyptian Copts and their properties.
The National , Nadia abou el Magd, Foreign Correspondent
KAFR El SHEIKH // The smell of burnt wood is heavy in the air at the Sanctuary of the Church of the Virgin Mary, in northern Egypt, after a fire this week swept through one of Christianity's most important landmarks.
A PAKISTANI family who sought asylum in Scotland because they received death threats over their religious beliefs are hoping that a last-minute appeal will stop their deportation tomorrow.
Dubai, 17 June (AKI) - (By Hamza Boccolini) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and a prominent Italian journalist who recently converted to Christianity, are the targets of new death threats posted on one of the most popular Islamist websites said to be close to al-Qaeda, on Tuesday.
A woman has been arrested for breaking Saudi Arabia's ban on female drivers.She was stopped by a police patrol after driving six miles to collect her husband near their home in the town of Buraida.
The shocking murder of Mississauga teen Aqsa Parvez took another disturbing twist yesterday when Peel Regional Police arrested her older brother and charged him with first-degree murder.
Waqas Parvez, 26, now joins his father Muhammad Parvez, 57, before the courts on pre-meditated murder charges in the Dec. 10, 2007 strangling death of the 16-year-old high school student who friends say did not want to wear the traditional Muslim Hijab head scarf and was rebellious against the strict Muslim rules laid down inside her family home.
Authorities in Cairo have banned a 92-year-old Gulf Arab man from marrying a 17-year-old Egyptian girl, under laws brought in to counter the increasing number of wealthy Gulf men travelling to the impoverished Egyptian countryside to find much younger, temporary brides.
The ministry of justice invoked a law that says the age gap between spouses should not exceed 25 years, the Egyptian Al-Akhbar newspaper reported. In an indication of how prevalent such marriages are becoming, Al-Akhbar reported that 173 couples with more than 25 years between them wed last year, via a loophole in the law that allows a foreign man to take a much younger bride in exchange for depositing about $80,000 (£41,000) in the Egyptian national bank.
Egypt Human Rights Resolution in Congress. Please support now....
Washington DC- The U.S. Copts Association has worked for few weeks now with the Congressional Human Rights Caucus Co-Chair, Congressman Frank Wolf, on Resolution H. Res. 1303. Mr. Wolf has asked members of congress to co-sponsor the Resolution. The Resolution is calling on the Egyptian Government to respect human rights and freedoms of religion and expression in Egypt. The Resolutoin details Egypt's human rights abuses against the Copts as well as religious minorities, bloggers, and democracy proponents.
ETHIOPIA: ISLAMISTS RECEIVE LIFE SENTENCES FOR CHURCH ATTACKS
Church appeals ‘secretive’ ruling; three officials said to be instigators remain free.
ISTANBUL, (Compass Direct News) – In a snap ruling that surprised local Christians, an Ethiopian court has sentenced three Muslim men to life imprisonment for a deadly machete attack on two churches last March.
In the midst of continuing sectarian tensions between Muslims and Coptic Christians in Egypt, the Coptic diaspora has recently called for demonstrations in the U.S. and European cities.
MURRIETA, Calif. — A self-described polygamist was convicted Wednesday of charges that he starved, tortured and abused his two wives and many of his 19 children and stepchildren.
USA: LCHR Applauds Egypt Human Rights Resolution, Urges Support
Washington, D.C. – The Leadership Council for Human Rights strongly supports H. Res. 1303, calling on the Egyptian Government to respect human rights and freedoms of religion and expression in Egypt. LCHR expresses its appreciation to Congressional Human Rights Caucus Co-Chair Frank Wolf for introducing this important resolution, which details Egypt’s human rights abuses against religious minorities, journalists and bloggers, democracy proponents, and civil society development organizations. The resolution also urges the President and the Secretary of State to prioritize human rights and religious freedom in meetings with Egyptian officials.
LONDON (AFP) - The wife of one of the failed 2005 London suicide bombers was jailed for 15 years Thursday, after being found guilty of failing to tell the police about the terrorist plot.Yeshi Girma, 32, knew her husband Hussain Osman was planning to unleash carnage in the failed July 21, 2005 attacks and could have stopped the attempted bombings, England's Old Bailey central criminal court heard.
Muslim militants are crucifying children to terrorize their Christian parents into fleeing Iraq, a parliamentary committee studying the persecution of religious minorities heard yesterday.
By leaving Islam, ‘apostate’ loses right because he ‘has no creed.’
ISTANBUL, (Compass Direct News) – A Jordanian Islamic law court has annulled the marriage of a former Muslim because of his conversion to Christianity.
The North Amman Sharia Court in April dissolved the marriage of Mohammad Abbad, on trial for apostasy, or leaving Islam.
Police were appealing for witnesses today following the attempted murder of a man who was doused in petrol and set on fire in east London.The 20-year-old, who is fighting for his life in hospital, was torched as he sat in his car in Forest Gate.
Baroness Cox raises the question of Religious Freedom
with Egypt at the House of Lords.
Egyptian government abuses will be discussed at the June EU-Egypt political sub-committee established under the European neighbourhood policy action plan.
Further to the Written Answer by Lord Malloch-Brown on 10 March (WA 199), whether their welcome of the ruling of the Egyptian Supreme Administrative Court on 10 February took account of the referral of Article 47 of the civil and personal status law to the Egyptian High Constitutional Court to determine its compatibility with Article II of the Egyptian constitution. [HL3815]
Riad, 30 July 
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