Day: July 2, 2009

Pakistan: Another “Honor Killing” of Eloped Couple — Barki

— Pakistan Daily Times: “Couple killed in name of ‘honour'”
— “A newlywed couple was killed in the name of honour on Thursday within Barki Police precincts. Khalid and Shamim, the deceased, had eloped two months ago and were married without the consent of their families.”
— “On their return, Ramazan shot the couple, who died on their way to hospital. Police sources said Ramazan was Shamim’s cousin and she had been engaged to him when she eloped with Khalid. The deceased and the accused were all residents of village Chacho Wali.”
— “Love marriage couple shot dead”

— follows a similar “honor killing” of a couple and their family in Charsadda district on Monday June 29 – husband named Kamran Nawaz

Syria “amends” “honor killing law” – deciding that two years in jail is sufficient punishment for murdering a woman

“Syria amends honour killing law”
— “The new law replaces the existing maximum sentence of one year in jail with a minimum jail term of two years.”
— “The new law says a man can still benefit from extenuating circumstances in crimes of passion or honour ‘provided he serves a prison term of no less than two years in the case of killing'”
— “Activists say some 200 women are killed each year in honour cases by men who expect lenient treatment under the law”

Gaza women suffer from die-hard custom of “honor killing”

Gaza women suffer from die-hard custom of “honor killing”
— “Seven women were killed by their family members in the name of ‘honor’ in Gaza since the beginning of 2009”
— “M.M., a 34-year-old male resident of Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza City never regretted the killing of his sister, who he believed had slept with a stranger.”

Pakistan: Christian families in Kasur hide from angry mobs – charges of Extremist “blasphemy”

Pakistan: Christian families in Kasur hide from angry mobs
— Pakistan Daily Times reports: “At least 110 Christian families, almost 700 people, were forced on Tuesday night to flee Bahmniwala, a village in Kasur, after angry mobs attacked and threatened to burn their houses for allegedly committing blasphemy”
— “The families sought safety in the fields surrounding their village, even as local mosques urged the Muslims to unite and ‘teach a lesson’ to the Christians, residents told Daily Times”
— “The Christians who returned to their homes found they had no electricity or drinking water the entire day”

—- Pakistan Daily Times follow-up report to:
—- Pakistan – ICC Report: “Muslim Mob Burns Down 100 Christian Homes in Pakistan”

UK: Forced Marriage reports up 16 percent – schools warned to watch out for abusive families

(UK) Forced marriage plea to schools
— “The government’s Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) says it has received 770 calls for help this year – up 16% on 2008.”
— “Experts say the coming month will be critical because there is growing evidence that abusive families use the school summer holidays to coerce daughters and sons to marry abroad.”

— ‘Punished for shaming my family’
— “Victim of forced marriage: ‘My breakthrough came when he threatened to kill me'”

forcedmarriage

Somalia – Islamists Behead Two Sons of Christian Leader

Compass: “Somalia – Islamists Behead Two Sons of Christian Leader”
— Compass Direct News reports: “extremists have beheaded two young boys in Somalia because their Christian father refused to divulge information about a church leader, and the killers are searching Kenya’s refugee camps to do the same to the boys’ father.”
— “Before taking his Somali family to a Kenyan refugee camp in April, 55-year-old Musa Mohammed Yusuf himself was the leader of an underground church in Yonday village, 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Kismayo in Somalia. He had received instruction in the Christian faith from Salat Mberwa.”
— “Militants from the extremist group al Shabaab entered Yonday village on Feb. 20, went to Yusuf’s house and interrogated him on his relationship with Mberwa, leader of a fellowship of 66 Somali Christians who meet at his home at an undisclosed city. Yusuf told them he knew nothing of Mberwa and had no connection with him. The extremists left but said they would return the next day.”
— “At noon the next day, as his wife was making lunch for their children in Yonday, the al Shabaab militants showed up. ”
— “Batula Ali Arbow, Yusuf’s wife, recalled that their youngest son, Innocent, told the group that their father had left the house the previous day”
— “The extremists ordered her to stop what she was doing and took hold of three of her sons — 11-year-old Abdi Rahaman Musa Yusuf, 12-year-old Hussein Musa Yusuf and Abdulahi Musa Yusuf, 7.”
— “‘I watched my three boys dragged away helplessly as my youngest boy was crying,’ Arbow said. ‘I knew they were going to be slaughtered.'”

Tanzania: Two Church Buildings Burned Down, Threats to Burn Down Houses of Christians

Report: “Tanzania – Two Church Buildings Burned Down in Zanzibar”
— Compass Direct News reports: “Two church buildings were razed Sunday night (June 28) on the island of Zanzibar after worship services. Suspected radical Muslims set the church buildings on fire on the outskirts of Unguja Township, on the Tanzanian island off the coast of East Africa, in what church leaders called the latest incidents of a rising tide of religious intolerance.”
— report states “‘We don’t want churches on our street,’ read a flier dropped at the door of Charles Odilo, who had donated the plot on which the EAGT building stood. ‘Today we are going to burn the church, and if you continue we are going to burn your house also.'”

Pakistan: Christian pastor kidnapped at gunpoint, escapes

ANS report: “Pakistani Presbyterian Pastor attacked at gunpoint”
— ANS reports: “The Rev. Eric Sarwar, a minister of the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan and director of the Tehillim School of Church Music and Worship, was attacked in Karachi on Tuesday, June 30, 2009, at 8:00 pm Pakistan time, ANS has learned.”
— ANS states that Christian pastor was kidnapped at gunpoint, but managed to escape