Year: 2009

“Pakistani Muslims Gun Down Christian Friend”

“Pakistani Muslims Gun Down Christian Friend”
— CDN reports: “A group of Muslims shot their Christian friend dead this month on the outskirts of this town after saying they would spare his life only if he recanted his faith, according to the young man’s father.”
— “The friends of Patras Masih, who died from gunshot wounds on Dec. 3 in Karol village, Punjab Province, issued the ultimatum to him after accusing him of the murder of their friend Anees Mahammad. An autopsy reported showed Mahammad died from toxic alcohol earlier that day.”
— “Patras Masih’s father, Gulzar Masih, said his son was at home on that day, had no contact with Mahammad, and that his friends accused him of the murder only because he refused to recant Christianity and embrace Islam.”

UK Columnist: “Thousands of Teenage Girls Go Missing… for Arranged Marriages”

UK: “Tulay Goren honour killing: When tolerance is deadly” – by Eleanor Mills
— “Officially there are a dozen ‘honour killings’ a year in Britain, but experts know this is the tip of an iceberg. Thousands of teenage girls go missing from schools in areas with large Asian populations such as Luton and Bradford, often sent home for arranged marriages.”
— “The suffering of women like my friend and girls like Tulay — not to mention their oppressed mothers — is the shameful side of tolerant Britain.”

India: All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) Seeks to Challenge India Supreme Court Decision on Women’s Right to Divorce Settlement

— India Express:
— “The AIMPLB believes the judgment reopens an issue that was settled during the Rajiv Gandhi regime in 1986 when Parliament enacted the Muslim Women Act after protests from Muslims against the Supreme Court verdict, which had awarded maintenance to Shah Bano in 1985.”
— “In the recent judgment, delivered on December 4, a Supreme Court Bench comprising Justices Deepak Verma and Sudarshan Reddy upheld the right of a divorced Muslim woman Shabana Babo to get maintenance from her husband.”
— Maulana Khalid Rashid of All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB): “The Supreme Court judgment is a direct interference in Muslim personal law. It is also against the Shariat, which states that marriage is a contract between two individuals and it becomes null and void after divorce.”

Egypt/Saudi Arabia – Significant Percent View “Duty” to Financially Support Jihad

UPI: “Funding for jihad troubling, scholar says”
— UPI reports: “More than 35 percent of Egyptians and Saudis interviewed in a recent survey considered it their duty to back regional mujahedin financially, a scholar notes.”
— “Private polling of Egyptian and Saudi citizens reveals trends regarding the public sentiment toward jihadi groups like al-Qaida.”
— “Pollock adds that while many of the respondents said they did not support al-Qaida, more than 40 percent said they assumed other Muslim communities did support the group’s militant message.”
— “He notes that while public support for radical Islam is dwindling, the perception that financial assistance is an obligation is troubling.”

Turkey: European Human Rights Court Rules in Favor of Turkish Church

Turkey: European Human Rights Court Rules in Favor of Turkish Church

— CDN reports: “In a decision many hope will lead to greater religious freedom in Turkey, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found that a Turkish court ruling barring a church from starting a foundation violated the congregation’s right to freedom of association.”
— “Orhan Kemal Cengiz, a Turkish attorney and legal advisor for the litigants, said the decision earlier this year was the first time the ECHR has held that religious organizations have a right to exist in Turkey. Other issues the court addressed dealt with organizations’ rights to own property, he said.”
— “Cengiz added that this case is just the first of many needed to correct conflicts within the Turkish legal system in regard to freedom of association, known in Turkey as the concept of ‘legal personality.’ ”
— ” ‘This case is a significant victory, but it is the first case in a long line of cases to come,’ Cengiz said.”
— “Ihsan Ozbek, pastor of Kurtulus Church in Ankara, which set out to establish the foundation, said he was pleased with the court’s decision.”

Islamist Extremist Wife of Al-Qaeda Leader Urges Muslim Women to Support Jihadist Efforts of Husbands

Wife of Qaeda number 2 urges women – to support men in jihad, oppose efforts to shun hijab
— letter “A Message to the Muslim Sisters ” by Omayma Hassan Ahmed Mohammed Hassan  – wife of Ayman al-Zawahiri
— “The SITE group said that Zawahiri’s wife discouraged women from pursuing an active role in fighting, calling on them instead to support their husbands and male mujahedeen, and properly rear their children.”