Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)
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Malaysia – Reuters: Fourth church attacked in Malaysia as Allah row deepens
— “In the latest attack on early Saturday, unidentified attackers flung a home-made petrol bomb at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in a suburb in Selangor state. The two-storey bungalow sustained minor damage, church officials said.”
Malaysian Christian Churches Firebombed
Multiple press accounts report that a 23 year old British Muslim woman raped in the United Arab Emirate’s (UAE) Dubai was arrested and jailed for having “illegal sex.” The Sun reports that UAE law “contain elements of Sharia law.” In addition, the Khaleej Times reports how women fear reporting rape, for fear of being blamed and also due to death threats.
UAE: British Woman raped in Dubai charged for having illegal sex
— London Times reports: “A 23-year-old British woman who was raped while on holiday in Dubai now faces jail in the Gulf state for having illegal sex outside marriage.”
— “The young woman was attacked in the toilet of a hotel where she had had been drinking with her fiancé to celebrate their engagement during a holiday in Dubai over New Year’s Eve.”
— “When she reported the rape to police however, she and her 44-year-old boyfriend were jailed themselves for having sex outside marriage, which remains illegal under the emirate’s strict laws on decency. The couple were also charged with drinking illegally outside licensed premises.”
— “According to reports, Dubai police were more interested in questioning the woman about her drinking and sexual preferences than investigating her attack. It is claimed that standard procedure in alleged rape cases was not followed, although legal sources in Dubai dispute this. However, a blood test was taken to prove the woman had been drinking.”
— “The woman’s attacker, understood to be a Syrian waiter at the Address, has denied rape claiming sex was consensual. Instead, he has also been charged with illegal sex outside marriage. It is still unclear if the rape charge is being investigated at all by police.”
— The UK Sun reports: “unsympathetic cops immediately quizzed them about breaking the emirate’s severe decency rules, which contain elements of Sharia law.”
— “Medics were said to have shunned rape case procedures – but made sure they obtained a blood sample from the woman to prove she had been drinking.”
— “After being locked up, she told a cellmate she was terrified the rapist had made her pregnant or given her a sexually transmitted disease.”
— “She and her fiance spent several days behind bars before being freed.”
— “The cellmate, held for alleged cheque fraud, said: ‘She’s a British girl but a Muslim, so I think they were tougher on her because of that.’ ”
— The Guardian reports: “Police began to question the couple about breaking the emirate’s strict decency laws. Usual rape procedures were ignored and the woman was given a full medical check and a morning-after pill only after the intervention of British embassy staff, the paper reported.”
— The Khaleej Times reports: “Reputation Concerns Hold Back Women from Reporting Rape”
— “A recent survey regarding crimes against women in the UAE revealed that most residents would report a rape case to the police. Among those women who said they would not report rapes, a majority cited concern for their reputation and that of their family as the reason.”
— “The survey — YouGov Siraj’s lifestyle poll — which involved 980 men and women respondents and was released last week, said that 77 per cent would report an attempted rape or sexual assault.”
— “It also showed that of the women who said they would not report such a crime, 55 per cent were worried about their reputation. One in two also said they feared being judged by society or unjustly accused of immoral behaviour.”
— “Among Arab women, the official said there had been many cases of women who had been raped and assaulted by relatives or strangers and had approached the police for protection but would not report the abuse, fearing it would affect family honour.”
— “The official said men are exploiting such fears to commit crimes against women, knowing that the matter was unlikely to come to light, while ignoring that raping a woman is considered an attack against the values or ‘honour’ of a society.”
— “The official said men are exploiting such fears to commit crimes against women, knowing that the matter was unlikely to come to light, while ignoring that raping a woman is considered an attack against the values or ‘honour’ of a society.”
— ” ‘The society always blames woman for being raped, instead of punishing the man who did it,’ he said.”
— “However, some women also based their concern on physical threats.”
— ” ‘We had cases of women who did not report the crime, as they were threatened with death,’ he said.”
ChinaAid reports: “On December 25, 2009, farm leaders and police broke into the home of Wang Qiyue, a 71-year-old widow, disrupting the Christmas gathering and ransacking her home. These “People’s Police” burned Ms. Wang’s furniture, as she was thrown against a police car by the Korla Chief of Security, Yu Fagan. Six farm leaders next barged into the home of 69-year-old hemiplegic He Cuiying, and confiscated more than 30 Bibles and spiritual books. The leaders then burned the materials in a bonfire outside her home, as a means of public humiliation. Later, five elderly Christians were arrested with no cause and fined 5,000 Yuan each.”
Read more about the persecution of the elderly Christians in Korla.
The Egyptian Coptic Christians celebrated Christmas on January 7, 2010, but this year’s Christmas celebration was met with terrorist gunfire and murder as Coptic Christians were gunned down outside a Coptic Christmas Eve Mass at the Mar Yohana church on the night of January 6; the terrorist attack was in the town of Nag Hamadi in Qena province. AINA reports that eight Coptic Christians were killed in the gunfire sprayed as Copts were leaving their services, with most murdered young people in their 20s, including “a young man and his fiance and a 14-years-old boy.” One witness told MECA: “Security came as everything was over.”
al-Masry al-Yom reported that “The bishop expressed his astonishment at the security’s failure to protect the church despite previous threats. ‘Security forces were completely absent from the scene,’ he explained. Eyewitnesses said that two police cars with at least ten security officers and guards left the church at 7:30 p.m., about an hour and a half after the start of the mass. ”
This is the latest in a long series of acts of violence and oppression against the Coptic Christians in Egypt. (See also additional reports by AP, BBC, Voice of the Copts, and video of attack aftermath.)
Video:
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On November 23, 2009, AINA reported that “Muslim rioters looted and burned Coptic Christian businesses in the village of Abou Shousha,” with a video showing Copts trying to dowse the flames, while extremists chanted at the end of the video. On November 22, 2009, AINA reported on attacks on Copts, a Coptic priest, destruction of businesses, and eviction of Copts from their home in Farshoot, Egypt, intimidated by a mob of 3,000.
On January 7, 2010, after the latest terrorist attack on Coptic Christians in Nag Hamadi, there were further clashes between Copts and the Egyptian police after protests outside the morgue where bodies of the latest terrorist attack on the Copts were being held.
The Guardian reported on “[c]lashes between thousands of protesters and riot police shook Egypt today after six Coptic Christians were murdered, prompting some of the worst sectarian violence the country has seen.”
“By daybreak hundreds of Christians had gathered at the morgue where the bodies of the dead were being held, chanting anti-government slogans and facing down security forces who fired tear gas and bullets in an effort to disperse the crowd. Stones were thrown at police and a number of ambulances were destroyed by protesters. By lunchtime the number of demonstrators had swelled as locals flocked to attend the funeral of the dead, held in the same church where they were shot the night before, and sporadic rioting broke out across the area.”
Guardian reported that “Pakinam Amer, a journalist for the al-Masry al-Yom website who was at the funeral, said the scene outside the church resembled a war zone. ‘There were tanks parked on the street and huge lines of riot police on either side, some with machine guns,’ she said. ‘All around lampposts were snapped, cars were destroyed and shop-fronts smashed in.’ ”
Guardian also reported ” ‘It is all religious now,’ said the church’s Bishop Kirollos. ‘This is a religious war, about how they can finish off the Christians in Egypt.’ ”
On January 8, Reuters reported that “Three suspects in a shooting that killed six Coptic Christians and a Muslim policeman in southern Egypt have turned themselves in after being squeezed in a police cordon, security sources said on Friday.” Copts have long complained of the inequity of justice in Egypt and that those committing crimes against Copts routinely are not prosecuted or given lenient treatment. Reuters also reported that “Egypt’s government denied it was sectarian violence, however, and said it was an isolated incident.”
Reports:
— Voice of the Copts: Gunmen kill 7 after Christmas Mass in Egypt
— FreeCopts.Net: Copts Protest In South Egypt After Fatal Shootings
— AINA reported that “An assassination attempt on the life of Bishop Kirollos in southern Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi was foiled tonight. Eight Copts were killed and 15 wounded as they came out of Church after celebrating the Coptic Christmas Eve midnight mass on Wednesday 6th January at 11.15 PM.”
— ” ‘I was the one intended to be assassinated by this plot, and when it failed the criminals turned round and started shooting and finishing off the young ones.’ Bishop Kirollos of the Nag Hammagi Diocese told Middle East Christian Association (MECA) today in an aired interview.”
— “Eyewitnesses saw a dark-green ‘Fiat’ 131 without registration, one Peugeot 504 car and a half-truck. The cars were driven by masked men shooting randomly at the congregation as they came out of Church. The cars then went into three nearby areas (15th March Street, 15 May Street and Railway Station Street) shooting Copts.”
— “One eye-witness told MECA that those killed were mostly young men in their early 20s. He said that most people were killed or wounded near the church, but that the cars went around shooting in other areas, resulting in two more death, besides the wounded. It was reported that among the dead was a young man and his fiance and a 14-years-old boy “.
— “Another witness criticized the absence of security. ‘Security came as everything was over, instead of trying to catch the criminals, they were interrogating us about the description of the cars.’ This video shows the shootings.”
— “An eye-witness told Coptic News Bulletin from Nag Hammadi Hospital that the situation is dire, and there is a critical shortage of blood for transfusions. ‘The Muslims promised us a wonderful Christmas, and I think the message is received now,’he said.”
AP: “Gunmen kill 7 after Christmas Mass in Egypt”
— “Three men in a car sprayed automatic gunfire into a crowd of churchgoers in southern Egypt as they left a midnight Mass for Coptic Christmas, killing at least seven people in a drive-by shooting, the church bishop and security officials said.”
— “Egypt’s Interior Ministry said the attack Wednesday just before midnight was suspected as retaliation for the November rape of a Muslim girl by a Christian man in the same town. The statement said witnesses have identified the lead attacker.”
— “The attack took place in the town of Nag Hamadi in Qena province, about 40 miles from the famous ancient ruins of Luxor. A local security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed that seven were dead and three seriously wounded.”
— “Bishop Kirollos of the Nag Hamadi Diocese said six male churchgoers and one security guard were killed. He said he had left St. John’s church just minutes before the attack.”
— ” ‘A driving car swerved near me, so I took the back door. By the time I shook hands with someone at the gate, I heard the mayhem, lots of machine gun shots,’ he said in a telephone interview. He said he saw five bodies lying on the ground when he first looked at the site of the shooting, about 600 yards from where he was.”
— “The bishop said he was concerned about violence on the eve of Coptic Christmas, which falls on Thursday, because of previous threats following the rape of the 12-year-old girl in November.”
— “He got a message on his mobile phone saying: ‘It is your turn.’ ”
— ” ‘I did nothing with it. My faithful were also receiving threats in the streets, some shouting at them: ‘We will not let you have festivities,” he said.”
— “Because of the threats, he said he ended his Christmas Mass one hour early.”
— “He said Muslim residents of Nag Hamadi and neighboring villages rioted for five days in November and torched and damaged Christian properties in the area after the rape. “
Egypt Copts killed in Christmas church attack
— BBC reports:
— “At least five Coptic Christians have been killed in a drive-by shooting outside a church in southern Egypt, officials say.”
— “The shooting came as worshippers left the church in Naj Hammadi after a midnight mass on Coptic Christmas Eve.”
— “Unidentified gunmen sprayed gunfire indiscriminately into the crowd, officials said.”
— “Two Muslims passing the church were among 10 people reportedly injured in the attack.”
— “Naj Hammadi is 40 miles (64km) from Luxor, southern Egypt’s biggest city.”
— “Coptic Christians account for about 10% of the Egypt’s population of 80 million.”
— Pakistan Christian Congress — Egypt: Extremist Muslims gun down 7 Coptic Christians in Egypt
— November 2009 – Egypt: “Muslim Mob” of 3,000 — Mob Attacks Christian Businesses, Individuals — Rioting Spreads in Upper Egypt
Previous R.E.A.L. Postings on Copts
Egypt — BBC Report: “Egypt’s Coptic Christians battle for ID cards”
American Copts Protest in NYC and LA on Anti-Christian Sectarian Violence in Egypt
Human Rights Day — Voice of the Copts Address and Video
Epoch Times: “International Human Rights Day — Comments Made At National Press Club”
Egypt: Human Rights Activists Call for Banning Extremist Television Channels
Egypt: Voice of the Copts Open Letter to Coptic Pope
Egypt: Outrage over Swiss vote on minarets, while Egypt oppresses Coptic Christians
ICC Report: “Religious Freedom Not a US Priority toward Allies Egypt and Saudi Arabia”
Egypt Hosts OIC Conference on “Children’s Rights”
Egypt: 15 Year Old Egyptian Convert to Christianity Sends Plea to Obama — Dina el-Gowhary
Egyptian Christian Monk Father Aghabeos El-Moharkee Reports Death Threats
Egypt: Christian Coptic Blogger in Egypt Threatens Hunger Strike
Egyptian Security Arrests Several Christians for Praying At Home
Egyptian Christians Fear More Muslim Violence
Egypt: Coptic Blogger in Egypt Pressured to Convert in Prison
Egypt: “Coptic Family Forced to Surrender Woman Rescued in Egypt”
Egypt: Christian Arrested for Distributing Tracts in Egypt
“Egyptian Police Arrest Christian Father for Attempting to Free Kidnapped Daughter”
Egypt: Mourners Protest Islamic Attacks on Copts in Egypt
Egyptian Christian’s murder sparks sectarian tension
Egypt: Thousands of Christians Gather to Pray for Equality in Egypt
Egyptian Copts abroad call for national strike in Egypt — on September 11
Voice of Copts report: “Egyptian Regime protecting drug dealers and abusers”
Egyptian Coptic Priest Banned From Village, Under Death Threat — Rev. Estefanos Shehata
“Egypt — Two Copts Imprisoned after Reporting Attack”
Egypt: video links on online videos regarding persecution of Christian Copts in Egypt
Egypt: Report on Christian Copt Churches Attacked
DC: Egyptian Coptic Christians Protest for Human Rights, Equality, as President Obama Meets Mubarak
Coalition of Coptic Organizations Press Release on Need for Peace for Coptic Christians of Egypt
DC: Egyptian Copt Christian Group Holds Press Conference
DC: August 18 White House Protest by Coptic Organizations
Egypt: Report on Increasing Extremist Intolerance to Women, Christians
Egypt: Two Christians Coptic Girls Abducted for “forced Islamization”
Egyptian Christian Father Demands Justice for His Murdered Son
Egypt: Report Christians Attacked, Building Torched for Seeking to Worship
“Egyptian Security Refuses to Return Abducted Christian Coptic Girl”
Egypt’s Christians face fresh attacks and legal battles
Egypt: “Family of Abducted Christian Coptic Teenager Assaulted By Muslim Mob”
While Communist China continues it totalitarian practices and abuses of human rights, the Washington Post is reporting how Communist China is gaining power in the U.S. Congress. The Post should know, after all, its own Bob Woodward has been a scheduled speaker at cocktail parties at the Communist Chinese embassy. (See also R.E.A.L. article in April 2009.)
— Image showing the millions of dollars that Communist China spends on lobbying in Washington DC
— Washington Post reports: “China’s lobbying efforts yield new influence, openness on Capitol Hill”
— “Ten years ago, U.S. lawmakers publicly accused the China Ocean Shipping Co. of being a front for espionage and blocked plans to expand its Long Beach, Calif., port terminal over fears that Chinese spies would use it to snoop on the United States.”
— “By last year, Congress was seeing the state-owned Chinese behemoth in a far kinder light. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) authored a resolution applauding the company for employing thousands of Americans and helping keep the waters of Alaska clean. Rep. Stephen F. Lynch (D-Mass.) hailed the firm on the House floor, calling its chief executive “a people’s ambassador” to the United States after it rescued Boston’s port — and thousands of jobs — when a European shipping line moved out.”
— “The congressional about-face illustrates a dramatic increase in China’s influence on Capitol Hill, where for years its lobbying muscle never matched its ballooning importance in world affairs. Members of Congress, lobbyists and other observers said China’s new prominence is largely the result of Beijing’s increasingly sophisticated efforts to influence events at the center of U.S. power — and a growing realization among U.S. lawmakers that China has become a critical economic player across America.”
— “Although many Americans still view China with deep suspicion because of its communist system and human rights record, the results of Beijing’s image-and-influence campaign are clear. Members of Congress ‘are starting to understand that the Chinese are not communist but that the Chinese are Chinese,’ said Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.). China is Oregon’s biggest export market after Canada.”
— “The new openness toward China is often subtle and not shared by all. But an undeniable evolution is taking place, congressional staffers and analysts said, as members of Congress, many with increasing numbers of large and small businesses in their districts that depend on trade with China, are now far more likely to kill or water down measures opposed by Beijing.”
R.E.A.L Postings on Totalitarianism
Additional Selected R.E.A.L. Postings on Communist China
ChinaAid challenges ‘misleading’ report
“Argentine Judge Orders Arrest of Top Chinese Communist Party Officials for Crimes Against Humanity”
Communist China Sentences Liu Xiaobo to 11 years in Prison on Christmas Day
Report: Communist China Mass Murderer’s Image on White House Christmas Tree Ornament
ChinaAid: Gao Zhisheng Tortured, Family Repressed
Communist China: Chinese Human Rights Lawyer Sentenced to Seven Years – Wang Yonghang
Communist China: 5 More Church Leaders Sentenced to Prison Without Trial
Communist China: Church Leaders Complaining About Church Destruction Get 7 and 3 Years in Prison
Communist China: Church Defies Police to Worship
Women’s Rights Defender Jiang Tianyong Arrested, Wife Beaten in Communist China
Communist China: Beijing Continues Relentless Crackdown on Shouwang Church
Communist China: China protesters plead for help from Obama
DC: Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission Hearing Announcement – Rule of Law in China
Communist China: U.S. Defense Secretary Gates calls for lasting military dialogue with China
Communist China: 10 More Arrested After Detainees Refuse to Leave Without Fellow Linfen Pastor
Communist China: “One Million Rights Activists Detained in China”
Database Opens to Track Psychiatric Abuse in Communist China
Communist China: Falun Gong Practitioner Dies From Persecution in Beijing
DC: “After Crushed Legs and Dreams, Fang Zheng Stands for Freedom”
US Epoch Times Reports: ‘Gao Zhisheng, My Husband — Where Are You?’
Communist China: US President Barack Obama cancels meeting with Dalai Lama ‘to keep China happy’
Communist China: Mass Arrests of Falun Gong Prior to Communist Anniversary
NYC: Empire State Building Honors China, Critics Protest
Communist China: Beijing crackdown for 60th anniversary gala
Communist China: China Aid Group’s Bob Fu Issues Public Statement on CPC’s 60th Anniversary
September 30: Human Rights Protest at Washington DC PRC Embassy
COMPASS/FCNN report: ” A wave of arrests hit Iranian house churches during the Christmas season, leaving at least five Christian converts in detention across northern Iran, including the mother of an ailing 10-year-old girl.”
— “Security officers with an arrest warrant from the Mashhad Revolutionary Court entered the home of Christian Hamideh Najafi in Mashhad on Dec. 16. After searching her home and confiscating personal belongings, including books and compact discs, police took her to an undisclosed location, according to Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN).”
— “FCNN reported that on Dec. 30 the Mashhad Revolutionary Court sentenced Najafi to three months of house arrest and ordered that her daughter, who suffers from a kidney condition, be placed under foster care. Because of the seriousness of the girl’s illness, however, she was left in the custody of her parents – on the condition that they cease believing in Christ and stop speaking publicly of their faith, FCNN reported.”
— “Najafi was denied access to a lawyer during this court hearing, according to FCNN.”
— “During interrogation, officers told Najafi to return to Islam and to disclose names of Christian evangelists. FCNN reported that on some occasions the security officers summoned her husband, blindfolded him and threatened to beat him in front of his wife if she would not sign a confession that she was ‘mentally and psychologically unfit and disturbed.’ ”
— “The Dec. 30 court hearing was quickly arranged after she was coerced into signing this confession, FCNN reported, and on those grounds her child was initially ordered to be taken from her. Najafi’s daughter suffers from a severe kidney and bladder condition.”
— “There were no formal charges against Najafi, but she stands accused of contacting a foreign Christian television network, which court officials labeled as a ‘political’ crime, according to FCNN.”
— English FCNN Report: “Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN), reports that at 8 am on December 16, 2009, several security officers entered the home of Hamideh Najafi, a Christian lady who resides in the city of Mashhad, and not only searched her home thoroughly, but also arrested and took her away to an unknown location.”
— “According to this news three security officers, two female and one male, who carried an order for arrest from the Revolutionary Court of Mashhad, entered the home of this lady and after searching the her home seized her personal belongings along with books, CDs, and hand painted portraits of Jesus Christ that were hanging on her walls. According to these officers the existence of these pictures will be sufficient evidence that would convict her in court.”
— “Even though Mashhad is the birthplace of Ayatollah Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, and is considered one of the holiest centers of the Shiite faith (Ghom being the other center in Iran) and also a center of pilgrimage and theological schools, in the recent years there have been significant growth of the underground home based churches.”
— English FCNN Report: “According to the news received by the Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN), Security police and plain-clothes officers attacked a gathering of Christian believers on Thursday, December 17th, and arrested two leaders and took them away to an undisclosed location.”
— “According to the reports received 15 security police and undercover plain-clothes officers, in a coordinated plan, attacked a gathering in the city of Karaj and interrupted the pre-Christmas celebrations.”
— “This celebration and gathering of more than 70 newly converted Christians, which was attacked by security forced, was being conducted in a hall on the occasion of the arrival of Christmas and the New Year.”
— “The security police not only interrupted the celebrations, but arrested two of the leaders of the group named Kambiz Saghaee and Ali Keshvar-Doost and took them away.”
— “Moreover, the security officers photographed and videotaped everyone and demanded that everyone must be accessible during the period leading up to formal and legal interrogations and must present themselves to the authorities upon receiving orders to appear before legal prosecutors.”
— “This report adds that the security officers confiscated all the Bibles, other Christian books, and a lap top computer and its accessories.”
— “According to FCNN, Kambiz Saghaee and Ali Keshvar-Doost, who were arrested by the police, are still held at an undisclosed location and there has been no phone or any other contact with their families and loved ones. The families of these detainees, due to not having any information about the state of their loved ones, have attempted on several occasions to contact the appropriate ministries and organizations. The local authorities have informally told these family members that their loved ones are being held at the facilities of the local revolutionary court and have withheld all other information from them.”
