Author: R.E.A.L.

Iran Reports – July 11, 2009

(UK) 2,000 protest in heart of London over ‘rigged’ Iranian election

(U.S.) Washington Times journalist tells of Iranian captivity

(Iran) Tehran: army of police and militiamen attack unarmed protesters
— London Times reports: “‘The security presence was massive. It was like a military occupation,’ one witness told The Times. ‘They were clubbing the hell out of people.'”

(Iran) AP: “Tehran police chief: few arrests in protest”

A True Iranian Reformer, and His Movement? — by Andrew Bostom and Alyssa A. Lappen
— report on Roozbeh Farahanipour and the Marze Por Gohar (MPG) Party

Egypt’s Christians face fresh attacks and legal battles

— Report: “Concern is growing for Christians in Egypt following another attack on the homes of Coptic Christians. And a legal battle is taking place in Egypt to overturn a court ruling which denies the right of citizens to change their religious identity on their ID cards.”
— “Former Muslims who have become Christians and who want to change the religion shown on their ID cards have been driven into hiding, along with their families and threatened with death.”
— “‘Many Muslim scholars issued a fatwa, saying I must be killed,’ says Mohammed Hegazy in the latest edition of World Update on the Persecuted Church by Release International.”
— “‘On television, people were saying if they meet me on the streets, they will kill me. Many fatwas have come up saying I must be killed.'”
— “Mohammed and his wife and daughter are now in hiding. His wife has been threatened with death because she married a convert to Christianity.”

Belgium: Brothers arrested in suspected honour killing

(Belgium) Brothers arrested in suspected honour killing
— Gulf Times reports: “Two Pakistani brothers were being held in custody in Belgium on murder charges,  a magistrate said in Brussels yesterday, on suspicion that they carried out an honour killing”
— “Hammad Raza Syed and his brother Hassan were charged with ‘deprivation of liberty and murder’ over the death of Hammad’s wife Claudi Lalembaidje, a 32-year-old Belgian woman of Chadian origin.”
— “The woman’s beaten body was found on June 29 in a suitcase in a canal in northern France. A funeral service  was held for her in Brussels yesterday.”
— “The dead woman was in the process of divorcing Syed. Her family claimed he had beaten her and wanted to  control what she wore and how she conducted her life. She went to police twice insisting he had tried to strangle her.”

Somalia: Extremists behead 7 Somalis for ‘abandoning Islam’

— “Islamist fighters beheaded seven Somalis accused of renouncing their Muslim faith”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/somalia/5799339/Islamist-insurgents-behead-7-Somalis-for-spying-on-government-and-abandoning-Islam.html
— Seven Somalis beheaded by extremists for ‘spying for government’
— “‘Al-Shabaab told us that they were beheaded for being Christian followers and spies,’ a relative said after the killings. ”
— “In moves reminiscent of the Taleban, which in 2001 destroyed two statues of Buddha, the Somali hardliners have desecrated
the tombs of saints worshipped by Sufis, a mystical branch of Islam despised by the extremists but widespread among ordinary Somalis”
— “Somali Christians keep a low profile, mostly worshipping in house churches, but have been the target of mob attacks and kidnappings ”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article6683148.ece
http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE5690BW20090710?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

Maldives: Woman gets 100 lashes in public, house arrest in Sharia punishment – govt says Maldives too “squeamish” for other Sharia penalties

— (Maldives) Woman faints after 100 lashes, says judge
— “An 18-year-old woman was flogged in public outside the Justice Building and sentenced to a year of house
arrest today for having extra-marital sex.
— ” The woman received 100 lashes after confessing to having extra-marital sex with two men on separate occasions earlier this year”

— Amnesty calls for moratorium on flogging
— Faiz’s comments came in response to news of an 18-year-old woman who was publicly flogged last week for extra-marital sex.”
— “She was sentenced to 100 lashes and a year of house arrest after confessing to having sex with two men on separate occasions.”
— Maldives “Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed said Sharia has only been enforced in the Maldives in the  last 30 to 40 years… In the past, said Shaheed, Maldivians were too ‘squeamish’ to enforce the punishments stipulated in Sharia.

Saudi religious police blamed in ‘honour’ killing of sisters

Saudi religious police blamed in ‘honour’ killing of sisters
— AFP reports: “The Society for Defending Women’s Rights in Saudi Arabia said the religious police had placed the sisters’ lives in danger when they arrested them and then placed them in a Riyadh women’s shelter”
— “the society blamed the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or the religious police, for sparking the brother’s anger over his family’s honour by arresting the girls in the first place.”
— “‘The hands of the religious police, as well as the brother’s hands, are stained with the blood of these  innocent young women,’ the group said in a statement.”
— “Under Saudi Arabia’s Islamic sharia legal code, unrelated men and women are not allowed to mix together, and the religious police actively enforce the rules by patrolling areas frequented by young people”

Pakistan: U.N. Posted Red Cross Report on “Honor Killings” in Pakistan

(Pakistan) U.N. Posted Red Cross Report on “Honor Killings” in Pakistan
— “Human rights groups say Pakistani women suffer severe discrimination, domestic violence  and ‘honour’ killings, and are increasingly isolated by spreading Islamist fundamentalism.”
— Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation (ACCORD), Pakistan: honour killing of men; availability of state protection, 9 July 2009, a-6813