Pakistan: young Christian man accused of blasphemy killed in prison

Asia News –  Punjab: young Christian man accused of blasphemy killed in prison
Asia News reports: “Fanish, 20, was arrested last Saturday. His death was ‘judicial murder’ according to human rights activist. The day before a Muslim mob attacked members of the dead man’s Christian community, setting fire to their church. Pakistani extremists are funded by Saudi ‘charities.'”
— “The young Christian man who was arrested on 12 September in a village in Punjab accused of blasphemy was killed last night in prison. Police had Fanish, 20, remanded into their custody in order to continue their investigation. This morning prison guards in Sialkot district prison found the lifeless body of the young man with visible signs of injuries.”
— “Fanish (pictured in prison) was arrested last Saturday after accusations of blasphemy were made against him. A day earlier a Muslim mob had gathered in front of the church in the village of Jaithikey, not far from the town of Samberial, in the district of Sialkot (Punjab), to teach the local Christian community a ‘lesson'”
— “Extremists damaged the building before setting it on fire. They also pillaged two homes near the church.”
— “A relationship between the 20-year-old Christian man and a young Muslim woman appears to be the cause of the turn of events.”
— “In another incident, also last Saturday but reported only today, a Christian settlement in Ghaziabad, a neighbourhood in Orangi Town, near Karachi (Sindh), was attacked by a mob of Muslims, enraged by blasphemy charges against a 40-year-old Christian man called Lawrence.”

Pakistan: Christian Church torched in Sialkot over ‘desecration'”

Pakistan: Additional Report on Church Burning in Sialkot

—- September 12, 2009 – Asia News reports: “According to preliminary reports, the real cause of tension is a relationship between a twenty year old Christian, whose name is Fanish, and a Muslim girl.”
—- “‘Muslims can not tolerate a Muslim girl falling in love with a Christian,’ says father Mani, confirming the news of the young man’s arrest this morning by police officers”

Fanish in prison - per Asia News report
Fanish in prison - per Asia News report

Bangladesh: Husband beats wife and daughter for converting to Christianity – threatens to kill wife

“Dhaka: wife and daughter tortured for converting to Christianity”
Asia News reports:
— “Khainur Islam was tortured by her husband because she did not tell him that their son had ‘converted to Christianity.’ The Bangladeshi woman now fears for her life because her husband has threatened to kill her. Despite what she has gone through, neither her relatives nor police have provided her with any protection. Yet she and her eldest daughter, Arifa Sultan, have converted as well. Her daughter is also praying that one day her father might ‘feel the love of Christ.'”
— “‘My son Jahirul Islam lives in Sydney, Australia. He went there for a higher education in 2006. In Bangladesh he never said anything to us about his conversion to Christianity,’ Ms Islam said (pictured with her daughters). In fact, she can still remember ‘exactly the day when she heard about her son’s conversion: 18 June 2009. I was shocked.'”
— “Her husband, Aminul Islam, has spent the past 22 years working in Saudi Arabia. When he came home in June on a holiday he began pressuring Jahirul to marry a Muslim woman after making Hajj in Makkah, plans his son rejected because of his ‘Christian faith.'”
— “‘When my husband became insistent, I told him about the conversion,’ she said. ‘He really got mad and began beating me, accusing me for allowing him [their son] to study abroad, at Notre Dame College, a Catholic university in Sydney,’ she said.”
— “After that, not only did her husband continue to beat her, but he also forbade her from talking to their son.”
— “A few days ago, she told her husband Aminul that she too had converted to Christianity. In reacting to her announcement, he tied her and her eldest daughter and brutally beat both of them in front of her youngest daughters. He also set fire to a Bible, threatening them that they would get a ‘similar treatment.'”
— “‘We are scared,’ she said, but praying has become a source of comfort for her.”
— “‘We pray regularly,’ her daughter said, ‘that one day my father might find the love of Christ. I forgive him even if he beat me like a dog. I am not afraid to be burnt my father as he did with the Bible.'”

Ms. Khainur Islam and daughters
Ms. Khainur Islam and daughters

Ethiopia: Convert Languishing in Jail in Ethiopia for Handing Out Bibles

Ethiopia: Convert Languishing in Jail in Ethiopia for Handing Out Bibles
COMPASS reports: “A convert from Islam who has led a push for Muslim-Christian understanding in Ethiopia has been in jail for nearly four months since his arrest for ‘malicious’ distribution of Bibles.”
— “Christian sources in Ethiopia said that, contrary to Ethiopian law, 39-year-old Bashir Musa Ahmed has not been formally charged since his arrest on May 23 in Jijiga, capital of Somali Region Zone Five, a predominantly Muslim area in eastern Ethiopia. Zonal police arrested him after he was accused of providing Muslims with Somali-language Bibles bearing covers that resemble the Quran, the sources said.”
— “An Ethiopian national, Ahmed is known as a bold preacher of Christianity and is credited with opening discussion of the two faiths between Christian and Muslim leaders. He is well-known in the area as a scholar of Islam, but his case has gone largely unreported in Ethiopia.”
— “A source who requested anonymity said authorities likely are secretly planning to transfer Ahmed from his Jijiga cell to Ghagahbur jail some 200 kilometers away near the Somali border, in part to prevent other Christians from visiting him and in part because he has not been charged.”
— “‘The Ethiopian constitution allows for religious tolerance,’ said the source, ‘but to date Ahmed has not been taken to court. He is still in the cell now, going on the fourth month, which is quite unusual for an Ethiopian nationality and the constitutional requirements.'”
— “For providing Bibles with cover pages resembling the Quran, Ahmed is accused of “maliciously” distributing Bibles and trying to convert Muslims to Christianity, although conversion and manifesting one’s faith are not illegal in Ethiopia. At issue is whether the Bibles with covers resembling the Quran violate copyright issues and disrespect Islam.”

Belfast: Detective Concerned Over Unsolved Potential “Honor Killing” of Shafilea Ahmed

Belfast Telegraph: “Maddie investigator Dave Edgar recalls the horrific cases that still haunt him”
— “Shafilea Ahmed, 17, who vanished from her home in Warrington, Cheshire on September 11 2003”
— “Dave suspected an ‘honour killing’ but the killer or killers were never brought to justice.
— “A coroner ruled last year that Shafilea was murdered after rejecting an arranged marriage.
— “Before her death, Shafilea drank bleach in an act of self-harm.
— “Dave said: ‘It’s the one that got away for me, and the one I’ll always be bitter about.'”
— “‘It was horrific to find her body so badly decomposed in that river. Honour killings these days are getting out of control.'”

Chechnya’s Kadyrov Wins Right to Open Offices in Europe

Chechnya Wins Right to Open Offices in Europe
— Moscow Times reports: “Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov raised questions about his foreign policy ambitions earlier in the week when he announced that his administration had received permission from Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to open representative offices in European countries”

March 1, 2009: Russia: Chechen President Kadyrov defends extremist “honor killings” — says women deserve to die

April 2009: Russia/Chechnya – Extremist Kadyrov Justifies Polygamy, Calls for “Honor Killings” Against Women Who Are “Promiscuous”

August 25, 2009: Russian Prime Minster Putin Supports Chechen Extremist Kadyrov Who Defends “Honor Killings”