Pakistan Daily Times: “Blasphemy laws once again in the limelight”
— Pakistan Daily Times: “Religious affairs minister says major amendments in blasphemy laws will benefit Taliban”
— Pakistan Daily Times reports:
— “When an angry mob of Muslims torched 40 houses and a church in the town of Gojra, two children, their parents and 75-year-old grandfather were burnt to death.”
— “Three days later, two people were killed in Muridke in what was a private employee dispute against a Muslim factory boss, but coloured by unfounded allegations that the businessman desecrated the holy Quran.”
— “Arbitrary law: ‘It’s an arbitrary law, which has been badly misused by extremists and influentials and should be abolished,’ Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Co-chairman Iqbal Haider said.”
— “‘There is no option but to abolish this law. More than that, the government should revive the secular nature of the state as our founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah envisaged, otherwise it will aggravate religious unrest,’ he said.”
— “The government moved quickly to try to limit the fallout of the anti-Christian killings, offering compensation but cabinet ministers have stopped short of pledging to scrap the blasphemy laws.”
— “‘A committee will [examine] the laws which are detrimental to religious harmony to sort out how they could be made better,” Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told Christians during a solidarity visit to Gojra. Just one witness is enough to incriminate a ‘heretic.’ Anyone accused of blasphemy is immediately arrested and charged, before an investigation begins.”
— “In many cases, people take the law in their own hands and go for killing the alleged blasphemer and rights groups say this trend is increasing.”
— “Benefit: But Religious Affairs Minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi said the government could not risk a ‘full-fledged review’ inciting a religious backlash.”
— “‘Any move for a major amendment in the law will generate another controversy that will benefit extremists and harm the cause of our Christian brothers.'”
Category: Bin Ladenism
reports and articles on those with extremist views that mirror those of Osama Bin Laden
Pakistan – Additional Report on 60-year-old woman charged with “blasphemy”
— BBC reports: “The women says it wasn’t the Koran she flung to the ground but a register in which the shopkeeper had listed her credit”
— August 5, 2009: Pakistan: Mob attacks home of 60-year-old woman in extremist “blasphemy” charge
Nigeria: Thirteen-year-old forced to watch Pastor hacked to death in Boko Haram deadly violence
Nigeria: Thirteen-year-old forced to watch Pastor hacked to death in Boko Haram deadly violence
— Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports: “A thirteen-year-old Nigerian Christian has told Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) sources how she was forced to watch her pastor’s murder, and has also spoken of her four-day ordeal as a prisoner in the besieged compound of Islamist group, Boko Haram.”
— “On 26 July, Mary was in church with her pastor, his brother and an older Christian woman when a group of fifty militants broke in. She and her pastor hid as the group killed the pastor’s brother and dragged the older woman out of the room. On discovering their hiding place, the militants cut off her pastor’s hand to stop him holding on to her, then hacked him to death with machetes before setting him on fire.”
Iran Continues Imprisonment of Christian Women for Religious Beliefs
ICC Report: “Iran Continues the Illegal Detention of Christian Converts”
— ICC reports:
— International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that Iranian authorities told Maryam Rustampoor and Marzieh Amirizadeh, converts from Islam to Christianity, to recant their Christian faith during a hearing before a revolutionary court in Tehran on August 9.”
— “Maryam, 27, and Marzieh, 30, were first arrested on March 5, 2009, for leaving Islam. Iranian authorities kept them in solitary confinement at the infamous Evin prison, deprived them of medical attention, and blindfolded and interrogated them for long periods of time.”
— “At the time of hearing before the court, the deputy public prosecutor, Haddad, asked Maryam and Marzieh about their faith and told them to recant their belief in Christ. When he asked them if they were Christians, they replied, ‘We love Jesus.’ He then repeated his question, and they said, ‘Yes, we are Christians.'”
— “When he said, ‘You were Muslims and now you have become Christians,’ their reply was ‘We were born in Muslim families, but we were not Muslims.'”
— “During the questioning, when they made reference to their belief that God had convicted them through the Holy Spirit, the deputy public prosecutor said, ‘It is impossible for God to speak with humans.’ In return, Marzieh asked, ‘Are you questioning whether God is Almighty?’ The prosecutor replied, ‘You are not worthy for God to speak to you.’ Then Marzieh said, ‘It is God, and not you, who determines if I am worthy.'”
— “At the end of the hearing, the deputy prosecutor told them to take time to think about the option of returning back to Islam, but Maryam and Marzieh replied, ‘We have already done our thinking.'”
— “After the questioning, they were taken back to the prison.”
Buffalo Beheading Trial: “Man accused of killing wife to get mental examination”
Man accused of killing wife to get mental examination
Lawyers may seek insanity defense
By Matt Gryta
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
August 08, 2009
“Muzzammil S. ‘Mo’ Hassan, who is accused of beheading his wife, is expected to undergo psychiatric examinations that will determine whether his lawyers will be able to raise insanity issues at his upcoming trial.”
“During a hearing Friday, attorney James P. Harrington told Erie County Judge Thomas P. Franczyk that psychiatric examinations of Hassan, 44, are expected to be completed by mid-September.”
“Hassan, who was born in Pakistan, cofounded Bridges cable TV network, based in Orchard Park.”
“He has been jailed since turning himself into Orchard Park police about an hour after allegedly beheading his estranged wife and business partner, Aasiya Zubair Hassan, 37, in their TV studio on Feb. 12.”
“The week before, the victim had filed for divorce and obtained a court order of protection against Hassan, to keep him away from their Big Tree Road home — the scene of a dozen domestic problem incidents in recent years, according to police.”
“On March 12, an Erie County grand jury indicted Hassan on a single count of second-degree murder.”
“The victim, Hassan’s third wife and mother of the two youngest of his four children, was attacked in the Thorn Avenue office of the Muslim-oriented cable station the two launched about five years ago.”
“The couple’s children currently are living with relatives under court supervision.”
“During Friday’s brief court session, Colleen Curtin Gable, the chief homicide prosecutor in the case, complained to the judge about “repeated demands” of the Erie County District Attorney’s office as to how Harrington plans to defend Hassan.”
“Harrington, without showing his legal hand, told the judge and prosecutor he has been “working through some practical matters” in the case, which have delayed Hassan’s ‘evaluation’ by defense mental health experts.”
“After prosecutors receive the required pretrial notice on the defense strategy, they will be able to arrange for their own mental health professionals to examine the defendant — if insanity-linked issues are part of the defense strategy.”
“After Harrington said he is confident he can provide prosecutors with his defense strategy by mid-September the judge scheduled another session in the for Sept. 18. To give both sides enough time to prepare Franczyk has scheduled a tentative Jan. 19 start of jury selection in the murder trial.”
Nigeria: Boko Haram: How 3 pastors were beheaded eyewitness
Nigeria: Boko Haram: How 3 pastors were beheaded eyewitness
— Daily Sun reports: “One of the victims of last week’s attack by the Yusufiya sect in Borno State has given a shocking account of how the extremists killed three pastors who were captured along with other victims on the second day of the insurgence. The victim was among those held hostage in Yusuf’s enclave.”
— “Speaking exclusively to Daily Sun in Maiduguri, the eye witness who preferred anonymity disclosed that the three pastors were beheaded on the instruction of the sect leader, Mohammed Yusuf shortly after bringing them out of his inner chamber.”
— ” ‘The pastors alongside one Ibo man were asked to change their faith to Islam like they did to other people taken as hostages. I think there was an argument by one of the pastors which gave the others some level of confidence to also resist accepting Islam.’ ”
— ” ‘The Yusufiya men who were armed on that Tuesday afternoon were not comfortable with the pastors and they took one of them to the sect leader in his inner chamber. They came out later to the courtyard within the compound and cut their heads one after the other and thereafter, shouted allah akbar in wild celebration accompanied with several gun shots,’ the eye witness disclosed.”
— “He said the hostages numbering about 50 within the area of the execution of the pastors and another fair complexioned man which he could not identify, were gripped with fear as non could foretell the outcome of their stay at the enclave of the fundamentalists. He was however lucky to escape as he was freed in the night with others with a warning not to mix with kafrici (infidels).”
— “Corroborating the account of the killing, a Senior pastor with Good News Church, Wulari Maiduguri Rev. Baba Gata Ibrahim told Daily Sun in an interview that a pastor in his church, Pastor George Orjih was beheaded on the instruction of the Boko Haram leader because the clergy man refused to accept Islam.”
— ” ‘An eye witness who was also captured by the Islamic militants gave us details of how the pastor was killed. He told us they were persuading him to accept Islam and he said over his dead body. He was even said to have preached Christ to Mohammed Yusuf and that reportedly angered the sect leader who then as he ordered that the pastor and others be killed immediately,’ he disclosed.”
Nigeria: World Council of Churches (WCC) Head Presses Nigeria to ‘Ensure’ Security after Muslim Attacks
Pakistan: ‘Black Day’ shall be show of Christian power to repeal blasphemy law
Pakistan: ‘Black Day’ shall be show of Christian power to repeal blasphemy law — August 11
— Pakistan Christian Post (PCP) reports: “Sources revealed PCP that government is planning to impose section 144 and to arrest leaders and activists of organizations which have openly declared to participate in ‘Black Day’ but Nazir S Bhatti warned administration not to block or to disturb peaceful gathering of Christians.”
— “Nazir S Bhatti said, ‘By our unity and peaceful protest we have to press upon government to repeal blasphemy law because Islamic laws have been allegedly used to kill Christians by extremist Muslims'”
Pakistan: 17,000 in Pakistan Christian Post Poll to Observe “Black Day” Challenging Religious Discrimination
Over 17,000 in Pakistan Christian Post Poll State That They Will Observe “Black Day”
Rather than observing August 11 as “minority day” many will be observing August 11 as “Black Day” in recognition of the systematic religious discrimination, supremacism, and bigotry in Pakistan today, as demonstrated by Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.
Related Reports:
Pakistan Christians to Observe “Black Day” on August 11; DC Press Conference on August 10, NYC U.N. Protest on August 12
Pakistan: ‘Black Day’ shall be show of Christian power to repeal blasphemy law
Pakistan, a Catholic activist: petition for the abolition of blasphemy law
Pakistan: Christians protest against deadly violence
“Pakistan Muslim Groups Threaten More Violence”
Pakistan – Report of Mob Burning Christian Homes for Alleged Extremist “Blasphemy”
Pakistan: Blasphemy laws, a pretext to attack Pakistan’s religious minorities
Pakistan: Mob attacks home of 60-year-old woman in extremist “blasphemy” charge
Pakistan, a Catholic activist: petition for the abolition of blasphemy law
Pakistan, a Catholic activist: petition for the abolition of blasphemy law
— Asia News reports: “The government is more ‘sensitive’ than in the past to the problems caused by the blasphemy law, but change will only be possible if ‘there is a mass movement’ behind us. That is why we decided to launch ‘a petition campaign throughout the country,’ says Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) of the Catholic Church in Pakistan in an interview with AsiaNews.”