Christian Post reports: “Human rights group seeks freedom for religious converts”
— “Set My People Free to Worship Me is planning to stage simultaneous marches on April 3 in London, Frankfurt, Melbourne, Cairo, Stockholm and Sydney.”
— “The group’s founder Kamal Fahmi said he was organising the protests to seek freedom, justice and equality for religious converts. The movement wants especially freedom for converts to worship, marry and raising their children according to their new faith.”
“Cairo, Egypt, March 1, 2010 Set My People Free to Worship Me, a new network of individuals, churches and organisations working for the freedom of religious converts to live and practice their faith, to experience equality and justice in their home countries, announced today plans for a worldwide protest march on Saturday (Easter Eve) April 3, 2010 at 12 noon in Australia, Africa, Middle East and Europe.”
“Founder and Leader, Kamal Fahmi said, Set My People Free to Worship Me is organizing a worldwide protest march seeking freedom, justice, equality and reconciliation for religious converts on April 3, 2010. We want to advocate that all people especially Muslims have the freedom to change faith, to live out and practice their new beliefs.”
“We are a non-violent movement that seeks freedom for religious conversion, religious worship, marriage and bringing up children. We believe that it is time to support our suffering Christian brothers and sisters from Muslim background and raise awareness of the injustices that they face, added Fahmi. In view of this, we have also started a petition campaign which all people regardless of faith, beliefs and practices are welcome to participate in. We hope to deliver it to various global leaders across the world. The online petition address is http://www.petitiononline.com/2010smpf/petition.html. We are very excited to see what God will do as we obey the biblical teaching – to release the oppressed.”
“Set My People Free To Worship Me plans to hold simultaneous protest marches in a number of cities around the world at 12.00pm (local time). The movement invites individuals, churches, religious bodies and NGOs to participate in these justice and peace marches in key cities in Cairo, Frankfurt, London, Melbourne, South Africa, Stockholm and Sydney. This will be a yearly event on Easter Eve until the situation changes.”
“Kamal Fahmi brings a strong background in non-governmental organization development. Fahmi has spent over 20 years working in the Middle East and Africa in Christian based organizations. He has also been involved in advocating on human rights issues throughout the years. Kamal draws inspiration from the involvement of Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement who said In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
— AP reports: “Five Sikh men who fled their hometown on the Afghan border were making a quick trip back home when masked men blocked their way with a pickup on a mountain road not far from the Khyber Pass. There were no houses, no buildings, no other cars in sight. The kidnappers covered their faces with black scarves and carried machine-guns.”
— “In a country beset by a powerful Islamist insurgency, where suicide bombings are commonplace and government offensives widely dismissed as ineffective, anyone can become a victim. But for the nation’s minorities — its small communities of Hindus, Christians and Sikhs — life is particularly precarious. Thousands have fled their villages, crowding into urban slums. Thousands more have fled the country.”
— “‘With the rise in militancy in our society in general, and in the northwest in particular, minorities are feeling more threatened,’ said I.A. Rehman, a senior official with Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission. He noted many Sikhs have been driven from their homes, and those who remain are now often forced to pay militants a ‘jizya’ — a traditional tax for non-Muslim.”
AP: "In this photo made on March 19, 2010, Surjeet Singh, from Pakistan's Sikh community, sits with family members after his release in Peshawar, Pakistan. Singh, who had been kidnapped for ransom by alleged militants, was freed after 42 days as a result of a crackdown operation by security forces" (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)
— “Singh’s journey, which began on a cold morning in January and ended 42 days later with a March 1 bloody gunbattle, underscores the threats to those minorities, as well as the lawlessness of Pakistan’s frontier regions.”
— “Two months later, it’s still not clear exactly why the Sikhs were targeted: Were the bandits waiting for them? Would they have kidnapped anyone who came by? Certainly their religion made them easier targets, since it is more difficult for them to make use of the region’s informal power networks, the tribal and religious leaders who can protect people in the semiautonomous areas.”
— “On that day, though, as armed men swarmed toward their car, shouting for the five Sikh men to move quickly, all Singh and his friends were thinking about was survival.”
— “Two of them managed to slip away amid the chaos, but three — all sharing the same common Sikh surname, Singh — were quickly captured.”
— “‘They held us at gunpoint, immediately dragged us out of our car,’ said Surjeet Singh, a quiet composed man. He and his friends were blindfolded and driven for about an hour. Then they began walking.”
— “They could see nothing through their blindfolds. They could only feel cold pressing in as they climbed higher into the Hindu Kush mountains.”
— “After hours of walking, they were brought to a set of rooms carved into the mountainside. It would be their home for the next 42 days. There they would be kept chained and often blindfolded. Occasionally, they were beaten. The prisoners never saw their captors’ faces — which were always covered with scarves — and even now they do not know who they were.”
— “They clearly were militant Muslims, forcibly cutting their prisoners hair. Keeping hair uncut is a deeply important religious precept for Sikh men.”
In Pakistan, media sourcesreport that a Christian woman was raped for refusing to convert from Christianity to Islam.
Catholic Newshas updated this story to state that the husband self-immolated himself in despair (and died) over the rape and torture of his wife who was falsely accused of a “crime,” and who refused religious conversion.
BosNews is reporting that Christian groups sought to protest the ” ‘refusal’ of police to detain” those allegedly responsible, and that such Christian group protests were denied because of “terrorism threats.”
“Pakistani Christian couple refuses to convert: husband is burnt alive, wife raped by police” by Fareed Khan“Both husband and wife worked for a wealthy Muslim businessman in Rawalpindi. Their three children, ranging from 7 and 12, were forced to watch their parents brutalised. The man has suffered 80 per cent burns, and hospital doctors do not think he will survive. Christian organisations stage protests.”
“Arshed Masih, 38, is still fighting for his life in Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi, a city not far from Pakistan’s capital. With the help of police, Muslim extremists last Friday set him on fire for refusing to convert to Islam and raped his wife, local sources told AsiaNews. The incident occurred in front of a local police station.”
“In 2005, Masih and his wife began working for a wealthy Muslim businessman, he as driver and she as his wife’s maid. Recently, the two fell out of favour with their employer and his family because they insisted on remaining Christian.”
“During the incident, Masih’s wife, Martha, ‘was raped by police agents,’ local sources said. The couple’s three children, ranging in age from 7 and 12, were forced to watch their parents being brutalised.”
“‘Masih and his wife are currently being treated in hospital,’ Holy Family Hospital officials said. ‘He was listed in serious condition with about 80 per cent of his body burned,’ the BosNewsLife agency reported. With that kind of burns, hospital officials said the 38-year-old victim (pictured) is not likely to survive.”
“On Sunday, the Government of Punjab government announced an investigation into what happened. ‘The matter will be investigated and the culprits will be arrested,’ Punjab’s Minister of Law Rana Sanaullah said.”
“The Christian couple lived with their children in the servant quarters of Sheikh Mohammad Sultan’s estate in Rawalpindi. In January, religious leaders and Sultan reportedly told Arshed to convert to Islam with his whole family. After he refused, they threatened him with ‘dire consequences’.”
“Arshed offered to quit his job, but the businessman allegedly said he would ‘kill’ him if he were to leave.”
“Last week, tensions rose after Sultan reported the theft of 500,000 Pakistani rupees (almost US$ 6,000), and an official complaint (First Information Report) was filed with police.”
“Although the Christian couple was not named as suspect, the businessman offered them to drop the case if they converted to Islam or ‘else that both would not see their children again.'”
“The rest is known. Arshed Masih chose to remain loyal to his Christian faith, and last Friday he was set on fire and his wife raped by police.”
“Citing ‘terrorism threats’, the government of Pakistan’s Punjab province banned protests Monday, March 22, against the ‘refusal’ by police to detain those who burned a Christian man for not converting to Islam, while raping his wife.
“‘There is a possible threat of terrorism, so it is better to avoid any processions,’ the government told Life for All, one of the Christian advocacy groups organizing the demonstrations.”
“It wasn’t clear who had made the threats. Officials of Pakistan’s Christian minority expressed concerns however about attacks by extremists, including fighters linked to al-Qaida and other militant groups.”
“Monday’s demonstrations were to be organized in the cities of Lahore and Rawilpindi, where police and religious leaders allegedly attacked the Christian couple Friday, March 19.”
Hissal Hilal has since received death threats. The National reports that “The Saudi newspaper Al Watan reported that a member of the Ana al Muslim (I am the Muslim) website – which has previously posted videos about al Qa’eda operations – called for Ms Hilal’s death. One member was quoted by the newspaper as posting the message: ‘Can anyone tell me her address?'”
NDTV also reported that “Her poem got loud cheers from the audience and won her a place in the competition’s finals, to be aired on Wednesday.”
"Hissa Hilal performing on Millions Poet" (Photo: Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture & Heritage)
Hissa Hilal’s poetry reading on television has been translated to include the following verses:
“I have seen evil from the eyes of the subversive fatwas in a time when what is lawful is confused with what is not lawful;”
“When I unveil the truth, a monster appears from his hiding place; barbaric in thinking and action, angry and blind; wearing death as a dress and covering it with a belt [referring to suicide bombing];”
“He speaks from an official, powerful platform, terrorizing people and preying on everyone seeking peace; the voice of courage ran away and the truth is cornered and silent, when self-interest prevented one from speaking the truth.”
AP reports:
— “Protesting in verse: A Saudi woman criticizes Muslim clerics’ in a TV poetry contest”
— “It was a startling voice of protest at a startling venue. Covered head-to-toe in black, a Saudi woman lashed out at hard-line Muslim clerics’ harsh religious edicts in verse on live TV at a popular Arabic version of ‘American Idol.'”
— “Then last week, Hissa Hilal, only her eyes visible through her black veil, delivered a blistering poem against Muslim preachers “who sit in the position of power” but are “frightening” people with their fatwas, or religious edicts, and ‘preying like a wolf’ on those seeking peace.”
— “Her poem got loud cheers from the audience and won her a place in the competition’s finals, to be aired on Wednesday.”
— “It also brought her death threats, posted on several Islamic militant Web sites.”
— “Her poem was seen as a response to Sheik Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak, a prominent cleric in Saudi Arabia who recently issued a fatwa saying those who call for the mingling of men and women should be considered infidels, punishable by death.”
— “But more broadly, it was seen as addressing any of many hard-line clerics in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the region who hold a wide influence through television programs, university positions or Web sites.”
— “‘Killing a human being is so easy for them, it is always an option,’ she told the AP.”
Egyptian Court Refuses to Return Passport to Christian — Peter Athanasius aka Maher El-Gohary — COMPASS reports: “On Tuesday (March 9) the Egyptian State Council Court in Giza, an administrative court, refused to return the passport of Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary”
The anti-democracy group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which seeks the creation of a global caliphate, led a protest of thousands in Indonesia on Sunday March 14, 2010 in the South Sulawesi area of Makassar and also in Central Java’s Solo city, regarding the planned visit of U.S. president Barack Obama to Indonesia at the end of March 2010. The anti-freedom Hizb ut-Tahrir group is promoting an anti-Obama campaign throughout all of Indonesia on their web site (see screen shot). The Hizb ut-Tahrir protesters view Barack Obama as “Musuh Omat Islam”which means “Enemy of Islam.”
Mediareports have stated that 2,000 Hizb ut-Tahrir protesters were at various events and marches against Barack Obama in Indonesia. The Jakarta Post reported that one march led by the anti-democracy group Hizb ut-Tahrir against Obama began at a local mosque. AFP reported that Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesman Nur Alam called America “the real terrorists” and stated that while U.S. President Barack Obama may “have a different skin color” from former U.S. President Bush, that Obama seeks to “oppress” Muslims.
Anti-Democracy Group Hizb ut-Tahrir Leads Protests Against Barack Obama -- Waving Black Flags of "Islamic Caliphate"
The Indonesia branch of the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), describes the “sins of Barack Obama” as the “sins of destruction of ideology” stating America has committed the “sin” of “promoting neoliberal capitalism.” HTI also views Barack Obama guilty of the “sin of history,” and the “sin” of having the IMF and World Bank provide financial support to help Indonesia. Finally, HTI views Barack Obama guilty of the “sins of humanity.”
Many of the HTI signs read “Tolak Obama” which means “Reject Obama.”
Anti-Democracy Group Hizb ut-Tahrir Protests Against Barack Obama
HTI believes that continued protests in Jakarta can possibly disrupt Barack Obama’s visit to Indonesia. HTI urges Indonesian Muslims to chase Obama out of Indonesia and state that “the fact that Obama’s biography that his ancestors were Muslims, according to HTI, can not be the basis for the ‘privileged concern.'”
Anti-Democracy Group Hizb ut-Tahrir Protests Against Barack Obama
HTI states that “In addition to the arrival of Obama’s rejection, in these demos, HTI also call upon all Muslims to truly manifest the life of the Islamic struggle in which Islamic law is applied under the auspices of the caliph.”
Anti-Democracy Group Hizb ut-Tahrir Protests Against Barack Obama
HTI describes an event at an Indonesian Central Library where 1000 attended an assembly of Tribunal Al-Islamiyah Buhuts, where the black flag of the extremist caliphate and the white flag of Dar Al-Salam were hung with anti-Obama banner in the center reading “Tolak Obama”… “Reject Obama.”
Indonesia Central Library Meeting with Flag of Caliphate and Raised Fists Against U.S. President Barack Obama
Summary of Media Reports:
AFP reported that:
— “Around 2,000 protesters from the hardline Muslim group Hizbut Tahrir, which aims to establish a Muslim caliphate, shouted ‘Islam united… will not be defeated. Reject Obama’ and tore printouts of the American flag as they marched around the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar on Sunday.”
— “In Central Java’s Solo city, another 500 of the group’s supporters carried posters saying ‘Expel Obama.. leader of coloniser’ and ‘America.. The Real Terrorists.'”
— “‘There are two types of visitors, good and bad. Obama is bad. He might be of a different skin colour from George Bush, but he still oppressed the Muslims,’ the group’s spokesman Nur Alam said, referring to former US president George W. Bush.”
Anti-Democracy Group Hizb ut-Tahrir Leads Protests Against Barack Obama
The Jakarta Post reports:
— “Two thousand supporters of Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) in South Sulawesi staged Sunday an anti-US President Barrack Obama rally in Makassar, rejecting his plan to visit Indonesia.”
— “The rally began at Al Markaz Al Islami mosque and continued to Mandala monument.”
— “The protesters called Obama inconsistent in his promise to work for peace such as by sending more troops to Afghanistan, and injecting a fund to Israel.”
— “Obama is scheduled to visit Indonesia later this month.”
Anti-Democracy Group Hizb ut-Tahrir Protests Against Barack Obama -- Stating "Reject Obama" -- "Enemy of Islam"The Flag of the "Caliphate"
— Daily Telegraph reports:
— “The couple were arrested after a 38-year-old local woman reported their behaviour at Bob’s Easy Diner on November 27 at 2am.”
— “She said her daughter had witnessed the couple kissing each other on the mouth, and then she had seen the same thing.”
— “‘I also saw them touching each other, as they were seated two to three metres away from our table,’ her statement, read to the first hearing, said. ‘A number of customers witnessed the scene as well.'”
— “At the appeal hearing on Sunday, Mr Najafi said the pair’s behaviour had not been inappropriate.”
— “‘We kissed each other on the cheek as a greeting, nothing more,’ he told Judge Aysar Fouad. Miss Adams pointed at her cheek to show where contact had taken place.”
