Pakistan – IPS: “Repeal of Blasphemy Laws Still a Pipe Dream”
— IPS reports:
— “In 2000, then President Pervez Musharraf promised to repeal the laws. ‘He retracted when the ‘mullahs’ (religious teachers) threatened protests,’ recalled Zohra Yusuf, vice chairperson of the Sindh chapter of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).”
— “Rights activist Tahira Abdullah said mobs using the law to inflict harm on others are acting ‘like private vigilante groups,’ she said.”
— “No less than governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer has called for a repeal of the blasphemy laws. But his bold call on Sep. 16 for the controversial laws’ repeal was met with a warning from the president of the conservative Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam), Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who said that his party would resist any attempt to annul the blasphemy laws.”
— “Continued state inaction on the much-maligned blasphemy laws has only reinforced perceptions that ‘the present government has no intention of repealing the laws,’ said Yusuf.”
— “I.A. Rehman, noted rights activist and secretary general of the HRCP, told IPS ‘(neither) the present government (nor any) government in Pakistan is likely to have the courage to repeal the blasphemy laws”. He added that “the state has committed the folly of making obscurantist fanatics stronger than itself.” Calling for a repeal of the law “is the only rational way out’ although ‘this demand is unlikely to be met.'”
Washington to tone down criticism of Russian human rights record
— Daily Telegraph reports: “Washington will tone down its criticism of Russia’s human rights record in order to win Kremlin backing for possible sanctions against Iran, it has been claimed.”
— “Mrs Clinton’s trip was part of what Washington is calling a ‘reset’ with Moscow, a new more constructive relationship with the Kremlin that President Barack Obama wants to be based on pragmatism rather than the confrontation of the past.”
— “Michael McFaul, Mrs Clinton’s top Russia adviser, told Kommersant, an influential daily Russian newspaper, Washington was ready to dilute its criticism of Kremlin rights abuses.”
— “‘We have decided that we need a reset in this sphere and to scrap our previous approach,’ he said, adding that the US had decided it would no longer preach to Russia about democracy so as not to irritate Moscow.”
— “US officials said the newspaper had misinterpreted Mr McFaul’s remarks but human rights activists pleaded with Mrs Clinton not to downgrade human rights.
— “Oleg Orlov, head of rights group Memorial, said: ‘I told Clinton that for me the reset in Russian-American relations does not mean ending criticism of the human rights situation.'”
Indonesia: Two Indonesian Churches Receive Bomb Threats
— Compass reports “Islamic groups demand halt to threatened congregation’s worship.”
— “Two churches in the greater Jakarta area have received bomb threats.”
— “In East Jakarta, the pastor of a Batak Protestant Christian Church (Huria Kristen Batak Protestan, or HKBP) on Bogor Street received a threatening phone call before Sunday services on Oct. 4. The church building is located near the headquarters of an elite police corps.”
— “The unknown caller to the Rev. Abidan Simanungkalit’s cell phone said the bomb would explode during the morning worship service, the pastor told Compass.”
— “‘I was startled to receive the short message,’ he said. ‘I immediately phoned some church leaders and then called police.'”
— “Scores of police and bomb squad officers came to the site and combed the area for a bomb, discovering a black package in a garbage container near the front of the church building. It contained four large batteries, a small wall clock and a tin can, and after a two hours police determined that it was not a bomb.”
WESH: Religious Runaway To Be Sent To Ohio Foster Home — Rifqa Bary Say She Fled To Orlando To Escape Persecution
— WESH reports: “Rifqa Bary, 17, made national headlines when she fled from her parents’ home because she claimed they planned to kill her for converting to Christianity. Bary posted a video on YouTube calling her parents radical.”
— “A Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigated Rifqa Bary’s claims and found no evidence she would be a victim of an honor killing if she were returned home. There was also no evidence of assault or abuse.”
WFTV reports:
— “The teenager who ran away from Ohio to Orlando because she feared physical harm for converting from Islam to Christianity has been ordered back to Ohio, but the judge made two conditions.”
— “The Orlando judge said Tuesday afternoon that 17-year-old Rifqa Bary, who had been staying in Orlando, should return to Ohio under the care of the state’s child protective services. The judge, though said, he needs documentation that she can continue the online education she’s getting in Florida and her parents must turn over all immigration documents to the judge to prove she can legally stay in the United States.”
— “The Orlando judge set a hearing for October 23 if the aforementioned conditions have not been met. If they are met before that time, it’s possible Bary could head back to Ohio sooner.”
— “Bary is in foster care in Orlando while her case is being reviewed. The judge says he will turn over the case to an Ohio court in the next few weeks, but no order has been signed yet”
Judge: Rifqa Bary will go back to Ohio
— Orlando Sentinel Reports:
— “Rifqa Bary, the Muslim-to-Christian teen convert who is at the center of a politically charged custody dispute, will go back to Ohio as soon as issues of her immigration and virtual schooling are solved”
— “An Orange Circuit Judge said he will return a teenage runaway from Ohio back to Ohio but only after her immigration status is settled and only after ensuring she can continue her schooling at ‘virtural school’ in Ohio.”
— “At a hearing in Orlando to determine the immediate future for Fathima Rifqa Bary, judge Daniel Dawson asked that her parents — from whom Rifqa ran in July — submit all the paperwork necessary to settle any immigration issues.”
— “The family is from Sri Lanka but lives and works outside Columbus, Ohio.”
— “Krista Bartholomew, Rifqa’s guardian ad litem, said she will provide a list of all documents needed for the immigration status so everyone is clear on what is needed. She said this has been provided before but she will do it again.”
— “Rifqa attended the hearing but used the time in the courtroom to read her Bible.”
— “She has been in Orlando since mid-July when she boarded a Greyhound bus and left Ohio. She arrived in Orlando and took up residence with husband and wife pastors that she met through a prayer group on the Internet social networking site, Facebook.”
— “The 17-year-old said she left her Muslim family because she feared they would harm or kill her because she converted to Christianity.”
— “Her family has said her fears are unfounded.”
— “But the conflict spilled into the courts after the Department of Children and Families became Rifqa’s custodian.”
— “The case is also in court-ordered mediation, but no agreement has come from it, Dawson learned today.”
— “A judge from Ohio said sat in via speaker phone, as did Rifqa’s Ohio attorneys, her parents’ attorney, Ohio media, someone from the Franklin County children services, someone from the prosecutor’s office and a guardian ad litem.”
— “The Ohio judge said told the court that her state should have jurisdiction and wants jurisdiction on the case.”
— “Bartholomew agreed the case should return to Ohio, but John Stemberger, Rifqa’s Florida attorney, objected.”
— “A representative from the children’s services in Ohio said a foster home has been identified for Rifqa in that state.”
Orlando Sentinel reported earlier that:
— “However, it should be a transition to Ohio and she continue to receive services. She would like Rifqa to have a mental examination before she returns to Ohio. She also wants the parents to have a psychological exam, too.”
— “It’s important to determine what services are needed. Rifqa has been seeing a counselor here in Florida, Batholomew said.”
— “Bartholomew also asked that she finish some of her schooling here in Florida.”
— “She wants the parents to follow the orders set up by the Florida court, such as the immigration issue.”
— “The parents have not addressed that issue yet, Bartholomew said. At this point, there is a chance she is in the country illegally.”
— “This could take several weeks, she said.” AP: Another hearing held for runaway convert
— “The judge is holding another hearing Tuesday that will help determine whether 17-year-old Rifqa Bary stays in Orlando or returns to her family who live outside Columbus”
— Il Giornale: “I love an Italian, dad kills me” Moroccan 15 years under cover — 15 year old Moroccan girl threatened
— “Request for help is heartbreaking: “Help me, I do not want to end up like Hina and Sanaa. Said the police in tears of Pavia, just a few hours ago, a fifteen Moroccan escaped from home in Voghera.”
— “And the soldiers have moved immediately. Now the student is in a protected location in Sydney, away from parents by herself accused of having threatened to do the same end of Sanaa. Besides its history, for some months now, is similar to that of two girls, which took the lives of ‘guilty’ only of loving an Italian man and not a Muslim. A script already seen.”
— “Start the harassment. Her father beat her repeatedly and the threat of death: “I’ll make an end to the other …” alluding to the most horrific cases of poor Muslim girls massacred because they were trying to break free from a world of fundamentalist and dull. Beatings and threats that have witnessed without blinking, even sharing the “method of education, whether the mother. The girl tries to cling to what is around him, makes contact with friends including Social Services, as I will explain later also to the police. Anyone away from that family that now beats her and insulted almost every day. Phrase you hear is always angry, “Raki daimen Muslima u-maghribiyya (you are always Muslim and Moroccan). These are your sources, you must not forget, and that is why you can not attend the Italian boys who are not Muslims. Your father feels dishonored. And off blows.”
