A Muslim group in the North yesterday threatened to defend the implementation of the Islamic Banking system with the last drop of their blood. It warned the Christian community opposed to it to back off or face the full wrath of their anger.
The Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria told reporters at the end of its meeting in Kaduna last night that it would rather go to war than give up their agitation for Islamic banking. It said since Islamic banking has been implemented in Britain and other Christian-dominated countries, there is no reason why it cannot be implemented in Nigeria.
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Showing posts with label Stealth jihad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stealth jihad. Show all posts
Monday, July 25, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Egyptian Muslim Ring Uses Sexual Coercion to Convert Christian Girls
The number of Christian girls abducted and coerced into converting to Islam since the Egyptian "January 25 Revolution" has skyrocketed, according to Father Filopateer Gamil of St. Mary's Church in Giza. "More than two to three girls disappear everyday in Giza alone," he said. "The cases that are brought to public attention are few compared to what the numbers actually are."
MORE
MORE
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Iran and its proxy Hizbullah continue to expand their influence and presence in South America, a top US general warns.
IsraelNationalNews
USAF General Douglas Fraser, commanding officer of the Pentagon's Southern Command, says Iran has aggressively expanded its network of embassies in the region, as well as building numerous cultural centers and mosques in more than 15 Latin American countries.
Fraser, the shot-caller for US military operations in 31 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, says intelligence provided to SoCom indicates the Iranian-built Mosques and cultural centers are teaching a radical brand of Islam to impoverished Latin American's and serve as recruiting centers for 'extremist organizations.'
Fraser warns these efforts have been accelerated by the close relationship between President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who have met at least nine times during Chavez’s 12-year tenure as President.
The Iranian-Venezuelan alliance remains largely diplomatic and commercial, according to Fraser. But he maintains there are still too many unknowns to simply discount its long-term strategic importance vis-a-vis the growth of Islamic terror groups in the region.
"There are flights between Iran and Venezuela on a weekly basis, and visas are not required for entrance into Venezuela or Bolivia or Nicaragua. So we don’t have a lot of visibility in who’s visiting and who isn’t, and that’s really where I see the concerns," Fraser says.
"It is a concern, and it is an issue we will continue to monitor for any increasing activity," Fraser said.
Fraser also told the Senate Armed Services Committee that military intelligence confirmed Iran has hosted heads of state from three countries: Bolivia, Guyana and Venezuela.
But Fraser isn't just concerned about Iran forming a beach-head in the region. The Iranian-supported Hizbullah terror-organization is also developing a dangerous presence in Latin America, Fraser says. In addition to fundraising and recruiting in the region, the terror group has reportedly started muscling in on the Mexican drug trade.
Fraser is not the first to warn lawmakers from both parties about Latin America's vulnerability to radical Islam. In 2007, Marine Corps General Peter Pace, the Bush Administration’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Armed Services Committee elements of radical Islamic groups were active in South America recruiting and training terrorists.
Pace specifically cited Hizbullah and al-Qaeda, but the Senate chose not to act on Pace's warnings at the time.
Due to Fraser's lobbying, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence will hold a hearing entitled "Hizbullah in Latin America – Implications for U.S. Homeland Security" on July 7th.
USAF General Douglas Fraser, commanding officer of the Pentagon's Southern Command, says Iran has aggressively expanded its network of embassies in the region, as well as building numerous cultural centers and mosques in more than 15 Latin American countries.
Fraser, the shot-caller for US military operations in 31 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, says intelligence provided to SoCom indicates the Iranian-built Mosques and cultural centers are teaching a radical brand of Islam to impoverished Latin American's and serve as recruiting centers for 'extremist organizations.'
Fraser warns these efforts have been accelerated by the close relationship between President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who have met at least nine times during Chavez’s 12-year tenure as President.
The Iranian-Venezuelan alliance remains largely diplomatic and commercial, according to Fraser. But he maintains there are still too many unknowns to simply discount its long-term strategic importance vis-a-vis the growth of Islamic terror groups in the region.
"There are flights between Iran and Venezuela on a weekly basis, and visas are not required for entrance into Venezuela or Bolivia or Nicaragua. So we don’t have a lot of visibility in who’s visiting and who isn’t, and that’s really where I see the concerns," Fraser says.
"It is a concern, and it is an issue we will continue to monitor for any increasing activity," Fraser said.
Fraser also told the Senate Armed Services Committee that military intelligence confirmed Iran has hosted heads of state from three countries: Bolivia, Guyana and Venezuela.
But Fraser isn't just concerned about Iran forming a beach-head in the region. The Iranian-supported Hizbullah terror-organization is also developing a dangerous presence in Latin America, Fraser says. In addition to fundraising and recruiting in the region, the terror group has reportedly started muscling in on the Mexican drug trade.
Fraser is not the first to warn lawmakers from both parties about Latin America's vulnerability to radical Islam. In 2007, Marine Corps General Peter Pace, the Bush Administration’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Armed Services Committee elements of radical Islamic groups were active in South America recruiting and training terrorists.
Pace specifically cited Hizbullah and al-Qaeda, but the Senate chose not to act on Pace's warnings at the time.
Due to Fraser's lobbying, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence will hold a hearing entitled "Hizbullah in Latin America – Implications for U.S. Homeland Security" on July 7th.
Hindus protest Muslim prayers at public school
Hindus from across Toronto plan to protest outside a North York middle school until a controversial Friday prayer session for 400 Muslim students is stopped.
The Canadian Hindu Advocacy is one of a number of Toronto-area groups who are opposed to the 30- to 40-minute services that occurred in the cafeteria of Valley Park Middle School on Overlea Blvd. from November to March.
An imam from a local mosque is brought to school to head the service, officials said. During the service male students are made to sit in front of the girls.
“This is alarming and unacceptable,” said Advocacy director Ron Banerjee. “We respect the separation of church and state.”
He said his group will be sending letters of protest to the Toronto District School Board in the next few days and calling for an end of the noon-time services. That will be followed by protests in November, when the services resume, if the prayers are to continue next school year.
“There’s not supposed to be any religious classes taking place in public schools,” Banerjee said. “We will be asking the board to stop the practice.”
He said school officials stopped students from reciting the Lord’s Prayers years ago and his group will picket the Muslim classes if the practice isn’t stopped.
“Our organization has received many complaints from Hindu students and parents in the Valley Park Middle School region,” Banerjee said.
He said his group would like to begin a discussion with TDSB authorities aimed at restoring secular education within the school system.
“We would also like to discuss the serving of halal meat within TDSB schools,” he said. “Our organization is determined to ensure all Hindu students are provided non-halal meat alternatives.”
MORE
The Canadian Hindu Advocacy is one of a number of Toronto-area groups who are opposed to the 30- to 40-minute services that occurred in the cafeteria of Valley Park Middle School on Overlea Blvd. from November to March.
An imam from a local mosque is brought to school to head the service, officials said. During the service male students are made to sit in front of the girls.
“This is alarming and unacceptable,” said Advocacy director Ron Banerjee. “We respect the separation of church and state.”
He said his group will be sending letters of protest to the Toronto District School Board in the next few days and calling for an end of the noon-time services. That will be followed by protests in November, when the services resume, if the prayers are to continue next school year.
“There’s not supposed to be any religious classes taking place in public schools,” Banerjee said. “We will be asking the board to stop the practice.”
He said school officials stopped students from reciting the Lord’s Prayers years ago and his group will picket the Muslim classes if the practice isn’t stopped.
“Our organization has received many complaints from Hindu students and parents in the Valley Park Middle School region,” Banerjee said.
He said his group would like to begin a discussion with TDSB authorities aimed at restoring secular education within the school system.
“We would also like to discuss the serving of halal meat within TDSB schools,” he said. “Our organization is determined to ensure all Hindu students are provided non-halal meat alternatives.”
MORE
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Shari'a and violence in American Mosques
How great is the danger of extremist violence in the name of Islam in the United States? Recent congressional hearings into this question by Rep. Peter King (Republican of New York), chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, have generated a firestorm of controversy among his colleagues, the press, and the general public.
Though similar hearings have taken place at least fourteen times since 2001, King was labeled a latter-day Joe McCarthy and the hearings called an assault on civil liberties and a contemporary witch-hunt.
Yet the larger dilemmas outlined by both the congressman and some of his witnesses remain: To what extent are American Muslims, native-born as well as naturalized, being radicalized by Islamists? And what steps can those who are sworn to the protection of American citizenry take that will uncover and disrupt the plots of those willing to take up arms against others for the sake of jihad?
MORE
Though similar hearings have taken place at least fourteen times since 2001, King was labeled a latter-day Joe McCarthy and the hearings called an assault on civil liberties and a contemporary witch-hunt.
Yet the larger dilemmas outlined by both the congressman and some of his witnesses remain: To what extent are American Muslims, native-born as well as naturalized, being radicalized by Islamists? And what steps can those who are sworn to the protection of American citizenry take that will uncover and disrupt the plots of those willing to take up arms against others for the sake of jihad?
MORE
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Ugandan legislation pits Muslims vs. Christians over power of courts
Christians call a proposed religious law a sly attempt to favor Muslims in this predominantly Christian country and warn that it could promote Islamic fundamentalism. Muslims say the reaction to the bill just shows Islamophobia.
The Muslim Personal Law bill - which would give more power to Islamic Kadhi courts for Muslims on matters of marriage, divorce and inheritance - is straining relations between Uganda’s two largest religious groups.
Each side is vowing to resist the other to protect what both say are the fundamental rights of their respective communities.
The dispute also highlights an apparent contradiction between two sections of the Ugandan Constitution.
Muslims, who make up roughly 12 percent of Uganda’s 32 million people, point to Article 129 of the constitution, which explicitly allows for the creation of Kadhi civil courts. Under current law, Kadhi court decisions are not legally binding.
Christians argue that Article 129 conflicts with another section of the constitution, Article 21, which states that all people are equal under the law in all spheres of life. Institutionalizing the Islamic courts would give the country two parallel legal systems that would undermine the secular nature of the Ugandan Constitution, Christian leaders say.
MORE
The Muslim Personal Law bill - which would give more power to Islamic Kadhi courts for Muslims on matters of marriage, divorce and inheritance - is straining relations between Uganda’s two largest religious groups.
Each side is vowing to resist the other to protect what both say are the fundamental rights of their respective communities.
The dispute also highlights an apparent contradiction between two sections of the Ugandan Constitution.
Muslims, who make up roughly 12 percent of Uganda’s 32 million people, point to Article 129 of the constitution, which explicitly allows for the creation of Kadhi civil courts. Under current law, Kadhi court decisions are not legally binding.
Christians argue that Article 129 conflicts with another section of the constitution, Article 21, which states that all people are equal under the law in all spheres of life. Institutionalizing the Islamic courts would give the country two parallel legal systems that would undermine the secular nature of the Ugandan Constitution, Christian leaders say.
MORE
Monday, May 23, 2011
The Jihad in Sudan enters a new phase: North Sudanese troops seize South Sudanese border town of Abiye
'It comes weeks before the South is due to become independent and follows fierce fighting between the government's Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the rebel's (sic: that should be "rebels' " - but why is AFP still calling them rebels in any case, given that within weeks they will be the lawful armed forces of an independent nation? - CM) Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).
"The SAF have entered Abyei, there is still fighting but they have come with tanks, they are shooting and shooting", SPLA spokesman Philip Aguer said.
"Our police have been fighting but the SAF have sent many soldiers in", he said, speaking by phone from Juba, the capital of South Sudan.
The United States condemned the Abyei offensive and called on Sudan's armed forces "to immediately cease all offensive operations in Abyei and withdraw its forces from Abyei".
And if they don't? That condemnation, and that call, had better be backed up by the wielding of a great big stick, with force and with precision. We are confronted by Muslim North Sudan, in an act of brazen aggression, testing the non-Muslim world, to see whether it [North Sudan] can get away with murder and robbery in broad daylight against the new nation of South Sudan, as once it got away with mass murder and robbery when those South Sudanese were within its jurisdiction. It is in South Sudan, not in Libya or Afghanistan or Iraq, that the resources of non-Muslim nations such as France, Britain and the USA stand a real chance of halting and rolling back the advance of the Global Jihad.
What matters in Africa most of all is that the Ummah, or Mohammedan mob, is steadily grinding its way southward into majority-Christian and animist black Africa, killing, enslaving, corrupting, destroying good things and making bad things worse. And that the free nations - many of the unfree are backing the ummah - should desire to see it stopped, and muster the will to assist the non-Muslim Africans to do so.
Abyei's furture is the most sensitive of a raft of issues that the two sides in Sudan are struggling to agree on before the south is recognised as an independent state in July
News of the Sudanese army breakthrough came after reports of an increase in fighting.
'Shooting broke out late Thursday as UN peacekeepers escorted 200 northern SAF troops out of the contested area, with both armies accusing each other of having started the fight.
When dealing with incidents like this, where you have one party's word against the other's, on balance it would be wisest to trust the non-Muslim South Sudanese account of events, given that their opponents are Muslims who have a demonstrated track record of lying, cheating and fighting dirty and one of whose special tricks is a sleight-of-hand by which they start a fight and then pretend that the other guy started it.
"The SAF have entered Abyei, there is still fighting but they have come with tanks, they are shooting and shooting", SPLA spokesman Philip Aguer said.
"Our police have been fighting but the SAF have sent many soldiers in", he said, speaking by phone from Juba, the capital of South Sudan.
The United States condemned the Abyei offensive and called on Sudan's armed forces "to immediately cease all offensive operations in Abyei and withdraw its forces from Abyei".
And if they don't? That condemnation, and that call, had better be backed up by the wielding of a great big stick, with force and with precision. We are confronted by Muslim North Sudan, in an act of brazen aggression, testing the non-Muslim world, to see whether it [North Sudan] can get away with murder and robbery in broad daylight against the new nation of South Sudan, as once it got away with mass murder and robbery when those South Sudanese were within its jurisdiction. It is in South Sudan, not in Libya or Afghanistan or Iraq, that the resources of non-Muslim nations such as France, Britain and the USA stand a real chance of halting and rolling back the advance of the Global Jihad.
What matters in Africa most of all is that the Ummah, or Mohammedan mob, is steadily grinding its way southward into majority-Christian and animist black Africa, killing, enslaving, corrupting, destroying good things and making bad things worse. And that the free nations - many of the unfree are backing the ummah - should desire to see it stopped, and muster the will to assist the non-Muslim Africans to do so.
Abyei's furture is the most sensitive of a raft of issues that the two sides in Sudan are struggling to agree on before the south is recognised as an independent state in July
News of the Sudanese army breakthrough came after reports of an increase in fighting.
'Shooting broke out late Thursday as UN peacekeepers escorted 200 northern SAF troops out of the contested area, with both armies accusing each other of having started the fight.
When dealing with incidents like this, where you have one party's word against the other's, on balance it would be wisest to trust the non-Muslim South Sudanese account of events, given that their opponents are Muslims who have a demonstrated track record of lying, cheating and fighting dirty and one of whose special tricks is a sleight-of-hand by which they start a fight and then pretend that the other guy started it.
More and More Coptic Christian girls are being abducted,raped and forced to convert
AINA
Amid the upheavals in Egypt since January, reports have begun to emerge of a surge in disappearances of Coptic girls.
One priest in Cairo estimates that at least 21 young girls, many as young as 14, have disappeared from his parish alone.
In most cases, when a Christian girl who disappears is found by her family, she has been converted to Islam and married. The Coptic authorities, have even set up a series of refuges in monasteries to handle the growing numbers of girls who wish to return to their families, many of whom are not accepted by their family of origin.
But a worse problem for these women is that their conversion to Islam is irreversible.
Religion is stated on Egyptian ID documents and even though secular law provides for reversions, under the growth of sharia they are very difficult, except for those affording legal advocacy.
This situation is not unique to Egypt. There have been consistent reports of girls being coerced into Islamic conversion and marriage in India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
That many of these girls are initially runaways is not in doubt. However, there is also evidence that a huge number are converted and married against their will.
The situation was documented in a controversial report published in 2009 on conversion and forced marriage of Coptic women by Washington DC-based Christian Solidarity International. The authors are Washington academic Michele Clark and Egyptian Coptic broadcast journalist Nadia Ghaly, based in Melbourne.
Between 2005 and 2008 they interviewed and documented 50 Egyptian women, mostly aged between 14 and 25, who had decided to return to their families. All claim to have been tricked, coerced or raped, converted to Islam and married. Most of the interviewees were trying to reconvert to their Christian identity, with limited or no success. The report’s conclusions were printed in several major publications, including Forbes magazine.
Since the so-called Arab Spring, and the ensuing riots at Christian churches, the authors are trying to bring the subject of forced conversion and marriage to greater prominence.
Both groups live extremely closed, highly traditional separate lives and the norms surrounding marriage and sex are almost medieval, says Ghaly.
So, for example, it is not unheard of for a young Christian girl from a poor family to run away from an arranged marriage. Yet a high proportion of these women claim coercion, even rape, despite the shame that such a claim will cause if the girl wishes to return.
Many claim they were kept as virtual slaves. Others who were able to leave could not bring their children. Ghaly claims this is more than overt religious oppression, and amounts to “a form of cultural genocide”.
She cites a document published by Human Rights Watch in November 2007, which says that even if Coptic women can obtain a divorce from their Muslim husband, those who wish to return to Christianity “meet with refusal and harassment from the Civil Status Department of the Ministry of Interior”.
Under sharia law, reconversion is considered apostasy punishable by death.
Amid the upheavals in Egypt since January, reports have begun to emerge of a surge in disappearances of Coptic girls.
One priest in Cairo estimates that at least 21 young girls, many as young as 14, have disappeared from his parish alone.
In most cases, when a Christian girl who disappears is found by her family, she has been converted to Islam and married. The Coptic authorities, have even set up a series of refuges in monasteries to handle the growing numbers of girls who wish to return to their families, many of whom are not accepted by their family of origin.
But a worse problem for these women is that their conversion to Islam is irreversible.
Religion is stated on Egyptian ID documents and even though secular law provides for reversions, under the growth of sharia they are very difficult, except for those affording legal advocacy.
This situation is not unique to Egypt. There have been consistent reports of girls being coerced into Islamic conversion and marriage in India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
That many of these girls are initially runaways is not in doubt. However, there is also evidence that a huge number are converted and married against their will.
The situation was documented in a controversial report published in 2009 on conversion and forced marriage of Coptic women by Washington DC-based Christian Solidarity International. The authors are Washington academic Michele Clark and Egyptian Coptic broadcast journalist Nadia Ghaly, based in Melbourne.
Between 2005 and 2008 they interviewed and documented 50 Egyptian women, mostly aged between 14 and 25, who had decided to return to their families. All claim to have been tricked, coerced or raped, converted to Islam and married. Most of the interviewees were trying to reconvert to their Christian identity, with limited or no success. The report’s conclusions were printed in several major publications, including Forbes magazine.
Since the so-called Arab Spring, and the ensuing riots at Christian churches, the authors are trying to bring the subject of forced conversion and marriage to greater prominence.
Both groups live extremely closed, highly traditional separate lives and the norms surrounding marriage and sex are almost medieval, says Ghaly.
So, for example, it is not unheard of for a young Christian girl from a poor family to run away from an arranged marriage. Yet a high proportion of these women claim coercion, even rape, despite the shame that such a claim will cause if the girl wishes to return.
Many claim they were kept as virtual slaves. Others who were able to leave could not bring their children. Ghaly claims this is more than overt religious oppression, and amounts to “a form of cultural genocide”.
She cites a document published by Human Rights Watch in November 2007, which says that even if Coptic women can obtain a divorce from their Muslim husband, those who wish to return to Christianity “meet with refusal and harassment from the Civil Status Department of the Ministry of Interior”.
Under sharia law, reconversion is considered apostasy punishable by death.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Uganda: No to Sharia
UGANDA PEOPLE NEWS
Pastor Umaru Mulinde of Life Gospel Church in Namasuba has asked Parliament to remove the Islamic Sharia Laws (Kadhi Courts) in the constitution.
The pastor says the constitution favors Islam than other religions because other religions have not been given platform in the constitution.
In his petition addressed to the Speaker of Parliament Edward Sekandi, Mulinde says the special treatment given to Islam creates divisionism with other religions, which may cause problems like those in Nigeria and Sudan.
However, Sekandi says that Christians particularly the Pentecostal churches should learn to coexist with Muslims otherwise amending the constitution to the pastor’s favor may cause more problems.
Sekandi adds that religions should not be preaching against each other but their gospels to their respective followers.
Pastor Umaru Mulinde of Life Gospel Church in Namasuba has asked Parliament to remove the Islamic Sharia Laws (Kadhi Courts) in the constitution.
The pastor says the constitution favors Islam than other religions because other religions have not been given platform in the constitution.
In his petition addressed to the Speaker of Parliament Edward Sekandi, Mulinde says the special treatment given to Islam creates divisionism with other religions, which may cause problems like those in Nigeria and Sudan.
However, Sekandi says that Christians particularly the Pentecostal churches should learn to coexist with Muslims otherwise amending the constitution to the pastor’s favor may cause more problems.
Sekandi adds that religions should not be preaching against each other but their gospels to their respective followers.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
The Ethiopian disease
Reader's post: L. Kavakos
Some things in history are just amazing to me, among them is the survival of a Christian Ethiopia that was completly cut off from the rest of Christianity for over a milennium and was compleetly surrounded by muslims (who had a special religious interest in Ethiopia, because Muhammad himself ordered the king of Axum to submit and because a rouge Ethiopian general suposedly dared to ATTACK THE BLACK STONE (pbui) ITSELF!!!!! (and even draged an elephant through the sands of half Arabia (and fed and drank it on the whole way). But this small people on the fringe of (at that time broad) Christian world did not only refused to submitt, it also withstood one muslim invasion after the other. Sadly the complete hostility of the surrounding world has taken a toll on this once very civilized people (who took much from the greek colonys on the cost of whats now Eritrea, who were subjects to the Axumite king). Despite keeping their Christianity, European travelers who came to Ethiopia in the 18th century saw the large difference between the old Ethiopian civilisation they read about in books and the much harsher reality. Constant struggle for survival as well as little trade and contact with Christians outside of Ethiopia (while a lot of "contact" with Muslims and pagans) has barbarized the Ethiopians. It is sad to see how the Islamic ounslaught that mostly reduced Christianity to Europe crippled and hurt even thous who were able to survive it. What was crippled ruined and closed minded Byzantion compared with Justinians splendid, multiethnical Roman empire, what was the Kilikian rump state created by a rag tag bunch of imigrants, compared to the splendid Armenia that as the first country in the world compleetly embraced Christianity, what was Ethiopia of the 1500s or even the 1800s compared to the great Axumite kingdom.....
I look at it and get such a feeling of overwhelming sorrow, how much has Asia and Africa (and Europe too) lost because a tribal warlord from Asias most barbaric region unleashed Islam on the world and while truly great even the achievments of thous few Christians who survived Jihad seem so small compared to what they COULD have been if the unity of the Mediteranian world, if the great Christian and Hellenistic Euro-Asian-African unity would not have been destroyed by Islam. As great as european civilisation has become this united hellenistic civilisation that would have spread deeper into Asia and Africa had the potential to become even greater (I can bring just such names as Alexandria and Antiochia were so many inventions and great Christian ideas came from before Islam obliterated them and what about the old Roman frase (more or less) "From Africa allways comes good" showing the wealth and the high culture of Roman north Africa and Egypt)......the advance of Islam and the inability of Christians (especialy us, Orthodox Christians) to stop it is one of the greatest tragedys in the history of mankind. I pray for the Ethiopians but I fear the wound inflicted on them by Islam will never heal, it is sad that an act of kindness (An Axumite king allowed most of Islams core comunity to take refuge in his country) had such tragic consequences.
Some things in history are just amazing to me, among them is the survival of a Christian Ethiopia that was completly cut off from the rest of Christianity for over a milennium and was compleetly surrounded by muslims (who had a special religious interest in Ethiopia, because Muhammad himself ordered the king of Axum to submit and because a rouge Ethiopian general suposedly dared to ATTACK THE BLACK STONE (pbui) ITSELF!!!!! (and even draged an elephant through the sands of half Arabia (and fed and drank it on the whole way). But this small people on the fringe of (at that time broad) Christian world did not only refused to submitt, it also withstood one muslim invasion after the other. Sadly the complete hostility of the surrounding world has taken a toll on this once very civilized people (who took much from the greek colonys on the cost of whats now Eritrea, who were subjects to the Axumite king). Despite keeping their Christianity, European travelers who came to Ethiopia in the 18th century saw the large difference between the old Ethiopian civilisation they read about in books and the much harsher reality. Constant struggle for survival as well as little trade and contact with Christians outside of Ethiopia (while a lot of "contact" with Muslims and pagans) has barbarized the Ethiopians. It is sad to see how the Islamic ounslaught that mostly reduced Christianity to Europe crippled and hurt even thous who were able to survive it. What was crippled ruined and closed minded Byzantion compared with Justinians splendid, multiethnical Roman empire, what was the Kilikian rump state created by a rag tag bunch of imigrants, compared to the splendid Armenia that as the first country in the world compleetly embraced Christianity, what was Ethiopia of the 1500s or even the 1800s compared to the great Axumite kingdom.....
I look at it and get such a feeling of overwhelming sorrow, how much has Asia and Africa (and Europe too) lost because a tribal warlord from Asias most barbaric region unleashed Islam on the world and while truly great even the achievments of thous few Christians who survived Jihad seem so small compared to what they COULD have been if the unity of the Mediteranian world, if the great Christian and Hellenistic Euro-Asian-African unity would not have been destroyed by Islam. As great as european civilisation has become this united hellenistic civilisation that would have spread deeper into Asia and Africa had the potential to become even greater (I can bring just such names as Alexandria and Antiochia were so many inventions and great Christian ideas came from before Islam obliterated them and what about the old Roman frase (more or less) "From Africa allways comes good" showing the wealth and the high culture of Roman north Africa and Egypt)......the advance of Islam and the inability of Christians (especialy us, Orthodox Christians) to stop it is one of the greatest tragedys in the history of mankind. I pray for the Ethiopians but I fear the wound inflicted on them by Islam will never heal, it is sad that an act of kindness (An Axumite king allowed most of Islams core comunity to take refuge in his country) had such tragic consequences.
Monday, April 11, 2011
THE THREAT OF ISLAMISM IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: The case of Tanzania
The states of Africa south of the Sahara, with their large Muslim populations, certainly are vulnerable to the popular unrest sweeping across North Africa and the Gulf region since January 2011. These states present a “backdoor” opening for radical jihadist Islam, which is already a strong presence in Algeria, Morocco, Egypt and, (if Qaddafi lasts) in Libya. With about 25 percent of the world’s Muslim population living in Africa, the overall restrictive economic and political conditions, and an expanding youth population, extrude Islamist ideology as a plausible alternative for self-styled repressed out-groups. Consequently, Sub-Saharan Africa merits more attention for signs of more radical, jihadist Islamism.
Islamism is a political ideology, not an offshoot religious cult. Its strategy ranges from violence as a prime tactic to political militancy, to competitive political parties that seek local or national representation in parliaments or local governments. Islamism may spawn violent jihadi groups that dream of recreating a global Islamic community (umma) or groups attempting to restore ultra-traditionalist, Salafist tenets of Islam, similar to what prevails in Wahabbist Saudi Arabia.
This essay examines both the extent and dynamics of Islamism and radical, violent Islamist groups in Tanzania, the location of the 1998 al Qaeda bombing. Additionally, the piece considers the appeal and spread of Islamist ideology, and the “state of play” today. Tanzania is examined here for the number of Muslims in the population—about a third of the total; for its proximity to the eastern African cockpit of Islamism—Somalia; and for the character of its internal politics, a one party-dominant political system—with the position of its Muslim population emerging as a divisive political issue.
Thus far, Tanzania harbors a low level of Islamist activity compared to, for example, Sudan, Somalia, and Egypt. It is representative of countries in Africa south of the Sahara with significant Muslim populations, whose cooperation is necessary if global jihadist terrorism is to be controlled and overcome. Not least is the problem of spillover of sporadic, small scale wars (Congo, Rwanda and Burundi are western neighbors). Secular nationalism, a lame parliamentary democracy, slow and uneven economic growth, and perceived unequal opportunity permit Muslim Africans, in Tanzania, as elsewhere, to subscribe to an alternative ideology of Islamism.
MORE
Islamism is a political ideology, not an offshoot religious cult. Its strategy ranges from violence as a prime tactic to political militancy, to competitive political parties that seek local or national representation in parliaments or local governments. Islamism may spawn violent jihadi groups that dream of recreating a global Islamic community (umma) or groups attempting to restore ultra-traditionalist, Salafist tenets of Islam, similar to what prevails in Wahabbist Saudi Arabia.
This essay examines both the extent and dynamics of Islamism and radical, violent Islamist groups in Tanzania, the location of the 1998 al Qaeda bombing. Additionally, the piece considers the appeal and spread of Islamist ideology, and the “state of play” today. Tanzania is examined here for the number of Muslims in the population—about a third of the total; for its proximity to the eastern African cockpit of Islamism—Somalia; and for the character of its internal politics, a one party-dominant political system—with the position of its Muslim population emerging as a divisive political issue.
Thus far, Tanzania harbors a low level of Islamist activity compared to, for example, Sudan, Somalia, and Egypt. It is representative of countries in Africa south of the Sahara with significant Muslim populations, whose cooperation is necessary if global jihadist terrorism is to be controlled and overcome. Not least is the problem of spillover of sporadic, small scale wars (Congo, Rwanda and Burundi are western neighbors). Secular nationalism, a lame parliamentary democracy, slow and uneven economic growth, and perceived unequal opportunity permit Muslim Africans, in Tanzania, as elsewhere, to subscribe to an alternative ideology of Islamism.
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Thursday, April 7, 2011
Ivory Coast: The next Rwanda?
Thousands of refugees from the Ivory Coast in Liberia are reporting that the the pro-Quattara Muslim rebels are killing people and raping women. They are killing “everyone and anyone.” There are even rumors of cannibalism.
A massacre in a Roman Catholic mission compound in the heart of the Ivory Coast’s cocoa-producing region could come to be seen as a crucial moment in the West African state’s escalating civil war.
Reports are mounting of atrocities by both sides in the conflict − those loyal to head of state Laurent Gbagbo, besieged in his presidential residence in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, and those who follow northern leader and president-elect Allasane Ouattara.
Events at the Italian Salesian Roman Catholic mission in Duekoue increasingly echo a notorious church massacre during the Rwandan genocide in 1994.
Early reports suggested that more than 800 people, largely from the Gbagbo-supporting Gueré tribe, were killed in a single day at the sprawling Salesian Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus mission in Duekoue, 300 miles west of Abidjan towards the Liberian border. The attackers seem to have been largely soldiers descended from Burkina Faso immigrant Muslim families loyal to Ouattara.
Late yesterday the Roman Catholic charity Caritas said more than 1000 people were massacred in Duekoue. A Caritas spokesman said Caritas workers visited the town and reported seeing a neighbourhood filled with bodies of people who had been shot and hacked to death with machetes.
More than 5000 Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus sheltering in the Roman Catholic church at Nyarubuye were massacred by Hutu militiamen on April 12, 1994. Nyarube became the supreme symbol of the Rwandan genocide, in which some 800,000 people were murdered in just a hundred days.
The Duekoue massacre seemed to have stiffened the resistance, at least temporarily, of Gbagbo. His 10-year grip on power in Ivory Coast looked as though it was in its final hours on Friday after Outtara’s New Forces (NF) northern army encircled both his residence and the presidential palace, battling to unseat the man who has refused to recognise his defeat in last year’s election.
But yesterday forces loyal to Gbagbo – a southern Roman Catholic who has vowed not to step down in spite of being narrowly defeated by Outtara in a presidential election last November – put up stiff resistance to the New Forces and re-established control of the headquarters of the state TV station, RTI. It went off the air for 24 hours after it fell to Outtara’s soldiers, but by yesterday was again broadcasting pro-Gbagbo propaganda, calling on people to “resist the enemy”.
With control of RTI back in the hands of Gbagbo and updated reports being received intermittently from Duekoue, human rights organisations raised fears of widespread killings in a situation described in a United Nations document obtained by Reuters as “one of generalised chaos”.
Corinne Dufka, senior Africa researcher of Human Rights Watch, said: “We’re extremely concerned about the potential for mass atrocities.” She added: “Given Gbagbo’s prominent use of violent militia groups and the state-controlled media’s incitement to violence, we are asking UN peacekeepers to do everything in their power to protect non-combatants.”
However, the early evidence reported by Italian media from Duekoue suggests the Saint Teresa mission massacre was carried out by Outtara’s NF forces. “The incident is particularly shocking by its size and its brutality,” said Dominique Liengme, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Ivory Coast.
“Red Cross representatives themselves have seen a huge number of bodies [at the mission station],” said ICRC spokeswoman Dorothea Krimitsas in Geneva. “There is no doubt that something on a large scale took place in this city, on which the ICRC is continuing to gather information. Everything indicates that this was inter-ethnic violence.”
Duekoue was one of the many centres overwhelmed by the NF as its soldiers, wearing “magic” amulets, neckbands and masks, swept through the country last week in a well-organized assault, bringing more than 80% of Ivory Coast under fragile control.
For days the national army, under Gbagbo’s control, put up almost no resistance and its head, General Phillippe Mangou, fled to the home of the South African ambassador with his wife and five children. However, after several days of easy progress, the NF is now facing Gbagbo’s most reliable fighters, the roughly 2500-strong elite Republican Guard, clustered in Abidjan along with remaining regular army troops.
Tens of thousands of people have fled the fighting around Duekoue and Oxfam reports more than 120,000 people from the area have crossed the nearby border with Liberia in the last week-and-a-half.
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A massacre in a Roman Catholic mission compound in the heart of the Ivory Coast’s cocoa-producing region could come to be seen as a crucial moment in the West African state’s escalating civil war.
Reports are mounting of atrocities by both sides in the conflict − those loyal to head of state Laurent Gbagbo, besieged in his presidential residence in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, and those who follow northern leader and president-elect Allasane Ouattara.
Events at the Italian Salesian Roman Catholic mission in Duekoue increasingly echo a notorious church massacre during the Rwandan genocide in 1994.
Early reports suggested that more than 800 people, largely from the Gbagbo-supporting Gueré tribe, were killed in a single day at the sprawling Salesian Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus mission in Duekoue, 300 miles west of Abidjan towards the Liberian border. The attackers seem to have been largely soldiers descended from Burkina Faso immigrant Muslim families loyal to Ouattara.
Late yesterday the Roman Catholic charity Caritas said more than 1000 people were massacred in Duekoue. A Caritas spokesman said Caritas workers visited the town and reported seeing a neighbourhood filled with bodies of people who had been shot and hacked to death with machetes.
More than 5000 Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus sheltering in the Roman Catholic church at Nyarubuye were massacred by Hutu militiamen on April 12, 1994. Nyarube became the supreme symbol of the Rwandan genocide, in which some 800,000 people were murdered in just a hundred days.
The Duekoue massacre seemed to have stiffened the resistance, at least temporarily, of Gbagbo. His 10-year grip on power in Ivory Coast looked as though it was in its final hours on Friday after Outtara’s New Forces (NF) northern army encircled both his residence and the presidential palace, battling to unseat the man who has refused to recognise his defeat in last year’s election.
But yesterday forces loyal to Gbagbo – a southern Roman Catholic who has vowed not to step down in spite of being narrowly defeated by Outtara in a presidential election last November – put up stiff resistance to the New Forces and re-established control of the headquarters of the state TV station, RTI. It went off the air for 24 hours after it fell to Outtara’s soldiers, but by yesterday was again broadcasting pro-Gbagbo propaganda, calling on people to “resist the enemy”.
With control of RTI back in the hands of Gbagbo and updated reports being received intermittently from Duekoue, human rights organisations raised fears of widespread killings in a situation described in a United Nations document obtained by Reuters as “one of generalised chaos”.
Corinne Dufka, senior Africa researcher of Human Rights Watch, said: “We’re extremely concerned about the potential for mass atrocities.” She added: “Given Gbagbo’s prominent use of violent militia groups and the state-controlled media’s incitement to violence, we are asking UN peacekeepers to do everything in their power to protect non-combatants.”
However, the early evidence reported by Italian media from Duekoue suggests the Saint Teresa mission massacre was carried out by Outtara’s NF forces. “The incident is particularly shocking by its size and its brutality,” said Dominique Liengme, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Ivory Coast.
“Red Cross representatives themselves have seen a huge number of bodies [at the mission station],” said ICRC spokeswoman Dorothea Krimitsas in Geneva. “There is no doubt that something on a large scale took place in this city, on which the ICRC is continuing to gather information. Everything indicates that this was inter-ethnic violence.”
Duekoue was one of the many centres overwhelmed by the NF as its soldiers, wearing “magic” amulets, neckbands and masks, swept through the country last week in a well-organized assault, bringing more than 80% of Ivory Coast under fragile control.
For days the national army, under Gbagbo’s control, put up almost no resistance and its head, General Phillippe Mangou, fled to the home of the South African ambassador with his wife and five children. However, after several days of easy progress, the NF is now facing Gbagbo’s most reliable fighters, the roughly 2500-strong elite Republican Guard, clustered in Abidjan along with remaining regular army troops.
Tens of thousands of people have fled the fighting around Duekoue and Oxfam reports more than 120,000 people from the area have crossed the nearby border with Liberia in the last week-and-a-half.
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Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Muslims war against Ethiopian Christians
Beginning on March 2nd in an Islamic area of Ethiopia, Muslims went on a rampage beginning with an assault on the church in Asendabo.
ICC and others alerted the world and called on the Ethiopian government to intervene. Sadly, they could not or would not stop the Muslim attacks. After a week, when the smoke cleared, the damage was evident. The Muslims had burned down the homes of 30 Christian leaders, they had killed one Christian, wounded several others, and burned down 69 churches, a Bible school, and a Christian orphanage.
Here is an account from just one of the attacks.
On March 8, armed Muslims entered the home of an elderly Christian leader who had founded a church in a nearby Muslim village. When the militants began to assault the church leader, his grandson rushed to intervene, screaming at
the men to leave his grandfather.
The Islamists stopped assaulting the grandfather and turned their attention to the young man – swinging at his head and arms with their machetes. He sustained three wounds to his head and one on his hand before the men proceeded to
rob the home and leave the man for dead.
The young man’s family was forced to make a three hour journey on foot to bring him to a hospital in a nearby city, where he is still receiving treatment.
This family’s story is only one of the many Christian families whose homes were robbed or burned to the ground. The violence erupted after a group of Muslims falsely accused Christians in the area of desecrating the Quran. One Christian leader told ICC that a radical Muslim group that fights to establish an Islamic state in Ethiopia is responsible for the attack.
While local police and government did nothing to stop the attacks – allowing for days of unmet violence – Ethiopia’s federal government eventually stepped in to attempt to put a stop the violence and removed the city’s local Muslim administrator for his failure to protect the Christians. Some reports indicate that 130 Muslims believed to be involved in the violence have been arrested so far.
The Islamists are using force in order to ascertain their presence in the country, They believe that they should not be ruled by the government which is dominated by people from a Christian background. The radical Muslims are saying they can only live in a country where sharia law is implemented, and that's why they are organizing this kind of violence in order to destabilize the country.
ICC and others alerted the world and called on the Ethiopian government to intervene. Sadly, they could not or would not stop the Muslim attacks. After a week, when the smoke cleared, the damage was evident. The Muslims had burned down the homes of 30 Christian leaders, they had killed one Christian, wounded several others, and burned down 69 churches, a Bible school, and a Christian orphanage.
Here is an account from just one of the attacks.
On March 8, armed Muslims entered the home of an elderly Christian leader who had founded a church in a nearby Muslim village. When the militants began to assault the church leader, his grandson rushed to intervene, screaming at
the men to leave his grandfather.
The Islamists stopped assaulting the grandfather and turned their attention to the young man – swinging at his head and arms with their machetes. He sustained three wounds to his head and one on his hand before the men proceeded to
rob the home and leave the man for dead.
The young man’s family was forced to make a three hour journey on foot to bring him to a hospital in a nearby city, where he is still receiving treatment.
This family’s story is only one of the many Christian families whose homes were robbed or burned to the ground. The violence erupted after a group of Muslims falsely accused Christians in the area of desecrating the Quran. One Christian leader told ICC that a radical Muslim group that fights to establish an Islamic state in Ethiopia is responsible for the attack.
While local police and government did nothing to stop the attacks – allowing for days of unmet violence – Ethiopia’s federal government eventually stepped in to attempt to put a stop the violence and removed the city’s local Muslim administrator for his failure to protect the Christians. Some reports indicate that 130 Muslims believed to be involved in the violence have been arrested so far.
The Islamists are using force in order to ascertain their presence in the country, They believe that they should not be ruled by the government which is dominated by people from a Christian background. The radical Muslims are saying they can only live in a country where sharia law is implemented, and that's why they are organizing this kind of violence in order to destabilize the country.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Jihad on Ethiopia
CHRISTIANPOST
At least one Christian was killed and others injured when thousands of Islamic extremists set fire to 59 churches and at least 28 homes in western Ethiopia in the past five days, Christian leaders said.
More than 4,000 Christians in and around Asendabo, Jimma Zone have been displaced as a result of attacks that began on Wednesday (March 2) after Muslims accused a Christian of desecrating the Quran by tearing up a copy, sources said.
“The atrocity is still going on, and more people are suffering,” said a source in Addis Ababa who is in close contact with area church leaders.
The Christian killed, believed to have been a member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, has not yet been identified.
“One Orthodox believer, whose daughter is a member of Mekane Yesus Church, has been killed,” an Ethiopian church leader told Compass. “Ministers were injured, and many more believers have been displaced.”
A pastor based in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa noted that evangelical church leaders have reported the attacks to authorities and asked officials for help, but no action had been taken at press time.
“The church requested more police protection,” he said. “The authorities sent security forces, but they were overwhelmed by the attackers.”
After the destruction began at Asendabo, it spread to Chiltie, Gilgel Gibe, Gibe, Nada, Dimtu, Uragay, Busa and Koticha, as Muslim mobs in the thousands rampaged throughout the area, sources said.
“Police at the site are not taking any action – they just watch what is happening,” said another source. “It is difficult to estimate the attack in terms of deaths, since we have no access to any location.”
Those displaced are in shelters in Ako, Jimma, Dimtu and Derbo, he said.
“We are very concerned that the attack that began on March 2 in Asendabo, which is the rural part of Jimma, is now heading to Jimma town,” he said.
The extremists also destroyed an Ethiopian Kale Hiwot Church (EKHC) Bible school building and two church office buildings, the source said. Of the churches burned, he said, 38 belonged to the EKHC; 12 were Mekane Yesus buildings; six were Seventh-day Adventist structures; two were Muluwongel church buildings, and another belonged to a “Jesus Only” congregation.
“Women and children are the most affected in this sudden attack,” he said. “It is needless to mention the believers’ houses and properties burned down. The overall estimated cost, may be worth over 60 million birr [US$3.55 million].”
Anti-Christian attacks in western Ethiopia in 2006 killed at least 24 people.
“Attacks on the church have been a common occurrence in predominantly Muslim areas of Ethiopia like Jimma and Jijiga,” the source said, adding that Christians are often subject to harassment and intimidation.
Asendabo, in Oromia Region, is about 300 kilometers (186 miles) from Addis Ababa.
At least one Christian was killed and others injured when thousands of Islamic extremists set fire to 59 churches and at least 28 homes in western Ethiopia in the past five days, Christian leaders said.
More than 4,000 Christians in and around Asendabo, Jimma Zone have been displaced as a result of attacks that began on Wednesday (March 2) after Muslims accused a Christian of desecrating the Quran by tearing up a copy, sources said.
“The atrocity is still going on, and more people are suffering,” said a source in Addis Ababa who is in close contact with area church leaders.
The Christian killed, believed to have been a member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, has not yet been identified.
“One Orthodox believer, whose daughter is a member of Mekane Yesus Church, has been killed,” an Ethiopian church leader told Compass. “Ministers were injured, and many more believers have been displaced.”
A pastor based in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa noted that evangelical church leaders have reported the attacks to authorities and asked officials for help, but no action had been taken at press time.
“The church requested more police protection,” he said. “The authorities sent security forces, but they were overwhelmed by the attackers.”
After the destruction began at Asendabo, it spread to Chiltie, Gilgel Gibe, Gibe, Nada, Dimtu, Uragay, Busa and Koticha, as Muslim mobs in the thousands rampaged throughout the area, sources said.
“Police at the site are not taking any action – they just watch what is happening,” said another source. “It is difficult to estimate the attack in terms of deaths, since we have no access to any location.”
Those displaced are in shelters in Ako, Jimma, Dimtu and Derbo, he said.
“We are very concerned that the attack that began on March 2 in Asendabo, which is the rural part of Jimma, is now heading to Jimma town,” he said.
The extremists also destroyed an Ethiopian Kale Hiwot Church (EKHC) Bible school building and two church office buildings, the source said. Of the churches burned, he said, 38 belonged to the EKHC; 12 were Mekane Yesus buildings; six were Seventh-day Adventist structures; two were Muluwongel church buildings, and another belonged to a “Jesus Only” congregation.
“Women and children are the most affected in this sudden attack,” he said. “It is needless to mention the believers’ houses and properties burned down. The overall estimated cost, may be worth over 60 million birr [US$3.55 million].”
Anti-Christian attacks in western Ethiopia in 2006 killed at least 24 people.
“Attacks on the church have been a common occurrence in predominantly Muslim areas of Ethiopia like Jimma and Jijiga,” the source said, adding that Christians are often subject to harassment and intimidation.
Asendabo, in Oromia Region, is about 300 kilometers (186 miles) from Addis Ababa.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Ethiopian Muslims warn Christians to convert, leave city or face death
ICC
International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that Christians in the Ethiopian city of Besheno are being harassed and physically abused after Muslims posted notices on the doors of Christian homes warning them to convert, leave the city or face death.
Three Christian leaders were forced to flee the city and two Christians have been forced to convert to Islam. In the Muslim majority city, the entire evangelical Christian community consists of about 30 believers.
Evangelist Kassa Awano remains in critical condition after Muslims attacked him on November 29, 2010. A few days after the attack, nearly 100 Muslims surrounded a vehicle carrying Christian leaders on their way to negotiate for peace with Muslim leaders. Two men, Tesema Hirego and Niggusie Denano, were seriously wounded, and the other leaders suffered minor injuries. On January 2, Muslims assaulted Temesgen Peteros with a knife after he testified about the attacks on these Christians in court.
Christians in Besheno have been targeted by Muslims for many years. On May 21, 2004, Muslims murdered the 7 year-old daughter of Evangelist Tesfaye Hobe. Muslims continuously attack Christians for listening to Christian songs and watching Christian videos.
"We ask for our constitutional right [to freedom of religion] to be respected. We want this inhumane act to stop. We are unable to live in our own city due to the inhumane acts," one of the Christian leaders who fled the city told ICC.
The local Muslim officials of the city refuse to protect the Christians. The officials ignore their appeals for justice, declining repeated requests for the building of a place of worship and a cemetery. On January 19, a Christian mother was forced to bury her deceased daughter in a town more than 20 miles from Besheno, due to the absence of a cemetery for Christians.
Besheno is a city located in the province of Alaba in Southern Ethiopia. According to the 2007 national census, 93.84% of the population of the province is Muslim. Christians make up 5.82 % of the population.
"We are alarmed by the posting of threats on Christian homes and the attacks against Christians in Besheno. We urge Ethiopian officials to bring the perpetrators of the attacks to justice, protect the Christians from further attacks and grant them permits to build a place of worship as well as a cemetery," said Jonathan Racho, ICC's Regional Manager for Africa.
International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that Christians in the Ethiopian city of Besheno are being harassed and physically abused after Muslims posted notices on the doors of Christian homes warning them to convert, leave the city or face death.
Three Christian leaders were forced to flee the city and two Christians have been forced to convert to Islam. In the Muslim majority city, the entire evangelical Christian community consists of about 30 believers.
Evangelist Kassa Awano remains in critical condition after Muslims attacked him on November 29, 2010. A few days after the attack, nearly 100 Muslims surrounded a vehicle carrying Christian leaders on their way to negotiate for peace with Muslim leaders. Two men, Tesema Hirego and Niggusie Denano, were seriously wounded, and the other leaders suffered minor injuries. On January 2, Muslims assaulted Temesgen Peteros with a knife after he testified about the attacks on these Christians in court.
Christians in Besheno have been targeted by Muslims for many years. On May 21, 2004, Muslims murdered the 7 year-old daughter of Evangelist Tesfaye Hobe. Muslims continuously attack Christians for listening to Christian songs and watching Christian videos.
"We ask for our constitutional right [to freedom of religion] to be respected. We want this inhumane act to stop. We are unable to live in our own city due to the inhumane acts," one of the Christian leaders who fled the city told ICC.
The local Muslim officials of the city refuse to protect the Christians. The officials ignore their appeals for justice, declining repeated requests for the building of a place of worship and a cemetery. On January 19, a Christian mother was forced to bury her deceased daughter in a town more than 20 miles from Besheno, due to the absence of a cemetery for Christians.
Besheno is a city located in the province of Alaba in Southern Ethiopia. According to the 2007 national census, 93.84% of the population of the province is Muslim. Christians make up 5.82 % of the population.
"We are alarmed by the posting of threats on Christian homes and the attacks against Christians in Besheno. We urge Ethiopian officials to bring the perpetrators of the attacks to justice, protect the Christians from further attacks and grant them permits to build a place of worship as well as a cemetery," said Jonathan Racho, ICC's Regional Manager for Africa.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Alleged Qur'an desecration lands Ethiopian Christian three years in prison
ICC
International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on November 19, a court in Moyale, Ethiopia sentenced a Christian man to three years in prison after his Muslim friends accused him of writing "Jesus is Lord' on the Qur'an.
Woldegeorgis, a member of full gospel church, was arrested in early July after Muslims severely beat him for his alleged crime.
During the trial, the public prosecutor failed to produce the copy of the Qur'an on which Woldegeorgis allegedly wrote the statement. The court ruled that since the defendant embroidered and hung similar statements on the walls of his home, they believed he could also write it on the Qur'an.
The accusers of Woldegeorgis were his own friends who converted from Christianity to Islam. He refused to convert to Islam despite their continued pressure.
It took Ethiopian officials more than three months to charge Woldegeorgis with the alleged crime. The Ethiopian constitution states that suspects should be brought before justice within 48 hours of their arrest. Lieutenant Ibrahim Abdi, one of the leaders of the police station where Woldegeorgis was kept, told ICC that Woldegeorgis was guilty of inciting religious conflict between Muslims and Christians. When ICC told him that it is up to court to decide his guilt, the Lieutenant hung up the phone. ICC also contacted the Ethiopian embassy in Washington DC for explanation, but received none.
A church leader, who wanted to remain anonymous for security reasons, told ICC, "In my ministry of 20 years, I have not seen such blatant miscarriage of justice. This is a clear case of Islamic discrimination of Christian minorities in the city. We live in an Islamic stronghold. Please pray for us."
ICC's Regional Manager for Africa, Jonathan Racho, said, "The decision by the Ethiopian court to imprison Woldegeorgis for three years without any evidence of wrong doing is both outrageous and illegal. We urge Ethiopian officials to show their commitment to the rule of law by releasing Woldegeorgis and bringing the individuals who assaulted him to justice."
International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on November 19, a court in Moyale, Ethiopia sentenced a Christian man to three years in prison after his Muslim friends accused him of writing "Jesus is Lord' on the Qur'an.
Woldegeorgis, a member of full gospel church, was arrested in early July after Muslims severely beat him for his alleged crime.
During the trial, the public prosecutor failed to produce the copy of the Qur'an on which Woldegeorgis allegedly wrote the statement. The court ruled that since the defendant embroidered and hung similar statements on the walls of his home, they believed he could also write it on the Qur'an.
The accusers of Woldegeorgis were his own friends who converted from Christianity to Islam. He refused to convert to Islam despite their continued pressure.
It took Ethiopian officials more than three months to charge Woldegeorgis with the alleged crime. The Ethiopian constitution states that suspects should be brought before justice within 48 hours of their arrest. Lieutenant Ibrahim Abdi, one of the leaders of the police station where Woldegeorgis was kept, told ICC that Woldegeorgis was guilty of inciting religious conflict between Muslims and Christians. When ICC told him that it is up to court to decide his guilt, the Lieutenant hung up the phone. ICC also contacted the Ethiopian embassy in Washington DC for explanation, but received none.
A church leader, who wanted to remain anonymous for security reasons, told ICC, "In my ministry of 20 years, I have not seen such blatant miscarriage of justice. This is a clear case of Islamic discrimination of Christian minorities in the city. We live in an Islamic stronghold. Please pray for us."
ICC's Regional Manager for Africa, Jonathan Racho, said, "The decision by the Ethiopian court to imprison Woldegeorgis for three years without any evidence of wrong doing is both outrageous and illegal. We urge Ethiopian officials to show their commitment to the rule of law by releasing Woldegeorgis and bringing the individuals who assaulted him to justice."
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Sharia lessons for pupils aged six: BBC uncovers 'weekend schools' that teach pupils how to hack off thieves' hands
Pupils asked to list the 'reprehensible' qualities of Jews
Around 5,000 children attend a network of 40 schools
Diagrams show children how to hack off hands and feet
Investigation: A BBC Panorama programme has found that around 40 weekend schools are teaching Sharia law to British children as young as six.
Children in Britain are being taught brutal Sharia law punishments, including how to hack off a criminal’s hand or foot.
So-called ‘weekend schools’ for Muslim pupils as young as six also teach that the penalty for gay sex is execution and that ‘Zionists’ are plotting to take over the world for the Jews.
One set textbook challenges youngsters to list the ‘reprehensible’ qualities of Jews.
Another for six-year-olds asks them to answer what happens to someone who dies who is not a believer in Islam. The answer being looked for is ‘hellfire’.
A BBC Panorama investigation, to be screened tonight, identified a network of more than 40 weekend schools teaching around 5,000 children, from age six to 18.
The schools – which offer the hardline Saudi National Curriculum – are run under the umbrella of ‘Saudi Students Clubs and Schools in the UK and Ireland’.
They are not state-funded, and do not use Government buildings. They are able to exploit a loophole which means weekend schools are not inspected by Ofsted.
Last night, experts at the Policy Exchange think-tank warned that similar extremists could seek to exploit the Government’s policy of giving greater freedoms from state control to free schools and academies
Clear message: Education Secretary Michael Gove has said he would not tolerate anti-Semitism and homophobia in English schools.
They call for the establishment of a due diligence unit to check whether those applying to open the schools have an extremist background.
Current checks are largely limited to fraud, criminal convictions and funding.
Education Secretary Michael Gove, who is believed to be supportive of the idea, said he would not tolerate anti-Semitism and homophobia in English schools.
The Panorama investigation identified a book for 15-year-olds being used in the classes which teaches about Sharia law and its punishments.
It says: ‘For thieves their hands will be cut off for a first offence, and their foot for a subsequent offence.’
There are diagrams showing children where cuts must be made. One passage says: ‘The specified punishment of the thief is cutting off his right hand at the wrist. Then it is cauterised to prevent him from bleeding to death.’
For acts of ‘sodomy’, children are told that the penalty is death and it states a difference of opinion whether this should be done by stoning, or burning with fire, or throwing over a cliff.
Panorama alleges that a building used for one of the schools, in Ealing, West London, is owned by the Saudi government.
Mr Gove told the programme: ‘I have no desire or wish to intervene in the decisions that the Saudi government makes in its own education system.
‘But I’m clear that we cannot have anti-Semitic material of any kind being used in English schools. Ofsted are doing some work in this area.
‘They’ll be reporting to me shortly about how we can ensure that part-time provision is better registered and better inspected in the future.’
The text books for 15-year-olds revive the so-called ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’, which teach that Zionists want to establish world domination for Jews.
The Saudi text books instruct pupils: ‘The Jews have tried to deny them (the Protocols) but there are many proofs of their veracity and their origin among the elders of Zion.’
The text books say the ‘main goal’ of the ‘Zionist movement’ is ‘for the Jews to have control over the world and its resources’ which, the book allege, Zionists seek to achieve partly by ‘inciting rancour and rivalry among the great powers so that they fight one another.’
Mr Gove said anyone who cites the Protocols of Zion is ‘indulging in one of the oldest and foulest anti Semitic smears that, that we know of’.
In a written response to the findings, the Saudi ambassador said the schools had nothing to do with the Saudi embassy.
It stated: ‘Any tutoring activities that may have taken place among any other group of Muslims in the United Kingdom are absolutely individual to that group and not affiliated to or endorsed by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia.’
Referring to the lesson that tasks children to list the ‘reprehensible qualities of the Jews’, in a letter to the BBC, the Saudi ambassador said it was ‘dangerously deceptive and misleading to address such texts and discuss them out of their overall historical, cultural and linguistic contexts’.
Panorama separately claimed some Muslim private schools have expressed extreme sentiments on their school websites.
These include: ‘We need to defend our children from the forces of evil’, and ‘our children are exposed to a culture that is in opposition to almost everything Islam stands for’.
Policy Exchange says Britain’s faith and other schools are increasingly vulnerable to extremist influences.
It claims in a report that the Department for Education, Ofsted, education authorities and schools are ‘not equipped’ to meet such challenges.
Current checks for extremism are described as ‘piecemeal’.
The report adds: ‘The Government’s policy of opening up the education system to new academies and free schools programmes could be exploited unless urgent measures are taken to counter extremist influence.’
WATCH THE VIDEO
Around 5,000 children attend a network of 40 schools
Diagrams show children how to hack off hands and feet
Investigation: A BBC Panorama programme has found that around 40 weekend schools are teaching Sharia law to British children as young as six.
Children in Britain are being taught brutal Sharia law punishments, including how to hack off a criminal’s hand or foot.
So-called ‘weekend schools’ for Muslim pupils as young as six also teach that the penalty for gay sex is execution and that ‘Zionists’ are plotting to take over the world for the Jews.
One set textbook challenges youngsters to list the ‘reprehensible’ qualities of Jews.
Another for six-year-olds asks them to answer what happens to someone who dies who is not a believer in Islam. The answer being looked for is ‘hellfire’.
A BBC Panorama investigation, to be screened tonight, identified a network of more than 40 weekend schools teaching around 5,000 children, from age six to 18.
The schools – which offer the hardline Saudi National Curriculum – are run under the umbrella of ‘Saudi Students Clubs and Schools in the UK and Ireland’.
They are not state-funded, and do not use Government buildings. They are able to exploit a loophole which means weekend schools are not inspected by Ofsted.
Last night, experts at the Policy Exchange think-tank warned that similar extremists could seek to exploit the Government’s policy of giving greater freedoms from state control to free schools and academies
Clear message: Education Secretary Michael Gove has said he would not tolerate anti-Semitism and homophobia in English schools.
They call for the establishment of a due diligence unit to check whether those applying to open the schools have an extremist background.
Current checks are largely limited to fraud, criminal convictions and funding.
Education Secretary Michael Gove, who is believed to be supportive of the idea, said he would not tolerate anti-Semitism and homophobia in English schools.
The Panorama investigation identified a book for 15-year-olds being used in the classes which teaches about Sharia law and its punishments.
It says: ‘For thieves their hands will be cut off for a first offence, and their foot for a subsequent offence.’
There are diagrams showing children where cuts must be made. One passage says: ‘The specified punishment of the thief is cutting off his right hand at the wrist. Then it is cauterised to prevent him from bleeding to death.’
For acts of ‘sodomy’, children are told that the penalty is death and it states a difference of opinion whether this should be done by stoning, or burning with fire, or throwing over a cliff.
Panorama alleges that a building used for one of the schools, in Ealing, West London, is owned by the Saudi government.
Mr Gove told the programme: ‘I have no desire or wish to intervene in the decisions that the Saudi government makes in its own education system.
‘But I’m clear that we cannot have anti-Semitic material of any kind being used in English schools. Ofsted are doing some work in this area.
‘They’ll be reporting to me shortly about how we can ensure that part-time provision is better registered and better inspected in the future.’
The text books for 15-year-olds revive the so-called ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’, which teach that Zionists want to establish world domination for Jews.
The Saudi text books instruct pupils: ‘The Jews have tried to deny them (the Protocols) but there are many proofs of their veracity and their origin among the elders of Zion.’
The text books say the ‘main goal’ of the ‘Zionist movement’ is ‘for the Jews to have control over the world and its resources’ which, the book allege, Zionists seek to achieve partly by ‘inciting rancour and rivalry among the great powers so that they fight one another.’
Mr Gove said anyone who cites the Protocols of Zion is ‘indulging in one of the oldest and foulest anti Semitic smears that, that we know of’.
In a written response to the findings, the Saudi ambassador said the schools had nothing to do with the Saudi embassy.
It stated: ‘Any tutoring activities that may have taken place among any other group of Muslims in the United Kingdom are absolutely individual to that group and not affiliated to or endorsed by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia.’
Referring to the lesson that tasks children to list the ‘reprehensible qualities of the Jews’, in a letter to the BBC, the Saudi ambassador said it was ‘dangerously deceptive and misleading to address such texts and discuss them out of their overall historical, cultural and linguistic contexts’.
Panorama separately claimed some Muslim private schools have expressed extreme sentiments on their school websites.
These include: ‘We need to defend our children from the forces of evil’, and ‘our children are exposed to a culture that is in opposition to almost everything Islam stands for’.
Policy Exchange says Britain’s faith and other schools are increasingly vulnerable to extremist influences.
It claims in a report that the Department for Education, Ofsted, education authorities and schools are ‘not equipped’ to meet such challenges.
Current checks for extremism are described as ‘piecemeal’.
The report adds: ‘The Government’s policy of opening up the education system to new academies and free schools programmes could be exploited unless urgent measures are taken to counter extremist influence.’
WATCH THE VIDEO
Could you trust Muslims?
After reading like the above school story, or watching videos like this, one comes to the conclusion that Muslims could never be trusted.
Apparently, Quran itself instructs its followers to lie and deceive in the name of promoting Islam. Sure, Muslims will tell you that Islam denounces lies but it is the words of their Prophet himself that specifically allows a member of his cohort to lie in order to slay one of his enemies. and this is of course just one example of the Quran promoting deceit.
One might honestly ask how on earth could a particular religion itself practically teach people to lie if their purpose is to promote the cause of Islam.
This actually explains quite a lot.
It explains how Muslims can promote themselves as peaceful or whatever but when the concentration of Muslims actually becomes considerate in any given country, violence is certain to occur. They are lying. They are either presenting a facade of a peaceful citizen or they are not aware of what Islam really is about. Unfortunately, given the specific instructions in their holy book, it can't be accepted that only the second type exists.
In a rational and healthy world you are supposed to receive from a religion correct values that will make you a member of society. When a religion itself instructs you to be a liar and you fail to denounce this religion, then we are left with no other choice but to label you as a liar and take the appropriate social actions people should take against any liar.
Sure, a Mulsim might say that he does not follow that part of the Quran’s teachings but how do we then know that he is not lying once more in order to appease us until he has enough power over us so as not to care if we consider him a deceiver anymore?
When you own beliefs instruct you to become a liar, then the only way to regain our trust if to denounce these beliefs. Anything less can easily be faked.
MORE
Apparently, Quran itself instructs its followers to lie and deceive in the name of promoting Islam. Sure, Muslims will tell you that Islam denounces lies but it is the words of their Prophet himself that specifically allows a member of his cohort to lie in order to slay one of his enemies. and this is of course just one example of the Quran promoting deceit.
One might honestly ask how on earth could a particular religion itself practically teach people to lie if their purpose is to promote the cause of Islam.
This actually explains quite a lot.
It explains how Muslims can promote themselves as peaceful or whatever but when the concentration of Muslims actually becomes considerate in any given country, violence is certain to occur. They are lying. They are either presenting a facade of a peaceful citizen or they are not aware of what Islam really is about. Unfortunately, given the specific instructions in their holy book, it can't be accepted that only the second type exists.
In a rational and healthy world you are supposed to receive from a religion correct values that will make you a member of society. When a religion itself instructs you to be a liar and you fail to denounce this religion, then we are left with no other choice but to label you as a liar and take the appropriate social actions people should take against any liar.
Sure, a Mulsim might say that he does not follow that part of the Quran’s teachings but how do we then know that he is not lying once more in order to appease us until he has enough power over us so as not to care if we consider him a deceiver anymore?
When you own beliefs instruct you to become a liar, then the only way to regain our trust if to denounce these beliefs. Anything less can easily be faked.
MORE
Muslim principal persecutes Christian teachers -- in America
FRONTPAGEMAGAZINE INTRVIEW
FP: Debbie Schlussel, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
You have recently launched a federal lawsuit against Imad Fadlallah, a Muslim individual who was, until July, the principal of Dearborn's Fordson High School.
Tell us what the lawsuit is about.
Schlussel: Two teachers at Dearborn's Fordson High School, Bryan Purcell and Georgene Stergalas, were repeatedly harassed by the then-Muslim principal Imad Fadlallah. (He has since been replaced by another Muslim principal.) As we've noted in the press release announcing the lawsuit, it was clear that the harassment was brought because these teachers are Christians and not Muslims and because the principal wanted to replace Christian teachers with teachers who are Muslims, Arabs, or Arab Muslims.
Fadlallah has used this tax-funded public school to push Islamic extremism, including giving students the day off and extra credit to campaign against Christian candidates on Election Day and temporarily canceling the prom because it is unIslamic. The school football team also illegally engages in organized Islamic prayer before football games. As we noted in the lawsuit, Fadlallah, who is a cousin of recently-deceased Hezbollah spiritual leader Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, made sure that the teachers were repeatedly scheduled for two classes at the same time at opposite ends of the school, and he recruited Muslim students to harass and report on the teachers, as well as deliberately assigning them the worst students--troublemakers--repeatedly encouraging them to harass these two teachers.
The teachers are both award-winning teachers, but as part of Mr. Fadlallah's harassment of them, he and other school personnel under his domain gave the teachers negative reviews and reports in their records. Mr. Purcell also has Type I Diabetes and, as part of the harassment against him, he was repeatedly told he could not take time out to give himself necessary shots and the school deliberately scheduled classes when he was medically required to eat and take shots.
FP: What is the larger significance of this lawsuit? For instance, if you win, it will be a victory not only for this suit in and of itself, and the same goes for if you are not successful. Tell us about the larger issues that are at stake.
Schlussel: As we've noted in the press release, this is a tax-funded public high school in which Islam is heavily pushed, in blatant violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution and in which religious discrimination against non-Muslims is egregious. Specifically as it relates to the lawsuit, I cannot comment beyond what we've said in the lawsuit and in the press release announcing it (and any further filings as the case goes forward). However, in general, as I've repeatedly noted on my own site, DebbieSchlussel.com, regarding Islamic takeovers of American institutions, there are always--in every fight regarding American society and the direction of tax-funded, public institutions (and private ones)–greater implications beyond just a single school or a region of the country because, as we see more and more cities, neighborhoods, and school districts take in increasingly greater numbers of Islamic immigrants and Muslim adherents born here--but who refuse to absorb into American culture and instead impose their views and religious requirements on others--America can either sit back and take it and lose our country as we know it. Or we can reclaim Western culture and require that tax-funded institutions adhere to the same Separation of Mosque and State as we require for Church and State and Synagogue and State. The long-term survival of the West and Western culture depends on insisting on the latter. I broke the story on my site of the University of Michigan-Dearborn's use of over $100,000 in public money to install Islamic footbaths, and I've broken other stories about the Constitutional violations imposed by Muslims in America, violations that we've accepted and done nothing about. We must fight back. I will be announcing future lawsuits regarding this, very soon.
FP: We support and praise you here at Frontpage for launching this lawsuit, Ms. Schlussel. What can our readers who want to help do?
Schlussel: Because this case is a contingency fee case, I am mostly pursuing it on behalf of my clients for free, until and unless we prevail. I have put many hours into it and continue to do so, all pretty much for free. It is very costly to pursue and we would appreciate all support and help, no matter how small, to help defray the costs of pursuing this litigation. All contributions can be made via Paypal to writedebbie@gmail.com [2]. I appreciate that FrontPageMag has given us this opportunity.
FP: Debbie Schlussel, thank you for joining Frontpage Interview and thank you for being such a courageous freedom fighter and for supporting those in our own society who are being persecuted by the forces of Islamic jihad -- with no one else to defend them.
FP: Debbie Schlussel, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
You have recently launched a federal lawsuit against Imad Fadlallah, a Muslim individual who was, until July, the principal of Dearborn's Fordson High School.
Tell us what the lawsuit is about.
Schlussel: Two teachers at Dearborn's Fordson High School, Bryan Purcell and Georgene Stergalas, were repeatedly harassed by the then-Muslim principal Imad Fadlallah. (He has since been replaced by another Muslim principal.) As we've noted in the press release announcing the lawsuit, it was clear that the harassment was brought because these teachers are Christians and not Muslims and because the principal wanted to replace Christian teachers with teachers who are Muslims, Arabs, or Arab Muslims.
Fadlallah has used this tax-funded public school to push Islamic extremism, including giving students the day off and extra credit to campaign against Christian candidates on Election Day and temporarily canceling the prom because it is unIslamic. The school football team also illegally engages in organized Islamic prayer before football games. As we noted in the lawsuit, Fadlallah, who is a cousin of recently-deceased Hezbollah spiritual leader Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, made sure that the teachers were repeatedly scheduled for two classes at the same time at opposite ends of the school, and he recruited Muslim students to harass and report on the teachers, as well as deliberately assigning them the worst students--troublemakers--repeatedly encouraging them to harass these two teachers.
The teachers are both award-winning teachers, but as part of Mr. Fadlallah's harassment of them, he and other school personnel under his domain gave the teachers negative reviews and reports in their records. Mr. Purcell also has Type I Diabetes and, as part of the harassment against him, he was repeatedly told he could not take time out to give himself necessary shots and the school deliberately scheduled classes when he was medically required to eat and take shots.
FP: What is the larger significance of this lawsuit? For instance, if you win, it will be a victory not only for this suit in and of itself, and the same goes for if you are not successful. Tell us about the larger issues that are at stake.
Schlussel: As we've noted in the press release, this is a tax-funded public high school in which Islam is heavily pushed, in blatant violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution and in which religious discrimination against non-Muslims is egregious. Specifically as it relates to the lawsuit, I cannot comment beyond what we've said in the lawsuit and in the press release announcing it (and any further filings as the case goes forward). However, in general, as I've repeatedly noted on my own site, DebbieSchlussel.com, regarding Islamic takeovers of American institutions, there are always--in every fight regarding American society and the direction of tax-funded, public institutions (and private ones)–greater implications beyond just a single school or a region of the country because, as we see more and more cities, neighborhoods, and school districts take in increasingly greater numbers of Islamic immigrants and Muslim adherents born here--but who refuse to absorb into American culture and instead impose their views and religious requirements on others--America can either sit back and take it and lose our country as we know it. Or we can reclaim Western culture and require that tax-funded institutions adhere to the same Separation of Mosque and State as we require for Church and State and Synagogue and State. The long-term survival of the West and Western culture depends on insisting on the latter. I broke the story on my site of the University of Michigan-Dearborn's use of over $100,000 in public money to install Islamic footbaths, and I've broken other stories about the Constitutional violations imposed by Muslims in America, violations that we've accepted and done nothing about. We must fight back. I will be announcing future lawsuits regarding this, very soon.
FP: We support and praise you here at Frontpage for launching this lawsuit, Ms. Schlussel. What can our readers who want to help do?
Schlussel: Because this case is a contingency fee case, I am mostly pursuing it on behalf of my clients for free, until and unless we prevail. I have put many hours into it and continue to do so, all pretty much for free. It is very costly to pursue and we would appreciate all support and help, no matter how small, to help defray the costs of pursuing this litigation. All contributions can be made via Paypal to writedebbie@gmail.com [2]. I appreciate that FrontPageMag has given us this opportunity.
FP: Debbie Schlussel, thank you for joining Frontpage Interview and thank you for being such a courageous freedom fighter and for supporting those in our own society who are being persecuted by the forces of Islamic jihad -- with no one else to defend them.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Kenya's Christian churches against Islamic Sharia
CNN
Voters in Kenya are due to decide Wednesday whether the new constitution goes through. It's designed to reduce political tensions in a country where the last national vote led to violence that left more than 1,000 people dead.
But the wholesale rewriting of the country's constitution has opened up a can of worms, according to the country's Christian churches.
Kenyans vote on new constitution
"We believe the constitution doesn't meet religious, moral, economic and justice concerns," said Oliver Kisaka, a top official with the National Council of Churches of Kenya.
"It privileges one religion over another. It allows abortion on demand. It has strong socialist tendencies," he said, also objecting to the provision for international law to take precedence over Kenyan law.
Kenya's Catholic bishops put it more bluntly, putting out a full-color leaflet with a red traffic light over the words "Stop!!! Think.... Choose life."
Why Kenya's referendum is important
The Anglicans issued a measured statement, but the message was equally clear: "We say NO to the proposed constitution as it is" unless it's amended to answer their concerns about "justice and equality for all religions, the limitation of fundamental rights based on religion, the protection of the right to life and the supremacy of our constitution in the light of International conventions and treaties."
The draft constitution defines life as beginning as conception and outlaws abortion, but includes exceptions for "emergency treatment, or the life or health of the mother is in danger, or if permitted by any other written law."
Opposition from the churches in Kenya is potentially a big deal.
"Kenya is an overwhelmingly Christian nation," said Greg Smith, of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in Washington, D.C.
Some 88 percent of Kenyans identify themselves as Christian, he said.
And they're not casual about religion either, he said.
"Among Kenyan Christians, 86 percent said religion is very important in their lives," compared to about six in 10 Americans who say that, he said.
"About eight in 10 say they attend religious services at least once a week. A similar number say they pray every day," he said.
The Pew Forum recently published a huge study of religion in Africa, the result of 25,000 interviews in 19 sub-Saharan countries.
"People that we interviewed in Africa tended to express high levels of religious commitment. We see the same high levels of religious commitment among Muslims," Smith said.
Kenya is about 7 percent Muslim, according to the Pew Forum.
Many Christians in Kenya object to the enshrining of Islamic courts as part of the country's legal system.
Known as kadhi courts, they would be an alternative to the civil courts "for matters such as law relating to personal status, marriage, divorce or inheritance in proceedings in which all the parties profess the Muslim religion and submit to the jurisdiction of the Kadhi's courts," according to the draft constitution.
Close to 40 countries use the kadhi court system, said Prof. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im of Emory University. Kadhi is Arabic for "judge," he explained.
If they become law in Kenya, Muslims will use them even if they would prefer to go to civil courts, he predicted.
"In Kenya according to the proposal they do have a choice, but in reality it's not going to happen because of social pressure and stigma," he said. "If kadhi courts are available, Muslims will feel compelled to go to them no matter what they want."
About 50 countries have some provision for religious courts to act as an alternative to civil courts for matters of personal status, the Pew Forum says.
Most polls suggest that Kenya's constitution will pass, but political analysts believe that either outcome is possible.
Many of those supporting a "yes" vote -- which includes most of Kenya's political leadership -- are looking not just for a win, but a win by a large margin, so they can have a strong mandate to move forward with reforms.
A win by just a small margin could provide the "no" camp with a moral victory, allowing it to stall implementation of the constitution.
Voters in Kenya are due to decide Wednesday whether the new constitution goes through. It's designed to reduce political tensions in a country where the last national vote led to violence that left more than 1,000 people dead.
But the wholesale rewriting of the country's constitution has opened up a can of worms, according to the country's Christian churches.
Kenyans vote on new constitution
"We believe the constitution doesn't meet religious, moral, economic and justice concerns," said Oliver Kisaka, a top official with the National Council of Churches of Kenya.
"It privileges one religion over another. It allows abortion on demand. It has strong socialist tendencies," he said, also objecting to the provision for international law to take precedence over Kenyan law.
Kenya's Catholic bishops put it more bluntly, putting out a full-color leaflet with a red traffic light over the words "Stop!!! Think.... Choose life."
Why Kenya's referendum is important
The Anglicans issued a measured statement, but the message was equally clear: "We say NO to the proposed constitution as it is" unless it's amended to answer their concerns about "justice and equality for all religions, the limitation of fundamental rights based on religion, the protection of the right to life and the supremacy of our constitution in the light of International conventions and treaties."
The draft constitution defines life as beginning as conception and outlaws abortion, but includes exceptions for "emergency treatment, or the life or health of the mother is in danger, or if permitted by any other written law."
Opposition from the churches in Kenya is potentially a big deal.
"Kenya is an overwhelmingly Christian nation," said Greg Smith, of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in Washington, D.C.
Some 88 percent of Kenyans identify themselves as Christian, he said.
And they're not casual about religion either, he said.
"Among Kenyan Christians, 86 percent said religion is very important in their lives," compared to about six in 10 Americans who say that, he said.
"About eight in 10 say they attend religious services at least once a week. A similar number say they pray every day," he said.
The Pew Forum recently published a huge study of religion in Africa, the result of 25,000 interviews in 19 sub-Saharan countries.
"People that we interviewed in Africa tended to express high levels of religious commitment. We see the same high levels of religious commitment among Muslims," Smith said.
Kenya is about 7 percent Muslim, according to the Pew Forum.
Many Christians in Kenya object to the enshrining of Islamic courts as part of the country's legal system.
Known as kadhi courts, they would be an alternative to the civil courts "for matters such as law relating to personal status, marriage, divorce or inheritance in proceedings in which all the parties profess the Muslim religion and submit to the jurisdiction of the Kadhi's courts," according to the draft constitution.
Close to 40 countries use the kadhi court system, said Prof. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im of Emory University. Kadhi is Arabic for "judge," he explained.
If they become law in Kenya, Muslims will use them even if they would prefer to go to civil courts, he predicted.
"In Kenya according to the proposal they do have a choice, but in reality it's not going to happen because of social pressure and stigma," he said. "If kadhi courts are available, Muslims will feel compelled to go to them no matter what they want."
About 50 countries have some provision for religious courts to act as an alternative to civil courts for matters of personal status, the Pew Forum says.
Most polls suggest that Kenya's constitution will pass, but political analysts believe that either outcome is possible.
Many of those supporting a "yes" vote -- which includes most of Kenya's political leadership -- are looking not just for a win, but a win by a large margin, so they can have a strong mandate to move forward with reforms.
A win by just a small margin could provide the "no" camp with a moral victory, allowing it to stall implementation of the constitution.
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