Tag Archives: Topic: Islam

The Washington Post: Despite continuous attacks on Coptic Christians, a delegation of Egyptian Christian leaders said Wednesday (Feb. 8) they do not support the development of a Christian political party as a possible solution.

News from The Associated Press: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is calling on the country’s ruling generals to sack the current military-appointed government . ..

Religion Clause: France’s 1905 law on the separation of church and state bars creating municipal cemeteries limited to only one religion. This means that cities have been limited to setting aside Muslim-only sections in existing cemeteries.

News from The Associated Press: British lawmakers from across the political spectrum voiced anger Tuesday at a court decision to release an imprisoned extremist cleric, saying the man described as one of Europe’s leading al-Qaida figures could be free during the London Olympics.

English pravda.ru: For the first time in the history of Europe, Islamic organization can participate in the elections. Party For Muslim Netherlands wants to get into parliament in 2015. The Netherlands could become the first country on the continent where the Islamists will participate in the legislature. The far-right sentiment is increasing in the country as well.

Christian Freedom International: But despite the consistent defamation of Christianity by prominent Muslims — which has included calling Christians “infidels” and “criminals” and the Bible as “fake” and “Greek mythology” — complaints filed by Christians against Muslims for these offenses in accordance with the contempt of religion law have come to no avail.

Boston.com: An Orthodox Christian church famed for its valuable icons was set alight in southern Macedonia overnight, authorities said Tuesday, as religious tension between Christians and minority Muslims grew over a carnival in which men dressed as women in burqas and mocked the Quran.

OneNewsNow.com: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) teamed up with the liberal veterans group VoteVets.org and with anti-Christian crusader Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation to petition West Point to disinvite Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin (USA-Ret.) from the February 8 event.

News from The Associated Press: Police say suspected Islamic insurgents have killed five people in attacks on security targets in Nigeria’s restive northeast.

NYTimes.com: The insults were furious. “Infidel!” and “Apostate!” the religious protesters shouted at the two men who had come to the courthouse to show their support for a television director on trial on charges of blasphemy. Fists, then a head butt followed.

Christian Concern: Girls as young as nine are being forced to marry in mosques in Islington, according to the findings of a leading women’s rights group.

OneNewsNow.com: Thirty-five Christians have been jailed in Saudi Arabia for worshiping in their own homes according to a recent report. The news only surfaced this week that the Christians have been imprisoned for over a month.

Religion Clause: Yesterday’s Christian Science Monitor reports that as the fighting goes on in Syria, the conflict is moving from a popular uprising to a confrontation between Sunnis and Shiites . . .

OneNewsNow.com: A retired U.S. general who made comments denigrating Islam has been invited to speak to cadets at the U.S. Military Academy during a national prayer breakfast next month.

News from The Associated Press: Police say suspected members of a radical sect have attacked two more police stations, leaving two people dead in a north Nigerian city where 185 people were killed just over a week ago.

CBC News (includes video): A Montreal couple and their son were convicted Sunday of first-degree murder in the deaths of four family members in a case the judge called “despicable,” “heinous” and stemming from “a completely twisted concept of honour.”

The Daily Star: Fears of new violence hung over Muslims at Friday prayers in the Nigerian city of Kano after Islamists who killed at least 185 people there a week ago threatened to strike again.

The Christian Institute: The Government is set to stop men who are married to multiple women from claiming extra benefits payments. Last year it emerged that the number of polygamous relationships among British Muslims is increasing.

News from The Associated Press: The Dutch Cabinet moved a step closer Friday to banning the burqa, making good on an election promise that is largely symbolic but has broad public support.

Religion Clause: In Islamic Center of North Fulton, Inc. v. City of Alpharetta, Georgia, (ND GA, Jan. 25, 2012), a Georgia federal district court dismissed RLUIPA and federal constitutional challenges to Alpharetta’s refusal to give zoning approval to the Islamic Center’s replacement of its present worship structure with 2 buildings– a mosque and a smaller communing hall.

News from The Associated Press: Newly empowered Islamist leaders stood up for Arab democracy Friday, saying extremists need to be brought into the fold and chiding the West for objectifying women and income inequalities.

Washington Examiner: Iranian courts have sentenced two bloggers to death for “spreading corruption,” and government security forces have arrested four other journalists, in the lead-up to the nation’s March elections.

Baltimore Sun: Protesters are pressuring Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan to shun a prayer breakfast that features a former high-ranking Army officer who has made anti-Muslim remarks.

Voice of America: A series of bomb attacks by Nigeria’s radical Islamist sect Boko Haram is challenging President Goodluck Jonathan’s government. The pace of the bombings has picked up in recent weeks, with attacks on police stations in the northern city of Kano and a Christmas Day suicide bombing at a Catholic church near the capital, Abuja.

CBN.com: With Islamists poised to take over governments overthrown during the “Arab spring,” Christians and other minorities may soon be subject to Sharia (Islamic) law.

BBC News : UK author Sir Salman Rushdie says he is “sad for India” after threats of violence prevented him from addressing an Indian literary festival.

Telegraph: Ministers are to bring to an end an “absurd” benefits regime which has seen husbands with multiple wives able to claim extra welfare payments.

BBC News: Nigerian forces have arrested 158 suspected members of the Islamist Boko Haram organisation in dawn raids in the northern city of Kano.

Religion Clause: In France, the Green Party candidate for President, Eva Joly, has created a controversy by proposing that Jews and Muslims should be given the right to take off work or school on their major holidays.

Middle East Forum: Earlier I discussed how mosques, some of which breed radicalization and serve as terrorist bases, flourish in America, while churches are increasingly targeted and destroyed in the Muslim world, especially the Middle East, the cradle of Christianity. This pattern—religious appeasement of Muslim minorities in the West, religious hostility for Christian minorities under Islam—continues and manifests itself in other ways.

News from The Associated Press: An aide to Iraq’s most prominent Shiite cleric is urging politicians on both sides of the country’s sectarian divide to end a government crisis, as fears of civil war rise a month after the U.S. military withdrawal.

AP: “Three men have been convicted of a hate crime in Britain for distributing brochures calling for the execution of gay people.”

ChristianNewsToday.com: First hand report of a native missionary ministry leader supported by Christian aid.

The video is here.

Persecution Blog: Hundreds of Nigerian Christians fled from Yobe State after incessant Boko Haram (a militant Islamist sect demanding the rule of strict Muslim law in Nigeria) attacks took refuge in Jos, the Plateau State capital. Fleeing is a bit like jumping “out of the frying pan into the fire.”

Fox News (includes video): The largest Muslim civil liberties group in the United States on Wednesday condemned Newt Gingrich for saying he would only hire Muslims to his administration if they renounced the use of Islam’s Shariah law as a tool for U.S. government.

News from The Associated Press: Iraq needs new leaders to prevent the country from disintegrating, the leader of the main Sunni-backed bloc said Wednesday, reflecting the severity of a sectarian political battle in the Shiite-led government, accompanied by violence, just a month after the exit of U.S. forces.

Religion Clause: Religious-political battles in the Maldives are intensifying.

Christian Concern: Increasing numbers of muslims in Britain are making use of sharia courts to resolve family and financial disputes in line with Islamic principles, according to the BBC.

The Christian Institute: A Muslim campaigner has lent her backing to a “pioneering” Bill which aims to tackle the problems caused by Sharia councils operating in England and Wales.

News from The Associated Press: An extremist cleric described as one of Europe’s leading al-Qaida operatives should not be deported to face terrorism charges in Jordan because of the risk evidence obtained through torture would be used against him, Europe’s highest court ruled Tuesday.

EuropeNews: new resolution introduced at the United Nations Human Rights Council has free speech advocates concerned about a potential backlash against religious minority groups. Previously introduced as Resolution 62/154, “Combating defamation of religion,” the piece was originally written to criminalize the criticism of religion.

Austin Ruse at LifeSiteNews.com: On the negotiating floor, I approached a Muslim ambassador and said, “This session is going all night long and its going to be very tough going. And when it gets really hard, I want you to know that right over there,” and I pointed to a section of raised seats off to the side, “twenty Christians will be praying for you.” That night this man was a tiger in defense of unborn children.

The Persecution Times: On Tanzania’s island of Zanzibar, in one week-long stretch last month Muslim extremists destroyed two church buildings, Christian leaders said

Religion Clause: In Malaysia yesterday, an appeals court held that civil courts have jurisdiction to hear a case brought by a woman who is challenging the validity of her conversion to Islam as a child.

News from The Associated Press: Top parties in Egypt’s incoming parliament are picking an Islamist as speaker for the first time.

Religion Clause: The document, according to al-Azhar head Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb, “preserves freedoms of worship, opinion, scientific research and art and creative expression.” In a nod to conservative Islamists, the document also provides that the arts must not “contradict religious sentiments and established social mores.”

News from The Associated Press: An Australian man who received 75 lashes in Saudi Arabia after being convicted of blasphemy has returned home.

Washington Times: A panel of federal judges has ruled that states cannot protect their courts from jurists who base their decisions on international or Koranic law. America needs better judges.

BBC News (includes video): The head of Nigeria’s Christian Association says he is actively pursuing dialogue with his Muslim counterparts in an attempt to ease religious tensions.

News from The Associated Press: A man accused of plotting to attack Tampa, Fla.-area nightclubs and a sheriff’s office with bombs and guns also railed against Christians, Jews and Western living in videos he posted online.

Mail Online: A group of Muslim men handed a leaflet out to the public that called for homosexuals to be ‘punished’ and given the death sentence, a court has heard.

CSMonitor.com: Salman Rushdie’s plans to attend literary festival in India have prompted protests from members of the Muslim community.

NewsOK.com: A federal appeals court has upheld a judge’s order blocking an amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution that would ban state courts from considering international or Islamic law when deciding cases. | Awad v. Ziriax, No. 10-6273

News from The Associated Press: Nigeria’s army says suspected members of a radical Muslim sect have killed two Christians in separate attacks despite an increased security presence in the area

Politico: But one point is already clear: Political Islam is moving from being the dominant opposition voice in the largest Arab country to being a dominant voice of government.

The Washington Post: A prominent Christian Egyptian media mogul faces trial on a charge of insulting Islam, lawyers said Monday, based on his relaying a cartoon on his Twitter account.

Julian Mann at Christian Today: It would be better for Nigeria, and indeed the West, if Christianity wins against Islamic extremism.

Baptist Press: Acts of violence and intolerance against Christians in Indonesia nearly doubled in 2011, with an Islamist campaign to close down churches a key factor in the plight of the nation’s religious minority.

The Egyptian Gazette: The new Egyptian Parliament, which will be inaugurated on January 23, looks set to be dominated by Islamists. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafist Al-Nour Party, which seeks to impose strict Islamic Law, similar to Saudi Arabia, have captured a clear majority of votes in Egypt’s first elections since the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak. It’s a huge blow for the liberals and young activists who drove the uprising. This has divided people in the street; some are more afraid of the Salafists than the Muslim Brothers.

News from The Associated Press: Another New Year’s has passed since, and there are still no answers in Egypt’s most dramatic anti-Christian attack. The investigation was halted 11 months ago and never picked up again.

Martin Parsons at Conservative Home Blog: As the Christian church remembers the visit of the magi, now is also a good time to reflect on the suffering of Christians in the region where Christianity originally emerged. The Middle East is unfortunately full of tyrants prepared to imprison, torture and even massacre anyone they think just might threaten their power . . . [country by country list tracks Sharia spread]

The Tory Diary: Islamic persecution of Christians is a massive global issue. It has grown with instability across the Middle East. The Middle East Forum’s record of violence and intolerance in November alone includes . . .

Telegraph: Nigeria’s president has declared a state of emergency in areas of the country hit by a growing Islamist insurgency, amid escalating violence in Africa’s most populous nation.

Journal and Courier | jconline.com: County commissioners gave their approval Tuesday to a rezoning that will allow for construction of an Islamic community center in northwest Tippecanoe County, although the vote was not without controversy.

Stonegate Institute: New citizenship rules that entered into effect on January 1, 2012 will require all applicants to pass exams on French culture and history and also to prove that their French language skills are equivalent to those of a 15-year-old native speaker. Moreover, candidates seeking French citizenship will be required to pledge allegiance to “French values.”

Catholic Culture: Archbishop John Onaiyekan of Abuja–Nigeria’s capital–is urging the nation’s Christians to ignore an ultimatum, reportedly issued the Islamist terrorist organization Boko Haram, to leave the northern part of the nation within three days or face attack.

Catholic Culture: Shouting “Allahu akbar” [Allah is greater], residents of Assuit, a southern Egyptian city, burned Christians’ homes after images deemed insulting to Muhammad appeared on a local Christian teenager’s Facebook page.

Religion Clause: The Lehigh Valley Morning Call reported yesterday on the settlement of a federal lawsuit that had been filed against the Catholic Diocese of Allentown (PA) by a woman who worked as a bookkeeper at a Catholic Church in Easton (PA).

Religion Clause: The Times of India on Saturday reported on a case in which parents in Ahmedabad (in Gujarat state in India), unhappy with their daughter’s choice of husbands, are attempting to use Gujarat’s Freedom of Religion Act that aims at coerced conversions to undo or undercut the marriage.

Religion Clause: Over the last ten days, the press in India has been filled with commentary on the Indian government’s December 22 decision (CNN) to create a 4.5% sub-quota for economically and socially disadvantaged non-Hindu minorities– Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians– within the existing 27% Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota.

Religion Clause: Reuters yesterday reported on controversy that is being caused by the entry of the large U.S. investment banking firm, Goldman Sachs, into the Islamic finance market.

AP: Morocco’s ruling coalition formed a new government on Tuesday that gives top posts to an Islamist party but also keeps close allies of the king in powerful positions.

Jerusalem Post: Egyptian party’s deputy leader tells ‘al-Hayat’ that they won’t negotiate with Israel, will seek to cancel peace treaty.

CNSnews.com: As Christians celebrate their savior’s birth on Sunday, they are being urged to remember persecuted fellow believers unable to enjoy the day with their families, including death row prisoners Asia Bibi of Pakistan and Youcef Nadarkhani of Iran, both of whom will be spending their third Christmas behind bars.