Archive for October 2nd, 2008
India: Anti-Christian Violence Continues
After India’s Catholic bishops asked government to subdue violent Hindu radicals, the violence continues:
Another Christian woman was killed and 300 more houses were burned down in anti-Christian violence in the India state of Orissa on Wednesday. Her death brings to 60 the number of Christians who have been killed by Hindu extremists since August 23, with 18,000 people injured and over 50,000 people having fled their homes.
State authorities have imposed a day and night curfew in the district of Kandhamal, SIR reports. However, violent attacks are spreading to other Indian states, even the traditionally harmonious regions of Karnataka and Kerala.
Father Carlo Torriani, a missionary for the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions to the lepers of Mumbai, told SIR that even the Christian community of Mumbai is worried.
Reports from a Mumbai suburb claim that the radical activists of Rashtrya Swayam Sevak Sangh met to plan attacks in the state of Maharastra, where Mumbai is located.
“There is the risk that they may try to do something even here, even if inter-religious dialogue works well here,” Father Torriani told SIR.
I just can’t stand these violent guys. What about discussing peacefully about faith?
Related posts:
UK Court Recognizes Threat to Christian Converts
A U.K. immigration court of appeals has for the first time recognized the life threatening circumstances of Muslim converts to Christianity by granting asylum to a Syrian evangelical Christian couple.
In an unprecedented victory, the European Center for Law and Justice (ECLJ) helped a young couple (whose identity is being withheld for security reasons) gain refugee status in the United Kingdom on Monday. The court recognized that the couple would face real physical threats, including death, if they return to Syria, the country of origin of the husband. The appeal was granted on both asylum and human rights grounds.
This is a significant and groundbreaking decision that clearly puts the focus on the fact that many converts to Christianity from Islam face real danger including the ultimate penalty of death, said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of both the ECLJ and its U.S.-based affiliate the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), in a statement.
UK Court Recognizes Threat to Christian Converts | EuropeNews
Good news indeed!!
Related posts:
- Muslims continue pushing Christians out of Bethlehem.
- Nuns of Charity assaulted in India by Hindu extremists.
- Somali Christians struggle in Kenya.
- Attacks on Christians in India exemplify Islamophobia, says Vatican official.
- More examples of Sharia Law in Britain.
- More violence in Christians.
- Pakistan: kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam and married.
- Persecution of Christians in Muslim countries: some examples.
- More violence against Copts in Egypt.
- Iran: whatever is non-Islamic must dissappear.
- “We Must Recover Our Christian Nerve Before Our Judeo-Christian Heritage is Lost”.
Sharia on USA: another side of the financial crisis
Tragically, in the process of leaping out of the scalding subprime frying pan, Wall Street is heading directly into a fire that promises, if anything, to be more devastating than the present disaster. Incredibly, it bears all the hallmarks of subprime with respect to a lack of transparency, a systematic failure to disclose and an utter absence of due diligence, good governance and accountability. The next “what” is called Shariah-Compliant Finance (SCF). (…) Like subprime, it is a black box, in which management and investors alike are told to trust in the experts. In this case, the experts are Shariah authorities who are accorded exclusive responsibility for determining whether investments are “pure” (halal) and therefore acceptable, or “impure” (haram) and not.
(…) [...] these authorities are, unsurprisingly, adherents to Shariah. A number of them explicitly embrace its call to jihad (including a former senior member of the Dow Jones Islamic Index, Sheik Taqi Usmani). This “holy war” is to be waged where possible through violent means, where necessary through “soft” means like Shariah-Compliant Finance. For this reason, such Islamists call SCF “financial jihad.
Islamic 5th Column: Sharia-Compliant Finance coming to America | the dissident frogman
Related posts:
Karzai calls for talks with the Talibans
Al Jazeera reports that Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, is going (again) to make the same mistake. This time he is seeking help from Saudi Arabia “to facilitate talks with the Taliban in order to end the conflict in the country“, while denying any talks had already taken place. He added he “was trying to encourage the group to lay down their arms“.
But that wish is going to be a little difficult. The situation in Afghanistan is not improving, as terrorism insurgency is growing. The US general in Afghanistan has called for more troops ASAP, but celebrates also the last operations against AQ and the Taliban carried out by Pakistan. He also said that a much more urgent priority than troops are “economic aid and political support“.
But Spanish Defence Minister asked just for the opposite: less troops and a change to a more political and humanitarian mission to “make the acceptance grow in between the Aghan population. Spanish Defence Minister, Carme Chacón, critisized yesterday US work in Afghanistan :
Chacón stated that “a better coordination between ISAF and Enduring Freedom is essential, so the political or strategic goals of one operation are not undermined by what’s going on in the battle camp“.
Meanwhile, more refugees from Pakistan are fleeing into Afghanistan. Supposedly, Pakistan is carrying an operation against the Talibans near Afghan-Pakistani frontier.
Related news:
- Suspected US-missile kills 6 in Pakistan. The missiles struck the home of a local Taliban commander before midnight Tuesday near Mir Ali, a town in the North Waziristan region.
- AQ criticizes Pakistani leaders in new video. “Monday’s message was posted on militant Web sites commonly used by al-Qaida. In the hour-long video, an unnamed narrator speaking Urdu calls on Pakistani Muslims to prepare for holy war and take up arms against corrupt governments“.
The autumn brings… more French riots
A French police officer was shot and wounded during clashes with youths that broke out after a teenager died while fleeing police, authorities said Tuesday. The officer appeared to have been shot in the leg with a hunting rifle, said the police prefecture in Romans-sur-Isere, a southeastern town located 60 miles from Lyon in the Rhone Valley on the edge of the Alps. The officer’s life was not in danger.
Dents from bullets and buckshot were also found in police vehicles nearby. Police used tear gas and rubber pellets to push back some 50 youths during clashes late Monday and early Tuesday.
Several cars were burned and about 15 shop windows were smashed. After nightfall Tuesday, some 300 riot police officers and gendarmes took up positions around the center of town to prevent a second night of clashes. Some teams of officers were brought in from neighboring regions. The violence broke out after a 16-year-old died by driving a stolen car into a wall while fleeing police. Four other minors in the car were lightly injured.
French policeman shot in clashes with youths – International Herald Tribune h/t EuropeNews.
Just consider what happened in the past.
Esther has more on the subject:
(…) According to a preliminary investigation, the five teenagers had stolen the car overnight and were driving at high speed through the center of Romans-sur-Isere when police began chasing them. The young driver took a sharp turn and lost control of the car, running into a wall.
the relatives came out furious from their closed-door meeting with the municipal team. In tears, a young woman told the dozens of worked up youth: “He wants that it will calm down. I say to you: burn everything.”
This statement was met by cheers and the youth dispersed in small groups, promising the security forces a night of fire. A handful of them started shouting: “Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar!” “It will burn,” said one of the leaders of the group, surrounded by a swarm of teenagers who listened respectfully. “They’re fed up with our small brothers dieing in our neighborhoods. You dominated our parents. We are the third generation and we won’t submit.”
Somalia: Islamists destroy derelict church
BBC reports that An Islamist group in Somalia has destroyed a derelict church in the southern port town of Kismayo, after prayers to mark the Eid al-Fitr festival at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The colonial-era church, which has not been used for many years, was occupied by several displaced families who were not given prior warning that it was to be demolished. The Islamists have also stated that they targeted the house on retaliation for the destruction of a mosque in Etiopia and that they will build a mosque instead.
This is not the first time islamists build mosques on ancient Christian places: in 2005, an Islamist group dug up graves from an Italian colonial cemetery in the capital, Mogadishu, and built a mosque on the site.
