Pakistani Christian Woman Asia Bibi Still Waiting For Verdict On Final Death Penalty Appeal

Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman who has been rotting away in jail on Death Row since 2010 for blasphemy, will soon find out if the Islamist fanatics of that country will get their wish. Unbelievably, death for blaspheming Prophet Mohammad is still part of Pakistan's penal code.

Back in 2009 Bibi was working in the fields picking berries when an argument ensued after her Muslim coworkers took offense when she allegedly drank water from the same container. Or handled the bowl. Or something. Stories differ, so who knows what the actual truth is. But after the quarrel, the Muslim women ran to the local cleric claiming Bibi had blasphemed. Whether she did or not is irrelevant, it's a barbaric practice that should be abolished but continues to this day. In fact, hardliners are calling for stricter enforcement of the law.

 Over the past 8 years there have been a series of appeals all of which have failed. This was the final one, and though the Supreme Court has actually made a decision, they are waiting to announce the verdict. This could be good news, but considering the hardliners are gaining numbers, I tend to think it's not. According to the DailyMail:

On Wednesday Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), a hardline religious political party -- which had a strong showing in nationwide elections earlier this year -- said in a press conference aired via YouTube that if she was freed the justices responsible would meet a "horrible" end.

That's not just an idle threat, people have been assassinated for trying to reform that part of Pakistani  law. And more often than not, angry mobs take the law into their own hands. Back in 2014 I wrote about a Pakistani Christian husband and wife who were beaten to death and then burned for allegedly desecrating a Quran. And a governor back in 2011 was killed for opposing the law and supporting Bibi.

There are some in Pakistan who believe that the blasphemy law needs to go the way of the dinosaurs, but few have the courage to lobby for change because they could wind up dead. That's what happened to Salmaan Taseer in 2011. The politician and businessman, who was governor of Punjab at the time, was murdered by Mumtaz Qadri, one of his bodyguards, because Taseer was very vocal about his opposition to the blasphemy law. Taseer was also asking for a pardon for Aasia Bibi. He was shot 27 times with a sub-machine gun. And who was considered the hero? Qadri. He even got a mosque named after him. In a middle-class neighbourhood, to boot.

She could ask the President for clemency, but there's no way she could remain in the country. She and her family would be sitting targets, but the hardliners are trying to prevent her from leaving.

Separately on Wednesday, a former spokesman for Islamabad's notorious Red Mosque moved to prevent Bibi from leaving the country by petitioning the capital's High Court to put her on the no-fly list.

Hard to believe that in the 21st century there are brutal, inhumane laws that still exist, supported by blood-lusting religious fanatics.

Read more at Christian Post, and News18.

Christian Villagers In Laos Told To Renounce Faith Or Face Expulsion

Muslim-majority countries aren't the only ones persecuting Christians.  According to various Christian Internet news sites, including Morningstar News, Christian converts in communist Laos are being given an ultimatum- renounce their Christian faith or face expulsion from their village.

NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – More than two dozen Christian converts in a village in southern Laos could be expelled for their faith if government officials fail to keep local authorities from violating their constitutional rights, according to an advocacy group.

The Christians from eight families in Natahall village, in Savannakhet Province’s Phin District, were told to recant their faith three months ago, according to a representative with Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF).

“The threats are very real … Officials are still intending to carry out the threats. The deadline for expulsion has passed,” said the HRWLRF source, who requested anonymity. “Christian residents of Natahall village are fighting hard to keep their homes as well as their constitutionally guaranteed right to believe in the Christian faith.”

Religious affairs officials from Phin District are holding discussions with the Natahall village chief, identified only as Amka, leaders of the local chapter of the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party and district police. The threat of expulsion, however, has not been withdrawn, the source said.

Local officials on Dec. 2 sent an eviction order to five Christian families, according to HRWLRF. On Dec. 8, 2013, the village chief publicly declared that the Christian families who had converted to Christianity would be held responsible for any deaths villagers might suffer as a result of spirits angered by violation of traditional beliefs and customs. Animism and ancestor worship are prevalent across Laos.

The rest here.

Egyptian Coptic Teacher Accused Of Insulting Islam Released On Bail

A Coptic Christian social studies elementary school teacher who was arrested for insulting Islam has been released on bail. 23-year-old Demyana Emad was accused by some of her students and their parents of evangelizing and insulting Mohammed and Islam, something she categorically denies.

Egypt’s top prosecutor ordered on Tuesday the release of a Coptic schoolteacher accused of contempt of Islam on a bail of EGP 20,000, pending investigations.

[snip]

The Upper Egypt Luxor prosecution had ordered her detention for four days pending investigation, and a court renewed her arrest for 15 more days.

This is not an isolated case, according to attorney Naguib Gabriel, of the Egyptian Federation of Human Rights:

“This counts as the 18th incident of arresting Christian teachers on charges of defaming the religion of Islam."

"Copts are fed up with being prosecuted on charges of evangelism and contempt of Islamic religion, especially since there is no article in the penal code that criminalises preaching."

It's okay for Muslims to proselytize, but a no-no for Christians.

Sources: Bikya News, All Africa

Soldiers Who Share Their Christian (or Jewish) Faith Could Be Court-Martialed

Another one for the WTF files.  The Pentagon will court martial Christians who proselytize?  And Jews. Really? What about Muslims? Are they allowed? This even includes Jewish and Christian chaplains in the military, which is basically what they are supposed to do. Minister to their flock.

The Pentagon has released a statement confirming that soldiers could be prosecuted for promoting their faith: "Religious proselytization is not permitted within the Department of Defense...Court martials and non-judicial punishments are decided on a case-by-case basis...”.

The statement, released to Fox News, follows a Breitbart News report on Obama administration Pentagon appointees meeting with anti-Christian extremist Mikey Weinstein to develop court-martial procedures to punish Christians in the military who express or share their faith.

(From our earlier report: Weinstein is the head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and says Christians--including chaplains--sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in the military are guilty of “treason,” and of committing an act of “spiritual rape” as serious a crime as “sexual assault.” He also asserted that Christians sharing their faith in the military are “enemies of the Constitution.”)

Being convicted in a court martial means that a soldier has committed a crime under federal military law. Punishment for a court martial can include imprisonment and being dishonorably discharged from the military.

Read the rest on Breitbart.

Isn't this the U.S.? What happened to the First Amendment?  Too bad there's no Christian equivalent to CAIR.

Pakistani Fanatics Vow To Kill Christians Who Protest Blasphemy Violence

On March 9, a pack of angry Pakistani Muslims (3,000 strong) torched hundreds of houses in a Christian area of Lahore after one of their own accused a Christian man of blasphemy. Christians took to the streets in protest asking for protection. As a result, extremists are now threatening Christians that if they don't stop protesting they will be killed. So, basically, take your beatings and don't complain.

Two hundred homes in the Joseph Colony were turned to ashes and poor Christians of the neighbourhood are now living in the streets, desperate for food and other needs.

Their children cannot attend school or college due to the destruction and fear. Many residents have expressed great dismay and sorrow, and depression is seeping through the entire community, the Daily Times reports.

Pastor Naeem Bhadhar, a Presbyterian missionary living in a village Kalaswala, district Sialkot, 140 kilometres away from Lahore city, said that he had arranged a protest rally in their city. But on March 14 when he was travelling back to his village a few radical Muslims from Jamaatud Dawa severely beat him with sticks and destroyed his motorcycle. He told the paper that he was warned by the extremist group that if any Christian organises further protests, he will be killed.

The paper also pointed out that Muslims of Jhelum city threatened to burn Christians home in response to the protests.

Now the community is living in fear of reprisals for their simple act of condemning violence and the blasphemy laws of Pakistan, the paper added. 

More Muslim bullying.

Iraqi Christian Teacher Murdered- Throat slashed

Iraq's Nouri al-Maliki wants the E.U. to stop urging Christians to leave the country, so this can happen to them?

Mosul (AsiaNews) - Police in Mosul found the body of a Christian woman with her throat cut. The gruesome discovery was made today in an area where attacks have been perpetrated in the past against members of the city's Christian minority, some, like abducted Bishop Faraj Rahho and Fr Ragheed Ganni, murdered.

Sources told AsiaNews that the victim is Shdha Elias, a 54-year-old Chaldean, who worked as a teacher "in a school in the al Bath neighbourhood." She "lived however in Bar Nirgal, near the university". With her death, she joins "the long list of Christian martyrs in Mosul."

For the source, "Tensions between Sunnis and Shias are running high across Iraq, not only in the North. And peace and national reconciliation appear far off."

Mosul is a stronghold of Sunni Wahhabism, which is closely tied to Saudi Arabia. For experts on Iraqi politics, the aim is "to set up a state based on Sharia," with the Qur'an and the Sunnah as the basis of legislation and "Islam as the only state religion". In such a system, members of other religions can choose between conversion, flight or paying taxes for non-Muslims.

In northern Iraq, Christians have been targeted for murder and kidnapping for the purpose of extortion. They have also been caught in the crossfire between Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds vying for power and control of the area's rich oil resources.

In ten years of conflict, the Christian community has lost more than half of its members in an exodus of 'Biblical' proportions following a series of murders.

A Christian official in Mosul Governatorate, anonymous for security reasons, acknowledged that "many Christian families" have fled. "They have lost confidence in everything," he said. "The government is incapable of doing anything to protect them. What future do non-Muslims have in countries where violence reins!"

Living in peace with each other or others is an impossibility until the religious extremists are either wiped off this planet or evolve, and that won't happen any time soon.

Source: AsiaNews

Iranian Christian Pastor Nadarkhani Re-Arrested On Christmas Day

And here's another example of just how tolerant, humane and merciful the Iranian government is. The Christian pastor who was initially sentenced to death for apostasy, then had his sentence reduced to three years in prison for proselytizing, then released in September because he had already served most of those three years, is back in prison. Re-arrested on Christmas day, ho ho ho, to serve the remainder of his sentence.

The Iranian Christian pastor who had been imprisoned in Iran for converting from Islam to Christianity was taken into custody again on Christmas Day, according to several Iranian media sources and individuals close to the pastor and his family.

Youcef Nadarkhani, 35, had been summoned to return back to Lakan Prison in Rasht, the facility where he served time and was then released, based on the charge that he must complete the remainder of his sentence, according to several reports and confirmed by those close to Nadarkhani in Iran.

In September, the pastor was acquitted of apostasy, but the court maintained his three-year sentence for evangelizing Muslims. As he had already served close to three years, the pastor was freed after posting bail.

The court had then stated that the remainder which equaled roughly 45 days, would be served in the form of probation.

Nadarkhani, married and father of two young children, came under the regime’s radar in 2006 when he applied for his church to be registered with the state. According to sources, he was arrested at that time and then soon released.

In 2009, Nadarkhani went to local officials to complain about Islamic indoctrination in his school district, arguing that his children should not be forced to learn about Islam.

He was subsequently arrested.

Since Nadarkhani's release in September, his attorney, Mohammed Ali Dadkhah has been imprisoned and remains in Iran's notoriously brutal Evin Prison where his health is rapidly deteriorating and is being denied proper dental care, according to his family. He has been incarcerated for advocating Nadarkhani's case and other human rights cases.

After his release, Nadarkhani wrote a public letter thanking all those who helped release him. In November, he traveled to London to speak at a national human rights conference thanking those who advocated on his behalf.

Youcef should never have been imprisoned in the first place let alone charged with apostasy. Imagine if we did the same thing with Muslims in the West who are required to proselytize as part of their religious duty.

 And the Iranian government calls the West the Great Satan.

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly- Christmas Around The Globe

Christmas is coming to a close in the U.S. In some regions of the world it has already come and gone, so I thought I'd give a little round up of Christmas happenings across the globe.

THE GOOD:

PAKISTAN: A small Christian community of about 200 in South Waziristan, Pakistan (smack dab in Taliban/al-Qaeda land), got to celebrate their Christmas at their little church inside the safety of an army base, where most congregants happen to live and work. They seem to live in harmony with their Muslim neighbours under the protection of the military.

AUSTRALIA:  Largest mosque in Australia backs down from its anti-Christmas fatwa.  Even wishing someone a "Merry Christmas" was to be considered a sin. Of course the backtracking was in response to outrage from both Muslims and non-Muslims alike.   (H/T TROP)


THE BAD:

INDONESIA: Moderate Indonesia's top clerics told Muslims it would be best not to wish anybody "Merry Christmas", because they weren't entirely sure if it was haram (forbidden) or halal (okay). Christmas parties? Definitely haram.  "Happy New Year", on the other hand, is fine.

and

200 or so conservative Muslims pelted about 100 or so Christians with rotten eggs as they were gathering to worship on a plot of land they hope to build a church. The government has barred them from doing so since 2009. (H/T TROP)

ISRAEL:  Businesses with Christmas trees faced losing their Kashrut (Kosher) certificates.

KUWAIT: Some radical conservative Muslims in Kuwait called for a ban on Christmas celebrations, but were blasted by liberal groups. Kuwait allows Christians to worship in the 12 or so churches there.

THE UGLY:

NIGERIA:  Six Christians, including the pastor, were killed in northern Nigeria as they celebrated midnight mass on Christmas eve. The church was then set on fire. (H/T TROP)

NIGERIA: At least six more killed in another church attack.

Ten More Christians Massacred In Nigeria By Islamists Boko Haram

Ten more Christians along with two policemen were massacred in Chibok, Northern Nigeria, by the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram on Saturday night. Although they haven't claimed ownership of the slaughter, who else would do such a thing?

"The attackers came in around 9:00 pm chanting 'Allahu Akbar', which made us suspect they are Boko Haram," said a local government official on condition of anonymity.

"They moved into selected homes in the predominantly Christian part of the town and slaughtered 10 people like sheep," the official added.

"Who else apart from Boko Haram members would go into homes and slit the throats of 10 people?" said another local official.

"They came armed with guns but decided to butcher their victims."

Local resident Ezekiel Damina said: "The men came in large numbers and went into homes which... were carefully selected, and slaughtered 10 people while shouting 'Allahu Akbar' (God is Greatest).

"They then set houses in the area on fire. They just sacked the neighbourhood."

They also allegedly targeted border posts which left the two policemen dead and other churches in the area.

Around 50 gunmen in cars and on motorcycles carried out attacks on three churches and border posts with neighbouring Cameroon, opening fire on police, residents said.

Among the security posts burned were offices for immigration, customs and the secret police and a quarantine building in the city of Gamboru Ngala, about 140 kilometres (80 miles) from the Boko Haram stronghold of Maiduguri.

Gunmen went into town "chanting 'Allahu Akbar' and burned down the divisional police station and three churches," said Hamidu Ahmad, a resident.

"I saw two bodies in police uniform not far from the police station. One of them was sprawled by the roadside while the other was seated in a police van," another resident, Sani Kani said.

Their God ought to be very proud of his savages.

Egyptian Bishop Claims Attacks On Christians Escalating

Attacks on Coptic Christians in Egypt have escalated, according to Bishop Morcos. He made that statement after an attack on a Church and homes of Christians in a village near Cairo this past Wednesday. 16 people were injured as a result of clashes between Muslims and Christians after a fight between a Muslim man and a Christian resulted in the death of the Muslim from his wounds.

He also complained about Mursi's failed promise to include more Christians in his cabinet. Only one was sworn in- the scientific research minister.

“The general climate is turning against Christians,” said Bishop Morcos. “Assaults on Christians have increased. It’s not just a matter of having one ministry,” he told AFP.

“There is a difference between promises and implementation,” said Morcos. “Perhaps there were obstacles in implementing the pledge, or the promise is one thing, and the actual implementation is another.”

There had always been sectarian strife between Muslims and the minority Coptic Christian population, even during Hosni Mubarak's leadership, but it seems to have increased since the Muslim Brotherhood took over. 

Bishop Morcos isn't the only one worried.

The United States warned on Monday that despite gestures by Egypt’s interim military leaders towards greater inclusiveness, sectarian tensions and violence had increased.

Washington’s 2011 International Religious Freedom Report expressed concern over “both the Egyptian government’s failure to curb rising violence against Coptic Christians and its involvement in violent attacks.”

Did Morcos really expect that under an Islamist majority government things would get any easier for the 10 percent of Christians that still live in Egypt?

New Life For Acid-Attacked Pakistani Girl In Houston

This is what happens to Christians in Pakistan.

But the horrific thing that 16-year-old Julie Aftab was subjected to only strengthened her faith. After 31 surgeries she is now 26, lives in Houston with a kind family that took her in, and is studying accounting.

This is her story:

She was 16 years old, working as an operator in a tiny, public call office in Pakistan, when a man walked in and saw the silver cross dangling around her neck.

He asked her three times: "Are you a Christian?"

Julie Aftab answered, "Yes, sir," the first two times, and then got frustrated.

"Didn't you hear me?" she asked.

They argued, and the man abruptly left the little office, returning 30 or 40 minutes later with a turquoise bottle. Aftab tried to block the arc of battery acid, but it melted much of the right side of her face and left her with swirling, bone-deep burns on her chest and arms. She ran for the door, but a second man grabbed her hair, and they poured the acid down her throat, searing her esophagus.

[snip]

Aftab was born in Faisalabad, Pakistan, the eldest of seven children in a Christian working-class family.

She dreamed of becoming a doctor, but dropped out of school at age 12 to work in a sewing factory after her father, a bus driver and the family's sole breadwinner, broke his back in an accident. After the sewing factory closed when Aftab was 16, she took a job as a telephone operator helping people place phone calls from the small office in the city's center.

It was June 15, 2002, two weeks into her new job, when the customer spotted her silver cross, a gift from her grand­father. She wore it despite knowing it branded her as Christian, a tiny minority in the Muslim-majority country.

You are living life in the gutter, the Muslim man told her.

She tried to ignore him, remembering what her mother had taught her since she was a child: "You are no one to insult someone's religion. If someone is insulting religion, they have to answer to God."

You are going to hell, the man told her. You are living in darkness.

"I am living in the light," Aftab replied.

So you think Islam is in darkness? the man demanded.

Aftab was frightened. She knew Christians had been accused of violating Pakistan's strict blasphemy laws in the past when others had twisted their words, to make it sound as though they had attacked Islam.

"No, you said that," she replied. "Not me."

But the man was enraged and returned with the battery acid and his friend. When she finally broke away from them, the acid searing her skin and throat, she ran down the street. As she screamed, teeth fell from her mouth and hit the ground.

A woman heard her screams and threw her head cover on Aftab so she could touch her without getting burned. The woman took Aftab to her home and poured water on her. Others eventually came to help take her to the hospital.

People in the neighborhood detained the two men who assaulted her until police arrived.

Why did you do that? the men were asked.

They said Aftab insulted Islam, that she said Muslims are living in the darkness and are going to hell.

"They all turned against me," she said. "Even the people who took me to the hospital. They told the doctor they were going to set the hospital on fire if they treated me."

The police let the two men go, and did not even file an official report on the assault until Christian leaders complained, she said.

Family persecuted

Aftab's family was turned away from one hospital, and then another. Her mother begged a doctor at a third hospital to treat her, and he relented.

Aftab could not speak or move her arms. Doctors said 67 percent of her esophagus was burned. She was missing an eye and eyelids. Her remaining teeth could be seen through her missing cheek. The doctors predicted she would die any day.

She was angry at first, she said.

"God, why did you do this to me? Why did you put me through this?"

Slowly, she started to heal. Three months and 17 days after being burned, she spoke again and was able to see through her left eye. She spent almost a year in the hospital.

Aftab quickly learned that in her old neighborhood, she was a pariah. Her mutilated face was plastered on the news, associated with insulting Islam. Her family was persecuted, and their house was burned down.

"They wanted to hang me," she said. "They thought it would be an insult to Islam if I lived."

Aftab and her parents went to a nondenominational bishop in Pakistan, who said he would try to help. He took her in, contacted Shriners Hospitals for Children, and arranged for her treatment in Houston.

He gave her one piece of advice before she left Pakistan in 2004: "If you forgive them," he said, "your wound will heal without any medication. You can heal from the inside out."

Read her whole story here.

What Happens To Christian Converts In Tunisia-

I don't recommend watching this video. It is horrifying at best.  I'm not actually sure why I am posting it, other than in hopes that someone stumbling upon my blog who is still in denial about the true nature of radical Islam might finally be convinced that it's an abomination.

This is what happens to  ex-Muslim, Christian converts in Tunisia.  This aired on Egyptian TV.

[NOTE: a reader below has informed me that the man was not a Christian convert, but a Shia Muslim and that this did not take place in Tunisia but in Syria. However no-one seems to know definitively who the victim was, where it took place, and who the animals who beheaded him were. Bottom line, Shias, Ahmadis and Ishmailis are also considered infidels and, regardless of what religion the person was, the fact that anyone could do this to another human being in the name of religion, is sickening.]

[2nd NOTE: Canadian Michael Coren of Sun News, also discusses this video. And there are references to the Muslim prayers that are chanted as being anti-Christian. So it is more than likely he was Christian.]

It is one of the most horrific things I have ever seen in my life.  It aired on  liberal talk show host Tawfiq Okasha's "Egypt Today".  He too seems disgusted by the whole thing. 

If  you do decide to watch, you are forewarned!! 

The Media's Whitewashing of Muslim Persecution of Christians by Raymond Ibrahim

A very interesting article by Raymond Ibrahim (Gatestone Institute) about the mainstream media's shameful whitewashing of Christian persecution by Muslims.

While the MSM may report the most frugal facts concerning Christian persecution, they utilize their entire arsenal of semantic games, catch phrases, and convenient omissions that uphold the traditional narrative—that Muslim violence is anything but a byproduct of the Islamic indoctrination of intolerance.

When it comes to Muslim persecution of Christians, the mainstream media (MSM) has a long paper trail of obfuscating. While they may eventually state the bare-bone facts—if they ever report on the story in the first place, which is rare—they do so after creating and sustaining an aura of moral relativism that minimizes the Muslim role.

[snip]

In short, while the MSM may report the most frugal facts concerning Christian persecution, they utilize their entire arsenal of semantic games, catch phrases, and convenient omissions that uphold the traditional narrative—that Muslim violence is anything but a byproduct of the Islamic indoctrination of intolerance.

Read the rest of the article here.

17-Year-Old Egyptian Christian Gets 3 Years In Jail For Insulting Islam

If Egyptian Christians think it's bad now, wait until there's an Islamist president to go with the Islamist majority in parliament, and Sharia law becomes the official law of the land. 

In Saudi Arabia, under Islamic blasphemy laws, insulting Islam, Mohammad or anyone or thing associated with Islam will get you executed, since the Saudis consider blasphemy 'apostasy' (and Sharia imposes the death penalty for apostasy). Same thing goes for Pakistan. Insult Mohammad, say bye-bye to your head. Defile the Quran, you'll spend the rest of your life in jail. 

Egypt, though not yet an Islamic state, still has blasphemy laws, although the sentences are tame in comparison to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.  Gamal Abdou Massoud, a 17-year-old Christian boy who apparently defamed Islam and Mohammad by posting some cartoons on his Facebook page, will spend three years in prison for his actions. 

Gamal Abdou Massoud was also accused of distributing some of his cartoons to his school friends in a village in the southern city of Assiut, home to a large Christian population and the hometown of the late Coptic Orthodox Pope Shenouda.

“Assiut child’s court ordered the jailing of Gamal Abdou Massoud ... for three years after he insulted Islam and published and distributed pictures that insulted Islam and its Prophet,” the court said in a statement seen by Reuters.

The cartoons, published by Massoud in December, prompted some Muslims to attack Christians. Several Christian houses were burned and several Christians were injured in the violence.

Human rights lawyer Negad al-Borai said the jail sentence was the maximum penalty under Egyptian law for such a crime.

Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the country’s 80 million population, have long had a difficult relationship with Egypt’s overwhelmingly Muslim majority.

Tension between Muslims and Christians has simmered for years but has got worse since the revolt that toppled Hosni Mubarak. Christians have become increasingly worried by a surge in attacks on churches, which they blame on hardline Islamists, though experts say local disputes are often also to blame.

The maximum penalty for such a "crime"? The crime is sentencing a child (or anyone else for that matter) to three years in jail for exercising his right to freedom of speech.

But Muslim-majority countries aren't the only ones with blasphemy laws.  I was actually surprised to learn that many Western nations have them as well, though some don't implement the laws, and others just hand out hefty fines. Wales and the U.K. only recently abolished their blasphemy laws. But if the Organization of the Islamic Conference has its way, there will be a global "anti-blasphemy law", and we all better watch out.