₦airaland Forum

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has warned against giving the presidential slot to a Christian Yoruba candidate ahead of the 2023 general election.

The Muslim group warned that any political party which gives a presidential slot to a Christian candidate in the South West will lose woefully.

MURIC claimed that giving such position to a Yoruba Christian is to sentence Muslims in Yorubaland to a life of perpetual slavery.

Director of MURIC, Prof. Ishaq Akintola who further lamented over an alleged marginalization of Muslims in the Southwest, accused Christians of not learning the art of living and letting live.

The statement read; “One, Yoruba Christians do not give their Muslim neighbours their Allah-given fundamental human rights. Examples abound in the way female Muslim children are persecuted in Yoruba schools, particularly over hijab and their refusal to allow their fellow Yoruba Muslims to apply civil Shariah which does not affect Christians in any way. We are reluctant to come under the presidency of people who do not respect our civil liberties.

“We, therefore, reiterate our position: on Yoruba Muslim president, we stand unless the presidency is not zoned to the South West. To give the position to a Yoruba Christian is to sentence Muslims in Yorubaland to a life of perpetual slavery. Our Christian neighbours have not learnt the art of living and letting live.

“Therefore, our message to the political parties is this: any party that gives the presidential slot to a Christian candidate in the South West will lose woefully.”

The President of Kwara Baptist Conference, Reverend Victor Dada, has alleged that Muslim fundamentalists promised to burn down First Baptist Church Surulere, Ilorin, Kwara State where Christians gathered for a peaceful demonstration on Wednesday.

SaharaReporters had reported how a clash broke out between Christians and Muslims over a controversy bordering on the use of hijab by Muslim students in schools in the state.

In a statement, Dada alleged that the Muslim fundamentalists overpowered the police, forcibly removed the gate, signboard of the school and threw stones at Christians there for over one hour.

According to him, at least 20 people, including four pastors, were wounded and three were hospitalised.

The statement partly read, “Despite that the case is at the Supreme Court and a stay of execution was obtained by proprietors of the mission school, the government announced the use of hijab and reopening of the schools today.

“Christians who were today at First Baptist Church Surulere, Ilorin on peaceful demonstration with drums and trumpets, came under serious attack by Muslim fundamentalists who mobilised themselves and louts in large numbers to attack us.

“They overpowered the police, forcefully removed the gate and signboard of the school and started stoning us for over one hour.


“Only the gallant resistance of members and eventual security reinforcements saved the church from being burnt.

“More than 20 people were wounded with three hospitalised.

“The fundamentalist in the presence of security officials vehemently attempted to burn the church and when repelled, threatened to burn the church either during the day or at night.

“They doused the church gate with petrol and vandalised the auditorium. They also went ahead to vandalise The Apostolic Church, Eruda, Ilorin, a church without any grant-aided school.”

The cleric stated that the church maintains its stance on the controversial issue, stressing that wearing of hijab will not be permitted in mission schools.

He also alleged that, in the last 15 years, the government had not employed teachers for Christian Religious Knowledge teachers but employed Islamic religious teachers in schools, including the mission schools.

“It is surprising that the government has become a government of the Muslim, by the Muslim and for the Muslim in his (state governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq) policies, pronouncements and attitude.

“We wish to restate our stand that our schools are grant-aided and not public schools. At no time since the grant aiding policy started in 1974 has any government designed uniform for schools.

“This has always been the responsibility of the proprietors, be it community or mission. It should be noted that Christians have always complied with Islamic guidelines in grant-aided Muslim school as Muslims do not allow any Christian practice in their schools.

“The Muslims and the government should not take our gentleness for weakness. The government has not employed Christian Religious Knowledge teachers in the last 15 years but kept employing and posting Imam and Islamic religious teachers in large numbers (even in mission schools).

“We shall not allow the use of hijab in our schools. We will defend our faith and defend our inheritance. We demand that the government should return our schools."

The Islamic human rights organization, Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, on Friday described Bola Tinubu, National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as a candidate that fits into its long-term aspiration for a Yoruba Muslim President.

MURIC made the remark while noting that any party that picks a Yoruba Christian presidential candidate may lose.

The group made the remark in a statement signed and forwarded to DAILY POST by its Director and founder, Professor Ishaq Akintola.

Tinubu had on Monday hinted on running for the presidency in 2023.

The former governor of Lagos State had disclosed that he informed President Muhammadu Buhari of his intention to run for the Presidency in 2023.

The APC National Leader disclosed this while addressing journalists in Abuja, where he stated that becoming Nigeria’s president was his life-long aspiration.

Reacting to Tinubu’s declaration, Akintola said: “It is no longer news that the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has declared his intention to contest for the post of president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This happened on Monday, 10th January, 2022.

“It will be recalled that our organisation has repeatedly demanded the emergence of a Yoruba Muslim candidate for the post of president of this country because of the prolonged religious persecution being faced by Muslims in the South West. We have been consistent in this demand. This is verifiable in at least four different press statements issued by us in the past.

“Tinubu’s declaration for the highest post in the land is therefore a welcome development. Also in pursuit of this campaign, MURIC has spent the last four days from Monday 10th January, 2022 (when Tinubu made his declaration) to Thursday, 13th January consulting its state branches in the Yoruba states : Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti. The outcome of our investigation reveals a resounding support for Tinubu’s declaration.

“All our state branches confirmed that Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu has been close enough to Yoruba Muslims. The Lagos chapter of MURIC also vouched that although Tinubu is not the type that will marginalize Nigerian Christians, at the same time, he will not estrange Yoruba Muslims or ignore their complaints when he becomes president of Nigeria.

“This is the time Yoruba Muslims need the support of their Muslim brethren all over the country to ensure that Tinubu emerges as the candidate of his party at the primaries. They should also vote for him massively during the presidential elections to ensure that he emerges as the president of Nigeria to be sworn in on 29th May, 2023.

“This is the only fair thing that can happen to Yoruba Muslims. Interestingly enough, nobody can claim that the advent of Tinubu as the president of Nigeria is unfair to Yoruba Christians because at least three Yoruba Christians have been both presidents and vice presidents of Nigeria.

“Mathew Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo was military head of state and president (1976 – 1979, 1999 – 2007). Earnest Shonekan was interim head of state (August 1993 – November 1993). Right now, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, a pastor of the Redeemed Church, has been vice president of Nigeria for the past seven years (from 2015 to date).

“But no single Yoruba Muslim has had the opportunity to taste power in the centre. It is therefore the turn of a Yoruba Muslim and the cap fits Ahmed Tinubu, a Muslim born into a strong Muslim family. Yoruba Muslims are proud of Tinubu as a politician of timber, caliber and caterpillar. He has the mandate of Yoruba Muslims.

“We sound out a caveat emptor to all political parties in the country. Any party that picks a Yoruba Christian as its presidential candidate is on its own. Yoruba Muslims and, indeed, Muslims North and South, will not vote for such a candidate.

“We do not wish to be misunderstood. We will therefore reiterate our position on Christian candidates in the coming presidential election. MURIC has no objection to Christian candidates emerging from any other geo-political zone. It means we are not saying that a Christian cannot be president of Nigeria. We are simply saying that such a Christian should not be a Yoruba man or woman.

“Yoruba Muslims have been marginalized for so long. Politically, Christians have monopolised ministerial positions, state commissionership, boards and agencies. Economically, civil service jobs are selectively offered. The education sector has been the Archiles heel of Yoruba Muslims and a concentration camp where Muslim children are forced to adopt Christian culture. A Christian president from the South West will therefore turn the headache of Yoruba Muslims into migraine.

“MURIC will not be partisan. We will give all political parties a level playing ground. Therefore, we will also support any other political party that picks a Muslim candidate from the South West. No political party should claim that it cannot find qualified Muslim politicians when the likes of Babatunde Fashola, Dr. Muiz Banire, Dr. Abdul Lateef Abdul Hakeem, Senator Fatai Buhari, Rauf Aregbesola, etc, are making waves on the Nigerian political architecture.

“Our target is the liberation of Yoruba Muslims from the shackles of political marginalisation, socio-economic repression and educational enslavement. While MURIC will never exhibit enmity, derision or contempt towards Christians and people of other faiths, it has zero tolerance for Muslim haters. Aluta continua : no retreat, no surrender until victoria acerta.”

The Kwara State Government has announced the reopening of Oyun Baptist High School, Ijagbo, for students after about four months of closure over the use of hijab by female Muslim students.

The state government had closed the school on Thursday, February 3, 2022, saying it “condemns the flagrant act of discrimination against anyone, especially children, on religious grounds.”

“Such discrimination will not be tolerated in any public-owned institution in the state,” it had added.
However, in a statement issued on Wednesday, the Permanent Secretary in the State Ministry of Education and Human Capital Development, Mrs Mary Adeosun, said the school would be reopened from Friday, June 3, exactly four months after it was closed.

The government said it would not “hesitate to shut the school again, among other things, if anything threatens the safety of the little children”.

The statement read, “The Ministry’s decision to reopen the school is one of the government’s multi-prong approaches to return normalcy to the school.

“Consequently, all teachers and students are directed to return to their classrooms while the government white paper committee continues the efforts to address pending issues related to the recent disturbance in the public school.

“Similarly, the Ministry restates the government’s position that any Muslim schoolgirl who desires to wear the Hijab is allowed to do so in all public schools, including in Oyun Baptist High School Ijagbo, which is owned by the State Government and run with public resources.”

Some alumni of the school had blamed the government for allegedly failing to act on reports given to it concerning a planned attack on the school.

SaharaReporters earlier reported that alumni noted that the crisis in the school should have been nipped in the bud because the Kwara State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria had called on the government but there was no response.

The alumni had demanded that the state government should unravel and unveil the hoodlums and extremists causing a public disturbance in the name of Hijab enforcement.

In a release sent to SaharaReporters, one of the alumni had said, “On 2nd February, 2022, we were informed that some Jihadists had mobilised and were ready to destabilise the academic session of OBHS.

"Promptly as early as 6 am, the Ijagbo CAN Chairman called the Chief Imam of Ijagbo of the planned invasion of the OBHS by the fundamentalists, to caution them and await the outcome of the meeting scheduled to hold by 11 am called for by the state government.

“Unfortunately, around 6:30 am, without any provocation, the jihadist started shouting 'No Hijab, no school' as they marched in batches to the school.
"A few of them were from Ijagbo, most of them were mercenaries from Offa, Ilorin and a number of them were from Osun State. Even Ijagbo Muslims confirmed that most of the faces at the crisis zone were strange in the community. This is to let the public know how calculated and organised the attack was.

“All efforts of the Nigeria Police Force, DSS (Department of State Services), and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps on the ground to calm these fundamentalists proved abortive.

"This is history repeating itself. It was in March/April 2021 that a similar Hijab crisis, which is believed to have been sponsored by the people close to and in the government of Kwara State, ensued and resulted in the brutality of some church members and the loss of properties worth millions of naira in Ilorin.

“Oyun Baptist High School does not only have a school in it, it has farmlands, a Chapel, and other private properties owned by the proprietor.”

The alumni raised some posers, saying, “How did the Government circular on hijab enforcement find its way to Giwa Mosque's Imam in Offa when churches don't have a copy? When did Islamic clerics become law enforcement agents in Kwara State? Are the armed Jihadist protesters students of OBHS or parents?
"Are they from the ministry of education? Was permission taken from necessary Security Agents before the so-called peaceful protest was carried out? Why were they armed, attacking and harassing Christians, students and passersby? Who armed them with weapons and walkie-Rallies?"

Did you know that, all throughout sub-Saharan Africa—in Nigeria, Mozambique, the Central African Republic, Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo—Muslims have for many years been terrorizing and slaughtering Christians?

Nor is there any hope on the horizon: problems that cannot be honestly addressed are doomed to persist in perpetuity.

Enter the so-called “mainstream media.” As far as they are concerned, the persecution of Christians in Africa is a byproduct of economic and territorial grievances.

One report , titled, “How poverty and corruption fuel terrorism across Africa,” is emblematic. After citing an incident where “jihadis” connected to the Islamic State slaughtered dozens, it insists that such terrorist attacks, which “are on the rise across the African continent,” are “a consequence of poverty, domestic grievances new and old…”

This has been the mainstream media’s argument, and they’re sticking to it — no matter all the mountains of contradictory evidence.

Take the little-known genocide of Christians in Nigeria. According to an August 2021 report , since the Islamic insurgency began in earnest in July 2009, more than 60,000 Christians have either been murdered during raids or abducted, never to be seen again. During this same timeframe, approximately 20,000 churches and Christian schools were torched and destroyed by “Allahu Akbar” screaming Muslims.

According to the World Watch List’s latest
reporting , 79 percent of all Christians killed for their faith were killed in Nigeria, for a total of 4,650.

Who, exactly, is behind this travesty? Two groups, primarily. First is Boko Haram, Nigeria’s premier terrorist organization, whose full name means “Sunnis for [Islamic] Propagation and Jihad.” “Boko Haram,” their nickname, means “Western education is a sin” (not “we kill because we’re poor”). Their stated goal is the establishment of a pure sharia state and the brutal subjugation or slaughter of Nigeria’s Christians.

The other group, which has in recent years terrorized and slaughtered even more Christians than Boko Haram is the Fulani—Muslim herdsmen who regularly raid the villages of and slaughter Christians. They, too, are acting on jihadist teachings and hate for Christians.

Considering that, on average, 13 Christians are slaughtered every day for their faith in Nigeria, it is almost pointless to list any particular incidents. Those interested in following this tragedy can consult my “ Muslim Persecution of Christians ” series, where I collate the main instances of persecution that surface every month around the world. Needless to say, when it comes to the slaughter of Christians, Nigeria dominates. Here are just some of those that occurred for the month of September 2022:

1: Muslim Fulani herdsmen hacked to death with machetes six Christians.

11: Muslims murdered a Christian while abducting a pastor and wounding his wife.

18: Muslim Fulani killed three Christians during a raid on a Christian village, “after slaughtering at least 22 others in the same area in the past three weeks.”

21: More machete-wielding Muslim herdsmen massacred 15 Christians in midnight raids on two Christian villages.

23: Muslim Fulani raided six predominantly Christian villages in the same region of Benue state. “These attacks by the herdsmen have left dozens of Christians dead and several more with gunshot injuries and machete attack wounds,” an area resident said.

17: During an all-night prayer vigil inside a church, Muslim Fulani broke in and abducted dozens of Christians. Less than one week earlier, 60 other Christians were abducted from the same denomination in another region of the country.

4: Gunmen kidnapped dozens of Christians from church, including the pastor’s son.

Responding to these and other attacks, a recent statement from the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union said , "There is still no breathing space for Christian communities … as terrorists, jihadists, bandits and armed herdsmen have continued to plunder and wreck Christian communities…"

The atrocities are, indeed, nonstop. Most recently, according to an Oct. 27 report , along with slaughtering 15 more Christians—mostly women and children, as they slept during the night—Muslim Fulani also, and quite sadistically, cut off the breast of a Christian woman.

Despite all this, the American “mainstream” remains committed to describing the jihad in Nigeria as a byproduct of “inequality” and “poverty,” to quote Bill Clinton , as he once explained what was “fueling all this stuff” (the “stuff” being a reference to the genocide of Christians in Nigeria).

In their quest to blame anything and everything but reality , even climate change has been added to the mainstream arsenal of reasons fueling the jihad on Christians. After Muslim Fulani massacred some 50 Christians as they peacefully worshipped inside their church (in Owo, Ondo State) on Pentecost Sunday (Jun. 5, 2022), the president of Ireland, Michael Higgins, issued a statement precisely making such an absurd claim.

But as one Nigerian nun, Sister Monica Chikwe, once observed , “It’s tough to tell Nigerian Christians this isn’t a religious conflict since what they see are Fulani fighters clad entirely in black, chanting ‘Allahu Akbar!’ and screaming ‘Death to Christians.’” Or as the Christian Association of Nigeria once asked , “How can it be a [secular or economic] clash when one group [Muslims] is persistently attacking, killing, maiming, destroying, and the other group [Christians] is persistently being killed, maimed and their places of worship destroyed?”

Perhaps worst of all has been the Biden administration’s response. In 2020, Trump placed Nigeria on the State Department’s list of
Countries of Particular Concern—that is, nations which engage in, or tolerate violations of, religious freedom. Under Biden, however, the State Department removed Nigeria—this nation where one Christian is killed every two hours —from the list.

Needless to say, many observers slammed the State Department for this unexpected move. As Sean Nelson, Legal Counsel for Global Religious Freedom for ADF International, noted :

Outcry over the State Department’s removal of Country of Particular Concern status for Nigeria’s religious freedom violations is entirely warranted. No explanations have been given that could justify this decision. If anything, the situation in Nigeria has grown worse over the last year. Thousands of Christians, as well as Muslims who oppose the goals of terrorist and militia groups, are targeted, killed, and kidnapped, and the government is simply unwilling to stop these atrocities. … Removing Country of Particular Concern status for Nigeria will only embolden the increasingly authoritarian government there.

Incidentally and to his credit, along with placing Nigeria on the list, Trump once forthrightly asked the Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari—whom many Nigerian officials insist Obama helped bring to power—“Why are you killing Christians?”

At any rate, such is the current state of affairs: a jihad of genocidal proportions has been declared on the Christian population of Nigeria—and has since spilled over into several other sub-Saharan nations—even as American media and government present Nigeria’s problems in purely economic terms that defy reality.

The inability to accept the straightforward facts; the inability to factor ideological or existential motives, seeing only material motives (money, land, etc.); the almost instinctive conclusion that Muslim violence is proof positive of a legitimate grievance—all of these are so ingrained in the predominant paradigm, from the mainstream media to mainstream politicians, and all of these are poisoning Western civilization from within, and eroding its influence and capacity to act from without.

It also means that, for most American media and politicians, black lives do not matter—at least not when they’re Christian, and being terminated by Muslims.

At least 13 people were said to have been killed elsewhere on Wednesday.

There has been a wave of street demonstrations and strikes in major cities since Tuesday in response to calls to commemorate those killed in the bloody crackdown on the November 2019 protests over fuel price rises.

The current protests against clerical rule were sparked by the death in custody three months ago of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly breaking the strict rules on hijabs.

At least 362 protesters, including 56 children, have been killed and 16,000 arrested as security forces have struggled to suppress what Iran's leaders have portrayed as "riots", according to the Iranian Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). It has also reported the deaths of 46 security personnel.

State news agency Irna said two gunmen riding motorbikes targeted protesters and security personnel at the central market in Izeh at around 17:30 local time (14:00 GMT) on Wednesday.

Seven people were killed, including a nine-year-old child and a woman, while three police officers and two members of the paramilitary Basij Resistance Force were among the wounded, it added.

Irna also posted a video that it said showed the "terrorist attack" . In the night-time footage, gunshots can be heard as a motorbike drives past pedestrians.

However, the state media reports were rejected by opposition activists and sources close to two of the victims' families.

A source close to the family of Kian Pirfalak told BBC Persian's Parham Ghobadi that the nine-year-old had been travelling in a car with his father, Maysham, when a group of security personnel fired at them.

Kian was shot in the chest with a live round and died at the scene, they said, while Maysham was hit three times in the back and was being treated in hospital.
A video was also posted on social media in which an unidentified male relative of Kian is heard speaking over blurred footage of his body. "He was going home with his father and was targeted with bullets by the corrupt regime of the Islamic republic," the man says.

A source close to Sepehr Maghsoodi's family told BBC Persian that the 14-year-old was shot in the head with a live round at a protest in Izeh.

The source also alleged that security forces stole his body from the local mortuary two hours after it was brought there.

The opposition activist collective 1500tasvir also accused security forces in Izeh of killing another 14-year-old male protester, who they named as Artin Rahmani . Before he went out to protest, they said, he wrote on Instagram: "This land, to me, was of no benefit Yet, I'm ready to drop dead for it!"

1500tasvir also posted several videos of protests in Izeh before state media reported the shooting.

One showed a crowd walking along a street and chanting "this year is the year of blood, Seyed Ali will be toppled" - a reference to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In another, protesters were seen setting fire to what 1500tasvir said was a seminary in the city.

Kurdish human rights group Hengaw meanwhile said that at least 10 protesters were killed by security forces in the north-western cities of Bukan, Kamyaran, Sanandaj and Saqqez - Mahsa Amini's hometown - on Wednesday.
...

Protests began in Iran on September 16, prompted by the death of a 22-year-old woman who was dragged away and allegedly beaten by the morality police for wearing her hijab improperly.

Now, a new horror is being forced on the protesters of Iran who've spent weeks continuing their fight amidst brutal oppression by Islamic forces.

More than 14,000 Iranians have been arrested in connection with the demonstrations being held around the country, with the country's parliament voting overwhelmingly last week in favour of the death penalty.

Protests are being held across the world in solidarity with Iranian citizens.

Lawmakers think it'll teach those arrested a "good lesson" and deter others from joining. The protests have included women ditching their mandated headscarves and publicly burning them, cutting their hair, and holding signs demanding their human rights.

Among those arrested are hundreds of children - young girls fighting for their futures. Iran is one of the world's last countries to execute "juvenile offenders," with nine the age of criminal responsibility for girls, compared to 15 for boys.

But under Iranian law, you can't execute a minor if they're a virgin.

That roadblock has been solved in the past by marrying the girls off to prison guards to be raped the night before their murders - a practice that's been documented over the decades by journalists, families, activists and even a former leader.

In 2014 Justice For Iran published a report on the organised rape of virgin girls awaiting execution in the country's prisons, specifically focusing on the 1980s. It detailed that the practice was systemic, and likely approved of by higher officials within the government.

Islamic Republic leader, Hussein-Ali Montazeri, tried to speak out against the executions, conversations he detailed in his 2000 memoir.

"I told judges not to write death sentences for girls. This is what I said. But they perverted my words and quoted me as saying: 'Don’t execute girls. First married them for one night and then execute them,'" he wrote .

In 2009, a serving member of the paramilitary Basiji militia told The Jerusalem Post , he was forced to take part in such rapes.

"At 18, I was given the 'honour' to temporarily marry young girls before they were sentenced to death... I regret that, even though the marriages were legal. I could tell that the girls were more afraid of their wedding night than of the execution that awaited them in the morning," he said.

"By morning the girls would have an empty expression; it seemed like they were ready or wanted to die."

Activists and family members are reporting that it's happening now, in 2022, alongside torture, beatings and horrific sexual abuse.

Daily Dot also reports imprisoned women are asking their lawyers for access to abortion and morning-after pills as they are being subjected to repeated rapes.

Scores of protesters have already died, with the Iran Human Rights NGO (IHRNGO) group claiming at least 326 people have been killed, including 43 children and 25 women.

16-year-old Asra Panahi was reportedly killed by the Iranian security services after she was beaten in her classroom for refusing to sing a pro-regime song when her school was raided in October.

Iranian TikTok star Hadis Najafi, 22, was shot dead by Iranian forces in September.

Executions are already underway, with 22-year-old rapper Saman Yasin one of the more recent to be given the death sentence for supporting the protests on social media. But this new government ruling signed by 227 members of Iran's 290-strong parliament, will see routine executions increase exponentially.6

Among those facing the potential sentence are students, lawyers, journalists, activists, brothers standing up for their sisters and, devastatingly, children.

Narrated 'Aishah:
The Messenger of Allah married me when I was seven years old. (The narrator Sulaiman said: or Six years.) He had intercourse with me when I was nine years old.

Narrated `Aisha: The Prophet and I used to take a bath from a single pot while we were Junub. During the menses, he used to order me to put on an Izar (dress worn below the waist) and used to fo.ndle me. While in I`tikaf, he used to bring his head near me and I would wash it while I used to be in my periods (menses).

The 43-year-old Sheik Yusuf Mpagi who is also a teacher at Itendero Primary School in Kagango Division, Sheema Municipality was detained on Sunday.

Police accused the suspect of defiling a 9-year-old Primary Two pupil at Itendero Primary School.

“We swung into action when we received the information because we wanted to save the situation since we feared that people could take the law in their own hands which is dangerous,” greater Bushenyi police spokesperson Marcial Tumusiime said on November 13.

It’s allegedly that on November 11 at around 5:00PM the suspect called the victim to his house behind the Itendero Mosque, removed her knickers and defiled her as the victim was going home after school.

“The victim was threatened to be killed if she let anyone know about the incident but she had to tell her aunt because of too much pain,” said Hajara Kirabo who reported the incident to Kabwohe police.

Kirabo who is also a relative of the child told
Monitor that the pupil was rushed to hospital and is on treatment.

Police in Sheema District registered at least five other cases of defilement over the last three months and the cases are under probe.

An ISIS fanatic who planned to bomb a Barcelona-Madrid football match with an explosive-packed drone to atone for drinking alcohol in the past has today been sentenced to three years in prison by a Spanish court.

Mohammed Yassi Amrani, a former bar worker, became a member of ISIS during a 'fast process' of radicalisation in 2020.

Amrani was instructed by an ISIS recruiter to fly a drone packed with explosives over Barcelona's Camp Nou stadium, which can seat 99,354 fans, during a match between Barcelona and Real Madrid and then blow it up.

Amrani agreed to carry out the attack and today
Spain's National Court, which deals with terrorism cases, sentenced him to three years in jail for planning an attack 'following an agreement from all sides,' a court spokesman said.

Amrani was first contacted by the ISIS recruiter on Telegram after he had posted on Facebook in March 2020 calling for 'jihad'.

The ISIS contact ordered Amrani to carry about the terrorist attack to 'purify his life and assure a place in paradise' and make up for having drunk alcohol in the past and shunning religion.

No date for the planned attack on the stadium was given. Matches between Spain's two powerhouse teams - dubbed 'El Clasico' - are among the most watched matches in the world and nearly 100,000 fans usually fill the stadium.

At the time that Amrani was contacted by ISIS, Spain was under a severe Covid-19 pandemic lockdown and matches were suspended.

Police arrested Amrani in May 2020 and searched his home. He reportedly lived in Barcelona at the time.

The Civil Guard found jihadist material in Amrani's home including 'a multitude of videos, tutorials or manuals for the preparation of explosive substances or the making of explosive devices'.

Barcelona's Camp Nou stadium was on a list of potential targets drawn up by the jihadist cell behind the twin vehicle attacks in August 2017 which killed 16 people in Barcelona and the seaside resort of Cambrils further south.

Also on the list of targets was Barcelona's iconic Sagrada Familia church and the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Belgium's federal prosecutor's office said two officers were targeted in the incident near Brussels North station.

A judicial official told the Associated Press there was "a suspicion of a terror attack".

The attacker was shot after the stabbing and taken to hospital, police said.

Explaining what happened, the force said one of its officers was attacked by the man before reinforcements were called.

An officer from another patrol then used his firearm to "neutralise" the attacker, it added.

According to Belgian media, the man shouted "Allahu akbar", the Arabic phrase for "Allah is greater".

Le Soir newspaper said the dead police officer was stabbed in the neck and died in hospital.

One witness, who did not want to be identified, said he heard "five or six gun shots".

"I get off my car and see that a man is laying on the ground, he was half dead, but I could still see him moving a bit. I tried to come closer, but the police told me to go away," he said.

"It was a really frightening scene, I was really scared when I saw all this blood and that man on ground."
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo posted a message of condolence to the family and friends of the dead officer.

"Our police officers risk their lives every day to ensure the safety of our citizens," he said. "Today's tragedy demonstrates this once again."

The attack took place at around 7.15pm local time.

A spokesperson for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (MPVPV) confirmed that women would be restricted from accessing parks when asked for comment by
Reuters , but did not respond to requests to provide further details.

It was not clear how widely the restrictions applied or how they affected a previous rule from the MPVPV saying parks, including open-air spaces, must be segregated by gender and certain days would be aside for women.

Bilal Karimi, a deputy spokesperson for the hardline Taliban administration, did not respond to a request for comment.

At a Kabul amusement park containing rides such as bumper cars and a Ferris wheel, Reuters witnesses observed several women being turned away by park officials, with Taliban agents present observing the situation.

Masooma, a Kabul resident who asked that only her first name be published for security reasons, had planned to take her grandchild to visit the park but was turned away.

“When a mother comes with their children, they must be allowed to enter the park, because these children haven’t seen anything good … they must play and be entertained,” she told Reuters . “I urged a lot to them, but they didn’t allow us to get inside the park, and now we are returning home.”

Two park operators, who asked to remain anonymous to speak on a sensitive matter, said they had been told by Taliban officials not to allow women to enter their parks.

Since taking over Afghanistan last year, the Taliban have said women should not leave the home without a male relative and must cover their faces , though some women in urban centres ignore the rule and some women have been permitted to work in government offices. The group also made a U-turn on signals it would open all girls’ high schools in March.

Western governments have said the group needs to reverse its course on women’s rights for any path towards formal recognition of the Taliban government.

The Taliban say they respect women’s rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic law.

"Simply being a Christian is enough to get you arrested" in the Muslim-majority country, noted the United Kingdom's study on Christians and Christian converts in Iran. The report said that "many arrests reportedly took place during police raids on religious gatherings" and that "Christians, particularly evangelicals and converts from Islam, continued to experience disproportionate levels of arrest and detention."

Late last month, the United Kingdom published its study detailing the severe mistreatment of Iranian Christians , who compose between 500,000 and 800,000 people of an estimated total population of 86.7 million in 2022. The number of Iranian Christians may exceed 1 million, based on other estimates, noted the study.

According to the report, 99.6% of Iran’s population identifies as Muslim, with Iran classififying Twelver Ja’afari Shia Islam as its state religion.

When asked what the U.S. and other world powers can do regarding the crackdown on Iranian Christians, Mansour Borji, an Iranian Christian who is the director of the religious freedom NGO Article 18, wrote in an email to Fox News Digital: "We believe the world leaders can play a positive role in helping the persecuted faith communities and end the religious apartheid in Iran. One of the effective measures that Western governments can take to help is sanctions targeting Iranian oligarchs and their families that are close to the regime, living abroad, by blocking their assets, imposing travel bans against them."

Borji, who converted from Islam to Christianity, added, "Many of them have played significant roles in formation and implementation of discriminatory and oppressive policies of the current Islamic regime. They can also impose Magnitsky sanctions against those involved in human rights abuses."

In 2016, the U.S. implemented legislation called "The Magnistsky Sanctions," named after the late Russian anti-corruption whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky , to punish human rights abusers.

When asked about the British government's report and what can be done to stop the persecution of Iranian Christians, a U.S. State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, "We persistently call for action against Iran’s human rights abuses in the United Nations and other multilateral fora. We also coordinate closely with Allies and partners, including the UK, to share information on potential sanctions targets. The State Department regularly announces sanctions perpetrators of these violations and urges like-minded partners to hold perpetrators of violations accountable. However, as a practice, we do not announce these actions in advance."

According to the U.S. State Department spokesperson, "Since 1999, the United States has designated Iran annually as a Country of Particular Concern for engaging in or tolerating ‘particularly severe violations of religious freedom.’ The designation is based on information from all relevant sources, including the annual International Religious Freedom Report."

However, critics of the Biden administration argue that the White House is prioritizing a nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic, over human rights, and that it will enrich the coffers of a totalitarian regime in Tehran.

According to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies Iran expert, Saeed Ghasseminejad, "The new nuclear deal would allow Tehran to access up to $275 billion in financial benefits during its first year in effect and $1 trillion by 2030."

Veteran critics of the Islamic Republic say the sanctions relief money will strengthen the clerical regime’s domestic and foreign repression apparatuses. Both Republican and Democratic administrations have classified the Islamic Republic of Iran as the world's worst state-sponsor of terrorism.

The September British study was released during the outbreak of widespread protests against the existence of the Islamic Republic due to the death of the 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini . Iran’s morality police allegedly murdered Amini for failing to properly cover her hair with a hijab.

Current examples of the Islamic Republic’s efforts to weaken the Christian faith abound. The organization Middle East Concern (MEC), which defends the religious freedom of Christians in the Middle East and North Africa, reported in August that two Iranian Christians were imprisoned in Tehran’s infamous Evin prison .

MEC said that Homayoun Zhaveh and his wife, Sara Ahmadi, were detained on August 13 after previous incarcerations for practicing their Christian faith. In 2019, Zhaveh spent a month in jail, and Sara was imprisoned for 67 days where "she endured extreme psychological pressure," wrote MEC. In 2020, the Iranian regime’s opaque judicial system sentenced Sara to 11 years in prison "for her alleged role in leading a house church and Zhaveh to two years for house church membership," said MEC.

Fox News Digital sent press queries to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to its Permanent Mission to the United Nations.

On Friday, the Iranian pastor Hekmat Salimi, his wife Shirini and their daughter Sama departed Turkey to secure asylum in the United States. According to a statement from the Anglican Office for Government & International Affairs, "An Anglican minister who fled Iran six years ago because of constant harassment by intelligence agents and multiple arrests has been granted his freedom as the US approves an emergency request to relocate the family from Turkey, where they have been living in hiding."

The incident took place in Damodarpura village of Katra Bazaar police region. According to reports, mother Taslima lived in the house with her 16-year-old daughter Sajrulnisha and 22-year-old eldest son Kaleem. When Taslima returned home on the evening of 2 October 2022, she found the door locked.

She began questioning the girl after knocking on the door for a long time and when the girl opened the door eventually. At the same time, Taslima noticed Arun, the village boy, hiding behind the cupboard. He fled when he saw Taslima. Taslima then called Kaleem and told him about the incident.

Kalim eventually returned home and began arguing with his sister. In response, his sister also argued. Subsequently, he became enraged, and Kalim struck her on the neck with a sharp object kept nearby, causing the sister’s neck to be severed from the body.

Taslima reported that there was blood all over the house. Following the incident , Kaleem rode his motorcycle to the police station while carrying his sister’s neck in a bag and explaining to the officers, “My sister was in love with a boy of another religion.” That is why I beheaded her. This is her head. “Arrest me.”

The officers were taken aback when they saw the sister’s head in the bag. He was then apprehended. However, the police claim that the girl’s head was found on the spot and that Kaleem was apprehended 6 hours after the crime on the basis of the informer’s input.

An FIR has been registered against the accused on the complaint of his mother Taslima. The body of the victim has been sent for postmortem and the accused has been arrested, CO Munna Upadhyay informed.

Taslima, the girl’s mother, stated that she has two sons and two daughters. Her eldest child is married. Kaleem, the eldest son, had also recently married. The younger son works in another town. Her husband, Mohammad Salim alias Babu, had committed suicide by hanging a few years ago.

The life of 21-year-old Iranian girl Armita Abbasi who participated in the recent demonstrations in the country for freedom is said to be in danger. The mother of the young woman took to Instagram, posting pictures of her missing daughter, said that she was last seen in Imam Ali Karaj Hospital from where she was allegedly kidnapped on October 18 by the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) security agents to an unknown place in a half-conscious condition.

Armita Abbasi ‘raped and tortured’
According to the staff of the hospital Armita was suffering from internal bleeding and it is being speculated that she was repeatedly raped and tortured.

Masih said detainees of “brutal regime” of Islamic Republic have been experience brutal treatment and are tortured.

2/On Oct. 18th, hospital staff reported treating [url=https://twitter.com/hashtag/ArmitaAbbasi?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]#ArmitaAbbasi[/url] , a shivering girl suffering from internal bleeding. They speculated she was raped & tortured, likely to give out a televised confession, an experience common among many detainees of brutal regime of Islamic Republic. pic.twitter.com/Hl9hE2nigE
— Masih Alinejad �️ (@AlinejadMasih) [url=https://twitter.com/AlinejadMasih/status/1586942831603523585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]October 31, 2022[/url]

Armita family did not see her for two weeks
Masih in a post said that the hospital staff called up the family members and asked them to visit the hospital, but before they could reach, she was allegedly abducted by the Revolutionary Guard.

"Her family haven't heard from her since and haven't seen her after her arrest during the Iran Revolution protests more than two weeks ago," Masih added.

'World should hold Islamic Republic accountable for life of Armita Abbasi'
Masih said that the Chief Justice of Alborz Province confirmed arrest of Armita and claimed that Molotov cocktails were found in her house.

"His justification for Armita’s hospitalisation was 'digestive problems'. The world should hold the Islamic Republic accountable for the life of Armita Abbasi," she said.

4/The Chief Justice of Alborz Province confirmed her arrest, claiming Molotov cocktails were found in her house. His justification for Armita’s hospitalization was “digestive problems.”
The world should hold the Islamic Republic accountable for the life of [url=https://twitter.com/hashtag/ArmitaAbbasi?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]#ArmitaAbbasi[/url] . pic.twitter.com/qe63NUei44
— Masih Alinejad �️ (@AlinejadMasih) [url=

4/The Chief Justice of Alborz Province confirmed her arrest, claiming Molotov cocktails were found in her house. His justification for Armita’s hospitalization was “digestive problems.”
The world should hold the Islamic Republic accountable for the life of #ArmitaAbbasi. pic.twitter.com/qe63NUei44

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) October 31, 2022

31, 2022[/url]

Who is Armita Abbasi?
Armita, an Iranian girl, participated in recent demonstrations for freedom. She was taken to Imam Ali Karaj Hospital by the IRGC security agents on October 18. Hospital authorities said that their daughter had been arrested eight days earlier by Islamic Police.

According to reports, family of Armita received a call on the evening of October 18 in which the caller introduced themselves as a security officer and told them if they want to see their daughter alive they need to participate in a televised interview and say that they themselves had taken Armita to hospital due to "bloody diarrhea".

The parents did not agree and the hospital staff leaked the information about her alleged repeated violent rape to the public. However, on the next day the head of the hospital issued an official announcement in which he confirmed the "diarrhea" scenario.
Her whereabouts is currently unknown.

Iran anti-hijab protests
The anti-hijab protests in Iran started in September, when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died while in custody of Iran's controversial morality police after being arrested for not wearing a compulsory headscarf properly.

More than 250 people have been killed by security forces during the demonstrations which began following her death.

As per reports, celebrity chef Mehrshad Shahidi also called Iran's Jamie Oliver was beaten to death by security forces last Wednesday. Thousands marched on Saturday during the funeral for Shahidi.
He died after receiving blows to his skull while in the custody of the Iran's Revolutionary Guard in Arak city.

The president of Cairo University, Muhammad Uthman al-Khosht, recently assigned 31 new directors, deputy directors, managers, and researchers to head a number of departments, including those of agriculture, medicine, engineering, nursing, dentistry, statistical research, and African Studies.

Although the Copts—Egypt’s most indigenous, and Christian, people—make up anywhere from 10-20% of its population, notable among these new Cairo University hires is that not one of them is Christian. All are Muslim.

The significance of this news is not so much that discrimination against Christians in Egypt exists—which should be beyond obvious by now—but rather that it seems to permeate every single facet of Egyptian society.

As the Washington-based Coptic Solidarity (CS), an international human rights organization focused on the plight of Egypt’s Copts, reported last June:

Egypt currently has some 135 ambassadors on-post abroad, and about 20 consul-generals (with an administrative rank of ambassador).

Over the past few weeks, we at Coptic Solidarity were able to survey the names of 128 of these ambassadors and 16 consul-generals. The conclusions are consistent with previous surveys we’ve done over the past twenty years and kept in a database of Egyptian ambassadors and consul-generals created by Coptic Solidarity.

Although Copts, the indigenous Christian inhabitants of Egypt, account for, at the very least, 10 percent of Egypt’s population—and should, therefore, account for, at the very least, 10 percent of Egypt’s diplomatic corps:

– No Copts are appointed to any major Western capital (Washington, London, Paris, Bonn, Rome, Ottawa, etc.).

– No Copts are appointed to any major non-Western capitals (Tokyo, Beijing, Moscow, Delhi, etc.)

– No Copts are appointed to any international organization.

– No Copts are appointed to any Arab or Muslim country.

– No Copts are appointed as consul-general—anywhere…

Similarly, in an attempt to demonstrate Egypt’s advancement concerning women, on March 3, 98 female judges took the legal oath in preparation for assuming judicial roles in Egypt’s State Council.

This was considered a major and unprecedented development; since its inception 75 years earlier, not a single woman had sat on the podium of the State Council court—and now 98 are. And yet, not one of them is a Christian —again, despite the fact that the Copts account for between 10-20% of the nation’s population, suggesting that at the very least 10 of the 98 should have, for proper representation, been Copts.

Or take the recent presidential decree for new deputy prosecutors. Out of 516 hires, a paltry five—meaning less than 1%—are Copts . The decree was signed by none other than President al-Sisi, whose embassy in Washington D.C. (with help from an expensive lobbying agency) boasts his efforts to ensure “meritocracy in civil service.”

Such overt discrimination persists even in less “formal” settings. Take football (American soccer), for example—a very popular national pastime in Egypt.

As Aid to the Church in Need noted in a February, 2022 report ,

Christians make up around 15% of the population of Egypt and are as football-crazy as their Muslim neighbours, but there is not a single Copt in the national team….There are no official statistics on the number of Copts in Egypt, but estimates vary between 10% and 20%. … The fact that no Copts, of any denomination, are represented in top-level football, and therefore in the national team, stings.

Or as Coptic Solidarity’ president, Ms. Caroline Doss Esq., observed :

Sports are to be participated in by all. It is inconceivable that not a single Coptic athlete is skilled enough to represent Egypt in sports, particularly considering that Egypt is the 14th most populous country in the world with at least 15 million Copts. Your action is necessary to bring an end to this religiously-motivated discrimination.

Nor is such widespread discrimination against the Copts limited to Egyptian policies. Western elements, including those charged with combatting discrimination, tend to ignore it ; at the very least, they certainly do not treat it the same way they would if the opposite was the case—if a Christian nation was openly discriminating against Muslim minorities.

Regarding this last example, CS has sent various letters and reports (several linked to here ) to various responsible sporting committees, chief among them the Zurich-based FIFA (the Fédération Internationale de Football Association), an international governing body founded in 1904 to oversee international competition. FIFA reportedly takes accusations of discrimination very seriously. But as CS noted :

CS first reported widespread discrimination against Coptic athletes in Egypt to the International Olympic Committee and to FIFA in August 2016 . Neither entity responded until European news outlets published stories on the topic in 2018 during the lead up to the World Cup. A FIFA employee finally contacted CS requesting additional information—twenty months after the original complaint was sent.

CS complied, but, to date, FIFA has done little if anything to reverse such discrimination.

Similarly, in the latest summer games in Tokyo, Egypt’s delegation included 141 athletes: one of them was a Copt . CS’s complaints to the IOC went on deaf ears.

Seemingly adding insult to injury, the IOC’s president recently visited Egypt, where he applauded the country’s bid to host the summer Olympic games in 2036. There is no mention that he ever raised the issue of discrimination with the authorities.

In short, whereas actual, violent and murderous persecution against Egypt’s Christians is not uncommon, institutionalized and open discrimination against them permeates the whole of Egyptian society.

Yet another female student has been murdered by the Islamic regime in Iran. Negin Abdulmaleki, a 21-year-old student was murdered by security forces during protests in Hamedan against the state murder of Mahsa Amini.

The victim, who was a medical engineering student at the Hamadan University of Technology, hailed from Qorveh city in Sanandaj province of Iran. She was killed two weeks ago, but the incident was hidden from the media.

According to a report by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, a protest against the state murder of Mahsa Amini had taken place in Hamedan on Wednesday, October 12. Negin Abdulmaleki was gravely injured when the security forces tried to break up the demonstration. She was bleeding due to baton blows to the head by security forces and died after returning to the student dormitory.

“After learning about Negin’s death, university security, along with a number of government authorities, went to the dormitory and began threatening the students who knew about the incident,” a student of the Hamadan University of Technology students who had witnessed the incident was quoted as saying by Hengaw.

The victim’s family was summoned by the authorities to Hamedan from Qorveh the same night.

“University security and authorities have told the students and Negin’s family that they should claim Negin died as a result of eating expired canned fish,” the student added.

Negin Abdulmaleki’s burial was reportedly held in Qorveh on Friday, October 14, amid strong security measures.

In what a Benue state police official suspected was a revenge attack for the alleged killing of five Fulani herders in three different incidents in the area on Tuesday (Oct. 18), herdsmen the next day attacked Gbeji village in Ukum County, Benue state.

“In just two days, over 70 Christians were killed by Fulani militiamen in Gbeji community in our local government area,” said Terumbur Kartyo, chairman of the Ukum Local Government Council in Benue, state.

Kartyo added that in Guma Local Government Area, herdsmen last week shot and injured more than 100 Christians in Udei and Yelewata villages, displacing thousands.

Ukum area resident Bede Bartholomew told Morning Star News in a text message that at least 56 Christians were killed in Gbeji town last week.

“About 36 corpses of some of the victims have so far been recovered and taken to the mortuary,” he said.

Another area resident, Terrence Kuanum, said Gbeji was attacked along with the villages of Vaase, Daudu, Tyotyev, Udei and Yelwata.

“Fulani herdsmen have been wreaking havoc in many parts of the state,” he said.

Benue state government officials who visited the area last week after the attacks said the federal government’s inability to curtail the violence justifies providing high-powered arms to citizens’ defense groups.

“We are standing on our request for the federal government to give us a license for our Volunteer Guards to bear AK-47s and other sophisticated weapons,” said Secretary to the State Government Anthony Ijohor, representing Benue Gov. Samuel Ortom. “The security agencies have been overstretched and, that being the case, our people have to defend themselves.”

In Daudu, Guma LGA, herdsmen on Tuesday (Oct. 18) killed Philip Tavershima Tyohenna, a Christian who was working on his farm when attacked, area resident John Terver said.

On Oct. 12 in Yelwata, herdsmen killed five Christians, residents said.

“The Fulani herdsmen attacked our community of Yelwata at about 1 p.m. on Wednesday, 12 October. Most of the victims were Christians working on their farms,” James Orduen said. “Five corpses were recovered by members of our community on their farms. Six other Christians were shot and injured.”

Waku Christopher, a member of the Guma Local Government Council, confirmed the killing of the five Christians.

“It is true that Fulanis attacked and killed five members of our community in Yelewata,” Christopher said, adding that four of the wounded were receiving hospital treatment.

In northwestern Nigeria, five Christian girls are among the 11 high school students still in captivity after Islamic extremist militants kidnapped them in June 2021, a rights activist said.

Terrorists with Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) on June 17, 2021 abducted 70 students from the Federal Government Girls College, Birnin Yauri, in Kebbi state. Following negotiations with the Nigerian government, most of the 59 students since released were Muslims; the reasons for holding the other 11 are unknown.

“These girls have been with their captors for one year and four months – they’ve been abused, tortured and raped,” rights activist Hauwa Mustapha Babura said in a statement. “What have they done to deserve this traumatic experience?”

Babura, a Muslim, released the statement in observance of the Oct. 11 International Day of the Girl Child. She identified the Christian girls as Elizabeth Ogechi Nwafor, Esther Sunday, Rebecca James, Neempere Daniel and Bilha Musa.

Danjuma Haruna, president of the Parents/Teachers Association of Nigeria, called on the Nigerian government to ensure the release of kidnapped high school girls.

“The Nigerian government should as a matter of urgency try all it can to rescue our kidnapped children in the hands of terrorists,” Haruna said in a statement.

Kebbi state spokesman Yahaya Sarki said efforts were continuing to secure the release of the remaining students.

Mahsa Amini, 22, a Kurdish woman, was arrested in September for not wearing her hijab properly. She died three days after her arrest. Iran violently suppressed the protests that followed.

According to VOA, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has documented that as of Wednesday, 41 journalists have been detained. A handful of them were later released on bail. Most are accused of taking part in the protests they were covering.

But CPJ and other journalists' rights organizations remain concerned for those behind bars, including journalists detained in Tehran’s Evin Prison.

Four journalists believed to be held in Evin are still unaccounted for after a fire at the facility on Saturday, according to the International Federation of Journalists.

IFJ reported it had identified at least 10 journalists in the prison, including some detained in relation to the protests. Of those, six contacted family to say they were safe. But as of Monday, the families of four others had heard nothing since the fire.

“We are very concerned about the fate of our colleagues in Evin and remind the Iranian authorities that they are responsible for the lives of journalists in prison,” IFJ general secretary Anthony Bellanger said in a statement.

Bellanger called for the “release of all journalists who are unfairly detained in Evin and other prisons in Iran for doing their job.”

CFWIJ has confirmed at least 20 cases of female journalists being detained across Iran since the protests broke out.

“In a country where women in the media are in the minority, this is a significant number, and we feel the crackdown on women journalists is particularly linked to their gender and reporting,” Kiran Nazish, CFWIJ’s founding director, told VOA in an email.

“These arrests continue, despite the fact that most journalists (and activists) are also in hiding,” Nazish said.

With access to the internet blocked in many parts of Iran, getting information out and providing safety advice to those who are inside is difficult.

“This has been so consistent that most people we are in touch with think this is being done deliberately to misguide families and cause further distress,” Nazish said.

In a joint statement Monday, Human Rights Watch and dozens of other rights organizations said that since September, more than 1,000 “protesters, human rights defenders, civil society activists, journalists, university students and schoolchildren have been arbitrarily arrested and detained, some already charged with ‘acting against national security.’”

Iran is planning to criminalize the sale of virtual private networks (VPNs) used to skirt internet restrictions, a minister said on Wednesday, amid protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death.

A schoolgirl has allegedly become the latest victim of Iran’s security services after she was ‘beaten to death’ for refusing to sing a pro-regime song.

A human rights group called Friday for Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi to be protected after she was reportedly placed under house arrest for competing abroad without a hijab.

Rekabi competed last weekend in South Korea without wearing a headscarf, which is mandatory in Iran and a subject of nationwide protests sparked by the death Mahsa Amini.
[...]
The Iranian rights group HRANA estimated Thursday that over 12,500 people have been arrested during the protests and 244 killed.

Daily Sun had reported that the killings at Gidan Ityotyev, happened barely two weeks after same suspected herdsmen, invaded Gidan Sule community in neighbouring Keana LGA of the same state, killing about 10 Tiv farmers, and displacing scores of residents.

Speaking with our correspondent, Spokesperson for Gidan Ityotyev community, Ukpuu Teryila Abaa, gave the names of the community members killed during the invasion as Moses Saaku, and Aondofa Saaku.

This was even as the spokesperson continued that the marauders chopped off the breast of Kwaghdoo Saaku, a membe of the community.

However, Ukpuu, said the Gidan Ityotyev people took courage to stay put, despite the attacks and killings in their community and were able to bury the dead.

Ukpuu narrated to Journalists, that the attack on the community occurred at about 11:00pm last Friday, when almost every member of the village had gone to bed after a tedious work on their farms.

He continued that on arrival at the village, the
herdsmen opened fire in the community, forcing people who were in their sleep to wake up to confront the invaders.

“The invaders noticing the resilience from people of the Gidan Ityotyev community, withdrew from their attack immediately, and took to their heels after succeeding in killing two persons of the same family, and as well as cutting off the breast of another female member of the community with a sword.”

The spokesperson, however, expressed worries that the people of the community were in trauma following the invasion by the herdsmen, and appealed to the Nasarawa State Government to provide the villagers with security to prevent another attack.

President of Tiv Development Association in Nasarawa State, Mr Peter Ahemba, confirmed that two people were killed, and one other injured, whereas hundreds of Tiv people have been displaced in the course of the attack.

Ahemba, while blaming the attack on what he termed “conspiracy of silence” among the political class of the two LGAs of Obi and Keana.

“It is a conspiracy of silence fashioned against the Tiv people of the state by some tribal politicians of Obi and Keana Local government areas.

“The idea is to displace the Tiv people and consequently disenfranchised them in the 2023 General Elections.

Nasarawa State Police Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Ramhan Nansel, could not confirm the attack, saying that, “ ,the case is yet to be reported to the state Police Command”.

The gunmen arrived on a motorcycle and attacked the Celestial Church in Kogi state’s Lokoja area, about 65 miles from Abuja, last Sunday, the Nigerian newspaper The Guardian reported .

“When they entered, they started shooting at everyone outside the church,” a witness was quoted as saying. “I went and hid inside a cassava farm,” the witness added, comparing the incident to “an action film.”

Speaking to journalists, Jerry Omodara, Kogi state’s top security official, confirmed the attack and the consequent death of two people but did not comment on the affiliation of the gunmen.

“It looked like it was organized against that particular church, because their altar was burned with petrol they went with,” The Associated Press quoted Omodara as saying.

Another senior police officer, SP William Ovye-Aya, was quoted as saying, “There was a distress call made to our command over the attack, which left two female worshipers dead, and several others injured. On getting the alert, our command quickly deployed a response team to the area with a view to restoring normalcy in the area and arresting the perpetrators.”

About a week after the attack, it’s not known if the suspects have been arrested, or even identified.

This was the second targeted attack on a church in Lokoja area in three weeks, the newspaper said.

In late July, the Evangelical Church Winning All said in a report that suspected Fulani herdsmen and other terrorists had killed six of its pastors and kidnapped 27 others from the church group over the past seven months.

Northern Nigeria has been engulfed by terrorist attacks carried out by Muslim extremists who invade predominantly Christian communities, Mac Philips, a coordinator of ECWA’s Evangelical Missionary Society told Morning Star News at the time.

In May, unidentified terrorists killed two Catholic priests in the states of Kaduna and Edo.

Also in May, the Islamic State terrorist group released a video showing the execution of 20 Christian civilians in Borno State in revenge for the killing of their leader in Syria by the United States special forces in February.

The video, released by an IS-linked news outlet, showed a masked militant executing a Christian civilian while saying it was revenge for the killing of their leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, an Iraqi Islamic terrorist and the second “caliph” of the Islamic State.

On Pentecost Sunday earlier this year, gunmen suspected to be Islamic Fulani herdsmen barged into St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, in southwestern Nigeria, opened fire and detonated explosives while the congregation was celebrating Mass, killing at least 50 worshipers, including women and children.

Catholic News Agency has noted that more Christians are killed for their faith in Nigeria than in any other country worldwide — at least 4,650 in 2021, and nearly 900 in the first three months of 2022 alone.