₦airaland Forum

Egyptians were shocked last month by the brutal stabbing murder of a college student, Naira Ashraf, in front of Mansoura University’s gates. The killer was a spurned suitor who has been sentenced to death.

The Religion of Peace <-Source

In response, some Islamic clerics made little comment about the nature of the attack, or why a man would feel that murder is an acceptable reaction to rejection. Instead, they blamed the victim, arguing that Ashraf was killed because she didn’t wear a hijab. Islamists consider the hijab to be a requirement for Muslim woman.

While Islamists were forced from power in 2013, the response to Ashraf’s murder shows that their values still can dominate a significant portion of Egyptian culture. But there are signs that may be starting to change.

“The hijab […] aims to preserve [women’s] feminine nature,” read a 2017 statement from Egypt’s Al Azhar, the world’s most influential center on Sunni Islam.

Al Azhar’s former Islamic Studies dean Mabrouk Atteya reiterated that view in the wake of Ashraf’s murder. He called on women to wear heavy clothes and cover themselves to avoid getting killed or raped.
“For a girl that goes out of her house, she must be veiled and dressed loosely, your life is precious to you, if you want to go out wear pants and do not show your hair, fear for your life,” said Atteya.
“Let your hair loose on your face and wear tight clothes and you will be hunted by those drooling men and they will kill you. If your life is valuable for you, go out wearing a Kuffah (A traditional basket used for carrying vegetables and objects) (wome) be a Kuffah .. those who are drooling and has no money will slaughter you,” said Atteya.

After a backlash, Atteya said he was shutting down his social media accounts.

But he was far from alone. Convicted terrorists, such as Gama’a Islamiyya’s leader Assem Abdel-Maged , also attacked the murder victim and her supporters.
“For the filthy, it is forbidden to criticize the obscene display of [Ashraf] , nor her mixing with boys anything other than the innocent, nor the pimping of her father, nor her mother’s bragging,” Abdel-Maged wrote from his home in Qatar.
“They just criticize the murderer (he is definitely a criminal) and praise the murdered,” Abdel-Maged continued. Because they want to spread obscenity and seduce the nation.”

The National Council for Egyptian Women filed a complaint against Atteya with Egypt’s attorney general.
“These words cannot be stated from a man of religion. What has been said is contempt for women and incitement to violence and murder against her, which is a crime punishable by law,” said council leader Maya Morsi.

“How can a man in general, besides being a religious man, make such statements on the crime that claimed the victim of a Mansoura University student?” wrote Egyptian politician and former MP Mohamed Abu Hamed. “It is a cover that encourages and justifies committing crimes in all its forms against women.”

Al Azhar didn’t condemn Atteya’s statements. Instead, it issued a statement saying that clerics should behave in a manner befitting Al Azhar clerics. It asked the public to distinguish between personal views of one of its clerics and the institution.

Recent Al Azhar pronouncements, however, show it hasn’t moved away from its 2017 declaration about the hijab.

Before this month’s El al-Adha celebrations, an Al Azhar affiliate issued a list of “prohibitions.” Among them: women should not go out during the holiday without wearing a hijab.

“Al Azhar proclaimed itself as the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue,” wrote author Sahar El Garaa. “Going out without a veil is ‘prohibited.’ This is not a statement from the Ministry of Interior, nor a law, nor is it known: This is a guardianship on the society!! This is an intrusion on the civil state … and incitement to violence against the non-veiled!! We have become slave girls in the state of Al-Azhar!!”

“The hijab is a matter of life and death for Al Azhar. It was never about the ‘piece of cloth’ that is worn on the heads of Egyptian women, but it is a political statement by Islamists,” Egyptian author and women’s rights advocate Sherin Helal told the Investigative Project on Terrorism.

According to a 2017 study , 60 percent of Egyptian men admitted having harassed a women or girl in their lives.

Such cases are increasing, which led the parliament to issue a law last year increasing criminal penalties to up to four years in prison. Fines were increased ten-fold.

Even before this latest controversy, there were signs more Egyptian girls and women were choosing to remove their hijabs.

More recently, Egyptian social media reaction to the Ashraf killing, and the Islamist response, prompted trending hashtags on why the hijab must be removed and opposing Al Azhar.

Some shared photos of Egypt in the 1970s, when few women, including the wives and families of Al Azhar clerics, wore hijabs.

“Islamists use the veil as an imposition of their authority in their confrontation against the liberals and intellectuals,” said Helal.

For years, Al Azhar has cast hijab wearing as mandatory for Muslim women. A statement issued last month said that mandate is “on every sane adult Muslim woman, approved by the sources of Islamic legislation in the text of the Qur’an and the consensus of Muslim jurists.” It opposes any change “because it is contrary to what Muslims have agreed upon fifteen centuries ago.”

Defying the company line, Al Azhar scholar Saad El Din al-Helali confirmed that there is nothing in the Quran to justify a hijab mandate. He cited examples of women who didn’t wear the hijab and made pilgrimages during the time of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.

“There are no Quran verses that describe what parts of the women body to hide, we judge based on the social norms,” he said.

But Helali seems to be an outlier.

“Al Azhar enjoys a ‘special immunity’ to invoke Sharia rulings to justify views rooted in political Islam,” Helal, the Egyptian author, told the IPT.

“The most telling example of this is the reformation of social laws such as amending divorce laws, which has been obstructed by Al-Azhar for years,” she said.

“The fatwa authorities interfere in the enactment of social legislation, which goes against the principles of citizenship stipulated by the constitution,” she added.

The hijab has become a symbol of Islamism in Egypt. Islamist websites promote slogans such as, “My Hijab is my virtue.” Some Muslim Brotherhood elements even tried to claim that “prices will stop increasing when women wear hijab.”

Despite being ousted officially from power, Islamists still wield significant social influence. Ashraf’s murder, and the attempt to make it about her unveiled appearance, may be a turning point. But the odds of significant change are high.

“The Egyptian society is witnessing an intellectual movement recently and moving towards a more progressive thought in face of the the outdated fatwas and lame religious discourse,” Helal said, “and in my opinion this movement will not allow any forms of archaic religious discourse to prevail.”

Islamic law forbids the construction of new churches. Christians are “forbidden to ring church bells or display crosses, recite the Torah or Evangel aloud, or make public display of their funerals and feastdays, and are forbidden to build new churches” – Reliance of the Traveller o.11.5 (6,7)

Casualties reported in missile attack on Syria church opening ceremony

The Religion of Peace <-Source

Deaths and injuries were reported after an attack on a church opening ceremony in central Syria on Sunday.

At least 2 people were killed and more than 10 others wounded when a missile targeted a mass gathering in the Al-Suqaylabiyah in the Hama governorate, reported state-run SANA.

The ceremony marked the opening of the Hagia Sophia church, the construction of which began in 2020.

SANA accused Turkey-linked “terrorist groups” of firing the missile, a label given by the Syrian regime to most opposition groups in the war-torn country.

It did not provide further information.

Videos on social media showed moments the attack happened as well as the aftermath.

Other pro-regime reports said drones spotted flying over Al-Suqaylabiyah were “being dealt with by the Syrian army and national defence units,” adding that one armed drone crashed near the site of the official attack.

Related News: 3 Women Imprisoned For 55 Years For Not Wearing Hijab

Related News: Women Imprisoned For 2 Years For Taking Off Her Hijab

Related News: 20-Year-Old Lady Jailed For 24 Years For Removing Her Hijab

Related Nairaland Post: Women Arrested For Not Wearing Hijab, Others For Not Wearing Their Hijab Properly: Combine 1,700 Women Arrested

Iran’s clerical regime last week sentenced Mahboobeh Ramezani to 100 lashes for her reported peaceful protest as part of the “Mothers of Justice” campaign against the murder of her son by the Islamic Republic and her opposition to the mandatory hijab.

The Religion of Peace <-Source

The "Mothers of Justice" campaign
Ramezani has been tirelessly campaigning to secure justice for her son Pejman Gholipur, who was killed by the theocratic state in 2019 for his role in nationwide demonstrations against rising fuel prices.

Mahboubeh Remezani said to the regime: “You know well that you are demolished by Aban and [the] Aban [movement] continues, unless you kill all of the Aban families, just like what you did to our children.”

Aban refers to the Iranian calendar month of November, in which the elimination of regime opponents, protesters and dissidents took place in 2019.

Mina Bai, an Iranian-Norwegian columnist, and the Iran-based journalist Hossein Ronaghi posted messages on Twitter about the dire plight of Ramezani.

[url=https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]#BREAKING[/url] Mahboobeh Ramezani, mother of Pejman Golipoor, slain demonstrater of [url=https://twitter.com/hashtag/2019protests?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]#2019protests[/url] in Iran sentenced to 100 lashes https:///wXhAJo39Xi
— mina bai (@bai_mina) [url=https://twitter.com/bai_mina/status/1548321274899812352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]July 16, 2022[/url]

Ramezani launched her protest last week as part of a campaign within Iran to protest regime’s gender apartheid clothing policy, forcing women to wear a head scarf.

Mandatory hijab

According to a report in the US government news organization Radio Farda, Peyman Gholipur, Pejman’s brother, wrote on Telegram on July 17 that his mother’s sentence was likely linked to the campaign against the mandatory hijab that unfolded on July 12.

“The biggest reason why they fear her is that she shouts the truth,” Gholipur said. “They are afraid of her because she does not put down Pejman’s picture for a minute.” He said his mother’s only crime was “seeking justice.”

The Iranian-American human rights activist, Lawdan Bazargan, told The Jerusalem Post that ”the Islamic Republic of Iran is not legitimate because a legitimate regime does not arrest mothers who lost their children or women who are demanding freedom and justice.”
“These suppression tactics are designed to create an atmosphere of terror and fear, but Iranians courageously come to the streets daily to demand their rights,” Bazargan said. “The people are speaking up and standing up to this medieval regime, and the end of tyranny is near.”

Masih Alinejad, a Voice of America journalist and women’s rights activist, told the Post that the “Aban Mothers have become the nightmare of the Islamic Regime of Iran because they openly and bravely say that we want to get rid of the Islamic Republic.”

2019 Protests

In 2019, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, ordered his forces to murder protesters, and, according to the Reuters news organization, the regime killed roughly 1,500 protesters. Iran observers have argued since 2019 that the mass demonstrations were not only against rising gasoline prices but the very existence of Khamenei’s dictatorship.

“One of the reasons IRI is afraid of Aban Mothers is their unity against the murdering regime,” said Alinejad. “These mothers have found each other through their social networks and invite each other to the memorials they have for their children. This regime is afraid of the unity and cooperation of Aban Mothers and that’s why IRI is suppressing them.”

One source, an Iranian leader of the mother’s campaign who wishes to remain anonymous so as to not endanger the security of family members in Iran, told the Post that the Mothers of Justice campaign does not want “any other mother to be holding a frame of her child’s picture in arms seeking justice, and while the Islamic Republic tyranny rules, this tragedy will not end.”

When asked what the international community can do to help Mothers of Justice, the Iranian source said that “Mothers of Justice and other justice and freedom fighters in Iran have raised their voice many times to the international community to not sacrifice human rights in negotiating and dealing with the men of the Islamic Republic. Prioritizing human rights and international demand of the regime to step back in violation is a big support.”

According to the source, “Mothers of Justice have declared many times that for them to be empowered in their struggle against the regime’s forces, they need a louder and wider echo of their voice.

The Islamic Republic regime has vastly entered and controlled social media, especially Twitter and Instagram within the past years and uses different methods in suppressing voices, such as cutting the Internet, which has become a routine in heat of the protests.”

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A Christian in eastern Uganda died from head injuries sustained in an attack by Muslim the previous week, sources said.

The Religion of Peace <-Source

Robert Bwenje had accompanied Assistant Pastor Ambrose Mugisha of Elim Pentecostal Church in Nyamiringa village, Kapeke Sub-County, Kiboga District, to an open-air debate about Christianity and Islam in Sirimula village, Kyankwanzi District on July 6.

Following the debate, eight Muslims including two women put their faith in Christ, said Pastor Mugisha, 25.
“This angered the Muslims, but they could not attack us because we had tight security from the police,” he said.

As the assistant pastor and Bwenje returned, Muslims from Sirimula village ambushed them while they were crossing a swamp, he said.

“We saw men dressed in Islamic attire coming from the bush in different directions and shouting ‘Allah akbar , Allah akbar [Allah is greater],’” Pastor Mugisha told Morning Star News.

He identified two of the assailants as Ashirafu Kasamba and Kabagambe Kadiri, who forced them to hand over Bibles and other books they were carrying, he said.

“They removed the Koran and then burned the rest of the books, including the Bibles, and then beat us with sticks,” Pastor Mugisha said. “I was able to identify Ashirafu Kasamba who cut me on the head. I then jumped into the water and managed to swim and cross to the other side.”

Passersby found him bleeding and rescued him, he said. The assailants continued assaulting Bwenje and then fled, and the passersby took both wounded Christians to a nearby clinic for first aid and then later to a hospital in Kiboga, Pastor Mugisha said.

Pastor Godfrey Ssemujju of Elim Pentecostal Church said he visited Pastor Mugisha and Bwenje in the hospital, and Bwenje died later that night at about 11 p.m. Bwenje was 28.

“Bwenje succumbed to deep head injuries, and we buried him on July 12,” Pastor Ssemujju told Morning Star News. “We reported the incident at Kiboga Central police station.”

Police arrested Kasamba and charged him with attempted murder, he said.

“The police are mounting serious searches for the other attackers,” Pastor Ssemujju said. “We need prayers for the safety of our church members and our church building, as well as quick healing of our pastor, support for the widow of the Robert Bwenje and medical bill support for Pastor Mugisha.”

The church had sent the assistant pastor to establish a church in Sirimula village, and in the course of his outreach, debates and open-air campaigns, he began to receive challenges and threats from Muslims, especially from Kasamba, Pastor Mugisha said. In April Pastor Mugisha and five Muslims who converted to Christianity had fled the area.

Muslims continued sending threatening messages to his phone, including one from Kasamba that read, “We are giving days to bring back the Muslims that you converted to Christianity. We know you are hiding them,” according to Pastor Mugisha.

CHURCH BUILDING DEMOLISHED

In Kiboga District on June 26, Muslim extremists from Kindeke village attacked Pastor Baingana James, demolished his church building in Rwomuriro village and threatened to kill him if he continued leading Muslims to Christ, the 48-year-old pastor said.

Pastor James said that he received a phone call the morning of June 23 from a Muslim who identified himself as Sheikh Mwesigye Ja’afari of Kindeke telling him to leave and also to return to Islam seven Muslims who had converted to Christianity after they received healing prayer.

“We therefore want to warn you to leave the place within two days, if not we are coming to destroy your home and church,” Ja’afari told him, the pastor said.
He did not take the threat seriously, but on the morning of June 26 he found a letter on his door ordering him to stop Sunday services and close the church, he said.

“I refused, because preaching Jesus Christ is my calling, and planting churches is my vision in this area,” Pastor James said.

While he and his congregation were still in their Sunday service on that day, they saw group of Muslim youths led by Ja’afari ambushing them from different directions with clubs and sticks.

“They started beating us, including mothers who were breastfeeding and youths, while shouting in four languages – English, Luganda, Swahili and Arabic – and ordering us to stop the service and leave immediately,” Pastor James told Morning Star News. “As we were struggling to go out in serious panic and tension while others were with serious injuries, they started breaking and pulling down the building.”

In March, a group of Muslims from Rwentuha village demolished the same church’s building under construction, and complaints to local leaders fell on deaf ears, he said.

“My prayer is that God help us and make a way to convert these people to Christ, and we need serious help for the victims who were cut during the attack,” Pastor James said.

The attacks were the latest of many instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda that Morning Star News has documented.

Indonesia: Despite being a constitutionally secular state, Indonesia, which is majority-Muslim, retains repressive dress codes for women and girls in many provinces across the country. At least 24 of the country’s 34 provinces enforce these regulations, with officials forcing girls who do not comply to leave school and women who refuse to resign from their jobs.

The Religion of Peace <-Source

Human Rights Watch recently published an article examining these regulations, which are inspired by Sharia law, and sharing the responses of Indonesian women and girls. The piece calls on the Indonesian Home Affairs Ministry, which oversees local governments, to invalidate the more than 60 local dress code laws that exist across the country.

“President Joko Widodo should immediately overturn discriminatory, rights-abusing provincial and local decrees that violate the rights of women and girls, ” said Elaine Pearson, acting Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “These decrees do real harm and as a practical matter will only be ended by central government action.”

Three regencies in Indonesia first implemented these discriminatory laws in 2001, and the restrictions spread over the last two decades. Today, millions of girls and women in Indonesia are compelled to wear the hijab, a female headdress covering the hair, neck, and chest, usually in combination with a long skirt and a long sleeve shirt.

There is negative social pressure and threats of sanctions levied on women who object to the regulations.

In a 2021 report published by Human Rights watch, bullying and intimidation are common tactics used to force girls and women to wear the hijab. This form of oppression can occur at work or school or even virtually over social media.

Human Rights Watch said, “nearly 150,000 schools in Indonesia’s 24 Muslim-majority provinces currently enforce mandatory jilbab rules, based on both local and national regulations. In some conservative Muslim areas such as Aceh and West Sumatra, even non-Muslim girls have also been forced to wear the hijab.”

A group of armed men stormed a secure facility in Qatar used to feed and shelter stray dogs, killing 29 of them and injuring others over claims that one of them had bitten one of the men's children.

The Religion of Peace <-Source

According to the Independent, the unidentified gunmen threatened security guards with weapons before entering a secure factory area, where the stray dogs are looked by the community. The assailants are then thought to have shot 29 dogs, including puppies, leaving others badly injured.

Speaking to the Independent, a source described the incident as "horrific" with people running for cover as the group of men shot at the defenceless animals. The source added that after the shootings, a number of animals have still not been found, and locals fear they are hiding, possibly with terrible injuries.

The incident on 10 July was confirmed on social media by the Doha-based rescue charity PAWS Rescue Qatar, who mentioned that the group turned up on the first day of Eid.

"The security team tried to stop the men from shooting a group of beautiful friendly neutered dogs, but they realised that they were also putting themselves in danger also," the organisation stated, adding that the animals posed no threat to anyone and were well looked after. One puppy is fighting to survive under a vet's care.

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Joey4321:
Backwardness

That's what they bring to wherever they find themselves.

Four Sudanese Christian men were arrested for violating a previously annulled apostasy law — a law demanding a death sentence for leaving Islam. This latest report of Christian persecution has led to increasing concern about Sudan’s future, thanks to a 2021 military coup that shattered widespread hopes for continuing freedom of worship.

The Religion of Peace <-Source

Those of us who have been involved in the international religious freedom movement for many years have clear memories of Sudan’s bloodstained decades, marked by the brutality and death suffered by untold thousands of Sudanese Christians. This extreme violence took place during the ruthless dictatorship of former President Omar Bashir which began in 1989. He ruled with an iron fist until he was indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2009 for vicious violence against civilians.

Bashir’s arrest was followed by an international sigh of relief, when a transitional government replaced him in September 2019. The new leaders took assertive steps toward justice, including the toleration of “apostasy” — meaning the rejection of Islam — which had demanded a death sentence. Sudan’s 2020 Fundamental Rights and Freedoms Act prohibited the labeling of any group as “infidels” (takfir).

That same year, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) published an optimistic report titled, “One Year of Progress Advancing Religious Freedom in Sudan.” In February, a USCIRF delegation, led by then-Chair Tony Perkins and Commissioner Anurima Bhargava, traveled to Sudan to assess religious freedom conditions since the revolution. Their report provided reason for optimism. “USCIRF has been encouraged by the transitional government’s willingness to dialogue and engage on religious freedom issues.”

But then, tragically, after two years of real progress following Bashir’s downfall, a military coup on October 25, 2021 led to the return of deadly state-sponsored persecution. Before long, reports of arrested believers, many of whom had converted from Islam to Christianity, began to reappear.

Then, just days ago in late June, the story surfaced that four men from the Sudanese Baptist Church in Zalingei, in Central Darfur had been arrested on charges of apostasy. Those Christian converts from Islam — Bader el Dean Haroon Abdel Jabaar and his brother Mohammad Haroon Abdel Jabaar, along with Tariq Adam Abdalla and Morthada Ismail — were taken into custody on charges that might soon cost them their lives.

Morning Star News explained that the Christians were arrested over allegations of apostasy under Article 126 of Sudan’s 1991 criminal code. Significantly, “…In July 2020, the transitional government that took effect in September 2019 decriminalized apostasy, which had been punishable by death. Sudan’s 2020 Fundamental Rights and Freedoms Act prohibits the labeling of any group as ‘infidels’ (takfir), according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).”

The 2020 Act had also repealed other articles, such as public flogging as a punishment, and prohibitions against drinking alcohol. But although human rights activists argue that prosecutors have mistakenly used a repealed article of the criminal code against the four Christians, the men were viciously abused, and their Bibles were confiscated before they were released. Their court appearance is scheduled within a week. And without question, they remain in life-or-death circumstances.

A source close to the present situation, who must remain anonymous, has described for us in further detail the cruel treatment of the arrested men and what their case portends for Sudan.

“What happens with the four Christian leaders who were arrested in Zalingei, Darfur Sudan will be a turning point for Sudan. After the apostacy clause in the law was abolished by Sudan’s transitional government in 2021, the leader of the Baptist Church petitioned the governor of the Zalingei area to build a physical church building, and permission was granted.But now, this effort by local government to revert to the defunct Islamic law is a test for Sudan’s struggling central government in Khartoum. It seems to dispel any hopes for forward progress toward their proclaimed desire for religious freedom.

The four who were arrested were beaten, tortured, and released — but only when someone posted what was the equivalent of bail. Therefore, though in hiding, these men cannot flee. Instead, they have been told that at their court date, if they don’t recant their Christian faith, they will be put to death. Meanwhile, newspapers in Khartoum are silent, which is not a good sign.”

Regrettably, today, the eyes of those who stand guard over religious freedom must turn once again toward Sudan. With sadness and concern, we’ll watch and pray that a national relapse into radical Islamist ideology will not engulf the country. Meanwhile, USCIRF may be called upon to speak out against yet another revolution — an upheaval that will rob the long-suffering Sudanese people of their new-found and cherished freedom.

Related Post: Rise Of Islamism Put Women At Risk

In Islamic Turkey Women Are Being Killed Now More Than Ever In The Name Of Islam.

ANKARA, Turkey — A top administrative court in Turkey ruled Tuesday that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision to pull the country out of a key European treaty protecting women from violence was lawful, rejecting petitions seeking its cancellation, the state-run news agency reported.

The Religion of Peace <-Source

Erdogan withdrew Turkey from the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention last year, prompting condemnation from women’s rights groups and Western countries. The landmark convention was signed in Istanbul in 2011.

Several women’s groups and other organizations had petitioned the Council of State, arguing that Erdogan’s move to pull out of the treaty through a presidential decree was unlawful. The court’s judges, however, ruled by a majority decision to reject the petitions, Anadolu Agency reported.

Yilmaz Tunc, a member of Erdogan’s ruling party, welcomed the court’s decision, saying it would put an end to “discussions that lack a legal basis.” The main opposition party leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, vowed to return Turkey to the convention “within a week or even 24 hours” should his center-left party come to power in an election next year.

Last year’s decision to leave the convention came after some officials from Erdogan’s Islam-oriented party had advocated for a review of the agreement, arguing it was inconsistent with Turkey’s conservative values by encouraging divorce and undermining the traditional family unit.

Iran: In the Muslim-dominated state of Iran, courts have recently targeted four more Christians for house-church activities. One Christian victim is Rahmat Rostamipour. Authorities arrested him in April. During his initial arrest, government agents seized his family’s phones, ID cards, tablets used for school, and other personal belongings. They also interrogated his wife for hours the next day. Two months ago in May, the courts sentenced him to five years of deprivation of social rights and a fine of 6 million tomans for “ engaging in educational activities contrary to the holy religion of Islam by establishing house-churches. ” This punishment is relatively light but still labels Rahmat with a criminal record and deprives him of a month’s worth of wages via the fine.

The Religion of Peace <-Source

In another, even more proximate case, three Christian house-church members are standing trial today, on July 19, for a crime that they have already been convicted of. In their previous trial, the three men, Ahmad Sarparast, Morteza Mashoodkari, and Ayoob Poor-Rezazadeh, were sentenced to five years in prison. The crime in both their previous and present trials and for which they face significant jail time is “engaging in propaganda and education of deviant beliefs contrary to the holy Sharia.” The three men argued in a July 5 hearing that they “ reserve the right to have a place for prayer and collective worship.”

Though Iran’s constitution does recognize Christianity as a minority faith in the country, authorities do not recognize the Christianity of converts.

These converts are not allowed to attend the churches of established Christian communities, such as Armenian and Assyrian Christians, leaving them with nowhere to gather for communal worship and prayer other than house-churches.

But the unsanctioned nature of these house churches makes them vulnerable to government persecution, labeling them as offensive to Islam and a threat to national security.

We pray that Christian house churches in Iran would find relief from the harsh persecution that they presently face and that members of house churches threatened with legal repercussions would find justice.

Gangrape of a drugged 13-year-old girl who dies at the end of the ordeal. For the Austrian justice system, this is no reason for a murder charge against the Afghan quartet (16,18,22,23 y/o ). Only the sexual assault of the schoolgirl from Tulln will be tried.

The Religion of Peace <-Source

As far as one can believe the media coverage, which is largely consistent from the newspapers Standard to Heute, no negligent homicide or failure to render assistance is being dealt with.

On June 25, the 13-year-old girl was partying with four Afghan men, who are also referred to as “refugees”. She was found dead the next day – leaning against a tree on a grass verge in the Vienna city area.

The spokeswoman of the public prosecutor’s office, Nina Bussek, informed the public that the three suspects have to answer to charges of rape and aggravated sexual abuse. No word of murder, involuntary manslaughter or failure to render assistance. Not a word about substance abuse. The question for the legal layman is: why?

During the “party”, the Afghans drugged the young schoolgirl, she received an overdose of ecstasy, possibly other drugs were also involved. At least two of the people present took advantage of their defenceless victim. When the girl fainted, they tried to give her milk and yoghurt. In vain, she died. The body was wrapped in a carpet and taken to the above-mentioned place where it was found. Instead of calling for rescue in time, they accepted her death and dumped her like rubbish.

The trial can be awaited with excitement. It is to be expected that the defence will argue that these are poor, traumatised refugees who would by now be well integrated in Austria and whose lives should not be upset by a harsh judgement. The fact that the 13-year-old Austrian girl Leonie died because of their actions is hardly more than a footnote. For “only” the rape of a minor is being tried.

Shocking image of knifeman sex offender slashing 17-year-old's throat on bus in random attack

The Religion of Peace <-Source

CCTV images have been released of a convicted sex offender who slashed a boy's throat on a bus.

The boy's 16 year-old girlfriend tried to stop Hamid Akhonzada as he 'held his head back and drew a bladed article described as a steak knife across the throat', a court heard. Akhonzada said he heard voices in his head while on the journey 'telling him to stab somebody' - but that he also told a probation officer he left his home that day wanting to “stab” someone.

Chester Crown Court heard on Friday (July 8 ) how Akhonzada launched the "unprovoked" attack on a bus service in Runcorn on May 8 last year, the Liverpool Echo reports.

Dafydd Roberts, prosecuting, told how the youth tried to fight back as Akhonzada drew a knife on him. The struggle moved to the baggage hold, where Akhonzada punched the boy several times, before fleeing after the bus came to a stop. Officers from Cheshire Police arrived to find the youth pressing a covid facemask to his bleeding neck.

The boy was later treated in hospital, with wounds described as "scratches" and "cuts" which were closed with glue and stitches. His 16 year-old girlfriend was also slightly injured during the incident as she tried to help him.

The CCTV image was taken as part of a series of CCTV clips from the vehicle that captured the attack.

Dafydd Roberts, prosecuting, said Akhonzada was arrested in Croydon, London on May 14, and within days of entering custody had succumbed to what Judge Michael Leeming described as a “compulsion” for violence by beating a HMP Altcourse prison officer unconscious.

The court heard Akhonzada had been moved north to Runcorn from Croydon with no continuity of care despite suffering a “major psychotic disorder”, namely schizophrenia, and having been convicted 10 times for 23 offences including violence and one count of sexual assault in the past.

Officials moved him to Halton after the Home Office failed to deport him to his Afghanistan homeland, which he fled as a refugee aged 16 following a series of traumas including his father being murdered, witnessing someone being killed, and his brother’s death in custody following his arrest by a “corrupt police chief” leading to Akhonzada being arrested on "trumped up terrorism charges” and demands for him to marry the rogue cop’s physically and mentally impaired daughter.

Following his arrest in Croydon, where he had lived prior to being moved to Runcorn, and having been deemed fit to plead, Akhonzada pleaded guilty to Section 18 wounding with intent, having a bladed article in public and assaulting an emergency worker.

Kevin Slack, defending, recounted details of Akhonzada’s “major psychotic disorder” and harrowing background, and added Akhonzada’s problems had not been “picked up” by health services when he arrived in Runcorn, and nor was he recommended for medication when he last left prison for a previous offence, which Mr Slack branded a “mistake” that won’t be “made again”.

Judge Leeming acknowledged the knifeman’s serious mental illness - his sense of feeling “special” and “close to God” - as well as his “traumatic childhood”, but said Akhonzada had left his home address with an intent to “stab” someone and had tried to “self-medicate” with spice and cannabis instead of seeking proper medical support.

The judge jailed him for four years plus four years on extended licence for dangerousness.

Judge Leeming said: “Your record for violence and sexual assault is a statutory aggravating factor. There’s an established pattern here of violent and aggressive behaviour.
“The timing and location in the attacks are both relevant, in the first instance on public transport in the presence of other members of the public.
“The footage clearly shows how shocked the other passengers were on the bus, and it took place in a confined space at the back of the bus.”

Islamabad [Pakistan]: Pakistan’s ‘jirga’ (tribal council) of elders announced a ban on women’s entry to tourist spots and said that they will take it upon themselves to enforce the decision if the government did not impose it by Sunday.

The Religion of Peace <-Source

Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), one of the members of the ruling coalition, organised the all-male Salarzai tehsil’s jirga in the hilly Danqool area on Saturday, the Dawn newspaper reported.

In the Global Gender Gap Report which was released by WEF on Wednesday, Pakistan ranked as the second-worst country in terms of gender parity.

Several JUI-F leaders and religious figures of the region were present during the gathering along with several elders from various tribes and areas of the Salarzai tehsil.

Concerns were expressed over the ‘unethical’ activities in the name of entertainment at Ragagan dam on Thursday, local media reported.

Maulana Abdur Rasheed, JUI-F district chief and Khar tehsil council chairman, along with other speakers said that the jirga was meant to discuss and resolve the issues of the region that emerged during Eid peacefully and amicably.

During the gathering, the speakers said that several local women visited different tourist and picnic spots in the Eid holidays to attend musical concerts and boat rides, either with their husbands or other relatives, adding that it was against the local customs and traditions based on Islamic principles.

The participants were also told that there was no room for tourism and entertainment in Islam and local traditions and they were termed “totally unethical and unacceptable.”

The decision to restrict women’s entry to tourist/picnic spots was announced by Maulana Rasheed, who called it a “joint declaration” of the jirga, local media reported.

“We want to promote tourism in our areas as it is vital for the socio-economic development of the region. We are only against women visiting such areas as it was in contrast to our customs and traditions. Hence, the jirga banned it,” he said.

Rasheed said that a complete ban on women’s entry to picnic sites, with or without husbands, was approved by all the participants.

The jirga asked the residents of the Salarzai region not to take women in their families to picnic places now, and the local authorities were asked to recruit local residents in various departments in the district instead of outsiders, Rasheed said as quoted by local media.

Even though the party has influence in the tribal district, social activists said that the decision did not have any legal or constitutional backing.

In the Video in the link below, we see a Muslim mob violently ripping a six year old girl from her mother and carrying her off to a pedophile. The mother tried to stop them, but the mob overpower her. This is the life of women and girls in Islamic utopia.

You will have to agree you are 18+ before you can view the video.
The video is marked NSFW.

https://old.reddit.com/r/exmuslim/comments/w2vxf3/6_year_old_afghan_girl_snatched_from_her_mother/

https://reddit.com/r/exmuslim/comments/w2vxf3/6_year_old_afghan_girl_snatched_from_her_mother/

An imam appointed by Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) to a mosque in the western province of Balıkesir has been arrested on allegations of sexually abusing four boys and three girls between the ages of eight and twelve, the Cumhuriyet daily reported on Saturday.

The Religion of Peace <-Source

The man, who was appointed by the Diyanet as imam of a mosque in Dursunbey’s Ericek neighborhood, was arrested after an investigation was launched into him on July 7. He was detained the day after over claims that he had sexually abused seven children two months ago.

The imam, who was arrested pending trial and sent to Kepsut Prison in Balıkesir, was appointed to the post by the Balıkesir provincial director of the Diyanet three months earlier, Cumhuriyet said.

Commenting on the development, Muhammet Karakoyun, president of the Balıkesir Street Children’s Association, said it was “extremely serious and worrying,” adding that they would follow the trial to make sure the imam receives the heaviest sentence possible.

Karakoyun also questioned whether the Diyanet effectively investigates its officials to see if they have criminal tendencies before appointing them as imams.

Turkey ratified the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, also known as the Lanzarote Convention, in 2011. According to the convention Turkey is not only responsible for prosecuting child abusers but also for preventing child abuse.

Despite the convention, cases of child sexual abuse have hit record levels in Turkey in recent years, with children being the victims of 46 percent of all sexual assault cases in Turkey. Moreover, Turkey ranks third in sexual abuse cases worldwide. According to Ministry of Justice data, sexual misconduct against children increased 29 percent between 2012 and 2019.

A report by human rights defender and main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker Sezgin Tanrıkulu also revealed in November 2021 that 160 children were subjected to sexual abuse in Turkey in the first 10 months of 2021.

An amendment to the Code on Criminal Procedure which stipulates that instead of taking victim testimony, tangible evidence will be required in child abuse cases was approved by the Turkish Parliament in July 2021 with the votes of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its ally the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

Legal experts have criticized the amendment, saying it will make it more difficult for child abusers to be prosecuted because witness testimony or other forms of tangible evidence such as DNA samples will be necessary for a conviction and it would be exceedingly difficult to collect tangible evidence in abuse cases.

Pet owners in Iran could soon be punished and face fines or penalties, if parliament passes a new bill to restrict the ownership of domestic animals across the country, the BBC reported on Tuesday.

The Religion of Peace

Under the proposed legislation, to own a pet, residents in Iran must obtain a permit from a special committee, according to the BBC.

There would also reportedly be a minimum fine of around $800 for the “import, purchase and sale, transportation and keeping” of certain animals, including pets such as cats, turtles and rabbits.

“Debates around this bill started more than a decade ago, when a group of Iranian MPs tried to promote a law to confiscate all dogs and give them to zoos or leave them in deserts,” President of the Iran Veterinary Association and an opponent of the bill Dr Payam Moheni, told the BBC.
“Over the years, they have changed this a couple of times and even discussed corporal punishment for dog owners. But their plan didn't get anywhere."

Authorities have recently been clamping down on pet ownership in Iran, with a new wave of arrests of pet owners and seizures of their animals in Iranian capital city, Tehran, the British broadcaster said.

Police also reportedly recently announced that walking dogs in the park was a crime, the BBC said, justified as a measure to “protect the safety of the public.”

Owning dogs, for example, has always been common in rural parts of the country according to the BBC, even though dogs are considered impure in Islamic tradition.

But in the eyes of the current regime dogs also reportedly became a symbol of the “Westernization” that it seeks to curb.

“Police forces arrest people for walking their dogs or even carrying them in their cars based on their interpretation of what could be seen as symbols of Westernization,” Ashkan Shemirani, a Tehran-based veterinarian, told the BBC.

Shemirani told the BBC that authorities even created a “prison” for the seized pets.
“The animals were kept for many days in open areas without proper food or water while the dog owners were going through all kinds of legal trouble,” he added.

Authorities have also reportedly banned imports of pet food for more than three years as part of a push to preserve the country's foreign currency reserves.
But that caused a spike in local prices, especially after the establishment of an underground market, the BBC said.

“We are highly dependent on people who smuggle in food secretly,” the owner of a veterinary clinic in the city of Mashhad told the BBC.
“The prices are now five times what they were just a few months ago.

Related Post: Women Protest Against Hijab, Accused Of Promoting Moral Corruption

The Chief of Police of Kermanshah in western Iran said 1,700 people were summoned over “improper hijab” since the beginning of the Persian year in late March.

The Religion of Peace <-Source

In comments carried by the state-run Tabnak website, Ali Akbar Javidan said those who don’t observe hijab laws would be punished.

“Regarding the issue of chastity and hijab, 26 systems are directly involved, and six systems are indirectly active in the province,” he added.

Javidan claimed that the “observation of the hijab was one of the demands of the people” adding that since the beginning of the Persian year, the police had given notices to 22,000 people in the field of moral security and observing the hijab.

Kermanshah’s Chief of Police said police surveillance on recreational, historical, tourism, and commercial centers and even travel agencies and tourist tours had intensified adding that “the surveillance of cafes and restaurants has also increased and in case of any violation of the law, they will be dealt with”.

Javidan referred to the “surveillance plan” and said the plan would deal with the “problem of people not wearing hijab or having improper hijab in cars”.
“The first time, our colleagues will only give a warning, and if the owner of the car repeats it, he/she will be summoned to the moral security police and will have to sign a commitment. If a person who has been summoned to the moral security police does not report within 10 days, his/her car will be impounded.”

The Chief of Police also said dog walking was banned in Kermanshah.

“If our colleagues observe dog walking, the dogs will be handed over to the municipality to be kept in the special centers that have been established for this reason, and if the dog owners repeat the transgression, a judicial case will be filed against them.”

France: Pensioner’s throat slit by a Moroccan in front of a church – group of North Africans riot while he is arrested

The Religion of Peace <-Source

Michel R., an “inconspicuous” resident of the old town of Trappes, had his throat cut while out for a walk on Sunday July 10. The suspected murderer was a certain Mouhssine K., who was “unbalanced” and “well known to the police authorities”. The investigation was hampered by riots in the city, incited by the brother of the suspected murderer, Mounir K..

A human tragedy happened so quickly… On Sunday July 10, at around 1 pm, while strolling in the sunshine through a park in the old town of Trappes in the department of Yvelines, just a few metres from his house and the Saint-Georges church, 66-year-old Michel R. had his throat slit ” for no reason “. His attacker stabbed him twice in the carotid artery before fleeing, an initial police report said, but the autopsy revealed that the victim had suffered ten knife wounds.

Kashmir Man Arrested Over Threats To Mumbai Girl Over Social Media Post
"The girl received calls and Whatsapp messages containing death and sexual threats from three numbers on July 1, after which her parents lodged a complaint the next day," a police official said.

The Religion of Peace <-Source

New Delhi: A man was arrested from Jammu and Kashmir for allegedly issuing death and sexual threats to a 15-year-old girl after she posted a video expressing her views on the June 28 killing of tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur in Rajasthan, a Mumbai police official said on Monday.

Fayyaz Ahmed Bhatt (30) was arrested on Sunday from Badgam in Jammu and Kashmir with the help of police in the Union Territory, the VP Road police station official said.

"The girl received calls and Whatsapp messages containing death and sexual threats from three numbers on July 1, after which her parents lodged a complaint the next day," he said.

A special team of Mumbai police arrested Bhatt and charged him under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act.

He has been remanded in police custody for three days and further probe was underway.

Kanhaiya Lal was killed with a cleaver inside his tailoring shop on June 28 by two persons who claimed they were avenging an insult to Islam. The National Investigation Agency has arrested seven persons so far in the case.

Kaduna, Nigeria: Almost 200 children were tortured and raped in a Quran school, the youngest were “forced to perform homosexual acts”, among other things

The Religion of Peace <-Source

Nigeria was shocked to discover on Friday the existence of a madrassa in Kaduna in the north of the country where numerous boys, including minors, were tortured and raped before being rescued by police.

In a raid on Thursday evening on a house in the Rigasa district, Kaduna police discovered pupils and students of “various nationalities” locked and chained in what the media has since dubbed the “house of horrors”. The figure verified by VOA Africa confirms the release of 190 children.

In the few photos that have been circulated in the Nigerian press, there are pictures of a child whose back is covered with open wounds obviously caused by whipping, another whose feet are chained to iron bars, and a crowd of boys crammed into an unhygienic courtyard.

Police also found a “torture chamber” where students were hung from chains and beaten if teachers thought they had done something improper.

The police raid was initiated following repeated complaints from neighbours who suspected that something was amiss inside the school.

“The victims had different nationalities and two of them testified during their interrogation that they had been brought from Burkina Faso by their parents,” the spokesperson added.

“They claim to teach us the Quran and Islam, but they do many things here. They force the youngest to have homosexual sex,” he testified. “Those who tried to escape from here were severely punished: they were tied up and hung from the ceiling.
“During my short stay here, someone died as a result of the torture. Others had died before because of health problems and the torture. They give us very bad food and we only eat twice a day,” Bello Hamza reported.

The school, which opened about ten years ago, housed students brought by their families to teach them the Quran, but mainly to bring petty criminals or drug users back on track.

In the predominantly Muslim north of Nigeria, there are numerous more or less formal “reformatories” where strict religious instruction is given.

Iranian women protest against the compulsory hijab mandated by Islamic rulers, share pictures and videos removing veils on social media

The Religion of Peace <-Source

Iranian women are defying the laws requiring them to cover their hair in public by recording themselves taking off their hijabs in an act of defiance against the nation’s hardline president. The women are posting images of themselves removing their hijabs to protest Islamic laws that forbids women from exposing their hair in public.

The current uproar against the hijab law, according to President Ebrahim Raisi, a cleric supported by the country’s ultra-conservative religious elite, is “an organised promotion of moral corruption in Islamic society.”

The government declared July 12 as “Hijab and Chastity Day,” which means that activities will be staged to support regulations that require women to wear the hijab. Men have been showing their solidarity as Iranian women remove their headscarves to protest the day.

As the country’s Islamic rulers press down on “immoral behaviour,” Iranian rights groups have urged women to openly remove their veils on Tuesday and breach the Islamic dress code. Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist, author and women’s rights activist, who has been fighting a battle against Islamic veils for women made mandatory in Islamic nations, supported the move saying, “Iranian women will shake the clerical regime by removing their hijab and taking to the streets across Iran.”

In the crackdown, the so-called “morality police” have arrested women, with allegations that certain authorities have asked that public transportation personnel, as well as staff in government offices, and banks overlook so-called “bad-hijab” ladies. “Morality police” have been observing medical facilities and educational institutions in numerous Iranian cities to make sure women are covering their heads.

Iranian authorities recently detained several teenage girls and others for not donning hijabs at a skateboarding competition in Shiraz, a city in southern Iran.

It is worth emphasising that women in Iran are forced to wear a hijab, which covers the head and neck and hides the hair, under Islamic law, which has been in place since the 1979 revolution. While Iranian women battle to be emancipated from the restrictions of headscarves, the hijab is used to further the Islamic agenda across the world.

Iranian women are joining a massive anti-hijab campaign across Iran, shooting videos of themselves defying the Islamic Republic’s [url=https://twitter.com/hashtag/hijab?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]#hijab[/url] rules in public places. [url=https://twitter.com/hashtag/No2Hijab?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]#No2Hijab[/url] [url=https://twitter.com/hashtag/WalkingUnveiled?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]#WalkingUnveiled[/url]
pic.twitter.com/06ZP7WgwFj
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En)
[url=

Iranian women are joining a massive anti-hijab campaign across Iran, shooting videos of themselves defying the Islamic Republic’s #hijab rules in public places.#No2Hijab #WalkingUnveiled pic.twitter.com/06ZP7WgwFj

— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) July 12, 2022

12, 2022[/url]

Tomorrow Iranian women will shake the clerical regime by removing their hijab and taking to the streets across Iran to say
[url=https://twitter.com/hashtag/No2Hijab?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]#No2Hijab[/url] . This is called Women Revolution.
In iran [url=https://twitter.com/hashtag/WalkingUnveiled?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]#WalkingUnveiled[/url] is a crime.
Iranian men will also join us. [url=https://twitter.com/hashtag/حجاب_بی_حجاب?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]# ﺣﺠﺎﺏ _ ﺑﯽ _ ﺣﺠﺎﺏ[/url] pic.twitter.com/pu3uUA1teM
— Masih Alinejad (@AlinejadMasih)
[url=https://twitter.com/AlinejadMasih/status/1546654986544840706?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]July 12, 2022[/url]

Related News:
Woman Jailed For A Total Of 24 Years - Including 15 For "Spreading Prostitution By Taking Off Her Hijab" In Iran. <-Source

A Hindu girl, reportedly a minor, was attacked with a blade on her neck and face by a man named Mohammed Danish Khan in Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi district on Monday evening.

The Religion of Peace <-Source

The girl is in the hospital and, as per police, her life is out of danger.

The girl’s mother told the media that the girl had gone to her coaching institute when Danish tried to kill her with the weapon. She was saved only because a friend of hers appeared on the scene.

When asked about Danish, the mother said that he was a stalker who was after her daughter for two years, and he had managed to get her phone number from the coaching institute.

“Three months ago, we went to his house to talk to him. He apologised to us and promised that he would not go after our daughter. His mother held out feet in apology too. But today, he attacked my daughter,” she said.

The mother further told the media that the cuts were deep and many.

The official Twitter account of Jhansi Police posted a statement by a police officer on Tuesday.

The officer says, “When the victim’s family was questioned, it came to light that the girl used to talk to the boy in the past. It was regarding this that a spat broke out between the girl and the boy. The boy has been booked under IP section 307 (attempt to murder).”

The officer says five teams have been formed to arrest the culprit.

As per a report by Dainik Bhaskar, the girl is a student of Class XII and her father is no more. The perpetrator, Danish, is a resident of Karari village near Gwalior Road in Jhansi.

Swarajya has been reporting on the issue of targeting of women, particularly minor girls, for conversion to Islam. These cases often involve Muslim men hiding their name and identity to trap women in relationships to eventually convert them or killing them for refusing to do conversion- nikah .

When a college student named Nikita Tomar was killed by Mohammed Tausif Ahmed in 2020 in Haryana’s Faridabad district, her family put a large banner outside the house that said, “Nikita Tomar (1999-2020). Shot dead by Tousif in broad daylite [daylight] for refusing to convert and marry him.”

Forced marriage in Germany: “That’s the way things are in Islam”

The Religion of Peace

Yasmin (name altered) has a presentiment. She has just turned 16. In the past weeks, she was not allowed to take a single step on her own. Her brothers picked her up from school and her parents forbade her to meet her friends. Now the whole family is going to visit relatives in Lebanon during the holidays. The parents have given a cousin’s wedding as the reason for the trip. But Yasmin fears it will be her own. She does not know to whom she was promised.

Myria Böhmecke from the women’s rights organisation Terre des Femmes knows of many cases that have happened in this or similar ways. In big German cities like Berlin, Hamburg or Frankfurt, forced marriages of girls and young Muslim women are no longer a marginal phenomenon but widespread.

The last nationwide study on forced marriages was commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs in 2008. It surveyed counselling centres: 3443 people, mainly young women, had asked for help there in the course of a year because of a threatened (60 percent) or already enforced (40 percent) forced marriage. “We assume that the number of unreported cases is much, much higher,” says Böhmecke. Especially minors do not dare to seek help in counselling. “There is the extreme relationship of dependence on the parents.”

Imke Steinberg (name changed) is a teacher at a secondary school in the Neukölln district of Berlin and reports similar experiences. For more than ten years, she has been looking after the girls at the school together with social workers. She has often accompanied schoolgirls who have decided to be taken into care because of a threatened forced marriage, i.e. they have left their families and been accommodated in protected flats of the Youth Welfare Office.

However, it is always a long way until such a step is taken. “About 90 percent don’t make it the first time,” Steinberg knows. For many, breaking off contact with the family is unbearable. When talking about forced marriage, she often hears the remark: “That’s the way things are in Islam.”

Steinberg reports that she once discovered engagement photos from Turkey of one of her students on Facebook. The parents had previously declared that the 15-year-old girl was ill. “We built up pressure,” she says. Again and again she called the family and had to listen to absurd excuses. “Then we said that if the girl was not back in school in three days, we would call the police.” The threat was effective, and the family did indeed travel back. This was especially important because there were other daughters in the family, says Steinberg.

In general, it is the positive experiences that give her strength: when Steinberg was able to bring a student to safe accommodation and then hears that she has started an education and is going her way. Or when a conversation with the parents is held and a possible forced marriage is at least questioned. But she also knows how traumatic such situations are for the girls. “There is always a blind spot.

Girls account for about 90 per cent of forced marriages. But there are also cases of boys and young men like that of the German-Lebanese Nasser. When Nasser was 15, his parents found out about his homosexuality. His father considers this a disgrace to the family and abuses him severely. In a cloak and dagger operation, the father and two uncles drag Nasser into a car and try to get him to Lebanon to marry him off, as he himself says. But the plan is discovered. The Youth Welfare Office had already been informed. The car is stopped at the Romanian-Bulgarian border. Nasser made his fate public and in 2015 denounced his father and uncles for abducting minors and depriving them of their liberty. The accused have to go to court and get off with a fine of 1350 euros – a verdict that many people observing the trial consider too lenient.

Palestine Authority (PA) Security Forces give “military training” to 7-year-old kids to fight Israel - “the sons of dogs”

•As part of ideological training, PA teaches kids to admire terrorist murderer Mughrabi who led killing of 37, among them 12 children

•Pres. Biden must condemn this recruitment of Palestinian children to terror and condition any future warming of relations between the US and the PA on the PA’s cessation of its abuse of its own children


The Religion of Peace <-Source

In cooperation with Abbas’ Fatah Movement, the PA Security Forces offer Palestinian kids from the age of 7 and up military training in camps.

A video posted by Fatah on one of its Facebook pages shows and explains that in the “army camp” the kids “wear soldiers’ uniforms, eat their food, and are trained in military order and discipline.’’ The internet host presenting the report explains that at the concluding ceremony of all the camps “commanders of the Security Forces and a member of Fatah’s Central Committee are present.” He further explains that these camps are for all Palestinian children, regardless of political affiliation, because:
“Our battle with the sons of dogs (i.e., Israelis) is long, and we need a young generation.”

In the video, children are seen disassembling and assembling weapons. A song in the background stresses the significance of this training, revealing the ideology and atmosphere of the camps:
ΠLyrics: “Everyone raised their weapons and put a bullet in the barrel …
We are the national Security [Forces], we are the men of Al-Asifa
Fatah! Fatah! Fatah! We are its men!
We are the men of Al-Asifa, we do not fear death…”

Another part of the video further illustrates the values imparted in these PA Security Forces/Fatah camps. Through chants, the young children are taught to admire the terrorist who led the most lethal terror attack against Israel: Dalal Mughrabi. Together with other terrorists she murdered 37 Israelis, including 12 children, in what is known as the 1978 Coastal Road massacre:
Guide and children: “Dalal [Mughrabi] arrived in Palestine (i.e., led murder of 37, incl. 12 children)
She is equal to the entire world
O Dalal, they trained you
and had you carry a Kalashnikov [assault rifle]
They led you to the shore
to a self-sacrificing operation (i.e., terror attack)
Dalal trained girls
in preparing explosives
and hand grenades.”

The PA Security Forces’ army camp program as presented in the video posted by Fatah reflects PA values that have been exposed for decades by Palestinian Media Watch - values that include promotion and glorification of terror and denial of Israel's right to exist in any borders.

The PA’s child terror training camp must be of serious concern for everyone, but in particular, for the UN Secretary General and US President Joe Biden. . .

Sudan: Police in Darfur Region, Sudan have arrested four Christians under a law against apostasy that was annulled two years ago, according to local sources.

The Religion of Peace <-Source

Police arrested the Christians from the Sudanese Baptist Church in Zalingei, in western Sudan’s Central Darfur state, on charges of apostasy, detaining them until their release on bail on Tuesday (July 5), according to local media outlet Sudania 24.

The Christian converts from Islam – Bader el Dean Haroon Abdel Jabaar, his brother Mohammad Haroon Abdel Jabaar, Tariq Adam Abdalla and Morthada Ismail – had also been arrested on June 22 and released the same day.

Area Christians said they were arrested over allegations of apostasy under Article 126 of Sudan’s 1991 criminal code. In July 2020 the transitional government that took effect in September 2019 decriminalized apostasy , which had been punishable by death. Sudan’s 2020 Fundamental Rights and Freedoms Act prohibits the labeling of any group as “infidels” (takfir), according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

The 2020 Act also repealed other Islamic-based articles of the 1991 criminal code, including public flogging as a punishment and prohibitions against drinking alcohol. Although Sudan has taken some steps to reform laws that violate religious rights, most current statutes are still based on Islamic law, Christian leaders say.

Human rights activists said prosecutors have mistakenly used a repealed article of the criminal code against the four Christians.

The Christians were scheduled to appear in court this week. Police also reportedly confiscated their Bibles and a sound system belonging to the church.
Officers reportedly ordered the Christians to leave the area. The arrested men refused but have since gone into hiding. Muslim extremists in the area have called for their death, one of the arrested Christians said.

Following two years of advances in religious freedom in Sudan after the end of the Islamist dictatorship under Omar al-Bashir in 2019, the specter of state-sponsored persecution returned with a military coup on Oct. 25, 2021.

After Bashir was ousted from 30 years of power in April 2019, the transitional civilian-military government managed to undo some sharia (Islamic law) provisions. It outlawed the labeling of any religious group “infidels” and thus effectively rescinded apostasy laws that made leaving Islam punishable by death.

With the Oct. 25 coup, Christians in Sudan fear the return of the most repressive and harsh aspects of Islamic law. Abdalla Hamdok, who had led a transitional government as prime minister starting in September 2019, was detained under house arrest for nearly a month before he was released and reinstated in a tenuous power-sharing agreement in November.

Hamdock had been faced with rooting out longstanding corruption and an Islamist “deep state” from Bashir’s regime – the same deep state that is suspected of rooting out the transitional government in the Oct. 25 coup.

Persecution of Christians by non-state actors continued before and after the coup. In Open Doors’ 2022 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, Sudan remained at No. 13, where it ranked the previous year, as attacks by non-state actors continued and religious freedom reforms at the national level were not enacted locally.

Sudan had dropped out of the top 10 for the first time in six years when it first ranked No. 13 in the 2021 World Watch List. The U.S. State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report states that conditions have improved somewhat with the decriminalization of apostasy and a halt to demolition of churches, but that conservative Islam still dominates society; Christians face discrimination, including problems in obtaining licenses for constructing church buildings.

The U.S. State Department in 2019 removed Sudan from the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) that engage in or tolerate “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom” and upgraded it to a watch list. The State Department removed Sudan from the Special Watch List in December 2020. Sudan had previously been designated as a CPC from 1999 to 2018.

The Christian population of Sudan is estimated at 2 million, or 4.5 percent of the total population of more than 43 million.

The Allied Democratic Forces is a jihad group dedicated to imposing Sharia over Central Africa.

Infants, Patients Among 13 Killed In Congo Hospital Attack

The Religion of Peace <-Source

Congo: Rebels attacked a hospital in Congo and killed at least 13 people, including infants and patients, according to hospital and military officials. The Congolese army said three attackers were killed when the military intervened.

Some hospital staff are missing and several houses were burned in the attack Thursday night on the medical center in Lume, North Kivu province. It’s the largest health facility in the region.

Among those killed in the attack were three infants and four patients, hospital chief Kule Bwenge told reporters.

“Four blocks of the medical center were set on fire. Several sick guards, as well as a nurse, are missing,” he said.

The reason for targeting the hospital was unclear.

In the nearby village of Kidolo, four other people were killed with machetes and shot, apparently as part of the same attack.

North Kivu military spokesman Anthony Mualushayi said the attackers were Mai-Mai militia members from the Dido group. In addition to the attackers who were killed, one was captured in the ensuing clashes, he said.

But local civic groups accused rebels of the Uganda-based Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, of carrying out the attack. ADF rebels have been active in eastern Congo for decades and have killed thousands in the region since they resurfaced in 2013….

Congo: Islamic State Claims Responsibility for Attack <-Source

Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack on Thursday that targetted the town of Lume in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo…

On Friday, two witnesses said assailants had killed at least a dozen patients at a clinic overnight, blaming the raid on Islamist fighters allied to Islamic State.

Terrorist explosion in northern Togo kills 7 children
Explosion may join list of terrorist attacks recently, and is second one to be deadly

The Religion of Peace <-Source

Seven children were killed in a suspected terrorist explosion in northern Togo in the night from Saturday to Sunday, local media reported.

"A rescue team was immediately dispatched to the scene," said Motaog Radio and Television in Dapaong, the town where the explosion occurred.

The local radio quoted a victim's parent as saying he was shocked and that he heard "a loud explosion never heard before."

He discovered children's bodies lying on the ground which he said were difficult to identify.

No official source has yet commented on the incident.

The incident may join a list of terrorist attacks seen in recent months in the West African country, which had previously been spared.

On June 16, an attack was foiled in the Gnoaga and Gouloungoushi townships, on the border shared by Togo, Ghana and Burkina Faso in the far north.

An attack on the night of May 10 left eight soldiers dead and 13 wounded. An Al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist group claimed responsibility for it three weeks later, according to the Site Intelligence Group, an American NGO which tracks extremist threats online.

"Once these attacks start, they don't stop," Joseph Mensah-Boboe, the publisher of online media outlet Imagine Demain, told Anadolu Agency. "This is a new terrorist action despite the strong security method of the government, which has established a state of emergency and its corollaries. This situation is worrying.

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