₦airaland Forum

Sahih Muslim, Book 037, Num 6665
Allah's Messenger said: When it will be the Day of Resurrection Allah would deliver to every Muslim a Jew or a Christian and say: That is your rescue from Hell-Fire.

Sahih Muslim, Book 037, Num 6666
allah’s Apostle said: No Muslim would die but Allah would admit in his stead a Jew or a Christian in Hell-Fire.

Sahih Muslim, Book 037, Num 6668
Allah’s Messenger [said]: There would come people amongst the Muslims on the Day of Resurrection with as heavy sins as a mountain, and Allah would forgive them and He would place in their stead the Jews and the Christians.

110 Hadith Qudsi
Allah’s Messenger said: On the Day of Resurrection, my Ummah (nation) will be gathered into three groups. One sort will enter Paradise without rendering an account (of their deeds). Another sort will be reckoned an easy account and admitted into Paradise. Yet another sort will come bearing on their backs heaps of sins like great mountains. Allah will ask the angels though He knows best about them: Who are these people? They will reply: They are humble slaves of yours. He will say: Unload the sins from them and put the same over the Jews and Christians: then let the humble slaves get into Paradise by virtue of My Mercy.

110 Hadith Qudsi, Num 3
allah messanger said: On the Day of Resurrection, Ibrahim (Abraham) will see his father Azar (in such a pitiable condition) that his face will be dark and covered with dust. Then Ibrahim will remind him: Did I not warn you against denying me? His father will reply: Today I will not deny you. Then, Ibrahim will say: O Lord! You have promised not to disgrace me on the Day of Resurrection. So what will
be more disgraceful to me than my wretched father. Allah will say: I have forbidden Paradise for [non-Muslims]. Then it will be said: O Ibrahim, Look! what is underneath your feet? He will look and see his father as a Hyena
besmeared with dirt caught by the legs and thrown into Hell.

Quran 44:51-57
Surely the godfearing shall be in a station secure among gardens and fountains, robed in silk and brocade, set face to face. Even so; and We shall espouse them to wide-eyed houris (fair-skin spirit ladies), therein calling for every fruit, secure. They shall not taste therein of death, save the first death, And He shall guard them against the chastisement of Hell -- a bounty from thy Lord; that is the mighty triumph.

Quran 55:55-59
O which of your Lord's bounties will you and you deny? therein maidens restraining their glances, untouched before them by any man or jinn -- O which of your Lord's bounties will you and you deny? lovely as rubies, beautiful as coral -- O which of your Lord's bounties will you and you deny?

Quran 56:25-38
Therein they shall hear no idle talk, no cause of sin, only the saying 'Peace, Peace!' mid thornless lote-trees and serried acacias, and spreading shade and outpoured waters, and fruits abounding unfailing, unforbidden, and upraised couches. Perfectly We formed them, perfect, and We made them spotless virgins, chastely amorous, like of age for the Companions of the Right.

Quran 78:31-34
Surely for the godfearing awaits a place of security, gardens and vineyards and maidens with swelling breasts, like of age, and a cup overflowing.

Quran 55:70-72
houris will have a modest gaze and not look to serve anyone besides the man

Quran 56:22-24
And [for them are] fair women with large, [beautiful] eyes, The likenesses of pearls well-protected,

Quran 56:35-37
Indeed, We have produced them in a [new] creation, And made them virgins, Devoted [to their husbands] and of equal age,

Quran 78:31-33
Indeed, for the righteous is attainment, Gardens and grapevines, And full-breasted [companions] of equal age.

Sunan Ibn Majah
Volume 5, Book 37, Number 4337
Messenger of Allah said: “There is no one whom Allah will admit to Paradise but Allah will marry him to seventy-two wives, two from houris and seventy from his inheritance from the people of hell,

Sahih Bukhari 3254
... everyone will have two wives from the houris...

Sahih Bukhari 3254
everyone will have two wives from the houris, (who will be so beautiful, pure and transparent that) the marrow of the bones of their legs will be seen through the bones and the flesh.

Abu al-Fadl 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr, Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (1445–1505 AD) - an Egyptian writer, religious scholar, whose works deal with a wide variety of subjects in Islamic theology:
Each time we sleep with a Houri we find her virgin. Besides, the penis of the elected never softens. The erection is eternal; the sensation that you feel each time you make love is utterly delicious and out of this world and were you to experience it in this world you would faint. Each [Muslim] will marry [more than] seventy houris, and all will have appetizing vaginas.

Jami` at-Tirmidhi 4:36:2536
"The believer shall be given in paradise such and such strength in intercourse." it was said: "O Messenger of allah! And will he able to do that?" He said: "He will be given the [sexual] strength of a hundred [men]."

Sunan Ibn Majah 5:37:4337
“There is no one whom Allah will admit to Paradise but Allah will marry him to seventy-two wives, two from houris and seventy from his inheritance from the people of Hell, all of whom will have desirable [vaginas] and he will have a male member that never becomes flaccid.

Abu al-Fadl 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr, Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (1445–1505 AD) - an Egyptian writer, religious scholar, whose works deal with a wide variety of subjects in Islamic theology:
Each time we sleep with a Houri we find her virgin. Besides, the penis of the elected never softens. The erection is eternal; the sensation that you feel each time you make love is utterly delicious and out of this world and were you to experience it in this world you would faint. Each [Muslim] will marry [more than] seventy houris, and all will have appetizing vaginas.

Sahih al-Bukhari 2658
Allah's apostle said: "Isn't the witness of a woman equal to half of that of a man?" The women said: "Yes." He said: "This is because of the deficiency of her mind."

Sahih Muslim 142
[Muhammad said]: O womenfolk. . . I saw you in bulk amongst the dwellers of Hell. A wise lady among them said: Why is it, Messenger of Allah, that our folk are in bulk in Hell? Upon this Allah's apostle observed: You curse too much and are ungrateful to your spouses. I have seen none lacking in common sense and failing in religion but (at the sake time) robbing the wisdom of the wise, besides you. Upon this the woman remarked: What is wrong with our common sense and with our religion? allah's apostle observed: Your lack of common sense (can be well judged from the fact) that the evidence of two women is equal to one man; that is a proof of the lack of common sense.

“Doctors say they are on strike today. Would you not kill him? Would you not beat him up?” the imam said during the Friday sermon, in the wake of a cardiologist being shot to death on duty.

The imam in question made “inappropriate comments” while on duty, the Diyanet said in a statement, condemning him.

An inspector has already been sent to Konya to carry out the investigation, the religious body said.

The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) said the imam’s comments were “incitement to violence, murder, even massacres”, calling on the Diyanet and courts to take action.

Doctors and healthcare staff in the country went on a two-day strike ahead of the Eid al-Adha holidays to protest their worsening working conditions and violence they face, especially in emergency rooms.

Cardiologist Ekrem Karakaya was killed in a hospital in Konya on Wednesday by a man who blamed him÷ for the death of his sick relative. The killer later took his own life.

In 2021 there were 190 acts of violence against healthcare workers, targeting 361 members of the medical community in a 62 percent rise in recorded incidents compared to the previous year.

The perpetrators responsible acted with purpose. June 29 is a day of celebration dedicated to the liturgical memory of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, to whom the cemetery chapel was dedicated upon its construction in 1967. The vandals specifically targeted this location and time of year to maximize their affront against local Christians.

Local Christian communities, including Syriac, Assyrian, and Chaldean groups, gather in the cemetery chapel annually to celebrate liturgies dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul. They also gather to perform traditional acts of reverence and devotion at the tombs of their own ancestors who are buried at the site. The location holds tombs that date back to the first millennium. Upon finding the desecrated cemetery this year, local Christians were filled with pain, despair, and outrage. Other communities have expressed their solidarity with outraged Christians, namely the local Yazidi community.

Christians immediately reported the vandalism of the cemetery complex to local Turkish police. They hope that authorities will act effectively to pursue justice against the criminals, especially considering the importance of historical sites in this area not only to local Christians but to the larger Christian community as well.

The south-eastern province of Mardin, where the cemetery is located, holds tremendous historical significance in large part because the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch existed nearby from the thirteenth century until 1933. A 2018 law even recognized the area’s significance by ordering that control of churches, monasteries, land, and even ancient cemeteries in the area are given directly to foundations linked to the Syrian Orthodox Church.

Perhaps the value of the cemetery to the Christian community will motivate Turkish police to find those responsible for desecrating this treasured site.

A Christian mechanic has been sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan after he was found guilty of insulting the prophet mohammed by saying that Jesus Christ is the 'true prophet'.

Ashfaq Masih, 34, was arrested in 2017 after he got into a verbal disagreement with a Muslim customer at his motorbike repair shop in Lahore after the man refused to pay his bill.

The customer had asked for a waiver on the grounds that he was a religious devotee - but Masih refused the request, saying he believed in Jesus Christ and wasn't interested in the man's religious status as a Muslim.

Masih was accused of 'disrespecting' the prophet muhammad and arrested after he allegedly said that for Christians, Jesus was the 'true prophet'.

Five years after his arrest, Masih, who has a wife and daughter, was on Monday sentenced to death by a Lahore court.

His older brother, Mehmood Masih, said that their family was reduced to tears following the judgement, saying that it feels like 'the end of the world for them'.

Under Pakistan's blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting the religion or religious figures can be sentenced to death. While authorities have yet to carry out a death sentence for blasphemy, just the accusation can cause riots.

In court, Masih insisted he was innocent of the charges and that the case against him was 'baseless, false and frivolous'.

He also said the accusation against him was made by a rival who wanted to destroy his motorbike repair business.

'I insisted for my bill and said that I don't follow anyone other than Jesus, and so wasn't interested in the man's religious status.'

Masih has been in prison for five years awaiting his conviction due to a series of adjournments. His mother died in 2019 while he was behind bars and he was released on parole to visit her funeral.

Nasir Saeed, the director of the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement, a charity which supports persecuted Christians in Pakistan, said in a statement the judgement was abhorrent.

He said: 'I don't remember any case where the lower court decided to grant bail or freed anyone accused of the blasphemy law. The judges are aware that such cases are made to punish and settle personal grudges with the opponents, especially against the Christians.
'Because of pressure from the Islamic groups, lower courts' judges are always hesitant to free the victims but make popular decisions to save their skin and shift their burden to the high court.'

'He is innocent and has already spent five years in prison for a crime he never committed.'

In January, a Pakistani court sentenced a Muslim woman to death after finding her guilty of blasphemy for insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammad in text messages she sent to a friend.

The woman, Aneeqa Atteeq, was arrested in May 2020 after the man alerted police that she sent him caricatures of the Prophet — considered sacrilegious — via WhatsApp.

According to a court order, the woman was also sentenced to 10 years in jail.

Domestic and international human rights groups say blasphemy allegations have often been used to intimidate religious minorities and to settle personal scores.

In December, a Muslim mob descended on a sports equipment factory in Pakistan's Sialkot district, killing a Sri Lankan man and burning his body publicly over allegations of blasphemy...

One religious freedom advocate, however, says that the true number of kidnappings is twice that previously reported by other observers. Shahid Mobeen, professor of philosophy at the Pontifical University in Rome, asserts that about 2,000 forced conversions and marriages take place every year in Pakistan. Mobeen, who spoke on the issue at last week’s International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, DC, contends that the collective observations of volunteers, nuns, and lawyers testify to this much higher estimate.

While not always the case, Mobeen explains that the perpetrators of these crimes against women are usually family friends. The women that they target are often also not women at all, but merely young girls between the ages of 10 and 14. Even despite the alarming severity of these crimes, Pakistan’s Christian community has little leverage in the country to pursue justice against guilty parties.

Christians only make up 2% of the nation’s population, and their government is not a strong defender of minority rights. The U.S. Department of State has designated Pakistan as a “Country of Particular Concern” in part for this reason.

Persistent advocacy is necessary to influence the Pakistani authorities to change course. One example of the impact of such advocacy can be seen in the case of a 15-year-old Catholic girl who was rescued from her abductors in late May. Police investigators showed no initiative to recover her from her kidnappers, but when protestors and advocates organized by the National Minorities Alliance of Pakistan (NMAP) pressured authorities, they finally took action and returned the girl to her family.

Sadly, so many more kidnapped girls remain captive, like the 16-year-old Christian girl kidnapped in April. We pray that justice would come to Pakistan for these persecuted women and girls.

Simolya Latifu of Molu village, Kasasira Sub-County, Kibuku District was slain with a sword at about 7:15 p.m. at a swamp near Molu, the witness said. Latifu was 47.

Latifu had left an evening service at Christ Discipleship Worship Center in Molu at about 6:30 p.m., and three witnesses saw a motorcycle and then heard wailing and calls for help at a nearby swamp at 7:15 p.m., one said.

“The killers were condemning him for converting Muslims to Christianity,” the witness told Morning Star News. “We hid ourselves in a thick bush.”

The witnesses were able to recognize the alleged assailants as Ali Buyinza, Muhammad Kamunyani and Jamada Walyomba, he said.

“We saw Buyinza cut him on the head with a sword, and thereafter they left,” said the witness, unidentified for security reasons. “We remained there for about 30 minutes, and then we took courage and slowly went to see the slain man and discovered that he worshipped with us at Christ Discipleship Worship Center.”

They informed church Pastor Emmanuel Muzei and filed a report with police at about midnight, he said. Officers and area residents went to the area early Monday morning (July 4) and confirmed that the body was that of Latifu.

“Angry Christian residents from Molu village flooded to Molu village swamp to mourn the death of their beloved convert from Islam who had been going from one church to another testifying about how he converted to Christianity,” Pastor Muzei said. “ His testimony was an encouragement to many Christians in my church and led many to Christ. We have lost a dynamic evangelist.”

Police arrested Buyinza, taking him to Kibuku police station amid tight security as residents sought to kill him, Pastor Muzei said. Buyinza told police, “We warned him to come back to our religion and gave him several opportunities, but he turned a deaf ear – we’re proud of killing him.”

Officers were still hunting for the other two suspects. On Tuesday (July 5), angry Christians from eight villages set the homes of suspects Buyinza, Kamunyani and Walyomba on fire, area sources said.

Latifu is survived by his wife and five children.
Area Chairperson John Emuga of the Anglican Church of Uganda in Molu said he grieved after seeing Latifu’s body.

“We request residents to support the family of the late Latifu, and that all the assailants be brought to book,” Emuga said.

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

Uganda’s constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate one’s faith and convert from one faith to another. Muslims make up no more than 12 percent of Uganda’s population, with high concentrations in eastern areas of the country.

Dozens of Islamists belonging to extremist Barelvi organisation Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) unleashed mayhem in the mobile market of Karachi, Pakistan, after rumours of an alleged blasphemy against the company. The protestors tore down the billboards of Samsung in the mobile market in the city and indulged in vandalism after they heard that the company has committed ‘blasphemy’ against Islam.

The protests were not limited to the mobile market as billboards in several locations across the city faced the ire of the angry TLP members.

Initial rumours circulating about the incident said that Samsung had introduced a QR code on its devices which is blasphemous. Following this, the Islamists took to the streets of Karachi and started attacking the company’s billboards.

However, later on, a new rumour started circulating that the ‘blasphemy’ was committed by an employee of Samsung Mobile who had given a ‘blasphemous’ name to his WiFi network.

While nobody is sure what was the exact ‘blasphemy’ that was committed, it hasn’t stopped TLP extremists from creating mayhem on the streets of Karachi venting their anger against Samsung Mobile.

Last year on December 31, a Pakistani man threatened American behemoth Pepsi for printing a QR code with the name of Prophet Muhammad on its 7UP bottles.

The man threatened a Pepsi company’s truck driver with dire consequences if the QR Code on a 7 UP soft drink bottle is not removed by the company. On enquiring, the man, who identified himself as Mulla, insisted that the QR code is actually the name of Prophet Muhammad and if the company does not remove the logo he will burn the truck.

A hose was then placed around the neck of the corpse which was dragged through the farm onto the streets nearby the home of the murder victim.

His family were later awoken at 3.30am by the terrified employer of the deceased Christian who had found his dead body between the farm and the victim’s home.

A police investigation later uncovered that the two Muslim men, both of whom owned neighbouring farms, were involved in the murder. As of now neither murderer has revealed the motive for the killing.

Younis Masih (50 years) worked as a labourer at a cattle farm for his Muslim employer Javed Lamberdar. In exchange for daily cattle feed a place to stay and daily meals for himself, Mr Masih agreed to tend to the cattle of Mr Lamberdar. Mr Masih was very much in a feudal serf agreement and was required to protect and care for cattle. He lived in a barn with the animals and would most times actually be accompanied by Mr Lamberdar who was known to treat him kindly.

Sometime during the evening of 17th June Mr Masih was murdered by two men Muhammad Pervaiz Kamran and Muhammad Abubakar Zaman who smashed bricks on his head and sliced his face with vicious blows from scythes. After the two men had killed Mr Masih they tied a water hose around his neck and used that to drag his carcass onto a public road between his family home and the farm that he works on. The two men involved in the murder are known to own neighbouring farms.

BACA Officer with farmer and employer Javed
Our Operations Manager has visited the farm of Javed Lamberdar and talked to him directly about the tragic incident.

Javed Lamberdar told our officer that he and Younis Masih stay in the barn adjacent to his home overnight to protect animals from theft overnight.

On 17th June however, Mr Lamberdar stayed in the family home until 10.30 because there were guests attending he then went to the barn to stay overnight. When he found that Mr Masih was not present he assumed that Mr Masih was going to his family for the night, which he sometimes did. So he just went to sleep.

At around 2.30am Mr Lamberdar left his home to find a place to urinate because he does not have a plumbed toilet in his home. When he walked out he saw the dead body of his employee Mr Masih and immediately ran back to tell his wife in their family home. He asked her to lock her door and rushed to see the family of Mr Masih who lived around 10 metres from his home.

At 3.00am the sleeping family of Mr Masih were woken up by loud knocking on their door. Gulfam (28 yrs) one of Mr Masih’s sons, opened the door and was surprised to see Mr Masih’s employer at his door instead of his father.

Mr Lamberdar explained to Gulfam that somebody had murdered his father. Gulfam rushed back to waken his brothers Abdul Rehman (35 yrs) and Irfan (25 yrs) – they quickly rushed out to see if their dad was alive.

Younis Masih dead, lying in the street some twenty feet away from their door and as they broke down and cried, Gulfam also called the police by using the emergency services number 15. Though a dead body involved in a murder crime was on the streets, Bambanwala Police Station officers did not arrive at the scene of the crime till 7am. A delay believed to be induced by the fact that a ritually impure Christian was killed. It should be noted that the police station itself is only 30-40 minutes away from the place the body of Mr Masih was found.

Police officers undertook a forensic investigation and then took the dead body of Mr Masih to Daska Civil Hospital for post-mortem examination. They also asked the family of Mr Masih to visit their police station to register a First Incident Report (FIR).

Mr Lamberdar recognised the hosepipe around the neck of Mr Masih as belonging to Mr Nawaz. Police then arrested Mr Nawaz for questioning and took him to their police station.

The police interrogated Mr Nawaz who initially denied any involvement in the murder of Younas Masih. However, he later accused Muhammad Kamran Pervaiz for murdering Younis Masih. The police then arrested Kamran Pervaiz from his farm house and on further interrogation by Police officers, both the culprits confessed their crime.

The police registered an FIR No.316/22 against the culprits under the sections of 302 and 34 of PPC.
The police are yet to uncover a motive for the murder of Mr Masih.

Gulfam, spoke with our Operations Manager, he said:
“We contact the police everyday to learn of any development in their investigation, but police are not cooperating. Muhammad Abubakar Nawaz threatened me in the presence of the station house officer and they did nothing to stop him.
“He boldly told me that though he has confessed to murdering my father, there is nothing I can do to get justice. Though I am scared I will do all I can to seek justice.”

Abdul Rehman gave a more chilling account, he said:
“I could not recognize the dead body of my father. His face was severely deformed due to the violence”

Irfan, said:
“The behaviour of the police is creating more agony. They have not explained why our father was murdered so brutally. We have no property or anything of value that could lead to such violence. We are poor people who labour to earn for our families. We demand to know why this despicable fate has befallen our father.”

After the post-mortem, the dead body of Younis Masih was returned the same day for burial. Mr Younis Masih (RIP) buried in the village Christian graveyard.

Juliet Chowdhry, Trustee for the British Asian Christian Association, said:
“It’s hard to know what motive resulted in the death of brother Younis Masih...
"What we do know is a Christian family now have lost a patriarch and are desperate to get justice. Asa group we will offer as much support as we can.”

The police have started an investigation into the matter. The acid with which the man attacked his ex-wife was reportedly a toilet-cleaning acid. The police said that they have sent the sample to labs to confirm it.

In search of the accused husband Ishaq , the police are raiding his and his relatives’ houses along with acquaintances. The police are unable to find his location as Ishaq’s mobile phone is switched off.

The condition of the victim is now stated to be out of danger.

After the echo of this matter reached the Chief Minister, the government asked for a report of this acid incident.

The victim reportedly told the police that her ex-husband Ishaq had come on the pretext of talking to her. He was forcing her to undergo ‘halala’. When she refused, he started verbally abusing her and her family.

The victim said that when he had entered the house with acid in the bag, she inquired suspiciously, he said that he is taking goods for the house. Ishaq had threatened to throw acid earlier as well….

The accused ex-husband of the victim was the son of her mother’s brother. He had divorced her three weeks before the acid attack. For the past few days, he had been forcing his ex-wife to undergo halala and get married again.

Video shows the pregnant woman dancing in front of onlookers at a gathering before a woman wearing a hijab shoves her to the floor - causing the victim to fall on top of a child who was sitting down.

The pregnant woman fights back and slaps the attacker in the face in front of a crowd of shocked onlookers. The angry woman wearing the hijab then hits the victim repeatedly, prompting cheers from the onlookers. The attacker said: 'Get out of here, wear your hijab. You have to respect the hijab.'

The pregnant woman, after being hit three times, shouts: 'Why are you beating me?'

The victim confronts the woman and says: 'You know what? I am pregnant and unfortunately I cannot defend myself right now.'

The attacker then shouts: 'Put on your hijab' in front of the crowd.

It is not known exactly when or where in Iran the footage was captured, but it was shared on Twitter by Masih Alinejad - an Iranian women's rights campaigner currently based in the US who described the attack as 'shocking, bitter and painful'.

Alinejad said: 'Why should this pregnant woman be so brutally attacked by a harassing woman because of the hijab and so many people are just spectators?
'To remain silent in the face of bullies is not only oppression but also to encourage the oppressor to repeat the bullying.'

She said in a later tweet: 'This pregnant woman got beaten up by pro hijab woman for wearing 'inappropriate hijab' & dancing.

'In my country Iran the laws allow people to warn women for not following hijab laws. The regime hired 7000 undercover agents only in Tehran to stop unveiled women.'

Iran, like many Middle Eastern nations, enforces laws on what women and girls aged 13 and above can wear in public with an emphasis on 'modesty'.

Women in Iran are compelled to wear headscarves, must cover their arms and legs, and are banned from wearing clothing deemed too colourful or close-fitting.

The laws derive from comments made by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini following the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Breaking the rules can result in fines of up to 500,000 rials (£17) and up to two months in prison.

Former President Hassan Rouhani, who came to power in 2013 promising a more moderate stance, previously said it is not the job of police to enforce religious rules such as those forcing women to cover their hair.

But in April 2016, officials said there were 7,000 undercover morality police reporting on things like 'bad hijab' - a blanket term usually referring to un-Islamic dress by women.

And following Rouhani's ouster earlier this year and the election of hardliner Ebrahim Raisi, it seems rules are being more strictly enforced.

Rights campaigners warned at the time Raisi came to power that his election was designed to send a message from Iran's rulers to the population that dissent would no longer be tolerated.

Last week, Iranian authorities arrested the organisers of a skateboarding event in the southern city of Shiraz after video emerged of teenage girls at the event not wearing the hijab.

'This video demonstrates that, like youth everywhere, Iranian youth want to hang out with their friends and have fun on the weekend,' said Holly Dagres, nonresident senior fellow at the Washington-based think tank, the Atlantic Council, who has an area focus on Iran.

'The Islamic Republic is in a real conundrum whereby the geriatric clerics at the top are disconnected from some of the realities on the ground and struggling to reach this young generation of Iranians who see beyond their religious ruse.'

An Iranian woman was dragged across the street and beaten as the crowd cheered because she was dancing and not wearing a hijab.

The woman was seen standing in the central reservation of a busy road as she is jeered by men in the city of Rasht, on Iran's Caspian Sea coast.

A crowd appeared to be in a stand-off with the woman before a few men approached her, with one grabbing her around the head and forcing her to the ground.

He then took hold of her ankles and brutally dragged her over the tarmac, prompting a massive cheer from the crowd of men.

An Iranian undercover morality agent spat at teenage girls and asked them 'where's your dirty owner?' after seeing them without a hijab.

In a shocking video, which has been circulating on social media, a man stops his car and gets out before hurling abuse at the youngsters.

During the heated exchange on the side of the road in Kermanshah, Iran, he says to the girls 'I'll f**k your mother' and claims their behaviour is 'immoral' while a police officer appears to do nothing about the incident.

The video shows, as tensions between the man and the teenagers grow, the man's wife gets out of the car and says 'apologise to my husband so he won't hit you'.

The woman informs them that her husband is from the intelligence services and could get them arrested.

A police car arrives shortly afterwards but the officer watches from afar and the teenagers scream: 'Officer, why aren't you doing anything?'

On the evening of June, 23, 2022, Muslim mobs attacked the homes of Coptic Christians, including by hurling stones through their windows, in al-Hilla, a village in Luxor governate, Upper Egypt.

The occasion of this latest Muslim mob attack on Egypt’s indigenous Christian minority was the legalization of the Church of Michael the Archangel. Although the church was originally built in 2003, it only received formal recognition last week. As soon as the decree (signed by the prime-minister) was issued, after years of waiting, to legalize the church —and in anticipation of expected fanatic Muslim ire—the local security department of the district dispatched a security force to protect, and set up barriers around, the church.

On learning that the church that had been built nearly two decades ago was finally going to start functioning as a “church,” Muslims throughout the village “rejected the matter,” says one report, “and the process of charging and inflaming the people’s feelings began,” as mobs cried out that the building or renovation of a church contradicts shari‘a , or Islamic, law (as well captured by the Conditions of Omar, a document purportedly drawn up by Caliph Omar I, which, among several other severe stipulations placed on Christians, holds that new churches can never be built, and preexisting but dilapidated churches can never be repaired).

Before long, the angry mobs, which were augmented by others from neighboring villages, had grown very large and, “amidst hostile chants”—which no doubt included Islam’s jihadist war-cry, “Allahu Akbar!”—began hurling stones through the windows of Coptic homes. According to the report, “the security force charged with protecting the church tried to rebuff them, but the number of assailants was too large .”

Before peace could be regained, many Christian h omes had been damaged; several vehicles and motorcycles parked in front of Coptic homes were also “smashed” or set aflame, including the village priest’s vehicle.

On the following day, Friday, Luxor police forces reinforced their presence in the village in anticipation of more Muslim anger following Friday mosque prayers—when imams habitually whip the faithful into a frenzy concerning the alleged sins of the “infidels” who need to be punished. Armed security and national forces—including several armored vehicles—were deployed all throughout the village, especially around the Church of Michael the Archangel, Christian homes, and surrounding mosques.

Meanwhile, and as the report notes, the traumatized Copts maintain that their “only sin” was to have “obtained an official decision to legalize the church. ”
It is worth noting that the above s cenario has played out countless times in Egypt: whenever a church is built, legalized, or repaired—or is merely rumored to be built, legalized, or repaired—local Muslims riot and attack the Copts. Authorities frequently respond by appeasing the rioters and rescinding the church’s legal status, effectively shutting it down.

Time will tell if the law will, once again, be subservient to Muslim mob rule, or if justice will prevail for the Church of Michael the Archangel.

“A terrorist attack” in the village of Sandiaga in Koulpelogo province “left eight civilians dead”, the security source said.

The toll was confirmed by a local resident, who said armed men burst into a baptism ceremony on Monday morning and opened fire.

On Sunday, six people died and two were injured in two villages in the northern province of Bam when carts carrying women were hit by roadside bombs, another security source said.

The landlocked Sahel state, one of the world’s poorest countries, is in the grip of a nearly seven-year-old jihadist insurgency.

Thousands of people have died and nearly two million have been driven from their homes.

On June 20, the army declared it would set up two no-go zones, banning all human activity and presence, to help its campaign against the militants.

The two areas, reputed to be a haven for the islamists, are in the northern Soum province bordering Mali, and the protected natural reserves between Pama and the “W” National Park in the east.

The announcement came after 86 civilians were massacred in the northern border village of Seytenga.

The military have given inhabitants two weeks in which to leave the area.

Pakistan (International Christian Concern) – Earlier this year, a mob of Muslims attacked a Christian family. The incident was the culmination of escalating events. Initially, because of constant discrimination and harassment suffered while working, the father and son of the Christian family decided to leave their Muslim landowner’s employ, much to the owner’s displeasure. After failing to entice them back, the Muslim man instead falsely accused them of stealing a prized chicken worth around $1000. Based on this accusation, police elected to arrest the Christian father and son, only to release them soon after for lack of evidence.

Absurdly enough, even after discovering no new evidence a month later, the police succumbed to religious and political pressure to re-arrest the son.

At this point, the mother and father visited the Muslim landowner to plead their innocence and request their son’s freedom; they were met by a group of Muslim employees who violently attacked them. Armed with guns, knives, and sticks, the Muslim mob badly injured the mother in particular.

The mother received a knife wound to her right arm and had her earrings forcefully ripped off. After the two fled from their attackers, the mother was admitted to the hospital and the father immediately filed a complaint with the police. The police took no action.

As a last recourse, the Christian father requested the aid of the advocacy group Human Rights Focus Pakistan (HRFP). HRFP took it upon themselves to help the Christian family, and thanks to their efforts, the son was released from prison. Unfortunately, the Christian family’s troubles did not end there as they have begun receiving death threats. HRFP will now take this case into the courts to push for condemnation against police bias and against workplace discrimination. We pray that this case would serve to advance the interest of minority Christian workers so often abused and mistreated in Pakistan.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) commonly known as Pakistan Taliban has accused Islamabad of sabotaging the ongoing peace negotiations. The proscribed group also warned that if its demands were not met, it would be forced to call off the indefinite ceasefire.

“If the Pakistan government wants to flee from meaningful negotiations, then we have no problem. We will wage a countrywide jihad,” the TTP said in a statement. The group also refused to hold talks under the framework of the Pakistani constitution, as it was not based on Sharia law.

“Our Mujahideen will have the opportunity to wage jihad in the country since freedom and sovereignty are our rights as are practicing our religious and national values” says the statement. It added that “TTP members will never give up arms and surrender.”

The TTP leaders also made it clear that their demand for reversal of FATA merger is non-negotiable and it was made clear to the negotiators of the Pakistani security establishment.

“They (Pakistan army) had assured us in the beginning of the fresh talks that demerger of the FATA region will be done and we will be free to implement Sharia laws in our land but if they want to back off, we will have no other option but to fight them off but we will never surrender or disarm and will continue to fight Pakistani security forces in case of no agreement.”

In 2018, the Imran Khan government merged the FATA, a lawless tribal area into the more tightly administered Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, curbing TTP’s free movement in the area….

Nigeria (International Christian Concern) – Fulani muslim militants, who belong to the largely nomadic Fulani herding communities found mostly in northern Nigeria, pose threats to Christian farming villages. Fulani often attack Christians and burn their farms, especially in more rural communities.

Residents of Christian villages that are facing Fulani threats say that whenever the Fulani bring their herds to graze on a local farm, the farmers expect that radicalized Fulani militants will still come and attack them at night. In the villages of Ancha, Hukke Kpachudu, Tafigana, and Nkiedoro, the residents, who are Christian, are threatened daily by the presence of the Fulani herdsmen. Locals say Fulani illegally graze their herds on Christian-owned farms armed with big knives and guns.

“The Fulani sacked 35 people from their farms yesterday,” Ezekiel Bini, National Youth Leader of Irigwe Youth, told an ICC staff member last week. He was referring to a recent attack on a Christian village in Miango county, located in northern Nigeria, that has lost over 500 Christian farmers to Fulani attacks within the last two years and seen an additional 13,000 people displaced.

In addition to killing farmers, Fulani have burned houses, attacked churches, and stolen valuables in many Christian villages throughout northern Nigeria.

In Christian-majority Miango county and surrounding areas, police do nothing to protect Christians because ethnic Fulani control the region. A farmer told ICC that Fulani herdsmen released over 300 cows on people’s farms, allowing them to graze freely on food crops where fertilizer had already been applied.

“The security will do nothing,” said Emmanuel, a corn and potato farmer whose farm was among the 35 farms that were destroyed. Gani said he knows that police and security forces will not take any serious action to punish the perpetrators. The Fulani will be given back their cows and will not be charged, leaving the farmers hungry.

Another farmer, Yusuf Sunday, a local church elder, said he just had finished applying fertilizer worth over $240 USD the morning of June 21, not knowing his farm was going to be destroyed by militants later that day.

Other farmers said that they believe this persecution by the radicalized Fulani herders is intended to make them forsake Christ, but they will continue to stand firm in their faith. They said that even though they may be famished, God will provide.

Local church leaders are calling for justice and appealing to the government to put a stop this biased treatment of the Fulani to protect the Christians trying to make a living in the region.

Last year, Nigeria earned the distinction of being the country with the world’s worst persecution in ICC’s Persecutor of the Year Awards. Armed Islamist Fulani’s have killed tens of thousands of Christians and left more than three million homeless in a 20-year genocide against them.

Muslims furious that an Islamic leader and his wife put their faith in Christ destroyed a pastor’s house and church building in eastern Uganda, sources said.

After Sheikh Musyoya Anasi and his wife accepted Christ the morning of May 6, that same afternoon Muslims wielding machetes and clubs in Malakachomo village, Kibuku District burned and demolished the Malakachomo Revival Church of God building and the home of Pastor Wilberforce Naaya, the pastor said.

Church members had visited the home of Anasi at 9 a.m. and prayed for his wife after learning she had been sick for two years. After prayer for healing, Anasi said, she immediately rose and asked for food.
“She had been suffering from acute pain in her throat that made her not able to swallow dry food, as well as from an inflamed breast – she could only take liquid food,” Anasi told Morning Star News. “After the prayers, she requested some cooked bananas, which was prepared and eaten with ease. The breast inflammation was reduced. These miracles led me and my wife to give our lives to Jesus as Lord and Savior.”

Muslim and Christian neighbors overheard their jubilation and came to see what was taking place at the sheikh’s house.
“A few members from the mosque arrived, and also Christians, and I explained to them what had happened in the presence of the evangelistic team from the church,” Anasi said. “After having tea, they left.”

He later went to the church for afternoon worship, and at 4 p.m. worshipers saw a Muslim mob in the distance, said Pastor Naaya.
“They were carrying machetes, clubs, sticks and marching towards our church building while chanting ‘ Allah akbar! Allah akbar! Allah akbar! [Allah is greater]’ slogan,” Pastor Naaya told Morning Star News. “We quickly left the church, because we knew we were in danger for having a sheikh pray with us and quickly rang the police.”

A Christian neighbor who had been among the visitors to Anasi’s home to hear why he and his wife were celebrating said that the Muslim visitors had gone to the mosque to inform the imam.
“As we left the home of the sheikh, some of my Muslim neighbors were not happy about the conversion of the sheikh and the wife to Christianity,” said the church member, whose name is withheld. “Some were even saying that they were going to report the incident in the mosque, since it was a Friday prayer day for the Muslims.”

An hour after seeing the Muslim mob in the distance, the pastor and others saw smoke rising from the church building.
“We knew that the Muslims had started burning it,” Pastor Naaya said. “After one hour the police arrived at the scene of the incident, but the church structure was already burned. The police managed to arrest a few attackers and take them to the police station.”
The assailants demolished the church building as well as his house, he said.

Several Muslims were detained on suspicion of destruction of religious property.

Shagufta Kiran was arrested in July last year for allegedly spreading blasphemous content on WhatsApp. She goes to court next Monday. Meanwhile, her husband and her children express their pain.

Islamabad: A Christian woman accused of insulting Islam in a WhatsApp group is still in prison after more than nine months.

Shagufta Kiran was arrested on 29 July 2021. As a result, her family was forced to seek a safe house to avoid persecution. she is expected to appear in court next Monday.

“My wife and I lived happily with our children,” said Shagufta’s husband, Rafiq Masih, speaking to AsiaNews . “The accusation of blasphemy has caused our lives to take a bad turn: Now I am very worried about the present and the future.”

Charges against the Christian woman are based on section 11 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (2016) and articles 295 A, 295 C, 298, 298 A and 109 of the Pakistani Penal Code.

Shagufta is accused of disseminating content deemed blasphemous that was sent to her.

Her daughter Nihaal, 18, is still aghast from being separated from a “caring” and “protective” mother.
“We don't feel like buying new clothes for religious festivals,” she told AsiaNews . “We feel no excitement about celebrating any feast without our mother. We are worried about her fate, and pray that the court frees her and that she can come back to us.”

Harrison, Shagufta’s 15-year-old, laments the fact that he couldn't even hold his mother's hand when he went to visit her in prison.
“They keep her in a small cell and there is a separation barrier between prisoners and visitors. It is heartbreaking to see her locked up like that,” the boy explained. “Living without a mother,” he added, “is like living in a body without a soul.”

For Joseph Jansen, president of Voice for Justice, Pakistan’s blasphemy legislation is incompatible with human rights. The law should guarantee a fair trial and religious freedom.

“The blasphemy laws and the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act of 2016 are misused to curb freedom of expression, thought, conscience and religion, as evinced in several cases, including Shagufta Kiran’s,” said the expert.

Existing laws do not guarantee “the presumption of innocence, the proportionality of punishments, etc.,” he noted. By contrast, “the accuser enjoys impunity despite fabricating evidence.”

A Muslim in Faisalabad, Pakistan who abducted a 15-year-old Roman Catholic girl has forced her to marry him and convert to Islam, but police refuse to help the family, sources said.

Nadeem Masih, a sanitation worker at a textile factory, told Morning Star News that his daughter, Saba Masih, was abducted from the Madina Town area of Faisalabad when she and her older sister were on their way to work.

Their 45-year-old neighbor, Muhammad Yasir, forcibly took Saba away in a rickshaw, Masih said.
“Yasir has already been married thrice but does not have children from either of his wives,” he said.

The family called police soon after Masih’s older daughter informed them of Saba’s abduction, but there has been no progress in the case, he said.
“The police are not cooperating with us,” he told Morning Star News. “The investigating officer keeps telling us that Saba has converted to Islam and contracted marriage with Yasir, but he has not shown us any document as yet. We are pleading with police to at least recover the girl and arrange our meeting with her so that we can ascertain the facts ourselves, but he doesn’t listen to us.”

Morning Star News’ attempts to reach police for comment were unsuccessful.

Masih’s wife recently suffered a knee injury, keeping her from earning income as a domestic worker, and their two oldest daughters were working in her place, he said.

“I was forced to take my children, four daughters and two sons, out of school due to poverty, and my wife and elder daughters are working as household helps to supplement our family income,” he said. “We are already suffering from poverty, and now our daughter has also gone missing.”

Saba’s abduction has exacerbated their problems, he said.
“Saba is just a kid and could not have gone with Yasir on her own,” Masih said. “Yasir’s family has tarnished our reputation in the area with claims that Saba had an affair with their son, and that she’s the one who coaxed him into eloping from their homes. We have no one to turn to in this difficult time.”

Saba is among at least three Christian girls who remain missing in Faisalabad city. In July 2021, 14-year-old Chashman Masih was kidnapped from her school in Faisalabad. The next day, her family received images by phone of an Islamic conversion letter, Islamic wedding certificate (Nikahnama ) and an affidavit apparently signed by Chashman that she had willfully converted to Islam and married a Muslim man.

Church leaders cite forced conversion as the biggest challenge for the vulnerable minority communities of Pakistan, while rights groups blame inequality and marginalization for exploitation of minority groups.

Anglican Church of Pakistan Moderator Azad Marshall stated on Twitter on Wednesday, “Kidnapping of our youth must end; today we see a new level of hate when a young girl with hearing and speech impairment was conned and kidnapped in broad daylight. The police must act, the judiciary must send a message. We are being forced to watch as humans are violated.”

In a subsequent tweet, he stated, “Social indifference to predators who use religion to pursue and target minorities and the vulnerable, continuing to saw away at all of our futures. The violation of Saba Masih in Faisalabad is another reminder of just how grim the situation is.”

Faisalabad-based rights activist Lala Robin Daniel said activists on Monday started a series of protests against forced conversions and marriages of minority girls. Daniel said it was unfortunate that Pakistani courts give priority to political cases while matters related to minorities and human rights violations are not given due attention.

“Will the courts operate 24 hours for the serious legal issues of the common man and minorities?” he said, pointing to recent political cases in which the Supreme Court and the high court in Islamabad opened at midnight. “When will the courts play their role for the recovery of underage girls? It’s a big question on the high judiciary. Are these courts only for the powerful? Why don’t the same laws apply to the minorities? Down with Punjab police. We demand justice.”

At least 1,000 women from religious minorities, including Christians and Hindus, are forcibly converted and married annually in Pakistan, according to various rights groups. Although Pakistan officials have dismissed such reports as “rubbish and baseless,” activists claim the actual numbers could be much higher as many cases go unreported.

According to the Center for Social Justice, 60 cases of questionable conversions were reported last year, with victims including 30 Christians and 30 Hindus. The highest number of 32 cases was reported in Sindh Province, 26 in Punjab Province and one each in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.
The center reported that 70 percent of the victims were less than 18 years old, with 63 percent 14 years old or younger, while 8 percent were above 18 years old.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the Biden Administration are committed to working against “Islamophobia”. This is what emerged from the White House’s annual report on religious freedom in the world, just as news came from Nigeria of the killing of 50 Christians in a Catholic church in Owo. Others speak of a death toll of between 70 and 100 people.

The correspondent of the German BILD reported: “With weapons and explosives they broke into the Catholic church, killing up to 100 people and even shooting runaway children and pregnant women! The faithful lay motionless on the floor of the church, hoping to be spared”. On the BBC, a survivor said: “I saw whole families wiped out, friends, relatives, those I knew.”

But it is “Muslims who are being targeted with violence,” according to US President Joe Biden . At a reception in the White House to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, Biden appointed the first Muslim as ambassador for religious freedom, Rashad Hussain. Why give a Muslim such an important post as that of ambassador for religious freedom?

In recent months, Biden has even removed Nigeria from the blacklist of countries accused of participating in or tolerating religious persecution.

“It’s a victory for terrorists and a defeat for anyone interested in human rights and religious freedom,” said Frank Wolf, a former congressman behind key laws requiring administrations to name religious freedom violators.

“Biden and the United States ignored the persecution of Nigerian Christians,” Johns Hopkins University economist Steve Hanke also writes. Three months after his inauguration, Biden immediately froze some programs for religious freedom. “This is a major shift away from religious freedom,” said Nina Shea, who serves as director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute.

Not a word, in fact, from the Biden administration on Christians killed. Not even a symbolic gesture, like the rainbow flag that the American embassy in the Vatican had hung on its Roman palace the day before the massacre.

[1] One Easter morning a church in Kaduna, Nigeria, was targeted by a car bomb that killed 39 Christians. There was no official comment from the Obama administration. On same Easter day, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton railed against Europe, calling for it to become “more inclusive” .

[2] When terrorists blew up a church in Baghdad, this is what the White House said: “The United States condemns the killing of so many innocent Iraqis.”

[3] In Egypt, when two dozen Copts who were organizing a peaceful demonstration in the Maspero area of ​​Cairo were massacred, the White House declared: “Now is a time for restraint on all sides so that the Egyptians can move forward together to forging a strong and united Egypt ‘”.

[4] When the Islamic State beheaded 21 Coptic Christians on the beaches of Libya, the US State Department refused to acknowledge that they had been murdered as Christians. It referred to them as “Egyptian citizens”.

[5] When the churches of Sri Lanka were devastated by the attacks (269 dead) in 2019, former US President Obama and his former Secretary of State Clinton defined the victims of the attacks not as “Christians”, but “Easter worshipers”.

Democrats are flirting with a parallel reality, in which Islam is just a “religion of peace” and its victims don’t even exist.

A viral video of male and female teenagers at a skateboarding day in the southern city of Shiraz has angered Iranian officials, who have arrested 10 participants for their role in the event.

The video, which was posted on social media on June 23, shows several teenagers of both sexes mixing freely on a boulevard in Shiraz to mark "Go Skateboarding Day."

The hijab became compulsory in Iran in public for females over the age of 9 following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Many Iranian women have flouted the rule over the years and pushed the boundaries of what officials say is acceptable clothing.

Many have publicly criticized the restrictions and a large number of the females in the video were not wearing headscarves.

The Mehr news agency reported, quoting Shiraz Governor Lotfollah Sheibani, that "so far 10 people who organized the event have been arrested."

"The main organizer of the event has also been identified and action has been taken to arrest him based on judicial authorities," Sheibani said.

"The actions of the teenagers in this gathering are a violation of religious norms, and we strongly condemn these actions and deal with them judicially" he added.

In recent years, Iranian adolescents have repeatedly challenged the regime's efforts to control various aspects of social life.

Iranian media reported last weekend that police had arrested 120 people for alleged "criminal acts," including mixed-sex dancing, and not wearing a hijab at a party in a forest in the country's north.

The Benue River runs directly through Makurdi, slicing through the state and cultivating the richest soils in all of Nigeria. Basketfuls of colorful crops line the city streets, supplemented by hanging rows of raw meat and the fishermen’s catch of the day. While driving past the marketplaces and marveling at the natural resources available, I easily understood why locals fondly refer to Benue as “the breadbasket of Nigeria.” Inconceivable, though, is what you will find just a few miles down the road.

In a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs), only a 10-minute drive from the center of town, are hundreds of people forced into lives of obscurity. Women who once reaped bountiful harvests now trade sex for a meal to bring home to their families. Children who otherwise would have been able to attend school now wander idly with their bellies swollen from malnourishment or so emaciated that their skeletons show through their skin. In a state so blessed to be called Nigeria’s breadbasket, there are more than 1 million IDPs struggling to survive each day.

These are the same people who were living lives of peace and comfort just years prior. Lives taken from them in an instant when Fulani militants stormed their communities, killed their family members, and burned down their homes all in the name of their god.

I spoke with Mary, a woman seemingly in her 20s, whose English revealed years of education.
“I’ve been here for five years now,” she told me, her eyes fixed on the red dirt beneath us. “One day, we were asleep at our homes and we heard shooting, but we didn’t know the problem that started it. There were more than 50 of them, carrying guns and cut glass.” She paused, then continued, still looking at the ground.

“They killed my brother and his wife that day,” she said, as she looked out and motioned toward the sea of tents. “Now we are living here. We don’t have a clinic, or healthcare, or anything to eat. My prayer is for you to help us to go back to our home.”

As Mary spoke, a crowd gathered, and when she finished, others took their turn to tell their stories, each more devastating than the last. When it was time to leave, we joined together in prayer, and said our goodbyes. While we left full of good intentions, hoping to effectively relay their message back home, deep down we wondered if anything would really make a difference.

Our van started to exit the camp and I turned around to see the crowd waving goodbye. Just then, I noticed a woman emerge from the group. Is she running after us? We continued driving, and she began to slow down, eventually turning back to the crowd in exhaustion.

They motioned her forward, as if telling her not to give up. Once again, she continued to run. Yes, she’s running after us. We asked the driver to stop, and we got out and began running to meet her. When we did, she reached behind her back and handed me a child who I hadn’t previously seen, tied around her in a swaddling scarf.

He was skin and bones. Never had I held something so delicate. With one wrong move, I felt that he would break in my arms. He clung to me, not making a noise. He couldn’t have been more than 10 pounds. Later I would find out he was almost four years old.

Thankfully, this child was brought to a hospital that day and nourished back to health. But for millions of IDPs across Nigeria, this story rarely has a happy ending. Having been driven from their ancestral farmlands due to Fulani militant attacks, they have become refugees in their own country.

A four-year-old child starving to death in Nigeria’s breadbasket. I wondered how many more there could be.

LAHORE, Pakistan – Hopes for freedom of two Christian brothers on death row under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws were dashed this month when a court upheld their death sentence despite lack of evidence against them, their lawyers said.

Qaiser Ayub, 45, and Amoon Ayub, 42, have been incarcerated since 2014, and their appeal of the death sentence before the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi Bench had been pending since 2018. Justice Raja Shahid Mehmood Abbasi and Justice Chaudhry Abdul Aziz took up their appeal on Feb. 28 but did not announce their verdict until June 8, attorney Khurram Maan said.

“We were quite hopeful that the judges would take note that the trial court had convicted our clients on the basis of a shoddy investigation and evidence, but we were shocked when the court announced its verdict on June 8, after a delay of three months,” Maan told Morning Star News.

Maan, of the European Center for Law and Justice (ECLJ), is representing Amoon Ayub, while Tahir Bashir of the Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) is defending Qaiser Ayub. Maan and Bashir said there is no evidence that implicates the Ayub brothers in the blasphemy charge.

Bashir said the brothers, incarcerated in the Sahiwal District Jail, were “very sad and disappointed” when informed about the appeal verdict.

“Qaiser has three children, while Amoon is childless,” Bashir told Morning Star News. “Both men were devastated when they learned that their appeal for justice has been denied.”

The case against the brothers was registered in June 2011 on a complaint by Talagang resident Muhammad Saeed, who alleged he came across a blog containing blasphemous material against Islam’s prophet, Muhammad, Maan said. The blog was created by Muslim friends of Qaiser Ayub who were resentful over a conflict with him, and they had put his name, phone number, email address and office address on their site, Maan said.

Qaiser Ayub’s friends had registered the website under Amoon Ayub’s name, and based on that and the contact information on the blog, police filed charges against both brothers and arrested them, Maan said.

“None of that information proved that either of the two brothers actually authored or posted the blasphemous material on the blogging website,” he said.

The lawyer said that Amoon Ayub was a music teacher at a private school in Lahore and was running a small charity for welfare of Christians, the United Christian Organization (UCO), with his older brother, Qaiser Ayub. The brothers also operated a website where they posted news about the activities of their organization, he added.

“The case against the brothers was based on the blasphemous content posted on a blog which, according to the brothers’ testimonies, was created by the Muslim friends of Qaiser using their contact information from the original website after a fight broke out between them over one of the friend’s sister,” Maan said.

The trial court convicted both brothers in December 2018, reasoning that the presence of their contact information on the blog and their neglecting to approach the website administrator to remove the contact details showed that they were responsible for creating it.

“Both the trial court and the high court refused to accept that any person can create a website and post anybody’s name and address on it,” Maan said.
During the appeal, Maan told the court that the brothers’ authentic website was online for only a year and had no blasphemous content on it.

“I pleaded with the court to inquire of the Cybercrime Wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) why they had failed to authenticate the creator of the blasphemous blog from the WordPress management, to which the investigating officer said the company was not responding to their request,” Maan said.

The FIA did state to the court that it had held a “technical meeting” with the complainant, after which the charges were filed, Maan said, “but the fact is that the complainant is not even a matriculate [second-year high school student], so how could he have such a meeting with the agency?”

The lawyer said that he also cited a recent judgment by the Lahore High Court which held that a blasphemous text message found in the phone of an appellant in another case was insufficient evidence for conviction.

“The appellant could be convicted only if the prosecution establishes that the phone was in his use and that he authored and sent the alleged text message,” Maan said. “Similarly, in the Ayub brothers’ case, the prosecution did not establish that they authored or posted the blasphemous material on the blog. However, the court disregarded the submissions and relevant case law.”

Attorney Bashir said the defense hopes the Supreme Court will administer justice to the falsely accused brothers, charged with blaspheming against Muhammad, which calls for a mandatory death sentence under Section 295-C of Pakistan’s widely condemned blasphemy laws.

“The SC must also take cognizance of the fact that trial courts and high courts become prejudicial if the case is of Section 295-C,” he said, referring to prolonged delays in trials and hearing of appeals.

The mere accusation of blasphemy often provokes mob violence and lynching of suspects in Pakistan, while penalties are light for those who make such false accusations. At least 1,949 blasphemy suspects were subjected to false allegations, prolonged trials and displacement between 1985 and December 2021, according to the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).

The CSJ added that at least 84 people were killed after being suspected or accused under blasphemy laws since their promulgation as part of former military ruler Ziaul Haq’s Islamisation during the 1980s. Mobs lynched two people and injured two others in four cities of Pakistan between December 2021 and March 2022.

Muslim man attempted to slaughter a Coptic Christian woman with a sickle in the in the village of Sharona, Minya governorate, Egypt.

Qassim Falah Muhammad attacked Mona Wafdi Marzouk, 35, as she was walking to her family farm early in the morning to assist her sick and ailing father. Muhammad crept up behind her and began to strangle her; then, according to the report, “he grabbed a “sickle” (a sharp tool used for cutting weeds) and tried to slaughter her with it.” Luckily, the sickle had dulled over the years and did not fully slice though the arteries of her neck.

Muhammad then fled the scene, as reported by Mona’s cousin, Makari, who saw the incident from a distance and ran to the butchered woman’s aid. He and other family members instantly transferred her to the nearest medical center, where she received seven stitches to her neck.

Although she survived, “Mona lives in a state of terror and panic after the harsh experience of this extremist person.”

While it is unclear why Muhammad targeted Mona, it is clear and well established that he hates Christians and has targeted them before. In fact, the day before he tried to slaughter Mona, he invaded the home of another Copt in the same village and robbed him of his money and other possessions.

In response to a police investigation, Muhammad’s family instantly produced a certificate indicating that he is “mentally ill”—a tactic on regular display in Egypt whenever a Muslim is caught after attacking a Christian, to get him the most lenient sentencing.

But as the report notes, “ If he is mentally ill, why does he exclusively target Copts? Is it sensible to promote the “psychopath” narrative in every single incident against the Copts—as if the mentally ill only see and try to kill Copts?”

This is hardly the first time a fanaticized Muslim man ambushes a Coptic Christian woman in Egypt. In an earlier, and eerily reminiscent, incident from 2020, a Muslim man crept up behind a Coptic woman walking home with groceries, pulled her head back with a hand full of hair, and slit her throat with a knife in his other hand. In this instance, Catherine Ramzi, who was also rushed to a nearby medical center, received 63 stitches to her throat; doctors told her she came within an inch of dying. It is believed that her Muslim would-be murderer—who was, incidentally, also portrayed by Egyptian media as “mentally ill”—may have identified her as a Christian for not wearing a hijab around her hair or for having a cross tattoo on her wrist.

Also, in April, 2021, a Muslim man butchered a Coptic Christian woman and her toddler son with a machete—“ as if he were slaughtering chickens ,” said eyewitnesses. He also tried to slaughter the Christian woman’s young daughter, who managed to flee.