“Since this is not negated later, we can take from this verse that it is permissible to have sexual intercourse with a prepubescent girl.” — IslamOnline.Com
Last Friday, an Afghan journalist named Mustafa Kazemi posted on Facebook a harrowing story about an eight-year-old girl in the Khashrood district of Nimruz province in Afghanistan, who was sold off into marriage to a mullah in his late 50s, and who bled to death on their wedding night.
It was one of many such tragedies in a land that little notes nor long remembers such deaths. An eight-year-old girl sold into marriage and dead after a brutal sexual assault that her body could not withstand is no more noteworthy than a pack animal that collapses under a too-heavy weight. It’s time and money wasted, that’s all. Forget about it. Get another one. Continue reading “The Silent Tragedy of Child Marriage – Re-Blog / Robert Spencer”→
Population: 5.2 million (95,000 Christians) Main Religion: Islam Government: One-party state Source of Persecution: Dictatorial paranoia/Organised corruption
The state exerts strict control in order to avoid the emergence of any independent economic, social or cultural groups – which includes churches. All unregistered religious activity is illegal and the government uses the ‘Council on Religious Affairs’, police and the secret services to keep the church under surveillance. The frequency of raids, even on registered churches, has increased and obtaining registration is nearly impossible. Formal religious education is almost totally banned, as are all religious publications.
PLEASE PRAY:
For Muslim-background believers who face more problems than other Christians, including physical attacks
That government officials will be willing to register churches
Give thanks that Pastor Ilmurad was released from prison in 2012; he must now report to the police each week.
PERSECUTION DYNAMICS
Delegates attend a session of Turkmenistan’s Halk Maslakhaty (People’s Assembly) to decide who will succeed late President Saparmurat Niyazov in Ashgabat December 26, 2006.
Turkmenistan is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. It is very rich, mainly due to large gas fields, but the riches only benefit a small minority. Muslim-background believers face pressure from both their families and the community. All Christians are treated with mistrust yet Muslim-background believers face significantly more problems in this regard, including being physically harmed.
All unregistered religious activity is strictly illegal and registering a church is nearly impossible. The Russian Orthodox Church faces less problems in this regard. Formal religious education is almost totally banned and all religious publications are forbidden. Former President Niyazov’s book ‘Ruhnama’, which links Turkmen identity with Islam, continues to have an influence and is reportedly still used in school and university curricula. Arbitrary treatment, raids, fines and court charges will go on as long as the ruling elite perceives every group it cannot control as a threat to their absolute power.
ANECDOTAL REPORT – Begjan Shirmedov
A group of about six officials – two of them in police uniforms – raided Begjan Shirmedov’s home in Dashoguz in the North of Turkmenistan on Sunday 23 September. They arrived during a house meeting of his Baptist congregation, Path of Faith Church, attended by about 15 church members.
The officials told them that religious activity without state registration is illegal. The believers replied that they have been attempting to obtain registration in vain since 2004.
Police searched every room in the house and confiscated all Christian literature and CDs. When they asked where the literature had come from, family members insisted they had collected the books over many years as they have been Christians since the mid-1990s.
About 15 church members, women and children included, were taken away to be questioned. According to a Forum 18 report “Begjan Shirmedov was dragged out of the house by his collar”. Begjan is 77 years old, an elderly man who according to the Turkmen tradition should be treated with more respect. “They treated an elderly man like a tramp in front of his wife, his children, church members and neighbours without fear of having to answer for their actions.”
Meanwhile the other church members were fingerprinted and questioned about their religious activity. Later that day they were released.
May 4, 2013: Pope Tawadros II, the 118th pope of the Coptic Church of Egypt, leads the Easter Mass at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo, Egypt. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
A mass exodus of Christians is currently underway. Millions of Christians are being displaced from one end of the Islamic world to the other.
We are reliving the true history of how the Islamic world, much of which prior to the Islamic conquests was almost entirely Christian, came into being.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recently said: “The flight of Christians out of the region is unprecedented and it’s increasing year by year.” In our lifetime alone “Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt.”
Ongoing reports from the Islamic world certainly support this conclusion: Iraq was the earliest indicator of the fate awaiting Christians once Islamic forces are liberated from the grip of dictators.
In 2003, Iraq’s Christian population was at least one million. Today fewer than 400,000 remain—the result of an anti-Christian campaign that began with the U.S. occupation of Iraq, when countless Christian churches were bombed and countless Christians killed, including by crucifixion and beheading.
The 2010 Baghdad church attack, which saw nearly 60 Christian worshippers slaughtered, is the tip of a decade-long iceberg.
Now, as the U.S. supports the jihad on Syria’s secular president Assad, the same pattern has come to Syria: entire regions and towns where Christians lived for centuries before Islam came into being have now been emptied, as the opposition targets Christians for kidnapping, plundering, and beheadings, all in compliance with mosque calls telling the populace that it’s a “sacred duty” to drive Christians away. Continue reading “The mass exodus of Christians from the Muslim world | Fox News”→
LIBYA (Wikipedia) – Population: 6.5 million (35,000 Christians) Main Religion: Islam Government: Transitional government Source of Persecution: Islamic extremism
During Gaddafi’s reign, the main source of persecution was the government and its secret services. Today opposition comes from the family, community and fanatical armed groups. But it is still forbidden to import Arabic Scriptures or to evangelise. There is no central government and the rule of law is absent, so Islamist extremist movements like the Salafists are able to perpetrate violence upon believers. Because of the civil unrest, 75 per cent of expat Christians have left the country.
PLEASE PRAY:
For strength for secret Christians; they are forbidden from meeting together
For a stable government that rules wisely and with justice
Give thanks that Christian programmes on TV, radio and the internet are generating growing interest in the Christian faith.
PERSECUTION DYNAMICS
Libyan Arab
Under Gaddafi’s rule, conditions for Christians were extremely harsh and Libya did not even have a real constitution. The feared and omnipresent secret police made sure restrictions on church activities and distribution of literature were enforced and evangelism criminalised. Muslim background believers were always at risk from their families and most Libyan Christians were afraid to meet as any kind of religious gathering was forbidden. Expats were allowed churches but Libyans were not allowed to attend.
The Libyan revolution has not brought Christians protection and freedom
The revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia gave Libyans the courage to fight Gaddafi, but despite this leading to Gaddafi’s death, it is feared that the future will be worse. Because of the unrest, an estimated 75 per cent of expat Christians have left the country. The National Transitional Council, who took over after Gaddafi, have repeatedly announced their intent to implement a ‘democracy according to Sharia’ in Libya, in which all citizens are already considered Sunni Muslim by law.
The main sources of persecution today are family, community, fanatical armed groups and, to a lesser extent, the government. To import Arabic Scriptures remains strictly forbidden and proselytising and missionary activity is officially prohibited. Many Libyan Christians are fleeing their homeland. It is unlikely that the situation will change, even with a new constitution.
ANECDOTAL REPORT / REQUEST FOR PRAYER:
Sherif is Egyptian, running a bookshop in Benghazi, in the East of Libya. He was arrested on February 10th and has been detained since then. During his detainment he has been physically abused, while there is no official charge against him, nor has he appeared before court.
Supporters of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and members of the Muslim Brotherhood chant pro-Morsi slogans while holding up a poster with a crossed out picture of ousted President Hosni Mubarak and Morsi during a rally in Cairo on December 14, 2012. (Amr Dalsh/Reuters)
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s decision not to attend this coming Sunday’s Coptic Easter mass was entirely predictable. Morsi, after all, declined to attend Pope Tawadros II’s November investiture and, during his previous stint as chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party, Morsi visited a church on Christmas but made a point of emphasizing that he exited before services started. Yet because Morsi’s decision comes on the heels of a Brotherhood fatwa prohibiting Muslims from wishing Christians a “Happy Easter,” Morsi’s coldness towards Christians reflects a central paradox of the Brotherhood’s Islamism: despite its longtime promise to “implement the sharia” upon achieving power, the Brotherhood only offers specific interpretations of Islamic legal principles when it needs to justify its most intolerant impulses.
The fatwa, authored by Brotherhood leader Abdel Rahman al-Barr, is noteworthy for its degree of analytical detail. In it, Barr quotes extensively from the Qur’an to argue that Muslims should only greet Christians on their holidays “so long as this greeting does not come at the expense of our [Islamic] religion.” In other words, Barr writes, Muslims cannot wish Christians a “Happy Easter,” because “our belief as Muslims, which makes ambiguity impossible, is that [Jesus] wasn’t killed or crucified,” though Muslims can greet Christians on Easter with the non-sectarian Arabic salutation ” kulu sana wa-entum tayyibun,” which roughly means “hope you are well this year” and is used for all sorts of occasions, including birthdays. By contrast, he adds, wishing Christians a “Merry Christmas” is permissible, because Muslims view Jesus as a human prophet and thus acknowledge his birth. Continue reading “EGYPT – No ‘Happy Easter’: The Muslim Brotherhood’s Bizarre Religious Intolerance (Re-Blog)”→
recently said: “The flight of Christians out of the region is unprecedented and it’s increasing year by year.” In our lifetime alone “Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt.”
The Peanut Gallery 