Islam - Current Day - The Daesh Beatles; Mosques in Italy; Pakistan's Blasphemy Laws; Quran-Burning in Denmark; Car-Bomb in Afghanistan

 Car bomb hits government building, killing at least 15 in eastern Afghanistan

3 Oct 2020 

Afghan officials inspect the site of a truck bomb blast in Ghani Khel district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan on October 3, 2020. © Reuters / Parwiz

A car bomb attack has resulted in at least 15 deaths and more than 50 people injured after a government building was apparently targeted in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar.

The administrative building located in Ghani Khel district was hit by a vehicle-borne bomb on Saturday. The building was housing some military facilities as well, local authorities said.

Footage from the scene indicates that the building was effectively reduced to rubble during the attack. The bomb left a large crater next to it, while multiple road vehicles were left mangled by the explosion. 

The car bombing appeared to be a prelude for an attack by a group of gunmen, yet they were handled by security forces shortly afterwards, Nangarhar governor’s spokesman Attaullah Khogyani told AFP.

“As a result, 13 civilians including one woman and four children were killed. Two members of security forces were also killed,” he said. More than 50 people were injured during the attack.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast. The attack comes as envoys of the Afghan government and Taliban militant group continue their talks in the Qatari capital Doha after weeks of difficult negotiations over prisoner swaps. The talks remain in very early stages and so far have not led to any comprehensive ceasefire deal.

Ghani Khel, AFGN

Danish far-right activists stage Koran-burning stunt

in Muslim-populated neighborhood

3 Oct 2020 

Danish Stram Kurs (“Hard Line”) party has staged a Koran-burning protest in an area of the town of Fredericia mostly populated by Turkish and Muslim immigrants. The stunt attracted a group of angry locals, one man was detained.

The activists, led by the party’s head Rasmus Paludan appeared in Fredericia on late Friday afternoon. While the protest was originally expected to take place at a local park, the group instead stood on a cordoned-off lawn by a local supermarket under watch of multiple police officers.

The Stram Kurs members tossed around and burned several copies of the Koran, insisting the stunt was needed to send a political message.

‘What we are doing today is, we are telling the truth about Islam, because many people in Denmark don't know what Islam is about, so we want to explain what Islam is about, and that the values and judgments of Islam are very, very in contradiction to Danish western European values,” Paludan stated.

The stunt has attracted a group of angry locals, who condemned the Stram Kurs’ activities. Footage from the scene shows one man detained by the police after he breached the cordoned-off lawn reserved for the provocative stunt.

The far-right party, founded back in 2017, has repeatedly engaged in similar stunts in Denmark, as well as in neighboring Nordic countries. The latest – and arguably one of the most ‘efficient’ – protests of the kind was held by the party late in August in Sweden’s Malmo (2nd story on link).

Paludan himself was pre-emotively banned from entering Sweden for two years after he announced the Koran-burning event, yet his supporters proceeded with the stunt without their leader. The stunt prompted a very angry reaction among Malmo’s Muslim population, resulting in protests that promptly tumbled into outright rioting with blazing barricades in the streets and clashes.

While the Stram Kurs party is well known for its anti-Islam activism and Koran-burning events, its political achievements remain quite modest. The party did not manage to get any seats during any elections it took part in, failing to get past the 2 percent threshold during the latest general election in 2019.

Pakistan acquits Christian man sentenced to death for 'blasphemy,'

but he remains in danger

3,000 Muslims loot and burn 180 Christian homes, 75 shops, and at least two churches.

By Leah MarieAnn Klett, Christian Post Reporter 

Wednesday, October 07, 2020

A woman holds a placard during a rally by dozens protesting the killing of the Governor of Punjab Salman Taseer in Lahore, Pakistan, January 8, 2011. Taseer was shot dead by one of his guards, who was apparently incensed by the politician's opposition to the blasphemy law, in Islamabad on January 4, 2011. | Reuters/Mohsin Raza

A Christian man sentenced to death has been acquitted by a Pakistani court six years after he was charged with blaspheming the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

On Tuesday, the Lahore High Court acquitted Sawan Masih, a street sweeper from the eastern city of Lahore who was sentenced to death in March 2014 under Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws, PTI reports. 

“A Lahore High Court division bench headed by Justice Syed Shehbaz Ali Rizvi acquitted Sawan Masih,” a court official told PTI on Tuesday. The court official went on to say that the Lahore High Court also ordered Masih to be released from custody.

Masih, a father of three, was accused by his Muslim friend, Muhammad Shahid, of insulting the Islamic prophet Muhammad during a conversation in the eastern Lahore city's Joseph Colony. According to Shahid, Masih said, “My Jesus is genuine. He is the Son of Allah. He will return while your prophet is false. My Jesus is true and will give salvation.”

However, Masih denied the charges and said the accusations were made due to a property dispute.

Islamic hysteria

The following day, mosques recounted the accusation against Masih over their PA systems, prompting a mob of more than 3,000 Muslims to loot and burn 180 Christian homes, 75 shops, and at least two churches. Amid the violence, Christian families were forced to flee the area. 

Masih was handed over to the police and was later charged under Section 295-C of Pakistan’s Penal Code. He was later sentenced to death under Section 295-C by Judge Chaudhry Ghulam Murtaza, saying he "must be hanged and fined," in a trial held in the Lahore Camp Jail due to security concerns.

The sentencing also included a fine of Rs.200,000 (roughly $2,050).

Masih filed an appeal against the death sentence, raising objections to the police investigation and prosecution, and pleading that the blasphemy charges were fabricated by individuals who wanted to occupy the property of the Joseph Colony.

"The trial had ignored the basic principles of criminal justice in general and principles of Islamic Justice in this case. It committed material irregularity in non-reading and misreading of the evidence on record that has caused serious miscarriage of justice.

"The trial court completely ignored a serious lapse in the prosecution case of 33 hours of un-explained ordinate delay in recording the FIR over such a sensitive issue by the complainant and also ignored, the case law of the superior courts cited at the Bar by the defense counsel," Masih said in his appeal.

The Lahore High Court decided that the prosecution had failed to establish that Masih had committed blasphemy and acquitted him reversing his death sentence.

However, PTI notes that though Masih will be freed soon, his family faces threats and is in hiding.

William Stark, persecution watchdog International Christian Concern’s Regional Manager for South Asia, applauded the ruling, noting it is “rare to see such a high profile blasphemy case against a Christian justly resolved at the High Court level in Pakistan.”

However, Stark said ICC is “deeply concerned for the safety of Sawan and his family,” as extremists in Pakistan are “known to target individuals accused of religious crimes, like blasphemy, even if they have been acquitted.”

“The abuse of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws must be curbed and false allegations must be rooted out and punished. Too often these laws have been a tool in the hands of extremists seeking to stir up religiously motivated violence against minority communities. Without real reform, religious minorities, including Christians, will face more false blasphemy accusations and the extreme violence that often accompanies these accusations.”

Amnesty International notes that Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws are often used against religious minorities and others who are the target of false accusations. They also “embolden” vigilantes prepared to threaten or kill the accused, it says. 

At the U.S. State Department’s 2019 Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom last July, Pakistani human rights activist Shaan Taseer said there are as many as 200 people jailed in Pakistan on blasphemy charges. 

In September, police in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province arrested a Christian man on charges of blasphemy after residents alleged they found pages torn from a Quran inside a drain. He now faces the death penalty. 

In August, a Christian man was charged with blasphemy for making a theological argument on Facebook that Muslims deemed insulting toward the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He too is now facing a potential death sentence for the post.

In 2014, a Christian couple was burned to death inside of a brick kiln by an enraged Muslim mob after they were falsely accused of ripping pages out of a Quran. 

Pakistan is ranked as the fifth-worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution on Open Doors USA’s 2020 World Watch List. 

Yikes! There are four countries that are worse?

Infamous Daesh 'Beatles' to be flown to US to face trial

in killings of hostages

Published:  October 07, 2020 15:09

WP

  

In this March 30, 2019, file photo, Alexanda Amon Kotey, left, and El Shafee Elsheikh, who were allegedly among four British extremist who made up a brutal Daesh cell dubbed "The Beatles" speak during an interview with The Associated Press at a security centre in Kobani, Syria. Image Credit: AP

Washington: Two admitted Daesh militants are expected to be flown on Wednesday from Iraq to the United States, where they will become the first defendants to face prosecution in a US court in connection with the beheadings of American and British hostages, US officials said.

Charges against El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey are expected to be unveiled Wednesday in crimes related to the brutal executions of journalists and aid workers by the Daesh in Syria, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.

They will be prosecuted in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, the site of many past high-profile national security cases. Officials would not detail the planned charges, but possible counts include conspiracy to commit homicide, hostage-taking resulting in death, kidnapping resulting in death and homicide.

The pair are being flown to the United States by the US military, which has been holding them at an air base in Iraq since October 2019.

The mother of one of the men had sought to block a US prosecution because of the prospect of the defendants facing execution if convicted. But a British court last month effectively ended her efforts, paving the way for the two militants, whom Britain earlier stripped of their citizenship, to be tried in the United States.

“We appreciate Britain’s providing the evidence in support of prosecution and we look forward to seeing these defendants in a US courtroom to face justice in the near future,” Justice Department spokesman Marc Raimondi said. He declined to comment on the charges.

Attorney General William Barr in August agreed to set aside the possibility of a death sentence if British authorities promptly transferred evidence to aid a US prosecution. That evidence was shared two weeks ago as soon as the British court issued its ruling.

The pair were part of a four-member cell dubbed “the Beatles” by their prisoners because of their British accents, and are accused of helping stage the beheadings, which were posted online, as the Daesh was taking control of Iraq and Syria in 2014.

Killed in drone strike

The most infamous of the four was the masked man who carried out the grisly killings, known as “Jihadi John,” and identified as Mohamed Emwazi not long before he was killed in 2016 in a US drone strike. A fourth member of the cell is imprisoned in Turkey.

Elsheikh and Kotey were captured by Kurdish forces in Syria in 2018. They were transferred to Iraq by the US military in October 2019 amid Turkey’s invasion of northeast Syria.

All four traveled to Daesh territory from homes in London, and British authorities have amassed substantial evidence related to those journeys as well as voice analysis connecting the suspects to the hostages. But the British government was reluctant to try them in domestic court, fearing that even if the men were convicted, British law would not guarantee a sufficient sentence.

Death sentence

Barr had given British officials until October 15 to provide the evidence or, he warned, the men would be transferred from US custody to the Iraqi government for prosecution. Such a move, human rights activists said, would be tantamount to a death sentence.

Former hostages said the group subjected them to repeated beatings, waterboarding and mock executions.

A number of Western European hostages were released after their governments paid ransoms. The British and US governments refused to do so. Emwazi beheaded American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff on camera, as well as British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning. Peter Kassig, an American aid worker, was slain before his severed head was displayed in an ISIS video. Kayla Mueller, an American human rights activist, was also killed while being held by the group, but her body has not been found.

In interviews from Kurdish custody with The Washington Post and other news organisations, Kotey and Elsheikh acknowledged interacting with those hostages, saying it was their job to extract information, sometimes violently, that could be used in ransom negotiations. But they said they didn’t participate in the executions.

Salvini ally vows to continue fight against Milan mosque

despite death & rape threats

7 Oct, 2020 15:29

Silvia Sardone has revealed details about death and rape threats she received. © Global Look Press/Keystone Press Agency/ FILE PHOTO

Silvia Sardone, who serves as an MEP for Italy’s Northern League Party, has revealed that she received a barrage of death and rape threats because of her opposition to the construction of a mosque in Milan.

According to screenshots of messages she received on social media, seen by journalists at Italy’s Il Giornale paper, the Italian member of the European Parliament has been threatened with violence and immolation for her outspoken opposition to the erection of temporary mosques in the city’s Via Novara area. 

“We foreigners will come into your house and rape you,” read one message, the newspaper reported. One social media user messaged the politician describing Islam as “the only true religion that has existed until now,” while adding that “Christianity is incredible bullshit.”

“I have already instructed my lawyer to denounce this scum,” Sardone said of those behind the abusive messages. The 37-year-old says the threats “highlight, once again, that there is a latent hatred towards those who dare to demand rules, controls, security on the issue of mosques.”

Sardone at a protest in Milan. © Luca Ponti/ Global Look Press/Keystone Press Agency

A friend and close ally of Italy’s former deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, Sardone said she is undeterred by the threats and will continue her criticism of the Democratic Party’s (one of the ruling parties in Milan) “submission... to certain Islamic communities.” 

She said she will continue to press Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala, a center-left-wing independent, to close what she dubs “illegal mosques,” claiming she has the support of citizens who have been ignored for years.  

Meanwhile, Salvini is engaged in a war of words with the current Italian government, which is seeking to roll back migration rules introduced during his time as interior minister. 

A decree approved on Monday will dramatically reduce penalties for aid agencies involved in migrant rescues on the Mediterranean. During his time in power, Salvini raised the potential maximum fine for aiding illegal migration into Italy to €1 million ($1.18 million). It has now been reduced to €50,000 ($58,845).

There are so few politicians in the EU who can see the threat Islam is to European culture. They build mosques now, and before long they start to burn down churches. As the tweets indicated, Islam and Christianity are not compatible. One must rise and the other fall. Inviting more and more Muslims into Italy and Europe will ensure that Christianity is not going to prevail. This will not end in a secular society; this will end in Sharia Law.