‘Kill the Gays’: Uganda Resurrects Overturned Bill Introducing Death Penalty for Homosexuals

The Ugandan government has announced plans to reintroduce legislation paving the way for the execution of homosexual people, five years after the bill was thrown out by the constitutional court on a technicality.

The bill, dubbed ‘Kill the gays’ within Uganda, will be reintroduced within weeks, according to officials. Currently, Ugandans face life imprisonment if convicted of having sex with another person of the same gender.

Ethics and Integrity Minister Simon Lokodo said the bill is being reintroduced because of allegedly “massive recruitment of gay people” and current laws are too limited in scope.

“We want it made clear that anyone who is even involved in promotion and recruitment has to be criminalised,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Those that do grave acts will be given the death sentence."

The minister said he’s confident the measure will get the backing of the two-thirds of parliamentary members required to pass a bill.

Several countries cut their financial support and aid to Uganda when the ‘Kill the gays’ bill was first brought forward in 2014, but Lokodo said the country is prepared to stand up to a fresh backlash over the legislation, adding “we don’t like blackmail.”

In March, Brunei introduced an amendment to its Islamic penal code that included stoning gay people to death, but suspended the measure following international outcry. 

Four Christians Burned Alive for Converting from Islam

Uganda: Muslim Converts to Christianity, Muslims burn his house, killing his wife, children, and stepfather

BY ROBERT SPENCER
Jihad Watch

The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law. It’s based on the Qur’an: “They wish you would disbelieve as they disbelieved so you would be alike. So do not take from among them allies until they emigrate for the cause of Allah. But if they turn away, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them and take not from among them any ally or helper.” (Qur’an 4:89)

A hadith depicts Muhammad saying: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57). The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence.

This is still the position of all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence, both Sunni and Shi’ite. Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the most renowned and prominent Muslim cleric in the world, has stated: “The Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished, yet they differ as to determining the kind of punishment to be inflicted upon them. The majority of them, including the four main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali) as well as the other four schools of jurisprudence (the four Shiite schools of Az-Zaidiyyah, Al-Ithna-‘ashriyyah, Al-Ja’fariyyah, and Az-Zaheriyyah) agree that apostates must be executed.”

Qaradawi also once famously said: “If they had gotten rid of the apostasy punishment, Islam wouldn’t exist today.”

“Christian in Uganda Loses Children, Mother and Stepfather to Islamist Attack, Sources Say,” Morning Star News, October 2, 2019:

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – A 36-year-old Christian near Kampala, Uganda is mourning the deaths of his son, daughter, mother and stepfather, who were killed when Muslim extremists set their house ablaze seven weeks ago, sources said.

Before the radical Muslims set Ali Nakabale’s house on fire on Aug. 20 in Nakaseke, Nakaseke District about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Kampala, his wife and other area Muslims had become enraged that he and his mother had converted from Islam to Christianity, Nakabale said. He and his 56-year-old mother, Nankya Hamidah, had put their faith in Christ at an open-air evangelistic event in August 2018.

“I had just visited my aunt only to receive sad news of the burning of our house,” the distraught Nakabale told Morning Star News by phone. “Upon arriving home, I found the house destroyed by fire that burned my four family members, including my two children. On reaching the mortuary, I found their bodies burned beyond recognition.”

Killed along with Hamidah were Joseph Masembe, who had also left Islam to follow Christ and had married Hamidah in November 2018 after her husband’s death earlier that year; Nakabale’s 9-year-old daughter, Afsa Lawada; and his 6-year-old son, Yakubu Njabuga.

A neighbor told Morning Star News that he and others became aware of the fire at 1 a.m. on Aug. 20.

“We saw fire emanating from the house of Hamidah with loud chants from Muslims saying, ‘Allah Akbar [God is greater],’” said the neighbor on condition of anonymity. “Arriving at the scene of the incident, we found that the house had been razed down, killing the four family members.”

Nakabale said that the mosque leader of the Kyanja area of Nakaseke had written a letter to his stepfather, Masembe, stating, “It has come to our attention that since you got married to Hamidah, you have not been attending the mosque.”

“At this, then I realized that the Muslims were monitoring our movements,” Nakabale told Morning Star News….

'HANG THE INFIDEL!' - Islamic Insanity Rises Against Christian Woman in Pakistan

Hundreds of Islamist extremists rally in Pakistan to demand death sentence for Christian woman convicted of insulting Prophet Mohammed

Asia Bibi was put on death row in 2010 after being accused of blasphemy

in a row over a water container

By Gemma Mullin, The Sun

Asia Bibi was put on death row in 2010 after she was accused of blasphemy during a row over a water container by fellow farmworkers in the capital of Lahore.

Chritsian Asia Bibi was put on death row in 2010 after she was convicted of insulting Prophet Mohammed

Chanting "Hang infidel Asia," activists from the Tehreek-e-Labbaik party also rallied in other cities on Friday, threatening nationwide protests if authorities free the woman.

Pakistan's Supreme Court earlier this week postponed ruling on her final appeal and her lawyers are hopeful of an acquittal arguing she was falsely accused.

That decision has angered Islamists who want her to be publicly hanged - making her the first person to be executed for blasphemy in Pakistan.

Bibi's first appeal was dismissed by a Lahore High Court in 2014, but the Supreme Court stayed her execution in 2015.

Protesters marched with banners demanding Asia was hanged for 'insulting the Prophet Mohammed' EPA

Hundreds of Islamists are seen at a rally in Lahore, Pakistan, to pressure judges to uphold a death sentence

for a Christian woman convicted of blasphemy EPA

Her husband Ashiq Mesih, right, and their daughter Eisham Ashiq, speak during an interview

in London on Friday AFP OR LICENSORS

The charge against Bibi dates back to a hot day in 2009 when she went to get water for her and her fellow farmworkers.

Two Muslim women refused to take a drink from a container used by a Christian.

A few days later, a mob accused her of blasphemy and she was convicted and sentenced to death.

Bibi's lawyer, Saiful Malook, argued that the many contradictions in witnesses' statements tainted the evidence.

 In 2009 when Asia went to get water for her and her fellow farmworkers and the women refused to

share a drink from a container used by a Christian

The charge against Bibi dates back to a hot day in 2009 when she sipped from a Muslim woman's water bottle EPA

Supporters of a religious political party Tehrik Labaik Ya Rasool Allah shout slogans during a protest

against Christian woman Asia Bibi EPA

 Hundreds of Islamist extremists have rallied in Pakistan to demand the death sentence EPA

Supporters of a political party Tehrik Labaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYR) gathered in Pakistan on Friday EPA

The two Muslim women who levelled the charges against Bibi denied they were quarrelling with her, saying her outbursts against Islam were unprovoked.

Yet several independent witnesses who gave statements recounted a cantankerous exchange between the women.

The prosecution's case centred mostly on religious texts that vilify those who make blasphemous statements.

Ahead of the hearing, Malook expressed optimism that he would win the last legal appeal for Bibi.

Activists want Asia to be hanged - it would be the first execution for blasphemy in Pakistan EPA

Hundreds of supporters of TLYR gathered in different Pakistani cities demanded the Supreme Court

of Pakistan to uphold the death sentence EPA

Activists rallied until dusk on Friday EPA

But if not, he planned to seek a review, which could take years to complete.

He said: "I am a 100 percent sure she will be acquitted. She has a very good case."

Bibi's case has generated international outrage, but within Pakistan it has fired up radical Islamists, who use the blasphemy law to rally supporters and intimidate mainstream political parties.

Members of Pakistan's religious minorities have campaigned against the law, which they say is invoked to justify attacks on them.

Saiful Malook, left, defense lawyer for Asia Bibi, leaves the Supreme court with a bodyguard in
Islamabad, Pakistan AP:ASSOCIATED PRESS

Asia Bibi, seen here in a file image from 2010, was put on death row

after she was accused of blasphemy AP:ASSOCIATED PRESS

For them, Bibi's case is seen as a watershed - and her husband recently travelled to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis.

Joseph Francis, an activist for Pakistan's Christians, said France, Spain and Germany have all offered to welcome Bibi should she be acquitted.

But Khadim Hussein Rizvi, the leader of a radical Islamist party, warned after the postponement that "no blasphemer will be able to escape punishment".

Neither will false accusers escape punishment. Asia, should the government give in to this hysterical mob, will go immediately into the presence of the living God. Her accusers and this hysterical mob who insists on her death will never have the privilege of seeing her again, ever. Nevertheless, please pray for her and her family.

I wonder if this is a political ploy to test Prime Minister Khan's commitment to Islam and Sharia? Or, is it just another of many examples of Islamic insanity and hysteria? 

Turkey Takes Big Step on Road to Making Erdogan a Caliph

The natural evolution of Islam is toward Sharia

Erdogan tightens grip on Turkey with

narrow referendum win

DOUG SAUNDERS

The Globe and Mail

From the moment he was first elected to Turkish high office as a reformist leader in 2003, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s opponents have painted him as a Trojan-horse candidate hiding some darker agenda – specifically, a potential Islamic overthrow of Turkey’s nine-decade-old secular democracy.

On Sunday, Mr. Erdogan’s apparent narrow victory in a constitutional-change referendum turned at least some of those fears into reality. In a vote the opposition has vowed to challenge, the result cements Mr. Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian tendencies into permanent rules that allow the Turkish President to remain in power for another decade, to eliminate key checks and balances, and to wield formidable personal control over legislation and appointments of military and justice officials.

The constitutional changes over which Turks voted on Sunday, if recognized, will make Mr. Erdogan not so much an Ottoman-style sultan or Iranian-style theocrat but more a president-in-perpetuity in the mould of Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

That is, he has become another elected leader of a once-successful democracy who has managed to alter the constitution, eliminate checks and balances, and quash or intimidate opposition forces so as to guarantee himself more or less unchecked power within a nominally democratic system. As Turkish opposition leaders noted Sunday night, Mr. Erdogan has managed to erase much of the democratic infrastructure Mustafa Kemal Ataturk put in place in the 1920s, replacing it not with a return to Islamic rule (or not yet) but with the instruments of pure personal power.

Yes, for now!

Despite having won the referendum by a very narrow margin – 51.3 per cent to 48.7 per cent, according to official results, with 87 per cent of Turkey’s 58 million eligible voters casting a ballot – Mr. Erdogan spoke Sunday night of taking on even greater powers, declaring that he would attempt to reinstate the death penalty, which was abolished in 2002, and push for further changes. “We’ve got a lot to do; we are on this path but it’s time to change gears and go faster,” he declared in his victory speech.

Yet the most visible outcome of Sunday’s referendum may be a Turkey that is violently divided against itself and ostracized by its neighbours in Europe and the Middle East. The referendum marks the culmination of five years during which Mr. Erdogan has burned the bridges he carefully built during his first decade in power with European neighbours, minority groups and political opponents.

His reputation as a uniter has gradually evaporated over the past few years as he has violently crushed democracy protests; waged relentless war against the Kurdish populations he once courted; denounced the European leaders he once hoped to join as “Nazis” and threatened to flood their countries with refugees; alienated his partners in NATO by taking an ambiguous and counterproductive role in the Syrian civil war; and used last year’s bungled military coup attempt as a pretext for arresting or purging more than 175,000 officials and jailing more than 120 journalists.

After all, Sunday’s vote did not reflect a consensus around his rule so much as a deeply divided Turkey. Urbanites and more educated Turks decisively rejected the constitutional changes, with six of Turkey’s eight largest cities, including Istanbul and Ankara, delivering No majorities. Those cities erupted in protest Sunday night, with crowds filling the streets of Istanbul chanting “Thief, murderer Erdogan,” Ankara crowds banging kitchen pots and street battles between Erdogan supporters and opponents raging in Izmir.

Turkey's concentrated bombing of Syrian Kurds

Likewise, it appears that Turkey’s Kurds, Alawites, Armenians and other minorities – who make up more than a fifth of the population – strongly rejected the changes, as regions with large minority populations voted decidedly No. Electoral maps showed a large swath of Yes majorities across the rural and religious centre of the country, with the urban and minority-dominated regions around the periphery rejecting the proposals strongly. The vote is likely to be viewed by those groups as a majority population of Anatolian Turks imposing their political will on the rest of the country.

With Erdogan's support coming from the more devout Muslims, his power will also come from them. He will have no choice, not that he wants one, but to take Turkey in the direction of Sharia. Most Muslim countries will gravitate toward a more and more extreme form of Islam. It's happening in Iran and Pakistan, it happened in Egypt but for a coup, the Taliban made it happen in Afghanistan for a season and many groups are trying to make it happen in many other countries. It is the natural evolution of Islam!

The results were immediately contested by the major opposition parties. The third largest party, the Kurdish-based HDP party, declared that it would appeal a third of the votes.

Yet whatever the official outcome, it is clear that tens of millions of Turks voted willingly and often enthusiastically to turn their controversial President into something more like an authoritarian ruler – despite the fact that Mr. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) has never quite won a majority of the popular vote.

What appears to have driven so many voters to his side was the force that has allowed him to keep opposition parties at bay for the past several years: Fear.

If the messages of most of Mr. Erdogan’s first decade – during which he served as Prime Minister – was unity and reconciliation, the message in recent years – especially after he was elected President in 2014 – has been one of fear and isolation.

Turkey’s sizable Kurdish minority, whom Mr. Erdogan courted as Prime Minister by legalizing their language and political parties, ending state persecutions and making gestures toward minority rights and “distinct society” status, has become more or less an official enemy, with Turkey’s Kurdish cities bombed more heavily than many in neighbouring Syria and even moderate Kurdish movements regarded as terrorist threats.

Likewise, last year’s coup attempt allowed Mr. Erdogan to demonize virtually any political moderates or opposition figures as threatening members of the “deep state” linked to the Islamist Gulen movement. His hostility toward opposition was visible in the 2013 Gezi Park democracy protests in Istanbul, which he crushed and denounced, and in his government’s long record of arresting and silencing critical journalists, which reached a peak last year with the takeover or shutdown of major media chains.

And after having spent a decade as a pro-European, free-trade leader dedicated to getting his country into the European Union, Mr. Erdogan has now turned aggressively against European institutions and leaders, taking a politically and increasingly economically isolationist stand.

One plausible reading holds that Mr. Erdogan’s shift to authoritarianism was the fault of European leaders: The moment they began rejecting Turkey’s EU ambitions, he gave up on much of his modernizing agenda and launched his quest for personal power at any cost.

Another theory holds that Mr. Erdogan’s shift is Middle Eastern or Russian in inspiration: He simply joined a bloc of emerging-economy leaders who saw “managed democracy” and authoritarianism as the best way to avoid personal defeat. Whatever the cause, Turkey emerges from Sunday’s referendum a country that has fallen, in a surprisingly short period, off the world’s democratic ledger.

Erdogan says resumption of death penalty could be up for referendum next

If Erdogan gets the death penalty approved, the Dardanelles

will run red with the blood of his political enemies

then there will be nothing stopping him

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his wife Emine © Murad Sezer / Reuters

After claiming victory in a referendum that greatly expands his powers, the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan has strongly hinted that the time has come for Turkey to consider reinstating the death penalty.

Erdogan used his victory speech on Sunday night to reveal that he will “immediately” discuss bringing back the capital punishment with Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and the leader of the nationalist opposition.

“If it [a parliament bill] comes in front of me, I will approve it,” the Turkish leader said as cited by AFP. “But if there is no support [from in parliament]... then what shall we do?”

“Then we could have another referendum for that,” Erdogan added.

The move could bring an ultimate end to Turkey’s long stalled efforts to join European Union. Accession negotiations have been sluggish for decades and were temporarily suspended in November 2016, with the EU citing Ankara's "disproportionate” crackdown following last year’s failed coup.

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said a return of the death penalty would be a "red line” in Turkey's EU membership bid. "If the death penalty is reintroduced in Turkey, that would lead to the end of negotiations,” he told Germany's Bild newspaper in March.

Members of the European Parliament has said that the re-introduction of the capital punishment in Turkey would lead to a formal suspension of the accession process.

“The unequivocal rejection of the death penalty is an essential element of the Union acquis,” they said.

In the run up to Sunday's vote, Erdogan suggested that Turkey may reevaluate its relations with the EU if the constitutional amendments passed. He said he would have more leverage when negotiating with Brussels, claiming "it will be a different Turkey” then. He also suggested a “Brexit-like” referendum on whether the country should continue to try and join the union.

With most of the ballots counted, over 51 percent of the electorate have voted in favor of handing Erdogan greater powers. The president called the ‘yes’ vote a historic decision by the Turkish people, expressing hope that it will benefit the country.

During the victory speech he also said everyone should respect the nation's decision, and added Turkey would “shift gears” in the coming period.

'Untouchable' Duterte Tops Time Poll as EU Critics Told ‘Stick to Child Porn’

Time's Person of the Year?

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte © Pyay Kyaw / Reuters

The Filipino people’s “love affair” with their leader “is like a jet plane that's just taken off” and EU critics of President Rodrigo Duterte should ‘stick to child porn’.

That’s according to Philippines Social Welfare Assistant Secretary Lorraine Badoy who defended Duterte’s standing in Time magazine’s Top 100 Men and Women for 2017 survey, where he leads Vladimir Putin, Mark Zuckerberg, Justin Trudeau and Bill Gates. The final 'Time 100' list will be published on April 20.

“Plus 9 out of 10 Filipinos right now approve of him.” She added “Wrap your dim minds around that, you clowns. Nine out of ten.”

Anyone with a “teaspoon of IQ on them” would wait for Duterte to make a “huge error” before trying to topple him, she claimed.

“Then and only then would it be the time to let your cash flow to pay the EU idiots with galls as huge as Goodyear blimps to call for the president's resignation,” she said, adding in Filipino that “those in the EU, just engage in online child pornography. Since that's what you are good at.”

The warning comes as the EU condemns Duterte's plan to revive the death penalty for drug convictions. The European Parliament has called for an international investigation into "unlawful killings and other violations" in the Philippines linked to Duterte's war on drugs, while Duterte has told the EU MPs to mind their own business.

Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo said that the assistant secretary’s comment was "obviously sarcastic" and she was not advocating child pornography, reported Rappler.

"Asec Badoy loves children and cares about their welfare, so to even imply that she trivializes the issue is unfair and misleading. She is an outspoken critique of social injustice, and we have no doubt as to her stand against child pornography,” Taguiwalo said in a statement, according to InterAksyon.

Badoy, a former human rights advocate and NGO worker, was appointed to implement medical assistance to drug addicts in rehab after her online activism caught the president’s eye.

The Philippines banned a number of x-rated websites at the beginning of 2017 as part of a wider child-porn crackdown.

Christian Refugees Persecuted by Muslim Asylum Seekers in German Shelters – Survey

© Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters

Christian asylum seekers as well as members of other religious minority groups living in refugee shelters across Germany face systematic persecution from both Muslim refugees and Muslim staff, a recently published survey shows.

As many as 743 Christian refugees and 10 Yazidis living in refugee centers in various German states have reported religiously motivated attacks between February and September 2016, a survey conducted by several charitable NGOs says, stressing that collected data should be “considered … as the tip of the iceberg,” as “there are a high number of unreported cases.”

Fifty-six percent of the affected refugees said that they were subjected to violent assaults and were beaten up while 42 percent of them said that they or their family members received death threats both from fellow refugees and Muslim staff, including volunteers and security personnel working at the centers.

Forty-four Christian asylum seekers also reported sexual attacks, the survey presented during a press conference in Berlin on October 17 said, adding that all reported attacks were motivated by the Christian or other non-Muslim faith of the victims.

At the same time, an absolute majority (83 percent) of the refugees who participated in the survey said that they faced persecution “several times,” while only 8 percent said that it happened to them only once.

The survey was conducted by Christian charity Open Doors, Action on behalf of Persecuted Christians and the Needy (AVC), European Mission Society Fellowship (EMC) and the Central Council of Oriental Christians in Germany (ZOCD).

The survey also said that most Christian refugees who were subjected to persecution in German asylum centers came from Syria and Iran, with half of all Christian asylum seekers surveyed being converts from Islam. Most of those surveyed were men (75 percent) and half of the respondents were under 35 years old.

The survey particularly stressed that converts living in the shelters are facing the highest risk of persecution as, “according to the Quran their change of faith is considered as a crime worthy of the death penalty, therefore they are explicitly in danger.”

“More than a few asylum seekers are likely to uphold the concept they are familiar with from their home countries even after having fled to Germany, that anyone who converts from Islam to Christianity has committed a major offence. What is more, converts sometimes experience harsh rejection by Muslim security guards and interpreters,” the report claims.

Most victims of persecution are afraid of reporting their cases to police as they fear that the situation would get worse. As a result, only 17 percent of affected refugees contacted police officers. Some of the victims also complained to the charities that interpreters working at the shelters deliberately twist their words while other said that security staff at the shelters takes no measures to prevent the attacks.

Some Christian refugees even had to return to their countries of origin because of persecution they face in German refugee centers, Paulus Kurt from the ZOCD told German Die Welt daily.

The survey provoked an outrage among some German politicians. Martin Neumeyer, the Bavarian government’s commissioner on integration, said that those guilty of persecution should face harsh consequences.

“Those who terrorize Christians or atheists in the refugee shelters should have no right to apply for asylum,” Neumeyer said at a press conference after the presentation of the survey.

A member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, Kai Wegner, told die Welt daily that he was embarrassed by the allegations presented in the Open Doors report.

“Those who spread religious hate in Germany are not welcome here,” he said, adding that the offenders should “feel… the consequences” that would particularly affect their right to stay in Germany.

At the same time, some German states are apparently trying to downplay the issue. Ralf Jaeger, the Interior Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, where more than 120 cases of attacks on Christian asylum seekers were recorded, said that his ministry has “no evidence of religiously motivated attacks on Christian refugees or other religious minorities.”

The Bavarian Interior Ministry said it is aware of the problem but still expects that “all asylum seekers will live peacefully together irrespective of their religion, origin or sexual orientation.”

The charities that conducted the survey said that urgent measures should be taken to protect religious minorities in the refugee centers. They said that there should be at least equal number of Christians and Muslims in those centers where they live together. At the same time, the relief organizations stress that they “have long called for” separate accommodation of Muslim and non-Muslim refugees.

This would seem intuitive! Mixing small numbers of Christians or even smaller numbers of Yazidis among Muslim migrants is not only ill-thought-out, it's borderline insane. Is there a panel, discussion-group, inquiry, investigation going on assessing the entire process of handling migrants? Are these issues being constantly examined and addressed? Germany went into this madness completely unprepared and seems to still lack a fully-coordinated approach a year and a half later.

They also said that more non-Muslim staff members should work in the centers in order to properly tackle religious conflicts.

According to the German authorities, Muslims account for three quarters of the total number of asylum seekers that came to Germany during the refugee crisis. According to revised statistics, 890,000 asylum seekers arrived in Germany last year, while previous estimations put the number at 1.1 million.

Between January and June 2016, more than 200,000 newcomers were officially registered in Germany, according to Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere.

Meanwhile, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble called for the creation of “German Islam” that would be based on the principles of tolerance and European liberalism and will eventually help integrate refugees into German society.

Good luck with that Minister Schauble - you are going to try and change a 1400 year old system of brain-washing to accommodate a post WWII culture?  

‘What if There is No God?’ Duterte Promotes Death Penalty as Certain Means of Serving Justice

President Duterte, don't give up your day job;

you are no theologian!

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. © Ted Aljibe / AFP

The Philippines’ president said that growing influence of atheism and agnosticism leads to people disrespecting laws and committing heinous crimes. And “if there is no God,” capital punishment is the only way to make sure justice is served.

The first sentence is most definitely true; the second, I'm not too sure about. At any rate, there is a God so the statement is redundant. There is a difference between people who believe God exists, or may exist, and Christians who have accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour. The difference is the first group have never, or probably never really experienced God; the second has. 

To accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour results in the immediate invasion of the Holy Spirit into the believer. It is only by this Spirit that one can experience God and therefore truly know that He is. 

President Rodrigo Duterte has condoned the restoration of the death penalty in the Philippines “because the fear is not there” anymore. According to him, the previous presidents had given in to the pressure of the “bleeding hearts” and the Catholic Church who had been against the death penalty “because only God can kill”.

“The problem with that is, I ask you, ‘what if there is no God?’” Duterte said to reporters at the presidential palace in Manila.

“When a one-year-old, an 18-month-old baby is taken from the mother’s arms, brought under a Jeep and raped, and killed, where is God? And in Syria women and children, who don’t want to have sex with ISIS, they are burned. So where’s God? My God, where are you?” he addressed the creator directly.

God has restricted Himself to intervening in man's affairs only when He is asked or wanted. Otherwise, there would be no such thing as free will, and without free will, we could never come to love God, for which we were created. The horrors that man commits on the children of this world will not go unpunished and the suffering will not go without blessings in Eternity.

Previously, Duterte promised to personally deal with Islamic State jihadists by eating them alive in public.

Duterte professed that he personally believes in God, though existence of God have been a “perpetual question” for him, seeing “heartaches, sorrows and agony.” According to the Philippines’ president, the state needs a means to punish wrongdoers, without a need to wait for “the end of the world, when he [God] will judge the living and the dead”, since growing atheism and agnosticism mean people lack fear and do not respect the law.

“That is why, I said give me back the death penalty,” concluded the president, saying he has “always been a hardliner when it comes to the penal laws.”

On Friday Duterte made a similar comment, while giving a speech to police officers about illegal drugs and a set of rules to deal with drug criminals.

“Maybe God doesn’t want all these killings. But never mind, God is not my enemy. I’ll talk to him when I get there,” said Duterte to the officers. “I'll ask him, 'If you are really God, you didn't do anything, and the Filipinos are going crazy.'”

I would strongly advise you sort that out before you get there!

During the election campaign, Duterte promised to re-establish capital punishment as part of an ongoing ‘war on drugs’. Since he took office in the end of June, some 3,500 people have been killed during ‘the war’, while more than 600,000 people reportedly turned themselves in.

600,000 drug dealers in one country? Astonishing!

President Duterte is well-known for his harsh comments littered with profanities against world leaders. He has been facing criticism for his bloody war on drugs recently and responded to it in a rather questionable manner.

The Philippines president called his US counterpart Barack Obama “son of a b**ch,” earlier this month after hearing that the latter was to address the country’s ‘war on drugs’. The outburst led to the cancellation of scheduled talks between the two leaders. Later, Duterte stated that his comment had not been directed towards Obama, while doing that he somewhat managed to redirect the insult to the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, calling him “a fool”.

Last week Duterte invited Ban Ki-moon and EU officials to investigate the methods of the nationwide drug crackdown. He managed, however, to insult the UN Secretary-General once more in process.

“I am inviting the United Nations’ Ban Ki ... what's the name of that devil? ... Ban Ki-moon,” Reuters quoted Duterte as saying.

OMGosh!

Mind you, it is odd that Moon and Obama are so concerned about the summary executions of reprobates in the Philippines and not at all concerned about the many beheadings and other executions in Iran and Saudi Arabia. But then, the Philippines don't have any oil and aren't buying much in terms of weapons. If they were, Moon and Obama would be a lot quieter.

Iran Execution Rates Approaching ISIS Levels

The majority of those killed in 2015 were 

convicted of drug charges

BBC Middle East

There has been an "unprecedented spike" in the number of executions in Iran, Amnesty International has warned.

The rights group said it believed 694 people were killed between 1 January and 15 July, almost three times the figure acknowledged by the authorities.

It said credible reports suggested Iran executed at least 743 people in 2014.

Amnesty said the surge was disturbing as the death sentences were invariably imposed by courts "completely lacking in independence and impartiality".

"They are imposed either for vaguely worded or overly broad offences, or acts that should not be criminalised at all, let alone attract the death penalty," it added.

"Trials in Iran are deeply flawed, detainees are often denied access to lawyers, and there are inadequate procedures for appeal, pardon and commutation."

'Climate of fear'
As of 15 July 2015, the Iranian authorities had officially acknowledged 246 judicial executions this year but Amnesty International said it had received reports of a further 448 executions.
If confirmed, that would be the equivalent to more than three a day.

In 2014, 289 people were executed according to official sources but reports suggested that the real figure was at least 743, the group added.

"Iran's staggering execution toll for the first half of this year paints a sinister picture of the machinery of the state carrying out premeditated, judicially-sanctioned killings on a mass scale," said Said Boumedouha, deputy director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa programme.

He added: "The use of the death penalty is always abhorrent, but it raises additional concerns in a country like Iran where trials are blatantly unfair."

Amnesty said the reasons behind the surge in executions were unclear, but that the majority of those killed in 2015 were convicted of drug charges.

"The [Iranian] authorities have confirmed that around 80% of executions are for these [drugs] offences," Amnesty researcher Raha Bahreini told the BBC.

Iran's anti-narcotics law provides mandatory death sentences for a range of drug-related offences, including trafficking more than 5kg (11lbs) of narcotics derived from opium or more than 30g (1oz) of heroin, morphine, cocaine or their chemical derivatives.

Iranian Kurds protest in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil against
the execution of Kurdish rebels in Iran (31 October 2013)

Among those executed are members of ethnic and religious minorities

Amnesty said this was in direct breach of international law, which restricts the use of the death penalty to only the "most serious crimes" - those involving intentional killing.

"For years, Iranian authorities have used the death penalty to spread a climate of fear in a misguided effort to combat drug trafficking, yet there is not a shred of evidence to show that this is an effective method of tackling crime," Mr Boumedouha said.

Among those executed are members of ethnic and religious minorities convicted of "enmity against God" and "corruption on earth", including Kurdish political prisoners and Sunni Muslims.

Amnesty said that several thousand people were believed to be on death row on Iran. In many cases, they are notified that they will be executed only a few hours beforehand. The families of those executed are sometimes informed days, if not weeks, later.

3 executions per day - that's got to be close to ISIS levels. If they will do that to their own people, how bad will they be if they get control of Syria, or Lebanon, or Yemen?