On Being a Christian in Islam > Islamic, murderous, hysteria eventually leads to zero convictions in Islamic courts

 

Pakistan’s Top Court Acquits Last Three Men in 2014 Lynching of Christian Couple, Leaving No One Convicted

Jul 20, 2026 12:00 pm By Ashlyn Davis3 Comments

On July 9, 2026, Pakistan’s Supreme Court acquitted three death-row convicts in the 2014 lynching of Christian couple Shama Bibi and Shahzad Masih by a frenzied 100-member Muslim mob. With this verdict, the top court also wiped out the last remaining convictions in the case, leaving no one convicted in one of Pakistan’s most notorious anti-Christian mob killings. The court further dismissed the Punjab government’s appeal against the Lahore High Court’s earlier acquittal of more than 100 other defendants, effectively ending all criminal proceedings in the case.

The verdict marks the unfortunate and shameful final chapter in a gruesome case of religious hatred and Islamic violence that shocked Pakistan nearly 12 years ago. On Nov. 4, 2014, a Muslim mob brutally killed Shahzad Masih and his pregnant wife, Shama Bibi, in Kot Radha Kishan, a town in Punjab province’s Kasur district. The couple, both brick-kiln laborers and parents of three young children, faced false accusations of desecrating pages of the Quran after Shama reportedly burned household items and her deceased father-in-law’s personal belongings. Rumors quickly spread through the area, and local mosque loudspeakers amplified allegations of blasphemy, drawing hundreds of people to the brick kiln where the couple lived and worked.

Over 100 murderous Islamists stormed the kiln, violently dragged the couple from their living quarters, and beat them mercilessly. The bloodthirsty crowd tortured the hapless couple in full public view, without showing any signs of compassion for the pregnant woman, despite their desperate pleas for mercy.

Shama Bibi and Shahzad Masih, Morning Star News photo courtesy of family

​They then threw the couple into the blazing furnace of the brick kiln, burning both of them alive. Although Muslim mobs have repeatedly killed non-Muslims after spreading false allegations that they had insulted the Quran, the Islamic prophet Muhammad, or Allah across South Asia, including the secular democracy of India, the sheer brutality of the attack on Shama Bibi and Shahzad Masih horrified human rights organizations, religious freedom advocates, and governments around the world; they condemned the lynching as one of the most gruesome acts of religious mob violence in recent history.

Police registered cases against hundreds of suspects, including many identified by name, and eventually indicted 106 people for their roles in the lynching. Prosecutors argued that several men had led the mob, while others actively participated in the assault or encouraged the violence. The scale of the attack and the large number of suspects made the prosecution one of Pakistan’s biggest criminal cases involving religiously motivated mob violence.

In November 2016, a Lahore Anti-Terrorism Court sentenced Hafiz Ishtiaq, Mehdi Khan, Riaz Kamboh, Muhammad Hanif, and Irfan Shakoor to death for their roles in the lynching and burning of the Christian couple. The court also sentenced eight other defendants to two years in prison for aiding the attack, and acquitted 93 suspects after prosecutors failed to prove their involvement in the killings. However, the verdict proved to be only temporary. In 2019, the Lahore High Court acquitted two of the five men who had received death sentences. The court also cleared another 102 defendants, citing the lack of sufficient evidence.

The Punjab government challenged those acquittals before the Supreme Court, while the remaining three men continued to face death sentences. The Supreme Court ultimately erased the last remaining convictions, ruling that the prosecution had failed to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, thereby ending a 12-year legal battle without holding a single person accountable for the brutal lynching of the Christian couple.

The disappointing verdict once again underscores how Pakistan’s justice system has repeatedly, perhaps deliberately, failed to protect victims and deliver justice in cases involving Muslim mob violence. Bishop Samson Shukardin, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan, said the acquittals denied justice to the murdered couple and their family. Several other Christian leaders also warned that the ruling could deepen fear among religious minorities, who already live under the constant threat of false blasphemy accusations and violent mob attacks.

The killing of Shama Bibi and Shahzad Masih remains one of the most horrific attacks on Pakistan’s Christian community in the past two decades. Similar outbreaks of anti-Christian violence have taken place in Gojra in 2009, Joseph Colony in Lahore in 2013, Jaranwala in 2023, and several other parts of the country where fanatical mobs have used false blasphemy allegations as a pretext for lynchings, burning churches and entire Christian neighborhoods and forcing residents to flee their homes. Despite repeated episodes of such violence, Pakistan has yet to demonstrate that it can consistently prevent these attacks or ensure accountability for those responsible.

Is it that they can't or that they won't?

Islam in Islam > Reign of terror in Iran; Women only good for raising families in Afghanistan

 

In Iran, a Reign of Terror

Jun 5, 2026 4:00 pm By Hugh Fitzgerald15 Comments

The reign of terror in the Islamic Republic of Iran deepens. Eighty percent of political prisoners executed in the world during the last year were from Iran. Anyone deemed an enemy of the state can be summarily executed without a trial. Ethnic minorities are targeted, too. So are homosexuals. And now the European Parliament  has called on Iran to end its executions and release political prisoners.

Gathering of Basij in November 2013, Mehdi Shamohammadi, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

More on this reign of terror, and the ineffectual European efforts to end it, can be found here:

European Parliament Slams Iran Over Surge in Executions, Brutal Repression

by Ailin Vilches Arguello, Algemeiner, May 21, 2026:

European lawmakers have stepped up pressure on Iran amid mounting alarm over the country’s human rights situation, marked by a surge in executions, mass arrests, and an intensifying security crackdown, warning of what they described as a growing campaign of repression.

On Thursday, the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, adopted a resolution — 516 votes in favor, 14 against, 92 abstentions — calling on the Islamist regime to immediately halt executions, release political prisoners, and hold officials accountable for alleged human rights violations.

The newly adopted resolution also voiced deep concern over escalating pressure on women, civil society activists, and religious minorities, warning of a widening climate of intimidation, surveillance, and systematic restrictions on basic freedoms across the country….

Since March 17, at least 36 people have been executed in Iran on political charges.

Earlier this year, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), an independent monitoring group, released a report outlining a deeply troubling human rights situation all across the country over the past 12 months, citing crackdowns on protesters, harassment of activists, threats to minorities, executions of children, violations of women’s rights, and dire prison conditions.

According to HRANA’s Statistics and Documentation Center, 78,907 people were arrested on ideological or political grounds from March 2025 to March 2026, highlighting a pervasive climate of repression across the country.

But the report warned that the number of arrests was likely much higher, given the difficulty of tracking such cases — especially earlier this year during recent nationwide anti-government protests, which security forces violently crushed, leaving thousands of demonstrators tortured or killed.

HRANA reported in February that over 7,000 protesters, including hundreds of children, were killed during the protests, with an additional nearly 12,000 cases still under verification. Multiple reports have put the death toll at over 30,000, and US President Donald Trump claimed the figure was over 40,000….

The larger figure, of over 40,000 killed on Jan. 8 and 9, comes from Iran International, a well-informed  group of Iranians in exile who base that number on reports from inside Iran.

On women’s rights, HRANA reported that 105 women were murdered, including seven so-called “honor killings” — murders committed under the pretext of preserving family honor — and documents 68 cases of rape or sexual abuse.

Some women have been killed, such as Mahsa Amini, simply for not wearing their hijabs correctly. Other women have been killed for such “crimes” against the family honor as being out with an unrelated male.

Members of the ethnic minorities, like the Kurds and Azeris, can also be killed for supposedly posing a threat to rule by the dominant Persians. Political dissidents deserve death as they are a threat to the regime. Homosexuals are hung for their crimes against nature.

The fanatics in Iran will not stop. They are determined to crush any conceivable dissent, and to strictly enforce the Sharia. The European Parliament’s denunciation is sloughed off in Tehran. The only way to end the reign of terror is to change the regime, as the Israelis had initially insisted must be done. But Trump has decided that that is no longer one of his war aims; he will be content if he can obtain a guarantee from Iran to give up its 440 kg. of uranium enriched to a just-below weapons-grade level of 60%. Still worse, he has cut Israel out of the negotiations. Meanwhile, the miserable people of Iran will have to endure their torment, until that moment when the economic collapse of the country becomes so severe that millions of Iranians will again take to the streets, and this time their numbers will overwhelm those of the Basij and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who are sent out to crush them.

Afghanistan: Senior Muslim cleric says subjects such as science and technology ‘not necessary for women’

Jun 6, 2026 8:00 am By Robert Spencer10 Comments

We can all hope, for the sake of the women and girls in Afghanistan, and for Afghan society as a whole, that the claims of those who say that these restrictions have no basis in Islamic teachings will win out. But Westerners should not kid themselves (yes, I know, they will anyway). The Islamic case against Din Mohammad’s views is hardly open and shut. He is saying that women should learn some religious subjects but don’t need to learn science and technology. That emanates from an idea of female intellectual inferiority that is found in several hadiths. One of those hadiths depicts Muhammad saying that the majority of the inhabitants of hell are women: “I looked into Paradise and I saw that the majority of its people were the poor. And I looked into Hell and I saw that the majority of its people are women.” Sahih Bukhari 3241; Sahih Muslim 2737)

When asked about this, he explained: “I was shown Hell and I have never seen anything more terrifying than it. And I saw that the majority of its people are women.” They said, “Why, O Messenger of Allah?” He said, “Because of their ingratitude (kufr).” It was said, “Are they ungrateful to Allah?” He said, “They are ungrateful to their companions (husbands) and ungrateful for good treatment. If you are kind to one of them for a lifetime then she sees one (undesirable) thing in you, she will say, ‘I have never had anything good from you.’” (Sahih Bukhari 1052)

And in another hadith: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) went out to the musalla (prayer place) on the day of Eid al-Adha or Eid al-Fitr. He passed by the women and said, ‘O women! Give charity, for I have seen that you form the majority of the people of Hell.’ They asked, ‘Why is that, O Messenger of Allah?’ He replied, ‘You curse frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands. I have not seen anyone more deficient in intelligence and religious commitment than you. A cautious sensible man could be led astray by some of you.’ The women asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah, what is deficient in our intelligence and religious commitment?’ He said, ‘Is not the testimony of two women equal to the testimony of one man?’ They said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘This is the deficiency in her intelligence. Is it not true that a woman can neither pray nor fast during her menses?’ The women said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘This is the deficiency in her religious commitment.’” (Sahih Bukhari 304)

So to say that Din Mohammad’s restrictions on the education of women has no basis in Islamic teachings is exaggerated. It would be enlightening to see one of his critics explaining how the above hadiths do not open the door to restricting educational opportunities for women. But “moderate” Muslims never, ever get that specific in their explications of Islam. One might even get the idea that they’re more interested in lulling non-Muslims into complacency than in actually convincing their fellow Muslims that equal treatment for women is in accord with Islam.

Burqa clad women buying at a market (Afghanistan), Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0

Taliban cleric says girls’ education is forbidden

by Mehrdad Herawi, Amu.tv, May 31, 2026 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

A senior Taliban cleric in Kabul has said that schooling for women and girls is “forbidden,” arguing that they should be limited to studying certain religious subjects, including matters related to marriage, child-rearing and household responsibilities.

Din Mohammad, head of the Taliban’s Council of Ulema in Kabul, made the remarks in an audio recording that circulated widely on social media in recent days.

In the recording, he argued that women and girls should be limited to studying certain religious subjects and described modern disciplines, including science and technology, as unnecessary for them.

“We are talking about religious sciences, while they are talking about schools,” Din Mohammad said. “Such matters are not necessary for women. What they need are the sciences related to their obligations, such as issues of menstruation, childbirth, the rights of husbands, the rights of children and household duties.”

Notice: The rights of women is not mentioned, because women have no rights in Islam. 

He said women could pursue additional studies only under strict conditions, including wearing what he described as proper Islamic dress, obtaining a husband’s permission and avoiding contact with unrelated men.

“If these conditions are not met, then even attending a madrasa is not permissible,” he said. “As for other forms of education, they are impermissible regardless.”

The comments prompted criticism from some religious scholars and human rights advocates, who said the remarks have no basis in Islamic teachings….

Islam in India > ISIS sympathizer stabs two Hindus in Mumbai

 

India: Islamic State-inspired tutor stabs Hindus after they fail to recite the Islamic profession of faith

Apr 30, 2026 1:00 pm By Ashlyn Davis10 Comments

An unprovoked Islamic State-style knife attack in the Mira Road area near Mumbai, Maharashtra, has triggered widespread alarm and high-level investigation, with authorities probing suspected jihadist reasons behind the assault. The incident occurred unexpectedly at around 4:00 AM on Monday, April 27, 2026, in the Naya Nagar locality, an area with a significant Muslim population, where a Muslim man attacked two Hindu security guards at an under-construction site after questioning their religion and asking them to recite the Islamic Kalma, that is, the profession of faith.

According to police officials, the accused, identified as Zaib Zuber Ansari, initially approached one of the guards under the pretext of seeking directions. He reportedly returned shortly afterward and began questioning the guards about their religious identity. Investigators say he demanded that they recite the Islamic verse, and when they failed to do so, he attacked them with a sharp weapon, leaving both men seriously injured.

Zaib Zuber Ansari, Screenshot, X

The victims, identified as Rajkumar Mishra and Subroto Ramesh Sen, sustained multiple stab wounds. One of the injured guards reached a nearby hospital on his own, while a passerby assisted the other. Both are currently undergoing treatment.

Police launched an immediate search operation using CCTV footage from the area, and were able to track down and arrest the accused within approximately 90 minutes of the attack. A case has been registered against him under charges including attempted murder and promoting enmity between different groups. Given the nature of the incident, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has taken over key aspects of the investigation.

Apologists for Islam have repeatedly cited lack of education and poverty as an excuse for Islamic terrorism, but this case has once again refuted their argument, as Ansari was neither uneducated nor economically disadvantaged. Ansari is a science graduate who spent several years in the United States before returning to India around 2019. He was reportedly working as an online tutor and living alone in Mira Road.

Media houses are now trying to humanize the attacker by running a narrative that as his Afghan wife left him and he was suffering from isolation, he went out and attacked two innocent workers just doing their job. However, people are no longer buying into attempts to sympathize with jihadis after they attack innocent people.

According to the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), a search of accused Zaib Zuber Ansari’s residence led investigators to handwritten notes in which he expressed an intention to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Sources further indicated that terms such as “jihad” and “Gaza” were also written in these notes. Authorities are currently conducting a detailed forensic analysis of his electronic devices, including mobile phones and computers, to trace his digital footprint and identify any possible links to online jihad networks.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has indicated that the attack appears to be ideologically motivated and may have been intended to target individuals based on religion, raising concerns about attempts to incite communal tension.

As of the latest updates, the accused remains in custody, and the ATS continues to interrogate him, while expanding the investigation to include his contacts, travel history, and online activities. Authorities are also working to determine whether he had attempted to reach out to jihad groups, or was influenced solely through digital propaganda. Officials are particularly concerned about the role of online platforms in facilitating jihad recruitment without physical contact with jihad organizations.

The attack appears to be an isolated incident, but its nature has raised serious concerns about emerging patterns of jihad recruitment and the potential for similar jihad attacks in urban areas. While investigators have not found any direct links between the individual and the Islamic State (ISIS), and the incident is being classified as a lone-wolf attack, it is even more concerning. Intelligence agencies and law enforcement can monitor and track organized terror plots to some extent, but predicting or preventing the actions of random Muslims who appear to live ordinary lives is far more difficult. There is no possible way to predict when a jihad-inclined Muslim might suddenly choose to go out to confront people on the streets, demand that they recite the Kalma, and stab them if they are unable to do so.

Mumbai is neither a border region nor an area typically associated with active terrorism; it is one of India’s largest and busiest cities, where millions go about their daily routines. If ISIS-inspired jihadis begin to target ordinary citizens in a city such as Mumbai, it could significantly disrupt the sense of safety and normalcy that urban life depends on.