The Media is the Message > Reactions to US Social Media Censoring - from Disturbed to Nuclear; Belarus Threatens Prison for Journos

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Fresh from censoring select voices before and after US election,

Twitter howls ‘HUMAN RIGHTS’ as Uganda shuts down social media

12 Jan 2021 23:15

A supporter of Uganda President Yoweri Museveni is shown taking a selfie in front of a campaign poster for his re-election.

© Reuters / Abubaker Lubowa

After banning the US president and other voices challenging Joe Biden’s election victory, Twitter is aghast that Uganda has shut down the social media conversation two days before voters there go to the polls.

“We’re hearing reports that internet service providers are being ordered to block social media and messaging apps,” Twitter said on Tuesday. “We strongly condemn internet shutdowns. They are hugely harmful [and] violate basic human rights and the principles of the open internet.”

With tens of thousands of conservative voices, including President Donald Trump, being banned by Twitter and other Big Tech platforms in recent days, the irony of the company’s statement was not lost on critics. “Shutting down voices online is a violation of human rights in Uganda but necessary to protect democracy in America,” Blaze TV host Lauren Chen tweeted.

Media critic Mark Dice said, “Maybe they don’t want Twitter interfering in their election like you’ve done in the US.”

In fact, Uganda’s government ordered a national social-media blackout essentially to level the playing field after Facebook and Twitter took down accounts supporting President Yoweri Museveni and Uganda’s ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.

“This is unfortunate, but it’s unavoidable,” Museveni said on Tuesday in a nationwide address. “There’s no way anybody can come and play around with our country... We cannot tolerate this arrogance of anybody coming to decide for us who is good and who is bad.”

Twitter acknowledged that it suspended an undisclosed number of Ugandan accounts targeting the country’s January 14 election earlier this week, “in close coordination with our peers.” Facebook shut down allegedly duplicate accounts linked to Uganda’s Ministry of Information after saying they were used to comment on content, impersonate users and make posts appear more popular.

The 76-year-old Museveni, who has ruled Uganda since 1986, said that if a social media platform is going to operate in Uganda, “it should be used equitably by everybody who wants to use it” – a sentiment that millions of Americans would like to see applied in the US. “If you want to take sides against the NRM, then that group will not operate in Uganda,” he added. “Uganda is ours. It’s not anybody’s.”

How is the internet to be used equitably when the government has a department whose purpose is to flood the internet with pro-Gov't propaganda?

Twitter blasted the timing of the shutdown, saying, “Access to information and freedom of expression, including the public conversation on Twitter, is never more important than during democratic processes, particularly elections.”

Observers suggested the company may be lacking in self-awareness. Author Anuraag Saxena quipped: “What kind of monsters would block the right to free speech? Oh wait.” Social media editor Jessica O’Donnell said, “Are there no mirrors at Twitter?”

A spokesman for Museveni told the AP that Facebook was interfering in Uganda’s electoral process, and the unilateral shutdown of accounts was evidence of “outside support.”

The US State Department has called on Uganda to ensure a “free, fair, credible and peaceful” election and has accused Museveni’s administration of using excessive force against opposition protesters. “Security officials responsible for the excessive force must be held to account, and candidates must be afforded freedom of movement and access to media,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement last month. He added that “we are paying close attention to the actions of individuals who interfere in the democratic process and will not hesitate to consider serious consequences for those responsible for election-related violence and oppression.”

Dozens of protesters have reportedly been killed during crackdowns on rallies for opposition candidate Bobi Wine.

Museveni apologized for the inconvenience caused by Uganda’s social media shutdown, but said that after Facebook failed to give a proper explanation of its account suspensions, the government was forced to take action.

Poland slams social media deplatforming of Trump as government readies

anti-censorship law

14 Jan 2021 16:03

FILE PHOTO. © Getty Images / Westend61

The Polish government has decried social media platforms’ (mis)handling of US President Donald Trump’s accounts as Warsaw prepares to pass its own legislation to stop ideological censorship.

Facebook’s decision to remove Trump’s account was politically motivated, hypocritical, and “amounts to censorship,” Deputy Justice Minister Sebastian Kaleta told local media. 

Under the country’s new anti-censorship law, “removing lawful content would directly violate the law, and this will have to be respected by the platforms that operate in Poland,” he explained to Polish outlet Rzeczpospolita. 

PM Mateusz Morawiecki made similar comments earlier this week, though he did not mention the US president by name. “Algorithms or the owners of corporate giants should not decide which views are right and which are not,” he wrote on Facebook. 

There can be no consent to censorship.

“Censorship of free speech, which is the domain of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, is now returning in the form of a new, commercial mechanism to combat those who think differently,” Morawiecki continued.

The new anti-censorship law, first unveiled last month, will allow users whose content is taken down by the Big Tech companies to petition a special court if they believe the content did not violate Polish law and should be restored. The user may first file a complaint to the platform, which has 24 hours to restore the ‘offending’ content if they agree it does not violate Polish law. 

If the platform refuses, however, the user has 48 hours to petition a court newly created for this purpose. Should the court find in favor of the censored user over a seven-day consideration period, the censoring platform can be fined up to €1.8 million.

Polish government figures, especially those on the right wing of the political spectrum, have had their own struggles with Facebook censorship in the past. The platform kicked Konfederacja party MP Janusz Korwin-Mikke off the site in November despite some 780,000 followers, alleging he had repeatedly violated “community standards.”

Poland is out of step with the mostly, far-left EU

Morawiecki has called for the EU to adopt similar rules for governing social media, though the multinational group’s current trajectory seems to lean toward punishing platforms for not removing ‘offensive’ content quickly enough. 

France, is finding less and less in common with EU values

However, individual countries such as France are starting to push back against the dominance of Big Tech. French finance minister Bruno Le Maire recently referred to the tech titans as a “digital oligarchy” and “one of the threats” to democracy. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called it “problematic” while Thierry Breton, the EU Commission’s internal market commissioner, went as far as to compare it to 9/11 in the sense that it led to a “paradigm shift” in perception of global security when it comes to the “threat” unregulated tech companies can pose to democracies.

Belarusian authorities seek to give journalists 3-year jail term for alleged role

in protests against embattled leader Lukashenko

14 Jan 2021 18:05

People, including pensioners, take part in an opposition rally to demand the resignation of Belarusian President

Alexander Lukashenko and to protest against police violence in Minsk, Belarus November 30, 2020.

© REUTERS / Stringer; (inset) Daria Chultsova © вконтакте24.рф

Two young journalists could be handed prison sentences over accusations that they participated in opposition rallies in Belarus, despite their insistence that they were covering events as reporters for a Western-backed news site.

Nadzeya Antonik, an officer of the Frunzenski Court in Minsk, announced on Facebook earlier this week that a criminal case had been filed against Daria Chultsova, a camerawoman from Belsat TV, and Ekaterina Andreeva, one of the network’s presenters. They stand accused of “organizing and preparing actions that grossly violate public order,” charges which carry up to three years incarceration.

According to the Warsaw-based channel, which is bankrolled by Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the pair were arrested after live-streaming a demonstration on Minsk’s so-called ‘Square of Changes’. The protests followed an outcry after a resident of the capital, Roman Bondarenko, was allegedly beaten to death after being picked up by police outside his home on the plaza.

According to Andreeva’s husband, Igor Ilyash, who also works for Belsat, the charges have been commonly used against those reporting on events in the country since the beginning of the unrest last summer. “It’s a completely absurd situation,” he said. “She practically spent the entire protest in that apartment [where they had been filming], she didn’t leave there, she couldn’t take part or coordinate. The very fact that she ran a live broadcast is proof.”

Opposition figurehead Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who stood against veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko in the country’s presidential elections last year, has since weighed in on the case from Lithuania, where she fled in the days following the vote. The one-time candidate, who has declared herself the rightful president of Belarus, urged her followers to send cards and letters to Chultsova, who she describes as a “political prisoner.” 

While many foreign journalists, who are required to register with authorities in Minsk, had their credentials revoked last year, a number of native Belarusians have maintained a flow of information out of the country. However, several of the outlets that employ them are based outside the country or funded from overseas. Some are Russian, while others are Western-funded, such as NEXTA and Belsat.tv, which are based across the border in Poland. Lukashenko’s government bans media organizations that take funds from “foreign legal entities,” and does not distinguish between their journalists and protesters.

Belarus has been rocked by mass demonstrations and strikes since August, when Lukashenko claimed victory in his sixth presidential election since first taking office in 1994. However, the opposition and many international observers claim that the vote was rigged in his favor, and hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets to demand a new poll. Lukashenko has said that those forming the crowds are Western-backed “puppets.”

Constitutional Court Strikes Down Uganda's Controversial Anti-gay Law

Uganda's Constitutional Court has annulled tough anti-gay legislation signed into law in February.

It ruled that the bill was passed by MPs in December without the requisite quorum and was therefore illegal.

Homosexual acts were already illegal, but the new law allowed for life imprisonment for "aggravated homosexuality" and banned the "promotion of homosexuality".

Several donors have cut aid to Uganda since the law was adopted.

Uganda is a deeply conservative society where many people oppose gay rights and the sentence for homosexual acts has always been life imprisonment.

Earlier drafts of the anti-homosexuality act made it a crime not to report gay people - which would have made it impossible to live as openly gay - but this clause was removed.

However the legislation that was passed in parliament was "null and void", the presiding judge at the Constitutional Court said, as not enough lawmakers had been present to vote on the bill.

The law, which was signed by President Yoweri Museveni in February, toughened up existing laws.

Lesbians were covered for the first time and those found living in a same-sex marriage could have been sentenced to life imprisonment.

The challenge to the law was brought by 10 petitioners, including academics, journalists, both ruling and opposition MPs, human rights activists and rights groups.

"The retrogressive anti-homosexuality act of Uganda has been struck down by the constitutional court - it's now dead as a door nail," the AFP news agency quotes prominent journalist Andrew Mwenda, one of the petitioners, as saying.

Ugandan human rights activists stand at the packed
Constitutional Court in Kampala , Uganda - 30 July 2014

Kosiya Kasibayo, a lawyer for the state, said a decision had not been made on whether to appeal against the ruling in the Supreme Court, the Associate Press news agency reports.

The BBC's Catherine Byaruhanga in the capital, Kampala, says supporters of the anti-gay laws have been angered by the ruling of the five judges.

They wonder whether their decision has anything to do with the president's visit to Washington next week for the US-Africa Summit, she says.

In June, the US imposed sanctions on the East African nation, including travel restrictions on Ugandan officials involved in serious human rights abuses.

The White House also cut funds to a number of programmes it is running with the Ugandan authorities.

Several European nations - including Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden - had earlier cut aid.

But the Ugandan authorities have defended the law in the past, saying President Museveni wanted "to demonstrate Uganda's independence in the face of Western pressure and provocation".

Pastor Martin Ssempa, a vocal backer of the anti-homosexuality legislation, told the BBC his supporters would be asking parliament to investigate the impartiality of the judiciary.

Uganda's anti-homosexuality act:
Life imprisonment for gay sex, including oral sex
Life imprisonment for "aggravated homosexuality", including sex with a minor or while HIV-positive
Life imprisonment for living in a same-sex marriage
Seven years for "attempting to commit homosexuality"
Between five and seven years in jail or a $40,700 (£24,500) fine or both for the promotion of homosexuality
Businesses or non-governmental organisations found guilty of the promotion of homosexuality would have their certificates of registration cancelled and directors could face seven years in jail.

Uganda President Blocks Anti-gay Law

Some gay Ugandans have fled the country, saying they are being persecuted

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has refused to approve a controversial bill to toughen punishments for homosexuals.

He has written to the parliamentary speaker criticising her for passing it in December without a quorum.

Homosexuals were "abnormal" or were so for "mercenary reasons" and could be "rescued", a local paper quotes his letter as saying.

The bill provides for life imprisonment for homosexual acts and also makes it a crime not to report gay people.

The promotion of homosexuality - even talking about it without condemning the lifestyle - would also be punishable by a prison term.

The BBC's Catherine Byaruhanga in the capital, Kampala, says the president is aware that if he signs the bill there will be an international outcry, which could see some countries suspend aid to the country.

Uganda already has legislation banning gay sex, specifically between men, lesbianism wasn't considered under a provision of the 1950 Penal Code. The new law would add female-to-female sex to banned practices.

The Penal Code also never made it an offence for someone to identify himself or herself as a homosexual. It was the act that was illegal. Gay activists have been able to state their sexuality in public and advocate for their rights without being prosecuted.

Catherine Byaruhanga, BBC Uganda

This, legislators felt, endangered Uganda's culture and family structure, centred around marriage between a man and woman.

There's been a battle here, well captured in the international media, between gay activists and Evangelical Christians over the rights and wrongs of homosexuality.

So what MPs are trying to do is to create the "idea" of homosexuality in the law. Once you specify that homosexuality is wrong, you then ban its promotion.

If the law is passed, standing up saying "I am gay" would become illegal.

Citizens would also have to report anyone who they believe is gay to the police. And it would be illegal to provide advisory services to homosexuals.

His spokesman told the AFP news agency that Mr Museveni believes that gay people are sick but this does not mean they should be killed or jailed for life.


"What the president has being saying is that we shall not persecute these homosexuals and lesbians. That is the point," said Tamale Mirudi.

He denied that the president had changed his mind under pressure.

"The president's position has been the same for a long time, nothing has changed," he added.

Our reporter says Mr Museveni is trying to reach a compromise with MPs, because if he refuses to sign the bill, parliament can still force it through with a two-thirds vote.

But in contrast to Nigeria, where earlier this month the president signed a bill banning same-sex marriages, gay groups and shows of same-sex public affection, Mr Museveni is politically strong and so more able to resist pressure from conservative groups, she says. See post immediately below re: Nigeria and also for map of gay rights in Africa.

Mr Museveni said the bill was forced through despite his advice to shelve it until the government had studied it in depth, Uganda's private Monitor newspaper reports.

"Even with legislation, they will simply go underground and continue practicing [sic] homosexuality or lesbianism for mercenary reasons," he is quoted as saying.

The president's eight-page letter to speaker Rebecca Kadaga said they could be "rescued" by improving the economy.

He also disputed the view that homosexuality could be described as an "alternative sexual orientation".

"You cannot call an abnormality an alternative orientation. It could be that the Western societies, on account of random breeding, have generated many abnormal people," he said.

He said another reason women became lesbians was because of "sexual starvation" when they failed to marry, the Monitor reports.

Gay Activist in Uganda

Ugandan gay rights activist Pepe Julian Onziema told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme she had mixed feelings about Mr Museveni's comments.

"Him not assenting to the bill makes us happy but him calling us 'abnormal', 'nothing-doers', 'sexually starved', that is so derogatory," she said.

"It encourages the community to attack people like me."

There is meant to be a caucus meeting of ruling party MPs later this month to discuss the bill.

The government will try to persuade them to reject it, but some have already said they would go against their government's wishes, our correspondent says.

Human rights activists say the bill highlights the intolerance and discrimination the gay community faces in Uganda.

One gay activist was killed in 2011, although the police denied he was targeted because of his sexuality.

The bill has been condemned by world leaders since it was mooted in 2009 - US President Barack Obama called it "odious".

The private member's bill originally proposed the death penalty for some offences, such as if a minor was involved or the perpetrator was HIV-positive, but this clause has been dropped.

Islam - Current Day > Ugandan Bishop Murdered; Hamas Flag Banned in Germany; Greatest Wave of Islamic Violence

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Christian bishop killed over outreach to Uganda Muslims:

‘Today Allah has judged you’

By Anugrah Kumar, 

Christian Post Contributor

Sunday, June 20, 2021

A follower of the Holy Spirit Movement church performs rituals at a shrine in Gulu town, north of Uganda capital Kampala February 15, 2015. | Reuters/James Akena

A radical Muslim has confessed to police in Uganda that he killed a 70-year-old pastor earlier this month because of Allah’s word to kill all infidels who mislead Muslims by sharing the Gospel.

The accused, identified as Imam Uthman Olingha, told police he killed Bishop Francis Obo, senior pastor of Mpingire Pentecostal Revival Church Ministries International in Odapako village Mpingire Sub-County, on June 11, Morning Star News reported.

Olingha was one of the Muslim extremists dressed in Islamic attire who stopped Pastor Obo and his wife on their way home from a market at about 8:30 p.m., his wife, Christine Obo, said.

“Olingha openly confessed (to police) that he can’t regret that he killed the bishop because he did it in the cause of Allah’s word to kill all infidels who mislead Muslims. He added that Allah will be with him in jail, but the kafiri (infidel) deserved the killing.”

One of the attackers told the pastor, who oversaw 17 churches across the region and had been sharing Christ with Muslims, that he was an “infidel” who caused Muslims to leave Islam and “blasphemes the words of Allah,” and that, “Today Allah has judged you.”

A week before the murder, the couple had invited a former Islamic teacher to testify on how he became a Christian at their church, Christine Obo recalled. Area Muslims were also upset with the church because it offered the former Islamic teacher a pig as part of a micro-enterprise livestock project that helped raise funds for the church, she added.

Describing the incident, she said, “As I moved a few meters in a hurry trying to save my life, I heard a little noise and wailing from my husband and realized that his life was in danger.”

When she reached home, she was trembling and unable to speak, she said, and her children took her to a hospital. When she regained consciousness the following morning, she told her oldest son and his siblings to go to the site.

“Reaching there, they were shocked and fearful as they found a big number of Christians and relatives gathered around the dead body mourning their bishop after being murdered by Muslims,” Obo was quoted as saying.

According to World Watch Monitor, a homegrown Islamist rebel movement organizing in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo has emboldened Ugandan radicals to persecute Christians.

Voice of the Martyrs earlier noted that Uganda’s history has made it vulnerable to the influence of Islam as “Arab countries also continue to invest significant resources into furthering Muslim interests in the country.”

In Uganda, persecution is mainly seen in the form of local Islamists persecuting Christians, mostly in areas where “radicals have been steadily encroaching.”

“Radical Islam’s influence has grown steadily, and many Christians within the majority-Muslim border regions are facing severe persecution, especially those who convert from Islam,” a Voice of the Martyrs factsheet explains. “Despite the risks, evangelical churches in Uganda have responded by reaching out to their neighbors; many churches are training leaders how to share the Gospel with Muslims and care for those who are persecuted after they become Christians.”

Last December, a mob of Muslim extremists in Uganda reportedly killed 41-year-old former imam Yusuf Kintu a week after he converted to Christianity.

German government to ban displaying of Hamas flag, after spike in anti-Semitic incidents during Gaza conflict – media

20 Jun, 2021 16:26

FILE PHOTO. Supporters of the Palestinian Hamas hold the group's flags during a rally.

© Global Look Press / DPA / Mohammed Talatene

Germany’s coalition government has reached a consensus to impose a ban on the flag of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group. The move is intended to send a “clear message to Jewish citizens” amid a spike in anti-Semitic incidents.

The ban on the Hamas flag was first reported by the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. The outlet cited Thorsten Frei, the deputy parliamentary spokesperson for Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).

The two parties that spearheaded the move have reached a consensus with their parliamentary partner, the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), the official said.

“We do not want the flags of terrorist organizations to be waved on German soil,” Frei stated. “I’m very pleased that the SPD has joined our initiative. In doing so, we can send a clear signal to our Jewish citizens.”

The SPD reportedly had constitutional concerns about the move, but those differences were ultimately settled. According to a letter obtained by the newspaper that was sent by Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) to Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU), the party believed the initial proposal by the CDU/CSU was “in need of revision”.

While Germany has not designated it as a terrorist group, this was the label the European Union slapped on Hamas in the early 2000s. Berlin had previously taken similar action against other pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel groups.

Back in 2019, for instance, it branded Lebanon-based Hezbollah – both its military and political wings – as a terrorist group and banned the displaying of its flag or the showing of support. Unlike Germany, the EU as a whole designated only the military wing of Hezbollah as a terror group.

The action against the Hamas follows a wave of pro-Palestinian events that swept over Germany back in May, during the two-week conflict between the armed group and Israel. Many of the pro-Palestinian rallies have been marred by assorted incidents, including attacks on synagogues, the burning of Israeli flags, and so on.

Many Germans still remember the massacre at the Munich Olympics orchestrated by Palestinian terrrorists. Nine Israeli athletes were killed and a German policeman. 5 Black September terrorists were killed in the rescue operation that went very badly. The 3 surviving members of Black September were put on a blacklist with several others, where Mossad was authorized to hunt them down and neutralize them. They did!

'Fresh wave of violence' in Mozambique driven by radical jihadist extremists;

children beheaded

"This is probably the greatest wave of Islamic violence

that the modern era has seen.” 

By Emily Wood, 

Christian Post Reporter

| Wednesday, June 23, 2021

A volunteer claps as he sings with children during activities directed toward the healing for displaced children that witnessed atrocities in northern Mozambique, at a displacement settlement in Metuge on May 21, 2021. Conflict in the northern Mozambique province of Cabo Delgado that began in 2017 has now forced nearly some 700,000 people from their homes. Around 43 percent the 700,000 people displaced by the violence are children, according to the U.N. | JOHN WESSELS/AFP via Getty Images

Conditions in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, have “seriously deteriorated” over the past year, affecting children “disproportionately” as nearly 3,000 people have been killed and over 800,000 displaced since the violent insurgency that began in October 2017, according to a report.

Violent attacks by Islamic rebels in the Cabo Delgado province have led to the deaths of more than 2,838 people, including over 1,400 civilians, though the actual number is expected to be higher. 

A report released this month by Save the Children, Plan International and World Vision showed how the extent of the conflict in Cabo Delgado has worsened in the last 12 months and how children are suffering disproportionately. 

The last 12 months of Mozambique’s Islamic insurgency has escalated due to increased armed conflict on villages and district capital towns, leading to casualties and “grave violations” against children. 

Amy Lamb, director of communications for Open Doors, told The Christian Post that the “fresh wave of violence” in Mozambique has had a “devastating” toll.

Lamb said that for the first time, Mozambique was added to the World Watch List for the first time as being among the most persecuted countries “because of the fresh wave of violence coming into Mozambique primarily driven by radical jihadist extremists.” 

A March attack on Palma, a town in the northeast of Mozambique, led to an estimated 67,848 displaced people as of June 4. 

Many children affected by this attack were orphaned or were separated from their parents as they fled. 

The southeastern African country is home to about 17 million Christians, which is over 50% of the population. Lamb said it's also home to one of the fastest-growing evangelical populations in the world. 

“Because of [the rise in Christianity], we’re seeing jihadist groups including those who are affiliated with the Islamic state, with al Shabab, with Boko Haram, al Qaeda,” Lamb explained. 

“It’s just organizing together in order to expand their territories throughout the African continent, and their goal is really to eradicate Christianity from this territory and, unfortunately, in some ways, it’s working,” she continued. “Even specifically from this northern part of Mozambique, an estimated 800,000 people have fled the region, and those who remain, including women, children, families, are facing starvation even if they’re spared from … violence.” 

Lamb said Christians in Mozambique are especially targeted with violence and believes the government contributes to this. 

“There is a great deal of instability, and there can even be some anti-Christian antipathy at the government level,” Lamb said. “So as far as the government of Mozambique, in some ways, it’s not helping because there are some of those antipathies even at the highest level, so when it’s pervasive at the lower level, it’s combining into a perfect storm.”

The report also offers recommendations and said the U.N. and international community “must, without delay,” support the establishment of peace and address underlying causes of the conflict. 

In March, the U.S. Army Green Berets were deployed to Mozambique to train Mozambican marines to counter the violent insurgency that has led to children as young as 12 years old being beheaded. 

Lamb agrees that the situation requires the international community’s attention and said the Islamic State is struggling to gain a hold of the entire region in what she believes is “the greatest wave of Islamic violence” in the modern era. 

“It should be a matter of grave concern for the international community because it is an indication that there is an emerging caliphate throughout the sub-Saharan African region,” she said. “So what we saw in the devastation … that’s all caliphate activity.”

“And what’s so concerning is these groups are organizing together to create what’s essentially a new Islamic State throughout the entire region,” Lamb continued. “So that is deeply concerning, not just from a religious freedom standpoint, but also from a democracy standpoint. Also from just the overall human rights condition of we have this one group of incredibly violent extremists who are saying … ‘we’re going to take over.” It should be a matter of concern for the international community because this is probably the greatest wave of Islamic violence that the modern era has seen.” 

Lamb called on the American Church to pray for Christians in Mozambique and for those who have been displaced.

“Pray for God’s intervention in the violent attacks, and as rapidly as we have seen this wave of violence rise, that we would see it decline just as fast,” Lamb added.

Amen!

Islam - Africa > Another Evangelist murdered in Uganda; Muslims Massacre 11 Christians in Mozambique

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Uganda: Muslims murder Christian evangelist

for leading Muslims to Christ

SEP 23, 2023 1:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER

Islamic law forbids non-Muslims to proselytize among Muslims. They clearly believe that murdering their opponent is preferable to besting him in debate.

RIP Philip - I pray the Lord finds that you have done well

Another Evangelist Slain for Leading Muslims to Christ in Uganda

Morning Star News, September 15, 2023:

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Muslim extremists on Sept. 6 beat a 33-year-old evangelist to death for leading Muslims to faith in Christ at an event in eastern Uganda, sources said.

After the evangelistic event in Kituuti town, Philip Bere was pulled from his bicycle while returning to Katiryo, Kibuku District and killed when the assailants bashed him with a large rock, an eyewitness said.

Mudenya Sirasi, who had assisted Bere at the evangelistic event, was with him as the two neared Katiryo on the Kataka-Katiryo road. Sirasi said many people accepted Christ at the event, including Muslim women and two young Muslim men.

The two evangelists were ambushed at about 7:40 p.m., he said.

“We heard people talking from both sides of the road at a nearby bush saying, ‘They are the ones who converted our members today – they are not supposed to live, but to be killed,’” Sirasi told Morning Star News. “From nowhere, one man who was stationed in front of us grabbed our bicycle that we were riding on and hit Bere with a blunt object on his back.”

Bere fell as Sirasi jumped off the bike and entered a tunnel under a bridge, where he hid, he said.

“I could see the attackers brutally injuring my friend,” Sirasi said. “One of the attackers hit him with a big stone, and he bled to death.”

When the assailants left, Sirasi found the body of Bere in a pool of blood, he said. He alerted other area Christians and police, and officers took the body to a hospital for postmortem, Sirasi said.

The pastor of Bere’s church, unnamed for security reasons, said officers at the police station in Katiryo, Kibukuand took statements about the killing of the evangelist and that they were searching for the killers, who have gone into hiding.

“Our evangelist was killed because his passion for preaching the good news of Jesus Christ, especially to Muslims,” the pastor told Morning Star News.

Bere was well-known for his preaching among Muslims in Buseeta, Lwatama, Katiryo and other parts in eastern Uganda….

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.

A similar incident occur in eastern Uganda just 3 weeks earlier where one evangelist was killed and 20 other Christians injured.

Mozambique: Muslims separate Christians from Muslims,

murder at least eleven Christians

SEP 23, 2023 8:00 AM BY ROBERT SPENCER

This is reminiscent of other incidents, including when a Muslim in Minnesota in 2016 asked mall shoppers if they were Muslim and then stabbed non-Muslims. And also in Mozambique in August 2023, Muslims abducted two fishermen, beheaded the Christian, and freed the Muslim.

In Uganda in June 2023, Muslims murdered 42 people at a school after asking for Muslims among students, saying they didn’t kill fellow believers. In April 2022 in Nigeria, Muslims stormed a brothel, telling people to recite the Qur’an, and murdering ten people who could not do. Also in Nigeria, in January 2022, a man recounted that Fulani jihadis stopped him and started beating him. Then they asked him if he was Muslim or Christian; when he said he was Christian, they intensified the beating. In Burkina Faso in November 2021, Muslims asked villagers if they were Christian or Muslim, then killed the Christians.  In Mozambique in June 2021, Muslims were hunting for Christians door-to-door. In the Philippines in February 2019, Muslims murdered a man for failing to recite Qur’an verses, while releasing six others who could recite them.

In Mali, Muslims screaming “Allahu akbar” took hostages, freeing those who could recite the Qur’an. In September 2013 at Nairobi’s Westgate Mall, Muslims murdered people who couldn’t answer questions about Islam. In June 2014, Muslims murdered people who could not pass an Islam quiz. In a Bangladesh restaurant in July 2016, the jihadis spared those who could recite from the Qur’an. In July 2017 in Kenya, Muslims asked Christians to “recite Islamic dogmas” and murdered them when they couldn’t do so. In May 2018 in Belgium, a Muslim who murdered four people told a hostage that he wouldn’t harm her since she was Muslim and was observing the Ramadan fast. In September 2018 in Kenya, Muslims murdered two non-Muslims for failing to recite the Qur’an.

11 Killed as Islamist Jihadists Reportedly Target Christians in Mozambican village

National Catholic Register, September 20, 2023:

At least 11 people were killed Sept. 15 after members of the Islamic State attacked a village in Mozambique and opened fire on Christians after hand-picking them from Muslims, the Catholic pontifical and charity foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International reported.

In a Sept. 18 report, ACN indicated that the terrorists arrived in the village of Naquitengue, located in Mocímboa da Praia district of the embattled Cabo Delgado province, in the early afternoon and summoned the villagers.

After separating the Christians from the Muslims, “based on names” to identify them, “they opened fire on the Christians,” the report stated.

The charity foundation has gathered accounts of those affected by the violence in the Mozambican district and said: “The reports are disturbing.”

Those who spoke to ACN recounted that Christians were “showered with bullets” in the incident.

“There are also records of burned houses and destroyed property,” ACN reported. “Hours later, on Sunday, the terrorist organization Islamic State claimed this attack, reporting 11 deaths, although the number of victims is expected to be higher, at least 12, with several injured.”

The Catholic entity further reported that the attack, which it described as “of enormous cruelty,” caused panic among the populations, who fled to the forests.

Friar Boaventura, a missionary from the Institute of the Fraternity of the Poor of Jesus (PJC) present in Cabo Delgado, confirmed to ACN the terrorists’ strategy to isolate Christians from others before executing them, noting that it was not the first time such an incident had happened in Cabo Delgado.

“This strategy has already happened in the past,” he said, adding that terrorists had already carried out attacks “with this same scenario” — that is, to “separate Christians from Muslims.”

The missionary told ACN that the Sept. 15 incident had left the population scared, adding that the attack occurred at a time when many people were beginning to return to their homelands…. 

 

Muslim Father in Uganda Burns Daughter for Converting to Christianity - War on Christianity

MAY 26, 2020

A 24-year-old woman in Uganda was beaten and burned all over her body by her father, a teacher of Islam, when he found out about her conversion to Christianity, according to Morning Star News.

Rehema Kyomuhendo was traveling with her father on a business trip in Uganda and was delayed making the 305 mile trek home due to the COVID-19 travel restrictions.

During this time, Kyomuhendo began listening to Christian programing on the radio and after doing more independent research about the religion, soon accepted it as her newfound faith.

Her father, Sheikh Hussein Byaruhanga Husain, a teacher of Islam, allegedly overheard his daughter’s excitement over her conversion to Christianity and immediately began to beat her—kicking and slapping.

Furious, he even allegedly threatened to kill his own daughter.

In a rage, he reportedly grabbed a jerrican and lit it on fire, taking it to Kyomuhendo’s body and burning her as she screamed in pain. The aunt that the two were staying with at the time rushed to protect her niece and carried her outside, awaiting help from a Christian neighbor.

She was raced to Mbale Regional Referral hospital where she will remain for over a month, according to reports, while being treated for burns all over her body, including on her stomach, neck, back, ribs, and leg.

Even though religious freedom and conversion is legal within Uganda, no police report has been filed, reportedly out of fear for how the Sheikh will react.

Many Muslim communities in the area view preaching or converting to Christianity as a grave offense. This is not an isolated incidence of religious persecution, particularly for Christians.

According to the Open Doors World Watch List for 2020, there are about 260 million Christians that experience high levels of persecution across the top 50 countries on this list.

Uganda does not even rank in the top 50 on this list.

Almost 3,000 Christians have been killed in this past year alone, meaning about 8 Christians are killed every day due to their faith.

Even more Christians have been detained without a trial, arrested, and imprisoned, with over 9,400 churches or Christian buildings attacked.

These last two sentences are global numbers, not just Uganda.

Islam - Current Day > Muslims Kill Evangelist while Preaching; ISIS appoints new leader; Raif Badawi out of prison! **UPDATED**

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Hardline Muslims Kill Evangelist at Open-Air Event

East Africa Correspondent | 

Morning Star News | 

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Uganda on the Map, Hardline Muslims kill evangelist at open-air event. ChristianHeadlines.com

NAIROBI, Kenya, March 8, 2022 (Morning Star News) – Hardline Muslims who grew furious at the preaching of a speaker at an open-air evangelistic event last week in eastern Uganda beat him to death and burned his body, sources said.

John Michael Okero was quoting verses from the Koran about Christ on Feb. 28 in Kadungulu village, Serere District when a Muslim identified only as Shakuuru grabbed the microphone from him. He and other Muslims started beating Okero as they accused him of blaspheming Allah by saying that he has a Son, misinterpreting the Koran, touching the Koran without ritual cleansing and disrespecting it by placing it under the Bible, an area source told Morning Star News by phone.

They beat him to death with iron bars, stones and sticks and later burned his body to a chant in the Ateso language referring to a thief who steals people from one religion to join a bad religion, the source said. Okero was 43.

Police were called but arrived after the assailants had fled, the source said. Officers began a manhunt.

Okero, a resident of Kapaala village, Palissa District, was frequently invited to preach at evangelistic events in predominantly Muslim Kadungulu village by a denomination undisclosed for security reasons.

The assault 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.

If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit http://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved.

If you or your organization would like to help enable Morning Star News to continue raising awareness of persecuted Christians worldwide with original-content reporting, please consider collaborating at https://morningstarnews.org/donate/?

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ISIS appoints new leader

The terrorist group confirms death of previous leader in US raid on Syria

FILE PHOTO © Getty Images / Pictures From History

Terrorist group Islamic State has confirmed the death of its previous leader Abu Ibrahim Al-hashemi Al-Quraishi, announcing the similarly-named Abu Al-Hassan Al-hashemi Al-Quraishi as his replacement on Thursday.

A spokesman from the group confirmed the previous leader’s death and announced the new leader over ISIS’ al-Furqan Media, though the name had already been circulating unofficially on social media in the preceding month.

The previous Al-Quraishi reportedly blew himself and his family up during a raid by US special forces in northwestern Syria last month. 

Since his wife and children went with him,  how will he handle the 72 virgins?

According to a senior unnamed US official, Quraishi detonated the bomb at the start of the operation, leaving at least 13 people dead in the “clashes and explosions” that ensued, according to Syrian rescue workers. However, there were no US casualties, and US President Joe Biden called the raid successful.

The now-deceased Quraishi had led the wannabe caliphate since the death of previous leader and founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who died in a similar manner during a US raid in 2019. While former president Donald Trump declared victory over the group, it had periodically surfaced to stage attacks in Syria and Iraq in the intervening years, and an Afghan splinter group called ISIS-K set off a bomb in the last days of the US presence in Kabul, killing hundreds.

ISIS-K also claimed responsibility for a mosque bombing in Pakistan leaving dozens dead.

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Update: 12 Mar 2022 - 10 year travel ban to be enforced!

Raif Badawi freed from Saudi prison

Quebec family jubilant after 10-year fight to free Saudi blogger jailed

for promoting liberal views on Islam

CBC News · 

Posted: Mar 11, 2022 12:15 PM ET

Ensaf Haidar, wife of jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, shared hugs with friends and supporters in front of city hall in Sherbrooke, Que. on March 11, 2022, the day he was released after 10 years in prison. (Radio-Canada)

The Quebec family of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi has confirmed he has been released from Saudi prison, 10 years after he was jailed for criticizing religious figures and promoting liberal views of Islam.

"After 10 years in prison, Raif is free!" Ensaf Haidar, Badawi's wife, tweeted, Friday.

As the news spread, Haidar was met Friday afternoon by cheering supporters holding signs bearing her husband's photo, and she shared a few tearful hugs outside city hall in Sherbrooke, Que., where she lives with her three children.

"I am at a loss for words," Haidar said, in an interview with Radio-Canada. "I would like to find the words, but I am just happy." 

"He is, I don't know how many kilometres away, but the important thing is that Raif is free," she said.

Haidar has been fighting for her husband's release for the past decade. She received a call this morning from Badawi, as he was signing his release papers.

"He is doing well. Even he doesn't know what to say," she said. "It's still a surprise for us, but a good surprise."

She said two of her children were home when she received his call.

"[They said] 'Mom is it true? Is it true?' Their responses were really touching," Haidar said.

"We were jumping everywhere we were running in the house," said the couple's daughter, 18-year-old Najwa Badawi. "It's a weight off our shoulders."

Release conditions unclear

Badawi's family had been anticipating his release, as his 10-year sentence had been served in full as of Feb. 28.

Following his arrest in 2012, Badawi was also sentenced to 1,000 lashes and a fine of 1 million Saudi Arabian riyal, or about $340,000 Cdn. 

Update: He was also sentenced to a 10 year travel ban to begin upon his release from prison. A Saudi Interior Ministry spokesperson indicated today that that travel ban will be enforced unless Badawi is issued a royal pardon.

Badawi's case made international headlines when he was whipped 50 times in public, and the remainder of the lashings were suspended following international outcry.

Haidar said she does not yet know the conditions of Badawi's release. 

Collette Lelièvre, a campaigner with Amnesty International Canada who has worked on Badawi's case for most of the last decade, said the organization is continuing to call for the lifting of the travel ban imposed on Badawi by the Saudi government, so he can join his family in Canada. 

This is great news, now if they can get him out of Saudi Arabia and into Canada, that would be fantastic.

In Sherbrooke, Que., where Raif Badawi's wife and three children live, supporters hold posters with the Saudi blogger's picture and play drums to celebrate his release from prison. (Radio-Canada)

The organization has planned a demonstration in Montreal for next Tuesday, to support Badawi and to call for more vocal action from the Canadian government.

"Now is the time to push," she said. "If we work for Raif, we also work for other human rights defenders and other political opponents [in Saudi Arabia].

She praised Haidar for her tireless work to secure her husband's freedom. 

"She has done so many things! Spoken to conferences, demos, travelled around the world to arrive to this point," Lelièvre said.

Islam and Christianity > Muslima converts to Christianity, husband attacks her in church

 

Uganda: Muslim woman converts to Christianity, her husband attacks her with a knife while she is at church

Mar 29, 2026 9:00 am By Robert Spencer3 Comments

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.”

Hajati Kyakuwa Kamiyati was attacked on March 11, 2026 during worship in eastern Uganda. (Morning Star News)

Muslim Severely Wounds Christian Wife during Worship in Uganda

MEMRI, March 26, 2026:

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – The Muslim husband of a mother of six in eastern Uganda severely wounded her this month as she was worshipping at a Bible study after he learned that she had converted to Christianity, sources said.

Hajati Kyakuwa Kamiyati, 45, remains in treatment for severe injuries at Bugiri Joint Clinic after the March 11 attack during the worship in Bugiri town, in the district of the same name.

Kamiyati, who made the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca last year, came to faith in Christ two months after her return. She had committed herself to regularly attending Bible study sessions in order to grow in her new faith, said her pastor, Rebecca Nakiranda.

“When I gave my life to Jesus, I was told to keep going to church so I could learn how to live as a new believer,” Kamiyati told a Morning Star News contact from her hospital bed.

She had attended services on Wednesdays and Saturdays while her husband, Mukiibi Rajabu, was away at work as a long-distance truck driver on routes to Mombasa, Kigali, South Sudan and other parts of Uganda.

Kamiyati said she suspects her husband learned about her conversion from a friend, Kyempasa Abdullah, who saw her attending church and informed him.

She said she was at Christ the King Church at 2 p.m. for a Bible study when her husband called to ask about her whereabouts. She told him she was at the market, and he reportedly responded calmly, saying he would return home in two days.

About 30 minutes later, however, Rajabu stormed into the Bible study armed with a stick and a knife as the Christians were singing praise songs after receiving Bibles for the study, according to Pastor Nakiranda. Witnesses said he went straight to where Kamiyati was standing and began attacking her.

Kamiyati sustained multiple serious injuries, including a cut on her face, a fractured hand and a suspected spinal cord injury, said church elder John Akello. She was left bleeding and unconscious before the attacker fled and disappeared, he said.

Worshippers fled in fear, and some who attempted to call police were unable to make contact, said Pastor Nakieranda….