Indonesian Military Forcing Ahmadi Muslims to Convert to Orthodox Islam

Update from modern, moderate Indonesia.

Indonesia admitted on Wednesday that soldiers had been entering mosques of a minority Islamic sect but said they had been protecting followers, escalating a debate about religious freedoms.

An Indonesian human rights group said however it had recorded 56 cases in West Java province in which soldiers forced Ahmadiyah followers to convert to mainstream Islam.

The government denies there have been any forced conversions, saying the military intervention was to protect the Ahmadiyah from more violence.

"As long as their intention is positive -- that is to ensure Ahmadiyah followers do not become the target of violence -- then that's not a human rights violation," said Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar.

"It’s not a harmful intervention," Akbar told reporters.

But local rights group Imparsial disputed that, saying soldiers have entered mosques, gathered the sect followers and "forced them to repent and convert to Islam". (Source)

Christian Qamar David Dies in Pakistani Prison While Serving Life Sentence for "Blasphemy"

Islamabad (AsiaNews) - Qamar David, a Christian originally from Lahore Pakistan, but living in Karachi died in prison while serving a life sentence for blasphemy. Official sources confirm that the man died last night in his cell, after a heart attack. in the past he had suffered several episodes of violence within the prison walls. Human rights activists are calling for an investigation to ascertain the "true causes" of death. Interviewed by AsiaNews, the bishop of Islamabad speaks of "false accusations" against David fabricated to convict him and asks "how much Christian blood will still flow," before the infamous blasphemy laws are "abolished."

Qamar David was a native of Hamza, near Lahore (Punjab), but was a self employed painter in Karachi in the south of the country. On 8 June 2006 he was reported by a business rival on false charges of blasphemy in accordance with Articles 295 and C of the Pakistan Penal Code. According to the plaintiff, he sent telephone messages with insulting words against Muhammad.

Under the controversial blasphemy rules, introduced in 1986 by Pakistani dictator Zia-ul-Haq, anyone who uses derogatory phrases to refer to the prophet or desecrates the Koran is punishable by death or life imprisonment. Typically, capital cases are switched to life imprisonment. On 25 February 2010, the Karachi court adjunct Judge Jangu Khan, found him guilty of "outrageous" words against Muhammad, and exclusively based on the "black law" and the testimony of his accuser, David Qamar was sentenced to prison for life.

The man died overnight in prison and prison authorities have tried to pass his death off as a heart attack. The Police Commissioner said that the body is being held in the Civil Hospital, Karachi, available to health authorities for an autopsy, which should shed light on the real cause of death. (Read more.)

Muslim Beauty Contestant Shanna Bukhari Told to Burn in Hell

United Kingdom--Shanna Bukhari who is Great Britain’s first Muslim Miss Universe contestant told the press that religious zealots not only slammed her decision to enter the beauty contest but told her to rot in hell.

Miss Bukhari aged 24 had the zealots predicting her torments in hellfire and with some other religious Muslim men posting messages on her Facebook page condemning her Miss Universe move as offensive to Islam.

"Three men wrote that they would not support me because what I was doing was sinful," the young beauty contestant told the Manchester Evening News. "They said I should rot in hell, which is pretty shocking.”

Miss Bukhari also critisized these men as hypocritical.

"They contradict themselves by going out clubbing, drinking and smoking at the weekends. That is completely hypocritical and they should look to themselves before they start judging others.”

Miss Bukhari who works as model and is from a Pakistani origin, said that she wants girls from the Muslim communities to feel that they can do this.

"Muslim girls don't enter competitions like this because Islam does not permit it, but there is so much more to it than looking pretty," she said. (Read more.)

Ezedden Khalid Ahmed Al Khaledi Arrested in Scotland for Connection to Failed Suicide Bombing in Sweden

BBC--A 30-year-old man has appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court in connection with a suicide bombing in Sweden.

Ezedden Khalid Ahmed Al Khaledi, described as a Kuwaiti national, faces three charges under the Terrorism Act and five others under immigration laws and banking regulations.

He made no plea or declaration and was remanded into custody.

Two people were hurt in two explosions in Stockholm in December. A man with an explosive device was later found dead.

The Stockholm bomber was named as 28-year-old Iraqi-born Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly.

He had settled in Luton with his wife Mona, with whom he had three young children - two girls and a boy.

He previously attended the University of Bedfordshire.

The attack was believed to be the first suicide bombing in Sweden's history.

Detectives have been investigating whether Abdaly was supported by others or acted as a lone attacker.

Mr Khaledi was arrested following a police raid on the 19th floor of a block of flats in the Whiteinch area of Glasgow on Tuesday 8 March.

A convoy, flanked by armed officers and watched from a police helicopter, escorted him to the private hearing in Glasgow Sheriff Court.

Proceeding were translated into Arabic for him.

The first charge against him alleges he provided money for Abdaly.

He is also accused of possessing money and bank cards which could have been used for terrorism, and with entering into an arrangement to provide money for terrorist purposes.

Mr Khaledi also faces a charge that he falsely claimed to be a Kuwaiti national so he could claim asylum and benefits in the UK and of fraudulently opening bank accounts. (Source)

Al-Qaeda Launches "Jihad Cosmo" Magazine for Muslim Women

Daily Mail--Al-Qaeda has launched a women's magazine that mixes beauty and fashion tips with advice on suicide bombings.

Dubbed 'Jihad Cosmo', the glossy magazine's front cover features the barrel of a sub-machine gun next to a picture a woman in a veil.

There are exclusive interviews with martyrs' wives, who praise their husbands' decisions to die in suicide attacks.

The slick, 31-page Al-Shamikha magazine - meaning The Majestic Woman - has advice for singletons on 'marrying a mujahideen'.

Readers are told it is their duty to raise children to be mujahideen ready for jihad.

And the 'beauty column' instructs women to stay indoors with their faces covered to keep a 'clear complexion'.

They should 'not go out except when necessary' and wear a niqab for 'rewards by complying with the command of Allah Almighty'.

A woman called Umm Muhanad hails her husband for his bravery after his suicide bombing in Afghanistan.

And another article urges readers to give their lives for the Islamist cause.

It advises: 'From martyrdom, the believer will gain security, safety and happiness.'

More traditional content for a women's magazine includes features on the merits of honey facemasks, etiquette, first aid and why readers should avoid 'towelling too forcibly'.

A trailer for the next issue promises tips on skin care - and how to wage electronic jihad. (Read more.)

Muslim Cleric Ibrahim Abdullahi Bolori Gunned Down for Criticizing Radical Group Boko Haram

KANO, Nigeria — Gunmen shot and killed a Muslim cleric highly critical of a hardline Islamist sect, in an attack outside his home in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, witnesses said.

The attackers, who were in a sports utility vehicle, gunned down Ibrahim Abdullahi Bolori outside his house, which is just next to a mosque, neighbours said.

"The sheikh came out of his house around 8:00 pm (1900 GMT) and sat outside. An unmarked jeep slowed down and gunmen shot him... five times before speeding off," said a neighbour Awwalu Ishaq.

Bolori had been an outspoken critic of the radical Islamist group known as Boko Haram, which in 2009 launched an uprising in Maiduguri, the provincial capital of Borno state.

The revolt was put down by a brutal military assault, but since 2010, attacks attributed to the group have left dozens dead, most of them policemen.

Another cleric who spoke against the sect was gunned down in the same city October last year at his house while giving a theology lesson to a student.

The sect, whose name means "education is a sin" has been blamed for killings targeting police officers, local community leaders, clerics and politicians in recent months. (Read more.)

Shaheen Bibi Rescued from Muslim Captors

As Muslims in the West complain of intolerance and Islamophobia, never-ending reports of the subjugation and abuse of non-Muslims in the Muslim world remind us of what intolerance is really like. Unfortunately, Western Muslims are so busy accusing us of racism, they rarely find time to address actual oppression.

LAHORE, Pakistan – A Christian mother of seven here who last August was kidnapped, raped, sold into marriage and threatened with death if she did not convert to Islam was freed this week.

After she refused to convert and accept the marriage, human traffickers had threatened to kill Shaheen Bibi, 40, and throw her body into the Sindh River if her father, Manna Masih, did not pay a ransom of 100,000 rupees (US$1,170) by Saturday (March 5), the released woman told Compass.

Drugged into unconsciousness, Shaheen Bibi said that when she awoke in Sadiqabad, her captors told her she had been sold and given in marriage.

“I asked them who they were,” she said. “They said that they were Muslims, to which I told them that I was a married Christian woman with seven children, so it was impossible for me to marry someone, especially a Muslim.”

Giving her a prayer rug (musalla), her captors – Ahmed Baksh, Muhammad Amin and Jaam Ijaz – tried to force her to convert to Islam and told her to recite a Muslim prayer, she said.

“I took the musalla but prayed to Jesus Christ for help,” she said. “They realized that I should be returned to my family.”

A member of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Lahore, Shaheen Bibi said she was kidnapped in August 2010 after she met a woman named Parveen on a bus on her way to work. She said Parveen learned where she worked and later showed up there in a car with two men identified as Muhammad Zulfiqar and Shah. They offered her a job at double her salary and took her to nearby Thokar Niaz Baig.

There she was given tea with some drug in it, and she began to fall unconscious as the two men raped her, she said. Shaheen Bibi was unconscious when they put her in a vehicle, and they gave her sedation injections whenever she regained her senses, she said.

When she awoke in Sadiqabad, Baksh, Amin and Ijaz informed her that she had been sold into marriage with Baksh. They showed her legal documents in which she was given a Muslim name, Sughran Bibi daughter of Siddiq Ali. After Baksh had twice raped her, she said, his mother interjected that she was a “persistent Christian” and that therefore he should stay away from her.

Shaheen Bibi, separated from an abusive husband who had left her for another woman, said that after Baksh’s mother intervened, her captors stopped hurting her but kept her in chains.

Her father, Masih, asked police to take action, but they did nothing as her captors had taken her to a remote area between the cities of Rahim Yar Khan and Sadiqabad, considered a “no-go” area ruled by dangerous criminals.

Masih then sought legal assistance from the Community Development Initiative (CDI), a human rights affiliate of the European Center for Law & Justice. With the kidnappers giving Saturday (March 5) as a deadline for payment of the ransom, CDI attorneys brought the issue to the notice of high police officials in Lahore and on March 4 obtained urgent legal orders from Model Town Superintendent of Police Haidar Ashraf to recover Shaheen, according to a CDI source.

The order ultimately went to Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Asghar Jutt of the Nashtar police station. Police accompanied by a CDI field officer raided the home of a contact person for the captors in Lahore, Naheed Bibi, the CDI source said, and officers arrested her in Awami Colony, Lahore.

With Naheed Bibi along, CDI Field Officer Haroon Tazeem and Masih accompanied five policemen, including ASI Jutt, on March 5 to Khan Baila, near Rahim Yar Khan – a journey of 370 miles, arriving that evening. Area police were not willing to cooperate and accompany them, telling them that Khan Baila was a “no-go area” they did not enter even during daytime, much less at night.

Jutt told area police that he had orders from high officials to recover Shaheen Bibi, and that he and Tazeem would lead the raid, the CDI source said. With Nashtar police also daring them to help, five local policemen decided to go with them for the operation, he said.

At midnight on Sunday (March 6), after some encounters and raids in a jungle area where houses are miles apart, the rescue team managed to get hold of Shaheen Bibi, the CDI source said. The captors handed over Shaheen Bibi on the condition that they would not be the targets of further legal action, the CDI source said.

Sensing that their foray into the danger zone had gone on long enough, Tazeem and Jutt decided to leave but told them that those who had sold Shaheen Bibi in Lahore would be brought to justice.

Fatigued and fragile when she arrived in Lahore on Monday (March 7), Shaheen Bibi told CDN through her attorneys that she would pursue legal action against those who sold her fraudulently into slavery and humiliation.

She said that she had been chained to a tree outside a house, where she prayed continually that God would help her out of the seemingly impossible situation. After the kidnappers gave her father the March 5 deadline last week, Shaheen Bibi said, at one point she lifted her eyes in prayer, saw a cross in the sky and was comforted that God’s mighty hand would release her even though her father had no money to pay ransom.

On four previous occasions, she said, her captors had decided to kill her and had changed their mind.

Shaheen Bibi said there were about 10 other women in captivity with her, some whose hands or legs were broken because they had refused to be forcibly given in marriage. Among the women was one from Bangladesh who had abandoned hope of ever returning home as she had reached her 60s in captivity.

Masih told CDN that he had prayed that God would send help, as he had no money to pay the ransom. The day before the deadline for paying the ransom, he said, he had 100 rupees (less than US$2) in his pocket. (Source)

Mission No. 77: Egyptian Government Involved in Church Bombing?

CAIRO -- Less than a month after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's caretaker government faces a new crisis: what to do about thousands of documents that protesters seized from State Security Agency offices over the weekend.

The military-led interim authority has demanded that the classified files kept by Mubarak's dreaded internal spy agency be returned. Instead, they're being scattered throughout Egypt, with files turning up on Facebook and Twitter hourly, forcing the government to respond to them and raising fears among some activists that their value has been reduced for any future prosecutions for torture and kidnapping.

Some of what the documents contain is salacious and sinister.

One file includes a sex tape purportedly involving a Kuwaiti princess and a prominent Egyptian businessman. Another paints Egypt's highest-ranking cleric as a womanizer.

Israa Abdel Fattah, 32, a labor organizer and blogger, shared her file with McClatchy and marveled at the thoroughness of the surveillance. The file included detailed transcripts of e-mails sent from her Gmail account and phone conversations with her ex-husband. The feeling of violation was indescribable, she said.

"I knew they were watching me, but I never imagined they knew all this information about me," she said. "My friends tried to take me out to dinner that night. They tried to make me laugh, but I couldn't. I told them I should be alone, so I took my papers and went home."

Perhaps the most controversial document to surface was one that purports to lay out State Security's involvement in a church bombing on New Year's Day in Alexandria. The bombing killed 21 people and wounded 80, the worst violence against Egypt's Coptic Christian minority in more than a decade.

The legitimacy of the document hasn't been determined, but its distribution touched off protests Sunday in Cairo by hundreds of Coptic Christians.

Copts, especially those in Alexandria, had suspected state involvement in the bombing, noting that a stepped-up security force that was supposed to have protected the church had vanished before the bomb exploded.

According to the document, one of eight said to discuss attacks on churches, State Security used a jailed Islamist to help organize the plot, including details on the church's entrances and exits. The document was dated Dec. 2, 2010, and was addressed to the interior minister. It referred to the church bombing as "Mission No. 77." (Read more.)

Turning a Blind Eye to Islam’s Brutal Treatment of Women

By Phyllis Chesler in New York City

My feminist generation believed in universal human rights — one standard for all. I still do. Therefore, I have taken a strong stand against the persecution of immigrant women and dissidents. I now submit affidavits on behalf of women who have fled the threat of such killings and who are seeking asylum in the United States.

Those of us who condemn the plight of such women, who are mainly Muslims and ex-Muslims, have been demonized in activist circles as “Islamophobes” and racists because we do not, in the same breath, blame America, the West or Israel for their suffering. Many Western academic feminists are so afraid of being condemned as “racists” that this fear trumps their concern for women’s rights in the Arab and Muslim world.

Islamic gender apartheid, which has penetrated the West, is characterized by normalized daughter- and wife-battering, forced veiling, female genital mutilation, polygamy, purdah (the segregation or sequestration of women), arranged marriage, child marriage and first-cousin marriage. Girls and women often are honour-murdered if they resist such practices, if they wish to divorce a dangerously abusive husband, or if they are viewed as too independent, too modern.

Today, at its most extreme, Islamic gender apartheid is characterized by acid attacks, public stonings, hangings, and beheading of women in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Saudi Arabia — countries in which female rape victims are jailed, tortured and executed.

Feminists should be crying out from the rooftops against these practices. Some are. I am. Yet, many Muslims, as well as many intellectually “progressive” Western infidels, are not. They are welcoming the imposition of Islamic religious law, Sharia law, not only in the Middle East but also in the West. (Read more.)

Seventeen Percent of American Voters Believe Muslims Are Treated Unfairly

Despite incessant complaints of "racism," "bigotry," and "Islamophobia" from the media, politicians, and Muslim organizations, most Americans aren't convinced that Muslim Americans are being treated unfairly.

Rasmussen Reports--Most voters don’t believe their fellow citizens are unfair to Muslim Americans. They also think Muslims in this country should be louder in their criticism of potential domestic terrorist attacks.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 17% of Likely U.S. Voters believe that most Muslims in America are treated unfairly because of their religion and ethnicity. Sixty-three percent (63%) disagree and say they are not treated unfairly while 20% are not sure.

A plurality (49%) of liberal voters, however, says there is bias against Muslim Americans. Eighty-one percent (81%) of conservatives and 57% of moderates disagree.

But only 10% of all voters think American Muslims are speaking out enough against potential terrorist attacks in the United States. Fifty-seven percent (57%) disagree and say they are not speaking out enough. One-in-three voters (34%) are not sure. (Source)

Rep. Keith Ellison's Celebration of Taqiyya

Qur'an 3:28 allows Muslims to pretend that Islam is peaceful and friendly, provided Muslims feel threatened or outnumbered. The verse declares: "Let not the believers take disbelievers for their friends in preference to believers. Whoso doeth that hath no connection with Allah unless (it be) that ye but guard yourselves against them, taking (as it were) security." Ibn Kathir comments:

Allah said next,

[إِلاَ أَن تَتَّقُواْ مِنْهُمْ تُقَـةً]

(unless you indeed fear a danger from them) meaning, except those believers who in some areas or times fear for their safety from the disbelievers. In this case, such believers are allowed to show friendship to the disbelievers outwardly, but never inwardly. For instance, Al-Bukhari recorded that Abu Ad-Darda' said, "We smile in the face of some people although our hearts curse them.'' Al-Bukhari said that Al-Hasan said, "The Tuqyah is allowed until the Day of Resurrection.''

How, then, should Rep. Keith Ellison, our first American Muslim congressman, react when Islam's status as a "religion of peace" is under investigation? Why not fake some tears and tell a false story about anti-Muslim bigotry?

NATIONAL REVIEW--This morning, Rep. Keith Ellison (Democratic-Farmer-Labor party, Minn.) appropriated a hearing on Islamic radicalism by weeping his way through a speech about whata-buncha-nasty-bigots Americans are. He chose as his case in point Mohammed Salman Hamdani, a Pakistani-born Muslim American who rushed to lower Manhattan on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, to assist in rescue efforts, and died in the collapse of the World Trade Center. Here’s how Representative Ellison tells the story of the aftermath of his death:

"After the tragedy some people tried to smear his character solely because of his Islamic faith. Some people spread false rumors and speculated that he was in league with the attackers only because he was Muslim. It was only when his remains were identified that these lies were fully exposed. Mohammed Salman Hamdani was a fellow American who gave his life for other Americans. His life should not be defined as a member of an ethnic group or a member of a religion, but as an American who gave everything for his fellow citizens."

Does Ellison’s account check out with reality?

No. It is actually pretty close to the opposite of the truth. In fact, six weeks after the September 11 attacks — before Hamdani’s remains were identified, which Ellison implies to be the turning point of public perception — Congress signed the PATRIOT Act into law with this line included: “Many Arab Americans and Muslim Americans have acted heroically during the attacks on the United States, including Mohammed Salman Hamdani, a 23-year-old New Yorker of Pakistani descent, who is believed to have gone to the World Trade Center to offer rescue assistance and is now missing.” That is, Hamdani was actually singled out for particular high honors among the thousands of victims of the September 11 attacks.

There’s little evidence of the “rumors” of which Ellison speaks, either. Poke around yourself. Go to Google and search for Mohammed Salman Hamdani’s name, using various time frames from before today’s hearings (say, in the week after the September 11 attack). You’ll discover two discordant sets of returns: none for sites and news reports accusing Hamdani of being a terrorist, and many thousands of pages honoring him as a hero while claiming that he was “widely accused” of being a terrorist. (Read more.)

America: Muslims Make Up One Percent of Population, 80 Percent of Convicted Terrorists

As many Americans protest Congressional hearings on the radicalization of American Muslims, newly released statistics show why such hearings are necessary. In a country where Muslims make up one percent of the population, more than 80 percent of terrorists convicted by the U.S. since 9/11 have been Muslims. That, by definition, is a correlation.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE--More than 80 percent of all convictions tied to international terrorist groups and homegrown terrorism since 9/11 involve defendants driven by a radical Islamist agenda, a review of Department of Justice statistics shows.

Though Muslims represent about 1 percent of the American population, they constitute defendants in 186 of the 228 cases DOJ lists.

On Thursday, the House Homeland Security Committee holds its first hearing into radicalization among Muslim Americans. Critics have taken issue with the focus on one religious minority, but the DOJ list shows that radical Islamists are disproportionately involved in terror-related crimes.

Al-Qaida is involved in the largest number of prosecutions, representing 30 percent of the 228 terror cases involving an identified group. Hizballah-affiliated defendants are involved in 10.5 percent of the cases and Hamas is part of 9 percent. Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba was involved in 6.5 percent of the cases.

The Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka and the Colombian FARC lead the non-Islamist terrorist groups, combining for 14 percent of the total. (Read more.)

Marital Rape Increasingly Common in Pakistan

LAHORE, PAKISTAN--Gynecologists at several city hospitals have expressed their concerns over the growing number of married female patients who are forced into intercourse.

“The number of marital rape cases keeps going up but no one even acknowledges that the problem exists. We see dozens of patients coming in but they never acknowledge they have been raped; only that they were doing their duty,” says Ganga Ram Hospital consultant gynecologist Dr Shamsa Humayun. Dr Humayun said that she recently treated a mother-of-four, who had lost her pulse, consciousness and lots of blood pressure following a result of her third abortion. “I had warned her not to get pregnant because she had severe diabetes. I told her that her life was at risk but she chose abortion over contraception. Now she is dead,” Dr Humayun said.

Alviah Noor, who is working on her PhD research paper and recently got married, said that she had severe vaginal infection for the last six months and was heavily medicated to treat an infection caused by her intra-uterine system (IUS or coil). “The coil ruined my health but it was the only contraception I could use without my husband finding out,” she said, adding that doctors had prohibited her from intercourse but her husband refused to listen to her. “I have no choice in the matter. I have to do whatever he tells me,” she said.

Nilofer Raja* complained that her husband had several extra marital affairs and that she had contracted an STD after he forced himself on her. “He abuses me but I cannot refuse him. My family told me that it was my religious duty to do as he demanded and that if I refuse the angels will curse me all night,” she told doctors.

Shirkat Gah representative Fauzia Vikar said “the concept of marital rape does not exist in our society. She is thought to have signed a contract for sex. Even in US, the first marital rape case was reported in 1978. Most reports from battered women reflect that they do not think their spouses are guilty of a crime.” “Most women I have spoken to on the issue simply think that marital rape is natural. We need to educate and economically empower women so that they realise it is not their duty to tolerate abuse,” she said. According to Vikar, most women consider it shameful and a sin to oppose non-consensual sex. “There is almost no local literature available on the subject and not a single reported case to my knowledge,” she said.

Dr Ambreen Ahmad, a clinical psychologist who teaches at Lahore School of Economics said “We need to introduce couples counseling, especially before marriage because women need to know their rights. Many women consider it their ‘religious duty’ to undergo this when there is nothing in religion that condones such assault.”

According to Dr Rabia Ameen of General Hospital said “There is no sex education before marriage. This often leads to women contracting horrible diseases from unprotected sex. I feel terrible when I see young girls dying of reproductory problems because of irrational social expectations.”

Dr Ameen said “On average we deal with five cases of spousal rape every week and 90 percent of these cases occur within the first two weeks of marriage. Young brides aren’t aware that they have the right to put a stop to intercourse and we often see severe tearing and heavy bleeding in young women.” “I have lost count of the number of times I have simply stitched a vaginal tear and prohibited the couple from having intercourse for six weeks. The women almost always come back with the same problem because their spouses refuse to listen,” she said, adding “I now recommend that the woman stay at her parents’ house to be safe.” Dr Ameen said that women seldom know that it is even possible to be raped by their husband. “They think that it is their duty to go along with whatever their husband wants and all we can do is recommend a course of treatment,” she said, adding that doctors often knew that their patients would not be allowed to rest.

Dr Shamsa Humayun, a gynecologist said that patients don’t complain of sexual abuse from their spouses even when the evidence is overwhelming. “I have examined women with severe vaginal tearing, enough that they needed stitches, but they still never admitted they were assaulted,” she said.

According to a gynecologist Dr Asmah Mehmood “Very few women in Pakistan actually have a healthy sexual relationship with their spouses. Abuse is common and so is violence.” She said “I have seen a woman who was the victim of the constant rape by her spouse simply because he was addicted to pornographic films. She was abused so often that we eventually stopped even asking her what had happened.”

Dr Yasmeen Rashid said that in her 30-year career as a gynecologist she had never seen an official report relating to marital rape even though after delivery cases the most common cases she treated were related to women being sexually assaulted by their spouses. (Source)

Life Under Islamic Rule

What the men and women of the Sudan have experienced over the last century is what non-Muslims have been experiencing since Muhammad began spreading his religion.

Did Jesus die for the sins of the world?

INTRODUCTIONS


SAMUEL GREEN'S FIRST PRESENTATION


MUSTAFA ARJA'S FIRST PRESENTATION


FIRST REBUTTALS


SECOND REBUTTALS AND CONCLUSION


QUESTION TIME

Isaiah 9:6: Holding A Muslim Dawagandist's Feet of Snow to the Fire

In a very poorly researched article, a certain Muslim dawandist had no compunction about making the following, easily falsifiable claims in the context of discussing Isaiah 9:6, all of which, accordingly, will be dealt with in short order:

1) the passage is about Hezekiah (not the Messiah)

2) the Jewish “Targums” refute the evangelical view of Isaiah 9:6

3) the “Targums” assign the first three titles of Isaiah 9:6 to God and the last one to the child (i.e. Hezekiah)

4) the Angel of the LORD is not God, i.e. a divine theophany

5) “neo-trinitarians” “impose” their views on the Old Testament

Since the dawagandist in question obviously spent very little time and effort researching and writing the post in question, and since he managed to make so many errors in such a short space, all of which can be put down with a few swift but devastating strokes, the following will not aim to be comprehensive. Indeed, the article is so badly done, were it not for the fact that this individual makes covert reference to me and brother Sam Shamoun, I would not even bother with a refutation.

First of all, it would be interesting to know what the author is referring to when he speaks of “Targums” in the plural on the book of Isaiah. To my knowledge, there is only one extant Targum on Isaiah, the Targum of Jonathan Ben Uzziel.

Second, it is evident that this individual did not read Targum Isaiah, for it not only interprets the passage Messianically, but it assigns the entirety of the passage's lofty descriptions and titles to the Messiah.

The prophet said to the house of David, For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and He has taken the law upon Himself to keep it. His name is called from eternity, Wonderful, the Mighty God, who liveth to eternity, the Messiah, whose peace shall be great upon us in His days.

Third, the Septuagint (LXX), a pre-Christian Jewish translation, because of the ascription of divine titles to the Son and child of the prophecy, such as “wonderful”, which is only otherwise used for God (and the Angel of the LORD) in the Old Testament, understands the prophecy to refer to “the Angel of Great Counsel”.

For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, whose government is upon his shoulder: and his name is called the Messenger (Gr. angelos) of great counsel: for I will bring peace upon the princes, and health to him. His government shall be great, and of his peace there is no end: it shall be upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to support it with judgment and righteousness, from henceforth and forever. The seal of the Lord of hosts shall perform this.

The above shows, contrary to this dawagandist's claims, so-called “neo-trinitarians” like me and Sam are not “imposing” our views on the Old Testament; rather, it is those who, as a judicial consequence for the hardness of their hearts, are missing the obvious. As it says in the Targum of Isaiah 6:

In the year in which King Uzziah was smitten with the leprosy the prophet said, I saw the glory of the Lord sitting upon His throne, high, and lifted up unto the highest heavens, and the temple was filled with the brightness of His glory. Holy ministers on high stood before Him: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, that it should not see; and with twain he covered his body, that it should not be seen; and with twain he was ministering. And one cried unto another, and they were saying, Holy in the highest and exalted heavens is the house of His Shekinah, holy upon the earth is the work of His might, holy forever, world without end, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of the brightness of His glory. And the posts of the threshold of the temple moved at the voice of Him that cried, and the house of the sanctuary was filled with cloudy darkness. Then said I, Woe is me, for I have sinned, for I am a guilty man to reprove, and I dwell in the midst of a people polluted with sin: for my eyes have seen the glory of the Shekinah of the King of the worlds, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the ministers unto me, and in his mouth was a word, which he received from the Shekinah of Him who sat upon the throne of glory in the highest heavens, above the altar. And he placed it in my mouth, and said, Behold, I have put the words of my prophecies in thy mouth, and thy iniquities are put away, and thy sins are expiated. And I heard the voice of the Word of the Lord, which said, whom shall I send to prophecy? and who will go to teach? Then said I, Here am I, send me. And He said, Go, and tell this people, who are diligently hearing, but understand not, and see diligently, but know not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and darken their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and repent, and it shall be forgiven them. (Targum Isaiah)

And, as the apostle John, the apostle of “the Word” (see John 1:1-18), declared, these things were spoken about Jesus, who came unto His own, but was not received, just as Isaiah prophesied:

"Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came out of heaven: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, "An angel has spoken to Him." Jesus answered and said, "This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes. Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die. The crowd then answered Him, "We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, 'The Son of Man must be lifted up'? Who is this Son of Man?" So Jesus said to them, "For a little while longer the Light is among you Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light " These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them. But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: "LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED? [Isaiah 53]" For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, "HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM. [Isaiah 6]” These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him. Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God. (John 12:27-42)

Project Veritas: NPR's Ron Schiller Hobnobs with Undercover Reporters Posing as Radical Muslim Donors

NPR (federally funded "National Public Radio") fired Juan Williams for admitting that, due to terrorist attacks, he feels a little uneasy when a Muslim boards his plane. (Williams also said that Americans need to fight against such negative feelings.) But what happens when radical Muslims approach NPR, rail against Jews, and campaign for Sharia, while promising to donate millions of dollars? (Hint: NPR's response involves rants against Evangelical Christians, Republicans, etc.)



Will NPR fire Ron Schiller for his comments against Christians and Republicans? Don't hold your breath.

Shrugging at Terror

New York Post--Two American servicemen were killed last week on as signment overseas. No, not in Iraq or Afghanistan, but in Frankfurt, Germany, for the simple act of getting on a bus. A lone Muslim gunman opened fire on the unsuspecting airmen at the Frankfurt airport, killing Nicholas J. Alden and Zachary R. Cuddeback and wounding two others. He shouted "Allah Akbar" as he shot -- making it plain he was murdering in the name of his god.

A few days earlier, four Americans sailing in the Indian Ocean on a mission of Christian mercy -distributing Bibles to remote churches -- were captured by Somali pirates in international waters and executed while US naval officers were trying to negotiate their release.

The reaction from the administration was dispassionately anodyne, as if these people had met with some freak accident. President Obama called Frankfurt a "tragic event," while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the pirate incident left her "deeply saddened and very upset."

Meanwhile, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley did the usual Obama pretzel, avoiding any mention of Islam in connection to Frankfurt. Asked whether the sudden jihad explosion of a Muslim Kosovar holding German citizenship was a terrorist incident, Crowley replied evasively: "Was the shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords a terrorist attack? You have to look at the evidence and look at the motivation, and then you make a judgment, and that is a process as far as I know that is ongoing."

There you have it: an "upset" administration engaged in a "process" over a "tragic event." Is there a better or more pathetic image of a nation in deliberate retreat from great-power status?

'Twas not always thus. Presidents used to understand that an attack on Americans overseas was an attack on the country.

In the earliest days of the republic, President Thomas Jefferson sent the fledgling US Navy to Tripoli in response to acts of brigandage. After years of campaigning, including some serious setbacks, US forces defeated the pirates at sea and sent the Marines ashore. The pasha of Tripoli, used to receiving ransom instead of fixed bayonets, sued for peace.

In 1904, Teddy Roosevelt was outraged by the kidnapping of Ion Perdicaris and his son by a bandit called the Raisuli. With the war cry, "Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead!" TR sent the military to force the release of the Greek-American expatriate -- and cruised to victory in the presidential election later that year.

In April, 1986, the La Belle disco in Berlin was bombed, killing two US servicemen and wounding more than 50 others, at the behest of Libya's Moammar Khadafy. The atrocity came less than a year after the Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad hijackers of TWA flight 847 singled out an American sailor named Robert Stethem for torture and murder, then threw his body thrown onto the tarmac in Beirut. Realizing that it could no longer be open season on US military personnel abroad, President Ronald Reagan responded to the Berlin attack by bombing Tripoli and Benghazi a couple of weeks later.

In the decades since, America has allowed itself to be hamstrung by the asymmetric nature of radical Islam's war against the West. Its adherents move easily from country to country, apparently secure in their membership in the ummah, or worldwide communion of Muslims. Western nation-states have been largely unable to hold a single "nation" responsible in the court of international law.

Unless and until we can come up with the proper military and political response to such outrages -- perhaps by ramping up our covert-ops missions -- we are going to lose more of our fellow citizens to crimes of opportunity like Frankfurt. As we saw in the run-up to 9/11, unanswered provocations can have the gravest consequences. Americans want more than vague promises to "bring them to justice." They want results.

"When people see a strong horse and a weak horse," said Osama bin Laden in November 2001, "by nature they will like the strong horse." Having declared war on America and Israel in 1996, bin Laden knew who his enemy was.

Do we? (Source)

Ethiopia: Muslim Mob Attacks Christians Distributing Bibles

Ethiopia (MNN) ― A mob of Muslim extremists overpowered police to get to Christians sharing the Gospel.

Voice of the Martyrs, Canada recently reported that 17 students were on a short-term mission trip at the tail end of February in Oma village, Ethiopia. The students, from Meda Welabu University, went to the Muslim village distributing Bibles and striking up conversations with villagers.

As students were handing out Gospels and talking to Muslims, one of the villagers began to argue with the believers. His rage became so overwhelming that a mob began to attack the young students.

The mob of Muslim extremists began shouting "Allah Akbar," which means in English, "Allah is greater." They beat the students with rods and threw stones at them. Government militia attempted to protect the students but were overpowered by the mob.

The mob attempted to set the Christians' car on fire, but failed, and the students were able to get away. (Source)