Human Rights Watch: Discrimination Against Coptic Christians Wide-Spread In Egypt

From Jihad Watch:

Islamophobia Alert: Human Rights Watch says discrimination against Christians widespread in Egypt


Will the Islamophobia never end? Watch for the Egyptian government to denounce Human Rights Watch, as it denounced the Pope for speaking out against the persecution of Christians in Egypt. Islamic supremacists never take responsibility for their actions. "Christians: HRW Report, Discrimination In Egypt Widespread," from ANSAmed, January 24 (thanks to Insubria):



(ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, JANUARY 24 - Egypt is facing criticism from Human Rights Watch (HRW), whose annual report accuses the authorities in Cairo of "widespread discrimination" against Coptic Christians and other religious minorities.

"Despite the fact that the Egyptian Constitution guarantees the equality of rights, there have been reported cases of widespread discrimination against Egyptian Christians and intolerance towards heterodox Islamic sects," the report states.



Posted by Robert on January 25, 2011 8:36 AM

Ethiopian Muslims Warn Christians To Convert, Leave City Or Face Death

From Jihad Watch:

Ethiopian Muslims warn Christians to convert, leave city or face death


The irresistible appeal of Islamic dawah makes more converts in Ethiopia. "Ethiopian Muslims Warn Christians to Convert, Leave City or Face Death," from International Christian Concern, January 25:



Washington, D.C. (January 25, 2011)-International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that Christians in the Ethiopian city of Besheno are being harassed and physically abused after Muslims posted notices on the doors of Christian homes warning them to convert, leave the city or face death.

Three Christian leaders were forced to flee the city and two Christians have been forced to convert to Islam. In the Muslim majority city, the entire evangelical Christian community consists of about 30 believers.



Evangelist Kassa Awano remains in critical condition after Muslims attacked him on November 29, 2010. A few days after the attack, nearly 100 Muslims surrounded a vehicle carrying Christian leaders on their way to negotiate for peace with Muslim leaders. Two men, Tesema Hirego and Niggusie Denano, were seriously wounded, and the other leaders suffered minor injuries. On January 2, Muslims assaulted Temesgen Peteros with a knife after he testified about the attacks on these Christians in court.



Christians in Besheno have been targeted by Muslims for many years. On May 21, 2004, Muslims murdered the 7 year-old daughter of Evangelist Tesfaye Hobe. Muslims continuously attack Christians for listening to Christian songs and watching Christian videos....



Posted by Robert on January 25, 2011 5:42 PM

Tariq Ramadan: "It Is Incorrect To Say The Coptic Community In Egypt Is In Danger."

From Jihad Watch:

Tariq Ramadan: "It is incorrect to say the Coptic community in Egypt is in danger"








"It is incorrect to say the Coptic community in Egypt is in danger." Really? Let's look at the recent record -- leaving out the New Year's Day church bombing in which jihadists murdered 23 Copts:



Egypt: Off-duty Muslim police officer boards train, shoots Christians, killing 71-year-old man



Copts brace for the worst on Christmas Eve: "Blow up the churches while they are celebrating Christmas or any other time when the churches are packed"



Muslim website targets for death Copts in Egypt, Europe and North America



Egypt arrests, charges 22 "overwhelmed and terrified" Christian teens in church attack incident



Egyptian security uses live ammo on unarmed Christian protesters, killing four



Al-Azhar asks Coptic Church to denounce U.S. report saying Copts face discrimination



Misunderstanders of Islam torch Christian homes in southern Egypt



That takes us back to November 16, 2010, just nine weeks ago. So why would this great Muslim reformer so egregiously misrepresent the plight of Christians in Egypt? A clue may come from French journalist Caroline Fourest, who has published a book-length study of Ramadan's sly duplicity, Brother Tariq. Fourest concludes that this much-lionized putative Muslim Martin Luther is actually anything but a reformer: in reality, Ramadan is "remaining scrupulously faithful to the strategy mapped out by his grandfather, a strategy of advance stage by stage" toward the imposition of Islamic law in the West.



Ramadan, she explains, in his public lectures and writings invests words like "law" and "democracy" with subtle and carefully crafted new definitions, permitting him to engage in "an apparently inoffensive discourse while remaining faithful to an eminently Islamist message and without having to lie overtly -- at least not in his eyes." Ramadan, she said, "may have an influence on young Islamists and constitute a factor of incitement that could lead them to join the partisans of violence."



And in this case, remember Muhammad's old adage: "war is deceit."



"Egypt: Muslim scholar slams top Sunni authority's decision to halt inter-faith dialogue," from AKI, January 21:



Rome, 21 Jan. (AKI) - A prominent Muslim on Friday rejected the Cairo-based Al-Azhar University's decision to suspend inter-religious dialogue with the Vatican after remarks by Pope Benedict XVI that were critical of Islam and the plight of the Christian minority. In an interview with Adnkronos International, Tariq Ramadan said there was "no war against Coptic Christians" in Egypt.

"It is incorrect to say the Coptic community in Egypt is in danger. There are terrorist acts that don't have anything to do with most Muslims. It is extremely important to be cautious on this point, the risk is to play along with the terrorists who want to deepen divisions in Egypt, there is no 'war' against Copts."



Ramadan spoke to Adnkronos International from Rome's private LUISS University where he was participating in a debate on religion, democracy and civil liberties.



"It's a mistake to interrupt channels of dialogue between Islam and the Vatican," Ramadan said.



"It's normal for the Pope to intervene and be critical when a bomb hits a Coptic place of worship," Ramadan said. He was referring to the New Year's Eve bomb attack on a church in northern Egypt which killed 23 people and injured around 80.



"The same attack was also condemned by Al-Azhar," he said, referring to the university in Cairo which is considered the highest seat of Sunni Muslim learning....



"What is needed, which I recognise the Pope has already done on some occasions, is to not intervene solely when the discrimination regards Christians, but also when the victims are Muslims or belong to another faith," Ramadan stressed.



The Swiss-born, Egyptian intellectual and grandson of Hasan al-Bana, founder of the Society of Muslim Brothers, also strongly condemned the attacks on Christians taking place in other Middle Eastern countries, such as those in Iraq.



"The attacks have a terrible impact on the international image of Islam," he concluded.





And oh, yeah, they also destroy innocent people, but that doesn't bear mentioning: they're just filthy kuffar.

Posted by Robert on January 23, 2011 5:30 AM

Egypt: Coptic Christians Call For Repeal Of Dhimmi Law Restricting Church Construction

From Jihad Watch:

Egypt: Christians call for repeal of dhimmi law restricting church construction


Islamic law (Sharia) forbids dhimmis to build new houses of worship or repair old ones. Egypt is ostensibly an Arab Republic, not an Islamic Republic, but still has an old Sharia-inspired law on the books that is used to stymie church construction -- belying the indignant claims of Islamic spokesmen in the West that dhimmitude is a long-forgotten relic of the past, never to be revived. "Collapsing Churches Prompt Protests in Egypt For New Law on Church Construction," by Mary Abdelmassih for AINA, January 22 (thanks to all who sent this in):



(AINA) -- Unusually bad winter weather in Upper Egypt all last week focused attention once again on the controversial restrictions on church building. The rainy weather caused roofs of dilapidated churches -- which have been waiting for years to receive construction permits -- to collapse.

Much of the on-going sectarian strife in Egypt is related to the ability of Christians to build churches. Most human rights organizations in Egypt have called on the Egyptian government for the last 15 years to promptly adopt "a unified law governing construction of the houses of worship." believing that this law would eliminate more than 90% of the sectarian tension.



Presently church building in Egypt is still partly governed by the Hamayouni Decree of 1856, and the 1934 el-EzabI Decree that stipulated 10 conditions that must be met prior to issuance of a presidential decree permitting the construction of a church. The conditions include the requirement that the distance between a church and a mosque be not less than 100 meters, the approval of the neighboring Muslim community, the number of Christians in the area and whether or not the proposed church is near the Nile, public utilities or railways. Copts view these regulations as confirmation of their Dhimmi or second-class citizenship status.



After the November 2010 parliamentary elections, Copts kept getting mixed messages about the long awaited "law on places of worship," which was promised to be introduced to Parliament this session. On the opening session of the new parliament, however, President Mubarak did not introduce the church building law.



A heated debate took place in parliament on January 5 between Shura member Dr. Mofeed Shihab, Minister of Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, and Dr. Refaat Al-Saeed, chairman of Al-Tagamo'h Party, who talked of the necessity of adopting the places of worship law. Al-Saeed was rebuffed by Mr Shihab, who said what he is asking for will "Give rise to discord and sectarian strife, because the number of churches built in the era of President Mubarak has exceeded what has been built in all previous periods."



Four days later the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) said it was considering a unified law on places of worship for Muslims and Christians. However, the final draft of the bill has yet to take shape.



On January 17, Dr. Mostafa El Fekki, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Shura Council, said that the law on places of worship will not be adopted due to procedural considerations, pointing out that this law opens the door to sedition in the community, and may encourage a Muslim to build a mosque on an area of 100 acres just like some of the monasteries for Christians do. He believes that this situation could only be solved by a presidential decree or by new legislation repealing the old and starting anew.



"They cannot keep giving us excuses as if we are mentally retarded," said Coptic activist Mark Ebeid. "Gone are the days when we could be pacified with hollow promises, honeyed rhetoric, and citizenship rights which are never implemented."



In 2005 President Mubarak delegated authority to the country's 26 governors to grant permits to expand or rebuild existing churches. But this has not alleviated the problem.



Last week thousands of Copts staged peaceful rallies to protest local governors' decisions to halt their church permits, or to order demolition of parts of their new churches, under pretexts of deviations in the the blueprints of the church drawings. "It all boils down in the end to the emergence of a dome in the construction," says activist Wagih Yacoub.



In the Governorate of Minya, more than 5000 Copts in Maghagha staged a sit-in because the tent in which they have been using as a church since March last year collapsed due to the profuse rain on January 17. They called on the Governor of Minya to issue the rebuilding permit for the Diocese of Maghagha Church, which was demolished to be replaced by a new one. However, since March 2010, the situation has come to a standstill. Because after demolishing the buildings, the Governor insisted that for a new diocese to be built the Bishop has also to demolish his 45 square meter home and "should find somewhere else to sleep" (AINA 8-26-2010)....



During the feast, Anba Agathon, Bishop of Maghagha called on the government to abolish the Hamayouni Decree. "We are in the 21st Century , and the laws of Ottomans when they were occupying Egypt were all revoked by the state except for the Hamayouni Decree. As citizens we demand the revocation of the Ottoman law concerning our places of worship. We cannot accept that it should remain any longer."...





Indeed.

Posted by Robert on January 22, 2011 6:42 AM

Pakistan: Christians Converting To Islam Out Of Fear For Their Own Safety

From Jihad Watch:

Pakistan: Christians converting to Islam out of fear for their safety


Blasphemy law-related persecution, mobs in the streets chanting "Death to the Christians," and it's only getting worse. "Some Christians in Pakistan convert fear into safety," by Rick Westhead for The Toronto Star, January 20 (thanks to Ken):



[...] At least 20 to 25 former Christians adopt Islam each week by pledging an oath and signing a green and white document in which they accept Islam as "the most beautiful religion" and promise to "remain in the religion of Islam for the rest of my life, acknowledging that blessings are only from God." [...]

Last autumn, politician Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, Pakistan's most prosperous province, began to campaign on behalf of a Christian woman named Asia Bibi, who had been sentenced to death for blasphemy. On Jan. 4, with debate over the future of Pakistan's blasphemy law at a fever pitch, Taseer was gunned down by one of his personal security guards.



Public reaction to Taseer's assassination was stunning.



Pakistan's lawyers, praised just three years ago for saving this country's independent judiciary, showered Taseer's assassin with rose petals on his way into court. A rally to celebrate his death attracted 40,000 in Karachi and thousands more posted tributes to the killer on their Facebook accounts.



"To be honest, I felt good when I heard he was dead; we got rid of him," said Raghib Naeemia, an iman at Jamia Naeemia. "It's very clear in the Holy Qur'an that if you say something nasty and harsh about the Holy Prophet, then you become a maloun (cursed) person. And we are supposed to round up those people and kill them very harshly." [...]



One of the results of this wave of anti-Christian activity unfolded on a sunny afternoon this week. Azra Mustafa, a 45-year-old housemaid, shuffled into the Jamia Naeemia and asked to speak to an imam. A recent convert to Islam, the housemaid and mother of six needed to get the proper documents to prove to her neighbours that she was no longer a Christian.



"It feels great," she said. "I moved to a Muslim neighbourhood and now I feel like we are one family."



Each day, Mustafa, whose husband remains Christian and now lives separately from his wife and children, wakes up to attend 5 a.m. prayers before she leaves for work four hours later. By the time she returns home at 7 p.m. from a job that pays her 2,500 rupees ($28) a month, darkness has fallen over her one-room home. After dinner, a teacher comes to her home to give Mustafa and her children 90-minute lessons on Arabic and the Qur'an.



Asked if she felt safer in the wake of her conversion, Mustafa replied, "of course."



Mustafa sat patiently as the seminary's staff and students hustled about, preparing to attend a rally scheduled for later that afternoon -- a protest that featured at least 3,000 people who at one point chanted "death to Christians and the friends of Christians" as they marched through the heart of Lahore.



As Mustafa gathered her papers together and prepared to leave, Parvaiz Masih, a 23-year-old auto rickshaw diver, walked into the office. He hoped to convert that afternoon, and had already told friends he would now be known as Muhammad Parvaiz.



"I've been thinking about it for two or three years," he said, wrapped in a heavy blue shawl. "About four days ago, I decided to do it."



A group of a dozen young men studied Parvaiz and a visitor asked if Taseer's murder and other publicized clashes involving Christians had played a role in his decision. Parvaiz shrugged meekly and wouldn't answer.



It wasn't long before another Christian, 26-year-old Naseer, entered Jamia Naeemia. With a crowd of men looking on, she, too, was hesitant to elaborate on why she wanted to follow Islam, but nodded when she was asked whether she believed she would be safer as a Muslim.



Adjusting a pin on the saffron-coloured dupatta that covered her face, Naseer said she had slipped away from her parents' home earlier in the day to make her way to the seminary. When another visitor asked again whether her personal safety played a role in her decision, Nasreen flashed a look of anger and snapped, "there's no question."



It was clear why Naseer and others were hesitant to speak more freely about their concerns over safety. An iman for the madrassa said he would not proceed if someone gave safety as a reason for their conversion.



Peter Jacob, executive director of an advocacy organization funded by the Catholic Church, said an average of 400 Christians annually converted to Islam between 2005 and 2010. In 2011, he expects that number to swell. "It's going to be very different in these hostile conditions," Jacob said. "People have no faith in the police or justice system and the kind of fear that exists now was never there before."...



Posted by Robert on January 22, 2011 7:40 PM