Tag: Islamic extremism

IS guilty of genocide, says US Secretary of State

August 17, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Afghanistan, Al-Shabaab, Andrew Brunson, Blasphemy, Donald Trump, Genocide, Iran, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Lord Alton, NATO, Pakistan, Qatar, Rex Tillerson, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Taliban, Turkey, USA, Wahhabism, Yemen

The US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has stressed that the actions of the Islamic State (IS) group against Christians, Yazidis and Shia Muslims constitute genocide, and also criticised America’s ally, Saudi Arabia, for religious freedom violations. Tillerson made his “genocide” comments in the preface to the State Department’s annual . . . Read More

70 years after Pakistan’s founding, what PM’s recent ousting means for minorities

August 14, 2017 Pakistan Blasphemy, Divorce, Imran Khan, India, Islamic extremism, Jamaat-e-Islami, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Mumtaz Qadri, Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan, Pakistan Muslim League, Pakistan Peoples Party, PTI, Punjab, Salmaan Taseer, Sindh, Taliban

70th Annual General Assembly Debate

Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan, addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventieth session.

30 September 2015

United Nations, New York

Photo # 646792

UN Photo/Cia Pak

Pakistan celebrates its 70th birthday today (14 August). And there’s a new Prime Minister after Nawaz Sharif, founder of the largest political party, was disqualified by the apex court on 29 July on charges of not being “righteous” and “ameen”*. This Supreme Court decision about Sharif “will throw the governing . . . Read More

Somaliland closes only Catholic church due to public pressure – it re-opened a week ago after 30 years

August 4, 2017 Somalia Africa, Catholics, Converts, East Africa, Islamic extremism, Migrants, Mogadishu, Somalia, Somaliland

The only Catholic church in Somaliland, East Africa, officially re-opened after three decades on 29 July, has been closed again within a week, due to public pressure. “The issue has created a lot of division … which is not in our national interest… The government has decided to respect the . . . Read More

Kyrgyzstan: ‘We will kill you’ sprayed on church wall

August 2, 2017 Kyrgyzstan Central Asia, Converts, Islamic extremism, Kyrgyzstan, Russian Orthodox Church, Soviet Union, Tokmok

A church in the northern Kyrgyzstan city of Tokmok had a death threat sprayed across one of its walls following a night-time robbery last week. Sources told World Watch Monitor that the graffiti was by local Islamic radicals who broke into the church building, damaged furniture and wrote: “We will kill . . . Read More

Iranian Christian Maryam Naghash Zargaran released after four years in prison

August 2, 2017 Iran Amin Afshar Naderi, Converts, Evin Prison, Iran, Islamic extremism, Maryam Naghash Zargaran, Saeed Abedini, Tehran

After four years’ imprisonment for “violating national security”, Iranian Christian Maryam Naghash Zargaran was released from Tehran’s Evin prison last night (1 August). She was due to be released four days earlier, on 28 July, but, as Mohabat News reported, this was delayed without explanation. Naghash Zargaran, 39, a convert . . . Read More

Archbishop of Canterbury speaks ‘strongly’ to Sudan President of religious freedom for Christians

July 31, 2017 Sudan Apostasy, Episcopal Church of Sudan, Islamic extremism, Justin Welby, Kadugli, Khartoum, Mariam Ibrahim, Omar al-Bashir, Pentecostals, Refugees, Sharia, South Sudan, Sudan, Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church, Uganda

Archbishop of Canterbury in Sudan, 29 July, 2017 (Credit: Archbishop of Canterbury)

The advent of the world’s newest country, South Sudan, in 2011 has not been without its impact. Not only has it spawned a civil war and one of the world’s biggest current humanitarian crises, but also the need for a new Province in the global Anglican Communion. This weekend, the . . . Read More

Copts in Kom El-Loufy still have no church in their village, and they’re not alone

July 31, 2017 Egypt Copts, Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, Islamic extremism, Kom El-Loufy, Minya, Pope Tawadros II, Religious freedom, Samalut

After 12 years of fierce opposition Coptic Christians in Kom El-Loufy, Minya, will soon again have a church. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The more than 1,600 Copts in the village of Kom El-Loufy in Minya, Upper Egypt are still waiting for a new church building, seven years after their previous building was closed the same month it was opened. Ever since the Copts started looking for a new venue, they have experienced fierce . . . Read More

Saudi intellectual urges Muslim nations to treat Christians as equal citizens

July 28, 2017 Saudi Arabia Islamic extremism, Jizya, Saudi Arabia, Sharia

Saudi scholar Tawfiq writes that in the modern state, all citizens are equal in rights and obligations, regardless of their religion and social affiliation. (Photo: Dr Al-Sayf in a 2013 interview, MEMRI-TV)

The official designation of Christians as “protected people” in Islamic law is out of step with the modern concept of citizenship and should be abandoned, a Saudi intellectual has argued. Tawfiq Al-Sayf, a columnist for the Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat* noted that statements condemning the bombing of two Egyptian churches on . . . Read More

Turkey: Malatya murderers’ 39-year prison sentences upheld

July 25, 2017 Turkey Gaziantep, Islamic extremism, Malatya, Turkey

Six months after five Turkish men were convicted of the grisly murders of three Christians in southeast Turkey ten years ago, an appeals court has upheld their three consecutive life sentences in prison. The regional Gaziantep 3rd Criminal Court of Appeals decision on 18 July confirmed the incarceration of Emre . . . Read More

Indonesia bans Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir

July 20, 2017 Indonesia Hizb ut-Tahrir, Indonesia, Islamic extremism, Joko Widodo

Indonesian Muslims wave Hizb ut-Tahrir’s flag during an anti-government rally in Jakarta on July 18, 2017, to protest against a Presidential Decree that allows the government to ban groups that oppose the country's official state ideology. On Wednesday the government ordered the disbandment of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. (Photo: Getty Images)

The Indonesian government has ordered the disbandment of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir “to protect Indonesia’s unity”, according to Freddy Hari, director-general of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, as Al Jazeera reports. The decision follows a controversial presidential decree announced nine days earlier that gives the government more power . . . Read More

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