Tag: Islamic extremism

Egypt votes for religious freedom

October 29, 2013 Egypt Egypt, Islamic extremism, Mohamed Morsi, Prophet Muhammad, Religious freedom, Sunni

The Committee drafting a revised Egyptian Constitution has voted to revise Article 47, which guarantees the free exercise of religion for all citizens – not just the three Abrahamic faiths, as a draft in August had proposed. The draft will now be amended to include all religious minorities, including Shia . . . Read More

Judges to newspaper: Stop saying ‘Allah’

October 14, 2013 Malaysia 'Allah', Catholics, Islamic extremism, Lawrence Andrew, Malaysia, The Herald

A Catholic newspaper may not use the word ‘Allah’ to refer to God, a Malaysian appeals court ruled on Monday. The all-Muslim, three-judge panel reversed a 2009 finding by a trial court that allowed the Malay-language newspaper, The Herald, to print the word. Chief judge Mohamed Apandi Ali said in . . . Read More

Leaving home

October 7, 2013 Syria Assyrians, Free Syrian Army, Islamic extremism, Lebanon, Middle East, Raqqa, Sharia, Syria, Tabqa, Turkey

A couple of days after she fled Syria for Turkey, a colleague sent me a message. “Dear Nuri, this is a court that the extremists established in my city, Lattakia, in the [Syrian] village of Kansabba. This Islamic court issues the law according to the extremists’ religion. It started today. . . . Read More

Pakistan ‘beset with religious rage’

October 4, 2013 Pakistan All Saints Church, Islamic extremism, Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan, Peshawar

The World Council of Churches has registered with Pakistan Prime Minister Naraz Sharif its dismay at the recent wave of violence that has claimed nearly 150 lives. In an Oct. 3 letter to Sharif, council General Secretary Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit said the council’s 345 member churches, representing 500 million Christians, . . . Read More

Bangladeshi Christians told to close church, convert to Islam

October 3, 2013 Bangladesh Apostasy, Awami League, Churches, Converts, Islamic extremism, Sheikh Hasina, Tangail

Construction of Tangail Evangelical Holiness Church, in Bilbathuagani village, was halted by local officials.World Watch Monitor A local government official in central Bangladesh has halted the construction of a church, forced Christians to worship at a mosque and threatened them with eviction from their village unless they renounce their . . . Read More

Christianity in danger of becoming extinct in its birthplace

September 30, 2013 Bishop Angaelos, Copts, Egypt, Free Syrian Army, Iraq, Islamic extremism, London, Middle East, Syria

Last month, World Watch Monitor released a report, Beyond Count, highlighting the alarming frequency with which Christians are fleeing the Middle East. Now a British historian has added his voice to those concerns. By Dr. Jenny Taylor Respected UK historian Tom Holland told a briefing in London this week that . . . Read More

Targeting of Egypt’s Copts condemned

September 17, 2013 Egypt Egypt, Islamic extremism, Sharia, Upper Egypt

Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights has condemned attacks on Christians in Upper Egypt, reports Ahram. The council said attacks on Christians, their homes and places and worship have proved that Christians are targeted because of their beliefs. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the drafting committee responsible for the country’s new . . . Read More

Catholic priest victim of latest Zanzibar acid attack

September 17, 2013 Tanzania Acid attacks, Amselmo Mwangamba, Catholics, Islamic extremism, Stone Town, Tanzania, Zanzibar

An elderly Catholic priest has been the victim of an acid attack in Zanzibar. Amselmo Mwangamba was attacked on Friday (September 13) and is now in hospital receiving treatment to burns on his face, chest and arms. This is the fifth acid attack on the island since November, according to . . . Read More

Al-Shabaab denounced as ‘un-Islamic’

September 13, 2013 Somalia Al-Shabaab, Islamic extremism, Somalia

A group of Islamic scholars have condemned the violence of Al-Shabaab in Somalia as “un-Islamic”, reports the BBC. Al-Shabaab, or “The Youth”, is fighting to create an Islamic state in Somalia. “Al-Shabaab has strayed from the correct path of Islam, leading the Somali people onto the wrong path,” said one . . . Read More

Assyrians urge US to hold fire

September 12, 2013 Syria Assyrians, Islamic extremism, Middle East, Syria, USA

The Assyrian American National Coalition has mounted an online letter-writing drive to urge the U.S. administration to hold its fire in Syria. Assyrians are an ancient ethnic group indigenous to the Middle East, and belonging mostly to various eastern and orthodox Christian churches. “Now, as extremist jihadists have moved their war to . . . Read More

Catching Our Eye