150 bodies found in wells at Nigeria

AT least 150 bodies have been recovered from wells following Muslim-Christian clashes in central Nigeria.

The estimated death toll from the clashes already stands at more than 300, a village head and volunteers say.

"So far we have picked 150 bodies from the wells. But 60 more people are still missing,'' Umar Baza, head of Kuru Karama village near the city of Jos, said today.

"We took an inventory of the displaced people from this village, sheltering in three camps, and we realise that 60 people can still not be accounted for,'' he added.

Head of the Muslim volunteer team in the village, Mohammed Shittu, said further searches would be carried out today.

"Now we have 150 bodies in all, taken from the wells as from Thursday. We are still going back there today to comb the bush around the village to search for more bodies,'' he also said.

"From the account of survivors, some people fleeing attacks were ambushed and killed in the bush. That is why we are going there to search for more bodies.

"We believe there are more bodies in the wells but the degree of their decomposition makes it difficult to continue the retrieval operation. We have therefore decided to sand-fill all the wells,'' Baza said.

The state government has given no official death toll for the violence, which broke out last Sunday in Jos, capital of Plateau State and later spread to nearby towns and villages.

Religious leaders and medical workers said they had counted about 300 bodies by Wednesday.

Global rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) today urged Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to order "an immediate criminal investigation into credible reports of a massacre of at least 150 Muslim residents of a town in central Nigeria''.

HRW said in a statement received in Lagos that witnesses said groups of armed men - believed to be Christians - attacked the largely Muslim population of Kuru Karama on Tuesday morning.

"After surrounding the town, they hunted down and attacked Muslim residents, some of whom had sought refuge in homes and a local mosque, killing many as they tried to flee and burning many others alive,'' the statement said.

The Australian

Nigerians displaced after clashes

Up to 18,000 people are homeless after days of fighting between Christians and Muslims in the Nigerian city of Jos.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that people have been sheltering in colleges, hospitals and schools since clashes began in the capital of the central Plateau state on Sunday.

More than 460 people in and around Jos are thought to have been killed as of Thursday.

Nigerian authorities relaxed a 24-hour curfew to allow thousands of residents whose houses have not been destroyed, to return home.

The strong presence of troops and police helped restore a measure of calm in Jos on Thursday.

But Andrew Simmons, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Abuja, said: "There has been a fresh outbreak of violence on the outskirts of Jos in a place called Bakuru.

"Six people have been treated for gunshot wounds. And a Red Cross [ICRC] official has confirmed that a woman was attacked by a gang who snatched her baby, twisted the baby's nose and broke it.

"We've had persistent reports saying gangs have been using police uniforms, knocking on door by door, masquerading as security forces and then killing people in their homes. It's a grim situation.

"But in Jos itself, the focus [on Thursday] was on the funerals of the hundreds of people who have been killed."

Earlier, Rob Waudo, from the ICRC in Kano, told Al Jazeera that since the military came in, the situation has been calm.

"[The arrival of soldiers] has allowed us to survey what the needs are. Many people have been able to leave the camps and return home," he said.

"There are so many people that need clothing, food and water. The Red Cross is focusing on those injured and referring some to hospital."

Mosque officials have estimated the number of dead Muslims since Sunday to be about 400.

US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday said at least 65 Christians had died.

Official government figures were significantly lower at 75 dead, more than 200 injured and 200 arrested.

HRW called for the Nigerian military to show restraint as additional soldiers were ordered onto the streets of Jos.

"Nigeria should ensure that its security forces use restraint and comply with international standards on the use of force in responding to the latest deadly outbreak of inter-communal violence," HRW said.

Charles Dokubo, from the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, told Al Jazeera: "There is more than the religious aspect of it. There are two communities - one that call themselves settlers and one that call themselves indigenous communities.

"The crisis in the north started with the creation a local government."

Dokubo said Muslim settlers wanted to manage the government, which was unacceptable to the indigenous Christian community who regard the former as non-citizens.

"The main cause of the crisis is about administration and the place where people belong," he said.

The fighting erupted on Sunday in a Christian area due to a dispute over the building of a mosque, residents said.

Jos, which is home to 500,000 people, along with other central and northern areas in Nigeria have been plagued by religious violence in recent years.

In November 2008, hundreds of people were killed in Jos in two days of fighting triggered by a rumour that the mainly Muslim All Nigerian Peoples Party had lost a local election to the Christian-dominated People's Democratic Party.

Al Jazeera

Arrests over Malaysia attacks

Police in Malaysia have arrested eight men they said were believed to have been involved in the firebombing of a Christian church earlier this month.

There have been at least 12 attempted attacks on religious institutions since a court verdict on New Year's Eve allowed non-Muslims to use the word "Allah" when referring to God.

The ensuing protests and violence have heightened religious tensions in the Muslim-majority nation.

Bakri Zinin, Malaysia's federal criminal investigation chief said police were investigating whether the eight arrested were also linked to the attacks on 10 other churches, which had been pelted with Molotov cocktails, stones and paint.

"Eight people have been arrested and they are believed to be involved in the arson attack on the [Metro Tabernacle] church. They have been remanded for seven days to facilitate investigations," he told reporters on Wednesday.

"We will investigate whether they are also linked to other cases [but] we believe we have solved this case. So please I advise the public, don't do something that will threaten racial and religious harmony."

The three-storey Metro Tabernacle church in Kuala Lumpur was set ablaze on January 8 in a firebombing that left its ground floor destroyed.

Church leaders said witnesses saw four people ride up to the building on motorbikes, smash the church's windows and throw objects into the building.

Bakri said the first of the eight to be arrested was detained on Tuesday after seeking hospital treatment for burns on his hands and chest.

The group were all aged between 21 and 26, and included three relatives - two siblings and their uncle. The remainder were friends of the family group.

Last month, the High Court ruled in favour of the Catholic Herald newspaper which has used "Allah" as a translation for "God" in its Malay-language section.

Malaysia's government has said the word should be used only by Muslims.

The court's final ruling on the issue was suspended pending an appeal, after the government argued the decision could cause racial conflict.

Malaysia's population is 60 per cent Muslim ethnic Malay, but also includes indigenous tribes as well as the large ethnic Chinese and Indian communities that practice Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism, among other faiths.

More than half of Malaysia's Catholics are from indigenous groups, most of whom live in the Borneo island states and who mainly speak Malay.

Al Jazeera

Clashes near Nigerian city of Jos

Sporadic violence has countinued around the central Nigerian city of Jos after four days of fighting between groups of Christians and Muslims.

A 24-hour curfew was in place in the city on Wednesday but gunfire could be heard in neighbouring areas in Plateau state.

"The fighting has stopped in Jos, but we can hear gunshots in other communities in the outskirts of the city," Muhammad Tanko Shittu, a senior mosque official organising mass burials, said.

More than 150 citizens have died in the fighting, according to a mosque official, and streets have been left deserted and businesses closed.

"We are expecting more corpses to be brought in from surrounding communities later today," Shittu said.

The government said that only 20 people had been killed in the fighting, with 40 more injured, while leaders of both sides said nearly 300 people have died.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), the international rights watchdog, called for the Nigerian military to show restraint as the government ordered additional soldiers onto the streets of Jos, the state capital, to keep control.

"Nigeria should ensure that its security forces use restraint and comply with international standards on the use of force in responding to the latest deadly outbreak of inter-communal violence," HRW said.

Charles Dokubo, from the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, told Al Jazeera: "There is more than the religious aspect of it. There are two communities - one that call themselves settlers and one that call themselves indigenous communities.

"The crisis in the north started with the creation a local government."

Dokubo said that Muslim settlers were to manage the government, which was unacceptable to the indigenous Christian community who consider them non-citizens.

"The main cause of the crisis is about administration and the place where people belong."

Dokubo said that disputes over jobs may also be contributing to tensions between the two groups, with indigenous peoples' fears that settlers in government would give jobs only to other settlers.

The fighting erupted on Sunday in a Christian area due to a dispute over the building of a mosque, residents said.

Jos, which is home to 500,000 people, along with other central and northern areas in Nigeria have been plagued by religious violence in recent years.

In November 2008, hundreds of people were killed in Jos in two days of fighting triggered by a rumour that the mainly Muslim All Nigerian Peoples Party had lost a local election to the Christian dominated Peoples Democratic Party.

Nigeria has roughly equal numbers of Christians and Muslims, although traditional animist beliefs underpin many people's faiths.

More than 200 ethnic groups generally live peacefully side by side in the West African country, although one million people were killed in a civil war between 1967 and 1970 and there have been outbreaks of religious unrest since then.

Al Jazeera

Iran Update

These events have been reported to World Threats.

It is always a pleasure to report on Iranians who see the light and decide the theocracy isn’t worth supporting.

Members of regime’s reactionary parliament and elements of regime’s intelligence are seeking asylum in west after regime’s diplomatic body has done so.

The aftermaths of accelerating downfall of the clerical regime has reached its diplomatic body. High ranking elements of the system do not want to participate in suppression, execution and assassination of people especially after Ashura Uprising.

Al Siasa news paper has written that the government of Turkey has refused to accept the asylum of 4 elements of regime’s intelligence who work in Kurdish regions of Iraq because its relations with regime is improving; Syria having a role in it.
These men wanted to go to Ankara with the help of a Kurd leader and reach Europe from there.
They were able to run away and go to Italy last week.

Jan. 17 - Let’s Get Physical (with apologies to Donna Summer.) Hossein Nagavi, a member of the Majlis from a faction close to Khamenei, beat the Governor of a district from Varamin.

Jan. 17 - Five SSF vans and 100 officers did their best to prevent the group Mothers of the Uprising from gathering in Laleh Park. Thirty of these ladies were arrested and taken to Evin Prison where they were held fro 72 hours.

Jan. 17 - Eighty-five Christians were arrested on Christmas Eve in various parts of Iran.

Jan. 18 - The assassination of Dr. Mohammadi may be the result of disputes withing the regime and not action by external forces.

Jan. 18 - There has been a 93% reduction in foreign investment in Iran. The OECD rates Iran as risk level 6 of 7 levels. Only $822 million was invested in Iran during 2009. (Still too much.)

Jan. 18 - Dr. Abbas Shakeri a member of the Scientific Board of Kashan University who was amongst a group of students and political activists said: “in these days it is the duty of all sectors of the society to keep united against oppression. The duty of master minds of the country is to lead the march of Feb.11th. This march is an opportunity for disclosing the murderers of the nation”.
In another part of his speech Dr. Shekari pointed to the rumors about Khamenei’s sickness and added: “RCG and Intelligence are parted. Disunity is obvious amongst supporters of Ahmadinejad.

I have connection with some informed sources in the state and I know that the heads of the state even Khamenei himself admits that Feb.11th of this year is the test of death and life for the state”.

At the end of the session some students talked about ways to conduct the flood of protesting people on Feb.11th.

Dr. Shekari emphasized on the initiatives by youths and students for forming leading groups to conduct the marchers.

Jan. 18 - Escalation of laborers’ strikes these days in governmental or semi-governmental factories and enterprises are worrying regime’s administration.

Tehran and other cities of Iran are facing labor crisis due to Ahmadinejad’s economical policies. As a result of these policies a great number of factories are broke and a great number of workers are fired rising the ratio of unemployment.

The largest strikes have occurred so far in Ahwaz, Shiraz, Bandar Abbass and Abadan repeatedly. Iran’s greatest oil refinery is located in Abadan.

Jan. 17 - In a raid of the agents of regime’s notorious Intelligence Ministry at a house in Shiraz 6 of our Christian compatriots were arrested accused of the mullah-made crime of becoming Christians.

They were transferred on Jan.8th to Fars’ Intelligence Bureau’s detention centers and there is no news of them since. Six others were summoned to the bureau and arrested there. There is no news of them too.

Two other Christians have been arrested in Rasht and one in Shiraz before this event. Compulsory arrests of our Christian compatriots by fascist Khamenei is increasing these days.

World Threats

Dozens die in Nigeria clashes

Troops are patrolling the northern Nigerian city of Jos after clashes between Christians and Muslims left at least 26 people dead and injured around 100 more, officials said.

Violence erupted on Sunday over the rebuilding of homes destroyed in 2008 clashes between the two religious groups, residents said, although reports as to why the latest round of fighting broke out varied.

According to the Associated Press, Muslim youths set fire to a church filled with worshippers, starting a riot that saw mosques and homes burnt.

But the AFP news agency said the unrest was sparked by youths protesting the building of a mosque in a predominantly Christian area.

Police said on Monday that the situation was under control and an evening curfew was in place.

"Security personnel have succeeded in quelling the unrest and restoring calm in the affected area of the city," Mohammed Lerema, Plateau State police spokesman, told AFP.

"We have cordoned the Nassarawa Gwom district as a strategy to prevent the violence from spilling over to other parts of the city," he said.

Jos, capital of Plateau state and home to 500,000 people, along with other central and northern areas in Nigeria have been plagued by religious violence in recent years.

In November 2008, hundreds of people were killed in Jos in two days of fighting triggered by a rumour that the mainly Muslim All Nigerian Peoples Party had lost a local election to the Christian dominated Peoples Democratic Party.

State officials put the death toll at about 200 but other sources gave a toll twice that figure.

Last month, at least 40 people were killed in clashes between security forces and members of an Islamist sect in the northern Bauchi State.

Nigeria has roughly the same number of Christians and Muslims, although traditional animist beliefs underpin many people's faiths.

Al Jazeera

David Horowitz: The Anti-Semitic Jihad On Campus: My Night at USC

[Editor's note: Protected by a bodyguard and twelve armed campus security officers, David Horowitz spoke at the University of Southern California on November 4, 2009. This is a text of his remarks, edited for readability. A video of the speech is available here. To read about the efforts to censor him before the speech and the slander directed at him, click here.]

I want to thank the College Republicans for being brave enough to invite me, and I want to thank all of you who are here to actually listen for coming.

It used to be a pleasure for me to speak on a college campus like USC. I can remember the days when I could stroll onto the USC campus and walk over to the statue of Tommy Trojan where College Republicans had erected a platform for a rally to support our troops in Afghanistan after 9/11 at which I was to speak.

Now, however, I can’t set foot on this campus – or any campus – without being accompanied by a personal bodyguard and a battalion of armed campus security police to protect me and my student hosts.

Sheer prudence forces me to visit campuses with these security measures in place because I’ve been demonized by the campus left at virtually every school I’ve visited in the past decade and physically assaulted at several.

USC officials regard the threats against this event seriously enough to have assigned twelve armed officers to watch over the proceedings.

These police are not here to protect you from me. They are here to protect me from you members of the USC Progressive Alliance, Students for Justice in Palestine and the USC Muslim Student Union who have made these threats and incited hatred towards this event and its speaker. These are the tactics favored by fascists – and when I use that word I mean it literally. I don’t use it the way the Left does, as an epithet for anyone they don’t like.

The attacks on this event and those organizing it are part of a national hate campaign that the left has organized against me and others who share my views. It can be tracked on numerous websites over nearly a decade and is evidenced in the common themes of slander and abuse that are directed towards me.

The left’s campaign – really a declaration of war — is in part a response to my opposition to its anti-American, anti-democratic and anti-Semitic agendas. Consequently I accept their attacks as features of this battlefield, signature methods of leftist argument. But the College Republicans on this campus have been caught in this crossfire.

These students pay the same tuition as the political thugs who are on the attack and who are supported by the USC student paper which is under the control of USC administrators, and they do not deserve to be treated this way. Nor should a university administrator lend legitimacy to modes of discourse which violate the published ethical standards of the institution he represents.

In its attack the USC Progressive Alliance put out a flyer containing gross fabrications which are central to its campaign of slander against this event and the students hosting it. The flyer’s headline reads: “Hate Muslims? So Do We.” It pretends to be a document issued by College Republicans. In fact they had nothing to do with it, while the sentiment it expresses is reprehensible to them.

The deception isn’t even original. Two years ago an identical flyer was posted all over the George Washington University campus when I spoke there during an Islamofascism Awareness Week I had organized. This “Hate Muslims? So Do We” poster bore the forged signature of the Young America’s Foundation, which was the group that was sponsoring my speech at George Washington U.

When the president of the University became aware of the poster he was so outraged that he sent emissaries to dorm rooms of the leaders of the Young America’s Foundation at eight in the morning to summon them to his office where he threatened them with expulsion. They explained to him that they had absolutely nothing to do with the offense and didn’t hate Muslims but the president’s threat remained.

That night he convened a campus meeting to deplore the attack. As you know there is a new religion on college campuses based on the idea that there are endangered human species that need to be protected – all of them conveniently championed by the left as groups that are oppressed. In fact the only oppressed and persecuted groups on college campuses are those under attack from the left — campus conservatives, Christians and Jews. That’s the reality, in contrast to the rhetoric.

Read it all at FPM

Malaysia: Ninth church vandalized by Islamic supremacists enraged over Christian use of the word "Allah"

Arabic-speaking Christians have been using the word "Allah" for God from time immemorial, and these Malay Christians, influenced by this in their non-Arab but Muslim society, have been doing so for decades.

The whole idea of making this an issue at all was just another expression of Islamic supremacism. Or maybe an excuse to firebomb churches.

"Ninth Church Vandalized in Malaysia as Tensions Rise," by Seth Mydans for the New York Times, January 11

BANGKOK -- A ninth church was vandalized Monday in Malaysia in a series of arson attacks that have raised religious tensions surrounding a dispute over the use of the word "Allah" by Christians in this mostly Muslim nation.

"Allah" is the common term for God in Malay-language Bibles, but the government and many Muslim groups insist that the word should be reserved for use in Islam.

The attacks, which began on Friday, came after a court ruling on Dec. 31 that overturned a government ban on the use of "Allah" by Christians. That ruling has been stayed while the government appeals.

Only one of the churches has been seriously damaged, and some of the attacks were minor. In Monday's attack, the Sidang Injil Borneo Church in the central state of Negeri Sembilan was slightly damaged when its door was burned, according to local reports.

Government officials condemned the violence Monday but defended their position, saying conditions are different in Malaysia from those in neighboring Indonesia or in Arab nations where "Allah" is the common term for God....

Thanks to JihadWatch

Update: Six churches attacked in Muslim protests

KUALA LUMPUR: Another two churches were firebombed yesterday, taking to six the total of attacks in three days of unrest following a court decision allowing Christians and other non-Muslims to use "Allah" to refer to God.

Hundreds of worshippers whose parish church was partly gutted in a firebomb attack last week gathered at a makeshift prayer hall for their Sunday service and called for national unity and an end to violence.

A Molotov cocktail was hurled at the All Saints Church in Taiping town in central Perak state early yesterday before it had opened, said state police chief Zulkifli Abdullah. He said the building was not damaged. Also yesterday, a bottle of kerosene was thrown into St Louis Catholic Church, which wasn't damaged.

Four churches were hit by petrol bombs on Friday and Saturday. All except the Metro Tabernacle, whose parishioners moved their services, suffered little damage, and no one was hurt. The other three held normal services yesterday.

The unprecedented attacks have set off a wave of disquiet among Malaysia's minority Christians and strained their ties with the majority Muslims.

The dispute is over a December 31 High Court decision that overturned a government order banning non-Muslims from using the word Allah in their prayers and literature.

The court was ruling on a petition by Malaysia's Catholic Church, whose main publication, the Herald, uses Allah in its Malay-language edition. The government has appealed against the verdict.

The government contends that making Allah synonymous with God may confuse Muslims and ultimately mislead them into converting to Christianity.

Prime Minister Najib Razak visited the Metro Tabernacle church late on Saturday and announced a grant of 500,000 ringgit ($160,323) for rebuilding it at a new location.

The Australian

Semantic Confusion: “The Religious Right”, Allies or Antagonists?

The Confusion of Tongues

or

“What You Said Ain’t What They Heard”

(Guy DeWhitney) This was published a couple months ago at David Horowitz's NewsRealblog.com because a number "Conservative Christians" had objected to the venom someone else had directed toward "The Religious Right." The commentary response was enormous and spirited, with the consensus agreeing with almost all of my proposal.)

I have noticed lately a serious impediment to any real communication across political lines. It is something that can affect anyone writing or speaking about politics in America today. The problem lies in the term “Religious Right”.

On the one hand Conservative Christians do not seem to understand that non-Christians, many just as conservative see the term as a negative if not a pejorative. On the other hand non-Christians, Moderates, Liberals and Leftists do not seem to “get it” that many sane, un-hypocritical Conservative Christians define themselves with that same term.

When used by the middle/left the term virtually NEVER seems to mean anything BUT a classic, Right-wing “I’m right because the Bible says so, you can’t be moral without Jesus, this is a Christian Nation and non-Christians should not be allowed to influence schools and government” hypocrite-in-Christian’s-clothing” sort of person.

To say that this confusion impedes communication, compassion and compromise would be an understatement of monumental proportions.

Because of this confusion we recently saw Chris Mathews of MSNBC using the term in one way and offending NRB Columnist Paul Cooper who uses it in another. Paul responded by light of his definition which caused me to misunderstand and I started to type a flaming reply. Then I found out what Paul really meant by it; “those to the Right of middle who are Christian”.

The end result was that we barely missed getting in an argument over nothing. Both of us would have felt attacked by and embittered toward someone who should be an ally on the subject.

This problem in definitions needs to be resolved in order for NewsReal Blog to have any chance of changing partisans into partners on issues that affect all of us.

The last few days I have been asking everyone I can who THEY think of when they hear the term “Religious Right”.

Overwhelmingly those that did not self describe as Conservative Christians seem to believe the term to mean “the folks who believe being Christian gives them a preferred political status and the right to impose an overtly Christian character on civil society”.

Not one person I talked to that described themselves as moderate or liberal (regardless of their religion) saw the term as referring to any other group. ONLY the Conservative Christians I spoke with felt that it meant the “Right side of the spectrum of all religious Christians in the U.S.”

It is pretty clear that this confusion cannot be allowed to go on. As a start I propose a poll. Not a “vote” for one definition by majority rule, but simply a poll to make us aware of Who Thinks What Means Which.

Semantics Poll: Who Do You Call What?
(Actual Poll is at Heretics Crusade, please add your vote!)

I Self Identify As:

a) Non-religious (Atheist, Agnostic, Don’t Care)
b) A Nominal Christian
c) A Devout Christian (Liberal Politics)
d) A Devout Christian (Conservative Politics)
e) Jewish (Conservative politics)
f) Jewish (Liberal politics)
g) A Conservative Christian or Jewish far to the Right of the ones the public calls conservative. (“They call me Nut-case but Jesus/G*d will bless me for it”)
h) A Nominal Muslim
i) A Devout Muslim
j) A Devout Muslim (“They call me Terrorist but Allah(pbuh) will bless me for it!”)

To Me “Religious Right” Means:

A) Conservative Religious persons; i.e. devout religious people of any faith that fall to the Right of Middle in politics
B) Religious hypocrites that believe the “unquestionable Truth” of their religion gives them a preferred position in the political process. (This description fits not only Christian chauvinists but also Islamic Supremacists etc.)
C) Conservative Christians who use their religion as a guide in life. Including politics.
D) Same as B but limited to Christians
E) Something Else

The information this poll provides may well prove very valuable but we still need to agree on what the term means here at Muslims Against Sharia.

I feel that being understood accurately by the largest number of people is more important than being clear only to compatriots. I cannot see that preaching to the choir is very productive. Therefore I propose this array of definitions:

For (A) I think the term “Religious Conservative” would be less likely to be misunderstood.

The subset of people described by (B) can be called “Religious Radicals” or “Theocrats”.

For (C) I can see no reason not to simply use “Christian Conservative” since it is clear and self-explanatory.

We should try to refer to (D) as “The Religious Right”.

Being clear with how we use these terms may not solve all our differences but, it will certainly not hurt our efforts to resolve them.

"Language is Humanity Beating Broken Rhythms On a Pot With a Spoon While Believing We Make Music That Stirs the Heart of God"

Guy DeWhitney

Source: Guy DeWhitney's Heretics Crusade

"It is all religious now. This is a religious war about how they can finish off the Christians in Egypt"

An update on this story. "At Least 7 Killed After Coptic Christmas Mass In Egypt," from the Associated Press, January 6

Three men in a car sprayed automatic gunfire into a crowd of churchgoers in southern Egyptian as they left a midnight Mass for Coptic Christmas, killing at least seven people in a drive-by shooting, the church bishop and security officials said.

Egypt's Interior Ministry said the attack Wednesday just before midnight was suspected as retaliation for the November rape of a Muslim girl by a Christian man in the same town. The statement said witnesses have identified the lead attacker.

Prior reporting described the accusation of rape as a rumor. Nonetheless, riots ensued.

The attack took place in the town of Nag Hamadi in Qena province, about 40 miles from the famous ancient ruins of Luxor. A local security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed that seven were dead and three seriously wounded.

Bishop Kirollos of the Nag Hamadi Diocese told The Associated Press six male churchgoers and one security guard were killed. He said he had left St. John's church just minutes before the attack.

"A driving car swerved near me, so I took the back door. By the time I shook hands with someone at the gate, I heard the mayhem, lots of machine gun shots," he said in a telephone interview. He said he saw five bodies lying on the ground when he first looked at the site of the shooting, about 600 yards where he was.

The bishop said he was concerned about violence on the eve of Coptic Christmas, which falls on Thursday, because of previous threats following the rape of the 12-year-old girl in November.

He got a message on his mobile phone saying: "It is your turn."

"I did nothing with it. My faithful were also receiving threats in the streets, some shouting at them: 'We will not let you have festivities,"' he said.

Because of the threats, he said he ended his Christmas Mass one hour early.

He said Muslim residents of Nag Hamadi and neighboring villages rioted for five days in November and torched and damaged Christian properties in the area after the rape.

"For days, I had expected something to happen on Christmas day," he said. The bishop said police have now asked him to stay at home for fear of further violence. [...]

Clashes between Muslims and Christians are not uncommon in southern Egypt and in recent years have begun seeping into the capital. An Amnesty International report said sectarian attacks on the Coptic Christian community, comprising between 6 million and 8 million people in Egypt, increased in the year 2008. Sporadic clashes between Coptic Christians and Muslims left eight people dead.

Vendetta killing is also common among southern Egyptians, and is usually over land or family disputes.

The bishop said he had an idea of who the attackers were, calling them "Muslim radicals."

"It is all religious now. This is a religious war about how they can finish off the Christians in Egypt," he said.

With thanks to JihadWatch

Egyptian Christians Refuse to Open Stores After Muslim Riot

Egyptian Christian shop owners in the eastern town of Farshoot where a Muslim riot recently occurred refused to reopen their stores until the government compensated them for damages.

Copts – the Christian community in Egypt – said they will not be coerced into overlooking the mass riot that left reportedly 65 Christian shops damaged, as reported by Assyrian International News Agency on Sunday. Instead, they are uniting to make authorities recognize what happened and punish perpetrators.

Authorities, however, reportedly are putting pressure on the Coptic Church in Nag Hammadi, which is under the same governorate as Farshoot, to tell the victims to accept extrajudicial reconciliation and reopen their businesses without compensation. Police in Farshoot are also reportedly refusing to issue police reports to victims, forcing them to travel 37 miles away to make a report with the Attorney General in Qena, the capital of the governorate. Authorities have also not carried out an estimated loss investigation despite requests the church has made for a week.

“There will be no reconciliation before full financial compensation has been paid to the Coptic victims, and the criminals are brought to justice, so that safety and security can be restored to the district,” said Bishop Kirollos of the Nag Hammadi Diocese, according to AINA.

Kirollos told activist Wagih Yacoub of the Middle East Christian Association that the victims have no money to clean up, restock items and reopen their stores.

Reports estimate that 10 pharmacies and 55 shops and businesses in Farshoot and several nearby villages were vandalized, torched or damaged during the few days of riots which began on Nov. 21. In Farshoot alone, about 80 percent of Coptic businesses were destroyed, which translates to about over $1 million in damages.

The riot, which drew hundreds of angry Muslims, was due to a rumor that a Coptic young man kidnapped and raped a 12-year-old Muslim girl.

However, an investigating officer told a Farshoot pastor that the girl said she was only sure that her attacker wore a black jacket and nothing else.

Moreover, the girl’s family had agreed with the church to wait for a police investigation and did not incite or join in with the mob that burned and looted Coptic-owned properties.

Christian business owners in Farshoot whose shops were undamaged have closed their businesses in solidarity with fellow Coptic business owners whose stores were damaged.

Bishop Kirollos has sent letters about the violence in Farshoot to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarek, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, Egypt’s People’s Assembly and the Shura Council asking for quick financial compensation for the Coptic victims.

Christian Post

Teaching Hatred of Christians and Jews in Muslim Schools in the U.K.

A BBC report on how and what Muslims are teaching in private Islamic schools in the U.K. is very surprising and disheartening for natives of the United Kingdom, who have been living there for centuries before the migration of Muslims.

The report can be found on Youtube.

Dr. Sumaya Alyusaf, director of the King Fahad Academy, recognized that their books and curriculum, taught to Muslim children, say that Jews are monkeys and Christians are pigs. She confessed that these are the books that were taught in her schools. However, the arrogant and haughty Alyusaf, notwithstanding the advice of the interviewer, openly refused to withdraw those hatemongering books from her schools.

To defend the Quran, she said that we should not see the misinterpretation of the specific verses that says Christians are pigs and Jews are monkeys, but we should see and consider the entire story in the chapter of the Quran. After that only would we understand the true soul of the Quran that it teaches humanity to mankind. This is real laughable and ridiculous answer by Dr. Alyusaf.

The interviewer also raised the point that schools, overseen by the Fahd Academy, also teaches that those, who do not follow Islam, will be perished in Hellfire. Dr. Alyusaf denied this, but only to accept it in her next sentence that Islam emphasizes that whoever does not believe in Muhammad as the final messenger, he/she will find their abode in the Hell fire and the Quran testifies this many times.

My advice and request to those high authorities of non-Muslim countries that they should open an organization on how to deal with Islam and truth about Islam. They can now openly tell to their students that Muslims are dogs; they should teach the true history of the real pirates of Arabia of the 7^th and 8^th centuries that ruled over the weak, oppressed women, and engaged in massive killings. How Muslims claim that women have equal rights in Islam even after practicing polygamy and distribution of less property share than their brothers inherited from their parents.

I personally believe that now is the right time that Islam should be exposed naked before the world, before this virus spreads in the minds of otherwise innocent people, who might go to kill innocent people, even their own parents, siblings, and beloved ones.

Islam Watch

US Muslims join Jews for Christmas Day Mitzvah

Many Jews consider Christmas Day an opportunity to serve their community while Christian neighbors celebrate their holiday.
This year, what's also known as Mitzvah Day in southeast Michigan is getting an added boost from Muslims.

For the first time, about 40 Muslims are expected to join 900 Jews for what they call their largest annual day of volunteering.

Leaders say it's a small but significant step in diffusing tensions and promoting good will between the religions, particularly on a day that is sacred to Christianity.

Mitzvah Day, a nearly 20-year tradition in the Detroit area also practiced in other communities, is so named because Mitzvah means "commandment" in Hebrew and is generally translated as a good deed.

The new partnership stemmed from a recent meeting between members of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan, the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, which said it was unaware of any similar Mitzvah Day alliances.

The Jewish groups organize Mitzvah Day, which consists of volunteers helping 48 local social service agencies with tasks such as feeding the hungry and delivering toys to children in need.

Victor Begg, chairman of the Islamic council, said he was seeking a public way for the two faith communities to "build bridges of understanding and cooperation," which led to joining the Mitzvah Day effort.

"The general public is what we need to give the message to, our entire community," he said.

Not only are most Muslims and Jews available to serve on Christmas Day, but leaders also recognized a shared commitment to community service. Charity in Judaism is known as "tzedakah." In Islam, it's called "zakat."

"It's an interesting parallel," said Robert Cohen, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council. "Both of our faiths predispose us to engaging in this sort of thing."

Muslim and Jewish volunteers will work together at the Gleaners Community Food Bank in Pontiac, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Detroit.

"We felt it was a perfect activity for people to be getting together like this because you work side by side with one or two other people as you're moving the boxes," Cohen said. "The grass-roots connection builds relationships on a personal level."

Cohen said the local bonds are important given global animosities. He said Muslims and Jews here "have serious differences about what happens in the Middle East," but that shouldn't be the only dynamic defining their relationship.

Begg added the two faiths can set an example in the Detroit area, which has historically large Jewish and Muslim populations.

"Whatever happens in the Middle East, we have no control over it," Begg said. "But here, our kids go to the same school, we work together; we need to focus on building an inclusive community."

Ynet

Pakistan's Christians receive text messages warning of a "special Christmas present"

Islamic Tolerance Alert: Already left homeless by a Muslim rampage in August that saw eight Christians burned alive, the remaining Christians of Gojra cannot celebrate Christmas without looking over their shoulders.

"Pakistan Christians celebrate Christmas in fear," by Elena Becatoros for the Associated Press, December 24:

GOJRA, Pakistan - No Christmas decorations brighten the tent camp sheltering Christians left homeless by the worst violence against minorities in Pakistan this year. Instead, there is a pervasive sense of fear.

The Christians have received cell phone text messages warning them to expect a "special Christmas present," they say, and are terrified of their tents being torched or their church services being bombed.

"Last year I celebrated Christmas full of joy," said Irfan Masih, cradling his young son among the canvas shelters and open ditches of the camp. But now "the fear that we may again be attacked is in our hearts.

"They are threatening us, (saying) 'We will again attack you and will not let you out of homes, we will burn you inside this time,'" he said.

It was the fires that most traumatized Gojra's Christian Colony, a neighborhood in the heart of this Punjabi city about 220 miles (354 kilometers) southwest of Islamabad. In early August, hundreds of Muslims rampaged through the dirt streets, looting and torching homes as panicked residents tried to flee and thick black smoke rose into the air.

Eight Christians died -- seven of them from one family trapped in a burning home.

"We are going to celebrate Christmas in sorrow because the whole family is hurt by this," said Almas Hameed, whose father was shot dead during the riots. His wife, two of his children and members of his brother's family all burned to death.

The attack, which officials said was incited by a banned radical Islamist group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, followed rumors that Christians had torn pages of a Quran, an act considered sacrilegious by Muslims. The ensuing carnage drew condemnation from the Pope and Pakistan's prime minister, and highlighted how religious extremism has left the country's minority groups increasingly vulnerable.

Christians -- Protestants and Catholics among them -- make up less than 5 percent of Muslim-majority Pakistan's 175 million people.

Christians say more than 100 homes were burned and looted in Gojra and the nearby village of Korian. While many homes have been rebuilt using state money, dozens of families are still living in tents, waiting for construction on their houses to finish.

Both those who have moved back into their homes and the ones still in the camp say they are still regularly threatened -- phone calls telling them to stop pressing for those responsible to be convicted, or else; armed men turning up at their homes; text messages on their cell phones promising a "special Christmas present;" rocks thrown at the tents in the night.

"When we sleep at night the fear never leaves our heart," said Safia Riaz, a 30-year-old whose father died of a heart attack during the riots. The violence "has stuck in our minds. Tension remains -- God forbid that it will happen again."

Strict security was being put into place during Christmas, said police officer Mohammed Tahir of the Faisalabad regional police headquarters, who rejected claims that authorities were unable to protect the minority.

Security has been ramped up across the country anyway, as this year Christmas falls during the Islamic month of Muharram, which is often marred by bombings and fighting between Pakistan's Sunni Muslims and its Shiite minority.

But Gojra's Christians have little faith in the police, who were accused of standing by during the worst of August's violence.

"The police already didn't save us before," said Ashar Faras, a 33-year-old who works as a chef in an Islamabad guesthouse....

With thanks to JihadWatch

Turks Threaten to Kill Priest over Swiss Minaret Decision

ISTANBUL: In response to a Swiss vote banning the construction of new mosque minarets, a group of Muslims this month went into a church building in eastern Turkey and threatened to kill a priest unless he tore down its bell tower, according to an advocacy group.

Three Muslims on Dec. 4 entered the Meryem Ana Church, a Syriac Orthodox church in Diyarbakir, and confronted the Rev. Yusuf Akbulut. They told him that unless the bell tower was destroyed in one week, they would kill him.

“If Switzerland is demolishing our minarets, we will demolish your bell towers too,” one of the men told Akbulut.

The threats came in reaction to a Nov. 29 referendum in Switzerland in which 57 percent voted in favor of banning the construction of new minarets in the country. Swiss lawmakers must now change the national constitution to reflect the referendum, a process that should take more than a year.

The Swiss ban, widely viewed around the world as a breach of religious freedom, is likely to face legal challenges in Switzerland and in the European Court of Human Rights.

There are roughly 150 mosques in Switzerland, four with minarets. Two more minarets are planned. The call to prayer traditional in Muslim-majority countries is not conducted from any of the minarets.
Fikri Aygur, vice president of the European Syriac Union, said that Akbulut has contacted police but has otherwise remained defiant in the face of the threats.

“He has contacted the police, and they gave him guards,” he said. “I talked with him two days ago, and he said, ‘It is my job to protect the church, so I will stand here and leave it in God’s hands.’”

Meryem Ana is more than 250 years old and is one of a handful of churches that serve the Syriac community in Turkey. Also known as Syrian Orthodox, the Syriacs are an ethnic and religious minority in Turkey and were one of the first groups of people to accept Christianity. They speak Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, a language spoken by Christ. Diyarbakir is located in eastern Turkey, about 60 miles from the Syrian border.

At press time the tower was standing and the priest was safe, said Jerry Mattix, youth pastor at the Diyarbakir Evangelical Church, which is located across a street from Meryem Ana Church.

Mattix said that threats against Christians in Diyarbakir are nothing out of the ordinary. Mattix commonly receives threats, both in the mail and posted on the church’s Internet site, he said.

“We’re kind of used to that,” Mattix said. He added that he has received no threats over the minaret situation but added, “I wouldn’t be surprised if we do.”

Mattix said the people making threats in the area are Muslim radicals with ties to Hezbollah “who like to flex their muscles.”

“We are a major target out here, and we are aware of that,” Mattix said. “But the local police are taking great strides to protect us.”

Mattix said he also has “divine confidence” in God’s protection.

The European Syriac Union’s Aygur said that Christians in Turkey often serve as scapegoats for inflamed local Muslims who want to lash out at Europeans.

“When they [Europeans] take actions against the Muslims, the Syriacs get persecuted by the fanatical Muslims there,” he said.

The threats against the church were part of a public outcry in Turkey that included newspaper editorials characterizing the Swiss decision as “Islamophobia.” One Turkish government official called upon Muslims to divest their money from Swiss bank accounts. He invited them to place their money in the Turkish banking system.

In part, the threats also may reflect a larger and well-established pattern of anti-Christian attitudes in Turkey. A recent study conducted by two professors at Sabanci University found that 59 percent of those surveyed said non-Muslims either “should not” or “absolutely should not” be allowed to hold open meetings where they can discuss their ideas.

The survey also found that almost 40 percent of the population of Turkey said they had “very negative” or “negative” views of Christians. In Turkey, Christians are often seen as agents of outside forces bent on dividing the country.

This is not the first time Akbulut has faced persecution. Along with a constant string of threats and harassment, he was tried and acquitted in 2000 for saying to the press that Syriacs were “massacred” along with Armenians in 1915 killings.

In Midyat, also in eastern Turkey, someone recently dug a tunnel under the outlying buildings of a Syriac church in hopes of undermining the support of the structure.

At the Mor Gabriel Monastery, also near Midyat, there is a legal battle over the lands surrounding the monastery. Founded in 397 A.D., Mor Gabriel is arguably the oldest monastery in use today. It is believed local Muslim leaders took the monastery to court in an attempt to seize lands from the church. The monastery has prevailed in all but one case, which is still underway.

“These and similar problems that are threatening the very existence of the remaining Syriacs in Turkey have reached a very serious and worrying level,” Aygur stated in a press release. “Especially, whenever there is a problem about Islam in the European countries, the Syriacs’ existence in Turkey is threatened with such pressures and aggressions.”

CDN

Cardinal Joachim Meisner: “restrictions on Christians in Islamic nations have led to aversion against Muslims“

One of Germany’s most senior Catholic leaders, Cardinal Joachim Meisner, criticized on Sunday what he described as restrictions on Christians in Islamic nations.

In an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio, Meisner, who is archbishop of Cologne, charged that this led to “an aversion against Muslims” among Germans.

The often outspoken cleric said he had been campaigning for the past two years for the Church of St Paul in Tarsus, Turkey to be permanently opened for worship by any Christian.

The Turkish government which treats the early medieval church at Paul’s birthplace as a museum granted access to Christian groups from mid 2008 to mid 2009 to use it, but restrictions are back in force.

“It’s a battle that is pointless. And then you get the feeling, this just is not right. And that is one of the reasons for all this aversion towards our Muslim fellow citizens,” Meisner said.

via German Catholic leader criticizes Islamic treatment of Christians : Religion General.

Despite the term (“aversion) which I think is somewhat over the edge (looks as if Europeans had something personal against Muslims), he is right in pointing out the problem: the extreme differences (and absolutely unjustified ones) between the situation of Muslims in Europe and that of non-Muslims in Islamic countries.

Thanks to Tea and Politics

Getting the Finger from a Moderate Muslim – by Robert Spencer

Ali Eteraz is a liberal Muslim writer who, like Barack Obama, has not waited until he was old to write his memoirs: his book Children of Dust, according to the book website, is a “coming-of-age story” in which Eteraz “captures not merely pain, but also the love, laughter, and pathos of Muslim life.”

It is not surprising that such a writer would grapple with issues related to Islamic jihad violence. What is surprising is how he has done so, and what the implications of his stances are for those who are betting everything on peaceful Muslims combating Islamic jihadists within Muslim communities.

Eteraz once stated feebly that peaceful Muslims should remain silent in the face of jihadist violence and supremacism, claiming that Martin Luther King, Jr., stayed silent in the face of racist oppression. That was preposterous enough, but now Eteraz has made an even more preposterous move, going from supine passivity to defiance:

During the salat, or prayer, Muslims raise their index finger to bear witness to the oneness of God. In America today, with all the calls for Muslims to condemn every little act of violence committed in the name of their religion, Muslims should start raising up the other finger. The middle one.

There is no need for one Muslim to condemn the crimes of another. Collective responsibility cannot, and should not, be accepted. Where one accepts collective responsibility one opens the door to collective punishment. Are Muslims individuals? Or are they one singular marionette that pirouettes each time its string is pulled?

The core assumption Eteraz makes here is that it is an exercise in collective responsibility that diminishes Muslims’ individuality if they are asked to condemn Islamic terrorist attacks.

After all, Islam is not a monolith, as we are reminded endlessly.

So if one Muslim believes that Islam teaches warfare against unbelievers and acts upon that belief, what does that have to do with Ali Eteraz, who presumably eschews such beliefs?

It’s a fair question. To what extent does membership in a group make one responsible for all the other members of that group? If one Christian does some evil deed and ascribes it to Christianity, are all Christians everywhere responsible for that?

Well, to a certain extent, yes.

They wouldn’t rightly share any of the blame for it, but it would be incumbent upon them to show to those who might be concerned about a recurrence of such evil deeds that the way in which the evildoer used Christianity was actually wrong, and condemnable, and that they were working against such a recurrence by teaching against such false beliefs.

The point, in other words, is not collective responsibility at all. To blame all Muslims for the actions of jihadists would be asinine. But to take note of how those jihadists use Islam — its texts and core teachings — to justify violence and supremacism and warfare against unbelievers — and to ask peaceful Muslims what they’re doing to combat such teachings within the Muslim community is not asinine at all.

And it is not blaming anyone for anything he didn’t do. It is simply to ask someone like Eteraz this: “The jihadis say that they’re following the authentic path of Islam. If they’re correct, the implications of this would be many and ominous, for it would suggest that all Muslims, if they decided to follow the authentic path of Islam, would become jihadis — working either by violent or peaceful means to impose Sharia upon non-Muslims. You say you’re living out an authentic expression of Islam, and reject all that. Good. What case are you making against the jihadist understanding of Islam within the Muslim community? How are you combating it?”

I don’t think these are unreasonable questions. For if Muslims who profess to reject the jihadist understanding of Islam don’t fight against it, who will? And if they profess to reject the jihadist understanding of Islam but don’t do anything to stop its spread, of what ultimate value is their rejection of it? They may not be responsible for it, but since they profess Islam, shouldn’t they feel any responsibility to combat the jihadist claim to represent authentic Islam?

Apparently not. In years of calling for peaceful Muslims to present a viable alternative to the jihadist understanding of Islam, one that will convince Muslims not to take the jihadist path, we have seen numerous vague assertions that the jihadis are violating Islamic teaching; some vague condemnations of “terrorism” and attacks on “innocent civilians” that don’t define either term or rule out the jihadist understanding of Islam; some transparently flimsy constructions based on selective Qur’an quoting that will convince ignorant non-Muslims but not a single Muslim; and some “reformist” interpretations of Islam that roll out with much fanfare in the mainstream media but end up being only condemnations of attacks that kill other Muslims or attacks that don’t have state authority behind them (which latter point ignores the fact that in Islamic theology defensive jihad is incumbent upon every Muslim, state authority notwithstanding, and all contemporary jihads are presented as defensive).

And now we get the finger.

All right. I wouldn’t expect anything else from Ali Eteraz, but I do hope that some people who have been counting upon peaceful Muslims to work against the jihadists within Muslim communities will take careful note.

FPM