June

6-08-2005 Lodi, California (CNN) Father, son arrested in terror probe: Islamic leaders in California town also in custody. Federal agents searched the homes of two Islamic leaders in Lodi, California, and have made four arrests since Sunday, part of an ongoing terrorism investigation, according to the FBI and witnesses.

6-08-2005 New York (WND) U.S. Muslims desecrate American flag. A group of American Muslims produced a video that shows its members on a city street corner declaring Islam's dominance over America as they tread on a U.S. flag and then rip it apart. In the video, released by the New York-based Islamic Thinkers Society, one of the Muslims is shown placing a sign on the flag that says, "Oh Muslims! Do you know your enemy? Isn't it obvious?"

6-07-2005 Washington, DC (WND) Islam on march south of border. Islam is on the move in Mexico and throughout Latin America, making dramatic gains in converting the native population, increasing immigration, establishing businesses and charities and attracting attention from U.S. government officials who have asked their neighbors to the south to keep an eye on foreign Muslim groups.

6-03-2005 Washington, DC (CNN) U.S. cites 4 Gulf allies in trafficking report. The report found that "hundreds of thousands of low-skilled workers" from South Asia and Africa who arrive in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries fall into either forced begging or "involuntary servitude, suffering from physical and sexual abuse, nonpayment of wagers, withholding of travel documents and restriction of movement."

May

5-27-2005 CAIRO, Egypt (Seattle PI) Muslims protest alleged Quran desecration. Muslims spat on the American flag, threw tomatoes at a picture of President Bush and burned the U.S. Constitution in protests Friday from Iraq to Indonesia over the alleged desecration of Islam's holy book at Guantanamo Bay prison.

5-27-2005 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) Muslims protest U.S. from Asia to Mideast. Alleged desecration of Quran at center of demonstrations. Thousands of Muslims marched Friday in Islamic countries from Asia to the Middle East, burning symbols of the United States to protest the alleged desecration of the Quran by military personnel at a American prison in Guantanamo, Bay, Cuba.

5-20-2005 New York, NY (Wall Street Journal) Hypocrisy Most Holy: Muslims should show some respect to others' religions. As a Muslim, I am able to purchase copies of the Qur'an in any bookstore in any American city, and study its contents in countless American universities. American museums spend millions to exhibit and celebrate Muslim arts and heritage. On the other hand, my Christian and other non-Muslim brothers and sisters in Saudi Arabia—where I come from—are not even allowed to own a copy of their holy books. Indeed, the Saudi government desecrates and burns Bibles that its security forces confiscate at immigration points into the kingdom or during raids on Christian expatriates worshiping privately.

"Sadiq 'Abd al-Karim Mal Allah, a Saudi Arabian Shi'a Muslim, was executed in 1992. Neither he nor his family knew that he was under sentence of death or for what "crime" he had been convicted. He was apparently charged with smuggling a copy of the Bible into Saudi Arabia. He denied the charge, but was reportedly requested to convert to Wahabism, an interpretation of Islam favoured by the state. When he refused, the judge was reported to have told him: "You abandon your rejectionist belief or I will kill you." On 3 September 1992 he was publicly beheaded in al-Qatif." Amnesty International

5-09-2005 KHARTOUM, Sudan (Sudan Tribune) Sudan suspends publication of daily over blasphemy claim. Hundreds of angry Sudanese gathered Thursday outside the court demanding the death sentence for Ahmed. Blasphemy and insulting Islam can bring the death penalty in Sudan, which has been governed by strict Islamic Sharia law since 1983.

5-05-2005 France (Proche-Orient) Les signes et manifestations d’appartenance religieuse dans les établissements scolaires. Le prosélytisme musulman, le seul dont on nous a parlé, plus que de vraiment convertir, a d’abord pour objet la réislamisation de populations dont la foi est jugée impure et la piété imprégnée de superstition et de paganisme. See also French Schools Lurch Toward Islamization

5-05-2005 USA (Conservative Voice) The Power of Islam. I ran across a video called, “Sudan—Children of Terror.” It is a chilling example of what Islam is doing quietly and insidiously and the world barely notices. In this film, hundreds of four to six year old boys are shown being indoctrinated into Islam. Their training is quite simple. They are taught to hate and they are taught to kill.

5-05-2005 USA (American Thinker) Jihad begot the Crusades. The late Jacques Ellul’s penetrating analysis of the jihad argued convincingly that in fact, …the idea of a holy war is a direct product of the Muslim jihad. If the latter is a holy war, then obviously the fight against Muslims to defend or save Christianity has also to be a holy war. The idea of a holy war is not of Christian origin. Emperors never advanced the idea prior to the appearance of Islam.

5-05-2005 Washington, DC (CT) The Real History of the Crusade. With enormous energy, the warriors of Islam struck out against the Christians shortly after Mohammed's death. They were extremely successful. Palestine, Syria, and Egypt—once the most heavily Christian areas in the world—quickly succumbed. By the eighth century, Muslim armies had conquered all of Christian North Africa and Spain. In the eleventh century, the Seljuk Turks conquered Asia Minor (modern Turkey), which had been Christian since the time of St. Paul. The old Roman Empire, known to modern historians as the Byzantine Empire, was reduced to little more than Greece. In desperation, the emperor in Constantinople sent word to the Christians of western Europe asking them to aid their brothers and sisters in the East.

5-05-2005 TEHRAN, Iran (CT) Lay Pastor May Face Martyrdom. Convert from Islam accused of evangelizing Muslims. Iranian Christian Hamid Pourmand, a former Muslim, faces possible execution, the first religiously motivated death sentence in Iran since 1990. ... Arrested last September when security police raided a church conference he was attending, the Assemblies of God lay pastor faces charges of apostasy from Islam and of proselytizing Muslims. Both "crimes" are punishable by death. Pourmand, 47, converted from Islam to Christianity nearly 25 years ago.

5-05-2005 LONDON, England (Pakistani Newpaper) Three Pakistani expatriates win in British elections. Among the Labour Party candidates, Pakistani expatriates winning the elections included Khalid Mahmood romping home victoriously from Perry Bar constituency of Birmingham, Mohammad Sarwar triumphing from Glasgow Central, while a Pakistani British lawyer Sadiq Khan emerging victorious from the constituency of Toting in London.

5-05-2005 New York, NY (Independent Record) Muslims reaping what they sowed. In part, the Arab-Muslim world is reaping something it sowed. Way too many Arab intellectuals and religious and political leaders were ready to extol suicide bombing when it was directed against Israelis. Now they are seeing how this weapon of nihilism — once sanctified and glorified — can be used against their own societies. It was wrong when it was used against Jews, and it is wrong when it is used against Muslims. You can't build a decent society on the graves of suicide bombers and their victims.

5-05-2005 Sudan (BBC) Sudanese demand death for editor. Angry crowds have demanded the death penalty for a Sudanese newspaper editor over an article allegedly questioning the parentage of the Prophet Muhammad. Hundreds of people waving banners and chanting "God is great" protested outside a court as Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed was charged over the article. His Al Wifaq newspaper is being suspended for three days from Friday.

5-05-2005 Australia (Christian Post) No Apology from Pastor in Muslim Vilification Case. A pastor found guilty of vilifying Muslims in Australia says that his conscience would not allow him to apologize for his 2002 comments. Penalties by the court are still pending. ... “By allowing its court system to become a sermon review board that censors religious expression, Australia not only violates international law but also undermines the true basis for tolerance, that is, the freedom to openly discuss and debate views that differ from one’s own,” said Roger Severino, counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

5-04-2005 DEARBORN, MI (Detroit News) Dearborn man to be tried in terror case. A 41-year-old Dearborn businessman sought to support the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah by collecting at least $600 to send to relatives of suicide bombers, the FBI said Tuesday.

5-03-2005 Kuwait (Aljazeera) Kuwait fails to pass women's vote bill. Kuwait's parliament has failed to pass a law giving women the right to vote and stand in municipal elections for the first time.

5-03-2005 JAKARTA, Indonesia (Chicago Tribune) Showing skin, risking hide. The Miss Universe contestant from Muslim Indonesia is caught in a firestorm of conservatives' anger over the swimsuit competition. ... The debate may seem frivolous—especially in Indonesia, with its rampant prostitution and an anything-goes attitude in certain quarters.

5-03-2005 Iraq (Jihad Unspun) TRANSCRIPT: Al-Zarqawi: O People Of Islam! Strength, Strength! Praise be to Allah, whose Help glorifies Islam, whose irresistibility humiliates Skirk (rejection of oneness), whose Command manages all affairs, whose Planning draws the Kafirs (unbelievers) in little by little, whose Justice causes days of blessings and days of suffering to alternate, and whose Grace makes final victory belongs to the pious. And peace and prayer be on the one that with his sword, Allah elevated the status of Islam.

5-02-2005 Brunei (Government of Brunei) Moslem are warns of ways of deviating the Ummah. "Muslims beware..!... Among the techniques used to deviate Muslims is befriending and helping needy people. ... The targeted people are given something called black water to drink, that turns their tongues black and prevents them from uttering the Syahadah or Islamic pledge when they hear the Azan or call to prayer. Strangely, the black water is given to Muslims only."

April

4-30-2005 LYNCHBURG, VA (Liberty University) First Former Muslim to Become Dean of an Evangelical Seminary in the U.S. Liberty University announces Dr. Ergun Caner as the new Dean of the Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. Caner fills the post vacated by Dr. Danny Lovett who leaves to assume the presidency of Tennessee Temple University in Chattanooga. Caner, the first former Muslim to become the dean of an evangelical seminary in the United States, has spent two years at Liberty University teaching Theology and Church History in the School of Religion. A very popular professor, Caner energizes his listeners through both his humor and direct preaching.

4-30-2005 Thailand (Strategic) THAILAND: School Teachers Busted As Terrorist Leaders. The government believes that Islamic radicals teaching in Islamic schools have been indoctrinating adolescent boys and turning them into Islamic terrorists. This is a pattern found throughout the Islamic world. The schools are often set up and subsidized with money from Saudi Arabian religious charities. Islam in Saudi Arabia promotes intolerance towards other religions, and support for violence against non-Moslems.

4-29-2005 Pakistan (American Daily) Pakistani Christian Beaten After Refusing To Denounce His Faith. After refusing to renounce his Christian faith and embrace Islam, a Pakistani man was seriously beaten. ... Masih said, APMA reported, "You can kill me but cannot convert me." Hearing this, Masih's captors pistol whipped him. There was no one there to hear his cries. When Masih lost consciousness, the Islamics thought he was dead. They called Hussein to remove his body.

4-30-2005 Northfield, MN (St. Olaf News) St. Olaf College to explore Islamic diversity during conference. St. Olaf College will host an Islamic conference, "Diversity in Islam and the Development of an Islamic Identity in the United States," co-sponsored by the St. Olaf Muslim Student Association and the Muslim students at Carleton College. The event will be held on Saturday, April 30, in the Black and Gold Ballroom of Buntrock Commons at 11:30 a.m.

4-29-2005 SAINT-DENIS, France (IHT)French Islamic group offers rich soil for militancy. Raouf Ben Halima, 39, sleeps on his side, never on his stomach. He enters the bathroom leading with his left foot, but puts his pants on leading with his right. He does not use a fork when he eats; he uses his index finger, middle finger and thumb. Halima is a member of the Tablighi Jamaat, or Preaching Party, a global army of Muslim missionaries helping to expand their religion and reinforce their faith. They believe that emulating the habits of the Prophet Muhammad is the surest way to restore Islam to its intended path.

4-27-2005 England (BBC) 'Teacher' jailed for abusing boys. He was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court having earlier admitted nine counts of indecent assault on children and further counts of indecency. Police found more than 30,000 pornographic images on his computer. The court heard Islam converted to the Islamic faith when he was 21-years-old and went on to work as a cleaner at a London mosque where he befriended the brothers and their family.

4-27-2005 ALEXANDRIA, Va (Star News) Muslim Cleric Found Guilty in the 'Virginia Jihad' Case. After deliberating for seven days, the jury convicted the cleric, Ali al-Timimi of Fairfax, Va., on all six counts in the indictment, including counseling others to wage war against the United States and use firearms and explosives in furtherance of violent crimes. Mr. Timimi, who will remain under house arrest until sentencing on July 13, faces a mandatory life sentence under federal guidelines.

4-25-2005 KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait (Seattle PI) Riot highlights Gulf working conditions. A riot by 700 workers from Bangladesh has thrown new focus on what human rights groups call the slave-like conditions many Asian workers endure across the affluent Persian Gulf, including salaries of just dollars a day or no wages at all.

4-25-2005 JAKARTA, Indonesia (JP) Militant groups report 'Dewa' to police for defaming Islam. Islamic militant groups filed a complaint to the police against popular rock band Dewa on Monday, who they said had committed an offense against Islam by using Koranic- looking calligraphy on their album art and TV footage.

4-23-2005 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) Saudi Arabia detains 40 Christians. Saudi Arabia has detained 40 Pakistani Christians for holding prayers at a house in the Muslim kingdom, where practicising any religion other than Islam is illegal, newspapers said on Saturday. A group of men, women and children were attending the service in the capital Riyadh when police raided the house, Al Jazirah newspaper said. It said authorities also found Christian tapes and books.

4-23-2005 AL HUDAIDA,Yemen (IHT) Mecca suspected as source of Yemen polio cases. Polio has broken out in Yemen and may have been imported by pilgrims returning from Mecca, international health officials said. The disease, which appeared to have been on the verge of eradication in early 2004, has since spread to Saudi Arabia and several countries across Africa.

4-18-2005 BRUSSELS, Belgium (International Crisis Group) The State of Sectarianism in Pakistan.Pakistan. Sectarian conflict in Pakistan is the direct consequence of state policies of Islamisation and marginalisation of secular democratic forces. Co-option and patronage of religious parties by successive military governments have brought Pakistan to a point where religious extremism threatens to erode the foundations of the state and society. PDF Report

4-13-2005 United Nations (UN News Centre) UN human rights commission urges action against religious defamation. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights has called on the international community to open a global dialogue to combat the defamation of religions, citing specifically the ethnic and religious profiling of Muslim minorities after the terrorist attacks against the United States on 11 September 2001.

4-12-2005 GENEVA, Switzerland (Pak Tribune) Commission on HR adopts resolution on combating defamation of religions. The 61st Session of the Commission on Human Rights on Tuesday adopted resolution Combating Defamation of Religions which expressed deep concern at particular intensification of the campaign of defamation of religions in particular ethnic and religious profiling of Muslim minorities.

04-01-2005 United Nations (United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights) Combating defamation of religions. Alarmed at the continuing negative impact of the events of 11 September 2001 on Muslim minorities and communities in some non-Muslim countries and the negative projection of Islam in media, and the introduction and enforcement of laws that specifically discriminate against and target Muslims,

04-01-2005 United Nations (United Nations Development Programme) Arab Human Development Report 2004. As they tighten and grow, the constrictions of the chain on freedom, in time, become internal constraints on the self. Suppression leads individuals to become their own censors and to contain every urge to speak or act. This complicated process has led Arab citizens, including some among the intelligentsia, to a state of submission fed by fear and marked by denial of their subjugation. — Executive Summary, p. 14.

04-01-2005 AMMAN, Jordan (World Magazine) Apostasy rules. Religious identity laws in Jordan and other largely Muslim countries are the coda to basic human rights. Denied a new religious identity, Samer cannot hold a job, maintain custody of his son, retain legal title in his marriage, or own property. He is regarded as an apostate, and other Muslims can legally attack—even kill—Samer.

March

03-30-2005 Libya (Reporters Without Borders) Cyber-dissident reportedly arrested in Tobruk. Al Mansouri's arrest has not been confirmed by the authorities. It reportedly took place on the evening of 12 January in the eastern city of Tobruk. He is said to have been transferred to a prison in Tripoli two days later. His family have had no news of him since his arrest. He began posting articles on the UK-based website http://www.akhbar-libya.com in 2004. A 52-year-old bookseller, he wrote about social issues and criticised human rights violations by the Libyan authorities.

03-30-2005 LONDON, England (CNN) Darfur death toll 'may be 300,000'. As many as 300,000 people may have died in Sudan's western Darfur region in a conflict the international community is doing too little to stop, a British parliamentary report said on Wednesday. The report also urged the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions on Sudan, extend its arms embargo and refer war criminals to the International Criminal Court (ICC). "The world's failure to protect the people of Darfur from the atrocities committed against them by their own government is a scandal," said Tony Baldry, chairman of the cross-party International Development Committee.

03-29-2005 Turkey (AINA) Turkey State Minister Warns Against Missionary Propaganda. Responding to a parliamentary questionnaire concerning missionary activities in Turkey, Mehmet Aydin said missionaries were not simply spreading their religion by exercising freedom of belief but were intervening in people's freedom of belief by capitalizing on their ignorance, according to a report Monday by the Ankara-based Turkish Daily News.

03-29-2005 KAMPALA, Uganda (ABCNews) Ugandan Muslims March in Defense of Polygamy. Hundreds of Ugandan Muslims demonstrated in the capital on Tuesday to protest a proposed restriction on polygamy they see as an affront to their religion. Under Islamic law, a Muslim man is allowed to take up to four wives, as long as he can provide for all of them equally. But a domestic relations bill being debated by Uganda's parliament says Ugandan Muslims should have to seek approval from their first wife before marrying again. "Islamic law has been there since it was passed on from Allah to the Prophet Mohammed, it cannot be re-written now," one of the protesters, Bukulu Haruna, told Reuters.

03-28-2005 Pakistan (New Statesman) Inside Islam's ''terror schools''. Madrasas are now more dominant in Pakistan's educational system than they are anywhere else; but the general trend is common across the Islamic world. In Egypt the number of teaching institutes dependent on the Islamic Al-Azhar University increased from 1,855 in 1986 to 4,314 ten years later. The Saudis have also stepped up funding in Africa: in Tanzania alone they have been spending $1m a year building new madrasas. In Mali, madrasas now account for around a quarter of children in primary schools.

03-28-2005 Iraq (Times) A Jihadist's Tale: How a young Jordanian left his American life and died an insurgent in Iraq. The lethality of the jihadists was highlighted on Feb. 28 when a suicide bomber detonated himself outside a health clinic in the city of Hilla, killing at least 125 people, the worst single massacre since the U.S. invasion. On March 11 the Amman daily newspaper Al-Ghad identified Ra'ed al-Banna as the attacker, in an article purporting to describe the family's wedding-like celebration of his martyrdom.

03-25-2005 MANILA, Philippines (ABCNews) Terror Suspect Details Training, Plots. A terror suspect on Wednesday said the southern Philippines has become a major training ground for regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah graduating 23 bomb experts just days ago and a refuge for Indonesians involved in major attacks, including the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings.

03-10-2005 ROSEBURG, OR (News Review) Author says churches need to get more masculine to draw in men. Murrow's theory on why men hate going to church is that over decades, Christian churches have become feminized. To him, this trend must be reversed to save Christianity and he is on a crusade to put masculinity back in the pew. He wonders why there is not the same gender gap among Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism and why Muslim men practice their faith with such pride. "Early Christianity was a magnet to men, but today's church repels them," he said. His research, he wrote, shows that over the centuries Christian ritual, ministry and practices have slowly evolved to meet the needs and expectations of a feminine constituency.

03-01-2005 DUBAI, UAE (Sun News) Held missionary seeks deportation. A Myrtle Beach missionary charged with distributing Bibles in the Muslim-dominated city of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, could be deported this week, if orders for her to leave are signed by the city's attorney general. Officials with Tom Cox Ministries, an Arkansas-based religious organization, were waiting for word Monday that Vivian Gilmer of Myrtle Beach could leave Dubai. The 72-year-old grandmother is a longtime member of First Baptist Church in Myrtle Beach.

February

02-27-2005 AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Seattle Times) Many Dutch bid farewell to home. But he was taken aback in November when a Dutch filmmaker was shot and his throat slit on an Amsterdam street. In the weeks that followed, Hiltemann was inundated by e-mail messages and telephone calls. "There was a big panic, a flood of people saying they wanted to leave the country," he said.

02-27-2005 CAIRO, Egypt (ABC News) Single Mother Shocks Egypt by Keeping Baby. It began, el-Hinnawy said, when she entered into an "urfi" marriage, an unofficial arrangement that has become popular as a way to skirt Islam's ban on premarital sex, with Ahmed el-Fishawy, a 24-year-old TV star. Urfi marriages have no official contract and are often kept secret. Although a document is signed in front of witnesses, the marriage can be broken simply by destroying that paper. Such marriages have become more frequent, often for poor Egyptians who cannot afford to marry or as temporary unions for people who want to legitimize their sexual activities in a strict Muslim society with its stricture against premarital sex.

02-26-2005 CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) Election reform announced in Egypt. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ordered the constitution changed to allow multi-candidate presidential elections in September, making a surprise reversal Saturday that could pit him against a challenger for the first time since taking power in 1981. The announcement followed increasing opposition calls within Egypt for political reform and historic Iraqi and Palestinian elections that brought a taste of democracy to a region.

02-25-2005 PEKAN, Malaysia (Bernama) Suggestions On Islam Must Consider Sensitivities: Najib. Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Dr Abdullah Md Zin said yesterday that the proposed interfaith commission could not be formed in the country as it contravened the Federal Constitution.

02-24-2005 BAGHDAD, Iraq (USAToday) Iraqi women eye Islamic law. She is quick to tick off what sharia will mean for married women. "[The husband] can beat his wife but not in a forceful way, leaving no mark. If he should leave a mark, he will pay," she says of a system she supports. "He can beat her when she is not obeying him in his rights. We want her to be educated enough that she will not force him to beat her, and if he beats her with no right, we want her to be strong enough to go to the police."

02-00-2005 WASHINGTON, DC (Commentary) When Muslims Convert. In the Islamic world, there is a broad consensus, both popular and scholarly, that apostates deserve to be killed. A rich theological and intellectual tradition, stretching as far back as Muhammad and his companions, supports this position. Though official proceedings against those who reject Islam are fairly rare—in part, no doubt, because most keep their conversion a closely held secret—apostasy is punishable by death in Afghanistan, Comoros, Iran, Mauritania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Yemen. It is also illegal in Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, the Maldives, Oman, and Qatar.

02-23-2005 PARIS, France (USAToday) Europe's rising class of believers: Muslims. Europe is becoming Islamicized," warned Fritz Bolkestein a few weeks before he left his job as the EU's competition commissioner last December, noting that the two biggest cities in his native Netherlands, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, will be minority European within a few years.

02-24-2005 Pakistan (ICWales) Christian jailed for insulting the Koran. A Pakistani court has convicted and sentenced a Christian man to seven years in prison for insulting Islam's holy book, the Koran, as he practiced magic, police said today.

02-23-2005 FORT WAYNE, IN (News Sentinel) Can West resist the momentum of Islam’s relentless expansion? Europe’s intellectual climate offers some resistance to Islam, but the post-modernism of most Western European societies leaves an idea-vacuum struggling to withstand robust Islam. Banning headscarves in public schools is a flimsy defense unless Europe reclaims a concrete moral core.

02-21-2005 BOSTON, MA (Herald) Anti-Christianity: The accepted form of bigotry. In the first class of the semester, a Georgetown professor called the crucifixes that hang upon the walls in every classroom "weaknesses that look down upon us." He said this during class, before all his students. No one said a word to him, not even after class. All were silent as Christ was mocked and Christianity denigrated. ... Christianity is the easiest religion to bash in academia because there are no repercussions. It is little wonder university professors do not bash Islam or Judaism. Radical Muslims would kill in the name of Allah for a comment against their faith. 

02-21-2005 KANSAS CITY, MO, (Sun Herald) Afghan Christian says faith might cost him his life. He has lived in the United States since 1996, but U.S. immigration authorities are trying to deport him for visa violations - despite evidence that his sister was killed for her Christian faith in 1993 by religious soldiers answering to a warlord still active in Afghanistan. ... "In today's Afghanistan, I am sure that the Karzai government would not support a death penalty for apostasy," he wrote. "But there are some very conservative elements in the country who might feel it their obligation to take things into their own hands."

02-19-2005 ZAKHO, Iraq (AsiaNews) Christian convert killed in Iraq. A Christian convert from Islam was killed for his faith. Ziwar Muhammad Isma’il, who worked as a taxi driver in Zakho in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, was shot dead by Abd al-Karim Abd al-Salam at a taxi station early on the morning of February 17. Abd al-Salam approached Ziwar and told him to return to Islam. When Ziwar refused he opened fire with an automatic rifle.

02-19-2005 VIRGINIA BEACH, VA (CBN) Former Muslims Pay Price for Christian Faith. Violence is nothing new for Muslims who convert to Christianity. Indeed, in the Islamic world, leaving Islam and living for Christ can mean a death sentence. Emir Caner is a former Muslim who now teaches at a Baptist seminary. He has written a book about some of these brave converts. Recently he came to our studio to tell us about it. ... Let's talk about your new book "The Costly Call."

02-10-2005 WASHINGTON, D.C. (Reuters) Muslim world falls short on tsunami aid.  Parts of the Islamic world are "big on talking about jihad" but have fallen short in aiding Muslim victims of the South Asian tsunami, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said on Thursday. ... "There's been very little generosity so far from parts of the Muslim world that are big on talking about jihad and other things, but when 200,000 people — all of them Muslim in the case of Indonesia — died in this catastrophe, there's not much help forthcoming," Wolfowitz said.

02-10-2005 LONDON, England (Frontpagemag) Islamophobia Myth. In reality, discrimination against Muslims is not as great as is often claimed. When making a film on Islamophobia for Channel 4, I discovered a huge gap between perception and reality. One issue is police harassment of Muslims.

02-08-2005 TEHRAN, Iran (AsiaNews) No more court martial for Protestant clergyman who converted from Islam. Military espionage charges are dropped but apostasy and proselytising still hang over his head. Pastor is still liable for the death penalty. Hamid Pourmand, an Iranian Protestant clergyman, is no longer accused of espionage and will soon be able to leave the military prison where he has spent the last three months. However, he will now have to face charges of apostasy and proselytising. His trial will thus be exclusively based on the intolerance Iran’s religious theocracy has towards the country’s religious minorities.

02-06-2005 NAJAF, Iraq (SL Tribune) Clerics push for Islamic law. With religious Shiite parties poised to take power in the new constitutional assembly, leading Shiite clerics are pushing for Islam to be enshrined in the new constitution, governing such matters as marriage, divorce and family inheritance. On other issues, opinion varies, with the more conservative leaders insisting that Shariah, or Islamic law, be the foundation for all legislation.

02-06-2005 NAJAF, Iraq (Khaleej Times) Iraqi Shia leaders demand Islam be the source of law. Iraq’s Shia leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani and another top cleric on Sunday staked out a demand that Islam be the sole source of legislation in the country’s new constitution. One cleric issued a statement setting out the position and the spiritual leader of Iraqi Shia made it known straight away that he backed demands for the Koran to be the reference point for legislation.

02-05-2005 LONDON, England (London Times) Muslim apostates cast out and at risk from faith and family. While Christians who turn to Islam are feted, the 200,000 Muslims who turn away are faced with abuse, violence and even murder. The first brick was thrown through the sitting room window at one in the morning, waking Nissar Hussein, his wife and five children with a terrifying start. The second brick went through his car window. ... He and his family have been regularly jostled, abused, attacked, shouted at to move out of the area, and given death threats in the street. His wife has been held hostage inside their home for two hours by a mob. His car, walls and windows have been daubed in graffiti: “Christian bastard”.

02-01-2005 NEW YORK, NY (Freedom House) Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Fill American Mosques. The research, translation and principle analysis of the materials for the report were carried out by both Muslims and non-Muslims who wish to remain anonymous for reasons of security. In light of the recent targeted assassination and death threats for speaking out against Islamic extremism in the Netherlands, such concerns appear especially valid. All involved did so out of a conviction that the Saudi Arabian publications in this study, which espouse an ideology of hate and purport to be the authoritative interpretation of Islam, continue to be in plentiful supply at some of our nation’s main mosques and continue to be used as principal educational resources on Islam for Muslims in America.

January

01-31-2005 NEW YORK, NY (New York Sun) Christians on PalTalk Chat Service Tracked by Radical Islamic Web Site. A radical Islamic Web site systematically tracks Christians on PalTalk.com, an Internet chat service on which a New Jersey man received a death threat two months before he and his family were murdered. The password protected Arabic Web site, at the address www.barsomyat.com, features pictures and information about Christians who have been particularly active in debating Muslims on PalTalk. One page from barsomyat.com features a group of photographs of a Syrian Christian, "Joseph," who now lives in Canada. Barsomyat.com's users have posted personal information about Joseph, including his brother's parole status, and make clear that they are actively trying to track down his current address.

01-31-2005 Carol Stream, Il (CT) 'There Can Be No End to Jihad'. The "Magnificent 19" or "terrorists" are personally accountable for their actions. If these were based on God's commands, they will be rewarded; if against his commands, they will be punished. The 19 referred to a divine text, Surah AL-Baqara 2:190: "Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you … " Muslims believe that non-Muslims are kaffir—those disbelieving in Islam. This is not an insult; it is a description. The God in whom we believe did not come from the womb of a mother. The USA is a kaffir state—and kaffir includes those U.S. Muslims who ally with non-Muslims, e.g. in the U.S. Army, as in Iraq, and are therefore legitimate targets of jihad.
 

01-30-2005 BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) Iraqis vote amid violence. Polls have closed in Iraq's first free election in a half century, with the independent election commission reporting a 72 percent turnout of registered voters nationwide by mid-afternoon amid attacks and threats of violence. ... "There has been a vast turnout in Iraq," Rashid said. "The news is freedom has won," Al-Lami said. "We have conquered terrorism." ... In the northeastern town of Baquba, CNN's Jane Arraf found a polling station where a long line of Iraqi voters chanted and clapped their hands in front of the camera. One voter told Arraf that Sunday's vote was a "bullet in the heart of the enemy."

01-29-2005 LONDON, England (ABC News) Iraqis Worldwide Continue Casting Ballots. Fistfights broke out at an Australian polling station for Iraqis abroad Saturday when a group of Islamic extremists chanted slogans against those casting ballots, while Iraqis around the world voted for a second day in their homeland's election. ... Iraqis elsewhere were enthusiastic as they lined up at the ballot boxes, even turning out in the hundreds in the Jordanian town of Zarqa, the hometown of Iraq's most feared terrorist leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, election officials said.

01-24-2005 Washington, DC (Insight) Islamism's feisty female foe. Having worked in women's shelters, she exposed the sexual abuse, incest, violence, frequent suicides of young girls and forced abortions in Muslim families. According to Hirsi Ali -- who as a 6-year old girl in Somalia suffered circumcision, an excruciatingly painful experience -- 60 percent of all abortions in the Netherlands are performed on Muslim women.

01-23-2005 New Jersey (Weehawken Reporter) A 'cult-like' killing? A week of questions and anger after Egyptian family's murder. Two unnamed Jersey City police officers, independent of one another, told the Hudson Reporter this past week that based on their years of experience in handling homicides and robbery cases, the murders could likely have been religious or even cult-like in nature. One officer said his reasoning comes from the fact that most investigations into homicides in any large city initially come with a solid lead pointing to low-level criminals operating within that city. However that hasn't happened in this case.

01-20-2005 TEHRAN, Iran (Gulf Daily News) Order to kill Rushdie still on says Iran. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has labelled British author Salman Rushdie an apostate whose killing would be authorised by Islam, according to message carried by Iranian media yesterday. "They talk about respect towards all religions, but they support such a mahdour al-damm mortad as Salman Rushdie," Khamenei said. In the Sharia, or Islamic law, "mortad" is a reference to someone who has committed apostasy by leaving Islam while "mahdour al-damm" is a term applying to someone whose blood may be shed with impunity.

01-20-2005 TEHRAN, Iran (Arab Times) Iranian leader slams 'Western, Zionist capitalists'. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has labelled British author Salman Rushdie an apostate whose killing would be authorised by Islam, according to message carried by Iranian media Wednesday.

01-19-2005 NEW JERSEY CITY, NJ (American Daily) Jihad In New Jersey. Yesterday, Hossam Armanious, his wife Amal Garas and their daughters, Monica (8) and Sylvia (15) were found murdered in their New Jersey home. The reason this family was so brutally murdered appears to be that they were outspoken critics of Islam. The family was bound and tortured, before their throats were slit in accord with the instructions for executing nonbelievers, as detailed in the Koran: (47:4) "Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers, smite at their necks; At length, when ye have thoroughly subdued them, bind a bond firmly [on them]." They were Coptic Christians, an Egyptian sect of Christianity especially hated by Muslims for their refusal to convert to Islam. Hossam Armanious had received death threats from Muslims. According to a family friend, one of the threats read, "You'd better stop this bull, or we are going to track you down like a chicken and kill you.” Sylvia was especially brutalized, apparently due to the tattoo of a Coptic cross on her wrist. The girl’s throat was not only slit, but she was stabbed repeatedly in the chest and wrist where she bore the sign of her faith.

01-16-2005 NEW JERSEY CITY, NJ (NY Post) 'Islamic Hate' Eyed in Slays. The father of a murdered New Jersey family was threatened for making anti-Muslim remarks online — and the gruesome quadruple slaying may have been the hateful retaliation, sources told The Post yesterday. Hossam Armanious, 47, who along with his wife and two daughters was found stabbed to death in his Jersey City home early Friday, would regularly debate religion in a Middle Eastern chat room, one source said. ... The married father of two had recently been threatened by Muslim members of the Web site, said a fellow Copt and store clerk who uses the chat room. "You'd better stop this bull---- or we are going to track you down like a chicken and kill you," was the threat, said the clerk, who was online at the time and saw the exchange.

01-13-2005 ACEH, Indonesia (Globe & Mail) Indonesia cracks down on tsunami relief effort. Indonesia clamped military restrictions on the international aid effort for hundreds of thousands of tsunami-disaster victims on the devastated island of Sumatra yesterday, annoying the White House and humanitarian agencies.

01-12-2005 BERLIN, German (ABC News) 14 Islamic Extremists Arrested in Germany. Police arrested 14 people during raids of apartments and mosques in five German states Wednesday in a crackdown on an Islamic extremist organization suspected of aiding terrorists, authorities said.

01-12-2005 AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (iAfrica) Plot to murder Dutch Islam critic. A plot to murder Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Dutch lawmaker of Somali origin who is a leading critic of radical Islam, has been uncovered in the course of the investigation into the assassination of film-maker Theo van Gogh, the daily De Telegraaf said on Wednesday.

01-7-2005 MANILA, Philippine (Philippine Daily Inquirer) Authorities foil plot to bomb Black Nazarene procession: 16 suspected Islamic militants arrested. Police on Friday arrested 16 suspected Islamic militants planning a weekend suicide bomb attack on a Roman Catholic procession in the capital, officials and reports said.

01-7-2005 CAIRO, Egypt (China Post) Coptic crises pour dampener on Orthodox Christian celebrations in Egypt? "Copts are suffering from being denied their basic right to build places of worship by discriminatory legislation that makes it easier for Muslims to build mosques than Christians to build churches," said Youssef Sidhom, the editor of the Coptic newspaper Watani.