Showing posts with label Islam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Islam. Show all posts

Saturday, August 18, 2018

Ali Irsan sentenced to death for honor killings | abc13.com

This came via one of my readers so I thought to include it. "Here's a reasonably comprehensive story that gives a background to the case, as well as an interview with the murderer's daughter.
Young widow at center of Houston ‘honor killings’ speaks out to raise awareness
“I think the story needs to be told. There are things that are going on that people need to know about,” she said, . “Even today, people are still terrified of him, even though he’s on death row. There are people who still believe in what he was doing.”
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 “Unfortunately, honor killings are happening in the United States. We hope that law enforcement agencies are paying attention and are taking the necessary steps to train and educate their personnel about the culture, so that senseless killings can be prevented one day,” said Anna Emmons, one of the special prosecutors who put Irsan on death row along with Marie Primm and Jon Stephenson.
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A jury has sentenced Ali Irsan to death for the so-called honor killings of his son-in-law and his daughter's close friend.

On July 26, jurors took just 35 minutes to find Irsan guilty of killing Coty Beavers, who was married to his daughter, and Gelareh Bagherzadeh, his daughter's close friend in 2012.

According to prosecutors, Irsan believed that Beavers and Bagherzadeh were responsible for his daughter converting to Christianity.

Ali Irsan sentenced to death for honor killings | abc13.com

Friday, June 17, 2016

UPDATED::Avijit Roy's publisher, 2 bloggers hacked in Dhaka | Dhaka Tribune

UPDATE::Bangladeshi Police Arrest Islamic Radical Suspected of Attacking Publisher of Atheist Books
I bring all that up because Bangladeshi police may have found Tutul’s assailant. The police made headlines last week when they rounded up at least 3,000 people (some estimates say 8,000) suspected of being Islamic radicals. One of those suspects has now been charged with carrying out the attack on Tutul,,,
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And it continues, first Avijit Roy, continuing with Washiqur Rahman, Ananta Bijoy Das, and then Niloy Neel.  Sadly now, Faisal Arefin Dipon; publisher of some of Roy’s books as head of the Jagriti Prakashani publishing house.
Three bloggers and writers, including the publisher of Shuddhashar Prokashani, Ahmedur Rashid Tutul, have been hacked in the capital's Lalmatia area.

Shuddhashar Prokashani published slain writer-blogger Avijit Roy's book Shunya Theke Mahabishwa and the publisher reportedly received death threat after the brutal murder of Avijit. Tutul has written two poetry books--Durbalataguchchha, Mrita Ghorhar Hresha.


Two other injured bloggers-writers are--Sudeep Kumar Ray Barman, who writes under the name of Ranadipam Basu, and Tareq Rahim.

Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Friendly Atheist has a nice write up with responses from the Center For Inquiry-US, Centre For Inquiry-Canada and the American Humanist Association.

If you do not speak out against the extremism you condone it, it is no longer fringe when it is occurs in our everyday life.  Religion (all religion) must be eliminated from the public sphere.

Avijit Roy's publisher, 2 bloggers hacked in Dhaka | Dhaka Tribune

See also: Bangladesh: Publisher of secular books Faisal Arefin Deepan hacked to death

Friday, February 12, 2016

Saudi execution: Court overturns poet s death sentence - CNN.com

A Saudi Arabian court has overturned the death penalty for Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh, but upheld his guilty verdict on a charge of apostasy.

The court, instead, sentenced Fayadh to eight years in prison and 800 lashes, a statement from his lawyer said.

Fayadh was initially sentenced to death by a court in the southwestern Saudi city of Abha in November on a series of blasphemy charges related to his poetry, causing an international outcry.

Fayadh will be lashed 800 times over 16 sessions, serve eight years in prison and must publicly declare his repentance in the media, said his lawyer Abdulrahman al-Lahim. 

Al-Lahim said the defense planned to appeal the court's decision, saying Fayadh is innocent and should be freed.
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This is not the first time Fayadh's sentence has changed -- he'd originally been handed a lesser sentence of four years in prison and 800 lashes on the charge of having inappropriate relations with members of the opposite sex.

The court had dismissed a prosecution request for a death sentence on the apostasy charge, citing Fayadh's declared "repentance" and testimony that indicated hostility between Fayadh and the complainant, Human Rights Watch said. The watch dog group said they'd viewed the court documents

But the prosecutor appealed the ruling, according to the rights group. In mid-November, a new judge dismissed the earlier decision, saying Fayadh's repentance was not enough to avoid a death sentence for apostasy, citing verses from the defendant's poetry.

Saudi execution: Court overturns poet s death sentence - CNN.com

Saturday, November 7, 2015

Pastor Faked Own Assault, Blamed Muslims: Prosecutor | Basking Ridge, NJ Patch

Someone needs a better role model than Ashley Todd!!
The pastor of a Somerset County church tied himself up, wrote misspelled Muslim words on paper taped to his body, and lied about being assaulted inside his own church last week, Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey Soriano announced.

On Friday, Oct. 30 around 11:20 a.m., Somerville police responded to New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church at 147 East Main Street for a report of an alleged assault, Soriano said.

When police arrived they found a person inside the church with his hands loosely tied up with rope behind his back, legs tied, and a piece of cloth stuffed into his mouth, Soriano said. The person also had a plastic bag over his head and a piece of paper taped to his chest and back with a misspelled Islamic phrase, Soriano said.

Officers removed the bag and ropes and identified the man as Jairon Pena, 36, a pastor of the church.
Pastor Faked Own Assault, Blamed Muslims: Prosecutor | Basking Ridge, NJ Patch

Friday, November 6, 2015

Indian Muslim accused of beef smuggling beaten to death | World news | The Guardian

I am going to admit that parsing news stories concerning religious based crimes, particularly those from India, is becoming difficult.  With that said, another example of debauchery inspired by religious belief.
Villagers in northern India beat a Muslim man to death and injured four others who were accused of smuggling cows to be slaughtered for beef, police have said.
 
The survivors were arrested for alleged animal cruelty.

Hardline Hindus have been calling for a national ban on cow slaughter, triggering mob violence. A Muslim man was lynched in Uttar Pradesh state last month over false rumours that his family had eaten beef for dinner.

Hindus worship cows as a sacred animal and some states have a ban on their slaughter. The country of 1.3 billion is about 81% Hindu and 13% Muslim.

Officer Somya Sambhasivam said police were searching for villagers who fled after the attack on Wednesday in Sarahan, a village in Himachal Pradesh state. The area is about 160 miles (260km) north of Delhi.
Indian Muslim accused of beef smuggling beaten to death | World news | The Guardian

Monday, November 2, 2015

Indonesia: ‘Suspected Lesbians’ Detained | Human Rights Watch

As of this posting I am not aware of any change is status concerning this incident.  It highlights well, that we have a long way to go in the fight for equality on the world stage where the ramifications are much greater. Following the story is a discussion of Aceh's "Special Status agreement" and the direct influence of Sharia on the laws in the province.  Why I choose to include this narrative despite the date.
Indonesian authorities should immediately and unconditionally release two women arrested on suspicion of being lesbians in Aceh province, Human Rights Watch said today. The arrests under Islamic bylaw are contrary to the rights to nondiscrimination and fundamental freedoms under Indonesia’s constitution and international human rights law. 
On September 28, 2015, the Wilayatul Hisbah, or Sharia police, arrested the two women identified as AS, age 18, and N, age 19, when the police saw the pair hugging in a public place in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital. A police official told reporters that they “suspected the women were lesbians.”

“The arrest of two women in Aceh for everyday behavior is an outrageous abuse of police power that should be considered a threat to all Indonesians,” said Graeme Reid, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights program director at Human Rights Watch. “The Indonesian government needs to press Aceh to repeal its discriminatory new by-laws.”
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Aceh’s criminal code, which went into effect in September 2014, prohibits lesbianism and sodomy. These offenses do not exist in the Indonesian national criminal code. The Acehnese by-laws extend Sharia, or Islamic law, to non-Muslims, and the criminal code permits punishments of 100 lashes and 100 months in prison for consensual same-sex sex acts.
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Aceh’s parliament drafted the Principles of the Islamic By-law, while the province’s official Islamic Affairs Office drafted the Islamic criminal code. These by-laws apply not only to Aceh’s predominantly Muslim population, but to about 90,000 non-Muslim residents, most of them Christians and Buddhists, as well as domestic and foreign visitors to the province.
Indonesia: ‘Suspected Lesbians’ Detained | Human Rights Watch

Indonesia's Aceh to close churches after pressure from Muslim groups | Reuters


Authorities in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province said on Sunday several Christian churches would be shut down this week, just days after a mob burned down a church, killing one person and injuring several others.

Tensions have been high among the ethnically and religiously diverse population of Aceh, raising the risk of further religious violence in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim population.

The vast majority of Indonesians practise a moderate form of Islam and Aceh is the only province to adhere to Islamic Sharia law, putting it at odds with the rest of the country.

Aceh was granted special autonomy as part of a 2005 agreement to end decades of separatist violence, which allowed it to implement Sharia law.

Indonesia's Aceh to close churches after pressure from Muslim groups | Reuters

Iranian poets sentenced to 99 lashes for shaking hands with members of opposite sex | Toronto Star

Fatemeh Ekhtesari, a practicing obstetrician, and Mehdi Mousavi, a trained doctor who teaches literature and poetry, were first arrested in December 2013, months after Rouhani took office.

Earlier this month, Ekhtesari received an 11 ½-year prison sentence, while Mousavi got nine years and the aforementioned lashes on charges ranging from propaganda against the state to “insulting sanctities,” according to PEN.
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The crackdown represents the “continuation of the paranoia that the intelligence services and the judiciary has been having all along,” said Haleh Esfandiari, an Iranian-American dual national who was detained by Iranian authorities in 2007.

“They are now trying to frighten a lot of people who are inside Iran: (aid groups), journalists, poets, bloggers, Internet users. They are trying to warn them that, ‘Make sure you think twice if a foreigner gets in touch with you and reaches out to you,’ ” said Esfandiari, a fellow at the Washington-based Wilson Center. “They are scared of the possibility of a soft revolution.”

Mousavi and Ekhtesari may have been targeted because their work is known abroad. Both are self-described “postmodern Ghazal” poets who seek to revive the traditional Persian love sonnet by applying it to contemporary political and social issues.

Iranian poets sentenced to 99 lashes for shaking hands with members of opposite sex | Toronto Star

Urgent Statement: Flogging of Raif Badawi will resume - Fondation Raif Badawi


I was informed by an informed source, that the Saudi authorities have given the green light to the resumption of Raif Badawi’s flogging. The informed source also said that the flogging will resume soon but will be administered inside the prison.

It is worth mentioning that the same source had warned me of Raif’s pending flogging at the beginning of January 2015 and his warning was confirmed, as Raif was flogged on 9th January.

While i do not understand this decision especially as Raif’s case is still being reviewed by the supreme court according to a senior source in the Saudi Ministry of Justice and according to the statement of UK Foreign Office minister, Tobias Ellwood, who told the House of Commons in July that my husband’s case was still being examined by Saudi judges.


Urgent Statement: Flogging of Raif Badawi will resume - Fondation Raif Badawi

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Young boys in Baghdad mourn the death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson | Daily Mail Online

Warning::  if you choose to read the complete article, some of the photos attached are quite graphic.  The Ashura ritual as depicted shows the absurdity of blind devotion.  Case in point, this child,,,

Young boys also took part in the Shi'ite ceremony in Manchester, a much tamer version of the ritual in Baghdad

Shocking images show young Muslim boys beating themselves with sharp blades as part of the holy Day of Ashura.
Every year, Muslims all over the world take part in these bloody self-flagellation ceremonies to mark the tenth day of the Islamic calendar and to mourn the death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Imam Husayn, at the Battle of Karbala.
Sunni Muslims celebrate it the date - which they refer to as the Day of Atonement - as the day Israelites were freed from the Pharaoh of Egypt.
Young boys in Baghdad mourn the death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson | Daily Mail Online

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Muslim 'holy man' jailed for sickening sex attack on young woman during 'naked healing ritual' - Mirror Online

 

A self-appointed Muslim “holy man” sexually assaulted a young woman he was meant to be healing.

Syed Shah used his position as a healer to abuse his victim.

The "very dangerous sexual predator" pounced while ordering her to undress during a healing session.

Shah, 29, initially denied any involvement - but mobile phone data put him near the crime scene.

He was charged and pleaded guilty to sexual assault, reports the Birmingham Mail .

This week at Birmingham Crown Court he was jailed for two years and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register.

Muslim 'holy man' jailed for sickening sex attack on young woman during 'naked healing ritual' - Mirror Online

Saturday, October 24, 2015

UPDATED::Saudi Arabia: Juvenile prisoner faces 'death by crucifixion' after appeal is dismissed - Yahoo News UK

UPDATE:: The Prime Minister suggests that he will try and personally intervene with Saudi Arabian authorities in the case of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, who has been sentenced to death, as he is tackled over the British response to human rights abuses.


UPDATE::  This is why Saudi should not be on the UN Human Rights Council!
Now, a group of UN human rights experts have penned a joint statement calling on Saudi Arabia to “immediately halt the scheduled execution” and give Mr al-Nimr “a fair retrial”.

The experts, including the UN’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial or arbitrary executions Christof Heyns and Benyam Mezmur, the chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, said imposing the death penalty on someone who was a child at the time of offending and after allegations of torture was “incompatible with Saudi Arabia’s international obligations”.

“International law, accepted as binding by Saudi Arabia, provides that capital punishment may only be imposed following trials that comply with the most stringent requirements of fair trial and due process, or could otherwise be considered an arbitrary execution,” they said.

“In light of reports that the trial against Mr al-Nimr fell short of such standards, we call upon the Saudi authorities to ensure a fair retrial of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, and to immediately halt the scheduled execution,” the experts added.
A prisoner in Saudi Arabia, who was sentenced to death as a child, faces "death by crucifixion" after a final appeal has been dismissed. Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was arrested on 14 February 2012 when he was just 17, during a crackdown on anti-government protests in the Shiite province of Qatif. He was accused by the authorities of participation in illegal protests and of firearms offences, despite there being no evidence to justify the latter charge.

Ali was initially held at a juvenile offenders facility, where he was denied access to lawyers. Evidence indicates that he was tortured and forced to sign a document which was tantamount to a confession. The signed document formed the basis of the case against him and he was convicted of the alleged offences by the Specialised Criminal Court (SCC). However, the trials failed to meet international standards. Ali and his family have strongly denied the charges against him, but, after the final appeal - which was held in secret and without Ali's knowledge - was dismissed, there are few legal options remaining to oppose the sentence originally handed down on 27 May 2014. It is feared that Ali could be executed in a matter of days.

The case against Ali appears to be based on his familial connection to Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a 53-year old critic of the Saudi regime and a prominent religious leader in the Kingdom, who is his uncle. Mr Al Nimr was sentenced to death by crucifixion on charges including 'insulting the King' and delivering religious sermons that 'disrupt national unity'. This week, it emerged that the authorities plan to execute Ali's uncle on Thursday (17 September) sparking fears that his nephew will also be killed.

Saudi Arabia: Juvenile prisoner faces 'death by crucifixion' after appeal is dismissed - Yahoo News UK

UPDATED::ISIS throw 4 more gay men to their deaths - Gay Star News

UPDATE::  According to a report from the Advocate via ARA News on the incident in Mosul:
A civil rights activist in the region told ARA News the judgment of who is gay is based on “superficial information without any investigation.”

The pretext in the Mosul execution, reports ARA, is that the men were determined to be a gay couple. Daesh, or ISIS, interprets the Koran as forbidding homosexuality, a widely held belief in the Muslim world. The Human Rights Campaign notes, however, that “because Islam has no central governing body, it is not possible to state clear policies regarding issues of interest to LGBT people. Depending on nationality, generation, family upbringing, and cultural influences, Islamic individuals and institutions fall along a wide spectrum, from welcoming and inclusive to a level of rejection that can be marked by a range of actions ranging from social sequestration to physical violence.”
The ISIS-linked Sharia Court had issued a decision to execute every gay man by throwing him from the top of a building. 

The extremist group has executed dozens of allegedly gay men in its areas of control in Syria and Iraq in the recent months. 

“Daesh accuses people of being gay only on basis of some superficial information without any investigation. Although the Islamic law bans homosexuality, but the brutal punishment by Daesh has never been witnessed throughout history,” civil rights activist Raed Ahmed told ARA News.
 From Towleroad concerning Nineveh,
Meanwhile, Twitter account “Terrormonitor.org” tweeted graphic pictures of the executions that reportedly took place in Nineveh.
The reports from Aria and Terrormonitor.org have not yet been independently verified, and human rights groups have yet to weigh in. ISIS does, however, have a history of hurling men they suspect to be gay from buildings as a means of execution. Gay refugees fleeing ISIS-held territory have also spoken out of the brutal and grave conditions they faced living under the Islamic State’s draconian rule.
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Islamic State (ISIS) militants executed four more gay men in Iraq over the weekend.

Two young men were thrown off the roof a building in Mosul under the pretext they were a gay couple.

‘On Sunday afternoon, Daesh called on the people of Mosul to gather in the square of Bab al-Toub in order to witness the execution of the two allegedly men,’ an eyewitness told ARA News.

‘The victims were taken to the top of a building and were brutally thrown off the roof.’

Also on Sunday, the Terror Monitor group tweeted photos of a separate execution of two ‘gay’ men, who were thrown from a building in Ninevah into a pile of cement blocks.

ISIS throw 4 more gay men to their deaths - Gay Star News

Islamic State: ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi issues rape edict over Yazidi slaves | World | News | Daily Express


Please note:: this "letter" referred to has not appeared in any other source that I am familiar with although I do not doubt that such may exist. Based on previous posting concerning this "theology of rape" and the use of "sexual slavery", I am not surprised by the depravity shown by ISIS.
The twisted terror group's leader has issued a terrifying edict telling militants that repeatedly sexually abusing women is the best way to make them Muslim.

The sickening letter, circulated amongst the group's warped fighters, states that a woman automatically becomes Muslim if she is raped by at least 10 different ISIS fighters.
It emerged as victims of the perverted hate group spoke out about its infamous sex slave markets, where twisted militants can buy women for as little as a packet of cigarettes.

ISIS fighters have previously executed women who refused to have sex with them, with many experts saying most young men joining the group are more interested in sex than Islam or jihad.

Many of the women come from the Yazidi religious sect and have been horrendously defiled and mutilated by Islamist fanatics who believe they indulge in "devil worship".

[,,,]
London-based Imam Ajmal Masroor said the terrorists have "hijacked" the religion in an attempt to justify their own depraved desires.

He told CNN: "The people of ISIS don't represent Islam at all. In fact, if anything, they are anti-Islam.

"They have hijacked Islam. They have denigrated Islam. They have desecrated it.
Islamic State: ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi issues rape edict over Yazidi slaves | World | News | Daily Express

Friday, October 23, 2015

Stop the Jihadi Onslaught Against Atheists and Free Thinkers - The Daily Beast

But matters are not restricted to America or Bangladesh. Saudi Arabia has decided that the “crime” of being an atheist is so grave, that—no joke—atheism has been officially declared a terrorism offense. Meanwhile, free-thinking blogger and Nobel Prize nominee Raif Badawi has been accused of atheism and sentenced to 10 years in prison with 1,000 lashes, 50 of which have been executed. To put the boot in, the Saudis decided to convict his lawyer, too, my friend the liberal Muslim Walid Abulkhair.

And Egyptian atheists have it bad too, whether before or after the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood government there in the summer of 2013.
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So beleaguered is this minority that you can be put to death for atheism in no less than 13 countries around the world today. In 39 countries the law mandates a prison sentence for blasphemy, and six of these are Western countries. Iceland maintains a jail sentence for up to three months; in Denmark it is up to four months; in New Zealand it stretches to up to a year; in Poland up to two years; and in Germany and Greece it is up to three years. Some of you may get through this article and still not feel that those who dissent from the religious identity of their birth are among the most discriminated against in most countries of the world today. But that would only prove my point.

Let there be no mistake. There is a bloody war being waged on atheism. And it is time for us all—especially we liberals and Muslims—to show some of that solidarity we rightly expect from others.
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One initiative among others stands out as an attempt to provide the sort of direct support that these modern-day children of Galileo require. Movements.org is a platform that represents a fundamental shift in how human rights work is done today. The old human rights model of writing revelatory reports, and lobbying governments to act on them, rested on the assumption that information about abuse was simply not available. In modern times, the Internet has ensured that the problem is not a lack of information. The need of the day is to cultivate and connect activists with the support and technical skills they need on the ground. By acting as a platform through which dissenters can post their “needs” they can reach supporters, such as lawyers or tech-experts, who may offer their in-kind services. Movements.org, which works in partnership with The Daily Beast, represents a third way to undercut both dictators and Islamists by cultivating genuinely independent, free-thinking voices.

Stop the Jihadi Onslaught Against Atheists and Free Thinkers - The Daily Beast

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Syrian gang rape victim who fled to Germany is stabbed to death 'in honour killing' | Daily Mail Online


A woman whose family branded her 'unclean' after she was gang-raped in her Syrian homeland has been found murdered in Germany – allegedly on the orders of her own mother.

Police believe the victim, named only as Rokstan M, 20, was stabbed to death by her father and brothers in the twisted logic that she had brought disgrace on her family through the sex attack.

Shortly before she was found dead in an allotment garden in the eastern German city of Dessau, she apparently had a premonition of her fate.

Writing on her WhatsApp profile, she said: 'I am awaiting death. But I am too young to die.'

Syrian gang rape victim who fled to Germany is stabbed to death 'in honour killing' | Daily Mail Online

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Murders test Bangladesh claims that radical Islam in check - Yahoo News

A string of slayings claimed by radical Islamic groups has Bangladesh scrambling to contain what appears to be a rising tide of extremism, and it couldn't have come at a worse time — the country's fragile economic growth is faltering this year amid renewed political unrest.

The secular South Asian nation — traditionally moderate even if unstable at times — has repeatedly insisted it has religious radicalism in check and is maintaining peace among its 160 million people. That claim was severely tested this week after an Italian aid worker became the fifth person to be killed this year in attacks claimed by extremist groups.

A foreigner being gunned down in the country's capital is bad news for Bangladesh, whose economy is heavily reliant on a $25 billion garment industry that produces clothing and fashion wear for international brands including Zara, Benetton and Gap.

Hassan Shariar, a well-known political commentator and columnist, said even though the government won't acknowledge it, there clearly are pockets of radical Islam in the country.

"I don't know why intelligence (agencies) failed to understand that things are going out of control," he said. "It is clearly evident ... that they are failing to contain it with an iron hand."
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Then on Monday, three motorcycle-riding assailants gunned down the Italian aid worker, Cesare Tavella, in the diplomatic quarter of Dhaka. The Sunni extremist group Islamic State claimed responsibility and vowed more such killings in Muslim-majority countries.

The government dismissed the IS claim, saying there was no evidence. It described the killing as an "isolated incident."

"There is no existence of the Islamic State here," Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said Tuesday.

Murders test Bangladesh claims that radical Islam in check - Yahoo News

Militant group publishes global hitlist of bloggers, activists and writers | World news | The Guardian

“Our weapon is [the] pen, and we can use it without hurting anybody. We just want to make people conscious about their rights. So that nobody can use them to fulfill bad intentions.”
Ananya Azad
 
An Islamic militant group in Bangladesh has issued a hitlist of secular bloggers, writers and activists around the world, saying they will be killed if its demands are not met.

The list will raise fears that Islamic militant violence within the unstable south Asian country could take on an international dimension.

The targets in the list include nine bloggers based in the UK, seven in Germany, two in the US, one in Canada and one in Sweden. Some are Bangladeshi citizens living overseas. Others are dual nationals or citizens of the western nations.

The list was issued in a statement on the internet by the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), a group that has been blamed for a series of murders of bloggers and activists in Bangladesh over the last 18 months. All those killed have been prominent critics of extremist religious doctrines, especially in Islam.

The acting leader of the ABT and two close associates were arrested earlier this month in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, on suspicion of involvement in the murder of a secular blogger earlier this year. 

Individuals on the new list have told the Guardian they intend to keep writing and blogging.

“Our weapon is [the] pen, and we can use it without hurting anybody. We just want to make people conscious about their rights. So that nobody can use them to fulfill bad intentions,” said Ananya Azad, a Bangladeshi blogger who has been forced into exile in Europe and is on the list.

There has been no previous indication that the ABT was targeting bloggers overseas and the list will worry security authorities in Europe and the US.

Militant group publishes global hitlist of bloggers, activists and writers | World news | The Guardian

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Indonesian women wait to be whipped in front of a baying crowd for having unmarried sex | Daily Mail Online

A woman kneels and grimaces as she is lashed with a cane for having unmarried sex in an Indonesian province which is ruled under Sharia law in newly released photographs.  

The images show women dressed in white and sitting with their heads bowed as they wait their turn to be punished in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

In one photo, a woman can be seen kneeling on a red platform as her back is whipped with a cane in front of guards and members of the public.

Aceh is the only province in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country that is allowed to implement Islamic Sharia law.

Although public whipping is a common punishment in the province, it is rare for women to be caned.

Indonesian women wait to be whipped in front of a baying crowd for having unmarried sex | Daily Mail Online

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Whitechapel murder: Faith 'healer' stabbed to death at black magic treatment centre | Crime | News | London Evening Standard

Whether this man's "profession" had any impetus on the crime remains to be determined.  But what is at issue, an unlicensed practitioner who was treating people who believe themselves possessed by ‘jinns’.  Just as with "christianized"  so-called demonologists or scam artists like Bob Larson and their deliverance ministries, one of the primary problems is that there is a serious chance that those "possessed" they are suffering from some mental instability.
A faith “healer” was stabbed to death at a spiritual centre for treating black magic and demonic possession in East London.

Father-of-three Zakariyya Islam was killed at the Ruqya Therapy Centre’s base in Whitechapel.
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Mr Islam was a co-founder of the Ruqya centre, based in a complex of small business offices in Greatorex Street, and had been treating people who believe themselves possessed by ‘jinns’, or spirit, and black magic for more than a decade.

The centre, which was sealed off by police who were carrying out forensic searches, also offers advice on sorcery, witchcraft and “evil eye”.
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Last year he hosted a conference on “The World of Jinns” at the East London Mosque which he visited regularly.
Whitechapel murder: Faith 'healer' stabbed to death at black magic treatment centre | Crime | News | London Evening Standard