Tag Archives: Muslim

German establishment rounds on anti-immigration party over Islam

Vote for German AfD

BERLIN (Reuters) – German politicians from across the spectrum criticized the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) on Monday after the party declared Islam incompatible with the constitution.

The AfD, which has surged onto the political scene since its launch three years ago, backed a manifesto pledge at a congress on Sunday to ban on minarets and the burqa, the full face and body-covering gown worn by some Muslim women.

With concerns about Europe’s migrant crisis fuelling the AfD’s rise, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats led criticism of the party.

“What the AfD has decided on is an attack on almost all religions,” Armin Laschet, deputy chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), told ARD television.

“They have identified Islam as a foreign body in Germany,” he said. “That is divisive, and startling to a Christian Democratic party for which faith has meaning.”

Greens parliamentary party leader Katrin Goering-Eckardt described the AfD manifesto as “reactionary” and accused the party of dividing society with Islamophobia.

Opinion polls give the AfD support of up to 14 percent, presenting a serious challenge to Merkel’s conservatives and other established parties ahead of a 2017 federal election. They rule out any coalition with the AfD.

The AfD has no lawmakers in the federal parliament in Berlin but has members in half of Germany’s 16 regional state assemblies.

Merkel has said freedom of religion for all is guaranteed by Germany’s constitution and that Islam is a part of Germany.

Germany is home to nearly 4 million Muslims, about 5 percent of the total population. Community leaders have called on politicians to ensure that no religious community be disadvantaged and that Islam not be defined as a “foe”.

Many of the longer established Muslim community came from Turkey to find work. Last year, more than a million, mostly Muslim migrants, arrived in Germany. Most had fled conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Alexander Gauland, who leads the AfD in the eastern state of Brandenburg, said Muslims could still practise their faith in Germany.

“A Muslim in Germany can follow his religion without minarets. The AfD has nothing against places of worship,” Gauland told Deutschlandfunk radio, insisting his party did not want existing minarets torn down but rather no new ones built.

Aiman Mazyek, head of Germany’s Central Council of Muslims who has likened the AfD’s attitude towards his community to that of Hitler’s Nazis towards Jews, told the Osnabruecker Zeitung the AfD manifesto was “an Islamophobic program” that “is of no help to solve problems, but rather just divides our country.”

(Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Muslim nations agree to work against Terrorism

Turkish President Erdogan poses with leaders of the IOC member states during the Istanbul Summit

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Muslim countries have agreed to work together more closely to fight terrorism and other crimes and will establish an Istanbul-based center for greater police cooperation, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday.

Leaders from the Muslim world are attending a summit in Istanbul this week of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to discuss issues facing the grouping’s 57 member states, including the humanitarian fall-out from Syria’s civil war.

“It would be appropriate to create a structure among OIC countries which would strengthen and institutionalize cooperation against terror and other crimes,” Erdogan said in his opening address at the summit.

“With this in mind, our proposal for the establishment of an OIC police cooperation and coordination center based in Istanbul found acceptance.”

Erdogan, whose country is set to take over the three-year rotating presidency of the OIC, gave no details about the new police center or say when it might start work.

Turkey has long pressed for closer regional cooperation in tackling terrorism as its army and security forces battle Kurdish militants that Ankara and its Western allies classify as terrorists.

Turkey is part of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State in neighboring Syria and is also a vocal opponent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a stance that has put it at odds with Assad’s ally, Iran.

On Thursday Erdogan called for greater unity among Muslim countries.

“The more that we as Muslims, as Muslim countries, fall out with each other, the more the innocents who have put their hopes in us will be exposed to strife,” he said.

Also speaking at the summit, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke out against divisions among Muslims. Shi’ite Iran is at loggerheads with Sunni Muslim powers including Saudi Arabia in Yemen as well as in Syria.

“No message which would fuel division in the Islamic community should come out of the conference,” Rouhani told the conference, according to Iranian state television.

(Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Gareth Jones; Writing by David Dolan)

Over 700 People Killed in Stampede in Hajj Pilgrimage Near Mecca

According to Saudi Arabia officials, more than 700 people have been killed and more than 800 have been injured in a stampede as millions of Muslims made their pilgrimage, or hajj, to Mecca.

The stampede took place about two miles from Mecca in a tent city called Mina during the ritual known as “stoning the devil.” Pilgrims sleep in 160,000 tents in Mina during the hajj because it is located in a valley where the symbolic stone throwing ritual is held. During the “stoning of the devil,” pebbles are thrown at three stone pillars that represent the devil.

Saudi Arabia’s civil defense directorate reported that the stampede occurred when a large number of pilgrims surged at an intersection of two streets. Saudi Arabia’s health minister released a statement baling the tragedy on the pilgrims who didn’t follow directions, according to CNN.

Hours after the stampede, pilgrims continued their journey. One pilgrim, Ethar El-Katatney, was near the site of the stampede five hours after it happened. She watched as medical personnel and police officers pulled bodies out of the edges of the crowd.

“I saw the ambulances, I saw bodies. … At least 20, 30 ambulances passed me by,” she told CNN by phone as she tried to reach the pillars herself.

NBC reports that more than 220 rescue vehicles and 4,000 first responders were at the site.

Thursday’s stampede is the deadliest pilgrimage incident since 1990, when 1,426 people were killed in an overcrowded tunnel leading to Mecca’s holy site. Since then, crushes and stampedes leading to many deaths have taken place in 1994, 1998, 2001, 2004, and 2006.

Radical Imam in Training Turns to Jesus

A man who was a devout Muslim and training to be a radical imam in the land of ISIS is now a Jesus fanatic who claims Christ came to him supernaturally in a dream.

“I was a…Muslim and often preached, but there was something missing. There was something empty about Allah and the Quran. Jesus appeared to me in a dream and open my eyes … what has missing was His love and peace,” said Iraqi Barazan Azeezi to The Christian Post.

Azeezi said that he was a “violent person” and was motivated by fear of Allah.   After the meeting with Christ in his dream, he not only renounced violence but says he experienced “love” for the “true God” and that he sees God’s truth.

Azeezi also faced persecution and anger from his Islamic family.

“In the beginning, my family thought I was joking and claimed that I was going mad,” he said. “After months of debates, they started to threaten to kill me. … It was God’s grace that helped me overcome the fear.”

Azeezi said that he is not the only person to come to Christ through supernatural experiences.  He shared the story of an ISIS terrorist who had been sent to destroy a church building.  When he entered the church, a bright light appeared on him.  A voice in the light said he was Jesus.  The fighter immediately dropped his items and accepted Christ as Lord.

Azeezi says that he believes satan is trying to keep those in the Middle East from seeing the truth of Christ.

“I believe Satan creates chaos in the Middle East to stop the gospel from reaching our people. This is one of his last strongholds in the world and he won’t back off easily,” he said.

Day of Violence in Nigeria Leaves 60 Dead

Islamic terrorists launched a day of violence in Nigeria against both Christians and Muslims on Sunday leaving more than 60 dead.

Boko Haram bombed a crowded mosque and Muslim restaurant in the city of Jos.  Muslim community lawyer Ahmed Garba told Fox News that 51 people died in the twin attacks and were buried on Monday.  An additional 67 were wounded and remain hospitalized.

A witness said that the bomber at the mosque appeared to be targeting cleric Sani Yahaya.

“He is a great Islamic scholar who has spoken out against Boko Haram, and that is why we believe he was the target,” Danladi Sani told The Associated Press.

The terrorists also attacked an evangelical Christian church in Potiskum along with a campaign of arson against villages that burned over 300 homes.

Boko Haram has ramped up violence in response to a call by ISIS terrorists for increased activity during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the attacks and said that he will protect the rights of Nigerians to freely worship.

In the last week the terrorist group has killed over 300 people.

Pakistan Islamic Clerics Fight To Keep Blasphemy Laws

Islamic clerics in Pakistan are complaining to government officials who are considering changes to the nation’s blasphemy laws.

A group of Muslims gathered at an event they called a “seminar for protection of the prophet’s dignity” and are calling for the legislators to stop adding the word “intention” to the law that many Muslims use to bully Christians.

“The new bill rejects all sayings by the ‘holy prophet,'” former Pakistani justice Mian Nazir Akhtar stated. “When it comes to the sanctity of the prophet, the implementation of all man-made laws become different. Those who insult him have no rights, including no right to live. There is no need for trial or hearings.”

Many Christians have been accused of blasphemy by Muslims in Pakistan for various reason including a desire by the Muslims to seize their property to punish them for their Christian faith.  Muslim mobs routinely attack Christians accused of blasphemy and kill them without any court trial.

Currently 40 people sit on Pakistan’s death row on accusations of blasphemy including Asia Bibi, jailed because she drank water from a well that Muslim women wanted to use.

“The blasphemy law on its face flatly violates both freedom of religion and freedom of expression. Worse still, Pakistan vigorously applies this law,”  Katrina Lantos Swett, the chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said. “Moreover, the weight of this law falls disproportionately on members of religious minority communities, such as Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, and Ahmadis.

“In addition, enforcement of such laws emboldens religious extremist groups and their sympathizers to assault these minorities — as seen most recently when terrorists slaughtered Ismaili Muslims on a bus,” she continued. “And finally, Pakistan’s zealous enforcement of these laws is in contrast to the pronounced lack of zeal bringing to justice those responsible for such attacks.”

Some Muslim leaders have threatened a fatwa against those supporting the change to the law.

Muslims Force Christian Man Off Land To Build Mosque

An Ethiopian Christian fled his land in fear for his life after a Muslim mob ignored a court order protecting the Christian’s property rights.

The International Christian Concern reported that Fikere Mengistu built a home for his 93-year-old mother on land that he owned.  The Muslims then came in and destroyed the home along with his fence.  They looted the mother’s possessions from the home.

BosNewsLife reported that the Muslims acted in fear of Christians meeting.

Fearing that the village’s 38 Christians would use the house to gather for prayer,” BNL reported, “dozens of Muslims began to occupy his land and would remain for weeks at a time shouting “Allahu akhbar.”

The Muslims say they’re going to build a mosque on the Christian’s land.

“Their first plan was to kill my husband,” Mengistu’s wife, Haregewoyan, said in a statement to the ICC. “Now, he has escaped from the area. We are fasting and praying for God to rescue us from this forceful action.”

The land has been in Mengistu’s family for 90 years.

The head of the International Christian Concern in Africa is calling on the government to enforce the judge’s rulings.

Muslim Brotherhood Attacks Egyptian Christian Church

A group of Islamic extremists attacked a Christian church in Egypt because the church planned to honor 21 Christian martyrs killed by the extremist group ISIS.

“I called the police many times and asked them to come to guard us but they came late and after their arrival they didn’t guard the church. They stopped in the entrance of the village. Even still they allowed the cars of the attackers to enter the village and attack us and the church without any intervention from them to protect us,” Fr. Makar Issa told the International Christian Concern.

Daily News Egypt reported that the attackers are connected to the Muslim Brotherhood, the former political party that is now outlawed in the country as an Islamic terrorist organization.

The Virgin Mary Church is the only Christian church in Al-Our for the village’s 2,500 Christians.

“They shot guns at the church and pelted the church with stones and blocks,” Fr. Issa said.

“They smashed the sign of the church, destroying the ground of the church yard and breaking the widows of the service buildings of the church. They also burned a car that was parked in the front of the church.”

 

Texas City Stands Up To Sharia Law

The city government of Irving, Texas is standing up and saying sharia law is not going to be legal within the bounds of their city.

A Sunni mosque in Irving had announced earlier this year they were forming an Islamic Tribunal to provide mediation of disputes in the Muslim community according to Sharia Law.  Now, the city has passed a resolution backing a Texas House Bill that would forbid the use of “foreign law” to decide issues within the city.

Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne has been the subject of hate from the Muslim community because of her bold stand against Sharia Law.

“As Mayor of the City of Irving, I took an oath to uphold the laws of the State of Texas and the Constitution of the United States,” Duyne wrote earlier this year. “American citizens need to remember that their rights are guaranteed by the Constitution and I believe no one should subjugate themselves to anything less.”

However, she says this new law is not aimed at religion of any kind.

“This bill does not mention at all Muslims, sharia law, Islam, even religion,” Duyne stated.

Duyne said that she would work to fight for anyone whose civil rights is violated in any way by people connected to the “Tribunal”.

UK Group Helping Christian Rape Victims

A British group is trying to raise world awareness of the rape of two Pakistiani Christian girls by a gang of Muslims.

The teen girls, Sherish and Farzana, live in Pakistan’s Punjab province.  The Muslim men attacked them only because they were Christian and the men wanted to punish them for their faith.

The British Pakistani Christian Association says the teens have been intimidated by the group of men after the attacks in an attempt to keep them quiet.  One of the men on a motorcycle fired guns into the family home of the girls.  They were told they shouldn’t be in an Islamic country and they should leave immediately.

The BPCA says that the local officials arrested three men in connection with the attack but two of them have been released on “bail” with no date to return to face charges.  The local police reportedly have misplaced evidence and made other mistakes that the BPCA says it related to corruption rather than incompetence.