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So you are realizing that Muslims were in Europe for centuries and to my knowledge this was not a problem before to anybody. Nobody had problems with minarets and mosques.
You are quoting Gaddafi for the second time like he is a leader of Muslim world or something. So the problem appears not to be a Muslims themselves but Gaddafi. He has no authority over those Muslims in Europe the same way like some bishop in Italy doesn't have authority over me.
What you are calling demands of Muslims in different countries, others call it right to religion and customs. As you were quoting Canada before as a place of problems with Muslims, which I can assure you is not, is the result of earlier Canadian Governments approach to other nations in respectful manner. There is a concept of multiculturalism and in the city where I live, Winnipeg, each summer we have event called Folklorama where about for a month all nations and cultures present their customs, foods and traditions. People have respect here for other cultures and all are mostly immigrants themselves. Try talking to my kids and try putting any nation down to understand what I mean.
Countries in Europe which you say have problems with Muslims might be those like UK, Germany, France, Spain or Italy. Remember that those countries used to loot third world through colonies, slavery, fascism and they still have elements in it which believe according to Charles Darwin that they are better humans. Throught the history they got away with exterminating entire nations and these days after importing people from the third world, they find themselves surprised that those people actually have a voice. They used to keep them in check before, but today they create atmosphere of threat from Islam when they realizing that their fraud with exploitation didn't work anymore.
I don't know if you are of Jewish origin, but if you are which your place of living suggest you might be, you know very well history of Jews and you know that what you say about Islam today, people in Europe were saying for good thousand of years about Jews.
That Jews were persecuted and pushed around in different countries at different times when it turned out that Jews were doing too well. Europeans were not happy about the Synagogues and about Jewish communities.
This sounds like now we should start hating Muslims because they are too vocal and too visible.
I don't subscribe to this idea and never will. If Muslims ever become a problem this will not be because they are Muslims, but because somebody wants them to stop being Muslims.
I would feel the same way if someone would want me to stop being Christian.
You seem to be agreeing with those who want to deny Muslims in Europe that what always got Jews in troubles. Jews always had their synagogues, they had their traditional cloths and they celebrated their holidays. They lived in the communes where only Jews lived. They didn't accept customs of countries in which they lived and they kept cultivating their own customs and traditions.
Don't ask Muslims today to be different.
Bogdan
Hello Bogdan,
Yes,there have been Muslims in Europe for centuries but let's remember why and how they initially got there. Europe is not their natural habitat but under the different Caliphs they captured large parts of Europe(and other parts of the world) cos then as now their plan was for world domination (That of course includes the Muslim Tartars that live in Poland). See information below.
In regard to the enslavement of peoples. The Muslims were the greatest slave masters in the world and slavery exists even today in Islamic countries. They were the ones that caught the Blacks in Africa and sold them to the slave traders from different parts of the world.
It's very easy to blame some European countries with colonialism and that being part of the problem or according to what you wrote the root of the problem. Butr emember that the domination of other countries, cultures and religions was initiated by Islam way before any of the modern age colonialism you referred to. It's a non issue and Islam's modern day version of world domination is a fact of life you can choose to ignore but to do so is just a version of hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil. Ignoring it is as dangerous as all the issues Alex Jones warns against.
Unfortunately you are not very well informed about Islam since no one is trying to force them to stop being Muslims quite the opposite is true. According to the Koran Islam is the one true religion and members of all other religions are infidels and are to be killed and/or relegated to second class status and charged the jizya tax payable to the Muslim rulers.This is not fiction and all you have to do is read the Koran and see for yourself. Furthermore you can read the proclamations by different imams and watch the many youtube videos on this subject. They say it openly and freely.
To answer your question I am Jewish and there are no similarities between historical and present day antisemitism and the dangers of Radical Islam and the so called Islamophobia. I can recommend many sources for you to read up on this subject if you are interested. According to what you state in your posts you haven't read much on this very important world problem.
In regard to Canada there are many instances of honor killings, abuse of women and other issues attributed to the Radical Muslim/Islamic factions there. These are EVEN documented by MSM but more so in the alternative news sources that are much more reliable then MSM as you well know.
Shalom,
Peter
In order not to clutter up the thread with long articles I'll just paste in the headlines with the link to read and learn more at the source. Since these are from Wikipedia and in essence aren't the greatest source but good enough for the basics. If you are interested in more serious publications I'll be more then glad to supply you with them.
In future posts here and in my forum as usual you'll find links to all the sources. I do not post rumors or events that aren't substantiated by facts. As I posted many a time I am not politically correct and am willing like you to discuss issues that MSM ignores due to their own agendas and political views and at the behest of the government of the day in particular the B Hussein regime.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The term caliphate (from the Arabic خلافة or khilāfa) refers to the first form of government inspired by Islam. It was initially led by Muhammad's disciples as a continuation of the political authority the prophet established, known as the 'rashidun caliphates'. It represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah, and was the world's first major welfare state.[1] A "caliphate" is also a state which implements such a government.
Sunni Islam dictates that the head of state, the caliph, should be selected by Shura - elected by Muslims or their representatives.[2] Followers of Shia Islam believe the caliph should be an imam descended in a line from the Ahl al-Bayt. After the Rashidunperiod until 1924, caliphates, sometimes two at a single time, real andillusory, were ruled by dynasties. The first dynasty was the Umayyad. This was followed by the Abbasid, the Fatimid, and finally the Ottoman Dynasty.
The caliphate was "the core political concept of Sunni Islam, by the consensus of the Muslim majority in the early centuries.".[3]
Read more here.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Criticism of Islam has existed since Islam's formative stages. Early written criticism came from Christians, prior to 1000 AD, many of whom viewed Islam as a radical Christian heresy.[1] Later there appeared criticism from the Muslim world itself, and also from Jewish writers and from ecclesiastical Christians.[2][3][4] In the modern era, criticism has come from Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Communists, ex-Muslim converts, atheists and agnostics, and others, on a wide variety of topics.
Objects of criticism include the morality of the life of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, both in his public and personal life.[4][5] Issues relating to the authenticity and morality of the Qur'an, the Islamic holy book, are also discussed by critics.[6][7]Other criticisms focus on the question of human rights in modernIslamic nations, and the treatment of women in Islamic law and practice.[8][9] In wake of the recent "multiculturalism" trend, Islam's influence on the ability of Muslim immigrants in the West to assimilate has been criticized.[10]
Read more here.
Jihad
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jihad (pronounced /dʒɪˈhɑːd/; Arabic: جهاد [dʒiˈhæːd]), an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād is a noun meaning "struggle." Jihad appears frequently in the Qur'an and common usage as the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of Allah (al-jihad fi sabil Allah)".[1][2] A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid, the plural is mujahideen.
A minority among the Sunni scholars sometimes refer to this duty as the sixth pillar of Islam, though it occupies no such official status.[3] In Twelver Shi'a Islam, however, Jihad is one of the 10 Practices of the Religion.
According to scholar John Esposito, Jihad requires Muslims to "struggle in the way of God" or "to struggle to improve one's self and/or society."[3][4] Jihad is directed against Satan's inducements, aspects of one's own self, or against a visible enemy.[1][5] The four major categories of jihad that are recognized are Jihad against one's self (Jihad al-Nafs), Jihad of the tongue (Jihad al-lisan), Jihad of the hand (Jihad al-yad), and Jihad of the sword (Jihad as-sayf).[5] Islamic military jurisprudence focuses on regulating the conditions and practice of Jihad as-sayf, the only form of warfare permissible under Islamic law, and thus the term Jihad is usually used in fiqh manuals in reference to military combat.[5][6]
Read more here.
[edit] Ottoman Empire
The Young Turks government of the collapsing Ottoman Empire in 1915 persecuted Christianpopulations in Anatolia, Syria and Mesopotamia, resulting in anestimated 1.5 million deaths, divided between roughly 0.6 million Armenian Christians, 0.2 million Syriac Christians and 0.3 million Greek Orthodox Christians.
[edit] Republic of Turkey
In modern Turkey, the Istanbul pogrom was a state-sponsored and state-orchestrated pogrom that compelled Greek Christians to leave Istanbul (Constantinople), the first Christian city in violation to the Treaty of Lausanne (see Istanbul Pogrom). The issue of Christian genocides by the Turks may become a problem, since Turkey wishes to join the European Union.[16]
The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is still in a difficult position. Turkey requires by law that the Ecumenical Patriarch must be an ethnic Greek, holding Turkish citizenship by birth, although most of the Greek minority has been expelled. The state's expropriation of church property and the closing of the Orthodox Theological School of Halki are also difficulties faced by the Church of Constantinople. Despite appeals from the United States, the European Union and various governmental and non-governmental organizations, the School remains closed since 1971.
Persecution of Christians has continued in modern Turkey. On February 5, 2006, the Catholic priest Andrea Santoro was murdered in Trabzon by a student influenced by the reactions following the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.[17] On April 18, 2007, 3 Christians were brutally murdered in Malatya,[18][19] the hometown of Mehmet Ali Ağca, the assassin who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981.
According to UNHCR,although Christians represent less than 5% of the total Iraqipopulation, they make up 40% of the refugees now living in nearbycountries.[20] Northern Iraq remained predominantly Christian until the destructions of Tamerlane at the end of the 14th century. The Church of the East has its origin in what is now South East Turkey. By the end of the 13th century there were twelve Nestorian dioceses in a strip from Peking to Samarkand. When the 14th-century Muslim warlord of Turco-Mongol descent, Tamerlane (Timul Lenk), conquered Persia, Mesopotamia and Syria, the civilian population was decimated. Timur Lenk had 70,000 Assyrian Christians beheaded in Tikrit, and 90,000 more in Baghdad.[21][22]
In the 16th century, Christians were half the population of Iraq.[23] In 1987, the last Iraqi census counted 1.4 million Christians.[24] They were tolerated under the secular regime of Saddam Hussein, who even made one of them, Tariq Aziz, his deputy.
Recently, Christians have seen their total numbers slump to about 500,000 today, of whom 250,000 live in Baghdad.[25] An exodus to the neighboring countries of Syria, Jordan and Turkeyhas left behind closed parishes, seminaries and convents. As a smallminority without a militia of their own, Iraqi Christians have beenpersecuted by both Shi’a and Sunni Muslim militias, and also by criminal gangs.[26][27]
As of June 21, 2007, the UNHCRestimated that 2.2 million Iraqis had been displaced to neighboringcountries, and 2 million were displaced internally, with nearly 100,000Iraqis fleeing to Syria and Jordan each month.[28][29] A May 25, 2007 article notes that in the past seven months only 69 people from Iraq have been granted refugee status in the United States.[30]
Chaldean Catholic priest Fr. Ragheed Aziz Ganni and subdeacons Basman Yousef Daud, Wahid Hanna Isho, and Gassan Isam Bidawed were killed in the ancient city of Mosul last year.[31]Fr. Ragheed Aziz Ganni was driving with his three deacons when theywere stopped and demanded to convert to Islam, when they refused theywere shot.[31] Six months later, the body of Paulos Faraj Rahho, archbishop of Mosul, was found buried near Mosul. He was kidnapped on February 29, 2008 when his bodyguards and driver were killed.[32]
In 2004, five churches were destroyed by bombing. Tens of thousands of Christians fled the country.[33][34]
[edit] Lebanon - Christian casualties of war
The war in Lebanon saw a number of massacres of both Christians and Muslims. Among the earliest was the Damour Massacre in 1976 when Palestinian militias attacked Christian civilians in retaliation for the Karantina Massacre,in which around one thousand civilians (Palestinian, Shi'ite, andothers) were murdered by Lebanese Christian militias. The persecutionin Lebanon combined sectarian, political, ideological, and retaliationreasons. The Syrian regime was also involved in persecuting Christians as well as Muslims in Lebanon.
In Sudan, it is estimated that over 1.5 million Christians have been killed by the Janjaweed, the Arab Muslim militia, and even suspected Islamists in northern Sudan since 1984.[7] It should also be noted that Sudan's several civil wars(which often take the form of genocidal campaigns) are often not onlyor purely religious in nature, but also ethnic, as many black Muslims,as well as Muslim Arab tribesmen, have also been killed in theconflicts.
It is estimated that as many as 200,000 people had been taken into slavery during the Second Sudanese Civil War. The slaves are mostly Dinka people.[35][36]
In spite of the fact that there have been relatively fewer conflictsbetween Muslims and Christians in India in comparison to those betweenMuslims and Hindus, or Muslims and Sikhs, the relationship betweenMuslims and Christians have been occasionally turbulent. With theadvent of European colonialism in India throughout the 16th, 17th and18th centuries, Christians were systematically persecuted in a fewMuslim ruled kingdoms in India.
Perhaps the most infamous acts of anti-Christian persecution by Muslims was committed by Tippu Sultan, the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore against the Mangalorean Catholic community from Mangalore and the erstwhile South Canaradistrict on the southwestern coast of India. Tippu was widely reputedto be anti-Christian. The captivity of Mangalorean Catholics at Seringapatam, began on 24 February 1784 and ended on 4 May 1799.[37]
The Bakur Manuscript reports him as having said: "All Musalmansshould unite together, and considering the annihilation of infidels asa sacred duty, labor to the utmost of their power, to accomplish thatsubject."[38] Soon after the Treaty of Mangalore in 1784, Tippu gained control of Canara.[39] He issued orders to seize the Christians in Canara, confiscate their estates,[40] and deport them to Seringapatam, the capital of his empire, through the Jamalabad fort route.[41]There were no priests among the captives. Together with Fr Miranda, allthe 21 arrested priests were issued orders of expulsion to Goa, finedRs 2 lakhs, and threatened death by hanging if they ever returned.[38]
Tippu ordered the destruction of 27 Catholic churches. Among them were the Church of Nossa Senhora de Rosario Milagres at Mangalore, Fr Miranda's Seminary at Monte Mariano, Church of Jesu Marie Jose at Omzoor, Chapel at Bolar, Church of Merces at Ullal, Imaculata Conceiciao at Mulki, San Jose at Perar, Nossa Senhora dos Remedios at Kirem, Sao Lawrence at Karkal, Rosario at Barkur, Immaculata Conceciao at Baidnur.[38] All were razed to the ground, with the exception of the The Church of Holy Cross at Hospet,owing to the friendly offices of the Chauta Raja of Moodbidri.[42]
According to Thomas Munro, a Scottish soldier and the first collector of Canara, around 60,000 of them,[43] nearly 92 percent of the entire Mangalorean Catholic community, were captured, only 7,000 escaped. Francis Buchanangives the numbers as 70,000 captured, from a population of 80,000, with10,000 escaping. They were forced to climb nearly 4,000 feet (1,200 m)through the jungles of the Western Ghatmountain ranges. It was 210 miles (340 km) from Mangalore toSeringapatam, and the journey took six weeks. According to BritishGovernment records, 20,000 of them died on the march to Seringapatam.According to James Scurry, a British officer, who was held captivealong with Mangalorean Catholics, 30,000 of them were forciblyconverted to Islam. The young women and girls were forcibly made wivesof the Muslims living there.[44] The young men who offered resistance were disfigured by cutting their noses, upper lips, and ears.[45] According to Mr. Silva of Gangolim,a survivor of the captivity, if a person who had escaped fromSeringapatam was found, the punishment under the orders of Tippu wasthe cutting off of the ears, nose, the feet and one hand.[46]
Tippu Sultan's invasion of the Malabar had an adverse impact on the Syrian Malabar Nasrani community of the Malabar coast. Many churches in the Malabar and Cochinwere damaged. The old Syrian Nasrani seminary at Angamaly which hadbeen the center of Catholic religious education for several centurieswas razed to the ground by Tippu’s soldiers. A lot of centuries oldreligious manuscripts were lost forever. The church was later relocatedto Kottayam where it still exists to this date. The Mor Sabor church atAkaparambu and the Martha Mariam Church attached to the seminary weredestroyed as well. Tippu’s army set fire to the church at Palayoor andattacked the Ollur Church in 1790. Furthernmore, the Arthat church andthe Ambazhakkad seminary was also destroyed. Over the course of thisinvasion, many Syrian Malabar Nasrani were killed or forcibly convertedto Islam. Most of the coconut, arecanut, pepper and cashew plantationsheld by the Syrian Malabar farmers were also indiscriminately destroyedby the invading army. As a result, when Tippu's army invaded Guruvayurand adjacent areas, the Syrian Christian community fled Calicut andsmall towns like Arthat to new centres like Kunnamkulam, Chalakudi,Ennakadu, Cheppadu, Kannankode, Mavelikkara,etc. where there were already Christians. They were given refuge bySakthan Tamburan, the ruler of Cochin and Karthika Thirunal, the rulerof Travancore, who gave them lands, plantations and encouraged theirbusinesses. Colonel Macqulay, the British resident of Travancore alsohelped them.[47]
Tippu's persecution of Christians also extended to captured Britishsoldiers. For instance, there were a significant amount of forcedconversions of British captives between 1780 and 1784. Following theirdisastrous defeat at the battle of Pollilur,7,000 British men along with an unknown number of women were heldcaptive by Tippu in the fortress of Seringapatnam. Of these, over 300were circumcised and given Muslim names and clothes and several Britishregimental drummer boys were made to wear ghagra cholis and entertain the court as nautchgirls or dancing girls. After the 10 year long captivity ended, JamesScurry, one of those prisoners, recounted that he had forgotten how tosit in a chair and use a knife and fork. His English was broken andstilted, having lost all his vernacular idiom. His skin had darkened tothe swarthy complexion of negroes, and moreover, he had developed an aversion to wearing European clothes.[48]
During the surrender of the Mangalore fort which was delievered inan armistice by the British and their subsequent withdrawal, all the Mestizosand remaining non-British foreigners were killed, together with 5,600Mangalorean Catholics. Those condemned by Tippu Sultan for treacherywere hanged instantly, the gibbets being weighed down by the number ofbodies they carried. The Netravati River was so putrid with the stenchof dying bodies, that the local residents were forced to leave theirriverside homes.[38]
Tippu might have acted against Christians because he believed theywere supporting the British. It might therefore not be due to religiousprejudice. "If Tippu had opposed Christianity, a Bishop would notattend this function," said Rt.Rev. Joseph Roy, Bishop of Mysorespeaking on the occasion of Tippu Sultans bicentenary celebration at Srirangapatna.He gave examples of the secular character of Tippu Sultan and the helphe gave to the Christians even inviting Christian Fathers from Goa, Indiato provide religious guidance to Christians in his state. He decriedthe false propaganda perpetrated by ill-informed people about Tippu'sbigotry against the Christians. 'If any punishment had been meted outto anybody, it was on the grounds of crime or disloyalty and not onreligious grounds" said Roy.[49]
Muslims in India who convert to Christianity have been subjected toharassment, intimidation, and attacks by Muslims. In Jammu &Kashmir, the only Indian state with a Muslim majority, a Christianconvert and missionary named Bashir Tantray was killed , allegedly bymilitant Islamists in 2006[50].
A Christian priest, K.K. Alavi, a 1970 convert from Islam[51], thereby raised the ire of his former Muslim community and received many death threats. An Islamic terrorist group named "The National Development Front" actively campaigned against him.[52].
[edit] Pakistan
In Pakistan 1.5% of the population are Christian. Pakistani lawmandates that "blasphemies" of the Qur'an are to be met withpunishment. Ayub Masih, a Christian, was convicted of blasphemy andsentenced to death in 1998. He was accused by a neighbor of statingthat he supported British writer, Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.Lower appeals courts upheld the conviction. However, before thePakistan Supreme Court, his lawyer was able to prove that the accuserhad used the conviction to force Masih's family off their land and thenacquired control of the property. Masih has been released.[53]
In October 2001, gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on a Protestantcongregation in the Punjab, killing 18 people. Noone knows for sure whothe gunmen were but officials think it might be a banned Islamic group.[54]
In March 2002, five people were killed in an attack on a church in Islamabad, including an American schoolgirl and her mother.[55]
In August 2002, masked gunmen stormed a Christian missionary schoolfor foreigners in Islamabad, six people were killed and three injured.None of those killed were children of foreign missionaries.[56]
In August 2002, grenades were thrown at a church in the grounds of aChristian hospital in north-west Pakistan, near Islamabad, killingthree nurses.[57]
On September 25, 2002 two terrorists entered the "Peace and Justice Institute", Karachi, where they separated Muslims from the Christians, and then murdered seven Christians by shooting them in the head.[58][59]All of the victims were Pakistani Christians. Karachi police chiefTariq Jamil said the victims had their hands tied and their mouths hadbeen covered with tape.
In December 2002, three young girls were blown apart when hand grenade was thrown into a church near Lahore on Christmas Day.[60]
In November 2005 3,000 militant Islamists attacked Christians in Sangla Hill in Pakistan and destroyed Roman Catholic, Salvation Army and United Presbyterianchurches. The attack was over allegations of violation of blasphemylaws by a Pakistani Christian named Yousaf Masih. The attacks werewidely condemned by some political parties in Pakistan.[61]
On June 5, 2006 a Pakistani Christian stonemason, Nasir Ashraf, was working near Lahorewhen he drank water from a public facility using a glass chained to thefacility. He was assaulted by Muslims for "Polluting the glass". A mobdeveloped, who beat Ashraf, calling him a "Christian dog". Bystandersencouraged the beating and joined in. Ashraf was eventuallyhospitalized.[62]
One year later, in August 2007, a Christian missionary couple, Rev.Arif and Kathleen Khan, were gunned down by militant Islamists in Islamabad.Pakistani police believed that the murders was committed by a member ofKhan's parish over alleged sexual harassment by Khan. This assertion iswidely doubted by Khan's family as well as by Pakistani Christians.[63] [64]
In August 2009 six Christians including 4 women and a child were burnt alive by Muslim militants and a church set ablaze in Gojra, Pakistan when violence broke out after alleged desecration of Qu'ran.[65]
While the Egyptian government does not have a policy to persecuteChristians, it discriminates against them and hampers their freedom ofworship. Its agencies sporadically persecute Muslim converts toChristianity.[66] The government enforces Hamayouni Decree restrictions on building or repairing churches. These same restrictions, however, do not apply to mosques.[66]
The government has effectively restricted Christians from seniorgovernment, diplomatic, military, and educational positions, and therehas been increasing discrimination in the private sector.[66][67] The government subsidizes media which attack Christianity and restricts Christians access to the state-controlled media.[66]
In Egyptthe government does not officially recognize conversions from Islam toChristianity; because certain interfaith marriages are not allowedeither, this prevents marriages between converts to Christianity andthose born in Christian communities, and also results in the childrenof Christian converts being classified as Muslims and given a Muslimeducation.[66] The government also applies religiously-discriminatory laws and practices concerning clergy salaries.[66]
Foreign missionaries are allowed in the country only if theyrestrict their activities to social improvements and refrain fromproselytizing. The Coptic Pope Shenouda III was internally exiled in 1981 by President Anwar Sadat, who then chose five Coptic bishops and asked them to choose a new pope. They refused, and in 1985 President Hosni Mubarakrestored Pope Shenouda III, who had been accused of fomentinginterconfessional strife. Particularly in Upper Egypt, the rise inextremist Islamist groups such as the Gama'at Islamiyaduring the 1980s was accompanied by attacks on Copts and on Copticchurches; these have since declined with the decline of thoseorganizations, but still continue. The police have been accused ofsiding with the attackers in some of these cases.[68]
Many colleges dictate quotas for Coptic students, often around 1 or2% despite the group making up 15% of the country's population. Thereis also a separate tax-funded education system called Al Azhar,catering to students from elementary to college level, which accepts noChristian Coptic students, teachers or administrators.
Hundreds of Christian Coptic girls have been kidnapped and forciblyconverted to Islam, as well as being victims of rape and forcedmarriage to Muslim men.[67]
In April 2006, one person was killed and twelve injured in simultaneous knife attacks on three Coptic churches in Alexandria.[69]
In November 2008, several thousand Muslims attacked a Coptic churchin a suburb of Cairo on the day of its inauguration, forcing 800 CopticChristians to barricade themselves in.[70]
On September 18, 2009, a Muslim man called Osama Araban beheaded a Coptic Christian man in the village of Bagour, and injured 2 others in 2 different villages. He was arrested the following day.[71]
[edit] Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is an Islamic state that practices Wahhabismand restricts all other religions, including the possession ofreligious items such as the Bible, crucifixes, and Stars of David.[72] Christians are arrested and lashed in public for practicing their faith openly.[73] Strict sharia is enforced. Muslims are forbidden to convert to another religion. If one does so and does not recant, they may be executed.[74]
[edit] In other Muslim nations
Though Iran recognizes Assyrian and Armenian Christians as a religious minority (along with Jews and Zoroastrians) and they have representatives in the Parliament, after the 1979 Revolution, Muslim converts to Christianity (typically to Protestant Christianity) have been arrested and sometimes executed.[75] See also: Christianity in Iran.
In the Philippines, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Abu Sayyaf has attacked and killed Christians.[76]
In Indonesia, religious conflicts have typically occurred in Western New Guinea, Maluku (particularly Ambon), and Sulawesi. The presence of Muslims in these regions is in part a result of the transmigrasi program of population re-distribution. Conflicts have often occurred because of the aims of radical Islamist organizations such as Jemaah Islamiah or Laskar Jihad to impose Sharia,[77][78] with such groups attacking Christians and destroying over 600 churches.[79] In 2006 three Christian girls were beheaded as retaliation for previous Muslim deaths in Christian-Muslim rioting.[80] The men were imprisoned for the murders, including Jemaah Islamiyah's district ringleader Hasanuddin.[81]On going to jail, Hasanuddin said, "It's not a problem (if I am beingsentenced to prison), because this is a part of our struggle."[82]
In Afghanistan, Abdul Rahman, a 41-year-old citizen, was charged in 2006 with rejecting Islam (apostasy), a crime punishable by death under Sharia law. He has since been released into exile in the West under intense pressure from Western governments.[83][84] In 2008, the Taliban killed a British charity worker, Gayle Williams, for being a Christian.[85]
In Kosovo,since June 1999, 156 churches and monasteries have been damaged ordestroyed and several priests have been killed. During the few days ofthe 2004 unrest in Kosovo, 35 churches and monasteries were damaged and some destroyed by Muslim mobs.
In Malaysia,although Islam is the official religion, Christianity is mostlytolerated, however, in order to be a member of the majority race (the Malays),one is legally required to be a Muslim. Also, if a non-Muslim marries aMuslim, they are legally required to convert to Islam. There is muchdebate over whether Malaysia is a liberal Islamic state or a very religious secular state. Full article: Freedom of religion in Malaysia
In 2002, a currently unidentified gunman killed Bonnie Penner Witherall at a prenatal clinic in Sidon, Lebanon. She had been proselytizing and attempting to convert Muslims to Christianity.[86]
Three Christian missionaries were killed in their hospital in Jibla, Yemen in December 2002. A gunman, apprehended by the authorities, said that he did it "for his religion."[87]
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Historically, the major juristic schools of Islam traditionally accepted the institution of slavery.[1] Muhammad and many of his companions bought, sold, freed, and captured slaves. Slaves benefited from Islamic dispensations which improved their situation relative to that in pre-Islamic society.[1] At the end of the 19th century, a shift in Muslim thought and interpretation of the Qur'an occurred, and slavery became seen as opposed to Islamic principles of justice and equality.[2] This interpretation has not been accepted by the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia.[3]In Islamic law the topic of slavery is covered at great length.[1] The Qur'an, the holy book, and the hadith, the sayings of Muhammad, see slavery as an exceptional condition that can be entered into under certain limited circumstances.[3] Only children of slaves or non-Muslim prisoners of war could become slaves, never a freeborn Muslim.[4] They also consider manumission of a slave to be one of many meritorious deeds available for the expiation of sins.[5] According to Sharia, slaves are considered human beings and possessed of some rights on the basis of their humanity. In addition, a Muslim slave is equal to a Muslim freeman in religious issues and superior to the free non-Muslim.[6]
In practice, slaves played various social and economic roles from Emirto worker. Slaves were widely employed in irrigation, mining,pastoralism and the army. Even some rulers relied on military andadministrative slaves to such a degree that they seized power. However,people do not always treat with slaves in accordance with Islamic law.In some cases the situation has been so harsh as to have led touprisings such as Zanj Rebellion.[7]For a variety of reasons, internal growth of the slave population wasnot enough to fulfill the demand in Muslim society. This resulted inmassive importation, which involved enormous suffering and loss of lifefrom the capture and transportation of slaves from non-Muslim lands.[8]In theory, slavery in Islamic law does not have a racial or colorcomponent, although this has not always been the case in practice.[9]
The Arab slave trade was most active in West Asia, North Africa and East Africa. By the end of the 19th century, such activity had reached a low ebb. In the early 20th century (post World War I) slavery was gradually outlawed and suppressed in Muslim lands, largely due to pressure exerted by Western nations such as Britain and France.[3] However, slavery claiming the sanction of Islam is documented presently in the African republics of Chad, Mauritania, Niger, Mali and Sudan.[10][11][12]
Read more here.