El-Gohary was not present at the hearing, as attendance would put him at extreme personal risk. He had planned to obtain papers authorizing attorney Nabil Ghobreyal to act as his proxy representation in court, but staff members at the registry office swore at and beat him, lawyers said.
Judge Hamdy Yasin was forced to adjourn the case until March 28 because El-Gohary did not obtain the necessary proxy representation documents.
“I am now in a position where I can’t do anything else,” El-Gohary, who has been in hiding, told Compass. “I have to go [to court] despite the danger. I believe God will protect me. It’s a very hard decision, but I have to go.”
Copts and Christian converts have to face such systemic prejudice daily in the battle for their rights, he said.
“Our rights in Egypt, as Christians or converts, are less than the rights of animals,” El-Gohary said. “We are deprived of social and civil rights, deprived of our inheritance and left to the fundamentalists to be killed. Nobody bothers to investigate or care about us.”
El-Gohary, 56, has been attacked in the street, spat at and knocked down in his effort to win the right to officially convert. He said he and his 14-year-old daughter continue to receive death threats by text message and phone call.
But he also has received text messages, he said, of encouragement from other Muslim-born converts too fearful to take a similar stand.
“Everyday I get calls from people who have converted but are secret,” said El-Gohary. “They ask me every day about what is happening, because it affects their future.”
“His legal challenge is motivated by concerns for his daughter. About one year from now, at age 16, she will be issued her national Identity Card and the religious registration will follow that of her father,” advocacy group Middle East Concern told BosNewsLife.
“At present she must attend Islamic classes at school despite having been raised as a Christian. Also, [El-Gohary] does not want her to be subject to Islamic family law, which would include denying her the right to marry a Christian,” MEC said.
El-Gohary was reportedly in hiding after receiving death threats from Muslim extremists. Another Muslim-born Christian, Mohammed Hegazy, who also tried to have his new religion registered, was also forced to flee to safety, rights activists said.
El-Gohary also has charged that his nephew was denied a position in state security agencies because of his uncle’s religious “double life.”
(…) Hegazy, who filed his case on Aug. 2, 2007, was denied the right to officially convert in a Jan. 29 court ruling that declared it was against Islamic law for a Muslim to leave Islam.
The judge based his decision on Article II of the Egyptian constitution, which enshrines Islamic law, or sharia, as the source of Egyptian law. The judge said that, according to sharia, Islam is the final and most complete religion and therefore Muslims already practice full freedom of religion and cannot return to an older belief (Christianity or Judaism).
“[El-Din] started to talk about the Quran being in a higher position than the Bible,” one of El-Gohary’s lawyers, Said Fayez, told Compass. “[El-Din said] people can move to a higher religion but not down, so people cannot move away from Islam because it is highest in rank.”
Memos submitted by opposing lawyers asserted that cases such as El-Gohary’s form part of a U.S. Zionist attack on Islam in Egypt, that Christianity is an inferior religion to Islam and that Copts protect and defend converts from Islam at their own peril.
Egyptian mother will appeal court’s decision: Madre egipcia apelará la decisión del tribunal: the woman lost custody of her twin sons on September 24 last year, after the Appeals Court in the coastal town of Alexandria issued a final decision “granting custody over them to their father who had converted from Christianity to Islam.”
The Malaysian government will issue a new decree restoring a ban on Christian publications using the word “Allah” to refer to God, officials said Sunday.
Home Affairs Minister Syed Hamid Albar said a previous Feb. 16 decree that allowed Christian publications to use the word as long as they specified the material was not for Muslims was a mistake, the national Bernama news agency reported.
The about-turn came after Islamic groups slammed the government and warned that even conditional use of the word by Christians would anger Muslims, who make up the country’s majority. (blackmailing and menacing with violence as ever…).
A senior ministry official confirmed Syed Hamid’s comments, saying there were “interpretation mistakes” in the Feb. 16 decree that led to the confusion.
“‘Allah’ cannot be used for other religions except Islam because it might confuse Muslims. This is the ministry’s stand and it hasn’t changed,” the official, who declined to be named citing protocol, told The Associated Press.
There is something I don’t understand though: what Christian would indeed call God Allah? Well, there is a little problem: in Malaysian language there is no word for God other than Allah…
The march has been held after another one was suspended because of being “racist” and even if its leader is hate preacher Anjem Choudary:
Choudary is the same that stated that Islam is not “the religion of peace but of submission to Allah” and who has demanded publicy the execution of Pope Benedict XVIth for insulting Islam. And:
He is no longer a practising solicitor and has left his wife and children to concentrate on his extreme brand of Islam. It was Choudary who organised the Danish Embassy protests over the cartoons of the prophet Mohammed earlier this year, at which demonstrators dressed as suicide bombers and banners proclaimed: ‘Behead Those Who Insult Islam’.
He lauded the September 11 hijackers as ‘magnificent martyrs’ and praised Asif Hanif, the British suicide bomber who killed three in Tel Aviv in 2003.
After the July 7 atrocities in London, he vowed he would not tell the police if he knew a terror attack was being planned and urged Muslims to defend themselves against perceived attacks by ‘whatever means they have at their disposal’.
(…)Despite his hatred of all things British – he says: “If British means adopting British values, then I don’t think we can adopt British values. I’m a Muslim living in Britain. I have a British passport, but that’s a travel document to me” – he and his family live on state benefits.
Rubana is said by friends to claim £1,700 a month in housing benefit and income support while Choudary has also claimed £202 a month in income support.
Yesterday, Choudary declined to talk about his past dissolute life, dismissing it as ‘irrelevant’. He said: “I was born a Muslim and I have done my best to be a good Muslim all my life.”
Recently he also has called for people who get drunk to get flogged 40 times. And has labelled Christmas as “the pathway to hellfire”.
Anyway, I am truly surprised someone who has that past is pointing at others about prostitution. Specially after seeing these photos from Islamic tradition:
20 people orgy – India – unknown time.
The Voyeur – early XXth century – Teheran – Islamic Republic of Iran.
Women, sex and wine Teherán – Persia (La República Islámica del Irán).
Continuing with Choudary, he is a part of a greater net, joint under the influence of Omar Bakri and the Al-Mujahiroun, which include the “Islamic Thinkers Society”. They, of course, promote judeophobia, as we can see by these images:
The “Islamic Thinkers Society” is the US bracnh of the Al-Muhajiroun, an association created by Oman Bakri Mohammed.
In its demonstrations, this “pictured Jew” is a normal motive:
What would have happened if a Jew writes something like that about a Muslim?
But that’s not the only “interesting” thing about this. The picture is taken from this Aryan Nation’s cartoon:
For example, one of the last news on Islam for the UK (that is, Choudary’s web), tells us that “a brother has been arrested” after he hung a posted in his window adding that “it’s clear that the freedom of expression can’t be used by Muslims”. The posted is this one:
Of course, stating support for the killing of non-Muslims or encouraging people to do so is not “racial hatred”. But not letting someone put that poster in the window of a pro-Israeli firm and arresting him (well, there is NO link there, at least I didn’t see anyone), that’s an enormour example of “racial hatred”.
Victimization, that’s the real word to define these absolute idiots. They want to impose on others their own ideas (Lord, there are people who worship another religions!! That’s so hard on me…. when they should adore my prophet and give me more money, this time to buy a car to carry on with Jihadist obligations in a much better and comfortable way!!!), they consider just and marvellous to menace and to kill others just because they don’t agree with them and, finally, they also want to introduce their own law code based on what they personally believe instead of the Law, equal to all humans livign under the Government. But if you criticise them , that’s “racial hatred”.
Oh, please, why don’t they change their job and begin to write comical pieces? It would better for all!!
NOTE: Just in case someone gets a little bit lost. I’m not for fucking Islam or something, I’m for a logical and rational defense against the foolishness of these self-called “Islamic scholars”, who are nothing more than censors who want to be powerful and tell everybody what to do. And I am not for porn images in any of my blogs, but I’m fed up of idiots who want to give moral lessons when they certainly can’t…
The Home Secretary came under fire last night for allowing a radical Lebanese propagandist with links to the extremist group Hezbollah to enter Britain for a national speaking tour.
The Conservatives urged Jacqui Smith to ban Ibrahim Moussawi from the UK, warning that he was “likely to foment extremism or promote violence”.
Mr Moussawi edits Hezbollah’s newspaper and is former political editor of the Iranian-backed group’s television station, which is banned in many countries including France, Spain and the U.S. where its output is seen as anti-Semitic.
He was recently barred from entering Ireland, where he was due to speak at anti-war meetings.
He is scheduled to appear at an event in London tonight organised by the Stop the War Coalition, with more events planned around the country over the coming week.
the Communities Secretary Hazel Blears delivered a major speech on the subject which, far from presaging a change in strategy, was a defence of the status quo. (…She) explained that the problem was not just al Qaeda but also people who did not support violence but the ‘political Islamisms’ whose extremist ideas helped promote that violence. So what was she going to do about them – the ‘political Islamists’ — was what we now needed to know.
But she didn’t tell us. Instead, she retreated to the old comfort zone of the ‘moderate majority’and the need to engage with and encourage the mainstream Muslim community so that violence would not take further root there.
(Afterwards) she appeared to be saying that the mainstream Muslim communities with whom the government was having all this dialogue actually had ‘extremist’ views. So while earlier she had been talking about the importance of engaging with moderates, now she seemed to be talking about the importance of engaging with extremists. And as she said, I do indeed think that such ‘engagement’ is ‘endorsement’; more importantly, truly moderate Muslims think so too and have repeatedly begged the government not to engage with extremists in the community because it emboldens them and undermines true moderates .
Yet with groups which display
an equivocal attitude on core values such as democracy, freedom of speech or respect towards women,
there would be ‘ limited engagement’. Did that include the Muslim Brothers, or Hizb ut Tahrir, or other groups who want to Islamise Britain? Because ‘engagement’ with such people is the current strategy, and the result is that radicalisation of Britain’s Muslims is going through the roof while the government is seen to cave into the threat of violence and dance to their tune. Witness, for example, the banning of the Dutch anti-Islamist politician Geert Wilders, who threatens no-one, while according to the Centre for Social Cohesionthe Hezbollah spokesman Dr Ibrahim el-Moussaoui is to be allowed into the country to teach a course on political Islam at the School of Oriental and African studies – a course apparently aimed at educating Government officials and the police.
So this guy, actually an extremer who has been chief political editor of a terrorist group’s TV is going to give a course to educate Government officials and the police.
Even if I don’t like the basis of Hitchens’ work, I must say I agree with him in this. Making free countries pass binding resolutions to condemn criticism of religion as if it were “blasphemy” (and even if it were) is just absolutely ridiculous and totally shameful. There is already a non-binding resolution that it already “urges” countries to pass this kind of legislation.
About UN: when are they going to end it? Will we need to wait till the Final Judgement?
One of Al-Qaida’s founders, Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, has waged a harsh verbal attack on the terrorist organization’s leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Sharif’s criticism of the Al-Qaida ideology and the failures of its leadership have unleashed a heated debate within the global Jihad movement and it has been publicized in several western media outlets.
Sharif, who is serving a life sentence in a Cairo prison, recently wrote a book in which he said, “every drop of blood that was shed or is being shed in Afghanistan and Iraq is the responsibility of bin Laden and Zawahiri and their followers.”
Al-Zawahiri has already said that al-Sharif /Dr. Said is really working for Egyptian intelligence
Related links: The Rebellion from Within. A truly interesting reading. I am not surprised they are really worried of this book seeing the light as Al-Sharif/Dr. Said wrote “The Essential Guide for Preparation”, a guide for Jihadists in the Afghan war and was released on 1988:
The “Guide” begins with the premise that jihad is the natural state of Islam. Muslims must always be in conflict with nonbelievers, Fadl asserts, resorting to peace only in moments of abject weakness. Because jihad is, above all, a religious exercise, there are divine rewards to be gained. He who gives money for jihad will be compensated in Heaven, but not as much as the person who acts. The greatest prize goes to the martyr. Every able-bodied believer is obligated to engage in jihad, since most Muslim countries are ruled by infidels who must be forcibly removed, in order to bring about an Islamic state. “The way to bring an end to the rulers’ unbelief is armed rebellion,” the “Guide” states. Some Arab governments regarded the book as so dangerous that anyone caught with a copy was subject to arrest.
The ideologic transformation is surely very interesting. We will see what direction Al-Qaeda takes from now on.
Rebel blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin has vowed to die in silence as a sign of protest if he is re-arrested on what many believe are politically motivated grounds. His pledge came as a court was due to rule whether he is to return to prison under Malaysia’s Internal Security Act (ISA),
Raja Petra, who has risen to prominence as a pro-opposition blogger, was arrested on 12 September after accusations lodged by several religious groups who claim that he offended Islam in an article published on 8 August.
He was released on 7 November last year but the government has appealed the court decision and a verdict is expected on Tuesday.
“I shall no longer open my mouth or utter one word during my detention. I shall maintain the silence of a mute person. I shall not sign any documents of the so many documents that they make you sign when under detention,” he said.
He was appearing before the Shah Alam court under Section 4(1) of the 1948 Sedition Act after writing an article about the implication of leaders of the ruling party in the 2006 murder of a young Mongolian woman. He pleaded not guilty at the first hearing of the case.
“The government is abusing the law in order to silence critical voices and to gag free expression,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said.
Raja Petra Kamarudin is being hounded by the courts and could end up serving a very long prison sentence. It is an unacceptable criminalisation of the freedom to reveal facts and opinions”, it said.
He wrote an article in which he accused the Malaysian PM of killing a woman. So he is accused by some religious groups of insulting Islam. And the Government is prosecuting him on sedition charges. (
In only four sheets they explain why they believe it’s necessary this kind of party in Spain. He is a moderate and insists that he supports the Constitution and is Spanish. Rebirth and Union is a party for Muslims but also for ethnics minorities and immigrants: «Brother, sister, go one with the rebirth and the liberation, the consideration of what your situation is and meditate on it. You have to trust in yourself first and afterwards in your party to make your voice heard in the higher places. (…) The moment has come, Spanish Muslim, Arab, African immigrant and non-immigrant to free yourself from humiliation» (hein??? What class of humiliation does he think the immigrants suffer in Spain? Is he advocating for open borders? What is he referring to then?).
The central offices are in Granada, and others will be opened in all Spain to take part in the 2011’s local elections. «I’m sure that in a non-very distant future, not more than 30 years, one of our sons will be Mayor, Minister or even President of the Nation».
He acts like a leader, speaking with a lot of metaphores that wants to mobilize them: «We are wrong and we won’t see ourselves as flies who are stridden by oportunists’ feet. We shouldn’t give any oportunity to those who want to humiliate us or hurt our honor or our personality and then let them touch our beliefs» (But didn’t he say that he was “constitutional and Spanish? Why that conflict with “his personality” and that about “they shouldn’t let [oportunists] touch their beliefs”? Is he referring to peple critisizing their beliefs? People like me, that do not earn a single penny because of this?).
He knew the information was going to see the public light. He could even have calculated its effects: «If this time they want to work, they should support this party’s creation, because in a not very distant future these news will see the light». And he concludes with a prophet’s saying: «That who doesn’t see the light, is a mute Satan».
I’m specially interested in considering two facts: Communist party United Left is against this party’s creation and the same has been said by Granada’s mosques. Why? Regarding United Left, they consider that this can be a competitor and lower (even more) the Communist party’s expectations. But in the case of Granada’s mosques I don’t understand their reasons. He wants to defend his beliefs against oportunists who want to touch his beliefs.
What worries me is that, for example, in Finland, they were very clear about what they wanted (Shariah law, basically, alcohol forbidden, women separated from men in the pools…). Why are they so obscure about their goals? Do they fear a very unfavourable reaction from Non-Muslim population?
Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita III left no doubt that he believes Muzzammil Hassan killed his wife. Hassan will appear for a preliminary hearing Wednesday in Orchard Park. If convicted of second-degree murder, he faces up to life in prison.
“He’s a pretty vicious and remorseless bastard,” Sedita told FOXNews.com Tuesday. “Whether he was motivated by some kind of interpretation of his religious or cultural views, we don’t know. We’ll look into everything in the case.”
Asked if the murder is being probed as an honor killing, Benz replied, “We’ve been told that there’s no place for that kind of action in their faith, but I wouldn’t say that there’s anything that’s being completely ruled out at this point.”
But psychologists and some American Muslims said the slaying has all the markings of an honor killing.
“The fierce and gruesome nature of this murder signals it’s an honor killing,” said Dr. Phyllis Chesler, an author and professor of psychology at the Richmond College of the City University of New York. “What she did was worthy of capital punishment in his eyes.”
Following multiple episodes of domestic violence, Aasiya Hassan filed for divorce on Feb. 6 and obtained an order of protection that barred her husband from their home, according to attorney Elizabeth DiPirro, whose law firm, Hogan Willig, represented Aasiya Hassan in the divorce proceeding.
Chesler, who wrote “Are Honor Killings Simply Domestic Violence?” for Middle East Quarterly, said some Muslim men consider divorce a dishonor on their family.
“This is not permitted in their culture,” said Chesler, whose study analyzed more than 50 reports of honor killings in North America and Europe. “This is, from a cultural point of view, an honor killing.”
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