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Taliban gunmen killed a Christian aid worker in Kabul on Monday, and the militant group said it targeted the woman because she was spreading her religion.
The dual South African-British national worked with handicapped Afghans and was killed in the western part of Kabul as she was walking to work around 8 a.m., officials said.
The gunmen, who were on a motorbike, shot the woman in the body and leg with a pistol, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the slaying.
“This woman came to Afghanistan to teach Christianity to the people of Afghanistan,” militant spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press. “Our (leaders) issued a decree to kill this woman. This morning our people killed her in Kabul.”
The woman’s aid group SERVE — Serving Emergency Relief and Vocational Enterprises — identified her as Gayle Williams, 34, in a statement on its Web site.
“She was a person who always loved the Afghans and was dedicated to serving those who are disabled,” it said.
The group describes itself as a Christian charity registered in Britain. The Web site says it has been working with Afghan refugees since 1980 in Pakistan.
“SERVE Afghanistan’s purpose is to express God’s love and bring hope by serving the people of Afghanistan, especially the needy, as we seek to address personal, social and environmental needs,” the site says.
Rina Vamberende, a spokeswoman for SERVE in Kabul, said the group is a Christian organization “but they are definitely not expressing this on purpose. They are here to do NGO (aid) work.”
“It’s not the case that they preach, not at all,” she said.
Afghanistan is a conservative Islamic nation. Proselytizing is prohibited by law, and other Christian missionaries or charities have faced severe hostility. Last year a group of 23 South Korean aid workers from a church group were taken hostage in southern Afghanistan. Two were killed and the rest were released. In 2001, eight international aid workers, including two Americans, were imprisoned and charged with preaching Christianity. The eight were freed by Afghan mujahedeen fighters attacking the Taliban after the U.S.-led invasion.
Monday’s attack adds to a growing sense of insecurity in Kabul. The capital city is now blanketed with police checkpoints. Embassies, military bases and the U.N. are erecting cement barriers to guard against homicide bombs.
Source : Fox News
Egypt’s most well-known convert to Christianity is still hiding a year after he filed the landmark case to become the first Egyptian Muslim to sue the government for rejecting his application to officially change his religion.
Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy, 25, had lost his case in January when an Egyptian judge ruled that a Muslim who converted to Christianity cannot legally change his religious status.
Now, eight months after his case was closed and a year after he filed the case, Hegazy is still hiding out of fear for his life.
Since January 29 when the court ruled against him, Hegazy, his wife and baby daughter have had to move five times, according to the persecution watchdog agency, Compass Direct News.
“The verdict for my case was discriminatory [on the part] of the judge,” Hegazy told Compass in an interview last month. The judge had based his decision on Islamic law that says someone can convert “up”, or to more recent religions, such as from Judaism and Christianity to Islam, but not vice versa.
But even after the media stopped reporting on his case, Hegazy said he still remains a target – as all converts do – of Islamic militants.
During the trial, Hegazy’s face was splattered across TV channels and newspapers, making him easy to recognize to any extremists.
“The most difficult thing for me is that the lives of my wife and daughter are in danger all the time,” Hegazy said.
He recalled last October that a friend had called and said one of his lawyers had given authorities his address and he should quickly move.
Hegazy and his family moved immediately and within a day the fundamentalists came to attack them. The extremists camped around his former house for several days and set fire to the apartment next door to his, killing the female resident inside.
The female neighbour was his wife’s best friend who had helped them during their difficult time in hiding.
“The church denied that she was killed, and it was never reported publicly,” he said.
Hegazy dreams that he and his family can leave the country someday, but they do not have passports. Obtaining passports would require them to go back to their hometowns where Hegazy says they will be killed as soon as they arrive.
“Even if it’s not family, others will do it, so I can’t take that risk,” he said.
A convert is “stuck” between the pressure from an Islamic government, Islamic society, and a weak church, Hegazy said.
He does not think his case alone can be resolved, but thinks a change is possible if Egyptian converts overseas and in Egypt filed a joint case.
Human rights groups also need to push harder for convert cases, he said.
Egypt has the largest Christian population in the Middle East, which makes up about 10 per cent of the country’s population.
Source Christian Today
An Islamic body organizing the high-profile international interfaith conference now underway in Madrid has a history of promoting Islamic law (shari’a) and religious intolerance.
Opening the three-day event in the Spanish capital Wednesday, Saudi King Abdullah called for reconciliation and an end to disputes among the world’s religions. Islam is “a religion of moderation and tolerance,” he said.
Muslim, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Hindu and representatives of other faiths are participating in the event, which many are calling historic.
Known as the World Conference on Dialogue, the gathering has been organized by the Mecca-based Muslim World League (MWL).
As Cybercast News Service reported recently, the Muslim World League has links to Islamic charities that are subject to U.S. government sanctions for clandestine funding of terror groups. Read the rest of this entry »
In the African nation of Burkina Faso, another kind of war is taking place. It’s the spiritual battle between light and darkness.
Drissa led an ordinary life in his village in Burkina Faso. He grew millet and took care of his wife and two daughters.
But beneath his calm exterior lay a man who was both empty and full of rage.
“I was born a Muslim but that left me empty,” Drissa said. “So I began practicing the local rituals–with charms and fetishes. Still, I had no joy.”
Almost everyone in his village believed in the fetishes that could bring power and blessing, or curses upon oneself or one’s enemies.
But one day, a CBN evangelist came to their village and showed them a video, a French translation of The 700 Club. The program talked about God -and his Son Jesus. Drissa was in the crowd that evening.
“The CBN evangelist said that everyone who practiced fetishes would not go to heaven. I was enraged! I had a plan,” he said.
Drissa consulted a friend. They plotted against the CBN evangelist and met with a shaman. They asked him to work up a powerful spell they could use against the Christians that night.
After preparing the charm, Drissa decided to take a nap. But sleep escaped him.
“I was restless and had a sensation of heat … like my body was on fire,” he said. “Then I heard an audible voice, like someone was with me in the room. The voice said I should go confess my sins at the church, be prayed for, and accept the Lord. Otherwise I’d die!”
So Drissa got up and went to the meeting where he found people praying. After the meeting, he prayed to receive Jesus as Savior.
Today, Drissa is established in a new church in his village. Now he loves helping the CBN video outreach team whenever they come to share the Gospel in his village.
“I’m so thankful for CBN’s partnership in my village,” he said. “I pray for more people to be saved!”
Source – cbn.com
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