About that Muslims Harass Christian & Jewish Neighbors, Police Refuse to Help Story

by Sheila Musaji

This particular strategy of the Islamophobia network is getting tiresome.

Pamela Geller posted #MyJihad in Paris: Muslims Harass, Attack Christian and Jewish Neighbors, Police Refuse to Help in which she published an email she received from an anonymous “Atlas reader” in Paris.

We are supposed to take her word for it that this individual’s statement is true.  Geller, of course, will take the word of anyone who has anything negative to say about Islam and Muslims.

What is the story that Geller must share with the world?

An anonymous reader of her site asks Pamela to help her “tell the world about what is going on here so that people will fight these horrible pigs.”  [the “pigs” she refers to are Muslims.] In her story she complains about the French “socialist government”,  altercations with Muslim neighbors, and bizarre incidents that she is aware of (like Muslims forcing a Jewish child to eat pork or they would kill her parents).

This would be laughable if it wasn’t for the fact that there are individuals who do take Geller’s postings seriously.  This is the sort of incoherent story you get from people walking the streets and talking to themselves.

Not content with putting this story out on her site, Geller also tweeted it out using the #MyJihad hashtag, as part of her ongoing effort to undermine that positive effort by Muslims to take back the term from both Muslim extremists and Islamophobes.  And, her followers followed suit, tweeting and re-tweeting this “story” using the #MyJihad hashtag.

Interestingly, the two groups who share extremists views about Islam – the Muslim extremists and the Islamophobes - both attacked the campaign.  Geller & Spencer accused the #MyJihad campaign of inspiring a Chicago bus threat.  They also began churning out articles with the hashtag #MyJihad in their titles, and then tweeting the titles of those articles and encouraging others to re-tweet, in an attempt to take over the #MyJihad hashtag by overwhelming it with hateful messages.  Many of the articles they have come up with have been, even by their standards, disgraceful.  Here are just a few of these false hate pieces from the past few days:  (Don’t worry, the links take you to responses, not the original)  #MyJihad: Egyptian Cleric Warns Christian Women: If You Don’t Wear a Veil You’ll Be Raped - #MyJihad: Muslim cleric tells converts to bury their Christian parents as if they were dead dogs - #MyJihad in Serbia: Kosovo Muslims destroy Serbian Orthodox monastery.  In addition to these new lies, they are recycling many of their old lies in tweets including the hashtag, e.g. #MyJihad 270 million victims of over a millennium of jihadi wars - #MyJihad 17,000+ “Islamic terrorist” attacks since 9/11, etc.   See the RESOURCES FOR DEALING WITH ISLAMOPHOBIA SUMMARY section below for links to responses to many of these current and previous hateful claims.

Based on Geller’s past performance it is difficult to believe that any sane person could take her rantings seriously, but they do.  I prefer to save myself the trouble and just use the Pamela Geller:  Shrieking Harpy Rant Generator to get my dose of Geller “humor” for the day.

Why does this story sound so familiar?

Geller, and her partner Robert Spencer have proven hundreds of times that they have a Tenuous Grasp of the Concept of “Truth Telling”.

One of the many previous lies they spread was very similar to this current one.  In that case Geller posted an article titled “Hate Crime” which shared an email from a reader who had supposedly been harassed by Muslims in her neighborhood and was unable to get law enforcement or elected officials to do anything about it.

In that case, the writer calling herself “Danusha (Redacted) PhD” claimed a Muslim man accosted her and “impeded” her ability to walk down the street, and that Muslims regularly mock her, and one even hit her with his SUV.

When the article was originally posted it included this introduction to the email by Geller:  “The hypocrisy loooms [sic] large. Here’s a letter I thought I should share with you. I expect the gutless congressman who witnessed his Muslim constituents dancing on 9/11/01 will do nothing but hide beneath his desk. If this continues — auxiliary law enforcement will be necessary.”

Subsequently the original email from the “victim” was removed from Geller’s site, as was Geller’s lead in to the article, and replaced with an almost incoherent rant. In that rant, Geller claimed that ” I’ve removed the letter from this post because of threats to its author. The incredible evil that is standard operating procedure for those on the left led them to try to identify the author, and effectively target her for retribution. Thus I removed the letter. Imagine: this woman lives in fear every day, and the response to this violation of her basic human rights was an attempt to out her and put her life in jeopardy. That’s what we’re dealing with.” 

An article I wrote at the time exposing this nonsense, notes that according to Charles Johnson

… the individual who wrote this letter is Danusha Goska and he links to an email sent to a site called VDARE from this person in 2008.  That email complained about “Hispanic noise pollution” in her neighborhood.  In that email she included a copy of a letter that she had sent to her local mayor and claims that her complaints have gone unanswered.  The VDare site posts a note at the bottom of this post saying Goska, a teacher and Democrat, previously wrote to us about her experience with National Public Radio. with a link to this previous letter.

That link takes you to an email she sent which included an “essay” she had sent to NPR.  At the bottom of the “essay” is this:  Goska, a writer, teacher and Ph.D. from Indiana University does “manual labor to make ends meet.” She submitted this essay to NPR (e-mail) which rejected it.

Johnson also turned up a strange film review posted by a person named Danusha Goska.

In a simple google search I turned up a number of articles including this one - Islam and Terror: Some Thoughts after 9/11 by Danusha V. Goska, PhD.

She seems, like Geller to be focused on anti-Muslim rabble rousing.  Geller, rather than explain that she had been taken in by an email from a seemingly unstable person, instead pulled the email, and substituted a rant that still managed to make it seem as if the information contained in that original email was accurate.

This pattern of making outrageous claims based on no evidence at all, and then if caught out, attempting to conceal the evidence is a pattern.

Christmas time at the Wafi Mall in Dubai

A Muslim Christmas?

Inside Islam: Dialogues and Debates, University of Wisconsin

December 25th was an an average day for the majority of the world’s Muslims, but for some, it signified Christmas along with its variety of associated meanings. Muslim beliefs related to Christmas and its celebration vary considerably–from a fun-loving holiday, to a dangerous heretical practice. The majority of the world’s Muslims don’t give the 25th of December much thought at all, but with increasing numbers of Muslims living in the predominately Christian West and Christians living in the predominately Muslim Middle East, it’s difficult not to have some kind of opinion or interpretation of Christmas.

View of the Christmas tree in Manger Square with the Church of the Nativity, where Christians believe the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, 23 December 2012. – EPA/ABED HASHLAMOUN

A growing number of Muslims around the world see Christmas as an opportunity to display their love and generosity to family, friends, and work colleagues through gift giving. Christian reformist resistance to attaching religious significance to Christmas during the 17th Century encouraged its growth as a secular holiday. The subsequent commercialization of Christmas, especially in the US and Europe, opened the door for many Muslims to feel more included in the holiday. Many Muslim Americans see December 25th as a time to celebrate their American identity, joining a host of other non-Christians who celebrate the day.

But opinions on the degree of recognition and celebration of Christmas vary widely. While Christmas cheer gains steam among many Muslims living in the West, there are those, both in western and non-western countries, who see aspects of Christmas, or all its forms as bid’ah, or a religious innovation, forbidden in Islam. Some western Muslims contend that saying “Merry Christmas” is like saying “happy disbelief.” In response to other Muslims’ viewing this position as a lost opportunity to build community with their Christian neighbors, non-Christmas-observing Muslims suggest that neighborly love be enacted all the time, and not just once a year.

Interestingly, while debates over the religious appropriateness of singing Christmas carols, gift giving, and stories of Santa Clause heat up, the recognition of December 25th is anything but new in many majority-Muslim countries. Honoring the birth of Jesus–the second of three prophetic messengers in Islam–has been a tradition for hundreds of years among some Muslims living in the Levant (Jordan, Syria, Palestine, Israel, and Lebanon). In Iran, where hundreds of thousands of Christians live, the celebration of Christmas is commonplace for even non-Christian residents of Tehran. An Iranian Christian pastor recently suggested that “Iranian Muslims have put Jesus back in Christmas.” A few years ago, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad even sent an open message to the world’s Christians and congratulated them on the birthday of  the “messenger of love and friendship.”

But some Christians see the recognition of Jesus’ birthday and celebrations of Christmas by Muslims as disingenuous. One listener during our recent Inside Islam Radio Show, The Muslim Jesus, suggested that Muslims talk about Jesus in order to placate Christians. While that may be true for some Muslims, it is clear that there are a variety of ways that people around the world recognize and celebrate Christmas.

(Via IslamophobiaToday.com)

By Samuel Burke and Claire Calzonetti, CNN, December 11th, 2012

Aasif Mandvi’s job title as a TV correspondent is both a complete joke and utterly realistic: Senior Muslim Correspondent.

He works for “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” the highly rated comedic news program that, at its best, can be even more influential than real American newscasts. And his work under that title, as well as countless others (“Senior Middle East Correspondent,” “Senior Asian Correspondent”) has propelled him to prominence.

But the comedian is no longer just going for laughs. In his new play, “Disgraced,” Mandvi takes a serious look at the tensions between Muslims, Jews and Christians that linger in post-9/11 United States.

The show breaks just about every taboo about the interface between East and West culture. Seated in an American living room, Muslim, Jewish, black and female characters discuss social issues like racial profiling and Islam in America.

“The identity of Islam and the way Islam is viewed by the West has changed after 9/11,” Mandvi said.

He was inspired to do the play by its writer, Ayad Akhtar, who sent Mandvi a draft two years ago.

“I read it and I thought, wow, this is an amazing play and very rare are there roles for brown actors and especially Muslim American actors that sort of deal with the identity issue in this way and in such a sophisticated, nuanced way as this play does,” Mandvi said.

The issues discussed in the play, Mandvi said, are universal – not unique to Muslims. “Jews, Christians and other people have come up to me and said, I identify with this Muslim character on stage and his own identification with his tribal identity. And the fact is that, you know, the way we were raised and the things we were taught shape us.”

Mandvi, who was born in India and raised in England and the United States, will continue his satirical reports for the The Daily Show.

Over the years he has made it clear on the show that he is not afraid to use his ethnicity to make a joke, and a point. But is there any line he will not cross?

“I’ll exploit the brownness as far as I can,” he joked with Amanpour. “Sometimes, through satire, I get to sit on that fence between cultures, between East and West and comment on it and just by virtue of the fact that I am ethnically who I am.”

Original post: Daily Show correspondent takes on Muslim stereotypes

by Ilisha

Just in time for the American elections, the loons have at long last unearthed the smoking gun. A poem authored by President Barack HUSSEIN Obama when he was nineteen years old, on the eve of a trip to–gasp!–the MUSLIM nation of Pakistan, provides irrefutable “proof” he’s not only a secret Muslim, but a rabid hater of Christians and Jews:

UNDERGROUND
Under water grottos, caverns
Filled with apes
That eat figs.
Stepping on the figs
That the apes
Eat, they crunch.
The apes howl, bare
Their fangs, dance,
Tumble in the
Rushing water,
Musty, wet pelts
Glistening in the blue.

Are you outraged yet? Isn’t it obvious Obama’s heart is brimming with hate, hate, hate?

If you can’t see it, you must have become lost in the murky depths of pro-Muslim propaganda spewed daily by the Muslim Brotherhood-loving liberal media. Fortunately, Jack Cashill has decoded this monstrous tribute to jihad on a far right hate site with an (unintentionally?) ironic name, the American Thinker:

…both of the poem’s most conspicuous symbols, apes and figs, are mentioned in the Qur’an.  Middle Eastern scholar Bernard Lewis has argued that although Muslims were relatively tolerant of Jews, there are at least three passages in the Qur’an in which Jews are denounced as “apes.”  In sura 5.60, for instance, the Quran reads, “[Worse is he] whom Allah has cursed and brought His wrath upon, and of whom He made apes and swine.”  “Swine” is apparently the epithet of choice for Christians, but “Underground” is not about swine.  It is about apes — belligerent, boastful apes at that.

In 1981, when Obama submitted this poem, he was plotting his forthcoming summer trip to Pakistan, a Muslim country.  By all accounts, given his education in Indonesia and his choice of friends in America, he was a knowledgeable fellow-traveler in the world of Islam.  By 1981, too, Israel had emerged as a source of evil in the eyes of both radical Muslims and the international left.

The reference to “figs” strengthens O’Hagan’s case that the “apes” refer to Jews, or at least to Israeli Jews.  He cites the 95^th sura of the Quran, “At-Tin,” which translates as “fig” or “fig tree.”  It reads in part: “[I Swear] By the fig and [by] the olive/ And [I Swear by] Mount Sinai/ And [I Swear by] this secure land [of the city of Makkah].”…

Read the rest here.

Plainly, Obama is a crafty secret Muslim who, even as a teen, could obscure his true beliefs in poetic symbolism. Did you notice he also mentioned “caverns”? Cavern is another word for “cave,” and everyone knows the Prophet Muhammad used to spend time in a cave named Hira, where Muslims believe he received his first revelation. There’s even a chapter in the Qur’an entitled, The Cave.

Still not convinced? Well the poem also mentioned water, and the Qur’an mentions water too. Repeatedly. And the poem has words, and the Qur’an has words too! This is apparently the kind of “thoughtful” analysis that impresses the loons.

Sarcasm aside, the “apes and pigs” theme  (not “apes and figs”–that’s a refreshing new twist) is a common talking point for anti-Muslim loons, based on a distorted interpretation of verses in the Qu’ran. Sadly, a tiny minority of radical Muslims do use the verse in question to justify their prejudices.

Mainstream Muslims interpret the verses quite differently. Aziz Poonawalla’s City of Brass blog has provided a clear, concise explanation of verses in question in response to a previous “analysis” advanced by the ant-Muslim hate site, MEMRI:

Jews are NOT apes and pigs

I was unsurprised to read in NRO’s The Corner the entry by Kathryn Jean-Lopez about the MEMRI “analysis” which purports to demonstrate that the Qur’an calls Jews “apes and pigs”.

The verse she is referring to is 5:60 - while I do not deny that the verse has been deliberately misused to justify calling Jews “apes and pigs” – it has nothing to do with Jews. This is a group of ayats that are a kind of dialouge. It is confusing to follow but here is the general gist:

5:57 - (addressing Muslims) – do not choose as *guardians* [LW ed: or allies] (actual word used) those people who follow earlier Revelations but not Islam (ie, Jews and Christians), and people who are outright disbelievers (in Allah). The issue of Guardian goes back to 5:55, which has an extensive history in and of itself, as relates to Ali. [LW ed: See our discussion of the issue of wilaya, or 'friendship, patronage and alliance.' Also see the translation of this verse.]

5:58 - Some ignorant Jews and Christians mock you (as a muslim) and your Azaan (call to prayer) because they do not understand what you are doing (they do not see it as a form of worship). This should not dissuade you from doing your actions (duties to Allah).(personal comment: I have been ridiculed while praying in parking lots. My wife and I used to go to movies before Baby arrived, and sometimes the only time we could catch a show was right around sunset. So we would do our obligatory prayers in the parking lot. To be honest, we are reluctant to do that nowadays, but this verse demands that we persevere despite that paranoia)

5:59 - addressing Jews and Christians – “is the only reason you hate us (Muslims) because we believe in Allah, and the revelations that came before (which you also believe in)? Is this because most of you do not follow your own scriptures as well as we follow them (the same scriptures)? at this point the Muslim understands that they are inheritors to the same scriptures that Jews and Christians follow. However, they are a target of ridicule by some in these groups for adherence to these scriptures.

5:60 - addressing Muslims again – Do you want to know who is worse (than such ignorant Jews and Christians. Note, not ALL, see 5:58)? Those who are worse are those who Allah has cursed, had wrath upon, had damned to be apes and swine.. etc . these are far, far worse than Jews or Christians (who mock the azaan, etc.)

5:61 - The group that is discussed in 5:60 is here revealed to be those who say (on the surface) I believe in Allah but who actually do not, and seek to cause dissent and turmoil within the community of believers.

Clearly, the average Jew or Christian who follows their own scriptures, or who at least does not ridicule Muslim belief, is clearly not the target of 5:59, let alone 5:60. …

The article is worth reading in full here. The notion Jews are equated with apes and pigs is a distortion, but adding Christians into the mix and claiming Muslims view them as “swine” is even more of a stretch. It seems this new twist was added to broaden the scope of alleged hate and maximize outrage with the loons’ gullible target audience.

Just in case there are any “counter jihadists” reading this article, I’ve conducted my own analysis of Mitt Romney’s poetry, just for you. From Mother Jones:

To wit, “Baha“:

Who’s got your camera, though,

Who?

Who let the dog’s [sic] out,

Who? Who?

And here’s a bonus volley (condensed and edited), via Emily Friedman. “Unleashed”:

Oh, this is great—

Little bacon pieces keep falling out.

Today this is me,

Just raw and unleashed.

Dogs and bacon? The symbolism is clear. GOP candidate Willard Mitt Romney (who I’ve affectionately dubbed “Mitney”) is telling the world he is not a secret Muslim, and therefore he is deserving of the presidency. Savvy loons choose Mitt.

It’s amazing any credible site would publish such idiocy and present this laughable “analysis” of Obama’s poetry. What it proves is not that Obama is a secret Muslim, but that “counter jihadists” are sinking deeper into complete absurdity, and that their blind hatred is eclipsed only by their stunning ignorance.

Related stories:

More Evidence: Obama is a Secret Mooslim

This is What You Can Expect From a Mitt Romney Presidency: Islamophobia

One Out of Six Americans Believe Obama Is a Muslim

Counter Ad: Rabbis for Human Rights, North America

Pamela Geller’s hate ads seem to have backfired. The latest round of  counter ads promoting love and tolerance are truly inspiring.

In addition to subway ads,  the progressive Christian group, Sojourners, is also sponsoring a billboard near the Toledo mosque that was the site of a recent arson attack. (H/T: Young & Free)

Pro-Muslim Subway Ads to Hang Near Anti-Jihad Ads

By ASHWAQ MASOODI, New York Times

Updated, 6:47 p.m. | Striking back against an anti-jihad advertisement in the subways widely perceived as anti-Muslim, two religious groups – one Jewish, one Christian – are taking out subway ads of their own to urge tolerance.

Rabbis for Human Rights – North America and the group Sojourners, led by the Christian author and social-justice advocate Jim Wallis, are unveiling their campaigns on Monday. Their ads will be placed near the anti-jihad ads in the same Manhattan subway stations, leaders of both groups said and transit officials confirmed. The groups said their campaigns were coincidental.

The ad by Rabbis for Human Rights turns the language of the earlier ad, placed by a pro-Israel group, on its head. The original ad says, “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat jihad.” The ad by Rabbis for Human Rights says, “In the choice between love and hate, choose love. Help stop bigotry against our Muslim neighbors.”

“We wanted to make it clear that it is in response to the anti-Islam ad,” said Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights, whose members include rabbis from all streams of Judaism.

The Sojourners ad simply says, “Love your Muslim neighbors.”

Another Christian group, United Methodist Women, an affiliate of the United Methodist Church, has placed similar ads in the same 10 Manhattan stations where the anti-jihad appears. The ads, which went up on Wednesday, say, “Hate speech is not civilized. Support peace in word and deed.”

One of the Methodist group’s ads, in Times Square station, is posted right next to one of the anti-jihad ads.

The anti-jihad ads, placed by the American Freedom Defense Initiative in 10 Manhattan stations, went up only after the group successfully sued the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which wanted to ban them. They were posted late last month – in the wake, as it happened, of violent protests that had erupted in many parts of the Muslim world over an American-produced video ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad, and one of them was immediately defaced. They have been defaced at least 15 times since then, said Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the authority.

Last week, the authority changed its advertising rules to ban ads that could “imminently incite or provoke violence or other immediate breach of the peace.”

Mr. Donovan said the new ads “are accepted and conform with our guidelines,” adding, “The M.T.A. doesn’t endorse any of the ads we carry.”

The executive director of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, Pamela Geller, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new ads.

Rabbi Jacobs said: “Geller thinks she is speaking for the entire Jewish community. We are a group of 1,800 rabbis and we want everyone to know that we have to work in partnership with the Muslim community and do not believe in dehumanizing them.”

Sojourners’ campaigns manager, the Rev. Beau Underwood, said, “An essential tenet of Christianity is to love our neighbors.” He added: “In the face of religious extremism, the best response is to treat others like we would want to be treated. Our ad campaign has a simple message that is at the heart of our faith.”

Sojourners, together with some local interfaith communities, recently put up “Love your Muslim neighbors” billboards in Joplin, Mo., where a mosque was burned in August.

A Sojourners solicitation for donations says: “Hateful anti-Muslim ads only result in violence, hatred, and more fear. Everyone — regardless of race, religion, or creed — deserves to feel welcome & safe when riding public transit in the United States.”

Contrary to widely held assumptions, Muslims revere Jesus and the Virgin  Mary, and both are mentioned extensively in the Qur’an. There is no reason for Muslims to celebrate the denigration of Jesus.

Nevertheless, ignorant loons have decided Obama’s refusal to condemn quarter century old abomination (or is that ObamaNation?), “Piss Christ,” is further evidence he is a “secret Mooslim.”

Heathen President Refuses to Condemn Piece of Art From 1987

by Louis Peitzma, Gawker

Why does Barack Obama hate Christians so much? The notorious anti-Jesus President is refusing to condemn the controversial work Piss Christ by Andres Serrano.

Sure, Piss Christ has been around for 25 years, but it’s returning to New York as part of a retrospective on Serrano’s work. So why hasn’t Obama addressed this outrage? Is it his secret Muslim background? A lack of respect for Jesus? A weird pee thing?

Whatever the cause, we should all be very, very angry. As usual the Fox Nation commenters get it right.

Actually would you expect a mooselim to be offended by disrespect of anything Christian? Hasen’t the Mooslim brotherhood inchief already declared war on Catholicism as well as all Christians & Jews?

… what do you expect from a mooooslim… barry bows to them… he doesn’t care about America, OUR Traditions, and OUR Way of life to include Christianity… which IS what this nation was founded upon along wtih the Founding Fathers basic principles of Liberty… you elect a communist usurper… this is what you get…

Obama is a Mooslime. He will never denounce anything Anti-Christian. I used to give O the benefit of the doubt about being Mooslime but not any more.

It’s truly shocking the way we’ve let our government be infiltrated. But what’s even more unnerving is how long the secret Muslim agenda has been playing out.

Get ready for this bombshell.

Piss Christ was sponsored in part by the National Endowment of the Arts, which means Serrano received money from the U.S. government. And the President when this sacrilege was created in 1987? You guessed it — secret Muslim Ronald Reagan. Who knew?

It’s wonderful news that Rimsha Masih has been released from jail in Pakistan.

Masih is an 11 year old Christian girl who was arrested under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws after she was falsely accused of burning the Quran. She and her family will remain in protective custody to ensure their safety.

One interesting point to highlight in the following article is that Pakistan’s blasphemy laws derive not from Sharia, but from Biritsh colonial laws, circa 1860. The looniest blogger ever, Pamela Geller, is frothing-at-the-mouth, telling her readers anyone reporting this unwelcome historical  fact is, “whitewashing Pakistan’s blasphemy laws,” including CNN.

Whatever the origin of Pakistan’s vile blasphemy laws, they urgently need to be repealed. Let’s hope this outrageous, high profile case will ultimately spark much needed reform.

In Pakistan, girl freed but blasphemy debate still stuck

By Taha Siddiqui, Christian Science Monitor

Pakistan released from jail a Christian girl accused of burning Muslim religious texts and flew her to an undisclosed location by government helicopter.

“Due to the security concerns surrounding her and the family, the girl is being kept in government’s protective custody and there are plans to settle them outside Islamabad,” says Tahir Naveed Chaudhry, one of her lawyers.

The courts had approved the girl’s bail on Friday at a sum of one million rupees (equivalent to $10,500), on the grounds of her being a minor. The accusations against the girl had also lost strength when it emerged that a local cleric had planted burnt pages of the Quran in the evidence, in order to evict Christians from the locality they were living in.

Activists seeking to reform Pakistan’s stringent blasphemy laws had hoped this case would spur public debate and government action toward amending the laws. However, that has not happened yet, say activists, and the girl’s release may cause the spotlight to fade.

“Even though we are happy that the child is now reunited with her parents, I am unhappy about the public face the government put on during the ordeal. The state did not come with any long term resolve to stop the abuse of blasphemy laws, and the debate does not even seem to go in that direction,” says Peter Jacob, head of one of the largest minority rights’ activist groups in Pakistan.

The blasphemy laws, which date back to the colonial times in South Asia, were carried forward in the constitution by Pakistani authorities after the country’s independence in 1947. In the 1980s, draconian amendments to the laws by a military dictator were introduced, to the extent that anyone found guilty of committing blasphemy can be punished for life, and in severe cases, with a death sentence.

“The text of the law has problems but even if that is changed, it is the mindset of society that needs to be changed,” says Marvi Sirmed, a social activist, who has been threatened many times over her strong secular views. “Until and unless the state divorces itself from religion, and becomes secular, persecution of minorities will continue to happen,” Ms. Sirmed adds…

Pakistan’s Christian community

Pakistan’s roughly 2.7 million Christians make up less than 2 percent of the population. The Christianity community here, both Catholic and Protestant, traces much of its roots back to missionary efforts during British rule of the Indian subcontinent…

Read the rest here

Related Stories: 

Pakistan: 11 Year Old Christian Girl, Rimsha Masih Arrested on Charges of Blasphemy

Pakistani mullah ‘planted charred texts’ on girl accused of blasphemy

Senior Islamic cleric defends Christian girl: “Our Heads are Bowed in Shame”

Mehdi Hasan: Not In My Name: Islam, Pakistan and the Blasphemy Laws

CAIR Calls for Release of Pakistani Girl Held for ‘Blasphemy’

We’ve been following the plight of jailed Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who’s been held on charges of apostasy and Christian evangelizing for more than 1,000 days. At last, he has been released. (H/T: Sarah Brown)

Iran Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani Acquitted of Apostasy, Released From Jail

By Lillian Kwon, Christian Post Reporter

Youcef Nadarkhani, the Iranian pastor who captured the hearts of millions as he stood firm in his faith while facing execution, has been acquitted of apostasy.

Two organizations that have closely been monitoring the case and have sources in Iran reported Saturday that Nadarkhani, who went on trial early Saturday, has been released from prison and is at home with his family.

“Thank you to everyone that has supported me with your prayers,” Nadarkhani said, according to Present Truth Ministries.

Though acquitted of apostasy, the Iranian pastor was found guilty of evangelizing Muslims. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment but was released because he already served this time.

“We give thanks to God for His deliverance and the answer to our prayers,” Jason DeMars, founder of Present Truth Ministries, said in a statement.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide also confirmed the pastor’s release.

“We commend the Iranian judiciary for this step, which is a triumph for justice and the rule of law,” said CSW Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas. “While we rejoice at this wonderful news, we do not forget hundreds of others who are harassed or unjustly detained on account of their faith, and CSW is committed to continue campaigning until all of Iran’s religious minorities are able to enjoy religious freedom as guaranteed under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is party.”

Nadarkhani, pastor in a network of house churches, was arrested on Oct. 13, 2009, after protesting the government’s decision to force all children, including his own Christian children, to read the Quran.

He was initially charged for protesting but the charges were later changed to apostasy and evangelism to Muslims. In 2010, he was sentenced to death and the ruling was upheld by the Supreme Court of Iran last year.

According to [some interpretations of] Islamic Sharia Law, an apostate has three days to recant. The Christian pastor had refused to recant his faith.

Christians around the world have prayed and appealed for Nadarkhani’s release. A Twitter campaign advocating for his freedom reached more than 3 million.

Related stories:

Message to Iran: Free Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani

Jailed Iranian Pastor Decries “Insulting Words” Against Islam

Iran:

Message from Iran: Tell All Americans We Love Them

Israelis ♥ Iran: A Message of Love and Peace

Palestinian Christians take part in the Holy Fire procession on the eve of Orthodox Easter in Gaza City. (Ashraf Amra / APA images)

The story of congregants from the Gaza‘s tiny Christian community being held against their will and forcibly converted to Islam quickly went viral all across the looniverse, and even made its way to countless mainstream news sites.

The story is false. 

First published by the Associated Press, the “forced conversion” tale gained momentum when it was picked up by Reuters, another major news service with thousands of subscribers. Now the AP’s Jerusalem bureau has refused to issue a correction. The Israeli daily Haaretz first published the story with a somewhat misleading headline, Gaza Christians protest ‘forcible conversions’, and clarification in a later story was buried under the headline, Gaza Christians fear the end of their tiny community:

Christians in overwhelmingly Muslim Gaza have long fretted in private about the survival of their tiny community.

But their fears exploded publicly when two members of the flock recently converted to Islam. Christians staged a rare public protest, accusing Muslims of pulling followers from their faith.

The converts, who had been hiding to evade angry relatives, eventually surfaced and said they voluntarily changed religions. Gaza’s ruling Islamic militant Hamas movement reiterated respect for freedom of worship and Christian institutions. [emphasis mine]

But the uproar highlighted the growing sense of vulnerability among Christians here. They are a dwindling minority among a mostly devout Muslim majority, mostly hemmed into the tiny sliver of land because of movement restrictions imposed by Israel and Egypt. And they say some Muslims are doubling their efforts to convert them, emboldened by the atmosphere of Islamic fervor fostered by Hamas since it seized [sic] power [correction: through parliamentary elections in] Gaza in 2007.

Because there is so little accountability today, even in the professional media, tomorrow’s sensational headlines and misleading stories will likely continue to poison interfaith relations and demonize Islam in the public imagination. The Electronic Intifada was one of the few sites that bothered to dig up the truth:

“Forced conversion” story goes viral

As expected with a report from the highly influential AP, the “forced conversions” story and headline swept around the world including The Los Angeles Times, Fox News and the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) of Islamophobic Christian Zionist televangelist Pat Robertson.

CBN embellished the story with its own “analysis” claiming that “Forced conversion to Islam is not a new phenomenon in Gaza.”

It is also now making the rounds of virulent Islamophobic websites such as Robert Spencer’s Jihad Watch and has also been disseminated by top pro-Israel official William Daroff of The Jewish Federation…

Except that the story is not true.

Voluntary conversions and no coercion

Given the highly sensitive nature of these issues, it was very important that the matter be investigated independently.

The highly respected Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) said in a statement that it had pursued “the different declarations and allegations regarding this incident that may affect the Palestinian social fabric.”

It confirmed that:

On Wednesday, 11 July 2012, PCHR received a complaint from the family of Hiba Abu Dawood (31). Based on this complaint, Abu Dawood left with her 3 female children to an unknown location.  She then sent a SMS to her husband telling him that she had converted to Islam.

On Sunday, 15 July 2012, PCHR received another similar complaint from the family of Ramez al-Amash. Al-Amashhad left a letter for his family in their house telling them that he converted to Islam and asking them to accept his decision.

PCHR detailed the investigations and mediation that it carried out:

Over the few past days, PCHR held meetings with Abu Dawood and al-Amash and their families. On Thursday, 12 July 2012, PCHR met with Abu Dawood. It is clear that Abu Dawood converted to Islam under her own free will without any coercion.

PCHR also met with al-Amash on Sunday, 15 July 2012. PCHR organized another meeting on Monday, 16 July 2012, between al-Amash and his family.PCHR found out that al-Amashhad also converted to Islam under his own free will without any coercion.

According to information made available to PCHR, al-Amash went back to live with his family after they said that they will accept his decision. Today, 19 July 2012, PCHR organized a meeting between the 3 daughters of Abu Dawood and their father at PCHR’s head office.

PCHR reaffirmed that “the right to freedom of thought and religion that is guaranteed in the Palestinian Basic Law and Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”

Christians in Gaza

The position of Christians in Gaza – as in the rest of Palestine – is precarious, not because of forced conversions, but because this is a minority and one that has had a very high rate of emigration.

Gaza Christians interviewed by The Electronic Intifada’s Rami Almeghari in April stressed the good relations they have with their Muslim fellow Palestinians and that their identity as Palestinians supersedes religious identity.

As we reported, for example:

“Anyone who dares to say that Islamists in Gaza have been repressing us Christians is absolutely wrong and false,” Kamal Tarazi, a Christian man in his forties, told The Electronic Intifada at the YMCA.

That does not mean that occasionally people do not experience some petty harassment, as we also reported:

Riham, 22, who only gave her first name, also said that she felt there had been no difference in terms of neighborly or friendly relations between Christians and Muslims in recent years. But, she said that sometimes as she walks down the street she hears comments from passersby because she does not cover her head.

Read the rest

At the time of this writing Atlas Shrugs, Jihad Watch, and even Fox News have failed to correct the story, and no one familiar with incidents past should be waiting with baited breath for that to change. Even if the Associated Press, which has so far refused to correct the story, does eventually relent, the Electronic Intifada’s Ali Albumunah noted bitterly:

Given the speed of information, AP has already taken too long.

And given the levels of Islamophobia in much online media, even if AP does correct, the false claims about “forced conversions” will be recycled and embellished to inflame anti-Muslim sentiment and damage Muslim-Christian relations for years to come.

Tragic, tit for tat violence has flared in recent months in Nigeria, and the usual assortment of pseudo scholars, serial fabricators, and other assorted anti-Muslim crackpots have seized the opportunity to frame the conflict in exclusively religious terms. Muslims are cast as villains waging unprovoked attacks on Christians, when in fact, the conflict is far more complex.

This 25-minute BBC audio documentary captured Christian youths celebrating a victory by roasting, and in some cases, eating, Muslim victims they had recently slaughtered, providing a gruesome reminder the conflict in Nigeria cuts both ways. Don’t expect to see links to this atrocity in the looniverse, where cherry picked coverage is exclusively focused on Muslim atrocities.

Fueled not only by religious and ethnic tensions, but also by extreme poverty, the conflict is aggravated by interference from mercenaries streaming in from other parts of Africa. The British colonial legacy and Western corporate interests vying for Nigeria’s vast natural resources also have a long history of exploitation that has left many ordinary Nigerians impoverished and further destabilized the country.

Last January, the New York Times published, “In Nigeria, Boko Haram is Not the Problem,” which stated:

It was clear in 2009, as it is now, that the root cause of violence and anger in both the north and south of Nigeria is endemic poverty and hopelessness…

…Boko Haram has evolved into a franchise that includes criminal groups claiming its identity. Revealingly, Nigeria’s State Security Services issued a statement on Nov. 30, identifying members of four “criminal syndicates” that send threatening text messages in the name of Boko Haram. Southern Nigerians — not northern Muslims — ran three of these four syndicates, including the one that led the American Embassy and other foreign missions to issue warnings that emptied Abuja’s high-end hotels. And last week, the security services arrested a Christian southerner wearing northern Muslim garb as he set fire to a church in the Niger Delta. In Nigeria, religious terrorism is not always what it seems.

None of this excuses Boko Haram’s killing of innocents. But it does raise questions about a rush to judgment that obscures Nigeria’s complex reality.

Recently Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos, Nigeria in an article published by Spero News also acknowledged religious tensions, but confirmed once again that the horrific massacres in his country result primarily from an interplay between poverty, injustice, and ethnic conflict.

Nigeria: Outsiders and ethnic tensions fuel savage massacres

by Martin Barillas

“The massacre is brought about by the confrontation between farmers and herders. It is an old problem that has not been solved yet” said Catholic Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama of Jos, who serves as the president of the Catholic bishops’ conference of Nigeria. According to a report from the Fides news service, he is visiting Rome, where he received the “Disarmament Archive – Golden Doves for Peace” award. He commented on a series of attacks waged on Christian villages in Plateau State, of which Jos is the capital. The attacks killed at least 63 people. In a further assault during the July 8 funerals of the victims, a senator and a local deputy were killed.

“I think the problem is economic,” said the archbishop. “The Fulani herders feel victims of injustice because their cattle are killed or stolen and are not compensated for losses incurred. I think that the anger originates from this situation drives them to attack in this terrible way.”

Archbishop Kaigama does not deny that there is also an ethnic dimension of the conflict: “The problem is between the Fulani and Birom. These two ethnic groups have been disputing for a long time. All attacks on villages in the area have always been focused on these two groups. There are no attacks involving other tribes. ” With regards to the religious aspect of the clash, the Archbishop replied:

The Fulani are predominantly Muslim, while the Birom are mostly Christians. For this reason it is easy to read ‘Muslims attack Christians’ or ‘Christians attack Muslims’, but as I said, the problem is primarily economic and ethnic.

Archbishop remains in constant contact with Jos and revealed new details on the recent massacres: “I spoke with the Governor of Plateau State who was really saddened and shocked by the deaths and the level of destruction caused by the attacks. He is convinced that the perpetrators of the massacres are not from the place, but instead come from outside.”

Said Archbishop Kaigama, “According to the Governor, the Fulani have a network that extends beyond Nigeria and has spread to neighboring Countries, the aggressors are also mercenaries from elsewhere, they are not the Fulani resident in the State. Several of them also wore military uniforms. We do not know if they were people dressed as soldiers, or if the attackers were helped by real soldiers. In the light of these revelations one cannot exclude political factors, but in my opinion the main problem is economic to explain this violence.”