Islam

Thirteen Pakistani Muslims accused of anti-Christian attacks in the eastern city of Gojra were granted bail, reported a Christian human rights group.

Included in the group were radical clerics who incited a mob attack that resulted in the deaths of 11 followers of Christ and the burning of over 40 believers’ homes in Gojra, noted International Christian Concern.

Jonathan Racho, ICC’s regional manager for Africa and the Middle East, said the group condemns the decision by the Lahore High Court to release those responsible for the “carnage” in the Christian town where about 2,000 families reside. more >>

While the U.S. government has made changes in response to the rise of radical Islam, an expert on terrorism and the Middle East Crisis is wondering whether churches have changed and, if not, how they should.

Last Friday, on the eighth anniversary of the infamous 9/11 terrorist attacks, some 650 churches – mostly from the United States – participated in a town hall style webcast hosted by Joel C. Rosenberg, author of The Last Jihad and Inside the Revolution.

The event, titled “The Threat of Radical Islam and the Church’s Response,” sought to inform churches about radical Islam and teach Christians how to reach out to their Muslim neighbors. more >>

There is a deeply rooted mindset among Muslim extremists that makes them especially hostile to Christians in Pakistan, a bishop from Lahore told American church leaders this week.

An unintended effect of the United States’ war on terror has been how Muslim militants connect Christians, regardless of their ethnicity, to Westerners, said the Rev. Dr. Alexander John Malik, the Episcopal Bishop of Lahore.

“Such a mindset creates problems for Christians in Pakistan and puts the church under pressure,” said Malik, according to the National Council of Churches. more >>

A police investigation report does not support a runaway teen convert's claim that her life would be in danger if she was returned to her Ohio home, said her mother's attorney in a court hearing Thursday.

Though the judge had sealed the report for 10 days and issued a gag order banning attorneys from talking about the case to the media, the attorney of Aysha Bary revealed that the report was “favorable” to the parents of 17-year-old Rifqa Bary who claims her father threatened to kill her for converting from Islam to Christianity.

“There is no evidence out there whatsoever to corroborate these accusations,” said Roger Weeden, who did not provide any more details. more >>

An attorney representing a runaway teen girl who converted to Christianity from Islam filed court documents Monday claiming that the parents' mosque has ties to terrorists.

Noor Islamic Cultural Center in the suburb of Columbus, Ohio, had invited extremists to speak and support a scholar who has ties to the Palestinian Islamic terrorist group Hamas, the attorney’s memo said. The document also said the mosque’s leader, Dr. Hany Saqr, was identified in exhibits submitted by the Department of Justice in recent terrorism finance trials in Texas as a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in North America – a group, the document noted, that gave rise to Al Qaeda.

Saqr, however, denied all charges linking him or the mosque to terrorism. more >>