Islam

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota released hundreds of documents Monday from the group’s lawsuit against a Minnesota charter school, which accuses the school of using tax dollars to promote Islam.

“In many ways this would’ve been a much easier case for the ACLU, bluntly, if, instead of alleging a Muslim religion violates the First Amendment, it was a Catholic religion,” said Chuck Samuelson, executive director the ACLU of Minnesota, after the documents were released.

The ACLU filed its lawsuit against Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TiZA) in 2009, claiming that the publicly-funded charter school violated the First Amendment requirement of separation of church and state. more >>

A global church-planting group portrays the challenge of sharing the Gospel in predominantly Muslim Indonesia in its first video of a series called “Multiply,” released this week.

Pioneers, an evangelical missions movement with 2,400 members, is producing the online video series with the hopes of telling the story of how native and missionary Christians in Muslim countries are able to help increase the number of churches in a primarily hostile environment.

”Multiply Indonesia” is available for free viewing on the group's website. Pioneers begins production of its next video about church planting in the African country of Chad while on location next week. more >>

An Iranian government official on Friday accused Western media of misleadingly reporting the story of Youcef Nadarkhani, the 34-year-old Christian evangelical pastor who continues to await execution, but for offenses that are now unclear.

“His crime is not, as some claim, converting others to Christianity,” said Gholomali Rezvani, deputy governor of Iran’s Gilan province, where the persecuted pastor was sentenced to death by hanging. “He is guilty of security-related crimes.”

Those crimes, claimed Rezvani, in remarks reported by Fars news agency (the Iranian government’s unofficial mouthpiece), include rape and extortion. “No one is executed in Iran for their choice of religion,” he insisted. more >>

Increased tension between Islam and Christianity has resulted in the emigration of 100,000 Christians from Egypt since March 2011, which commentators are saying will detrimentally affect Egypt’s demographic diversity and economic stability.

The report documenting the emigration, compiled by the Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organizations, contends that the main vein of conflict is between the Egyptian’s Muslim sect, the Salafists, and Egypt’s Christian sect, the Copts.

Christians are also fleeing other areas of the Middle East, including Iraq and Palestine. Lebanon’s Christian population has fallen from 75 percent to 32 percent. more >>

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani needs Christians around the world to stand in the gap for him as he faces execution Thursday at the hands of the Iranian government. That was the urgent email message disseminated Wednesday by International Christian Concern, a Washington, D.C., organization that assists the worldwide persecuted Christian church.

Nadarkhani, leader of a 400-strong house church movement in Rasht, Iran, was arrested in October 2009 for opposing the Islamic republic’s requirement that non-Muslim students read the Quran in school. The Christian pastor had argued that the Iranian constitution permitted children to be raised in their parents’ faith.

In September 2010, an Iranian regional court sentenced Nadarkhani to death by hanging for “convert(ing) to Christianity” and “encourag(ing) other Muslims to convert to Christianity.” more >>

A Muslim has been denied the privilege of joining the Broward County, Fla., GOP’s executive committee, McClatchy Newspapers reports.

Nezar Hamze, South Florida director of the Center for American-Islamic Relations – or CAIR – said he aligns himself with the values of the Republican Party. He applied to become a member of executive committee, the top group within the Republican Party of Broward County. He also wanted to start a Muslim Republican Club.

The Broward County GOP allegedly changed their rules, according to McClatchy Newspapers, in order to vote on his application in secrecy. The GOP denies that he was turned down because of his religion; rather, they claim, it is because he is associated with CAIR. The Islamic organization is under investigation for being a co-conspirator in a federal terrorism indictment. more >>