Category Archives: Apostacy

More Egyptian Apostates and Christians fear for their lives

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Literally millions of Middle Eastern Arabs have migrated to Western nations as ‘Refugees’ when it was more likely they were the actual people doing the terrorizing and victimizing of the truly weak, people who have no way to actually escape and get on board a flight to North America. If this family does not get refugee status under an Obama administration, it will be more than a little telling. These Egyptian Christians are the only ones we should be allowing in. Not because I agree with Christianity per se, but because at the very least they fit the definition of refugee. Below the video a related article:

Muslims Attempt to Behead Apostate in Egypt

The latest in a string of failed attempts by Muslim fanatics on the life of  Egyptian Muslim-born Maher el-Gowhary who publicly converted to Christianity in 2008, took place on Sunday July 5, 2010.

As 57-year-old Maher left his secret lodging, somewhere in metropolitan Cairo with his lawyer, two unknown men on a motorbike, attacked him with daggers.  “They were aiming at my neck to behead me,” said Maher in an interview with the newly launched US-based Hope Coptic TV Channel. “Something inspired me to turn and give them my shoulder, instead of facing them, which was lucky.”

He said that he fell to the ground covered in blood. “Had it not been for the interference of passers-by who were unaware of my identity and my efforts to quickly stand up and defend myself, I would have been dead by now,” he said.

During the attack, one of the men shouted the Islamic Jihadi cry of “Allah is Great,” while stabbing him. The attackers called him an infidel, and cursed his Christian faith.  Maher said that he was left with heavy wounds, however, he fears seeking medical treatment. Continue Reading →

Apostates from Islam in Germany

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Today and in the past couple of days both on Vlad’s youtube channel as well as here on the blog, a few Muslims have made the claim that Islam is not at all how it is represented here, and that there is indeed freedom of conscience etc. ad nauseum. In that spirit I offer this morsel from German TV. An account of a family who converted from Islam to Christianity

As usual this was a group project. Thank you Baron for the edit and JLH for the translation and many others in this process, not to mention of course the German TV station that actually filmed it.

Here is some supplementary info from Former Muslims United, Noni Darwish’s excellent org:

Maher El Gohary and his daughter, Dina, who converted to Christianity, have been denied by the Egyptian government permission to change their identity cards identifiying them as Christians. The Goharys live clandestinely in Cairo. They daily face the threat of possible extra judicial punishment, including death. Dina, the Gohary daughter wrote President Obama following his Cairo speech at al Azhar University in June 2009 drawing attention to their plight. In her letter to President Obama, Dina Gohary noted:

“Mr. President Obama, we are a minority in Egypt. We are treated very badly. You said that the Muslim minority in America are treated very well, so why are we not treated here likewise? We are imprisoned in our own home because Muslim clerics called for the murder of my father, and now the Government has set for us a new prison, we are imprisoned in our own country.” The Egyptian girl asked President Obama to mediate with the Egyptian government on their behalf.

Maher El Gohary had filed a legal acton in Egyptian courts. His petition was rejected: Gohary said:

“If the Egyptian nationality is the cause of my imprisonment within my home and being unable to move, then I do not want it,” he said. El-Gohary said he’d rather hold any other nationality than stay in Egypt where he said he and his daughter are “suffering imprisonment within the walls of my apartment and without any freedom.”

The quandary of the apostate Hegazy family is compounded by the refusal of Egyptian government to permit registration of their children as Christians. Note this application made on behalf of the Hegazys to the Special Rapporteur for Human Rights by the European Centre for Law and Justice, an affiliate of the American Center for Law and Justice:
“[Mohammed Bishoy] Hegazy and his family members are Christians converted from Islam. Furthermore, Mariam, their two year old daughter,was born of two Christian parents, and her birth certificate must state the correct information related to her faith.”
Their lives and home has been threatened .

Jussuf al Badri, the Egyptian Islamic jurist states that under Sharia, “God has commanded us to kill those who leave islam”. Such is the fragile and tragic plight of apostates in Muslim countries who daily face the threat of vigilantism and death. And Islam promotes the fiction that it is the religion of peace? Not the case as exemplified by the Gohary and Hegazy cases and millions of other silent apostates whose very existence is daily threatened with death under Sharia fatwas in Muslim lands.

Transcript below:

Continue Reading →

Christians sentanced to death in Afghanistan for not being Muslim

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Remember this short video of the Ambassador to Canada from Afghanistan?

I really have a hard time supporting the mission there under those circumstances.

The story below found on Gates of Vienna

From Asia News:

Appeal for Afghan Christians, sentenced to death for their faith
by Santosh Digal
A group of Afghan Christian refugees, who escaped to India to save their lives, describe the hardships they face in their homeland, where Muslim converts to Christianity are put to death. They call on the international community to put pressure on the Afghan government to spare those sentenced to death.

New Delhi (AsiaNews) – VijayKumar Singh, from the India Bible Publishers and the Delhi Bible Fellowship, has launched an appeal to the Christians of India and the world to pray and express their support for Afghan Muslim converts to Christianity who were convicted on conversion charges and sentenced to death on 31 May. Speaking to AsiaNews, Sing said, “We need Christians’ help all over the world to stop the Afghan government from arresting Dari-speaking Afghan Christians and condemning them to death by public execution.”

Afghans consider their country to be 100 per cent Muslim. A local TV station, Noorin TV, recently broadcast a documentary showing photos and videos of secret “Afghan Christian Converts”, which revealed names and showed the faces of alleged Afghan Christian converts.

This was enough to spark riots and demonstrations throughout Afghanistan with protesters demanding strong action to enforce the Afghan constitution, based on Sharia, arrest the culprits, and execute anyone who renege his or her religion in favour of another. Continue Reading →

Arson Fire Started as Nonie Darwish Set to Speak at Boston University

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From Muslims against Sharia blog:

H/T Solsitice

Nonie

An arson fire was set only fifteen minutes before Nonie Darwish was set to speak at Boston University.
Frightful and getting worse. It was not two weeks ago that Nonie Darwish was canceled at the last minute at Colmubia and Princeton two weeks ago as student groups caved to muslim pressure. This intimidation and suppression of free speech is systemic. Pies were thrown at Robert Spencer at New York University just a couple of weeks ago. What next? Grenades?

And now arson. Of course this should be filed with the FBI as a hate crime – that vile piece of legislation that will be used against the wrong people.

The Darwish event was moved at the last minute. What follows is the a note written by the student who organized the event.

Dear Mrs. Darwish,

I just wanted to thank you for speaking at Boston University yesterday. I would like to apologize again for the confusion regarding the location of the event because of the fire. So far we know the fire was intentionally set in one of the bathrooms on the second floor of the building. It is still under investigation and I will let you know if any more updates come out. I was not the only person to think that the fire could have been set because you were scheduled to speak but I will inform you of any more developments. Once again thank you so much for coming toBoston University and I speak for everyone who attended the event when I say what you had to say was not only extremely important but a pleasure hearing.

Here is the link to the article that was written about the event:

Activist: Arab-Israeli conflict rooted in Islamic law

The Arab-Israeli conflict will not be resolved unless the Middle East stops enforcing restrictive Islamic Laws on society, a writer and human rights activist said.

Nonie Darwish, author of several books including, “Cruel and Unusual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law,” spoke about human and women’s rights in the Middle East at Hillel House on Wednesday to an audience of 15.

Darwish said finger pointing is a problem in the Arab culture.

“Part of the Arab culture that is standing in the way of reformation is a lack of self-criticism,” she said.

Darwish, who grew up in Cairo, Egypt, said her Gaza elementary school subjected her to “intense hate speech” and peace was never an option.

“A lot of what Arabs understand is really fabrication,” she said.

Darwish said she started speaking after 9/11 when she discovered the terrorist leader was from her hometown. Mohamed Atta, a 9/11 terrorist, is from Cairo.

“I called a lot of people in Egypt, and they said ‘How dare you say this? This is a Jewish conspiracy,’” she said. “My heart was broken, and I sincerely cried.”

Darwish said her country is not seeing the reality of today’s world

“The truth is the only thing that will save them,” she said.

In addition, she said, Islam has wounded women. For example, men can have four wives and beat them for disobedience.

“A woman under Islamic law cannot get a divorce,” she said. “However, men can divorce his wife verbally under Islamic law . . . Wife killing is a phenomenon in Muslim countries.”

Women must have four male witnesses to prove rape, Darwish said. And women have to be virgins when they marry or they are killed.

“She has committed adultery unless there are four male witnesses,” she said. “Women are in prison for sexual violations.”

Darwish also discussed the rights of non-Muslims in Islamic countries.

“Under Islamic law, Jews and Christians can live in an Islamic country only if they live as inferior, pay taxes and give money to the Muslim state,” she said.

Darwish said she believes these laws are the root of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

“The root of the conflict is seventh-century laws that are still practiced today, and no one wants to end these laws,” she said. “It’s still on books and taken seriously.”

When any religion expands itself so much that it politically imposes on minorities, it leaves itself open to criticism, she said.

“When Islam becomes religious as well as political, a leader has to be criticized,” she said.

Darwish said moderate Muslims should get involved in ending the conflict.

“If you love your religion, you have to take it out of the hands of the radicals,” she said.

Hillel House Taglit-Birthright Israel Program Associate KateLynn Plotnick said the situation seems to be getting worse.

“A mutual respect is needed between the two religions,” she said. “If you’re teaching to hate the other side, peace won’t be accomplished unless two sides can acknowledge and begin teaching morals and values in their speeches and writings.”

Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America Fellow and College of Arts and Sciences junior Adam Korn said Darwish is a fantastic speaker.

“You’re hearing from someone who lived through this, and her family has distanced themselves because she speaks the truth,” Korn, a BU Students for Israel Vice President, said. “Women’s rights in the in the Middle East is not a big issue, and it should be.”

With thanks to Atlas

Father issued fatwa against son, letter says

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From The National Post by way of The Religion of Peace:

Lamine Yansane, outside Mary Queen of the World Cathedral.

MONTREAL — In Lamine Yansané’s hometown of Boké in Guinea, his father is a revered imam who sometimes leads Friday prayers. But after Mr. Yansané married a Catholic woman and abandoned Islam for Christianity, his father disowned him, and Friday prayers have featured a call for his death, the Federal Court heard yesterday.

Mr. Yansané, who has been denied refugee status, is seeking a last-ditch reprieve on the grounds that he faces certain harm if he is deported from Canada. “If you return him to his country, he is going to die,” Mr. Yansané’s lawyer, Stewart Istvanffy, told the court. He called his client “a victim of radical Islam, who is threatened by the imam of his town, his own father.”

Mr. Yansané, 37, arrived in Canada from Guinea in the fall of 2005. He told the Immigration and Refugee Board that he fled the West African nation after his father and uncle tracked him down in the country’s capital of Conakry, confronted him about his church attendance and threatened him as a traitor to Islam. His wife and three children remain in Guinea.

The board member who heard his case called his testimony “devoid of credibility.” She did not believe that a family of religious fanatics would have permitted his marriage to a Christian in the first place. (Mr. Yansané said he was allowed to marry on the condition he convert his wife to Islam, a project he abandoned.) And she found it far-fetched that his family would tolerate the couple’s presence in Boké for the 10 years they lived there before moving to Conakry. Continue Reading →

Speeches from Rifka Barry Rally

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A rally for Rifqa Bary held in Dorrian Commons Park in Columbus, Ohio, on November 16, 2009. Speakers included Pamela Geller, Simon Deng, Nonie Darwish, James Lafferty, Robert Spencer, and Jamal Jivanjee.

Some excellent speeches here by some people who the western world needs to pay a lot more attention to than they are. Simon Deng, Nonnie Darwish and others are amongst this illustrious group of speakers who deal with very important issues of apostasy in Islam and Islam and Western Civilization.

Personally I do not have an opinion on the Rifka Barry case, other than of course she has the absolute right to change her belief howsoever she likes and should be safe from the state, her family and community. There is much I do not understand however about the details. But I do know the people who have chosen to rally behind her and offer her massive support in many ways are far wiser and more experienced than I on these matters so I post this also for that reason. These speakers are excellent. The community represented here in this video is significant so in solidarity also I post this video, even if I have not been a strident voice on this particular individual and issue. One hopes that she turns 18 soon, and becomes a free agent within the US to live her life with the same rights and responsibilities as all Americans. If she is one.

Eeyore for Vlad.

15 Year Old Egyptian Convert to Christianity Sends Plea to Obama

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hat tip to R.E.A.L

peterathanasiusdina Cairo (AINA) — 15-year-old Egyptian girl Dina el-Gowhary, who converted from Islam to Christianity, has sent a plea to President Obama, complaining of mistreatment by the Egyptian Government and asking for his mediation. “Mr President Obama,” she writes, “we are a minority in Egypt. We are treated very badly. You said that the Muslim minority in America are treated very well, so why are we not treated here likewise? We are imprisoned in our own home because Muslim clerics called for the murder of my father, and now the Government has set for us a new prison, we are imprisoned in our own country.”

The handwritten Arabic letter, posted on Coptic websites, also says “I am 15 years old but I still have hope that my message will reach President Obama.”

The el-Gowhary family was barred from leaving Egypt on September 17, 2009 without any legal reason. They were told, however, that the order came from a higher authority (AINA 9-26-200).

Dina, is the daughter of 57-year-old Maher el-Gowhary, also known by his Christian name Peter Athanasius, who embraced Christianity secretly 35 years ago. In August, 2008 he filed the second ever lawsuit of a Muslim-born Egyptian against the Egyptian Government to officially alter his identification documents to reflect his new Christian identity. He lost the case in June 2009. According to the Court ruling, the religious conversion of a Muslim is against Islamic Sharia law and poses a threat to the “Public Order” in Egypt. (AINA 6-16-2009). He appealed the ruling.

Maher and Dina have been living in hiding ever since he filed his lawsuit because Muslim clerics have called him an apostate and several Fatwas (religious edicts), for ‘spilling his blood’ have been issued. He frequently changes where he lives to evade being killed, and friends supply him with food. “We cannot sleep, eat or go out in the street,” he said. He believes that the authorities are putting pressure on them (he and Dina) to re-convert back to Islam, “but this will never happen, even if we have to live on the streets. We love our Lord Jesus, and we have left Islam for good.”

The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), in conjunction with Copts United, presented el-Gowhary’s case to the UN Human Rights Council in its 12th session in September 2009.

Maher visited the Canadian Embassy to see if he can get religious asylum. He found an Egyptian receptionist there in her Hijab, so he left. The Egyptian staff at Western embassies in Cairo are under the control of State Security.

Maher lashed out today at the Egyptian Government, asking for his Egyptian nationality to be taken away if it is the reason why the Government is adamant on depriving him of his basic rights as an Egyptian citizen. He told Copts United “if the Egyptian nationality is the cause of my imprisonment within my home and being unable to move, then I do not want it.” He added that it would be more honorable for him to hold the nationality of any other country rather than the Egyptian one “Where I live together with my daughter suffering imprisonment within the walls of my apartment and without any freedom.”

By Mary Abdelmassih

Raw video of a Muslim who ran over his own daughter to preserve his honour.

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From Ocala.com video of the arraignment of the Muslim who drove over his daughter for being too western, while in fact living nearly as far west as one can without being in Alaska. So much to be furious about it really should be alphabetized. However the idea that you can move your family somewhere and then murder them if they adapt, well its beyond and beneath contempt.

From the originating site:

Raw Video: Ariz. ‘honor-killing’ Dad in Court Continue Reading →

Judge orders runaway convert to go home

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Rifqa Bary

Rifqa Bary

 ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) – The teenager who ran away from Ohio to Florida because she feared physical harm for converting from Islam to Christianity has been ordered back to Ohio.

A Florida judge said Tuesday that 17-year-old Rifqa Bary, who has been staying in Orlando, should return to her family, who live outside Columbus.

Bary has been in foster care in Florida while her case was being reviewed. The judge says he will turn over the case to an Ohio court in the next few weeks, but no order has been signed yet.

Bary ran away from her parents’ home in July, saying she feared being killed for changing religions. But a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation found no credible threats to Bary.

Up next for Bary is a status hearing which is scheduled for October 23, at which time her parents attorneys have to submit immigration documents. That could be the day that she is sent back to Ohio.

If the issue is not resolved by the end of October, a judicial review has been tentatively scheduled for November 10.

Iraqis Shocked as Atheism Creeps in

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“No one is guiltier than the Americans who brought such ideas to Iraqis.”

atheist-bus1 IslamOnLine…BAGHDAD – Although their number remains insignificant and most of them hid their identity, the fact that some people are leaving Islam and becoming atheists is a troubling news in conservative Iraq.

“I was surprised a couple of weeks ago when my son told me that his colleague at college told him that his father had become an atheist,” Sheik Abdul-Rassoul al-Rabia’a, a religion teacher at Baghdad University, told IslamOnline.net.

Not only did the father abandon his Muslim faith, he wanted his son to follow in his footsteps.

“I suggested to my son bringing his friend home and talked with him that despite his father’s thinking, he should continue to follow his Muslim heart and never deny his God,” al-Rabia’a said.

Linking that to the non-stop violence plaguing the country since the 2003 US invasion, some Iraqis are becoming atheists.

Most of them have had personal incidents involving either themselves or close relatives.

“Iraq is a land without God or any other kind of major protective superior form,” claims one atheist who declined to be named fearing reprisal.

“We have been forgotten and it is better to think only rationally than emotionally. I left behind my old beliefs because it is the only way to protect my children from any harm that God isn’t being able to do.”

Yasser (not his real name) is grouping up with others who have also renounced their faiths.

“When we first decided to organise ourselves, we were only eight people,” he told IOL.

“And after seven months, our number has reached to 34 but many other groups are being formed countrywide according to my contacts in northern and southern Iraq.

“We believe that today in Iraq, there are at least 220 atheists linked to the groups nationwide.”

Caro (not his real name), 41, also claims their numbers are on the rise.

“Each day we are having more followers and maybe one day we will be able to have our own centre where we will be able to discuss our ideas and nature creation.” Continue Reading →

American Apostates from Islam Affirm Their Freedom

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by Baron Bodissey

Nonie Darwish is a well-known former Muslim. She was born in Egypt, converted out of Islam, and now lives in the United States. But even here — in a country where freedom of speech and freedom of religion are constitutionally guaranteed — she faces intimidation and harassment for daring to leave Islam.

As Phyllis Chesler wrote yesterday:

Nonie DarwishNonie Darwish, the warmest, sanest, least prejudiced Egyptian whom I know, has both been attacked and has not been defended by the administrative elite at the Whittier College Law School where she is scheduled to speak later today. According to Steven Emerson, the Muslim Student Association on campus defamed Darwish and tried to stop or at least delay her presentation.

Not surprising. They specialize in such demonization and censorship campaigns. Darwish pleads the case of Muslim women whose human rights are seriously violated by shariah law. But the academic administrators at Whittier Law School have not strongly defended her right to speak, nor have they praised her work. This is unforgivable; according to Emerson, many happen to be women who are also feminists.

This is a process that has become all too familiar in recent years as courageous apostates from Islam have been abandoned by both civil libertarians and feminists. The hypocrisy of the progressive Left is now completely exposed: the human rights that they have putatively championed for all these years are not universal. When Islam walks through the door, the Left falls suddenly and mysteriously silent about the right of Muslims to choose their own destiny.

However, America’s former Muslims aren’t waiting for the approval of the Left to assert their freedom. They’ve organized a new group called Former Muslims United under the leadership of Nonie Darwish, Mohammed Asghar, Amil Imani, Wafa Sultan and Ibn Warraq:

Former Muslims United was formed in September, 2009 by a group of leading American apostates from Islam — Nonie Darwish (Director), Mohammed Asghar, Amil Imani, Wafa Sultan and Ibn Warraq — to educate the American public and policymakers about the need for Muslims to repudiate the threat from authoritative Shariah to the religious freedom and safety of former Muslims. Our national campaign for civil rights and physical safety for former Muslims was launched with the creation of a pledge for Muslim leaders to sign — “ The Muslim Pledge for Religious Freedom and Safety from Harm for Former Muslims.”

The first group of Muslim leaders were sent pledges to coincide with the date September 25, 2009.

I’ll have more to say about the Pledge below. But first, some excerpts from the group’s mission statement:

1. Develop a legal framework for and ensure the civil of American individuals and organizations to provide sanctuary for former Muslims without being subject to legal penalties or threats.
2. Call on all Muslims and their spiritual leaders to reject, publicly and without reservation or exception, all Sharia doctrine that permits or calls for punishment or discrimination against former Muslims, including intimidation and threats against person or property. This rejection of violence applies to individuals, Sharia authorities, Muslim courts or other Sharia bodies, governments, and quasi-governmental bodies.
3. Form a support group to empower and give comfort to former Muslims enabling them to stand up for their religious liberties under the US Constitution.
[…]
7. Demand Muslim leaders reject and denounce all Islamic literature which calls for death or other punishments for former Muslims.

The members of Former Muslims United are tackling the most urgent issue that can be faced by those who have chosen to leave Islam. In any country where there are significant numbers of Muslims, apostates face the risk of death at the hands of their former fellows. Islam permits — indeed, it requires — the death penalty for apostasy, as well as for other crimes such as blasphemy and adultery.
Continue Reading →