Member of Scottish Parliament concerned over misuse of Pakistan blasphemy laws

GLASGOW, UK (Rebecca Gebauer) John Mason, a member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) expressed his concern over the Pakistan’s blasphemy laws during a meeting with delegates of Global Minorities Alliance at the Alliance’s office on Monday April, 29.

Sheraz Khan, Chief Executive of Global Minorities Alliance gave an in-depth briefing to Mr Mason, MSP for Glasgow Shettleston on the widespread misuse of Pakistan’s disputed blasphemy laws. Mr Khan told the MSP that the laws were being widely misused in Pakistan to settle personal scores and vendettas.

He said the misuse of the blasphemy laws had dealt a massive blow to communal and interfaith relations in Pakistan. He requested Mr Mason to voice the Alliance’s concern over the misuse of Pakistan blasphemy laws in the Scottish Parliament. Mr Mason said that he would write to the Pakistan Consulate in the first instance. A members’ motion or question to a minster would be possible other options.

Mr Khan also drew the MSP’s attention towards infiltration of Islam in the text books of linguistics and social sciences. “A grade 2 book of Urdu language asks questions like: Who are we? and the answer given is : We are Muslims,” Mr Khan told the meeting.

France struggles with Islamist extremism in jails

Alexandria Sage

Soldiers stand by tourists as they patrol near the Eiffel Tower in Paris

VILLEPINTE, France: In France, the path to Islamist militancy often begins with a minor offense that throws a young man into an overcrowded, violent jail and produces a hardened convert ready for jihad.

With the country on heightened security alert since January when French troops began fighting Al-Qaeda-linked Islamists in Mali, authorities are increasingly worried about homegrown militants emerging from France’s own jails.

Tanzanian police have arrested at least six suspects, including four Saudi Arabian nationals, in connection with a bomb attack on a church in the northern city of Arusha on Sunday in which two people were killed and dozens injured, police officials said Tuesday.

It is the first time foreigners have been arrested for suspected involvement in the hitherto local religious tensions that have been simmering for several months now between the country's Christians and Muslims.

Associated Press

Wounded churchgoers lie on the ground after a blast at the St. Joseph Mfanyakazi Roman Catholic Church in Arusha, Tanzania Sunday.

"Four Saudi Arabia nationals were arrested near the Namanga border post, on the Kenyan border. We suspect they were the brains behind the attack," a police official, who declined to be named, said by telephone from Arusha.

Egypt's Morsi Brings More Islamists into Cabinet

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, third left, attends Friday prayers in Cairo, Egypt, April 26, 2013.

What the Egyptian press has not published

This week, Egypt witnessed three events have not received the desired media attention,

First: several hundreds of Salafis demonstrated last Thursday evening in front of the headquarter of the National Security (the former name: State Security) to denounce what they called the return of prosecutions of persons belonging to religious stream, their pretext was that the National Security Agency Sent requests to attend some activists affiliated with the stream of political Islam in the previous period

But, Monitoring the events, clear that the main objective of these demonstrations and protests is to bring down the National Security Agency and weaken it as what happened to the Interior Ministry during the revolution of January 2011, especially those protests came after attacks on Copts by Salafist groups and throwing Molotov cocktails at the church in Wasta City (in Bani Swaif Province)

حوش كلابك يامرسى 

Egyptian activist to be tried for insulting president, remains in custody

By Associated Press,

May 02, 2013 05:41 PM EDT

TANTA, Egypt — Prominent Egyptian activist Ahmed Douma was arrested and immediately referred to trial for allegedly insulting the country’s president in a TV interview, a prosecutor said Thursday.

Douma is to stand trial on Sunday — less than a week after being arrested. He is the first prominent opposition activist to be tried on charges of insulting Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

Act of terrorism plan suspects plead guilty in UK

Anzal Hussain left, and Mohammed Hasseen, right ((AP Photo/ West Midalnds Police via PA))   

April 30, 2013 (LONDON) -- Six men pleaded guilty in Britain on Tuesday to planning a terrorist attack on a demonstration by the far-right English Defense League which failed because the plotters arrived after the rally ended.

The men were arrested in July in central England after a search of an impounded vehicle found hidden guns, a nail bomb and other weapons, prompting police to trace and arrest the driver, the passenger and the other suspects.

Tea Party Congressman: Muslim Brotherhood Is Guiding Obama In Boston Bombings Investigation

By Igor Volsky

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) told a conservative radio program this week that the Obama administration “bungled” the investigation of the Boston bombing due to internal guidance from the Muslim Brotherhood.

Appearing on World Net Daily’s radio show, Gohmert speculated that Attorney General Eric Holder read bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev his Miranda rights to “shut him up” and undermine the investigation into the brothers’ possible ties to radical Islam. “It’s very clear to everybody but this administration that radical Islam is at war against us,” he said, before noting that Obama has displayed a “real pattern” of “incompetence” in responding to the threat from extremists during his tenure. He then suggested that members of the Muslim Brotherhood have infiltrated the administration and are leading the president astray:

Egyptian police refuse to protect Coptic Christians during gun and machete attack on mourners at cathedral

• Men with guns, wielding machetes and hurling stones laid siege to cathedral
• Uniformed officers looked on and appeared to help one gunman take aim
• Worshippers were streaming out of service held for victims of earlier clash
• It follows increase in tensions between Egypt's Christians and Muslims

By Leon Watson

A shocking video has emerged that appears to show Egyptian police standing idly by as an anti-Christian mob launch a frenzied attack on a cathedral filled with mourners.

Two worshippers were left dead and 84 injured, including 11 police officers, as men shooting guns, wielding machetes and hurling stones laid siege to the walled Coptic cathedral compound in Cairo earlier this month.

Footage of the prolonged mass attack shows uniformed officers looking on and appearing to help one gunman take aim at people streaming out of a service held for five men killed in an earlier clash with Muslims.

Protest over Christian persecution in Egypt held outside the House of Lords in London

By Alexandra Geels

Special to ASSIST News Service

LONDON, UK (ANS) -- Enraged demonstrators condemned the persecution of the Coptic Christians of Egypt outside the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the UK parliament, during a protest demonstration organized by Coptic United (www.unitedcopts.org) on Saturday, April 20, 2013.

Coptic clerics, human rights activists, as well as leaders of like-minded organizations including Global Minorities Alliance (GMA), a Glasgow-based human rights organization’s with its Chief Executive, Sheraz Khan, and others, participated in the protest.