An Islamic court in Saudi Arabia has given a death sentence to a man who renounced his Muslim faith.
The man posted an online video of himself ripping up a Koran and then hitting it with a shoe as he said he was no longer a Muslim.
A witness in the court says the video was played showing “’In the video he cursed God, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his daughter Fatimah and ripped a copy of the Holy Qur’an and hit it with a shoe.” The death sentence was then immediately handed down.
Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally in the fight against ISIS, follows the Wahhabi Sunni Muslim school and gives clerics control over the justice system. Renouncing Islam brings a death sentence along with other crimes like blasphemy and criticism of senior Muslim clerics.
Executions in Saudi Arabia are usually public beheadings.
The first Islamic tribunal is now hearing cases and issuing rulings in North Texas.
The “court” is located in Irving, Texas and is being used to settle disputes between Muslims such as divorces and business disputes using Sharia Law rather than U.S. law as the basis for their decisions.
The judges claim that their decisions are nothing more than giving an “Islamic point of view” to situations that they are facing in their lives and participation is voluntary. The three men who run the tribunal say that they do not handle anything that involves criminal activity.
“All our decisions point back to the Koran and Sunna … and what the prophet Mohammed left to us,” Dr. Taher el-Badawi, Islamic Tribunal judge, told KEYE TV.
The restriction to not handle criminal cases allows the tribunal to avoid having to issue any rulings on situations where the Quran calls for stoning if someone commits adultery or the subjugation of women.
Critics say that the “court” sets a dangerous precedent and fear that would allow other foreign groups to use foreign law.
A Christian activist who made headlines last year when she boldly proclaimed Christ during a Muslim prayer service at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. made another bold stand in Texas.
Christine Weick took the microphone at the podium during the 7th annual Texas Muslim Capitol Day and declared Christ as Lord over the state.
“I proclaim the name of the Lord Jesus Christ over the capitol of Texas,” declared Weick. “I stand against Islam and the false prophet Mohammad. Islam will never dominate the United States, and by the grace of God, it will not dominate Texas.”
While no lawmakers were seen at the event, one Democratic State Senator from Houston referred to the declaration of Weick’s as “hate speech.”
“People of all faiths deserve to be treated with respect and dignity in our state’s capitol while they exercise their rights in a peaceful manner,” Sen. Rodney Ellis remarked in a statement provided to the Houston Chronicle. “We felt the need to stand in solidarity with Texas Muslims in the face of virulent hate speech and bigotry.”
Weick had also protested the “Stand With The Prophet” event in Garland, Texas in January.
The Rev. Franklin Graham is pulling no punches when it comes to the state of Christianity in America.
Graham says that Christians are being pushed to the back of the room while government groups and activist entities are promoting all other religions. Graham made his statements while appearing on WNCN to talk about the recent incident with Duke University’s now-revoked plan to air Muslim calls to prayer from their bell tower.
“I agree with diversity but what’s happening with this country is all these religions are getting front row and Christians are being pushed — and we’re the majority — are being pushed back to the back of the room,” he said.
“This country was built with Christian principles — it was men and women who believed in God and believed in His Son, Jesus Christ, who built this country. We’re the greatest nation in the history of the world. It wasn’t built by Islam, and it wasn’t built by any other group. It was those who supported and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Graham said that in America, people do not realize that Imams in Middle Eastern nations are not condemning terrorist attacks and that the Quran calls for violence against non-Muslims.
“First of all, you don’t have condemnation outside this country,” he said. “You’ll have clerics in this country who’ll condemn these acts. But these acts of terrorism are not condemned by the mullahs in Saudi Arabia or in Egypt, or Iraq or Syria.”
“The reason is,” he continued, “is because the Quran teaches this. And so, if they condemned it they would be condemning the Quran, and they’re not going to condemn the Quran.”
A 15-year-old girl who converted to Christianity has been beaten to death by her father, a Muslim Imam.
In addition to the killing of Namugonya Jamirah, Imam Abudalah Ali beat his 12-year-old daughter Saidah so severely that she has been hospitalized for two weeks. The young girl was horrified when she found out that her sister did not survive their father’s attack upon them.
“Saidah needs prayers, trauma counseling and medication for the left side of her hip that was injured by the father,” a hospital source told Morning Star News.
The girls were beaten after accepting Christ at the end of a five-day evangelistic event in Kaliro District.
“Their father got the information that his daughters have converted, and he organized a small group of fellow Muslims, about 17 people, to go and attack the Christians,” a source said. “He found the campaign had finished but went back to his home and waited for the daughters. When they went back home, the father picked up the club and started beating them badly till one called Jamirah died.”
The father had been working to have local Muslims kill the 12-year-old before she was taken from the country for her own safety.
Local Muslim officials said that the father claimed the older girl died in a motorcycle accident and they are not pursing murder charges.
“The police were later bribed and accepted the words of Ali, and he was released on bail,” one source said. “When he came home he went to the [local] chairman and said that he had disowned Saidah, and that if she tries to go back that she will be killed just like her sister, and that he is leaving Saidah in the hands of born-again Christians.”
Thirteen Pakistani Christian families are homeless after refusing to enter into “bonded labor”, or a form of slavery.
Local government officials had told the Christians that unless the male heads of the families entered into the slavery-like contract at a local brick kiln factory, the would be driven from the area around Samundri.
The contracts state that if something happens to the one who signs the deal, family members would have to work off the debt should the person die. Currently about 75 percent of bonded labor in Pakistan are children working for deceased parents, according to the Barnabas Fund.
The kiln factory in this situation is owned by Muslims who told the local government if they couldn’t get the Christians to agree to slave labor, they would build a hospital on the site of the Christian’s homes.
A report from the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement says that the Muslim factory owners do not pay enough for anyone to overcome their debts and the young Christian women are taken and sold as sex slaves in the human trafficking market.
After Duke University reversed a decision to allow Muslims to broadcast their call to prayer from a bell tower, it’s been revealed that Muslims at UCLA have been broadcasting their call at UCLA.
The Islamic Student Association at UCLA broadcast the call to prayer near the Sunset Boulevard athletic field according to the video posted on YouTube. The students told their prayer inside the John Wooden Center.
“I bear witness that there is none worthy of being worshiped except Allah,” the common Muslim chant, known as the adhan, declares. “I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. … Allah is most great.”
Christian activists say while the Duke situation gained national attention, incidents like UCLA have been happening under-the-radar for years.
“The call to prayer is something that is blasted over loudspeakers in Muslim majority countries and Muslim enclaves around Detroit,” wrote Carol Brown of American Thinker, a blog that discusses the important issues of the United States. “We’ve already heard enough ‘Allahu Akbar’ for a lifetime.”
Many groups are wondering about the accommodation to Muslims that is not permitted to other religions on campuses. Several groups pointed out that UCLA has been a very anti-Christian campus with students who have taken bold anti-Christian actions.
Hundreds protested this weekend outside a Muslim conference in Garland, Texas that was aimed to tell Muslims to “Stand With The Prophet.”
The event reportedly was sold out.
“Frustrated with Islamophobes defaming the prophet? Fuming over extremists like ISIS who give a bad name to Islam? Remember the Danish cartoons defaming the prophet? Or the anti-Islam film, ‘Innocence of Muslims’? These attacks are no accident,” the website for the event reads.
“Prophet Muhammad inspires love and devotion in the hearts of Muslims, peace be upon him; unfortunately, Islamophobes have turned him into an object of hate,” it continues. “Hate groups in the U.S. have invested at least $160 million dollars to attack our prophet and Islam. Isn’t it time we invested in defending our faith? Otherwise, groups like ISIS and Boko Haram will only continue to increase the media’s ammunition to incriminate Muslims.”
One of the speakers was Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who has been called the “unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.”
Vietnam Veteran Jeff Higgins says that he came out to protest because he wants people to know the truth about Islam.
“This is my backyard,” Higgins stated. “We live under the American law, not Shariah law and I know that ultimately, that’s their goal, is to bring Shariah law to America. This is the first kind of, in-your-face attempt to do that. I know they’ll say this is about peace, but peace means submission to them.”
A day after making national headlines for allowing Muslims to broadcast a call to prayer declaring Allah to be the only God, Duke University reversed course and said they will not allow the broadcast to take place.
The University said their plan met with “unintended backlash.”
“The idea was conceived with the best of intentions and the greatest of intentions to create unity,” Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations, told WNCN. “It turned out to have the opposite effect and it was actually creating divisiveness that was neither intended nor valuable.”
The University will allow members of the Muslim community to gather outside the chapel before moving to its regular location in the chapel basement.
Many Christian leaders spoke out against Duke’s proposed action, including Rev. Franklin Graham.
“First of all, this chapel was given by donors, Methodists, from across this state and other areas, so that there would be a Christian chapel on the campus so that the students would have a place to worship the God of the Bible,” Graham said. “What I have the problem is using the chapel that was built to be a house of worship — to worship Jesus Christ as the Son of God — that they’re using this now so that they can put loud speakers and use it as a minaret.”
Duke, a private school founded by Methodists and Quakers, has a divinity school connected to the United Methodist Church.
Duke University will start broadcasting the Muslim Call To Prayer declaring “Allah Is Great” from their bell tower.
“Members of the Duke Muslim Students Association will chant a weekly call-to-prayer from the Duke Chapel bell tower beginning Friday, Jan. 16,” Duke Today outlined in a report on Tuesday. “The chant, called the ‘adhan,’ announces the start of the group’s jummah prayer service, which takes place in the chapel basement each Friday at 1 p.m.”
The university said that while the adhan is usually played five times a day for Muslims to pray, they’re doing it only once a week for the Friday high prayers.
“I bear witness that there is none worthy of being worshiped except Allah,” the adhan declares. “I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. … Allah is most great.”
University officials said the broadcasting of the Muslim prayer demonstrates the University’s diversity.
Local Christian leaders are asking Duke why they don’t permit Christians to recite the Lord’s Prayer from the university bell tower once a week.