Pakistan: More Christians Accused of Sending ‘Blasphemous’ Text Messages

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“Shafqat says the couple has been framed in a false case. He says that the police had forced him to record his confession before the magistrate.”

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: Morning Star News
By Pakistan Correspondent | July 22, 2013

Married couple jailed under laws that call for death or life in prison.

LAHORE, Pakistan (Morning Star News) – A Christian couple was arrested on Saturday (July 20) for allegedly sending blasphemous text messages to a Muslim cleric in Gojra, a religiously volatile city where a week before a young Christian man was sentenced to life in prison on the same charge.

Shafqat Masih, 43, and his 40-year-old wife Shagufta, who reportedly have four children between the ages of 5 and 11, were taken into custody on a complaint by Muslim cleric Rana Muhammad Ejaz, who alleged that he had received blasphemous text messages from Masih from a number registered in the name of Shagufta.

Gojra City police registered a case under Section 295-C of Pakistan’s widely condemned blasphemy laws for allegedly defaming Islam’s prophet, Muhammad. Conviction is punishable by death or life in prison, which is 25 years in Pakistan.
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Perspective: Don’t you dare call it Islam! / Op-Ed

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Tell me this, where does Islam give you the right to torch vehicles and create chaos on the streets? It is very clear what your priorities are. For one thing, I can say this is not Islam but something else.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: Dhaka Tribune | Op-Ed
By Nahiyan Asadullah | July 22, 2013

We do not become Muslims by simply putting caps on our heads and sporting beards

Is this what you call Islam? Is this what Islam teaches us? Vandalising in the holy month of Ramadan? This is a month of worship, a month of drawing closer to Allah.

But I don't really think you care, all you want is to manipulate religion for political gains . You say you are the revolutionaries and revivalists of Islam, yet you do things, which in plain words, are nothing but a disservice to Islam.

Tell me this, where does Islam give you the right to torch vehicles and create chaos on the streets? It is very clear what your priorities are. For one thing, I can say this is not Islam but something else. I want to tell you that your fundamentals are totally messed up.
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Pakistan: Christian couple charged with blasphemy in Gojra

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Napolean Qayyum, a minorities leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, said that it was alarming that Christians were increasingly being accused of blasphemy through text messages.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: Pakistan Today
By Asher John | July 22, 2013

A Christian couple in Gojra has been charged under the blasphemy law for allegedly sending blasphemous text messages to a local Muslim, Pakistan Today has learnt.

According to details, the Gojra City Police Station registered a case [FIR No. 407/13] under Section 295-C of the country’s blasphemy law against Shafqat Masih, 43, and his wife Shagufta, 40, on Sunday on a complaint filed by one Rana Muhammad Ejaz who alleged that he had received blasphemous text messages from a number registered in the name of Shagufta.

Gojra City Police Station House Officer Inspector Muhammad Nisar told Pakistan Today that the police had verified that the SIM used to send the blasphemous text messages was registered in Shagufta’s name while her husband had “admitted” using it in his phone to send the messages to Ejaz.
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Germany: Muslim mob attacks policemen in Hamburg

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Only after the arrival of 100 more policemen as reinforcement did it became possible to calm down the mob. As a result, sixteen people were arrested, and two trouble-makers were sent to the hospital.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: Pravoslavie
By Pravoslavie | July 18, 2013

In Hamburg, on the night of July 12, after fasting, a group of young Muslims gathered in Holstenstraße street for a night meal after the Muslim fast.

Soon after that the police received complaints from the drivers who were driving by: some people were blinding drivers in the street with laser pointers. A squad arrived in response to a call and tried to check the documents of sixteen gathered young men, however they began to behave aggressively, reports Bild.de.

The youths started to yell threats at the policemen, beat the police car, and some of them attempted to attack the police officers. When the police tried to arrest the trouble-makers, one of them made a phone call and after some time, around 150 other Muslims assembled from the neighboring streets to the scene, and blocked the police officers.
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Pakistan: Childless couple 'given baby' on TV by popular televangelist

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TV channel Geo News's special shows broadcast during the fasting month, promises "soul-stirring experiences" to "rub balm on the wounds" of the downtrodden.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: BBC News
By News from Elsewhere | July 19, 2013

A Pakistani TV show marking Ramadan by giving away motorbikes, TVs and laptops offered a childless couple a baby, it's reported.

Aman Ramazan, this year's edition of TV channel Geo News's special shows broadcast during the fasting month, promises "soul-stirring experiences" to "rub balm on the wounds" of the downtrodden. And when the couple appeared on the show, host Dr Amir Liaqat Hussain handed them the baby girl for adoption, reports The News. She had apparently been left "in a pile of garbage" and was passed to the programme's producers by volunteers from a welfare association.
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Pakistan: Fast-observing robbers eat Sehri, escape with valuables

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“Meanwhile, the time for Sehri started so they untied my mother and wife and instructed them to prepare food. My wife and mother prepared. They also untied other family members to ensure that we had Sehri with the robbers, and they parked our car outside our house.”

File Photo: Residents eating Sehri during electric load-shedding crisis

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: Daily Dawn
By A Reporter | July 22, 2013

ISLAMABAD, July 21: Robbers stormed a house in G-15/4, beat up the family and made off with valuables worth Rs3 million after forcing the women in the family to prepare Sehri for them, Dawn has learnt.

According to the police, seven people entered Yasir Sheikh’s house (House No. 70, Street 5, Sector G-15/4) and stayed there for six hours during which they robbed the family off cash, gold, prize bonds and other valuables.

They collected gold biscuits and jewellery worth Rs1.8 million, prize bonds of Rs965,000, Rs200,000 cash, television, DVD and other electronic instruments.
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USA: Ahmadiyya Muslim Community celebrates Ramadan in Milwaukee

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Milwaukee's Bait-ul Qadir mosque — in the former corporate headquarters of AAA Wisconsin — is a reflection of the Ahmadis' global scope and their nearly 100 years of history in urban America.

Photo: Michael McLoone / Journal Sentinel

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: Journal Sentinel
By Annysa Johnson | July 22, 2013

Ahmadiyya Muslims worship freely here, but persecuted elsewhere

Inside the Bait-ul Qadir mosque on Fond du Lac Ave., a small group of men gather before the midday prayer. They speak of the weather and their families, the inanities of daily affairs but also the great mysteries of life and the path to salvation.

"We are what we do. And in the next life, we will be judged by our actions," said Rashid Ahmad, an imam, who at 90 commands the quiet respect of his fellow worshippers.

"You cannot judge a body that has been in the ground; it is dust. But your actions...," said Ahmad, waving his hand as if to cast a fine powder into the ether. "Your actions are still here."
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