U.S. Copts Association

As killing was not premeditated, teenager’s sentence reduced to 3.5 years.

ISTANBUL, July 26 (Compass Direct News) — Iraq’s Kurdish regional high court has reduced jail time for a teenager who fatally stabbed her uncle as he beat her for converting to Christianity and “shaming” the family by working in public.

After reviewing the case for more than two months, the court in Erbil on April 30 upheld an earlier decision by Dohuk’s juvenile court that Asya Ahmad Muhammad was guilty of killing her uncle, though she acted in defense of herself and others. Clearing her of an original conviction for premeditated murder, the court reduced the 15-year-old girl’s sentence from five to three-and-a-half years.
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Los Angeles-July 23-Ambassadors form Islamic Arab nations were encouraged to improve their human rights records, open up religious freedom and to speak against terrorism in a meeting July 2 with several Christian leaders attended by Trinity Broadcasting Network’s Vice President of Administration, Paul Crouch, Jr.

“This was a meeting hosted by the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, DC, and was attended by the ambassadors from Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Kuwait, Yemen, Iraq, Bahrain, and the Arab League of Nations,” says Crouch. “We explained to them that Christians loved the Arab people no less than the Jewish people, but that there needed to be more public outcry against terrorism, more attention paid to human rights, and that Islamic nations needed to respect and be open to all religions.
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CAIRO: Egypt’s official religious adviser has ruled that Muslims are free to change their faith as it is a matter between an individual and God, in a move which could have far-reaching implications for the country’s Christians. Read the rest…

By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent

Cairo: Egypt’s top cleric yesterday denied in a statement that he had said a Muslim can give up his faith without punishment.

Ali Goma’a, the mufti of Egypt, was quoted as saying in a posting on a Washington Post-Newsweek forum that Muslims are free to change their faith and this is a matter between an individual and God.

“What I actually said is that Islam prohibits a Muslim from changing his religion and that apostasy is a crime, which must be punished,” Goma’a said.
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Hamas Leader Khaled Mash’al Praises Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi for His Support of Suicide Operations and States - The Holocaust Was Exaggerated and Is Used to Extort Germany. Zionist Holocaust against Arabs Much Worse.
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Youssef Sidhom,  

Editor in Chief-Watani Newspaper

It appears that ridiculing other religions has become a lucrative business in Egypt these days. Those who make it a calling to disdain other faiths find a handy venue in the media to promote their ideas. Sadly, this exploitation of religious sentiment to delude simple believers is adopted by followers of different faiths. Someone would begin by deriding the other religion, the followers of which would rush to defend their faith. The outcome is a hideous exchange of offences; and religions’ sublime objectives of carrying people to lofty standards of compassion and tolerance are lost. Instead, individuals lose sympathy as well as God’s grace.
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You have made history”. This is how a Coptic Metropolitan described the reconciliation brought about by His Holiness Aram I (Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church) between the Coptic Orthodox and the Ethiopian Orthodox Churches. “This is a historical day”, said an Ethiopian Archbishop.

These words were pronounced after the signing of a Common Declaration, marking the end of more than two decades of tension between the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The Common Declaration was signed on Friday 13 July 2007 at the Cathedral of the Coptic Church in Cairo, with the signing of a Common Declaration by the three spiritual heads: His Holiness Shenouda III, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark, His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, and His Holiness Abba Paulos, Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Emphasizing “the importance of this historical meeting”, the spiritual heads reaffirmed their unity of faith which is “deeply rooted in the Holy Scriptures, the Apostolic faith and Tradition, the three Ecumenical Councils (Nicea 325, Constantinople 381, and Ephesus 431) and the teachings of church fathers, specially St. Athanasius the Great, St. Cyril of Alexandria and St. Gregory the Illuminator…”
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Islamist relatives beat young woman; her life is threatened by Muslim extremists.

ISTANBUL, July 23 (Compass Direct News) - Egyptian police in Alexandria who last week arrested a Christian convert woman today handed her over to her fanatical Islamist family, who beat her before driving her away.

Eyewitnesses said family members of Shaymaa (Eman) Muhammad al-Sayed, 26, today dragged her screaming from the police station where she had been closeted. According to the eyewitnesses outside Alexandria’s Bab-Sharky police station, Al-Sayed’s relatives severely beat her in the Shatby Cemetery behind the police station at 4 p.m.

She was then forced into a family microbus and driven off toward the district of Abeis, east of Alexandria, where her father’s knitting factory is located.

One week ago, on July 16, these same family members openly threatened to kill Al-Sayed for leaving Islam to become a Christian, after spotting her walking through a fair in Alexandria.
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By Krista J. Kapralos, Herald Writer

SEATTLE - A group of about 50 Iraqis who live in Everett gathered Tuesday in downtown Seattle’s Westlake Center to protest the U.S. government’s alliance with Saudi Arabia.

Holding signs accusing Saudi Arabia’s leaders of crimes against humanity, they urged voters to pressure legislators to hold the Middle Eastern kingdom accountable for the number of Saudi terrorists killing people in Iraq.

“We know the U.S. is a friend to Saudi Arabia, and something must be done about it,” said Adil al Rikabi, a man considered by many of the region’s Iraqis as their leader. “As Americans, as people who have their citizenship, we’re asking the government to make a decision about its alliance with Saudi Arabia.”
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Estranged Islamist relatives vow to kill young wife.

ISTANBUL, July 18 (Compass Direct News) — Security police in Alexandria, Egypt have repeatedly tortured a young woman convert to Christianity in custody since Monday (July 16).

Fanatic Islamist relatives of Eman Muhammad el-Sayed, 26, attacked her two days ago while she and her husband were strolling through a local fair in Alexandria. Although police intervened in the street-side fracas, they promptly arrested the victim herself, allegedly to protect her from her Muslim family.
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