Afghanistan
and Saudi Arabia TODAY!
Reuters – April 24, 2005
Faizabad, Afghanistan — An Afghan woman has been stoned to death for adultery, police said today, the first such incident in Afghanistan since the Taliban’s ouster from power.
Amina, a 29 year-old married woman, was publicly stoned to death on the basis of a district court’s decision on Thursday in Argo district to the west of Faizabad, the provincial capital of Badakhshan, they said. “She has been stoned to death,” provincial police chief, General Shah Jahan Noori, adding a team has been sent to the area to investigate the incident further.
Adultery is forbidden in the Muslim country and under Islamic sharia law the penalty can range from flogging to stoning to death.
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Astonishment below the fold …
A witness, Mujibur Rahman, told Reuters that Amina was dragged out of her parent’s house by local officials and her husband who stoned her to death while the man was flogged, whipped 100 times and then freed.
Amina’s stoning was the first one in Afghanistan since President Hamid Karzai was installed to power after the US-led forces overthrew the Taliban’s government, Noori said.
Arabic News Riyadh – April 23, 2005 — It seemed on Friday that Islamist candidates for the municipal elections in Saudi Arabia, who are supported by the men of religion, are inclined to achieve a great victory in Jeddah, the same as in most of the cities in the two first phases in this election process.
Official results for the last phase are expected to appear today in the western and southern governorates. However, partial results after selection of many ballot boxes in Jeddah indicate that candidates of “the golden list” are the winners.
One of the likely winners stressed “the nomination of the Sheikhs for the Islamists lists came as a result of the active campaign” basically launched by the 7 Islamists candidates in contrary to their liberal opponents.
Businessman and journalist Najm Eddine Zafer, the candidate for one of the seven seats in Jeddah said “the golden list is inclined to achieve a great victory”. The likely winners launched the elections separately in each of the seven circles in the city, and got as a group that support of the influential men of religion. Zafer said “the businessmen and intellectuals were negative while the Islamists were organized,” noting that the Islamists had won also in Riyadh and in al-Dammam, one of the major cities in the eastern region in the first phases.
Saudi men vote in landmark poll
Gulf Daily News JEDDAH: Saudi men went to the polls yesterday in the final round of landmark municipal elections, with some pressing for wider public freedoms and others zealously defending the kingdom’s Islamic identity.
Four die as Saudi forces and militants clash in Mecca
Reuters – Saudi Muslim Scholars Stamp Their Mark on Elections
- Four Baptists killed near Mosul
- Christian churches bombed
- Liquor shops and movie theaters fire-bombed
- Muslim fundamentalist and submission of women
… to be added.
Four baptists killed near Mosul
Mosul – March 28, 2004 — The four missionaries killed in Iraq were described by the Southern Baptist International Mission Board as American humanitarian-aid workers. They were attacked while driving near the city of Mosul. A fifth worker survived the attack and is listed on the mission board’s Web site as in stable condition in Germany.
Organization officials said the missionaries’ primary job was to develop a water-purification project and that they would discuss issues of faith with Iraqis only when asked.
The organization’s work in Iraq centers on financial support for local missions through the “All Our Children” program, a partnership of American charities. Mr. Frerichs acknowledged that some American missionaries go to Iraq, but said they stay behind the scenes to help community leaders who are less likely to be targeted in attacks.
Christian churches bombed
Baghdad – Aug. 1, 2004 — In a wave of coordinated attacks aimed at Iraq’s Christian minority, a series of bombs exploded Sunday outside five churches thronged with worshipers here and in the northern city of Mosul, killing 11 people and injuring dozens more.
It was the first time in this nation’s 15-month insurgency that Iraqi Christians were targeted, further fraying the country’s delicate religious fabric and raising fears of increased sectarian conflict.
Attackers timed some of the blasts for maximum effect, during evening services that attracted hundreds of faithful. Bloodied and dazed, churchgoers spilled onto streets littered with shards of stained glass and splinters of wood as smoke billowed above them.
by Gregg Chadwick
“I was really changed by my experiences in Afghanistan. It is a luxury for people to say war is bad when they are in San Francisco. You need to make friends with people in the U.S. government in order to get a change in policy. You can’t say something is bad unless you come in with ways to fix it.”
-Marla Ruzicka
Memorial services at St. Mary’s in Lakeport and Washington DC
In an e-mail message to a friend, Marla Ruzicka
described the girl sitting on her lap in a Baghdad photo:
"This is Harah, she was 3 mts old when her mom threw
her out of the window of the car and all her family members
died when a US rocket hit the car - now she is big and healthy
-we help her- thought you would like to see the photos."
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Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
