Egyptian Islamic Jihad official on Christians: “I will exterminate them”
The ouster of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt has brought to the fore all sorts of unsavory characters, including Sheikh ‘Adel Shehato, an official in Egyptian Islamic Jihad who was freed from prison after Mubarak was forced from office. In a recent interview with an Egyptian newspaper (translated from Arabic by the good folks at MEMRI), Shehato had this to say about the possibility of peaceful coexistence between Muslims and Christians in post-Mubarak Egypt:
Interviewer: “Are you against blowing up churches?”
Shehato: “Yes and no. The Christian is free to worship his god in his church, but if the Christians make problems for the Muslims, I will exterminate them. I am guided by the shari’a, and it stipulates that they must pay the jizya tax while in a state of humiliation…”
Interviewer: “These positions of yours frighten us, as Egyptians.”
Shehato: “I will not act [in ways] that contradict my faith just in order to please the people… We say to the Christians, convert to Islam or pay the jizya, otherwise we will fight you. The shari’a is not based on [human] logic but on divine law. That is why we oppose universal, manmade constitutions.”
With people like Shehato jockeying for power in Egypt, the prospects for Egyptian democracy do not — to say the least — look bright. Pray for Christians in Egypt, and for all in the country who truly long for and work for a free, democratic state.
Comments (34) »Wednesday, August 31st, 2011 at 7:02 AM | David Kuner
Rights group–in turnabout–zings Hamas for claiming no war violations
A vocal international human rights group lashed out against Hamas on Thursday: Using critical language it normally reserves for Israel, Human Rights Watch strongly rejected claims made earlier this week by the Gaza-based terror group that it had investigated allegations in a UN report into last winter’s Gaza war and absolved Palestinian armed groups of any wrong-doing.
AFP reported:
“Hamas’s claim that rockets were intended to hit Israeli military targets and only accidentally harmed civilians is belied by the facts,” the New York-based group said.
HRW issued its statement after the Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip said its investigations of allegations in a UN report on the Gaza war found that they and other Palestinian armed groups “struck military targets and avoided civilian targets.”
HRW pointed out that most of the rocket attacks on Israel hit civilian areas. “Civilians were the target,” the rights group said, adding that “deliberately targeting civilians is a war crime.”
On Wednesday, Hamas’s statement said:
“The committee worked around the clock to uncover the facts, despite the certainty that there were no violations of international humanitarian law or international human rights law that amount to war crimes,” said the committee head, Hamas justice minister Mohammed Faraj al-Ghul.
“The Palestinian government has on more than one occasion called on armed Palestinian groups to avoid targeting civilians,” said the report by Hamas, which has claimed scores of deadly suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.
“(The armed groups) struck military targets and avoided civilian targets, and any accusations related to this concern errant fire.”
HRW has come in for frequent criticism from pro-Israel advocates, who said that the organization–like many similar non-governmental groups–singles Israel out for harsh criticism without taking into account the larger context of the battles she faces, while allowing the terror groups she fights a complete pass. Further, they say, HRW and other groups take full advantage of Israel’s open society while never criticizing the fact that they can’t even safely enter the territories controlled by rogue regimes in Syria or elsewhere in the Arab world.
Late last year, HRW Founder Robert Bernstein added his voice–sadly–to HRW’s critics,…
Read More » Comments (0) »Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 10:39 AM | Stand For Israel
Videos and photos from Monday’s anti-government protests in Iran
See this blogger’s videos and photos of protests under way in Iran, and say a prayer for him and other brave Iranians seeking freedom.
He is somehow able to circumvent Ahmadinejad’s high-tech repression.
Comments (1) »Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 2:53 PM | Stand For Israel
Here we go again (with hearts breaking)
The Associated Press reports that thousands of riot police and Revolutionary Guard members armed with tear gas, batons and firearms are deployed outside Tehran University to prevent student demonstrations backed by the opposition:
Monday’s large security operation suggested that authorities plan to make good on their promise to deal harshly with protesters marking the day in 1953 when three students were killed in an anti-U.S. protest.
All of this came from eye-witness reports conveyed to reporters since foreign journalists are banned from covering today’s planned protests.
Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 8:54 AM | Stand For Israel
Iran’s backward regime up to its usual forward-thinking repression…
Protesters in Tehran, June 2009
Rallies are expected tomorrow across Iran for “National Students’ Day,” which marks the anniversary of the slaying of three students in a 1953 protest again Iran’s then-leader, Shah Reza Pahlavi. Anticipating that the protests may turn into anti-government demonstrations, the Iranian regime has sent hundreds of threatening e-mails to students warning them not to participate in the rallies, dispatched pro-government goons (in the form of the Basij militia) to campuses across the country, and shut down or slowed down internet access to prevent citizens from communicating with each other or the outside world via e-mail and social networking sites.
It goes without saying that the government also warned foreign media outlets not to cover the goings-on. And an official told Reuters that internet and mobile phone services would be disabled entirely on Monday.
Former Soviet Dissident Natan Sharansky, who now heads the Jewish Agency for Israel, has written extensively about the need for Western powers to make known their support for pro-democracy dissidents in repressive countries. Tomorrow, as Iran’s repressive regime pulls a dark curtain over the curtain, we should all take a moment to be thankful for the liberty in which we live (and for the American soldiers who keep us free), and raise our voices in prayer for the brave Iranian protestors who yearn to breathe free.
Comments (1) »Sunday, December 6th, 2009 at 3:04 PM | Stand For Israel
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