Month: August 2010

Zanzibar Muslims Halt Church Construction, Erect Mosque…

Sounds familiar?

“…the Christian faithful are feeling targeted even by the government officials,” said Pastor Masegi. “The region is predominantly Muslim, and attempts at evangelizing are always met with brutal resistance.”

On an island off the coast of East Africa where the local government limits the ability of Christians to obtain land, officials in one town have colluded with area Muslims to erect a mosque in place of a planned church building.

On the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar, Pastor Paulo Kamole Masegi of the Evangelistic Assemblies of God had purchased land in April 2007 for a church building in Mwanyanya-Mtoni, and by November of that year he had built a house that served as a temporary worship center, he said.

Masegi intended for the house to serve eventually as his family’s home within the church compound, but on Nov. 11, 2007, his congregation began to worship there.

Soon area Muslim residents objected, saying they didn’t like seeing the church in the area, said Pastor Lucian Mgaywa of the Church of God in Tanzania.

“This was the beginning of the church’s tribulations,” Pastor Mgaywa said.

In August 2009, local Muslims began to build a mosque just three feet away from the church plot, Pastor Mgaywa said. In November 2009, Pastor Masegi began building a permanent church structure. Angry Muslims invaded the compound and destroyed the structure’s foundation, the pastors said.

Church leaders reported the destruction to police, who took no action – and also refused to release the crime report for court purposes, Pastor Masegi said. When he would inquire about the case, he said, the station head would inform him that the district police chief had the crime report and therefore it was not available.

“So it’s not possible to take the file to the court, because doing so would amount to defending Christianity,” the station police chief told him, according to Pastor Masegi.

There’s more, on Continental News

Priorities, priorities:

Zanzibar: U.S. restores ancient mosque, instead of providing  fresh drinking water…

Just recently:

The villagers wanted the mosque more than they wanted the fresh water, so the mosque is what they got — paid for by the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation. Constitutional issues? Pah! The U.S. is busy winning hearts and minds here! For surely now all the Friday khutabah that are preached in the mosque will be brimming with love and gratitude for Americans — won’t they?

Won’t they? Well, the Qur’an recited and memorized in this mosque will still preach hatred of Infidels and the obligation Muslims have not to ally with them (3:28, 5:51) — won’t it?

“Zanzibar: US restores 900 year Kizimkazi mosque,” by Jeff Baron in Afrik.com, April 2

Andrew Bolt

Islam is an ideology, not a race

That’s it. Spot on! Some people in the right places must be reading WoJ.

A very sane decision by the Equal Opportunity Division of the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal:

53 First, vilification of Muslims does not fall within section 20C(1), because Muslims are not a ‘race’ as defined in section 4 of the Act. The reason, as the Tribunal said in Khan [i.e., Khan v Commissioner, Department of Corrective Services & anor [2002] NSWADT 131] at [18], is that Muslims ‘do not share common racial, national or ethnic origins’ and are therefore not an ethno-religious group such as the definition embraces. In so ruling, we follow the decisions, commencing with Khan, that are listed above at [44]. We are unaware of any recent authority to the contrary. It follows that any statements broadcast by the Respondents that generated negative feelings towards Muslims generally, or any group of Muslims, on the ground of their being Muslims could not amount to unlawful racial vilification.

Anwar Sayed has been charged with fraudulently obtaining $1.125 million from the state and federal governments by falsifying the number of students at the Muslim Ladies College of Australia in Perth’s south.

Now he plays games with the judiciary. The Telegraph

Update:

Julia Gillard, perhaps with a close election to consider, says a court’s witness box is no place for a burqa:

BURQAS should be removed when the public interest overrides personal choice, Prime Minister Julia Gillard says…

Defendant in ‘Burqa Witness’ Case “Brutally Stabbed”…

Anwar Sayed ‘brutally stabbed’- really? Not just a gimmick to confuse the kafirs and to deflect attention away from the money he stole?

WA News reports:

Anwar Sayed, who a court yesterday heard had received written and verbal death threats for supposedly agitating to abolish the wearing of a niqab, also known as a burqa, was allegedly attacked this morning.

Anwar Sayed (right), with lawyer Andrew Skerritt at a previous trial appearance.

But the case has been overshadowed by the niqab issue, which has raised legal questions on whether the witness should be entitled to obscure her face from the judge and jury.

While a date was being set today for Mr Sayed’s retrial, his lawyer Mark Trowell said the school director had been “brutally stabbed to the chest and face, his car having been stopped”.

Mr Trowell told the court Mr Sayed had taken himself to his office after being stabbed, before being rushed to hospital.

Nah. Turns out he barely received a scratch:

Police spokesman Samuel Dinnison would not confirm the identity of the victim of the attack, but played it down saying the victim had only suffered “minor injuries or a scratch”.