APRIL 2008 NEWS REPORTS:
April 30,2008: (Article 19) - Reforms made last week to an article of Turkey's penal code that makes "insulting Turkishness" a crime punishable by prison terms do not go far enough, say free expression groups worldwide. Click here to read more.
April 29, 2008: (ANS) - Islamic extremists have shot and killed a Muslim convert to Christianity. According to a news release from the Washington, D.C. based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC), the slaying occurred on April 22 in Baidawa, a town 149 miles from Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. The 29-year-old victim’s name was David Abdulwahab Mohamed Ali. Click here to read more.
April 28, 2008: (Reporters Without Borders) - The "dean" of bloggers in Saudi Arabia has been released without charge after nearly five months behind bars, report the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRInfo), Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of International PEN. Click here to read more.
April 24, 2008: (Compass Direct News) – On trial for converting from Islam to Christianity, a Jordanian man may lose legal custody of his children and have his marriage annulled if found guilty of “apostasy.” Mohammad Abbad, 40, fled Jordan last month after Muslims violently attacked him and his 10-year-old son in their home and his father sued him on charges of apostasy, or leaving Islam. Click here to read more.
April 23, 2008: (Christian Newswire) - Twenty-three individuals share their heartbreaking, harrowing personal accounts of leaving the Islamic faith in an eye-opening new book, "Why We Left Islam: Former Muslims Speak Out" (WND Books, ISBN 9780979267109, April 29), compiled and edited by Susan Crimp and Joel Richardson. The Council on American-Islam Relations, better known as CAIR, strongly condemned "Why We Left Islam" in a recent New York Daily News article. Click here to read more.
April 22, 2008: (IFEX) - "The Egyptian authorities have intensified their onslaught on satellite broadcasters and journalists, the latest in a series of attacks against free expression and the free flow of information in a country once at the forefront of press freedom in the Middle East, say IFEX members." Click here to read more.
April 21, 2008: (Baptist Press) - "The Supreme Court of Israel has ruled that Messianic Jews have the same rights regarding automatic citizenship as Jews who do not believe in Jesus as the Messiah ... The Supreme Court's decision should alleviate some of the pressure that Jewish believers and foreign Christian workers have felt in Israel, Jim Sibley said, adding that he 'can't help but believe' the ruling is related to a terrorist attack on the Messianic community that occurred in March. In that incident, 15-year-old Ami Ortiz, whose parents are noted Messianic congregational leaders in Ariel, opened a bomb disguised as a gift delivered to his home. He suffered extensive damage to his body but is expected to recover after at least a year of treatment." Click here to read more.
April 18, 2008: (Barnabus Fund) - Four Christian teachers, two of them converts from Islam, were murdered by Islamic militants last Sunday, April 13, in Beledweyne in south-central Somalia. Mr Daud Assan Ali (aged 64), Ms Rehana Ahmed (aged 32), both of Somali origin, and two Kenyans were shot and killed when militants stormed the school where the Christians were sleeping. Click here to read more.
April 17, 2008: (Compass Direct News) – On the eve of the one-year mark of the slaughter of three Christians here, the impartiality of the judges in the case is in doubt, and the young men on trial have now shifted the blame to one man. Click here to read more.
April 16, 2008: (Compass Direct News) – Following an increase in church closures and convictions of Christians in Algeria this year, a United Nations body this week questioned Algerian delegates on an “alarming deterioration” of religious freedom there. Click here to read more.
April 10, 2008: (Compass Direct News) – An Algerian Christian was handed a two-year suspended sentence for “proselytism” yesterday amid an ongoing government crackdown on 26 of Algeria’s 50 Protestant congregations, a church leader said. Click here to read more.
April 8, 2008: (Human Rights Watch) - The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) transferred at least 14 terrorist suspects to Jordanian custody for interrogation and torture since the September 11, 2001 attacks, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Click here to read more.
April 7, 2008: (AINA) Gunmen shot dead an Assyrian Orthodox priest near his house in central Baghdad's Karrada neighbourhood on Saturday, security officials told AFP. Youssef Adel, a priest with Saint Peter's Church, was killed by gunmen travelling in a car around noon. Click here to read more. Click here to read more.
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