Free Republic

Three Christian murder victims were brutally tortured for hours before their death, Turkish media reports reveal. The Islamic zealots who attacked a Christian publishing house in the city of Malatya on April 18 prolonged the suffering of their victims by stabbing them repeatedly with dull knives, the media report. A Sabah newspaper story notes that one victim, the German missionary Tilman Geske, suffered 156 knife wounds. An AsiaNews correspondent notes that the Turkish media have provided gruesome details of the crime, but still shy away from mentioning the motivation of the killers, who were apparently influenced by a vitriolic anti-Christian...

Pakistan's only Christian minister Shahbaz Bhatti was shot dead today after pushing for the reform of harsh blasphemy laws that impose the death penalty for insulting Islam.The assassination comes just a fortnight after Mr Bhatti, Minister for Minorities, said he was prepared to die for his beliefs following a series of death threats. ...Earlier this year, Punjab province Gov. Salman Taseer was killed by a bodyguard who said he was angry that the politician opposed the blasphemy laws.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22, 2011 – Somali pirates killed all four Americans they had held hostage aboard a sailing vessel in the Indian Ocean this morning, U.S. Central Command officials announced. U.S. officials were negotiating with the pirates for the safe return of the captured Americans when the murders took place, officials said. Centcom officials said that in the midst of negotiations, U.S. forces responded to gunfire aboard the S/V Quest. When the forces reached the boat, officials said, they discovered all four hostages had been shot by their captors. Despite immediate steps to provide life-saving care, all four hostages ultimately...

BEIRUT — Religious cleansing, genocide and outright extermination are terms now used to describe the plight of Christians in the Middle East, particularly following recent horrific attacks on Christians in Iraq and Egypt. While attacks on Christians in the Middle East are nothing new, the situation has escalated. There was the Oct. 31 massacre in Baghdad’s Syriac Catholic Church of Our Lady of Salvation, for example, which killed 58 people, including two priests, and wounded 75. Then, on Jan. 1, an attack on the Orthodox Coptic Church of the Saints in Alexandria, Egypt, killed 21 people and wounded more than...

"Officials in the south Ethiopian city of Besheno are looking the other way as Muslim mobs in the city put death threats on the doors of Christian villagers, according to organizations that work in the area. "The door-mounted death threats are only the latest incidents in a series of acts of intimidation that include taking away church property, beating evangelists and killing family members. "International Christian Concern's Jonathan Racho says the list of violent acts against Christians is growing. "'Christians in the southern Ethiopian city of Besheno are being harassed and physically abused after Muslims posted notices on the doors...

BAGHDAD – Militants attacked at least four Christian homes Thursday night with a combination of grenades and bombs, killing two people and sending fear into the already terrified tiny Christian community. It was the first attack against the country's Christian community since al-Qaida-linked militants last week threatened a wave of violence against them. Christians went so far as to tone down their Christmas celebrations in what was a peaceful holiday, but the attacks Thursday night demonstrated the intent of militants to keep up their deadly pressure on the Christian community. In the deadliest attack, assailants in southwestern Baghdad threw two...

CAIRO (AP) - A car exploded in front of a Coptic Christian church as worshippers emerged from a New Year's Mass in the Egyptian city of Alexandria early Saturday, killing at least seven people, officials said. After the blast, enraged Christians emerging from the church clashed with police and stormed a nearby mosque, prompting fights and volleys of stone throwing with Muslims, police and witnesses said—a sign of the sectarian anger that has been arising with greater frequency in Egypt. Nearly 1,000 Christians were attending the Mass at the Saints Church in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, said a...

Washington, D.C. (March 23, 2010)– Travesty of justice does not fit the description of the events. This is simple barbarism. International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that a Christian man, Arshed Masih, died yesterday after Muslims burned him alive for refusing to recant his faith. Additionally, a Muslim policeman raped Masih’s wife. Masih and his wife, Martha, worked and lived at the house of Sheik Mohammad Sultan, a powerful Muslim businessman in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, since 2005. Pakistan's most powerful man, army chef General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani is from the Rawalpindi area and is visiting the U.S. capitol. In January, Muslim...

Seriously. I am not kidding. I’m not rick rolling here. This site, although an important site, still has me shaken and a bit nauseous. It depicts pictures and videos of barbaric acts done in the name of Islam and Allah. I link to it with a strong warning. Very strong. Very, very strong. What makes these videos compelling is that they were not made with surveillance cameras, capturing moments that were not to be seen. Many of these videos, depicting incredible brutality, were made by the perpetrators of these inhuman acts. The video that left me shaken was one titled...

"Medical charity: 6 Americans among 10 killed by militants in remote area of N Afghanistan" KABUL, AFGHANISTAN SNIPPET: "KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Six Americans and two other foreigners on a medical mission were shot and killed by the Taliban who ambushed their vehicles in a remote part of northern Afghanistan, a charity said Saturday. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press in Pakistan that they killed the foreigners because they were "spying for the Americans" and "preaching Christianity.""

"Pakistan: 5 Christians shot to death coming out of church following threats from "banned" jihadist groups" SNIPPET: "SUKKUR, Pakistan, July 29 (CDN) -- A dozen masked men shot five Christians to death as they came out of their church building here on July 15, two months after a banned Islamic extremist group sent church leaders a threatening letter, relatives said. Pastor Aaron John and church members Rohail Bhatti, Salman John, Abid Gill and Shamin Mall of Full Gospel Church were leaving the church building after meeting to discuss security in light of the threats they had received..."

ZAMBOANGA- Philippine police said Monday they have captured a member of the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group who joined in the abduction and beheading of Christian workers when he was 14. The suspect, Jirome Mustakin, now 22, was arrested Sunday in the southern port city of Zamboanga as he waited to board a ferry heading across the sea border to Sabah in Malaysia, police said. "Mustakin was positively identified by a witness as one of those who were involved in the kidnapping," city police chief Senior Superintendent Edwin de Ocampo told reporters. He said Mustakin was 14 when he joined...

<p>Gunmen killed two Pakistan Christian brothers accused of blasphemy against Islam as they left court on Monday, a government minister and police said.</p> <p>The men were chained together when the attack took place in the eastern city of Faislabad as they were being taken back into custody after their court appearance.</p>

In an interview earlier today with the South African Broadcasting Corporation to air in a few hours, President Obama disparaged al Qaeda and affiliated groups' willingness to kill Africans in a manner that White House aides say was an argument that the terrorist groups are racist. Speaking about the Uganda bombings, the president said, "What you've seen in some of the statements that have been made by these terrorist organizations is that they do not regard African life as valuable in and of itself. They see it as a potential place where you can carry out ideological battles that kill...

64 die in bomb attacks in Uganda during World Cup By MAX DELANY and JASON STRAZIUSO , 07.11.10, 10:21 PM EDT KAMPALA, Uganda -- In simultaneous bombings bearing the hallmarks of international terrorists, two explosions ripped through crowds watching the World Cup final in two places in Uganda's capital late Sunday, killing 64 people, police said. Americans were among the casualties. The deadliest attack occurred at a rugby club as people watched the game between Spain and the Netherlands on a large-screen TV outdoors. The second blast took place at an Ethiopian restaurant, where at least three Americans were wounded.

An American who recently lived in Raleigh for a year was the lone American killed when explosions tore through crowds watching the World Cup final Sunday at a rugby club and an Ethiopian restaurant in Kampala, Uganda, killing at least 64 people. Nathan Henn, 25, who worked with Invisible Children, a San Diego-based aid group that helps child soldiers in Africa, was killed on the rugby field. Henn was a native of Wilmington, Del., but his family moved to Raleigh in 2007, and he lived here for about a year, his sister, Brynne Henn, said this morning in a telephone...

SNIPPET: "The North African terror group al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has threatened to attack this summer's World Cup games in South Africa. "How amazing could the match United States vs. Britain be when broadcasted live on air at a stadium packed with spectators when the sound of an explosion rumbles through the stands, the whole stadium is turned upside down and the number of dead bodies are in their dozens and hundreds, Allah willing," reads a statement the group published in a recent issue of the Jihadi online magazine Mushtaqun Lel Jannah (Longing to Paradise)." SNIPPET: "In addition...

Left for dead, Christians offer to drop charges if allowed to construct church building. Rasha Samir was sure her husband, Ephraim Shehata, was dead. He was covered with blood, had two bullets inside him and was lying facedown in the dust of a dirt road. Samir was lying on top of him doing her best to shelter him from the onslaught of approaching gunmen. With arms outstretched, the men surrounded Samir and Shehata and pumped off round after round at the couple. Seconds before, Samir could hear her husband mumbling Bible verses... Finally, the gunfire stopped and one of the...

www.catholicnewsagency.com Bishop Padovese canceled Cyprus trip to avoid assassination of Pope The late Bishop Luigi Padovese and Pope Benedict. Rome, Italy, Jun 8, 2010 / 06:48 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- An Italian Vatican expert is saying that Bishop Luigi Padovese, Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia and President of the Turkish Bishops’ Conference, canceled his trip to Cyprus because he feared that his driver –who later confessed to killing the bishop- might attempt an attack on Pope Benedict XVI during his stay on the island. Analyst Fr. Fillippo di Giacomo, who writes for publications such as L’Unitá and La Stampa, revealed that “hours...

The search for the people who killed an 80-year-old woman found beaten under a church pew has gone nationwide. Cross County Sheriff J.R. Smith said possibly two "people of interest" fled the area after the church pastor discovered Lillian Wilson's lifeless body Sunday. Sheriff Smith said investigators know who they're looking for and where they are from, but would not confirm details of the ongoing investigation. The Central United Methodist Church sits along Highway 64 in the small community of Hamlin, west of Wynne, Arkansas. It's where Wilson grew up and where she held her 50th wedding anniversary. The church...