Puntland? That's where the NY Giants were for the first three quarters of the game with the Eagles.
Posted on 09/21/2006 12:16:45 PM PDT by PRePublic
Somalia is officially an Islamic state and conversion is prohibited.
The country has a population of approximately 8.3 million, nearly all of them Sunni Muslims. There is a small, extremely low-profile Christian community.
According to the International Religious Freedom Report 2006 issued by the US State Department last Friday, proselytizing for any religion except Islam is prohibited in Puntland and Somaliland and effectively blocked by informal social consensus elsewhere in the country.
Somalia has had no government since the fall of Siad Barre in 1991. The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which grew out of individual courts' efforts to establish a degree of order in Mogadishu, took control of the Somali capital on June 4, following a military confrontation with a loose coalition of Somali warlords.
A Transitional Federal Government (TFG) was created in October 2004 following the Somalia National Reconciliation Conference in Kenya. That government formally established temporary operations in Baidoa in February 2006. The TFG adopted a Transitional Federal Charter which establishes Islam as the national religion. Some local administrations, including the self-declared 'Republic of Somaliland' and the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, have made Islam the official religion in their regions.
Christian-based international relief organizations generally operate without interference, provided that they refrain from proselytizing, according to the US State Department report.
Relevant Links East Africa Somalia Religion Human Rights
In April 2004 thousands of citizens marched through the streets in Mogadishu and in the southern coastal town of Merca to protest what they believed was an attempt by aid agencies to spread Christianity. Muslim scholars organized the protest following reports that schoolchildren received gifts with Christian emblems alongside charitable aid.
In January 2005 a group of violent extremists desecrated the Italian colonial cemetery in Mogadishu. While the excavation of the cemetery served a political and economic function, the act had religious overtones, as those in control of the site stated that they planned to build a mosque there and erected a makeshift sheet-metal shelter as a first step.
In 2004 there were several fatal attacks against non-Muslim international relief and charity workers throughout the country and in the region of Somaliland. In addition, recent threats have targeted non-Muslim Westerners in the country, including in Somaliland.
Sounds like it would be wise for them to become even more "low profile" now.
The Horn of Africa could cease to exist and the world would improve.
Conversion is banned = Islam is the enemy of freedom, the enemy of thought, the enemy of HUMANITY.
Scuse me. Islam is cult!
Poor victims, a beginning for Christians in Africa?
bttt
With one less Christian since the Muzzies shot a nun IN THE BACK.
Never a better time to carpet bomb that shithole.
Puntland? That's where the NY Giants were for the first three quarters of the game with the Eagles.
lol, I am glad I could have smiled at such a serious thread.
Someone needs to point this out to the ACLU. This is true "establishment of religion" not a cross on a hill in San Diego or saying a prayer before a friday night football game.
Said a Muslim Cleric,"All will embrace the religion of peace or they will be beheaded"
That is how is should read
Somalia's a state? News to me.
"Christian-based international relief organizations generally operate without interference, provided that they refrain from proselytizing, according to the US State Department report."
Wasn't it Luther who said, "Preach the gospel. Use words if necessary"?
Any country with a place like Mogadishu...
deserves Islam.
Usually, that saying is attributed to St. Francis of Assisi.
Figgered it was one of those guys who's smarter than I. Thanks for clarifying!
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