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List of attacks claimed by al-ZarqawiGlobe and Mail, Canada - 15 hours ago... Al-Zarqawi's group claims responsibility for attacks that day, but it is unclear if these include the explosions that killed the children. Sept. ... Attacks and kidnappings claimed by al-Zarqawi Boston HeraldFast Facts: Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi FOX News Zarqawi said: The Shiite Muslims are worse than the Christians & the Jews http://www.sweetness-light.com/archive/zarqawi-sez-kill-all-the-shiitesSheikh Abdul-Rahman, Zarqawi's spiritual adviser http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,20281,19414517-5001028,00.htmlNo that "spiritual" adviser is no less important, that he was eliminated.Inspiring the butchers are as pulling the trigger.

Image of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in death released by U.S. military WASHINGTON – When Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida leader in Iraq, was killed today by 500-pound bombs dropped by two F-16 fighter jets on a house north of Baghdad, it was the result of intelligence information gathered, in part, by an elite task force of international special operations forces formed just a month ago with the express purpose of taking him out. The "A-Team" created for the mission drew on the skills and expertise of U.S. Army Green Berets, "Tier 1" of Britain's Special Air Service and the...

Poor Abdul Rahman. He lived in Germany, where there is freedom of religion. He forgot that freedom of religion only applies to non-Muslims who convert to other faiths. Muslims aren't allowed to follow their individual consciences. If you're born a Muslim, then in your entire life you will never, never have a choice about what religion to belong to. Because if you convert from Islam to another faith, good Muslims have a right -- no, a duty -- to kill you. Oh, wait. How can I say that? I keep forgetting -- we've been assured ten thousand times since 9/11...

HAMBURG - Abdul Rahman, the Afghan whose prosecution for converting to Christianity led to worldwide controversy, was judged to be mentally unstable by German officials who interviewed him six years ago, a German news magazine reported Saturday. Defying Afghan Islamist politicians, Kabul officials released Abdul Rahman this week and he was whisked out of the country to asylum in Italy. The account in Der Spiegel backs up the Kabul officials' view that he was not mentally competent to be tried. Der Spiegel said there were accounts going back years of Abdul Rahman being violent and disturbed. In February 2000 he...

But is he sane? What difference does it make? Rome, Apr. 03, 2006 (Catholic News Agency) - Abdul Rahman, the Afghan Christian convert who was condemned to death for abandoning the Muslim faith but later released under international pressure, publicly thanked Pope Benedict XVI for his intervention and his support. According to the ANSA news agency, Abdul Rahman, who was granted asylum in Italy, said he never wants to return to his native Afghanistan. “I thank the Pope, the Italian government and all those who came to my aid,” he said during an interview on Italian television. Pope Benedict XVI...

< Afghan Clerics Issuing Threats Afghan spokesmen for the Religion of Peaceâ„¢ are threatening violence unless they get to kill Christian convert Abdul Rahman. (Hat tip: Killian Bundy.) MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan clerics and their followers threatened violence against the government on Sunday over the release of a Christian convert, saying he had to be brought back from Italy and put on trial. There has been fiery criticism of the government over the release of the convert, who was spirited out of the country last week, but protests have been few and peaceful. The convert, Abdur Rahman, 40, was...

KABUL, March 28 2006, (LifeSiteNews.com) – US-based Christian news source, Compass Direct, reports that more Christians have been arrested for their faith in Afghanistan in the wake of the release of Abdul Rahman. Compass, a news service that tracks persecution of Christians mostly in Islamic countries, says harassment of the Christian community has been stepped up. Compass says two more Christian converts have been arrested in other parts of the country, but further information is being withheld in the “sensitive situation” caused by the international media furor over Rahman. Reports of beatings and police raids on the homes of Christians...

Abdul Rahman, the Afghani man who dominated headlines last week, has been safely spirited away to Italy. Rahman had been imprisoned and threatened with a death sentence for apostasy (i.e. converting from Islam to Christianity). His case created an international uproar, as the US, the United Nations and even Pope Benedict XVI put pressure on Afghanistan to release Rahman and drop the charges against him. The outcry against this religious persecution in Afghanistan was so deafening that the authorities ultimately relented and released Rahman, suggesting that he was mentally deficient and unable to stand trial. After his release, Rahman told...

THE NEWS THAT, DESPITE the Afghan parliament's last-minute attempts to prevent him from leaving, Abdul Rahman has been given asylum in Italy has drawn a global sigh of relief. But now is not the time to forget the issue. The case of Rahman--an Afghan Christian tried for the capital crime of apostasy--is not the only one, even in Afghanistan, and is unusual only in that, for once, the world paid attention and demanded his release. But there are untold numbers in similar situations that the world is ignoring. Two other Afghan converts to Christianity were arrested in March, though, for...

An Afghan man who could have faced the death penalty for becoming a Christian has said he would probably have been killed had he remained in Afghanistan. Speaking to journalists in Italy, where he has been given asylum, Abdul Rahman, 41, thanked Pope Benedict XVI for leading the campaign to have him freed. (((end))) He said he never wanted to return to Afghanistan and was concerned for the safety of his family there. Afghan MPs have condemned his release and said he should have not have left. Mr Rahman was freed on Monday after being deemed mentally unfit to stand...

An Afghan who faced the death penalty in his homeland for converting from Islam to Christianity said Thursday he was certain he would have been killed had he stayed there, and he thanked Pope Benedict XVI for intervening on his behalf."In Kabul, they would have killed me, I'm sure of it," said Abdul Rahman, who was spirited out of Afghanistan to a secret location in Italy. "If you are not a Muslim in an Islamic country like mine, they kill you. There are no doubts."He said his case was to serve as an example "to others who dared rebel."Rahman's comments,...

ROME - An Afghan man who has taken refuge in Italy after facing the death penalty in his homeland for converting from Islam to Christianity thanked the pope for intervening on his behalf and said he was certain he would have been killed if he had remained in Kabul. "In Kabul they would have killed me, I'm sure of it," said Abdul Rahman, who is under protection after being spirited out of Afghanistan to a secret location in Italy. "If you are not a Muslim in an Islamic country like mine they kill you, there are no doubts." He said...

We are not finished with Abdul Rahman, yet -- the Afghan who was being tried on the capital crime of converting to Christianity, until international pressure got him released -- for the very reason that the Afghans are not finished with him yet. As readers may know imperfectly from the usual selective coverage in the media, the "problem" was not with one crazy Shariah judge in Kabul. There have been large demonstrations (riots according to an eyewitness in Mazar) in several Afghan cities; and across the country, prominent imams, whom we had counted as "moderates" in the sense that they...

AFGHANISTAN: TALIBAN CONDEMNS RELEASE OF CHRISTIAN CONVERT Peshawar, 30 March (AKI) - The Taliban has condemned the release of Abdul Rahman, an Afghan citizen who has been freed after facing the death penalty for converting to Christianity. According to a report in the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP), a statement issued by the hardline Islamist group on Thursday said that neither the Afghan judiciary nor legislature and government were independent but were instead under the control of foreign forces. Abdul Rahman, a Christian for 16 years, was charged with rejecting Islam, but his case was eventually dismissed because of gaps in...

In "Abdul Rahman's Family Values," Time Magazine (thanks to all who sent this in) reveals "an official police report on the Christian convert in Afghanistan" which "alleges a tawdry domestic life." It never seems to occur to Time that anyone in Afghanistan might have any interest in blackening Abdul Rahman's name, and they retail these stories from supposedly disinterested officials and family members (that's right, the family that turned him in for apostasy) without critical comment. Most importantly, these stories are a gigantic red herring, of interest only to the most befogged dhimmis. It doesn't matter if Abdul Rahman is...

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The whereabouts of an Afghan man who had been threatened with the death penalty for converting to Christianity was unknown Wednesday, as at least one nation began considering granting him asylum status. Italy is considering granting asylum to Abdul Rahman, The Associated Press reported. Italy's Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini on Wednesday will press for Rahman to be granted asylum there, the government said in a statement, according to the AP. Rahman was released Monday after being held by Afghan authorities for his conversion from Islam to Christianity, punishable by death in Afghanistan, which follows Islamic law.

You won’t find me criticizing President Bush often; I’m convinced he is God’s man for this time in our country and our world. However, when it comes to the travesty involving Muslim convert to Christianity Abdul Rahman, I have plenty of excoriation to carry Mr. Bush through the rest of his term. This recent and egregious violation of the highest of human rights—the right of religious conscience—nullifies any claim to “freedom” in the “new” Afghanistan. When I addressed this matter in a face-to-face with the European educated secular-minded Afghan ambassador, his response seemed dismissive of religion as something not worth...

Christian Convert Vanishes After Release An Afghan man who had faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity quickly vanished Tuesday after he was released from prison, apparently out of fear for his life with Muslim clerics still demanding his death. Italy's Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said he would ask his government to grant Abdul Rahman asylum. Fini was among the first to speak out on the man's behalf. Rahman, 41, was released from the high-security Policharki prison on the outskirts of Kabul late Monday, Afghan Justice Minister Mohammed Sarwar Danish told The Associated Press. "We released him...

Christian Convert Released From Prison By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writers 50 minutes ago An Afghan man who had faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity has been released from prison after the case was dropped, the justice minister said Tuesday. The announcement came after the United Nations said Abdul Rahman has appealed for asylum outside Afghanistan and that the world body was working to find a country willing to take him. Justice Minister Mohammed Sarwar Danish told The Associated Press that the 41-year-old was released from the high-security Policharki prison on the outskirts of Kabul late...

An Afghan man who faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity has appealed for asylum in another country, the United Nations said Monday after hundreds of Muslims marched against a court's decision to dismiss his case.Afghan officials did not say whether Abdul Rahman had been released after the case against him was dismissed Sunday, but the U.N. statement came amid unconfirmed reports that he was being freed."We do understand that he will be released," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington. "We're pleased by that."Earlier Monday, hundreds of clerics, students and others chanting "Death to Christians!"...