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At least 29 women and children were killed in a stampede after a religious gathering in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi today. Around 20,000 women were gathered with their children in Faizan-e-Madina mosque in the eastern district of the sprawling city to mark the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed, which falls on Tuesday. Local police official Zahid Hussain said the stampede occurred after a girl coming out of the mosque fell down. Witnesses said the child cried out, sparking panic among the women who tried to force their way out of the mosque. "All of a sudden there had...

(AgapePress) - A best-selling author who once had to escape from Afghanistan says America needs to evaluate seriously the meaning of free speech in light of wartime realities in the contemporary environment of Islamic terrorist aggression. Dr. Phyllis Chesler is a former college professor and the author of numerous books examining historical and contemporary culture, including About Men (1979); Women of the Wall: Claiming Sacred Ground at Judaism's Holy Site (2002); and The New Anti-Semitism: The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It (2005). In addition to her teaching and writing, she has been a strong opponent of...

A CARTOON depicting Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer as fornicating dingoes was a grotesque stunt by a tacky publication, Mr Downer said today. But the minister said the Indonesian paper which published the lurid cartoon had every right to do in a free society. The Islamic-leaning Rakyat Merdeka (People's Freedom) newspaper has run the cartoon on its front page amid Indonesia's continuing anger over Australia's giving visas to 42 West Papuan asylum seekers. The cartoon depicts the two dingoes having sex under a palm tree on an otherwise barren island signposted "Papua". Headlined "The adventure of...

A monitor of Christian persecution says two more Afghan believers have been jailed in the wake of the case of Abdul Rahman, a convert to Christianity who faced the death penalty under the nation's Shariah law. According to Compass Direct, two other Afghan Christians were jailed in the past few days. "Because of the sensitive situation, local sources requested that the location of the jailed converts be withheld," the organization said. Compass Direct also reports that this past weekend, one young Afghan convert to Christianity was severely beaten outside his home by a group of six men who eventually knocked...

AN IRAQI militant group which killed an Italian reporter in 2004 said it was watching foreign journalists but would only kill those it considers to be spies for its U.S.-led enemies. Al Jazeera television broadcast an interview overnight with a man it described as the spokesman of the Islamic Army in Iraq, who accused the United States of responsibility for the car bombs that have killed thousands of civilians since 2003. "The security bodies of the Islamic Army ... follow them constantly or at least keep watch and occasionally a journalist or another falls into their hands," said the man,...

PRIME Minister John Howard will personally protest to the Afghanistan Government over the prosecution of a man who faces possible execution for converting from Islam to Christianity. Mr Howard said those who would advocate such a course were no friends of Australia. Australian diplomats in Kabul have already expressed Australia's view to the Afghanistan Government. "I am going to personally protest again to the president of Afghanistan," he told Southern Cross radio. "This is appalling. When I saw the report about this I felt sick literally. "We are putting the lives of Australian soldiers on the line. This is outrageous....

The North Carolina Muslim who drove an SUV into a group of people at the University of North Carolina has written a letter to a local TV station saying Allah approves of such attacks. "Allah gives permission in the Quran for the followers of Allah to attack those who have raged war against them, with the expectation of eternal paradise in case of martyrdom and/or living one's life in obedience of all of Allah's commandments found throughout the Quran's 114 chapters," wrote Mohammed Taheri-azar in a two-page letter sent to a television reporter and anchor at WTVD-TV, an ABC affiliate...

CENTERVILLE, Va., Mar. 9 /Christian Wire Service/ -- John Marion, project director of Truth For Muslims, an evangelical Christian group, announced plans to reach more people in Texas with their message. "Christians in Texas have told us they like our message," said Marion from his Virginia office near Washington, DC. Marion continued, "We're meeting the challenge of Islam through evangelism, teaching, and public speaking. A lot of people in Texas have told us they believe in our message. We will mail our letters to Christians throughout the state." Literature published by Truth For Muslims, which has been mailed to 50,000...

POLICE are unfairly criticising the Muslim community for not doing enough to track down those responsible for retaliatory attacks following the Cronulla riot, community leader Keysar Trad said. Detective Superintendent Ken McKay yesterday released photos and footage of those involved in the riot at Sydney's Cronulla and the revenge attacks that followed, in the hope offenders will be caught. But he told ABC radio today there had been little response to a video showing a number of Middle Eastern men throwing projectiles at passing cars. "The members of the Middle Eastern community need to understand if they want live in...

SUSPECTED Islamic militants have beheaded a teacher in a lawless Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials said today. Said Badshah, 35, who ran a private school, failed to return home yesterday in Barwan village, near Wana, the main town in restive South Waziristan tribal agency, a local administration official said. His headless body was found in a remote area this evening, the official said on condition of anonymity. Officials suspect militants were behind Mr Badshah's murder as he had no known enemies in the area and he was the son of a pro-government tribal elder. Militants believed to be linked...

VISITING French President Jacques Chirac has praised Saudi reforms overnight, and urged respect between Islam and the West in a charm offensive that may win contracts from the world's biggest oil exporter. Addressing Saudi's consultative Shura council, which reformers hope will one day act as a parliament that balances the powers of the absolute monarchy, Mr Chirac said France could contribute to "spectacular development" in Saudi Arabia. "Saudi Arabia and France can unite efforts to foil those who, flaming the fire of fanaticism, incite an unfortunate 'clash of ignorance', described as a 'clash of civilisations'," said Mr Chirac, the first...

A court in Bangladesh has sentenced 21 Islamic militants to death for their involvement in 400 simultaneous blasts across Bangladesh last year. On August 17 last year, 400 bombs were detonated in Bangladesh, exploding in almost every city and town. It was a violent confirmation that Islamic militancy was thriving in the country, despite determined government denials. The outlawed militant group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) claimed responsibility for the blasts. The JMB wants Bangladesh to be ruled by strict Islamic law. Twenty-one men, all aged between 20 and 25 have now been sentenced to death by hanging for their involvement...

The Baltimore County Board of Education is expected tonight to reject calls from a Muslim group to add two Islamic holidays to the proposed 2006-07 school calendar. The board is expected to adopt the recommendations of a subcommittee that found countywide attendance does not drop enough on Muslim holidays to justify closures. Instead, the subcommittee recommends that the district note the holidays on the calendar and teach students about their significance. Muslims across the nation are pushing for public school closings on Islamic holy days, succeeding in Dearborn, Mich., and in four jurisdictions in New Jersey -- a handful of...

A lot of Muslim women would agree with "most" Australians who find the head-to-toe Islamic garb confronting, Prime Minister John Howard said. Mr Howard defended his comments that Australians find Muslim women wearing the traditional garb, the full burqa, confronting, but said he would not ban the practice. "Well I just think it's confronting, it's confronting to a lot of people," he told Sky TV. "I'm not saying it should be banned." The prime minister said he could not tell people what they should wear. "You don't ban what people wear and you don't pass laws on what people can...