Free Republic

Thousands of activists of a religious coalition rallied Sunday in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi to condemn the government over amendments in the country's controversial Islamic rape laws. Pakistan's Parliament recently approved a bill to change the 1979 Hudood Ordinance, a law based on Islamic principles that requires rape victims to produce four witnesses to the crime. But the move has angered many conservative Muslims. "We will not let Pakistan become secular," the supporters of a coalition of Islamic groups chanted. The change in the law was prompted by human rights activists, who demanded the ordinance be repealed, saying...

LAGOS, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Islamic militants burned to the ground thirteen churches and several houses in a remote northern Nigerian town after a Christian student was accused of blasphemy, police said on Thursday. Irate youths torched churches, houses and shops late on Tuesday in Kazaure, some 80 km (50 miles) north of Kano, a northern provincial capital where hundreds have died in religious clashes in the past three years. The dispute began when a Christian student was accused of insulting the Prophet Mohammad and a group of Muslims were not satisfied with the response of school authorities. Abubakar Sale,...