From the Qatar Peninsula, with thanks to Twostellas:
PESHAWAR: The bodies of a protestant pastor and his driver have been found dumped on a road in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province, police said yesterday.The bodies of Shamoun Barbar, 37, and his driver, identified only as Daniel, were found near the provincial capital, Peshawar, on Thursday.
"The victims had been stabbed and shot," a senior police officer said. "The hand of one of the victims was also cut off."
Police said they suspected that the priest had been killed because his brother was having an affair with a Muslim woman. They said the woman and her brother had been detained.
But leaders of the Christian community called it a "targeted act of terrorism" aimed at intimidating Christians.
"Barbar had been receiving life threats for a long time and the police's claim that he was killed because of his brother's affair with a Muslim women is baseless," said Shahbaz Bhatti, chairman of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance.
Even if it weren't baseless, it's heinous enough in itself: reminiscent of the old Jim Crow South, the death of Emmett Till, etc. And evidence that in Pakistan dhimmitude is alive and well.
"It is a heinous crime and brutal act of terrorism, which should not be ignored."Christians are the largest non-Muslim minority in Pakistan, where all but about five percent of the 150 million people are Muslim.
Islamic militants enraged by Pakistan's support for the US-led war on terrorism launched several attacks on Christian communities after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on US cities.
An angry crowd of 200 Christian mourners blocked a key road yesterday in protest at the killing.
"We will not bury the bodies unless the killers are brought to justice," close relatives and friends of the dead men shouted as they blocked traffic near the cemetery on main highway linking Pakistan with Afghanistan.
"The kidnappers and killers must be brought to justice as soon as possible," read one banner held by the crowd. "Protect the Christian community," said another....
Considering the fact that Islamists do not tolerate anyone different from them and do not recognize their right to exist, and that they will continue to target violence and kill the 'infidel non-believers,' I have only one logical message for all Christians, Hindus, Bhuddists, and other Non-Muslims living in Islamic countries:
FOR FUCK'S SAKE, GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE RIGHT NOW IF YOU WANT TO LIVE!
Why would they remain willingly if they could get out? Why not seek shelter in the more tolerant West? Get to the goddamn U.S. Embassy and claim asylum, persecution from Jihadists.
Ramaz-
Many feel the martyr's call and will spread the Good News even as their sacrificial savior did.
It makes no sense to anyone who wants to live, but they clearly want more than just life. They feel that their neighbors are trapped in a medieval cult and think they can save some from its murderous clutches.
I wish them luck, but agree they'd be better off bailing out of such a concentrated nest of nutjobs, and just rent a few remote control drones to leaflet the land from a safe distance.
Martyrdom for the sake of such monomaniacal morons doesn't seem like a good trade off to me, when the West has room for those who hold the Prince of Peace in higher esteem than the warlord of weirdness and prophet of pedophilia.
I'd advise them to pack it in in Pakistan.
American's inner cities could benfit from their faith and love a lot more than the hypnoid hystericals they encounter in Musharref-ville.
Before rushing to judgment on this matter, we should all wait to hear Gilles Kepel supply his theoretical model of Islamic behavior which explains such events. No doubt this latest murder of a Pakistani Christian has something to do with Neocon plots, Ariel Sharon, yeshiva bochers gunning for Saddam, and possibly Summer Stock in the Borscht Belt.
And Karl Rove. Don't forget him.
Where are our trolls? Ia, Shukri, Dumbo? Nothing to say?
Geoff
Hugh-
LOL- !
But don't you mean the Borscht suicide Belt?