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Rachid Mohammad Essaghir Update. "Algeria: Accuser in blasphemy case linked to Islamists," from Compass Direct News, July 18:
ISTANBUL, July 18 (Compass Direct News) – Three Algerian Christians fighting a blasphemy sentence arrived at court in northwestern Algeria on Tuesday (July 15) to find that their hearing was postponed until October 21 because the presiding judge was on vacation.
Rachid Muhammad Essaghir, Youssef Ourahmane and a man third were charged in February with “blaspheming the name of the Prophet [Muhammad] and Islam” and threatening the life of a man who claimed to have converted to Christianity but who “returned” to Islam when his Islamic fundamentalist ties were exposed.
The three are just a few of the Christians under legal heat in a wave of trials this year against Algerian Christians on religion-based charges. In most cases the Christians have been charged under a presidential decree from February 2006 that restricts religious worship to government approved buildings. The decree, known as Ordinance 06-03, also outlaws any attempt to convert Muslims to another faith.
The international community has been vocal about the Algerian government’s stance toward Christians. More recently, on June 6, some 30 U.S. congressmen sent a letter to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika addressing the violations of human rights against Christians in Algeria and their concern toward the 2006 Decree on non-Muslim worship that has resulted in the closures of churches and criminal charges against Christians.
Essaghir, an evangelist and church elder for a small community of Muslim converts to Christianity in Tiaret, has been one of the most targeted Christians in Algeria. In the last year he has received three sentences; one for blasphemy and two for evangelism. He and the other two Christians were handed a three-year suspended sentence along with a 500-euro fine each.
The convert and plaintiff, Shamouma Al-Aid, had professed Christianity from July 2004 through July 2006 when he attended a church near Oran city. It was there that he met the Christians, against whom he later filed the blasphemy complaint.
When the three accused Christians met Al-Aid, he claimed that his family and especially his older brother were persecuting him.
“We believed him and took him in,” said Ourahmane. “We took care of him; we helped him to do his baccalaureate.”
But in 2006 the Christians learned that Al-Aid in fact had links with Islamic fundamentalists.
“He was in touch with fanatics while with us. He used us to get money and information,” said Ourahmane.
After excommunicating Al-Aid, in October 2007 the three Christians were summoned by police, and Al-Aid registered his complaint that they had insulted the prophet Mohammad and Islam and threatened his life.
But the lawyer of the three Christians told Compass that Al-Aid has failed to produce evidence of his claims and hopes to clear them in October....
Posted by Marisol at July 18, 2008 12:11 PM
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Well, that's a pretty clear case of entrapment in any civilized tribe.
Posted by: undaunted![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at July 18, 2008 1:00 PM
And the lies just keep on coming. Christians are warned by their Lord to be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. I totally understand the desire to aid a fellow human being, but in the context of Islam, where war is deception, a jaded cautious viewpoint is advisable.
Posted by: OolongChung at July 18, 2008 1:03 PM
Al-Aid first uses and exploits these sympathetic Christians, then turns on them when they finally discover his ruse.
from above:
"Al-Aid registered his complaint that they had insulted the prophet Mohammad and Islam and threatened his life."
More projection--it is Christians whose lives are threatened in Muslim countries.
Posted by: gravenimage at July 18, 2008 2:08 PM
"blaspheming the name of the Prophet [Muhammad] and Islam:"
heck if you tell the truth about mudhamad and islam to muslims they could charge you with blaspheming islam and their proffit
at July 18, 2008 3:32 PM
oolong chung wrote, "I totally understand the desire to aid a fellow human being, but in the context of Islam, where war is deception, a jaded cautious viewpoint is advisable."
If in our time the people were to wake up to the threat of political Islam and its aims to subjugate and enslave all pious devout people to the cult of rapine and murder, what would the process be to expunge the allamurder cult from the land?
The only similar circumstances in history that I know of involved the Spanish Inquisition, where the methods end up mirroring the actions of the Islamic Jihadis.
Posted by: stickman at July 19, 2008 5:56 PM
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