Islamic Tolerance Alert.
“Pakistani Militants Kill Self-Proclaimed Prophet,” by Muhammad Shahid for New Media Journal:
A self-proclaimed prophet was killed, while one of his sons and a brother sustained injuries in a shootout in the Khyber Tribal Area in Pakistan on October 18, 2007.
Activists of the Amr Bil Maroof, a militant organization based in the Bara tehsil (group of villages) of Khyber, shot dead self-proclaimed prophet Shireen, injured his son and brother, and “˜arrested” his three other sons.
According to Amr Bil Maroof chief Haji Namdar, Shireen of the Yakatara area had declared himself a prophet about three years ago, but he later withdrew his claim after Namdar’s followers met him. Namdar said to the New Media Journal that Shireen had formed a group named of “Sabi”.
Namdar also said that later a feud between two militant organizations…the Sheikhmal Khel and the Amr Bil Maroof… provided Shireen an opportunity to start his preaching again.
Namdar said Shireen had invited and converted some of his family members to the “˜new religion” introduced by him and that Shireen used to tell people “˜revelations” about heaven and hell.
On October 18, the activists of Namdar’s organization besieged Shireen’s house and asked him to surrender to the Amr Bil Maroof personnel. However, the house inmates opened fire on the activists. Shireen was killed in the crossfire while his brother Shakeel and son Saleem sustained injuries. One of the Amr Bil Maroof activists, Saeed Khan, received injuries in the incident.
“Indonesian sect leader announces return to mainstream Islam,” from ABC Radio Australia:
A controversial Indonesian Muslim sect leader claiming to be a prophet has announced his return to mainstream Islam, while police said an investigation into whether he had blasphemed would go on.
The leader of the Al Qiyadah Al Islamiyah sect, Ahmad Mushaddeq, handed himself into police last week after state prosecutors had called for him to be questioned.
The sect was declared deviant in a religious edict by the country’s chief authority on Islam, the Indonesian Council of Ulemas, two months ago.
Mushaddeq’s insistence that he was a prophet ran counter to mainstream Islamic teachings that Mohammed was the final prophet and could see him jailed for up to five years under Indonesia’s contempt of religion laws.
But the leader said during a press conference held at Jakarta police headquarters that he retracted all his earlier statements asserting that he was a prophet and said he was just “a regular human being”.
“I call on all of my followers to be calm, to repent and return to Islam and obey the law,” he said.
He begged for Indonesian Muslims to forgive him and his followers “if we offended and created uneasiness, and I hope that we can be accepted back as brothers in faith.”
Yep. You sure don’t want to offend and cause uneasiness.