“We speak like that in our country, a father says it to his son.”
“Algeria: Evangelist Says Police, Others Targeting Him,” from Compass Direct, June 19:
ISTANBUL, June 19 (Compass Direct News) — A court yesterday postponed until next Wednesday (June 25) a hearing in west Algeria for a church leader on trial for evangelism.
Already convicted of evangelism and blasphemy in two separate cases this year, Rachid Muhammad Essaghir, 37, believes he is being targeted for his work with Christians in Tiaret.
The convert to Christianity, who regularly posts his telephone number on evangelistic Christian satellite TV programs, said that he has received death threats from Algerian journalist Haitham Rabani in recent months. A correspondent tracking Christianity in Algeria, Rabani told Compass that he did not threaten Essaghir but did send him text messages.
At the same time, Rabani admitted threatening the host of an Al-Hayat Christian satellite talk show who is also named Rachid.
“I told him, “˜If I capture you, I will kill you,– Rabani told Compass, saying that he had not actually meant to carry out the threat.
“We speak like that in our country, a father says it to his son,” Rabani said. “But if I really meant it, I would have taken a plane to Cyprus and killed him.”
The journalist said that the talk show host made inflammatory remarks about Islam and Algeria that provoked him to make the threats….
Of course. It’s always the other guy’s fault.