“Said was terrified of his father, who under no circumstances wanted a Christian for a son.” Sounds as if his father was a misunderstander of Islam! After all, everyone knows that there is no death penalty or any other penalty for apostasy in Islam! Isn’t that right, Dr. Bassiouni? Mr. Kruse? Ms. Heagney?
“Italy: Moroccan would-be convert ‘hangs himself,'” from AKI, December 3 (thanks to C. Cantoni):
Civitavecchia, 3 Dec. (AKI) – Prosecutors are probing the death of a 22-year-old Moroccan immigrant who wanted to convert from Islam to Catholicism. Said Bouidra was found hanged in the central Italian port city of Civitavecchia outside Rome late Wednesday.
Bouidra’s family was reported to have bitterly opposed his decision to convert to Catholicism and to had threatened and beaten him.
Earlier on Wednesday he had tried to drown himself in the sea but had been saved by Italian paramilitary ‘Carabinieri’ police and port officials, news reports said.
Prosecutors will investigate why he was allowed to discharge himself from a local psychiatric hospital where he was admitted after he tried to drown himself.
They will also look at claims by Bouidra’s friends that he had told them members of his family had threatened and savagely beaten him over his planned conversion.
“Said was terrified of his father, who under no circumstances wanted a Christian for a son,” said Civitavecchia’s local councillor for social services, Chiara Guidoni.
“To get away from the pressure he was facing, he had talked about going to France to join the Foreign Legion,” she added.
Bouidra was popular figure in Civitavecchia and was known to members of the city council as he had volunteered for Italy’s civil protection agency.
He assisted victims of the devastating 6 April earthquake in the central Abruzzo region.
“He came to the town hall on Monday to ask for help,” opposition councillor Vittorio Petrelli was cited as saying.
Last month Bouidra scaled a lighting post at the nearby coastal town of Santa Marinella’s football stadium and threatened to throw himself off, the local TeleCivitavecchia TV station reported.