Religion of peace update

From The Globe and Mail and several news sources, including Asia News:

Assailants purportedly sent by al-Qaeda and the Taliban killed the only Christian member of Pakistan's federal cabinet Wednesday, spraying his car with bullets outside his parents' driveway. It was the second assassination in two months of a high-profile opponent of blasphemy laws that impose the death penalty for insulting Islam.

The killing of Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic in his 40s, further undermines Pakistan's shaky image as a moderate Islamic state and could deepen the political turmoil in this nuclear-armed, U.S.-allied state where militants frequently stage suicide attacks.

In pamphlets found at the scene of the shooting, al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban said they targeted Mr. Bhatti because of his faith and because he allegedly belonged to a committee that was reviewing the blasphemy laws.

Let us pray for Catholics in Pakistan.

The springtime of nations

From Al-Masry Al-Youm:

The murder of a Coptic Christian priest in the Upper Egyptian city of Assiut angered the roughly 3000 Copts who turned out for his funeral on Wednesday to demand that the killers be punished.

According to the slain priest's neighbors, four people had killed the Coptic cleric in his home while "chanting Islamic slogans." ... Coptic marchers also smashed the windshield of a police car that attempted to bar their way.

They delivered the body of Father Dawood Ghobrial, who had been a pastor at Assiut's Bishop Taudros Monastery, to the Assiut University Hospital morgue.

Local police claims Father Dawood Boutros Ghobrial was the victim of robbers... (Not necessarily untrue, since Egypt has been "robbed" from its native Christians for 14 centuries. Muslims will not stop until they manage to do to Egypt's Christians what they did to Anatolia's.)

How DARE the Pope ask for protection for Christians!!!

From the Grand Imam of Al Azhar (Islam's oldest and most prestigious center of learning) no less -- definitely not a "marginal" or "fringe" figure in Islam, and one of the 300+ signatories of the supposedly ground-breaking and pro-"dialogue" A Common Word Between Us and You addressed by Muslim scholars to the Pope and other Christian leaders.

Grand Imam of Al-Azhar accuses Pope of meddling

Egypt's top Muslim cleric on Sunday criticised Pope Benedict XVI's call for world leaders to defend Christians as interference in his country's affairs, the official MENA news agency reported.

CAIRO (Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Egypt's top Muslim cleric on Sunday criticised Pope Benedict XVI's call for world leaders to defend Christians as interference in his country's affairs, the official MENA news agency reported.

The call, following a deadly church car-bombing in northern Egypt, was "unacceptable interference in Egypt's affairs," Ahmed al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, the oldest Islamic seat of learning, told reporters. "I disagree with the pope's view, and I ask why did the pope not call for the protection of Muslims when they were subjected to killings in Iraq?" (Yes. The Pope should be a good dhimmi first and put Muslim concerns ahead of everything else before daring to ask for anything at all. CAP) he said at a news conference. Benedict at a New Year's Mass at the Vatican appealed for the "concrete and constant engagement of leaders of nations" to protect Christians in the Middle East, in what he termed a "difficult mission." In the wake of rising tension and "especially discrimination, abuse and religious intolerance which are today striking Christians in particular, I once again launch a pressing appeal not to give in to discouragement and resignation," he said.

Tayeb, who renewed his condemnation of the New Year's Eve church bombing which cost 21 lives, said Azhar, the highest institute in Sunni Islam, would form a joint committee with the Coptic Church to resolve disputes between the communities. The committee, which should begin its work in two weeks, will "discuss reasons for deterioration (in Muslim-Copt ties) and propose appropriate solutions," he said. Tayeb later met with the head of Egypt's Coptic Church, Pope Shenouda III, at his headquarters in Cairo's St Mark Cathedral.