A 15-year-old Pakistani Christian youth who was burned over 55% percent of body in an attack by Muslims has died.
We reported on the attack on Nouman Masih, who had been beaten and then burned by Muslim youths after he told them he was a Christian. The Muslim youths had been on the way to Friday prayers when they found Nouman and attacked him.
Doctors treated Nouman with the best items they had available but the hospital did not have a burn ward to provide the specialized treatment needed for Nouman’s wounds. The boy died around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.
A spokesman for the British Pakistani Christian Association said that Nouman made a point to say he forgave his attackers before he died.
“He just said that he forgave them. That’s more like a Christian forgiveness, but he didn’t want his attackers to prevail and enact their crimes on anybody else. He was just being very magnanimous in a Christian way saying, ‘I have forgiven them but I want them to go through the justice system,'” BPCA Chairman Wilson Chowdhry told the Christian Post.
“You can imagine what it was like for him to have kerosene poured on him and being set alight,” Chowdhry continued. “He was very vocal in the fact that he didn’t want that to happen to anyone else, especially at the moment when Christians are under some very extreme tension.”
The Muslim youth who killed Nouman have yet to be identified so local officials say they can do nothing until they find the attackers.
Over 100 Pakistani Christians were arrested after the lynching of two Islamists believed to be involved in two church bombings that killed 17 Christians. Now, some of the prisoners have been released and are showing evidence of brutal treatment from Pakistani police.
The International Christian Concern says that some of the 30 released from jail say they were beaten and given other tortures in an attempt to get them to confess to being a part of the killings.
“They were telling us that they were beaten to a pulp,” ICC President Jeff King told The Christian Post at Tuesday’s press conference. “A lot of times, what they are saying is that they get beaten to a pulp and get left on their doorstep in a bloody mess, and the whole point was to extract confessions.”
King said that the ICC condemns the killing of the two Muslim men and that just needs to be done, but that Pakistani officials are using the situation to target and harass Christians.
We would seek for justice for those Muslim families but arbitrary arrests and detention are not the way to get justice,” King told the Christian Post. “They only serve further flames of injustice and hatred. Frankly, it is a mark of a Banana republic and an incompetent police force.”
“They are just fishing and seeing if they can beat confessions out of random people from the neighborhood,” King added. “Foreign police forces know that this is actually terrible police work because people will falsely confess to end their beatings. But, you are not getting justice.”
In a landmark judgment against the nation of North Korea, the family of an American missionary who was kidnapped and killed by North Korean agents has been awarded $330 million.
Rev. Kim Dong-Shik, who had been taken by North Korean agents while he was in China, was taken in January 2000 and tortured to death in a prison camp in North Korea. Kim was born in South Korea but a permanent resident of the United States. He had been working as a missionary providing humanitarian aid and religious council to Christians who had fled North Korea at the time of his kidnapping.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia awarded $15 million to Kim’s son and brother along with $300 million in punitive damages.
“This is an important human rights decision that will be utilized in all political abduction cases going forward,” Israel Law Center head Nitsana Darshan-Leitner told The Christian Post.
The court ruled that when a foreign regime abducts an individual, it is the responsibility of the abductors to prove that the person has not been murdered.
“We are grateful that the court has found that once we proved the kidnapping of Rev. Kim by North Korean intelligence and brought human rights experts to testify about the horrific conditions in the political detention camps, the burden must be on Pyongyang to show was still alive after so many years,” Darshan-Leitner said.
Christian watchdog groups say around 100,000 Christians are being tortured and forced into hard labor at North Korean prison camps.
A terrorist leader with a $5 million bounty on his head has been killed in Yemen.
Yemen’s Al-Qaeda branch posted a statement saying that Ibrahim al-Rubaish was killed along with other terrorists in a Sunday night drone strike. The statement did not say where the strike that killed the terrorist leader took place.
Al-Rubaish once was imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay but had been released in 2006. He joined Al-Qaeda’s Yemeni branch and was considered the main theological advisor to the group. His writings and sermons were among the most viewed in terrorist publications.
If the drone attack is verified, it will be the first drone strike since the country devolved into war when Islamic terrorists backed by Iran advanced into the nation. Saudi Arabia has been leading a coalition of airstrikes against the terrorist’s advances.
Al-Qaeda is a rival of the advancing terrorist group and has launched their own assaults to stop the advanced of the Iranian-backed group. U.S. intelligence sources say that as Al-Qaeda is forced to focus on stopping the terrorist advance, they have less resources and time to plot against Western interests in the region.
Tornadoes ripped through the Midwest Thursday leaving two women dead in the small Illinois town of Fairdale.
Geradine Schultz, 67, and Jacqueline Klosa, 69, were confirmed as fatalities by Governor Bruce Rauner.
Rockford Fire Department division chief Matthew Knott told NBC Chicago the town was “absolutely devastated” by the tornado. Knott said of the 75 homes in the town, 17 were completely destroyed and no home was spared significant damage.
At least seventeen tornadoes were confirmed in the outbreak and weather officials are investigating others. One tornado left a 22-mile path through Ogle County according to disaster management coordinator Tom Richter.
That twister destroyed the home of Ogle County Sheriff Brian VanVickle. Fortunately, the sheriff’s family was out of town at the time of the storm.
One of the places heavily damaged by the storm was a small family-owned farm and zoo in Belvidere. The Sommerfield Zoo lost two emus and a fawn. Sheds, barns and other structures were destroyed including a $20,000 set of fencing.
“It’s amazing that’s all we lost. We’re very fortunate,” owner Tammy Anderson told the Chicago Tribune. “We’re just overwhelmed. I’m not sure where to start.”
An Indiana woman who threw her newborn baby in the trash after giving birth will be spending 20 years in prison.
Purvi Patel, 33, was arrested in 2013 after she arrived at an Indiana hospital following the birth of her child. She denied being pregnant but her injuries made it obvious to hospital personnel that she had just given birth. Patel then admitted she had been pregnant after an affair with a co-worker.
Patel claims because her Hindu family is against pre-martial sex so she panicked when she gave birth and threw the child into a dumpster behind a shopping center. She claimed the baby was stillborn, however doctors were able to show the baby had been born alive and could have survived if given medical attention.
The defense claimed she had been trying to induce her own abortion using drugs but that failed. Under Indiana law, it is feticide to induce premature birth with the intent of causing death except in the case of approved abortions.
“You, Miss Patel, are an educated woman of considerable means. If you wished to terminate your pregnancy safely and legally, you could have done so,” the judge said. “You planned a course of action and took matters into your own hands and chose not to go to a doctor.”
Lila Rose of Live Action said there was a high level of irony in the case.
“If an abortionist had destroyed this defenseless little person at 28 weeks, there would be no controversy,” she said. “But since the baby managed to be born, to breathe, and then to be killed at the exact same age, law enforcement is scrambling to see justice served.”
A group of masked terrorists have killed at least 70 people and taken hostages after attacking Garissa University in Kenya.
The Islamic extremist group Al-Shabaab claimed the assault and said they were targeting the Christians at the school.
“We sorted people out and released the Muslims,” said terrorist spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab. “There are many dead bodies of Christians inside the building. We are also holding many Christians alive. Fighting still goes on inside the college.”
Witnesses say that the terrorists had snipers on top of buildings to shoot those who were fleeing the dormitories during the attack. Soldiers reportedly ordered the students to dive for cover as they escaped the building.
The terrorists say they are also holding a number of female Christians alive as hostages.
The vice chariman of the student union told Fox News that the gunmen were asking people about their faith.
“If you were a Christian you were shot on the spot,” he said. “With each blast of the gun I thought I was going to die.”
The terrorist group has targeted Kenya after that nation contributed forces to the African Union that drove Al-Shabaab from major cities in Somalia.
Rev. Robert H. Schuller, the founder of the television ministry “Hour of Power” that reached millions around the world, died Thursday at the age of 88.
Schuller had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer in August 2013.
“My father-in-law passed away peacefully early this morning. He was a great Dad and a great man of God,” said Schuller’s daughter-in-law, Donna Schuller, in a Twitter message.
Schuller and his wife Arvella started a ministry in 1955 with $500. He would preach from the roof of a concession stand at a drive-in theater near Los Angeles. The church had a motto of “come as you are in the family car.” They had their own building by 1961 and began the “Hour of Power” broadcast in 1970.
In 1980, Schuller built the iconic ‘Crystal Cathedral” that was seen in the “Hour of Power” broadcasts.
Schuller is remembered as a missionary who was called to reach people who had distanced themselves from church. His mission of “find a need and fill it, find a hurt and heal it” has brought millions help and healing.
Residents of the Nigerian border town of Gamboru had just returned after the village was liberated by Cameroon military forces when Boko Haram staged a surprise attack.
The attack left 11 residents dead before the troops could re-cross the border and drive out the terrorists.
“We were terrified when we started hearing gunshots echoing … but everywhere became calm about an hour later. The soldiers informed us that it was the Boko Haram terrorists that came back”, resident Aji Kaumi told the Associated Press.
It was the first offensive attack by the terrorists since they have been driven out of 38 cities and two entire states by the multinational forces helping the Nigerian military.
France has also sent military advisors into the region and French aircraft based in Chad are making scouting missions to find terrorist encampments.
French officials told reporters the goal is to make Boko Haram what it was once was: a fringe extremist group without any control of land within Nigeria.
At least three gunmen stormed a museum in Tunisia Wednesday attacking tourists and leaving at least 21 people dead.
The scene at the National Bardo Museum in Tunis was described as “horrific” by witnesses. In addition to the 21 confirmed dead, at least 21 others were wounded.
Officials say that 17 tourists are among the dead.
The government took the unusual step of taking tourists to a secured location for their safety while a manhunt took place for the shooters.
Tunisia’s internor ministry said the standoff with the gunmen ended when security forces stormed the museum. The attack was from “two or more terrorists armed with Kalashinkovs.” Local radio said the terrorists were in military-style clothing.
Witnesses say that many of the tourists were Italians who were part of a cruise that had docked in Tunis for the day.
The attackers were not immediately identified but Tunisia has been dealing with attacks by various Islamic terrorist groups, including several who have pledged support for ISIS.
