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Thursday, 28 May 2009

Muslims Becoming Christians ..

Thursday, 14 May 2009

Woman repeatedly abused by Catholic priest

Woman repeatedly abused by Catholic priest gets record settlement

Last Updated: Friday, May 8, 2009 | 12:53 PM ET CBC News

An Ontario woman who was repeatedly raped by a Roman Catholic priest while she was a girl has received what is believed to be the largest individual settlement in a sexual abuse case in Canada — $2 million.

The victim, Lou Ann Soontiens, was in grade school when the abuse began at the hands of Rev. Charles Sylvestre. It continued for seven years.

Soontiens testified during Sylvestre's trial that at the age of 14 she was impregnated by the priest and that he arranged a botched abortion. She had to be rushed to hospital for emergency medical care.

Soontiens was one of nearly 70 young female victims of Sylvestre who came forward.

Settlements have been reached with more than 50 victims.

The priest was convicted on 47 counts of sexual assault in 2006. He was sentenced to three years in jail, but died in January 2007, just three months into his sentence.

Soontiens's civil case against the Roman Catholic Diocese of London was to start on May 11, but a few days ago the diocese offered to settle for $2 million, including court costs.

It's considered to be the largest individual award for sexual abuse ever in Canada.

At a news conference in London on Friday, Soontiens, 51, said the money will help her put her life back together.

"I cut my grass. I don't travel. I'm a homebody. I don't plan on changing at all, other than trying to heal a little bit more," she said.

Soontiens said she hopes her settlement spurs the diocese to come to terms with about 17 other women who were victims of Sylvester and are currently in negotiations.

Soontiens also told the news conference she is "happy that [Sylvestre] did die, because now I know he can't get me."

Monday, 20 April 2009

Saudi Arabia Releases Christian Blogger

NEWS ALERT: Saudi Arabia Releases Christian Blogger
Thursday, April 16, 2009 (3:28 pm)
By Worthy News Correspondents Stefan J. Bos and Johan Th. Bos reporting from the Netherlands

RIYADH/AMSTERDAM (Worthy News) -- Saudi Arabia has released Christian blogger Hamoud Saleh Al-Amri who was jailed after openly writing on the Internet about his conversion from Islam to Christianity, rights investigators confirmed Thursday, April 16.

"We are pleased that this brave Christian has been freed," said Open Doors spokesman Klaas Muurling of Netherlands' based Christian advocacy group Open Doors. "For apostasy from Islam, Saudi Arabia imposes the death penalty. It is therefore very special that Hamoud wrote openly on his Website about the way he became a Christian," Muurling added.

Another rights group closely monitoring the case, Middle East Concern (MEC) told Worthy News that the 28-year-old blogger was jailed in January "for writing in his blog about his decision to follow Jesus."

Although he was released March 28, the writer has been "banned from traveling outside Saudi Arabia or appearing in media," MEC stressed.

MORE WRITINGS

In a new entry in his blog, www.christforsaudi.blogspot.com, Hamoud attributes his release to pressure brought on the Saudi Authorities by the Cairo-based Arab Network for Human Rights Information, one of several rights groups that have campaigned for his release.

Worthy News and its partner news agency BosNewsLife also closely monitored the case.

His detention came five months after the daughter of a member of the feared religious police, or Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, was reportedly killed for disclosing her Christian faith.

Fatima Al-Mutairi, 26, revealed on Web postings that she had left Islam to become a Christian, Arabic media reported. Her father allegedly cut out her tongue and burned her to death "following a heated debate on religion."

Hamoud was arrested on January 13 this year and detained at the infamous Eleisha political prison in Riyadh, MEC explained. "He had written in his blog of his decision to leave Islam to follow Jesus, and had also been critical of the judicial system in his country, highlighting corruption and human rights abuses."

MORE DETENTIONS

This was the third time Hamoud had been detained, having been held for nine months in 2004 and for one month in 2008, fellow Christians and rights groups confirmed.

"Following the latest arrest, the Saudi authorities blocked access to his blog inside Saudi Arabia." Even US-based Internet giant Google apparently locked the blog, "for what they claimed was a technical violation of their terms of service" before restoring it on February 2009 "following public pressure," MEC said.

Despite Hamoud's release, MEC cautioned that "Saudi Arabia remains a country where political expression is overtly restricted and only one closely defined version of Sunni Islam is allowed to be publicly practised." It said that, "Other forms of Islam and all other faiths are severely restricted."