Magic Statistics

The Shas faction in the Israeli Knesset has proposed a bill outlawing all proselytisation in the country.  The measure was prompted by news that last year a record number of Jews converted to Islam.

The existing law mandates six months’ imprisonment for those who attempt to persuade Israeli minors to leave their faith or who perform a conversion ceremony on the children and teens.

The current legislation also imposes a five-year jail term and/or a fine on anyone who offers money or other goods to persuade an individual under age 18 to convert to another faith.

It does not, however, outlaw missionizing towards adults, a deficiency that would be corrected by the new law.

Although 70 Israeli Jews embraced Islam in 2006, about ten times that number accept Jesus annually.

A party source insisted there is no intention to violate freedom of (or from) religion, even though the bill would criminalise missionary activity by members of any religious group.

h/t: Transfigurations

Previous related post:  Freedom of Religion Act restricts conversion

Several children of Christian parents in the northern Nigerian city of Sokoto have been kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam.  Compass Direct reports the story of Victor Udo Usen, a 13-year-old boy who went missing last November.  In February, the boy’s mother heard that her son had been seen in a nearby Muslim house.  She found Victor at the house but, as she began escorting him back home, she was surrounded by a Muslim mob.

“I quickly held his hands and dragged him along with me towards our house,” she said. “But within a twinkle of an eye, I heard shouts of ‘Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar [God is great]!’ I was shocked as I saw a large number of Muslims rushing towards us.”

The mob surrounded them and snatched her son away from her, she told Compass with tears in her eyes. Before she could send for her husband, who was not home at the time, members of the mob told her that her son was now a Muslim and that she and her husband were no longer his parents.

The boy’s father and their pastor reported the kidnapping to police, but they refuse to act until the Sultan of Sokoto returns from a trip abroad.

Pastors and other church leaders state that kidnapping and forcible conversion of Christian teenagers is increasingly common in the Muslim-majority state of Sokoto.

The city of Sokoto was seat of the Sokoto Caliphate prior to European colonisation.  Sokoto state is one of 12 Nigerian states that have adopted shari’a law.

Previous related posts:

• Islamists in arson attack on Nigerian school chapel
• Egyptian Christian girls kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam
• Islamists torch Nigerian churches

UPDATE (17 Apr.:) Victor escaped from his kidnappers and is now safe with his family.  Hallelujah!

Earlier this week, the Council of Europe’s Anti-Torture Committee released a statement condemning frequent recourse to unlawful detention and torture of civilians by the government of the Russian republic of Chechnya.  Now Russia has set itself to block a measure allowing speedier access to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) by those alleging maltreatment at the hands of government officials.

The Council of Europe, of which Russia is a member, holds out the best hope for redress of abused rights for Chechens. They can appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg – a body set up by the Council of Europe - if they believe Russia’s judiciary has failed to answer their complaints. Many have done so in the last few years, although the number is still small in comparison to the scale of the problem.

The hope of more Chechens applying to the court and getting speedier justice is now fading, as Russia is blocking ratification of a protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights which would streamline the application process.
. . .
The protocol would allow the court to decide more quickly whether it should look into a complaint or not, and reject an application if it considers that the applicant has not suffered significant harm.

The Council of Europe has 46 members, of which only Russia has refused to ratify the protocol.

When a nation loses a human rights complaint in the ECHR, it must pay compensation to the successful claimants.  Russia has budgeted 110 million rubles (US$4.2 million) for such payments in 2006—eleven times as much as in 2003.