Turkish authorities vow swift justice after magazine’s cartoon triggers nationwide outrage.

By World Israel News Staff

Four Turkish journalists were arrested after a local magazine reportedly published a cartoon caricature of the Prophet Mohammed, triggering rage-filled protests on Monday outside of the outlet’s offices.

The cartoon in question, published by LeMan, featured two characters, depicted as angels with wings, hovering over a war-torn city.

One character is drawn as saying, “Peace be upon you, I’m Muhammed,” while the other replies, “Peace be upon you, I’m Musa.”

In a statement on social media platform X, LeMan claimed that the cartoon did not depict the prophet but rather a “Muslim killed by Israel.”

The cartoonist behind the drawing “never intended to insult religious values,” the magazine posted. “We do not accept the stain that is cast on us because there is no depiction of our Prophet. You have to be very malicious to interpret the cartoon in this way.”

The publication stressed that “the work does not refer to the Prophet Muhammed in any way.”

The magazine’s denial did not calm public sentiment, as those believing the cartoon negatively depicted the prophet took to the streets to express their rage.

An angry mob of hundreds chanted “tooth for tooth, blood for blood, revenge, revenge” outside the publication’s offices, with police eventually firing tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

Turkish police arrested LeMan’s editor-in-chief, graphic designer, institutional director, and the cartoonist behind the drawing.

According to a statement from the country’s Justice Ministry, the four men will be charged with the crime of “publicly insulting religious values.”

Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc wrote on X that “necessary legal steps will be taken without delay” against the detained journalists.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya shared videos of the four men being arrested over the “vile drawing,” showing them handcuffed and dragged barefoot out of their homes by police.

The post ‘Blood, revenge!’ Turks incensed by caricature of Prophet Mohammed appeared first on World Israel News.

The evangelist told the court that he was seeking to defend Christianity as the true religion and so had said words to the effect of: “Islam, you are representing a wrong Jesus.”

By Jules Gomes, Middle East Forum

A British court has ruled in favor of a Christian street preacher prosecuted by the police on charges of blaspheming against the Qur’an, Islam, and its founder, Muhammad.

The judgment is a major setback for the Labour government and its Islamist supporters, who are attempting to implement a “blasphemy law” that would limit criticism of Islam by imposing a wide-ranging and disputed definition of “Islamophobia.”

The Christian Legal Centre said on Monday that Judge G. Kelly had thrown out the case against evangelist Karandeep Mamman at Wolverhampton Crown Court because the prosecution had failed to bring evidence against the preacher under section 4A of the Public Order Act.

The law prohibits a person from causing “harassment, alarm or distress” by using “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behavior,” or displaying “any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting.”

Mamman, who is keeping a low profile to avoid further harassment, was accused of insulting Islam and arrested by the police after an Islamist mob of 20-30 men and women threatened to kill him when they heard him preaching against Islam in Walsall town center in the West Midlands, England, on January 14, 2023.

“Forming a ring around him, Mamman said the group threatened to take him away, beat him up and ‘cut his throat,’” the CLC reported. The threats were made after Mamman had said that the Qur’an presents a false Jesus by presenting him as a prophet rather than the Son of God.

CCTV footage showed the Islamist mob assaulting and harassing the preacher for criticizing the Qur’an. A witness said that Mamman “wanted to leave but the mob would not let him go.” The mob followed Mamman and only allowed him to go after town center security appeared.

A homosexual couple was also filmed calling the police, and assaulting and aggressively ripping apart a sign Mamman was holding. The sign listed commandments from the Bible, including the prohibition of homosexual practice.

The evangelist told the court that he was seeking to defend Christianity as the true religion and so had said words to the effect of: “Islam, you are representing a wrong Jesus.” “Jesus in the Qur’an is not the true Jesus.” “According to the Quran, Muhammad promoted hatred, terrorism, and killing of Jews and Christians who do not convert.”

Mamman denied saying to the Muslim bystanders: “Look. There’s the Muslims. They are terrorists. They killed the Jews. … prophet Muhammad killed all the Jews” or “Prophet Muhammad killed all the Jews.”

When the Islamist mob threatened to assault and abduct him, Mamman responded with words from the Gospel of Luke (13:3): “Except that you repent you are all going to perish.”

Michael Phillips, defense attorney for Mamman, said the preacher’s statements were based on his Christian faith and historical and religious texts. Phillips argued that there were no threats, abuse, or invective directed against an individual, as prohibited by the Public Order Act.

Islamic scholar Martin Parsons demonstrated that the evangelist’s statements on Islam were based on Qur’anic texts. Parsons, who provided expert witness testimony, listed verses from the Qur’an that reveal the promotion of terror and mention military jihad.

“Killing the Jews” is recorded in the Qur’an in the case of the “execution of the entire male population of a Jewish tribe in Medina which early Islamic sources state Muhammad oversaw and acquiesced to,” the expert noted.

Parsons cited Quran 8:12: “Soon shall we cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers’ further. Remember thy lord inspired the angels (with the message) ‘I am with you: give firmness to the Believers: I will instill terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: Smite ye above their necks and smite their fingertips off them.’”

There are verses related to jihad and inflicting “terror” on non-Muslims. Support for this interpretation comes from commentaries of classical Islam and sharia textbooks traditionally used in madrassas, Parsons explained, acknowledging that this interpretation is not universal.

The Qur’an contains 164 verses referring to jihad, almost all of these unequivocally refer to military aggression, he observed.

Tim Dieppe, author of the book The Challenge of Islam: Understanding and Responding to Islam’s Increasing Influence in the UK, explained to Focus on Western Islamism (FWI) how the wider implications of Mamman’s victory was a major blow to the attempts by Islamists and the Labour government to impose a controversial definition of “Islamophobia.”

“Allegations of ‘Islamophobia’ have been used to silence or criticize legitimate criticism of Islam the religion, which does not imply any hatred or discrimination against Muslims as people,” Dieppe warned. “The very term ‘Islamophobia’ is problematic since it conflates ‘Islam’ the religion, with Muslims the people.”

“Adopting an official definition of ‘Islamophobia’ will privilege Islam over other religions and serve to legitimize two-tier policing of speech relating to Islamic beliefs or practices,” Dieppe, who has written extensively on the problem of creating a definition of Islamophobia, said.

“It is not an offense to openly express disagreement with Islamic teaching. Sadly, the police seem to think it is,” he stressed. “It is absurd that Mamman was arrested and charged for exercising his right to free speech when he never threatened anyone, while the police did not apprehend those actually threatened to beat him up and ‘cut his throat’ and assaulted him. This smacks of two-tier policing.”

British police arrested a free speech campaigner on February 1, 2025, after he burned a copy of the Qur’an in Manchester city center. The individual was charged with racially aggravated public order offense two days after Salwan Momika, an Iraqi atheist, was assassinated in Sweden after he set fire to the Quran.

The Humanists UK association reprimanded the police for endangering the person by releasing his name, noting: “The destruction of a religious text, like any other form of ‘blasphemy,’ should not in itself be a crime. No disrespect or damage to a ‘sacred’ text can ever justify violence against a human being.”

“The injunction to police so-called hate speech, especially when it comes to ‘Islamophobia’, has led British police forces to routinely do the bidding of Islamic reactionaries,” free speech campaigner and journalist Fraser Myers wrote in an article for Spiked.

“The Labour government is considering whether to impose a broad and controversial definition of Islamophobia on all public bodies, which would chill discussion on just about any issue that might touch on Islam or Muslims,” Myers warned.

“The Europe-wide expansion of hate-speech laws to cover blasphemy against Islam means there is now an alarming affinity between the authorities and hardline Islamic conservatives and even violent Islamist extremists,” he emphasized.

The post U.K. court acquits Christian preacher accused of ‘blaspheming’ Islam appeared first on World Israel News.

Only the school’s students are campaigning to defend their teacher. Other local political figures have instead chosen to be silent. 

By Dr. Paul Stott, American Spectator

As schools in the United Kingdom recover from the year-long disruption caused by Covid-19, a small grammar school in the west Yorkshire town of Batley has been catapulted into the national and international headlines. On Thursday, March 25, pickets closed Batley Grammar School after Muslim campaigners descended on the school protesting a teacher accused of showing caricatures of Muhammad.

There is some inconsistency in reports as to whether these images were from Charlie Hebdo or whether the image in question was the depiction of Muhammad with a bomb in his turban that formed part of the 2006 Danish cartoons controversy.

Either way, posts on social media encouraged protesters to attend the school to demand the teacher’s resignation “as an absolute minimum” and declared that attendance was a religious duty to defend the “honour” of the prophet. The school and surrounding roads were closed, and a large group of men, primarily in their 20s — many of them too young to be parents of schoolchildren — milled about. There were noticeably very few women.

Britain has been here before. The attempt to enforce Islamic norms and regulations in public life in the West was born out of the 1989 book burnings and protests against Salman Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses. Europe has suffered periodic crises over Islamic blasphemy codes ever since, even though there is currently no offense of blasphemy in English law.

Deobandi school of Islam

A noticeable characteristic in the Batley protests has been the presence of followers of the Deobandi school of Islam. In 1988, Deobandis were behind the first British protests against Salman Rushdie. Batley is in the West Yorkshire borough of Kirklees, an area of strong Deobandi representation, particularly in Dewsbury and Batley.

Knowledge of Deobandism in the UK is generally low, even among those busy in the contentious fields of counter-extremism and counter-radicalization. Focus has been far greater on Salafism due to its association with Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda and its appeal to “born-again” Muslims searching for authenticity. A second source of concentration has been on the Muslim Brotherhood because of its comparative political success.

In numerical terms, though, and certainly in the British context, Deobandism matters far more. A 2017 report by the Muslims in Britain directory estimated 41 percent of the UK’s mosques were Deobandi — that is 797 out of 1934 institutions. And that figure — for one of the most conservative stripes of Islam — was rising. In Batley, a crash course in the ethics of Deobandism is currently available through local Imam Mohammed Amin Pandor.

Pandor has been central to the protest at the grammar school. He entered the school freely (despite the country’s lockdown restrictions), meeting with teachers, and delivered his analysis from the school gates to other protesters and the media. At one point he claimed to have been involved in drafting the statement issued by Batley Grammar that ensured changes. This was followed by the school’s statement that it “unequivocally apologises for using a totally inappropriate resource” and had suspended the teacher who showed the image.

At the school gates, Pandor commented, “Look at what we do as a community, and you’ll understand our stance.” This was almost certainly a reference to the burgeoning Islamic charity sector, in the Batley area, Yorkshire, and farther afield. The charity sector is a prominent source of employment for Islamists in the UK, and charities can achieve a sense of recognition and engagement from the authorities that would not be given to secular associations or campaign groups. We now see, however, some of the downsides of this work.

During the coronavirus pandemic, for instance, one local Islamic charity named Purpose of Life provided IT equipment to Batley Grammar School. A deeper look at the Purpose of Life, however, suggests an organization that is not necessarily as benign or altruistic as it appears. It was forced to delete a letter by its CEO Mohammad Sajad Hussain, circulated online on March 25, which publicly named the teacher, described the images he showed as terrorism, and compared it to the murder of Muslims in Myanmar. That letter also declared that until the teacher was sacked “we cannot work with or promote Batley Grammar School.”

Balance of power shifting

The Batley affair is also an indicator of how the balance of political forces in Britain are shifting. In 1989, majority opinion, even on the left, defended Rushdie and his right to publish. Things are very different now. The Labour MP for Batley and Spen, Tracy Brabin, managed to condemn the threats made to the teacher (who by that point had fled his house and was living under police guard) but welcomed the school’s apology. It appears that Islamic blasphemy codes, even in a secular school, are now to be respected.

Only the school’s students are campaigning to defend their teacher. Other local political figures have instead chosen to be silent. For example, the leader of Kirklees council and a Labour representative in Batley west, Shabir Pandor, has said nothing. It just so happens that he is the brother of Imam Mohammed Amin Pandor.

Trade unions have similarly said little. Earlier this year, the main teachers union, the National Education Union (NEU), donated £3000 to the Purpose of Life charity. While the NEU eventually stated it was supporting the teacher in Batley, it has said nothing on the wider issue of free speech or blasphemy codes.

For now, things may quiet down. Schools are closed for the Easter break, and the protesters have in many ways succeeded. There is, however, a clear desire by radical forces to spread the conflict. In a statement to the media, protesters called for a probe into other teachers at Batley Grammar, as well as a police investigation. They also asked Muslim parents to review teaching materials, including those on relationship and sex education — a clear reference to Islamist-backed protests in Birmingham in 2019, which objected to children learning about same-sex relationships.

Far too much of the debate about Islamism in Britain has concentrated on one aspect of its rise — terrorism. But the greater effect on the country’s values, especially freedom of speech, can be seen in the rise and enforcement of Islamic blasphemy codes, in a country where blasphemy is not against the law. When the schools reopen after Easter, where will Islamists seek to obtain their next victory?

Dr. Paul Stott is a writer for Islamist Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum. He tweets @MrPaulStott.

The post Analysis: Rising Islamism in British schools threatens free speech appeared first on World Israel News.

Asia Bibi, a Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy, has departed Pakistan after spending eight years on death row.

By World Israel News Staff and AP

A Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy after spending eight years on death row in Pakistan has left for Canada to be reunited with her daughters, Pakistani officials and others involved in the case said Wednesday.

Asia Bibi was convicted of blasphemy in 2009 following a quarrel at work. Mrs. Bibi had been working as a farmhand to help support her family in a tiny village in the Sheikhupura district of Punjab. Her family were the only Christians in the village. After the quarrel, she was accused of blasphemy.

The Supreme Court overturned her conviction last year, and she had been in protective custody since then.

A source told The Daily Mail: ‘After being released from death row, she thought she was finally free. But she found she was being hunted by extremists. For the last few months she has been living in fear for her life.”

“Canada’s Prime Minister has been incredibly helpful. When no other country was coming to her aid, he offered her and her family refuge,” the source told the paper. However, while her daughters were allowed to go, she was held back due to objections by Pakistan’s military, which is “heavily influenced by Taliban elements,” the paper reveals.

Islamic extremists have rioted over the case and threatened to kill her. The same radical Islamists, many of whom have been jailed for their threats, also urged the overthrow of the government following Mrs. Bibi’s acquittal.

According to The Daily Mail, an international team from the United States and Canada spirited her out of the country. They had been in a “race against time” before Islamic clerics incited to more violence.

Mrs. Bibi left together with her husband, Ashiq Masih.

Wilson Chawdhry of the British Pakistani Christian Association told the Associated Press that he received a text message from a British diplomat saying “Asia is out.”

A close friend of Bibi also confirmed that she had left the country, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Her lawyer, Saif-ul Malook, said she had already arrived in Canada.

The case has brought international attention to Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law, which carries an automatic death penalty. The mere suspicion of blasphemy against Islam is enough to ignite mob lynchings in the country. The accusation of blasphemy has also been used to intimidate religious minorities and to settle scores.

Radical Islamists have made the punishment of blasphemy a major rallying cry, bringing tens of thousands into the streets and paralyzing major cities.

Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab province, was shot and killed by one of his guards in 2011 for defending Mrs. Bibi and criticizing the misuse of the blasphemy law. The assassin, Mumtaz Qadri, has been celebrated as a martyr by hard-liners since he was hanged for the killing, with millions visiting a shrine set up for him near Islamabad. Pakistan’s minister for minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, was assassinated later that year after demanding justice for Mrs. Bibi.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has vowed not to be intimidated by the rioters, saying the rule of law would decide Mrs. Bibi’s fate. But she was denied permission to leave the country for several months until sentiments cooled.

The friend, who last spoke to her on Tuesday, said Bibi and her husband Ashiq Masih had spent the last several weeks getting their documents in order. He said she was longing to see her daughters, with whom she talked almost daily from her secure location, protected by Pakistani security forces.

Mr. Chawdhry said he had been in regular contact with Bibi’s husband throughout the ordeal as well as with several diplomats involved in international efforts to free her and get her to safety.

A three-judge Supreme Court panel in January cleared Bibi’s final legal hurdle when they ruled there was no compelling reason to overturn the court’s earlier acquittal. The judges accused those who charged Mrs. Bibi with blasphemy of committing perjury, but said they would not be tried because of the sensitivity of the case. The judges upheld the blasphemy law.

The post Devout Christian woman facing death penalty spirited out of Pakistan appeared first on World Israel News.

A Christian governor in Indonesia was sentenced to two years in prison for blasphemy against Islam, although he denies the charge. 

An Indonesian court on Tuesday sentenced the Christian governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, to two years in prison for blasphemy against the Koran.

The ruling significantly challenges the country’s reputation as moderate in the Islamic world, particularly because prosecutors recommended a punishment of two years’ probation, not imprisonment.

However, the governor, who was brought to court last year during his reelection campaign, was found “convincingly guilty of committing blasphemy,” according to one of the five presiding judges, Dwiarso Budi Santiarto.

AFP reported that Judge Abdul Rosyad contended “the defendant didn’t feel guilt,” and that “the defendant’s act has caused anxiety and hurt to Muslims.”

In a video, the governor, also known as “Ahok,” tells voters to reject an interpretation of a Koranic verse that purportedly prohibits Muslims from voting for a non-Muslim. Thereafter, the governor saw his poll numbers and comfortable lead shrink, and eventually lost the race to a Muslim challenger.

Governor: I Would Never ‘Intentionally Insult Islam’

At the beginning of his trial in December, the governor broke out in tears, rejecting the notion that he would intentionally insult Islam.

“As a person who grew up among Muslims, it is not possible for me to intentionally insult Islam because that is the same as disrespecting the people I appreciate and love,” he said, referring to his Muslim godparents.

A few weeks later, the governor’s petition to throw out his case on human rights grounds was rejected by a panel of judges.

After the sentencing, Purnama, who says he will appeal, was taken to Cipinang Prison in east Jakarta.

By: Jonathan Benedek, World Israel News

The post Christian Indonesian governor jailed for ‘blasphemy’ against Islam appeared first on World Israel News.

Does the West really want to go charging quixotically off to the Inquisitions of the Middle Ages again?

By: Judith Bergman, The Gatestone Institute

The West is submitting to blasphemy laws. Denmark, for example, has apparently decided that now is the time to invoke a dusty, old blasphemy provision. Denmark still has a provision in the penal code against blasphemy, but until now, it has only been used three times. The last time was nearly half a century ago, in 1971. Denmark’s Attorney General has nevertheless just charged a man for burning a Quran.

In the West, blasphemy as a criminal offence has for centuries generally been considered a relic of the past. In a largely godless society, few people take offense to blasphemous comments or acts. Christians do not descend upon alleged blasphemers with guns and knives, and publishers do not worry about “offending” Christians.

In 1997, Danish public service radio financed an artist burning a Bible and broadcast it on national television. No one was charged, even though there were complaints and the state prosecutor investigated the case.

Yet, a Danish man will be prosecuted. He burned his own Quran in his own garden and then posted the video in a public Facebook group, “Yes to freedom, No to Islam,” with the accompanying text, “Consider your neighbor, it stinks when it burns.” Attorney General Jan Reckendorff stated:

“It is the prosecution’s view that the circumstances of the burning of holy books such as the Bible and the Qur’an implies that in some cases it may be a violation of the blasphemy provision, which deals with public mockery or scorn against a religion. It is our opinion that the circumstances of this case require that it should be prosecuted in order for the courts to have the opportunity to take a position on the matter.”

The Attorney General may have been mentioning the Bible only out of politeness. After all, no one has been prosecuted for burning the Bible in Denmark, as not even burning it on national television was considered sufficiently offensive. The Quran is clearly a very different matter.

The decision has caused renewed debate about abolishing the blasphemy provision in Denmark — an issue that regularly pops up.

In Norway, the provision against blasphemy was abolished in 2005. A poll conducted in January showed that 41% of Norwegian Muslims believe that blasphemy should be punished, and 7% believe that the penalty for blasphemy anywhere should be capital punishment.

In Britain, at least one man has been prosecuted and sentenced for burning the Quran (in 2011) and several arrested in 2010 and 2014 .

The enforcement of blasphemy provisions, so out of place in a largely post-Christian Europe, brings back the Middle Ages, when blasphemy was ferociously prosecuted by the Church. Is that really an era for modern European society to be aspiring to after centuries of fighting for freedom of speech?

In Canada, meanwhile, anti-Islamophobia motions, aiming gradually to prohibit all criticism of Islam — and part of Muslim blasphemy laws — are being passed. The Ontario Provincial Parliament unanimously passed an anti-Islamophobia motion in February. The motion called on the legislature to “stand against all forms of hatred, hostility, prejudice, racism and intolerance; rebuke the… growing tide of anti-Muslim rhetoric and sentiments” and “condemn all forms of Islamophobia.” Needless to say, no such motions were introduced to protect Judaism or Christianity.

In October 2016, Canada’s national Parliament unanimously passed an anti-Islamophobia motion, which was the result of a petition initiated by Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Samer Majzoub, president of the Canadian Muslim Forum. At the time, no one knew what they were condemning: Criticism of Islam? Criticism of Muslims? Discussing whether ISIS is a true manifestation of Islam? No one knew, as no one had bothered to define it.

The lack of definition, however, has not stopped Iqra Khalid, a Member of Parliament from the governing Liberal Party, from introducing a new motion on the back of the previous one, Motion M-103, in the Canadian parliament. The motion demands that “Islamophobia” not only be condemned, but that the government develop a comprehensive approach to reducing or eliminating Islamophobia. The motion still does not offer any definition, or any statistics to support its claim that “Islamophobia” is a problem in Canada. However, it should hardly shock anyone that the first motion condemning Islamophobia has so swiftly been followed up by a new motion demanding concrete government measures. After the first motion was unanimously passed, the man who initiated the original petition, Samer Majzoub, had this to say in an interview with the Canadian Muslim Forum:

“Now that Islamophobia has been condemned, this is not the end, but rather the beginning… We need to continue working politically and socially and with the press. They used to doubt the existence of Islamophobia, but now we do not have to worry about that; all blocs and political figures, represented by Canada’s supreme legislative authority, have spoken of that existence. In the offing, we need to get policy makers to do something, especially when it comes to the Liberals, who have shown distinct openness regarding Muslims and all ethnicities… All of us must work hard to maintain our peaceful, social and humanitarian struggle so that condemnation is followed by comprehensive policies.”

Does the West really want to go charging quixotically off to the Inquisitions of the Middle Ages again?

The post Forward to the Middle Ages: The West submits to blasphemy laws appeared first on World Israel News.

Indonesia’s reputation for practicing a moderate form of Islam is being challenged as the first Christian governor of Jakarta in more than half a century is being tried for allegedly offending Islam. 

The minority Christian governor of Indonesia’s capital sobbed in court Tuesday on the first day of his blasphemy trial as he recalled the role of Muslim godparents in his childhood and said he would never intentionally insult Islam.

The national upheaval over the governor’s alleged blasphemy has challenged Indonesia’s reputation for practicing a moderate form of Islam, shaken the government and exposed religious and racial fault lines in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

Protests against Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, led by hard-liners and which drew hundreds of thousands of people, have kept Jakarta, the capital, on edge in the past six weeks. A November 4 protest there turned violent, with one death and dozens of police and protesters injured.

Ahok, an ally of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, faces up to five years in prison if found guilty.

He is the first ethnic Chinese governor of Jakarta and the first Christian in more than half a century.

“As a person who grew up among Muslims, it is not possible for me to intentionally insult Islam because that is the same as disrespecting the people I appreciate and love,” Ahok said.

He broke down in tears twice while making his statement, in which he talked about the affection of his godparents and remembered how he helped poor Indonesians perform the Hajj pilgrimage when he was a district chief a decade ago.

The blasphemy controversy erupted in September when a video circulated online in which Ahok lightheartedly said that people were being deceived if they believed his detractors who asserted that the Quran prohibits Muslims from having a non-Muslim leader. He is seeking a second term as governor in elections due in February.

State Prosecutor Ali Mukartono told the court that Ahok insulted Islam and desecrated the Quran by using one of its verses to fool people and boost his chances of winning the Jakarta election.

In his statement, Ahok said that his comments were not an interpretation of the Quran and that he was only referring to certain politicians “who exploited the verses incorrectly because they do not want to compete fairly in the election competition.”

Several hundred members of anti- and pro-Ahok groups gathered outside the court, but were kept apart by police. The trial, which is being broadcast live, could take two to three months.

Ahok’s lawyers asked the five-judge panel to throw the case out and the trial was then adjourned until Dec. 20.

Police investigators and religious experts were divided about whether Ahok should be prosecuted, but the case proceeded as political pressure on the government mounted.

By: AP

The post Christian governor of Indonesia’s capital sobs as blasphemy trial begins appeared first on World Israel News.