Daughter of Ugandan Pastor Gang-Raped by 5 Muslim Men After Father Refused to Close Down Church

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(Photo: Reuters/James Akena)

A church bell hangs from a tree brunch outside a catholic church and a school in Odek village, north of Uganda capital Kampala, February 14, 2015.

Christian Post Report – A 17-year-old daughter of a Ugandan Christian pastor was allegedly gang-raped by five Muslim men after her father ignored the men’s threats warning him to stop having worship services at his church located in the Muslim-majority Budaka district.

Morning Star News reports that an unnamed pastor, who preaches at the New Hope Church in the Kaderuna sub-county of the district, received a number of threatening messages and text messages telling him to disband his church in the area because it was responsible for helping lead locals to convert from Islam to Christianity.

“One of the short messages in my phone read, ‘Be you informed that we do not want your church in this area. If you continue worship here, then you will live to regret it,'” the pastor told Morning Star News.

The daughter, who also remains nameless, was walking to the church at around 7:30 p.m. on March 28 when she was approached by five men, who forced her into the bushes and sexually abused her, an official from the church explained to the news agency.

“The five Muslims took hold of me, and they raped me there,” the church source quoted the daughter as saying. “I tried to scream, but they threatened to kill me. One of them said, ‘Your father should stop this prayer meeting of trying to change Muslims to become Christians and close the church building — we have warned him several times.'”

The attackers fled the scene right before the congregation arrived for the scheduled all-night prayer vigil. The daughter was then taken to a local hospital.

The pastor explained that his daugher has been traumatized by the incident.

“The girl still has problems communicating,” he said. “She just says a few words and then keeps quiet. She needs trauma counseling.”

Although Uganda’s population is 85 percent Christian and 11.5 percent Muslim, the Budaka district consists of 65 percent Muslims and has become known as a region that has hosted other attacks against Christians.

The region has also been particularly hostile toward Islamic converts to Christianity.

Muslim schools in the district have taken up the practice of blocking students who have converted to Christianity from transferring to a Christian school by refusing to write them letters of recommendations that are required for their enrollment in other schools.

In April of last year, Muslim extremists also tried to poison a former Muslim sheikh who had converted to Christianity in 2003, Morning Star News also reported. The extremists tried to poison Hassan Muwanguzi with pesticide but when the poisoning did not succeed in killing Muwanguzi, they went after his 12-year-old daughter and strangled her to death in June.

Muwanguzi said the attackers came while he and his daughter were at home and his wife and other children were away. He remembers hearing his daughter’s cry for help but when he went to help, the extremists apprehended him.

“They hit me with a blunt object, and I fell down,” he said. “I just woke up and saw neighbors surrounding me while wailing, saying that my daughter is in critical condition.”

After the neighbors took his daughter to the hospital, she was pronounced dead.

“I am regretting why I survived the poisoning,” Muwanguzi said. “God could have allowed me to die. My daughter has died, and I am now mourning for her death as well having pain all over my body.”

Source : Christian Post

Robert Downey Jr. Joins Instagram And Posts ‘The Avengers’ Cast Photo

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Reuters/File

Christian Post Report – Robert Downey Jr. during the Iron Man 3 premiere nights April 2014

Robert Downey, Jr. joined Instagram Monday, and posted his first ever photo on the social media app featuring his fellow cast members from “The Avengers: Age of Ultron.”

“The Avengers: Age of Ultron” Ironman actor, Robert Downey, Jr. made his first foray on the popular photo sharing app, Instagram, and his first photo was a star-studded line-up of his fellow “Age of Ultron” cast mates.

The candid photo included Jimmy Kimmel, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo and Downey Jr. in a couch backstage at the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show where the actors played a game of Family Feud with their host.

@robertdowneyjr/Instagram

“Come get me, Instagram…” Robert Downey, Jr.s first Instagram photo posted on his account. April 13, 2015.

“Come get me, Instagram,” Downey captioned his first Instagram image, before he and the rest of the cast of the movie kicked off the press promotions for “The Avengers” sequel, which opens in North American theaters on May 1.

The 50-year-old actor, who joined Instagram on Monday with the handle @robertdowneyjr, immediately acquired 50,000 followers less than five hours after joining the photo sharing platform.

The photo of him with his fellow actors and Kimmel garnered nearly 50,000 likes since it was posted two days ago.

Downey, Jr. has since posted other images on his account, including Captain America, Chris Hemsworth hamming it up for the camera, the cast of the film riding bicycles onstage at “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” the original backstage couch photo taken from another angle, a twofie of himself and Omaze contest winner Harry Cheung on the rooftop of a building, and a short video clip of the “Age of Ultron” cast onstage at the L.A. premiere of the movie.

The actor has played Ironman since 2008 in the first installment for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He has since returned to his role in “Iron Man 2,” “The Avengers,” “Iron Man 3,” and in the upcoming “Avengers: Age of Ultron.”

Source : Christian Post

Jill Duggar, Derick Dillard Share Baby Israel’s First Photo Album, Reveals Birth Details

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Instagram/ derickdillard

Christian Post Report – Derick Dillard carries baby Israel in a baby carrier while Jill Duggar, seated in a wheelchair, smiles for the camera

Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard’s baby is only a week old, but little Israel David has already spent a lot of time in front of the camera as his parents posted his first photo album to DillardFamily.com, which gives fans a glimpse of the baby’s first days at home.

One photo shows baby Israel donning a grey and white striped onesie and a pair of dark shades, while another photo shows him fast asleep while being cuddled by his smiling mom, surrounded by his aunts. One photo features Israel being carried by his dad in a baby carrier while Jill sits close to them on a wheelchair.

Meanwhile, Jill has revealed to People magazine their dramatic journey to parenthood. In their announcement video, Jill said that the birth “didn’t go as expected,” and now, she details what happened while she was in labor.

Jill said that she hoped for a natural delivery at her home in Rogers, Arkansas, but Israel’s birth didn’t go as planned. She said that when her March 24 due date passed, she didn’t get discouraged.

“I told myself first time moms often go a week and a half in labor,” said the 23 year old, who is a trained midwife. She also said that she turned to spicy foods to help bring on labor.

Finally, 41 weeks and five days into her pregnancy, Jill’s water broke, but complications followed. She told People that she tested positive for strep B, a common bacteria that can be transferred from mom to baby during birth, and that she began taking antibiotics via an intravenous drip.

After 20 hours in labor and seeing a faint stain of meconium (the waste of an unborn infant), she decided that it was time to go to the hospital.

“I was praying to God to give me strength,” she said. “I was really scared and nervous, but I was praying.”

Jill said that she declined pain medication, but after 70 hours in labor, the baby was in a sideways and upside down position and was experiencing irregular heart rates. At that, the couple decided to move forward with a C-section and welcomed their baby, who weighed 9 pounds and 10 ounces.

“I love our birth story because it bonded us so well,” said Jill.

Fans of “19 Kids and Counting” can see the birth of baby Israel David on the May 5 episode of the show.

Source : Christian Post

Over 2,000 Women, Girls Kidnapped by Boko Haram; Militants Abducted Bride From Wedding, Trained Females to ‘Slaughter’ Infidels

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• (Photo: Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde)

A girl holds a sign during a march to mark the one-year anniversary of the mass kidnapping of more than Christian Post Report – 200 schoolgirls from a secondary school in Chibok by Boko Haram militants, in Abuja, April 14, Christian Post Report – 2015. Nigeria’s President-elect Muhammadu Buhari vowed on Tuesday to make every effort to free the schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram militants a year ago but admitted it was not clear whether they would ever be found. A march is expected to be held in Abuja on Tuesday to mark the anniversary.

(Photo: Reuters/Jon Nazca)

A Nigerian woman is comforted by a man as they take part in a protest, called by Malaga’s Nigerian women Association, for the release of the abducted secondary school girls from the remote village of Chibok in Nigeria, at La Merced square in Malaga, southern Spain, May 13, Christian Post Report – 2014. The leader of the Nigerian Islamist rebel group Boko Haram has offered to release more than Christian Post Report – 200 schoolgirls abducted by his fighters last month in exchange for its members being held in detention, according to a video posted on YouTube on Monday.

(Screengrab: YouTube / Amnesty International)

(Photo: Reuters/Gary Cameron)

Protesters march in support of the girls kidnapped by members of Boko Haram in front of the Nigerian Embassy in Washington May 6, Christian Post Report – 2014.

(Photo: Reuters/Gary Cameron)

Protesters march in support of the girls kidnapped by members of Boko Haram in front of the Nigerian Embassy in Washington May 6, Christian Post Report – 2014.

A report released Tuesday by Amnesty International highlighting the brutality displayed by Boko Haram estimates that over Christian Post Report – 2,000 women and girls have been abducted by the Nigerian militant group since the start of Christian Post Report – 2014, and some have been trained to “kill and slaughter” infidels.

The report, which features nearly Christian Post Report – 200 witness interviews, including Christian Post Report – 28 with abducted women or girls who have escaped, detailed the jihadi group’s systemic kidnappings of women and children and relentless killing of men.

The investigation estimates that Boko Haram is responsible for killing over 5,500 civilians during Christian Post Report – 2014 and the first part of this year, as it has raided or attacked over 300 villages and towns.

Additionally, witnesses said that the extremist group is not only forcing the kidnapped females into marriages and sex slavery with jihadis but is also training abducted women to shoot guns and conduct raids on villages.

Nineteen-year-old Aisha, who was abducted by Boko Haram while attending a friend’s wedding last September, told Amnesty International that Boko Haram militants kidnapped her, her sister, the bride and the bride’s sister from the wedding.

She added that they were taken to a Boko Haram camp in Gullak in the Adamawa state, where about 100 other abducted girls were also held. After a week, Aisha explained that the militants forced the bride and the bride’s sister to marry jihadi fighters, while Aisha said she was forced to undergo combat training.

“They used to train girls how to shoot guns. I was among the girls trained to shoot,” Aisha said. “I was also trained how to use bombs and how to attack a village. This training went on for three weeks after we arrived. Then they started sending some of us to operations.”

“The commander said that we should learn from them. Learn about killing and slaughtering,” Aisha continued. “They told me how to attack towns and villages, how they kill other people, how they slaughter infidels. The commander wanted them to encourage us to fight and kill.”

Aisha said she was even sent on an operation to raid her own village.

“When they started sending us on operations, I was sent on an operation on my own village,” she explained. “We, the women and girls, were placed in the middle or the back of a group of fighters. We never experienced any casualty because most times, we didn’t even get much resistance from soldiers. I shouldn’t’ have gone. I didn’t kill anyone but I burned some houses.”

In addition to being trained to kill, Aisha said that she was frequently raped, sometimes gang-raped by a group of six militants. She added that her sister was killed by the group, as were about 50 other women.

“Some of them refused to convert. Some refused to learn how to kill others. They were buried in a mass grave in the bush,” Aisha stated. “They’ll just pack the dead bodies and dump them in a big hole, but not deep enough. I didn’t see the hole, but we used to get the smell from the dead bodies when they start getting rotten.”

With Tuesday marking the one-year anniversary of Boko Haram’s kidnapping of Christian Post Report – 276 Chibok schoolgirls, Daniel Eyre, Nigeria researcher for Amnesty International, said that although there is no clear evidence that the remaining Christian Post Report – 219 abducted Chibok girls were forced into marriages or combat service, evidence of how Boko Haram operates could provide an indication into the girls’ fate.

“We have no direct evidence that Chibok girls are now fighters. But, we do know how Boko Haram operates,” Erye asserted. “Abducted women were taken to makeshift transit camps. They were raped, taught Boko Haram’s interpretation of Islam and prepared for forced marriage with their fighters. Some have even been trained for battle.”

Along with the Chibok kidnappings last April, Boko Haram also conducted a large-scale kidnapping of over 500 women and children in the northeastern Nigerian town of Damask in mid-March.

In an attack on the town Gwoza in August Christian Post Report – 2014, Boko Haram militants killed an estimated 600 people. Witnesses said that males trying to flee the attack were hunted down and killed, while the women were abducted. Even those who fled into the nearby mountains were hunted down, as militants forced people out of caves by using teargas canisters.

“The full scale of Boko Haram’s cruel methods is only now being revealed,” Eyre said. “The abducted must be released, war crimes and crimes against humanity must be investigated and the guilty must be brought to justice.”