Former head of MI6 Sir John Sawers has appeared to back the Pope’s comments to journalists about the consequences of insulting another person’s religion.

Referring to the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, Pope Francis said that someone who insulted his mother “can expect a punch on the nose”, adding: “It’s normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others.”

Pope Francis was widely criticised for the remark, including by Prime Minister David Cameron. However, in his first speech since leaving office, Sawers said: “I rather agree with the Pope that, of course, the attacks in Paris were completely unacceptable and cannot be justified on any basis whatsoever, but I think respect for other people’s religion is also an important part of this.

“If you show disrespect for others’ core values then you are going to provoke an angry response. That doesn’t justify anything, but I think we just need to bear it in mind.”

Sawers warned that another terrorist attack on the UK was inevitable, saying: “If I was to sit here and say will the goalkeepers of the security services and the police keep every single attempt to get the ball into the net, out? No. At some point these threats will get through and there will be another terrorist attack in this country.”

Reflecting on the security leaks by Edward Snowden, he said that it was vital that the internet was open to scrutiny by the security services: “We cannot have no go areas in our communities where the police cannot go, because that just allows space room for the evil-doers to ply their trades.

“It is the same in the virtual world. If you allow areas which are completely impenetrable then you might feel comfortable that your communications are private and no one else can see them, but so are those who are trying to do you down and undermine your society.”

However, he said: “I do not believe that there is a trade-off between security and privacy. I think they go together.

“If you have a society which evades and abuses privacy, then ultimately there will be a reaction against the damage to your security. If you do not have any security then all your basic freedoms are at threat.”

Source: Christian Today

The Islamic State terrorist organization in Iraq has executed 13 teenage boys solely because they were found watching a soccer match, an act that has apparently been deemed punishable by death under ISIS’ sharia law.

According to the Syrian activist organization Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, a group closely monitoring executions carried out by ISIS militants, the 13 teens were caught last week in the Al-Yarmouk district of the Iraqi city of Mosul watching the Iraq vs Jordan Asian Cup soccer match, which was held in Australia.

After being caught watching the game, which Iraq won 1-0, The boys were rounded up by ISIS militants and were later publicly executed via a firing squad using machine guns.

Before the execution occurred, the report states that a militant announced the teens‘ crime over a loudspeaker to let the public know the teens were being executed for watching a soccer match, which has subsequently come to light as the newest in a long list of violations against Islamic State’s strict brand of religious law.

After the teens were killed, their adolescent bodies were left out for the public to see.

“The bodies remained lying in the open and their parents were unable to withdraw them for fear of murder by the terrorist organization,” the report stated.

It is no secret that ISIS’ strict brand of sharia law has impeded upon many of the basic life liberties that are enjoyed by many outside of the group’s stronghold. The news of the 13 teenagers’ execution comes just days after the Islamic State released its newest wave of propaganda execution photos.

As recent news reports have indicated, the militant group’s latest execution spree led to the execution of 20 people within a 48-hour time span.

Being punished for one of the gravest violations of ISIS’ sharia law, two gay men in Mosul were publicly executed last week after being accused of committing a homosexual act. The gay men were thrown to their death from the top of an extremely tall brown brick building, in front of a large crowd. The photos captured the gay men being prodded to the edge of the building’s roof. The following photos showed the men falling hopelessly to their death. Another photo showed their mangled bodies laying on the ground for the public to see.

Also included in ISIS latest round of execution photos were two bandits. The bandits were transported to the execution block in the back of a pickup truck with their wrists tied crucifixion style to a metal cross-like structure. Both men were taken out of the truck and were shot in the back of the head after a masked militant read the crimes they were being executed for. Their bodies were left to dangle on the crosses after they were killed.

Photos also showed Militants stoning to death a veiled woman who they accused of adultery.

Additionally, 16 men from the Syrian province of Deir Ezzor and one from Raqqa, who were accused of fighting against ISIS’ military ranks, were crucified before being shot as they were executed for apostasy.

The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights reports that the execution of the 17 opposition fighters is likely in retaliation for the recent assassinations of ISIS officials.

Source: Christian Post

Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, an official with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen, has urged Muslims to carry out lone-wolf strikes in Western countries two weeks after his group said it was behind the Paris attacks, SITE Monitoring reported.

“If he is capable to wage individual jihad in the Western countries that fight Islam … then that is better and more harmful,” he told the group’s media wing when asked if Muslims should quit the West to live in Islamic states, SITE reported.

Ansi added that AQAP had worked to strike Western targets outside Yemen, something that led Washington to regard the group as al Qaeda’s most active wing after it plotted foiled attacks to bring down international airliners.

“We have made efforts in external work, and the enemy knows the danger of that … We are preparing and lurking for the enemies of Allah. We incite the believers to do that,” he said.

AQAP claimed responsibility for the attack on Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper in Paris this month that killed 17 people. Two of the attackers had spent time in Yemen in 2011.

A shooting at Fort Hood military base in the US in 2009 that killed 13 people was carried out by Nidal Malik Hasan, who had been in contact with Anwar al-Awlaki, an American cleric working in Yemen with AQAP.

Western countries fear the renewed chaos in Yemen, where Houthi militia fighters fought the presidential guard in the capital on Tuesday, could give AQAP more space to plan attacks outside the country.

Source: Christian Today

A Palestinian stabbed and wounded seven people on a Tel Aviv commuter bus during the morning rush hour on Wednesday before he was shot in the leg by a security officer as he fled, police and emergency services said.

It was the first Palestinian attack reported in Israel’s commercial capital since a soldier was stabbed to death two months ago.

Passengers on the bus said the assailant, later identified by police as a Palestinian from the occupied West Bank, stabbed the driver and then others as the vehicle slowed to a stop.

“The terrorist had murder in his eyes,” one passenger, identified only as Orly said on Israel Radio.

As screaming passengers spilled out of the bus, prison officers in another vehicle at one of Tel Aviv’s busiest intersections saw the suspected attacker trying to flee and gave chase.

One of the officers shot him in the leg. Television footage showed the alleged assailant, whom police said was aged 23, lying face down in mud, his arms handcuffed behind his back.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said seven people were wounded in the stabbing, four of them seriously, and two other passengers suffered injuries while running off the bus.

During the attack, the bus driver managed to alert his dispatcher and plead over the phone for help.

“Save me. I have been seriously injured, stabbed all over my body. He has stabbed my passengers … If anything happens to me, look after my children,” the driver said, according to the dispatcher’s account on Army Radio.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the Hamas Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip called it “the natural reaction to Israeli terrorism against the Palestinian people”.

In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the attack “a direct result of venomous incitement disseminated in the Palestinian Authority against Jews and their country.”

The stabbing came amid heightened tensions in recent months between Palestinians and Israelis, particularly in the West Bank, where the Authority exercises limited self-rule, and East Jerusalem.

In November, two Palestinians killed four worshippers in a Jerusalem synagogue. Five Israelis and a foreign visitor died in Palestinian attacks before that incident. At least 12 Palestinians have also been killed, including some of the attackers.

Source: Reuters

A Christian mother from Cordova, Tennessee, has taken to social media to air her alarm over a school bus’ brake lights that she believes depict a symbol commonly associated with the occult and devil worship.

According to WMC News 5, the mother – who is unnamed in the report because of death threats – encountered the bus while waiting behind it at a stop sign. She immediately snapped a photo of the tail lights that in her view form a pentagram – a five-point inverted star that is enclosed in a circle.

While it is commonly associated with the occult and devil worship, the symbol is also used by other religions.

The mother expressed her outrage to WMC News 5 over the presence of that symbol on a bus that transports children to school.

“Anyone who fears a God, if not God and Jesus Christ, should be outraged,” she said. She also addressed the school officials, and told them: “If you can’t put a cross on there, you cannot put a pentagram on it.”

She further requested authorities replace the lights with solid red brake lights, stating that it sends the wrong signal to the community.

The buzz over the bus lights has divided the online community. Speaking to WMC News 5, one person describing themselves as a practicing Wiccan agreed that the symbol resembled a pentagram but said that it doesn’t automatically denote devil worship.

“Find out what it really means before you start getting riled up and all worked up about something,” another commentator told the detractors of the brake lights.

There were also those who were less convinced in the pentagram symbolism but who also questioned the point of putting a similar symbol to the occult into a bus’ brake lights.

“Why’d they put it up there,” resident Marsha Hudson wondered when interviewed by WMC News 5. “Why’d they put it upside down?”

Bus operator Durham School Services could not be reached for comment. The Cordova school district also declined to speak on the matter.

Source: Christian Today