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Islamic extremists from the rebel al Shabaab militia in Somalia beheaded a Christian on the outskirts of Mogadishu last month, sources said.
The youn man had converted from Islam to Christianity.
A Somali convert from Islam was paraded before a cheering crowd last month and publicly flogged as a punishment for embracing a “foreign religion,” sources said.
Sofia Osman, a 28-year-old Christian from Janale city in Somali’as Lower Shabelle region, had been taken into custody by Islamic extremist al Shabaab militants in November; the public whipping was meant to mark her release.
A mother of four was killed for her Christian faith on Jan. 7 on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia by Islamic extremists from al Shabaab militia, a relative said.
Al Shabaab insurgents control much of southern and central Somalia and have embarked on a campaign to rid the country of its hidden Christian population.
Women living in areas controlled by Somalia’s Islamists say they are increasingly the target of more draconian rules meted out by the rebels bent on enforcing their ideologies, Reuters reports.
An al-Qaeda-linked Somali militia claimed responsibility Monday for back-to-back bombings in the Ugandan capital that killed at least 74 people watching the World Cup final on television, marking the first major international attack by the group in a region where the United States and its allies are attempting to stem the rise of Islamic radicalism.
In the Somali capital, Mogadishu, a top spokesman for the hardline al-Shabab said the group carried out the bombings, and he threatened further attacks if Uganda and Burundi continued to supply troops to an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.
If you thought the biggest woes a national football team could face were injured players, bad calls by referees or boisterous fans blowing vuvuzelas, think again.
Al-Shabab, a hard-line Islamic militia waging a campaign of terrorism across Somalia, has banned playing football in many areas it controls. The militia – linked to al-Qaeda – and Hezb-i-Islami, a rival extremist group, prohibited World Cup broadcasts, describing the sport as ”a satanic act’‘ that corrupts Muslims.
The militants have brutally targeted politicians, clerics and peacekeepers – anyone who has challenged their extreme views.
Fighters of Somalia’s feared Islamic militant group al-Shabab have killed another Somali Christian as part of an apparent crackdown on “non-Islamic culture,” rights activists said.
He is among over a dozen Christians known to have been killed by militants within a year, U.S.-based advocacy group International Christian Concern ICC said.
Christians in Somalia faced a tense day Thursday, August 13, amid fresh reports that fighters of the country’s main Islamic insurgent group al-Shabab beheaded four Christian aid workers for refusing to renounce their faith in Christ.
The four Christians had reportedly been working for a local non-governmental organization that helps orphans in southern Somalia.