Afghan Man and Woman Executed for Adultry Despite Wishes of Villagers

Warning: Very graphic!

Graphic Video of Fatal Stoning Shows Taliban’s Strength

abc News brings us this video and the news:

About 200 people listen to a Taliban mullah describe why a man and woman deserve to be killed. A few dozen spectators – people from the local community – start throwing rocks at the woman, who had already been placed in a 4-foot-deep hole. They throw with relish and yell, “Allah akbar.”

At one point a large rock strikes her head and she falls down, her burqa red with blood. After the rock throwing ends, a few people debate whether she should be shot. Eventually one of the spectators shoots her with an AK-47. She falls into the hole, out of sight. There is a short period of absolute silence, and then the spectators turn to each other and start talking.

Then the man is brought into the crowd and blindfolded with his own tunic. The same scene proceeds, but with larger rocks and more abandon. He cries as he is killed…

More here.

Compare the above barbaric actions to that of our Lord’s gracious response in John 7:53-8:11

Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

World Muslim Population Doubling

Report projects. CNN has more:

Twenty years ago, the world had about 1.1 billion Muslims. Twenty years from now, it will have about twice as many - and they’ll represent more than a quarter of all people on earth, according to a new study released Thursday.

That’s a rise from less than 20 percent in 1990.

Pakistan will overtake Indonesia as home of the largest number of Muslims, as its population pushes over 256 million, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life projects.

The number of Muslims in the United States will more than double, to 6.2 million, it anticipates…

Israel will become nearly a quarter Muslim. The Palestinian territories have one of the highest growth rates in the world…

And two western European countries - France and Belgium – will become more than 10 percent Muslim…

The Muslim share of the global population will rise primarily because of their relatively high birth rate, the large number of Muslims of childbearing age, and an increase in life expectancy in Muslim-majority countries, according to the report, “The Future of the Global Muslim Population.”

Conversion will play relatively little part in the increase, the report anticipates. It says little data is available on conversion, but what little there is suggests Islam loses as many adherents via conversion as it gains.

While the Muslim population is set to grow at a faster rate than that of the world as a whole, the rate of Muslim growth is slowing, Pew says.

“Growing but slowing” is the key phrase…

Despite the rapid growth of Islam, Christianity seems set to remain the biggest religion in the world for the next 20 years. There are currently more than 2 billion Christians – 30 to 35 percent of the global population – making it very unlikely that there will be fewer than 2.2 billion Christians in 2030.

“There is nothing in these numbers to indicate that in 2030 there would be more Muslims that Christians,”…

In fact, both Christianity and Islam could be growing, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of the whole…

Read the whole thing here.

So What's Going On in Egypt Now?

CAIRO (Reuters) – Activists trying to oust Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak played cat-and-mouse with police on the streets into the early hours of Thursday, as unprecedented protests against his 30-year rule entered a third day.

Prominent reform campaigner Mohamed ElBaradei, who lives in Vienna, was expected to return to Egypt on Thursday, an arrival that could galvanise protests that so far have lacked a leader.

At least three protesters and one policeman have died in clashes since they erupted on Tuesday. The protests, inspired by a popular revolt in Tunisia and unprecedented during Mubarak’s strong-handed rule, have seen police fire rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators throwing rocks and petrol bombs.

In central Cairo on Wednesday demonstrators burned tyres and hurled stones at police. In Suez, protesters torched a government building.

Demonstrations continued well into the night. By the early hours of Thursday, smaller groups of protesters were still assembling in both cities and being chased off by police.

Protesters are promising to hold the biggest demonstrations yet on Friday after weekly prayers…

Reuters has more here.

See Al Jazeera has the latest here as well as the debate: Tunisia, now Egypt? here.

A journalist also reports here in the  Guardian of being smashed up by rather heavy-handed Egyptian police.

And Russia Today with a news clip: