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Sydney Allan Markland #sexist ibtimes.co.uk

A Florida man accused of sexually battering an eight-year-old girl allegedly told detectives it was her fault for "wearing provocative clothing".

Sydney Allan Markland, 68, is accused of sexually assaulting the child, who knew him, at his home in Ocala, Marion County, in July last year.
After the assault, Markland "told [the victim] not to tell anyone, kissed her on the cheek and read from the Bible" according to a detective report.

Markland was a well known member of the community, often called "Dread" because of his hair style. One neighbour described him as man who "knows the Bible and preaches it inside out".

Police claim that Markland admitted to the assault and offered two separate lines of defence: first, that such actions were permissible in his "culture" and, second, that she had encouraged the sexual contact.

"She was wearing provocative clothing," Markland told detectives, according to their report. "Her actions suggested that she was consenting to sexual contact."

Islamists #fundie ibtimes.co.uk

Supporters of the Islamic State (Isis) have reportedly hailed Donald Trump's historic victory in the 2016 US presidential race, saying it marks the beginning of the fall of the country.

While several political leaders from across the globe joined in welcoming the Republican to the White House, the jihadists too cheered for the new president-elect.

They took to social media at the prospect of a Trump presidency, with one user writing: "9/11 was the beginning of the renaissance of the Muslim nation. 11/9 will be the beginning of the fall of the Satan (America) of this age". A screenshot of the message was shared by Rukmini Callimachi, a New York Times journalist focusing on IS (Daesh) and al-Qaeda.

"The real winner in the American elections is the policy of Sheikh Usama Bin Laadin," the user added.

Pointing out how Trump had won despite being "openly racist" towards Muslims and other minority groups, a user named Khorasani said the majority of the Americans had similar views and "mindset".

"This shows the true colours of the Americans and how corrupt they all are with no moral values whatsoever," Khorasani said.

"Trump's victory is a hard slap to those promoting the efficiency of democratic systems," The Independent cited Hamza al-Karibi, a spokesperson for the al-Qaeda affiliated Syrian jihadist group Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, as saying to his Twitter followers. "Starting today, we won't need media releases clarifying the West's machinations. All we need to do is retweet what Trump says".

Pro-al-Qaeda supporters too cheered Trump's victory as signalling a decline of the US. The al-Maqalaat Twitter account said Trump would "make the US Enemy No. 1 again" in the Middle East.

"Trump will serve as the perfect straw man for the next four years, like Bush did before him," Washington Post quoted it as saying.

Another al-Qaeda-linked ideologue, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, who has over 56,000 followers on Twitter, declared that Trump's term "may be the beginning of America's disintegration and the era of its breakup".

"Rejoice with support from Allah, and find glad tidings in the imminent demise of America at the hands of Trump," said the IS-affiliated al-Minbar Jihadi Media network. It was one of several jihadi forums to post its comments soon after the results of the US elections were declared.

Révérien Ndikuriyo #fundie ibtimes.co.uk

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Several analysts and human right groups expressed outrage after the president of the Burundian senate, Révérien Ndikuriyo, called for authorities in the districts of the capital Bujumbura to start the "work" earlier in November.

Ndikuriyo made the remarks during a speech he delivered in Kirundi, the country's national language, in which he used the word "kora", which means "work" or "start work". This is the same code-word used in Rwanda to incite people to kill Tutsis in 1994.

Referring to a 7 November deadline given by President Pierre Nkurunziza calling on people to hand in illegal firearms, Ndikuriyo warned that those who refused to give up weapons would be "sprayed like cockroaches".

Similar to the rhetoric spread in Rwanda to incite people to kill, Ndikuriyo also told the so-called "heads of the districts" that nothing would happen to them and, if they abided by the government's instructions, they would be rewarded with the properties belonging to the "traitors". He also used expressions such as "pulverise and exterminate" opponents who he said are "good only for dying".

Burundi rejected warnings by the international community that violence in the country could lead to a genocide. Government's spokeperson Philippe Nzobonariba also accused US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, of being biased against Nkurunziza.

The comments were made after Power criticised Nkurunziza for issuing the deadline and for warning that people who refused to hand in weapons would be treated as "enemies of the nation".

Minister for security Alain Guillaume Bunyoni told a news conference on Sunday (8 November) that the disarmament process had been launched "with respect for human rights." He added: "The security forces are there and will stay until peace is restored. And whoever will try to oppose the return of peace will ... have troubles."

Irem Aktas #fundie ibtimes.co.uk

A Turkish official has been accused of tweeting that she "wished the Israelis" who were said to be wounded in an Istanbul suicide bomb blast were dead. Irem Aktas reportedly acts as the women's media and publicity chairman for President Recep Tayip Erdogan's AKP party.

"I wish that the wounded #Israeli tourists were dead," she reportedly said, before adding in another tweet: "When Israel was attacking your Muslim brothers, why didn't you say anything."

Shortly afterwards, she made her Twitter profile private, and then it was removed altogether. But the comments were highlighted by Dr Aykan Erdemir, who served in the Turkish parliament between 2011-2015.

Nadine Morano #fundie ibtimes.co.uk

Commenting on the migrant crisis in Europe in a televised interview, Nadine Morano, an MEP with the centre-right UMP (Union for a Popular Movement) party, stressed France has Judeo-Christian roots, adding she didn't want to see Islam become the main religion.

"We must keep a balance in the country, [preserve] its cultural majority to have national cohesion," she told France 2 channel. "We are a Judeo-Christian country – as General de Gaulle said – of white race that welcomes foreigners. I want France to remain France; I'm not looking forward to see it become a Muslim country."

Orka occultists #fundie ibtimes.co.uk

India: Man beheaded in ritual sacrifice for a better harvest

The Indian police are investigating the death of a 55-year-old man beheaded in what is thought to be a ritual sacrifice intended to conjure up a better harvest.

The headless corpse of Thepa Kharia was found in his house in a remote village in the state of Jharkhand, eastern India.

Kharia's brother told police that a group of occultists, known as Orkas, decapitated the man after breaking in his house in order to carry out a sacrifice calling for more rain and better crop yields.

The Hindustan Times quoted Khana's brother as saying: "Orkas can be anyone, from farmers to tantriks. They bury the head in the field and expect that the sacrifice will yield good harvest for the community."

Ajay Kumar Thakur, the officer investigating the murder, told news agency AFP: "The family says the occultists killed him for the ritual. His head is still missing."

Human sacrifices widespread in rural areas

Human sacrifices occur in remote villages in India, where belief in occult is widespread.

A few days prior to Kharia's death, the decapitated body of Sanatan Bag, 5, was found in an apparent child sacrifice at a temple in Rangapara village, in the state of Assam. It is believed that the boy was killed by a suspected occultist who was then lynched by angry villagers.

In 2013, toddler Akash Singh was brutally killed by a group of people who believed the sacrifice of the child could give them a better life.

In the same year, a father axed his eight-month-old son to death after claiming that Kali, the "Goddess of time, change, and destruction" asked him to do so.

Rajkumar Chaurasia killed his son in front of a temple he had built in his house in Narain Purva village, Barabanki. When he was arrested, he told police he thought the sacrifice would bring joy to childless couples "who visited the Goddess Kali temple".

In 2011, seven-year-old Lalita Tati was killed by two farmers who sacrificed her in a ritual for better harvest. It is believed that the farmers later wrote a letter to Lalita's father in which they confessed their crime.

al-Khanssaa Brigade and unnamed British female jihadists #fundie ibtimes.co.uk

Up to 3,000 Yazidi girls have now been brought to Raqqa, an IS stronghold in Syria, and locked up in brothels, which are managed by an all-woman religious police force, known as the al-Khanssaa Brigade, according to the Mirror.

"These women are using barbaric interpretations of the Islamic faith to justify their actions," a source told the paper.

"They believe the militants can use these women as they please as they are non-Muslims."

Eyewitness, Zaid Al Fares, previously told IBTimes UK that in Raqqa the al-Khanssaa Brigade has around 50 fighters affiliated to IS, which until recently patrolled the city's streets pursuing women, who broke IS sharia law and enforced legal marriages to Islamist fighters.

The leaders of the battalion are said to be a group of female British jihadists, who are running the brothels.

"It is the British women who have risen to the top of the Islamic State's sharia police and now they are in charge of this operation," the source said.

"It is as bizarre as it is perverse."

Durban Student Representative Council, Progressive Youth Alliance and Leila Khaled #fundie ibtimes.co.uk

After an outrageous call to "ban Jewish students", the Durban University of Technology's Student Representative Council (SRC) has backtracked, saying it wanted students "funded by Israel banned and not all Jewish students".

The council and the Progressive Youth Alliance had on Tuesday written to the university management demanding that Jewish students be deregistered.

The SRC president Ayanda Ngidi however said that the call was to deregister only the "Zionists", or students funded by the government of Israel, and not all Jewish students.

The call was made a day after former Palestinian activist Leila Khaled visited their Durban campus.

Khaled, now in her 70s, is a lifetime member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and infamously remembered as an aeroplane hijacker for her daring acts many decades ago.

She is currently on a fundraising tour for the Palestinian cause and was in South Africa to support the SA version of Boycott Disinvestment Sanctions' campaign to boycott Israeli goods.

Expressing her views she said, "IS, for an example, is an American industry. [I'm] positively sure about this. Since 2003 they established it after Al Qaeda". Khaled's visit has been opposed by many Jewish organisations in SA who see her as a symbol of "violent resistance".

Meanwhile, turning down the demand of the students council, the university's vice-chancellor professor Ahmed Bawa said the call to ban Jewish students was "preposterous, unjust, unfair, unreasonable and unconstitutional".

Islamic State court of al-Furat #fundie ibtimes.co.uk

Islamic State [Isis] jihadists say they have thrown a gay man off a rooftop and stoned him to death for blasphemy.

The jihadists have also published a photograph to corroborate the punishment handed over to the victim, by what they call as the Islamic court.

"The Islamic court in Wilayet al-Furat [Iraq-Syria frontier] decided that a man who has practiced sodomy must be thrown off the highest point in the city, and then stoned to death," read a statement released by the IS.

While the first picture released by the Sunni extremist group shows the homosexual man being dragged to the top of a building in an unknown location, the second image shows a man lying on the ground.

In a related incident another man in northern Syria was beheaded for blasphemy charges by the Islamists.

Janet Museveni #fundie #homophobia ibtimes.co.uk

Uganda's First Lady has declared that if cows can't be gay then humans definitely cannot be gay either.

Janet Museveni delivered the bewildering statement during a speech to the Church of Uganda's bishops to praise their work which had "progressed" the country.

Uganda recently passed an anti-gay bill, supported by the church, which will punish homosexual acts with life sentences.

"If cows did not practice homosexuality, how could we the human beings start arguing over homosexuality?" asked Museveni, who is also Minister for Affairs in the region of Karamoja.

Museveni stated that Uganda should follow God and not repeal the anti-gay law, after more than 50 civil society groups filed opposition petitions against the bill in Uganda's Constitutional Court last week.

"We must listen to God and obey him," she said. "Thank you God for leading us."