A plot to assassinate the Pope during his recent visit to the Philippines was foiled by police. Philippine police received information from abroad that “Marwan”, an expert Islamic terrorist bomb maker who was based in the Philippines, was planning to plant several bombs at the location of a Mass that would be held during the Pope’s visit. Marwan, who was on the FBI’s Most Wanted list for training several terrorist groups in bomb making, was known to specialise in IEDs triggered by mobile phones; so police mounted a huge security operation, including shutting down the local mobile phone network for the entire day of the visit. Following the largely trouble-free visit, Special Forces attempted to locate and kill Marwan; they succeeded on January 25, although the battle with Marwan’s two Islamic terrorist groups was so intense that 44 special forces soldiers were also killed. There is currently heightened security in Manila in case the terrorist groups try to exact retribution for Marwan’s death.
The 21 Egyptian Christian workers who were kidnapped in Libya by groups affiliated to Islamic State have been murdered. Islamic State has released a statement saying that this was done in retaliation for the torture of two Christian women who converted to Islam. Although the two women were reported as having been tortured on Islamic websites, the truth seems to be that both women had domestic disputes with their (Coptic Christian priest) husbands, one in 2004 and the other in 2010; both temporarily disappeared, during which time Muslims claim they voluntarily converted to Islam; and when both returned to Christian premises (one returned home after 5 days, the other – who wanted a divorce – was temporarily sequestered in a convent), there were street protests from Islamists claiming they were being held against their will.
Italy’s top court has rejected a legal case to legalise same-sex marriage, saying there is nothing in Italy’s constitution to require the Government to redefine marriage. However, the court did say that same-sex couples should have the same rights as unmarried couples.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court has finally agreed to take action over the much abused and much criticised blasphemy law, which is often used to settle personal scores. It has agreed to fast-track 50 cases of alleged blasphemy. However, all 50 cases involve Muslim defendants, despite the fact that Christians are disproportionately accused of blasphemy against Islam. One Christian mother, Asia Bibi, has been in jail awaiting trial for more than 5 years now, after being accused of blasphemy by drinking from a water bucket that was later used by a Muslim woman; her trial has been repeatedly delayed because of death threats – one of which was carried out -- to any lawyers who are involved.
In film news, “Fifty Shades of Grey” opened in the USA to the second-biggest ever box office takings for a February weekend; perhaps ironically, the only film that bettered it was “The Passion Of The Christ.” Audience reviews have been very poor, however; reviewers on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) gave it an average score of 4/10. Meanwhile, “Old Fashioned”, described as a Christian alternative to Fifty Shades of Grey, opened the previous weekend with the third highest per-cinema takings of the week, and an IMDb rating of 7/10. However, it was only shown in 3 cinemas, which meant that its total takings were very low.
Also in film news, a postgraduate student researching religion in prison for his sociology dissertation was so impressed by what he found that he ended up making a documentary about it. He discovered that the only way to get the prisoners’ trust was to stay in prison himself, and he found an “experimental prison” near Rio de Janeiro where there were almost no prison guards inside the prison – the inmates enforce their own code of conduct. He stayed there for several weeks, and discovered that Pentecostal Christianity was having a major impact in the prison. He discovered that the vast majority of prison volunteer helpers were Pentecostal; that the church within the prison provided an alternative to gang culture that was recognised by the gang members; that the worship services were very intense; that it was impossible to live as a part-time Christian when church members could observe you 24 hours per day; and that Christianity provides people who are treated as expendable with a way to live moral and dignified lives. The documentary is called, “If I Give My Soul.”
In technology news, an artificial intelligence program has been developed that can “watch” videos and tag them in a way that helps people understand their content. For example, a video of a woman stroking a puppy would be tagged with ‘female’, ‘dog’, ‘eyes’ and ‘cute’. One of the aims of this technology is to be able to search through videos automatically to find the moment at which something interesting happens, and jump to that point.
And finally, a senior schoolboy from Oklahoma decided that he wanted to make sure none of the girls in his school felt ignored on Valentine’s Day, so he sent each of them an anonymous card and some sweets. However, there were over a thousand girls in his school, so he had to work all the previous summer to raise enough money for his gifts. In an interview with the local radio station, he said, “To know somebody out there cares about them; that’s one of the best feelings in the world, I think.”
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