With regard to the Tamil paper case, the economic plight of the unemployed Tamil employees of the Tamil paper, regardless of their religious affiliation, does remain more of a concern for believers in the grace of Christ. Out of Christian charity, compassion and love, we can only pray for them as the one month suspension order, which seems harsh, by the authorities has been delivered.
Nevertheless, I want it known that I, like many others, fully support Archbishop Murphy's forgiveness of those who apparently made a mistake in publishing the pictures.
Remember as we read this that the rape incident as described in this article could happen anywhere in the world, including in this country.
Raped for reading the Bible
April 17, 2007 12:00am
AN Iraqi man allegedly raped a Muslim woman as "punishment" for reading the Bible, saying, "let your Jesus help you", a court heard yesterday.
Campbelltown District Court was told Abdul Reda Al Shawany twice sexually assaulted the woman, a practising Muslim who wears a hijab, after they met at a railway station.
Al Shawany, 52, has plead not guilty to two counts of having sexual intercourse without consent between September 1 and 27, 2002, at a unit in Warwick Farm.
At the first day of the week-long trial yesterday, Crown prosecutor Michael O'Brien outlined the case and told how the woman allegedly kept the clothes and underwear she was wearing on the day of the alleged rape in a plastic bag for about three years.
The woman initially reported the matter to police but did not want to take it further because she felt "ashamed", Mr O'Brien said. She later changed her mind and Al Shawany, of Hillsdale, was arrested in July 2005 and the woman provided police with the clothing.
The Crown alleges swab samples from the accused had the same DNA as the semen sample taken from the woman's clothing.
"The complainant was born a Muslim and raised a Muslim and was a Muslim all her life," Mr O'Brien said.
He said when the woman came to Australia from the Middle East she began listening to Christian teachers and reading the Bible.
He said the woman had received threats from members of her faith for reading the Bible but had not converted to Christianity.
It is alleged she met Al Shawany, who she had first met overseas, at Warwick Farm railway station in September, 2002, after he told her he had some mail for her from overseas.
Al Shawany allegedly then took her to a Warwick Farm unit and pushed her in the head as she entered.
"She was wearing a hijab. The accused grabbed the hijab, the veil, and pulled it tight across her mouth," Mr O'Brien told the court.
"She fell to the floor and she couldn't scream because she had a hijab tight across her mouth."
Al Shawany allegedly raped the woman and later allegedly said: "Let your Jesus help you."
In a police interview, Al Shawany denied having sexual intercourse with the woman or threatening her.
Al Shawany's barrister Chris Pike told the court his client was a hardworking businessman with close ties to the community who strenuously denied the charges.
"My client is not a zealot," Mr Pike said.
The woman gave evidence in closed court yesterday and is expected to return to the witness stand when the trial before Judge David Knox continues today.
THE COURT'S VERDICT:
Guilty Bible rapist's sick ploy
April 24, 2007 12:45pm
THE man found guilty of raping a woman as punishment for reading the Bible lured her to his unit by claiming he had news of her family overseas.
In a case that has stunned Sydney, Muslim Abdul Reda al-Shawany was today found guilty of sexually assaulting the then-Muslim mother of four - a refugee from the Middle East who had left her children and husband behind - for her "insult" to Islam.
She had been studying the Bible because she was interested in Christianity. After the attack, at al-Shawany's Warwick Farm unit in Septmeber 2002, she converted.
It took a jury just half an hour to convict al-Shawany, 52, of two counts of assault at Campbelltown District Court.
Even after the decision was handed down he protested his innocence, with his lawyer Christopher Pike indicating his intention to appeal.
He said there was a viable alternative hypothesis as to how al-Shawany's DNA, in the form of semen, came to be on the victim's underwear - and that he believed his client could be accquited on appeal.
An application for bail was refused by Judge Brian Knox, who said that the crime was "a fairly brutal attack".
Al-Shawany will be sentenced in the Downing Centre on Friday, June 15th.
His victim was not in court today.
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