Child Bride "Returned" to 80-Year-Old Hubby & The 90-Year-Old-Demagogue

10-Year-Old Bride Returned to 80-Year-Old Hubby
In Saudi Arabia, a 10-year-old bride was "returned" last Sunday to her 80-year-old husband by her father after the child ran away. The girl's father discovered her at the home of her aunt with whom she had been hiding for around 10 days. According to a local newspaper, the husband denies he's 80 (he's probably only 75) and accused the aunt of meddling in his affairs. He added that he had been engaged to his wife’s elder sister and that this broke off as she wanted to continue with her education. “In light of this, her father offered his younger daughter. I was allowed to have a look at her according to Shariah and found her acceptable,” he said. Maatouq Al-Abdullah, a member of the National Society for Human Rights, said there is no system in place regulating the marriage of young girls, something that he said results in adverse psychological, health and social effects. No shit!


Saudi Religious Police Crack Down on Summer Festivals, Fire Breathers
Also in The Kingdom, the country's religious police are cracking down on those filthy, disgusting and vile banes of morality: summer festivals. Conservative clerics backed by some powerful members of the Saudi royal family are putting the smack down on festivals that feature singing, dancing and mixing of unrelated men and women. Furthermore, anyone wishing to see fire-breathing and men lying on beds of glass will also be greatly disappointed as these feats are considered a form of magic outlawed by Sharia law. "These acts contradict the faith and must not be done, taught, spread or encouraged," said religious police spokesman Abdullah al-Mashiti. "They must be fought and those performing them must be reported and punished so as to be deterred and their evil restricted." By the way, these summer festivals are geared at attracting more tourists to Saudi Arabia.


"Prince of Jihad" Arrested in Indonesia

In Jakarta, the owner of a radical Islamist website who calls himself the "Prince of Jihad" has been arrested in connection with the Jakarta hotel bombings. Counter-terror squad officers arrested Muhamad Jibril Abdurahman (pictured in flyer), alias Muhamad Ricky Ardan bin Mohammad Iqbal, near Jakarta late Tuesday and also raided the office of his website, Arrahmah.com. Police believe the Pakistan-educated suspect helped channel funds from abroad to finance the July 17 twin suicide bombings on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels that killed nine people, including six foreigners. Muhamad Jibril is well-known in Indonesian radical circles as a publicist of extremist material, and is the son of a firebrand Islamist cleric who has been linked in the past to the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional terror network. In addition to the website, he edited a publication called Jihadmagz which espoused jihad or "holy war" against the West.

Priest Charged with Child Sex Abuse
In the UK, an Anglican priest has been charged with a series of indecency offenses against girls at a local school. Canon James Wilson, 60, allegedly assaulted six girls under 13 between 1970 and 1987 when he taught at Pennycross Primary School. Canon Wilson has stepped down as priest of Calstock in the Diocese of Truro. The diocese is assisting police.


And finally...Billy Graham Says Do Whatever You Want, Just Trust Jesus
Ah, Billy Graham, one of the last of the great old school demagogues. At the age of 90, he may be too old to mount another one of his highly-profitable "Crusades" but, thanks to the internet, he's still able to get his brand of religious mumbo-jumbo out to the masses for public infection. Case in point is his nationally syndicated Dear Abby-style advice column. In this week's edition, Graham assures an old man that, despite the "bad things" he's done (without ever asking what they are, mind you), God will forgive him just as long as he "trusts Jesus alone for his salvation". And while discussing the frivolousness of our earthly actions, Graham also informs the man that good deeds ultimately don't matter to The Man Upstairs: "You can’t be saved by your own good works, and neither can anyone else, because God’s standard is perfection. But you can be saved through Christ." Sound familiar? This is exactly the same twisted logic that the PA Gunman used to justify his murders! Anyway, here is this week's Billy Graham column in its entirety:

DEAR BILLY GRAHAM: I’m an old man now, and I’m haunted by all the bad things I’ve done and the knowledge that it’s too late to make up for them. I wish I could go to heaven when I die, but now I know I won’t. I don’t know why I’m writing you, but maybe someone will read this and take a different path. — Z.M.

DEAR Z.M.: We never know how long or how short our lives will be, and that’s one reason why the Bible urges us not to delay turning to God and committing our lives to Jesus Christ.

God loves you, and now is the time for you to turn to him for the forgiveness you need. Do you remember the two men who were crucified with Jesus? They were criminals, and one of them mocked Jesus and wanted nothing to do with him. But the other man knew he was facing eternity without God, and in faith he cried out, “ ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ Jesus answered him, ‘I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise’ ” (Luke 23:42-43).

That man didn’t belong to a church. He didn’t have time to balance out his bad deeds with some good deeds. But God forgave him and saved him for one reason: He trusted Christ alone for his salvation. The same can be true of you.

You can’t be saved by your own good works, and neither can anyone else, because God’s standard is perfection. But you can be saved through Christ.

© 2009 Tribune Media Services 8/25