Somali Islamic Militia Behead Rival Clerics
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: MOGADISHU, Somalia: Extremist Islamic militiamen beheaded two clerics from a rival group after stopping the vehicle taking them to be treated for wounds suffered in a gun battle, a spokesman for the clerics' group said.

The clerics were members of Ahlu Sunna Waljama which had been fighting against extremist al-Shabab militiamen in the town of Balad, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the capital Mogadishu, said spokesman Sheik Abdullahi Sheik Abu Yusuf.

Abu Yusuf blamed al-Shabab for the beheadings on Thursday but said the clerics were not involved in the earlier fighting. Al-Shabab controls large chunks of the country where it imposes a harsh brand of Islam, while battling government troops and African Union peacekeepers.

Abu Yusuf said the clerics were unarmed when they were wounded. "They did not take part in the recent clashes," Abu Yusuf told The Associated Press late Friday. >>> The Associated Press | Saturday, March 21, 2009

St Roderick
St. Rodriguez (St. Roderick) by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. Image courtesy of Google Images
CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY: Roderic, also known as Ruderic, was a priest at Cabra, Spain during the persecution of Christians by the Moors. Hew [sic] was beaten into unconsciousness by his two brothers, one a Mohammedan and the other a fallen-away Catholic, when he tried to stop an argument between them. The Mohammedan brother then paraded him through the streets proclaiming that he wished to become a Mohammedan. He escaped but was denounced to the authorities by the same brother as an apostate from Mohammedanism and imprisoned through he denied he had ever given [sic] up his Christianity. While in prison, he met a man named Solomon, also charged with apostasy, and after a long imprisonment, they were both beheaded. [Source: CNA] Friday, March 13, 2009

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