3.2 billion images and 720,000 hours of video are shared online daily. Can you sort real from fake?

Twitter screenshots/Unsplash, Author provided

T.J. Thomson, Queensland University of Technology; Daniel Angus, Queensland University of Technology, and Paula Dootson, Queensland University of Technology

Twitter over the weekend “tagged” as manipulated a video showing US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden supposedly forgetting which state he’s in while addressing a crowd.

Biden’s “hello Minnesota” greeting contrasted with prominent signage reading “Tampa, Florida” and “Text FL to 30330”.

The Associated Press’s fact check confirmed the signs were added digitally and the original footage was indeed from a Minnesota rally. But by the time the misleading video was removed it already had more than one million views, The Guardian reports.

If you use social media, the chances are you see (and forward) some of the more than 3.2 billion images and 720,000 hours of video shared daily. When faced with such a glut of content, how can we know what’s real and what’s not?

While one part of the solution is an increased use of content verification tools, it’s equally important we all boost our digital media literacy. Ultimately, one of the best lines of defence — and the only one you can control — is you.

Seeing shouldn’t always be believing

Misinformation (when you accidentally share false content) and disinformation (when you intentionally share it) in any medium can erode trust in civil institutions such as news organisations, coalitions and social movements. However, fake photos and videos are often the most potent.

For those with a vested political interest, creating, sharing and/or editing false images can distract, confuse and manipulate viewers to sow discord and uncertainty (especially in already polarised environments). Posters and platforms can also make money from the sharing of fake, sensationalist content.

Only 11-25% of journalists globally use social media content verification tools, according to the International Centre for Journalists.

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Facebook is tilting the political playing field more than ever, and it’s no accident

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Could you spot a doctored image?

Consider this photo of Martin Luther King Jr.

This altered image clones part of the background over King Jr’s finger, so it looks like he’s flipping off the camera. It has been shared as genuine on Twitter, Reddit and white supremacist websites.

In the original 1964 photo, King flashed the “V for victory” sign after learning the US Senate had passed the civil rights bill.

Beyond adding or removing elements, there’s a whole category of photo manipulation in which images are fused together.

Earlier this year, a photo of an armed man was photoshopped by Fox News, which overlaid the man onto other scenes without disclosing the edits, the Seattle Times reported.

Similarly, the image below was shared thousands of times on social media in January, during Australia’s Black Summer bushfires. The AFP’s fact check confirmed it is not authentic and is actually a combination of several separate photos.

Fully and partially synthetic content

Online, you’ll also find sophisticated “deepfake” videos showing (usually famous) people saying or doing things they never did. Less advanced versions can be created using apps such as Zao and Reface.

A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created this fake video showing US President Richard Nixon reading lines from a speech crafted in case the 1969 moon landing failed. (Youtube)

Or, if you don’t want to use your photo for a profile picture, you can default to one of several websites offering hundreds of thousands of AI-generated, photorealistic images of people.

These people don’t exist, they’re just images generated by artificial intelligence.
Generated Photos, CC BY

Editing pixel values and the (not so) simple crop

Cropping can greatly alter the context of a photo, too.

We saw this in 2017, when a US government employee edited official pictures of Donald Trump’s inauguration to make the crowd appear bigger, according to The Guardian. The staffer cropped out the empty space “where the crowd ended” for a set of pictures for Trump.

Views of the crowds at the inaugurations of former US President Barack Obama in 2009 (left) and President Donald Trump in 2017 (right).
AP

But what about edits that only alter pixel values such as colour, saturation or contrast?

One historical example illustrates the consequences of this. In 1994, Time magazine’s cover of OJ Simpson considerably “darkened” Simpson in his police mugshot. This added fuel to a case already plagued by racial tension, to which the magazine responded:

No racial implication was intended, by Time or by the artist.

Tools for debunking digital fakery

For those of us who don’t want to be duped by visual mis/disinformation, there are tools available — although each comes with its own limitations (something we discuss in our recent paper).

Invisible digital watermarking has been proposed as a solution. However, it isn’t widespread and requires buy-in from both content publishers and distributors.

Reverse image search (such as Google’s) is often free and can be helpful for identifying earlier, potentially more authentic copies of images online. That said, it’s not foolproof because it:

• relies on unedited copies of the media already being online
• doesn’t search the entire web
• doesn’t always allow filtering by publication time. Some reverse image search services such as TinEye support this function, but Google’s doesn’t.
• returns only exact matches or near-matches, so it’s not thorough. For instance, editing an image and then flipping its orientation can fool Google into thinking it’s an entirely different one.

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Read more:
Instead of showing leadership, Twitter pays lip service to the dangers of deep fakes

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Most reliable tools are sophisticated

Meanwhile, manual forensic detection methods for visual mis/disinformation focus mostly on edits visible to the naked eye, or rely on examining features that aren’t included in every image (such as shadows). They’re also time-consuming, expensive and need specialised expertise.

Still, you can access work in this field by visiting sites such as Snopes.com — which has a growing repository of “fauxtography”.

Computer vision and machine learning also offer relatively advanced detection capabilities for images and videos. But they too require technical expertise to operate and understand.

Moreover, improving them involves using large volumes of “training data”, but the image repositories used for this usually don’t contain the real-world images seen in the news.

If you use an image verification tool such as the REVEAL project’s image verification assistant, you might need an expert to help interpret the results.

The good news, however, is that before turning to any of the above tools, there are some simple questions you can ask yourself to potentially figure out whether a photo or video on social media is fake. Think:

• was it originally made for social media?
• how widely and for how long was it circulated?
• what responses did it receive?
• who were the intended audiences?

Quite often, the logical conclusions drawn from the answers will be enough to weed out inauthentic visuals. You can access the full list of questions, put together by Manchester Metropolitan University experts, here.

T.J. Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Media, Queensland University of Technology; Daniel Angus, Associate Professor in Digital Communication, Queensland University of Technology, and Paula Dootson, Senior Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Fake COVID-19 testing kits and lockdown puppy scams: how to protect yourself from fraud in a pandemic

Shutterstock

Cassandra Cross, Queensland University of Technology

Fraudsters are ruthless and will use any means necessary to gain financial advantage.

Earlier this year, as Australians were battling the devastating bushfires, fraudsters were tailoring their approaches to exploit the good intentions of citizens wanting to help victims.

And come March and the declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic, offenders have seamlessly shifted their approaches to take advantage of yet another crisis.

Online fraud on the rise during COVID-19

Given the known links between natural disasters and fraud, it is unsurprising offenders are using COVID-19 to target potential victims. While there are limited statistics on crime rates during this period, evidence suggests fraud and other online scams have spiked.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) issued an alert this week warning of a dramatic spike in identity theft, with some 24,000 reports of stolen personal information this year, a 55% increase over the same time last year.

Further, Scamwatch has received more than 3,600 reports specifically mentioning COVID-19, with victims so far claiming losses of about $2.3 million.

Fraud costs millions of dollars annually, as shown in the ACCC’s latest Targeting Scams report. It found that in 2019, Australians reported losing more than $634 million to fraud, a dramatic increase from $489 million in 2018.

Fraud is an underreported crime, so these figures are likely to be a fraction of the actual losses incurred by victims. In addition, there are many barriers to victims reporting scams. They might not realise they are a victim, for example, or might not know where to report such crimes. Some people also feel a strong sense of shame and embarrassment at having been deceived.

The government is putting more attention on the threat of fraud and other cybercrime with its newly released cybersecurity strategy, which will see a record $1.67 billion invested in cybersecurity and cybercrime prevention over the next decade.

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Some crimes have seen drastic decreases during coronavirus — but not homicides in the US

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What types of fraud are occurring now

There is nothing new in the ways offenders are targeting potential victims at the moment. Rather, we are seeing well-established schemes reappearing under the guise of COVID-19.

Online shopping fraud

With more people at home during the pandemic, there has been a substantial increase in online shopping. Consequently, there has also been an increase in online shopping fraud.

Some of these schemes involve fake websites and social media pages being set up to sell goods to people that never arrive, including personal protective equipment and even puppies.

There has also been a rise in online sales of products that simply do not exist or work as promised, such as coronavirus testing kits or supposed cures for the virus.

Phishing

Fraudsters use phishing emails and text messages as a means of getting personal information from victims, like bank account details and passwords. Phishing attempts usually come from what appear to be legitimate sources, persuading recipients to click on a link or reply with required personal information.

In the context of COVID-19, phishing attempts are being launched under the guise of government departments. Some messages claiming to be from health authorities say the recipient has had contact with a known case of the virus, for instance, while others advertise the need for testing.

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Working from home risks online security and privacy – how to stay protected

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Others have pretended to be the Australian Taxation Office with offers of tax refunds or the availability of government benefits or support payments.

In addition, offenders have also used the pretext of legitimate businesses like Coles and Woolworths, appearing to offer services or discounts to those who are struggling. Other approaches are using the Australia Post logo to ask people to pay additional fees for delivery of purchased items.

Increased vulnerability to fraud

These examples highlight how offenders exploit anxiety to take advantage of people in uncertain times. They play on people’s fears and anxieties.

Everyone is vulnerable to fraud. Research suggests there is “no typical fraud victim”. However, COVID-19 has arguably made more people vulnerable to fraud across large sections of society.

Isolation and loneliness can increase vulnerability. Without the presence and accessibility of support networks (such as family and friends), individuals may be more responsive to fraudulent approaches.

Economic hardship could also make people more susceptible to fraud. Offenders do not need to offer outrageous returns for their approaches to be attractive to potential victims. People are more motivated than ever to improve their financial situations, which plays into the hands of fraudsters.

How you can protect yourself

It is important people understand how fraudsters work and are using the crisis to their advantage, so they can take the necessary steps to protect themselves. Here are a few tips to prevent becoming a victim.

• Stay connected to family, friends and colleagues, even in a virtual environment. Offenders relish the isolation of victims to increase the success of their attempts.

• Talk about what is happening. Ask someone directly if they have received any strange emails or phone calls. Offenders rely on secrecy and shame to keep people silent about their victimisation.

• Be vigilant with emails, phone calls, texts and even those who knock on your door. Do not feel you have to respond to anything immediately and take the time to think about and seek advice. Offenders rely on immediate responses from people that overcome any rational thought.

• Report any fraud attempts or losses you may have incurred to Scamwatch or ReportCyber. Also, contact your bank if you have lost money, or a service like IDcare if you have had your identity compromised. It is important for these organisations to be able to gain accurate figures on the prevalence of fraud during these times.

COVID-19 has thrown the world into uncertainty. But one thing that’s clear is fraudsters will remain active and continue to target victims. We need to recognise this changing environment, support each other and collectively do as much as possible to guard against fraud victimisation.

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Beware of bushfire scams: how fraudsters take advantage of those in need

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Cassandra Cross, Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Law, Cybersecurity Cooperative Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The darknet – a wild west for fake coronavirus ‘cures’? The reality is more complicated (and regulated)

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James Martin, Swinburne University of Technology

The coronavirus pandemic has spawned reports of unregulated health products and fake cures being sold on the dark web. These include black market PPE, illicit medications such as the widely touted “miracle” drug chloroquine, and fake COVID-19 “cures” including blood supposedly from recovered coronavirus patients.

These dealings have once again focused public attention on this little-understood section of the internet. Nearly a decade since it started being used on a significant scale, the dark web continues to be a lucrative safe haven for traders in a range of illegal goods and services, especially illicit drugs.

Black market trading on the dark web is carried out primarily through darknet marketplaces or cryptomarkets. These are anonymised trading platforms that directly connect buyers and sellers of a range of illegal goods and services – similar to legitimate trading websites such as eBay.

So how do darknet marketplaces work? And how much illegal trading of COVID-19-related products is happening via these online spaces?

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Read more:
Dark web, not dark alley: why drug sellers see the internet as a lucrative safe haven

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Not a free-for-all

There are currently more than a dozen darknet marketplaces in operation. Protected by powerful encryption technology, authorities around the world have largely failed to contain their growth. A steadily increasing proportion of illicit drug users around the world report sourcing their drugs online. In Australia, we have one of the world’s highest concentrations of darknet drug vendors per capita.

Contrary to popular belief, cryptomarkets are not the “lawless spaces” they’re often presented as in the news. Market prohibitions exist on all mainstream cryptomarkets. Universally prohibited goods and services include: hitman services, trafficked human organs and snuff movies.

Although cryptomarkets lie outside the realm of state regulation, each one is set up and maintained by a central administrator who, along with employees or associates, is responsible for the market’s security, dispute resolution between buyers and sellers, and the charging of commissions on transactions.

Administrators are also ultimately responsible for determining what can and can’t be sold on their cryptomarket. These decisions are likely informed by:

• the attitudes of the surrounding community comprising buyers and sellers
• the extent of consumer demand and supply for certain products
• the revenues a site makes from commissions charged on transactions
• and the perceived “heat” that may be attracted from law enforcement in the trading of particularly dangerous illegal goods and services.

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Read more:
Illuminating the ‘dark web’

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Experts delve into the dark web

A report from the Australian National University published last week looks at several hundred coronavirus-related products for sale across a dozen cryptomarkets, including supposed vaccines and antidotes.

While the study confirms some unscrupulous dark web traders are indeed exploiting the pandemic and seeking to defraud naïve customers, this information should be contextualised with a couple of important caveats.

Firstly, the number of dodgy covid-related products for sale on the dark web is relatively small. According to this research, they account for about 0.2% of all listed items. The overwhelming majority of products were those we are already familiar with – particularly illicit drugs such as cannabis and MDMA.

Also, while the study focused on products listed for sale, these are most likely listings for products that either do no exist or are listed with the specific intention to defraud a customer.

Thus, the actual sale of fake coronavirus “cures” on the dark web is likely minimal, at best.

A self-regulating entity

By far the most commonly traded products on cryptomarkets are illicit drugs. Smaller sub-markets exist for other products such as stolen credit card information and fraudulent identity documents.

This isn’t to say extraordinarily dangerous and disturbing content, such as child exploitation material, can’t be found on the dark web. Rather, the sites that trade in such “products” are segregated from mainstream cryptomarkets, in much the same way convicted paedophiles are segregated from mainstream prison populations.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, dark web journalist and author Eileen Ormsby reported some cryptomarkets have quickly imposed bans on vendors seeking to profit from the pandemic. For instance, the following was tweeted by one cryptomarket administrator:

Any vendor caught flogging goods as a “cure” to coronavirus will not only be permanently removed from this market but should be avoided like the Spanish Flu. You are about to ingest drugs from a stranger on the internet –- under no circumstances should you trust any vendor that is using COVID-19 as a marketing tool to peddle tangible/already questionable goods. I highly doubt many of you would fall for that shit to begin with but you know, dishonest practice is never a good sign and a sure sign to stay away.

So it seems, despite the activities of a few dodgy operators, the vast majority of dark web traders are steering clear of exploiting the pandemic for their own profit. Instead, they are sticking to trading in products they can genuinely supply, such as illicit drugs.

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Read more:
What is the dark web and how does it work?

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James Martin, Associate Professor in Criminology, Swinburne University of Technology

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

‘Fake refugees’: Dutton adopts an alternative fact to justify our latest human rights violation

Peter Dutton’s condemnation of those he terms ‘fake refugees’ is prejudicial.
AAP/Mick Tsikas

Amy Maguire, University of Newcastle

The federal government has set an October 1 deadline for 7,500 people who arrived in Australia by boat between 2008 and 2013 – but who have not yet lodged claims for refugee protection – to apply for a visa or face deportation.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton declared “the game is up” for “fake refugees”.

‘Illegal maritime arrivals’

The first sentence of Dutton’s media release reads:

The Turnbull government has today set a deadline for thousands of Illegal Maritime Arrivals (IMAs) who flooded into Australia under the previous Labor government to prove they are genuine refugees and owed protection by Australia.

This statement reinforces prejudicial tropes that successive governments have used to demonise people seeking asylum in Australia. The subjects of the government’s announcement are not “people”, “individuals”, “human beings” – or even “asylum seekers”. Instead, they are “illegal maritime arrivals”.

These seemingly non-people did not “travel to” or “arrive in” Australia. Instead, they “flooded into Australia”.

They are the latest group to suffer from the shameful practice of setting human beings apart from others in the community: they are another class threatening peril and menace.

Fake refugees?

Dutton’s condemnation of “fake refugees” is prejudicial. It suggests those people now subject to his deadline must not have genuine protection claims – or they would have been lodged already.

Yet Department of Immigration statistics show people who travel to Australia by boat without a valid visa, seeking asylum, are more likely to be genuine refugees than people who travel by air with a visa and seek asylum on arrival. Over the years, between 70% and 100% of people arriving by boat have been assessed as eligible for refugee protection.

For example, people from Afghanistan have been the most likely to seek asylum in Australia by boat for many years. In this group, between 2008 and 2013, upwards of 95% were found to be refugees and granted protection visas.

The experience of lodging an application for protection

The people subject to Dutton’s announcement are part of a group known as the “legacy caseload”. These are people who have been living for some time in the Australian community in a state of legal limbo.

This state of limbo was imposed when the then-Labor government stopped processing protection visa applications for people who had arrived by boat. This bar on applications operated from 2012 until the Coalition government began to permit some members of the group to initiate applications from 2015. However, the bar on applications was not fully lifted until late 2016.

Dutton’s assertion that the 7,500 people now faced with a very short deadline for application have “failed or refused” to apply for protection unfairly suggests that sufficient time has already been afforded.

The prejudicial effect of this claim is worsened by Dutton’s parallel statement that the people in question are a drain on the public purse:

Many are residing in Australia on government funded support which last year cost the Australian taxpayer approximately $250 million in income support alone.

Dutton’s announcement also fails to mention that the Department of Immigration is unable to process the volume of asylum claims currently lodged, or that an arbitrary deadline for applications from people in the legacy caseload group will force many to apply without proper legal assistance.

Community legal centres around Australia have thousands of clients on their books awaiting assistance with protection claims. The complex process requires the completion of 184 questions and a detailed written statement, and many applicants will require translation. All ought to receive legal advice.

The latest development imposes undue stress on an already extremely vulnerable community. Only three months ago, some members of this group received letters from the Department of Immigration, threatening the withdrawal of Medicare and work rights if they failed to lodge applications within a tight deadline.

That many – if not all – of this group were on waiting lists for legal assistance is seemingly no longer sufficient to explain why they have not yet lodged protection applications.

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Is Australia committed to human rights or not?

Late last week, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop officially launched Australia’s bid for a 2018-20 seat on the UN Human Rights Council. Bishop described Australia as the standout candidate for this position because:

… we are arguably the most successful, the most diverse, multicultural society on Earth.

We have long embraced those fleeing conflict and persecution, and those in need of humanitarian support.

If elected to serve on the council, Australia intends to work collaboratively with all of our international partners towards fulfilling the goals set out in the UN Declaration of Human Rights – we will listen to your concerns. We will work with you.

It is impossible to determine the genuine extent of Australia’s commitment to human rights by juxtaposing Bishop’s claims with Dutton’s announcement. Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights requires Australia to protect the rights of all people seeking asylum:

Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

Article 33 of the UN Refugee Convention prohibits the return of a refugee to a risk of persecution:

No contracting state shall expel or return (“refouler”) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.

Yet the imposition of the October 1 deadline for applications from those in the legacy caseload group imposes an arbitrary limit on the time available to seek protection. It suggests the government is willing to violate its international legal option not to deport people who may have genuine claims for refugee status.

Refugee advocates will feel compelled to challenge the deadline in the courts, if the government seeks to deport people who have not had adequate opportunity or support to complete protection applications. This would open yet another front of government spending to support a policy and practice that violates Australia’s human rights obligations.

Amy Maguire, Senior Lecturer in International Law and Human Rights, University of Newcastle

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

North Korea: Fake Missiles?

The link below is to an article reporting on the possibility of fake missiles in North Korea – would that really surprise anyone?

For more visit:
http://www.npr.org/2013/05/07/181961581/are-those-north-korean-long-range-missiles-for-real

Article: Church Fakes Kidnapping to Teach Persecution

The link below is to an article that reports on a fake kidnapping scenario in Pennsylvania, in the USA – carried out to teach persecution to students. Perhaps it really taught how stupid some people can be and now a number of people face jail terms.

For more visit:
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/05/01/church-stages-kidnapping-of-youth-group-members/

Pakistani Woman Appeals Death Sentence for ‘Blasphemy’

District judge bows to pressure of local Muslims, handing down stunning sentence to Christian.

LAHORE, Pakistan, November 13 (CDN) — Attorneys for a Christian mother of five sentenced to death by hanging for allegedly speaking ill of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, have filed an appeal of the verdict, they said.

Bowing to pressure from Muslim extremists in Pakistan, according to the Christian woman’s husband and rights groups, a district court judge handed down the stunning sentence to Asia Noreen on Monday (Nov. 8). Additional District and Sessions Judge Naveed Ahmed Chaudhary of Nankana Sahib district delivered the verdict under Pakistan’s controversial “blasphemy” statute, the kind of law that a resolution before the United Nations condemning “defamation of religions” would make legitimate internationally.

Noreen is the first woman to be sentenced to death under Pakistan’s widely condemned law against defaming Islam.

Noreen’s lawyer, Chaudhry Tahir Shahzad, said that among other allegations, she was accused of denying that Muhammad was a prophet.

“How can we expect a Christian to affirm a Muslim belief?” Shahzad said. He added that he and lawyer Manzoor Qadir had filed an appeal against the district sessions court’s verdict in the Lahore High Court.

Asia (alternately spelled Aasya) Noreen has been languishing in isolation in jail since June of last year after she argued with fellow field workers in Ittanwali village who were trying to pressure her into renouncing Christianity. Her husband, Ashiq Masih, told Compass that the argument began after the wife of an Ittanwali elder sent her to fetch water in Nankana Sahib district, about 75 kilometers (47 miles) from Lahore in Punjab Province.

The Muslim women told Noreen that it was sacrilegious to drink water collected by a non-Muslim, he said.

“My wife only said, ‘Are we not all humans?’ when the Muslim women rebuked her for her faith,” Masih, a field laborer, told Compass by telephone. “This led to an altercation.”

Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) General Secretary Katherine Sapna told Compass that the women told Muslim cleric Muhammad Salim about the incident, and he filed a case with police on the same day, June 14, 2009.

On June 19, 2009, Masih said, the Muslim women suddenly raised a commotion, accusing Noreen of defaming Muhammad.

“Several Muslim men working in the nearby fields reached the spot and forced their way into our house, where they tortured Asia and the children,” said Masih, who confirmed that his wife is 45 years old and that they have five children – four girls and a boy, the oldest daughter 20.

Police arrived and took his wife into custody, presumably for her own protection, he said.

“They saved Asia’s life, but then later a case was registered against her under Sections 295-B and C [blaspheming the Quran and Muhammad, respectively] at the Nankana police station on the complaint of Muhammad Salim, the local imam [prayer leader] of the village,” he said. “Asia has been convicted on false charges. We have never, ever insulted the prophet Muhammad or the Quran.”

Salim reportedly claimed that Noreen confessed to speaking derogatorily of Islam’s prophet and apologized. Under immense pressure from local Muslims, according to Masih, CLAAS and Sohail Johnson of Sharing Life Ministry, local judge Chaudhary ruled out the possibility that Noreen was falsely accused. In spite of repeated efforts by the Muslim women to pressure her into renouncing her faith, the judge also reportedly ruled “there were no mitigating circumstances.”

Chaudhary also fined her 100,000 rupees (US$1,150), according to CLAAS.

Ataul Saman of the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) said that lower court verdicts in blasphemy cases are usually overturned by higher courts. He said lower court proceedings take place under intense pressure, with local Muslims gathering outside and chanting slogans to pressure judges. Saman added that NCJP research showed that up to 80 percent of blasphemy charges are filed against people to settle personal scores.

Rights groups have long criticized Pakistan’s blasphemy laws as too easily used to settle grudges or oppress religious minorities, such as the more than 4 million Christians that Operation World estimates out of Pakistan’s total population of 184.7 million. To date no one has been executed for blasphemy in Pakistan, as most are freed on appeal after suffering for years under appalling prison conditions. Vigilantes have killed at least 10 people accused of blasphemy, rights groups estimate.

Noreen was convicted under Section 295-C of the defamation statutes for alleged derogatory comments about Muhammad, which is punishable by death, though life imprisonment is also possible. Section 295-B makes willful desecration of the Quran or a use of its extract in a derogatory manner punishable with life imprisonment. Section 295-A of the defamation law prohibits injuring or defiling places of worship and “acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class of citizens.” It is punishable by life imprisonment, which in Pakistan is 25 years.

Between 1986 and August 2009, at least 974 people have been charged with defiling the Quran or insulting Muhammad, according to the NCJP. Those charged included 479 Muslims, 340 Ahmadis, 119 Christians, 14 Hindus and 10 from other religions.

Johnson of Sharing Life Ministry, which is active in prisons and has been following Noreen’s case from the onset, said he was impressed by her continued faith.

“A week before the verdict, I went to visit Asia in jail,” he said. “I asked her what she was expecting. She told me that Jesus would rescue her from this fake case.”

The verdict was shocking in that no one was expecting a death sentence for a woman, he said. Masih agreed.

“Asia was hoping that the judge would free her and she would come home to be with us, but this conviction has dashed our hopes for now,” Masih said.

He said that since the sentencing, authorities have not allowed him or other members of their family to visit his wife.

“We don’t know yet how she is, but we trust the Lord,” he said. “Asia is suffering for Jesus, and He will not forsake her.”

Report from Compass Direct News

Thousands of trafficked girls found in Mali slave camps

Nigerian girls are being forced to work as prostitutes in Mali "slave camps," Nigerian officials say, reports CISA.

The girls, many of them underage, are often promised jobs in Europe but end up in brothels, said the government’s anti-trafficking agency. According to BBC correspondent, the brothels are run by older Nigerian women who prevent them from leaving and take all their earnings.

Nigeria’s National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (Naptip) said officials visited Mali in September to follow up "horrendous reports" from victims, aid workers and clergy in Mali.The agency said it was working with Malian police to free the girls and help them return to Nigeria.

They said there were hundreds of brothels, each housing up to 200 girls, run by Nigerian "madams" who force them to work against their will and take their earnings.

"We are talking of thousands and thousands of girls," Simon Egede, Executive Secretary of Naptip, told a news conference in Abuja, adding that they were between 20,000 to 40,000.

He, however, did not give details as to how the figure had been reached.

In a statement, Egede said girls were "held in bondage for the purposes of forced sexual exploitation and servitude or slavery-like practices."

"The madams control their freedom of movement, where they work, when they work and what they receive," he said.

The trade is centred on the capital Bamako and large cities, but the most notorious brothels are in the mining towns of Kayes and Mopti, where the sex workers live in "near slavery conditions," said Naptip.

Many of the brothels there also had abortion clinics where foetuses were removed by traditional healers for use in rituals, said Egede.

Most of the girls were reported to have come from Delta and Edo States in Nigeria.

Many were lured with the promise of work in Europe, given fake travel documents and made to swear an oath that they would not tell anyone where they were going.

On arrival in Mali, they were told they would have to work as prostitutes to pay off their debts. Prostitution is legal in Mali but not if it involves minors.

Naptip said it had also uncovered two major trafficking routes used to transport the women from Nigeria through Benin, Niger and Bukina Faso to Mali.

Egede said Naptip was working with the police in Mali to return the girls to Nigeria safely, shut down the trade and prosecute the traffickers.

Report from the Christian Telegraph

Christians Accused of Desecrating Quran Freed in Pakistan

Country’s notorious ‘blasphemy’ law used against innocent father, daughter.

LAHORE, Pakistan, December 16 (CDN) — A Christian in Faisalabad district and his 20-year-old daughter were released on Monday (Dec. 14) after 14 grueling months in jail on false charges of blaspheming the Quran.

Khalil Tahir, attorney for Gulsher Masih and his daughter Ashyana Gulsher (known as Sandal), said the case was typical of the way Pakistan’s blasphemy laws can be used to harass innocent Christians.

“Christians are the soft targets, and most of the people implicated in these inhumane laws are Christians,” Tahir said. “We Christians are fighting for the same, noble goal – to provide justice to the victims of blasphemy laws.”

Masih said that inmates beat him at least five times since he was arrested on Oct. 23, 2008. His daughter was arrested two weeks earlier, on Oct. 10.

“These long 14 months seemed like ages,” Masih told Compass. “There was one inmate, Ghulam Fareed, a rich man, who always harassed me, trying to coerce me to convert to Islam by saying he would make me rich and would send me abroad.”

Fareed, who also promised high quality education for Masih’s children, joined with Islamic extremists jailed for terrorist acts to beat him in an effort to force him to “come into the fold of Islam,” Masih said. While in jail, he said, his wife told him that their daughter had been beaten several times by the superintendent of police.

Masih and his daughter were charged under Section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code for blaspheming the Quran. Before charges were filed in October 2008, Masih said an initial incident occurred on Aug. 25, when Ashyana Gulsher found some burned pages of the Quran in a garbage dump outside their community of Chak No. 57, Chak Jhumra in the district of Faisalabad.

Masih said she handed the charred pages to a woman, Lubana Taj, saying, “These are the holy page of your Quran and I found them in the garbage, so you take it.”

There were still some pages left, which she gave to their neighbor, Khalida Rafiq, who burned them, he said.

“She had borrowed wheat from us a few weeks ago, and when my wife demanded it back, Khalida Rafiq said that we had burned pages of the Quran and was now accusing us of taking wheat,” Masih said. “Some other women of the village also accused my children of making paper airplanes of the pages of the Quran.”

The escalating conflict was defused with the help of other neighbors who knew the truth, he said, and local Muslim cleric Amam Hafiz Muhammad Ali also intervened, saying Masih’s daughter had done a good deed and questioning why the neighbor women were repaying her with evil.

“We thought that the matter was buried, but it arose again on Oct. 7, 2008,” Masih said. On that day 20-year-old Muhammad Qasim went throughout the village on bicycle exclaiming that Christians had burned the Quran, Masih said. Upon hearing this, village landlord Rana Sarwar called Masih and told him that his children had burned the Quran and had used pages to make paper airplanes.

“I told them that I was working in Asghar Christian Colony and never knew about the incident, and the son who had been accused of blasphemy had gone to school,” Masih said.

His accusers were unmoved, he said.

“In the evening when I was returning home, I heard announcements from several mosques that Christians had burned the Quran,” he said. “After hearing the announcement, people began pouring in. These announcements were made by Tariq son of Hafeez, Maqbool son of Hafeez and Maulana Tawaseel Bajwa.”

When Masih called emergency police, they arrested him and sent him to the Jhumra police station, Faisalabad.

“The police asked me where my children were, and when I told them that the children were in the village, the police went back to arrest them,” he said. “Rana Sarwar, Wajid Khan and Rana Naeem Khan came into the police station and argued that my children had blasphemed, so why was I the one being beaten? I told Rana Sarwar in front of the police that if my children have done this, then I was ready to bear consequences.”

Police told them that the crowd outside wanted to hang him and that this was why they had arrested him. Masih said that the next day Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Yousuf Zai came and asked him why he had committed blasphemy.

“Rana Sarwar then told the DSP that it was all a political ploy, and that I had been implicated in the case for voting for the opposition party,” he said. “If that day those Christian Members of Parliamentary Assembly had spoken up, then the police complaint wouldn’t have been registered against me.”

Masih added that the station house officer felt that he was innocent but had become legally entangled due to lack of support from the community. Masih said that the next day, Oct. 8, a few Muslims gave conflicting statements against him when charges were filed.

“One said he saw me burning the pages of the Quran at 10 a.m., the other said that he saw me burning the pages at 12 p.m. and still another said that he saw me burning the pages of the Quran at 2 p.m.,” he said. “When I was sent in jail, the investigation office swore that I was innocent.”

In a further contradiction, the complainants accused him of cutting up pages of the Quran and tossing them in the air, not burning them, Tahir said.

The complainant in the case was Mohammad Farooq Alam, and other prosecution witnesses named were Mohammad Maqbool Ahmad and Mohammad Akber, according to Tahir.

Masih said that initially he appeared before Judge Zulfikar Lon, but that whenever a judge asked for witnesses, he was transferred.

“In this manner eight months passed, and then Judge Raja Mohammad Ghazanfar came” and refused to be transferred, Masih said.

After Tahir’s cross-examination of witnesses, Ghazanfar dropped all charges and ordered their release.

“During cross examination, I proved that the whole case was concocted, frivolous, fake and that the charges against the accused Christian brother were unfounded,” Tahir said.

Tahir said that he had provided only legal assistance to the victims, with Johnson Michael, chairman of the Bishop John Joseph Shaheed Trust, providing paralegal assistance. An MPA in the Punjab Parliament, Tahir is the body’s secretary for Human Rights and Minority Affairs and also serves as executive director of advocacy group Action Against Discriminatory Laws Trust Pakistan.

Report from Compass Direct News 

INDIA: NEWS BRIEFS

Recent Incidents of Persecution

West Bengal, August 31 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu hardliners have again attacked the Christian community in Bishnupur and threatened to kill them if they continue to practice their faith. About 15 Hindu extremists armed with knives and heavy rods of bamboo and iron shouted anti-Christian slogans as they attacked Khagen Majhi on Aug. 20. Threatening the Christian with violent “incidents like Orissa’s Kandhamal situation,” they commanded that he recant his Christian faith, reported the Evangelical Fellowship of India. Running from one Christian house to another, the enraged Hindu extremists also beat Manik Jana and verbally abused and manhandled Jharna Pradhan. Similar violence took place in the same area on July 29, as well as on Christmas Day of 2006. Area Christians filed a police complaint at Bishnupur police station, but no arrests had been made at press time.

Andhra Pradesh – Suspected Hindu extremists set aflame a newly built church building in Mahasamudram, destroying it on Aug. 20. Best Friends Church was built with the permission of local authorities and was scheduled to be inaugurated on Aug. 30, reported the All Indian Christian Council. The next morning local Christians went to the site to find the church building in ashes. Pastor A. John filed a complaint at Bangarupalem police station. A police investigation is underway.

West Bengal – Hindu extremists from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Aug. 20 attacked two Christians in Amtala, Kolkatta. The All India Christian Council reported that eight extremists accused two unidentified Christians of forceful conversion and filed a police complaint against them after forcing villagers to sign a letter of complaint. Christian leaders have taken the matter to authorities, and a police investigation is underway.

Karnataka – Hindu extremists attacked the Mayer Memorial Church building and set fire to three vehicles belonging to Christians on Aug. 17 in Hubli. A Compass contact said the extremists were opposing a Christian rally organized by the church. Area Christians said they believe the attack was planned well in advance as the extremists arrived with media. The church cancelled the rally, and police provided protection to the Christian community.

Karnataka – Members of the Hindu extremist Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council) on Aug. 16 disrupted a Christian prayer meeting in Karwar, accused the pastor of forceful conversion and threatened him with violence if he continued Christian activities. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that at 7 p.m. a church leader of New Life Fellowship identified only as Pastor Quadros was conducting a prayer meeting in a church member’s house when the extremists barged in. The intolerant Hindus accused the pastor of forceful conversion, searched the house and took Christian literature. The VHP filed a complaint against the pastor, and police ordered him to inform them about any future Christian activities.

Kerala – Police on Aug. 12 arrested Christians based on false allegations of destroying Hindu holy books in Vythiri, Wayanad district. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that Hindu extremists of the local Hindu Ikkaya Vedhy group surrounded the house of Karthyani Amma, a Hindu in Laksham colony, near Vythiri police station, as her son – a convert to Christianity identified only as Manikandan – was cleaning her home along with evangelist Sunny Joseph. The extremists created a disturbance, and Christians became embroiled in the subsequent uproar. Amma filed a complaint against the Christians for destroying Hindu holy books and articles used in rituals. The Christians were charged with promoting communal disharmony, house trespass, and damaging property.

Karnataka – Hindu hardliners on Aug. 9 disrupted the worship of Indian Missionary Service and beat Pastor V. James in Gulbarga. The Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) reported that at around 10 a.m., about 20 Hindu extremists shouting anti-Christian slogans stormed into the worship service and accused the pastor of forceful conversion. They dragged the pastor out to the street, kicking, punching and beating him. The pastor fled to Ganigapura police station and filed a complaint against the extremists, reported EFI. Later in the evening, the intolerant Hindus went to the pastor’s house and assaulted him again, chasing him, his wife and four children away from the village. The pastor has relocated to another area. No arrests had been made at press time.

Karnataka – Hindu extremists on Aug. 9 ordered 20 Christians to leave their home village of Gulbarga because they had put their trust in Christ. The All Indian Christian Council (AICC) reported that village leaders in alliance with the Hindu extremists were reacting against a recent baptism service conducted by Pastor Sukruuth Raj. AICC reported Pastor Raj, who was instrumental in the baptized person coming to faith in Christ, as saying “all the believers are from the same village, and they are going to stay there.”

Maharashtra – About 45 Hindu extremists attacked two Gospel for Asia Christian workers, accused them of luring people to convert to Christianity and took their equipment on Aug. 8 in an undisclosed area in Maharashtra, according to a Christian source. Two Christian workers identified as Jayant Mehta and Dayanand Tambe were screening a film about Jesus that was attended by many villagers, reported the source. As the Christians were getting ready to go home, the Hindu extremists rushed at them and snatched their film equipment, then began beating them. They took the Christians to a police station and charged them with bribing people to convert to Christianity, giving fake names of people who would supposedly testify against them. After local Christian leaders intervened, the two Christian workers were released the next morning. The film equipment was returned to the Christians on Aug. 10 after police confirmed that the allegations were false.

Kerala – Hindu extremists armed with swords on Aug. 7 barged into the prayer hall of the Full Gospel Church for God, attacked two Christians and vandalized the facility in Pullad. Hindu newspapers reported that about 25 extremists, two armed with swords, attacked Pastor Joe Kaithavana and a church member identified only as Deepu at around 10:30 p.m. and vandalized the prayer hall. The Christians sustained injuries and received hospital treatment. Koipram police have registered a case against the assailants. Member of Legislative Assembly K. Sivadasan Nair visited the site, condemned the attack and called for the immediate arrest of the extremists.

Karnataka – On Aug. 7 in Haveri, a group of Hindu extremists from the Bajrang Dal accused a pastor from Every Home Crusade church of forceful conversion and threatened to beat him if he continued his ministry in the area. A church representative told Compass that about 25 extremists went to Pastor Ajit Kumar’s house at around 11 a.m., spoke derogatorily about his faith, and warned him not to conduct a worship meeting on Aug. 10 or face serious consequences. The pastor registered a case against the extremists, and the Sunday church service took place on Aug. 10 under police protection. No arrests had been made at press time.

Karnataka – Police arrested two Christians for distributing pamphlets and conducting a medical camp on Aug. 4 in Mosarukunte village, Tumkur district. The Evangelical Fellowship of India reported that Pastor M. Shivanna, Vijay Kumar and some doctors were conducting a medical camp when the Hindu hardliners along with the village head objected to their activity, claiming that they had not obtained prior permission. The extremists later filed a police complaint, accusing the Christians of distributing gospel pamphlets to forcefully convert people to Christianity. Police arrested the two Christians under section 109 of the Criminal Procedure Code to ensure “good behavior from suspected persons,” and later they were released on bail.

Madhya Pradesh – Hindu extremists in Rewa, including a woman said to practice sorcery and witchcraft, burned down the home of a Christian on Aug. 2. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that when Raj Bahor accepted Christ and began attending the church of Pastor Heeralal Kushwaha, the Hindu woman in the neighborhood found the spells she cast on Bahor prior to his conversion had become ineffective. She and other Hindu extremists opposed to Bahor’s new faith burned down his house, and local Christians filed a police complaint. An investigation is underway.

Andhra Pradesh – Hindu extremists from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council or VHP) on Aug. 1 attacked Christians charging large-scale, forceful conversion; they forced the Christians to wear tilak, a Hindu symbol on the forehead, and threatened to kill them if they went ahead with church construction in Mahabubnagar. The All Indian Christian Council reported that Pastor B.Y. Dass of the Smarna Prayer Home Church had obtained land to build a church with permission from the village head. Upon hearing of the Christians’ plan to build a church building, the VHP came to the site with the threats and accusations. At press time local Christian leaders were taking the matter to authorities.

Orissa – The Rev. S.P. Lima of Cross International Ministries, operator of Agape Manor International Residential School, has been arrested and imprisoned since January 2008 in Baragarh and Sambalpur after Hindu extremists falsely accused him of raping a schoolgirl and feeding schoolchildren beef while claiming that it was mutton, according to his brother. Lima’s brother, Dayanidhi Lima, told Compass that Hindu extremists filed a false complaint against his brother because Rev. Lima had refused to meet their demand that they give them 50,000 rupees (US$1,035) to build a Hindu temple. A medical and DNA examination of the girl at Burla Medical College showed no evidence of rape. The girl had left the school on Jan. 5, 2008, and the First Information Report naming the pastor was filed on Jan. 12 of that year. Nevertheless he was arrested on Jan. 28, 2008. Area Christians maintained that the extremists pressured the parents of the girl to falsely accuse the pastor. The Additional District Session Court on June 12 of this year imposed a fine of 10,000 rupees (US$207) and sentenced Rev. Lima to 10 years in prison; he was transferred to Sambalpur Prison, where he is subject to various kinds of punishment.

Report from Compass Direct News