Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

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1. 

   You get drivel about aliens, abduction etc from all sorts of people, not just Christians – there are atheists, agnostics…

2. 

   […] last time I had had occasion to write about Rowan County clerk Kim Davis, above, was three years ago…

3. 

   Whatever is presented on the BBC, and I must admit I do not watch the TV, the fact is that…

4. 

   “The curriculum had already drawn tensions among the county’s religious parents, with some worrying about appropriateness and arguing the material…

5. 

   As someone who produced dozens of nativity plays as a teacher and a Sunday School leader, that title ‘A Gay…

LAST month it widely reported in Pakistan that Protestant pastor Eleazar Sidhu, 35, had been hospitalised with a gunshot wound after being attacked by a “bearded person” after Sunday prayers, and police were called in to investigate.

According to this report, Sidhu, pastor of a Presbyterian church in Kukranwala village in the Khanuwana area of Jaranwala, Faisalabad District, told police that, on September 3, his attacker ordered him to recite the Islamic creed then shot him when he refused.

But in a new report yesterday (Sunday) it was revealed that Sidhu has been charged with making false allegations after he admitted that the gunshot wound was self-inflicted.

He’s also been sacked by the Board of the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan.

Sidhu admitted to “planning this whole act without any fear, duress or pressure.”

Karachi-based human rights activist Ghazala Shafique told Morning Star News that Sidhu claimed police tortured him physically and mentally into confessing, something Faisalabad police denied.

A police source said:

Sidhu’s medical examination showed that his arm had been administered anesthesia before he was shot. The bullet merely caused a three-inch deep flesh wound on his shoulder, and burn marks caused by gunpowder confirmed suspicion that the gun was fired from a very close range to avoid damage to the bone.

He added:

The pastor kept changing his statements during investigation, but when he was confronted with the medical report, he confessed that he had planned the act. He told us that a Christian dispenser named Gulfam had injected the anesthesia while his young assistant, Johnson Masih, had held his arm in position so that he could fire the bullet.

A rights activist said she believed Sidhu’s story:

Because he took an oath on the Bible that he was saying the truth.

Lazar Allah Rakha, an attorney who specialises in criminal law and has successfully defended several people accused of blasphemy, said the complaint registered by Sidhu containeed “glaring loopholes.”

None of his allegations, starting from the writing of Islamist slogans on the wall of his church to being threatened by unknown persons and subsequent assassination attempt, make any sense.

Rakha said that as a Christian he was shocked when he first heard about the alleged attack on the pastor. However, “the legal practitioner in me smelled foul play” after he read the pastor’s account to the the police.

After the shooting a Facebook post showed the injured liar in hospital, together with a message:

Please pray for he rapid recovery of Pastor Eleazar Sidhu (35) from an assassination attempt after he finished conducting a prayer service in Jaranwala where the massacre of Christians took place in August. The Lord’s blessing upon Pastor Sidhu, and the growth of his ministry for refusing the demand of Islamic terrorists to recite the Islamic creed, and instead declared his faith in Jesus Christ …

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