More religious superstition

[Janus]

Originally posted by BBC News
A cockerel in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan has saved itself from the pot after crowing what its owner claimed was "Allah", the Arabic word for God.

The two-year-old rooster was set to be turned into chicken soup after its owner, Ibragim Ismatullayev, found it to be extremely aggressive.

However, Mr Ismatullayev has said that as he put the knife to the cockerel's neck, the bird "screamed" and, on hearing this, his five-year-old son said "dad, it's saying 'Allah, Allah'."

The sound of the cockerel was then recorded on a mobile phone, and its life was spared.

Firdevs Robinson, editor of the BBC's Central Asian service, said that stories of this sort quite frequently came out of Central Asia.

She told BBC World Service's Reporting Religion programme that a lion is Azerbaijan was said to have roared the word "Allah" every time the call to prayer was issued.

"People started queuing up outside the zoo, and it went on for a long while" she added.

[chaval]

a long time ago i remember seeing on TV about this thing where theyd put some milk under a statue and it would miraculously 'drink' it all , i cant remember if it was one statue or all the statues of this deity does anyone remember this? it must ahve been like 10 years ago or something. i think it was a hindu statue, i think it might have been ganesha (the elephant headed one with the big belly)

[violencia.Proletariat]

Yes, a five year old heard a "cawww" sound like "allah" :lol: GOD MUST EXIST!

[Clarksist]

Has anybody seen that "blessed" water you can buy that makes god give you loads of money?

That one is pretty lame.

[redstar2000]

I'm waiting for that email...you know, the one from Nigeria from a guy who claims to be Jesus and will reserve a spot in Heaven for me if I will just send him US$1,000. :lol:

http://www.websmileys.com/sm/cool/223.gif

[Eleutherios]

http://www.truechristian.com

Okay, so it's a joke site, but I think this is the kind of stuff a lot of religious fanatics actually believe. :lol:

[Janus]

Muslim rejects 'sleeping divorce'


Originally posted by BBC News
An Indian Muslim says he will not be separated from his wife, despite uttering the words necessary for divorce while he was asleep.
Akhtar, from West Bengal state, told the BBC a ruling by village elders that the couple were divorced was unfair.

Uttering the word "talaq" (I divorce you) three times allows a Muslim man to divorce his wife with immediate effect.

But Akhtar says it has no force because he did not mean it, and he and his wife both say they want to stay together.

The BBC's Amitabha Bhattasali in Calcutta says several Muslim authorities in India have spoken out against the elders' ruling, arguing that the "triple talaq" pronouncement must be intentional to be recognised.

India's minority Muslim population has its own personal laws on issues such as marriage, divorce and inheritance.

'Victimised'

Clerics in the village of Dalgaon Basti near Falakata in northern West Bengal found out about Akhtar's unfortunate pronouncement after his wife, Sobena, told friends.
News of the case arose when the couple sought advice from the local counselling centre.

Akhtar says he came home on the night in question last December and took sleeping tablets following a row with his wife.

"I uttered the 'talaq' while I was asleep. I didn't mean it," Akhtar, a worker at a local brick field, told the BBC.

"It's unfair that I'll have to leave my wife for what I said in my sleep and we are being socially boycotted by the villagers because we haven't accepted the verdict of the clerics."

Sobena says: "Enough is enough. We have become a laughing stock. Come what may, I can't stay without my husband."

Akhtar's father, Ebadat, agrees the clerics "have taken a wrong decision".

"I am victimised as I am still in touch with Akhtar. Nobody is coming to my grocery shop."

The clerics, though, are refusing to budge.

Village community leader Abbas Ansari says they have been told of the apparent mix-up.

"But they have passed a verdict that Akhtar and Sobena can't stay together till they remarry each other."

The couple registered their marriage under the special marriages act to get round the divorce ruling last week - it remains to be seen whether that will be enough.

[Janus]

Woman jailed over killing of cow

Originally posted by BBC News
A court in Nepal has sentenced a woman to 12 years in prison for slaughtering a cow, considered a sacred animal in the predominantly Hindu kingdom.
Police arrested 50-year-old Kripa Bhoteni after receiving complaints that she had killed the animal, dried the meat and eaten it.

Ms Bhoteni is reported as denying that she killed the cow. She received the maximum sentence for the offence.

Killing a cow is illegal in Nepal, the world's only Hindu kingdom.

'False'

Ms Bhoteni was sentenced to prison by a district court in Sankhuasabha district some 500km (310 miles) north-west of the capital, Kathmandu.

According to a report in the Kantipur newspaper, she is not a Hindu.

While killing a cow is illegal, it is not an offence against the law to eat meat from a cow.

Another man charged in the same case has fled and police are searching for him, Kantipur newspaper said.

[Janus]

Congo child sorcery abuse on rise

Originally posted by BBC News
A report has highlighted what it calls an alarming rise in the abuse of boys and girls accused of sorcery in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Such children are physically abused and end up on the streets of the capital, Kinshasa, Human Rights Watch says.

The organisation has been examining the plight of children in the country.

Its report says that about 70% of the street children appear to be outcasts from their family having been accused of sorcery.

The report cites many cases where boys and girls had been physically and emotionally abused at home, segregated from other children and forced out of school.

Orphans or children with step-parents are said to be especially vulnerable to accusations - made by surviving relatives - that they are sorcerers responsible for the family's misfortunes.

Children who are HIV positive are also susceptible, with some people believing that children can infect their parents with AIDS by using magic spells.

Human Rights Watch says that self-styled pastors are employed to rid children of their alleged sorcery using torture, beatings and the denial of food.

In the meantime, the authorities in Kinshasa are accused of periodically carrying out mass roundups of the street children, beating and abusing them, on the basis of a law dating back to colonial times that forbids children from begging.

Human Rights Watch calls on the Congolese government to protect the children and enforce a provision of the new constitution that specifically forbids accusing them of sorcery.

[Janus]

Child sacrifices in India

Originally posted by BBC News
In India's remote northern villages it feels as if little has changed. The communities remain forgotten and woefully undeveloped, with low literacy and abject poverty.

They are conditions that for decades have bred superstition and a deep-rooted belief in the occult.

The village of Barha in the state of Uttar Pradesh is only a three-hour car drive from the capital Delhi. Yet here evil medieval practices have made their ugly presence known.

Lured with sweets

I was led by locals to a house that is kept under lock and key. They refuse to enter it.
Peering through the window bars you can see the eerie dark room inside, with peeling posters of Hindu gods adorning the walls and bundles of discarded bed clothes.

In one corner is the evidence we had come to find: blood-splattered walls and stained bricks.

It is the place where a little boy's life was ritually sacrificed.

Those who tortured and killed Akash Singh did so in a depraved belief - that the boy's death would offer them a better life.

"The woman who did this was crazed," the villagers say. "Akash was friends with all our children... We still cannot believe what happened here."

Akash's distraught mother discovered her son's mutilated body. The family was told he was lured away with sweets and begged his captors to set him free.

"First they cut out his tongue," his grandmother Harpyari told me. "Then they cut off his nose, then his ears. They chopped off his fingers. They killed him slowly."

'Profiting from fear'

The woman who abducted Akash lived just a few doors away. She claimed to be suffering from terrible nightmares and visions.
It was then she turned for guidance to a tantric, or holy man. It was under his instruction that she brutally sacrificed the boy - offering his blood and remains to the Hindu goddess of destruction.

There are temples across India that are devoted to the goddess. Childless couples, the impoverished and sick visit to pray that she can cure them.

Animal sacrifice is central to worship - but humans have not been temple victims since ancient times.

We were met with a hostile reception at the temple in Meerut. The high priest did not want us to see the ritual slaughter.

Tantrics like him clearly have an overwhelming grip on their followers. Often they are profiting from people's fears. In extreme cases others have instructed their followers to kill.

Crackdown campaign

S Raju is a journalist for the Hindustan Times and has been reporting on child sacrifice cases since 1997 in western Uttar Pradesh. He has reported on 38 similar cases.

In one incident he says a tantric told a young man that if he hanged and killed a small boy and lit a fire at his feet the smoke from the ritual could be used to lure the pretty village girl he had his eye on.

He has been campaigning for a crackdown on the practice of tantrics, alarmed at what he has seen.

"The masses need to be educated and dissuaded from following these men," he said. "They play on people's fears and superstitions - it is crazy."

Unreported

We visited the jail where those accused of murdering Akash were being held.

The prison warden told us of over 200 cases of child sacrifice in these parts over the last seven years.

He admitted many of the cases go unreported because the police are reluctant to tarnish the image of their state. He told us incidents of child sacrifice are often covered up.

Many of those killers are behind bars - but, chillingly, others poisoned by the same sinister beliefs remain at large.

[Zingu]

Now there is one about an easter egg that resembles Jesus.

[Eleutherios]

These Hindus went to all the trouble of brewing up a special offering to their gods, but the gods were ungrateful and decided to send them some angry monkeys.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?p...20-4-2005_pg9_9 (http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_20-4-2005_pg9_9)

Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Drunk monkeys cause chaos

A group of drunk monkeys rampaged through an Indian village after stealing a specially fermented drink. The primates stole the liquor made from marijuana leaves which residents were preparing for a religious festival.

Stunned Baralapokhari villagers struck back at the inebriated monkeys with sticks and other weapons and drove them away. Three residents sustained injuries requiring hospital treatment, reports The Times of India. The intoxicating ‘pana’ drink had been prepared from marijuana leaves as part of an offering to Hindu gods for the Oriya new year. The villagers had kept it in pots outside their huts, an official said. Monkeys that passed out have since been returned to the forest.

[redstar2000]

Woman sees vision of Mary in tree trunk (http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060430/NEWS01/604300314/1002)

http://www.websmileys.com/sm/cool/223.gif

[Comrade J]

^
"Now I am going back to North Platte and I have pictures of the Virgin and the tree. I am going to put one on my husband's grave so he will know what happened here," she said, choking back tears.

How is this so, if he is in Heaven? :D
To be honest, I really can't spot her in the tree. It looks more like a Zulu warrior tribal mask to me :huh:



a long time ago i remember seeing on TV about this thing where theyd put some milk under a statue and it would miraculously 'drink' it all , i cant remember if it was one statue or all the statues of this deity does anyone remember this? it must ahve been like 10 years ago or something. i think it was a hindu statue, i think it might have been ganesha (the elephant headed one with the big belly)

So it was presumably in India or somewhere close, where the climate is very hot? I realise these religious folk are incredibly backwards, but surely they are familiar with evaporation? :huh:

[redstar2000]

06/06/06 -- The Day of the Beast


Originally posted by Denver Post
"666" sense: Date marked with caution

With June 6, 2006, rapidly approaching, authorities in Colorado and elsewhere are carefully watching to see if that date - 6/6/06 - spurs demonstrations or violent activity.

They are aware that 666 signifies the Mark of the Beast or the Antichrist to some organizations and believe June 6 is a date that could trigger problems.

"It's been a conscious question among some of our folks, so they've been on the lookout for something," said Lance Clem, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Public Safety. "But they haven't seen anything."

Even so, some local police are being vigilant.

"The bottom line is that our intelligence unit is familiar with 666 and its significance, but we don't have any information about anything taking place in Colorado Springs," said Lt. Rafael Cintron of the Colorado Springs Police Department. "However, we are certainly keeping our feelers out to see if anything is happening."

The Internet is full of websites that predict terrible things could happen June 6.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3770815

http://www.websmileys.com/sm/cool/223.gif

[Janus]

What about 9/9/99. Oohh, I bet there were superstitious stories about that day.

It's like the Apocalypse. People just forget all reason whenever they perceive any signs of it coming up.

I remember when the Branch-Davidians declared the coming of the end of the world, thousands of people rushed into Waco.

[redstar2000]

Originally posted by BruneiDirect.Com
Egg Shell Found With ‘Allah' Inscription

Bandar Seri Begawan - Miracles of Islam in this modern world are found everywhere.

A staff member at the Ministry of Religious Affairs who resides in Kg. Terabau said his son had bought some eggs and he - noticed that one of the egg shells was a little distorted.

Taking a closer look, he saw the word "Allah" inscribed on the egg.

Hardly believing what he saw, the staff member brought the egg to a religious expert at his ministry who also verified that the egg shell had the writing "Allah" embedded on it.

It was not the first time that such a miracle had happened. Similarly strange discoveries have also been made in the past.

On one occasion, a housewife who was about to fry an egg discovered that its shell had on it writings from the Kalimah, a revered Islamic text containing the phrase "There is No God but Allah"

http://www.brudirect.com/DailyInfo/News/Ar...0506/nite08.htm (http://www.brudirect.com/DailyInfo/News/Archive/May06/040506/nite08.htm)

http://www.websmileys.com/sm/cool/223.gif

[redstar2000]

Originally posted by Western Catholic Reporter
'$5,000 is not enough'

Once a Winnipeg woman hit a jackpot of $1.8 million in the Super 7 and decided to give the Church $5,000. Her pastor, Father Darrin Gurr, rejected the offering because it wasn't generous enough.

"I'm sorry but I cannot accept your gift," he told the woman. "If I accept your gift I probably would be doing malpractice because I would be giving you the impression that you are being generous. This is not generosity; this is a token gift."

He suggested the woman give around five per cent of her earnings to the Church and a similar amount to the community. His fellow priests thought he was crazy to reject the woman's gift.

But to their surprise, the woman returned a couple of weeks later with a cheque for $80,000 for the church.

http://www.wcr.ab.ca/news/2006/0508/lottery050806.shtml

Warning: extremely creepy photograph of Father Gurr accompanies story. :o

http://www.websmileys.com/sm/cool/223.gif

[Janus]

Redstar, the lottery link isn't working.

Anyways, 5% isn&#39;t all that much when compared with the Mormon church&#39;s 10% tithe which they use to construct temples everywhere so that we can be saved. <_<

[redstar2000]

Fish Stories


Originally posted by AFP
&#39;Koranic&#39; tuna inspires, awes Kenyan Muslims

MOMBASA, Kenya (AFP) - A tuna fish caught in the Indian Ocean this week has excited Kenyan Muslims who are flocking here by the hundreds to see a Koranic verse apparently embedded in its scales.

Dubbed the "wonder fish" by locals in this port city, the 2.5-kilo (5.5-pound) tuna has attracted so much attention it has been placed in the custody of the National Fisheries Department for safekeeping, officials said.

Hundreds of Muslims and curiosity seekers flocked to Awadh&#39;s Takaungu Fresh Fish Shop to see the tuna on Friday, prompting concerns for its safety and its removal to a refrigerated locker at the fisheries department.

In March Muslims flocked to see a pair of fish found in a pet shop in the British city of Liverpool which appeared to bear the words "Allah" and "Mohammed" on their scales.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/13052006/323/kora...an-muslims.html (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/13052006/323/koranic-tuna-inspires-awes-kenyan-muslims.html)

http://www.websmileys.com/sm/cool/223.gif

[Vladislav]

This is old but I just remembered it.

"Virgin Mary hits Sydney beach again"



Even on the traditional Christian day of rest, the Virgin Mary has made another appearance at Sydney&#39;s Coogee Beach, with several thousand gathered for the spectacle.

Optical illusion or religious vision, between the hours of 3pm and 4.45pm AEDT, the apparition has appeared on a fencepost at the northernmost tip of the beach.

The religious, families, teenagers and just plain curious mass on the cliff and below on the sand in anticipation.

Some were amazed by what they saw and others were disappointed.

"I saw an apparition but it wasn&#39;t Mary," Garry Quinn of Hocking, Wisconsin in the US, said referring to the beach&#39;s bikini-clad babes.

"It&#39;s hot out here, so if she does show up, hopefully she will be wearing sunscreen.

Diana Kahwati of Maroubra was emotional and teary-eyed as she pointed out the vision to friends.

"I saw it last week and this is my second time I have come to see her," Mrs Kahwati said.

"It feels so good that our dear Virgin Mary is with us, she&#39;s trying to get us as close to God, her Son and our Lord Jesus Christ."

Mrs Kahwati said the apparition brought a message of peace as the world prepares for a war.

But Tony Turry of Strathfield said it did not really matter what message she was trying to bring.

"Different people see different things. They reckon she shows up in different coloured shawls, sometimes blue and other times maroon," he said.

"But it doesn&#39;t matter because everybody gets a different message."

Natalie Wyazbek of South Sydney agreed.

"I think it is amazing that so many people are gathered in one spot to see her," she said.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/02/...4122264479.html (http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/02/02/1044122264479.html)

http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s785746.htm

It was all over T.V too. <_<

Here&#39;s a pic:
http://image.sl.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/ebindsh...e905/a581;seq=4 (http://image.sl.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/ebindshow.pl?doc=pxe905/a581;seq=4)

Use to live there. :o
I woulda pissed on that post.

[Janus]

Cambodia&#39;s oxen predict drought


Originally posted by BBC News
Cambodia&#39;s royal soothsayer has declared that a drought will hit the country in the coming year, following a ploughing ceremony in Phnom Penh.

Kang Ken bases his predictions on what the royal oxen choose to eat and drink at the annual event in the capital.

Last year&#39;s pronouncement turned out to be uncannily accurate. The oxen scoffed everything in sight, and Cambodia enjoyed a prolonged rainy season.

Some farmers are now demanding improvements to irrigation systems.

Superstitious nation

Rarely have beasts of burden been so eagerly observed.

An audience - including King Sihamoni - watched intently as the royal oxen mulled over which dishes they would devour and which they would spurn.

It seems like a whimsical way of divining a country&#39;s agricultural prospects.

And of course it is, for many people, just a bit of fun.

It is also a chance for farmers from around the country to come to Phnom Penh and show off their produce to the king.

But many Cambodians are extremely superstitious. And when the oxen ate eagerly, but turned their noses up at the water dish, people knew what was coming next.

The royal soothsayer predicted a plentiful harvest - but a lack of rain.

Last year, the rice harvest was the best on record.

But droughts have become a serious problem in recent years - and farmers are anxious that dry times will soon return.

[Janus]

Communicating with Vietnam&#39;s war dead


Originally posted by BBC News
Although the Vietnam War ended in 1975, some families are still searching for loved ones missing in action and are turning to psychics for help.

Every day Vietnamese army units hack through malarial jungles. Their single aim is to bring back the dead.

Even by conservative estimates, the war claimed the lives of more than three million Vietnamese, among them a million North Vietnamese soldiers.

Thirty years on, more than half are still missing.

As time passes, memories are fading and leads are running cold.

Meaningless numbers

On this occasion one group of veterans have been lucky.

In Chu Chi, ex-soldier Tran Van Ban gently wraps the remains of the missing men from the Cat Bi unit he served in.
Bamboo roots have burrowed through one soldier&#39;s skull.

The next day, the remains will be interned in the local martyrs cemetery, their graves marked unknown.

"All we can do is address them by some meaningless number," says Dr Ban, his face red with tears. "This is our sadness."

A handful of psychics are now carrying the hopes of countless families, desperate for closure to one of the bloodiest episodes of the 20th Century.
Wartime map


Bay is said to have found over 500 bodies in 2005

It can take up to a year to get an appointment to meet Nguyen Khac Bay.

Dozens of families arrive at his tiny apartment each day because they believe that Bay has the ability to communicate with the dead.

"Don&#39;t say a thing until I ask you," he says, staring at the family sitting opposite.

Suddenly Bay jolts to life.

"OK, got it."

He holds up a self-drawn map. Most importantly it includes a red circle, pinpointing what he claims is the final resting place of the missing relative.

The family later discover that it is a map of an area during the war, a map that is more than 30 years old.

DNA testing

Bay&#39;s base of operations is the Centre for Research into Human Capabilities.

Major-General Nguyen Chu Phac, is head of the centre&#39;s parapsychology department.



He has travelled the length of the country, testing the claims of hundreds of psychics.

Many, he concluded, were fraudsters.

So Chu Phac assembled what he believed were the country&#39;s best psychics for Project TK05, a study of how the living can communicate with the dead.

"The results of this work were assessed by a special committee from the national science council," wrote the New Hanoi newspaper. "The opinion of the committee was unanimous... the results were astounding."

Formed in 1987, the centre&#39;s psychics claimed to have located thousands of those missing in action, but concrete confirmation is hard to come by.

DNA testing is out of reach to most Vietnamese, as obtaining it requires both cash and influence.

But some cadres that Bay has helped have done DNA testing independently. The results have shown positive matches.

Line of communication

Vu Thi Minh Nghia - commonly known as Nam Nghia - is also a psychic, but she works alone.

Her home in the southern province of Ba Ria is a shrine to the estimated 4,000 soldiers she claims to have found.

Their pictures cover every available space. There are images of innocent youth frozen in black and white. A dozen coffins lay beneath them, ready for collection.

More than 400 others lie in a private cemetery.

Like Bay, Nghia attributes her ability to a near-death experience.

Guided, she says, by the spirits of soldiers, they appear to her as clearly as the living.

Last hope

Three days a month, she also performs séances for the relatives of missing soldiers.


Nghia, like Bay, refuses money from people who seek her help

Amid a cloud of incense smoke, Nghia calls the spirit of soldier Vu Cong Trach, father and husband to one of the dozen families before her.

Trach&#39;s family have spent nearly 40 years searching for his body.

Nam Nghia is their last hope.

The psychic has nothing to go on beyond an army death certificate stating place of death: "The south".

What the family hear over the next 10 minutes leaves them in no doubt.

"The information she gave me about my home, about it&#39;s layout, the types of tree there, it was just too exact," says Trach&#39;s son, his face still red with tears.

Even his wife&#39;s miscarriage is mentioned, which is a family secret.

Later that afternoon, the Vu family search for the grave. The directions seem exact.

For this family, the search is over.

"My mind is at rest," says Phuong, the soldier&#39;s now elderly widow.

"This is all I have ever wanted. Now I can die happily."

As for Nguyen Khac Bay, he says that after helping a family find a missing loved one, he feels he has "helped play a part in reducing the sadness in the country."

[red team]

Robertson: God says storms, possibly tsunami, will hit US in 2006

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson says God told him storms and possibly a tsunami will hit America&#39;s coastline this year.

Robertson has made the predictions at least four times in the past two weeks on his news-and-talk television show "The 700 Club" on the Christian Broadcasting Network, which he founded. Robertson said the revelations about this year&#39;s weather came to him during his annual personal prayer retreat in January.

"If I heard the Lord right about 2006, the coasts of America will be lashed by storms," Robertson said May 8. Wednesday, he added, "there well may be something as bad as a tsunami in the Pacific Northwest."

Robertson has come under intense criticism in recent months for comments suggesting that American agents should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon&#39;s stroke was divine retribution for Israel&#39;s pullout from the Gaza Strip.

Weather forecast by Pat Robertson

[Janus]

Kenya&#39;s &#39;Koranic fish&#39; disappears


Originally posted by BBC News
A fish with markings that resembled a Koranic text has disappeared from the Kenyan Fisheries Department in Mombasa.
The tuna fish, which had provoked intense interest from Muslims, was apparently stolen by people posing as National Museum officials.

The theft was discovered when the real official from the museum, based at Fort Jesus in Mombasa, came to get the fish.

The fish was being studied to find out if the Arabic inscription "You are the best provider" was natural or a hoax.

Sceptics say the writing was the work of someone who caught the fish and then threw it back into the sea.

But others say this would be impossible, and local imams are said to have been talking in the mosques about the fish.

Heritage

Over the weekend, people thronged to the Takaungu Fish Shop in Mombasa&#39;s old town after the owner noticed the tuna fish&#39;s remarkable markings.

It had been caught by fisherman Said Ali at the end of last week at Vanga, a small fishing port on the Kenyan coast, 50km south of Mombasa.

For safekeeping, the 2.5 kg (five pound) fish was moved to the fisheries department.

After being asked by Muslim leaders in Kenya, Kenya&#39;s National Museum had offered to take custody of the fish and preserve it for the country&#39;s heritage.

The reported theft follows numerous attempts by locals and Muslim scholars to buy the mysterious fish.

An official at the fisheries department in Mombasa said someone had even offered to pay as much as &#036;150.

Under normal circumstances the fish would fetch not more than &#036;6.

Officials from the museum and the country&#39;s fisheries department have launched a low-profile search for the stolen fish, fearing possible anger from Muslims if they hear it has been stolen.