Stop! (BANG) Or I'll shoot!

In case you were wondering, it's probably not a great idea to be hanging out in the Toronto entertainment district at 3:15 a.m. Especially if you're in a luxury Lincoln SUV and you've got a ponytail.

In February of 2006, Toronto police officers arrested Irshad Ahmed and Omar Betty for failure to stop, failure to comply, and obstructing police.

Their trial is currently being conducted at Old City Hall, and some interesting evidence has emerged in the form of a voice mail recording.

When Ahmed and Betty were stopped by police, Ahmed immediately called his lawyer. (Oh, like you don't have your lawyer on speed dial?) It turned out to be an ingenious decision, as his lawyer's answering machine captured the entire exchange between the suspects and the police.

And what an exchange! The tape captures officers telling Ahmed and Betty to open the doors and get out of their vehicle. When the two did not immediately comply, the police smashed the window open and used a taser on Ahmed.

He was then handcuffed and placed on the ground.

What was particularly striking was the contrast between the profanity used by the police and the seemingly compliant behaviour of Ahmed, who repeatedly addressed the officer as "sir."

As well, one of the officers on the tape can clearly be heard to tell Ahmed, "I'll break your fucking ponytail," which, you've got to admit, is a pretty stylish and creative threat, even if it's not entirely practical.

At the trail last week this tape was taken from the lawyers answering machine and introduced by the defense into evidence of excessive force by the police, namely Constable David Rubbini. (Below)

Officer (Rubbini): Open the door!

Ahmed: Why sir? Why sir?

Officer: I am warning you.

Ahmed: Can you tell me one more time why I am under arrest?

Officer: Open the door now (police dog can be heard barking). Open the door now. Get out the door now! (at this point police smash the driver and passenger side windows of the car).

Ahmed: Whoa. Whoa. Hold up, hold up. I'm coming out. I'm coming out. I'm coming out sir. I'm coming out. I'm coming out sir.

Officer: Get out the fucking door. Get out the fucking door.

Ahmed: Sir, I am coming out. Can you relax? Can you relax?

Officer: Get the fuck out.

Ahmed: I'm coming out sir. I'm opening the door. I'm opening the door sir. I'm opening the door. I'm opening the door. (screaming is heard as Ahmed, who is on the driver's side, is hit by a taser shot, fired by an officer on the passenger side of the car).

Officer: Unlock the door now. Get on the ground or I will let the dog in. On the ground. On the ground.

Ahmed: Okay (Ahmed is now placed on the ground face first in the broken glass and handcuffed behind his back. A police dog can be heard barking loudly on the tape and there are sounds of police and paramedics talking on the radio).

Officer: I'll break your fucking ponytail (Ahmed has his hair in a ponytail).

Ahmed: (inaudible)

Officer: Yeah, you're right. You lost. You fucking lost....don't ever fuck with us.

THERE IT IS FOLKS, YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK!

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

Jesus Christ, I was only kidding, honest!

This is the tale of Bahaa El Din Al Akkad, a 57 year old Egyptian, ex-Muslim Sheikh who converted to Christianity more than a year ago and was arrested by Egyptian State Security and thrown in Jail.

No real charges except "Blasphemy against Islam!"

While not every Christian convert is arrested and thrown in jail in Egypt, it would make sense for the State Security Agency to arrest this guy. He used to be in Tabligh and Daawa (which is the movement to spread the word of Islam and convert people) and he used to preach in a Mosque.

If word of his conversion ever came out it could cause a huge ruckus in Egypt and inflame lots of people. Hell, he could get killed and that would spark the debate on why Muslims can't convert to Christianity to begin with. (Apostates)

The Christians would get up in arms, the Islamists would one-up them in violence and voila, you get yourself a nice case of secterian strife and conflict.

So, instead of addressing the situation or trying to fix the problem, SSI decided to employ their usual quick and dirty solution and jail the guy.

Silencing him would be far easier and less work for them than to actually confront this very real issue.

Said one blogger from Egypt:

After contacting a couple of people who are involved in such cases in terms of human rights, the word came back that this story is actually true. They have known about it for a while now and have been in contact with the guy's lawyer. They plan on coming out soon with their own statements.

So I figured I would tell you guys first. This is for real. The guy got arrested for converting to Christinaity and has been rotting in prison for the past 18 months for it.

I don't think I need to tell you how much of a violation to his rights this is, but then again this is Egypt and we really have no rights to speak of. But yeah, spread the word and maybe we can create enough pressure on the authorities to get this guy out!

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God-101 (what the church doesn't want you to know!) at; www.God-101.com
And the petition to have people mind their own business instead of yours at; http://www.petitiononline.com/moses/petition.html