Nigerian forces open fire at Shia mourners taking part in Ashura processions, killing at least nine people in the cities of Kaduna and Funtua, Press TV correspondent from the capital Abuja reports.

The killings on Wednesday came as mourners defied a state ban, holding processions in several cities to mark the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (Peace Be Upon Him), the third Shia Imam.

Tensions were already running high between the regime and Nigeria’s Shia Muslims who have been demanding the release of prominent cleric Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky from prison.

Heavily-armed troops in a convoy of 18 armored vehicles surrounded a gathering of mourners in Kaduna as an ambulance waited nearby, UK-based Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) said in a statement.

A local newspaper said the standoff was at the residence of senior Shia leader Muhtar Sahabi. It said armed soldiers and mobile police officers surrounded the compound and were waiting for those gathered inside to leave.

According to the Press TV correspondent, troops fired tear gas and live bullets at mourners in Funtua and Kaduna.

The confrontations follow a spate of arrests over recent days of members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), the mainstream Shia group led by Sheikh Zakzaky.

The government has imposed a ban to prevent the movement’s supporters from attending ceremonies commemorating the month of Muharram during which Imam Hussein (PBUH) and his 72 companions were martyred 14 centuries ago.

The killings on Wednesday revive the memory of the run-up to the massacre last December of hundreds of IMN supporters by the army and the arrest of Sheikh Zakzaky.

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The Nigerian state of Kaduna has declared a mainstream Shia group led by Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky as illegal as a state crackdown against the Muslim community continues. The Kaduna state government warned on Friday that those convicted of being a member of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) could be imprisoned for seven years, fined or both.

It further claimed that the Shia group had “overtly continued with unlawful processions” and “obstruction of public highways” since last December when the Army forces clashed with the IMN members. “These acts, if allowed to go unchecked will constitute danger to the peace, tranquility, harmonious coexistence and good governance of Kaduna state,” the Nigerian state added.

On December 12, 2015, Nigerian soldiers attacked Shia Muslims attending a ceremony at a religious center in the city of Zaria in Kaduna, accusing them of blocking the convoy of the army’s chief of staff and attempting to assassinate him.

The following day, Nigerian forces also raided the home of the IMN leader, Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, and arrested the prominent cleric after reportedly killing those attempting to protect him. A judicial inquiry concluded in August that the Nigerian army killed 348 members of the religious community during the two-day raids.

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Pope Francis has held a mass in a largely empty stadium in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, as the majority of officials with the Orthodox Christian Church in the country had allegedly asked followers not to attend the event.

The pontiff visited Georgia on Saturday as part of a three-day tour in the Caucasus region. Only a few thousand people participated in the open-air mass at the Meshki stadium with a capacity of 25,000.

According to reports, the event hosted one of the smallest crowds ever seen at an outdoor papal mass during foreign visits.

“As long as there are dogmatic differences between our churches, Orthodox believers will not participate in their prayers,” the Orthodox patriarchate said on its website, referring to the Catholics.

A Georgian priest was quoted as saying that the low attendance at the event was as a protest against Catholic attempts to convert Orthodox Christians. Pope Francis, during the ceremony, also called for peaceful “coexistence” in the volatile region.

After Georgia, the Pope arrived in neighboring Azerbaijan, which has fewer than 300 Catholics in its overwhelmingly Muslim population.

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About 1.5 million Muslims from across the world have started to observe the Day of Arafat, an occasion for repentance and supplication considered as the pinnacle of the annual Hajj pilgrimage. On Sunday, the worshipers began day-long prayers and recitals of the holy book of Qur’an on a rocky hill known as Mount Arafat, east of the Saudi city of Mecca, where Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) gave his last Hajj sermon.

The Day of Arafat falls on Dhu al-Hijjah 9, the final month in the Islamic calendar.  It comes one day before Eid al-Adha (the Feast of Sacrifice). After preliminary rituals this week at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the pilgrims moved eastwards on Saturday to Mina neighborhood and then several kilometers further to Mount Arafat. The worshipers are following in the footsteps of Prophet Muhammad, who performed the same rituals about 1,400 years ago. Muslim pilgrims mark the Day of Arafat on Mount Arafat, east of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, September 11, 2016.

For the first time in more than three decades, Saudi Arabia’s radical Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Sheikh will not be delivering this year’s Hajj sermon. He preaches Wahhabism, a radical “ideology” that inspires Takfiri terrorists across the world.

Iranians are not attending the Hajj pilgrimage this year because of the failure of Saudi authorities to ensure the pilgrims’ safety following last year’s human crush during the rituals in Mina. The tragic incident took place when two large masses of pilgrims converged at a crossroads during the symbolic ceremony of the stoning of Satan in Jamarat in September 2015.

Saudi Arabia claims that nearly 770 people were killed in the incident; however, Iran, which had the greatest number of deaths among foreign nationals, has put the death toll at about 4,700. The Hajj is one of the five pillars of the holy faith of Islam that every able-bodied and financially able Muslim is obliged to undertake during their lifetime.

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A popular South African pastor died after attempting dry fasting which the Prince of Peace did for 40 days.  The South African pastor reportedly told his followers that he would match Jesus Christ by depriving himself of food and water in the bush for 40 days.

Pastor Alfred Ndlovu, aged 44 in an attempt to break the record of Jesus Christ who fasted for 40 days, left home for the bush on June the 17, 2016.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered he starved himself just for 30 days and traveled to the land of his ancestors. His body was found by a passer-by who informed the police.

By Chi Prudence Asong (Cameroon Intelligence Report)

Muslims and Christians have taken part in Friday prayers at a mosque in the northern Normandy region to pay tribute to an elderly priest who was recently killed by terrorists.

The service was held at the Yahya mosque in the town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, with a sign holding outside the house of worshipping hall reading “Mosque in mourning.”

Anouar Kbibech, the head of Franc’s main Muslim organization, the CFCM, attended Friday’s gathering, calling on Muslims to visit churches on Sunday to show solidarity with Christians as they pray.

On July 26, two knife-wielding assailants, identified as Adel Kermiche and Abdel-Malik Nabil Petitjean, interrupted a service at the St. Etienne church.

They forced the 85-year-old parish priest, Father Jacques Hamel, to his knees and slit his throat. Two nuns and an elderly couple were also held hostage until the attackers were shot dead by police.

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Pope Francis expressed his “pain and horror” Tuesday after two knife-wielding men in northern France took a number of people hostage at a church and killed a priest.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the leader of the Roman Catholic Church had been particularly appalled by the “barbaric killing” that happened in a sacred place.

“The pope… participates in the pain and horror of this absurd violence,” media outlets quoted Lombardi as saying, adding that the attack created “immense pain and worry.”

The Tuesday attack hits particularly hard “because this horrific violence took place in a church, a sacred place in which the love of God is announced, and the barbaric murder of a priest and the involvement of the faithful,” the Vatican spokesman stated.

Lombardi described the attack “more terrible news that adds to a series of violence in these days that have left us upset, creating immense pain and worry.”

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An appeals court in Nigeria has ruled against a ban on Nigerian Muslim girls to wear the headscarf to schools in the southwestern state of Lagos. The appeals court in Lagos overturned an earlier ruling in 2013 that had banned the right to hijab in government schools in the state. The new ruling “has restored hope in the judiciary,” said Ishaq Akintola, the director of the Muslim Rights Concern group. Also, in the southwestern state of Osun, the High Court ruled last month that any harassment of girls exercising their choice of hijab constituted an infringement on their rights.

Nigeria has an estimated population of about 170 million people and is almost equally divided between a mainly-Muslim north and a predominantly-Christian south. Secretary-General Ishaq Oloyede of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Nigeria has suggested that the anti-hijab campaign in some parts of the country’s Christian-dominated areas is an effort by religious extremists to force Muslim girls into an unacceptable choice between schooling and religion.

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A Catholic priest in Canada has been legally charged with theft and gambling away more than 500,000 Canadian dollars (US$380,000) in donations for the resettlement of Syrian and Iraqi refugees arriving in the country.

The 51-year-old clergyman of the Iraq-based Chaldean Catholic church, identified as Amer Saka, had allegedly collected the funds from over 20 donors under the pretext of providing support for the refugees, Canadian police authorities said.

“This investigation spanned throughout the province of Ontario, the United States and other countries where refugees were attempting to come to Canada,” police in London, Ontario, said in a statement.

This is while the head of Canada’s Chaldean Catholic church Bishop Emanuel Shaleta told the local London Free Press that Saka had contacted him to confess he had indeed gambled and lost all of the collected funds.

According to the report, the Catholic priest had been involved in a sponsorship program for refugees for a number of years. He was reportedly sacked by the diocese of Hamilton, Ontario, after local police launched a probe into the case back in February.

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