“Infidels,” or non-Muslims, or the wrong kinds of Muslims (Alawites and Shia for example) are often seen as the natural recipients of Islamic violence, or jihad, as prescribed by Islamic law, the Sharia.

Few, however, are aware exactly how Sharia can cause individual Muslims to do violence upon themselves.

Last week, December 5, Arabic news website Masrawy published a full report and interview with Ali Afifi, an Egyptian man who did just that—violently cut off both his hands to punish himself for, and prevent himself from, stealing, “according to Islamic Sharia.” A summary of the report follows:

Four years ago, in Elgharbeya province, Egypt, 28-year-old Ali Afifi placed his left hand on the train tracks to be amputated by the wheels of a running train without using any anesthetics.

Upon reviving, he went to the townspeople to show the stump of his bloodied arm while yelling at the top of his lungs, “People, I was a thief, and praise Allah, he has forgiven me.” He repeated this multiple times, while passersby looked shocked.

Normative Islamic law calls for the amputation of the hands of thieves, per Koran 5:38.

Ali began his career as a thief at a very young age; however, one day he decided to stop being a thief and to find honest work. Despite his best efforts, the harder he tried to quit stealing the more intense was the comeback. He was unable, as he put it, to overcome “the devil’s whisperings” in his ears.

According to Ali: “I started at a young age. In first grade I stole other students’ pens and sandwiches. When I grew up, I began to steal cell phones, gold, and money. I performed over one hundred robberies and was arrested multiple times, but I was a smart thief, always able to avoid making the charges stick.”

Ali’s dad works as a Muezzin at one of the mosques and tried many times to dissuade him from being a thief, which caused problems between father and son. Ali’s father took him to many Muslim sheikhs and clerics, and Ali asked them to amputate his hand “in accordance with Islamic Sharia.” The sheikhs refused, claiming that only the ruler can make such rulings, and that there are authorities responsible for dealing with such issues. One of the sheikhs encouraged Ali to repent once and for all.

Ali said angrily, “Most of these sheikhs traded with religion and refused to implement the Sharia [law] of Allah.”

The problems between Ali and his father continued, until father decided to take son to a psychiatric center to help him quit stealing. But this also failed, because Ali continued to steal with his right hand (after having amputated his left hand).

Said Ali: “I saw that I did not deserve Allah’s mercy unless I amputated my other hand. Shortly before January’s revolution [2011], I myself amputated my right hand using the same method I used for amputating my left hand [placing it under a speeding train]. I did this because I discovered that nothing was changing; I cannot repent unless I amputate my hand. Thus, I became the authority [sultan], judge, and executioner.”

Ali continued: “I went to the railroad tracks with joy, placing my right hand under the wheels of the train, experiencing peace of mind knowing that I will not steal again. Despite feeling this peace of mind as a result of my repentance to Allah, my family and neighbors were in shock.”

Ali now lives with his family, consisting of his parents and four siblings, in a modest home. He says with sorrow, “I only receive 215 Egyptian pounds from the department of Social Affairs, but I cannot live on this amount of money.”

The repentant thief asks the government to provide honest work for him, or a special stipend, and an apartment to help him build a new life, so that he can support his family and get married. He also requested that King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia host him, as the first thief in the world to apply Islamic Sharia upon himself.

Ali also prays that he becomes a role model for every repentant Muslim. And he wishes that authorities would implement Islamic Sharia as he applied it to himself, adding with disappointment, “I applied the punishment of Islamic Sharia on myself and amputated my hands, but the Muslim Brotherhood did not implement Islamic Sharia.”

While many in the West will deem Ali “insane,” it is important to note that, according to Islamic Sharia—which those clerics he consulted with are learned in—insane thieves should not have their hands amputated, suggesting that those clerics who tried to dissuade him did not deem him insane, otherwise they would have used that line of reasoning with him.

See update below denying that the bishop was targeted

Followers of the Muslim Brotherhood reportedly tried to assault Coptic Bishop Paul (“Boula” in Arabic), who represents the Coptic Church in Egypt’s 50-member constitution committee, during his visit to the inauguration of Coptic Bishop David in New Jersey.

According to Coptic-American activist Adel Hanna, as reported by Ahram Canada on December 12, “Hundreds of followers of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States tried to attack the main hall where Bishop Paul was giving his first lecture in the state of New Jersey on the new constitution [of Egypt]…. they smashed the main gate and destroyed the seats of the main hall, until the FBI intervened, taking them out of the place.”

New Jersey has a relatively large Egyptian population, both Copts and Muslims. Thus, if true, it is not surprising to see the same bullying tactics that prevail in Egypt coming to America, according to “Islam’s Rule of Numbers.”

Update: A new report published hours ago, appearing via email, denies major portions of this story, as was reported by Canada Ahram and other Arabic language media yesterday. Apparently Bishop Paul was not directly targeted. Rather, it was a meeting specifically about the new constitution in Egypt, where both Bishops Paul and David and other Egyptian leaders attended. At the back of the hall four Muslim Brotherhood protesters began to cause a disturbance, a fight broke out, one Copt was injured, and New Jersey police had to come to remove the protesters.

CBN News

Why was Ronald Thomas Smith II, an American teaching at Benghazi’s International School, shot to death last Thursday in Libya, even as he “was looking forward to his first Christmas in the United States with his wife and toddler son”?

Most Western media and analysts dismiss the killing as a random act of violence incited by a recent al-Qaeda video.

However, by connecting the dots and looking at precedence, it appears that Smith’s Christianity, specifically his talking about it among Muslims, was the motive behind the slaying.

First consider two facts gleaned from the AP report, “American killed in Benghazi remembered as ‘much loved teacher’”: 1) Smith once had plans to attend seminary, a place devoted to preparing Christians to share the Gospel—a crime according to Islamic law (recall the Coptic Christians tortured and killed on the accusation that they were proselytizing in Libya); 2) according to his home church in Texas, “Ronnie’s [Smith’s] greatest desire was for peace and prosperity in Libya and for the people of Libya to have the joy of knowing God through Christ” (emphasis added).

Then there is the fact that Smith was a “much loved teacher”—a phrase that immediately, if not eerily, brings to mind another very similar story of another “much beloved” American teacher who was killed in the Islamic world for talking about Christianity.

On March 1, 2012 in Iraq, Jeremiah Small—described as “beloved teacher and friend”—was shot to death by a student, even “as he [Small] bent his head to pray at the start of a morning class. The 33-year-old teacher from Washington State took bullets to the head and chest and died at the scene.” According to students, “Mr. Jeremiah’s hands were still folded in prayer when he fell.” A day before the shooting “a heated discussion” broke out “during which the pupil threatened to kill the teacher because of conflicting religious views.”

As with Smith, Small was described as a very devoted teacher and friend to his students; and as with Smith, the official story as reported by mainstream media, such as the Wall Street Journal, is that the motive for his murder was a “mystery.”

Yet, according to interviews with family and friends, Small “was a devout Christian who frequently praised Christianity and prayed in the classroom, and his friends in Washington said his evangelism is what motivated him to teach in Iraq… but he wasn’t pushy.” Moreover, the father of the student who killed Small, before killing himself, said that Small was trying to convert his son to Christianity and described Christians like the slain American teacher as “more dangerous than al-Qaeda.”

The fact is, Americans attacked and/or murdered for merely talking—or being suspected of talking—about Christianity is not an uncommon phenomenon in the Islamic world.

Thus, a few days after the killing of Jeremiah Small in Iraq, on March 18, 2012, yet another American teacher, Joel Shrum, 29, living in Yemen with his wife and two children, was shot eight times and killed by gunmen and members of the Supporters of Sharia (which operates a wing in the new Libya created by the U.S.). The group later issued a message saying, “This operation comes as a response to the campaign of Christian proselytizing that the West has launched against Muslims,” calling Shrum “one of the biggest American proselytizers.”

Lest there is still any doubt concerning the violence that often sparks up when Christians, in this case, Americans, are seen as sharing the Gospel with Muslims, consider the following anecdotes, both from Muslim countries regularly touted for being “moderate”:

In Indonesia, October 2011, after they were accused of proselytizing to Muslims, an American family was attacked by “an enraged mob spurred by a local religious leader”; the Muslim mob set fire to Americans’ property and vehicle: “Only the intervention of police saved the[ir] lives.”

In Bangladesh, February 2012, three American Christians were injured by broken glass after their car was attacked by another Muslim mob that suspected they were converting Muslims: at least 200 angry locals chased their car, throwing stones at it.

As for the Obama administration’s response to the murder of Smith, it asked the Libyan government to “thoroughly investigate” the killing—a somewhat pointless request, considering the U.S.-supported Libyan government openly arrests Westerners accused of “proselytizing,” threatening them with the death penalty.

And that’s the point: while Western media and their talking heads habitually dismiss such coldblooded murders as “random” and “mysterious,” incited by al-Qaeda—that one blame-all “terrorist” organization that everything can be heaped upon—the unspoken fact is that these attacks are products of Islamic teachings; in this case, that openly challenging the truths of Islam with another set of truths—such as the Gospel—is strictly forbidden, often on pain of death.