Filipino pastor arrested for ‘abusing Islam’

ISTANBUL, Turkey — A criminal court in the United Arab Emirates has declared Filipino Pastor Fernando Alconga guilty of “abusing Islam” and conducting Christian missionary activity. Arrested five months ago for giving a Bible and Christian literature to an Arab Muslim at a Dubai shopping center, Alconga was jailed for five weeks and charged with a felony for “preaching other than the Islamic religion,” as forbidden in the Federal Criminal Code. A total of eight court hearings were conducted in his trial, which opened on Jan. 19. Announcing his verdict, Chief Judge Mahmood Fahmi Sultan of the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance suspended Alconga’s punishment because the court was of the opinion that the 54-year-old pastor would not repeat his crime.