Anti-conversion becomes law in India

From Christian Today

On 19 February, the governor of Himachal Pradesh state, Shri Justice Vishnu Sadashiv Kokje, gave his assent to the anti-conversion law passed by the state legislature on 29 December 2006. The bill has now passed into law.

Himachal Pradesh is a mostly mountainous state in northern India.

Minority groups had expressed grave concern that the ‘Himachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Bill, 2006’ was passed by the secular Congress Party, after similar laws were passed and strengthened in states ruled by the Hindu fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) last year. The All India Christian Council (AICC) is considering a legal challenge to the law at the Supreme Court.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) previously reported that Christians faced a fresh wave of harassment by Hindu extremist groups after the bill was passed. Further attacks have subsequently taken place.

Dr Joseph D’souza, President of the Dalit Freedom Network and the All India Christian Council, said, It is highly regrettable that the secular Congress government in Himachal Pradesh has chosen to pass this law, which severely undercuts the fundamental right to freedom of religion, particularly for exploited Dalits and tribals.

Husband murders family for becoming too westernised

From The Telegraph

A father killed his wife and four daughters in their sleep because he could not bear them adopting a more westernised lifestyle, an inquest heard yesterday.

Mohammed Riaz found it abhorrent that his eldest daughter wanted to be a fashion designer, and that she and her sisters were likely to reject the Muslim tradition of arranged marriages.

On Hallowe'en last year he sprayed petrol throughout their terraced home in Accrington, Lancs, and set it alight killing his family. Riaz, who had spent the evening drinking, set himself on fire and died two days later.

Michael Singleton, the coroner, recorded verdicts that Riaz killed himself and that his victims were unlawfully killed.

Riaz, who had spent all but the last 17 years of his life in the North West Frontier region of Pakistan, met his Anglo-Pakistani wife when her father sent her to the sub-continent to find a husband. After an arranged marriage, she developed a career as a community leader in Accrington while he, handicapped by a lack of English, took on a series of low-paid jobs.

After Mrs Riaz's father died she suddenly felt less beholden to Mohammed, a friend said. She started to develop her own circle of friends and allowed the girls to express themselves in a more western way. She began to work with women who felt suppressed by Asian culture and many saw her as a role model for young Asian women.

Spanish religion teachers can be sacked for their 'sins'

From The Guardian see full article

The Roman Catholic church in Spain has the right to fire religion teachers at state schools for what it deems to be inappropriate private conduct, such as an extramarital relationship, the Spanish constitutional court has ruled.

The verdict ended a six-year legal battle by a former teacher of Catholic church dogma who was fired from a school for having a sentimental relationship with a man who was not her husband, from whom she had separated, according to the decision.

The teacher, María del Carmen Galayo, claimed the church's dismissal violated her constitutional right to privacy and religious freedom, and her lawsuit questioned the church's traditional control over religious teachings in state-funded schools.

Galayo is one of 14 teachers who sued the state after the church hierarchy fired them for supposed personal transgressions such as living with a divorced man or going out for a couple of drinks, said Alfredo Sepúlveda, head of the USIT union representing 14,000 Catholic religion teachers in state schools: This verdict legitimises the persecution of religion teachers in a way that is inconceivable in a state governed by the rule of law.

In its 41-page decision, the constitutional court upheld the church's power to appoint Catholic religion teachers based on what it considers moral criteria, arguing that the catechism job is not "a usual business" and the job requirements, therefore, may include offering testimony of living a Christian life.

Crazed exorcists jailed for killing their victim

Based on an article from The Scotsman see full article

An orthodox priest and four nuns have been sentenced to a total of 38 years' jail in Romania after they were convicted of killing a young nun who died when they left her strapped to a crucifix with a cloth stuck in her mouth during a five-day exorcism ritual.

Father Petru Corogeanu was jailed for 15 years, Sister Nicoleta Arcalianu for eight years, and Sisters Adina Cepreaga, Simona Bardanas and Elena Otel for five years each. They were also ordered to pay £1,700 compensation to the dead nun's parents.

They told the court in Vaslui, eastern Romania, that they had performed an exorcism to try and help 23-year-old Irina Cornici, and pleaded not guilty to charges of illegally detaining a person against her will and causing her death.

The five kept Cornici locked in a room for five days at the Tanacu Monastery, hanging on a cross with no water or food and a towel stuck in her mouth, in June 2005. They said at the time that she had been possessed by Satan and that they had been compelled to carry out an exorcism.

But the young woman fell unconscious after a few days and never recovered.

It emerged after her death that Cornici had been diagnosed as a schizophrenic and her "possession" was unlikely to have been more than a series of schizophrenic episodes.

But Corogeanu told the court during a 45-minute hearing that the exorcism ritual he and the nuns had performed was "quite normal" and blamed doctors who attended to Cornici for her death: I never thought for a second that she had a medical problem. I realised from her very first seizure that she had a spiritual problem. She was acting as if she had supernatural powers and I realised she was possessed by a demon. Everybody in the monastery believed the same thing. The ritual we performed on the young nun is quite ordinary in 90 per cent of Romanian monasteries.

But the Romanian Orthodox Church excommunicated him soon after the nun's death and said the ritual is against any Church teachings.

Just family murderers

From Stop Honour Killings

In Syria, recently, two sixteen year-old-girls were murdered in so-called 'honour' killings in the space of two days. On the 21st January Sheren was murdered by her brother; she was six months pregnant. Zahra was murdered on the 22nd by her brother; a newlywed, she had been kidnapped by a family friend in the first month of her marriage. Her kidnapper was convicted and jailed; however her 'honour' was percieved as being permanently tarnished, a stain that could only be removed by her blood.

According to the Christian Science Monitor, some experts estimate that 200-300 murders are committed in the name of 'honour' every year.

Syrian law allows for reduced sentences in the case of a murder committed in the name of so-called 'honour': according to Article 548 of the Syrian Legal Code:

1. He who catches his wife, or one of his ascendants, descendents or sister committing adultery (flagrante delicto) or illegitimate sex acts with another and he kills or injures one of both of them benefits from an exemption of penalty.
2. He who catches his wife, or one of his ascendants, descendents or sister in a suspicious state (attitude equivoce) with another and he kills or injures one of both of them benefits from an exemption of penalty.

This and other articles create an environment where so-called 'honour' crimes are effectively decrimninalised.

According to NESASY, the organisation for Syrian women, these murderers rarely serve more than a few months in jail, even when they are tried and convicted. After the shocking murders of Sheren and Zahra, many Syrian voices are united in calling for reforms the Syrian Legal Code, including the grand mufti of Syria; to send a clear signal that the brutality of so-called 'honour' killing can no longer be tolerated, that tolerating such crimes brings shame to the country.

We ask you to join with NESASY and other progressive Syrian organisations in calling for legal reform.

To support NESASY's campaign (which has over 10,000 signatories already from within Syria) please send an email with your name, address [and organisation if relevent] to nesasy@gmail.com with the subject line "I agree for Stop women killing. Stop honor crimes!"

Blogger sentenced to 4 years in jail

From The Independent
See also www.FreeKareem.org

An Egyptian blogger was sentenced to four years in jail yesterday for articles published on his website.

Abdel Kareem Soliman, 22, a former law student from Alexandria who used the internet alias Kareem Amer, was convicted of inciting hatred of Islam and insulting the President, Hosni Mubarak.

The harsh sentence marked the first time that an Egyptian blogger has been formally prosecuted for an opinion published online. Gamal Eid, part of Soliman's defence team, said: This is a dark day for all who are interested in freedom of expression and belief in Egypt. Four years is too much, we were expecting no more than one year. He is just a student, and hasn't committed any crime - he has just published his opinion.

Soliman was arrested last November, following a complaint by al-Azhar University, his former place of study and Sunni Islam's most important institution. He had referred in his blog to companions of the Prophet Mohamed as "terrorists", to al-Azhar as "the university of terrorism" and to President Mubarak as the "symbol of dictatorship".

Amnesty International said the conviction was a slap in the face for freedom of expression and added that the internet was the new front in the battle between those who want to speak out and those who would stop them.

While the Egyptian government refused to comment on the case, Soliman's provocative writing won him few sympathisers in Egypt's mostly conservative, Muslim society. Many believe that he went too far and the case has brought to the fore a debate about the limits of free speech in a predominantly religious society. A lawyer, who attended the court, said: I was hoping that he would get a harsher sentence... There are things that one should not talk about, like religion and politics. He should have got a 10-year sentence.

Soliman's lawyers are preparing his appeal.

A sample of Kareem's blogging

From MediawatchWatch
See also www.FreeKareem.org

Here is a transcript of one of the articles which got him Abdel Kareem Soliman banged up for 4 years:

The Naked Truth of Islam As I Saw It In Maharam Bey Riots

The Muslims have taken the mask off to show their true hateful face, and they have shown the world that they are at the top of their brutality, inhumanity, and thievery.

They have clearly shown their worst features and have shown that in dealing with others they are not governed by any moral codes.

From what I have seen yesterday of the events at Maharram Beh, which were quite shameful, and have shown me more facts that they have tried to cover over the centuries.

They have indicated that Islam is a religion of peace and forgiveness, but their true face has been uncovered to show barbarism and thievery and fanaticism and not acknowledging others, and attempting to remove them from existence.

Some may think that the actions of the Moslems does not represent Islam and has no relationship with the teachings of Islam that was brought by Mohamed 14 centuries ago, but the truth is that their actions is not different from the Islamic teachings in its original form when it has urged people to deny others and hate them and kill them and take their property, things that they know well but they try to deceive people by falsely defending the teachings of Islam by extremists and they are hiding from the truth and they prefer living a lie.

I have seen with my own eyes the thugs as they break into our Christian brothers’ stores after the whole area of Maharram Beh was completely out of control of the government authorities, and I saw them as they ransack the contents of the store right and left, amidst cheering and shouting extremist Islamic slogans, and I saw them stealing the money from inside the drawers of the cash registers and splitting it among themselves as if it is justified by being owned by what they call the infidels and the worshippers of the cross.

I saw them break into a liquor store owned by a Coptic merchant Labib Lotfy and I saw them smash everything they can get their dirty hands on, including the refrigerator and the scale and the boxes and liquor bottles. I saw some of them stealing liquor bottles so they can get drunk after a hard day’s work against the Coptic infidels.

It is worth mentioning that although some people may think that this Christian-owned liquor store was particularly targeted because the owner is selling the forbidden alcoholic beverages that is forbidden in Islam, but another liquor store in front of the Christian-owned store happens to be owned by a Moslem merchant, and none of the thugs dared to attack, as they did with the Christian-owned store. Now you can see the hateful sectarian actions.

What the Moslems did yesterday in a very vulgar and criminal and horrible way proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that they don’t acknowledge others or their rights of existence or their rights to live with the freedom of expression and also consider them less than them, and these actions should be fought and exterminated for is it right to leave these horrible human beings to do what they want and kill, destroy, steal, and burn??!!

The Islamic teachings that was brought by Mohammed 14 centuries ago should be faced with courage and boldness, we should expose and show its faults and warn humanity of its dangers. We should, even though we are different –look with reason to these teachings that urges people, human beings, to become monsters that don’t know anything in life except killing and looting and plundering and raping and pillaging.

We should stand courageously and boldly against these teachings that became a plague on humanity and is not supported except by extremists like bin Laden and al Zarqawi and al Zawaheeri and the thugs that assaulted our Coptic brothers and burned their homes and stole their properties, and tried to assault their religious men and destroy their churches.

We should take off the religious and sectarian gown and look at matters in a more humane way. We should hold trials to all the acts of terrorism and extremism, that our Islamic history have kept their names and their criminal actions starting with Mohamed ibn Abdullah and his company of murderers like Khalid ibn el Waled and Omar ibn el Khattab and Saad ibn Abbi Waqqas and Moiizah Bin Shaabah and Samra bin Gandab and the kings of Beni Ummaya and Beni al Abbass and al Osman, and ending with the Moslem criminals of the modern day that became more famous than movie stars and singers.

We should show the world the truth of these criminals that unfortunately have become role models for our youth and our children and our women. We should expose their false teachings and show the world that they are a big danger that should be exterminated and removed from its roots.

Before you put on trial the people that are responsible for the crimes that occurred on Black Friday in Maharram Beh, you should first put on trial the dirty teachings that caused them to go on a rampage of stealing and plundering and looting.. put Islam on trial and sentence it and its symbols with a figurative execution so that you can be sure that what happened yesterday will never be repeated again.

For as long as Islam exists on this planet all your efforts to end wars and disputes and upheavals will fail because Islam’s dirty finger will be found behind every catastrophic event to humanity.

Malaysian PM turns down idea for secret snitches

From News.com.au

Malaysia has shot down a controversial plan by state officials to recruit Islamic "spies" to snoop on unmarried lovers and report them to religious authorities.

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, himself an Islamic scholar, disapproved of the move, saying there were more activities beneficial to Muslims that state religious authorities could focus on: Why should we ask people to spy and then reward them?

This week a religious official in Terengganu state said the Government would enlist the public, including hotel waitresses or janitors, as part-time spies to sniff out un-Islamic behaviour, such as unmarried couples kissing or holding hands.

But Badawi said the move to snoop on people could be misunderstood by Muslims and non-Muslims, noting that existing sharia or Islamic religious laws governed immoral behaviour and other negative activities. He urged religious authorities and sharia courts to focus on clearing an existing large backlog of cases instead.

Saudi families force happily married couples to divorce

From The Independent

Fatima al-Timani is facing the end of her sixth month in prison in the Saudi town of Damman. Her only crime is to refuse to be separated from the man to whom she had been happily married for the past four years and with whom she has two children.

Fatima is the latest victim of a growing practice in the oil-rich Saudi kingdom of forced divorce, when disgruntled relatives have used hardline Islamic courts to dissolve matches against the will of the married couple.

The plight of Fatima, who was pregnant when court proceedings began in 2005 and is now in prison with her one-year-old son, Suleiman, has drawn widespread public sympathy in the tightly controlled kingdom.

Fatima is forbidden from seeing her husband, Mansour al-Timani. He now looks after their two-year old-son Noha, who has only been allowed occasional visits to his mother. Fatima's relatives have accused Mansour of lying about his tribal background to win their father's approval for the marriage and want it annulled so she can have an arranged marriage to a spouse of their choosing.

She was arrested in October of last year in the city of Jeddah and charged with living illegally with Mansour. The couple's efforts to be reunited suffered a further setback this month when an appeals court in the capital, Riyadh, upheld the original ruling forcing the divorce.

Mansour said he will not accept the appeals court ruling and that he still considers Fatima his wife: This ruling is a non-Islamic one and, therefore, I refuse to acknowledge it.

A human rights activist, Fawziya Al-Ouyoni, one of the women behind a petition calling on Saudi's King Abdullah to personally intervene said: When the divorce is carried out with the couple's approval then this is just the way it happens all over the world. But when the divorce is forced on the couple with an order from a high court then that is a massive disaster.

Saudi Arabia has possibly the worst record on women's rights of any country. The kingdom has been ruled since the 1920s by the House of Saud whose clerical allies, the Wahhabists, have imposed an austere state faith on what had been a religiously diverse mixture of Muslims with Sunni, Shia and Sufi communities.

Dr Irfan Al Alawi a British Muslim and director for The Centre for Islamic Pluralism based in London, said that the case was not an isolated incident and that as many as 19 forced divorces were working their way through the courts.

Update: Human Rights Watch

19th July 2007

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) also for the release of Fatima Azzaz and her son from detention and "immediate redress" for the beleaguered couple.

HRW calls on Saudi authorities to "unconditionally release Fatima Azzaz and her son, and to end the harassment of her husband, Mansur Timani," the rights watchdog said in a statement.

A woman and her son are being held prisoner because of discriminatory male guardianship laws, said HRW's Middle East director, Sarah Leah Whitson.

Her husband faces the threat of imprisonment and of having to abandon their daughter, who is in his custody. The litany of human rights violations that this case involves is indefensible, and the Saudi government must provide immediate redress.

HRW said it has urged King Abdullah to refer the case to the Supreme Judicial Council to "correct the unjust decision."

The group hopes the case will be reviewed by "the highest authority in the land," meaning the king or Crown Prince Sultan, Kahtani said.

Woman politician murdered by fundamentalist for being a woman politician

From The Times

An Islamic fundamentalist shot and killed a female Pakistani minister yesterday because of her refusal to wear a Muslim veil.

Police said that the bearded attacker had singled out the prominent women’s rights activist in the belief that women should not be in politics.

Zilla Huma Usman, the Punjab provincial minister for social welfare and supporter of President Musharraf, was shot as she prepared to address a public gathering in the town of Gujranwala. As party members threw rose petals at her, the gunman shot her in the head, police said. They identified the attacker as Malulvi Ghulam Sarwar and said that he was opposed to the participation of women in politics and the refusal of many professional women in Pakistan to wear the veil.

Sarwar told a television channel that he had carried out God’s order to kill women who sinned. I have no regrets. I just obeyed Allah’s commandment.  Islam did not allow women to hold positions of leadership. I will kill all those women who do not follow the right path, if I am freed again.

Mrs Usman was wearing the shalwar kameez adopted by many professional women in Pakistan, but did not cover her head. She was airlifted to Lahore after the attack, and died in hospital.

Messrs Cliche & Reality

Predictable offence at carnival caricatures

From Deutsche Welle

Some two million people took to the streets of Germany's Rhine region for the climax of the carnival season Monday but Muslim representatives were angered by floats featuring bearded men in turbans and explosives belts.

The carnival floats in parades through the region's cities traditionally take an irreverent look at world events, but the Central Council of Muslims in Germany condemned one float in Düsseldorf which featured fiberglass models of two bearded men wearing turbans and explosives belts and brandishing guns.

The word "Cliche" was printed on one of the men, while the other bore the word "Reality."

The depiction of Islam was "barefaced lies" and the float was "using negative images to seek attention," the Central Council's secretary general Aiman Mazyek said. Mazyek said he asked himself what the float was meant to signal. This is how I read the message: We love our prejudices and we strengthen them with blatant lies if necessary.  It has nothing to do with humor.

Sharia punishments on hold in Nigeria

From The Statesman
See Video of Stoning to Death
Sign the petition: Stop Stoning Forever

An Islamic court sentenced Mohammed Sagri to death by stoning months ago, but he doesn't expect to die any time soon.

I"m afraid, said Sagri, a 22-year-old mason who pleaded guilty to a sodomy charge in 2005.: But the sentence is unlikely to be carried out.

In Nigeria’s Muslim north, sentences of amputation and death by stoning are routinely imposed under Shariah, or Islamic law. But no stonings have ever been carried out, and no amputations since 2001.

Shariah, promoted by politicians as an anti-crime measure, applies only to Muslims, who make up about half Nigeria’s population of 140 million.

Many Muslims initially welcomed it as an anti-crime measure, but as rampant theft by government officials continued to go unpunished, some began asking why, in an oil-rich country mired in poverty, Shariah seemed to apply only to the powerless. Even top Islamic court officials say the amputations and stonings ordered by the lower courts have little legal justification.

The result is indefinite jail stays for prisoners waiting for a higher court to overturn their sentence.

Shariah penalties were widely welcomed a few years ago, and Zamfara, the first state to institute the code, bought an amputation machine. In 2000 and 2001, two thieves lost their hands.

In 2002, in Katsina state, a court imposed a sentence of death by stoning on Amina Lawal, a 31-year-old divorcee, for having sex outside marriage. After international outcry the sentence was overturned, and President Obasanjo has promised the federal government will intervene to prevent such sentences from being carried out.

The issues have since died out of the headlines. Umaru Yar’Adua, a vocal Muslim supporter of Shariah who was governor of Katsina during the Amina Lawal furore, now promises to uphold Obasanjo’s policy as he runs for president in April elections.

Egyptian Blogger's family disowns son on trial for contempt of religion

From Michelle Malkin
See also Free Kareem

There's a horrid development in the case of Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman, the Egyptian blogger on trial for posting to his website statements calling for equal rights for women and protection of free speech, as well as other statements critical of the Egyptian government and Islam. The Free Kareem website reports:

The family of Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman, accused of “contempt of religion”, has disowned him before his court verdict session on the upcoming Thursday. His father, a retired mathematics teacher, has demanded applying the Sharia ruling on him by giving him three days to repent, followed by having him killed if he does not announce his repentance.

The father of the accused also described the organizations that are working on having his son acquitted as “monkey rights” organizations, in his own words. He also described his son as the “monkey” who has imitated the atheists of the West in their intellectual thinking.

The family also said that they will announce their disownment of their son on the Internet as well...

Amer will learn on Thursday whether he faces 10 years in jail, following a trial that has been condemned by human rights groups. He is the first person to be prosecuted in Egypt for online writings; observers fear this may mark a new clampdown on freedom of speech...

His lawyer, Gamal Eid, said last week: I am very pessimistic about the verdict, but I have great hope for the appeal.

Malcolm Smart of Amnesty International said: Karim Amer's trial appears intended as a warning by the authorities to other bloggers who dare criticise the government or use their blogs to spread information considered harmful to Egypt's reputation.

Nutters prepare for Life of Brian musical

Based on an article from ic Wales

Christian nutters in Wales have reacted angrily to plans to turn Monty Python's Life of Brian into a musical.

It is nearly 30 years since the Monty Python film, satirising the life of a man mistaken for Jesus, provoked condemnation from church and chapel congregations around the world who claimed it was blasphemous. A ban on screening it in Swansea cinemas stood for 17 years and was only lifted in 1997.

But yesterday campaigners vowed to hold fresh protests should the proposed new musical ever be staged in Wales or the UK.

Their ire came as it emerged founding Monty Python member Eric Idle has written a "comic oratorio" called Not The Messiah (He's A Very Naughty Boy), which will premiere in Toronto in June.

Stephen Green, Carmarthenshire-based head of nutter group Christian Voice, last night vowed to keep Not the Messiah out of the UK. Green, who led mass protests against Jerry Springer: The Opera, said, We would certainly be opposing such a blasphemous and scurrilous piece of work. With it being loosely hung around Handel's masterwork, it has got to be offensive to anyone who values music as means of expressing great ideas. If he brings that to Britain or Wales he can expect protests. He might not even get it off the ground here because we've been forearmed.

Richard Lewis, an independent councillor serving the Gower area, was one of those who voted to impose the ban back in February 1980. He said recently: We were right as a city council to ban Life of Brian. My views have hardened very much. I feel this latest musical is part of a continual drip feed of knocking religion and Christianity

Resurgent polio in Pakistan as clerics spread lies about vaccination

From The Guardian see full article

The parents of 24,000 children in northern Pakistan refused to allow health workers to administer polio vaccinations last month, mostly due to rumours that the harmless vaccine was an American plot to sterilise innocent Muslim children.

The disinformation, spread by extremist clerics using mosque loudspeakers and illegal radio stations, and by word of mouth, has caused a sharp jump in polio cases in Pakistan and hit global efforts to eradicate the debilitating disease.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recorded 39 cases of polio in Pakistan in 2006. The disease is concentrated in North-West Frontier Province, where 60% of the refusals were attributed to "religious reasons".

The scaremongering and appeals to Islam echoed a similar campaign in the Nigerian state of Kano in 2003, where the disease then spread to 12 polio-free countries over the following 18 months. Pakistan is one of just four countries where polio remains endemic. The others are Nigeria, India and Afghanistan.

The North-West Frontier Province government made strenuous efforts to counter talk of an "infidel vaccine". Health workers fanning across the province last month were equipped with copies of a fatwa, or religious order, endorsing the vaccinations and signed by Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the leaders of Pakistan's most powerful religious parties.

The move reassured many doubters. More than 5.7 million children were vaccinated in January, with another 3 million targeted in a second round due to start next Tuesday. But the tail has a deadly sting. Even though only 24,000 children missed the vaccine, the WHO officials said failure to vaccinate in small pockets of the country gave the virus a fresh toehold to spread.

Possible killing to resist vaccination against polio

From the BBC

A senior health official has been killed and three guards injured in a bomb blast in Pakistan's tribal region bordering Afghanistan, officials say.

The dead man, Abdul Ghani Khan, played a key role in a polio immunisation drive in the Bajaur tribal region. Dr Khan was returning from a meeting of tribal elders to persuade them to end their opposition to the campaign. It is not clear if he was targeted because of his work to eradicate polio in the area.

No one has admitted to carrying out the blast. Officials said the assailants used a remote-controlled bomb.

The government is facing resistance from some tribes in its campaign to vaccinate children against polio. Some tribal leaders say the vaccine is a part of a US conspiracy to reduce fertility and reproduction rates.

Pakistan is one of the few countries in the world where polio remains endemic. It is a highly infectious viral disease which mostly affects children under five-years-old. The virus attacks the central nervous system, causing paralysis, muscular atrophy and deformation. It can ultimately lead to death.

Nutters post their Valentines message

From News 4 Jax

Billboards around the city are urging people to stop looking at pornography in the name of love. The messages showed on up on five of the daily billboards that are located around Jacksonville, Florida.

The billboards have the message:

Her gift for Valentine's Day -- stop looking at porn. XXXChurch.com

Instead of the chocolates, flowers, stuffed animals, cards or even dinner out on the town, the founder of the Web site XXXChurch.com Craig Gross said he had another idea: It's just to tell guys, especially, not to have the make-believe relationships with porn stars, but to concentrate on their marriages and their relationships with their loves ones.

Porn is everywhere. It is all over the Internet. There are some 400 million pornographic Web pages. We want people to talk about this issue, Gross said.

Recorded honour killings double

From Stop Honour Killings

Pakistan's top human rights body reported that at least 565 died last year - double the number killed the previous year.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said in its annual report that the death toll could in fact be about 1000 - and it added that arrests had been made by investigators in only a derisory 128 cases.

Almost 500 of the honour killings followed accusations of "illicit relations", and 60 of those killed were minors, the commission reported.

President Pervez Musharraf has promised action but the number of arrests indicates the challenge that confronts him.

In virtually all reported cases, police and other officials have shown themselves reluctant, at least initially, to do much about the killings.

The HRCP says in its report that the increased numbers may be the result of better reporting of such cases. But at the same time it concedes there are many more than it knows about.

Video featuring passages from Koran taken down

From Islamaphobia Watch
See also Nick Gisburne's website

At YouTube, you can say pretty much whatever You want, as long as it's not about Islam. If that's not true, YouTube user Nick Gisburne begs to differ after his account “his entire account“ was deleted for its "inappropriate content." What exactly did he say? Well, nothing really. He let the Koran speak for itself.

Gisburne is a self-described atheist with, at least from the one video, a deep questioning of Muslim claims about the Koran. To express his doubts about Islam being a religion of peace, Gisburne created a 10-minute video, entitled "Islamic Teachings" that was nothing but violent quotations taken from the Koran instructing followers to kill nonbelievers and speed their way to Hell where Allah will torture them forever.

It would seem quoting the holy book in a sort of testament against itself was over the line for someone working at Google-owned YouTube. Not only was the video deleted without any type of warning to the uploader, but the uploader's account was also deleted with only the explanation (or accusation) of submitting inappropriate content, a category usually reserved for nudity or video violence.

Nick explains about the Content of the 'banned' video on his website

The quotes I used are taken from Skeptics Annotated Quran. The Skeptic's Annotated Quran abbreviates the long, flowery language of the Quran into more legible, easily digestible form. Thus it is not strictly verbatim, but it is a valid translation. It is not a commentary, nor is it a distortion of the content of the Quran.

For example:

Qur'an text As for the Disbelievers, Whether thou warn them or thou warn them not it is all one for them; they believe not. Allah hath sealed their hearing and their hearts, and on their eyes there is a covering. Theirs will be an awful doom.

keptics Annotated Quran: Don't bother to warn the disbelievers. Allah has blinded them. Theirs will be an awful doom

Subsequently YouTube changed their reason for censorship from 'inappropriate content' to 'copyright violation'

You Tube contend that the removal of Nick's account was due to repeated copyright violation as they had previously removed video clips from Richard Dawkins' Root of All Evil, the scene with Ted Haggard. After that YouTube removed a video called Colbert vs Dawkins

Musharraf proposes a forced marriage between Pakistan and women's rights

From The Peninsula

Pakistan’s ruling party introduced a bill yesterday aimed at outlawing the forced marriage of women and practices preventing them from inheriting property.

President Pervez Musharraf has vowed to empower women as part of his vision of “enlightened moderation” for the predominantly Muslim country of 160 million people where women, particularly in poor, rural areas, face widespread discrimination and violence.

The Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Bill introduced in parliament on Tuesday is expected to be referred to a committee that will finalise a draft to be debated and voted upon later in the year.

The credit for this goes to President Musharraf who is endeavouring to give due status to women in society, the head of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, told the lower house National Assembly.

The bill seeks to end practices such as vani, a centuries-old tradition of marrying women off to settle disputes between families, and the practice of marrying women to the Koran, which deprives them of a share of family property, he said.

Uzbekistan claims inter religious harmony whilst prosecuting people for inter-religious hatred.

Based on an article from Christian Today

The government of Uzbekistan has launched a propaganda drive claiming that the country does uphold religious tolerance. The move follows the designation of Uzbekistan as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ by the US State Department in November 2006.

Following Uzbekistan’s designation as a CPC, the Uzbek government alleged in December 2006 that a non-governmental poll found only 3.9 per cent of those surveyed felt religiously oppressed. It is noteworthy that the polling agency was funded by the government.

The survey followed a state TV broadcast, entitled Hypocrites, which promoted anti-Protestant and anti-Jehovah’s Witness sentiments. Forum 18 reported that the programme accused these groups of promoting drug addiction, turning converts into zombies and wanting to promote fights between people of different faiths. It also implied that there is a link between religious freedom and religious extremism, and violence.

This propaganda campaign is also being mounted outside Uzbekistan, Christian Solidarity Worldwide has found, with recent Uzbek government sponsored meetings in Brussels and this week in London. The Uzbek Embassy in the UK is organising a day seminar with Three Faiths Forum on Uzbekistan’s experience in achieving inter-religious harmony.

from Forum 18 see full article

The trial of Uzbek Pentecostal pastor Dmitry Shestakov may be imminent. He faces up to twenty years jail, if he is found guilty and receives maximum consecutive sentences for the charges of stirring up inter-religious hatred, leading an "illegal" religious organisation and distributing religious extremist recordings.

Prosecutors in Andijan have completed their case against Pastor Shestakov. Much of the indictment is a defence of Uzbek government policy, and attacks religious/political extremist organisations which under the guise of meeting religious needs began to strive to seize power, naming Islamic groups and "Charismatics/Pentecostals".

These are alleged to want to promote "true Islam" and to turn individuals into zombies. The authorities' harassment of Pastor Shestakov appears to have begun as a reaction to some ethnic Uzbeks becoming Christians.

Senior Investigator Zulfiev's indictment alleges that Pastor Shestakov did no socially useful work, while under the guise of spreading the Christian faith among citizens having organised meetings among them without registration of a religious organisation in the state agency, illegally organised a religious organisation where he engaged in the production, including with the aim of distribution, of materials inciting religious hatred and insulted the feelings of believers of the religion of Islam.

According to the indictment, Shestakov has been charged under three articles of the Criminal Code: Article 216 ("illegal organisation of social or religious organisations", Article 156, part 2 ("inciting ethnic, racial or religious hatred" and Article 244-1, part 2 ("distributing materials containing ideas of religious extremism".

Satirical student magazine winds up Cambridge college

Based on an article from Cambridge Evening News see full article

A student at Clare College in Cambridge was in hiding today after printing satirical Mohammed cartoons in a student magazine. For his own safety and that of others, the student, who is British, has been taken out of his current accommodation and put in a secure place.

The article is said to be so inflammatory [doesn't take much to wind up the easily offended] the undergraduate has been taken to a secret location for his own safety.

Senior college officials were locked in urgent talks about how the material came to be published and what action to take against the student at the centre of the row.

A university spokesman said police had been made aware of the incident. But a police spokesman said: This is a matter for the university authorities to deal with.

The student magazine, Clareification, printed a cropped copy of one of the famous cartoons of the prophet Mohammed next to a photo of the president of the Union of Clare Students. The cartoon was captioned with the president's name and vice versa.

There was also comment suggesting one was a violent paedophile and the other was a prophet of God, great leader and an example to us all.

The paper had been renamed Crucification for a special edition on religious satire. The front page included headlines stating: Ayatollah rethinks stance on misunderstood Rushdie.

Easily enraged students have bombarded the Union of Clare Students with complaints and vice-president of the university's Islamic society described it as "hugely offensive" and "crude unabashed prejudice."

In a rare move, Clare College fellows have called a Court of Discipline which will sit in judgment on the youth responsible for sparking what is being regarded as one the most embarrassing incidents for the university in years.

In a statement issued by Clare College, senior tutor Patricia Fara said: Clare is an open and inclusive college. A student produced satirical publication has caused widespread distress throughout the Clare community. The college finds the publication and the views expressed abhorrent.

National Secular Society write to easily offended Clare College

From the National Secular Society

Staff and students at Clare College should make a stand for free speech instead of backing those who would destroy it, says the National Secular Society (NSS).

Reacting to news that a student who published a satirical issue of the student magazine that poked fun at religion is to be disciplined, Terry Sanderson, President of the NSS said: We are shocked that the staff and even the students union at this supposedly liberal college have joined the attack on this student because he had the temerity to poke fun at religion. Free expression is such a precious commodity and is under such ferocious attack at present from religious interests that it is disgraceful that no-one is standing up for this young man’s right to be rude about religion – even about Islam.

Sanderson has written to the master of Clare College, Professor Tony Bader and to the Senior Tutor, Patricia Fara as well as the president of the Students Union, Calum Davey, as follows:

We write after seeing reports in the local Cambridge press indicating that a contributor to your student magazine Clareification faces disciplinary action for having printed items that some people thought were “offensive” or “inflammatory.

If these reports are true, we wish to register our profound disquiet that a supposedly liberal college has reacted in this way. The reaction risks undermining one of the most precious and important rights that we have in this country: freedom of expression.

Satire aimed at religion is no different to satire aimed at any other ideas and should not be punished or restrained. The freedom to poke fun at those who take themselves too seriously is a time-honoured tradition in this country. Regrettably, it is rapidly being eroded by cases like this. We urge you to think again and stand four-square behind the satirists, instead of disciplining them.

We would like to remind all concerned that satirising religion – even if that religion is Islam – is not racism, as this episode has been dubbed. Religion and race have very different characteristics. We would have heartily joined the condemnation if the satire had been racially motivated, but according to the reports we have read, the issue of Clareification in question was devoted to religious satire.

We would like to draw your attention to a case that is pending in France at the moment, in which a satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, has been brought to court by an Islamic organisation for re-publishing the Danish cartoons that are at the centre of so much controversy. In the French case, academics, artists and politicians of all hues have rushed to the defence of the magazine. Letters of support and statements defending free speech have been issued by some of the most influential people in the country – including Mr Sarkozy, who is potentially the next President of France.

Your own reaction – as reported – does not bear comparison with the principled French reactions. It sides with the oppressors and censors who are doing so much to retard open debate in academe and elsewhere.

We call on you to support the publishers of the magazine and to tell the would-be censors that their protests have been heard but that they will not prevail. Without the freedom to debate, discuss and, yes, mock, ideas and ideologies, there can be no informed political discourse. Satire is an indispensable tool in the operating of a truly free society.

Nutters oppose vaccination against HPV

From AVN

On Feb. 2, Texas Governor, Rick Perry, ordered that all schoolgirls in his state be vaccinated with a new anti-HPV vaccine, Gardasil, as part of the health regimen mandated for public school children. What he didn't count on was Religious Right groups across the nation vehemently condemning the order and calling for it to be rescinded.

The Governor's order forces little girls to be shot with a sex virus vaccine, said Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America. While we support the vaccine itself, a government mandate that little girls must be shot with it well before they're sexually active, with the likely consequence they would have to get another expensive booster before they're sexually active, is an outrageous assault on girls and their parents.

Wright's statement is, to say the least, disingenuous. In order to be fully effective, the vaccine must be administered before the girl has contracted HPV, which is usually transmitted during sexual intercourse.

Merck Pharmaceuticals has stated that its vaccine is 100% effective against four strains of HPV (two of which together cause 70% of cervical cancer cases and two of which cause 90% of genital warts) if administered to young girls (9-15). The vaccine is 90% effective for girls/women 16-26 who may already have indulged in intercourse. Even in women who have contracted one or more of the four strains targeted by Gardasil, it can protect against infection from the non-contracted strains. Other companies are working on similar vaccines which target other HPV strains.

But Wright's disingenuousness is even deeper than it might appear from her statements. Wright is one of several dozen Religious Right leaders who for years have warned adolescent girls that one of the most important reasons for avoiding pre-marital sexual intercourse is that they could in the process contract HPV, even if their partners use condoms. (Condoms are in fact somewhat protective against HPV.)

But now, with the arrival of anti-HPV vaccines which are most effective if administered before the girl has become sexually active, that "reason" to abstain from sex is gone – or would be if the girl is vaccinated early enough. So for Wright to attempt to prevent those girls who would derive the most benefit from the vaccine from obtaining it through a school vaccination program can only be interpreted as a callous disregard for the health of the women these girls will grow up to become.

And Wright is hardly alone in her condemnation of this life-saving program.

Vision America president Rick Scarborough said: Nor we can not overlook the moral dimension, The governor's action seems to signify that God's moral law regarding sex outside of marriage can be transgressed without consequence.

There's only one legitimate conclusion that can be drawn from this widespread opposition to the life-saving vaccine: That Religious Right groups are so concerned with squelching all pre-marital sexual activity, and secondarily, despite protests to the contrary, with keeping women subservient to men, that they want to prevent the most vulnerable women – adolescent girls – from receiving medicine that will help prevent their deaths at an early age from a particularly virulent and deadly form of cancer.

Man accused of murdering his wife's lover in Birmingham

From Stop Honour Killings

A jealous husband lured the boss of an Acocks Green pizza business to a house where he was stabbed to death in an "honour killing", a jury at Birmingham Crown Court was told. Bashir, 20, of Sparkhill, and a 15-year-old boy, who cannot be identified, have denied murdering Mashooq Khan.

James Burbidge QC, prosecuting, said Bashir had married Shabana Bi in Pakistan in a form of arranged marriage. It appears Shabana Bi was a reluctant participant in the marriage or at least rapidly became so. He said Mrs Bi went to England in October 2004, but her husband came over here a year later, by which time she had a relationship with Khan.

Not only he (Bashir) but her family were unhappy that Shabana Bi had a relationship with Mashooq Khan. They wanted her to live the life of a more traditional Muslim wife. Burbidge said pressure was put on Mrs Bi, her phone was smashed, her passport hidden, she was assaulted and also received threats from her husband. But Mrs Bi continued to meet and speak with Khan.

Last June 6 Khan, driving his Toyota, delivered a pizza to the address in Tetley Road where his attackers, whose faces were covered, were lying in wait. Khan tried to flee jumping over a garden fence. However, he fell and one of the men stabbed him twice in the chest as he lay helpless on the ground, said Burbidge.

Islamic schools enter the spotlight

From The Independent
Sign the petition opposing faith schools http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/faithschools/

An independent Islamic school raided by police as part of an anti-terror operation last year has been closed by the Government, ministers announced today.

The Jameah Islameah School in Mark Cross, near Crowborough, East Sussex, was shut down after the school failed to follow an improvement action plan. It is now illegal for the school, which was raided by police last September, to continue to operate, the Department for Education and Skills said.

Schools minister Jim Knight said: It is important that parents and the wider public are assured that all schools - whether in the maintained or independent sector - provide their pupils with a suitable education, and that we will take strong action against those that are failing.

Ofsted conducted a series of inspections at the school after concerns were raised. The school was then required to follow an action plan to address failings. The DfES said the school had failed to meet the action plan and was also struggling through lack of pupils, a situation which was thought likely to continue.

Sussex Police officers were deployed around the school for 24 days from September 1 last year, as Metropolitan Police led a search of the buildings and grounds. No arrests were made in connection with the school and the 11 pupils, in addition to more than 20 teachers and other adults living at the site, were moved elsewhere during the operation. The raid on the school coincided with raids in London during which 14 people were arrested. A number of men have been charged in connection with the investigation into an alleged network of terrorist recruiters.

From The Telegraph & The Times

A Saudi-funded Islamic school in London has been accused of poisoning the minds of pupils as young as five years with a curriculum of hate.

Colin Cook claims text books used by children at the King Fahad Academy in Acton, west London, describe Jews as "repugnant" and Christians as "pigs". The Muslim convert, allegedly heard some of them saying they wanted to "kill Americans", praising 9/11 and idolising Osama bin Laden as a "hero".
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Cook, who taught English for 18 years at the Academy, was sacked from his £35,000-a-year post in December for alleged misconduct relating to the exams procedure. He is claiming £100,000 compensation for unfair dismissal, race discrimination and victimisation.

In legal papers lodged with Watford Employment Tribunal, he claims the Academy used text books by the Saudi government’s Ministry of Education which taught religious hate.

The schoolbooks presently in use describe Jews as 'monkeys' (or apes) and Christians as 'pigs', he says in the documents. Students are asked to "mention some repugnant characteristics of Jews, and Year 1 pupils are asked to give examples of worthless religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, idol worship and others, he adds.

Originally founded for the children of Saudi diplomats in London, it now caters for children of British Muslims and devotes half of lessons to religious education teaching almost all classes in Arabic.

The principal, Dr Sumaya Alyusuf, told the Daily Telegraph last month that it had dropped the Saudi curriculum following complaints from parents it failed to prepare children for life in the UK.

Alyusuf insists that the offending text books will still be used, and even seeks to explain the passages that caused the furore in the first place. One word caused the conflict, she says, referring to the reference to Jews as apes. It wasn’t the Jews who were meant by that.

As for the description of Christians as pigs. In Arabic this isn’t what it says. It’s like saying that those people who stray from their prophets, whether from Jesus or Moses . . . have the brain of a four or five-year-old.

Why did she keep the books in the school rather than throwing them out or perhaps symbolically burning them? Because other chapters she says, describe how the prophet asks Muslims to follow in the footsteps of Jews and Christians . . . the media preferred to focus on the negative.

Couple lynched by their own family

From Stop Honour Killings

Even by the standards of "honour killings", this was a murder of unprecedented savagery.

First the young Indian couple, Gudiya, 18, a pretty orphan girl, and Mahesh, 20, a slightly handicapped man, were beaten by members of their own family. Then they were strung up by their necks with coarse rope and lynched from a tree.

The pair were cut down, decapitated and their bodies hacked into small pieces, which were carried triumphantly by the mob to a drain 2km away, before being doused in petrol and incinerated.

The crime for which the young lovers were sentenced to death by the village council: they were distant cousins who fell in love.

Gudiya had been living with her uncle in the village of Naharra, which has a population of about 4000 people, mainly from the Thakur land-owning caste. The uncle had reportedly decided on a traditional arranged marriage for her.

Mahesh, from the village of Biruni in Agra, site of the Taj Mahal, was either unaware of what Gudiya's uncle had planned or did not care.

On visits to Naharra, he started calling on Gudiya, despite the fact they were distant cousins, and their families were outraged. The couple were deeply in love, despite Mahesh's handicap and the family's opposition, and fearful about how Gudiya's uncle might react. After her uncle went out, Gudiya telephoned Mahesh and they decided to elope to the village of Hathras, where Mahesh's aunt lives. Their relatives in Naharra were enraged. They reportedly gathered together a posse and left for Hathras. Mahesh and Gudiya were then bundled into the boot of a car and taken back to Naharra.

Locals say the panchayat, or village council, was summoned into extraordinary session to consider the "incestuous relationship" and the pair's defiance of the family. The couple were ordered to end their relationship. When they refused, the panchayat passed its verdict: a death sentence for lowering the standing of the Thakur community.

The punishment was slow, painful and remorseless as the mob avenged the honour of the village. Only Mahesh's grandfather showed any sort of anguish, his conscience moving him to lodge a police complaint.

An officer said yesterday charges had been laid against 12 villagers over the killings.

Canadian Bishop rails at mobile phone porn

Definition of religious thinking: Nonsense In, Nonsense Out

From The B.C. Catholic

Vancouver Archbishop Raymond Roussin, is expressing great concern about Telus Mobility’s decision to offer cell-phone pornography.

Canada’s second largest phone company started offering pornographic photos and videos to its customers last month, and confirms it has been receiving complaints from supposedly upset customers.

Archbishop Roussin said, Telus Mobility has crossed the line which brings the problem of the accessibility of pornographic material further into the public realm.

He noted that considering the problems pornography is causing in society the move is especially ill-considered. Given the increasing awareness about the problem of sexual addiction to pornography through Internet access, and the abuse that this perpetuates of vulnerable persons, Telus’s decision is disappointing and disturbing.

The archbishop plans to raise his concerns with parishes and schools throughout the Archdiocese of Vancouver. He is also considering directing Catholic institutions to terminate their contracts with Telus Mobility.

Murderers face light sentences

From Stop Honour Killings

A Jordanian who killed his divorced sister over rumors that she had a lover was cleared of premeditated murder because he acted in a "fit of rage," after his family dropped charges.

The verdict was handed down five months after the 19-year-old university student shot to death his 22-year-old sister, 10 minutes after he was told that she had a lover out of wedlock, it said, quoting court papers.

The student, whose name was not disclosed, received a three-month jail sentence and walked free for time already served.

The 10-minute interval between hearing of his sister's immoral actions and meeting her face-to-face is proof that he did not plot the murder, a court statement said.

The young man had turned himself in to the police after the murder claiming that he acted to "cleanse the family's honor" and initially received a six-month prison sentence.

But the court slashed the verdict by half and changed the charge from premeditated murder to a misdemeanor because the defendant killed his sister in a fit of rage, in line with Article 98 of the penal code. It also argued that the victim brought disgrace to her family and the defendant and tarnished their honor [because] her actions were against religion and social norms in the conservative Muslim country.

Medical sources quoted by the Jordan Times, however, said that an autopsy performed on the victim after the murder showed that the woman had not been sexually active before she was killed.

In 2006, at least 12 women were killed in similar "honor crimes" in Jordan. Typically the killers go unpunished or are handed reduced sentences, often with little or no jail time.

Jordan's parliament has twice rejected proposed changes to the penal code that would impose harsher sentences on "honor killers," despite campaigns by human rights activists.

Get it right McLuskey... ALL suicide bombers are muslim

Teacher sacked for saying most suicide bombers were muslim

From the BBC

A supply teacher has been sacked from a secondary school following complaints from Muslim pupils.

Andrew McLuskey was sacked from Bayliss Court Secondary School in Slough after a Religious Education lesson discussing the pros and cons of religion.

Pupils at the predominantly Muslim school claimed McLuskey said most suicide bombers were Muslim.

But he rejected the allegation and said the school was too quick to sack him without giving him right of reply. McLuskey said: I feel it's very unjust, I think I should've been given the chance to respond to the allegations and not in effect be ejected from a job without the chance to defend myself.

Deputy head teacher Ray Hinds says the pupils were very upset

Saudi lashes and imprisons foreigners for partying

From The Guardian

A Saudi Arabian court has convicted and sentenced 20 foreigners to receive lashes and spend several months in prison for attending a party where alcoholic drinks were served and men and women danced.

The kingdom's religious police arrested 433 foreigners, including more than 240 women, for attending the "impudent" party in Jiddah, the state-guided newspaper Okaz reported. The paper did not identify the foreigners, give their nationalities or say when the party took place.

The prosecutor general charged the 20 with drinking, arranging for impudent party, mixed dancing and shooting a video for the party, Okaz reported. Judge Saud al-Boushi sentenced the 20 to three to four months in prison and ordered them to receive an unspecified number of lashes. They have the right to appeal.

The newspaper said that because of the large number of detainees, several judges were assigned to try them in groups. The rest of the detainees are awaiting trial.

Have some fun Adam! ...and don't let the nutters get you down

Blasphemy prosecution ruled out

From Helsingin Sanomat
See the religious cartoons
Spotted by MediawatchWatch

The Finnish Deputy Prosecutor, General Jorma Kalske, is not taking action on cartoons satirising Christianity on the website of the Finnish League of Free-Thinkers.

The prosecutor feels that neither the association’s chairman Robert Brotherus, nor cartoonist Osmo Tammisalo had committed incitement of hatred, nor violating the sanctity of religion.

A request for an investigation was made by a private individual in 2006. The cartoons have been on the association’s website for about ten years. One of the pictures depicts Jesus on all fours with donkeys on his back, with the text: First Jesus rode on an ass, but since then...

Kalske said that while the pictures might be seen to violate "good conduct" to some extent, freedom of expression extends to shocking opinions, and even to opinions that are insulting - to some degree.
In Kalske’s view, Christian churches wield so much power in Finnish society, that even very harsh criticism against them should be permitted.

Images of exploitation: The general synod

General Synod exploiting the gullible by blaming porn

A small edit and even the Melon farmers could join the demand that the government: sets up an inquiry to determine whether standards of behaviour are being fatally eroded by constant subjection to religious suggestions and images promoting the exploitation of other human beings..

From The Guardian

The Church of England's general synod is to debate calls for tighter controls on pornographic videos and broadcasts because of fears that viewers are being exploited.

A motion from the church's diocese of Lichfield is demanding that the government sets up an inquiry to determine whether standards of behaviour are being fatally eroded by constant subjection to suggestions and images ... promoting the exploitation of other human beings..

The diocese is warning that negative and degrading images are putting public safety at risk. In a background paper to synod members in advance of the debate at Church House in London on March 1 it claims:

Standards of taste and decency are changing ... the retort: 'If you don't like it, switch it off' ignores the danger that such films pose to