Looks a little Western to me... Scalp him!

Iranian police dictate hairstyles

From the BBC see full article

Iranian police have warned barbers not to give men Western hairstyles or use make up on them.

The move is part of an unusually fierce crackdown on what is known locally as bad hijab, or un-Islamic clothing, that this year is also targeting men.

Hair stylists have been warned that they could lose their licences if they do not comply.

Meanwhile newspapers in Iran have quoted the police as saying that 16,000 women and 500 men have been cautioned in the last week over their improper clothing.

It is not clear if these figures are nationwide or only apply to the capital, Tehran.

According to the local media, Tehran's public prosecutor has suggested women who violate dress rules should be exiled from the capital to remote areas of the country. A member of the parliament's legal committee has said there is no legal impediment to doing this.

Thugs spread the word into Canada

From AINI see full article

Two men in Mississauga, Ontario, attacked journalist Jawaad Faizi, who writes for the Pakistan Post, a newspaper based in Mississauga.

The attackers told Faizi to stop "writing against Islam," and particularly to stop criticizing an Islamic organization, Idara Minhaj-ul-Quran, and its leader, a Muslim cleric named Allama Tahir-Ul-Qadri.

Faizi, a native of Lahore, Pakistan, said, I had so many problems back home as a journalist, but I'm shocked that this is happening here.

Demolishing last vestiges of freedom

From This Day see full article

The Nigerian Kano State government has ordered police to arrest five women, Aunty Maiduguri and her four women spouses whom she married with full celebration over the weekend, contrary to the Shari’a legal system being operated in the state.

Government has also ordered demolition of three theatres in farm centre, Kano including the theatre where the marriage ceremony took place. The theatre was host to the celerity marriage where an estimated 2,000 people attended.

Aunty Maiduguri organised a well attended marriage ceremony at the Heritage Theatre in the state capital, where she tied the knot with the four girls. The marriage according to a witness, took place with fanfare and concerts which lasts for two days. Her ‘spouses’ include Aisha Yola, Maryam Soba, Hadiza Single Baby and Hadiza Maiduguri who are now in hiding, as police, Hisbah and community leaders ordered that they be arrested.

Government said the marriage contravenes the state penal code and Sharia laws, and therefore ordered their immediate arrest.

Hisbah deputy commander in charge of operations, Malam Rabo Abdulkarim, said an arrest warrant has been issued in respect of the woman and her four accomplices, adding that the action was not immoral, but criminal, and will not be allowed to go un-punished.

Government has said viewing centres and theatres in the state are not adhering strictly to laws that established them, hence the demolition order. Already bulldozers have demolished the theatre and other theaters around the vicinity.

Christian Voice blasphemy prosecution of Jerry Springer: The Opera continues

From Ekklesia see full article

The High Court has allowed a legal challenge by activist Stephen Green to a magistrate's decision not to issue a private prosecution for blasphemy over Jerry Springer the Opera.

Mr Justice Underhill has granted a judicial review of the ruling of District Judge Caroline Tubbs not to issue a summons on the application of the head of a small group, Christian Voice, which made big media waves when the BBC and others mistakenly thought it had galvanised 50,000 protestors against the Jerry Springer show.

Both religious and non-religious groups opposed to the UK’s blasphemy law, which protects an Anglican version of Christianity from insult due to the establishment of the Church of England under the Crown, believe that, contrary to Mr Green’s designs, his case may finally help to bury the archaic legislation.

Stephen Green made a case in January 2007 against both the Director General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, a Christian himself, who allowed Jerry Springer the Opera to be screened on BBC2, and the show's producer, Jonathan Thoday, who staged it at the Cambridge Theatre in London's West End and then in a nation-wide tour.

But sitting at Horseferry Road Magistrates' Court, the District Judge refused to allow the summons to be issued.

The judicial review will proceed to a full hearing. However, Mr Justice Underhill was careful not to prejudge either the hearing or any ultimate prosecution.

He declared: I should in the circumstances of this case emphasise that I am saying no more than that the challenge to the District Judge's decision was arguable. That does not necessarily mean that it will succeed; still less that any eventually prosecution would succeed.

Legal observers suggest that the case might have been accepted to test a wider issue about private prosecutions in such cases, rather than because of the merits of Mr Green’s claims. The High Court will give a date for the judicial review hearing in a couple of weeks, but it could still be a long time in coming.

Religious broadcasting tends to focus on the out of the ordinary... [...like resurrection, virgin birth, heaven, hell, miracles...]

Love your neighbour unless he's gay

From the Daily Mail see full article

The BBC is to relay a 'gay Mass' from San Francisco this Sunday, the first time such a service has been broadcast.

The 50-minute Mass at the Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in the predominantly gay Castro district of the city will feature prayers and readings tailored for the gay community.

The church has been described as an "inspiration" to gay and lesbian Christians around the world because of its ministry to homosexuals. But it has also infuriated many Catholics in the U.S. who have complained about such activities as transvestite bingo nights during which sex toys and pornographic DVDs were handed out as prizes.

John Beyer of Mediawatch UK, said he thought it was a mistake to broadcast the service: Religious broadcasting, apart from Songs of Praise, tends to focus on the out-of-the-ordinary and having this particular service I think will cause offence to people who feel that such practices are wrong and are taught as such in holy scripture: The BBC really ought to be focusing on mainstream services which are more in keeping with the public service requirement that it has.

However, Father Donal Godfrey, the U.S. Jesuit priest celebrating the Mass, said he was delighted the BBC was exploring how gay people fit into the perspective of the Christian narrative: Being gay is not special. It's simply another gift from God who created us as rainbow people."

The recording will go out at 8.10am on the BBC Radio 4 Sunday Worship programme.

Comment: Beyer Going to Hell?

Dan writes to John Beyer

Dear Mr Beyer,

Just read your views on the BBC showing a "gay mass".

You say this will offend people who think homosexuality is wrong. But should religious broadcasting only take one view (that's it's wrong) on homosexuality?

You also say that the BBC should stick to the mainstream and honour it's public service requirement. Does that public requirement mean only appealing to Christians who think that being gay means going to Hell?

Strife in Pakistan

From India eNews see full article

Six people were killed Monday in north-western Pakistan as security forces opened fire on a group of religious fundamentalists in a bid to stop them from attacking the home of the chief of a rival group, local media reported.

Police and paramilitary forces in the town of Bara near the regional capital Peshawar first fired tear gas to hold back an armed mob and then fired live ammunition, killing six and injuring 10, the Geo news channel said.

Dozens of armed students of a religious school run by an extremist religious group called Lashkar-i-Islami (Army of Islam) tried to storm the house of the leader of a group called Ansar-ul-Islam (Companions of Islam) when authorities intervened.

Like many towns in northwestern Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, Bara has experienced a surge in Islamic militancy in recent months.

The head of Lahkar-i-Islami imposed self-declared sharia religious law in the town and set up Taliban-style Islamic courts for likely offenders.

Mobile phones catch Kurdish stoning/lynching

From AINI see videos and full article

According to the Kurdish website Jebar.info up to 1000 men from the Yezidi Kurdish community of Mosul killed a teenager who's only crime was running away to marry a Muslim man whom she loved and converting to his religion.

For four months the girl had been given shelter by a local Muslim Sheik. It was reported that in the last few days her family persuaded her to return home, convincing her that she had been forgiven by her parents and relatives for her mistake.

In a short mobile video clip which appears to have been taken by locals at seen of the murder, the girl is seen being ambushed on her way home by a group of up to 1000 men who were waiting for her to return; the men killed her in the most brutal way possible, by throwing large stones on her head. The following clips show that while she is alive and crying for help she is taunted and kicked in her stomach until someone finishes her off by throwing a large stone on her face.

From the clips it appears that the girl was first stripped naked to symbolize that she had dishonored her family and her Yezidi religion. She is lying on the road naked while her smashed face is covered with blood and still breathing.

According to the website and footage from the clip a number of armed local police officers were present who in fact helped the crowd to kill the woman rather than preventing the crime. Sometime later the Iraqi army arrived at the scene and refused anyone entry, including the press.

For speaking against female mutilation

From Stop Honour Killings

Norwegian-Somalian Kadra, who became famous in Norway for exposing imam support of female circumcision, was beaten unconscious in an assault.

Kadra was attacked and beaten senseless by seven or eight persons of Somali origin, newspaper VG reports.

Kadra related: I was terrified. While I lay on the pavement they kicked me and screamed that I had trampled on the Koran. Several shouted Allah-o-akbar (God is great) and also recited from the Koran.

Kadra linked the attack to recent remarks in VG where she said that the Koran's views on women needed to be reinterpreted. Kadra said that the gang of Somali men attacked her around 3 a.m. in downtown Oslo. A medical examination found that she had several broken ribs.

The Islamic Council Norway (IRN) condemned the attack on Kadra and urged that she pursue the matter with police.

Kadra's role in a 2000 hidden camera TV documentary revealing the positive attitude of Muslim leaders to female circumcision had a massive impact on Norway, and sparked new legislation.

Muslim wives forcibly removed from Hindu husbands

From the Daily Times see full article

Two Malaysian Hindu men said they were battling Islamic authorities after being forcibly separated from their Muslim wives in cases highlighting growing religious tensions in Malaysia.

Suresh Veerapan issued a plea for help after his wife Revathi Masoosai and their baby were forcibly removed from their home and she was put in Islamic rehabilitation camp. He said Revathi, an ethnic Indian and practising Hindu born to Muslim parents, was sent to the camp for 100 days in January by Islamic authorities in western Malacca state.

Her detention was extended by a sharia court by 80 days, Suresh said, adding Islamic authorities in March had also taken the 16-month old baby from him and given the child to his Muslim in-laws.

Revathi’s detention is the latest in a string of religious conflicts involving Muslims and non-Muslims which have sparked outrage in multi-ethnic Malaysia.

In a separate case, another Malaysian Hindu man vowed to fight the authorities for custody of five of his children who were forcibly separated from him, along with his Muslim wife.

P Marimuthu said his wife Raimah Bibi Noordin and their five young Hindu children were taken from their home two weeks ago by religious officials, who said she was a Muslim.

Raimah and the children are being held in a ethnic Malay Muslim village in western Selangor slate, and Marimuthu’s lawyers on Thursday filed an application with a high court in the west of Kuala Lumpur to free them.

Rights groups have condemned the actions of the authorities in Raimah’s case, saying they breached the country’s constitution, which guarantees freedom of religious practice.

Update: Forced Divorce Confirmed in High Court

10th May

In yesterday's emotional high court hearing in Kuala Lumpur, Mrs Raimah Bibi agreed to give up her children voluntarily to end the standoff. I agree to hand over the custody of my children to my husband to be raised as Hindus, she said, before bursting into tears.

Despite the eventual outcome, the case highlights growing disquiet about the legal rights of non-Muslims in Malaysia, even though religious freedom is enshrined under the constitution.

Lim Kit Siang, an opposition leader, said. For this to happen to a couple that has lived together for 21 years as a result of a religious conflict is not good for our international image.

Capital blasphemy to take Koran into toilet

From Sign On San Diego see full article

An Egyptian living in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to death for desecrating the Koran and renouncing Islam.

Okaz and al-Hayat newspapers said worshippers at a mosque in the desert town of Arar in north Saudi Arabia lodged a complaint with police saying the man, a pharmacist, had left copies of the Muslim holy book in the mosque washrooms.

They said a court found the man guilty of no longer being a Muslim because of his acts and 'violating the boundaries set by God'. They said the man pleaded guilty.

Ali al-Ahmed, a prominent Saudi rights activist who has followed the case, said the verdict raised questions about Saudi Arabia's justice system, which rights groups have criticised over a lack of legal representation and codified laws: The man is Muslim and an Egyptian. I believe he was set up by extremists zealots.

Nigerian radical sect suspected

From The Times see full article

A mob killed 13 people in an attack on a police station in the northern Nigerian city of Kano four days after unidentified gunmen shot dead a hardline Muslim cleric.

Police said that the mob, suspected of belonging to a radical Islamic sect, burnt the police station in the Panshekara district and killed the officer in charge, his wife and 11 other officers. The sect killed a divisional police officer in an attack in the Sharada district last week. Kano is one of 12 northern Nigerian states that introduced Sharia in 2000.

Murder at Turkish publishing house

From The Times see full article

Knife-wielding attackers slit the throats of three people at a Christian publishing house in conservative eastern Turkey yesterday.

One of the dead men was of German origin, the local governor said. Two other men were taken to hospital, one with knife wounds to his throat, back and stomach, the other with a head injury after jumping from a third-floor window to escape. The hospital in the town of Malatya said that both were in a critical condition.

The Zirve publishing house, which the Turkish media says is owned by two South Africans, Gert Martinus de Lange and Stephen Smithdorf, had been the target of nationalist protests for allegedly distributing Bibles and proselytising.

Halil Ibrahim Dasoz, the Governor of Malatya, said the authorities were also investigating possible Islamist links, because the method of killing was reminiscent of attacks by the Turkish arm of the militant Islamist group Hezbollah.

Officials from Zirve say they had been the target of threats for some time and had been intending to ask for protection. They deny any missionary aims.

Martin de Langue, a former official, reportedly said two years ago that the public in Malatya was being provoked against Christians and foreigners. The small community of Turkish Protestant Christians, as opposed to Greek and Armenian minorities, comprises eager converts with a missionary bent. Although proselytising is not illegal in mainly Muslim Turkey it is regarded with hostility.

The European Commission has condemned the attack as “horrendous”. The EC has long called on Turkey to offer better protection and rights for its minorities.

The attack comes at a time of great tension in Turkey over secularist worries that the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a former Islamist firebrand who now says he is a conservative democrat, will announce he is running for President in next month’s elections. This would cement the grip of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) on the top jobs in the land. Hundreds of thousands of secularists marched at the weekend to prevent what they believe would result in an assault on the secular nature of the state.

But will they be prosecuted?

From The Telegraph see full article

A gang of suspected Islamic nationalists was facing the possibility of trial for the torture and murder of three Christians at a Bible publishers in Turkey last night after investigators called for their prosecution.

A judge was considering whether the group, 11 men and one woman, should face trial after they were questioned for eight hours over the deaths of two Turks and a German, who were bound to chairs and had their throats slit in Malatya on Wednesday.

As the victims sat dying, police, acting on a tip-off, burst through the door. The alleged ringleader, Emre Gunaydin, the 12th member of the gang, was critically injured after leaping from a fourth floor balcony.

The murders came amidst an upsurge in extremist violence as Turkey struggles to join the European Union. As European leaders repeatedly postpone a target date for Turkish entry, resentment at the reforms being enacted to meet EU criteria is building.

The attack was the third against Christians in Turkey in a year. The common link was that the killers claimed they were defending Islam from Christian proselytising.

In fact, Christians are a fraction of one per cent of Turkey's 71 million people but it is common for Turks to complain that evangelical churches are proliferating at an alarming rate. Courts continue to prosecute converts for insulting "Turkishness".

Muslims surveyed on social questions

From Pink News see full article

An in-depth survey into the attitudes of muslims living in London has revealed that less than 5% think homosexual acts are "acceptable," compared with over 65% of the general population

The Gallup poll found that muslims differed significantly with the rest of the capital's population in their attitudes to a range of social questions.

More than 80% of the public think sex outside marriage is acceptable, with only 10% of muslims agreeing.

There were similar wide discrepancies on abortion and pornography.

Vigilantes are OKed to kill 'immoral' people

From the BBC see full article

Iran's Supreme Court has acquitted a group of men charged over a series of gruesome killings in 2002, according to lawyers for the victims' families.

The vigilantes were not guilty because their victims were involved in un-Islamic activities, the court found.

The killers said they believed Islam let them spill the blood of anyone engaged in illicit activities if they issued two warnings to the victims.

The serial killings took place in 2002 in the south-eastern city of Kerman. The case raises serious questions about vigilantes in Iran taking justice into their own hands and undermining the rule of law.

Up to 18 people were killed in just one year, but only five of the murders were tried in court. According to their confessions, the killers put some of their victims in pits and stoned them to death. Others were suffocated. One man was even buried alive while others had their bodies dumped in the desert to be eaten by wild animals.

The accused, who were all members of an Islamic paramilitary force, told the court their understanding of the teachings of one Islamic cleric allowed them to kill immoral people if they had ignored two warnings to stop their bad behaviour.

But there was no judicial process to determine the guilt of the victims in these cases.

The group even killed a young couple they thought were involved in sex outside marriage, but media reports say the couple were either married or engaged to be married.

Lawyers for the victims' families say the Supreme Court has five times overturned the verdict of a lower court that found all the men guilty of murder.

Some of the group may, however have to pay financial compensation to their victims' families.

Magazine challenged for likening god to traffic cop

From Middle East Times see full article

A senior Islamic cleric is taking a writer and a culture magazine editor to court for offending Islam after writing a poem comparing God to a "traffic policeman".

Sheikh Youssef Al Badri, of the government Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, together with 18 other plaintiffs, is suing poet Helmy Salem and Ahmed Higazi, the editor-in-chief of the culture publication Al Ibdaa, for "blasphemy" and "offending the divine being."

The plaintiffs complained of the insolence of the writer to portray God as a traffic policeman.

Free Speech the victim of honour killing

Based on an article from Cambridge Evening News see full article

A Cambridge University student who sparked a row when he published satirical material about Islamic has issued an apology.

The 19-year-old second-year Clare College student went into hiding after he printed a cartoon and material satirising religion in college magazine Clareification.

Part of the student's apology read: I understand that this edition has caused deep offence and hurt to very many people, both inside and outside Clare, through its derogatory references to individuals and also to various groups, including women, Jews, Christians and Muslims.

A Clare College spokesman said: Because of the gravity of the situation and the diversity of views expressed about the best way of handling it, the Dean of Students set in train procedures for convening the Court of Discipline. As events unfolded, however, a collective decision was taken to pursue instead a course of restorative justice and reconciliation. The general and the guest editor were both formally reprimanded by the Dean of Students, and were also interviewed by the Master. The guest editor was required to publish an apology, and also to meet any students who asked to see him as well as senior representatives of Cambridge religious communities.

A note of apology was distributed to all college members.

Asim Mumtaz, president of Cambridge's Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, welcomed the apology, and said he was satisfied with the way the college had dealt with the situation. He said: Religion teaches us that God is merciful and forgives, and we should forgive others as well, so long as this student realised the impact of their actions and that this was wrong.

No honour in Jordan

From Stop Honour Killings

A Jordan criminal prosecutor charged a 68-year-old father with the premeditated murder of his daughter for reasons the suspect claimed were related to family honour.

The 26-year-old victim was shot six times in the head and neck, reportedly by her father, at their family’s home.

When the police and criminal prosecutor arrived at the scene, the father fired several rounds in the air, saying he was celebrating the killing of his daughter. I have cleared the family’s name and cleansed my honour. Let everyone in my town know that I killed my daughter for this reason.

The victim was allegedly involved in an affair with a married man, who sought her hand in marriage six months prior to the incident. The victim’s family refused because the man was married then they discovered she was pregnant.

Thee family took their daughter to a different city and arranged for her to undergo an abortion and an operation to restore her virginity. For the past two weeks, the victim’s family locked her up in the house and eventually they decided to kill her.

The victim became the seventh person reportedly murdered in a so-called honour crime in the country since the beginning of the year, according to judicial and medical sources.

Malaysia bans supernatural exhibition

From The Independent see full article

A Malaysian state has closed down an exhibition on ghosts, ghouls and supernatural beings after Islamic clerics declared it detrimental to Muslims' faith.

The exhibition at the state museum capitalises on widespread fascination in Malaysia with other-worldly creatures from local mythology. Artefacts on display reportedly included alleged carcasses of vampires and a phoenix.

Abdul Shukor Husin, chairman of the fatwa council which advises the government on Islamic regulations, was quoted as saying: We don't want to promote a belief in tahyul [supernatural] and khurafat [superstition] which we do not know about. We do not need to focus on such things or play them up by having such exhibitions.

UAE state confirms stoning sentence on appeal

From Gulf News see full article
See Video of Stoning to Death
Sign the petition: Stop Stoning Forever

The Federal Supreme Court in Ajman (one of the UAE states) upheld the stoning death sentence against a Pakistani man who was found guilty of having unlawful relations with his four stepdaughters.

A police officer told Gulf News this is the first time ever that somebody has been sentenced to death by stoning.

The four girls were sentenced to 80 lashes each. Those sentences have already been carried out.

They were charged with 'allowing' their stepfather to have sex with them. The girls reportedly gave birth to 11 children by the man.

Opus Dei complaints rejected by BBC

From The Telegraph see full article

A Complaint by Opus Dei that its members were unfairly portrayed as "murderers, thieves and adulterers" in the television crime drama Waking the Dead has been rejected by the BBC.

The Roman Catholic lay organisation, whose members include Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, claimed that the drama had presented its members as "self-serving hypocrites" who cover up evil actions while hiding behind a veneer of piety and penitential rituals of self flagellation.

But Andrew Bell, the director of the corporation's editorial complaints unit, said he could not uphold the complaint as he thought most viewers would not take the programme seriously.

Bell said Waking the Dead was a highly fictionalised format in which unlikely conspiracies, guilty secrets and unexpected revelations are the order of the day.

The controversial Catholic organisation complained about two episodes in January which featured an Opus Dei member shooting his lover, a married woman who is also a member, and a rival.

The award-winning drama also depicted the fictional head of the Catholic organisation as a shadowy figure pursuing money and power and implied that it was involved in the real-life murder of the Italian banker Roberto Calvi in 1982.

Jack Valero, a director of Opus Dei, said the portrayal of the organisation was unremittingly negative. He said all the characters linked to the group were "criminal or immoral". He vowed to take the matter further.

Parents themselves run the risk of violence when arranging/forcing marriage

From AND see full article

A Gambian girl whose desire was to marry a man of her choice, only to be blocked by her parents, has resorted to attempting murder by pouring hot oil on her father's face in protest.

Binta Secka is the daughter of a retired police and former Immigration agent Babou Secka. The incident happened three days ago, in Sambang village and hospitalised Mr Secka who is said to be responding to treatment.

Forced marriages is common in the Gambia, a nation majority of whom are Muslims. The Gambia is nominally a secular state but Islamic Sharia law is partly applied.

Binta was said to have violated family norms and values by disregarding her parent's advise not to marry a man of their choice. African women are subjected to parental control even after attaining the age of 18. Parents can decide who their daughters should marry and how they should comport themselves within and outside the house. Girls who fail to heed to such cultural norms and values are often considered as "outcast" in the family. Even if they chose to go ahead and marry the man of their choice, such marriages are never recognized or endorsed by their parents.

Local police officers in Dankunku confirmed the incident during the weekend. They said the accused was yet to be arrested.

Nutters call for grand jury investigation into adult businesses

Nutters try and impose their nonsense on others and then whinge when 'fundamentalist' secularists fight back.

From AVN see full article

The National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families (NCPCF) is organising a petition calling for grand jury investigations of over 30 adult businesses in Kansas and Missouri. According to a NCPCF press release, the anti-porn group's executive director Philip Cosby has collected between 17,000 and 20,000 signatures in the campaign, which charges sex shops in six counties with "promoting obscenity.".

Cosby, who has had some success in petitioning for pornography-related grand jury investigations in the past, hopes to challenge adult businesses under Kansas City's community standard for obscenity. The petitions would be the first step in calling a grand jury, which would then determine if that standard has been violated.

Cosby said that 84 church congregations are supporting the campaign. Local pastors plan to submit the signatures to six county courthouses on May 17.

Love your neighbour... unless he's gay

Challenging the  church over gay discrimination

From Lifesite

In a test case of the UK’s just passed Sexual Orientation Regulations (SOR’s), an Anglican bishop is defending himself in the dock for refusing to hire a man who was pursuing an active homosexual lifestyle.

The Right Rev Anthony Priddis, the Anglican Bishop of Hereford, rejected the accusation of unjust discrimination, saying that he declined to hire John Reaney as a youth worker because he admitted to engaging in sexual activity outside of marriage.

Reaney is bringing an action against the Hereford Diocesan Board of Finance, claiming that he was refused the job on the grounds that he was a homosexual. His complaint is being backed by the homosexual group, Stonewall, a political lobby group.

Reany’s “orientation” was not the issue, claimed the bishop: But Mr Reaney's lifestyle had the potential to impact on the spiritual, moral and ethical leadership within the diocese.

The Christian doctrine of sexual purity is still the official teaching and policy of the Church of England, and Bishop Priddis said: What is at issue is the lifestyle, practice and sexual behaviour, whether the applicant is homosexual, heterosexual or transsexual.

The Church's teaching draws distinction between sexual orientation and practice and lifestyle, Bishop Priddis said: We didn't discriminate against Mr Reaney on the grounds of sexuality.

Until the passage of the SOR’s, secondary legislation associated with the 2006 Equality Act, religious organizations were exempt from previous anti-discrimination legislation. Churches and religious organizations campaigned against the passage of the SOR’s saying that it would lead to their being targeted by homosexual activists in lawsuits.

The Reany case is considered to be the first of these expected test cases.

ASBOs for Hate preachers

From The Guardian

Religious extremists could be given Anti-Social Behaviour Orders under a new crackdown on those suspected of radicalising others.

Police and prosecutors could use Asbos against suspects they can not charge with criminal offences under new guidance to tackle "radicalisers" announced by Attorney General Lord Goldsmith. Police are also calling on members of the public to use a hotline to tip them off about anyone they suspect of preaching hatred.

Both police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have set up new national teams to concentrate on the problem and work together more effectively.

As national co-ordinator, Detective Superintendent Mark Holmes of Scotland Yard's Counter terrorism Command will have 30 officers under him, as well as in new counter terrorism units in Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds.

The CPS has also appointed an unnamed lawyer to act as its national co-ordinator in the area liaising with specialist regional prosecutors who will work alongside counter-terror police. It has drawn up new guidance for police and prosecutors outlining what charges are available under anti-terror and other laws to prevent people inciting hatred or violence.

But the guidance also deals with a range of "non-prosecution" options such as Asbos or powers to remove extremist material from the internet. The idea follows the successful use of Asbos to curb animal rights extremists from harassing the public, Lord Goldsmith said.

Opposition to talibanisation of Islamabad

From the Dawn see full article
See also Sharia gangs to enforce their law with threats

Several hundred men and women protested here on Thursday against the religious militancy and ferociousness of the students of Lal Masjid madressahs who have held the capital in awe for 10 weeks.

They gathered in response to a call of civil society organisations to protest against Jamia Hafsa girls, and their Lal Masjid male supporters, who have launched a campaign “to stop vices” in the city and pave way for enforcement of Sharia in the country.

Stop terrorising people in the name of religion, said one placard held by the demonstrators who were outnumbered by riot police.

Jamia Hafsa girls have been on the march, and in the headlines ever since they seized a public library on January 21 and forced the city authorities to stop demolishing illegally built mosques. That success encouraged them to launch their “stop vices” campaign. They kidnapped three women alleging that they were running a brothel, and started asking owners of music and CD-DVD shops in the Aabpara Market to close down their business.

One placard at the protest on Thursday declared: No to religious extremism, Yes to life and music.

Though the demonstration took place a few hundred metres away from the Lal Masjid, it drew no reaction from the ‘moral squads’ entrenched in the mosque.

When asked how a few hundred activists could confront the 4,000 organised and emotionally charged students of Jamia Hafsa, prominent activist Dr Nayyar said: They have to be opposed by someone. We just want to impress upon the government that peaceful citizens of the city are really disturbed over this development where they are not safe even within the four walls of their homes.

A press statement issued by the organisers of the protest said: We believe that the students of Jamia Hafsa are playing into the hands of religious extremists who wish to impose their fascist ideology upon the state and its apparatuses

The violent manner in which these students have tried to negotiate their political aims and agenda is proof that the anti-democratic forces have become a threat to the life and property of ordinary people.

The responsibility for this state of affairs rests squarely with the wrong policies of the present and previous governments that promoted Jihadi culture and patronised religious extremists.

More on the talibanisation of Islamabad

From The Peninsula see article

Pakistan said it had blocked the website and radio station of a radical mosque that has launched a Taleban-style morality campaign in the heart of the capital.

The move comes after the Lal Masjid or Red Mosque in Islamabad issued a “fatwa” against a female minister pictured hugging a foreigner following a charity paragliding trip, and also threatened to carry out suicide attacks.

We have blocked the website of Lal Masjid and also blocked the radio station, Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azeem said. Azeem said the government blocked the website (www.lalmasjid.org) and the illegal FM radio station under laws brought in five years ago by President Pervez Musharraf: We will block anything that promotes religious hatred, calls for suicide attacks — this cannot be tolerated. The law says that no such activity can be allowed. This website was projecting what was prohibited by law.

From The Peninsula see article

A fundamentalist mosque behind a morality campaign in the Pakistani capital has guns on the premises and will defend itself if the government attempts a crackdown, a top cleric said yesterday.

The Lal Masjid or Red Mosque in Islamabad has caused the government headaches with its Taleban-style vice patrols and by issuing a "fatwa" against a female minister for being pictured hugging a paragliding instructor.

If it comes to a do-and-die situation we will use our right to self defence, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the mosque's deputy leader, said.

Whatever arms we have are with licences obtained in the past through normal official procedures, he said when asked to comment on what appeared to be assault rifles carried by young devotees standing guard on the mosque's walls.

On Friday, Abdul Aziz, the chief cleric at the mosque in downtown Islamabad, and Ghazi's brother threatened to launch "thousands" of suicide attacks if government security forces launched an operation against the compound.

He also announced the formation of an Islamic "Sharia" court, which two days later issued the fatwa against Tourism Minister Nilofar Bakhtiar.

Will personally see to those that don't comply

From the Daily Times see full article

The administration of Lal Masjid on Sunday vowed to stop the sale of alcohol in the federal capital.

We have received a complaint from a woman about a notorious man selling liquor in Sector F-7, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, deputy cleric of Lal Masjid said: We have also heard that the businessman is bribing the police each month, We’ll first ask the government to take action against him and if it fails then we will personally see to him.

Massive street protest against Lal Masjid

From the Dawn see full article

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement on Sunday staged a massive rally in the city against what it called the threat of ‘Kalashnikov Sharia’ of Islamabad’s Lal Masjid clerics and asserted that Islam did not allow enforcement of Sharia by force and Pakistan had not been created to be turned into a theological state.

Party chief Altaf Hussain quoted profusely from the Holy Quran and Hadith to substantiate his attack on religious extremism. He said that extremists were defaming Islam and maligning the name of Pakistan and because of their acts of violence and terrorism, India, Afghanistan and other countries were describing Pakistan as a sanctuary of terrorists. He described the scholars supporting the Sharia of Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa as “Ulema-i-Sou” and said they were misleading the country and the people.

For God’s sake don’t destroy Pakistan, he said and termed the rally a referendum against the ‘Kalashnikov Sharia’. He said Ulema from different schools of thought had ruled that the enforcement of Sharia by force was against Islam.

Pakistan seems to agree to clerics' demands

From Indian Express see full article

The Pakistan government has agreed to accept the demands of radical clerics, including the enforcement of Sharia law in the country.

President of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q), who was deputed by the government to resolve the stand-off with the clerics, told reporters here last night that all contentious issues between the government and Lal Masjid clerics had been settled.

Hussain was speaking after a second round of talks with clerics, who along with their hundreds of students from their madrasas had begun moral policing in Islamabad, local daily Dawn reported.

On enforcement of the Shariat, he said, No Muslim rejects the enforcement of the Islamic system in the country, but declined to elaborate.

Hussain paid a surprise visit to Lal Masjid and held talks with its in-charge Maulana Abdul Aziz and his deputy Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi.

He assured the clerics and students of Jamia Hasfa that the government was ready to accept their demands.

Hussain said: They had two main demands; reconstruction of mosques and enforcement of Islamic shariah. We have agreed to rebuild the mosques and as far as Islamic shariah is concerned, Pakistan is an Islamic Republic and measures can be taken to improve the laws.

A senior cleric at Lal Masjid, otherwise known as Red Mosque, appeared unmoved by Hussain's soothing words. There is no such agreement, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, deputy chief cleric at the mosque, said.

6 Christians arrested

From The Peninsula see full article

Singh police have charged six Christians with blasphemy under the Pakistan Penal Code for allegedly disrupting a procession marking Prophet Mohammad’s  birthday and allegedly passing “derogatory remarks” against him.

A first information report was lodged against the six Christians on April 1 on a complaint by Abdul Ghaffar.

According to a Criminal Procedure Code amendment incorporated to prevent the misuse of the blasphemy law, a blasphemy case cannot be lodged under Section 295C until an official of rank superintendent investigates the incident, but the report has not been lodged in accordance with the procedure.

According to the case registered by the police, a Christian boy and his relatives have been accused of blasphemy for desecrating a sacred band with Quranic inscriptions worn by a Muslim boy, who worked for a rival television cable operator to one of the Christians.

We are trying our best to contact as many Muslim groups as possible to convince them this is a fake charge, said the Rev. Bonnie Mendis of the Roman Catholic parish at Toba Tek Singh, near Faisalabad where Christians number 10 000 among three million Muslims.

A quarrel between the two boys working with the rival TV cable distributors: has been turned into a fight between two communities.

Christians in the area say that the blasphemy case was concocted by Muslims after the Christian boy's family members went to the Muslim family to question why the boy had been beaten up for refusing to play with the other boys. After this, a group from the village marched through the village during which they are said to have attacked a disabled Christian who could not flee.

Though most people know this is a fake case, the police have not withdrawn the case. The extremists could use it to incite violence against us. That's our experience, lamented Catholic priest Mendis.

Waiting for tempers to calm

From Journal Chretien see full article

Among those “guilty of blasphemy” is 11 year old Daniel and the Punjab police are searching the entire province for him. The group of five is accused of disrespecting Mohammad and of having desecrated pieces of paper bearing the prophets name. One of the five, Salamat Masih, has been arrested while other four are at large.

Fr Bonnie Mendes a priest of Toba Tek Singh told AsiaNews that the Christians had done nothing. It is a totally fabricated case against innocent Christians. Fr bonnie further added that the situation in the area is tense and people are scared although local police claim the situation is under control.

Fr Mendes explained that it all boils down to a quarrel between families. Local Muslims were offended by the behaviour of the five Christians and during a procession agreed to report them. Not content, they also tried to attack the five during a march. The five saved themselves by running away, but one of the Christians present– Ratan Masih, disabled – did not succeed in fleeing far and was savagely beaten. He is now in hospital.

The day after Salamat Masih’s arrest, local Christians began a campaign asking the authorities to intervene. Moreover, they explain there have been substantial procedural errors made during the, course of investigations : the police has not even investigated the accusations made against the Christians ; they simply arrested them on the hearsay of the Muslim’s report.

We are quiet on the issue and trying to make the environment peaceful, and that is why no investigations has been launched yet, Toba Tek, the acting police Superintendent, told Daily Times. We want to resolve this case through a compromise, which is expected after both parties are toned down in a couple of days.

He claimed that police had made special arrangements for security on Easter, and they were waiting for both the Christian community and clerics to calm down. He said that nobody except Salamat Masih had been arrested in the case against the Christians.

   
So Indonesian editor cleared

From the BBC see full article

The editor of Playboy magazine in Indonesia has been acquitted of charges of publishing indecent material.

Erwin Arnada oversaw photo shoots and selected revealing pictures for the magazine, prosecutors argued.

But Arnada said the magazine, which went on sale last year, contained no nudity and was tamer than other Western-style magazines on sale.

The pictures could not be categorised as pornography, said South Jakarta district court judge Efran Basyuning.

Extremism tops evangelism

From Christian Post  see full article

An Ethiopian evangelist was beaten and killed by Wahabbi Muslim extremists while evangelizing on the streets earlier this week.

The Christian man, identified as Tedase, was on the streets with two young females evangelizing Monday afternoon on Merkato Street in Jimma, southern Ethiopia, when he was attacked by Muslim militants, according to International Christian Concern’s sources in Jimma.

Tedase was reportedly walking in front of a Wahabbi Mosque on Merkato street when a group of Muslims exiting the mosque confronted him and his party. The women ran away from the mob but Tedase continued to evangelize. The Muslims then pulled him into the mosque and “savagely” beat him to death with the intention to kill him.

Sources speculate that Tedase was used as an example to scare other Christians in the area. Ethiopia was ranked third earlier this year in ICC’s “Hall of Shame” list of the world’s top ten persecutors of Christians.

ICC noted that Jimma is a Muslim-dominated area where local authorities are almost exclusively Muslim.

Wahhabism is a reform movement of Islam that originated in Arabia in the 18th century. Followers adhere to an extreme literalist view of Sharia law, or Islamic laws.

'Blasphemer' tortured by mob

From Spero News see full article

A Christian man in Pakistan’s Punjab province was attacked on March 23 by a mob of some 150 Muslims. He was beaten and tortured for allegedly desecrating the Qur’an.

The attack ended when police arrested the alleged blasphemer, charging him under the so-called Blasphemy law, which could mean life in prison for him. By contrast, his attackers were not charged.

According to a news release of ‘Sharing Life Ministry, the 50-year-old Amanat Masih was accused of tearing and burning some pages from the Qur’an. A mob then descended upon his house, stormed the place, caught the alleged blasphemer, dragged him out into the streets, and tortured him.

According to the report filed with the police, Masih confessed to burning the pages of the Qur’an on the advice of Liaqat Ali, a Muslim ‘faith healer,’ who was arrested.

Currently, both men are in jail at Sheikhupura District Prison.

Update: Bail Refused

12th July 2007

The Lahore High Court dismissed the bail application of Christian citizen Amanat Masih

Christian murdered by youths in Kerala, India

From Journal Chretien see full article

A Christian retired government employee S. Stanley, 58, was brutally murdered at his house in front of his wife by a group of young men on the 10th of February in Kerala State, India.

Some alcoholic youngsters launched in front of Stanley’s house, shouted with slang words against christians and christianity, hit the gate violently and stoned the house. Stanley and his wife came out of the house and asked them to go away from the front of their house without making nuisance. But they became more violent.

Then Stanley got into the house and telephoned the Police. While he was ringing to the Police, the attackers entered the house and stabbed him several times at his back, neck and stomach. He died on the spot. Attackers severely beaten and thrown out his wife Sisilet Bhai, who is also a retired government employee.

New translation of the Koran re wife beating

From The Times see full article

A new translation of the Koran has set an American Muslim woman on a potentially dangerous collision course with fundamentalists.

Laleh Bakhtiar aims to reignite one of the most divisive debates in Islam by rejecting the idea that chapter 4, verse 34 of the Koran grants a husband the divine right to beat his wife.

Physical punishment is held widely to be an acceptable last resort in cases of disobedience after admonition and banishment from the marital bed. Dr Bakhtiar told The Times that anyone adhering to this interpretation of the verse had denigrated Islam.

Calls for the modernisation of Islam have led to women such as Taslima Nasrin, the Bangladeshi author, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the former Dutch MP, facing death threats. The family of Dr Bakhtiar is fearful for her safety.

Dr Bakhtiar, who has written books on Islamic unity and translated 30 books on Islam and Islamic beliefs into English, says that the Koran does not convey a right to beat women. She has courted further controversy by removing the word “infidel” from her translation and by using “God” instead of “Allah”.

In addition to being American and female, Dr Bakhtiar is a convert from Christianity and is not a classically trained Arabic scholar. Her translation, The Sublime Quran, took seven years to complete and is not published until April 10, but the bloggers and chat rooms are active already.

The Holy Qu’ran, translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali (1934)

"As to those women on whose part ye fear disloyalty and ill-conduct, admonish them [first], [next] refuse to share their beds, [and last] chastise them [lightly]; but if they return to obedience, seek not against them means [of annoyance]"

The Qu’ran, translated by M.A.S. Abdel Haleem (2004)

"If you fear high handedness from your wives, remind them [of the teachings of God], then ignore them when you go to bed, then hit them [a single blow]

The Sublime Quran, translated by Laleh Bakhtiar (2007)

“But those whose resistance you fear, then admonish them and abandon them in their sleeping place, then go away from them; and if they obey you, look not for any way against them”

Supposed blasphemer sentenced to death in Pakistan

From the Daily Times see full article

A judge held the trial of an alleged blasphemer and awarded him death sentence on Thursday.

According to the prosecution, the accused, Abdul Hameed of Bhai Phairu, had erected a model of the Kaba in his house and had claimed to be a prophet.

Bhai Phairu police registered a case against Hameed on March 3, 2006, on the complaint of Ghulam Mustafa Zia, a prayer leader of the area.

Witnesses in the case said Hameed had claimed that his Kaba was the original one and people should visit it for pilgrimage instead of going to Saudi Arabia.

Hameed’s counsel Pervez Aslam Chaudhry said that the court had not considered some legal aspects of the case. He said that according to the law, a ‘blasphemy’ case was required to be investigated by an official not lower than the rank of a superintendent of Police. He added that in this case a sub-inspector had investigated the case in just two days. He added that he would appeal against the decision in the Lahore High Court within a week.