Buddha images on underwear offend Thailand

From Thai Visa

An American Web site offering G-string underwear and T-shirts for dogs emblazoned with picture of Buddha dropped them from its sales list after protests by predominantly Buddhist Thailand.

It is a good thing they understand our sensitivity, Foreign Ministry spokesman Piriya Khempon said a day after saying the products sold on California-based on-line store CafePress.com had offended Thais and Buddhists elsewhere.

The site sells more than 70 items, ranging from T-shirts to teddy bears to beer pitchers bearing pictures of religious figures and philosophers from Hindu god Shiva to Jesus Christ and Mahatma Gandhi.

Although the site removed advertisements for Buddha G-strings and dog T-shirts, items depicting Jesus and Shiva remained.

 
Pakistan in talks with EU about blasphemy

From Gulf Times see full article

The Pakistan government is considering a number of measures to stop the abuse of blasphemy laws to victimise minority communities.

Islamabad has told the European Union (EU) during a Joint Commission meeting last week.

The Pakistani officials defended the blasphemy laws, saying they had been part of South Asia's legal system for over a 100 years. They accepted that the laws were being abused, but noted that the majority of cases registered under the laws were against Muslims.

They rejected EU concerns that there was organised intolerance towards minorities in Pakistan.

Pakistan officials warned that too much external pressure on human rights issues could impinge on the government's ability to move forward with new initiatives since such public pressure could generate the impression that the government was acting under Western pressure.

During the meeting, Pakistan complained of a rising tide of racism and 'Islamophobia' in Europe and demanded the EU take steps to contain them.

Saudi hand amputation

From News.com.au see full article

Saudi Arabian authorities severed a man's right hand today after convicting him of theft, the interior ministry said.

Fayez al-Anzi, a Saudi national, had his hand amputated in the capital Riyadh after he was found guilty of stealing from a house.

Constitution vs Sharia judgment due

From the Washington Post see full article

Malaysia's highest court will rule next week on whether a Muslim has the right to convert to another faith in a test case that could shake society in the mainly Muslim country.

The Federal Court, the country's highest civil judicial authority, will announce on May 30 if it has decided to acknowledge the decision of Lina Joy to convert to Christianity and give up Islam, the faith she was born into.

Constitutionally, freedom of religion is guaranteed. But in reality, conversion out of Islam falls within the ambit of sharia or Islamic courts. And sharia law prescribes fines or jail for those who renounce Islam, effectively ruling out the option.

Muslims who leave Islam end up in legal limbo, unable to register their new religious affiliations or legally marry non-Muslims. Many keep quiet about their choice or emigrate.

Lina Joy, now in her early 40s, was born Azlina Jailani and brought up as a Muslim but at the age of 26 decided to become a Christian.

In 1999, the National Registration Department allowed her to change the name in her identity card to Lina Joy but the entry for her religion remained "Islam."

Until the entry is deleted, she cannot legally marry outside the Muslim faith. The legal wrangling began when she took the department to court over the anomaly.

But a ruling against Joy could also inflame opinion among non-Muslims, many already aggrieved over what they see as the gradual encroachment of Islamic law into civil society.

Freedom of religion officially cancelled in Malaysia

From the Washington Post see full article

Malaysia's highest court has rejected a Muslim convert's six-year battle to be legally recognised as a Christian.

A three-judge panel ruled that only the country's Sharia Court could let Azlina Jailani, now known as Lina Joy, remove the word Islam from her identity card.

Malaysia's constitution 'guarantees' freedom of worship but says all ethnic Malays are Muslim. Under Sharia law, Muslims are not allowed to convert.

Malaysia's Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim said the panel endorsed legal precedents giving Islamic Sharia courts jurisdiction over cases involving Muslims who want to convert.

About 200 protesters shouted "Allah-o-Akbar" (God is great) outside the court when the ruling was announced.

The ruling marked the end of her final appeal.

Honour killing suspected in Britain

From This Is London see full article

The husband of a pregnant teenager found stabbed to death has been arrested on suspicion of her murder.

The 24-year-old husband of Sana Ali, 17, was arrested by murder squad detectives along with 16-year-old youth.

Ali and her unborn child both died following the attack at her home in Bury, Greater Manchester.

Ali, who was originally from Pakistan, moved to the UK five years ago.

Detectives earlier said they had not ruled out the possibility that the murdered teenager had been the victim of an 'honour killing'. Police confirmed that several members of the victim's family were being questioned over her death.

 
A Cover Up in Turkey

From The Guardian see full article

The bikini has become the latest item to offend the Islamic-oriented authorities in Turkey. After a bungled attempt to outlaw alcohol, municipal officials in Istanbul have set their sights on billboard advertisements of the skimpy swimsuit. The ban was  revealed last week.

Lambasting the move as more in tune with Iran than a country bent on joining the EU, appalled secularists said it proved that the ruling Justice and Development (AK) party had a hidden Islamist agenda.

We've never had to get permission before and when we applied for it they told us we were hanging up immoral pictures, said Moris Eskenazi, who jointly owns one of four firms reportedly stopped from placing the adverts.

The ruling party first want to remove women wearing swimsuits from billboards and then they want to remove them from the beach, said Gulsun Bilgehan, a member of the Republican People's party (CHP) who vowed to take the issue to the Council of Europe, of which Turkey is a member.

 
New Zealand catholics bring case against South Park

From TV3 see full article

Catholic bishops in New Zealand say they have brought a case before the High Court which could have a big impact on the community.

They launched a legal case over a controversial episode of the animated television show South Park, featuring a menstruating Virgin Mary.

Catholics complained to the Broadcasting Standards Authority when it was screened, but the complaint was thrown out.

Lawyers for the bishops have appealed to the High Court, claiming the programme breached obligations under the Broadcasting Act.

Church spokeswoman Lindsay Freer says the court has reserved its decision.

 
Another public amputation in Iran

From Iran Focus see full article

Authorities have chopped off the hand of a man in public in the western city of Kermanshah.

In order to deal decisively against those disrupting national security and order and to carry out the divine law, at exactly 4 pm on Sunday the sentence for Arash’s hand to be amputated in public was carried out in Kermanshah’s Jafaar-Abad Square, wrote the hard-line daily Qods.

The report said that Arash, whose hand was chopped off, had taken part in 16 robberies.

Iran’s Islamic penal system regularly practices centuries-old sentences for petty crimes, such as amputation of limbs, eye gouging, stoning to death, and throwing prisoners off a cliff in a sac.

 
Minister under death threat for trying for these ideals

From The Times see full article

Nyamko Sabuni is a former refugee who's outspoken views have demanded attention in her adopted Sweden. She wants a ban on the veil for under-15s and compulsory gynaecological checks for all schoolgirls to protect against genital mutilation masquerading as “female circumcision”.

Her views have led to death threats and round-the-clock protection in Europe’s most tolerant country.

Being appointed Minister for Integration and Equality in the right-wing Government provoked a petition signed by 50 Muslim organisations declaring that she “breathed populism and Islamophobia”.

Sabuni whose mother was a Muslim but who describes herself as “not religious”, is unrepentant. Arranged marriage is not something recommended by Islam, she told The Times: Nor is genital mutilation. Many people say this is our tradition, our religion. But it is unacceptable, whatever the reason. I will not be scared into silence. I will never accept that women and girls are oppressed in the name of religion.

 
Punjab protests spill over into Birmingham

Based on an article from Gulf News see full article

Punjab Police yesterday registered a case against the controversial Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief for "deliberately" outraging the religious feelings of the Sikh community.

The First Information Report (FIR) cited the offence of deliberate or malicious act intended to outrage the religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or its religious beliefs against the sect chief.

It was registered after Inspector General of Police M.K. Tiwari submitted a report to the state government on the violence that erupted in parts of Punjab last week between sections of Sikhs and members of the sect.

Sect head Baba Gurmeet Singh Ram Raheem and his followers called off their protest after the authorities assured action would be taken against those who burnt the chief’s effigy.

Previously many Sikhs have taken offence at a photograph of the sect chief attired like the 10th Sikh guru, Gobind Singh. The Sikh community has demanded his arrest and sought an apology from him for blasphemy.

The sect chief had issued a statement regretting the advertisement that showed him dressed like the Sikh guru.

The impact of the troubles has stretched as far as the UK. Sikhs on Sunday demonstrated outside the Indian Consulate General's office in Birmingham against Dera Sacha Sauda head's alleged act of blasphemy.

About 100 demonstrators urged the Indian government to prevent the Dera chief Baba Ram Rahim Singh from publishing what they described as "anti-Sikh propaganda".

 
Vatican censorship of BBC documentary

From eitb see full article

A political row has erupted in Italy over whether state television should air a BBC documentary about the sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests.

The dispute broke out after a conservative politician said RAI should block the documentary because it was part of what he called a media execution squad ready to open fire on the Church and the Pope.

Mario Landolfi, head of the parliament's oversight committee for the broadcaster, asked RAI director general Claudio Cappon to deny permission to air Sex Crimes and the Vatican.

The documentary was aired on the BBC in October but never in Italy, although bloggers have translated it and it now ranks as Google Video Italia's most popular item. Several leftist politicians immediately attacked Landolfi's request for censorship.

At the weekend, Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops Conference, accused bloggers who put the documentary on the web of spreading "infamous slander".

Two leftists parliamentarians, Giovanni Russo Spena and Gennaro Migliore, said in a joint statement that the documentary should be aired because paedophilia in the Catholic Church is well known, there is no mystery about it.

 
Vatican win right to reply

From TV Guide

Italy's state broadcaster has no decided to buy a BBC documentary on the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests but will only let it be aired if accompanied by balancing opinion from the Church.

The documentary had sparked a political row which pitted right-wing politicians opposed to the airing against leftists who said censoring it would violate freedom of speech.

On Tuesday RAI director general Claudio Cappon approved purchasing the documentary, called Sex Crimes and the Vatican, but set conditions for how it can be broadcast.

He demanded that the program hosting the documentary, talk show Year Zero, also let prominent members of the Church give their version of events and contest the documentary's assertions.

Michele Santoro, a left-leaning journalist, had originally planned to air the documentary this Thursday but will now delay broadcasting it.

 
Objections to showing Iranian film at Cannes

From Stop Fundamentalism

Iranian Mullahs’ have once again exposed to the world their limited tolerance for views that might be slightly different than theirs.

Iran has sent the French Embassy in Tehran a letter of protest regarding the screening of an Iranian film maker’s movie, Persepolise, at the Cannes Film Festival.

The movie is about a child growing up in Iran after the Islamic Revolution.

The letter sent by the state-run Farabi Foundation in Iran reads, This year the Cannes Film Festival, in an unconventional and unsuitable act, has chosen a movie about Iran that has presented an unrealistic face of the achievements and results of the glorious Islamic Revolution in some of its parts.

Mullahs are trying very hard to extend the reach of their censorship and their totalitarian rule all the way up into Europe.

The film is competing for the top prize and will be officially screened Wednesday.

 
Iran takes offence at Cannes prize

From iAfrica see full article

An advisor to Iran's president has expressed fury over the awarding of a top Cannes festival prize to an animation about growing up in revolutionary Iran, saying the movie promoted "Islamophobia".

Persepolis, which jointly won the Jury Prize at Cannes, is based on best-selling comics by an Iranian-French emigre about her struggling with the authorities in the early days of the Islamic revolution.

Islamophobia in Western drama started in France and producing and highlighting the anti-Iranian film Persepolis in Cannes falls in line with this Islamophobia, seethed Mehdi Kalhor, a cultural advisor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He said Persepolis sought to sabotage Iranian culture and will not be the last anti-Iranian film.

 
Iranian police arrest 87 at private party

from Gay.com see full article

87 gay men were arrested at a private house party in Iran on May 10th, according to the Iranian Queer Organisation, IRQO.

The group claims that police raided a birthday party for a man named Farhad. According to witnesses, the police brutally assaulted the host, his parents, and the guests.

A man identified as Peyman said: All my friends were arrested while seven or eight policeman beat them with batons. Fearing the usual punishments for attending a party, two had jumped from the second-floor window and were in a bad condition.

Another man reported: When they were coming out of the house followed by the police, their clothes were ripped, their faces and bodies were covered in blood. They were beaten up badly.

Some women who attended the party also were arrested, but were released the following day. It is believed that all men attending the party were jailed.

 
Community support against false blasphemy accusations

Based on an article from India eNews see full article
See also 86 year old Christian woman forcibly converted to Islam

Several Muslim leaders showed up at a police station to rally behind an elderly Christian man who was accused of blasphemy by his servant and jailed.

The Muslim leaders joined Christians, local traders and other residents in support of Walter Fazal Khan Khan, 79. They asked the police Saturday to investigate if the servant, Raja Riaz, was part of a conspiracy to grab the house Khan lives in.

On May 9, Walter was bathing in the morning when Riaz knocked at his door and told him that something was burning in the house. The burnt book was found to be a copy of the Koran.

Riaz ran out immediately, called local clerics and tried to beat Walter. Police were called and a case lodged against Walter under Pakistan's discredited blasphemy laws

Dozens of traders, neighbours and many residents of the area went to meet Superintendent of Police (Investigation) Pervez Kandhari at the Samanabad police station and said that people realised later that it could be a false case. They suspected the servant could have conspired against Walter to take over his house.

The police officer assured the people that the case would be investigated carefully, the Daily Times said Sunday. Some police authorities admitted that the case had been lodged in haste due to pressure from the public.

Update: Trial Start

May 30th

The trial of trial of the elderly man accused of blasphemy was set for Saturday, May 26

Update: Bail

Walter Fazal Khan has been granted bail by the session court.

Following his release Khan was immediately shifted to a 'safe place'. The date of a possible next court hearing was not immediately announced.

Hindu muslim clashes in India

From The Independent see full article

A bomb ripped through a historic mosque as Friday prayers were ending in southern India, killing at least 11 people and wounding nearly three dozen. Two other unexploded bombs were defused by police.

Minutes after the blast at Hyderabad's 17th-century Mecca Masjid, Muslims angered by what they said was a lack of police protection began throwing stones at police, who responded with baton charges and tear gas. Two people were killed in the violent clashes.

The bombing and ensuing clash between worshippers and police raised fears of wider Hindu-Muslim violence in the city, which has long been plagued by communal tensions - and occasional spasms of religious bloodletting.

Soon after the blast, Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh state, where Hyderabad is located, appealed for calm between Hindus and Muslims.

Railing at TV in Pakistan

From Malaysia Sun see full article

Lal Masjid prayer leader Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi has asked the government end the system of co-education in Pakistan.

In his Friday sermon, Ghazi also called for an end to dance and music shows on TV channels, saying that such programmes were spreading obscenity in society and causing the divorce rate to increase everyday.

He warned that his followers would start picking up intelligence agency officials in Islamabad if the agencies did not stop picking up "innocent citizens".

Deadlines for CD shops passes

From the Dawn see full article

The Lal Masjid administration last week announced that its students would attack audio and video shops, massage centres and brothels in Islamabad if their owners did not wind up their businesses immediately.

Our students can attack these outlets anytime because the deadline given to their owners had already passed, Lal Masjid khatib Maulana Abdul Aziz said in his Friday sermon.

The deadline ended last month and the owners fear attacks from the mosque brigade anytime. We are insecure and need government protection, the owner of a CD shop in Abpara market told Dawn.

When contacted, Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi, deputy in-charge of Lal Masjid, said the one-month ultimatum had ended last month, adding that owners of some of the shops had assured that they would wind up their business.

Another honour killing

From Stop Honour Killings

On Tuesday, 8 May 2007, the police arrived at a house in Tal al-Sultan neighborhood in the west of Rafah after receiving information that a woman was killed for “family honor.”

The police found the body of Khawla Ahmed ‘Owaida, 35, inside the house. She was killed by a gunshot to the head. Her brother, 32-year-old ‘Alaa’, confessed committing the crime to save his “family honor,” and the police arrested him.

Nigerian sentenced to death by stoning

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

A Sharia court in Nigeria's north-eastern Bauchi State has sentenced a man to death for raping two teenage girls.

For your action, you will be stoned to death as ordained by Allah, presiding judge Aliyu Mohammad told Ade Debo after he confessed to the crime.

Debo has 30 days to appeal against the sentence, after which the local state governor will confirm them.

More than a dozen Nigerian Muslims have been sentenced to death by stoning for sexual offences ranging from adultery to homosexuality since the Sharia legal system was introduced in 2000. But none of these death sentences has actually been carried out. They have either been thrown out on appeal or commuted to prison terms as a result of pressure from human rights groups.

But there have been two amputations in north-western Zamfara State which pioneered the introduction of the Islamic legal system in the country.

No honour in claims of suicide

From Stop Honour Killings

A Turkish court in Bursa handed down a life sentence for 60-year-old Arif Ç who stabbed his 22-year-old daughter Sevil Ö 27 times when she returned home after running away from her husband and two children.

Arif Ç. was sentenced to life imprisonment in solitary confinement with no possibility of parole for the crime of premeditated murder.

Arif Ç claimed before the ruling that his daughter had committed suicide, saying she had suffered from psychological problems. Declaring that his daughter returned home 13 days after she had fled, Arif Ç said: Just when we went to make a missing person report at the gendarmerie my daughter stabbed herself. I am innocent.

But the court assembly, considering the forensic report and the impossibility that a person could stab himself or herself in the back, did not rule in his favor.

Call to classify the bible as indecent in Hong Kong

From Stuff see full article

More than 800 Hong Kong residents have called on authorities to reclassify the Bible as "indecent" due to its sexual and violent content, following an uproar over a sex column in a university student journal.

A spokesperson for Hong Kong's Television and Entertainment Licensing authority (TELA) said it had received 838 complaints about the Bible.

The complaints follow the launch of an anonymous Web site, www.truthbible.net, which said the holy book "made one tremble" given its sexual and violent content, including rape and incest.

The Web site said the Bible's sexual content "far exceeds" that of a recent sex column published in the Chinese University's "Student Press" magazine, which had asked readers whether they'd ever fantasised about incest or bestiality.

That column was later deemed "indecent" by the Obscene Articles Tribunal, sparking a storm of debate about social morality and freedom of speech.

If the Bible is similarly classified as "indecent" by authorities, only those over 18 could buy the holy book and it would need to be sealed in a wrapper with a statutory warning notice.

TELA said it was still undecided on whether the Bible had violated Hong Kong's obscene and indecent articles laws.

Bible acceptable by community standards

From The Telegraph see full article

Hong Kong's media regulator said it would not reclassify the Bible as an indecent publication following more than 2,000 complaints about its sexual and violent content, including rape and incest.

The Bible is a religious text which is part of civilisation. It has been passed from generation to generation, the Television and Licensing Authority (TELA) ruled last night.

The regulator received 2,041 such complaints in the last week, but said it would not submit the Bible to the tribunal for obscene classification.

The Bible had not violated standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable members of the community, TELA said in a statement.

 
Pakistan considers new law against apostasy

From Malaysia Sun see full article

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Chairperson Asma Jahangir has expressed grave concern over Government plans to introduce a law to punish apostasy.

The HRCP said: It is imperative that the authorities carefully consider any decision in this regard given the tendency to abuse laws in the country. The blasphemy law, widely used to settle petty, personal disputes is a case in point with suffering inflicted on many innocent persons through its misuse.

There is as such a danger the new law could ignite further sectarian friction and acrimony," the Daily Times said.

It warned that a new law on religion may further damage the country's standing in the community of nations, particularly at a time when violence by extremist groups has already brought it a bad name.

 
Catholics whinge about Canadian TV programme

From Canada.com see full article

A Canadian Catholic organization is accusing the TV company, CBC, of blasphemy over a pilot program that portrays altar boys as drug users and the Catholic communion host as munchable snack food, possible poker chips and a repository for drops of LSD.

Catholics should not have to pay for shows where their most sacred rituals and images are considered a starting point for dramatic licence, said the Catholic Civil Rights League, which intends to lodge a formal complaint today with the CBC for airing The Altar Boy Gang.

Two 30-minute pilot shows of The Altar Boy Gang, produced by Sienna Films of Toronto, aired last Friday with the help of more than $600,000 in funding from the Canadian Television Fund, which supports the production of distinctively Canadian TV programs.

Jeff Keay, a CBC spokesman, said yesterday the show will not become a CBC series. But he said he thought the premise of the pilot shows did not cross the line: We certainly intend no disrespect of the Catholic Church or any other religious organization. He said the network has received no other complaints about the shows.

Joanne McGarry, the civil rights league's executive director, said she watched the two pilots and personally, the part where I cringed the most, was the desecration of the host. She said she intended to send a formal complaint to Robert Rabinovitch, president of the CBC: We think the religious faith of all Canadians should be respected in our programming.

Art vandalised and artist arrested

From the BBC see full article

Art lovers in India are holding protests against the arrest of a student whose work was vandalised by activists who said they were obscene.

The artists say their right to freedom of expression is being violated. They are demonstrating in Mumbai and other cities against "moral policing" by right-wing Hindu groups.

The artists have condemned last week's arrest of a post-graduate student from a university campus in the state of Gujarat. The state is currently governed by the right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The dean of the arts faculty at the university was suspended for opposing the student's arrest.

The activists said that the work of Chandra Mohan is "obscene and distasteful" because it shows naked men.

Chandra Mohan was released on bail after being imprisoned for four days. His case shows that along with rapid economic progress, India is also facing a steady rise in the culture of artistic intolerance.

Beyond complaint

From the Khaleej Times see full article

The first civil court case against Saudi Arabia’s religious police was adjourned to July after the police failed to show up at the opening hearing.

The religious police, who are charged with enforcing a strict Islamic moral code, did not send anyone to the hearing at the court, called the Complaints Commission.

The commission, which has powers to hear grievances against state officials, adjourned the case until July 2, he added.

The unnamed woman is seeking compensation after she and her daughter were allegedly wrongfully arrested in a shopping centre car park in 2004 for “not wearing decent clothing”.

The woman’s family took the case to the civil court in Riyadh after an Islamic court rejected the complaint, reportedly ruling that a member of the religious police cannot be judged.

Latvian archbishop spouts bollox

From Pink News see full article

The opposition of the Roman Catholic church to gay Pride parades reached a new low today when the Archbishop of Riga called homosexuality total corruption in the sexual arena and an unnatural form of prostitution.

An open letter from Cardinal Janis Pujats demands a referendum on the issue of same-sex marriage and calls on crowds of people to take to the streets of Riga to oppose the Pride march on June 3rd.

If there are 1,000 sexually crazy people acting foolishly in the square of Pride, then the people’s march in Riga should have at least 40,000 or 50,000, he wrote: That proportion would give the government and public thought enough reason to leave sexual perversion outside the law.

The Cardinal calls gay Pride a "foreign-inspired action" and his wide-ranging attacks show an underlying unhappiness with the new Latvia as an EU member.

The Cardinal claims that no human rights document covers gay people as a protected minority. He also uses a report from 243 Latvian doctors as proof that homosexuality is an illness.

Hindu attack on Christians caught on TV

From the Dawn see full article

Hindu thugs attacked two Christian missionaries in public in western India, the latest violence against priests accused of trying to convert lower-caste Hindus to Christianity.

Indian TV channels showed Hindu activists kicking and punching the two young priests while dragging them through Kolhapur town in the southern part of Maharashtra state.

News footage showed an activist knee one priest in the groin, making him double up in pain. Another kicked the missionary in the head. The crowd accused the priests of forcibly converting poor Hindus, and handed them over to police. But a local Christian leader said those baptised had willingly changed their faith.

Police said the two missionaries had been arrested on complaints that they were fraudulently converting people.

In the phrase 'honour killing'

From Stop Honour Killings

Haifa District Court has sentenced Hani Hasson to life in prison for abducting and murdering his 23-year-old niece in a family "honor killing."

In October 2005, Samar Hasson's body was found hanging in a tree in an olive grove close to the village of Kafr Aablin. Other members of the family, including her father and her uncle, are standing trial separately for their alleged role in the murder.

During the trial, it emerged that Samar was in love with a young Muslim man from the village of Tamra in the Galilee. Her family, however, objected to the relationship, as they are Druze and he a Muslim.

Some 20 days before her death, Samar Hasson made a complaint to police, saying that she had been the victim of violence from her family due to her connection with the Muslim man. She later rescinded her complaint, fearing that her family would seek revenge.

On the day of the murder, the three men allegedly kidnapped Samar, strangled her and hanged her from the tree, where her body was found a day later.

In his ruling, Judge Yitzhak Dar wrote the only 'sin' committed by the victim, for which she was murdered at the hand of her father and her brother, was choosing a lifestyle that could not be accommodated by the values of the killer.

The judge added the term 'honor killing' includes only one true word and that is the word 'killing.' The word 'honor' is a complete perversion. There is no honor here, only disrespect to family which leads to abuse and even murder.

Love your neighbour... unless he's gay

Italian nutters protest against the wrong type of family

Based on an article from the BBC see full article

Nutters are holding a rally in the Italian capital, Rome, to protest against legislation giving more rights to homosexual couples.

Organisers of the "Family Day" expect at least 100,000 to attend the rally, backed by the Roman Catholic Church.

The proposed law would allow all unmarried couples greater rights in areas such as inheritance, but stops short of legalizing gay marriage.

A counter-demonstration supporting the new legislation is also planned in Rome.

The demonstration has the backing of the Vatican and Italy's Catholic bishops, although neither is involved in organising of the protest.

About 500,000 unmarried Italian couples are without shared rights or benefits. They miss out on social benefits, property or inheritance, a situation that is now at odds with many countries in Europe.

When Prime Minister Romano Prodi came to power last year he promised his supporters that the government would bring in new laws to protect cohabiting couples.

Recent polls showed that most Catholics in Italy are in favour of changes to the legislation despite Church opposition.

Love your neighbour... unless he's gay

Nutters show in strength against gays

From Monsters & Critics see full article

Organizers of a mass 'Family Day' rally in Rome Saturday claimed that over half a million Italian Catholic demonstrators took part in the demonstration against government plans to legalise same-sex unions.

Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was among those who attended the Family Day rally, which was backed by conservative politicians and had the tacit endorsement of the Church hierarchy.

The protest was called after Romano Prodi's centre-left government approved a so-called Dico bill granting new rights to de facto couples, including gays.

The bill is currently languishing in parliament due to strong opposition from pro-Vatican lawmakers, including several ministers in office.

Kurdish women protest after stoning/lynching

From Stop Honour Killings
Original story from AINI see videos and full article
See also IWPR detailed write up

Hundreds of women from various parts of Kurdistan Region took to the streets of Erbil to protest the brutal killing of Du'a Khalil Aswad, a 17-year-old Yazidi girl, and Kurdistan government called for the murderers to be brought to justice.

We do strongly condemn the killing of women under the pretext of honor and the killing and mutilating of the body of Du'a on April 7, 2007, a statement released by the protesters read.

The rally came as police in Bashiqa, a district northeast of Mosul where the incident took place, said that two arrests have been made in the murder, and four others who have been implicated, including two of the victim's uncles, have escaped.

Around 40 women and feminist organizations from various parts of Kurdistan Region organized the rally. Taking revenge on women under the pretext of honor is a terrorist act, read a banner carried by the demonstrators.

The protesters called upon the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to take decisive action regarding the incident, and work to stop honor killings and set a limitation for the power of tribal chiefs.

From The Independent

The stoning to death of a teenage girl belonging to the Yazidi religious sect because she fell in love with a Muslim man has led to a spiral of violence in northern Iraq in which 23 elderly factory workers have been shot dead and 800 Yazidi students forced to flee their university in Mosul.

The killings began with an act of brutality horrific even by Iraqi standards. The savagery of the lynching led to threats of retaliation. This part of Nineveh, though outside the jurisdiction of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), is strongly under its influence. The murdered girl and her intended husband were Kurds. The KRG's President, Massoud Barzani, held meetings with Yazidi leaders. Kurdish officials in Mosul said at the time that they had the situation under control. The KRG is now calling for an investigation into what happened, though the central government in Baghdad has little authority in the north of the country.

Retaliation when it came was savage. On 23 April a bus carrying back workers from a weaving factory in Mosul to Bashika, which has a Christian as well as a Yazidi population, was stopped by several cars filled with unidentified gunmen at about 2pm. They asked the Christians to get off the bus, according to the police account. They then took the bus to eastern Mosul city where they lined up the men, mostly elderly, against a wall and shot them to death.

The revenge killings led to two days of demonstrations in Bashika. Sunni Muslims, also Kurds, feared retaliation. Yazidis say that 204 members of their community have been killed since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Some 800 Yazidi students at Mosul university have since fled to Kurdish cities such as Dohuk where they are safe. They say they were told to convert or die.

Arrests in Kurdistan

From Stop Honour Killings
Original story from AINI see videos and full article
See also IWPR detailed write up

Authorities in northern Iraq have arrested four people in connection with the "honor killing" last month of a Kurdish teen, a morbid pummeling caught on a mobile phone video camera and broadcast around the world. Authorities believe she was killed for being seen with a Sunni Muslim man.

The case portrays the tragedy and brutality of honor killings in the Muslim world. In this case, Dua Khalil, a 17-year-old Kurdish girl whose religion is Yazidi, was dragged into a crowd in a headlock with police looking on and kicked, beaten and stoned to death.

Two of the four arrested are members of the victim's family. Four others, including a cousin thought to have instigated the killing, are being sought.

The killing is said to have spurred the killings of about two dozen Yazidi men by Sunni Muslims in the Mosul area two weeks later. Attackers affiliated with al Qaeda pulled 24 Yazidi men out of a bus and slaughtered them, a provincial official said.

Provincial officials don't think much police could have been done to stop the killing, but as nothing was even attempted, then at least three officers could be fired.

Also, the top police official in Bashiqa is being replaced

Malaysia frowns on interfaith dialogue

From The Times see full article

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has suffered a serious setback in his attempts to foster Muslim-Christian dialogue after the Malaysian Government banned an interfaith conference he was due to be chairing this week. It was cancelled with just two weeks notice.

The three-day conference was set up in the wake of September 11 and meant to be an annual get-together of Christian and Muslim academics in an attempt to find theological understandings that might help prevent future terrorist attacks.

However, it is understood that some influential Muslims believe that Christianity is “not a heavenly religion” and therefore they frown on interreligious dialogue.

The Malaysian Government said that it would not permit the interfaith dialogue to take place.

For writing that islam hampers economic and political progress

From CPJ see full article

A court in Azerbaijan jailed two independent journalists today over an article that said Islam was hampering economic and political progress. The Committee to Protect Journalists, which this week named Azerbaijan as one of the top 10 countries where press freedom has deteriorated, condemned the conviction.

Reporter Rafiq Tagi and editor Samir Sadagatoglu of the independent newspaper Senet were convicted of inciting religious hatred and sentenced to three and four years in prison respectively. Tagi and Sadagatoglu published an article on November 1 titled “Europe and Us,” which said that Islam’s influence was hindering Azerbaijan’s economic and political development, according to international press reports. The journalists were detained that month and held in pretrial detention for more than four months.

Tagi and Sadagatoglu also received death threats from Islamic radicals in Azerbaijan and neighboring Iran, who demanded the journalists be executed, according to local press reports. Religious activists also attended the trial’s court sessions. On April 26, a group of forty activists openly threatened Tagi and Sadagatoglu and harassed several other journalists covering the trial.

Pakistan rejects changes to its discredited blasphemy law

Based on an article from the Khaleej Times see full article

The Pakistani parliament has rejected moves to amend blasphemy laws that prescribe harsh punishments, including the death penalty, supposedly for insults to the Prophet Mohammed.

This is the parliament of not a secular but an Islamic state. No one can dare to present a bill here which hurts the sentiments of Muslims, Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sher Afgan said.

A Christian member of the lower house had suggested a motion to tone down the legislation, which authorities in recent years indicated could be reviewed under President Pervez Musharraf’s policies of “enlightened moderation.”

The motion was rejected by opposition lawmakers as well as the ruling Pakistani Muslim League, while members of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Ammal Islamic religious alliance thumped their desks in applause at its dismissal.

Human rights groups have criticized the blasphemy laws because of proven cases where they have been misused by Muslim fundamentalists to persecute religious minorities. Ordinary citizens have also publicly accused rivals of blasphemy in order to settle personal scores.

The author of the proposal, Minno Bhandara, said he had only sought equal penalties for offenders of any religion.

Meanwhile from the Daily Times see full article

A case was registered against eight people under the blasphemy laws for allegedly insulting the holy Quran, Prophet Muhammad and others. The action was taken by the Baloch Colony police after a court order was issued. A search for the eight men has begun.

The complainant was Ghulam Muhammad Khan, a resident of Manzoor Colony, Awan said. The eight men allegedly published a book titled Shuhada-e-Masoomeen. The book supposedly uses derogatory words against the usual suspects.

UK Court told of honour killing

From The Telegraph see full article

A grandmother sentenced her daughter-in-law to death after finding out she was having an affair, a court was told.

Bachan Athwal, 70, arranged for 27-year-old Surjit Athwal to "disappear off the surface of the earth". She is believed to have been strangled and her body has never been found.

Bachan and her son, Surjit's husband Sukdave Athwal deny murder and conspiring with others to commit murder.
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Michael Worsley QC, prosecuting told the Old Bailey that Surjit, a Customs officer at Heathrow, was a vivacious young woman whose Western ways had annoyed the family. Family honour had become at stake, he said.

Surjit told colleagues that when she returned from India she intended to set up home with the married man with whom she was having an affair.

Bachan was widowed but she was the most senior and dominant member of the Sikh family. She was in a matriarchal position with all the authority that goes with it in a tight-knit community, Worsley told the jury: It was hanging over the family - something that would be disgraceful to it.

Police were eventually contacted when some members of the family had a prick to their conscience. They were frightened that if they told anybody the same sort of thing might happen to them as they believed happened to the victim, Worsley added.

Satellite Porn

From Christian Today

The nutter head of Christian Accountability Network, Chris Rosebrough, is calling on Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life, to discipline media executive Rupert Murdoch for owning and expanding a network of pornographic channels in Europe.

Rosebrough said, Rupert Murdoch is a born-again Christian and Rick Warren claims to be his pastor. As a Christian, Murdoch is committing an egregious sin by owning, expanding and profiting from pornographic channels and Rick Warren, as his pastor, has a biblical duty to call Murdoch to repentance and/or put him out of the church.

He added that Murdoch's decision to run the porn channels was a clear case of a Christian openly committing a monstrous and unthinkable sin.

Egypt disallows conversion from islam

From New Straits Times see full article

A recent court decision in Egypt has sparked the interest of human rights groups in the country who fear a continuation of the curtailing of rights.

The Court of Administrative Justice (CAJ) ruled that Christian converts to Islam who wish to revert to their original faith are forbidden from taking such an action.

On April 24, the CAJ found that the Interior Ministry had no obligation to recognize the return to Christianity by those who had converted to Islam. This decision includes those who produce the necessary proof of their affiliation to Christianity.

The court added that such recognition would violate the prohibition against apostasy under Islamic Shari'a and constitute a "manipulation of Islam and Muslims."

The right to freedom of religion, including the right to change one's religion, is supposedly guaranteed under the Egyptian Constitution

Latest honour killing in Jordan

From Stop Honour Killings

Jordanian authorities arrested a man accused of killing his 30-year-old sister on suspicion that she had a love affair, even though he had earlier signed a pledge to the police that he would not harm her.

The crime, which took place in the eastern industrial city of Zarqa, brings to eight the total number of women killed since January in what is known as “honour crimes.”

A police official said the suspect allegedly sprayed his sister with seven bullets in broad daylight and fled the crime scene. The woman died instantly of her wounds.

She had been under police protection for 15 days and was allowed to go home the day she was killed, after her father and brother pledged not to harm her.

The brother ignored his signed oath and shot her in cold blood on their way home, the official said.

The brother was arrested shortly afterward and later confessed to his crime.

International human rights organizations have condemned honour killings in Jordan and appealed to the country’s ruler, King Abdullah II, to put an end to the practice.

The government promptly abolished a section in the penal code that allowed “honour” killers to get sentences as lenient as six months in prison. Also, the government urged judges to consider honour killings on par with other homicides, punishable by up to 15 years in jail.

But attempts to introduce harsher sentences to honour killings have been blocked in Jordan’s parliament, where the predominantly conservative bedouin lawmakers argue that tougher penalties would lead to promiscuity.

North West Province votes for sharia

From Stop Honour Killings

Human rights groups have condemned moves by legislators in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province to introduce Islamic law. The provincial assembly recently passed a bill introducing Sharia law in the region, which borders Afghanistan.

The bill gives Sharia precedence over secular provincial law and stipulates that every Muslim will be bound by it.

It proposes restricting the rights of women, and calls for education and financial systems to be brought into line with the teachings of the Koran.

The head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Afrasiab Khattak, says the move is pushing Pakistani society towards religious totalitarianism. He accused the pro-Islamist coalition that runs North-West Frontier Province of trying to impose a system similar to that of the Taleban.

Since taking power last October the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) ruling alliance in the province has introduced a number of changes. Laws have been brought in banning the examination of women by male doctors and forbidding men from coaching women athletes. The MMA have also ordered civil servants to pray five times a day and curbed the sale of music and videos. Several cinemas have been closed down, and musicians have complained of harassment

The bill was passed unanimously by members of the provincial assembly, which is dominated by hardliners. The bill includes:

• No interest payments in banks
• More Islamic studies in schools
• Administration to be subject to Islamic law
• Drive against 'obscenity and vagrancy'
• Ban on the display of firearms

The bill still needs the signature of the provincial governor to become law. Analysts say that is a formality.

The planned creation of a Department of Vice and Virtue has prompted concern among some people who recall Taleban vice squads dispensing summary justice in Afghanistan.

North West Province bombs for sharia

From Malaysia Sun see full article

Launching a jihad against the Musharraf regime should be seen as an obligatory act for every Muslim, said Maulana Abdul Aziz, the chief cleric of the Lal Masjid.

He claimed that the regime and the government that it supports had taken un-Islamic steps, and therefore, seminary students and the people should come out to enforce the Sharia.

From the Dawn see full article

Two explosions in a market in the Par Hoti area of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province damaged seven music and video shops. Seven other shops were also damaged.

The shop-owners urged the government to order an investigation into the matter and compensate them for the losses they had suffered. They said they had received a threatening letter three weeks ago, asking them to wind up their business.

Police Public Safety Commission chairman Azam Khan Khankhel has appealed to the NWFP chief minister and the prime minister to sanction compensation for the victims and to help them start new business.

Tanghi police officer Alamzeb Khan said a suspect was believed to be a sympathiser of the Taliban and might also be linked to other religious groups.

Meanwhile, members of the Christian community in Charsadda received letters on Thursday, asking them to embrace Islam within 10 days or face attacks.

Michael Raja of Muslimabad said he had received a threatening letter in which his community had been asked to either embrace Islam or face ‘consequences’.

About 50 Cent wearing cross

Based on an article from Baller Status

50 Cent, like most rappers, usually rocks a large iced out cross pendant around his neck, and there are some rather angry religious nutters who feel he should remove it.

California based Christian organization, The Resistance, has released a public statement demanding the rapper remove the jewelry because his blatant disrespect for what it stands for via his lyrics.

50 Cent is no Christian, and if you listen to his lyrics it becomes clear that he is more of a Satanist than anything, said Mark Dice of The Resistance, a nationwide Christian organization focused on preserving Christian values in the media: He is defaming the cross and committing blasphemy by wearing it while he raps about killing people for no reason because he's a big bad 'gangster.' I think a large diamond studded platinum satanic pentagram would be a little more fitting for him.

Iran police heavy on dress code

From the BBC see full article

Thousands of Iranian women have been cautioned over their poor Islamic dress this week and several hundred arrested in the capital Tehran in the most fierce crackdown on what's known as "bad hijab" for more than a decade.

It is the talk of the town. The latest police crackdown on Islamic dress has angered many Iranians - male, female, young and old.

Police cars are stationed outside major shopping centres in Tehran. They are stopping pedestrians and even cars - warning female drivers not to show any hair - and impounding the vehicles and arresting the women if they argue back.

Middle-aged women, foreign tourists and journalists have all been harassed, not just the young and fashionably dressed.

Hard-won freedoms - like the right to wear a colourful headscarf - have been snatched away. It may sound trivial but Iranian women have found ways of expressing their individuality and returning to drab colours like black, grey and dark blue is not something they will accept easily.

This year is much worse than before because the newspapers and the TV have given the issue a lot of coverage compared to last year; it wasn't this bad before, said a girl who's out shopping with her friend.

At the start of every summer the police say they will enforce the Islamic dress code, but this year has been unusually harsh. Thousands of women have been cautioned by police over their dress, some have been obliged to sign statements that they will do better in the future, and some face court cases against them.

Though the authorities want coverage internally to scare women - they don't want the story broadcast abroad. The BBC's cameraman was detained when he tried to film the police at work and the government denied us permission to go on patrol with the police.

Boutique owners are furious. Some shops have been sealed - others warned not to sell tight revealing clothing. One shopkeeper selling evening dresses told us the moral police had ordered him to saw off the breasts of his mannequins because they were too revealing. He said he wasn't the only shop to receive this strange instruction.

Some commentators have suggested that the government is conducting this crackdown to distract attention from the rising cost of living in Iran and increasing tension with the international community over the nuclear issue.

Vatican goes overboard

From the Washington Post see full article

The Vatican's official newspaper accused an Italian comedian on Wednesday of "terrorism" for criticizing the Pope and warned his rhetoric could fuel a return to 1970s-style political violence.

In an unusually strongly worded editorial, L'Osservatore Romano said a presenter of a televised May Day rock concert had launched "vile attacks" on Pope Benedict in front of an "excitable crowd.": This, too, is terrorism. It's terrorism to launch attacks on the Church. It's terrorism to stoke blind and irrational rage against someone who always speaks in the name of love, love for life and love for man.

At the concert, one of the presenters, Andrea Rivera, spoke out against the Pontiff's stand on a number of issues: The Pope says he doesn't believe in evolution. I agree, in fact the Church has never evolved.

Guilty as sin... Stone him!

Iranian president accused of obscenity

From the BBC see full article

Iran's president has come under fire from a conservative newspaper after he publicly kissed the hand of a woman who used to be his school teacher.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a conservative by the standards of Iranian politics, was attacked by the Hezbollah newspaper for acting "contrary to Sharia law".

It accused him of "indecency and violating religious values".

The elderly woman at the centre of the controversy was wearing thick gloves, a headscarf, and a long black coat.

Burkha satire banned in Pakistan

From Gulf Times

Irate Islamist lawmakers persuaded the Pakistan government yesterday to stop a theatre group staging a satirical play about the burqa, the all-covering head-to-toe garment worn by Muslim women.

Burqavaganza played earlier this month during an arts festival in Lahore, the eastern city regarded as Pakistan’s cultural capital, and home to some of the most liberal and most puritanical parts of the nation’s society.

The burqa is part of our culture. We can’t allow anyone to ridicule our culture, Culture Minister Sayed Ghazi Gulab Jamal told the National Assembly.

The minister announced that the government had barred the play, which had already ended its run in Lahore, from being performed in other Pakistani cities.

Veiled female parliamentarians and Islamist lawmakers cheered Jamal and thumped desks in approval, while trading barbs with women from both the ruling party and liberal opposition parties.

Described by critics as a romp, the play sought to highlight the impact of the veil on society, by showing how wearers use it as a way to hide what they want to keep private. In the play, young men and women wore the burqa to go out on secret dates, and it featured a character called Burqa bin Badin.

The play also showed a burqa-clad married couple put to death for making love in public. Predictably, conservative Pakistanis did not find it funny, going as far as to describe the play as blasphemous, a crime in Pakistan that can carry a death sentence.

Shahid Nadeem, the director of the play sidthat the play aimed to raise awareness about a trend to force women to wear the veil.

Love your neighbour... unless he's gay

European Parliament castigates religious leaders for discriminatory comments about gays

From Catholic News

The European Parliament has passed a resolution criticising politicians and religious leaders for "discriminatory comments" on homosexuals and allegedly "fermenting hatred and violence".

The resolution, which passed 325-124, with 150 abstentions, condemns the discriminatory comments formulated by politicians and religious leaders about homosexuals, as fermenting hatred and violence - even if they were later withdrawn - and it asks that the hierarchies of the respective organisations condemn them as well.

The European Parliament did refuse to include the proposal of three Italians to publicly condemn Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco for his statements against homosexuals, which were falsely interpreted by the press and then later clarified.

The approved resolution invites member states to propose laws that overcome discriminations suffered by same sex couples and reminds all member states that the prohibition of the Gay Pride Parade and the lack of protection offered to its participants are against the principles of the European Convention of human rights.

The resolution also proposes that an annual International Day Against Homophobia be held on 17 May.

Mobs, torture and blasphemy accusations in Pakistan

From AsiaNews.it see full article

A mob of Muslims tortured a Catholic man on April 13 in Kotri, Sindh province of Pakistan, accusing him of writing blasphemous words against Muhammad.

When the Police intervened, it arrested the tortured man. In prison he was tortured again in order to get him to “confess.” According to the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA), Sattar Masih, a 28-year-old Catholic man, was arrested by police despite the lack of evidence, put in jail and tortured to get his confession.

He was supposed to get married the following day. Instead, Maulana Mohammad Umer, imam at a local mosque, filed a blasphemy complaint against Masih.

The Police also arrested Sattar Masih’s 60-year-old uncle, Mushtaq Masih, and his son, who was later released. Mushtaq Masih is still in the lock up in the same police station for investigation but was suspended from his job because of his arrest under suspicion of blasphemy.

In piecing together the events that led to the arrest of the two Masih, APMA found that it all started when a group of Muslim men came to Sattar Masih’s house with a piece of paper that had Masih’s picture on it and blasphemous words written against Muhammad in the Urdu language. Although Sattar Masih rejected the allegations, his accusers did not believe him but still they went away.

Later that day Imam Mulana Umer announced during Friday prayers that the mosque had found a sacrilegious paper against the prophet Muhammad in the donation box. The imam then showed the paper to worshippers with Sattar Masih’s photo and address.

Many Muslim worshippers were enraged and marched on Sattar Masih’s house, stormed it and tried to kill him. But before they could act the Kotri police intervened and took Sattar into custody. In jail he was charged with blasphemy and tortured.