From TOL

Uzbekistan is proposing to impose massive fines and to imprison leaders of religious communities, if members of those communities share their beliefs with others.

The proposals were made at a 4 August meeting of religious leaders, called by the state Religious Affairs Committee in the capital Tashkent.

The state Religious Affairs Committee told the religious leaders that they and their clergy must stop their members and those who regularly attend places of worship from sharing their beliefs with anyone except in places of worship. If anyone does share their beliefs outside places of worship, it is proposed that they be fined between 200 and 600 times the minimum monthly salary. One estimate from within Uzbekistan is that the minimum monthly salary is about $10.

If anyone shares their beliefs outside a place of worship again, after being fined, the Religious Affairs Committee proposes that they and the leader of their religious community be jailed for between three and eight years.

The proposal to fine and jail people for the sharing of beliefs outside places of worship is in direct opposition to both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

From Raw Story

The United Nations has lodged a complaint after Muslim morality police in Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province broke into a UN diplomatic compound and peered through windows at sleeping foreign diplomats. The late-night raid, which violated international conventions on diplomatic privilege and immunity, was the latest incident involving Aceh's controversial "Sharia police," who have illegally detained women for not wearing headscarves and publicly flogged people for drinking alcohol.

The incident occurred at 11 p.m. last Thursday night when 30 men, both Sharia officers and regular city policemen, forced their way into the compound of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, despite protests from UN guards.

It's a violation of diplomatic rules - a clear violation, Barry Cane, a WFP spokesman said. Cane said the Sharia police, who are civil servants charged with enforcing a controversial Islamic law statute in Aceh, wandered around the compound, which contains both offices and residences for foreign UN workers. He acknowledged that the policemen peered into the bedroom windows of UN diplomats while they were sleeping.

I don't even want to speculate on their motives, Cane said, although another foreign aid worker familiar with the raid told dpa they were hoping to catch the Westerners drinking at their private bar.

The Indonesian parliament allowed Aceh to implement Sharia, or Islamic law, in 2003, despite the rest of the Muslim-majority nation being secular.

Since then, the Sharia police have become a law unto themselves, dragging women off of motorcycles and out of hotel lobbies for not wearing headscarves, making lewd sexual references, and illegally detaining them.

The group's antics have infuriated both Acehnese citizens and foreign relief agencies, which are spending billions of dollars helping Aceh recover from the 2004 Asian tsunami as well as a recently-finished 29-year separatist war.

It remains unknown why the UN or Indonesia's Foreign Ministry did not publicly acknowledge the incident, which occurred on the country's August 17 Independence Day. No one wants to make a big deal about it publicly at the moment, one UN official, speaking on background, told dpa. It's a very sensitive issue, but there was no attempt to cover it up.

From Christian Today

A chapel and three Christian houses have been attacked in a village outside Lahore, Pakistan by a mob of around 35 extremist Muslims.

The attackers burned buildings, desecrated Bibles and beat up Christians, including women and children, according to a report by the Catholic Church's National Commission for Justice and Peace in Pakistan, which investigated the incident.

According to reports, three Christians were seriously injured, and one is missing.

At 10pm on August 12, Yaqoob Mehr, a local Muslim landlord, threw hand grenades at the Apostolic Church chapel in Mominpura Thiaki, a village near Sharaqpur Sharif, in the Sheikhupura district, 35 kilometres from Lahore.

Part of the chapel was demolished by the explosion, three adjacent houses were destroyed and one house was set on fire, according to eyewitness accounts.

Yaqoob Mehr was reportedly accompanied by a mob of about 35 men. Most of the local Christians were attending a special prayer service at the Presbyterian Church that evening.

This attack followed a previous incident, on 7 August, when Yaqoob Mehr attacked the village at 11am, accompanied by four armed men. Three Christians were injured in that attack. Yaqoob Mehr has been trying to grab the land occupied by Christian families, who moved to the area in 1988 after floods washed away their previous village.

The attackers have not been arrested, although a case has been registered with the police. Some of them had been given temporary bail on August 12 after the first attack, but returned to the village within a few hours to attack again. Five policemen have been sent to the village to provide protection.

From Advocate.com

Maryam’s story.

I was born in 1981in Iran. When I was 16 and in high school I had a classmate named Azi who later became my girlfriend.

One day Azi and I were studying for final exams in her house, and we felt enormous desire for each other. We forgot that the house door was unlocked. Azi’s parents came in unexpectedly and found us naked in each other’s arms. The first thing they did was to inform my mother, then the school authorities. My mother was furious and told me, You brought me shame and disgrace. Why don’t you wait to find a good husband and marry? Why are doing such blasphemy?

The school authorities gave us a very hard time. They interrogated us and accused us of an illegitimate act against Islamic laws, against Sharia law. Then they expelled us. We were prohibited from being registered in any other school in the country.

After a year I found a secretarial job in a commercial company. Later, I recommended Azi for work at the same company. Now we were together again.

One day we went to the restroom together, kissing each other in a secluded place, unaware that we were seen by someone who reported us to the company’s ‘Office of Guiding’. They accused me of having psychological problems and said that my behavior with Azi was a sign of a mental disturbance or insanity. They gave me a three-month leave of absence to be under the treatment of doctors. They ordered me to be hospitalized in a psychiatric clinic for two weeks. Each night I had to take a handful of tiny pills, and then I would become unconscious, and wasn’t able to recognize anything around me! After a while they convinced me that I was sick and had psychological problems.

Months passed, and I went back to work. At work, one of the officials of the Office of Guiding asked me, Do you see any changes in you? I answered, No, I’m the same one as I’ve been before. He said, Don’t you want to be a real human like others? I said, I was a real human before!

I was fired the same day. When I left work, two men led me to the car, in which were sitting two more men. They blindfolded me, and I was driven in to an old building. They cursed me and spat in my face and said, You’re a filthy, disgraced, shameless pagan. Through the door, I could hear men screaming who were under torture.

One of the men burned my legs with a cigarette. I screamed, and they cursed me. I spent four days in this prison in a dark room with a single bed and cockroaches. During the four days they tried to ‘treat’ my ‘sickness’ with verses of the Koran. I was hopeless and in despair. I was only 19. After four days they forced me to confess: They dictated to me a statement saying I’d committed a blasphemy and wouldn’t do it anymore. I was so afraid, I signed it. Then I was released but remained under police supervision.

They took my file to the health branch of the University of Shahid Beheshti and assigned me to two women psychologists who ‘treated’ me for six months. They tried to convince me that I was falsely inculcating myself with the notion that my attraction is only to females. At the end of this ‘treatment,’ they offered to change my sexuality through surgery, and later ordered me to have it. ‘No,’ I said. ‘I’m Maryam, a girl, and I do not want to be a man!' The female doctor told me, ‘If you don’t change your sexuality and you continue unlawful acts, your future will be a death sentence.’

I decided to leave the country. I found a smuggler who helped me to go to France. I spent the first night in a telephone cabin, then the next day I presented myself at a police station. The French police treated me very nicely. But then they put me in an internment camp, where I now live. We are given a subsistence income of 300 euros each month. I have to extend my temporary resident card every three months. But I’m afraid that I’ll be refused asylum and deported.

The situation for gays and lesbians in Iran is not good. The government tells us that execution is the homosexual’s destiny. And lesbians have to be stoned to death. [Iranian president] Ahmadinejad’s government is much worse than the preceding one. If I'm forced to go back to Iran, I’ll definitely be executed.

Not so much a story of religious intolerance but surely an indication of sensitivity and fear that a climate of religious intolerance is generating

From The Guardian

Two men were removed from a holiday flight on the grounds that fellow passengers feared that they were terrorists. The pair, thought to be in their 20s and of Middle Eastern or Asian appearance, were removed from a flight to Manchester from Malaga, Spain, after passengers became suspicious of their behaviour.

In the early hours of Wednesday a number of passengers on Monarch Airlines flight ZB613 left the plane, refusing to fly unless the two men were removed, causing a three-hour delay.

Passengers are reported to have become suspicious after the men were overheard apparently speaking Arabic and seen repeatedly checking their watches, although this has not been confirmed by the airline.

Muslim MP Khalid Mahmood described the incident as "hugely irrational". People need to get their senses back into order. You can't just accuse anybody who's of Asian appearance and treat them like a terrorist, said the Labour MP for Birmingham: If somebody is threatening anybody it's understandable, but when they are just travelling for their own needs it's not. People just need to calm down.

These sentiments were echoed by Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, of the Muslim Parliament of Britain, who described the incident as "sad and shocking": We have got to find a better way where somebody's look is not the basis for this kind of action - it has to be more intelligence-led.

A Monarch Airlines spokesman said the men attracted attention because they were apparently acting suspiciously, although he would not say what they had done. The flight attendants were sufficiently concerned to alert the crew, who in turn informed the security authorities at Malaga airport, he said.

From the The Star

The Israeli government, Jewish groups and the mayor of Paris on Thursday condemned an Iranian exhibition of cartoons on the Nazi Holocaust, accusing Tehran of spreading hatred and trivialising the murder of six million Jews.

Organisers of Iran's International Holocaust Cartoon's Contest said the museum exhibit, which has drawn more than 200 entries, aims to challenge Western taboos about the discussing the Holocaust.

Israeli government spokesman Gideon Meir called on the international community to express disgust from such an anti-Semitic and inhuman event.

Yosef Lapid, chairman of the council of the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, said: The exhibit not only is horrific propaganda that supports Holocaust denial, it also paves the road to justifying genocide of the Jews in Israel.

Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe condemned the display in a letter to Iran's ambassador, saying it intended to mock the tragedy of the (Holocaust) and to trivialise a new anti-Semitic bid under the false pretext of art and freedom of speech. At a time when violence and war should lead everyone towards a willingness for dialogue, appeasement and tolerance, such a step serves, on the contrary, motivations dominated by hatred.

Salomon Korn, chairman of the Jewish community in the German city of Frankfurt, said he thought the exhibition was "pathologically crude": Ahmadinejad is demanding from the West what he does not allow himself, and of which he perhaps has no idea, namely tolerance.

From The Guardian

Italian police were searching yesterday for a man suspected of involvement in the killing of a Pakistani woman after her father and uncle were charged with slitting her throat because she dated an Italian man and refused to conform to an Islamic lifestyle.

Investigators believe the third suspect helped the father and uncle kill Hina Saleem, 21. The woman's body was found buried in the family's garden in Sarezzo on Saturday. Her father and uncle were taken into custody.

Investigators said they were looking into the theory that the grave was dug before the woman was killed. It is thought a long kitchen knife was used to slit her throat.
The Milan daily Corriere della Sera reported that the victim's father had applied for Italian citizenship two months ago. Applicants must convince authorities that they also embrace "fundamental" rights, including the right of a woman "to choose her own life", said the interior minister, Giuliano Amato.

News reports said the victim's family had been insisting on an arranged marriage with a cousin in Pakistan.

Recap from the BBC

From IOL

The Saudi authorities recently arrested 20 young men after raiding a suspected gay wedding in the southern town of Jizan.

The detainees, who were among some 400 men attending the wedding party of two men had been "emulating women," an Al-Watan paper said.

In all, some 250 people were detained in the police raid on the party but the rest were later released.

Police had arrested the wanted people and released those who have nothing to do with the matter.

Homosexuality is illegal in conservative Saudi Arabia, which metes out barbaric punishments based on sharia, or Islamic law.

From Payvand by Shadi Sadr

An update on the stoning sentence of Ashraf Kalhori

I am glad to inform you that Ayatollah Shahroudi has acted to stop the execution of Ashraf, the 37 year old mother of four, who was sentenced to stoning for having had extramarital sex.

On her behalf, I sincerely thank every one of you for signing the petition and helping to save her life.

Earlier this week, I submitted the petition to the office of the Judiciary Chief, Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi requesting remittal of her sentence. The petition included the signatures of more than a hundred Iranian women rights activists and over four thousand signatures collected online.

It is a wonderful feeling to see people coming together to save the life of another human being. I should also say that it is a great pleasure for me, as her lawyer, to share my happiness with all of you who were with us and supported the effort to save her.

However, the fate of Ashraf is not clear yet, and I am asking you to please continue your efforts and keep your voices loud until we make sure that she is safe. Furthermore, we must demand a change in the law that makes stoning illegal as a "sentence" for any crime.

I would like to thank you again for acting on time. I will continue to keep you updated on issues of stoning.

From The Star

Malaysia's Home Minister Datuk Seri Radzi Sheikh Ahmad has reminded all groups, including Muslims, not to organise inter-religious discussion forums which are deemed sensitive: What the Prime Minister said is meant for everybody. It is not applicable only to non-Muslims. The Prime Minister asked everyone to cool off and hold on. I don’t know why some Muslims groups should be doing it now. It will only create unnecessary misunderstanding, tension and suspicion.

Radzi said the groups should call off the conferences and seminars: I’m not trying to pick on the opposition but it is irrespective of political party. Religion is sensitive. Everyone should follow the Prime Minister’s advice and stop (inter-faith discussions).

A group calling itself Secretariat Himpunan Ulama Rantau Asia (Shura) is organising a two-day seminar at Hotel de Palma, Shah Alam, over the weekend to discuss Challenges Facing the Muslims. The secretariat, when contacted, confirmed there would be discussions on Article 11 of the Federal Constitution and the Lina Joy case, among other things. Article 11 refers to freedom of religion.

Last week, several university Muslim student bodies held discussions at Universiti Malaya to oppose the Article 11 forums and express unhappiness over incidents, which they said challenged Islam.

Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had on May 25 called for the immediate stoppage of inter-faith forums, including on Article 11, because they were deemed to have caused tension in the multi-religious society. The Prime Minister had then said the Government would act against those who did not heed the warning.

From The Times

Shot and hanged from the branch of a fruit tree, the mother and her teenage son were summarily tried, sentenced and executed for no bigger a crime than delivering clean laundry to a relative.
 
The fate of the woman and her 13-year-old son shocked even war-hardened locals in southern Afghanistan, where people are killed daily in the raging battle between the Taleban and the Nato-backed Government.

These two people had been to visit a relative in the town of Musa Qala to deliver some clean laundry. He was working as a policeman. When they returned home the Taleban accused them of being spies and hanged them from a mulberry tree, Amir Muhammad Akhunzada, the deputy governor of Helmand, told The Times.

He said that after the murder villagers in Daigh, five miles (8km) north of Musa Qala, were warned that they would share the same fate if they collaborated with the enemy.

In this case the enemy are the Afghan government forces and the British Army supporting them, who have been locked in clashes this summer that have killed four British soldiers and scores of Taleban militants.

Civilians have been caught up in the violence, with the Taleban killing teachers and local officials and threatening anyone who does not feed or provide shelter to their fighters. No one challenging their authority is spared — even the young.

Yesterday the Taleban remained unrepentant. They insisted that the victim was 21 and repeated their warning to collaborators. Mullah Amanullah, an aide to the Taleban commander Mullah Dadullah, told The Times that the British were using women and young children or people who pretended to be mad to spy on them.

From AVN

13 religio-reactionary nutter groups placed an ad in USA Today calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute companies which supply adult videos for hotel pay-per-view systems. Although the ad only appeared in the D.C. and New York City editions of the newspaper.

The Citizens for Community Values (CCV) were said to have played the leading role in the advert.

The specific targets of the ad, which is titled If what begins with a click can end as a registered sex offense, it's time we rethink hardcore porn, are OnCommand and LodgeNet, which are termed two companies ... largely responsible for flooding U.S. hotels with the majority of highly alarming and pornographic video content. Not explained in the ad are why such videos are "highly alarming," nor which particular sex offenses are "registered."

We are calling on the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation to immediately investigate the companies that distribute it to determine whether 'adult' videos being sold in hotels by OnCommand and LodgeNet violate long-established Federal and State laws regarding distribution of obscene material, said Burress of CCV, who over the past few years has attempted to convince various Ohio and northern Kentucky prosecutors to strong-arm hotels into banning adult pay-per-view.

The ad opines that, It's high time America began thinking less of profiting from debasing women and more about prosecuting – under current laws – those who produce, sell and distribute hardcore porn.

Several of the nutter organizations sponsoring the ad are also signatories to a letter from the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance, which urges religious people to ignore scientific findings proving the existence of global warming, and all oppose comprehensive sex education in schools, as well as condom distribution for HIV prevention in Third World countries.

Yeah, they care about men, women, children and families!
 

Based on an article from AdultFYI

If a religious nutter group has its way, one-on-one attention at adult-oriented businesses will soon be illegal.

Cincinnati-based Citizens for Community Values - the same group responsible for Ohio's constitutional ban on gay marriage in 2004 - has now set its sights on adult book stores, strip clubs, peep shows and massage parlors.

The group's Community Defense Act would force any sexually oriented business in Ohio to close from midnight to 6 a.m. Strip clubs with alcohol permits could stay open later, but "sexually oriented entertainment activity" would have to stop by midnight.

The measure also would prohibit nude or semi-nude dancers from being within 6 feet of patrons, which would effectively ban lap-dancing - the bread and butter for many dancers.

Proponents say the law would help protect citizens from pornography.

If we can change the constitution to protect marriage, why can't we pass a law? asks Phil Buress, president of Citizens for Community Values.

But opponents call the group's plan nothing more than a thinly-veiled attempt to restrict the rights of Americans.

The Community Defense Act hit a snag after the CCV submitted proposed language to Attorney General Jim Petro that was rejected July 17 because it did not contain a statement saying that violating the law would be a first-degree misdemeanor.

However, substitute language already has been submitted to the attorney general's office, which must still rule on its validity, said Kim Norris, a Petro spokeswoman.

The group's goal is for the act to be passed by the General Assembly or approved by voters in November 2007. If voters approve it, the law would become effective 30 days after the election.
 

From AVN

National Hotel chains such Hilton and Marriot defended themselves from a recent attack by 13 nutter groups who took out full-page ads in some editions of the USA Today earlier this month, “urging the Justice Department and FBI to investigate whether some of the pay-per-view movies widely available in hotels violate federal and state obscenity laws.”

National Associated Press writer David Crary’s recent article reported that both Kathy Shepard of Hilton and Roger Conner of Marriott said the bulk of their hotels are operated by franchise-holders who make their own decisions about in-room programming. They made clear, however, that their companies consider adult movies to be an acceptable option because they can be ignored or blocked out by guests not wishing to view them.

Really ultraconservative groups try to target the hotels in their zest to eliminate porn, Shepard told Crary. In their zest to have their personal morals prevail, they're eliminating choice for others.

Conner told Crary that none of the programming offered by Marriott is illegal, and he depicted adult movies as a standard part of today's hotel business.

From the Pakistan Christian Post

Two Christian pastors have been taken to court by the Islamic Council of Victoria and three Australian Muslims after making critical statements about the Islamic faith on a website and at a seminar for Christians held in March last year.

A complaint of religious vilification was made against the two Christian pastors, Danny Nalliah and Daniel Scot. The complaint deals with many issues, such as the nature of jihad, aspirations of Muslims in the west, and the connection between the laws of jihad and the treatment of non-Muslims under Islam.

The Victorian Racial and Religious Vilification Act was passed in 2001 and has yet to be fully put to the test. It was supposedly established in order to promote intercultural and interfaith harmony in Victoria. One of their programs, called "Stand up to Racism", promotes positive regard for Islam's stand on universal human rights.

The complaint against the two pastors has had to be mediated through this same Victorian Equal Opportunity Commission, but attempts at achieving conciliation failed. Following this the Islamic Council of Victoria brought the case before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, a legal court which has the power to impose a significant fine against the two pastors, if they are found guilty. The case is due to be heard at the Tribunal in mid-October 2003.

To pursue their complaint, the well-funded Islamic Council of Victoria has retained the services of the prestigious Australian law firm, Allens Arthur Robinson.

The case is one of the first to be brought under the new legislation and its result will set an important precedent which will have influence and ramifications not only in Victoria, but also in other parts of Australia. Many evangelical Christians in the state fear that the Islamic Council of Victoria is using the case to stifle all criticism of Islam or Muslims, in effect bringing in a pseudo-blasphemy law to protect Islam.

Similar legislation against religious 'hate speech' is currently before parliament in both New Zealand and the UK and is prompting serious concern from libertarians and supporters of free speech who fear the similar misuse of such laws.

It is clear from the charges brought against Danny Nalliah and Daniel Scot, that both may well have been unwise in their choice of words, and over-the-top in some of their criticisms of Islamic teaching. However it would be a travesty of justice should their statements be found illegal in a country which claims to be a strong advocate of freedom of speech and expression. One of the grounds of the complaint is that Pastor Daniel Scot mentioned in a seminar that Muslim fundamentalists have the responsibility to "kill" apostates from Islam. This was cited in the complaint as unlawful vilification of Muslim believers.

This is despite the fact that the death penalty for apostates from Islam is an extremely well documented part of Islamic law (shari'a) and is well attested by Muslim sources both historically and today.

Furthermore it is not merely a matter of language or legal niceties but a very real problem for thousands of converts around the world today which has resulted in many deaths attested to by numerous creditable human rights organizations. Nevertheless it seems that merely drawing attention to this problem may be considered a vilification of Islam; in future converts may have to suffer in silence and those who seek to draw attention to their plight may face prosecution for offending Muslim sensibilities.

The two Australian pastors are seeking the support of international experts in Islam to assist in their defense.

It is interesting to note that the UK's own failed attempt at outlawing religious hate also tried to suggest that you could hate the religion but not individual religious people. Now if these are linked at the first challenge then you end up not being able to hate a religion even when the hatred is justified.

From The Age

It is impossible to vilify Islam without also vilifying Muslims, because the two are indistinguishable, the Victorian Court of Appeal was told yesterday.

If one vilifies Islam, one is by necessary consequence vilifying people who hold that religious belief, Brind Woinarski, QC, told the court.

Woinarski was appearing for the Islamic Council of Victoria in the appeal by Christian group Catch the Fire Ministries and pastors Danny Nalliah and Daniel Scot against a finding under Victoria's religious hatred law that they vilified Muslims in 2002. The Racial and Religious Tolerance Act defines vilification as inciting hatred, serious contempt, revulsion or severe ridicule against a person or class of persons.

Cameron Macaulay, for the pastors, argued that the act explicitly confined the prohibition to vilifying persons, not the religion — otherwise it could operate as a law against blasphemy. Instead, it recognised one could hate the idea without hating the person.

Justice Geoffrey Nettle asked Woinarski: There must be intellectually a distinction between the ideas and those who hold them? Woinarski replied: We don't agree with that, but in this case it's an irrelevant distinction, because Muslims and Islam were mishmashed up together.

Macaulay said it was surprising that the pastors could hold the beliefs but not express them. They are restrained by law from suggesting or implying a number of things about what in their view the Koran teaches: that it preaches violence and killing, that women are of little value, that the God of Islam, Allah, is not merciful, that there is a practice of 'silent jihad' for spreading Islam, or that the Koran says Allah will remit the sins of martyrs.

The case continues.

Based on an article from the BBC

A man who tried to hire a hitman to carry out the "honour killing" of his son-in-law has lost a bid to have his prison term cut.
Mohammed Arshad was jailed for seven years after being found guilty in 2003 of incitement to murder.

The supposedly devout Muslim from Dundee took the action after his daughter married without his permission.

He put a price of £1,000 on son-in-law Abdullah Yasin's head shortly after he married his daughter Insha in 2001. Arshad objected to the marriage and had not given his permission for it to go ahead. However, he was caught after the "hitman" he approached turned out to be a Tayside Police detective.

A local Islamic group had asked the court to impose community service. A petition submitted to the court by the Tayside Islamic and Cultural Education Society, signed by more than 150 people, claimed Arshad was an honoured member of their community and asked judges to consider allowing him to serve his sentence in the community.

Arshad, a member of the Muslim community in Dundee, had an appeal against his conviction refused in March this year, but he has continued to challenge the length of the sentence. Arshad argued that his seven-year sentence was excessive and failed to take into account his previous good character and his state of health when he carried out the crime.

Appeal judges said they were not convinced that the former justice of the peace received an unfair sentence. The judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh rejected the arguments, ruling that previous good character and the fact that he was unlikely to repeat the offence were not key mitigating factors.

Lord Macfadyen and Lord Penrose stated in a written judgement: We find nothing that persuades us that the sentencing judge erred in selecting a period of seven years' imprisonment as the appropriate punishment for the appellant's crimes.

What is of the greatest significance is that, when circumstances arose in which the appellant felt that his religious and cultural attitudes had been offended, he was prepared on that account to commit the extremely grave offence of incitement to murder.

From The Scotsman

Across Indonesia's most intolerant of provinces, the sight of brown uniformed religious policemen has come to signify one thing. The brutal enforcement of Sharia law which is raising fears about the future of Indonesia.

They haul unmarried couples into precincts and arrest people for drinking or gambling. Increasingly, many of the cases are pushed to the ultimate conclusion, public canings at mosques in front of excited crowds.

In mid-July, a 27-year-old man sentenced to 40 lashes fainted on the seventh stroke of a rattan cane from a hooded man in the yard of a mosque here in the provincial capital. The caning was televised nationally, with a presenter saying that the man, who had been arrested for drinking at a beachside stall, would receive the remainder of his punishment once he had recovered.

Battered by the Asian tsunami 19 months ago, Aceh is undergoing a profound transformation that is likely to have considerable impact on the nature of Islam in Indonesia.

Aceh, where Islam has always been more rigorously observed, is the first of Indonesia's 33 provinces to put Sharia law on to the books. Special Sharia courts established to mete out punishments have been operating for a year. Now, some of Indonesia's other provincial governments are looking to Aceh as a model for how they might enforce Sharia laws.

In Aceh, the way the new laws are being enforced has aroused some opposition, especially among women. For example when three activists, all women, chatting in the seclusion of a hotel corridor after a long day of meetings, were shoved into an open police van in February for not wearing their head scarves, the police paraded them before a throng of men.

We believed we were in our personal space, and they broke into our personal space, said Nursyamsiah, the head of the Acehnese Women's Empowerment Group, who recounted sitting on a sofa in the hotel where they had been staying after a United Nations-sponsored seminar on women's rights.

At about 11pm, the Sharia police burst in, demanding to know why they were in a hotel at such an hour: They made sure people were laughing and booing at us as they took us to the mayor's office

In a ruling that has enraged women's groups, an elementary school teacher - a married woman and in her 30s - was sentenced on July 21 to caning for working in the headquarters of a political party on a Sunday afternoon at the same time as the party leader, who was not her husband.

They were two people working in different rooms. How can she get punished? asked Fatimahsyam, the head of a women's branch of the legal aid society.

It is not easy to question the Sharia laws for fear of being considered an unfaithful Muslim. The women's groups are careful not to criticise the existence of the laws themselves, but rather the method of enforcement.

At the municipal office of the Sharia police in Banda Aceh, Nasir Illyas, the director of administration, defended the style of punishment, proudly showing off the nearly three-foot-long rattan rod — with a curved handle for a better grip — that he keeps near his desk.

The rules are fair, he said, quoting from a manual: a minimum of about two and half feet between the person who canes and the defendant; the cane is applied from the left side; onlookers are at least 10 yards away.

Illyas, who sits under a portrait of the Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said the Sharia laws were the "wish" of the people. The laws should be extended to non-Muslims, too, he said, a move that would place Aceh in the same ranks as Saudi Arabia.

Based on an article from The Observer

Islamic intolerants in Iraq are targeting a new type of victim with the full protection of Iraqi law. The country is seeing a sudden escalation of brutal attacks on what are being called the 'immorals' - homosexual men and children as young as 11 who have been forced into same-sex prostitution.

There is growing evidence that Shia militias have been killing men suspected of being gay. The threat has led to a rapid increase in the numbers of Iraqi homosexuals now seeking asylum in the UK because it has become impossible for them to live safely in their own country.

Ali Hili runs the Iraqi LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) group out of London. He used to have 40 volunteers in Iraq but says after recent raids by militia in Najaf, Karbala and Basra he has lost contact with half of them. They move to different safe houses to protect their identities, but their work is incredibly dangerous.

Eleven-year-old Ameer Hasoon al-Hasani was kidnapped by policemen from the front of his house last month. He was known in his district to have been forced into prostitution. His father Hassan told me he searched for his son for three days after his abduction, then found him, shot in the head. A copy of the death certificate confirms the cause of death.

Homosexuality is seen as so immoral that it qualifies as an 'honour killing' to murder someone who is gay - and the perpetrator can escape punishment. Section 111 of Iraq's penal code lays out protections for murder when people are acting against Islam.

One victim was identified from a photograph of a mutilated, burnt body is 38-year-old Karar Oda from Sadr City. He was kidnapped by the Badr Brigade in mid-June. They work with the Ministry of Interior and are the informal armed wing of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq, who make up the largest Shia bloc in the Iraq parliament. Oda's family were given an arrest warrant signed by the Ministry of Interior which said their son deserved to be arrested and killed for immorality as a homosexual. His body was found ten days later.

Dr Haider Jaber is currently seeking asylum in the UK after fleeing Iraq in 2004. He says the abuse started to escalate in his neighbourhood after the invasion. One night, walking home from work, he was surrounded by five men, who told him he had to become a heterosexual Muslim. He says they abused him for wearing jeans and a T-shirt with English writing, and told him he should adopt traditional robes. As a crowd gathered to watch, he was then beaten and kicked to the ground.

The threats continued. Armed militiamen broke into his family home and then his workplace looking for him. Jaber finally left the country in April. His partner, Ali. was not so lucky. They didn't send the body to the family to have a grave or a flower garden. They said he didn't deserve it because he was an animal, Jaber said.

Ibaa Alawi has also fled Iraq. A former employee at the British embassy in Baghdad, Alawi met Tony Blair on one of his surprise visits to Iraq. He said Blair was concerned about the safety of the Iraqis working there and praised their bravery. Tony Blair said the British government was thankful for our efforts and knew we were putting our lives at risk working for the British embassy in Baghdad.

Alawi is upset the same government is not willing to help him out. He believes the Home Office will refuse him asylum because it would have to face up to the level of chaos in Iraq, and how much influence is being waged by radical Islamists - and face the fact that, for some, there is still no freedom in Iraq.

Jennifer Copestake's film on homosexual executions in Iraq will be shown on More4 News on August 7 at 8pm

From Stop Honour Killings

A Jordanian woman hacked her 26-year-old daughter to death in her sleep with an axe for giving birth out of wedlock.

The 69-year-old mother and another daughter turned themselves in to police after the killing, claiming they had acted to cleanse the "family honor,". They were charged with premeditated murder.

The victim had been divorced for the past seven years and had given birth to a boy on the day she was murdered. Hours later her enraged mother decided to kill her to cleanse the family honor. The mother and daughter waited until the victim went to sleep, took an axe and hacked her repeatedly until they made sure she was dead.

More than 10 women have been killed in similar "honor crimes" since January in the conservative Muslim kingdom of Jordan.

An aggressive opening attack, a pitch invasion, intimidatory bowling, a weak defence and heckling from the crowd sees Scotland scurrying for the pavilion.

Based on an article from the National Secular Society

Israel’s cricketers have become victims of the escalating crisis in the Middle East after they were forced to cancel their European Championship game with Jersey. The competition is being hosted by Scotland and the match was due to be played at Glasgow Academicals CC. The cancellation occurred after they were targeted by the local Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS).

A rather vague press release issued by the European Cricket Council dubiously claimed that the match was off because the ground was unavailable. But in The Jerusalem Post, Stanley Perlman, the president of the Israel Cricket Association, said that Cricket Scotland officials had received anonymous calls on warning that the safety of the Israel players could not be guaranteed. He added that Glasgow police had approved a Muslim demonstration at “a Glasgow cricket club field” for approximately 2,000 demonstrators.

The Scottish Cricket Union has found itself in a situation in which the local cricket clubs are not prepared to host the Israeli teams for fear of a Muslim backlash, Perlman claimed. The Israeli team has already arrived in Glasgow and has every intention to play. We are not going to bow to Muslim blackmail  He concluded: Scotland was given this tournament to host and they have to live up to their commitments.

A Cricket Scotland spokesman admitted to the Glasgow Daily Record: We’re in a mess. Strathclyde Police have been involved since it became clear that Israel’s participation would potentially attract large numbers of protesters. The police surveyed all the venues in the west of Scotland and decided that Glasgow Accies’ was the only one where they could safely police a large-scale demonstration.

It is unthinkable for the Israeli cricket team to play in our backyard while these acts of aggression continue to take place, Faisal Hanjra, head of FOSIS, told Reuters. We plan to protest unless the proposed match is cancelled.

From The Telegraph

The Vatican accused Madonna of "blasphemy and profanity" yesterday - and even suggested that she should be excommunicated over a scene in her current Confessions Tour.

Madonna brings her show to Rome on Sunday, and Roman Catholic leaders are furious at part of her performance in which she wears a crown of thorns and is apparently crucified.

Cardinal Ersilio Tonino, speaking with the Pope's approval, said: This is a blasphemous challenge to the faith and a profanation of the Cross. She should be excommunicated. To crucify herself … in the city of popes and martyrs is an act of open hostility. It is nothing short of a scandal and an attempt to generate publicity.

Another Vatican official, Bishop Velasio De Paolis, said: How this woman can take the name of the mother of Christ, I don't know. Her show represents the rotten fruit of secularism and the absurdity of evil.
 

From cbc.ca

The crucifixion scene, which drew fire from religious leaders in Rome earlier this month, features Madonna wearing a crown of fake thorns and performing on a mirrored cross.

Johannes Mocken, a spokesman for prosecutors in Duesseldorf, said that authorities would be watching her concert on Sunday to see if legal action is warranted.

The crucifixion scene could be construed as insulting religious beliefs, he said, but he admitted it might also be permitted under laws protecting artistic freedom.

In Rome, Muslim, Jewish and Roman Catholic leaders were united in condemning her performance, which drew 70,000 fans. Being raised on a cross with a crown of thorns like a modern Christ is absurd, Rev. Manfredo Leone said after last Sunday's performance. Doing it in the cradle of Christianity comes close to blasphemy.
 

From the BBC

Madonna has gone ahead with a concert in Dusseldorf despite warnings that German prosecutors were considering legal action over the show's content.

Prosecutors said they were to monitor the performance after receiving a complaint that the US pop star's act breached German laws against blasphemy.

But the German prosecutors admitted they would rely on media reports of the concert rather than send their own observers to decide whether further action should be taken.

A German Lutheran bishop has called for concert-goers to boycott all dates on the German leg of Madonna's tour.  Protestant Bishop Margot Kaesmann told German newspaper Bild am Sonntag that concert-goers should boycott the show. I advise people to ignore Madonna. Stars come and go, but the Christian faith endures, Bishop Kaesmann added.

From INS News

The Russian Orthodox Church wants Moscow City Hall to ban a concert by superstar Madonna next month, and is asking fans to boycott it.

The idea of holding such a cultural gathering (Sept. 11) is regrettable, Russian Jewish Congress spokesman Michael Savin said: A show which insults religious feelings of believers should not be allowed.

Savin said Madonna displays Judaic symbols carelessly: From this provocative point of view, the Madonna show will hardly contribute to strengthening tolerance in our country.

Many young Orthodox nutters have begun to distribute leaflets against the concert. This show insults religious sentiment, says a press release from the organizers of the campaign. The most disgusting moment, in which the singer is spread across a crucifix wearing a crown of thorns to parody the Saviour, will certainly hurt Christians, it tramples upon holy symbols.

We humbly ask Your Holiness to consider anathematizing the organizers of, and participants in, the blasphemy and warning them about the terrible nature of the crime that is being planned, an organization called For the Spiritual Revival of the Fatherland said in a letter to Patriarch Alexy II. A mere warning of a possible anathema will make many of the participants in the blasphemy stop and think and will be a manifestation of mercy for those who are vacillating or have a poor understanding of the boundary between Christianity and anti- Christianity.

All tickets for Madonna's Moscow concert have been sold out. The cheapest tickets cost 1,500 rubles (about $60), the most expensive 25,000 rubles (almost $1,000). No more than six tickets have been sold to one person.