Up for an Australian arts prize

From the Daily Mail see full article

This year's entries for the coveted Blake's Prize £6,000 award have caused a chorus of outrage from Christians and Muslims.

They include a portrait of Osama Bin Laden which, viewed from an angle, morphs into an image of Christ.

And just for good measure there is a figure of the Virgin Mary, hands clasped in prayer, with an Islamic burqa concealing her upper body apart from the eyes.

The decision to place them on show at the National Art School in Sydney has caused deep upset in Australia, whose 20million population is predominantly Christian.

The choice of such artwork is gratuitously offensive to the religious beliefs of many Australians, said Prime Minister John Howard.

And Labour Opposition leader Kevin Rudd said: I accept people can have artistic freedom ...BUT... I find this painting off, off in the extreme. I understand how people would be offended by it.

In an astonishing defence, the chairman of the Blake Society, the Rev Rod Pattenden, denied that they were likely to cause harm because the Christian community doesn't look at art a great deal.

Queensland lawyer Priscilla Bracks, who painted the Bin Laden portrait entitled Bearded Orientals: Making the Empire Cross, said it was not meant to compare Jesus to the terror leader but was a commentary on the way Bin Laden had been treated in the media.

Sydney artist Luke Sullivan, creator of the Virgin Mary entry, entitled The Fourth Secret of Fatima, said his work was intended to pose the question of what was the future of religion.

Glynis Quinlan, spokesman for the Australian Christian Lobby, said: It's really unfortunate that people take liberties with the Christian faith that they wouldn't dare take with other religions.

 
Bishop opposes decriminalisation of brothels in Australia

Based on an article from The Age see full article

Laws to regulate Western Australia's sex industry were introduced into state parliament amid a call by Perth's nutter Archbishop Barry Hickey for MPs to oppose the bill.

WA Attorney-General Jim McGinty's bill will decriminalise and regulate brothels and escort agencies in WA, where prostitution is legal but running a brothel is not, nor is living off the earnings of prostitution.

Streetwalking and kerb crawling will remain illegal.

Police support the bill which McGinty touts as a pragmatic approach to protecting sex workers' health and safety.

The laws would also shield children from the industry and protect police from allegations of corruption for turning a blind eye to an illegal activity, McGinty says.

Prostitution raises significant moral and ethical issues and is strongly opposed by sections of the community, Mr McGinty said: However, we need to acknowledge that the industry does exist and not just stick our head in the sand like previous state governments.

Archbishop Hickey has written to state MPs urging them to block the bill which he believes is harmful to women: There are many reasons for opposing the legalisation of prostitution, but my biggest concern is the damage done to the girls and women who are enticed into the trade, he wrote in the open letter.

Arguments brothels were a "sort of safety valve" that protected women from sexual assault had failed to produce any evidence they were of benefit to any community, he said.

[That's rich coming from someone who's job it is to convince people to believe in the benefit of nonsense based upon no evidence whatsoever]

He continued: On the other hand, there is considerable research evidence to show that males, and particularly young males, who use prostitutes have greater tendencies towards domination of women and violence towards them.

Under the new bill, brothel or escort agency operators and managers would not be licensed if they have any serious convictions or charges pending related to sexual crimes, organised crime, drugs or violence.

Comment: More Sense

A quick change of one word and suddenly the nutter bishop seems to make an awful lot more sense: There is considerable research evidence to show that males, and particularly young males, who use religion have greater tendencies towards domination of women and violence towards them.

 
Footballs with Saudi flag offend the easily offended

From the BBC see full article

A demonstration has been held in south- east Afghanistan accusing US troops of insulting Islam after they distributed footballs bearing the name of Allah.

The balls showed the Saudi Arabian flag which features the Koranic declaration of faith.

The US military said the idea had been to give something for Afghan children to enjoy and they did not realise it would cause offence. The footballs were dropped from a helicopter in Khost province.

Some displayed flags from countries all over the world, including Saudi Arabia, which features the shahada, one of the five pillars of Islam - the declaration of faith. The words, which include the name of Allah, are revered, and Muslims are very sensitive about where and how they can be used.

Mullahs in Afghanistan criticised the US forces for their insensitivity, and around 100 people held a demonstration in Khost.

Afghan MP Mirwais Yasini said: To have a verse of the Koran on something you kick with your foot would be an insult in any Muslim country around the world.

 
Uzbekistan represses religious believers because of their faith

From Forum 18 see full article

The When seven Uzbek police officers with a video camera raided his home on Sunday morning, 29 July, Nikolai Zulfikarov was away. But this did not stop prosecutors launching a criminal case to punish him for "illegally" organising a religious community, with a possible sentence of five years' imprisonment.

The small Baptist congregation that meets in his home in the eastern Namangan Region refuses on principle to apply for state registration.

One local Baptist told Forum 18 News Service that prosecutors wanted to sentence Zulfikarov immediately, but now there is "total silence". He added that it is not clear if this means they will abandon the attempt or if they are moving stealthily behind the scenes.

Other church members were questioned for many hours and at least one was beaten. The church was again raided the following Sunday during its service.

Forum 18 was unable to reach lead investigator Abdumalik Motboev. Ikrom Saipov of the government's National Human Rights Centre in Tashkent said he could not comment on cases he was not familiar with but denied that religious freedom is restricted. We don't repress religious believers because of their faith, he claimed to Forum 18.

Also two Jehovah's Witnesses, Irfon Khamidov and Dilafruz Arziyeva, have already been sentenced this year for "illegally teaching religion" and Uzbekistan's last registered Jehovah's Witness congregation is threatened with losing its legal status. If this happens, all activity by the entire community will – under Uzbekistan's highly restrictive Religion Law - become illegal

 
Opus Dei appeal against Waking the Dead rejected

From the BBC see full article

The BBC Trust has dismissed a complaint by Opus Dei that episodes of Waking The Dead portrayed a "negative and false" view of the Catholic organisation.

The Trust ruled the drama was about individuals, not Opus Dei as an organisation.

Opus Dei's complaint went to the Trust on appeal after being rejected by the BBC earlier this year.

The two offending episodes of Waking The Dead were screened on BBC One in January. The shows, subtitled The Fall, contained characters with Opus Dei connections who were "criminal or immoral", according to the complaint.

The committee ruled that the TV audience would have been aware they were watching a drama. It added that Waking The Dead was an established and popular show into its sixth series, which dramatises a police unit who investigate dormant crimes.

It added it was satisfied that the criminal motivations of some of the characters in the dramas were not linked to their membership of Opus Dei.

The complainants were concerned that the BBC had, in its view, chosen to reflect the portrayal of Opus Dei in The Da Vinci Code rather than challenge it.

The committee ruled that the organisation had not been depicted in a "stereotypical" way. It pointed out that one character had told a police officer in the show not to make a fool of himself "by taking seriously the swirls of conspiracy that surrounded Opus Dei".

Having a western hairstyle will be a capital offence	Guilty as sin... Stone him!

Iranian nutters target western hair styles

From the Guardian see full article

Police in Tehran have closed two dozen barbers and hairdressers in a fortnight in the latest phase of a "morals" crackdown aimed at enforcing Islamic dress codes among young Iranians.

The businesses were shut after being identified as purveyors of decadent "western" culture.

Eleven women's hairstylists were told to stop trading for offering tattoos. Tattooed eyebrows - in which the hair is shaved and replaced with elaborate patterns - are popular with many young Iranian women.

A further 13 barbers were closed for giving customers excessively eye-catching haircuts and plucking men's eyebrows. Many young Iranian men wear their hair in a gelled-up bouffant that would look outlandish even in some western countries.

The closures were imposed by Amaken-e Omoomi, a police body for regulating businesses such as shops, restaurants and hotels, after it inspected more than 730 hairdressers in Tehran. They follow a concerted summer campaign to stamp out widespread flouting of Iran's Islamic dress code by younger people.

Since last May, thousands of women have been arrested or warned for wearing hijab - or headscarves - that reveal too much hair. Women have also been detained for wearing overcoats deemed too figure-hugging and for short trousers that reveal too much skin. Police officers have been deployed in Tehran and other cities to identify transgressors.

The arrested men have been forced to identify their barbers and get fresh haircuts. They have then had to return to police stations for officers to decide whether their hairstyles are acceptable.

Mohammad Ali Najafi, head of Amaken-e Omoomi, told Fars news agency that police officers would accompany trade inspectors in future visits to barbers and hairdressers. Those breaking the law would be closed immediately, he said.

 
Church opts to facilitate the transmission of pornography

From The Telegraph see full article

Churches have been given permission to rent their spires and steeples to mobile phone companies despite concerns that they could be used to relay pornography to children.

The highest church court in the country yesterday overturned a ruling banning dioceses from hiring out their buildings to telecommunications companies, on the grounds that restrictions exist to protect children from seeing indecent images on their phone handsets.

The decision paves the way for more churches to profit from telecoms firms, who find the height of the spires ideal for mobile phone masts. Several parishes already supplement their income by charging mobile companies thousands of pounds a year to put antennae on their towers or steeples.

Earlier this year George Pulman QC, Chancellor for the Diocese of Chelmsford, banned the St Peter and St Paul Church in Chingford, east London, from erecting a T-Mobile base station in its spire, saying it would be wrong in law for churches to facilitate the transmission of pornography, even in a slight or modest way.

His ruling was yesterday overruled by the 800-year old Court of Arches, which allowed an appeal headed by the Rev Tom Page, rector of Chingford, and backed by QS4, which puts aerials on churches.

The Court of Arches ruled that protections are in place to prevent children viewing pornographic images on their phones.

It found that while the mast may lead to some adults receiving improved access to pornography on their phones, it must be remembered that human beings are "imperfect" and to refuse the mast on that ground would be an "unbalanced approach".

 
Brussels mayor bans protest against islamisation of Europe

From the New Europe

The mayor of Brussels, Freddy Thielemans, after discussions with the police and other services, decided to ban a demonstration against the progression of the practices of Islam, saying he feared the event would trigger incidents between the demonstrators and the foreign population of his city.

I decided to forbid the September 11 demonstration ‘against the Islamicisation of Europe, he said. Such incitement to discrimination and hatred, which we usually call racism and xenophobia, is forbidden by a considerable number of international treaties and is punished by our penal laws and by the European legislation. The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly pronounced judgments condemning this type of acts.

The organization known as SIOE, Stop the Islamisation of Europe, wanted to organize a rally in front of the European Parliament on September 11, exactly six years after the attacks on New York. The organisers insisted that they have no connection to the parties of the extreme-Right, but their desire is to stop the “invasion” of Islamic practices in Europe. Their anger is directed at Islamic law, which they say violates equality and democracy.

Udo Ulfkotte, one of the organizers of the anti-Sharia demonstration in Brussels, went to the European capital to confer with lawyers about legal steps to counter last week’s decision to ban the demonstration.

Ulfkotte gave interviews to some of the major Belgian newspapers. Ulfkotte expected that thousands of Europeans, from all of the 27 EU countries, would have come to Brussels on September 11 to support the demonstration’s demand. When asked what the organisers would do if the Belgian authorities uphold the ban.

In that case we still ask people to come to Brussels, where we will stage a ‘birthday party’ for Mr Thielemans and everyone else who happens to be born on 11 September, he said.

Three organisations are behind the planned demonstration; the Danish anti-Islam party SAID, the British group No Sharia Here and the German organisation Pax Europa.

Update: Appealing to Protest

2nd September 2007

The mayor's  decision to ban the protest has been upheld by a Belgian court and the Belgian High Court confirmed the ban after an apppeal.

And the Danish branch of the alliance says its members will march anyway.

 
Malaysian paper forced to take a break over Jesus picture

From the BBC see full article

Malaysia has shut down a newspaper for a month after it published a picture of Jesus holding a cigarette and what appears to be a can of beer. It appeared with the paper's daily spiritual message on its front page with the caption if someone repents for his mistakes, then heaven awaits him.

Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi himself stepped in to admonish the editors of Makkal Osai, a Tamil-language paper.

The country's publishing laws allow politicians to close any publication without judicial approval.

Sensing perhaps that it has to be even-handed between all of Malaysia's many faiths, the government moved quickly to punish Makkal Osai.

Makkal Osai had already said sorry, explaining that a graphics editor had inadvertently downloaded the picture from the internet.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, Murphy Pakiam, expressed surprise at the paper's closure, saying that Christians believe in reconciliation and that the paper had indeed appeared to have sincerely repented of its mistake.

 
Pastor whinges at German Premiere TV

From Journal Chretien see full article

A church leader has accused the German Pay-TV channel Premiere of blasphemy.

The channel launched an advertisement campaign celebrating the return of First League Soccer to its programs with the slogan Your prayers have been answered.

Alfred Buss, leader of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia, regards the campaign as blasphemous. He voiced his concern about a “cheap commercialization” of faith elements in football.

The church should always make it clear that chapels are not magic places to bring success to the home team.

 
Public flogging in Iran

From the Daily Mail see full article

Two police officers hold the legs of 25-year-old Saeed Ghanbari and another his arms to ensure there is no escape from the punishment of 80 lashes handed down by a religious court.

Traffic was brought to a halt in Qazvin, 90 miles west of the capital Tehran, as more than 1,000 men gathered behind barricades to watch the public flogging.

A four foot long metal bench was taken from a police van and the convicted man was made to lie on it on his stomach, his shirt pulled-up to his shoulders to expose his back and waist.

One police officer held his hands together beneath the bench, two others gripped his legs to ensure there was little movement Two police officers stood-by, their faces covered with balaclavas - each to administer 40 lashes. Both men then lashed Ghanbari, taking the cane back behind their heads to guarantee maximum impact, each stroke leaving a distinctive red mark and bruising on his back. Several wounds began to bleed.

It was unclear exactly what his offence had been as the country's strict morality laws cover many areas, but it was reported he had been convicted of abusing alcohol and having sex outside of marriage.

The public lashings have been endorsed by the judiciary as a way of deterring alcohol abuse at a time when it is on the increase among young men but some religious leaders are said to be questioning their validity, fearing they have an adverse impact on the country's image abroad.

Although men and women convicted of flouting public morals are routinely flogged in detention centres, public floggings are considered rare.

 
at anti-gay rally in Uganda

From the BBC see full article

Hundreds of Ugandans have taken part an anti-gay rally in the capital to demand the government uphold a ban on gay sex.

The Interfaith Rainbow Coalition Against Homosexuality said the rally at a sports stadium in Kampala showed how much Ugandans deplored homosexuality.

Spokesman Pastor Martin Sempa told the BBC that Uganda was under great external pressure to relax its laws ahead of October's Commonwealth summit.

Sempa said that homosexuals were using the summit to try and shame, force, coerce, intimidate Uganda into changing our laws. We are telling them that Africans find homosexuality reprehensible. Leave us alone.

 
Hindu shrine to get exclusion zone to other religions

From Christian Today see full article

The state government of Andhra Pradesh in India has announced plans to impose a 110-square-kilometre ban of non-Hindu religions around a Hindu shrine.

The ban will restrict all religious activity in the zone not related to Hinduism.

The news of the ban around the shrine in the Tirupati area of Andhra Pradesh has sparked protests from the Global Council of Indian Christians. The Council fears, however, that the restrictions will be misused by those wanting to harass residents in the area who belong to other faiths.

In particular, the Council warned that the legislation could be used to justify violations of freedom of faith and worship, as well as the freedom of association of Christians.

The Council has since appealed to the Governor of Andhra Pradesh, Rameshwar Thakur, asking him to restore our faith in the rule of law and the supremacy of the Indian constitution by not approving the legislation. All state legislation must be approved by the federal government before it can be brought into force.

 
To be exhibited in Sweden

From The Local see full article

Two Swedish Muslim groups have indicated their willingness to exhibit controversial sketches by artist Lars Vilks after galleries in western Sweden declined to show the artworks.

Inspired by Sweden's recent 'roundabout dogs' craze, Vilks composed a series of sketches portraying the Muslim prophet Muhammad as just such a creature.

The well-known artist took his pictures to galleries in Värmland and Bohuslän. However, both refused to show the drawings on the grounds that the security risk was too great.

But now two groups - the Secular Muslims in Sweden (Semus) network and the magazine Minaret - have taken a joint decision to exhibit the sketches.

This will take place at an established musical and cultural venue in Stockholm. Negotiations are underway and I think it will be ready at the beginning of next week," Semus spokesman Hooman Anvari told news agency TT: Our intention is to create a nuanced debate around freedom of speech, religious freedom and democracy. These issues tend to cause polarization if they are not tackled in the right way.

 
Iran protests to Sweden over cartoon of dog Muhammad

From The Local see full article

Iran summoned a Swedish diplomat to its foreign ministry on to protest against a cartoon in a Swedish newspaper depicting the head of Prophet Muhammad on a dog's body, Sweden's foreign ministry said.

Gunilla von Bahr, Sweden's charge d'affaires, was summoned to the Iranian foreign ministry today where she received a protest from the Iranian government, foreign ministry spokeswoman Anna Björkander told AFP.

The Iranian government told Von Bahr the cartoon was offensive to Prophet Muhammad, Björkander said, refusing to disclose any further details of the meeting.

The cartoon was drawn by Swedish artist Lars Vilks, whose series of drawings of the prophet as a dog have sparked a controversy in Sweden. Several art galleries refused to display the sketches amid fears of angry reactions from Muslims.

The Örebro local newspaper Nerikes Allehanda published one of the drawings on August 18 to illustrate an editorial on self-censorship and freedom of religion.

The editorial was critical of the fact that so many had turned down Vilks's drawings for fear of the reactions they would provoke, Nerikes Allehanda's chief editor Ulf Johansson told AFP.

On Saturday, a week after the publication, a group of about 60 Muslims held a demonstration outside the newspaper's office to protest against the publication of the sketch.

Update: Pakistan Gets All Offended

31st August

Pakistan's foreign ministry said it had summoned the Swedish charge d'affaires to condemn in the strongest terms, the publication of an offensive and blasphemous sketch of the Holy Prophet.

The Swedish government has refused to apologize for Nerikes Allehanda's publication, saying only: The Chargé d'Affaires said he was sorry if the publication had hurt Muslim feelings and that Pakistan was told freedom of the press is strongly protected in the Swedish constitution.

Update: Swedish Protest

1st September

About 300 people rallied outside Nerikes Allehanda's offices on Friday, demanding an apology and saying the cartoon was insulting to Muslims.

We want to show Nerike's Allehanda that Muslims in this city are upset over what happened, Jamal Lamhamdi, chairman of the Islamic cultural center in Orebro, told Swedish public radio.

 
And on the 6th day God created creationist nutters

From MediawatchWatch

Turkish creationist nutter Adnan Oktar (aka Harun Yahya) has succeeded in getting all Wordpress.com blogs blocked in Turkey.

Most recently famous for flooding schools and universities with a glossy, 800-page anti-evolution book, Oktar was annoyed by several bloggers at Wordpress.com who weren’t taking him as seriously as he takes himself. His lawyers applied to the Turkish courts about “slander” and ny the decision of Fatih 2nd Civil Court of First Instance, number 2007/195, access to Wordpress.com has been blocked in Turkey.

 
Petition to restore WordPress in Turkey

From MediawatchWatch
Please sign the Petition

The Turkish government has blocked WordPress, a blog publishing system, in all of Turkey because of a private defamation case. Because this censorship silences the voices of thousands of Turkish bloggers, we are petitioning for their rights to free speech.

Banning WordPress is a clear violation of free speech that effects the citizens of Turkey, WordPress bloggers, and readers all over the world. Certainly these disputes can be handled more judiciously by the Turkish courts.

We, the undersigned, respectfully ask the Turkish authorities to reconsider the decision to block WordPress.

Please sign the Petition

 
Christian doctor refused Saudi exit visa

From Spero News see full article

International Christian Concern (ICC) has announced that an Egyptian physician who had been denied an exit visa by Saudi Arabia is now home in Egypt. Saudi religion police had accused him of being a missionary.

A source close to the doctor called his return to Egypt a “miracle.”

In 2004 Dr Mamdooh Fahmy was a surgeon at Albyaan Menfhoh Medical Center in Riyadh. From the beginning of his employment he was insulted by his Muslim colleagues because he was Christian.

A year later he received a visited by Saudi Arabia’s infamous Muttawa (religious police). After his house was searched by Muttawa agents he was arrested and charged for being a Christian missionary and consuming alcoholic beverages.

After five days in solitary confinement he was released. Jobless, he tried to return to Egypt but Saudi authorities refused to return his passport and grant him an exit visa.

Religious freedom does not exist in Saudi Arabia. All religions other than Wahhabi Islam are banned, except when strictly practiced within the confines of the home.

 

Nutters whinge at New York billboard

From Christian Post see full article

A New York company has angered anti-abortion activists by using the contentious issue to advertise its storage business, by showing a wire coat hanger and the slogan: Your closet space is shrinking as fast as her right to choose.

It's trashy and its vulgar and it's in your face with its crudity, Kiera McCaffrey, of the Catholic League said about the Manhattan Mini Storage billboard.

The Roman Catholic group, a vocal opponent of abortion rights, has been urging people to complain to the company.

Mary Alice Carr, of NARAL Pro-Choice New York, which advocates abortion rights, said such advertisements reminded people to stay active, even in a city like New York, where the majority of residents support abortion rights.

 
Religious censors attack "gay Jesus" exhibition

From the National Secular Society
See also gay Jesus images

A fight involving as many as 30 people broke out at a photographic exhibition in the Swedish city of Jonkoping. The controversy surrounds the Ecco Homo exhibit, which portrays Jesus Christ as a gay man. Ecco Homo has long been a source of disagreement among Swedish Christians.

The series of 12 images was exhibited at the nation's leading cathedral in Uppsala with the permission of the archbishop and toured the country. The Local, a Swedish paper, reported that on Sunday a group of young people tried to set fire to a poster at the Jonkoping cultural centre where Ecco Homo was on display.

The paper said the city is a centre for evangelical Christians. Staff intervened and a fight broke out, according to the centre's director, Tony el Zouki: If this is some Christian group, then I really do not understand them. The message of Christianity is that people should understand and love each other.

The previous pope cancelled an audience with the Protestant Archbishop Hammar of Uppsala for supporting the exhibit – which has been touring for ten years – and allowing it to be shown in churches across Sweden.

Calls for Pakistan to tolerate minorities

From the Times of India see full article

Demanding equal opportunities "as promised" by Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, minority organisations have sought a ban on forced conversions and repealing of the stringent blasphemy laws in the Islamic country.

At a congregation held at Minar-i-Pakistan to mark the Minorities Day, All Pakistan Minorities Alliance unveiled a Charter of Demands (COD) asking the government to ensure their adequate representation in the assemblies.

Demanding freedom to practise their religion, they also sought a law to end the practice of converting people by resorting to "kidnapping and blackmailing".

The charter said sections 295-C and 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code dealing with blasphemy laws should be repealed immediately.

It said that the sanctity of marriages solemnised under the laws of minorities should be protected from violation and dissolutions should be prohibited in case of conversion to any other religion.

 
Swedish church denies parishioners

From the The Local see full article

A church in southern Sweden has refused to allow a wireless broadband antenna to be installed on its tower, after fears were raised that parishioners would stay home surfing for porn instead of attending services.

The proposal to install broadband equipment at the church in Hylletofta, 200 kilometres east of Gothenburg, would have brought high speed internet access to the community, where residents currently have to struggle with dial-up connections.

But the Church of Sweden decided that the ability to download high quality images and videos could harm the morals of the local population.

The diocese has formally taken the position that this type of equipment would cause trouble, and could even lead to some people not coming to church, said Torbjörn Sjögren, curator for the Diocese of Växjö.

 
Suicide bombs said to be revenge for stoning

From the Daily Mail see full article
See also previous reports

The Suicide bombings that claimed at least 250 victims in Iraq were in revenge for the stoning to death of a teenage girl, it emerged last night.

Duaa Khalil Aswad, 17, was "executed" by members of the Kurdish Yazidi sect for falling in love with a Sunni Muslim.

On Tuesday, four suicide bombers in trucks struck at Yazidi villages in the Kurdish north of Iraq, bringing hundreds of single-storey clay houses crashing down. By last night, the confirmed death toll had passed 250.

Last week, the Islamic State in Iraq, an Al Qaeda front group, distributed leaflets in the area warning that an attack was imminent because Yazidis were "anti-Islamic".

The bombs exploded in Yazidi settlements on the outskirts of the town of Qahataniya, 75 miles west of Mosul, Iraq's third largest city. The Yazidis are an ancient sect who worship an angel figure which some Muslims and Christians consider to be the devil. They have been the target of a series of murderous attacks since Duaa's death. The teenager was said to have converted to Islam before running away with her Sunni boyfriend.

Tories propose measure to limit forced marriage

From the Observer see full article

A crackdown on forced marriages, in which young British Asian women are coerced into marrying mainly Pakistani men, is to be proposed by the Tories.

Amid reports that 1,000 women each year find themselves forced into marriage on the sub-continent, the Conservatives will call for a special register to prevent unwanted husbands from entering the country.

Under the scheme, women who want to marry abroad would have to register their plans - and provide details of their fiance - before leaving Britain. This would prevent an unsuspecting woman being taken abroad for a 'holiday', only to find that she was expected to marry a stranger, who would then be able to accompany her back to Britain.

The new plan is outlined by Damian Green, the shadow immigration minister, in the Observer. Green writes: The continuing existence of forced marriages in modern Britain is a stain on our social fabric. It is the extreme and unacceptable end of the clash of values between a plural democracy that values individual human rights and belief systems that regard women as second-class.

 
New Zealand catholics lose their case against South Park

From the National Secular Society

New Zealand Catholic bishops have lost a legal challenge over a television channel's screening of the South Park cartoon series showing a menstruating Virgin Mary. A High Court judge awarded costs against the Catholic Bishops Conference – even though the bishops might see this as adding insult to deep injury.

The bishops lodged an appeal to the High Court after the Broadcasting Standards Authority rejected their complaint against the so-called Bloody Mary episode aired last year, claiming it breached standards of good taste and decency.

The judge dismissed the appeal, saying the bishops' sense of outrage was not shared by the wider community. Brent Impey, chief executive of Channel 4 owner MediaWorks, told the paper, It's a victory for freedom of speech. He said it would claim costs estimated at about 8,000 New Zealand dollars (about £3,000) from the Catholic Church.

 
Tourists to Saudi banned from wearing a crucifix

From Fox News see full article

Christians and Jews are still not allowed to bring non-Islamic religious items into Saudi Arabia , including Bibles, Stars of David and crucifixes and if they do, the government will confiscate them,.

Saudi customs authorities enforce strict regulations concerning importation into Saudi Arabia of such banned items as alcohol products, weapons and any item that is held to be contrary to the tenets of Islam, reads the U.S. State Department’s travel advisory on Saudi Arabia. This includes non-Islamic religious materials, pork products and pornography.

The restriction isn’t new, but the government seems to have recently stepped up its enforcement of it.

Saudi Arabian Airlines warns of the rule on its Web site: Items and articles belonging to religions other than Islam are prohibited. These may include Bibles, crucifixes, statues, carvings, items with religious symbols such as the Star of David and others.

Strangely, the Saudi government-run Supreme Commission for Tourism announced a number of steps, such as issuing group visas to foreigners through tour operators and granting longer entry visas, in the hopes of boosting the number of foreign tourists to 1.5 million annually by 2020. Presumably they are targeting only muslim tourists

 
Leading muslim apostate attacked in the Netherlands

From the National Secular Society

The chairman of the Netherlands-based Central Committee for Ex-Muslims has been put under special police protection after being attacked last weekend.

Ehsan Jami, who is also city councillor of the left-leaning Dutch Labour Party, said he was beaten up last Saturday by three men who were laying in wait for him outside a supermarket. Both Jami and a female companion were reportedly injured in the attack in Voorburg, which was carried out by two Moroccans and a man from Somalia, Dutch newspapers reported.

It was the third time that Jami had been attacked, prompting the Dutch National Coordinator on Terrorism Suppression to intervene and offer protection. Jami said on Dutch television: Yes I can confirm that I have protection and feel safer. This is the third time I have been attacked, and better late than never. The case underscored concerns about the perceived growing influence of Muslim militants targeting ex-Muslims and Christian converts in the Netherlands.

However, Iranian-born Jami said: The Netherlands is a democratic country and it should be normal to have an open discussion here and freedom of religion. We continue the good fight and I want to express that there should be religious freedom.

Dutch officials have linked the attacks to the student's involvement in the Central Committee for Ex-Muslims which he founded in May, and his remarks about Islam in the media. He recently told Dutch news paper Trouw he was convinced that: if Prophet Muhammad would live today you could compare him with Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein. Jami described the prophet as: a terrible man, someone who speaks beautiful words, but who behind your back, uses a knife to stab you.

 
Due to wine, women & crime

Based on an article from Arab News

Travellers and travel agents were not informed of a ban on Saudis travelling to Thailand and so many Saudis, who visited the country at the beginning of the summer, have returned to face questioning from the Kingdom’s authorities.

Thailand has for the past 12 years been on a list of countries that Saudis are not allowed to visit. The list includes Israel, Iraq and Bosnia.

Many Saudis still continue to apply for tourist visas to Thailand, which are easily obtainable. There are no direct flights from the Kingdom to Thailand. Connecting flights are available in Dubai and Qatar. The Thailand Tourism Commission states it received 9,000 Saudis tourists in 2006. People this summer have once again been asked not to visit Thailand unless for business reasons, a rule that many members of the public are unaware of.

People believe the ban has been reinforced because of men who visit Thailand to drink alcohol, visit prostitutes and then be robbed and at times murdered.

The administration has stressed that those who have travelled to Thailand as tourists and come back will be questioned about why they travelled there. They would also be prevented from travelling for six months to three years and fined SR5,000 for breaking the ban.

However, not all visitors to Thailand have been questioned on return but an employee at a travel agency said: Those who have not been questioned will most likely be questioned when they renew their passports.

 
Author attacked for offending the easily offended

From the National Secular Society

An ex-Muslim activists has been attacked by Islamist fanatics. Taslima Nasreen, whose book launch was stormed in Hyderabad, India. Taslima said she feared for her life as she took shelter in a backroom as pressmen and organisers tried to fend off the fanatics.

I have been attacked before, said Taslima, but it was never like yesterday. There were no police to help because the organisers had not foreseen anything of this kind. If I have returned alive to Kolkata it is because of mediapersons who fought those men for half an hour and got injured to save me. I was wondering how they would kill me. Would it be with a knife or a gun. Or would they simply beat me to death. They had encircled us. After I escaped from a back door and took shelter in a room, they even broke down one of the doors. I thought I was dead, said the 45-year-old writer.

According to reports, around a hundred members of a radical political group Majlis Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (MIM) invaded the Hyderabad Press Club, where Taslima was releasing the Telegu translation of her book Shodh, (Getting Even) and threw chairs and other objects, overturned tables and chanted slogans against her. MIM activists were led by three state legislative politicians.

Organisers tried to push back the protestors and during the melee, Taslima was slapped.
MIM leader Akhtar Khan, an MLA, said: She is enemy of Islam, she is a black spot on Muslims. We cannot bear anyone talking against Islam. She has written books against Islam. We will not tolerate her in Hyderabad.

Taslima was eventually rescued by the police and journalists present at the press club and was escorted to the air port. Three radicals have been detained by the police for questioning.

Taslima has been living in exile for the last twelve years after death threats forced her to flee Bangladesh. She is an outspoken champion of equal rights for women and a fearless fighter against religion. Taslima has faced numerous death threats from Islamic radicals. Recently, in March 2007, an Indian Muslim group offered a bounty of 500,000 rupees for her beheading.

Indian police said that they had now egistered a complaint against Taslima Nasrin for creating religious tensions.

But they said they were also seeking permission to arrest the radical Muslim lawmaker who brought the complaint - for saying Nasrin could be killed after the incident.

Update: Blasphemy Charges Confirmed

14th August 2007

Taslima Nasreen will face criminal charges for her "anti-Islamic" views, which have provoked attacks against her by Muslim activists, police said yesterday.

 
'Clerics' put price on head of author

From AlertNet see full article

Muslim clerics in eastern India issued a "death warrant" against Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen on Friday, threatening her life if she did not leave the country where she lives in exile.

While one prominent cleric said Nasreen had a month to leave, another said she had 15 days. Anyone who killed her would get a cash reward of 100,000 rupees ($2,400), they said.

Anyone who executes the warrant will also be given additional rewards, said Nurur Rehman Barkati, a cleric of one of the biggest mosques in Kolkata.

Police said they had stepped up security around Nasreen's house in Kolkata after the clerics' announcement.

Nasreen said their illegal order destroyed India's secular image. I have never hurt religious sentiments and strongly believe in freedom of speech, she told Reuters. I am not afraid of death, but I am saddened by the turn of events.

 
Death threats for Dutch right winger after call to ban the Koran

From CNS News see full article

A Dutch lawmaker under fire for urging that the Koran be banned in his country says he will press ahead with the proposal, and submit it in the form of a parliamentary resolution next month.

Geert Wilders of the right-wing Freedom Party told Cybercast News Service that since calling for a ban -- in a letter published Wednesday in the newspaper De Volkskrant -- he had received death threats and criticism, but fortunately also many positive responses from voters.

In his letter, published under the headline Enough is enough: Ban the Koran, Wilders called the Koran a "fascist" text that has no place in our constitutional state. He said some verses instruct Muslims to oppress, persecute or kill Christians, Jews, dissidents and non-believers, to beat and rape women and to establish an Islamic state by force.

The Koran, like Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, should be banned in the Netherlands, he said.

The letter drew a swift response from the Dutch government. Elle Vogelaar, the minister for integration and housing, called it an insult to the majority of Muslims in the Netherlands and abroad who reject calls to hate and violence. It has to be perfectly clear that banning the Holy Koran in the Netherlands is not up for discussion for this government and will not be up for discussion in future.

 
18 men face the death penalty for gay sex

From Africasia see full article

Eighteen men have been arrested in northern Nigeria for alleged sodomy, which carries the death sentence under Bauchi state's Islamic sharia law.

Judge Malam Tanimu ordered the 18 remanded in prison until a further hearing on August 21 following their arrest in a hotel in Bauchi city.

The court on Wednesday heard that the men, who were wearing female clothing, had come to the city from five neighbouring states to celebrate a gay "marriage".

Prosecuting police officer Tadius Boboi said the men's actions had contravened the sharia penal code adopted in Bauchi and other states in Muslim northern Nigeria eight years ago following the end of military rule.

The men have been charged with sodomy and have pleaded not guilty

Indonesian protests against a charity appearance by Japanese Miss Universe

From Spero News see full article

Indonesian extremists have protested against the presence of Miss Universe 2007 in Bandung, judged to be a symbol of the world’s adultery and pornography.

Frightened by these threats the Japanese native Miss Universe Riyo Mori, cancelled a charity evening which was to have taken place today.

Hundreds protested yesterday in Bandung, West Java, where various extremist Islamic groups are operative and often promote openly anti-Christian campaigns. Among those taking part in the anti Miss Universe protest: the Islamic Youth Movement (GPI), the Bandung Adultery Watchdog (BMW), and the Indonesian Muslim Student’s Movement Unity (KAMMI). Under the name of the Alliance of Anti Porno-Action and Pornography, these protesting groups claimed that the beauty pageant’s presence in Bandung is totally against the spirit of the capital which put moral values as the main and basic way of life in this provincial capital.

The land of religious apartheid and jackboot justice

From the Daily Times see full article
See also ACHR report

A UN recognised human rights group have accused the Pakistani government of committing religious apartheid and practising rampant discrimination based on the ethnic, linguistic and racial identities.

Releasing the report, the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) sought interventions from the United Nations Committee on the International Convention Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) against the trial of minorities accused of blasphemy in anti-terror courts in Pakistan. Addressing a news conference, ACHR Director Suhas Chakma said Pakistan had surpassed Sri Lanka in incidents of “disappearances” in the world.

The report titled Pakistan: The land of religious apartheid and jackboot justice, prepared for the UN body, has alleged that Islamabad is providing preferential treatment to the majority Muslims and targeting religious minorities systematically under the blasphemy laws.

Chakma called for the rule of law in FATA, and demanded an institutionalised justice system in conformity with international standards in these areas. Though Christians, Hindus and Ahmadis constitute only slightly more than four percent of the total Pakistan population, they have been disproportionate victims of blasphemy laws, says the report.

Unshakable belief in the Egyptian lynch mob

From Christian Today see full article

An Egyptian who has set a precedent by seeking official recognition of his conversion from Islam to Christianity says he will continue his quest despite receiving death threats.

Mohamed Hegazy told Reuters he was also looking for another lawyer after his attorney, Mamdouh Nakhla, dropped the case on Tuesday because he did not want to offend public opinion in mostly Muslim Egypt.

Hegazy said: This is my right. How can I live with a religion I don't believe in? Should I live as a hypocrite?

Hegazy, a journalist and political activist, said in a petition filed to an administrative court last week that he had converted to Christianity four years ago. He said he had gone to register his change of religion with the Interior Ministry but had been turned down.

Some clerics say the penalty for renouncing Islam is death, but the modern Egyptian state has never recognised apostasy as a crime and the state-appointed chief mufti or exponent of Islamic law said last month it was not punishable "in this world".

Another lawyer, Ramsis el-Naggar, said he was still deciding whether to take Hegazy's case on. Naggar said he had successfully represented 29 people who converted from Christianity to Islam and then back again: This is the first case involving a born Muslim.

Hegazy is now in hiding. An Islamist cleric has vowed to seek Mohammed Hegazy's execution as an apostate, his family has shunned him, and Hegazy raised a storm of controversy when pictures of him posing for journalists with a poster of the Virgin Mary were published in the newspapers.

 
Forced conversion to islam in Palestine

From Mission Network News see full article

A female Christian university professor was converted to Islam by force last week, according to officials from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization and the woman's family.

The woman, Sana al-Sayegh, called her parents five days after she went missing. She reported that she was being held against her will so she could be married to a Muslim man, who also is a professor at the university.

Todd Nettleton of Voice of the Martyrs says, It is extremely difficult now for her to come back and say ‘Wait a minute! I'm not a Muslim, I'm a Christian.' Because of the signed documents, even if they were signed under duress, in the minds of the Muslim populous, she is a Muslim. Reconverting to Christianity is apostasy--a crime worthy of execution in the Muslim mind.

Her family says Sayegh would never convert to Islam by choice. A few days after the phone call, they received a copy of the conversion documents which had been signed by two witnesses, one of which is the president of the University where Sayegh teaches.

Since Hamas claims Sayegh converted willfully, it is hard to say what kind of help the government will offer.

Sayegh is head of the Science and Technology Department and the only female doctorate in her field. The thought that a Christian woman would be in such a position would probably cause bad feelings among certain Islamic militants in that area, said Nettleton.

While Sayegh came to work last Tuesday, she has yet to reach her family. Sources say she has probably been threatened against contacting her family. According to sources close to Sayegh's family, a Hamas representative was sent to her parents household to tell them that Sayegh did not want to associate with them unless they converted to Islam. 

 
Traditional and religious leaders to help end FGM

From Voice of America see full article

A meeting on female genital cutting has ended in Addis Ababa with a call on traditional and religious leaders to help end the practice.

George Ngwa is the regional information advisor for the UN Population Fund was aked about why religious and traditional leaders are being asked to help.

Essentially because female genital mutilation and cutting have been justified on the basis of religion and culture. So it was agreed by participants that the onus of fighting this scourge would fall heavily on those leaders, who allow the use of culture and religion to justify the continuation of the practice. It cuts across religion…. It’s not only about Muslims or Jews or orthodox Christians. It’s practiced across all these religions, he says.

The UNFPA spokesman adds, “They’re being urged to educate their constituency on the rights of women and girls to bodily integrity and their rights to enjoy a healthy lifestyle.

Ngwa said: Everybody was on board with this declaration because most of the traditional leaders have come around to understanding, thanks to the work of sensitization that is being done in the field…that there’s no legal or no cultural, religious grounds for the continuation for female genital cutting and female genital mutilation.