Stark choices for Iranian gay men

From 365 Gay see full article

While Iran criminalizes homosexuality with the penalty death, it at the same provides sex reassignment surgery for transsexuals.

The Guardian's Tehran correspondent, reports that 25 years ago, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution, passed a fatwa, or religious proclamation saying that transsexuality was a medical condition that could be corrected through surgery. Since then the government authorized thousands of reassignment surgeries the Guardian reports.

While President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad drew jeers and laughter Monday declaring there were no homosexuals in Iran (story) his government has been providing about $5,000 towards the cost of sex reassignment surgery and additional money for hormone therapy.

Quoting government statistics the Guardian reports that Iran carries out more gender change operations than any country in the world besides Thailand. The paper said that some unofficial estimates put the number of transsexuals in Iran at up to 150,000.

The paper quotes Maryam Khatoon Molkara, the leader of an Iranian organizations for transpeople as saying some of those receiving sex changes are gays who have the procedure to avoid being arrested for homosexuality.

 
Tenby nutters wound up by topless nun bar sign

From the BBC see full article

Plans to erect a sign with the image of a bare-breasted nun outside a seaside resort hotel, converted from a convent, have angered councillors.

Tenby Town Council is urging planners to refuse permission for the sign which depicts a nun lifting her bodice.

They claim it is "disrespectful and inappropriate" for use outside the former St Teresa's Convent building.

However they are supporting plans to turn the convent into a luxury hotel, restaurant and bar. The convent was home to nuns until 1996 when the sisters who ran it became too old to continue.

Tenby town council clerk Andrew Davies: We are supportive of the creation of a small hotel. But he said all but two councillors voted to oppose the sign: Our council feels that as a publicity sign it is totally inappropriate. We think the sign is disrespectful to the nuns who used to run the convent.

The final decision on the applications rests with the Pembrokeshire National Park Authority and its members are set to discuss the applications next month.

 
Taliban propose Afghan constitution banning un-islamic thought

From the Telegraph see full article

The Taliban has published a shadow Afghan constitution outlining an alternative hardline government to that of President Hamid Karzai.

The 23-page document envisages a country where women would remain veiled and uneducated, un-Islamic thought would be banned and human rights would be ignored if contrary with the teachings of Islam.

On freedom of speech the Taliban charter is clear: Every Afghan has the right to express his feelings through his views, writings or through other means in accordance with the law.

However un-Islamic thought is strictly forbidden and violators will be punished according to sharia.

It provides for the education of women but only within the limits of sharia and stresses that the government will enforce compliance with Sharai Hejab - that women cover fully cover themselves.

The document also stresses the importance of jihad as an obligation for every citizen. It offers the Taliban's support for the United Nations and upholds human rights until it is contrary with the teachings of Islam.

 
Archbishop puts his nonsense morality above the lives of his flock

From the Guardian see full article

Mozambique's Roman Catholic archbishop has accused European condom manufacturers of deliberately infecting their products with HIV in order to finish quickly the African people.

The archbishop of Maputo, Francisco Chimoio, told the BBC that he had specific information about a plot to kill off Africans. I know that there are two countries in Europe ... making condoms with the virus, on purpose, he alleged. But he refused to name the countries.

His views have prompted outrage from activists trying to combat Aids and help sufferers. They described the statements as ridiculous. Medical specialists said it was impossible for the Aids virus to live inside condoms for any length of time.

Nonetheless the archbishop's comments are likely to undermine the Mozambique government's campaign to educate people about the disease in a country where about one in six of the 19 million citizens are HIV-positive and about 500 people are infected each day.

The Catholic church has resisted pressure to amend its opposition to the use of condoms despite the Aids pandemic. Archbishop Chimoio told the BBC that abstinence was the best way to fight HIV/Aids: If we want to change the situation to face HIV/Aids it's necessary to have a new mentality. If we don't change [that] mentality we'll be finished quickly. It means marriage, people being faithful to their wives ... [and] young people must be abstaining from sexual relations.

 
Gay Last Supper advert winds up christian nutters

Based on an article from CNS News see full article

Organizers of San Francisco's Folsom Street Fair have portrayed Christ and his disciples with  gay theme in the event's promotional advertisement, and the nutter group, Concerned Women for America (CWA), is complaining about the hypocrisy of it.

The bread and wine representing Christ's broken body and lifegiving blood are replaced with sadomasochistic sex toys in this twisted version of Da Vinci's The Last Supper, CWA said on its Web site.

Gay activists disingenuously call Christians 'haters' and 'homophobes' but then lash out in this hateful manner toward the very people they accuse, said said Matt Barber, CWA's policy director for cultural issues.

CWA is calling on California politicians to publicly condemn this unprovoked attack against Christ and His followers: We further challenge the media to cover this affront to Christianity with the same vigor as recent stories about cartoon depictions of Mohammed and other items offensive to the Muslim community.

The Folsom Street Fair describes itself as "the world's largest leather event". We hope to see the fairgrounds filled with people in their most outrageous leather/rubber/fetish attire enjoying the worlds largest and best loved Leather fair, the Web site says.

Based on an article from CNS News see full article

The leader of the Catholic League on Thursday urged more than 200 religious organizations to join his group in refusing to buy products from the Miller Brewing Company because of the company's sponsorship of the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco this weekend.

Never have we experienced greater corporate arrogance than in this dispute with the Miller Brewing Company, said Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League: This all started when we learned that Miller was sponsoring an event that featured an obscene ad thrashing the Last Supper. After being pressured, Miller offered a lame statement of regret and said it was pulling its logo from the ad.

Donohue called the Folsom Street Fair an incredibly outrageous and palpably anti-Christian event.

Miller Brewing told Cybercast News Service that although it has supported the Folsom Street Fair for several years, we take exception to the poster the organizing committee developed this year. We understand some individuals may find the imagery offensive, and we have asked the organizers to remove our logo from the poster effective immediately.

To top it off, when we informed them that some of the money being raised at this festival was being funneled to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

The Catholic League president described the Sisters as "an anti-Catholic group" that is holding a mock Last Supper dinner. The group is not an actual church order but is instead a group of homosexuals who dress as nuns and use names such as "Sister Hysterectoria" while taking part in events that promulgate universal joy and expiate stigmatic guilt.

Accordingly, Miller leaves us with no options, Donohue said. We are calling on more than 200 Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu organizations to join with us in a nationwide boycott of Miller beer.

Calling for a halt to teaching nonsense to gullible young minds

From the Guardian see full article

A headteacher who tried to reduce the influence of religion inside the classroom by creating the country's first secular state school had his plans blocked by senior government officials who called it a 'political impossibility'.

Dr Paul Kelley, head of Monkseaton High School in Tyneside wanted to challenge the legal requirement in all state schools for pupils to take part in a daily act of worship of a broadly Christian nature. There are only a handful of exceptions at faith schools where the daily worship can be based on a different religion.

He also wanted to change the way that religious education was taught, introducing tuition about a number of world views, some that involved faith and some that did not. He intended to follow a 'third way' that neither banished religion from the classroom completely nor had children attending daily worship.

'We wanted a fundamental change in the relationship with the school and the established religion of the country. They accepted it would be popular but said it was politically impossible.

One senior figure at the then Department for Education and Skills, told Kelley that bishops in the House of Lords and ministers would block the plans. Religion, they added, was 'technically embedded' in many aspects of education.

Kelley said: I feel that children have a right to not having a particular point of view. They should not be promoted to a political party, nor should they to a religion. The daily act of worship is, I think, inappropriate at school.

The details of his meeting with government officials emerged when Kelley was speaking about a book he has written on the subject, entitled Making Minds, What's Wrong with Education and What Should We Do About It?

Kelley said he had not given up on his plans but realised he could not change things by himself. Instead, he is hoping other schools might join his campaign.

Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, said: All schools, faith and non-faith alike, must teach religious education as part of the basic curriculum. In maintained schools without a religious character, this will focus on learning about different religions and the role they play in today's world, not religious instruction.

A spokesman for the Church of England said: If he is arguing for a way for individual schools to opt out of those bits of the act he does not like that is not something we would support. Either overtly or by default, this country is still a Christian one.

 
Concentration of rail suicides correlates to Asian areas

From the Daily Mail see full article

Rail suicides are soaring because of a dramatic rise in Asian women killing themselves on just one stretch of track, a train company's internal report has revealed.

An incredible one third of the total for England and Wales now happen on the line going through Southall, West London, which has a large Asian community. Figures from a route manager at First Great Western trains show that 80 of the 240 rail suicides nationally last year were on the lines into Paddington, West London.

Last night a women's rights group controversially claimed that the suicides were linked to the prevalence of domestic violence in Asian families.

Hannana Siddiqui, from women's group Southall Black Sisters, claimed abuse and "sensitive cultural issues" were at the root of the problem. She said: The high instance of Asian women suicides is linked to abusive practices within Asian families. There is a correlation between these suicides and violence in Asian homes. Psychiatric research has shown there are rarely cases of mental disorders in these cases, suggesting they are the result of social circumstances. These women are often isolated and find it hard to escape.

The problem has worsened since the highly publicised death in 2005 of Navjeet Sidhu, 27, who jumped in front of a Heathrow Express train at Southall clutching her five-year-old daughter and 23-month-old son. All three died instantly.

Six months later Mrs Sidhu's mother Satwant Kaur killed herself at the same spot. There was no suggestion Mrs Sidhu was abused. But an inquest heard she felt she had failed in her duties as a Sikh woman to be a good mother and home-maker.

 
Belgium bishops whinge about TV advert

From the BBC see full article
See also offending advert

Catholic bishops in Belgium have protested against a TV ad depicting Jesus as a pot-bellied hippy picking up half-naked women in a nightclub. The Catholic Church says this sort of portrayal of Jesus is disrespectful to believers and that it is wrong to use him for advertising.

The advertisement is being aired on the country's main TV channel to promote youth channel Plug TV. The TV advertisement shows a long-haired hippy Jesus grooving along as he tries to get into a nightclub and is refused entry by the bouncers. Jesus makes the sign of the cross and sweeps aside the bouncers, shrinking them so they are left in his wake as dwarves.

This Plug TV version of Jesus then drinks whiskey at the bar and magically turns two brown haired frumpy women into blonde babes wearing bikini tops and red horns like devils.

The Jesus character then disappears into a huge limousine with the women but his attention is distracted by an advertisement for Plug TV before he is recalled by God who is standing on a cloud, wearing a T shirt with "Number one dad" written on it.

The God figure tells Jesus off for wanting to watch Plug TV as well as everything else - saying "you still want more".

The Catholic Church has expressed its disapproval to the TV channel - saying advertising is not the same as journalism and should not share the same concerns about freedom of expression. The Church believes this advertisement crosses the limits of respectability.

Plug TV however argues it is not blasphemous but contains a message about a laid-back Jesus addressing youth.

 
YouTube cedes to nutters armed with DMCA takedown notices

Based on an article from The Inquirer see full article

YouTube seems to be thinking that it is better to censor videos that talk about evolution than it is to deal with all the nutters demanding that they take them down.

Latest in the purge was a group called the Rational Response Squad which is incandescent with rage that bible bashers managed to shut them down with spurious DMCA claims.

Shedloads of copyright requests were sent in by the good Christians of the Creation Science Evangelism Ministries. This bunch are headed by the currently-imprisoned tax evader Kent Hovind.

According to Richarddawkins.net the outfit has made it its mission to send shedloads of take down request to anyone who does not agree with Hovind's interpretation of the Bible. Particularly those Evolutionists who quote Hovind's own words as evidence of what they believe. Hovind is on record saying all the material at his site is not copyrighted. But when the evolutionists quote him in their YouTube posts his followers claim that it belongs to them.

Hovind's disciples are exploiting a loophole in the DMCA which forces a takedown without any review. It becomes up to the defendant to prove that it is their copyright and that is a long and expensive process.

Rationalresponders.com is getting so hacked off with the state of affairs that it is preparing to sue Creation Science Evangelism Ministries for unfair practices.

 
Predictably praying doesn't help much

From afrol see full article

Ignorance and the strong anti-condom stance of religious leaders in northern Kenya means few people there are using them and traders are refusing to stock them, which AIDS activists warn is jeopardising the fight against the pandemic.

I will never sell condoms in my shop; it is like promoting adultery and operating a brothel, Sharrif Mohamed, who owns a shop in Isiolo, Eastern Province, told the UN media PlusNews.

Most traders in the mainly Muslim northeastern part of the country have refused to stock condoms, which are usually only available at government health centres.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is a curse and punishment because people have engaged in immoral acts and offended Allah [God], Maalim Hussein Mohamud, a teacher at a 'madrassa', or Islamic school told 'PlusNews': They have to repent, observe religious teaching and not use condoms.

Our position is very clear: we shall never support the use of condoms; Muslims must shun acts that will endanger their lives. To be safe [from HIV], youths must pray five times daily, fast, and refrain from looking at women; extramarital affairs must be avoided and women must dress decently, he insisted.

Noor sheikh, who works at the government's HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infection control programme in North Eastern Province, said stiff opposition to the use of condoms was proving to be a hindrance to HIV prevention. Our region has the lowest use of condoms in the country. Of course it is a factor responsible for many cases of infections.

 
Offended by Ibiza art exhibition

From News.com.au see full article

The Roman Catholic bishop of Ibiza has demanded that a collage depicting the late Pope John Paul II being sodomised be removed from an exhibit held at a former church.

The work is one of three collages by Ivo Hendriks that are part of a showcase of art by 15 Dutch artists with ties to Ibiza made over the last 50 years that opened on September 7 and is due to run until the end of the month. The other two collages also depict religious figures in homosexual positions.

Bishop Vicente Juan Segura said the works "offended Catholic sentiment'' and he called for their: immediate and urgent withdrawal. He threatened to take the issue to court if his demand was not met. The bishop claims that Ibiza town hall had violated the terms of the 1997 agreement which allows it to use church buildings since it had not informed the church of the contents of the exhibit as required.

Ibiza's town hall, which approved the exhibition, said it would not remove the works. Ibiza has never and will never exercise any form of censorship of artistic expression,' the town's councillor for culture, Sandra Mayans, was quoted as saying.

Christian acquitted of blasphemy in Pakistan

From Compass Direct see full article

A Pakistani judge unexpectedly cleared a Christian teenager of charges that he had ripped up pages containing verses from the Quran, the Christian’s lawyer said.

Judge Muhammad Abdul Sattar acquitted Shahid Masih, 18, at a lower court hearing in Faisalabad after prosecution witnesses changed their original testimonies.

Under oath, Mohammad Younis and Khalid Mehmood today dropped claims that Masih’s co-defendant told them he had seen Masih tear pages from a tafseer, a book explaining Quranic verses.

Muslim teenager Muhammad Ghaffar had allegedly witnessed the act while he and Masih supposedly stole books from a medical clinic in Madina Town district of Faisalabad on September 10, 2006.

There were about 100 fanatics inside and outside the courtroom who were astonished when their own witnesses claimed that the accused were innocent, defense lawyer Khalil Tahir said. They were very, very angry.

Tahir said he declined to cross-examine the witnesses, immediately filing a written petition to drop the case based on the new testimonies. After hearing the lawyer’s arguments, Judge Sattar deliberated for two minutes before clearing Ghaffar and Masih of both theft and desecration of the Quran.

Masih could have faced a life-imprisonment if found guilty of “blasphemy.”

Tahir said that both Judge Sattar and the witnesses practically fled the court after the verdict was announced: It’s not less than a miracle that a lower court acquitted somebody of blasphemy.

Muslim fanatics often pressure lower court judges to rule against “blasphemy” suspects despite insufficient evidence. Once sentenced, prisoners may spend years in jail before higher courts eventually overturn the original ruling.

The teenager plans to stay in hiding for several months before once again looking for work.

Family murderers sentenced to life

From the BBC see full article

A mother and son were today jailed for life at the Old Bailey for their part in an "honour" killing. Bachan Athwal, 70, was ordered to spend a minimum of 20 years in jail for the murder of her daughter-in-law Surjit Athwal, and her son Sukhdave will spend a minimum of 27 years behind bars.

The court heard that Surjit Athwal disappeared "off the surface of the earth" after going to a family wedding with her mother-in-law in India in December 1998.

The 36-year-old's body was never found but Bachan boasted to her family that she had arranged for her brother to strangle her and throw the corpse into a river.

Bachan, a mother of six and grandmother of 16, ordered Surjit's death at a family meeting after discovering that her daughter-in-law, a customs officer at Heathrow airport, had been having an affair and wanted a divorce.

Surjit's brother, Jagdeesh Singh, praised the efforts of the police but said there had been "failings" in the UK and India, and called for a public inquiry into the killing of his sister.

Singh said his family had suffered a "lonely and tortuous experience" as the Foreign Office, Metropolitan Police and Indian authorities failed for years to apprehend the killers of Surjit Athwal, who went missing in 1998: We battled with the incompetence and disinterest of the Indian police, the apathy of the Foreign Office and slow initial movement of the Metropolitan Police. It was a lonely and tortuous experience for us. The Athwals had managed to murder my sister and it appeared with their manipulation and planning they were going to get way with it.

While praising detectives for eventually breaking through the "lies and official lapses", he said the case exposed "serious inadequacies" in policing practice and Government policy.  Singh handed a petition to No 10 calling for an inquiry.

Boy, what’s your name? My name is Babu   It is customary to put Mohammed in front of the name   What is your father’s name? Mohammed Abu.   What is that on your lap? Mohammed cat.

 
Bangladeshi cartoonist arrested

From The Peninsula see full article

Baton-wielding police broke up a protest by hundreds of Islamists in the Bangladeshi capital yesterday against a magazine which published a cartoon they said hurt Muslims’ religious feelings.

Police waded in to halt a march by about 500 demonstrators chanting “death to the editor” and “hang the cartoonist” near Dhaka’s national mosque.

The protest came two days after the offending cartoon was printed in Alpin, a weekly magazine published by Prothom Alo, the country’s leading Bangla-language daily. The Prothom Alo has published an apology.

Police arrested the cartoonist, Arifur Rahman, at his Dhaka home on Tuesday, after Muslim religious leaders complained.

The Information Ministry said it had seized copies of the offending magazine issue. The interim government has pledged to punish the offenders, but urged the people to remain calm and show patience. Predominantly, Muslim Bangladesh, however, does not have any blasphemy law.

The Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Party in a statement yesterday said the left-leaning daily had intentionally printed the cartoon to hurt Muslims.

Boy, what’s your name? My name is Babu   It is customary to put Mohammed in front of the name   What is your father’s name? Mohammed Abu.   What is that on your lap? Mohammed cat.

 
Bangladeshi blasphemy predictably innocuous

From Reporters without Borders see full article

Reporters Without Borders calls for the immediately release of Arifur Rahman, a cartoonist with Aalpin, the daily newspaper Prothom Alo’s weekly satirical supplement.

He was arrested at his Dhaka home on 17 September over a cartoon that was a play on the name Mohammed. It made harmless fun of the custom in Muslim countries of putting the name Mohammed in front of one’s given name.

The government’s press department said the cartoon "hurt religious sentiments." All copies of the supplement were seized. Prothom Alo apologised and fired the supplement’s deputy editor.

The play on words had no intention of attacking the Prophet, Reporters Without Borders said It was a joke about a cultural custom. The government should not yield to pressure from extremist leaders who are trying to politicise the case. Rahman should not be made a scapegoat. He must be freed.

Update: Unknown Fate

5th November 2007

The fate of Rahman, who has been languishing in a Dhaka central jail for more than a month now, remains unclear, though there have been rumors that he could be freed at anytime.

Ironically, the cartoonist had recently been given an award from the government for a sketch depicting Bangladesh's anti-corruption drive.

Rahman's arrest', raises some serious questions about the judiciary and press freedom. The cartoonist was taken into custody under Section 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), which authorizes police to make arrests without orders from a magistrate and without a warrant. Rahman also has no right to legal representation.

Sorry...you'll have to have a cap!

 
Muslim dentist bullies patient into wearing headscarf

But no doubt if she chose to wear a veil, he would make her take it off!

From the Daily Mail see full article

A muslim dentist made a woman wear a headscarf as the price of accepting her as an British NHS patient, it is alleged.

Omer Butt is said to have told the patient that unless she wore a headscarf she would have to find another practice.

Later this month, Butt will appear before a General Dental Council professional misconduct hearing, which has the power to strike him off.

It is claimed that the dentist asked to speak to the woman in private after she turned up for an appointment at his clinic in Bury.

According to the charges, he questioned her on whether she was a Muslim and told her that if he was to treat her she would have to wear Islamic dress. He is also said to have read out a number of religious rules to her. He then told his nurse to give the patient her own headscarf to wear, the accusation says.

It is not known whether the woman was a Muslim.

The charges to be heard by the General Dental Council say that Butt undermined public confidence in his profession by discriminating against a patient and failed to act in her best interests.

Sorry...you'll have to have a cap!

 
Headscarf demanding dentist guilty of serious professional misconduct

From the BBC see full article

A dentist who told a female patient she must wear a muslim headscarf to receive treatment has been found guilty of serious professional misconduct.

Dr Omer Butt was found guilty of discriminating against the woman, known as Ms A, by a disciplinary panel of the General Dental Council (GDC).

The patient said she was "humiliated and upset" after the encounter at the surgery in Bury, Greater Manchester.

Butt received an admonition at the end of the three-day GDC hearing.

Stewart Goulding, chairman of the GDC professional conduct committee, told Butt that his conduct had fallen short of the standard expected.

The dentist had denied the charges, but admitted he would ask muslim women to cover up in accordance with Islamic law before he treated them and reducing fees to encourage patients to wear the headscarf.

She said she telephoned the clinic to make an appointment and was told they required muslim women to wear the headscarf. Muslim men attending the clinic could not wear gold jewellery, she was told

 
Australian nutters look to organise their vote

From News.com.au see full article
See also www.australiavotes.org

Poltical parties fielding candidates in the election have been asked by the Australian Christian Lobby to reveal their positions on issues such as abortion, gay marriage, cloning and pornography.

A letter sent by the nutter group to all parties last week asks for a response to 25 policy questions, which will be included on a website soon to be launched, www.australiavotes.org.

Evangelical Christian churches, which have rapidly grown in popularity, have indicated they are prepared to be active in the election, particularly in Queensland, western Sydney and Tasmania. Parties that don't reply to the letter have been warned that their lack of response will also be noted on the site.

As well as parties' stances on gay marriage, adoption and a national ban on X-rated pornography, ACL also sought position statements on industrial relations and climate change.

ACL also asked parties about their views on the Lord's Prayer.

The preamble to Australia's constitution states that our nation is 'humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God', the letter said: Does your party commit to maintaining the convention of opening parliament each day exclusively with the Lord's Prayer?

Parties have also been asked whether they would overturn a ban on sending aid money to countries where it could be used to pay for abortion devices, services or drugs.

Australian National University professor of political science John Warhurst said the religious lobby had not played such a public role in an election to date.

It's an attempt to be more organised along American lines but with a distinctly Australian flavour to it, he said.

 
Bishop for muslim leaders to uphold basic liberties

From the Guardian see full article

One of the Church of England's most senior bishops is warning that people will die unless Muslim leaders in Britain speak out in defence of the right to change faith.

Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, whose father converted from Islam to Christianity in Pakistan, says he is looking to Muslim leaders in Britain to uphold basic civil liberties, including the right for people to believe what they wish to believe and to even change their beliefs if they wish to do so.

Some Islamic texts brand Muslims who convert to other faiths as 'apostates' and call for them to be punished. Seven of the world's 57 Islamic states - including Iran - impose the death penalty for conversion.

Now Ali, who some see as a potential Archbishop of Canterbury, has told Channel 4's Dispatches programme of his fears about the safety of the estimated 3,000 Muslims who have converted to other faiths in Britain: It is very common in the world today, including in this country, for people who have changed their faith, particularly from being Muslim to being Christian, to be ostracised, to lose their job, for their marriages to be dissolved, for children to be taken away. And this is why some leadership is necessary from Muslim leaders themselves to say that this is not what Islam teaches.

The bishop warns that Muslims who switch faiths in Britain could be killed if the current climate continues. We have seen honour killings have happened, and there is no reason why this kind of thing cannot happen.

In 2004, Prince Charles asked British Muslim leaders to renounce laws of apostasy and the death sentence for converts in Islamic countries, but no public statement was ever made.

A poll of more than 1,000 British Muslims, conducted by the Policy Exchange think-tank this year, found that 36% of Muslims aged between 16 and 24 believe those who convert to another faith should be punished by death.

 
Nutters call for worldwide laws against religious defamation

Based on an article from the Guardian see full article

A Senegalese UN 'expert' on racism on Friday branded the defamation of religions - in particular critical portrayals of Islam in the West - a threat to world peace.

Islamophobia today is the most serious form of religious defamation, Doudou Diene told the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Diene cited a caricature of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad in a Swedish newspaper, a protest by far-right groups in Belgium Tuesday against the Islamization of Europe, and campaigns against the construction of mosques in Germany and Switzerland as evidence of an ever increasing trend toward anti-Islamic actions in Europe.

Diene, a Senegalese lawyer who was appointed as an independent U.N. expert on racism in 2002, was presenting a report on defamation of religions to the 47-member council. The report also includes sections on anti-Semitism and other forms of religious or racial persecution around the world.

African and Islamic countries welcomed the assessment and called for moves to draft an international treaty that would compel states to act against any form of defamation of religion.

Diene said that the Danish & Swedish caricatures of Mohammed were evidence that the basic principle of coexistence of different cultures and different religions, which is the lasting basis for peace, is threatened now. Freedom of expression cannot be used as a pretext or excuse for incitement to racial or religious hatred.

European Union members of the council and other countries cautioned against equating criticism of religion with racism.

The EU finds it problematic to reconcile the notion of defamation with the concept of discrimination, said Goncalo Silvestre of Portugal, who was speaking for the 27-nation bloc: In our view these two are of a different nature.

Religions in themselves do not deserve special protection under international human rights law, he said.

 
Headscarves required to work for state institutions

From the Freethinker see full article

Female civil servants must wear Islamic headscarves or be fired, the maverick head of Russia’s Chechnya region said this week – and Ramzan Kadyrov, the son of a Muslim cleric went on to say that women were the root of all crime committed in Chechnya because they were inviting men to have sex with them.

Kadyrov said he had been literally shocked seeing our young women walking around in T-shirts and miniskirts in our city (the Chechen capital Grozny).

I repeat once again – women must either wear headscarves, or they should not work (for state institutions). You may say I make unlawful statements, but I will not back down. I know everyone will say, Ramzan declares (rigid Islamic) sharia law. But I reply that I am a Muslim, I respect Chechen traditions, and I am proud of this.

 
Women demand the right to drive in Saudi

From The Independent see full article

Women in the only country in the world which still bans women from driving want to put their best foot forward – on the accelerator.

Saudi Arabia's newly established League of Demanders of Women's Right to Drive Cars plans to deliver a petition to King Abdallah Bin Abd Al-Aziz Al Saud, calling for their "stolen" entitlement of free movement to be restored.

In a statement on the Arab website Aafaq, the women said: This is a right that was enjoyed by our mothers and grandmothers in complete freedom, through the means of transportation available.

London-based Saudi political analyst and author Mai Yamani pointed out that reformist moves to slowly lift the barriers on women working meant little if they could not drive. You can't keep a woman locked up so she can't get out, drive her child to school. It is a basic necessity.

 
Unchristian Nigerian bishop

From Pink News see full article

The Anglican Bishop of Uyo, Rt. Rev. Isaac Orama, this month condemned the activities of homosexuals and lesbians, and described those engaged in them as "insane people''.

In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, Orama said: Homosexuality and lesbianism are inhuman. Those who practice them are insane, satanic and are not fit to live because they are rebels to God's purpose for man.

It is scaring that any one should be involved in a thing like that and I want to say that they will not escape the wrath of God. He said that the practice, which has worsened over the years, was unbiblical and against God's purpose for creating man.

Update: Denied

16th September

The story caused a bit of stir in church circles and the statements reported have unsurprisingly been denied

There is an ongoing debate about the controversies at www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk

Hindu god lays the foundations for ship canal

From the Reuters India see full article

The Indian government is being accused of blasphemy by its political opponents for saying some of Hinduism's most important texts are not proof of the existence of Hindu gods.

Threats of a nationwide protest forced the government to begin backtracking, wary that its Hindu nationalist rivals could use religious disputes to gain political capital.

The government made the claim in a statement on Wednesday to the Supreme Court, which is hearing a dispute over India's plan to bore a shipping lane through a ridge of rock and sand between India and Sri Lanka which some Hindus think was built by a god.

The Ramayana and Ramcharitmanas, two religious texts, recount the life of Lord Ram, a Hindu god said to have commanded his army of monkeys to build a bridge to Sri Lanka thousands of years ago so he could rescue his kidnapped wife, Sita.

But the government of mainly Hindu but officially secular India says the ridge was moulded by the ocean tides.

The contents of the Valmiki Ramayana, the Ramcharitmanas by Tulsidas and other mythological texts ... cannot be said to be historical record to incontrovertibly prove the existence of the characters or the occurrence of the events depicted therein, the government's affidavit said.

The main opposition, the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), immediately accused the government of blasphemy and appeasing people who follow other religions. L.K. Advani, the leader of the opposition, said that the affidavit showed contempt for millions of Hindus in India and abroad.

Update: The Monkeys Win

15th September

India's government said it was putting on hold its bid to dredge a crucial shipping lane after being accused of blasphemy by Hindu activists who argue the project will damage a sacred site.

The government denied the existence of a Hindu god to justify the half-billion-dollar project, which involves building a channel to enable ships to navigate the southern tip of India instead of skirting around Sri Lanka.

Hindus believe a string of islands linking India and Sri Lanka, known as Adam's Bridge, was made by an army of monkeys to help the warrior god Ram rescue his kidnapped wife.

With the authorities under fire for allegedly insulting Hindus, government lawyers went to the Supreme Court to ask for a three-month delay in legal proceedings to consider its case.

The central government has total respect for all religions, and Hinduism in particular, in the context of the present case, Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium told the Supreme Court in a hearing on Friday.

The move to shelve the plan was, he said, because the government wanted to bring society together rather than cause any disruption.

Update: Now everybody believes in bridge building monkeys

16th September

The Archaeological Survey of India told the Supreme Court that the religious texts were not evidence that Lord Ram ever existed. So hardline Hindu opponents of the government accused the administration of blasphemy and protesters carried out demonstrations in the area and in Delhi, Bhopal, and on a number of key highways.

The next day the survey report was withdrawn.

Culture Minister Ambika Soni told reporters on Saturday: If the prime minister of India... would feel that I am culpable and wants me to resign, it won't take me a minute to do so.

Soni said the directors had been suspended because they had ignored a revision she had made to the affidavit.

Update: Monkeys Give Way

18th September

The Indian government said Monday it will go ahead with a controversial plan to build a sea lane in the Bay of Bengal despite a storm of protest from Hindus who say it will destroy a sacred site.

India's Premier Manmohan Singh had put a hold on the half-billion-dollar project to dredge the sandy shoals, which Hindus believe were created by the god Ram, following accusations of blasphemy.

But Shipping Minister T. R. Baalu said the government would go to the Supreme Court for permission to continue and was confident of completing the project at the earliest.

Who is this Ram? asks state chief minister

From the BBC see full article

The chief minister of India's southern state of Tamil Nadu is sticking to his controversial statement questioning the existence of Hindu God Ram.

M Karunanidhi also said there was no proof that Lord Ram had constructed a bridge where a new shipping canal is planned between India and Sri Lanka.

Hard-line Hindu groups say the chief minister's statement is blasphemous.

On Tuesday Hindu activists angered by the comments set fire to a Tamil Nadu bus, killing two people, police said.

Enraged Hindu hardliners in the city of Bangalore, in neighbouring Karnataka state, also attacked the home of Karunanidhi's daughter, Selvi.

On Saturday, addressing a public rally, Karunanidhi had asked: Who is this Ram? From which engineering college did he graduate?

Angered by his statement, Hindu hard-line groups have demanded his dismissal and arrest.

Campaigning for Dutch freedom of religion

From the Times see full article

A group of young Muslim apostates launched a campaign on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America, to make it easier to renounce Islam.

The provocative move reflects a growing rift between traditionalists and a younger generation raised on a diet of Dutch tolerance.

The Committee for Ex-Muslims promises to campaign for freedom of religion but has already upset the Islamic and political Establishments for stirring tensions among the million-strong Muslim community in the Netherlands.

Ehsan Jami, the committee’s founder, who rejected Islam after the attack on the twin towers in 2001, has become the most talked-about public figure in the Netherlands. He has been forced into hiding after a series of death threats and a recent attack.

Speaking to The Times the Labour Party councillor said that the movement would declare war on radical Islam. Similar organisations campaigning for reform of the religion have sprung up across Europe.

Sharia schools say that they will kill the ones who leave Islam. In the West people get threatened, thrown out of their family, beaten up, Jami said. In Islam you are born Muslim. You do not even choose to be Muslim. We want that to change, so that people are free to choose who they want to be and what they want to believe in.

In 1965 the Church in Holland made a declaration that freedom of conscience is above hanging on to religion, so you can choose whether you are going to be a Christian or not. What we are seeking is the same thing for Islam.

Only 70% Dutch muslims condemn violence to apostates

From NIS News

30% of Muslims in the Netherlands are not prepared to condemn violence against apostates, according to a survey carried out by Foquz Etnomarketing for TV programme Nova.

70%of the Muslims interviewed answered 'no' to the question whether violence against a person who abandons the Muslim faith is justified. 6% answered 'yes'. 24% did not wish to answer the question.

Only 11% of Muslims interviewed feel that the committee set up for apostate Muslims is needed.

According to Jami, the committee only has two members because other former Muslims are afraid to join. Last month, Jami was assaulted. The perpetrators were presumably three Muslims who could not tolerate his message. One suspect has been arrested and has confessed.

 
And see how the nutters get wound up

Based on n article from the Freethinker see full article

Comic Kathy Griffin wound up the nutters when she took the stage to collect her Emmy for best reality programme, her Bravo channel show My Life on the D-List.

She commented: A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. Suck it, Jesus. This award is my god now.

Asked about her speech backstage a short time later, an unrepentant Griffin said: I hope I offended some people. I didn’t want to win the Emmy for nothing.

The remarks about Jesus at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards will not be seen by TV audiences, the US Academy of Television Arts and Sciences said.

The speech drew fire from a leading Roman Catholic group, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, which condemned Griffin’s remarks as “obscene and blasphemous”.

It is a sure bet that if Griffin had said, ‘Suck it, Mohammed’, there would have been a very different reaction, Catholic league president Bill Donohue said in a statement posted on the group’s website.

He called on TV academy president Dick Askin to denounce Griffin’s “hate speech” and on Griffin to apologise.

Griffin’s reaction to the controversy, according to a statement issued by her publicist: Am I the only Catholic left with a sense of humour?

UN petitioned to address forced religious conversion in Eritrea

From World Net Daily see full article

Migsti Haile, a 33-year-old Christian woman, was tortured to death in Eritrea for refusing to recant her faith, and the European Center for Law and Justice is asking the United Nations to address what it described as the growing problem of forced religious conversions around the world.

We had been getting notification from lawyers and human rights groups that this issue was growing, and we thought it was high time that the United Nations address it, Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the ECLJ told WND.

He said the problem is not necessarily always national governments, but local governments and area factions, which are putting pressure on people and threatening people with up to death if they don't renounce their conversion to Christianity.

The ECLJ, since it is officially recognized as a non-governmental organization in special consultative status by the United Nations, now has petitioned the organization's Human Rights Council to address the situation.

We would like to draw the Council's attention to the growing number of violations of the fundamental right to freedom of religion that are occurring around the world, specifically the right to choose one's religion and change one's religious affiliation, the written statement said.

Forced religious conversions and punishment for voluntary conversions are commonplace in many countries. Laws against apostasy, blasphemy, or proselytizing are used in conjunction with anti-conversion laws to create an atmosphere hostile to members of the majority faith who voluntarily convert to another religion, the organization said.

The Compass Direct News report said Haile was one of 10 single Christian women arrested at a church gathering in Keren who have spent 18 months under severe pressure. The report said Haile died at the Wi'a Military Training Center, where she was being detained.

Choose one of 3 religions or go to prison

From Journal Chretien

An administrative court yesterday postponed a verdict for a set of twins, 14-year-olds Imad and Nancy Halim, of the country’s tiny Baha’i community.

After Baha’is lost the right to print their religion on official documents in December 2006, the brother and sister’s father, Raouf Hindi Halim, sued to have the religion field on their identification papers left blank.

As long as the twins refuse to place Islam, Christianity or Judaism on their new electronic documents, they cannot receive basic services such as education and some health care, said Hossam Baghat of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.

Basically, they can’t enroll in public schools, and that is the most important problem, Baghat told Compass following Tuesday’s hearing.

The lawyer said that the children would soon be faced with other difficulties if they do not obtain birth certificates and other electronic documents by the time they turn 16. Once they turn 16, it’s a criminal offense not to have one, he said.

Baghat clarified that Egypt’s Baha’is were neither seeking to completely remove the religion status from documents of all citizens, nor to gain official recognition as a minority community.

They are simply asking to obtain these mandatory basic documents without being forced to choose a religion that they do not believe in, Baghat said.

Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court ruled against the group listing its religion on official documents in December 2006, on the premise that Baha’ism is not one of three “heavenly religions” (Islam, Christianity and Judaism) recognized by Islam.

Deal with Christian Voice garbage

From the Freethinker see full article

They had portable shredding machines and they made it quite clear that they were not afraid to use them.

These were pro-gay members of Cardiff’s United Reform Church, and they turned out in force to destroy homophobic fliers that were being distributed at Cardiff’s annual Lesbian and Gay Mardi Gras last weekend by Stephen Green, who heads the crackpot Christian Voice organisation, and a pitiful band of his delusional followers.

According to a report in a Brighton gay paper scores of Christian Voice's homophobic leaflets were seized by the the URC posse, and destroyed on the spot.
 

We brought the shredder especially for the Christian Voice leaflets as a lot of people are offended by it. It’s offensive that people think that Christian Voice’s view is that of all Christians – it is not.

Christian Voice members – still smarting from the humiliation they suffered at Brighton Pride at the beginning of August when they were corralled by police at the entrance to Preston Park, and had no chance of distributing their hate literature – were stopped in their tracks in Cardiff’s Bute Park by the police, who told them they could only give them out at the entrance to the park.

 
Korean missionary hostage murdered for refusal to convert

From Christian Today see full article

The youth pastor who was leading the group of 23 South Korean aid volunteers in Afghanistan was killed for refusing to convert to Islam, the head pastor of the church revealed after the final 19 former hostages arrived home.

Among the 19 hostages who returned on the second (of September), some were asked by the Taliban to convert and when they rejected, they were assaulted and severely beaten, reported Park Eun-jo, pastor of the hostages’ home church.

A hospital chief also said on Monday that some of the five South Korean men freed from captivity last week reported being beaten by their Taliban abductors for refusing to convert to Islam and for protecting their female colleagues.

 
Women lynched in Pakistan for prostitution

From the BBC see full article

Suspected Islamic militants in north-western Pakistan have beheaded two women they accused of being prostitutes, police say.

The bodies of the two women were found by villagers on the outskirts of the city of Bannu. A note found on the bodies accused the women of "acts of obscenity", a term that usually refers to prostitution. The note read: We have started doing this to end obscenity in the area. The note also warned others like them that they would be punished in the same way

Police said the women were travelling in a three-wheeled vehicle when masked and armed men overpowered them and bundled them into a car.

The region is a known base for militants who want to impose their interpretation of Islamic law.

 
UN motion for freedom of religion emphasising the right to apostasy

From the National Secular Society

The Netherlands is to make a case for the freedom of religion and ideology during the sixth session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva this month. Partly initiated by the Netherlands, the EU will hand in a resolution that emphasises the right to apostasy.

As Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen writes to the Lower House, it is through the efforts of the Netherlands - the vice president of the council - that the topic of freedom of religion is on the agenda. The EU is to hand in a resolution aimed to re-emphasise this freedom, which also means that everybody has the right to change religions and to practise alone or communally their religion or ideology without state intervention, as the minister stated. In addition to the session, the Netherlands will also organise a meeting in which the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion, Asma Jahangir, is to participate.

This news is presumably connected to last month's story:

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,.

It was the third time that Jami had been attacked, prompting the Dutch National Coordinator on Terrorism Suppression to intervene and offer