An Austrian anti-pornography nutter wants officials in the Alpine city of Innsbruck to take down a large crucifix bearing a sculpture of a naked Jesus Christ.

Martin Humer, who gained notoriety last year after he painted part of a statue of a nude Mozart and stuck feathers on it, is pressuring authorities to remove the crucifix from a public square where it has been displayed for 20 years.

Humer, an 82-year-old former photographer, said he and about 100 supporters were organizing a protest for Friday.

Innsbruck Mayor Hilde Zach dismissed the fuss and said she would refuse to remove the crucifix, insisting it is a work of art and is in no way pornographic.

Racially and religiously motivated attacks have gone up by 12%, according to Government figures.

New statistics from the Ministry of Justice will show that in 2005-06, the latest year for which figures are available, there were 41,000 racially or religiously motivated offences.

It is thought that the rise could be partly attributable to increased fears over terrorism and immigration.

Malaysia is reviewing its laws on religious conversion after a recent run of legal battles over freedom of worship inflamed tensions in the mainly Muslim nation.

Malaysian courts have declined to recognise conversions involving Muslims, referring them to the country's separate Islamic legal system which does not permit Muslims to renounce their faith under law.

Nazri Abdul Aziz has formed a special committee, including non-governmental organisations, academics and religious bodies, to study the issue, he said.

The recent cases have usually involved couples where one partner is Muslim and the other is not. In Malaysia, Muslims cannot marry non-Muslims and it can be almost impossible to legally leave Islam despite a constitutional right to freedom of worship.

The rulings have angered many non-Muslims who believe their constitutional rights are being eroded, but their attempts to voice concern in public have met with a backlash from Muslims who feel conversions threaten Islam.

Nazri, a Muslim, told parliament there was no need to meddle with the jurisdictions of civil and Islamic courts because there was no conflict. The review, he added, would look instead at how to determine a person's religion.

Violence committed in God's name is "blasphemy," dignitaries of the world's main religions said as they wrapped up a peace summit in Naples on Tuesday.

Whoever uses God's name to hate others, to commit violent acts, to make war, blasphemes the name of God, the some 300 Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist and Hindu leaders and political figures said in a joint declaration.

The pope addressed the inter-faith meeting while on a pastoral visit to the southern Italian city, calling on them to promote reconciliation among peoples ... with respect for the differences among various religions.

A Channel 4 drama, which depicts a second-generation British Muslim woman as a suicide bomber, was condemned last night by the British Muslim Forum.

Khurshid Ahmed, the chairman of the forum, called on Channel 4 not to air the film, Britz, which is due to be shown in two parts on Wednesday and Thursday nights.

Britz tells the story of a brother and sister, Sohail and Nasima, as they are pulled in different directions by their conflicting personal experiences in post-9/11 Britain. Sohail, a law student, signs up with MI5. His sister, a medical student, becomes Britain's first female suicide bomber. The film's award-winning director is Peter Kosminsky.

Khurshid Ahmed said last night: Channel 4 should be working with us to defeat terrorism and extremism, not sowing hate and division in our communities, and reinforcing negative stereotypes.

The Home Office has viewed the film. A government spokesman said: Having seen extracts from the film and heard Mr Kosminsky's comments, we can understand the British Muslim Forum's concerns. Given Channel 4's remit as a public service broadcaster, they should listen to the views of moderate Muslims who reject violence and extremism, and they should air those views alongside this film.

[Actually the Home Office antipathy may be more to do with the director's criticism of Control Orders:

See Henry Porter in the Guardian see full article:

Pre-trial detention is the greatest possible offence to the rule of law, whatever the threat we face from terrorists, which I do not in anyway underestimate. Peter Kosminsky, the director of two interesting films called Britz, to be shown on Channel 4 next Wednesday and Thursday, explores the issues of control orders and pre-trial detention with the unwavering conviction that they act as stimulants to terrorist recruitment rather than making us more secure].

A Liverpool priest has given adult lingerie store Nice N Naughty a dressing down for parking one of their delivery vans near his church.

Father Kenny Hyde from (we think) St Vincent de Paul Church slapped a warning notice and a handwritten letter on the van after seeing it parked on St James’s Street.

It threatened to have the vehicle towed away and report the company to the police.

This is a catholic church. If there was a funeral on today I would have had your car towed away. Don’t park here, said the note which was signed Father Kenny Hyde, Parish Priest.

The priest also phoned the store to tell staff he felt it was “disrespectful” to park a Nice N Naughty van near a church.

Nice N Naughty area manager Lindsay Tweddell said: There’s a real lack of on-street parking in the city at the moment, so I decided that on the day I wasn’t going to be using the van for a few hours I’d park away from the traffic restrictions and walk to work.

I went back to move the van and saw a large orange sticker had been stuck to the windscreen saying Don’t Park Here. I also notice the letter which had been placed behind the wiper, added Lindsay.

The National Legislative Assembly (NLA) will today consider a bill that will introduce harsh punishments for various forms of offences against Buddhism, including sexual affairs with monks, novices and nuns.

The bill was proposed by a group of 179 NLA members, some of whom tried in vain to promote Buddhism as the national religion in the 2007 Constitution.

They reasoned that although Buddhism is the religion of most Thai people, there has been no law to protect and promote the religion seriously and cover Buddhist people in general.

The bill sets a jail term of 10-25 years and/or a fine of 500,000-1,000,000 baht for insulting, offending, imitating and distorting Buddhism and the Lord Buddha and a jail term of 5-10 years and/or a fine of 100,000-500,000 baht for damaging Buddhist objects, personnel and places. People who have any form of sexual affair with monks, novices and nuns are liable to five to 10 years in jail and/or a fine of 100,000-500,000 baht. However, the bill does not include any punishments for monks, novices and nuns who engage in sexual relations.

Tajikistan's Jehovah Witnesses have been banned throughout the entire country, Forum 18 News Service has learnt.

Culture Ministry officials handed the community a banning order stripping it of legal status and just said we were banned and should stop all our activity. They didn't say much, Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18.

Commenting on the ban, a Culture Ministry official stated that the authorities' main complaint was that Jehovah's Witnesses refuse military service. There is no alternative service in Tajikistan yet, so everyone ought to obey Tajik laws. The official then added that they also propagate their faith in public places, which directly contradicts the Law.

A picture paints a thousand words

The chocolate Jesus sculpture that wound up the nutters last Easter is returning to New York City.

A recast of My Sweet Jesus, a life-sized chocolate sculpture of a nude Jesus, will appear later this week alongside eight chocolate sculptures of Catholic saints in the Chocolate Saints…Sweet Jesus exhibition at the Proposition Gallery in Chelsea.

While the Catholic League said it still disapproves of the Jesus sculpture, they revealed that it will not spearhead a protest against the upcoming exhibit as it had done earlier this year.

Since My Sweet Jesus isn’t going to be displayed on the ground floor of an established hotel in midtown, and since Halloween is more appropriate for Cavallaro’s crafts than Easter, our central objections are not applicable this time around, stated Catholic League on its website.

This time around, Cosimo Cavallaro said he hopes that the chocolate medium used to portray Christ calls people’s attention to the fragility of life and the lived experience of Christ

Cavallaro’s religious sculptures – which does not include the original sculpture of Jesus – will be on view from Oct. 27 to Nov. 24, timed to coincide with All Saints Day on Nov. 1. The original Jesus sculpture was tossed by the artist after being destroyed by mice.

Folsom Street Events (FSE) Board of Directors has issued a statement addressing protests by various religious groups of the organization's flagship event, the Folsom Street Fair, which was held on Sept. 30 in San Francisco.

The FSE also has asked its supporters to contact Miller Brewing Company, a vendor and fair sponsor, and encourage the beer company not to “cave in” to pressure from right-wing groups to stop its participation in the fair.

FSE said: We have worked successfully with this company for many years, and they have been very supportive. This is no longer an issue of our poster image, but it is an issue of free speech and freedom of expression. We think it's important for Miller to hear from you — the people who enjoy the Fair. Please contact Miller spokesman Julian Green at green.julian@mbco.com to let them know how much you appreciate their support.

FSE named the Catholic League as chief among the groups that are protesting the street fair, which is one of the largest outdoor events held annually in California. The event is the culmination of Gay Leather Pride week in San Francisco.

We can no longer stand by while Folsom Street Fair remains under attack. The Catholic League insists upon provoking its followers, resulting in emails and phone calls threatening us with everything from ill-will to bodily harm, FSE Board of Directors' President Andy Copper said.

We understand that The Catholic League believes it is doing ‘the right thing’ but they are attacking our San Francisco values of community, diversity, education and freedom of self expression. If they do not share in our values or do not understand them, that’s fine; but they have never opened up a dialogue with us. They have only stood in judgment, making threats. We can no longer remain silent on the issue, Copper said.

Today, the Catholic League posted another statement, declaring that it will petition rabbis and Muslim imams in the Milwaukee area, to support the boycott of Miller Brewing Company.

Last week we sent some photos of the Miller-sponsored Folsom Street Fair to all the pastors of the 166 Protestant churches in Milwaukee. Today we are blanketing all the synagogues and mosques in Milwaukee; we are asking rabbis and imams for their assistance in protesting Miller’s anti-religion agenda. Next week we will target another segment of the Milwaukee community, the League said.

Our anti-Miller PR campaign and boycott of Miller beer will continue on a weekly basis until such time that the Miller Brewing Company issues a statement reassuring Americans that it will never again promote an anti-religious event.

A Christian couple were flogged in Iran for participating in an “underground Church”, an Iranian Christian group said in a report on its website earlier this week.

The unnamed couple were arrested in 2005, the report said, adding that a Revolutionary Court reviewed their case in July 2007.

Even though the couple had decided to marry seven years ago, the country’s marriage laws, which prohibit the union of ex-Muslims and members of other religious minorities, prevented them from obtaining a certificate of marriage.

The report said that the woman was born a Christian in an Assyrian-Iranian family and the man was a convert to Christianity prior to getting married.

The court ruled that both the man and the woman were Mortad, a description of someone who has committed apostasy by leaving Islam.

Seventeen-year-old Bushra is too scared to give her real name. She talks in a low, trembling voice, her face full of fear.

They want to shed my blood, they want to kill me, she says, as she recounts how she escaped being murdered by members of her own family in a so-called "honour killing".

A Sunni Muslim, she had fallen in love with Fadel, from Syria's Alawite Muslim minority. He went to her family to ask for her hand in marriage, but he was rejected.

The family said Bushra must marry her cousin. But on their wedding day, she ran away with the man she loved and family members began to hunt her down, to erase the dishonour she had caused.

Bushra's story is not an exceptional one in Syria, where women's organisations estimate more than 200 women are murdered every year by brothers, cousins or fathers.

But she is one of the lucky ones. Bushra was arrested after her family reported her to the police, and taken into custody. The juvenile centre where now lives gives her some protection, but her freedom of movement is severely limited.

The Syrian authorities are trying to crack down on the practice of "honour killing", and they have widespread support. About 10,000 people have signed a petition calling for an end to the practice, in a campaign backed by senior Muslim officials.

It is an issue for all communities - Christian, Muslim and Druze - says Daed Musa, a lawyer and women's rights activist: The laws are old and go back to the 1940s. No woman can feel safe under the current legislation.

Murders considered to have been in defence of honour are not considered a "crime" under Syrian law, but an "offence". It carries a maximum penalty of a year's imprisonment, but could be reduced to a month by a judge.

A priest has been interviewed by police on suspicion of inciting racial hatred for expressing his Christian views in his parish newsletter.

A sergeant and community support officer turned up without warning at his presbytery after an allegation was made to a Scotland Yard 'hate crimes' unit.

Hayes had written:

22nd October 2006:

John Humphreys interviewed a young Muslim girl last week who believed that wearing the veil is an essential part of her religion. When John Humphreys pointed out that objectively it was not part of Muslim teaching, she said she believed that for her it was. I could understand the interviewer’s frustration because, in saying what she did, she just slammed the door on any kind of rational debate.

Few people, if any, are convinced by argument. That means it will be difficult, if not impossible, to have dialogue with radical Muslims among whom I would include this young girl. But good honest folk who have been going about their business, wearing jewellery that has been the custom in our country for centuries, have been sucked into a debate which has come about by extremist immigrants who think the whole world should revolve around them and seemingly are hell bent on destroying everything that is sacred in our Christian country. And powerful people are so afraid of being counted succumb to the every whim of this very small but vociferous minority.

It seems odd to me that Muslims can go around in burkas and demand that they wear veils in school but it is still against the law for a catholic priest to wear his cassock in pubic or a catholic to marry the heir to the throne. Perhaps the next step will be the removal of the crosses on the Union Flag?

Apparently someone in my congregation was unhappy with my comments and, after waiting a year, went to the police to say he had been 'disturbed' by it, Hayes said

A fortnight ago officers knocked on the door of his home next to St Mary's Church, Hornchurch. They said they had been sent by a superintendent: They said they had come to see if I had intended to incite racial hatred, the priest said. I was pretty surprised. It seemed to me that political correctness had gone haywire in this situation.

We had a long, civilised discussion and I didn't give an inch. They seemed satisfied and when they eventually left the sergeant told me 'that's the end of the matter'. I felt the whole thing was a bit of a storm in a teacup.

The decision to quiz Hayes has infuriated many Met officers. A source at the Metropolitan Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said: What happened is a gross error of judgment and possibly even an abuse of power. The senior officer who decided on this course of action should be called to account. It is yet another example of the political correctness which is blighting the Met. It is plain bonkers.

Saudi Arabia's religious police have arrested a domestic worker accused of having put a spell on her employer, the Al-Madina newspaper reported.

The arrest of the maid, whose nationality was not revealed, followed a complaint by the wife of the employer who she said had been bewitched by the maid.

The woman said she suspected her husband had been put under a spell because he fiercely defended the maid from criticism every time she neglected her work.

Members of the religious police discovered "talismans and products of charlatanism" in a search of the maid's quarters. [No doubt just Buddhist bits & pieces]

The paper said the maid, who is to face trial, admitted she took refuge in sorcery so as to make her employers like her.

The bewitched husband adored the maid and carried out all her wishes, unbeknownst to his wife, the newspaper said.

Witchcraft is a capital offence in Saudi Arabia.

Austrian authorities said Thursday they arrested an elderly Turkish-born man suspected of fatally shooting a younger Turkish associate and slicing off the victim's penis in what investigators called an "honor killing."

Police in the town of Wimpassing inthe province of Lower Austria made the arrest shortly after the Wednesday night slaying.

Officials said witnesses claimed the 76-year-old man allegedly shot the victim, a 58-year-old Turkish-born man, in the street with a shotgun at point-blank range and then cut off his penis with a knife, leaving him to bleed to death.

Two teams of surgeons worked at the scene to save the man but were unable to revive him, authorities said.

Investigators believe the suspect apparently was jealous that the younger man had flirted with his wife, and had sought him out as "a question of honor," said Franz Polzer, head of the region's criminal investigations office.

The Egyptian Press Syndicate Thursday criticised a fatwa by Mohamed Sayed Tantawi of Grand Azhar Imam - the highest authority in Egypt - stipulating that journalists convicted of publishing crimes should receive 80 lashes.

It was as if Sheikh Tantawi is part of a campaign against the press, journalists and people who have an opinion, the syndicate statement said.

Tantawi gave other opinions including the revocation of any convicted journalist's testimony in court, which alienates them from the society and sentences them to a civil execution.

Tantawi had earlier given his fatwa following a series of cases against journalists. His fatwa stirred outrage among many journalists and independent and opposition newspapers.

Senior writer Fahmy Howaidi criticised Tantawi in statements published in independent al-Masry al-Youm newspaper, saying he wore many hats and at the time he gave this fatwa, he put on that of the authorities.

Eleven journalists and editors-in-chief of opposition and independent newspapers have been sentenced to prison or fines over the last month on charges of publishing "fake news," "insulting icons of the ruling party" and "spreading rumours." Their appeals are under way.

Twenty-three Egyptian independent and opposition newspapers did not publish last Sunday, in protest at verdicts passed against journalists.

Tantawi argued for the lashings by quoting a verse from the Quran saying that those who accused women of adultery without necessary proof were to receive "80 floggings."

He said his example involved women but added that libel is also applicable to men ... this punishment is set by God to protect the honor of men and women from bad talk that hurts dignity and honor.

Thankfully however, lashings are not punishments used in Egypt.

Hit movies in Pakistan follow the tried and tested Bollywood recipe of glittering saris, extravagant song-and-dance routines and exotic locations, but a new film has broken the mould. Director Shoaib Mansoor has replaced the typical love stories with warring families, in a harrowing tale of terrorism, racism and the battle for Islam that has proved so controversial there were fears suicide bombers would attack the premiere.

In the Name of God has sparked fury among hardline clerics with its moderate interpretation of Islam and its spirited criticism of the atrocities committed under the guise of religion.

Abdul Rashid Ghazi, cleric of the Red Mosque, the site of a recent bloody siege, slammed the movie as blasphemous. Meanwhile a lawyer demanded the high court ban the film, branding it a conspiracy to disturb law and order in Pakistan.

Yet despite their objections, the film has electrified audiences in Pakistan and has been called the most important cinematic event in memory. Theatres in many of the country's cities have been sold out for four weeks and debates about the film's subject matter have been raging across websites and blogs for months.

Filmgoers in the UK will be able to see what the fuss is about when it is released in early November.

Muslim intolerants in Pakistan have attempted to destroy an ancient carving of Buddha by drilling holes in the rock and filling them with dynamite.

The damaged Swat valley Buddha is thought to date from the seventh century AD. The 23ft high image was damaged during the attack, which brought back memories of the Taliban's destruction six years ago of the giant Buddhas at Bamiyan, in neighbouring Afghanistan.

The explosion on Monday night damaged the upper part of the rock.

Pakistani troops have stepped up recent operations against militants in the fertile Swat valley, where thousands of locals are in thrall to Mullah Fazlullah, a rabble-rousing cleric who has called for suicide attacks and holy war. Fazlullah's men have continued to wage an offensive against what they deem 'un-Islamic' activity, last week blowing up dozens of music, video and cosmetics stalls at a market.

Hackers in Turkey have attacked more than 5,000 Swedish Web sites in the past week, and at least some of the sabotage appears linked to Muslim anger over a Swedish newspaper drawing that depicted the Prophet Muhammad's head on a dog's body.

Around 1,600 Web sites hosted by server-provider Proinet and 3,800 sites hosted by another company have been targeted, Proinet spokesman Kjetil Jensen said Sunday. Jensen said hackers, operating on a Turkish network, at times replaced files on the sites with messages.

According to Swedish news agency TT, the Web site of a children's cartoon called Bamse was replaced by a message saying Islam's prophet had been insulted.

Stefan Grinneby, head of the Swedish communication watchdog's Internet incident center Sitic, said attacks against Swedish Web sites from Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, have increased in the past three weeks. Some contained messages alluding to the drawing.

Vilks said recently that he has no regrets about his portrayal of Muhammad, despite receiving death threats. He said Muslims living in the West would have to get used to disrespectful drawings of their religious symbols, because here in the West we mock everything.

He also said he may convert the dispute into a musical, with prominent roles depicting Iran's president, Sweden's prime minister and al-Qaida terrorists.

CNN have a posted a video about Lars Vilks, the Swedish Mohammed Dog  artist with an al-Qaeda bounty on his head.

The video is well worth a watch. It contains an interview with a demented burka declaring its intention to: slaughter Vilks like a lamb.

The phlegmatic Vilks remains unruffled throughout. At one point during the interview he receives a death threat by text: I will kill you, you son of a bitch.

Why aren’t you frightened? asks the astonished reporter.

You get used to it, replies Vilks with a smile and a shrug.

CNN, by contrast, did not have the courage show any of his cartoons on air.

Innocence verdict for Algeria television journalists

A magistrate's court has pronounced a not guilty verdict for Canal Algérie and Algeria 3 TV former heads managers and six other journalists who aired the Danish cartoons ridiculing Prophet Muhammad.

The Republic prosecutor has already sought a five year prison against the head managers of the two TV channels and a three years prison with no remission against the journalists.

The court has however taken into consideration that the indicted were not intended to ridicule the Prophet.

BBC2 have just broadcast Bloody Cartoons, a Danish documentary about the Mohammed cartoons crisis.

The documentary showed all 12 of the cartoons on screen.

No reports of complaints about the TV showing of the cartoons...so far

A Danish political party is using a drawing of the prophet Muhammad on election material, in a move described as a "provocation" by at least one local Muslim organisation.

The far-right Danish People's party today unveiled an election advertisement showing a hand-drawn picture of the Islamic prophet under the slogan Freedom of speech is Danish, censorship is not, followed by the words We defend Danish values.

The material will be used during the campaign for next month's general election. The DPP is the third-largest political force in Denmark. It is a key parliamentary ally for the centre-right, minority government of Fogh Rasmussen.

DPP leader, Pia Kjaersgaard said The ad clearly falls under the issue of freedom of expression. Asked why she chose to use this ad in the light of the Muhammad cartoon crisis, Kjaersgaard answered: Why shouldn't we? Is it forbidden? Self-censorship is bad.

The ad has been condemned by at least one Danish-Muslim organisation. We work all the time for calm and peace on both sides, and the Danish People's party is pulling us back with this kind of provocation, Ahmed Harby, a spokesman for the Islamic Faith Society, a loose network of Danish-Muslim organisations, told Guardian Unlimited. Islam forbids the depiction of its most important prophet: We want respect and calm. This is a step back, said Harby.

Nutters could face up to seven years in jail for simply preaching from the Bible under Government plans to criminalise incitement of homosexual hatred.

Jack Straw announced proposals similar to the controversial incitement of religious hatred laws to target those who stir up hostility based on sexual orientation.

Religious groups warned it could lead to preachers being prosecuted for emotionally expressing their firmly-held beliefs and will restrict freedom of speech.

They said gay rights were being given priority over Christian values and that believers felt under threat.

Ministers insisted any new law is aimed at extremists, and that people would not be prosecuted merely for expressing an opinion.

But sources admitted it would be up to police and the Crown Prosecution Service to decide whether charges should be brought in any individual case.

Colin Hart, director of The Christian Institute, said: In a democratic society people must be free to express their beliefs without fear of censure from the state. A homophobic hatred law would be used by those with an axe to grind against Christians to silence them. People shouldn’t face prison for expressing their sincerely-held religious beliefs.

An Institute spokesman added: The criminal law will extend to the pulpit and we could have vicars standing before a court trying to defend themselves.

Massoud Shadjareh of the Islamic Human Rights Commission said: If someone is reading the Bible and calls homosexuality an abomination, is that going to be incitement? There are similar passages in the Koran and the Talmud.

I was against the incitement to religious hatred legislation. Either you water it down until it becomes pointless or you have a situation where you deprive people the right to have access to freedom of speech.

A prominent Palestinian Christian found dead this past weekend on a Gaza City street was publicly beaten by Islamic gunmen who accused him of spreading Christianity, witnesses and Palestinian Arab security officials have reported.

And although no group has yet taken responsibility for the attack on 32-year-old Rami Khader Ayyad, at least one group says such attacks will persist if “missionary activity” continues to take place now that Hamas has seized complete control of the Gaza Strip.

Since the Islamic group came to power in June, Sheik Abu Saqer's islamic outreach movement, Jihadia Salafiya, recently formed a military wing to enforce Muslim law in Gaza.

Jihadia Salafiya and other Islamic movements will ensure Christian schools and institutions show publicly what they are teaching to be sure they are not carrying out missionary activity. No more alcohol on the streets. All women, including non-Muslims, need to understand they must be covered at all times while in public, he said: Also, the activities of Internet cafes, pool halls, and bars must be stopped. If it goes on, we'll attack these things very harshly.

The murdered Rami Khader Ayyad, who was the director of Gaza's only Christian bookstore, was publicly beaten a few blocks from his store before being shot to death. The witnesses reportedly said they saw three armed men, two of them wearing masks, beat Ayyad repeatedly with clubs and the butts of their guns while accusing him of attempting to spread Christianity in Gaza. The witnesses said that after the three men beat Ayyad, they all shot him.

Though Saqer claimed that his group didn't carry out the Ayyad attack, the Islamic leader said all Christians engaging in missionary activity in Gaza would be dealt with harshly.

Saqer also said there is "no need" for Christians in Gaza to maintain a large number of institutions in the territory and that Hamas must work to impose an Islamic rule or it will lose the authority it has and the will of the people.

About 3,000 Christians live in Gaza among 1.5 million Muslims and relations between two communities have generally been good.

An Islamic court in Nigeria Monday lifted a ban it placed on a play written by a civil rights activist which satirizes the implementation of Sharia law in 12 mainly muslim states, lawyers said.

Mustapha Umar, a judge of the upper Sharia court in the northern city of Kaduna, ruled that his court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit filed by Concerned Sharia Forum, a pro-Sharia group.

Umar had on October 3 issued a motion restraining playwright and activist Shehu Sani from selling or circulating his play, Phantom Crescent and banning performances of the play.

The court has thrown out the case on the grounds that it lacks jurisdiction and with this ruling the earlier orders given by the court have no legality henceforth, defence lawyer Muhammad Sanusi told AFP.

The play is a satire depicting how politicians, especially governors of the states implementing the islamic Sharia legal system, use it as a tool for looting the public treasury and for stifling opposition, Sani said

We have started preparations to appeal the upper Sharia court ruling before the Kaduna state high court because we believe circulating the book and staging its performances has the potential of causing a sectarian rift, not only in Kaduna but in many parts of the north, counsel to the plaintiff, Aliyu Ahmad Sharif, said.

Update: Still Banned

2nd November 2007

Today, Sani is still waiting to perform his play. After three weeks and two trial days in Kaduna, the court ruled on October 22 that it did not have jurisdiction over the case. Yet the ban on the manuscript remains in place. The prosecution says it will ask the Sharia Court of Appeals to compel the court to render a verdict.