Moroccan authorities ban magazine

Opinion from the Magharebia

Back in September, Tel Quel magazine launched an Arabic-language sister publication, under the title Nichane. Now, like its French sister, the magazine is in hot water, reported The View From Fez.

The magazine was banned yesterday [December 20th] by the Moroccan authorities, by order of the prime minister's office, noted Laila Lalami.

The blogger added that issue #91, dated December 9th to the 15th, had a cover story on 'Jokes: How Moroccans Make Fun of Religion, Sex, and Politics.' It included a long article, written by Sanaa Al Aji … The jokes that were deemed particularly offensive were the ones dealing with religion … jokes that readers could just as easily have heard at work, at school, at home or at the café, and therefore they're nothing new.

A lawsuit has been filed against the magazine's director, and Sanaa Al Aji, the writer, for "insult to the Islamic faith" and publication and distribution of writings that are contrary to the morals and mores of the country. The trial is set for January 8th, and they risk prison terms of three to five years, added Mohamed Said Lahjouij.

By humourless Moroccan Authorities

From the NY Sun

The editor and a reporter from a Moroccan news weekly that published jokes relating to Islam were convicted and fined yesterday for insulting the religion.

The court in Casablanca handed down three-year suspended sentences to Driss Ksikes, editor of Nichane, ("Straight Ahead"), and to journalist Sanaa al-Aji. Both were barred from any journalistic activity for two months, and the independent Arabic-language magazine was suspended for two months. They were fined $9,280 each.

The sentence was milder than the three to five years in prison that prosecutors had requested.

Ksikes has repeatedly said the 10-page article was meant as a thoughtful examination of Moroccan popular humor.

I don't regret what I wrote, Ksikes told reporters after the verdict, though he also said he was sorry to have offended some Moroccans.

Stoning on orders of tribal court

From Mohmand Agency

The killer of a 12-year old boy, Imran was stoned to death on the orders of a Jirga in the area of Bed Manai.

Imran hailing from Afghanistan had killed a 12-year old boy during a dacoity bid some time ago. The alleged killer managed to escape from the scene but later on he was apprehended.

The killer was produced before a grand Jirga comprising elders from Atmer Khel, Moosa Khal, and other tribes. The accused confessed his crime before the Jirga. The Jirga convicted him to death by stoning.

Later on he was stoned to death in the presence of the members of the Jirga. The family members of the killer were banished from the area.

Chinese protestors on trial

From The Times

Eight Christians went on trial in China accused of inciting a crowd after thousands of people trying to prevent the demolition of a partially built church clashed with police.

China’s Constitution guarantees freedom of worship BUT its Communist rulers have long been nervous about the spread of religion. They often take measures to close underground church groups that pray in private homes, arresting their members. While officials have allowed the construction of churches in recent years, they do not allow the building of unauthorised places of worship.

The eight Christians, members of an underground Protestant group in the eastern city of Hangzhou, went on trial at the 10th Xiaoshan District People’s Court on charges of inciting a crowd to resist law enforcement. It was not clear what penalty they face if they are convicted for having a role in what appears to have been one of the largest-scale confrontations in recent years between police and Christian worshippers.

Seven men and one woman were arrested after about 3,000 Christians in Xiaoshan staged a protest on July 29 against the demolition of a church.

A local journalist said that the people put on trial were all local church leaders who wield widespread influence among congregations. Only one was at the scene of the incident, the journalist said. About 20 people were injured in the clash that involved more than 500 police.

The demolition came after orders in June from the provincial government and religious affairs bureau to crack down on illegal religious buildings. The church in Xiaoshan was a particularly large structure that stood near government buildings, thus attracting the ire of officials.

Still easy in Pakistan

From Stop Honour Killings

Human rights groups have praised Pakistan for overhauling its Islamic sex laws, but for women like Quratulain Sattar, it is still an uphill battle against trumped-up charges under the harsh legislation.

The 25-year-old medical trainee's father lodged adultery charges against Quratulain and her husband, Faraz Shah, after failing to force her to marry the man of her father's choice.

Now pregnant and in hiding, she complains that even if she and Faraz are acquitted, they remain under threat for disgracing her family's "honour" under Pakistan's atavistic tribal system.

The new amendments eased my legal battle but I am still in fear of my life and have to run from one place to another, Quratulain said at a shelter run by a charity in the southern port city of Karachi: We are husband and wife, we love each other and cannot leave each other.

Coming from a conservative ethnic Pashtun background, the same ethnicity as the Taliban, her father filed a case arguing that she was already married to another man and that Shah had kidnapped her and forced her to wed.

Her family's accusations are "completely false", she said: I did nothing wrong as my mother and brothers knew about it. They had even met Faraz and liked him, but then they all changed and followed my father's attitude, and rejected my husband.

Quratulain says she will benefit from another legal change that means witnesses who give false statements can be jailed: In my case fake witnesses were produced to prove that I was kidnapped by Faraz and that I was already married when I got married with Faraz.

Quratulain said she could not sit her final-year examinations at college as its management came under pressure to expel her. Pakistan's Jamaat-e-Islami religious party also supported her father as he pursued the case, she alleges.

Quratulain says she may have to leave Pakistan to stay safe.

Anis Haroon, chief of the Karachi-based Aurat (Women) Foundation, said the changes to the Hudood laws were "certainly a step forward, but it's still a long way to go to repeal all these black laws against women: And despite these changes, women in our society remain prisoners of tribal and conservative customs, which must be abolished.

Islamic sect banned in Malaysia

From the China Post

Malaysia has outlawed a new Islamic sect that authorities fear could be a front for the revival of a cult banned in the 1990s officials said on Friday.

About 16 members of the "Rufaqa" movement will be charged before the sharia, or Islamic, court over the next few weeks for spreading deviant teachings.

We have to act since they are trying to revive Al Arqam, said Fakhrul Azam Yahya, a spokesman for the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department, referring to the cult banned in 1994 after winning 10,000 followers and up to 100,000 sympathizers.

Punishments could range from fines to jail terms or both if the court finds the men guilty, he added.

Founder Ashaari Muhammad spent two years in jail, but soon after his release formed the Rufaqa Corporation, which runs multi-million-dollar businesses from restaurants to schools, with operations in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Jordan.

Followers of Al-Arqam claim supernatural powers, from averting death to the ability to bring down an aircraft simply by pointing at it. Other teachings include a promise to absolve members' sins by transferring them to Ashaari, who is believed to be able to defer death, and the belief that an Islamic messiah from the east will appear just ahead of a prophesied doomsday.

Retrial of Iranian woman previously sentenced to stoning

From the Iranian
See the full article
Sign the petition: Stop Stoning Forever
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The retrial of Shamameh "Malak" Ghorbany began yesterday in branch 12 of the western Azarbaijan district court.

In June 2006, Malak was found guilty of having inappropriate relations with a man named Morad. On the day of the incident, Malak's brother and husband reportedly found Malak and Morad in Malak's home. When Morad tried to escape, the two men chased after him, caught him, and killed him by stabbing him approximately 25 times. They then returned to Malak and used the same knife to stab and beat her repeatedly, almost taking her life as well. Malak was rushed to the hospital, where she remained in a coma in the Intensive Care Unit for several days.

According to Mohamad Mostafaee, Malak's legal counsel, the Islamic Republic's Supreme Court rescinded Malak's original sentence of death by stoning, primarily due to legal ambiguities surrounding Malak's alleged crime of adultery.

The Supreme Court explained that because the punishment of stoning is a religious punishment, it can not be issued in cases where there are any doubts or ambiguities regarding the underlying crime.

Mostafaee is optimistic about the prospects of Malak's case. In his view, the fact that the reviewing court has paid such close attention to the legal arguments that were presented during the appeal is a sign that the ruling of the lower court was fraught with serious legal errors.

Malak's next hearing is tentatively scheduled to take place some time in February 2007.

So how are the police expected to handle homophobia?

From the BBC

A Christian couple have been awarded £10,000 in an out-of-court settlement after they were questioned by police about their moral beliefs.

Helen and Joe Roberts from Fleetwood complained about taxpayers' money being used for leaflets about gay rights, and called homosexuality "immoral".

Wyre Borough Council informed Lancashire Constabulary. Officers then quizzed the couple for over an hour. The council and force said policies had been revised to protect all parties.

Mr and Mrs Roberts had sued the police and council, claiming the incident last December had breached their rights to freedom of expression and freedom of religion.

A trial date had been set for January, according to the Christian Institute, which had backed the Roberts' case. But in a joint statement, the police and council said they had come to an agreement regarding the claim and said they had apologised to the couple for the way the incident was handled.

The institute said the incident began when the couple asked for Christian literature to be displayed alongside gay rights' literature and "were astonished when the council refused". During her call to the council, Mrs Roberts expressed her religious belief that "homosexual practice is morally wrong".

The couple were shocked to receive a subsequent visit from two police officers who questioned them in their home.

The couple will donate the £10,000 settlement to a Christian charity.

Lynch mob rule comes to Gaza

From The Times

Using political violence between Hamas and Fatah as cover, radical Islamists are bombing internet cafés, pool halls and chemists in Gaza to impose their own brand of fundamentalism.

Cybercafés have been singled out for allegedly allowing customers to download pornography. Chemists have been bombed for selling hallucinogens smuggled from Israel or through tunnels from Egypt, while pool halls are accused of encouraging immoral behaviour. A group calling itself the Swords of Islamic Righteousness is believed to have carried out more than a dozen attacks in recent weeks.

The previously unknown group issued a warning letter late last month threatening to “execute the laws of God”. It claimed responsibility for shooting rocket-propelled grenades and planting bombs at internet cafés in Gaza, which are trying to make a whole generation preoccupied with matters other than jihad and worship. The group also claimed unverifiable attacks on unveiled women, music shops and motorists playing loud music.

Many of Gaza’s backstreet internet cafés have closed after the attacks. Many of those still open told The Times that they were nervous about the Islamist threat. Security officials and human rights workers said that disintegrating law and order was also being exploited by gangsters and criminals. Women’s rights groups report an increase in “honour killings” of women suspected of adultery or immoral behaviour.

Mona al-Shawa, of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, said that the situation in Gaza was the worst that she had known: I have never felt scared like I feel now. If this happens to cafés, what will be next?

Christians seen as allies of Bush

From The Times

Christians in the Middle East have paid a high price for the Iraq war, the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad and the Pope’s controversial remarks about Islam.

Egyptian Copts, Iraqi Chaldeans and the Palestinian Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant communities have faced violence and even death at the hands of their Muslim neighbours.

Canon Andrew White, president of the Foundation for Reconciliation in the Middle East, told The Times that the Iraq war had had a dire effect on the lives of Christians in the region, particularly in Iraq, where he is the vicar of St George’s Church in Baghdad.

All my staff at the church have been killed, he said. They disappeared about a year ago and we never saw them again. Of the rest of my congregation, most say they have been targeted in some way or have had letters delivered with bullets in them. People forget, or the Islamic groups don’t realise, that Christianity was in the Middle East before them and therefore they see Christians as being part of the Western coalition military presence. Things have got considerably worse since the Iraq war.

Tensions have also increased elsewhere. In Syria one Christian Assyrian said that he was planning to emigrate to Canada because of growing Islamic fundamentalism in a society having to absorb huge numbers of Iraqi refugees. I do not feel at ease any longer and I do not want my two sons to live in this polarised society and atmosphere, he said.

Even before the Iraq war there had been a palpable increase in anger towards the United States because of President Bush’s use of the phrase “crusade” for the war on terrorism shortly after 9/11.

Fighting human rights abuse by Saudi religious police

From Wilmington Star

Saudi human rights lawyer Abdul-Rahman al-Lahem said he had been waiting years for a case like this: A woman and her daughter, both accused of promiscuity, were followed by the morals police as they left a private residence on the outskirts of the capital.

The police assumed that the women had been visiting male friends. But the two had been at the home of female relatives. And unlike the thousands who had previously been intimidated into dropping their grievances, they insisted on taking their kidnappers to court. The case, which goes to trial this week, will give al-Lahem a chance to finally confront the powerful morals police, whom he considers the country's worst human rights offenders.

Al-Lahem contends that the police oppress people in the name of religion and act as if the law doesn't apply to them. He wants to prove them wrong.

Over the past three years, al-Lahem has taken on the country's most controversial and sensitive cases and turned them into high-profile indictments of the justice system. He has been thrown in jail several times and banned from traveling abroad. But he continues to fight what he considers an antiquated judiciary, out of step with basic human rights.

Al-Lahem's latest client is a 19-year-old woman who was in a car with a male friend when she was kidnapped and gang-raped by seven men. In November, four of the men received prison sentences ranging from one to five years and 80 to 1,000 lashes, and three are awaiting sentencing.

The rape victim was sentenced to 90 lashes for having been with a male friend, which is illegal in this strictly segregated country. Al-Lahem said he took the case because he was so incensed by that verdict.

Instead of ordering post-traumatic treatment for her and making sure she's appointed a lawyer, he said, the judge: sentences this young girl, after what she's been through, to lashes. He shook his head: This is not justice; this is jungle sharia.

Shameful catholic attitude to euthanasia

From The Times

Christmas for the Vatican, and many Italian Catholics, has been marred by controversy over the Church’s refusal to give a Christian burial to Piergiorgio Welby, the 60-year-old muscular dystrophy sufferer from Rome who died last week.

Welby, who had been ill since he was 16, was paralysed for two decades and for the past five years had been kept alive by a tube in his throat that pumped air into his lungs. For years he had publicly demanded to be allowed to die, and on Wednesday a doctor finally sedated him and turned off the air pump.

The Church had always taken a stand against Welby’s demands to be allowed to die. However, no one expected the Rome diocese, of which the Pope is bishop, to deny him a Catholic funeral rite. The decision was seen as pointlessly cruel by many Catholics, although others defended it as a question of principle.

Those who commit suicide are usually granted a church funeral on the assumption that they were temporarily insane. But Welby’s campaign was apparently too sane to be forgiven by the Church.

The Church said that his will to end his life was known, as it had been repeated and publicly affirmed, in contrast to Catholic doctrine.

A lay funeral was held on Sunday in the piazza outside Welby’s parish church, where his family had hoped to conduct the ceremony. Hundreds of people attended.

At the same time, the Pope addressed a crowd in St Peter’s Square and said: We must accept life from its beginning to its natural sunset. In his Christmas message yesterday, he added: What are we to think of those who choose death in the belief that they are celebrating life?

Possibility of changes to Pakistan's much abused blasphemy laws

From the Daily Times

Human rights activists have asked the government to repeal discriminatory laws such as the blasphemy law or bring significant changes to them.

They said that the civil society organisations would welcome the decision of making amendments in blasphemy law provided these amendments are of the significant nature and address the real issues.

Lawyer and activist Hina Jilani said Minister of State Tariq Azim’s statement that minorities would hear the “good news” of amendments to the blasphemy law this Christmas was a positive step, in case the changes made address the real issues.

The government had already made amendments to the blasphemy law in 2004, she said, but they were procedural changes that did not address real issues. She said the basic problem with Section 295C was that it did not consider the intention of the person against whom the complaint is lodged. She said it was important in law to ensure before giving punishment that the crime was intended. Another problem with the section, she said, was the punishment, which is death.

Making changes of insignificant nature in the blasphemy law, especially with the consultation of or under pressure from clerics, would be of no use, she said. Jilani said the real stakeholders should be involved, instead of clerics.

Church of Pakistan bishop, Samuel Robert Azariah, said amendments to the blasphemy law were “the need of the hour”. He said relationships between Christians and Muslims should be improved, adding that the Christian community would welcome amendments to the law if they were of significant nature.

Law divorced from common sense

From India eNews

A divorce pronounced by a Muslim man in an inebriated condition has come to haunt him, as he has been forced to live away from his wife and children by villagers led by orthodox religious leaders.

Mohammed Mokhtar was forcibly separated from his wife Sakina Khatoon and their children in an Indian village.

The man reportedly shouted 'talaq' (divorce) thrice to her wife in a drunken state following a domestic quarrel few days ago.

'I requested people to forgive me if I pronounced divorce in an inebriated condition but some village men forced us to live separately, Mokhtar said.

Maulana Inamul Haque, a religious leader in the village, said: Alcohol is prohibited in Islam. If someone consumed it and then pronounced divorce, it will be accepted as divorce.

Mokhtar's case has been referred to the Imarat Sharia, a religious body.

Those following orthodox religious dictates say that if Sakina wishes to reunite with him, she could undergo the practice of halala, that is, marry another man and obtain a divorce from him in order to eventually reunite with Mokhtar.

Divorced against one's will in Saudi

From Playfuls.com

A 34-year-old Saudi woman has spent six months in prison for refusing to leave her husband after they were divorced against their will.

Last July, a Saudi judge divorced the couple - who were married for three years - in their absence at the request of two of the wife's half-brothers.

They claimed that her the husband hid his tribal affiliation when he sought permission from the now-deceased father to marry the woman.

The husband, 37, denied the charge saying that under Sharia or Islamic law, tribal affiliation is not a consideration for a legitimate marriage.

The couple, not informed immediately of the court order, had fled to Jeddah after learning about it, hoping to find help from an official there. Yet they were eventually arrested.

The husband was released afterwards, but the wife was imprisoned after she refused to return to the custody of her family saying she would only walk out of prison into the arms of the man she still considers her husband.

The wife's lawyer said her appeal against the divorce ruling, submitted October 7, is still pending.

Create a YouTube blaspheming video and win a DVD

From www.richarddawkins.net

The Rational Response Squad has launched a $25,000 campaign to entice young people to publicly renounce any belief in the sky God of Christianity.

Called "The Blasphemy Challenge," this campaign encourages participants to commit what Christian doctrine calls the only unforgivable sin -- blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. (The "Holy Spirit" is an invisible ghost who Christians believe dwells on Earth as God's representative.)

Participants who videotape their blasphemy and upload it to YouTube will receive a free DVD of the hit documentary The God who Wasn't There, which normally sells for $24.98. Beyond Belief Media, the distributor of The God who Wasn't There, has donated 1001 DVDs to the Rational Response Squad for The Blasphemy Challenge.

More than 160 participants have already blasphemed the Holy Spirit and earned free DVDs during the pre-launch phase of the Blasphemy Challenge. Their videos can be viewed at: www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=7D6338FA4A19B4C3

While anyone can participate in The Blasphemy Challenge, the Rational Response Squad is focused on reaching a young demographic. To publicize The Blasphemy Challenge to young people, today the Rational Response Squad begins an online advertising campaign focused on 25 sites popular with teens such as Xanga, Friendster, Boy Scout Trail, Tiger Beat, Teen Magazine, YM, CosmoGirl! and Seventeen.

Find out more at: www.blasphemychallenge.com

Update Jan 9th 2007: 700 videos have now been uploaded to YouTube

Opinion poll results

From The Guardian

More people in Britain think religion causes harm than believe it does good, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today. It shows that an overwhelming majority see religion as a cause of division and tension - greatly outnumbering the smaller majority who also believe that it can be a force for good.

The poll also reveals that non-believers outnumber believers in Britain by almost two to one. It paints a picture of a sceptical nation with massive doubts about the effect religion has on society: 82% of those questioned say they see religion as a cause of division and tension between people. Only 16% disagree. The findings are at odds with attempts by some religious leaders to define the country as one made up of many faith communities.

Most people have no personal faith, the poll shows, with only 33% of those questioned describing themselves as "a religious person". A clear majority, 63%, say that they are not religious - including more than half of those who describe themselves as Christian.

The findings come at the end of a year in which multiculturalism and the role of different faiths in society has been at the heart of a divisive political debate.

But a spokesman for the Church of England denied yesterday that mainstream religion was the source of tension. He also insisted that the impression of secularism in this country is overrated.

The Right Rev Bishop Dunn, Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, added: The perception that faith is a cause of division can often be because faith is misused for other uses and other agendas.

The poll suggests, however, that in modern Britain religious observance has become a habit reserved for special occasions. Only 13% of those questioned claimed to visit a place of worship at least once a week, with 43% saying they never attended religious services. Yet Christmas remains a religious festival for many people, with 54% of Christians questioned saying they intended to go to a religious service over the holiday period.

Pakistan mob attacks church

From SPCM

A mob of muslims attacked a christian congregation in Lahore Pakistan on November 12 with guns and clubs. While no one was seriously injured, it highlights the constant hatred and persecution that christians live under in Pakistan.

This recent attack on a Church of the Nazarene on November 12 reveals the woefully inadequate security cover provided to religious minorities’ places of worship. ICC records that this is the eighth known attack on a Pakistani church in 2006 alone.

Vandalism against a church in Pakistan generates much more fear than vandalism of a church in the United States. Attacking a church in Pakistan would be like painting “KKK” on an African-American church in the Southern USA during the 1960s. A wave of fear and insecurity grips the already marginalized Christian community every time a church building is vandalized, stoned, or burned. Attacks on Churches undermine the confidence of Pakistani christians, lower their morale, suppress their creativity and make them feel incredibly insecure in their own homeland. Many stop going to churches for an extended period of time, afraid that they themselves will be abused, stoned, or burned.

Churches attacked in Pakistan 2006 so far:

• Feb 3 – Kawanlit village Punjab province Catholic Church
• Feb 17 – Kasur Punjab province Catholic Church
• Feb 19 – Sukkur Sindh province, St. Mary and St. Saviour Church of Pakistan
• Feb 28 – Sargodha Noori gate Basti United Presbyterian Church
• March 30 – Mian Channu province church Apostolic faith mission Pentecostal
• August 7 – Mominpura Thiaki village Awami Church Punjab
• November 12 – Talab Sarai village Nazarene Church

Italian Big Brother done for Blasphemy

Based on an article from Variety

Italian broadcasters RAI and Mediaset have been fined by the country's media regulator for airing blasphemous expletives during Celebrity Survivor and Big Brother.

Italy's regulator, Agcom,  has slapped sanctions of E100,000 apiece for violating norms on respect of religious sentiment and protection of minors.

Contestants on both shows were sacked on the spot after uttering strong swear words, directed at God, live in primetime. The incidents, which took place in October and November, were the first two of the type in this Catholic nation.

They caused quite a stir, drawing fire from nutters at Moige and Codacons, as well as the Vatican.

The fines, thought not that heavy monetarily, are considered a regulatory milestone.

 
Iran's secret police arrest 15 Christians

From Religion News Blog

Iran’s secret police have conducted raids against some Christian communities in the lead-up to Christmas. On Sunday, 10 December officials arrested 15 Christians in different areas of the country: Karaj, Teheran, Rasht and Bandar-i Anzali. Only two have been released.

The site persecution.org said that in fact 15 Christians had been arrested. They belong to a movement of local house churches. The group describes itself as a Christian community of “liberal evangelicals”. However the Iranian evangelical community disagrees with some of the group’s unorthodox doctrines like the rejection of the concept of the Trinity.

An anonymous souce said police broke into the homes of Christians in Teheran, Karaj, Rasht and Bandar-i Anzali on the morning of 10 December. The officials charged those arrested with 10 accusations, including evangelization activities and actions against the national security of Iran. Police confiscated computers, CDs, tapes, Bibles and evangelistic literature.

In the days following the raid, several members of the movement were called in for a day or more of police interrogations and then released.

Members of the same community of 600 or more have been warned by police authorities not to spread any news about the arrests outside of Iran.

 
A European Dream

From World Net Daily

An initiative challenging Muslim communities living in the West to subordinate their interpretations of Sharia law to the laws of the land has been launched at the European Parliament.

The Muslim Charter, written by Islamic law expert Sam Solomon and sponsored by Gerald Batten, a British member of the European Parliament, is designed to encourage Muslims to state that they reject extremist interpretations of religious texts that promote or excuse violence and bring Islam into conflict with the modern world.

Groups purporting to represent Muslims were encouraged to sign the charter to affirm that they reject violence and discrimination against non-Muslims, value the freedoms of the West and want to live as law-abiding citizens.

We call on all organizations representing the Islamic faith to endorse and sign this charter as an example to all European Muslims, said Solomon. By doing so they will make it clear that Islam really is a religion of peace and that acts of terrorism carried out in its name are acts of misguided individuals who have misunderstood and misinterpreted its teaching.

Batten, who has written a foreword to the charter, said: The views of so-called fundamentalists who believe in Islamic theocracy are simply incompatible with Western liberal democracy, and we have seen how dangerous they are. But the vast majority of Muslims that non-Muslims meet every day are hardworking, decent and law abiding, and we must offer them support while standing firm against extremists. This charter is a great step forward in that process.

In 10 detailed articles, the charter calls upon Muslims to:

• Respect non-Muslim religions and issue a fatwa prohibiting the use of force, violence or threats to their followers.
• Respect all civilizations, cultures and traditions and promote understanding of the precedence of national laws over Sharia law.
• Respect Western freedoms, especially of belief and expression and prohibit violent reaction against people who make use of these freedoms.
• Prohibit the issuing of any fatwa that would result in violence or threat against individuals or institutions.
• Request Islamic institutions to revise and issue new interpretations of Quranic verses calling for jihad and violence against non-Muslims.

Islamic Council of Victoria

Australian religious hatred law in disarray

From the National Secular Society

The religious hatred law in Australia is in disarray after two Christian clergymen who were convicted of vilifying Muslims won their appeal and hailed the decision as a victory for free speech.

The Court of Appeal in Victoria ordered the case to be reheard at the original tribunal, before a different judge and with no further evidence. The court set aside the orders for public apologies in newspaper advertisements and for the pastors not to repeat their remarks.

One of the grounds of the complaint is that Pastor Daniel Scot mentioned in a seminar that Muslim fundamentalists have the responsibility to "kill" apostates from Islam. This was cited in the complaint as unlawful vilification of Muslim believers. This is despite the fact that the death penalty for apostates from Islam is an extremely well documented part of Islamic law.

Last year Judge Michael Higgins found that Pastors Danny Nalliah and Daniel Scot and Catch the Fire Ministries vilified Muslims at a seminar on jihad in Melbourne in March 2002, in a newsletter and a website article. He said these suggested that the Koran promoted killing and looting, that Muslims wanted to take over Australia and terrorists were true Muslims.

The court overturned the earlier finding but rejected the appeal that the Racial and Religious Vilification Act was unconstitutional. They ordered the Islamic Council of Victoria, which brought the original complaint, to pay half the appellants’ appeal costs but left the costs of the original hearing to be decided by the judge who rehears the case.

After the hearing, Pastor Nalliah said that all laws needed to be tested, and this now had now been tested and found to be a bad piece of legislation. Pastor Scot thanked his supporters and vowed to continue conducting seminars on the Koran and Hadiths (Islam’s sacred texts): Some Muslims have got the idea they have to hide the truth, and that’s very sad. People should know it from the primary sources and not be misled by politically correct teachers who don’t know the reality of Islam and want to glorify it with false pretensions and assumptions.

Honour killing in Jordan

From Stop Honour Killings

Criminal investigators confirmed that a 50-year-old suspect shot and killed his daughter and her would-be fiancé last Thursday because of rumours that the young couple had engaged in premarital sex.

The suspect confessed that he shot the couple after his wife informed him she had heard from neighbours that her daughter, 21, and her boyfriend, 23, had been having sexual relations, a source close to the investigations said.

The suspect told investigators he was infuriated by the comments and arranged to get the boyfriend and his family to come to his home by pretending that he had finally agreed to their engagement after refusing several times in the past.

The suspect asked the victim and his family to visit them to propose officially in accordance with customs and traditions, the source said: The suspect asked the boyfriend to follow him to the room where his daughter was and allegedly took out a gun and fired 14 rounds at the couple.

A medical report issued by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine on Saturday indicated that the female victim was a virgin.

These two murders bring the total number of those killed in the Kingdom for reasons of so-called honour to 15 this year.

North West Pakistan trying to set up religious police

From Spero News

A bill to establish religious police in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) has been suspended/

NWFP is controlled by Islamists belonging to the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal or MMA. This is a coalition of six parties, who make up the national opposition. The national head of the MMA is Qazi Hussein Ahmad, who has threatened revolution, called for sharia law in the country, and has links to the Pakistani Taliban, who have control of parts of NWFP adjoining the Afghanistan border.

On July 14, 2005, the Assembly of NWFP voted in a bill which would have created an Islamist "morality police". This bill, called the "Hisbah" or "Hasbah" bill, was essentially an attempt to create a "prevention of vice and promotion of virtue" department, similar to that which existed in Afghanistan under the Taliban, or the existing group in Saudi Arabia, which is enforced by the religious police or muttawa.

This bill, passed by the regional assembly, needed to be signed by the NWFP governor to be passed into law. This didn't happen. In August 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that the Hasbah Bill was unconstitutional. However on November 13 2006 a modified Hasbah or "accountability" Bill was passed.

President Pervez Musharraf petitioned Pakistan's Supreme Court on the subject of this bill. On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that the new Hasbah Bill should be suspended, and ordered the governor of NWFP not to sign the Bill into law at this time. The law will be reviewed by the Supreme Court in the third week of January, when the NWFP government will be expected to mount a defense of the Bill.

Apparently the main point of difference between this version of the bill and the one rejected in 2005 is that existing members of the police will be commandeered to enforce the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice rather than setting up a new force.

The fading star of Bethlehem

From the Daily Mail

All is quiet in Bethlehem. On Manger Square, the Church of the Nativity stands in the pale gloom of dusk, its doors open to passing pilgrims. But inside, the nave is empty of visitors.

It is one of the most sacred sites in Christendom, but there are no tourists queuing to see it.

Joseph Canawati is not looking forward to Christmas. The expansive lobby of his 77-room Hotel Alexander is empty and he says: There is no hope for the future of the Christian community.

Life for Palestinian Christians such as Joseph has become increasingly difficult in Bethlehem - and many of them are leaving. The town's Christian population has dwindled from more than 85% in 1948 to 12%of its 60,000 inhabitants in 2006.

There are reports of religious persecution, in the form of murders, beatings and land grabs. Meanwhile, the breakdown in security is putting off tourists, leading to economic hardship for Christians, who own most of the town's hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops.

George Rabie, a 22-year-old taxi driver from the Bethlehem suburb of Beit Jala, is proud of his Christianity, even though it puts him in daily danger. Two months ago, he was beaten up by a gang of Muslims who were visiting Bethlehem from nearby Hebron and who had spotted the crucifix hanging on his windscreen: Every day, I experience discrimination.

Jeriez Moussa Amaro is another with first-hand experience of the appalling violence that Christians face. Five years ago, his two sisters were shot dead by Muslim gunmen in their own home. Their crime was to be young, attractive Christian women who wore Western clothes and no veil.

A terrorist organisation, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, issued a statement claiming responsibility, which said: We wanted to clean the Palestinian house of prostitutes.

Bethlehem's hotel owners estimate that tourist numbers have dropped sharply, from 91,276 each month for the millennium celebrations in 2000 to little more than 1,500 a month now. During the past six years, 50 restaurants, 28 hotels and 240 souvenir shops have closed.

Samir Qumsieh is general manager of Al-Mahed - Nativity - which is the only Christian television station in Bethlehem. He has had death threats and visits from armed men demanding three acres of his land - and he is now ready to leave: As Christians, we have no future here.

He must have been stoned

From the Daily Times

The Sindh High Court disposed of an appeal filed by a writer against his conviction under blasphemy charges and remanded back his case Friday to an anti-terrorism court for retrial.

Younis Sheikh was sentenced to life in prison by an anti-terrorism court in Karachi, after it found him guilty of the offence of defiling a copy of the Quran, outraging religious feelings of society and propagating religious hatred.

Sheikh was arrested in January last year on charges of writing a book against Islamic laws and deviating from the teaching of the Quran and Sunnah.

The police charged that the accused deviated from the Islamic punishment of Rajam (stoning to death in an adultery case) in his book and wrote contemptuous remarks against the Imams of Fiqh.

The SHC’s division bench, comprising Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaferi and Justice Munib Ahmed Khan, which heard the appellant’s appeal, observed that the trial was not properly conducted and thus remanded back the case to a trial court for retrial.

The beheading Mohammed show will go on

From Brooks Bulletin

Security will be high at Monday's Deutsche Oper production of Mozart's Idomeneo. The security measures for the performance, which include electronic screening of opera goers.

It's a case of art meeting religious sensibility, and a decision that the show must go on, despite concerns that the production, featuring the severed head of the Prophet Muhammad, could prompt violence.

Security fears initially led the opera house to cancel plans to revive the production, but a city proud of its openness, tolerance and artistic verve was aghast.

While some Muslim leaders praised the decision, Chancellor Angela Merkel warned against "self-censorship out of fear," and Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, in charge of police, described it as "crazy."

So the show is back and the police say they are ready for any eventuality.

Kolat, the head of Germany's Turkish community, has said he plans to attend, as has Schaeuble, the interior minister. Ali Kizilkaya, head of Germany's Islamic Council, whose presence would have done much to defuse potential tensions, will not be there.

Instead of an opera where Muhammad and Christ are beheaded, I ... would hope for a debate in society about whether everything should be allowed for the sake of art, he said, in indirect criticism of the decision to stage the production.

Tickets were still available just a few days before the performance. This is one of Mozart's less-known operas, said an opera spokesman about the relative lack of interest.

The beheading Mohammed show opened

From WKRN

Under heavy security, a controversial production of Mozart's opera Idomeneo returned to the stage Monday without incident.

A powerful male voice called out "stop it!" and "boo!" as the heads of Islam's founder, along with those of Jesus, Buddha and Poseidon, the Greek god of the seas, came tumbling out of a sack hefted by Idomeneo.

But several voices from the other side of the hall yelled, "continue, continue," their cheers clashing with the voice of the critic, and the cast.

The reactions were somewhat anticlimactic. Plainsclothes security personnel lined the hall throughout the performance and audience members had to pass through metal detectors out of fears that the severed-heads scene could arouse unrest. Officials said 100 police officers were on duty.

The scene that started all the trouble is the creation not of Mozart but of director Hans Neuenfels, who called it his personal protest against all organized religion.

Egyptian apostate jailed in defiance of courts

From SPCM

Egypt’s secret police transferred Bahaa el-Din Ahmed Hussein el-Akkad to the Wadi el-Natroun Prison last month. He was told he would remain there indefinitely unless he agreed to work as a government informer against other converts to Christianity.

According to the prisoner’s Cairo attorney, Athanasius William, his client remains incarcerated in this desert prison only because he has chosen a different belief, to be a Christian.

Although subjected to repeated interrogations, the former Muslim was never told the specific accusations against him. But several of his cellmates spread rumors that he was converting and baptizing people into Christianity, sparking verbal abuse and at least one severe beating from a fellow prisoner.

In a series of handwritten notes smuggled out of prison in recent months and obtained by Compass, El-Akkad declared that he had “chosen the Christian faith” after years of research on Islam.

For more than 20 years, the former sheikh was a member of the fundamentalist Islamic group Tabligh and Da’wa, which actively proselytized non-Muslims but strictly opposed violence. But he became disillusioned, and five years ago the sheikh said he began to pray that he could somehow know God personally. He began intensive study of Christian Scripture, and within weeks he became a follower of Jesus.

But within two months, word of El-Akkad’s conversion to Christianity had reached the SSI, and secret police picked him up without warning from his office.

After six weeks in SSI detention, El-Akkad was sent to Cairo’s Tora Mazraa Prison. When his lawyer, William, finally obtained power of attorney to visit the convert, he was told he was incarcerated under emergency law provisions on suspicion of “committing blasphemy against Islam.”

For the following year, El-Akkad’s detention was renewed every 45 days under emergency law provisions, even though he still had not been formally charged.

But this past July, authorities instituted a new law restricting provisional detention regulations, specifying that the length of provisional detention for a misdemeanor should not, “whatever the circumstances,” exceed six months. El-Akkad was accused of “insulting a heavenly religion,” a misdemeanor under Article 98-F of the Egyptian penal code. So a Cairo court ordered him released on July 30. SSI authorities deliberately ignored the ruling. Instead, they transferred him to the Wadi el-Natroun Prison, located 60 miles north of Cairo.

The attorney has received no response from a petition he filed to Attorney General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud on September 4 citing serious legal violations in El-Akkad’s case.

Although Egypt’s Christian citizens are free to embrace Islam and obtain legal Muslim identities, Muslim citizens are not allowed to change their religious identity. Those who become Christians are subjected to severe harassment by the SSI, which often arrests converts for either insulting Islam or “threatening national security.”

 

Stigmatising Britain's Islamic community and fuelling xenophobia

A senior Muslim invoked Hitler's 1930s Nazi regime while attacking the Government over its treatment of British Muslims.

Muhammed Abdul Bari accused ministers of stigmatising Britain's Islamic community and fuelling xenophobia.

Bari, the head of the Muslim Council of Britain, criticised the Government for "unfairly targeting" Muslims, and said that it was undermining their status as "equal citizens".

From The Telegraph

Muhammed Abdul Bari warned that blaming extremism on a small, largely deprived community leads to a deterioration of community cohesion and fuels xenophobia.

In a presentation to MPs, Bari went so far as to ask: What is the degree of xenophobia that tipped Germany in the 1930s towards a murderous ethnic and cultural racism?

Addressing the MPs, Bari acknowledged that very real progress has taken place for British Muslims under this Labour Government. . . good work has been done and must not be forgotten.

But he added: Neither should it be invoked to merely paper over the cracks. For if genuine change is to be achieved, the Government needs to address key domestic and foreign policy concerns. These include poverty and social exclusion, Islamaphobia and discrimination, and the misuse of counter-terrorism powers.

"In recent months there has been a veritable drip-feed of ministerial statements stigmatising an entire community. We have seen ministers' tours and even legislation being proposed on the premise that 'mosques are a problem'.

We have been told to accept that greater numbers of Muslims will be stopped and searched and also to 'inform on our children'. You will understand our worry about where all this is leading. Some Muslims have even sought the MCB's advice on whether they should change their names in order to avoid remarks.

"This is what happens when a community is singled out by those at the helm of affairs.

Bari ended his speech by calling for a "social contract", officially defining the "rights and obligations" of every British citizen. He hoped this would help Muslims who are unsure of what the Government means when it asks them to "integrate" into society.

From Salem Voice

More than thousand people converted into Christianity from Islam in Morocco.

Islam is the state religion in Morocco, a country of 30 million people that counts only 5000 Jews and 1000 Christians, according to figures given by the two groupings.

There are Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant churches in Morocco, but they are only for foreigners living in the country. Moroccan Christians have no right to pray in these churches.

Yousuf, who preferred to use a pseudonym said: As we are tolerated, but not recognised (by the state) we must, for security reasons, conduct ourselves as a clandestine organisation.

As soon as a church has 20 worshippers it splits in two, said Dr. Abdul Halim, who converted to Christianity 16 years ago when he was living abroad. At the beginning of the 1990s there were only 400 christians in Morocco. But when he returned home seven years ago, he was astonished by the growing number of converts around 700 and today more than 1000.

Though they are Christians, in the eyes of the state they remain Muslim. Halim said, Officially, my son and I are Muslim. We hold Christian marriages and bless the young couple but this is not recognized by the state. They must go before the Muslim clergy and marry according to Sharia (Islamic law). If they don't do this, they can be charged with adultery.

The same goes for death also. They cannot be buried in a Christian cemetery, only in a Muslim one.

Discretion is the order of the day for Morocco's Christians, with the faithful holding services in their homes, against a background of suspicion from the Islamic world.

The Christian converts also have article 220 of the penal code hanging over their heads, which provides for prison sentences of between six months and three years for anyone who tries to undermine a Muslim's faith or to convert him to another religion.

For many of us, Islam is perceived as a social straitjacket and not as a real faith, and Christianity as a religion of tolerance and love.

Nutters object to spoof Christmas carol

From Agape

Pro Family nutters are laying into CBS Television over a sexually-charged rendition of a popular Christmas carol.

The Monday (December 11) episode of the network's popular sitcom Two and a Half Men featured actor Charlie Sheen singing a song about extramarital sex to the tune of "Joy to the World," a well-known hymn about the birth of Christ. In the parody song, Sheen boasts in anticipation about having sex on Christmas Eve on his second date with a woman.

Joy to the world, I’m getting laid; I’m getting laid tonight. We’ll light the yule log, deck the halls, and then we’ll play some jingle balls. It’s been a real long wait, this is our second date! It’s Christmas Eve and I’m getting laid. Glo-oh-oh-oh-oh-ria, tonight I’m boinking Gloria!

Bob Knight is director of the Media Research Center's Culture and Media Institute. He says the airing of Sheen's irreverent song suggests that CBS has gone into "Hollywood mode" in an effort to shock and to get more press: You know, it's bad enough that Two and a Half Men is a non-stop sex joke with a kid right in the middle of the set. But when they take on a Christmas carol that's beloved by millions and pervert it into an anthem of alley cat culture -- which is what the show's all about; it's not about men, it's about alley cats -- then they've gone over the line.

Pro-family nutter activist Don Wildmon, founder and chairman of the American Family Association (AFA), is encouraging fellow Christians to contact CBS and voice their displeasure over the episode

Wildmon says CBS and Sheen have used the Christmas season to ridicule and mock Christ, Christmas and Christians, and the network apparently approved the actor's vulgar adaptation of a favorite Christian Christmas carol, knowing full well that the parody would offend believers.

Bulldozers sent into Hare Krishna community

Religious tolerance is one of the main themes President Nursultan Nazarbayev has chosen for promoting his country. He has built a giant pyramid of peace in the country's capital, Astana, which recently hosted an inter-religious congress that was also initiated by the president.

Nazarbayev has never commented on the issue of the Hare Krishna commune, even though it was brought up during his recent meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London.

MP seeks to end the "inhuman act" of forced marriage

A British MP is lobbying support to demand the Government make the "inhuman act" of forced marriage a criminal offence.

Keighley MP Ann Cryer is putting down an early day motion in the House of Commons calling for the Government to take action against a practice which she said could involve abduction, kidnap, false imprisonment, rape and assault of those being forced to marry.

She says Article 12 of the European Convention on Human Rights is being breached daily and the Government must legislate to "...deter those contemplating the procurement of this unIslamic and inhuman act".

Cryer has accused communities of burying their heads in the sand, believing the behaviour does not happen: There are so many girls that do not know where to turn or that they can challenge what is happening to them.

Between October 2005 and September 2006, 211 cases of women being forced to marry or about to be made to marry were reported to West Yorkshire Police, with 177 from the Bradford district.

Bradford North Labour MP Terry Rooney, who is signing the motion, fears many more incidents go unreported: It is like child abuse. People know it happens but do not know the extent of it. It is still happening and something needs to be done about it and concentrate people's minds. The Home Office say there are enough laws so there is obviously a problem implementing them.

The Home Office shelved plans to make forced marriage a criminal offence in June but insisted it "remained a possibility" for the future but only if it were in the best interest of victims.

Other MPs to have signed the motion include Shipley MP Philip Davies, Calder Valley MP Chris McCafferty, Cardiff North MP Julie Morgan, Bury North MP David Chaytor and Halifax MP Linda Riordan.

Five Gay Activists Feared Murdered

From 247Gay

Five gay activists were abducted at gunpoint by Iraqi police in Baghdad on November 9 and nothing has been heard of them since then. It is feared they may have been murdered by death squads.

The kidnapped men are Amjad 27, Rafid 29, Hassan 24, Ayman 19 and Ali 21. All were members of Iraq's clandestine gay rights movement, Iraqi LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender).

For the last few months they had been documenting the killing of lesbians and gays, relaying details of homophobic executions to our office in London, and providing safe houses and support to queers fleeing the death squads, said Ali Hili, a gay Iraqi Muslim who is head of Iraqi LGBT and Middle East spokesperson for the British gay human rights group OutRage!

Just days after these five activists were abducted, Haydar Kamel the owner of famous men's clothing shop in the al-Karada district of Baghdad, was kidnapped near his home in Sadr city. The kidnappers were members of the Mahdi army, an Islamist militia loyal to fundamentalist leader Muqtada al-Sadr.

Haydar had previously received death threats because of rumours about his alleged homosexuality. For many months, he had financially supported several men who were in hiding after they had been threatened by death squads because of claims that they were gay.

Another recent raid was on the Jar al-Qamar barber shop in the al-Karada district of Baghdad. It was popular with gay men, which is probably the reason it was targeted. All four employees were arrested and taken away by the Iraqi police. They have disappeared.

It is feared that these ten kidnapped men may have been summarily executed.

Pornography bill threatens pluralism in Indonesia

From Asia Media

An alliance of organisations have filed a lawsuit with the Central Jakarta District Court against the House of Representatives over a bill they say endangers the multireligious and multicultural character of Indonesia.

The Alliance of Unity in Diversity Advocates demanded the House drop the highly controversial pornography bill, which they say is based on Islamic values and threatens pluralism in the country.

Lawyers for the alliance said court officials promised to process the lawsuit within three weeks at the latest: It's a big deal because it's the first time that a civil group has filed a lawsuit against a state institution. We hope to teach the House a lesson from this case, lawyer Daniel Panjaitan said: The bill should have dealt with the distribution of pornographic materials, not prescribe how citizens must behave according to the moral standards of a particular religion.

The bill has received strong backing from some Muslim groups, notably hard-line groups that openly seek the adoption of sharia-based laws. But it has been opposed by pro-democracy, women's and human rights groups.

Daniel said lawmakers, in drafting the bill, failed to accommodate input from civil society. The organisation also said the committee deliberating the pornography bill issued two versions of the draft, one having 93 chapters and the other 36 chapters. They say no reason has ever been offered for the different versions.

Alliance coordinator Ratna Sarumpaet said people were tired of the "political games" being played by groups in the House eager to see the bill endorsed: We see a grand scenario behind the bill. It's an attempt to make Indonesia an Islamic state. It has to do with the issuance of sharia bylaws in certain regions. We raised this issue with the (Islamic-based) Prosperous Justice Party faction (in the House) but they were tight-lipped. For us their silence means 'yes,'

It is no longer necessary for the House to pass a pornography law because it is already covered in the Criminal Code and existing laws such as the broadcasting and press laws. Pluralism is the nation's main characteristic and we have to accept local cultures and traditional customs.

She claimed Bali, Papua, North Sulawesi and East Nusa Tenggara, where Muslims are the minority, had threatened to break away from Indonesia if the House pushed through the bill.

Spinal Tap winds up the nutters

From The Sun

BBC bosses are ditching a Christmas TV trailer after church leaders complained its music was pro-Satanic

The BBC is using Christmas With The Devil a spoof track by mock rockers Spinal Tap, in a 30-second clip focusing on villains and baddies in its festive dramas.

But Canon Peter Howell-Jones, of Birmingham Cathedral, said: It’s in very bad taste. I’ve enough to do without having to defend God from things like this.

Retired Rev Betty Stephenson added: It’s disgusting, diabolical. She said the Devil always works quietly in the background and mentioning him demeaned the true meaning of Christmas.

The BBC said it chose the song in honour of baddies including the Sheriff of Nottingham and the Evil Santas in Doctor Who. A spokesman said: It’s meant to be fun.

Baptists fined in Uzbekistan

From Christian News Today

Following a raid in late August. in southern Uzbekistan, two visiting Baptists were heavily fined for taking part in unregistered religious worship. Four local church members were slapped with smaller fines. The two visitors were fined 540,000 sums, or $438, a huge amount by local standards

Forum 18 News Service reported that it was told by sources the court also ordered Bibles and hymn books confiscated during the August 27th raid in the town of Karshi to be burned, a regular practice with literature confiscated during raids, despite official denials.

Those fined are members of the Council of Churches Baptists, whose members reject registration in all the former Soviet republics where they operate, as they contend it leads to unwarranted state interference in their communities' internal religious life.

The top fines of 540,000 sums fines represent huge sums in Uzbekistan, where the minimum monthly wage is less than 12,000 sums, and the average monthly wage in Karshi is less than 60,000 sums.

The Bible is legally permitted literature and may be distributed freely throughout Uzbekistan, Begzot Kadyrov, senior specialist at the Committee, told Forum 18 a number of months ago."

But despite these claims, Forum 18 reported, it is common practice for the Uzbek authorities to burn literature, including Bibles, that has been confiscated from members of unregistered religious communities.

Despite these government attacks on religious communities, including Muslims, Christians, Jehovah's Witnesses, Forum 18 reported the Uzbek authorities have recently been trying to defend their record, claiming to uphold religious freedom.

Pray five times daily 'or face beheading' in Somalia

From The Scotsman

Anyone who does not pray five times a day will be beheaded, an official in a southern Somalian town declared recently.

Shops, tea houses and other public places in Bulo Burto should be closed during prayer time and no-one should be on the streets, said Sheik Hussein Barre Rage, the chairman of the town's Islamic court.

His court is part of a network backed by armed militiamen that has taken control of much of southern Somalia in recent months. It has brought with it a strict interpretation of Islam.

Sheik Rage said: As Muslims we should practice Islam fully, not in part, and that is what our religion enjoins us to do.

He said the edict, which covers only Bulo Burto, was being announced over loudspeakers throughout the town.

Escalating Church Intolerance

From The Telegraph

Liberal bishops who support homosexual priests are to be barred from entering some churches and money intended for Anglican coffers will be withheld.

In a dramatic escalation in the Church of England's civil war over homosexual clergy, scores of evangelical churches will break their historic links with liberal bishops who oversee their parishes.

The deepening of the conflict represents the "ultimate" protest by conservative clergy against liberal bishops' support for homosexual priests who have used the Civil Partnerships Act to "marry" their boyfriends.

The rebel clerics are setting up a panel of retired bishops to provide alternative pastoral care to parishes in dioceses run by liberal bishops.

Up to 100 churches have said that they intend to split from their bishops and seek support from the new panel. That is likely to mark only the beginning of the schism, however, as the panel of conservative bishops will provide an attractive alternative to other disaffected parishes.

Leading evangelicals will meet the Most Rev Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, on Tuesday to deliver papers laying out the plans for a restructuring of the Church.

The archbishop will be told that dozens of churches in liberal dioceses feel forced to take the radical step of breaking with their bishops. The initiative has been organised by Reform and Anglican Mainstream, evangelical groups that represent about 2,000 parishes.

The bishops of Chelmsford, Southwark and St Albans, who have all been supportive to homosexual clergy, are among those who will no longer be allowed to celebrate confirmations at many evangelical churches in their own dioceses.

...The birth of the nonsense of Christianity?

Well perhaps if the Church were a little bit more tolerant of the lifestyles of others (or even their own members), they would find a little bit more respect in return. Believing in nonsense simply does not give them the right to inflict a miserable life on others.

From Christian Today

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, strongly criticised secularists and atheists yesterday for leaving behind the true meaning of Christmas.

Sentamu accused secularists and atheists of undermining the Britain's cultural traditions as he reflected the growing fury of church leaders over reports of companies banning Christmas decorations and schools leaving Jesus out of nativity plays: Aggressive secularists are trying to pretend that it is possible to enter into the true meaning of Christmas by leaving out Jesus Christ.

The person who is at the heart of the celebration is totally excluded. This really is a case of throwing out the baby with the bath water, or in this case throwing out the crib at Christmas.

The Archbishop continued: This aggressive brand of secularism is trying to undermine the cultural traditions of this country by using flawed arguments about 'multi-faith, multi-culturalism' whilst at the same time trying to negate faith groups all together.

Why don't the aggressive secularists and illiberal atheists listen to the great wisdom of Sir John Mortimer, playwright and atheist, who writing in The Daily Telegraph on April 28, 1999, said 'Our whole history and culture in Europe is based on Christianity, whether you believe in it or not. Our culture is Christian; Shakespeare, Mozart – all that makes life worth living is part of the Christian tradition'.

More honour killings in Pakistan

Three persons, including two women, were killed over Karo-Kari, in separate incidents in Pakistan.

In the village of Bagan Khan Bijarani in the Karampur police jurisdiction, a man shot dead his wife and her alleged paramour. Wazir Ali Mirani suspected that his wife Saforan Mirani was having illicit relations with Ghazi Bijarani. He along with his accomplices shot and killed his wife. Later, he raided the house of Bijarani, killed him and fled. Police on the complaint of Ghulam Rasool Bijarani, uncle of the deceased, has registered a case against 10 persons, including Mirani, but no arrest was reported.

In another incident which took place in the village of Kahero Golo in the Buxapur police jurisdiction, a man shot dead his sister Samani over Karo-Kari and fled. No case was registered.

And from Khairpur: The bodies of two girls who were killed and later thrown into the Rohri canal over Karo-Kari five days ago could not be recovered. Police with the help of divers have been making efforts to find the bodies of Lal Kahtoon and Yasmin Phulpoto. They were allegedlly killed over Karo-Kari by their relatives, including Rahim Bakhsh and Imam Dino Phulpoto.

Aceh's Sharia police getting a bad reputation

From the BBC

The newest law enforcers in the Indonesian province of Aceh, its Sharia police, are getting ready for the evening patrol.

With the province preparing for its first election since last year's peace deal ended years of separatist violence, the Sharia police's role has become increasingly controversial.

Yustina explains the rules: We just patrol around. We look for anyone not wearing proper Islamic dress, or any couples who are hanging out together without being married. We usually head down towards the beach - there's where lots of people hang out.

It does not take long to find their first target - a couple sitting in a parked car, at the side of the road. One by one, the team surrounds them. A discussion develops and after a few minutes the couple drive off.

We reminded them that in Aceh you have Sharia Law now and you're not allowed to do this, the leader of the patrol said, even though they were actually husband and wife. This is a public place and it stirs up socially jealousy - people don't know they're husband and wife, so they're not allowed to do it.

In fact the Sharia police should not be targeting married couples at all. Their brief is quite specific: to check for alcohol and gambling, for anyone not conforming to the Islamic dress codes and for signs of sexual contact between unmarried couples.

After finding these crimes, they are meant to simply hand the evidence over to the police. But they have been getting a rather zealous reputation recently.

At his office in Aceh's Islamic Institute, Yusni Sabri has been giving a lot of thought to the development of Sharia Law. He says the Sharia police are getting a bad reputation among ordinary people: The way these Sharia police are acting when something happens is not appreciated, because they're young, they have no experience, they're newly installed. So what they need is more experience, and more training.
 

Aceh victor will not accept amputations

From the Bangkok Post

The incoming governor of Indonesia's strife- torn Aceh province vowed to block a law to cut off a thief's hand, if such legislation is enacted before he takes office.

I will stop this, said Irwandi Yusuf, a former rebel and political prisoner who fought for Aceh's independence.

The law was being actively pursued by the outgoing government, Irwandi said. Cutting off thieves' hands is part of an interpretation of sharia law that was introduced more than five years ago in Aceh.

Irwandi unexpectedly won the first-ever direct election for governor in the province on December 11 with a clear plurality. The official result will not be issued until early next year, but according to an unofficial count and international observers, he won more than 30% of the vote. At least 25 per cent was needed for a single candidate to win without a runoff.

Irwandi tried to allay fears that strict sharia law in Aceh might deter much-needed international investment: The problem is that sharia law was imposed on us by the central government in Jakarta. For us, sharia is less about punishment and more about how to improve the well-being of the people.

Irwandi also vowed to involve more women in Aceh politics.

Nutters and Christmas pedants

From AVN

X-rated Christmas ornaments, which can be purchased for $9 in Spencer's stores have caused 'controversy' and nutters predictably want them taken off store shelves.

Store workers said that there were no restrictions on who can purchase the pornaments.

It is just sad they have to stoop to this kind of thing to defame Christmas, Baptist Church Rev. Jim Patterson said: It says we are nothing more than sexual acts or psychical being and we are much more than that. We are spiritual beings and this is a spiritual holiday. And, why bring it to that level. It makes no sense to me.

A group of young activists and one lawyer were working to get the decorations off store shelves. Pastor Clint Wilder joined a protest at a mall: We're here to protest what's happening in Spencer's gifts in the mall, I think it's gone far enough and these kids are making a stand here. A 5-year-old can buy it for his brother or sister and it's just absolutely ridiculous.

I sent a letter to Spencer's gifts telling them what statute in Florida they are violating, attorney Jack Thompson said: it's against the law to keep pornographic material out in the open in a store where children shop.

Pornaments are still on store shelves in Florida

Taliban barbarically murdering teacher

From Stop Honour Killings

The gunmen came at night to drag Mohammed Halim away from his home, in front of his crying children and his wife begging for mercy.

The 46-year-old schoolteacher tried to reassure his family that he would return safely. But his life was over, he was part-disembowelled and then torn apart with his arms and legs tied to motorbikes, the remains put on display as a warning to others against defying Taliban orders to stop educating girls.

Halim was one of four teachers killed in rapid succession by the Islamists at Ghazni.

As in the rest of Afghanistan, it is the civilians who are bearing the brunt of this conflict. At the village of Qara Bagh, the family of Halim are distraught and terrified. His cousin, Ahmed Gul, shook his head: They killed him like an animal. No, no. We do not kill animals like that, it would be haram. They took away a father and a husband, they had no pity. We are all very worried.

Fatima Mushtaq, the director of education at Ghazni, has had repeated death threats, the notorious "night letters". Her gender, as well as her refusal to send girls home from school, has made her a particular source of hatred for Islamist zealots: I think they killed him that way to frighten us, otherwise why make a man suffer so much? Mohammed Halim and his family were good friends of ours and we are very, very upset by what has happened. He came to me when the threats first began and asked what he should do. I told him to move somewhere safe. I think he was trying to arrange that when they came and took him.

Mushtaq is familiar with the ways of the Taliban. During their rule she and her sister ran secret schools for girls at their home. The Taliban beat them for teaching the girls algebra.

American Bishop rails at pornography

Based on an article from Catholic Online but I have corrected the use of the word "pornography" where the word "religion" seems to better fit with the rhetoric.

The "evil of religion" has spread like a plague throughout the culture thanks to mainstream entertainment and threatens the fabric of society far beyond the boundaries of church and school, said Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde in a new pastoral letter.

This plague stalks the souls of men, women and children, ravages the bonds of marriage and victimizes the most innocent among us. It obscures and destroys people's ability to see one another as unique and beautiful expressions of God's creation, instead darkening their vision, causing them to view others as objects to be used and manipulated.

Today, perhaps more so than at any time previously, man finds his gift of sight and therefore his vision of God distorted by the evil of religion, Bishop Loverde said.

The bishop said he became more aware of the growing plague of religion from various sources:

• His brother priests routinely confront it in the confessional.
• Counselors treat it through Catholic social service agencies.
• Catholic school teachers, youth ministers and religious educators confront its effects in the lives of young people.
• Parents speak of the challenges of raising children to act and dress with modesty in today's culture.

In his letter, Bishop Loverde examines the nature of the current threat and addresses the arguments put forth by those who defend the religious industry. He offers concrete counsel to all Christians, young people, couples and priests on how to guard against religion and reflects on the gift of sight and its fulfillment in divine contemplation.

The bishop said that no one person living in our culture can totally separate himself or herself from the scourge of religion. All are affected to a greater or lesser extent, even those who do not directly participate in the use of religion.

In a culture that sees religion as a mere private weakness or even as a legitimate pleasure to be protected by law, we must repeat here the Catholic Church's constant teaching, Bishop Loverde said: The immorality of religion comes, first of all, from the fact that it distorts the truth about human sexuality.

The most tragic and frightening victim of the scourge of religion is the family, Bishop Loverde said. Although the 'intimacy' promised by this vice is illusory and the happiness sought in its practice is transitory and destructive, the damage to the human relationships so necessary for the flourishing of the family is even more shockingly real and, in many cases, permanent.

The bishop said society stands at a threshold. Either we can continue to allow this plague to spread with fewer and fewer checks, or we can take concrete steps to uproot it in our lives, our families, our neighborhoods and our culture.

More cartoon victims

From the BBC

A Yemeni court has ordered the editor of an English weekly newspaper to pay a fine for reprinting the Danish cartoons depicting Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

The verdict is the second in its kind in less than two weeks but is more lenient than the previous one.

The court said Mohammed al-Asaadi, the editor of the Yemen Observer, should be held in custody until he pays the fine of $2,500.

Al-Asaadi's chief lawyer, Mohammed Naji Allaw, told reporters he would appeal and that that the verdict was illogical, illegal and against the Islamic Sharia.

Muslim mob torch church and kill 6

US-based human rights group International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned a mob of 300 Muslims killed six Christians in early October while 15 others were left seriously wounded by the attack during a midnight worship service in Beshasha, a town located in the Agaro province in Ethiopia.

On 14 October, a group of three hundred Muslims, carrying guns and knives approached the church where the Orthodox Christians were holding a midnight worship service. When the locked doors prevented the mob from entering the church they forced the congregation out of the church by pouring gasoline around the building.

The men of the church came out first and attempted to defend the men and women but because they had no real weapons in comparison to the guns and knives used against them they were attacked by the mob.

Fifteen individuals from the church suffered severe knife wounds and six people died as a result - two priests, two elderly women, and two men.

ICC remains concerned as it warned that the tragic incident may only be a precursor of things to come as Muslims in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania are radicalised.

Apoplectic hype for apocalyptic game

Based on an article from the The Times

A video game that depicts a crusade of violence by Christians could be heading for the bestseller charts this Christmas, even though it has been condemned by Muslims and secularists.

The game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces, is set in post-apocalyptic New York and features God’s army battling the Antichrist. Based on Left Behind, the bestselling Christian fantasy book series created by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, it puts players in command of brainwashed legions fighting for Christianity.

Players are ordered to convert or kill to advance to the next level and remodel America as a Christian-controlled state, and establish its world vision of Christ’s dominion. They pit battles between the paramilitary Christian Tribulation Force and the grey, faceless, Global Community Peacekeepers of the Antichrist, said to be modelled on the United Nations. The fantasy is based on what might happen if the events of the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, happened today.

The game was sold originally in the US. British outlets are releasing the game for the Christmas market. The Left Behind books have sold more than 63 million copies.

Muslim groups have denounced the game as portraying Islam as evil and accuse its creators of insulting their faith. The Muslim Association of Britain called for the game to be banned, describing it as evil: This game is irresponsible and highly racist. It demonises every other religion which isn’t Christianity. People must boycott this violent game.

Terry Sanderson, the president of the National Secular Society, said: Fundamentalists on both the Christian and the Muslim side are creating this kind of nasty, extreme propaganda and aiming it at young people. I’m not into banning things or censoring them, but I think most Muslims and most Christians would recognise that this is crude and despicable hate-mongering and give it a wide berth.

Stoning commuted

From the Iranian

Parisa Akbari, one of the Iranian women sentenced to death by stoning for "adultery," was released from jail as a free woman today after receiving 99 lashes for having sex outside of marriage.

Based on a motion filed by her new, volunteer, lawyer in the High State Court, Parisa was granted a new trial, which was held last month. At the new trial, lawyers were able to present evidence of Parisa's innocence.

Additionally, the lawyers successfully argued that the lower court had used erroneous legal and Islamic standards in issuing Parisa's original sentence. Based on the new evidence and legal arguments, the High State Court dismissed the original charges against Parisa and vacated the sentence of death by stoning.

According to Parisa's lawyer, who is also representing Ashraf Kalhori (another woman sentenced to death by stoning for committing the crime of "adultery"), although the head of the Islamic Republic's judiciary has issued an stay of execution in Ashraf's case, Ashraf continues to remain in jail and on death row, awaiting a response to her motion for acquittal.

The lawyers representing Ashraf have been informed that their client's case has been re-issued to the authories for a new investigation. They are currently working to obtain more details about this new investigation.

The first ever time by the Saudi religious police

From Reuters

The head of Saudi Arabia's religious police on Tuesday met a Western human rights delegation in what is thought to be the first such meeting in the conservative Muslim kingdom.

The official Saudi news agency SPA said the delegation from US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) on a rare fact-finding mission to Saudi Arabia met Sheikh Ibrahim al-Ghaith of the Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

Western diplomats say the body usually declines to meet them.

Indonesian head of religious affairs has unreligious affair

From the Bangkok Post

A senior Indonesian politician resigned from the country's largest political party after he was featured with a popular singer on a sex tape that was widely circulated in the country.

Yahya Zaini, who is the head of the Golkar Party's religious affairs department, which has responsibility for moral issues, submitted his resignation from the party, which was immediately approved by its chairman, Jusuf Kalla, Indonesia's vice president.

In addition, the married Zaini will lose his seat in the House of Representatives after Golkar's deputy chairman, Agung Laksono, said that the process was under way to remove Zaini from parliament.

The video that prompted the resignation is less than one minute long and has been circulated via mobile phones and e-mail. In it, Zaini and singer Maria Eva can be clearly identified.

Zaini is reportedly in hiding in Jakarta.

Eva, however, appeared at a tearful press conference Monday and admitted to making the tape but denied distributing it. The singer said she had loved Zaini but their affair had ended two years ago. She added that she had been pregnant and was pressured to have an abortion by him and his wife: He asked me to marry him, but I declined the offer as I don't want to be his second wife.

The scandal broke as Islamic leaders and political parties were campaigning for tougher morality laws in Indonesia, including outlawing pornography and public displays of affection.

Religious leaders in the nation with the world's largest Muslim population and top politicians have called for harsh action to be taken against Zaini.

Malaysian Government to issue additional TV censorship rules

Based on an article from The Star

Content on Malaysain TV stations will soon be subjected to an additional set of guidelines, which is now being drafted.

Energy, Water and Communications Deputy Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor said the move was aimed at promoting Malaysian cultural identity and values and moderating the behaviour of entertainers during shows.

Shaziman added that the new guidelines, drafting of which was expected to be completed by the end of the year, would also incorporate the content guidelines already formulated by his ministry as well as the Culture, Arts and Heritage, Home and Information ministries.

Shaziman added that television programmes should not just provide entertainment, but must also promote family and religious values as well as national racial integration: For example, the new guidelines contains the guidelines of the Culture, Arts and Heritage Ministry guidelines on the need to promote local arts and cultures and proper dress sense.

He also stated that the new guidelines would also outline the percentage of foreign and local programmes that television stations could show.

Pakistan President signs law replacing Hudood Ordinances

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has signed the new legislation that allows rape cases to be tried in either secular or Islamic courts.

The new law reduces the evidentiary burden necessary for conviction, and substitutes a fine and five-year prison term for persons found guilty of having sex outside of marriage.

The Protection of Women Bill, approved by Pakistan's Senate, replaces the Hudood Ordinances, which had previously required rape victims to produce four male witnesses against the accused, or face potential prosecution for adultery.

The new bill has faced opposition from traditionalists, including opposition lawmakers that have threatened to resign from the government. Small protests supporting the opposition have received little support from the public. The bill has been praised by women's and human rights groups as being a step in the right direction in reforming the inherent discrimination and inadequacy of the Sharia system at protecting women.

A worthless vision of morality

From the Daily Mail

Ministers have been accused of overturning the nation's morality in a searing attack on new gay rights laws by a leading Roman Catholic churchman.

Archbishop of Birmingham Vincent Nichols threatened to withdraw Catholic co-operation with the Government over schools, charity programmes and adoption agencies if the new sexual orientation regulations go ahead.

The fierce assault on the new laws signalled an ominous deepening of the row between Labour and the churches over the new laws, which are designed to stop businesses from discriminating against homosexuals.

Archbishop Nichols declared that ministers were engaged in an intense and at times aggressive reshaping of our moral framework. those who are elected to fashion our laws are not elected to be our moral tutors. They have no mandate or competence to be so. [So how does believing in nonsense give Christians a mandate to tutor morals?]

The Sexual Orientation Regulations are set to go into law in England in April. Final details have not yet been made public, largely because of a row between staunchly Catholic Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly and Cabinet colleagues.

But yesterday Kelly gave a confirmation that the new laws will go ahead. She told a conference run by the Commission for Racial Equality: Anger about people not being able to fulfil their potential brought me into politics.Whether the barrier is their background, their race, religion or sexual orientation the Labour Party has always been prepared to take the decisions to open up opportunity for all

Archbishop Nichols gave his scathing verdict in a sermon in St Chad's Cathedral. He told the congregation: The Government must realise that it is not possible to seek co-operation with us while at the same time trying to impose upon us conditions which contradict our moral values.

It is simply unacceptable to suggest that the resources of faith communities, whether in schools, adoption agencies, welfare programmes, halls and shelters can work in co-operation with public authorities only if the faith communities accept not simply a legal framework but also the moral standards at present being touted by the Government.

The Sexual Orientation Regulations would have an impact on religious believers in business. Christian hoteliers will be compelled to rent rooms to gay couples, while Muslim printers will be unable to refuse to print homosexual magazines or advertisements.

The Northern Ireland rules, perhaps a test bed for new legislation, say those found guilty of breaking the rules will be fined between £500 and £1,000 for a first offence. Subsequent serious offences can attract penalties of up to £25,000.

Iran's attorney general call's for stoning of soap star

From Spiegel

A pornographic video is breaking all sales records in Iran. But it is also making a prominent TV star fear not just the end of her career, but also corporal punishment under the country's restrictive laws.

The woman in this home-made porn flick is said to be Iranian soap star Sahra Amir Ebrahimi

Demand for Ebrahimi's unexpected onscreen performance is literally unbelievable. Despite its comparatively steep price of €10 ($13), it is believed that more than 100,000 copies of the cheap DVD have been sold in Tehran.

The Government have branded the home-made flick a "national shame." They see the video as evidence of the decadent West's growing influence on the youth of the Islamic republic.

In the Ebrahimi case, the DVD's producers even face the prospect of capital punishment. Iran's much-feared attorney general, Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi, has gotten involved in the investigation, and he's demanding death by stoning -- a controversial punishment in Iran. Dorri-Najafabadi is arguing that the porn flick promotes prostitution.

Ebrahimi's film lover, apparently a TV production assistant, has already been arrested and is said to have confessed to the filmed sex act. But he claims to have been "temporarily married" to Ebrahimi at the time the video was made. In Shiite Islam, being "temporarily married" makes both sex before official marriage and infidelity somewhat less sinful. So far, eight people have already been arrested as part of investigations into the affair.

For her part, Ebrahimi is staying home for now in Tehran's university neighborhood, and trying to "sit this out as a woman." Ebrahimi insists she is not the person seen in the film.

Prosecuted for not following state mandated belief

Another apostasy case going through the courts demonstrates that there is absolutely no mechanism to allow Muslims to opt out anyway.

From New Straits Times

Kamariah Ali, the woman alleged to have declared herself an apostate, has been told to enter her defence by the Syariah High Court here yesterday. She is charged under Syariah Criminal Offence Enactment (Takzir) (Terengganu 2001) for not adhering to the state fatwa (edict), which had ruled that the teachings of Ayah Pin are deviant.

Kamariah was arrested together with 58 other followers of the Ayah Pin sect on July 21, last year.

Judge Mohamad Abdullah said based on Kamariah’s statement, she had declared herself a non-Muslim in 1989 at the Syariah Court in Kota Baru but her latest identity card, issued in 2004, showed that she was still a Muslim. Based on the evidence of the four witnesses called by the prosecution, Kamariah was said to be still a Muslim when she was arrested.

The hearing has been set for two days beginning Feb 6.

Update: Trial Date

5th September 2001

Kamariah's trial date has now been set for 21st October 2007