Saddar police rescued a man suspected of defiling pages of the Quran at a mosque. Police said the man, identified as Imran, was mentally-challenged.

Police spokesman Muhammad Akram said the suspect had denied having burned any page of the Quran. He quoted Imran as saying that he had burnt some worn out papers he collected from a mosque while cleaning the shelves. But, he added, he had no idea that the pages came out of the Quran. He said he had started cleaning the shelves on seeing a lot of dust.

Earlier, he was detained by a mob of dozens of people who had gathered on the Toba-Gojra Road following announcements from loudspeakers of several mosques in the locality. He was handed over to a police team on the assurance that appropriate action would be taken against him.

The arrest had followed a violent demonstration near Jani Wala railway station. The protesters blocking the road dispersed four hours later after baton charge and tear-gas shelling by the police.

A group of Christian nutters from South Korea are planning to hold a prayer meeting in protest of Lady Gaga's show in Seoul on 27th April.

AFP reports that 300 members of Alliance for Sound Culture In Sexuality are planning to attend the meeting.

Kang Ju-Hyun, a prayer organiser, told AFP: We will pray to God that the concert will not be realised so that homosexuality and pornography will not spread around the country. The group have accused Lady Gaga of spreading unhealthy sexual culture through lewd lyrics and performances .

Under 18s have been banned from the concert, after the Korea Media Rating Board deemed the show unsuitable for young audiences.

Update: A small group of Christians

29th April 2012. See article from bbc.co.uk , Thanks to Nick

A small group of Christians staged a rally outside Seoul's Olympic Stadium, where around 45,000 fans saw the singer perform hits like Poker Face and Judas .

The poster for Lady Gaga's Seoul concert said it had adult certification Activists in Seoul have been protesting over the concert for weeks, claiming the singer was obscene and could taint young people.

A group calling itself the Civilians Network against the Lady Gaga Concert said her performance was too homosexual and pornographic .

Sri Lanka's government has ordered the removal of a mosque from an area it says is sacred to the country's majority Buddhists.

The order comes two days after Buddhist monks led a crowd trying to storm the mosque in the central town of Dambulla.

Buddhist monks in central Sri Lanka had threatened to demolish the mosque if the authorities did not act first. A special meeting to discuss the issue appears to have been convened and the statement was produced.

Prime Minister DM Jayaratne, who is also responsible for the affairs of the country's majority Buddhists, said he had ordered the mosque to be removed from a sacred area in Dambulla and that it could be relocated to a suitable place in the neighbourhood .

Sharia police in Aceh caned a homeless punk couple nine times after they were arrested for pre-marital sex.

Around 100 people in the town of Langsa watched and cheered when sharia police in green-and-black hoods caned the young victims along with 11 others convicted of gambling.

The punishment comes amid a crackdown on punks in the province, in which police have raided cafes and parks to detain youths contributing to what authorities call a social disease .

Those who think more analytically are less inclined to be religious believers than are those who tend to follow a gut instinct, researchers conclude.

Scientists have revealed one of the reasons why some folks are less religious than others: They think more analytically, rather than going with their gut. And thinking analytically can cause religious belief to wane --- for skeptics and true believers alike.

The study, published in Friday's edition of the journal Science , indicates that belief may be a more malleable feature of the human psyche than those of strong faith may think.

...Read the full article

Analytic Thinking Promotes Religious Disbelief

See abstract from sciencemag.org

Scientific interest in the cognitive underpinnings of religious belief has grown in recent years. However, to date, little experimental research has focused on the cognitive processes that may promote religious disbelief.

The present studies apply a dual-process model of cognitive processing to this problem, testing the hypothesis that analytic processing promotes religious disbelief. Individual differences in the tendency to analytically override initially flawed intuitions in reasoning were associated with increased religious disbelief.

Four additional experiments provided evidence of causation, as subtle manipulations known to trigger analytic processing also encouraged religious disbelief. Combined, these studies indicate that analytic processing is one factor (presumably among several) that promotes religious disbelief.

Although these findings do not speak directly to conversations about the inherent rationality, value, or truth of religious beliefs, they illuminate one cognitive factor that may influence such discussions.

An Egyptian court has upheld a conviction against one of the Arab world's most famous comedians, sentencing him to jail for offending Islam in some of his most popular films.

Adel Imam was sentenced to three months in jail and fined around $170 for insulting Islam in roles he played in movies such as The Terrorist , in which he acted the role of a wanted terrorist who found refuge with a middle class, moderate family, and the film Terrorism and Kabab.

The actor was also found guilty for his 2007 role in Morgan Ahmed Morgan , in which Imam played a corrupt businessman who tries to buy a university diploma. The film included a scene parodying bearded Muslim men wearing traditional Islamic clothing.

Author Alaa al-Aswany, whose best-seller The Yacoubian Building was turned into a film costarring Imam, said the court ruling sets Egypt back to the darkness of the Middle Ages.

Update: Adel Imam stars in another farce

27th April 2012. See article from acn.liveauctioneers.com

A Cairo misdemeanour court dismissed on Thursday a complaint against Egyptian comedy actor Adel Imam and other artists for insulting religion, days after another one sentenced him to jail on the same charge.

The court told the Islamist lawyer who brought the complaint that he had no standing to bring charges against the five artists, who include authors and directors, judicial sources said.

On Tuesday, another court upheld a three-month prison sentence for Imam, one of the region's most famous actors, after a February conviction in absentia.

Imam, who has acted in several movies critical of violent Islamist radicals, told told AFP on Tuesday he would appeal the verdict and remains free on bail.

Update: Conviction quashed

14th September 2012. See article from scotsman.com

An Egyptian appeals court has quashed the conviction of the Arab world's most famous comic actor, Adel Imam, on a charge of insulting Islam in his films and plays, rejecting a case brought by a lawyer with Islamist affiliations.

Imam, 72, has frequently poked fun at figures of authority and politicians of all stripes, making him the target of several court actions during a four-decade career. His more serious films dealt with the rise of Islamist militancy.

A judge found Imam guilty in February. The court overturned that verdict.

Stephen Green Recommends... North Wales Mardi Gras 2012

North Wales Mardi Gras 2012
27-29th April
Beaumaris Centre, Anglesey

An offensive and extreme leaflet attacking homosexuality has drawn criticism and complaints to the police. in an Anglesey town.

A pamphlet by the extremist Christian Voice organisation opposing the town's planned Mardi Gras was circulated in Beaumaris. Entitled Say No to Beaumaris Mardi Gras , the leaflet claims that gay pride events are intimidating and that gay people can be released from homosexual desires .

Town clerk Trevor Ashenden said the leaflet was one of several items of correspondence which the town council had received from Christian organisations opposed to the event, which is set to take place from April 27 to April 29.

Following complaints from residents and businesses in the town, the council has released a statement which states:

The legality of some of the statements in the leaflet and other correspondence received has been questioned, and this matter has been referred to the police.

Stephen Green, national director of Christian Voice, said:

The town council would be better off objecting to the display of depravity which is the Mardi Gras. That's where they should be directing their ire.

He said representatives of Christian Voice would attend the event and that the complaints made to the police would go absolutely nowhere .

Update: Thanks for the recommendation

27th April 2012. See article from pinknews.co.uk

Opposition from homophobic Christian Voice leader Stephen Green has reportedly boosted ticket sales for North Wales' Mardi Gras this weekend. 

Media attention regularly attracted by Green has led to five hundred ticket sales for the Saturday festival. Alan Jones, of North Wales Mardi Gras, told Wales' Daily Post:

The publicity that has been generated by Christian Voice and their extreme opposition to the event has helped ensure this will be a sell-out. People from further afield who may not have known about the event have heard through this.

Stephen Green himself said:

We had to make a stand, we had to stand for right. We will be at the event with the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we will be talking to people and handing out leaflets.

Pastor Terry Jones has once again threatened to burn Qurans, this time in protest of Iran's continued imprisonment of Christian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani.

The Florida minister and his organization are calling for supporters worldwide to burn copies of the Islamic holy book and images of the faith's founder Muhammad.

The controversial pastor plans to carry out his own torching this Saturday, April 28 at 5 p.m. ET in front of his church, Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida.

Jones told The Christian Post that the service will be roughly an hour long, during which he will speak on the last 1,400 years of Islamic persecution of Christians, believers, nonbelievers, homosexuals, and women. We'll be dealing with the injustice that has gone on, and continues to go on, under Islam.

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who has been imprisoned in Iran for his Christian faith since Oct. 2009, represents all of the death and destruction caused by Islam, and the apathy and the lack of us really doing anything. Of course if our government would put pressure on Iran, we could do more, [as well as] with the help of the United Nations, Jones said.

Jones told The Christian Post that the ideal outcome of Saturday's book burning would be Iran freeing Nadarkhani before the torching of the books could actually occur.

Saudi Arabia is set to step up repression of gays and tomboys (masculine-oriented girls) by banning them from schools and universities, according to a media report.

The hated religious police will be responsible for enforcing the new restrictions. The Sharq daily reported:

Instructions have been issued to all public schools and universities to ban the entry of gays and tomboys and to intensify their efforts to fight this phenomenon, which has been promoted by some websites.

Students will be allowed to resume their studies if they can prove that they have stopped such practices .

Most children of guest workers and other foreigners in Saudi Arabia attend international private schools, which will not be covered by the ban.

A Sri Lankan woman is currently facing decapitation by sword on a witchcraft charge in Saudi Arabia, in accordance with Wahhabism, an extreme form of Sunni Islam.

A Saudi man complained that in a shopping mall his 13-year-old daughter suddenly started acting in an abnormal way, which happened after she came close to the Sri Lankan woman, reports the daily Okaz.

After the local man denounced the Sri Lankan for casting a spell on his daughter, police in the port city of Jeddah found it sufficient cause to arrest the woman.

Witchcraft and sorcery imply only one measure in Saudi Arabia, beheading. And it works this way in practice: last year in the kingdom at least two people, a woman in her 60s and a Sudanese man, were beheaded on witchcraft charges.

A petition has been filed in the Madras High Court seeking direction to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) not to certify films with scenes depicting Hindu sanyasis and spiritual leaders in bad taste and insulting or abusing them.

In its petition, the Hindu Dharma Sakthi also sought a direction to Tamil Film Producers Council and the director of the Tamil film Ok Ok - Oru Kal Oru Kannadi to remove scenes in the movie which supposedly hurt Hindu religious sentiments.

N Devasenathypathy representing Sakthi said in the trailer of the film, which he had seen, the manner in which a seer's character had been created was highly unnecessary. The character was totally disconnected to the movie's main theme, he alleged. The creation of the character was with a mala fide intention to hurt Hindu religious feelings, he claimed.

In a counter affidavit, CBFC Regional Officer V Packirisamy said the board judged a film in its entirety as per the Cinematograph Act and the Centre's guidelines. The contentious scene in the film in no way denigrated or defamed Hinduism. A committee had carefully examined the film and issued the certificate.

Noting that the board had not passed any scene which would hurt religious sentiments, the CBFC said it was not right to comment on the film without seeing it fully.

The court has reserved judgement about the writ.

Update: Ban Refused

24th April 2012. See article from thehindu.com

The High Court has dismissed a writ petition by a Hindu organisation seeking to force the film censors at the CBFC to ban any feature film having scenes negatively depicting Hindu religious leaders and spiritual gurus. The petitioner had also asked for a ban of scenes in Ok Ok- Oru Kal Oru Kannadi which supposedly hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus.

In his order, Justice Vinod K. Sharma said that it was not understood how a comic consequence interfered with the freedom of conscience, free profession, practice and propagation of religion to attract the provision.

The Judge said that the film had been certified for universal exhibition. The petitioner, therefore, had the remedy of appeal. The allegations in the petition were vague. Also, in view of the law laid down by the Supreme Court, no order as requested could be issued in the petitioner's favour after the film had been certified for exhibition.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the arrest and trial of Alexander Aan, of Padang, West Sumatra, who was arrested for posting a status on Facebook questioning the existence of god and administering a Facebook group called Ateis Minang (Minang Atheists). He is also being charged for uploading a note and cartoon depicting and supposedly insulting Muhammad. He has been indicted with three charges, including disseminating religious hatred on the internet, which might lead to six-years imprisonment.

On 18 January 2012 some residents of Pulau Punjung came to Alex's office in Padang, after learning that Alex had made a Facebook post entitled The Prophet Muhammad was attracted to his own daughter-in-law with a cartoon entitled The Prophet Muhammad had been sleeping with his wife's maid. A local newspaper reported that Alex was close to being attacked by the mob, which was angry as they considered his posts to have insulted Islam.

The police arrived before Alex was attacked. Alex told the police that he is an atheist and that he is a member of a Facebook group named Ateis Minang. As one of his Facebook status updates, Alex wrote, if you believe in god, then please show him to me. His trial has commenced and he is indicted on three charges: disseminating information aimed at inflicting religious hatred, religious blasphemy and calling for others to embrace atheism.

Muslim students at London Metropolitan University which is considering banning alcohol from parts of its campus have hit out at the plan.

Students said banning alcohol in the name of Muslims will cause tension on campus, divide the community, and could be exploited by far-Right groups such as the English Defence League.

Malcolm Gillies, Vice Chancellor of London Met, has said he might stop alcohol being served in parts of the university because some religious students view it as immoral .

But Syed Rumman, vice president of the Student Union, warned that any ban would be catastrophic . He said:

I do not drink, but it doesn't mean that I will deprive another student from having alcohol. It is unethical, catastrophic and it will isolate Muslims further in society. This will go against the ethos of London Met where students are so diverse but also socialise together. Students who do drink will resent Muslims. It will divide the student body. We must not allow this to become a religious issue. Muslim students never asked for this ban.

Tens of thousands prayed outside Moscow's main cathedral on Sunday to show their support for the Russian Orthodox church in a controversy over a punk rock political protest.

Christ the Saviour cathedral was the scene of a brief surprise performance in February by Pussy Riot, a female punk rock group protesting against Vladimir Putin's return to the presidency. Three band members remain in police custody and face up to seven years in jail on charges of hooliganism.

Their treatment has provoked a public outcry and contributed to growing criticism of the church and its close ties to the Kremlin.

Patriarch Kirill has portrayed the punk performance as part of a broader attack on the church. He had called on believers to attend Sunday's service to pray for our faith, our church, our sacred objects and our fatherland . The patriarch has joined the Kremlin in portraying the anti-Putin protest movement as a threat to Russian statehood.

An elderly man, recently released from prison after acquittal by the court in a blasphemy case, was shot dead by the murderous complainant.

80-year-old Iqbal Butt was on his way home on a motorcycle rikshaw when he was shot dead when the accuser Maulvi Waqas and an unidentified accomplice chased him on a motorcycle and opened fire, resulting in his death.

Javed Butt, stepson of Iqbal Butt said the Maulvi Waqas accused his father of blasphemy just to settle score with him after they exchanged some harsh words during an argument earlier on. The accused put pressure on police through protest of clerics and succeeded in registering a case against Iqbal.

After the case was registered, the police arrested Iqbal and he was jailed but on December 30, 2011 he was honourably acquitted due to lack of evidence.

The complainant Maulvi Waqas, a Khateeb of a local Mosque, was unhappy with the acquittal and he along with an unknown accomplice shot Iqbal Butt, the Investigating policeman said.

A case has been registered against Waqas and his unknown accomplice but no arrests have been made as yet. According to police, raids are being conducted to find the accused.

A Swedish politician has been ludicrously accused of racism and bigotry after she was pictured with a cake art installation meant to highlight the issue of female genital mutilation.

Culture minister Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth was presented with the cake at World Art Day in Stockholm, where she was invited to give the monstrosity a clitoridectomy , reports the Swedish newspaper Friatider.

The cake was part of an art installation made by Makode Aj Linde whose head was part of the performance presentation to Liljeroth.

In videos from the exhibition, the head of the cake (Linde) screams, as if in pain, while visitors crowd around.

However the artist's intention of highlighting the issue of female circumcision was reprehensibly criticised by trivial claims from the African community in Sweden claiming it to be racist and repulsive .

A judge declares a Christian radio ad to be political and hence correctly banned.

The proposed 30-second advert for Premier Christian Radio called on listeners to report their experiences of being marginalised in the workplace. It was blocked by the Radio Advertising Clearance Centre (RACC), because it was directed to a political end .

London Christian Radio Ltd, which runs Premier, a national station, won a judicial review to challenge the ruling, describing the advert as about the most inoffensive proposed ad one could hope to get .

James Dingemans QC argued that if the advert was in breach of the 2003 Communications Act, which banned political advertising, then the relevant sections of the Act should be declared incompatible with Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects freedom of expression.

However, Mr Justice Silber, sitting in London, ruled that Article 10 had not been breached and that the RACC decision was both rational and lawful . He declared the ad to be political as it was intended to obtain information in a bid to try to make changes to society .

Peter Kerridge, chief executive of London Christian Radio and the Premier media group, described the ruling as wholly reminiscent of a totalitarian state and said an application would be made to appeal to the Court of Appeal.

A Turkish proposal to establish a broadcasting censor among 57 Muslim countries has been officially approved at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) conference in Gabon.

The decision effectively empowers the OIC with new tools to promote broadcasting of a positive image of the Muslim world on member countries' television channels. It will be officially named The OIC Broadcast Regulatory Authorities Forum.

The OIC describes the forum as a platform intended to promote coordination, communication and cooperation among the authorities in charge of regulating broadcasting in member states, as well as to enhance the exchange of information, ideas and expertise on issues of common interest in the areas related to the services of the audiovisual media sector.

OIC officials underline that the broadcasting forum will be used in close coordination with a satellite TV channel to be launched under the OIC's name. The OIC will use the international satellite TV station to project the voice of the Muslim world, report on Islamic causes, defend Muslim interests within the framework of Islamic solidarity among OIC member states and stand up to the repeated defamation campaigns against Islam and Muslims.

Lars Hedegaard, the president of the Free Press Society got in trouble with the Danish authorities over comments about muslims.

Girls in Muslim families are raped by their uncles, their cousins, or their fathers, and When a Muslim man rapes a woman, it is in his right to do so, were among the comments Hedegaard made during a 35-minute interview at a Christmas party with the author of the blog snaphanen.dk, who subsequently published the comments on the blog.

At his first trial, on January 31st 2011, he was acquitted, on grounds that the statements were not intended to be made public.

However, after an appeal by the prosecution, a higher court overturned his acquittal on May 3, 2011, and fined Hedegaard 5,000 kroner.

He then went to court again, this time for his own appeal in 2012 and has just been acquitted in the Danish Supreme Court.

Seven justices voted to overturn, and none voted to uphold the earlier verdict. The vote, led by Chief Justice Borge Dahl, acquitted the defendant of intended racism and hate speech.

Denmark is still a free society, said Hedegaard.

France's law banning face-covering garments in public came into force a year ago.

The French ministry of the interior says police stopped and checked some 354 women since the law was passed. With 299 reports filed, about 20 people were given fines of up to 150 euros each.

The interior ministry said the law had been applied with care. In January French Interior Minister Claude Gue'ant told the National Assembly that the number of women wearing the full-face veil had halved since the law was introduced.

Although the law provides for stiff penalties for anyone forcing a woman to wear the niqab, no man has yet been charged with such an offence.

Nutters are up in arms over a recent Urban Outfitters catalog that features a shot of two ladies locking lips.

Christian group One Million Moms posted a call for action against the clothing company on its website, calling the photo offensive and inappropriate for a teen:

WARNING! The April 2012 catalog from Urban Outfitters has begun arriving in home mailboxes the last couple of days. On page 2 of this catalog there is a picture of two women kissing in a face holding embrace!

The group urges parents to trash their kids' catalogs and is pushing for Urban Outfitters to retract the ad and release a statement of apology.

The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, intervened to prevent a Christian advertising campaign from promoting the idea that gay people can be converted to heterosexuality.

The advert was due to say: Not gay! Post-gay, ex-gay and proud. Get over it!

A few days before the ads were due to appear on buses Johnson ordered his transport chiefs to pull the adverts booked by two Anglican groups following 'outrage' among gay campaigners and politicians saying that they were homophobic. Johnson said:

London is one of the most tolerant cities in the world and intolerant of intolerance. It is clearly offensive to suggest that being gay is an illness that someone recovers from and I am not prepared to have that suggestion driven around London on our buses.

The adverts were booked on behalf of the Core Issues Trust whose leader, Mike Davidson, claims homoerotic behaviour is sinful . His charity funds reparative therapy for gay Christians, which it claims can develop their heterosexual potential . The campaign was also backed by Anglican Mainstream , a worldwide Anglican group.

The Christian groups insisted the advert had been cleared with Transport for London (TfL). Davidson said:

I didn't realise censorship was in place. We went through the correct channels and we were encouraged by the bus company to go through their procedures. They okayed it and now it has been pulled.

CBS Outdoor, the media company that sells the bus advertising sites, said the ad had been passed for display by the Committee of Advertising Practice.

The campaign was an explicit attempt to hit back at the gay rights group Stonewall, which as part of its lobbying for the extension of marriage to gay couples is running its own bus adverts saying: Some people are gay. Get over it. The Christian groups used the same black, red and white colour scheme as Stonewall and in a statement announcing the campaign accused it of promoting the false idea that there is indisputable scientific evidence that people are born gay .

Update: Asserting the right of freedom of expression to badmouth gays

14th April 2012.  Via article from bbc.co.uk

A Christian group which had its advertisement pulled from London buses after it was described as anti-gay has said it is considering legal action.

TfL had said the advert was not consistent with its commitment to a tolerant city.

Anglican Mainstream has instructed a law firm to look at whether Transport for London (TfL) acted illegally when it scrapped the adverts. It said it wanted to know what happened to its contract with TfL for the ads, which implied people could be ex-gay .

Tom Ellis from legal firm Aughton Ainsworth said he was going to examine whether the ban was a breach of contract and the group's right to freedom of expression.

Update: Don’t ban it. Get over it!

18th April 2012. See article from spiked-online.com by Luke Samuel

The banning of silly Christian bus adverts reveals the contempt in which the mayor holds ordinary Londoners.

Last week, Boris Johnson, the perennially silly mayor of London, announced that he would ban a planned series of posters on London buses which shouted: NOT GAY! EX-GAY, POST-GAY AND PROUD. GET OVER IT! The message was penned by the Christian campaign group, the Core Issues Trust, which believes that homosexuality is curable through therapy and religious teaching.

...Read the full article

Update: Boris Johnson explains that his advert censorship was all about the politics of avoiding offence and backlashes

It seems that he thought he was doing both sides a favour, preventing gays from being easily offended, and preventing the religious nutters from making an arsehole of themselves.

18th April 2012. See article from guardian.co.uk

Boris Johnson has said that he feared that there would have been an intense backlash if he had allowed a Christian advertising campaign promoting the idea that gay people can be converted to heterosexuality to be plastered on London's buses.

He talked about his decision to censor the posters as he took part in a mayoral debate jointly organised by London Church Leaders, Faith to Engage, and the Evangelical Alliance.

He said that he made his decision not only because he thought an advert which suggested that gay people could be cured was likely to cause great offence , but also because of the possible reverberations for London's Christian community. Hesaid:

The job of mayor is to unite, the job is to stop prejudice, and actually the backlash would be so intense it would not have been in the interest of Christian people in this city.

Ken Livingstone told the audience that the advert would only have served to reinforce prejudice:

In my view Boris was right to pull them.

Dutch sexy posters have been covered up and a message stuck across them.

In Kanaleneiland, a predominantly Muslim area of Utrecht, a poster advertising the open museum weekend has been covered by a black bag. The poster shows a woman in a short pink strapless dress. The message plastered across the bag reads:

Laa ilahe il Allah [There is no god but Allah]

No Sexually Tinted Advertising In Our Suburbs. Stand Up And Fight Against This Case To Protect Our Children!

Another poster showing a woman in a bikini in the distance walking on a beach has also been covered up. The next day the cover had been taken off, but angry reactions had already started appearing on the internet. Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders even asked questions in parliament about this Islamic censorship .

Sanal Edamaruku, President of the Rationalist International, was invited by TV-9 to investigate a supoosed miracle that caused local excitement.

He went with the TV team to Irla in Vile Parle to inspect a crucifix standing in front of the Church of Our Lady of Velankanni. This crucifix had become the centre of attraction for a growing crowd of believers. The news of the miracle spread like wild fire. For some days, there were little droplets of water trickling from Jesus' feet. Hundreds of people came every day to pray and collect some of the holy water in bottles and vessels.

Sanal Edamaruku identified the source of the water (a drain near a wash room) and the mechanism how it reached Jesus feet (capillary action).

The local church leaders, present during his investigation, appeared somewhat displeased.

Some hours later, in a live program on TV-9, Sanal explained his findings and accused the concerned Catholic Church officials of miracle mongering, as they were beating the big drum for the dripping Jesus statue with aggressive PR measures and by distributing photographs certifying the miracle .

A heated debate began, in which the five church people, among them Fr. Augustine Palett, the priest of Our Lady of Velankanni church, and representatives of the Association of Concerned Catholics (AOCC) demanded that Sanal apologize. But Sanal refused and argued against them. [An abridged version of the TV programme is on YouTube.]

When they saw Sanal refused to bow to their demands, they threatened to file a blasphemy case against him. And they did. Sanal received a phone call from a Police official of Juhu Police Station in Mumbai directing him to come to the said police station to face the charges and get arrested on allegations of hurting religious sentiments.

Update: Shamefully Charged

23rd December 2012. See article from ksdk.com

In March, water began dripping down a statue of Jesus on the cross at Our Lady of Velankanni in Mumbai. Parishioners collected the so-called Holy Water others drank it ludicrously hoping it would cure ailments.

But rationalist and atheist Sanal Edamaruku investigated, and said it was actually sewage water percolating through the statue, because of a leaky water pipe.

Now he's being charged with blasphemy under Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code, which accuses him of deliberately hurting religious feelings and attempting malicious acts intended to outrage the religious sentiments.

The vengeful Catholic 'Christian' Secular Forum, which filed the complaint to police,  spouted distinctly unchristian bollox that the law is the law. Sanal should realize that his right to expression must not encroach on my right to freedom of faith of belief, of religion which is guaranteed under the Indian constitution, said the reprehensible Joseph Dias, Gen. Secretary of the Catholic 'Christian' Secular Forum.

After being denied anticipatory bail in June, Edamaruku flew to Finland, where he remains in exile.

Arabic Network For Human Rights Information (ANHRI) condemns the sentencing of Kuwaiti writer Mohamed al-Melify to 7 years' imprisonment and a fine of $18,000 on charges of supposedly spreading false statements via Twitter. He was arrested by the authorities last February.

The Kuwait Criminal Court found the writer guilty of spreading false news through his personal Twitter page about sectarian divisions in the country and publishing insults against Shiism in addition to charges of libel and defamation of the MP Ahmed Lari.

The police also arrested a Shiite citizen last month for insulting the Prophet on his Twitter page, an act that angered Sunnis in the country, even leading some members of the Parliament to call for his execution.

It is not permissible to punish a person for whatever religious views, political affiliation, or other opinions that he/she expresses. The imprisonment of writers and Tweeps tarnishes Kuwait's reputation in the field of freedom of opinion and expression. Therefore, ANHRI calls on the authorities to drop all charges against al-Melify and all prisoners of conscience, and put forward legislation that would ensure the rights to freedom of opinion and expression.

Parliament provisionally approves law requiring the death penalty for religious insult

See article from worthynews.com

Kuwait's parliament has provisionally passed amendments to its penal code requiring the death penalty for anyone who curses Allah, Mohammad, or his many wives.

Forty-six MPs voted for the amendments: a second and final vote will take place in two weeks.

Shi'ite MPs also demanded the death penalty for anyone who curses their sect's 12 revered Imams, but the Sunni-dominated parliament rejected it.

Update: Trial date set for blasphemy victim

17th May 2012. See article from gulfnews.com

A Kuwaiti blogger held for supposedly posting abusive remarks against the religious character Mohammad will know about his fate next week.

A court said that Hamad Naqi would be tried on May 21 on charges of denigrating Islam and insulting Mohammad, disseminating false and misleading claims and promoting a sect that aims to undermine security in the country.

However, Naqi denied the charges and said that his Twitter account had been hacked.

Several Kuwaiti lawmakers last month said they would launch public protests if Naqi is not punished for the supposed blasphemy.

Lord Nazir Ahmed, the first muslim peer, has been suspended from the party after accusations he called for a £ 10m bounty for the capture of US Presidents Obama and Bush. Ahmed has denied the claims.

Ahmed is reported to have made the call after the US offered a $10m bounty for the conviction of Hafiz Saeed, the founder of the Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group.

According to the Express Tribune, said: If the US can announce a reward of $10m for the captor of Hafiz Saeed, I can announce a bounty of £ 10m on President Obama and his predecessor George Bush.

The paper said the comments were made at a reception arranged in his honour by the business community of Haripur, Pakistan, on Friday.

Asked about the reported comments, he said:

I never said those words. I did not offer a bounty. I said that there have been war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan and those people who have got strong allegations against them - George W Bush and Tony Blair have been involved in illegal wars and should be brought to justice. I do not think there's anything wrong with that.

But the liberalconspiracy.org blog asks:

But regardless of whether he offered a bounty or not, the bigger question is whether Lod Ahmed was at an event to express his solidarity with chief of Laskhar-e-Tayyiba: Hafiz Muhammad Saeed. L-e-T is designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States, the UK, Pakistan and India.

If Lord Ahmed was at an event expressing solidarity with the leader of a known terrorist organisation, that in itself should be grounds for expulsion from the Labour party.

Update: Fund for Prosecution

17th April 2012. See article from dailymail.co.uk

Britain's first Muslim peer has offered to set up a £ 10million legal fund to bring Tony Blair before the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

It had been reported initially that Lord Ahmed of Rotherham put up the cash as a bounty for the capture of U.S. president Barack Obama. But a video of his speech at a reception in Pakistan suggests his remarks concerned the former prime minister as well as Obama's predecessor, George W Bush.

He is heard saying in Urdu: Even if I have to beg in Haripur, Pakistan, the U.S. or Britain, even if I have to beg, I am willing to raise and offer £ 10million so that George W Bush and Tony Blair can be brought to the International Court of Justice on war crimes charges.'

Update: Suspension Lifted

8th July 2012. See article from islamophobia-watch.com

A peer suspended by the Labour Party for allegedly offering a £ 10m bounty on the head of US President Barack Obama has had the suspension lifted.

Lord Ahmed, who denied the accusations published in a Pakistani newspaper the Express Tribune, thanked Chief Whip Lord Bassam for a fair investigation. Lord Ahmed said he was delighted the suspension had been lifted as he had been a member of the Labour Party for 34 years.

He told BBC Asian Network said his colleagues in the Lords had been very sympathetic while the suspension was in place. The story was lies and he said he was considering taking legal action against the Express Tribune newspaper, he added.

Islamic terrorists have threatened to target Jedward and other Eurovision participants at the annual music competition in May.

The Azeri terrorists, an Islamic group, have said they will target the participants of the Eurovision song contest in Azerbaijan as they are European scum . It has threatened the use of knives and chemical weapons at the contest.

The terror group said in a statement: Blood of the European scum must be shed by the will of Allah. T he group said the Eurovision is a nightmare for all Muslims.

The statement comes after a widespread crackdown by Azeri authorities on the group in preparation for the contest - 17 members were arrested and one blew up himself and a policeman in recent raids.

Jedward and other travelling participants will now have additional security measures introduced for their protection.

Four muslim men have gone on trial accused of planning an armed attack on a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons of Muhammad.

Prosecutors said the men had plotted to open fire on the offices of Jyllands-Posten on the day that Crown Prince Frederik was due to visit the building. The four had intended to cause heavy loss of life, they said, but the prince was not thought to be the target.

The men have denied terrorism and illegal possession of weapons.

The three Swedish citizens and a Tunisian were detained in December 2010 in Denmark and Sweden. Munir Awad, Omar Abdallah Aboelazm and Munir Ben Mohamed Dhahri, a Tunisian citizen, were picked up by police on 29 December 2010 at a flat near the Danish capital, Copenhagen.

The trial is expected to last two months, with a verdict due in mid-June, the Associated Press reports.

Plans for a new Waitrose superstore in Stirling are on hold after a nearby Islamic Centre which has objected to the application. and threatened potential legal action.

Stirling Council's planning panel approved the application by Stirling Development Agency last month, which will see a Waitrose supermarket, a TK Maxx store and another retail unit built on the city centre site. However, it was under the condition that consultation continued with the community and Central Scotland Islamic Centre, which raised concerns about the sale of alcohol close to their premises, and the overshadowing of the building.

In the letter submitted to the council last week, the centre said:

We are considering legal action against Stirling Council's decision to grant planning permission for the Waitrose application at Burghmuir.

We are clearly of the view that due process was not carried out in that we did not receive the neighbour notification within the statutory timescale and that an Equality Impact Assessment was not carried out prior to the application being determined.

We are considering judicial review of this decision and would appreciate if you can notify Waitrose and Stirling Development Agency accordingly before they consider commencing any work on site. We will be in contact in due course.

Update: Wider community wisely more supportive

16th May 2012. See article from stirlingobserver.co.uk

Stirling's Muslim community have told the Observer of their support for a new Waitrose store, despite an objection by Central Scotland Islamic Centre.

The centre's submission to the council stated the late objection was because their members had never received neighbour notification, and raised concerns about the sale of alcohol so close to their premises, and the overshadowing of the building.

Since then, however, the centre has been left open to criticism from some who say many of its own members sell alcohol in shops, and the stance is hypocritical.

Sources involved with the Islamic Centre, however, told the Observer this week that the objection against Waitrose was a minority view. One local businessman said:

Many Asian businessmen are supportive of a new Waitrose store. We feel it will bring a lot of people into Stirling. Certain city centre stores may be concerned by the competition, but the benefits and the jobs it will bring should outweigh any concerns.

Many of us believe the alcohol issue was almost included in the objection as an afterthought. While we may not drink alcohol ourselves, it is for others to make that choice for themselves. We understand why people might be puzzled as to why that was brought up as an issue with Waitrose when some members of our community sell alcohol in their shops.

If there are any issues with the application we believe these revolve around parking and traffic. All we are concerned with is that there is parking available for the after-school tutoring for the children from 4-6pm and for a ladies class on Monday and Wednesday. These are the actual issues, and they could, we are sure, have been ironed out fairly easily.

The management committee's members possibly felt they were genuinely representing opinions and trying to resolve certain issues within limited time constraints.

Islamic radicals in Germany have launched an unprecedented nationwide campaign to distribute 25 million copies of the Koran, translated into the German language, with the goal of placing one Koran into every household in Germany, free of charge.

The mass proselytization campaign, called Project Read! , is being organized by dozens of Islamic Salafist groups located in cities and towns throughout Germany, Austria and in Switzerland.

Salafism is a branch of radical Islam, practiced in Saudi Arabia, that seeks to establish an Islamic empire (Caliphate) across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, and eventually the entire world.

The campaign is now well under way. More than 100 Salafist information booths have been set up in dozens of German cities, particularly in the regions of North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Hessen and Hamburg.

German Muslims are encouraged to purchase a copy of the Koran (red cover) in order to fund the free distribution of additional copies of the Koran (blue cover). In addition to the public distribution of the Koran on the streets and market places, non-Muslims can order a free copy of the Koran on an Internet website called hausdesqurans.de. The scheme has already distributed more than 300,000 German translations of the Koran, and a fifth print run consisting of tens of thousands of additional copies has already been ordered.

In an effort to improve their image, the Salafists have removed from their information booths all literature about the role of women in Islam or the supremacy of Islamic Sharia law over democracy. Moreover, the German translation of the Koran has edited out many of the verses which call on Muslims to make war on non-believers. According to BfV, the German domestic intelligence agency, the German version of the Koran is rather non-controversial.

Disturbing the Religious Peace

See article from spiegel.de

At first glance, the project appears relatively harmless. Followers of the Salafist imam Ibrahim Abou Nagie have been handing out copies at information stands in city centers across Germany. The group, which calls itself The True Religion, claims that 300,000 copies have already been distributed.

Increasingly, though, skepticism of the project is mounting among leading politicians in Germany, not least because of Nagie's own radical interpretation of Islam. Indeed, last autumn Nagie was indicted for public incitement to commit criminal offenses and for disturbing the religious peace.

Daily Die Welt reported that a video made a brief appearance on YouTube this week apparently targeting journalists that reported critically on the Koran distribution project. We now have detailed information on the monkeys and pigs who published false reports about the (Frankfurt Salafist group) DawaFFM and many other brothers and sisters, the video, which has since been taken down according to Die Welt. We possess a lot of information, for example, we know where you live, we know what football team you root for, we have your mobile phone numbers, it continues. The video names reporters from the dailies Frankfurter Rundschau and Tagesspiegel.

Separate from those revelations, the Ulm-based publishing house Ebner & Spiegel, which is printing the Korans being handed out across the country, has suspended deliveries and is now examining possibilities for backing out of the contract.

The move was a reaction to the growing political debate in Germany focused on the Koran distributions. In particular, as many make clear, it is the Salafist movement itself that most find objectionable. Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the country's domestic intelligence agency warns that the Salafist ideology is almost identical to that of the al-Qaida terrorist network.

Gu nter Krings, a senior member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, told the Rheinische Post that wherever possible, this aggressive action must be stopped. While the distribution of religious writings is in principle unobjectionable ... the aggressive actions of the radical Salafists have disturbed the religious peace in our country.

Green Party co-leader Cem O zdemir was likewise clear in his condemnation of the Salafists. I have a problem with all religious groups that place their world view above the constitution and above human rights. That applies as well to those Salafists who invoke violence and whose ideology fuels Islamist terrorism, he told Die Welt.

Update: Germany considers banning the Salafists

17th May 2012. Based on article from minivannews.com

Germany is considering a ban on Islamic Salafist groups in the wake of violence between Islamic extremists and Germany's far-right anti-Islamists. The government in Germany is considering a ban as concerns mount over their ideological stance which is viewed as politically threatening. CNBC reported Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said:

We will use all the possibilities at the disposal of a constitutional state to oppose them (violent Salafists) wherever they fight against... our constitutional order.

Muslim-Canadian Sooraya Graham, a fine arts student at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, didn't expect to find herself in the middle of a virtual hostage-taking when her project for a photography class was hung in the hallways of the university's art department.

Her photo, a print of a woman wearing full Islamic dress and holding a bra in her hands while folding laundry, was ripped off the wall by an 'outraged' university staffer, an 'international adviser'.

Graham said: She had taken it to her office and held it hostage. She didn't want to return it unless I agreed not to hang it up again. Graham added that the dean immediately went to bat for the work. The photo was returned and hung in a campus gallery, although it had been ripped during its removal.

Christopher Seguin, vice-president of advancement at the university said the institution fully stands behind the work and the incident in no way reflects the views of the university. He said:

It was an individual acting on their own motivations. When we found out [they] had taken the piece of artwork down, we spoke to [them] and [they] made a commitment to replace it.

First and foremost freedom of expression has to be preserved on our campus.

Graham received a brief email apology from the staffer who originally removed the art.

Members of the Saudi Education Centre in Kamloops have spoken out in the media, criticizing Graham's photo mural and calling for her to post an explanatory note with the photo.

When  lawyer Mohammed Enait applied for a job as a client manager at Rotterdam Council, he made it quite clear that his religion forbade him to shake hands with any women he might come into contact with.

Council recruiters in the social services department reacted by telling him to take a hike.

Claiming he was being discriminated against, Enait took the council to a court in The Hague, where his case was dismissed this week.

The court, according to this report, found his refusal to shake hands with females of the species unacceptable , and said his stance would have damaged the relationship between the council and its clients.

The Muslim Brotherhood's candidate for the Egyptian presidency, Khairat Al Shater, declared that introducing Sharia would be his first and final objective if he wins elections in May and June.

Making his first reported statements since the Brotherhood's surprise decision to field him in the elections, Al Shater also promised to reform the Interior Ministry which long played a leading role in suppressing dissent.

Sharia was and will always be my first and final project and objective, Shater was quoted as telling a meeting of the Religious Association for Rights and Reform, a group of which he is a member, along with figures who belong to the hardline Salafist movement.

Update: Banned from Standing

20th April 2012. See article from bbc.co.uk

Egyptian election officials have barred 10 candidates from standing in upcoming polls, including former spy chief Omar Suleiman and the Muslim Brotherhood's Khairat al-Shater. Ultra-orthodox Salafi Hazem Salah Abu Ismail and long-standing opposition leader Ayman Nour were also banned.

Shater, the leader of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, was struck off the list because of a former criminal conviction.

Questions over Shater's eligibility caused the Muslim Brotherhood to enter a second, back-up candidate.

A Saudi court has sentenced a local woman to 50 lashes for swearing at her friend, following an argument, a newspaper reported.

The two Saudi women decided to go out with their children for a weekend night but argued on where to go. The two women decided to split ... one of them later sent a text to her friend's mobile phone swearing at her.

The other woman went to court and showed the judge the message ... although that woman said she was joking, the court ordered her lashed 50 times.

The Egyptian Censorship Authority is to delete all supposedly inappropriate kissing scenes in several films, and has established a list of stars whose films will be banned or censored.

The list includes Adel Imam, Souad Hosni, Nabila Obeid, Nadia Al Jundi, Mirvat Amin, Najla Fathi, Chamss Al Baroudi, Najwa Fouad, Tahia Karioka, Samia Jamal, and Fifi Abdou.

This decision has targeted several movies like Charee Al Hobb, Al Wissada Al Khaliya, Maaboudat Al Jamahir, Al Rajoul al Thani and Al Zawja Rakm 13.

A group of Islamic supervisors of the Egyptian Public Broadcaster will be in charge of removing immoral footage from films the TV network has in its archives. The ban will apply to scenes featuring hugging, kissing and belly dancing.

The daily believes that the setting up of a supervising authority on cinema and TV content is a clear indication of the ground which the Islamic parties have been gaining in post-Mubarak Egypt.

An Egyptian court sentenced a 17-year-old Christian boy to three years in jail for publishing cartoons on his Facebook page that supposedly mocked Islam and Mohammad.

Gamal Abdou Massoud was also accused of distributing some of his cartoons to his school friends in a village in the southern city of Assiut.

Human rights lawyer Negad al-Borai said the jail sentence was the maximum penalty under Egyptian law for such a crime.

Assiut child's court ordered the jailing of Gamal Abdou Massoud ... for three years after he insulted Islam and published and distributed pictures that insulted Islam and its Prophet, the court said in a statement seen by Reuters.

Some muslims responded to the cartoon in traditional violent fashion. Muslims attacked several Christian houses, which were burned, and several Christians were injured in the violence.

Tunisia's ruling Islamist party, Ennahda, decided against enshrining Sharia in the country's new democratic constitution, opting instead to preserve Article 1 of the 1959 constitution. The party's constituent committee voted to maintain the constitutional article by 52 votes to 12.

Article 1 stipulates that Tunisia is a free, sovereign and independent republic, where Islam is the official faith and Arabic the official language.

Ennahda believes that the wording of the article is agreed upon by the general consensus of all components of Tunisian society, party leader Rachid Ghannouchi announced: It preserves the Arab Islamic identity of the state .

On March 16th, hundreds of Tunisians staged a demonstration in front of the Constituent Assembly calling for the adoption of the Sharia in the new Constitution and holding up banners rejecting democracy.

Ennahda's decision to keep Article 1 of the Constitution was not warmly welcomed by all. Habib al-Lawz, one of the party leaders, issued a statement saying he would fight to amend the resolution.

ABC's new Sunday night program GCB (original title: Good Christian Bitches ) imitates the Desperate Housewives formula: take a number of shallow, materialistic, sex-obsessed women; give them some pretext, no matter how flimsy, for acting catty and sniping at one another; and add a few bumbling, clueless, token husbands. Result: a new nighttime soap. Unfortunately, the Disney-owned network has also found it necessary to inject an insultingly caricatured and totally one-sided image of religion into the picture. All of the villainous, vengeance-crazed women are devout Christians.

The program's protagonist, non-believer Amanda -- supposedly the queen bitch in high school -- possesses the virtues of a saint. Meanwhile, the show's churchgoing good Christian women -- particularly their chief, Carlene Cockburn -- are presented as petty, two-faced, back-stabbing, liquor-swilling, sexually aggressive hypocrites.

This one-sided portrayal of Christians as uniformly wicked, and the show's sleazy mixture of sex and religious sentiment, reveal the attitudes of GCB's makers. The ONLY time Scripture is quoted on the program is when Carlene uses it as a hypocritical excuse to perform some blatantly un-Christian action. The ONLY thing viewers see occurring during the church service is Carlene offering a back-stabbing, slanderous prayer to attack other people. And the ONLY decent, likeable character on the program is also the only one who professes no religion. On GCB, Christianity is ALWAYS a farce, and ALL Christians are hypocrites, who ONLY use their religion to attack others and justify their own sinful actions.

GCB is merely the latest and most extreme example of the entertainment industry's uniquely unfair treatment of Christians and their religion. When does scripted prime-time television ever show Christianity as a positive influence, either in private life or in society as a whole?

At least 38 people have died in a car bombing in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna, officials said. Many others were injured in the attack, which took place when officials stopped the vehicle as it approached a church.

Just hours afterwards, a bomb exploded in the central city of Jos, injuring several people.

No-one has admitted carrying out the bombings, but suspicion has fallen on Boko Haram, an extremist muslim group which had warned of attacks over Easter.

Extremist muslims have moved to impose sharia law in northern Mali after helping Tuareg separatists seize key towns, ransacking bars and banning Western-style clothes and music.

Residents in the ancient trading post of Timbuktu said local Ansar Dine Islamists, who alongside Tuareg separatists seized the town, had declared they were in control of the former Saharan tourist draw and would impose Islamic law.

A Reuters reporter in the northern city of Gao, seized by rebels the day before, said Islamists there were ransacking bars and hotels serving alcohol. In Kidal, the third main town of the region, one resident told Reuters music had been barred from radio stations and Western-style clothes had been banned.

Police in Bangladesh have said they had arrested two school teachers on suspicion of staging a drama containing blasphemous remarks about Muhammad. The school's Muslim headmaster and a female Hindu teacher were detained as a mob protested the play following weekly prayers at Kaliganj.

The protesters alleged that the play, entitled Huzur Qibla , which was staged by pupils  contained derogatory remarks about Muhammed.

The local police official told AFP said the teachers had been accused of hurting religious sentiment for helping organise the drama at their school.

At least 3,000 demonstrators barricaded a key road and held noisy protests in front of the school and in other towns in the district. Violence erupted as up to 7,000 Muslims shouted slogans and set ablaze the house of the drama's director, who has fled the area.

Tunisian authorities have sentenced two young Facebook users to seven years in jail after they published cartoons of Mohammad on the social network.

Tunisia's 'justice' ministry says that the duo posted images showing Mohammad naked which, according to spokesperson Chokri Nefti, saw them punished for violation of morality, and disturbing public order.

One of the men, Jabeur Mejri, is already incarcerated while police are actively seeking the other, Ghazi Beji, who was sentenced in absentia.

Local blogger Nebil Zagdoud told Reuters that the sentences are very heavy and severe, even if these young people were at fault. This decision is aimed at silencing freedom of expression even on the Internet. Prosecutions for offending morals are a proxy for this government to gag everyone.

Tunisia is still on Reporters without Borders' list of countries under surveillance despite attempts by the newly formed government to distance itself from tactics used by its predecessors.

Update: Appealling

3rd June 2012. See article from english.alarabiya.net

A court hearing of the appeal of a Tunisian young man sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison for publishing cartoons of Prophet Mohammed is set to resume, according to one of his lawyers.

We made a request for our client's medical assessment because we want to prove that he suffers from psychological problems, Bochra Bel Haj Hamida, told AFP, adding that the court will respond to their request. In any case, we are going to ask for a dismissal of this case, she said.

Update: Appeal Fails

26th June 2012. Based on article from minivannews.com

A Tunisian appeals court has upheld the 7-year sentence for the man convicted of blasphemy for posting Muhammad cartoons on Facebook.

Jaber Majeri was convicted March 28 for posting images of the religious character purportedly being intimate with one of his wives. He was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison and fined $800.

Update: Appeal cancelled

27th April 2013. See article from uncut.indexoncensorship.org

Tunisia's Court of Cassation failed to review the seven-and-a-half year sentence of Jabeur Mejri, who was convicted last year of publishing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad on Facebook. Mejri's lawyer, Mohammed Mselmi, told AFP that the demand for an appeal was mysteriously withdrawn , even though a hearing had been scheduled on 25 April.

The defence team will now seek a presidential pardon for their client.

Muslims in northeastern Kazakhstan have been 'outraged' by the appearance of a new brand of vodka bearing the name of God.

KTK television reports that vodka bottles with the Arabic inscription, Allah's strength is enough for everybody, have appeared in shops all over the city of Semey (formerly Semipalatinsk).

Imams are outraged: They haven't seen a bigger sin, says the report. Imam Bekzat Boranbai uly told KTK:

It's difficult for me to even speak about this. The only salvation for those who did this is to repent. After all, Allah is against alcohol. And here you have such mockery.

A representative of the Aktobe factory that produces the vodka denied intentional blasphemy, insisting the labels and caps are manufactured in Russia.

Update: Withdrawn

6th April 2012. See article from washingtonpost.com

Kazakh authorities say a new vodka brand that uses the word Allah on its bottles is being withdrawn from circulation after protests from 'outraged' Muslims.

Local media say makers of the liquor have apologized for the blasphemy, saying it was unaware as nobody in the company could read Arabic script.

Malaysia has banned a Singaporean dance company from performing ballet in Kuala Lumpur because of their indecent tutus and tights, The Malaysian Insider reported.

The censors from Puspal or the Central Agency for the Application for Filming and Performance by Foreign Artists work for Malaysia's Information Communication and Culture Ministry.

Bilqis Hijjas, president of a Malaysian dance group called MyDance Alliance, said the decision by Puspal against the Singapore Dance Theatre was deplorable and would hurt Malaysia's reputation as a reliable host for cultural shows, The Malaysian Insider stated. She said:

KLPac is a private business on private ground with paying audiences who were well aware of what they were coming to see and not one of whom would have been distressed by the costumes.

She noted that the women's costumes featured long skirts except for dancers in The Nutcracker who would have worn the same short classical tutus and tights that have been used since ballet dancers performed before the Russian tsars in the 1870s.

Bilqis pointed out that the arts were also a business and that Puspal's decision would create enormous doubt among international investors causing them to bypass Malaysia as a venue for world-class performers.

Bilqis said she hoped the show would be allowed to go on with better leadership from the ministry as it was an act that would raise its prestige as an open and consistent incubator of the arts.

According to Stephen Green, leader of Christian Voice, there is a simple explanation for the infestation of mice which has forced Tesco's Metro store in Covent Garden to close. He said:

Nothing has gone right for Tesco since they decided to support Gay Pride. Their only hope is to repent of that decision and put their trust in God.

Green blames Tesco's gift of £ 30,000 to London Gay Pride in November 2011 for the mouse infestation. He also says this has led to a drop in sales and profits, a poor performance over the Christmas period and a plummeting in share prices.

Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall retorted:

In comparison with years of famine, plagues of locusts and pillars of salt, the Good Lord can't be very displeased if all he has arranged on this occasion is a minor infestation of mice at Tesco Metro in London WC2.

A Christian doctor is suing his employers for unfair dismissal after being sacked following his sending of a motivational prayer e-mail to colleagues and a Christmas text message to one individual.

Dr David Drew's employers at Walsall Manor Hospital complained that his behaviour was inappropriate after he e-mailed a prayer by St Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, to colleagues for motivation.

The employment tribunal in Birmingham heard that his bosses also complained that he sent a Christmas text message to a colleague which read have a peaceful Christmas .

The Doctor was finally dismissed after he failed to accept one of the recommendations of the investigation against him which ordered that he refrain from using religious references in his professional communications, verbal or written . He was told that unless he agreed to the recommendations and accept them without questioning then he should resign.

The hearing continues.

Up to 400 women and girls are being held in Afghan prisons for moral crimes including running away from home to escape beatings or forced marriage according to a study.

Virtually all teenage girls held in prison are accused of immorality, either extramarital sex or running away, and around half of adult women inmates.

Imprisonment for immorality has risen steadily since a supreme court ruling that any woman who runs away from her home and does not immediately go to a close relative or the police should be imprisoned.

The report by Human Rights Watch found many inmates had fled a forced marriage, or violent husbands and in-laws. In some cases women had been charged with having extramarital sex after being raped or forced into prostitution, it said.

Running away is not an offence under the Afghan penal code, but the supreme court advised in 2010 that women and girls who flee their homes should be locked up as a precaution against prostitution and promiscuity.

Kuwait's National Assembly has discussed a proposal to amend the Penal Code, increasing the legal punishment for anyone proven to have publicly committed blasphemy. The Legal and Legislative committee was assigned to review the amendment and form a report to be debated and voted on during the April 10 session.

The amendment proposal stipulates the death penalty or life imprisonment to those who publicly insult God, or Mohammed or his wives by words, writings, drawings, or pictures or any other means of expression in a public place or where they can be seen or heard by those in a public arena.

The amendment further adds that the punishment may be reduced to provisional detention for a period not exceeding five years if the convicted expresses remorse and regret in writing and verbally and vows not to return to his previous conduct . If the convicted returns to his previous behavior, then the Court of Cassation must carry out the previous penalty, according to the proposal.

The amendment to Article 111 of the Penal Code was submitted following the arrest of a Kuwaiti citizen who made supposedly blasphemous remarks on Twitter.

The Assembly severely condemned the perpetrator and accused the Cabinet, specifically the Interior Ministry for failing to curb the recurrent phenomenon of blasphemy against Mohammed and his wives. They urged the approval of the legislation and the penalties.

Albanian religious leaders have had ab whinge at a planned gay pride parade, with a spokesman for the Muslim community claiming it would pose a danger to society. Agron Hoxha spouted:

Such public demonstration is an abuse of human rights and freedoms and presents a danger for the morals and tradition of the Albanian family,

The Catholic Church also opposes the planned parade in Tirana on May 17, said spokesman Gjergj Meta, spouting that:

homosexuality is opposed to the natural order and the morals of society.

The Royalist party, part of Albania's ruling coalition, also opposes the planned parade, which will be a first in the country, spouting:

Homosexuality is a sexual deviation, a vice, a misfortune or a curse that cannot be tolerated, the party said in a statement.

A string of orchestrated explosions rocked southern Thailand over the weekend, killing 14 people, wounding 340 and raising fears of larger and deadlier bombs being used by Muslim insurgents.

One attack came just before noon on Saturday at a busy shopping and dining area in the city of Yala, the capital of Thailand's southernmost province: After a large truck bomb exploded, a car bomb went off 20 minutes later as onlookers gathered and rescue personnel began to arrive. The twin blasts accounted for 11 of the 14 fatalities.

This is the worst attack in the past few years, Col. Pramote Promin, deputy spokesman of a regional security agency, told The Associated Press. The suspected insurgents were targeting people's lives. They (chose) a bustling commercial area, so they wanted to harm people.

Another bomb attack on Saturday, in the southern city of Hat Yai, struck a high-rise hotel favored by Singaporean and Malaysian vacationers, The A.P. reported. The explosion started a fire in the hotel, and photos at the scene showed a ground-floor McDonald's engulfed in smoke.

Also, the police said, a motorcycle bomb exploded near a police station in the Mae Lan district of Pattani Province, wounding one police officer.

UK Ministers are preparing to change the law to ensure that meat slaughtered according to religious rules cannot be sold to unwitting members of the public.

The Government is drawing up plans to prevent schools, hospitals, pubs and famous sporting venues from serving halal meat secretly to customers.

The move will be welcomed by animal rights campaigners, who abhor the cruel slaughter which involves killing animals by drawing a knife across their throats without stunning them first.

Environment Minister Lord Taylor of Holbeach has said that if the European Union fails to agree on a new food labelling scheme, the UK will take action. The European Commission is considering the matter as part of its animal welfare strategy and is expected to report by the summer. Lord Taylor told peers:

The Government welcomes this approach as it will allow consumer information to be considered alongside measures to minimise the suffering of animals slaughtered without stunning. In the meantime we are considering how we can use domestic legislation.

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said:

This sounds like a very progressive move. We have been pushing the EU to act for some time. If the Government is going to take this step, it will help consumers to make an ethical choice.

A Defra spokesman said:

We believe people should continue to be able to buy meat prepared in accordance with their religion, but that people should also be able to find out how a product was prepared when they are buying in shops or eating out.