The European Union's French presidency has condemned the planned stoning of eight women and one man sentenced to death for adultery, calling for a halt to their execution.

The European Union urges Iran to put an immediate stop to these executions and to commute the death sentences by stoning that have just been passed, the EU's French presidency said in a statement.

It said it was deeply concerned by the fate of the nine, stressing that Iran had pledged to introduce a moratorium on stoning.

It was described as an exemplary piece of programme making by an award winning film-maker which launched a week of television coverage of Islam.

But a Channel 4 documentary on the Qur'an has angered a group of leading Shia Muslim scholars, who have criticised it for making seriously inaccurate statements about their branch of the faith.

In a letter to Channel 4, they said that the depiction of Shia beliefs in The Qur'an, broadcast earlier this month, was disappointing, misleading, even defamatory.

The signatories to the letter were also angered by the apparent links made between Shiaism and violence, with scenes of Iranian Shias burning effigies, chanting anti-western slogans, and advocating acts of terror.

In the documentary, film-maker Antony Thomas explored the history of Islam's holy book, examining it for statements on equality, suicide bombings, and relationships with other faiths.

While some critics hailed it as a masterpiece, it angered prominent Shias. The denomination comprises up to 20% of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims.

But criticism of the programme was not confined to the Shia scholars. Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, also wrote to Channel 4's chief executive, Andy Duncan, last Thursday, warning of specific misrepresentations that could damage cohesion between Muslim communities. The programme unfairly maligns Muslims following the Shia tradition by accusing them of heresy based on a collection of age-old polemics and misinformation, Bari's letter said. With respect, this is an irresponsible portrayal which plays into the hands of those who wish to seek discord amongst Muslims, which we hope you did not intend.

The organization Hazteoir.org filed a complaint with Spain's Attorney General against the organizers of a July 5 “gay pride” parade for inciting religious hatred.

The gay pride parade, which took place in Madrid, is renowned not only for its graphic and supposedly violent displays of homosexual sex, but also for its unsurprising aggression against the Catholic faith. Many participants dress up in clerical or religious garb combined with sexual objects, and others carry signs that mock the Pope, the bishops and Catholics in general.

According to Hazteoir.org, participants also denigrated Catholic images and symbols, which would have been denounced had the target of the attacks been any other religious or social group.

We are filing this complaint in order to ensure that in Spain you can no longer get off scot-free offending the Church, the symbols and the beliefs of the majority of Spanish society, the organization's president, Ignacio Arsuaga said. He explained that the complaint filed with the Attorney General shows that the parade was not a case of freedom of speech but actually promoted hatred and discrimination against Catholics.

Conservative leader David Cameron has been criticised by nutters over his joke that he is considering introducing Sharia law for bicycle theft.

Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, said today:

We have had the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chief Justice saying aspects of Sharia law cold be introduced into civil proceedings. That was bad enough, but Cameron has gone one further, by suggesting that Sharia principles could be of value in our criminal law.

He may have thought it was a joke, but cutting peoples' hands cut off for theft isn't funny.

The idea of replacing our Judeo-Christian law with Islamic Sharia law isn't funny either.

Just two weeks ago, I was debating with Muslims in Queen Mary's University of London , opposing the motion: 'This House believes that Islam is the only intellectual and Political challenge to Liberal Secularism.'

These guys were moderate Muslims, but they were adamant that only Islam held the answer for the problems of British society.

Now the leader of Her Majesty's Opposition has encouraged that idea and raised expectations amongst Muslims that their criminal legal system could be of value in Britain .

David Cameron ought to go away and study what is happening in his own country. It is good that he has in a sense been 'mugged by reality' over crime but he is completely out of touch with the realities of Islamic ambition in this land.

A leading art gallery is being taken to court over claims that it outraged public decency by displaying a statue depicting Christ with an erection.

The sculpture was the most provocative item in an exhibition at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead.

Despite signs warning of the exhibition's explicit nature, the gallery received complaints.

A private prosecution has now been launched and the first hearing in what could prove a landmark case has been set for September.

Legal documents claim that the gallery has both offended public decency and breached Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986. The maximum penalty for outraging public decency is six months' imprisonment and a £5,000 fine.

The documents claim that the foot-high sculpture was ‘offensive and disgusting' and likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to Christians and those of other faiths.
Controversial: Chinese-born artist Terence Ko

Legal experts said yesterday that the hearing would be the first test of public decency legislation since the Government scrapped Britain's ancient blasphemy laws in May.

The prosecution has been launched by Emily Mapfuwa who read about the exhibition in newspapers. I don't think this gallery would insult Muslims in this way, so why Christians? she said.

Father Christopher Warren, of the Roman Catholic cathedral of St Mary's in Newcastle upon Tyne, said: For Christians the image of Jesus is very special and to interpret it in a sexualised way is an affront to what we hold dear.

Update: Jesus Dick in Court

4th September 2008

The case in now scheduled to be heard in Crown Court on 23rd September 2008

A newspaper editor has received death threats from militant groups for publishing a cartoon of a radical woman Islamic leader encouraging her pupils to wage holy war.

Najam Sethi, chief editor of the Daily Times, one of Pakistan's most respected English language newspapers and its sister paper Daily Aaj Kal, now moves under heavy security after ultra-conservative Islamic elements warned him of serious consequences if he did not repent. His house in Lahore is now guarded by six army commandos.

The threats were provoked by the publication of a cartoon in Aaj Kal depicting Umme Hassan, principal of a radical women's madrassa, in a veil “educating” female students to wage jihad and embrace martyrdom.

Ms Hassan is the wife of Abdul Aziz, the prayer leader of the Red Mosque in Islamabad, who was jailed after the mosque was stormed by Pakistani troops last year. Addressing a rally on the anniversary of the Red Mosque raid in Islamabad last week, Ms Hassan declared that the cartoon was blasphemous, equating it with Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

Other clerics of the Red Mosque argued that since Ms Hassan was teaching the Koran to her students in the mosque, any attempt to belittle her was blasphemous.

After the rally, anonymous callers threatened staff in the paper's Islamabad offices. Security officials said that the threat was serious as soldiers involved in the raid on the Red Mosque had been the target of suicide attacks.

Russia's highest Muslim council on Saturday issued a protest against a ban on some Islamic publications considered by the authorities to be "extremist".

The Council of Muftis has taken a decision to request that the relevant institutions of the Russian Federation carry out a repeat analysis of the books, the council said in a statement.

Starting last year, the authorities have compiled a regularly updated list of publications seen as breaking sweeping new laws against extremism. Most of the banned books are linked to Islam.

Infuriated because his younger sister was going to clubs, wearing immodest clothing and planning to leave her family for a new life in New York City, Waheed Allah Mohammad stabbed her outside their Henrietta home, prosecutors allege.

Afterward, he told Monroe County sheriff's investigators that he attacked his sister because she had disgraced their family and was a bad Muslim girl, according to court documents.

Mohammad, 22, is scheduled to appear in Monroe County Court on charges of attempted second-degree murder and first-degree assault in the May 8 attack on Fauzia A. Mohammad, 19.

The case is the second in four years in Monroe County in which an immigrant from South Asia is alleged to have killed or tried to kill a family member over the perceived loss of family honor — an occurrence that is not uncommon in South Asia but is rare in the United States.

Fauzia Mohammad is recovering from her wounds.

A Pakistani couple has appealed a court decision to award custody of their two daughters, 10 and 13, to the children's alleged kidnappers. The court based its custody decision on the girls' conversion to Islam.

'Judge' Main Naeem Sardar ruled that Saba Masih, 13, and Aneela Masih, 10, had become Muslims, invalidating their Christian parents' right to legal guardianship.

He said that because the parents are Christians and because the girls told the court that they adopted Islam, their relationship has ceased, lawyer Rashid Rehman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) told Compass. Under a common interpretation of Islamic law, a Christian cannot have custody of a Muslim.

According to the HRCP's most recent annual report on human rights in Pakistan, crime against children, especially kidnapping, remains a serious problem. In Muzaffargarh district, where Aneela and Saba Masih lived, 24 children were freed in March 2007 from a “mini-jail” at an Islamic seminary, where they had been tortured and sodomized, the HRCP reported.

According to Rehman, religious minorities are an easy target for kidnappers both because they are typically underprivileged and because of religious bias against them.

Local police and judges have their subconscious mindset that if you help Muslims [in such cases], it's a very noble cause and a very religious cause, the lawyer said.

Nine people in Iran, eight women and one man, have been sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of adultery in verdicts lawyers blame on a resurgence of hardline Islamic fundamentalism.

The sentences have been imposed in courts across the country despite a supposed moratorium on the punishment, which Iran says is justified under sharia law.

Lawyers say most of the nine have been victims of violence and are mostly too ill-educated to understand the charges against them.

Many of the sentences were handed down after hearings held in private without the presence of witnesses and defence lawyers.

Details of the sentences were disclosed by Iranian lawyers yesterday in Tehran as they attempted to generate international support for a campaign to force Iran's government to abolish stoning.

These women mostly come from the illiterate masses and did not have money or access to a lawyer. Many did not understand Farsi and, of course, all the interrogations were in Farsi, Shadi Sadr, a prominent Iranian human rights lawyer, told the Guardian. In all of the cases, there has been violence against them, or they have been forced into marriages, or their divorce applications have been refused. In some cases, they couldn't apply for a divorce due to family pressures.

They came to light after a group of Iranian lawyers embarked on a campaign to halt stoning, which has been condemned by international human rights groups. The lawyers are calling on Iran's judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, to issue pardons.

However, Shahroudi's influence in the current political climate is believed to be limited. Last year, he ordered a stay of execution for a man condemned to be stoned for adultery but local officials carried out the sentence in violation of his orders.

Love your neighbour... ...and use a fucking condom!

Last Wednesday, Congressman Henry Waxman conducted the first-ever hearing on the effectiveness of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. It took 12 years of conservative congressional leadership and $1.5 billion before we finally achieved some public accountability for these failed programs.

The spotlight, and pressure, now clearly shifts to the House Democratic leadership to act. After the overwhelming evidence highlighting the ineffectiveness of abstinence-only programs presented at last week's hearing.

The hearing produced a litany of rejection of abstinence-only programs from mainstream, science-based public health organizations. The American Academy of Pediatrics testified that the abstinence-only approach was not only ineffective, but could cause real harm to young people. The Institute of Medicine stated that continued support for these programs does not comport with the evidence. The American Public Health Association also rejected abstinence-only programs and cited the significance of 17 states rejecting abstinence-only dollars in the face of the enormous need for public health resources at the state level.

Dr. John Santelli from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health summed it all up by explaining that abstinence has a legitimate role within comprehensive sex education which also includes birth control and condoms. However, abstinence-only programs that exclude information about birth control and condoms, have no place at the center of federal sex education policy.

If we listen to the experts from last week, the path for Democratic leaders is clear -- it's time to support what works. All the data, the studies, and the logic, point to one conclusion -- a comprehensive approach to sex education that includes birth control and condoms, as well as abstinence, works.

One of the stars of Monty Python's Life of Brian is to look into lifting a long-standing ban on it in the town she presides in as mayor.

Sue Jones-Davies, the mayor of Aberystwyth, rose to fame when she played the part of Judith, Brian's girlfriend.

The film caused outrage among Christian nutters all over the world who complained its content was blasphemous. As a result some areas, including Aberystwyth, prevented the film from being shown in cinemas.

The ban in Aberystwyth still stands to this day, nearly 30 years after the film's release.

Sue Jones-Davies, who is now a Plaid Cymru town councillor and yoga teacher, said she is going to investigate the possibility of lifting the ban: I didn't even know the ban was in existence until Friday. It isn't something I have been worrying about. It is intriguing to think it is banned but I suppose these things come into place and, unless they are revoked, the ban remains. Maybe you can still get prosecuted for showing it. I think it has been shown in the town before but it was shown quietly.

I don't think it would harm the religious faith. I'm going to talk to my town clerk Jim Griffiths and we will be investigating.

Update: Local Nutter Weighs In

27th July 2008

Reverend Nutter Stuart Bell said: If it was an unpleasant film 30 years ago, then it remains an unpleasant film 30 years later. I have not seen the film, nor have I any wish to do so. And I would have thought there are many issues of more importance to the people of Aberystwyth for the mayor to consider than having a ban on this film removed.

It looks increasingly unlikely that cinema audiences in this world will get to see the planned film sequels in Philip Pullman's children's fantasy trilogy, His Dark Materials.

Sources in the film industry said that plans for a sequel to The Golden Compass appeared to have been put on ice following the fervent Christian protests surrounding the first film, which led to boycotts and box office disappointment in the United States.

Pullman told The Independent that he had not yet been contacted by Shepperton Studios and was not aware of any imminent plans to film the sequel, The Subtle Knife.

When The Golden Compass was released last year, New Line Cinema had high hopes for the trilogy, and the sequel was due to be released by the end of 2009.

But then the Christian boycotts started and the film sunk in the US, making a meagre $70m (£35m), although it took a hefty $300m internationally. New Line has since been merged with Warner Brothers.

A groundbreaking Saudi-sponsored interfaith dialogue on July 18, predictably called for the criminalisation of blasphemy.

(The conference) calls for international organizations to work to issue a document stating respect of faiths and religious symbols and criminalizing those insulting them, said the conference in a final communiqué.

The conference called on the UN General Assembly to call a special session to promote dialogue and prevent a clash of civilizations. It also calls for pursuing dialogue to spread the culture of tolerance and understanding.

Opened on Wednesday, the three-day conference brought together 200 participants from different faith to bring world's great monotheistic faiths closer.

Leading among attendees were Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdel-Aziz, secretary general of the World Jewish Congress, Michael Schneider, and Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who is responsible for dialogue between the Vatican and Muslims.

Discussions touched upon a number of hot issues including restrictions on hijab-wearing in some European countries to Prophet Muhammad lampooning cartoons.

Based on article from nysun.com

The conference concluded on a sour note this afternoon as Christian and Jewish participants complained that the organizers, the Muslim World League, had too much control over the conference's closing communiqué.

The major complaint of many participants was that the document appears to have been revised at some stage without the consent of members of a drafting committee. And the vast majority of participants never had a chance to review any version of the statement before Mr. Al-Zaid of the Muslim World League read it aloud.

For us as participants from other religions this is not an acceptable procedure for adopting documents, a Russian Orthodox priest participating in the conference, George Ryabykh, said.

The body of a Christian teenager has been dragged out of a canal in Pakistan after he was allegedly tortured to death in a honour killing for seeing a Muslim girl.

The 19-year-old victim, was brought up by Christian parents in a city in Punjab. He met the 19-year-old girl on their way to school.

Although it was taboo for Muslims and Christians to become romantically linked they started to call one another on their mobile phones.

The girls parents issued a stark warning that they would not permit a Christian man to disgrace Islam, and threatened to kill the boy if the relationship continued.

But the relationship continued until the boy was lured to his death at the hands of the family of his girl. They held him and tortured him for almost two days until he died.

Eventually, the teenager's body was pulled out of a canal.

Lawyers say the police refuse to report the case as murder and are insisting on registering the cause of death as suicide.

The police were biased, because it was a matter of religion, says Joseph Francis. The Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement has now taken up the case with the authorities and is pressing for justice for the victim's family.

Christian Voice nutter, Stephen Green, has been noted arguing a particularly reprehensible line of reasoning. You don't get much lower than this.

From the Guardian:

On Sunday evening, a lone campaigner stood outside St Mary's church, Putney. Stephen Green, a haggard and unshaven figure, obsessed and weighed down by the wickedness of modern Britain, handed out leaflets warning of the consequences of same-sex love, while announcing to anyone who would listen: Homosexuality and sexual immorality is all on a continuum with paedophilia, bestiality, adultery, child-sacrifice. You are saying it is all OK.

Yemeni Muslim preachers have withdrawn calls for the establishment of an organisation for promoting virtue and combating vice after rights activists voiced fears that religious police could undermine freedoms.

Around 4,000 preachers gathered at a conference centre in the capital Sana'a and called instead for an annual meeting to discuss violations against teachings of the Islamic law and public morals.

The gathering particularly criticised prostitution activities in some cities and publicly serving alcohol at hotels and restaurants frequented by foreigners and locals alike.

Our society is being invaded by the viruses of vice that destroyed the people, and it is necessary now to protect and guard the religion and people, fundamentalist Islamic leader Abdul-Majeed al-Zendani said in an address to the gathering.

Authorities were quick to respond to the call and closed several venues, including a Chinese massage club and two restaurants which serve alcohol in Sana'a.

The Arlington Group, a coalition of Christian nutter organizations that includes Focus on the Family, met with Marriott International officials in April to try and persuade the hotel chain to stop offering pay-per-view adult movies in its rooms.

Marriott offers the programming in most of its 3,000 U.S. hotels, and the Arlington Group representatives urged the chain to adopt an "opt-in" television system, in which guests would have to contact the front desk to receive adult entertainment. Currently, the programming is available in hotel rooms until guests opt out.

At the meeting, the group presented Marriott officials with 102,000 signatures from people wanting the chain to stop offering adult entertainment. Of those signatures, 9,000 were from Marriott Rewards Card members.

Marriott responded in a letter dated June 26 to Donald Wildman, president of the nutter action group American Family Association, which is part of the coalition.

The letter said the company was in conversation with its adult-entertainment provider, Lodgenet, about the opt-in procedure, said Roger Conner, vice president of communications for Marriott International. Marriott took no other action but promised it would raise the issue at its owners meeting in late July, Conner said.

In a terse letter to Marriott dated July 14, Wildman imposed a deadline of Aug. 15 to hear a definite response on concrete actions taken toward the removal of pornography from your properties.

Love your neighbour... ...unless of course he's gay

Public servants should not be allowed to discriminate on the grounds of their beliefs, Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP Diane Abbott said today.

She has tabled a motion in the Commons, urging a change in the law.

Last week Lillian Ladele, a marriage registrar, claimed that she was discriminated against because of her religion when she refused to conduct civil partnership ceremonies while employed by Islington council.

An employment tribunal agreed. Her victory could set a precedent that will allow people with strong religious convictions to opt out of the provision of services to gays, lesbians and bisexuals.

Islington Council has decided it will appeal against the employment tribunal ruling.

It emerged earlier this week that Ms Ladele is an unmarried single mother. She told the Mail that she gave birth to an illegitimate son when she was 20. I would never claim to be perfect, she said.

The revelation has led to accusations that she was not properly cross-examined at the tribunal about the nature of her religious faith.

The BBC have just sent a bailiff to serve a statutory demand on Christian activist Stephen Green in respect of Mark Thompson's costs of £55,000 in the Jerry Springer the Opera case.

The demand could see Green made bankrupt and homeless.

The High Court ruled last December that Stephen Green could not prosecute Mark Thompson, the Director General of the BBC, and Jonathan Thoday of Avalon over the BBC2 broadcast of Jerry Springer the Opera and its subsequent theatre tour. The Court ordered costs against him.

Last month, Stephen Green wrote to both Mark Thompson and Jonathan Thoday inviting them to waive their costs in the interests of goodwill and justice. The appeal to the better nature of Thompson has fallen on deaf ears.

Anti-pope activists in Australia have won permission to 'annoy' Catholic pilgrims at the World Youth Day celebrations in Sydney after a court upheld their right to hand out condoms and coat hangers.

The decision, by the Federal Court, strikes down a law introduced by the state of New South Wales that would have fined anyone causing annoyance to the estimated 225,000 pilgrims visiting Sydney to celebrate with Pope Benedict XVI. The fines could have been up to A$5,500 (£2,700).

As soon as the court had given its ruling, Rachel Evans, one of two protesters from the No To Pope Coalition who brought the case, started handing out condoms to pilgrims. We're not seeking to annoy or inconvenience anyone, she said, wearing a T-shirt declaring: The Pope is wrong, put a condom on.

The New South Wales government had claimed that the new regulations extended to police the same rights to suppress trouble as they already had for big sporting events. It emphasised that a ban on causing inconvenience remained in force.

Ms Evans and another student activist, Amber Pike, argued that the law was unconstitutional because it infringed their right to peaceful protest. The judges ruled that the attempt to regulate annoying behaviour would affect freedom of speech because of uncertainty about how it could be defined.

The statement from the judges was very clear, Ms Evans said. We have the right to peaceful assembly and these annoyance laws contravene that right. The judges specifically said condoms, T-shirts, coat hangers and so on.

Protesters are handing out coat hangers as a reference to backstreet abortions — a consequence, they say, of Catholic opposition to contraception and abortion.

The Muslim cleric Sheikh Imam Fawaz Jneid is claiming 55,000 euros in damages from far-right Freedom Party MP Geert Wilders for allegedly damaging his reputation. The cleric was shown in Wilders' film Fitna.

Wilders, quoted by Radio Netherlands says Jneid's claim is the world upside down.

Love your neighbour... ...unless of course he's gay

A Christian registrar who refused to carry out gay 'weddings' has won a landmark legal battle.

Lillian Ladele was threatened with the sack and thrown before the lions after asking to be excused from conducting civil partnerships for same-sex couples because of her religious beliefs.

But a tribunal agreed that her faith had been ridden roughshod over by equalities-targeted Islington Council, which had sought to trump one set of rights with another.

The groundbreaking decision could lead to firms facing 'conscience claims' from staff who say their own beliefs prevent them carrying out part of their job.

The ruling found that Liberal Democrat-run Islington Council in North London cared too much about the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual community. It also found that the council – which gave Miss Ladele an ultimatum to choose between her beliefs and her £31,000-a-year job – showed no respect for her rights as a Christian.

Compensation will be decided in September. There is no limit to the amount that can be awarded for religious discrimination.

Last night employment lawyer Lisa Mayhew, of Jones Day, said: It is a bit of a wake-up call for employers. They need to think about whether their instructions and the tasks expected of staff might cause people with religious beliefs more problems than others. It does not have to be religion – this could apply across the spectrum in terms of race, gender or sexual orientation.

Comment: Divorced from Christian Teaching

Thanks to Alan

Nice to be proved right a few years late! When the legislation banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and religion was introduced, I was earning my living through expertise in the field of employment relations, and I said at the time that we would have to see what happened when the two inevitably clashed, given that homosexual relations are a taboo for most religions.

The baffling thing about this case is that Ms Ladele's scruples only kick in about homosexual civil partnerships. OK, the Old Testament and Saint Paul have quite a bit to say about the evils of sodomy, but registry offices have long been the venue of choice for people defying the instructions of the late, great JC himself, by putting away their wives and taking another.

The US Justice Department is considering a change in the grounds on which the FBI can investigate citizens and legal residents of the United States. Till now, DOJ guidelines have required the FBI to have some evidence of wrongdoing before it opens an investigation. The impending new rules, which would be implemented later this summer, allow bureau agents to establish a terrorist profile or pattern of behavior and attributes and, on the basis of that profile, start investigating an individual or group. Agents would be permitted to ask "open-ended questions" concerning the activities of Muslim Americans and Arab-Americans. A person's travel and occupation, as well as race or ethnicity, could be grounds for opening a national security investigation.

The rumored changes have provoked protests from Muslim American and Arab-American groups. The Council on American Islamic Relations, among the more effective lobbies for Muslim Americans' civil liberties, immediately denounced the plan, as did James Zogby, the president of the Arab-American Institute. Said Zogby, There are millions of Americans who, under the reported new parameters, could become subject to arbitrary and subjective ethnic and religious profiling. Zogby, who noted that the Bush administration's history with profiling is not reassuring, warned that all Americans would suffer from a weakening of civil liberties.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey's explained his rationale for revising the rules: It's necessary to put in place regulations that will allow the FBI to transform itself as it is transforming itself into an intelligence-gathering organization.

When did Congress, or we as a nation, have a debate about whether we want to authorize the establishment of a domestic intelligence agency? Indeed, late last month Congress signaled its discomfort with the concept by denying the FBI's $11 million funding request for its data-mining center.

It is a mystery why the Department of Justice has not learned the lesson that terrorists are best tracked down through good police work brought to bear on specific illegal acts, rather than by vast fishing expeditions. After Sept. 11, the DOJ called thousands of Muslim men in the United States for what it termed voluntary interviews. Not a single terrorist was identified in this manner, though a handful of the interviewees ended up being deported for minor visa offenses. Once it became clear that the interviews might eventuate in arbitrary actions against them, the willingness of American Muslims to cooperate declined rapidly, and so the whole operation badly backfired.

Rajan Zed, acclaimed Hindu leader has given a United Kingdom (UK)-wide boycott call for Hollywood movie The Love Guru by Hindus and other religious Brits because it lampoons Hinduism and Hindu concepts and uses Hindu terms frivolously.

Zed has also criticized BBFC for giving it "12A" classification, when he says it deserved the highest "18" classification. Although BBFC claims We help to protect vulnerable viewers and society from the effects of viewing potentially harmful or unsuitable content, but by giving The Love Guru a "12A" rating, it is leading the highly impressionable British children between 12 to 18 years to grow-up with a distorted view of Hinduism, Zed adds.

The Love Guru, a comedy starring Mike Myers (of Austin Powers fame) will be released in UK on August 1st.

Update: Ireland's Turn

16th July 2008

Zed has also criticized Irish Film Censor's Office (IFCO) for giving it "15A" (suitable for 15 and upwards) classification, when he says it deserved the highest "18" (over 18) classification.

Although IFCO claims We have a duty to protect children and young persons from harm, but by giving The Love Guru a "15A" rating, it is leading the highly impressionable Irish children between 15 to 18 years to grow-up with a distorted view of Hinduism, Zed adds.

Update: Sweden's Turn

18th July 2008

Zed said the guru in The Love Guru instigates a bar fight, repeatedly narrates penis jokes, mocks yoga (one of the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy), wears female jewelry, mocks the concept of third eye, makes disciples drink tea passed through his nose, orders alligator soup, induces elephant copulation in front of the crowd, introduces himself as “His Holiness”, lives in a lavish ashram staffed with scantily clad maids, and whose goal in life seems to appear on Oprah Winfrey show.

He predictably called for a Swedish wide boycott of the film and for the Swedish film censors to award the highest rating.

Bible Warning

A gay man is suing two heavyweight Christian publishers, claiming their versions of the Bible that refer to homosexuality as a sin violate his constitutional rights and have caused him emotional pain and mental instability.

Bradley LaShawn Fowler of Michegan, is seeking $60 million from Zondervan, based in Cascade Township, and $10 million from Nashville-based Thomas Nelson Publishing.

Fowler filed the suit in federal court against Zondervan on July 7, the same day U.S. District Judge Julian Abele Cook Jr. refused to appoint an attorney to represent him in his case against Thomas Nelson.

The Court has some very genuine concerns about the nature and efficacy of these claims, the judge wrote.

Fowler alleges Zondervan's Bibles referring to homosexuality as a sin have made him an outcast from his family and contributed to physical discomfort and periods of demoralization, chaos and bewilderment.

The intent of the publisher was to design a religious, sacred document to reflect an individual opinion or a group's conclusion to cause me or anyone who is a homosexual to endure verbal abuse, discrimination, episodes of hate, and physical violence ... including murder, Fowler wrote.

Fowler's suit claims Zondervan's text revisions from a 1980s version of the Bible included, and then deleted, a reference to homosexuality in 1 Corinthians without informing the public of the changes. The other suit, against Thomas Nelson and its New King James Bible, mirrors the allegations made against Zondervan.

It was not until the last minute when the conference-hall was set for the music festival, as well as the local invitees, key-note speakers, folklore dancers, government officials, journalists, and foreign guests were soon to arrive there that the students unleashed a wave of protest. They violently emptied the conference-hall of all the chairs and tables for the invitees, and they removed from the walls all the slogans, pictures, and decorations for the event.

Inspired by local Wahabi clerics, who had been preaching in advance against this event in their daily sermons in the mosques in the town, these students justified their acts of rejection and obstruction on the grounds that the music was un-Islamic.

The event was apparently supposed to have been part of the Somaliland authorities' relentless campaign for international recognition. It was the first time in the history of their yet internationally unrecognised country, Somaliland's Ministry of Culture and Tourism had organised a celebration for the World Music Day in the capital Hargeisa. By locally promoting and celebrating the international events, the Somaliland authorities wanted to show that the country is governed from democratically established institutions. The zone of Somaliland generally is considered more peaceful than the rest of Somalia.

However, local Wahabi clerics have strongly challenged their campaign by proving on their part that they also govern the county from the platforms of the mosques. 'Community censorship' of music is not only limited to the conflict parts of Somalia.

On a sunny May morning, six plainclothes police officers, two uniformed policemen and a trio of functionaries from the state prosecutor's office closed in on a small apartment in Amsterdam. Their quarry: a skinny Dutch cartoonist with a rude sense of humor. Informed that he was suspected of sketching offensive drawings of Muslims and other minorities, the Dutchman surrendered without a struggle.

I never expected the Spanish Inquisition, recalls the cartoonist, who goes by the nom de plume Gregorius Nekschot, quoting the British comedy team Monty Python. A fan of ribald gags, he's a caustic foe of religion, particularly Islam. The Quran, crucifixion, sexual organs and goats are among his favorite motifs.

...

If formally charged and taken to court, Mr. Nekschot risks up to two years in prison and a maximum fine of €16,750, or about $26,430, says his Amsterdam lawyer, Max Vermeij. He thinks the odds on his client being prosecuted are better than even but draws some comfort from recent Dutch court rulings in discrimination cases that mostly came down on the side of free speech.

Mr. Nekschot himself is very worried. I'm afraid of getting a judge who doesn't have a sense of humor, he says.

He's also worried that his identity will get exposed if he goes to court. This, says the cartoonist, could make him a target for attack like Theo van Gogh, a polemical filmmaker and foul-mouthed celebrity murdered by an Islamic extremist in November 2004. Mr. Van Gogh was a fan of Mr. Nekschot's work and posted his drawings on his own Web site, The Happy Smoker.

Justice Minister Hirsch Ballin, when grilled about the cartoon affair in Parliament, promised to protect Mr. Nekshot's anonymity so as to guarantee the suspect's safety. (The Wall Street Journal also agreed not to publish Mr. Nekschot's real name.)

But the minister, a devout Christian, added fuel to a mounting political furor by revealing the existence of a previously secret bureaucratic body, called the Interdepartmental Working Group on Cartoons. Officials later explained that the cartoon group had no censorship duties and had been set up after the 2006 Danish cartoon crisis to alert Dutch officials to any risks the Netherlands might face. The group examined Mr. Nekschot's work, say officials, but played no part in his arrest. Headed by a senior bureaucrat from a national agency coordinating counterterrorism, it draws from the intelligence service, the interior minister, the prosecutor's office and various other government bodies.

...Read full article

The news that blog Harry's Place is facing legal action from Mohammed Sawalha of the British Muslim Initiative was, in some ways, unsurprising. Harry's Place has been made its name criticising groups such as the British Muslim Initiative, which its various contributors see as political organisations masquerading as ‘community groups'. Some kind of confrontation was inevitable, sooner or later.

Mr Sawalha's complaint stems from an article posted on 2 July, in which Harry's Place blogger David T alleged that Sawalha had referred to Jews as ‘evil' in response to a pro-Israel rally in London. David T's source was an Al Jazeera article in Arabic. Sawalha claims that any suggestion that he would use such wording undermines his community work.

David T had been alerted to the article by a Harry's Place reader, who had spotted the story and run the text through Google Translate (the programmed delivered the phrase ‘dangerous Jew'. The blogger says he then ran it past Arabic speakers, who told him that the word translated by Google as ‘dangerous' was ‘al wabil' — ‘evil' or ‘baleful'. However, when readers clicked on the link to the Al Jazeera article, they found the word ‘al lawbi' — i.e. ‘lobby'. A heated debate on the translation ensued.

...Read full article

France has denied citizenship to a Moroccan woman who wears a burqa on the grounds that her "radical" practice of Islam is incompatible with basic French values such as equality of the sexes.

The case yesterday reopened the debate about Islam in France, and how the secular republic reconciles itself with the freedom of religion guaranteed by the French constitution.

The woman, known as Faiza M, is married to a French national and lives east of Paris. She has lived in France since 2000, speaks good French and has three children born in France. Social services reports said she lived in "total submission" to her husband. Her application for French nationality was rejected in 2005 on the grounds of "insufficient assimilation" into France. She appealed, invoking the French constitutional right to religious freedom and saying that she had never sought to challenge the fundamental values of France. But last month the Council of State, France's highest administrative body, upheld the ruling.

She has adopted a radical practice of her religion, incompatible with essential values of the French community, particularly the principle of equality of the sexes, it said.

The offence of blasphemy is likely to be dropped from the Irish Constitution after recommendations from a Dail committee.

The joint committee on the Constitution said that changes to the Constitution in the areas of freedom of expression and blasphemy are required and should be voted on in a future referendum.

The Oireachtas report concluded that constitutional references to freedom of expression are unsatisfactory and focus too much on the limitations on free speech.

The Defamation Bill 2006 now proposes to repeal the 1961 Act and thereby abolish the common law offence of blasphemy. Committee chairman, Sean Ardagh, said the Constitution should be amended along the lines of Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights in order to ensure greater emphasis on the freedom of speech: The committee is of the view that amendment is not immediately necessary but recommends that change be made when an appropriate opportunity presents.

A constitutional reference which deems publication or utterance of "blasphemous, seditious or indecent matters" as an offence punishable in accordance with the law should also be deleted, according to the report.

Slogans like Pope Go Homo and The Pope Is Wrong - Put a Condom On will be splashed across protesters' T-shirts during next week's World Youth Day.

The NoToPope Coalition held an "annoying fashion parade" outside the New South Wales Parliament yesterday to unveil the shirts they will wear during a Sydney rally on July 19.

They fear police will ban them from wearing the shirts, after state police were given powers to arrest anyone they believe is causing annoyance or inconvenience to pilgrims.

Failure to comply with the laws, introduced for the events in Sydney from July 15-20, can attract a penalty of up to A$5500 ($7050).

Eight police officers watched as about a dozen members of the protest group unveiled their shirts.

A Kazakhstan parliamentary working group has proposed amendments to some of the more onerous sections of that country's Religion Law. But the evolving draft law still contains numerous provisions that violate international human rights law, Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and United Nations standards, diplomatic critics say. The draft law still discriminates against minority religious groups, the critics say.

The country has a slight Islamic majority while serving as home to many other religious groups, including Pentecostals, Russian Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, Baha'i, and Jews. Religious pluralism has long been an aspiration of the nation. But the draft law is making that goal hard to realize.

A report by Forum 18 News Service, which covers minority religious affairs, notes that religious communities and human rights activists are especially alarmed about:

• restrictions on “missionary activity” by any individual
• the necessity of a state review of religious beliefs of registered communities
• a ban and increased penalties on unregistered activity
• compulsory re-registration of all communities
• the impossibility of registering communities that only work in some of the nation's many regions, such as the Russian Orthodox and Catholic dioceses
• severe restrictions on smaller religious groups
• the requirement of state permission to build places of worship
• strictures requiring children show written permission before taking part in any religious youth event
• a requirement that sharing religious beliefs in public places will be illegal without the consent of all citizens present
• compulsory censorship of all imported religious literature

The well blog Harry's Place political blog reported about Mohammad Sawalha, President of the British Muslim Initiative, speaking to Al Jazeera in Arabic about his demonstration against last Sunday's celebration of the foundation of the State of Israel.

They reported that he had used the 'word' evil when referring to Jews. The British Muslim Initiative have taken offence and contend that there was a mistranslation of the word 'lobby'.

Anyway all hell seems to be breaking loose over what is quite a seriously worrying organisation.

...Read full article

Two books by Egyptian feminist author Nawal El-Saadawi have become the center of debate among writers and intellectuals after prominent publisher Mahmoud Madbouli gave an interview explaining his reasons to halt their publication.

In an interview with AFP, Madbouli said he had pulped those copies of the books held in stock and halted the printing of more 3,000 more copies.

Madbouli, one of the most important publishers in Egypt, decided to cease publication of two novels — Fall of the Imam, published in 1987, and God Resigns from the Summit Meeting, published in 1996 and translated into Arabic two years ago — after one journalist told him that the two books offended core religious values and constituted an attack on God.

The company is famous for printing controversial social and political books that other publishers usually refuse to take on. The owner says he wonders why this issue is being discussed these days although the incident happened a long time ago.

He was recently quoted in the Egyptian press as saying that he is definitely pro-freedom of expression, but is unable to accept insults against God. He also said that he informed the author before taking this action, and claims that she was understanding.

In God Resigns from the Summit Meeting the writer symbolically depicts God as a 60-year-old man dressed as a king and surrounded by soldiers with a lake of water and rivers of wine under his feet. The devil, meanwhile, appears as a handsome 30-year-old man, and Radwan, the keeper of heavens, is pictured as God's private secretary.

Both books were condemned years ago as a violation of Islam by the Islamic Research Center, which urged the Egyptian government to ban them.

A Sudan court has sentenced a Sudanese citizen to death by stoning for heresy towards Islam.

The court gave the accused three days to repent and avoid the sentence.

This is the second time that a Sudanese citizen has been sentenced to death for heresy since 1983, when shari'a was implemented as the law of the land in Sudan.

A Malaysian state governed by a conservative Islamic party plans to compel Muslim government workers to pray five times a day as required by their religion, an official said.

Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, the chief minister of northeastern Kelantan state, said Muslims who shirk their prayer obligations are not fearful of Allah and are susceptible to committing bribery and other sins.

Kelantan is planning to introduce a law to force Muslim government workers to pray five times a day, said the minister's aide Anual Bakri Haron. He said details on how to enforce the plan will be finalized later.

Anti-terrorism investigators in Paris are probing threats against a leading French cable TV channel over pornographic films it airs that can be viewed in North Africa, a judicial official said.

Canal-Plus, France's first pay-TV channel, received letters from one or more people claiming to be Muslim and threatening to blow up its headquarters if it continues to broadcast once-a-month adult films, the official said.

Canal-Plus filed a legal complaint about the threats late last month, which prompted the anti-terrorist probe. No other details about the threats were available.

Canal-Plus and its sister channels show a range of programming, much of it family-friendly. It can be viewed via satellite in largely Muslim North Africa, where French is widely spoken.

As a new broadcaster in 1984, Canal-Plus introduced hardcore films on the first Saturday of the month to build its image as a more exciting alternative to France's traditional channels.

It seems that the protesting Hindus will not be able to appeal against the “K11” rating given by Finnish Board of Film Classification to the Hollywood movie The Love Guru, which they wanted to be raised.

Maarit Pietinen, Senior Examiner of the Board, in a communiqué to Hindu leader Rajan Zed, said, Only the distributor can appeal against the decision of the Board.

Criticising this, Zed has said that other affected parties by the movie, in this case Hindus, should also have same rights of appeal against rating decisions as the distributor/owner, if they are not satisfied with the classification.

When asked, Does not the Board think that this movie ridicules a religion?, Pietinen replied: In the Act which we are obliged to follow, there are no such ground as blasphemy or ridicule of religion, therefore it was not discussed.

Denouncing Finnish Board of Film Classification for giving it “K11” rating when it deserved the highest “K18” rating, Rajan Zed stresses that while Board says The primary purpose of the classification of audiovisual programs is to protect children, but by giving The Love Guru a “K11” rating, it is leading the highly impressionable Finnish children between 11 to 18 years to grow with a distorted view of Hinduism.

Zed says that in this fast changing world, Board's classification criteria seems to be outdated and it needs immediate revision.

Supported by some other organisations, Zed has given a Finland-wide boycott call for Hollywood movie The Love Guru by Hindus and other religious Finns because it lampoons Hinduism and Hindu concepts and uses Hindu terms frivolously.

A Saudi appeals court is due this week to review the case of a biochemist and his female student sentenced to jail and flogging after a lower court ruled their research contact was a front for a telephone affair.

The man was sentenced to 8 months in prison and 600 lashes and his student to 4 months in prison and 350 lashes last November for establishing a phone relationship that led her to divorce her husband.

London-based Amnesty International says it will consider the two as prisoners of conscience if the verdicts are carried out: The charges ... do not correspond to recognizable criminal offences.

The victim of the injustice told Reuters that over 12 months of trial he and the woman were refused permission to use lawyers or bring witnesses to testify.

A group of pastors and preachers belonging to different churches in Manila have filed criminal complaints against editors and publishers of popular men's magazines and so-called smut tabloids before the Manila Prosecutor's Office.

The group was led by Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante, a pastor of the Metropolitan Bible Baptist Church and anti-porn nutter.

Charged in the joint complaint affidavit were editors and publishers of Philippines Playboy magazine, FHM, Maxim, Playhouse, Sagad, Hataw and Toro.

The group accused the respondents of grave scandal and obscene publication. The respondents also cited violation of Ordinance No. 7780 of the City of Manila, which prohibits the printing publication, sale, distribution and exhibition of obscene and pornographic acts and materials.

The group said the magazines and tabloids violated anti-pornography laws for containing obscene, erotic, indecent, or lewd pictures/poses that show, depict, exhibit, or describe nude or semi nude bodies sexual acts, sexual intercourse, private parts of the human body of both male and female, with no educational, artistic, cultural or scientific value.

Abante said this will be the first time that a class suit will be filed against the said magazines and tabloids. Abante said he is hoping that there are still judges who have the moral conscience to look into their complaint.

Rajan Zed, a nutter Hindu leader has criticised Australia classification board for giving it 'M' (recommended for mature audiences) classification when he said it deserved the highest 'R18+' (restricted to 18 and over) classification.

Nobody wants the next generation of Australians, who are under 18 and passing through highly impressionable period of their lives, growing up with distorted view of Hinduism, Zed says.

According to reports, a protest has been planned outside Brisbane theatres, when the movie is released in Australia on July 10.

A row broke out at a London council meeting over the presence of some members during the opening prayers.

Councillor Doug Mills, a Conservative nutter, when answering a question about community cohesion at a full meeting of Hillingdon Council, accused some Labour councillors of ignoring their duties to all their constituents by not attending the prayer session.

He said: They have a duty to respect all religions and I think their failure to turn up regularly to prayers is not a sign of that respect.

He was refering to some of the Labour representatives who arrived at the meeting after the regular prayer had been said at the start of meeting, tonight in the Christian tradition.

But Labour councillors reacted with anger at Cllr Mills suggestions, asking for his comments to be retracted, with cries of shame, shame ringing across the council chamber.

Councillor Anthony Way, leader of the Labour group on the council, said: That is out of order. I found it reprehensible and hope I never hear the like again in this chamber.

Three years ago, four young suicide bombers caused carnage in London. Their aim was not just to kill and maim. There was also a long-term strategic purpose: to sow suspicion and divide Britain between Muslims and the rest. They are succeeding.

In Britain today, there is a deepening distrust between mainstream society and ever more isolated Muslim communities. A culture of contempt and violence is emerging on our streets.

...Read full article

I mustn't listen to strange men in frocks I mustn't listen to strange men in frocks I mustn't listen to strange men in frocks

Two non-muslim schoolboys were given detention after refusing to kneel down and 'pray to Allah' during a religious education lesson.

Parents were outraged that the two boys from year seven (11 to 12-year-olds) were punished for not wanting to take part in the practical demonstration of how Allah is worshipped.

They said forcing their children to take part in the exercise at Alsager High School, near Stoke-on-Trent - which included wearing Muslim headgear - was a breach of their human rights.

One parent, Sharon Luinen, said: This isn't right, it's taking things too far. I understand that they have to learn about other religions. I can live with that but it is taking it a step too far to be punished because they wouldn't join in Muslim prayer. Making them pray to Allah, who isn't who they worship, is wrong and what got me is that they were told they were being disrespectful.

Update: Sacked

31st May 2009. See article from dailymail.co.uk

A teacher has been sacked after parents claimed that their children were forced to pray to Allah during a religious education lesson.

Alison Phillips was accused of giving two pupils detention after they refused to kneel down and 'pray to Allah' during the class. However, an investigation by the school concluded that there was no truth in the allegation.

As reported earlier Stephen Green is having difficulties with the legal fees resulting from his failed attempt to prosecute some of those involved with  Jerry Springer the Opera. He initiated a petition to ask for court costs to be waived.

Green has achieved about 1200 signatures in support of his cause, but many of these have been added to take the opportunity of recording distinctly unsupportive messages. Surely worth a read.

There is now a counter petition with 900 signatures that reads:

We the undersigned call upon Mark Thompson of the BBC and Jonathan Thoday of Avalon to insist the £90,000 costs awarded to them against Stephen Green in the Jerry Springer the Opera case are paid in full.

We note that Mark Thompson's salary is more than £750,000 pa and that Jon Thoday's wealth was estimated at £12 million in 2001 and yet find this information irrelevant.

We note that Jonathan Thoday's company lost £500,000 on the tour of Jerry Springer the Opera due to the unpleasant actions of Mr Green and that £35,000 is really the least Mr Green can stump up.

We note that Mr Green says the BBC spends millions on inflated salaries for celebrities, rebranding logos and the news and on channels hardly anyone watches and that it would not even notice £55,000, like that's some kind of defence.

Finally, we regard the costs orders made against Stephen Green as justice and hope this small-minded individual now realises that gaining fair access to the courts against ANY opponents carries with it the threat of punitive costs hanging over them.

An Islamic court in northern Nigeria has sentenced a female singer to two months in prison or a 5000 naira [$43.28] fine for giving a concert.

Talatu Mai-Gurmi, was sentenced by an Islamic tribunal in the state of Bauchi. NAN said she was arrested by men from the Islamic police along with two other performers who took part in the same concert, which featured traditional music.

Rated as 12A in the UK

Hindus do not seem to be pleased with Singapore Board of Film Censors classifying Hollywood movie The Love Guru with “NC16” [16+] rating. They are demanding this be raised to R21 [21+].

Bhavna Shinde, who represents Hindu Janjagruti Samiti and Sanatan Sanstha, has appealed to Singapore Censor Board to assign The Love Guru its highest “R21” rating. She said that the film blatantly ridicules and denigrates Hinduism and Hindu concepts.

While writing to Singapore Media Development authority, she wrote: Cinema is a powerful medium and it can create stereotypes in the minds of some audiences, especially in the minds of younger audiences, who are passing through an impressionable phase. We do not want the next generation of Singapore growing up with a distorted view of Hinduism and Hindus.

The Love Guru is reportedly scheduled to be released in Singapore on September 4, 2008.

A female Muslim councillor has been subjected to a hate campaign by Muslim men in her ward, leaving her unable to visit some of the streets that she represents.

Hasina Khan the only Muslim councillor in Chorley, Lancashire, said that she had suffered a barrage of threatening phone calls, verbal abuse and insulting graffiti because the men objected her public role.

Mrs Khan said: I've had to totally change the way I go about my job. I used to do ward walks all the time, but now there are some streets I can't even walk down.

I feel that if it was a male Asian councillor then he would be treated as a hero. Because I am a woman I get the opposite treatment. They can't understand my mainstream views and those of ‘live and let live' and how the British culture should be respected ... It has been extremely hard for me and my family and if it wasn't for my British constituents, I don't think I would have been able to get through it.”

The hate campaign began when she put herself forward as a Labour candidate three years ago. It is just a few members of the community who think I should be at home with a veil over my face, although if other people choose to do that, then I respect their choice, she said.

Terry Brown, the Mayor of Chorley, who represents the same ward as Mrs Khan, said: Because she's a female Asian woman their view is that she should be at home producing babies.

Dukandar Idris, the imam of Chorley's Dawat ul Islam mosque, said that, as imam, he could not forbid Muslim women from standing for election, but he would be entitled to forbid his wife: Because this is Britain, you cannot tell anyone what to do. I can tell my wife, but cannot tell other women, ‘You cannot do this and that'.

There is little participation by Muslim women in local government. Of the 19,400 councillors in England in 2006, 75 were women of Asian origin and 20 were from Pakistani or Bangladeshi backgrounds. There are nearly six male Asian councillors for every female Asian councillor.

Australia's Hindu community has called for a boycott of Mike Myers' new film The Love Guru.

Sajana Nand, president of the Australian Hindu Multicultural Association, said he believed a comedy should make people laugh...BUT...not at the expense of ridiculing faith or spreading misinformation.

Nand called on other religious and community leaders to support the boycott: We support free speech...BUT...our faith is sacred and attempts at belittling it has hurt the devotees.

Any attempt by an individual or an organisation to make a mockery of a guru shouldn't go unchallenged. Based on the information I have got, I would strongly urge a nationwide boycott of the movie.

Nand said he would call on the Film Classification Board to review the suitability of the fun.

Extraordinary new powers will allow police to arrest and fine people for "causing annoyance" to World Youth Day participants and permit partial strip searches at hundreds of Sydney sites, beginning today.

The laws, which operate until the end of July, have the potential to make a crime of things such as wearing a T-shirt with a message on it, handing out condoms at protests, riding a skateboard or even playing music, critics say.

Police and emergency services volunteers will be able to direct people to cease engaging in conduct that causes annoyance or inconvenience to participants in a World Youth Day event or risk a $5500 fine.

A police source said causing an annoyance or inconvenience was a highly subjective offence. Civil libertarians said the new powers were more extreme than those used during last year's APEC summit and the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

The regulations apply to more than 40 central Sydney locations, including Darling Harbour, the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. People entering more than 500 schools and 35 train and bus stations will also be subject to vehicle and baggage searches that require them to remove jackets, gloves, shoes and headwear if requested.

The NoToPope Coalition — an alliance of gay pride, pro-contraception and atheist groups — is waiting for police approval for a protest that will feature a same-sex "kiss-in", mardi-gras style costumes and distribution of free condoms. Spokeswoman Rachel Evans said the rally was about delivering a peaceful message that being gay is not a disorder, that contraception is not a sin and that women should enjoy equal rights in the church. Up to 15,000 people are expected at the march.

The march is on Saturday 19th July, 12 noon at Taylor Square, Sydney

MP Hamidreza Hajbabaii has said the Majlis [Iran's parliament] is going to put to the vote a plan on imposing tougher punishments on anti-social offenders.

If the plan is ratified, those who endanger the society's psychological security will be sentenced to death, Hajbabaii told the Mehr News Agency.

Offences endangering the society's psychological security include armed robbery, rape, brothel keeping, blasphemy, human trafficking for sexual slavery, kidnapping, and running websites and weblogs which promote prostitution, he explained.

The offences are not suspendable and the criminals' property will also be confiscated, the lawmaker stated.

In addition, a special center will be set up to discover crime evidence, combat the crimes, and enforce the sentences, he remarked. According to the plan, officials who fail to pursue the criminal cases or facilitate the escape of criminals will face capital punishment, Hajbabaii explained.

A Jordanian prosecutor has charged Dutch politician Geert Wilders with blasphemy and contempt of Muslims for making an anti-Koran film and ordered him to stand trial in the kingdom, judicial sources said.

In Riyadh, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a league of 56 Muslim nations, said it was deeply annoyed after Dutch prosecutors said they would not take action against Wilders as he was protected by the right to free speech.

The decision ... encourages and supports the irresponsible defamatory style followed by some media outlets and instigates feelings of hatred, animosity and antipathy towards Muslims, the Saudi Arabia-based OIC, said in a statement. The OIC said the prosecutors' decision showed they ignored the thin line separating freedom of speech and the instigation of hatred, animosity and discrimination.

Judicial sources in Amman said Jordanian prosecutor Judge Abdallat had charged Wilders after a legal complaint by a coalition of Jordanian activists and community leaders. An order was issued through the Dutch embassy in Amman to bring Wilders to stand trial. The charges carry a maximum sentence of three years in prison, lawyers said.

Wilders said he was concerned about the Jordanian case against him which could limit his freedom to travel.

The New Zealand chief censor has banned a T-shirt that shows a sexually degrading image of a Roman Catholic nun and blasphemous language directed at Jesus Christ.

The top, advertising an album for British extreme metal group Cradle of Filth, also used Satanic images.

I have to say, I can't remember seeing a stronger T-shirt than this one, chief censor Bill Hastings said.

Hastings said the office had banned other T-shirts, but the issue did not come up often.

It's hard to know what to do with them, to be honest. If we were to make them R18, for example, does that mean you have to be 18 to wear it or do you have to be 18 to see it coming down the street? So generally with T-shirts it's all or nothing, it's unrestricted or banned, so the medium just doesn't lend itself to an intermediate restriction.

In its decision, the censor's office said a fair interpretation of the message on the T-shirt was that Christians should be vilified for their religious beliefs, and that women, including chaste and celibate women, could not stop themselves engaging in sexual activity.

The Society for Promotion of Community Standards president John Mills praised the decision as bold, morally courageous and legally sound.

Christian leaders have gathered in Denver in opposition to an anti-Christian censorship law that could open the door to censoring the Bible.

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter signed the state bill, SB 200, which aims at silencing all publications that discriminate against homosexuality.

Section 8 of Senate Bill 200 is a wide open door for any judge to censor anything that condemns homosexuality, including Scripture, Colorado State Rep. Kevin Lundberg said.

I do believe that the Bible is banned, under the plain language of this new statute, Steve Crampton, general counsel of the pro-family Liberty Counsel, said, indicating he believes that day is already here.

Section 8 reads, No person, being the owner. agent, or employee of any place of public accommodation. shall publish. distribute, give away. except as provided in this section, any communication. book, pamphlet, writing. or advertisement of any kind. intended or calculated to discriminate. against. sexual orientation, marital status (which) is unwelcome.

Iran has strongly criticised Britain for honouring controversial author Salman Rushdie with a knighthood, official IRNA news agency reported. The Islamic republic considers Britian's act (of awarding Rushdie a knighthood) as an insult to beliefs and sanctions of over one billion Muslims worldwide, foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said, adding that Tehran condemns such an unacceptable act.

Hosseini said, Rushdie, the apostate writer of the blasphemous book The Satanic Verses, was the initiator of a trend of insulting the Islamic sanctities in the West.

He regretted that Britain has awarded knighthood to a man who has notorious record of blaspheming Prophet Mohammad.

Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri had also warned last year that the terror network was preparing a “precise response” to Britain's decision to give Rushdie the highest civilian honour.

A postcard featuring a cute puppy sitting in a policeman's hat advertising a Scottish police force's new telephone number has sparked outrage from Muslims.

The choice of image on the Tayside Police cards - a black dog sitting in a police officer's hat - has now been raised with Chief Constable John Vine.
Poster

The advert has upset Muslims because dogs are considered ritually unclean and has sparked such anger that some shopkeepers in Dundee have refused to display the advert.

Dundee councillor Mohammed Asif said: My concern was that it's not welcomed by all communities, with the dog on the cards. It was probably a waste of resources going to these communities. They (the police) should have understood. Since then, the police have explained that it was an oversight on their part, and that if they'd seen it was going to cause upset they wouldn't have done it.'

Councillor Asif, who is a member of the Tayside Joint Police Board, said that the force had a diversity adviser and was generally very aware of such issues.

Tayside Police Chief Constable John Vine said the advert was not intended to cause any offence and added that he would look into the matter.

A spokesman for Tayside Police said: 'Trainee police dog Rebel has proved extremely popular with children and adults since being introduced to the public, aged six weeks old, as Tayside Police's newest canine recruit. His incredible world-wide popularity - he has attracted record visitor numbers to our website - led us to believe Rebel could play a starring role in the promotion of our non-emergency number.

We did not seek advice from the force's diversity adviser prior to publishing and distributing the postcards. That was an oversight and we apologise for any offence caused.'

The Canadian Human Rights Commission has dismissed a Muslim group's complaint against Maclean's magazine.

The long-running case came before the Commission after the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC) complained that the highly-regarded magazine published an article in October 2006 likely to expose Muslims to hatred and contempt.

The article, entitled The Future Belongs to Islam, by Canadian writer and commentator Mark Steyn claimed that Muslims were on the verge of taking over Europe and the West because of demographic shifts.

The article said that their greater numbers will eventually allow Muslims to dominate Western countries, pointing out that: Muslims are reproducing like mosquitoes.

In January this year, Steyn, writing in the Calgary Herald, said: That line certainly appears in my text, but they're not my words. Rather, they were said by a prominent Scandinavian Muslim, Mullah Krekar, to a respectable Norwegian newspaper. The imam was boasting at how Islam would outbreed Europe . . .

This is the nub of the complaints against Maclean's: They're objecting to a Canadian magazine quoting accurately the statements of leading Muslims. And at least two of Canada's ‘human rights' commissions, to their shame, have accepted their absurd proposition that accurately quoting leading Muslims is somehow ‘Islamophobic'.

According to this report, The CHRC concluded last week that the views in the article: When considered as a whole and in context, are not of an extreme nature, as defined by the Supreme Court.

But The Commission noted that Steyn's writing is: Polemical, colourful and emphatic, and was obviously calculated to excite discussion and even offend certain readers, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.

Nothing wrong with that, in any country that values freedom of expression!

Fitna, the short feature film on Islam and violence put together by MP Geert Wilders does not break the law, the Duthc public prosecution department has said.

In addition, a number of statements about Islam made by Wilders over the past few months are also within legal limits, ANP reported Amsterdam's chief public prosecutor Leo de Wit as saying.

Some 40 individuals and largely Muslim organisations have accused Wilders of encouraging religious hatred.

According to NOS, no action is being taken against Wilders because he attacks Islam as a religion but not its followers While his comments are sometimes offensive, Wilders does not overstep any boundaries, the public prosecution department said.

A Dutch anti-discrimination group, The Netherlands Shows its Colours, said it would appeal the prosecutors' decision.