All members of Tower Hamlets Council in east London, where 36% of the population follows Islam, were sent an email asking them to abide by the restrictions observed by strict Muslims during the holy month.

They have also been told that the town hall's business agenda will be reduced throughout Ramadan to accommodate Muslims, with only seven committee meetings scheduled and special prayer breaks included in the evening events.

Cllr Stephanie Eaton, leader of the Lib Dem group, said she would be ignoring the new Ramadan regime and added: I was rather disconcerted to see that the arrangements put in place for Ramadan, which we support for Muslim colleagues, have been imposed upon all councillors. We object to the request that non-Muslim councillors observe the fasting rules for Ramadan. This sends out the wrong message to our community. Our community consists of a huge number of different religions, all of which should be valued, and no one religion should be accorded more status or influence than others.

To accommodate its Muslim councillors, Tower Hamlets has decreed that there will be only seven committee meetings during the month.

At sunset, which will fall during the meetings that start at 6.30pm, there will be 45-minute adjournments for members to eat and pray. Tea, coffee, sandwiches and special Muslim snacks called Iftar packs will be on offer in a separate room to the meeting chamber. But councillors have been told not to start eating until after sunset, both out of courtesy to Muslims and to ensure some of the food is left for them.

In the letter to members, John Williams, the council's head of democratic services, said: It is requested that members do not partake of any refreshments until after the Iftar refreshments are served.

A spokesman for the council said: All that's being asked for is courtesy to be shown to the sensitivities around some councillors eating during council meetings whilst others in the room are fasting.

At least 18 people are confirmed dead in 92 incidents of violence against Christians since suspected Maoists murdered Hindu leader Swamiji Laxmanananda Saraswati and four others on Aug. 23 in Orissa state.

With Hindu extremists inciting hatred by heated accusations that Christians killed Saraswati, the national newspaper Hindu reported today that nine people had been killed in Orissa violence, and a Compass source near the state capital of Bhubaneswar confirmed an additional nine people slain.

The death count by the Hindu included four people killed in the Barakhama area. News agencies had earlier confirmed three dead in Raikia and two others, including a woman, killed in Bargarh, where a missionary-run orphanage was set on fire yesterday. The figure of 92 incidents thus far comes from the Global Council of Indian Christians.

There were many reports of Christians being pulled from their homes and killed or beaten, with many homes of Christians torched in Baliguda. According to reports by the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI), the East India office of Compassion International in Bhubaneswar was ransacked.

Sources from Kandhamal district said hundreds of Christians along with their families have fled to the nearby forests to save their lives in the rainy climate and are without shelter, food and clothing.

The violence has spread even though church leaders across the country condemned the Hindu priest’s killing and appealed for peace.

Hindu extremists paraded the body of Saraswati throughout nearby villages, whipping up anger and mobilizing crowds against Christians, in uncontested defiance of a Kandhamal district administration prohibition against the gathering of four or more people. Among the slogans shouted was, Kill Christians and destroy their institutions.

Update: Almost Ethnic Cleansing

3rd September 2008

An estimated 50,000 schools and colleges and other educational institutions were closed as a protest against Hindu voiolence according to a spokesman of the All India Christian Council. The council - a nationwide alliance of Christian denominations, mission agencies, institutions, federations and Christian leaders - supported the strike called by the Catholic Bishops Conference of India.

Meanwhile, protests were reported from various parts of India, including New Delhi, where scores of Christians marched.

There is almost an ethnic cleansing in the state, Babu Joseph, spokesman of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, told the IANS news agency.

After a meeting with Christian groups, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described the violence as a "national disgrace."

A Shia Muslim was convicted of child cruelty after he forced two boys to flog themselves during a religious ritual.

Syed Mustafa Zaidi, a warehouse supervisor, told the boys, aged 13 and 15, to beat themselves with a zanjeer zani, a wooden-handled implement containing five curved blades used when commemorating the death of Hussain, grandson of Muhammad and one of the most important figures in Shia Islam. Zaidi is due to be sentenced on September 24.

Manchester crown court heard how Zaidi flagellated himself at an event held in January in Manchester until his back was bloody and cut. Others at the event also flogged themselves.

The 14-year-old, who was 13 at the time, told the jury that neither he nor the other boy wanted to injure themselves. He said Zaidi was insistent with the older boy, pulling him and pushing him, 'keep doing it', telling people 'this is a sad moment and look, he's not doing it'.

He goes, 'I don't want to do it, I don't want to do it'. He kept pressuring him, make him do the knife thing, pulling him, trying to get his T-shirt off, pulling and pushing him. He was saying, 'just do it, just do it'. He said the 15-year-old swung it once or twice and said 'I don't want to do it any more'. The older boy was then pulled away by another man.

After the ceremony, the boys went home to their mother, who noticed several deep wounds on their backs and multiple slash wounds. She took them to Manchester Royal infirmary and the matter was reported to the police.

The boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted they wanted to beat themselves, but not under duress and not using Zaidi's zanjeer zani. They also said they had flogged themselves with a smaller zanjeer zani from the age of six in Pakistan.

Safdar Zia, general secretary of the Jaffria Islamic Centre, said Shia Muslims in Manchester would now try to work with the police and the CPS towards a code of practice: We are not above the law.

Update: Suspended Sentence

26th September 2008

Syed Mustafa Zaidi, originally from Pakistan, was spared jail and was instead given a 26-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months.

Pope Benedict's request to have the sculpture of a crucified green frog holding a beer mug and an egg removed from display in an Italian museum has been rebuffed.

The board of the Museion museum in the northern city of Bolzano has refused to take down the modern art piece which the Vatican has condemned as blasphemous.

A majority vote decided that the wooden sculpture by the late German artist Martin Kippenberger should remain.

The sculpture called Zuerst die Fusse, meaning Feet First, depicts a frog of about four feet high nailed to a brown cross holding a beer mug in one outstretched hand and an egg in another. The frog wears a green loin cloth and is nailed through the hands and feet in the manner of Jesus Christ while its tongue hangs out of its mouth.

Museum staff said the artist, who died in 1997, considered the sculpture a self-portrait representing human anguish.

However, the German Pope did not agree and the Vatican wrote a letter to the regional government, whose President, Franz Pahl, went on hunger strike in opposition to the frog and had to be taken to hospital.

The Vatican's letter said the amphibian wounded the religious sentiments of so many people who see in the cross the symbol of God's love.

However, Claudio Strinati, a superintendent for Rome's museums, defended the decision to keep the frog: Art must always be free and the artist should not have any restrictions on freedom of expression.

Lawyers are preparing papers to sue West Midlands Police after officers told two Christians not to preachin a Muslim area of Birmingham.

The legal action is being financed by The Christian Institute’s Legal Defence Fund. Unless the force issues a public apology, papers will be filed in September.

The incident happened to Mr Arthur Cunningham and Mr Joseph Abraham as they were handing out Christian tracts on the corner of Ellesmere Road and Alum Rock Road in the city on 19 February this year.

PCSO Naguthney told the Christians they were committing a hate crime and that he was going to take them to the police station. Two other officers, PCSO Ali and PC Loi, also attended the incident. PC Loi advised  Cunningham and Abraham that it might be wiser if they did not come back to Alum Rock Road. PCSO Naguthney said, You have been warned. If you come back here and get beat up, well you have been warned.

Despite repeated complaints from Cunningam and Abrahams, the pair are not satisfied with how West Midlands Police has dealt with the matter. It is understood that PCSO Naguthney has been given verbal advice for his pocket notebook and will receive training in understanding hate crime and communicating with the public.

West Midlands Police have referred the matter to Independent Police Complaints Commission who are looking into the incident.

Lawyers acting for the two Christians say the men are entitled to bring a claim against West Midlands Police for breach of their convention rights under articles 9 (freedom of religion) and 10 (freedom of speech) of the Human Rights Act 1998.

Cunningham and Abraham are seeking a full and unreserved written apology, recognition that their convention rights were infringed by the conduct of the police officers, damages and reasonable legal costs.

The Right Reverand Nutter Patrick O'Donoghue, the Bishop of Lancaster, claimed casual recourse to abortion had cheapened the value of human life in the eyes of the public over the last four decades.

He said he was convinced that the 1967 Abortion Act was a major cause of widespread violence among young people.

All of us have seen in the news the frequent reports of young people killing strangers in the street, killing fathers defending their property, killing people with learning difficulties, killing other young people who are different to them, said the bishop in a report Fit for Mission? Church.

For 41 years we've lived in a state-sponsored culture of death that has killed five million children, and we're now surprised that some of the surviving children have turned out violent with no regard for the sanctity of life?, he spouted:

If a society holds human life so cheaply is it any surprise that young people will also hold life cheaply and engage in violence?

He continued that if the State was seen sponsoring crimes against life is it any wonder that criminality in general thrives, and seeks to take advantage of the coarsening and darkening of conscience?

A Danish publisher is in negotiations to buy Sherry Jones's novel about the child bride of Muhammad, which was dropped by Random House in America and pulled from bookshops in Serbia.

The Jewel of Medina tells the story of Aisha, one of Muhammad's wives, from the age of six to 18 when Muhammad dies. It was bought by Random House US for a reported advance of $100,000, but then dropped after the publisher was told by academics and security experts that publication was potentially more risky than Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses and the Danish publication of cartoons of Muhammad.

Now small Danish publisher Trykkefrihedsselskabets Library (Free Speech Library) is in negotiations with Jones's agent over publication of The Jewel of Medina in Denmark. Co-owner Helle Merete Brix said that the fact that Random House was prepared to pay $100,000 for the book showed its quality, and that she was determined not to bow to any censorship. I think that whether you are Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu or atheist you have to be able to bear insults. You can't say 'I'm a Muslim, and that means I should be above criticism'. You can freely insult Jesus Christ, you can mock other religions.

Brix said she felt it was deep in the mentality of Danish people that we will not tolerate people saying 'you can't say or publish that'…There is a growing awareness in Denmark that we have to keep it the bastion of free speech that it has been for many years.

On 14 August, in a village called Kani Dinar in  Iran a "father" stabbed her 18 years old, daughter, Fereshteh Nejati, and slit her throat because she sought a divorce. Fereshteh had been forced into a marriage when she was 14 years old.

She fled to her uncle's house to seek refuge after her father threatened to kill her but her father forced them to hand her over and brutally murdered her on the same day.

More than 2000 people came to the street and held a demonstration against "honour" killings; they went to hospital and collected for Fereshte's body, and buried her with respect.

They demanded the perpetrator be arrested and face justice for committing the crime for killing his daughter; there was enormous anger in the crowd against the murderer. They asked the change in the legislation of Iran in favour of women and especially against so-called 'honour' killings.

A court in Saudi Arabia preparing to hear a plea for divorce from an eight-year-old girl should have little difficulty in determining grounds for incompatibility: the husband is half a century older.

The child was married off by her father without her knowledge, the Saudi newspaper al-Watan said. The girl's mother is understood to be pushing for the marriage to be annulled, although her father opposes the move.

The case is among a recent spate of marriages involving very young girls reported by the Saudi media where there is strong criticism of the practice.

In my opinion, old men who want to marry girls at the age of their granddaughters are mentally sick and need psychological treatment, Nourah al-Khereiji, a columnist in the Arab News, wrote

Such unions have been denounced widely by local human rights activists who say they harm children and undermine the institution of marriage. Sheik Abdul-Aziz al-Sheik, the Kingdom's top cleric, recently joined in the condemnation: Islam has stipulated that both parties agree to the marriage contract. The woman must express real consent to the suitor, and a guardian must not impose his choice of husband on her … or force his son to marry someone he doesn't want.

Child protection groups say girls are often given away in return for substantial dowries or as a result of old customs in which a father promises his infant daughters and sons to cousins out of a belief that marriage will protect them from illicit relationships.

In another case, the Kingdom's Human Rights Commission intervened to delay by five years the marriage of a ten-year-old girl to a man in his 70s. Her father was to receive a dowry of 150,000 Saudi riyals – about £21,000.

Activists are now calling for legislation to set a minimum age for marriage.

Malaysian authorities have reversed their decision to cancel a concert by Canadian pop-rock star Avril Lavigne, days after they ruled that her show was unsuitable for local youths.

After discussions with organizers, we have agreed to allow the show to go on, a spokesman for the Arts, Culture and Heritage Ministry said.

Its minister Shafie Apdal had sparked criticisms of being "closed-minded" on Wednesday when he said Lavigne's show would be cancelled because it was unsuitable for Malaysian culture and could not be held on August 29, two days ahead of independence day and nearing the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

However, the ministry official said the decision has seen been reversed, but declined to give a specific reason.

The minister is showing our country to be a closed-minded, childish country that objects to anything different from our own culture, said Leow, a Lavigne fan who had purchased tickets for her concert weeks earlier: It's a relief that they've come to their senses now.

The youth wing of a hardline opposition Islamic group had earlier called for the show to be canceled, saying Lavigne's performances were too raunchy for youths. Malaysia requires all performers to wear clothes without obscene or drug-related images and to be covered from the chest to the knees. They must also refrain from jumping, shouting, hugging and kissing on stage.

Celebrating birthdays and wedding anniversaries has no base in Islam, Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Alsheikh has said. The mufti made the comments while answering a question from Al-Madinah newspaper after prominent scholar Salman Al-Oadah issued a fatwa saying that celebrating such occasions was not against the rules of Sharia.

Such a call is against righteousness. A Muslim should thank Almighty Allah if his children are healthy and if his married life is stable as the years pass by..

Speaking on satellite television last week, Al-Oadah, who is the general supervisor of the Islamtoday.com website, created controversy after ruling that there is nothing un-Islamic in celebrating wedding anniversaries and birthdays: It is normal for a son or daughter to celebrate birthdays. They can invite their friends for a meal on this occasion. I see nothing wrong in this.

Al-Alsheikh, the highest religious authority in the Kingdom, said Muslims only have two official celebrations - Eid Al-Fitr, which is celebrated at the end of Ramadan, and Eid Al-Adha, which is celebrated on Dhul Hijjah 10. He added that Muslims also have a weekly Eid, which is Friday. The mufti said that the celebration of other occasions such as birthdays, wedding anniversaries and Mother's Day were un-Islamic.

Several prominent Muslim scholars have supported the Mufti, adding that celebrating such occasions is in imitation of people of the Jewish and Christian faiths. Sheikh Abdullah Al-Manie, a member of the Council of Senior Scholars, said Al-Oadah had made a slip of the tongue and urged him to retract what he had said.

Police said that Rubel Sheikh and his mother had travelled 30 miles from their home to visit the Muslim shrine of Khan Jahan Ali.

Officers said that hundreds of people visit the shrine every day to offer hens and goats to the five crocodiles living in the pond. Part of the ritual also involves bathing in the water, meaning that pilgrims have to take their chances with the fierce inhabitants of the pond.

He went into the pond hoping to be blessed when a crocodile attacked him and dragged him into the deep part of the pond, said the police: This is a very unusual incident. Normally, the crocodiles are very friendly and do not harm people.

The police said that most of the corpse had been eaten by the crocodiles

A report from the U.S. Copts Association reveals that the Muslim Brotherhood-influenced Egyptian Medical Association is trying to prohibit any organ transplants that would involve a Muslim donor and Christian recipient or vice versa.

This is to protect poor Muslims from rich Christians who buy their organs and vice versa, Hamdi Al Sayed, medical association director, claimed in the report.

The association's plan now has been assembled as a bill before the Egyptian parliament, where it is pending. Physicians who are involved in cases where the proposal would be violated would be subject to sanctions, officials said.

A spokesman for the Coptic Christian community, Bishop Marcos, said the explanation doesn't support the proposal, since a rich Christian could seek to buy organs from a poor Christian, or a rich Muslim from a poor one.

He warned the proposal is troubling because it could lead to a prohibition on blood donations across religious boundaries, and even result in physicians being prevented from examining and helping patients of religions other than their own.

In Egypt, such measures would put Christians at a disadvantage, since they make up only about 10% of the 76 million population.

The agenda is being targeted with a court action by the Egyptian Human Rights Union, whose spokesman, Maguib Gibrael, said it violates human rights, the constitution and national unity.

Nothing makes Satan happier than the Beijing “bikini” Olympics says Saudi cleric Muhammad Al-Munajid. In an interview aired on Al-Majd TV.

The unhappy cleric slammed the Olympic Games for its debauched display of women’s bodies: The world’s worst display of women’s clothing is the women’s Olympics. No exposure of women’s private parts on a global scale could make Satan happier than Olympic games that include women’s sports.

What women wear in the Olympic games are among the worst clothes possible. The inventions of Satan, with regard to the exposure of the body in gymnastics, in swimming, in whatever, in tennis… Women have never got naked for sports like they do in the Olympics. It is aired to billions of people worldwide. The problem is not just with the spectators who are present. The whole thing is aired on TV...

Mexican women have condemned a Catholic priest who likened wearing miniskirts to prostitution on an official church website.

When we show our body without prudence, without modesty, we are prostituting ourselves, wrote the Reverend Sergio Roman in an online publication as part of the preparations for a family values forum in Mexico City next year.

Mexican women's groups have accused the church of providing a religious cover for sexual violence and abuse.

It gives rapists permission to say, 'Well she had on a miniskirt', said Guadalupe Loaeza, a well-known social commentator

Women in miniskirts and skimpy shirts protested outside the Mexico City cathedral on Sunday carrying placards reading: Clothed and naked, I am the same.

However, Rev Roman's archdiocese said his words had been taken out of context and misinterpreted. He said the article was only intended to give "moral guidance for the Catholic community".

Have you heard the one about the Islamic comedy sketch that ITV ordered its latest star to remove? Katy Brand was the victim of humourless lawyers who instructed her to delete a harmless-sounding spoof called The Iman of Dibley.

It was not intended to be offensive, says the comedian, whose Katy Brand’s Big Ass Show returns on ITV2. A new iman arrives in a sleepy parish and the comedy arrives from the misunderstandings that causes. But the lawyers said it might be culturally insensitive.

It’s no laughing matter, argues Brand: The vast majority of Muslims are able to have a laugh at themselves just like everyone else. Why should they be excluded from comedy? It’s funny that ITV had no problem with a new sketch about a pregnant Jesus’s girlfriend who has to deal with dating the Son of God.

Rowan Atkinson has expressed similar concerns about comedy censorship. But Brand is particularly peeved to lose her Iman of Dibley: I really liked the outfit.

Dispatches: Undercover Mosque: The Return Channel 4 on September 1 at 8pm.

Three months after Dispatches: Undercover Mosque won a police apology and libel damages, Channel 4 has announced it is returning to the subject in Undercover Mosque: The Return.

Earlier this year West Midlands police and the Crown Prosecution Service paid out a six-figure sum to Channel 4 and Undercover Mosque Hardcash, the independent producer responsible for the documentary, after falsely accusing the programme of misleading viewers.

It has now emerged that the same Hardcash production team have revisited the subject to see whether extremist beliefs continue to be promoted in certain key British Muslim institutions.

In the new documentary, a female reporter attends prayer meetings at an important British mosque which claims to be dedicated to moderation and dialogue with other faiths.

According to Channel 4, she secretly films sermons given to the women-only congregation in which female preachers recite extremist and intolerant beliefs.

In one scene, as hundreds of women and some children come to pray, a preacher calls for adulterers, homosexuals, women who act like men and Muslim converts to other faiths to be killed, saying: Kill him, kill him. You have to kill him, you understand. This is Islam.

The undercover reporter also films inside a key Saudi-funded Muslim organisation, which claims to promote tolerance and integration yet distributes literature which promotes intolerance for non-Muslims, an extreme version of sharia law and teachings which support discrimination against women.

In addition, Undercover Mosque: The Return also investigates the role of the Saudi Arabian religious establishment in spreading a hard-line, fundamentalist Islamic ideology in the UK - the very ideology the government claims to be tackling.

A faith-based nutter family group said it would like the Harper government to intervene to block a broadcasting licence issued to a new Canadian porn channel.

The Canada Family Action Coalition wants the Conservatives to quash last week's decision by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to grant a licence to adult film network Northern Peaks.

The licence granted to Alberta-based Real Productions requires the new channel broadcast 50% Canadian content. That means Canadian young people will be enlisted to work on and in some cases appear in porn films, says Charles McVety, president of CFAC.

McVety says by setting such a high Canadian content requirement, the CRTC is effectively stimulating the growth of the domestic porn industry: It is to the public detriment to fuel an industry where women are degraded and treated as sex objects.

He also says both CRTC and the cable companies give preferential treatment to lucrative porn broadcasters but short shrift religious programming. He is concerned that the CRTC will allow cable companies to offer the station on a free trial for a number of months: That to us is corrupting minds and getting them hooked on this material.

Under the Broadcasting Act, CRTC decisions can be appealed to cabinet, although it is unusual for cabinet to overturn a decision, particularly one based on content. Such an appeal would put Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government in the position of having to decide on the morality of legal pornography.

A spokesman for the Department of Canadian Heritage said cabinet would have 45 days to act on a request to review the CRTC decision on Northern Peaks.

McVety admits it is not particularly likely cabinet will get involved: We would be happy if they did, but we understand the parameters in which they operate and we don't anticipate they will make such a move.

The Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a warning letter to a Catholic weekly demanding an explanation for articles that did not “focus” on religion and for a report that allegedly degraded Islam entitled, America and Jihad – where do they stand?

Father Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Herald, revealed on August 10 that the ministry had issued the “show-cause” letter accusing the newspaper of breaking publication rules on July 16.

In an article on August 14, the Sun quoted Minister of Home Affairs Syed Hamid Albar as restricting religious writing to questions on rituals, adherence to God, followers and anything related to your divine mission. Despite his apparently broad definition, the minister said mixing religion with politics can create a lot of misunderstandings.

The ministry’s letter reportedly warned that it would not hesitate to take sterner action if the Herald repeats its alleged offenses. According to The Associated Press (AP), an unnamed ministry official on August 11 said the Herald must explain satisfactorily why it ran the articles and pledge to stick by the rules or risk suspension.

More and more, says a spokesman for the Catholic League, ads are designed to insult Catholics — a group she said comprises a safe target for bigotry.

Corporations often want to push social agendas in their advertising, but mostly they want to sell products, said Susan Fani, director of communication for the Catholic League.: If making social or political points is going to hurt product sales, it gets their attention pretty fast. Ultimately, the bottom line is what matters — and that’s why it’s important to speak out regarding offensive advertising.

Those who claim to be tolerant above all else seem to be intolerant of Catholicism. That may be because the Church takes strong moral stands regarding sexuality, and this society wants a more lenient approach to sexuality. The Church represents opposition to much of what commerce wants to promote.

...Read full article

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from a remote area of Balochistan province, that five women were buried alive, allegedly by the younger brother of Mr. Sadiq Umrani, the provincial minister and a prominent leader of the Pakistan People's Party, the ruling party. However, police have still not arrested the perpetrators after one month of the incident.

According to the information received, five women were Fatima, wife of Umeed Ali Umrani, Jannat Bibi, wife of Qaiser Khan, Fauzia, daughter of Ata Mohammad Umrani, and two other girls, aged between 16 to 18 years. They were discussing their options after elders of the tribe had refused them permission to marry.

As the news of their plans leaked out, Abdul Sattar Umrani, a brother of the minister, came with more than six persons and abducted them at gun points. They were taken in a Land Cruiser jeep, bearing a registration number plate of the Balochistan government, to a remote area. Abdul Sattar Umrani and his six companions took the three younger women out of the jeep and beat them before allegedly opening fire with their guns. The girls were seriously injured but were still alive at that moment. Sattar Umrani and his accomplices hurled them into a wide ditch and covered them with earth and stones. The two older women were an aunt of Fauzia and the other, the mother of one minor. When they protested and tried to stop the burial of the minors that were plainly alive, the attackers were so angry that they also pushed them into the ditch and buried all alive. After completing the burial, they fired several shots into to the air so that no one would come close.

After one month the police have still not registered the case and it is difficult to get more detailed information. The provincial minister is so powerful that police are reluctant to provide details on the murder.

Malaysia has cancelled a Kuala Lumpur concert by Canadian pop star Avril Lavigne with just one week's notice, saying her act would not instill good culture in the youth, a minister said.

The timing of the concert, two days before the country's independence day and just ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, was claimed to be a chief reason for the cancellation by Shafie Apdal, minister of unity, culture, arts and heritage.

Shafie said Lavigne's act would be unsuitable alongside local cultural performances during the National Day celebrations.

Concert organizers insisted over the weekend that the show would go on, in spite of calls by certain groups to cancel the performance.

Earlier this month, the youth wing of Malaysia's hardline opposition Islamic party demanded Lavigne's concert be banned.

A vaccine against cervical cancer will be given to schoolgirls without them receiving any safe sex advice as a result of a controversial deal struck between the Catholic Church and health officials.

From next month, 12 and 13-year-old girls at all schools in the country will start receiving the jab in a bid to cut deaths from cervical cancer caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV), which can be passed on during sex.

The Catholic Church originally raised objections to the jab on the grounds it could encourage promiscuity, but has made a U-turn after reaching an agreement with health and education bosses.

The deal means girls getting the HPV jab will not receive any accompanying advice on the need to use condoms to protect themselves from other sexually transmitted diseases.

Health campaigners and parents' groups last night reacted angrily to the deal, warning that the sexual health of thousands of young Scottish women was being put at risk to avoid a moral backlash from the Catholic Church.

When the decision to give the jab was announced by ministers in August 2006, a spokesman for Cardinal Keith O'Brien warned it could be seen by pre-teenage girls as a "green light" for sexual activity.

The Catholic Church has now decided it will back the programme, with the jabs being available in its own schools. Spokesman Ronnie Convery revealed: We have been in fruitful discussion with the health and education authorities, and we are satisfied that the programme to be rolled out across the country now is a responsible and ethically appropriate one.

Director of the Scottish Catholic Education Service (SCES) Michael McGrath added: We wanted to make sure any support materials were appropriate in the Catholic schools, and we didn't want HPV and cervical cancer to be linked with artificial contraception.

Scotland on Sunday has examined the leaflets going out to schoolgirls who receive the jab and there is no mention of using condoms to protect against other STIs.

A priest of Westminster, the leading diocese of the Catholic Church of England and Wales, has written that promiscuity, whether homosexual or heterosexual, can lead to dire spiritual consequences, in addition to the dangers to physical health.

Promiscuity, as well as homosexuality and pornography, says 73 year-old Father Jeremy Davies, is a form of sexual perversion and can lead to demonic possession. Offering what may be an explanation for the explosion of homosexuality in recent years, Fr. Davies said, Among the causes of homosexuality is a contagious demonic factor.

Fr. Davies continues: Even heterosexual promiscuity is a perversion; and intercourse, which belongs in the sanctuary of married love, can become a pathway not only for disease but also for evil spirits.

He also said that Satan is responsible for having blinded most secular humanists to the dehumanising effects of contraception and abortion and IVF, of homosexual 'marriages', of human cloning and the vivisection of human embryos in scientific research. Extreme secular humanism, atheist scientism, is comparable to rational satanism and these are leading Europe into a dangerous state of apostasy: Only by a genuine personal decision for Christ and the Church can someone separate himself from it.

Fr. Davies'  comments come in conjunction with the publication of his new book, entitled, Exorcism: Understanding Exorcism in Scripture and Practice published earlier this year by the Catholic Truth Society (CTS).

Fr. Davies also warns in his book against so-called New Age and occult practices, as well as trendy exercise and spiritual healing regimens derived from eastern religions.

A Belgrade publisher is to withdraw from bookstores a novel that the Islamic Community in Serbia has described as offensive to Muslims.

Aleksandar Jasic, the director of the Beobuk publishing house also apologised to Muslims for distributing the book entitled The Jewel of Medina by Sherry Jones, which details the life of Ajsa, one of Prophet Mohammad’s wives, who he married when she was 11.

The decision followed a strong protest by the leader of the Islamic Community in Serbia, Muarem Zukorlic who compared the book with the Mohammed cartoons controversy of 2006.

It is a book that absolutely does not refrain from desecrating something that is considered by all Muslims as untouchable, Zukorlic said.

The book was to have its global debut in Serbia.

Update: The Jewel in the UK?

The Jewel of Medina was set to be released in the UK on 12th August but this date seems to have come and gone yet according to Amazon, the book has yet to actually be released.

An Iranian woman been sentenced to 100 lashes, after being found guilty of adultery at a retrial.

Amnesty International members are sending urgent appeals to Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, Head of the Iranian Judiciary, imploring him to commute the sentence of flogging.

Shamameh Ghorbani had originally been sentenced to execution by stoning in June 2006. Her brothers and husband murdered a man they found in her house, and she too was nearly killed when they stabbed her. The men were convicted of deserved or 'legitimate' murder and received a sentence of six years' imprisonment.

Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said: Shamameh Ghorbani is facing a brutal and inhumane punishment. Like thousands of other Amnesty supporters, I am urging the Iranian authorities to commute her sentence.

'The fact that she is a woman will have undoubtedly worked against her. Iranian women do not get equal treatment under the law and higher illiteracy rates among women mean they are more likely to sign confessions they don't understand.

'Iran has taken a real step forward by suspending the use of stoning, perhaps the cruellest judicial punishment in the modern world. Now it needs to follow this up and abandon flogging as well, bringing itself more in line with basic human rights standards.'

In November 2006, the Supreme Court ruled that the trial verdict against Shamameh Ghorbani was based on insufficient or incomplete evidence, and overturned the death sentence. The case was returned to a lower court for a retrial, which ruled this month that Ghorbani should not be stoned to death, but should instead receive 100 lashes. She was released from prison in Oroumiye, western Iran, where she had been held since 2005, but her sentence may still be implemented.

With its irresistibly catchy, upbeat tune, Katy Perry’s I Kissed A Girl has become the undisputed song of the summer, rocketing to No1 last week.

The singer’s parents have launched a ferocious attack on their daughter, and branded the controversial lyric of her song – about two girls kissing – shameful and disgusting.

Katy’s parents, both evangelical Christian preachers, say they are deeply ashamed of the star for promoting a sin.

And her mother, Mary Hudson, declared: I hate the song. It clearly promotes homosexuality and its message is shameful and disgusting.

Katy knows how I feel. We are a very outspoken family and she knows how disappointed her father and I are. I can’t even listen to that song. The first time I heard it I was in total shock. When it comes on the radio I bow my head and pray.

Her father Keith Hudson calls himself a ‘prophet/evangelist’ and claims to be used by the Holy Spirit to heal people. He travels America and Europe trying to ‘save people’.

Malaysia's state censors have banned two books on Islam saying they gave a misleading view of the religion.

The Home Ministry banned the English-language Muslim Women and the Challenge of Islamic Extremism and the Malay-language Strange but True in Prayers.

An official with the ministry's publishing unit confirmed that the books had been banned but did not elaborate.

The activist group Sisters in Islam, which published the book on Muslim women, criticized the ban. Norhayati Kaprawi, an official with the group, said the book was an academic work in which female activists and scholars studied the impact of extremism on Muslim women's lives: For me, it's very ironic that the book itself is a victim of extremism. Does that mean women cannot even discuss extremism? What do they want us to do? Lie down and shut up?

Four American Christians who arrived in China with more than 300 Bibles in their suitcases have refused to leave the airport after the books were confiscated by customs officials.

Pat Klein, the leader of the group and founder of the Christian outreach programme, Vision Beyond Borders, said the group had spent the night in the customs area of Kunming Airport, in China's southwestern Yunnan province, and would not leave until the Bibles were returned to them.

They said it's illegal to bring more than one Bible per person into China, but they can't show us the law that says that, he told The Times today in a telephone interview from the airport. They keep telling us they would like us to leave the customs area, but we came here with over 300 Bibles and we know that if we leave we will never get them back.

Klein and his colleagues planned to distribute the Bibles to Chinese Christians in the city: We're hearing the propaganda that China is printing 800,000 Bibles every month. But they're not getting to the people. The people are saying to us, 'Please get us Bibles’.

He said the Bibles they had brought in were printed in Chinese and insisted that they were Union Bibles, which is the only version allowed in China and is the version printed legally at the country’s government-approved plant, Amity Printing.

Update: Bibles Returned

23rd August from bangkokpost.com

A group of American Christians who had more than 300 Bibles confiscated by Chinese customs officials said they got them back when they returned to the airport Wednesday to leave the country.

Members of Vision Beyond Borders had refused to leave the airport in the southwestern city of Kunming for 26 hours after arriving on Sunday, but finally left after realizing that the communist authorities would not relent.

Officials gave back the group's 315 Bibles when they returned to Kunming airport Wednesday, then escorted them to immigration, group representative Pat Klein told The Associated Press by telephone from the airport.

In Afghanistan's Lashkar Gah jail, the majority of female prisoners are serving 20-year sentences for being forced to have sex.

Two-thirds of the women in the medieval-looking jail have been convicted of illegal sexual relations, but most are simply rape victims – mirroring the situation nationwide. The system does not distinguish between those who have been attacked and those who have chosen to run off with a man.

...Read full article from independent.co.uk

A toddler whose remains were found in a suitcase was starved to death by religious nutters because he refused to say "amen" after meals.

Ria Ramkissoon, the mother of Javon Thompson, has been charged with first-degree murder over the boy's death, and Baltimore police said three other members of a group called 1 Mind Ministries have also been charged.

The nutters did not seek medical care for Javon when he stopped breathing and the boy died in his mother's arms, according to court documents that described police interviews with a confidential informant and two children. He would have been about 19 months old when police say adults stopped feeding him in December 2006.

Ramkissoon, 21, is being held in the psychiatric ward of Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center, and a bail review was postponed.

According to court documents, Ramkissoon joined 1 Mind Ministries after Javon was born. Ramkissoon's mother last saw her daughter in April 2006; she later sued for custody of her grandson, writing in a letter to a judge that "the cult leaders" were preventing her from contacting her daughter.

The documents show police interviewed two school-age children who had been part of the group but were taken away from members by Philadelphia police. The children told investigators that members stopped feeding Javon in December 2006, in part because the boy refused to say "amen" after dinner. Members also viewed Javon as "a demon."

Sir Salman Rushdie has accused his publisher of censorship at the same time as trying to prevent the release of a book that criticises him.

The novelist, who spent nearly a decade under a fatwa from the Iranian government after the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988, attacked Random House for pulping a historical novel about the Prophet Mohamed for fear of offending Muslims.

Sherry Jones's debut novel, The Jewel Of Medina, about the Prophet Mohamed and his child bride, was due for release this month. But Random House said credible and unrelated sources had warned that the book could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment.

Rushdie's very public intervention comes at a time when he is engaged in a legal battle to amend the content of a book that criticised him.

On Her Majesty's Service by Ron Evans, who was part of Rushdie's police protection team, makes claims – all of which are denied by the author – that he was imprisoned by guards who got so fed up with his attitude that they locked him in a cupboard under the stairs and all went to the local pub for a pint or two. When they were suitably refreshed, they came back and let him out. Evans, who contends that police nicknamed Sir Salman "Scruffy" because of his unkempt appearance, also makes several other allegations.

Rushdie denied there was any contradiction in his actions, saying: [Sherry Jones's book] is a work of fiction. Ron Evans's book is not, and it contains a very large number of provable lies and complete absurdities which were defamatory not just about me but my son's mother, Elizabeth West, the Metropolitan Police and people including John Major and Norman Tebbit.

Under pressure from Sir Salman's lawyer, Evans is believed to have amended his most contentious chapters.

A bizarre ruling banning women from buying suggestively shaped vegetables such as cucumbers, and the brutal slaying of children, lost Al Qaeda the support of the Iraqi population, it has emerged.

Al Qaeda's enforcement of a severe form of Islamic law sapped support among the people for its campaign against American and Iraqi forces, allowing Arab tribal leaders to drive Al Qaeda out of the strongholds it had created.

Sheikh Hameed al-Hayyes, a Sunni tribal leader from a former Al Qaeda stronghold in the west of Iraq, said: I saw them slaughter a nine-year old boy like a sheep because his family didn't pledge allegiance to them.

The severe Islamic law imposed by Al Qaeda forbid women from buying cucumbers, which were regarded as male and could only be bought by men

They even killed female goats because their private parts were not covered and their tales were pointed upward, Hayyes said: They regarded the cucumber as male and tomato as female. Women were not allowed to buy cucumbers, only men.

Men would have fingers cut off for smoking, hair salons and shops selling cosmetics were bombed, and ice-cream salesmen were killed because ice cream was not available during the time of Islam's Prophet Mohammad.

Al Qaeda wanted to kill me and blow up my shop because I sold music CDs,' said Ahmed Yasin from Samarra, north of Baghdad. Singing, shaving and the medical treatment of women by male doctors were all among activities considered by Al Qaeda to be forbidden by Islam.

Al Qaeda prohibited the shaving of beards and banned sideburns and long hair. Barbers were killed because they did not obey, said Kais Amer, a barber from Mosul in the north of Iraq.

A lawyer has said that Random House US should pay substantial compensation to Sherry Jones, whose novel about Muhammad's child bride Aisha was dropped by the publisher over fears it could provoke terrorist attacks. Jones's The Jewel of Medina was described as potentially more controversial than both Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses and the Danish newspaper cartoons of Muhammad.

Geoffrey Robertson QC, whose latest book The Tyrannicide Brief is published by Random House US and who was under terrorist threat whilst acting for Rushdie, said: We can't be overcritical of American publishers for cowering under terrorist threats. After all, the Guardian, like every other British newspaper, lacked the gumption to publish the Danish cartoons. But all who care about free speech have a duty to make this sort of censorship counterproductive. Random House should pay this author substantial compensation, and the book should be placed on a website so everyone can read it.

In a statement, Random House said: We stand firmly by our responsibility to support our authors and the free discussion of ideas, even those that may be construed as offensive by some. However, a publisher must weigh that responsibility against others that it also bears, and in this instance we decided, after much deliberation, to postpone publication for the safety of the author, employees of Random House Inc, booksellers and anyone else who would be involved in distribution and sale of the book.

Sherry Jones said she was hopeful of finding a new publisher shortly. I'm glad the story has come out because now any publisher who takes it on will do so with eyes wide open. I'm hoping to find someone who is as passionate as I am and my agent is.

One year after the first attempt by an Egyptian Muslim convert to Christianity to change his religious identity, another convert this week became the second to make such a controversial legal request.

After 34 years of practicing Christianity Maher El-Gohary filed a case at the State Council Court on to replace the word “Muslim” on his identification card with “Christian.”

El-Gohary is the second person raised as a Muslim to make such an appeal to the Egyptian government after Muhammad Hegazy, who filed his case in 2007. Hegazy’s case was denied in a court ruling that declared it was against Islamic law for a Muslim to leave Islam.

He can believe whatever he wants in his heart, but on paper he can’t convert, the judge had told the administrative court, according to a member of Hegazy’s legal team.

The judge had based his decision on Article II of the Egyptian constitution, which enshrines Islamic law, or sharia, as the source of Egyptian law. The judge said that, according to sharia, Islam is the final and most complete religion and therefore Muslims already practice full freedom of religion and cannot return to an older belief (Christianity or Judaism).

I am so surprised by the Administrative Court verdict refusing the case of Hegazy, said one of El-Gohary’s lawyers, Nabil Ghobreyal. “This is against all the international conventions as well as the [Egyptian] constitution and Islamic law, which guarantee the freedom of belief.”

Ghobreyal said that if his client could not claim his rights in Egypt, he was determined to take the case to the U.N. International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands.

There is a petition currently running on the official 10 Downing Street website calling on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to make the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday a National Holiday in the UK.

The petition reads: The Muslims in the United Kingdom feel that they require a national holiday to celebrate the Birth of the Prophet Muhammad. This day can be used as a public awareness day about the Prophet Muhammad and utilised as an event to create greater understanding and tolerance between communities. This is currently done in many countries world wide, Muslim and non-Muslim.

There is now a counter petition asking Gordon Brown NOT to create such a national holiday

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Not create a National Holiday on the birth of the Prophet Muhammad.

This is to counter the petition raised by Tahseen Khalid here -http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Mawlid/ - petitioning the Prime Minister to make the birthday of Muhammed a national holiday. Britain is largely now a secular nation, and honouring Muhammad in this way would be inappropriate and offensive to a vast majority of the population. The undersigned all feel there are many more British people deserving of a national holiday, such as Darwin, Newton, Churchill - all of whom would be more appropriate for a day to honour them.

Azerbaijan's State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations has denied that the compulsory prior approval required for all religious literature is censorship.

Asked by Forum 18 News Service how he would describe it, an official stated that the Committee merely checks to see which books were not appropriate for distribution. He also stated that it maintains a list of "banned" religious literature.

On asking how religious communities could see this list, Forum 18 was told that if it's published you'll hear about it.

Human rights activists and religious communities have expressed frustration about the highly restrictive censorship system - including postal censorship - and police confiscations of books, including the Bible, which are said to be "banned".

A Sharia Court of Appeal has denied permission for a 35-year-old local Chinese woman to leave Islam and convert to Christianity. Noorashikin Lim Abdullah (previously known as Lim Yoke Khoon) had her case thrown out because the legal paperwork had the wrong name on it.

The woman acquired the name Abdullah three years ago when she married a Muslim. However, her former name, Lim Yoke Khoon, appeared on the paperwork which the court ruled was a person that no longer existed.

Interestingly, when her marriage fell apart, the woman tried to change the name and religion on her identity card but the National Registration Department said she must first get permission from the Islamic Sharia Court to renounce Islam. So, she goes to the Sharia Court where she's told she can't renounce Islam because she hasn't changed her name.

Notably, the disputes regarding religious conversions in Malaysia are frustrating minorities since Sharia Courts almost always rule against people wanting to leave Islam.

Based on article from muslimnews.co.uk

Protestors forced lawyers in Malaysia to abandon a conference on religious conversion on Saturday, decrying it as an effort to challenge the official status of Islam in this Muslim-majority country.

Police instructed the Bar Council to halt the conference for security reasons after more than 300 demonstrators gathered outside the headquarters of the legal association.

Council President Ambiga Sreenavasan ended the forum less than an hour after it began, saying the lawyers respected the opinions of the protesters and have no quarrel with anyone.

The outcry over the conference - which was meant to examine how families are caught in legal conflicts if one spouse in a marriage converts to Islam - mirrors the resistance of some Muslims to what they say are minorities' unfair demands for religious equality.

Many top Muslim politicians had urged the Bar Council to scrap the talk, which was to include both Muslim and non-Muslim legal experts, saying it could inflame religious sentiments and undermine social peace.

Protesters held signs that read Don't challenge Islam and shouted slogans including Crush the Bar Council, accusing the lawyers' group of meddling with Islam's position as Malaysia's official religion. Some threatened to storm the hall where the forum was held.

A fundamentalist organisation run by a former police officer turned preacher has reportedly been disbanded.

The Christian Congress for Traditional Values, founded in 2005, was instrumental in organising anti-gay demonstrations outside Parliament opposing the Sexual Orientation Regulations.

A CCTV campaign in January, which took the form of a mobile poster, Gay Aim: Abolish the Family, breached Advertising Standards Authority code.

The closure of CCTV was sparked when its founder, former Met officer Michael Reid, was caught having an affair with the choir mistress of his church in Brentwood. In April, founding member and preacher of family values Bishop Reid stepped down after he admitted to an eight year extra-marital relationship with his church's music director, Sheila Graziano.

Reid is known for his far-right views, such as gays are "filthy perverts" and Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists are variously described in videoed sermons as "vile" and "foul heathens."

The CCTV used to describe itself as an alliance of Christians from a wide spectrum of professional and working backgrounds who have pledged to campaign against the declared intention of BBC executives to push back the boundaries' of taste and decency.

Stephen Green, the founder of the fundamentalist Christian Voice group, has offered the BBC about a third of its costs after he failed in an attempt to prosecute the Director-General Mark Thompson for blasphemy after he broadcast Jerry Springer – the Opera on BBC2. The BBC wants the full costs of £55,000.

Green says that Thompson and Mark Thoday, the producer of Jerry Springer – the Opera who was also named in the attempted prosecution, should be “magnanimous” and waive the fees. Green did not make clear how magnanimous he would have been had Messrs Thompson and Thoday been sent to jail, as he wanted them to be.

Now the BBC says that unless it gets the full costs from Green, the licence-payer will end up footing the bill. In a statement, the BBC said: Mr Green tried to launch a criminal prosecution… he knew when he embarked on the litigation that he would be required to pay the costs if he were to be unsuccessful. The BBC believes it has a duty to recover legal costs from Mr Green. If it does not do so, the licence-fee payer will effectively be funding Mr Green’s activities.

Green said that he has been served with a statutory demand that was the first step in bankruptcy, with a charge on his house. He said that he did not have the full amount that was being demanded and that if his house in Carmarthen were to be sold then he would be homeless.

Green said that he did not regret his action, even though the blasphemy law has now been abolished, and that maybe his action helped speed that process. He says that he will now concentrate on “street-witness” (i.e. bellowing through a megaphone at hapless shoppers).

Suspected pro-Taleban militants have burnt down three more girls' high schools in the Swat valley of north-west Pakistan, officials say.

Ten schools have been destroyed in the district in the last four days. Nearly 70 state-run schools have been burnt down in the area in recent months, affecting over 17,000 students.

There has been no word from militant groups in relation to the latest arson attacks, but local militants group have admitted to such attacks in the past. Correspondents say militant groups trying to enforce strict Islamic law want the schools to be shut down.

Figures released by the Pakistani army said that at least 94 militants, 14 soldiers and around 28 civilians had been killed over the previous week.

Correspondents says that the security situation in Swat has been steadily deteriorating since the breakdown last week of a peace agreement between the government and pro-Taleban cleric Maulana Fazlullah.

After a yearlong investigation, the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission has rejected a complaint by the Edmonton Council of Muslim Canadians against former Western Standard publisher Ezra Levant over his re-publication of the Danish Muhammad cartoons.

The allegation the Feb. 14, 2006, issue of the now-defunct magazine was likely to expose Muslims to hatred helped to spark a national debate about human-rights law and free speech, and its rejection comes after similar complaints of Islamophobia against Maclean's magazine also failed.

In a report on his investigation, which recommended the complaint not be referred to a panel hearing, the human rights and citizenship commission's Pardeep S. Gundara wrote the cartoons are stereotypical, negative and offensive, and they do reinforce stereotypes, but they were related to relevant and timely news and were not simply gratuitously included.

Yasmeen Nizam, a civil litigation lawyer in Edmonton and a director of the council of Muslim Canadians, said the Council is certainly disappointed with the decision. We thought the cartoons did (expose Muslims to hatred), regardless of the context, because if you look at the broader context in a post-9-11 world, Muslims are at a higher risk of being discriminated against.

I basically told them to f-off without using the swear word, Levant said of his response to the complaint, given during an interview with a human-rights commission officer that he taped and broadcast on YouTube.

He does not consider this a victory, though.

This censor approved what I wrote. His decision is not that I have freedom of speech. His decision is that I have his approval. I'm not interested in his approval. The only test of free speech is if I can write what he disapproves of with impunity.

That's what freedom of speech is, to piss off some second-rate bureaucrat like Pardeep Gundara and know that you have the right to do so, because you're in Canada, not Saudi Arabia.

Journalist Sherry Jones toiled weekends on a racy historical novel about Aisha, the young wife of the prophet Muhammad. Ms. Jones learned Arabic, studied scholarly works about Aisha's life, and came to admire her protagonist as a woman of courage.

When Random House bought her novel last year in a $100,000, two-book deal, she was ecstatic. This past spring, she began plans for an eight-city book tour after the Aug. 12 publication date of The Jewel of Medina, a tale of lust, love and intrigue in the prophet's harem.

In May, Random House abruptly called off publication of the book. The series of events that torpedoed this novel are a window into how quickly fear stunts intelligent discourse about the Muslim world.

Random House feared the book would become a new Satanic Verses. In an interview about Ms. Jones's novel, Thomas Perry, deputy publisher at Random House Publishing Group, said that it disturbs us that we feel we cannot publish it right now. He said that after sending out advance copies of the novel, the company received from credible and unrelated sources, cautionary advice not only that the publication of this book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community, but also that it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment.

After consulting security experts and Islam scholars, Mr. Perry said the company decided to postpone publication for the safety of the author, employees of Random House, booksellers and anyone else who would be involved in distribution and sale of the novel.

Iran has placed a new moratorium on the execution of people by stoning, the country's judiciary has announced.

At least nine people in the country are believed to be facing the sentence for a range of offences including adultery, prostitution and incest.

The judiciary's spokesman Alireza Jamshidi said four sentences had been commuted - two will now face long prison sentences and the other two will be flogged.

In a few other cases, these people have asked for forgiveness and their request ... is under review, he said.

Asma Fatima, a petite, bespectacled Pakistani diplomat in Washington, sat at the front of a crowded Capitol Hill hearing room on July 18, carefully considering whether a man seated a few places to her left on the panel should be jailed.

The occasion was a panel discussion convened by a group of congressmen to educate their colleagues on the issue of religious freedom, and the man was Canadian Ezra Levant, who in February 2006 republished Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in his now-defunct magazine the Western Standard, which resulted in, among other things, two complaints of “discrimination” before the Alberta human rights commission.

One complaint was withdrawn, but the other continues. If it is upheld, Levant could face a large fine, a lifetime order not to talk about “radical Islam” disparagingly, and be forced to issue an apology. If Levant does not comply with these orders, he could be imprisoned for contempt of court.

...Read full article

My Christian beliefs and upbringing were publicly ridiculed, So wailed Canadian Dean Skoreyko when he rushed off to file a “human rights” complaint over the Jesus Sucks banner flown last week over Toronto.

Skoreyko has filed the complaint with the British Caledonian Human Rights Tribunal against Kenneth Hotz and Showcase TV.

Hotz is one half of the Kenny v Spenny show, which broadcasts their attempts to compete with one another. The stunt was part of a contest between Hotz and co-host, Spencer Rice, to see who could offend the greatest number of people.

Skoreyko said he filed the complaint on behalf of the silent majority that would object to such antics. He said he wanted to make the point that the human-rights system applies double standards, favouring only minority interests.

Meanwhile, according to this report, B’nai Brith Canada, which supports Canada’s human-rights system, said it’s time to reform and modernise the human rights commissions. It calls for investigators to be trained to distinguish between hate and protected political speech, and for complaints to be made to only one commission. Complainants’ legal costs are now paid by the government, while respondents must pay for their own defence.

We have to ensure that commissions do not become abusers of the very human rights they are charged with protecting, said spokesman Frank Dimant in a release.

Four transvestites arrested in a raid on a beauty pageant have appealed a one-week jail sentence imposed by a Malaysian Islamic court for dressing as women.

Islamic officials last week detained 16 transvestites competing in the "Miss Universe Asia 2008" contest at a beach resort hotel in the northeastern state of Kelantan, which is ruled by the fundamentalist PAS party.

Mohamad Abdul Aziz, chief assistant director of enforcement in the state, told AFP that four transvestites were found guilty by the Islamic Sharia court: Four of them were charged in the Sharia court Sunday for wearing female outfits. The court found them guilty and imposed a seven-day jail sentence and a fine of 1,000 ringgit (310 dollars).

But they appealed against the jail sentence and the court freed them on bail. Mohamad said one transvestite was released because he wore a Malay traditional outfit. The other 11 who were wearing evening gowns will be charged on August 24. They are also on bail.

Mohamad said the beauty contest attracted many participants because the first prize was a trip to Indonesia's island resort of Bali. He said it was the first time that authorities had made such a mass arrest in the state

Tehreek-e-Islami Taliban Pakistan (TITP) has distributed a fifteen-days notice to several “un-Islamic” businesses in Kot Addu to shut down or face dire consequences.

The TTIP wrote threatening letters to owners of CDs shops, Internet cafes and cable service providers urging them to close down their activities.

Similarly, the group warned that women must wear hijab to ensure their safety.

The message said that Western and Indian media was damaging the character of youths and madrassah students, the official said. The business of music and movies is ‘Haram’, it added.

The message then warned that those who continued their businesses after the 15-day deadline expired would be dealt with sternly.

The second paragraph said that within five days of the receipt of the letter, every woman not wearing Hijab would be disfigured with acid.

Very soon we would cleanse earth from the traitors of Allah, the third paragraph said.

The ame of Khalid Mehsud, purported local Taliban leader, was printed at the end.

Saudi religious police have arrested 55 people at a party allegedly held by homosexuals at a farm in Qatif province in the east of the country.

According to a report on the satellite TV channel, al-Arabiya, two young men were allegedly found wearing women's make up and dancing on stage together.

The detainees were all handcuffed when they were arrested. Saudi police said during their search they found drugs and alcohol and other items that are prohibited under the country's strict Sharia law.

In 1913 a law was passed in Massachusetts to prevent interracial couples from other parts of the US marrying in the state.

Thankfully, the archaic marriage law – a reminder of America’s disgraceful racist past - fell into disuse. But it was then discovered that the law could be invoked to prevent gay and lesbian couples from most other states from marrying in Massachusetts.

So the House of Representatives did the right thing and voted, by a huge majority, to scrap it.

The Catholic Church, of course, is outraged.

The move has drawn condemnation from opponents of same-sex marriage, including Cardinal Sean P O’Malley of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston and the state’s three other Catholic bishops.

O’Malley and the bishops want the 1913 law kept on the books for constitutional, religious, and cultural reasons. They said eliminating the law would infringe on the rights of other states to set their own marriage laws.

Scrapping of the law will clear the way for out-of-state couples to marry in Massachusetts, making it the second state to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry regardless of their place of residence.

Said Representative Byron Rushing, a Boston Democrat: I’m glad we finally did it. [It was] a question of fairness and … a question of equality. Relationships like this are still condemned by religious bigots of all stripes

Pope Benedict XVI's summer break at a seminary in the mountains of northern Italy has led to demands for the removal of a "provocative" sculpture of a crucified frog on show in a nearby museum.

Local Catholics have complained to the police that the work by the German artist Martin Kippenberger, on show at the Bolzano Museum of Modern Art, is a "public obscenity". It depicts a bright green frog with its tongue hanging out, nailed to a cross, with a beer mug in one outstretched hand and an egg in the other.

It is not known whether the pontiff plans to visit Bolzano and the art museum. However Monsignor Wilhelm Egger, Bishop of Bolzano and Bressanone, revealed that he had discussed the sculpture with the Pope. He declined to say how the pontiff had reacted.

The Union for South Tyrol, a separatist group, said it had collected 10,000 signatures for a petition demanding the removal of the crucified frog. Franz Pahl, the president of Trentino-Alto Adige regional council, has gone on hunger strike in protest over the exhibit.

Luis Durnwalder, the head of the local province, said he supported contemporary art, ...BUT... not pure provocation ... The principles of respect for popular feeling and of artistic freedom have to find a reciprocal tolerance through good will and with understanding from both sides.

Under pressure from Bishop Egger the museum curators have moved the frog from the museum entrance to the third floor, but have so far refused to remove it altogether. They said the work was not an attack on Christianity but rather a reflection of the artist's state of profound crisis at the time.

Saudi Arabia's religious police have banned selling cats and dogs or exercising them in public in the Saudi capital, because of men using them as a means of making passes at women, an official said.

Othman al-Othman, head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Riyadh, known as the Muttawa, told the Saudi edition of al-Hayat daily the commission has started enforcing an old religious edict.

He said the commission was implementing a decision taken a month ago by the acting governor of the capital, Prince Sattam bin Abdul Aziz, adding it followed an old edict issued by the supreme council of Saudi scholars.

The reason behind reinforcing the edict now was a rising fashion among some men using pets in public to make passes on women and disturb families, he said, without giving more details.

Othman said that the commission has instructed its offices in the capital to tell pet shops to stop selling cats and dogs.

The Afghan lawyer defending a journalist on death row in Kabul has been bombarded with death threats urging him to drop the case.

Islamic extremists repeatedly threatened to murder Afzal Nooristani after he agreed to defend Sayed Pervez Kambaksh in his high-profile appeal.

The 23-year-old student writer was sentenced to death for circulating an article about women's rights. He was tried in a closed court, and denied a defence lawyer. His case has sparked worldwide protests.

In Afghanistan, conservative clerics have led rallies endorsing his conviction, while others have marched for his release. Most lawyers were too afraid to take his case.

I received phone calls threatening to kill me, said Mr Nooristani: I answered two of them and got lots of missed calls. But I told them they could do what they like. It didn't stop me taking the case.

More than 100,000 people have signed an online Independent petition demanding justice for Kambaksh. The United Nations' high commissioner for human rights, Louise Arbour, the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and Afghanistan's President, Hamid Karzai, have all called for justice to be done.

But speaking at the inaugural meeting of the Afghan Bar Association yesterday, Nooristani warned that the appeal was already deeply flawed, and he said it is almost impossible for Kambaksh to get a fair trial: There's no concrete evidence against him, but still the court insists on keeping him in jail and postponing the trial.

Almost all of Britain’s social problems are caused by a loss of religion, the Chief Rabbi told Anglican bishops.

Societies without religion disintegrated and people succumbed to depression, stress, eating disorders and alcohol and drug abuse, Sir Jonathan Sacks told 650 bishops and their spouses in Canterbury.

Sir Jonathan, the first Chief Rabbi to address the Lambeth Conference, said that a society that lost its religion lost “graciousness”: Relationships break down. Marriage grows weak. Families become fragile. Communities atrophy. And the result is that people feel vulnerable and alone.

He continued: That is where we are. He said that mankind was living through one of the most fateful ages of change since Homo sapiens first set foot on Earth.

...BUT...

Sir Jonathan said that covenants of faith are splitting apart, and called on Christians to walk united with members of other religions in working to solve the world’s problems.

Too often, he said, religion showed a divided face to the world: Conflict – between faiths, and sometimes within faiths.

The sanctity of human life is being desecrated by terror. The integrity of creation is threatened by environmental catastrophe. Respect for diversity is imperilled by what one writer has called the clash of civilisations.

Birmingham City Council has blocked its staff from looking at websites about atheism.

Lawyers at the National Secular Society said the move was "discriminatory" and they would consider legal action.

The authority's Bluecoat WebFilter computer system allows staff to look at websites relating to Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and other religions but blocks sites to do with witchcraft or Satanism and occult practices, atheistic views, voodoo rituals or any other form of mysticism.

Under the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003, it is unlawful to discriminate against workers because of their religion or belief, which includes atheism.

National Secular Society president Terry Sanderson said the city council's rules also discriminated against people who practise witchcraft, which is also classed as a legitimate belief.

We feel very strongly that people who don't believe should not be denied the access that people who do believe have got. He said the society would initially contact the council and ask for the policy to be changed, and otherwise pursue legal action. He said he believed he would have a very strong case.

Update: Unbelievable

16th August 2008 from the National Secular Society

Responding to a letter of protest from the National Secular Society, Stephen Hughes, the Chief Executive of Birmingham City Council, says that the Council has never blocked websites dealing with atheism and nor does it intend to – even though it is installing the new Bluecoat filtering system from the USA.

The copy of the categories contained on the Bluecoat system that we have seen certainly lump atheism in with cannibalism and the occult as being sites that are to be blocked at all times. It also categorises it with other philosophical positions that it regards as "undesirable".

Now Hughes says: The City Council does not block sites for containing material on atheism, agnosticism, secularism, Wicca, witchcraft, the occult or any similar subjects. It never has done and no proposal has been made that it should.

Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the National Secular Society, commented: We are delighted that Birmingham has confirmed, as we very much hoped, that it has no intention of discriminating by blocking access to websites on atheism or Wicca, while allowing it for sites dealing with mainstream religion. This episode highlights that great care needs to be taken when setting up web filtering software that originates outside Europe where attitudes are much less accepting towards those without conventional religious belief and where European anti-discrimination laws do not apply.

A Sikh teenager excluded from school for breaking a "no jewellery" rule by refusing to remove a bangle which is central to her faith was a victim of unlawful discrimination, a judge has ruled.

The high court judgment means Sarika Watkins-Singh, 14, will return to Aberdare girls' school in South Wales in September - wearing the kara, a slim steel bracelet.

The school had twice suspended Sarika for refusing to remove the bangle, which her lawyers told Mr Justice Silber was as important to her as it was to England spin bowler Monty Panesar, who has been pictured wearing the bangle.

Sarika was at first taught in isolation and eventually excluded for refusing to take off the bangle in defiance of the school's policy. This banned girls from wearing any jewellery other than a wristwatch and plain ear studs.

Today, the judge declared that the school was guilty of indirect discrimination under race relations and equality laws.

Human rights group Liberty, which has been supporting Sarika, claims the school breached race, equality and human rights laws by not allowing her to wear the kara.

Jeffrey Bacon, a reknowned employment barrister specialising in discrimination, said the judgment would not set a precedent for schools to accept all religious symbols.

The judge recognised that it's one of the five 'kakars' [symbols of Sikhism], which is significant and would suggest schools and employers shouldn't start running for cover and allowing people to wear everything. But it does pave the way for people to look for chinks in the armour.

Almost one in three Muslim students in the UK believe it justifiable to kill in the name of their religion, a poll has showed.

Most of those said such extreme action was acceptable to defend Islam from attack but a small number (4%) said it was OK to kill to promote it.

However, a majority (55%) rejected the idea, in a survey carried out by internet pollsters YouGov for a study of campus extremism.

It gathered the opinions of 600 Muslim and 800 non-Muslim students at 12 high-profile universities with active Islamic Societies (Isoc). The Centre for Social Cohesion, which commissioned the study, said it had revealed "broad and varied" opinions among Muslim students.

But co-author Hannah Stuart said the findings on extremist views - twice as high among Isoc members - were "deeply alarming": Students in higher education are the future leaders of their communities yet significant numbers of them appear to hold beliefs which contravene liberal, democratic values.

The survey discovered that most Muslim students (54%) would like to see the formation of an Islamic party to represent their views at Westminster.

Some 40% backed the incorporation of Sharia law into British law but Muslim students were fairly evenly split over whether controversial aspects such as punishment or stoning should be included - 32% deeming them sacred and inviolable and 34% agreeing Sharia could be modernised.

A majority also backed a woman's right to choose whether to wear the Hijab headscarf (61%) and for men and women to be treated equally (89%).