The director general of the Kano State Film and Censorship Board, Abubakar Rabo Abdulkarim, was nearly lynched over the weekend.

Abdulkarim was rather ironically also noted as a former shariah law enforcer,

The censorship board has been waging a scorched earth campaign against actors, musicians and producers in the state for allegedly promoting immorality. As a result, many artistes fled the state and now ply their trade elsewhere.

The trouble started when a police patrol team accosted Abdulkarim after they saw his car parked in a secluded environment behind a mall with a young girl inside.

Abdulkarim, who insisted that the girl he was found with was his niece, said he was not having an affair with her. But when he discovered he could not convince the contingent of policemen on night patrol on the propriety of having an under-aged girl in his car at such a late hour, he panicked.

A police source said when the patrol team attempted to arrest Abdulkarim he took flight in his car.

While trying to escape however, he knocked down an official of the Kano History and Culture Bureau who was riding on a motorcycle.

This incurred the wrath of Okada riders, who thought that he had knocked down a member of their union and promptly moved to give him a thorough beating.

He was only saved from a lynching by the police who had been in pursuit of his car.

Two ice cream adverts, one showing a pregnant nun and the other two male priests about to kiss, are facing a ban by the advertising watchdog after offending Roman Catholics.

Complaints have previously been reported about the slogan immaculately conceived appearing on the image of the nun eating from a pot of Antonio Federici Gelato Italiano.

But now the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has indicated the image of the nun is likely to be banned.

Meanwhile, the picture of two men in cassocks and clerical collars, embracing with their lips inches apart, bears the words we believe in salivation. The ASA is now investigating this advert too.

British firm Antonio Federici said the adverts celebrated the implied forbidden Italian temptations of the ice cream. Creative director Matt O'Connor said: Only a tiny proportion of those who have seen the ads have made complaints. They seem to be upholding the views of a bigoted minority over the majority.

But retired Catholic bishop John Jukes decried such adverts, saying: They tend to add to the general downgrading and attack on religious opinions and religiously committed people, which is a danger to the welfare of our culture.'

Authorities have recovered the bodies of three Christian relief workers who had been kidnapped and killed by members of the Pakistani Taliban in the flood-ravaged country.

Swat District Coordination Officer Atif-ur-Rehman told Compass that the Pakistan Army recovered the bodies of the three foreign flood-relief workers.

An official at the international humanitarian organization that employed the workers withheld their names and requested that the agency remain unnamed for security reasons. Military sources who withheld news of the deaths from electronic and print media to avoid panicking other relief workers granted permission to Compass to publish it in limited form.

The foreigner aid workers have been working in Mingora and the surrounding areas, Rehman said. On Aug. 23 they were returning to their base at around 5:35 p.m. when a group of Taliban attacked their vehicle. They injured around five-six people and kidnapped three foreign humanitarian workers.

The president of advocacy organization Life for All, Rizwan Paul, said the bodies of the three relief workers had been sent to Islamabad under the supervision of the Pakistan Army.

Pointing to alleged discrimination against minorities in distribution of humanitarian aid, Paul added that Christians in severely flood-damaged areas in Punjab Province have been neglected: The Christians living around Maralla, Narowal, and Shakargarh were shifted to the U.N.- administered camps, but they are facing problems in the camps, he said. There are reports that the Christians are not given tents, clean water and food. In most of the camps the Christians have totally been ignored.

The bodies of five male volunteers working for a female MP have been found riddled with bullets in western Afghanistan, amid a growing campaign of violent intimidation against women running in the country's elections.

They were kidnapped by gunmen while out campaigning for Fauzia Gilani.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of 10 of her campaign workers as they travelled in remote countryside. Five of the workers were released before the others were found dead. The Taliban has not yet claimed responsibility for the murders, but Gilani – one of hundreds of women running in next month's elections – said she believed the enemies of Afghanistan were responsible.

These people were just my volunteers, she said. They were just trying to help – I wasn't paying them any money. She said she did not know whether they were targeted because she is a woman, but said that in western Afghanistan, the society is controlled by men. They are in charge, and they don't want a woman to be above them.

One of the defining features of the campaign has been the attacks and scare tactics directed at women contesting seats nationwide. According to a recent survey of violence and irregularities in Logar province, conducted by the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA), nine out of 10 threats against specific candidates were directed at women.

In other provinces, women have been inundated with threatening phone calls, often delivered late at night by insurgents and political opponents. Ahmad Nader Nadery, director of FEFA, said his organisation's research showed that violence in the run-up to polling was far higher across the country than in last year's presidential election, where widespread insecurity was an essential precondition for extraordinary amounts of voting fraud.

A jewish singer who performed in front of a mixed audience of men and women was lashed 39 times to make him repent, after a ruling by a self-described rabbinic court.

Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak, founder of the Shofar organization aimed at bringing Jews back to religion, has made it his recent mission to fight against musical performances for both men and women.

His judicial panel, with Rabbi Ben Zion Mutsafi and another member, sentenced Erez Yechiel to 39 lashes in order to rid him of his sins.

In a video clip of the court posted on the Shofar Web site, Ben Zion said that those who make others sin, such as artists who make men and women attend performances or dance together, have no place in the world to come.

He displayed a leather strip he said was made by his father from ass and bull skin, with which Yechiel was to have been whipped.

Yechiel, who said, I accept upon myself the lashing for my sins, was ordered to stand by a wooden poll with his head facing north (from whence the evil inclination comes), his hands tied with a azure-colored rope (a symbol of mercy), and served his sentence.

Sweden's highest court has refused to hear a last-ditch plea by the Madonna of the Orgasm (Orgasmens Madonnas kyrka) church to be recognized.

The church, in Lövestad in southern Sweden, has been fighting a lengthy battle to be registered as a faith community in Sweden, but Sweden's Supreme Administrative Court said there were no grounds to appeal a Court of Appeal decision to reject the application.

The church's Spanish founder and self-appointed cardinal, Carlos Bebeacua, has said that he believes that the orgasm is God and should be worshipped. Beceacua once told tabloid Kvällsposten: The orgasm is the ultimate feeling of lust, it shouldn't be limited to ejaculation. You can reach it through art or by looking at a landscape and thinking 'Wow!'

In November 2008, the Stockholm County Administrative Court overruled Sweden's Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency, which had refused Bebeacua's application to register his church as a religion.

The agency said the church's name would offend Christians, but the cardinal had argued successfully that local Christians in Lövestad, including the Church of Sweden parish priest, had welcomed the unconventional religion. He also pointed out that the word Madonna literally translates as my lady and does not necessarily refer to the Virgin Mary.

Bebeacua's success was short-lived, however. The Administrative Court of Appeal ruled that Madonna was generally understood as a reference to the Virgin Mary and that the name would cause offence not only in the broad groups of the population that have Christian roots, but also in society as a whole.

The Supreme Court said it would not hear the case as there were no serious errors in the appeal court's judgement and the case did not involve an important precedent.

Re one of Poland's leading pop stars faces trial for suggesting that the Bible was written by people who liked herbal cigarettes and were drunks. Dorota Rabczewska, aka Doda, could face two years in jail over her youthful remarks.

Another woman called Dorota victimised by unsavoury rightwing twunts in Poland?

The article prompted me to look up Dorota Nieznalska again.

Back in 2003 she was sued and sentenced for her installation Passion in Gdansk.

League of Polish Families members attacked Nieznalska verbally and physically at the Gdansk gallery where her Passion installation was being exhibited. People were certainly getting steamed up by the situations and there was a near riot as nutters clashed with a few people supporting Dorota.

The work was described as an exploration of masculinity and suffering. It shows a cross on which a photograph of a fragment of a naked male body, including the genitalia.

She has now been acquitted. Her case had been rumbling on since 2002! IN the meantime, she has effectively had to put her work on hold. How the hell do the cretins persecuting these women think this nonsense will be compatible with human rights law?

Egyptians, Muslims and Christians alike, are closely watching the controversy associated with the Ground Zero Mosque project, though for different reasons. The Egyptian media is giving this issue full coverage with articles mostly accusing Americans of Islamophobia, and supporting Muslims to hold on to their rights to build a mosque anywhere as guaranteed by the US constitution, regardless of what Americans think.

On the other hand, some influential Muslims rejected the idea of a Mosque near Ground Zero only on grounds that it would backfire on Islam, by connecting it to the 9/11 events. Dr. AbdelMotey Bayoumi, a member of Al Azhar's Islamic Research Academy, believes it could be a Zionist conspiracy to harm Islam.

American-Egyptian Copts were also accused of organizing the rally which is to be staged on 9/11 with Geert Wilders, reported the Egyptian daily youm7 on August 20, 2010.

I cannot believe the double standards of the Egyptian Muslims, commented Coptic activist Magdy Guindi. It is obvious that Americans don't approve of this Mosque being near Ground Zero. Is this not one of the conditions applied to church building in Egypt?

Much of the on-going sectarian strife in Egypt is related to the ability to build churches. Unlike Muslim citizens, who only need a municipal license to build mosques, the Copts require presidential approval for a church, based on the 1856 Ottoman Hamayoni Decree, in addition to ten humiliating conditions laid down by the Ezaby Pasha Decree of 1934, before being considered for a presidential decree. These include the approval of the neighboring Muslim community.

Muslim clerics and Islamists easily persuade Muslims that a church is equivalent to slandering Islam, so they take advantage of this Muslim approval condition, said Guindi.

In 2005 President Mubarak issued a decree, which delegated authority to the country's 26 governors to grant permits to Christians to expand or rebuild existing churches. Instead of making matters easier, many local officials intentionally delay or refuse to process applications without supporting documents that are virtually impossible to obtain. State Security often block them from using permits that have been issued on security concerns.

Most Copts interviewed on the issue of the Ground Zero Mosque thought that even if Moslems had the right to build a mosque, it should be somewhere else, to save the victims families any pain. Others thought the Muslim attitude was typical They go to a country and want to take it over, making the best of democratic rights to their advantage, but when it comes to Islamic countries, matters are different, and they forget about the rights of others, commented one young Coptic girl.

Let Muslims experience the rage and frustration we have been going through for centuries, every time we want to build or repair a dilapidating church in our own country, commented Coptic activist Mina Hanna, in what sounded like Schadenfreude. It would be interesting to see what happens if the West decided to treat Muslims like Christians in Egypt.

Iranian authorities have banned all advertisements for pets, pet food and other pet products.

The decision by Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance comes after the fatwa was issued by powerful cleric Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi.

In June, Ayatollah Shirazi declared dogs unclean, saying that dog owners were blindly imitating the West and that their devotion to the animals would result in evil outcomes. Many people in the West love their dogs more than their wives and children, he said.

A leading U.S. terrorism expert has warned of renewed tensions between the Muslim world and Denmark in connection with plans by Jyllands-Postens Culture Editor Flemming Rose to release a book in which caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed are reprinted.

In his The tyranny of silence Rose studies the 12 controversial caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, which were first published in Jyllands-Posten in 2005.

If I were him, I would seriously consider the consequences of reprinting the drawings, says U.S. terrorism expert Evan Kohlman, who has worked for the FBI and the U.S. administration on terrorism issues. Kohlman says that while he understands the issue of freedom of speech, every time the drawings are reprinted, there are riots and demonstrations and there will be bloodshed.

The author insisted in an interview with Jylland-Posten competitor Politiken that he was not trying to be provocative, stressing that he simply wanted to tell the story of the 12 drawings and put them into a context of (other) pictures considered offensive.

I am sure that a lot of people don't know what I think of these drawings. My concerted wish is to explain myself. I have nothing but words to do so, but once people have read the book ... maybe they will be able to see the broader context, he said.

The spokesman for the Islamic Society in Denmark Imran Shah says that Flemming Rose is beyond reach and says that Danish Muslims will probably react by shrugging their shoulders.

The former editor of Indonesian Playboy could face two years in jail after Indonesian prosecutors said they would enforce a 2009 Supreme Court ruling.

Erwin Arnada was first tried for public indecency in 2007 but was cleared of all charges.

The acquittal was seen as a victory for freedom of the press in Indonesia.

But conservative Islamic groups lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court, which found him guilty of public indecency.

This week, leaders of the Islamic Defenders Front, a hardline Muslim group in Indonesia, announced they had obtained a copy of the Supreme Court's ruling and urged the district attorney's office to enforce it.

A lawyer with the group, told the BBC it was outrageous it had taken Indonesian prosecutors this long to act on a Supreme Court order. He added that members of the Islamic Defenders Front would visit the district attorney general's office on Friday to find out why there had been such a prolonged delay in putting Arnada behind bars.

Meanwhile, Indonesian prosecutors told the BBC they only received the Supreme Court ruling earlier this week. The prosecutor's office issued a summons for Arnada on Wednesday. If he does not appear then two more summons will be issued for him. If he fails to comply with those summons, prosecutors say he will be arrested by force.

Update: Case Review

9th September 2010. Based on article from minivannews.com

The former chief editor of Playboy Indonesia magazine, Erwin Arnada, has asked prosecutors to suspend his prison term in a last ditch effort to annul a court ruling sentencing him to two years in prison for indecency.

Erwin's lawyer, Todung Mulya Lubis, said his client would file a case review against the Supreme Court ruling.

We are going to file our request as soon as possible, probably after the Idul Fitri holidays, he told journalists at the Press Council's office in Jakarta on Monday.

Todung said the Supreme Court justices made a mistake when examining his client's case. The panel of justices should have used the Press Law when examining cases related to the press, not the Criminal Code. This is an egregious mistake, he said.

A case review may take years and does not necessarily suspend the conviction of Erwin, who refuses to come out of hiding.

One of Poland's leading pop stars faces trial for suggesting that the Bible was written by people who liked herbal cigarettes and were drunks. Dorota Rabczewska, aka Doda, could face two years in jail over her youthful remarks.

A Warsaw court has cleared the way for criminal proceedings after it rejected an appeal by Doda against attempts to prosecute her for insulting religious feeling.

Doda's troubles relates to comments she made during a television interview in 2009 when she said that she had little faith in the Bible because it is hard to believe in something written by people who liked herbal cigarettes and were drunks.

Rabczewska has argued that her remarks were youthful and off-the-cuff, and that she had never intended to insult religious feelings. She also attempted to argue that she meant medicinal cigarettes.

But the comments riled conservative Catholics in Poland already angered by the singer's willingness to bare all in Playboy, and her raunchy videos.

One of her critics, Stanislaw Kogut, a senator in the Poland's upper house of parliament, called Doda's comments an insult to Christians and Jews, while Ryszard Nowak, the chairman of the Committee for the Defence Against Sects, an ultra-conservative organisation dedicated to upholding Catholic values, appealed against an initial decision by prosecutors to drop the case. His argument that Doda had broken Polish law protecting religious sensibilities and, therefore, her actions merited official investigation triggered legal proceedings against her.

Saturday 28th August 2010

The following towns and cities have joined the August 28th global protest of 100 Cities of the World against Stoning.

...See list of protests

New South Wales Premier Kristina Keneally says her government will not support a ban on the burqa because such a ban has no place in multicultural NSW.

Christian Democratic Party MP Fred Nile had called on both major parties to allow members a conscience vote on his private member's bill, which was introduced into Parliament in June. Nile wants NSW to follow a growing number of European countries trying to ban women from wearing in public the burqa and the niqab, a veil with a narrow opening for the eyes.

However, at an interfaith dinner with about 300 religious leaders last night, Ms Keneally announced that cabinet had decided to oppose the Full-face Coverings Prohibition Bill, which is modelled on legislation recently passed by the Belgian Parliament.

Egypt's Public Prosecutor has referred a physician to the criminal court in Menufiya governorate for the death of a 13-year-old girl during a circumcision procedure.

Investigations indicated the child bled to death after undergoing the procedure. According to the investigations, the girl was buried without a burial license to avoid any suspicion about the cause of death.

The doctor was taken into custody pending trial.

Minister of State for Family and Population Moushira Khattab had filed a complaint demanding that legal measures against whoever was involved in the incident be taken immediately.

In June 2008, the Egyptian parliament made amendments to the Child Law banning FGM and imposing a sentence of a maximum of two years and a fine of a maximum of $1,000 as a penalty for performing it. The law also punishes practitioners, including parents, with between three months and two years in jail.

Egypt's top Islamic and Christian authorities were quick to voice support for the ban, saying the practice had no basis either in the Quran or in the Bible. But conservative Muslim and Christian Egyptian families still have their daughters circumcised as a means to preserve their chastity.

A 2005 government report found that about 90% of Egyptian women had undergone the extremely painful procedure intended to severely mutilate the genitals.

Chechen women said that they had been harassed and some physically harmed by bands of men for not wearing headscarves during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Bearded men in traditional Islamic dress have been roaming the streets both on foot and in cars since Ramadan started on Aug. 11, demanding bareheaded women wear a headscarf, Grozny residents and witnesses said.

Two men came up to me, one furiously fingering a prayer bead, and said it wasn't pretty to have a bare head during Ramadan, said Markha Atabayeva. They instilled such fear in me.

Atabayeva said she had seen a group of men with automatic rifles taunting women for not wearing headscarves.

The battle over plans to build a mosque near the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York is fuelling a surge in anti-Muslim protests across the US, including opposition to new Islamic centres from California to Georgia.

Religious leaders and civil rights activists warn that anti-muslim feeling has swept the country since the destruction of the twin towers is being heightened by political exploitation of the New York dispute before nationwide elections and is increasingly bound up with hostility to immigrants.

They say the outpouring of condemnation at the outrage of a mosque close to the hallowed ground of the World Trade Centre site also goes hand in hand with the increasing acceptability of what they describe as hate speech.

Many religious leaders have spoken out against Muslim-bashing, including rabbis in New York who have defended the plans for the mosque two blocks from the site of the 9/11 attacks, which would not be visible from Ground Zero.

But John Esposito, director of the Centre for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University said the dispute over the proposed mosque had given cover for more open hostility unleashed after the 9/11 attacks.

Historically we've had problems in Mississippi or Georgia or New York or wherever when someone wants to establish a mosque. The cover for opposition used to be that people will say: we're not really prejudiced but it'll affect the traffic in the area, not facing the fact that it is very common if you have a significant number of Jews or Protestants or Catholics to expect that they're going to want to have a synagogue or a church and chances are the town's going to go along with it.

But today, Americans increasingly no longer shy away from saying they oppose mosques on the grounds that Muslims are a threat or different.

In New York, a group called the American Freedom Defence Initiative is placing adverts on New York buses showing a plane flying into one of the World Trade Centre towers and what it calls a Mega Mosque and asking Why There?.

Obama: Rights but not right

Based on article from washingtonpost.com

One day after President Obama defended the freedom of Muslims to build an Islamic complex near New York's Ground Zero, he offered a less forceful version of that position on Saturday: Yes, Muslims have that right, Obama said -- but that doesn't mean he believes it is the right thing for them to do.

Speaking to reporters during a family vacation visit to Panama City, Fla., Obama reiterated the stand he took Friday night at a White House dinner observing the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. In this country we treat everybody equally and in accordance with the law, regardless of race, regardless of religion, Obama said.

But he went on to explain that he was not endorsing the construction of the Islamic center. I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there, he said. I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding.

Update: 700 people protest against Ground Zero mosque

25th August 2010. Based on article from christianpost.com

Hundreds of protesters, singing to the tune of spiritual classic We Shall Not Be Moved as their theme, rallied Sunday morning against the construction of a mosque near ground zero.

Organized by The Coalition to Honor Ground Zero – a network opposing the growth of Sharia law, stealth jihad, and radical mosques worldwide – the rally attracted some 700 opponents shouting, No Mosque, singing God Bless America, and giving heated speeches in challenges to explore the purpose behind the planned mosque.

Numerous Christians were among the organizers of the event opposing Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf of Masjid al-Farah who is spearheading the new mosque: I hate to disappoint the Imam, but we are not a Sharia state yet! shouted event coordinator Beth Gilisky, head of Women United, from a street stage at the center of the event to crowds replying, Never! Never! We shall not comply [as a Sharia state]! she protested.

Update: Egyptian Copts to protest against Ground Zero mosque

26th August 2010. Based on article from nacopts1.blogspot.com

On September 10, 2010, Coptic Christians will rally, chant, sang, pray and march in front of the National Press Club to stand against the Ground Zero Mosque, to get the attention of U.S. administration and the American Public on the continuing human rights violations against the Copts (Christians who live in Egypt).

The US Army is investigating claims that nearly 100 soldiers were kept in their barracks and forced to clean when they decided not to attend a Christian rock concert. About 20 of the soldiers said they did it for religious objections. The soldiers were not allowed to use their cell phones or computer access while not attending the concert.

The concerts have been going on for about 2 years and are called the Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concerts. It has been put together by Maj. Gen. James E. Chambers when he was at Fort Eustis and have continued despite his re-posting. He describes himself as a born again Christian that was saved at 16. While he says The idea is not to be a proponent for any one religion. It's to have a mix of different performers with different religious backgrounds, no such mix can really be found. Each and every performer has been Christian.

At this concert in particular, the band in question was BarlowGirl, an all girl Evangelical Christian rock band. The father of the sisters that comprise the band was quoted saying, We really believe that to be a Christian in today's world, you have to be a warrior, and we feel very blessed and privileged that God has given us the tool to deliver His message and arm His army.

So what is the commander of a US Military fort doing putting on evangelizing concerts for and why are soldiers who don't attend them being punished?

A Bangladesh court has ruled that people cannot be forced to wear skull caps, veils or other religious clothing in workplaces, schools and colleges.

The court said that wearing any form of religious clothing, for students and employees, should be a personal choice.

The high court also ruled that women cannot be prevented from taking part in sports or cultural activities.

The ruling came after reports that a college in the north had forced students to wear veils.

In April this year, the court ordered schools and colleges not to force women to wear the burqa, a garment that covers the entire body except the eyes and hands.

Mahbub Shafique, one of the lawyers who filed the latest litigation, told the BBC how this ruling goes a step further: The difference between these two is that, this particular ruling today doesn't apply only on females it also applies to males as well. Because any kind of religious attire is imposed, that has been declared illegal to some extent.

A Dutch appeals court has fined an Arab organisation in the Netherlands 2,500 euros for causing unnecessary offence in publishing a Holocaust-denying cartoon.

The Holocaust is a black page in the history of humanity, the appeals court in Arnhem in the eastern Netherlands said in a statement: The suggestion that it may have been contrived or exaggerated by victims is extraordinarily offensive for the victims and their surviving relatives, in this case the Jews.

The Dutch leg of the Arab European League (AEL) re-published the cartoon on its website last year, saying it wanted to point out double standards in society.

In April, a court acquitted the AEL of insulting Jews by publishing the cartoon, which depicts the Nazi Holocaust as a figment of Jewish imagination.

But appeals judges agreed with prosecutors that the cartoon was more offensive than could be justified by the debate.

A Saudi judge has asked several hospitals to paralyse a man by damaging his spinal cord as punishment after he was convicted of attacking another man, the brother of the victim said.

Abdul-Aziz al-Mutairi was left paralysed and subsequently lost a foot after a fight more than two years ago. He asked a judge in north-western Tabuk province to impose an equivalent punishment on his attacker

The victim's brother Khaled al-Mutairi claimed one of the hospitals, located in Tabuk, responded that it was possible to damage the spinal cord, but it added that the operation would have to be done at another more specialised facility.

Saudi newspapers reported that a second hospital in the capital Riyadh declined, apparently on ethical grounds, saying it could not inflict such harm.

Saudi Arabia enforces strict Islamic law which includes punishments based on the primitive legal code of an eye for an eye. However, King Abdullah has been trying to clamp down on extremist ideology, including unauthorised clerics issuing odd religious decrees.

Khaled al-Mutairi said the assailant was sentenced to 14 months in prison for the attack that paralysed his younger brother, but he was released after seven months in an amnesty: We are asking for our legal right under Islamic law. There is no better word than God's word - an eye for an eye.

Spain's upper house of parliament has  approved a motion calling on Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's socialist government to ban the use of face-covering Islamic veils in public.

The motion was introduced by the main opposition conservative Popular Party and it calls for a ban on the niqab, which covers the face but leaves the eyes exposed, as well as the body-covering burka.

It was narrowly approved with the votes of 131 in favour and 129 against. There were no abstentions.

A Muslim woman is suing Disneyland, accusing the company's California theme park of discrimination for telling her she could not serve customers if she chose to wear a headscarf.

Imane Boudal asked her employers at Disneyland's Grand Californian Hotel several months ago whether they would permit her to wear a headcovering while working as a hostess, a spokesman for a worker's union said.

But when no reply was forthcoming, she decided to don the headscarf anyway, timing her decision with the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Leigh Shelton, a spokesman for the Unite Here Local 11 union said.

Disney told Boudlal that if she wanted to work as a hostess she had to remove her hijab because it did not comply with the 'Disney Look,' the spokesman said: Disney further advised Boudlal that if she refused to remove her hijab, she could either work a back-of-the-house position where any customers would not see her, or else go home.

Miss Boudlal refused the compromise and is now bringing Disney before the US Equal Opportunity Commission, a federal agency that handles claims of workplace discrimination.

Update: Another Case

1st October 2010. Based on article from blogs.ocweekly.com

The Los Angeles Times has the scoop on the latest case. An unidentified woman was offered an internship as a vacation planner in Anaheim after a phone interview. When she arrived wearing her traditional headscarf, she was asked why she did not mention her hijab. She was then offered a post in the stockroom until a customized costume could be made for her.

But, here's the rub: she was told it would take five months to come up with the new costume--which is the length of her internship.

As it did with Boudlal, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, whose greater Los Angeles office is located in Anaheim, intervened. However, this time Disneyland agreed to accommodate the woman in her original position as a vacation planner, according to CAIR.

A magazine ad, for The Circle of Raphael (COR), was headed THE TALISMAN OF THE SEVEN ANGELS CREATED TO BRING IT'S OWNER ANGELIC BLESSINGS, GUIDANCE & PEACE. Text stated ... [The Angels] promised they would view its wearing as an invitation to befriend its owner and bless them with the gift of Angelic good fortune, friendship, guidance and divine protection from all real danger, both physical and spiritual ... This incredible Angelic item has proved it can create fantastic results for its owners instantly ... From the moment you receive it, you will have seven Angelic friends watching over and protecting your life. Numerous doors to opportunities and good fortune that you may have once thought were out of your reach will be flung open - like magic ... Each angel will bless its owner with the following ... The gift of inner peace and happiness ... Divine protection and safety in all travel ... Luck in love and relationships ... Financial security and good health ... Protection from all acts of violence ... Good fortune in games of chance ... Angelic help in career and work matters ... [wearers] will also see their whole life significantly changed for the better in the flash of an eye ....

A reader challenged whether the claims that the talisman would protect the wearer from physical danger, bring luck in love and relationships, financial security, good health and happiness, good fortune in games of chance and help in career and work matters were misleading and could be substantiated.

ASA Assessment: Upheld

The ASA noted CoR did not send evidence that showed the efficacy of the talisman. We reminded them that the CAP Code required them to hold documentary evidence to support the claims made in their advertising. Because we had not seen evidence that demonstrated that the talisman would protect wearers from physical danger, bring luck in love and relationships, financial security, good health and happiness, good fortune in games of chance and help in career and work, we concluded that the claims had not been substantiated and the ad was therefore misleading.

A self proclaimed holy man who tried to sue The Sikh Times and its journalist which said he was an impostor is to renew his appeal application after a decision to strike out his claim.

Justice Eady struck out his Holiness Sant Baba Jeet Singh Ji Maharaj's libel claim in May and refused permission to appeal the decision.

However, an application to renew the appeal before the Court of Appeal remained open.

He had attempted to sue journalist Hardeep Singh and Eastern Media Group over an article which appeared in The Sikh Times in August 2007.

The libel claim suggested that the article alleged he was the leader of a cult and an impostor who had disturbed the peace in the Sikh community of High Wycombe and promoted blasphemy and the sexual exploitation and abuse of women.

Justice Eady struck the case out on 17th May 2010 accepting submissions on behalf of Singh that the courts could not deal with the case because of the well established principle of English law that the court will not attempt to rule on doctrinal issues or intervene in the regulation of governance of religious groups.

The judge said it would appear that issues of a religious or doctrinal nature permeated the pleadings in the case.

Nick Collins, head of litigation at Leeds-based law firm Ford and Warren, which is representing the claimant, said the application was being renewed, and would be dealt with at an oral hearing at the Court of Appeal in October.

Domino's Pizza, which was among the first fast food outlets in Britain to serve halal-only takeaways, has ditched the menu after poor sales.

The chain enraged customers 18 months ago by completely removing pork from its pizzas in favour of halal-only meat at its branch in Hall Green, Birmingham.

Pizza fans in the Muslim area of Hall Green, Birmingham who were previously refused service when asking for a ham and pineapple or pepperoni pizza can now order their favourite toppings again after the store's decision.

Domino's Pizza have also reverted to conventional menus at the other two branches where they trialled halal-only menus for Muslim customers in Bradford and Blackburn.

A popular Saudi holiday sitcom has drawn the ire of muslim clerics over an episode portraying Arab Christians in a positive light.

Tash Ma Tash, which has aired during Ramadan for 17 years, is no stranger to controversy and its episodes have grown bolder over the years, tackling issues from morals police and polygamy to the heavy influence of religion on education in the deeply conservative society.

A two-part Uncle Boutros episode of the sitcom showed the two main Saudi characters, both Muslims, being advised by their dying father to visit the brother of their deceased Lebanese mother, about whom they know next to nothing.

After a tearful reunion, the pair discover their mother's relatives were Christians and Uncle Boutros was a priest. Despite their initial shock, the brothers slowly come to respect their uncle's Christianity, although they try to convert him to Islam and give him a Koran.

The duo are pleased when their uncle hands them a box of jewellery that had belonged to their mother and which he had held for them for years. They also respect their uncle's charitable deeds towards a Lebanese Muslim neighbour.

But some Saudi clerics were not impressed.

A Muslim is allowed to praise only the one true religion -- Islam, said Eissa al-Ghaith, a judge at the Justice Ministry, in remarks carried by al-Madina newspaper.

Independent Islamic scholar Abdulwahab al-Salhi said the indecent lot of Tash Ma Tash ... used drama to destroy Muslims' stable religious principles by portraying Christians as believers and not apostates.

Update: Making fun of sexist beliefs

19th August 2010. Based on article from telegraph.co.uk

A role reversal comedy shown on Saudi television in which a woman marries four husbands has hit the very nerve it satirised - male pride and double standards.

The comedy was an episode in Saudi Arabia's most celebrated satirical series, Tash Ma Tash or No Big Deal, a take-off of social prejudices shown annually during the holy month of Ramadan.

The central character takes four husbands, explaining herself using the conventional arguments Saudi men use to exercise their legal and religious privilege of marrying four times. When she remarries for the first time she complains that her existing husband has stopped caring about his looks after five years, and is preoccupied with work.The next marriage is for a dare with friends, and the fourth marriage, to a Syrian, she explains by saying that she is now bored with Saudi men. Then she decides she wants to marry for a fifth time, making the four husbands draw lots to see who will be divorced and plunging them into a morass of jealousy.

What this does is hurt us, said one imam, Sheikh Saad Al-Buraik. In the name of comedy, they make fun of our religion and beliefs.

There are regular calls to ban Tash Ma Tash, but it is said to be one of King Abdullah's favourite programmes.

A religion-obsessed Russian tycoon has ordered his employees to quickly embrace the Russian Orthodox Church or lose their jobs.

Vasily Boiko-The Great, who controls a major agricultural holding, has written to his 6,500 employees, ordering those living in sin to get married in church within two months or be fired.

The deadline, 14 October, is a Russian Orthodox festival. He has also banned any of his employees or their wives from getting abortions, saying he does not want to work with killers.

The farming tycoon said he was forced to resort to extreme measures after Russia was struck by an unprecedented drought and thousands of wild fires this summer: Such an extreme situation is punishment for the Russian people's sins, he told daily newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. I need to take extreme measures including looking at the way my employees treat God.

Boiko-The Great added the suffix to his surname by deed poll and said he found God himself after a stint in jail on as yet unproven fraud charges.

One of the most prestigious figures in Scots law is calling on the country's courts to take biblical teachings into account when administering justice.

Former Conservative Cabinet member Lord Mackay of Clashfern, who served as Lord Chancellor under Margaret Thatcher and John Major as well as holding the post of Scotland's Lord Advocate, is fronting a campaign which will see bibles sent to every court in the land.

Mackay now acts as honorary president of the Scottish Bible Society (SBS), and has invited sheriffs and judges to refamiliarise themselves with biblical principles and act accordingly when presiding over court cases.

The SBS is currently distributing bibles to Sheriff Courts, the High Court, the Court of Session, the Faculty of Advocates, the Crown Office and offices of the Procurator Fiscal service. The books are accompanied by a pamphlet entitled The Bible in Scots Law: A Guide for Legal Practitioners, which features an introduction from 83-year- old Mackay. It states: I believe the teaching of the Bible is vitally important for guidance in daily living for all of us.

The words and phrases of the 1611 King James version have permeated modern English and this makes it a valuable book of reference, but the modern version is especially useful in dealing with our day-to-day challenges.

If we use it in this way we will soon learn that what it says about human beings is as true today as it was when it was originally written all these years ago.

I have found it immensely important in my life and I trust it will be the same with many who have access to it through this initiative now.

However, the National Secular Society (NSS) claimed that inviting Scotland's justiciary to implement literal biblical values in the 21st century was beyond absurd. Terry Sanderson, the rationalist organisation's president, said: What Lord Mackay is proposing could put the Sharia laws of the Middle East to shame.

He and the SBS make absolutely no concessions to the progress of legal thought over the past two millenia. Killing witches and homosexuals and stoning adulterers are all clearly stated legal requirements in the Christian holy book. Are they seriously suggesting that Scottish sheriffs and judges should follow the Bible to the letter?

Approximately forty members of Ahmadiya religious minority group were seriously injured by muslims in an attack on August 7, 2010 in Bangladesh.

Attackers ransacked residential houses, mosques and properties of Ahmadiyas.

Ahmadiyas were trying to construct a new mosque in the locality. Suddenly a group of Muslims equipped with lethal weapons attacked the construction site, thus seriously injuring members of this small religious minority group. Indiscriminate physical assault, rampage on properties, looting and various forms of offense continued unprotected for hours, before, local police rushed to the spot and stopped at the attackers.

When police left the spot, a fresh group of armed Muslims went on for a second round of offensives on the Ahmadiyas, thus looting valuables worth a few million Taka.

Demolition of Ahmadiya mosques has been continuing in Bangladesh for past several years.

The holy month of Ramadan, with its compulsion to fast from dawn until dusk, can wreak havoc with the training programme of Muslim sportsmen and woman.

In England, certainly, coaches would endeavor to bypass the rules to ensure optimum output from their athletes. Elsewhere, the very thought of breaking with tradition is met with severe punishment.

So it was on Sunday that an Iranian football team sacked their star midfielder Ali Karimi for failing to fast. A statement on Steel Azin FC's official website said: The club has been forced to sack one of its players, Ali Karimi, for being disobedient and not fasting during Ramadan. [Ali Karimi] insulted officials of the [Iranian] football federation and the Tehran team's supervisor who confronted him on the issue.

Karimi, dubbed the Maradona of Asia, is the second most capped player in the Iran's history and was named that Asian Player of the Year in 2004

A man and a woman have been stoned to death in Afghanistan over an alleged love affair.

Their families asked the Taliban to arrest the two, who were each engaged to other people, after they tried to elope.

A gathering of clerics, meeting last week to discuss reconciliation with the militant group, expressed support for harsh punishments such as stonings and lashings, which are allowed under sharia law.

A spokesman for Nato-led forces criticised the Taliban for carrying out what he said were acts of indiscriminate violence against ordinary Afghans.

An Amnesty International spokesman said: The stoning of this couple is a heinous crime. The Taliban and other insurgent groups are growing increasingly brutal in their abuses against Afghans.

Update: Romeo & Juliet Killings Condemned

20th August 2010. Based on article from rferl.org

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has added his voice to those condemning the Taliban-orchestrated execution by stoning of a young couple charged with adultery.

In a statement, Karzai termed the killings an unforgivable crime. He said the ruling to stone the two young Afghans by an illegal armed group without a fair trial runs contrary to all human and Islamic principles.

The killings, carried out in a village under Taliban control, have been widely condemned by Afghan civil society representatives, international human rights watchdogs, and prominent Muslim scholars in Afghanistan and beyond.

Hundreds rallied in Indonesia's capital city, Jakarta, on Sunday, urging President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to stop attacks by radical Islamists on Christian churches. Related

Carrying several Indonesian flags at half-mast, the mostly Christian group demanded that the president punish hardline Muslim groups that attack minority faiths.

Protesters accused the president and the government of violating constitutional rights of minority groups to freely practice their religion.

This year, between January and July, there were reportedly 28 cases of religious freedom violations in Indonesia. In 2009, there were only 18 reported for the whole year. In 2008, there were only 17.

Indonesian rights groups say the violations, mostly by radical Muslim groups, include the forced closure of churches and attacks such as torching.

Hillary Clinton nut cracker

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed deep concern on over the continued persecution of religious minority communities in Iran by the national government.

Freedom of religion is the birthright of people of all faiths and beliefs in all places, Clinton stated following the sentencing of seven Baha'i leaders earlier this week.

The United States is committed to defending religious freedom around the world, she added, and we have not forgotten the Baha'i community in Iran.

Iran had sentenced seven leading members of the Baha'i community, the country's largest non-Muslim religious minority, to 20-year-jail terms. The leaders, who were incarcerated and held for nearly two years without due process, had been charged with crimes including espionage, propaganda activities against the Islamic order, and spreading corruption on earth.

In her remarks, Clinton said the United States strongly condemns Sunday's sentencing as a violation of Iran's obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

A number of rights organizations, however, allege that the prosecutions and sentences are politically and religiously motivated acts. They say religious minorities, particularly Baha'is, as well as Christians and Sufi Muslims, have suffered intensified physical attacks, harassment, detention, arrests, and imprisonment in recent years.

They also say the government continues to impose lengthy prison sentences on prominent reformers from the Shia majority community, many of whom have been tried on charges of insulting Islam, criticizing the Islamic Republic, and publishing materials that allegedly deviate from Islamic standards.

The famous Dzumaya mosque in Bulgaria's second largest city of Plovdiv became the scene of a fist fight among 200 Bulgarian Muslims in the eve of Ramadan.

The brawl erupted when supporters of the two fractions – of Nedim Gendzhev and Mustafa Ali Hadzhi clashed. Eyewitnesses say they saw three Members of the Parliament from the ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) being drunk and some people in the crowd fighting with knifes.

According to Gendzhev's supporters, the clash began when about 100 people associated with Hadzhi stormed inside the mosque. Several individuals, including one security guard, have sustained light injuries and thorn clothes while the damage to the mosque consisted of broken windows. The fight was broken by the police.

This is the latest incident, following a series of protests of hundreds of imams all around the country against the May 12 ruling of the Supreme Court of Cassations which brought back Gendzhev as Chief Mufti.

Afghanistan's largest gathering of clerics, who met to discuss reconciliation with the Taliban, has called for the revival of strict Islamic law.

About 350 of the Islamic clerics, or ulema, met for three days, the meeting ending with a declaration calling on President Hamid Karzai to enact sharia, or Islamic law, including punishments such as stonings, lashing, amputation and execution.

The lack of implementation of sharia hodud (punishment) has cast a negative impact on the peace process, said a 10-point resolution issued after the meeting. We the ulema and preachers of Afghanistan ... earnestly ask the government not to spare any efforts in the implementation of sharia hodud.

The upcoming publication of an autobiography of Danish Cartoonist Kurt Westergaard has been reported worldwide.

The book will include (inside, not on the cover) the iconic turban bomb Mohammed cartoon.

The cover illustration will be Kurt Westergaard's farewell drawing in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper when he retired earlier this year.

Two Shiite Muslim television stations in Lebanon have cancelled a programme about Jesus, saying they do not want to stir up sectarian conflict in the country.

The 17-episode show, which was produced in Iran, describes Jesus from an Islamic point of view. Muslims believe Jesus was a prophet and a teacher, but not the son of God.

Al-Manar, a television station run by Lebanon's powerful militant group, Hizbollah, and the National Broadcasting Network, NBN, started airing the program this week at the beginning of the month of Ramadan.

Christian priests and politicians quickly protested, saying the topic might endanger national coexistence. The show does not show respect to Jesus, the church and Christianity, Catholic Maronite Archbishop Bechara el-Rai said.

Al-Manar and NBN issued a statement saying the program shows the great personality of God's prophet Jesus, the son of Mary. But, the statement said, the stations decided to stop airing the program in respect to other Lebanese sects.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's lawyer said she was tortured for two days before she agreed to appear on TV.

The Iranian woman whose sentence to death by stoning sparked an international outcry is feared to be facing imminent execution, after she was put on a state-run TV programme last night where she confessed to adultery and involvement in a murder.

Speaking shakily in her native Azeri language, which could be heard through a voiceover, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani told an interviewer that she was an accomplice to the murder of her husband and that she had an extramarital relationship with her husband's cousin.

The interview was broadcast on a show called 20:30, a day after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Tehran to honour treaty obligations to respect the rights of citizens and halt executions.

Amnesty International condemned the so-called confession and said the independence of Iran's judiciary was tattered by the broadcast. This makes a complete mockery of the judiciary system in Iran, said Drewery Dyke of Amnesty's Iran team. Iran is inventing crimes ... it is an unacceptable practice that flies in the face of justice.

Update: Diplomat Summoned

21st August 2010. Based on article from etaiwannews.com

A British minister has met with Iran's envoy to London to press the clerical regime over the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani.

Britain's Foreign Office said that Alistair Burt, a junior minister, met with Iranian Ambassador Rasoul Movahedian to discuss her case.

A New Zealand government ban on kosher slaughtering was lifted this week after a legal challenge was made by Jewish community leaders in New Zealand.

Lawyers have begun legal proceedings against the Minister of Agriculture last week, seeking a restoration of the right to practice shechita in New Zealand, which has been banned since May.

Justice Denis Clifford, of the High Court in Wellington, confirmed on Monday than an interim agreement had been reached between the Jewish community and the government, until the matter comes to trial next year.

The decision to issue legal proceedings follows the New Zealand government's decision not to exempt shechita under the country's commercial slaughter code which came into effect two months ago.

Shechita has been under continual threat in New Zealand since 2001. The country's new animal welfare code states that all animals set for commercial consumption must be stunned prior to slaughter so that they are treated humanely and in accordance with good practice and scientific knowledge.

Communications Minister Tifatul Sembiring, a member of the conservative Islamic party, called a news conference on the eve of Ramadan at which he renewed a promise to act against porn sites.

Quoting a poem, Sembiring called on Muslims to keep hearts clean in the holy month, and said that he would target websites and media that carried sexual content.

Already 200 Internet service providers in Indonesia have since last month agreed to block sites that displayed sexual activity and nudity, and their efforts are extraordinary, Sembiring said.

It's not an easy task as there are four million local and international porn sites, he said, but added that he was unable to say how many sites had been shut out of Indonesia.

I've promised before there will be efforts to close porn sites... This Ramadan hopefully traffic to porn sites can be reduced by more than 90%, he said.

Update: 800,000 websites blocked

13th August 2010. Based on article from thejakartapost.com

Telecommunication giant Telkomsel claims to have blocked 800,000 porn sites in response to the government's drive against pornography during Ramadan.

Telkomsel president director Sarwoto Atmosutarno said that the company had filtered the adult sites through its proxy server or gateway, which automatically denies its customers access to the porn sites.

Due to the blacklist internet access mechanism, users of Telkomsel's Internet facility will read in their mobile phone, computer or laptop monitors a warning, which reads: Access is denied due to security policy enforcement, if they try to open a porn site.

Based on article from thejakartaglobe.com

But the government's plan to block offensive sites on the Internet has come under fire from several Web sites, including two major news portals, which have suffered from access problems, presumably as a result of the blocking.

News portal Detik.com's advertisement section and Kompas.com were inaccessible, prompting Internet users and media experts to question the blocking policy. Detik.com founder and chairman Budiono Darsono expressed his outrage when the portal's subdomain was blocked.

Other Web sites that were blocked included Kompas.com, community forum Kaskus.us, and Google Adsense, a service that provides text-based advertising.

Ministry spokesman Gatot Dewa Broto apologized for the blockage, saying that it was only the first day the plan was implemented: We apologize to some Web sites that were also blocked today, he said, adding that it should be understood that this is a big plan and it takes time to implement it perfectly.

Gatot said that the ministry would soon open a hotline which site users and owners could call to file reports on blockages. The ministry, he said, would verify the reported sites and take immediate action.

A Christian Coptic human rights group is seeking to initiate an international arrest warrant in the United Kingdom against the leading Muslim fundamentalist cleric Sheikh Yousef al-Badri for inciting Muslims to kill apostates from Islam in Egypt.

Al-Badri, who is a member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs and is associated with the primary Islamic institute of al Azhar University, is reported to have stated God has commanded us to kill those who leave Islam.

We expected the Egyptian Prosecutor General to take legal action against al-Badri, but unfortunately in Egypt impunity for Muslims prevails at all levels when it comes to the rights of Christians, said Dr. Ibrahim Habib, President of United Copts of Great Britain who will initiate the arrest warrant. Incitement to kill is a crime under legal and ethical norms.

Sheikh Yousef al-Badri has called on several occasions for the spilling of the blood of Muslims who convert to Christianity, causing them to live in hiding under the constant threat of vigilantism and death from fundamentalists. Even if we are killed, the government will not convict our killers, said Mohamad (now Bishoy) Hegazy, a renown apostate from Islam, whose face is familiar all over Egypt.

The arrest warrant states that al-Badri has also been engaged in a number of other provocative acts, such as calling for Muslims to declare Jihad against America, preaching against Abu Ziad who had to claim asylum in Europe, supporting suicide bombings and endorsing wife beatings.

The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), an affiliate of the American Center for Law and Justice, submitted an application in January 2010, to the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights seeking judgment against the Egyptian government for refusing to recognize the fact that Mr. Mohammed Bishoy Hegazy and his family members are Christians converted from Islam.

Taliban militants publicly flogged and then shot dead a 48-year-old widow for alleged adultery in Afghanistan, a media report said.

The woman was given dozens of lashes before being shot dead.

It happened before the public ... despite that no one has complained, the government will take its own measures about the incident, claimed Abdul Jabar, an official with the provincial government.

Around 300 Muslim protesters and 300 police officers surrounded members of the Batak Christian Protestant Church as they worshiped in an open field in Bekasi.

There were many police on guard, but the attackers were able to get very close to the congregation, Theophilus Bela, president of the Jakarta Christian Communication Forum, said in a statement to international government and advocacy groups. We are afraid that they will attack the church again next Sunday.

Police held back the shouting protesters while the church worshiped, but at one point they allowed Murhali Barda, leader of the Front Pembela Islam (FPI or Islamic Defenders Front) in Bekasi, through the cordon for an angry confrontation with church leaders, Voice of America (VOA) reported.

The 1,500-strong congregation, established some 15 years ago, initially met in each other's homes before purchasing a residential property in the Pondok Timur housing complex in Bekasi for use as a worship building. The group then met in the building while they waited for local officials to respond to a building permit application filed in 2006.

When Muslim neighbors in December objected to the meetings in the housing complex on the grounds that the church had no permit, officials banned church members from meeting there. As the local government had delayed the processing of its application for a building permit, the church ignored the ban, leading officials to seal the building on June 20.

Bekasi Mayor Mochtar Mohammad on July 9 said he would allow the congregation to meet in public areas or at the city hall, according to the Globe. Pastor Simanjuntak chose to move to the proposed building site, and Sunday meetings at the field in Ciketing were soon greeted by crowds of protesters.

The FPI's Barda said the church's insistence on worshipping at the site was a provocation. He also accused Christians in Bekasi of attempting to convert Muslims away from their religion, citing a recent Internet report claiming that the Mahanaim Foundation, a local Christian charity, had carried out a mass baptism of new converts.

Pastor Simanjuntak has said that she and her church will continue meeting in the field, as they have nowhere else to go.

Update: Christians attacked by muslim mob

12th August 2010. Based on article from religionnewsblog.com

Another mob attack on Christian worshipers in Bekasi occurred on Sunday. About 20 members of the Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP) in Pondok Timur Indah were chased and beaten with sticks by a mob believed linked to the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) after they tried to conduct Sunday services at a field in Ciketing, Bekasi.

The attack comes a day after Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo drew criticism for attending the hard-line group's anniversary party and asking it to report abuses of religious laws over Ramadan.

Saor Siagian, the church's legal representative, said more than 20 members of the congregation were assaulted on Sunday. We already reported this to the National Police and I also accompanied them for a medical examination at the Kramat Jati Police hospital, he said.

A British couple have been murdered in an apparent honour killing in North-West Pakistan after a Pakistan family felt insulted that their son had been turned down for an arranged marriage.

Gul Wazir from Birmingham and wife Begum were shot dead Salehana, a village known as Little England for its high number of migrants to Britain. Their son was also wounded in the incident but survived.

The couple had travelled to the village from Britain after their daughter told them she wanted to call off the wedding plans because she didn't want to marry a man from Pakistan.

The husband and wife had already promised their daughter to a man. When that arrangement ended he was not happy, a friend of the family said: Gul and his wife went to Pakistan to try to sort it out, but this man went crazy and shot them for breaking off the engagement. This is a tragedy. They were honest, decent people.

The lawyer for a woman sentenced to death by stoning in Iran for adultery has fled to Norway where he is considering seeking asylum.

Mohammad Mostafaie has been representing Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, who was sentenced to death by stoning after she was found guilty of adultery.

Mostafaie, who says he has rescued 18 of his 40 clients facing death sentences in Iran in recent years, has himself faced increasing pressure from the authorities in Tehran and says he was finally forced to flee after a warrant was issued for his arrest at the end of July.

He told the press conference Sunday that he did not think his departure would have a negative impact on Mohammadi-Ashtiani's case, since other lawyers were prepared to pick up where he had left off. And this will highlight Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani case even more, he said, adding that he did not think Tehran would dare to allow her stoning sentence to be carried out or to harm her physically in other ways.

His wife Fereshteh Halimi had already been arrested and taken to the infamous Evin prison in Tehran, where she was held in isolation for 14 days, he said. The only reason she was arrested was that the authorities wanted me to turn myself in, he said, adding that he had been sick with worry, but had decided it was best to leave. His wife has now been released.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said Sunday in a statement he was very pleased that human rights lawyer Mohammad Mostafaie is now safe in Norway. The foreign minister lamented that the pressure on courageous defence lawyers such as Mostafaei is so great that they are compelled to flee, calling on Iran to respect human rights and fulfill its international obligations.

Stung by Everybody Burn Quran Day statements made by an US-based church, scores of Muslims vented their fury by staging a mass demonstration on the streets of Bhopal.

It has been reported that the Dove World Outreach Centre of Florida said that it would burn copies of the holy Quran to mark the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Deeming it a crusade war, the demonstrators warned that such a heinous act would have long lasting and irreversible consequences. The angry protestors on Friday raised slogans, and issued a warning saying the global Muslim community would not be silent for any act of damaging Islamic faith.

We will not take this lying down. We will give a tit for tat answer to all those who try to hurt our religious sentiments. We have never made any derogatory statement about the holy texts of other religions, and we respect other faiths too, claimed Asif Khurram, President of the All India Muslim Festival Committee: So, nobody has the right to say anything blasphemous about the holy Quran in any manner. This is wrong, and we strongly condemn this.

The demonstrators have also drafted an appeal to be submitted to President Pratibha Devisingh Patil urging her US counterpart Barack Obama to take immediate and appropriate action against the perpetrators.

Until recently, shoppers in the fetid underground shopping centre in central Jalalabad had the blare of Bollywood pop songs to contend with as well as the heat and humidity of the bazaar that sprawls underneath one of the Afghan city's busiest roads.

But the screeching music has now gone, along with nearly all the crowded little kiosks that used to do a brisk trade in CDs and DVDs. Fear is spreading that Taliban members, who believe music to be un-Islamic, are closely monitoring the city's moral climate.

Speakers fixed to the wall of the last remaining music shop have been switched off for the last week, and the glass display shelves, which used to be a showcase for a collection of Pashtu, Indian and western music, are now empty.

The bazaar owner told us to take it down and turn off the music, said Ahmad Baryalai, a 25-year-old manning the store that has been selling music for eight years. He was scared we'd get blown up.

The landlord has good reason to be cautious. In early July a bomb was planted at street level, between the top of the stairs and a police box. That was just a warning shot. Far more damage was done to the nearby Millie Music store. The entire front of the shop was ripped off by a bomb that had been left in the middle of the night, presumably to avoid hurting a lot of bystanders.

Among the debris of some of the blasts handwritten notes were found; they warned businesses of severe consequences if they did not stop selling music.

The Church of Scientology won in federal court when a judge dismissed two lawsuits that accused the church of labor law violations, human trafficking and forced abortions.

Claire and Marc Headley, who left Scientology in 2005, said the church controlled them with threats of harsh punishment and other tactics that prevented them from leaving the Sea Organization, Scientology's religious order.

But U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer ruled that the Sea Org is protected by the First Amendment's guarantee of free exercise of religion.

The judge ruled that the Headleys performed religious duties and that the Sea Org falls within the ministerial exception commonly granted to religious groups in employment cases. The exception prevents the court from prying into the church's internal workings to get to the bottom of the Headleys' allegations.

Continuing the case, the judge wrote, would require the court to analyze the reasonableness of the methods used to discipline Sea Org members and to prevent them from leaving.

As for Claire Headley's allegation that she was forced to have two abortions, Fischer said the court would have had to review Scientology's doctrine prohibiting Sea Org members from raising children: Inquiry into these allegations would entangle the court in the religious doctrine of Scientology and the doctrinally motivated practices of the Sea Org, wrote Fischer, a judge in the Central District of California.

The Headleys said that the blanket dismissals surprised them, and they plan to appeal.

The Afghan Taliban have claimed responsibility for killing ten people whom the group described as Christian missionaries.

The ten people are believed to have been working for the Christian charity International Assistance Mission which has been providing medical aid in Afghanistan since 1966. Six of the dead are reported to be Americans, one British, one German and two Afghan interpreters.

While police say it's possible the victims were robbed and killed, as all their possessions had been taken, the Taliban were quick to take responsibility, saying the group had Bibles on them and that they had been spying for the Americans.

Speaking to AFP, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, said, Yesterday at around 0800, one of our patrols confronted a group of foreigners. They were Christian missionaries and we killed them all.

In a statement IAM said, We have been informed that 10 people, both foreign and Afghan, were murdered in Badakhshan. It is likely that they are members of the International Assistance Mission (IAM) eye camp team. The team had been in Nuristan at the invitation of communities there. After having completed their medical work the team was returning to Kabul.

At this stage we do not have many details but our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those who are presumed killed. If these reports are confirmed we object to this senseless killing of people who have done nothing but serve the poor. Some of the foreigners have worked alongside the Afghan people for decades.

Based on article from bbc.co.uk

Police in Afghanistan are searching for a gang who shot dead British medical worker Dr Karen Woo, and nine colleagues in an ambush.

The Taliban said it carried out the attack, in the north-eastern province of Badakhshan. However local police belive the gang were robbers and have arrested one of the convoy's drivers.

Dr Woo, 36, from London, was planning to marry her fiance Mark Paddy Smith in the UK later this month.

Many apparently mainstream Muslim groups have the same ideology as violent Islamists, according to a report from the think tank Quilliam.

The report, sent to the government's Office for Security and Counter Terrorism (OSCT), was not intended for publication but has now been leaked on the internet.

Entitled Preventing terrorism; where next for Britain? it says the ideology of non-violent Islamists is broadly the same as that of violent Islamists adding they disagree only on tactics.

It produces a list of those it believes are non-violent Islamists and adds: These are a selection of the various groups and institutions active in the UK which are broadly sympathetic to Islamism.

Whilst only a small proportion will agree with al-Qaeda's tactics, many will agree with their overall goal of creating a single 'Islamic state' which would bring together all Muslims around the world under a single government and then impose on them a single interpretation of sharia as state law.

The document adds that if the government engages with such groups it risks empowering proponents of the ideology, if not the methodology, that is behind terrorism.

Quilliam argues that the government needs to move beyond tackling those who advocate violent extremism to target those that espouse similar but non-violent views.

The list sent to the OSCT includes a unit within Scotland Yard called the Muslim Contact Unit and another independent group designed to improve the relationship between the police and the Muslim community called the Muslim Safety Forum. It also includes the Muslim Council of Britain, one of the main groups representing Muslims in Britain, and its rival the Muslim Association of Britain. Other groups on the list are the Islamic Human Rights Commission, the Federation of Student Islamic Societies and the Cordoba Foundation. Quilliam also singles out the Islam Channel, a satellite TV channel which has been the subject of one of their reports.

Among the mosques identified are Finsbury Park mosque in North London, formerly run by the extremist preacher Abu Hamza but now under new management, along with East London Mosque and Birmingham Central mosque.

In my role as chair of the British Muslims for Secular Democracy (BMSD), which campaigns against fanaticism, many inner-city teachers have told me they feel paralysed by extreme demands.

Brainwashed Muslim parents ask school librarians not to lend their children storybooks. (Jacqueline Wilson, the former Children's Laureate, is targeted for leading children astray with her stories that deal with contemporary social issues, such as single motherhood.)

Some Muslim children have been kept away from school visits to temples, churches and art galleries.

Teddy bears and pets are also branded un-Islamic.

How about the daughter of a relative of mine, who was having a birthday-party and invited all the girls in her class. The Muslim pupils organised a boycott because she had invited unbelievers.

...Read the full article

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, the woman whose sentence of death by stoning triggered an international outcry has accused the Iranian authorities of lying about the charges against her to pave the way to execute her in secret.

In the interview Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani said: They're lying. They are embarrassed by the international attention on my case and they are desperately trying to distract attention and confuse the media so that they can kill me in secret.

Mohammadi Ashtiani said: I was found guilty of adultery and was acquitted of murder, but the man who actually killed my husband was identified and imprisoned but he is not sentenced to death.

The accused, who has not been named, is not facing execution because Mohammadi Ashtiani's son pardoned him, but she was sentenced to death after a local prosecutor in Tabriz accused her of adultery.

...Read the full article

An Iranian website featuring a series of cartoons portraying the Holocaust as the great lie has caused outrage in Israel.

The site claims that the massacre of six million Jews during the Second World War was a fabrication designed to allow Zionists to seize control of the Middle East and its resources.

Dedicating itself to all those who have been killed under the pretext of the Holocaust.

The website, which is not affiliated to the Iranian government, was set up by an Iranian cultural organisation calling itself Bulwark of Faith and Thought.

The directors of Israel's state holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, condemned the website as the latest vulgar and cynical Iranian attempt to influence those who are ignorant of history.

See for yourself at holocartoons.com.

A witness has refused to testify in a Buddha Bar trial, fearing mounting protests by 'enraged' opponents.

Kurnia Girsang, counsel for the Buddha Bar, told the Jakarta Globe that neither the Central Jakarta District Court nor the police could guarantee the safety of the expert witness, whom he refused to identify.

The bar's owner, Nireta Vista Creative, is being sued by the Anti-Buddha Bar Forum (FABB) for alleged blasphemy and violation of business rules mandating respect of state-sanctioned religions. The FABB slammed the bar's use of Buddha's name and Buddhist decorations.

On July 21, one of the defendant's witnesses, Budiman Sudharma, was threatened by an angry mob from the Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FBR) and Red and White Troops (Laskar Merah Putih).  A week later, around 300 FABB members protested outside the Buddha Bar on Jalan Teuku Umar, demanding that the club be shut down.

The court's verdict is set to be delivered two weeks after Aug. 18, which is the deadline for both parties to submit their concluding arguments.

A council has triggered a backlash among parents and animal welfare groups after introducing halal-only menus at state schools.

Only meat from animals killed in line with Islamic teaching will be offered at 52 primary schools in Harrow, following a switch by ten secondaries to halal menus.

Animal welfare campaigners say the method, which is exempted from welfare laws, is inhumane as animals are not stunned before being killed.

Masood Khawaja, president of the Halal Food Authority, said: It is commendable for schools to provide halal meals but there must be an alternative for non-Muslims. Some people are opposed to halal and kosher meat on animal welfare grounds and they should be given the choice not to eat it.

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: By only offering halal meat there is an assumption a Muslim's conscience is more important than someone who is concerned about animal rights.

Councillor Brian Gate, portfolio holder for schools and colleges, said: The decision about whether to use an individual provider is for schools to make, as funding is delegated to them. At present we are not proceeding to roll this programme out but this is because of the cost constraints and the level of interest from parents.

A study for the Islamic Education and Research Academy (iERA) has shown that British non-muslims have very negative attitudes towards islam.

The study documents the uphill task muslims have in their religious obligation to try to pass on their faith to others.

The study summarises its findings:

• 5% described Islamic dawah (proselytising) material as quite positive and very positive.
• 71% had never did not come into contact with any dawah material.
• 70% did not change their perceptions about Islam after coming into contact with dawah material.
• 14% slightly worsened or significantly worsened.
• 76% had never spoken to a Muslim about Islam.
• 63% had no change in their perception after interacting with a Muslim.
• 13% had perceptions that significantly worsened or slightly worsened.
• 62% preferred not to receive any information about religion.
• 27% had negative perceptions regarding Muslims
• 75% believed Islam and Muslims had provided a negative contribution to society
• 32% believed that Muslims are a major cause of community tension
• 2% responded positively concerning perceptions about Islamic law
• 76% did not agree to the statement that Muslims positively engage in society
• 36% did not know who the Prophet Muhammad was

Despite the widespread negative perceptions of Islam, iERA believes the fact that most opinions were formed in ignorance of the faith indicates that Muslims can positively influence them.

iERA's senior researcher Hamza Tzortzis said: We wanted to do something positive with the survey results rather than just say, 'It's so sad'. So, the organisation's strategy is to give a new realm of possibility for people to comprehend Islam, have a proper respect for Islam and see the human relevance of the faith.

The organisation has made a number of recommendations on how to spread knowledge of Islam and the Muslim community through education and audiovisual materials. It also advocates promoting Muslim women as ambassadors of change to counter the impression that they are oppressed.

Aisha is a victim of muslim Taliban brutality, her nose and ears barbarically hacked off by her own husband in a warped punishment for attempting to flee her cruel in-laws.

Held down by her brother-in-law, the young bride endured the agony of the man she married disfiguring her face with a knife.

She was mutilated after last year attempting to flee her home, where she had been subjected to a life of misery at the hands of her husband's family.

When she was caught, a local Taliban commander acting as judge ordered the medieval-style punishment.

Aisha's striking image stares out from the cover of U.S. news magazine Time. The photograph is a stark reminder of the fate awaiting independent-minded women if the Taliban regain power.

Time managing editor Richard Stengel explained his decision to use the shocking image. He said: I would rather confront readers with the Taliban's treatment of women than ignore it. I would rather people know that reality as they make up their minds about what the U.S. and its allies should do in Afghanistan.

Influential voices in Afghanistan are suggesting that the West must bring the Taliban to the negotiating table to thrash out a peace deal as part of the exit strategy. But women - who were treated as little more than slaves under the hardline regime's rule - believe they will bear the brunt of any reconciliation.

Touching her face, Aisha told the magazine: They are the people who did this to me. How can we reconcile with them?

Update: Enduring Heart

15th October 2010. Based on article from telegraph.co.uk

The image of Aisha, 19, without a nose, prompted a worldwide outpouring of sympathy after it appeared on the cover of Time Magazine accompanying an article highlighting the plight of women in Afghanistan.

She appeared before the cameras to receive an Enduring Heart award at a benefit for the Grossman Burn Foundation, which paid for her surgery, in Los Angeles.

Maria Shriver, wife of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's and California's first lady, presented the award: This is the first Enduring Heart award given to a woman whose heart endures and who shows us all what it means to have love and to be the enduring heart.

Aisha: Thank you so much.

Update: Suspect Mutilator Arrested

8th December 2010. See article from bbc.co.uk

The father-in-law of an Afghan teenager whose nose and ears were hacked off after she fled her husband's abusive home is being questioned by police.

Haji Suleman was arrested in the Chora district of central Uruzgan province

Uruzgan's police chief told the BBC: I can confirm that we have arrested Aisha's father-in-law, Haji Suleman, in a raid in the Chora district last week. We did this after a complaint filed by Mohammadzai [Aisha's father] accusing Haji Suleman for the crime. Haji Suleman is in jail and he is being investigated.

The ASA received 1,054 complaints, plus a further 3,296 postcards which made up a petition organised by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), and another petition with 63 signatures. In addition there were 327 pre-transmission complaints. As some viewers objected that the TV ad carried a political message, because they believed the advertisers actively campaigned to change the law on abortion, the ASA referred those complaints to Ofcom.

Three women were featured in a TV ad for Marie Stopes International (MSI), a not-for-profit organisation which provided sexual and reproductive healthcare advice, information and services. First, a woman waiting at a bus stop, looking down the road, with the onscreen text Jenny Evans is late; then, a woman in a park with her two small children, with the text Katie Simmons is late; and finally, a woman in a café, with the text Shareen Butler is late. A female voiceover said: If you're late for your period, you could be pregnant. If you're pregnant and not sure what to do, Marie Stopes International can help. The end caption carried the text Are you late?, a phone number, and the website address.

Issue

Complainants included members of the public, GPs, people who offered counselling, MPs and other representatives, and MPs who forwarded their constituents' concerns.

The complainants objected that the ad was misleading, offensive and harmful and queried its compliance with specific Code rules.

1. Viewers objected that the ad was offensive because: it promoted abortion; of their religious beliefs; it trivialised the difficult decision faced by women experiencing an unwanted pregnancy; decisions about the life of an unborn child were being equated to decisions about consumer goods; it would be distressing to those women who had taken the decision to have an abortion; it did not take into account the views of the father; it was sexist towards women by implying that the pregnancy was solely the woman's responsibility; and by featuring a mother with her small children, it suggested that the life of an unborn child was less important than a woman's existing children.

2. Viewers objected that the ad was harmful because: the ad would encourage viewers to have an abortion when they had not previously considered that option; and, it would encourage promiscuity, especially amongst young people.

3. Viewers objected that the ad was misleading because: it promoted abortion, but did not make reference to the physical and mental health risks or physical and psychological effects which could be experienced after an abortion; the ad was illegally offering abortion on demand; it implied that obtaining an abortion was easier than it was in reality; it failed to mention that pregnant women who wanted advice should contact their GPs or seek the advice of family members; and it was unclear what services were on offer; some believed Marie Stopes offered a full range of advice about pregnancy, whilst others believed the advertisers were advocates for abortion.

Some viewers challenged whether MSI should be allowed to advertise on TV, because:

4. they believed MSI was a commercial company that charged for its services;

5. the ad promoted a Prescription Only Medicine (POM) or a medical procedure, which they believed was not permitted by the Code;

6. the ad was for a medicinal product aimed at children;

7. the ad offered a remote personal advice service on health matters, which they believed breached rule 8.1.3 of the Code relating to services offering remote personalised advice on medical or health matters or which offer to prescribe or treat remotely.

8. Some viewers objected to the scheduling of the ad at times when children might see it.

ASA Assessment: Not upheld

1. Not upheld

The ASA acknowledged that the issue of abortion was controversial and distasteful to some, and that the complainants had strong personal and religious objections to the advertising of abortion services, or services that gave advice about abortion. We also noted that many complainants regarded the advertisers as advocates of abortion and therefore interpreted the ad as a promotion of abortion. However, the ad was for an advice service for women dealing with an unplanned pregnancy, and stated that MSI could help women who were pregnant and not sure what to do. We understood that MSI provided a wide range of advisory and health services and advised on all options during consultations with clients. We noted that the ad did not focus on any one particular service offered by MSI and did not mention abortion. We therefore considered it was an ad for a general pregnancy advice service for women who wished to learn about and discuss their options, which might include, but were not limited to, abortion.

We understood that post-conception decisions could be very difficult, but considered the ad dealt with the issue of possible pregnancy in an understated way and was not sensationalist. The women featured in the ad looked deep in thought, and we did not therefore consider that the ad trivialised the dilemma of an unplanned pregnancy. Whilst the ad featured three women, we did not consider that it suggested that only the woman would be affected, or that she should take any decisions alone. We did not consider that the ad focused on or advocated any particular choice or course of action over another, or put forward any assumptions about what the women would or should do. Whilst we recognised that any reminder of a difficult time, such as an unplanned pregnancy, could evoke a response in someone directly affected, we considered that the ad was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence on that basis.

2. Not upheld

We noted that the ad promoted a general advice line for women who were pregnant and not sure what to do, but did not explicitly mention or advocate abortion. We therefore did not consider that the ad promoted abortion or would encourage women to contemplate one particular option above any other. We noted that the ad featured three different women of child-bearing age, but did not focus on their lifestyles or the circumstances of any particular pregnancy in any detail. We also noted that the women were shown in everyday settings and were not presented in a glamorous way, and we did not consider that the ad would have a particular appeal to young people or encourage promiscuity. We therefore concluded that the ad that was not harmful.

3. Not upheld

We noted that the ad was directed at women who thought they might be pregnant. We considered that it was clear that the ad was promoting the Advice Line as a source of information for those women, and noted that it did not advocate one option over another. We did not consider that it suggested that pregnant women should not consult their GP or family members for support or advice. We understood that MSI was a Pregnancy Advice Bureau (PAB) regulated by the Department of Health and, as a provider of services on behalf of the NHS, were obliged to offer a range of advice on all the options available to pregnant women. We were satisfied that any callers to the Advice Line would be advised about the health implications of any intervention or procedure which might be appropriate for her, in consultation with a qualified and regulated healthcare professional. We noted the ad did not refer to abortion and considered there was no evidence that MSI offered abortion on demand, in conflict with the law.

4. Not upheld

We understood that Marie Stopes charged private clients for its services, but that NHS-referred clients did not pay fees. We understood that MSI was a charity registered with the Charity Commission and revenue derived from its fees was not for profit, but was used to support charitable works directly related to post-conception advice and services, as well as family planning, contraception and other sexual and reproductive health related issues. We considered that the ad promoted a non-commercial advice service, and therefore concluded that MSI was permitted to advertise that service on TV under the Code.

5. & 6. Not upheld

We noted the ad was for MSIs general pregnancy advisory service, and that it did not refer to any medicinal product or medical treatment. We therefore considered that the ad did not promote a POM or medical procedure.

In addition, we did not consider that the content of the ad was directly targeted at children, or would have a particular appeal to children. We therefore concluded that the ad was not in breach of the Code on these points.

7. Not upheld

We noted that rule 8.3.1 of the BCAP Television Advertising Code stated that ads for services offering remote personalised advice on medical or health matters were only acceptable where that advice was provided by staff who were regulated by a statutory or recognised medical or health professional body. We understood MSI operated within a clear regulatory structure supervised by government. We also understood that any caller who contacted the MSI Advice Line, and who wanted specific advice on which healthcare option might be most appropriate for her, would only receive advice on medical and health matters from a registered nurse or qualified counsellor. Because we understood that the advice was only provided by staff who were subject to regulation by statutory or recognised medical or health professional bodies, we did not consider that the ad was in breach of rule 8.1.3 of the Code.

8. Not upheld

We noted that the ad had been given an ex-kids timing restriction, which meant it should not be shown on dedicated childrens channels, or in or around those programmes on other channels made for, or specifically targeted at, children. We considered that that restriction was sufficient to keep the ad away from times when younger children were likely to be watching TV alone. We did not consider that the ad needed to be kept away from times when older children would be watching TV, and therefore concluded that the ex-kids timing restriction that had been imposed was sufficient.

Christian Voice nutter Stephen Green had his moment on Channel 4's 4ThoughtTV. He spouted:

We are seeing a homosexualisation of society, but not reproducing ourselves except in the Muslim population. It's not Muslim mums' fault that they are having five or six children, they are doing what the Lord God designed their bodies to do, but in 30 years our dying civilisation is going to be taken over by a stronger one and the obvious candidate is Islam and the gays aren't going to like it much living under that system.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said that music is not compatible with the values of the Islamic republic, and should not be practised or taught in the country.

In some of the most extreme comments by a senior regime figure since the 1979 revolution, Khamenei said: Although music is halal, promoting and teaching it is not compatible with the highest values of the sacred regime of the Islamic Republic.

Khamenei's comments came in response to a request for a ruling by a 21-year-old follower of his, who was thinking of starting music lessons, but wanted to know if they were acceptable according to Islam, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. It's better that our dear youth spend their valuable time in learning science and essential and useful skills and fill their time with sport and healthy recreations instead of music, he said.

Khamenei has rarely expressed his views on music publicly, but he is believed have played a key role in the crackdown on Iran's music scene following the revolution. When Khamenei was president, he banned western-style music, forcing many stars to go into exile.

Iran has rejected the Brazilian president's offer to give refuge to an Iranian woman convicted of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning.

Ramin Mehmanparast, a foreign ministry spokesman, said: A far as we know, [the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula] Da Silva is a very humane and emotional person who probably has not received enough information about the case.

Further information would be provided to the president to clarify the situation about an individual who is a convicted offender, he added. Iran says Ashtiani has also been convicted of [a trumped up] murder.

Indonesia's highest Islamic authority has forbidden Muslims from viewing gossipy content in the country's media after a celebrity sex clip scandal dominated television news in the past month.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) issued the edict this week because of concerns that some media programs were not meant to educate but went beyond the barriers of decency toward pornography, said the MUI's Ma'ruf Amin: The problem is not about infotainment but its content which contain slander, rumors.. also the shows lead to pornography, Amin said.

He said the organization had recommended the government follow up the edict through regulations to control such infotainment content.

An Oregon City couple will face charges of second-degree manslaughter in the faith-healing death of their newborn son, the third such fatality involving the Followers of Christ church in the past two years.

Dale R. Hickman and Shannon M. Hickman were booked and will be formally charged Aug. 30.

Their infant son was born in September, 2009, about six weeks premature. He weighed 3 pounds, 5 ounces and lived nine hours.

No one with medical training attended the birth, and no one called a doctor or ambulance. An autopsy determined the infant died of staph pneumonia and complications from a premature birth, including underdeveloped lungs.

Members of the Followers of Christ church rely on faith-healing rituals – anointing with oil, prayer and the laying on of hands – rather than secular medicine. Church members have testified that they would not go to a doctor or hospital even if it meant the difference between life and death, preferring to put their faith solely in God's power to heal.

Update: Guilty

4th October 2011. See article from independent.ie

A US couple who prayed and rubbed olive oil on their sick newborn baby rather than get medical attention for him, have been convicted of manslaughter.

Dale and Shannon Hickman, are the latest members of the controversial Followers of Christ Church to be blamed for their child's death. The Church has a history of rejecting medical care for their children and relying instead on nonsense such as prayer and anointing the sick with oils.

The young couple were convicted of second-degree manslaughter charges which typically require a mandatory minimum sentence of six years in prison. But because of a religious exemption in state law at time of the crime, the couple likely will face no more than 18 months in prison and a $US250,000 (EUR185,000) fine, The Oregonian reported.

Clackamas County Circuit Court Judge Robert Herndon allowed the couple to remain free until they are sentenced October 31

It was homosexual rights vs. religion last week in Jerusalem as some 3,000 Israelis joined a gay pride parade, marching with colorful balloons and dancing in the streets.

The march infuriated Orthodox Jews. Yonatan Gher, one of the parade organizers, said: The reason the march takes place in Jerusalem is not to upset anyone. We're here because we're Jerusalemites. This is our city as much as anybody else's.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews held counter-demonstrations, carrying signs that read: Sick perverts, get out of Jerusalem. Many agree with this man who says that the Bible describes homosexuality as an abomination.

The promotion of a gay lifestyle in the streets of Jerusalem, which is the holiest city for the Jewish people, [and] for the other religions - for Muslims, for Christians - it's a provocation said one Orthodox Jewish man.

The march ended up at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, with a memorial service for two Israelis who were killed in a shooting at a gay club in Tel Aviv last year. Gay rights activists like Gher say religious leaders should learn from that event.

When you keep talking about abomination and about the way the Bible looks at the issue of homosexuality, there are individuals out there who could turn those words into violence, said Gher.

To prevent violence, about 1,500 Israeli police officers guarded the Gay Pride Parade, which meant about one police officer for every two participants in the event.

Scantily-clad mannequins and pictures of underwear models are to disappear from clothes shops in the Gaza Strip after officials announced new restrictions.

The Palestinian muslim group Hamas, which controls Gaza, claimed that the new rules were to protect public morality.

It is absolutely forbidden to place any photographic device inside the shop and it is forbidden to display revealing clothes in front of the shops, a statement from Hamas said.

These measures have stemmed from complaints and pressure by ordinary people. They have to do with upholding our traditions, a police spokesman told the Reuters news agency.