The new 'documentary' by the man behind Borat has been passed 15 uncut by the BBFC. Provocatively titled Religulous (think 'religious' and 'ridiculous'), it will mock the beliefs of the world's major religions, recruiting unwitting assistance from the ranks of the faithful.

The BBFC helpfully explained their decision:

Religulous is a documentary by Bill Maher, an American comedian, on the beliefs and practices of the major religions. It was passed '15' for strong language, drug use and sexualised nudity.

The film questions the tenets of all the major religions in a mocking fashion but with some serious intentions underlying it. A number of the dialogues contain strong language and one quite explicitly refers to paedpohilia involving Catholic priests. As part of his global exploration Maher conducts several conversations in a Dutch coffee house and samples a marijuana cigarette. BBFC Policy and Guidelines allow for scenes of drug taking at '15', but does not allow the promotion of illegal drug use at any category. This film, as a whole, does not promote or encourage drug use.
As part of the ironic style of the film, excerpts from unrelated and dated features are inserted in order to make humorous statements. Examples of these include soft porn style shots of a naked man and another caressing a naked woman. The film also contains some strong dialogue references to sex acts. More conventional techniques include the insertion of reality footage of terrorist attacks, including 9/11, the London bombings and sight of the corpse of the Dutch film maker Theo Van Gogh.

A novelist yesterday urged the British people to stand by the principle of free speech to ensure that her book about the Prophet Mohammed was published here.

US writer Sherry Jones spoke out after the London home of her publisher Martin Rynja was firebombed.

You have to ask whether a thug with a gun or petrol bomb should be allowed to censor the people of Great Britain, Jones, said at her home in Spokane, Washington state.

This is about the future of free speech. Is it the case that there are now some books which cannot be published in Britain? My publisher cannot fight this all by himself. I hope the people of Britain will support him. He is a courageous man.

Rynja is in hiding with an armed police guard following the strike by suspected Muslim extremists at the weekend. However, he still intends to publish The Jewel Of Medina - a fictional account of the Prophet's child bride.

Jones's agent, Natasha Kern said: I have been in contact with him and I understand that he plans to go ahead and publish the book Martin is a person of great principle and integrity who believes in free speech.

See also article from guardian.co.uk by Jo Glanville

When publishers are too intimidated to print even novels that may offend, it shows how far we've lost our way on free speech.

Rynja's support for free speech is proving to be exceptional, as is his courage in standing up to bullies, at a time when other publishers will surrender at any intimation of legal action - particularly from litigious Saudis. Rynja, who trained as a lawyer, has shown that capitulation need not be inevitable. I can only hope that the shocking attack on his office will not dim his determination - but he will need support.

This whole affair - from Random House's decision to drop the book, to the attack this weekend - is evidence of a worrying trend. Twenty years since The Satanic Verses was published, in the 60th-anniversary year of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, we are facing a crisis for free expression. Yet the threat comes not only from those who commit acts of violence, but from those who ostensibly support human rights.

Respect for religion has now become acceptable grounds for censorship; even the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, has declared that free speech should respect religious sensibilities, while the UN human rights council passed a resolution earlier this year condemning defamation of religion and calling for governments to prohibit it. As the writer Kenan Malik has so astutely pointed out, In the post-Rushdie world, speech has come to be seen not intrinsically as a good but inherently as a problem because it can offend as well as harm ... Censorship, and self-censorship, Malik observes, have become the norm. What we have seen, over the past two decades, is an insidious new argument for curbing free speech become increasingly acceptable.

In the remote Indian state of Orissa your religion can cost you your life. Now a Christian mob has resorted to murder. Wielding knives and axes they have stabbed a Hindu man to death.

The killing followed a month-long campaign of murder, gang rape and arson by Hindu fanatics that drove Christians to take up arms to defend themselves, church officials in the area said yesterday. As many as 50,000 members of the minority Christian community have been forced into hiding in the jungle.

The Hindu man was killed near the town of Raikia in the Kandahmal district, which in the past month has featured some of the worst anti-Christian violence in India since partition.

The Home Ministry in Delhi, which faces international criticism for failing to stamp out the violence, admitted that a situation of apparent lawlessness now reigns in the state.

Police are investigating unconfirmed reports of Christian militias being formed, with some attempting to make bombs. The reports have been denied by Christian leaders.

Similar tensions are simmering across India, where at least 45 Christians have died at the hands of Hindu fanatics in recent weeks, according to the Roman Catholic Church. Government officials, who in some areas have been accused of being complicit in the tragedy, have put the death toll at 27.

An estimated 4,000 homes have been razed, crops have been spoilt, livestock slaughtered and possessions looted. Witnesses have described Christians being forcibly converted to Hinduism while axes were held to their throats.

David Griffiths, of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a campaign group, said: Christians going back to their homes are facing violence or coercive conversion to Hinduism. And yet the state government continues to claim that everything is normal.

The Rev Harish Arisalya, the regional secretary of the All India Christian Council in Orissa, said: Perhaps Christians should have defended themselves since the beginning of the attacks, but they chose to avoid conflict. Now Christians are being killed every day. The situation is going from bad to worse.

The unrest is thought to have been spearheaded by the Bajrang Dal, an influential extremist Hindu youth organisation. They are highly communal and fascist in their approach. The Government must move strongly against them, a spokesman for Congress, the leading party in India's coalition Government, said.

The improved security situation in Iraq is not benefiting all Iraqis, especially not those who are gay. Islamist death squads are engaged in a homophobic killing spree with the active encouragement of leading Muslim clerics, such as Moqtada al-Sadr, as Newsweek recently revealed.

One of these clerics, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued a fatwa urging the killing of lesbians and gays in the most severe way possible.

The short film, Queer Fear – Gay Life, Gay Death in Iraq, produced by David Grey for Village Film, documents the tragic fates of a several individual gay Iraqis. It is a truly poignant and moving documentary about the terrorisation and murder of Iraqi lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Since this film was made, the killings have continued and, many say, got worse. For gay Iraqis there is little evidence of the transition to democracy. They don't experience any newfound respect for human rights. Life for them is even worse than under the tyrant Saddam Hussein.

...Read full article

Islamic terrorists have warned of a wave of reprisals over a controversial book about the Prophet Mohammed after the home of its publisher was firebombed.

Hardline clerics said that further attacks would be "inevitable" if publication of the novel, The Jewel of Medina, goes ahead as planned next month.

Police moved in to arrest three men moments after a fire broke out at the London home and office of Martin Rynja in the early hours of Saturday. The attack came days after Mr Rynja's company, Gibson Square, bought the rights to the book by the American writer Sherry Jones.

The radical cleric Anjem Choudhary said the book was an insult to the Prophet Mohammed's honour, something he said would warrant a "death penalty" under Sharia law. He said he was not surprised at all by the attack and warned of possible further reprisals over the book: It is clearly stipulated in Muslim law that any kind of attack on his honour carries the death penalty.

Speaking from Lebanon, the radical cleric Omar Bakri, added: If anybody attacks that man I cannot myself condemn it.

Islamic terrorists have threatened to murder Muslim cleric Omar Bakri's pole dancing daughter Yasmin.

The terrified pole-dancing daughter of radical cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed is in hiding after death threats from Muslim extremists. Yasmin, 27, who has a three-year-old son, is said to feel suicidal after it was revealed she works as a pole dancer.

Police went to her flat in South East London on Friday night after deciding to move her to a safe house. A police source said: She is worried about threats from people who have extreme views. She has a young toddler and can't take any risks.

Yasmin, whose boob job was paid for by her father, worked for a touring dance troupe. She told a reporter: I don't normally do topless work, but I'm willing to go topless if the venue is right.

The news shocked her 50-year-old father who lives in Beirut after being expelled from Britain. He said: I am deeply shocked. She was brought up properly in the Muslim faith. As far as I know she is still married... her behaviour should be the responsibility of her husband.

Yasmin had an arranged marriage to a Turk, but they have since separated.

The Iranian parliament has approved the law calling for a mandatory death sentence for apostates, or those who leave Islam.

APA reports that members of the parliament citing to sharia (Islamic law) made decision on death sentence for men abjuring Islam and life sentence for women.

According to other points of the new law, extrasensory individuals, fortune-tellers and homosexuals will also be sentenced to death.

196 parliamentarians voted for the law, 7 against, 2 abstained.

European missionary organizations condemned the decision of Iranian parliament.

The London home of the publisher of a new novel that gives a fictionalised account of the Prophet Muhammad's relationship with his child bride, Aisha, was firebombed yesterday, hours after police had warned the man that he could be a target for fanatics.

A petrol bomb is believed to have been thrown through the door of Martin Rynja's house in Islington's Lonsdale Square, which also doubles as the headquarters of his publishing company, Gibson Square. Three men have been arrested on terrorism charges.

The Observer has learned that police told Rynja late on Friday night to leave his property. His company recently made headlines when it announced it was to publish The Jewel of Medina.

Written by US journalist Sherry Jones, the book was due to have been published in August by US giant Random House. But amid fears for people's safety, the company halted publication.

Rynja bought the UK publishing rights earlier this month. The Jewel of Medina has become an important barometer of our time, Rynja said at the time. As an independent publishing company, we feel strongly that we should not be afraid of the consequences of debate.

Yesterday the Metropolitan Police confirmed that three men had been arrested in connection with the incident in Lonsdale Square. Two men aged 22 and 30 were stopped by armed officers in the street outside the property and a third man, aged 40, was arrested near Angel tube station. Police have begun searching four addresses around north-east London - two in Walthamstow, one in Ilford and one in Forest Gate.

The men were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, and last night were being questioned at a central London police station, a Met spokesman said. Scotland Yard confirmed that a small fire inside the property had been extinguished. At this early stage it is being linked with the arrests, the spokesman said.

Don't steal another person's content... Share it!

Church leaders have drawn up a new set of the Ten Commandments aimed at delivering “God bloggers” from the temptations of the blogosphere. Alarmed by the extent to which religious blogs can descend into vitriol, senior evangelical clergy are calling on bloggers to obey the new commandments or risk perdition.

The commandmentswere drawn up at a “Godblogs” conference in Kennington, southeast London. They have been engraved on cyberspace tablets by the Evangelical Alliance, the leading Christian umbrella group that represents thousands of churches of most denominations nationwide.

1. You shall not put your blog before your integrity
2. You shall not make an idol of your blog
3. You shall not misuse your screen name by using your anonymity to sin
4. Remember the Sabbath day by taking one day off a week from your blog
5. Honour your fellow-bloggers above yourselves and do not give undue significance to their mistakes
6. You shall not murder someone else's honour, reputation or feelings
7. You shall not use the web to commit or permit adultery in your mind
8. You shall not steal another person's content
9. You shall not give false testimony against your fellow-blogger
10. You shall not covet your neighbour's blog ranking. Be content with your own content

A district governor in the West Africa nation of Cameroon has issued an order banning adult material in the district of Mfoundi.

The order bans reproduction and dissemination of erotic and pornographic writings and images in his jurisdiction, according to a report published on Africa Press Agency's website.

Joseph Beti Assomo, the prefect of the Mfoundi district where the national capital Yaounde is located, issued the order following a homily by the city's archbishop denouncing widespread pornography through cable television, and targets motels, hotels and video clubs.

Emily Mapfuwa, the Christian who was so offended by a statue of Jesus with a penis that she decided to take the art gallery to court, never actually visited the exhibition in which it was displayed, a local radio station has confirmed.

Mapfuwa's lawyer, Michael Phillips of the Christian Legal Centre, was interviewed on BBC Radio Essex, where he was asked the question, Did Emily actually visit the exhibition?

He replied: Er, no. She didn't.

So how did Mapfuwa hear about the exhibit which so offended her deeply held religious beliefs? Unity at the Ministry of Truth suggests that, as the initial complaint was filed in January, it is likely to have been an article in The Sun entitled Aroused ‘Jesus' Statue Outrage which caught the sensitive thing's eye. The trouble is, that story was illustrated with an entirely different artwork, from a completely different exhibition (in the Saatchi gallery, 2006, as it happens).

So, in effect, we have a Christian claiming to be offended by a statue that was never actually exhibited, in an exhibition that she never actually visited.

And they wonder why people make fun of them?

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of Salman Rushdie's novel, The Satanic Verses.

Just over a year ago, I wrote a piece arguing that it was time to admit that those of us who had called for the book to be banned or pulped were wrong. Utterly wrong. It was understandable why many regarded and still do regard passages in The Satanic Verses to be so offensive, but that could not be used as a justification to try and prevent others from reading the book.

My piece got a mixed reaction from the Muslims I spoke to. Some agreed that the episode had been a disaster while others strongly disagreed with me and did not accept that a novelist should have the right to offend. I tried to explain that the right to offend did not imply that one agreed with what was being said – it was just that the writer should not be prevented from doing so as long as he was not breaking any laws.

This year I decided to send an email to members of one national Muslim organisation asking them for their own views on the matter. Here are excerpts from some of the responses that I received:

You cannot force people to respect you and it has resulted in the exact opposite reaction with all sorts of people lining up to insult and lampoon the prophet, Islam, the Qur'an and Muslims generally in the last two decades since.

I was 16 years old at the time and was perplexed over the issue. I knew that Rushdie had written an offensive book, but I found the Muslim protestors' response somewhat offensive too.

Some months back I had dinner with a well-known British columnist who has some rather strident views about immigration and Islam. I asked him outright what it was that so annoyed him about Islam and he said it was what he viewed as the seemingly constant attempts by Muslims to try and restrict freedoms.

And regrettably, like it or not, that is the image too many people now have of Muslims.

...Read full article

The Indonesian parliament has postponed endorsing a controversial anti-pornography bill following opposition from social and religious groups, who say the unclear bill threatens to interfere in people's private lives.

The bill was introduced in the House of Representatives on Sept. 23, 2003, and has been revised several times in response to criticism from various groups.

Nonetheless, opponents say the bill still does not clearly differentiate between pornography and obscenity on the one hand, and cultural, artistic and creative expressions on the other. They also fear the bill will allow the state to interfere in people's private lives, and especially to target women.

Chapter I Article 1 of the bill says, Pornography is sexual material made by humans in the form of pictures, sketches, illustrations, photos, writing, voice, sound, moving pictures, animation, cartoons, poetry, conversation, body movement or any other form of communication through various media and/or public performance that can arouse sexual desire and/or violate societal values.

This definition is too wide, the Jakarta-based Kompas daily maintained in its Sept. 22 edition, in a special section dedicated to an analysis of the bill. The paper also pointed out this could allow the state to control people's private sex lives.

Originally containing 11 chapters and 93 provisions, the bill's final draft has eight chapters and 44 provisions.

More than 150 people have signed petitions imploring Luton Borough Council to deny the new Tesco Express in Bury Park an alcohol licence.

The bid from the supermarket giant has upset easily offended muslims living in the area, some of whom say they find the idea of alcohol being sold offensive.

They claim they are worried the sale of alcohol at the shop could lead to more crime and jeopardise children's safety.

One petition, signed by 120 people, says: The almost 'slum' conditions of the area overwhelmingly demonstrate the lack of attention that this area is paid. And now, rather than support us in realising our wishes, we are subject to a greater and worse step: the sale of alcohol on our doorsteps.

The decision on the application will be made by the council's licensing panel at its meeting on Tuesday, September 30.

A prominent anti-government blogger in Malaysia has been detained for two years on charges of insulting Islam.

Raja Petra Kamarudin has been held without trial under controversial internal security laws which could see him detained indefinitely.

He was arrested on 12 September as part of a crackdown on dissent by the Malaysian government, which is facing a mounting challenge from the opposition.

Raja Petra's lawyer said the order was a big blow to civil liberty.

The BBC's Robin Brant in Kuala Lumpur said the well-known blogger had been a thorn in the side of the Malaysian government, using his blog to become one of its most vociferous critics.

Raja Petra, himself a Muslim, was accused of insulting Islam and inciting racial tensions through an article he published on the Malaysia Today website.

The arrest came shortly after he used his blog to accuse Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister, Najib Razak, of involvement in the 2007 murder of a Mongolian woman - a charge Mr Razak strongly denies.

The Ministry of Communication has issued a memo to all ISPs in Kuwait asking them to block YouTube access. The popular video website came under fire from the ministry due to content considered offensive to Muslims, a source within the industry told Kuwait Times. The Ministry pointed to content including a video of a man signing verses from the Holy Quran while playing the oud and another video showing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad.

Short Lived

Based on article from itp.net

According to reports, the decision to block access to YouTube has been revoked by the Ministry of Communications after a meeting was held to discuss the issue.

Sunday's surprise announcement by the Ministry to block YouTube over offensive videos generated angry reactions from people in Kuwait.

Update: Long List

30th September 2008. Based on article from itp.net

An insider working for an ISP in Kuwait has revealed to itp.net that the Ministry has issued a new order to block certain specific links within Youtube.com.

The official paper which has been circulated to ISPs, gives a five page list of specific URLs and key words that are to be blocked, mostly concerning sexual content.

ISPs have yet to implement the ban however, in part due to the confusion surrounding the order, and because of technical concerns about how to implement the blocking.

We have not yet applied any blocking mechanism, mainly because we're worried that such a long list of URLs might overload the CPU usage on our caches. And we're not sure what to do honestly. The decision seems to be definitely delayed until after Eid holiday, said the source.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about an edict issued Saturday by a top Saudi Muslim cleric, who said that writers who challenge or criticize religious sheikhs should be fired from their jobs, flogged, and jailed.

Sheikh Abdallah Ben Jabreen, a former member of the Saudi Arabia's Establishment of Fatwas, told Al-Majd TV, that journalists who criticize religious figures should be punished.

Ben Jabreen's fatwa came in support of an edict issued last week by Sheikh Saleh al-Lihedan, who called for the deaths of owners of television channels that broadcast “immoral” programs.

We fear for the safety of journalists and writers in the Middle East when senior religious figures issue calls for the imprisonment and flogging of their critics, said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney: The Saudi authorities must take a stand against such sinister edicts and ensure that journalists are protected.

The Working Committee for pornography bill drafting at the Indonesian House of Representatives said the team will work on its final tasks on Tuesday and Wednesday before handing over the draft to a larger team of legislators to be discussed further.

A member with the working committee said the team made up of ten legislators and government officials, will discuss behind closed doors the remaining sticking points of the draft which were, article 1 on the definition of pornography, and article 20 on pornography ban on the internet.

The draft will be handed to a special committee consists of 50 persons which will discuss the draft after Idul Fitri holiday.

The remaining steps for the draft to be passed are reviews from all ten factions at the legislative and the house plenary session. Two parties still opposed to the bill are Indonesia Democratic Party for Struggle and Prosperous Peace Party.

Tzipi Livni is poised to become Israel's next prime minister - but ultra-orthodox newspapers in the Jewish state are refusing to publish her picture for reasons of religious modesty.

Only about 600,000 of Israel's 7 million population are haredi, or ultra-orthodox, but they pack a strong political punch and include key officials including cabinet ministers and the mayor of Jerusalem.

No haredi paper will publish Livni's picture, said Avraham Kroizer, a public relations adviser to the incoming premier: Graphic artists will blur the faces of women that do make their way into pictures that the papers want to use. They will also blur pictures of television sets or other items deemed improper to be seen by the wider haredi public.

One ultra-orthodox paper also said it would not be using Livni's name Tzipi - short for ‘Tziporah' which means ‘bird.'

We might write "Mrs. T. Livni" or just "Mrs. Livni," but the name. Tzipi is too familiar. It is not acceptable to address a woman using her first name, especially when she goes by a nickname, said a senior editor at Hamodia, the oldest ultra-orthodox daily.

A new 'documentary' by the man behind Borat will open in New York at the beginning of next month. Provocatively titled Religulous (think 'religious' and 'ridiculous'), it will mock the beliefs of the world's major religions, recruiting unwitting assistance from the ranks of the faithful.

The project has already inspired protests at its premiere at the Toronto film festival earlier this month, and US satirist Bill Maher and director Larry Charles have been accused of misleading participants. Maher has conceded that several sleights of hand were necessary to persuade people to perform.

Unlike Borat, both Charles and Maher have made it clear that, while they were looking for comic potential from their engagements with believers, their ultimate aim was not to poke gentle fun but to demolish.

Employing the same robust approach as Supersize Me and Bowling For Columbine, Religulous sees Maher challenge his interview subjects over their knowledge of the literal historic facts of their religions.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Maher described the type of audience he hoped to provoke: 'Any religious person. The point is to question what is usually made to be unquestionable in this country. Normally if you say the word "faith", the debate is over - no matter what incredibly nonsensical, destructive, ridiculous tenet comes out of your mouth.

The determination to offend is not limited to the US market. A specially commissioned international poster, unveiled this month, depicts three monkeys as a rabbi, the Pope and an imam.

So far it appears to have been the Roman Catholic church that is threatening to take the most offence, perhaps because of Maher's connection.

Bill Donahue, the president of the Catholic League, said: The problem is not the poster. It's Bill Maher. He has said some of the most vile things. He can say all he wants about being ecumenical, but it's only one religion he really has it out for, and it's the Catholic religion.

An Internet ad on YouTube, for a mobile phone ringtone, was headlined MEET ACHMED and depicted a skull with red eyes. He was wearing a white head dress and text in a speech bubble stated SILENCE!! I KILL YOU. A text box stated Click here.

1. Four complainants objected that the ad was deeply offensive and disrespectful to the Muslim religion.

2. Two of the complainants felt it was offensive and insensitive to those who had been victims of terrorism.

ASA Assessment 1. & 2. Not upheld

ASA noted the ad was for a ringtone related to a comedy character that was well known in the USA and that the video of Achmed the dead terrorist had been viewed on YouTube over 54 million times worldwide.

We noted comedy touched on contemporary issues including terrorism. We also noted Xtendmedia said they had taken steps to target users who would be aware of the show and would find the ad humorous.

We considered that, whether or not viewers were aware of the show, some may find the character and the comedy theme of terrorism distasteful or offensive. We considered, however, the part of Achmeds head dress shown in the ad was not recognisable as belonging to any religious tradition. We considered that the text SILENCE!! I KILL YOU would be viewed as light hearted and was unlikely to be seen as a serious threat. We considered that the ad was an accurate representation of the product and concluded that because the ad itself contained no direct reference to terrorism or the Muslim religion, it was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence to viewers of YouTube.

We investigated the ad under CAP Code clauses 5.1 and 5.2 (Decency) but did not find it in breach.

Update: Banned in South Africa

7th October 2008. See article from livenews.com.au

A ringtone commercial, featuring Jeff Dunham's puppet was banned in South Africa, following complaints from a Muslim man who had filed that the ad was offensive to the Islamic religion.

Moegamat Khan argued to the South African censor that the character suggested that all Muslims were terrorists.

The five women on the cover are dressed in black and smiling, not an uncommon strategy for selling magazines.

But these cover girls are women of the cloth, featured in Gospel Today magazine's latest issue, which the Southern Baptist Convention has pulled from the shelves at its bookstores, though the magazine is available for sale upon request.

The group says women pastors go against its beliefs, according to its interpretation of the New Testament. The magazine was taken off stands in more than 100 Lifeway Christian Bookstores across the countr.

The magazine's publisher, Teresa Hairston, said she was just reporting on a trend, not trying to promote women pastors: They basically treated it like pornography and put it behind the counter. Unless a person goes into the store and asks for it, they won't see it displayed.

The Malaysia Hindu ruling body, the Sangam, wants to be included on the Film Censorship Board panel to have a say on the screening of movies which are deemed insensitive and offensive to Hindus.

It's Sensitive Issues Sub-Committee chairman P. Murugiah said the board must respect the sentiments of Hindus when approving the screening of movies in theatres.

He expressed regret that the movie Love Guru was still being screened in theatres nationwide despite the organisation's call for the movie to be banned two weeks ago: But despite the objection, the board approved the movie for screening without even removing the sensitive scenes such as the picture of Lord Ganesha on a chastity belt, obscene yoga postures, elephants copulating in front of a crowd and a lavish ashram staffed with scantily clad women.

Murugiah said the Hollywood movie clearly poked fun at the Hindu religion and culture through actor Mike Myer's portrayal of a spiritual advisor or guru.

He said he was puzzled that the movie was not banned here as it clearly breached the Penal Code, the Film Censorship Act 2002 and the Sedition Act 1948.

Murugiah said protests held in India and Singapore had resulted in the movie not being screened there.

Indonesia's parliament has postponed plans to table a controversial anti-pornography Bill after growing opposition from critics who say it could damage native cultural traditions.

The Bill aims to shield the young from pornographic material and lewd acts, but also contains provisions that could see people being jailed for kissing in public or wearing bikinis and could criminalise many forms of art and traditional culture that hinge on sensuality.

Parliamentarians have so far stopped short of passing the Bill because of claims it could jeopardise Indonesia's tradition of tolerance and polarise the country.

Some political parties had been hoping for the Bill's approval this month as the final draft was due to be tabled in parliament on September 23rd.

So far at least two parties - the Christian Peace and Welfare Party and the nationalist Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) - have rejected the proposed Bill.

Two persons have been murdered after a TV anchor proposed the widespread lynching of Ahmadi sect followers

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that an anchor person working for a prominent television channel has incited Muslims in Pakistan to kill - to devastating effect. The targets are followers of the Muslim Ahmadi sect, a group which has been declared non-Islamic under the constitution of Pakistan.

The first killing happened within 24 hours of the broadcast, and just under two days later a district chief of the Ahmadi was murdered. Followers of the religion are understandably frightened, and many have left their homes and are taking shelter at their central mosque, the Rabwa.

In a program aired on 7 September 2008 the anchor of the religious program Alam Online, Dr. Amir Liaquat Hussain--also former federal minister for religious affairs--declared the murder of Ahmadi sect members to be necessary (Wajib ul Qatal) according to Islamic teachings, because its followers don't believe in the last prophet, Mohammad. Amir repeated his instruction several times, urging fundamentalists Muslims to kill without fear.

While on air the anchor person also pressured the other two Islamic scholars (from two different sects) on the program to support the statement. This resulted in a unanimous decision among the scholars, on air during a popular television show, to urge lynching with the intent to kill. This was not a one-off. On September 9, Mr. Hussain answered a query with the comment that blasphemers are liable to be put to death.

Update: Complaints to Ofcom

7th October 2008. See article from independent.co.uk

A small Islamic sect that is deemed heretical by some mainstream Muslims has complained to Ofcom after being labelled "liable for death" by a Pakistani television show broadcast in Britain via the Sky satellite platform.

Update: Not Broadcast in the UK

14th November 2008. See article from ofcom.org.uk

Ofcom received 1,570 complaints concerning the programme. There was evidence that the complaints were part of an orchestrated campaign. Complaints stated that the programme was broadcast on 7 September 2008.

However Ofcom found that the programme was not actually shown on the Geo UK version of Pakistan's Geo TV.

Presumably the complainants had watched the programme available via the internet, but this is not then within the remit of Ofcom.

A policeman has been killed, the body of another victim of Hindu extremist violence was discovered and more houses and churches burned in Orissa state's Kandhamal district even as anti-Christian violence spread to at least five more states across India over the weekend.

Christians and churches were targeted in Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand as fallout from violence in Orissa that began following the assassination of a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council or VHP) leader, Laxmanananda Saraswati, and four of his disciples in Kandhamal district on August 23.

A mob of around 500 rioters today killed a policeman and burned down a police station in Orissa's Kandhamal district, where Hindu extremists launched a spate of attacks three weeks ago blaming local Christians of killing Saraswati and his disciples. Maoists have claimed responsibility for the murders of the Hindu leaders.

A large number of attackers armed with country-made guns and crude weapons gunned down a constable and set ablaze the police station at Gochapada early this morning, Director General of Police Gopal Nanda told The Indian Express.

Pope Benedict turns the other cheek

Angelino Alfano, the Italian Minister of Justice, said he had refused a request by the public prosecutor in Rome for permission to charge the comedienne and satirist Sabina Guzzanti with insulting Pope Benedict.

Ms Guzzanti had said during a left wing rally in Rome in July that because of the Church's stand on homosexuality the Pope would go to Hell, where he would be tormented by very active poofter devils.

Under the 1929 Lateran Treaty between Italy and the Vatican, an offence to the pontiff carries the same weight as an offence to the Italian head of state, with a penalty of up to five years in prison. However prosecution requires the go ahead from the Justice Ministry.

Alfano said he had decided not to proceed with a prosecution knowing the depth of the Pope's capacity for forgiveness. Speaking at the Catholic University in Milan the minister said that as a Roman Catholic himself he had been saddened and shamed by Ms Guzzanti's remarks. However she had accepted full responsibility for them, and he saw no point in adding further fire to the flames.

A Turkish court has banned internet users from viewing the official Richard Dawkins website after a Muslim creationist claimed its contents were defamatory and blasphemous.

Adnan Oktar, who writes under the pen name of Harun Yahya, complained that Dawkins, a fierce critic of creationism and intelligent design, had insulted him in comments made on forums and blogs.

According to Oktar's office, Istanbul's second criminal court of peace banned the site earlier this month on the grounds that it "violated" Oktar's personality.

His press assistant, Seda Aral, said: We are not against freedom of speech or expression ...BUT...you cannot insult people. We found the comments hurtful. It was not a scientific discussion. There was a line and the limit has been passed. We have used all the legal means to stop this site. We asked them to remove the comments but they did not.

Oktar, a household name in Turkey, has used hundreds of books, pamphlets and DVDs to contest Darwin's theory of evolution. In 2006 his publishers sent out 10,000 copies of the Atlas of Creation, a lavish book rejecting evolution on every one of its 800 pages.

Dawkins, one of the recipients, described the book as preposterou". On his website the British biologist and popular science writer said he was at a loss to reconcile the expensive and glossy production values of this book with the breathtaking inanity of the content.

The Iranian Parliament voted in favor of a bill Tuesday that would punish apostasy with the death penalty, a human rights group reported.

Lawmakers approved the bill with 196 votes in favor, 7 against, and two abstentions, according Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

The draft bill seeks to add several crimes to the list of acts that would result in execution, including establishing weblogs and sites promoting corruption, prostitution, and apostasy.

CSW advocacy director Alexa Papadouris commented, It is deeply worrying to hear that just days after Matin-Azad and Basirat have been charged with apostasy at a court in Shiraz, the Iranian Parliament is debating a bill that could codify the death penalty for someone choosing their own religion.

About 1,000 Balinese dressed in traditional sarongs rallied Wednesday to protest against a controversial anti-pornography bill that critics say could hurt local cultural traditions.

The bill contains provisions that could jail people for kissing in public and criminalize many forms of art or traditional culture that hinge on sensuality.

Lawmakers have so far stopped short of passing the bill which has been in parliament for over three years because of criticism it would threaten Indonesia's tradition of tolerance.

But some political parties are hoping for its approval this month when the final draft is tabled in parliament. One Islamic party's lawmaker has said the bill would be a Ramadan gift.

We in Bali see the body as aesthetic, but the pornography bill sees the body as an object of sin, said Sugilanus, one of the protesters at the rally in Denpasar, capital of the predominantly Hindu island of Bali.

Reject the pornography bill, some protesters shouted as they performed a sensual traditional dance while others carried banners saying, The porn bill is not a gift but humiliation for the nation.

Christian human rights lawyers in Pakistan saw a partial legal victory in a judge's ruling last week that one of two kidnapped girls must be returned to her Christian parents. The judge further ruled that her sister be free to choose whether to go with the Muslim man who allegedly forced her to convert and marry him.

The judge ruled that 10-year-old Aneela Masih be returned to her parents – an unprecedented legal victory for Christian parents of a girl who supposedly converted to Islam, according to one lawyer – while leaving her sister, 13-year-old Saba Masih, free to choose whether to go with Amjad Ali, a Muslim man who married her after the June 26 kidnapping.

Saba Masih, whose birth certificate indicates that she is now 13 but who testified that she is 17, said she did not want to return to her parents and tried to keep her little sister from returning to them. Their Muslim captors have repeatedly threatened the two girls that their parents would harm them if they returned.

Update: Small win against kidnapping with impunity

1st March 2009. See article from compassdirect.org

After months of legal deadlock, lawyers in Pakistan said they have new hope they can restore to her family a 13-year-old Christian girl who was kidnapped and forced to marry a Muslim.

Saba Masih might be returned to her family, the lawyers said, if they can legally maneuver around Pakistani policemen who have stonewalled their attempts to pursue a kidnapping case against the captors. On Feb. 21 a Pakistani judge charged the suspects with kidnapping for the first time in the seven-month legal ordeal.

The judiciary is one thing, the police are another, said Arfan Goshe, a lawyer who has taken on the custody case: I will prove [the three accused men] kidnapped Saba so the judiciary will force the police to arrest them.

The decision to file kidnapping charges marks a major shift of momentum in the case. In previous hearings judges have nearly always sided with the kidnappers – based on either dubious evidence or threats from local Islamists – in the Muslims' legal battle to retain custody of Saba and her 10-year-old sister Aneela. A court ruled the younger daughter could return to her family last September.

Feel free to spin a few yarns... I've programmed them to believe any old nonsense

How can so many people accept pre-Enlightenment gobbledegook?

Actually, they don't

Many atheists behold the persistence of religion in the West - and especially in America and its politics - with something close to incredulity. How can it be, they lament, that despite the absence of any evidence for the central tenets of Christianity, despite the enormous progress of science in explaining the origins of the Earth and its inhabitants, that so many people continue to believe pre-Enlightenment gobbledegook?

That the world was created by an invisible deity, that He later impregnated a virgin who then bore a son who was His own father, that we have immortal souls and will live for ever in Heaven if we are good and love Jesus - how can anyone who has even attended high school believe such things?

And how can agreement with this nonsense be a prerequisite for winning the support of the American electorate? It defies belief.

...Read full article from timesonline.co.uk

An anti-pornography bill which is before the Indonesian Parliament may hurt tourism on the island of Bali, some officials have claimed.

The bill, currently in draft form in the House of Representatives, defines pornography as acts that incite sexual desire.

The repressive legislation defines pornography as sexual materials in the form of drawings, sketches, illustrations, photographs, text, sound, moving pictures, animation, cartoons, poetry, conversations or any other form of communicative messages.

But some say the legislation could go as far as jailing people for kissing in public.

Experts see the bill as contentious, because traditional dress in Bali and the sparse clothing and swimwear worn by tourists, could be viewed as pornographic under the legislation.

The island's tourism will clearly suffer should the house pass the bill, said Ngurah Wijaya, head of the Bali Tourism Board.

Bagus Sudibya, a tourism expert, acknowledged the moral stance behind the bill's inception, but warned against hidden agendas in the process to pass it into law. Bagus said the bill should focus on defining explicit pornography designed to arouse sexual desire or exploit women, and not condemn artwork depicting nudity: Many of Bali's trademark attractions are in close connection with its arts, which occasionally depicts women in the nude.

Last Friday, an Indonesian Islamic party, the Prosperous Justice Party said the anti-pornography bill could be a Ramadan present" for Muslims.

The draft bill has been before the Parliament for three years and there is speculation that it may be passed in a few weeks.

The Catholic Church is raising holy hell over a new Simon & Schuster book that encourages couples to sneak into church confessional booths and have sex.

In 101 Places To Have Sex Before You Die, out in November, authors Marsha Normandy and Joseph St. James write: The only sex the Church doesn't frown upon is the married, hetrosexual and birth control-free kind, so the odds are the pope is pretty displeased with you already. Instead of carrying all that mortal sin around with you for weeks at a time until you can make it to confession, why not combine both with a quick and tidy 2-for-1 session?

Joe Zwilling, a rep for the New York Archdiocese, told us: This is sick stuff and the authors and the book publishers should be ashamed of themselves . . . Let's hope the reaction from people is . . . strong.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue added: The kind of people who would have sex in the confessional would also have sex in a graveyard. And I don't mean with each other.

A rep for Simon & Schuster said: "This is one entry in a book that includes 100 other equally facetious references. We think readers will understand the spirit of the book."

A minister has called for the Government to introduce a new religious discrimination law which would require public bodies to have a legal duty to promote equality between faiths, to reassure Britain's Muslims that they are not second-class citizens.

Sadiq Khan, a government whip, wants a forthcoming Single Equality Bill aimed at stamping out discrimination on grounds of sex, race, gender and disability to include religion. He also calls for Islamophobia in the workplace to be tackled.

Under his proposal, public bodies would have to be proactive in tackling religious discrimination. The Equality and Human Rights Commission, chaired by Trevor Phillips, would issue guidance and codes of practice.

Khan wants to break down religious barriers and argues strongly that Britain's Muslims must change, too. He urges them to forget about the Iraq war; give their women more freedom and use their charities to help white poor people. He also calls for imams to stress the importance of parental participation in schools and says everyone should learn English.

Khan says: All of us in the Muslim communities must unequivocally agree that honour killings are murder and forced marriages are kidnapping. These traditions have no place here or anywhere.

Mickey Mouse is a corrupting influence and must die, a Muslim cleric has declared.

Sheikh Muhammad Munajid warned that depictions of the creature in cartoons such as Disney's Mickey Mouse, had taught children that it was in fact loveable.

The cleric, a former diplomat at the Saudi embassy in Washington DC, said that under Sharia, both household mice and their cartoon counterparts must be killed.

Munajid was asked to give Islam's teaching on mice during a religious affairs programme broadcast on al-Majd TV, an Arab television network.

According to a translation he said: The mouse is one of Satan's soldiers and is steered by him.

According to Islamic law, the mouse is a repulsive, corrupting creature. How do you think children view mice today – after Tom and Jerry? Even creatures that are repulsive by nature, by logic, and according to Islamic law have become wonderful and are loved by children. Even mice.

Mickey Mouse has become an awesome character, even though according to Islamic law, Mickey Mouse should be killed in all cases.

Sherry Jones' The Jewel of Medina, recently withdrawn, will be returned to Belgrade's bookstores.

The publisher said that readers' reactions were positive and that the book would soon be published in most European countries.

Beobook publishing company director Aleksandar Jasic explained the u-turn by saying that it would be good for Serbia's Muslim community, who fiercely opposed the book's publishing, for the readers, who are the only ones competent to judge, and for the publisher.

He explained that despite the fact that the book was withdrawn from the stores in July, copies were still available in the streets at double prices, adding that soon after the publisher dropped the book, pirate versions started to sell Beobook name.

Serbia's Islamic Community states that it is an insult and the sacrilege to write about the Islamic prophet outside the frames of Quran, emphasizing that writing about any of Mohammed's' wives – and there were twelve – is an offense to every Muslim, who considered these women to be their mothers.

Ombudsman Saša Jankovic was the only state official to react, by saying after separate meetings with Mufti Zukorlic and the publisher that in Serbia, books are written and published freely. In a public statement Jankovic said that everyone had an obligation to respect human rights and freedoms, and that the state's role was to protect and to enable human rights to be implemented.

The Jewel of Medina is to be published in the U.S., Italy, Germany and Hungary, and it is expected that by late this year and early 2009, it will be printed in Russia, Brazil, Macedonia, Spain, Finland, Denmark and Poland, while negotiations are ongoing with publishers in Sweden and the Netherlands.

An Afghan court has sentenced an ex-journalist and a mullah to 20 years in prison each for publishing a translation of the Koran alleged to contain errors.

Afghan and international media rights organisations condemned the sentences handed down and called on President Hamid Karzai to intervene.

Former journalist Ahmed Ghous Zalmai was arrested in November trying to escape into Pakistan as religious clerics and parliament were in an uproar about a Dari-language version of the Muslim holy book he had published.

Mullah Qari Mushtaq, who was sentenced with him, had approved the version which other clerics and parliamentarians claimed contained errors and misunderstandings about issues such as homosexuality and adultery. Critics also complained the book did not include the original Arabic text as required by Islamic law.

We appeal to the President's spirit of tolerance and ask him to intercede on behalf of two men who have been given extremely severe sentences, said Paris-based Reporters Without Borders and Article 19, another rights watchdog.

Zalmai, expected to appeal, had been a fairly outspoken TV journalist in the 1980s, Reporters Without Borders said. At the time of his arrest, he was a spokesman in the office of the attorney-general.

You will meet a tall, dark, frock wearing charlatan. Beware! He wants to kill you  in the name of nonsense

Another senior Saudi cleric has called for the deaths of competing purveyors of nonsense. He said astrologers on Arab television should face the death penalty

Sorcerers who appear on satellite channels who are proven to be sorcerers have committed a great crime... and the Muslim consensus is that the apostate's punishment is death by the sword, Sheikh Saleh Al-Fozan told Al-Madina daily.
"Those who call in to these shows should not be accorded Muslim rites when they die, the prominent cleric added.

Many of the hundreds of Arab satellite channels that have sprung up in recent years specialise in horoscopes and other advice to callers on solving problems that is seen by some religious authorities as sorcery. In their capacity as judges, clerics of Saudi Arabia's austere form of Islam often sentence sorcerers to death.

Al-Fozan, a member of the Higher Council of Clerics, was responding to a controversy ignited by a Council colleague, Sheikh Saleh Al-Lohaidan, who said last week that owners of Arab TV shows should be tried and face death over some shows.

An Islamic militant leader warned that former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney could be the target of suicide bombers unless he cancels his first concert in Israel, reported the British Sunday Express.

The celebrated rock star plans to arrive in Israel as part of a world tour, and give a single concert at Tel Aviv's Park Hayarkon on September 25.

Omar Bakri, an Islamic preacher, said McCartney's decision to perform as part of Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations made him the enemy of Muslims worldwide.
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If he values his life, Mr. McCartney must not come to Israel, Bakri was quoted as saying. He will not be safe there. The sacrifice operatives will be waiting for him.

A prominent anti-government internet campaigner has been arrested in Malaysia.

Raja Petra Kamarudin was held under the country's oppressive Internal Security Act, which allows indefinite detention without trial.

He was accused of posting an article that insulted Islam.

His arrest comes a day after the country's army chief threatened people not to make remarks that could damage race relations. General Abdul Aziz Zainal called for stern action to be taken against anyone stoking racial tension in the country.

Raja Petra was detained by police at his home near Kuala Lumpur, two weeks after his anti-government website Malaysia Today was closed down.

Independent online news outlets and blogs flourish in Malaysia, says the BBC's Robin Brant in Kuala Lumpur, and Raja Petra had been a constant thorn in the government's side before his arrest.

Earlier this year, he wrote a piece suggesting Najib Razak, Malaysia's deputy prime minister, may have been linked to the murder of a Mongolian model.

The crackdown on dissent comes amid a race row that has threatened to engulf the government, our correspondent says. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had earlier suspended a member of the governing party who had described Malaysia's ethnic Chinese and Indians as "squatters".

Two newspapers have been put under investigation by the Interior Ministry for their reporting of the row. Also Malaysian advertisers on  Malaysia-Today have been visited by Commercial Crime Division and told to pull out their ads from the website immediately.

Ms MuslimExWife... You will go home with NOTHING!

Islamic 'law' has been officially adopted in Britain, with sharia courts given powers to rule on Muslim civil cases.

The government has quietly sanctioned the powers for sharia judges to rule on cases ranging from divorce and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence.

Rulings issued by a network of five sharia courts are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court.

Previously, the rulings of sharia courts in Britain could not be enforced, and depended on voluntary compliance among Muslims.

It has now emerged that sharia courts with these powers have been set up in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester with the network's headquarters in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Two more courts are being planned for Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, whose Muslim Arbitration Tribunal runs the courts, said he had taken advantage of a clause in the Arbitration Act 1996. Under the act, the sharia courts are classified as arbitration tribunals. The rulings of arbitration tribunals are binding in law, provided that both parties in the dispute agree to give it the power to rule on their case.

Siddiqi said: We realised that under the Arbitration Act we can make rulings which can be enforced by county and high courts. The act allows disputes to be resolved using alternatives like tribunals. This method is called alternative dispute resolution, which for Muslims is what the sharia courts are.

Jewish Beth Din courts operate under the same provision in the Arbitration Act and resolv civil cases, ranging from divorce to business disputes. They have existed in Britain for more than 100 years, and previously operated under a precursor to the act.

Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said: If it is true that these tribunals are passing binding decisions in the areas of family and criminal law, I would like to know which courts are enforcing them because I would consider such action unlawful. British law is absolute and must remain so.

Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: I think it's appalling. I don't think arbitration that is done by sharia should ever be endorsed or enforced by the British state.”

There are concerns that women who agree to go to tribunal courts are getting worse deals because Islamic law favours men.

Siddiqi said that in a recent inheritance dispute handled by the court in Nuneaton, the estate of a Midlands man was divided between three daughters and two sons. The judges on the panel gave the sons twice as much as the daughters, in accordance with sharia. Had the family gone to a normal British court, the daughters would have got equal amounts.

In the six cases of domestic violence, Siddiqi said the judges ordered the husbands to take anger management classes and mentoring from community elders. There was no further punishment. In each case, the women subsequently withdrew the complaints they had lodged with the police and the police stopped their investigations.

A 30-year-old women prisoner identified as Gilan Mohammadi and an Afghan national, Gholamali Eskandari, are sentenced to death by stoning. Both are awaiting their sentences to be carried out in Isfahan prison central Iran.

Despite much smoke screening by the mullahs' judiciary last month regarding the commuting of all such rulings, there has not been any change made in these two cases.

The head of Saudi Arabia's Islamic Sharia courts has said owners of Arabic television stations airing immodest shows in Ramadan could face execution.

Sheikh Saleh al-Lohaidan, one of the most powerful clerics was responding to a question on a radio phone-in program about the owners of TV stations airing programs that offend modesty, especially during the holy month of Ramadan.

If the evil of those who promote corruption in belief and actions cannot be held back through lesser punishments, then they can be put to death through the judicial process, Lohaidan, head of the Supreme Judicial Council said.

He appeared to be referring to Turkish soap operas that became hugely popular in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries this year, provoking a storm of anger among conservatives in Saudi Arabia who fear the spread of secular culture.

They gained huge popularity partly because they were dubbed into colloquial Arabic and focused on a Muslim country whose culture many Arabs can relate to. The characters would fast in Ramadan but also drink wine.

The government's official advisor on religious affairs, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdelaziz Al al-Sheikh, said in July it was not Islamically permissible to watch the Turkish serials.

The shows, Nour and Lost Years, were aired by MBC based in the United Arab Emirates.

For television critics, it was an exemplary piece of programme-making which kicked off a week of coverage of Islam. But Channel 4's The Qur'an has prompted a backlash among the global Shia community and offended one of its most 'liberal' clerics.

The Iranian Grand Ayatollah Saanei has written to the documentary's award-winning British film-maker to berate the portrayal of him and Shia Muslims as a whole. The complaint has also been passed to the media regulator, Ofcom.

In particular, the Grand Ayatollah objects to perceived links between the Shia faith and violence, including scenes which showed Iranians chanting anti-Western slogans, burning effigies and advocating terrorism.

The Grand Ayatollah's representative said: In the said documentary, the director had tried to introduce Shi'ism as a superstitious sect. The way it was narrated, the selection of the words, and the anti-Shia faces interviewed, all indicate that the director had intended to unfairly satisfy their anti-Shia sentiments. Out of more than 200 interviews foreign correspondents and reporters have had with His Eminence during the past several years, this was the only case in which we witnessed the mass media [compromise its] professional integrity.

Muhammad Abdul Bari, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, has written to Channel 4's chief executive, Andy Duncan, upset by specific misrepresentations of Islam: The programme unfairly maligns Muslims following the Shia tradition by accusing them of heresy based on a collection of age-old polemics and misinformation. With respect, this is an irresponsible portrayal which plays into the hands of those who wish to seek discord.

A spokesman for the programme said: In the film is a balanced representation of a broad range of Islamic opinion. The Grand Ayatollah's complete answers to two questions are included. Also the film was meticulously researched and checked by four Islamic advisers.

Can't wait!

Italian politicians of right and left, comedians and even some priests yesterday deplored a move by prosecutors in Rome to put a satirist on trial for contempt of the Pope.

Sabina Guzzanti, known for her take-offs of the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, risks being jailed for up to five years. The prosecutors recommended to the justice ministry that she be indicted because of a speech she made to a leftwing rally in July.

Referring to the attitude to gay people of the Catholic church and Pope Benedict, Guzzanti said: In 20 years Ratzinger will be dead and will end up in hell, tormented by queer demons - not passive ones, but very active ones.

The 1929 Lateran treaty that created the Vatican city state describes the Pope as a sacred and inviolable person. It makes insulting him an offence in Italy on a par with contempt for Italy's president, punishable by between one and five years in jail. Indictment, however, requires an endorsement from the justice minister.

The minister, Angelino Alfano, has not yet replied to the prosecutors' request.

Father Bartolomeo Sorge, editor of a Jesuit monthly, condemned the attempted prosecution: I am sure the Pope has forgiven those gratuitous offences.

As for Guzzanti, she said she felt honoured.

Comment: Holy Revenge

13th September 2008. Thanks to Alan

What I suspect is happening is that Berlusconi is out to get Sabina G because of what she said about him, especially her comments in the same speech about him and Mara Carfagna. Making the Pope the wounded party seeks to disguise that.

Berkusconi may be overreaching himself. Some members of his own party think so, notably Senator Guzzanti, who's, errr, Sabina's dad. (One of the funnier bits in her film Viva Zapatero! was the bit where some minister effectively said to her, Sabina Guzzanti, I'll tell your dad about you.

Indicentally, some people call Berlusconi the neo-Duce. To give the real one his due, he wasn't an interfering busybody seeking to ban prostitution (as per the other Italian story). I've got a copy of the authorised price list of an official knocking shop ("casa di tolleranza") dating from the Fifteenth Year of the Fascist Era (1938).

The prosecutor general in Amman charged the 12 with blasphemy, demeaning Islam and Muslim feelings, and slandering and insulting the prophet Muhammad in violation of the Jordanian Penal Code. The charges are especially unusual because the alleged violations were not committed on Jordanian soil.

Among the defendants is the Danish cartoonist whose alleged crime was to draw in 2005 one of the Muhammad illustrations that instigators then used to spark Muslim riots around the world. His co-defendants include 10 editors of Danish newspapers that published the images. The 12th accused man is Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders, who supposedly broke Jordanian law by releasing on the Web his recent film, Fitna, which tries to examine how the Quran inspires Islamic terrorism.

Neither Denmark nor the Netherlands will turn over its citizens to Interpol, as the premise of Jordan's extradition request is an affront to the very principles that define democracies. It is thus unlikely that any Western country would do so, either. But there is no guarantee for the defendants' protection if they travel to countries that are more sympathetic to the Jordanian court.

Unless democratic countries stand up to this challenge to free speech, other nations may be emboldened to follow the Jordanian example. Kangaroo courts across the globe will be ready to charge free people with obscure violations of other societies' norms and customs, and send Interpol to bring them to stand trial in frivolous litigation.

...Read full article from online.wsj.com

The North West Frontier Province government has decided to implement the Shariah Nizam-e-Adal Regulation 1999 in Malakand division by the end of Ramadan in order to fulfil the Taliban's longstanding demand to enforce Islamic laws in Swat.

Provincial Information Minister Iftekhar Hussain said that the draft of Shariah Nizam-e-Adal would be sent to the governor for approval.

Channel 4, whose head of religious broadcasting is a Muslim, is said by several Roman Catholic priests to be unfair in its treatment of different faiths.

They claim it recently showed a whole season of broadly positive programmes on Islam while a Da Vinci Code-style documentary on Christianity cast doubt on the validity of the Pope.

In addition, they say the Channel 4 website treats the history and beliefs of Islam more reverently than it does Christianity.

Father Ray Blake, a leading Catholic blogger who is a parish priest in Brighton, said: I don't think it's fair towards Christianity. There seems to be a rather supine attitude to Islam and a trivialising attitude to Catholicism. I find it worrying. Channel 4 has shown quite serious discussions about Islam but nothing that treats Christianity in the same way.

Over the summer, Channel 4 broadcast a week of special programmes on Islam including a feature-length documentary on its holy book, the Qu'ran, and a series of interviews with Muslims around the world talking about their beliefs.

However last week it repeated a controversial documentary first shown at Easter, called The Secrets of the 12 Disciples, which claimed St Peter died in Palestine, not in Rome as the church has always taught.

Another blogging priest, Father Tim Finigan, said the Channel 4 website highlights the torture and persecution carried out by the Roman Catholic church during the Inquisition, which he said is in contrast to its positive description of Muslims: My point in posting all this is not to denigrate Islam but rather to draw attention to the kind of treatment that can be given to religion, and how far it is from the customary treatment given to beliefs and practices that are sacred to Christians.

One commenter on Fr Blake's blog wrote: The Commissioning Editor for religious broadcasting at Channel 4 is Aaqil Ahmed, a Muslim. I have long noticed that the only coverage Christianity gets on Channel 4 is in the form of programmes that seeks to undermine the authority of the Church, our traditions and our scripture.

The goal of Muslim Massacre, which can be downloaded for free on the internet, is to ensure that no Muslim man or woman is left alive, according to the game's creator.

Players control an American Hero armed with a machine gun and rocket launcher who is parachuted into the Middle East.

By slaughtering all the Arabs that appear on screen – some dressed as terrorists, some apparently civilians - players progress to later levels where they take on Osama bin Laden, Mohammed and finally Allah.

The game's creator, a freelance programmer known as Sigvatr, described the game as fun and funny and some players have interpreted the game as a critical commentary - albeit a crude one - of US foreign policy.

But Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of The Ramadhan Foundation, Britain's leading Muslim youth organisation, said that the game glamorised violence against Muslims whether or not it was satirical: Encouraging children and young people in a game to kill Muslims is unacceptable, tasteless and deeply offensive.

If it was the other way around, with a game featuring Muslims killing Israelis or Americans, there would be uproar and rightly so. We would urge ISPs to take action against sites like this.

We have written to the British Government today to urge an inquiry into this game and take action to shut down the site; this is not satire but a deliberate attempt to demonise Muslims.

The game was first released in January this year, but has become more popular in recent days after being linked to by several prominent blogs.

Sigvatr, an American based in Brisbane, Australia said on an internet forum appeared to distance himself from the view that it was a parody of American jingoism, and acknowledge that many players would enjoy the game for the chance to shoot virtual Muslims: I think it's pretending to be legitimate commentary and I'm sure there will be lots of people who defend it on those grounds, but ultimately it's just a game where you blow the gently caress out of arabs.

Anyone is free to believe whatever they won't (sic) though, because I don't even know how to interpret it myself anymore. The bottom line is that I enjoyed making it and it's fun to play.

Update: Ongoing Massacre

5th November 2008. Based on article from theage.com.au

The Australian Muslim community has accused the Federal Government and police of double standards over their treatment of a free online game in which the aim is to kill as many Muslims as possible.

Keysar Trad, president of the Islamic Friendship Association, wrote to the Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, expressing outrage over the game, Muslim Massacre, saying it teaches young people to further hate Muslims and encourages them to carry out acts of discrimination, vilification or outright violence against Australian Muslims.

The atheist website RichardDawkins.net has been blocked in Turkey where viewers encounter a white screen saying: Access to this site has been denied by court order.

However there has been no official explanation of the ban. Suggestions for the ban include hacking and a comment that might have offended the litigation happy muslim creationist, Adnan Oktar, or Harun Yahya.

The block seems to be easily worked around using proxies or open DNS servers outside of Turkey.

Indonesia's Aceh province will begin testing candidates for next year's provincial elections on the Koran, an election commission official said.

More than 1,300 Muslim candidates will recite verses from the holy book before a jury for about five minutes, said Nurjani Abdullah, a member of the Aceh Election Independent Commission: It is based on sharia law under which a legislator in Aceh province has to able to read the Koran, said Abdullah.

Aceh province, on the westernmost end of Indonesia, is the only area officially allowed to use sharia, or Islamic law, as part of a local autonomy deal.

MF Husain, India's most renowned living artist, faces years of exile despite a ruling from the country's supreme court.

He will not be able to return to India unless the hundreds of cases claiming he hurt Hindu sentiment are withdrawn, say experts despite a ruling from the country's supreme court clearing him of the charges.

The artist has been in self-imposed exile since January 2006, forced out by threats from Hindu groups enraged by his paintings of nude gods and goddesses. Three supreme court judges considered whether his painting, Bharat Mata (Mother India), which depicts a nude woman on her knees creating the shape of a map of India, was sacrilegious.

The bench rejected the petition seeking prosecution for offending Hindus, saying it was a work of art and citing India's tradition of graphic sexual iconography.

Does the sentiment of the petitioner get scandalized by the large number of photographs of erotic sculptures which are in circulation? the judges asked: It is an art like the sculptures. None get scandalized looking at the sculptures.

The Church of Scientology in France and seven of its leaders is to be tried for alleged organised fraud.

If found guilty it could result in the controversial body's main centres being closed down.

The charges, which also include claims of illegally prescribing drugs, were filed by a woman who complained that the Scientologists had allegedly brought about her financial ruin.

She claimed she was psychologically pressured into paying thousands of pounds for lessons, books, drugs and a device called an “electrometre” which the church says can measure a person's mental state.

The case has taken ten years to come to court.

France's professional pharmaceutical association and another plaintiff have also filed for charges.

This latest court order refers the church's main structure in France, the ASES-Celebrity Centre, and its bookshop for alleged “organised fraud”. Both could be shut down if convicted, according to judicial sources.

The trial - for which no date has been set - is rare, as most previous cases targeted individuals but not the church itself.

The seven members on trial, including Alain Rosenberg, the manager of the ASES-Celebrity Centre, face a maximum seven year jail term if convicted.

The woman who complained was allegedly approached by Scientologists in a Paris street in 1998. At first she was offered a personality test, then invited to hear the results. She was allegedly gradually persuaded to hand over around £25,000 on books, communication and life healing lessons, as well as purification packs.

In his order, the judge found that the church had used personality tests void of scientific value...with the sole aim of selling services or divers products. While claiming to identify and resolve supposed psychological difficulties or favour personal development, the Scientologists' sole aim was to claim their fortune by exercising a psychological hold over her.

Over a period of twelve hours, American Rights Counsel LLC sent out over 4000 DMCA takedown notices to YouTube, all making copyright infringement claims against videos with content critical of the Church of Scientology. Clips included footage of Australian and German news reports about Scientology, A Message to Anonymous/Scientology, and footage from a Clearwater City Commission meeting. Many accounts were suspended by YouTube in response to multiple allegations of copyright infringement.

YouTube users responded with DMCA counter-notices. At this time, many of the suspended channels have been reinstated and many of the videos are back up. Whether or not American Rights Counsel, LLC represents the notoriously litigious Church of Scientology is unclear, but this would not be the first time that the Church of Scientology has used the DMCA to silence Scientology critics. The Church of Scientology DMCA complaints shut down the YouTube channel of critic Mark Bunker in June, 2008. Bunker's account, XenuTV, was also among the channels shut down in this latest flurry of takedown notices.

Reports from Iran say that two Christian converts have been charged with apostasy. The two were reportedly detained in May in a park in the city of Shiraz, and according to Christian groups, Mahmud Matin Azad and Arash Basirat have been held in solitary confinement since then.

A member of an Iranian Christian group based in Dubai told Radio Farda that he is concerned the two could face the death penalty.

A member of the Tehran-based Center for Human Rights Defenders, Mohammad Seyfzadeh, tells Radio Farda that charging individuals with apostasy is a clear violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Update: Official

11th September 2008

The two Iranian Christians have officially been charged with "apostasy," or leaving Islam, as a draft law making the death penalty mandatory for those convicted of the charge is set to be debated in Iran's Parliament.

A total of 428 Pakistanis comprising 260 women and 168 men were brutally killed across Pakistan in the name of honour between January 1 and August 31.

The number of honour killings in Pakistan are estimated to be around 2,500 to 3,000 cases every year. However, the report states that a good number of such cases still go unreported or are passed off as suicides and only 25% of these are brought to justice.

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), 260 women and 168 men have already been killed in the first eight months of 2008. Honour killings are treated as murder under Pakistan's penal code; however, the relevant law states that the family of the victim is allowed to compromise with the killer who is a close relative in most of the cases. Provisions of the Pakistani law also allow the next of kin of the victim to forgive the murderer in exchange for money. And most of the offenders continue to use this clause to escape punishment.

Asma Jahangir, the chairperson of HRCP, says the Pakistan government has not taken any concrete steps to put an end to honour killings and to hold perpetrators to account.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt has criticised Iran for sentencing women's rights activist Parvin Ardalan to prison, saying it revealed Tehran's deteriorated respect for human rights.

Ardalan, who won the 2007 Olof Palme Prize but was prevented by Tehran from attending the ceremony in Sweden last March, was sentenced to six months prison along with three other women's rights activists.

The 41-year-old campaigner was detained along with 70 other people for a June 2006 demonstration in Tehran square demanding equal rights for women on divorce, inheritance and child custody.

Ardalan and the three others sentenced this week are active members of an initiative that seeks to change Iran's Sharia-based laws for women by collecting one million signatures.

They were sentenced over articles on the "Change for Equality" and "Zanestan" websites, according to their lawyer, Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of women in Jordan and other conservative societies who rights groups say are killed every year by their male relatives in so-called honour crimes for "sullying" the reputation of their families.

The United Nations has reported such crimes in Brazil, Britain, Ecuador, India, Israel, Italy, Sweden and Uganda as well as in Muslim nations such as Morocco, Pakistan and Turkey.

Accurate figures on such killings are hard to come by because they often go unreported.

In Jordan, between 15 and 20 women are murdered annually in the name of "honour" and at least eight such killings have been reported so far this year, according to Jordanian authorities. Last year 17 such murders were recorded.

But the label "honour killings" can be misleading in this tiny kingdom's male-dominated society of about six million people.

Judges, lawyers, activists and experts agree that in most cases men exploit lenient laws and social misconceptions about women to murder them for inheritance, settling family feuds or to hide other crimes.

Judge Jehad Oteibi, spokesman for the Judiciary Council, said court records show that many "honour killings" are committed for reasons related to inheritance. Under sharia-based laws in Jordan, female heirs are entitled to an inheritance, even though it is half that which male heirs receive.

Forensic tests prove that a lot of victims were virgins, which show that there are other motives behind the killings, including family problems. It's a very sensitive issue in our society, Oteibi said.

According to Human Rights Watch, 95% of women killed in 1997 in Jordan in alleged honour killings were later proved to be innocent.

University of Jordan sociologist Seri Nasser blamed the legal system: Most of the judges are males who use their powers to reduce the sentence. They forget that women are victims of their male relatives' greed.

Perpetrators get reduced sentences as parliament has refused to reform the penal code to ensure harsher sentences, despite campaigns by local and international human rights activists.

According to article 340 of the penal code, a defendant who surprises his wife or any close female relative in an act of adultery or fornication may invoke a defence of crime of honour should they murder the woman.

Article 98 of the penal code stipulates that an extenuating justification can be invoked by anyone who commits a crime in a fit of rage as a result of an unrightful and dangerous act carried out by the victim -- which may significantly reduce penalties for murder.

Most killers have avoided trial for murder, rights activists say. But even those convicted rarely spend more than two years in prison.

Jordan's King Abdullah II, his wife Queen Rania and other royals have led efforts to fight "honour killings" and reform the law.

This practice of 'honour killing' is a form of murder without trial, which is contrary to Islam, the queen has said: We should have no tolerance for the acceptance of 'honour killings' ... We have to change some cultural and societal perceptions of the place and value of women in society.

Update: Light Sentence

1st October 2008. Based on article from stophonourkillings.com

A 19-year-old who killed his divorced sister in the name of family honour when he was a minor in September 2006, walked free from the Criminal Court on Monday after receiving a reduced sentence.

The court sentenced the defendant, who was 17 at the time of the murder, to serve 16 months at a juvenile centre after convicting him of stabbing his 24-year-old sibling to death at their family's home on September 19. But the court ordered his immediate release since he already spent the sentence period in custody while on trial, according to the verdict.

The same court acquitted the victim's 55-year-old father, a truck driver, of complicity in custody in premeditated murder charges for lack of evidence.

Court papers said the victim, the mother of a 12-year-old child who had been married for over 13 years, asked her husband for a divorce a few months before she was murdered.

The husband took his wife to her family home and informed them about the matter, then filed for a divorce, according to the court. The victim reportedly went with her husband to a lawyer's office on the day of the incident where she wrote a letter listing the names of all the men she had slept with in return for money," the court said.

Upon returning home, the defendant heard about the matter from his father and became enraged, the court said. He rushed to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and stabbed his sister repeatedly until he made sure she was dead, while his father watched, according to court papers. The father congratulated the defendant and told him that he had cleansed the family's honour, court papers said.

In its ruling, the court decided to amend the premeditated murder charges to a misdemeanour as stipulated in Article 98 of the Penal Code because the defendant committed the murder in a moment of rage.

It is obvious that the defendant did not plot the murder and his actions came immediately after reading his sister's confessions," the court said, noting that the defendant benefits from a reduction in penalty because his sister was involved in extramarital affairs in return for money, which led to her divorce and brought her family shame and disgrace.

Reporters Without Borders is outraged by delays and obstruction in journalist and student Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh's appeal against his death sentence for blasphemy.

Hearings in his appeal, which began more than four months ago in Kabul, have been suspended since his 15 June. This is illegal, his lawyer has told Reporters Without Borders. After an original trial that was such a scandal, we had hoped for exemplary appeal proceedings that respected the rule of law and the presumption of innocence, but instead we are seeing a parody of justice in which appearances take precedent over substance, the press freedom organisation said.

We fail to understand the behaviour of the judges, who are making no effort to ensure that the legal deadlines are respected, Reporters Without Borders added. The judicial authorities need to get a grip of themselves and move ahead with the appeal process so that this young journalist held in Pul-e-Charkhi prison can be acquitted and released as soon as possible.

Kambakhsh's lawyer, Afzal Nuristani, told Reporters Without Borders: An appeal court is legally obliged to rule on a case within two months, but the appeal has been suspended since 15 June. The court is waiting for witnesses from Mazar-i-Sharif, but they have not come! Their evidence is not important for the case because they are not direct witnesses. They have been summoned three times but they have not appeared.

The publisher that took on O.J. Simpson's If I Did It after it was dropped amid public outrage has signed another rejected project - Sherry Jones' The Jewel of Medina.

The book about a wife of the prophet Muhammad was dropped by Random House, its American publisher, out of concern that it would anger Muslims.

We read the book, we loved it, says Eric Kampmann, owner of Beaufort Books.

Jones' novel should come out by mid-October, Kampmann said. She will also publish a second book with Beaufort, a sequel to Jewel of Medina.

Jones' book is also being published in England, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil and Hungary.

Muslims of Vellore in India have been protesting against the depiction of Mohammed in the Tamil newspaper, Dinamalar.

A Mohammed cartoon predictably inflamed the easily offended and they gathered in large numbers before the local Dinamalar publication office.

The Police disbursed them. But the protestors gathered again and started pelting stones on the Dinamalar office. Therefore, to control the violence, the Police lathi-charged and driven away the stoning mob. After the arrest of one employees, the situation was brought under control.

It was reported that the Dinamalar had already stated that it was not intentional to hurt anybody's feelings.

Love your neighbour... Even more than you love religious dogma

The Philippines has one of the highest birth-rates in Asia. The population is growing at around 2%annually and is expected to hit 100 million within the next five years, according to the country's National Statistics Office.

With 40% of the country's 90 million people living on less than two dollars a day, the high birth-rate has been described by former president Fidel Ramos as a ticking time bomb, according to Yahoo News.

He said with inflation at a 17-year high, economic growth slowing and people starting to slip back into poverty, the need for a comprehensive family planning programme has become a matter of national survival.

Does overpopulation and starvation matter to the Catholic Church, which wields enormous power in the Philippines? Does it hell!

The Church has come out fighting against a Reproductive Health Care bill, introduced by congressman Edcel Lagman, who believes the time has come for the Philippines to take family planning seriously.

The Catholic Church, however, is campaigning against the bill – which must receive the support of the majority of congress and senate members before being presented to the president for her signature. Unfortunately, President Gloria Arroyo, a devout Catholic, supports the church's stance on birth control.

Some church leaders are threatening to excommunicate legislators who support it, with some saying they might refuse to preside over marriages or administer Holy Communion to anyone associated with the bill.

A historical novel about the prophet Muhammad and his child bride that was pulled by Random House over concerns it would anger Muslims has found a new English-language publisher.

Gibson Square will publish the book next month in Great Britain, saying that it is imperative that The Jewel of Medina by author Sherry Jones, of Spokane, not be spiked by fear of violence.

Jones' agent, Natasha Kern said: It was crucially important that the publisher would have industry-leading distribution in Britain, which Gibson Square has. And it was also important that it had an excellent track record on handling books in a good way that were provocative and had achieved some degree of controversy beyond the publishing community.

Jones told The Associated Press that a U.S. publisher also would be announced shortly. The book also will be published in Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil and Hungary, Jones said.

The Egyptian crooner Ehab Tawfiq has been banned in Yemen by a controversial new Saudi-style "religious police" charged with enforcing austere standards of public morality.

A concert he was due to give in Sana'a was postponed and then cancelled last month after a campaign by the country's newly-formed "virtue committee", which distributed posters and leaflets — and, say some, encouraged death threats and intimidation — condemning the handsome Egyptian for promoting sedition, immorality and nudity.

For many Yemenis, and for women in particular, this was another alarming sign of the growth of Salafi extremism.

These people scare the hell out of me," complained Nadia al-Sakkaf, the editor of the Yemen Times: Yemeni youth are frustrated and depressed. There's nothing for them to do. And since when did we need to act against pop singers?

The first signs appeared a few months ago in the Red Sea port of Hodeida, where young men and women began to be accosted by bearded vigilantes demanding proof that couples were related. A hotel disco and bar were closed down and several Arab women dancers deported. Daoud al-Jeni, a self-styled "virtue activist', described his mission as being to curb "obscenity and prostitution". Anti-vice teams, some armed with sticks, have also been operating in Aden, the former British colony in the south.

In mid-July the Authority for Promoting Virtue and Combating Vice — exactly the same name as used in Saudi Arabia for 80 years — was launched in Sana'a and quickly moved to pressure the authorities to raid and close down two Chinese restaurants that were allegedly being used for "immoral" purposes, including selling alcohol.

Behind the "virtue committee", which supported by 2,000 clerics and tribal leaders, is Sheikh Abdel-Majid al-Zindani, a powerful Salafi figure who once taught Osama bin Laden and is accused by the US and UN of financing terrorism. Zindani is a charismatic preacher who claims to have found a cure for Aids and specialises in Quranic explanations for modern scientific discoveries. His Al-Iman university in Sana'a is seen as a hotbed of religious extremism.

The Bush administration, European governments and religious rights organizations are mounting a new effort to defeat a General Assembly resolution that demands respect for Islam and other religions but has been used to justify persecution of religious minorities.

The resolution, called Combating Defamation of Religion, is sponsored by the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and has been approved by the world body annually since 2005. It comes up for renewal this fall.

U.S. officials said they hope to persuade 'moderate' Muslim nations - among them Senegal, Mali, Nigeria and Indonesia - to reject the measure, which lacks the force of law but has provided diplomatic cover for regimes that repress critical speech.

Before, it was one resolution with no impact and no implementation, said Felice Gaer, chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan federal body that investigates abuses and proposes policies to advance freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

Now we are seeing a clear attempt by OIC countries to mainstream the concept and insert it into just about every other topic they can, Gaer said:They are turning freedom of expression into restriction of expression.

The European Center for Law and Justice filed a brief with the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in June warning that such anti-defamation resolutions are in direct violation of international law concerning the rights to freedom of religion and expression.

U.S. officials working on human rights said the resolutions are being used to justify harsh blasphemy laws in countries such as Pakistan, Egypt, Sudan and Afghanistan.

Love your neighbour... BUT...only if he shares your faith

A Pretoria High Court judge has ordered the Dutch Reformed Church at Moreleta Park to unconditionally apologise to a music teacher it fired because he is in a gay relationship.

Johan Strydom has won his discrimination case against the DRC

According to the report, South African Judge Dion Basson found that the congregation had unfairly discriminated against Johan Strydom when they fired him from their arts academy in 2005.

He said the constitutionally-protected right to equality outweighed the church's right to religious freedom. The judge ordered the church to pay Strydom almost R87 000 (£6,000) for the impairment of his dignity, emotional and psychological suffering and loss of earnings.

Based on article from pinknews.co.uk

New rules allow UK religious schools to discriminate.

A coalition of organisations, clergy, academics and teachers has been formed to push for a change to new rules that allow faith schools to discriminate.

Accord has been established by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, the Christian think-tank Ekklesia, the British Humanist Association and a range of others to build a new consensus for fairness and equality in schooling and schools policy.

They are calling on Ed Balls, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, to stop publicly-funded faith schools from discriminating against students and teachers on the grounds of their beliefs.

New rules came into force yesterday that make it legal for voluntary controlled schools to reserve the headship for those of one belief only, and for voluntary aided schools to discriminate against non-teaching staff on the basis of their beliefs.

...And on the 2 millionth day... man will see through this nonsense

A protest was organised in response to part of a display on evolution being censored following a complaint to Abington Park Museum in Northampton .

A passage in a display on Charles Darwin at the Northampton Borough Council-run museum was covered up after a complaint from a Christian nutter. The move has now sparked the Northampton Socialist Forum to decide on protest action.

As reported in the Chronicle & Echo on Thursday, four lines of text were obscured. The information in the display explained how Charles Darwin used fossils to formulate his theory of evolution, which the forum said was established scientific fact.

Patrick Markey, of the forum, said: People are entitled to have all sorts of ideas, but no right to impose them on others. This is a public museum and should respect rational scientific thought, not the ideas of some religious fundamentalists.

The National Secular Society has written to the borough council. President Terry Sanderson said: There is a global push by the so-called 'creationist movement' to undermine the theory of evolution. It is incumbent on all educators to resist this attempt to deny evidence and, in the process, retard science and progress.

Visitors to the museum are entitled to a better explanation of Darwin's world-shaping idea than the bowdlerised version you have on display at present.

Councillor Brendan Glynane, the cabinet member for museums said: There was absolutely no attempt at censorship. The text contains a factual error which could cause confusion. We have now uncovered the display board and are in the process of getting a new board produced.

The council says the revised wording will read: He used the same layers of fossils to show the slow changes that are taking place over the millennia of earth history, each small change enabling a species to adapt to the rigours of its environment – the struggle for survival, through the natural selection, leading to the survival of the fittest.

Update: The Genesis View

3rd September from an article on mediawatchwatch.org.uk

t appears that the National Secular Society and other anti-censorship campaigners reacted too quickly to reports of creationist meddling in a Northampton museum's Darwin exhibition. A protest was held on Sunday outside the museum, and the great comics writer Alan Moore reportedly gave a rousing speech.

But it turns out that the original complaint, made three years ago by local Christian Lewis Houston, had nothing to do with trying to suppress scientific knowledge in favour of creationist ignorance. Here is the original wording of the sign:

He used the same layers of fossils that had supported the Genesis view of evolution to show the slow changes that are taking place over the millennia of earth history, each small change enabling a species to the rigours of it's (sic) environment – the struggle for survival through natural selection leading to the survival of the fittest.

The new sign will read:

He used the same layers of fossils to show the slow changes that are taking place over the millennia of earth history, each small change enabling a species to adapt to the rigours of its environment – the struggle for survival, through the natural selection, leading to the survival of the fittest.

As you can see it is not the information on evolution that was altered. What Lewis was objecting to was the suggestion that there is a Genesis view of evolution. There isn't.

A Muslim woman has quit her job after she refused to roll up her sleeves as part of the NHS 'bare below the elbows' policy.

The radiographer is quoted in the national press as saying she felt that uncovering her arms compromised her faith by contradicting the Islamic dress code for women.

The Department of Health guidance, issued last year, states that all staff must bare their forearms as part of a hygiene initiative to combat superbugs.

According to the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, where the woman worked, she originally complied with the ruling for seven weeks and only recently raised the issue.

The trust denied that the radiographer was forced out and defended its policies. Clare Edmonson, director of human resources, said: The policy was explained to her when she began working for the trust and must be observed by all staff for safety reasons.

The Middle East's new youth entertainment and lifestyle tv-channel MTV Arabia announced on 20 August 2008 that it will mark the holy month Ramadan by refraining from music videos.

Some call it religious censorship over music videos. Others appreciate the tv-channel's sensitivity to the solemnity of the Islamic month of fasting.

MTV Arabia's manager Samr Al Mazouqi was quoted as saying: The Holy Month is a time for introspection, and we would like to offer our viewers a break from the ordinary fare. (...) MTV Arabia is conscious of regional sensitivities and we are keen to respond to the needs and desires of viewers in the Middle East, the vast majority of whom will be fasting, spending time with family, and focusing on their spiritual lives.

During Ramadan, the channel will continue to play programmes from MTV's international roster of reality shows, celebrity news and pop culture documentaries.

We have high censorship on what goes on air in terms of language, images, everything has high censorship, the station's head of productions and promotions, Rasha Al Eman, told Communicate Magazine in December 2007.

Bosnia's LGBT community is planning its first gay pride festival this month in Sarajevo but it has come under fire from Muslims, angry that the event will take place during the holy month of Ramadan.

Opposition to gay pride has been fuelled by the Islamic magazine Saff. Columnist Ezher Beganovic has called for the government to cancel the festival. Calling the four day event a festival of homosexuality that is an affront to Islam, Beganovic warned in a column that if pride went ahead it would prompt an angry reaction from believers.

Pride organizers say they did not intend to offend Muslims, but that the date was set a year ago. It coincided with Ramadan unintentionally, Q Association leader Svetlana Djurkovic told the Reuters news service.

She added that conservative Muslims would have been offended no matter when the festival was held.

Czech TV Nova was fined 100,000 korunas by the Council for Radio and Television for broadcasting supposedly xenophobic and Islamophobic content.

The station broadcast a report about Syrian Mohamed Fahed, who had killed his Czech common-law wife. Fahed had said that where he came from, the Kurdish areas of Syria, a man was allowed to kill his wife. The reporter said that in Syria there's Sharia law, which allows a husband to kill an unfaithful wife.

The Brno Muslim community complained to the Council, which decided that the report was xenophobic and Islamophobic, misleading regarding Islamic law. According to the council Syria is not run by Sharia law, and in any case Sharia law does not allow a husband to take justice into his own hands.

Nova denies the allegations and will go to court.

Comment: Not So Far from the Truth

Syria law may not allow honour killings...but IS very lenient on such murderers

From the BBC see full article
See also Legal Solutions Might Not Be Enough to Curb 'Honor Killings' in Syria from aina.org

The Syrian authorities are trying to crack down on the practice of "honour killing", and they have widespread support. About 10,000 people have signed a petition calling for an end to the practice, in a campaign backed by senior Muslim officials.

It is an issue for all communities - Christian, Muslim and Druze - says Daed Musa, a lawyer and women's rights activist: The laws are old and go back to the 1940s. No woman can feel safe under the current legislation.

Murders considered to have been in defence of honour are not considered a "crime" under Syrian law, but an "offence". It carries a maximum penalty of a year's imprisonment, but could be reduced to a month by a judge.