Swiss voters have approved a ban on the construction of new minarets, delivering a blow to the country's relationship with the Muslim world.

Around 57.5% of voters and all but four of the Alpine state's 26 cantons approved the proposal in the nationwide referendum, which was backed by the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP).

The government and parliament had rejected the initiative as violating the Swiss constitution, freedom of religion and the country's cherished tradition of tolerance.

The government had said a ban could serve the interests of extremist circles. The United Nations human rights watchdog also voiced concern.

However, the government said it would respect the people's decision and declared construction of new minarets would no longer be permitted: Muslims in Switzerland are able to practise their religion alone or in community with others and live according to their beliefs just as before, it said in a statement.

Walter Wobmann, president of the initiative committee, said: We just want to stop further Islamisation in Switzerland, I mean political Islam. People may practice their religion, that is no problem. The SVP parliamentarian said added: We want to stop the further developments – minarets … Sharia law. The minaret is the power symbol of political Islam and Sharia law.

Silva Kashif, 16, was lashed 50 times after receiving the sentence from a Sudanese judge, who ruled her knee-length skirt to be indecent.

The teenager was arrested while walking to the market in Khartoum. The police officer took her immediately before a Sharia court, and whipped by another police officer after being ordered by the judge to do so.

The girl's mother, Jenty Doro, told Reuters: She is just a young girl but the policeman pulled her along in the market like she was a criminal. It was wrong. I only heard about it after she was lashed. Later we all sat and cried ... People have different religions and that should be taken into account.

Because the family is Christian and the girl is a minor, they are planning on filing a lawsuit.

The family's lawyer Azhari al-Haj said: She was wearing a normal skirt and blouse, worn by thousands of girls. They didn't contact a guardian and punished her on the spot.

Monty Python's Life of Brian premiered in America in August 1979 and immediately caused a brouhaha. The Rabbinical Alliance declared the film foul, disgusting and blasphemous. The Lutheran Council described it as profane parody. Not to be outdone, the Catholic Film Monitoring Office made it a sin even to see the film. Audiences, however, loved it, making Brian the most successful British movie in North America that year.

To counter the mounting protests in Britain, an ingenious advertising campaign was launched featuring the mothers of John Cleese and Terry Gilliam. Muriel Cleese said that if the film didn't do well, and as her son was on a percentage, she may very well be evicted from her nice retirement home – and that the move might kill her. She won an award for the ad.

Mary Whitehouse failed to prove that the film was blasphemous, particularly since Christ and Brian are distinctly shown as different people. Nevertheless, a number of local councils banned it – including some that didn't even have a cinema. The result was coach parties being organised in places such as Cornwall (where it was banned) to cinemas in Exeter (where it wasn't). The Swedish marketed the film as so funny it was banned in Norway.

Time can be rather harsh on comedies, but Life of Brian holds up very well after 30 years, and still has the power to shock. However, current tastes and sensitivities make it highly unlikely that a comedy group would even attempt making a film like Brian today.

...Read the full article

Sanjeev Bhaskar presents He’s Not the Messiah, He’s a Very Naughty Boy on Radio 2 at 10.30pm on Tuesday

An upcoming exhibition at The John Slade Ely House for Contemporary Art in New Haven.

After numerous requests that Richard Kamler, one of the participating artists, modify parts of his installation, and a month before the opening of the show, the organizers rejected his work for fear some members of the community may be offended.

Richard Kamler’s work, “right around the corner” consists of an installation and a performative component, a Community Conversation. The art work refers to the changing environment of the Orchard Street Shul and to the growth of a Muslim community in the neighborhood. The installation consists of a table covered by a paper tablecloth, made from interwoven fragments of pages from the Torah and the Koran, upon which the books themselves, placed in a copper bowl, are resting. Their pages are interwoven as well. The Community Conversation was to consist of conversations involving leaders of both communities. The artist has a 30-year history of creating similar projects and showing them internationally.

The organizers demanded the removal or modification of the tablecloth, even after being repeatedly assured that no actual books were cut, that the tablecloths consisted of photocopies of fragments, and that religious scholars agreed that the installation did not violate any religious taboo. Their concern was that the piece “might offend somebody.”

For Ahmet Yildiz, a stocky and affable 26-year-old, the choice to live openly as a gay man proved deadly.

Prosecutors say his own father hunted him down, traveling more than 600 miles from his hometown to shoot his son in an old neighborhood of Istanbul. Ahmet Yildiz was shot outside his apartment building.

Yildiz was killed 16 months ago, the victim of what sociologists say is the first gay honor killing in Turkey to surface publicly. He was shot five times as he left his apartment to buy ice cream. A witness said dozens of neighbors watched the killing from their windows, but refused to come forward. His body remained unclaimed by his family, a grievous fate under Muslim custom.

His father, Yahya Yildiz, whose trial in absentia began in September, is on the run and believed to be hiding in northern Iraq.

The case, which has caused a bout of national soul-searching, has underlined the tensions between the secular modern Turkey of cross-dressing pop stars and a more traditionalist Turkey, in which conservative Islam increasingly holds sway.

Ahmet Kaya, Ahmet Yildiz's cousin, said Yildiz was the only son of a deeply religious and wealthy Kurdish family from Sanliurfa, in the predominantly Kurdish southeast.

Kaya said Yildiz was tutoring fellow students so he could make extra money to live independently. But by coming out as gay in a patriarchal tribal family, he had become the ultimate affront to both religious and filial honor, even with parents who adored him.

Ahmet's father had warned him to return to their village and to see a doctor and imam in order to cure him of his homosexuality and get married, but Ahmet refused. Ahmet loved his family more than anything else and he was tortured about disappointing them. But in the end, he decided to be who he was.

That clash of values permeates Turkish society. While Turkey's aspiration to join the European Union is pushing the Muslim-inspired government to accept and even promote civil liberties for women and homosexuals, some traditionalists remain ill at ease with a permissive attitude toward sexuality and gender roles.

Ms. Darama, a religious Muslim who wears a gold satin head scarf, said she was the only one among her neighbors willing to testify: The police and local religious officials are trying to protect the killer because they think homosexuality is a sin, she said. But in Islam killing is an even bigger sin, and no one but Allah has the right to decide between life and death. Ahmet was a nice, gentle boy and he didn't deserve to die.

The Vatican has warned against the immoral conversion of empty churches into venues like bars and nightclubs.

Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, warned Italian bishops to exercise the greatest caution after he announced that churches with only a handful of worshippers in attendance could be sold or even demolished.

Faced with falling number of worshippers, a phenomenon which we are also unfortunately witnessing in the centre of Rome, churches without any artistic value and which need significant work can be sold or destroyed, he was quoted as saying by AFP.

He cited the example, however, of a church that was sold in Hungary only to be transformed into a nightclub and where striptease took place on the altar.

He added that the Vatican would not issue guidelines on the sale of churches.

The trend of deconsecrating churches and selling them off to become flats, restaurants, cultural centres and nightclubs has spread right across Europe, where the sharp decline in church attendance in recent decades has left near-deserted churches struggling to meet maintenance costs.

Ireland's Christian Brothers will pay 161 million euros ($242 million) in compensation to child abuse victims in the wake of a report that led to a public outcry about abuse by religious orders in church and state-run institutions.

The Christian Brothers will hand over 34 million euros and transfer 127 million euros of land to the government, it said in a statement today. The land consists of school playing fields and the payment represents about 67% of the order's total assets, it said.

The Ryan Report published in May detailed decades of beatings and rapes at orphanages, schools and hospitals and said church authorities covered up the abuse. Thousands of people marched through Dublin a month later in solidarity with victims and President Mary McAleese said that the abusers should face criminal charges.

We understand and regret that nothing we say or do can turn back the clock for those affected by abuse, the Christian Brothers statement said. Our fervent hope is that the initiatives now proposed will assist in the provision of support services to former residents of the institutions.

Political leaders including Prime Minister Brian Cowen asked the orders to contribute extra money to a fund after the report and the government set up a panel to study assets of religious orders.

A bill to further restrict the sale of alcohol in the Maldives was contrary to the principles of Islam, MPs argued today. The bill was unconstitutional as it indirectly authorised the use of alcohol in places not specified in the draft legislation, MPs said.

Article 10(b) of the constitution states, No law contrary to any tenet of Islam shall be enacted in the Maldives.

Presenting the legislation yesterday, Fares-Maathoda MP Ibrahim Muttalib said he proposed it because the government had revised the regulations to allow the sale of alcohol in tourist hotels in inhabited islands.

Muttalib said he hoped the law would revoke liquor permits given to expatriates and as well as those of yachts and safari vessels.

Under the bill, the sale of alcohol in inhabited islands, airports and uninhabited islands leased for purposes other than tourism will be prohibited. If passed, those in violation of the law will be either sentenced to one to three years in jail or fined between Rf12,000 (US$944) and Rf36,000 (US$2,800).

During the debate, MPs said if alcohol was to be banned it should be done wholesale along with interest from banks and pork in the resorts.

Feydhoo MP Alhan Fahmy of the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) said banning alcohol in some places and authorising it in other was against Islamic sharia. Alcohol has been sold in tourist resorts for the past 30 years, he said, and there was consensus that the industry was the chicken that lays golden eggs. Instead of laws banning its sale, he continued, legislation was needed to regulate the sale of alcohol to ensure that it was not sold to Maldivians or make it an offence.

The government has revised regulations to revoke liquor permits in favour of authorising tourist hotels to sell alcohol to foreigners under strict supervision. Under the regulations, tourist hotels in inhabited islands with 100 beds would be authorised to sell alcohol to foreigners. But, the hotel bar should not be visible from outside or employ Maldivians. Further, an inventory of the alcohol in storage and daily sales must be maintained and made available to police on their request, while CCTV cameras must be mounted at the storage room at hotel. Alcohol could not be kept at mini-bars in the hotel rooms and expatriate employees at the bar would be subject to police clearance.

Amnesty International has accused Tajikistan of failing to protect its women, saying nearly half are raped, beaten or abused by their families.

According to Amnesty, women are regularly subjected to humiliation not only from their husbands but also in-laws, causing many to turn to suicide.

The report's authors say the government should introduce laws and support services to tackle domestic violence.

Tajikistan, which borders Afghanistan, is the poorest former Soviet republic where 98% of the population are muslim. Women have limited rights and job opportunities. Many drop out of school early to enter marriages that are often polygamous or unregistered.

Women are being treated as servants or as the in-laws' family property, Amnesty's Tajikistan expert Andrea Strasser-Camagni said in a statement.

Many women are driven to commit suicide but relatives usually cover up such incidents by presenting them as accidents, our correspondent says.

Suheil Azam was sitting in a coffee shop in east London last month when one his friends began a debate on whether it was permissible under Islamic scripture for Muslims to wish their non-Muslim friends happy Christmas. As a 23-year-old professional who socialises widely, Mr Azam had never considered the possibility that someone in his community might frown upon him for going round to his neighbours at Christmas or partying during New Year. But his friend, who had become increasingly devout, was adamant that such behaviour was haram (forbidden).

Personally I think he's wrong, explained Mr Azam. But it's difficult to argue against him because all the information he gets is taken from the internet and it makes him sound very knowledgeable.

Such a debate between two young British Muslims would have been almost unthinkable two decades ago. But today it is frequently the internet that young Muslims turn to when looking for spiritual advice. And what they find in cyberspace is often shockingly intolerant. Do not congratulate [the unbeliever] on their festivals in any way whatsoever, warns one prominent site. That implies approval of their festival and not denouncing them.

...Read full article

The BBC has abandoned plans to screen a ballet featuring a deformed Pope who rapes nuns that it had announced as one of the highlights of its Christmas schedule.

Last month the corporation said it would televise In The Spirit Of Diaghilev from Sadler's Wells as part of a season of ballet programmes.

The tribute to the Russian impresario comprises four acts, each by a groundbreaking choreographer, with the entire production due to be screened on BBC Four next month.

Richard Klein, BBC Four Controller, promised viewers a great watch, hailing the combination of one of the most inventive and musically exciting ballet scores being performed by one of Britain's foremost dance groups.

But it wasn't until the production premiered at Sadler's Wells that the BBC discovered that one of the acts, Eternal Damnation To Sancho And Sanchez by Javier de Frutos, centres on a group of horny priests and a fictional hunchback Pope, who rapes eunuchs and pregnant nuns. The act prompted boos from the Sadler's Wells audience and a number of walk-outs.

After extensive discussions within the BBC, the corporation has decided to drop the de Frutos section. The three other acts will air as planned during the broadcast on December 18.

A BBC spokesman said: We have decided not to show this particular work as it contains material unsuitable for the pre-watershed slot for which the programme was commissioned.

The BBC said it could not show the Pope act in a separate late-night transmission, with a clear warning, because it would still be considered inappropriate for a pre-Christmas broadcast.

The three other In The Spirit Of Diaghilev acts, which have been favourably received, are not narratively linked so the BBC believes that viewers will not notice the cut.

Muslims, ex-Muslims and non-Muslims joined forces in London to protest against Sharia and against all religious laws and courts. The rally took place in Hyde Park, Saturday 21 November 2009. Speakers included:

Roy Brown, of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU); rally organizer Maryam Namazie, of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (an IHEU Member Organization); David Pollock, president of the European Humanist Federation; Naomi Phillips of the British Humanist Association (IHEU MO); and Keith Porteous Wood of the National Secular Society (IHEU MO).

The themes of the protest were one law for all and universal human rights. Expressing solidarity with Muslims resisting the inequalities and inhumanities of Sharia law, the protesters affirmed their commitment to democracy, secularism, equality and human rights.

Sharia law is a form of religious dogma and tyranny. It is homophobic, sexist and anti-democratic. It persecutes LGBT Muslims. Same-sex acts carry the death penalty in several Islamic states. Gay people can be stoned to death or hanged in countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran. We support LGBT Muslims - and all Muslims - who are fighting for their freedom, said Peter Tatchell of the LGBT human rights group OutRage! and Green Party parliamentary candidate for Oxford East.

For these reasons, secularism is not only an important element of freedom of expression. It is also the best guarantee of religious freedom, as it prevents any one faith becoming politically dominant and abusing its powers to oppress people of other faiths, Tatchell added.

Lib Dem MP Evan Harris condemned the government for caving in to religious pressure. He cited the way Britain's equality laws allow religious bodies to discriminate against LGBT people and people in certain circumstances. Harris also condemned the government for giving privileged advisory status on policy and legislation to often unrepresentative faith leaders.

Roy Brown of the International Humanist and Ethical Union warned that over 50 Islamic states, with the support of many developing countries, are currently demanding that the United Nations outlaw the defamation of religion. This would restrict free speech by criminalising criticism and condemnation of religious beliefs and institutions, he said.

A speaker from Iraq, Issam Shukri, told the rally how Islamist militias linked to the cleric and MP Muqtada al-Sadr had executed dozens of women who they deemed to be improperly dressed because were not fully covered head-to-toe. These militias have also organised death squad executions of LGBT Iraqis.

One Law for All will continue to push for an end to Sharia and religious laws in Britain. In the coming year, the campaign aims to conduct a survey of women who have been to Sharia courts here, will hold a fundraiser dinner on January 28, 2010 to raise money for the campaign; will host a March 8, 2010 seminar with legislators, lawyers and campaigners to recommend the legal and legislative avenues to ban Sharia and religious courts in Britain; will organise a June 20, 2010 rally against Sharia law; and will hold an October 10, 2010 conference on Sharia Law and Apostasy amongst other activities.

The European Union (EU) has condemned the recent executions in Al Shabab, Somalia, carried out by stoning.

In a press statement, the EU said that a woman accused of adultery and a man were stoned to death in Wajid and Merka, adding that under no circumstances should such accused persons be put to death.

The EU considers stoning as inhuman and cruel, and calls on Somali authorities to abolish it and respect human rights as well as international humanitarian law.

Update: UN Expert Condemnation

30th November 2009. See article from appablog.wordpress.com

The Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights in Somalia, Dr. Shamsul Bari, on Friday condemned the series of stonings that have been taking place in Somalia, and called on all parties to immediately refrain from and abolish the practice of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatments, including stoning, amputations, floggings, and other unlawful acts of torture and murder.

I would like to extend my solidarity and sympathy to the Somali people in view of the deteriorating human rights situation in the country including the summary executions, floggings and stoning to death carried out in public by Islamist armed groups in South and Central Somalia, Dr. Bari said.

Church nutters have accused the video game  Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles of promoting the occult

Bishop Bryant of Jarrow, Archdeacon Brian Smith and Rt Rev John Goddard have all accused the game of promoting such interests amongst the UK's youth, with the latter stating: If we dabble in this area we open ourselves to influences and put ourselves at risk. I would regard any encouragement for children to be drawn into this behaviour with extreme horror.

Publisher Capcom spokesperson Leo Tan, however, is less convinced about the proposed risk: This is scaremongering and typical religious hysteria. You cannot blame society's ills on video games. It's just absurd.

Most games (and movies) like Resident Evil show characters fighting evil not supporting it. Unfortunately the clergy is showing a lack of understanding of the video games industry and is too quick to splash the holy water and lump video games players into stereotypical boxes.

A man has been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for witchcraft because he makes predictions on television.

Ali Sibat is not even a Saudi national. The Lebanese citizen was only visiting Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage when he was arrested in Medina last year.

A court in the city condemned him as a witch on November 9.

The only evidence presented in court was reportedly the claim he appeared regularly on Lebanese satellite issuing general advice on life and making predictions about the future.

The case is causing outrage among human rights campaigners but has made little news elsewhere despite the ludicrous nature of the charges and the extraordinary severity of Sibat's sentence.

Saudi courts are sanctioning a literal witch hunt by the religious police, said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch: The crime of witchcraft is being used against all sorts of behavior, with the cruel threat of state sanctioned executions.

Ali Sibat's supporters say he was denied a lawyer at his trial and was tricked into making a confession.

The report into clerical abuse in Dublin archdiocese reveals the reprehensible behaviour of the Catholic hierarchy, government sources said.

The Government will publish the report into the handling of clerical child abuse allegations in the Dublin archdiocese after ministers were briefed on its contents at a cabinet meeting.

The report finds the Catholic hierarchy and state authorities failed to respond to allegations of clerical child abuse made against a sample of 46 priests. But sources familiar with the contents of the report say it points the finger firmly at the archdiocese -- unlike the Ryan report, which shared the blame between Church and State.

The Department of Justice will finalise the deletion of sections of the report to avoid prejudicing any forthcoming legal cases against offenders.

Work on the report was completed months ago, but publication was delayed after the High Court cleared it on October 15. The DPP and the Department of Justice then referred it back to the High Court on October 21.Criminal charges had been taken against a priest early in October who had been dealt with in the report and after the case was heard in camera three times, the report was cleared for publication by Mr Justice Paul Gilligan.

The report details horrific abuse on children and criticises the failure of the Church to report the alleged abusers to the gardai. The archdiocese has identified up to 450 suspected victims who were abused as children and 120 civil actions were taken against 35 Dublin priests, or priests who held positions in the diocese.

In the 94 cases settled by the diocese, €7.3m has been paid out in compensation and a further €3.2 in legal fees, but sources close to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin believe the final payout will be double.

The report has found that Dr Martin's predecessors -- John Charles McQuaid, Dermot Ryan, Kevin McNamara and Desmond Connell -- all knew about complaints of sexual abuse involving priests in the Dublin archdiocese but failed to report them to the gardai.

A Sudanese woman who was punished for breaching decency laws by wearing trousers has defied a travel ban by coming to France to publicise her new book.

Lubna Hussein was arrested in July and convicted of indecency charges in a case that made headlines worldwide. She was ordered to pay a fine or face a month in jail, but was spared an initial penalty of 40 whip lashes.

I was banned from leaving Sudan by air, by land or by sea and I succeeded in getting out ... so I am sure this book will surface in Sudan, she told Reuters in an interview.

Her book, Forty lashes for a pair of trousers, has come out in French and will be translated into English, Arabic, Swahili and other languages.

It details Hussein's arrest in July with 12 other women for wearing indecent clothing, a pair of green slacks. No one has been able to find a text in the Koran which justifies flogging a woman for the way she is dressed, said Hussein.

The vicar of an Anglo-Catholic church has received a threatening phone call warning him of violence if his parish goes over to Rome – and his noticeboard has been defaced with the words C of E No Pope daubed across it in white paint.

Fr David Waller of St Saviour's, Walthamstow, discovered the vandalism on Sunday morning as he prepared for Mass. Then he found the a message waiting for him on his answering machine threatening him with physical violence.

St Saviour's is a Forward in Faith parish and, although no decision has been made, Fr Waller is very encouraged by the Pope's offer of a Personal Ordinariate: The key players in the parish, including the churchwardens, are completely disillusioned with the Church of England and see the Ordinariate as the solution. I can't speak for all the silent folk in the pews, but a significant number of them are Eastern European Roman Catholics, so I don't think it would be a problem for them.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards, have struck again, arresting 12 couples for illicit sexual acts after it was found that they had been swinging.

The moral police came across Iran Multiplied, a website that features a number of couples involved in swinging, multiple partnered sex, and other acts considered illicit and illegal in the region.

Most are faculty at local universities, such as professors, and others work for the government. Many have children.

If found guilty, all 24 people face death by stoning for adultery.

A survey of 20 nations has found strong support for the right to criticize religion. According to the survey of more than 18,000 people, 57% agreed that people should be allowed to publicly criticize religion because people should have freedom of speech. Meanwhile, 34% of all respondents said they supported the right of governments to fine or imprison people who publicly criticize a religion because such criticism could defame the religion.

The strongest support for the right to criticize religion came from the United States, where 89% said public criticism should be allowed, followed by Chile (82%) and Mexico (81%). Britain came fourth, with 81% supporting the right to criticize religion.

The seven nations with a majority of support for prohibitions on the right to criticize religion, meanwhile, had overwhelmingly Muslim populations. In Egypt, 71% agreed that criticism of religion should be prohibited, followed by Pakistan (62%), and Iraq (57%).

The poll, conducted by WorldPublicOpinion.org, was released as the U.N. General Assembly prepared to debate a proposal calling for the prohibition of the defamation of religions.

The proposal, put forward by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which represents 56 Muslim nations, calls on all nations of the world to effectively combat defamation of all religions and incitement to religious hatred in general and against Islam and Muslims in particular.

The Greek Orthodox church of Cyprus has taken Turkey to the European court of human rights over allegedly preventing the 500 Greek Cypriots living in the Turkish north worshipping at religious sites there, a church lawyer said.

The lawsuit concerns 520 churches, monasteries, chapels and cemeteries under Turkish control since Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974, said Simos Angelides. The north's Greek Cypriot community cannot worship at these sites because they are either derelict or have been converted into mosques, army barracks, stables or nightclubs, he added.

The church has documented proof of the destruction of religious sites in the north, and will seek unrestricted access to its property there so the faithful can worship freely, he said. The archbishop added that the church was also seeking damages for being denied use of property that should be restored to its pre-invasion condition wherever possible.

The legitimate questions raised by Dispatches deserve better than to be dismissed as Islamophobia and antisemitism

So what's it like to go from being Britain's top Islamophobe (Dispatches' Undercover Mosque) to Britain's top antisemite (Dispatches' Inside Britain's Israel Lobby)? Well, it's a remarkably easy, not to say facile, ride – as the tide of smears and abuse over the past seven days has shown. The question is: what does that tell us about the current state of television journalism, and the maturity, rationality, and objectivity of the response?

...Read full article

Boy, what’s your name? My name is Babu   It is customary to put Mohammed in front of the name   What is your father’s name? Mohammed Abu.   What is that on your lap? Mohammed cat.

A court in Bangladesh has found a cartoonist guilty of hurting the religious feelings of the Muslim community and sentenced him to two months of hard labour,.

Arifur Rahman was tried in absence over the drawing, which sparked street clashes and riots in the capital Dhaka when it appeared in a satirical magazine two years ago.

Rahman, who was arrested but later bailed, said that he was unaware of the trial.

The cartoon appeared in Bengali newspaper Prothom Alo's weekly and now defunct magazine Alpin.

He has been given a two-month, hard labour jail sentence and a 500-taka ($7.40) fine, said magistrate Kaisarul Islam, who presided over the case in the city of Jessore.

Maldives MPs have approved a bill to outlaw places of worship for non-Muslims.

MPs called for lengthy jail sentences and hefty fines in a bill to outlaw places of worship for non-Muslims in the Maldives.

A bill proposed by Fares-Maathoda MP Ibrahim Muttalib on making it illegal to either build places of worship for false religions or practice other faiths in public was sent to committee for further review with unanimous consent.

Presenting the legislation, Muttalib said he submitted it because inquiries had been made with the government to establish places of worship and there was no law to stop it: The other thing we have to think about today is that the government is considering establishing wedding tourism in the country and this will indirectly set up churches in the country.

While the bill states that foreigners or expatriates will be allowed to worship in the privacy of their homes, involving Maldivians or encouraging them to participate will be an offence. The bill specifies a jail term of three to five years or a fine of between Rf36,000 (US$2,800) and Rf60,000 (US$4,669) for those in violation of the law.

I propose that those who violate the provisions in the bill should be jailed for at least ten years, said Thohdhoo MP Ali Waheed, adding the fine should be increased to Rf500,000 (US$38,000) or Rf1 million (US$77,821).

Some MPs said foreigners who violated the law should be deported and not allowed back for ten years.

Two Christian Iranian women, Maryam Rostampour and Marzieh Amirizadeh Esmaeilabad have been released from prison with no bail amid an international campaign calling for their freedom since their arrest on March 5.

The two women, whose health deteriorated while in detention at the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, are at their homes recovering from their nine-month ordeal, an Iranian source told Compass. They still could face charges of proselytizing and apostasy, or leaving Islam.

The women's lawyer had been working to secure their release, and although they were expected to be released yesterday, he was not able to do so because of the high bail the court was demanding. The Compass source said that it was too soon to determine how the lawyer was able to secure their release without bail today, a rarity for Christians released from prison in Iran.

The source credited their release to international lobbying and pressure on the Iranian government.

Rostampour and Esmaeilabad were arrested in March and detained on charges of acting against state security, taking part in illegal gatherings and apostasy under Iran's Revolutionary Court system.

On Aug. 9 the women appeared before a judge who pressured them to recant their faith and return to Islam or spend more time in prison. The two women refused. Last month, on Oct. 7, they were acquitted of the charge of anti-state activities, and their case was transferred to the General Court.

The charges of proselytizing and apostasy remain against them but are not handled by the Revolutionary Court. While proselytizing and apostasy are not crimes specified in the current Penal Code, judges are required to use their knowledge of Islamic law in cases where no codified law exists.

The latest movie in vampire saga Twilight is a deviant moral vacuum, the Vatican said.

New Moon, which opens in Britain today, is a mixture of excesses aimed at young people and gives a heavy esoteric element, a spokesman added.

Monsignor Franco Perazzolo, of the Pontifical Council of Culture, said: Men and women are transformed with horrible masks and it is once again that age-old trick or ideal formula of using extremes to make an impact at the box office.

This film is nothing more than a moral vacuum with a deviant message and as such should be of concern.

Hollywood's latest doomsday offering 2012 has caused a storm in Indonesia, with conservative clerics condemning it as a provocation against Islam.

Screenings have been sold out across the capital Jakarta following the film's success in North America.

But while most viewers said they had enjoyed the film's apocalyptic vision of life after December 21, 2012, when the fulfilment of a Mayan prophecy sees the Earth engulfed by catastrophe, senior clerics were deeply troubled.

The country's top Islamic body, the National Council of Ulema (MUI), is divided over whether or not to issue a fatwa or religious edict against the film. One local branch has already done so, to little apparent effect.

The controversial things about the film are, first, in Islam doomsday should not be visualised or predicted, it's the secret of God, council chairman Amidhan told AFP: For the common people, the portrayal of doomsday in this film could distort their faith -- that's what I'm worried about.

He also complained that the film showed mosques being destroyed but not churches, despite sequences depicting the Vatican collapsing and Rio de Janeiro's monumental Christ the Redeemer statue crumbling to pieces.

The film shows that everything including Kaaba (Islam holiest shrine) and mosques were devastated except for churches. The film is a provocation against Islam, Amidhan said: The Indonesian film censorship body should have cut part of the scene on the devastation of mosques or the Kaaba because it hurts the Muslim people.

The Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has voiced concerns over the Church of Scientology after a Senator detailed explosive allegations about the organisation, accusing it of torture, embezzlement and coerced abortions.

Independent Senator Nick Xenophon tabled letters to the Australian parliament from several former Scientologists, and alleged the secretive church was an abusive … violent and criminal organisation which is hiding behind religion.

Xenophon was questioning the church's tax-free status as a religion when he made the claims, which have been denied by the organisation.

The letters, which the Senator has passed onto police, contained allegations of a range of crimes, including forced imprisonment, coerced abortions, embezzlement of church funds, physical violence, intimidation and blackmail.

Scientology is not a religious organisation, it is a criminal organisation that hides behind its so-called religious beliefs, Xenophon told the Australian Senate in Canberra.

... The letters received by me which were written by former followers in Australia contains extensive allegations of crimes and abuses that are truly shocking - crimes against them and crimes they say they were coerced into committing.

These victims of Scientology claim it is an abusive, manipulative, violent and criminal organisation, and that criminality is condoned at the highest levels.

A Somali woman was stoned to death after being found guilty of adultery in breach of Islamic law.

Halima Ibrahim Abdirahman, a 29-year-old married woman, was executed after confessing to having had sex with a 20-year-old unmarried man, Sheikh Ibrahim Sheikh Abdirahman, the judge at her trial, told spectators at the execution yesterday at Eelboon in southern Somalia.

The 20-year-old man, who was unidentified, was sentenced to 100 lashes, Sheikh Ibrahim said.

This week, the final phase of the atheist bus campaign will appear in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast – not on buses, but on billboards. Due to the amazing sums donated to the campaign fund by many Cif readers at the end of last year, we raised enough for a second wave of adverts – and the above posters will launch today.

When, in this Cif piece back in October 2008, we asked how the extra funds should be spent, one of the issues which came up repeatedly in the comments concerned the growth of of faith schools in the UK and the segregation of children according to their parents' beliefs. Many of you felt strongly that children should be given the freedom to decide which belief system they wanted to belong to, if any, and that they should not have a religion decided for them. Commenter Finite187 wrote, A campaign against faith schools would be good as a next step, ciderpower said You could address faith schools – religions want schools for the few, not for all and 555555 asked, How is this distortion of school education happening in this country?

The atheist campaign team shared this point of view. However, rather than using adverts to try and campaign politically, we thought it would be more beneficial to try and change the current public perception that it is acceptable to label children with a religion. As Richard Dawkins states, Nobody would seriously describe a tiny child as a 'Marxist child' or an 'Anarchist child' or a 'Post-modernist child'. Yet children are routinely labelled with the religion of their parents. We need to encourage people to think carefully before labelling any child too young to know their own opinions, and our adverts will help to do that.

In the wake of multiple, significant threats, the downtown Cincinnati billboard that says, Don't Believe In God? You are not alone, came down after a few days at Reading Road and 12th Street. It is being moved to a new site today at the Sixth Street Viaduct.

The United Coalition of Reason, which paid $3,875.00 for a one-month run of the billboard, was contacted by Lamar Advertising of Cincinnati. Lamar reported that the landowner of the site had been threatened over the billboard's message and wanted it taken down. Lamar only leases the land the billboard stands on.

We weren't given the landowner's name or precise details, reported Fred Edwords, national director of the United Coalition of Reason. Nor did we pursue them. It was sufficient to learn that this person had received multiple, significant threats and that Lamar would act quickly to alleviate the problem.

Edwords added: Lamar was most apologetic to us regarding the situation. It was a development they hadn't expected. Nor had we. Nothing like this has ever happened to us before.

The new location on the 6th Street Expressway, U.S. Highway 50, is owned by Lamar Advertising of Cincinnati and therefore isn't subject to landowner restrictions. The billboard will face east, visible on the left to traffic traveling west out of the city across the viaduct toward the suburbs of Delhi and Price Hill.

Shawn Jeffers, co-coordinator for Cin CoR, the Cincinnati Coalition of Reason, which is the local organization the billboard advertises, sees this controversy as evidence of the billboard's importance.

Everything that has happened shows just how vital our message is, Jeffers said. It proves our point, that bigotry against people who don't believe in a god is still very real in America. Only when we atheists, agnostics and humanists come together and go public about our views will people have a chance to learn that we too are part of the community and deserve respect.

On its website at CinCoR.org, the Cincinnati Coalition of Reason describes itself as a collection of nontheistic groups in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky working together to increase awareness of secular-minded principles and organizations. The coalition was launched on November 10 when the billboard first went up.

We are now more committed than ever to the goal of making our presence known, Jeffers added. Hopefully this turn of events will cause more and more nontheistic people in Cincinnati to realize how necessary it is to get organized. Only by working together can we end prejudice against philosophical and religious minorities.

The BBC should broadcast a version of Radio 4's Thought for the Day for non-believers, John Humphrys said yesterday.

The Today programme presenter said that Radio 4 should create an alternative outlet for the irreligious, after the BBC's governing body ruled that excluding atheists from the three-minute religious slot did not fall foul of its impartiality regulations.

Humphrys told The Times: As a non-believer, I've always thought there's an argument for a secular Thought for the Day — but not because of discrimination. I think we'd get some interesting views.

The BBC Trust rejected 12 complaints, led by the National Secular Society, against a decision by Mark Damazer, the controller of Radio 4, that atheists should continue to be barred from Thought for the Day. Related Links

Terry Sanderson, president of the society, claimed that allowing a religious monopoly gave speakers a platform on the news programme to put a biased point of view that no one can question them about.

The trustees said that the necessary impartiality could be achieved by broadcasting alternative views within Thought For The Day within the week, or by the presenters referring listeners to other portions of the Today programme that dealt with conflicting views.

Richard Tait, chairman of the Trust's Editorial Standards Committee, which considered the appeals, said: We understand that some people feel strongly about this issue and have given it careful consideration. However, we have concluded that the current arrangements do not breach BBC editorial guidelines and specifically requirements of due impartiality in content.

John Denham, the communities secretary, said the values of Christians, Muslims and other religions were essential in building a progressive society.

He attacked secularists who have called for religion to be kept out of public life. Denham revealed that a new panel of religious experts has been set up to advise the Government on making public policy decisions.

The move has been criticised by secularists who warned that it represented a worrying development.

However, Denham argued that Christians and Muslims can contribute significant insights on key issues, such as the economy (Scientology fund raisers), parenting (catholic child abusers) and tackling climate change (recycling religious hot air).

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, he admitted that the Government had failed to listen to these voices in the past, but is now determined to include them in the decision-making process.

Anyone wanting to build a more progressive society would ignore the powerful role of faith at their peril, he said. We should continually seek ways of encouraging and enhancing the contribution faith communities make on the central issues of our time. Faith is a strong and powerful source of honesty, solidarity, generosity – the very values which are essential to politics, to our economy and our society.

The minister said that the Government needed to be educated by faith groups on how to inform the rest of society about these issues.

He added that he was sympathetic with religious leaders, such as Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had complained of the rise of aggressive secularism in Britain: I don't like the strand of secularism that says that faith is inherently a bad thing to have and should be kept out of public life.

The religious panel is being launched this week to coincide with a series of interfaith initiatives designed to increase social cohesion. It is being headed up by Francis Davis, a fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford University, who is a prominent figure in the Catholic Church.

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, criticised the Government's move: It's totally wrong to have faith groups as consultants. It's not right that they should have this privileged position to promote their dogmas, many of which are unacceptable. We shouldn't have unelected people influencing decision making.

The Big Questions on BBC 1 Sunday Morning?

Their first discussion was about the evils of computer games, they had Miranda Suit from Media March on there putting forward anecdotal evidence and personal opinion as fact.

There was a few gamers on there defending their hobby, but overall it seemed the pro-censorship lot were making a bigger noise.

From the BBC:

Nicky Campbell presents The Big Questions live from the Grace Academy, Solihull. Contributing their views are comedian Stephen K Amos, journalist and Muslim convert Yvonne Ridley, and the Right Reverend Stephen Lowe, the former bishop of Hulme.

Update: Modern Warfare: Nutters vs Gamers

17th November 2009. Based on article from mcvuk.com

Activision's Modern Warfare 2 was heavily criticised by UK religious leaders from across the belief spectrum on BBC One yesterday.

Chief executive of the London Jewish Forum Alex Goldberg told presenter Nicky Campbell and the studio audience:

Surely this [scene] puts the gamer in the position of being a terrorist? The whole plot here is that it's a military commander – whatever – who doesn't want to blow his cover, so he blows up innocent civilians. We're asking gamers to be put in that situation. Article continues below

We fudge this issue about children time and time again throughout this debate. Let's face it – it's children playing this game. In the Holy scriptures, when Cain kills Abel, God asks him one question: Are you your brother's keeper? The rest of the bible is an answer to that – and it's a big yes. When I play this game I don't get that answer – I get upset.

Fazan Mohammed of the British Muslim Forum added:

You can't equate it with watching TV or a movie or reading a book. This is a much more intimate experience. You're mentally playing out the effects of violence. A lot of people make the excuse that this is sport – that it's just entertainment. But Joseph Goebbels – the propaganda minister of Nazi Germany – said his entertainment did more for the German people, in terms of creating the psyche for war and hostility towards others, than the speeches of Adolf Hitler. The idea this is entertainment is not justification whatsoever.

And the retired Bishop of Hulme, the Rt. Reverend Stephen Lowe – himself a proud fan of World Of Warcraft – said that the airport scene should have been cut out by the BBFC. He commented:

If you are in that role, which is a terrorist in a game killing other people with massive violence coming back at you on the screen, and [you're getting a] thrill from that, I think that's actually sick. We need to sort that out.

I don't think it should be in a game, because gaming for me is not about that sort of process. When I was young, [society was] worried about horror comics – because they were going to pollute the minds of young people and make them violent. This is very different from that; this is taking on the role of a terrorist in a way that relates to the news – what we actually see on our [TV] screens. That is fundamentally different. It somehow says: 'Maybe this is all right.' It isn't.

Other critics of the game that appeared on the show included Miranda Suit of anti-obscenity pressure group Mediamarch, who called for better regulation of violent video games.

A Saudi man who boasted who was sentenced to five years in jail after boasting about his sex life on television has appealed his case.

Mazen Abdul Jawad, who was also ordered to receive 1,000 lashes after his appearance of the LBC show Bold Red Line last July, has appealed the convictions handed down by a criminal court on Sharia law-based charges relating to immoral behaviour.

Three friends who appeared on the show with him and who were given two-year terms have also made an appeal, Muhammad Amin Mirdad, the judge presiding over the case, said in comments published by Arab News.

Working for peace... But taking Saturdays off!

Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem have protested outside the offices of the US firm, Intel, against the plant operating on the Jewish day of rest.

The demonstrators chanted Shabbes! Shabbes!, the Yiddish word for Sabbath when Jews are forbidden to work.

Intel, the world's biggest maker of computer chips, ringed its offices with barbed wire before the protest. There were no reports of violence.

More than 1,000 people took part in Saturday's rally. It was staged after talks between Intel and Jerusalem's Orthodox Jewish community broke down earlier this week.

Intel has been operating on Saturdays for years - and the company defends the policy. We have always worked according to the company's needs. If the needs call for it, we work on the Sabbath as well, Intel Israel spokesman Kobi Becker told Israel's Ynet website.

France will issue recommendations against full face veils but not pass a law barring Muslim women from wearing them.

Andre Gerin, chairman of a parliamentary inquiry into use of full face veils in France, reluctantly ruled out a ban one day after President Nicolas Sarkozy repeated his conviction that France is a country that has no place for the burqa.

France banned Muslim headscarves in state schools in 2004 following a similar inquiry and looked set to bring in an outright ban on veils covering the whole face, such as burqas or niqabs, when it launched the panel last June at the request of Gerin, a Communist deputy from Lyon.

But at its weekly hearings, legal experts, local officials, Muslim leaders and even some militant secularists have told the deputies on the panel that a ban could be anti-constitutional, counterproductive and impossible to enforce.

Gerin, who denounces the head-to-toe veils as walking coffins, told Europe 1 radio: We'll end up with recommendations ... not a law in itself against the burqa, maybe a symbolic law, a law of liberation (of women).

Backing off from a complete ban, he said the panel might propose radical measures to ban full face veils in municipal hospitals and other public institutions, but gave no details.

A UN resolution advanced by Muslim countries that seeks to outlaw criticism of religion has seen a decline in support since last year.

The number of countries continuing to support the resolution proposed by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to promote the concept of defamation of religions dropped to 81. Eighty-five countries in the UN's Third Committee on Human Rights voted for the resolution last year, which itself marked a reduction in support from 95, in 2007.

Likewise, the number of countries voting against the resolution increased to 55 this year from 50 last year, while the number of abstentions rose from 42 to 43.

Muslim states have pushed non-binding resolutions on combating religious defamation through the 192-nation General Assembly and the Geneva-based Human Rights Council since 1999, arguing that Muslims need protection from Islamophobic race-hate.

Although the 56-nation OIC bloc has found support in African and non-aligned countries, campaigners have lobbied hard against the resolution over the past year and won over nations other than the traditional naysayers in Europe and North America.

A coalition of more than 100 human rights organisations, including secular, Muslim, Christian, Baha'i and Jewish groups, opposed the resolution, saying it sought to provide cover for anti-blasphemy laws and the marginalisation of religious minorities in repressive countries.

The General Assembly is set to vote on the resolution again in coming weeks, although attention has already turned to Geneva, where Pakistan, on behalf of the OIC, last month advanced a binding treaty amendment to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The amendment would see the principle of religious defamation enshrined in international law, rather than non-binding resolutions.

The campaign to raise awareness about Pakistan's blasphemy laws, launched by Christian activists in association with AsiaNews, has moved to Geneva, Switzerland, for the opening of the second UN Forum on Minority Issues.

The delegation representing the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) of the Pakistani Catholic Church will take part in two days of meetings with representatives of governments, UN agencies, national human rights organisations and non-governmental organisations. The theme of the forum is Minorities and Effective Political Participation.

This political battle is conducted at the same time as that against blasphemy laws, which impose life in prison or death on anyone who desecrates or defiles the Qur'an or the name of the Prophet Muhammad, a legal tool used by Muslim extremists to strike at minorities and further Islamise the country.

The recommendations made by Christian activists include the repeal of constitutional and legal discrimination, including the blasphemy laws, which bar members of minorities from holding certain public offices such as the presidency, the post of prime minister, that of provincial governor, etc.

How the fuck are we expected to know how old she is?

The UK Government bill introduced a clause in Coroners and Justice Bill to criminalise the possession of non photographic but pornographic images of children with draconian penalties of up to 3 years in prison.

This bill has now cleared all parliamentary hurdles with hardly any meaningful debate whatsoever. A couple of half hearted concerns that the bill may criminalise thousands of innocent people (Eg Hentai fans) were glossed over on a one in million possibility that paedophiles may work around existing prohibitions via use of animation.

Freedom of Speech rightfully retained for Religions to Spout Hateful Nonsense

Other portions of the bill caused a little more debate:

Base on an article from freethinker.co.uk:

Yesterday the Government was forced to accept Tory Peer Lord Waddington's free speech clause which says that criticising homosexual conduct is not, in itself, a crime.

An offence of inciting hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation was introduced by the Government last year, but the free speech defence, strongly opposed by the House of Commons, was inserted by former Home Secretary Waddington.

The latest round of votes took place this week with MPs voting to delete the clause on Monday and Peers voting to keep it.

Peers supported the clause by 179 votes to 135. In the House of Commons the Justice Secretary Jack Straw accepted the Lords vote. A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said the government was very disappointed at the Lords vote, adding: There is no doubt about the threshold of this offence. No freedom of expression section is needed to explain it. The threshold is a high one. The offence only covers words or behaviour that are threatening and intended to stir up hatred.

But she added the government could no longer delay the passage of the Coroners Bill. It is with considerable disappointment, therefore, that the government has agreed not to remove the freedom of expression section.

More than 100 organizations, including Muslim and secularist ones, have signed a petition against the proposed U.N. resolutions on the defamation of religions, which they contend will do more harm than good for religious freedom.

The Common Statement from Civil Society on the Concept of the 'Defamation of Religions,' signed by organizations in over 20 countries, opposes the Organization of the Islamic Conference's (OIC) proposal for the United Nations to adopt a binding treaty that would protect religions from defamation. The groups pointed out that a similar resolution adopted earlier this year only cites Islam as the religion that should be protected.

Moreover, human rights groups say the resolutions will give credit to anti-blasphemy laws in countries such as Pakistan and Sudan.

Reports indicate that blasphemy laws have been widely abused to justify violence and abuse against religious minorities in predominantly Muslim countries. Blasphemy laws can also be used to silence critics of a religion and restrict freedom of speech.

In seeking to protect 'religion' from defamation it is clear that existing international human rights protections will be undermined, specifically freedom of religion and belief and freedom of expression, said Tina Lambert, Christian Solidarity Worldwide's advocacy director.

For the sake of those who already suffer unjustly under such legislation (blasphemy laws) and for the protection of our existing international human rights framework, it is vital that member states act to prevent such a treaty or optional protocol being established, she said.

Since 1999, when the defamation of religions resolution was first proposed, this is the first time that sponsors have asked for it to become a binding treaty.

Angela C. Wu, international law director of the Becket Fund, one of the groups that signed the petition, argued, Human rights are meant to protect the individuals, not ideas or governments. Yet the concept of 'defamation of religions' further empowers governments to choose which peacefully expressed ideas are permissible and which are not.

It is pivotal for human rights defenders around the globe to unite against this flawed concept before it becomes binding law.

The preliminary vote on the proposed binding treaty is expected before Thanksgiving, and the final plenary vote is expected in early to mid-December.

Thailand's main airport is to relocate 12 giant yaksha demon guard statues to boost the morale of staff who thought the figures brought bad luck,.

The statues at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport will move from the arrivals area to the check-in zone, said Airports of Thailand (AOT) president Serirat Prasutanond.

AOT has decided to move the statues to the check-in concourse to give passengers and other people a chance to appreciate the statues' beauty, he said in a statement.

But according to the Bangkok Post newspaper, airport director Niran Thiranartsin admitted the decision had partly resulted from complaints from airport staff.

The shopkeepers are blaming the 'demon statues' for the problems they have faced at the airport.

Serirat presided over a religious ceremony at the airport Monday ahead of the relocation of the figures, which are modeled on 12 statues at Bangkok's Grand Palace. He said the move should be finished within 90 days.

Comment: Blame Misplaced

Based on letter from bangkokpost.com

It is interesting that shopkeepers at Suvarnabhumi Airport blame decorative demon statues for their problems. Assuming that these problems relate to the lack of customers, I consider that this is due, at least partly, to:

Negative widespread reports of their customers being accused, falsely or otherwise, of shoplifting, then being ripped off by the concerned authorities; the ever prolific rogue taxi operators; and the annoying gangs of unofficial tour guide touts.

So, instead of blaming inanimate objects for their misfortunes, the shopkeepers might like to consider blaming their fellow airport co-workers.

An Atlanta bus driver is on suspension following allegations that he forced passengers to pray before allowing them to exit the bus.

Christopher James was one of those passengers. James said, initially, he thought something was wrong when he rang the bell to get off the bus and the door didn't open.

James said the bus driver asked him and three other passengers to join hands in prayer. James said the driver prayed with the group for about four minutes.

He got up out of the driver's seat, said James. James, who isn't against prayer, said he felt compelled to join in although the request confused him.

James' cousin, who arrived at the bus stop to meet him, said she saw the men standing inside the bus, but didn't realize they were praying. I was like, 'Why were y'all praying on the bus? He said the man would not let them off the bus,' said Thembi Cresser.

A MARTA representative told Channel 2 Action News reporter Tom Jones that the transit agency suspended the bus driver, identified as Leroy Matthews, for five days and told him not to proselytize to passengers. Matthews has been with MARTA for six years.

James said Matthews returned to his normal duties after the prayer. I don't want to pray to get off MARTA, you know, said James.

A Lebanese man of 47 was sentenced to death by a court in Medina, in Saudi Arabia, for having practiced black magic, reported the paper Saudi Gazette.

The man, who had already appeared on satellite television, was caught in a Medina hotel room while using herbs and talismans for one of his magic rituals.

During the two years of persecuting the man, who is also accused of fraud, he admitted to having practiced black magic rituals and having contributed to the ending of marriages.

To be definitive, the court sentence must obtain the approval of the Magistrates' Court.

Switzerland's justice minister has said that her country could ban full-body Muslim veils.

Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said seeing a woman in a burqa makes her uncomfortable.

If the number of women wearing a burqa increases, we could study a possible ban, said Widmer-Schlumpf at a news conference.

Shadi Sadr has helped Iranian women with free legal assistance and has started a campaign against stoning.

She's been awarded one of the foremost Dutch human rights prizes, the Human Rights Defenders Tulip Award. But not before experiencing the regime's violence against women first-hand.

They beat me and forced me to go with them, Shadi Sadr tells Dutch radio. She was detained last July in the wake of popular protests against president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and brought to the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran. Her interrogators knew exactly who she was.

In 2004, Sadr had founded Raahi: an organisation for women in legal trouble. Because Iranian women have few rights and even less independent access to funds, they're often helpless in court. Raahi offered them free legal assistance, until the authorities closed it down.

She began a campaign to defend women who are sentenced to stoning, she says. Because the victims of this traditional - and in the eyes of many barbaric - form of punishment are almost never men.

When she was detained in July, her interrogators at Evin Prison accused her of being controlled by foreign powers out to overthrow president Ahmadinejad.

The Dutch government has awarded her the Human Rights Defenders Tulip Award for her extraordinary courage. But, she says, it's not just her struggle that's being recognized in this way.

She dedicates the award - which she received from Dutch foreign minister Maxime Verhagen in The Hague - to all the people in Iran who fight every day to get their rights. Despite the fact that the protests against the president's re-election were crushed, she remains optimistic.

Projects The Human Rights Defenders Tulip Award comes with a stipend of 10,000 euros. In addition, it includes funding of up to 100,000 euros for projects proposed by the winner, to further promote her or his cause.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the gunman who killed 13 at America's Fort Hood military base, once gave a lecture to other doctors in which he said non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats.

He also told colleagues at America's top military hospital that non-Muslims were infidels condemned to hell who should be set on fire. The outburst came during an hour-long talk Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, gave on the Koran in front of dozens of other doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington DC, where he worked for six years before arriving at Fort Hood in July. Colleagues had expected a discussion on a medical issue but were instead given an extremist interpretation of the Koran, which Hasan appeared to believe.

It was the latest in a series of red flags about his state of mind that have emerged since the massacre at Fort Hood, America's largest military installation. Hasan, armed with two handguns including a semi-automatic pistol, walked into a processing centre for soldiers deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan, where he killed 13 and injured more than 30.

Fellow doctors have recounted how they were repeatedly harangued by Hasan about religion and that he openly claimed to be a Muslim first and American second.

One Army doctor who knew him said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim soldier had stopped fellow officers from filing formal complaints.

Another, Dr Val Finnell, who took a course with him in 2007 at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Maryland, did complain about Hasan's anti-American rants. He said: The system is not doing what it's supposed to do. He at least should have been confronted about these beliefs, told to cease and desist, and to shape up or ship out. I really questioned his loyalty.

Selena Coppa, an activist for Iraq Veterans Against the War, said: This man was a psychiatrist and was working with other psychiatrists every day and they failed to notice how deeply disturbed someone right in their midst was.

Islam in Focus
Peace TV, 31 July 2009, 16:10

Peace TV is an international satellite television channel, which describes itself as providing Islamic spiritual 'edutainment'.

Islam in Focus consisted of a public lecture (the Lecture) in front of an audience, in English, by a religious speaker, Hamood Ashemaimry.

In the Lecture, entitled How to build a righteous family, the speaker set out, in his opinion, what the rights are of husbands and wives, in the context of creating a righteous family from an Islamic viewpoint.

A complaint objected to part of the Lecture which, it considered, suggested that it would be permissible for husbands to beat their wives. During the Lecture, the speaker said the following:

[A husband] should not beat [his wife] first. He should not beat her face or beat her violently. Many people misunderstand this, you know, three solution for, you know, evil women or a evil wife, or wife who is not listen to her husband. You advise her first; you disregard her in bed; you bring a mediator from her family – somebody between you to sort the problem. And then if she doesn't – then you beat her. But beat her – it doesn't mean to break her ribs. Beat her, tap her on her shoulder. Just let her feel you're angry. You know the worst thing – even they listen to me, the sisters – the worst thing for a lady, just disregard her in bed, for one week, or two. This is a good solution for a quarrel wife. Don't go to beating first of all. Try this, it works.

Ofcom asked Peace TV for its comments under the following Rules of the Code:

• Rule 2.3: In applying generally accepted standards broadcasters must ensure that material which may cause offence must be justified by the context
• Rule 2.4: Programmes must not include material, which taking into account the context, condones or glamorises violent, dangerous or seriously antisocial behaviour and is likely to encourage others to copy such behaviour.

Ofcom Decision: Breach of Rules 2.3 and 2.4

Ofcom notes that a number of its licensees will broadcast programming that will derive from a particular religious or spiritual viewpoint, and that such programming will include advice to followers of particular faiths as to how to lead their lives. It is therefore unsurprising if at times such advice might cause offence to different sections of the audience. Ofcom therefore recognises that it would be an unacceptable restriction on a broadcaster's freedom of expression to curtail the transmission of certain views, just because they cause offence.

However, in broadcasting such content, broadcasters must be aware of the need to ensure compliance with the Code.

In particular, in one segment of the Lecture, the speaker stated that it is permissible to beat a wife in certain circumstances. Ofcom considered whether this reference complied with Rules 2.3 and 2.4 of the Code.

Even though the broadcaster stated that the speaker said that a husband should only tap his wife on the shoulder and not beat her face or beat her violently…or break her ribs, Ofcom considers that the speaker was clear that some form of beating was acceptable – as a last resort after other tactics had been used to resolve a dispute with a wife. The passage was clear that a husband could use physical violence.

Ofcom rejected Peace TV's representations that just because some of the advice given by the speaker advocated a husband treating his wife with respect, that it would follow that he would not be advocating actions to cause a wife any physical harm. The speaker used the verb beat three times and beating once in the context of a husband chastising his wife. It considered that the speaker was clear in his advice, namely, that he was encouraging what could be portrayed as domestic violence in certain circumstances. Ofcom considers that the advice given to viewers that it was permissible for a husband to beat his wife, even if according to the broadcaster it was to be only in certain circumstances, and undertaken with restraint, would be offensive to many in the audience.

Further Ofcom considered that this offensive material could not be justified by the context. This was because of for example: the lack of any mediating or counteracting views, within the programme, to the speaker's advocacy of beating; and that, in general, the high likelihood that many in a UK audience would find any advocacy and support at all of domestic violence – which is of course potentially criminal under UK law – to be highly offensive. The programme was therefore in breach of Rule 2.3.

With regard to Rule 2.4, the relevant test is that content must not: firstly, taking into account the context, condone or otherwise glamorise violent, dangerous or seriously antisocial behaviour; and secondly, be likely to encourage others to copy such behaviour. Ofcom considered these two issues in turn.

Ofcom noted Peace TV's comments that it would not have been possible for the Lecture to have shown how to build a Righteous Family (and by extension a Righteous Society and a Peaceful World) if it had included material that condoned or glamorised violent, dangerous or seriously antisocial behaviour.

However, Ofcom considered that the stated subject matter and aim of the Lecture did not obviate the fact that in this case the speaker was unambiguously advocating a form of violent behaviour i.e. domestic violence. This and the fact that the Lecture was a serious, religious lecture aiming to provide spiritual guidance, could not, in Ofcom's view, give enough contextual justification to suggest the speaker could not be reasonably portrayed as condoning violent behaviour.

In addition, Ofcom considered that the advice on beating wives within the Lecture: was delivered in a serious and measured manner by the speaker; and on a channel specialising in dispensing Islamic spiritual advice. There was therefore a strong likelihood that such advice could be construed as likely to encourage others to copy such behaviour.

Given the above, Ofcom considered that the programme was in breach of Rule 2.4.

The Huffington Post has reported that the newly founded Voltaire Press at Duke University has just published Muhammad: The Banned Images.

The book includes all the images that were omitted by the Yale University Press from Jytte Klausen's The Cartoons That Shook the World -- including the 12 Mohammed cartoons -- plus many more historically significant items (a total of 31), together with brief discussions of the context behind each work. The images, reproduced in high quality and in full color, include works by William Blake, Gustave Dore, and Salvador Dali, as well as Muslim artists from the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires.

The book includes an Introduction by Prof. Gary Hull, Director of the Program on Values and Ethics in the Marketplace at Duke University, who has been the driving force behind the book.

It also includes as an afterword, a Statement of Principle that is worth a look.

In February this year, the infamous cult of Scientology set up a school in Ghana. Untoma Oxford International School was established by the Milan branch of the Scientology movement. This is a serious cause for concern. Scientology is steadily targeting Africa, and indoctrinating children is one of its aims to further the building its movement.

Scientology has been defined as a dangerous money-making cult that uses hypnotic techniques to control its members. It was set up by the science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard and soon began to register itself as a church. Unusually, for a religion, members have to sign lengthy contracts and waivers before joining. It also has a vast security and intelligence network which it uses to infiltrate government agencies and foreign embassies and to persecute anyone critical of its practices.

It was recently fined in France for offering fraudulent techniques to help people. The French government keeps them closely monitored and many other countries are doing the same, except for Africa.

Islamists in southern Somalia have stoned a man to death for adultery but 'spared' his pregnant girlfriend until she gives birth.

Abas Hussein Abdirahman, 33, was killed in front of a crowd of some 300 people in the port town of Merka.

He was screaming and blood was pouring from his head during the stoning. After seven minutes he stopped moving, an eyewitness told the BBC.

An official from the al-Shabab group said the woman would be killed after she has had her baby.

Islamist groups run much of southern Somalia, while the UN-backed government only control parts of the capital.

Al-Shabab official Sheikh Suldan Aala Mohamed claimed Abdirahman had confessed to adultery before an Islamic court.

A decade after Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north re-introduced strict Islamic Sharia law, the fervour has fizzled while disillusionment is becoming more strident about its patchy application.

Out of Nigeria's 36 states, 12 re-adopted a strict version of Sharia in 1999 nearly a century after it had been abandoned.

But even one of the radical Muslim clerics who in 1999 actively lobbied for Sharia in Kano State, Abba Koki, conceded there were problems: People are disillusioned with the insincerity, deception and hypocrisy which characterise the implementation of Sharia, Koki told AFP.

Sceptics say there is little to show that Sharia law has had a positive impact in a region still battling graft, moral decay and searing poverty.

Opposition MPs have submitted draft legislation to the Council of State advisory body to repeal the ban on blasphemy, the Volkskrant reported.

The ruling Labour party PvdA has already said it supports the change in the law, giving the proposal majority support in parliament.

Earlier this year justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin agreed to suspend the blasphemy laws and amend the discrimination legislation (article 137c) to make it a criminal offence to insult groups of people instead.

That plan followed a high court ruling earlier this year, in which a man was found not guilty of insulting an entire group of people on the grounds of their religion. He had hung up a poster with the text stop the tumour that is Islam,

But MPs are still unhappy with the minister's proposals and have now drawn up their own legislation, the paper says.

Somalia's hardline al Shabaab insurgents closed three grassroots women's organisations in the rebel-held town of Balad Hawa to stop women from going to work, a rebel leader said.

The group wants to impose Islamic law on areas it controls.

We have taken this step after we recognised that women need to stay in their homes and take care of their children ... Islam does not allow women to go to offices, Maalim Daaud Mohmed, the chairman of Balad Hawa, told Reuters by telephone.

The organisations closed by al Shabaab are the Halgan Businesswomen's Organisation, the Sed Huro Human Rights Organisation and Farhan Woman for Peace, he said.

Al Shabaab has also banned movies, dancing at wedding ceremonies and playing or watching football in the areas under its control.

300 protesters have held a candlelit protest outside a Glasgow theatre over the staging of a play which portrays Jesus as a transsexual.

The protest was held outside the Tron Theatre, where Jesus, Queen of Heaven, in which Christ is a transsexual woman, is being staged.

The play is part of the Glasgay! arts festival which celebrates Scotland's homosexual, lesbian, bi-sexual and transsexual culture. Festival organisers said there was no intention to incite or offend anyone. According to publicity for the show, it presents her sayings, her miracles and her testimony as the daughter of God.

The Christian protesters gathered outside the theatre ahead of the opening night on Tuesday, singing hymns and waving placards saying, Jesus, King of Kings, Not Queen of Heaven, and God: My Son Is Not A Pervert [even if many of my priests are!].

The play, which runs until Saturday, is written and performed by Jo Clifford, a transsexual playwright.

A pornography billboard has created a stir with Latter Day Saints (LDS) Church members because it specifically references LDS Church bishops. The billboard advertises a free consultation for those with pornography addiction problems.

The billboard reads the treatment is for, Men, women, husbands, wives, Bishops!

The fact that the billboard specifically mentions bishops has angered people who feel it may be targeting bishops and members of the LDS church.

Dr. Ken Schwab who is LDS, created the billboard and was shocked that people found the billboard offensive. He said his primary goal is to help those who are addicted to pornography, and perhaps they should've used the word clergy instead of bishop. He apologizes to anyone offended by the billboard and made inquires to see if the billboard can be changed.

The case of a Christian registrar, who claims she was discriminated against by her council employers for refusing to conduct homosexual civil partnerships as a matter of religious conscience, was heard in the Court of Appeal on 2 and 3 November 2009.

Lillian Ladele sought to challenge a decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal, which rejected her claim that her employer, Islington City Council, had subjected her to unlawful direct and indirect discrimination on religious grounds after she refused to serve as registrar in carrying out homosexual civil partnerships.

Ms Ladele claims she suffered ridicule and bullying as a result of her Christian stance and said she had been harassed and discriminated against by the council. She had been employed by Islington since 1992, and became a registrar in November 2002 dealing with births, marriages and deaths.

James Dingemans QC, for Ms Ladele, told a panel of three appeal judges that Islington Council mistook their obligation for compliance with the Dignity For All policy in failing to accommodate its employee when it was possible to do so. When two homosexuals working at the council complained about discrimination against them, their complaint was dealt with very quickly. In contrast, when Ms Ladele made the complaint, no one dealt with it. The council saw her belief and committed views about marriage as a problem, Dingemans told the Court.

Dingemans said there was evidence that the reason for the disciplinary action was that Islington Council found his client's views and principles unacceptable. He said that the council indicated to Ms Ladele that her right to practise the Christian faith, which had been protected for millennia, should be kept private and should not interfere with society.

Helen Mountfield, for Islington Council, was asked by Lady Justice Smith whether there is a provision that the right of homosexual people trumps religious rights. Ms Mountfield said no, but added that there is indeed a strong emphasis on same-sex rights. So, there is a trump?, the Judge asked. Ms Mountfield went on explaining a structural way to manage rights under the Sexual Orientations Regulations 2003 and why it is the only appropriate structure to deal with these conflicting rights.

Karon Monaghan QC, for Liberty who intervened in the case, said that accommodating Ms Ladele's belief in the workplace would mean allowing a bit of discrimination, and therefore, promoting its totality, which will undermine the whole purpose of non-discrimination and dignity for others.

The case is supported by the Christian Institute. Mike Judge, the Institute's spokesman, said: Islington Council accepts it was able to provide civil partnerships registrations without forcing Lillian to take part. They could therefore have reasonably accommodated Miss Ladele's genuinely held religious belief without affecting service delivery.

That would have been a balanced approach which respected both sides of the debate. Instead they chose to make gay rights more important than religious rights. If this decision is allowed to stand it will help squeeze out Christians from the public sphere because of their religious beliefs on ethical issues, he added.

The decision of the Court of Appeal is expected in the near future.

Islamist militants blew up a girls school in Pakistan's lawless Khyber tribal district Sunday, destroying the building and wounding four people in neighbouring homes, officials said.

Two explosions ripped through the 18-room government high school for girls at Kari Gar village and a boy who watched the premises is missing, possibly kidnapped by the militants, local administration officials said.

The militants have blown up the school with two blasts and all rooms were demolished, said administration official Shafeer Ullah.

Four people in neighbouring houses were also wounded and their homes slightly damaged. We're still trying to find out what happened to the office boy, Ullah told AFP.

Nearly 200 schools were destroyed in the Swat valley alone during a two-year Taliban uprising to enforce sharia law in a district once favoured by Western tourists for its ski slopes and bracing mountain air....

Update: Teachers Murdered

6th November 2009. See article from dailytimes.com.pk, thanks to Alan

Two female schoolteachers were killed when the Taliban ambushed their car in Shandai Mor.

Shazia Begum and Shamim Bibi, teachers at the Communal Girls School, were travelling from the school when terrorists fired on the vehicle, killing the two and injuring two others. The injured, Liaqat and Nadir, were taken to the agency headquarters hospital. The political administration has cordoned off the area and arrested the driver of the vehicle in which the teachers were travelling.

The acclaimed hindu sound byte leader is calling on Indian censors to get tough on vulgarity and violence in Bollywood.

Strict religious heads have asked Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) officials to review India's Cinematograph Act over fears standards are slipping. Rajan Zed, the president of Universal Society of Hinduism, says, Seeing the continuous increase in the unnecessary vulgarity and violence in Indian films, it appears that the board has lost the sense of India's cultural milieu and is ignoring directions.

We are fully supportive of the artistic freedom and expression and we do not want any unnecessary censorship...BUT...we're highly concerned about the increasing presence of the explicit scenes in the movies which were there simply for mercantile greed, and have nothing to do with cinematic elements.

Zed has asked CBFC chairperson Sharmila Tagore to view the films as a regular Indian mother who was struggling to raise her children to become moraland successful citizens, and not as the mother whose children attend nightclubs and late-night parties.

He adds, The Cinematograph Act lays down that a film has to be certified keeping morality in mind, besides other things. Whatever happened to the CBFC guidelines for certification, like human sensibilities are not offended by vulgarity, obscenity or depravity?

For years, the Church of Scientology chased down and brought back staff members who tried to leave.

Ex-staffers describe being pursued by their church and detained, cut off from family and friends and subjected to months of interrogation, humiliation and manual labor.

One said he was locked in a room and guarded around the clock.

Some who did leave said the church spied on them for years.

Others said that, as a condition for leaving, the church cowed them into signing embellished affidavits that could be used to discredit them if they ever spoke out.

The St. Petersburg Times has interviewed former high-ranking Scientology officials who coordinated the intelligence gathering and supervised the retrieval of staff who left, or blew.

...Read the full article

Religious parties have warned the government that they will not accept any move to repeal or amend the blasphemy law.

The Jamaat Ahl-e-Hadith Pakistan and the Tehreek Tahafuz-e-Haqooq Ahl-e-Sunnat organised religious conventions on Saturday to condemn suggestions by the government to amend the act.

They said the government must not amend the law if it wants to remain in power. They said those who believed in Islam would come out onto the streets if a single change was made.

The sharia regulation prohibiting women from wearing pants in West Aceh regency drew strong condemnation from public circles in Aceh province.

The enforcement of the regulation is an accumulation of the negative views against women from the perspective of Islamic sharia, said Norma Susanti, the women and children's division head of Aceh Human Rights NGO Coalition. She added that the regulation, issued by the West Aceh regent, was very discriminative in nature and very detrimental to women: Islamic sharia is not discriminative against women, but it's different when it is used as a political means by men to restrain women's movements.

Although Aceh has enforced Islamic sharia law, social problems have instead upset society further, such as the crime rate that has continued to rise, with increases in robbery, murder, rape and abduction cases.

Legal expert Saifudin Bantasyam from Syiah Kuala University said the ban on women wearing trousers was not legally strong enough to be enforced: The ordinance is merely a circular which has no legal standing, except for the internal interests of the regency administration. He added the bylaw could not be implemented because Aceh already had a provincial ordinance regulating the dress code in accordance with Islamic sharia.

Aceh Ulema Assembly (MPU) chairman Muslim Ibrahim similarly criticized the regulation, urging it to be reviewed. We should not be arrogant and force others not to wear pants, he said.

Also slamming the regulation was Taufik Riswan, director of West Aceh Women and Child Protection Research Institute, who said the regent was overreacting. The regulation is against the principles of human rights and the 1945 Constitution.