By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor.
Free-speech claimed another victim in the Middle-East after Jordanian Journalist Nahed Hattar, who is accused of sharing online an “anti-Islamic” cartoon, was assassinated outside a courthouse where he was facing trial for insulting Islam.
This afternoon, the Brown family filed its appeal with the United States Supreme Court in the “Sister Wives” case. The case is Brown v. Buhman, No. 14-4117. As lead counsel for the Browns, I am joined on the petition by co-counsel Thomas Huff and we benefited from the input of our long-time co-counsel in Utah, Adam Alba. The petition asks the Court to resolve a longstanding conflict among the courts of appeals concerning the extent to which the government can strategically moot a constitutional challenge to a statute by announcing a new non-enforcement policy during the pendency of litigation. The petition is attached below.
It is often remarkable how ministers facing tough questions on their income or luxury purchases will find a way to explain their lifestyle or secrecy as a biblical command like our prior discussion of televangelists who insisted that they really need private luxury jets. Now Elevation Church Pastor Steven Furtick is insisting that he would love to disclose how much he makes annually but it would be against the will of God.
The Quebec seniors at the La Rive de Grande-Riviere seniors residence are cherishing what many are calling a divine message . . . in a potato. When a cook was cutting potatoes, he found one with a sign of the cross at the center.
Saudi Arabia has long been an exporter of extremist Islamic values as part of its Wahhabi sect. Despite our close alliance with the Kingdom, it imposes radical Islamic Sharia principles and denies basic rights to women, non-Muslims, and dissidents. In the latest outrage from Saudi Arabia, a court has sentenced a man to ten years in prison and 2,000 lashes for merely expressing his atheism on Twitter. It appears that the Saudi and Sharia courts are terrified that people could actually inform other Saudis of alternatives to Islam or different values. The fear and anger only appeared to grow when the Kingdom could not coerce the 28-year-old who refused to repent and stood by his human right to express his faith. We previously discussed this case, but Saudi Arabia is proceeding with the whippings as this man remains defiant.
Morocco has long been a country with a significant secular community and the persistent threat from Islamic fundamentalists and Sharia law. A recent case shows how the courts impose ridiculous prosecutions in the name of Islamic values. A nightclub manager has been charged with serving alcohol to Muslims as if a bartender can tell the difference between a Muslim and non-Muslim.
Moulay Omar Benhammad, 63, and Fatima Nejjar, 62, have long been figures in the Islamic community calling for chastity and advocating Islamic justice. The two Islamic politicians are now under fire after being found allegedly having sex on a Moroccan beach.
