There is a disturbing video just posted on an encounter of a Muslim woman with another woman at the Trader Joe’s in Reston, Virginia — not far from my home. On the video below, the rude woman allegedly tells the Muslim “I wish they didn’t let you in the country” during their encounter on Saturday. The Muslim woman is a friend of comedian Jeremy McLellan and he shared the videotape. He said that his friend was wearing a hijab identifying her as a Muslim. Since the woman is clearly shown, the question is whether the woman has a case if she is falsely depicted. Conversely, we have previously discussed whether people should be disciplined by employers for conduct or statements in their private lives.
Category: Religion
When he played Gordon Deitrich in V For Vendetta, the television personality who challenged an authoritarian state, Stephen Fry exposed the terror of living in a state that reserved to itself the right to determine what speech was considered criminal. He now faces a criminal prosecution over a statement in Ireland that would be entirely protected in the United States as an exercise of free speech. Irish police are investigating him under the country’s infamous blasphemy law for asking why he should “respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid god who creates a world…. full of injustice.” Ireland allies itself with Iran, Saudi Arabia, and other nations in prosecuting free speech deemed insulting or offensive to any religion. The law is a disgrace to all freedom-loving people and the Irish demean themselves in keeping blasphemy in the criminal code. The only thing missing is some menacing Irish Chancellor saying “Ireland Prevails.” Continue reading “B for Blasphemy: Stephen Fry Under Investigation For Sharing His Views Of Religion”
The Church of Scientology is facing renewed allegations of abusive and cult-like conditions of followers. A string of psychiatric facilities run by the Church of Scientology in Cannon County, Tenn. have been closed after police reportedly found that patients there were being held against their will in crude trailers and cabins in the woods. Former Scientologists have accused the Church of holding people against their will and adopting bizarre remedies for mental illnesses due to their founder’s opposition to psychiatry. Marc Vallieres, the operator of the facilities, was charged with two felony counts of facilitation of kidnapping and two other men working at the facility pled guilty to misdemeanors.
We recently discussed the scandal in Iran where a young girl was barred from an international competition for failing to adhere to Islamic rules requiring the covering of a girl’s hair. We now have another outrageous decision barring a girl under medieval Islamic principles. The head judge (and director) of the competition in Putrajaya, Malaysia forced a female competitor to withdraw after declaring her knee length skirt be “seductive.” Pretty sensitive for a sport with such term as
“exposed King”, “loose position,” and “flash the Queen.”
We have been discussing (and lamenting) the rollback of free speech in France where writers and speakers are now routinely prosecuted for what would be protected political or religious speech in the United States. The latest case involves Robert Menard, mayor of Beziers and a top adviser to Marine Le Pen, who has been found guilty of inciting hatred against Muslims.
I am a notorious news junky who prides himself on keeping abreast of news and issues around the world, particularly stories dealing with free speech and human rights. It was therefore with some shame that I listened to presentations yesterday at the ABA’s program on the horrific treatment of Myanmar’s Muslims. I was asked to moderate a panel on Rohingya by the Hon. Delissa A. Ridgway, Judge of the United States Court of International Trade, who remains one of the most influential figures globally in bringing together legal, political, and academic figures to discuss pressing problems in our world. Judge Ridgway is not just a friend but an inspiration for her tireless work for the rule of law around the world. You do not say no to Delissa Ridgway if you want to have any shot at the afterlife. However, I was not prepared for the heart wrenching account of the killings, rapes, and beatings of Muslims by extremist Buddhists in Myanmar. It is an on-going crime against humanity being committed on a daily basis in plain sight. The panel entitled “While the World Stands Idly By: Myanmar and the Threat of 21st Century Genocide” met at the Capital Hilton and was sponsored by the ABA Section on International Law. Below is a videotape on their worsening conditions in government camps.
Continue reading “ABA Holds Panel On The Plight of Myanmar’s Muslims”
There is an interesting study out this week by two University of Kentucky researchers that the number of atheists may be twice as large as previously estimated. The number may be closer to 26 percent — an fascinating prospect given the politics surrounding faith-based initiatives and policies. As I have previously discussed, both parties have courted the religious vote and largely ignored the sizable number of Americans who are either agnostic or atheist. That number may be finally reaching a political tipping point for office holders to heed their preferences for secular government and the separation of church and state. We have previously discussed studies indicating that one out of four Americans may not believe in God. This study would seem to support those earlier estimates.
Benedictine College has found a budding cell of Hindu mysticism in its small Catholic college in Atchison, Kansas. The school has gotten rid of the “yoga” classes to avoid the taint of a Hindu association. A new course will be renamed as “lifestyle fitness” and involving “stretching” to sanitize the classes of exotic religious influence.
Continue reading “Catholic College Bans “Yoga” To Protect Against “Hindu Mysticism””
We have previously discussed the inherent conflict between Islamic governments and free speech and free exercise. There is also a recognition among extremists that democracy itself is incapable with the dream of an Islamic caliphate. The head of the Tunisian Islamist Hizb ut-Tahrir movement made this point vividly clear in calling for all good Muslim to “bury” democracy.
Continue reading “Tunisian Islamic Head Calls For The Death Of Democracy”
Pakistan continues to remind the West that it remains a country struggling with Islamic extremists — encouraged by the country’s lack of separation between mosque and state. The latest victim of such extremism is a college student named Mashal Khan who was accused of merely sharing a message on social media deemed blasphemous. The response of these self-professed godly men in the northern city of Mardan was to beat the victim to death in the name of Islamic morality. What is even more distressing is that the culprits appear to be fellow students. They no doubt learned this particular lesson from the government itself (and our ally) which still makes blasphemy a capital offense.
Continue reading “Pakistani Student Mob Beats Fellow Student To Death For Blasphemy On Social Media”
The marriage of underaged girls remains a common abuse in Muslim countries. We have continued to follow the plight of girls and women in Islamic countries who face honor killings and child marriages. Some Islamic clerics have maintained that there can be no age limitation on child brides. They often note that Muhammad married Aisha when she was seven and consummated the marriage at nine years old. Indeed, some clerics have endorsed the notion of girls as “religious offerings” and rejected any age limitation The latest outrage over child brides has come with the “wisdom” of Malaysian MP Shabudin Yahaya who insisted that marrying off nine-year-old girls is perfectly acceptable and moral under Islamic law.
While the United States government often discusses the threat of Iran in spreading Islamic extremism, it is often silent on the same influence of our close allies in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and other countries. Pakistan is reportedly moveing to eviscerate any remaining separation of mosque and state buy making Quran education compulsory in not just public but private schools.
Iran’s infamous morality church has reportedly turned its attention to a segment of the population that appears distinctly non-Islamic: Christians. The police stopped women outside of churches like the medieval Holy Savior Cathedral in Isfahan to enforce the requirement of veils under the country’s Islamic modesty laws. So Christian women are expected to dress Islamic in church. That captures the lunacy of these Sharia-based legal systems that are so insecure about their values that they must force others to follow them at risk of arrest and imprisonment.
Iran is again showing the world the true meaning of Sharia law as a medieval system enforcing religious doctrine and orthodoxy. Sina Dehghan, 21, has been sentenced to death for criticism of Islam on social media. He was charged under article 262 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code for ‘insulting the prophet’ of Islam.