Christians are often confronted over their desire to have crosses and nativity scenes on public property, so David Engle of Overland Park, Kansas has filed a complaint over two Buddha statues in an Asian-themed area of the Kansas City Zoo. While peevish, it could make for an interesting constitutional case over entanglement questions.
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Iran has continued its medieval legal practice with two additional stonings. It was supposed to be three stonings, but one of the men named Mahmoud accused of adultery was able to dig himself out of the hole and run free. The stonings occurred in the city of Mashhad in late December.
Continue reading “Two Men Stoned to Death and One Escapes After Iranian Sentence of Adultery”
The world has another honor killing. This time the family of Naile Erdas, 16, decided that the family honor demanded that she be killed after she was raped and impregnated. This case, however, has a positive element: a Turkish court has handed down an appropriately harsh series of sentences of the father, mother, brother and two uncles. It is a great credit to the Turkish legal system and should be a model for other Islamic countries in the region.
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There is an interesting ruling in a divorce case out of Miami, Florida this week. Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda has developed a certain fame or infamy by first declaring himself to be Jesus Christ and then proclaiming that he is the Antichrist. Dividing up the assets of the Antichrist would seem a daunting prospect, but Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Roberto Pineiro ruled that it is simple: the church is so closely linked to de Jesus that it should be included in the division of his personal property for the purposes of the divorce.
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Stephen Buttafuoco, 23, is the subject of a rather curious criminal charge. He was a waiter at a wedding at the Woodbury Jewish Center when the guests suddenly began to hear an Arabic chant praising Allah. Buttafuoco, who aptly lives in West Babylon, New York, insists that he was playing a recording for a friend and did not realize that it was being amplified to the room. He was charged with felony harassment.
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Former church director of finances, William Jeremiah, has been arrested for theft and fraud after $276,000 went missing from the Lakeview Wesleyan Church in Marion, Indiana. Prosecutors allege that some of the money went for a church-subsidized vasectomy.
Kawaljeet Kaur Tagore has sued the Internal Revenue Service in a free exercise case involving the wearing of the kirpan, the ceremonial knife of Sikhism. Devote Sikhs wear five articles of faith: Kesh (uncut hair), which is kept covered by a distinctive turban, the Kirpan (religious sword), Kara (metal bracelet), Kanga (comb) and Kaccha (under-shorts). The IRS, however, drew the line on the kirpan and fired Tagore, 35, for refusing to take off her knife when coming to work as a revenue agent.
The Daily Show of Comedy Central has often taken news and turned it into comedy. However, in a Pittsburgh case, a comedy segment is becoming news after lawyers have sought to introduce it as evidence in religious exercise case. The Church of Universal Love and Music does not want an interview (shown below) with William Pritts shown to the jury — an effort by county officials to show that the church is not a sincere religious organization. Pritts has been holding concerts on the land for fees and, according to officials, did not claim to be a church until he ran into zoning problems with his expansion plans. On the segment, Pritts insists that “God never said you can’t party on.” (Thou Shalt Party On must be the missing Eleventh Commandment).
The Eighth Circuit has ruled that Wiccans need only three hours to celebrate their faith. Wiccans Lawrence T. Gladson, Darrell Smith, and Scott Everett Howrey at the Iowa State Penitentiary (ISP) in Fort Madison, Iowa brought the challenge and particularly challenged the denial of a full eight hours to celebrate Samhain—the most important of the eight Wiccan holidays. The court found that you can celebrate Samhain in three hours without being viewed a bad Wiccan. Among other things, the inmates alleged that the time limitation forced them to rush the Dumb Supper, which is supposed to be a “lusty and wholehearted feast.”
Around the world, there seems to be an increase in witch burnings, or at least the reporting of such crimes. Recently. a stampede was caused in the Congo due to a rumor of witchcraft in the area. The latest incident occurred in Papua New Guinea where villagers bound, gagged, and then tied a woman to a log — and then burned her alive.
United States resident Raed Jarrar has received a major settlement of $240,000 from JetBlue and officials at the Transportation Security Authority for an outrageous action taken against him in August 2006 when he was forced to cover up a tee-shirt with Arabic script. Ironically, the shirt displayed the words (shown above) “we will not be silent.” However, other passengers felt uncomfortable simply because it was arabic writing and, instead of telling the passengers that they are dysfunctional morons, JetBlue forced Jarrar to wear a shirt over his tee-shirt to cover the writing.
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An editor of has declared that any pity for the Palestinians in Gaza is “unethical and immoral.” The editorial by Adi Dvir appeared in Israel’s largest newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, on January 4, 2009 as the international community has complained about civilians deaths in the campaign and the United States blocked a United Nations resolution calling for an end of all hostilities.
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Well, the results are in and weeks of defamatory attacks on our opposing bloggers and the unrestrained use of the politics of personal destruction have paid off: the Turley blog was voted the Number One law professor blog and legal theory blog in the annual survey of the American Bar Association’s survey. Earlier, it was selected as one of the top 100 legal blogs overall. That is not bad for a blog that is only roughly a year old and it is entirely due to our regulars at the cyber bar we called the Turley blog. Your overindulgence, obsessive compulsiveness, and general lack of restraint have made us what we are today, a group of dysfunctional miscreants. But we are now the Number One dysfunctional miscreants in our category. Well done Team Turley (if I may be so bold). Not to overplay the victory, but this is the first key step to total blogosphere domination and eventual control of the time space continuum.
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In a little covered story, a former employee of the U.S. Army’s Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center at the Picatinny Arsenal in Dover, New Jersey , Ben-Ami Kadish, pleaded guilty to being a spy for Israel and allowing an agent of the Government of Israel, Yossi Yagur, tp photographed secret papers at his home. Yet, he is only facing five years in prison. He spied for Israel from 1979-1985.
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For those who believe we are becoming a nation of cringing morons, AirTran has supplied a wonderful case in point. A family was boarding a flight to Orlando, Florida and discussing where is the safest place to sit on a plane. It is a fairly common topic on planes but this family was Muslim and the passengers became alarmed. The family of Atif Irfan was removed from the plane and, even after the FBI cleared them and told the airline that the airline should let them fly, AirTran refused to rebook them. So much for the airline motto: “Go. There’s Nothing Stopping You.” Expect possibly your religion.