Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has weighed into a religious controversy, demanding a retraction and an apology from Islamic cleric Samir Abu Hamza for telling followers that they can beat their wives and force them to have sex under the Koran — in violation of Australian law.
Continue reading “Australian Cleric Defends Right of Husbands to Beat Their Wives and Force Them to Have Sex”
Category: Religion
Washington is electric this morning. It is morning in America as literally billions around the world celebrate the Inauguration of our 44th President.
Continue reading “OUR 44TH PRESIDENT”
Israel is caught up in an interesting controversy involving a Rabbincal Court. Rabbi Yissachar Dov Hagar, a judge on Jerusalem’s Rabbinical Court, ruled that Yossi Fackenheim, son of the famous Canadian academic and Reform Rabbi, Emil Fackenheim, is not really Jewish. The ruling came as part of a divorce decision and has caused a firestorm of controversy.
Continue reading “Hagar The Horrible: Son of Leading Reform Rabbi Declared Non-Jew”
Skolu Isieskojimo Biuras, a Lithuanian debt collecting firm, has announced that it has retained the services of Vilija Lobaciuviene, the country’s most famous witch, to pursue people who do not pay their debts. The firm in Vilnuis expects a touch of witchcraft will help the bottom line.
Continue reading “Purse or Curse: Lithuania Turns To Witch To Pursue Deadbeats”
Another representative of the faith-based political movement has been arrested on morals charges. Police have been looking for a man for years who solicited prostitutes on the Internet under the name “Sullivant Guy,” “Broad Street Guy,” “Toby” and “God O Thunder.” It turns out that “God O Thunder” is allegedly Robert Eric McFadden, who was the director of Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
Continue reading “God O Thunder: Former Head of Faith-Based Programs in Ohio Arrested on Prostitution Charges”
A clip of Rick Warren from April 17, 2005 is making its way around the web on which the controversial preacher appears to call on the faithful to follow Jesus like Nazis. In the clip below, Warren cites the faith and commitment of young Nazis and suggests that Christians need to show the same passion. Warren was selected by Obama to give the Inauguration prayer for the nation.
Continue reading “Getting Reich With Jesus: Rick Warren Calls on the Faithful To Follow Jesus With The Passion of Nazis”
At a time of rising alarm over the marriage of girls as young as eight years old, Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh has declared that such marriages are proper and moral under Sharia law. Indeed, he views such criticism as unfair to these girls despite the fact that such arrangements are viewed as per se child abuse and statutory rape in most other countries.
Continue reading “Saudi Grand Mufti Supports Marriage of Girls As Young As Ten”
President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to greatly expand President Bush’s faith-based initiative program. He may would to consider a recent lawsuit where the Catholic church is accused of receiving a federal funding to assist sex trafficking victims but allowed to decline to provide contraceptive material or abortion services.
Continue reading “Catholic Church Sued for Faith-Based Program”
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.
Continue reading “Sixteen-Year-Old Pregnant Rape Victim Murdered by Family in Honor Killing”
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.
Continue reading “De Jesus: Court Divides Assets of the AntiChrist in Divorce”
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.
Continue reading “New York Waiter Charged Criminally For Playing Arabic Chant at Jewish Wedding”
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.