In the latest outrage involving an under-aged bride, Muslim cleric Pujianto Cahyo Widianto married a 12-year-old girl in the Semarang, Indonesia. Widianto reportedly selected the girl from a pool of 20 girls and took her to Singapore as his new bride with his first wife. Widianto runs an Islamic boarding school and they were married in an Islamic ceremony.
This is only the latest in a long line of such abuses in Islamic ceremonies, here and here and here.
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It appears that a vow of poverty does not stand in the way of a good Birthday bash. A Catholic diocese in southern Germany plans to spend 100,000 euros (130,000 dollars) on a birthday bash at the Vatican for the Pope Benedict XVI’s elder brother, Georg Ratzinger. In the meantime, Crystal Cathedral founder televangelist Robert Schuller has forced his own son out of control of his church.
Journalists and artists in Jordan have rallied around poet Islam Samhan who was indicted for the crime of incorporating verses of the Holy Koran into his poetry about love. This followed a fatwa issued by the country’s mufti who declared him an infidel and his poetry to be blasphemy.
Bishop John Thattungal, 58, raised a few eyebrows when he announced that he had decided to adopt in the Catholic church where celibate priests are married to the bride of the Church. Parishioners in India were even more surprised when they adopted child turned out to be a 26-year-old woman.
Continue reading “Catholic Bishop Suspended After Adopting 26-Year-Old Woman”
In a very interesting decision (with implications for same-sex marriage), a Louisiana court has held that the state must recognize a foreign marriage between cousins despite the fact that such a marriage would be null and void in the statem The 1st Circuit Appeals court ruled that there is no strong public policy that would bar such a recognition. The case involved a divorce case where the East Baton Rouge Parish Family Court judge declined jurisdiction.
Continue reading “Louisiana Court Recognizes Marriage Between Couisins as Valid”
As the fighting in Afghanistan continues to worsen, there are new questions about the government that we are fighting to maintain. An Afghan appeals court sentenced journalism student Parwez Kambakhsh, 24, to twenty years in prison for asking questions about women’s rights under Islam. The sentence for blasphemy was considered a bizarre civil liberties victory since he was facing the death penalty.
When Chad Hardy created the “Men on a Mission” Calendar of shirtless Mormon hunks, he thought is was a fun idea. Church elders disagreed and excommunicated him. Now, Brigham Young University has denied him a diploma and said that he cannot receive on until he is reinstated by the Mormon church. This could make for a very interesting constitutional and contractual challenge.
Gayle Williams, 34, a British citizen working with the Christian charity Serve Afghanistan was gunned down on Monday — accusing by the Taliban of spreading Christianity. The death reflects a continuing growth of Taliban actions. Williams had been pulled out of Kandahar due to the growing violence and threats in that city against foreigners.
Continue reading “British Woman Killed in Kabul for Working With Christian Charity”
Alabama preacher Orlando Bethel and his wife Glynis appear to like render upon Caesar what is Caesar’s in the form of a continual stream of lawsuits. Now the Baldwin County’s school board has asked a judge block further lawsuits. The Bethels responded, you guessed it, by filing another lawsuit for $5 million.
The New York Times has an interesting profile of the man who is credited with fueling the false stories that Obama is a Muslim. What has been astonishing for many of us is that being a Muslim would even be an issue — even if it were true. What is even more astonishing is the man who has appeared on national television pandering this story. Andy Martin, 62, is someone barred from a court for frivolous lawsuits, barred from becoming a practicing lawyer for mental problems, and accused of hateful and antisemitic ravings in the past. He was just on Fox News as part of a story on Obama’s possible secret Muslim identity.
Continue reading “Meet Andy Martin: The Man Behind the Obama is a Muslim Rumors”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio has filed an important case. On Friday, the group filed a lawsuit on behalf of KindHearts for Charitable Humanitarian Development, Inc. The charity was founded in 2002 after the Administration shutdown other Muslim charities, including the very controversial action taken against the Holyland Foundation. Now, the Administration has frozen this charity “pending investigation.” It appears that any major Muslim charity is presumptively frozen by this Administration in a trend that should be the subject of a congressional hearing.
Continue reading “Lawsuit Filed to Unfreeze Assets of Muslim Charity”
In another flagrant violation of international law and human rights, Iran is set to execute Ramdin Soodmand for the crime of converting from Islam. Sharia law mandates such punishment and Islamic countries continue to apply the penalty despite the fact that it violates core international principles. Indeed, Rashin’s father was executed eighteen years ago previously for the same Sharia crime.
Continue reading “Iran Set to Execute Another Christian for Converting From Islam”
With the approach of Yom Kippur, animal rights advocates and officials in California are launching a campaign to end the ritual of Kapparot, where a fowl is held by the neck and swung around the head of a Jewish person. The sins of the person are then transfered to the fowl (usually a chicken) which is then sacrificed. The practice has been denounced as little more than animal cruelty and many have called for criminal charges under state laws.
A California prisoner, Barry A. Hazle Jr., 40, is challenging a condition of his release from prison after a year on drug possession: mandatory drug treatment. It is not the drug treatment idea that bothers Hazle, it is the religiosity of the program. Hazle is an atheist and would like a program that does not require his commitment to both sobriety and God.
Continue reading “What Price Sobriety? Atheist Prisoner Challenges Mandatory Religious Program”
Officials at the Berkeley Unified School District are investigating an allegation that Jefferson Elementary School teacher Gwen Martin not only told her students that Santa and the Easter Bunny were fakes but told them that God is very real.
Continue reading “Making the Naughty List: California Teacher Tells Students that Santa and Easter Bunny Do Not Exist”