In the video below, Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin credits and praises a Kenyan Minister named Thomas Muthee with helping her to achieve the Alaskan governorship through prayer. It turns out the Muthee also hunts down witches and makes Rev. John Hagee look positively normal.
Category: Religion
Mickey Mouse is a marked rodent. Just this morning, I opined that it would be difficult to top a Saudi Cleric who has called for the execution of horoscope readers on television in the name of Sharia law. I spoke too soon. Sheikh Muhammad Munajid has now called for the death on television of Mickey Mouse and his cartoon kindred rodent Jerry. A former diplomat, Munajid explains that Sharia demands the death of all mice — actual or cartoon. It is not clear whether Disney is expected to have a cartoon stoning or simply change the ending to Fantasia.
British courts will now enforce rulings from Sharia courts in cases ranging from divorce to domestic violence. The five Sharia courts will now be recognized as binding systems of adjudication.
Continue reading “England Officially Recognizes Sharia Rulings”
Not to be outdone by extremists in Israel today, leading Saudi cleric Sheikh Saleh al-Fozan in Riyadh has called for the execution for people who read horoscopes on television as “sorcerers.” This follows another leading cleric, Sheikh Saleh al-Lohaidan, calling for the death of television station owners for unIslamic programming in the form of comedies and soap operas.
Taking a lead from Muslim religious police and extremist gangs in countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran, orthodox Jews have created their own “modesty squads” to beat and terrorize residents who do not adhere to their own extreme religious views in ultra-Orthodox Maalot Dafna neighbourhood in Jerusalem. This includes throwing acid on girls who are not sufficiently modest. The government’s policy of carving out special neighborhoods for sects like the Haredi clearly contributes to this religious-based thuggery.
Continue reading ““Modesty Squads”: Orthodox Jewish Vigilantes Terrorize Israeli Citizens”
A rumor that a soccer player was using witchcraft in Kinshasa, Congo led to a stampede in which 13 people were killed. All of the victims were aged between 11 and 16.
Continue reading “Witchcraft Rumor Causes Stampede at Soccer Match — Killing 13 People”
Police in Urbana, Illinois The Reverend Christopher Layden who is accused of selling cocaine from his church office and rectory. The 31-one-year old priest faces three criminal counts and has been suspended by the church.
Italian comedienne Sabina Guzzanti is facing a criminal charge for a bad joke. In Italy, it is a crime to insult the Pope or “offending the honour of the sacred and inviolable person” . Guzzanti is accused of crossing the line between comedy and crime in saying that Pope Benedict XVI would go to Hell and be tormented by homosexual demons. The joke could cost her is a prison term of up to five years.
Continue reading “Crossing the Line Between Crime and Comedy: Italian Accused of Telling Joke About the Pope”
With countries like Germany seeking to ban Scientology from their countries as a dangerous cult or criminal organization, the controversial church is facing new fraud charges in France. A French judge has ordered a trial on fraud allegations from a former member who charged that the church scammed her out of 20,000 euros.
Continue reading “Scientology Faces New Fraud Charges In France”
Dozens of conservative pastors are defying the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ban on ministers using their pulpits to endorse political candidates. Organized by the Alliance Defense Fund, the ministers are effectively daring the IRS to take away their tax-exempt status. The effort is an obvious set-up for litigation, though they may put conservatives like Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito in a tough position. ADF advocates insist that the ADF’s “Pulpit Initiative” is to intended to show that the “proper role” of pastors is to try to direct the voting of the faithful.
Continue reading “Endorsed by God: Religious Right Defies IRS on Church Endorsements”
Saira Nusrat Bibi has become the latest victim in the barbaric cycle of arranged marriages and honor killings in Pakistan and other Middle Eastern countries. Forced into a marriage at age nine to a 45-year-old man, she had taken the extraordinary step to fighting for an annulment. She was winning in that effort, but (now 17) was denounced by many in the country as an heretic against Islam. Her parents have now killed her in the latest honor killing.
Continue reading “Honor Killing: Parents Kill Girl Who Sought Annulment After She was Forced to Marry 45-Year-Old Man — at Age 9”
Jordanian human rights advocates are fighting to raise awareness of not just the roughly two dozen honor killings in that country each year, but the fact that some of these killings are being falsely portrayed as motivated by religious values. Indeed, Jordan’s first female coroner, Israa Tawalbeh, has identified one 18-year-old girl named Maha who was killed by her brother when she refused to continue to work for him as a prostitute — he claimed to have killed her for his family’s honor.
Continue reading “Faith-Based Murder: Jordanian Activists Document False Honor Killing Claims”
Leading Saudi cleric, Sheik Abdul-Aziz Al Sheik has denounced birthday parties as unIslamic and an invasion from the West. People who hold such practices now risk being accusing of doing something Haram, or forbidden. Fatwas have been issued denouncing everything from birthdays to Mother’s Day.
Continue reading “Getting Fatwa at Parties: Birthday Parties Declared as UnIslamic by Leading Saudi Cleric”
A Palestinian father has been arrested for the murder of this 24-year-old daughter after he buried her alive in an honor killing. Police are investigating whether her four brothers assisted the over seventy-year-old father in the crime. It is only the latest of such honor killings in the Middle East, though (unlike Pakistan) authorities appear to have reacted quickly to the crime.
Continue reading “Palestinian Father Buries Divorced Daughter Alive in Honor Killing”
Usually, saints are known to heal such conditions as deafness, but a woman in Genoa has successfully sued the Santo Stefano for hearing loss due to the ringing of its church bells. The church will have to pay 60,000 euros for its ringing nuisance. It is actually a type of tort action that is routinely seen in the United States and, more often than not, rejected.
Continue reading “For Whom The Bells Toll: St. Stephens Deafens Woman in Italy”