The Children’s National Medical Center in Washington is going to court to seek a court order to terminate life support for a 12-year-old boy in a case raising parental and religious rights. A ventilator and medications are currently keeping Moti Brody of Brooklyn, N.Y. alive but his Orthodox Jewish parents do not recognize brain death in their religion.
Continue reading “Orthodox Jewish Parents Fight Hospital to Prevent Termination of Life Support for Twelve-Year-Old Boy”
Category: Religion
In an example of judges overcoming personal and public outrage to rule dispassionately on the law, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Missouri officials should be barred from enforcing a law that bars protests at or near funerals. The law is highly suspect on constitutional grounds and the court found that there was sufficient likelihood that Westboro would prevail in the action.
Continue reading “Westboro Baptist Church Wins Stay of Law Barring Protests of Military Funerals”
The stoning death of Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow for adultery in Somalia was disturbing enough, particularly after the local cleric said that Duhulow asked for the stoning. Now, Amnesty International has reported that Duholow was not 23, as claimed, but only 13 years old and had been raped by three men. BBC reports that these grown men slowly stoned her to death as the little girl begged “Don’t Kill Me, Don’t Kill Me.” A signature moment for these Sharia courts.
Continue reading “Islamic Court in Somalia Orders Men to Stone to Death 13-Year-Old Rape Victim for Adultery”
Sarah Maple, 23, is a Muslim and an artist in London has triggered a firestorm within the Muslim community. She has been threatened and the front glass windows of the gallery smashed over her portrayal of her own religion. This includes a work showing a woman in a headscarf holding a pig.
Continue reading “Muslims Attack Attack Art Gallery and Artist Over Muslim Art Display In London”
Sholom Rubashkin, 49, a powerful member of the Hasidic Jewish community and former head of the kosher plant Agriprocessors, is now in police custody after being arrested for harboring illegal immigrants and aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft. The Rubaskhin family has a long checkered history with the law.
Sen. Elizabeth Dole appears unwilling to simply run on her faith. She is now running an ad that accuses her opponent state Sen. Kay Hagan of being “godless” because she was seen in the company of atheists at a fundraiser. Hagan is now taking legal action to stop the political ads. Despite a cultivated image of Southern charm, Dole has now shown that she will sink to any low to get reelected. However, Hagan will have a very tough time getting a court to regulate political speech.
Continue reading “Elizabeth Dole Accuses Opponent of Being “Godless” to Save Sinking Campaign”
Another woman has been stoned to death for adultery — this time in Somalia. In Mogadishu, thousands of people gathered to watch 50 men stone Aisho Ibrahim Dhuhulow to death according to the sentence of an Islamic court imposing Sharia law. Local Islamist leader Sheikh Hayakallah said the woman wanted the punishment.
Continue reading “She Asked For It? Another Woman Stoned to Death Under Sharia Law in Somalia”
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n one of the world’s most disgraceful religious practices, girls (some younger than ten years old) continue to be made “slaves to the Gods” by priests in Ghana who abuse and sexually assault the girls — serving as surrogates for the Gods. While now illegal in Ghana, Trokosi continues to be practiced in the open and not a single arrest has been made to end the practice.
Continue reading “Trokosi: Girls Mades “Slaves to the Gods” In Ghana”
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.