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”
Category: Religion
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.
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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”
The recent deadly flooding has brought new evidence of caste discrimination in India. Journalists have reported that Indian officials have been rescuing “untouchables” last — bypassing tens of thousands to rescue higher caste members. The Dalits — the lowest people on the Hinda caste ladder — have been left to struggle to survive as dozens have drown and 1.2 million have been forced from their homes.
Continue reading “Untouchable and Unrescueable: India’s Untouchables Left to Be Rescued Last in Deadly Floods”
In a very curious ruling, the Fiji Human Rights Commission has found that the proposed campaign by the Methodist Church Conference to convert non-Christians in Fiji would violate the freedom of religion under the country’s constitution and international law. It is difficult to see how prostylizing for voluntary conversions would violate the freedom of religion under any definition.
Jurors in Amite, Louisiana are hearing a disturbing confession by former Hosanna Church Pastor Louis Lamonica. Lamonica confessed to “dedications to Satan” inside the Ponchatoula church, though most of the parishioners did not know that church elders had turned from worshipping Christ to Satan. This week, his lawyer has argued that Lamonica only confessed to molesting children (including family members) because he believed it would help him get his children back and further argued that he was being controlled by a false prophet — Lois Mowbray (shown here).
A Pakistani lawmaker, Israr Ullah Zehri, has publicly supported honor killings even in the face of a recent case in which five women were buried alive by Muslim religious fanatics. While the case is the latest outrage that has disgusted the world, Zehri insisted it is a time-honored tradition for immoral people to be dealt with under Sharia law.
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An art museum in Bolzano, Italy has refused demands from Catholics, including Pope Benedict XVI to take down and no longer show “Zuerst die Fuesse” (“First the Feet”), an art piece by the late German artist Martin Kippenberger showing a crucified frog. The frog’s eyes are shown popping out and his tongue sticking out. He wears a loincloth and holds a mug of beer and an egg in its hands.
A rather fluid first amendment controversy is brewing over police conduct at the Yankee stadium. Fan Brad Campeau-Laurion says that when he tried to go to the bathroom during the singing of “God Bless America,” he was roughed up a bit and then thrown out of the stadium. It appears that this has been a long complaint by fans over a sing-or-get-out policy by George Steinbrenner.
Continue reading “Potty Patriotism: Atheist Thrown Out of Yankee Stadium for Trying to Go to Bathroom During the Singing of God Bless America”
Pastor Michael Guglielmucci has shocked his flock of faithful at the Edge Church International in Australia that he is not dying from cancer and that he used the fraud to hide a 16-year addiction to pornography. Guglielmucci is internationally known for his hit song, Healer.
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