By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor.
Free-speech claimed another victim in the Middle-East after Jordanian Journalist Nahed Hattar, who is accused of sharing online an “anti-Islamic” cartoon, was assassinated outside a courthouse where he was facing trial for insulting Islam.
Continue reading “Jordanian Writer, On Trial For Insulting Islam, Murdered At Courthouse”
This afternoon, the Brown family filed its appeal with the United States Supreme Court in the “Sister Wives” case. The case is Brown v. Buhman, No. 14-4117. As lead counsel for the Browns, I am joined on the petition by co-counsel Thomas Huff and we benefited from the input of our long-time co-counsel in Utah, Adam Alba. The petition asks the Court to resolve a longstanding conflict among the courts of appeals concerning the extent to which the government can strategically moot a constitutional challenge to a statute by announcing a new non-enforcement policy during the pendency of litigation. The petition is attached below.
Continue reading “BROWN FAMILY FILES APPEAL WITH SUPREME COURT IN SISTER WIVES CASE”
It is often remarkable how ministers facing tough questions on their income or luxury purchases will find a way to explain their lifestyle or secrecy as a biblical command like our prior discussion of televangelists who insisted that they really need private luxury jets. Now Elevation Church Pastor Steven Furtick is insisting that he would love to disclose how much he makes annually but it would be against the will of God.
The Quebec seniors at the La Rive de Grande-Riviere seniors residence are cherishing what many are calling a divine message . . . in a potato. When a cook was cutting potatoes, he found one with a sign of the cross at the center.
Continue reading “Sacred Spuds: Quebec Seniors Find Potato With Sign Of God”
Saudi Arabia has long been an exporter of extremist Islamic values as part of its Wahhabi sect. Despite our close alliance with the Kingdom, it imposes radical Islamic Sharia principles and denies basic rights to women, non-Muslims, and dissidents. In the latest outrage from Saudi Arabia, a court has sentenced a man to ten years in prison and 2,000 lashes for merely expressing his atheism on Twitter. It appears that the Saudi and Sharia courts are terrified that people could actually inform other Saudis of alternatives to Islam or different values. The fear and anger only appeared to grow when the Kingdom could not coerce the 28-year-old who refused to repent and stood by his human right to express his faith. We previously discussed this case, but Saudi Arabia is proceeding with the whippings as this man remains defiant.
Morocco has long been a country with a significant secular community and the persistent threat from Islamic fundamentalists and Sharia law. A recent case shows how the courts impose ridiculous prosecutions in the name of Islamic values. A nightclub manager has been charged with serving alcohol to Muslims as if a bartender can tell the difference between a Muslim and non-Muslim.
Continue reading “Morocco Charges Nightclub Manager for Selling Alcohol To Muslims”
Moulay Omar Benhammad, 63, and Fatima Nejjar, 62, have long been figures in the Islamic community calling for chastity and advocating Islamic justice. The two Islamic politicians are now under fire after being found allegedly having sex on a Moroccan beach.
Saudi Arabia continues to remind the world of its continued belief in primitive superstitions and its adherence to a medieval Sharia legal system. A Saudi court has reportedly sentenced an Egyptian man to six years on charges of attempting to disturb public order, violating the kingdom’s labor laws and communicating with a sorcerer to bewitch his employer. That’s right, sorcery to bewitch his employer. On top of those charges, the Saudis reportedly charged the Egyptian of acquiring a secret military document listing the movements and names of Saudi troops and of emailing this document to the Iranian Embassy in Lebanon.
Continue reading “Saudi Arabia Sentences Egyptian For Sorcery”
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish rabbis in the Satmar sect have banned women from going to university as a “dangerous” threat to their faith. A decree has been issued against what is described as what “has lately become the new trend that girls and married women are pursuing degrees in special education. Some attend classes and others online. And so we’d like to let their parents know that it is against the Torah.”
Continue reading “Ultra-Orthodox Rabbis Declare That Women Must Not Be Educated At Universities”
We previously discussed the Islamic extremists who destroyed priceless artifacts within Timbuktu in Mali. Now one of the culprits, Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, pleaded guilty to destroying religious monuments in the ancient city. After destroying centuries of artifacts, al-Mahdi now expresses remorse before the International Criminal Court.
Ismail Berdiyev, a leading mufti from Russia’s North Caucasus region, has called for the universal use of clitoridectomy, or female genital mutilation, for “all women to reduce lechery” and “sexuality.” The shocking and disgusting proclamation by Berdiyev is magnified by the the supportive public statement by a senior priest in the Russian Orthodox Church, Vsevolod Chaplin, who wrote on Facebook: “My sympathies for the mufti. I hope he doesn’t retreat from his position because of the howls and hysterics which will start now.”
Nice has added its famous beaches to the list of resort areas where the burkini is banned. Like the ban on the veil, it is hard to see how such bans are not openly discriminatory towards Muslims. I fail to understand the rationale for such a ban, particularly when many people now adopt full covering (especially for child) to protect against the damaging sun rays.
Continue reading “Burkinis Are Not Nice: French Resort Latest To Ban Muslim Swimming Suit”
We have discussed (with no small amount of mirth) the Islamic fatwas against Pokemon. Now an Italian bishop appear intent upon showing that Christians can be equally absurd. Antonio Stagliano, the bishop of the southern town of Noto in Sicily, has declared the game to be “diabolical” and is going to court to try to block the game which he insists turns people into the “walking dead.” Better undead than brain dead, in my view.
Indian clerics have issued a fatwa asking Muslims that they must not eat Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), which is now deemed a sin against Islamic law. The reason is the failure to kill chickens in front of Muslims.
Like many Muslim countries, Turkey has a long and troubling history of child brides and arranged marriages. Some Islamic clerics have maintained that there can be no age limitation on child brides. They often note that Muhammad married Aisha when she was seven and consummated the marriage at nine years old.Just as Pakistan recently struck down its protection for girls from such abuse, the Turkish Constitutional Court annulled a provision that punishes all sexual acts against children under the age of 15 as “sexual abuse.” It is a major set back for girls and women in Turkey and another example of how the Islamic fundamentalists have taken over this once secular country under the authoritarian rule of our ally Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
