We previously discussed the suspicious claims made by a gay Texas pastor, Jordan Brown, who accused a Whole Foods store of changing his order for a cake reading “Love Wins” to “Love Wins Fag.” Various people seeing the cake immediately began raising questions over Brown’s claims and a videotape seemed to contradict his account. Whole Foods countersued Brown. Brown has now fessed up that he did alter the cake and made the whole thing up. After he dropped his lawsuit, Whole Foods has decided to drop the countersuit though a strong case could be made for seeking damages in such a hoax.
Category: Religion
One of the most impressive characteristics of religious extremists is the ability to hold facially contrary positions without any sense of contradiction or hypocrisy. Saudi Arabia decries any limitations on Muslims worshipping in other countries while banning churches and public worship of non-Muslims in its own country. Iran is particularly prone to such contradictions like executing homosexuals while denying that there are any homosexuals in Iran or objecting to the treatment of protesters in the West while jailing, beating and killing protesters in Iran. This week Iran offered another such example. In refusing to censor a Holocaust-themed cartoon festival, Iran (which has ordered the killing of authors and cartoonists for insulting Islam) insisted that it had to stand with free speech and would not think of interfering with an author or cartoonist in expressing their views. The same week, Iran has called for the arrest and punishment of models who allow themselves to be photographed without religious scarves. Likewise, it previously ordered the flogging of a model for a public kiss.
Continue reading “Iran Defends Holocaust Cartoon Competition As Expression Of Free Speech”
Any Iranian judge offered another glimpse into the medieval Sharia legal system. After a man was given a trial lasting only a couple minutes, Reza Hosseini, 34, begged the judge to listen to his evidence that he is innocent. Instead, the judge told the man “if you’re innocent you’ll go to heaven.” Continue reading ““If You’re Innocent You’ll Go To Heaven: Iranian Judge Sentences Man To Hang After A Two Minute Trial”
Politicians being barred from office for misconduct is unfortunately not new, but Iranian politicians Minoo Khaleghi, who won a seat in the city of Isfahan in February, transgressed by allegedly allowing a picture to be taken of her without a head scarf. While Khaleghi insists the photos are fake, Dispute Settlement Committee of Branches ruled that she cannot be sworn into office for violating Islamic values. A religious body previously made clear that they would not allow voters to elect Khaleghi.
Continue reading “Iranian Lawyer Barred From Parliament Based On Photos Taken Without A Head Scarf”
Islamic State militants gave the world yet another shocking atrocity this week by executing a 7-year-old Syrian boy in front of his parents because he cursed. ISIS insists that Islamic justice, or Sharia, demanded that the boy be shot.
ISIS claimed to have cleansed a man of the sin of homosexuality in the name of Islam by stoning him and then throwing him blindfolded off the top of a building in Manbij city in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo. It is the latest atrocity committed under Islamic Sharia “law.”
Some things just don’t add up, but that has never bothered the Islamic extremists in ISIS. In Raqqa, schools have been taken over by ISIS which has reduced classes on such things as science and mathematics in favor of Sharia and the calling of the jihad. When kids do math, they also have to do without the plus sign, which has been declared as too close to a Christian cross (+) and thus a corrupting influence. Instead the kids use the letter “z”.
Continue reading “ISIS Bans The Use Of The Plus Sign As Christian Symbol”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor.
In September of 2014 we featured an article describing how a squad of uniformed, self appointed “Sharia Police”. Several young adults wearing orange reflective jackets embossed with the words “Shariah Police” began foot patrols of the central district of the German city Wuppertal, harassing who they perceived to be Muslim who were frequenting discos and gambling establishments.
The group held that they were promoting their Salafist beliefs and chastising others who deviated from the tenets of the religion–by consuming alcohol and engaging in gambling entertainment.
The state sought to bring criminal charges against a group of Sharia Police for violating statutes relating to the patrols. Now, the Düsseldorf State Court ruled that eight of the nine accused men can face trial for “violating laws against wearing uniforms with political messages.”
Continue reading “German Court Allows Trial To Proceed Of Accused “Sharia Police” Members”
The rise of ISIS and other groups has left the entire region of the Middle East in smoking ruins with tens of thousands of innocent victims. So when the head of Egypt’s State Information Service Salah Abdel Sadek said at Cairo University that he had traced the source for such violence, many thought that they would hear a frank discussion of Islamic extremism. Yet, instead of Bin Laden and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the culprit proved (at least in part) to be none of than Tom and Jerry.
Just when you thought that Turkey could not get more frightening under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamic parties, you get a story like this one. Turkish lawmakers were debating Erdogan’s effort to adopt an Islamic constitution and further increase his authoritarian powers. A member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) sought to quote Oscar Wilde when members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) objected that they had no idea who Wilde is and thought he was quoting from the Oscar movie awards. When the meaning was made clear, these Erdogan drones objected that it was a reference from a Western source. Of course, as Wilde noted, “Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”
In an example of how religious fervor can overwhelm basic judgment, the residents of a remote Indonesia village called Kalupapi recently discovered what they believed to be an “angel” on a beach. They described a being of “shining white, (with) round eyes with red eyebrows” that was naked, crying and only clothed in a white cloth after descending from the heavens. Police seized what they said was far from angelic: a sex toy that was tossed over the side of a boat.
We have followed the rapid decline of civil liberties under the authoritarian rule of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the past few years as well as his empowering of Islamic parties in the once secular state. When Erdogan first ran, he assured Turks that he was committed to the secular traditions and constitution of the country. He then did precisely the opposite in power by chipping away at secular laws, introducing Islamic governing principles, and assuming authoritarian power. Now,Turkish Parliament Speaker Ismail Kahraman has finally taken Erdogan’s policies to their natural conclusion and called for the dismantling of secular government and the creation of an Islamic state. Now, Erdogan is again saying “trust me” and, that secular values remain safe in his hand..
Continue reading “Turkish Parliamentary Speaker Calls For Islamic State”
The slaughter of intellectuals and civil liberties advocates has continued in Bangladesh. A U.S. Embassy worker and editor of Bangladesh’s first LGBT magazine Xulhaz Mannan was one of two men hacked to death this week in what is believed to be the latest murders by Islamic extremists. We have been discussing the surge of Islamic extremism in Bangladesh, particularly targeting secular writers. Law student and secular writer Nazimuddin Samad, 26, was the sixth such victim recently. Then last week we had the murder of a popular professor.
Late Monday, the Brown family filed their appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Brown v. Buhman, No. 14-4117. The Sisters Wives case raises core issues of free speech and free exercise — constitutional violations found by the trial court in striking down the Utah cohabitation law. This “en banc” petition is to the entire Tenth Circuit in seeking review of the recent panel decision vacating the earlier decision on standing grounds.
Continue reading “Brown Family Asks Entire Tenth Circuit To Review Sister Wives Decision”
The Saudi Association for Civil and Political Rights is a respected organization established by intellectuals who seek to protect human rights in the Kingdom and the creation of both democratic and legal institutions that guarantee such rights. Not surprising, the Saudi government has treated such ideas as terroristic threats and has jailed many of its members. The latest is one of the founders Issa al-Hamid who was convicted of inciting people to breach public order, insulting the judiciary, defaming the kingdom’s senior religious clerics and establishing an unlicensed organization. Our close ally in the Middle East has once again shown how it stands in direct opposition to the most basic rights of free speech and free exercise. Rather than actually move its laws and government out of the Middle Ages, the Kingdom has hired a variety of top firms, including leading establishment figures like Tony Podesta, to improve its reputation with the American public (particularly with the expected release of the long withheld 9-11 reports pages that reportedly implicate Saudi officials in the attack.