We have yet another tell-all book from an ex-Scientology member recounting many of the same abuses of forced labor, cruel conditions, and slavish service for scientology celebrities. This book however is written by the niece of church leader David Miscavige. Miscavige has previously been accused of physically beating followers and requiring virtual slavish service to the Church’s celebrities from Tom Cruise to John Travolta to Fox News’ Greta Van Susteran. Continue reading “Niece of Scientology Head Publishes Book Detailing Alleged Abuses By Church”
Category: Religion
Just when you thought that blasphemy laws could not get any worse, the Muslim Brotherhood has come up with a new idea: citizen arrests of tourists for blasphemy. The Middle East is replete with cases of mobs killing people accused of the slightest offense toward Islam. Now, according to Internet reporting, the Egyptian prosecutor general for the Muslim Brotherhood has pushed through a new law permitting ordinary Egyptians to arrest those who offend Islamic law.
Continue reading “Egypt’s Government Moves Toward Blasphemy Citizen Arrests”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Damon Linker doesn’t see the need of another book about atheism. This time it’s British philosopher A.C. Grayling’s The God Argument – The Case against Religion and for Humanism, to be published on March 26. Linker quotes honest atheist and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche when Nietzsche proclaimed that the death of God would be an “awe-inspiring catastrophe” for mankind. Although numerous gods from humanity’s past have lost their imagined effect on the human condition without catastrophic results, Nietzsche seems to think the passing of this god will be different.
A local sharia court has added a stoning death to this year’s record after a Pakistani soldier was found to have had an affair with a local woman in Northwesterd Kurram. To make matters worse, Anwar Din, 27, is a Sunni and Intizar Bibi, 19, is a Shiite girl.
The bizarre world of Iranian extremism was evident again this week as clerics in Iran raised a hue and cry over a picture where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is shown consoling Hugo Chavez’s mother with a hug. Clerics called the picture a sin and abomination against Islam. They also attacked another cleric, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Mirtajeddini, who felt no moral difficulty in lying about the hug and saying that the photo was doctored.
Continue reading “Iranian Clerics Attack Ahmadinejad For Hugging Chavez’s Mother”
The hope for reforms in Saudi Arabia remain a roller coaster ride for civil libertarians. On Saturday, a Saudi Arabian court sentenced two prominent political and human rights activists to at least 10 years in prison for protesting the policies of the Kingdom and speaking with the media. Mohammed Fahd al-Qahtani (shown right) and Abdullah Hamad are founding members of the banned Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association, known as Acpra, which documents human rights abuses. The group also has called for a constitutional monarchy and elections. The exercise of basic rights of free speech and association that led to the banning of the group and now the sentencing of its leaders.
Continue reading “Saudi Arabia Sentences Two Leading Civil Libertarians To Long Prison Stints”
Lech Wałęsa won the Noble Prize for fighting for Polish independence against the Soviet bloc, a move that ultimately helped bring down the wall dividing East from West. However, he seems to have rediscovered the comfort of a wall in his latest comments calling for homosexual members of parliament to be placed behind a wall to remind them that they are a minority and should adapt themselves to smaller things.”
Continue reading “Wałęsa’s Wall: Lech Wałęsa Calls For Gay Lawmakers To Sit Behind Wall”
Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Not since 1415 when Gregory XII resigned to heal the so-called “Western Schism” has a Pope of the Roman Catholic Church abdicated his post as the successor to St. Peter. Now, Benedict the XVI has issued his renuntiatio citing failing health as the reason for the move. Rumors have swirled since publication in the Italian newspaper, Repubblica, (here) that the Pope resigned to diffuse a burgeoning crisis in the Curia over allegations of a gay cabal of Vatican prelates being blackmailed by male prostitutes. The Vatican flatly denies that allegation and no one has come forward to challenge that denial. Fueling the rumors are the inconvenient resignation of Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien over allegations of sexual abuse of three seminarians. O’Brien has flatly rejected those charges too, but resigned the following day saying his decision was based “on health grounds,” and that his hospitalization for cellulitis and gout at the end of 2012 was proof thereof. That’s eerily similar to Benedict’s demurrer and, coupled with several recent scandals (here) involving Vatican priests procuring gay prostitutes, have left some observers skeptical, indeed.
Rev. Pat Robertson is back with a glimpse into the mind of religiously unhinged. In this video, Robertson talks matter-of-factly how demons can latch on to garments. Before putting on that Satanic Sweater or Demonic Dress, a fabric exorcism might be necessary.
Continue reading “The Devil Wears Prada: Pat Robertson Warns About Demons In Garments”
In Australia, there is an interesting case involving Sharia. Increasingly, Muslims in Western nations are turning to Sharia justice as opposed to conventional courts to address family and personal problems. In the case of Muslim convert Christian Martinez, he sought punishment and forgiveness from his Muslim religious mentor, Wassam Faayad, for drinking and taking drugs. Faayad and his associates proceeded to give him some old-fashioned Sharia justice with an electrical cord. Then Martinez changed his mind but the beating continued. Now four Muslim men are convicted of assault in a Sharia version of “no, means no.”
Continue reading “Australian Court Convicts Four Men For Sharia Flogging Of Fellow Muslim”
New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind has come forward to explain that there is no reason for people to be offended after he was shown wearing black face. The Brooklyn assemblyman explained that people just do not get the Jewish holiday Purim when people have fun dressing up. He noted that many children will dress up as Arabs. This was meant as a defense. Hikind previously introduced an anti-terrorism bill that allowed ethnic profiling for searches. It appears that he is something of an expert.
The United Nations this week heard of rising abuse against atheists, agnostics, and secularists around the world. A report on this abuse, including executions, was given to a panel including Pakistan, Mauritania and Maldives which impose the death penalty on blasphemers. Turkey used the opportunity to call for the protection of “people of faith.”
Continue reading “New Report Details Global Crackdown On Atheists and Secularists”
Muslim cleric Ahmed Al-abedulqader is a member of the Islamic Ministry for Da’wah, Guidance and Endowments and he clearly has “issues” with women, particularly when they served in public positions. Recently, women were allowed to serve on the Shura Council, a formal advisory body to the King of 150 members who can propose laws and advise him. It was a significant and commendable act by the King — a hopeful sign of reform for women’s rights. That appears to be the very reason that Al-abedulqader and other clerics unleashed sexist tirades. In Al-abedulqader’s case, he took to Twitter to call the women “prostitutes.” Dr. Saleh al-Sugair, a former teaching assistant at King Saud University, also went public and called the women the “fifth of society” for their historic achievement.
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
A topic that probably causes among the most heated discussions on this blog is the attempt to either displace evolution from Public School Curriculum, or to at least give “intelligent design” equal footing to evolution. My own opinion is that “intelligent design”, or “Creationism” as some call it, has no place in our public school system. Those who would force it on our schools would be destroying the Constitutional separation of Church and State. We saw a blog post by Professor Turley a week ago discussing some crazy State Legislator in Missouri introducing a bill to teach “Creationism” as a scientific theory and to teach “Evolution” as a philosophy, almost all who commented were not only outraged, but some disparaged Missouri as a backward state. A few of the comments belittled religion in general. http://jonathanturley.org/2013/02/15/missouri-legislator-introduces-bill-to-teach-creationism-as-a-scientific-theory-and-to-teach-evolution-as-a-philosophy/ . Another blog post by Professor Turley in October 2012, about Missouri Senate Candidate Todd Akin brought a firestorm of angry comments, also disparaging Missouri. http://jonathanturley.org/2012/10/15/akin-disproves-evolution/#comments Interestingly this Conservative State voted for Todd Akin’s opponent when Election Day came around. Continue reading “Evolution, Religion and Science”
Pakistan has been working with the Obama Administration in an effort to create an international blasphemy standard. Now one of its diplomats in Washington is accused of blasphemy herself. She has been accused of blasphemy by a businessman, an offense that carries the death penalty in Pakistan.
Continue reading “Pakistan’s U.S. Ambassador Charged With Blasphemy”