People looking at the IKEA catalogue in Saudi Arabia thought that there seemed something was missing: women. IKEA decided to airbrush out every picture of women in the catalogue while leaving men and children. In one example of the deletion the father, daughter and son are still shown in a bathroom scene but the mother has been removed. The ultimate symbol of women being invisible in the Kingdom.
Continue reading “IKEA Deletes The Images Of Women From Catalogue In Saudi Arabia”
We have yet another rampage by Muslims protesting religious intolerance. Muslims claimed that a Buddhist man posted a picture deemed insulting to Islam. They responded by promptly burning down at least four Buddhist temples and then burning down the homes of at least 15 Buddhist families. That should show people not to be religiously intolerant.
We have previously seen Rev. John Hagee and his rather twisted sense of the divine (here and here). Now it appears that he is turning to military history and explaining how prayer and fasting clearly ended the civil war. Hagee was introduced recently by Glenn Beck as “a prophet of our times” and sat enraptured as Hagee explained how Lincoln was able to bring an end to the civil war with a day of prayer and fasting.
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, while commenting on the infamous anti-Islam film, said “When some people use this freedom of expression to provoke or humiliate some others’ values and beliefs, then this cannot be protected in such a way.”
Note that Ki-moon goes beyond just religious values and beliefs and includes all values and beliefs. That view is nonsense.
The filmmaker of “Innocence of Muslims,” the anti-Mohammad video that sparked the recent protests and deaths around the world, has been arrested by federal authorities for allegedly violating the condition for his probation on a 2010 conviction for bank fraud — violations that could land him in jail for three years. Given the calls for his arrest and even execution by Muslim allies, the arrest raises obvious concerns that the Administration is again defending free speech while quietly moving to punish those who cause religious strife.
Continue reading “Controversial Filmmaker Nakoula Arrested For Alleged Probation Violations”
For many years, I have been writing about the threat of an international blasphemy standard and the continuing rollback on free speech in the West. Much of this writing has focused on the effort of the Obama Administration to reach an accommodation with allies like Egypt to develop a standard for criminalizing anti-religious speech. We have been following the rise of anti-blasphemy laws around the world, including the increase in prosecutions in the West and the support of the Obama Administration for the prosecution of some anti-religious speech under the controversial Brandenburg standard. Now that effort has come to a head with the new President of Egypt President Mohamed Mursi calling for enactment of an anti-blasphemy law at the United Nations. Mursi is also demanding legal action against the filmmaker by the United States despite the fact that the film is clearly protected by the first amendment.
Railway Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour has put a $100,000 bounty on the head of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the man who made the anti-Islamic film “The Innocence of Muslims.” The offer to pay anyone who kills the filmmaker is reminscent of the Fatwa placed on the head of Salman Rushdie for his book, The Satanic Verses. However, this is not just a government official but an official in the government of a U.S. ally calling for the murder of a U.S. citizen. Yet, Bilour insisted “I am a Muslim first, then a government representative.”
Respectfully Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
In light of the ever-increasing influence on National and local politics by churches and clergy, I was interested in the recent news that over 1,000 churches will be challenging the IRS by telling their parishioners who they want them to vote for in the upcoming national elections. The event is dubbed “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” by its organizers and it is designed to challenge the IRS on its prohibition of churches from intertwining politics and religion, as a requirement of maintaining their tax-free status. Continue reading “Pastors Take on the IRS”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
In the rural Iranian town of Shahmirzad, Muslim cleric Hojatoleslam Ali Beheshti encountered two girls on his way to the local mosque for noon prayers. The cleric confronted the two girls and admonished one of them to cover herself more completely. “She responded by telling me to cover my eyes, which was very insulting to me,” Beheshti said.
Continue reading “Iran Cleric Learns The Benefit Of Covering Up”
I am still in Utah for a speech and I have spoken to many people here about the current presidential campaign. Many locals here have expressed dismay over the missteps of the Romney campaign. However, David Twede, 47, a scientist and managing editor of the online magazine MormonThink.com, says that his criticism of Mitt Romney has led to his being called to account — and possible excommunication — from the Church of Latter Day Saints. The fifth-generation Mormon says that Church elders demanded names of other Mormons with which he was working on the site. He says he was told “Cease and desist, Brother Twede.” The controversy has now been reported on the Washington Post, Huffington Post and a number of other sites – though primarily as a political story. From a legal standpoint, the case raises a classic conflict between free speech and free exercise that we have discussed in other areas.
Now here’s a question. What do you get for the groom who has everything? Apparently disciples of Jesus may have faced that dilemma after analysis of a centuries-old papyrus fragment refers to the “wife” of Jesus — possibly Mary Magdalene. The fragment, written in Coptic, states “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …”
Continue reading “A Marriage Made In Heaven? Ancient Papyrus Fragment May Refer To Jesus’ Wife”
Muslim extremists have destroyed another religious shrine. We have previously discussed the destruction of these sites which are importantly not just religiously but historically. This time it is the tomb of a Muslim saint, Cheik El-Kebir, in Mali. Using hammers and picks, twelve members of the Islamic Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) destroyed the ancient shrine.
Continue reading “Muslim Extremists in Mali Destroy Another Islamic Shrine”
We have received a lot of requests for the briefing just filed in the Sister Wives case in Salt Lake City. As lead counsel, I am limited in what I can say about the case publicly. However, here is the final brief on the merits of the case, which is limited to 25 pages of argument under the local rules.
Continue reading “Brown Family Files Final Brief On Summary Judgment”
Various sites are reporting a bizarre and troubling story that the principal of the Beaumont Independent School District’s Taylor Career and Technology Center in Texas shutdown its adult cosmetology class after concluding that one of the male students looked gay. Principal Thomas Amons is being accused of shutting down the whole program because he allegedly knew he could be charged with singling out the one student on the basis of presumed sexual orientation. An instruction. Amons is a deacon at a Baptist church.
Three U.S. congressmen and a high-ranking government official gathered this week to praise a man heralded for his morals and leadership. That man is L. Ron Hubbard and Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Indiana Republican Rep. Dan Burton, Illinois Democratic Rep. Danny Davis and Liz Gibson, Senior Program Manager at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, gathered to celebrate his legacy.
Continue reading “Lawmakers and Federal Official Gather To Praise Hubbard And Scientology”