Street screecher Michael Overd, left, and the Vatican's Chief Exorcist, Fr Amorth

The former is on trial before Taunton magistrates for threatening a gay couple with hell, and the latter has just written a book – The Last Exorcist – My Fight Against Satan – in which he claims that Pope Ratzinger “inadvertently” exorcised two men who were possessed by Old Nick.

Overd, 47, from Creech St Michael, is accused of verbally abusing Craig Manning and Craig Nicholl last July in the town’s high street. He denies two charges of using threatening words or behaviour, and his defence lawyer – fellow Christian zealot Paul Diamond of the Christian Legal Centre – claims that:

Overd was exercising his right to free speech, and was “merely” reciting a passage from the Bible, 1 Corinthians, which reads:

Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexuals nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

The court heard it was the second time the pair had been targeted by Overd, who spied them holding hands in October 2010.

The court heard that the lunatic had deliberately singled out the pair in public. Said Nicholl:

He looked at us and pointed … His voice was quite loud and very clear. I felt angry, embarrassed and ashamed. It was a really busy day and I felt that everyone was looking at us when he was saying these things to us.

Overd, who came to court wearing a comical yellow “The Lord is my Shepherd”  tie, denied this, saying:

I was not trying to draw to the public the fact that they were homosexuals, I was drawing the public to the fact that they were sinners.

Prosecutor Gordon Richings asked him:

You believe that sinners who die and are not redeemed are going to end up in hell?

Mr Overd replied:

If God says it (in the Bible) that is good enough for me.

The trial continues today.

Meanwhile, the Telegraph reveals that ancient old loon Father Amorth is claiming in his new book that:

It is no mystery that the Pope’s acts and words can enrage Satan … that simply the presence of the Pope can sooth and in some way help the possessed in their fight against the one who possesses them.

And he tells the story of how he and two assistants brought a pair of “possessed” Italian men – Marco and Giovanni  – to one of the Pope’s weekly audiences in St Peter’s Square in May 2009. As the Pope approached them, the men began to act strangely: they trembled and their teeth chattered.

When one of the assistants asked Giovanni to control himself, he said “I am not Giovanni” in a voice that was not his own, Father Amorth claimed.

As soon as the Pope stepped down from his “Popemobile” the two men flung themselves to the floor.

They banged their heads on the ground. The Swiss Guards watched them but did nothing. Giovanni and Marco started to wail at the same time, they were lying on the floor, howling.  They were trembling, slobbering, working themselves into a frenzy.

He continued:

The Pope watched from a distance. He raised an arm and blessed the four of them. For the possessed it was like a furious jolt – a blow to their whole bodies – to the extent that they were thrown three metres backwards. They stopped howling but they cried uncontrollably.

Note: at this point I began howling uncontrollable, so loudly that I woke up my partner who peered bleary-eyed into my office to check if I was OK. When he saw tears of mirth rolling down my cheeks, he grumpily snorted, “Bit early in the day to be having fun” and went back to bed.

Federico Lombardi, the Vatican’s spokesman, disputed Amorth’s account, saying Benedict was not aware of the men’s afflictions and had not intended to carry out an exorcism.

Amorth is a controversial figure whose outspoken views have embarrassed the Vatican in the past.

In November he branded yoga as “evil”, claiming that it leads to a worship of Hinduism and other Eastern religions based on “a false belief in reincarnation”.

He has also railed against Harry Potter, saying the children’s books seem innocuous but in fact encourage children to believe in black magic and wizardry.

Hat tip: Marcus Robinson (Overd report) and Canada Dave

Retired cardinal Edward Egan

According to this report, Egan – in the interview with Connecticut Magazine –  said:

I don’t think we did anything wrong.

He said he had not been obligated to report abuse claims and maintained he inherited the cases from his predecessor, and did not have any cases on his watch.

Egan, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 in 2007, was Bridgeport bishop from 1988 to 2000. The Bridgeport diocese has paid out nearly $38 million to settle abuse claims over the years involving allegations by more than 60 people who said they had been molested by Catholic priests.

In court documents unsealed in 2009, Egan expressed scepticism over sexual abuse allegations and said he found it “marvelous” that so few priests had been accused over the years.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests called Egan:

Obviously unrepentant, self-absorbed and painfully dismissive of the abject suffering of tens of thousands of deeply wounded men, women and children who have been sexually violated by priests, nuns, bishops, brothers, seminarians and other Catholic officials. We can’t help but believe that many other prelates feel exactly as he does but are shrewd enough to avoid saying so outside of clerical circles.

Meanwhile, Walsh, of Church Lane, Abbots Bromley, was warned by Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court to expect a long sentence for the attacks carried out while he worked at children’s homes and churches between the 1970s and 1990s.

Disgraced priest Alexander Bede Walsh

During the 10-day trial, the jury heard Walsh already had a previous conviction for possessing indecent images of children.

Det Con Tim Bailey, from Staffordshire Police, said after the hearing:

He is supposed to be a man of the cloth but he has shown no compassion, no integrity and no humanity. He has forced grown men to come to court and relive childhood experiences of sexual abuse.

Mr Bailey said he believed there could be further victims who had yet to come forward.

Speaking after the trial, the Archbishop of Birmingham Bernard Longley apologised to the victims for the “horrendous crimes” and the “deep betrayal of trust” they had experienced.

Hat tip (Walsh report): Angie RS and BarrieJohn

Hamza Kashgari could be executed for his 'sacrilegious' Tweets

Abdul Aziz Khowja said:

When I read his articles, I wept and got very angry …

And the infantile apparatchik announced:

I have instructed all newspapers and magazines in the kingdom not to allow him to write anything and we will take legal measures against him.

Worse, Kashgari, 23, offended the king of that basketcase of a country, Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, who ordered the journalist’s arrest.

A statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency earlier this week revealed:

The Monarch today issued orders to arrest and try Kashgari for his offences against the deity and the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) … The order came after many scholars, dignitaries and citizens in the kingdom sent messages to the Monarch expressing indignation at Kashgari offences.

Kashgari had the good sense to flee the country as devout Muslims began baying for his blood, but today we learned that he has been arrested in Malaysia.

According to this report, he was seized as he arrived in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. The Saudi Arabic language daily Al Youm reported:

The Malaysian authorities are coordinating with Saudi Arabia to hand Kashgari over.

In a separate report, newspapers quoted a statement by the kingdom’s Islamic Fatwa Committee calling for Kashgari to be punished:

In line with Islamic law, which means he could be executed.

King Abdullah’s order to arrest the writer, a columnist in the Saudi Arabic language daily Al Bilad, followed public furore in the kingdom over some of his articles, considered as abusive of Islam and the Prophet.

Ajel Arabic language daily said yesterday:

The order came after many scholars, dignitaries and citizens in the kingdom sent messages to the Monarch expressing indignation at Kashgari offences.

Other papers reported that thousands of readers and schools sent letters to the local media and posted online  messages demanding Kashgari’s prosecution.

After the arrest order, many Saudi newspapers carried a letter written by Kashgari on his Twitter page apologising for any offence, which he said was inadvertent.

My tweets were posted during a [difficult] psychological state. I erred and I pray to God that He will forgive me for what I did. I declare my repentance and I distance myself fully from all the misleading ideas that had affected me and made me write expressions that I do not support. I bear witness that Mohammad is the messenger of God. I shall live and die firmly believing in it. I declare my repentance and I strongly adhere to the testimonies that there is no deity but Allah and that Mohammad is the messenger of Allah.

Ahead of Big Mo’s birthday, Kashgari used Twitter to reflect of the occasion, saying:

On your birthday, I will say that I have loved the rebel in you, that you’ve always been a source of inspiration to me, and that I do not like the halos of divinity around you. I shall not pray for you.

Nasser al-Omar, an influential cleric, called for him to be tried in a sharia court for apostasy, and, in a YouTube video, called on the faithful to express their indignation to the media and the authorities.

Your duty is to defend our religion against those atheists and not let it pass by with no punishment — you must write in the papers, in the Internet, and write the government, and not be silenced.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn

His “miracle” olive oil soap will even get you “a brand-new home”, if that’s what you’re after.

But UK media regulator Ofcom thought this was pure hokum, and has fined Believe TV – operated by The Light Academy Ltd and broadcast on the Sky platform – £25,000 for allowing Lewis to promote his soap.

In a statement, Ofcom said:

Given that the content was also soliciting a response from viewers, and such individuals experiencing serious illnesses may be vulnerable to the healing claims being made, Ofcom found there was a material risk that susceptible members of the audience may be exploited by the material broadcast on Believe TV.

The finding also referred to previous decisions by both the Advertising Standards Authority and Ofcom concerning content containing similar claims by Paul Lewis which had been broadcast on other channels. When Ofcom had previously recorded breaches against Paul Lewis content broadcast on other channels in 2007 and 2008, Ofcom stated that the breaches… were very serious because the promotions of the Paul Lewis products improperly exploited the susceptibilities of vulnerable viewers of these religious channels.

The regulator criticised The Light Academy for allowing previous breaches to be repeated, and said that the licencee showed “overall very poor compliance” which placed vulnerable viewers directly at risk of harm and exploitation”.

Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, said:

This kind of thing is not unusual in the outer reaches of these manipulative religious TV channels. A quick flick through the ‘Religion’ section of the Sky platform will soon reveal many others who push the limits of acceptability in the claims they make. Believe TV has been caught out repeatedly. A fine is not enough. Its licence to broadcast should be revoked if it cannot be stopped exploiting its viewers in this way. Many others slip under the net because it is impossible to monitor them all, 24 hours a day.

The Ofcom ruling also states that:

In this instance, there are no direct precedent cases because this is the first case involving faith-based treatment for serious medical conditions’. We hope that this case will set a precedent for future Ofcom rulings and will also deter other TV companies from making such claims.

You can see the reasoning that led up to Ofcom’s decision here and here.

God, by the way, allegedly intervened in a court case last year which saw Lewis on trial in Jamaica for sexual offences involving two teenage girls, aged 15 and 14, while on a one-week crusade hosted by Fellowship Church of God. After being found not guilty, the shameless charlatan declared:

God is good. God is good. The Lord always told me He will never let me down, and he has never let me down. Thank God it is over.

 Hat tip: Adam Tjaavk and Barriejohn

His “miracle” olive oil soap will even get you “a brand-new home”, if that’s what you’re after.

But UK media regulator Ofcom thought this was pure hokum, and has fined Believe TV – operated by The Light Academy Ltd and broadcast on the Sky platform – £25,000 for allowing Lewis to promote his soap.

In a statement, Ofcom said:

Given that the content was also soliciting a response from viewers, and such individuals experiencing serious illnesses may be vulnerable to the healing claims being made, Ofcom found there was a material risk that susceptible members of the audience may be exploited by the material broadcast on Believe TV.

The finding also referred to previous decisions by both the Advertising Standards Authority and Ofcom concerning content containing similar claims by Paul Lewis which had been broadcast on other channels. When Ofcom had previously recorded breaches against Paul Lewis content broadcast on other channels in 2007 and 2008, Ofcom stated that the breaches… were very serious because the promotions of the Paul Lewis products improperly exploited the susceptibilities of vulnerable viewers of these religious channels.

The regulator criticised The Light Academy for allowing previous breaches to be repeated, and said that the licencee showed “overall very poor compliance” which placed vulnerable viewers directly at risk of harm and exploitation”.

Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, said:

This kind of thing is not unusual in the outer reaches of these manipulative religious TV channels. A quick flick through the ‘Religion’ section of the Sky platform will soon reveal many others who push the limits of acceptability in the claims they make. Believe TV has been caught out repeatedly. A fine is not enough. Its licence to broadcast should be revoked if it cannot be stopped exploiting its viewers in this way. Many others slip under the net because it is impossible to monitor them all, 24 hours a day.

The Ofcom ruling also states that:

In this instance, there are no direct precedent cases because this is the first case involving faith-based treatment for serious medical conditions’. We hope that this case will set a precedent for future Ofcom rulings and will also deter other TV companies from making such claims.

You can see the reasoning that led up to Ofcom’s decision here and here.

God, by the way, allegedly intervened in a court case last year which saw Lewis on trial in Jamaica for sexual offences involving two teenage girls, aged 15 and 14, while on a one-week crusade hosted by Fellowship Church of God. After being found not guilty, the shameless charlatan declared:

God is good. God is good. The Lord always told me He will never let me down, and he has never let me down. Thank God it is over.

 Hat tip: Adam Tjaavk and Barriejohn

His “miracle” olive oil soap will even get you “a brand-new home”, if that’s what you’re after.

But UK media regulator Ofcom thought this was pure hokum, and has fined Believe TV – operated by The Light Academy Ltd and broadcast on the Sky platform – £25,000 for allowing Lewis to promote his soap.

In a statement, Ofcom said:

Given that the content was also soliciting a response from viewers, and such individuals experiencing serious illnesses may be vulnerable to the healing claims being made, Ofcom found there was a material risk that susceptible members of the audience may be exploited by the material broadcast on Believe TV.

The finding also referred to previous decisions by both the Advertising Standards Authority and Ofcom concerning content containing similar claims by Paul Lewis which had been broadcast on other channels. When Ofcom had previously recorded breaches against Paul Lewis content broadcast on other channels in 2007 and 2008, Ofcom stated that the breaches… were very serious because the promotions of the Paul Lewis products improperly exploited the susceptibilities of vulnerable viewers of these religious channels.

The regulator criticised The Light Academy for allowing previous breaches to be repeated, and said that the licencee showed “overall very poor compliance” which placed vulnerable viewers directly at risk of harm and exploitation”.

Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, said:

This kind of thing is not unusual in the outer reaches of these manipulative religious TV channels. A quick flick through the ‘Religion’ section of the Sky platform will soon reveal many others who push the limits of acceptability in the claims they make. Believe TV has been caught out repeatedly. A fine is not enough. Its licence to broadcast should be revoked if it cannot be stopped exploiting its viewers in this way. Many others slip under the net because it is impossible to monitor them all, 24 hours a day.

The Ofcom ruling also states that:

In this instance, there are no direct precedent cases because this is the first case involving faith-based treatment for serious medical conditions’. We hope that this case will set a precedent for future Ofcom rulings and will also deter other TV companies from making such claims.

You can see the reasoning that led up to Ofcom’s decision here and here.

God, by the way, allegedly intervened in a court case last year which saw Lewis on trial in Jamaica for sexual offences involving two teenage girls, aged 15 and 14, while on a one-week crusade hosted by Fellowship Church of God. After being found not guilty, the shameless charlatan declared:

God is good. God is good. The Lord always told me He will never let me down, and he has never let me down. Thank God it is over.

 Hat tip: Adam Tjaavk and Barriejohn

His “miracle” olive oil soap will even get you “a brand-new home”, if that’s what you’re after.

But UK media regulator Ofcom thought this was pure hokum, and has fined Believe TV – operated by The Light Academy Ltd and broadcast on the Sky platform – £25,000 for allowing Lewis to promote his soap.

In a statement, Ofcom said:

Given that the content was also soliciting a response from viewers, and such individuals experiencing serious illnesses may be vulnerable to the healing claims being made, Ofcom found there was a material risk that susceptible members of the audience may be exploited by the material broadcast on Believe TV.

The finding also referred to previous decisions by both the Advertising Standards Authority and Ofcom concerning content containing similar claims by Paul Lewis which had been broadcast on other channels. When Ofcom had previously recorded breaches against Paul Lewis content broadcast on other channels in 2007 and 2008, Ofcom stated that the breaches… were very serious because the promotions of the Paul Lewis products improperly exploited the susceptibilities of vulnerable viewers of these religious channels.

The regulator criticised The Light Academy for allowing previous breaches to be repeated, and said that the licencee showed “overall very poor compliance” which placed vulnerable viewers directly at risk of harm and exploitation”.

Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, said:

This kind of thing is not unusual in the outer reaches of these manipulative religious TV channels. A quick flick through the ‘Religion’ section of the Sky platform will soon reveal many others who push the limits of acceptability in the claims they make. Believe TV has been caught out repeatedly. A fine is not enough. Its licence to broadcast should be revoked if it cannot be stopped exploiting its viewers in this way. Many others slip under the net because it is impossible to monitor them all, 24 hours a day.

The Ofcom ruling also states that:

In this instance, there are no direct precedent cases because this is the first case involving faith-based treatment for serious medical conditions’. We hope that this case will set a precedent for future Ofcom rulings and will also deter other TV companies from making such claims.

You can see the reasoning that led up to Ofcom’s decision here and here.

God, by the way, allegedly intervened in a court case last year which saw Lewis on trial in Jamaica for sexual offences involving two teenage girls, aged 15 and 14, while on a one-week crusade hosted by Fellowship Church of God. After being found not guilty, the shameless charlatan declared:

God is good. God is good. The Lord always told me He will never let me down, and he has never let me down. Thank God it is over.

 Hat tip: Adam Tjaavk and Barriejohn

His “miracle” olive oil soap will even get you “a brand-new home”, if that’s what you’re after.

But UK media regulator Ofcom thought this was pure hokum, and has fined Believe TV – operated by The Light Academy Ltd and broadcast on the Sky platform – £25,000 for allowing Lewis to promote his soap.

In a statement, Ofcom said:

Given that the content was also soliciting a response from viewers, and such individuals experiencing serious illnesses may be vulnerable to the healing claims being made, Ofcom found there was a material risk that susceptible members of the audience may be exploited by the material broadcast on Believe TV.

The finding also referred to previous decisions by both the Advertising Standards Authority and Ofcom concerning content containing similar claims by Paul Lewis which had been broadcast on other channels. When Ofcom had previously recorded breaches against Paul Lewis content broadcast on other channels in 2007 and 2008, Ofcom stated that the breaches… were very serious because the promotions of the Paul Lewis products improperly exploited the susceptibilities of vulnerable viewers of these religious channels.

The regulator criticised The Light Academy for allowing previous breaches to be repeated, and said that the licencee showed “overall very poor compliance” which placed vulnerable viewers directly at risk of harm and exploitation”.

Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, said:

This kind of thing is not unusual in the outer reaches of these manipulative religious TV channels. A quick flick through the ‘Religion’ section of the Sky platform will soon reveal many others who push the limits of acceptability in the claims they make. Believe TV has been caught out repeatedly. A fine is not enough. Its licence to broadcast should be revoked if it cannot be stopped exploiting its viewers in this way. Many others slip under the net because it is impossible to monitor them all, 24 hours a day.

The Ofcom ruling also states that:

In this instance, there are no direct precedent cases because this is the first case involving faith-based treatment for serious medical conditions’. We hope that this case will set a precedent for future Ofcom rulings and will also deter other TV companies from making such claims.

You can see the reasoning that led up to Ofcom’s decision here and here.

God, by the way, allegedly intervened in a court case last year which saw Lewis on trial in Jamaica for sexual offences involving two teenage girls, aged 15 and 14, while on a one-week crusade hosted by Fellowship Church of God. After being found not guilty, the shameless charlatan declared:

God is good. God is good. The Lord always told me He will never let me down, and he has never let me down. Thank God it is over.

 Hat tip: Adam Tjaavk and Barriejohn

Long drew fire from religious leaders after a video showed him being crowned “king” in an elaborate ceremony which one rabbi has been branded “repulsive” and “inappropriate.”

The video, since removed from YouTube, shows Long sitting on a throne and being wrapped in a long ritual shawl which Jews call a tallis.

All this was done in the presence of  Rabbi Ralph Messer, who intoned:

He’s a king. God’s blessed him. He’s a humble man. But in him is kingship. In him is royalty. In him was a land of Israel.

Long is then raised up on a throne to the ecstatic applause of his parishioners. Said Messner:

He now is raised up from a commoner to a kingship.

An associate professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, the Rev Wil Gafney, wrote a lengthy, negative assessment of the ceremony in the Huffington Post. In it, Gafney accused Messer of:

Misrepresentations of the Torah and other Jewish sancta.

And Rabbi David Shiff of Congregation Beth Hallel, a Messianic Jewish synagogue in Roswell, also condemned the ceremony and Messner’s claim that he was a Messianic Jew.

Ralph Messer in no way represents Messianic Judaism. He is not affiliated with any legitimate branch of Messianic Judaism. His actions in no way reflect the position of Messianic Judaism. I found the presentation to be repulsive and inappropriate.

The Torah is believed to be a divine book in Judaism. Jewish groups said Long’s use of the scrolls in a church ceremony was offensive.

After he was accused of sexual misconduct in 2010, Long settled out of court for an unknown amount of money last May and then took a sabbatical to deal with “personal issues.” He returned to the pulpit in January.

Dennis Kruse: a man in favour of flavouring education in Indiania with religious clap-trap

Sponsored by Republican Dennis Kruse, the new bill was worded thus:

The governing body of a school corporation may offer instruction on various theories of the origin of life. The curriculum for the course must include theories from multiple religions, which may include, but is not limited to, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Scientology.

Yes, Scientology!

The bill did not specify whether the instruction should occur in a science class or in another setting, but its sponsors made clear that they saw it as a way to challenge prevailing views on scientific evolution.

The bill, which passed 28 to 22, drew widespread media coverage and triggered condemnations from scientific organisations in the state and across the country.

According to this report, the bill was met with such scorn and derision that the next day the speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives decided that it had become too hot to handle, and that it would be shelved … for the moment.

Steven Salzberg, professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, has a word for advice for the Indiana legislators on his Genomics, Evolution and Pseudoscience blog:

The next time you write a law trying to force the teaching of creationism instead of evolution, get the wording right.  You see, you wrote the bill incorrectly, because evolution is not a theory of the origin of life, as any good high school science teacher could have told you.  (Note to Indiana teachers: I’ve no doubt that you tried to teach these legislators back when they were in school. Apparently they’re still not listening.)  Instead, evolution is a theory that explains how species arise: how a single species can evolve into many, through the process of natural selection.  You might have guessed this from the title of Darwin’s book: The Origin of Species.  Scientists do have theories about the origin of life, but evolution isn’t one of them.

There’s a good letter from a an Indiana high school science teacher on PZ Myer’s blog. But Myers laments the fact that the teacher had asked not to be named:

Not only is the legislature passing stupid laws, but the environment is so oppressive that the science teachers who are expected to implement it cannot speak out against it, for fear of losing their jobs. Indiana, you suck.

John Downie

According to this report, he added that “getting rid of faith schools” would help eradicate the blight of religious hatred north of the border.

Bishop Joseph Devine, the President of the Scottish Catholic Education Commission, last night described Downie’s comments as “reckless” and “offensive”.

Addressing the sectarianism issue in a blog on the SCVO’s website last year, Downie argued that:

In my opinion one key causes [sic] of sectarianism is Scotland continuing to have separate denominational and non-denominational schools … the reality is that separate schools foster estrangement between Catholic and Protestant communities and influence the behaviour of children.

He added:

Yes, the attitudes of parents and grandparents don’t help and need to change but, like it or not, separate schools are a huge factor. The reality is, it doesn’t matter if a school is Catholic, Muslim or non-denominational, it is the attitudes of difference that separate schools perpetuate.

Devine said:

Mr Downie has misused the SCVO website to make offensive and untenable claims that Catholic Schools are a cause of sectarianism in Scotland. Such an intervention is not what one would expect to read on the official website of a respected social agency that is expected to champion co-operation, harmony and tolerance.

The bish added:

If he has no evidence to support his reckless claims perhaps he would have the good grace to withdraw them and better spend his time and energy promoting the interests of his members instead.

And Labour MSP Michael McMahon said:

There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that separate schools create sectarianism – in fact, the opposite is true.

Downie was appointed as SCVO head of public affairs in 2009, leading a department that includes the body’s policy, research, communications and campaigns staff.

UPDATE: It has just been drawn to my attention that, in 2002, Devine admitted that Catholic education is “divisive” and contributes to the problem of sectarianism, but he told the Sunday Herald newspaper it was sometimes “a price worth paying”.

Football beats church anytime.

This cheesy illustration suggests Jesus would approve of Superbowl Sunday

The banner is the brainchild of American Atheists, and it will be flown around Lucas Oil Stadium from 9:30-11:30 am local time.

Dave Silverman, President of American Atheists, explained the thinking behind the airplane banner:

We took advantage of a unique opportunity to remind many Americans that their religion is not as important as they like to pretend it is. In many cities around the country the running joke is that football is the most popular religion.

American Atheists noted that, statistically speaking, there will be more atheists in Lucas Oil Stadium than Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists combined and doubled.

Blair Scott, Communications Director for American Atheists, added:

There are thousands of Super Bowl-related employees working on the Sabbath, which according to the Bible is a sin worthy of being stoned to death. Our desire to be entertained on Sundays puts a lot of Americans to work, but Christian mythology dictates that these American workers are doomed to hell.

In addition to the 70,000 fans sitting in the bleachers at Lucas Oil Stadium, it is estimated that 130 million fans will watch the Super Bowl today. Based on available statistics, 20 million of those viewers will be atheists: enjoying their Sunday without church.

Nigerian humanist Leo Igwe

The attack on the “schizophrenic” Igwe followed the publication in Nigerian News of an article he penned about Nigeria’s “most deadly Islamist sect, Boko Haram”, after it had detonated multiple bombs in the city of Kano.

Igwe declared:

We in Nigeria must stop deceiving ourselves by saying that the Boko Haram attacks have nothing to do with religion. Or that they have nothing to do with Islam … From the pattern of their attacks, the Boko Haram phenomenon has a lot to do with religion, particularly Islam. It is the Nigerian version of al-Qaeda. The militants are not bombing police stations, UN building and churches for the sake of it. They are not agitating for Sharia law for the fun of it. The Boko Haram militants are fighting a holy war. They are prosecuting a jihad for which they expect to be rewarded abundantly in the hereafter with some virgins.

That is why the group has not run out of suicide bombers. That is why they have their operational base in the Muslim majority states. Boko Haram militants have been brainwashed by few Islamic clerics to believe that they are ‘Hezbollah’- the army of Allah. They have been deluded to think that these suicide bomb attacks and other murderous acts they carry out are religious duties in line with the will of Allah and in furtherance of Islam. Nigerian authorities must acknowledge and address the ‘Islamic’ roots of the Boko Haram menace now, before it is too late.

Hitting back at Igwe, Kamor – in a lengthy, mind-numbingly retort – wrote:

This is obviously a clever ploy to inject the poisonous myth of a blood-thirsty Islam that inspires its adherent to commit indiscriminate acts of violence into the hearts and minds of the reading public. Yet the author failed miserably to provide a single reference from the Quran or the Hadiths to support his absurd position. For clarity sake, God forbids the killing of ANY innocent person in the Qur’an, and to violently damage any building is wrong.

It is simply easy to see that the author [Igwe] wrote in a bad taste not to expose our common threat, but to mischaracterize Islam in a way that de-humanizes Muslims.

He added:

When we look at the highest authority in Islam, the Quran, we find nothing in it endorsing rewards for indiscriminate killing or killing of innocent people. Instead we find the strongest condemnation with severe punishments for those who engage in such actions. When we look at Hadith, which after the Quran is second in authority in Islam, we find nothing endorsing terrorism either. Instead we find strong condemnation for it.  

Kamor then addresses the “72 virgins” issue at great length, saying that, in searching what Muslims refer to as Gharib Hadith (weak or strange Hadiths):

We do find something about 72 wives but not virgins. Muslims know that the description of paradise or heaven in Hadiths and Quran is allegorical. If not, then Allah would have allowed us to take our bodies with us when we die …

However:

The Quran and authentic Hadiths let us know that anyone that makes it to paradise will be given palaces to live in, and clothing fit for royalty, with luxurious couches, thrones for everyone amongst other grandiose things. There will be rivers of the purest water, milk, wine, and honey, all of which are better than any you will find on earth … those who get to the highest part of Paradise, Jannah al-Firdaus, will also be able to see Allah with their own eyes. This greatest reward, rather than the promise of a sensual pleasure in the hereafter [is] to be in the presence of our Lord and to see His Face is the prayer of all Muslims.

Kamor wanders even deeper into La-La Land with this assertion:

Islam being a highly ethical religion rejects such anarchy and mischief. Islam commands Muslims to have a deep respect for all human life and to ensure peaceful-co-existence. This is why Islam was able to co-exist peacefully with Christianity in the Middle East since the time of prophet Muhammad (AS), a fact that becomes evident when one considers the fact that the Middle Eastern Christian community is a historical community, rather than a community of converts. The presence of this community since the time of Jesus Christ (AS) and its thriving under many Islamic rulers bear eloquent testimony to how important Islam considers freedom of worship and peaceful co-existence.

 

According to this report, OMM are all of a lather over the fact DeGeneres has partnered with US retail chain JC Penney to promote the company, and the Christian crazies are demanding that she be replaced by someone not openly gay.

A statement on the group’s website says:

Funny that JC Penney thinks hiring an open homosexual spokesperson will help their business when most of their customers are traditional families. Degeneres is not a true representation of the type of families that shop at their store. The majority of JC Penney shoppers will be offended and choose to no longer shop there.

First Lady Michelle Obama pictured with DeGeneres on national TV recently

Fortunately DeGeneres has a strong supporter on her side, challenging the bigoted boycott. GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) has jumped into the ring to defend the former Emmys host and is calling  – via a petition – for community members and supporters to tell JC Penney that they made the right choice after all. As of this morning, over 22,000 people had signed the petition.

Herndon Graddick, Senior Director of Programs and Communications at GLAAD  said:

While designated hate groups try to start ‘culture wars,’ it’s clear that a vast majority of Americans today support Ellen as well as their LGBT friends and family members. Selecting an out performer who has inspired and entertained millions is not only a smart business practice, but a reflection of how LGBT Americans today are an integral and valued part of the fabric of our culture.

But The Moms whined:

By jumping on the pro-gay bandwagon, JC Penney is attempting to gain a new target market and in the process will lose customers with traditional values that have been faithful to them over all these years.

Hat tip: Pete H

Muslim men got upset watching male dogs sniffing females and then mounting them in public. They found it indecent. Dog burqas  – [barkas] – nip that in the bud.

Given that just about everything Islamic is utterly insane, it seemed plausible that a canine cover-up had been proposed – until the name Mohammed Qootip leapt from the page. The “moderate student” who owns a female collie, said:

It makes us look ridiculous. Also, it makes it difficult to recognise our dogs. And half the time they end up soiling the burqa. It’s a mess.

I was reminded of that satirical piece today after reading that Hasan Küçük, a Turkish-Dutch representative for the Islam Democrats, called for a ban on dogs in The Hague, the third-largest city in the Netherlands.

The Hague city council member’s call for a ban followed a proposal by the Party for the Animals (Partij voor de Dieren) to make the city more dog friendly.

Burqas for dogs – or 'barkas' – could be the solution to Muslims' distaste for canines

Küçük was not best pleased, and counter-argued that keeping dogs as pets is tantamount to animal abuse and he then called for the possession of dogs in The Hague to be criminalised.

Paul ter Linden, who represents the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) on The Hague city council, responded to Küçük by saying:

In this country pet ownership is legal. Whoever disagrees with this should move to another country.

In 2010 a senior Iranian cleric decreed that dogs are “unclean” and should not be kept as pets — a move aimed at discouraging western-style dog ownership in the Islamic state.

According to this report, dogs are considered “unclean” under Islamic tradition but some people do keep them as pets in Iran. By issuing a fatwa Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi sent a clear message this trend must stop. He said:

Friendship with dogs is a blind imitation of the West. There are lots of people in the West who love their dogs more than their wives and children.

Guard dogs and sheep dogs are considered acceptable under Islamic law, but Iranians who carry dogs in their cars or take them to public parks can be stopped by police and fined.

The Koran does not explicitly prohibit contact with dogs, Shirazi said, but Islamic tradition showed it to be so.

We have lots of narrations in Islam that say dogs are unclean.

Hat tip: Remigius

A Yougov poll for the Sunday Times asked:

Currently, 26 senior Church of England bishops are entitled to sit in the House of Lords and vote on laws. Do you think bishops should or should not be entitled to seats in the House of Lords?

In response, 58 percent said no, they should not be entitled, while 24 percent thought they should. 18 percent didn’t know.

It also asked:

How in touch or out of touch with public opinion do you think the Church of England bishops are? 65 percent said they were out of touch, 21 percent said they were in touch while 14 percent didn’t know.

Reacting here to the poll results, Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the National Secular Society, said:

The Government should take its cue on the Bench of Bishops in the House of Lords from the public, who overwhelmingly believe the Bishops should go. The time has gone for kow-towing to these out-of-touch bishops and vested interests in the Church. When reform of the House of Lords comes up for debate, the removal of the Bench of Bishops can now be considered with confidence with the knowledge that most of the country think it should go.

According to this piece in the New Humanist, in 2007 the Bishop of Chelmsford defended the bishops’ presence by saying:

My Lords, we on these benches accept that we have been entrusted with the spiritual well-being of this country. That is why we are here as Lords Spiritual and not peers of the realm.

Jake Bromberg, author of the piece, entitled Holy Relics, asked:

And what exactly was the basis for such confidence? History. ‘Over many centuries,’ the good bishop continued, ‘it has been thought and practised that, in shaping our laws and customs in the character of the governance of our country, Parliament should take account of our spiritual inheritance.’

The first report concerns Alexander Aan, a civil servant who was detained after declaring on Facebook that God did not exist. Police charged him with blasphemy, but Dharmasraya police chief Chairul Aziz said:

'Blasphemer' Alexander Aan

His parents came and told us that he wanted to repent.

Aziz said Aan was not charged because he was an atheist but because he blasphemed against Islam on the Facebook page called Minang Atheists, which Aan moderated.

He said Islam was this and that and that the Prophet Mohammed was like this and that.  If he wants to be atheist, that’s fine, but don’t insult religions.

Aziz added even if Aan renounced atheism, the case against him would proceed.

Meanwhile, “true” sons of the “Prophet” – represented by members of Kirklees Muslim Action Committee – are at loggerheads with “fake” Muslims who belong to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, which is holding a Koran exhibition in Dewsbury Town Hall.

The former group has accused the organisers of:

Hijacking the Muslim identity.

It says the Ahmadiyya lot – which hit the headlines in the Jesus & Mo university kerfuffle recently – has no right to put on an exhibition about the Koran because they are non-Muslims. Committee member Dr Abid Hussain said:

We object strongly to the fact that a small minority are telling people about the Holy Koran when they are not even Muslims.

Ahmadiyyas hit back, saying they WERE Muslims. Arif Ahmad, vice president of the Spen Valley branch which covers north Kirklees said:

There are doctrinal differences between different groups but we believe ourselves to be Muslims. We believe the Holy Koran is our holy book and we hope to show it to the public.

In 1974 members of the Ahmadiyya sect were declared to be non-Muslims by the World Muslim League and are not recognised as Muslims in several countries’ constitutions.

Hat tip: Remigius

Despite the fact that the patch, according to this report, is completely optional and players can choose whether or not they want to romance companions of the same sex, Tony Perkins, FRC’s lunatic-in-chief, recently appeared in a video, saying:

In a new Star Wars game, the biggest threat to the empire may be homosexual activists! In a galaxy not so far, far away, Star Wars gamers have already gone to the dark side. The new video game, Star Wars: The Old Republic, has added a special feature: gay relationships.

Bioware, the company that developed the game, said it’s launching a same-sex romance component to satisfy some complaints. That surprised a lot of gamers, since Bioware had made it clear in 2009 that ‘gay’ and ‘lesbian’ don’t exist in the Star Wars universe.

Since the announcement, homosexuals have been celebrating the news, but parents sure aren’t. On the game’s website, there are more than 300 pages of comments – a lot of them expressing anger that their kids will be exposed to this Star Warped way of thinking. You can join them by logging on and speaking up. It’s time to show companies who the Force is really with!

Of course, video games have long been under fire from Christian clowns, like the pair of lovelies pictured below. He is an unnamed granddad, concerned over the “totally demonic” content of Pokemon, and the “addictive” nature Minecraft,  which so distracts children that they:

Don’t go back to reading their Bibles, or study the Word.

She is Watchmen Broadcasting’s co-founder, Dorothy Spauling, and together they have managed to create one of the funniest video clips I have seen in a very long while. Click on pic to watch the rant.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn

Randy Roberts Potts and his granddad, Oral Roberts (click on image for video)

In an interview with CNN, Potts, who spent years of his life “running away from his sexual identity and his family name” was prompted to come out of the closet in the wake of recent reports about young men committing suicide because of their homosexuality.

He made an It Gets Better video dedicated to a gay uncle who committed suicide, and is now promoting his Gay Agenda tour through the Bible Belt.

Potts, who married aged 20 and has three children, revealed that he has “a tense relationship” with his mother, who still insists that :

Homosexuality leads to death and the Bible condemns it.

Asked what his late grandfather would have made of his mission, Potts – who is about to marry his male partner – said:

If he was still around and in his prime, this might be a cause he would take up. I know he had a lot of fear about homosexuality, but he might have been more accepting if he were younger.

Hat tip: Canada Dave

The moment Tristan hugged Nathan. Photo Michelle at maladjustedmedia.com

Nathan, member of the Marin Foundation who is pictured being hugged by a man in his underwear, joined members of the foundation, wearing T-shirts with “I’m Sorry” written on it. There were also signs that said, “I’m sorry that Christians judge you,” “I’m sorry the way churches have treated you,” “I used to be a Bible-banging homophobe, sorry.”

Said Nathan in a blog post entitled I hugged a man in his underwear. And I am proud:

 We wanted to be an alternative Christian voice from the protestors that were there speaking hate into megaphones. 

Nathan added:

What I loved most about the day is when people ‘got it’. I loved watching people’s faces as they saw our shirts, read the signs, and looked back at us. Responses were incredible. Some people blew us kisses, some hugged us, some screamed thank you. A couple ladies walked up and said we were the best thing they had seen all day. I wish I had counted how many people hugged me. One guy in particular softly said, ‘Well, I forgive you’.

What touched Nathan most – literally – was getting a hug from a man dressed solely in white underwear who “had a pack of abs like no one else.”

That man turned out to be Tristan, who runs his own computer consulting company called Tech Direct 2 U in Joliet, Illinois. Nathan made contact with Tristan, who told him that, as a youngster:

I was enthralled with the Bible and ‘the word of God. I then read the Bible cover to cover and saw so much hate, arrogance, and oppression, so I started to ask questions. The blatant disregard for human life and especially for women was just appalling to me. The more answers I received from my [Catholic] priest and other people of religion just became too much for me.

Tristan added:

So then, around age 16, I ‘lost my faith.’ I searched for a couple of years and looked into other beliefs just to come to the same conclusion. I practiced Zen Buddhism for a few years and started reading more into the universe and science. I then realized that I was just an atheist and have been an atheist for over ten years now. I feel that people have the right to their own beliefs and their own lives, and should do whatever is in their power to be happy in this life.

Alain de Botton

Getting wound up by the squads of religionists who get a disproportionate amount of airtime on the BBC is something that happens to people like me far too often – but in this case it was an ATHEIST who got me spitting tacks.

Alain de Botton, philosopher and author of a new book entitled Religion for Atheists, argues in a piece – now posted as an audio file on Facebook – that atheists have a lot to learn about cohesiveness, morality and aesthetics from religious communities. WTF!

According to this blurb, de Botton’s book:

Explains ways in which atheists should look to religion for some solutions to contemporary ills. In doing so, he hopes to move the tired old debate between atheists and believers onto more fruitful ground.

Blending deep respect with total impiety, de Botton proposes that agnostics and atheists should stop mocking religions and start stealing from them. For too long, he believes, we have faced a false choice between either swallowing doctrines or doing away with consoling and beautiful rituals and ideas.

According to this report, the ridiculous Republican and ardent Christian pro-lifer said he filed the bill after reading that an anti-abortion group – Children of God for Life – had called on the public to boycott products of several major food companies.

Wingnut Sen Ralph Shortey is 'hilariously delusional'

COGFL claimed that the companies had partnered with a biotech enterprise that produces artificial flavour enhancers. One corporation, PepsiCo did partner with food product development company Senomyx to develop a new low-calorie sweetener, but Pepsico denied using foetal tissue in its research in an April 2011 email to Children of God for Life.

In this report, Shortey was quoted as saying:

As a pro-life advocate, it kind of disturbed me that we would use aborted embryos or aborted human fetuses to extract stem cells and use them for research to basically make things taste better.

He admitted that he had never heard of any instances of this happening, but decided that his bill would, at the very least, give any food companies toying with the idea an “ultimatum.”

The legislation, known as SB 1418, states:

No person or entity shall manufacture or knowingly sell food or any other product intended for human consumption which contains aborted human fetuses in the ingredients or which used aborted human fetuses in the research or development of any of the ingredients.

Federal food safety officials have never heard of such a thing happening. A US Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman said that the agency has never received any reports of foetuses being used in food production.

Shortey, elected in 2010, has introduced a spate of dottyl bills including denying Oklahoma citizenship to children of illegal immigrants born in the state. Another bill he concocted would have allowed police to confiscate the homes and cars of illegal immigrants. He also tried to advance a bill that would have required presidential candidates to provide proof of citizenship before being allowed on Oklahoma’s primary ballot.

None of Shortey’s controversial bills have become law.

As news began circulating of his latest legislative priority, the Twitterverse erupted with disbelief and amusement.

One person wrote:

This may conflict with my dream of eating aborted fetus dumplings, but Sen Ralph Shortey is hilariously delusional.

Another said:

Today in Oklahoma crazy: Sen Ralph Shortey (R) proposes banning ‘human fetuses in food’. Didn’t know it was a thing.

Hat tip: Buffy

I don’t believe in Heaven anymore, Moody’s just dead.

Moody, left, and the godly Bartlett

Moody, according to this report, died after falling, or having been thrown off a 40ft-high bridge by Rick Bartlett, pastor of the Bastrop Christian Church. He now faces a charge of animal cruelty which could result in a $4,000 dollar fine and a year’s imprisonment.

He trapped the child’s pet in a cage after having had trouble with feral cats in his garden. He then placed Moody in his pick-up truck, where it was “forgotten” for three days.

The pastor then drove the cat to the police.

An animal protection officer  noticed a name tag, including the phone number of Moody’s owners, Sarah and Eddy Bell, on the cat’s collar. The officer offered to take Moody back to his owners but police said Bartlett told them he’d take the cat back himself since they were his neighbours.

The kitschy sign outside the Bartletts' Bastrop home

Later on the same day, a park visitor discovered Moody’s near lifeless body on the bank of the Colorado River, some 40-50 feet below the bridge.

There is a possibility that the animal had jumped from the truck, rather than having been thrown, but but in the eyes of the law, the animal cruelty charges are the same since Bartlett admitted to police that the animal was in his care.

Moody was Sarah and Eddy Bell’s cat for 11 years.  They said that trying to explain his death to their daughter has proved “challenging”.

Hat tip: Remigius

Chowcat is a magistrate in Yorkshire, and according to this report, she accepted the defence of a 73-year-old Catholic priest who crashed his wheels into the car of a young woman  in the car park of St John the Baptist Church in Normanton.

Canon Peter Maguire – Picture Ross Parry Agency

Canon Peter Maguire was double the drink-drive limit and unsteady on his feet when the crash occurred, but he denied a drink-driving charge, maintaining he was not using a public road when the offence was committed.

Chowcat heard the boozehound  hit the car of a woman attending a puppy-training club in the church hall on August 30 last year. The priest had been “drinking socially” before attempting to move his car from the car park to his garage. He hit Hindle’s blue Vauxhall Astra with his Fiat Punto.

The car park he was in services the church, the church hall, the church social club and the Presbytery. And although it is used by those attending the church for weddings and funerals and guests at the Parish club it was argued that, at the time, it was only being used by those attending the puppy club and, therefore, was not open to the public.

Hindle told Wakefield Magistrates Court:

Somebody came into the hall at the end of the club and asked who had a blue Astra, I said it was me, and I was told: ‘I think the priest has just hit your car’.

She rushed out to see that her car was slightly damaged, and the priest was:

Unsteady on his feet and a appeared a little bit vacant. I thought he was drunk because of his demeanour, the vagueness and the unsteadiness on his feet. He suggested we could sort anything between ourselves and handed me his card, but at that point I was already speaking to the police.

Charles McRae, prosecuting, argued the car park was a public place because it could be used by anybody who wished to go into the church and that the church was a spiritual place open to all.

But Denis Lofthouse, representing Canon Maguire, said the church operated as a business and the only people allowed in were those who had been invited or were paying, as in the case of Miss Hindle.

The car park could be deemed as open to the public some of the time and not at others. At the time of the accident, it was a private car park.

Delivering her not guilty verdict Chowcat said:

The court finds the car park is not a public place, the people using the car park were members of the puppy club, we regard the puppy club as a closed group because they have to pay a fee to attend.

Hat tip: Glenn

In 2008, Americans made history by choosing their first black President. This time round, they could break with precedent again – by electing a Mormon. Mitt Romney, the strong favourite for the Republican nomination, is a devout follower of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A Mormon President? Heaven for forbid, say a vast number of Christian fundamentalist, including Pastors for Huckabee. Here’s a screen shot from their website, replete with spelling error:

While I was researching  Mormonism, and its effect on US voters, I received an email yesterday from “Molly”, who lives in the US. She has made a most informative and fascinating video about Mormonism:

An image from the Egyptian ancient Book of the Dead inspired the charlatan Joseph Smith to invent Mormonism (click on pic to see video)

“Molly” then informed me that she was a Dudist … and as of today, I am a Dudist too – and I have the certificate to prove it.

The Church of the Latter Day Dude, to give it its full name, claims to be “the slowest-growing religion in the world” – and says on its website that it is:

An ancient philosophy that preaches non-preachiness, practices as little as possible, and above all, uh…lost my train of thought there. Anyway, if you’d like to find peace on earth and goodwill, man, we’ll help you get started. Right after a little nap.

It is the brainchild of freelance journalist and photographer Oliver Benjamin, who is based in Thailand. In an interview with CNN last August, Benjamin said:

Jeff Dowd, left, the real-life person upon whom the character of the Dude was based, appears alongside Oliver Benjamin at the 2008 Lebowskifest in San Francisco, California. Photo courtesty Oliver Benjamin

 Money is power. Dudeists don’t tend to be the upper crust of society. So we’re never going to compete with the really wealthy religions like Christianity.

Ideally, we’d like to help people find ways to earn money with less work, but of course that’s always a challenge. Fifty years ago, everyone thought that robots would be doing all the work for us and people would be living lives of leisure. That this has not come to pass is surely mankind’s biggest tragedy.

Benjamin, who was inspired by the Coen Brothers’ movie, The Big Lebowski, to establish his new religion, added:

One problem also is that too many people just think the Dude is a burned out hedonistic stoner. Nothing could be further from the truth. He’s an intellectual with strong moral character and a lively, creative mind.

He’s also a stoner, but that’s not a bad thing. Too many people confuse Dudeism with anarchism or selfish laziness. Dudeism recognizes the need for organization and rules, and the laziness it touts is disciplined and determined.

Free time should be used to free your mind and cultivate inner peace. Not to play ‘Grand Theft Auto’ all day and gorge on snack food.

In explaining what Dudism is, Benjamin points out:

Incidentally, the term ‘dude’ is commonly agreed to refer to both genders. Most linguists contend that ‘Dudette’ is not in keeping with the parlance of our times.

Naturally, I support this, but I do think it regrettable that freedom of expression has been coupled with secularism here. Freedom of expression should exist both for those who support and those who oppose secularism. There are, for example, many instances of Christianity in the UK being discriminated against as a result of secularism.

I immediately responded to this bilge, saying:

Christians being discriminated against in the UK? That’s just rubbish. The majority of recent high-profile “persecuted Christian” cases have either involved homophobic bigots who flouted equality legislation, or zealots who have refused to comply with dress codes that forbid the wearing of religious symbols at work. These people have unreasonably demanded exemption from anti-discrimination laws and workplace rules, and fully deserve to be prosecuted and held up to ridicule. 

And Hassan Radwan said:

Secularism is the only way to guarantee freedom of expression. If we allow religion – any religion – to dictate what we can say and do, you can kiss goodbye to freedom of expression and a good many other freedoms. Christianity today is only relatively benign because secularism and the enlightenment has pushed it into the private sphere and defanged it. But give it half a chance and it would soon be enforcing itself on us all – for the love of Jesus of course.

Please feel free to add a comment on the Facebook page.

According to Maryam Namazie, the call for action follows an increased number of attacks on free expression in the UK, including 17-year-old Rhys Morgan being forced to remove a Jesus and Mo cartoon or face expulsion from his Sixth Form College, and demands by the UCL Union that the Atheist society remove a Jesus and Mo cartoon from its Facebook page.

It also follows threats of violence, police being called, and the cancellation of a meeting at Queen Mary College where One Law for All spokesperson Anne Marie Waters was to deliver a speech on Sharia.

The Day of Action has already been endorsed by nearly 100 groups and individuals including Jessica Ahlquist, Centre for Secular Spaces, Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, Richard Dawkins, Equal Rights Now, Jesus and Mo Creator, Taslima Nasrin, National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies, National Secular Society, Salman Rushdie, Southall Black Sisters, and Peter Tatchell. Please add your name to the declaration.

In addition to the London rally, there will be demos and acts of solidarity in other countries, including Australia, France, Gambia, Germany and Poland. To see the list or to add your own action or event, click here.

Said Namazie:

Clearly, the time has come to take a firm and uncompromising stand for free expression and against all forms of threats and censorship. The right to criticise religion is a fundamental right that is crucial to many, including Muslims. February 11 is our chance to take that stand. You need to be there. Enough is enough.

Dozier, left, and Santorum

Take, for example, the Rev O’Neal Dozier, a wingnut described here as “a firebrand social conservative”, who heads the Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach, Florida. Dozier loathes Islam and cares even less for The Gays:

Dozier, honorary chairman of wannabe president Rick Santorum’s Florida campaign, once declared that homosexuality was:

Something so nasty and disgusting that it makes God want to vomit.

Santorum, “a conservative darling in the Republican presidential race”, yesterday spoke from the pulpit at Dozier’s Church.

At a Reclaiming America convention in 2003, Dozier declared that:

We should take control of every facet of society.

He added that God was:

100 percent for capital punishment. Oh, yeah, God knew some were going to slip through, a few innocent ones. He knew that. But you cannot have a society without capital punishment.

He also said:

God would never ordain a government to take from the rich to give to the poor, you see, so therefore God is not a socialist. God is not a Robin Hood.

After Santorum said his piece at the Worldwide Christian Center, Dozier told the Palm Beach Post that Mitt Romney was bound not for the White House, but for hell:

You can look at the June Gallup poll that shows the people have already spoken – 22 percent of the electorate will not vote for a Mormon.

He added:

Blacks are not going to vote for anyone of the Mormon faith. The book of Mormon says the Negro skin is cursed.

The unnamed rape victim, according to this report, was sentenced to death by a criminal court in the western Red Sea port of Jeddah for stabbing an older boy – a friend – who carried out the sexual assault nearly nine months ago.

The boy, whose age was not revealed, told the court that he was at his friend’s home when he was asked to take his clothes off. When he refused, he was forced at knifepoint to strip,  and was then raped.

Just after he finished, the assailant apologised and “took oath on the Koran” that he would never do it again.

But two months later, the boy was returning home late night when he found his friend waiting outside. He told him to go home but the boy insisted on taking him to his house to have sex with him again.

The boy told court that he reminded his friend of his oath, but that the victim would not listen and insisted on sleeping with him. He told the judge that he had no choice but to stab his friend to prevent a second rape.

The rape victim’s father is now appealing for benevolent people to help him raise the money needed to save his son’s life. The victim’s relatives are demanding £1.16 –m.

Under Islamic law, a convicted killer can walk free if pardon by the victim’s relatives in return for diya (blood money).

According to the BBC, civil servant Alexander Aan, 31, is now in protective police custody after he was attacked by an angry mob earlier this week. He may also lose his job over his posting on the social networking site.

Atheism is a violation of Indonesian law under the founding principles of the country.

Police said that according to Indonesian criminal law, anyone who tried to stop others believing in a faith could face up to five years in prison

Back now to the ongoing Jesus & Mo row. Wunderkind Rhys Morgan, 17, who received the James Randi Award for Grassroots Skepticism for outing a scam drug, got himself into hot water after he posted the J&M cartoon in solidarity with the University College London’s Atheist, Secular, and Humanist Society.

Because that image from the comic Jesus and Mo was his Facebook photo for a week, he has been harassed and threatened at school by his classmates. The sixth-former was then summoned by his head of year and told to remove the cartoon. When he said no, he was threatened with expulsion. Rhys details the saga, under the head Intolerant Islam on his blog.

Maryam Namazie, who is calling for a rally on 11 February, 2012, in central London from 2-4pm in defence of free expression and the right to criticise religion, revealed that Rhys has now removed the cartoon from Facebook. In an email to Namazie, Rhys said:

Unfortunately, given the extreme situation, I’ve removed the image in question. They thanked me for being ‘co-operative’, even though the reason I did it was purely selfish – not being expelled. They didn’t actually state whether I was going to be, but based on their wording, it’s obvious that is what they were threatening.

One Law for All, which is organising the free speech rally, is also calling for simultaneous events and acts in defence of free expression on on the same day in countries world-wide.

The call follows an increased number of attacks on free expression in the UK, including demands by the UCL Union that the Atheist society remove a Jesus and Mo cartoon from its Facebook page. It also follows threats of violence, police being called, and the cancellation of a meeting at Queen Mary College where One Law for All spokesperson Anne Marie Waters was to deliver a speech on Sharia.

Two days later at the same college, though, the Islamic Society held a meeting on traditional Islam with a speaker who has called for the death of apostates, those who mock Islam, and secularist Muslims.

Said Namazie:

Whilst none of this is new, recent events reveal an increased confidence of Islamists to censor free expression publicly, particularly given the support received from universities and other bodies in the name of false tolerance, cultural sensitivity and respect.

The right to criticise religion, however, is a fundamental right that is crucial to many, including Muslims.

Clearly, the time has come to take a firm and uncompromising stand for free expression and against all forms of threats and censorship. February 11 is our chance to take that stand.

UPDATE: The BBC reports that celebrated author Sir Salman Rushdie, will not attend India’s biggest  literary festival  for fear of assassination by Muslim fanatics. The author had been due to speak at the Jaipur literature festival later this month.

He said he had been told by sources that assassins:

May be on the way to Jaipur to kill me.

FURTHER UPDATE: Teenage atheist Jessica Ahlquist, who won law suit that compelled her school to remove a tacky, unconstitutional, prayer thingummy from a hall wall continues to be the target of Christian rage.

Jessica Ahlquist

Rhode Island State Representative Peter Palumbo referred to her as “an evil little thing”, and on Wednesday, according to this report, four different Rhode Island florists in the Cranston area refused to deliver flowers to Jessica.

At least one florist claimed to be frightened of the potential backlash from angry Christians who do not want Jessica to receive any flowers.

Hat tip: Marcus Robinson (Indonesia report) and BarrieJohn (Rushdie)

The society, according to the BBC, said Yellon was stepping down to be replaced by former Vice President Michael Thor.

Michael Paynter, secretary for the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies, said:

Robbie stepped aside because he signed up as president to organise events and run a student society. He did not appreciate the stress he would be under when dealing with a controversy like this, so he wanted to make way for someone else.

Meanwhile, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association is continuing with its protest against the image, saying it has wider implications.

Adam Walker, the association’s national spokesperson, said the two student groups had worked well together in the past and said the offence was unnecessary.

The principle is more important than who is being attacked  – this time it is Muslims and Christians but in the future it could be atheists themselves.

There is no need to print these things other than to cause offence and history has told us that these things cause offence.

He added:

I wouldn’t say we’re specifically pursuing UCL atheist society, it’s more about the broader principle.

UCL Union (UCLU) said in a statement:

The atheist society has agreed they will take more consideration when drawing up publicity for future events. The society was asked to remove the image because UCLU aims to foster good relations between different groups of students and create a safe environment where all students can benefit from societies regardless of their religious or other beliefs.

And while on the subject of freedom of expression, it seems as if the disruption of the shariah meeting at the Queen Mary University of London had been orchestrated by extremists from Islam Awakening, which posted this lamentably illiterate call on its blog on Monday:

Brothers, the Queen Mary Athiest Society, sister of the shaytaani UCL Athiest Society (which published pictures of Rasoolullah(saw)) are holding an event today at Queen Mary University of London at 7:00 pm on ‘ Is Shariah in violation of human rights’.

We need your presence. Who gave these kuffar the right to speak? Let me ask you – if a bunch of kuffar got together and were given the right to touch your mother up and analyse her, then would you stand by and let it happen? Then what about your deen?!!

Remember, these guys hate religion and are not looking to have an unbiased debate. Please be here by 7 pm. to let them know what we think. Back in my day no-one in UNi would dare even look the wrong way at a muslim, because we used to represent our deen and didnt take kindly to it being insulted. It is only when the pacifists ecame numerous that the kuffar dared to raise their heads.

Well, I guess this says it all ... thanks Remigius

Hat tip: Marcus Robinson

Earlier this week, I was alerted to some bilge called the Declaration On The Torah Approach To Homosexuality, which states:

The Torah makes a clear statement that homosexuality is not an acceptable lifestyle or a genuine identity by severely prohibiting its conduct. Furthermore, the Torah, ever prescient about negative secular influences, warns us in Vayikra (Leviticus) 20:23 ‘Do not follow the traditions of the nations that I expel from before you…’

Rabbi Ralbag

The declaration, signed by 162 rabbis and mental health practitioners – that is, health practitioners who are mental – also states that “homosexuality is not an acceptable lifestyle” and that “behaviours are changeable”.

One rabbi who gleefully attached his name to this crap was New York based Aryeh Ralbag, who manages to find time four times a year to get his ignorant arse off to Amsterdam, to perform his duties as the city’s Chief Rabbi.

Well, that signature, we learned today, has cost the fuzz-faced old loon his job.

According to this report, so great was the outrage in Holland over his association with the declaration that the Jewish community on Amsterdam decided to summarily axe him. Ralbag will remain suspended until he and community leaders have spoken about the issue

A press release by the community’s board, NIHS, said:

Rabbi Ralbag’s signature may give the impression the Orthodox Jewish community of Amsterdam shares his view. This is absolutely untrue. Homosexuals are welcome at the Amsterdam Jewish community.

The Dutch Israel information centre CIDI had also called on Ralbag to stand down from his Amsterdam position.

Meanwhile, it was reported here that Dutch medical organisations and health insurers are unhappy over having to pay for quack “gay-cure” therapies.

The treatment is offered by the orthodox Christian organisation Different, a recognised provider of therapies in mental health care. Because it is officially recognised, health insurers cannot refuse to pay for the treatment.

However, doctors and insurers say the treatment is damaging and even dangerous, and want the health inspectorate to look into the matter.

Hat tip: Remigius

Jennifer Hardy, President of the Atheism, Secularism and Humanism Society at Queen Mary University, London, said here:

Five minutes before the talk was due to start a man burst into the room holding a camera phone and for some seconds stood filming the faces of all those in the room.

He shouted ‘listen up all of you, I am recording this, I have your faces on film now, and I know where some of you live’. At that moment he aggressively pushed the phone in someone’s face and then said ‘and if I hear that anything is said against the holy Prophet Muhammad, I will hunt you down.’ He then left the room and two members of the audience applauded.

The fanatic also also filmed students in the foyer and threatened to murder them and their families.

Ann Marie Waters, National Secular Society council member

The talk was due to be delivered by National Secular Society council member Ann Marie Waters on behalf of the One Law for All Campaign. She said:

Rather fittingly – and as if to prove my point – my human rights were quashed by a person demonstrating one of the effects of sharia law; the threat of violence for criticising religion.

Jennifer Hardy added:

This event was supposed to be an opportunity for people of different religions and perspectives to debate at a university that is supposed to be a beacon of free speech and debate.

Only two complaints had been made to the Union prior to the event, and the majority of the Muslim students at the event were incredibly supportive of it going ahead.

These threats were an aggressive assault on freedom of speech and the fact that they led to the cancellation of our talk was severely disappointing for all of the religious and non-religious students in the room who wanted to engage in debate.

In a personal account of the incident, Waters said:

On reflection of the incident, I am left wondering what exactly we could have done. I would love to say that we stood up to him and carried on bravely in a valiant defence of free speech, but it was a frightening experience and I know that people felt genuinely threatened and upset. In any case, is it the role of speakers and students to face off against potentially violent Islamists in defence of our free speech, risking our safety in the process? Just whose job is it to defend freedom of speech and can we be expected to fight for it when the state and other powers refuse to back us up?

Question: can you remember the last time you heard the Government – or any political party – give a robust and dogged defence of free speech? No, neither can I. But there have been plenty of opportunities.

Take the Danish cartoon affair for example. Look at the pathetic response of the British Government at the time; ‘There is freedom of speech, we all respect that … But there is not any obligation to insult or to be gratuitously inflammatory. I believe that the republication of these cartoons has been unnecessary. It has been insensitive. It has been disrespectful and it has been wrong.’ Even the UN said it would investigate whether the cartoonists were racists. How can we expect people in a university lecture hall to stand up to violent threats when this is the reaction of our leaders? The message is very clear – don’t insult religion. And if you do, and you get in to trouble for it, you have only yourself to blame (or ‘don’t come crying to us’?)

Freedom of speech needs to be defended from above. We need prosecution and punishment of those intent on frightening people into staying silent. Until the state speaks out and makes it clear to the likes of this guy that this behaviour is not acceptable – no excuses, no apologies – these things will continue to happen and more and more people will be frightened in to shutting up. We can then say goodbye to freedom for good.

Hat tip: Great Satan, Graham Martin-Royle, Adam Tjaavk

Not surprisingly, John M White and AngieRS are somewhat puzzled to have received a communication from the nutter.

Stephen Green

Said White:

Oddly, I just got an email from Stephen Green.  He was politely asking me to sign a petition to moan at Tesco for sponsoring another gay pride event, and to gloat about the dip in their share price that was supposed divine retribution for them suggesting gay people not be stoned to death, but be respected as a part of the community.

I politely declined  … I am curious if anyone else who has been a commenter on his site received a similar email.  I am not part of his mailing list and I can’t think of any way I would end up receiving it unless he accidentally sent it to the blacklist of people banned from commenting.

I think I commented twice and disagreed with him so I imagine my address got linked into a database of his somewhere.

And AngieRS said:

Hi, I don’t know why I’m on Birdshit’s contact list, but I got this from him today.

Attached to her message was a copy of Green’s email, notifying supporters that the wording of a petition he concocted has been amended, and that it now reads:

We the undersigned note that retail giant Tesco are to give £30,000 to the 2012 London Gay Pride, also known as ‘World Pride’.

We believe no business should promote immorality, obscenity, aggression and division, especially if it wishes to retain the loyalty of Christian customers.

We intend to shop elsewhere until Tesco reverse this decision.

According to this report – following a campaign by the British Humanist Association –  the Department for Education has revised its model funding agreement, allowing the Education Secretary to withdraw cash from schools that fail to meet strict criteria relating to what they teach.

The BHA described the move as “highly significant” and predicted that it would have implications for other faith groups looking to run schools.

Leading scientists and naturalists, including Professor Richard Dawkins and Sir David Attenborough, have welcomed the move.

Dawkins, one of the leading lights in the campaign, applauded confirmation that creationists would not receive funding to run free schools if they sought to portray their views as science.

I welcome all moves to ensure that creationism is not taught as fact in schools. Government rules on this are extremely welcome, but they need to be properly enforced.

Free schools, which are state-funded and run by local people or organisations, do not need to follow the national curriculum. Scientific groups have expressed concerns that their spread will see a reduction in the teaching of evolution in the classroom.

Several creationist groups have expressed an interest in opening schools in towns and cities across England, including Bedford, Barnsley, Sheffield and Nottingham. Critics say they seek to promote creationism, or the doctrine of “intelligent design”, as a scientific theory rather than as a myth or metaphor.

One creationist organisation, Truth in Science, which encourages teachers to incorporate intelligent design into their science teaching, has sent free resources to all secondary schools and sixth-form colleges. The hilariously-named TIS says on its website:

We consider that it is time for students to be permitted to adopt a more critical approach to Darwinism in science lessons. They should be exposed to the fact that there is a modern controversy over Darwin’s theory of evolution and the neo-Darwinian synthesis, and that this has considerable social, spiritual, moral and ethical implications.

The BHA campaign, Teach evolution, not creationism, saw 30 leading scientists and educators call on the government to introduce statutory guidance against the teaching of creationism.

Last week the Department for Education confirmed it had amended the agreement, although a spokesman denied it was the result of pressure from scientists. He said the revision made good on a pledge regarding the teaching of creationism given when the education secretary, Michael Gove, was in opposition. The spokesman said:

We will not accept any academy or free school proposal which plans to teach creationism in the science curriculum or as an alternative to accepted scientific theories … all free school proposals will be subject to due diligence checks by the department’s specialist team.

The revised funding agreement has been seized upon by anti-creationists who are pressing for wider concessions from the government. Said Dawkins:

It is clear that some faith schools are ignoring the regulations and are continuing to teach myth as though it were science. Evolution is fact, supported by evidence from a host of scientific disciplines, and we do a great disservice to our young people if we fail to teach it properly.

A spokeswoman for the BHA said:

The government’s new wording is quite wide and in practice could prevent those who promote extreme religious or particular spiritual or pseudoscientific approaches from including them as part of the school curriculum as science or as evidence-based.

 Hat tip: Agent Cormac

 We are a Christian business, and meet on Mondays to pray for the company and for each other. The successful candidate would be involved in this aspect too.

Graham Martin-Royle, who brought this to my attention, said:

I thought this shit only happened in the US. Have they never heard of the Equality Act 2010?

Update: Thanks to Christine Beckett, who posted a comment linking the boss of this outfit – a certain Daniel Lopez-Ferreiro – to a bunch of loopy, gay-loathing organisations in the UK, including Christian Concern for Our Nation, established to:

Inform and empower Christians to speak against ungodly and unjust laws, and to speak up for righteousness and justice.

This rancid organisation has launched a petition, calling on the Prime Minister to:

Respect Christian conscience and take urgent action to address the problems created by equalities legislation.

So we can assume that Lopez-Ferreiro won’t be hiring any gays either.

I think the Crawley Observer should be publicising this story, don’t you?

Christian Voice's Stephen Green, still one step ahead of the men in white coats

According to Stephen “Birdshit” Green’s hysterical blog:

We … prayed for confusion in the Tesco boardroom.  As the ‘Big Price Drop’ was launched in September, it seems that Almighty God, who operates outside space and time, was well ahead of us, anticipating our prayers, and seeing by our actions that our prayers were serious.  Significantly, we prayed for a drop in their share price, which, with £3b erased from the value of Tesco, has been answered on what you could describe as a Biblical scale.

Why was Green and his dingbat cohorts praying for a Tesco slump? Because Tesco announced a £30,000 donation to:

The Divisive, depraved London ‘Gay Pride’ … with all its anti-Christian aggression, indecency, immorality and separatism.

The goofy Green insists that Tesco’s poor performance was the result of his call to boycott the chain:

As a result, thousands of Christians and other decent people boycotted the store at what should have been its busiest time of the year. I now call on Tesco to see sense before their company is ruined.  Don’t display the arrogance of Pharoah.  Withdraw the grant to Gay Pride … blah, blah, blah …

Hat tip: Robert Stovold & Remigius

'Despicable little monster' Jessica Ahlquist and the prayer mural she made vanish

Jessica Ahlquist’s dad Mark filed a lawsuit on her behalf, which resulted in a ruling by US District Court Judge Ronald R Lagueux that it should be removed immediately.

American Humanist Association leaders, according to this report, applauded the ruling. AHA’s Executive Director Roy Speckhardt said:

We are so proud of Jessica for fighting to protect church-state separation. She recognised injustice, stood up for what is right, and persevered in the face of harassment. She fought for the rights of non-believers and religious minorities and is an example for everyone.

The AHA ran a full-page newspaper advertisement in Cranston during the recent holiday season that stated Bias Against Atheists is Naughty, Not Nice, because of the harassment Ahlquist experienced at the hands of some  fellow students and community members during the lawsuit.

Details of her harassment are contained in this report, which reveals that:

The Internet, which in recent years has become a popular outlet for teenage bullying, has once again provided a forum for particularly discriminatory comments. One specific commenter exclaimed: It was by the grace of God that this despicable little monster of a girl has the freedom to express her anti-beliefs and nationally broadcast her extreme tolerance: the atheist way. I try really hard to be a good Christian, but this is just too much. This is what happens when kids don’t get discipline, and when parents are deadbeats. Boo these people, I hope they lose their homes.

Ahlquist, not letting comments like these bring her down, responded:

This one actually made me giggle.

Noted Monica Miller in Humanist Network News:

It is Ahlquist’s grace in the face of this type of public intolerance that has made her such a hero in the eyes of other humanists.

Judge Lagueux stated in the ruling that the “guiding principle” of the First Amendment to the US Constitution is “government neutrality” and that:

No amount of debate can make the School Prayer anything other than a prayer, and a Christian one at that.

The judge also noted that the open meeting conducted to get public input about Ahlquist’s request to remove the banner “at times resembled a religious revival.” In addition, Lagueux didn’t give weight to the claim that the mural should stay for traditional reasons – having been erected in 1959 – stating that:

No amount of history and tradition can cure a constitutional infraction.

And he said of Jessica:

Plaintiff is clearly an articulate and courageous young woman, who took a brave stand, particularly in light of the hostile response she has received from her community.

Bill Burgess, attorney and legal coordinator of the AHA’s  legal arm, the Appignani Humanist Legal Center, added:

The ruling by the District Court again confirms something that by now should be crystal clear to government officials: school-sponsored prayer has no place on the walls of a public school. The court clearly noted that the prayer mural’s long-standing nature, considered a school tradition by some, did not overcome its unconstitutional nature and justify its continued presence.

The AHA said it was proud to play a role in Ahlquist’s future by working with Hemant Mehta, blogger for the popular website The Friendly Atheist, to manage an education trust fund to help pay the cost of her future education. The Scholarship for Jessica Ahlquist account has already raised over $3,000 from more than 100 contributors.

Hat tip: Adam Tjaavk

The queen, according to the BBC, donned some ridiculous headgear and a cut-off burqa “out of respect for Islamic tradition”.

The “sad spectacle” comment was made by the PVV, an anti-Islam party that props up the Dutch minority government without being part of the coalition.

Queen Beatrix wore a gown and headscarf first on Sunday at a mosque in Abu Dhabi and again on Thursday in Oman.

During Thursday’s visit to the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in the Omani capital, Muscat, the queen wore a red shawl over her hat while Princess Maxima who was accompanying her also had her head covered.

In a written parliamentary answer, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that:

When Her Majesty visits a house of worship, the dress requirements are respected.

It is not for Atheists to decide what will or will not offend believers of different religions.

Responding to a petition deploring UCLU’s attempt to have a cartoon removed from the Facebook page of UCLU’s Atheist, Secularist & Humanist Society, Nasser said on AMSA’s Facebook page:

Numerous Muslims wrote in their individual capacities to the UCL Union, complaining of this depiction of Mohammed, citing grounds of religious offense.

The latest J&M cartoon (click on image to see the whole collection)

The petition now has over 3,000 signatures.

Nasser went on to complain that the “debacle” had unleashed a great many Jesus & Mo cartoon strips on Facebook and on other sites. These show J & M in scenarios:

Such as comparing Twitter followers, playing music at an ‘open mic night’ and [shock, horror] sleeping in the same bed together.

Nasser pointed out that Richard Dawkins had praised the cartoon strip, saying:

Jesus and Mo cartoons are wonderfully funny and true. They could offend only those actively seeking to be offended – which says it all.

Nasser commented:

It is not for Mr. Dawkins or anyone else to decide what views are and are not to be found offensive to others. Once a particular act is deemed to be offensive to another, it is only good manners to refrain from, at the very least, repeating that act.

In this particular case, when at first the cartoon was uploaded, it could have been mistaken as unintentional offense. When certain Muslims voiced their offense over the issue, for any civil, well-mannered individual or group of individuals, it should then be a question as to the feelings of others and the cartoons should then have been removed …

Freedom to insult is the very worst aspect of freedom of expression. It may be argued that such cartoons are in the manner of satire and that satire is a key element in freedom of expression. When examined however, it is clear that these cartoons are not satirical in the least. Satire is characterised by the bringing to light of vices for the purpose of initiating reform within the individual or group of individuals who are satirised.

Was this the purpose of cartoons with Jesus and Mohammed (peace be upon them both) lying in bed together, or comparing the number of Twitter followers they have? It is clear that the purpose of the cartoon panels is not to initiate serious discussion regarding the holy founders of either religion. The cartoons only have one purpose – to mock and deride and poke fun. If Christians or Muslims take offense at this, it is not for atheists to rejoinder with ‘they could offend only those actively seeking to be offended.

It is not for Atheists to decide what will or will not offend believers of different religions.

UPDATE: The Guardian reports today that Professor Dawkins has thrown his support behind the atheist students, and the paper managed to contact J&M’s creator:

An individual who responded to an email address on the strip’s website confirmed he was a 47-year-old UK-based male, not a professional cartoonist, and the sole author of Jesus and Mo [who said]:

The student atheist society at UCL have my complete support. I am full of admiration for the firm and principled stance they are taking against religious censorship. My primary reason for drawing the cartoons is to make atheists laugh.

Pastor and his wife (click on pic for CNN video)

But the only thing that will be plugged during the bed-in will be Ed Young’s book, Sexperiment. Young, who leads the Fellowship megachurch in Grapevine, near Dallas, insists there will be “no hanky-panky” between him and his wife.

According to the Guardian, he will also be:

Doing interviews, answering relationship questions and teaching about God’s purpose for intimacy in marriage.

Young’s book poses a “seven-day sex challenge” for married couples. After having sex every day for a full week, he advises, couples will be able to:

Experience the power of marriage done God’s way.

Young, whose other books include The Ten Commandments of Marriage and the smart-arse Rating Your Dating While Waiting for Mating, first called for his flock to systematically reinvigorate their sex lives several years ago, and has developed his programme into a self-help guide.

Lisa Young, who co-authored the book with her husband, told CNN:

For far too long the church has been silent about a subject God was not silent about. He certainly is the author and creator of sex, so why would we not, in the context of church, speak about something that he was not bashful about?

She added:

We believe very strongly that the family unit is the number one place to talk about sex and the church is the second best place to talk about sex.

Young’s stance on sex applies solely to heterosexual marriage, which he describes as:

The only relationship on planet Earth that’s analogous to God’s relationship to his people.

He has in the past made his opposition to gay unions clear: in 2007 he wrote that:

To allow gay marriage means to redefine marriage as it has been in the social structure of humankind since the very creation of man and woman.

And while on the subject of godly sex, here’s a fun extract from a fundie tract:

The group uses a Jesus & Mo cartoon to publicise its weekly pub social in London, but was told to remove it because it may cause offence to Muslim students.

The image at the centre of the furore (click on pic to see the Jesus & Mo collection)

The National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies immediately launched a petition against this brazen assault by the UCLU on freedom of expression, and within a couple of days the petition drew over 2,000 signatures. It reads:

In response to complaints from a number of students, the University College London Union has insisted that the UCLU Atheist, Secularist & Humanist Society remove the following image from a Facebook event advertising a pub social. It has done so on the grounds that that it may cause offence to Muslim students.

This is a gross infringement on its representatives’ right to freedom of expression taken by members of the first secular university in England. All people are free to be offended by any image they view. This does not give them the right to impose their beliefs on others by censoring such images.

We the undersigned urge the University College London Union to immediately halt their attempts to censor the UCLU Atheist, Secularist & Humanist Society and uphold its members’ right to freedom of expression.

Explaining the background to the controversy, the Alex Gabriel blog said that the group had been sent a message by a student union official which stated that “a number of complaints” had been made about the use of the image – partly because, contrary to Islamic teachings, it depicts the “Prophet” Mohammed, and partly because it depicts him around alcohol.

The union then told the atheist society to remove the image immediately and inform them once this had been done.

Gabriel reports today that the petition is attracting signatures from around the world. His blog was reproduced on richarddawkins.net, prompting Richard to add his name. Numerous other significant figures, including Maryam Namazie, have also thrown their support behind the petition.

Gabriel added:

The National Secular Society stood behind us, as did the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies and numerous other atheist student groups in Britain. New Humanist reported on the day’s events; PZ Myers blogged about them at Pharyngula, and society members from UCL were contacted by the BBC and by radio broadcasters all the way from Australia.

While on the subject of censorship, the BBC gets a good arse-kicking here for carrying a 700-word-plus article about the rise in the number of “honour attacks” in the UK, yet managed to avoid using the key words “Muslim”, “Islamic” or “Islam”.

Incidentally, it is reported here today  that a select number of conservative Muslim Biology students at University College London (UCL) have began boycotting lectures on evolution.

Hat tip: Paul Williams

Balbir Kirishan (click on pic for video)

Balbir Kirishan, a double amputee who lost both his legs, was insulted, pushed and kicked by a disguised assailant, who then vandalised some of Kirishan’s gay-related work.

According to this report, the attacker entered the exhibition space at New Delhi’s Lalit Kala Akademi gallery with his face covered by a handkerchief.

Thirty-eight year-old Krishan, who is openly gay, said the crime happened after he received threats regarding his exhibition, which centres around same-sex relationships.

An unidentified caller accused the artist of “spreading” homosexuality in India and being determined to “ruin Islam”.

Posters designed to promote the event were also burnt and ripped in the run-up to the opening night.

Meanwhile, it is reported here that five Muslim men in the UK are to go on trial at Derby Crown Court accused of inciting hatred against homosexuals. It is the first prosecution of its kind.

The Jamia Mosque in Derby

Ihjaz Ali, 42, Mahboob Hassain, 45, and Umer Javed, 38, first appeared in court last January to face the charges relating to a leaflet called The Death Penalty? which was handed out outside the Jamia Mosque in Derby in July 2010 and through letterboxes during the same month.

Two other men, Razwan Javed, 28, and Kabir Ahmed, 27, were also charged with the same offence.

The leaflet is understood to have called for homosexuals to be executed.

Ali, Hassain and Umer Javed are charged with three counts each of an offence of sending letters with intent to cause distress or anxiety under section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988, the Crown Prosecution Service said.

Ali is also charged with three offences, contrary to section 5 (b) of the Public Order 1986, in relation to the distribution of leaflets outside the Jamia Mosque.

He faces a further four counts of distributing threatening written material intending to stir up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation, contrary to section 29C (1) of the Public Order Act 1986.

Hassain and Umer Javed are both also charged with two counts each contrary to section 29C (1) of the Public Order Act 1986.

Razwan Javed and Ahmed are both charged with one count each contrary to section 29C (1) of the Public Order Act 1986.

UPDATE: Pope Ratzinger, in a “State of the World” speech, had  identified gay marriage as the biggest threat to humanity.

Hat tip: Diesel Balaam and BarrieJohn (Derby report), and Pete H (Pope)

The first – Christian fundie Margaret Court, once an Australian tennis champ – is apparently smarting over the fact that a statement she made about homosexuality being a “lifestyle choice” has earned her a measure of ridicule.

Tennis “great”, Martina Navratilova, said Court had failed to “evolve” with the rest of society, and another notable name in the game, Billie Jean King, called her views “truly frightening”, was “sad”.

Fopdoodle No 2 is Ronald Weinland, a self-styled “prophet of God” who is thinks our old friend Jesus is set to return on May 27 of this year.

He says there’s something nasty awaiting those who take his message with a pillar of salt. They will get cancer and die.

According to Weinland’s blog, the path to Jesus’ return opened up two days ago, on January 7:

This date is an important crossroad in time as it ends a prophetically historic portion of time in Daniel that consists of a prophetic measure of ‘time’ and ‘times’ that began after Trumpets of 2009.

Confused? You will be:

January 8 of this year begins the final ‘half-a-time’ of this full prophetic period known as ‘time, times, and half-a-time’.That day is the start of the final period of 140 days (half-a-time) that leads up to the very coming of the Messiah spoken of in those same prophecies of Daniel.

Weinland is also predicting that “the United States will collapse” and that there will be a nuclear war before May 27 this year.

Update: Let’s add Robert Mugabe to the list. He’s got his (pink?) knickers in a knot over a donation of trash cans to the Bulawayo council by a gay campaigning group.

Trivia fact: “Fopdoodle” appeared in the dictionary of Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), published in 1755. There is a campaign on Facebook to bring the word back into popular usage.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn & Graham Martin-Royle (Weinland report)

More than that, Prime Minister Netanyahu – according to this report – has now promised to clamp down on “radical groups” seeking to banish women from the public sphere.

Netanyahu also asked Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to see to it that laws preventing the exclusion of women are upheld by local authorities.

The Sisterhood blog reported that Na’ama told TV audiences of her fears while walking the short distance from her home to Orot Banot school, after numerous occasions when she was cursed at and even once spat on by the Haredi demonstrators.

Israeli viewers watched as her mother, Hadassah, holding her hand, tried to convince her to make the short walk as she cried, whined and protested; it’s a ritual they go through every school day.

To the residents of Beit Shemesh the story of Beit Shemesh and the intimidation of Orot Banot girls is nothing new, said The Sisterhood

But until now, the public had remained relatively indifferent to the trials the school girls and the residents of Beit Shemesh were undergoing.

Members of an extremist Haredi group that have settled there over the past several years have been pushing for the creation of gender-segregated bus lines, designating parts of the city where women and men were directed to separate on public streets, and harassing the girls of Orot Banot on the ground that they did not dress modestly enough.

Last week, the extremists caused outrage when they dressed in Nazi concentration camp gear to make the point that opposition to their gender separation ideology was tantamount to persecution.

Immediately after Na’ama appeared on Channel 2, Facebook groups were organised and demonstrations in Beit Shemesh planned by angry citizens who wanted to take action. The power of the press had truly flexed its muscles. (The extremists were clearly aware of the damage done to them by the television coverage, as they demonstrated when they attacked the reporter when he returned to Beit Shemesh on Sunday for a follow-up story.)

In the aftermath of the Channel 2 story and the reaction, the ultra-Orthodox mayor of Beit Shemesh ordered workers to take down street signs that directed women to cross the street and “not linger” in front of a synagogue. As they did so, Haredim threw rocks and called the municipal workers ‘Nazis.’

The Sisterhood commented:

The fact that the government took action only after the media paid attention to Beit Shemesh is infuriating. The girls of Orot Banot have been under siege since school opened in SeptemberThey deserved firm action and government protection long ago: Na’ama should never have had to be terrified in the first place.

On Friday, hundreds of women gathered in Tel Aviv to protest against religious zealots wanting gender apartheid. Among them was Adina Bar Shalom, daughter of the Shas’ spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. She said:

The Torah elevates women. It holds women in the highest esteem … This isn’t about which door we board the bus from. It’s about women’s honour. Women are powerful, if is wasn’t for us, men couldn’t afford to study the Torah.

Hat tip: Adam Tjaavk

THE world has a new religion – Kopimism. But no gods, saviours, or silly dogma here because the Missionary Church of Kopism exists solely for the “sacred” practise of file-sharing on the internet.

According to Gizmodo, the church, which has adopted Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V as its religious symbols – rather than Ctrl+U, which forms the basis of virtually all “pukka”religions (thanks for pointing that out, Remigius) – was set up in 2010 by philosophy student Isak Gerson to avoid legal persecution.

It now has 3,000 members, and was officially recognised as a religious organisation by the Swedish government agency Kammarkollegiet shortly before Christmas, according to the BBC.

Gerson believes the official seal of approval by the Swedish government will change things:

I think that more people will have the courage to step out as Kopimists. Maybe not in the public, but at least to their close ones. There’s still a legal stigma around copying for many. A lot of people still worry about going to jail when copying and remixing. I hope in the name of Kopimi that this will change.

It took him two tries to get it legalised. He said:

For the Church of Kopimism, information is holy and copying is a sacrament. Information holds a value, in itself and in what it contains and the value multiplies through copying. Therefore copying is central for the organisation and its members. Being recognised by the state of Sweden is a large step for all of Kopimi. Hopefully this is one step towards the day when we can live out our faith without fear of persecution.

Gizmodo imagines Kopimism rituals going like this:

And the Swedes raised the holy torrent upon high, saying, ‘O Lord, bless this thy holy torrent, that with it thou mayst copy thine movies and music in tiny bits, in thy mercy.’ And the Kopism Lord did grin. And the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths, and carp and anchovies, and orangutans and breakfast cereals, and fruit-bats.

And the Lord spake, saying, ‘First shalt thou find the tracker. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy .torrent file towards thy Torrent program, who, being naughty in my sight, shall copy it.’

Hat tip: Remigius, Agent Cormac and Bill Murray

This is rich, given the behaviour of Christians for a Moral America, which aggressively employs cyber-bullying tactics against those it disapproves of. And, surprise, surprise, The Gays are top of their list.

I had never heard of CFAMA until I learned today that this ghastly little outfit had called on its members to pray for the death of singer George Michael.

Recovering from pneumonia, Michael took to Twitter yesterday to slam CFAMA. He said:

Did you know that while I was fighting for my life in Austria there were a bunch of those lovely American ‘Christian’ organisations, who call themselves ‘Christians for a Moral America’, who were actually taking the time to pray for me to die…

How very sweet of them, considering how busy they must be on the whole. Now don’t get me wrong, I know for a fact that many devout Christians, such as the ones I work, rest and play with on a daily basis, are truly wonderful, kind-hearted men and women who take the best parts of that religion and live admirable, generous and loving lives.

But in my opinion, and I think made evident by those who prayed for my death, there are others who use their twisted interpretations of ancient scriptures as a pathetic excuse to be … wait for it, wait for it …! Totally fucked up cock-sucking bastards.

Michael revealed that one member of the group, known as Keith, posted messages on Twitter which included:

Apparently George Michael has AIDS. Figures since he’s a homosexual and it goes with the territory. Another sodomite bites the dust?

Posting under the username @godswordislaw, he also wrote:

Pray for George Michael’s demise. He has chosen a satanic lifestyle and must meet an appropriate end.

In late November, when Michael was diagnosed with pneumonia, the group’s blog said:

It’s almost symbolic that just after the 20th anniversary of Freddie Mercury’s death from AIDS that another famous homosexual would succumb to this disease.

We pray that George Michael has found salvation through Christ in his last days otherwise he will pay for his unrepentant lifestyle in hell.

CFAMA’s suggestion that the illness was AIDS-related has been refuted by doctors.

The Christians for a Moral America blog lists liberals, atheists, gays, Muslims and feminists as the most dangerous anti-American groups of 2012 and right now they are calling for a boycott of “a new work of evil”, The Hobbit.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn

Richard David White

This shocking fact came to light when Richard David White, 66, was jailed for five years for child sex offences which took place in the 1980s when he taught at Downside School in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, Somerset.

Taunton Crown Court heard that, after he received a warning, the monk went on to indecently assault a second boy over the course of several months while he was aged 12 and 13.

White pleaded guilty to five counts of indecent assault and two of gross indecency with a boy at a previous hearing last November. He asked that four offences against another boy, who has never complained to police, also be taken into account.

Sentencing White, Judge Graham Hume Jones said:

You targeted this complainant and took advantage of his interest in old books and maps, you gave him access to the monastery library which is not normally open to pupils to indulge in your own sexual gratification.

White groomed the victim by giving him small sums of money.

The judge said he acknowledged there was no evidence to show he committed any further offences beyond 1989.

One of his victims who attended court said it was an “appropriate” sentence and would highlight to Downside School:

The risks of religious orders running educational establishments without the necessary safety nets.

He called for an apology from the Roman Catholic Church which runs the school.

The Abbott for Downside School said:

Our first thoughts are for those who were abused as children. Being conscious that the care of children is our paramount concern as educators, we are truly sorry that any child should have been abused at Downside.

He added that White has lived under restrictions since 1998 and has been withdrawn from active ministry.

Raymond Lahey

Meanwhile we have just learned that a Roman Catholic bishop in Ottawa is due to be sentenced today for possessing kiddie porn.

Raymond Lahey, 71, a Newfoundlander who had been the head of the Nova Scotia diocese of Antigonish, was caught in 2009 at Ottawa’s airport after authorities checked his personal computer and found a large cache of child pornography.

Lahey pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography for the purposes of importation to Canada.

The Crown’s case involved 588 photos and 63 videos, with the Crown pointing out that some involved adolescent boys engaged in sex acts while wearing a crucifix and rosary beads.

Hat tip: Marcus Robinson and Canada Dave (Lahey report)

Parviz Davlatbekov, 24, fell victim to a mob as he visited relatives in the early hours of Monday dressed as Ded Moroz, who traditionally brings Russian children presents at New Year. Russian cultural influence remains strong in Tajikistan, which is officially secular, although the vast majority of its 7.7 million people are Muslims.

One police source told Reuters:

We have witness statements that say the crowd beat Parviz and stabbed him with a knife, shouting ‘You infidel!’

A second source said religious hatred was being investigated as the motive for the crime, which occurred in the capital Dushanbe.

Authorities have cracked down on religious freedoms in the former Soviet republic in the last few years and jailed dozens of people for membership of Islamist groups.

President Imomali Rakhmon has ordered students at foreign religious schools to return home and told his security services to tighten control over religious education and mosques in Tajikistan, which he says are often used to foment radicalism.

His critics say poverty and repression in the poorest of the 15 former Soviet republics is pushing many young Tajiks toward radical Islamism.

Tokhir Normatov, chief of staff of Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry, said the victim had died in hospital from a loss of blood, but made no comment on the motive for the attack.

Hat tip: Name Withheld

According to this report, thousands of the lame-brained extremists gathered on Saturday night in Jerusalem to protest what they say is a nationwide campaign directed against their lifestyle. The protesters called Israeli policemen “Nazis”, wore yellow Star of David patches with the word “Jude” — German for Jew — dressed their children in striped black-and-white uniforms associated with Nazi concentration camps, and transported them in the back of a truck.

This, not surprisingly, has caused outrage. Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial denounced the use of Nazi imagery as “disgraceful,” and several other survivors’ groups and politicians condemned the acts.

Two youngsters dressed in Holocaust garb formed part of the ultra-Orthodox demo. Photo: AP Photo/Bernat Armangue

Said Moshe Zanbar, chairman of the main umbrella group for Holocaust survivors in Israel:

We must leave the Holocaust and its symbols outside the arguments in Israeli society. This harms the memory of the Holocaust.

And opposition leader Tzipi Livni said:.

This is a terrible offense against the memory of the Holocaust victims who were forced, secular and Ultra-Orthodox alike, to wear the yellow star in the ghetto on their way to extermination, and there is no demonstration in the world that can justify this.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak added that the display was  ”shocking and horrifying” and a “crossed a red line.”

Elan Steinberg, of The American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants – an umbrella organisation of US survivors, expressed:

Utter contempt at this disgraceful exploitation of the Nazi symbols. We who survived and witnessed these Nazi crimes are particularly offended that demonstrators so blithely used children in this public outrage. They have insulted the memory of all the Jewish victims, including those who were ultra-Orthodox.

Steinberg added:

The Nazis made no distinction in their murderous treatment of our people — whether one was ultra-Orthodox, traditional, or non-believer, you were marked for cruelty and death.

And in this report, cabinet member and Holocaust survivor Yossi Peled expressed his outrage over the group’s use of such historically sensitive symbols.

Dressing up children with the yellow ribbons with their hands up in the air, re-enacting pictures of children from the ghetto, is simply inconceivable. Six million Jews, including one and a half million children, cannot be used as a tool in a public debate.

Ironically, it is the religious extremists themselves who have been acting like fascists in their determination to enforce gender segregation – and it its this behaviour that has drawn fire from the Israeli media for their attempts to ban the mixing of sexes on buses, sidewalks and other public spaces.

In one city, extremists jeered and spat at girls walking to school, saying they were dressed immodestly. They’ve also battled with police over street signs calling for segregation, and attacked journalists who have covered their neighborhoods.

In recent weeks, a few young Israeli women have caused nationwide uproars for refusing the orders of religious men to move to the back of public buses. One man faces charges over his abuse of a woman soldier of a bus.

These practices, albeit by a fringe sect, have unleashed a backlash against the ultra-Orthodox in general, the climax of which came last week in a large demonstration where protesters held signs reading, “Free Israel from religious coercion,” and “Stop Israel from becoming Iran.”

Rabbi Yitzhak Weiss, one of the organisers of Saturday’s protest, said the use of Nazi symbols was intentional and aimed at highlighting what he said was a campaign by the secular media against his community.

The idea was to convey a clear and simple message: that wild incitement against the ultra-Orthodox community will not be tolerated. The Israeli media’s incitement is reminiscent of the German media’s before World War II.

(AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

The very essence of misery: one of the street preachers pictured at Mosley Square on New Year's eve. Photo: Andrea Laube

But the annoying antics of members of Street Church Adelaide – who came to blows with drinkers this week after shouting at patrons at a Victor Harbor hotel – have got right up the nose of the Department of Transport.

According to this report a spokeswoman for the Department of Transport said police had been called to remove preachers from trains on the Noarlunga line in two separate incidents on December 21.

Transit staff reported that two male preachers were “abusing” passengers with slogans such as:

Homosexuals are sinners and women are all sinners.

The spokeswoman added:

Preaching on public transport is of concern to the Department, as it would be likely to cause discomfort for customers on board and in prescribed areas such as stations. In the event of such an incident, the Department will consider the options available under the Passenger Transport Act.

The lunatic Bible-thumpers have polarised the community in recent years with vocal Friday night protests in Rundle Mall in which they shout slogans at passing shoppers such as:

You are all sinners and will be killed by God.

Preachers spokesman Caleb Corneloup said the group had been taking their message aboard city trains over the past fortnight in an effort to spread their word further.

The demented Jesus junkie denied preachers were hassling commuters and claimed their methods aboard trains were conducted in a “more gentlemanly” way than the Rundle Mall gatherings.

It is a really good environment for preaching. You have got a captive audience and it is much easier to get your message across. You are able to preach in a lower voice.

The preachers challenged a ruling by Adelaide City Council that the gatherings were unlawful. In August, the Full Court of the Supreme Court ruled they had a right to continue their controversial sermons.

Caleb Corneloup

Corneloup said the previous court ruling gave him confidence his group had every right to preach on public transport.

While the group’s Rundle Mall preaching has sparked clashes between group members and pro-gay rights protesters, Corneloup said few people had objected to their presence on trains.

Almost everyone just sits and listens. One or two people out of the blue might say they don’t want to hear about religion but there have been no real problems.

Hat tip: Bill Murray

 

After all, all he did was to abuse a female soldier, calling her a “slut, slut, slut!” for not taking a back seat on a bus.

Shlomo Fuchs in court and the the female soldier, Doron Matalon he is accused of harrassing. Photos: Gil Yohanan (Fuchs) and Atta Awisat

Fuchs – a father of 12 – was arrested on Wednesday by the Jerusalem police for bad-mouthing Doron Matalon when she refused to sit at the back of an Egged bus travelling from the Neve Yaakov neighborhood to the Central Command base in Jerusalem.

Matalon said that after Fuchs called her a slut, he added:

You have no respect. You’re standing among yeshiva (religious college) students and it’s shameful.

Another female passenger who was approaching the front of the bus in order to pay the driver was told by Fuchs that:

A woman shouldn’t pass through the front of the bus to pay.

He then demanded she return to the back of the bus.

Fuchs’ attorney claimed his client’s behaviour did not constitute a criminal offense.

We live in a free country. We’re allowed to curse, it’s part of the freedom of expression.

A day later Fuchs was indicted for unruly behaviour and sexual harassment.

The indictment follows a warning issued by Israeli authorities saying they would not tolerate the exclusion of women from the public sphere or any acts of violence towards women.

State Prosecutor Moshe Lador stressed that:

The prosecution will work with the police to bring this radical phenomenon of haredi extremism to an end.

Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court released Fuchs under limiting conditions, forbidding him from using public transportation until the next hearing in his case, set for early January. The judge in the case said:

In light of this growing phenomenon of women’s exclusion and offending women who object their exclusion, I believe a dangerous cause exists here, because the aggravation of such a phenomenon endangers a democratic society when done forcibly.

The court also stated that sexual harassment does not only apply when the harasser demands something of sexual nature from the harassed, but also when the harassed is humiliated based on remarks relating to his or her sex. The judge ruled such was the case in this incident, since:

There is no dispute that Fuchs spoke bluntly and shouted harsh and humiliating words at the soldier aboard the bus, calling her a ‘slut’ three times.

In this report, Fuchs – a father of  insisted:

I am not a sexual offender. If anything – she harassed me. I wanted to move away and she kept moving closer.

He added:

Unpleasant remarks are heard every day in Israel, including some which may be considered humiliating, and most of them are based on a person’s sexuality. Those who curse are never put on trial.

And his attorney said that, if the court does decide this is a sexual harassment case, then any man who calls a woman a “bitch” or other curse words would be considered a sexual offender.

Meanwhile, according to this report, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has condemned as “intolerable barbarism” efforts by hardline ultra-Orthodox Jews to segregate the sexes in public places.

Lieberman added:

It is inconceivable for the state to continue financing those who defy it and for the ultra-Orthodox to continue receiving subsidies, such as free (religious) schooling for their children.

His comments came after Israel’s chief military rabbi, Brigadier General Rafi Peretz, sent officers a memorandum condemning as “immoral” a slew of recent acts of discrimination against women and pledging that such behaviour would not be tolerated in the armed forces. Peretz said:

Of late, there is a grave phenomenon of discrimination against women both outside the army and within it. I’m working to ensure that radical, wrong notions, such as those which inspired the events in Beit Shemesh, will not permeate the army.

Beit Shemesh, a town of 80,000 near Jerusalem, has witnessed a string of clashes between ultra-Orthodox activists and other residents.

Sharubutu, who heads the Nuuru-Usmaniyyah Foundation for Humanitarian Services (NUSMAN) used his festive message on Tuesday to commend religious leaders for their efforts in the crusade against homosexuality, saying that they, and “traditional leaders”, should not to relent in their effort to curb homosexuality.

Sheikh Sharubutu, pictured on the 10th anniversary of his foundation

Sharubutu said it was important for Ghanaians to exhibit the good moral values instilled in their communities by parents and faith leaders, adding that it was not easy to meet decent and high valued morals such as that seen in the lives of Prophet Mohammed and Jesus Christ, without Allah’s support and guidance.

We must persistently seek ways and means to glorify Allah by doing the right thing and abstaining from the evils such as homosexuality and crime against one another.

He expressed happiness about how all leaders of the major religions came together to denounce the spread of homosexuality in the country and warned the public to desist from engaging in homosexuality.

Sharubutu’s foundation was set up in 2000 with the aim of enhancing:

The dwindling image of Islam in our societies.

The sheikh’s message came in the wake of a statement in November from Ghanaian President John Atta Mills who reacted angrily to UK’s threat to cut bilateral aid if the country refuses to legalise homosexuality.

He said the UK did not have the right to “direct to other sovereign nations as to what they should do”, saying their society’s “norms” were different from those in the UK.

Mr Atta Mills told the BBC:

I, as president, will never initiate or support any attempt to legalise homosexuality in Ghana.

The British Prime Minister raised the issue of gay rights and bilateral aid at a Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Australia.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish lad delights in a shouting match between an older nutter and a young secular Jew in Beth Shemeth yesterday (Photo: REUTERS/Oren Nahshon)

Zealots in the town, according to this report, have been trying to impose strict apartheid rules –including erecting a sign which ordered women to cross a road to avoid walking past a synagogue – and violence erupted when demonstrators gathered in support of segregation.

Images broadcast on Channel Two last week of an ultra-Orthodox man in Beit Shemesh spitting at a woman led to his arrest on Saturday night. He was freed by magistrates on Sunday.

The same broadcast featured a religious eight-year-old girl terrified to walk the short distance between her home and school, since she is subject to verbal abuse of ultra-Orthodox men who claim her attire is not sufficiently “modest”.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to crack down on acts of gender separation and ultra-Orthodox violence towards women, and keep Israel “open and safe to everyone”.

Yesterday’s demo also saw slanging matches erupt among religious lunatics and those of a secular bent who object to anti-female discrimination.

Unnamed ultra-Orthodox activists representing the Beit Shemesh community issued a statement in which they spoke out against the scuffles and stoning events … but they blamed it on the media.

We condemn violence in any form and shape, but at the same time condemn the wild incitement of the media that initiates deliberate provocations in order to make the peaceful, quiet and tolerant residents, who live their lives according to their beliefs look bad.

Earlier, at a midnight mass in Southampton, heavy chairs were thrown when a fight broke out among a group who entered St Edmund’s Catholic Church. Booze is thought to have sparked the brawl.

Father Vincent Harvey said the people involved in the fight were not regular churchgoers and he believed they had entered the church part way through the service. He added that the disagreement was between the people involved and not targeted at the congregation.

He said most of the 350 people in the church stayed to hear the rest of the mass, although some, who were “shaken” by the incident, went home.

A Hampshire Constabulary spokesman said three men, aged 24, 27 and 31, were arrested at or near the church at about 1am.

The men, all from Southampton, were questioned on suspicion of affray and bailed pending further inquiries.

Update: And bang on cue, rival groups of Orthodox and Armenian clerics clashed over the boundaries of their jurisdictions inside the  Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The BBC has some amazing footage of the violence.

Hat tip: Daz (Israel report), Remigius and Agent Cormac (Southampton report); and Cliff Knoetz (BBC report).

The reports on Grimm’s site are, by and large, pretty grim, the most horrifying today being the Christmas day attacks by mad Muslims in Nigeria – but I couldn’t help chuckling over a book cover reproduced there.

Entitled Helping the retarded to know God: A guide for Christian teachers of the mentally handicapped by Hans R Hahn and Werner H Raasch, it set me wondering whether this abomination is still available.

It is. Just. Amazon has two copies for $8.85 and $11.00, respectively.

But is doubtful either will sell, as the only review on Amazon isn’t exactly encouraging.

El Reviewor wrote:

 Cognitive disability is one of the effects of religion. If you want your child to become mentally retarded, by all means indoctrinate them into a religion.

People who already have a legitimate disability do not need this book; it would be like a double whammy of tragedy, compounding one mental drain with another.

The very concept of this book is criminal and perversely depraved.

It was erected in November in the city of Hithadhoo to mark a South Asian summit in the Indian Ocean archipelago of 300,000 Muslims.

The monument that upset Muslim zealots looks a bit like a badly-contructed chimney

A group of hotheads objected to the thing – not because it was a monumental eyesore, but because it “depicted irreligious graphic content”. So they torched it.

A Sri Lankan lion was also vandalised.

Describing the acts of desecration as “crazy”, this blogger said:

No one is going to worship a stack of books from Pakistan or a Sri Lankan lion. Please consider it a national paperweight. Just to keep your topsoil down.

Meanwhile, a council member of Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) has lodged a complaint with police over “importing and keeping idols”.

Speaking to journalists after submitting his complaint, Maz Saleem said the police were asked to look into how the “idols” were imported into the Maldives through Customs, and how come police were “standing guard” around the “idols”.

Another PPM Council member, Ilham Ahmed said Customs failed to carry out its legal responsibility of preventing the import of items such as “idols” into the country.

I believe that the Maldives Police Service will thoroughly investigate the matter for the sake of the people, the religion of Islam and the constitution …

Meanwhile, it is reported here that on Friday thousands in the Maldives called on the government to halt what they called “anti-Islamic” activities, including a plan to allow direct flights to Israel.

The protesters want authorities to stop the sale of alcohol in the islands, shut down brothels operating in the guise of massage parlours and demolish what’s left of “idolatrous” monuments gifted by countries for the summit.

Though the country is known more for its exquisite island resorts and does not allow stoning or executions, it is under scrutiny for its absence of religious freedom and for punishments such as public flogging.

Khilath Rasheed, a local blogger who called for religious tolerance, has been detained for more than a week by authorities who accuse him of blasphemy and of promoting anti-Islamic concepts such as gay rights.

Rasheed, whose website was blocked last month, said he was being victimised because he belonged to the Sufi sect of Islam and not the majority Sunni branch recognized by the authorities.

London-based human rights group Amnesty International has called for his immediate release.

Your religious values are not superior to the laws of the republic.

Nassim Mimoune, 24, was jailed for six months after he was arrested for punching the nurse for trying to remove his wife’s burqa during childbirth, according to this report.

The lunatic had already been banned from the delivery room in the Marseille hospital after spitting vile abuse at the midwife, calling her a ‘rapist’ while she was trying to do her job.

The assailant didn’t take kindly either to his wife’s internal examinations, all routine during childbirth.

When the nurse tried to take the pregnant woman’s burqa off, it tipped him over the edge and he punched the nurse in the face.

Luckily for his wife, she went on to give birth to healthy baby boy despite the drama going on around her. Her husband was ejected from the hospital and was arrested for assault.

In 2010 in Sweden a doctor who rushed to help a Muslim woman who suffered heavy bleeding immediately after giving birth was viciously attacked by the woman’s husband and brother. They objected to her being attended to by a male medic.

Hat tip: Diesel Balaam

ITV network’s director of television Peter Fincham apparently got cold feet over a song Minchin penned for the show in which he compared Jesus to the actor and director and well-known atheist Woody Allen.

Tim Minchin (click on pic to hear the song that ITV were too afraid to broadcast).

The decision, according to this report, has evoked “a spirited reaction” from the comic, who claimed ITV bosses are pandering to Christians who are:

Afraid of anything that challenges their beliefs … I have to admit I’m really fucking disappointed. It’s 2011– the appropriate reaction to people who think Jesus is a supernatural being is mild embarrassment, sighing tolerance and patient education.

Minchin said of Fincham’s action:

He did this because he’s scared of the ranty, shit-stirring, right-wing press, and of the small minority of Brits who believe they have a right to go through life protected from anything that challenges them in any way.

The comedian, who now lives in London, has uploaded a recording of the song as performed on Ross’s show from his personal YouTube account, which has garnered widespread support from users.

A spokesperson for ITV denied the song was cut to appease believers, instead claiming Minchin’s performance:

Wasn’t right for the show. We quite often cut shows in the edit, as we shoot more than goes out, and we felt Tim’s appearance didn’t quite feel right for show. But we do think Tim’s talented and would love him to work with him on ITV shows again in the future.

Ricky Gervais, who recently appeared on the cover of The New Humanist

Another atheist comedian embroiled in a pre-Christmas row is Ricky Gervais, who has provoked the rage of fundamentalist Christians after getting into a row about God on Twitter.

And much more justified rage is now being directed at an idiotic Roman Catholic Cardinal, Francis George of Chicago, who drew an outrageous comparison between gays and the Ku Klux Klan.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn (Gervais report) and thanks to all those, too numerous to mention, for the Minchin report.

The party I attended last night took place at the studio of HotMale Radio, a gay station located, ironically, above the New Hope evangelical church in the Costa Blanca town of Alfas del Pi – and the highlight of the evening was a local choir singing Christmas songs in Spanish live on air.

Talented young singer Daniel Whybrow was one of the participants in the HotMale Christmas show

It was an enormously enjoyable and uplifting experience  – and one which served to prove that atheists are perfectly capable of celebrating the season without indulging in any of the religious crap Christianity has bolted onto this essentially pagan event.

Undetectable among the celebrants was any of the atheistic mean-spiritedness the Washington Times accused us of in an editorial it ran two days ago. It kicked off by saying that:

Along with the Christmas season comes the annual uprising of atheistic Grinches determined to spoil it. They might get some satisfaction out of wrecking a few nativity scenes, but their long-range goal of expunging religion from American society isn’t going to happen: The search for God is innate.

Surely they meant insane!

The paper specifically addressed an attempt by the Freedom from Religion Foundation to have a  religious display on the courthouse lawn in Henderson County, Texas, removed on the ground that it violated the US Constitution. County Judge Richard Sanders and a majority of county commissioners “pushed back and refused”.

The FFRF then asked permission, without success, to hang their own “anti-religion banner” at the nativity scene that read:

At this season of the Winter Solstice, let reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but a myth & superstition that hardens hearts & enslaves minds.

The Washington Times added this tosh:

Non-believers’ efforts to extinguish the religious impulse is all for naught. The desire to correspond with a supernatural being is common to virtually all cultures throughout human history. Egypt’s pyramids and England’s Stonehenge are powerful reminders of the length to which our ancestors went to demonstrate their commitment to something higher than themselves and their brutish earthly existence.

And it declared:

Try as they may, atheists in communities across America won’t succeed in deploying their obsession with denying God to shatter the innate faith of their fellow countrymen. Rather than giving them the satisfaction of playing the Grinch and spoiling the spirit of the season, it’s better to simply wish them a Merry Christmas and blessed New Year.

Meanwhile, In the UK, stores selling Christmas cards have been accused by an evangelical numpty called Dr Don Horrocks of:

Helping to kill off the Christian theme at Christmas. There appears to be an aversion in society to Christianity being public. Supermarkets appear to be ashamed to put cards on shelves because there is a perception it is dodgy.

Horrocks, of the Evangelical Alliance, was reacting to a survey that showed that little more than one in 200 Christmas cards sold individually by Britain’s four major supermarkets featured religious themes.

The Bishop of Colchester, the Right Reverend Christopher Morgan, also got in on the act:

It is disappointing that so few of our Christmas cards now portray symbols and scenes at the heart of the Christmas story.

A spokesman for Asda said:

We sell a variety of cards that meet the demand of our customers.

Precisely! Dumb Christians like Horrocks and Morgan just don’t get market forces.

Tesco said its religious Christmas card range had in fact increased for the second year running, while Sainsbury’s said what it stocked was based on customer demand, adding:

It is wrong to suggest we are ignoring religious themes at Christmas.

It seems to me that Christmas, as far as Christians are concerned, is nothing more than an opportunity to bleat about “persecution” more than they do at any other time of the year.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn (Christmas card report)

During a “deliverance” service at Otta, in Ogun state, “Bishop” David Oyedepo, general overseer of Winners’ Chapel, slapped the girl with considerable force.

According to this report, Oyedepo suggested to his kneeling victim that she was involved in witchcraft. She denied this, saying instead she was “a witch for Jesus”. The cleric shouted that Jesus has no witches, but when she insisted, the furious Oyedepo called her “a foul devil”, slapped her violently across the face, and shouted:

You can go and burn in hell.

In calling on the Ogun state government, the Ogun State Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General to commence a formal investigation into the conduct of Oyedepo, the  “Stop The Violence Against Women in Nigeria” petition says:

It appears as though the Bishop may have violated the Criminal Code Act (chapter 29 of Part V; sections 351 to 365) of the Nigerian constitution.

Banji Oyebisi, one of the petitioners who is based in the United States,  said:

Our objective is try and get at least 101, 000 signatures that we will submit to Governor Amosun. We want to say we are tired of this kind of conduct, violence against women.

Commenting on the Transparency for Nigeria blog, Adebowale Oriku said:

In spite of Oyedepo’s best efforts to label the poor girl a witch, the young thing insisted that she was not the kind of witch Oyedepo was insinuating and that she was a ‘witch for Jesus.’

Of course it may be argued that Jesus does not have a group of followers that are called witches, but this was a girl that had been browbeaten and spat upon by a man who calls himself a bishop, a man who was mentally torturing a wretched religious captive into abasing herself enough to accept being described as a witch.

The girl must have been desperately inventive, after a fashion, to come up with the ‘Witch for Jesus’ fallacy of definition, which I do not think is better or worse that the description of nuns as ‘Brides of Christ.’

Hat tip: Debo

Take the case this week of the dilemma faced by a kindergarten in Montreal, which was asked by the parents of a five-year-old Muslim girl to allow her to wear a noise-reducing headset in class … because they don’t want her exposed to music “for religious reasons”.

No problem here with music, as the expressions on the faces of these Pakistani girls show

According to this report, though music is an integral part of the kindergarten programme, the principal of Bienville School decided to cave into the parents’ demands.

Said Diane de Courcy, President of the Montreal School Commission:

The principal thinks the family is acting in good faith. (They) would have otherwise kept the child at home.

And she pointed out:

Once she’s in grade one, she’ll have to follow the same curriculum as everyone else.

Elaine Bertrand of union the Montreal Teachers’ Alliance added:

I find it sad for the child and the teacher, who may have to redesign her teaching programme as a result.

Many teachers argue the issue is not strictly about music or faith, but rather the pressure they feel to reasonably accommodate a variety of demands from health-related issues to religion.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn

The scissor-wielding lunatic – of the Catholic Action Group – removed a section of the poster at the weekend … then took part in a 100-strong prayer service outside the St Matthew-in-the-City Anglican church, which was responsible for the billboard.

He said he would destroy the poster again if it was replaced.

This is Satanic, this is the ultimate Satanic attack, when Lucifer attacks his worst enemy, the Blessed Virgin. This particular church – so called – is run by a gay, feminist-type lobby. They claim to be Christian and yet they put up a blasphemous image of the Blessed Virgin, attacking her virginity and the fact that she was the mother of Christ, the God-Man.

The poster after a Catholic nutter vandalised it

Mr Skinner accused the Anglican Church more generally of being:

Basically heretics. There’s only one faith – The Roman Catholic Apostolic Faith – because we go right back in our papal line to Christ. All the other sects and cults are in fact man-made. It doesn’t mean we condemn the individuals in them, we simply condemn their teaching.

He said those responsible for the poster would “certainly burn in hell” if they did not repent.

St Matthew’s reverend Glynn Cardy said that the motivation for the poster was to get people to think about the social circumstances Mary faced when she found out she was having a child.

This is not the first time St Matthew’s has caused controversy with its billboards. Two years ago, it displayed a poster showing Mary and Joseph in bed with the caption:

Poor Joseph. God was a hard act to follow.

The poster provoked so much anger it was defaced several times.

Catholic Church spokeswoman Lyndsay Freer Catholic Action Group had “absolutely nothing” to do with the mainstream Catholic Church.

I have been critical of the poster, but the last thing we would want to do would be anything destructive.

Hat tip: Remigius and BarrieJohn (for original billboard story)

Yakov Halperin, a religious member of Jerusalem’s City Council, said:

The voice of a woman can be fine … the problem we have is with women singing and men hearing their singing. The rabbis say we should avoid any contagion.

An attempt to ban women singing in public came after a few extremist Rabbis declared it too sexual for men to hear.

Women’s rights groups have now taken to organising public sing-a-longs in the street in response. Said one woman as a crowd of about 100 women sang beside one of the city’s main roads.

We cannot let them silence us.

Another protester said:

This is a slippery slope and it’s our democracy that’s at stake.

Even Israel’s military, long a bastion of sexual equality, has been drawn into the row with some religious soldiers boycotting ceremonial events where female soldiers might be singing – but military leaders have refused to bow to the demands for all male choirs.

In religious areas of the city there are growing incidents of self-imposed “separation” of the sexes, despite laws banning segregation.

Frequently women sit at the back of buses, have separate entrances in some shops and different hours at medical facilities.

Hat tip: Pete H

“The committed but vaguely practising Church of England Christian” told C of E clergy who gathered in Oxford for the birthday bash that there were three reasons why the King James Bible was as relevant today as any point in its history:

First, the King James Bible has bequeathed a body of language that permeates every aspect of our culture and heritage.

Second, just as our language and culture is steeped in the Bible, so too is our politics.

Ah, so that would explain the overwheening “morality” of our coalition Government!

Third, we are a Christian country. And we should not be afraid to say so. Let me be clear: I am not in any way saying that to have another faith – or no faith – is somehow wrong.

I know and fully respect that many people in this country do not have a religion. And I am also incredibly proud that Britain is home to many different faith communities, who do so much to make our country stronger. But what I am saying is that the Bible has helped to give Britain a set of values and morals which make Britain what it is today.

Cameron added that while faith was neither a “necessary nor sufficient condition for morality” it could be:

A helpful prod in the right direction. Whether you look at the riots last summer, the financial crash and the expenses scandal, or the ongoing terrorist threat from Islamist extremists around the world, one thing is clear: moral neutrality or passive tolerance just isn’t going to cut it anymore.

Last month the government announced it was sending a copy of the King James Bible, complete with a foreword from education minister Michael Gove, to every school in the country.

I know things are tough folks, but surely we could help fund a campaign to send a copy of God is Not Great: how Religion Poisons Everything to schools in memory of Christopher Hitchens.

Hat tip: Pete H

The BBC reports that the 62-year-old British author, literary critic and journalist – renowned for his fiery attacks on religion – died yesterday from pneumonia, a complication of the oesophageal cancer he was suffering from at a Texas hospital.

Christopher Hitchens

Unable to attend the American Atheist Convention earlier this year due to his illness, Hitchens sent a letter instead to delegates, saying of his battle against cancer:

Nobody ever wins this argument, though there are some solid points to be made while the discussion goes on. I have found, as the enemy becomes more familiar, that all the special pleading for salvation, redemption and supernatural deliverance appears even more hollow and artificial to me than it did before.

He said his trust was now better placed in two things:

The skill and principle of advanced medical science, and the comradeship of innumerable friends and family, all of them immune to the false consolations of religion. It is these forces among others which will speed the day when humanity emancipates itself from the mind-forged manacles of servility and superstition. It is our innate solidarity, and not some despotism of the sky, which is the source of our morality and our sense of decency. 

He added:

The pattern and origin of all dictatorship is the surrender of reason to absolutism and the abandonment of critical, objective inquiry. The cheap name for this lethal delusion is religion, and we must learn new ways of combating it in the public sphere, just as we have learned to free ourselves of it in private. 

Our weapons are the ironic mind against the literal: the open mind against the credulous; the courageous pursuit of truth against the fearful and abject forces who would set limits to investigation (and who stupidly claim that we already have all the truth we need). Perhaps above all, we affirm life over the cults of death and human sacrifice and are afraid, not of inevitable death, but rather of a human life that is cramped and distorted by the pathetic need to offer mindless adulation, or the dismal belief that the laws of nature respond to wailings and incantations. 

But just last week, someone called Mark Judge, writing for the Daily Caller, posed the question:

Could Christopher Hitchens become a Christian?

And Judge, subsequently described here by Ophelia Benson as “a vulture licking its filthy chops”, said:

It’s a possibility that doesn’t seem laughable anymore.

Hitchens is survived by his wife, Carol Blue, and their daughter, Antonia, and his children from a previous marriage, Alexander and Sophia.

Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter described the writer as someone:

Of ferocious intellect, who was as vibrant on the page as he was at the bar. Those who read him felt they knew him, and those who knew him were profoundly fortunate souls.

Hitchens became contributing editor to Vanity Fair in November 1992. He was diagnosed with cancer in June 2010, and documented his declining health in his Vanity Fair column.

He wrote for numerous publications including The Times Literary Supplement, the Daily Express, the London Evening Standard, Newsday and The Atlantic.

He was the author of 17 books, including The Trial of Henry Kissinger, God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, and a memoir, Hitch-22.

A collection of his essays, Arguably, was released this year.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn, Adam Tjaavk, John Morris and others too numerous to mention.

The country’s Interior Ministry, according to this report, confirmed that Amina bint Abdul Halim bin Salem Nasser, a Saudi Arabian national, was executed on Monday in the northern province of al-Jawf. It gave no further details of the charges against her.

Said Philip Luther Amnesty International’s interim Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme:

The charges of ‘witchcraft and sorcery’ are not defined as crimes in Saudi Arabia and to use them to subject someone to the cruel and extreme penalty of execution is truly appalling. While we don’t know the details of the acts which the authorities accused Amina of committing, the charge of sorcery has often been used in Saudi Arabia to punish people, generally after unfair trials, for exercising their right to freedom of speech or religion.

The execution is the second of its kind in recent months. In September a Sudanese national was beheaded in the Saudi Arabian city of Medina after being convicted on “sorcery” charges. He had allegedly confessed after being tortured and was tried without a lawyer.

The number of executions in Saudi Arabia has almost tripled this year. So far at least 79 people – including five women – have been executed there, compared to at least 27 in 2010.

Luther said:

The huge rise in the number of executions in Saudi Arabia is deeply disturbing. We regularly call on the Saudi Arabian authorities to impose a moratorium with a view to abolishing the death penalty. Where the death penalty is used, under international law it should only be applied to the most serious crimes.

Saudi Arabia applies the death penalty to a wide range of offences ranging from murder and rape to blasphemy, apostasy, sorcery, adultery and drugs-related offences.

In December 2010, Saudi Arabia was one of a minority of states voting against a UN General Assembly resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions.

An Indonesian policewoman, with lipstick and jacket tastefully coordinated, takes scissors to the hair of a 'deviant' punk rocker. (AFP: Chaideer Mahyuddin )

I guess we should be grateful that in Indonesia they are not using Islamic law to remove heads – just hair … for the moment.

Sharia police, according to ABC News,  have “morally rehabilitated” more than 60 young punk rock fans in Aceh province on Sumatra island, saying the youths were bad for the province’s image.

After they were arrested at a punk rock concert in Banda Aceh last Saturday, 59 male and five female punk rock fans were forced to have their hair cut, bathe in a lake, change clothes … and pray.

Banda Aceh deputy mayor Illiza Sa’aduddin Djamal, who ordered the arrests, said:

We feared that the Islamic sharia law implemented in this province will be tainted by their activities. We hope that by sending them to rehabilitation they will eventually repent.

Hundreds of Indonesian punk fans came from around the country to attend the concert, organised to raise money for orphans.

Police claimed the raid was executed to deter the youths from “deviant” behaviour. Said Aceh police chief Iskandar Hasan:

They never showered, they lived on the street, never performed religious prayers. We need to fix them so they will behave properly and morally. They need harsh treatment to change their mental behaviour.

A local rights activist, Evi Narti Zain, said the arrests breached human rights.

What the police have done is totally bizarre. Being a punk is just a lifestyle. They exist all over the world and they don’t break any rules or harm other people.

Hasan denied the accusation, claiming the rehabilitation programme was merely:

An orientation into normal Indonesian society.

Hat tip: Remigius and M A Chohan (beheading report) and Name Withheld (Indonesian report)

Trevor Phillips

Under the headline Human rights should help us protect the vulnerable (behind paywall) Phillips wrote:

But there are some examples of cases in which, though the Human Rights Act might technically be applicable, I do wonder if people have just lost the plot. Last week, for example, Keith Porteous Wood of the National Secular Society, a decent and sincere fellow, made me drop my coffee when he told early-morning radio that he wanted to use the Act to prosecute the councillors of a small town in Devon.

What was their alleged crime? Compelling unbelievers to walk over hot coals? Forcing small children to recite chunks of scripture before breakfast? No. It was for taking a democratic decision that those councillors who wished to follow the long tradition of saying prayers before meetings in the Council Chamber could do so.

The underlining is ours.

NSS Executive Director Keith Porteous Wood notified us in an email today that he had written to the paper, expressing his disappointment over “the serious inaccuracies” in Phillips’ piece.

We are not seeking to prosecute anyone, and we have we had no objection to prayers being said before Council meetings. It was clear from the Today programme interview that this was not a prosecution but a High Court hearing (a Judicial Review), and as Councillor Christie said on the clip, there had been an attempt to move the prayers to before the meeting (or have a short period of silence), but that the Christian councillors of Bideford had rejected this.

Our co-applicant Councillor, Clive Bone, led that compromise process. We specifically said in the High Court hearing later on 2 December that we had no objection to pre-meeting prayers or a period of silence during the meeting.

Wood added:

Seeking clarity in the law would seem everyone’s fundamental human right, including ours and I am saddened to be attacked for doing so.

Just for the record, the NSS is trying to avoid the creation of a hierarchy of Human Rights with religion at the top, and we see that as a very real danger. That is why we intervened in the application of Ladele Eweida Chaplin McFarlane to the ECHR. We are the only organisation to have intervened to support all four judgments, as the Government has done, although I am pleased the EHRC now supports two of the verdicts.

 I would appreciate an attempt by you to correct the record as both errors were repeated by the Sunday Times’ Marie Woolf and the Daily Mail.

NSS President Terry Sanderson points out here:

The NSS’s court challenge drew an extraordinary and almost entirely negative reaction from commentators. Most of it could have been written well in advance by the usual suspects, so predictable was it.

Ann Widdecombe in the Daily Express could hardly contain her heaving anger as she labelled Clive Bone — the councillor at the centre of this case — ‘an ass’ and added: ‘I hope the High Court throws out this nasty little action, which predictably is backed by the National Secular Society, and awards the not inconsiderable costs against that body.’

But Republican Perry, who has more teeth than brain cells, is – according to this report – not backing down from his determination to force gay service folk back into hiding should he ever become President of the US.

During an appearance yesterday on Fox News Sunday, the religious nutjob vowed that he would diligently work to undo the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, which would force gays and lesbians either back into the closet or out of the military entirely.

At the last count, Perry’s 30-second campaign video – Strong – had notched up 631, 328 dislikes. If nothing else, he’s learned one thing from this embarrassing debacle: don’t allow people to post comments!

A follow-up video, in which the bozo vows to ditch “Obamacare” from Day One – has had the “Like” and “Dislike” buttons disabled.

In Iowa yesterday he came face-to-face with a number of people who personally challenged his pathological hatred of gays.

At Café Diem in Ames, Perry spoke in front of an estimated 230 people before voices from the crowd began questioning him about how he was “demonizing gay people” in TV ads.

While attempting to leave the coffee shop, Mr Perry continued to be confronted by many who disagreed with his position against allowing openly gay people to serve in the United States military.

Some of the shouted statements included:

Why do you hate gays so much? 

And:

You’re dividing this country … You don’t deserve to be President … Obama for President!

For the most part the names of the hecklers have not been disclosed but one man, Jason Arment, 24 of Grimes Iowa made it important to identify himself. Arment, a Marine who served in Iraq in 2007 and 2008 told The Los Angeles Times that he found Perry’s ads to be “extremely offensive” and “insulting” to service members.

Warren Blumenfeld, an Iowa State University Professor shouted out to Perry:

Why are you marginalizing people in this country? Why are you demonizing gay and lesbian people?

Blumenfeld and the rest of the protesters were largely ignored by Perry, as the Governor signed autographs and worked his way towards the exit of the coffee shop.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin

In the Would You Believe? documentary, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, urges the rising numbers of “a la carte” Catholics to “have the maturity” to get out of the Church. In the documentary, which focuses on the Church’s future, priests reveal they will expect a firmer commitment from their flock in the future.

It shows how church pews swell to almost full capacity for celebratory sacraments, while Sunday service attendances are plummeting.

Archbishop Martin said:

It requires maturity on those people who want their children to become members of the Church community and maturity on those people who say ‘I don’t believe in God and I really shouldn’t be hanging on to the vestiges of faith when I don’t really believe in it’.

Fr Michael Drumm, from the Catholic Schools Partnership, said the church would be getting firmer with parents looking to have their children baptised as a Catholic.

Commenting on this development, the Protect the Pope blog said:

The majority of baptisms, marriages and confirmations are bestowed on nominal Catholics, who do not believe, who do not participate in the Mass and who are not members of our parishes. This not only cheapens our sacraments but also makes a mockery of our beliefs. The Archbishop of Dublin has rightly urged them to have the maturity to admit to themselves and other Catholics that they don’t believe in God, and don’t have a relationship with Christ.

The only caveat Protect the Pope would add is: Have these non-believing Catholics heard the true and full Faith of the Church, or have they only heard the travesty of the Faith invented by liberal bishops, priests and catechists over the past forty years?

It could be that these non-believing Catholics have not rejected the Catholic Faith but only the modernist heresy masquerading as the Catholic faith.

If this is the truth of the matter, then instead of asking them to have the maturity to leave the Church, its (sic) necessary to truly evangelize them.

Meanwhile, we learn that the crazy Catholic League in the US has launched an “Adopt an Atheist” Campaign. CL’s comical President, Bill Donohue explains:

Approximately 80 percent of Americans are Christian, and 96 percent celebrate Christmas. Of the 20 percent who are not Christian, non-believers make up the largest segment, though the number of self-identified atheists is tiny.

David Silverman, president of American Atheists, knows this to be true, which is why he is frantically trying to inflate his base. ‘We want people to realize that there may be atheists in their family’, he told the New York Times, ‘even if those atheists don’t even know they are atheists’.

We think there is some merit in David’s idea, even if he has things backwards, as usual. Today we are launching our ‘Adopt An Atheist’ campaign, the predicate of which is, ‘We want atheists to realize that there may be Christians in their community, even if those Christians don’t even know they are Christian’.

He burbles on:

Here’s what our campaign entails. We are asking everyone to contact the American Atheist affiliate in his area … letting them know of your interest in ‘adopting’ one of them. All it takes is an e-mail. Let them know of your sincere interest in working with them to uncover their inner self. They may be resistant at first, but eventually they may come to understand that they were Christian all along.

If we hurry, these closeted Christians can celebrate Christmas like the rest of us.

As an added bonus, they will no longer be looked upon as people who ‘believe in nothing, stand for nothing and are good for nothing’.

A nice comment here from Pharyngula:

The Catholic church’s problem is NOT that people are unaware of them; as the largest single Christian denomination, Catholicism has name brand recognition. Their problem is that people know all about the Catholic Church, and they RUN AWAY SCREAMING from it.

Hat tip: Marcus (“Adopt an Atheist” report)

That’s the view of an unnamed Muslim cleric, based in Europe, who is reported here as saying that women should not even get close to foodstuffs such as these.

If women wish to eat these food items, a third party, preferably a male related to them such as their a father or husband, should cut the items into small pieces and serve.

The crazy cleric also added carrots and zucchini to the list of forbidden foods for women.

However, he appears to have left peppers off his list. These can sometimes have a tendency to appear phallic, as the picture below shows.

Hat Tip: Remigius

Catholics in Paris protesting against Golgota Picnic

According to this report, the head of the Théâtre du Rond-Point on the Champs-Elysées complained of death threats in the run-up to this week’s premiere of the play Golgota Picnic by the Madrid-based, Argentinian writer Rodrigo García.

Two men reported to have links to fundamentalist Catholic groups were arrested at the weekend while attempting to disable the theatre’s security system.

The demonstrations over Golgota Picnic come after a rise in fundamentalist religious protest action against some of France’s most high-profile theatres, including pelting the audience with eggs, letting off stinkbombs and the invasion of the stage of Paris’s esteemed Théâtre de la Ville mid-performance by outraged Catholics carrying banners reading “Stop Christianophobia”.

Earlier this year, young French fundamentalist Catholics staged an unprecedented attack on a gallery in Avignon, slashing photographs including Piss Christ by the New York artist Andres Serrano.

Golgota Picnic, which takes place on a stage strewn with burger buns, has several religious references including readings and a crucifixion scene. But Paris theatre critics said it was absurd to call it anti-Catholic or blasphemous and questioned whether its religious critics had actually seen it.

Yet in a move that went further than the recent protests over Théâtre de la Ville’s staging of On the Concept of the Face, Regarding the Son of God by the Italian Romeo Castellucci, Paris’s archbishop, André Vingt-Trois, deemed Golgota Picnic, which he had not seen, “deliberately offensive” and said he would lead a protest prayer at Notre Dame.

Jean-Michel Ribes, head of the Théâtre de Rond-Point, appealed for calm. He said:

The Théâtre du Rond-Point isn’t an anti-Christian, anti-Muslim or anti-Jewish place.

But he said the role of artists was to fight against “suffocating dogma”. Theatregoers have been advised to arrive an hour early to get through the airport-style security before reaching their seats.

Paris city hall’s art supremos rushed to defend the theatre community against what it said was fundamentalists holding art to ransom, saying a “silent minority” of Catholics did not share the notion of making threats or stifling freedom of expression.

Civitas, a lobby group that says it aims to re-Christianise France, has called for a large, peaceful street demonstration “against Christianophobia” this weekend.

Hat tip: Marcus

According to this report, shocked parents looked on as the two men began brawling on Tuesday afternoon.

Onlookers told of their horror after one bit the finger off the other and:

Not the finger in question, but a clever, if somewhat gruesome flash drive

Spat blood out like an animal.

The 32-year-old victim was taken to hospital, where he was treated for his injury before being discharged. A 39-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assault and bailed by police.

The fight broke out at while parents waited in a room at the school for the nativity to start.

It is thought that no children saw the horrific scenes, as they were preparing for the play in a separate area of the school.

One dad, who witnessed the fight, said:

We were all waiting in a room for the show. I’d got there early so I had a good seat. I heard a bit of commotion from the back of the room and looked around to see what was going on. A man in a white hat stormed in and went for another dad. They were fighting and blood was flying.

He added:

I didn’t see it, but I heard a finger was bitten off.

One mum said:

I can’t believe that it happened – a school is not the time or place to be fighting.  The kids might not have been there but they will have heard what happened and I’m sure they will all be affected … You can understand children fighting in the playground, but not parents.

A spokesman for the school said:

We are assisting the police with their enquiries and can confirm that the incident was not witnessed by any of the children, nor were they at risk at any time.

Rhea Page, the victim of the attack

Sisters Ambaro Maxamed, 24, Ayan Maxamed, 28, and Hibo Maxamed, 24, along with their cousin Ifrah Nur, 28, were convicted of causing actual bodily harm to 22-year-old Rhea Page, but were spared jail sentences by Judge Robert Brown, who was told that the women were not used to drinking alcohol.

Page was set upon while walking to a taxi rank with her boyfriend in June last year. The attackers, shouting “kill the White slag”, dragged her to the ground by her hair then kicked and punched her.

Page’s boyfriend, 23-year-old Lewis Moore, was also attacked as he tried to fend off the four women.

During the trial Leicester Crown Court heard that Maxamed called Page a “white bitch” then pulled the hair, forcing her to the floor.

The judge decided that the attack was not racially motivated.

The attackers faced up to five years in jail, but Judge Brown handed down six-month suspended sentences instead after hearing mitigating evidence that the women were not accustomed to drinking alcohol due to their religion.

During the trial, Maxamed’s defence council said:

They’re Somalian Muslims and alcohol or drugs isn’t something they’re used to.

After the trial, Page said:

They were taking turns to kick me in the head and back over and over. I thought they were going to kill me. I honestly think they attacked me just because I was white. I can’t think of any other reason.

According to a report in The Telegraph,  which has a video of the fracas, Judge Brown – who also sentenced the three sisters to 150 hours of community work – said he accepted that they may have felt victims of unreasonable force from Mr Moore.

But Miss Page insisted her boyfriend had only been trying to protect her.

If he hadn’t been there, I’m sure they would have killed me.

Hat tip: Diesel Balaam

But before you start cheering and popping the Champagne corks, be aware that the law could hit the buffers if a lunatic Christian peer’s “prayer to annul” succeeds in the House of Lords.

Tory peer Detta O'Cathain

The Tory peer – Detta O’Cathain (pronounced oh ka-HOYN)  – is, according to this report, proposing a motion in the Lords arguing that the provisions are not clear. If the Lords pass her motion, the provision could be annulled.

The 73-year-old battleaxe argues that the new law could lead to churches facing litigation if they refuse to host civil partnerships. Similar claims have been made by idiotic outfits such as Christian Concern and Anglican Mainstream.

Critics of O’Cathain’s move point out that the voluntary nature of the provision is made very clear in the Equality Act. They add that no group that campaigned for the measure expressed a desire to force faith groups to carry out ceremonies they do not approve of.

According to this blog, Derek McAuley, chief officer of the Unitarians and Free Christian Churches, has issued a statement saying:

I am disappointed and saddened at the last minute attempt that will be made in the House of Lords on 8 December 2011 by Baroness O’Cathain to revoke the regulations to allow civil partnership registration in religious premises and would urge its clear rejection. This appears to be a cynical effort to derail the measure on rather spurious grounds.

He added:

The amendment to the Equality Bill permitting registration originated in the House of Lords and was passed with wide support. The matter of churches being ‘compelled’ to register was dealt with by Section 202 which stated that ‘nothing in this Act places an obligation on religious organisations to host civil partnership registrations if they do not wish to do so’. This is reinforced in the regulations. Churches are no more obliged to enable civil partnerships to be registered on their premises than hotels or other commercial premises.

And Paul Martin, chief executive of the Lesbian & Gay Foundation, said:

Just when we thought that same-sex couples would be enjoying their commitment to one another being legally recognised on religious premises by the end of the year, this happens, it’s a real blow for lesbian, gay and bisexual equality. It’s really important to highlight that this legislation does not force or compel religious establishments to offer Civil Partnerships, it simply gives religious establishments who wish to perform civil partnerships the opportunity to do so.

He added:

This move highlights that opponents of lesbian, gay and bisexual equality will use any legislation to try and derail the legislative process.

The Lesbian & Gay Foundation is encouraging people to write to members of the House of Lords to encourage them to vote against Detta O’Cathain’s proposal. Meanwhile Anglican Mainstream are encouraging people to write to members of the House of Lords to support the proposal.

According to theyworkforyou.com Detta O’Cathain has:

Voted very strongly against equal gay rights.

Johnny Depp (click on pic to hear his 'blasphemous' song)

According to this report, Depp teamed up with the band Babybird to record the number, which:

Tells the tale of a boozing, stolen car-driving Jesus look-alike who gets his kicks at lap-dancing clubs.

Lee Douglas, spokesman for the religious pressure group The Christian Coalition, lashed Depp for his “blasphemy”. He said:

I’m sure he thinks he’s being very funny but he’s simply a disgrace. One day, Johnny Depp and his cronies will face the judgment of our Lord and they will burn in hell for this filth.

The Focus on the Family campaign group also ripped into Depp over the “appalling” song. A spokesman said:

We are sickened by Mr Depp’s behaviour. Why did he need to record this song?  It is a slap in the face to Christians all over the world.

It is the second time Depp has recorded with the You’re Gorgeous chart-toppers. He played guitar on their song Unloveable last year.

Depp, 48, who helped to finance their pop comeback, is said to be “not concerned” about the controversy. And Babybird frontman Stephen Jones, 49, said:

Some people have no sense of humour.

Hat tip: Holland

The research, led by University of British Columbia psychology doctoral student Will Gervais, found distrust to be the central factor motivating antagonism toward atheists among the religious.

An anti-atheist billboard spotted in the US

Said Gervais:

Where there are religious majorities – that is, in most of the world – atheists are among the least trusted people. With more than half a billion atheists worldwide, this prejudice has the potential to affect a substantial number of people.

Researchers believe the negative perception of atheists may stem from some people’s understanding of morality; a 2002 Pew poll suggests nearly half of Americans believe morality is impossible without belief in a deity.

For one part of Gervais’ six-part study, researchers compared views of atheists, homosexual men and the general population, noting that the first two groups are:

Often described as threatening to majority religious values and morality.

Both are explicitly denied membership to the Boy Scouts of America, the study adds.

The study found that:

People did not significantly differentiate atheists from rapists.

Researchers hope the study, considered among the first to probe the psychology behind anti-atheist sentiments, will offer clues on how to combat prejudice against non-believers.

Study co-author Ara Norenzayan, a UBC associate professor, said it was motivated in part by a 2007 Gallup poll that found only 45 per cent of Americans would vote for an atheist as president.

Atheists often see their disbelief as a private matter, but others may consider it:

A public threat to cooperation and honesty.

The UBC study, titled Do You Believe in Atheists? Distrust is Central to Anti-Atheist Prejudice, appears in the current online issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Hat tip: Robert Stovold