http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7056739.ece
Three leading Swedish newspapers and the national broadcaster today carried a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad with a dog's body after an alleged plot to murder the artist was unveiled in Ireland. The threat to Lars Vilks was a threat against all Swedes, the country's biggest daily, Dagens Nyheter, proclaimed, adding that the New Year axe attack on a Danish cartoonist for drawing the Prophet meant that Scandanavian values of openness were being assaulte
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article7056588.ece
Security forces have shot dead two people in the central Nigerian city of Jos as tensions continue after Sunday's sectarian massacre. Days after an estimated 500 Christian villagers were massacred in raids by Muslim gangs, twitchy officers fired warning shots at a crowd and shot at a truck, killing two people.
Acupuncture does not help women have a child through fertility treatment, new research shows. (Well, d'uh)
An environmental health investigation is underway into claims that incense burnt during church services is making members of the congregation ill. (Maybe its the sermons not the incense)
A Christian registrar who lost her job after she refused to carry out civil partnership ceremonies has been refused permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. She is now considering whether to try to take her case to the European Court of Human Rights, as she believes it shows that the right to religious conscience has been "trampled" by the rights of homosexuals.
An American woman known as "Jihad Jane" was charged by US prosecutors on Tuesday with recruiting jihadist fighters to plan terror attacks in Europe and South Asia. Colleen LaRose, a woman from suburban Philadelphia who was "desperate to do something" to help suffering Muslims, is also accused of agreeing to kill a Swedish citizen on orders from unnamed terrorists. (A convert to a religion that considers her to be of less worth than a man. Not all that big on self-respect apparently)
Barack Obama's planned visit to Indonesia this month has lent new impetus to raids that have left one top militant dead and his band of Islamist extremists on the ropes, analysts say.
They plan to become doctors, researchers and professors, but these students from Liberty University, an evangelical school, also believe that God created the Earth in a week, around 6,000 years ago. Each year, a group of biology students at the Christian university based in Lynchburg, Virginia, travels to the Natural History Museum in Washington to learn about a theory they dismiss as incorrect - Darwin's theory of evolution. (These clowns are in fact rejecting not just evolution but all of science - and the technology derived from it. They have compartmentalized brains - small ones, obviously)
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian President, today said that the US is playing a "double game" in Afghanistan, fighting the terrorists it once supported. Tehran has said it supports the Afghan government and denies allegations that it helps the Taliban. Iran calls the accusation part of a broad anti-Iranian campaign and says it makes no sense that its Shiite-led government would help the fundamentalist Sunni movement of the Taliban. (None of this "all Muslims together" crap from the Poison Dwarf)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7056689.ece
Sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church are proof that that "the Devil is at work inside the Vatican", according to the Holy See's chief exorcist. Father Gabriele Amorth, 85, who has been the Vatican's chief exorcist for 25 years and says he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession, said that the consequences of satanic infiltration included power struggles at the Vatican as well as "cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/09/english-defence-league-aylesbury
On Friday, hundreds of English Defence League (EDL) supporters staged yet another rally to promote the organisation's anti-Islamist agenda and cause general intimidation, this time in the centre of London. The march by around 250 of its supporters was held in support of Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician whose presence in the UK was labelled as a "threat to one of the fundamental interests of society" by the Home Office last year due to his deliberately inflammatory anti-Muslim views. (Thugs operating under the cover of a justifiable disquiet over Islamization)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/09/pope-brother-violence-school
The elder brother of Pope Benedict XVI admitted today that he slapped pupils at a Catholic boarding school where he was choirmaster and was aware of violent incidents that took place at the school, but not the extent of the abuse. He asked victims for forgiveness for his failure to act. Georg Ratzinger, 86, who was choirmaster at the Regensburger Domspatzen in Bavaria between 1964 to 1994, said he occasionally struck boys in his care, according to what he said had been the "normal reaction" at the time. But he denied any knowledge of sexual abuse. "These things were never discussed," Ratzinger told the Catholic daily, the Passauer Neue Presse. "The problem of sexual abuse that has now come to light was never spoken of." (But then he would say that wouldn't he?)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/09/seven-arrested-ireland-muhammad-cartoon
Irish police today arrested seven suspects over an alleged plot to kill a Swedish artist who drew the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog. The target of the alleged assassination was Lars Vilks, who had a $100,000 (£67,000) bounty put on his head by al-Qaida in 2007, with a 50% bonus if Vilks was "slaughtered like a lamb" by having his throat cut. Another $50,000 was said to have been put on the life of Ulf Johansson, editor-in-chief of Nerikes Allehanda, the local newspaper that printed the cartoon.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/10/pakistan-world-vision-aid-attack
Suspected militants armed with grenades attacked the offices of an international aid group in north-west Pakistan today, killing five people working for the organisation, police said. The attack targeted World Vision, a large Christian humanitarian group helping survivors of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, in Mansehra district. The dead were all Pakistanis and included two women, said police official Mohammad Sabir.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8558022.stm
Seven people have been arrested in the Irish Republic over an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist for depicting the Prophet Muhammad, police say. The four men and three women are all Muslim immigrants, according to media reports, though a police statement did not confirm this. Cartoonist Lars Vilks had depicted the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog in the Nerikes Allehanda newspaper. Islamic militants put a $100,000 (£67,000) bounty on his head.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8544995.stm
Science and critical thinking can be seen as exclusive and elitist. But now a new group is aiming to bring scepticism to the masses across Scotland. The audience sits attentively, absorbing every word. The speaker, a visiting doctor of particle physics, is discussing the effects of libel laws on science publishing. But this isn't a university lecture hall or a scientific institution - it's a crowded pub on a Tuesday night in Glasgow city centre. The organisers of Glasgow Skeptics in the Pub have been arranging monthly meetings since November last year. (An excellent and well-deserved plug for Skeptics in the Pub)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/08/europe-ban-burqa-veil
Prohibition of the burqa and the niqab would not liberate oppressed women, but might instead lead to their further alienation in European societies. A general ban on such attire would be an ill-advised invasion of individual privacy. Depending on its precise terms, a prohibition also raises serious questions about whether such legislation would be compatible with the European convention on human rights.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/mar/08/foreign-policy-religion-world
Do we need more religion in foreign policy? A US thinktank, the Chicago Council on Foreign Affairs, thinks we do. In a recent report, it urges diplomats to get over the instinctive queasiness they feel when they step off their normal turf of secular politics. The report hints that the US should be open to dialogue with hardline religious groups such as Hamas or Hezbollah., under certain circumstances (and this is interesting, because Martin Indyk, former US ambassador to Israel, is among the signatories). But its main message is twofold: first, that "religion that is civil and public", not secularism, is the answer to religious extremism; and second, that engaging with religion is not just about de-radicalising Muslims. (A ridiculous idea - religions, particularly the big three, make unreconcilable truth claims and are a source of division. Secularity is the only level playing field)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8980638
The U.S. government and an international human rights group called Tuesday for Nigeria to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the deaths of more than 200 unarmed people in renewed violence between Christians and Muslims.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/08/suicide-bomb-lahore-police-pakistan
A suicide car bomber has struck at a building where police interrogate high-value suspects in Lahore in eastern Pakistan, killing at least 11 people and wounding scores more, including women and children heading to school, officials said today .
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/08/nigeria-sectarian-massacre-babies
A nappy-clad baby was among the corpses of children tangled with each other in a morgue after a massacre that left hundreds of dead in central Nigeria. Residents of three predominantly Christian settlements near Jos said Muslim herders from surrounding hills had launched what appeared to be reprisal attacks following sectarian clashes which killed hundreds in January. Some witnesses told the BBC that villagers were caught in fishing nets and animal traps as they tried to flee and were then hacked to death. Mud huts were also set on fire.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/us/07scientology.html?hp
Raised as Scientologists, Christie King Collbran and her husband, Chris, were recruited as teenagers to work for the elite corps of staff members who keep the Church of Scientology running, known as the Sea Organization, or Sea Org. They signed a contract for a billion years — in keeping with the church’s belief that Scientologists are immortal. They worked seven days a week, often on little sleep, for sporadic paychecks of $50 a week, at most. But after 13 years and growing disillusionment, the Collbrans decided to leave the Sea Org, setting off on a Kafkaesque journey that they said required them to sign false confessions about their personal lives and their work, pay the church thousands of dollars it said they owed for courses and counseling, and accept the consequences as their parents, siblings and friends who are church members cut off all communication with them. (Yet another story about this sinister and manipulative cult - the stories pile up but LRon's loons keep marching on)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-met-food-labels-20100305,0,3115706.story
It's a jungle out there in the grocery aisles, a thicket of products claiming healthy this and nutritious that. Never before have food packages displayed so many health claims in the U.S., according to a recent commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association. These front-of-package labels may "so thoroughly mislead the public that another option deserves consideration — eliminate all nutrition and health claims from the front of processed food packages," Marion Nestle and David Ludwig, two nutrition experts, wrote in the journal.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-met-autism-therapy-lawsuit-20100304,0,5271734.story
The father of a 7-year-old Chicago boy who was diagnosed as a toddler with autism has sued the Naperville and Florida doctors who treated his son, alleging they harmed the child with "dangerous and unnecessary experimental treatments." James Coman and his son were featured last year in "Dubious Medicine," a Tribune series that examined risky, unproven treatments for autism based on questionable science. The defendants — family-practice physicians Dr. Anjum Usman of Naperville and Dr. Daniel Rossignol of Melbourne, Fla. — are prominent in the Defeat Autism Now! movement, which promotes many of the alternative treatments the Tribune scrutinized. Both have spoken to groups of parents at autism conferences and trained other physicians in their methods. Coman alleged in Cook County Circuit Court that Usman and Rossignol prescribed "medically unnecessary and unjustified" chelation treatments, designed to force the body to excrete toxic metals, even though the child did not suffer from heavy metal poisoning. The treatments carry a risk of kidney failure, the lawsuit alleges.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6251AO20100306
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday called the September 11 attacks on the United States a "big fabrication" that was used to justify the U.S. war on terrorism, the official IRNA news agency reported. Ahmadinejad, who often rails against the West and Israel, made the comment in a meeting with Intelligence Ministry personnel. (So the Poison Dwarf is either a liar or deranged or both - hardly news. This kind of crap is common currency in the Islamic world)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8555215.stm
Hundreds of people are reported to have been killed in Nigeria's Plateau State in clashes between Muslims and Christians. The latest violence is apparently revenge for similar clashes in January. What is the fighting about? More than 2,000 people have been killed in communal violence in Plateau State since 2001.
A rector threw a Tai Chi class out of his church hall after ruling that the exercise was not compatible with Christianity. (...and neither are compatible with reality)
Analysis of the handwriting of the leaders of the three main political parties today found that Gordon Brown ''won't be told what to do'', David Cameron is ''skilled at talking his way in and out of things'' and Nick Clegg can ''get what he wants without aggression''. (Graphology is hokum - so naturally the Telegraph doesn't question its effectiveness)
An image of the Virgin Mary has been crying tears of oil, its owner has claimed, in a story that has drawn hundreds of visitors to the man's home in France. Esat Altindagoglu has been inundated with more than 50 visitors a day hoping to see the "miracle" at his house near Paris. The one-foot high painting was given to his wife Sevin by a Lebanese priest on her birthday in 2006, the Turkish-born salesman said. (Has anyone analyzed this exudate? Maybe there's a bottle of it around the house somewhere)
Germany's Roman Catholic Church has revealed charges of priests beating and sexually abusing boys in at least three schools in Pope Benedict's native Bavaria, one linked to a renowned choir once led by his brother. Reverend Georg Ratzinger, 86, who led the choir from 1964 to 1994, told Bavarian Radio he knew nothing of any abuse at the choir, which regularly performs on tours in Germany and abroad. The charges at the cathedral choir in Regensburg, the Benedictine monastery school at Ettal and a Capucian school in Burghausen came to light after abuse cases revealed at Jesuit schools around the country shocked the country last month. Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, head of the German Bishops Conference, apologised last month for sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests after over 100 such cases were reported in elite Jesuit boarding schools around the country. Sexual abuse scandals, which haunted the Church in the United States over the last decade and bankrupt several dioceses, have rocked Ireland after two blunt government reports in recent months and come to light in the Netherlands this week. (...and this is till only the tip of the iceberg. Except more revelations from countries where the Vatican holds sway such as Poland)
A woman in New Zealand is selling what she claims are two troublesome exorcised ghosts on an internet auction website. She claims the ghosts, one of an old man and the other a young girl, were removed from his house by a spiritualist and are now captured in vials of holy water. Avie Woodbury, who signs herself as Melvin S from Christchurch, says on the www.trademe.co.nz website that the spirits created havoc in her house before the exorcism, switching lights on and off, turning an electric kettle on, and terrifying the dog.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/07/madrid-protects-bullfighting-art
In a clear provocation to its great rival Barcelona, Spain's capital city of Madrid has officially elevated bullfighting to the status of a protected art form, as matadors, philosophers and politicians become embroiled in a furious dispute over the country's bloody but emblematic sport. (Art form? Cruelty to animals is all it is.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/08/outsourcing-threat-nuns-holy-industry
In a temporal battle that threatened to take the bread from their mouths, nuns producing communion wafers for French churches were shocked to learn that the religious authorities at Lourdes – one of France's holiest shrines – were contemplating buying cheaper hosts from Poland. To add insult the Polish "hosts" are made by a secular workforce. (The triumph of the market)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/08/suicide-bomb-lahore-police-pakistan
A suicide car bomber has struck at a building where police interrogate high-value suspects in Lahore in eastern Pakistan, killing at least 11 people and wounding scores more, including women and children heading to school, officials said today .
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/07/scores-hacked-death-nigerian-sectarian
Scores of women and children were today hacked to death by raiders wielding machetes in a fresh bout of religious violence in Nigeria. Dozens of corpses were reportedly piled up in streets near the central city of Jos after pre-dawn clashes between Islamist pastoralists and Christian villagers. One report put the death toll at more than 200. Some apparently burned to death and many others were displaced as homes were razed to the ground. Local aid agencies described it as a "reprisal" attack for sectarian violence in January that left more than 300 dead, most of them Muslims, and saw Jos put under a military curfew.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20100305/tsc-world-cops-target-traditional-healer-c2ff8aa.html
Police seized tiger bones, anteater scales and bear gall bladders in an international operation against the use of endangered plants and animals in traditional medicine, officers said Friday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/07/joel-osteen-america-pastor
Forget Billy Graham and Jimmy Swaggart – the most popular and influential pastor in the US is Joel Osteen. On the surface he is modest and quietly spoken, but his belief in the "prosperity gospel" is changing the way people pray. (Another slimy bastard doing well by doing "good")
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/05/american-prophet-market-predictor
There are three main schools of thought when it comes to playing the stockmarket. One says study the form of companies and use your judgment to predict their coming performance; the second says just guess and hope for the best; the third says use time travel and psychic powers to look into the future. Time travel and psychic powers? Well yes, according to Sean David Morton, or "America's Prophet" as he calls himself. His claim to be able to predict with absolute accuracy the movements of the markets based upon his training at the feet of Nepalese monks may sound far-fetched, but it was convincing enough to persuade more than 100 investors to part company with $6 million between 2006 and 2007.
http://www.alternet.org/story/145888/do_kinder_people_have_an_evolutionary_advantage
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are challenging long-held beliefs that human beings are wired to be selfish. In a wide range of studies, social scientists are amassing a growing body of evidence to show we are evolving to become more compassionate and collaborative in our quest to survive and thrive. In contrast to "every man for himself" interpretations of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, Dacher Keltner, a UC Berkeley psychologist and author of "Born to be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life," and his fellow social scientists are building the case that humans are successful as a species precisely because of our nurturing, altruistic and compassionate traits. They call it "survival of the kindest."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/05/geert-wilders-house-of-lords
The controversial far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders appeared at the House of Lords today to screen an anti-Islam film and denounce the religion as "totalitarian" and incompatible with democracy. (Which is an unexceptionable claim having the merit of truth)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/05/gaza-protest-harsh-jail-terms
MPs and protesters are stepping up their campaign against "extreme and disproportionate" sentences handed down to young Muslims involved in demonstrations against the Israeli invasion of Gaza last year. There were 119 arrests after protests outside the Israeli embassy in London during which bottles and stones were thrown and a coffee shop was attacked. Seventy-eight protesters were charged, most with violent disorder. So far 22 have been jailed for between eight months and two and half years, and more cases are due to come before the courts. (The sentences are fair and proportionate - this is a case of asking for special treatment for thugs because they are Muslims. What if the protesters were from the BNP?)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/mar/06/radicalised-tories-young-britons-foundation
Behind the heavy wooden doors of House of Commons committee room 10, a little-known group of young Tories gathered in private on Wednesday to rally their forces ahead of the general election. The chintzy decor provided an incongruous backdrop for the Young Britons' Foundation, which has begun to earn a reputation in Tory circles as "the Conservative madrasa". (Just what British politics doesn't need - American-style right-wing crazies)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/05/nun-cured-pope-parkinsons-ill
It was the miracle that set Pope John Paul II on the road to sainthood and provided faithful followers with proof of his holy powers. But hopes that the former pope's canonisation would be fast-tracked by Sister Marie Simon-Pierre's recovery from Parkinson's disease have been set back by reports that the French nun has fallen ill again. (A shame for the poor woman but reality has a way of intruding on wishful thinking)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/03/BAV91CAGLG.DTL&tsp=1
Three cousins from Hayward have been charged in San Francisco with a hate crime and assault for allegedly firing a BB rifle at the face of a man they believed was gay, an attack the men videotaped, authorities said Wednesday. Mohammad Habibzada, Shafiq Hashemi and Sayed Bassam, all 24, are scheduled to be arraigned today in San Francisco Superior Court. They are free on $50,000 bond apiece. (Scum - the report doesn't mention Islam so I won't )
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/04/vatican-gay-sex-scandal
The Vatican was today rocked by a sex scandal reaching into Pope Benedict's household after a chorister was sacked for allegedly procuring male prostitutes for a papal gentleman-in-waiting. Angelo Balducci, a Gentleman of His Holiness, was caught by police on a wiretap allegedly negotiating with Thomas Chinedu Ehiem, a 29-year-old Vatican chorister, over the specific physical details of men he wanted brought to him. Transcripts in the possession of the Guardian suggest that numerous men may have been procured for Balducci, at least one of whom was studying for the priesthood.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/04/stampede-india-temple-free-food
A stampede among thousands of poor villagers scrambling for free food and clothes at a commemorative event killed 63 people today at a Hindu temple in northern India and injured dozens of others. Nearly all the victims were women and children. The stampede was so intense it knocked down a gate at the compound surrounding the temple in the town of Kunda, on the northern plains of Uttar Pradesh state. "How could this happen in such a holy place?" said Phool Chand Saroj, a 48-year-old farmer whose wife, daughter and grandmother were killed in the stampede. "If they had been more careful about letting in the crowds this would not have happened."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/04/hamas-ban-men-gaza-salons
Gaza's Islamic Hamas government has banned men from working in women's hair salons. It is the latest step in a campaign to impose strict Islamic customs on Gaza's 1.5 million people.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8549044.stm
Four Islamists have been convicted by a court in Germany of plotting to attack US facilities in the country. The men, two of whom were German-born converts to Islam, were given prison sentences of between five and 12 years. The judge said they had dreamed of "mounting a second September 11 2001" by killing US civilians and soldiers by bombing targets like Ramstein Air Base.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8546345.stm
British society suffers from a lack of trust and neighbourliness, the Roman Catholic Church has said. Its comments come in a pre-general election report called Choosing The Common Good. The report says good citizenship and genuine neighbourliness are being overlooked and that people are being "alienated by a selfish society". (Oh great, just what's needed, a lecture from a sect that shielded pedophiles from justice for years - and probably still does)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/03/iraq-30-dead-suicide-bombings
A string of three deadly suicide bombings in Iraq killed at least 30 people in the former insurgent stronghold of Baqouba today, including an attack in which the bomber rode in an ambulance with the wounded before blowing himself up at a hospital, police said. The bombings – Iraq's deadliest in weeks – come as the country is preparing for elections on Sunday that will decide who will oversee the country as US forces go home and help determine whether Iraq can overcome the deep sectarian tensions that have divided the country since the 2003 American-led invasion. (Muslims killing Muslims yet again. You could be forgiven for thinking that their religion is inherently violent)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/03/anti-abortionists-target-african-americans
Anti-abortion activists have been accused of exploiting America's tragic racial history with a growing campaign to persuade black women that the high rate of terminations among African Americans is a racist conspiracy on a par with slavery and lynching. (Can they sink any lower? You bet.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/03/geert-wilders-dutch-polls
Geert Wilders, the Dutch far-right anti-immigrant maverick, scored big gains in yesterday's local elections in the Netherlands, according to projections last night, indicating he may dominate the political scene in the run-up to the general election in three months. Yesterday's poll, 10 days after the centrist coalition government collapsed, was seen as a gauge of the national mood ahead of the national elections on 9 June. Wilders last night claimed a big victory, predicting: "We are going to conquer the entire country ... We are going to be the biggest party in the country."
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100304/tts-uk-dutch-election-ca02f96.html
Dutch anti-Islamist leader Geert Wilders scored major gains in local authority polls on Thursday, making him a serious challenger for power in a June national election, preliminary results showed. The results came on top of an opinion poll showing that the PVV, which campaigns against Muslim immigration as its main platform, would win the most seats -- 27 in the 150-member Dutch parliament -- in the June 9 election. Wilders, who has faced death threats, was under tight security at his rally on Wednesday.
Charles Spencer really despises David Hare’s play My Zinc Bed. His no-star review, in today’s paper, of its revival makes for compelling reading because it is honest and courageous. Hare’s drama, which Spencer calls “despicably glib”, contains an unpleasant attack on Alcoholics Anonymous. (AA is a quasi-religious organisation that tries to get you to swap one addiction for another. It may suit some but most people that are going to kick alcohol do it for themselves)
A Muslim woman is thought to have become the first passenger to be stopped from boarding a flight after refusing to go through a full body scanner for religious reasons. A Manchester Airport spokeswoman said: ''Two female passengers who were booked to fly out of Terminal 2 refused to be scanned for medical and religious reasons. ''In accordance with the Government directive on scanners, they were not permitted to fly. (It doesn't matter who you are - no scan, no fly with no exceptions. It's as simple as that)
Daniel Radcliffe, the star of Harry Potter, has dismissed rumours about his sexuality by insisting: “I’m not gay”. (So what if he was? This prurient probing of celebrities' sexuality is intrusive and pointless)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/02/italy-football-coach-god-blasphemy
Domenico "Mimmo" Di Carlo could not be said to have emblazoned his name on the annals of Italian football – until, that is, last Sunday in the third minute of the second half of Chievo's 2-1 victory over Cagliari in Serie A. It was at this moment, according to the disciplinary watchdog of the Italian football league, that the Verona club's coach "proffered a blasphemous expression" that was to make him the first victim of a zero-tolerance policy on irreverence. (Now just who was hurt by this? Not anyone's god that's for sure)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8544531.stm
An influential Muslim scholar has issued a global ruling against terrorism and suicide bombing. Dr Tahir ul-Qadri, from Pakistan, says his 600-page judgement, known as a fatwa, completely dismantles al-Qaeda's violent ideology. The scholar describes al-Qaeda as an "old evil with a new name" that has not been sufficiently challenged. (Expect to hear more of Dr ul-Qadri and his organization Minhaj ul-Quran International)
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/26/liberals.atheists.sex.intelligence/
Political, religious and sexual behaviors may be reflections of intelligence, a new study finds. Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political Science correlated data on these behaviors with IQ from a large national U.S. sample and found that, on average, people who identified as liberal and atheist had higher IQs. This applied also to sexual exclusivity in men, but not in women. The findings will be published in the March 2010 issue of Social Psychology Quarterly. (Ah, to have one's prejudices confirmed. Sadly before these findings can be accepted they need to be independently confirmed and a better measure of intelligence than IQ tests needs to be employed)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/mar/01/science-spin-truth
If by "spin" you mean selecting some data to publish while leaving others out, or presenting your results in the clearest way you can to reveal their implications, then spin is unavoidable. If by "spin" you mean selecting data to fit your own theory or twisting the facts to support one side of an argument regardless of its validity, then spin in science can never be justified. At the extreme it amounts to fraud. (Sue Blackmore on whether spin ever be justified in science - in particular parapsychology)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/01/inhofe-climate-mccarthyite
The US Congress's most ardent global warming sceptic is being accused of turning the row over climate science into a McCarthyite witch-hunt by calling for a criminal investigation of scientists. Climate scientists say Senator James Inhofe's call for a criminal investigation into American as well as British scientists who worked on the UN climate body's report or had communications with East Anglia's climate research unit represents an attempt to silence debate on the eve of new proposals for a climate change law. (Inhofe's irresponsible, ignorant meddling does not alter the inevitability of global climate change but could damage efforts to mitigate it)
Imagine a religious movement that makes geographic maps of where demons reside and claims among its adherents the Republican Party's most recent vice presidential nominee and whose leaders have presided over prayer sessions (one aimed at putting the kibosh on health-care reform) with a host of leading GOP figures. (Dangerous nutcases, every damn' one)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/28/catherine-bennett-faith-schools
The pious Scottish secretary, Jim Murphy, is advertising Labour as the natural choice for monotheistic man. "Faith voters massively outweigh 'Motorway Men' or 'Worcester Woman', or any other trendy demographic group identified by marketeers," he said last week in a homily which signally failed to impress many of its intended targets, including Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the leader of the Catholic church in Scotland.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/feb/28/vatican-ltd-gianluigi-nuzzi
Vaticano Spa (Vatican Ltd) a book about the murky financial dealings of the Catholic church (The subtitle reads: "from a secret archive – the truth about the church's financial and political scandals") has been a runaway success in Italy. Written by journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi and published by the Milan independent publisher Chiarelettere last year, more than 200,000 copies have been sold. What's all the more astonishing is that this success has been in spite of being ignored by almost all the Italian media, with the exception of a single television programme on La 7, hosted by Gad Lerner.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3855838,00.html
Israel has lost its "raison d'etre" and its presence in the region causes instability, Iranian media quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying Sunday at a conference attended by top Palestinian militant leaders. (Whereas of course the Hamas/Hezbollah-arming Iran is a source of stability. What a nasty ignorant little man - perhaps he should have a relaxing holiday in Dubai, one hears there is a room available)
Paul Buckland refused to pass students who didn't understand the basics of archaeology - and he's just one of many academics under pressure to raise the marks of undeserving students. So will Buckland's legal victory halt the destruction of standards in some universities, asks Julie Henry. (The marching morons are coming to a university near you soon. This story is deeply depressing - it is when you allow grubby little middle management into the running of educational institutions. The "students" are being done no favors with inaccurate marking.)
A British man has been killed after youths allegedly rammed a car into a group of friends who were cycling in Saudi Arabia. Initially, it is understood that one of the cars clipped a cyclist causing him to fall off his bike. Then, however, one of the drivers is alleged to have turned around and deliberately ploughed his car into the cyclists. Company sources say that the arrest of an individual in such circumstances would not necessarily mean that criminal charges will follow. "Under Sharia law – the Muslim law – the driver is arrested even if it is an accident," said one source. "Under Sharia law too, he may have to pay a certain amount [to the family of the victim] depending on whose fault it was."
World powers have reacted with outrage to a call by Colonel Gaddafi of Libya for holy war on the "obscene, infidel" state of Switzerland. Col Gaddafi took a long-running and personal feud with the historically neutral European country to new heights with a speech in which he attacked the ban on new minarets on mosques approved by a Swiss referendum last year. "Those who destroy God's mosques deserve to be attacked through jihad, and if Switzerland was on our borders, we would fight it," he said. "Jihad against Switzerland, against Zionism, against foreign aggression is not terrorism."
A Labour minister says his party has been infiltrated by a fundamentalist Muslim group that wants to create an “Islamic social and political order” in Britain. The Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) — which believes in jihad and sharia law, and wants to turn Britain and Europe into an Islamic state — has placed sympathisers in elected office and claims, correctly, to be able to achieve “mass mobilisation” of voters.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/feb/27/science-celebrity-anecdote
Will anecdote, rumor and buzz oust science as the basis for individual decision-making and public policy? If so, will it give rise to societal disintegration and disaster? Climate historian and physicist Spencer Weart thinks it's possible Weart mused recently on what a historian 200 years from now might say about early 21st century discussions of climate change, but his speculations are also relevant to other areas of science.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/27/teen-pregnancy-netherlands-sex
While the fall in teenage pregnancies in England and Wales is welcome, the total is still very high. How can we bring it down further? A key lesson from the Dutch, who have a very low teen pregnancy rate, is to make the mechanics of reproduction crystal clear.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/feb/24/jim-murphy-religious-vote
Jim Murphy, Labour's Scottish secretary, is taking the party into dangerous territory when he calls on it to make a special play for the religious vote. A Theos/ComRes poll published last week showed that those who have no religion (a very large minority) would vote in almost exactly the same way as those who claim to be Christians. The complicating factor is that something under a half of those defining themselves as Christians said that religion was "of little importance" to them. This analysis of the poll shows that, in fact, religious people have voted and intend to vote in almost exactly the same way as the population at large. (Op-ed from Terry Sanderson of the NSS)
The new US defence logo has provoked controversy on the internet after right wing commentators said it resembles the Islamic crescent and star design. As well as resembling the Islamic flag, it has been said to bear a “scary” likeness to the campaign symbol President Barack Obama used in the electoral race against Senator John McCain in 2008, according to right-leaning blogs and websites. The circular red, white and blue sign, which has also been compared to the communist hammer and sickle symbol, first appeared on the Missile Defense Agency’s website in the Autumn. (Whatever this thing cost it wasn't worth it.)
Allegations that priests sexually abused children which were never properly investigated have been unearthed in a sweeping review of more than 40,000 Church of England files. Four priests and two lay officers were referred to the police as the result of a review of child abuse allegations, while a further five church workers were reported to the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) who may bar them from ever working with children again. Two priests with previous convictions for child pornography and child sex abuse we among those referred to the ISA. (Perhaps those involved will defect to the Roman Catholic church.)
Bus drivers in Merseyside have been accused of racism after allegedly refusing to stop for Muslim school girls wearing traditional hijabs. The “cowardly” drivers on certain Merseytravel routes were alleged to be driving past pupils wearing the traditional veil that cover their heads, to avoid “trouble”, it was claimed. Police have since been forced to patrol buses to deter racism amid claims some school girls were also being bullied and verbally assaulted on public transport. (Two observations. One, the bus drivers should do their job and pick up fare paying passengers. Two this is not racism. Islam is not a race it is a religion. Why do the media repeatedly conflate the two? Either way the drivers are wrong.)
A row over the appointment of female judges to an influential court that governs administrative law in Egypt has highlighted a general malaise over women holding top jobs. On Monday Mohammed al-Husseini, the head of the Egyptian state council, overturned a decision by its general assembly which voted by overwhelming majority last week against appointing women judges to the council.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/feb/26/mormon-catholic-eugene-george
Francis Eugene George is not just a cardinal. He is also president of the United States conference of catholic bishops and sets the tone and direction for church policy and position in the country. His comments, therefore, on the positive attributes of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), more commonly known as Mormons, seem surprising given the enormous theological and demographic differences between the two groups. Or do his words herald a spirit of co-operation among disparate religious movements in the fight against secularism? (What they do have in common is bigotry)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/26/danish-cartoons-muhammad-politiken-apology
A Danish newspaper apologised today to eight Muslim organisations for the offence it caused by reprinting controversial cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, in exchange for their dropping legal action against the newspaper. Politiken reached a settlement with the groups, which represent 94,923 of Muhammad's descendants, in which it agreed to print an apology for the affront the cartoons caused. The newspaper has not given up its right to publish the cartoons and has not apologised for having printed them as part of its news coverage. (Spineless behavior. Descendants of Mohammed? Nonsense)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/26/west-bank-religious-sites-clashes
Israeli troops and Palestinians clashed for the fifth successive day in Hebron today, the latest fallout from an Israeli government decision to include two sites on the occupied West Bank in a new "national heritage" list. Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, prayed in the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron today and warned that Israel's new plan was a provocation.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/feb/26/these-are-not-hijab-gates
Your article stated that "a plan to mark the entry points to London's cosmopolitan Brick Lane with giant arches in the shape of headscarves or hijabs has been condemned as offensive to Muslim women and a waste of £1.85m of public funds" (...and your problem is? In straitened times money spent on these gates/arches is money wasted)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2010/feb/25/atheism-dawkins-meltdown-comments
Andrew Brown enjoying a row on the Richard Dawkins' web site. Quite what Brown's point is beats me. But then that is usually the case with his postings.
A London university has been condemned for inviting an Islamic preacher with anti-Semitic and homophobic views to give a lecture to students. Sheikh Abdullah Hakim Quick is due to speak at King's College's Strand campus at six tonight. (Why do British universities allow scum like this on campus?)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/25/muammar-gaddafi-libya
Libya's leader, Muammar Gaddafi, yesterday called for a jihad, or holy war, against Switzerland, in an escalation of his vendetta against the country where police once arrested his son. At a meeting in the city of Benghazi to mark the prophet Muhammad's birthday, Gaddafi described the country as an infidel state that was "destroying" mosques. Last year he urged the UN to abolish Switzerland and divide it between Germany, France and Italy. (Barking. Bloody. Loony)
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100226/tts-uk-mali-stampede-ca02f96.html
Fifteen people were crushed to death in a stampede at a mosque in Mali's desert city of Timbuktu, local police said Friday. The incident occurred Thursday night during the Muslim festival of Maouloud.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2010/feb/23/flat-earth-society
Daniel Shenton should be the most irrational man in the world. As the new president of the Flat Earth Society, you'd imagine he would also think that evolution is a scam and global warming a myth. He should argue that smoking does not cause cancer and HIV does not lead to Aids. Yes, that Flat Earth Society, a group that has become a living metaphor for backward thinking and a refusal to face scientific facts. Yes, it is still going, and no, this isn't an early April fool. (So the Flat Earth Society appears to have been resurrected as some kind or ironic, post-modern joke - either that or Shenton is barking, take your pick. One wonders if he has read any Pratchett?)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/feb/24/nicaragua-abortion-ban-amalia
On 2 February, a 27-year-old woman was admitted to a hospital in Leon, the second largest city in Nicaragua. She was diagnosed with an advanced case of cancer, which had metastasised and may have spread to her breasts, brain and lungs. She was told she couldn't be prescribed an aggressive chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatment because she was pregnant. Under Nicaraguan law, any medical procedure to save the life of a mother is banned if it jeopardises the life of the foetus: it is technically considered akin to a therapeutic abortion. (The cold, dead hand of the Vatican is behind such cruelty)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/feb/25/anti-muslim-hatred-threat-to-all
As long as British governments back wars and occupations in the Middle East and Muslim world, there will continue to be a risk of violence in Britain. But attempts to drive British Muslims out of normal political activity, and the refusal to confront anti-Muslim hatred, can only ratchet up the danger and threaten us all. (Seumas Milne making little sense as usual and confusing race with religion)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/world/europe/25turkey.html
Tensions between Turkey’s powerful military and the government escalated sharply on Wednesday as a court ordered the formal arrests of 12 officers on charges they had plotted a coup. Turkey’s army regards itself as a protector of the country’s secular traditions and has had tense relations with the AK Party, which has its roots in political Islam.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/feb/23/republicans-religion-secular-america
If you're part of secular America – that is, if you're an atheist, an agnostic, a religious liberal or even a mainstream believer who thinks religion should be kept out of politics and vice-versa – then you should be very afraid of what the Republican party has in store for you in 2012.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/24/faith-schools-eduction-policy-editorial
Recurring pattern of church lobbying and Whitehall climbdowns is testing society's faith in church schools as being a force for good
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100223/tuk-terror-accused-made-video-in-park-6323e80.html
Video footage of two alleged would-be terrorists "leopard crawling" across a park in broad daylight has been released by police. The film, made by a group calling themselves The Blackburn Resistance, was al Qaida-style propaganda destined to be distributed abroad, a jury at Manchester Crown Court was told last week.
Iran says authorities have captured the head of a Sunni militant group in an operation outside the country, and it claims the leader had links to the United States. (Well, they would say that, wouldn't they?)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iT2MUXT7fd69mLAGx4ypSMxruZCw
Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas on Tuesday denounced Israeli "provocation" over two contested holy sites in the occupied West Bank that could unleash a "religious war". Netanyahu sparked outrage in the Arab world on Sunday when he said he hoped to include Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron in a national heritage plan. "Such provocation cannot contribute positively to the progress of the peace process," Abbas said, through an interpreter, following talks with EU parliament president Jerzy Buzek in Brussels. (War is not holy whichever of these fools wages it)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-live-0216-paranormal-cops-20100215,0,6050023.story
An article about psychic cops or self-deluded clods, depending on your point of view. 80 is going with clods.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/feb/23/ethics-citizenship-islam
When it comes to the new Muslim presence in western countries, that critical debate is hard to achieve. Islam is perceived as a "problem", never as a gift in our quest for a rich and stimulating diversity. And that's a mistake. Islam has much to offer – not least when considering how individuals in politics and business have recently been behaving, within the limits of the law, but with a clear lack of ethics. Individual responsiblity, political intrgrity (sic) (Utter rot from closet Islamist Tariq Ramadan. Take a look at any Muslim country and you see corruption is rife, human rights ignored. Those that operate sharia are the worst of the lot.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/feb/23/ed-balls-faith-schools-sex-education
Ed Balls today denied offering faith schools an opt-out from new rules forcing teachers to address issues such as homosexual equality and contraception in sex education lessons. The schools secretary said that a bill being debated by MPs later today would introduce an "overdue and radical change" and that a controversial amendment tabled by the government earlier this month would not "water down" the plans. (If it makes no difference why have the amendment anyway? Why has the Catholic lobby been claiming a victory?)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2010/feb/22/sting-uzbekistan
Once again we must ponder the question "how much money is enough?", inspired by reports that Sting accepted between £1m and £2m to perform for the glory of the brutal despotic regime in Uzbekistan. (Sting is a jerk - this is news?)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/22/turkey-military-officers-arrested
Turkey's once all-powerful military is facing the biggest challenge to its authority in decades after 49 senior officers were detained on accusations of plotting to topple the country's Islamist-rooted government in a violent coup.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/23/new-york-underground-bomb-attack
A former airport shuttle driver accused of buying supplies of beauty products to make bombs for an attack on the New York City underground rail system has pleaded guilty, admitting he agreed to conduct an al-Qaida-led "martyrdom operation" because of US involvement in his native Afghanistan. (martyrdom operation = murder suicide)
Two Iraqi families, mostly children, were murdered in cold blood and some of the victims beheaded. Fears of a downward spiral of violence in advance of the Iraqi elections worsened after the attacks. In the first attack, a woman and her three daughters were shot dead overnight at their home in Al-Hurriyah, a Shia suburb of north Baghdad. (Muslims murdering Muslims - you don't see that often.......)
Pope Benedict XVI has spoken out against the use of body scanners at airports insisting that "human dignity must be preserved". (How dare this vile old man talk about human dignity? Look at Ireland and see the dignity accorded raped children - children raped by his priests. He should choke on his words)
As part of the bohemian scene in swinging sixties London, Ian Dallas inspired Eric Clapton to write Layla and counted George Harrison and Edith Piaf among his friends. (But now he is a deluded Islamist jerk)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/21/ufo-papers-doctored
The Ministry of Defence had to blank out "uncomplimentary comments" made by officials about members of the public before publishing its UFO files, a newly released document shows. (Shame, they might have made fun reading and would have made the reports actually interesting)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8522097.stm
A wooden object claimed to be a replica of the Biblical Ark of the Covenant has gone on display at a Zimbabwe museum. The "ngoma lungundu" belongs to the Lemba people - black Africans who claim Jewish ancestry. They say the vessel was built almost 700 years ago from the remains of the original Ark, which the Bible says was used to store Moses' 10 Commandments. (yeah, right that sounds plausible)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/20/opinion/20blow.html?th&emc=th
I recently met a young woman who was just back from a monthlong Costa Rican vacation. She said that she had gone in part to connect with her spiritual self, to shed the moral strictures of her youth and to find her place of peace as an adult. In her mind at least, it had been a successful trip. She was a new woman, spiritually awakened. She told me that she had gone from religious to nonbeliever, and then to spiritual. (Op-ed on the rise of the "spiritual" rather than the "religious" among young people)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/feb/19/sex-education-faith-schools-balls
It was a source of relief when, rather than receiving the extensive opt-outs that many feared, the bill introducing compulsory sex and relationships education (SRE) for all children, made it clear that state-funded "faith schools" would have to follow the same principles as all other state-funded schools. By those of us who had feared much worse, these general principles – though not perfect – were considered an acceptable minimum. Now, with parliament on holiday and late in the day, Ed Balls has tabled an amendment to his own bill, which would exempt state funded faith schools from even the modest requirements that it currently proposes to place on them and the Catholic Education Service of England and Wales have proudly announced that it was their lobbying that won it. We should not be surprised. This is just the latest in a 12-year catalogue of concessions and exemptions made to state-funded faith schools, from a widening of their ability to discriminate on employment, to their continuing discriminatory admissions practices.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/feb/20/suffering-religion-philosophy
Whether or not suffering improves us depends first of all on how we define "suffering". Real suffering – pain, disease, thirst, starvation – don't improve us; they don't leave us room to improve. "Improvement" is an activity for healthy people in tolerable circumstances; when things are desperate improvement becomes a luxury. (Typically good piece from Ophelia Benson, she of Butterflies and Wheels)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/feb/19/elton-john-jesus-gay
Sir Elton John has sparked outrage among Christians in the United States after claiming Jesus was gay. In an interview with US magazine Parade, John said he believed Jesus Christ was a "compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems". His remarks have upset America's religious lobby, not known for its tolerance of diverging views, with one senior US Catholic complaining that Jesus had been labelled a "sexual deviant". (What nonsense. Prove he existed first then speculate about his sexuality if you must)
http://rawstory.com/2010/02/aclu-sues-religiouslybased-abstinenceonly-programs/
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit against the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to compel the release of documents relating to its overseas abstinence-only programs, which are funded through HIV/AIDS grants. An Inspector General's report (pdf) issued last July indicated that USAID had a history of incorporating religious materials into such programs and had not received legal guidance from the Justice Department on whether this was constitutionally permissible.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/feb/18/faith-schools-sex-education-u-turn-claim
Campaigners today accused the government of performing a U-turn over sex education in faith schools, after changes to a bill they said would allow the schools to discourage the use of contraception and teach that homosexuality is wrong. (The spineless UK government caves under Catholic lobbying)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/18/uganda-gay-porn
A Ugandan pastor who screened same-sex pornography in a church to try to bolster support for proposed anti-homosexuality legislation has been condemned by gay rights groups. Martin Ssempa, one of the main backers of a bill that would impose the death penalty for some offenders, aired the explicit slideshow to several hundred people during a church service in Kampala yesterday. Explaining his decision to display the images, the evangelical preacher said it was necessary to educate people "about what homosexuals do". (The material for the screening came from the pastor's own extensive collection no doubt)
A man, Rob Millist, has told of his shock after spotting an incredible image of Jesus Christ on a flaming log in a fire place. (Does this mean that JC is in hell?)
The Pope is in negotiations to appear on Radio 4’s Thought for the Day slot after Mark Thompson, the BBC director-general, made a personal approach to the Vatican. (Pass the sick bag. Better make that two)
Governments should not stand in the way of religious organisations that wish to allow homosexuals to marry in church, the Conservatives have suggested. (Just how big is the "pink vote" and will it go with the purple faces of the enraged Tory old guard?)
Flying Toblerones, mysterious illnesses and silky-white substances are among hundreds of close encounters described in previously top-secret files released by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). (They could do a TV series - The Claptrap Files)
Catholic scholars from around the world have "implored" Pope Benedict XVI not to make a controversial wartime pontiff a saint before opening up to scrutiny secret Vatican archives. In a letter to the Pope, the scholars said that making Pius XII a saint could do grave damage to relations between the Catholic Church and Jews and that he had become a de facto "symbol of Christian anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism". Jewish groups have long claimed that Pius turned a blind eye to the Holocaust, but this is thought to be the first time that a group of Catholic theologians have issued such a strongly worded appeal to the Pope.
The decision by the controversial former anti-immigration Australian politician Pauline Hanson to emigrate to Britain has been welcomed by the BNP leader Nick Griffin, who said she would be a 'good addition' to the UK. (They are both as welcome as a turd in a swimming pool)
J
oseph Reyes has allegedly broken a restraining order "not to expose his daughter to any other religion other than the Jewish religion", which was issued after he had the child baptised as a Roman Catholic. (Of course the child has no say in how it is labelled. How about leaving the kid until she is older so that she can make up her own mind. No, that would be silly wouldn't it?)http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/18/mod-records-ufos-encounter-absurd-kind
Reports of flying Toblerones, close encounters of the second kind, and attempted alien abductions in the latest batch of UFO files released today by the Ministry of Defence demonstrate that the British public's appetite for matters extraterrestrial shows no sign of abating.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/feb/17/tories-republicans-gay-rights-nick-herbert
A senior Conservative politician will today tell American Republicans that they should back gay rights because support for homosexual equality is "an essential element of modern conservatism". Nick Herbert, the shadow environment secretary, will also back Barack Obama's plans to allow gay people to serve openly in the military – a move that is opposed by senior Republicans.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/17/american-atheists-nationwide-campaign
In a country where more than eight in 10 people regard themselves as religious, it takes more than a little guts to preach about a world without God. But that's the message that is creeping across America, spreading ripples of dissent in its wake. From Tampa in Florida, to Cincinnati, Ohio, and all the way across to Sacramento in California, billboards have been cropping up with messages that run across the grain of America's normally devout discourse. "Don't believe in God? You're not alone!" were the first posters to be put up, in Arizona, Colorado, Texas and parts of the north-east. "Being a good person doesn't require God," read another.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2010/feb/17/joe-biden-forehead-mark-ash
Barack Obama's election as America's first black president overshadowed the less exciting but still technically groundbreaking achievement by Joe Biden's election as America's first Catholic vice-president. And today being Ash Wednesday, for the second year in a row Biden appeared at a presidential press conference with his forehead marked by the traditional smudge of ashes received by worshippers who attend services.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/18/michael-howard-ufos-folkestone
When Ann Widdecombe declared that there was "something of the night" about Michael Howard she could have had little idea that there had already been an official investigation into whether he had had some unusual nocturnal visitors – aliens. (Had they come to take him home?)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8520487.stm
Three Malaysian women have been caned by the authorities for having extra-marital sex, say officials. They are the first women to receive such a sentence under Islamic law in the country. The punishments come as another Malaysian woman waits to hear whether her caning - for drinking beer - is carried out. Malaysia's majority Malays are subject to Islamic laws, while the large Chinese and Indian minorities are not. (Can anyone else see the next thing will be demands for the whole population to be subject to sharia? You heard it here first)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/16/AR2010021605124.html
In a time of constant calamity and crisis fatigue, proposed legislation in Uganda to execute gays passes through the American consciousness with the impact of a weather report. Corrupt politicians count on the brevity of the American attention span, but certain items demand a tap of the pause button. How exactly does the idea of executing gays evolve in a majority-Christian nation? Interesting question. (Good piece on how American evangelists can't kill gays in the US but, praise be, they can do it by proxy in Uganda)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/16/AR2010021606003.html
It was only one killing, but it unleashed the demons of a bitter and perhaps unfinished past. The victim was a Sunni man in the mostly Shiite neighborhood of Hurriyah, in northwest Baghdad. The death and the aftermath were reminiscent of the prelude to the sectarian war, which began in late 2005 with a smattering of killings and threats and culminated with 100 bodies a day being dumped in the streets of the capital. With the imminent departure of American forces and fierce competition for power ahead of general elections on March 7, many here say sectarian strife is reigniting.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/feb/16/scientist-libel-law-henrik-thomsen
A leading medical scientist being sued under British libel laws for criticising a giant corporation has found an innovative way to hit back: he is to launch a counterclaim for libel. (Henrik Thomsen is fighting back after legal attempts to gag him.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/16/malawi-operation-against-gays-lesbians
Police in Malawi have launched an operation to hunt down and arrest high-profile gays and lesbians in the southern African state. Fears of an anti-gay backlash across Africa are intensifying after the prosecution of the first gay couple to seek marriage in Malawi, and thousands of Ugandans demonstrated this week in support of a bill proposing the death penalty for some offences involving homosexual acts. Last week five men were arrested at an alleged gay wedding in Kenya. (And the cause of this awful situation? Pre-existing homophobia stoked up by American evangelist scum. They should be confronted and challenged at every opportunity)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/feb/17/suffering-religion-philosophy
There are some questions that are persistently treated as though they were ethical, spiritual or philosophical when actually, they're just plain factual. "Does suffering improve us?" is one of them. There are some theoretical issues around what "improvement" and "suffering" mean, but the answer comes mostly not from intellectual reflection but empirical observation. And that answer seems to be a pretty unequivocal no.
A jailed killer poured boiling oil over another inmate because he refused to convert to Islam. Jamaile Morally, 26 - sentenced to life as part of a gang that raped, tortured and murdered a teenage girl and left another for dead - led two other inmates in carrying out the attack. They boiled up the oil in a kitchen at high-security Whitemoor Prison, March, Cambs, and poured it over Durwayne Martin, 26, scalding his neck, shoulders and back. (What a wonderful ad for the religion of peace)
The chain has replaced bacon with smoked halal turkey in restaurants in three branches in a Paris suburb, two in Marseille, and the remainder in Toulouse, Villeurbanne, near Lyon, and Roubaix, northern France – all of them areas with high Muslim populations. These restaurants now serve only halal food, seen as permissible according to Islamic law. The company said the move was part of a test, which began in November, and that pork may return to the menu at a later date. (No, it won't)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,675163,00.html
Controversial Bishop Richard Williamson continues in his denial of the Holocaust, embarrassing both the Society of St. Pius to which he belongs and the Vatican. But the SSPX is becoming increasingly powerful despite the controversy and is attracting more and more supporters. (Not a good week for the zombie death cult it would seem)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,675331,00.html
A priest last week admitted in a statement to SPIEGEL he had abused a number of pupils at an elite Berlin high school run by Jesuit priests. In recent days, around 20 former students have come forward alleging they were sexually abused by priests at the school. The director of Canisius College has described the years-long abuse as "systematic.". (Surely not, Roman Catholic clergy raping children? Who would have thought it?)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,676497,00.html
The Catholic Church in Germany has been shaken in recent days by revelations of a series of sexual abuse cases. Close to 100 priests and members of the laity have been suspected of abuse in recent years. After years of suppression, the wall of silence appears to be crumbling. (And that's before we hear about Poland and South America)
The Vatican has described Ireland's child sex abuse scandal as "humiliating" for the Catholic Church as bishops from the country meet Pope Benedict XVI. (It wasn't too much fun for the kids that were raped, either.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/16/witchcraft-most-benign-silly-religion
Last weekend, a photograph of a witch appeared next to a newspaper story about the 2011 census. This census is reportedly in jeopardy because of "prank responses to questions": 400,000 people listed their religion as "Jedi" in 2001, "in addition to 7,000 people who said they were witches". I paused. Why are witches bunged together with Jedi in the mock-me-I'm-a-twit corner? (A spirited defense of modern western witches who are comparatively harmless and were "green" before it was fashionable)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/15/brick-lane-hijab-gates
It is synonymous with curry and trendy bars, nightclubs and art venues. Now a plan to mark the entry points to London's cosmopolitan Brick Lane with giant arches in the shape of headscarves or hijabs has been condemned as offensive to Muslim women and a waste of £1.85m of public funds. The proposed arches, part of a "cultural trail" through the street – immortalised in Monica Ali's novel Brick Lane – have been criticised as "misconceived" and "excluding". (A complete waste of money)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/16/iran-rapist-assault-opposition
At the time, stories of women and girls being raped in prison became so rife that Ayatollah Montazeri sent a team to investigate. They only verified the rumours. Male prison officers – many of them psychotic like my former student – were tasked to rape women, and extensively; one was even nicknamed "hamishe daamaad" (the forever groom). (Harrowing piece about the cancer that is the theocratic regime in Iran. These people are subhuman. By the way even this could not justify an attack on the country. Change has to come from within)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/feb/16/irish-bishops-rome-abuse
The outcome of an extraordinary summit at the Vatican which ends today will show just how far he is prepared to go in fulfilling his implied pledge, before his election as pope, to sweep the "filth" from the Catholic church. The entire Irish hierarchy finds itself nearing the conclusion of a hauling over the coals such as it has never experienced before, motivated by the publication last year of two damning reports detailing extensive child sex abuse in parishes and church-run institutions. (Too little, far too late. Ratzinger himself has responsibility for the culture of secrecy over child-rape)
A PALE young woman appears at the window of a ruined castle - in a photo said to show a GHOST. The spooky snap was taken at a building hailed as one of Britain's most haunted. (Yeah, right, a ghost is the obvious conclusion. The Sun contributes to the world's collective stupidity)
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100216/tsc-uk-britain-lent-ipod-011ccfa.html
Church leaders are encouraging people to give up their iPods for Lent, instead of more traditional vices such as chocolate, to help save the planet. (The bishops could try going without the vice of religion)
The Vatican has described Ireland's child sex abuse scandal as "humiliating" for the Catholic Church as bishops from the country meet Pope Benedict XVI. Priests involved in the abuses had committed "particularly execrable acts", the Vatican said on Monday, as Irish bishops began an unprecedented summit with the Pope. The Vatican's Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, told the bishops that revelations of systemic and long-standing paedophilia presented a "hard and humiliating challenge" for the Irish Catholic Church. (It is likely because of the way the church is organised such abuse continues in South America, Poland and other countries where it is still the recipient of unearned deference)
Spiritual care and prayer can help the healing process, according to the Prince of Wales. (Is there no end to this clown's idiocy?)
The Prince if Wales is embroiled in a conservation row over plans to bulldoze a wildlife `haven’ at his new eco-village. The development on the outskirts of Newquay, Cornwall, has put the Prince in conflict with one of the wildlife trusts of which he is patron. The Cornwall Wildlife Trust said it was concerned about the destruction of ancient hedge banks which were important wildlife corridors that encouraged birds, bats and small mammals to populate urban areas. Other campaigners criticized the Prince for “inconsistency” following a recent speech in which he said it was “wrong and immoral” not to consider “those other species who share this planet with us.” (Shock, horror a member of the nobility is a hypocrite. In other news today it was announced that the Pope is Catholic and bears are given to defecating in a sylvan setting)
An Israeli man who kept a cult-like harem of women and fathered dozens of children with them has been charged in a Tel Aviv court with enslavement, rape, incest and other sexual offences. Goel Ratzon, 60, is accused of setting himself up as a "godlike" figure who preyed on troubled women, but he claims the women came to him voluntarily.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that she feared Iran is moving "toward a military dictatorship", with the famously hardline Revolutionary Guard attempting to "supplant" the government. (Clinton thinks this is somehow worse than a theocratic dictatorship? They are equally vile)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/7241791/Row-brews-over-Moroccan-alcohol-law.html
It is illegal to sell alcohol to Moroccan Muslims, but this is a law that is broken openly every day. A 1967 royal decree strictly forbid the sale or gift of alcoholic beverages to Muslims, who account for 98 per cent of the population in this north African state. Offenders face a prison sentence of up to six months and a fine of 150 to 500 dirhams (£11 to £38). Yet sales and consumption are widely tolerated. Supermarkets enforce no restrictions on alcohol sales and bars in Morocco's cities make no attempt to hide the sale of alcoholic drinks to clients, Muslim or otherwise. (Worldwide this ban works so well. Without alcohol you never see Muslims being violent, making threats or rioting)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/7241937/Witch-hunts-of-low-caste-women-in-Nepal.html
Kalli Biswokarma was tortured by neighbours for two days and forced to eat human waste before she finally gave in and confessed to practising witchcraft. Those who beat, punched and kicked the 47-year-old mother of one accused her of casting evil spells on a school teacher who had fallen ill. "I was victimised because I am a poor woman," said Biswokarma, who belongs to the Dalit community - the "untouchables" on the lowest rung of Nepal's rigid Hindu caste hierarchy. "Around 35 people came to my home and took me away. They trapped me in a cow shed and forced me to eat faeces and drink urine," she said from her home in the village of Pyutar, 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Kathmandu. "The next day they cut my skin with blades. I could not bear the torture and I confessed to being a witch just to save my life." (This vile caste system is a blot on Hinduism and should be wiped out. Easier said than done given the level of entrenched beliefs and poor or non-existent education)
Vatican picks the Beatles and Oasis among its top ten albums. Many would
consider them a rather ungodly collection of rockers, Sixties
drug-takers and hell-raisers - but they have all been given the holy
seal of approval from the Vatican. (One wonders what Lennon would
have said about this)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/feb/15/lent-suffering-religion
One's aim in Lent should not be to embrace suffering. That would be psychologically and theologically perverse! One's aim should be to love God more than anything and, in order to achieve that end, one might find it necessary to deprive oneself of certain comforts – or even necessities, and as a consequence one might suffer. (Love the god that afflicted you, or allowed you to be afflicted - it's the same thing - that is truly perverse)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/feb/14/bnp-votes-scrap-whites-only-policy
The British National partytoday voted to scrap its whites-only membership policy in a move dismissed by anti-racist campaigners as "cosmetic". At an extraordinary general meeting held in Essex, members of the far-right party voted in favour of changes to its constitution that would theoretically allow black and Asian people to join. (Note that "theoretically" - otherwise these toytown Nazis have just voted away their raison d'être)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/15/buggery-criminal-record
For more than half a century John Crawford's crime has cast a shadow over his life; a permanent stigma etched into the files of the national police database. His conviction in 1959 was for consensual sex with another man – which is no longer a crime – and based on a confession extracted only after weeks of beatings in a police cell. But 51 years later, Crawford has been told he is legally bound to disclose his criminal record for "buggery", received when he was just 19, when applying to work with vulnerable people. The retired butler, now 70, is seeking to clear his name in what he hopes will be a landmark legal campaign against the residual consequences of laws which, although expired, continue to persecute homosexuals. (We should have moved on from this by now.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/12/utah-climate-alarmists
Carbon dioxide is "essentially harmless" to human beings and good for plants. So now will you stop worrying about global warming? Utah's House of Representatives apparently has at least. Officially the most Republican state in America, its political masters have adopted a resolution condemning "climate alarmists", and disputing any scientific basis for global warming. The measure, which passed by 56-17, has no legal force, though it was predictably claimed by climate change sceptics as a great victory in the wake of the controversy caused by a mistake over Himalayan glaciers in the UN's landmark report on global warming. (They can vote all they like it won't stop climate change. They are the willing dupes of the coal and oil industry)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100214/ap_on_re_us/us_abortion_race_card
The message on dozens of billboards across the city is provocative: Black children are an "endangered species." The eyebrow-raising ads featuring a young black child are an effort by the anti-abortion movement to use race to rally support within the black community. The reaction from black leaders has been mixed, but the "Too Many Aborted" campaign, which so far is unique to only Georgia, is drawing support from other anti-abortion groups across the country.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100215/tts-uk-australia-security-ca02f96.html
Five Australian Muslims found with weapons and chemicals to make bombs and convicted of plotting a terror attack in Australia were jailed on Monday for terms ranging from 23 to 28 years. During a 10-month trial, the prosecutor told the New South Wales state Supreme Court that the men obtained instructions on how to make pipe bombs capable of causing large-scale death and destruction and literature which glorified the actions of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. Judge Anthony Whealy said in sentencing the men that the group was motivated by "intolerant, inflexible religious conviction" and said the prospects of rehabilitation were poor. (Might as well throw away the key)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/magazine/14texbooks-t.html?em
Worrying article on the malign influence upon education in the US of the Texas State Board of Education which is in the position of dictating the content of school text books over a large number of states. This situation cannot be allowed to persist.
The state Supreme Court has rejected an appeal of a case against a Riverside doctor who had criticized a study which reported that long-distance prayers increases fertility. Dr.Bruce Flamm, co-organizer of the Inland Empire Atheists, Agnostics and Skeptics, hailed the decision which culminates a two and a half year lawsuit in which he was accused of defamation of character. "The legal process has successfully ended this mess, " Flamm commented after he was informed of the decision Mondag. "These types of cases are often intimidation tactics intended to shut people up," Flamm said. But the lawsuit backfired, and the plaintiff, Kwang Cha, M.D., will be required to pay about $100,000 for Flamm's legal costs. (Excellent news, Flamm's tenacity was rewarded. See more about his struggle here)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/12/AR2010021205010_pf.html
This sunny little resort on the Mediterranean shore has long been a favorite for weekenders seeking to escape the congestion of nearby Barcelona for a dose of sandy beaches and sea breezes. But Cunit has gained a new distinction: It is famous in Spain as the town where a Moroccan-born Muslim woman with a master's degree and a head of curly hair says she was threatened by Muslim fundamentalists because she took off her veil and tried to live like a Spaniard. (Wherever there is Islam there is violence and conflict.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/12/general-synod-science-religion
Members of the Church of England have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a motion that religion and science are compatible despite bruising assaults by atheist scientists such as Richard Dawkins. (Where religion makes real testable claims about the real world it becomes subject to scientific scrutiny - and invariably fares badly. These people are deluding themselves but then that goes with the job I suppose.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/feb/14/catholic-leader-attacks-nhs
Society is being debased by an institutionalised "hidden violence" towards those most in need of care and protection, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales said yesterday. He also criticised the NHS for treating some patients with a lack of humanity. (That's particularly rich considering his church's institutionalised pedophilia. Sort out your own organisation before criticizing others you sanctimonious hypocrite)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8512928.stm
Police in Mtwapa, just north of the Kenyan coastal town of Mombasa, say they have arrested five men whom they accuse of being homosexuals. District officer George Matandura said two of the men had been found with wedding rings, attempting to get married, in Kikambala beach resort.
An advertisement for tablets that guaranteed "the sex life of your dreams" has been banned after a man complained that it didn't work and demanded his money back. The Nytric EFX advert stated that the pills - which cost £16.95 for 60 - would make you last longer in bed and would let you have sexual intercourse "over and over again". The makers, Stirling Health Ltd, promised: "Just two of these amazing aphrodisiac pills a day, will give much better and longer lasting erections and lovemaking, with more orgasms and a lot more enjoyment." The ASA said that the makers had not responded to their concerns about the pill and said it couldn't be proven to give you "the sex life of your dreams". It said: "Because Stirling Health did not provide any evidence to substantiate the claims for Nytric EFX or prove that they offered a "100% no-quibble money-back guarantee", we considered those claims were likely to mislead." (Sheer quackery. Now how about homeopathy?)
An email prankster tricked the host of a Christian TV show into reading out the plots (YouTube) of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Star Wars in the belief they were stories of personal salvation. The unsuspecting host read out most of the opening rap to The Fresh Prince, a 1990s US sitcom starring Will Smith, apparently unaware that it was not a genuine testimony of faith. The prankster had slightly adapted the lyrics but the references to a misspent youth playing basketball in West Philadelphia would have been instantly familiar to most viewers. The presenter on Genesis TV, a British Christian channel, eventually realised that he was being pranked and cut the story short – only to move on to another spoof email based on the plot of the Star Wars films. (Not so strange as it is claimed that there are a limited number of plots.)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7214082/Marriage-Just-a-third-wed-in-church.html
Less than one third of couples getting married are doing so in a church or religious ceremony, the lowest proportion ever recorded. During 2008 there 156,290 civil ceremonies, dwarfing the 76,700 religious ceremonies during the year. This is the first time that less than a third of marriages have been civil ceremonies. As little as twenty years ago the number of religious ceremonies outnumbered the number of civil weddings. Anastasia de Waal, a director of the think tank Civitas, said: "This is in many ways a testament to the robustness of marriage. Religion can go down the pan, but marriage survives. Marriage has been updated for a secular society."
An imam who beat a nine-year-old boy with a bamboo cane for misbehaving claimed cultural differences meant he thought the attack was justified. Gulam Hussain, the leader of the Jamia Mosque in Leyton, east London, pleaded guilty to the attack on the boy at Walthamstow magistrates court on Tuesday. The 44-year-old repeatedly punched and kicked the boy before beating him with the bamboo cane, the court heard. He was jailed for three months.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/feb/11/pakistan-sunni-shia-violence
Ordinary Pakistanis have fallen victim to a civil war largely orchestrated by forces well beyond their control. As the recent bombings targeting Shia Muslims in Karachi proves, the violence facing the country is more complex than extremists versus moderates. But how to unravel all the twists in this violent story? (The schism at the heart of Islam)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/11/taliban-amnesty-law-enacted
Taliban fighters who have maimed and murdered but who lay down their weapons will be given immunity from prosecution according to a law that came into force without announcement in the weeks running up to last month's London conference on Afghanistan. (Peace at any price?)
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=brain-surgery-boosts-spiritual
Removing part of the brain can induce inner peace, according to researchers from Italy. Their study provides the strongest evidence to date that spiritual thinking arises in, or is limited by, specific brain areas.
http://www.livescience.com/health/spirituality-brain-link-100211.html
Scientists have identified areas of the brain that, when damaged, lead to greater spirituality. The findings hint at the roots of spiritual and religious attitudes, the researchers say. The study, published in the Feb. 11 issue of the journal Neuron, involves a personality trait called self-transcendence, which is a somewhat vague measure of spiritual feeling, thinking, and behaviors. Self-transcendence "reflects a decreased sense of self and an ability to identify one's self as an integral part of the universe as a whole," the researchers explain. (So spirituality is a sign of brain damage? Only joking...)
http://www.alternet.org/media/145644/why_we_don%27t_need_religion_to_give_life_mystery
It takes all the mystery out of life. This is an argument that sometimes gets made against the atheist/materialist/naturalist view of life. Naturalism is too reductionist, the argument goes. By seeking to explain the universe in terms of physical cause and effect, and in seeking to understand that physical cause and effect in increasingly greater breadth and detail, naturalism ultimately seeks to explain and understand everything. And that would be bad. We need some mystery. Mystery -- unanswered and unanswerable questions -- are a central part of what makes us human. Without it, our life would be bleak and empty, with a yearning that can never be satisfied... because there's nothing left out there to satisfy it. (Article by Greta Christina)
Religious right leaders are making a concerted push to gain thousands of new signatures for their "Manhattan Declaration," a manifesto released late last year by about 150 conservative Christian leaders. The document, signed by such religious-right heavy-hitters as Focus on the Family eminence James Dobson and Prison Fellowship Ministries leader Chuck Colson, compares pro-choice advocates to eugenicists (and implicitly to Nazis) and equates same-sex marriage with polygamy and a gateway to legalized incest.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8511581.stm
The ruling body of the Church of England has voted in favour of extending equal pension rights to the civil partners of deceased clergy. The move by the general synod will give civil partners the same rights as heterosexual widows or widowers. Gay clergy are accepted by the Church on the condition they are celibate. Those in active gay relationships are still banned. (What test do they have for celibacy?)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/8510091.stm
A primary school in Weston-super-Mare has been criticised for banning Valentine cards to save pupils the "emotional trauma" of being rejected. Children at Ashcombe Primary School were stopped from exchanging cards because the head teacher said they were not emotionally mature enough to cope. (Can we say loony? I rather think we can)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/world/asia/12pstan.html
Two suicide bombers attacked police officers in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, killing 15 people and wounding 20 others in the second attack on Pakistani police officers in as many days, the authorities said.
THE imam of a Stoke-on-Trent mosque has appeared before a court accused of committing serious sexual offences with two young boys. Mohammed Hanif Khan, aged 41, is a leader at the Capper Street Mosque, in Tunstall. Yesterday he appeared before North Staffordshire Magistrates' Court, sitting in Fenton, to be charged with five offences. The defendant is accused of the attempted rape and sexual assault of a 15-year-old boy in Meir last year. (Let's hope Cheria Blair will not be sitting)
St Albans Catholic High School, in Ipswich, Suffolk, is to force girls to wear trousers only after its “uphill struggle” to persuade them to wear their uniform in a suitable fashion. Despite protests from students, the school, which has about 1,000 mixed students aged between 11 and 18, claims its policy has won support by parents and the wider school community. (Just what is "the wider school community"?)
Church of England clergy have been warned by a senior padre against making thoughtless criticism of the Government’s defence policy, on the eve of a new offensive in Afghanistan. The Ven John Green, Chaplain of the Fleet and Archdeacon of the Royal Navy, told priests not to engage in “megaphone or shotgun diplomacy” from the pulpit in case injured service personnel or bereaved families are in their congregations. (They had to be told this?)
The Prince is a well known fan of complementary medicine but when he took part in a session of chi kung - energy exercise - he struggled to master the ancient art. The heir to the throne dropped his ''energy ball'' while performing simple moves that had the royal in stitches.
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/27070/tonge-investigate-idf-stealing-organs-haiti
Baroness Tonge, the Liberal peer, said this week that Israel should set up an inquiry to disprove allegations that its medical teams in Haiti “harvested” organs of earthquake victims for use in transplants. Her call has been sharply criticised by fellow LibDems, but party leader Nick Clegg has refused to act against her. (Final proof if any were needed that Tonge is a rabid anti-semitic hag. Utterly unbelievable. She is up there with Goebbels. Leader Clegg is spineless)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/11/scientists-peer-review-research
Simon Jenkins is dismayed by reports of the lax behaviour of some scientists on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the allegations of some stem cell researchers that their work is being held up by rivals during peer review (Scientists, you are fallible. Get off the pedestal and join the common herd, 5 February). Conflating these stories with his ill-founded distrust of epidemiology, Jenkins paints a grim picture of science and scientists as corrupting and corruptible: "They cheat. They make mistakes. They suppress truth and suggest falsity, especially when a cheque or a plane ticket is on offer." ( A rebuttal to Simon Jenkins idiotic view of science and complete inability to understand the self-correcting nature of the scientific method)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/feb/11/bnp-nonwhites-members-sikh-join
Rajinder Singh is flicking through the Pakistani channels on his Sky box from his sofa in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. Dressed in a crimson turban, he sits a metre from the enormous screen, translating the odd phrase for my benefit. He's trying to show me why he's determined to join the British National Party – the only party he considers "brave" enough to "break out of the burkha called political correctness". (One turkey who can't wait for Christmas)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/10/synod-breakaway-us-episcopalians-church
The Church of England today offered the slenderest of lifelines to the dissident US conservative Episcopalians who split from their church after it elected a gay bishop. The general synod – the church's parliament, meeting in London – passed a motion recognising the breakaway group's desire to remain Anglicans but declined to promise to ally with them in their ongoing wrangles with the mainstream US church.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/10/french-election-headscarf-candidate
Olivier Besancenot, the postman-turned-revolutionary at the helm of France's anti-capitalist movement, has been fiercely criticised from all sides of the political spectrum for fielding a headscarf-wearing candidate in forthcoming elections. Ilham Moussaid, a 21-year-old Muslim woman who describes herself as "feminist, secular and veiled", is running for the far-left New Anti-Capitalist party (NPA) in the south-eastern region of Avignon. (Cheap political grandstanding)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8508675.stm
Parents and politicians in Italy are up in arms over US horror movie Paranormal Activity after several cinema-goers suffered from panic attacks. It opened in Italy at the weekend with no restrictions - despite being rated 15 in the UK and R-rated in the US. (Serves them right for being so gullible. Parents instead of whining should check what drivel their little darlings are watching.)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8508077.stm
An Arab country's ambassador to Dubai has had his marriage contract annulled after discovering the bride was cross-eyed and had facial hair. The woman had worn an Islamic veil, known as the niqab, on the few occasions the couple had met.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/16/20100211/ttc-iran-blocks-gmail-permanently-for-ci-6315470.html
Google has reported a "sharp drop" in Gmail traffic today after Iran announced that it had blocked citizens' access to the webmail service. Skip related content Iran's telecoms provider said today that Gmail will be permanently blocked, and that a national email system will be rolled out shortly, according to reports in The Wall Street Journal. (The act of a government frightened of its own citizens)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/8507811.stm
A devout Hindu has won his bid for the right to be cremated on a traditional funeral pyre. Davender Ghai, 71, was seeking to overturn a 2006 Newcastle City Council decision forbidding him from being cremated according to his beliefs.
http://www.cphpost.dk/news/national/88-national/48193-cartoonist-mohammed-drawing-not-mohammed.html
The cartoon that caused international uproar and rioting among Muslims was apparently not what it seemed. In 2005, Jyllands-Posten newspaper ran its now infamous feature with several different artists’ drawings under the heading ‘Faces of Mohammed’ – the most well-known being Kurt Westergaard’s contribution depicting a man with a bomb in his turban. But according to Westergaard, the drawing was not the prophet Mohammed, to which it is commonly referred, but is instead a would-be terrorist. (It really doesn't matter who it is supposed to portray - no one's life should be threatened for making a drawing. Terrorist, warlord, what's the difference?)
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/157014/Nobody-should-be-above-the-law-on-religious-grounds
Governors at Compton School in Barnet felt they were being perfectly reasonable when a 14-year-old boy insisted on coming into school with a five-inch curved dagger strapped to his clothing: they told him to remove it and when he refused to do so they banished him from the premises. What they hadn’t reckoned with was the passion generated by the kirpan, a ceremonial dagger that is one of the five articles of faith worn by Sikhs. At the weekend the boy won the backing of Sir Mota Singh, Britain’s first Asian judge, who demanded that schools throughout Britain accept the right of Sikh schoolchildren to wear the daggers. (Multicultural insanity - there no reason for any kid to bring a knife to school. The Sikhs will have to adapt, simple as that.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/10/brand-cross-christian-science-teacher
At the heart of the controversy is John Freshwater, who taught at Mount Vernon middle school for 21 years. Freshwater said he had done the same science experiment to hundreds of students before Zachary Dennis, using a Tesla coil, which gives off an electric spark. The teacher said it was painless and harmless – although a doctor would later testify that Dennis had second-degree burns – and that he had made an X, not a cross, on the boy's skin. (A teacher burns children in science class. He is sacked. Turns out he is a Christian fanatic and some people are actually supporting him, calling him a martyr. He is not, he is an idiot that burned kids. He is also guilty of breaching the church/state divide. He should stay sacked)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/09/ali-dizaei-disciplinary-charges-police
Disciplinary charges against Ali Dizaei, the Scotland Yard commander convicted of falsely arresting and attempting to frame a man in a dispute over money, could have been proved in the past but were dropped because politicians were wary of offending the black police association, a former Met deputy commissioner said today. (The results of the union of multiculturalism and political correctness. How much more of this sort of thing is going on? You can bet this is far from an isolated case)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/10/iranian-funding-durham-university-boycott
It's a long way from Iran to north-east England, but anger about the crushing of opposition protests by the Islamic regime has generated a furious row at Durham University, where one academic has condemned the British government for turning "the slaughter of innocent teenagers in Iraq and Afghanistan into an art form". (Anyone accepting funding from this murderous regime becomes an accessory to that regime's crimes)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/10/cameron-student-crowd-doubts
The Conservative party has had a few problems with authenticity of late, accused of airbrushing David Cameron's campaign posters, and distorting crime statistics. Now questions are being asked over the genuineness of students photographed listening to Cameron's speech at the University of East London on Monday.
Recognising that British courts have become a prime destination for "libel tourists", the House of Lords has recently established a government panel to look into the possibility of amending its laws to make it tougher for foreigners to bring defamation suits in Britain. But even as Britain attempts to prevent frivolous libel suits, the battle continues in the US. American courts are being utilised by radical Islamic groups to stifle writers through "lawfare" – the use of law as a weapon of warfare – a tactic that has had a "chilling effect" on free speech.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/08/DD171BTIPL.DTL
For example, Fox's latest drama, "Past Life," revolves around "past life detectives" in the behavioral health world who believe that people are reincarnated and can often have memories of crimes that happened to them in, yes, a past life. You might be a recalcitrant teen boy with flashbacks to when you were a murdered girl. You know, things like that. And if you have "regressions" - or as we might say in television, very visual flashbacks - they might provide enough clues to the authorities. Maybe if the crime gets solved, or you figured out why you're having these horrible, visceral memories, you can get better and move forward. (TV review of Fox scraping the barrel)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/7189188/Atheists-just-as-ethical-as-churchgoers.html
Atheists are just as ethical and have as strong a moral compass as churchgoers, new research shows. People who have no religion know right from wrong just as well as regular worshippers, according to the study. The team behind the research found that most religions were similar and had a moral code which helped to organise society. But people who did not have a religious background still appeared to have intuitive judgments of right and wrong in common with believers, according to the findings, published in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
A Muslim bus driver knelt in the aisle to pray for five minutes leaving bemused and anxious passengers trapped in their seats. The driver pulled over without warning and rolled out a high-visibility jacket as a makeshift prayer mat before removing his shoes, turning to face Mecca and starting to chant in Arabic. Passengers said they looked on in stunned silence, fearing the driver may be preparing for a terrorist attack on the bus. No one was able to get on or off the vehicle during the five-minute prayer session.
A Christian teacher yesterday claimed he was forced out of his job after complaining that Muslim pupils as young as eight hailed the September 11 hijackers as heroes. Nicholas Kafouris, 52, is suing his former school for racial discrimination.
Saudi Arabia's human rights commission has hired a lawyer to help a 12-year-old girl divorce her 80-year-old husband in a move activists hope will lead to a ban on child marriages. The country, which applies an austere version of Sunni Islam, has no minimum legal age for marriage. Fathers are granted guardianship over their daughters, giving them control over who their daughters marry and when.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/08/church-of-england-women-bishops
Conservative evangelicals in the Church of England today became the latest group to threaten to split the church if it decides to consecrate women bishops. At the start of this week's meeting of the General Synod, the church's parliament, in London, they warned that their clergy would in future be trained outside the Church of England if the proposals go ahead later this year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/feb/09/dagger-dilemma-sikhism-kirpan-schools
Sir Mota believes that it is wrong to stop schoolkids wearing the secreted, ceremonial dagger into school and believe that it is an infringement of a child's right to practise their religion. Let me repeat that: he thinks it's OK for kids to take knives to class.
In Britain today therapists are trying to convert gay men and women to heterosexuality. I know this, because for several months I infiltrated this network of therapists and put myself – a happy, "out" gay man – through treatment.
The Archbishop of York is likely to face criticism from traditionalists in the Church of England this week after he dismissed those who want to take up the Pope's offer of converting to Roman Catholicism. Dr John Sentamu told the BBC that any Anglo-Catholics - dismayed by the introduction of women bishops - who convert under the terms of the unprecedented scheme proposed in October would not be proper Catholics. (Storm, meet teacup)
The BBC's head of religion has accused the Church of England of "living in the past" and said that the corporation should not give Christianity preferential treatment. Aaqil Ahmed, a controversial executive whose appointment last year prompted more than 100 complaints, said: "I think all the faiths should be treated in the same way. I don't believe in treating any faith differently." (ALL the established religions live in the past - it goes with the territory. Wait for remarks about Ahmed being a Muslim)
The Church of England is set for a new row over homosexuality with bishops divided over moves to recognise a breakaway movement in the US. Leading conservative clergy have declared their support for a motion at this week's General Synod which would ally the Church with the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). This was formed in opposition to the consecration of Gene Robinson, the first openly homosexual bishop, and the actions of liberals in the Episcopal Church of the US, which is the official Anglican body. (There is nothing more important in the world today but to discriminate against gays? Idiots)
Sikh schoolchildren should be allowed to wear their ceremonial daggers at all times in all public places, Britain's first Asian judge has said. Sir Mota Singh QC spoke out after a number of Sikhs were refused entry to schools and other venues because they were wearing the Kirpan or other religious artefacts. (The Sikhs should accommodate concerns about knife crime and cease this practice. What do they do if they want to fly?)
Italy's worst recession since the Second World War has prompted Italians to spend a staggering £5 billion a year seeking financial advice not from banks and brokers but fortune tellers and astrologers. (So that's where all the foreign aid is going)
http://www.alternet.org/story/145539/the_newest_diet_trend%3A_what_would_jesus_eat
God cries when you eat Pop-Tarts. But He smiles when you drink carrot juice, and when you do a colon cleanse, He beams. That's the spirit driving one of America's biggest current diet fads. Granted, you've probably never heard of it unless you hang with Bible-believing Christians,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/07/nick-cohen-law-courts-libel
In his Dame Ann Ebsworth memorial lecture, the retired law lord had the establishment audience purring with approval when he dismissed the international clamour against our libel laws as a neocon scam. The determination of American legislators to make English libel verdicts unenforceable in the US was not a result of legitimate concern about a law used by the super-rich, but had been manufactured by an American right-winger, Rachel Ehrenfeld, after she lost a libel case brought by Khalid bin Mahfouz. (Nick Cohen on a scandalous misuse of the of libel law)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8493514.stm
The head of a Catholic order in Germany has apologised for the systematic sex abuse apparently committed by two priests at a prestigious Berlin school. Fr Stefan Dartmann said students at the Jesuit-run Canisius College had complained in 1981, much earlier than the order had previously admitted. The Jesuit said he was ashamed that the college and the order had left the complaint unanswered. The number of victims was greater than originally believed, he added. "I apologise that those responsible at the time did not investigate and react as they should have done," said Fr Dartmann. (The same old story
http://www.livescience.com/health/sweat-lodges-deadly-100205.html
The idea that the human body can sweat out toxins is widely believed, and is in fact the basis for some businesses. Hot springs, sweat lodges, and pricey spas around the world offer "sweat wraps" and other techniques claimed to detoxify and purify the body. Things don't always go as planned. This week motivational speaker James Arthur Ray was charged with three counts of manslaughter for his role in a sweat lodge ceremony last fall near Sedona, Arizona.
Pope Benedict XVI has criticised the “increasing tide of secularism” in Britain, in his second comments on the country in a week. The pontiff condemned support for euthanasia, which he said goes directly against the Christian understanding of the dignity of human life, and recent developments in embryo research. He also said that too many people see the Roman Catholic Church in terms of “prohibitions and retrograde positions” but ignore its positive vision of the world. (As a foreign head of state he should follow normal practice and not criticize UK legislation)
This week's conundrum from the Ministry of Good Intentions: some equality laws are more equal than others. It doesn't begin to make sense, but this is the Orwellian realpolitik we're faced with in view of the Government's decision to back down over the proposed amendment to its Equality Bill. On Wednesday, following a trouncing in the Lords and a broadside from the Pope, Equality Minister Harriet Harman confirmed she is no longer seeking "clarification" on the exemption of religious organisations from standard employment law. (Good piece by E Jane Dickson)
Pakistan terrorist groups have held an open rally in Kashmir and vowed to continue their holy war despite Islamabad's pledges to suppress militant activity. Speakers included senior figures from a charitable front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the banned militant group blamed by India and the United States for the Mumbai attacks. The Kashmir Solidarity conference said a ban on Kashmiri militant groups should be overturned and the region should again become a "base camp" for militants.
A conference designed to galvanise opposition to Barack Obama's "big government" agenda has hit controversy after racially-charged remarks by the opening speaker, a leading anti-immigration campaigner. (Their true colors revealed)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article7017198.ece
The Pope has launched an unprecedented defence of separate Catholic schooling in Scotland, claiming that the system helps to combat sectarianism and promote good community relations. (The Pope was of course speaking ex recto and therefore fallibly)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7017147.ece
David Cameron has criticised the Church of England over its attitudes to homosexuality, calling for it to accept equal rights for gays. In an interview with the gay magazine Attitude, Mr Cameron said that “our Lord Jesus” would back equality and gay rights if he were alive. He said that he did not want to get into a row with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, but the Church should recognise that equal rights for gays was “essential”. (Cameron channels Jesus - he is getting more like Blair every day)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7017161.ece
The leader of the American missionaries imprisoned for alleged child abduction in Haiti has a history of divorce, bad debts, and unpaid wages back home. Laura Silsby, 40, founded her New Life Children’s Refuge charity at an address in a still-unfinished development in a suburb of Boise, Idaho, in November. A month later the $358,500 (£230,000) house was repossessed by the mortgage holder, MetLife Home Loans. (read on - Silsby has a record as long as your arm)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/feb/05/homeopathy-false-evidence-parliamentary-inquiry
The British Homeopathic Association has been accused of misrepresenting scientific evidence on alternative medicine in documents it gave to a parliamentary inquiry. The organisation claimed several scientific reviews offered support for homeopathy in material submitted to the cross-party science and technology select committee, which is holding an investigation into the products. Robert Mathie, a researcher at the BHA, said the reviews found evidence for a difference between homeopathic remedies and sugar pills, which contain no active ingredients. But the claim has dismayed some of the scientists who wrote the reviews and angered MPs on the committee who are in the final stages of writing their report.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/05/paskistan-bombs-karachi
A wave of panic rippled through Pakistan's commercial capital, Karachi, today after twin explosions targeting a religious procession and a major hospital killed at least 25 people and injured more than 100. The chaos started when a bomb, thought to have been planted on a parked motorcycle, ripped through a bus carrying minority Shias to a procession in honour of the revered figure Imam Hussein. At least 12 people were killed and 49 injured, including many women and children.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/03/pakistan-afghan-border-explosion
Three American soldiers were killed and two injured in a bomb attack on a military convoy in north-western Pakistan today that marked a surprise coup for Taliban fighters reeling under a barrage of CIA drone attacks. Dozens of teenage girls were also caught by the blast, which occurred outside their secondary school in Lower Dir district, killing three of them along with a paramilitary soldier. The wounded were rushed to the main district hospital at Timergara where doctors from Medécins sans Frontières said they had treated more than 100 people, most of them schoolgirls. "Most of them are have splinter injuries all over the body — in the face, abdomen and feet," said Dr Ashraf Alam, chief medical officer at the hospital, speaking by phone. (Those girls were asking for trouble - I mean getting an education, how outrageous)
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/bollywood/article7015777.ece
The biggest star in Bollywood is under attack from an extremist Hindu party with a history of violence for expressing support for cricketers from Pakistan, India’s arch rival.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/04/barack-obama-fellowship-prayer-breakfast
Barack Obama has drawn stinging criticism for addressing an annual National Prayer Breakfast today organised by a Christian evangelical group whose members include the Ugandan politician behind legislation to execute gay people. Obama spurned calls from ethics and gay rights groups to boycott the event run by the Fellowship, an organisation characterised by critics as a secretive, elitist group that wields influence through religious gatherings sometimes funded by defence contractors and foreign powers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/04/girl-buried-alive-turkey
Turkish police have recovered the body of a 16-year-old girl they say was buried alive by relatives in an "honour" killing carried out as punishment for talking to boys. The girl, who has been identified only by the initials MM, was found in a sitting position with her hands tied, in a two-metre hole dug under a chicken pen outside her home in Kahta, in the south-eastern province of Adiyaman. Official figures have indicated that more than 200 such killings take place each year, accounting for around half of all murders in Turkey.
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fgw-haiti-missionaries5-2010feb05,0,6996414.story
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Ten members of a U.S. missionary group who tried to take 33 children out of Haiti after the nation's devastating earthquake were charged Thursday with child kidnapping and criminal association, their Haitian lawyer said.
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20100203/NEWS04/2030354/1004/NEWS03
A judge seeking to resolve 25 priest misconduct lawsuits against Vermont's Catholic Church has decided to hear 18 of them in one trial. But the state's largest religious denomination hopes to settle many if not all of the cases beforehand, in part by selling its multimillion-dollar Burlington headquarters and surrounding Lake Champlain property, it announced Tuesday.
Tolerance has become a “negative virtue” in Britain as important but contentious subjects are no longer discussed, according to the Archbishop of York. ( 80's tolerance for Sentamu's particular brand of drivel was exceeded a while ago. It is almost impossible to think of him now without remembering his laughably incoherent and pathetic performance on the Today program, trying to explain why his god let the Haiti earthquake happen. The man is a fool)
Heavy sedation of patients in their final days prevents them from the opportunity of having a “good death”, according to the Roman Catholic Church. (Sick, cruel bastards)
The Prince of Wales has revealed how he was once accused of being the ''enemy of the Enlightenment'' and claimed he has faced ''unbelievable abuse'' for voicing his views. (Maybe that's because he is an unelected fool who uses his privileged position to plug dangerous and nonsensical alternative medicines. He should have got a proper job years ago instead of waiting for his mother to kick the bucket)
A secular campaign group has lodged a formal complaint against Cherie Blair for allegedly sparing a violent criminal from jail because he believed in God. The former prime minister's wife, who sits as a judge as Cherie Booth QC, told Shamso Miah that she would suspend his prison sentence because he was a "religious man". Miah, a devout Muslim, had been convicted of breaking a man's jaw with two punches after a dispute in a bank queue in East Ham, London. The 25-year-old had gone to the bank from a local mosque. The National Secular Society has lodged an official protest with the Office for Judicial Complaints (OJC), claiming that Miss Booth was effectively discriminating against atheists. (So supernatural beliefs are a get out of jail card according to this stupid woman. What a joke of a judge.)
Richard Williamson, the Catholic Bishop soon to face trial in Germany on charges of denying the Holocaust, is apparently unrepentant, allegedly telling colleagues recently it was a "huge lie" that six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis. The notorious English bishop also allegedly told colleagues from his ultraconservative brotherhood that "a completely new world order" had been built on the "fact" that Jews were systematically gassed in concentration camps such as Auschwitz, Treblinka and Sobibor. ( This creep should not be going on trial - but he should be laughed at, loud and often)
A cat with an uncanny ability to detect when nursing home patients are about to die has proven itself in around 50 cases by curling up with them in their final hours, according to a new book. (How many more times is this urban legend going to be trotted out? Utter nonsense)
The mother of a 12-year-old girl who was married off to an 80-year-old man in Saudi Arabia has unexpectedly dropped a court case to get her daughter divorced, local media reported on Tuesday. The girl's mother had filed the case asking to "free" her daughter from the marriage. But she dropped the case on Monday after reconciling with her former husband, who had reportedly married off his daughter in exchange for a large dowry. (What kind of parents sell their daughter, no more than a child, to a dirty old man?)
Scientologists flown to Haiti by John Travolta to help in the relief effort plan to set up a permanent base in the stricken country once the aid operation is complete. The Scientologists, who are carrying out an operation called The Volunteer Ministry Disaster Relief for Haiti, have already begun plans to build an orphanage in the country. Members of the group have volunteered to work in the hospitals, using healing techniques that reportedly include touching certain parts of the body or telling patients to stare at the wall. (Surviving an earthquake only to be confronted by these creepy cultists - these poor people have suffered enough)
At least 20 pilgrims in the holy city of Kerbala have been killed by a bomb in the latest attack targeting the Shi'ite festival. The bomb, placed on a cart pulled by a motorcycle, wounded up to 110 people, police and hospital sources said. On Tuesday police said three people were killed and 21 wounded when a bomb attached to a military vehicle exploded in Kerbala. On Monday, a female suicide bomber killed more than 40 pilgrims on the outskirts of Baghdad. (The religion of death keeps racking them up)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/04/james-arthur-ray-arrest-sweat
The American motivational speaker James Arthur Ray has been arrested on manslaughter charges after three people died following a sweat lodge ceremony he led last year.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7012758.ece
Four thousand people have signed an online petition to protest against the Pope’s planned four-day visit to Britain later this year. The register, organised by the National Secular Society (NSS), reflects the dismay sparked by Pope Benedict XVI’s remarks about Britain’s equality legislation and is being seen as a taster of what awaits the Pope on his visit to Britain.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8493660.stm
A growing number of young Muslims in the UK are entering marriages that are not legally recognised, BBC Asian Network has found. This is because couples are having an Islamic wedding without the civil ceremony needed for the marriage to be recognised under British law.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8493280.stm
The Pope has faced a backlash after urging Catholic bishops in England and Wales to fight the UK's Equality Bill with "missionary zeal". Pope Benedict XVI said the bill - which could end the right of the Church to ban gay people from senior positions - "violates natural law". But gay and human rights campaigners condemned his comments, and Labour MEP Stephen Hughes said he was "appalled".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8494860.stm
The French government has refused to grant citizenship to a foreign national on the grounds that he forced his wife to wear the full Islamic veil. The man, whose current nationality was not given, needed citizenship to settle in the country with his French wife. But Immigration Minister Eric Besson said this was being refused because he was depriving his wife of the liberty to come and go with her face uncovered.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8494285.stm
An MP has called the wearing of burkas the religious equivalent of "going round with a paper bag over your head". In a parliamentary debate, Conservative MP Philip Hollobone said it was "offensive" for women to cut off face-to-face contact with other people.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8495229.stm
Malawian police have arrested a man for putting up gay-rights posters, amid a national debate over homosexuality - which is banned in Malawi. Peter Sawali had put up posters saying: "Gay rights are human rights", on a main road in Blantyre, police said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/02/nina-wang-will-hong-kong
A feng shui master today lost his battle for the multibillion-dollar fortune of his late lover Nina Wang, with a Hong Kong court dismissing her will as a forgery. (Perhaps he should have rearranged his furniture for a better result)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/02/soyinka-england-cesspit-islamists
England is a "cesspit" and breeding ground for fundamentalist Muslims, the Nobel laureate and political activist Wole Soyinka has said in an interview in which he also accused Britain of allowing the existence of "indoctrination schools". (it is hard to argue with this)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/8489137.stm
Counter-terrorism police say their discovery of a film of children being encouraged to hold guns is evidence of attempts to radicalise youngsters. The Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) in North West England revealed they found the film during a raid in Manchester. Officers say it shows two children, aged about three and six, playing with a pistol and a Kalashnikov rifle.
Most parents are as ignorant as I am on the measles triple vaccine, says Jemima Lewis. (Well get up off your backside and find out. Apathetic bloody journalists....)
Pope Benedict XVI has criticised Harriet Harman’s “unjust” Equality Bill for trying to prevent religious groups remain true to their beliefs. (This ruler of a foreign state should mind his own business. He's a fine one to call such legislation unjust - we are talking motes and beams here.)
A female suicide bomber killed at least 41 people when she blew herself up among Shia pilgrims in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Police said more than 100 people were also injured in the attack in northern Baghdad. Women and children were among the dead. The pilgrims were making their way to the southern holy city of Karbala to mark a revered day on the Shia calendar. It raised fears of an escalation of attacks when the pilgrimage culminates on Friday. (Yet again adherents of this violent religion murder each other.)
Haiti's voodoo high priest has claimed believers have been discriminated against by evangelical Christians who are monopolising aid sent to the earthquake-stricken country. Max Beauvoir, Haiti's "supreme master" of voodoo, alleged his faith's opponents had deliberately prevented much-needed help from reaching followers of the religion, which blends the traditional beliefs of West African slaves with Roman Catholicism. "The evangelicals are in control and they take everything for themselves," he claimed. "They have the advantage that they control the airport where everything is stuck. They take everything they get to their own people and that's a shame.
Tony Blair's much vaunted Africa Progress Panel may be wound up, having 'failed' to deliver its anti-poverty pledges - while its founder has not been to meetings for two years. A top-level panel set up by Tony Blair to monitor official aid pledges to the global Live8 campaign will hold its final scheduled session this week with him not having attended a single meeting since 2007. “Mr Blair has not contributed anything whatsoever to this panel, even to the point of not bothering to turn up to meetings,” said one person with knowledge of the organisation. “As far as we can see, he got his moment of glory when he launched it and that was that. Partly as a result, the panel itself has hasn’t achieved anything either. Basically, several million dollars have been spent, and nobody in Africa is any better off.” (All show and no substance. Why does anyone listen to this creep anymore? Note the panel has had about £1.5 million of taxpayer funding)
For thousands of Zimbabweans who have fled their troubled country, the Methodist church in downtown Johannesburg is the only home they know. Now their priest has been suspended. After five years during which up to 2,000 people a night slept on pews, floors and stairwells, the church is now overcrowded, filthy and reeking due to inadequate sanitation - decidedly not the image that South Africa wants to present during the World Cup. Claims that children were sexually abused by a teacher and fellow migrants emerged late last year, causing a drive by authorities to close down the church - though no one has put forward any alternatives for the homeless foreigners. (A church involved in child abuse? Surely not.)
The notion that 'there are no atheists in foxholes' isn't just mistaken, it's bigoted and ugly; a denial of atheists' humanity and the reality of our experience with death. (Article by Greta Christina)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2010/jan/29/religion-christianity
Naturally, the uninformed opinion of a mere scholar counts for nothing against the views of pseudonymous commenters on the internet. But I find the argument entirely convincing. That Jesus should never have lived at all seems to me one of the most improbable explanations for Christianity's existence. (Andrew Brown deploys an argument based upon personal incredulity. Pathetic but hardly surprising.)
Is science closer to religion than is typically assumed? Is religion closer to science? Might rational enquiry, based on evidence, share similarities with faith? (The answer is no. In this piece Mark Vernon manages to equate scientific inspiration with faith. Science is testable and provisional - hardly the same thing as religious faith.)
http://www.badscience.net/2010/01/the-wakefield-mmr-verdict/
Even if it had been immaculately well conducted – and it certainly wasn’t – Wakefield’s “case series report” of 12 children’s clinical anecdotes would never have justified the conclusion that MMR causes autism, despite what journalists claimed: it simply didn’t have big enough numbers to do so. But the media repeatedly reported the concerns of this one man, generally without giving methodological details of the research, either because they found it too complicated, inexplicably, or because to do so would have undermined their story. (Ben Goldacre on the Wakefield inquiry and the press's role in scaremongering.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/feb/01/islamic-science
From the elephant clock to the camera obscura, here are six amazing inventions from between the 9th and 15th centuries. (Interesting look at some products of the Islamic world by Jim Al-Khalili. The obvious question though is what contributions to science and technology have been made since?)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/31/american-baptists-arrested-taking-children
A group of 10 American Baptists were being held in the Haitian capital today after trying take 33 children out of Haiti. The church group, most of them from Idaho, allegedly lacked the proper documents when they were arrested on Friday night in a bus along with children aged from two months to 12 years who had survived the earthquake.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/31/french-muslim-burqa-veil-niqab
For Amina and her friends, who as young Frenchwomen are typical of the estimated 1,900 people in the country that a government report says are believed to wear the niqab, the idea of a ban is a "shocking" attempt by the state to interfere with an act they insist is their own religious choice – paradoxically, they say, out of a concern for laïcité.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/29/dubai-rape-women-middle-east
A woman should be able to report a rape to the police anywhere in the world and to expect them to investigate the charge. In some parts of the world that will actually happen, even though police officials are not always as sensitive or responsive as they should be. But for those of us who live in the Middle East, it is really not that clear what we should do if we're sexually assaulted, abused, or raped. That is because in so many instances, officials either don't take us seriously, or – as this case frighteningly illustrates – we may even be charged with a crime ourselves. (For Middle East read Islam)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jan/30/margaret-thatcher-handwriting
A whole page wasted on graphology which is total nonsense.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/jan/29/krishna-avanti-hindu-primary-school
Some of the things that set Krishna Avanti apart from other primary schools are its yoga sessions, green credentials, an exclusively Hindu intake and vegetarian menu. But the most striking difference is at the centre of the building: a temple carved from Makrana marble, the same material used to build the Taj Mahal. (Oh great, another sectarian school to help us all to rub along together)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/29/scott-roeder-guilty-abortion-murder
A jury in Kansas has rejected a plea by a man who admitted killing an abortion doctor that he acted in defence of the unborn and found him guilty of murder. The jury took just 37 minutes to convict born-again Christian Scott Roeder for shooting George Tiller, 67, in the forehead as he attended church last May. Roeder, a 51-year-old airport shuttle driver, faces a mandatory life sentence with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/29/sceptics-homeopathy-mass-overdose-boots
Hundreds of sceptics will stage a "mass overdose" outside Boots stores around Britain tomorrow to protest against the chain's continuing sale of homeopathic remedies and to argue that such treatments have no scientific basis. The event ‑ called 10:23 ‑ will see the protesters swallowing the contents of entire bottles of homeopathic pills to illustrate their claims that such remedies "are nothing but sugar pills".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/feb/21/religion.highereducation
A growing number of science students on British campuses and in sixth form colleges are challenging the theory of evolution and arguing that Darwin was wrong. Some are being failed in university exams because they quote sayings from the Bible or Qur'an as scientific fact and at one sixth form college in London most biology students are now thought to be creationists. (This is deeply worrying for creationism rejects not just evolution but all of science.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/28/taliban-united-nations-afghanistan
Taliban commanders held secret exploratory talks with a United Nations special envoy this month to discuss peace terms, it emerged tonight. (Will they ask them what it is like to behead schoolteachers or throw acid in a schoolgirl's face?)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/28/ireland-abortion
The Irish government came under increasing pressure to overhaul its ban on abortion today, after it was accused of exposing women to "grossly misleading" information about the procedure. According to Human Rights Watch, Irish legislation – under which women who have an abortion in Ireland face a life sentence in prison if prosecuted – is putting women's health at risk and exposing them to deliberate misinformation from rogue pro-life agencies.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/28/scott-roeder-abortion-doctor-killer
A born-again Christian who believes abortion is a sin failed yesterday to convince a judge that he need not stand trial for murder after he admitted shooting dead an abortion doctor. His defence lawyer asked: "Did you go and shoot Dr Tiller?" Roeder replied: "Yes." The fact Roeder was the killer, with a single shot to the head, was not in doubt, but the confession was an attempted defence that he felt forced to act to save the lives of unborn.
Heavy metal fans are being urged to keep the faith - by lobbying for their love of rock to be recognised as a ''religion''. (It makes as much sense as any other religion)
When Dave Davidson was clearing out some old junk, he thought nothing of selling a 99p Dad’s Army board game online. But he was amazed when the auction site eBay refused to let him sell it because it might incite racial hatred and promote violence. The offending part was a Swastika on the box, modelled on the opening titles of the sitcom which showed Swastikas and Union flags strategically moving around a map of Europe. And despite its apparent family-friendly content, where players attempt to get their platoon to one location on the board, eBay stuck by their decision to ban the auction declaring: “We don't allow the sale of memorabilia associated with the Nazi Party.” (Our absurdly litigious culture and multicultural dogma revealed in all its mind-numbing stupidity. Don't blame eBay, it's just covering its corporate arse)
The doctor who sparked the MMR controversy ''showed a callous disregard'' for the suffering of children and ''abused his position of trust'', a disciplinary panel ruled. Dr Andrew Wakefield's conduct brought the medical profession ''into disrepute'' after he took blood samples from youngsters at his son's birthday party in return for payments of £5. The doctor, who was absent from today's General Medical Council (GMC) hearing, faces being struck off the medical register. (For the damage he has caused to the uptake of the MMR jab and the possible deaths from measles this guy needs the book thrown at him)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/27/fox-news-most-popular
The onward march of Fox News, the relentlessly rightwing channel that has revolutionised American television news by making it overtly partisan, has been boosted by an opinion poll that suggests it is the most trusted news operation in the country. Almost half of all Americans surveyed in the poll of 1,151 registered voters said they trusted Fox News. (Which is much the same as saying these people are educationally subnormal)
David Davies, a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, has called for the Attorney General to review the three-year term imposed on Balal Khan, 14. Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live on Wednesday the Monmouth MP said the case raised a ''wider question''. ''What is it about this young man's upbringing, what about his community or his parental upbringing, that led him to think that women are second-class people whose rights can be trampled over like this?'' he said. (Women were being raped by scum long before there were Muslims living in Britain. Yes, Muslims, its obvious who Davies is thinking of.)
The men, aged between 20 and 50 years old, were attending a religious meeting in Kuala Lumpur when they were detained by police. Malaysia's interior minister said police were tipped off by international intelligence agencies that the meeting was being held by an Islamic religious group.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/28/hate-crimes-muslims-media-politicians
A rise in the number of hate crimes against Muslims in London is being encouraged by mainstream politicians and sections of the media, a study written by a former Scotland Yard counter-terrorism officer, published yesterday, says. Attacks ranging from death threats and murder to persistent low-level assaults, such as spitting and name-calling, are in part whipped up by extremists and sections of mainstream society, the study says. (Of course the daily reports of Muslim violence from around the world has nothing to do with it)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/jan/27/pop-john-paul-ii-whip
It is reported that Papa Wojtyła, aka Pope John Paul II, used to whip himself – a practice that appears to have brought on more distress among the bien-pensants than the killing of a million Mesopotamians and the destruction of their country by armies at the behest of George Bush and Tony Blair. I find the practice difficult to come to terms with, deep though its roots go in the universal church. (Elsewhere this would be called self-harm)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/27/zardari-goat-sacrifice-claims-sadiqa
Swamped by court challenges and under pressure from a hostile army, Pakistan's president, Asif Ali Zardari, has found solace in an unusual form – the ritual slaughter of goats. Zardari has a black goat killed every day at his Islamabad house to ward off "evil eyes" and protect himself against "black magic", according to a report in Dawn, Pakistan's paper of record. Spokesman Farhatullah Babar confirmed the president practises sadiqa, or the sacrifice of an animal whose meat is distributed among the poor. "I have seen it been done. Not exactly every day, but quite often, yes," he told the Guardian.
A Christian group has upset anti-racist campaigners by advertising for a white man to perform the role of Jesus Christ in a play. The Wintershall Charitable Company, which is staging the Passion of Jesus in Trafalgar Square in London on Good Friday, makes the stipulation in an advertisement in The Stage, adding that “long-term engagement in other Christian plays is possible”.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/26/conservatives-europe-antisemitism-poland
One of David Cameron's rightwing allies in eastern Europe was embroiled in controversy today at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg after being allowed to open the assembly's session despite a record of belittling the Holocaust. Ryszard Bender, a hard-right Polish senator and historian from the rightwing Law and Justice party, has defended a convicted Holocaust denier in Poland, described Auschwitz as "not a death camp, but a labour camp", and campaigned against Polish apologies for the slaughter of Jews at Jedwabne in 1941.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2010/01/201012610250404786.html
Christians and Muslims in central Nigeria are accusing each other of starting the recent clashes in which hundreds of people were killed in and around the city of Jos in Plateau state. Nigerian police said on Tuesday that at least 326 people have died in the violence in Plateau.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7002273.ece
The head of the Islam Channel, Britain’s most popular Muslim television station, has been arrested in South Africa and faces deportation to Tunisia over terrorism allegations. The Times disclosed more than a year ago that Mohamed Ali Harrath, a Scotland Yard adviser against Islamic extremism, was wanted by Interpol because of his alleged activities in his homeland.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article7002320.ece
The Anglican Archbishop of Jos has called for Muslims to hand back the bodies of any Christians shot in last week’s riots that he says could have been taken to the mosque in error. The Most Rev Ben Kwashi said that Christians had been made the scapegoats for sectarian violence between Christians and Muslims that left nearly 500 people dead in the central Nigerian city. Those who took part in killings that nearly wiped out a village on the outskirts of Jos have yet to be found. The Archbishop spoke to The Times as another Anglican bishop in Nigeria, the Right Rev Peter Imasuen of Benin City in southern Edo state, was ambushed and kidnapped shortly after arriving home from Sunday eucharist.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7062854/Abraham-the-old-man-and-the-seed.html
Jews, Muslims and Christians may all be the children of Abraham, but a tour of sites related to the patriarch reveals a feud involving - what else? - sibling rivalry and real estate. It’s one of the most comforting and common appeals used by politicians and clerics when they urge reconciliation rather than conflict between Muslims, Christians and Jews. It’s also an appeal used with depressing regularity by Western leaders when frustration and a sense of hopelessness over the Middle East conflict between Israelis and Arabs has left them groping for anything better to say. The appeal is for the observance of the Abrahamic tradition; for Muslim, Christians and Jews to remember they have a unique shared ancestry and forefather in the prophet Abraham.
Controversial hardline Muslim cleric Yahya Ibrahim, who is banned from visiting the United States, is planning a speaking tour of Britain universities. Yahya Ibrahim, who has described Jews as "monkeys and pigs" and is accused of advocating conflict with the West, is due to speak at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC), next month and at Birmingham University in March. He is one of at least five extreme Islamists who have been allowed to enter the UK in recent years despite being banned by countries such as the United States or Australia. (What the hell is the UK doing allowing such a hatemongering Islamist into the country?)
David Cameron has called for more faith schools to be established under a Conservative government. The Conservative leader said that introducing faith into schools brought a “culture and ethos” that help standards to improve. Mr Cameron, whose own daughter attends a Church of England primary, said he was a “strong supporter personally and politically” of faith schools. (Yes, they worked so well in Northern Ireland....)
Church leaders have inflicted a humiliating defeat on the Government by overturning plans to force members of the clergy to hire gays and transsexuals. Under the current law, religious groups can restrict jobs to believers and refuse to hire people whose private conduct is inconsistent with their teaching. The Government had been proposing to water down these restrictions in Harriet Harman’s Equality Bill, which was being debated in the House of Lords yesterday. (The bigots win out over this spineless government. Now it's up to Europe)
A senior Catholic bishop in Poland who was reported to have made controversial comments about the Holocaust has insisted his remarks were taken "out of context". The remarks purporting to have been made by Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek were published just hours before Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, arrived in Poland on Monday to take part in commemorations to mark the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the death camp at Auschwitz on Wednesday. Bishop Pieronek spoke to an Italian Catholic news website, Pontifex Roma, which alleged he told it Jews had "stolen" the tragedy of the Holocaust. While stressing that the majority of people who died in Nazi Germany's death camps were Jews, Bishop Pieronek is alleged to have attacked Jews for apparently claiming ownership of the slaughter when others who were killed included "Poles, Gypsies, Italians and Catholics". (A Catholic bishop is anti-semitic - whatever next?)
A 16-year-old girl who was raped in Bangladesh has been given 101 lashes for conceiving during the assault. The girl's father was also fined and warned the family would be branded outcasts from their village if he did not pay. According to human rights activists, the girl, who was quickly married after the attack, was divorced weeks later after medical tests revealed she was pregnant. (What a disgusting and cruel culture - is this sharia in action or tribalism or an abhorrent combination of the two?)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/25/france-report-veil-burka-ban
France will today take the first step towards barring Muslim women from wearing the full veil when using public services, but will stop short of calling for an outright ban after critics argued that such a move would be socially divisive and hard to enforce. A cross-party committee of MPs was set up last year to explore the controversial issue in France of burkas and niqabs. The committee will recommend to parliament that Muslim women should be allowed to continue covering their faces in the street.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jan/25/superbowl-ad-abortion
On 7 February, the New Orleans Saints will make their first ever appearance in American football's Super Bowl, traveling to Miami to face off against the Indianapolis Colts in a competition that's as much about the commercials as the game itself. Also making an appearance for the first time will be an anti-abortion ad, paid for by the evangelical group Focus on the Family and featuring star college quarterback Tim Tebow, known for painting Bible quotations under his eyes during games.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jan/25/church-loses-40m-in-new-york
The Church of England has lost £40m from a disastrous investment in a buyout of two vast Manhattan housing complexes, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, that collapsed into default after struggling under huge debts incurred at the peak of the US property bubble. (One wonders what Jesus, assuming he existed, would make of this)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/25/baghdad-hotels-bomb-blasts
Four landmark Baghdad hotels were heavily damaged by car bombs this afternoon in the fourth co-ordinated attack on prominent targets as Iraq readies for an increasingly fraught election. Security officials said at least 36 people were killed and more than 80 injured by attackers including suicide bombers and gunmen.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/25/pass-notes-homeopathy
Pass notes No 2,716: Homeopathy
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/article6992920.ece
English libel law is a “legal farce” that needs urgent reform to stop it from gagging scientists and endangering public health, Nick Clegg said today. The Liberal Democrat leader promised a manifesto commitment to create a strong public interest defence to defamation claims, so that doctors and scientists are not kept from publishing research or speaking freely for fear of being sued.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7000797.ece
Police will study CCTV footage today of violent scenes involving far-right protesters after clashes broke out at an anti-Islamic protest. The violence flared after members of the English Defence League (EDL) descended on Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire for the latest in a series of demonstrations. Seventeen arrests were made at the rally on Saturday and six police officers were hurt. (These are violent hooligans and deserve to be treated as such)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7000734.ece
It was an astounding sight. In the heart of Port-au-Prince, a city reduced to ruins, many hundreds of homeless Haitians gathered yesterday morning to thank God and rejoice. Rejoice is precisely the word. So many had died — but they had been spared. God had punished them for their sins — but now they were purified. They held their arms up towards the heavens, swaying, palms outstretched, tears rolling down their cheeks, and sang their hearts out. “We are alive by the grace of God,” the preacher roared and the great throng roared: “Hallelujah!” (Praising their would-be murderer! Is the sky fairy helping with relief efforts? This demonstrates the the addictive, mind-numbing consequence of religious faith. It would be disgusting it it wasn't so sadly pathetic)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article7000386.ece
Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility yesterday for the failed Christmas Day aircraft bombing above Detroit and vowed further attacks on American citizens. In a minute-long audiotape purportedly made by the al-Qaeda leader, bin Laden raised fears that a follow-up attack was already in the works. (The Islamist troglodyte is still using tape? How very 1970s)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article7001735.ece
At least 36 people were killed today when insurgents set off a series of car bombs outside some of Baghdad's best known international hotels, including one which hosts the offices of The Times. (Muslims yet again murdering Muslims. Apparently not such a great crime as drawing cartoons of Mohammed which caused a lot more outrage)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jan/25/equlity-bill-churches-exemption
The government is facing allegations of duplicity over changes to the equality bill after a leaked document showed conflicting statements about the position of churches and other religious organisations. Churches say the government has assured them the equality bill will preserve their "special status", which allows them to turn down candidates for jobs as ministers or priests if they are actively homosexual, transsexual or, in the Catholic church, if they are women.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jan/25/super-bowl-advertising-row
It's the biggest day of the year for US advertising with companies spending between $2.5m and $2.8m to ensure their product is seen by the widest possible audience, but this year's Super Bowl Sunday threatens to be overshadowed by controversy over one of the 30-second slots. The advert in question? A commercial on behalf of the evangelical Christian organisation Focus on the Family, featuring the University of Florida's star quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother Pam, which is expected to focus on her decision to ignore medical advice to have an abortion. (You have to see this chump with bible verses painted on his face. Pathetic)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5glyzb40Mw7SmVIshp3G5UivqXQgA
Twenty-eight more bodies were on Sunday found in a central Nigerian village following Muslim-Christian clashes that have left hundreds dead, the Kuru Karama village head told AFP.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/jan/23/tariq-ramadan-clinton-visa
For almost six years, the US authorities prohibited Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan from travelling to the United States, but now the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, has signed an order effectively lifting the Bush-era ban for Ramadan, a visiting fellow at St Antony's College Oxford. (Ah yes, the guy who will not condemn stoning.)
http://www.newsweek.com/id/232054
The interethnic chaos Malaysia has long feared moved closer to reality this month when 10 churches were at-tacked around the country. The attacks followed a civil-court ruling on New Year's Eve declaring that a law prohibiting non-Muslims from using the word "Allah" to describe their God was unconstitutional. Strangely, though, Christians have been using "Allah" for "God" in East Malaysia since the 1920s without much controversy. So why the sudden spate of violence in a nation long viewed as a model of tolerance in the Muslim world? (Islamist shit-stirring yet again)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iaD8I40Fz3moyyOlmFeJozotQZAQ
Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday urged priests to use the Internet "astutely" in a message for this year's World Communications Day. "Make astute use of the unique possibilities offered by modern communications," the pope said. The Christian message "can traverse the many crossroads created by the intersection of all the different 'highways' that form cyberspace and show that God has his rightful place in every age, including our own," he said.
Help me out here — we need a wholesale supplier, and quickly. If we are to save the soul of Iris Robinson, we need huge vats of the blood of Christ, in which she might humbly immerse herself. I have tried eBay and — ironically, you might think — the Vatican, but there seems to be a run on the blood of Christ right now — we are all after a sprinkling, here or there, to assuage our multifarious sins. Total immersion — which would require gallons of the stuff — is thus out of the question for Iris. But perhaps there might be some aerosol blood of Christ product, a sort of Presbyterian fundamentalist Cillit Bang! which might at least ameliorate the problem. Reader, I am still searching. We should not give up. (Rod Liddle on Mrs Robinson - not literally of course, he's too old)
I have usually found that the closer a religious Christian, Jew or Muslim comes to the Middle East, the madder they become. The most avuncular Shropshire vicar, the kindest Jewish moderate, the most secular Muslim – dump them within a thousand miles of Jerusalem and they have the eyes of Lord Blair of Kut-al-Amara, that crazed, glazed, faith-based lunacy that must have inhabited the eyes of the Crusaders when they slaughtered their way across the Holy Land, dropping off near modern-day Homs in modern-day Syria to consume – literally – some of their Arab enemies. Orthodox priests fight each other over Christ's tomb; Israeli settlers claim that the Koran is not "a valid document" and local Muslims fully intend to "Islamicise" the world. (Disappointing piece, poorly researched and sloppily executed)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jan/22/nick-griffin-race-trial-details
The Crown Prosecution Service is blocking attempts to disclose details about the prosecution of Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National party, for race hate crimes, claiming that to do so would breach his data protection rights. Griffin was given a suspended prison sentence in 1998 after being convicted of "publishing or distributing racially inflammatory written material", an offence under the 1986 Public Order Act. The following year he was elected leader of the BNP.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/22/anti-abortion-super-bowl-advert
Next month's Super Bowl broadcast, which garners an enormous TV audience, will feature an advert paid for by an anti-abortion evangelical Christian group. A former college football star known for his outspoken beliefs will appear in the costly 30-second spot bought by Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based ministry influential in Christian conservative politics.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/22/britons-arrested-arson-crete-synagogue
Two British nightclub waiters have been arrested after arson attacks on a historic Jewish synagogue on the Greek island of Crete which have drawn condemnation from around the world.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/trouble-in-the-house-of-hubbard-20100122-mqoh.html
As pressure builds for a government inquiry into the Church of Scientology, Nick O'Malley investigates the group's increasingly troubled operations. It should have been one of Scientology's greatest moments. One of Tom Cruise's, too. But the day he accepted Scientology's greatest honour, the Freedom Medal of Valour (for Achievement in the Field of Excellence), Cruise might just have crippled the church.
Last Sunday we drove up to Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in Orange County, a collection of affluent, politically conservative suburbs south of LA. The model of a modern megachurch, Saddleback boasts over 112,000 "unchurched occasional attenders" as well as 22,800 active members – many initiated in the temperature-controlled baptismal pools on its 120-acre campus.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/22/church-of-england-attendance-falls
The Church of England has seen a drop in attendance for the fifth consecutive year despite increasing its efforts to woo people back to the pews. The average weekly attendance in 2008 fell to 1.145 million from 1.16 million in 2007, while the average Sunday attendance fell from 978,000 in 2007 to 960,000 in 2008. The statistics showed that fewer people went to church during religious festivals, notably Christmas and Easter, and that there were fewer weddings and blessings. But the average number of children and young people at services each week rose to 225,000, from 219,000 in 2007.
In what is being billed as "rationalism's Kool-Aid moment", a mass "overdose" is being planned next week in protest at the marketing of homoeopathic medicines. More than 300 people who style themselves as "homoeopathy sceptics" will each swallow an entire bottle of homoeopathic pills in protest at the continued marketing of homoeopathic medicines by Boots, the high street chemist chain.
Sectarian violence spread to two more cities in central Nigeria last night, after troops brought calm to Jos by forcing residents to stay indoors. As street clashes broke out in Pankshin and Mangu, one report said 464 people had died in Jos, where the fighting between Christians and Muslims began on Sunday. "The figure sounds credible," said local reporter Bashir Ibrahim Idris, "but it is impossible to verify due to the 24-hour curfew".
A priest in the Republic of Ireland gave a girl penance after abusing her in a confessional room, a jury has heard. Father Maeliosa O Hauallachain, 72, of Seafield Road, Killiney, County Dublin, pleaded not guilty to three charges of indecent assault on dates between July 31, 1981, and August 2, 1982, when the complainant was between 13 and 14 years old. The Louth woman, who is now 42, told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday that the priest abused her and told her not to tell anyone. (This piece of scum has stolen this poor woman's life.)
Muslim clerics in Indonesia have demanded a ban on women having perms or straightening their hair, which they described as 'inviting moral danger'. An Islamic body which has issued fatwas on inappropriate behaviour from practising yoga to failing to vote in elections said it is now considering a request to tackle the craze among pupils in religious boarding schools. Clerics from East Java have also requested a fatwa banning dreadlocks, punk haircuts and "funky hairstyles". (How about a ban on stupid wispy beards and mediaeval religion?)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/21/new-zealand-dumps-biblical-weapons
A US arms manufacturer has agreed to remove coded biblical messages stamped into gun sights used by British, US and New Zealand troops in Afghanistan. The company, Trijicon, said today it would remove the references to New Testament passages, after New Zealand military chiefs objected to their presence and the US military vowed to review the procurement.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2010/jan/22/john-travolta-scientologists-haiti
Psychopath, conman, liar, fantasist, fraudster, bully, tax evader, megalomaniac – it's fair to say L Ron Hubbard's death was a blow to global humanitarianism. Happily, there is a silver lining to the cloud that has hung over Earth since the founder of Scientology shed his corporeal form in 1986. That silver- lining is the high profile, expansionist figures who represent his organisation today – and the good news is that they're turning their thoughts to Haiti. (The last thing Haiti needs is this freakish cult)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8472937.stm
A US Airways flight was diverted to Philadelphia after a Jewish man's prayer items triggered a bomb scare, Philadelphia police said. Passengers grew alarmed when the man used a phylactery - a small black box Orthodox Jews strap to their head as part of their rituals, police said.
Michael Jackson: The Live Seance, a television show by the medium Derek Acorah, has been named the worst programme of the past year. Acorah's programme, which was broadcast live on Sky1 in November and hosted by June Sarpong, racked up 33 per cent of the votes cast by more than 9,000 Yahoo! users ahead of the National Television Awards (NTA). (Acorah is enough to make your flesh crawl)
Christians may be forced out of jobs in the public sector and charity work because of a secular agenda against them, a senior cleric has warned. The Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, told peers that councils, police forces and judges are wrongly using equality and diversity rules to punish churchgoers. He said that some in society now view religion as “undesirable” and want churchgoers to keep their faith “in a little box” rather than express it in public or at work. (Wrong - all they have to do is eschew bigotry)
Gabriel Byrne, the Hollywood actor, was sexually abused when he was a child in Ireland, and later when he trained as a priest in England. The Irish actor said he was abused by Christian Brothers. "Unfortunately, I experienced some sexual abuse," he told Irish television. "It was a known and admitted fact of life amongst us that there was this particular man, and you didn't want to be left in the dressing room with him. (Who is to say this does not go on still?)
Vatican sources insist that if Pope Benedict does indeed fail to repeat his predecessor’s journey to Canterbury, it should not be seen as a snub for Dr Williams. The English part of the Pope’s visit is expected to last only two days before he travels to Scotland, where he will meet the Queen at Balmoral. (The pope seems to be avoiding Ireland - one wonders why that is?)
A Saudi man who reportedly raped more than 100 women after posing as a spell-caster to lure them into his clutches has been sentenced to death, Saudi media reported on Wednesday. The "Qatif sorcerer" was originally sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes, but after more victims came forth the sentence was changed to execution, Al-Riyadh newspaper reported. The man, whose name was not given, terrified women around the eastern city of Qatif for several years. (The medieval world view is alive and well in Saudi Arabia)
Geert Wilders, a popular anti-Islamic politician, went on trial in Amsterdam on Wednesday, charged with inciting hatred against Muslims in a case seen as a test of Dutch tolerance and free speech. Mr Wilders sparked outrage with his 2008 film "Fitna", which compared Islam to Nazism, and his repeated calls for the Koran to be banned on the same basis as Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf. (If anyone is inciting hatred against Muslims it is the Islamist murderers and bombers. The Quran is full of incitements to hatred and violence - as is, to a lesser degree, the bible)
A three-headed "syndicate of terrorist operators" co-ordinated by al-Qaeda is attempting to destabilise the whole of South Asia and trigger a conflict between India and Pakistan, the US has warned. During a visit to New Delhi, Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, praised India's "great restraint and statesmanship" after the 2008 Mumbai massacre but cautioned that "Indian patience would be limited were there to be further attacks"
Muslim police officers have rebelled openly against the Government’s anti-terrorism strategy, warning that it is an “affront to British values” which threatens to trigger ethnic unrest. The National Association of Muslim Police (NAMP) claimed that ministers were wrong to blame Islam for being the “driver” behind recent terrorist attacks. Far-Right extremists were a more dangerous threat to national security, it said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/20/pope-irish-bishops-meeting-abuse
Ireland's bishops have all been summoned to the Vatican for discussions on the clerical child sex abuse scandal that has rocked the Irish Catholic church. Senior Catholic sources said today the pope had summoned them to a meeting in Rome on 15 and 16 February. (Too little too late - the Vatican knew what was going on)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/20/chilcot-inquiry-british-muslims-terrorism-risk
Intelligence chiefs warned ministers that Britain would become a priority target for al-Qaida and that British Muslims would be radicalised if the country joined the US in invading Iraq, the government's former top security adviser told the Chilcot inquiry today.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/19/AR2010011904462.html
When a Virginia driver purchases a specialty "Choose Life" anti-abortion license plate, $15 of the $25 processing fee goes to Heartbeat International, a Christian group that distributes the money to pregnancy resource centers located across the state. Critics say the license plate program doesn't do enough to determine whether a clinic is qualified for the money. One pregnancy center listed by several anti-abortion groups as a certified clinic -- the Mattingly Test Center in Loudoun County -- is a two-story brick house owned by Linda Mattingly, a former director at Care Net, a Leesburg-based pregnancy network. There are no signs in front indicating it is a clinic, the Internal Revenue Service has no record of it as a 503(c) nonprofit, and it is not registered as a corporation with the Virginia secretary of state.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/19/AR2010011904604.html
Experienced fighters returning to Yemen from the Iraq war and radicalized U.S. citizens who have taken up residence in that country have broadened assessments of the threat posed by the al-Qaeda affiliate there, according to administration and congressional officials.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=aohuS.CiX7nk
Clashes between Muslims and Christians in the central Nigerian city of Jos have killed more than 400 people and injured 4,000 more, a domestic human rights group said. Most of the fighting in three days of violence occurred in the city’s poor neighborhoods where security forces arrived late, Shehu Sani, president of the Civil Rights Congress, said today by phone from Jos. Earlier, New York-based Human Rights Watch put the death toll at 216. Hospitals are overwhelmed and have run out of supplies to treat the injured, Sani said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/jan/20/muslim-brotherhood-egypt
There is no better way to take the temperature of Arab politics than to examine the state of the Muslim Brotherhood, the most powerful religiously-organised opposition movement in Egypt and the Arab world. With branches in several Arab and Muslim countries, the Brotherhood portrays itself as a more authentic, viable alternative to secular authoritarian rulers and religious extremists of the al-Qaida variety.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/jan/19/faith-schools-teachers-discrimination
A huge number of teachers work in faith schools. Their salaries are paid entirely by the taxpayer. But without amendments to the equality bill, which is currently passing through the Lords, they will remain uniquely vulnerable to religious discrimination.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/17/israel-lost-tribes-pashtun
Israel is to fund a rare genetic study to determine whether there is a link between the lost tribes of Israel and the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. Historical and anecdotal evidence strongly suggests a connection, but definitive scientific proof has never been found. (A little too much credence is given here to the Lost Tribes of Israel fable.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/19/islam4uk-ban-home-secretary-afghanistan
There is a high legal threshold defined by the 2000 Terrorism Act that must be met before the government can outlaw an organisation. The fact that al-Muhajiroun and Islam4UK frequently expressed views which most people – including Muslims – find abhorrent, would never be enough in itself to trigger a ban. In our democracy, only actions can be illegal, not beliefs. (Letter from the Home Secretary)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/18/kabul-attacks-taliban-afghanistan
The guards at the central bank were already on high alert after recent intelligence warnings suggested a spectacular attack was on the cards and the man in white was behaving extremely suspiciously. (A day of Islamist murder in Kabul)
WICHITA, Kan. -- The judge overseeing the trial of the man accused of gunning down a Kansas abortion doctor is a practicing Roman Catholic who once courted the endorsement of an anti-abortion group - but who has insisted the case won't be about abortion.
Yet another great religious thinker has joined Pat Robertson in pondering the most important question about the tragedy in Haiti: whether or not the 7.0 earthquake that has killed thousands and devastated the country's infrastructure was the act of a vengeful God.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6990402.ece
The UK Independence Party is to call for a ban on the burka and the niqab — the Islamic cloak that covers women from head to toe and the mask that conceals most of the face — claiming they affront British values. The policy, which a number of European countries are also debating, is an attempt by UKIP to broaden its appeal and address the concerns of disaffected white working-class voters. (Hilarious - the Europhobes take their cue from Sarkozy of France. Also note the article features rent-a-quote totem Muslim Bunglawala the man who is so evasive on stoning for adultery.)
The Islamic Solidarity Games, designed to strengthen ties among Muslim nations, have been cancelled after a dispute between Arab countries and Iran over the name of the waterway dividing them. (Calling them Solidarity games was a hostage to fortune. The Saudi-based Islamic Solidarity Games Federation says they cancelled the sporting event, which were meant to be held in Tehran in the spring, after Iran put "Persian Gulf" on the logo. Arabs call the waterway the Arabian Gulf and many were offended by references to its other common name.
The future of the Church of England’s historic bishops’ palaces is in doubt with one in five being considered for sale over the next year. Each of the Church’s 44 diocesan bishops lives rent-free in “see houses”, which are also often used as offices and homes for staff.
A Jewish leader told the Pope on Sunday that his controversial wartime predecessor, Pius XII, should have protested more forcefully against Jews being sent to the "ovens of Auschwitz".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/18/hindu-appeal-funeral-open-cremations
A Hindu pensioner will go to the court of appeal today as part of his ongoing fight to have open-air cremations in the UK. Davender Ghai, a 71-year-old from Tyneside, wants the right to hold funeral pyres in accordance with his religious and cultural beliefs. His court appearance, before some of the country's most senior judges, is the latest development in a three-year battle to overturn a decision by Newcastle city council, which denied him a licence for a pyre because it was unlawful under the 1930 Cremation Act. (What a waste of money. Ghai is receiving legal aid for this nonsense.)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6988753.ece
A senior figure in Hizb ut-Tahrir, a hardline Islamist group that the Government keeps “under continuous review” and the Conservatives want to ban, is teaching and preaching at a top university. The Times has learnt that Reza Pankhurst, who was imprisoned in Egypt for membership of the group, is a teacher at the London School of Economics and regularly preaches to students at Friday prayers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/17/reza-pankhurst-mccarthyite-witchhunt
A postgraduate teacher accused of Islamist "infiltration" of the London School of Economics has dismissed the allegations as a "McCarthyite witch-hunt". Reza Pankhurst, who spent four years in Egyptian prisons for membership of Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), had anticipated criticism when he began studying for a PhD and delivering lectures to students. HT, which advocates the creation of a Muslim caliphate in the Arab world, is outlawed in Egypt but legal in Britain.
Schools Secretary Ed Balls has been accused of refusing to ban Islamic schools from smacking children for fear of upsetting Muslim 'sensitivities'. Mr Balls was last week urged to close a legal loophole which gives teachers in Britain's estimated 1,600 schools associated with mosques the right to smack children - even though it is banned in other schools. He refused, prompting claims that he is allowing an alleged 'culture of physical abuse' in some of the mosque schools - or madrasahs - go unchecked.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/17/islam-protest-ban
The leader of a controversial Islamist organisation has boasted that the government's decision to ban it last week has boosted its popularity. Anjem Choudary says his profile, and that of his group, Islam4UK, has soared as a result of the government's decision to proscribe it. "There's nothing like a government ban to make you popular," Choudary said. Choudary, who receives around £25,000 a year in benefits and has referred to the 9/11 hijackers as "magnificent", says he has been asked to give talks at Trinity College, Cambridge, and Leeds University. (It is now time that this exhibitionist shithead is ignored by everyone - except the security services)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/world/asia/17pstan.html?ref=world
A suicide bomber detonated his explosives on the Pakistani side of the Kashmir region on Saturday in a rare attack on the Pakistani military there. The bomber blew himself up as a Pakistani military vehicle passed, wounding two soldiers, a Pakistani military spokesman said. The attack took place near the town of Rawalakot, in the Pakistani part of Kashmir, a Himalayan region at the center of a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/16/AR2010011600848.html
Vandals threw a rum bottle at a mosque in the first attack on a Muslim house of worship after almost a dozen similar assaults on churches in Malaysia the past week, police said Saturday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60F17W20100116
Kenya will deport jailed Jamaican Muslim cleric Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal "without delay" after a protest against his detention triggered battles with police in the capital Nairobi, a minister said on Saturday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/15/AR2010011502010.html
A Pentagon review of the Fort Hood shootings has found that several officers failed to intervene in the career of the suspect, despite widespread signs of his religious radicalization and his shortcomings as a soldier.
Pope Benedict XVI's planned visit to Rome's main synagogue on Sunday has sharply divided Italian Jews, with some angered by his moves to push World War II Pope Pius XII toward sainthood. Some Jews and historians have accused Pius of not doing enough to stop the Holocaust.
Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who sparked the biggest health scare of the decade over the safety of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, has broken a second record. The hearing into the disciplinary case against him brought by the General Medical Council has become the longest and most complex in the organisation's 148-year history with costs well in excess of £1m.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/feminist-actress-attacked-in-paris-1869534.html
Police launched a terrorism investigation in Paris yesterday after two men tried to set fire to an Algerian feminist playwright and actress. The attackers sprayed Rayhana, known only by her first name, with petrol and threw a lit cigarette in her face. The petrol did not ignite, possibly because of the extreme cold. Rayhana, 45, is appearing in and directing her own play about the oppression of women in Algeria. She was walking to a theatre in a north-eastern suburb of the city when she was insulted in Arabic and attacked. A fortnight ago, she was approached in the same area by two men who said: "We know who you are, you miscreant whore. This is a warning."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8461425.stm
At least five people have died after Kenyan police opened fire at supporters of a Jamaican-born Muslim cleric notorious for preaching racial hatred. Police also fired tear gas at hundreds of stone-throwing protesters calling for Abdullah al-Faisal to be freed. Faisal is in detention in Nairobi after Kenya failed to deport him. Kenya wants to expel him citing his "terrorist history". He was jailed for four years in the UK for soliciting the murder of Jews and Hindus. (Extreme Islam doing its usual toxic work)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/15/un-human-rights-uganda-gay-legislation
The UN's top human rights official has called on Uganda to drop a proposed anti-homosexuality law that would impose the death penalty on some gay and lesbian people. Navi Pillay, the UN's high commissioner for human rights, joined a growing chorus of opposition condemning the bill as discriminatory and called for homosexuality to be decriminalised in the country.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jan/15/hate-crime-bnp-local-council-elections
Reports of racial and religiously motivated crime rose following the election of British National party councillors in several far- right strongholds, police statistics have revealed. Complaints of hate crime increased in wards in the West Midlands, London and Essex after the election of a BNP member, in spite of declines in reported hate crime in the wider police areas. In other wards race crime reportedly rose in the runup to BNP election victories, according to the figures, obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act. (A predictable effect of neo-Nazis running things)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i8fwS0T_5C1W_d9taknKZANi97CA
At least five people were killed Friday when Kenyan police fired live rounds and teargas to suppress a protest by Muslims demanding the release of a radical Jamaican cleric, police said. "Five people have died, some of them have been shot and there are those with other injuries but we cannot really tell who shot them because some of the protestors were armed and were shooting at our officers," said a senior police officer who asked not to be named.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/15/mr-gay-china-shut-down
Chinese police shut down the country's first gay pageant tonight, just one hour before the event was due to begin. Participants hoped the contest would help challenge domestic stereotypes about homosexuality, classified as a mental illness until 2001, and show the rest of the world that gay people could be accepted in China. But officers arrived at a Beijing nightclub shortly before the Mr Gay China competition started and told organisers it was not properly licensed. They are understood to have told the venue's owners that it was "a sensitive issue". (Miserable bastards)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6988753.ece
A senior figure in Hizb ut-Tahrir, a hardline Islamist group that the Government keeps “under continuous review” and the Conservatives want to ban, is teaching and preaching at a top university. The Times has learnt that Reza Pankhurst, who was imprisoned in Egypt for membership of the group, is a teacher at the London School of Economics and regularly preaches to students at Friday prayers.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6988778.ece
At universities across the country, Hizb ut-Tahrir operates freely behind a series of “front groups” holding events covertly and spreading its dangerous message of confrontation and separation. In recent years it has become more sophisticated in how it does this, circumventing attempts to clamp down on its activities.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6988737.ece
The French Government aims to outlaw the wearing of full veils on state premises and on public transport. President Sarkozy laid down future action on the burqa, as it is popularly known, on Wednesday in an attempt to end a feud in his centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and calm passions in and outside France’s large Muslim population. Following the controversy, France is backing away from an outright ban on Muslim women covering their faces.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6989046.ece
The Chief Rabbi of Rome yesterday sought to defuse a row over threats by leading Italian Jews to boycott an historic visit by Pope Benedict XVI to the city’s synagogue. Giuseppe Laras, head of the Italian Rabbinical Assembly, said he would not attend Sunday’s papal visit because it “will bring nothing good and will only benefit the more reactionary sectors of the Church”. He said Pope Benedict had offended Holocaust survivors by putting Pius XII, the controversial wartime pontiff, on the path to sainthood last month, despite allegations that he failed to raise his voice against the Holocaust. (The Chief Rabbi should now be beginning to realize that Ratzinger doesn't give a shit about other religions)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8434059.stm
For millions of people in Africa, climate change is a reality, says Greig Whitehead. However, as he explains in this week's Green Room, in religious nations such as Kenya, many believe that tackling global warming is beyond their control. Kenya is a deeply religious country. Christians, Muslims and Hindus alike assemble for regular and often lengthy worship; prayers are offered up before and after every public meeting, and even before starting a cross-country "safari", the god of one's faith is called on to bless the journey. (All that religious faith of course explains why Kenya is one of the most prosperous and harmonious countries on the planet)
A Pakistani scientist who is the only woman accused of working with the al-Qaeda leadership has demanded that Jews should be excluded from the jury at her trial in New York. Aafia Siddiqui called for jurors to undergo genetic testing in an outburst in federal court in Manhattan yesterday. (Nutter - how about a jury of 12 Jewish converts?)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/jan/14/anti-christian-violence-muslim-world
A recent wave of violent attacks on Christian worshippers and churches in countries across the Muslim world is intensifying concern that continuing military conflict, cultural friction and economic imbalances embroiling Islam and the west are fuelling a parallel rise in religious intolerance at grassroots level. (There is no place in Islam for religious tolerance any more)
Mix Palin's tendency to "go rogue" and burn bridges with her colleagues to her poor early performances on Fox, and the channel could have a disaster on its hands. (Yes, please)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/14/yemeni-clerics-jihad-warning-troops
A group of prominent Muslim clerics in Yemen warned today that they will call for jihad – holy war – if the US sends troops to fight al-Qaida in Yemen. The group of 15 clergymen includes the highly influential Sheikh Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, whom the US has branded a spiritual mentor of Osama bin Laden but who is also courted by the Yemeni government.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8900435
In a country whose national emblem is Marianne, a bare-chested woman, there is deepening concern over the all-encompassing garb, often black or brown and worn with gloves, attire typical in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. Here, it is widely viewed as a gateway to radical Islam, an attack on gender equality and other French values, and a gnawing away at the nation's secular foundation.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/14/goel-ratzon-harem-police-arrest
Israeli police have arrested a self-styled Jewish sage and disciplinarian who ran a tightly controlled cult of at least 17 women with whom they believe he fathered dozens of children. Goel Ratzon, whose name means "saviour" in Hebrew, is now on remand in a Tel Aviv jail awaiting a court appearance.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6988614.ece
Residents of Tel Aviv’s quiet Hatikva neighbourhood were shocked to discover a self-styled Jewish sage living in their midst, with a harem of 30 women kept as "slaves" in a series of squalid apartments. Goel Ratzon, a 60-year-old guru with flowing white hair and beard, is accused of fathering 37 children since 1993 with his “wives” and his own daughters. Referred to by local media as “Israel’s Josef Fritzl”, Mr Ratzon is under arrest on suspicion of incest and sexual abuse.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/14/uganda-backpedals-on-gay-law
Uganda has indicated it will bow to international pressure and amend draconian anti-homosexual legislation that includes the death penalty for HIV-positive people convicted of having gay sex. Breaking his silence on the controversial bill – which was put forward by a member of the ruling party – Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni, said it had become a "foreign policy issue" and needed further consultation before being voted on in parliament.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/14/sarkozy-full-veil-ban
Nicolas Sarkozy last night threw his weight behind moves to ban the full Islamic veil in France, calling for an "unambiguous" parliamentary resolution against an item of clothing he said was "not welcome" in a country which valued sexual equality.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/jan/14/islam4uk-anjem-choudary-free-speech
Alan Johnson's decision to ban Islam4UK has led to many predictable and intelligent responses of derision from the left, notably at Index on Censorship and Our Kingdom. I've criticised various organisations, including Muslim ones, for not embracing free speech enough in the past. But here are the reasons why I believe it's right for Islam4UK to be banned.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/14/afghanistan-market-suicide-bombing
A suicide bomber blew himself up in a busy market district in central Afghanistan today, killing at least 16 people and injuring more than a dozen, provincial officials said. The attack happened in the town of Dihrawud, in Uruzgan province, in an area packed with shoppers and traders who had gathered for a weekly bazaar. The provincial governor, Asadullah Hamdan, said 16 people were killed and 13 wounded. The police chief, General Juma Gul Himat, said the dead included three children. Several shops were destroyed. (An Islamist fanatic doing what they do best - murdering fellow Muslims)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6985561.ece
A political endgame in which there would be dialogue with at least some elements of the Taleban is highly likely. Rarely are insurgencies defeated only on the battlefield and while the popularity of the Taleban is difficult to assess, it is clear that in parts of southern Afghanistan they represent a significant chunk of the Pashtun population.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6985866.ece
Malaysian Sikhs have become the latest group to be dragged into a violent controversy about the use of the word Allah, with the stoning of Sikh temple following a series of arson attacks on Christian churches. Vandals damaged a mirror, but caused no injuries, when they threw stones into the courtyard of the temple in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur late last night. The attackers have not been identified, but they appear to be Muslims angry at the use by other religions of the word Allah as the Malaysian word for God.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/jan/12/pets-second-coming-rapture-atheists
Post-Rapture Tribulationists in the United States have a possible answer. Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, USA, is staffed by avowed atheists, also ineligible for Rapture. For a one-time charge of $110, they pledge to adopt your pet if you are Raptured within the next 10 years. Founded in June 2009, they now cover 22 states.
Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, has said that children attending faith schools should be taught that homosexuality is "normal and harmless". In a pitch for the “pink vote,” he called on all the parties to prove that they supported full equality for homosexuals, and accused David Cameron, the Conservative leader, of being untrustworthy on the issue. The Liberal Democrats support measures forcing teachers, including those working in faith schools, to implement policies to combat homophobic bullying, with lessons teaching that same-sex relationships are “normal”. (Clegg grows spine - a very welcome development)
The Vatican's newspaper on Tuesday accused Italians of being racist in the wake of riots sparked by tensions between locals and African immigrants in southern Italy. In an unusually forthright attack, the Holy See's official mouthpiece, L'Osservatore Romano, said the violence of local residents towards the migrant farm labourers had revealed a "mute and savage hatred towards another skin colour that we thought we had overcome". (It's still OK to bash gays though)
Durpati Nepali hides her face in shame as she recalls how she was forced to return to work as a prostitute after her husband was killed during Nepal's 10-year civil war. The 35-year-old mother of five says she resorted to prostitution - an occupation she first took up aged just 14 - in desperation after the food stall she set up failed because customers were abusive and refused to pay. Nepali was victimised because she is a Badi, a caste of so-called "untouchables" living mainly in western Nepal whose women have traditionally earned their living as sex workers. (Nepal, and India, need to rid themselves of the disgusting caste system.)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/11/iphone_health/
Arthur Firstenberg is suing his neighbour for $530,000 for refusing to switch off her iPhone, claiming that the electromagnetic fields generated are destroying his health. (Either an ignorant jerk or a money-grubbing one - or both)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/feedarticle/8896821
Faith schools should be required to have anti-homophobic bullying policies in place, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has said. Gay couples should also be given the symbolic right to describe themselves as "married" rather than civil partners, he said. Mr Clegg made a pitch for the so-called 'pink vote' as the parties continue to manoeuvre ahead of a general election that is expected to take place in May. He said faith schools must ensure they do not become "asylums of insular religious identity".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/13/abortion-doctor-killer-court-defence
The tense standoff in America between extreme anti-abortion protesters and doctors who provide abortions has been ruptured by a judge's ruling in Kansas that the killer of a doctor will be allowed to argue in court that he believed he was justified in trying to save unborn children. (A worrying development. The term "children" is wholly inaccurate. This will only encourage more murderers)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/11/pakistan-militant-violence-death-toll
A record number of Pakistani civilians and security forces died in militant violence last year as the country reeled from an onslaught of Taliban suicide bombings that propelled it into the ranks of the world's most perilous places. Pakistan saw 3,021 deaths in terrorist attacks in in 2009, up 48% on the year before, according to a new report by the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS), an Islamabad-based defence thinktank. Researchers counted a total of 12,600 violent deaths across the country in 2009, 14 times more than in 2006. (Nearly all Muslims killing Muslims - some religion of peace)
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20100111/tod-hello-lujah-british-church-holds-ble-6058bda.html
A British church held an unusual ceremony Monday when a vicar blessed the mobile phones of workers in the City of London financial district. The special service at the St. Lawrence Jewry church, which dates back to 1136, was attended by around 80 people who held their phones and other gadgets in the air while vicar David Parrott blessed them. (Infantile nonsense)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6982698.ece
Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Najib Razak, stepped in to defuse a violent religious controversy over the use by Christians of the word Allah, as further attacks were reported on churches after a spate of arson incidents last week.
In Africa 38 out of 53 countries have criminalised consensual homosexual sex. Matuba Mahlatjie is gay, African and married, which is unheard of outside liberal South Africa, because the continent's governments are clamping down on homosexuality. Gay pride parades, same-sex marriages and the famously gay-friendly city of Cape Town puts South Africa way ahead of countries such as nearby Malawi, where a gay couple was thrown in jail this month for trying to marry. But scratch the surface and sexual intolerance and hate crimes still riddle the continent's powerhouse.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/11/british-muslims-yemen-allege-torture
A group of British Muslims who were detained and allegedly tortured last month while travelling in Yemen say their interrogators demanded detailed information about mosques in London and their associates in the UK. The three young men and a teenage boy were held for almost five weeks after being dragged off a bus outside the capital, Sana'a, where they had enrolled in an Arabic language institute a few days earlier. (If true this only confirms that Yemen is a dangerous and violent country. Why go there? There are other places these people could have learned Arabic yet they went there.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/10/bullied-clergy-toxic-parish-vicar
It sounds like a low-budget thriller. A vicar and his wife are hurriedly retrieving belongings from an old rectory when a face appears at a window. Other figures are spotted outside and a sinister whirring noise, which could be a drill, is heard. Actually, it was a bizarre twist in a long-running battle in a group of Worcestershire parishes that a union is citing as an example of the "workplace bullying" now affecting some clergy. (This is being called "toxic parish" syndrome)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/10/islam-channel-radical-cleric-awlaki
A London-based satellite broadcaster that describes itself as "the voice of authority for Muslims in the UK" has been accused of giving a platform to Anwar al-Awlaki, the extremist cleric with alleged links to al-Qaida and to the man charged with trying to blow up a transatlantic jet on Christmas Day. The Islam Channel, a free-to-air English-language channel that claims to be "a trustworthy source to the two million-plus population of Muslims in the UK", last year carried adverts for a box set of DVDs of Awlaki's sermons and for at least two events at which the cleric was due to be the star speaker via a video link.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/09/iris-robinson-expelled-dup-northenr-ireland
In an attempt to limit the damage caused by the Iris Robinson scandal, the Democratic Unionist Party moved today to expel her from the party. Robinson will also leave her Westminster and assembly seats early this week as the DUP punishes her for the furore over her toyboy lover and the £50,000 loan she secured for him. (The homophobic harpy gets her comeuppance)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8441813.stm
A BBC investigation into human sacrifice in Uganda has heard first-hand accounts which suggest ritual killings of children may be more common than authorities have acknowledged. One witch-doctor led us to his secret shrine and said he had clients who regularly captured children and brought their blood and body parts to be consumed by spirits.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8445844.stm
Kenya has deported to The Gambia a Jamaican-born Muslim cleric notorious for preaching racial hatred, Kenya's immigration minister says. Abdullah al-Faisal was arrested last week and there have been conflicting reports about his whereabouts. "We had problems deporting him because many countries, including the US, declined to have him even on transit," the minister, Otieno Kajwang, said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8448084.stm
Egyptian police say they have arrested three suspects in a drive-by shooting that killed six Coptic Christians and one security official. The shooting came as worshippers left a church in Naj Hammadi, southern Egypt after a midnight mass on Coptic Christmas Eve on 7 January.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8448197.stm
A Ugandan government minister has said that a proposed law which includes the death penalty for some homosexual acts is "not necessary". Aston Kajara, minister of state for investments, added that the government might put pressure on the MP behind the Anti-Homosexuality Bill to withdraw it. The bill submitted last October sparked international condemnation and prompted threats to cut aid to Uganda.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8424640.stm
After the introduction of flights on Sundays to the Cook island of Aitutaki, John Pickford examines how the predominantly Christian island is reacting to its Sabbath being disrupted. "The sanctity of the Sabbath is of a higher value than the dollar," declared the protesters' banner.
President Barack Obama is under fire over claims that the Christmas Day underwear bomber was "singing like a canary" until he was treated as an ordinary criminal and advised of his right to silence.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/08/british-woman-arrested-dubai
A British woman who made a rape complaint in Dubai has been arrested for having illegal sex with her fiance, according to reports. The woman, a 23-year-old from London, said she was raped by a waiter in a luxury hotel after celebrating her engagement to her 44-year-old boyfriend, also from London. But when she reported the alleged rape to police in the Middle Eastern state she and her boyfriend were arrested for having sex outside marriage and illegal drinking outside licensed premises. (Never mind the rape this woman is obviously immoral. What a barbaric bloody system.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/jan/09/hijab-niqab-kuwait-egypt
It's not only in secular Europe where societies are trying to grapple with the highly emotive question of Islamic dress. Following the victory of four women in Kuwait's parliamentary elections, Islamists attempted to prevent two of them from taking their seats in the house for not wearing the hijab. After a legal battle, the country's constitutional court ruled that the women in question were not obliged to wear the Islamic attire.
http://www.alternet.org/story/144942/is_an_anti-semite_overseeing_the_holocaust_museum
Labeled an anti-Semite by at least one fellow professor, historian Marek Jan Chodakiewicz is a board member with oversight of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
http://www.alternet.org/story/144989/does_atheism_offer_as_much_comfort_in_death_as_religion
The comfort of religion doesn't eradicate grief. And many people would much rather believe in no afterlife at all than an afterlife determined by a sadistic god. (Greta Christina article)
As the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops renews its offensive on the anti-abortion language in the heath-care legislation soon to be finalized by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, four of those bishops appear to have given their seal of approval to a group whose leader gloated over the killing of Dr. George Tiller, a gynecologist who performed late-term abortions in Kansas, and called on anti-abortion activists to next "get" Dr. LeRoy Carhart, who performs similar services at his Nebraska clinic.
Ginkgo biloba, the herb taken by many people to improve memory and ward off dementia, has no effect on the mental abilities of ageing people, a new study shows.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/08/robinsons-allegations-cash-loan-lover
The political ceasefire over the personal and financial troubles of Northern Ireland's "first family" broke this morning with opponents calling for an inquiry into fresh allegations against the Robinsons. Twenty-four hours after an outpouring of sympathy for the first minister, Peter Robinson, over his revelation that his wife had an affair, he now faces demands to explain allegations that he did not inform the authorities about a £50,000 loan to Iris Robinson's teenage lover. (The homophobic harpy and her spouse get deeper in the shit - good)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/08/malaysia-churches-firebomb-attack
Three Malaysian churches were attacked with firebombs, causing extensive damage to one, as Muslims pledged on Friday to prevent Christians from using the word "Allah," escalating religious tensions in the multiracial country. Many Malay Muslims, who make up 60% of the population, are incensed by a recent high court decision to overturn a ban on Roman Catholics using Allah as a translation for God in the Malay-language edition of their main newspaper, the Herald. (Illustrating that Islam is an intolerant and violent religion. No change there then)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/07/french-muslim-veil-ban-cope
A French MP says he will soon put forward legislation that would make wearing face-covering Muslim veils in public an offence subject to a €750 fine. Jean-Francois Cope, who heads the governing UMP party in the National Assembly, said in an interview with Le Figaro that the ban on wearing burkas and other face-shrouding veils would extend to all public spaces, including the street.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/jan/08/hidesously-diverse-britain-student-islam
Two Google alerts told James Hodgson that things would get bumpy. Life as a student union activities officer at University College London was ever eventful. Clearly this was different. Bad enough that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Detroit bomber, was a former student at UCL. Worse that Abdulmutallab was for a year president of the Islamic Society, which exists under the umbrella of the students' union and falls within James's area of responsibility.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/08/karachi-blast-kills-suspected-militants
At least seven suspected militants were killed today in a blast apparently caused by explosives stored at a house in Pakistan's commercial capital, Karachi. Police said the cause of the explosion in Baldia – a poor, mostly ethnic Pashtun neighbourhood and suspected Taliban stronghold – was unclear but the explosives are believed to have gone off accidentally. TV footage showed police seizing guns, suicide vests and grenades from the site. (What a tragedy...)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/07/airline-bombing-plot-alqaida-cleric
An influential Yemeni cleric, once thought untouchable by the authorities despite his preaching in support of al-Qaida, including to several of the 9/11 hijackers, tonight appeared to be a target for arrest after a senior minister suggested the US-born cleric had met the man accused of the attempted Christmas Day airliner bombing.
There is only one thing worse than being talked about. Especially when you are the leader of a provincial Islamist group that has global pretentions. So it wasn't surprising when the publicity hungry Anjem Choudary announced his plan to parade 500 empty coffins through Wootton Basset to symbolise the thousands of Muslims killed 'by the oppressive US and UK regimes' in the war in Afghanistan. The date has been cleverly left unspecified. His deft media touch suggests he has planned his communication strategy in far more detail than his blueprint for installing the Caliphate (date also unspecified). (Exhibitionist is the word)
A leading Catholic cardinal has said Europeans only have themselves to blame for allowing Islam to "conquer" the continent. Czech Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, the Archbishop of Prague, said Muslims were well placed to fill the spiritual void "created as Europeans systematically empty the Christian content of their lives". "Europe will pay dear for having left its spiritual foundations and that this is the last period that will not continue for decades when it may still have a chance to do something about it," he said.
Witch doctors in Uganda have admitted their part in human sacrifice amid concerns that the practice is spreading in the African country. One man said he had clients who had captured children and taken their blood and body parts to his shrine, while another confessed to killing at least 70 people including his own son. The latter has now given up the ritual and is campaigning to stamp it out, according to BBC News. The African country's government claimed human sacrifice was on the increase.
Cuba's high priests of the Afro-American Santeria religion announced a vision of massive social upheaval and internal conflict in 2010. "We can reach all we aspire to, but we can also destroy it all. The possibilities in 2010 are greater than last year's. It all rests in our hands," Lazaro Cuesta, babalawo, a Santeria priest, said. The country's leading 1,000 babalawos predicted global turmoil, including "coup d'etats," "sudden changes in political systems," "betrayal and usurpation" among top government officials, as well as falling farm and livestock production, and the "breakup of agreements... wars and military interventions."
Pradeep Fuloriya points at the track marks showing where, five years ago, a bulldozer nearly succeeded in flattening the Hindu shrine for which he cares. "It could move no farther," the 27-year-old priest boasted as he recalled how crowds of devotees forced the machine to retreat from the Shiv Shakti Mochan Temple in Delhi. The illegally built shrine, constructed in 1968 around a banyan tree, was meant to be demolished on official orders but after the protests it was allowed to remain, as long as it did not encroach on any more public space.
Thousands of Coptic Christians clashed with police in southern Egypt on Thursday during a funeral procession for seven people shot dead as they left a Christmas service hours earlier. The protesters pelted cars with stones and set fire to ambulances in the town of Nag Hamadi, 40 miles from the ancient ruins of Luxor. The riots were sparked by a drive-by shooting. Three men sprayed automatic gunfire into a crowd leaving a midnight Mass to mark the Coptic Christmas.
The alleged Detroit plane bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was recruited by al-Qaeda in London, a top Yemeni official has claimed. Rshad al-Alimi, Yemen's Deputy Prime Minister for Defence and Security, said the suspect met radical Muslim preacher Anwar al-Awlaki after first making contact with him while he was in Britain. Mr Alimi told a news conference: "The information provided to us is that Umar Farouk joined al Qaeda in London."
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/01/06/afghan.terrorists.killed/
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Fourteen suspected terrorists died Tuesday night when the bus they rigged with explosives blew up prematurely, police said. (Oh dear, how tragic)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/jan/06/university-heads-tackle-extremism
Vice-chancellors are to set up a panel to examine how universities can take action to prevent violent extremism while protecting freedom of speech. The move comes after former University College London (UCL) student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up a plane bound for Detroit.