OVO

Christianity in the News is an OVO series that never ends [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] and etc.  However, I’m going to turn my readers over to my sources for a while and let you get your information from the same places I’m getting it.

• Christian Child Abuse. “For over forty years, delusional and lying Christians have accused Satanists of committing all manner of atrocities toward children without any evidence. This is ironic considering the pervasive occurrence of prolonged systematic child abuse among the various Christian churches and denominations, and among others abusing positions of trust in the Jewish and Islamic Synagogues and Mosques. Enough hypocrisy. We all know who the sick, deranged child abusers really are: the sanctimonious frauds of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic traditions.”
• First Amendment Law Prof Blog. “A Member of the Law Professor Blogs Network.”
• The Freethinker. “The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of irreligious cartoons in the 1882 Christmas edition, Foote was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to 12 months hard labour. Despite this setback the magazine has remained in print ever since.”
• Religion Clause. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof… – US Constitution, Amendment 1.”

Goodness knows there are plenty more resources and stories I could direct you to, but these are the best.

Reuters, Saudi court upholds child rapist crucifixion ruling:

A Saudi court of cassation upheld a ruling to behead and crucify a 22-year-old man convicted of raping five children and leaving one of them to die in the desert.

Real Courage, World Gender Gap Worst in Islamic Nations:

Survey Shows Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen, Egypt, Turkey at Bottom of List.

Mail Online, Asylum seeker blackmailed Muslim friend by threatening to show devout family photos of her wearing Western clothes:

Emal Ismaeli, 34, and Joanna Richards, 22, demanded more than £7,000 in a two-month terror campaign against the woman, identified only as Miss X. They threatened to confront her traditional Islamic family – including her husband-to-be – with photographs of her in Western clothing with her arms around a man, and with a videotape of her dancing.

FOXNews.com, Arizona Man Runs Down Daughter For Becoming ‘Westernized’:

Police in a Phoenix suburb are looking for a father suspected of running down his daughter because she was becoming too “Westernized” and was not living according to their traditional Iraqi values.

NYTimes.com, Held by the Taliban. Part Three – The World of Young Militants:

Our guards spent their days there listening to radio broadcasts and shouting “God is great!” at reports of the deaths of Afghan and American soldiers.

Metafilter, “The Kindest Cut”:

A Colorado surgeon is helping to restore sensation, biological structure and self-esteem to victims of female genital mutilation.

All articles continue at links.  Part of a series that never ends [1][2][3][4][5][6] and etc.

In Roland Emmerich’s upcoming global demolition derby movie 2012, the director gets to indulge his passion for destroying landmarks on a world scale. In 2012, he takes on landmarks in Rome, Rio de Janeiro and, yes, Washington, but there is one place even he couldn’t bring himself to obliterate. We caught up with Emmerich in Jackson Hole, Wyo., where he told us why he chose various landmarks to lay waste in 2012, and about the one that got away. [...] Emmerich said that he got approached by people who wanted their landmarks destroyed, such as the 101 Tower in Taipei, the world’s tallest building. But Emmerich was thinking of something even more explosive: the Kaaba, the cube-shaped building at the heart of Mecca, the focus of prayers and the Islamic pilgrimage called the Hajj; it is one of Islam’s holiest sites. Really? “Well, I wanted to do that, I have to admit,” Emmerich says. “But my co-writer Harald said I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie. And he was right. … We have to all … in the Western world … think about this. You can actually … let … Christian symbols fall apart, but if you would do this with [an] Arab symbol, you would have … a fatwa, and that sounds a little bit like what the state of this world is. So it’s just something which I kind of didn’t [think] was [an] important element, anyway, in the film, so I kind of left it out.”

Article continues. The Kaaba is a Muslim site, not (necessarily) an Arab site.  Some people will use any word except “Muslim” in describing Muslims out of fear of being killed offending.  Do people really get killed for making films perceived as sacreligious by Muslims? Ask Theo Van Gogh. Ask Maurice Williams and ask Officer Mack Cantrell.  It’s prudent to avoid doing things that might get you killed.  But what is prudent and what is right are not always the same thing.  In this case, a few moments of computer animation did not occur out of fear that the filmmakers might be killed by moral and intellectual runts who can’t tell the difference between pretend time and the real world.  What must be done to let filmmakers feel free to offend, inform or inspire?  Or is dhimmitude what the future holds for us all?

A man has been told he can take his employer to tribunal on the grounds he was unfairly dismissed because of his views on climate change. Tim Nicholson, 42, of Oxford, was made redundant in 2008 by Grainger Plc in Didcot, as head of sustainability. He said his beliefs had contributed to his dismissal and in March a judge ruled he could use employment equality laws to claim it was unfair. But the firm appealed against this as it believed his views were political.

[...] His solicitor, Shah Qureshi, said: “Essentially what the judgment says is that a belief in man-made climate change and the alleged resulting moral imperative is capable of being a philosophical belief and is therefore protected by the 2003 religion or belief regulations.” Mr Nicholson was given permission in March to make his claim under the Employment Equality (Religion and Belief) Regulations 2003 that covers “any religion, religious belief, or philosophical belief”. But the ruling was challenged by Grainger plc, the UK’s biggest residential landlord, on the grounds that green views were not the same as religious or philosophical beliefs. Mr Nicholson, who said his opinions affect his whole lifestyle, claimed his views had put him at odds with other senior staff at Grainger and been ignored by managers.

Article continues.  Perhaps we should all drop some Deeply Held Beliefs and Sincere Feelings in our daily conversation at work in these difficult economic times.  Then when we’re laid off we can say it was a case of religious discrimination.

Wikipedia, Theo van Gogh:

Theodoor “Theo” van Gogh was a Dutch film director, film producer, columnist, author and actor. He was the great-grandson of Theo van Gogh, who was the brother of artist Vincent van Gogh. Van Gogh worked with writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali to produce the film Submission, which analyzed the treatment of women in Islam. Some claimed the film was critical of Islam. On 2 November 2004 he was murdered by Mohammed Bouyeri, a Dutch Muslim. The last film he completed before his death, 06/05, is a fictional version of the assassination of politician Pim Fortuyn.

Wikipedia, Pim Fortuyn:

Wilhelmus Simon Petrus “Pim” Fortuyn was a charismatic Dutch politician, author, columnist, public servant, sociologist and professor who formed his own party, Pim Fortuyn List (Lijst Pim Fortuyn or LPF). He was assassinated during the 2002 Dutch national election campaign by militant animal rights activist Volkert van der Graaf, who claimed in court he had murdered Fortuyn to stop him from exploiting Muslims as “scapegoats” and targeting “the weak parts of society to score points” in seeking political power.

Wikipedia, Ayaan Hirsi Ali:

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Dutch intellectual, feminist activist, writer, and politician. She is the estranged daughter of the Somali scholar, politician, and revolutionary opposition leader Hirsi Magan Isse. She is a prominent critic of Islam, and her screenplay for Theo Van Gogh’s movie Submission led to death threats. Since van Gogh’s assassination by a Muslim extremist in 2004, she has lived in seclusion under the protection of Dutch authorities. When she was eight, her family left Somalia for Saudi Arabia, then Ethiopia, and eventually settled in Kenya. She sought and obtained political asylum in the Netherlands in 1992, under circumstances that later became the center of a political controversy. In 2003 she was elected a member of the House of Representatives (the lower house of the Dutch parliament), representing the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). A political crisis surrounding the potential stripping of her Dutch citizenship led to her resignation from the parliament, and led indirectly to the fall of the second Balkenende cabinet. Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in Somalia. Her father, Hirsi Magan Isse, was a prominent member of the Somali Salvation Democratic Front and a leading figure in the Somalian Revolution. Shortly after she was born, her father was imprisoned due to his opposition to Somalia’s Siad Barre government. Hirsi Ali’s father had studied abroad and was opposed to female genital cutting, but while he was imprisoned, Hirsi Ali’s grandmother had the traditional procedure performed on five-year-old Hirsi Ali.

Wikipedia, Religious Views on Female Genital Cutting:

Muslim scholars have often been divided on whether it should be considered as a non-religious traditional custom, or whether it should be specifically condemned by religious authorities.

Today is the anniversary of the death of Theo van Gogh, who was murdered for a film written by Ayaan Ali and who had just finished a film on Pim Fortyun.  Two ways of problem solving are on display here.  In one, people write scripts, make films and are elected to public office.  In the other, you kill people.  One is the way of the West, and one is the way of the Muslim world.  Which way do you favor?  If you’re having trouble deciding, look at the primary evidence.  Start by watching the film Submission.  Then look at this photograph of Theo van Gogh’s body, shot multiple times, head nearly cut off, stabbed repeatedly, with Muslim prayers pinned to his chest by his murderer’s knives.  Consider whether you think scholars should have nuanced debates on the merits of forced clitoridectomies for girls or… not.  I hope these comparisons brings you mental and moral clarity.