From Christian Today

The Premier Christian Media Group and Christianity Magazine have joined forces to call on the BBC to give a clearer definition of the opinions of Christian leaders. The two Christian groups have criticised the BBC for allowing an individual Christian’s opinion be perceived by the public as the views of a majority of Christians.

In a press release the call has been stated to have been prompted after Stephen Green, the National Director of the “fundamentalist movement” Christian Voice was asked to attend the BBC’s political programme Question Time.

In light of the BBC’s reputation of news coverage, the press release expressed fears that the general public would take the BBC’s decision to bring Green on the show as evidence that his views were the opinions of a majority of Christians.

In an open letter to the BBC, the Chief Executive of Premier Christian Media Group, Peter Kerridge said, There are currently 41 million British citizens that consider themselves Christians (according to UK 2001 Census). Around 4 million of these attend church (according to Religious Trends 2005). Various organisations seek to represent practising Christians such as Churches Together and the Evangelical Alliance who speak on behalf of millions while the Christian Voice, is a fundamentalist Christian organisation with only an estimated 1500 followers (Premier state that the Christian Voice were unwilling to divulge membership numbers, but at a recent protest against Jerry Springer; The Opera 1500 supporters were present).

Kerridge continued, Stephen Green has a right to speak freely about his views and the views of Christian Voice, but we believe it is only fair that the public be made aware these are not the views of the majority of Christians in the UK.

Kerridge continued, From previous experience, the BBC are aware of Stephen Green's reputation for making inflammatory comments and we are concerned that the motivation to have him as a panellist on Question Time is to provoke further provocative and extreme comments which BBC viewers may assume represent mainstream Christian opinion.

We believe that the BBC and the Mentorn Television Corporation have a clear responsibility to make sure viewers appreciate that Stephen Green and Christian Voice are a small group and not necessarily representative of the Christian community as a whole.

From Christian Today

The Vatican has demanded that more weight be afforded for churches and Christians in the arrangement of Europe. The Vatican’s “foreign minister” Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, said at the weekend, that Europe’s Christians must work against the pressures to push faith as a private affair into the social background, reported the Swiss Livenet.

Archbishop Giovanni stressed the enormous contribution of the church to the social and cultural life of Europe in the areas of health and education: It would therefore be political err if Europe were to reduce the phenomena of ‘church’ or ‘Christians’ to an internal aspect of human experience, and thereby to a purely private affair.

Lajolo urged that Christians were underrepresented in political committees, the media and in cultural institutions, despite that four fifths of EU citizens are Christians.

The Archbishop said that they are at best tolerated, if not completely pushed back, as if they do not fit to a modern, secularised culture or as if their convictions were not “politically correct”.

Archbishop Lajolo urged that Christians should not allow their potential to influence to be simply pushed out or ignored under the pretext of the so-called Laizity of political society.

There are claimed to be around 368 million Christians currently living in Europe.

...those that speak in his name certainly aren't

From The Guardian

One of Britain's leading conceptual artists has accused the Tate gallery of 'cowardice' after it banned one of his major works for fear of offending some Muslims after the London terrorist bombings.

John Latham's God Is Great consists of a large sheet of thick glass with copies of Islam, Christianity and Judaism's most sacred texts - the Koran, Bible and Talmud - apparently embedded within its surface.

The work was due to go on display last week in an exhibition dedicated to Latham at London's Tate Britain, but gallery officials took the unprecedented decision to veto it because of political and religious sensitivities.

Latham, a star of the Sixties avant garde and maverick role model to a generation of Young British Artists, is so dismayed by the ban that he last night called on Tate Britain to relinquish God Is Great, which he made more than 10 years ago, from its permanent collection and return it to him. The civil rights organisation Liberty also condemned the gallery's decision.

Tate Britain says that it had to take the 'difficult decision' to avoid its motives being misunderstood given the attacks, which killed 52 people in July, and the present political climate. However, it admitted it had not consulted the Metropolitan Police or the Muslim Council of Britain.

Last night Latham who insists that the piece is not anti-Islamic, told The Observer: Tate Britain have shown cowardice over this. I think it's a daft thing to do because if they want to help the militants, this is the way to do it. It's not even a gesture as strong as censorship: it's just a loss of nerve on the part of the administration.

In the exhibition an innocuous sculpture has taken the place of God Is Great, which is in storage at Tate Britain.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, supported the artist. We share his concern,' she said. 'I don't know what precise thought processes were going on at the Tate but I am concerned about the signal this sends at a time when we see free speech quite significantly under threat. I think that after 7 July we need this kind of artistic expression and political expression and discourse and disagreement more than ever, which is why this is worrying. Is three holy books in a piece of glass going to incite controversy? Frankly, whether it does or doesn't, controversy is what we have in a flourishing democracy.

Stephen Deuchar, director of Tate Britain, defended the gallery's decision to hold back the piece. The artist and curator discussed the exhibition and wanted to include it. We had every intention of doing so but in the light of events in London in July we felt we should exercise a little caution, so we altered our plans towards the end of August. It was a very difficult decision, but we made it due to the exceptional circumstances of this summer and in the light of opinions that we value regarding religious sensitivities.

From the BBC

Uzma Saeed is campaigning for the repeal of Pakistan's controversial Hudood laws, which rule that all extra-marital sex is illegal.

"Hudood laws are a tool in the hands of men - with these laws they can rape women and be totally unaccountable. Under Hudood if a woman makes a rape allegation she must provide four pious male witnesses or face a charge of adultery herself.

So a woman is in the ridiculous position of having to produce four Muslim adult male eyewitnesses, men who just stood there and watched.  If sex by force is not proved, this woman can be charged with "zina" - sex outside of marriage.

About 60% of women in our jails have been imprisoned as a result of Hudood laws. I know many cases where a husband has wanted to marry again and so accused his wife of illicit relations with another man. A repeal is essential.

I'm working on a legislative watch programme - the first of its kind in Pakistan. We are lobbying parliamentarians, media and political parties to raise awareness.

We are engaging village mullahs in this process. Rather than going on the defensive against extreme religious groups, we are playing on their own pitch.

Many religious scholars are producing research which says that these laws are not in accordance with the Holy Koran. They are political tools to control women in our country".

Based on articles from AVN

Several churches throughout the state of California have announced that they will take part in an event called “National Porn Sunday,” which is intended to raise concerns and start a dialog around the issues surrounding “the problem of pornography.” The one-day, nation-wide event, scheduled for Oct. 9, will attack “America’s dirty little secret” through what is termed an “explosive” program designed for churches.

Mike Foster and Craig Gross, the nutters and founders of XXXchurch.com, will officially announce the event on Monday when they drive their Porn Sunday Message Mobile—a 20 x 10-foot rolling billboard—down Sunset Boulevard in front of the Hollywood Hustler store.

Foster and Gross have stirred up a bit of a fuss with their Web site, and their program for Porn Sunday will follow suit with their offering of the National Porn Sunday Kit, which features books, software, Web sites, speakers, access to the best recovery facilities in the country and, of course, Foster and Gross’s feature-length documentary film Missionary Positions. It is scheduled for wide release following Porn Sunday.

We have to respond to this devastating problem, Gross posits in a statement released Friday. We are sick of watching people lose everything to porn, and the church needs to lead this effort. We hope National Porn Sunday will become the launching pad for the discussion about pornography.

It is expected that seven churches throughout the state of California, as well as 70-plus churches across the world, will participate in National Porn Sunday.

From News From Russia

With Sania Mirza, a national tennis hero after her recent success in the US Open, is now surrounded by an unprecedented security apparatus after Islamic groups threatened her over her tennis skirts, which they say "offended" the religious sentiments of Muslims.

Hundreds of uniformed security agents and plain-clothes officers including women, were stationed at the Netaji stadium in the Indian city of Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta) where she competed in the Sunfeast Open international tennis tournament.

As well as private security staff, the Muslim tennis star has also been assured of 24-hour police protection, according to a local police executive. Anywhere she goes she will also be followed by a commando, ready to shield her against any possible actions by militant organisation, Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Hind or other Islamic groups that have threatened Mirza for her on-court apparel.

Certain Islamic leaders have said that if she showed up in her usual tennis skirts that leave her legs uncovered together with her tight-fitting t-shirts, she will be prevented from playing.

A women should wear a veil, without showing her hands or feet, according Maulana Siddidullah Chowdhry, the secretary of the Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Hind group, and in Islam, there is not specific indication as to what should be worn to the market or when playing.

Police in the state say that they are not taking any chances this time after the incident some months ago in which the Bangladeshi writer, Taslima Nasreen, was stopped by such groups as she was addressing a seminar on fundamentalism.

From Mediawatch-UK

Commenting about the availability of hardcore on 3G phones, John Beyer, director of mediawatch-uk said: The complete answer to this problem is to strengthen the law against pornography so that much of the imagery that is now available becomes illegal in line with Parliament’s intention in the 1959 Obscene Publications Act.  The 3G mobile phones make more urgent the need for an international agreement on unacceptable Internet content.

From The Herald Tribune

With the advent of advanced cellular networks that deliver full-motion video from the Internet - and the latest wave of phones featuring large, bright color screens - the U.S. pornography industry is eyeing the cellphone, like the videocassette recorder before it, as a lucrative new vehicle for distribution.

In recent months, that prospect has produced a cadre of entrepreneurs hoping to follow the lead of counterparts in Europe and Asia, where consumers already spend tens of millions of dollars a year on phone-based pornography.

The major American cellular carriers have so far been adamant in their refusal to sell pornography from the same content menus on which they sell ring tones and video games. But there are signs that they may soften their stance. The cellular industry's major trade group is drafting ratings for mobile content - akin to those for movies or video games - signaling that phones, too, will be a subject of viewer discretion.

Roger Entner, a wireless-industry analyst for Ovum, a market research firm, said the emergence of content ratings, coupled with easier use of the Internet on phones, made it inevitable that phone-based pornography would become a fixture. It has every component that has proven conducive to the consumption of adult entertainment - privacy, easy access, and, on top of it, mobility.

For the carriers, it is a tricky proposition. Offering pornography would stir a tempest over indecency and possible pressure from regulators or Congress. But conceding the field to third parties, capable of reaching consumers through Web browsers in phones, would leave millions of dollars on the table.

At present, sales of pornography over mobile phones in the United States amount to virtually nothing. But cellphone commerce is on the rise, with sales of ring tones alone expected to reach $453 million this year, according to the Yankee Group, a research firm. The company estimates that by 2009, sales of pornography for phones will hit $196 million, still meager compared with a projected $1.2 billion for ring tones.

But the likelihood that pornography will be increasingly accessible by phone has children's advocacy groups mobilizing. This month, the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, a Christian nonprofit group, met with leaders of the wireless industry to voice concern that phones could provide minors with all-too-easy access to inappropriate material. The Internet hit us blindsided, said Jack Samad, a senior vice president with the advocacy group, referring to the slow reaction of children's advocacy groups to the advent of online pornography. We are attempting to stay ahead of the curve with regard to mobile phones, pressing cellphone carriers to give parents the ability to block access.

The Federal Communications Commission has its own concerns, said David Fiske, a spokesman for the U.S. regulator. The commission takes very seriously the issue of inappropriate material reaching cellphones that are in the hands of children, he said. But he declined to comment on what actions the commission might take.

To some extent, though, the agency's hands are tied in that mobile phone carriers, like other telecommunications companies, are not responsible for what Internet sites consumers visit. But the carriers could be held accountable, experts said, if they take part in selling pornography to minors.

Based on an article from the BBC

An Israeli couple being married in India have found that you may not kiss the bride - the pair were fined $22 for indecency for their wedding embrace.

A court in Rajasthan imposed the fine after Alon Orpaz and Tehila Salev had decided to get married in a traditional Hindu ceremony in Pushkar. The couple, who had met in India while travelling separately, paid the 1,000-rupee fine for "committing an act of indecency" to avoid a 10-day jail sentence.

The apologetic couple said they were unaware public kissing was banned.

Predictably tolerant priests were offended when the couple kissed and hugged during the chanting of religious verses. Some of the priests were upset by their actions at the wedding and filed a case claiming Hindu sentiments had been hurt. SN Garg, president of the Priests and Pilgrimage Society, said: It is a matter of concern for the priest community. We want the government to ensure that tourists visiting Pushkar must respect Indian culture. Garg said the couple had now been forgiven after they apologised for their behaviour.

The couple said their public embrace was done according to their own culture and was not intended to be hurtful.

Pushkar, on the banks of Pushkar Lake, is a popular (presumably now a little less popular) pilgrimage spot for tourists, Hindus & nutters.

From The Independent, Thanks to Marc
See also CleanFilms, CleanFlicks & ClearPlay

What are decent-minded middle-American Christian conservatives to do if they abhor sex, bad language, illicit drug use and gut-spilling violence but still have an urge to see Saving Private Ryan? Or Goodfellas? Or The Amityville Horror? The beginnings of an answer came a few years ago with the advent of CleanFlicks, a kitchen-sized Utah company that decided to offer videos and DVD for rental - after they had been edited to remove all content likely to be offensive to the local Mormon population.

Today, that kitchen-sized enterprise has turned into a veritable industry, spanning numerous states and attracting the attention of both lawyers and politicians all the way to Washington. CleanFlicks is going from strength to strength, offering its services on a monthly subscription basis much like the wildly successful mainstream company Netflix. And a second, even more sophisticated, company called ClearPlay, also based in Utah, has sprung up.

ClearPlay doesn't edit the films as such, but rather offers a series of filters so individual consumers can decide how much sex or violence they want to tolerate. Want to see a gritty urban drama like the recently released Crash, which examines racism in Los Angeles, but without the "implied premarital sex"? Just press the appropriate button on your DVD menu and you can relax in the knowledge that all suggestions of illicit nookie have been purged ahead of time.

The service has not only proved popular in conservative states such as Utah. There is some evidence it appeals to a much broader range of movie consumers, particularly families concerned about the content Hollywood is throwing at their children, even at a tender age. The sanitising companies have even set to work on Shrek and Shrek II, finding the animated smash hits replete with squirm-inducing sexual innuendo and language that may not be cursing as such but is still too salty for their puritan tastes.

The film industry, as might be expected, has not reacted well. Starting three years ago, when CleanFlicks started making its first serious commercial inroads, the Directors Guild and the Writers Guild have been railing at what they see as a straightforward infringement of intellectual property.

For while their work is modified and edited all the time - for broadcast on television or on commercial plane flights, for example - the difference is that these modifications are done with their permission, through formal licensing agreements. CleanFlicks and ClearPlay don't ask for permission from anyone, arguing instead that their adjustments and amendments fall under the category of "fair use".

The two sides quickly fell into a predictable legal dispute, which dragged on until earlier this year when the Bush administration itself decided to get involved and passed the Family Movie Act, which sanctioned what the sanitisers were doing and was signed into law explicitly to make the legal challenge from the Hollywood bigwigs vanish into the judicial ether.

As far as the White House was concerned, the law was an easy way of appealing to the Republican Party's fundamentalist Christian base and bashing one of its favourite targets - Hollywood's free-speech liberals. Quite a few Democrats jumped on board as well, partly because of a perceived need to defer to the conservative "family values" agenda and partly because the Bill also embraced a handful of anti-piracy provisions that the film industry was keen to see entered into law.

The hypocrisies of excessive puritanism have been an irresistible spectator sport for centuries, not just in the United States, and the advent of the DVD profanity police is no exception. Part of the fun of visiting the ClearPlay website, over and above the intriguing categories available for censorship (what, one wonders, qualifies as a "non-graphic injury/wound"?), is seeing where the content police were forced to give up. The site's listing for Crash, for example, includes this line: "Filter settings not available: ethnic and social slurs." In a film preoccupied to the point of obsession with racist attitudes and behaviour, one would think not. But surely someone somewhere will still take offence? The CleanFlicks site ("It's about choice!" screams the banner headline) is even funnier when it delves into the technical minutiae of censorship. The list of profanities the company says it systematically excises includes "the B-words, the H-word when not referring to the place, the D-word, the S-word, the F-word etc ..." It also includes references to deity (G-word and JC-words etc), only when these words are used in a "non-religious context". One could spend an afternoon figuring out exactly what all these forbidden terms are, or else marvel at how conversant those easily offended clearly are with the objects of their offence.

Saving Private Ryan

The notorious 24-minute opening scene involving D-Day death and gore on the Normandy beaches is made far more palatable, as is the generally brutal depiction of battle throughout. Despite director Steven Spielberg's insistence that these images are critical in showing the sacrifice of troops and the true nature of warfare, CleanFlicks finds them too much to take.

The Godfather

In the sanitised version of The Godfather, Sonny Corleone (played by James Caan) does not die in a hail of bullets pounding relentlessly into his car. He just... well, he's sort of there one minute and gone the next. And the notoriously gory horse's head bit? Eighteen seconds is cut from one of the most famous scenes in recent cinema history

From The Guardian

Theatres across Britain have united in defiance against a threat of prosecution from an evangelical Christian group to save the national tour of the controversial musical Jerry Springer the Opera.

Christian Voice, which organised street vigils on the evening of the BBC broadcast of the opera in January, successfully petitioned to have Arts Council funding of the regional tour axed after damning the show as "blasphemous".

It sent letters to theatres up and down the country which said: We are at this moment preparing charges of the criminal offence of blasphemy for service upon those responsible for broadcasting the show on BBC2, and those responsible for staging it at the Cambridge Theatre. Should any regional theatre stage Jerry Springer the Opera this autumn, we shall be looking to prosecute them as well.

Some theatres bowed to the pressure and the national tour suffered a 30% loss of venues as a result. Yesterday, however, it was announced that the tour will reopen in Plymouth on January 23 and tour cities such as Glasgow, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Liverpool, Cardiff, and Nottingham.

Richard Thomas, the show's composer and co-writer, said: I am overjoyed Jerry Springer the Opera is going on tour in spite of such extreme protest. I am also buying a flak jacket. And sticking close to the shadows. The show's producer, Jon Thoday, said: I'm delighted that a small minority have not prevented the public from seeing this brilliant show. Freedom of speech and artistic freedom have prevailed.

 The musical has been seen by 425,000 theatregoers and had 2.4 million viewers when it was broadcast on BBC2 on January 8, a record figure for a televised musical or opera.

From The Telegraph

Mary Whitehouse dubbed it as the most depraved play in theatrical history and its depiction of male rape and mutilation sparked one of the most notorious legal battles of the last century. But now the The Romans In Britain has been labelled as funny, sensitive, and beautiful by the actor responsible for the play's first professional revival in 25 years.

Sam West, the recently appointed artistic director of Sheffield Theatres said: We are reviving Howard Brenton's The Romans in Britain because it is an epic, funny and beautiful play which was sadly eclipsed by controversy when it was first staged 25 years ago.

West's description of the play, which compares the Roman invasion of Britain with the troubles in Northern Ireland, would seem at odds with the nutter furore sparked when it premiered at the National Theatre in 1980.

In the most notorious scene Roman soldiers find a group of naked, young Britons by the side of a river, and rape one of the party in view of the audience after killing his friends.

The scene sent shock waves through the theatrical establishment and led to calls for the National's public funding to be stopped. Mary Whitehouse, then head of the National Viewers and Listeners Association (NVLA), brought a private prosecution against Michael Bogdanov, the play's director under the 1956 Sexual Offences Act.

The law was used by Whitehouse's lawyers to claim that Bogdanov had procured an act of gross indecency with another male in a public place. The director was defended by Lord Hutchinson, who had presented the case for the defence in the notorious Lady Chatterley obscenity trial of 1961. Although Whitehouse's prosecution subsequently collapsed, no professional theatre company has re-staged the play possibly for fear of another day in court.

John Beyer, the director of Mediawatch UK, the successor to the NVLA, said he could not see the point of a revival and he urged the theatre to be mindful of existing legislation. Any production of this play has to abide by the law of the land. I do not accept that the male rape scene is acceptable just because the author of the play says it is symbolic of the rape of Britain.

Callers to the theatre's box office are being advised that the play is not suitable for children under 14.

Perhaps Christian literature should carry a similar warning: Millions have been killed, maimed and tortured as a result of centuries of nutter addiction to intolerance

Based on an article from Refused Classification

PRO-family nutters; conservative and Christian nutter MPs have joined forces to push for compulsory health warnings on sexually explicit DVDs and magazines.

The activists, who boast the support of federal Employment Minister Kevin Andrews, want cigarette-pack-style warning labels placed on DVDs and magazines containing R-rated sex scenes or images. This is sexually explicit material which might lead to sex-addiction and relationship problems, is one tag proposed by the Fatherhood Foundation, a conservative group opposed to porn and prostitution.

Asked about the foundation's proposal, a spokesman for Andrews said labelling R-rated material was certainly something worth looking at.

Hold on a bit...an awful lot of the European Channels are marketed across Europe and are simply not aimed at a single territory. Britain has its own channels simply because it has its own repressive standards and cannot share in the infinitely better services viewed by the rest of Europe. I think Beyer may find that Europeans have the choice of many more adult channels than the Sky suffering Brits.

From the Daily Mail

27 X-rated channels make Britain shameful adult TV capital of Europe

Britain has become the television porn capital of Europe – with five times more adult only channels than anywhere else in the continent. UK viewers can now tune in to 27 dedicated porn channels, compared to just five in Germany – our nearest rival.

Research shows pornography was the fastest growing genre in television last year. The number of X-rated channels in Britain increased by a third – from 18 to 27 – to overtake the availability of children’s channels, which number 24.

Campaigners last night blamed the Government and regulators for allowing porn to ‘flood’ our screens. John Beyer, director of mediawatch-uk said X-rated broadcasters are endlessly ‘testing the waters’. He added: ‘Some things they put on are in breach of generally accepted standards. But the failure of the Obscene Publications Act means pornographers know they can get away with pushing the boundaries and showing harder and harder material. The porn industry has moved into TV in a big way – but with only minimal regulatory constraint.’

The research, by the media consultancy Screen Digest, shows there are now 84 pornography channels across Europe, compared to just three a decade ago. Under Ofcom rules, pornography in Britain is far less explicit than in much of continental Europe. But broadcasters are lobbying to lift the current ban on R18 films and earlier this year Playboy TV was fined £25,000 by Ofcom for screening hard-core pornographic film in breach of the programme code.

Shameful comments. It is beyond ludicrous to suggest that there is a parallel with the treatment of Jews. He should be fed to the lions!

From The Scotsman, Thanks to Dan

A row has broken out after a minister compared the performance of scenes in a controversial musical to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany.

Reverend Bruce Gardner made the comments in an e-mail to theatre bosses in Aberdeen after learning that Jerry Springer - The Opera will be shown at the city's His Majesty's Theatre next year.

His comments were described as "inappropriate" by the theatre's chief executive.

Gardner is opposed to particular scenes in the musical where God and Jesus Christ appear as guests on the Jerry Springer show. He claims this is an attack on the Christian community, who, he says, are being "singled out" in the same way as Jews were in Nazi Germany, and is calling for the scenes to be removed.

Gardner's e-mail to Aberdeen Performing Arts, which manages the theatre, reads: It is disgraceful that a demonstration of contempt for things regarded as holy by many is being defended on the grounds that 'free speech' will be denied unless one section of the population is allowed to be attacked.

While not wishing to exaggerate unduly, this is how the Jews were singled out in Nazi Germany, first for
ridicule, then contempt, then persecution.

Careless signals sent out by leaders can lead to less sophisticated manifestations of disrespect towards ethnic and faith groups in the community.

Defending his comments, Gardner, who is a minister at Banchory-Devenick in Aberdeenshire, said: Here you have a show which includes something which is gratuitously blasphemous and offensive to Christians. The point I was trying to make was that the treating of people with disrespect in Nazi Germany began with the ridiculing of Jews."

Duncan Hendry, chief executive of His Majesty's Theatre, said: "This is an extreme over-reaction by Rev Gardner. I don't think Jerry Springer - The Opera is a comment on Christianity any more than Roy of the Rovers is a comment on football. His comments about the Jews in Nazi Germany are particularly inappropriate.

From The Telegraph

India's leading female tennis player has been subjected to a fatwa by a Muslim cleric for wearing short skirts and revealing tops on the international tennis circuit.

Sania Mirza, 18, who became the first Indian woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam at the US Open last week, is hugely popular in India.

The fatwa - in effect, a demand that she cover up - was issued by a senior cleric of the Sunni Ulema Board, a little-known group. Similar fatwas have been issued against Mirza, who comes from a devout Muslim family, but none has ever gained popular support among India's 130 million Muslims.

The dress she wears on the tennis courts…leaves nothing to the imagination, Haseeb-ul-hasan Siddiqui told The Hindustan Times. She will undoubtedly be a corrupting influence.

He said she should follow the example of Iranian women who wore long tunics and headscarves to play in the Asian Badminton Championships.

The BBFC hardly found Popetown too challenging and have passed it 12 uncut. The BBFC have also passed Jerry Springer: The Opera uncut on DVD at 18. So not much joy for nutters there.

From Ekklesia

A ten-episode adult TV cartoon series scrapped by the BBC after protests about its alleged anti-Catholic content has gone Europe-wide on DVD - without so much as a murmur from opponents in the UK national press or media.

Popetown was commissioned by BBC Three in 2002, but was pulled from the schedules a year ago following 6,000 complaints by people who found its premise offensive. Alongside the plays Bezhti, Corpus Christi, and Jerry Springer – The Opera, Popetown had become a test case for what many see as religiously-based censorship.

Popetown is an animated sitcom which looks at daily nuisances in the workplace, with one major twist. The workplace in question is the Vatican and the CEO happens to be a brattishly portrayed 77-year-old Pope.

The Catholic Church in Britain was initially shocked by the idea of Popetown, and the BBC's Stuart Murphy finally decided to cancel it on grounds of lack of quality, declaring that there is a fine judgement line in comedy between the scurrilously funny and the offensive.

But when the Rt Rev Crispian Hollis, Bishop of Portsmouth, attacked the show by saying that any attempt to belittle or diminish [the Pope's] status as the leader of the Catholic Church is totally unacceptable, free speech campaigners were outraged.

The BBC said at the time that it might recoup some of the show's £2.5 million production costs through broadcast and video sales by BBC Worldwide and the series' creator, independent production firm Channel X.

On 8 June this year Popetown premiered on New Zealand's C4, gaining a 25% audience share among 15-29 year-olds. The Catholic Church there has repeatedly condemned the programme, and is in the midst of an official complaint to the Broadcasting Standards Authority.

However, New Zealand Catholic communications officer Lyndsay Freer originally said that she couldn't take it seriously enough to consider it harmful or offensive, according to the official Popetown website.

In Canada, meanwhile, Catholics are calling for a boycott of media conglomerate CanWest over its screening in July.

Revolver Productions, who put Popetown out on European Region DVD on Monday, say that it is an incredible piece of work with an outstanding cast, [and] we’re delighted to have acquired it despite stiff competition from bigger organisations.

Director Phil Ox told journalists last week: I am glad that it is finally out there, adding, with obvious tongue-in-cheek delight, I should just remind everybody that viewing this show can destroy your soul.

It is unclear why opponents in the UK appear to have gone quiet over the launch of Popetown on DVD. An exception was however Barry Hudd, press officer for the Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth. Following the DVD's launch on Monday he viewed four episodes of the controversial TV show: The first episode of Popetown I found lacking in humour and patiently silly and the subsequent episodes degenerated into gratuitous offence and insult to the Papacy.

When the original controversy broke, London vicar, philosophy lecturer and Ekklesia associate Giles Fraser said that The decision to withdraw Popetown suggests a religion that cannot laugh at itself, a religion of claustrophobic disapproval, a religion where control is smuggled in under the guise of sensitivity. OK, sometimes the laughter is cruel - but there are bigger issues at stake. For the ability to laugh at oneself is perhaps the most effective litmus test which detects healthy from dangerous religion.

Worthy of hatred or what?

From The Guardian

A mob that razed a dozen homes over an alleged affair between a Christian man whose family owns the beer factory and a Muslim woman from a neighbouring village who was then murdered by her own family.

The attack on Taybeh, a wholly Christian village which gives its name to a popular Palestinian beer, came despite appeals from residents to their neighbours in Deir Jarir to refrain from violence while the body of the murdered 25-year-old woman, identified only as Haim, was disinterred for DNA tests to try to ascertain if she had sex with the accused man, Mahdi Abu Houria.

Because we were afraid of what would happen, we got permission from Abu Mazen [the Palestinian president] to dig her up from her grave and have DNA testing, said Maria Khoury, the wife of Taybeh's mayor We are very suspicious that this family raped their daughter and buried her and they want to find an excuse to destroy our village.

The accused woman was murdered by her family last week in an "honour killing" after the alleged affair was made public. Palestinian women's groups say that women are sometimes killed after being raped by relatives who then attempt to shift responsibility for pregnancy to an innocent man.

Despite the pleas to wait for the results of the DNA test, Taybeh's residents say hundreds of men descended on the village in the middle of the night. They came from Deir Jarir, the Muslim village, armed, and they threw petrol and they lit up one home right after another, said Mrs Khoury.

They burned 12 homes down which are those of the accused man and every member of his family, third cousins, fourth cousins, anyone related. We have 12 homeless families without clothes, without anything. These are fanatics who take the law into their own hands. If one person is guilty that person deserves punishment, not the whole village.

From the BBC

Police in Indian-administered Kashmir have arrested the leader and six other members of an all-women separatist group fighting against 'obscenity'.

The Maryam Squad of the Dukhtaran-e-Milat (Daughters of the Nation) had launched a campaign against alcohol and prostitution in the state.

The seven women were arrested after raiding a restaurant in Srinagar.

Asiya Andrabi is a well-known separatist leader. She has previously spent a year in jail. Asiya was arrested when she assaulted a married woman who with her husband at the restaurant, senior police officer Muneer Khan told Reuters. Who are they to impose their code of conduct? he asked.

Before her arrest Ms Andrabi said: "Indians are fighting on several fronts in Kashmir and the moral degradation in our Muslim society is part of their plan. We decided to counter this.

Over the past week the group has raided a number of hotels suspected of selling liquor and suspected brothels.
It also issued a diktat to operators of restaurants and internet cafes to remove booths where there are reports of young men and women getting intimate.

Alcohol shops as well as cinemas were closed down in the Kashmir Valley in the autumn of 1989 after the outbreak of separatist violence. They have started re-opening in some areas in the past couple of years.

The Dukhtaran-e-Milat launched a campaign for the wearing of the burqa by Muslim women in the early 1990s.
Its activists sprayed paint on women who did not wear a burqa. The campaign succeeded but its success was short-lived. A large majority of women have abandoned the veil.

"Dukhtaran-e-Millat has also campaigned for women to veil themselves fully and sprayed paint over those who refused to cover up". 

Worthy of hatred or what?

Based on an article from The Guardian

Nutters wearing burkas in Indian Kashmir have raided brothels, smashed wine bottles and chastised canoodling teenagers in internet cafes to "arrest moral degradation".

The women, all members of Dukhtaran-e-Millat (Daughters of the People), a separatist group, began their fight this week to impose a puritanical set of Islamic values on Kashmir.

Aasiya Andrabi, the head of the group whose husband is in jail for allegedly fighting the Indian army, announced the formation of all-women squads to raid brothels in the Muslim-majority state. We will expose those indulging in immoral activities, said Andrabi, who revels in her role as a radical Islamist and has previously voiced support for Osama bin Laden.

The campaign by Dukhtaran-e-Millat has focused on prostitution. The women have set up a telephone number for people to call when a man or woman has entered some place to commit adultery. Adultery is illegal in Kashmir and can result in imprisonment. The women, travelling in three-wheel auto-rickshaws and cars, were staging the raids wearing head-to-toe veils.

Andrabi said her group's members had also swooped on eateries and internet cafes where they found teenage boys and girls talking freely and huddled in booths "being intimate". The group, which upbraided the young people, said they would talk to their parents.

Dukhtaran-e-Millat has also campaigned for women to veil themselves fully and sprayed paint over those who refused to cover up. The drive has been unsuccessful in the region in which a more liberal form of Islam has prevailed.

Alcohol shops, bars and cinemas were closed in the Kashmir valley in 1989 after an outbreak of separatist violence. But since the peace process between India and Pakistan, many venues have quietly reopened.

Yesterday separatist groups agreed to meet the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, for talks.

Based on an article from the BBC

Broadcasters in the UK are happy to offend their viewers, nutters have told the Edinburgh TV festival. If they do not understand why we may be offended by a programme, they could stop it, said Christian Voice national director Stephen Green. But they just keep going.

Green said the BBC ignored 47,000 viewer complaints before it screened Jerry Springer: The Opera in January: We all might cause offence through ignorance, but I am worried that there are people working in television who know something is going to be offensive and then just go ahead and show it.

BBC director of television Jana Bennett said the opera was shown after winning "all the plaudits it could" on its West End theatrical release: We judged it was very good and worth offering up to the public who could choose to watch it or not.

Green also  said it was "odd" to suggest that viewers' protests against TV programmes are undermined if organised by a single group such as Christian Voice: That would be like saying that the more protests there are, the less attention you are going to pay them.

The opera's writer, Stewart Lee, said he was determined the show's national tour would go ahead, despite protests from Christian groups. I was hoping to make money by touring the opera, but I was also hoping it would encourage a series of discussions and debates around the country. Lee said his opera had received "a lot of support" from other religious organisations, including the Catholic Voice and Catholic Herald. I have to be careful not to accuse all Christians of ignorance and bigotry, Some Christian groups are fine.

From Cambridge News

A councillor has failed to see the funny side of a hit show due to be staged at an arts centre and plans to write to the town mayor telling him it is 'inappropriate'.

The Puppetry of the Penis show, which has been a sell-out success in the West End and described by one critic as bursting with laughter, is due to visit Haverhill Arts Centre on Saturday, October 15.

Advertising for the performance says it is a non-sexual show featuring full frontal male nudity.

Shameful Councillor Chris Cullum of Haverhill Town Council said he did not feel the performances should go ahead. He was also concerned an earlier performance of Moll Flanders would contain strong language and nudity. Cullum said he would write to Coun Tim Marks, Mayor of Haverhill, about the planned performance.

He said: I am not against all this sort of thing, BUT... there was controversy a couple of years ago when we had the issue of lap dancers and strippers appearing at Rush Nightclub. Objections were raised on the town council and I just don't think it is appropriate we should be hosting this in a small town like Haverhill. I know we are trying to get Haverhill on the map, BUT... is this really necessary? If we are having this are we going to get lap dancers and strippers next? I don't see how you can allow one and refuse the others.

Nick Keeble, the council's leisure manager, said he had received no other complaints about the show, which was on a national tour. He said it was a privilege for a smaller venue like the Arts Centre to be included and it was the fastest booking show from the current programme.

From Yahoo News

An offshoot of Big Brother is set to take reality TV to controversial new levels. The Dutch show will feature a woman's hunt for sperm from male competitors. But unlike this year's Big Brother, the sperm will be used to artificially inseminate the woman and produce a child.

I Want Your Child ... and Nothing Else! is the brainchild of billionaire television producer John de Mol, the man behind Big Brother. It will be screened in Holland on de Mol's new TV station Talpa.

The plan is that we visit potential donors and - of course on camera - decide which man is most suitable, the 30-year old woman who will feature in the program said in an interview with De Telegraaf newspaper. Afterwards there will be artificial insemination, said the woman who was identified only as "Yessica" and who has bought a house with a room for a child.

The show is a one-off competing with four other reality TV programmes, one of which follows five former prostitutes starting a cafe.

The programme receiving most votes from viewers on Saturday, after all the shows have aired, will be turned into a series.

De Telegraaf also published an email address for men wanting to donate sperm to Yessica.

Based on an article from the Daily Express

The BBC is preparing itself for nutter complaints about its most expensive drama series.  Rome, a £58 million epic being screened this autumn, has been misleadingly hyped up as having some of the most explicit and violent scenes ever seen on British TV.  Full-frontal nudity, blood soaked brutality and obscene language, pepper the 12 episodes, which claim to be an accurate dramatisation of the collapse of the Roman Republic.  The series, which US viewers can see from Sunday, opens in 52BC as the republic is starting to fall apart.  It centres around two soldiers returning from the war in Gaul.  The series is a co-production between the BBC and US broadcaster HBO.

Visitor Q was awarded an uncut 18 video certificate by the BBFC  in 2004

From Scoop

Press release from the nutters of the Society for the Promotion of Community Values: Court of Appeal directs Board in Classification of Visitor Q

The Film and Literature Board of Review meets this afternoon in order to deliberate on the judgment of the Court of Appeal that set aside the Board’s earlier classification of the Japanese sex-violence film Visitor Q. The Court of Appeal granted the Society’s appeal against the decision of the High Court that had upheld the Board’s R18 classification. It remitted the matter of the classification of the film to the Board for reconsideration. As a consequence, Visitor Q does not currently have a classification and cannot be screened in New Zealand or distributed.

In 2002 the Society applied to the Board for a review of the classification of Visitor Q as it took strong exception to the R18 classification issued by the OFLC). The Society submitted that the film should be classified “objectionable” or be subject to cuts on the basis of its “objectionable” and highly offensive content including: gratuitous depictions of necrophilia, sexual activity involving human excrement, incest, rape, sexual violence, corpse mutilation for sexual gratification, extreme lactation, and graphic violence. It highlighted the degrading, demeaning and dehumanising of women in the film’s gratuitous and vile sexual content. The Board, while conceding that the film contained “graphic and disturbing content,” refused to alter the OFLC classification and considered that the film contained “merit” in that it was “an ambitious attempt to describe the disintegration of family”.

In 2002 the Society succeeded in getting the President of the Board to issue an interim restriction order against the film. Consequently it never screened in the Beck’s Incredible Film Festival in 2002 and has yet to screen in New Zealand.

The recent Court of Appeal decision (CA59/04) - Society For the Promotion of Community Standards Inc [Appellant] v Film and Literature Board of Review [Respondent] – highlighted legal errors in the Board’s classification that had been overlooked by. The Board’s decision was found to be legally “flawed” in its failure to address issues related to the protection of the “public good”. Its serious omissions led the Court of Appeal to state: Without reasons being given [by the Board for its decisions] for what we view as a critical finding of fact, we cannot assess whether the Board has properly construed its role…

The Society has written to the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. George Hawkins, asking him to remove all the current Board members. This call has been made because of the Board’s decisions to release films like Visitor Q, Baise-Moi and Irreversible (all featuring “objectionable” content) into public cinemas for screening to those 18 years of age and older. The Society has also called for the replacement of the Chief Censor, Bill Hastings, and his deputy, Ms Nicolla McCully, on the same grounds.

Based on an article from the BBC

Swaziland's King Mswati III has ended a five-year sex ban he imposed on the kingdom's teenage girls a year early. The girls have had to wear large woollen tassels as a sign of their chastity since 2001. These are to be burnt in a huge ceremony.

The sex ban was imposed to supposedly fight the spread of HIV/Aids. Swaziland has one of the world's highest HIV infection rates, at about 40% of the population.

The king fined himself a cow for breaking the ban by marrying again. He took a 17-year-old girl as his ninth wife just two months after imposing the sex-ban in September 2001, sparking unprecedented protests by Swazi women outside the royal palace.

Meanwhile, the health ministry has released new figures which show that 29% of Swazis aged 15-19 are HIV positive. For pregnant women, the figures were 42%.

No official reason has been given about why the sex ban was ended a year early. The BBC's Thulani Mthethwa in Swaziland says the ban was very unpopular with young Swazis. He says that few girls in urban areas wore the tassels, known as "umchwasho".  But our correspondent says that in rural areas, the tassels were common because the ban was enforced by local chiefs and some schools insisted that girls wore them to get a place.

If propositioned by a man, the girls were supposed to throw the tassels outside his house and his family would have to pay a fine of a cow. But many Swazis were unhappy that King Mswati's daughters were rarely seen wearing the tassels.

From New Kerala

The Indian Supreme Court Thursday sought reactions from the government, The Times of India and Hindustan Times, on a petition questioning the publication of titillating materials in the two newspapers.

A three-member bench issued notices to the government and the newspapers after the petitioner drew the court's attention to publication in the press, particularly the two newspapers, of obscene photographs, articles on pornography, SMS jokes and sex education.

Petitioner Ajay Goswami said his petition involved substantial questions of law of private and public importance on the fundamental right of citizens regarding freedom of speech and expression as enshrined in the constitution.

He said he was aggrieved the freedom of speech and expression enjoyed by the newspaper industry was not in balance with steps to protect children from harmful and disturbing materials. Goswami said with the advent of commercialism and with the aim of boosting circulation, numerous attempts were being made by newspapers to cater to prurient interests of the public: All this is certainly not in the interest of physical and psychological well being of minors."

Goswami sought a direction to the government and the Press Council for laying down rules and regulations to ensure that minors were not exposed to sexually explicit material, whether or not the same was obscene or was within the law, without the express consent of parents, guardians or experts in sex education.

Based on an article from Chortle

The creators of Jerry Springer: The Opera are to take their new production, set in a stand-up club, to the West End stage. Their plans were revealed in an Edinburgh show called How To Write An Opera About Jerry Springer, being staged today and tomorrow only.

They also revealed that they were unsure whether a planned national tour of the Opera, which has already been postponed, would go ahead in the face of protests from furious evangelical nutter groups.

A DVD of Jerry Springer: The Opera will be released in November.

From The Register

Outspoken US attorney Jack Thompson has said he will win the civil case brought against the publisher of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and others by the families of policemen shot dead in Fayette, Alabama in 2003, allegedly by a youth obsessed with the video game.

A jury this week declared Devin Moore guilty of the murder of police officers Arnold Strickland and James Crump, and civilian police worker Leslie Mealer. Moore had pleaded not guilty by reason of mental defect. After being arrested for the triple homicide, Moore was alleged to have said: Life is a videogame. Everybody has to die some time. Moore is known to have spent many hours playing GTA:VC, dubbed a "murder simulator" by Thompson.

Thompson represents the familes of the victims, who launched a civil action against GTA:VC publishser Take-Two Interactive, game retailers GameStop and Wal-mart, and PlayStation producer Sony in February this year.

Moore rehearsed, hour after hour, the cop-killing scenarios in that hyper-violent video game, Thompson said. The makers, distributors, and retailers of that murder simulator equipped Moore to kill as surely as if they had handed him the gun to do it. Blood is on the hands of men in certain corporate board rooms from Japan to New York.

In an email sent to The Register Thomspon said: The video game defense was not used in [Moore's trial], as the defense counsel decided not to retain any expert witnesses on the issue. We have the experts, and we shall win our civil case on the issue.

Moore's prosecution, in part, relied on the failure of the defense to produce expert witnesses to back up their claim of diminished responsibility. Did you hear any expert tell you anything about a video game contributing to these crimes? Prosecutor Chris McCool asked the jury during his closing comments.

Not a single one of the surviving family members is saying that Devin Moore is not responsible, in every sense, for what he did, said Thompson. They would be the last ones to say that. What they are saying is that there is plenty of blame to go around, and some of it falls on Sony, Take-Two/Rockstar, Wal-Mart, and GameStop.

From Antara News

About 500 activists representing 29 Muslim organizations held a rally here on Thursday to call for the salvation of younger generation from moral decadency.

The Care for Community Women Muslim Forum (FMPU), one of the organization represented in the rally, said it was opposed to all forms of 'colonisation' of women through pornography.

FMPU General Chairwoman Nurdiati Akma said her organization called on all parties to help protect women and the future of younger generation from all forms of non-physical colonization. FMPU is trying its best to provide enlightenment and empowerment for women with comprehensive understanding of Islam, Akma said.
She said women must be aware of colonization by global conspiracy that was born out of capitalistic views that ran against the Islamic principles.

Carrying banners among others calling for an end to violence and pornography, the demonstrators -- most of whom were women-- listened to orations made by representatives of the participating organizations.

From AVN

The Adult Freedom Foundation reports that a US group tentatively named The National Feminist Anti-Pornography Movement gathered in Boston last month to begin a “new phase of the feminist anti-pornography movement.”

Made up of feminist activists, researchers and professors, the group issued a statement following this organizational meeting describing the meeting and its purpose. As pornography has become increasingly accepted and at the same time increasingly degrading and cruel to women, there is a growing recognition of the need to fight the pornography industry and the pornographic nature of mainstream culture. People working in the anti-violence movement and critics of corporate media’s dominance of the culture came together from around the country to strategize about how to address the multiple harms of pornography. The goal is to contribute to a progressive movement working toward social justice on all fronts.

From AVN

Islamic militants threatened to kill him for it, but Abu Mustafa says it was the only way he knew to make a living in the chaos that is Baghdad today.

The adult video salesman is among many traders caught between two faces of the new Iraq, one liberated from the state censorship of Saddam Hussein, the other gripped by religious zeal, according to a Reuters story. I am scared but what else can I do? I tried lots of other jobs. I worked in a factory, but you just can't make any money in Iraq. It's the only way to support my son.

But like the tens of thousands signing up for the new, US-trained police and army, selling adult videos has become an especially high-risk profession in Iraq, where a religious Shi'ite-led government swept to power in January, raising fears in some quarters of an Islamic state modeled after Iran.

As Iraqi leaders drafting a constitution this month debate the role of Islam in the state, alarming liberals and women's groups, Abu Mustafa and others complain they live in fear.

He accused the Badr Brigades, the Iranian-trained militia associated with the leading Shi'ite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, of targeting colleagues in the pornography business and threatening many others. They shot my friend Haider and then they burned him, said Abu Mustafa, who identified himself by a nickname for fear of being identified. They have issued me written death threats in notes telling me to stop selling sex movies.

After Saddam Hussein's fall, adult video salesmen openly set up shops in Baghdad's Bab al-Sharjee (East Gate) market, a once bustling marketplace Iraqis say is now dominated by criminal gangs, thieves, pimps and guerrilla informants. Pornography salesmen don't dare show their faces, secretly arranging by telephone the sale of American, European and Arab porn films hidden in music video or cartoon cases from the back seats of cars.

The Badr Brigades left notes on our kiosks saying 'We will kill you and burn your shops', said Ahmed Saad, The police have arrested us and demanded money from our families to free us.

But it was business as usual on Wednesday in Bab al-Sharjee, where Abu Mustafa said 30 other dealers operate, despite the risks. He sells about 50 DVD videos a day, fetching a total of $10. But the goods are only offered to friends or long-time customers. Sex movies from Lebanon and other Arab countries are the most popular. But we have all kinds of movies. We just have to work secretly.

Based on an article from the Washington Times

The US TV regulator, the Federal Communications Commission, has added an anti-indecency activist to the staff of a key office, prompting talk that the agency is poised for another crackdown on programming it deems inappropriate for the airwaves.

Penny Young Nance joined the FCC last month as an adviser in its Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis. The office helps set an overall agenda for the agency, which regulates broadcasting, telecommunications and other technology.

FCC spokesman David H. Fiske said she is working part time in a post that focuses on "consumer and social issues" in broadcasting and cable. She will serve as a liaison with Capitol Hill, the industry and other activists, he said.

Nutters praised Nance's appointment, but a frequent FCC critic said it smacks of political patronage because positions like the one Mrs. Nance has been given are usually not given to activists. She's there to give the religious right and the conservative right a voice at the FCC. ... It's disquieting that someone who is so ideological has a position like this, said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a consumer-advocacy group.

Nance has been a vocal critic of racy programming on the airwaves. She once worked as a lobbyist for Concerned Women for America (CWA), a group that describes its mission as working "to bring Biblical principles into all levels of public policy," and recently stepped down from that organization's board of directors. She also founded the Kids First Coalition, a group that opposes pornography and abortion and has called on the FCC to rein in indecency.

The FCC has not issued an indecency fine since Dec. 22, the longest lull in four years, according to a June 30 report from the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan government watchdog. The agency proposed 12 indecency fines last year totaling $3.7 million.

Lets hope it is a roaring success. Then more time will be spent playing games, and less time will be spent imposing their intolerant morality on others.

From the BBC

A games portal has opened its doors for gamers who want to play titles that are guaranteed to be "safe" for families.

Christian IGames, a NextArcade channel, only has games which have been chosen and reviewed by a panel of clergy, parents, children and developers.

The founders say it aims to help fearful parents who feel "helpless" when it comes to buying games.

The vetted games on the portal include Alien Outbreak 2, TV Tycoon, Crystalix and Scripture Solitaire.

From The Times

Outspoken Florida attorney Jack Thompson, whose legal crusades against violent and sexually explicit videogames and the organization that regulates them has garnered more and more media attention, is back in the public eye. This time Thompson is petitioning the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) to change its M (Mature) rating to an AO (Adults Only) rating for Capcom's Killer 7, a stylized psycho-thriller.

Games not rated by the ESRB go ignored by major retail chains across the United States, which is why most publishers work with the organization. Thompson recently sent an e-mail to Patricia Vance, president of the ESRB, explaining his position. He also forwarded the e-mail to media and various government officials, including Senator Hilary Clinton and Senator Joseph Lieberman, both of whom have been outspoken critics of sex and violence in videogames.

Killer 7, released by Capcom on July 7, challenges players to become seven deadly assassins. The game, which was developed in Japan, features stylized cel-shaded graphics and a story drowned in adult themes, spoken profanity, violence, and sexual situations. The game was rated M by the ESRB for "blood and gore, intense violence, sexual themes and strong language."

In the e-mail, Thompson cites IGN.com's review of Killer 7 and its description of "full-blown sex sequences" as a primary reason why the game should receive an AO rating. Major retailers including Wal-Mart do not sell AO-rated games, which would mean that such a rating might have an adverse impact on sales of Killer 7.

There is no question in my mind that a videogame containing 'full-blown sex sequences' cannot be rated anything other than 'AO' rather than 'M,' Thompson writes in the e-mail: If I were you, Ms. Vance, I would immediately ask the makers of this game, and all retailers, to pull it from store shelves. If you don't, expect for others to use this latest scandal, which I am hereby officially kicking off, to call for a dismantling of the ESRB. The fox has guarded the chickens long enough. Killer 7 seems to prove it.

Thompson's campaign seems based solely on the description of Killer 7 in the IGN.com review -- a description that is open to interpretation. In fact, Killer 7's so-called "full-blown sex sequences" could appear tame when compared to those in some of today's movies. The sexual scenes in question showcase a fully clothed wheelchair-bound man pleasuring a straddling woman, who is also fully clothed. Although she moans, indicating a sexual orgasm, neither nudity nor intercourse is illustrated in the cut-scene. The same scene in a movie today might warrant only a PG-13 or, worst, R-rating.

From The Times

The  theory of intelligent design, which emphasises the role of a creator in the development of the universe, has received a boost from President George W Bush. He has called for it to be taught alongside evolution in schools.
 
While Bush’s conservative Christian fundamentalist base is delighted by his pronouncement, it has opened a split with neoconservatives and other secular allies on the right.

In Texas, where the president likes to spend August reconnecting with his heartland, Bush said last week: Both sides ought to be taught . . . so people can understand what the debate is about.

The teaching of Darwinism is a controversial issue in Kansas and other patches of middle America, where legal and political challenges are being mounted to introduce intelligent design into the science curriculum. Many fundamentalists believe that the world is only 6,000 years old and that atheistic theories are being foisted on children.

The teaching of intelligent design advocates a divine — or “intelligent” — creator and is regarded by many scientists as mumbo-jumbo. With the president endorsing it, at the very least it makes Americans who have that position more respectable, for lack of a better word, said Gary Bauer, a leading Christian activist. It’s not some backwater view. It is a view held by the majority of Americans.

Some of the president’s greatest supporters in the war on terror are shaking their heads in disbelief at his remarks. Charles Krauthammer, a neoconservative commentator, said the idea of teaching intelligent design — creationism’s “modern step-child” — was “insane”. To teach it as science is to encourage the supercilious caricature of America as a nation in the thrall of a religious authority, To impose it on the teaching of evolution is ridiculous.

From Scoop

The Society For Promotion Of Community Standards is supporting a national Campaign to have the “watershed” time for the broadcasting of Adults Only (AO) television programmes moved from 8.30 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. It is calling on the public to make this an election issue by contacting their local MPs and urging them to get their respective parties to make a public commitment to the time change, as part of their election policy. The Campaign was launched at the VOTE (Viewers of Television Excellence) AGM on 7 June 2005 and MPs from all the main political parties were present, including Broadcasting Minister Hon. Steve Maharey. Society Vice-President Graham Fox, who is a VOTE (Wellington) committee member, helped organise the event.

Society president Mike Petrus says: The public needs to express its real concern over the growing tide of pornographic sleaze and vile smut, graphic violence, sexual violence and other objectionable content that is being screened before or close to 9.30 p.m., during the period when the vast majority of children under the age of 14 years are up and about the home and often have free access to the television, many unsupervised. The Society believes that those responsible for TV programming and their bosses are involved in a deliberate attempt to push the moral boundaries of acceptable content, focusing of vulgarity, excessive use of obscenity and porn smut in a pathetic money-driven and misguided attempt to boost ratings.

From The Independent

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has launched a legal battle against his Islamic political allies in a bid to stop them setting up a Taliban-style "morality police" in the conservative north-western province.

The Supreme Court is hearing arguments in a suit brought by the President against a ruling coalition of Islamic parties in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) who voted in a law under which citizens will be forced to respect the call to prayer and observe Islamic prayer times. Businesses will be forced to close during prayers.

The law could not have come at a worse time for General Musharraf, the leader the US has called its principal ally in the "war on terror. It is coming into force just as it has emerged that two of the London suicide bombers spent time in Pakistan, and General Musharraf is confronting accusations his country has not done enough to curb Islamic militancy.

Under the new law, known as hasba in Pakistan, unrelated men and women will not be allowed to be seen in public together, and singing and dancing will be "discouraged". The media will also be subject to censorship to ensure "publications are useful for the promotion of Islamic values". All this will be enforced by a Muslim cleric, appointed to the position of mohtasib.

The law has been compared to the Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice set up in Afghanistan under the Taliban. It had its own police, who forced women to wear the burqa and arrested men whose beards were not long enough.

Since partition from India, the debate has raged over whether Pakistan's identity is as a secular homeland for Muslims, or an explicitly Islamic state with Islamic laws.

General Musharraf is under pressure to make his own position on the question clear. Although he is seen as a secularist in the West, it is an embarrassment to him that the parties behind the new law have been his political allies at home, albeit informally. Unable to forge any sort of pact with Pakistan's liberal, secular parties, who oppose him as a military dictator, President Musharraf has been forced to rely on an ad hoc alliance with the Islamists. Now that alliance has come back to haunt him.

The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of religious parties that took power in NWFP in 2002 on a wave of resentment at the US-led war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, says it campaigned on a promise to bring in such a law.

Pashtun-dominated NWFP is highly conservative, and there probably is support for such a law there - many of the Taliban were educated in the madrassas of NWFP. But in the more liberal parts of Pakistan, particularly Punjab, it has caused an uproar.

From Bernama

Several well- known public figures have called on the Malaysian government to review the contents of foreign television programmes which they said were damaging to Malaysian culture and values. They made the call ahead of the offering of 176 TV channels -- 169 pay-TV and seven free-to-air channels -- to Malaysian viewers next year.

Veteran actor and former film maker Senator Datuk Jins Shamsuddin said soap operas and reality shows that exploited violence and sex should be barred. He said TV programmes had influenced and changed society's thinking and behaviour in recent years, especially those of the younger generation. The behaviour of our youngsters today is almost similar to what is shown on TV. He said most soap operas from countries like Brazil and the Philippines aired by local TV stations contained scenes of couples hugging and kissing in public which had now been followed by young Malaysians. However, if the programmes have lessons that we can follow to improve us, we can accept them. We cannot stop all foreign programmes because we also want to learn from beneficial programmes,.

Royal Professor Ungku Aziz expressed a similar view when he appeared on the "Debat Perdana" programme aired by TV1 on July 17. He said reality TV programmes and certain advertisements shown on local TV had caused an identity crisis in today's youth. These programmes and advertisements were based on fantasy and of no benefit except to attract attention for commercial purposes, he added.

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's Malay World and Civilisation Institute principal fellow Prof Dr Syed Hussein Alatas shared Ungku Aziz's concern. He said a number of TV advertisements created a negative influence. Members of Parliament should debate the issue in the Dewan Rakyat and the government should look into this concern. He believed that TV advertisements and programmes could be used to promote positive effects. If it's true that advertisements can influence viewers then the anti-smoking advertisements can be extended to include an anti-liquor campaign. Furthermore, no one has been known to have been killed by a driver who smoked but there have been many victims of drunken drivers.

Social activist Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye said in a statement recently that TV programmes including cartoons that contained elements of violence, revenge and cruelty could contribute to an increase in social ills like bullying in schools. Exposure to violence in TV shows must be restricted if all parties were serious in overcoming social problems, he said.

Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim, during the 56th Umno general assembly last week, said the government would set up a Cabinet committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to look into the issue of TV programmes polluting cultural and religious values. He had previously expressed unhappiness over "steamy scenes" shown by satellite TV operator Astro which practises self-censorship.

The authority to determine guidelines and monitor the contents of the broadcast media is the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission under the Energy, Water and Communications Ministry while the Film Censorship Board under the Home Affairs Ministry screens the contents of films for broadcast by public and private TV stations except Astro

Based on an article from Gay Wired

Two unidentified gay teenagers were publicly executed in Iran this week for the crime of homosexuality. According to the London Times, the youths were executed in Edalat (Justice) Square in the city of Mashhad, in north-east Iran.
Iran enforces Islamic Sharia law, which shows all due tolerance and dictates the death penalty for gay sex.

Both youths were identified only by their initials, M.A. and A.M. One teen was 18 years old and the other was under 18.

They admitted (likely under torture, London-based gay human rights group Outrage! suggests) to having gay sex but claimed in their defense that most young boys had sex with each other and that they were not aware that homosexuality was punishable by death.

According to the London Times, the teens were held in prison for 14 months and severely beaten prior to their execution.

Ruhollah Rezazadeh, the lawyer of the youngest boy (under 18), had appealed that he was too young to be executed and that the court should take into account his young age. But the Supreme Court in Tehran ordered him to be hanged.

Under the Iranian penal code, girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15 can be hanged.

According to Outrage!, three other young gay Iranians are being hunted by the police, but they have gone into hiding and cannot be found. If caught, they will also face execution.

News of the two executions was first reported by ISNA (Iranian Students News Agency) on Tuesday morning. A later news story by Iran In Focus, based on this original ISNA report, claimed the youths were executed for sexually assaulting a 13 year old boy. But the ISNA report does not mention any sexual assault.

This is just the latest barbarity, Peter Tatchell, board members of OutRage!, said. According to Iranian human rights campaigners, over 4,000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979.

Outrage! is calling for world-wide urgent action and is asking world leaders to protest the Iranian Ambassador at the Embassy in their countries. In addition, Outrage! Is also asking world leaders to take urgent action against Iran.

From The Guardian

The Church of England yesterday found itself in the potentially embarrassing position of telling its clergy that if they entered civil partnerships under new government legislation they would have to pledge to remain celibate. Ordinands and vicars who apply to register their relationships with same-sex partners can expect to be called to explain themselves.

A House of Bishops' statement said: Partnerships will be widely seen as being predominantly between gay and lesbian people in sexually active relationships. Members of the clergy and candidates for ordination who decide to enter into partnerships must expect to be asked for assurances that their relationship will be consistent with ... teaching.

It is understood that several bishops have already said privately that they have no intention of asking their clergy about whether their relationships are sexual or not.

Looking distinctly uncomfortable in announcing the policy, the Right Reverend Graham James, Bishop of Norwich, insisted: There is not any intention to pry into the lives of clergy. If they pledge to be faithful to the teaching of the church, you take what they say to be the truth.

The statement, which the bishop claimed did not amount to a change of policy, has been forced on the church by the Civil Partnerships Act, which comes into force in December and will enable same-sex partners to register their relationships.

This causes difficulties for a church already riven by the communion splitting controversy over gay clergy. Conservatives, particularly in Africa and the US, already detect equivocation in the Church of England over the issue.

The statement says: The House of Bishops does not regard entering into a civil partnership as intrinsically incompatible with holy orders, provided the person concerned is willing