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Church leaders have drawn up a new set of the Ten Commandments aimed at delivering “God bloggers” from the temptations of the blogosphere. Alarmed by the extent to which religious blogs can descend into vitriol, senior evangelical clergy are calling on bloggers to obey the new commandments or risk perdition.

The commandmentswere drawn up at a “Godblogs” conference in Kennington, southeast London. They have been engraved on cyberspace tablets by the Evangelical Alliance, the leading Christian umbrella group that represents thousands of churches of most denominations nationwide.

1. You shall not put your blog before your integrity
2. You shall not make an idol of your blog
3. You shall not misuse your screen name by using your anonymity to sin
4. Remember the Sabbath day by taking one day off a week from your blog
5. Honour your fellow-bloggers above yourselves and do not give undue significance to their mistakes
6. You shall not murder someone else's honour, reputation or feelings
7. You shall not use the web to commit or permit adultery in your mind
8. You shall not steal another person's content
9. You shall not give false testimony against your fellow-blogger
10. You shall not covet your neighbour's blog ranking. Be content with your own content

Emily Mapfuwa, the Christian who was so offended by a statue of Jesus with a penis that she decided to take the art gallery to court, never actually visited the exhibition in which it was displayed, a local radio station has confirmed.

Mapfuwa's lawyer, Michael Phillips of the Christian Legal Centre, was interviewed on BBC Radio Essex, where he was asked the question, Did Emily actually visit the exhibition?

He replied: Er, no. She didn't.

So how did Mapfuwa hear about the exhibit which so offended her deeply held religious beliefs? Unity at the Ministry of Truth suggests that, as the initial complaint was filed in January, it is likely to have been an article in The Sun entitled Aroused ‘Jesus' Statue Outrage which caught the sensitive thing's eye. The trouble is, that story was illustrated with an entirely different artwork, from a completely different exhibition (in the Saatchi gallery, 2006, as it happens).

So, in effect, we have a Christian claiming to be offended by a statue that was never actually exhibited, in an exhibition that she never actually visited.

And they wonder why people make fun of them?

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of Salman Rushdie's novel, The Satanic Verses .

Just over a year ago, I wrote a piece arguing that it was time to admit that those of us who had called for the book to be banned or pulped were wrong. Utterly wrong. It was understandable why many regarded and still do regard passages in The Satanic Verses to be so offensive, but that could not be used as a justification to try and prevent others from reading the book.

My piece got a mixed reaction from the Muslims I spoke to. Some agreed that the episode had been a disaster while others strongly disagreed with me and did not accept that a novelist should have the right to offend . I tried to explain that the right to offend did not imply that one agreed with what was being said – it was just that the writer should not be prevented from doing so as long as he was not breaking any laws.

This year I decided to send an email to members of one national Muslim organisation asking them for their own views on the matter. Here are excerpts from some of the responses that I received:

You cannot force people to respect you and it has resulted in the exact opposite reaction with all sorts of people lining up to insult and lampoon the prophet, Islam, the Qur'an and Muslims generally in the last two decades since.

I was 16 years old at the time and was perplexed over the issue. I knew that Rushdie had written an offensive book, but I found the Muslim protestors' response somewhat offensive too.

Some months back I had dinner with a well-known British columnist who has some rather strident views about immigration and Islam. I asked him outright what it was that so annoyed him about Islam and he said it was what he viewed as the seemingly constant attempts by Muslims to try and restrict freedoms.

And regrettably, like it or not, that is the image too many people now have of Muslims.

...Read full article

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday permanently disbarred nutter anti-porn lawyer Jack Thompson after years of review but left open a slim window of opportunity for reconsideration.

Thompson represented himself as he contested a disbarment recommendation from Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Dava Tunis in July and challenged a March opinion from the state's high court barring him from future filings without the signature of another Bar member as a sanction for alleged abusive filings.

Thompson said in a telephone interview that he would file a request for an emergency stay in U.S. District Court in Miami, where he has filed a civil rights complaint against the Florida Supreme Court, the Florida Bar, Tunis and others involved in his case.

The court viewed Thompson's filings contesting Tunis' recommendations as meaningless in the wake of its order and disbarred him after his deadline for an answer tolled.

There being no authorized petition for review filed and the time period to seek review has passed, the court has treated this as an uncontested case, the order said.

Thompson has 30 days to close out his practice and was ordered to pay court costs of $43,675.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about an edict issued Saturday by a top Saudi Muslim cleric, who said that writers who challenge or criticize religious sheikhs should be fired from their jobs, flogged, and jailed.

Sheikh Abdallah Ben Jabreen, a former member of the Saudi Arabia's Establishment of Fatwas, told Al-Majd TV, that journalists who criticize religious figures should be punished.

Ben Jabreen's fatwa came in support of an edict issued last week by Sheikh Saleh al-Lihedan, who called for the deaths of owners of television channels that broadcast “immoral” programs.

We fear for the safety of journalists and writers in the Middle East when senior religious figures issue calls for the imprisonment and flogging of their critics, said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney: The Saudi authorities must take a stand against such sinister edicts and ensure that journalists are protected.

A new 'documentary' by the man behind Borat will open in New York at the beginning of next month. Provocatively titled Religulous (think 'religious' and 'ridiculous'), it will mock the beliefs of the world's major religions, recruiting unwitting assistance from the ranks of the faithful.

The project has already inspired protests at its premiere at the Toronto film festival earlier this month, and US satirist Bill Maher and director Larry Charles have been accused of misleading participants. Maher has conceded that several sleights of hand were necessary to persuade people to perform.

Unlike Borat, both Charles and Maher have made it clear that, while they were looking for comic potential from their engagements with believers, their ultimate aim was not to poke gentle fun but to demolish.

Employing the same robust approach as Supersize Me and Bowling For Columbine, Religulous sees Maher challenge his interview subjects over their knowledge of the literal historic facts of their religions.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Maher described the type of audience he hoped to provoke: 'Any religious person. The point is to question what is usually made to be unquestionable in this country. Normally if you say the word "faith", the debate is over - no matter what incredibly nonsensical, destructive, ridiculous tenet comes out of your mouth.

The determination to offend is not limited to the US market. A specially commissioned international poster, unveiled this month, depicts three monkeys as a rabbi, the Pope and an imam.

So far it appears to have been the Roman Catholic church that is threatening to take the most offence, perhaps because of Maher's connection.

Bill Donahue, the president of the Catholic League, said: The problem is not the poster. It's Bill Maher. He has said some of the most vile things. He can say all he wants about being ecumenical, but it's only one religion he really has it out for, and it's the Catholic religion.

The five women on the cover are dressed in black and smiling, not an uncommon strategy for selling magazines.

But these cover girls are women of the cloth, featured in Gospel Today magazine's latest issue, which the Southern Baptist Convention has pulled from the shelves at its bookstores, though the magazine is available for sale upon request.

The group says women pastors go against its beliefs, according to its interpretation of the New Testament. The magazine was taken off stands in more than 100 Lifeway Christian Bookstores across the countr.

The magazine's publisher, Teresa Hairston, said she was just reporting on a trend, not trying to promote women pastors: They basically treated it like pornography and put it behind the counter. Unless a person goes into the store and asks for it, they won't see it displayed.

Nutters are calling for a box office boycott of two films that feature inexplicit sex scenes involving young girls.

Hounddog , starring 14-year-old Dakota Fanning, drew controversy when it appeared at the Sundance Film Festival last year for its scene depicting the rape of a pre-teen girl.

A second film, Towelhead , stars Summer Bishil, an 18-year-old actress portraying a 13-year-old girl who experiences her sexual awakening on screen.

This is abhorrent and abusive, said Ted Baehr, chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission: We are calling on people to avoid these movies, to tell other people not to see it.

Baehr said the movies are damaging to the child actresses filming the explicit scenes, as well as the public at large: There are two sides of it. The side of actual abuse to the actress and promoting or condoning these activities .

Family and women's nutters have been especially active in North Carolina, where the controversial child-rape scene in Hounddog was filmed. Baehr said Hounddog received nearly $400,000 in tax credits funded by state citizens.

Baehr has joined the No More Child Porn campaign, run by Donna Mille of Concerned Women for America, a coalition of conservative women who promote Biblical values and family traditions. They are a part of about 200 smaller groups around the country who have joined the protest.

A spokesman for Warner Independent Pictures, which released Towelhead " said, Our film deals with a girl's coming of age. He said that the art-house production is rated R, and will be released Friday in select cities across the country: It is a movie like any other movie. It's an adaptation of a novel and a novel that was a New York Times best seller.

A senior Labour MP is facing demands for a sleaze inquiry after intervening in a court case on behalf of a party donor.

Keith Vaz, chairman of the influential home affairs select committee, urged the High Court to delay proceedings involving a friend from whom he and his family had received lavish hospitality.

We can reveal that the friend - controversial lawyer Shahrokh Mireskandari - was on the brink of losing a long-running legal costs battle with an airline when Vaz intervened.

Keith Vaz urged a judge to delay proceedings against his friend who was on the brink of losing a legal battle worth £400,000

The stakes were high as the lawyer is desperately challenging a court order to pay £400,000 in costs to the liquidator of the airline. He is now facing a bankruptcy action after losing his latest appeal.

At a critical point in the case Vaz wrote to the High Court asking the presiding judge to adjourn proceedings pending the outcome of complaints by Mireskandari about how the case had been previously handled, involving hotly contested allegations of racism and bias.

Legal sources said the judge was furious at what he perceived to be 'political interference'.

...Read full article from dailymail.co.uk

Update: Sleaze Inquiry Opens on Keith Vaz

3rd October 2008. See Sleaze inquiry opens from dailymail.co.uk

A sleaze inquiry opened yesterday into claims Keith Vaz abused his position as a Labour MP by doing favours for a friend and convicted fraudster.

Vaz could have to quit as chairman of the home affairs select committee if he is censured over his links with the controversial lawyer Dr Shahrokh Mireskandari.

The Daily Mail revealed that ex-minister Vaz had asked a High Court judge to halt proceedings in a case involving Mireskandari.

Vaz also faced accusations he misled another MP over the extent of his links with the millionaire, whose firm has given donations to Labour.

John Lyon, the parliamentary standards commissioner, opened the inquiry after receiving a complaint alleging Vaz had breached the MPs' code of conduct.

Tissue Sir? Would you like the apple pie?

Anti-porn organization Girls Against Porn will be sending a letter, co-signed by other pro-family organizations, to American Airlines stating it would be wise to employ in-flight Internet porn filters.

The coalition letter takes issue with the fact that children and passengers might be exposed to pornography in the already cramped quarters of a plane. The group also feels it is unfair for anyone to sit adjacent to someone viewing pornographic material and that confrontations might arise leading to security risks.

The letter claims the airlines are taking a risk, opening themselves up to lawsuits from customers who are exposed to porn or its effects.

In one such lawsuit, American Airlines was sued for $200,000 by a passenger who alleged while resting they awoke to find a substance in their hair from another passenger who was allegedly masturbating.

The letter states, If passengers who view porn decide to act upon that, if there is a child flying in that row, airlines have opened the door for traumatic experiences and lawsuits.

The Catholic Church is raising holy hell over a new Simon & Schuster book that encourages couples to sneak into church confessional booths and have sex.

In 101 Places To Have Sex Before You Die, out in November, authors Marsha Normandy and Joseph St. James write: The only sex the Church doesn't frown upon is the married, hetrosexual and birth control-free kind, so the odds are the pope is pretty displeased with you already. Instead of carrying all that mortal sin around with you for weeks at a time until you can make it to confession, why not combine both with a quick and tidy 2-for-1 session?

Joe Zwilling, a rep for the New York Archdiocese, told us: This is sick stuff and the authors and the book publishers should be ashamed of themselves . . . Let's hope the reaction from people is . . . strong.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue added: The kind of people who would have sex in the confessional would also have sex in a graveyard. And I don't mean with each other.

A rep for Simon & Schuster said: " This is one entry in a book that includes 100 other equally facetious references. We think readers will understand the spirit of the book."

A coalition of pro-family nutters in Ohio is being sued by an alternative newspaper for allegedly conspiring to violate their First Amendment rights.

Citizens for Community Values (CCV), along with 38 other civic leaders and groups, asked Cincinnati's tabloid known as CityBeat to stop running their adult services category of ads. CCV and other groups claim the adult services category has been used by advertisers to promote prostitution and other sexual services, in violation of Ohio criminal law.

CityBeat has now filed a lawsuit against CCV and the other community leaders, claiming the coalition's appeal is a conspiracy to violate the newspaper's First Amendment rights.

Nutter David Miller of CCV says while he believes the lawsuit is frivolous, it must be defended: I think we could see a very serious problem if we were to lose this case, When any pastor, any person who wanted to raise a standard of righteousness and say, this is wrong, we shouldn't be doing such-and-such in our society -- it might even roll over to the issue of abortion -- there's no telling how far down the road this could go.

You will meet a tall, dark, frock wearing charlatan. Beware! He wants to kill you  in the name of nonsense

Another senior Saudi cleric has called for the deaths of competing purveyors of nonsense. He said astrologers on Arab television should face the death penalty

Sorcerers who appear on satellite channels who are proven to be sorcerers have committed a great crime... and the Muslim consensus is that the apostate's punishment is death by the sword, Sheikh Saleh Al-Fozan told Al-Madina daily.
"Those who call in to these shows should not be accorded Muslim rites when they die, the prominent cleric added.

Many of the hundreds of Arab satellite channels that have sprung up in recent years specialise in horoscopes and other advice to callers on solving problems that is seen by some religious authorities as sorcery . In their capacity as judges, clerics of Saudi Arabia's austere form of Islam often sentence sorcerers to death.

Al-Fozan, a member of the Higher Council of Clerics, was responding to a controversy ignited by a Council colleague, Sheikh Saleh Al-Lohaidan, who said last week that owners of Arab TV shows should be tried and face death over some shows.

An Islamic militant leader warned that former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney could be the target of suicide bombers unless he cancels his first concert in Israel, reported the British Sunday Express.

The celebrated rock star plans to arrive in Israel as part of a world tour, and give a single concert at Tel Aviv's Park Hayarkon on September 25.

Omar Bakri, an Islamic preacher, said McCartney's decision to perform as part of Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations made him the enemy of Muslims worldwide.
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If he values his life, Mr. McCartney must not come to Israel, Bakri was quoted as saying. He will not be safe there. The sacrifice operatives will be waiting for him.

The head of Saudi Arabia's Islamic Sharia courts has said owners of Arabic television stations airing immodest shows in Ramadan could face execution.

Sheikh Saleh al-Lohaidan, one of the most powerful clerics was responding to a question on a radio phone-in program about the owners of TV stations airing programs that offend modesty, especially during the holy month of Ramadan.

If the evil of those who promote corruption in belief and actions cannot be held back through lesser punishments, then they can be put to death through the judicial process, Lohaidan, head of the Supreme Judicial Council said.

He appeared to be referring to Turkish soap operas that became hugely popular in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries this year, provoking a storm of anger among conservatives in Saudi Arabia who fear the spread of secular culture.

They gained huge popularity partly because they were dubbed into colloquial Arabic and focused on a Muslim country whose culture many Arabs can relate to. The characters would fast in Ramadan but also drink wine.

The government's official advisor on religious affairs, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdelaziz Al al-Sheikh, said in July it was not Islamically permissible to watch the Turkish serials.

The shows, Nour and Lost Years , were aired by MBC based in the United Arab Emirates.

For television critics, it was an exemplary piece of programme-making which kicked off a week of coverage of Islam. But Channel 4's The Qur'an has prompted a backlash among the global Shia community and offended one of its most 'liberal' clerics.

The Iranian Grand Ayatollah Saanei has written to the documentary's award-winning British film-maker to berate the portrayal of him and Shia Muslims as a whole. The complaint has also been passed to the media regulator, Ofcom.

In particular, the Grand Ayatollah objects to perceived links between the Shia faith and violence, including scenes which showed Iranians chanting anti-Western slogans, burning effigies and advocating terrorism.

The Grand Ayatollah's representative said: In the said documentary, the director had tried to introduce Shi'ism as a superstitious sect. The way it was narrated, the selection of the words, and the anti-Shia faces interviewed, all indicate that the director had intended to unfairly satisfy their anti-Shia sentiments. Out of more than 200 interviews foreign correspondents and reporters have had with His Eminence during the past several years, this was the only case in which we witnessed the mass media [compromise its] professional integrity.

Muhammad Abdul Bari, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, has written to Channel 4's chief executive, Andy Duncan, upset by specific misrepresentations of Islam: The programme unfairly maligns Muslims following the Shia tradition by accusing them of heresy based on a collection of age-old polemics and misinformation. With respect, this is an irresponsible portrayal which plays into the hands of those who wish to seek discord.

A spokesman for the programme said: In the film is a balanced representation of a broad range of Islamic opinion. The Grand Ayatollah's complete answers to two questions are included. Also the film was meticulously researched and checked by four Islamic advisers.

The prosecutor general in Amman charged the 12 with blasphemy, demeaning Islam and Muslim feelings, and slandering and insulting the prophet Muhammad in violation of the Jordanian Penal Code. The charges are especially unusual because the alleged violations were not committed on Jordanian soil.

Among the defendants is the Danish cartoonist whose alleged crime was to draw in 2005 one of the Muhammad illustrations that instigators then used to spark Muslim riots around the world. His co-defendants include 10 editors of Danish newspapers that published the images. The 12th accused man is Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders, who supposedly broke Jordanian law by releasing on the Web his recent film, Fitna , which tries to examine how the Quran inspires Islamic terrorism.

Neither Denmark nor the Netherlands will turn over its citizens to Interpol, as the premise of Jordan's extradition request is an affront to the very principles that define democracies. It is thus unlikely that any Western country would do so, either. But there is no guarantee for the defendants' protection if they travel to countries that are more sympathetic to the Jordanian court.

Unless democratic countries stand up to this challenge to free speech, other nations may be emboldened to follow the Jordanian example. Kangaroo courts across the globe will be ready to charge free people with obscure violations of other societies' norms and customs, and send Interpol to bring them to stand trial in frivolous litigation.

...Read full article from online.wsj.com

The goal of Muslim Massacre , which can be downloaded for free on the internet, is to ensure that no Muslim man or woman is left alive, according to the game's creator.

Players control an American Hero armed with a machine gun and rocket launcher who is parachuted into the Middle East.

By slaughtering all the Arabs that appear on screen – some dressed as terrorists, some apparently civilians - players progress to later levels where they take on Osama bin Laden, Mohammed and finally Allah.

The game's creator, a freelance programmer known as Sigvatr, described the game as fun and funny and some players have interpreted the game as a critical commentary - albeit a crude one - of US foreign policy.

But Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of The Ramadhan Foundation, Britain's leading Muslim youth organisation, said that the game glamorised violence against Muslims whether or not it was satirical: Encouraging children and young people in a game to kill Muslims is unacceptable, tasteless and deeply offensive.

If it was the other way around, with a game featuring Muslims killing Israelis or Americans, there would be uproar and rightly so. We would urge ISPs to take action against sites like this.

We have written to the British Government today to urge an inquiry into this game and take action to shut down the site; this is not satire but a deliberate attempt to demonise Muslims.

The game was first released in January this year, but has become more popular in recent days after being linked to by several prominent blogs.

Sigvatr, an American based in Brisbane, Australia said on an internet forum appeared to distance himself from the view that it was a parody of American jingoism, and acknowledge that many players would enjoy the game for the chance to shoot virtual Muslims: I think it's pretending to be legitimate commentary and I'm sure there will be lots of people who defend it on those grounds, but ultimately it's just a game where you blow the gently caress out of arabs .

Anyone is free to believe whatever they won't (sic) though, because I don't even know how to interpret it myself anymore. The bottom line is that I enjoyed making it and it's fun to play.

Update: Ongoing Massacre

5th November 2008. Based on article from theage.com.au

The Australian Muslim community has accused the Federal Government and police of double standards over their treatment of a free online game in which the aim is to kill as many Muslims as possible.

Keysar Trad, president of the Islamic Friendship Association, wrote to the Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, expressing outrage over the game, Muslim Massacre , saying it teaches young people to further hate Muslims and encourages them to carry out acts of discrimination, vilification or outright violence against Australian Muslims.

Over a period of twelve hours, American Rights Counsel LLC sent out over 4000 DMCA takedown notices to YouTube, all making copyright infringement claims against videos with content critical of the Church of Scientology. Clips included footage of Australian and German news reports about Scientology, A Message to Anonymous/Scientology, and footage from a Clearwater City Commission meeting. Many accounts were suspended by YouTube in response to multiple allegations of copyright infringement.

YouTube users responded with DMCA counter-notices. At this time, many of the suspended channels have been reinstated and many of the videos are back up. Whether or not American Rights Counsel, LLC represents the notoriously litigious Church of Scientology is unclear, but this would not be the first time that the Church of Scientology has used the DMCA to silence Scientology critics. The Church of Scientology DMCA complaints shut down the YouTube channel of critic Mark Bunker in June, 2008. Bunker's account, XenuTV, was also among the channels shut down in this latest flurry of takedown notices.

Billie Piper's TV portrayal of a happy hooker has been branded obscene by an anti-prostitution campaign group.

The POPPY Project singled out Billie, star of ITV2's Secret Diary Of A Call Girl , for criticism.

Chief executive Denise Marshall said: She appeared in Doctor Who, a programme watched by lots of young people. To then go and give endorsement to a programme like Secret Diary is obscene.

In the TV drama, which returns to ITV2 on Friday, Piper's character provides sex services in swanky surroundings with handsome men.

Denise added: For this privileged young woman to misrepresent the reality of prostitution is appalling.

A spokesman for Tiger Aspect Productions which makes the show, said: The programme in no way seeks to condone or normalise prostitution.

Update: Warm Reception

13th September 2008

Star Billie Piper said that the warm reception the show received in the US made a welcome change from criticism in this country that it glamorised prostitution.

She said: I was really thrilled as it got some serious slamming over here and it was just quite nice that in the reviews Stateside they were more thorough about the ideas that the show had, rather than about me being an irresponsible role model.