Mythical beings are incapable of hating anyone at all.

But if you believe Allah isn’t a mythical being… well, suffice it to say that he seems remarkably indifferent to the tragedies that befall his devout followers even as they’re in the very process of worshipping him….

Deadly Crush At Timbuktu Mosque (The BBC; Feb 26)

Twenty-six people, mostly women and children, have been killed in a crush at the famous Djinguereber mosque in Timbuktu, sources have told the BBC.

The stampede happened during the Mouloud festival to mark the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, when people walk around the mud mosque in northern Mali.

The worshippers had to use a different path than usual because of renovations to the 14th Century building.

Timbuktu, in the Sahara Desert, was once a centre of Islamic learning.

Initial reports said that 16 people had died but local officials have subsequently told the BBC that a further 10 bodies were recovered at the scene and buried by their families without going to hospital.

According to Muslim tradition, people should be buried with 24 hours of their death.

Local tour guide Halif Mohamed al-Hassan told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme that up to 25,000 people converge on the mosque each year and walk around it three times to mark the prophet’s birthday.

He says the people were killed after an elderly woman fell down and others were trampled to death.

Some 40 people were injured, the police say, according to Reuters news agency.

“I lost my sister. She was 16 and had gone to pray,” said local resident, Ali Kounta, reports the AFP news agency.

The Djinguereber mosque is the largest in Timbuktu.

The once wealthy city helped spread Islam across West Africa.

Its fortunes declined after the 16th Century, as the region’s main trade routes switched to the Atlantic Ocean, instead of the Sahara Desert.

For several other examples of how going to a mosque can be hazardous to your health, see the entry I posted on Feb 22.

(Would you prefer to read about how dangerous it can be to participate in the annual pilgrimage to Mecca? See the entries I posted on Jan 13, 2006 and Jan 21, 2008.)

Related posts:

1. Does God Hate Catholics?
2. Christians banned from using Allah in Malaysia
3. Do Christians Hate The Disabled?

I’ve also asked slightly different versions of the same question before (perhaps most notably here and here).

I have yet to receive a good answer from a Catholic or any other variety of Christian.

Instead, events this year have only further sharpened my questions.

Consider:

Archbishop Of Port-au-Prince Monsignor Serge Miot Killed By Haiti Quake (Ruth Gledhill/The Times; Jan 13)

The Archbishop of Port-au-Prince is among those killed in the huge earthquake that devastated the city.

The body of Monsignor Serge Miot, 63, was pulled from the rubble of his offices, according to missionaries from the Saint Jacques Society.

The diocese’s vicar general, Benoit Seguiranno, is also missing following Tuesday’s 7.0-magnitude quake in Haiti, which is largely Catholic.

[NOTE: According to the CIA World Factbook, Haiti is 80% Roman Catholic and 16% Protestant.]

Father Andre Siohan, a missionary of the French Saint Jacques society, wrote in an e-mail to the Missionary International News Service Agency from Port-au-Prince: “Nou atè nèt” (in Creole, “We are on our knees”)….

He added: “I went to the city centre this morning to visit the other religious communities: the area is completely devastated and there are thousands of victims. It is terrible. We are all well, but some of our seminarians are missing. Some are injured, but some are maybe dead. Pray for us.”

Father Pierre Le Beller, who returned to France after serving around 30 years in Haiti, told the missionary agency by telephone: “Our confrères, some seminarians, friends and neighbours of the Pacot area are currently sheltered in tents in the gardens of our house, damaged by the quake. We fear an extremely elevated number of injured: the real emergency is that of treating them.”…

The Caritas Centre in the central Saint Antoine neighbourhood, a facility for the assistance and reintegration of street children, which he founded and has dedicated his life to for many years, was devastated….

The earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale, was the strongest to hit Haiti for 200 years and was followed by two strong aftershocks….”

Legendary Brazilian Aid Worker Among The Victims Of Haiti Earthquake (Andrew Downie/The Christian Science Monitor; Jan 13)

A Brazilian doctor whose work helped save the lives of tens of thousands of children through a Church-run network that provides basic health care and support to infants was among those killed in the Haiti earthquake.

Zilda Arns was in Haiti to support the local volunteers of the Pastoral da Criança (Children’s Pastoral), a group she founded in southern Brazil in 1983.

The group teaches uneducated mothers the importance of healthcare issues such as breast feeding, vaccinations and proper hydration, and then instructs them how to pass on that knowledge to friends and neighbors in Brazil’s most impoverished communities.Today, the Pastoral is one of Brazil’s most respected organisations and Arns was one of the nation’s best-known faces.

The group is present in 42,000 Brazilian communities, with 260,000 trained volunteers attending to 1.8 million children under the age of 6. In those communities, the infant mortality rate is 11 per 1,000 births; in Brazil overall it is 22.5.

“There is absolutely no doubt that the Children¹s Pastoral program revolutionized public health here, which was then based solely on government health services,” said Cesar Victora, a epidemiologist who worked with Arns for more than two decades.

When UNICEF looked to set up a new children’s health program in Brazil, her brother, then a bishop, asked the 75-year-old paediatrician Arns to come up with a proposal and she used the parable of the loaves and fishes as inspiration.

“God told people to organise and they were fed,” she said in an interview last year. “We organised the communities, we identified the leaders in those impoverished areas, and we told the ones that wanted to work as volunteers in multiplying knowledge and solidarity that we would teach them how to do that. I knew if we did it right we could save millions of lives.”…

Arns herself was extremely devout and alongside the diplomas and awards that cover the wood-panelled walls of her office are religious icons and photographs of churchmen, including one of her with Pope John Paul II.

Her faith helped her through her own tragedies. Her first born child died just three days old and her husband drowned while rescuing a girl from rough seas in 1978. One of her five other children died in a car accident in 2003….

And now Arns herself is gone, her life snuffed out by a natural catastrophe that her gOd either caused or stood back and did nothing to prevent.

If this is the way the Christian gOd treats his most devout nations and workers, who needs Satan?

But perhaps this tragedy – as mammoth as it is – has at least helped Haitians to come to their senses and realize the impotency and/or evil of the deity they’ve wasted so much of their time, money, and prayers on?

Ummm, not quite….

Haitians Praise God After Apocalyptic Quake (Michelle Faul and Mike Melia/The Associated Press; Jan 17)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti: Drumbeats called the faithful to a Sunday Mass praising God amid a scene resembling the Apocalypse — a collapsed cathedral in a city cloaked with the smell of death and rattled by gunfire, where rescue crews battle to pry an ever-smaller number of the living from the ruins.

Sunlight streamed through what little was left of blown-out stained-glass windows as the Rev. Eric Toussaint preached to a small crowd of survivors. A rotting body lay in its main entrance.

“Why give thanks to God? Because we are here,” Toussaint said. “We say ‘Thank you God.’ What happened is the will of God. We are in the hands of God now.”

As Catholic and Protestant worshippers across the city met for their first Sunday services since the magnitude-7.0 quake, many Haitians were still waiting for food and water after five days and violence began to crack through….

At the roofless cathedral, elderly women worried the beads of their rosaries and prayed for the intervention of Our Lady Of The Ascension, to whom the 81-year-old church is named.

A military helicopter roared overhead, drowning out a hymn by the congregation. Above loomed the partially destroyed office of the archbishop who died nearby and another building whose blown-out walls had laid it open it like a doll’s house….

At the cathedral, the Rev. Toussaint described his own near-miraculous survival.

“I watched the destruction of the cathedral from this window,” he said, pointing to a window in what remains of the archdiocese office. “I am not dead because God has a plan for me.”

“What happens is a sign from God, saying that we must recognize his power – we need to reinvent ourselves.”…

Perhaps that reinvention ought to include the abandoning of a gOd who has been revealed to be so impotent, uncaring, and/or outright evil?

The Bible repeatedly ridicules those who cling to false gOds even in the face of such obvious impotence. Why shouldn’t Bible-believers in turn be ridiculed when THEIR gOd does so little to protect them from disasters?

And as if the Haiti earthquake wasn’t a clear enough message for Christians around the world to wake up and abandon their silly religion, they soon had it reinforced by this event:

Huge Quake Hits Chile (Roberto Candia & Eva Vergara/The Associated Press; Feb 27)

TALCA, Chile: One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck Chile on Saturday, toppling homes, collapsing bridges and plunging trucks into the fractured earth….

Chileans near the epicenter were tossed about as if shaken by a giant.

It was the strongest earthquake to hit Chile in 50 years. President-elect Sebastian Pinera said more than 120 people died, a number that was rising quickly.

The quake shook buildings in Argentina’s capital of Buenos Aires, and was felt as far away as Sao Paulo in Brazil — 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) to the east.

In Talca, just 65 miles (105 kilometers) from the epicenter, furniture toppled as the earth shook for more than a minute in something akin to major airplane turbulence. The historic center of town largely collapsed….

Collapsed roads and bridges complicated north-south travel in the narrow Andean nation. Electricity, water and phone lines were cut to many areas….

In Santiago, modern buildings are built to withstand earthquakes, but many older ones were heavily damaged, including the Nuestra Senora de la Providencia church, whose bell tower collapsed….

The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same area of Chile on May 22, 1960. The magnitude-9.5 quake killed 1,655 people and left 2 million homeless….

Saturday’s quake matched a 1906 temblor off the Ecuadorean coast as the seventh-strongest ever recorded in the world.

According to the CIA World Factbook, Chile is 70% Roman Catholic and about 17% Protestant.

How many more signs of the evil, powerlessness, or simple non-existence of their gOd must Christians in general and Catholics in particular experience before they revise their beliefs and rituals accordingly?

Related posts:

1. Does God Hate Catholics?
2. Haiti: Another Christian Response
3. Do Christians Hate The Disabled?

Director Took Religion Too Far, Fired State Workers Say (Mark Niquette & Jim Siegel/The Columbus Dispatch; March 4)

The director of a little-known legislative council helping to oversee the state’s agency for injured workers often asked her three-member staff to pray and judged them “on the quality of their faith” before firing them, the staffers say.

The two staff attorneys and an executive assistant accuse Virginia McInerney, director of the Ohio Workers’ Compensation Council, of wrongful discharge, religious discrimination, harassment and retaliation.

McInerney said last night that she could not discuss specifics because legal action could be involved. But she said, “I deny the wrongdoing they are alleging.”

The Feb. 16 firings have Democrats and others raising questions about what happened inside the council, which is expected to receive more than $1 million in Bureau of Workers’ Compensation funds this fiscal year.

According to the workers, McInerney told them that she believed God placed her in the job. They said she led the staff in prayer, asked a worker to listen to and take notes on God at Work CDs and complained that a Senate resolution to privatize the bureau was “another of Satan’s efforts to stall or impede the council’s progress.”

One worker also complained that McInerney said the source of conflict in the office was an “inability to recognize her ‘divine gift for editing.’”

“It became increasingly clear that the director was judging employees not on professional performance but on the quality of their faith, according to her beliefs,” staff attorney Kim H. Finley wrote in a letter this week to state Sen. Stephen Buehrer, chairman of the council.

Finley, staff attorney Shadya Y. Yazback and executive assistant Stephanie Susan Irwin all sent letters to Buehrer on Tuesday protesting their firings. Buehrer, R-Delta, refused to comment on the matter yesterday.

House Minority Leader William Batchelder, R-Medina and the council chairman when McInerney was hired, said she called him a few days ago to let him know that she had to fire three people.

Asked about the accusations against McInerney, Batchelder, a veteran lawyer and former judge, said he has represented a lot of people over the years who had to fire people.

“Some of the stories you hear are fantastic in the sense of imagination employed,” he said. “I never want to assume a supervisor who has her record would have done something inappropriate.”

But Rep. Tom Letson, D-Warren and council vice chairman, called the firings “troubling.” Another council member, state Rep. Dan Dodd, D-Hebron, said, “I think it’s important we get to the bottom of this.”

Finley said in her letter that the workers approached McInerney on Feb. 10 seeking separation agreements because “her poor management, failed leadership and discriminatory practices had led to significant and insurmountable inter-office issues.”

McInerney said she could not meet their terms under state law and offered them the chance to resign. The workers said that when they refused, they were fired. They are asking the council to consider “modifying the terms” of their departures.

The council is not part of the bureau but was created in 2007 after a series of bureau investment scandals. It was modeled after the Ohio Retirement Study Council, which provides legislative oversight of the state’s employee pension systems.

The duties of the bipartisan council, which consists of legislators and representatives of employers, employees and the public, include reviewing the soundness of the bureau and legislation affecting it.

McInerney, 52, who had worked at the Ohio Legislative Services Commission, started as director on July 6, 2008, at a salary of $102,500 a year, according to state personnel records. She has appeared on the 700 Club, written a book and magazine articles about Christian singles and spoken in the past at the Vineyard Church of Columbus.

Finley was hired Sept. 8 and was earning $87,500 a year; Yazback was hired Sept. 20 and was earning $86,000 annually; and Irwin, hired July 19, was making $52,000, records show.

The council received $638,000 in bureau funds during the fiscal year that ended June 30 and is expected to receive $650,000 in the current fiscal year, plus an additional $500,000 for an actuarial study.

In addition, the council has received $126,000 so far from assessments on Ohio employers that started July 1.

Related posts:

1. Benign Atheist Ad in Iowa Draws Fire
2. Jesus Guns
3. The Pentagon’s Continuing Love Affair With Jesus

Judge for yourself:

Hannity Falsely Claims Obama Administration Gives Special Treatment To Atheists (MediaMatters.org; Feb 27)

Commenting on a White House staff-level meeting with leaders of atheist groups, Sean Hannity claimed that religious groups “have not received this treatment from the Obama White House.” In fact, President Obama himself has met with numerous religious leaders, and the administration’s contacts with religious groups include two days of meetings between administration staffers and more than 60 religious leaders.

From the February 26 edition of Fox News’ Hannity:

HANNITY: The Obama administration earlier today rolled out the red carpet for a coalition of atheist groups. Now, among the individuals in attendance was Michael Newdow. That’s the California man who sued unsuccessfully to have the words “under God” removed from the Pledge of Allegiance. Now, religious groups, however, have not received this kind of treatment from the Obama White House. Now, last year, the President distanced himself from the National Day of Prayer, cancelling the formal service traditionally held in honor of the day and refusing to attend a Catholic prayer breakfast. So what’s going on? Has the administration demonstrated a pattern of hostility towards religion, or is this merely a coincidence?

…. On February 26, McClatchy Newspapers reported that leaders from the Secular Coalition for America met “with Obama administration officials from the public engagement office of the White House and from the departments of Justice, Health and Human Services and Defense” and that “President Obama — as expected — did not make an appearance.”…

On July 10, 2009, Obama met with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. Obama similarly hosted separate White House meeting with a group of more than 16 Jewish leaders, including two rabbis; Mormon leaders, including Thomas S. Monson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; and the Dalai Lama….

Obama spoke during an August 19, 2009 conference call organized by a “coalition of more than 30 faith-based groups” to discuss health care reform. The conference call reportedly included “at least 25 faith leaders — from evangelical Christian, Jewish, Muslim and other religious traditions.”…

At the February 4 National Prayer Breakfast, Obama spoke in front of “an array of religious leaders.”…

An April 9, 2009, Time article reported: “Over the course of two days, the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships gathered more than 60 religious leaders (and a handful of secular non-profits) at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building for the first in what director Joshua Dubois says will be a series of briefings…. Throughout the two days, council members — as well as approximately 40 additional religious leaders who were invited to attend the sessions — sat through briefings by Administration officials on topics ranging from education reform and childhood hunger to energy policy. In a town where ‘religious issues’ are often thought to be limited to hot-button social concerns like abortion and gay marriage, the wide array of information was welcomed by many of those gathered. ‘This shows us that none of our faiths disqualify us from being concerned about the issues facing our country,’ said Vashti McKenzie, a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal church. She added, ‘We’ve heard from candidates before elections — thank you for coming to us after the election is over.’”…

On June 9, 2009, Politico reported: “Also, religious leaders meet with White House policymakers on a regular basis – and help to shape decisions on matters large and small. A White House speechwriter working on Obama’s Egypt speech called several faith leaders to get their thoughts. After the White House unveiled its budget in April, officials convened a two-hour conference call with religious leaders to discuss how the spending plan would help the poor.”…

On June 11, 2009, 33 religious leaders belonging to the National Religious Campaign Against Torture met with “senior Obama administration officials” to discuss the group’s call for the “establishment of an independent, non-partisan Commission of Inquiry to investigate the development and implementation of a program of torture by the United States in the years after 9/11.”…

There’s more, but I think that’s sufficient to blow Hannity’s claim out of the water several times over.

If you know of any theists who think *atheists* are the ones who are being accorded special consideration by the Obama administration, you might want to direct them to this Media Matters post.

And if you want to rub their noses in it, well… I don’t think there’s anything in the Bible that forbids that.

In fact, doesn’t it say something about the truth setting people free?

Here’s an opportunity to put that claim to the test!

Related posts:

1. And One Step Back….
2. Finally, A Place At The Table For Non-Theists
3. The Day Of Prayer Is Here Again

To quote Oumkheyr once again, “I really believe that France is scared of Muslims, which is the motivation for this law, but people shouldn’t generalize as not all Muslims are the same. Yes, some have done terrible things, but it is done in the name of man, never in the name of God.”

If you happen to be an atheist yourself, I bet you can readily reel off a few similarly annoying examples of your own. (Praising gOd for saving one person in a plane crash but not blaming him for the terrible deaths of the other hundred people on the plane seems to be an especially popular example among my friends.)

One of the claims that I personally find especially annoying is that religion has inspired a lot of great art. Even if we overlook the problematic nature of that claim and simply take it at face value it still commits what I call the logical sin of misemphasis by failing to acknowledge that religion has also pre-empted and destroyed a lot of great art.

This is a point that I’ve made before but it was brought into sharp focus for me again several times this week when I wasn’t expecting it. The details bear repeating as they help counter the pro-religion argument we hear so much more frequently.

1) In the course of reading the first 165 pages of Daniel J. Boorstin’s mind-expanding book, The Creators, I encountered no fewer than six assaults by theists on the art of those who came before them.

—– On pages 89-90 I learned that “In 1215, according to the Arab chronicler Abd al Latif, Caliph Malek al Aazis Othman was offended by these monuments of idolatry [i.e., the Egyptian pyramids]. As a work of piety he assembled a large crew to destroy one of the smaller pyramids, the pyramid of Menkaure at Giza. After eight months’ labor, his crew made so little impression that he gave up. The mark of that hopeless effort is still visible in a small scar on the north slope of that pyramid.” Only the size of those magnificent structures saved them. How many smaller pieces over the centuries haven’t been as lucky?

—– On pages 124-125 I learned how one of the greatest creations of the Romans, Hadrian’s Pantheon – a temple dedicated to and apparently depicting all the Greco-Roman deities (128 CE) – was consecrated as a Christian church by Pope Boniface IV in 608 CE “after the pagan filth was removed… so that the commemoration of the saints would take place henceforth where not gods but demons were formerly worshipped.” Later (circa 1632), Pope Urban VIII stripped the bronze off the roof beams and used it to make 80 cannons, allegedly in the belief that it was better to use the metal to protect the Holy See than to keep the rain off silly old buildings.

—– On page 135 Boorstin describes how the Great Church in Constantinople (Hagia Sophia), built in 532 by Justinian, was assaulted no fewer than three times. First the Christian Iconoclasts championed by Emperor Leo III covered up its “diabolical” images in 726; then Christian Crusaders stripped it of its gold and silver pieces in 1204; and then even more radical changes were made when Muslims took over Constantinople in 1453 and converted the place into a mosque.

—– On page 162 Boorstin in passing shares the fact that medieval Muslim iconoclasts chipped away the Sphinx’s nose.

With some 550 pages left to go, I shudder to think what other examples remain to be discovered….

2) This morning I opened up my copy of Stefano Zuffi’s Dictionary of Painters: From A to Z. The very first artist listed is Pieter Aertsen, a 16th century Dutchman. Three examples of his work are provided. One of them is described this way: “The tranquil head of the ox and the partial but expressive figures of two shepherds are all that remain of the Adoration of the Shepherds, a large altarpiece painted by Aertsen for the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, and destroyed in 1566 during a violent iconoclastic campaign launched by the most outspoken radical Calvinist preachers…. These [painted] figures are so intense and real that they truly deserve to be described as the precursors of Dutch painting in the ‘golden age.’”

Wikipedia adds this: “Several of his best works, including altarpieces in various churches, were destroyed in the Netherlands’ religious wars.”

Clearly, no one has been absolutely safe from the destructive, art-hating wrath of theists – not even the fellow members of the same religion!

And of course the impulse among theists to ban or destroy the art and images of others hardly disappeared with the end of the Age of Religious Wars.

Here’s a recent example that’s humorous in its absurdity but quite sad when one stops and recalls the long, ignoble tradition it’s part of:

Foam Cleavage Cover-Up (The Age; Feb 25)

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado: Puppet cleavage has been ruled out for advertising posters on bus shelters in Colorado Springs.

Lamar Advertising rejected posters for a touring production of the Broadway show Avenue Q because they show the cleavage of a fuzzy pink puppet.

Lamar account executive Jeff Moore told The Gazette of Colorado Springs that the company took a conservative approach in the area.

The city is known for its political conservatism and is home to the headquarters of conservative Christian groups.

The poster has been replaced by one showing the face of another puppet.

Avenue Q is a Tony-winning musical about New Yorkers, human and puppets, searching for life and love.

The show bills itself as “60 per cent adult situations and 40 per cent foam rubber” and features the adventures of puppets and humans in New York.

Praise Jesus for protecting us from diabolical puppet cleavage! We’ll never know exactly how many stuffed animal rapes were prevented as a result….

(For a bit more on this subject, see the entries I posted on Aug 6, 2008 and Jan 7, 2010.)

Related posts:

1. Atheism vs. Religion
2. Religion Never Inspires Anything Bad
3. Religion & Happiness Revisited

France Moves Toward Partial Burqa Ban (CNN; Jan 26)

PARIS: French lawmakers Tuesday recommended a partial ban on any veils that cover the face — including the burqa, the full-body covering worn by some Muslim women.

The ban on the “voile integrale” — which literally means “total veil” — would apply in public places like hospitals and schools, and on public transport, a French parliamentary commission announced.

France is not the only European Union country to consider banning the burqa. Dutch lawmakers voted in favor of a ban in 2005, although the government at the time left office before legislation could be passed.

Opinion: Why I’m Proud To Wear The Burqa (Oumkheyr/CNN; Feb 4)

(Oumkheyr is a French Muslim woman in her 40s. Of Algerian origin, she is divorced and has a daughter. She tells CNN why she’s proud to wear the burqa, also known as the niqab or full veil, and what she thinks of the law proposed by the French government to ban the burqa. A French parliament report has called for a ban on the burqa in schools, hospitals, government offices and public transport.)

I wear the burqa for the simple reason that I am a Muslim and the Koran says that I must wear the full veil in order to be modest.

I am proud of my Muslim faith and my modesty. I am proud to follow God’s law.

Nobody ever forced me to wear the full veil and I have been wearing it for around 10 years now.

In fact, very few of my friends actually wear one. There are, of course, situations in which some men force their wives or daughters to wear the burqa but, believe me, these cases are a very, very small minority.

For those of us who are believers, we just want to do God’s will and live by the sacred text, so what any man says has nothing to do with that.

I am testament to that as I don’t have a husband and I practice my religion freely, that’s why I’m always shocked when people say it’s the husband who forces his wife to wear a burqa.

It is actually the case that a lot of men in France do not wish their wives to wear the full veil because when they go out, they are insulted or attacked and their husbands don’t want them to be put in that situation.

I first started wearing the full veil when I was a teenager but I stopped for a while because when you’re young, you don’t want to be set apart, you want to look like everyone else.

But later after seeing what was happening with terrorist attacks involving Muslims all over the world, I decided to become more conscious and find out more about my faith.

In the process, I found myself becoming more spiritual and decided to start wearing the burqa.

Now, my liberty is being threatened with this law proposed by the French government. If this law is passed, it will be a great injustice. It is very unfair that they are even considering this law.

Perhaps the French authorities are terrified that women will start dressing like this, despite evidence to the contrary.

Why am I, as a Muslim woman, targeted unfairly, when there are less than 2,000 of us in France who wear the burqa? Where is my freedom of clothing or expression?

France prides itself as a country that upholds the rights of man but where are my rights? Why am I not free to wear what I want?

Many cite security reasons because they can’t tell who is under the veil. But myself and a lot of women who wear the burqa are always happy to identify ourselves when asked.

In the past, I have taken off my veil when it is asked of me — as long as it’s a woman who does it. My religion demands that I cover my face in front of any man who is not either my brother, father or husband.

I have been wearing the veil in France for years and it has never been a problem, I use public transport like everyone else and I’ve never had any problems.

Although, it can be quite strange when I’m on a bus for example and people say to me: ‘You poor thing, we feel sorry for you.’ And I wonder exactly why they feel sorry for me.

I’m very happy wearing the veil and it makes me spiritually fulfilled as I’m practicing my religion, so I don’t really see it as anything to pity me for.

I really believe that France is scared of Muslims, which is the motivation for this law, but people shouldn’t generalize as not all Muslims are the same.

Yes, some have done terrible things, but it is done in the name of man, never in the name of God. I, as a French Muslim woman, have nothing but love in my heart towards all people.

And whatever the outcome, if France succeeds in banning the veil on its streets, I will never take mine off. My freedom means a lot to me and if this law is passed, I would rather move to another country where I can worship in peace.

I obey the laws of God not the laws of man.

If you were a member of the French parliament, would you vote to ban the burqa?

Related posts:

1. Burqa Ban Thoughts
2. As Clear As Mud
3. Christians banned from using Allah in Malaysia

French Sect Victims “Ate Dog Food, Drank Toilet Water” (David Darmanin/Malta Today; Feb 7)

VALETTA, Malta: Victims of the French cult leader Alain Schmitt, who is appealing an extradition order to France, have spoken out on their horrifying experience at the hands of the Minh Vacma sect leader.

Schmitt and his Belgian fiancée Laurence Liegeois were arrested in a Naxxar residence on 7 January while fleeing from justice after a French court in Thionville, found them guilty in absentia in 2008 on kidnapping charges. Schmitt was given a five-year prison sentence, while Liegois got three years.

Ballot escaped when, one day she was punished and forced to wash six of the sect’s cars while her hands and feet were all blistered. “I stopped at a café at one point, and that is when I saw all six cars loaded with sect members searching for me.”

According to a Feb 23 follow-up story from the Times of Malta, Alain Schmitt and his fiancée Laurence Liegeois have lost their bid to overturn Malta’s decision to extradict them France, but “It is not clear yet whether the couple will be extradited immediately since they still have a pending constitutional case over alleged violation of their human rights.”

Related posts:

1. Jesuit Sex Scandal Rocks Germany
2. The Scandal That Never Ends
3. Doomsday Postponed AGAIN

Secular Coalition For America To Meet With White House Officials On National Policy (The Secular Coalition For America; Feb 25)

Marking the first time in history a presidential administration has met for a policy briefing with the American nontheist community, on February 26 the Secular Coalition for America will engage with White House officials on issues of great concern to the secular movement.

“We cannot accept religious interference in government – whether it’s loopholes in child abuse laws for ‘faith healing,’ or preaching to enlisted members of the military,” said U.S. Rep. Pete Stark. “I commend the Secular Coalition for briefing the Obama Administration about these matters of religious freedom.”

“There has been a movement toward theocracy in America that is too often overlooked,” said Faircloth. “As a result, good Americans, including children, have been harmed, and men and women in uniform denied their rights. This strikes at the very core of American values. The Secular Coalition for America seeks justice for every citizen, regardless of creed.”

Atheists Meet With White House Officials (Cathy Lynn Grossman & Betty Klinck/Faith & Reason/USA Today; Feb 26)

The White House has been known to confer with religious leaders on important political and social issues — for instance, a meeting on torture with several religious denominations in June or Obama’s meeting with Buddhist leader the Dalai Lama just last week. On Friday, however, White House officials met with 60 members of atheist advocacy group the Secular Coalition for America, to discuss problems that they believe are fueled by religion.

The coalition’s press release notes that this is the first time an administration has met with a non-theist community.

The main discussion points were, according to Margaret Talev’s McClatchy article:

—– “child medical neglect” — Many religious child care centers are exempted from the health and safety regulations under which secular health centers are run.

—– “military proselytizing” — The coalition asserts that the increasing number of evangelical Christians in the military is causing religious discrimination and that these Christians believe they must promote Christianity as part of their military duty.

—– “faith-based initiatives” — The coalition says the Bush administration created programs like the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives to unconstitutionally funnel money to religious institutions.

The coalition represents atheist non-profit groups such as American Atheists, the American Humanist Association, and the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers.

When asked, “What is your religion, if any?” 15% of Americans answer “None,” according to the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey of 54,000 people.

Says coalition executive director Sean Faircloth: “Despite what we hear from Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin, we’re in a stage in history where millions upon millions of Americans share a secular perspective on American public policy. We think the real ’silent majority,’ if you will, is the Americans who say, ‘Enough of this religious and even theocratic nature to American policy.’”

Faircloth told ABC that the White House Officials present at the meeting included:

—– Tina Tchen, director of the White House Office of Public Engagement

—– Paul Monteiro, associate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs

—– Bryan Samuels, commissioner of the Administration on Children, Youth and Families in the Department of Health and Human Services

—– Mazen Basrawi, counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Department of Justice

Some Christians, however, are outraged over this meeting like In God We Trust chairman Bishop Council Nedd, who told Christian Newswire: “It is one thing for the Administration to meet with groups of varying viewpoints, but it is quite another for a senior official to sit down with activists representing some of the most hate-filled, anti-religious groups in the nation.”

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Canadian Woman Charged With Stealing $91,000 From Her Church (The Leader-Post; Feb 4)

REGINA, Saskatchewan: A Gravelbourg woman has been charged with defrauding her church of over $91,000.

Paulette Dumont, 64, is alleged to have written 63 crooked cheques while holding a position of trust within Gravelbourg’s Our Lady of Assumption Catholic Church.

“It’s illegal to take somebody else’s money,” Sutherland said. “There has to be some sort of accountability, whether or not this will result in restitution is anybody’s guess. It’s a lot of money.”…

Serbian Church Puts Pressure On Controversial Kosovo Bishop (DPA/EarthTimes; Feb 11)

BELGRADE, Serbia: The new patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) is set to replace a controversial and dogmatic bishop, Artemije, as head of the church in Kosovo, the daily Politika said Thursday. Quoting sources from the SPC, the report said that Patriarch Irinej, elected last month, has ordered a panel of to probe alleged abuses in the Kosovo eparchy.

The move is seen as pressure on Artemije, a traditionalist hardliner who has been implicated in a series of corruption scandals, to step down, the source told Politika.

Artemije reportedly refused to cooperate with the panel, which includes influential bishops, and has shut himself in his cell in the Gracanica monastery, his seat on the outskirts of Kosovo’s capital, Pristina.

Spanish Priest Sacked For Spending Thousands On Erotic Pleasures (DPA/EarthTimes; Feb 23)

TOLEDO, Spain: A Spanish Catholic priest has been sacked on suspicion of spending 17,000 euros (23,000 dollars) on erotic phone lines, websites and prostitutes, church and municipal officials said Tuesday. The 27-year-old priest had been responsible for two villages near the central city of Toledo for nearly one year.

In February, he confessed publicly during mass that he had taken money belonging to local religious associations, pledging to settle the affair.

It was widely believed that the priest had spent the money on erotic activities, officials said.

The Toledo archbishop’s office sacked the priest and was investigating the affair.

Germany’s Protestant Head Quits After Drunk Driving Arrest (The Telegraph; Feb 24)

The head of Germany’s Protestant church resigned on Wednesday after she was caught driving her £80,000 [about $122,000 US] official limousine while three times over the drink-drive limit, an incident she said had undermined her authority.

Police pulled over Bishop Margot Kaessmann, 51, at the wheel of her powerful VW Phaeton car after she ran a red light in Hanover on Saturday.

A positive breath test resulted in her being driven to a police station where she gave a blood sample, the results of which were released on Tuesday morning by the public prosecutor’s office in the city.

She had a blood-alcohol reading of 1.54 mg – over three times the legal limit.

“I made a serious mistake that I regret deeply,” said Mrs Kaessmann, who was elected only last October as the first woman to head Germany’s Lutheran church.

“My heart tells me very clearly that I cannot remain in office with the necessary authority,” she added. “I would no longer have in the future the same freedom that I have had to name and judge ethical and political challenges.”

During her brief time in office, Mrs Kaessmann proved willing to give the Protestant church a voice of authority, wading into key political issues. Her repeated calls for Germany to walk away from the mission in Afghanistan have been a thorn in the side of the Berlin government.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said she accepted Kaesmann’s decision “with respect and regret,” adding that she had valued working together with the bishop.

A mother of four, Mrs Kaessmann is the only divorced Bishop in the country.

Indian Monk Arrested In Nepal (The Indo-Asian News Service; Feb 24)

KATHMANDU, Nepal: A 40-year-old monk from India’s renowned social service organisation Bharat Sevasharm Sangha, known especially for relief work during disasters, has been arrested in Nepal after a six-year-old boy was found dead at the school-cum-ashram for destitute children in Kathmandu.

Swami Atmashuddhananda, a 40-year-old originally from Assam and based in Nepal for 15 years, was arrested Tuesday night along with four other inmates of the centre, known as the Pranavananda Ashram in Nepal after Hindu monk Swami Pranavananda, who founded the sect in 1917.

At least two of those arrested are minors.

The saffron robed monk was handcuffed Wednesday and taken to the district court where police will ask judges for permission to keep all five in custody till they complete investigations.

Rupesh Giri, a six-year-old Nepali boy, was brought to the ashram about a month ago by his mother Kavita, a 23-year-old working in a hotel in the capital.

There were about 60 students in the ashram close to Kathmandu’s famous Pashupatinath temple.

The young boy is said to have had a fight with two other students after which he was reportedly chastised by the ashram authorities.

The boy was found dead Tuesday leading to the arrests. Two of the arrested are students of the ashram.

The Indian monk looked shocked at the turn of events. “We had some lapses but no one wished him any ill,” he told IANS.

The ashram was in a state of disarray after the arrests. The main office in Kolkata received the news in stunned disbelief.

Bharat Sevashram has ashrams in the US, Britain, Canada, Fiji, Bangladesh and Nepal.

However, the increasingly bitter relation between India and Nepal have seen public distrust about Indian ashrams in Nepal grow.

Recently, another unit run in southern Nepal by Bharat Sevasharm faced a media campaign with allegations that the main official was trafficking the children when they had actually gone home during the ‘Chhat’ holidays.

Uganda Priest Arrested For BBC Hoax (Geof Magga/Afric.com; Feb 25)

Police in Uganda has arrested a Catholic evangelist who told a BBC reporter that he killed 70 people when he was still practicing witchcraft.

Polino Angella, has been charged for giving false information to a BBC reporter and a public officer and remanded in prison.

According to prosecution, Angella, on January 18th 2010, told a Criminal investigation officer that he sacrificed 70 people, including his own son called Nelson Ojede to the evil spirits. [For more details, see the fourth story that I shared here.]

After police investigations the claims were found to be false.

The Criminal investigations officer was getting a statement from Angella after BBC ran a documentary in which Angella claimed he had killed 70 people.

Uganda police director of anti-human sacrifice unit, Moses Binoga said, “Angella lied to the BBC reporter. He told BBC reporter, Tim Whewell who was making a documentary on human sacrifice that he sacrificed 70 people, including his own son, in the 1980’s and 90’s when he was still working as a witchdoctor.”

He said that the documentary which was aired last month attracted much international attention. The attention led to the government of Uganda getting concerned and putting in place investigations into Agnella’s allegations.

“When we went to northern Uganda to interview Angella after watching the documentary, he confessed that he had lied to the BBC man. Angella claimed that he was paid 200,000 Uganda shillings [about $100 US] to dramatize the human sacrifice story,” Binoga said.

Moses Binoga said that it is true that there have been several cases of human sacrifices in Uganda but the situation is under control. He also said that Angella over exaggerated the human sacrifice situation in the country….

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Report Highlights Religious Tensions In Israel (Ron Friedman/The Jerusalem Post; Feb 23)

TEL AVIV, Israel: A new report released by Hiddush, a religious freedom advocacy group, describes 2009 as “the worst year of the decade” in terms of religious freedom and equality. The report, published on Monday, points toward an escalation in religion-state conflict, violence in the name of religion, damage to religious freedom, attempts at religious coercion, budget allocations to religious institutions and pro-religious legislation – and warns of worse to come.

The report highlights various aspects of Israeli social and political life in 2009, with an emphasis on religious, and particularly haredi-related issues.

For example, the report cited increasingly violent demonstrations by haredim [ultra-Orthodox Jews] related to the opening of parking lots during Shabbat.

“Our research shows a huge gap between government policy and public opinion. The overwhelming majority of the public seek greater religious freedom and more equitable distribution of the economic and military burden,” said Regev.

NOTE: According to Wikipedia the US has given Israel over $100 billion since 1949. One former congressman’s attempt to slightly reduce the economic aid that Israel received from the US taxpayer in the late 1990s is now the subject of intense criticism as that congressman (Tom Campbell) tries to win a seat in the Senate. Bottom Line: It looks like we Americans will continue to be indirectly subsidizing ultra-Orthodox nonsense in Israel for a very, very long time to come….

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