Daily Archives: September 8, 2010

Euro News: “The hugely controversial plans for a mass burning of copies of the Koran in the US have already prompted angry protests among Muslims. In Kabul, several hundred Afghans, mostly pupils from religious schools, gathered outside a mosque, chanting ‘Death to America.’”

Associated Press: “The State Department has ordered U.S. embassies around the world to assess their security ahead of a Florida church group’s planned weekend burning of the Muslim holy book amid fears it could spark anti-American violence.”

ABC: “‘While the FBI has no information to indicate a specific attack has been planned against the United States or U.S. assets in response to the “International Burn a Koran Day” event, the FBI assesses with high confidence that, as with past incidents perceived as acts of desecration against Islam, extremist actors will continue to threaten or attempt to harm the leaders, organizers, or attendees the event,’ an FBI intelligence bulletin notes.”

News 14 Carolina: “The N.C. Supreme Court is hearing arguments Wednesday involving an adoption that some attorneys argue could lead to a decision on whether same sex couples can legally adopt in the state.” Boseman v. Jarrell, No. 416PA08-2 (N.C.) [docket]

Winnipeg Free Press: “The lawyer for a group that advocates for allowing multiple spouses wants to know if a law against polygamy could also apply to his clients. John Ince, who represents the Canadian Polyamory Advocacy Association, told B.C. Supreme Court that polygamy is based on a patriarchal system, while polyamorous are consensual.”

Interlochen Public Radio: “Traverse City officials got an earful last night about their proposal to include sexual orientation in the city’s non-discrimination law. Of the thirty-two people who spoke, more than twice as many favor the change than oppose it.”

CitizenLink: “In Minneapolis, a psychologist won a city contract to pre-screen fire department employee applicants. Then someone got wind of this psychologist’s ties to a pro-family, Christian organization in another state, and alerted the city . . . The investigation focused on race and sexual orientation [and] revealed nothing but the highest level of ethical, professional conduct . . . They fired him anyway . . . That’s when the Alliance Defense Fund stepped in on behalf of Dr. Paul Campion and filed a lawsuit on his behalf alleging multiple constitutional violations and breach of contract.”

LifeSiteNews: “A key cabinet minister in the Canadian government says they are considering re-funding the world’s largest abortion provider, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), after the organization’s three year grant expired in December.”

Becket Fund: “Today, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty sent a letter to Councilwoman Rochelle Spector of the Baltimore City Council offering recommendations to amend Baltimore’s proposed new zoning code. Several provisions of the code violate state and federal law as well as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (‘RLUIPA’) and have the potential to discriminate against houses of worship and religious schools.”

Houston Chronicle (AP): “California’s governor does not have the legal duty to appeal the recent ruling that overturned the state’s same-sex marriage ban, a lawyer for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday. In a letter requested by the California Supreme Court, counsel Andrew Stroud said the governor, ‘like any litigant, has complete discretion over his own litigation strategy, including whether or not to appeal an order.’”

Gulf Times: “Malaysia, the world’s largest market for sukuk, plans to improve its legal system to become an alternative location to the UK for resolving international Islamic finance disputes.”

WTOP: “It took hours of emotional debate over the last year, but the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors voted 8-1 on Wednesday to continue a policy that allows people to erect religious and other displays on the grounds of the county courthouse.”

WSYR: “A new law requires New York school districts to protect children against bullying because of their sexual orientation or weight.”

Catholic News Agency: “Christian leaders in Asia are criticizing plans by a Florida pastor to burn copies of the Koran on September 11, saying Muslim radicals will use the incident as motivation for attacking Christian minorities in the region.”

LifeNews: “The attorneys for the scientists who are challenging the executive order President Barack Obama issued forcing taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research are applauding a judge’s decision yesterday to deny the Obama administration’s request to delay his injunction . . . Advocates International and the Alliance Defense Fund are teaming up to help two adult stem cell scientists who brought the lawsuit.”

Baltimore Sun: “The Maryland Board of Physicians on Wednesday upheld a suspension order against an obstetrician who ran an Elkton clinic in which an 18-year-old woman was badly injured during an abortion.”

UPI: “Muslims in an affluent suburb of Houston continue to pray in a temporary building while their plans for a permanent mosque remain in dispute.”

. . . the pastor of the small church in Florida, that is planning to burn the Koran indicated his church would reconsider its plans to burn the Koran if Muslims back down from building the Ground Zero Mosque . . .

Breitbart: “Military bases across the U.S. have banned the sale of a new video game that lets a player pretend to be a Taliban fighter and ‘shoot’ U.S. troops.”

The Christian Post: “Another member of an underground Christian movement in Somalia has been murdered by Muslim insurgents in a continuing campaign to eliminate converts from Islam.”

WTNH: “A battle over religion is heating up in Hartford after the city council invites local Muslim leaders to say prayers before its city council meetings . . . ‘I have my doubts,’ Tom Fitzpatrick of Hartford said. ‘I really don’t want to say them but I do have doubts about the whole thing.’” More from Fox News.

Bryan Fischer writing at AFA / Rightly Concerned: “And the critics of Rev. Jones and the supporters of Islam don’t even seem to realize how they are damning Islam all the while they claim to be defending it . . . How can American lives be endangered by doing nothing more than putting a match to pieces of paper, if Islam is a religion of peace and moderation? How can this be?”

OneNewsNow: “An organization dedicated to persecuted Christians worldwide says Christians around the world will be in danger if a Florida church goes ahead with its plans to burn Qurans on the upcoming anniversary of September 11 . . . Dr. Carl Moeller, president and CEO of Open Doors USA, argues another people group may suffer even more. He believes Christians in the Muslim world will suffer the brunt of the repercussions from any Quran burnings.”

OneNewsNow: “Laurie Cardoza-Moore, founder and president of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, is a staunch pro-Israel supporter. She says she received two threatening phone calls after appearing on the popular comedy cable program and expressing opposition to the mosque’s proposed expansion.”

Hillary Clinton: “We sit down together for this meal on a day when the news is carrying reports that a pastor down in Gainesville, Florida plans to burn the Holy Qu’ran on September 11th.”

Associated Press: “The Quran is the most sacred object in the daily lives of Muslims and burning it would be considered an offense against God. Islam teaches that the holy book is the direct word of God, received by the Prophet Muhammad through the angel Gabriel, and it defines the belief and conduct for followers of the religion.”

“Iowa says that corporations cannot make political ads without a PAC, which requires burdensome registration, record-keeping, and reporting requirements. But the Supreme Court recently ruled in a case called Citizens United that corporations have a First Amendment right to make political ads, without having to create a PAC. So Iowa requires the very thing the Supreme Court said is unconstitutional.”

CNN (May 22, 2009): “Military personnel threw away, and ultimately burned, confiscated Bibles that were printed in the two most common Afghan languages amid concern they would be used to try to convert Afghans, a Defense Department spokesman said Tuesda

“Marriage exists . . . to solve a problem that arises from sex between men and women but not from sex between partners of the same gender: what to do about its generativity.”

Washington Post: “The last major GE factory making ordinary incandescent light bulbs in the United States is closing this month, marking a small, sad exit for a product and company that can trace their roots to Thomas Alva Edison’s innovations in the 1870s . . . What made the plant here vulnerable is, in part, a 2007 energy conservation measure passed by Congress that set standards essentially banning ordinary incandescents by 2014 . . . Rather than setting off a boom in the U.S. manufacture of replacement lights, the leading replacement lights are compact fluorescents, or CFLs, which are made almost entirely overseas, mostly in China . . . ”

The Gay Marriage Blog: “Slovenia offered registered partnerships to same sex couples from 2006 and now the centre-left Slovenian Government has gotten a bill legalising same-sex ‘marriage’ and adoption through the first of three readings in Parliament.”

Catholic News Agency: “An article, signed by Father Maurilio Martinez Tamayo, offered a reflection on the vision of secularism that prevails in the country, amidst a barrage of attempts by government officials and political groups to silence religious leaders . . . Mexico is a religious country that has been forced to wear secular garb that doesn’t fit. ‘When a religious minister expresses an opinion about the national life and judges the actions of politicians, just as any Mexican citizen can do in making use of the right to freedom of expression, the enemies of religious life launch threats against him for daring to raise his voice against the actions of officials,’ the priest noted.”

CNSNews: “The U.S. Export-Import Bank, an independent federal agency, loaned more than $1 billion to the Mexican state oil company PEMEX in 2009 to support the company’s oil drilling in the southern Gulf of Mexico. The bank has another $1 billion in loans in the pipeline for 2010, unless Congress objects.”

Feisal Abdul Rauf writing in The New York Times: “We are proceeding with the community center, Cordoba House. More important, we are doing so with the support of the downtown community, government at all levels and leaders from across the religious spectrum, who will be our partners. I am convinced that it is the right thing to do for many reasons . . . Our name, Cordoba, was inspired by the city in Spain where Muslims, Christians and Jews co-existed in the Middle Ages during a period of great cultural enrichment created by Muslims.”

CNN: “Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used a foreign policy talk to weigh in on hot button political issues Wednesday, slamming a Florida pastor for his ‘disgraceful’ plan to burn the Quran and strongly criticizing George W. Bush’s fiscal record.”

Deutsche Welle: “Speaking to German weekly Bild am Sonntag, Angela Merkel said it would be wrong to play down statistics that show religious Muslim youths in Germany to be more prone to violence than the rest of the population. ‘This is a big problem and we can talk about it openly, without arousing suspicions of xenophobia,’ Merkel said in the interview published on Sunday, September 5 . . . Her comments came after Germany’s central bank voted on Thursday to sack its controversial member Thilo Sarrazin, who sparked outrage and debate with claims in his new book that Muslim immigrants are lowering German intelligence and harming society more than they contributed to it.”

NPR: “Catholics have Notre Dame, Jews have Yeshiva University and Evangelicals have Wheaton College — but until now, Muslim Americans didn’t have their own liberal arts college. And then there’s the appeal of the two founders, Imam Shakir and Sheik Hamza Yusuf, who are celebrities by preaching an Islam that resonates with young Americans . . . [Co-founder Sheik Hamza Yusuf] says Zaytuna has a deeper motive than just making the students feel at home. He wants to tease apart the religion of Islam from the customs and ideas of the Middle East. He’s learned this from personal experience. He says that during his 10 years studying abroad, he imbibed ideas that had nothing to do with Islam, such as anger at U.S. foreign policy.”

Missoulian: “Members of the Big Sky Tea Party Association strongly defended former president Tim Ravndal at the group’s meeting Tuesday night following what many called his unfair and hasty ejection from the group over a casual conversation on Facebook that appeared to treat violence against gays lightly.”

PipeLineNews.org: “This five page bill seems simple and straight forward, but it isn’t. It is a lot of words designed to hide the fact that the state’s legislators seek authority to mandate that schools be responsible for administering vaccinations to your child including HPV2 Cervarix for girls ages 10-25 or HPV 4 Gardasil for boys ages 9-26. That would be compulsory vaccinations without parental consent or notification.” AB354. Juan Arambula, [D- Fresno] Immunizations.

Telegraph: “A Lyons stone mason has provoked a row after creating a gargoyle for the city’s cathedral in the image of his Muslim foreman with a sign saying ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is great) in both Arabic and French.”

Los Angeles Times: “Vandalism at a mosque in Madera, Calif., is being investigated as a potential hate crime by the U.S. Department of Justice, officials confirmed Tuesday.”

“It is the resentment of that divine moral authority that ultimately fuels much of the homosexual legal agenda, just as reverence and respect for that authority—not bigotry—drives many of those who openly oppose that agenda . . . ”

“The Board is considering amending the anti-conscience regulations to allow providers to refer patients to nearby providers if they have a conscientious objection to dispensing a drug.”

Catholic News Agency: “Although the charismatic Christian church planning a Koran burning on Sept. 11 only has around 50 members, the spectre of the impact on Muslim relations led the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue to issue a statement today expressing its ‘great concern’ over the plan and stating that ‘deplorable acts of violence … cannot be counteracted’ by burning another religion’s sacred book.”

AFP: “Religious candidates in Bahrain’s October 23 general election will be barred from preaching in the kingdom’s mosques ahead of the vote, the minister of justice and Islamic affairs announced on Tuesday.”

ABC: “Attorney General Eric Holder said in a private meeting with religious leaders Tuesday that a Florida pastor’s plan to burn Korans was ‘idiotic and dangerous’ . . . Holder met with the interfaith leaders to discuss the Justice Department’s commitment to preventing and prosecuting hate crimes, department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement released after the meeting.”

Orin Kerr writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “I think the ideology of law clerks roughly matches that of the Justices because the Justices are trying to solve the principal-agent problem . . . Supreme Court Justices solve the principal/agent problem by tending to hire law clerks who generally agree with their bosses’ views of the law. That agreement gives the Justices more confidence that their law clerks will be faithful agents without the Justices having to engage in costly monitoring of law clerk performance.”

LifeSiteNews: “This week the fate of four homeschooling families will be decided in Botswana, reports the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). The families, adherents to the Seventh Day Adventist Church, have been ordered by a judge to send their children to public school. Despite the judge’s ruling indicating that the children were cared for and that the parents took steps to provide for the education of their children, the court found that they still need to go to public school because Botswana has acceded to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).”

LifeSiteNews: “The student newspaper Hilltop Views reported last week that Equality Texas, a local lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) advocacy group, had applied to recruit students at the Internship Fair for the coming school year, but was denied . . . [Holy Cross] spokeswoman Mischelle Diaz confirmed that, although there was some confusion over whether Equality Texas was truly a non-profit organization, its views on homosexuality precluded it from participating in the fair.”

Jeannie DeAngelis writing at American Thinker: “Although Hartford City Council meetings ‘don’t regularly begin with any form of prayer,’ the Common Council has decided to act on behalf of ‘solidarity,’ not with traditional Judeo-Christian faiths, which thus far have been anathema, but rather with Islam. In September, the New England town of Hartford has invited ‘local imams to perform Islamic invocations at the beginning of the Council meetings.’”

Kenneth Anderson writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “Most interesting to me [about Soros' gift to Human Rights Watch] was that the gift is aimed, in part, at diversifying the organization, staff, and board away from its current US-centric arrangement . . . ”

Religion Clause: “In Glenn v. Holder, (ED MI, Sept. 7, 2010), a Michigan federal district court dismissed on standing and ripeness grounds a challenge to the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act that had been brought by several Christian pastors . . . The court [found] that plaintiffs had failed to demonstrate that they faced a credible threat of prosecution under the Act.”

Religion Clause: “A discrimination lawsuit was filed late last month by two Christian high school teachers against Imad Fadlallah, the now-retired principal of Dearborn, Michigan’s Fordson High School, and against the school district. The complaint (full text) in Purcell v. Fadlallah, (ED MI, filed 8/27/2010), alleges that Fadlallah used his position as principal to promote Islam and to systematically weed out teachers, coaches and employees who are not Muslim or Arab . . . The lawyer who filed the suit on behalf of the teachers has issued a press release summarizing plaintiff’s claims.”

Russell Korobkin writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “Following the August 23 preliminary injunction issued by federal District Court Judge Royce Lamberth to block NIH funding of embryonic stem cell research, the Justice Department filed a motion requesting that the injunction be stayed pending an appeal to the D.C. Circuit. In a very short, 2-page order this afternoon, Judge Lamberth denied the stay motion . . . For practical purposes, the most important point in today’s order — and the one that should be the lead in tomorrow’s newspapers — is Lamberth’s surprising statement that his injunction does not prohibit the NIH from continuing to fund embryonic stem cell research that was permitted by the Bush Administration under its restrictive rules.” Text of order in Sherley v. Sebelius | More information from Religion Clause.

Associated Press: “As Egypt’s Muslim majority has grown more religiously conservative over the past three decades, so has its Christian minority, many of whom see the Church as a refuge. As a result, the authority of Coptic leader Pope Shenouda III now goes almost unquestioned. The Church’s grip on Christians’ personal lives will likely only increase with a bill before Egypt’s parliament that would bar civil judges from making rulings that contradict church law in personal status cases involving Christians.”

Charlotte Observer: “North Carolina sheriffs want access to state computer records that identify people with prescriptions for certain drugs, an idea that patient advocates oppose.”

The Hill: “President Obama’s top political guru said Tuesday that he believes 70 House races and 15 Senate races are in play this fall. White House senior adviser David Plouffe — Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign manager — said that a bevy of races were in play, from the national to local level.”

The Hill: “The lawmakers were reluctant to declare a victory in light of the company’s inscrutable posture toward the issue. Craigslist replaced the link to its ‘adult services’ section with a bar labeled ‘censored’ on Friday but has since refused to comment publicly on the issue.”

Phyllis Schlafly writing at Townhall: “Extremely violent and addictive video games are polluting the minds of an entire generation of children, and most parents are clueless. Young players earn game points based on how many murders they commit, with increasingly realistic bloodshed splattered around for teenagers and pre-teens to learn to enjoy . . . A case challenging a law limiting the sale of these violent video games to children is now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. This case reached the High Court because a couple of lower federal court judges, the kind we call supremacists, ruled that these games are entitled to as much free-speech protection as, for example, Shakespeare, and laws limiting sales to children are unconstitutional . . . Eleven state attorneys general have joined a friend-of-the-court (amicus) brief on the side of California to stop the sale of violent video games to children: Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Texas and Virginia.”

Washington Times: “The Justice Department has brought yet another legal challenge against Arizona, accusing the Maricopa County Community College District in Phoenix of illegally asking foreign nationals to show their Permanent Resident Cards, or ‘green cards,’ before being offered jobs in the 10-college system.”

Associated Press: “Panicked teachers in Thailand’s restive south stayed home from school Wednesday after two teachers were killed in broad daylight amid threats from suspected Muslim insurgents that 20 would die.”

John Fund writing in the Wall Street Journal: “Republican operatives in Washington are openly fretting that Ms. Murkowski will be tempted to use what is likely a $1.5 million warchest in an attempt to keep her seat. They are counseling her allies that she has an excellent chance of returning to Washington in 2014 by challenging freshman Democratic Senator Mark Begich — but only if she honors the results of the primary . . . There is also the option of running a write-in campaign. Ms. Murkowski could delay a decision on that until five days before the Nov. 2 election.”

ADF Attorney Erik Stanley writing at Speak Up Movement / Church: “I am scheduled to speak Friday, September 10, at the ‘Politics According to the Bible’ Conference hosted by the Family Policy Council of West Virginia. The topic is self-explanatory from the name of the event, but the message is long overdue. Many Christians seem to lack any coherent theology for political involvement or have a mixed-up view of how a Christian should affect the political realm.”

C-SPAN: “Panelists talked about the Supreme Court’s recent 5-4 ruling in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. In that case the court ruled that a public university has the right to withdraw formal recognition of groups that do not adhere to anti-discrimination policies. Participants: [Gregory S. Baylor], Alliance Defense Fund; Kimberlee Wood Colby, Christian Legal Society; Frank Guliuzza, Patrick Henry College; Holly Hollman, Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty; Richard B. Katskee, Assistant Legal Director, Americans United for Separation of Church and State.” (The full video has not yet aired on C-Span as of this posting)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hB8e1c74mA

Mike Adams writing at Townhall: “Over the summer, I was convicted of anti-gay hate speech . . . In the 1990s, a friend of mine announced that he was divorcing his wife because he had decided (after a couple of unhappy marriages) to pursue the gay lifestyle. My decision to support him was born out of ignorance . . . My decision to label my own verbal support of his lifestyle choice as ‘hate speech’ makes sense only after one becomes educated about that lifestyle. According to the Centers for Disease Control, over 82% of all known sexually-transmitted HIV cases in 2006 were the result of male-to-male sexual contact. Moreover, gay and bisexual men account for over 60% of all syphilis cases. Some will say that homophobia is the indirect cause of such numbers. They claim that fear of stigmatization keeps gays from seeking information before they become ill and from seeking medical help afterwards. But, clearly, that is not the case. In cultures where homosexuality is more accepted the numbers are worse.”

WorldNetDaily: “A Christian psychologist suspended by Minneapolis because of his ties to a pro-family organization has agreed to a $210,000 settlement from the city . . . ‘This settlement reinforces that the government shouldn’t penalize Christian contractors for their beliefs,’ said ADF Litigation Staff Counsel [Jim Campbell], who argued the case on behalf of Campion last year in federal district court.” ADF News Release

ADF Attorney David French writing at Phi Beta Cons: “Yesterday, the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom launched a new video series, ‘Hanna’s Story,’ that tracks a (fictional) student’s efforts to start a pro-life club on her campus. The series is based on our actual cases. You can watch the first one, which introduces Hanna, here.”

Salt Lake Tribune: “John Wyatt of Dumfries, Va., is trying to get custody of his daughter, Emma, who was given up for adoption to a Utah couple by the girl’s mother without his consent. His mother, Jeri Wyatt, is helping her son try to gain custody.”

“Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor will speak about keeping courts free of politics as part of an effort to support three Iowa justices threatened with removal because they supported a decision that legalized gay marriage in the state.”

Vikram David Amar and Alan Brownstein write at Findlaw: “In the space below, we begin to analyze some of the arguments supporting the idea that Proposition 8 sponsors should be recognized as having standing in federal court. In Part Two of this series, we will develop other arguments — beyond even those yet identified by the parties — that may call into question such standing. And in a later column, we will discuss the attempts by Imperial County (a California county whose electorate voted overwhelmingly in favor of Proposition 8) to intervene in the federal lawsuit (that is, to become a party when no one has named the county as a defendant) in order to defend the gay-marriage ban.”

AP: “Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe – the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council – told reporters Wednesday the U.S. will propose the new post at a three-week meeting of the Geneva-based body starting Monday.”