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from Pakistan: Now or Never?:
Pakistan, blasphemy, and a tale of two women
For all the bad news coming out of Pakistan, you can't help but admire the courage of two very different women who did what their political leaders failed to do -- stood up to the religious right after the killing of Punjab governor Salman Taseer over his call for changes to the country's blasphemy laws.
One is Sherry Rehman, a politician from the ruling Pakistan People's Party, who first proposed amendments to the laws. The other is actress Veena Malik, who challenged the clerical establishment for criticising her for appearing on Indian reality show Big Boss. I'm slightly uncomfortable about grouping the two together -- the fact that both are Pakistani women does not make them any more similar than say, for example, two Pakistani men living in Rawalpindi or London. Yet at the same time, the idea that Pakistan can produce such different and outspoken women says a lot about the diversity and energy of a country which can be too easily written off as a failing state or bastion of the Islamist religious right.
Sherry Rehman is living as a virtual prisoner in her home in Karachi after being threatened over her support for amendments to the blasphemy laws. She has refused to leave the country for her own safety, nor indeed to accept the position adopted by her party leaders -- that now is not the time to amend the laws. Their argument appears to be that trying to amend the laws now would just add more fuel to the fire after religious leaders defended Taseer's killing and organised huge protests in favour of the current legal provisions.
"There's never a right time," Britain's Guardian newspaper quoted her as saying. "Blasphemy cases are continually popping up, more horror stories from the ground. How do you ignore them?"
from Oddly Enough Blog:
Are you high yet? Snort some more…
Welcome back to our regular feature, Human Remains in the News.
It seems burglars tried snorting the cremated remains of a man and two dogs, taken from a Florida home, in the mistaken belief that the ashes were drugs.
I swear I am not making this up. The ashes were stolen a month ago, along with some other stuff, and police learned about the snorting this week when they arrested five teens in connection with another burglary attempt.
from Good, Bad, and Ugly:
A non-prophet organization?
Pope: Governments must protect minority Christians
He made reference to last week's murder of Salman Taseer, the Muslim governor of Punjab province and an outspoken liberal, who was gunned down for opposing the law, which imposes a death sentence for those who insult the Prophet Mohammad.
I've just noticed recently that Reuters is following in the footsteps of AP and AFP in designating the Islamic prophet Mohammad as "The Prophet Mohammad".
from Good, Bad, and Ugly:
Where are my comments?
Pope John Paul nears sainthood, to be beatified
See the attached documents and please explain why my comments are inappropriate. I have informed the truth as it could be.
L.P.F.
You're asking why your comments on this story didn't make it online? We get that from a number of readers, and usually there is a very good reason.
from Tales from the Trail:
Obamas make rare church visit
Margaret Chadbourn of Reuters reports the following on the Obama family's church visit.
President Barack Obama , his wife Michelle, and their two daughters made a rare visit to a Washington church service on Sunday and were promptly invited by the pastor to become members of the congregation.
from Good, Bad, and Ugly:
Galileo and the Bible
God was behind Big Bang, universe no accident: Pope
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - God's mind was behind complex scientific theories such as the Big Bang, and Christians should reject the idea that the universe came into being by accident, Pope Benedict said on Thursday.
Benedict and his predecessor John Paul have been trying to shed the Church's image of being anti-science, a label that stuck when it condemned Galileo for teaching that the earth revolves around the sun, challenging the words of the Bible.
from FaithWorld:
Family Research Council to issue “Index of Family Belonging and Rejection”
Indices are all the rage these days. In his recently published and thought-provoking "Why the West Rules -- For Now," historian Ian Morris has created an "index on social development" which, among other things, attempts to measure the West and East's "energy capture."
There are of course plenty of other examples (and future historians will no doubt see it as a sign of our times -- as Morris notes, ages get the "thought they need"). The latest addition to this swelling modern family of indices will come on Wednesday when the conservative, Washington-based Family Research Council (FRC) releases its first annual "Index of Family Belonging and Rejection." The index is a product of its Marriage and Religion Research Institute.
from Good, Bad, and Ugly:
The wrong church?
Could you please correct the picture posted with this article?
The picture is of the Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada, which in no way is connected to the story.
As a prominent landmark of Winnipeg, our Cathedral should in no way be associated with this article.
from FaithWorld:
Germans more negative towards Muslims than other Europeans
(Photo: Anti-Muslim campaign posters by a far-right party in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) state, with slogans saying 'Ban minarets - also for NRW' and 'Vote pro NRW - Stop Islamisation', in Bonn, April 23, 2010/Wolfgang Rattay)
Only about one third of Germans think positively of their Muslim neighbors, a much lower proportion than in other western European countries, according to a new poll published on Thursday. In contrast, 62 percent of Dutch and 56 percent of French people responding to the TNS Emnid survey indicated they had positive attitudes toward Muslims.
Detlef Pollack, a Muenster University sociologist who led the study, attributed Germans' views to their lack of contact with Muslims compared to people in other nations surveyed. "The more often you meet Muslims, the more you view them as generally positive," he said.
from UK News:
A priest’s guide: How to Swim the Tiber Safely
About 50 Church of England priests opposed to the consecration of women as bishops are expected to be in the first wave of Anglicans to take up an offer by Pope Benedict and convert to Rome. The traditionalist priests will be joined by five bishops and 30 groups of parishioners, in a structure called an ordinariate, or a Church subdivision, in the new year.
About 300 priests switched in the early 1900s when women were ordained as priests. Then they did not have the comfort of moving over in groups, and nearly 70 returned to the Anglican fold.
