FaithWorld

(Biblia Gda?ska — the Bible in the Polish translation of 1632, picture taken 20 June 2007/Robert Drózd)

Poland’s Supreme Court has opened the way for a blasphemy verdict against a rock musician who tore up a Bible on stage, a case that has pitted deep Catholic traditions against a new desire for free expression.

Adam Darski, front man with a heavy metal group named Behemoth, ripped up a copy of the Christian holy book during a concert in 2007, called it deceitful and described the Roman Catholic church as “a criminal sect”.

His supporters say it was an act of artistic expression, but conservatives say he offended the sensibilities of Catholics in Poland, the homeland of the late Pope John Paul II and one of the religion’s most devout heartlands in Europe.

The Supreme Court was asked to rule on legal arguments thrown up by the musician’s trial in a lower court on charges of offending religious feelings.

(People collect pieces of metal from the rubble of a neighbourhood in Pauktaw township that was burned in recent violence October 27, 2012. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun)

Muslim survivors of six days of sectarian violence in western Myanmar tell of fleeing bullets and burning homes to escape on fishing boats after an attack by once-peaceable Rakhine neighbours.

The United Nations said 22,587 people had now been displaced after unrest between Muslim Rohingyas and Buddhist Rakhines claimed at least 84 lives i n Rakhine State and tested the reformist mettle of the quasi-civilian government that replaced Myanmar’s oppressive ruling junta last year.

(Volunteers distribute food at a Buddhist monastery used as a collective shelter for those displaced by recent violence in Sittwe June 17, 2012. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun)

As security forces police the edgy aftermath of sectarian bloodshed in western Myanmar, fearful Buddhists and Muslims are arming themselves with homemade weapons, testing the government’s resolve to prevent a new wave of violence.

Despite government claims that peace has been restored, one Buddhist was shot dead and another wounded on Tuesday when security forces opened fire in Kyauknimaw on Ramree Island, according to official sources in the Rakhine State capital of Sittwe.

It was quite surprising when Jed Rakoff, scourge of Wall Street, sent Rajat Gupta down for only two years on Wednesday. After all, federal sentencing guidelines suggested that Gupta should get a sentence four times longer than that. And Gupta wasn't some small-time crook grubbing for dollars with inside information, either: he did enormous damage to the reputations of central icons of our capitalist system, like McKinsey and Goldman Sachs. But for all that, said Rakoff, he is at heart a good man:

“The court can say without exaggeration that it has never encountered a defendant whose prior history suggests such an extraordinary devotion, not only to humanity writ large, but also to individual human beings in their times of need,” Judge Rakoff said.

This kind of reasoning is found outside the courthouse, too. For instance, Gary Belsky defends Lance Armstrong in New York magazine this week, on the grounds that the ends (raising lots of money for charity) justify the blood-doping means. "If you’re an obsessed sports fan", says Belsky, then Armstrong's actions can't be excused. But for the rest of us, isn't it great that he managed to use that activity to raise so much money for cancer research?

(French gendarmes escort a woman wearing a headscarf for an identity check near the Eiffel Tower following tight security due to calls on the internet by Islamic groups to demonstrate in protest over an anti-Islam video, in Paris September 22, 2012. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes)

An increasing majority of people in France believe Islam plays too influential a role in their society and almost half see Muslims as a threat to their national identity, according to a poll published on Thursday.

The survey by pollster Ifop in Le Figaro newspaper showed that 60 percent of people believed that Islam was “too important” in France in terms of its influence and visibility, up from 55 percent two years ago.

(Church-goers arrive for a Christmas carol service at Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, England, December 23, 2009. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett)

A secretive group choosing the next Archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the world’s 80 million Anglicans, is under pressure to break a deadlock in their talks and reach a decision, nearly a month after an announcement was expected.

The choice of the next head of the worldwide Anglican Communion comes at critical time for a church threatened by a rise in secularism and long-running divisions over senior women clergy and homosexuality.

(Bishops attend a mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI marking the opening of the Synod of bishops in St. Peter’s square at the Vatican October 7, 2012. REUTERS/Tony Gentile)

A drive to rekindle Roman Catholicism’s missionary zeal is struggling to counter the challenge of Islam, a religion with an arguably more direct message and a greater institutional hold on its faithful.

Bishops who have been meeting for three weeks to plot a way forward for a Church whose membership is dwindling in Europe are concerned by Islam’s growth and worried about Christian minorities in Muslim countries, according to participants’ comments released by the Vatican.

(Muslim pilgrims make their way to Hera Cave on Mount al-Nour during the annual haj pilgrimage in the holy city of Mecca October 21, 2012. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh)

Millions of Muslim pilgrims congregate in Mecca for the haj every year. The come from all corners of the globe, carrying with them their own versions and interpretations of Islam, but some things unite them: their simple white robes and rituals such as circling the Kaaba, a cube-shaped structure that Muslims believe was built by the Prophet Abraham, standing at Mount Arafat and the hurling pebbles at a wall in an act of ritual stoning.

But in the shadow of these sacred rituals lurk some practices that Saudi Arabia’s austere Wahhabi clerics describe as sinful or “innovative”.

Despite the American obsession with voting differences between men and women - the famed U.S. election "gender gap" - there is a far bigger "gap" dividing likely voters in 2012 - the yawning divide between marrieds and unmarrieds.

Fifty-seven percent of likely voters who are unmarried support Democratic President Barack Obama in the Nov. 6 general election, including those who have never been married, live with a partner or are widowed, divorced or separated.

Thirty-three percent of those unmarried likely voters back Republican challenger Mitt Romney, giving Obama a 24-point edge among the 910 respondents, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling data for the week ended Oct. 21.

(A student shout slogans as he marches with others during a protest rally against an anti-Islam film made in the U.S. which they say mocks the Prophet Mohammad, in Gilgit September 19, 2012. Picture taken September 19, 2012. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro )

About 20 men dressed as Pakistani soldiers boarded a bus bound for a Muslim festival outside this mountain town and checked the identification cards of the passengers. They singled out 19 Shi’ites, drew weapons and slaughtered them, most with a bullet to the head.

The shooters weren’t soldiers. They were a hit squad linked to the Sunni Muslim extremist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, or LeJ. They had trekked in along a high Himalayan pass that hot August morning to waylay a convoy of pilgrims.