Taking a leaf from Islam's book, furious Buddhists protest against 'blasphemy'

According to this report, it also ordered licensee PT Nireta Vista Creative, the official Jakarta tourism agency and Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo to pay damages of one billion rupiah (110,000 dollars) to the plaintiffs for distress.

The fools who took offence at the Buddha-themed establishment in Jakarta were a group called the Anti-Buddha Bar Forum. Said their lawyer Sunardjo Sumargono;

The licence holder was found guilty of blasphemy and of using Buddhist symbols and ornaments at an inappropriate place. We’re very pleased with the court’s decision. It’s a blessing for Buddhists. Justice has been served.

Central Jakarta district court spokesman Sugeng Riyono confirmed that judges ordered the bar to close:

As an unlawful act had been committed.

The court also found that the city authorities had failed to consider Buddhists’ religious sensitivities when they approved the licence.

The plush lounge bar and restaurant is the France-based chain’s first franchise in Asia, but it sparked protests almost from the moment it opened in late 2008 in an upmarket area of central Jakarta.

Its trademark Oriental styling – including a large sitting Buddha figure which dominates the bar area — infuriated mainly Muslim Indonesia’s Buddhist minority, who organised protests and a legal challenge.

The owners changed the name to “Buddhabar” but that failed to satisfy the Buddhists.

Muslims make up roughly 90 percent of Indonesia’s 240 million people, but the constitution also recognises the country’s Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and Confucian minorities.

The owners of the bar reportedly vowed to appeal the court’s decision, which could have implications for other hotels, bars and restaurants that feature decorative statues of Buddha.

The Libyan leader recruited the women through a modelling agency to join him and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at a photographic exhibition in Rome that traced historical links between the two countries.

Gaddafi gets the red carpet treatment from Italian PM Berlusconi

Telling them that Islam was the ”ultimate religion”, Colonel Gaddafi insisted that:

If you want to believe in a single faith, then it must be that of Muhammad.

According to this report, an agency paid the women between €70 or €80 to attend the event – and ordered them to dress conservatively.

The two leaders later attended a state dinner following a display of 30 thoroughbred Berber horses imported from Libya.

On Sunday night, during an encounter with 500 young women hired by the same agency, Colonel Gaddafi handed out copies of the Koran and told the women that Europe should convert to Islam.

MPs said Mr Berlusconi’s increasingly close relationship with the Libyan leader was a source of embarrassment.

Said Rocco Buttiglione, the President of a centre-right Catholic party, the UDC:

If I went to Tripoli to demand that Libyans convert to Christianity, what are the odds that I would return in one piece?

Rosy Bindi, an MP from the main opposition party, said the spectacle of hundreds of women being bussed in at Colonel Gaddafi’s ”whim” was a ”humiliating violation” of their dignity.

Ties between Rome and its former colony have deepened since the signing of the friendship accord, with Italy now the third largest European investor in the North African country.

Italy plans to invest $5-billion and build a 1700-kilometre highway to compensate for its decades of colonisation from 1911 to 1943.

The two countries also reached an agreement that allows the Italian navy to intercept migrants at sea and return them to Libya, triggering sharp criticism from the United Nations refugee agency and human rights groups.

Colonel Gaddafi travelled, as usual, with a Bedouin tent for his accommodation, which was pitched in the gardens of the residence of the Libyan embassy in Rome.

In an act of protest, an opposition party planted a ”tent of legality” in front of the embassy.

Disrupted? Oh please! How on earth can a sad bunch of around 20 delusional loons disrupt an event as huge as Manchester gay pride?

Loopy Christians at this year's Manchester Pride event. Click on pic for a report of the celebrations

According to the Manchester Evening News, council chiefs were outraged by the presence of  the barmy, placard-waving demonstrators who gathered outside the John Rylands Library on Deansgate as more than 100 floats – celebrating Greater Manchester’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and trangender communities – went past.

The group was largely drowned out by the whistle-blowing crowd of thousands – and Lord of the Rings actor Sir Ian McKellen gave them an ironic wave as he led the procession of 100 floats.

But town hall bosses believe the protesters overstepped the mark. They now plan to work with police to see whether anti-hate laws can be used to ban similar scenes at Pride next summer.

Pat Karney, the council’s city centre spokesman, said such protests had no place in Manchester.

I will be meeting organisers and police to make sure that next year people are not subject to these vile, hate-filled rantings.

He added:

This is 2010, not 1950, and young gay men and women should not be subjected to this hatred. We have a proud history in Manchester of freedom of speech but there is no place for this. I am a Christian and I believe that these people are a terrible advert for Christianity. There are things we can do using hate laws to make sure they do not come back.

Members of the protest were filmed shouting “sinful” and “wicked” at people taking part in the parade.

Of course they did. It’s their job to prod their noses into gatherings of this sort – and Pride events would be all the poorer for not having these twats around. Each time these sorry losers emerge from under their rocks they demonstrate how effectively religion poisons everything – and the atheist count goes up several notches.

The suggested ban was described as a “major assault on freedom of speech” by Christian Voice’s Stephen “Birdshit” Green.

It is a very sad day for this country when the authorities want to clamp down on the teachings of the Gospel.

Those leaving comments beneath the Evening News report appear overwhelmingly against a ban. One of the best comments came from Elljay:

Why ban the small minded, ignorant bigots? They only show themselves up. I find it highly amusing that such pathetic people can stand on the streets in full view of thousands of others who are enjoying the day and spout their vitriol – are they any nearer to heaven by doing so?

I wonder if any of them ever ask themselves if the nurse/police officer/doctor/teacher/paramedic treating them, providing care, protecting them etc etc is gay? Would they then have the ‘balls’ to spout their beliefs? Or to refuse care from a ‘sinner’?

As the mother of a gay man I know he would just laugh in their faces, and I know he, his partner and all his friends had a fantastic weekend at Pride 2010. Pride 2010? No, I’m proud EVERY year of the wonderful, caring and fantastic man I am fortunate enough to call my son!!!

A poll on the paper’s website shows that 79 percent of people do not believe that demos of this sort should be banned.

Carlos Parra shows off the Bibles before dropping them down a shaft to the trapped miners

According to this report, Carlos Parra, an evangelical preacher, arrived at the San Jose mine in Copiapo with 33 miniature Bibles that he had custom-manufactured to fit the dimensions of the small hole connecting to the trapped miners.

The miners were trapped by an August 5 collapse, and rescuers established contact with them by drilling a 6-inch-wide (15-centimeter-wide) hole to the shelter. That hole and two others are now lifelines, delivering supplies, communications and fresh air to the miners while they wait for an escape tunnel to be drilled.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn

All the nasty people who hate Israel … vanish from our world.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef

The old fool’s remarks, aimed specifically at Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, was made in a weekly sermon.

He went on to say:

May God strike them down with the plague along with all the nasty Palestinians who persecute Israel.

The United States condemned the remarks as “deeply offensive”.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu distanced himself from the comments with a statement saying that his government wanted peace with the Palestinians.

The attack on Abbas also prompted chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat to condemn the remarks as

An incitement to genocide.

Erakat urged the Israeli government:

To do more about peace and stop spreading hatred.

In 2000 the rancid rabbi said the Nazi Holocaust was God’s retribution against Jewish sinners. He Later added that he believed all six million Jewish victims were pure and complete saints.

And in 2001 he said of Arabs:

It is forbidden to be merciful to them. You must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable.

Later said he was only referring to terrorists.

The US response to Rabbi Yosef, a founder of the Shas party, was swift. In a statement, US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said:

We regret and condemn the inflammatory statements by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. These remarks are not only deeply offensive, but incitement such as this hurts the cause of peace.

Mr Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying that Rabbi Yosef’s comments:

Do not reflect the views of Benjamin Netanyahu or of his government.

In the past, the former Chief Rabbi of Israel has incurred the wrath of secular Jews, liberals, women and gays with his stupid pronouncements.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn

Rev Luis A Bonilla Margarito was secretly videotaped having sex with the couple’s daughter in the basement of their home.

A stranger to celibacy: Luis A Bonilla Margarito, who is no longer functioning as a priest. Photo: Richard J Patrick/Reading Eagle

The lawsuit, filed this week in Berks County Court, alleges that the priest carried on a sexual relationship with the teenager while he was chaplain of Reading Central Catholic High School and she was a senior there.

The girl’s parents became suspicious and installed a camera in their basement, where Bonilla and the teenager were spending large amounts of time. The camera recorded the couple having sex in November 2009, after she graduated, according to the suit.

Her parents took the video to the Diocese of Allentown, which removed Bonilla from his dual posts as chaplain and pastor of St Joseph Church in Reading when he acknowledged an “inappropriate relationship” with the teenager. Bonilla was sent to a treatment facility but:

Continued to have intimate contact with [the teenager] during this time period and ultimately impregnated her.

She recently gave birth to a girl.

Diocesan spokesman Matt Kerr said:

[Bonilla] has no assignment, and he has not functioned as a priest since November.

Bonilla was named chaplain of Central Catholic in 2008 and befriended the teenager, then 17, at the beginning of her senior year. He “began to groom [the teenager] for a sexual relationship,” the suit said, knowing that she had mental-health problems, had been abused sexually by an adult man, and was “susceptible to being manipulated.”

Her parents began to suspect a relationship and reported their concerns to administrators at Central Catholic. The suit alleges:

They were told their suspicions were unfounded and that nothing could be done to separate [the teenager] and Father Bonilla because he was her spiritual adviser and/or counsellor.

Bonilla also took steps to alienate the teenager from her parents, telling her that she was 18 and no longer had to obey them, the suit said.

The suit, filed by Wyomissing lawyer Jay Abramowitch, alleges that diocesan officials knew about the relationship but were:

So concerned about their own reputation and/or financial interests that they failed to protect [the teenager] from Father Bonilla.

The parents are seeking punitive damages for breach of fiduciary duty, infliction of emotional distress, and gross negligence. The suit names as defendants Bonilla, the diocese, the high school, Allentown Bishop John Barres, and former Bishop Edward Cullen.

District judge David Cooper told him:

You said you were spreading God’s word and when interviewed you said children needed to be protected and basically, homosexuals and lesbians should repent and ask for God’s forgiveness.

The case was dismissed as the prosecution could offer no written evidence from complainants, and Shaw argued his right to free speech.

But Judge Cooper warned him that further complaints could land him back in court:

There are other sorts of ‘sins’. Do you think you could concentrate on those for a bit?

Sixty-something Shaw disagreed. He refused to be bound over to keep the peace, which itself is a criminal offence.

Instead, he said:

In four years, I’ve only dealt with homosexuality about twice. I have to act in good conscience, I’m afraid, and I think [homosexuality] is a particularly significant thing for this nation at this time.

Quite unable to contain his homophobia, Shaw used it again as a platform to seek election as an MP in the 2010 General Election. Standing as an independent, the imbecile came last out of nine candidates in the Colchester constituency, polling just 20 votes. This earned him a place in The Telegraph’s Top Ten General Election Losers.

The miserable loser found himself back before Judge Cooper on Thursday morning, August 26, as a result of a pre-election address he distributed in Colchester in May. In it, he called for a review of whether sodomy and other homosexual acts should remain legal.

Graham Weeks, the 'brains' behind 'The Christian Quoter'

“The Christian Quoter”, a lame fundie blog maintained by Presbyterian nutter Graham Weeks revealed:

It turns out that a couple of homosexual men complained to the police, leading to a completely over-the-top search of Paul’s flat and confiscation of his diaries in June.

Shaw had declared in his address:

I believe for example that homosexual and lesbian acts are immoral and that the law should reflect that; by making them unlawful as they once were; and so acting as a deterrent to such behaviour.

The semi-literate moron added:

The concept of homophobia is nonsense and a play on words; it is not and has never been a phobia! A phobia is an un-natural fear; whereas a rejection of perverse behaviour; is a righteous godly fear; that fears to do wrong because it knows that there are consequences and punishment otherwise! This is the most pronounced example of a nation that has lost its way …

Little wonder that Colchester voters gave him the bum’s rush.

Weeks reports that the latest case was adjourned at the request of the Crown Prosecutor. This was in order, the prosecution said, to consider the case in the light of freedom of speech.

Weeks – a fan of Britain’s funniest fundie, Stephen “Birdshit” Green – quotes Green as saying:

If you can, please come and support Paul at Colchester Magistrates Court, CO1 1FP on Thursday 23rd September 2010. The case is listed for 9.15am, but be prepared for it to be heard, as today’s case was, in the afternoon.

In all, seven brethren came along today [August 26] at a moment’s notice to support Paul and the Gospel, so let us pray for an even bigger witness in four weeks’ time!

Please continue to hold up our brother in prayer at this challenging time.

And please PRAY that justice is done and this attack on our historic freedom to preach the Gospel is defeated.

Like so many in the UK, “BroJustin” is appalled at the forthcoming State visit of Pope Ratzinger – but at the heart this “saved” Christian wingnut’s objections, voiced in a YouTube video, no rational arguments exist, just  mindless – at time hilarious – howls  about the visit being a manifestation of the godlessness of the UK.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Referring to Ratzinger as  “His Prancing Putrescence the Prince of Perverts”, “BroJustin” declares:

Perhaps we should hope and pray that God will raise up some maniac to shoot the Pope.

The mad misogynist and homophobe then expands his diatribe to denounce “the ordination of wicked feminist sows”; laments the fact that “women are put in authority over men”, and that some churches are now ordaining “practitioners of anal lust and penis sucking”.

Why, they have even got “so far from God that they think that Catholics are Christians”.

Meanwhile, the Birmingham Post reports that a gang of Pope lovers from Ireland are giving local authorities – and the Catholic Church – a bit of a headache.

The Pope features on the cover of The New Humanist, which is now available at 1,300 outlets in the UK (click for details)

About 15 families moved onto a field behind Sarehole Mill, off Wake Green Lane, Hall Green, on Tuesday. When they were served with a police notice to leave, the convoy moved just yards across the road to the John Morris Jones Walk Way, at The Shire Country Park, in Cole Bank Road.

The group told local councillor Martin Mullaney that had come from Donegal, Ireland, to Birmingham, especially for Ratslinger’s visit to Cofton Park on September 19.

Mullaney (Lib Dem, Kings Heath and Moseley) said he was told by the group that they intended to return to Ireland after the Pontiff’s visit but had not purchased pilgrim passes, which cost £25 each, and guarantee entry to the park for the Mass.

In light of the move, Birmingham City Council officials, West Midlands Police, and a member of the Catholic Church were holding an emergency meeting to establish how they can get a clear message to other travellers who intend coming for the Pope’s visit, that they will be refused entry if they do not have a valid ticket.

Mullaney said:

We are having a meeting to get a press release or a leaflet which we can send out to the travelling community. We need to get a message to them that you need a ticket to go to the Mass and if you don’t have one, you won’t get in.

The travellers refused to comment.

Mullaney said the council was working with the travellers to see if they could find an alternative site. He said:

I asked why they keep picking parks and they said they want somewhere with short grass so that it’s safe for their children to run around. As there are four weeks to go to the Pope’s visit, I asked if they would be happy for the council to provide a temporary site and they said yes. It has to be acceptable with local residents.

Hat Tip: MarkB (for the YouTube link)

Michael Enright, right, confers with his attorney Jason Martin, during his arraignment in a New York City courtroom on charges that include attempted murder as a hate crime

According to this report, Enright hailed Sharif’s cab, then asked the driver if he was a Muslim. He replied yes.

After a few moments of silence, Enright, according to a statement issued by the Taxi Drivers’ Alliance:

Suddenly started cursing and screaming. He yelled ‘Assalamu Alaikum. Consider this a checkpoint,’ then slashed Mr Sharif across the neck. As Mr. Sharif went to knock the knife out, the perpetrator, continuing to scream loudly, cut the taxi driver in the face (from nose to upper lip), arm and hand.

Enright volunteered with Intersections International which is

A New York-based global initiative dedicated to promoting justice, reconciliation and peace across lines of faith, culture, ideology, race, class, national borders and other boundaries that divide humanity.

The group’s executive director, the Rev Robert Chase said in this report:

I am deeply distressed if this is the Mike Enright that we know. Especially, or sadly, ironic, is that our work is about building bridges between different faiths, different ethnicities, different cultures. This is exactly the opposite of what we stand for.”

If this is the Michael Enright who has worked with Intersections, this is totally out of his character and it’s really, in many ways, unfathomable to me.

Chase said he believes Enright “absolutely” held the same values as Intersections.

That’s why this is so out of character. He worked hours with us as a volunteer and I don’t think he would have done that if he didn’t believe in the mission.

Chase also described Enright as:

Cordial, very helpful, and he’s a really good guy.

In a statement, Intersections expressed condolences for the cab driver and called the violence “unacceptable”.

Grand Imam Sayyed Mohammed Musawi speaking last year in praise of the late 'human rights champion and man of justice' Ayatollah Khomeini

Intersections International is not to be confused with Interfaith International, the co-founder of which is the dotty UK-based “His Eminence” Sayyed Mohammed Musawi, President of the World Islamic League (WABIL) who has some pretty quirky views of human rights:

Human rights in Islam, as far as the Qur’an and the hadiths are concerned, cover all areas of life. If the government sets the rights, then they can be changed, be amended, be modified. The real human rights have been granted and given by the Creator of life, and these rights cannot be changed.

When these rights come from Allah as a religious responsibility, then the enforcement and implementation of them take root in the heart of every believer. In that case, we don’t need the police or the military or the government to en force them because they are already in the heart of every believer.

In 1998 Interfaith International received “special consultative status” with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

A row erupted after members of the Highfield Road Gospel Hall in the east end of Toronto invaded the area for an “open-air prayer meeting”,  which several residents thought was an attempt to intimidate the couple.

But according to this report, the two men are nonplussed. They say they’ve been living on Highfield Road for a dozen years, have never felt targeted and are surprised at their neighbours’ attempts to defend them.

A member of the evangelical group added:

There was nothing targeted.

He declined to give his name but said he’d been with the group since 1982. He claimed they’ve “never seen anything like the vitriol that’s been posted” in response to Sunday’s encounter, which was shot on video and subsequently went viral.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I think somebody perhaps may have leapt to a conclusion that was simply false. And sometimes these things can snowball.

The gospel-hall member insisted the group was simply conducting a prayer session that’s a regular Sunday occurrence during the summer.

If [the allegation of homophobia] had been true, and it’s not, it would have been a dreadful thing. To stand in front of somebody’s house and to say things about that person would be shockingly inappropriate.

He added that the group would likely make a nuisance of themselves on that street again:

Not this year, but yeah, in future years … We certainly are not seeking confrontation with anybody. That’s not in the spirit of Christianity.

Kristen McKay heard the shouting and praying from her Highfield Road home shortly after 8 pm. She went outside and saw about a dozen parishioners, a couple of them with young children. She and several other residents claim their religious exhortations were directed at a house across the street belonging to a gay couple – one of several in the neighbourhood.

I didn’t think people should be degraded or made to feel disgraced or singled out. … And I don’t think they should be here: We’re having a nice, relaxing Sunday, everyone likes each other, we’re good neighbours.

She ran out, followed by her husband, James, and several other residents. The 90-second video shot by neighbour Geoffrey Skelding shows the parishioners in formal Sunday attire, several of them carrying Bibles, being confronted by half a dozen residents. It has since been viewed more than 12,000 times on YouTube, and re-posted on numerous local websites and blogs.

Says a woman in a brimmed hat and turquoise suit:

We have a right to be here.

A man beside her, wielding a Bible, adds that they have:

The authority to preach the gospel. … We’ve been doing this 70 years. In the will of God, next year, we’ll be here.

A resident counters:

We’re not arguing the importance [of your message]. We’re arguing that you’re yelling on the street that is shared by a bunch of neighbours that like each other.

A couple of residents called police about the disturbance, but by the time a pair of cars arrived, most of the group had gone. Toronto police spokeswoman Wendy Drummond said no report has been filed because no complaint has been made.

Residents say they’re considering taking further action if the group comes back.

Said Anna MacKay, who has seen the group on the street before:

To each their own; if somebody is having a sermon outside their house I’m not going to say anything. … [But] if I want to hear you preach, I’ll come to your church. I don’t go stand outside your church and tell you how to live your life. They were talking about blood of the lamb flowing down the street, [and that] we’ll have to pay for our sins.

Jesus on a pogo stick, after 2,000 years you’d think these cretins could come up with some crap we haven’t actually heard before!

Hat tip Sean R