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Heh.

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I dunno whats worse – muslims who think Islam needs to be defended, or non-muslims who think Islam needs to be defended. Probably the former, because they at least should know that Islam is eternal.

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A politician named Zaid Ibrahim who made a name for himself as a defender of speech freedom for Malaysian bloggers is now suing a blogger in that country for defamation.

One blogger wrote:

…if this is ruled as defamation, then we’ll see at least 10 such cases being filed at the courts daily!

In the ‘offending’ post, blogger A Kadir Jasin compares Ibrahim to a cartoon character named ‘Hurricane Hattie.’

No malice intended, but the Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s new wunder kinder, Senator Zaid Ibrahim reminds me of the cartoon character Hurricane Hattie.

In the comic strip The Born Loser, by Art Sansom, which started in 1965, Hurricane Hattie was the mischievous girl next door, who delighted in menacing pretty much any adult she encountered, especially the main character, Brutus Thornapple.

Wherever she went in Thornapple’s household, she created havoc. So is the Umno-nominated Kelantan Senator. Wherever he goes, controversy is not far behind.

Wow, that’s rough stuff. Ibrahim better get out of politics if that’s the way they roll in Malaysia.

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People living in a third of all countries are restricted from practicing religion freely, either because of government policies and laws or hostile acts by individuals or groups, according to a study released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center, “Global Restrictions on Religion.”

That amounts to 70 percent of the globe’s population, since some of the most restrictive countries are very populous.

Of the world’s 25 most populous countries, citizens in Iran, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan and India live with the most restrictions when both measures are taken into account, the study found.

“Where those two come together is where it’s most intense,” said Brian Grim, senior researcher at the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life.

The United States, Brazil, Japan, Italy, South Africa and the United Kingdom have the least amount of restrictions on religious practices when measured by both government infringement and religion-based violence or harassment, according to the study.

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US Religious Freedom Report Hits Speech Curbs
By David Gollust
State Department
26 October 2009

U.S. State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report 2009
The U.S. State Department’s annual report on world-wide religious freedom, released Monday, was critical of what it says are international efforts to limit free speech in the name of combating defamation of religion. The Organization of the Islamic Conference, or OIC, has been pushing such anti-defamation measures in U.N. bodies.

The State Department report says the United States deplores actions that show disrespect for religious traditions, including Islam.

But it says the broad anti-defamation measures being sought by the Islamic Conference would have the effect of curbing debate about religious issues and should be discarded in favor of outreach and government defense of religious freedom and free speech.

Assistant Secretary Posner said the State Department expects to issue, by year’s end, a new list of countries of particular concern on religious freedom, which would be subject to possible U.S. sanctions.

The current list, issued at the close of the Bush administration, includes Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan.

Full Article

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Silvio Berlusconi was accused yesterday of using his influence over the media to block the promotion of a movie about his chauvinism starring at the Venice Film Festival.

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Ibrahim Jassam, 31, is an Iraqi freelance photographer. Since Sept. 2, 2008, when U.S. soldiers seized him at his home near Baghdad, he has been held without charge in American military prisons. He’s currently at Camp Bucca, in the southern part of the country, according to Lt. Col. Patricia Johnson, a U.S. Marine Corps spokeswoman in Iraq. Jassam is a security threat, Johnson said, “as the result of his activity with an insurgent organization.”

No details of that alleged activity were offered. Journalists often make contact with opposition forces in the course of their work. Last November, the Central Criminal Court of Iraq ruled that Jassam is not a security threat and asked the Americans to release him. The American response has been to politely ignore the court and keep the photographer in prison as his first anniversary in jail approaches.

Hardly new though. Jassam joins journalists like Sami Al-Hajj (held for six years without charge in Guantanamo where he was questioned not about terrorism, but about Al-Jazeera), or Bilal Hussein (held for two years without charge in Iraq by the US military) in having been held without charge for extended periods of time by the US.

Expect some loud screeching in the comments from the resident Obama cultist…

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Yale University and Yale University Press consulted two dozen authorities, including diplomats and experts on Islam and counterterrorism, and the recommendation was unanimous: The book, “The Cartoons That Shook the World,” should not include the 12 Danish drawings that originally appeared in September 2005. What’s more, they suggested that the Yale press also refrain from publishing any other illustrations of the prophet that were to be included, specifically, a drawing for a children’s book; an Ottoman print; and a sketch by the 19th-century artist Gustave Doré of Muhammad being tormented in Hell, an episode from Dante’s “Inferno” that has been depicted by Botticelli, Blake, Rodin and Dalí.

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In the Pakistani part of Kashmir several political activists and students have been arrested for observing the demands for an independent Kashmir, free from India and Pakistan. Mr. Sardar Liaquat Hayat, the Central President of the Jammu Kashmir National Awami Party, and several activists of the Jamu and Kashmir National Awami Party (JKNAP) and Jammu Kashmir National Students Federation (JKNSF), were arrested without any judicial warrants or charges.

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