Georgia House Permits Bible As Textbook In High School

The Macon Telegraph reports that yesterday the Georgia House of Representatives passed by a vote of 151-7 a bill (HB 1133) permitting high schools to offer elective courses on the history and literature of the Old Testament and New Testament eras. The classes would focus on the law, morals, values and culture of the eras. Interestingly, the bill provides that the Old Testament and New Testament would be the primary text for each class and the local school board would decide which version of each text to use. Students would also have the option to use a different version.

The bill was originally introduced by Democrats in the Georgia Senate. Republicans, upping the ante, quickly substituted their own version, specifying that the Bible itself would be the course textbook. The measure easily passed the GOP-controlled Senate last month by a 50-1 vote. House lawmakers changed the Senate bill by taking out requirements that the New Testament courses must document the parables of Jesus and the travels of Paul. These changes now must be approved by the Senate. [Thanks to Jean Dudley via Religion law for the information.]

Meanwhile, the Auburn Plainsman today reports that the Alabama Senate Education Committee recently cleared SB472, a Democratic-sponsored bill that would permit the Bible to be taught as literature in public schools. A different version of the bill (HB58) is pending in the House. It is opposed by Republicans because it prescribes The Bible and Its Influence as the required text. (See prior posting.)

UPDATE: On March 27, the Georgia Senate also approved HB 1133, and Gov. Sonny Perdue is expected to sign the law, according to the New York Times.

Church Contributes Funds For Investors In SEC Suit

The Securities and Exchange Commission last week announced a settlement in a securities fraud case filed in Massachusetts involving a unique cooperative effort between a church and government enforcement authorities. In 2001, Eric Resteiner sold $22 million in fictitious securities, defrauding at least 50 investors, many of whom were members of the Christian Science Church. In earlier litigation, the SEC obtained disgorgement of $700,000 from one of Resteiner's co-defendants. Under the securities laws, this will be used to partially compensate Resteiner's victims. Now, the First Church of Christ Scientist in Boston has agreed to donate an additional $2.3 million to the disgorgement fund so that victims can be more adequately compensated. Section 308(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act permits the SEC to accept gifts to a disgorgement fund for eventual distribution to defrauded investors. This is the first time that such a donation has been made since the enactment of Sarbanes-Oxley in 2002.

Background On Pending Satmar Litigation

Yesterday's New York Sun carries a long and fascinating article detailing the intricacies of litigation ongoing for 5 years in Brooklyn over control of the vast holdings of the Orthodox Jewish Satmar community. The dispute, now in a state appellate court, involves rival factions-- each following a different son of the Satmar's grand rebbe. Each faction claims to have elected a president of the Satmar's Williamsburg congregation. The board has the power to manage the Satmar's assets. The congregation's bylaws are written in Yiddish, and one of the 26 buildings in dispute is the partially built skeleton of a 10,000-seat Brooklyn synagogue. New York Judge Melvin Barasch, who heard the case at trial, decided in 2004 that because the dispute raised the question about congregational membership, it was essentially a religious dispute and was not a matter for a New York courts to decide. "What civil court is capable or would want to evaluate whether a person is sufficiently observant of Satmar religious doctrine to qualify as a member?" said Scott Mollen, who represents followers of one of the sons, Rabbi Zalmen. (See prior related postings, 1, 2.)

British House of Lords Upholds School Policy Banning Jilbab

In a widely followed case, R (on the Application of Begum) v. Headteacher and Governors of Denbigh High School, a unanimous 5-judge panel of the British House of Lords today overturned a lower court ruling and held that Art. 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights was not violated when student Shabina Begum was banned from wearing a traditional Islamic jilbab at school. Similarly, it held that her right to education under Article 2 of the First Protocol to the Convention was not infringed.

Denbigh High School had a uniform policy that allowed Begum to wear the shalwar kameez (trousers and tunic), but not a jilbab that covered her entire body. (See prior posting.) Today's Education Guardian reports that Lord Bingham's opinion emphasized that courts, lacking the experience, background and detailed knowledge of the headteacher, staff and governors, should not interfere in the school's decision. He pointed out that the school's policy was acceptable to mainstream Muslim opinion.

Shabina's counsel, Cherie Booth QC, said that the kameez was no longer suitable for Begum because she had reached sexual maturity and it did not sufficiently protect her modesty. Lord Bingham said any sincere religious belief such as that held by Shabina must command respect, but the issue was whether her freedom to manifest her belief by her dress was subject to limitation and whether that limitation was justified. He said Shabina could have attended another school, where the jilbab was permitted. He was satisfied there was no interference with her right to manifest her belief, and even if there was interference, it was a "proportionate" response by the school.

Agreeing, Lord Hoffmann said that Article 9 of the European Convention "does not require that one should be allowed to manifest one's religion at any time and place of one's own choosing." Shabina's family had chosen that school with knowledge of its uniform requirements.

Begum said she would be discussing with her lawyers whether they would appeal the case
to the European Court of Human Rights.

Afghan Who Converted May Be Mentally Unfit To Stand Trial

In Kabul, Afghanistan today, according to the Guardian Unlimited, a state prosecutor said that Abdul Rahman, facing a possible death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity, may be mentally unfit to stand trial. (See prior posting.) The case has attracted widespread international attention. The United States, Britain and other countries that have troops in Afghanistan have raised concern about Rahman's fate. A Western diplomat in Kabul and a human rights advocate both said the government was desperately searching for a way to drop the case because of the reaction it has caused. Afghanistan's constitution provides that "no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam."

Additional Group To Recruit Jewish Military Chaplains

The Jewish Welfare Board's Jewish Chaplains Council-- an organization that works with all streams of Judaism-- is about to lose its monopoly on endorsing chaplains for the U.S. military. Only 29 of the military's 2850 chaplains are rabbis. The Forward reports that the Aleph Institute, an organization known for helping Jewish prisoners, was approved last month by the Department of Defense as an additional body that can recruit rabbis for the chaplains' corps. Aleph is affiliated with the ultra-Orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch movement. Currently Chabad rabbis generally are unable to become chaplains because of the military's ban on wearing of beards. It is expected that Aleph will work to change the military's grooming rule. In the meantime, it is likely to reach out to rabbis in other parts of the Orthodox movement.

Are Islamist Enclaves Constitutional?

The Spring 2006 issue of The Middle East Quarterly carries an article by David Kennedy Houck, titled The Islamist Challenge to the U.S. Constitution. He focuses particularly on a proposal by a Little Rock, Arkansas Muslim group to create an internal Islamic enclave. Here are a few excerpts from his much longer article:

While the U.S. Constitution enshrines the right to religious freedom and the prohibition against a state religion, when it comes to the rights of religious enclaves to impose communal rules, the dividing line is more nebulous. Can U.S. enclaves, homeowner associations, and other groups enforce Islamic law?...

On their face, the fundamental principles of the internal Muslim enclave are no more invidious than any other religious enclave. But ideology matters. Many proponents of an Islamic polity promote an ideology at odds with U.S. constitutional jurisprudence and the prohibition against the establishment of a state-sponsored religion. The refusal to recognize federal law makes Islamist enclaves more akin to Ruby Ridge than to the Hasidic and Amish [communities]....

Prince Charles Gets Honorary Degree, Speaks At Al-Azhar University

Prince Charles on Tuesday, according to the Washington Post, was awarded an honorary degree by Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the foremost Islamic institution in the Sunni Muslim world. He was accompanied on his visit to Egypt by his wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, who wore a headscarf as she toured the mosque at Al-Azhar. Charles' speech at the University criticized Islamophobia in Europe, including the cartoons that appeared in Danish and other newspapers. He also criticized restrictions on Christians imposed by some Muslim nations. In Egypt, the large Coptic Christian community complains of restrictions on building churches and of discrimination in employment.

USDA Finds Violations At Kosher Slaughtering Plant

Last week, the Forward reported on the release by the U.S. Department of Agriculture of its Inspector General's April 25, 2005 Report (full text) on AgriProcessors, a large kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa. The report questioned certain methods used by AgriProcessors, calling them "inhumane slaughter" techniques. The company has since changed the questionable procedures. The USDA's investigation of AgriProcessors began after People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a vegetarian group, released an undercover video of animals being slaughtered in the plant. A lawyer who represents AgriProcessors, Nathan Lewin, said the report makes it clear that everything done at the plant was approved by the Agriculture Department until PETA released its video. The video and all relevant documents are available on the PETA Undercover website. The USDA report also faulted government inspectors who ignored the violations, accepted gifts of meat from the plant, and played video games instead of carrying out their inspections, according to a report in Jewish Week.

Texas School Sued Over Bible Group's Access To Website

The Liberty Legal Institute yesterday filed suit in federal district court against Plano, Texas school officials on behalf of Students Witnessing Absolute Truth, a Bible-study group. Today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the group was not permitted to post an organizational description in the "Campus Programs" section for their school on the Plano Independent School District's website. In its announcement of the litigation, Liberty Legal Institute said: "The website page is specifically designated as a listing of all student groups offered within the school. By banning only the religious group, Plano ISD is in direct violation of the First Amendment and The Equal Access Act." An earlier suit by Liberty Legal, challenging the school district's refusal to permit a student to distribute religious-themed candy-canes, is in litigation in the same court.

Church-State Tidbits From Bush Q&A In Cleveland

Yesterday, at the City Club of Cleveland, President George W. Bush spoke on The War On Terror and Operation Iraqi Freedom (full text). The Q&A following his talk produced two interesting colloquies involving church-state:

Q [A]uthor and former Nixon administration official Kevin Phillips, in his latest book, American Theocracy, discusses what has been called radical Christianity and its growing involvement into government and politics. He makes the point that members of your administration have reached out to prophetic Christians who see the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism as signs of the apocalypse. Do you believe this, that the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism are signs of the apocalypse? And if not, why not?

THE PRESIDENT: The answer is -- I haven't really thought of it that way. (Laughter.) Here's how I think of it. The first I've heard of that, by the way. I guess I'm more of a practical fellow. I vowed after September that I would do everything I could to protect the American people....*** I take a practical view of doing the job you want me to do -- which is how do we defeat an enemy that still wants to hurt us; and how do we deal with threats before they fully materialize; what do we do to protect us from harm? That's my job. And that job came home on September the 11th, for me -- loud and clear.....

Then, as part of a long answer to a question asking about domestic policy aimed at helping unsafe and poverty-stricken neighborhoods, the President promoted his faith-based initiative:

I believe that the idea of empowering our faith-based institutions -- government can help, but government sometimes can't find -- well, it just doesn't pass -- it's not a loving organization. And so I believe strongly -- I believe strongly in empowering faith-based and community-based programs all throughout America to help achieve certain objectives.

Mentoring, for example, mentoring of children in prisoners -- whose mother or dad may be in prison is an initiative I started. Drug rehabilitation, giving those who are eligible for drug money a voucher, money themselves, a scrip so they can redeem it at a program that they choose, not that the government assigns them to. In other words, there's a variety of social service programs aimed at lifting people up.

Nuns and Priests May Be Lawyers In India

In India today, the High Court of Kerala affirmed the decision of a lower court and held that nuns and priests are not barred from practicing law. The Bar Council of India had filed an appeal challenging the lower court's decision. According to Rediff.com, the appeals court held that "professing religion" by itself was not enough to reject an application for admission to the bar.

Pennsylvania Pastors Network Nears Line On Tax Code Limits

The new determination of the Internal Revenue Service to enforce the tax code's restrictions on non-profit organizations is about to be tested in Pennsylvania. Today's New York Times reports that the Pennsylvania Pastors Network is holding training sessions to teach clergy how to get their parishioners out to vote in the November election. Hosted by Colin A. Hanna, founder of the conservative advocacy group Let Freedom Ring, the first training session featured a seven-minute videotaped message from , Sen. Rick Santorum who faces a difficult re-election fight. He encouraged the pastors to support a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage. The tax code permits non-profits to register voters and to express views on public issues, but they may not support a particular political party or candidate. Inviting just one candidate to speak, singling out one candidate's accomplishments and highlighting a combination of issues tailored to one candidate's campaign are all factors that the I.R.S. considers in determining whether a non-profit has engaged in prohibited partisan activity.

Mother Theresa Statue Controversial In Northern Albania

In Albania, the Culture Ministry has proposed erecting a statue of Mother Theresa, an ethnic Albanian, in the northern city of Shkodra, according to yesterday's Washington Post. Mother Theresa is widely admired in Albania, and she has been honored in the capital city of Tirana by having an airport and hospital named after her and an annex at the National Museum devoted to her works. However, on Sunday, representatives of the Charity Islamic Association, Islamic Intellectuals and Albanian Muslim Forum opposed the bust, saying the statue was a provocation. They said a cross in a nearby area was vandalized in January. However, the next day, Selim Muca, head of the Albanian Muslim Community, the organization representing all Muslims in Albania, said those objections from small Muslim groups were not the community's official position.

Lawyer Criticizes Ontario's Ban On Religious Arbitration Panels

An interesting article titled Faith Based Arbitrations In Ontario: A Lost Opportunity has been posted by Canadian lawyer Faisal Kutty. It criticizes Ontario's decision last month to preclude the use of religious laws in resolving family disputes under the province's Arbitration Act. Kutty says that misunderstanding, ignorance, and careless pronouncements, as well as inaccurate media coverage, led to the Family Statute Law Amendment Act, 2005. The FSLAA goes against the recommendations in the Boyd Report, a study commissioned by the Ontario government. Kutty argues that Ontario lost an opportunity to show the world how to balance the rights of a religious community with those of potentially vulnerable individuals, and to demonstrate how Islamic law and liberal democracy could co-exist. He fears that "back alley" arbitrations will continue in Ontario, but now without any regulation or supervision.

An earlier article by Kutty discussed the recommendations made by the 2004 Boyd Report that called for retaining religious-based arbitration, but imposing new regulation on arbitration tribunals and the family law arbitration process.

Indonesia Increasingly Convicts For Deviating From Islam

Today's Los Angeles Times carries a story on the increasing prosecution in Indonesia of those who deviate from accepted Muslim teachings. Article 28E of Indonesia's Constitution guarantees the right to practice one's religion and freely express one's beliefs. However blasphemy and insulting religion are both crimes under Indonesian law. Courts are increasingly convicting for one of these offenses when individuals violate a fatwa (ruling) by the Muslim Council of Ulemas. For example, Yusman Roy, a former boxer and a convert to Islam, is serving two years in prison for distributing a video of a bilingual prayer session he holds at his East Java boarding school. Conservative Muslims believe true prayer can be conducted only in Arabic. In August, a court acquitted Roy of deviating from Islam, but found him guilty of inciting hatred by challenging the views of local clerics.

Sumardi Tappaya, a high school religious teacher, is awaiting trial for blasphemy after a relative claimed he was whistling while he prayed. Ardhi Husain and his editors were sentenced to five years in prison for writing a book that the ulemas said contained 70 errors, such as claiming Muhammad was not the last prophet and that non-Muslims could go to heaven. And Lia Aminuddin, who claims to be the Virgin Mary and leads the quasi-Islamic God's Kingdom of Eden cult, was arrested in December for blasphemy after thousands of protesters surrounded her headquarters in Jakarta.

Fallout From Muhammad Cartoons Continues

Legal fallout continues in the Muhammad cartoon controversy. Jurist and AFP report that a group of 27 Danish Muslim organizations plans to bring suit in a Danish court against Jyllands-Posten, the paper that originally published the offending cartoons. This follows the refusal by the Danish prosecutor to file charges against the paper. The Muslim group also plan to file a complaint against Jyllands-Posten with the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. Ahmad Akkari, a Danish Imam, claimed that Denmark's failure to proceed against the paper violated the country's obligations under U.N. human rights conventions. [Thanks to Steven H. Sholk for this lead.]

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights’ Special Rapporteur examining the situation has strongly criticized Denmark, according to a report yesterday in the Turkish paper, Zaman.

Meanwhile, in France, a draft law criminalizing blasphemy, has been proposed by an MP for the ruling Union for Popular Movement party (UMP). According to Friday's Islam Online, MP Marc Bouraud said he was driven by the Danish cartoons crisis, which "exposed the fragile link between freedom of expression and freedom of belief and thought."

New Prisoner Cases On Attendance At Religious Services

In Walee v. Crosby, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10633 (MD Fla., March 16, 2006), a federal district court rejected a prisoner's complaint that his free exercise rights were violated when the prison's computer system was not able to list his religious name along with his commitment name on the list of inmates who have been cleared to attend religious services.

In Joseph v. Lewis, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10653 (ED Cal., March 15, 2006), a California federal district court found that a prisoner had a valid free exercise complaint growing out of prison authorities' refusal to permit him to leave a vocational instruction class to attend Friday Jumu'ah prayer services. However his claim that his inmate grievance form was improperly processed was dismissed.

Austria Moves Toward Greater Recognition of Muslims

Yesterday, Islam Online reported that a proposed new law in Austria would give Muslims more rights than they currently have. The bill would set up a college to graduate imams. It would permit Muslim chaplains and Muslim congregational prayer in the army. Muslim chaplains would similarly be permitted in the police force and in hospitals. The proposal would also call for respect for the dress code of Muslim women and criminalize verbal and body attacks against them.

In another development, the Catholic Church in the Upper Austria region has decided to allow the teaching of Islam in one of its 55 schools, as the number of Muslim students enrolled increases. Other Catholic schools were expected to do the same, since the education law calls for such classes once the number of Muslim students reaches 3.

Hindu Group Sues Over California Textbook Changes

On Friday, a week after the California State Board of Education approved changes in the way textbooks treat Hinduism, the Hindu American Foundation filed suit challenging the fairness of the hearing conducted by the Board on the changes. Rediff.com reports on the suit filed in California Superior Court in Sacramento. The HAF complaint alleges that the SBE violated the law when it approved textbooks for sixth grade history-social science that tend to "demean, stereotype, and reflect adversely" upon Hindus, portray Hinduism as undesirable and hold Hindu beliefs and practices up to ridicule or as inferior. However, other Hindu groups praise the action of the Board, saying it assures historically accurate accounts of Indian history. The full text of the complaint and related exhibits is available online.