ADF Trying To Shape Foreign Law, In Case US Courts Cite It

The Alliance Defense Fund is a conservative Christian legal advocacy group whose usual cases involve the defense of religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and traditional family values in the United States. U.S. News & World Report this past week focuses on a new strategic direction being taken by ADF. Like other conservative organizations, ADF has become increasingly concerned about the citation of foreign law by U.S. courts. So now ADF is moving to try to shape foreign law so that if it is cited, it will be cited for the side of the issue that ADF favors. This has led the group to assist plaintiffs, like British citizen Stephen Copsey, who was fired from his job for refusing to work on Sundays. Benjamin Bull, ADF's chief counsel remarked: "It's crystal clear to us that unless we get involved in the outcome of foreign law then we're going to be at grave risk."

Organization Pushes For End To Death Penalty In Muslim Countries

Inter Press Service News Agency reports that the annual conference of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty was held this past weekend in Casablanca, Morocco. Part of the conference focused on how to abolish the death penalty in Muslim countries that adhere to Sharia law. Some progress has been made. Senegal abolished capital punishment in 2004, and it is expected that Morocco-- which hasn't executed anyone for 13 years-- will abolish capital punishment in the future. Speakers at the conference said that misconceptions about the extent to which Muslim law requires the death penalty will need to be overcome in order to make progress toward abolition. Five of the top nine countries that retain the death penalty are Muslim.

IRS Checking On Non-Profit Hospitals

Today's New York Times reports that the Internal Revenue Service has begun an investigation of non-profit hospitals-- many of them religiously affiliated-- to determine whether they are meeting the standards for tax-exempt status. The agency has sent a compliance questionnaire to 550 hospitals asking about their operations, community services, medical research, furnishing of care for uninsured patients, pricing of services for the uninsured and executive compensation. Results could be used to decide whether the IRS should change any of its current Regulations. Before 1969, the agency specifically required hospitals to provide charity care to qualify for tax-exempt status. Now I.R.S. Regulations merely require that hospitals provide benefits to the community, which may be done in other ways as well.

Newly Available Scholarly Articles

From SmartCILP:
Ian Ward, Headscarf Stories, 29 Hastings International & Comparative Law Review, 315-341 (2006).

From SSRN:
Melynda Price, God's Will or Linked Fate: Race and Religion in African American Views of the Death Penalty (A Qualitative and Quantitative Approach) (2006).

Tomorrow Religious Freedom Day On Capitol Hill

Tomorrow Senator Rick Santorum, Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, will host a panel discussion on the status of religious freedom around the world as part of Religious Freedom Day on Capitol Hill. U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Vice Chair Nina Shea will moderate the panel of government officials, members of Congress and religious freedom activists, according to a USCIRF news release.

UPDATE: Here is more on the conference from Sen. Santorum.

Da Vinci Censorship By American Samoa Would Be Unconstitutional

The Attorney General of American Samoa, Sialega Malaetasi Togafau, last Tuesday issued an opinion finding that any governmental censorship of the movie, The DaVinci Code, would be unconstitutional. Today's Pacific Magazine reports that the islands' governor, Gov. Togiola Tulafono, requested the opinion after members of clergy asked the governor to ban the movie's scheduled opening in Pago Pago on June 30th. Attorney General Togafau said that both the Constitution of American Samoa, and the U.S. Constitution, whose basic guaranties of fundamental rights apply to the island, ban this kind of interference with freedom of expression. (As to the applicability of the U.S. Constitution's guaranties of fundamental rights to American Samoa, see King v. Morton, 172 U.S. App. D.C. 126 (DC Cir., 1975) [LEXIS link].

Role Of Islam In Constitution For Kurdish Iraq Debated

IRIN reports today that discussions are under way on the drafting of a constitution for the northern, majority-Kurdish, region in Iraq. And as with the drafting of a national constitution for all of Iraq, the question of the role of Islamic law is becoming a contentious issue. Islamic parties in the Kurdish region want the constitution to provide that Islam will be a principal source of legislation, something that the current proposed draft does not do. The current draft, soon to be released by Parliament, merely provides: "This constitution safeguards the Islamic identity of the people of Kurdistan and respects other religions and guarantees their freedom." Some human rights advocates argue that including Islamic law in the constitution will limit women's rights, particularly in family law matters such as divorce and inheritance.

New U.S. Muslim Seminary Seeks To Train Moderate American Clergy

Today's New York Times features a long story about two American Muslims intellectuals, Sheik Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir, who have founded the Zaytuna Institute -- a seminary in Hayward, California to train Islamic clergy. The school aims to train a new generation of imams and scholars who will reconcile Islam with American culture. Its founders say that Islam must be rescued from extremists who selectively cite Islamic scripture to justify terrorism.

South African Equality Court Upholds Anti-Semitism Complaint

In the first case of its kind to come before an Equality Court in South Africa, Gerhard Barkhuizen was found guilty of anti-Semitic hate speech for painting a swastika and the phrase Habrizo Mamzer ("spiteful Hebrew bastard") on a wall facing the home of his neighbor, Yaron Fishman. Today's South Africa Sunday Independent reports on the case. The anti-Semitic incident was the culmination of a dispute between the two neighbors over a dog kennel that Barkhuizen was building on his property. Fishman, the son of a Holocaust survivor, took the incident to the country's Human Rights Commission last August. Barkhuizen, who is also facing criminal charges, has refused to apologize, claiming that the painting formed part of a mural depicting the Second World War and that South Africa's constitution affords him the right to freedom of expression. The magistrate hearing the case ruled that Barkhuizen knew that Fishman was Jewish and had deliberately chosen to paint the swastika facing his home.

Blasphemy Defendant In Pakistan Murdered Outside Court House

Pakistan's Daily Times today reports that in Multan, Pakistan, Abdul Sattar Gopang (also known as Tari) was stabbed to death outside the Muzaffargarh district court as he was about to attend the trial in a blasphemy suit brought against him. The killing occurred even though Gopang was being protected by a team of policemen. On Saturday, Muslim clerics refused to officiate at Gopang's funeral and his family had to hire a religious seminary teacher to perform the funeral. Charged in the killing are Muhammad Imran Waheed, a student, and Muhammad Iqbal Khan, a vendor. A spokesman for the Muslim group, Tehrik Khatm-e-Nabuwat said that his group will provide full financial and legal support to the accused assassins. He said: "We are proud of them for accomplishing this noble task."

Meanwhile, Gopang's younger brother has also been arrested for hurling a brick at Maulana Abdul Rasheed, the complainant in the blasphemy case, and Rasheed has been taken into protective custody.

South Carolina Released Time Credit Act Becomes Law

On June 2, the governor of South Carolina signed the state's Released Time Credit Act which permits high schools to give students an elective credit for participating in off-site religion classes. (See prior postings 1, 2.) Here are excerpts from the text of the new law:

Whereas, the South Carolina General Assembly finds that: ...The free exercise of religion is important to the intellectual, moral, civic, and ethical development of students in South Carolina, and that any such exercise must be conducted in a constitutionally appropriate manner.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina: Section 59-39-112. (A) A school district board of trustees may award high school students no more than two elective Carnegie units for the completion of released time classes in religious instruction ... if:

(1) ... the released time classes ... are evaluated on the basis of purely secular criteria that are substantially the same criteria used to evaluate similar classes at established private high schools for the purpose of determining whether a student transferring to a public high school from a private high school will be awarded elective Carnegie units for such classes.... and

(2) the decision to award elective Carnegie units is neutral as to, and does not involve any test for, religious content or denominational affiliation.

(B) For the purpose of subsection (A)(1), secular criteria may include, but are not limited to ... (1) number of hours of classroom instruction time; (2) review of the course syllabus ...; (3) methods of assessment used in the course; and (4) whether the course was taught by a certified teacher.

The State reports that now released time groups are quickly moving to get more high schools to approve their programs.

Funding Of Hunger Program OK'd With Disclaimer

Earlier this week, Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed suit to stop the city of Baltimore, Maryland from funding today’s Bags of Love outreach program designed to furnish food to the hungry in Baltimore. The program is sponsored by the United Baptist Missionary Convention as a lead-in to the National Baptist Convention's 2006 Congress on Christian Education that begins Monday. (See prior posting.) Now that UBMC has eliminated most of the overtly religious aspects of Bags of Love, the court has refused to interfere with the funding of the event, according to today’s Baltimore Sun. However the court did order organizers to read a statement to all participants before the food distribution began to make clear that there is no effort to use the event to proselytize.

New York Governor Signs Law On Swastikas, Burning Crosses

On June 7, New York Governor George Pataki signed Assembly Bill 7027 that makes placing a swastika on another person’s property without permission a Class E felony. It similarly punishes burning a cross in public view. UPI reported on the new law yesterday.

Las Vegas School Cuts Mike On Valedictorian

In Las Vegas, Nevada, officials of the Clark County School District are defending the action taken by administrators at Foothill High School’s graduation ceremony Thursday when the class valedictorian departed from her prepared speech that had been approved by administrators and began reading from a version that contained religious and Biblical references. Administrators cut off the microphone. This drew jeers from the audience in attendance at the graduation being held in a Las Vegas casino. Today's Las Vegas Sun reports on the events.

Administrators had earlier reviewed Brittany McComb’s speech and cut out six references to God or Christ, two biblical references, and a detailed reference to Christ’s crucifixion. The high school’s policy does not permit the school to censor religious references by speakers who have been chosen "on the basis of genuinely neutral, evenhanded criteria'. However, school district lawyer Bill Hoffman said that while the regulation allows students to talk about religion, they cannot cross over into the realm of preaching or proselytizing. School officials said that permitting McComb to continue would have amounted to school sponsored proselytizing. McComb responded: "People aren't stupid and they know we have freedom of speech and the district wasn't advocating my ideas. Those are my opinions. It's what I believe.'

Preliminary Injunction In Church Challenge To Rec Area Fees

Alliance Defense Fund reports that yesterday a San Diego, California federal district court issued a preliminary injunction (full text of order) in a suit challenging the policy of the city of San Diego in charging higher rentals to religious groups for their use of the Kearney Mesa Recreation Area that it charges secular community groups. (See prior postings 1, 2.) The injunction will require the city to charge Canyon Ridge Baptist Church the lower Community Group rate until the merits of the church’s claims are decided by the court.

Jewish School Fits Unemployment Tax Exemption

In Bleich v. Maimonides School, (Mass Sup. Ct., June 16 2006), the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court yesterday ruled that Maimonides School, an Orthodox Jewish day school, is exempt from the state’s unemployment tax as "an organization which is operated primarily for religious purposes and which is operated, supervised, controlled, or principally supported by a church or convention or association of churches." The court held that even though the school is largely self-governing, it still meets the requirement that it is “principally supported” by Jewish religious organizations. It “derives substantial support from area synagogues and other Jewish organizations” in recruiting students, faculty and administrators as well as obtaining funding.

Japanese Lawmakers Urge Secular Shrine For War Dead

According to yesterday’s Shanghai Daily, an organization of 135 members of Japan's Parliament have asked the government to build a non-religious memorial to Japan's war dead to replace the controversial Yasukuni Shrine which is also a Shinto Temple. The shrine's Book of Souls lists the names of 2,466,532 Japanese and former colonial soldiers killed in Japan's various wars since the middle of the 19th century. (Wikipedia.) A number of court suits have challenged Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro's visits to the current shrine as a violation of Japan's separation of religion and state. Also China has objected to Junichiro's visits to the shrine because it also honors 14 convicted Japanese war criminals.

Racketeering Claim Filed Against Philadelphia Archdiocese

Yesterday's Washington Post reports that a federal racketeering suit has been filed against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia accusing it of covering up sexual abuse by Catholic priests. The thirteen plaintiffs, barred from bringing a state personal injury claim by Pennsylvania’s two-year statute of limitations, hope to convince the court that the cover-up still continues.

Former Waqf Leader Breaks With Muslim Views On Historicity Of Jewish Temples

WoldNetDaily reported Wednesday on an interview with a former senior leader of the Waqf-- the Islamic custodians of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem who have elaborate arrangements with the Israeli government to govern the site. He revealed that he has come to believe that the First and Second Jewish Temples existed at the current location of the Al Aqsa Mosque-- a fact that is hardly newsworthy to Western scholars and archeologists, but which contradicts statements that have long been made in much of the Muslim world. The leader being interviewed-- who insisted that his name not be published-- was dismissed from his Waqf position after he quietly made his beliefs known. He says that Muslim denial of the existence of the Temples is political and not rooted in historical fact. The Palestinian Authority's Office for Religious Affairs claims that the Temple Mount is Muslim property, and that the Western Wall was where Muhammed tied his horse before ascending to heaven. The Temple Mount was open to the general public until September 2000, when the Palestinians started the first intifada. It was reopened to non-Muslims in August 2003. Waqf agents watch tours closely and alert nearby Israeli police to any rule violations.

Singapore Police Investigate Jesus Cartoons On Website

Ekklesia today reports that police in Singapore are investigating a 21-year old man who has posted caricatures of Jesus on his website. One depicts Jesus as a zombie biting a boy's head. Depicting famous individuals as monsters and zombies has become popular on the Internet, and the cartoonist is puzzled by the official reaction. However Singapore police say: "It is a serious offence for any person to distribute or reproduce any seditious publication which may cause feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore." Violators may be imprisoned for up to three years, fined up to 5,000 Singapore dollars, or both.