Heated Controversy Over Portrait of Militant Sikh Leader Erupts In India

In the Indian state of Punjab, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Rajinder kaur Bhattal has demanded removal of a controversial portrait of a Sikh militant leader being installed in the Sikh museum of the Golden Temple in the holy city of Amristar. (Punjab News, 12/3). Today's Punjab News reports that the controversy involves a portrait of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindrenwala who headed the Damdami Taksal in 1983-84, a period in which the group spearheaded terrorist attacks. In Operation Blue Star in June 1984, then Prime Minister Indra Gandhi sent the Army to flush out militants hiding the Golden Temple. Hundreds died in the resulting operation. Baba Harnam Singh Dhuma, current head Damdami Taksal, said the criticism of the installation of the portrait amounts to interference in the internal affairs of Sikhs and, if continued, would disturb the peaceful situation in Punjab.

Church Property Disputes Looming In Pennsylvania

Yesterday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette carries an excellent background article on the legal issues that will be faced by state courts as several Episcopal and Presbyterian congregations in western Pennsylvania threaten to break away from their parent bodies. The resulting disputes over ownership of church property likely will be decided using neutral principles of property law. The controlling decision in Pennsylvania is In re: Church of St. James the Less, (PA Sup. Ct., Dec. 29, 2005) [majority opinion, concurring opinion]. It indicates that many of the cases may turn on the validity and interpretation of trust clauses in church documents.

Holiday Display Disputes Appear Muted This Year

With three weeks to go, so far this year the "Christmas wars" over municipal holiday displays seem somewhat muted. In Ft. Collins, Colorado, City Council voted 6-1 to permit colored lights and Christmas trees and wreaths on the exterior of city buildings and other city property, but only secular displays and messages inside buildings. It rejected a proposal by a broad-based task force that only white lights, bare garlands and secular symbols such as snowflakes be hung on city property beginning next year. (Tacoma, WA News Tribune, 12/1). On Saturday in Ft. Collins, about 200 people gathered to support Sheriff Jim Alderden who wants to keep religious symbols. Yesterday's Loveland (CO) Reprter-Herald says that the event focused on decorating a 10-foot tall planted Christmas tree. A small Nativity scene and a Menorah were also put on display, all paid for by donated funds. Sheriff Alderen commented: "A sheriff puts up a Christmas tree. Why is that a national news story?"

Meanwhile in Cranston, Rhode Island, backing away from past high profile controversies over religious symbols, new mayor Michael T. Napolitano has opted to merely put up 50,000 white lights and a Christmas tree in the foyer of City Hall. In past years, the City Hall display-- which led to litigation-- included a life-sized nativity scene, a menorah, an inflatable snowman, and 15 flamingos in Santa Claus hats representing the "Church of the Flamingos". (ACLU Release, 2003). (See prior related posting.) Local ACLU director, Steven Brown, said that Napolitano "is doing more to respect religion than the politicians who try to turn Christmas into a political issue."

Sudan's President Pardons British Teacher Convicted of Insulting Islam

Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir has granted a pardon to British teacher Gillian Gibbons who had been sentenced to 15 days in jail for insulting Islam. (See prior posting.) Today's Times of London reports that Gibbons could be on a plane to Britain within a day, after serving 4 days of her sentence. The release came after lengthy talks between al-Bashir and two Muslim members of Britain's House of Lords, Lord Nazir Ahmed and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi. (AFP). The teacher had been serving her sentence in a bungalow in the suburbs of Khartoum usually reserved for high-ranking opposition leaders who are under arrest. Her lawyers had feared she would be held at the overcrowded Omdurman Women’s Prison.

Romney To Deliver Speech On His Religious Beliefs and the Presidency

The New York Times reports that on Thursday Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will deliver a major speech addressing questions about his Mormon religious beliefs. Scheduled for the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas, the address will be titled "Faith In America". His campaign says that Romney will "share his views on religious liberty, the grand tradition religious tolerance has played in the progress of our nation and how the governor's own faith would inform his presidency if he were elected." At ABC News, Jake Tapper writes a long analyisis of Romney's plans in a piece titled Will 'Pulling a JFK' Be Enough for Romney?

Op-Ed Explores School Board's Rule On Sacred Music In Choir Concerts

An always-difficult subject under the Establishment Clause is the extent to which school choir concerts may contain sacred music. An interesting op-ed in yesterday's Livingston (MI) Daily Press & Argus explores the Howell (MI) Public Schools' attempt to deal with the issue. Last year, the Howell Public Schools Board faced extensive criticism when it imposed on a visiting German choir its policy that concerts should contain no more than 30% sacred music. (See prior posting.) So this year the Board raised the allowable amount of religious music to 50%. The paper asks how this is to be computed:

Is it the number of songs, sacred versus secular? Or time — would one six-minute secular song be worth two three-minute sacred songs? Or, since the musical notes themselves are neither sacred nor secular, is it just the lyrics? Do we have to count lines within each song?

Equally unclear is exactly to whom the policy would apply. School board members seem to think the policy would not apply to outside groups that rent a room in a Howell school building for an event. Administrators seem to think it would....

[The Constitution] says public schools can't promote one religion over another.... [W]hy can't the Howell school board come up with a policy that says that, and goes no further so that it avoids creating needless controversies where there really is no controversy?

Private Enforcers of Islamic Law Appear In Cairo

Yesterday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that in Egypt, self-appointed morality squads are becoming common on streets, at workplaces, in subways and at the airport in Cairo. Unlike the official policers of Islamic law in Saudi Arabia and Iran, in Egypt the policing effort is undertaken by private individuals, encouraged by television preachers and Saudi-inspired religious instruction in mosques. The most common targets are women who do not have their hair covered. But men who are dating, who are not observing prayer times, or who permit their wives or sisters to wear revealing clothes have also been lectured.

Recent Publications on Law, Religion and Society

From SSRN:

• Shraddha Veeranna Chigateri, Glory to the Cow: Cultural Difference and Social Justice in the Food Hierarchy in India, (South Asia, Vol. 31, No. 1, April 2008).
  

From SmartCILP and elsewhere:

• Alex Geisinger & Ivan E. Bodensteiner, An Expressive Jurisprudence of the Establishment Clause, 112 Penn State Law Review 77-136 (2007).
• Antony Barone Kolenc, "Mr. Scalia's Neighborhood": A Home for Minority Religions?, 81 St. John's Law Review 819-880 (2007).
• Douglas G. Smith, "Equal Access"?: Faith Center Church Evangelistic Ministries v. Glover and the Use of Public Facilities for Religious Worship, 8 Engage 142-144 (Oct. 2007).

New Book:

• Robin Judd, Contested Rituals: Circumcision, Kosher Butchering and Jewish Political Life in Germany, 1843-1933, (Cornell University Press, August 2007), reviewed in The Forward.

NJ Mosque Developers Lose Attempt To Add Count To Complaint

In a challenge to Wayne Township, New Jersey's attempted exercise of eminent domain, a federal court refused to permit developers of a mosque to add an additional count to their complaint. The Township is attempting to take the mosque's property as part of an Open Space Plan. (See prior posting.) In Albanian Associated Fund & Imam Arun Polozani v. Township of Wayne, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87666 (D NJ, Nov. 29, 2007), the court rejected an amendment alleging that the planning board's decision was arbitrary and capricious. The court held that insofar as the claim is brought under state law, it should be decided in state court. Insofar as it is based on federal substantive due process grounds, the complaint does not give sufficient notice of the basis of the claim. The court however did grant plaintiffs' motion to supplement their complaint in connection with eight other counts.

Texas Schools Science Director Fired Over Apparent Opposition To Intelligent Design

The director of science curriculum at the Texas Education Agency (TEA) has been forced to resign after she forwarded to a number of people an e-mail announcing a presentation by an author who is critical of intelligent design proponents. The AP reported on Friday that Chris Comer, who has held her position for nine years, says that evolution politics led to her firing. The TEA says that Comer's action implies that it endorses the speaker's position on a subject on which the agency must remain neutral. Her action also violated a directive that she not communicate with anyone outside the TEA about the agency's review of the Texas science curriculum scheduled for next year.

British Accounting Body Will Offer Certificate In Islamic Finance

Britain's Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) will become the first the first accountancy body in the UK to offer its members training in Islamic financial law. The Scotsman today reports that a self-study program leading to a Certificate in Islamic Finance was developed by CIMA in consultation with Sharia law experts and the International Institute of Islamic Finance. The course covers Islamic commercial law; Islamic banking and Takaful; Islamic capital markets and instruments; and accounting and analysis of Islamic financial institutions.

Alberta Panel Finds Anti-Gay Letter Violated Human Rights Law

In Lund v. Boissoin, (AB Human Rts. Panel, Nov. 30, 2007), a panel appointed by the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission held that a letter published in the Red Deer Advocate violates the anti-discrimination provisions of Alberta's Human Rights, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Act (HRCMA). The case originated out of a letter written to the Canadian newspaper by Stephen Boissoin, executive director of the Concerned Christian Coalition (now Concerned Christians Canada, Inc.). The letter was titled "Homosexual Agenda Wicked".

The complaint, filed by a Red Deer high school teacher, alleged that the letter crossed the line of free speech and incited hatred against homosexuals in violation of Sec. 3 of the HRCMA. In an 80-page decision, the Panel held it had jurisdiction over the case because of the relationship of the letter to the province's educational system and its circumstantial connection to the beating of a gay teenager in Red Deer less than two weeks following its publication. The panel concluded that Boissoin's letter expressed hatred or contempt for a group of persons on the basis of their sexual preference, and made it more acceptable to others to manifest hatred against homosexuals. The panel rejected the argument that Boissoin's freedom of religion and expression are defenses to the discrimination charge. Friday's Canadian Press reported on the decision.

Meanwhile, according to the Canadian Press, on Saturday the Executive Committee of the Conservative Party of Alberta refused to endorse the nomination of Concerned Christian Coalition leader Craig Chandler for election to the province's legislative assembly from Calgary-Egmont. Apparently the refusal was related to the Boissoin letter.

India's High Court Postpones Ruling on Rights of Christian and Muslim Dalits

The Supreme Court of India has postponed ruling on whether lower-caste Dalits who have converted to Christianity or Islam are entitled to the same preferential rights as those who remain Hindus, or who have converted to become Sikhs or Buddhists. Christian Today reported on Saturday that the delay came after the government told the court that it had still not received a report on the matter from the National Commission for Scheduled Castes. In May, a panel headed by former Chief Justice Ranganath Misra recommended that converts to Christianity and Islam be given the same special privileges as other Dalits, but the Commission has not yet accepted the recommendations.

Recently Available Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

In Nelis v. Kingston, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86036 (ED WI, Nov. 20, 2007), a Wisconsin federal district court held that a prison rule making inmates on voluntary unassigned status ineligible for certain activities, including ancillary religious activities, violates neither the First Amendment nor RLUIPA. The suit was brought by a Native American inmate who was precluded from attending pipe and drum ceremonies under this rule, but could still practice his religion in other ways.

In Floody v. Wagner, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86295 (D SD, Nov. 21, 2007), a South Dakota federal district judge permitted an inmate who was an candidate for conversion to Judaism to proceed on his claim for damages against prison officials who suspended his kosher diet after he bought a non-kosher item at the prison commissary. Subsequently the prison system changed it rules precluding removal from a religious diet as a sanction, making plaintiff's claims for declaratory and injunctive relief moot.

In Rogers v. Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86607 (D AZ, Nov. 15, 2007), an Arizona federal district court dismissed (with leave to file an amended complaint) a series of allegations, including a free exercise claim, by a prisoner for violations while she was a pre-trial detainee. Plaintiff claimed that rules calling for discontinuation of her medication if she was not in her cell during medical call precluded her from attending religious services.

In Raper v. Adams, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87048 (ED NC, March 28, 2007), a North Carolina federal district court dismissed an inmate's First Amendment claims challenging prison rules that banned inmates' reading tarot cards for other inmates. It also rejected an equal protection claim complaining that plaintiff was required to use a cell that doubled as a restroom, rather than the day room, to practice his religion.

In Joseph v. Ware, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87459 (WD LA, Oct. 22, 2007), a Louisiana federal magistrate judge recommended dismissal of a Muslim inmate's First Amendment claim based on failure of prison employees on one occasion to provide him a pork-free meal.

Religious Sign In Police Cruiser Raises Church-State Questions

Today's Greensboro (NC) News-Record reports that a sign posted in a police cruiser has raised a new church-state issue. Driver M. Reza Salami (a professor at North Carolina A&T) was stopped by police at a checkpoint last week and was told to sit in the back seat of a Guilford County Sheriff's cruiser by Sheriff's Deputy M. Osborne. In the cruiser, between the front and back seats, was posted a sign reading "Jesus is your savior". The deputy's supervisor argues that the sign was permissible because it was an expression of the deputy's beliefs, and Sheriff B.J. Barnes favors deputies being able to display anything that gives them comfort during their dangerous 12-hour shifts. Constitutional law expert Erwin Chemerinsky said that it is impermissible to promote religion in this way in a police car used for official county business.

Religious Traditions Include Holiday Gambling

The Boston Globe's Rich Barlow writes an interesting column today on the history of gambling traditions in Judaism and Christianity-- as the Massachusetts legislature prepares to debate casino gambling. A number of religious leaders oppose the casino gambling bill. In Judaism, Hanukkah includes gambling-- children playing dreidel, and adults playing a card game known as kvitlech. In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church encouraged gambling on holy days. Boston College professor Dwayne Carpenter outlined the ambivalent views of religious authorities toward gambling, saying that they often saw it as a way to "add to the merriment of an already joyous occasion." He said that Hanukkah card-playing once served as a cover for banned Torah study.

British Muslim Coalition Proposes New Moderate Guidelines For Mosques

In Britain on Thursday, moderate Muslim leaders through the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Body (MINAB) issued a proposed 10-point Code of Conduct for mosques in the country. Yesterday's New York Times reports that among the new proposals are ones for stricter screening of imams and other religious leaders (including a criminal background check); a commitment to "open, democratic, accountable management" of mosques; a call for the creation of "women's committees" at mosques; and a commitment to participation in interfaith activities. MINAB-- created by four national Muslim organizations-- grew out of a recommendation by a government task force on extremism that was formed after the "7/7" bombings in London in 2005. (BBC News.) [Thanks to Melissa Rogers for the lead.]

OSCE Publishes Guide On Teaching About Religions In Schools

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe this week issued a lengthy guide on preparing curricula for teaching about religions and beliefs. A press release issued by the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights says that the guidelines are "designed to assist educators, legislators, teachers and officials in education ministries and in private or religious schools to ensure that teaching about different religions and beliefs is carried out in a fair and balanced manner." The 134-page document, Toledo Guiding Principles on Teaching About Religions and Beliefs in Public Schools, is drafted on the premise that "although a deeper understanding of religions will not automatically lead to greater tolerance and respect, ignorance increases the likelihood of misunderstanding, stereotyping, and conflict." [Thanks to Rafael Palomino for the lead.]

WV Proposes Promise Scholarship Holders Can Take Religious Service Leave

Reacting to a lawsuit filed against it in July, West Virginia's Higher Education Policy Commission on Friday issued proposed amendments to change the state's Promise Scholarship leave of absence policy. In the suit, a Mormon student at the University of West Virginia charged the Promise scholarship board with religious discrimination because it refused to allow him to take a leave to serve a two-year church mission without losing his scholarship. (See prior posting.) The Charleston (WV) Saturday Gazette-Mail reports that under the new proposals, students will be permitted to take a leave of absence for military duty, programs related to the student’s study, service, study abroad, volunteerism, extreme financial hardships and extraordinary circumstances beyond the student’s control. After a 30-day public comment period, the proposed rule amendments go to the legislature for final approval.

Pope Issues Encyclical "In Hope We Were Saved"

On Friday, Pope Benedict XVI issued the second encyclical of his papacy, titled Spe Salvi Facti Sumus (In Hope We Were Saved). Today's New York Times says that the document "weaves a complex but elegant argument for the necessity of hope, drawing deeply on history, philosophy and theology." Here are some excerpts on the relationship of hope to the structuring of society:

[E]very generation has the task of engaging anew in the arduous search for the right way to order human affairs; this task is never simply completed. Yet every generation must also make its own contribution to establishing convincing structures of freedom and of good, which can help the following generation as a guideline for the proper use of human freedom.... [M]odern Christianity, faced with the successes of science in progressively structuring the world, has to a large extent restricted its attention to the individual and his salvation. In so doing it has limited the horizon of its hope and has failed to recognize sufficiently the greatness of its task—even if it has continued to achieve great things in the formation of man and in care for the weak and the suffering....

All serious and upright human conduct is hope in action.... [W]e work towards a brighter and more humane world so as to open doors into the future. Yet our daily efforts in pursuing our own lives and in working for the world's future either tire us or turn into fanaticism, unless we are enlightened by the radiance of the great hope that cannot be destroyed even by small-scale failures or by a breakdown in matters of historic importance. If we cannot hope for more than is effectively attainable at any given time, or more than is promised by political or economic authorities, our lives will soon be without hope....

To protest against God in the name of justice is not helpful. A world without God is a world without hope.... Only God can create justice. And faith gives us the certainty that he does so. The image of the Last Judgement is not primarily an image of terror, but an image of hope; for us it may even be the decisive image of hope....