In Iran, a majority of residents tell Gallup that Sharia must be a source of legislation, but not the only source. In Turkey, poll findings show how divided the Turkish public is about the role of Sharia in legislation. In Egypt, however, public opinion is much more likely to favor religious law as the only source of legislation....
[M]en and women express strikingly similar views within each country on the role of Sharia in legislation.... Overall, older respondents are more likely than younger ones to say Sharia must be the only source of legislation (although this pattern is weaker in Turkey than in Iran and Egypt).... In Turkey and Iran, those who have a secondary level of education are less likely than those with a primary level of education or less to say Sharia must be the only source of legislation. There is no difference by education level in Egypt.
Objective coverage of church-state and religious liberty developments, with extensive links to primary sources.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Poll Contrasts Views On Sharia In Iran, Egypt, Turkey
3rd Circuit Finds Prison Music Policy Does Not Violate Establishment Clause
Michigan Church Wins Zoning Challenge In Settlement
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
India, Under Christian Pressure, Blocks Migration of Bene Menashe To Israel
Defense Department Moves To Dismiss Suit Claiming Religious Discrimination
Lawsuit Challenges Publishers' Translation of Bible Verse
UPDATE: Bill Poser on Language Log has an excellent discussion of the translation issues posed by the original Greek in the Biblical verse at issue.
Gaer Elected New Chair of USCIRF
Muslim Woman Sues For Employment Discrimination
Hungary's Constitutional Court Strikes Down Hate Speech Amendments
Swiss Referendum on Banning Minaret Construction Will Be Held
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Police Require Orthodox Jewish Woman To Remove Wig For Arrest Photo
Folk Religions Get Very Different Treatments Around the World
Meanwhile Lifesite News yesterday reported on a case decided in May by a criminal court judge in the Brazilian state of Bahia. Judge Ricardo Augusto Schmitt ordered confiscation from bookstores of all copies of a book condemning witchcraft written by Catholic priest Jonas Abib. The book is titled "Yes, Yes! No, No! Reflections on Healing and Liberation." In obtaining the court order, the public prosecutor argued that Bahia's state constitution requires the state "to preserve and guarantee the integrity, respectability, and permanence of the values of Afro-Brazilian religion." He accused accused Abib of "making false and prejudiced statements" about spiritualist religions and inciting disrespect for their objects of worship.
Christian Group Runs Controversial Ad Against New Colorado Law
Court Dismisses Free Exercise Challenge To Forest Service Permit Regulations
Ahmadis Zoning Denial Leads To Suit Against Maryland Town
Monday, July 07, 2008
Israeli Court-Approved Compromise On Autopsies May Be Solution To Future Cases
Church Sues To Challenge Zoning Denial
Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases
In Campbell v. Cornell Corrections of Rhode Island, Inc., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 49191 (D RI, June 27, 2008), a Rastafarian prisoner sued because he was denied a vegetarian diet as required by his religious beliefs. The court held that at this stage of the litigation, there is such a lack of evidence on plaintiff's First Amendment claim that neither party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. The court rejected plaintiff's Eighth Amendment claim.
In Ransom v. Johnson, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 49378 (ED CA, June 18, 2008), a California federal magistrate judge recommended that a Muslim prisoner's motion for summary judgment be denied on his First Amendment claim that he was not permitted to attend communal prayer while in "C-status"-- designed to limit the movements inmates who were unwilling to comply with prison rules.
In Contreraz v. Adams, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 49150 (ED CA, June 11, 2008), a California federal magistrate judge dismissed, with leave to amend, a complaint filed by a Native American prisoner who was a member of the "Olin Pyramid" religion. Plaintiff claimed he had been denied religious dietary modifications and an exemption from the grooming standards. However his 323-page complaint violated pleading rules and failed to link any specific defendant with a specific constitutional violation.
EC Adopts Anti-Discrimination Directive
the Commission adopted a proposal for a directive which provides for protection from discrimination on grounds of age, disability, sexual orientation and religion or belief beyond the workplace. This new directive would ensure equal treatment in the areas of social protection, including social security and health care, education and access to and supply of goods and services which are commercially available to the public, including housing....
The law will prohibit direct and indirect discrimination as well as harassment and victimisation.... The directive will only apply to private persons in so far as they are performing their commercial activities or professional. Also, Member States will remain free to maintain measures ensuring the secular nature of the State or concerning the status and activities of religious organisations.
New Scholarly Articles and Books of Interest Abound
- Ayelet Shachar, Privatizing Diversity: A Cautionary Tale from Religious Arbitration in Family Law, (June 25, 2008, Theoretical Inquiries in Law, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 573-607, 2008).
- Katja Rost, Emil Inauen, Margit Osterloh & Bruno S. Frey, The Corporate Governance of Benedictine Abbeys: What Can Stock Corporations Learn from Monasteries?, (May 25, 2008).
- Frederick Mark Gedicks, Fundamentalism, Spirituality, and Church-State Relations in the United States. Chapter in Multiculturalisms: Different Meanings and Perspectives of Multiculturalism in a Global World (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, Barbara Pozzo ed. forthcoming 2008).
- John M. Bickers, Of Non-Horses, Quantum Mechanics, and the Establishment Clause" (forthcoming 57 Kansas Law Review (2009)).
- Vincent Phillip Munoz, The Original Meaning of the Free Exercise Clause: The Evidence from the First Congress" Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 1083-1120 (2008).
- Lisa Shaw Roy, History, Transparency, and the Establishment Clause: A Proposal for Reform, 112 Penn State Law Review 683-729 (2008).
- John Witte, Jr., "Fairer Still the Woodlands" --Mapping the Free Exercise Forest, (Reviewing Kent Greenawalt, Religion and the Constitution: Free Exercise and Fairness.) 24 Constitutional Commentary 551-565 (2007).
- The Wren Cross Controversy: Religion and the Public University. Essays by Erwin Chemerinsky and Gerard V. Bradley. 49 William & Mary Law Review 2193-2263 (2008): Chemerinsky, Why Church and State Should Be Separate; Bradley, Religion at a Public University.
- Frank S. Ravitch, Intelligent Design in Public University Science Departments: Academic Freedom or Establishment of Religion, 16 William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 1061-1090 (2008).
- Thomas L. Shaffer, Business Lawyers, Baseball Players, and the Hebrew Prophets, 42 Valparaiso University Law Review 1063-1080 (2008).
- Nicholas A. Schuneman, One Nation, Under ...The Watchmaker?: Intelligent Design and the Establishment Clause, 22 BYU Journal of Public Law 179-227 (2007).
- Jeffrey Shulman, What Yoder Wrought: Religious Disparagement, Parental Alienation and the Best Interests of the Child, 53 Villanova Law Review 173-208 (2008).
- William Joseph Wagner, To the Age of Social Revolution: As Papal Rejoiner, "The Apocalypse Is Not Now", 53 Villanova Law Review 209-271 (2008).
- The Center for American Progress has published in full online a collection of essays titled Debating the Divine: Religion in 21st Century American Democracy. Links to individual essays are on the Center's web page devoted to the book. [Thanks to Melissa Rogers for the lead.]
- Mark Silk & Andrew Walsh, One Nation, Divisible: How Regional Religious Differences Shape American Politics, (Rowman & Littlefield, June 2008). [Thanks to Spiritual Politics for the lead.]