Groups Oppose Expansion of Virginia Islamic Saudi Academy

The Fairfax County, Virginia Board of Supervisors held a public hearing yesterday on the proposed expansion of the campus of the Islamic Saudi Academy. The controversial college and preparatory school has close ties with the Saudi government. Fox News reported yesterday that a coalition of around ten groups oppose the expansion. The spokesman for one of those groups, James Lafferty, chairman of the Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force (VAST), says as to his group's opposition: "We're opposed to the operation of the Islamic Saudi Academy because it teaches and practices Shariah law. Shariah law is anti-constitutional and we feel that it is the ultimate improper land use here in the state where the Constitution was created." Others object because one of the Academy's graduates was convicted of joining Al Qaeda and plotting to assassinate President Bush, while another was arrested for boarding a plane carrying a kitchen knife. (See prior related posting.)

Lawsuit In Egypt Seeks To Rescind Prize Given To Controversial Writer

In Egypt, supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood have filed a lawsuit seeking to have the Ministry of Culture's State Award of Merit in Social Sciences withdrawn from author Sayed al-Qimni. Al Arabiya today reports that opponents object that: "His works deride Islam and he is skeptical about the message of Prophet Mohamed." Lawyer Nabih al-Wahsh who filed the suit has also called for impeachment of the Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni for approving the choice of Qimni. Previously a court ruled against attempts to ban Qimni's book Rab Haza al-Zaman (A God of this Age) by those who claimed it contained apostasy. Quimni has argued that Islam is a political system rather than a religion.

Russian Orthodox Church Gets New Power To Preview Duma Legislation

The Moscow Times reported last week that the Russian Orthodox Church will now be consulted in advance by United Russia deputies in the lower house of legislature so it can preview all legislation that will be considered by the State Duma. The agreement came after Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill conferred with two senior United Russia deputies over the Duma's ratification in May of the European Social Charter. Approval was required as part of Russia's membership in the Council of Europe. Krill objects to interpretations of provisions in the document that require public schools to offer sex education and require the creation of juvenile justice systems aimed at deterring youth from committing crimes. (Case Law Fact Sheet). Krill believes that parents, not the government, should be responsible for sex education and for discipline of their children.

World Football Regulator Warns Brazil's Team Over Religious Slogans On T-Shirts

FIFA, world football's governing body, has sent a warning letter to the Brazilian football federation after their players wore T-shirts with Christian slogans during the finals of the Confederations Cup last month. Apparently the T-shirts were under their jerseys, and were displayed after the game in victory photos. Yesterday's London Mail reports that most members of the Brazilian team are Pentecostalists with strong Christian beliefs. FIFA's Laws of the Game set out an interpretation of Law 4:

Players must not reveal undergarments showing slogans or advertising. The basic compulsory equipment must not have any political, religious or personal statements. A player removing his jersey or shirt to reveal slogans or advertising will be sanctioned by the competition organiser. The team of a player whose basic compulsory equipment has political, religious or personal slogans or statements will be sanctioned by the competition organiser or by FIFA.

[Thanks to Scott Mange for the lead.]

Recent Articles of Interest

From SSRN:

• Amos N. Guiora, Religious Extremism: A Fundamental Danger, (South Texas Law Review, Vol. 50, No. 743, 2009).

From SmartCILP and elsewhere;

• Casey Luskin, Does Challenging Darwin Create Constitutional Jeopardy? A Comprehensive Survey of Case Law Regarding the teaching of Biological Origins, 32 Hamline Law Review 1 (2009).
• Don Ellinghausen, Jr., "In Standing Is the Preservation of His World": Justice Scalia and the Varieties of Natural-Religious Experience, 16 Missouri Environmental Law & Policy Review 474-520 (2009).
• Kent Greenawalt, The Rule of Law and the Exemption Strategy, 30 Cardozo Law Review 1513-1534 (2009); Marci A. Hamilton, A Response to Professor Greenawalt, 30 Cardozo Law Review 1535-1543 (2009).
• Andrew P. Morriss & Benjamin D. Cramer, Disestablishing Environmentalism, 39 Environmental Law 309-396 (2009).
• David M. Smolin, The Civil War As a War of Religion: A Cautionary Tale of Enslavement and Emancipation, 39 Cumberland Law Review 187-237 (2008-2009).
• Manisuli Ssenyonjo, Limits On the Freedom To Manifest One's Religion In Educational Institutions in Uganda and the United Kingdom [Abstract], 7 I.Con: International Journal of Constitutional Law 275-305 (2009).
• Religion in the Workplace. [Full text of all articles.] Foreword by Fouad A. Riad; articles by Kenneth D. Wald, Lorne Sossin, Francois Gaudu, Achim Seifert, Nurhan Sural, Mark Freedland, Lucy Vickers and William W. Van Alstyne; afterword by Alain Supiot. 30 Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal 465-653 (2009).

Catholic Chaplains Complain About California's Proposed Lethal Injection Protocol

On June 30, the California Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections held a hearing on its Proposed Regulations on lethal injections (full text). Executions in California were suspended in 2006 after a federal district court in Morales v. Hickman raised questions about whether California's protocol for executions created too great a risk of extreme pain. Media coverage immediately after the June DRC hearings indicated that much of the testimony focused on broad opposition to capital punishment. (Los Angeles Times.) However on Friday, Tidings carried an article outlining a narrower objection to the proposed new regulations raised by Catholic prison chaplains.

The proposed regulations require that 45 days before execution:

3349.3.1(e) The Chaplain shall:
(1) Interview the inmate to assess the inmate’s spiritual and emotional well-being.
(2) Determine the inmate’s religious preferences and needs, next of kin, funeral or other requests, attitudes or thoughts on death and dying, and note any observations regarding the inmate’s emotional stability such as acceptance of the sentence of death.
(3) Formulate these observations into a written report and submit it to the Warden within sufficient time to meet the Warden’s 20-day report deadline.

Then ten days before execution:

3349.3.3(f) The Chaplain shall deliver a written report to the Warden regarding the emotional state of mind of the inmate. These observations shall be limited to contacts made within three days preceding preparation of the report.

Chaplains are concerned that these requirement may call for them to reveal information received in confidence from the prisoner which currently is protected by the clergy-penitent privilege.

Rights Group Says Arrest By Saudi Religious Police Led To Honor Killing

In Saudi Arabia, the Society for Defending Women’s Rights says that the country's religious police, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, are ultimately responsible for the "honor killing" of two sisters by their brother. Qatar's The Peninsula reported yesterday that Society claimed religious police sparked the anger of the women's brother by arresting the women, ages 19 and 21, for mixing with unrelated males. Police put them in a Riyadh women's shelter. Their brother shot them, in the presence of their father, when the left the shelter on July 5. The Society called for the government to charge the brother with murder, and also to bring charges against the religious police involved in the case.

British House of Lords Keeps Free Speech Defense To Inciting Hatred Against Gays

In Britain last Thursday, the House of Lords, by a vote of 186-133, deleted from the proposed Coroners and Justice Bill section 61 which would have done away with a statutory free speech defense to the crime of inciting homophobic hatred. The defense is found in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 which outlaws inciting hatred on the ground of sexual orientation, but goes on to provide:

In this Part, for the avoidance of doubt, the discussion or criticism of sexual conduct or practices or the urging of persons to refrain from or modify such conduct or practices shall not be taken of itself to be threatening or intended to stir up hatred.

The Labour government had proposed elimination of the defense, but Lord Waddington, former Conservative party Home Secretary, proposed an amendment to retain it which was the subject of Thursday's vote. The House of Lords has posted the full text of the debate on the amendment. The Independent and BBC News both reported on the House of Lords action.

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

In Isom v. Lowe, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56922 (MD PA, July 6, 2009), a Pennsylvania federal district court held that prison officials were justified in taking a Muslim prisoner off the "Common Fare" diet after it was found that he was purchasing and consuming regular items from the Commissary that do not comply with the "Common Fare" diet.

In Riley v. Doe, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56406 (MD TN, July 2, 2009), a Tennessee federal district court rejected a complaint that prisoners of the Christian Identity faith are not permitted to meet for group worship. The denial stemmed merely from the mistaken belief by the prison director of religious services that Christian Identity was classified as a Security Threat Group.

In Miska v. Middle River Regional Jail, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56661 (WD VA, July 2, 2009), a Virginia federal district court rejected an inmate's complaint that his free exercise rights were violated when he was prevented from attending Communion and Confession one time while in segregated confinement.

In Caldwell v. Folino, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56838 (WD PA, July 1, 2009), a Pennsylvania federal magistrate judge concluded that an inmate's free exercise rights were not violated when corrections officers searched his medicine bag and made disparaging comments about its contents.

In Mayo v. Briggs, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57378 (ED VA, July 6, 2009), a Virginia federal district court adopted a magistrate's recommendations and dismissed an inmate's lawsuit for damages and a change in the jail's policy. Plaintiff claimed that authorities refused to permit him to attend Muslim Jumah services. The refusal was based on plaintiff's identifying himself as Christian, not Muslim, when he arrived at the jail.

In Mayne v. State, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57678 (D NJ, July 7, 2009), a New Jersey federal district court permitted plaintiff to proceed with his complaint that while under house arrest and electronic monitoring, his parole officer refused to permit him to attend Catholic religious services.

In Thomas v. Little, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57568 (WD TN, July 6, 2009), a Tennessee federal district court dismissed claims by an inmate that his free exercise rights, and his rights under RLUIPA were infringed by prison policy that allows Muslim inmates to buy prayer oil only from a single approved supplier.

In Anderson v. Harron, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57986 (D NJ, July 7, 2009), a New Jersey federal district court rejected an inmate's complaint that his rights under the 1st Amendment and RLUIPA were infringed when he was temporarily removed from the jail's Ramadan meal program. The court also rejected his complaint that the jail did not facilitate weekly group Jumah prayers among the Muslim prisoners.

Group Presses 2 California Cities To End Sectarian Invocations

The Freedom from Religion Foundation continues to demand that city councils across the country end the practice of opening their sessions with sectarian Christian prayer. Two California cities-- Tracy and Lodi-- are currently among its targets. The Tracy Press on Friday editorialized:

Tracy's prayer policy may be inclusive in its intentions, but it's exclusive in its practice of rotating only those religious leaders (all Christian, like the council) who have come forth to offer invocations. It makes political outsiders of those constituents who don't share religious beliefs.

Meanwhile the LA Church and State Examiner reports that Lodi City Council will consider a resolution next month to require that invocations be non-sectarian. However Navy Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt's "Pray in Jesus' Name Project" that favors Lodi's existing policy plans a prayer vigil at city hall on August 5, the scheduled date of the City Council vote.

Nominee To Head NIH Is Strong Advocate For Compatibilibty of Science and Faith

This past Wednesday, the White House announced the nomination of renowned geneticist Dr. Francis S. Collins to head the National Institutes of Health. Collins headed the NIH's Human Genome Project. Yesterday and today, articles in the Wall Street Journal and AlterNet focus on another part of Collins' biography-- his strong advocacy for the position that science (including evolutionary theory) and religious faith are compatible. In 2006, Collins authored a book titled The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. Francis has also founded the BioLogos Foundation, which describes its mission as follows:

BioLogos represents the harmony of science and faith. It addresses the central themes of science and religion and emphasizes the compatibility of Christian faith with scientific discoveries about the origins of the universe and life

BioLogos' press release on Collins' nomination says that if he is confirmed, his leadership role at BioLogos will be assumed by Drs. Darrel Falk and Karl Giberson.

UPDATE: The Senate confirmed Collins by voice vote on Aug. 7. (Fresno Bee.)

Summum's Challenge To Duchesne City Dismissed After Case Was Mooted

Last March, after the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Pleasant Grove City v. Summum that a Utah city need not accept a "Seven Aphorisms" monument for a local park where a 10 Commandments monument already stood, it remanded to the lower courts a more complicated companion case, Summum v. Duchesne City. (See prior posting.) The city responded by moving the 10 Commandments monument to a city cemetery, which Summum saw as essentially mooting the case. (See prior posting.) According to yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune, a Utah federal district court has now formally dismissed the lawsuit on Summum's motion to dismiss.

Ireland Passes New Blasphemy Law, Reducing Penalties for Violation

This week, Ireland's parliament, the Oireachtas, passed the Defamation Act 2009 to replace the Defamation Act 1961. Section 36 of the new law imposes a fine of up to 25,000 Euros on anyone who publishes or utters blasphemous matter. In defining the offense, the new law provides:

(2) For the purposes of this section, a person publishes or utters blasphemous matter if—
(a) he or she publishes or utters matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial
number of the adherents of that religion, and
(b) he or she intends, by the publication or utterance of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage.

(3) It shall be a defence to proceedings for an offence under this section for the defendant to prove that a reasonable person would find genuine literary, artistic, political, scientific, or academic value in the matter to which the offence relates.

(4) In this section "religion" does not include an organisation or cult—
(a) the principal object of which is the making of profit, or
(b) that employs oppressive psychological manipulation— (i) of its followers, or
(ii) for the purpose of gaining new followers.

Ireland's Constitution (Art. 40) requires that the country have a law banning blasphemy. the new law substantially reduces the penalty for the offence from that in the 1961 Defamation Act (Sec. 13) that provides a fine and up to 7 years in prison for blasphemy. Reuters reported yesterday that atheists say they will quickly test the new law. They claim it is discriminatory by protecting only religious beliefs.

Arizona Governor Signs Students' Religious Liberties Act

On July 10, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed HB 2357, the Students' Religious Liberties Act. It bars public schools from discriminating against parents or students on the basis of religious viewpoints or expression, including religious viewpoints included in class assignments, artwork or coursework. It provides that students may pray or engage in religious activities or expression before, during and after the school day in the same manner that students are allowed to engage in nonreligious expression or activities.

Students are permitted to wear clothing that displays a religious message, or religious jewelry, to the same extent that clothing or jewelry with other messages or symbols is allowed. The law specifically, though, permits banning of clothing and accessories denoting criminal street gang affiliation. The new law goes on to provide that it shall not be interpreted to require any student to participate in prayer or other religious activity, or to otherwise violate a student's constitutional rights. Finally it requires exhaustion of internal administrative complaint procedures before a parent or student may bring a lawsuit to enforce the provisions of the statute. AP reported on the signing of the bill.

President Obama Meets With Pope Benedict XVI

President Barack Obama and Pope Benedict XVI held private talks for about 40 minutes this afternoon at the Vatican. Reuters and AFP both report on the meeting at which Obama briefed the Pope on the just completed G-8 Summit meetings. They also discussed the sensitive issue of bioethics on which the two have significant disagreements. Before the President arrived at the Vatican, Michelle Obama and their children Malia and Sasha were given a private tour of St Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. After the private talks, the President introduced his wife and daughters, as well as his mother-in-law, Marian Robinson, to the Pope. Michelle Obama joined the President and Benedict XVI for the traditional exchange of gifts.

A good deal of press attention has been directed at the gifts that the two leaders exchanged. The Pope gave Obama a copy of the Vatican's document on bioethics, Dignitas Personae, as well as a copy of his newest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth). (See prior posting.) Obama said light-heartedly that this would give him some reading material for the plane. The Pope also gave Obama a mosaic depicting St. Peter's Square. Meanwhile, Obama presented the Pope with a stole that had been draped for 18 years on top of the remains of Saint John Neumann, the first American bishop to be formally canonized. The Washington Post has a lengthy account of the meticulous efforts that went into the US choice of this gift.

Ahead of the meeting, commentators suggested that the Vatican is more willing to seek common ground with Obama than are the American Bishops who have been more confrontational. The New York Times yesterday reported on the differences in approach.

British Methodists Ban Its Members From Joining British National Party

Ekklesia reported yesterday that Britain's Methodist Church has passed a resolution at its annual conference providing that: "No member of the Church can also be a member of a political party whose constitution, aims or objectives promote racism. This specifically includes, but is not solely limited to, the British National Party." The resolution does not ban BNP members from attending Methodist churches without becoming church members. Earlier this year, the Church of England banned its clergy from joining the right wing British National Party, (see prior posting) but the Methodists become the first major denomination to ban all members from doing so. Other Christian denominations have merely called for their members not to vote for the BNP. Recently the BNP has tried to appeal to Christians by claiming it is protecting Britain's "Christian heritage."

Canadian FLDS Faces Property, Polygamy Prosecution, Issues

While the U.S. media have given a good deal of attention to the FLDS Church members living in the twin towns of Colorado City, AZ and Hildale, UT, there is also a group of FLDS members in the Canadian town of Bountiful, in British Columbia. This week reports surfaced on two rather interesting developments affecting that community.

Yesterday's Toronto Globe & Mail focused on how litigation to reform the FLDS United Effort Plan Trust will impact FLDS property in Bountiful that is also owned by the trust. Bruce Wisan, who was appointed by a Utah court as special fiduciary to administer and reform the UEP trust, says that there may need to be a housing board chosen from the Bountiful community to deal separately with privatizing the Canadian properties. Wisan also says that if the Utah court approves privatization,wives names will be added to their husband's on deeds for the properties-- giving attention to which wives live in which houses.

Meanwhile, the leaders of each of the two FLDS factions in Bountiful have been criminally charged with polygamy by a British Columbia prosecutor. One of the defendants, Winston Blackmore, is seeking to have the indictments quashed. Yesterday's Toronto Globe & Mail reports that B.C. Supreme Court Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein, in a memo to counsel, indicated doubts that she had jurisdiction to order dismissal of a case that has not yet been appealed to the Supreme Court. Therefore she suggested to counsel that they file a new petition, seeking review of former attorney-general Wally Oppal's decision to essentially "shop" for prosecutors until he found one who was willing to file the polygamy charges.

ACLU Objects To Jail's Censorship Of Biblical Verses In Correspondence

An ACLU press release yesterday disclosed that the ACLU has written the Superintendent of Virginia's Rappahannock Regional Jail (full text of letter) demanding that it end its rather unusual policy on censorship of incoming letters to inmates. The jail takes out all Biblical passages from incoming mail, as well as any material inserted into a letter by cutting and pasting it from the Internet. The letter says in part: "The principle that religious correspondence must not be saddled with restrictions inapplicable to non-religious correspondence is so settled in law that prison and jail officials who impose such restrictions forfeit qualified immunity and become subject to suit in their personal capacities." Driving home its pint, the letter also observed: "Even the novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky had ready access to scripture while incarcerated in a Siberian prison camp in tsarist Russia."

Church Controversy Moves To Florida State Court

In Palm City Florida, a state court lawsuit was filed Wednesday by seven members of the Palm City Christian Church against the church's pastor, Anthony Galbicka. TC Palm reports the suit charges the pastor with breach of fiduciary duty and seeks a ruling "ousting" Pastor Tony and voiding "improper and/or illegal" actions he took. Elders of the 80-member congregation, in order to deal with financial problems, earlier this year recommended budget cuts, including cuts in Pastor Tony's compensation. The complaint alleges that after the meeting, Galbicka "sought to organize a plan to silence his critics, seize control of the (church and) preserve his income." He had the Sheriff's office issue trespass warnings against three members who are among the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. When the three came to the church for Sunday services in May, they were turned away by a sheriff's deputy. Then in June, Pastor Galbicka, after revoking the membership of 10 church members, called a meeting at which all of the elders were removed and he was elected and given the "combined authority of pastor-president-director-elder-deacon."

In a letter to the congregation, Galbicka said the members he kept away from the church engaged in "physical abuse, intense & unrestrained anger & hatred, cursing, disrespect for law enforcement, threats, pushing, foolish insults & reviling."

House Passes Resolution Calling for Motto To Be Added To Visitor Center

The House of Representatives yesterday, by a vote of 410-8, passed H. Con. Res. 131, directing the Architect of the Capitol to engrave the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Motto, "In God We Trust," in the Capitol Visitor Center. Reporting yesterday on the House action, the Fresno Bee said that Sen. Jim DeMint last summer threatened to delay the opening of the Visitor Center, in part because it failed to honor the country's religious heritage. (See prior posting.) The Concurrent Resolution still needs to be passed by the Senate