D.C. Board Approves Hebrew Language Charter School

The Washington Post reports that on Monday, the D.C. Public Charter School Board approved 4 new charter schools, including a pre-K through 5 Hebrew language public charter school called the Sela school. In Tuesday's Washington Post, Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld published an op-ed applauding the approval. He stresses that the school's curriculum will be secular, but points out that the Hebrew foundation will be important for Jewish students who decide to pursue after-school religious studies. He explains: "Instead of focusing on language skills, which can be challenging for even the most gifted teacher, the after-school experience can now focus on spirituality and the joy of Judaism."

New Libyan Law Bans Religion-Based Political Parties

Libya's Transnational Council yesterday adopted legislation governing the formation of political parties. Parties have been banned for decades under the rule of Moamer Kadhafi. According to Star Africa, political parties may not be built on regional tribal or religious affiliations. Council member Fathi Baja says the new law is not aimed at moderate Islamists, but is intended to exclude more radical elements "whose politics exclude others." Under the new law, Libya's Muslim Brotherhood will not participate directly in the election, but instead will focus on social development.

Scientology Lawsuit Settled, Apparently With Agreement For No Comment

Yesterday's Tampa Bay Times reports that a settlement has been reached in a lawsuit originally filed by the Church of Scientology against a former long-time official and her husband who the Church claims violated a confidentiality agreement by sending out e-mails to thousands of Scientologists criticizing the Church's operations.  However, the suit backfired on the Church when, at a February hearing on a temporary injunction in a Texas state court, defendant Debbie Cook described physical abuse and detention of Scientology adherents. This led the Church to withdraw its request for a temporary injunction in its lawsuit. (See prior posting.) Cook and her husband Wayne Baumgarten claim that the confidentiality agreements should be voided because of the extreme duress they suffered before they left Scientology's Sea Org. Now however the suit has been dismissed, apparently with an agreement that neither side will speak about any aspect of the case.

Brooklyn DA's Office, Citing Victim Protection, Refuses To Release Names of Hasidic Men Charged With Sex Crimes

The Forward reports today that its request under New York's Freedom of Information Law for the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office to release of the names of 85 Orthodox Jewish men who have been arrested on sex charges during the past three years has been refused. In a letter to the Forward, the prosecutor's office wrote: "Because all of the requested defendant names relate to Hasidic men who are alleged to have committed sex crimes against Hasidic victims within a very tight-knit and insular Brooklyn community, there is a significant danger that the disclosure of the defendants’ names would lead members of that community to discern the identities of the victims." The letter also raised concerns that disclosure leading to identifying the victims could interfere with the operation of its special hot line (called Kol Tzedek, or Voice of Justice) set up three years ago to encourage Orthodox Jewish abuse victims to report abuse to authorities.

Role of Islam Becomes Important Issue In Egypt's Presidential Race

In a front-page story today, the New York Times reports that Egypt's presidential race is increasingly becoming a contest over the place of Islam in the new Egypt.  One leading candidate, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood (who claims to be the only true Islamist in the presidential race) says: "The Koran is our constitution, and Shariah is our guide!" Morsi, who received a Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Southern California has been the spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing.  He has two main challengers. Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh is now the leading proponent of liberal values in the presidential contest. He was expelled from the Muslim Brotherhood last year for advocating a more pluralistic approach to Islam and Egypt. Fotouh, a physician, led the doctor's group that ran field hospitals during the demonstrations that overthrew Hosni Mubarak. The third important contender in the presidential race is former foreign minister Amr Moussa, who says that Egypt cannot afford an experiment in Islamic democracy.

Jewish Groups Divided Over Broad Use Of Title VI Against Colleges

The Chronicle of Higher Education this week carries a long article detailing the spit in views between various Jewish organizations on how broadly Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act should be used to combat anti-Semitism on college campuses.  At the center of the debate is the question of when graphic anti-Israel demonstrations cross the line from protected speech to anti-Semitic threats.  The issue has been focused by a resolution that will be considered next month at the Plenum of the Jewish Council on Public Affairs which urges careful consideration of 1st Amendment concerns in filing Title VI complaints against anti-Israel activity. (See prior related posting.)

Obama, Commemorating Holocaust, Announces New Steps Against Mass Atrocities

President Obama spoke yesterday at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's ceremony marking this year's Days of Remembrance of victims of the Holocaust. (Full text of speech). Obama used the occasion to announce new steps the U.S. government has taken to prevent and respond to mass atrocities around the world. He said in part:

We’re making sure that the United States government has the structures, the mechanisms to better prevent and respond to mass atrocities.  So I created the first-ever White House position dedicated to this task.  It’s why I created a new Atrocities Prevention Board, to bring together senior officials from across our government to focus on this critical mission.  This is not an afterthought.  This is not a sideline in our foreign policy.  The board will convene for the first.... 

The intelligence community will prepare ... the first-ever National Intelligence Estimate on the risk of mass atrocities and genocide.  We're going to institutionalize the focus on this issue....  Our Treasury Department will work to more quickly deploy its financial tools to block the flow of money to abusive regimes.  Our military will take additional steps to incorporate the prevention of atrocities into its doctrine and its planning.  And the State Department will increase its ability to surge our diplomats and experts in a crisis.  USAID will invite people and high-tech companies to help create new technologies to quickly expose violations of human rights.  And we’ll work with other nations so the burden is better shared -- because this is a global responsibility.

 In short, we need to be doing everything we can to prevent and respond to these kinds of atrocities -- because national sovereignty is never a license to slaughter your people.

Russian Orthodox Church Responds To Perceived Secularist Challenges

According to yesterday's Christian Science Monitor in an article titled Is Russia's Orthodox Church Privileged or Persecuted?, special services were held across Russia on Sunday to support the Russian Orthodox Church that says its reputation and the country's faith are being attacked by irreligious social forces.  The service in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior, led by Patriarch Kirill, drew 50,000 people. The Church's concern about secularization was triggered by an incident in February in which a women's punk rock band, provocatively calling itself Pussy Riot, entered the nearly empty Christ the Savior Cathedral and performed an obscene "punk prayer." The arrest of three members of the band has set off widespread discussion of the role of the Church, its close ties to the government and the use of anti-extremist laws to protect the Church from criticism.  Also, the wealthy lifestyle of Patriarch Kirill has come under attack, including a blogger's claim that Kirill wore a $40,000 wristwatch. A photo of Kirill wearing it was found on a Church website. The Church then airbrushed out the watch, but forgot to also airbrush its reflection in a polished oak table in a photo that went viral online. [Thanks to Alliance Alert for the lead.]

Shrine Rejects Tourism Grant Over Secularism Requirement

The Gloversville (NY) Leader-Herald reported Sunday that the Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs has turned down a tourism grant from Montgomery County (NY) after the county's Economic Development and Planning Committee voted to add a requirement that all tourism grant funds be used only for secular purposes.The grant was intended to subsidize the planned Oct. 21 ceremony conferring sainthood on Kateri, a member of the Mohawk tribe who was born in 1656 near present-day Auriesville (NY). A spokesman for the shrine said: "We can't sign anything with those conditions. We're not a secular organization. We are who we are, and we're not going to compromise, dilute or disintegrate that." It is expected that some 5,000 people will travel to Auriesville for the canonization ceremony

Sidebar Religous References Do Not Call For Sanctions Against Judge

In a Stipulation (full text) filed last week with the Florida Supreme Court by counsel for the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission and trial court judge William Singbush, Judge Singbush admitted charges against him of habitual tardiness, He will write a letter of apology and receive a public reprimand. However the parties agreed that a second charge that Singbush made inappropriate religious references at a sidebar conversation was an isolated incident and will not lead to additional sanctions. In the religious comments at issue, Singbush said: "I don’t know of anybody that’s made a mistake – and except for perhaps one, and for that we murdered him. You know, he was faultless and we murdered him for it. That’s not politically correct but I happen to believe in God…Christ is the intercessor." AP reports on these developments.

Indonesian Task Force Head Wants To Define Miniskirts As Pornographic

In Indonesia, religious affairs minister Suryadharma Ali is heading a new task force set up to enforce a strict anti-pornography law that was enacted in 2008 with the backing of Islamic parties. (Background.) According to The National today, Suryadharma wants to draw up "a set of universal criteria" on what constitutes pornography. He says it would include women wearing skirts above the knee. The law imposes a penalty of up to 12 years in prison for "pictures, sketches, photos, writing, voice, sound, moving picture, animation, cartoons, conversation, gestures, or other communications shown in public with salacious content or sexual exploitation that violate the moral values of society." Suryadharma's proposal follows a threat by Parliament's speaker Marzuki Alie to exclude female politicians wearing short skirts.

Recent Articles of Interest

From SSRN:

• Samuel J. Levine, RLT: A Preliminary Examination of Religious Legal Theory as a Movement, (85 St. John's Law Review 579, 2011).
• Herbert J. Hovenkamp, The Classical American State and the Regulation of Morals, (April 18, 2012).
• Robert C. Blitt, Defamation of Religion: Rumors of Its Death are Greatly Exaggerated, (University of Tennessee Legal Studies Research Paper No. 182, April 2012).
• Mark James Findlay, Representing Genocide: Crime, Rights and the Impact of Judicial Intervention, (Sydney Law School Research Paper No. 12/22, April 2012).

From SmartCILP:

• Qasim Rashid, Pakistan's Failed Commitment: How Pakistan's Institutionalized Persecution of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 11 Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business 1-42 (2011).

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

In Foster v. Zamora, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52588 (ED CA, April 13, 2012), a California federal magistrate judge dismissed an inmate's complaint that despite winning administrative appeals, his attempt to use natural herbal and holistic remedies and medicines as part of his religious beliefs has not been honored.

In Mickens v. Lindley, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52267 (WD PA, April 13, 2012), a Pennsylvania federal district court adopted a magistrate's recommendations (Mickens v. SCI Greene C.E.R.T. Team Supervisor, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52265, March 19, 2012) and dismissed federal and state claims against various defendants by a former inmate who complained that his Qur'an was damaged during a search of his cell.

In Jenner v. Sokol, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53513 (D CO, April 17, 2012), a Colorado federal district court adopted in part a magistrate's recommendations (2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53514, Jan. 4, 2012) and dismissed an Jewish inmate's complaint that authorities permitted insincere practitioners of Judaism to participate in Passover services. The court permitted plaintiff to move ahead with claims that the was prevented entirely from conducting religious services and prevented from purchasing religious food and items for observance of various Jewish holidays.

In Wilson v. Depolo, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 54988 (ND NY, April 19, 2012), a New York federal district court adopted a magistrate's recommendations (Wilson v. Woodbourne Correctional Facility, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 54989, March 21, 2012) and dismissed an inmate's 1st Amendment and RLUIPA claims that a corrections officer who does not like Muslims delayed one of his Ramadan meals for 1 1/2 hours.

Catholic Church In Sudan Torched By Several Hundred Muslims

AP reports that in Khartoum, Sudan today, a mob of several hundred Muslims set fire to a Catholic church that is attended by South Sudanese living in the north and by Ethiopian refugees. Fire engines were unable to extinguish the fire in the church, that is part of a complex that also houses a school and dormitories.  While the church is located on a disputed parcel of land, the attack apparently was triggered by the hostilities between Sudan and South Sudan over the oil town of Heglig on the disputed border between mostly Muslim Sudan and largely Christian and animist South Sudan which became an independent country last year.

National Catholic Prayer Breakfast Speakers Focus On Religious Liberty Threats

The National Catholic Register reports on the sense of urgency about threats to religious liberty expressed by speakers at Thursday's National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C.  Keynote speaker, Archbishop Francis Assisi Chullikatt, current permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, spoke of threats of persecution of Christians in Iraq and Egypt, and then drew a parallel to the situation in the U.S.:

While nobody would confuse the marginalization of religion with the actual killing of Christians in other parts of the world, it is through this marginalizing that violent persecution is born.

Knights of Columbus head, Carl Anderson reflected a similar theme, saying:

I venture to say that never in the lifetime of anyone present here has the religious liberty of the American people been as threatened as it is today.

Also speaking, Mother Agnes Donovan, superior general of the Sisters of Life, said:

We face a summons to action in response to a global and national reality that we are reluctant to perceive: Christians as the object of open persecution.

Charles Colson, Watergate Offender Turned Evangelist, Dies At Age 80

Charles Colson, a key figure in the Nixon White House Watergate scandal died today at the age of 80.  After serving a prison term for his role in the burglarizing of the psychiatric files of Daniel Ellsberg who had leaked the Pentagon Papers to the media, Colson became an influential evangelical Christian.  As Time reports in his obituary today:

Colson would turn incarceration into resurrection. Seeing the conditions of his fellow prisoners, he would be inspired to start Prison Fellowship shortly after he regained his freedom to evangelize the inmates of America's penitentiary system.... 

As the years went by, Colson would use his celebrity as one of America's most famous redeemed sinners to crusade for prison reform — as well as buttress the country's burgeoning evangelical movement, which was finding its political legs in the 1980s. Among evangelicals and conservative Christian groups, he became a fount of carefully worded argument, without the bombast and grandstanding of politically-ambitious preachers, even as he defended the same positions on evolution and abortion, same-sex marriage and the use of the Bible in public schools. In 2009, he started the Chuck Colson center, an online research site that he calls "the Lexis-Nexis of resources on the Christian worldview." Colson was key to forming an amalgam of conservative Christian principles that would come together as an ecumenical political front of great potency.

British Court Upholds Ban On Radio Ad To Be Run By Christian Station

In London Christian Radio Ltd. v. Radio Advertising Clearance Centre, (EWHC, April 20, 2012), Britain's High Court (Queen's Bench Division) for England and Wales held that the ban on political advertising on radio broadcasts imposed by Communications Act 2003 (Secs. 319 and 321) does not infringe a Christian radio station's free expression rights protected by Art. 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Radio Advertising Clearance Centre refused to clear an ad that was to be run by the station seeking information from listeners on marginalization of Christians in the workplace. The court found the ad to come within the ban since it was aimed at influencing public policy or bringing about changes in the law. In reaching its decision, the court said:

It must be stressed that it has not been suggested in any way that the stance of the Secretary of State is in any way anti-Christian or that his reasoning would not apply to any other religion. Indeed nothing in this judgment is meant to preclude advertisements by bodies such as the claimants in, for example, newspapers.

Today's London Guardian reports on the decision.

Anti-Semitic Comments Against Non-Jew Actionable Under New Jersey Anti-Discrimination Law

In Cowher v. Carson & Roberts, (NJ App., April 18, 2012), a New Jersey state appellate court held that a truck driver formerly employed by defendant site construction company had a cause of action under New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination (NJSA 10:5-12a) for anti-Semitic comments directed at him on a daily basis for over a year, even though plaintiff in fact was not Jewish.  Defendants inaccurately thought that plaintiff was Jewish, The court held:

if plaintiff can demonstrate that the discrimination that he claims to have experienced would not have occurred but for the perception that he was Jewish, his claim is covered by the LAD.

The court also held that, because the goal of the statute is to change conduct, in determining whether defendants' comments created a hostile work environment:

although plaintiff is not Jewish, the proper question in this case is what effect would defendants' derogatory comments have on a reasonable Jew, rather than on a reasonable person of plaintiff's actual background.

[Thanks to CCH Employment Law Daily via Steven H. Sholk for the lead.] 

Pakistan Supreme Court Resolves Dispute Over Hindu Women's Conversions

The New York Times  and the Times of India reported from Pakistan Wednesday on the surprise outcome in the case of three Hindu women who converted to Islam in order to marry their husbands. In cases widely followed in Pakistan, the Pakistan Hindu Council petitioned the court claiming that the women were forced to convert. Last month Pakistan's Supreme Court intervened in the cases and ordered the women sequestered for three weeks so they could decide, without pressure, what they wanted to do. Then in a hearing on Wednesday, the Court told the women that they were free to go wherever they chose, and would get police protection. The women were then taken to the court registrar's office-- without any relatives accompanying them-- so that they could each make a statement in private as to their wishes. Each of the women chose to remain Muslim and go with her new husband. The court ordered officials to report in two weeks on implementation of the order to honor the women's decisions. However, the women's parents, backed by Hindu law makers, were not satisfied with the outcome.

Complaint Filed With IRS Over Homily By Catholic Bishop

Americans United announced yesterday that it has filed a formal complaint (full text) with the Internal Revenue Service alleging that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria, Illinois has violated rules barring tax exempt organizations from supporting or opposing candidates in political elections.  The complaint focuses on an April 14 homily (full text) by Bishop Daniel R. Jenky (later reprinted in The Catholic Post) in which Jenky compares President Obama's attitude toward churches with those of Hitler and Stalin. The complaint says that moments after making the comparison, Jenky urges Catholics not to vote for candidates who fail to uphold Catholic values. The complaint goes on: "It is impossible to interpret this as anything but a command to vote against Obama." The Diocese has issued an additional statement explaining Bishop Jenky's remarks.