Stupid Saudi barbarians…
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A Saudi blogger who was sentenced to prison and publicly flogged on charges that he had insulted Islam was awarded a major free -speech prize on Tuesday in London.
The blogger, Raif Badawi, was named the international co-recipient of Britain’s PEN Pinter Prize. He was chosen from a shortlist by the poet James Fenton, who was the British recipient of the award in June. Mr. Badawi is serving a 10-year sentence after his conviction last year on charges including “violating Islamic values and propagating liberal thought,” according to English PEN, the writers group that bestows the prize. A Saudi court fined him one million riyals, about $267,000, and sentenced him to receive 1,000 lashes spread out over 20 floggings.
Video of Mr. Badawi receiving his first 50 lashes in January appeared on YouTube, prompting condemnation from Western governments and human rights groups, which have called for his release. Saudi officials have postponed further lashings.
Mr. Badawi’s case has renewed attention to the Saudi government’s harsh treatment of dissidents for acts that are considered essential rights in the West.
At a ceremony on Tuesday in London, Mr. Fenton said he was moved by the contrast between Mr. Badawi’s “liberal aims” and the “ferocity” of the punishment leveled against him. Read more
Damn it, I feel nothing; Stupid watchdog and crybaby “atheist??”
Pure chance I am here, you and everyone else.. The pic can mean lot’s of things… not all bad.
Maybe this alleged atheist is really a christian incognito.. Why would an atheist say he is put here for some purpose, makes no sense. Your here by chance, get over it or look silly.
— A church advertising campaign that depicted atheists as stupid has been banned by a watchdog in South Africa.
Officials ruled a billboard that suggested non-believers considered their existence to be accidental was likely to be found offensive.
The advertisement, which had been erected beside a church in Johannesburg, was pulled down following the ruling by South Africa’s Advertising Standards Authority.
The offending poster showed a picture of a man holding his hands against his temples in thought above the line ‘An atheist is a man who believes himself to be an accident’, famously attributed to British poet Francis Thompson.
It was erected last year in a prominent position on the property of the Rivers Church in the Sandton suburb of Johannesburg.
However, the ASA noted that it was obliged to consider the advertisement’s content after it received a complaint from a non-Christian member of the public.
Nuts, this is like slapping fines on those who say Batman is fake 🙂
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A Polish court slapped a fine on a popular singer who bad-mouthed the Bible _ the latest episode in which authorities grapple with religious defamation in a traditionally Catholic country that is growing increasingly secular.
Dorota Rabczewska, a singer who uses the stage name Doda, said in a 2009 interview that she doubted the Bible “because it’s hard to believe in something that was written by someone drunk on wine and smoking some herbs.”
A Warsaw court ordered her Monday to pay a fine of 5,000 zlotys ($1,450) for offending religious feelings.
The case comes months after another Polish court let off a death metal performer, Adam Darski, who tore a Bible during a 2007 performance. It deemed his act artistic expression
Religion…
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Tweeting a Mickey Mouse cartoon is now a crime in Egypt.
Coptic Christian billionaire, Naguib Sawiris, will face trial for tweeting a cartoon of Mickey and Minnie Mouse in Islamic dress, Reuters reported today.
The liberal politician and media mogul is charged with “contempt for religion” by a Cairo prosecutor for posting the cartoon that outraged Egyptian Islamists last summer.
Sawiris deleted the tweet — which included the comment: “Mickey and Minnie after”, in reference to Islamist popularity in post-revolution Egypt — and apologized for posting it.
Muslim-Christian tensions have risen since a popular uprising ousted decades-long dictator, Hosni Mubarak, last February. Sawiris’ political party, the Free Egyptians Party, garnered between 10-15 percent of the vote in the country’s recent parliamentary votes.
Pro-democracy activists rose up last year to fight for rights like free speech. Read more
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Bonus… totally in context with the madness that is the Abraham religions
Tim Minchin’s new Christmas Song ‘Woody Allen Jesus’ has been cut from tomorrow’s broadcast of The Jonathan Ross Show on ITV1 for fear of causing offence. More info
DoctorE 