AP Exclusive: Muslim countries seek blasphemy ban

Four years after cartoons of the prophet Muhammad set off violent protests across the Muslim world, Islamic nations are mounting a campaign for an international treaty to protect religious symbols and beliefs from mockery — essentially a ban on blasphemy that would put them on a collision course with free speech laws in the West.

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Pakistani sentenced to die for blasphemy

A Pakistani judge sentenced a Muslim man to death Wednesday on charges he insulted Islam's Prophet Muhammad, a court official said.

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Austria: Furor Over Jesus Orgy Drawing

Is it art — or is it blasphemy?

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Masked Gunmen Briefly Take Over EU Office

Masked gunmen on Monday briefly took over a European Union office to protest a Danish newspaper's publication of cartoons deemed insulting to Islam's Prophet Muhammad, the latest in a wave of violent denunciations of the caricatures across the Islamic world.

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While I can respect people having belief they must not be allowed to dictate what others can say or do.

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The Obama administration on Monday came out strongly against efforts by Islamic nations to bar the defamation of religions, saying the moves would restrict free speech.

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International Blasphemy Day, 30 September, is intended "to remind the world that religion should never again be beyond open and honest discussion".

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Sacreligious, Blasphemy Website called "Is Barack Obama the Messiah?" capturing the wave of euphoria that followed the Democratic senator's remarkable rise.

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SIALKOT (Pakistan): A Christian citizen Robert Danish was found dead on Tuesday under mysterious circumstances in high security Sialkot Central Jail.

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Police with a search warrant will be able to enter private premises and use "reasonable force" to obtain incriminating evidence.

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Irfan Hussain writes about the Gojra Christian killings and publishes a letter he received from a priest who had knowledge of the situation and explains what the fuss was.

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After some hesitation, Ireland's president, Mary McAleese, signed into law on Thursday a controversial new measure which makes it a crime, punishable by a fine of up to $35,000, to publish or utter blasphemous statements in the Irish Republic.

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If you visit Ireland after October, you'd better watch what you say about God. A blasphemous slip of the tongue could cost you 25,000 euros under revamped legislation that will soon be signed into law. Blasphemy is an act of challenging or offending a religious belief.

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It does seem bizarre that, in 2009, a modern European nation would seek to shield religious belief from criticism – yet that is what is happening in Ireland right now.

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"As part of a revision to defamation legislation, the Dail (Irish Parliament) passed legislation creating a new crime of blasphemy. Update: The bill went to the Seanad on Friday, July 10, passing by a single vote.

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MAJOR new legislation reforming the State's libel laws and enabling judges to advise juries on the size of damages was passed in the Dáil yesterday.

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Anti-Zionist Orthodox Jewish rabbis demonstrated with Palestinians against Israeli war crimes outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC (Orthodox Jews: Zionism is heresy and blasphemy as well as G-dless racism).

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The last scene before the showdown between Ahab and Moby Dick is very insightful. It comes out in the scene where Starbuck is going to shoot Ahab and take over the ship; Ahab tells him why he has to kill Moby Dick –I never saw it before: Ahab was hunting the anti-Christ.

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JUSTICE Minister Dermot Ahern has defended the introduction of a new crime of blasphemous libel, stating that a new definition was required by the Constitution.

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A NEW crime of blasphemous libel is to be proposed by the Minister for Justice in an amendment to the Defamation Bill, which will be discussed by the Oireachtas committee on justice today.

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Reporters Without Borders and the Doha Centre for Media Freedom are concerned about the threat to free expression that arises when the media broach religious issues.

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Theologian Debunks the Creationist Argument Against Evolution

Let me start by saying, I am an ordained minister. I generally try to err on the side of compassion and grace. While I sometimes fail to accomplish this, I am, for the most part, an understanding and accepting individual.

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"Afghan student-writer Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh was sentenced to death for insulting Islam. The 23 year-old student and writer downloaded an anti-Islamic report from the internet in 2007 relating to the role of women in Islamic societies and handed copies out to his friends.

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A Christian bus driver has refused to drive a bus with an atheist slogan proclaiming "There's probably no God".

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Christians have warned of a backlash of art world vandalism, following a decision to halt a private prosecution of a Gateshead gallery which exhibited a statue of Jesus with an erection. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) ruled that there was "no case to answer" for the Baltic  …

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Afghanistan's appeal court sentenced an Afghan journalist to 20 years in jail, instead of an earlier death sentence, for distributing an internet article that said the Prophet Mohammad had ignored the rights of women.

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"A Christian man, Gulsher Masih, and his daughter Sandal have been charged with blasphemy under Article 295 B of the Pakistan Penal Code for allegedly tearing some pages from the Qur'an last Thursday in the village of Tehsil Chak Jhumra, in Faisalabad district.

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Would a committed Christian write such a question using the names he used in his December 1997 Constitutional Law final examination: Would a committed Christian write a examination that sub-textually deals with the cloning of the Christ child? What does this tell us about Mr.

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An Italian museum on Thursday defied Pope Benedict and refused to remove a modern art sculpture portraying a crucified green frog holding a beer mug and an egg that the Vatican had condemned as blasphemous.

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