Below The Beltway

Via Kevin at The Liberty Papers comes news that something that likes to call itself the United Nations Human Rights Council has issued a report condemning “religious defamation:”
GENEVA (Reuters) - A United Nations forum on Thursday passed a resolution condemning “defamation of religion” as a human rights violation, despite wide concerns that it could be [...]

Islamic fundamentalists also don’t have much patience for science:
ISTANBUL — As scientists around the world celebrate the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s seminal work on evolution, Adnan Oktar, a college dropout turned theorist of Islamic creationism, is working on the fifth volume of a 14-part masterwork that he says will bury Darwinism once and for [...]

Once again, it’s Dateline  Saudi Arabia:
A Saudi judge has ordered a woman should be jailed for a year and receive 100 lashes after she was gang-raped, it was claimed last night.
The 23-year-old woman, who became pregnant after her ordeal, was reportedly assaulted after accepting a lift from a man.
He took her to a house to [...]

The Afghan Supreme Court upholds a criminal conviction for “blasphemy:”
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s Supreme Court has upheld a 20-year sentence for an Afghan university student journalist accused of blasphemy in a case that has alarmed media and rights organizations in Afghanistan and abroad. The student’s family and lawyers said Wednesday thay had only learned recently [...]

Dateline Saudi Arabia:
CAIRO (AP) — A 75-year-old widow in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 40 lashes and four months in jail for mingling with two young men who are not close relatives, drawing new criticism for the kingdom’s ultraconservative religious police and judiciary.
(…)
“Because she said she doesn’t have a husband and because she is [...]

I find myself unable to really decide what to say about this:
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia’s most senior cleric was quoted Wednesday as saying it is permissible for 10-year-old girls to marry and those who think they’re too young are doing the girls an injustice.
The mufti’s comments showed the conservative clergy’s opposition to a [...]

Jacko converts:
MICHAEL JACKSON has become a Muslim — and changed his name to MIKAEEL.
The skint superstar, 50, donned Islamic garb to pledge allegiance to the Koran in a ceremony at a pal’s mansion in Los Angeles, The Sun can reveal.
Jacko sat on the floor wearing a tiny hat after an Imam was summoned to officiate [...]

Not when barbarism like this continues to exist:
MOGADISHU, Somalia, Nov. 1 — A 13-year-old girl who said she had been raped was stoned to death in Somalia after being accused of adultery, a human rights group said.
Dozens of men stoned Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow to death Monday in a stadium packed with 1,000 spectators in the [...]

If someone can please tell me the difference between the mullahs in Iran and the mullahs in Saudi Arabia, I’d appreciate it:
(New York, May 13, 2008) – Courts in Jeddah should dismiss cases against a Saudi web critic and a Turkish barber charged with “insulting” Islam, an unequivocal violation of freedom of expression protected under [...]

When Pope Benedict XVI visits Ground Zero in New York, he will pray for the redemption and conversion of Islamic terrorists:
The Pope will pray for the redemption of Islamic terrorists when he visits the site of the September 11 attacks in New York next week.
The pontiff will call for terrorists to convert to Christianity, saying: [...]