Freedom, Palestinian Style

Get ready United Kingdom, France and Denmark; The Muslim 'Morality Police' will be coming to your neighborhoods soon. I am rather sick of people bellowing about the poor Palestinians. Do any of these people actually look at the kind of government and society the Palestinians wish to impose? To get an idea of the kind of freedom people are fighting for in Palestine, read the quote in the article from a writer, Hassan Dandees, from the West Bank.

New piety squad patrols Ramallah

By DALIA NAMMARI, Associated Press Writer Thu Sep 27, 4:44 PM ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank - A new squad of morality police has begun detaining Palestinians who eat or drink in public during Ramadan in the West Bank, where the Islamic month of daytime fasting was always widely observed but never imposed.

The 12-member squad appears to be an attempt by President Mahmoud Abbas' West Bank government to challenge the monopoly on religious righteousness claimed by the militant group Hamas, the rival ruler of Gaza.

The sudden deployment of Ramadan police was unexpected in Ramallah, the seat of Abbas' government and the most cosmopolitan and well-to-do of the Palestinian cities. Ramadan squads have not been set up in other West Bank towns.

Watching observers arrive at one of the town's main mosques one recent afternoon, vice squad Lt. Murad Qendah got a radio call telling him a suspect has been spotted in the street imbibing "karoub" — a local soft drink made from carob pods. He ordered his six-man squad to seize the man's papers pending investigation. Police say violators are usually held for 24 hours.

"If anybody violates respect for Ramadan in the street, we take their identity papers and hold them for investigation," said Qendah, 27, whose officers wear red shoulder badges reading "morality police."

Police spokesman Adnan al-Damari said police have arrested at least 50 alleged public morality offenders in Ramallah since the start of Ramadan, but would not be going after people who break the fast in their own homes.

"The duty of the morality police is to preserve public manners in public places, and to preserve the feelings of the people who are fasting," he said. "Violating the holiness of Ramadan is a violation of people's freedom. "

Islamic custom demands that believers fast and refrain from self-indulgence between sunrise and sunset during Ramadan, which began Sept. 13 in the West Bank this year. The fast is largely observed across the Muslim world; voluntarily in some countries and under strict enforcement in others such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

Writer Hassan Dandees, 58, said the government was right to seek to uphold religious standards.

"This is not a violation of anybody's freedom," he said. "Ramadan has a holiness every person should respect."

But Ruba el-Mimi, 21, said she opposes the police action.

"It interferes with the privacy of the individual. People are free to fast or not," she said. "If somebody is not fasting, he's not doing harm."

In addition to booking smokers, snackers and carob juice drinkers, Qendah is also on the alert for young men whistling at girls or drivers playing their car stereos too loud.

Although the piety squad has government sanction, Cabinet minister Ashraf al-Ajrami, said he is uncomfortable with the operation and the impression that the government was trying to be more zealous than Hamas.

"We are studying this issue, and there's a possibility we shall end it," he said. "We don't want to change the order of things and appear as if we are following in the footsteps of somebody or imitating somebody."

Hamas rode support for its pious and incorruptible image to a landslide parliamentary election victory in 2006, then ran Fatah out of the Gaza Strip by force in June.

The religious party has imposed no Ramadan patrol of its own in Gaza, where the population is overwhelmingly conservative and social pressure alone is enough to stop public violations of the fast. Even members of the strip's small Christian community are careful not to cause offense by breaching the Ramadan code in front of their Muslim neighbors.

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Atheists Should Just Shut Up (Remix)

A Youtube user has done a wonderful job of remixing a biased report from CNN earlier this year about the persecution of atheists. In this wonderful piece of journalism (read sarcasm), the all religious panel goes on to demean and verbally persecute atheists. An atheist was not even on the panel.

The most disturbing person on the panel is a "Professor" of journalism, Karen Hunter, who is probably the most ignorant and intolerant of all the panel members. She teaches at Hunter College. It is truly scary to think that she is influencing future journalists in this country when she knows so little about freedom of speech.

I would encourage you to let Karen Hunter hear from you, since she repeats continously through this panel discussion that 'atheists should just shut up'. She can be reached through Hunter College at professorhunter@aol.com .

Before you write, please view this video also which contains the whole panel discussion. Karen Hunter is the first to respond that '.. atheists want us to take got off of money'. Her hatred is so clear in this interview.

Bill Maher on Religion

It's About Time Someone Sued God!

One has to respect the nerve of this Nebraska politician to bring up this very valid point in this very christian nation.

Nebraska state senator sues God

By NATE JENKINS, Associated Press WriterMon Sep 17, 11:37 PM ET

The defendant in a state senator's lawsuit is accused of causing untold death and horror and threatening to cause more still. He can be sued in Douglas County, the legislator claims, because He's everywhere.

State Sen. Ernie Chambers sued God last week. Angered by another lawsuit he considers frivolous, Chambers says he's trying to make the point that anybody can file a lawsuit against anybody.

Chambers says in his lawsuit that God has made terroristic threats against the senator and his constituents, inspired fear and caused "widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants."

The Omaha senator, who skips morning prayers during the legislative session and often criticizes Christians, also says God has caused "fearsome floods ... horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes."

He's seeking a permanent injunction against the Almighty.

Chambers said the lawsuit was triggered by a federal suit filed against a judge who recently barred words such as "rape" and "victim" from a sexual assault trial.

The accuser in the criminal case, Tory Bowen, sued Lancaster District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront, claiming that he violated her free speech rights.

Chambers said Bowen's lawsuit is inappropriate because the Nebraska Supreme Court has already considered the case and federal courts follow the decisions of state supreme courts on state matters.

"This lawsuit having been filed and being of such questionable merit creates a circumstance where my lawsuit is appropriately filed," Chambers said. "People might call it frivolous but if they read it they'll see there are very serious issues I have raised."

U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf, in an order last week, expressed doubts about whether Bowen's lawsuit "has any legal basis whatsoever" and said sanctions may be imposed against Bowen and her attorneys if they fail to show cause for the lawsuit.

The Associated Press usually does not identify accusers in sex-assault cases, but Bowen has allowed her name to be used publicly because of the issue over the judge's language restrictions.

Cheuvront declared a mistrial in the sexual assault trial in July, saying pretrial publicity made it impossible to gather enough impartial jurors.

No Thanks Osama

A great video, as usual, by Pat Condell concerning Osama's plead for us all to convert to Islam in order to stop the slaughter. Jeez, sounds like a good idea huh?

One For Us!

The ridiculous practice of parceling off tiny tracts, sometimes even a matter of a few square yards, of public land and then pretending it is private land in order to allow crosses to remain on public lands has at last been recognized by the court for what it is.

Court bans Christian cross on private land in public park

Thu Sep 6, 3:45 PM ET

The U.S. government cannot trade a parcel of land to private hands to allow a Christian cross to remain in the middle of a vast federal preserve, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday.

At issue is the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which bars the government from favoring any one religion, as it applies to a lone white metal Latin cross in the Mojave National Preserve in southern California between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

In 2004, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a cross on a prominent rock on public land was unconstitutional, prompting Congress to pass a law allowing a trade so its immediate area would become private land.

People have been putting crosses in the spot since the 1930s, most recently with one man drilling a metal cross into the rock a decade ago without permission. In 1999, a man requested and was denied permission to build a Buddhist shrine there, setting the stage for a tangled legal fight.

"A grave constitutional injury already exists," Judge Margaret McKeown wrote for a three-judge panel that upheld a lower court ruling. "The permitting display of the Sunrise Rock cross in the Preserve is an impermissible governmental endorsement of religion.

"The government's long-standing efforts to preserve and maintain the cross atop Sunrise Rock lead us to the undeniable conclusion that the government's purpose in this case is to evade the injunction and keep the cross in place," the judge said. "Carving out a tiny parcel of property in the midst of this vast Preserve - like a donut hole with the cross atop it - will do nothing to minimize the impermissible governmental endorsement."