French Lower House Votes in Favour of Burqa Ban

On Tuesday, France's lower house of parliament nearly unanimously voted for a ban on any veils that cover the face -- including the burqa, the full-body covering worn by some Muslim women.

The vote was 335 to 1.

However, this vote must still be put before the French Senate before it becomes official legislation.

Amnesty International vociferously opposed this vote.

"A complete ban on the covering of the face would violate the rights to freedom of expression and religion of those women who wear the burqa or the niqab in public as an expression of their identity or beliefs," said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's expert on discrimination in Europe.

The French people support this ban by over four to one, the Pew Global Attitudes Project found in a recent survey.

(To read this article in full, please go to http://edition.cnn.com).

One Small Step for Man, One BIG Step for Women Bishops in the Church of England

As reported earlier in ‘So What,’ the Church of England national assembly met to discuss whether women clergy should be permitted to become bishops. On Monday, they decided that definite steps should be taken forward in this regard, and in the process they made only minor concessions to theological conservatives who were threatening a church split over the issue.

"The decision to consecrate women as bishops has been taken," said church spokesman Lou Henderson. "Everybody recognized the importance of offering safeguards and assurances to those who find it very difficult (to accept women bishops), but in the end Synod as a whole was not prepared to go as far as the traditionalists would have liked."

However, the decision is not final and still faces many obstacles.

Local dioceses will now discuss the draft law, which will allow individual bishops to arrange alternative oversight for those conservatives who object to serving under women bishops. The dioceses will need to report back by 2012 and then the issue will be put to a final vote by the General Synod.

If approved, the first women bishops could be appointed in 2014.

While campaigners in favour of women bishops were celebrating, some of their conservative opponents felt they were slowly being forced out of the Church of England.

"The scope for remaining in the Church of England is getting more and more narrow and the options are rapidly closing," the Rev. David Houlding, a leading member of the Catholic Group on the General Synod, told the Press Association.

"I am staying in the Church of England for the time being until I am driven out. I am not going willingly, I will only go if forced," he said.

(To read the article in full, please go to http://washingtonpost.com).

Foster Parent Who Allowed Muslim Teenager to Convert is Reinstated

A foster parent who was removed from the carer’s register by her local Gateshead Council (U.K.) after a Muslim girl in her care converted to Christianity has been reinstated.

The decision to remove her from the register and revoke her foster parenting status led to a storm of controversy in the north-east of England.

The foster parent had looked after children for over a decade and had an unblemished record but was held responsible for failing to “protect and preserve” a teenage girls Muslim faith when she was baptized, even though the girl was over sixteen years of age at the time and had made up her own mind to officially change her religion.

However, when the case was reported in a local newspaper, the Daily Mail, a swell of public support rose for the carer because it was felt the Gateshead council had treated her unfairly and not taken into account that the teenage girl was old enough to make up her own mind.

The foster parent reported that: “In addition to losing the Muslim teenager, another girl I was looking after was taken back into care. And I lost the farmhouse I rented to look after vulnerable teenagers.”

She added: “Despite my experiences, I still hope to foster again in the future. I simply enjoy helping young people.”

Although the carer is a devout Christian in her 50’s, she said that she had never pressured the girl to convert and the council was made aware that she had begun attending a Christian church, but her foster manager became “incandescent with rage” when she was baptized.

The teenager in question was sent to the foster parent when she was threatened with an arranged marriage and faced violence from her family.

The decision to strike the carer from the foster parent’s register was overturned by a Leeds Court last week. The Children’s Commissioner for England, Maggie Atkinson, said:
“The decision to remove a carer would only be made if it were in the best interests of the children. I am sorry it had such an effect. I hope that the ruling and Gateshead’s move to reassess the situation will go some way to reversing this.”

(Image is of Dr. Maggie Atkinson, the Children's Commissioner of England).

Oldest Written Document Ever Found in Jerusalem

In a press release on Monday, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem announced that a tiny clay fragment – dating from the 14th century B.C.E. – was found in excavations outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls. The clay fragment (pictured) contains the oldest written document ever found in Jerusalem.

The fragment was written by a highly skilled scribe that probably prepared tablets for the royal house of the time, said Wayne Horowitz, a scholar of Assyriology at Hebrew University Institute of Archeology, who helped decipher the script.

Tablets with diplomatic messages were routinely exchanged between kings in the ancient Near East, Horowitz said, and there is a great likelihood, because of its fine script and the fact it was discovered adjacent to in the acropolis area of the ancient city, that the fragment was part of such a “royal missive.”

Examination of the material of the fragment by Prof. Yuval Goren of Tel Aviv University, shows that it is from the soil of the Jerusalem area and not similar to materials from other areas, further testifying to the likelihood that it was part of a tablet from a royal archive in Jerusalem.

The leader of the excavation which uncovered the fragment, Dr. Eilat Mazar of the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology, said that this new discovery provides solid evidence of the importance of Jerusalem during the Late Bronze Age (the second half of the second century B.C.E.), and acts as a counterpoint to some who have used the lack of substantial archeological findings from that period until now to argue that Jerusalem was not a major center during that period. It also lends weight to the importance that accrued to the city in later times, leading up to its conquest by King David in the 10th century B.C.E., she said.

You can find the press release in full below:
http://www.huji.ac.il/cgi-bin/dovrut/dovrut_search_eng.pl?mesge127893731332688760

Support Grows for Burqa Bans in Europe

Nations right across Western Europe are considering a ban on Muslim women from wearing veils that cover their full faces.

The Pew Global Attitudes Project survey released findings yesterday that show that support for this kind of ban is strengthening right across Europe. Countries with strong majorities are France (82 percent), Germany (71 percent), Britain (62 percent) and Spain (59 percent). The ban would be in the form of legislation that prevents total face veils in schools, hospitals and government offices.

Americans are, however, very much against such legislation (only 28 percent approve) because they see it as a violation of religious freedom. Such a ban could obviously lead to other religious garb such as yarmulkes, clerical collars and Hare Krishna robes also being forbidden in certain public spaces. Legislators claim the reasons behind the veil ban are security based and not religious.

Defenders of the various burqa bands are also attempting to cast themselves as fighting for the rights of women, however various Islamic scholars are questioning the validity of this. Boston University scholar and the author of ‘Sexual Ethics and Islam,’ Professor Kecia Ali views this current European fixation on Muslim women’s clothing” not as “a systematic push for gender equality” but as “a symbolic statement” that “plays into an us-versus-them mentality with brutal real-world consequences.”

Ali has been further quoted as saying that the proposed burqa ban: "distracts from real issues of class injustice, racial oppression, and continued discrimination and violence against women, Muslim and non-Muslim."

Boston University religion scholar, author of "God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World," and regular CNN contributor Stephen Prothero writes that:

“Anti-burqa legislation in Belgium, France, the UK and beyond raises all sorts of questions about immigration and assimilation, church and state. But lurking around each of these questions is the overarching matter of what the veil means. Is it a symbol of Islamic identity? A rejection of the hyper-sexualization of the female body? Or is it, in the words of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, ‘a sign of debasement’–a stiff-arm to country and community, and a symbol of sexism and misogyny?”

Prothero goes on to state that in his opinion this issue challenges any notions of Europe as being justly and properly tolerant of its multi-cultural society.

What do you think of these proposed Burqa bans? You can tell us your thoughts in our feedback section.

(To read the full article, please go to http://religion.blogs.cnn.com).

Could the BP Spill End Life As We Know It?

251 million years ago a gargantuan undersea methane bubble caused immense explosions that poisoned the atmosphere and ultimately caused the extinction of over 96 percent of all life on earth. This mass extinction event is now called the Permian extinction and experts believe it was possibly the most devastating in our world’s history.

Over the course of history, other methane bubbles have exploded resulting in further mass extinctions that lasted for tens of thousands of years and virtually reshaped our planet. One of these occurred 195 million years ago and created what is now called the Gulf of Mexico.

Some scientists fear that the BP drilling operation in a geologically unstable region may have set in motion a chain of events that will cause a premature release of another methane mega-bubble. The problem is, if this is true, there is no known technology that can prevent it from occurring.

Scientists have documented the warning signs of just such a catastrophic event:

1. The appearance of large fissures or rifts splitting open the ocean floor.
2. A rise in the elevation of the seabed.
3. A massive venting of methane and other gases into the surrounding water.

Apparently, all three of these warning signs are presently occurring in the Gulf. In the midst of a total press blackout from the area (the US government will impose a $40,000 fine for any infractions) it is difficult to tell what is really going on.

However, what is known is that methane is pouring through the seabed at unprecedented levels. Workers at the epicenter now are forced to wear advanced protection gear. A scientist at the Texas A&M University has calculated that the ruptured well is discharging about 40 percent methane while the normal release of methane from a compromised well is around 5 percent.

Furthermore, a NOAA research ship, the Thomas Jefferson has reported sighting a huge gash hundreds of metres long on the ocean floor. These fissures are about 15 kilometres away from the BP epicenter but are also spewing methane. Disturbingly enough, methane levels in the surrounding water are now being calculated as being almost one million times higher than normal.

If the worst fears of these scientists are confirmed, then within the next 6 months the entire globe will be rocked by a disaster that could potentially wipe life out.
Other scientists argue that the globe is safe from just such a disaster because the bulk of the methane is being frozen into crystalline form, but others point out that the underground methane sea is being melted because of the nearby surging oil which is believed to be as hot as 500 degrees Fahrenheit.

Whether this potential disaster is just yet another scare-mongering conspiracy theory, or indeed based on solid facts is difficult to tell because of the media blackout and government vetoed press releases. What is certain is that humanity needs to learn it lessons about how we so casually and arrogantly treat the environment, because one day it may be too late to for us to change our habits.

(To read this article in full, and to see the scientific references quoted in detail, please go to http://helium.com).

Jesus in Playboy Magazine Generates Controversy

Playboy Magazine International is to terminate its relationship with its Portuguese contractors after they ran a photo shoot that included Jesus Christ among topless models.

The photo shoot was a tribute to Nobel Prize-winning author Jose Saramago’s ‘The Gospel According to Jesus Christ’ but it has not been favourably received by Playboy HQ.

The pictures depict Christ watching two models in a lesbian embrace while standing next to a prostitute and looking over the shoulder of a woman reading a book. Another heavily tattooed woman appears to have died in his arms.

Theresa Hennessy, Playboy Enterprises vice president of public relations told the Mail Online:

"We did not see or approve the cover and pictorial in the July issue of Playboy Portugal. It is a shocking breach of our standards and we would have not allowed it to be published if we had seen it in advance. We are in the process of terminating our agreement with the Portuguese publisher."

Saramago's novel was a fictional re-telling of Christ's life that showed him as very human and flawed character. It created heated controversy among the Roman Catholic Church, who accused Saramago of depicting a “substantially anti-religious vision.”