I found this article via American Atheists. In response to the article, one commenter wrote: “this law was passed in extreme haste by the outgoing administration right before the far more moderate leaders who were voted in earlier this year take over.” But will Sharia Law be overturned with the new administration? It’s mind-blowing that these sorts of things can even be considered in today’s world, and once again based on ancient superstitious beliefs and religion-fueled bigotry and prejudice.

Indonesia: Stoning for adultery – Aceh passes Sharia law

Aceh, a province of Indonesia, passed a new law making adultery punishable by stoning to death. The law, an ominous sign of creeping Sharia, also imposes severe sentences (up to 400 lashes) for homosexuality, alcohol consumption and gambling. Married people convicted of adultery can be sentenced to death by stoning. Unmarried people can be sentenced to 100 lashes with a cane. Human rights activists are condemning the new law as being cruel and degrading.

I did more research on this story and found dozens of links.

September 14, 2009 BBC News reports:

The legislation was passed unanimously by Aceh’s regional legislature, said assembly member Bahrom Rasjid.

“This law will be effective in 30 days with or without the approval of Aceh’s governor,” he said.

The governor of Aceh, a former rebel with the Free Aceh Movement, is opposed to strict Sharia law. He had urged more debate over the bill.

*snip*

Previously, Aceh’s partially-adopted Sharia law enforced Muslim dress codes and mandatory prayers.

“This law is a preventive measure for Acehnese people so that they will avoid moral degradation,” said Moharriyadia, a spokesman for the Prosperous Justice Party.

A new parliament will be sworn in next month, after local polls saw the moderate Aceh Party win the most seats in the provincial assembly.

The Aceh Party has said it will review the law once the new parliament is sitting.

“It needs more public consultation. We need to involve the ulemas – the Islamic clerics – in drafting the law,” said Adnan Beuransah, a spokesperson for the Aceh Party.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, especially since the new government will be “consulting” with the Islamic clerics.

says, Christopher Hitchens in his recent article in Slate online.

“Living in the Islamic Republic,” wrote Azar Nafisi in her book Reading Lolita in Tehran in 2003, “is like having sex with a man you loathe.” This verdict has gathered extra force and pungency as the succeeding years have elapsed and as more women have been stoned, hanged, beaten, raped, and silenced. Lately has come the news that Iranian men in prison are being raped, too, for trying to exercise their right to vote. And now the U.S. government has come to a point where it must ask itself: What is it like to enter negotiations with a man who loathes you and who every Friday holds public prayers that call for your death?

Last Friday brought the news that the Obama administration had accepted an offer from Tehran, delivered the preceding Wednesday, for the holding of what the New York Times called “unconditional talks.” It was further reported that the administration had spent “less than 48 hours” deliberating whether to respond to the invitation, which yields the interesting if minor detail that this must have been the most significant decision taken by Obama’s people on or about the eighth anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11.

Hitchens goes on to state his concerns about Iran and its uranium-enrichment program and its theocracy’s hatred of the West.

First, it has become ever clearer that Iran’s uranium-enrichment and centrifuge program has put it within measurable distance of the ability to weaponize its nuclear capacity. Second, it has become obscenely obvious that the theocracy is prepared to govern by force alone and to employ the most appalling measures to remain in power without a mandate.

While Hitchens says he is all for talks without preconditions, he presents these two questions:

Do we seriously expect the Islamic Republic to be negotiating in good faith about its nuclear program?

What do we know about the effect of these proposed talks on the morale and the leadership of the Iranian opposition?

Read on and then share what you think about what Hitchens has to say.

Yet another example how religion can be dangerous. Hundreds of infants were dropped from the roof of a mosque in western India in the belief that the fall (assuming they are caught in the bedsheet held by volunteers below), would ensure good health and prosperity for their families.

India’s National Commission for Protection of Child’s Rights issued a notice Thursday to the local administration in Sholapur and has begun investigations into the practice.

Thanks to our friend ChuckA for bringing this to our attention.

Chuck writes:

Yet another reason pointing up WHY, in particular, the insanity of Islam is so ULTRA dangerous to the world! The totally brainwashed boneheads just don’t get. And the media spends all of its time on the totally hyped attention given to things like the death of Michael Jackson; whilst millions of people die, daily, often from religious related insanity (Iraq bombings?)…with almost no notice whatsoever. Even the so-called “Liberal” Iranian demonstrators don’t get it,,,with their “God is Great” shouts…that until they totally leave and discard the Islamic bullshit, and pull the Ayatollah fucktards off their privileged pedestals, nothin’s gonna change in that forlorn part of the World.

Muslim Women, Vitamin D and Osteomalacia

Here is part of what the article says:

In her classic work Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit (140), Davis also states:

“Sir Robert McCarrison, the great English physician, wrote of osteomalacia in India among the Mohammedan women observing the custom of purdah. These women veil their faces at adolescence and rarely go outside their homes.”

In this same regard, in Deficient Sunlight in the Aetiology of Osteomalacia in Muslim Women, Dr. OP Kapoor states:

“…in most of the Sunni Muslim women (who form majority of the Muslims), in spite of high intake of calcium, osteomalacia is often seen. There are two reasons for this:

“1. Use of burkha which prevents sunlight reaching the skin.

“2. Living indoors – most of the Muslim women specially those staying in the Muslim localities, do not move out of the house and thus are not exposed to the sun and often develop osteomalacia.” [my emphasis]

As we now know, vitamin D is necessary for a variety of other metabolic processes in a healthy individual. Moreover, sunlight has other positive effects besides vitamin-D production. For one, it is necessary for the production of the hormone melatonin through the eyes. Thus, Muslim women who wear the full burkha* are deprived of this health-bestowing chemical as well, which is necessary for proper sleep and, consequently, mental health. Also, merely taking vitamin D or melatonin supplements would not make up for other potential health benefits associated with adequate exposure to sunlight, and supplements are not the best choice for optimal health in any event.

In addition to developing bone and other problems from a lack of vitamin D and melatonin, covered women are deprived of fresh air on their skin, which is the body’s largest organ. Hence, the skin is not given the opportunity to breathe adequately. Furthermore, the color of choice in covering up women because of “religious” purposes is often black and sometimes blue, undoubtedly creating much sweltering and heat stroke in the very hot regions in which this clothing is traditionally worn.

While the emotional, mental and spiritual problems with forcing a woman to veil herself may be increasingly clear, the grossly under-explored factor in the burkha/niqab debate is the toll on women’s physical health. The bottom line is that veiling women and depriving them of life-giving sunlight and air represents physical torture – especially in heat-absorbing dark colors – on a mass scale. How many women are suffering horrendous health problems, exacerbated by being forced to give birth repeatedly, because of this oppressive custom? In the veiling of women, then, we are looking at a serious and appalling health crisis affecting millions worldwide.

Read the full story at Acharya S’s blog HERE.

A Turkish television station is launching a game show where a Muslim imam, a Christian priest, a rabbi and a Buddhist monk all try to convert a group of ten atheists.

Game show looks to convert atheists

“Doing something like this for the sake of ratings is disrespectful to all religions. Religion should not be a subject for entertainment programs,” High Board of Religious Affairs Chairman Hamza Aktan told state news agency Anatolian after news of the planned program emerged.

Whoever said we must respect religion of any kind? While we may respect people’s rights to believe in whatever delusion they choose, no one is obligated to respect any delusional beliefs of any kind (unless one is living in a theocracy).

I would also like to point out to these folks that religious services in themselves are often basically “spiritual entertainment extravaganzas” especially for the Christian fundamentalist megachurches. Ritual, music, singing are all forms of entertainment in disguise as “worship”.

If you are a “true atheist”, going on a goofy program isn’t going to change your mind. Unless you want to lie just to get a free trip to a religious site out of it. But, they think they have that covered:

A team of theologians will ensure that the atheists are truly non-believers and are not just seeking fame or a free holiday.

A team of delusional folks who can’t tell reality from fantasy are going to be able to identify “true non-believers” . . . yeah, ok.

“We are giving the biggest prize in the world, the gift of belief in God,” Kanal T chief executive Seyhan Soylu told Reuters.

“We don’t approve of anyone being an atheist. God is great and it doesn’t matter which religion you believe in. The important thing is to believe,” Soylu said.

Ok, I believe in the religion of myself and I am God. Can I have a trip to my sacred site in the Hawaiian Islands now?

In the aftermath of the recent Iranian “election”, young people and women are rising up in protest. This is amazing to see happen in a country where anti-government sentiment is not looked upon kindly by the “supreme leader” and those in power. In the following video which was taken with a cell phone, street protesters and riot police engaged in running battles, throwing stones, setting of fires in garbage cans and people shouting “death to the dictatorship!” These are some of the biggest protests Iran has seen in more than 30 years.

The Iranian theocracy is now doing the typical thing of blaming the U.S. and the west for the uprisings. Story from Associated Press:

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran accused the United States on Wednesday of “intolerable” meddling in its internal affairs, alleging for the first time that Washington has fueled a bitter postelection dispute. Opposition supporters marched in Tehran’s streets for a third straight day to protest the outcome of the balloting.

The Iranian government summoned the Swiss ambassador, who represents U.S. interests in Iran, to complain about American interference, state-run Press TV reported.

The English-language channel quoted the government as calling Western interference “intolerable.”

The theocratic rulers find it “intolerable” that their young people dare protest and demand a fair election?

This leaves Obama with a policy dilemma:

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is in a box over Iran, caught between affinity for emboldened reformists and caution about further alienating a hard-line Islamic regime he wants to dissuade from seeking nuclear weapons.

The president’s dilemma showed clearly on Tuesday, when he said he shared the world’s “deep concerns about the election” but asserted that it was “not productive, given the history of U.S.-Iranian relations, to be seen as meddling.”

But here is an excerpt from Tehran Bureau website asking the world for our help:

The international community must refuse to recognize the legitimacy of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s re-election, demand cancellation of the elections, and holding new fair and democratic elections that can be monitored by international monitors.

Just love that connection between xianity and morality…

Suspect arrested in connection with slaying of abortion provider George Tiller

Tiller, 67, was shot just after 10 a.m. in the lobby of Reformation Lutheran Church at 7601 E. 13th, where he was a member of the congregation. Tiller was serving as an usher at the church, one of six ushers listed in the church bulletin. He was handing out bulletins to people going into the sanctuary minutes before being shot. A church member who did not want to be identified said the gunman threatened another person at the church after the shooting.

And, I think we can all guess how Bill-O’s reacting to the whole thing.

On Friday, November 3, 2006, Bill O’Reilly featured an exclusive segment on his show, The O’Reilly Factor, saying that he has an “inside source” with official clinic documentation indicating that George Tiller performs late-term abortions to alleviate “temporary depression” in the pregnant woman. According to reporting data provided to the Kansas Board of Healing Arts for the year 1998, all of the post-viable partial-birth (dilation and extraction) abortion procedures performed in Kansas during that year were performed because “the attending physician believe[d] that continuing the pregnancy [would] constitute a substantial and irreversible impairment of the patient’s mental function.

And, as usual, you won’t be seeing any characterization of this as “xian terrorism.” Because, as we all know, xians can never be terrorists…

But Bill-O’s role in this, if any –

O’Reilly calls Tiller the “so-called baby killer” below. He calls his outfit a “death-mill, which is exactly what it is”

– really reminds me of that movie…

I didn’t know that they did in the first place, did any of you? The longer Obama is in office, the more we realize just how entrenched the Religious Right were becoming via the Bush years.

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon said Monday it no longer includes a Bible quote on the cover page of daily intelligence briefings it sends to the White House as was practice during the Bush administration.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he did not know how long the Worldwide Intelligence Update cover sheets quoted from the Bible. Air Force Maj. Gen. Glen Shaffer, who was responsible for including them, retired in August 2003, according to his biography.

For a period in 2003, at least, the daily reports prepared for President George W. Bush carried quotes from the books of Psalms and Ephesians and the epistles of Peter. At the time, the reports focused largely on the war in Iraq.

The Bible quotes apparently aimed to support Bush at a time when soldiers’ deaths in Iraq were on the rise, according to the June issue of GQ magazine. But they offended at least one Muslim analyst at the Pentagon and worried other employees that the passages were inappropriate.

On Thursday, April 10, 2003, for example, the report quoted the book of Psalms — “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him. … To deliver their soul from death.” — and featured pictures of the statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled down and celebrating crowds in Baghdad.

“Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand,” read the cover quote two weeks earlier, on March 31, above a picture of a U.S. tank driving through the desert, according to the magazine, which obtained copies of the documents.

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, on Monday said U.S. soldiers “are not Christian crusaders, and they ought not be depicted as such.”

“Depicting the Iraq conflict as some sort of holy war is completely outrageous,” Lynn said in a statement. “It’s contrary to the constitutional separation of religion and government, and it’s tremendously damaging to America’s reputation in the world.” [My emphasis]

About the Muslim analyst who was offended, I find that ironic since his “holy book” contains the same evil crap and is used to justify murdering via suicide bombs on nearly a daily basis.