moonbuggy

`An Afghan man is being tried in a court in the capital, Kabul, for converting from Islam to Christianity.

Abdul Rahman is charged with rejecting Islam and could face the death sentence under Sharia law unless he recants.

He converted 16 years ago as an aid worker helping refugees in Pakistan. His estranged family denounced him in a custody dispute over his two children.’

`One third of Australians are completely ignorant of the Islamic faith, with women and people without tertiary training the most likely to lack knowledge, a new study shows. [..]

The survey revealed only one in six Australians had a decent understanding of Islam, while one third claimed to be completely ignorant of it.

More than 55 per cent of respondents – mainly women, people with no tertiary training and those aged over 50 – reported having no contact with Muslims.

People who had no contact with Islam were twice as likely to be ignorant about the faith compared with those who were linked to it in some way, the study also showed.

It also found that whether people felt threatened by Islam depended on their knowledge of the religion.’

`”South Park” has declared war on Scientology. Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of the animated satire, are digging in against the celebrity-endorsed religion after a controversial episode mocking outspoken Scientologist Tom Cruise was yanked abruptly from the schedule Wednesday � with Internet rumors it was covert warfare by Cruise that led to its departure.

“So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun!” the “South Park” creators said in a statement Friday in Daily Variety. “Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies… You have obsructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail!”‘

‘It’s not just that America is being ruled by small and venal men, or that its reputation has been demolished, its army overstretched, its finances a mess. All of that, after all, was true toward the end of Vietnam as well. Now, though, there are all kinds of other lurking catastrophes, a whole armory of swords of Damocles dangling over a bloated, dispirited and anxious country. Peak oil — the point at which oil production maxes out — seems to be approaching, with disastrous consequences for America’s economy and infrastructure. Global warming is accelerating and could bring us many more storms even worse than Katrina, among other meteorological nightmares. The spread of Avian Flu has Michael Leavitt, secretary of health and human services, warning Americans to stockpile canned tuna and powdered milk. It looks like Iran is going to get a nuclear weapon, and the United States can’t do anything to stop it. Meanwhile, America’s growing religious fanaticism has brought about a generalized retreat from rationality, so that the country is becoming unwilling and perhaps unable to formulate policies based on fact rather than faith.’

`Last week, the press reported that Merrill Keiser, a Democratic candidate United States Senate from Ohio, believes that homosexuality should be punishable by death. Kaiser’s opposition for the Democratic nomination is US Rep. Sherrod Brown.

PageOneQ has obtained a portion of an audio interview in which Keiser says that singer/performer Elton John should be put to death and insinuates that the same should happen to Mary Cheney, the daughter of Vice President Richard B. Cheney.’

`Isaac Hayes has quit “South Park,” where he voices Chef, saying he can no longer stomach its take on religion.

Hayes, who has played the ladies’ man/school cook in the animated Comedy Central satire since 1997, said in a statement Monday that he feels a line has been crossed.

“There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins,” the 63-year-old soul singer and outspoken Scientologist said.’

`An anti-abortion activist is posting Internet pictures of women entering an abortion clinic here.

Martin Wishnatsky, who is banned from going within 150 feet of the Red River Women’s Clinic, said he usually stands on a street corner to take the photos.

“I have a little zoom lens,” he said.

“I felt it would really give the average person who doesn’t visit there a firsthand view of what it looks like to someone who is there,” Wishnatsky said. “I hope this might contribute to turning people’s hearts back to life.”‘

`A Gallup report released today reveals that more than half of all Americans, rejecting evolution theory and scientific evidence, agree with the statement, “God created man exactly how Bible describes it.”

Another 31% says that man did evolve, but “God guided.” Only 12% back evolution and say “God had no part.”

Gallup summarized it this way: “Surveys repeatedly show that a substantial portion of Americans do not believe that the theory of evolution best explains where life came from.” They are “not so quick to agree with the preponderance of scientific evidence.”‘

`The Archdiocese of Dublin says 102 of its priests are suspected of having abused more than 350 children since 1940, in a shocking new report by the Catholic Church in Ireland.

The revelation comes a week before the Irish government launches a massive inquiry into abuse in the Church and the role government agencies played. It’s expected to last more than a year.’

‘A radical Islamic group is infiltrating Australian mosques, distributing inflammatory pamphlets urging Muslims to rise up against Australian troops in Iraq and support the insurgency.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is telling local Muslims that coalition forces in Iraq are responsible for the mosque bombing in Samarra last month that left the nation on the brink of civil war.

The group – a hardline political faction banned in Britain, Germany and other countries — is using Friday prayer meetings, traditionally compulsory for all Muslims, to distribute flyers inciting hatred against the West.’

`A painted image of the Hindu goddess Kali is propped up against a stone in the dirt, her long red tongue goading terrified worshippers into submission. From one of her eight flailing arms a severed head dangles, her neck is adorned by a necklace of bleached human skulls.

There are bloodstains on the cracked wall behind the terrible postcard-size image and, around the dark room, splattered gore on the heavy wooden furniture. These dark marks bear witness to a child sacrificed in the name of the abominable goddess.’

A philosophical quiz thingy.

I took three hits right at the end. Here’s what it tells me:

`You have been awarded the TPM service medal! This is our third highest award for outstanding service on the intellectual battleground.

The fact that you progressed through this activity without suffering many hits and biting no bullets suggests that whilst there are inconsistencies in your beliefs about God, on the whole they are well thought-out.’

And there’s more Games and Interactive Activities from the same people.

`If Domino’s Pizza founder Thomas S. Monaghan has his way, a new town being built in Florida will be governed according to strict Roman Catholic principles, with no place to get an abortion, pornography or birth control.

The pizza magnate is bankrolling the project with at least $250 million and calls it “God’s will.”‘

`Prime Minister Tony Blair has told how he prayed to God when deciding whether or not to send UK troops to Iraq.

Mr Blair answered “yes” when asked on ITV1 chat show Parkinson – to be screened on Saturday – if he had sought holy intervention on the issue.

“Of course, you struggle with your own conscience about it… and it’s one of these situations that, I suppose, very few people ever find themselves in.” [..]

Mr Blair told show host Michael Parkinson: “In the end, there is a judgement that, I think if you have faith about these things, you realise that judgement is made by other people… and if you believe in God, it’s made by God as well.”‘

`US pop diva Madonna wants to buy a house in the Israeli town of Rosh Pina, where the ancient Jewish Kabbalah tradition expects the Messiah to appear at the end of the world.

Yediot Aharonot said the owner of a 100-year-old, ramshackle five-bedroom villa overlooking the Sea of the Galilee had been recently contacted several times by representatives of the superstar with a view to selling his property.

According to the same source, Madonna wants to renovate the building into a centre of study of mystical Jewish texts pored over by Kabbalah followers.’

`Katherine Albrecht is on a mission from God.

The influential consumer advocate has written a new book warning her fellow Christians that radio frequency identification may evolve to become the “mark of the beast” — meaning the technology is a sign that the end-times are drawing near.

“My goal as a Christian (is) to sound the alarm,” said Albrecht, in a conversation over tea at a high-end grocery store. [..]

If the VeriChip becomes a common payment device similar to the “contactless” payment system in the Exxon Mobil Speedpass, all who wish to buy and sell goods will be compelled “to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads,” as it says in Revelation, the Spychips Threat authors contend.

Another passage in Revelation describes a vision in which “a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image.” Albrecht and McIntyre write, “Interestingly, an implanted RFID device like the VeriChip could potentially cause such a tormenting sore if it is subjected to a strong source of electromagnetic radiation,” such as a directed energy weapon.’

`Pope Benedict XVI got an iPod on Friday, thanks to a group of workers at Vatican Radio.

According to a Catholic News Service story, the pontiff got a 2GB white Nano, loaded with, among other things, the radio station’s programming in English, Italian and German, as well as classical tunes from Mozart, Chopin and Stravinsky.’

`In the mid 1990s, Tom Katt began regularly appearing in gay porn videos. The versatile bodybuilder made at least 15 sex flicks in his first two years. Handsome and talented, he started earning a lot of money. And for what it’s worth, Tom Katt became famous — in the world of erotica.

Over the years, steroids and growth hormones augmented his physique. Cocaine and pot made the good times seem happier, but the party train kept crashing. Inside, he felt something was missing. And in 2003, he walked away from the biz. Katt, who now goes by his birth name, David Papaleo, had found God.

Last month, Papaleo appeared on “The Gravedigger Show,” an Atlanta-based Christian TV program where he renounced the adult video world and said he was heterosexual.’

`Iran’s radical President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared on Thursday in Malaysia that Islam will be the dominant power in the “near future”, the official state news agency reported.

“The near future will be in the hands of Islam”, Ahmadinejad said after a meeting in Kuala Lumpur with the King of Malaysia. He cited the victory of the Islamist group Hamas in the recent Palestinian elections as a sign of the rise of Islamism in the world.

“History has shown that when Muslims become powerful, they do not use their power to the detriment of others, but use it in the service of peace and tranquillity”, Ahmadinejad said.’

`People often ask me when they should teach the Good News to their housecats. I have but one answer: “What are you waiting for?”

A pet is a beloved part of your family, and as a Christian, you should do everything you can to guarantee that this valued member of your family receives the glorious eternal reward for which Christ gave His very life. Think of the alternative: your cat mired in darkness for eternity because you put off a 10-minute conversation.

My own cats accepted Jesus into their hearts before they even opened their eyes. The light of salvation has brightened their lives, but perhaps the most noticeable change has been in me. I am filled with warmth knowing their eternal souls have been saved.’

`In what is further evidence of the porn industry’s disdain of Christianity, an Internet-based sex toy company has begun selling items modeled after religious icons.

Web-based Divine Productions goes out of its way to promote products that clearly offend and mock Christianity and the Catholic Church. Through its website, the company is offering sex toys like a “baby Jesus b— plug,” a “jackhammer Jesus,” and a “diving nun.”

Gene McConnell is director of Authentic Relationships International, an organization that reaches out to men and women who are struggling with addiction to pornography. “It is clear that [porn] providers like this have to expose their customers to more destructive ideas to get their customers to come back for more,” he says.’

`An Italian parliamentary commission concluded “beyond any reasonable doubt” that the Soviet Union was behind the 1981 attempt to kill Pope John Paul II – a theory long alleged but never proved, according to a draft report made available Thursday.

The commission held that the pope was a danger to the Soviet bloc because of his support for the Solidarity labor movement in his native Poland. Solidarity was the first free trade union in communist eastern Europe.

“This commission believes, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the leaders of the Soviet Union took the initiative to eliminate the pope Karol Wojtyla,” said a draft of the commission’s report obtained by The Associated Press. Wojtyla was John Paul’s Polish name.’

`An appeal from the Catholic Church for New Zealanders to boycott an episode of South Park has resulted in a record audience there for the controversial cartoon.

The “Bloody Mary” episode of South Park drew more than six times the normal audience, New Zealand broadcaster TV Works announced Thursday.

The episode, which aired Wednesday night, was seen by 210,000 viewers, according to Rick Friesen, the broadcaster’s chief operating officer.

“I expected a bit of a rise, but not that much,” he told the Associated Press.’

‘Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed the United States and Israel on Thursday for the destruction of a Shiite shrine’s golden dome in Iraq, saying it was the work of “defeated Zionists and occupiers.”

Speaking to a crowd of thousands on a tour of southwestern Iran, the president referred to the destruction of the Askariya mosque dome in Samarra on Wednesday, which the Iraqi government has blamed on insurgents.

“They invade the shrine and bomb there because they oppose God and justice,” Ahmadinejad said, alluding to the U.S.-led multinational forces in Iraq.

“These passive activities are the acts of a group of defeated Zionists and occupiers who intended to hit our emotions,” he said in a speech that was broadcast on state television. Addressing the United States, he added: “You have to know that such an act will not save you from the anger of Muslim nations.”‘

followup to Iraq faces civil war threat.

`Gunmen fired two rockets at a tomb sacred for Shiites south of Baghdad causing damage but no casualties, a Shiite official said.

The tomb of Salman Pak, also known as Salman al-Farisi, was attacked after sunset with two rockets, said Jamal al-Saghir, an aide to Shiite political leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim.

The tomb is located in the village of Salman Pak, 20 miles southeast of Baghdad. The village carries the name of the man.

The attack comes two days after a Shiite holy Shrine in the central city of Samarra was heavily damaged by an explosion. Dozens of Sunni mosques were attacked after that throughout Iraq.’

`A bomb attack overnight destroyed the dome of one of Shiite Islam’s holiest shrines, prompting reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques in Baghdad that left six dead and raised fears of sectarian civil war.

Another two people were killed in an attack on offices of a Sunni political party in Iraq’s mainly Shiite second city of Basra, while gunmen stormed a prison in the city and lynched 10 suspected militants from Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Two explosions brought down the gilded dome of the 1000-year-old Imam Ali al-Hadi mausoleum in the town of Samarra north of Baghdad, fanning fears of a sectarian war between Iraq’s newly empowered Shiite majority and the ousted Sunni Arab elite.

The attack against the shrine, where Shi’ites believe their 12th Imam disappeared in the 9th century AD, triggered Shiite violence that was unprecedented in scope since US-led forces ousted Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-dominated regime in April 2003.’

`A unanimous Supreme Court decision on Tuesday gave a small religious sect the right to keep importing a hallucinogenic tea, central to its ritual observance, that the government wants to ban as a controlled substance under federal narcotics law. [..]

For the past 35 years, he noted, the government has permitted American Indians to use peyote in their religious rituals despite the fact that peyote and its active ingredient, mescaline, are banned for general use under the Controlled Substances Act and have been found by Congress to be dangerous substances with a high potential for abuse. [..]

The tea, known as hoasca, is made from two plants found only in the Amazon rain forest. Its active ingredient is dimethyltryptamine, usually referred to as DMT.’

`An Amish teenager will pay a fine and restitution to a neighbor for illegally tapping into his telephone line.

James Bontrager, 17, W3950 Grand River Road, Markesan, pleaded guilty in Green Lake County Circuit Court Jan. 23, to a charge of telecommunications fraud.

He was fined $367 and ordered to pay $36.09 in long distance charges to CenturyTel for calls the teen made on his neighbor’s phone line to a relative in Indiana. The Amish traditionally shun telephones and other modern conveniences in their homes.’

`The pastor of a charismatic Christian church attended by the Plano mother on trial, accused of fatally cutting off the arms of her 10-month-old daughter, told jurors Wednesday that mental illness is really demon possession that cannot be cured with psychiatry or medicine.

“I do not believe that any mental illness exists other than demons, and no medication can straighten it out, other than the power of God,” said Doyle Davidson, the 73-year-old minister of the Water of Life Church that Dena and John Schlosser attended several times a week.

Dena Schlosser, 37, is on trial for capital murder in the slaying of her daughter Margaret in November 2004.’

`A Pakistani Muslim cleric and his followers have offered rewards amounting to over million (.35 million) for anyone who kills Danish cartoonists who drew caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad that have enraged Muslims worldwide.

Maulana Yousef Qureshi, a cleric in the north-western city of Peshawar, said during Friday prayers he has personally offered to pay a bounty of 500,000 rupees (,377), and two of his congregation put up additional rewards of million (.35 million) and one million rupees plus a car.

Qureshi repeated the offer at rally later in the city to protest against the cartoons.’