The Roots of Christian Zionism: How Scofield Sowed Seeds of Apostasy from WHTT on Vimeo.

Ever wonder why so many Christians support America’s many wars, especially in the Middle East? A new Christianity has emerged from the Twentieth Century called Christian Zionism or what could be called, "Angry Evangelicalism," or "Dispensationalism on Steroids." What motivates a nationally known, evangelical preacher like John Hagee to call for a preemptive strike against Iran when it is contrary to what Jesus taught and commanded his followers to do? This “Roots of Zionism” presentation may be the first of its kind with a factual explanation of how Christianity’s latest apostate epidemic was launched with the publishing of C. I. Scofield's reference Bible in 1909, and the influence of the notes in it. While purposefully reaching and helping many under Christian Zionist influence by featuring its identification and cure, this 2nd edition offers hope to all people, regardless of faith, who may also wish to leave it’s grasp. Film clips include action inside Gaza Strip and a moving interview with Shareen, a young Palestinian woman living in Gaza. Check out our website: whtt.org for the latest news on Christian Zionism and the "Angry" evangelicals. Or listen to our free podcasts at whtt.podbean.com.

Film Accuses All Muslims of Plotting to Overthrow US. - Last year, the New York Police Dept. was caught in an ugly scandal when the Village Voice reported it showed a 72-minute film titled The Third Jihad to police as a “terrorist training” video. Officials at the time downplayed the number of officers who saw it, and claimed it was quickly pulled when it was deemed “inappropriate.” The video condemns Muslims in general and moderate American Muslims in particular, claiming that all non-violent Muslims are part of a secret conspiracy to overthrow the US government and impose Sharia law in its place.

AWIP: In Police Training, a Dark Film on U.S. Muslims

Ominous music plays as images appear on the screen: Muslim terrorists shoot Christians in the head, car bombs explode, executed children lie covered by sheets and a doctored photograph shows an Islamic flag flying over the White House.

“This is the true agenda of much of Islam in America,” a narrator intones. “A strategy to infiltrate and dominate America...This is the war you don’t know about.”

This is the feature-length film titled “The Third Jihad,” paid for by a nonprofit group, which was shown to more than a thousand officers as part of training in the New York Police Department. In January 2011, when news broke that the department had used the film in training, a top police official denied it, then said it had been mistakenly screened “a couple of times” for a few officers. A year later, police documents obtained under the state’s Freedom of Information Law reveal a different reality: “The Third Jihad,” which includes an interview with Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, was shown, according to internal police reports, “on a continuous loop” for between three months and one year of training. During that time, at least 1,489 police officers, from lieutenants to detectives to patrol officers, saw the film.

The simmering conflict between religious and secular Israelis threatened to overspill after Tanya Rosenblit stayed in her seat on a bus when Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men demanded that she move to the back. - Tanya Rosenblit is a 28 year old TV producer, the daughter of Russian immigrants who lives in the coastal town of Ashdod. Last month, she caught a bus to Jerusalem where she had a medical appointment. She made an effort to dress modestly, as her doctor was in an ultra-Orthodox area of the city. The ultra-Orthodox are a small group of extremely religious and theologically rigid Jews. They wear black, the men have long side curls, and every aspect of their lives is governed by the Old Testament. Rosenblit was the first passenger to board. She sat in the front of the bus so the driver could tell her when she reached her stop. Ultra-Orthodox men who boarded after her were uncomfortable when they saw her. Then one insisted he would not travel unless she moved to the back of the bus. "He started shouting, 'This is our bus they're not welcome here, if they want to come on, they have to respect us,'" said Tanya Rosenblit. "He said, 'Jewish men don't sit behind women!' And that was the statement that made me stay put."

Since 2010 a group of self-confessed pirates have tried to get their beliefs recognized as an official religion in Sweden. After their request was denied several times, the Church of Kopimism – which holds CTRL+C and CTRL+V as sacred symbols – is now approved by the authorities as an official religion. The Church hopes that its official status will remove the legal stigma that surrounds file-sharing.

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups in Israel would like to see gender separation in public, and some have stooped to harassing women to get their way. With thousands of Israelis protesting against the growing influence of the super-religious, the rift in Israeli society is getting deeper.

An eight-year-old girl who said she was terrified to walk to school after being spat on by Jewish extremists has highlighted growing anger at the treatment of women in Israel. - Blonde-haired Naama Margolese told the country's Channel Two television she was scared passers-by might hurt her during her journey to her moderate Orthodox school in Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem. It was a realisation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fears over the actions of ultra-Orthodox groups, as the girl spoke out on a damning report broadcast on Friday. The blonde, blue-eyed child told Israel's most popular weekend news show that she was spat on and verbally abused by ultra-Orthodox men who thought she was immodestly dressed. They wanted her 'to dress like a Haredi', she explained - the Hebrew term for strict, black-coated Jews who are in 'awe' of God. 'I'm afraid I might get hurt or something,' she added.

Global Post: Ultra-Orthodox men rise up in Israel over women's rights

As the confidential correspondence of popes, princes and potentates, the Vatican Secret Archives have been jealously guarded for centuries.

But now 100 of the most historically significant documents held by the Vatican's Secret Archives are to go on public display in Rome – the first and probably last time that they will leave the buttressed stone walls of the tiny city state. The priceless documents span more than a millennium, from the 8th century to modern times, and feature a cast of historical characters ranging from the Knights Templar to Galileo, Martin Luther and Henry VIII.

They are normally kept in air-conditioned, climate-controlled rooms in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, which boasts more than 50 miles of shelves, as well as in a high-security underground bunker.

Archivists have gathered them together for an unprecedented exhibition, to be held in Rome's Capitoline Museums, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Secret Archives in their present form. "It's an exceptional event," Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican's spokesman, told The Daily Telegraph. "It's the first time that an exhibition of such significance has been organised. Never have so many documents from the Secret Archive been allowed to leave the Vatican."

An Islamist sect known as Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for an attack on a Catholic church during Christmas Mass in Nigeria that has killed up to 35 people. The group has claimed other weekend attacks as well. - A bomb explosion during Christmas Mass at the St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, Nigeria left as many as 35 people dead on Sunday. Madalla is near the Nigerian capital Abuja. Angry youths gathered around the blast site after the attack as police tried to cordon off the area. The youths lit fires and threatened to burn down a police station before they were dispersed by officers firing rounds into the air. The attack was claimed by an Islamist sect known as Boko Haram, which also took responsibility for another bombing near a church on Sunday in the city of Jos.

Israeli Rabbi who teaches that “the sole purpose of non-Jews is to serve Jews” plans to tap support of Sephardic Jews in US. - In its 30 years of existence, Shas has evolved from a marginal ethnic political group to Israel’s fourth largest party in the Knesset and is today the unchallenged kingmaker of Israeli politics. Its leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yossef, as quoted in Israel’s Jerusalem Post, teaches:

The sole purpose of non-Jews is to serve Jews, according to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the head of Shas’s Council of Torah Sages and a senior Sephardi adjudicator. “Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world – only to serve the People of Israel,” he said in his weekly Saturday night sermon on the laws regarding the actions non-Jews are permitted to perform on Shabbat.

Now, Shas — or in its full name, the Sephardic Torah Guardians Movement — is attempting to establish a beachhead among American Sephardic Jews and, it hopes, replicate its success in Israel. On December 4, the group launched its United States affiliate, American Friends of Shas, based in Brooklyn.

Louis Aliot, partner of rightist presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, is in Israel to persuade those eligible to vote in the French presidential election to give their vote this spring. - The National Front has its roots in French fascism and it has always had a racist and anti-Semitic image, but one of its representatives is in Israel to recruit supporters.

"They invited me so they could hear our worldview and Marine Le Pen's platform, particularly in the face of the Arab Spring," Aliot said. The group comprised "Frenchmen who live in Israel, many of them of Algerian origin." What did he think of them?, we asked. "What was interesting was that it's not important what position you have on Israeli politics, you will always have strong ties to the land. We share that position," he said. "Just as the Jews are defending their right to Israel, we in France are fighting to defend our identity and our land. "We don't always see eye-to-eye on Israel's foreign policy but we have the same position on the dangers posed by radical Islam, which exists in Europe and also threatens Israel, which we call 'the western island,'" Aliot said.

Jewish extremists set fire to a mosque in the West Bank on Thursday and defaced it with Hebrew graffiti a day after a similar arson attack on a Jerusalem mosque. Suspicion fell on Jewish extremists widely assumed to be behind stepped-up violence against Palestinians and the Israeli military. The governor of the Palestinian city of Ramallah, Laila Ghanam, said arsonists doused the mosque in the village of Burqa with gasoline, then set it on fire. - The Hebrew words for “war” and “Mitzpe Yitzhar” were painted in red on a wall, and the Israeli military said carpets and chairs were burned. Mitzpe Yitzhar is an unauthorized Jewish settlement outpost in the West Bank where Israeli security forces demolished two structures early Thursday. On Wednesday, suspected extremists torched an unused mosque in Jerusalem.

Pierre Klochendler: Fighting Settlers’ Impunity and Immunity

French court fines first women for full-face veils ... court slapped fines on women for wearing the full-face covering Islamic niqab veil for the first time Thursday, case could have legal implications across Europe. - Police have issued several on-the-spot fines since the ban came into effect in April but the hearing saw the first two court-issued fines, and the pair vowed to appeal their case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights. France is not the only country to try to ban the Muslim full-face veil — Belgium and some Italian cities have similar laws while other countries are planning to follow suit — so a European ruling could have broad effect. The court in the northern cheese-making town of Meaux ordered Hind Ahmas, 32, to pay a 120-euro (about US$160) fine, while Najate Nait Ali, 36, was fined 80 euros. It did not order them to take a citizenship course, as the prosecutor had requested. The two veiled women arrived too late to attend the court hearing, but addressed journalists in front of the building.

“We’ve been sentenced under a law that violates European law. For us, it’s not about the size of the fine, but the principle. We can’t allow women to be convicted for freely following their religious beliefs,” Ahmas said.

Hardline Salafis, forecast to become powerbrokers in Egypt's first post-uprising parliament, are seeking to allay fears in the minority Christian community of an Islamist-dominated assembly. - The Salafis, who mostly eschewed politics during Mubarak's rule, are predicted to win second place after the more moderate Islamist Muslim Brotherhood in the first round of parliamentary elections. The surprise showing by the fundamentalists comes at a time of heightened sectarian tensions followers of Salafi Islam have been blamed for stoking. Salafis, who advocate a strict interpretation of Islamic law, were blamed for bloody clashes around a Cairo church in May that killed 15 people, and attacks on the shrines of Sufis, an esoteric brand of Islam. A spokesman for the leading Salafi Al-Nur party told AFP Thursday that neither Christians nor liberal Muslims have anything to fear from his group, which he says will focus on improving all Egyptians' lives.

The spiritual leader of the Catholic world is facing a German lawsuit for failing to wear a seatbelt during his visit to the country in September. - Freiburg municipality confirmed the lawsuit on Nov. 26. A German citizen from the city of Dortmund filed a complaint against Pope Benedict XVI, saying the head of the Catholic church did not put on his seatbelt while strolling around the city of Freiburg in his "Popemobile" during his visit on Sept. 24-25. The plaintiff, whose name was not disclosed, named Baden-Württemberg Minister-President Winfried Kretxchmann and Archbishop Rober Zolltisch as witnesses in the case and asked that they provide testimonies.

[Image: REUTERS TV] The Ganden Jangchup Choeling Nunnery stands hidden from view on an isolated mountain-top in southwestern China, accessible only by a twisting, rocky road. It was here, in a mud-brick hut, that Palden Choetso lived.

The 35-year-old Tibetan Buddhist nun burned herself to death on a public street an hour's drive away earlier this month, the latest in a string of self-immolations to protest against Chinese religious controls over Tibet.

Palden was a quiet woman who had been with the nunnery in the Ganzi prefecture in Sichuan province for more than a decade, her friends said. A bright nun who studied Tibetan Buddhism, she was well-versed in reciting spiritual texts and was an ardent follower of the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama.

No one suspected, however, that Palden would sacrifice herself, writhing in flames on a dusty road lined with shops in downtown Daofu, or Tawu in Tibetan. "I want the Dalai Lama to return to China, I want freedom for Tibet!" she is said to have shouted as fire engulfed her body.

"As for Gentiles with whom we are not at war ... their death must not be caused, but it is forbidden to save them if they are at the point of death; if, for example, one of them is seen falling into the sea, he should not be rescued, for it is written: 'neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy fellow' -- but [a Gentile] is not thy fellow."

Haaretz: Right-wing group mapping Jerusalem businesses that employ Arabs

The desperate conditions Tibetans face under Beijing's rigid controls are behind the spate of self-immolations in south-west China, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has said.

At least 11 Tibetans have set themselves ablaze this year in a heavily Tibetan part of China's Sichuan province that has become a focus of defiance against Beijing rule. "Including many Chinese from mainland China who visit Tibet, they all have the impression things are terrible ... Some kind of culture genocide is taking place," the Dalai Lama told a news conference in Tokyo on Monday.

Chinese officials have conducted a hardline policy against Tibet in the past 10 to 15 years, he added. "That's why, you see, these sorts of sad incidents happen, due to the desperateness of the situation," he said.

In the latest incident, a Tibetan nun burned herself to death last week, while another Tibetan suffered burns to his legs on Friday when he set himself ablaze outside the Chinese embassy in India.

BEIJING, Nov 3 (Reuters) - A Tibetan nun burnt herself to death on Thursday in southwest China, Xinhua news agency said, the eleventh ethnic Tibetan this year known to have set themselves on fire in a region that has become the centre of defiance against strict Chinese control. - Qiu Xiang, 35, set herself on fire at a road crossing in Dawu county of Ganzi, called Kandze by Tibetans, in Sichuan province, the state news agency said, citing the local government. The nun was from the county's Tongfoshan village, Xinhua said. The report said it was unclear why she killed herself and the local government had launched an investigation. Last week, a Tibetan Buddhist monk doused himself in fuel and set himself ablaze in Ganzi in Sichuan.

Up to 300,000 Spanish babies were stolen from their parents and sold for adoption over a period of five decades, a new investigation reveals. - The children were trafficked by a secret network of doctors, nurses, priests and nuns in a widespread practice that began during General Franco’s dictatorship and continued until the early Nineties. Hundreds of families who had babies taken from Spanish hospitals are now battling for an official government investigation into the scandal. Several mothers say they were told their first-born children had died during or soon after they gave birth. But the women, often young and unmarried, were told they could not see the body of the infant or attend their burial. In reality, the babies were sold to childless couples whose devout beliefs and financial security meant that they were seen as more appropriate parents. Experts believe the cases may account for up to 15 per cent of the total adoptions that took place in Spain between 1960 and 1989.

Selon Zengtena, le moudjahid Mouatassem Kadhafi a dit aux rebelles lorsqu'il était capturé : «Je ne parle pas avec des adolescents". Les rebelles ont demandé au fils du guide, Moatassem Kadhafi de dire : «Dis: Allah est grand". Le moudjahid Moatassem lui répond : «Donnez-moi une arme et je vais dire Dieu est grand, parce que Dieu est grand se dit dans le plus grandes champs de bataille". La télévision syrienne El Rai a confirmé que le moudjahid Moatassem Kadhafi été drogué par un gaz, ils l'ont capturé et ensuite il s'est réveillé devant les assassins rebelles. Il était courageux comme son père.

Algeria-ISP: Les rebelles ont découpés les mains et les pieds du martyr Moatassem Kadhafi et ils les ont brulés
Algeria-ISP: A Misrata, ils veulent immerger le corps du guide Kadhafi en mer

Islamophobic blogs like Gates of Vienna popular with white supremacists have Israeli American fans who have adopted a hard line pro Israel agenda at odds with US foreign policy. It appears that 'Fjordman' is back at Gates of Vienna. He was cited as a tipster alongside Caroline Glick, the senior editor at The Jerusalem Post, recently.

A teenage former monk has set himself on fire in Tibet, the eighth person to do so this year in protest at the Chinese government’s crackdown on dissent in the region that has included brutal security raids, arbitrary detentions of monks and police being stationed in monasteries. - Reuters reports that the 19-year-old former monk at the Kirti monastery in Aba prefecture in China’s Sichuan Province ‘set himself on fire on Saturday, according to Zorgyi, an India-based exiled Tibetan activist, and the London-based Free Tibet group.’ ‘The police extinguished the flames and beat the man, the researcher said, adding that he did not die in the course of his protest. His whereabouts are unknown,’ Reuters added. The latest incident follows a report earlier this week by Human Rights Watch warning that China’s dramatic ramping up of security in the region may actually be exacerbating unrest there. According to the group, the Chinese government has imposed ‘drastic restrictions’ on Tibetan monasteries following widespread protests in 2008. ‘These measures include brutal security raids, arbitrary detentions of monks, increased surveillance within monasteries, and a permanent police presence inside monasteries to monitor religious activities.’ ‘Security measures designed to curtail the right to free expression, association, and religious belief in Tibetan monasteries are not legitimate,’ said Human Rights Watch China Director Sophie Richardson. ‘Even worse, those measures are exacerbating the tensions. Instead, the government should address the region's underlying grievances.’

The Telegraph: Tibetan monk sets himself on fire in protest of Chinese rule in Tibet

The army and police committed a horrible massacre against peaceful protesters today in Maspero, Cairo. Army vehicles ran over protesters. Live ammunition was used. Extensive rounds of tear gas were fired, and showers of beatings from the military police and the central security forces. At least 19 people have been killed, and more than 150 injured. The toll keeps increasing. The Army also stormed Al-Hurra TV station and 25 January TV stations, and took them off air. The Egyptian state run TV is inciting the public against the "Coptic protesters" and even called on the citizens to take to the streets to "protect the army"!! SCAF is trying to instigate a sectarian civil war. The protesters are not only Copts. There are Muslims present in the protests too and are talking active part in resisting the police and the army. There are ongoing battles as I’m writing now. The unifying chants in downtown Cairo is against the army and field marshal Tantawi. Protesters are chanting: "Muslims and Christians… One hand!" and "Death to the Field Marshal."

Jadaliyya: Interview with Paul Sedra on Copts in Egypt and Recent Attacks on Protesters - Video

A demonstration by Christians angry about a recent attack on a church touched off a night of violent protests here against the military council now ruling Egypt, leaving 24 people dead and more than 200 wounded in the worst spasm of violence since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in February. - The sectarian protest appeared to catch fire because it was aimed squarely at the military council that has ruled Egypt since the revolution, at a moment when the military’s latest delay in turning over power has led to a spike in public distrust of its authority. When the clashes broke out, some Muslims ran into the streets to help defend the Christians against the police, while others said they had come out to help the army quell the protests in the name of stability, turning what started as a march about a church into a chaotic battle over military rule and Egypt’s future.

Al Arabiya News: At least 24 dead in clashes between Copts and Egyptian security forces

BERLIN (AP) — When Rabbi Yitshak Ehrenberg moved to Berlin some 15 years ago, he found it almost impossible to keep a kosher lifestyle. - There were barely any grocery stores offering food prepared in accordance to Jewish dietary law, no hotels catering to the needs of devout customers on Shabat and no kosher catering services capable of hosting big community celebrations. When Ehrenberg was invited to a Bar Mitzvah, the Jewish coming of age ceremony, he would often bring his own food just to make sure he wasn't eating any non-kosher dishes. But today kosher food is more and more widely available — even in non-Jewish stores — in another sign that Berlin's Jewish community is thriving some 70 years after it was obliterated by the Nazis during the Holocaust. "Now everyone can live a glatt kosher life in Berlin," the Orthodox rabbi said proudly. "And it is affordable too."

Praying in the streets of Paris is against the law starting Friday, after the interior minister warned that police will use force if Muslims, and those of any other faith, disobey the new rule to keep the French capital's public spaces secular. - Claude Guéant said that ban could later be extended to the rest of France, in particular to the Mediterranean cities of Nice and Marseilles, where "the problem persists". He promised the new legislation would be followed to the letter as it "hurts the sensitivities of many of our fellow citizens". "My vigilance will be unflinching for the law to be applied. Praying in the street is not dignified for religious practice and violates "the [so-called] principles of secularism," the minister told Le Figaro newspaper.

Eli Clifton, National Security Reporter for ThinkProgress.org, discusses his co-authored report “Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America;” naming the names of the organizations, bankrollers and bloggers that drive the fear and loathing of Muslims; why frenzies of bigotry and intolerance tend to disappear almost overnight, once the spell wears off; and a few positive signs, like Herman Cain and Rick Perry eschewing anti-Islamic rhetoric in their presidential primary campaigns. Eli Clifton is a National Security Reporter for ThinkProgress.org. Eli holds a bachelor’s degree from Bates College and a master’s degree in international political economy from the London School of Economics. He previously reported on U.S. foreign policy for Inter Press Service, where he served as deputy Washington bureau chief. His work has appeared on PBS/Frontline’s Tehran bureau, The South China Morning Post, Right Web, Asia Times, LobeLog.com, and ForeignPolicy.com. MP3 here. (32:06)

A 9/11 coloring book has emerged on the brink of the tenth anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center. It is entitled “We Shall Never Forget 9/11: The Kids’ Book of Freedom,” and was published by Missouri-based Really Big Coloring Books. The color book begins with Osama bin Laden plotting to attack the United States and ends with bin Laden being shot by a Navy SEAL. A spokesperson for the publisher said that seeing bin Laden get shot “provides closure” for children. Dawud Walid, Michigan representative for the Council on American Islamic Relations, called the book disgusting because it portrays all Muslims as terrorists.

Nahida Izzat: Another "Religion" in the Making

Kenny's Sideshow: The truth is the greatest enemy of the State - The 10th anniversary of 9/11 is turning out to be both absurd and surreal. Propaganda for profit is even targeting the little kids with a coloring book so full of crap that it would make Fox News blush. According to the NY Times, the White House has issued detailed guidelines/talking points to government officials on how to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks but with slightly different versions for domestic or foreign consumption. Very Orwellian.

CNN’s Gary Tuchman reported Monday on a fundamentalist Christian couple who killed their 7-year-old adopted daughter while practicing a violent form of discipline. They reportedly beat their nine children regularly because they thought God wanted them to. Both parents were jailed after pleading guilty to the crime and the surviving children are now in foster homes.

A Tibetan Buddhist monk burned himself to death on Monday in southwest China calling for the return of the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader condemned by Beijing as a separatist, a group campaigning for Tibetan self-rule said. - The monk's self-immolation could spark fresh tensions in heavily ethnic Tibetan parts of Sichuan, which neighbours the official Tibet region, following protests in March when a Tibetan monk there also burned himself to death. The London-based Free Tibet organisation said the latest immolation-protest was carried out by a 29-year-old monk, Tsewang Norbu, who was from a monastery in Tawu, about 150 km (93 miles) from where the last immolation happened.

A row has broken out in southern India over whether schoolchildren should be obliged to learn a Hindu religious text in the classroom, with the state's education minister further fanning the flames by saying those who objected to the plan should leave India. - In a dispute that has raised questions about secularism in a country where religion is a part of everyday life for hundreds of millions of people, opposition parties and minority groups have said children should not be forced to study the Bhagavad Gita. They say the move infringes their constitutional rights and could trigger disharmony between religious communities.

BACHMANN: We went from middle class to overnight below poverty. And my mother had to leave the home and get a job…and I had to go out and get babysitting jobs…to help out. … We did not go on dependency programs. And I don’t begrudge anyone who does when I say that, but we didn’t do that. We had our faith in God, we depended on our neighbors, we depended on ourselves, and we just did without. We made do, we did without. [...] And we were just grateful for what we had. We knew that one day things would be better than they were. And God was faithful, and they were better.

A law passed this morning allows Australian police officers to remove the burqa (or any head coverings) or face 12 months in prison. - POLICE will be given powers to force people to remove facial coverings if they are suspected of committing a crime, the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, has said. NSW Muslim organisations have largely welcomed the new laws, but civil libertarians have criticised them for giving unnecessary powers to police. Mr O'Farrell announced late yesterday that cabinet had approved laws allowing police to direct people to remove coverings, including veils and motorcycle helmets, if they had reasonable grounds for suspecting breaches of security may occur, or breaches of the law had occurred.

The Right to Criticize Islam - A Dutch court on Thursday acquitted controversial right-wing populist politician Geert Wilders on all charges relating to anti-Islamic statements he made in his films and on the Internet. The court said Wilders' comments had been part of a legitimate public debate. - After nearly six months, a trial against Dutch firebrand Geert Wilders ended Thursday in Amsterdam. A court acquitted the right-wing populist politician on charges of incitement, racial hatred and discrimination against Muslims. In his verdict, leading judge Marcel van Oosten said that, while Wilders' statements were indeed offensive to Muslims, they were also part of the legitimate political debate. Wilders' claim that Islam is a violent religion and his demands for an immigration ban for Muslims had to be viewed in the context of the larger societal debate about immigration policies, the judge argued. He said the statements could not be directly blamed for increasing levels of discrimination against Dutch Muslims.

PressTV: Dutch court acquits anti-Islam politician

Rabbinical court rules spirit of secular lawyer who insulted judges 20 years ago transferred into wandering dog's body. - A Jerusalem rabbinical court recently sentenced a wandering dog to death by stoning. The cruel sentence stemmed from the suspicion that the spirit of a famous secular lawyer, who insulted the court's judges 20 years ago, had been transferred into the dog's body. Several weeks ago, according to the Behadrei Hadarim website, a large dog entered the Monetary Affairs Court near the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim. The dog scared the court's visitors and, to their surprise, refused to leave even after they attempted to drive him away. One of the judges suddenly recalled that about 20 years ago, a famous secular lawyer who insulted the court was cursed by the panel of judges, who wished that his spirit would move on to the body of a dog (considered an impure animal by Halacha). The lawyer passed away several years ago. Still offended, one of the judges sentenced the poor animal to death by stoning, recruiting the neighborhood's children to carry out the order. Luckily, the dog managed to escape. The head of the court, Rabbi Avraham Dov Levin, denied that the judges had called for the dog's stoning. But one of the court's managers confirmed the report to Yedioth Ahronoth. "It was ordered by the rabbis because of the grief he had caused the court," he said. "They didn't issue an official ruling, but ordered the children outside to throw stones at him in order to drive him away. They didn't think of it as cruelty to animals, but as an appropriate way to 'get back at' the spirit which entered the poor dog."

More than 300 Tibetan monks have disappeared after being rounded up by Chinese security forces at a monastery for "re-education."

China on Thursday defended its treatment of Tibetan monks it says are undergoing "re-education", responding to a U.N. inquiry about what exiled Tibetans have called the forced disappearance of hundreds of monks. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the monks had not been detained illegally, and urged U.N. human rights investigators to act without prejudice.

Tibetan exiles elected a Harvard law scholar as their political leader, who is likely to bring in a more radical government-in-exile to challenge China after the Dalai Lama moved to relinquish his political role.

The new prime minister, the 42-year old Lobsang Sangay, polled 27,051 votes, 55 percent of the total electorate, to beat two other secular candidates. "The Election Commission of the Central Tibetan Administration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama has declared Dr Lobsang Sangay as the third kalon tripa," Chief Election Commissioner Jampal Thosang told a news conference, using the Tibetan title for the prime minister. The handover of power will give the prime minister's role greater clout as the region seeks autonomy from China and could stave off a possible crisis of leadership in the event of the Dalai Lama's death.

Over half of Egypt wants to end 30-year peace treaty with Israel - "only 36 percent of Egyptians are in favor of maintaining the treaty, compared with 54 percent who would like to see it scrapped" A poll conducted by a U.S.-based center has shown that a majority of Egyptians believe laws in their country should follow the teachings of Islam's holy book, the Quran. The survey reflects a shift toward religious conservatism. It also shows Egyptians are open to the inclusion of religious parties in a future government, although only 31 percent of them sympathize with Muslim fundamentalists.

The poll's results, released Monday, come ahead of September balloting — the first parliamentary elections since President Hosni Mubarak's ouster in February. Islamic parties are expected to make a significant showing. The poll, based on interviews with 1,000 Egyptians, was conducted by the Pew Research Center between March 24 and April 7. Its margin of error was plus or minus 4 percent.

LA Times: Egypt optimistic about its future, but not warm toward U.S.
NYT: Poll Finds Egyptians Full of Hope About the Future

BEIJING — Up to 30 members of a Chinese evangelical church were arrested on Sunday for trying to hold an Easter service in defiance of the officially atheist government, a member of the clergy said. A large number of police began to gather early Sunday in the Zhongguancun area of Beijing where the Shouwang Church had said it would hold an outdoor service to mark the holiest day of the Christian calendar.

"Between 20 and 30 followers were taken away by police," senior pastor Jin Tianming told AFP by telephone from his home, where he is under house arrest. He said there were several police officers posted outside the building. He added that the members of the congregation who were arrested had been taken to different police stations and that none had so far been released.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Israeli policemen beat up a group of Palestinian Christians while on their way to visit the Church of Holy Sepulcher in occupied Jerusalem on the occasion of "Holy Saturday".

Palestinian sources said that the police manning a barricade prevented the young men from proceeding to the holy site while allowing dozens of foreign tourists to cross in the company of Israeli tourist guides, which led to clashes. A Christian activist accused Israel of religious harassment against all non-Israelis.

For its part, the Sawasiya center for human rights charged that Israel was planning to block entry of non-Israelis to occupied Jerusalem. It said that the Israeli schemes to build more housing units in the holy city pointed to such a plot, adding that they target wiping out Jerusalem's Arab and Islamic landmarks and expelling non-Israelis out of it. The center described the Israeli schemes as an infringement on the freedom of worship and a blatant violation of international laws that prohibit introducing any changes to an occupied territory or forcing its inhabitants out of their land.

One of India's most revered spiritual leaders, Sri Satya Sai Baba, has died in hospital. Doctors say the 84-year-old guru, who is thought to have millions of followers around the world, died following a cardiac arrest. He had been admitted to hospital in his hometown of Puttaparthi last month, suffering from respiratory problems and kidney failure.

Many of his supporters consider him a living god and credit him with mystical powers including the ability to conjure objects out of thin air. But his career had also been dogged by controversy. He had been accused of faking some of the so-called miracles attributed to him. And some former followers have levelled accusations of sexual abuse against him and other members of his ashram - allegations that he has denied.

The Hindu: Sai Baba’s influence had no barriers

So much for Liberté, égalité, fraternité. French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative government has just exposed the ugly face of official intolerance by enforcing a pathetic but draconian law that prohibits women from wearing full-face veils in public. Those who defy the law risk arrest, public humiliation, a $200 fine and being frogmarched into re-education classes. Whatever one thinks of such garb as the niqab or burqa, this sets a dark precedent for intolerance toward Europe’s estimated 44 million Muslims. Already, women have been detained under the new law, outside Sarkozy’s Elysée Palace and Notre Dame Cathedral. Ironically, women are free to sunbathe topless at Cannes, but may no longer cover their faces there.

The recent move by France to impose a ban on burqa, a cover-all headdress some Muslim women choose to wear, has come in contrast with the country's tolerance of public nudity. The ban came into force on Monday and was followed by immediate arrest of nearly 60 women that defied the ban by walking outside the famed Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, reported a Press TV correspondent from the French capital. A recently-surfaced video, meanwhile, featured a naked male running around the country's streets while trying to cut a figure as a pole vaulter. Kenza Drider, a young Muslim that left the southern city of Avignon for Paris to participate in a television program on the day the ban became law, was among the detainees.

"This law infringes my European rights; I cannot but defend them, that is to say my freedom to come and go and my religious freedom," she said. "This law breaches these rights," said the mother of four.

There are fewer than 2,000 women wearing a full-face veil in France, which is home to five million Muslims -- the largest Muslim community in the EU.

PARIS – Police on Saturday arrested 61 people — including 19 women — for attempting to hold an outlawed Paris protest against France's pending ban on face-covering Islamic veils, a top police official said. Fifty-nine people were detained while trying to demonstrate at Place de la Nation in eastern Paris, as were two others while traveling there from Britain and Belgium, said Nicolas Lerner, chief of staff for the Paris police chief. The arrests come amid in a rising, if small, groundswell of controversy over Monday's start of an official ban of garments that hide the face, which includes Muslim veils such as the slit-eyed niqab and the full face-covering burqa. Women who disobey the law risk a fine, special classes and a police record. The demonstrators rallied in defiance of a ban of the protest ordered Friday by Paris police on the ground that a Muslim group's call for the rally was "clearly an incitement to violence and racial hatred," said Lerner.

ZAMOSC, Poland — Jewish leaders and foreign dignitaries have gathered to celebrate the reopening of an important Renaissance synagogue in Poland.

The synagogue is a jewel of Renaissance architecture located in the eastern Polish town of Zamosc. It is considered one of the most important surviving synagogues in a country that was home to Europe’s largest Jewish community before the Holocaust.

A ceremony Tuesday was attended by several ambassadors to Poland, including those from the United States, Germany, Israel and Norway. Norway funded most of the restoration work.

Amid the festivities, Poland’s chief rabbi affixed a mezuzah at the door. A mezuzah is a decorative box containing a religious scroll attached to the doors of Jewish homes and synagogues.

A series of bloody incidents across Afghanistan demonstrates the weakness and political crisis of the US occupation regime, and refutes the claims by the Obama administration that its escalation of the war against the Taliban and other insurgent forces has produced significant military gains. Several of the incidents were triggered by the provocative actions of a small Christian fundamentalist group in Florida, which staged a public burning of the Koran last month and posted video of the event on the Internet, including Arabic-language subtitles in an effort to inflame Muslim opinion around the world. The video has been widely circulated in Afghanistan, and US-backed President Hamid Karzai made a public denunciation of the desecration of the Islamic holy book in a speech Thursday, in which he called for the arrest of the Florida preacher, Terry Jones, who staged the Koran-burning.

They could be the earliest Christian writing in existence, surviving almost 2,000 years in a Jordanian cave. They could, just possibly, change our understanding of how Jesus was crucified and resurrected, and how Christianity was born.

A group of 70 or so "books", each with between five and 15 lead leaves bound by lead rings, was apparently discovered in a remote arid valley in northern Jordan somewhere between 2005 and 2007. A flash flood had exposed two niches inside the cave, one of them marked with a menorah or candlestick, the ancient Jewish religious symbol.

A Jordanian Bedouin opened these plugs, and what he found inside might constitute extremely rare relics of early Christianity. That is certainly the view of the Jordanian government, which claims they were smuggled into Israel by another Bedouin. The Israeli Bedouin who currently holds the books has denied smuggling them out of Jordan, and claims they have been in his family for 100 years. Jordan says it will "exert all efforts at every level" to get the relics repatriated.

The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation. The team's mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one. The result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries. The team took census data stretching back as far as a century from countries in which the census queried religious affiliation: Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland.

Four Things You Need to Know About Rep. Peter King’s Anti-Muslim Witch Hunt

1) The Threat of Homegrown Islamic Terrorism Has Been Greatly Exaggerated. According to the FBI, Muslim-Americans were responsible for just 6% of all domestic terrorist attacks from 1980 to 2005. Latinos were responsible for 42% of terrorist attacks, left-wing extremists for 24%, and Jewish extremists for 7%. Yes, that’s right, Latinos and Jews have committed more domestic terrorist attacks since 1980 than Muslims (LoonWatch).

Since 9/11, America has drastically increased its terrorism against Muslims living overseas, thus fueling an increase in anti-American Islamic terrorism. Despite this, the number of terrorist attacks committed by Muslim-Americans is still relatively low. Last year, for instance, 10 Muslim-Americans were suspected of planning domestic terrorist attacks; of them, just one, Faisal Shahzad (aka the Times Square Bomber) actually carried out his plot, which, we all know, failed. Let me repeat that: last year, one Muslim-American attempted an act of terrorism on US soil. One. One attempt, zero deaths (Duke).

By contrast, 20 non-Muslim-Americans were suspected of planning domestic terrorist attacks last year, including right-wing suicide terrorist Joseph Stack, who flew a small plane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas, killing himself and an innocent bystander, a father and grandfather named Vernon Hunter. Richard Cohen points out that, “when measured against ordinary violent crime,” the threat of Muslim-American terrorism “is slight” and that “the threat from non-Muslims is much greater” (Washington Post). [Source]