Recently in Dogma Category

Parts of Western Europe continue to punish freedom of speech and tread down the path of intellectual Stalinism

By The Associated Press

Spanish police on Thursday arrested a right-wing writer and publisher wanted in his home country of Austria for repeatedly denying the existence of the Jewish Holocaust and the use of gas chambers, officials said.

Gerd Honsik was arrested in the southern city of Malaga, a police spokeswoman said. No more details on his arrest were immediately available.

Honsik had fled to Spain after being convicted in 1992 in Austria of neo-Nazi activities and sentenced to one year in prison for writings that defended Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. ... Full story

Editor's note: Rather than religion by diktat or rmonopoly, Prout supports freedom of spiritual practice and firmly opposes the Malaysian Federal Court's decision to refuse Malay Muslims this freedom. This decision is a significant step backward for the country.

"The judgment does not end the Muslim, non-Muslim divide but has instead widened it by introducing Islamic principles into secular, constitutional matters," opposition leader Lim Kit Siang in an IPS interview.

by Baradan Kuppusamy

KUALA LUMPUR (IPS) - The stunning decision by Malaysia's highest secular court this week that freedom of worship, a constitutional guarantee, does not apply to Malay Muslims is a major blow to freedom and constitutional democracy, lawyers and human rights activists say.

The Federal Court also reaffirmed that the civil court had no jurisdiction over any Islamic matters, even when non-Muslims are involved.

Wednesday's verdict does not end the Muslim, non-Muslim divide, but may cause it to worsen as the tussle for primacy between inherited secular guarantees and a resurgent Islam demanding pre-eminence for Shariah laws continues, said observers.

Non-Muslim leaders -- both political and religious -- reacted with shock and disbelief after the apex court ruled in a majority 2-1 decision that a Muslim cannot rely on Article 11 that guarantees freedom of worship to leave Islam but must go to a Shariah court to get a certificate to turn apostate.

Full story: Malaysia: No Freedom of Worship for Muslims Says Court

Like in the Middle Ages, heresies are still being punished in Italy By MARTA FALCONI, Associated Press Writer ROME - An Italian university closed one of its campuses for the day Friday [18-5-2007, eds.] to prevent a planned lecture by a retired French professor who denies gas chambers were used in Nazi concentration camps. Robert Faurisson, who has been convicted five times in France for denying crimes against humanity, had been expected to speak at a local hotel instead but that conference too was later canceled after scuffles with protesters. Faurisson had been invited to lecture at the University of Teramo, in central Italy, by Claudio Moffa, a professor of Asian and African history and director of a master's program in Middle East studies. Full story: Italian university bars Holocaust denier

By Garda Ghista, January 2007

Introduction

Theocracy is a widely used word referring to a government comprised of priests / clergy who claim to represent God. These priests have full executive, legislative and judicial power over the people of that community or nation. Theocrats are those who advocate for theocratic governments. Theodemocracy is a lesser known and lesser used word which refers to a democracy under religious rule. The greatest threat today in the world is not terrorism, but rather theodemocracy due to its assault on the fundamental rights and freedoms of human beings.

Full Article : Theodemocracy – the Emerging Global Paradigm

No Matter What Ahmadinejad Does He'll be Portrayed as the New Hitler By STEPHEN GOWANS

Was the two-day conference on the Holocaust held earlier this month by the Iranian government intended to cast "doubt on the Nazi Holocaust during the Second World War," (1) or was it Iran's rejoinder to the Jyllands-Posten affair, an attempt "to embarrass the West and say, 'Look, we are practicing what you preach. We are allowing freedom of discussion of just about any issue, including the Holocaust' "? (2)

It's pretty clear how Western journalists summed up the event. The point of the conference was to assemble the world's most notorious Holocaust-deniers and Jew haters, among them KKK kook David Duke, to lend support to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's claims that the Holocaust is a myth and to cheer on the Iranian president as he prepares to perpetrate a genocide against the Jews and 'wipe out' Israel.

The problem is, matters aren't quite as black and white as all that. Not even close.

Let's start with the claim that Ahmadinejad "has referred to the Holocaust as a 'myth'" (3), a claim made by almost every major media outlet in North America.

Ahmadinejad may have said the Holocaust is a myth, but if he has, it has escaped my attention. Of course, I don't follow him around with a tape-recorder and babel fish in my ear, so maybe I missed it. Still, the file of Ahmadinejad quotes I have before me, which goes back two years, hasn't a single quote that backs up the near media consensus that Ahmadinejad has "repeatedly called the Holocaust a myth," (4) let alone called it one even once.

Full story: Tehran's Holocaust Conference

"As suggested by a number of human rights scholars, the United Nations must initiate a project to rethink and reformulate the conception of human rights, taking into account the different philosophies that share this planet."

A Western Construct?

By FAISAL KUTTY

Fifty-eight years after the universal declaration of human rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, the debate continues as to whether the document is truly universal.

Upon its adoption on Dec. 10, 1948, former U.S. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, chair of the commission on human rights, expressed her hope it would become "the Magna Carta of all mankind." Ironically, as was the fate with the "great charter" of 1215, the declaration has not fully lived up to its name.

The declaration was challenged from its very inception. The commission's first draft attracted 168 amendments from various countries. However, the final document was almost unchanged from the initial draft tabled by the commission. Forty-eight countries voted in favour, while eight countries -- Poland, Byelorussia, Czechoslovakia, the Ukraine, Yugoslavia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and the Soviet Union -- abstained and expressed reservations.

The conflicting views on the declaration have become more pronounced recently as human rights take a more central role in international and domestic forums. The critics of the current international human rights standards range from cultural relativists and Islamists to proponents of Asian values. They contend the existing international human rights regime is deeply influenced by the western experience. The spotlight on the individual, the focus on rights divorced from duties, the emphasis on legalism to secure these rights and the greater priority given to civil and political rights are all hallmarks of the western bias. In contrast, the Asian (including Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, Hindu, etc.) and Islamic conceptions would emphasize community, duties to one another and society and some even place greater emphasis on economic, social and cultural rights.

Full story: The Legacy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

From correspondents in Jakarta

INDONESIA's relations with other countries could be affected if it adopted Islamic Sharia law which is being introduced in one province, a European Parliament delegation said today.

Hartmut Nassauer, head of the delegation of eight MEPs, said non-governmental organisations had raised concerns about Sharia law, which is being gradually introduced in Aceh province.

Full story: Indonesia warned against Sharia law

Editor's note: This article does not necessarily reflect the view of Proutist Universal but we are publishing it since its conclusion that the ongoing violence in France is anti-French and anti-social may have some basis in reality.

By The Brussels Journal

Radical Muslims in France's housing estates are waging an undeclared "intifada" against the police, with violent clashes injuring an average of 14 officers each day. As the interior ministry said that nearly 2,500 officers had been wounded this year, a police union declared that its members were "in a state of civil war" with Muslims in the most depressed "banlieue" estates which are heavily populated by unemployed youths of north African origin.

Lyon, 28 Sept. (AKI) - French women's rights group Regards de femmes is demanding that the authorities bar a controversial Muslim scholar Hani Ramadan - who has publicly advocated death by stoning for women who commit adultery - from entering the country next month to take up a teaching post.

The president of Regards de femmes, Michele Vianes, has this week sent a letter, co-signed by number of prominent French figures, including several former ministers, to interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy demanding he keep Ramadan out of France. He is due to teach a series of courses a the newly formed Shatibi centre in the city of Lyon, beginning on 14 October. The Shatibi centre was founded by a group of young Muslims and offers courses in Islamic studies and the Arabic language.

Full story: France: Women's Rights Group Protests Entry of Pro-Stoning Scholar

"Using the terms "jihad" and "holy war", the Pope said violence was "incompatible with the nature of God"."

By Stephen Brown in Vatican City

THE Pope has apologised to Muslims offended by his comments on their religion and violence, but his words have so far failed to curtail the international outcry.

The Vatican said overnight the Pope was sorry Muslims had been offended by a speech whose meaning had been misconstrued.

But, as the backlash continued, Morocco withdrew its ambassador, and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said the prepared apology was not enough.

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone issued the statement, saying: "The Holy Father thus sincerely regrets that certain passages of his address could have sounded offensive to the sensitivities of the Muslim faithful."

Pope Benedict's first big crisis since his election 17 months ago was sparked by a speech in his native Germany on Tuesday that seemed to endorse a Christian view, contested by most Muslims, that early Islam was spread by violence.

Full story: Pope apology fails to stop backlash