APRIL 25 is the date set by a Jordanian court for the trial of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who recently survived an assassination attempt. He stands accused of “the crime of blasphemy” over a controversial caricature of the “prophet” Mohammed. According to this report, Zakarya Sheikh, spokesman for a group of local media outlets that [...]
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A PLAY that outraged Catholics when it was staged in Spain in 2004 opens at the La MaMa theatre in New York on April 28 under the title of Holy Crap. Originally titled Me cago en Dios (I shit on God, an expression Spaniards utter commonly in anger or amazement) the play has been translated [...]
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SIKHS worldwide have expressed outrage over an incident in Punjab which resulted in a police officer snatching a turban off the head of a young protester. The incident, according to this report, took place on March 28 when pharmacists from Punjab gathered in Mohali for a peaceful sit-in. Punjab police first charged the gathering with [...]
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OUTRAGED defenders of free speech are suggesting that a planned amendment to the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, would put India on par with Pakistan, notorious for its draconian blasphemy laws. According to this report, the amendment to the Act would make it an offence, punishable with a jail sentence, to “disrespect” [...]
Continue reading about New ‘blasphemy’ law could make it an offence in India to insult Gandhi
AUTHORITIES at a jail in Karachi are claiming that Qamar David, 55, who was sentenced to life imprisonment last year for insulting the “prophet” Mohammed, died of a heart attack on Tuesday. But, according to this report, Â David’s lawyer, Aslam Chaudhry, said his client had been in good health and raised the possibility of murder. [...]
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A COURTROOM was trashed and churches and schools burned in Java yesterday after hundreds of Muslims went on the rampage in a protest over a “too light” sentence demanded by prosecutors for a Christian accused of blasphemy. Violence broke out after prosecutors requested a five-year sentence – the maximum allowed under Indonesian law – for [...]
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The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
