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Barry Duke on November 11th, 2009

SUPERSTITION has raised its silly head in Thailand and India this week.
From the BBC we learn that’s there’s been a bit of a hoo-ha at Thailand’s main international airport, where a plan has been unveiled to move 12 large statues of spirit demons to new positions in the concourse.
And from Andy, over at the Pink [...]

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Barry Duke on July 3rd, 2009

Religion should not be a subject for entertainment programmes.
These were the words thundered by Hamza Aktan, Chairman of the High Board of Religious Affairs in Turkey, after he learned details of a game show aimed at converting atheists into believers.
Those competing to lure 10 non-believers from the path of godlessness will be a Muslim imam, [...]

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Barry Duke on June 2nd, 2009

THERE’s gloom, consternation and not a little measure of embarrassment among Buddhists following the news this week that a young “reincarnated spiritual leader” had jumped ship.
The Spaniard – 24-year-old Osel Hita Torres – made international headlines back in the 1980s, when, aged five months, he was “recognised” as the “reincarnation” of Lama Thubten Yeshe, who [...]

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Barry Duke on April 28th, 2009

THE flamboyant behaviour of gay and transgender Thai monks, who are often be seen wearing revealingly tight robes, carrying pink purses and having effeminately-shaped eyebrows, has become a source of grave concern to Buddhist leaders.
The BBC reports that Buddhist preacher in Thailand – Phra Maha Wudhijaya Vajiramedhi – has announced plans for new guidelines aimed [...]

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Barry Duke on March 6th, 2009

A GROUP of angry Indonesian Buddhists symbolically sealed the upmarket Buddha Bar in Jakarta yesterday, urging authorities to immediately close the Paris-based entertainment franchise for “blasphemy”.
About 150 mainly student protesters carrying joss sticks and flowers gathered outside the bar in a wealthy neighbourhood of the capital and denounced its decorative use of sacred symbols and [...]

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Barry Duke on October 10th, 2008

THEY can’t send text messages, don’t have a camera, and can’t browse the web. And they won’t allow access to more than 10,000 phone numbers for dating services and sex hotlines. So, in effect, they’re as much fun as scabies and about as useful as a chocolate teapot.
But, hey, they do have a rabbinical stamp [...]

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