AN Indonesian court yesterday ordered a local branch of the Paris-based Buddha Bar chain to close after convicting the licence holder of blasphemy. According to this report, it also ordered licensee PT Nireta Vista Creative, the official Jakarta tourism agency and Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo to pay damages of one billion rupiah (110,000 dollars) to [...]
BUDDHISTS “all over the world” have had their “sentiments hurt” by a new range of “blasphemous” Keds sneakers bearing the image of the Dalai Lama. Now, we all imagine that Buddhists are a laidback, tolerant lot whose philosophy is in no way as red in tooth and claw as say, Islam, whose followers exist in [...]
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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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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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 [...]
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The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
