Bill Donohue: If Someone Kills the Piss Christ Artist, It Will Be His Own Fault

Piss Christ was hammered into pieces in 2011 by Catholic protesters during its display at a French gallery.

Banana Man Crackpot Pastor Ray Comfort: Same-Sex Marriage Is Like Dog-Fucking

"'Marriage' between homosexuals has never been sanctioned by God. Marriage is God’s institution and He said it is between a man and a woman. Two men or two women cannot be married. So when gays are 'joined together in holy matrimony,' it is as meaningless as a man being married to his dog or cat, hoping for God’s blessing on bestiality. God has never authorized such a union, nor such behavior. God’s Word says, 'If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination.' (Lev. 20-13)" - Talibangelist Ray Comfort, leaving off the pesky second half of that quote: "They shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them." Why do they always leave that part out? (Via Christian Nightmares)

INDONESIA: Aceh Province Approves 100 Public Lashes For Homosexuality

The provincial legislature in Aceh has approved the bill calling for 100 public lashes with a cane for those convicted of homosexuality.

Aceh is the only part of the majority-Muslim nation that is allowed to implement Islamic sharia law and already carries out public canings for gambling, drinking alcohol and fraternising with the opposite sex outside of marriage. The law explicitly outlaws anal sex between men and "the rubbing of body parts between women for stimulation", making homosexuality technically illegal for the first time in Aceh. The bylaw will also be the first in Aceh to be applied to non-Muslims, both Indonesians and foreigners. Gay sex is not illegal in the rest of the country. Amnesty International, which has called for an end to caning in Aceh, asked that the bylaw be repealed immediately. "The criminalisation of individuals based on their sexual orientation is a huge blow for equality in Indonesia," the group's Asia-Pacific director Richard Bennett said. Mr Bennett said the law would increase the "climate of homophobia, fear and harassment many in Aceh are already facing".

The law was first proposed in May 2013 by the deputy mayor of Aceh's largest city. An estimated 98% of Aceh's 4.5 million residents are Muslim. LGBT rights are virtually nonexistent across Indonesia, although a national bill to criminalize gay sex failed in 2003.

INDONESIA: Aceh Province Considers 100 Public Lashings For Homosexuality

In May 2013 the deputy mayor of the capital city of Indonesia's Aceh province proposed criminalizing homosexuality with a punishment of one hundred public lashings with a cane. Yesterday that law was presented to the provincial legislature.

Aceh is the only part of the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation to enforce Islamic sharia law and has been slowly implementing it since 2001, when it gained some powers of autonomy. A draft bylaw sent to AFP on Saturday outlaws anal sex between men and "the rubbing of body parts between women for stimulation", and for the first time applies Islamic laws and punishments to non-Muslims. The bylaw also punishes adultery with 100 lashes of the cane. The bylaw reinforces previous sharia legislation that bans alcohol consumption, gambling, fraternising between unmarried men and women, and physical displays of affection outside of marriage, such as touching and kissing. Canings in Aceh are often carried out with a long thin rattan stick and are aimed at humiliating, rather than causing pain. The bylaw allows for fines paid in gold or jail time as an alternative to the lashes.

An estimated 98% of Aceh's 4.5 million residents are Muslim. LGBT rights are virtually nonexistent across Indonesia, although a national bill to criminalize gay sex failed in 2003. Yesterday's action was gleefully noted on Twitter by Martin "Eat Da Poo Poo" Ssempa, who retweeted the message, "God bless Indonesia."

MALAYSIA: Two Women Arrested Under Sharia Law Forbidding Homosexuality

Two Malaysian women were arrested this week and charged under Sharia Law of being lesbians.  J. Lester Feder reports at Buzzfeed:

Reports by the Malaysian newspaper Sinar Harian suggest the two women were swept up in a broad morality raid launched around the Southeast Asian country’s annual celebration of its independence from Great Britain. The police had gone to what news reports identified as a “budget hotel” and arrested seven apparently heterosexual couples in other rooms for violating laws against adultery and “close proximity.” The police arrested the two women — both identified as university students — under a code criminalizing sex between women after finding a dildo in their room.  Islam is the official religion under the country’s constitution, and Shariah codes have been enacted by state governments throughout the country. These laws are commonly used to arrest transwomen, and the Malaysian trans rights group Justice for Sisters has brought litigation seeking to stop these arrests. Malaysia’s ruling Islamist government has also used homophobia as a political tool, including repeatedly jailing opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim for sodomy. But this may be the first time news has broken of women being arrested under the codes’ prohibition on lesbianism in Malaysia, said Justice for Sisters’s Thilaga Sulathireh.

Feder notes that the women's rights group Sisters In Islam is protesting the arrests because the police have no evidence that actual sex took place. The women are claiming that the dildo had just arrived by mail and had never been used.

One Million Moms Vs Black Jesus

Just in via email:

The late night programming on the Cartoon Network, known as Adult Swim, plans to air the non-animated show "Black Jesus" portraying Jesus as a "black guy living in the hood." The show depicts him living in Compton Gardens and makes a mockery of our Lord. The foul language used in the trailer, including using the Lord’s name in vain, is disgusting. In addition, there is violence, gunfire and other inappropriate gestures which completely misrepresent Jesus. This is blasphemy! "Black Jesus" is set to premiere on August 7 at 11:00 pm ET/ 10:00 pm CT, unless we intervene. Adult Swim plans to blaspheme Jesus on a weekly basis. This mockery will be similar to "South Park" and "Family Guy," but much worse since the entire program will be based on lies about Christianity.

1MM will defend our Savior because He is Holy! Adult Swim is obviously not a family network, and this program is set to air later in the evening when children should be asleep, but that is no excuse. Adult Swim has crossed the line by belittling the Christian religion with foul jokes. We need to send a loud and clear message to Adult Swim, its owner Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (a Time Warner Company), and all potential advertisers of "Black Jesus" that this kind of programming is insulting and completely unacceptable. Adult Swim is not ridiculing any other religion currently and wouldn’t dream of mocking Mohammed or Muslims.

If we speak with one voice now, we can keep this program from ever seeing the light of day. Christians must take a stand and not be silent. Networks like Adult Swim continue to mock Christianity, and we will not stand for it. Christians should no longer sit idly by and allow this blasphemy to continue without speaking up in protest. “Black Jesus” is another attempt to distort the truth about Christianity. There is power in numbers! Forward this to everyone you know in a fight to keep this show off the air.

I considered posting the trailer for Black Jesus a few days ago, but decided it looked deeply unfunny and laden with the predictable cardboard cutout characters one finds in uncountable direct-to-video flops that never even see the light of middle-of-the-night basic cable. But now that the Handmaids of the Republic of Gilead have sicced the Eyes Of God upon the show, you go Black Jesus.

Russell Crowe Rejects Brunei Boycott

The New York Post reports that the Sultan-owned Beverly Hotel is now a ghost town and hundreds of workers have been taken off the schedule

“Business really began dropping off six weeks ago,” one employee told me. “We knew it was coming. But then it exploded with the celebrity boycott.” Much of the 650-person staff has been told to stay home, he said. There is now a hiring freeze, and workers who were on the verge of promotions have been stalled. The cancellation of high-profile events — such as the Children’s Defense Fund gala hosted by J.J. Abrams, the Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment breakfast, and the Motion Picture and Television Fund’s Night Before the Oscars party, among others — has already cost the establishment nearly $2 million. “The hotel is going to pay $95,000 in total to the people who would have worked at those events,” the employee told me. “Others have ­essentially been laid off.”

The above-linked writer notes that the Sultan of Brunei is worth over $20B and his hotels "could sit empty for years and he wouldn't notice."

LOS ANGELES: Stars And Activists Protest Brunei's Brutal Sharia Laws

The top clip features a rousing speech by Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center CEO Lori Jean.

BRUNEI: Sharia Laws Begin Tomorrow

The first stage of Brunei's brutal set of Sharia laws goes into effect tomorrow. The third and final stage, which calls for death by stoning for committing homosexual acts, goes into effect in 2015.

The move - delayed from last week - came from the Sultan. "Today... I place my faith in and am grateful to Allah the almighty to announce that tomorrow, Thursday 1 May 2014, will see the enforcement of Sharia law phase one, to be followed by the other phases," AFP news agency quoted him as saying. The penal code will be introduced over three years, with offences in the first phase covered by fines and prison sentences, the Brunei Times reported. Amputations come under the second phase, and stoning, for crimes including adultery and homosexual acts, under the third phase. When he announced it last year the Sultan, 67, one of the world's wealthiest men, called the code "a part of the great history of our nation".

The Human Rights Campaign reacts:

“LGBT citizens in many countries around the world remain persistent targets of harassment, arrest, violence, and torture for simply being who they are,” said Ty Cobb, director of Global Engagement at the Human Rights Campaign. “The decision by the government of Brunei to soon become the 8th nation to allow the death penalty against LGBT people is horrific and sickening.”

The sultan of Brunei, who assumed the throne 47 years ago, is worth an estimated $20B and lives in an 1800-room palace. With a population of only 400K, Brunei has the sixth-highest standard of living in the world due to its immense oil reserves.

RELATED: A boycott of the sultan's luxury hotels around the world is underway.

LGBT Donor Conference Moved From Hotel Owned By Brunei Over Stoning Law

The Gill Action Fund has moved a conference planned for next month out of the tony Beverly Hills Hotel over Brunei's institution of death by stoning for homosexuality. The hotel is owned by the sultan of Brunei. The Washington Blade reports:

Kirk Fordham, executive director of Gill Action, informed the Blade that a new venue would be chosen in the aftermath of the announcement from the sultan of Brunei. “In light of the horrific anti-gay policy approved by the Government of Brunei, Gill Action made the decision earlier today to relocate its conference from the Beverly Hills Hotel to another property,” Fordham said. “We are seeking a return of all deposits.“ Even before the latest policy announcement, Brunei had a law on the books unfavorable to gay people. Homosexual acts were punishable with up to 10 years in prison. LGBT activists have previously targeted the Beverly Hills Hotel for its connections to Brunei and its anti-gay policy. Last year, the group Dump the Beverly Hills Hotel posted a quirky online video where individuals announced they were “breaking up” with the hotel unless its owners changed their homophobic ways. Fordham didn’t immediately respond to a follow-up email asking why the Beverly Hills Hotel was chosen for OutGiving in the first place given the anti-gay policies of Brunei prior to the latest announcement and the criticism to which the hotel has been subjected.

The sultan owns ten luxury hotels around the world. The only other US location is the Hotel Bel-Air, also in Los Angeles.

RELATED: On Tuesday the United Nations denounced Brunei for the latest Sharia laws, which are due to go into effect next week.

United Nations Condemns Brunei For Death By Stoning Sharia Laws

Next week Brunei will institute a set of brutal Sharia laws that demand death by stoning for homosexual acts, adultery, rape, murder, and for declaring oneself to be a non-Muslim.  The United Nations today condemned the coming laws.

“Application of the death penalty for such a broad range of offenses contravenes international law,” said Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Rape, adultery, sodomy, extramarital sexual relations for Muslims, insulting any verses of the Quran and Hadith, blasphemy, declaring oneself a prophet or non-Muslim, and murder are the other offences for which the death penalty could be applied under the revised code. Noting that Brunei has maintained an effective moratorium on the use of the death penalty since 1957, OHCHR urged the government to establish a formal moratorium and to work towards abolishing the practice altogether. “Under international law, stoning people to death constitutes torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and is thus clearly prohibited,” Mr Colville stated.

Brunei gained independence from Britain in 1984. With a population of just over 400K, last year the International Monetary Fund ranked Brunei as the fifth-wealthiest nation in the world based on GDP per capita. The United States ranked sixth.

Quote Of The Day - Tristan Emmanuel

"In both Britain and Canada, for example, we still had blasphemy laws on the books no less then ten years ago. The penalties - the penal sanctions - were fines and possible imprisonment, not hangings and whippings, but this is beside the point. [snip] One can advocate for the law principle, while not advocating for a particular type of punishment, which historically was left to the discretion of the courts. At any rate you so-called Christians helped to prove my point perfectly. You do not care about God’s honour and yet you have the audacity to call yourselves Christians. Therefore I say again, America, and especially American Evangelicalism, is hanging on by a thin thread. Don’t be surprised if God sends an unlikely candidate to judge your lawless society." - Tristan Emmanuel, telling fellow Christians that God will smite them (or something) for denouncing last week's column in which he lamented that Bill Maher can't be punished for blasphemy. As for the atheists that reacted to that column, they are "children of the Devil" who are spreading the lie that Emmanuel wants Maher publicly whipped when really, just a nice long prison sentence would do.

American Family Association: Adulterers Should Be Imprisoned For 15 Years

Matt Barber's Website: Bill Maher Should Be Publicly Whipped For Blasphemy

"I think it’s time to bring back blasphemy laws. Bill Maher is known for being an offensive anti-Christian bigot. It’s his trademark. But this time he’s gone too far. He may have protection under the First Amendment to say whatever slanderous thing that comes out of his toilet bowl brain, but that does not mean Christians should turn the other cheek. Here is an example of how America once dealt with the likes of Bill Maher. 'By whipping; boaring thorow the tongue, with a red hot iron; or sitting upon the gallows with a rope about their neck; at the discretion of the court.' America is hanging on by a thin thread of long-suffering divine justice. The pugnacious degenerate Bill Maher may think blasphemy is a laughing matter. The nation of America may think it can hide behind the First Amendment. And Christians may falsely think they are demonstrating Christlike love by remaining quiet in the face of profligate profanity. But mark my word, a day of reckoning is coming." - Tristan Emmanuel, in a post on Matt Barber's website.

The post has rocketed around the net since yesterday.

NIGERIA: Thousands Throw Stones Into Sharia Court Demanding The Executions Of Eleven Gay Men

You wouldn't think it possible, but it's getting even worse in Nigeria. Via the Associated Press:

Thousands of protesters threw stones into the Shariah court in a north Nigerian city Wednesday, urging the speedy convictions and executions of 11 men arrested for belonging to gay organizations. Security officials fired into the air to disperse protesters in Bauchi city so the accused men could be safely returned to the prison. Judge El-Yakubu Aliyu closed the court abruptly. "No one can be sentenced to death until confirmed without a reasonable doubt," Aliyu said in response to calls for the men's execution. The court was arraigning seven of 11 accused men on Wednesday. Only three had given testimony when the mayhem began. The defense counsel was unable to submit an application for bail, and the rest of the defendants were unable to give testimony. It was unclear when the arraignments would resume.

The state of Bauchi has parallel civil and Sharia courts. The sodomy law stipulates that the death penalty can be carried out by public stoning or lethal injections.

NIGERIA: Gay Man Lashed 20 Times

The BBC reports:

A Nigerian man has received 20 lashes after an Islamic court in the northern city of Bauchi convicted him of homosexual offences. Under Islamic law, courts can punish homosexual acts by stoning to death. But the judge said he took into account that the Muslim man, Mubarak Ibrahim, 20, carried out the acts seven years ago, and had stopped the practice. Mr Ibrahim told the BBC he was relieved that Judge Nuhu Muhammad had been lenient on him and had not sentenced him to death. The BBC's Ishaq Khalid was in court when Mr Ibrahim was lashed with a whip, made of animal skin smeared with oil. Mr Ibrahim, who had pleaded guilty to the charge, was ordered to lie on a bench, and an official whipped his back in front of a packed courtroom, our correspondent says. Mr Ibrahim screamed in pain while being lashed, but was able to walk afterwards, he adds.

Dozens of men have been arrested since Nigeria super-criminalized homosexuality earlier this week.

NIGERIA: Eleven Muslim Men On Trial, Face Stoning To Death For Homosexuality

The BBC reports:

An Islamic court in Nigeria's northern state of Bauchi has put on trial 11 Muslim men accused of being homosexuals in violation of their religion, a religious leader has told the BBC. A 12th person arrested - a Christian - would be tried under secular law, a BBC reporter says. Under Islamic law, a person can be sentenced to death by stoning if convicted of homosexuality. It is also illegal to have gay sex in Nigeria, according to its secular laws. Jibrin Danlami Hassan, the commissioner of Bauchi state's Sharia Commission, said the alleged homosexuals were arrested by residents of Bauchi city. They were handed to the Islamic police force, which interrogated them, he said. "They accept that they are doing that dirty game," Mr Hassan said. Ms Aken'Ova said some of those arrested had been beaten up and tortured, but Mr Hassan denied this. The BBC's Ishaq Khalid in Bauchi says the Sharia Commission confirmed to him that a Christian had been arrested with the 11 Muslims, and would be tried in a "conventional court".

There have not yet been any confirmed "death by stoning" executions in Nigeria, although several such sentences have been handed down.

NIGERIA: Islamic Enforcers Vow To Hunt Down Gays "In Every Nook And Corner"

Emboldened by Monday's passage of a bill that super-criminalized homosexuality, Sharia enforcers in Nigeria's largest northern city of Kano (population 2.8M) have vowed to hunt down gay people.

The Hisbah has in recent months cracked down on prostitution and drug addiction in the majority Muslim city and pledged to do the same against homosexuality. "Obviously, we will embark on similar raids on gays and lesbians in Kano," he added, vowing to work "hand in hand" with security agencies to enforce the national legislation. "From now on, we will go into every nook and corner of Kano state to ensure that (the prohibition of) prostitution, gay marriages, marriages of the same sex and consumption of alcohol... is fully complied with, so that we can have a decent society.

"We are given more power, we are given more support now to wage serious war against these issues." The Bauchi state Sharia Commission chief Mustapha Baba Ilela meanwhile said at least 12 people had been arrested on suspicion of breaking Sharia laws banning sodomy since the start of the year. "All the accused were apprehended by the community, which is averse to homosexuality, and handed over to us," he added. "The suspects confessed to committing the act they are accused of without threat or inducement and we have the audio and written confessions."

Dorothy Aken'ova, the executive director of the International Centre for Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights, added that the police in Bauchi had more than 160 names on a list and were planning arrests. Since the law was signed, she said 24 people had been arrested in three southern states -- 12 in Ibadan, Oyo; six in Owerri, Imo; and six in Awka, the capital of Anambra. Most of the people arrested had previously been detained but had been re-arrested since the new law was announced, she added.

Homosexual acts have long been illegal in Nigeria, but Monday's bill also made it a crime punishable by ten years in prison to form gay clubs, promote LGBT rights, or stage same-sex ceremonies. In the northern parts of Nigeria, where Islamic law "runs parallel" to state laws, the Sharia punishment for homosexual acts is death by stoning, although there have been no confirmed reports of such executions. It is feared that may now change.

Religion's Gifts To The World

Eighth in a monthly series.

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