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Blasphemy

Maybe I should have said "perverted" to avoid confusion between how they manipulated their own spirituality, and what they did to the Jews.

They certainly borrowed bits of mysticism from a wide range of religions, and used that to in some way justify what they did to the Jews, Romany, and homosexuals. And they perverted science as well. They were equal opportunity heretics.
 
OldTimeRadio said:
Anome_ said:
Although, not content with abusing their own religion, they went on to abuse Hinduism and Buddhism as well.

In the case of Buddhism it depends upon how we are defining "abuse." A number of high echelon SS leaders were practicing Buddhists, especially Gen. Dr. Karl Haushofer, who had been initiated into a Buddhist sect (I believe in Japan) as early as 1907. Now these Nazis (and proto-Nazis) may have very well "abused" Buddhism by joining but it was certainly a different form of abuse than the sort they afterwards helped heap upon the Jews.

The type of Buddhism that Haushofer et al adopted was to be fair, not really a corruption as such but rather contained - and contains - racial and other elements which appealed to their nazi proclivities.

Put another way; they didn't have to twist anything to be in line with their Nazi ideology but rather were attracted to certain Buddhist sects and teachings which reflected it.

Interestingly it seems to be the school of the Dalai Lama which most strongly reflects this paradigm and even has an end-time eschatology that includes a 'race-war'. Incidentally, there is quite a fair bit of information out there which would seem to suggest that the current Dalai Lama is not quite what he appears to be on the surface in many regards.

His violent persecution and suppression of the Dorje Shugden sect is just one alarming aspect of this.
 
Anome, thanks for the emendation. By "abuse" of Buddhists I erroneously assumed that you meant "persecution" of them.

As for the "Gypsies," an Orthodox Jewish friend pointed out years ago that on a per capita basis they were exterminated even more fiercely than the Jews.

And they perverted science as well.

There's a really insightful recorded speech by Sir Winston Churchill from as early as 1938 or so in which he describes the Nazis' natural brutality being rendered even blacker by the assistance of a "perverse" German science. And it seems to have been the Nazis themsves who helped pervert that Science.
 
Wakefield nightclub Religion criticised by bishop
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-14338451

Religion nightclub opened in Wakefield last week

Related Stories

Church leader quizzed by clubbers

A new Wakefield nightclub has been accused by a bishop of "trivialising" people's faith by naming club nights Mass, Resurrection and Salvation.

The club, Religion, also sells cocktails with names like Angel Wings.

The Bishop of Wakefield, the Right Reverend Stephen Platten, said: "For people who are religious, those words are seen as key issues to their life."

Leisure 99, which owns the nightclub, said: "The name of the club nights aren't linked to any specific faith."

'Devoted partygoers'
The club, which opened last Friday, advertises Monday Mass, offering "massive offers" on alcoholic drinks.

Its Resurrection night promises to "bring your Friday back to life" and Saturday is billed as "Salvation - the answer to your prayers".

The company said in a statement: "The definition of the word religion is a pursuit or interest followed with great devotion, which is what partygoers in the city are doing.

"We chose the term Resurrection for a Friday night, because the night-time economy's suffering and we're hoping to revive and revitalise it, as its definition suggests.

"The same is true of Salvation, and the word Mass was chosen because it's a massive Monday night of massive music."

Bishop Platten said: "If any other aspect of people's lives was taken and trivialised in this way I think people would be upset.

"In particular, in this case, it affects Christian people."
 
Bishop Platten said: "If any other aspect of people's lives was taken and trivialised in this way I think people would be upset.

"In particular, in this case, it affects Christian people."

Can unbelievers effectively blaspheme? What about believers in a different religion who must necesssarily regard at least some elements of rival beliefs as outrageous?

Turn the other cheek, sir.

What is unacceptable is if a religion puts itself on a pedestal that it cannot be criticised or satirised or 'dissed'. That's what leads to burning at the stake.
 
Full story:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16809977

Visions Of Ecstasy gets UK rating after 23 year ban

The only film ever to be banned in the UK on grounds of blasphemy has been given a certificate 23 years after it was made.

Visions of Ecstasy showed 16th Century Spanish nun St Teresa of Avila as she caresses Jesus' body on the cross.

It was banned amid concerns the scene could leave the film open to prosecution for blasphemous libel.

As the blasphemy law was repealed in 2008, the movie has now been passed for release uncut, with an 18 certificate.

Directed by Nigel Wingrove, the low-budget, 19-minute film became a cause celebre for the free speech movement, with the late filmmaker Derek Jarman among the voices calling for its release.

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) said it had considered allowing the film to be shown with the offending scene removed - but as that would have halved the running time, they said their only option was to refuse a certificate.

Wingrove unsuccessfully appealed the ruling and the distributor eventually took the case to the European Court of Human Rights in 1996.

Although the court did not consider whether the video itself was blasphemous - a matter for the UK courts - it ruled that the UK's blasphemy laws were consistent with the European Convention on Human Rights.

In its conclusion, the court said: "Freedom of expression constitutes one of the essential foundations of a democratic society. However, the exercise of that freedom carries with it duties and responsibilities.

"Amongst them, in the context of religious beliefs, may legitimately be included a duty to avoid as far as possible an expression that is, in regard to objects of veneration, gratuitously offensive to others and profanatory".

'Reservations'

Once the blasphemy law was abolished by the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, the BBFC invited Wingrove to resubmit his work.

Speaking to the Guardian in 2008, Wingrove said he was in two minds about accepting the offer, which had come "completely out of the blue".

"If I made the film now I would make it very differently,' he said. "I was exploring areas of dark eroticism, but I had worked chiefly in prints, not films.

"People say I should put it out, but on a personal level I have reservations. If I did release it, I would need to put it into context and perhaps release a documentary to accompany it."

Nonetheless, the film has now been cleared for release. In a statement announcing the decision, the BBFC said: "With the abolition of the offence of blasphemy, the board does not consider that the film is in breach of any other UK law that is currently in force."

But it added: "The board recognises that the content of the film may be deeply offensive to some viewers.

"However, the board's guidelines reflect the clear view of the public that adults should have the right to choose their own viewing, provided that the material in question is neither illegal nor harmful..."

I must admit I never really got the whole "naughty nun" fetish that Wingrove has such affection for, but mixing sex with religion is always asking for trouble. Not sure I quite buy his serious intent, either.
 
The Guardian's short piece on the same story reminds us that Wingrove went on to found the Redemption video label, which specialized in dubious nunsploitation flicks - mainly of Italian origin.

Probably filmed in Vatican City, since nobody else would care enough! :?
 
Cochise said:
Can unbelievers effectively blaspheme?

I dunno. If God exists, whether or not I accept his existence would not seem to matter all that much.

Likewise, it wouldn't be much of a defense against a charge of treason for me to aver that I don't believe my country has a government.
 
OldTimeRadio said:
Cochise said:
Can unbelievers effectively blaspheme?

I dunno. If God exists, whether or not I accept his existence would not seem to matter all that much.

Likewise, it wouldn't be much of a defense against a charge of treason for me to aver that I don't believe my country has a government.
It would be if that government was an undemocratic dictatorship....
 
Worrying.

Malaysia deports Saudi journalist Hamza Kashgari
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17001900
Mr Kashgari's controversial tweet sparked more than 30,000 responses, including death threats
Continue reading the main story
Related Stories

Malaysia detains Saudi for tweet
Australian faces 500 Saudi lashes
Malaysian authorities have deported a Saudi journalist accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad in a tweet.

Police confirmed to the BBC that Hamza Kashgari was sent back to Saudi Arabia on Sunday despite protests from human rights groups.

Mr Kashgari's controversial tweet last week sparked more than 30,000 responses and several death threats.

Insulting the prophet is considered blasphemous in Islam and is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia.

Mr Kashgari, 23, fled Saudi Arabia last week and was detained upon his arrival in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

He had tweeted his doubts about Muhammad on the prophet's birthday last week. Saudi clerics condemned his remarks as blasphemous.

Injunction
Mr Kashgari apologised and deleted the tweet, but when he continued to receive threats, he left for Malaysia.

The two countries do not have a formal extradition treaty but Malaysia has good relations with Saudi Arabia as a fellow Muslim country, says the BBC's Jennifer Pak, in Kuala Lumpur.

Mr Kashgari's lawyer obtained an injunction on Sunday to allow him to stay in Malaysia until his case was heard, but it was too late, our correspondent says.

"The nature of the charges against the individual in this case are a matter for the Saudi Arabian authorities," Malaysia's home ministry said in a statement.

Amnesty International has warned that Mr Kashgari could be executed in Saudi Arabia if he is found guilty of apostasy.

"If the Malaysian authorities hand over Hamza Kashgari to Saudi Arabia, they could end up complicit in any violations he suffers," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui of Amnesty's Middle East division.
 
Pret withdraws 'Virgin Mary' crisps
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21306006

The sandwich shop chain said it did "listen and we've tried to react quickly"

Sandwich shop chain Pret A Manger has withdrawn a new "Virgin Mary" brand of crisps following religious complaints.

The firm, with about 350 shops in the UK, launched the spicy tomato crisps - based on the non-alcoholic version of a Bloody Mary cocktail - last week.

This prompted complaints, including from Catholic groups, that it was an offensive reference to Jesus's mother.

A company spokesman said it had noted complainants' "strength of feeling" and withdrawn the product to avoid offence.

"It didn't take many complaints," he said. "It's the strength of feeling that's behind them that's important."

He added: "For the sake of a particular flavour of crisps, we don't want anyone offended."

In replies to the complaints, the company had said: "We are extremely sorry that the crisp name that we had selected has offended you. This wasn't our intention.

Continue reading the main story

Start Quote

We've been passive for too long in the face of mockery of our faith and discrimination against us as Catholics”

Reverend Nick Donnelly
Diocese of Lancaster
"After receiving a number of comments similar to yours, Clive (Pret's CEO) has taken your advice and decided to remove all of the crisps from our shops...

"We will be donating the unsold crisps to homeless charities that we support across the country."

It added: "We do listen and we have tried to react quickly."

The Reverend Nick Donnelly, deacon of the Diocese of Lancaster and author of Protect the Pope website, was among those who complained to Pret A Manger.

Following the decision to withdraw the crisps, he wrote on the Protect the Pope site: "Clive Schlee and Pret A Manger deserve our unreserved thanks for listening to our concerns as Catholics and for acting so quickly to remove the brand of crisps.

"It seems fitting that Pret A Manger are planning to give any unsold crisps to the homeless."

He added: "One of the things we need to go away and think about is what this incident tells us about how we defend our faith in the future.

"We've been passive for too long in the face of mockery of our faith and discrimination against us as Catholics."
 
Reminds me of when the comedy show Banzai! was criticised for calling Communion wafers "Jesus crisps". What's wrong with "Spicy tomato flavour"? Why did they have to be pretentious about the name?
 
gncxx said:
Reminds me of when the comedy show Banzai! was criticised for calling Communion wafers "Jesus crisps". What's wrong with "Spicy tomato flavour"? Why did they have to be pretentious about the name?
Because it's Pret A Manger, they are the byword for pretention.
 
Monstrosa said:
gncxx said:
Reminds me of when the comedy show Banzai! was criticised for calling Communion wafers "Jesus crisps". What's wrong with "Spicy tomato flavour"? Why did they have to be pretentious about the name?
Because it's Pret A Manger, they are the byword for pretention.

They'll bring out Joan of Arc toasties next.
 
Down with this sort of thing.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/25/irish-town-shuts-down-blasphemous-play.html

Irish Town Shuts Down ‘Blasphemous’ Play

A comic musical about the Bible has ruffled Protestant feathers in one small Northern Irish town.

The Daily Beast. Nico Hines. 25 January 2014


A comic musical produced by the Reduced Shakespeare Company has been banned for the first time in almost 20 years of touring by small town politicians in Northern Ireland who declared it to be blasphemous.

Protestant councilors in Newtonabbey, a town on the province’s east coast, have forced the local theatre to cancel next week’s planned performances of The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged). Audrey Ball, a member of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), said she had watched clips of the play online and found it to be “crude and blasphemous.” Her party colleague, Mandy Girvan, said the show “makes a mockery of the Word of God which we as Christians hold dear”.

The rest of the population appeared to be watching on in embarrassment as religious disputes, which convulsed the province for generations, returned to the headlines. Evangelical members of the DUP, the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, have previously protested against Monty Python’s Life of Brian and the musical Jesus Christ: Superstar, but those campaigns were decades ago. The Belfast Telegraph said it was worried that the latest decision to ban a mainstream show “makes Northern Ireland a laughing stock.”

The comedian Jake O’Kane wrote on Twitter: “DUP are our version of the Taliban.”

While the debate raged in Northern Ireland, the California-based Reduced Shakespeare Company were left bemused by the criticism of a show that has successfully toured the world without incident, including performances in Jerusalem where organizers joked that they only show Act One: the Old Testament.

Austin Tichenor, co-author of the play, said the whole company was taken aback by Newtonabbey’s conservative stance. “The theatre is our temple and we’re disappointed that people of all faiths will now not be able to gather at the Theatre at the Mill and lift their voices in communal laughter,” he said. “We find it quite staggering that this type of censorship still appears to flourish in the UK and would like to apologize to all the audience members who bought tickets and are therefore unable to see the show.”

Producers of the play claim members of the Irish Supreme Court once saw a production in Dublin and declared the show to be “juvenile but not blasphemous,” a slogan they soon adopted.

Involving just three actors, the play depicts all of the major stories in the Bible—the Last Supper comes to resemble musical chairs while the audience itself takes part in the story of Noah’s Ark. The company describes it as an “affectionate, irreverent re-telling of the ultimate best-seller.”

Democratic Unionist Party councillor Billy Ball didn’t appreciate the affectionate side. He led the campaign to have the show cancelled with in an article in the Newtownabbey Times. “I think the Artistic Board needs to look again to see if they can pull this play. It should never have been accepted in the first place,” he argued. “For Christians the Bible is the infallible word of God and it’s not something to be made fun of. If this was the Koran we were talking about it just wouldn’t happen because they know there would be a big public outcry about it.”

Before it was officially canceled, Dave Naylor, the play’s producer, said: “Maybe Councillor Ball should come and see our show before denouncing it as unholy. But he’d better be quick as all his comments have done is increase ticket sales.”

Those tickets are now being refunded after Fraser Agnew, the mayor of Newtownabbey sided with his fellow Unionists. “As the guardians of all that is right in society we have got to take a stand somewhere and that is what happened in this instance,” he said.

“As the guardians of all that is right in society we have got to take a stand somewhere and that is what happened in this instance,”

Holy bullshit! Unionists, eh? :lol:
 
Its a UK town!

Don't blame it on the Irish!

Fundamentalist Scotch-Irish.
 
Its back on. Next: The Koran: The Complete Word of Allah (Abridged)?

Newtownabbey council reverses decision to cancel Bible play
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-25918764

Actors from the Reduced Shakespeare Company performing the play

The play will now go ahead as originally scheduled
'
A council in County Antrim has reversed a decision to cancel a play that some councillors had said was blasphemous.

Newtownabbey Borough Council's artistic board last week cancelled the Reduced Shakespeare Company's The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged).

The comic play was due to run at the council's Theatre at the Mill from Wednesday, 29 January, for two nights.

But on Monday the artistic board decided to put the play back on and the full council ratified that decision.

The play will now go ahead as scheduled on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Reduced Shakespeare Company is already in Northern Ireland - it has been rehearsing the play at the Theatre at the Mill.

A number of unionist councillors had originally objected to the production, saying it mocked Christianity.

Mayor of Newtownabbey Fraser Agnew, who is an Ulster Unionist councillor, said there was a "need to defend Christian values".

"If it was a play to do with anti-gay material can you imagine the outcry there would be over that, if it was anti-Semitic, if it was anti-Koran... all of those things would create an uproar," Mr Agnew said.

But critics of the decision said it was censorship, and leading Northern Ireland comedian Jake O'Kane said the councillors were "zealots" who "weren't elected to be moral guardians".
 
ramonmercado said:
Its a UK town!

Don't blame it on the Irish!

Fundamentalist Scotch-Irish.

It's a town in N. Ireland.

And that's not taking away from the fact it was banned by religious prats, there are many of those north and south.
 
chris138 said:
ramonmercado said:
Its a UK town!

Don't blame it on the Irish!

Fundamentalist Scotch-Irish.

It's a town in N. Ireland.

And that's not taking away from the fact it was banned by religious prats, there are many of those north and south.

But few enough down South who believe in the literal truth of the bible or who don't accept evolution. In the North you get these people not just in Councils but as Cabinet Ministers. And you won't find them in SF or the SDLP!
 
Banned comic Bible play performed to packed house
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-25953679

Actors from the Reduced Shakespeare Company performing the play

The play was performed at the Theatre at the Mill as originally scheduled

A comic play based on the Bible which was originally banned from a theatre in County Antrim played to a full house of 400 people on Wednesday.

Newtownabbey Borough Council in County Antrim had cancelled the Reduced Shakespeare Company's The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged).

The move came after some councillors claimed it was blasphemous.

But on Monday, the council's artistic board decided it should go ahead and the full council backed that decision.

Originally, just 150 of the 800 available seats for the two performances had been sold. However, after the controversy erupted, tickets for both nights at the theatre sold out.

The council box office extended its opening hours on Tuesday, and its website also crashed because of a surge in demand.

The play has been described as a light-hearted attempt to condense the story of the Bible into less than two hours.

Speaking after Wednesday's show, one member of the audience said: "I don't know what the fuss was about. It was hilarious and marvellous."

A number of unionist councillors had originally objected to the production, saying it mocked Christianity.

But critics of that decision said it was censorship.
 
Appeal over Mohammad Asghar blasphemy conviction
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-e ... e-25979022

Claims of blasphemy have frequently led to violence in Pakistan

Lawyers for an elderly British man who has been sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan have filed an appeal against his conviction.

Mohammad Asghar, who had lived in Edinburgh, was arrested in 2010 over letters in which he was said to have claimed to be the Prophet Mohammed.

His legal team have argued that the case arose from a property dispute between Mr Asghar and a tenant.

The appeal challenges both his conviction and his sentence.

Mr Asghar was sentenced to death by a court in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi last Friday after he was found guilty of blasphemy.

The grounds for appeal include the court's failure to consider any evidence of his mental health problems.

Mr Asghar's family have said he was treated for paranoid schizophrenia in Edinburgh before returning to Pakistan in 2010.

His lawyers say that the appeal may take up to five years to be heard by Pakistan's High Court, owing to a huge backlog of cases.

Supreme Court of Pakistan
The courts in Pakistan will be told of Mr Asghar's history of mental illness
Maya Foa, director of Reprieve's death penalty team, said: "We have grave concerns about the ongoing lack of appropriate medical treatment for Mr Asghar, and hope that the British and Pakistani governments will do everything they can to ensure that he receives treatment without further delay.

"I trust that both governments are exploring every possible option to ensure that it does not take five years to see the effects of this terrible miscarriage of justice reversed."

Earlier this week, Prime Minister David Cameron told the House of Commons that the UK government was treating the case "very seriously".

Mr Cameron said ministers had spoken to the chief minister in the Punjab.

The high commissioner in Islamabad had raised it with authorities there, the prime minister added, and meetings were being held in London.
 
I think I'll put this under Blasphemy. :)

Montenegro church depicts Tito, Marx and Engels in hell
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25993584

Fresco from church in Podgorica, Montenegro

Tito, Marx and Engels are pictured in a sea of fire with diabolical beasts

A church in Montenegro has sparked controversy by displaying a fresco depicting Yugoslav communist leader Josip Broz Tito in the fires of hell with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

The newly built Church of Resurrection in the capital Podgorica has already drawn criticism for its lavish design.

Critics now say the church should not be interfering in politics.

Works by philosophers Marx and Engels were required reading when Montenegro was part of communist Yugoslavia.

One church leader, named only as Dragan, told the Agence France-Presse news agency that Marx, Engels and Tito "personify communist evil in the Balkans" and the artist should be "allowed the freedom to see things as he wishes".

However, he added: "He cannot judge, in the name of the Church, who belongs in hell or heaven."

The Church of Resurrection in Podgorica
The Church of Resurrection in Podgorica has also been criticised for its lavish design.
Fresco from church in Podgorica, Montenegro shows Tito, Marx and Engels
Tito is shown in his military uniform next to Marx and Engels
The fresco painter remains anonymous.

Visitors to the church were divided over whether the fresco should remain.

"The Church should not interfere in the secular world and determine who deserves a place in hell or heaven," said lawyer Rade Stankovic.

But another visitor, named only as Milos, said communism had caused "so much evil".

"Many people were killed in the name of the ideology promoted by Marx, Engels and their followers," he said.

The church is not the only religious building in Montenegro to depict figures from 20th Century history on its walls.

A monastery in Ostrog shows Hitler, Lenin and Tito together with Judas, who betrayed Jesus.
 
Wendy Doniger book 'to be recalled' by Penguin India
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-26133291

Union minister, Jairam Ramesh

Cabinet minister Jairam Ramesh described the decision as "atrocious"

Penguin India has agreed to recall and destroy all remaining copies of a book on Hinduism by a leading American academic, according to reports.

Wendy Doniger's book The Hindus: An Alternative History had been the subject of a legal challenge claiming the text was offensive to Hindus.

Details of an apparent agreement between the Hindu campaign group Shiksha Bachao Andolan and Penguin India have been circulated online.

Penguin India has not yet commented.

Shiksha Bachao Andolan brought a civil case in 2011 against Penguin India arguing that the book was insulting to Hindus, containing what they described as "heresies".

The group's president, Dina Nath Batra, told the AFP news agency the book was focused on "sex and eroticism".

"She denounced the Hindu Gods and freedom fighters of India," the group's lawyer, Monika Arora, told Reuters.

More than 10,000 people had also signed a petition online, claiming the text was filled with factual inaccuracies.

Responding to the decision, Wendy Doniger issued a statement saying she was deeply angered and concerned for freedom of speech in India.

"The true villain of this piece," she said, is "the Indian law that makes it a criminal rather than civil offence to publish a book that offends any Hindu, a law that jeopardises the physical safety of any publisher, no matter how ludicrous the accusation brought against a book."

Shiksha Bachao Andolan said it was happy with the settlement but Indian cabinet minister Jairam Ramesh told the Press Trust of India the decision was "atrocious", adding the book was "not blasphemous by any means".

The reports have prompted widespread criticism on social media, amid growing concern that religious groups are stifling free speech and artistic expression in India.

Historian Ramachandra Guha called the news "deeply disappointing".

"The answer to a book one doesn't like is another book, not a ban, or legal action, or physical intimidation," he tweeted.
 
Some really touchy Irish-Americans about. Remember: Jesus turned water into wine.

Anything which annoys the Ancient Order of Homophobes pleases me.

A drunk Jesus the latest St.Patrick’s shirt from Urban Outfitters
Niall O'Dowd @niallodowd March 16,2014 04:19 AM

A t-shirt from Urban Outfitters depicts a boozy Jesus.

A depiction of a drunk Jesus is the latest offering from controversial apparel store Urban Outfitters.

Their outlet in the Huntington Mall on Long Island was prominently displaying the “Drunk Jesus” t-shirt on Saturday in their male apparel section.

The t-shirt depicts a boozy Jesus surrounded by a halo, grinning and grasping a full beer glass with a four leaf clover in it and the words “Jesus, I’m drunk.”

The shirt is not among the product lines shown on the Urban Outfitters website, which features a number of other drunk-themed t-shirts, hats and accessories.

This is not the first time Urban Outfitters, who have also been sued by American Indians for their use of stereotypes, has got the Irish up of many Irish Americans.

As well as selling various St. Patrick’s Day themed products in their stores, there is also a designated “St. Patrick’s Day shop” on their website which sells over 30 items such as “Leprechaun Piss” and a “Kiss me I’m drunk, or Irish, or whatever” t-shirt. A hat with the slogan, “Irish Yoga: downward facing upchuck,” featuring an inebriated stick figure vomiting shamrocks, is also on sale.

The company CEO Richard Hayne was recently named in Forbes 400 list with a net worth of $1.8 billion and has been supportive of gay equality issues.

The Ancient Order of Hibernians, America’s largest Irish organization, has strongly protested against the use of such stereotypes this St.Patrick’s season.

Spencer’s stores have been a particular target. The Ancient Order of Hibernians has called on them to immediately cease the sale of denigrating and defaming merchandise targeting Irish Americans.

AOH National President Brendan Moore told IrishCentral that the campaign had the highest priority. "No other ethnic group would stand for this type of vulgar and ignorant stereotyping," he said. "Spencer's have gone too far."

The AOH, an Irish Catholic fraternal organization founded in 1836, drew particular attention to a t-shirt on the company’s site with the slogan “F*** me I’m Irish.” The AOH is calling on their “40,000 members, their families, the Irish American community and our fellow Americans of all ethnicities to send a clear message to Spencer’s that there is no room in the America of the 21st century for the bigoted Thomas Nast stereotypes of the 19th.”

In a statement they said, “We feel [this] sends a clear and unequivocal message on Spencer’s view of Irish Americans, their heritage and culture.”



Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/A-Drun ... z2w9eddCOQ
Follow us: @IrishCentral on Twitter | IrishCentral on Facebook
 
Don't see what's so bad about a picture of Kris Kristofferson drinking beer.;)

As a Pastafarian, I get very offended when my noodly lord is portrayed sober. He created the world drunk, and promises us each a beer volcano in the afterlife.
 
Sawan Masih: Pakistani Christian gets death penalty for blasphemy
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26781731

A rioter burns a cross in Lahore, 9 March

Christian families had already fled when the rioters struck

A Pakistani Christian man has been sentenced to death for blasphemy, in a case which sparked fierce rioting in the eastern city of Lahore last March.

Sawan Masih was convicted of using derogatory remarks against the Prophet Mohammed in a row with a Muslim friend.

Hundreds of Muslims attacked the city's Christian Joseph colony, torching homes, when the allegations surfaced.

Allegations of blasphemy against Islam are taken very seriously in Pakistan, where 97% of the population are Muslim.

Several recent cases have prompted international concern about the application of blasphemy laws.

Continue reading the main story
Pakistan's blasphemy laws

After partition in 1947 Pakistan inherited offences relating to religion which were first codified by India's British rulers in 1860
In the 1980s clauses were added to the laws by the military government of General Zia-ul Haq
One clause recommends life imprisonment for "wilful" desecration of the Koran, another says blasphemy is punishable by death or life imprisonment
Muslims constitute a majority of those booked under these laws, followed by the minority Ahmadi community
A majority support the idea that blasphemers should be punished, but there is little understanding of what religious scripture says as opposed to how the modern law is codified
Q&A: Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws
Sawan Masih's lawyer said a judge announced the verdict during a hearing at the jail where the trial has been held, amid fears for his client's safety if he attended court.

The 26-year-old Masih, who is a father of three, has consistently maintained his innocence during the year-long trial.

He argues the real reason for the blasphemy allegation was a property dispute between him and his friend.

His father, Chapman Masih, said: "My son is innocent... we are not being treated fairly", the BBC's Shumaila Jaffrey in Lahore reports.

The rioting that followed the incident lasted days and saw about 3,000 Muslims attack the Christian neighbourhood, starting fires. Two churches and dozens of bibles were also desecrated in the attack

A de facto moratorium on the death penalty means that he is unlikely to face the gallows any time soon.

Since the 1990s, scores of Christians have been convicted for desecrating the Koran or blaspheming against the Prophet Mohammed.

While most of them have been sentenced to death by the lower courts, many sentences have been overturned due to lack of evidence. Sawan Masih now has 30 days to appeal

Critics argue that Pakistan's blasphemy laws are frequently misused to settle personal scores and that members of minority groups are also unfairly targeted.

Muslims constitute a majority of those prosecuted, followed by the minority Ahmadi community.

In 2012 the arrest of a young Christian girl, Rimsha Masih, on blasphemy charges provoked international outrage. After being detained in a high security prison for several weeks she was eventually released and her family subsequently fled to Canada.

More recently the conviction for blasphemy of Muhammad Asghar, an elderly British man with a history of mental illness, prompted global concern.
 
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