Free Republic

THE END Crossposted from Radarsite From Lionheart 23 July 2008 I was due to attend Greyfriars Police station today to answer bail regarding my arrest on ‘suspicion of stirring up racial hatred’ through written material on this blog. I was advised by my solicitor/lawyer yesterday that he had spoken to DC Holden regarding my attendance at the police station today and he told him that a decision still had not been made concerning me and my case so they are going to be bailing me for a further few months. So the leash is still around my neck, but it’s...

Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin and the city of Memphis have filed a lawsuit to learn who operates a blog harshly critical of Godwin and his department. The lawsuit asks AOL to produce all information related to the identity of an e-mail address linked to MPD Enforcer 2.0, a blog popular with police officers that has been extremely critical of police leadership at 201 Poplar. "In what could be a landmark case of privacy and the 1st Amendment," the anonymous bloggers write on the site, "Godwin has illegally used his position and the City of Memphis as a ram to...

HOLLAND, Mich., July 23 (UPI) -- A Republican Michigan congressman is fighting a Bush administration ban on using words offensive to Muslims while describing terrorists. Rep. Peter Hoekstra offered an amendment last week to the 2009 Intelligence Authorization Act that would ban financing for any restriction on use of words such as "jihadist" and "Islamist." Fellow Republican Michigan Reps. Joe Knollenberg and Thaddeus McCotter, and Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak, supported the amendment which was approved by a 249-180 vote in the House, The Detroit News reported Wednesday. Some analysts say the words inadvertently honor terrorists while they are considered slurs...

When Hamas Sued Harry -- Islamofascism Tries To Shut Up Harry's Place Cross posted in support of HARRY's PLACELast Friday, in the wake of a closely argued debate about whether Mohammed Sawalha, the President of the British Muslim Initiative, had used the phrase “Evil Jew� or “Jewish Lobby� in a speech, Harry’s Place received a letter. The letter is from Dean and Dean, a firm of solicitors who are acting for Mr Sawalha. Mr Sawalha has demanded that we take down certain articles from Harry’s Place, and publish an apology “in the attached wording�. The solicitors have failed to attach...

The Company Muslims KeepCanada's Islamic community has nothing to gain by allying itself with human rights censorsLast week, at Toronto's Noor Centre --a cultural organization for liberal Muslims --I participated in a panel discussion on the question of whether the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC) is justified in bringing human rights complaints against Maclean's magazine for publishing Mark Steyn's (now famous) cover article, The Future Belongs to Islam. What follows is adapted from my opening remarks. No, I don't think the CIC's complaints have any merit. In fact, I find it quite creepy that government officials even take the case seriously....

-- snip -- Complaints about privacy and fairness from the government's former chief scientist, Sir David King, and the Nobel peace prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will be upheld on almost all counts, the Guardian has learned. But it is understood that Channel 4 will still claim victory because the ultimate verdict on a separate complaint about accuracy, which contained 131 specific points and ran to 270 pages, will find that it did not breach the regulator's broadcasting code and did not materially mislead viewers...

The best, the most pointed and comprehensive opinion on the award of the Order of Canada pin to Henry Morgentaler, in the course of this long grim week, was by Ian Hunter in the National Post: “In old Canada, Morgentaler was prosecuted and sent to jail for performing illegal abortions. But that was in another era and, as far as I'm concerned, another country -- a country as dead as any of the recipients of Morgentaler’s attentions.” I shall say something about that award tomorrow. For today I want to focus on the New Canada -- the one that is...

July 17, 2008 Late last week, I attended a Capitol Hill briefing about an obscure United Nations resolution on "defamation of religions" that some call the "soft jihad." Lined up in front of a hearing room in the Rayburn House Office Building were six panelists including David Harris, a Canadian who was sued for libel in 2004 by the Canadian branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) for remarks he made on a radio show. The chief topic of discussion was a U.N. Commission on Human Rights resolution, backed by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, that addresses "the...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - A judge has ordered a 19-year-old man to write an apology to an upstate city in New York for dressing as a 6-foot penis at a high school graduation. A Saratoga Springs judge also ordered Calvin Morett to pay to have the apology published in a local newspaper. The sentence also calls for Morett to pay court fees and perform 24 hours of community service. Morett had pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. A video of Morett's ....

The word from Capitol Hill is that efforts by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and her Democrat colleagues to silence talk radio and shut down Internet access are picking up steam. And a struggling House Minority is doing everything it can to slow down the Majority assault on Freedom of Speech. Ms. Pelosi, for her part, has openly boasted of helping lead the efforts to resurrect the moribund “Fairness Doctrine” and has personally helped quash efforts by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) to get the onerous measure permanently repealed. At present, Mr. Pence’s bill, the Broadcaster Freedom Act, is buried in...

House Speaker Pelosi is hinting at reinstating the Fairness Doctrine, and many of her liberal colleagues in Congress are doing the same in both chambers. Alleging the press isnt balanced, they say government should be making sure all viewpoints meaning the lefts are fairly represented. I agree the press isnt balanced, but Mrs. Pelosi has it backward; liberalism dominates the press, including the three major networks and most major newspapers. Though originally the Fairness Doctrine did not require opposing time be equal, it came to be the standard. The concern at the time was the prevention of a single viewpoint...

Christians will face prison for speaking out against homosexuality if Brazil's Senate passes a bill approved unanimously by its House of Representatives. The measure is considered the country's newest attempt to promote homosexuality, disguised as an act to prevent discrimination, the Catholic News Agency reports. If anyone prevents actions of "homosexual affection" in public or private locations open to the public, they could face up to five years in prison for doing so, the Association of the Defense of Life reports. The bill also seeks to penalize private and public school administrators with up to three years in prison if...

Americas Brazilian law would prohibit Christian teaching on homosexuality Rio de Janeiro, Jul 15, 2008 / 01:36 pm (CNA).- The Brazilian Senate is considering a bill approved unanimously and without debate by the country’s House of Representatives that aims to promote homosexuality and prohibit Christian teaching on the issue, under the guise of combating discrimination. According to the Association of the Defense of Life, the bill would make it crime punishable by five years in prison to impede expressions of “homosexual affection” in public places or private places open to the public. It would also punish those who deny employment...

Our Constitution is one of our greatest assets in the fight against terrorism. A free-flowing marketplace of ideas, protected by the First Amendment, enables the ideals of democracy to defeat the totalitarian vision of al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. That free marketplace faces a threat. Individuals with alleged connections to terrorist activity are filing libel suits and winning judgments in foreign courts against American researchers who publish on these matters. These suits intimidate and even silence writers and publishers. Under American law, a libel plaintiff must prove that defamatory material is false. In England, the burden is reversed....Consequently, English...

The foundation for a Great Wall of separation between members of Congress and the American people has been laid this week by the Democratic leadership of the House Administration Committee. Taking notes from the Chinese, he proposed a “Great Wall” of the House that will render the political discourse between Americans and their elected officials nearly as free and open as the political discourse between to the Chinese people and their unelected officials. As if Americans don’t already feel alienated from Washington politics enough, the new rule regarding increasingly influential internet dialogue poses a serious threat to free speech and...

Our Constitution is one of our greatest assets in the fight against terrorism. A free-flowing marketplace of ideas, protected by the First Amendment, enables the ideals of democracy to defeat the totalitarian vision of al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. That free marketplace faces a threat. Individuals with alleged connections to terrorist activity are filing libel suits and winning judgments in foreign courts against American researchers who publish on these matters. These suits intimidate and even silence writers and publishers. Under American law, a libel plaintiff must prove that defamatory material is false. In England, the burden is reversed. Disputed...

I had the pleasure of making a presentation as an expert witness to the U.S. Congress's bi-partisan human rights caucus today. I didn't count, but I'd estimate that there were over 100 people there. I met quite a few readers of my blog, and even a donor to my legal defence fund -- what a warm welcome in a far away city! There were a surprising number of journalists, including Luiza Savage, Maclean's magazine's Washington Bureau Chief. And there were a lot of religious liberty NGOs, including those from the Bahai, Hindu and Buddhist communities -- including several in bright...

A local man is drawing criticism after driving around town with an anti-illegal immigration sign mounted on a trailer. The sign reads "Build the wall, deport them all," and Davi Rodriguez says it's part of an attempt to educate residents on illegal immigration. Davi drives the sign up and down the streets of Sacramento where day laborers wait for work, sometimes videotaping the reactions and uploading them to YouTube. Workers we talked to say they feel harassed, and they're losing jobs. "The people who come down here to hire us go away," said one worker, who did not wish to...

Sticks and stone may break your bones - but words can destroy. Think about the Swift Boat campaign and what it did to John Kerry in 2004 and what rumors of a secret love child did to John McCain's bid for the White House in 2000. ~~snip~~ The Internet is making it easy to set these little fires and fan them into a blaze of untruths, and this election has become so intense that groups wanting to undermine the other guy have sunk to a new level. Unregulated attack groups like the 2004 Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, called 527s...

Michigan man is seeking $70 million from two Christian publishers for emotional distress and mental instability he received during the past 20 years from versions of the Bible that refer to homosexuality as a sin. Bradley LaShawn Fowler, a gay man, claims his constitutional rights were infringed upon by Zondervan Publishing Co. and Thomas Nelson Publishing, both of which, he claims, deliberately caused homosexuals to suffer by misinterpretation of the Bible. Fowler, 39, is seeking $60 million from Zondervan and another $10 million from Thomas Nelson. According to a USA Today report, Fowler’s two separate suits against the publishers claim...

Maclean's magazine, Canada's Newsweek, was brought before the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal for running an excerpt from Mark Steyn's book America Alone. The California websites introduced as evidence were FreeRepublic and Catholic Answers. The claim was that their discussion boards proved that Maclean's inspire hate-speech toward Muslims. The Washington Times reports: "Numerous Canadians and Americans following the hearing denounced the case as absurd and that it is a threat to free speech that a provincial tribunal is asserting jurisdiction over the writings of a best-selling author residing in New Hampshire, based upon an out-of-province complainant offended by the response...

A Michigan man is seeking $70 million from two Christian publishers for emotional distress and mental instability he received during the past 20 years from versions of the Bible that refer to homosexuality as a sin. Bradley LaShawn Fowler, a gay man, claims his constitutional rights were infringed upon by Zondervan Publishing Co. and Thomas Nelson Publishing, both of which, he claims, deliberately caused homosexuals to suffer by misinterpretation of the Bible. Fowler, 39, is seeking $60 million from Zondervan and another $10 million from Thomas Nelson. According to a USA Today report, Fowler’s two separate suits against the publishers...

A homosexual man is suing two major Christian publishers for violating his constitutional rights and causing emotional pain, because the Bible they publish refers to homosexuality as a sin. Bradley LaShawn Fowler, 39, of Canton, Mich., is seeking $60 million from Zondervan and another $10 million from Thomas Nelson Publishing in lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, the Grand Rapids Press reported. Fowler filed his claim against Grand Rapids-based Zondervan Monday, alleging its Bibles' references to homosexuality as a sin have made him an outcast from his family and contributed to physical discomfort and...

"Efforts in both chambers of Congress have Republicans wondering why Democrats seem to fear free speech. Rep. Michael Capuano (D-MA) has proposed limitations on how Representatives can post information to the Internet in a time when we should be demanding more transparency, not less. According to a source in the Senate, Dianne Feinstein has begun her own campaign to force Senators to seek permission before communicating over the Internet." "In the Senate, the problem gets even worse. Feinstein (D-CA) would have the Rules Committee act as a censor board, forcing members to get approval for the act of communicating on...

A homosexual man is suing a major Christian publisher for violating his constitutional rights and causing emotional pain, because its Bible versions refer to homosexuality as a sin. Bradley LaShawn Fowler, 39, of Canton, Mich., is seeking $60 million from Zondervan and another $10 million from Thomas Nelson Publishing in lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, the Grand Rapids Press reported. Fowler filed his claim against Grand Rapids-based Zondervan yesterday, alleging its Bibles' references to homosexuality as a sin have made him an outcast from his family and contributed to physical discomfort and periods...

Christian publisher Zondervan is facing a $60 million federal lawsuit filed by a man who claims he and other homosexuals have suffered based on what the suit claims is a misinterpretation of the Bible.

A 60-year-old librarian received a trespassing ticket Monday after a liberal group's protest outside John McCain's town-hall meeting. Kreck — a former Denver Post reporter who works part time as a librarian for an education think tank — said she was removed as she quizzed a police officer about whether he could deny her free-speech rights "on city property" by taking away her sign, while McCain supporters wore buttons inside. Jenny Schiavone, a spokeswoman for the performing arts center, said the venue is city-owned rental property but is not legally defined as public property. Detective John White, a spokesman for...

“Freedom of speech is an American concept, so I don’t give it any value.” Investigator for the Canadian Human Rights Commission Scientology, the new age "religion" founded by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, has a new opponent, scores of anonymous protesters across the web who have aptly named themselves, Anonymous. Anonymous, with its legions of cyber-warriors, has been busy exposing Scientology's murky past and the inner workings of the "Church", and its practice of "fair gaming". Damian DeWitt, a member of Anonymous, makes some great points about the "prosecution" of Free Speech by Canada's largest oxymoron, the Human...

Alberta Pastor Steve Boissoin has filed an appeal to the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal ruling that convicted him of hate speech. The pastor was found guilty last November of having written a letter to the editor in the Red Deer Advocate that was "likely" to expose homosexuals to hatred. The appeal was filed on June 26 with the Queen's Bench of Alberta. A hearing has preliminarily been set for September 9, although that date could change during negotiations between the involved parties. LifeSiteNews spoke with Boissoin's attorney, Gerald Chipeur, who said that he is confident that the court will grant...

"Our massive strategy was to use the Fairness Doctrine to challenge and harass right-wing broadcasters and hope the challenges would be so costly to them that they would be inhibited and decide it was too expensive to continue." --Bill Ruder, Democratic campaign consultant and Assistant Secretary of Commerce, Kennedy Administration The usual suspects will be doing the dirty work. Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) or Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) will likely resurrect the failed Media Act (Meaningful Expression of Democracy in America Act) intended to make political commentary unflattering to Democrats more difficult to deliver and easier to suppress through congressional...

Islamists' Catch-22 Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. Try a little thought experiment. What would have happened in this country during the Cold War if the Soviet Union successfully neutralized anti-communists opposed to the Kremlin’s plans for world domination? Of course, Moscow strove to discredit those in America and elsewhere who opposed its totalitarian agenda – especially after Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s excesses made it fashionable to vilify patriots by accusing them of believing communists were “under every bed.” But what if the USSR and its ideological soul-mates in places like China, North Korea, Cuba, Eastern Europe and parts of Africa had been...

Iran's parliament is set to debate a draft bill which could see the death penalty used for those deemed to promote corruption, prostitution and apostasy on the internet, reports said on Wednesday. MPs on Wednesday voted to discuss as a priority the draft bill which seeks to "toughen punishment for harming mental security in society," the ISNA news agency said. The text lists a wide range of crimes such rape and armed robbery for which the death penalty is already applicable. The crime of apostasy (the act of leaving a religion, in this case Islam) is also already punishable by...

TORONTO, July 4, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Canadian Human Rights Commission has dropped a complaint by a homosexual activist against Catholic Insight a Toronto-based national Catholic news magazine. A year and a half - and many thousands of dollars in legal fees - after a nine-point human rights complaint was filed by Edmonton-based homosexual activist Rob Wells, Catholic Insight has been informed that the case has been dropped. However, a judicial review before the Federal Court is still possible should the complainant pursue that avenue. In a letter the Commission noted that it decided "to dismiss the complaint because the...

A federal appeals court gave an anti-abortion group the go-ahead Wednesday to drive trucks with enlarged photos of aborted fetuses past California schools, saying the Constitution protects the display of disturbing messages.  Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies interfered with free speech by ordering the driver of one such truck to move away from a middle school, said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The deputies had cited a state law barring disruptive activities near public school grounds.  "The government cannot silence messages simply because they cause discomfort, fear or even anger," said a panel of three...

What is the Fairness Doctrine? - It’s NOT about fairness o It is a government plan to censor talk radio and Christian radio - FCC regulation that requires broadcasting stations to air both sides of a controversial issue o Reduces, rather than encourages discussion of controversial issues of public importance o While in effect, broadcasters limited controversial programming in fear of government sanction and administrative and legal expenses - Equal time would be provided free of charge, becoming costly to broadcasting licensees, who would eventually drop popular shows like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham o In fact, Bill...

A three-judge panel of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of FairLDS, Scott Gordon, and Allen Wyatt and against Sandra Tanner and Utah Lighthouse Ministry. This lawsuit was an effort to limit free speech by making an online parody websites legally actionable. The case was previously thrown out in summery judgment by the Tenth Circuit Court for the District of Utah, but Mrs. Tanner appealed. You can read the full court ruling here: http://www.ck10.uscourts.gov/opinions/07/07-4095.pdf You can read a write-up from the Citizen Media Law Project on the judgment here: http://tinyurl.com/58dvho Here is the original District judge's ruling...

9th Circuit Court of Appeals Hands First Amendment Victory to Center for Bio-Ethical Reform COLUMBUS, OH– July 3, 2008 – A federal appellate panel ruled Wednesday that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department violated the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform's (CBR) free speech rights when two CBR associates were forced to move a mobile billboard display of enlarged photos of early-term aborted fetuses away from a Rancho Palos Verdes middle school campus.   The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR), a non-profit pro-life educational foundation, sued the LA County Sheriff's Department and an assistant principal at Dodson Middle School, claiming civil rights...

IFI Media Watch It's a cold dark day. A group of stern-looking men and women sit in a conference room and decide what their countrymen should hear and what they shouldn't. "This isn't reflective of the people's wishes," says one member of the panel. "Yes, we'll have to make room for what our leader thinks," says another without batting an eye. Now you might be thinking I'm describing an event in Iran or the former Soviet Union. Perhaps it's an historical description of a meeting of the Communist Bloc in Mao Tse Tung's China. Sadly, it is none of the...

Pull back for a moment from the day-to-day and see the pattern. Talk radio. Oil. Guns. Global warming. Smoking. On the surface this is a seemingly unconnected laundry list of issues, their connection one to another tangential at best. Or is it? In the increasingly disturbing view we are all getting of the messianic world that is Obamaland, these subjects in fact have a chilling commonality. * Talk Radio: Think back for a moment to that threatening letter sent earlier this year to Rush Limbaugh's business partners at Clear Channel Communications by Senator Harry Reid, the Democrats' Senate leader. It...

Democrat Representative Louise Slaughter is actively trying to revive the Fairness Doctrine. She is not alone, she has the support of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, along with Senators Dick Durbin, Barbara Boxer, John Kerry, and Dianne Feinstein. What is the Fairness Doctrine? It is archaic rule that forces television and radio stations to air both sides of controversial issues. If this is reenacted, conservative and Christian talk radio programs are unlikely to be aired due to the demand for equal time, which the station is forced to provide - free of charge. Proponents in the past have admitted that the...

For the second consecutive year, a gay pride parade and festival was marked by the arrest of a Wichita pastor. But for the vast majority of those who gathered Sunday afternoon at Naftzger Park for the event, the day was one of celebration. "It means a lot to me," said Ken Gehmlich, president of Wichita Pride, which sponsors the annual event. "I think it's great that we can come together as family." Organizers estimated that about 100 people walked in the parade and that more than 1,000 attended the festival, which featured live music and vendors. After the parade traversed...

The bloggers in question, most of them supporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and all of them opposed to Senator Obama, received a notice from Google last week saying that their sites had been identified as potential "spam" blogs. "You will not be able to publish posts to your blog until we review your site and confirm that it is not a spam blog," the Google e-mail read. In an article that appeared on Bloggasm.com, the reporter Simon Owens spoke with some of the affected bloggers, who said they believed that Google had fallen prey to a campaign by activists...

ALA to Libraries: Keep Alms for Jihad, Pulped in the UK Andrew Albanese & Jennifer Pinkowski -- Library Journal At the urging of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), a scholarly book pulped by its British publisher is maintaining a safe haven in U.S. libraries. Alms for Jihad was the target of a potential libel suit in England by Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz, whose charitable activities have reportedly been linked to terrorist activities, as conveyed in the book. In response, publisher Cambridge University Press (CUP) pulped its unsold copies of the book, put it out of...

I read my friend Debbie Gyapong's concerns here and here about the Supreme Court's recent ruling that expands the scope of fair comment in defamation law. As I wrote on Friday, the ruling tilts the law further towards free speech, including "outrageous" and "ridiculous" speech. As someone who is sometimes accused of both, I'm naturally pleased!Debbie focussed on the fact that in the actual case that led to this decision, the plaintiff, Kari Simpson, was a Christian conservative, who had been likened to Nazis by the defendant, Rafe Mair, on his radio show. The judges said that might be extreme,...

TORONTO - The Canadian Human Rights Commission has dismissed a complaint filed by the Canadian Islamic Congress against Maclean's magazine. The Congress claimed an article written by Mark Steyn, entitled "The Future Belongs to Islam" and posted on the Maclean's website in October 2006, made a number of statements and assertions that were likely to expose Muslims to hatred or contempt. In its ruling, posted on Maclean's website, the commission acknowledges "the writing is polemical, colourful and emphatic, and was obviously calculated to excite discussion and even offend certain readers, Muslim and non-Muslim alike." But the commission also says that,...

THE HAGUE, 01/07/08 - The Public Prosecutors' Office (OM) has rejected all charges against MP Geert Wilders. Neither his film Fitna nor statements he has made in the past constitute any criminal offences. In recent months, dozens of individuals and organisations have lodged charges against Wilders for discrimination and incitement to hatred, prompted by his statements and his anti-Islam film Fitna, which was released on 27 March. After examining all the charges in detail, the OM reported yesterday that it saw no grounds for prosecution. OM spokesman Leo de Wit said that "Wilders' statements only concern Islam as a religious...

<p>A Canadian stand-up comedian will face a human rights tribunal hearing after a woman complained she and her friends faced a "tirade of homophobic and sexist comments" while attending one of his shows.</p> <p>In a decision released this week, the B. C. Human Rights Tribunal ruled there is enough evidence to hear the case of Vancouver woman Lorna Pardy against Toronto comedian Guy Earle. Zesty's Restaurant in Vancouver, where the May 22, 2007, show took place, has also been named in the complaint.</p>

Has the Whole World Gone Mad? http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/06/29/has-the-whole-world-gone-mad/#comment-405813 June 29, 2008 at 3:45 PM Islam, Sharia Law, UN Human Rights Council UN ‘Human Rights Council’ bans criticism of Islam The UN ‘Human Rights Council’ decided this week that it is forbidden to criticize Islam because “religious issues can be “very complex, very sensitive and very intense…This council is not prepared to discuss religious matters in depth, consequently we should not do it.” From now on, only religious scholars would be permitted to broach ‘religious matters’ before the Council. The ban came after a heated session on Monday, when the representative of...

They only need about 23 more signatures from our congresspersons on Rep. Mike Pence's Discharge Petition to send the Broadcaster Freedom Act to the House floor for an up or down vote. 113 congresspersons signed Rep. Pence's temporary bill last year, and when you call, they might tell you that, but they must sign Rep. Pence's current Discharge Petition. Rep. Mike Pence said that the Dem congresspersons who were against the "Fair"ness Doctrine last year, are afraid to sign his Dispatch Petition now. Rep. Pence needs 22 Dems to sign it, so it will get passed. It sounds as if...

Free speech obviously does not rank very high on the list of human rights for this group. From Israel Matzav: The UN 'Human Rights Council' decided this week that it is forbidden to criticize Islam because "religious issues can be "very complex, very sensitive and very intense...This council is not prepared to discuss religious matters in depth, consequently we should not do it." From now on, only religious scholars would be permitted to broach 'religious matters' before the Council.