Free Republic

December 18, 2006 -- A Westchester grandfather called Briarcliff Manor officials "grinches" yesterday after they not only refused to put up a Nativity scene in a village park - but took down all holiday symbols that were already there. Henry Ritell, 80, sued the village to force it to install the Nativity scene, which he had purchased, in Law Park, where a menorah and a tree decorated with Christmas lights were standing. On Friday, a federal judge ruled in his favor. He instructed the village to either remove the menorah, "a symbol of Jewish faith," or include Ritell's Nativity scene.

T.O. judge orders Christmas tree out of lobby Updated Thu. Dec. 14 2006 5:31 PM ET toronto.ctv.ca A Toronto judge has ordered a Christmas tree out of a downtown provincial courthouse lobby, saying it's not an appropriate symbol to non-Christians. The move by Justice Marion Cohen has upset staff, some of whom call the decision stupid and insulting. Cohen says she understands the small tree has stood in the lobby at 311 Jarvis St. for years during the Christmas season, but in a letter to employees says non-Christians are "confronted" with the artificial decoration, which makes them feel "they are...

"While an Olympic-medal-winning ice skater smiled and listened to Christmas carols, a Riverside city staff member silenced the singing group because she was afraid the skater would be offended because she is Jewish." "The choir had barely launched into "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" when a police officer and Michelle Baldwin, a city special-events employee, approached choir director Staci Della-Rocco and told her to stop the choir's performance." "Amber Eyerly, with the New York-based PR firm that helped promote the event, said that Cohen didn't make the request." "I felt so bad for my kids and that whole situation," Della-Rocco...

The ACLU is at it again. With an outrageous boldness that only they could muster, the ACLU has set their sights on Christmas ... In their never-ending quest to completely eradicate all things religious from public life, the ACLU's latest lawsuit is an all-out frontal attack on the freedom of speech. Let me ask you - when did a children's Christmas program become illegal? When did the nativity story and Christmas songs become unconstitutional? Because this is the dangerous charge the ACLU has leveled. A children's Christmas program has been deemed unconstitutional by the ACLU. I have assembled a senior...

WASHINGTON – Concerned that the voice of science and secularism is growing ever fainter in the White House, on Capitol Hill and in culture, a group of prominent scientists and advocates of church-state separation on Tuesday announced formation of a Washington think tank designed to promote “rationalism” as the basis of public policy.The brainchild of Paul Kurtz, founder of the Center for Inquiry-Transnational, the small public policy office will lobby and sometimes litigate on behalf of science-based decision making and against religion in government affairs.The announcement was accompanied by release of a “Declaration in Defense of Science and Secularism,” which...

THE war in Iraq is unlikely to be resolved by a US Administration committed to a fundamentalist Christian viewpoint, according to Gerhard Schröder, the former German Chancellor, whose newly published memoirs stoke his four-year feud with President Bush.Herr Schröder won a re-election campaign in 2002 by setting out German opposition to the invasion of Iraq. As a result, relations with Washington deteriorated and the two leaders barely spoke for three years. In extracts from his memoirs to be published in Der Spiegel magazine, Herr Schröder explains what went wrong and why it will be difficult for the President to make...

Nadia Eweida: BA said she had failed to comply with their 'uniform regulations' A Christian woman has been banned by British Airways for wearing a small cross necklace to work - while muslims and sikhs are allowed to wear headscarves and turbans.Heathrow check-in worker Nadia Eweida was sent home after refusing to remove the crucifix which breached BA's dress code. Her treatment by BA - which styles itself as the "world's favourite airline" - brought condemnation both from Christian groups and members of other faiths last night. BA's chief executive Willie Walsh has upheld the action against Miss Eweida for...

A California school has fixed its T-shirt policy after two student were reprimanded for wearing the "inappropriate" Christian message that life is valuable, according to a law firm that defends religious freedom and parental rights. The announcement comes from Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute, who said he saluted the district for resolving so quickly the First Amendment violation. The case developed at a Livingston, Calif., middle school when two students, sisters, were admonished by school officials for wearing the offending T-shirts. The message read: "Help Cure Abortion" on the front, and "Abortion: The leading cause of death in...

In what has suddenly been made into a highly controversial speech, the day after September 11, at Bavaria’s University of Regensberg, Pope Benedict describes Christian belief in a God whose words and acts are bound by reason, truth and the law of non-contradiction. Benedict contrasts this with Islamic belief in a God not bound by anything—including his own words. Benedict further contrasts Christian belief with that of secular humanists who see reason as being completely unbound of God. In response, both Islamists and secularists have demanded the Pope apologize. He must not. Benedict’s speech is a work of enlightened genius....

Mogadishu 17, Sep. 06 ( Sh.M.Network) - Unidentified gunmen are reported to have raided Mogadishu’s SOS hospital and gunned down one of the foreign nuns in the hospital.Reliable sources say the nun, thought to be an Italian, is confirmed dead. A bodyguard of the nun instantly died after he was fatally shot by two men reportedly armed with handguns. Reports also indicate that the two assailants have been nabbed by armed guards within SOS hospital. Six other suspects have also arrested as one of the Islamic Courts leaders Sheik Yusuf Indho-adde told reporters. The motive of the attack remains unknown....

by Mark Finkelstein September 16, 2006 - 06:46 In a surreal clash of the sacred and the profane, the New York Times - that citadel of secularism - has declared in its editorial of this morning that Pope Benedict "needs to offer a deep and persuasive apology," for having quoted a 14th century Christian emperor who said: “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” The Times is only being fair and balanced, I suppose. After...

Angry protests against Pope Benedict XVI erupted in the Islamic world today as the Vatican struggled to explain a reference by the Pontiff to the Prophet Mohammad’s “evil and inhuman” contribution to religion. The Vatican has tried to defend the Pope after comments he made about Islam and jihad prompted anger in the Muslim world.   The Pope stressed that the controversial words were not his own Muslim clerics from Cairo to Kashmir declared the Pope had revived the spirit of the medieval crusades and the official sermon for Friday prayers in Teheran condemned the Pope as “rude and weak-minded”....

Turkey’s ruling Islamic-rooted party joined a wave of criticism of Pope Benedict XVI today, saying he would go down in history in the same league as leaders like Hitler and Mussolini for remarks he made on Islam. The comments by Salih Kapusuz, a deputy leader of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party, came a day after Turkey’s top cleric asked Benedict to take back recent remarks, escalating tensions before the pontiff’s November visit. The Pope made his remarks on Islam in a speech in which he quoted from a book recounting a conversation between 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Sep 15, 2006 (AP)— Pakistan's parliament unanimously condemned Pope Benedict XVI on Friday for making what it called "derogatory" comments about Islam and demanded he apologize. The Vatican has said Pope Benedict did not mean to offend Muslims with remarks he made in Germany this week about Muhammad and holy war. In a speech, Benedict quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor as saying, "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

Muslim leaders on Thursday condemned Pope Benedict over comments he made about Islam on a visit to Germany and demanded he apologize. The head of the Egyptian-based Muslim Brotherhood called on Islamic countries to threaten to break off relations with the Vatican unless the pontiff withdrew his remarks. A top religious figure in Turkey suggested the pope should reconsider a trip he is planning to Turkey later this year. The Vatican issued a statement to say the Pope had never meant to offend Islam. In his speech at the University of Regensburg on Tuesday, Benedict quoted criticism of Islam and...

Neither O'Donnell nor ABC has apologized ABC's Rosie O'Donnell told a nationwide audience this week that "radical Christians" are the same as radical Muslims who piloted hijacked jetliners into New York's Twin Towers, who chop off the heads of individuals and who bomb innocent children in suicide attacks. O'Donnell made her comments as host of ABC's "The View." "Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America where we have separation of church and state," O'Donnell said. She had been saying that America was attacked "not by a nation." She continued: "And as a result...

It's been a while since the Romans made sport of feeding Christians to the lions, but there's a terrible new Colosseum-style feeding frenzy emerging – a new bloodlust for eliminating the plague of uppity Christians right here in the U.S. Mel Seesholtz You think I'm exaggerating? Take a look at what Mel Seesholtz, a Ph.D. and professor of English at Pennsylvania State University, offered up yesterday in the Online Journal, a website that boasts of being established in 1998 "to provide uncensored and accurate news, analysis and commentary." Seesholtz has his panties in a bunch over opposition by Christians in...

BBC did not know of 9/11 film's link to religious right David Leigh Wednesday September 13, 2006 The Guardian (UK) The BBC broadcast a controversial docu-drama, The Path to 9/11, this week without realising that it had been made by a member of the US religious right. The three-hour programme, shown over two nights on BBC2 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the attack on the twin towers, was purchased from ABC, a subsidiary of Disney. At the last minute the US television company was forced to re-edit sequences after claims of distortion from former president Bill Clinton and members...

Joe Cook has long since apologized for what he said last summer. Although he is director of the Louisiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, and strenuously opposed to anything resembling prayer in public schools or God in public life, he says he wasn’t speaking for the ACLU – or, curiously, even for himself – when he said what he said. He said it about some teachers, students, and school board members in Tangipahoa Parish who, on infrequent occasions, have offered public, “sectarian” prayers in their classrooms, at school banquets, or to open board meetings. “They [the Christians] have...

Williams worked with authorities on al-Qaida links When Canadian law enforcement authorities busted a Toronto terrorist plot with al-Qaida connections, they acted with the benefit of briefings and research developed by American investigator Paul L. Williams, author of the new WND Books release "Dunces of Doomsday: 10 Blunders that Gave Rise to Radical Islam." Canadian police last Friday arrested 17 suspected Islamic terrorists, mostly in Toronto, who were allegedly planning to unleash a string of attacks in Ontario in retaliation for the country's support of the U.S. in the War on Terror. Williams has long been investigating the link between...