Pope in Philippines says there are 'limits' to free speech

Yahoo – AFP, Jean-Louis De La Vaissiere, 15 Jan 2015

Pope Francis waves to Filipino Catholics as his motorcade passes by

in Manila on January 15, 2015 (AFP Photo/Noel Celis)

Manila (AFP) - Pope Francis on Thursday condemned killing in God's name but warned religion could not be insulted, weighing into a global debate on free speech ahead of a rapturous welcome in the Philippines.

The pontiff made the comments to reporters as he flew from Sri Lanka to begin a five-day visit in the Catholic Church's Asian stronghold that is tipped to attract a world-record papal crowd.

Filipino Catholics gather after Pope Francis' 

motorcade passed by in Manila on January

15, 2015 (AFP Photo/Noel Celis)

"To kill in the name of God is an absurdity," Francis said when asked about last week's assault by Islamist gunmen on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in which 12 people died.

But the 78-year-old pontiff also said "each religion has its dignity" and "there are limits".

"If a good friend speaks badly of my mother, he can expect to get punched, and that's normal. You cannot provoke, you cannot insult other people's faith, you cannot mock it," he said.

Brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi stormed Charlie Hebdo's Paris office on January 7, killing some of France's most loved satirical cartoonists in their outrage over the magazine's repeated depictions of the Prophet Mohammed.

The assault was followed two days later by an attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris by a gunman claiming to have coordinated his actions with the brothers.

In all, 17 people died over three days in the bloodiest attacks in France in half a century, sparking a global debate on the limits of free speech.

Charlie Hebdo drew ire from religious groups again this week when it published a "survivors" issue featuring an image of the prophet weeping on the cover.

The cartoon depicts Mohammed holding a sign reading "Je suis Charlie" (I am Charlie), which became a global rallying cry for those expressing sympathy for the victims and support for freedom of expression.

The cover sparked a backlash in some parts of the Muslim world, where depicting the prophet is seen as blasphemous.

Well-wishers line the streets to catch a 

glimpse of Pope Francis in Manila on

 January 15, 2015 (AFP Photo/

Martin Bureau)

Pope Francis, seen by many around the world as more progressive than many of his predecessors, said freedom of speech should be tempered by respect for faith.

"Freedom of speech is a right and a duty that must be displayed without offending," he said just before arriving in the Philippine capital of Manila.

Francis on Thursday began the second leg of his Asia tour after a successful visit to Sri Lanka, where he preached on reconciliation and religious tolerance.

Passionate welcome

Church bells tolled across the Philippines as his plane touched down, as hundreds of children on the tarmac chanted: "Welcome Pope Francis".

Hundreds of thousands of people then crowded the closed-off route the pope passed as he made a 35-minute trip in a "popemobile" from the airport to the Vatican's embassy to rest overnight.

The pope stood on the back of the vehicle, which had no walls, waving and smiling constantly to the crowd.

"When I saw him wave, it was like a thrill went through me," 35-year-old housewife Ivy Japlos told AFP.

Francis has said his two-nation tour is aimed at adding momentum to the Church's already impressive growth in Asia, with its support in the Philippines the benchmark for the rest of the region.

Pope Francis smiles, flanked by Head of 

Vatican Security Domenico Giani, as he

arrives at a military airbase in Manila

 on January 15, 2015 (AFP Photo/

Giuseppe Cacace)

Eighty percent of the former Spanish colony's 100 million people practise a famously fervent brand of Catholicism, and the pope is set to enjoy thunderously enthusiastic crowds throughout his stay.

The high-point of his trip is expected to be an open-air mass on Sunday at a park in Manila, with organisers preparing for up to six million people despite a forecast of rain and security concerns.

Organisers have said that, if the crowd is as big as expected, it will surpass the previous record for a papal gathering of five million during a mass by John Paul II at the same venue in 1995.

'Still suffering'

Francis, who is the fourth pope to visit the Philippines, is also due to visit communities devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan, which left 7,350 people dead or missing in 2013.

On Saturday, he is scheduled to deliver a mass to tens of thousands of people in Tacloban, one of the worst-hit cities in the central Philippines, and have an intimate lunch with 30 typhoon survivors.

"The heart of the message will be the poor, the poor who want to move forward, who have suffered from the typhoon and are still suffering its consequences," the pope told reporters on way to the Philippines.

The main scheduled events on Friday included a state welcome at the presidential palace, a mass at Manila Cathedral and a meeting at a shopping mall with thousands of families.

Pope Francis waves to students delivering

a performance shortly after arriving at a 

military airbase in Manila on January 15,

2015, where he was greeted by President

benigno Aquino (R) (AFP Photo/Ted Aljibe)

Authorities have expressed major concerns over the pope's security in the Philippines, where attempts have been made to kill visiting pontiffs twice before.

Nearly 40,000 soldiers and police are being deployed to protect Francis in what Philippine military chief General Gregorio Catapang described as a "security nightmare".

Potential stampedes from the giant crowds, as well as the threat of Islamic militants or lone-wolf assailants, are among the concerns.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino made a nationally televised address this week specifically to highlight the security threats for the pope and call on all Filipinos to help protect him.

Adding to the concerns, the pontiff has insisted he will not travel in a bullet-proof vehicle during his big events so he can be closer to the faithful.

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"2015" (3) - Jan 10/11, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - New


"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“.   New Tolerance

Look for a softening of finger pointing and an awakening of new tolerance. There will remain many systems for different cultures, as traditions and history are important to sustaining the integrity of culture. So there are many in the Middle East who would follow the prophet and they will continue, but with an increase of awareness. It will be the increase of awareness of what the prophet really wanted all along - unity and tolerance. The angel in the cave instructed him to "unify the tribes and give them the God of Israel." You're going to start seeing a softening of intolerance and the beginning of a new way of being.

Eventually, this will create an acknowledgement that says, "You may not believe the way we believe, but we honor you and your God. We honor our prophet and we will love you according to his teachings. We don't have to agree in order to love." How would you like that? The earth is not going to turn into one belief system. It never will, for Humans don't do that. There must be variety, and there must be the beauty of cultural differences. But the systems will slowly update themselves with increased awareness of the truth of a new kind of balance. So that's the first thing. Watch for these changes, dear ones. ...."

Wife of Lashed Saudi Blogger Calls for His Release

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Jan 14, 2015

Ensaf Haidar, center, the wife of the Saudi Blogger Raef Badawi, holds a vigil in
 Montreal, Quebec on Jan. 13, 2015 urging Saudi Arabia to free her husband who
was flogged in public on Jan. 9, 2015 near a mosque in the Red Sea city of Jeddah,
receiving 50 lashes for ‘insulting Islam’. (AFP Photo/Clement Sabourin)

Montreal. The wife of a Saudi blogger who was publicly flogged for “insulting Islam” called for his release on Tuesday.

“My husband, Raef Badawi, is imprisoned for simply expressing liberal ideas,” Ensaf Haidar, who sought asylum in Canada with her three children after Badawi was arrested, told a news conference in Montreal.

In September, a Saudi court upheld a sentence of 10 years in prison as well as the 1,000 lashes for Badawi, who has been behind bars since June 2012.

The 31-year-old received the first installment of 50 lashes last Friday and is expected to have 20 weekly whipping sessions until his punishment is complete.

“We’re here so that he won’t have to endure another 50 lashes next Friday,” said Beatrice Vaugrante of Amnesty International.

“We talk a lot about freedom of speech nowadays: I am Charlie, I am Raef Badawi,” she said. “This concerns Canada, it concerns all Western nations that advocate freedom of expression.”

The Canadian government has called the public lashing “inhumane” but said it was limited in what it could do for Badawi beyond expressions of outrage as the blogger is not Canadian.

Agence France-Presse

Protesters demand the immediate release of Saudi blogger,

 Raif Badawi, in front of the Saudi Embassy in The Hague.

Photograph: Martijn Beekman/EPA

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Saudi blogger lashed in public for ‘insulting Islam’

Saudi blogger lashed in public for ‘insulting Islam’

The Times of India, AFP, Jan 9, 201

Raef Badawi . (Photo courtesy Twitter)

JEDDAH: Saudi blogger Raef Badawi was flogged in public Friday near a mosque in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, receiving 50 lashes for "insulting Islam", witnesses said.

In September, a Saudi court upheld a sentence of 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for Badawi, and he is expected to have 20 weekly whipping sessions until his punishment is complete.

The United States, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders have denounced the flogging as a horrific form of punishment, and said Badawi was exercising his right to freedom of expression.

Witnesses said that Badawi, 30, was flogged after the weekly Friday prayers near Al-Jafali mosque as a crowd of worshippers looked on.

Badawi was driven to the site in a police car, and taken out of the vehicle as a government employee read out the charges against him to the crowd.

The blogger was made to stand with his back to onlookers as another man began flogging him, witnesses said, adding that Badawi did not make any sound or cry in pain.

The faithful who had emerged from noon prayers watched in silence and were ordered by security forces not to take any pictures on their mobile phones.

On the eve of the flogging, the US slammed it as an "inhumane punishment".

"We are greatly concerned about reports that human rights activist Raef Badawi will start facing the inhumane punishment of 1,000 lashes in addition to serving a 10-year sentence in prison for exercising his rights to freedom of expression and religion," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

She said the US called on "Saudi authorities to cancel this brutal punishment" and to review his case.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said the punishment was "barbaric" and noted its timing after Saudi Arabia condemned Wednesday's deadly attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo.

"Although Saudi Arabia condemned yesterday's cowardly attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, it is now preparing to inflict the most barbaric punishment on a citizen who just used his freedom of expression and information," Reporters Without Borders program director Lucie Morillon said Thursday.

Badawi, who has been in jail since 2012, is a "prisoner of conscience", said London-based Amnesty International, demanding his release.

Badawi is the co-founder of the Saudi Liberal Network along with women's rights campaigner Suad al-Shammari, who was arrested last October and also accused of "insulting Islam".

"Flogging and other forms of corporal punishment are prohibited under international law, which prohibits torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment," said Amnesty's Philip Luther.

Leading authors urge Russia to repeal "chokehold" anti-gay laws

Google – AFP, 6 February 2014

People protest in Madrid on February 5, 2014 against anti-gay laws in Russia and

particularly the implementation in Sochi of a Russian law against"gay propaganda"

during the upcoming winter Olympic games (AFP, Curto De La Torre)

London — More than 200 leading international authors including Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood and Jonathan Franzen on Thursday slammed Russia's anti-gay and blasphemy laws as a "chokehold" on creativity as Sochi prepared for the Winter Olympics.

In an open letter published in Britain's Guardian newspaper, the writers said recent legislation outlawing religious insult and the "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations" among minors, along with the recriminalisation of defamation, "specifically put writers at risk".

They vowed not to stand by "as we watch our fellow writers and journalists pressed into silence or risking prosecution and often drastic punishment for the mere act of communicating their thoughts".

"A healthy democracy must hear the independent voices of all its citizens; the global community needs to hear, and be enriched by, the diversity of Russian opinion," it said.

"We therefore urge the Russian authorities to repeal these laws that strangle free speech."

Four Nobel laureates; Gunter Grass, Wole Soyinka, Elfriede Jelinek and Orhan Pamuk all signed the letter, along with other well-known authors including Carol Ann Duffy, Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan and Neil Gaiman.

Demonstrators hold up a poster showing Russian President Vladimir Putin

 riding on a toy horse during a protest in front of the Russian Orthodox Church in

Hamburg, northern Germany, on February 1, 2014 (DPA/AFP, Axel Heimken)

Rushdie told the Guardian that the campaign was "incredibly important to Russian writers, artists and citizens alike".

"The chokehold that the Russian Federation has placed on freedom of expression is deeply worrying and needs to be addressed in order to bring about a healthy democracy in Russia," said the Satanic Verses author.

Russia paraded the Olympic torch through the Black Sea resort of Sochi for the first time Wednesday, two days before the opening of the Winter Games.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed that Russia will ensure hospitable and top class Games for everyone but the $50 billion project has been overshadowed by Russia's law outlawing "gay propaganda" to minors.

Gay rights group All Out organised protests in 19 cities around the world on Wednesday -- including Saint Petersburg in Russia but not Sochi itself -- and urged sponsors to "break their silence" on the controversial legislation.

Ban Ki-moon speaks to the IOC's general assembly before the 2014

Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Photograph: David Goldman/AP

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Jesus tears 'blasphemer' brings his fight from India to Ireland

Sanal Edamaruku faces court for revealing 'tears' trickling down a church statue came from clogged drainage pipes

guardian.co.uk, Henry McDonald, Friday 23 November 2012

A statue of Christ in Mumbai. Local people declared a miracle when 'tears'
trickled down the statue at the Church of Our Lady of Velan Kanni. Photograph:
 Sherwin Crasto/Associated Press

When water started trickling down a statue of Jesus Christ at a Catholic church in Mumbai earlier this year, locals were quick to declare a miracle. Some began collecting the holy water and the Church of Our Lady of Velan Kanni began to promote it as a site of pilgrimage.

So when Sanal Edamaruku arrived and established that this was not a matter of holy water so much as holey plumbing, the backlash was severe. The renowned rationalist was accused of blasphemy, charged with offences that carry a three-year prison sentence and eventually, after receiving death threats, had to seek exile in Finland.

Now he is calling for European governments to press New Delhi into dropping the case. And on the first leg of a tour around EU capitals on Friday, he warned that India was sacrificing freedom of expression for outdated, colonial-era rules about blasphemy.

"There is a huge contradiction in the content of the Indian constitution which guarantees freedom of speech and the blasphemy law from 1860 under then colonial rule," Edamaruku told the Guardian in an interview in Dublin.

"This blasphemy law can affect anyone in India, even a girl recently who wrote on Facebook against closing down a city because of the death of a famous local politician. She was prosecuted under the blasphemy law and another girl who 'liked' her comment on Facebook was also arrested and then charged with blasphemy."

Edamaruku, who has the support of rationalists and atheists such as Richard Dawkins, is well known in India for debunking religious myths, and was already unpopular among Indian Catholics for publicly criticising Mother Teresa's legacy in Kolkata.

When the state "miracle" was pronounced, he went to Mumbai and found that the dripping water was the result of clogged drainage pipes behind the wall where it stood. His revelation provoked death threats from religious zealots and ultimately charges of blasphemy under the Indian penal code in the Mumbai high court.

"India cannot criticise Pakistan for arresting young girls for blaspheming against Islam while it arrests and locks up its own citizens for breaking our country's blasphemy laws," he said. "It is an absurd law but also extremely dangerous because it gives fanatics, whether they are Hindus, Catholics or Muslims, a licence to be offended. It also allows people who are in dispute with you to make up false accusations of blasphemy."

Edamaruku said his exposure of the weeping statue was also a contribution to public health in Mumbai as some believers were drinking the water hoping it could cure ailments. "This was sewage water seeping through a wall due to faulty plumbing," he said. "It posed a health risk to people who were fooled into believing it was a miracle."

He has been living in Finland since the summer. He was in Europe on a lecture tour in July when his partner rang to say the police had arrived at his apartment. "I felt really upset because under the blasphemy law you cannot get bail until the court case begins. I would be in jail now if I had been at my apartment in Delhi," he said.

He has spurned an offer from a senior Indian Catholic bishop to apologise for the exposure of the "miracle".

"The Catholic archbishop of Bombay, Oswald Cardinal Gracias, has said that if I apologise for the 'offence' I have caused he will see to it that the charges are dropped. This shows that he has influence in the situation but he will not use it unless I apologise, which I will not do as I have done nothing wrong," he said.

"In a way I am lucky because I have friends and supporters in Europe. I am well known in India and have the telephone numbers of at least five Indian cabinet ministers. And I have some means of fighting back. But what would happen to the common man or woman if they were accused of blasphemy? They would be sent straight to jail without any chance of bail," he said.

Edamaruku asked for "mounting international pressure" particularly from Ireland and other EU nations to be placed on the Indian government. The Indian state would have the power to halt the prosecution before a court case, citing a lack of evidence to pursue it, he said.

Mick Nugent from Atheist Ireland, the organisation hosting Edamaruku's visit to the republic and Northern Ireland next week, said Edamaruku's plight also underlined the need for the Fine Gael-Labour government in Dublin to repeal the Irish blasphemy law.

"Blasphemy laws are very strange because they can be both very silly and also very sinister. They are very silly because you are talking about crying statues and moving statues or Virgin Marys appearing in tree stumps in Co Limerick. But on the other hand these type of laws are used in Islamic countries to jail people or sentence them to death. Or in Sanal's case facing a jail sentence for his work exposing bogus miracles.

"The Irish government should pay attention to Sanal's case and realise they must get rid of this absurd and dangerous law. Because we shouldn't be so smug in Ireland. After all we have had the hysteria about moving statues and a man bringing people to a shrine in Co Mayo so they can look at the sun and see the Virgin Mary."

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(Religions – Zionism - March 1, 2012 - Matthew Channelled by Suzanne Ward)

9. It can be no other way—simply, this is the physics that governs life in this universe. As Earth continues apace into successively higher planes, nothing with low vibrations in any form—physical bodies, subversive plans, theft, dishonesty, unjust laws and imprisonment, bigotry, cruel customs and deeds—can survive.

10. Moving on, no, it will not be quite like religions being “totally discarded and replaced by universal laws in the Golden Age.” When the truths come forth that science and spirit are one and the same and that religious dogmas were originated by early leaders of church and state to control the masses, people whose consciousness has risen beyond the constraints of third density will adhere to the spiritual aspects of their respective religions and the devised, controlling aspects will fall by the wayside.

11. One of the truths to come forth is that Zionism, which by dark intent has been made synonymous with Judaism, actually is a bellicose political movement within the Illuminati, and its aim for more than six decades has been to create conflict and instability in the entire Middle East. Zionists, who have wielded powerful influence within and behind major governments and their military forces, do NOT represent the Jewish peoples in Israel or anywhere else. And, like all other Illuminati factions, they have been committed to that cabal’s goal of global domination.

12. Although Semites are of diverse national origins and religions, the Zionists have been successful in convincing many that “anti-Semitic” is exclusively prejudice against the Jewish peoples and opposition to Israel’s right to defend itself from its “enemies.” By means of that blatant distortion, they obtained not only world sympathy, but also massive defense funding from Israel’s allies, most especially the United States, all of which served to increase the Illuminati’s vast profits from their industrial-military machine.

13. In addition to controlling the masses through dogmatic teachings, religions have served the dark purpose of divisiveness to such an extent that it resulted in centuries of trauma and bloodshed. Witness the Crusades, wars between Catholics and Protestants, pogroms against Jews, executions of “blasphemous” individuals who refused to “recant.”  (Read More …)