Tony Blair's sister in-law converts to Islam.

Tony Blair’s sister-in-law has converted to Islam after having a ‘holy experience’ in Iran.

Broadcaster and journalist Lauren Booth, 43 - Cherie Blair’s half-sister - said she now wears a hijab head covering whenever she leaves her home, prays five times a day and visits her local mosque ‘when I can’.

She decided to become a Muslim six weeks ago after visiting the shrine of Fatima al-Masumeh in the city of Qom.

‘It was a Tuesday evening and I sat down and felt this shot of spiritual morphine, just absolute bliss and joy,’ she told The Mail on Sunday.

When she returned to Britain, she decided to convert immediately.

‘Now I don’t eat pork and I read the Koran every day. I’m on page 60. I also haven’t had a drink in 45 days, the longest period in 25 years,' she said.

'The strange thing is that since I decided to convert I haven’t wanted to touch alcohol, and I was someone who craved a glass of wine or two at the end of a day.’

Refusing to discount the possibility that she might wear a burka, she said: ‘Who knows where my spiritual journey will take me?’

Before her awakening in Iran, she had been ‘sympathetic’ to Islam and has spent considerable time working in Palestine. ‘I was always impressed with the strength and comfort it gave,’ she said of the religion.

Miss Booth, who works for Press TV, the English-language Iranian news channel, has been a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq.

In August 2008 she travelled to Gaza by ship from Cyprus, along with 46 other activists, to highlight Israel’s blockade of the territory.

She was subsequently refused entry into both Israel and Egypt.

In 2006 she was a contestant on the ITV reality show I’m A Celebrity .  .  . Get Me Out Of Here!, donating her fee to the Palestinian relief charity Interpal.

She said she hoped her conversion would help Mr Blair change his presumptions about Islam.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1323278/Tony-Blairs-sister-law-Lauren-Booth-converts-Islam-holy-experience-Iran.html#ixzz13JIZuDQe

Catholic adoption society wins exemption from using gay parents

Catholic Care has won a high court appeal not to adhere to sexual orientation regulations to use homosexual parents


A Catholic adoption society today won the right in the high court not to consider homosexual couples as parents.

Mr Justice Briggs, sitting in London, has allowed the society's appeal for an exemption from the sexual orientation regulations - opposed by the Charity Commission - which means the society can continue operating as it has always done.

Catholic Care, serving the dioceses of Leeds, Middlesbrough and Hallam in South Yorkshire, warned it would give up its work of finding homes for children – as many Catholic adoption societies have already done – rather than comply with the legislation.

Mr Justice Briggs has ordered the Charity Commission to reconsider its opposition to the society's operation.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/17/catholic-adoption-gay-parents

Bikinis Make Men See Women as Objects, Scans Confirm

Christine Dell'Amore in Chicago

National Geographic News

February 16, 2009

Sexy women in bikinis really do inspire some men to see them as objects, according to a new study of male behavior. Brain scans revealed that when men are shown pictures of scantily clad women, the region of the brain associated with tool use lights up.

Men were also more likely to associate images of sexualized women with first-person action verbs such as "I push, I grasp, I handle," said lead researcher Susan Fiske, a psychologist at Princeton University.

And in a "shocking" finding, Fiske noted, some of the men studied showed no activity in the part of the brain that usually responds when a person ponders another's intentions.

This means that these men see women "as sexually inviting, but they are not thinking about their minds," Fiske said. "The lack of activation in this social cognition area is really odd, because it hardly ever happens."

Dehumanizing

Fiske and colleagues asked 21 heterosexual male volunteers to first take a test that scores people based on different types of sexist attitudes. The subjects were then shown pictures of both skimpily dressed and fully clothed men and women.

Most of the men best remembered headless photographs of women in bikinis, even if they'd only seen the image for two-tenths of a second, Fiske reported this weekend in Chicago during the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

And the men who scored higher as "hostile sexists"—those who view women as controlling and invaders of male space—didn't show brain activity that indicates they saw the women in bikinis as humans with thoughts and intentions.

Scientists have seen this absence of activation only once before, in a study where people were shown off-putting photographs of homeless people and drug addicts.

(Related: "Sex-Based Roles Gave Modern Humans an Edge, Study Says.")

If a similar study were done with women, Fiske told National Geographic News, it would be hard to predict whether a woman shown a scantily clad male body would dehumanize him in the same way.

Evolutionary psychologists have proposed that women tend to look for mates who have wealth and power, so some of Fiske's colleagues have suggested running a similar test where women are shown pictures of men next to expensive cars or other affluent symbols.

But Fiske doesn't think such an experiment would work the same way, because women usually react to men they desire by "interpreting their minds, thinking about what they're interested in, and then trying to please them," she said.

Daniel Streich a member of the Swiss political party who attacked mosques and minarets in Switzerland has now embraced Islam .

A member of the Swiss Party (SVP) and a well-known politician, Daniel Streich was the first man who had launched a drive for imposition of ban on mosques minarets, and to lock the mosques in Switzerland.
The proclamation of Streich’s conversion to Islam has created furore in Swiss politics, besides causing a tremor for those who supported ban on construction of mosques minarets. Streich propagated his anti-Islamic movement far and wide in the country, sowed seeds of indignation and scorn for Islam among the people, and paved way for public opinion against pulpits and minarets of mosques. But now Streich has become a soldier of Islam. His anti-Islam thoughts finally brought him so close to this religion that he embraced Islam. He is ashamed of his doings now and desires to construct the most beautiful mosque of Europe in Switzerland.

http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2009/12/04/member-of-the-swiss-political-party-that-pushed-for-minaret-ban-converts-to-islam/

Mother dressed in 'burka' denied French citizenship - Saga Continues with "House Muslims"

A Muslim member of the French Government has attacked the head-to-toe Islamic dress as a prison, applauding a court decision to deny citizenship to a Moroccan woman who wore it.

“The burka is a prison, a strait-jacket,” Fadela Amara, the Minister for Urban Affairs and a longstanding women's rights campaigner, said yesterday. “It is not religious. It is the insignia of a totalitarian political project for sexual inequality.”

The court decision denying Faiza Mabchour, 32, French citizenship has drawn approval from both Left and Right, highlighting a rejection of Muslim customs that conflict with the values of the secular French republic.

“The affair of the burka”, as it has become known, began in late June when the Council of State, the highest civil court, endorsed a decision to refuse nationality to Ms Mabchour because her practices conflicted with French society and especially sexual equality.

Ms Mabchour, a French-speaker who lives in a southern Paris suburb, came to France in 2000 after marrying a Frenchman of North African background. They have three children, all French. At her husband's request she converted to Salafism, a hardline school of Islam that is strong in Saudi Arabia. She began wearing the dress that the French media call the burka, but which is strictly a niqab.

In the first ruling of its type Ms Mabchour's application was rejected because she had failed to integrate. Emmanuelle Prada-Bordenave, the state commissioner who decided the appeal, noted that Ms Mabchour had appeared for interviews “clothed from head to toe in the clothing of women from the Arabian peninsula, with a veil covering her hair, forehead and chin and a piece of cloth over her face. Her eyes could only be seen through a small slit.

“She lives virtually as a recluse, disconnected from French society. She has no concept of laïcité [the principle of the secular State] nor the right to vote. She lives in total subservience to the men in her family,” she added.

The decision was the latest episode in France's struggle to balance the laïcité principle with the religious practices of Europe's largest Muslim community.

It follows a popular 2005 ban on religious head-covering in state schools and rising concern over demands from some Muslims for sexual segregation in public swimming pools and sports grounds.

Ms Amara, who is one of the most outspoken members of the Government, said that she deplored all head-cover by Muslim women. “It's just a question of centimetres of fabric,” she said, describing both as symbols of oppression. The headscarf ban has proved highly popular, at least with non-Muslims and teachers.

Last May a judge in Lille caused an uproar when she annulled the marriage of a couple because the bride had falsely told her Muslim husband that she was a virgin. On orders from Mr Sarkozy, the State has appealed against that decision. The “burka case” is seen by some of Mr Sarkozy's opponents as a reflection of his hardline policies over immigration as Interior Minister and then President.

Leaders of France's Muslim establishment played down the ruling and said they feared that it would stir anti-Muslim feeling. “The refusal of nationality is due to lack of integration,” said Mohammed Moussaoui, the president of the French Council of Muslims.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4347204.ece?Submitted=true

There are lessons to be learnt from the late Malcom X.

This whole case is telling of a new form of racism “Islamophobia”, which is becoming endemic and the ever increasing vocalism of what I call “House Muslims”.

Adam Deen

France rejects veiled Muslim wife

Sorry, but I thought the Muslims were a bunch intolerant zealots?

Faiza M was described to be living "virtually as a recluse"
A French court has denied citizenship to a Muslim woman from Morocco, ruling that her practice of "radical" Islam is not compatible with French values.

The 32-year-old woman, known as Faiza M, has lived in France since 2000 with her husband - a French national - and their three French-born children.

Social services reports said the burqa-wearing Faiza M lived in "total submission to her male relatives".

Faiza M said she has never challenged the fundamental values of France.

Her initial application for French citizenship was rejected in 2005 on the grounds of "insufficient assimilation" into France.

She appealed, and late last month the Conseil d'Etat, France's highest administrative body which also acts as a high court, upheld the decision to deny her citizenship.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7503757.stm

comments welcome...

Jesus 'would feel Anglican pain'

Dr Williams said the Church was "anxious and tormented"
The Archbishop of Canterbury has said Jesus would feel the pain on both sides of the divide in the Church of England over women bishops and gay priests.
Rowan Williams made his comments during a sermon at a communion service at York Minster ahead of a crucial vote by the Church's ruling body.
On Monday, the General Synod will decide how far the Church should accommodate opponents of women bishops.
More than 1,000 clergy have threatened to leave the Church over the issue.
They say they will go unless adequate safeguards are put in place to ensure they can receive pastoral oversight from a male bishop.
The controversy comes shortly after the creation of a worldwide movement of Anglicans who oppose the liberalisation of Church teaching on issues such as homosexuality.
Dr Williams said: "In the middle of our discussions at Synod, where would Jesus be?
"Jesus is going to be with those who feel the waterlessness of their position, with those traditionalists feeling the Church is slipping away from them, the landmarks have shifted....
"He will be with those in very different parts of the landscape who feel that things are closing in, that their position is under threat and their liberties are being taken away by those anxious and eager to enforce new ideologies in the name of Christ.
"He will be with those who feel that their liberty of questioning is under threat, he will be with gay clergy who wonder what their future is in a Church so anxious and tormented about this issue."
'Vatican meeting'
Any decision on woman bishops will have to be approved by parliament.

Christina Rees is a campaigner for women bishopsConservative MP, Robert Key, who sits on the Synod, said MPs could vote against any measure they thought was unfair.
"MPs don't see this as a theological squabble in the Church of England. They see it as something much broader," he said.
The Church of England has refused to confirm newspaper reports that senior bishops have had talks with Vatican officials over divisions in the Anglican Communion ahead of the Lambeth Conference later this month.
The Sunday Telegraph reported that Church of England bishops met senior advisers of Pope Benedict XVI to discuss the issue of gay priests and women bishops.
A number of bishops within the worldwide Communion have declined invitations to Lambeth - which takes place every 10 years - in protest at the presence of pro-gay clergy.
Meanwhile, a proposal to assist the opening up of hundreds of parish churches to tourists has been approved by the General Synod during its gathering at York University.
Members backed calls for the creation of a tourism group in each of the 44 dioceses to boost interest in church buildings.
The meeting was also due to debate whether fees charged for weddings and funerals should be raised.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7491829.stm

Islamic scholar voted world's No 1 thinker

Robert Tait in Istanbul
The Guardian,
Monday June 23, 2008

Does the movement inspired by Fethullah Gülen represent a modern brand of Islam, or a subtle attempt to infiltrate religion into secular Turkey ? The Guardian's religious affairs correspondent, Riazat Butt, reports from Istanbul

A hitherto largely unknown Turkish Islamic scholar, Fethullah Gülen, has been voted the world's top intellectual in a poll to find the leading 100 thinkers.
Gülen, the author of more than 60 books, won a landslide triumph after the survey - which is organised by the British magazine, Prospect, and Foreign Policy, a US publication - attracted more than 500,000 votes.

The top 10 individuals were all Muslim and included two Nobel laureates, the novelist Orhan Pamuk, who is also Turkish, at No 4, and the Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, in 10th.
The result surprised organisers, who attributed it to a sustained campaign by Gülen's followers, known as the Gülen Movement, after Turkey 's biggest-selling newspaper, Zaman, publicised the poll.

Prospect's editor, David Goohart, admitted to not having previously heard of Gülen and said his supporters had "made a mockery" of the poll. But he said the result flagged up significant political trends in Turkey .

"The victory of Gülen draws attention to the most important conflict in Europe, played out in Turkey between the secular nationalist establishment and the reforming Islamic democrats of the AK [Justice and Development] party," he said.

The AKP, which is allied to Gülen, is contesting a case brought by Turkey 's chief prosecutor to shut it down and ban it from politics for allegedly trying to usher in Islamic rule, in breach of the country's secular constitution.

A Gülen supporter, Bulent Kenes, who is editor-in-chief of Today's Zaman newspaper, denied the poll had been hijacked. "There are many people who promote Gülen's ideas, which contribute to world peace by urging international dialogue and tolerance."

Gülen, 67, is known for a modernist brand of Islam. He was cleared of trying to topple the state in 2006 after being charged over footage in which he apparently urged civil service supporters to await his orders to overthrow the system. He said the film had been doctored.
Gülen, who has lived in the US since 1998, is credited with establishing a global network of schools which preach Islam in a spirit of tolerance. He has been praised in the west for promoting dialogue and condemned Osama bin Laden as a monster after September 11.

This article appeared in the Guardian on Monday June 23 2008 on p17 of the International section. It was last updated at

People with higher IQs are less likely to believe in God, according to a new study.

a somewhat controversial article from the Guardian…


Professor Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at Ulster University, said many more members of the "intellectual elite" considered themselves atheists than the national average.
A decline in religious observance over the last century was directly linked to a rise in average intelligence, he claimed.
But the conclusions - in a paper for the academic journal Intelligence - have been branded "simplistic" by critics.

Professor Lynn, who has provoked controversy in the past with research linking intelligence to race and sex, said university academics were less likely to believe in God than almost anyone else.
A survey of Royal Society fellows found that only 3.3 per cent believed in God - at a time when 68.5 per cent of the general UK population described themselves as believers.
A separate poll in the 90s found only seven per cent of members of the American National Academy of Sciences believed in God.
Professor Lynn said most primary school children believed in God, but as they entered adolescence - and their intelligence increased - many started to have doubts.
He told Times Higher Education magazine: "Why should fewer academics believe in God than the general population? I believe it is simply a matter of the IQ. Academics have higher IQs than the general population. Several Gallup poll studies of the general population have shown that those with higher IQs tend not to believe in God."
He said religious belief had declined across 137 developed nations in the 20th century at the same time as people became more intelligent.
But Professor Gordon Lynch, director of the Centre for Religion and Contemporary Society at Birkbeck College, London, said it failed to take account of a complex range of social, economic and historical factors.
"Linking religious belief and intelligence in this way could reflect a dangerous trend, developing a simplistic characterisation of religion as primitive, which - while we are trying to deal with very complex issues of religious and cultural pluralism - is perhaps not the most helpful response," he said.
Dr Alistair McFadyen, senior lecturer in Christian theology at Leeds University, said the conclusion had "a slight tinge of Western cultural imperialism as well as an anti-religious sentiment".
Dr David Hardman, principal lecturer in learning development at London Metropolitan University, said: "It is very difficult to conduct true experiments that would explicate a causal relationship between IQ and religious belief. Nonetheless, there is evidence from other domains that higher levels of intelligence are associated with a greater ability - or perhaps willingness - to question and overturn strongly felt institutions."

I can see two assumptions here, first the old chestnut that Religion is not based on evidence and the second that people necessarily accept a belief when confronted with the evidence. I would say that the reason people don’t believe in God is more to do with psychological reasons, not that there is a lack of evidence. What do you think?

BTW Albert Einstein was a Deist!

Adam Deen