UK: Good news, bad news

SENIOR members of the Church of Scotland have voted to let some congregations choose ministers who are in same-sex relationships – an important compromise that must still pass further hurdles before it can become church law.

Vatican: Pope discovers yet another scapegoat

They’ve tried blaming the devil. They’ve tried blaming atheists. They’ve tried blaming the Seventies. Now it’s capitalism’s turn:

Germany: Government releases new black list

This time round, it’s climate change sceptics:

US: ‘And justice for all’ — except global warming ‘deniers’

The US Environmental Protection Agency will talk to non-believers — for a price.

US: Roanoke County — be scared!

Be very scared.

US: To all atheists who insist on your legal rights…

…tell your little sisters to expect intimidation.

Ireland: Foetuses – 1: Women – 0

The Irish Catholic Church nails its blood-soaked colours to the mast.

Global: The huge scale of the Islam problem

Jerry Coyne passes on a report about just how many Muslims worldwide are opposed to justice, tolerance and an open society.

Global: It’s not ‘Islamophobic’…

…to mistrust people who want to kill you.

Australia: Melbourne University condones Islamic gender segregation

The Left is furious when private clubs exercise that freedom….

Malta: Maltesers not so sweet on blasphemy

A report on human rights around the world from the US Department of State has revealed that 99 individuals were convicted in Malta last year for “public blasphemy”, down from 119 in 2011….

NZ: How DARE he!

New Zealand MP hits back at gay marriage bill attackers with reason!! And logic!!

Turkey: Composer convicted of ‘blasphemy’

A Turkish court has convicted pianist and composer Fazil Say of blasphemy and inciting hatred over a series of comments he made on Twitter last year.

Burma: Anti-Muslim movement grows

Because for Burmese Buddhists to do to Muslims what Muslims are doing to non-Muslims in Bangladesh, and Pakistan, and Nigeria, and half-a-dozen other nations — well, it’s just not right.

US: When he was good, he was very, very good..

PZ Myers, on the ‘Islamophobia backlash’:

When the popular culture has been howling for centuries in protest at any expression of the idea that there is no god, you don’t get to use the word “backlash” any more, OK? You don’t get to pretend that this nonsense is something new. It’s just a “lash”, yet another in the commonplace droning torrent of complaint. And they don’t have a single original idea in that complaint, either.

Pharyngula.

Israel: Women with gall in shawl Wall brawl

A long-running battle over worship at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest shrine, has been rejoined as Israeli police arrested five Jewish women who wore prayer shawls at a morning service, contrary to Orthodox practice enforced at the site.

Australia: Protecting a cultural right to abuse

Yes, there are reasons why people from tribal cultures move out, go to cities and emigrate to the West. They’re not just being silly.

Bangladesh: One killed as Islamists rally for the right to be bigots

Hundreds of thousands of members of a hardline Muslim group have rallied in Bangladesh’s capital to demand anti-blasphemy laws to punish people who insult Islam.

Israel: Victims of the Nazis? No, only women!

The Sisterhood has covered Haredi exclusion of women from the Israeli public sphere for some time now. When it comes to the removal of women’s images from public view, we’ve seen the disappearance of women from advertisements; the photoshopping of female leaders like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton out of news photos; the blurring of women’s and girls’ faces on memorial notices and even the erasing of a pair of women’s shoes from an innocuous photo of a family’s shoe drawer.

UK: Are you being persecuted?

Try this quick quiz:

…Are you prevented from constantly judging complete strangers?

Australia: Misogyny and bullying alleged at Uniting Church college

Sydney University’s Wesley College is investigating reports of inappropriate behaviour and sexual harassment during Orientation Week, after two undercover magazine reporters snuck in to a number of on-campus parties posing as students.

UAE: Life under theocracy…

…even visitors get shafted.

UK: Equal treatment for all faiths!

…except those stinkin’ atheists.

Australia: Islamic ‘Peace’ = exterminating Jews

Suppose they held a Peace Conference and nobody came?

UK: Muslim men can’t sit next to women, because…

Well, because they’re women! Get it? WOMEN!

US: Can you get fired for having sex?

Only if you’re a woman.

Palestine: Spoiling it for everyone

The UN has been forced to cancel its annual marathon in the Gaza Strip after the ruling Islamist movement Hamas insisted that women be banned from the race.

Indonesia: Government condones rising religious mania

Indonesia has experienced a “sharp uptick” in religiously motivated violence, with Islamic gangs regularly attacking Christian churches as well as “deviant sects” of their own faith, a strongly worded new report has warned.

UK: Scottish Cardinal resigns after ‘inappropriate behaviour’ allegations

Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien resigned as Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh on Monday, saying he won’t attend the coming conclave of cardinals to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI…

Somalia: Where being raped is a crime…

And so is reporting it.

A Somali woman who said she was raped by state security forces, and a journalist who interviewed her, were each sentenced to a year in jail on Tuesday in a trial described by human rights advocates as “a terrible miscarriage of justice”.