A man from the province of Breda has been sentenced to one year in jail for selling horse meat imported from South America as Dutch halal meat. The man sold the to French supermarkets in 2007-2008, using falsified certificates claiming it was halal slaughtered beef.

]]> http://www.euro-islam.info/2012/01/30/dutch-man-jailed-for-selling-false-halal-meat/feed/ 0 http://www.euro-islam.info/2012/01/29/abas-idris-muslim-security-guard-gets-465000-in-calif-harassment-suit/ http://www.euro-islam.info/2012/01/29/abas-idris-muslim-security-guard-gets-465000-in-calif-harassment-suit/#comments Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:32:56 +0000 Freeha http://www.euro-islam.info/?p=18963 SAN FRANCISCO — A San Francisco jury awarded $465,000 to a Muslim security guard who says his co-workers and supervisors called him a terrorist and an al-Qaida member.

The 27-year-old says he quit his job as a security guard for Los Angeles-based Andrews International in February 2010 after the company failed to take his complaints about harassment seriously. He had served as a guard at the Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio.

“Where do you think the concept of equality comes from?” Santorum said on the campaign trail last Friday (Jan. 20). “It doesn’t come from Islam. It doesn’t come from the East and Eastern religions. It comes from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

Titled Morris’ HB631, the new bill was introduced by Virginia General Assembly Delegate Rick L. Morris (R-House District 64) on January 11.

“Unfortunately, a state delegate in Virginia, has introduced a piece of legislation that is copied from an extreme anti-Muslim (and) racist who has made a template for such laws nationwide and they have been introduced in more than 20 states and now Virginia and Pennsylvania being the latest,” CAIR’s National Communications Director, Ibrahim Hooper, has told Press TV’s U.S. Desk.

The anti-Sharia proposed law would ban courts from applying religious traditions to proceedings, such as the execution of a will among Muslims. Not only the religious Muslim code, the new bill would also prohibit the application of the Catholic equivalent, canon law, and other religious guidelines.

The suddenly controversial bill is scheduled to be heard by a Virginia legislature House subcommittee next Monday.

In U.S. courts, judges can refer to Sharia law in Muslim litigation involving cases about divorce and custody proceedings or in commercial litigation.

A free-speech controversy has raged at the event, the Jaipur Literature Festival, since Friday, when Mr. Rushdie said he would not attend because the law enforcement authorities had warned of a threat against his life by “paid assassins.” But the story took a twist over the weekend: Was there really a threat?

On Sunday, several Indian news media outlets suggested there was not, and quoted police sources whom they did not name saying so. In a Twitter message, Mr. Rushdie pointed to a front-page article in The Hindu, an English-language Indian newspaper, which contended that the assassination plot was invented by the police in Rajasthan, the state where the festival is being held, to discourage the author from attending. “I’ve investigated and believe that I was indeed lied to,” Mr. Rushdie wrote. “I am outraged and very angry.”

Gingrich today told a South Carolina town hall that he would only
support a Muslim for the presidency if that person would “commit in
public to give up Sharia.”

“Newt Gingrich’s vision of America segregates our citizens by faith. His
outdated political ideas look backward to a time when Catholics and Jews
were vilified and their faiths called a threat,” said *CAIR National
Legislative Director Corey Saylor*. “The time for bias in American
politics has passed and Newt Gingrich looks like a relic of an ugly era.”

Saylor added that Sharia teaches marital fidelity, generous charity and
a thirst for knowledge. It includes religious guidelines for praying,
fasting, giving charity, helping the needy, feeding the hungry, and
caring for the environment. “The last time I checked, that was called
freedom of religion and it is all protected by the Constitution,” said
Saylor.

According to Saylor, Sharia literally means “path,” and it is a set of
interpretations that are dynamic and intended to accommodate the time,
place and laws — like the U.S. Constitution — of a particular
community. Sharia is interpreted differently based on its surroundings.
Sharia mandates Muslims to respect the law of the land in which they
live. Many familiar with Islam note that Sharia is similar to Catholic
Canon law and Jewish Halacha law.

As reported last week, five Muslim men had gone on trial at Derby Crown Court, as they were accused of having distributed leaflets calling for gay people to be executed. Handing out these leaflets was allegedly a breach of the new hate laws that came into force on March 2010. On Friday, three of the five men were indeed found guilty of stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation – in what the prosecutors called a “landmark case”, as it was the first of its kinds since the new legislation came into force. During the trial, the mean admitted to distributing the leaflets, but also said they were following what their religion taught them and did not intend to threaten anyone. The men will be sentenced on February 10th; they could a face a maximum sentence of up to seven years of imprisonment.

Canada, with its 1.3 million Muslims, has lagged behind countries like the U.K. and the U.S. in embracing sharia-compliant financial products. None of the country’s big banks currently offer sharia-compliant services, though some smaller players do. Toronto-based UM Financial Inc., which issued home mortgages conforming to Islamic law, filed for bankruptcy last year, leaving 170 Muslim borrowers in limbo. Is the firm’s failure evidence that Canada should steer clear of Islamic finance; or proof that the country needs more of it–i.e. that the banks and policymakers need to bring the practice into the mainstream, with tighter rules and better oversight? This article features a debate with Tarek Fatah is the founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, and Walid Hejazi is associate professor of international business at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, where he is currently teaching an MBA course on Islamic finance.

In a unanimous ruling, the high court for the first time concluded the Constitution includes a “ministerial exception” that protects churches and their schools from undue interference from the government and its courts. A concurring opinion by Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Elena Kagan said they understood the “ministerial exception” to extend equally to “Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus or Buddhists” even if those religions do not use the term “minister.” The exception “should apply to any ‘employee’ who leads a religious organization, conducts worship services or important religious ceremonies or rituals, or serves as a messenger or teacher of its faith,” Alito wrote.

However, lower courts have long recognized that churches are protected from lawsuits involving their internal workings.

Notre Dame Law Professor Rick Garnett called the ruling “one of the court’s most important church-state decisions in decades.” It “protects religious liberty by forbidding governments from second-guessing religious communities’ decisions about who should be their teachers, leaders and ministers,” he said.

The 1st Amendment forbids “an establishment of religion” by the government, and it protects the “free exercise” of religion.

In the past, the court had often invoked the separation of church and state doctrine to strike down state laws that gave aid to religious schools, citing the ban on “establishment” of religion. In this case, the court ruled against government interference with religion, citing the “free exercise” clause.

Last week, five Muslim men have gone on trial accused of having distributed leaflets calling for gay people to be executed. The Derby Crown Court heard that the group of five had allegedly handed out leaflets demanding the death penalty for homosexuality after Friday prayers at a Derby mosque and put them through people’s letterboxes in the local neighbourhood in July 2010, in the run up to the Gay Pride event. By handing out anti-gay death sentence flyers, the five men are accused of stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation, which is a breach of the new hate laws that came into force in March 2010. This prosecution is the first of its kind since the legislation came into force. The trial continues. All five men deny the charges; if they are convicted, however, they face a maximum sentence of seven years in jail and/ or an unlimited fine.