The outside of a mosque in a French city has been smeared with excrement, the latest in a series of vandalism incidents involving Muslim places of worship in the country.

The Interior Ministry said Wednesday that police are seeking the culprit or culprits, adding in a statement that “to attack a religion is to attack the (French) Republic.”

The Limoges mosque in central France was vandalized in July with Nazi symbols scrawled on its doors. In the latest incident, excrement was smeared on the doors and elsewhere before dawn.   »»» Canada.com

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American Muslim leaders and organizations rushed on Wednesday to condemn the attacks on American diplomatic outposts in Libya and Egypt, issuing news releases and giving interviews that seemed aimed as much at an American audience as at Muslims overseas.

Referring to the anti-Muslim video at the center of the attacks that is believed to be American-made, they said that no matter how offensive the film, violence was unjustified and even un-Islamic. They stressed repeatedly that the film did not represent Americans’ attitudes toward Islam and Muslims. And they said they were appalled that a film that they said was so clearly intended to incite hatred and anger toward the United States had succeeded in doing so.

Imam Mohamed Magid, president of the Islamic Society of North America, an umbrella group of American mosques, denounced the violence at a news conference in Washington, appearing alongside a rabbi, a Baptist minister and the Libyan ambassador to the United States, Ali Aujali.

Representative Keith Ellison, a Democrat from Minnesota and the first Muslim to be elected to Congress, said in a statement that the video at the center of the attacks was “amateurish and stupid” and “deeply offensive” — not just to Muslims, but to “anyone who respects the faith of others.”

However, he said: “People need to understand that the United States government had no role in creating this film. In fact, the government has condemned it and the American people have rejected it; it violates the American value of religious tolerance.”   »»» American Muslim Leaders Condemn Attacks – NYTimes.com

Those who made and are distributing the film are hiding behind their broad U.S. freedom of expression rights and claiming that the bear no responsibility for the violence that they provoked and knew or should have known that their film would provoke. One cannot disturb a hornet’s nest and then refuse to accept responsibility for the innocent people nearby who get stung.

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Employers in the U.S. state of Calfornia face new restrictions against shunting Sikh and Muslim workers to backroom jobs out of public view based on their wearing of turbans, beards and hijabs, under a law signed Saturday by Gov. Jerry Brown

The new law restricts employers from segregating an employee from customers and the public as a means of accommodating the employee’s religious beliefs. It clarifies that employers must accommodate a worker’s religious practices unless it creates “significant difficulty or expense” for the employer. It also specifies that religious dress and grooming qualify as protected religious observances, according to Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada (D-Davis), who wrote the bill.

“This to me is like the Rosa Parks issue of the 21st century,” Yamada added. “An employee should not have to work in the back of the store in order to observe his or her faith.”   »»» Islamophobia Watch

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Seventy European Muslim and Jewish leaders pledged on Wednesday to show “zero tolerance” to hate preachers of any faith including their own ranks, citing what they called rising religious intolerance on the continent.

Imams, rabbis and community leaders from 18 countries agreed to jointly counter bigotry against Jews and Muslims and combat legal threats to common religious practices such as circumcision of boys and the kosher and halal ritual slaughter of animals.

The two-day meeting brought together Muslim-Jewish teams from around Europe to compare experiences in fighting religious prejudice and report on recent trends against minority faiths.

“We must institute a ‘zero tolerance’ policy against religious leaders of any faith who misuse their pulpits to incite religious bigotry,” they said in a joint declaration.   »»» Reuters

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An Iranian Christian pastor who refused to renounce his faith after being sentenced to death for apostasy has been released from prison.

Youcef Nadarkhani, 35, was released from prison on Saturday and reunited with his family after a court in the northern city of Rasht, the capital of Iran’s Gilan province, acquitted him of apostasy, which carried the death sentence under Iran’s Sharia law.

“Nadarkhani was acquitted of apostasy but instead charged with acting against the national security and therefore sentenced to three years in jail,” a reliable source in Rasht, who asked not to be named for fear of government reprisal, told the Guardian. “But because he had already served three years in prison, he was allowed to go home.”

It is believed Nadarkhani’s lawyer argued in court that Iran was a signatory to international treaties requiring it to respect freedom of religion.   »»» guardian.co.uk

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A Christian girl accused of blasphemy in Pakistan has been released from jail in Rawalpindi, a prison official has said.

“She has been freed from the jail and was transported by a helicopter to a safe place. Her family members received her,” he said.

The release comes a day after a court in Islamabad granted her bail against sureties of about $10,500 (one million Pakistani rupees) following arrest of an imam who was suspected to have planted evidence to frame her.

In a case that has sparked an international outcry, the girl, who is said to be suffering from a learning disability, was arrested on August 16 for allegedly burning pages containing verses from the Quran.

Last week the imam was remanded in custody for allegedly planting burned pages of the Quran in the girl’s bag.

His deputy and two assistants said Hafiz Mohammed Khalid Chishti tried to bolster the case against the girl by planting pages from the Quran among the burnt papers that were brought to him.   »»» Al Jazeera English

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At the Non-Aligned Nations Summit, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei defended his country’s right to produce nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran considers the use of nuclear, chemical and similar weapons as a great and unforgivable sin,” Khamenei said.

“This does not mean forgoing our right to peaceful use of nuclear power and production of nuclear fuel,” he said. “On the basis of international laws, peaceful use of nuclear energy is a right of every country.”   »»» CNN.com

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Islamic leaders in Pakistan on Monday came out in support of a Christian girl with learning difficulties who is being held in prison, in an unprecedented public denunciation of the blasphemy law by hard-line mullahs.

The All Pakistan Ulema Council, an umbrella group of Muslim clerics and scholars, which includes representatives from fundamentalist groups, joined hands with the Pakistan Interfaith League, which includes Christians, Sikhs and other religions, to call for justice for the girl, Rimsha, who is accused of blasphemy. They also demanded that those making false allegations be punished.

Rimsha, 11, was charged earlier this month with desecrating the Qur’an. The issue has shocked the country’s Christian population. Rimsha’s own community, who were living in a mixed poor Christian-Muslim enclave in Islamabad, were driven out of their homes by a rampaging crowd.

“This is the first time in the history of Pakistan that the Muslim community and scholars have stood up for non-Muslims,” said Sajid Ishaq, chairman of the Pakistan Interfaith League. “We are together, demanding justice, demanding an unbiased investigation. And those abusing this law should be taken care of.”

It is dangerous in Pakistan even to discuss blasphemy, which carries the death penalty. The law is frequently used to level false allegations in order to settle scores, with lurid tales of burning or desecrating the Qur’an levelled against religious minorities and fellow Muslims. The police and the courts are usually too afraid to investigate the validity of the claims, leading to convictions on hearsay.   »»» guardian.co.uk

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Practising Muslims across the world are observing Ramadan. For one month, they are fasting between first light and sunset. But what do Muslims do in a town where the sun never really goes down?

The town of Rovaniemi in Finland lies in a land of extremes.

At 66 degrees north it straddles the Arctic Circle in Finnish Lapland. During midwinter it is cloaked in total darkness. But in the summer it is bathed in daylight.

The long days pose a particular problem for fasting Muslims like Shah Jalal Miah Masud.    »»» BBC News

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Muslims around the world are gathering for Friday prayers, and in one neighbourhood in the US state of Virginia, the worshippers will enter a building that could hardly be further from a traditional mosque.

At a time when religious differences are sparking conflict in the Middle East and beyond – it is cooperation between two faiths which is allowing this unique program flourish.

The Jewish community opened its doors because the area’s mosques could not accommodate all of the growing Muslim population.    »»» BBC News

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