Blasphemy

The young man was arrested in March and accused of burning a copy of the Quran

Police were guarding a Christian neighbourhood in central Pakistan on Thursday, after hundreds of Muslim men rampaged through its streets setting fire to churches and ransacking homes over accusations of blasphemy a day earlier.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has decided to send a delegation led by its secretary-general, Brahim Taha, to engage the Commission of the European Union, expressing strong condemnation of the recent desecration of the Quran.

A quarter of a century ago, in June 1998, the sixth section of the Council of State was examining a seemingly paradoxical case: The Theological School of the University of Athens was refusing to award a degree to one of its graduates because he refused to take the established religious oath.

Mustafa İlhan, a bike mechanic who lives in Sandıklı district of Afyonkarahisar province, has set up a mobile tribune on his van in order not to hear obscene language at stands in stadiums and watch his team's games while barbecuing.

İlhan watches the games of Sandıklıspor, which competes in the Regional Amateur League, on his mobile tribune and enjoys his barbecue.

Greek MPs approved in principle on Wednesday night a Justice Ministry bill revising the penal code with stricter penalties for migrant trafficking, rape and child abuse.

The legislation was backed by ruling New Democracy, Movement for Change (KINAL) and far-right Greek Solution, while main opposition SYRIZA, the Communist Party and MeRA25 voted it down.

Greek officials Tuesday scrapped plans to criminalize blasphemy as a law-and-order debate intensified between the country's new conservative government and the left-wing opposition.
Justice Minister Costas Tsiaras said the proposal has been removed from draft legislation that's being debated in Parliament. It would have made blasphemy punishable by up to two years in prison.

Justice Minister Kosta Tsiaras announced on Tuesday he will withdraw a controversial provision that would re-establish blasphemy as a crime punishable by up to two years sin prison, citing reactions to the proposed legislation.

The minister has announced a series of amendments to the new penal code that was approved by Greece's Parliament in July this year.

An overhaul of the penal code by the conservative government foresees tougher penalties for migrant trafficking, rape and child abuse, as well as the reinstatement of penalties for blasphemy, according to statements by Justice Minister Costas Tsiaras before a parliamentary committee.  

A Christian woman acquitted after eight years on death row in Pakistan for blasphemy was released but her whereabouts in Islamabad on Thursday remained a closely guarded secret in the wake of demands by radical Islamists that she be publicly executed.