Poor Mojo's Newswire

The Muslim community in Mumbai says it doesn't want the gunmen who attacked Mumbai to be buried in the Muslim cemetery, on the grounds that they are not Muslims.

A spokesman for the Muslim council said, ""These terrorists are a black spot on our religion, we will very sternly protest the burial of these terrorists in our cemetery . . ."

Certainly the perpetrators are criminals from the point of view of Islamic law. The Qur'an forbids murder (qatl) and the classical jurisprudence on jihad forbids the killing of innocent noncombatants, sneak attacks, or the undertaking of military action without the authorization of duly constituted Muslim authorities.

Under state law, God is Kentucky's first line of defense against terrorism.

The 2006 law organizing the state Office of Homeland Security lists its initial duty as "stressing the dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth."

Specifically, Homeland Security is ordered to publicize God's benevolent protection in its reports, and it must post a plaque at the entrance to the state Emergency Operations Center with an 88-word statement that begins, "The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God."

The singer, who was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, converted to Islam in a ceremony at a friend's house in Los Angeles.

He is said to have sat on the floor and worn a small hat while an imam officiated.

According to The Sun, the ceremony took place while Jackson, 50, was recording an album at the home of Steve Porcaro, a keyboard player who composed music on his Thriller album.

The former Jackson 5 star was counselled by David Wharnsby, a Canadian songwriter, and Phillip Bubal, a producer, who have both converted.

Eight teenagers have been sentenced to time in jail by a court in Israel for carrying out a series of neo-Nazi attacks that shocked the nation. The eight, aged from 16 to 19, were found guilty of attacking religious Jews, gays and drug addicts, and the desecration of a synagogue. The group, immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union, were sentenced to between one and seven years in jail.

We good Protestants should join together and ask the State of California to eliminate the right of Catholics to take Eucharist, for when those people are able to join together in communion it devalues and debases our traditional, wholesome, Hawaiian-bread-and-Concord-grape-juice Protestant Eucharist. Now, we won't ban Catholicism, of course. We tolerate Catholics. They can keep dressing in their gaudy outfits, and have their all male hangouts, and believe whatever they want, but let's not let them continue to corrupt our Eucharist. What do you say? Obviously, the argument is absurd and offensive, yet in this past election many intelligent, well-intentioned Christians used this same argument to eliminate the right of homosexuals to marry.

Suggesting that gay marriage reduces the value of "traditional" marriage is as reasonable as supposing that allowing Catholics to take communion somehow diminishes the value of the Presbyterian Eucharist, or that allowing a Muslim to believe in and worship Allah will reduce the value of a Christian's belief and worship of Jesus. Prop 8 does not defend traditional marriage. It does not defend anything. It is an attack. With Prop 8, California has declared that, while a minority group can believe what it wants, its ability to act in no extraordinary way on its own beliefs is subject to regulation by the majority, even the slimmest 50% 1 majority.

CNN's Rick Sanchez reported on a church marquee that reads "America we have a Muslim president. This is a sin against the Lord." Mark Holick is pastor of The Spirit One Christian Center in Wichita, Kansas where the sign is being displayed. Holick told KSNW, "The main point of the marquee is to cause the Christians to understand he is not a Christian, Again, they will call me and they will tell me that he's not a Muslim because he is a Christian. That's not the point. The point is he's not a Christian."