Anti-Gay Violence in Iraq & Burkini Fever

Gays Attacked & Executed in Iraq
According to Human Rights Watch, hundreds of gay men have been tortured and killed in Iraq in recent months; some by the nation's security forces. Attackers are said to target people on the streets or storm homes, where they conduct interrogations and demand names of suspected gay men. Additionally, suspected gay men have been threatened with "honor killings" by relatives worried that their "unmanly behavior" will ruin the family's reputation. "In 2004, militias and unknown groups started to go after the gays ... but the peak was six months ago," said a local. "It has become wide scale war against gays in Iraq." Human Rights Watch is urging a government crackdown on the anti-gay violence.

Rabbi: Single Women Not Allowed to Have Kids
In Israel, the head of a Jewish fertility organization said Thursday that single women should not have children. Why? You guessed it, because his religion says so. "There is not one rabbinical religious authority in the world allowing a single woman to give birth," proclaimed Rabbi Menachem Burstein during a speech to a local college. However, don't misinterpret Burstein's statement as yet another example of religious misogny. After all, the rabbi's main concern is for the welfare of the family" and the unborn child: "All the efforts we are making for treatments and insemination are aimed at starting a family, and here the framework of the family is damaged," he said. "Judaism does not permit one person's happiness at the expense of another, and it has been proven that a child born to a single woman from in vitro insemination suffers greatly." While I'm no huge supporter of single-parent households, I don't think any woman needs religious permission to bring a child into the world when it is a conscious choice.

Economic Downturn Effects the Religion Industry
Well, it looks like the recession is an equal-opportunity offender. First it rattled the banking industry, then auto manufacturers and now its slamming the soul-saving business. In Dania Beach, Florida, the Archdiocese of Miami has announced that it's closing 14 congregations. Congregants are predictably sad and disappointed; some are signing petitions and planning protests while the more devout ones gathered for a prayer vigil over the weekend.


And finally...Burkini Dress Code Imposed in UK
So last week we told you about the the burkini ban at a French swimming pool. Perhaps that story made you wonder what it would be like if burkinis became the norm and women everywhere started to wear them. Well, give you imagination a rest because it's already happening in in London, where some swimming pools are imposing a Muslim dress code. Under these policies, female swimmers, including non-Muslims, have to wear a burkini if they want to swim. Some politicians are calling the move divisive and worry about the negative impact on community relations.