Michigan judge sued for ordering woman to remove Islamic head scarf

An Iraqi immigrant in the Detroit area has filed a federal lawsuit against a Michigan judge who told her to remove her Islamic head scarf in court.

Raneen Albaghdady of Dearborn Heights alleges that Wayne County Judge William Callahan violated her U.S. constitutional rights to freedom of religion and to access to the courts. The suit seeks to forbid state judges from ordering women to remove their Islamic head coverings, called hijabs.

Albaghdady, 32, is a member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which filed the suit on her behalf.

Here's CAIR's news release.

The incident occurred June 16 when Albaghdady was petitioning for a name change.

"I was hurt, the way he treated me," Albaghdady said today at a news conference at the Michigan offices of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Southfield. "I was really, really scared and terrified."

The Detroit News writes that a video transcript of the hearing shows that Albaghdady "never objected to removing the scarf or told the judge the scarf had religious significance."

The News continues: "The scarf Albaghdady wore was not tucked in or tied around her chin in the way hijabs are typically worn, said her attorney, Nabih Ayad of Canton Township. The video shows Albaghdady wore a large headpiece that Ayad described as a hair clip after she moved the scarf down to around her shoulders in response to the judge. "

In a statement today, Callahan said he has "the greatest respect for spiritual practices and all religious preferences," and "had he been informed that the head covering had some religious significance, the judge would have permitted it."

Here's the transcript, according to the News:

Callahan: "The headpiece...

Albaghdady: "I'm sorry?"

Callahan: "No hats allowed in the courtroom."

Man seated in the courtroom: "It's not a hat. It's a scarf."

Callahan: "Excuse me, sir."

Albaghdady: "This one?"

Callahan: "No hats allowed in the courtroom."

Albaghdady: "This one?"

Callahan: "Yes."

Albaghdady: "OK. It doesn't matter."

Ayad said that as an immigrant from Iraq, Albaghdady would have obeyed the judge regardless: "He's god, and it's very, very intimidating."

Last month Georgia's judicial authority approved the wearing of head coverings in court. The Judicial Council of Georgia said the policy "is designed to balance a court’s legitimate security concerns with a person’s right to practice his or her faith in a public place. Under the new policy, if a security officer wanted to conduct a search, the person would have the option of having the inspection performed in a private area by an officer of the same gender."

Judge backs S.D. law stating abortion kills fetus

A federal judge has struck down portions of a South Dakota abortion law but upheld the key provision that doctors must tell a pregnant woman the procedure will “terminate the life of a whole separate unique living human being.”

Chief District Court Judge Karen Schreier overturned a requirement that doctors tell a woman she enjoys a legally protected “relationship” with her fetus. She likewise struck down the section requiring doctors to tell women that abortion increases the risk of suicide, calling it “untruthful and misleading.”

Schreier, who was nominated to the bench by President Clinton in 1999, backed the exception that allows for abortion in a medical emergency.

Read the entire law here.

Planned Parenthood said before the ruling that the state's only abortion clinic, in Sioux Falls, could lose its license and close.

Huckabee: Palestinian state 'unrealistic' on West Bank

 

Former U.S. presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, on a three-day tour of Israel, says there should be no Palestinian state on the West Bank, the Associated Press reports.

Speaking to a small group of foreign reporters in Jerusalem, Huckabee says the international community should consider establishing a Palestinian state some place else.

"The question is should the Palestinians have a place to call their own? Yes, I have no problem with that," the two-time Republican governor of Arkansas says, according to the AP. "Should it be in the middle of the Jewish homeland? That's what I think has to be honestly assessed as virtually unrealistic."

Huckabee, whose tour is hosted by a far-right group of religious nationalists, also endorses Israeli settlements on the West Bank, a position that is sharply at odds with Washington.

"My question is how the government of the United States would feel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began to dictate which people could live in the Bronx, which ones could live in Manhattan and which could live in Queens," Huckabee tells reporters, according to The Jerusalem Post.

(Photo by Gali Tibbon, AFP Getty Images)

 

London drops 'burkini' swimwear for non-Muslims

A London district council has rescinded rules that banned conventional swimsuits at a public pool to avoid offending Muslims.

All women, regardless of religion, had to wear the so-called burkini (or burquini) — an outfit consisting of head scarf, tunic and trousers — while men had to be covered from the navel to the knees.

The rules were put in place for weekend swimming sessions geared to Muslims in which men and women swam separately. Swimmers had to meet the "modest" dress code required by Islamic custom. T-shirts, however, are forbidden in public pools.

The Croydon council dropped the guidelines from its website after the news generated a backlash.

Across the English Channel, France has taken the opposite approach to the burkini. A 35-year-old woman was recently evicted from a pool outside Paris for wearing the head-to-toe swimwear because it is considered unhygienic.

The London Telegraph has more.

(A surfer in Newport Beach, Calif., wearing a "burkini" in February 2007. Photo by Chris Carlson, AP.)

Rabbis circle Israel to ward off H1N1 flu

One-upping chicken soup, 50 rabbis and Jewish mystics have taken to the skies over Israel in a bid to keep the H1N1 swine flu virus at bay, according to news accounts.

In a plane flight Monday, the group chanted prayers from the Kabbalah and blew shofars, the ceremonial ram horns, while circling Israel.

One rabbi told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that the flight aimed "to stop the pandemic so people will stop dying from it. We are certain that, thanks to the prayer, the danger is already behind us."

Five Israelis have died so far out of the more than 2,000 cases reported nationwide.

Because Judaism considers pigs unclean and forbids eating pork, Israelis usually call the flu "H1N1."

Earlier this year, the deputy health minister tried unsuccessfully to get the bug's common name changed. Because Judaism considers pigs unclean, he wanted H1N1 to be called "Mexican flu" because of where it was initially detected.

See the rabbis in action.

Learn more about the virus here.

Psychologists dismiss gay-to-straight therapy

There is no firm evidence that sexual orientation can be changed through therapy, so mental health professionals should not tell conflicted gay clients that they can become heterosexual with such treatments, the American Psychological Association declared today.

In adopting a resolution, the APA's governing council said some research suggests such "reparative therapy" could induce depression or suicidal tendencies.

A task force recommended that mental health professionals "avoid misrepresenting the efficacy of sexual orientation change efforts when providing assistance to people distressed about their own or others' sexual orientation," usually as a result of religious doctrine.

Here's what Judith Glassgold, chair of the task force, said in a statement:

"Contrary to claims of sexual orientation change advocates and practitioners, there is insufficient evidence to support the use of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation. Scientifically rigorous older studies in this area found that sexual orientation was unlikely to change due to efforts designed for this purpose. Contrary to the claims of SOCE [sexual orientation change efforts] practitioners and advocates, recent research studies do not provide evidence of sexual orientation change as the research methods are inadequate to determine the effectiveness of these interventions.

"At most, certain studies suggested that some individuals learned how to ignore or not act on their homosexual attractions. Yet, these studies did not indicate for whom this was possible, how long it lasted or its long-term mental health effects. Also, this result was much less likely to be true for people who started out only attracted to people of the same sex."

The APA urged therapists to consider multiple options — celibacy or switching churches, for instance — for helping clients live spiritually rewarding lives in instances where their sexual orientation and religious faith conflict, the Associated Press writes.

Here's what the APA said about that:

"As part of its report, the task force identified that some clients seeking to change their sexual orientation may be in distress because of a conflict between their sexual orientation and religious beliefs. The task force recommended that licensed mental health care providers treating such clients help them 'explore possible life paths that address the reality of their sexual orientation, reduce the stigma associated with homosexuality, respect the client's religious beliefs, and consider possibilities for a religiously and spiritually meaningful and rewarding life.' "

Read the news release and the full report.

The Advocate reports that Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, reacted with accolades to the news.

"Homophobia, bias, and discrimination are what make it difficult for people to accept and be open about their sexual orientation," he said. "We have to change hearts and minds, not our sexual orientation, and we are hopeful that the position of the APA helps to heal those who have been hurt by rejection and betrayal, and to foster greater awareness, skills, and knowledge among mental health professionals."

The Los Angeles Times also has the story.

Preacher Tony Alamo convicted on sex charges

 

Tony Alamo, a one-time street preacher who built a multimillion-dollar ministry, was convicted today of taking girls as young as 9 across state lines for sex, the Associated Press reports.

Alamo remained silent as the verdict was read. 

His five victims sat looking forward in the gallery. One, a woman he "married" at age 8, wiped away a tear, the AP says.

In the trial, the five women, now age 17 to 33, told jurors that Alamo "married" them in private ceremonies while they were minors, sometimes giving them wedding rings. Each detailed trips beyond Arkansas’ borders for Alamo’s sexual gratification.

"I’m just another one of the prophets that went to jail for the Gospel," Alamo called to reporters afterward as he was escorted to a waiting U.S. marshal’s vehicle. The trial was held in Texarkana, Ark.

Alamot faces a sentence of up to 175 years in prison.

(Photo by Danny Johnston, AP)

'Unprecedented' stem cell feat announced

The Los Angeles Times reports on an "unprecedented feat" in stem cell research that was announced today.

The paper writes that two teams of Chinese researchers succeeded in "inducing cells from connective tissue in mice to revert back to their embryonic state and producing living mice from them."

The Times writes that the results "also open the door to a variety of applications beyond producing stem cells for medicinal purposes, including the production of endangered species and the reproduction of prized farm and other animals."

One of the lead researchers did note that some first-generation living mice had abnormalities. She did not say what those abnormalities were.

One scientist not involved in the research said the results still raise ethical concerns. Dr. Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer at Advanced Cell Technology Inc., which generates embryonic stem cell lines without destroying embryos, said the studies "revive many of the same ethical issues as reproductive cloning."

"We have gone from science fiction to reality," he added.

The results were published online today by the journals Nature and Cell Stem Cell.

Faith-healing Ore. man guilty in daughter's death

An Oregon man who believes in faith healing has been convicted of a lesser charge in the death of his infant daughter, who was not given medical treatment. His wife was acquitted of all charges.

Carl Worthington, 29, was found guilty of criminal mistreatment but acquitted of second-degree manslaughter for the death of 15-month-old Ava, who died in March 2008 of pneumonia and a blood infection. He faces a possible one-year jail term.

Raylene Worthington, 26, was found not guilty of all charges.

Oregon Live reports that it is the first conviction under a 1999 state law designed to protect the children of parents who believe in faith healing for medical problems.

Rather than seek medical attention, the Worthingtons and members of their Oregon City church, the Followers of Christ, attempted to heal her with prayer, fasting, anointing of oil and laying on of hands.

Here's background on the church.

(Carl Brent Worthington and Raylene Worthington listened last week as the prosecution gave its closing arguments against them. Photo by Randy L. Rasmussen, via AP.)

Pope breaks wrist in night fall

Pope Benedict XVI fell early this morning and broke his right wrist while on vacation in northern Italy. The 82-year-old pontiff later celebrated morning Mass in the mountain town of Aosta before going to the hospital.

Doctors operated to align the broken bones, and he was released afterward. Benedict will wear a cast for about a month.

The New York Times and Catholic News Service have more.