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Saudi Cleric Challenges Taboo of Full Covering for Women
February 13, 2018
A senior Islamic cleric on Saudi Arabia’s state-approved Council of Senior Scholars has asserted that “pious Muslim women” should not be forced to wear the abaya, the full body-face covering imposed by law under the Kingdom’s strict Wahhabi Islamist establishment.
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Turkish President Signals Support for Islamic Coverings for Girls
February 13, 2018
Turkey’s President signaled another move in the regime’s totalitarian shift to Islamist nationalism, presiding in the country's parliament over the delivery of nationalist poems by a young girl in a full-body Islamic covering.
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Malaysian Party Leader Plans Second-Class Status for Non-Muslims
February 13, 2018
The leader of Malaysia’s largest Islamist party has gone on record about his plans if his party secured a majority in the next elections, committing to exclude non-Muslims from government policy making and to consider the imposition of sharia blasphemy laws throughout the country.
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New Zealand Court Dismisses Case on "Insulting" Cartoons
February 12, 2018
The High Court of New Zealand in Auckland has dismissed a case brought by a Member of Parliament claiming that a set of cartoons published by news website Stuff in 2013 containing a negative portrayal of indigenous people violated provisions in the country's Human Rights Act prohibiting the publication of certain "insulting" material.
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Pakistan Delays Professor's Trial for Blasphemy
February 07, 2018
Human Rights Watch has published an article criticizing Pakistan's prolongation of a blasphemy case against university professor Junaid Hafeez for alleged comments posted on social media platform Facebook as one example of the more general abuse of the law used to jail and sentence to death people exercising their right to freedom of expression.