FSTDT

Hausawa Filin Hockey upper-Sharia court, Inspector Aminu Yargoje, Idris Ibrahim and unnamed rioters #fundie upi.com

A Nigerian Sharia court in Kano sentenced a 22-year-old gospel singer to death by hanging for alleged blasphemy in a song the singer wrote and circulated on WhatsApp.

The Hausawa Filin Hockey upper-Sharia court found Yahaya Sharif-Aminu guilty of blaspheming the Prophet Muhammed by praising a local imam from the Tijaniya Muslim brotherhood in one line of a song circulated by Sharif-Aminu in March.

Sharif-Aminu did not deny the charges.

Sharia Judge Aliyu Muhammad Kani said Sharif-Aminu could appeal the ruling within 90 days.

The prosecutor, Inspector Aminu Yargoje, said the verdict was fair because it would deter future blasphemy in the state.

The Sharia courts are a separate Muslim-only court system used along with civil courts in majority-Muslim areas of Nigeria. Death sentences handed down in Sharia courts have rarely been carried out, with the most recent execution happening in 1999, according to BBC News.

The civil supreme court can overturn a death conviction of the Sharia courts.

Sharif-Aminu went into hiding after his song was released, but angry youth protesters burned down his family's home and demanded action from the Islamic police, called the Hisbah.

"When I heard about the judgment I was so happy because it showed our protest wasn't in vain," the leader of the protesters, Idris Ibrahim, said Monday.

But other young Nigerians were upset by the ruling.

[…]

Sharif-Aminu is not a well-known singer in Nigeria, being one of many gospel musicians within the Tijaniya Muslim brotherhood sect, the BBC reported. He is currently being held in jail.

Superior Court Judge J. David Roper #fundie upi.com

ATLANTA, June 11 (UPI) -- A Georgia judge rejected a transgender man's request for a name change, saying that his masculine choice of name could be "dangerous."

Superior Court Judge J. David Roper rejected the petition of 24-year-old Rowan Feldhaus, who is female but identifies as male, to change his middle name from "Elizabeth" to "Elijah" saying: "I don't know anybody named Elijah who's female."

"I'm not going to do that. I've never heard of that," Roper said at a hearing in March, according to a transcript. "And I know who Elijah was, one of the greatest men that ever lived.".

Civil rights group Lambda Legal filed a brief on behalf of Feldhaus, stating that Roper and the trial court abused its discretion by denying his name change based on "arbitrary" and "insufficient" reasons.

"There are only a few exceptions that allow a court to deny someone the right to change their name. Being transgender is not one of those exceptions," Lambda Legal Senior Attorney Beth Littrell said. "Changing your name is time-consuming and costly and should not be denied based on sexist notions or transgender bias."

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that Roper said granting a name change that allows a person to assume the opposite sex could potentially confuse emergency personnel and cause restroom safety issues.

Roper also stated that there are no guidelines for this matter in the state's name-change statute, and that the name change might offend the "sensibilities and mores of a substantial portion of the citizens of this state."

"I do not approve of changing names from male to female – male names to obvious female names, and vice versa," Roper said, according to the hearing transcript.

Feldhaus, a sergeant in the Army Reserve who works with the Singh Investment Group and is a student at Augusta University, said the ruling made him feel insulted and objectified to be denied use of the name that family, friends and coworkers use to address him.

"It can be a scary situation when I show up for work or the first day of class and my legal name does not match my public presentation and my gender identity," Feldhaus said. "I just want to change my name so that it reflects who I am."

Littrell said there was no precedent for the ruling that Feldhaus must only select a gender-neutral name and stated that it violates his constitutional right to expression.

"That's discrimination plain and simple." she said. "It really shows that the judge is making it up as he goes along and not following the rules of the law."

Uri Geller #magick upi.com

An Israeli psychic known for purportedly bending metal objects with his mind says Apple's bending iPhone 6 woes could be explained by "mental forces."

Uri Geller said during a visit to England there were "two possible reasons for the phenomenon" that has been dubbed "Bendgate" by unhappy iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus owners who discovered the phones bent after spending time in a user's pants pocket.

"Either the device is extremely thin so that it bends when even a weak force is implied on it -- which is hard to believe for Apple has been conducting many tests and experiments -- or the energy and excitement of the millions of consumers stirred up their mental forces causing the iPhone to bend," Geller told MarketWatch.

Pat Robertson #fundie upi.com

Televangelist Pat Robertson had some eyebrow-raising advice for a woman who wrote complaining of a cheating husband.

"I've been trying to forgive my husband for cheating on me," the viewer writes. "We have gone to counseling, but I just can't seem to forgive, nor can I trust. How do you let go of the anger? How do you trust again?"

While Robertson's co-host called infidelity "one of the ultimate betrayals," the controversial host disagreed.

"Here's the secret: stop talking about the cheating," Robertson advised.

"He cheated on you. Well, he's a man."

Robertson also suggested the writer be forgiving of her husband's transgressions and the "tendency of man."

"Does he provide a home for you to live in," Robertson said. "Does he provide food for you to eat? Does he provide clothes for you to wear? Is he nice to the children... Is he handsome?"

"Recognize also, like it or not, males have a tendency to wander a little bit," he added. "What you want to do is make a home so wonderful that he doesn't want to wander."

Christian #fundie upi.com

{on an atheist bilboard being vandalised}

Don't be fooled these atheist would do whatever it takes to belittle, conquer and subject you to their form of religion. Burn down their signs, vandalize them but don't back down. Don't think for a second they are open to you being a Christian. This is a war and they are on a mission to destroy a religion to replace it with their own. It is a war being fought and these people have learned to act covertly in our legal and education system. This is not a game. Fight for Christianity if you are on our side because these people are openly on the war path. Who cares what they have to say - they don't care what you have to say.

Anonymous #fundie upi.com

[About a atheist billboard]

i dont want to bash on anyone religion, but if your "atheist" you not supposed to believe in god?
by doing thins like this billboard you are contradicting
you "atheist" people are just supposed to stay quite because when you do things like this you are just saying u believe in god but u hate him.

Maha al-Metebaa #fundie upi.com

TUNIS, Tunisia, April 27 (UPI) -- A Tunisian family alleges their daughter was raped during a telephone conversation with a man, a lawyer for the family said.

The 30-year-old man said he never touched the young woman. But he acknowledged he heard her scream while they were "totally into" an erotic telephone conversation -- and that she reported bleeding, Al Arabiya reported.

Maha al-Metebaa, a lawyer representing the family, told the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabs the case needs careful investigation because of its unprecedented allegations. He said a medical examination had determined that the woman, 20, was no longer a virgin.

"The intercourse did take place with all its details but verbally only," he said. "The sexual act did not really happen because the physical proximity factor is not there, yet it happened because there is a direct physical impact – the loss of virginity."