The 40-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, forced himself onto his now ex-wife at their Perth home in 2012, the Western Australian District Court heard.

Prosecutor Joel Grinceri said the man believed he was entitled to sex under religious law, The West Australian reported.

'He went on to say that under Sharia Law it was essentially his wife's religious legal duty to agree to have sex with him whenever he wanted it.' Read more

Sharia law is the religious law of Islam derived from the teachings of the Quran, which acts as a divine code or guide for living.

The ruling was made by the Sindh High Court on Feb. 3 during the hearing of Huma Younus, a 14-year-old Catholic girl who was abducted, pressured to convert to Islam, and forced into child marriage. Read more

Brunei was widely criticised after it announced its interpretation of Islamic laws, or sharia, early last month, which involve punishing sodomy, adultery and rape with death, including by stoning.

The sultan now says a moratorium on the death penalty would be extended to the Syariah Penal Code Order (SPCO).

Clooney has promised to keep up pressure on Brunei, where gay sex remains illegal and is punishable by up to 10 years in jail.

He says the moratorium on executions is a "huge step forward after a giant leap backwards", but that "the law to stone their citizens is still in place".

"For my family and me, we simply can't walk away until this draconian law is no longer on the books."

The law's implementation, which the United Nations condemned, prompted celebrities and rights groups to seek a boycott on hotels owned by the sultan, including the Dorchester in London and the Beverley Hills Hotel in Los Angeles.

George Clooney led the boycott action, while celebrities including Elton John and Ellen DeGeneres joined in the outcry. At the same time, the UK's Health and Safety Executive and the Police Federation of England and Wales suspended links with the country.

Several multinational companies have also banned staff from using the sultan's hotels, while some travel companies have stopped promoting Brunei as a tourist destination.

Source

• The Telegraph
• The Guardian
• Image: The Japan Times

Human rights groups have complained that confessions of terrorism and spying for Iran were obtained through torture. Now it has emerged that one of the men allegedly admitted to having sex with four of his co-accused ‘terrorists.' Read more

Brunei, which is a tiny nation on the island of Borneo, has adopted a more conservative form of Islam in recent years.

In 2013 it announced its intention to introduce sharia law, the Islamic legal system that imposes strict corporal punishments.

The first stage of the law included fines or jail for offences such as pregnancy out of wedlock or failing to pray on Friday.

Human rights group Amnesty International says the new stoning and amputation penalties, which also apply to children, are provided for in new sections under Brunei's Sharia Penal Code.

They will come into effect tomorrow.

The legal changes were announced "in a discreet notice" on the attorney general's website, Amnesty says.

"To legalize such cruel and inhuman penalties is appalling of itself," Rachel Chhoa-Howard, who works for Amnesty International.

She says some of the potential offences "should not even be deemed crimes at all, including consensual sex between adults of the same gender.

"Brunei must immediately halt its plans to implement these vicious punishments and revise its penal code in compliance with its human rights obligations," Chhoa-Howard says.

"The international community must urgently condemn Brunei's move to put these cruel penalties into practice."

Both Elton John and George Clooney have spoken out against the new law, promising to boycott Brunei-owned luxury hotels.

Clooney notes the Sultan of Brunei owns a handful of luxury hotels, including the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Dorchester in London and the Plaza Athenee in Paris.

Speaking in support of Clooney's stance, Elton John says he won't be visiting any of these hotels in future.

"Discrimination on the basis of sexuality is plain wrong and has no place in any society.

"That's why I commend my friend, George Clooney, for taking a stand and calling out the anti-gay discrimination and bigotry now being enshrined in law in the nation of Brunei, a place where gay people are brutalised or worse," Elton John says.

Brunei's sultan instituted the Sharia Penal Code in 2014 to bolster the influence of Islam in the tiny, oil-rich monarchy, which has long been known for conservative policies such as banning the public sale of liquor.

Source

• Rolling Stone
• Huffington Post
• The Guardian
• iNews

Under the latest regulation in Bireuën district on Sumatra island, men and women will not be able to dine together at restaurants and coffee shops unless they are accompanied by their husband or a close male relative.

Co-workers on their lunch break will also be forbidden from sharing a meal.

"The objective is to protect women's dignity so they will feel more comfortable, more at ease, more well behaved and will not do anything that violates sharia (Islamic law)," the head of the local sharia office Jufliwan told AFP on Wednesday.

The directive was sent to coffee shops, cafes and restaurants throughout the region.

It also stated that women would not be allowed to visit such establishments past 9pm unless they are accompanied by a spouse or a male relative.

"However, we can't punish them as this is only a suggestion, not a regulation that carries a punishment," Jufliwan said.

It will be up to restaurateurs to enforce the regulation.

Three years ago the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, banned unaccompanied women from entertainment venues including cafes and sports halls after 11pm.

Sharia in Aceh has been controversial ever since it was first introduced shortly after the downfall of Soeharto in 1998.

Jakarta was struggling to cope with an armed insurgency in the province.

Aceh, a region of Sumatra island, is the only place that follows Islamic law in Muslim-majority Indonesia.

It has attracted worldwide condemnation for publicly lashing people convicted of a variety of crimes including homosexuality, gambling and alcohol consumption.

Source

• whatsnew2day.
• theguardian.com
• newsweek.com
• Image: nst.com screenshot

Lawyers and activists say the women, aged 22 and 32, were seated on stools facing the judges and given six strokes from a light rattan cane on their backs by female prison officers.

More than 100 people witnessed the caning. Read more

The bylaw, or qanun, was approved on April 30 by district legislators.

According to Fauzan Hamzah, who heads the legislation committee of the district's legislative body, the law calls for separate classrooms for male and female students in junior high school and senior high school, as well as universities. The order, he said, was in line with sharia regulations.

"Separation will help prevent students from social intercourse which violates the ethics and the sharia law," he told local news website kompas.com

The qanun also prohibits unmarried men and women from riding motorbikes together and bans traders from selling inappropriate clothes. Additionally, it bans keyboard and karaoke performances at wedding ceremonies and other activities held in schools, universities and offices.

Source

• ucannew.com
• The Malaysian Insider
• Image: c1.staticflickr.com

Pope Francis praised Mrs Ibrahim for her steadfast witness to Christ, in refusing to renounce her faith, despite facing a death sentence for apostasy against Islam.

The Pontiff spent 30 minutes with Ibrahim, her husband Daniel Wani and their two small children.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, told journalists that the encounter in the Pope's residence was marked by "affection" and "great serenity and joy".

They had "a beautiful conversation", during which the Pope thanked Ibrahim for "her steadfast witness of faith," Fr Lombardi said.

Ms Ibrahim thanked the Pope for the Church's prayers and support during her plight, he added.

The Vatican spokesman said the meeting was a sign of the Pope's "closeness, solidarity and presence with all those who suffer for their faith".

Italy's foreign ministry led negotiations with Khartoum for her to be allowed to leave Sudan.

She arrived in Rome on July 24 aboard an Italian government plane accompanied by her family and Italy's deputy foreign minister, Lapo Pistelli.

Among those organisations which helped with her exit from Sudan was the Italian human rights NGO Italians For Darfur.

Although brought up as a Christian by her Orthodox mother, a strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law argues that she is still a Muslim since her father was a Muslim.

A Sudanese court ruled that she had committed apostasy when she married her American husband in 2011.

When she refused to deny her faith in court, she was sentenced to a flogging and death for the crime of "adultery".

During her imprisonment, Ms Ibrahim was forced to give birth to a child while chained to a prison table.

After being released following an appeal, Ms Ibrahim was further detained when trying to leave Khartoum with her family.

Authorities claimed there were problems with travel documents.

Ms Ibrahim planned to travel to New York with her family after a few days in Rome.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Irish Times
• Image: Independent

They did this in a letter to the Sudanese ambassador to New Zealand His Excellency Mr Abd Al Rahim Al Siddig Mohamed Omer, who is resident in Jakarta, Indonesia.

In the letter the Bishops say that the situation of Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, the Christian Sudanese mother recently sentenced to 100 lashes and to death was a matter of grave concern to us and to all New Zealanders.

"A young mother of two children was sentenced to lashing and hanging when provision for the charges brought against her should not exist in the Constitution and are specifically ruled out by Sudan acceding to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."

They have expressed relief that the charges against her have been overturned and that she is free,

But they say the government of Sudan should to remove the charge of apostasy from its penal code in order to align the code with its Constitution and international commitments.

Ms Ibrahim and her family were briefly re-arrested while trying to leave the country for the US before being released again.

Marie Harf, a spokeswoman for the US State Department, said the Sudanese government had informed American officials that Ms Ibrahim and her family were "temporarily detained" over issues relating to their travel documents.

Read Archbishop Dew's letter

Source

• Supplied by the New Zealand Catholic Bishops' Conference
• The independent
• Image: The Independent

Meriam Yehya Ibrahim was last month sentenced to death after refusing to renounce her faith.

Mrs Ibrahim was raised as an Orthodox Christian by her mother, but her absent father was Muslim.

The Public Order Court in El Haj Yousif, Khartoum, ruled that she was a Muslim.

Under Sharia law, her marriage to a Christian was invalid, so she could be accused of apostasy and adultery, the court decided.

Lawyers have lodged an appeal against her conviction.

She will receive 100 lashes before she is executed.

The baby girl is Mrs Ibrahim's second child.

Continue reading

It is calling on the government to petition the Sudanese government to immediately release Mariam Ibrahim from imprisonment.

Ibrahim, a Sudanese mother, doctor and a Catholic, has been sentenced to be flogged 200 times and then sentenced to death unless she recants her Christian faith. She is 8 months pregnant and has a two-year-old son.

She is charged with adultery on the grounds that her marriage to a Christian man from South Sudan is considered void under Shari'a law, for which the penalty is flogging. She has also been charged with apostasy, or abandonment of religion, for which she has been sentenced to death.

Right to Life is asking New Zealanders to speak out and to urge the government to join the international community in calling upon the government of Sudan to respect the right to life and Meriam's right to religious freedom.

The United States, the European Union and advocacy groups have strongly condemned the death sentence imposed on Ibrahim.

Source

• Right to life
• Vatican Radio
• Image: d1bghp9m77ju8l.cloudfront.net

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah said authorities had been considering the new Sharia Penal Code for years and it will be enforced in 'phases'.

Punishments under the Hudud code may include stoning for adultery, amputation for theft and flogging for drinking alcohol or even having an abortion.

The code will make Brunei the first ASEAN country to enforce a national Sharia law. Continue Reading - Listen to interview

These are the main outcomes from a survey of Australia's Muslim leaders and revealed by the Sun Herald newspaper.

Imam Yusuf Parker, from the Alhidayah Centre in Perth, said Islam forbade the charging or paying of interest "so finding interest-free loans will again help Muslims to practise their Islam better."

"Other than the two major issues mentioned, I don't see other sharia law that Muslims would seek to have legally recognised," he said.

Fellow West Australian imam Sheik Burhaan Mehtar said sharia law often was raised to scare non-Muslims, but a dialogue would lead to better understanding.

"Islamic banking and the non-slavery of humans is a classic example. Interest is slavery," he said.

The survey also revealed

• imams are sceptical that Osama bin Laden's death will benefit ordinary Muslims
• most Muslims are unhappy with the way the US disposed of bin Laden's body
• Muslims are condemnatory of MPs who criticise Muslim women for wearing the burqa / nijab and see these politicians as just playing political games
• concern that ordinary Muslims are still being linked to terrorism
• disgust that innocent people in Muslim countries are being killed in the "war on terror"

Victorian imam Sheik Ramy Najmeddine added that Muslims believe the link between ordinary Muslims and terrorism is being broken down by the good work that members of both the Muslim and non-Muslim community are doing.

Sources

• Australian Imams on Osama, tolerance and Sharia law
• News.com.au
• Images: Guardian