Ragbag Headliners

Protesters Rally In NY Ahead Of Hearings On Radical Islam

Religious leaders, community members and activists took to the streets Sunday in New York to protest upcoming congressional hearings, convened by House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, on "the radicalization of American Muslims."

Demonstrators stood underneath umbrellas in a cold, sideways rain as speakers in Times Square addressed the crowd. Many said the hearings unfairly target Islam and warned they could stoke fear and fuel violence against the wider Muslim community.

Congress is scheduled to begin the hearings this week under the direction of King, R-New York.

"Congressman's King's hearings have the danger of portraying all Muslims and Islam as the enemy. And this is absolutely wrong and false. Our common enemy is extremism," said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, one of the organizers of the rally. –Read more at CNN Belief Blog 

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Catholic Pakistani Minister Killed For Protecting Christians

Christians, government officials and secular groups have condemned the brutal assassination of Shahbaz Bhatti, the young Catholic minister in charge of minority affairs in Pakistan’s federal cabinet.

Bhatti, 42, was shot by unidentified gunmen who pumped bullets into his car from automatic weapons as he was being driven from his residence to his office in Islamabad this morning.

Bhatti, bleeding profusely, was rushed to a nearby hospital by his driver in the same car. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

He had been facing public death threats from Muslim fundamentalists in recent weeks.

“Bhatti’s assassination underlines the issue of protection of religious minorities, life and liberty,” Pakistani churches said in a statement after an emergency condolence meeting in Lahore, which was presided over by Archbishop Lawrence Saldana, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan.

“The government needs to go beyond the rhetoric of ‘minorities enjoying all the rights in the country’ and take practical steps to curb extremism in Pakistan,” the statement said.

“We pay our salute to the courage of Shahbaz, who knowingly put his life in danger by speaking up boldly against the blasphemy law,” Archbishop Saldana said after the ecumenical meeting.

An outspoken critic of Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy law, as the federal minister in charge of minority affairs, Bhatti had been trying to build public opinion against the abuse of the law that provides a mandatory death sentence for even unintentional blasphemy cases. –Read more at National Catholic Register 

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Fallen Marine's Father Says Anti-gay Pickets Will Draw Gunfire

A day after the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed Westboro Baptist Church's right to protest against homosexuality at military funerals, the fallen Marine's father, who unsuccessfully sued the controversial Kansas congregation, warned that the church's protests will eventually spark violence.

"Something is going to happen," Albert Snyder told CNN Thursday. "Somebody is going to get hurt."

"You have too many soldiers and Marines coming back with post-traumatic stress syndrome, and they (the Westboro protesters) are going to go to the wrong funeral and the guns are going to go off."

"And when it does," Snyder said. "I just hope it doesn't hit the mother that's burying her child or the little girl that's burying her father or mother. It's inevitable."

In an 8-1 decision, the high court ruled Wednesday that Westboro Baptist Church has a First Amendment right to picket military funerals, no matter how "hurtful" the message may be. The decision ended Snyder's five-year court fight on behalf of his late son, Matthew, a Marine lance corporal killed in Iraq, whose funeral was picketed by Westboro church members.

Albert Snyder again slammed the high court justices for not having "the common sense that God gave a goat."  -Read more at CNN U.S.