Feature: Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies analyzes the growing global campaign to outlaw the "defamation of religions", in a June 19 Wall Street Journal oped.

Update: As Islamic scholars and lawmakers in Yemen push for a religious police force, there are now reports of citizens taking it upon themselves to enforce religious standards. Yemeni male and female students have been violently accosted in the streets by these groups of civilian religious enforcers for leaving school in mixed gender groups. The Washington Post has more.

TASHKENT – Uzbek state-run television has rebroadcast a film which promotes religious intolerance, Forum 18 reported on June 13. First shown in May, the film titled In the Clutches of Ignorance was shown just before the EURO 2008 football match on June 9, ensuring a wide audience viewing. The film specifically targets missionary activity and has made some members of religious minority groups "afraid to go out on the street where they live for fear of being persecuted." The film described missionary activity as, "a global problem along with religious dogmatism, fundamentalism, terrorism and drug addiction."

ABERDARE – A Sikh student, Sarika Watkins-Singh, was banned from classes at Aberdare Girls' School in south Wales after refusing to remove a bangle worn for her religious beliefs, BBC reported on June 17. She has taken her case to the High Court which will determine if she has faced religious discrimination. Her lawyers have said that the bangle is not just a piece of jewelry, but a symbol of her faith. The school does not permit jewelry to be worn during class.

KASHGAR – The Olympic torch relay through Kashgar, a region of China populated by ethnic Muslim Uighurs, was heavily guarded and orchestrated on Wednesday, Reuters reported on June 18. Only approved personnel were permitted to view the relay. "We weren't allowed to go and see it," said a Uighur woman in the backstreets in the old part of the oasis city. "But even if we were, I think people would have stayed away anyway." Nicholas Bequelin of Human Rights Watch said that "Over the past three months a blanket ban on all religious activities and gatherings outside of state-controlled mosques was imposed."

ISLAMABAD – A Pakistani Muslim, Muhammad Shafeeq, was arrested on Wednesday and sentenced to death for blasphemy, Reuters reported on June 18. "Judge Roomi sentenced him to death for defiling the Holy Koran and using derogatory language against the Prophet," said Shezada Hassan Ali, a senior official at the jail where Shafeeq has been kept. Reuters reports that Shafeeq may appeal the court’s decision. Blasphemy charges are common in Pakistan; most are made against religious minorities.

BAKU – Fifteen police officers raided a Jehovah’s Witness house worship service on June 11, detaining the entire group and beating up three, Forum 18 reported on June 18. The State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations did not provide Forum 18 with an explanation for the raid. The number of raids on religious gatherings appears to have increased in the past year, primarily targeting Jehovah's Witnesses, Baptists, Adventists and other Protestants.

COPENHAGEN - A Danish appeals court has rejected a defamation lawsuit filed by Muslim groups against the Jyllands-Posten daily newspaper which originally published the Prophet Muhammad cartoons in 2005, AP reported on June 19. The Western High Court determined that there were real instances of Islamic terrorist acts, and that under Danish law it is permitted to create satirical drawings representative of such events. "We are very disappointed and sad about the outcome," said Mohammed Nehme, a spokesman for Islamic Faith Community, one of seven groups that appealed the lower court ruling. "We had hoped it would be in our favor but now we have the court's word that what they did was in order."

IRFN (June 13-19): Danish Appeals Court Rejects Defamation Lawsuit