News Roundup for June 21, 2011
The anti-Muslim hate group Stop the Islamization of America has announced its first “Trans-Atlantic Conference” to be held in Strasbourg, France, on July 2. Participants include representatives of various far-right groups, including Stop the Islamisation of Europe, the English Defence League and the German-based Pax Europa.
A Kansas City couple will serve 13 months in prison without parole on charges of fraud after attempting to withdraw funds from a fictitious account and use the money to pay off more than $220,000 in debt. Defendant Roderick Moore claimed the account had been assigned to him by the U.S. Treasury at birth. Such accounts are part of the bizarre belief system of antigovernment “sovereign citizens.”
Four Wisconsin teens were arrested on hate crime charges for allegedly assaulting a 17-year-old girl after making derogatory remarks questioning her sexual orientation.
A special task force has announced a sharp increase in anti-gay hate crimes in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico’s justice secretary reported that there have been 23 murders of gay and transgender people since 2009, when a transgender teen was decapitated, dismembered and set on fire.
A top figure in the Southern Baptist Convention praised a recent SBC resolution against the “imposition” of Shariah in the U.S. The head of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Richard Land, previously stated his support for the Oklahoma ban on Shariah law, calling it a “pre-emptive strike” against “judicial imperialists” who would take Shariah into account in rulings.
