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- Couple blackmail Muslim girl over Western dress
- "Miracle" baby gives hope in Russian Muslim south
- AG opposes cult leader Wayne Bent's bond petition
- Mistrial declared in John Travolta extortion trial; Travolta and wife at Scientology party
- Cyber attacks smite atheist websites
- Faith-Based Council Produces Muslim Celebrity
- Sweat lodge survivor describes fatal ceremony
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A couple blackmailed a Muslim girl by threatening to show her family pictures of her in Western dress.
The woman, in her 20s, wore a veil in public in line with her parents' strict beliefs.
But she changed into a T-shirt and jeans for an "innocent" but secret seaside day trip with Emal Ismaeli and Joanne Richards.
Asylum seeker, Ismaeli 34, and ex-wife Richards, 22, claimed she owed £7,000 they lent during their friendship. They threatened to show the photos to her family and fiancé unless she paid them back, Wolverhampton crown court was told.
The pair, from Lye, West Mids, admitted blackmail. Ismaeli was jailed for 15 months. Richards got 12 months.
A "miracle" baby has brought a kind of mystical hope to people in Russia's mostly Muslim southern fringe who are increasingly desperate in the face of Islamist violence.
From hunchbacked grandmas to schoolboys, hundreds of pilgrims lined up this week in blazing sunshine to get a glimpse of 9-month-old baby Ali Yakubov, on whose body they say verses from the Koran appear and fade every few days. [video]
New Mexico attorney General Gary King's office is opposing cult leader Wayne Bent's petition to the state Supreme Court for bond while awaiting appeal.
Bent's previous filings on district and state levels were both denied. Assistant Attorney General Margaret McLean asks the Supreme Court to uphold the previous courts' rulings.
She cites no "clear and convincing" evidence that Bent, Strong City leader, won't flee or pose danger to another person or community. She also says a reversal or order for a new trial is unlikely and argues there are no grounds to revisit granting an appeal bond.
A mistrial has been declared in the trial of two people accused of attempting to extort millions from actor John Travolta after the death of his 16-year-old son, Jett.
Judge Anita Allen thought someone in the jury had had inappropriate communications outside of the jury room, where jurors had been deliberating for eight hours.
The judge received information that an announcement had been made at a local political rally that one of the defendants had been found not guilty.
Australian atheists are under attack, with the websites of both the Atheist Foundation of Australia and the Global Atheist Convention knocked offline in a major cyber attack yesterday afternoon.
The attacks may be related to the Global Atheist Convention, which is being held in Melbourne in March next year.
Dalia Mogahed, a Muslim, is one of 25 people President Obama tapped to advise him on faith issues. She may have met the president exactly once, but to Muslims, she's a celebrity — thanks to the headscarf, or hijab, she wears every day.
Muslims everywhere see her voluntary appointment as a backstage pass to the White House. She hears everything from "My father is in jail, and I want you to ask Obama to pardon him" to "I need a visa," she says.
What Mogahed actually does for the president is work on his faith-based council. They're supposed to come up with ideas on how the American government can partner with communities and social groups. What she brings to the table is research from her polling of Muslims at her day job with Gallup.
Mogahed says she's not there to represent Islam.
When participants exhibited weakness, Ray urged them to push past it and chided those who wanted to leave, she said. "I can't get her to move. I can't get her to wake up," Bunn recalls hearing from two sides of the 415-square-foot sweat lodge. Ray's response: "Leave her alone, she'll be dealt with in the next round."
It marks a significant revelation in the criminal investigation into Ray over the episode because it portrays him as driving participants to stay in the lodge despite signs all around him that the situation had gone bad. [video]
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