LONDON - Muslim women should be allowed to wear a veil in British courts, as long it does not interfere with court proceedings, senior judges said in guidelines published Tuesday.
Decisions on whether to allow the full facial covering, known as the niqab, should be made on a case-by-case basis, the Judicial Studies Board's Equal Treatment Advisory Committee said.
The guidance was issued after an immigration judge adjourned a case in Stoke-on-Trent, in central England, last November because he could not hear a Muslim lawyer who refused to remove her veil. The case resumed after her firm sent another lawyer to represent her client in court.
Forcing a woman to choose between participating in a court case or removing her veil could have a "significant impact on that woman's sense of dignity" and could exclude and marginalize her, the panel said.
Former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw provoked a stir in October when he said he requested _ but did not insist _ that Muslim women remove face-covering veils during one-on-one meetings. Prime Minister Tony Blair said at the time that veils were seen as a "mark of separation."
Southern Baptist baptisms drop for 2nd straight year
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) _ The number of baptisms in Southern Baptist churches has fallen for the second consecutive year despite a push by top leaders to evangelize.
At the same time, national membership increased by less than 1 percent, but more churches were built, according to the 2006 profile of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources, a Southern Baptist agency that conducts the annual survey, said the findings show that denomination has not been effective in "stepping up to the task of sharing the Gospel with a lost and dying world."
Baptisms dropped from 371,850 to 364,826, or 1.89 percent, last year, the lowest annual total since 1993, according to Baptist Press. In 2005, baptisms decreased by 4.15 percent.
National membership reached 16,306,246, up by nearly 36,000 in 2005. The number of churches across the country increased by 524, or 1.2 percent, to a total of 44,223.
The Southern Baptist Convention is the nation's largest Protestant denomination.
Biden says Democrats must convince voters on faith issue
JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) _ Democrats must convince voters that the party is comfortable with religion or else risk losing the presidential race next year, Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden said.
"I think my party has to demonstrate that it's not afraid to deal with the faith issue, and has a candidate who the public thinks knows there's something bigger than he or she is and is comfortable with that," said Biden. "We treat it like a third rail within our party."
Biden, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, spoke April 20 during a taping of Iowa Public Television's "Iowa Press" program.
Biden said Democrats don't have to demonstrate deep religious faith, but they must make clear their understanding of religion's role in the nation's life. He said religious Americans accepted President Clinton, flaws and all, because he understood the importance of faith for the country.
"When Clinton sat in my Catholic church, people didn't think he was a paragon of virtue, they thought he respected them, they thought he was comfortable with them," Biden said.
Vice President Al Gore, when he ran for president in 2000 against George W. Bush, was far more reluctant to talk about faith and never connected with voters on the issue, Biden said, even though "Al Gore was as pure as the driven snow, fidelity was everything about him."
Biden has barely registered in polls, even though he sought the Democratic nomination in the 1988 election cycle and campaigned heavily in Iowa before dropping from the race. He said many people are making a mistake by treating those early polls seriously. He said most voters are willing to change their minds.
Monument dedicated to victims of clergy abuse in Catholic diocese
GRAND MOUND, Iowa (AP) _ A monument honoring the victims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests has been placed near a small eastern Iowa parish where a predator once served.
Parishioners of the SS. Philip & James Catholic Church in Grand Mound unveiled the granite monument last Sunday. They and members of a group called Catholics for Spiritual Healing raised the $4,000 needed for the creation and placement of the 3 1/2-foot-high monument.
The torch and flame design depicts an angel and a small boy carrying a Bible.
The verse is from Luke 12: "There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs."
The monument is inscribed, "dedicated to our children who survived abuse by those we trusted."
It will be placed in the yard outside the parish, the last stop in the 40-year career of James Janssen, a former priest who worked in the church from 1980 to 1990. Janssen was accused of sexually assaulting about a dozen boys in six parishes over three decades. The church placed him on indefinite leave in August 1990 and defrocked him in 2004.
Deacon David Montgomery, spokesman for the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa, which includes Grand Mound, said Bishop Martin Amos was invited to the ceremony but had previous commitments and couldn't attend.
"He's very pleased that they're doing this," Montgomery said.
Diocesan leaders have asked every parish to have a statute or item "signifying the importance of protecting God's children and reminding everyone of the scars of abuse."
The Diocese of Davenport has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the face of abuse claims.
Malaysia's Muslim men shirk financial duties to divorced wives, activists say
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) _ Many Malaysian Muslim men who divorce their wives are ignoring their responsibility to provide for their children because the Islamic legal system fails to punish them, a women's rights group says.
Sisters In Islam said women who were unable to get their ex-husbands to pay child support comprised nearly one-third of the 214 complaints it received in the first three months of 2007, adding that those cases constitute "only a small fraction of what is happening."
"Mothers are forced to beg from their children's fathers so that their children have sufficient food, clothing, shelter and education," the group said in an April 21 statement.
Sisters In Islam said Malaysia's Muslim women are suffering a lack of legal protection in a wide range of issues such as polygamy, where men who take multiple wives sometimes neglect the economic and emotional welfare of their families. Some Muslims interpret Islamic teaching as allowing a man to marry up to four women.
The Islamic Shariah Court is the legal authority in disputes involving families, morality and religion for Muslims, who form nearly 60 percent of the 26 million people in Malaysia, which has Buddhist, Christian and Hindu minorities.
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