Muslims are flying into Mecca in their thousands for the Haj, but many followers in China have been grounded by bureaucratic hurdles and political obstacles.

In the streets of Khotan, where the aroma of roasting mutton kebabs and cardamom tea fill the bazaar, one young Muslim merchant was despairing. His parents made the pilgrimage several years ago – before officials introduced character checks on would-be pilgrims. He said: “Now the Government is afraid that when we go abroad we will say bad things about them. So they want to be careful who they allow.”

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Egypt Copt jailed 45 years after father's conversion

An Egyptian Christian woman has been jailed for three years because her father's brief conversion to Islam 45 years ago made her legally a Muslim while her official papers said she was Christian, her lawyer said Thursday.

Shadia Nagui Ibrahim, 47, was charged with fraud for stating Christianity as her religion on her marriage certificate, unaware that her father's conversion to Islam in 1962 had made her officially a Muslim, Michael Maurice told AFP.

Nagui Ibrahim left home in 1962 when daughter Shadia was two years old, converted to Islam and took on the Muslim name Mustafa.

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This is the sort of thing you could expect if the Christians have their way and convert the US to being a "Christian" country. Abuse, oppression, loss of liberty. SUPPORT SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE!

Warren Jeffs renounces leadership of FLDS

Polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs renounced his role as prophet in January, telling family and select followers the Lord considered him a ''wicked man'' for immoral acts as a young man, according to a court document released Tuesday.

In a series of telephone calls, Jeffs said he had been immoral with a sister and a daughter and, since the age of 20, had not held the priesthood in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He made a similar statement a day later in a jailhouse visit with a brother.

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Words To Live By

The Radical Christian Right Is Built on Suburban Despair

By Chris Hedges, AlterNet. Posted January 19, 2007.

Millions of Americans live trapped in soulless exurbs which lack any kind of community, leaving them feeling isolated and vulnerable. Without alternatives for their social despair, they flock to demagogues promising revenge and a mythical utopia.

The engine that drives the radical Christian Right in the United States, the most dangerous mass movement in American history, is not religiosity, but despair. It is a movement built on the growing personal and economic despair of tens of millions of Americans, who watched helplessly as their communities were plunged into poverty by the flight of manufacturing jobs, their families and neighborhoods torn apart by neglect and indifference, and who eventually lost hope that America was a place where they had a future.

This despair crosses economic boundaries, of course, enveloping many in the middle class who live trapped in huge, soulless exurbs where, lacking any form of community rituals or centers, they also feel deeply isolated, vulnerable and lonely. Those in despair are the most easily manipulated by demagogues, who promise a fantastic utopia, whether it is a worker's paradise, fraternite-egalite-liberte, or the second coming of Jesus Christ. Those in despair search desperately for a solution, the warm embrace of a community to replace the one they lost, a sense of purpose and meaning in life, the assurance they are protected, loved and worthwhile.

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