Brussels Jewish Museum Gunman Charged

ARTNET NEWS
By Alexander Forbes

A memorial that sprung up outside the Brussels Jewish Museum, where four were killed as
a result of the May 24 shooting. Photo: Virginia Mayo, courtesy the Associated Press.

BRUSSELS---The man alleged to have shot and killed four people at the Brussels Jewish Museum on May 24, Mehdi Nemmouche, was charged with “murder in a terrorist context” in Brussels on Wednesday, the Jerusalem Post reports. Nemmouche was extradited to Belgium from France on Tuesday, a little over a month after French authorities announced their intention to do so. The 29-year-old is a French citizen of Algerian descent. The attack was carried out using a AK-47 style assault rifle and a handgun, according to surveillance footage released by Belgian police. [link]

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Terror Threat Closes Norway Jewish Museums

ARTNET NEWS 
By Hendrik Hansson

Jewish Museum Olslo Photo: Kjetil Ree via Wikimedia Commons

NORWAY---Jewish museums in Norway were closed on Friday, following an announcement of a possible imminent terror threat according to Art Daily. Norway’s intelligence service (PST) said it had, “recently received information that a group of extremists from Syria may be planning a terrorist attack.” The museums remained closed at the time of writing. Jewish museum officials are concerned that their institutions mat be targeted following the deadly attack on Brussels Jewish museum in May that left four people dead after a man opened fire. [link]

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Signapore Halts Destruction of "Pro-Gay" Children's Books

GLOBAL POST

The three pro-gay books which faced government censorship in Singapore (Photos: internet)

SINGAPORE---Singapore on Friday stopped its national library from destroying two children's books with gay themes following an outcry over literary censorship in the tightly regulated city-state. Information Minister Yaacob Ibrahim ordered the books moved to the adult section, where parents can borrow them for their children, after another title had already been "pulped" by the National Library Board (NLB). The two books to be moved to the adult section of public libraries are "And Tango Makes Three" -- a true story about two male penguins in a New York zoo that raised a baby penguin -- and "The White Swan Express", which features children adopted by straight, gay, mixed-race and single parents. The book that has already been destroyed is "Who's In My Family", which discusses different types of families, including references to gay couples. [link]

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Urban Outfitters Pulls Lord Ganesh Duvet Cover After Hindus Protest

THE HUFFINGTON POST
By Heather Adams

Decorative or artistic depictions are more appropriate than those
that have a functional purpose according to a Hindu activist living in Arizona

PENNSYLVANIA---Urban Outfitters has pulled a new duvet cover featuring Lord Ganesh after an outcry from some Hindus. The cover depicted the elephant-head Hindu deity who symbolizes wisdom. It was only available online and was sold for $129-$169. Now, the webpage is saying it is “sold out.” In a statement issued Monday (July 14), Urban Outfitters confirmed that the item was pulled. “It was never the intention for this item nor any of the items we carry that feature illustrations of Lord Ganesha to offend our customers,” the company said in a statement. [link]

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Conchita Wurst: 'Most Artists Are Sensitive And Insecure People. I Am Too'

THE GUARDIAN
By Kathryn Bromwich

With Austrian history, it's good to have something positive.' Conchita Wurst photographed in the Corinthia Hotel, London, July 2014. Wunderkind Couture dress by Wolfgang Joop. Photograph: Phil Fisk for the Observer New Review

AUSTRIA---In the two months since winning Eurovision with the rousing power ballad "Rise Like a Phoenix," Conchita Wurst has gone from well-liked personality at home in Austria to global gay icon. In Victorian times, bearded ladies, sometimes genuine, usually false, were a staple of circuses, but when freak shows lost their lure they virtually disappeared. Today, Conchita is a distinctly modern reimagining of the phenomenon: in drag, in control, in 6-in tangerine heels. Not all the attention has been positive. Austrians created anti-Conchita Facebook groups, Russians shaved off their beards in protest and church leaders and politicians made disparaging comments about her, variously labelling her "dangerous" and blaming her for fatal Balkan floods. [link]

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Gay Christian Conservative Employee Sues Gay Bar for Sexual, Religious Harassment

THE WASHINGTON POST
By Eugen Volokh

WASHINGTON, DC---The case is Parker v. Side by Side, Inc. (N.D. Ill. June 27, 2014). An excerpt: "Plaintiff is a practicing non-denominational Christian. Plaintiff bases his claim for religious harassment on purportedly anti-Christian video clips Sidetrack played during comedy nights, offensive performances ridiculing Christians at special events, and degrading comments Sidetrack employees, particularly Lee Trudell and Defendant Oakes, made to Plaintiff because of his religion and his relationship with [Kevin DuJan, a Christian conservative blogger]." In making this determination, the Court notes that the allegedly offensive anti-Christian video clips about which Plaintiff has complained do not contribute to the alleged hostility of his work environment. [link]

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European Court Upholds France's Burqa Ban

NPR: TWO-WAY
By Krishnadev Calamur

A woman wearing a niqab eats on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France, on June 26, 2012. 

FRANCE---The European Court of Human Rights has upheld France's ban on face-covering veils, in a closely watched case that was brought by a Muslim woman who said the law violated her freedom of religion. But on Tuesday the court ruled that France's ban was legitimate because it was "proportionate to the aim pursued, namely the preservation of the conditions of 'living together' " of all French citizens. Under the law, women wearing the face-covering veil can be fined up to 150 euros (about $200) and/or be made to attend a class on citizenship. Critics say the ban targets Muslims and Islam. [link]

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Disney Heroines Kissed by Fathers in Unauthorized Anti-Rape Campaign

THE GUARDIAN
By Bill Child

A pseudonymous artist has caused controversy with a series of images showing Disney movie princesses being uncomfortably kissed by their on-screen fathers. Saint Hoax's campaign, which features Aurora from Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid's Ariel and Aladdin's Princess Jasmine, aims to raise awareness of the high level of abuse perpetrated by family members. Each poster states: "Forty six per cent of minors who are raped are victims of family members. It's never too late to report your attack." The artist, whose website describes her as being based in the Middle East, told Yahoo Movies she was inspired to create the "Princest Diaries" campaign by the plight of a friend who revealed her own experiences at the hands of her father. [link]

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Religious Freedom: When Only Muslims Can Use the Word "Allah"

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS NEWS

A woman in Turkey examines the word “Allah,” written in Arabic script on a wall outside Eski Cami. 

MALAYSIA---Religious freedom means different things in different countries, and in Malaysia is means that only Muslims can use the word "Allah." Religious extremist there believe that if a Muslim reads a Catholic newspaper in the Malay language and sees the word “Allah,” he might mistake it as a reference to the Quran and become a Christian. Such conversions are obviously a bad thing so they pushed ​Malaysia’s​ Supreme Court to ban a Catholic newspaper from ​referring to God as “Allah.” In Malaysia, Christians have used the term “Allah” to refer to God since at least 1650, when the word appeared as a translation from the Dutch word “Godt” in a Dutch-Malay dictionary but no longer. Last month, the Supreme Court ​found the term “Allah” belonged only to Muslims. [More]

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Nevada's Rajan Zed Says Hindus Upset About Kim Kardashian Artwork

EURASIA REVIEW

Nevada man is outraged by the depiction of Kim Kardashian as a Hindu diety.

NEVADA---Hindus are upset at the artwork depicting TV star Kim Kardashian, 33, as a Hindu deity, which they say hurt the feelings of devotees and is irreverence and trivialization of the sacred. Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that it was highly inappropriate that Kardashian was shown as Hindu deity in an exhibition in New York recently. Hindu deities were highly revered in Hinduism and were meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be substituted with faces of Hollywood stars for dramatic effects. [link]

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Swastikas Spray Painted on Philly Synagogue

THE TABLET

PENNSYVANIA---Two large swastikas were spray painted outside the Congregations of Ner Zedek in northeast Philadelphia Sunday night, JTA reports. The city sent a maintenance team to remove the graffiti when congregants discovered it Monday morning. According to Fox 29 News, the Conservative congregation includes many elderly members, some of them Holocaust survivors. Of course it brings back all sorts of terrible memories of what they went through,” the synagogue’s rabbi, Reuben Israel Abraham, told reporters. According to Philadelphia’s Jewish Exponent, an Anti-Defamation League report released in April revealed a rise in anti-Semitic incidents the previous year, with a total of 45 incidents reported. [link]

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Show on African Homosexuality Shut Down After Fundamentalist Attack

THE ART NEWSPAPER
By Anny Shaw

The Nigerian photographer's ongoing series "Who We Are" portrays gay men from Lagos

SENEGAL---The Senegalese government has shut down one of the first exhibitions in Africa to focus on homosexuality on the continent. The move comes several weeks after an attack on the Dakar gallery by Muslim fundamentalists, says the French-Algerian artist Kader Attia. “Precarious Imaging: Visibility and Media Surrounding African Queerness” opened at Raw Material Company on 11 May, but a day later, the non-profit art centre was vandalised and the building damaged, according to Attia, whose video about the lives of transsexuals in Algiers and Mumbai was included in the show. No one was hurt in the attack. [link]

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Ugandan Extremist Named to Head U.N. Assembly

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
By Carol Williams

Masked Kenyan supporters of the LGBT community stage a protest against Uganda's anti-gay bill in Nairobi. 

UGANDA---Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa, who is set to take over the presidency of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, has a decades-long legacy of corruption, military aggression and human-rights abuses, according to opponents of his selection as ceremonial head of the world body.  Kutesa also defended Museveni's introduction of an anti-gay law last year that imposes life sentences to those convicted of "aggravated homosexuality," a charge applied to same-sex couples openly living together. Milton Allimadi, a Ugandan journalist based in New York and editor of the Black Star News website, has been circulating an online petition appealing to the U.S. State Department to revoke Kutesa's visa so he cannot attend Wednesday's administrative session, where he is to assume his presidential duties. [link]

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Israeli/Palestinian Art Show Canceled as a Consequence of BDS Pressure

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
By Toby Tabachnick

PENNSYLVANIA---A local art exhibition that was to be an exercise in progressing beyond the rhetoric of Israeli/Palestinian politics instead has become a fatality in the cultural war against Israel driven by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS). “Sites of Passage: Borders, Walls & Citizenship,” scheduled to run at the Mattress Factory museum on Pittsburgh’s North Side from June 1 to July 27 — with a corresponding exhibit scheduled to run at Filmmakers Galleries in Oakland from June 6 to Aug. 1 — was the culmination of a joint multimedia project begun a year ago and featuring the work of three Israeli, three Palestinian and five American artists. It was canceled on May 29 after the Palestinian artists withdrew from the show. [link]

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Afghanistan Official Pledges to Preserve Gandhara's Buddhist Art, Culture

DAILY TIMES 

AFGHANISTAN---The government would do everything to preserve the Gandhara art and culture, Inter-Provincial Coordination Minister Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada said on Monday. He was addressing the opening ceremony of the Gand hara Peace Festival at SobiaMahal, Mera Bhagwal Bhara Kahu on the outskirts of the capital on Monday. The event was organised by the Gandhara Art and Culture Association in collaboration with the City School System. [link]

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Pittsburgh Art Exhibit Canceled After Palestinian Artists Threatened, Pull Out

JTA | JEWISH NEWS SOURCE

A woman hold a Palestinian flag during a protest to show solidarity with Palestinians. Photo by Reuters / Haaretz Archive

PENNSYLVANIA---An art exhibition in Pittsburgh featuring the work of Israeli, Palestinian and American artists was canceled after the Palestinian artists withdrew from the show. “Sites of Passage: Borders, Walls & Citizenship,” scheduled to run at Pittsburgh’s Mattress Factory museum from June 1 to July 27, was the culmination of a joint multimedia project begun a year ago by the artists, the Jewish Chronicle reported. The Palestinian artists pulled out of the show on May 29, a day after the Israeli artists had canceled their participation in order to allow the Palestinians to continue participating and to protect them from threats and criticism on an Arabic-language Facebook page, Tavia La Follette, the independent curator of the exhibit, told the newspaper. [link]

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Catholic League Mocks Sotheby's Auction of ‘Piss Christ’ by Andres Serrano

THE DAILY CALLER
By Rachel Stoltzfoos

"Piss Christ" (1987) by Andres Serrano in artist's frame for auction

NEW YORK---Andres Serrano’s controversial photograph, “Piss Christ,” is for sale, and the Catholic League thinks anyone who would buy it is a “sucker” and a “lout.” The Catholic League, an organization founded to defend the rights of Catholics, has condemned the piece in the past as “gratuitous and intentionally insulting.” Sotheby’s, one of the world’s largest brokers of art, will auction a print Thursday at 9:30 a.m., and expects to get between $100,000 and $150,000 for it. ”The Catholic League will not make a bid,” Donahue added in the statement. “But we are interested in interviewing the sucker who buys it. If you know who the lout is, please have him give us a call.” Serrano has said he wasn’t trying to offend. ”At the time I made Piss Christ, I wasn’t trying to get anything across,” he told The Guardian. “In hindsight, I’d say Piss Christ is a reflection of my work, not only as an artist, but as a Christian.” [link]

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Russia Quietly Tightens Reins on Web With ‘Bloggers Law’

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Neil MacFarquhar

RUSSIA---Russia has taken another major step toward restricting its once freewheeling Internet, as President Vladimir V. Putin quietly signed a new law requiring popular online voices to register with the government, a measure that lawyers, Internet pioneers and political activists said Tuesday would give the government a much wider ability to track who said what online. Mr. Putin’s action on Monday, just weeks after he disparaged the Internet as “a special C.I.A. project,” borrowed a page from the restrictive Internet playbooks of many governments around the world that have been steadily smothering online freedoms they once tolerated. [link]

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Artists Protest But Putin Censors the F-Word From Movies and Plays in Russia

THE MOSCOW TIMES
By Ivan Nechepurenko

RUSSIA---President Vladimir Putin has signed a law on Monday prohibiting swearing in public performances, including cinema, theater and other forms of art. The law will come into effect on July 1, and afterwards swearing in films, plays and concerts will incur penalties of up to 2,500 rubles ($70) for individuals and up to 50,000 rubles for companies and organizations. A similar measure was passed in April 2013, banning swearing in media. The law has been met with both criticism and shock, as swearing has been a vital component of Russian art, with some of the nation's best poets and playwrights using curse words prolifically, from classical Alexander Pushkin to contemporary post-modernist Vladimir Sorokin. [link]

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