Virtually every American Muslim or Arab that I asked on Friday about the shootings at Fort Hood said his or her first concern was for the victims and the survivors. Some said they were also concerned that the incident would feed negative perceptions of their community.

"I feel nervous when I see a Muslim name or an Arab name," Imam Awni Qudah, the spiritual leader of the Islamic Society of Annapolis said after Friday at the Makkah Learning Center in Gambrills. Qudah said he meets and speaks regularly with his Jewish and Christian counterparts

"What worries me is our neighbors, our reputation," he said. "Whenever something happens, everybody looks at us, and we do not want that barrier."

But others expressed confidence that Americans are unlikely to blame the alleged actions of shooting suspect Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan on his Palestinian roots or his Muslim faith.

"Maybe a few years ago, backlash would have been higher on my list, but the U.S. has really kind of matured on this point," Baltimore attorney and author Alia Malek said. "If there were ever a reason to brace ourselves for a really tremendous backlash, it was after 9/11. And, you know, it wasn't our greatest moment as Americans, but we've come through that with some more curiosity, more openness and more willingness to look at the different communities that make up the United States."

Continue reading "Muslims, Arabs express condolences, confidence" »

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National Muslim organizations are attempting to distance themselves from Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hassan, the officer accused in the shootings Thursday at Fort Hood, Texas, in which 13 were killed and dozens wounded.

They are also urging Muslims to protect themselves from a backlash, and asking law enforcement authorities to step up security outside mosques, community centers and schools.

Soldiers who witnessed the shootings say Hassan, identified in media reports as the Muslim son of Palestinian immigrants, shouted “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire, base commander Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said Friday. The phrase is Arabic for “God is great.”

Hassan, an Army psychiatrist, reportedly was critical of the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and had been harassed by fellow soldiers for being a Muslim, according to media reports.

Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, condemned what he called a “cowardly attack.”

“Right now, we call on all Americans to assist those who are responding to this atrocity,” Awad told reporters in Washington late Thursday. “We must ensure that the wounded are treated and the families of those who were murdered have an opportunity to mourn.

“No political or religious ideology could ever justify or excuse such wanton and indiscriminate violence. The attack was particularly heinous in that it targeted our nation’s all-volunteer army that includes thousands of Muslims in all services. We again offer our thoughts and prayers for the victims and sincere condolences for the families of those killed or injured.”

Mary Rose Oakar, president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, issued a similar statement.

Continue reading "Muslim organizations condemn Fort Hood attack" »

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Attorney, author and professor David Neipert, a senior Fulbright scholar in law, is a former associate professor of international business at Belmont Abbey College.

It has been nearly two years since we asked EEOC to review Belmont Abbey College's policy on contraception and EEOC still has not issued a ruling on the matter. I considered responding to Rabbi Menken's last post but I would prefer to just wait and see how the matter resolves with EEOC.

I received an email critical of the Catholic church from a former student and have been reflecting on the overall picture and my decision to leave Belmont Abbey. I no longer want to be a part of that College but harbor no ill will towards the faith. There are enlightened Catholics who sponsored the voyages that discovered the world, made great breakthroughs in science (Gregor Mendel for example), and operate wonderful charities. For most of its history BAC was striving to be in that category and we were very proud to be part of it.

There is also an intolerant minority of Catholics who concentrate on rigid dogma rather than Christian behavior and smear any critic of the church. BAC seemed to be moving in that direction and so I quit.

Yet I cannot generalize. I once taught at the National University in Macedonia and lived only a few blocks from where Mother Teresa was born. Studying her life I have been inspired. Her example exists everywhere in the world where Catholics are. You can find the very best of Catholicism right across the highway from Belmont Abbey College. There the Catholic Sisters of Mercy have a hospital where they work with the horribly deformed children that almost nobody wants. They don't noisily claim to be "authentic" or conduct a nationwide publicity campaign; they just do god's work as best they can quietly every day. They have contraceptives in the health plan for their employees who want them and don't try to force their practices on anyone. They don't try to raise money by claiming to be defending religious freedom though they surely could use some funding. I suppose by Belmont Abbey College's definition of what is a proper Catholic the sisters are all bound straight for Hell because they pay for birth control pills, but I doubt that.

Continue reading "Guest post: Return to Belmont Abbey" »

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We had a story in the newspaper Thursday about a project to digitze the Islamic manuscript collection at the Walters Art Museum and upload it to the World Wide Web, where documents dating back to the ninth century may be seen free of charge by anyone with an Internet connection.

Art historians at the Smithsonian and the British Museum praised the project, which they say puts the Walters at the forefront of a movement to increase online access to such holdings. they are hoping for an explosion in scholarship, as professionals, amateurs and students pore over the richly illuminated Qurans and lavishly illustrated volumes of poetry and history.

Read the story at baltimoresun.com.

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The City Council bill that would require pro-life pregnancy counseling centers in Baltimore to post signs indicating that they don’t provide abortions or birth control passed a first hurdle this week, clearing the judiciary and legislative investigations committee on Monday by a 3-1 vote.

It now goes to the full council for a preliminary vote next week, with a final vote to follow.

Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien has described the proposal as an unconstitutional “harassment” that infringes on the centers’ free speech. Carol Clews, executive director of the Center for Pregnancy Concerns, says it “impugns our integrity.”

Both say the centers in question do not hide their opposition to abortion. Clews has asked whether abortion providers will be required to post signs saying that they don’t refer pregnant women to adoption services or provide assistance to mothers and children after the birth – services offered by her organization, which operates two clinics in the city and one in the county.

The judiciary and legislative investigations committee amended the bill, which was introduced by council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake at the behest of Planned Parenthood, which hopes to make Baltimore the first city in the country with such a law. The committee voted to reduce the fine for not posting a sign from $500 per day to $150, and to require the city health commissioner to notify a center of a complaint and give the center 10 days to comply before facing penalties.

O’Brien remains unsatisfied. In his column in the archdiocesan newspaper The Catholic Review, he urges readers to contact city council members.

Continue reading "Bill on pro-life pregnancy centers clears hurdle" »

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The Baltimore Jewish Times this week has a couple of stories interesting both in and of themselves and in juxtaposition.

The first reports that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf two Baltimore-area brothers alleging anti-Semitism in the workplace. Scott and Joey Jacobson say they were physically and verbally harassed because of their religion. According to The Jewish Times, they were subjected to such slurs as “dirty Jew,” “stupid Jew,” “f—-ing Jew” and “dumb Jew.”

In addition, The Jewish Times reports, Scott Jacobson said a red swastika was taped to his vehicle, water was poured on him, and he was forced into a dumpster and tied to a fence. He was also shot at with a BB gun. The Jacobsons said their supervisors failed to correct the “hostile” workplace climate.

The lawsuit names Conn-X LLC, a Florida cable corporation with an office in Edgewood, and the Houston-based Administaff Inc. as defendants.

The second story announces that two area men, one of them a former Baltimore County police supervisor, have formed a security firm that specializes in safeguarding synagogues and Jewish gatherings.

Defender One founders Jon Krieger and Scott Wendell, both members of Beth El Congregation, plan to use active and retired police officers from area departments for the security details.

Continue reading "Anti-Semitism and synagogue security" »

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Four Amish leaders have been charged with failing to report suspected child abuse after they chose to shun an accused child molester in their community rather than turn him in to authorities.

Each of the four bishops in rural Webster County, Mo., has been charged with a misdemeanor charge of failure to report child abuse as a mandatory reporter, according to the Associated Press. Under Missouri law, the AP reports, people with “responsibility for the care of children” – including doctors, nurses, teachers, social workers and ministers – are required to report suspected abuse.

Charged were bishops Emmanuel M.S. Eicher, 44, Peter M. Eicher, 59, Jacob P. Schwartz, 79, and Christian J.F. Schwartz, 41.

Authorities say the four men knew that a member of their community, Johnny A. Schwartz, 36, had abused two underage children from June 2007 through June 2008. Schwartz was charged in mid-October with six counts involving sexual abuse of children.

Authorities would not say how Schwartz and the bishops with the same surname are related, the AP reports. They also would not release the ages of the children or their relationship to Johnny Schwartz.

Sheriff Roye H. Cole said authorities found out about the alleged abuse from someone who works among the them, the AP reports. That individual, who has not been identified, had heard about Schwartz being shunned by the community and asked why.

Continue reading "Amish accused of shunning, not reporting, molester" »

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Categories: Amish, Church and State
        

The New York Times has an interesting story this week about the apparently growing belief in creationism across the Muslim world. Kenneth Chang writes:

For many Muslims, even evolution and the notion that life flourished without the intervening hand of Allah is largely compatible with their religion. What many find unacceptable is human evolution, the idea that humans evolved from primitive primates. The Koran states that Allah created Adam, the first man, separately out of clay.

Pervez A. Hoodbhoy, a prominent atomic physicist at Quaid-e-Azam University in Pakistan, said that when he gave lectures covering the sweep of cosmological history from the Big Bang to the evolution of life on Earth, the audience listened without objection to most of it. “Everything is O.K. until the apes stand up,” Dr. Hoodbhoy said.

Mentioning human evolution led to near riots, and he had to be escorted out. “That’s the one thing that will never be possible to bridge,” he said. “Your lineage is what determines your worth.”

Participants in a conference last month at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., said the rejection of evolution appears to be growing.

Chang quotes Truman State Univesity physicist Taner Edis as saying that he never encountered creationist undertones when he was growing up in Turkey in the 1970s: “I first noticed creationism when I came to America for graduate school,” he said.

Continue reading "Academics see rise of Muslim creationism" »

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We have been thinking of reading “Life After Death: The Evidence,” the new book by conservative pundit-turned-Christian apologist Dinesh D’Souza, which hit our desk last week. Now we come across Jerry Adler’s heartbreaking essay in the current issue of Newsweek, which may be summed up as: Don’t bother.

Adler opens with a scene from last spring, when he opened the front door of his Brooklyn home to find an Eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly on the steps. It was three months after the death of his son.

The butterfly, with its otherworldly beauty and silence, is, of course, a common metaphor for the soul. Its emergence from entombment as a chrysalis may have inspired ideas about human resurrection. In the newsletter of the Compassionate Friends, a support group for bereaved parents, the sudden appearance of butterflies (and birds, cloud formations, and particular songs on the radio) is sometimes cited as evidence of communication from beyond the grave. So let me be clear about where I stand: not only do I not believe it, but I can't understand why anyone would take comfort from it. I would hate to think of Max, with his fierce intelligence and tenacity, reduced to sending mute signals by way of insects.

Adler groups D’Souza’s book with mathematician David Berlinski's "The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions," physicist Frank J. Tripler's "The Physics of Christianity," and National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins' "The Language of God" as constituting an attempt by believeers to confront the new atherism of Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens et al "on its own intellectual turf, without benefit of scripture or revelation."

In the case of D'Souza, at least, Adler is skeptical of the result.

The "evidence," of necessity, is indirect: D'Souza doesn't claim to have communicated with anyone who has died, and he doesn't expect to. Instead, he looks to the human heart, and finds therein a universal moral code underlying acts of self-sacrifice and charity that appear to run counter to the Darwinian imperative to outcompete thy neighbor. This is a time-honored argument for the existence of a God who created human beings in his image and imbued them with a moral sense, as well as the free will to follow, or ignore, it. Berlinski uses the argument in his book, and Collins credits it with turning him from atheism to evangelical Christianity. (D'Souza acknowledges that the prominent atheist Richard Dawkins has offered an evolutionary explanation for human goodness, but he doesn't buy it.) In a Jesuitical display that does credit to his reputation as "an Indian William F. Buckley Jr.," D'Souza turns to his advantage one of the atheists' favorite arguments, God's apparent tolerance for human suffering. Precisely because evil so often goes unpunished in this world, he asserts, the moral code must reflect another reality, in which souls are judged, punished, or rewarded after death. "The postulate of an afterlife enables us to make sense of this life," he writes. It worked for Dante, didn't it?

Continue reading "D'Souza argues for evidence of afterlife" »

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Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew had issued his greeting and blessed the few hundred who had waited in the cold outside Ss. Constantine and Helen Orthodox Church in Annapolis – in Greek. He was stepping down from the platform when an aide said something in his ear. Bartholomew, the worldwide leader of Orthodox Christianity, returned to the microphone.

“I was told that I have to speak also in English,” he said. Laughter and cheers from a grateful crowd.

We had a story in Tuesday’s newspaper about the visit of Bartholomew, who as archbishop of Constantinople is first among equals among the 14 patriarchs of Orthodox Christianity. He celebrated the 18th anniversary of his enthronement with a doxology and a dinner at the Annapolis church.

It was his first visit to Maryland since 1997, when he made an appearance at the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Baltimore, and his first ever to Annapolis. In attendance were Archbishop Demetrios of America, the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church in the United States; Metropolitan Evangelos, who heads the Metropolis of New Jersey, which includes Maryland; U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes, the Greek-American Democrat from Baltimore County; and Cardinal William Keeler, the former Roman Catholic archbishop of Baltimore.

During his homily, Bartholomew said it was fitting to be celebrating his anniversary at Ss. Constantinople and Helen and in Maryland. A transcript follows, after the jump.

Continue reading "Scenes from Bartholomew's visit" »

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A devastating newspaper series based on the allegations of former high-ranking church officials. A fraud conviction and prison sentences in Europe. The resignation of perhaps the church’s most prestigious celebrity, who writes a letter confirming practices that the church has denied.

“The Church of Scientology,” Associated Press religion reporter Eric Gorski writes, “is going through a difficult season.”

Gorski has produced a useful summary of the events and developments that have rocked the embattled church founded by the science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.

Church spokesman Tommy Davis tells Gorski that Scientology is flourishing, with assets and property holdings doubling over the past five years, membership growing in the United States and “absolutely in the millions” worldwide.

"From our perspective, things are going pretty great," Davis says. "In fact, that's downplaying it. Actually, what's happening with the church right now is frankly spectacular. To the degree there are these various things happening, it really is a lot of noise."

But Gorski finds a different picture in the American Religious Identification Survey, which showed that the estimated number of Americans identifying Scientologists rose from 45,000 in 1990 to 55,000 in 2001, then plummeted to 25,000 in 2008, according to the American Religion Identification Survey.

Perhaps the biggest problem facing the church is the allegations raised by four former high-ranking church officials, who told the St. Petersburg Times that they witnessed church leader David Miscavige beating church staff members.

Continue reading "Scientology's 'difficult season'" »

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The last time our friend Christopher J. Doucot spoke at an Episcopal church was in 2004. He had just returned from Iraq, and gave what he describes as a “somewhat forceful sermon” critical of the U.S.-led invasion there.

A graduate of Yale Divinity School, a founding member of the Hartford Catholic Worker, and an instructor in sociology at Central Connecticut State University, Chris was told to keep it upbeat on Sunday -- All Saints' Day -- when he is scheduled to speak at St. James Episcopal Church in West Hartford, Conn.

When I was a kid, my understanding of the saints was that they were something like the cartoon superheroes I watched on Saturday mornings. They could fly, endure great suffering, go years without eating and heal people by praying over them. They were not real people.

As I got older, I began to see various athletes from Boston's professional sports teams as saintly – if not saints in the making. Carl Yaztremski of the Red Sox was the patron of the lost cause who never gave up. Terry O'Reilly of the Boston Bruins was the defender of the meek. He spent hours in the penalty box for busting the noses of any player from the opposing team who got in Wayne Cashman's way. Unfortunately, O'Reilly didn't confine his bellicosity to the ice. Once, in 1979, he climbed into the stands of Madison Square Garden to beat a New York Ragners fan with his own shoe.

Continue reading "Guest post: The vision of the saints" »

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When I was living in London 20 years ago, I was touched one Halloween when a British friend surprised me with a card to mark the holiday.

It was the first and only Halloween card I've ever received. Obviously, I didn't tell her that. She thought she was helping me to feel at home in her country by remembering a tradition from mine; why tell her that it isn't really a holiday for exchanging cards?

Since then, however, Europeans have become more familiar with Halloween. Which is why the Vatican has grown more vocal in its condemnation of the annual observance.

In an article in L'Osservatore Romano, the Holy See says Halloween is a pagan celebration of "terror, fear and death." The official Vatican paper warns parents against allowing children to dress up as ghosts and ghouls.

(We're getting this from British newspapers, because we haven't been able to find the original story at the L'Osservatore Romano Web site.)

The article, headlined “The Dangerous Messages of Halloween,” quotes liturgical expert Joan Maria Canals as saying 'Halloween has an undercurrent of occultism and is absolutely anti-Christian” and urging parents “'to be aware of this and try to direct the meaning of the feast towards wholesomeness and beauty rather than terror, fear and death.'

Continue reading "Vatican condemns Halloween" »

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Categories: Catholicism, Culture, Holidays, International, Wicca
        

We're trying something new this morning. We were invited to sit down this week with the Right Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, the 14th bishop of the 228-year-old Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, to hear his thoughts on plans announced by the Vatican last week to make it easier for Anglicans (called Epsicopalians in the United States) to join the Roman Catholic Church.

The surprise announcement comes amid a growing divide between conservatives and liberals in the worldwide Anglican Communion over the ordination of women, acceptance of gay clergy and the celebration of same-sex relationships.

As attention has focused on disaffected Anglican conservatives "crossing the Tiber" -- slang for joining the Roman Catholic Church -- Sutton, who is firmly on the side favoring greater acceptance of women and homosexuals, wanted to make clear that Roman Catholics also are joining the Episcopal Church.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore has declined to comment on the Vatican announcement until hearing more details.

The interview with Sutton yielded a story in Friday's paper. But because we found the entire discussion interesting, we're posting the complete transcript here, after the jump.

Continue reading "Episcopal bishop: Church switching goes both ways" »

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We noted yesterday that the Council on American-Islamic Relations was condemning a shooting at an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Los Angeles. Now the most vocal of the Muslim advocacy groups is demanding that HBO apologize for an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” in which the main character inadvertently splatters urine on a painting of Jesus.

That puts CAIR in the unusual position of seconding Bill Donohue’s Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, which condemned the episode earlier in the week. Muslims believe Jesus was a prophet, but do not believe, as Christians do, that he was the incarnation of God.

“It is beyond tasteless to insult the religious sensibilities of billions of people in America and around the world with such a cheap and vulgar publicity stunt,” CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad wrote in a letter to HBO CEO Bill Nelson. “Jesus, peace be upon him, is loved and revered by both Christians and Muslims. Muslims view him as one of God's greatest messengers to mankind.

“The Quran, Islam’s revealed text, states: ‘Behold! The angels said: ‘O Mary! God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him. His name will be Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, held in honor in this world and the Hereafter and in (the company of) those nearest to God.’’ (The Holy Quran, 3:45)

“The Prophet Muhammad said: ‘Both in this world and in the hereafter, I am the nearest of all people to Jesus, the son of Mary. The prophets are paternal brothers; their mothers are different, but their religion is one.’

Continue reading "CAIR now siding with Catholic League" »

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The Los Angeles office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an outfit best known for calling attention to attacks on Muslims in the United States, has condemned the shooting of two worshippers Thursday morning at a North Hollywood synagogue.

“We condemn this attack near the Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic Orthodox synagogue in the strongest possible terms and offer our prayers for the victims and their families,” CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush said in a statement.

“No worshiper -- whether Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, or other -- should be made to feel unsafe or intimidated at a house of worship. We also appreciate the LAPD’s investigation and enhanced security in response to the attack.”

The two victims, each of whom was shot in the leg, were in good condition at local hospitals, according to Baltimore Sun sister The Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Police are investigating the shooting as a hate crime.

The Times describes Adat Yeshurun as “the heart of the San Fernando Valley's Orthodox Jewish community,” within walking distance of kosher markets and other synagogues. Los Angeles police have alerted area synagogues about the shooting and stepped up patrols outside Jewish institutions, The Times reports.

Read more on the shooting at latimes.com.

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Over at Religion News Service, Greg Warner has an interesting story on the rare but real problem of clergy suicide.

According to Warner, the September death of the Rev. David Treadway, pastor of Sandy Ridge Baptist Church in Hickory, N.C., was at least the fourth suicide among clergy in the Carolinas in the last four years. He writes:

Those who counsel pastors say Christian culture, especially Southern evangelicalism, creates the perfect environment for depression. Pastors suffer in silence, unwilling or unable to seek help or even talk about it. Sometimes they leave the ministry. Occasionally the result is the unthinkable. ...

Being a pastor—a high-profile, high-stress job with nearly impossible expectations for success—can send one down the road to depression, according to pastoral counselors.

“We set the bar so high that most pastors can’t achieve that,” said H.B. London, vice president for pastoral ministries at Focus on the Family, based in Colorado Springs, Colo. “And because most pastors are people-pleasers, they get frustrated and feel they can’t live up to that.”

When pastors fail to live up to demands imposed by themselves or others they often “turn their frustration back on themselves,” leading to self-doubt and to feelings of failure and hopelessness, said Fred Smoot, executive director of Emory Clergy Care in Duluth, Ga., which provides pastoral care to 1,200 United Methodist ministers in Georgia.

Warner quotes Matthew Stanford, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor, as saying it's likely that a quarter of all pastors are depressed.

Read the rest of the story at religionnews.com.

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Online retailer eBay said Tuesday that it will block an auction planned to raise money for the man charged with killing Kansas abortion provider George Tiller, the Associated Press is reporting.

Supporters of Scott Roeder wanted to raise money for his defense by auctioning off items including an Army of God manual, an underground publication for anti-abortion militants that describes ways to shut down clinics, including bombing.

Also to be auctioned was a prison cookbook compiled by Shelley Shannon, the Oregon woman who shot and wounded Tiller in 1993 and was later convicted in a series of abortion clinic arsons and bombings.

"Based on the details we know about the anticipated listings, we believe these would violate our policy regarding offensive material," eBay said in a statement.

If the items were posted, eBay said it would remove them from the online marketplace site because the company "does not allow listings that promote or glorify violence, hate, racial or religious intolerance.

Read the rest of the Associated Press story.

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Randall Terry, the Operation Rescue founder who has alienated even some fellow abortion opponents with his confrontational tactics, is calling on people to burn effigies of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid this Halloween as part of a "Burn in Hell" video contest to protest the health care legislation in Congress, the Associated Press is reporting.

Terry said Tuesday that the contest serves as a political and spiritual statement that "gives people a chance to peacefully vent their rage."

"If Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid force us to pay for child killing and they die unrepentant, they will burn in hell for this," Terry told the AP.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer called the contest "unfortunate."

"I don't think appealing to people's anger and in effect inciting them to acts which either display or in any way project violent acts is consistent with rational discussion of very critical issues," the Southern Maryland Democrat told reporters at his weekly pen-and-pad session on Tuesday.

As the AP explains, federal law currently bars the use of federal funds to pay for abortion except in cases of rape and incest or if the mother's life would be endangered. But the Democrats' health overhaul bill would create a new stream of federal funds not covered by the restrictions.

House Democrats are trying to address anti-abortion lawmakers' concerns by specifying that people receiving government subsidies to buy health insurance couldn't use that money for abortions.

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A Paris court has convicted the Church of Scientology's French branch of fraud and fined it 400,000 Euros -- about $600,000 -- but stopped short of the ban on the group that prosecutors had sought, the Associated Press is reporting.

The court on Tuesday convicted four of six leaders of the group of organized fraud for pressuring members into paying large sums of money for questionable financial gain, the AP reports. It handed them suspended sentences of between 10 months and two years. The other two were given fines of 1,000 Euros and 2,000 Euros.

The court did not order the group to shut down, ruling that it would be likely to continue its activities anyway, "outside any legal framework," according to the AP. Prosecutors had requested that the group be dissolved in France and be fined 2 million Euros.

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