"Whether it's a mosque giving Holocaust deniers a platform or whether it's an evangelical church spewing hatred about gay New Zealanders: this is not how we roll here. This is not who we are. This is who we do not want to ever become," said Dame Susan Devoy.

She was speaking after official complaints were laid about at comments by Iranian diplomat made at an Auckland mosque in June.

One of the diplomats called Israel a "cancerous tumour" and said it has to be "surgically removed"

A second diplomat speaking at the same event denied that the Holocaust took place

"If we are to learn anything from the Holocaust it is that racism and hatred start small", Devoy said.

"But we ignore it at our peril. All of us are responsible to ensure we live in a country where hate is never normalised. We can never let our country become one where racism goes unquestioned.

"And if we have to use glitter bombs to make our point - as some did at parliament over the weekend - so be it. It's up to all of us to decide what kind of country we live in. While there are formal complaint processes that can and have been taken, just because something isn't illegal does not make it OK."

Devoy was referring to an incident when a small group of the National Front members protesting in Parliament grounds were pelted with glitter bombs.

Hate speech - the advocacy of hatred based on nationality, race or religion - occupies an exceptional position in international law.

The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 gives everyone the right to freedom of expression, including the right to seek, receive and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form. But hate speech is prohibited under section 61

Source

• Scoop
• New Zealand Herald
• Article 19
• The New Zealand Law Society
• Image: Vice

Much of the data came from Stormfront.org, which Times contributor Seth Stephens-Davidowitz called "America's most popular online hate site."

It was founded in 1995 by former Ku Klux Klan leader Don Black.

The frightening thing is that 76 percent of Americans on the site are under 30.

According to the Times story, Stormfront's targets break down like this: 39 percent Jews, 33 percent blacks, 13 percent Hispanics, 11 percent Muslims and 3 percent other.

This led me to surmise that many of the haters are white Christians.

I founded OnFaith eight years ago this summer.

I was new to the religion world when I started and had no idea what to expect.

The fact is that I was too green to anticipate the potential complications that might arise from a pluralistic religion site.

I had long heard the old adage that one never discussed religion or politics at dinner, but I was not intimidated.

One of my friends asked me if I was afraid of running a religion website because it might be too controversial.

I replied that I had covered Washington social life for many years, and nothing was more dangerous than that.

But I hadn't counted on one thing: the Christians.

Yes, the Christians.

Anyone in the public eye — whether writing for newspapers, being in politics, or on television — gets hate mail.

There are a lot of kooks out there.

Back when people wrote letters, you could spot a kook from the handwriting: thin pen, slanted, and squiggly.

On the outside of the envelope were often little notes like "I have electrodes in my teeth."

Inside, everything was underlined in red with lots of exclamation points.

I used to wonder if there was a special school for crazy people to learn how to write these letters.

When I started OnFaith, the mail became comments on the Internet — and they were worse than the letters. Continue reading

Source

• Sally Quinn in OnFaith

Sally Quinn is the founding editor of OnFaith.

That's what I say, of the controversial, hate-mongering founder of the Westboro Baptist Church.

But something tells me Fred Phelps already thanked God plenty of times for Fred Phelps, given the two were on such apparently close terms.

After all, it was Phelps who so graciously enlightened the rest of us that "God Hates Fags," with the signature placards of his extremist Kansas church.

"Thank God for Aids" and "Thank God for Crippled Soldiers" are other examples of their reaction-baiting extremities, with which they've picketed strangers' funerals and public events for the past two decades.

God, according to Phelps, was so incensed by homosexuality he punished America with the 9/11 attacks.

Perhaps if God had done his homework, he might have enlightened Fred as to the irony of printing his hateful messages on rainbow-coloured card.

It's unlikely many of us lost much sleep at the thought of Fred Phelps slipping away.

At 84 years old, just a day before his followers picketed Lorde, the pastor died on Thursday night, no doubt stammering some carefully considered theology as his final hateful words. Continue reading.

Jack Tame is TVNZ's US Correspondent, host of Newstalk ZB Saturdays, and NZ Herald on Sunday columnist.

Source: NZ Herald

Image: TVNZ

Appealing for an immediate end to the fighting he said all sides should launch peace efforts "to stop further bloodshed."

Benedict says he is continuing to follow both these dramatic events with great apprehension.

"I pray for the victims and I am close to all those who are suffering," the pope said at the end of an audience in the Vatican.

Earlier in the week the Pope announced that Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, was being dispatched to the Ivory Coast. He remains optimistic he will soon be able to gain entry.

The fighting stopped a day earlier when Gbagbo announced he was ready to negotiate his departure. Hours later, Gbagbo reversed course, leading to the renewed fighting.

In Libya, a NATO-led coalition has been launching airstrikes on ground targets and maintaining a no-fly zone to protect civilians from attacks by forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi.

The bishop in Libya's capital, Tripoli, has been highly critical of the West's military response to the crisis, saying civilians have been killed as a consequence of buildings being hit or collapsing from the airstrikes.

Nato maintains forces loyal to Gadhafi are using human shields in the war-torn town of Misrata.

Sources

• Daily Nation
• Catholic News Service
• BBC News
• BBC News