France Bars Muslim Clerics from Entering Country
FOX NEWS: PARIS – France has barred a group of Muslim clerics, including one of the most prominent voices in Sunni Islam, from entering the country to attend a conference. France's foreign ministry said Thursday the clerics were invited by the French Islamic Union to speak at a congress in Le Bourget near Paris from April 6-9.

One of those barred, the Egyptian-born Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, says he refuses to come to France.

The ban also includes other high-profile Muslim clerics of Palestinian, Egyptian and Saudi origin.

The foreign ministry said in a statement that "these people call for hatred and violence and seriously violate the principles of the Republic, and in the current context, seriously risk disrupting public order."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said earlier this week that these figures would not be "welcome" as their views are incompatible with French values. » | Associated Press | Thursday, March 29, 2012

FOX NEWS: Is There Something In Islam That Makes Believers More Susceptible to Radicalization? » | Lauren Green | Thursday, March 10, 2011

Minn. Pastor Likely to Keep Job Despite Gay Report
ASSOCIATED PRESS: MINNEAPOLIS — A Lutheran pastor ardently critical of allowing gays into the clergy is on leave from his Minneapolis church after a gay magazine reported his attendance at a support group for men struggling with same-sex attraction.

Church officials, however, said Wednesday that the Rev. Tom Brock likely will return to the pulpit at Hope Lutheran Church because he acted in accordance with his faith by attending the group.

A fixture on local cable access shows, Brock regularly broadcasts conservative views on homosexuality and criticizes the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for liberalizing its gay clergy policy.

Lavender Magazine published a story last week about Brock's quiet attendance of the Faith in Action meetings, written by a reporter who falsely posed as a member of the group.

"The fact that he said one thing publicly, and privately he's a homosexual — that's somewhat inconsistent," said Lavender president Stephen Rocheford. "This company has a policy not to out people. The one exception is a public figure who says one thing and does another."

The Lavender article never explicitly said Brock confessed to homosexual activity. It quotes him at one point talking about a recent mission trip to Eastern Europe, of which he says, "I fell into temptation. I was weak." >>> Patrick Condon | Thursday, June 24, 2010

As Iran Calms, a Struggle for Political Power Intensifies
Clerics during prayers in June. Many religious leaders have not spoken out in support of Iran’s president or supreme leader. Photo: The New York Times
THE NEW YORK TIMES: CAIRO — The streets of Iran have been largely silenced, but a power struggle grinds on behind the scenes, this time over the very nature of the state itself. It is a battle that transcends the immediate conflict over the presidential election, one that began 30 years ago as the Islamic Revolution established a new form of government that sought to blend theocracy and a measure of democracy.

From the beginning, both have vied for an upper hand, and today both are tarnished. In postelection Iran, there is growing unease among many of the nation’s political and clerical elite that the very system of governance they rely on for power and privilege has been stripped of its religious and electoral legitimacy, creating a virtual dictatorship enforced by an emboldened security apparatus, analysts said.

Among the Iranian president’s allies are those who question whether the nation needs elected institutions at all.
Most telling, and arguably most damning, is that many influential religious leaders have not spoken out in support of the beleaguered president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Indeed, even among those who traditionally have supported the government, many have remained quiet or even offered faint but unmistakable criticisms.

According to Iranian news reports, only two of the most senior clerics have congratulated Mr. Ahmadinejad on his re-election, which amounts to a public rebuke in a state based on religion. A conservative prayer leader in the holy city of Qum, Ayatollah Ibrahim Amini, referred to demonstrators as “people” instead of rioters, and a hard-line cleric, Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi, called for national reconciliation.

Some of Iran’s most influential grand ayatollahs, clerics at the very top of the Shiite faith’s hierarchy who have become identified with the reformists, have condemned the results as a fraud and the government’s handling of the protests as brutal. On Saturday, an influential Qum-based clerical association called the new government illegitimate. >>> Michael Slackman | Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Clerics Join Iran's Anti-government Protests: A group of clerics taking part in an anti-government protest represents a blatant act of defiance