Today’s Headlines:

JORDAN PASSES LAWS DESIGNED TO LIMIT MUSLIM HARD-LINERS

IRAN TO DEBATE THE HOLOCAUST, OFFICIAL CALLS IT ‘EXAGGERATED’

VIETNAMESE CHRISTIANS SURPRISED AT U.S. AMBASSADOR’S COMMENTS

Today’s Top Stories:

JORDAN PASSES LAWS DESIGNED TO LIMIT MUSLIM HARD-LINERS

In an effort to prevent Islamic hard-liners from spreading their extremist ideology, lawmakers in Jordan have passed a law allowing only a state-appointed council to issue fatwas (religious edicts). Currently, groups such as the powerful Muslim Brotherhood movement and other smaller hard-line Islamic groups issue edicts. The law also makes it illegal to criticize state-sanctioned fatwas. The legislation follows a pledge by Jordanian King Abdullah II to tighten legislation to prevent radical viewpoints from taking root in the wake of recent terror attacks. Last month saw a series of similar legislation that severely penalizes involvement in terrorist acts and a law that gives the state authority to approve mosque preachers to avoid allowing Muslim militants from spreading their message from the pulpit. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for a terror attack last November in Jordan’s capital that killed 60 people. (Assist News Service)

IRAN TO DEBATE THE HOLOCAUST, OFFICIAL CALLS IT ‘EXAGGERATED’

Iran is planning to host a debate about the historical accuracy of the Holocaust with one Iranian official calling the historical event “exaggerated.” Iran is displaying caricatures of the victims, and the Associated Press reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called the Nazis’ killing of 6 million Jews a “myth” and saying that Israel should be wiped off the map or moved to Germany. The U.S. Outgoing Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the nation may sponsor a conference debating the reality of the Holocaust. “God willing, a conference on the Holocaust will be held in the autumn,” Asefi said. “I have visited the Nazi camps in Eastern Europe. I think it is exaggerated.” (Religion Today)

VIETNAMESE CHRISTIANS SURPRISED AT U.S. AMBASSADOR’S COMMENTS

Church leaders in Vietnam were surprised when John Hanford, U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, made comments indicating progress in religious freedom within the country. At a briefing on Friday, Sept. 15, Hanford said, “Vietnam has turned the corner and made enormous progress on religious freedom.” Most believe the comments to be the precursor to a recommendation that Vietnam be removed from the U.S. State Department’s list of Countries of Particular Concern, a U.S. blacklist of worst religious liberty offenders. Church officials in Vietnam, however, see modest progress in religious liberty at most and are concerned that removing Vietnam from the list will encourage the country to relax efforts to change. Christian groups still report highly intrusive questions required for church registration and that registrations from more than 500 ethnic minority churches of the Evangelical Church of Vietnam North in the past year “were either rejected outright, ignored or returned unopened.” (Compass Direct)

In order for the popular Christian-themed “VeggieTales” cartoons to be aired on NBC on Saturday mornings, the network is insisting any biblical or evangelical messages in the shows be edited out. Phil Vischer, the cartoon’s creator, says the program will still present Bible stories, but the network is requiring the removal of sections where the original cartoons “turn to the audience and preach at them.” Vischer admits he is “not thrilled” about the cuts but does not believe the cuts compromise the integrity of the program’s basic messages. “There is the kind of compromise that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to do,” Vischer says. “But there’s also the kind of compromise that [the apostle] Paul did when he said, ‘I will be all things to all people’ — where he wanted to kind of adopt the culture of the people he was trying to reach; not offend them, but find a way to get the gospel in front of them. And I think that’s a little more what we’re trying to do here.” (Evangelical News)