Global Voices Online

LJ user ybserver turns attention to [RUS] a decision of ruling United Russia party to consult the Orthodox Patriarchate on legislative proposals prior to parliamentary deliberation, and points out the constitutional separation between state and church in Russia.

The beatroot comments on US artist Madonna's upcoming concert in Warzaw and how conservative Poles organise mass-prayers in protest against her descent upon Poland.

Jordanian Naseem Tarawnah discusses the recent murder of Egyptian Marwa El-Sherbini, 32, in a courtroom in Germany in front of her three year old son and says: “This case was so mind-baffling when I read it a few days ago and I still haven’t been able to wrap my mind around it.”

Pakistani Blog Deadpan Thoughts comments on Halal Tube: “The latest chapter in the non conforming attitude of our religion is Halal Tube. [..] Perhaps ‘Halal Tube' should cache ips and compare them to ‘YouTube' to do a study on how many Muslims actually watch ‘halal stuff'.”

Rabbi Alysa Stanton was recently ordained as the first female African American rabbi. “The media frenzy around Alysa Stanton’s ordination has opened the possibility of improved coverage of Jews from a variety of ethnic backgrounds,” writes JVoices.

Repeating Islands reports that “Haitian police say the demonstrator found slain after the clash with U.N. peacekeepers during the funeral procession for Father Gérard Jean-Juste was killed by a bullet”, while a guest writer at Wadner Pierre's blog calls the situation “an example of a global security apparatus deployed to intimidate and maintain a hegemonic elite project over some of the poorest people in the world. Today, even at funerals, the popular movement in Haiti is not allowed peace. Mourning is met with state violence.”

The Foreigner's Guide to Living in Slovakia writes about Sts Cyril and Methodius Day in Slovakia.

Algerian-American blogger The Moor Next Door remarks upon France's intended burqa ban, saying, “The trouble the French may want to worry about is not the burqa as it is worn in France today, but that such a ban, as the headscarf ban has done, will make the garment a greater symbol of Muslim identity and sign of cultural defiance.”

Reading Morocco mentions an article on the last Jews of the town of Essaouira but says of the discourse: “I am intrigued by the history of Jews in Morocco but there needs to be a little more constructive criticism of Jewish out migration from the country, especially to Israel; and of their on again/off again relationship with Morocco.”