Ya, and while I hate to keep bringing this up, we may have an unqualified President for almost the exact same reason. You do understand that this is a natural follow up to the story from the Phillipines. Embarrassing but true.

FYI Joe, we people from 3rd world countries are not backwards. Some of us just value morality more that most people from your world. 2010 does not mean you can throw all the good values you learned from your forefathers. Have you heard of culture, religious belief ? Every country has it's own culture and belief (even yours) and you should learn to respect that. Ignorance is bliss but not in your case.
But in this case, religious belief and culture has nothing to do with the decision of the PR pageant officials. Ms. Erin should have checked her facts before posting this story. No, Ms. Raj was not dethroned from her title due to her eligitimate status. She was disqualified from the pageant due to the fact that the pageant officials discovered inconsistencies contained in her birth records. According to Ms. Raj and her mother statements, she was born in Doha Qatar (that means, she is a citizen of that country) but the submitted legal documents states that she was born in the Philippines. She does not have a dual citizenship nor she was able to provide a legal or correct proof of citizenship. The number one rule of these international pageants ( I think it also applies to most countries), you must be a legal citizen of the country you are representing.

Yeah, Ms Rose, you're right. Every candidate to an international pageant must prove she's a citizen of the country she's representing. But the facts say it--Ms Raj was born out of wedlock to an Indian father and a Filipino mother. Ms Raj might have been born in Qatar, but in truth she's been a Filipino throughout her life. She has not had any contacts with her biological father ever since she was born, and that makes her an illegitimate, by any court standards. This illegitimacy issue is the only argument used by the pageant organizers in dethroning Ms Raj. They wouldn't have stripped Ms Raj of her crown had it been the issue of her being a Filipino. because i think Ms Raj is every inch a Filipino--she speaks Filipino (she's fluent in English and Tagalog), she thinks very Filipino (her fighting to regain her crown is indeed very Filipino), she feels very Filipino (as she feels she can best represent the Philippines in the MU)--a million miles more Filipino than Ms Araneta (the Colombian President of BCPI, the organization that chooses Phil reps to international pageants, who happens to be married to a Filipino)--who can't even speak fluent English and Tagalog, who thinks very un-Filipino (she sends all the representatives to Colombia to be trained by Colombian people because she doesn't trust Filipinos and she gives them Colombian-designed gowns and national costumes), and she feels very un-Filipino (she plays deaf to the clamor of the Filipino people requesting her to reinstate Ms Raj as the Phil's official candidate to the MU 2010). How sad!