Poo and pee dominated a public hearing Monday on a new law that prohibits people from carrying certain items if they intend to use them for nefarious purposes.

The law, crafted in advance of the Democratic National Convention, was adopted unanimously by the City Council.

But not before a hearing laced with comedy and profanity.

Representatives from some of the groups planning large-scale protests during the DNC this month said the ordinance was unnecessary and accused city officials of fear mongering.

"The intent of this ordinance is to try to smear protesters and make them look as if they are somehow criminal or somehow going to engage in some kind of gross conduct," said Glenn Spagnuolo, an organizer with the Re- create 68 Alliance.

The ordinance makes it illegal to carry certain items, such as chains, padlocks, carabiners and other locking devices. It also prohibits the possession of noxious substances. Two of the most frequently used examples of a noxious substance are a bucket of urine and a "feces bomb."

Police have to prove that people carrying such items intend to use them to block public access or emergency equipment or to thwart crowd control measures.

Safety Manager Al LaCabe said the law will be applied in situations when certain items are going to be used in a disruptive way. He said officers will consider the totality of the circumstances.

"Our intent for this bill is not about suppressing or chilling First Amendment rights," he said.

The hearing got personal when Spagnuolo took aim at Councilman Doug Linkhart, who was quoted in the New York Post as saying that a source told him that he knew of a home being used to store urine. "The only feces that I'm concerned about is the (expletive) that comes out of his mouth," Spagnuolo said.

Council members balked at the attack on Linkhart, noting that he was the one who requested the hearing.

Linkhart said a firefighter he trusts was his source. After the hearing, he said he didn't regret requesting it.

"I'd do it again," he said, adding that some of the points that protesters raised were valid.

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Prof Dawkins, a well-known atheist, also blamed the Government for accommodating religious views and allowing creationism to be taught in schools.

"Most devout Muslims are creationists so when you go to schools, there are a large number of children of Islamic parents who trot out what they have been taught," Prof Dawkins said in a Sunday newspaper interview.

"Teachers are bending over backwards to respect home prejudices that children have been brought up with. The Government could do more, but it doesn't want to because it is fanatical about multiculturalism and the need to respect the different traditions from which these children come."

Prof Dawkins, professor for the public understanding of science at Oxford University, is author of books including the Selfish Gene, the Blind Watchmaker and the God Delusion.

He said science was being threatened in classrooms because the Government accepts that theories including "intelligent design" can be discussed "in the context of being one of a range of views on evolution."

"The Government – particularly under Tony Blair – thinks it is wonderful to have children brought up with their traditional religions. I call it brainwashing," he added.

"It seems as though teachers are terribly frightened of being thought racist. It's almost impossible to say anything against Islam in this country, because [if you do] you are accused of being racist or Islamophobic."

Prof Dawkins had recently finished a TV programme in which he went into a classroom of 15-year-olds at a secondary school in London.

"I was shocked by how some put up barriers to understanding," he said "I showed them the evidence, and they just said, 'This is what it says in my holy book.' And so I asked, 'If your holy book says one thing, but the evidence says something else, you then go with your holy book?' And they said, 'Yes.' And I said, 'Why?' And they said, 'It's the way we've been brought up'."

Prof Dawkins said the failure in classrooms meant religious fanatics had a chance to get hold.

"Because we are all brought up to respect faith, it leaves open a gap through which fanatics can charge," he said.

"I think we have all been brought up to give too much respect to religion, as opposed to any other kind of opinion."

The nun, a member of the order of the Little Sisters of Saint Therese, was released unharmed by organised criminals after being abducted from a public bus.

The criminals originally demanded around $100 000 for the release of the 35-year-old woman, who was wearing a nun's habit.

According to the Adveniat statement, a nun was last kidnapped in Haiti three years ago.