Khamenei: Elections were fair, ‘Zionist’ media to blame

 

June 19, 2009

 

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denied that the country's recent elections were fixed, called on protesters to stop and blamed the "Zionist" media.

 

In his first public address since the June 12 elections, Iran's highest ranking political and religious authority accused the opposition of "challenging democracy after the elections."

 

Khamenei delivered a nearly two-hour sermon during Friday prayers at Tehran University, reportedly attended by tens of thousands of worshipers. He called on the opposition to take their protests off the streets and instead use legal channels to register their complaints about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory.

 

Turnout at the ballot box has been officially set at 85 percent, or 40 million voters, with Ahmadinejad winning by a margin of 11 million votes, or 60 percent of the vote.

 

"How one can rig 11 million votes?" Khamenei asked. “The Islamic republic state would not cheat and would not betray the vote of the people.”

 

Khamenei blamed the “media belonging to Zionists, evil media” for fomenting the demonstrations.

 

He also warned that if street demonstrations don't end, then "leading politicians will be held accountable for the chaos.”

 

Hundreds of thousands of protesters on Thursday night again demonstrated in the streets of Tehran, the sixth day of ever-increasing protests in the Islamic Republic's capital.

 

"This election was a political earthquake for our enemies and a celebration for its friends," Khamenei said. "This election showed religious democracy for the whole world to see."

 

Reporters representing media from around the world have been barred from covering the demonstrations or opposition news conferences, and have been restricted to one transmission of news per day.

 

Iran's Guardian Council, the main oversight body of the country's constitution, reportedly was planning to convene a meeting of the three losing candidates to discuss their accusations, reportedly as early as Saturday.

 

 

 

 

Pope sorry for abuse, 'deplorable' conduct at church-run native Canadian schools

 

By: NICOLE WINFIELD

Associated Press

06/20/09 9:10 PM EDT

 

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI apologized on Wednesday for the abuse and "deplorable conduct" of some church members at Canadian schools that aboriginals were forced to attend.

 

The pontiff expressed his sorrow during a meeting with former students and representatives of the native Canadians, telling them acts of abuse can never be tolerated by society.

 

From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Indian children in Canada were made to attend state-funded Christian schools as an effort to assimilate them into Canadian society. Nearly three-quarters of the 130 schools were run by Catholic missionary congregations.

 

The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse in the schools was rampant, and has apologized and offered compensation. Many students recall being beaten for speaking their native languages and losing touch with their parents and customs.

 

"What we wanted the pope to say to us was that he was sorry and ... that he deeply felt for us," said Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations. "We heard that very clearly today."

 

On Wednesday, a group of victims attended the pope's general audience in St. Peter's Square and later met with the pope privately to share their stories and concerns, the Vatican said in a statement.

 

"Given the sufferings that some indigenous children experienced in the Canadian residential school system, the Holy Father expressed his sorrow at the anguish caused by the deplorable conduct of some members of the church and he offered his sympathy and prayerful solidarity," the statement said.

 

"His Holiness emphasized that acts of abuse cannot be tolerated in society," it said, adding that the pope was praying that the victims would heal and move forward "with renewed hope."

 

"The coming to Rome was a high point" on the road to reconciliation, said Archbishop of Winnipeg James Weisgerber, the head of Canada's bishops' conference. "It's a long journey and the church is committed to be with the" native Canadians.

 

Out of a delegation of 40, five Indian and five church representatives met privately with the pope, who addressed them with off-the-cuff remarks in Italian and English, Weisgerber said at a news conference.

 

Fontaine, who himself suffered abuse at one of the schools, related that the pope said the situation had caused him "personal anguish" — an expression of suffering that "gives us the comfort we are seeking."

 

The native Canadians brought blankets, pipes, moccasins and a gift of an eagle feather, one of the highest honors in aboriginal culture. Some of the items were left at the Vatican while others were returned after being blessed by the pontiff.

 

The aim of the residential school system was to isolate the native Canadians from the influence of their homes and culture, which the government at the time considered inferior to mainstream Canadian society.

 

Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a formal apology in Parliament last year, calling the treatment of children at the schools a sad chapter in the country's history. He said the policy of forced assimilation was wrong, had caused great harm and had no place in the country.

 

Canada has also offered compensation, part of a lawsuit settlement between the government, churches and the approximately 90,000 surviving students that amounted to billions of dollars being transferred to aboriginal communities.

 

The Catholic Church alone paid some $79 million, the Canadian bishops' conference said.

 

The United, Presbyterian and Anglican churches have already apologized for their roles in the abuse.

 

In addition to the government apology and compensation, a Canadian truth and reconciliation commission will also examine government policy and take testimony from survivors. The goal is to give survivors a forum to tell their stories and educate Canadians about a grim period in the country's history.

 

 

 

 

Hamas ventures into arranging marriages

 

By Diaa Hadid, Associated Press  |  June 21, 2009

 

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - At 29, Tahani is considered a spinster by the standards of deeply conservative Gaza. So in her search for a husband, she turned for help to the best in the marriage business: the Islamic militant group Hamas.

 

“I gaze at all the men on the street and think, ‘Oh God, isn’t there just one for me?’ ’’ said the young woman with dark skin and honey-colored eyes, set off by a maroon headscarf.

 

Her application is among 287 from single women in the files of the Tayseer Association for Marriage and Development in Gaza. Photographs stapled to the files show Muslim women in headscarves, some wearing makeup, some smiling, others looking startled. They all want a husband, and the Hamas loyalists running the association are intent on finding a man for each.

 

Despite its militant reputation elsewhere, Hamas is known here for its cradle-to-grave welfare programs for the poor. It is a cornerstone of its political support in Gaza, where poverty is deepening as Israel and Egypt maintain an almost two-year blockade of the Hamas-run territory. Now, the group is branching out into matters of the heart.

 

“This is our vision of humanitarian work,’’ said Wael Zard, director of the Tayseer association. “This makes people close to Hamas and makes Hamas close to the people.’’

 

The matchmaking service is particularly important for women since staying single is a cruel fate for them in Gaza. They are often treated as unpaid maids by their extended families, says Gaza sociologist Naser Mahdi. Increasing economic hardship has made the marriage market even harsher.

 

The dwindling number of middle-class men with steady incomes can have their pick of the prettiest women, leaving others to work hard to find a suitable husband. Meanwhile, poor families are reluctant to marry off working daughters, hoping to keep their salaries.

 

About 40 marriages have been arranged since Tayseer opened its matchmaking department in 2007. Most women apply in secret because it’s taboo for women in Gaza to seek husbands outside the traditional route. Most girls are married in matches set up by their mothers. Dating is nearly nonexistent and love marriages are a novelty.

 

Tahani, who spoke on condition that only her first name be used because she is using the service without her family knowing, said she turned to Tayseer a year ago. Her mother died when Tahani was young, and none of her relatives were helping her find a groom.

 

The young woman said she became more determined to find a husband after Israel’s three-week war on Hamas, which ended in January. Israel’s assault killed hundreds of civilians, and Gaza’s residents hunkered down in homes and shelters during the shelling, not knowing where bombs would fall next.

 

“My brothers held their wives when they were scared. I felt lonely,’’ said Tahani, a university graduate in social work.

 

Most women are shy when they first come in the door, said Tayseer matchmaker Nisrin Khalil, 21. “I tell the girls, be like Khadija!’’ said Khalil, referring to the Prophet Muhammad’s first wife.

 

Muslim tradition says Khadija proposed to Muhammad - and was years his senior. It’s a powerful message to women: Islam’s first lady bucked conservative Arab tradition more than 1,400 years ago and they can defy Gaza tradition now.

 

The applicants, who pay a fee of $10 to $70, are divided into categories according to their eligibility. Women under 25 are easiest to marry off; more challenging are women over 30 and divorcees.

 

But in a nod to Gaza’s grinding poverty triumphing over its conservative culture, there is a special file for women with jobs. Bringing home a salary in Gaza can trump any other category, matchmakers say.

 

In the women’s application, they describe their ideal man. Most ask for a devout Muslim with a job and an apartment, a top find in crowded Gaza.

 

Women also must describe their appearance and answer a killer question: “Do you consider yourself pretty according to Gaza standards?’’

 

The ideal of beauty in Gaza means tall and fair-skinned with blue or green eyes and light-colored hair - and that’s what men usually ask for. But most Gaza women have dark hair and bronze skin.

 

“If we see a girl that appears to match [a man], but she’s not physically what he wants, I’ll call him and say, ‘Well, she’s pretty, but she’s dark.’ . . . We encourage them to be a bit more realistic,’’ Khalil said.

 

 

 

 

Gunmen kill priest, 2 seminarians in Mexico

Mon Jun 15, 6:41 pm ET

 

ACAPULCO, Mexico – Gunmen ordered a priest and two seminarians out of their vehicle and shot them dead in a drug-plagued region of western Mexico, authorities said Monday.

 

The three were killed as they drove through the town of Arcelia in Guerrero state to nearby Ciudad Altamirano to organize a spiritual retreat, said the Archbishop of Acapulco, Felipe Aguirre Franco.

 

Erit Montufar, Guerrero's director of investigative police, said no arrests have been made and no motive has been determined for the killings, which took place Saturday.

 

But Roman Catholic clergy in Mexico have complained that they are increasingly the targets of attacks and extortion demands as the nation wrestles with a wave of drug cartel-fueled violence.

 

"We have become hostages in this violent confrontations between the drug cartels living among us," Aguirre Franco said.

 

In April, priests in northern Mexico were urged to take extra precautions after an archbishop commented on where the nation's most-wanted trafficker may live.

 

The coastal state of Guerrero, which is used by drug traffickers to grow marijuana and opium poppies, has been mired in drug violence for years.

 

Also Monday, Mexico's attorney general's office said it charged 51 guards and prison officials, including the director, for their complicity in the escape of 53 inmates from a jail in Zacatecas state.

 

Security camera footage showed that guards at the Cieneguillas prison stood by as an armed gang walked out with the 53 inmates on May 16. About a dozen of the fugitives are drug cartel suspects.

 

The office also said it has arrested 9 mid-level military officers and turned over to them by the army for passing information to the Sinaloa drug cartel.

 

President Felipe Calderon has struggled to combat rising drug violence and corruption, sending 45,000 troops to drug hot spots since taking office in December 2006. More than 10,800 people have since died in drug-related incidents.

 

 

 

 

Revised Catholic Statement on Conversion Worries Jews

Friday June 19, 2009

 

(UNDATED) U.S. Catholic bishops tried Thursday (June 18) to clarify the Catholic Church's relationship with Judaism, saying Jews will not be targets of evangelism, but the church reserves the right to share its faith and welcome Jewish converts.

 

The bishops resurrected a 2002 statement that they called "insufficiently precise and potentially misleading" about whether Christians should share the Gospel with Jews. The bishops said the document had "raised many questions" among U.S. Catholics.

 

Jewish groups, however, worry that Catholics are retreating from decades of interfaith progress that culminated in a 1986 statement by Pope John Paul II that the Jewish covenant with God is "irrevocable."

 

The bishops' 2002 document, produced by an ongoing dialogue with Reform and Conservative rabbis, said targeting Jews for conversion is "no longer theologically acceptable" because Jews "already dwell in a saving covenant with God."

 

In a three-page statement issued at the bishops' spring meeting in San Antonio, the bishops' doctrine and ecumenical committees said the 2002 statement presented a "diminished notion of evangelization" that seemed to imply that Catholics should not attempt to convert Jews.

 

The new statement appears to try to answer Catholic critics who said the 2002 statement implied that salvation could be found outside of Jesus Christ, or that the church didn't have the duty to evangelize.

 

Jewish leaders say the revised statement is the latest in a series of troubling steps by the Catholic Church.

 

Last year, Pope Benedict XVI revised, but refused to delete, a Good Friday prayer in the Latin Mass that calls for Jews to be converted. The U.S. bishops last year deleted a section in the official U.S. Catholic Cathechism for Adults that said "the covenant that God made with the Jewish people through Moses remains eternally valid for them."

 

"There was a growing comfort level in the Jewish community over how Catholics viewed Jewish salvation," said Rabbi Gary Greenebaum, the U.S. director of interfaith relations for the American Jewish Committee.

 

"That's now becoming less sturdy, less clear, and will need a new redefinition."

 

A spokeswoman for the bishops, Sister Mary Ann Walsh, said the San Antonio statement was primarily directed at Catholics, not Jews, and sought to "clarify any misunderstanding" over the earlier document.

 

She added that the 2002 statement was produced by the dialogue team and was never an official document of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops "although it was treated that way."

 

The bishops said confusion had "led some to conclude mistakenly that Jews have an obligation not to become Christian and the church has a corresponding obligation not to baptize Jews." Instead, the bishops said the church is "always giving witness to the following of Christ, to which all are implicitly invited."

 

The bishops reaffirmed longstanding teaching that God "does not regret, repent of, or change his mind" about the covenant he established with the Jews through Abraham and Moses. Yet they said Jesus Christ "fulfills God's revelation," and sharing that message is "at the heart of (the church's) mission."

 

Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Conn., who heads the bishops' doctrine committee, said the Catholic Church believes that the Jewish covenant that began with Moses and Abraham and "that continues to be adhered to by Jews today is fulfilled ... in Jesus."

 

Rabbi Jerome Epstein, the outgoing head of the Conservative movement who worked on the original 2002 document, said he would like some "clarification" on who, exactly, the bishops are trying to address.

 

"If they're saying they want to stress that...for Catholics the way to the covenant is through belief in Jesus Christ, I would say that message is appropriate," Epstein said from Israel.

 

"But if they're saying that they're going to go sell that message to Jews, then I've got a problem with that."

 

 

 

 

French MPs in call to unveil Islamic dress code

 

Charles Bremner in Paris | June 22, 2009

Article from:  The Australian

 

FRANCE could bar Muslim women from wearing full veils in public, a government minister said at the weekend as parliament took action over concern about an increase in women who are wearing the niqab and burka in big cities.

 

The latest controversy over dress habits among France's six million Muslims follows public differences this month between presidents Obama and Sarkozy over the merits of legislating on religious clothing.

 

A group of 58 MPs from Left and Right called on Wednesday for parliament to react to the phenomenon of women who are adopting what they called oppressive head-to-toe Islamic dress that "breaches individual freedoms".

 

Industry minister and government spokesman Luc Chatel supported the MPs. "If it were determined that wearing the burka is a submissive act, and that it is contrary to republican principles, naturally parliament would have to draw the necessary conclusions," he said. Asked whether that would mean legislation, Mr Chatel replied: "Why not?"

 

The new debate over Muslim dress is reviving passions that surrounded the 2004 law banning religious headcover in French state schools. Andre Gerin, a Communist MP, led the motion for an inquiry, calling the burka and niqab "a moving prison" for women.

 

Women's groups, including some Muslim-led ones, back new measures against the practices of a growing but still small minority of radical Muslims.

 

housing Minister Fadela Amara, a rights campaigner of Algerian background, said that she was alarmed by the number of women "who are being put in this kind of tomb". She added: "We must do everything to stop burkas from spreading."

 

Muslim leaders have mixed views about new legislation. Imam of the Paris Mosque Dalil Boubakeur supported an inquiry, saying that face covering for women was a fundamentalist practice originating in Afghanistan that was not prescribed by Islam. The national Muslim Council, which is less tied to the establishment, accused lawmakers of wasting time on a fringe phenomenon.

 

"To raise the subject like this ... is a way of stigmatising Islam," council leader Mohammed Moussaoui said. There are no precise figures but experts estimate that several thousand women, mainly born in France, have taken to full costumes with face covering. In 2004, when he was interior minister, Mr Sarkozy was not enthusiastic about the school headscarf ban and he remains wary of stigmatising Muslims.

 

 

 

 

June 21, 2009

Suicide attack on Shia mosque leaves 73 dead in Iraq

Half of the victims were pulled from the rubble of about 80 homes razed by the lorry bomb

 

Alice Fordham in Baghdad

 

Iraq's deadliest bomb this year ripped through a Shia mosque in the north of the country yesterday, killing at least 73 people and injuring around 200.

 

A suicide bomber detonated a lorry bomb in the town of Taza, 20km (13 miles) south of the city of Kirkuk, burying dozens of people under rubble and flattening about 80 houses as well as the al-Rasul mosque.

 

The bomb came after the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, warned of an increase in sectarian violence in the run-up to the withdrawal of American forces from Iraqi city centres at the end of this month.

 

"This ugly crime is an attempt to harm security and stability and spread mistrust of the Iraqi forces," Mr al-Maliki said yesterday.

 

The attack was the worst since two women suicide bombers detonated explosives in Baghdad pet markets in February last year, killing 98 people.

 

Although violence in Iraq has decreased, daily attacks continue, particularly in the city of Mosul, Diyala province and parts of Baghdad. Tensions in Kirkuk have also recently caused concern as debate mounts over which ethnic group controls the oil-rich town.

 

Several figures suggested that this attack might be the work of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Staffan de Mistura, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq, said from New York that the bombing was a “horrifying and wicked crime against innocent civilians”.

 

There were reports today that insurgents had shot dead nine police in separate incidents in Baghdad and Mosul.

 

 

 

 

Report: Violence common among Scientology managers

6 hours ago

 

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) — The leader of the Church of Scientology struck his subordinates numerous times and set an example for physical violence among the tightly controlled religion's management team, four former high-ranking executives told a newspaper for a story published Sunday.

 

The executives who have since left the organization told The St. Petersburg Times that they witnessed David Miscavige, chairman of the board that oversees the church, hit staff members dozens of times.

 

"It was random and whimsical. It could be the look on your face. Or not answering a question quickly. But it always was a punishment," said Mike Rinder, who oversaw the church's legal and media relations operations. Rinder said he was struck many times by Miscavige and that he also hit others before leaving in 2007.

 

In a response to the paper, the church denied the allegations, saying that the four former executives statements were "absolute and total lies," and the claims are an effort to tarnish Miscavige, who has led the church for more than two decades. A spokesman said Sunday the church provided documentation that the claims the four made were false.

 

Marty Rathbun, who served on the church's board and was a top lieutenant of Miscavige's, said he was often ordered by Miscavige to attack others.

 

Tom De Vocht, who for years oversaw the church's spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, estimated that during one three-year period, he saw Miscavige strike staffers as many as 100 times. He left in 2005.

 

De Vocht also participated, explaining to the newspaper how he rationalized his actions: "If I don't attack I'm going to be attacked. It's a survival instinct in a weird situation that no one should be in."

 

Amy Scobee, a manager in California who helped build the church's network of Celebrity Centres, said she witnessed numerous attacks before leaving in 2005 but was never hit herself or saw any other women attacked.

 

The former executives all expressed dismay at the violence, but the newspaper's story didn't detail the circumstances surrounding each one's departure.

 

Monique Yingling, a church spokeswoman, said they left because they had been removed from their posts and couldn't handle the demotions.

 

Church spokesman Tommy Davis told the newspaper that an internal investigation revealed that Rathbun — and not Miscavige — was responsible for dozens of attacks in the years before he left in 2004.

 

Davis told The Associated Press that the allegations about Miscavige were "absolutely, unquestionably false" and "sickening and outrageous." He said Miscavige is leading the church through unprecedented growth and is focusing on his parishioners, not the accusations.

 

The newspaper reported it met with church spokesmen and lawyers for 25 hours and that it began requesting to interview Miscavige on May 13 but was told his schedule would not permit it before a date in July.

 

"I am at a loss to comprehend how the St. Petersburg Times can publish a story about me and the religion I lead without accepting the offer to speak with me," Miscavige said in a letter to the newspaper e-mailed on Saturday.

 

Davis said Miscavige was busy with a massive project for a weeklong series that will be broadcast to Scientology churches all around the world.

 

Sunday's report was the first of a three-part series on the church.

 

The Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology, founded in 1954 by the late science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, teaches that technology can expand the mind and help solve problems. It claims 10 million members around the world, including celebrity devotees Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

 

Devotees converge on Clearwater, on Florida' west coast, for the highest levels of the church's training programs. By church tallies, around 12,000 Scientologists live and work in and around Clearwater.

 

Scientologists believe spiritual enlightenment is possible by ridding the mind and soul of the accumulated, unwanted effects of this lifetime and innumerable previous lifetimes through an intense counseling process called "auditing." Auditors use a device called an "e-meter," similar to a polygraph.

 

Parishioners pay hundreds and even thousands of dollars for the auditing services and progress through various levels of "Operating Thetan." Those seeking to achieve the highest "OT" levels visit Clearwater.

 

 

 

 

France may dissolve Church of Scientology

By Elizabeth Bryant, Religion News Service

PARIS — In a groundbreaking case, a Paris court will decide for the first time whether to dissolve the Church of Scientology in France, which is facing charges of organized fraud.

 

The demand was made by French prosecutors on Monday as they wrapped up their case against the church's Paris headquarters and bookshop. If found guilty, the institutions may also face a nearly $6 million fine.

 

Six members of the church are also on trial, and may also face heavy fines along with prison sentences if convicted.

 

The plaintiffs, two former Scientologists, claim the church conned them into spending tens of thousands of dollars in bogus products in the 1990s, including an "electrometer" that the church says can measure energy levels.

 

But the church, which claims a membership of 45,000 in France, rejects the accusations and claims it is being persecuted.

 

The plaintiffs, are "apostates who ... want to criticize their ex-religion," Fabio Amicarelli, a European Scientology representative, told French media recently.

 

While the charges pose the most serious challenge to the French church to date, they are only the latest clash in a nearly two-decade long battle against Scientology. Several fraud cases have already been judged and several members convicted of embezzlement in France, where Scientology is viewed with deep suspicion.

 

In one case, the head of the church's Lyons chapter was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 1996 for his role in a member's suicide.

 

Founded in 1954 by late American science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, the church is considered a religion in the United States with adherents that include Hollywood stars Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

 

 

 

 

Even non-religious Muslims forming new groups in France

By Elizabeth Bryant, Religion News Service

 

PARIS — New Muslim groups are mushrooming in France, reflecting a growing disenchantment with the country's main Islamic organization and an openness to non-practicing Muslims.

 

The latest group, launched June 12, is a federation of some 40 Muslim associations dubbed Mosaic. It plans to offer a voice for secular Muslims — in the spirit of France's influential Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions, or CRIF.

 

"Only viewing Muslims through a religious prism offers a wrong view of Muslims in general," founder Marouane Bouloudhnine told Le Figaro newspaper. "Today, the vast majority of French Muslims are non-practicing."

 

Just how many of France's estimated five to six million Muslims actually practice their faith is difficult to say — the government bans all official statistics based on religion or ethnic origin. But a number of surveys indicate that a solid chunk of Muslims here, possibly the majority, do not go to the mosque regularly or observe Ramadan, the holy month of fasting. France has the largest Islamic population in western Europe.

 

Moreover, many feel alienated from the French Council of the Muslim Faith, the main Islamic group. Launched in 2003 under the tutelage of the French government, the council has been torn apart by rivalries between different ethnic and religious currents.

 

The infighting came to a head last year, when then-president Dalil Boubakeur, who also heads the Algeria-backed Paris Grand Mosque, boycotted elections to pick a new leader, citing unfair voting procedures. Council leaders chose Mohammed Moussaoui of the rival Morocco-backed Rally of French Muslims instead.

 

Largely because of the bickering, critics say, the council has achieved little during its six years of existence.

 

"We need to end this kind of nationalism. It doesn't serve Islam in France, it just divides people," said Benabdellah Soufari, who heads the dissident Francophone Community of the Muslim Faith, founded a few years ago.

 

Muslim clerics are also beginning to seek alternatives to the main French council. This month, a group of imams and scholars launched another association, the Conference of Imams of France, aimed to promote religious dialogue and tolerance.

 

And in May, a business leader created yet another faith-based group to help the poor, children and the elderly within the Muslim community.

 

 

 

 

The Fr Thailand takes temple row to UNESCO

 

By Claudette Wereden for Radio Australia

 

Thailand is appealing to the United Nations cultural organisation to find a solution to its bitter row with Cambodia over an 11th Century temple complex.

 

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has announced his country's heritage committee will ask the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to reconsider a decision giving control of the temple and its surroundings to Cambodia.

 

The decision has led to clashes between Thai and Cambodian border guards, with seven soldiers killed in the past year.

 

Thailand will ask a world heritage meeting in Spain this week for the grounds of the Preah Vihear temple to be placed under joint Thai-Cambodian maintenance.

 

Part of its argument is that most visitors approach the temple complex from the Thai side.

 

Dr Panitan Wattanayagorn, senior adviser to the Thai Prime Minister's office, told Radio Australia's Connect Asia program that Thailand is not blaming Cambodia.

 

"Most countries, Thailand in particular, are not blaming anything on Cambodia," he said.

 

"We are just concerned about the role of UNESCO."

 

Dr Wattanayagorn says UNESCO needs to take responsibility and try to solve the problem.

 

"The relationship between Thailand and Cambodia was quite normal and stable until UNESCO allowed registration of the temple area - not (the) temple but temple area - to be done unilaterally," he said.

 

"It is the responsibility, we believe, that UNESCO should attempt to look into this issue closely and help try to solve the problem and try to come up with remedies."

 

Dr Wattanayagorn said that in areas "that are not clear, in areas that are overlapping ... UNESCO usually recommends the two countries or parties involved to jointly manage or register the areas.".

 

"We're simply reiterating UNESCO'S rules".

 

He said Thailand's position still was that the issue is unclear.

 

"But, of course, the International Court of Justice many decades ago issued a statement and verdict giving Cambodia the right over the temple, but not the temple area," he said.

 

"So we, as part of the world community, will recognise that verdict".

 

Cambodia has issued a statement rebuking Thailand for raising the controversial land claim again.ench government, however, lists Scientology as a sect, reflecting an official intolerance of unorthodox religions. Indeed, the government even has an official sect watchdog body — known as MIVILUDES, the Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combatting Cultic Deviances.

 

A government report published in May said the number of religious sects had tripled in France over the past 15 years to at least 600 different movements.

 

 

 

 

500th birthday of 'Great Reformer' John Calvin nears

By Hanns Neuerbourg, The Associated Press

 

GENEVA — John Calvin, the Great Reformer, used dictatorial means in making Geneva a "Protestant Rome," but he also planted the seeds of modern democracy.

 

He enforced rigid morality and stressed the importance of helping others, while he also had a share in developing capitalism. He supported the destruction of religious statues and other images, but described the arts as gifts from God.

 

FAITH & REASON: 3 of 6 Christian book award winners draw on Calvin's views

 

This is how Calvin's role in history is being assessed by theologians and historians in countless lectures, studies and biographies 500 years after he was born on July 10, 1509. The quincentenary is being observed around the globe with the Geneva-based World Alliance of Reformed Churches acting as a central organizer of "Calvin 09."

 

Although he remains a controversial figure, Calvin's teachings are still profoundly influential. Events marking the Calvin year range from congresses and exhibitions to concerts and theater performances. His portrait is on a special Swiss postage stamp and souvenirs are for sale.

 

"John Calvin Superstar, Geneva celebrates its saint," the Swiss daily Neue Zuercher Zeitung headlined an article on the "Calvinomania."

 

The anniversary festivities contrast with Calvin's very modest life.

 

Born into a middle-class Roman Catholic family in the little French town of Noyon, north of Paris, Calvin became a lawyer, but soon came to sympathize with the anti-papal theses of Martin Luther that had rapidly spread to France.

 

Calvin broke with his Catholic past. His great rhetorical talents earned him quick prominence as an evangelical teacher, but religious turmoil forced him to go into exile in Basel, Switzerland.

 

He was 26 when he began writing the "Institutes of the Christian Religion," the first compendium of Reformed doctrines, much more profound than Luther's theses of 1517. They won him an invitation from newly Protestant Geneva. But Calvin was soon banished again because authorities found his ideas were too radical.

 

He returned in 1541 after receiving assurances of official support for his plans to complete a Reformation based on his teachings. He introduced a revolutionary church constitution based on the democratic principles of division of powers. But he retained the ultimate say.

 

Calvin drew up an extensive catalog of austere rules of morality. These ranged from bans on swearing, gambling and fornication to a strict no to dancing, even at weddings. Unexcused absence from worship service was penalized.

 

Adultery and homosexuality could draw severe sentences, even death.

 

But it took more than 10 years before the Reformation consolidated its position against native discontent. Calvin also had to cope with social conflicts between the Genevans and the thousands of French and other refugees seeking exile in the city.

 

Karl Barth, one of the most influential Reformed 20th century theologians, once criticized Calvin's rigor in controlling Geneva as being near to tyranny and Pharisaism and said, "None of us would have liked to live there".

 

In contrast, John Knox, the enthusiastic Scottish follower of Calvin, spoke of "the most godly city since the day of the apostles." Knox was minister of a growing congregation of English exiles before he was able to return and become founder of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

 

According to Dutch church historian Herman J. Selderhuis, a negative image of Calvin has remained prevalent at least in Western Europe. That image is based on the execution of Michael Servetus, a Spanish theologian whose non-orthodox views were judged by Calvin as heretical.

 

When he sought refuge in Geneva, Servetus was imprisoned and burned at the stake. Selderhuis says Calvin thus "acted against his own conviction that an opinion cannot be forcefully imposed on anyone."

 

Geneva was then already a flourishing European trading center and the influx of wealthy refugees and craftsmen caused a further boost in the economy from banking to watch making.

 

To Calvin, patient labor and diligence through the six-day work week was equal to worship service and the wealth thus obtained was justified. But he stood for social solidarity with the poor, refugees and others and rigid morality in economic affairs.

 

Calvin was a vociferous foe of usury. Still, he granted legitimacy to raising moderate interest in business contacts, although not for loans to the poor. His move is widely seen as a first step toward modern economics and a responsible form of capitalism.

Calvin's ban on religious art in Reformed churches had a welcome effect, especially among Dutch and Flemish artists who shifted to landscapes, still lifes, and portraits that found a large market among prosperous middle classes.

 

In the late 18th century Calvinist-descended churches began to take root in wide parts of the United States, among Presbyterians and others. Gradually, the movement spread to other parts in the world but the Reformed church became deeply divided. The World Alliance of Reform Churches says its fellowship now includes 75 million Reformed Christians in more than 100 countries. But in Geneva, Reformed Christians have long since shrunk to a small minority.

 

Yet the Calvinist impact remains evident in the city. The Geneva-based International Red Cross was founded by a devout Calvinist, Henry Dunant. And the League of Nations, forerunner of the United Nations, was set up in Geneva because U.S President Woodrow Wilson, a Presbyterian, preferred the city to Catholic Brussels.

 

Before Calvin died in 1564, he had stipulated that his body be buried without a gravestone in Geneva's common cemetery. It was the end of a life in modesty of a man for whom, as he once wrote, describing his theology as "Calvinism" was an "insult."

 

 

 

 

Yemeni who killed Jew gets death sentence

Sun Jun 21, 2009 3:32pm EDT

 

SANAA (Reuters) - An appeals court in Yemen sentenced to death Sunday a man who shot dead a Jewish compatriot.

 

In March a court ruled the man, Abdul-Aziz al-Abdi, was mentally unstable and sent him to an psychiatric institution, but the victim's father appealed the verdict.

 

Yehiya bin Yaeesh said his son Mashaa was in the company of four Muslim men when he was shot in the town of Raida in December and had clearly been targeted.

 

Al-Abdi's lawyers said they would take the case to the Supreme Court, the country's highest judicial body.

 

There are 200-300 Jews in Yemen. About 50,000 moved to Israel in an airlift begun in 1949.

 

Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, is struggling with a Shi'ite revolt in the north, a secessionist movement in the south and growing militancy among Sunni al Qaeda sympathisers.

 

The unrest has raised fears that Yemen will slip into chaos and provide a base for al Qaeda or pirates operating in the Indian Ocean.

 

Sunni Muslims make up the majority of Yemen's 23 million inhabitants, while most of the rest are from the Zaydi branch of Shi'ite Islam.

 

 

 

 

Somalia pleads for outside help

Parliament wants foreign troops to battle insurgents

 

By Associated Press  |  June 21, 2009

 

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somali lawmakers pleaded yesterday for international military intervention within 24 hours to help fight Islamic insurgents in the lawless African nation, where fierce fighting has resumed in the capital.

 

A suicide attack in western Somalia killed the country’s national security minister and four other government officials Thursday. And battles between rebels and government troops have left at least 10 people dead in Mogadishu since Friday, witnesses said.

 

The fighting also forced Parliament to meet in the presidential palace yesterday rather than its usual venue.

 

“We have, as a parliament, decided to ask the regional governments - like Kenya, Ethiopia, and Djibouti - as well as the international community to intervene militarily in Somalia within 24 hours to help the Somali nation,’’ said Parliament speaker Sheik Adam Mohamed Nor.

 

President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, who is also a member of parliament, did not take part but it was not clear why.

 

There was no immediate indication whether Somalia’s neighbors would answer Parliament’s plea for foreign troops. There is already an African Union force in Mogadishu, but its mandate is restricted to guarding government officials and installations.

 

Two years ago, Ethiopia deployed troops to support Somalia’s fragile, Western-backed government, but they were widely unpopular and were finally withdrawn in January after the election of the new president. Last month Ethiopia sent troops to the border regions of Somalia.

 

A surge in violence in May, which diplomats said was a major push by the insurgents to force the government out of its Mogadishu strongholds, killed nearly 200 civilians. Nearly 126,000 people have fled their homes since May 7, according to the UN refugee agency. The violence in May went on for about two weeks, but despite reduced fighting, Mogadishu residents continue to flee their homes.

 

The United Nations says an estimated 3.2 million Somalis - almost half the population - need food and other aid.

 

The attack that killed the government officials on Thursday also killed 31 other people, a hospital official there said

 

The extremist Islamic group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for that attack. Somalia’s president had blamed Al Qaeda. Counterterrorism experts have long feared Somalia was becoming a haven for the terror network, and the US State Department considers al-Shabab a terrorist group with links to Al Qaeda. Al-Shabab denies it.

 

Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991 when the overthrow of a dictatorship plunged it into chaos.

 

 

 

 

Ottawa reviews funding for York U conference

By ANDY LEVY-AJZENKOPF, Staff Reporter  

Thursday, 18 June 2009

 

TORONTO — A controversial academic conference on Israel scheduled to start Monday at York University has drawn the eye of Gary Goodyear, minister of state for science and technology, who last week called for a review of federal funding to the event.

 

“Israel-Palestine: Mapping Models of Statehood and Paths to Peace” received $19,750 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in January and features more than 50 guest speakers, many of whom are renowned for their anti-Israel views.

 

“We feel this conference is really not an academic conference… and does not meet rigorous academic criteria,” said Howard English, spokesperson for UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.

 

English said the event has an anti-Israel tilt and many presenters aren’t strictly considered academics.

 

“There is a predominance [of speakers]… who have a history of vehement anti-Israel statements,” he added, noting that many – such as Ali Abunimah, co-founder of the Electronic Intifada, a website that claims Israel is an apartheid state – aren’t objective presenters.

 

“To say [Abunimah] is anti-Israel would be a mild understatement,” English said. “The preoccupation of this conference with a ‘one-state’ solution will only highlight the legitimacy of the demise of Israel as a Jewish state.”

 

The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), which represents 65,000 academics, is calling for Goodyear’s resignation because of his “unprecedented efforts to interfere” with the June 22-24 conference.

 

The CAUT said that Goodyear’s decision to contact the president of SSHRC “to express political concerns is not something we have seen in this country since the McCarthy period,” and that the move “sets a very dangerous precedent.”

 

Last month, York University president Mamdouh Shoukri said that the “freedom of independent scholars to organize events such as conferences on matters of legitimate academic inquiry goes to the very heart of academic freedom,” adding that it “would be entirely inappropriate for the university administration to intervene in or to take responsibility for the academic content of such events, provided that they do not offend Canadian law.”

 

A peer review committee of scholars from a number of academic disciplines awarded the SSHRC grant. Goodyear contacted SSHRC last week to ask that a second review committee assess whether the event still deserves funding, given that the initial proposal didn’t have details about who would be speaking.

 

SSHRC spokesperson Trevor Lynn, confirmed Goodyear had spoken to the council, and that it had asked conference organizer and Osgoode Hall associate law professor Bruce Ryder to provide details about any changes to the conference since the grant was made.

 

Under SSHRC guidelines, applicants are allowed “minor” changes to conferences, but approval for major changes, such as to an event’s theme or focus, must be made in writing.

 

Lynn wouldn’t speculate on what SSHRC might do if it decided major changes had been made.

 

Sharryn Aiken, a Jewish law professor at Queen’s University and a lead organizer of the event, urged the Jewish community to remain open-minded about it. She also refuted claims about non-academic speakers.

 

“At least 90 per cent of the confirmed speakers are academics affiliated with academic institutions around the world,” Aiken told The CJN. “The minority of people that aren’t fall into the category of ‘public intellectuals’ with publication records in this specific area.”

 

Aiken said speakers such as Meron Benvenisti, a former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, and David Berlin, a Jewish ex-pat Israeli and former editor of the Walrus, who, while not academics, were accepted based on their experience.

 

Aiken acknowledged that Abunimah’s background “raises a lot of anxiety,” but she defended his participation and called his book on Israel, titled One Country, “a thoughtful book about the way forward out of the impasse.”

 

“I’m not a self-hating Jew who is anti-Israel,” she said. “I am deeply disappointed by the reaction in the [Jewish] community and by those who know me and who continue to insist that this conference is all about promoting hate.”

 

 

 

 

Jews intimidated at York: commission

By JTA  

Wednesday, 17 June 2009

 

TORONTO — A Jewish communal commission says there has been "intimidation, harassment, ridicule and virulent anti-Israel sentiment" at one of Canada's largest universities. The commission on the quality of Jewish life at Toronto's York University was organized last month and made up of officials from UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, Hillel of Greater Toronto, Hasbara at York and the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy.

 

Members gathered hundreds of testimonies from students, faculty and Jewish community members after recent events at the university "left many members of our community shocked and shaken," the final report said.

 

Recommendations include prohibiting professors from expressing personal political views unrelated to the course they teach. The panel also asks York to establish a confidential hotline for students to report "abuse of the podium" incidents.

 

The commission also recommends that York implement other measures, including providing security guards with "enhanced training in order to deal more effectively with disruptive events and individuals," and to "rigorously define the academic standards expected of all university-sponsored conferences."

 

The recommendations were submitted to the York University Task Force on Student Life, Learning and Community, created in March by the university's president to improve the atmosphere on campus.

 

York University has been the scene of much anti-Jewish and anti-Israel activity over the past few years. Earlier this year, some Jewish students were barricaded in the Hillel lounge by a mob yelling anti-Semitic and anti-Israel slurs. Police had to be notified to escort the students out of the building. Two students were reprimanded for the incident.