c. 2006 Religion News Service
Italy Grants Asylum to Afghan Christian Accused of Apostasy
ROME (RNS) Abdul Rahman, the Afghan who faced the death penalty for converting to Christianity from Islam, arrived in Italy on Wednesday (March 29) where he received political asylum.
Italy’s decision to grant Rahman, 41, asylum capped a week of intense lobbying by western governments for his release.
Last month Afghan authorities arrested Rahman for converting to Christianity 16 years ago and tried him on charges of apostasy _ a crime punishable by death under Islamic laws that are recognized in Afghanistan.
An afternoon statement from the Italian government, led by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, reported that Italy was acting on a request from the United Nations for western governments provide Rahman refuge.
Rahman’s release from jail on Monday unleashed calls for his death from Afghan clerics who also expressed harsh criticism of Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai for bending to western pressure.
On Saturday the Vatican sent a telegram to Karzai on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI, calling for Rahman’s release out of “respect for every person’s freedom of conscience and religion.”
“I am certain, Mr. President, that dropping the case against Mr. Rahman would bestow great honor upon the Afghan people and would raise a chorus of admiration in the international community,” the telegram read.
Rahman was relocated from a high-security prison in Kabul to a safe house on Monday, prompting an offer of asylum from Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini.
That offer ignited debate within Afghanistan’s parliament on Wednesday.
“We sent a letter and called the Interior Ministry and demanded they not allow Abdul Rahman to leave the country,” parliamentary speaker Yunus Qanooni told reporters.
Italy currently maintains troops near Kabul as part of a NATO peace-keeping mission.
_ Stacy Meichtry
Editors: Mat in the 10th graph below is cq.
Religious Conservatives Unveil `Values Voters’ Contract With Congress
(RNS) A group of religious and social conservatives announced a “Values Voters’ Contract With Congress” Wednesday (March 29) that seeks legislative action on issues ranging from marriage to private property rights.
“Values voters must vote this fall, but our legislators have got to give them hope,” said Rick Scarborough, president of Vision America, a Texas-based conservative Christian organization that concluded a “War on Christians” conference in Washington the previous day.
The 10-point contract called for legislation that affirmed marriage as between one man and woman and restricted pornography. It also called for action to halt the marriage penalty and increase tax credits, ban cloning, and permit public acknowledgment of God.
Rabbi Aryeh Spero of the Manhasset, N.Y.-based Caucus for America, spoke on the contract’s call for insuring the parental rights, including support of a law prohibiting transportation of minors across state lines for abortions without parental permission.
“State meddling is a breach of that which is sacred when it meddles into the family,” he said. “No, it does not take a village. It takes a family.”
Tom McClusky, acting vice president of government affairs for the Washington-based Family Research Council, called for Congress to prevent government from seizing private property for economic development. He said a Supreme Court eminent domain decision last June “poses a serious threat to all private property owners, but especially to churches that have tax-exempt status.”
Weighing in on the issue of immigration, Phyllis Schlafly, president of Washington-based Eagle Forum, called for legislation to secure the nation’s borders.
“If a day laborer can sneak over the border illegally, so can an al-Qaida terrorist,” Schlafly said.
Alan Keyes of Washington-based Renew America urged legislative action to maintain religious liberty at a time when judges have created a “regime of oppression.”
Contract signatories include the Rev. Lou Sheldon of Traditional Values Coalition; Pastor Rod Parsley of World Harvest Church of Columbus, Ohio; Mat Staver of Orlando, Fla.-based Liberty Counsel; and Frank Wright of the Manassas, Va.-based National Religious Broadcasters.
The contract noted signatories’ endorsement did not necessarily mean their organizations also support the contract.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Christian Peace Activist Says Kidnappers Played Jesus DVD in Arabic
LONDON (RNS) Freed Christian peace activist Norman Kember, breaking his silence for the first time since his release, has described his 117 days of captivity in Iraq as “time stolen” but says he does not regret having gone to the war-torn country in the first place.
In an interview in the Wednesday (March 29) issue of the Baptist Times newspaper, the 74-year-old British member of the Christian Peacemakers Teams group also thanked the British and U.S. troops who rescued him from his kidnappers in Baghdad.
Kember and two fellow Christian Peacemakers members, Canadians James Loney and Harmeet, were freed last week in the military operation. A fourth hostage, American Tom Fox, was found shot to death in the Iraqi capital on March 9.
“The experience of being confined is desperate,” Kember recalled. “Not going outside for four months _ it’s having that time stolen.”
The Briton described the bewildering nature of his kidnappers. “One night,” he said, “our captors took us downstairs, sat us in front of the TV and showed us the life of Jesus on DVD in Arabic.”
“But these are the people who shot Tom Fox in the head,” Kember said. “People are very complex.”
The peace activists have drawn some media criticism in Britain, for being in the war zone and opposing the conflict, while troops involved in the fighting had to risk their own lives to rescue them.
Kember said he saw “no point in regretting” his decision to go to Baghdad to try to help the Iraqi people _ but he added that “I’m very grateful to them (the multi-national force) for rescuing me. And our (British) diplomatic service was super.”
_ Al Webb
U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom Urges Intervention in Sudan
WASHINGTON (RNS) The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, created by Congress, issued a report Wednesday (March 29) painting Sudan as a nation in crisis that needs U.S. intervention.
“Sustained close engagement by the United States government is necessary to ensure compliance … with human rights provisions,” chairman Michael Cromartie told reporters in releasing the study, based on a fact-finding visit in January.
The bipartisan commission was created by Congress in 1998 to promote religious freedom and make policy recommendations. Its Sudan study found displaced refugees, a prohibition on new churches and even genocide of non-Muslims _ all in a country supposedly at peace.
In January 2005, Sudan officially ended two decades of civil war with a peace agreement signed by National Congress Party in the north and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in the predominantly non-Arab south.
A year later, USCIRF has found that while religious freedom has improved in the south and other areas, development and security remain problems.
Meanwhile in the Arabic north, non-Muslims continue to be subjected to the Muslim law of sharia, which carries a possible death sentence for religious conversion.
The report said that permits for new churches have been denied, churches built without permission often are destroyed, and the government-controlled Muslim religious institutions enforce a militant interpretation of Islam.
The report also said humanitarian organizations continue to be harassed and little progress is being made by groups promoting peace. There is no indication the country’s oil revenues are being shared evenly by north and south as required in the peace agreement. Refugees are still imprisoned, and stories of rape, murder and slave trade in the detention camps abound, the report said. And the situation is exacerbated by the genocide in Darfur.
In addition to other suggestions, the report urged Washington to send a high-ranking envoy to Sudan to oversee implementation of the peace accords.
Joining Cromartie were Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi of California, and Reps. Frank Wolf, R-Va., and Donald Payne, D-N.J.
Genocide, Pelosi told reporters, “Is a concern of the entire world, and we all must rise to the challenge. Too often we have said `never again’, only to have it happen again.”
_ Piet Levy
Boston Globe Religion Writer to Receive Fourth Straight Wilbur Award
(RNS) For the fourth straight year, Boston Globe writer Michael Paulson will take home a Wilbur Award for his coverage of religion.
Paulson will be awarded his Wilbur at a Saturday (April 1) ceremony in Dallas, Texas,for his special history on the death of Pope John Paul II. Last year, he took home the Wilbur in the “newspaper, top markets” category for his reporting on the closings of Roman Catholic parishes in 2004.
Paulson and the other award winners will take home stained-glass trophies handed out at a ceremony marking the end of the annual Religion Communicators Council national convention. Wilburs are presented in 18 different categories. They are named for the late religious public relations manager Marvin Wilbur.
“I don’t think religion writers have been thanked enough,” said RCC Executive Director Shirley Whipple-Struchen. “These articles are each something that’s a teaching tool, that helps all of us. The main point (of the Wilbur) is to lift up something that is good and say thank you.”
Other winners include:
_ The PBS show Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, for best national news segment, “Impossible Choices,” produced by Susan Grandis Goldstein and reported by Betty Rollin.
_ Time Magazine, for David Van Biema’s “Hail Mary: A series on Mary and Joseph.”
_ The Dallas Morning News and its religion editor Bruce Tamaso, for the best newspaper religion section.
_ “Cape of Good Hope, for best feature film.
_ “Augustine: A New Biography,” by James J. O’Donnell, for best non-fiction book.
The Religion Communicators Council is an international interfaith association of members working in communication, marketing and public relations. It was founded in 1929.
_ Nate Herpich
Quote of the Day: Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles
(RNS) “Denying aid to a fellow human being violates a law with a higher authority than Congress _ the law of God.”
_ Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, in a New York Times commentary he wrote, calling on Congress to reject the Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005. If the bill becomes law, it would require faith-based organizations to confirm that immigrants entered the United States legally before such groups offered meals or medical attention.
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