c. 1998 Religion News Service
Hindu extremists attack Christians and Muslims in Indian state
(RNS) In the past two months, at least 30 instances of violent attacks on Christians and Muslims have occurred in the Indian state of Gujarat, according to reports.
One such incident involved Hindu extremists armed with sticks and swords barging into the home of a Methodist minister and warning him to stop preaching Christianity and start worshipping Hindu gods or face being burned alive, Reuters reported Monday (Aug. 31).”I can’t go back to my house, we are too frightened,”the minister, M.M. Roy, said.
However, Muslims have been the main target of the extremists. Earlier this summer, after two Hindu girls eloped with Muslim boys from the village of Radhikpur, Muslim homes were attacked. Some 350 Muslims were forced to flee.
Reuters said that activist groups such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishah and Bajrang Dal, which is associated with the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have become emboldened by the BJP’s rise to power as head of India’s coalition government.
Gujarat, which is in western India north of Bombay, is also controlled by BJP.
Christians make up less than 3 percent of Gujarat’s population. Muslims account for 13 percent.
To protect their communities, church groups have organized the United Christian Association (UCA) and have held peaceful protests. Still, Gujarat’s Christians remain highly concerned.”We don’t know what to do when the government is with (the extremists),”said K.G. Verghese, a UCA member.”There is a lot of fear here.” In 1992, some 700 people died in violence in Gujarat after Hindu extremists destroyed a 16th-century mosque in north India.
University agrees to return American Indian bones for proper burial
(RNS) The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has agreed to return the remains of some 1,702 American Indians to tribal elders for proper burials. The agreement marks one of the largest repatriations of Indian remains under a 1990 federal law.
University chancellor James Moeser agreed Tuesday (Sept. 1) to return the remains within 30 days and also erect a memorial and set aside an area where the bones of Indians were burned and their ashes scattered between 1965 and 1967, the Associated Press reported.
The university collected the bones during archeological digs undertaken over several decades.
More than 50 representatives of more than a dozen tribes in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma and North and South Dakota were on hand in Lincoln for the signing of the agreement.”Words are kind of hard to say because it’s such a relief,”said Fred LeRoy, a member of the Ponca tribe.”Our people are going to be buried with respect and dignity.” Following the signing of the agreement, a prayer was said in the Lakota tribal language.
The university admitted burning bones in the 1960s and losing as many as 20,000 Indian bones or bone fragments.
Questions about the university’s handling of the remains surfaced last fall when bones were found in a campus laboratory instead of the storage building, where they were supposed to be kept. An investigation is under way to determine whether the university broke any state or federal laws relating to American Indian remains and artifacts.
PBS religion program lists most influential religious figures
(RNS) Which religious figures have most influenced Americans during the past 100 years?
The PBS program “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly” has come up with a list of 25 individuals it says fit that bill.
The list includes Americans and non-Americans, Christians, Jews, Muslims and at least one Buddhist and one Hindu.
In alphabetical order, they are: Karl Barth, Swiss pastor and theologian; Dietrich Bonheoffer, German pastor and theologian; Martin Buber, Jewish theologian; the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhist leader; Dorothy Day, pacifist and founder of the Catholic Worker Movement; Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science; Mohandas Gandhi, Indian spiritual leader; evangelist Billy Graham; and Gustavo Guitierrez, Peruvian Catholic known as the father of liberation theology.
Also, Carl F.H. Henry, evangelical theologian and first editor of Christianity Today magazine; Abraham Joshua Heschel, rabbi and civil rights activist; Pope John XXIII; Pope John Paul II; the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.; Ayatollah Khomeni, Iranian Shiite Muslim leader; C.S. Lewis, Christian author and scholar; Thomas Merton, Trappist monk; Elijah Muhammed, Nation of Islam leader; Reinhold Niebuhr, Protestant theologian; Norman Vincent Peale, positive thinking advocate; Walter Rauschenbusch, known as the father of the social gospel; Albert Schweitzer, theologian and humanitarian; Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the late Lubavitcher rebbe; Mother Teresa; and Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and author.
Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly begins its second season Friday (Sept. 4) with a discussion of these and other religious men and women who have influenced American culture in the past century.
The half-hour program airs on PBS stations nationwide (check local listings for time and day). It is produced by WNET in New York and funded by the Lilly Endowment, based in Indianapolis.
U.S. bishops begin campaign to restore broken relationships
(RNS) The U.S. Bishops’ Catholic Communication Campaign has released a series of public service messages aimed at encouraging people to restore broken relationships.
The motto of the campaign is”If you think you can’t make it right, you’re wrong.”It consists of television, print and radio ads created pro bono by Saatchi & Saatchi, an international advertising firm.”Most people have someone close to them with whom they’ve had an argument, misunderstanding, or lack of communication that has led to a falling out,”said Bishop Robert N. Lynch of St. Petersburg, Fla., chairman of the Bishops’ Communication Committee.”This effort is designed to powerfully demonstrate the costs of `not making it right’ and to show what is possible if you just take action.” Three TV spots, each 30 seconds, depict various relationships between family members that have been damaged. Similar ads are presented in three 30-second radio announcements.
The first ads will be distributed in September for airing by more than 1,500 television and radio outlets.
The U.S. Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the U.S. Catholic bishops, produces media products including documentaries, holiday specials and public service campaigns.
Prominent Washington lawyer elected B’nai B’rith president
(RNS) A prominent Washington, D.C., lawyer has been elected the new international president of B’nai B’rith, a 155-year-old Jewish organization.
Richard D. Heideman, of Bethesda, Md., is the founder and senior counsel of the Heideman Law Group, a Washington trial law firm. Long involved in the organization, Heideman was president of the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization when he was a teen.
At the organization’s recent meeting in Jerusalem, Heideman pledged to continue the work of his predecessor, Tommy P. Baer, to revitalize the group and include women in B’nai B’rith’s leadership.
B’nai B’rith operates in 55 nations. It’s focus is the defense and preservation of Jews and Judaism.
Quote of the Day: Author Stephen Mitchell
(RNS)”I sometimes think it’s people’s way of not being angry at God. You heap all the world’s misery onto the bad guy, and that lets you see God as blameless. Ineffectual, but blameless.” _ Author Stephen Mitchell on belief in the devil, in his new book”Meetings With The Archangel”(Harper Collins).
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