c. 1999 Religion News Service
Woman turned away at Nation of Islam men’s meeting sues
(RNS) A Cambridge, Mass., woman who was turned away from a Nation of Islam men’s meeting has sued the religious group, saying her civil rights were violated.
Marceline Donaldson, who describes herself as in her 60s and a former civil rights activist, testified in Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge Wednesday (Aug. 4) that”being turned away at the door by a black man was overwhelming. When he moved me aside, my blood pressure started to go up.” She is seeking unspecified damages, the Associated Press reported.
Donaldson, who is black, was accompanied by her husband, 66-year-old Robert Bennett, on the drizzly day five years ago when Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan was speaking about black-on-black violence at the Strand Theater in Boston’s Dorchester section.
Bennett, who testified Thursday, said a guard told him that he could enter the theater but his wife could not.”It was a very emotional thing to be turned away,”Bennett said.
Asked if the Nation of Islam meant to exclude women from the gathering, Don Muhammad, head of the Nation of Islam mosque in Boston, would only say the group had wanted to have a private, religious men’s meeting.
Lawyers for the Nation of Islam have said the event was protected under First Amendment guarantees of freedom of assembly and freedom of religion even though it was held in a city-owned building.”The mosque had the right to hold this as a religious meeting,”said defense attorney Wilbur Edwards Jr.
Members of the 14-person jury viewed a tape of portions of Farrakhan’s speech that evening.
He told the audience that women outside the theater”were very, very disturbed because they wanted to see their brothers.” The Nation of Islam leader said he simply wanted to talk to a group of black men.”All of a sudden I’m offending some law,”Farrakhan said.”What law am I offending?”
Muslim, Arab groups boycott Burger King over West Bank restaurant
(RNS) A coalition of 10 national groups including American Muslims for Jerusalem is calling for a boycott of Burger King because the corporation recently opened a restaurant in a West Bank settlement.”Our community views Burger King’s decision to become a party to illegal occupation with profound distaste,”reads the statement from Muslim and Arab groups.
The West Bank has been a source of Middle East conflict ever since Israel seized it in the 1967 war.
The groups said they were not satisfied with a”standardized response”they received from Burger King.”This statement reflects a lack of understanding of the current circumstances Palestinians face in the West Bank,”the coalition stated.”Settlements are exclusive to members of the Jewish faith. Members of other faiths and ethnic groups are excluded.” Burger King Corp., which is based in Miami, released a statement saying it is”sensitive to all nationalities, religions and cultures, and it is our policy to be respectful of the needs of each in providing access to our products,”the Associated Press reported.
Kim Miller, a company spokeswoman, said company officials”take the issue very seriously and we will try to resolve it.” The coalition hopes the company will close the restaurant in Ma’ale Adumim.”For a corporation that has expressed its desire to expand its presence in international markets, this decision is confusing,”the coalition stated.”Burger King locations in Malaysia, Kuwait, Oman, Qater, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates _ where either Muslims or Arabs make up the overwhelming majority of customers _ can only suffer as the community there learns of Burger King’s insensitivity.” Members of the coalition included American Muslim Alliance, American Muslim Foundation, American Task Force for Palestine, Arab American Institute, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Muslim Public Affairs Council, National Association of Arab Americans, Palestinian American Congress and Partners for Peace.
Pope reportedly consulting Orthodox patriarchs on Holy Year pilgrimage
(RNS) The Vatican reportedly has written to the Orthodox patriarchs of Antioch, Jerusalem, Athens and Sinai to seek their blessing on a Holy Year pilgrimage by John Paul II to the Middle East and Greece.
The Athens newspaper To Vima said Thursday (Aug. 5) that Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, wrote to the patriarchs in the pope’s name to ask about the conditions for a papal visit.
The Roman Catholic pontiff said June 30 in a letter on Holy Year pilgrimages that he hoped in the year 2000 to travel to Old Testament sites in Iraq, Egypt and Jordan, as well as visit Nazareth, Bethlehem and Jerusalem to relive the life, death and resurrection of Christ, and go to Damascus and Athens to meditate on the early church through the story of St. Paul.
The pope said the trip also would have an interfaith and ecumenical dimension, encouraging dialogue with Jews, Muslims and the Orthodox, but no political implications.
The newspaper said the first letter went to Patriarch Ignatios of Antioch, whose seat is in Damascus, on June 23, asking about possible visits to Ur of the Chaldees, the present-day Tell el-Miqayyar in southern Iraq, and to Damascus.
Cassidy reportedly wrote to Patriarch Tiodoros of Jerusalem regarding visits to the mountain of Navai in Jordan, as well as Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem; to Christodoulos, archbishop of Athens and all Greece, about a visit to the woods of Pnyka facing the Parthenon; and to Damianos, archbishop of Sinai.
The newspaper said Patriarch Ignatios, presently in the United States, would answer after Aug. 15 but wanted to discuss the papal trip with the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul _ the spiritual headquarters of Eastern Orthodoxy _ and with other Orthodox leaders before giving a final answer.
Earlier reports from Athens said the Greek Orthodox Church would not welcome a papal visit, but the newspaper said two commissions of the Holy Synod had discussed it, and the issue will now go before the full assembly of the Holy Synod when it next meets. The paper gave no dates.
Update: Report finds no group behind missionary killing in India
(RNS) An official inquiry into the murder of Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in India earlier this year has dismissed suggestions that either the ruling Hindu nationalist party or an extremist Hindu sect were responsible for the slayings.
Staines, an Australian who had been in India for some 30 years, and his two sons were burned to death in January as they slept in their jeep after attending a Bible study meeting. Staines ran a home for lepers about 90 miles from the spot where he was killed.”There is no evidence any authority or organization was behind the gruesome killings,”the Wadhwa Commission said in a report issued Thursday (Aug. 5). The commission took its name from Judge D.P. Wadhwa, who headed up the probe.
Indian police had initially blamed activists of the Hindu extremist Bajrang Dal sect and have charged 18 men with murder, arson and criminal conspiracy in connection with the deaths. Officials of the group denied any involvement.
The report accused Dara Singh, currently a fugitive, of planning the killings, the Associated Press reported. Christian leaders have alleged that Singh was connected to Bajrang Dal. The group has also been linked to the Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
But the Wadhwa report said while the killing was”an act of hatred,”it was not planned by any group.
After the killings, Hindu nationalist groups charged that missionaries like Staines were forcefully converting India’s poor from Hinduism to Christianity.
The report said that while Staines”was also involved in spreading the gospel,”he was”not involved in conversions.”
Former leader of Latino Protestant denomination dies
(RNS) The former presiding bishop of a large Latino Protestant denomination based in California has died.
Pentecostal church pioneer Antonio C. Nava died Monday (Aug. 2) of natural causes in his Union City, Calif., home. He was 106.
Nava was a former presiding bishop of the Apostolic Assembly of the Faith in Christ Jesus.
The Mexico native began his ministry in 1918, pastoring in Yuma, Ariz., and other towns near the Mexican border. He had an influential role in the Apostolic movement in the southwestern United States and Central and South America. That movement traces its roots to the Azusa Street Pentecostal revival in Los Angeles in the early 1900s.
The Apostolic Assembly of the Faith in Christ Jesus, now based in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., includes 650 churches in 40 states, missionary affiliates in 18 countries and allied denominations in five countries.
Quote of the day: film director Kevin Smith
(RNS)”Sooner or later, no matter how devout you are, even if you’re the pope, you have to step back and say, `What’s the difference between this book, the Bible, and Greek mythology.” _ Film director Kevin Smith, whose satirical film”Dogma”has raised the ire of some Roman Catholic groups, in an Aug. 1 interview with The New York Times.
DEA END RNS
