c. 2003 Religion News Service
Index: Mothers, Kids Fare Best in Sweden, Worst in Niger
WASHINGTON (RNS) Save the Children’s annual “Mothers’ Index” finds that mothers and children fare best in Sweden and worst in Niger.
The fourth annual index, released Tuesday (May 6), ranks the status of mothers’ well-being in 117 countries.
“The index confirms what 70 years of experience have taught us _ the health and well-being of children is directly linked to the health and well-being of their mothers,” said Charles MacCormack, president of the global development and relief organization based in Westport, Conn., in a statement.
The index compares the status of mothers in 19 industrialized nations and 98 countries in the developing world based on factors related to women’s and children’s health, education and political status. It is an appendix to Save the Children’s “State of the World’s Mothers 2003” report, which also details the global effect of war, sexual trafficking and human rights violations on women and children.
The index identified a mother’s level of education and her access to family planning services as the factors most strongly connected with infant survival and well-being.
It found a huge gap in literacy among highest and lowest-scoring countries. In Sweden, 99 percent of women are literate, but in Niger, 8 percent are.
In the United Kingdom, where 82 percent of women use modern birth control, one in 5,100 mothers will die in childbirth and 6 out of 1,000 infants do not survive through their first birthday. In contrast, in Guinea, where 4 percent of women use birth control, one in seven mothers die in childbirth and more than one in 10 infants die before their first birthday.
The United States did not place in the top 10 countries _ it ranked 11th _ because higher-ranked nations, on average, have lower infant and maternal death rates.
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Following is suitable for graphic:
The Mother’s Index
Top Countries
1. Sweden
2. Denmark, Norway (tied)
4. Switzerland
5. Finland
6. Canada, Netherlands (tied)
8. Australia
9. Austria, United Kingdom (tied)
11. United States
Bottom Countries
108. Angola
109. Chad, Mali (tied)
111. Yemen, Sierra Leone, Guinea (tied)
114. Guinea-Bissau
115. Ethiopia
116. Burkina Faso
117. Niger
Source: Save the Children
_ Adelle M. Banks
Muslim Group Offers Guide to Islam for Law Enforcement Community
(RNS) In an attempt to stave off the profiling and unfair treatment of Muslims by law enforcement officials, a national Muslim group has published a booklet aiming to educate the law enforcement community about Islam.
“A Law Enforcement Official’s Guide to the Muslim Community” was released May 1 by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based Islamic civil liberties group.
The guide contains basic information about Muslim beliefs and practices and addresses issues like sensitivity in body searches and entering Muslim homes, given the modesty requirements of the faith.
Also included is advice on outreach to the Muslim community and the workplace rights of law enforcement officials who are also Muslims.
CAIR leaders say the booklet is meant to foster more open lines of communication between Muslims and law enforcement and prevent disrespect and profiling.
“A number of recent interactions between law enforcement agencies and the Muslim community have resulted in misperceptions and miscommunications based on a lack of basic information about Islamic beliefs,” said Mohamed Nimer, who is the research director at CAIR and the booklet’s author.
“We hope this booklet will serve as a tool to be used in facilitating cooperation on security issues in an atmosphere of mutual respect,” he said.
CAIR has published similar booklets aimed at educating others about Islam and the rights of Muslims in health care, schools and the workplace.
_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi
British Bishops, Aid Groups Urge U.N. Role in Iraq
LONDON (RNS) The United Nations must have a central role in the reconstruction of Iraq, the Roman Catholic bishops of England and Wales said in a statement issued following their Low Week (April 28-May 1) meeting.
The bishops said the end of hostilities offered the people of Iraq the opportunity for a better future.
“For this future to be realized, the coalition must be no less committed to the `waging of peace’ than it was to the waging of war,” the bishops said.
“In the first instance it is crucial that law and order be established, so that urgent humanitarian needs can be met. There will follow an arduous long-term task of political and economic reconstruction, which will call on the generosity and skills of the international community. We believe that the U.N. must have a central role in this respect.”
The bishops also pointed to the need to safeguard the rights of Iraq’s minorities, saying Iraqis’ “inherent right” to self-determination in the regeneration of their country needed to be balanced by measures required for the civil and religious rights of all.
“Iraq has a rich diversity of human communities, including communities of faith,” said the bishops, without mentioning specifically the position of the country’s Christians. “The right to express religious faith without fear and discrimination must be regarded as a fundamental principle of the development of the country.”
Separately, a group of eight British-based humanitarian aid agencies issued a statement saying there is an “urgent need” for the United Nations to become involved in the reconstruction of Iraq.
The group included three of Britain’s largest faith-based charities _ CAFOD, Christian Aid and Caritas International.
Pointing to the “very serious” and deteriorating conditions in parts of Iraq as well as the “yawning administrative vacuum” in many areas, the agencies said: “Unless comprehensive action is taken now by the occupying forces to ensure security and the orderly delivery of humanitarian assistance based on need _ which is a requirement under the Geneva Conventions _ this already acute situation will only worsen.”
For any solution to be sustainable, the United Nations will have to have a central role in overseeing and managing the transition to a representative, accountable and democratic Iraqi government, the agencies said.
“Time is running on, and still there has been no agreement on the role of the U.N in the coordination or reconstruction of the country,” the agencies said.
Other agencies signing the statement were Oxfam, Islamic Relief, Muslim Aid, Action Aid and Save the Children UK.
_ Robert Nowell
Religious Leaders Voice Support for United Nations
(RNS) More than 150 religious leaders have publicly voiced their support for the United Nations, saying that the global agency is “more relevant than ever.”
“We, religious leaders, stand firmly in support of the United Nations and are grateful for the leadership of Secretary General Kofi A. Annan during these challenging times,” read the full-page ad in the May 2 edition of The New York Times.
Organizers said the ad was meant to support the United Nations after its failure to prevent a war in Iraq and in its struggle to remain relevant in the face of the Bush administration’s willingness to settle disputes on its own.
The ad said the United Nations is vital for peacekeeping, assisting women and children in war zones, protecting the environment, promoting health care and inspiring “young people with a global perspective so they can become leaders for the future.”
The ad was funded by donations to the World Council of Religious Leaders, which sponsored the Millennium Peace Summit in 2000 in conjunction with the United Nations.
Signers included Roman Catholic Bishops Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit and Walter Sullivan of Richmond, Va.; the Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches; Metropolitan Philip Saliba, primate of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America; Sayyid Syeed, general secretary of the Islamic Society of North America; the Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World; leaders of several mainline Protestant denominations and scores of others.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Boston Globe, `Third Watch’ Lead Wilbur Winners
(RNS) The Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning series on sex abuse in the Catholic Church and the television drama “Third Watch” were the top winners in the 2003 Wilbur Awards contest sponsored by the Religion Communicators Council.
The annual awards, which recognize “outstanding secular media entries that feature religious issues, themes and values,” were distributed April 26 in Indianapolis.
Other newspaper winners included The Plain Dealer of Cleveland’s Sunday Magazine for “United They Stand”; the Republican-American in Waterbury, Conn., for Tracey O’Shaughnessy’s column, “Sunday Reflections”; and The Dallas Morning News, which won for its weekly religion section.
The cartoon strip “Frazz” by Jef Mallett also took home a Wilbur, along with Time magazine for David Van Biema’s “The Legacy of Abraham” story. The Indianapolis Star won for “A Child Shall Lead Them” by staff photographer Matt Detrich.
A book edited by Michael Wolfe and the producers of Beliefnet, “Taking Back Islam: American Muslims Reclaim Their Faith,” won a Wilbur, and “Been There, Done That” with Marty Goldensohn on WHYY-FM 91 in Philadelphia won the radio category.
“Unforgiven,” an episode of NBC’s popular “Third Watch,” won the television category, while Religion & Ethics Newsweekly’s “Exploring Religious America” series won for television news. “Faith: One Year After 9/11,” produced by WPBT Channel 2 in North Miami, Fla., won for local news, and “The Pacifist Who Went to War,” by the National Film Board of Canada, won the documentary category.
Based in New York City, the RCC is the oldest and largest organization of professional communicators of religion.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
New President Named for Brite Divinity School
(RNS) A church historian has been named president of Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas.
The Rev. D. Newell Williams, a professor at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, will begin the position effective June 2, the divinity school announced.
“Dr. Williams is gifted with a combination of skills as a scholar and administrator, and possesses a collegial, inclusive management style that will serve Brite well,” said Roy Snodgrass, chairman of the school’s trustee board, in a statement.
“It is particularly important that he is committed to continuing Brite’s strong tradition of diversity and ecumenism.”
Williams, who served as associate and assistant dean at the school between 1978 and 1984, will become the institution’s eighth leader.
Brite Divinity School, one of four seminaries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), has an enrollment of 272 students.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics
(RNS) “The fact that one of America’s leading moralists would sneak around and engage in one of the nation’s most destructive vices undermines his credibility. Protestants and conservative evangelicals, who overwhelmingly see gambling as a moral issue, will say that Bennett betrayed the very moral habits about which he wrote in `The Book of Virtues.”’
_ Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics, commenting about news reports that former U.S. education secretary William Bennett has lost $8 million gambling in the last decade. He was quoted on EthicsDaily.com, his center’s Web site.
DEA END RNS
