c. 2006 Religion News Service
U.S. Muslims Call for Hajj Tragedy Investigation
(RNS) U.S. Muslim leaders are urging Saudi Arabia to allow an independent investigation into Thursday’s (Jan. 12) stampede near Mecca that killed at least 363 people performing an annual pilgrimage that is required of all Muslims.
“There’s some anger,” said Edina Lekovic, a spokeswoman for the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles, adding that the Saudi government was responsible for pilgrims’ safety. “This is their obligation to the Muslim world, and that obligation is not being fulfilled.”
At least 363 pilgrims participating in the hajj died during the stampede. Since 1990, more than 2,200 pilgrims have been killed in six stampedes, almost all of them at a pedestrian bridge where pilgrims throw pebbles at three pillars representing the devil.
“We just want some answers,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman with the Council on American Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C.
It was not immediately clear if any American Muslims were killed in the stampede, which occurred one week after 76 people were killed when a hotel near Mecca’s Great Mosque collapsed.
Lekovic said Saudi authorities have tried to improve crowd control and safety in recent years but have not “kept up with the challenges.”
Member governments from the 52-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference would be ideally suited to carry out such an investigation, Lekovic said. However, she complained that the Saudis are not open about how they handle crowd control, security and other logistics during the hajj.
Sayyid M. Syeed, secretary-general of the Islamic Society of North America, said Islamic scholars have been “very creative” in accommodating the crowds. For example, tradition holds that pilgrims should stone the pillars after noon prayers, but scholars have said pilgrims may perform the stoning rite in the morning or even late into the night to spread crowds throughout the day.
Syeed also suggested that given the large crowds, Saudi Arabia should consider capping the number of pilgrimages a Muslim can make.
No officials were available for comment from the Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington, which was closed during the week of the hajj.
_ Omar Sacirbey
Jewish Leaders Say Deeply Embedded Anti-Semitism Fueled Moscow Attack
(RNS) The stabbing attacks at a Moscow synagogue during evening services Wednesday (Jan. 11) may have sent shock waves around the world but didn’t come as a surprise to many U.S. Jewish leaders.
The 20-year-old attacker injured eight people before he was overtaken by a rabbi and his son. Jewish leaders say the anti-Semitism sponsored by the state for hundreds of years under the czars and the Soviets now has a home in the hearts and minds of many Russians.
Those feelings may be nurtured by anti-Semitic propaganda, they said, which has become easily available since the fall of the Soviet Union and the subsequent rise of the press.
When officials with the American Jewish Committee met with Russian Orthodox leaders in Moscow last summer, they found a copy of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” _ an anti-Semitic tract that posits a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world _ at a church bookstore.
The book is found on practically every street corner in Moscow, wherever books are sold, according to Sam Kliger, director of Russian Jewish community affairs for the American Jewish Committee.
“In the air is anti-Semitic propaganda,” Kliger said. It is likely coming from anti-Semitic groups that the government “does not want to control, or cannot control, or both.”
Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said Vladimir Putin’s administration frequently condemns anti-Semitic attacks, but that’s where the effort ends. “There are few arrests. There are fewer prosecutions,” he said.
Foxman cited a letter signed by some Russian lawmakers and public figures in early 2005 calling for a ban on Jewish organizations.
Russia’s deeply embedded anti-Semitism differs from that of the rest of Europe, which is more tied to the Arab-Israeli conflict, Jewish officials said.
And some governments, notably in France and Italy, are sponsoring education and investigations that are keeping anti-Semitic activity “more or less in check,” Foxman said.
_ Rachel Pomerance
Defiant Anglicans Demand Apology From Episcopal Church
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS) Conservative Anglicans want an apology from the Episcopal Church for approving a gay bishop, along with a clear turn back to the Bible, an Asian archbishop who helps lead an Anglican splinter group said Thursday (Jan. 12).
“If the Episcopal Church refuses to apologize and continues to walk apart, we will not follow,” Archbishop Datuk Yong Ping Chung of Southeast Asia said in an interview at a meeting of the Anglican Mission in America.
The Anglican Mission in America began in 2000, with Chung and other Anglican bishops ordaining ex-Episcopal priests to serve as missionary bishops to the United States.
The Episcopal Church _ the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion _ has refused to recognize the Anglican Mission, but has complained about its bishops crossing traditional boundaries and working in the United States.
Episcopal leaders say the U.S. church has already apologized for disrupting the life of the communion, as called for in a high-level report issued by Anglican leaders in London.
“The House of Bishops has expressed our regret for any damage to the bonds between us, and our desire for a sense of healing and reconciliation,” said Alabama Bishop Henry Parsley.
Chung said he felt confident that reaching out to disaffected Episcopalians was biblical and warranted, despite objections of Episcopal Church leaders. “We need the approval of God,” he said. “We don’t need the approval of men.”
“We were concerned about the continuing erosion of the authority of Scripture and the uniqueness of Christ and the compromise of salvation issues,” Chung said. “Those were already danger signs. Once you compromise that, there’s no more Gospel to preach.”
Chung retires as an archbishop on Feb. 20, when he turns 65, relinquishing his role as a sponsor of the Anglican Mission. Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda will continue to provide the main supervision.
If the U.S church continues to embrace gay rights and stray from what Third World Anglican leaders see as clear teachings of the Bible and traditions of the church, Asian and African archbishops will continue to support sending missionaries to the United States, Chung said.
“This movement will grow. God will bless those who preach the Gospel,” he said. “If a church doesn’t preach the Gospel, it doesn’t have a future.”
_ Greg Garrison
Religious Groups Applaud New Anti-Trafficking Law
WASHINGTON (RNS) Religious activists say a new law signed by President Bush could be the best weapon yet in reducing the commercial trading of humans for sex and labor.
“This bill has the potential to end sex trafficking,” said Janice Crouse, senior fellow of Concerned Women for America, a Washington-based conservative group that pushed for the bill’s passage.
The bill was signed Tuesday (Jan. 10), after it was unanimously approved by the House and Senate.
The bill says an estimated “600,000 to 800,000 individuals are trafficked across international borders each year and exploited through forced labor and commercial sex exploitation.” About 80 percent of them are women and girls, the bill says.
At the bill’s signing, Bush said the legislation will help provide new services to the victims of trafficking, “including appointing a guardian for young victims and providing access to residential treatment facilities to help victims get a chance at a better life.”
More than $360 million will be appropriated over two years for programs such as the rehabilitation of victims, enhancement of state and local efforts to combat trafficking, and studies examining ways to fight the problem.
Other religious groups also expressed support for the law.
Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Washington office of the New York-based Union for Reform Judaism, said he hoped the law would “help stop one of the great moral disasters of contemporary life.”
Sharon Cohn, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based International Justice Mission, a human rights group, praised Bush and Congress for speaking “with a single voice about their commitment to abolish modern-day slavery.”
_ Enette Ngoei
Jews Criticize Decision to Allow AmeriCorps Staff in Religious Schools
WASHINGTON (RNS) AmeriCorps says a Supreme Court decision not to review a lower court ruling is a milestone that will enable the program’s teachers to continue serving in religious schools.
On Monday (Jan. 9), the Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling that said allowing AmeriCorps volunteers to work in religious schools did not violate the Constitution’s First Amendment.
“With this action, there is clear judicial support for continuing to allow AmeriCorps members to teach secular subjects in religious schools,” said Stephen Goldsmith, board chairman of AmeriCorps, a network of local, state and national service programs established in 1993 by President Clinton.
More than 70,000 volunteers participate annually, receiving scholarships and sometimes a living allowance for their service, with some working in religious schools.
“With this case now behind us, we look forward to helping more of our neediest students benefit from the idealism and energy of AmeriCorps members, wherever they attend school,” said Goldsmith.
The American Jewish Congress filed suit in 2002 against AmeriCorps, or the Corporation for National and Community Service. A district court ruled in favor of the American Jewish Congress, finding that the program’s inclusion of grants for individuals teaching at religious schools was unconstitutional. However, that ruling was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2005.
Marc Stern, general counsel for the American Jewish Congress, said the decision by the Supreme Court to let the appeals court ruling stand is “a stark reminder of how weak the wall between church and state has become.”
_ Enette Ngoei
Quote of the Day: Katelyn Jones, Daughter of Mining Victim Jesse Jones
(RNS) “Dear God, my daddy was very special to me. I know everything happens for a reason. You just needed my daddy to fill up an empty space in your beautiful garden.”
_ Katelyn Jones, 12, in a letter to God after her father, Jesse, was killed with 11 other men in the Sago Mine explosion in West Virginia. Her letter was quoted by USA Today.
KRE/PH END RNS
