c. 2006 Religion News Service

London Jury Convicts Muslim Cleric Who Plotted Assassinations Overseas

LONDON (RNS) Controversial Islamic cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri has been convicted of stirring up racial hatred in Britain and inciting his followers to murder Jews and non-Muslims, including foreign leaders, in the name of Islam.

After deliberating four days, a jury at London’s Old Bailey court on Tuesday (Feb. 7) found the Egyptian-born engineer and former nightclub bouncer guilty on 11 of 15 charges centering on accusations that, as spiritual leader of the Muslim community in north London, he had preached terrorism and death to non-believers.

The prosecution described al-Masri as a “recruiting sergeant for terrorism” and said he used as his “bible” the multivolume Encyclopedia of the Afghani Jihad, which suggests a list of potential targets for militant Muslims that includes London’s Big Ben tower and the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

The 47-year-old handless, one-eyed cleric said he sustained the injuries while disarming a bomb in Afghanistan. He was sentenced to a series of prison terms ranging from three to seven years, all to be served concurrently.

The court said that when he completes his sentence, al-Masri will face the “real possibility of extradition and further charges elsewhere” _ including the United States, where he is wanted on charges of trying to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon.

Prosecutor David Perry argued during the trial that the preacher had “used the most dangerous weapons available _ a great religion, Islam; his position as a civil leader; and the power of words, his own words.”

The murderous wishes that al-Masri proclaimed, Perry added, included suicide bombings and “the assassination of foreign leaders.”

The cleric, pleading innocent to the string of 15 charges, defended suicide bombings as a legitimate tool of war. “If it is the only way of preventing the enemies of Islam or resisting oppression,” he argued to the jury, “then that would be your only tactic of war.”

_ Al Webb

More Church Fires Hit Alabama

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. _ Fire erupted at three more rural Alabama churches Tuesday (Feb. 7), less than a week after five Baptist churches burned in the state.

State and federal investigators were dispatched to the sites, said Ragan Ingram, assistant commissioner of the Alabama Department of Insurance, the state agency that oversees fire investigations.

“We’re investigating as suspected arson, but we’ll see what happens,” Ingram said. Damage was still being assessed, authorities said Tuesday.

Federal investigators said they are using two profilers to try to establish what type of person they are hunting in last week’s five church fires.

The profilers are Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents based at the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit in Quantico, Va.

One is a geographic profiler who looks where the crimes occurred and past similar incidents or patterns to try to pinpoint where the arsonist might live. The other, a criminal profiler, studies the total criminal behavior, what kind of person would commit the crime, why and with whom they may be associated.

“This is not a psychic wonderland,” said Jim Cavanaugh, ATF’s regional director. “This is the study of past behavior.”

Arsonists attacked five Bibb County churches early Friday, burning three of them to the ground and damaging the other two. Officials on Friday ruled three of the fires arson _ Old Union Baptist Church, Antioch Baptist Church and Ashby Baptist. On Monday, Ingram said the fires at the other two churches _ Rehobeth Baptist Church and Pleasant Sabine Baptist _ also were confirmed arson.

A sixth fire that broke out a day earlier at a church in neighboring Chilton County was deemed accidental and unrelated, Ingram said.

“We’ve got teams out everywhere,” said Cavanaugh. “I think it’s solvable. And the only way to solve it is to keep pressing on it.”

_ Carol Robinson

On Darwin’s Birthday, Clergy to Speak in Favor of Evolution

(RNS) Celebrating Charles Darwin’s birthday, more than 400 clergy around the nation will speak at various locations Sunday (Feb. 12) to make the point that evolution and Christianity are compatible.

“Evolution Sunday” is part of a larger campaign to bring an end to the division between science and religion, especially in education, organizers say. The Sunday event falls on the 197th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, whose 1859 book on the “Origin of the Species” advanced the scientific basis for evolution.

A larger campaign known as “The Clergy Letter Project” began as a protest against a series of anti-evolution policies passed by a school board in Grantsburg, Wis. The letter endorses the peaceful coexistence of religion and science and has been signed by more than 10,000 clergy from diverse backgrounds, including Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian, organizers say.

The letter says, “The timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably co-exist.” It also says that “to reject this truth or to treat it as `one theory among others’ is to deliberately embrace scientific ignorance and transmit such ignorance to our children.”

Michael Zimmerman, dean of the College of Letters and Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, coordinated the letter. He says he hopes it will be used around the country when “the issue of watering down the secular in the name of religion” surfaces.

“It is important for all these quiet voices to band together to be collectively louder than those shrill fundamentalist voices that say you have to reject modern science,” Zimmerman said.

_ Enette Ngoei

Crime Wave Hits Catholic Priests in Scotland, Protection Requested

(UNDATED) A wave of burglaries, vandalism and at least two attacks on elderly priests has targeted Roman Catholic churches in one of Scotland’s biggest cities in recent weeks, prompting its archbishop to demand better protection from police.

“I am horrified at the level of intimidation my priests are having to face,” Glasgow Archbishop Mario Conti said in a statement.

In one of the seven incidents reported to police, a vandal broke into St. Mary’s Church in Glasgow’s Calton district while Monsignor Peter Smith was saying the vigil Mass and caused damage estimated in the thousands of dollars.

At St. Brigid’s chapel house in the Toryglen area, a thief battered his way into the building and held 85-year-old Canon Nicholas Rowan at knifepoint before escaping with a “four-figure” sum of cash, church officials said. Rowan was left shaken but uninjured.

In another attack, a bandit broke into the residence of the Rev. Tommy Holloran, 75, at Holy Cross Church in the Govanhill region of Glasgow, threatening and robbing the priest of more than $530 that he said he had planned to use to buy presents for his nieces.

“Bad enough the opportunist thief, but for two elderly priests to be accosted in their presbyteries and threatened is appalling in any civilized society,” said Conti.

He said he intends to write to Chief Constable Willie Rae, whose Strathclyde Constabulary includes Glasgow, to ask for more help in ensuring the safety of his clergy.

Other incidents during the crime wave that started Jan. 14 have involved break-ins, the theft of collection boxes and altar items as well as vandalism to priests’ cars at churches dotted across Glasgow.

Smith suggested that drugs may have been the motive. “Glasgow as a whole … is having to deal with a desperate drugs problem. And as the Church mainly conducts its business in cash, drug addicts no doubt see the Church as an easy target,” he said.

_ Al Webb

Papal Music-Makers Consider Michael Jackson to Sing Pope’s Prayers

ROME (RNS) Michael Jackson is being considered for an album adapted from Pope John Paul II’s prayers, despite concerns that the pop singer’s image might conflict with the late pontiff’s appeal to Catholic youth.

Italian priest Giuseppe Moscati said Tuesday (Feb. 7) his music label Edizioni Musicali Terzo Millenio had informally explored the possibility of including Jackson in a lineup of artists planned for the album _ but never actually contacted the singer or his representatives.

“There is no deal, no contract. It’s a project that we’d like to make happen if the conditions are right,” Moscati said in an interview.

Moscati noted the singer’s recent acquittal on molestation charges in California but added that the allegations were not grounds for excluding Jackson from the project.

“We don’t want to condemn anyone,” Moscati said. “Part of the problem is (Jackson’s) image. It will not be easy to bring his image together with the values that we want to offer to youth through the writings of John Paul II.”

Moscati said he had not informed the Vatican of his plans to set 24 prayers composed by John Paul to popular music until recent media reports surfaced describing Jackson’s potential role.

Since then, Moscati has been in contact with officials who oversee the copyrights to John Paul’s writings, assuring them that Jackson will not have a solo role in the album should he decide to participate.

“I’m not interested in having Michael Jackson alone,” he said, stressing his belief that an ensemble of singers could help to take the focus off the self-proclaimed “king of pop.” Moscati did not say if he had Vatican approval.

Edizioni Musicali Terzo Millenio has produced CDs with Italian celebrities reading poetry composed by the late pontiff.

_ Stacy Meichtry

Quote of the Day: the Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook, on Coretta Scott King

(RNS) “We thank you, God, for allowing us to know a woman named Coretta Scott King. Thank you for her witness, her walk, her work. Thank you for her elegance and her eloquence. … Thank you, God, that we were able to touch her and she was able to touch us.”

_ The Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook, senior pastor of Believers Christian Fellowship Church in Harlem, N.Y., giving the opening prayer at the funeral of Coretta Scott King, who died Jan. 30. Her funeral was held Tuesday (Feb. 7) at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga.

MO/PH END RNS