c. 2006 Religion News Service
Muslim and Arab Groups Say Uproar Over Ports Amounts to Profiling
(RNS) Arab and Muslim-American leaders say the uproar over a White House deal that would turn over operations of several major U.S. ports to an Arab-owned company could leave many in the Islamic world thinking Americans hate them.
“This is sending a dangerous message not only to Arab and Muslim citizens of this country about how we in America see Arabs and Muslims, but also to the Muslim world, where we’re trying to win hearts and minds,” said Rabiah Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington-based advocacy group. “It’s almost as if it’s a race to see who can be more anti-Arab.”
Citing security concerns, politicians and commentators from both sides of the aisle have fiercely criticized a $6.8 billion acquisition by Dubai Ports World, owned by one of the United Arab Emirates, of Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. The British company had been managing shipping terminals in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chair of the House Homeland Security Committee _ a legislator CAIR has in the past accused of Islamophobia, said he would help draft emergency legislation to kill the deal. The deal was approved by the White House, and President Bush said he would veto any bill against it.
Mary Rose Oakar, president of the Washington-based American-Arab Anti-Discrimination said her group “is strongly opposed to the rhetoric and bias surrounding the company solely because it is Arab owned. Those who purport that ports can be securely run by a British company, but not an Arab one, are engaging in racial profiling on the corporate level.”
Some industry analysts have said turning the ports over to DPW would not affect security, which would still be done by American workers.
Hazami Barmada, an Arab-American senior at Rhodes College in Tennessee where she is president of the Muslim Students Association, says the episode demonstrates an increasing tendency in America to automatically link everything that is Arab or Muslim with terrorism.
“There’s always this theme of the Arab threat. The American media ha(ve) allowed a few terrorists to hijack the Arab image,” Barmadi, 22, said. “Arab-bashing is fashionable.”
_ Omar Sacirbey
Financial Allegations Roil Orthodox Church in America
(RNS) A former treasurer of the Orthodox Church in America is alleging that millions of dollars in church funds were misspent in the 1990s, a charge that church hierarchs have been loath to discuss _ until now.
On Wednesday (March 1), the church’s 10-member Holy Synod of Bishops will convene in “special session” in Syosset, N.Y., to review “a number of issues facing the church.” The issues presumably include the financial scandal.
Deacon Eric Wheeler, who was dismissed in 1999, has claimed the church is hiding a “multitude of sin,” including $67,000 given by military chaplains for Bibles that were never bought, and payments on personal credit cards of between $5,000 and $12,000 a month.
Wheeler’s allegations were sent in an Oct. 17, 2005, letter to the church’s top leader, Metropolitan Herman. In recent weeks, they were posted on a Web site, http://www.ocanews.org, that is run by parishioners seeking an investigation.
“During my years at the central church, I experienced a total abuse of power with no concern for accounting practice nor aspiration for accountability both internal and external,” Wheeler wrote.
Wheeler worked at church headquarters from 1988 to 1999, spending his last three years as treasurer, and served as personal secretary to former Metropolitan Theodosius, who retired in 2002.
He said millions of dollars were spent to “safeguard the church from scandal, cover embarrassing credit card debts incurred by the Metropolitan (Theodosius), provide family members who leeched off their relatives with a steady stream of assistance, pay blackmail requests and provide the means to entertain with dinners, trips and gifts of cash.”
The Washington Post reported that more than $1 million contributed by Dwayne Andreas, the retired chairman of the Archer Daniels Midland Co., that was intended for a Russian church was diverted to personal accounts, which the church refused to make available for audits.
In January, church leaders promised audits for 2004 and 2005 and issued a vague statement acknowledging “error, lack of good judgment and sin” by church employees, but not the church itself.
Until now, Herman has tried to silence all discussion of the allegations, but growing numbers of parishioners and clergy _ including Archbishop Job of Chicago _ are demanding an independent investigation.
“My fundamental question posted to the Metropolitan … `Are any of the allegations true, or are they false?’ remains unanswered,” Job said in a Jan. 23 statement.
The 400,000-member church traces its roots to the Russian Orthodox Church, but has been independent of Moscow since 1970.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Watchdog Groups Calls U.S. Church Leaders’ Apology a Political Ploy
(RNS) A conservative watchdog group is calling an apology by U.S. church leaders attending an assembly in South America a “blatant political abuse of the Christian rite of confession.”
The apology, issued by U.S. church leaders attending the World Council of Churches assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil, was a written lament for not preventing a U.S. war in Iraq that has brought “terror” to the vulnerable while enlisting God in a way that is “nothing short of idolatrous.”
The statement was issued Saturday (Feb. 18) by the assembly’s U.S. conference, representing 34 Protestant and Orthodox religious organizations, including the Episcopal Church, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the National Council of Churches.
“These church leaders are not confessing their own sins; they are trying to confess the sins of George W. Bush, who never asked them to perform that service for him,” said a statement issued Tuesday (Feb. 21) by the watchdog group, the Washington-based Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD). “Nor did the members of their own churches ask them to make this kind of statement on their behalf.”
Alan Wisdom, the IRD’s interim president, said that a number of leaders have made similar statements in the past and were ignored because, he claimed, “they lacked the support of most active church members.”
“It is not clear why U.S. denominational officials believe that another, still shriller denunciation, in this latest letter to the WCC, will make them any more effective in swaying the president or their own church members.”
The IRD has long been a critic of the WCC and the National Council of Churches (NCC), saying the global and national ecumenical organizations advocate a liberal political agenda.
Leonid Kishkovsky, the chief ecumenical officer of the Orthodox Church in America and the moderator of the U.S. Conference of the WCC, acknowledged that the statement by the church leaders would prove controversial, saying there are divisions within the U.S. about the war in Iraq.
He said he and other church leaders were not speaking “authoritatively for any church, but we are responsible leaders elected by our churches and we feel compelled to speak.”
The assembly of the 348-member WCC began Feb. 14 and concluded Thursday (Feb. 23).
_ Chris Herlinger
Holocaust Denier Renounces View, But Still Sentenced in Austria
(RNS) Right-wing British historian David Irving’s fate is in the hands of the Austrian Supreme Court after a Vienna court sentenced him Monday (Feb. 20) to three years imprisonment for denying the Holocaust ever happened.
When Irving was arrested Nov. 11, court watchers expected a long, drawn-out trial for a man who has become a standard-bearer for many in the radical right. Instead, Irving came to the trial Monday declaring that, after reading testimony from Adolf Eichmann and the head of the Auschwitz death camp, he no longer questioned the Holocaust. He argued that he had made a methodological failure in his research.
The about-face came as a shock to some supporters in the audience who shouted out “Stay strong, David!” during the hearing, according to the Berliner Zeitung (Berlin Newspaper). But the jury was unmoved, sentencing Irving to three years.
The sentence is already under appeal from all sides. Irving’s attorney has argued that the sentence is too severe for a 67-year-old man who poses no threat to Austria. But the day after the trial, the state’s attorney also appealed the jury’s decision, meaning the high court could also decide to sentence Irving to the 10-year maximum for his crime.
The court is not set to reconvene until the second half of 2006. Irving will remain in custody until the court can render its decision.
Irving was charged in 1989 for making statements in Austria denying the Holocaust, a crime there since 1945. He fled the country after the initial charges, but returned in November to address a group of university students, despite the outstanding warrant for his arrest.
Irving first made a name for himself with books suggesting the Allies committed war crimes with their firebomb campaigns against Germany during World War II. A few years later he began actively questioning the Holocaust.
_ Niels Sorrells
Federal Agency Settles ACLU Suit Over Religious Abstinence Program
(RNS) The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has agreed to stop funding an abstinence program that included religious elements.
The American Civil Liberties Union announced Thursday (Feb. 23) that the settlement had been reached between its lawyers and federal officials in a case involving the Silver Ring Thing in Moon Township, Pa.
“We are pleased that the government has agreed to stop using taxpayer dollars to fund the Silver Ring Thing’s religious activities,” said Julie Sternberg, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project.
“The ACLU supports the right of Silver Ring Thing to offer religious programming, but it may not do so using government funds.”
According to the settlement, HHS officials have agreed not to fund the abstinence education program of Silver Ring Thing as it was structured under the terms of a 2005 grant. If the Silver Ring Thing applies for additional grants between now and 2008, those officials have agreed to ensure that funding is not used for “inherently religious activities.”
The suit filed by the ACLU last May said the government had awarded more than $1 million in grants to Silver Ring Thing over a three-year period. HHS’ Family and Youth Services Bureau suspended funding of the program in August after concluding that “it appears that the federal project that is funded under the SRT grant includes both secular and religious components that are not adequately separated.”
Court papers described presentations that included students reciting an abstinence pledge and wearing a silver ring inscribed with a reference to Bible verses from 1 Thessalonians: “God wants you to be holy, so you should keep clear of all sexual sin.”
At the time of the filing of the suit, the ministry issued a statement saying, “The Silver Ring Thing is aware of the proper designation of the federal funds received and asserts that these monies have been properly directed at all times.”
_ Adelle M. Banks
Could Charred Remains Be St. Joan of Arc’s?
PARIS (RNS) Nearly 700 years after the death of Joan of Arc, a French forensic team hopes a series of tests will prove whether charred fragments of skin and bones might be those of the 15th-century heroine.
Experts at the Raymond-Poincare hospital outside Paris have announced they would test tissue, including a blackened rib, that has been preserved through the centuries.
“We won’t learn much about Joan of Arc, apart from the type of wood used to burn her or the tissue of her gown _ if it’s really her,” the team’s head, Dr. Philippe Charlier, told French radio. “But we will be more or less certain _ or more or less uncertain _ if these really belong to her, whether these are her only and unique remains.”
The farm girl from Champagne helped mount a campaign against the British in Orleans, after she was said to have received messages from God that she would be France’s savior in the Hundred Years’ War. But Joan of Arc soon fell from grace, and was convicted of heresy and witchcraft in a politically motivated trial.
In 1431, two years after the Orleans campaign, the 19-year-old was burned at the stake no less than three times, Charlier said.
But just 25 years later, a French court declared her innocence in a “rehabilitation trial.” In 1909, Joan of Arc was beatified, and in 1920 made a saint.
The French scientists say they will not be able to prove without a doubt whether the remains are those of Joan of Arc. The burned fragments, said to have been found at the stake, were conserved by an apothecary and handed to the archdiocese of Tours in 1867.
But already local religious officials are casting doubt on the value of the upcoming research.
“How to prove that this piece of rib belonged to Joan of Arc? From a scientific point of view it seems extremely difficult if not impossible,” said Bertrand Vincent, spokesman for the Tours archdiocese, in a phone interview.
Even if the tests suggest the bones may have belonged to the French heroine, Vincent said, “it won’t change anything” as far as the Roman Catholic Church is concerned.
“We need to be 100 percent certain (that the fragments belong to the saint) for the church to engage in an effort to get them considered a relic,” he added.
_ Elizabeth Bryant
Survey Says 40 Percent of British Muslims Want Islamic Law
LONDON (RNS) A newly published opinion poll suggests that 40 percent of Britain’s estimated 2 million Muslims want Islamic law, known as Shariah, introduced to their country.
The ICM polling organization’s survey for London’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper also said 20 percent of those surveyed sympathized with the “feelings and motives” of the Muslim suicide bombers who killed 52 people in four attacks on underground trains and a bus in London last July 7.
The results of the poll were printed in the wake of worldwide protests and violence about the publishing of 12 Danish cartoons lampooning the Prophet Muhammad.
The Sunday Telegraph reported that “overall, the findings (of its survey) depict a Muslim community becoming more radical and feeling more alienated from mainstream society, even though 91 percent still say they feel loyal to Britain.”
It said that four in every 10 of the 500 Muslims interviewed believe Shariah should be introduced in “predominantly Muslim” areas of Britain. It added that half of those polled are convinced that relations between Muslims and white Britons are getting worse.
A spokesman for British Home Secretary Charles Clarke said “it is critically important to ensure that Muslims, and all faiths, feel part of modern British society,” but that the newspaper survey “indicates we still have a long way to go.”
_ Al Webb
One Out of Five Americans Consider Themselves Holy
(RNS) A new survey indicates that 21 percent of Americans consider themselves holy.
The survey, conducted by the Barna Research Group, also found that 73 percent of Americans believe that a person can become holy, regardless of his past, while half of those surveyed said they knew someone whom they considered holy.
The study also asked Americans to define holy. The largest category of respondents (21 percent) admitted they didn’t know how to. The highest number that had an idea said “being Christ-like” (19 percent), while 18 percent said “making faith your top priority.”
The survey’s director, Christian researcher George Barna, said that “the results portray a body of Christians who attend church but do not understand the concept or significance of holiness. … The challenge to the nation’s Christian ministries is to foster a genuine hunger for holiness among the masses who claim they love God but who are ignorant about biblical teachings regarding holiness.”
The Barna report was based on a nationwide telephone survey of 1,003 adults during January. The margin of error for the survey is 3.2 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.
_ Nathan Herpich
Crowd Packs Synagogue for Service After Apparently Anti-Semitic Murder
PARIS (RNS) A dense crowd packed a synagogue and the streets outside Thursday (Feb. 23) as President Jacques Chirac and other top French officials attended a memorial service for Ilan Halimi, a young man who was brutally killed, perhaps because he was Jewish.
The torture and death of the 23-year-old telephone salesman, blamed on a suburban gang, has shocked the nation. A massive demonstration against anti-Semitism is scheduled Sunday in Paris.
“My husband experienced the Holocaust and we can’t accept things like this again,” said one elderly Jewish woman standing outside the synagogue.
Halimi had been held and tortured for three weeks in a Paris suburb while his assailants sent his family ransom demands. He was found naked and covered with burns and stab marks near a railway line. He died on the way to a hospital.
French authorities, initially leery of describing his death as an anti-Semitic attack, later acknowledged Halimi was killed partly because he was Jewish. “Jews have money,” said Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, explaining the thinking behind the gang’s acts.
More than a dozen people have been indicted in connection with Halimi’s death. The presumed leader of the gang, Youssef Fofana, remains in Ivory Coast as France seeks his extradition.
“I think the police should have reacted before this young guy died,” said 51-year-old merchant Alain Cohen, standing outside the synagogue in northern Paris where the memorial was held.
Cohen said he hadn’t personally been harassed, “but you can see things get worse day to day. You can see people attacked for wearing a skullcap on the streets.”
Attacks against France’s estimated 600,000 Jews _ Western Europe’s largest Jewish community _ spiked a few years ago, coinciding with rising violence in the Middle East.
But France’s center-right government announced a zero-tolerance policy against anti-Jewish acts. French authorities say the number of anti-Semitic incidents has been dropping steadily since a high of 970 in 2004. Still, a number of Jews say many incidents go unreported and that the number of violent acts _ as opposed to minor harassment _ remains as high as ever.
Whether true or not, the sense of insecurity lingers.
“I have no doubt that the Jewish community today is experiencing a time of fear,” said Michel Sefarti, a rabbi in the suburban French town of Ris Orangis.
_ Elizabeth Bryant
Methodists Reject City Over Name of Baseball Team, The Braves
(RNS) The United Methodist Church will not hold its 2012 leadership conference in Richmond, Va., because the name of the city’s minor league baseball team is racially charged, the church’s leadership has announced.
Members of the conference’s planning commission said they were unaware that Virginia’s capital was home to the Richmond Braves _ a team affiliated with the Major League baseball’s Atlanta Braves _ when they originally chose the city to host the Methodist Church’s General Conference.
“When the minor league Braves issue was brought to our attention after the original announcement, we felt we were obligated to revisit the issue,” said Gail Murphy-Geiss, who chairs the commission responsible for planning the conference.
The Methodists are now planning to hold the 2012 conference in Tampa, Fla., served by The Tampa Bay Devil Rays major league baseball team and Tampa Yankees minor league team. The region’s football team is The Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Held every four years, the Methodist General Conference brings together about 1,000 delegates from the denomination’s member churches to decide church law, voting on hundreds of issues affecting church life. The planning commission expects the 10-day gathering to attract an additional 4,000 people and generate about $20 million in local spending.
At the 2004 conference in Pittsburgh, the delegates passed a resolution to avoid holding meetings and events in cities that sponsor sport teams brandishing Native American names and symbols, which the resolution called “a blatant expression of racism.”
The resolution was passed partly in response to controversy regarding the church’s 2000 meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, home of the Cleveland Indians franchise.
“We are sad for the United Methodists in Virginia who were excited about hosting the general conference, but are pleased to take a strong stand against sports teams with offensive names,” Murphy-Geiss said.
_ David Barnes
Lutherans See Growth in Africa, Decline in North America
(RNS) Lutheran church membership went up in Africa but down in North America during the 2004-2005 reporting period, according to the Lutheran World Federation, a global communion of Lutheran churches.
Worldwide, there was a slight increase in membership, to 66.2 million from 65.9 million.
Membership in North American churches decreased by 1 percent, from 8.25 million to 8.15 million. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the second-largest member church of the Lutheran World Federation, also had a 1 percent decline in membership, to 4.9 million.
Africa was the brightest spot, reporting 900,000 new members in Lutheran churches, increasing total African membership to more than 15 million.
The fastest growing Lutheran denomination within Africa was the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Congo in the Republic of Congo with a 44 percent increase, from 1,268 members to 1,828.
Other countries that recorded increases in membership were Taiwan, India, Indonesia and Ireland. The membership numbers were released in mid-February at Lutheran World Federation headquarters in Geneva.
_ Enette Ngoei
Quote of the Week: `American Idol’ Contestant Mandisa Hundley
(RNS) “I figure that if Jesus could die so that all of my wrongs could be forgiven, I can certainly extend that same grace to you.”
_ “American Idol” contestant Mandisa Hundley, responding to judge Simon Cowell after he made a critical remark about her weight. The contestant, who prefers to be known as Mandisa, is a worship leader at Christian women’s conferences. Quoted by Baptist Press, she is a former employee of the Southern Baptist Convention’s LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, Tenn.
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