Cuba travel restrictions; Strained Jewish-Muslim relations in France

Rule changes have restricted religious travel to Cuba, reports Adelle M. Banks in Monday’s RNS transmission: More than 100 members of Congress have signed a letter to Treasury Secretary John Snow, questioning changes in his department’s rules that have halted the ability of some religious organizations to travel to Cuba. The concerns addressed in the […]

Rule changes have restricted religious travel to Cuba, reports Adelle M. Banks in Monday’s RNS transmission: More than 100 members of Congress have signed a letter to Treasury Secretary John Snow, questioning changes in his department’s rules that have halted the ability of some religious organizations to travel to Cuba. The concerns addressed in the three-page letter with 105 signatories are also scheduled to be the subject of a Capitol Hill meeting March 15 among politicians, administration officials and religious leaders. Affected groups include the National Council of Churches, the American Baptist Churches USA and the Alliance of Baptists, which no longer have licenses, and organizations such as the Presbyterian Church (USA), whose Cuban travel has new restrictions. Some of these groups have traveled to Cuba for more than a decade to meet with partner churches and attend conferences in the communist island nation.

The grisly murder of Jewish telephone salesman in France is causing further divisions among Jews and Muslims there, reports Elizabeth Bryant from Ris-Orangis, France: Rabbi Michel Serfaty crossed France last year with a busload of French Jews and Muslims and a seemingly unattainable goal: to promote friendship between the two communities at a time of growing religious intolerance. “There wasn’t a single day that I didn’t hear an anti-Semitic remark,” Serfaty recalled of conversations with tough, mostly Muslim youngsters during his monthlong tour. Since the horrific death Feb. 13 of a young, Jewish telephone salesman, the barriers to friendship loom larger than ever between the estimated 60,000 Jews and 5 million Muslims in France-Europe’s largest communities of both faiths. The kidnapping and torture of 23-year-old Ilan Halimi, who was found naked and dying near railway tracks outside Paris, has unleashed nationwide demonstrations against racism and sparked soul-searching on the part of politicians and religious leaders. It is reinforcing fears among some that anti-Semitism is not only resurging here after a brief lull, but is taking on chilling new dimensions.

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