c. 2006 Religion News Service
Kidnapped Christian Aid Workers Released in Iraq
TORONTO (RNS) Two Canadian Christian aid workers and a British colleague held hostage in Iraq for nearly four months were freed Thursday (March 23) in a daring morning raid by coalition forces.
Jim Loney, 41, of Toronto, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, formerly of Montreal, were released along with Norm Kember, 74, of London. All three were members of the Chicago-based Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), an international peace and aid group.
They were abducted at gunpoint Nov. 26 in Baghdad with American Tom Fox, whose body was found March 10 with gunshot wounds to his head and chest.
Their captors, a group known as the Swords of the Righteous Brigade, threatened to kill the men by Dec. 10 unless the United States freed all Iraqi detainees.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported that the raid was carried out at 8 a.m. local time by American, British, Canadian and Iraqi forces who broke into a house in a rural area about 20 miles northwest of Baghdad.
They reportedly acted on a tip received just three hours earlier from a man who was captured by U.S. forces the night before.
CTV News reported that the operation took place in a house in western Baghdad.
CTV quoted U.S. Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch as saying the hostages were freed without a shot being fired. Lynch added that they were found bound and held together in one room. Their captors were not present.
The three men were taken to a hospital and released. The two Canadians were then taken to the British embassy in Baghdad. It was not known when they will return to Canada.
“Our hearts are filled with joy today as we heard that Harmeet Singh Sooden, Jim Loney and Norman Kember have been safely released in Baghdad,” Christian Peacemaker Teams spokesman Doug Pritchard told a news conference in Toronto on Thursday.
“Christian Peacemaker Teams rejoices with their families and friends at the expectation of their return to their loved ones and community.”
But he called the rescue “bittersweet” in light of Fox’s death.
News of the rescue was met first with disbelief by the men’s loved ones, followed by deep elation that they would soon be reunited.
“I thought it was a big dream and then I quickly snapped out of it,” Jim Loney’s brother, Ed, told CBC Newsworld.
“I immediately started to imagine all of the good things that were going to happen.”
_ Ron Csillag
Pope Urges Cardinals to Discuss Christian-Muslim Relations
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI called on a worldwide assembly of cardinals meeting Thursday (March 23) to discuss tensions between Christianity and Islam, underscoring his growing concern over how to address hostilities in the Muslim world.
The appeal was the latest indication that the pope is looking to reshape the Holy See’s approach to dialogue with Islam, departing from the conciliatory overtures of John Paul II to forge a course that presses for reform.
A statement from the Vatican press office said relations with Islam were at the top of the pope’s agenda along with concerns over the ongoing schism between the Vatican and followers of the traditionalist French Bishop Marcel Lefebvre.
Although the Vatican did not provide any details on how the cardinals responded to Benedict’s request, a number of top policy-making cardinals have recently objected to perceived hostility in the Muslim world toward Christians.
“If we tell our own that they do not have the freedom to offend, then we also have to tell the others that they do not have the freedom to destroy us,” Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican’s number two official, told reporters in late February.
Foreign Minister Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo echoed Sodano, telling the Milan daily Corriere della Sera that Muslim countries need to guarantee Christian minorities rights that reciprocate the conditions of Muslim minorities in the West.
“We must always stress our demand for reciprocity in political contacts with authorities in Islamic countries and, even more, in cultural contacts,” Lajolo said.
Vatican concern has been growing since the slaughter of a Catholic priest in Turkey and numerous deadly Muslim uprisings over the publication of Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
Although the Vatican initially rushed to express solidarity with Muslims offended by the cartoons, the pope appeared to change tone during a February address to the ambassador of Morocco.
“Intolerance and violence are never justifiable responses to offenses because they are not responses that are compatible with the sacred principles of religion,” Benedict said.
_ Stacy Meichtry
Archbishop of Canterbury to Meet Pope; Homosexuality Issue on Agenda
LONDON (RNS) Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will fly to Rome in the fall for a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI that is expected to deal, at least in part, with the issue of homosexuality that has exacerbated the centuries-old rift between the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches.
The meeting, announced Thursday (March 23), will mark the 40th anniversary of then-archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey’s historic talks with Pope Paul VI, in 1966.
But what will face the archbishop and the pope is an issue that they cannot avoid _ the crisis between the churches that was triggered by the election by the Episcopal Church of the United States of an openly gay cleric, Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire.
This has sparked what another former archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, has described to the Times of London newspaper as an “ecumenical winter” that has “got even icier” between Anglicans and Catholics as a result of the Robinson ordination.
That, said Carey, “goes completely against the Catholic position and the historic position of the Anglican Communion as well.” The Times said Carey “hoped the personal chemistry between Williams and Pope Benedict would help to mend bridges.”
“Rowan’s personal contact and commitment is going to be the key thing” at their autumn meeting, Carey added. “All we can hope for is that he keeps the fire burning.”
Williams and Benedict have met once, the day after the latter was inaugurated as pope following the death of Pope John Paul II in April 2005.
His forthcoming trip “is an opportunity to continue that rich tradition of visits between Canterbury and Rome,” said the archbishop, who is fighting his own battle to keep the 77 million-strong worldwide Anglican Communion from schism over the issue of homosexuality.
_ Al Webb
Muslim Researcher Says Abuse in Britain’s Islamic Schools `Widespread’
LONDON (RNS) A Muslim leader says child abuse in Islamic religious schools, or madrasas, in Britain is “widespread” and called for a national register of the estimated 700 such institutions to bring them under control.
“At the moment,” said Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, head of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, “all these schools are outside the law.” He added that “nobody actually knows what is happening.”
Siddiqui’s Wednesday (March 22) comments coincided with the release of a report he co-authored dealing with what it said were dangers facing some of the 100,000 youngsters who attend the madrasas, which are usually attached to mosques and which are similar in function to Christian Sunday schools.
He told British Broadcasting Corp. radio that “if nothing is done now, we may face an avalanche of child sex abuse scandals decades afterward, similar to those that rocked the Roman Catholic Church in the 1990s.”
“Our understanding is that physical abuse (of children in British madrasas) is widespread,” Siddiqui said. He added that anecdotal evidence suggested that two madrasa teachers in every five hit or scold their pupils.
“We would like to see mosques and madrasas come into contact with local authorities and police and put together guidelines.” At the same time, he said, “what we want to do is some kind of arrangement where all are registered … a national register.”
“If madrasas are left on their own,” Siddiqui said in his report, “it is likely that due to poor understanding of child protection law and practice, a large number of Muslim children will remain exposed to significant risk of harm.”
Diana Sutton, policy chief for Britain’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, told journalists that the report “highlights the urgent need for robust research which shows the extent of child abuse within the Muslim community.”
_ Al Webb
`Week of Prayer and Action for Darfur’ to Begin April 2
(RNS) A coalition of human rights groups and faith-based organizations will conduct a “Week of Prayer and Action for Darfur” April 2-9.
The Save Darfur Coalition, comprised of more than 150 groups representing more than 130 million Americans, is promoting a campaign aimed at urging President Bush to support an international presence in that region of the Sudan devastated by civil war and genocide.
The campaign offers suggestions for preaching on and praying for Darfur at its Web site (http://www.SaveDarfur.org) and includes Christian, Jewish, Muslim and interfaith materials. Contributing groups include the American Jewish World Service, the National Association of Evangelicals and the American Society for Muslim Advancement. The coalition has also started a postcard-writing drive aimed at the Bush administration.
A Zogby poll released Monday (March 20) found that most Americans support an increased U.S. presence in the Sudan. The poll found that 59 percent of U.S. voters believe more can be done diplomatically to end the crisis there, with 70 percent of respondents supporting a U.S.-enforced no-fly zone over the North African nation.
According to UNICEF, 3.4 million people have been displaced by the largely ethnic conflict between the Arab-led government and the native black Africans, many of whom are living in extreme poverty.
“The decision of whether or not to stop the genocide in Darfur may be one of the defining moral questions of our time,” said Father Michael Perry, coordinator of the Africa region for Franciscans International, a United Nations-based NGO.
He said there is “a clear ethical and religious obligation to act.”
_ Nate Herpich
Quote of the Day: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton
(RNS) “It is certainly not in keeping with my understanding of the Scriptures because this bill would literally criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself.”
_ Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., speaking out against a House bill that would impose criminal penalties on those who assist undocumented immigrants. She was quoted by the Associated Press.
MO/PH END RNS
