Islam: The Religion of Peace?

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Hawlati: Minister of Peshmerge forces marries fifth wife

Hawlati: Minister of Peshmerge forces marries fifth wife

29/07/2005 KurdishMedia.com
London (KurdishMedia.com) 29 July 2005: The Kurdish Minister of the armed Peshmerge forces in South Kurdistan, Hemid Fendi, is to marry Miss Awat Meruf, a 26 year old English teacher, informed the Kurdish independent weekly Hawlati on Wednesday.

However, the Minister already has four wives, according to Hawlati, and if he is to marry another wife, he has to divorce one of them, as the Sharia law does not allow Muslims to have five wives.

Miss Meruf told Hawlati, “I cannot elaborate on [Mr Fendi] divorcing one of his wives. This is his problem.”

“All of them [Mr Fendi’s wives] are respected by me. Fate has decided this, [marrying the minister] not me,” Mr Meruf added.

Regarding the Minister, Miss Meruf told Hawlati, “I am very happy because I feel all the things I want can be found in Hemid Fendi.”

Regarding the difference in their ages, Miss Meruf said, “it is true that there is a difference [in age], but I do not feel it matters.”

It is not known whether the Minister is planning any other marriages.

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France cracks down on radical Muslim clerics

France cracks down on radical Muslim clerics

Agence France-Presse

Paris, July 31, 2005


Less than a month after the deadly suicide attacks in London, French authorities have started cracking down on radical imams, who are accused of inciting young Muslims to violence.

France's tough-talking interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, has launched a series of measures he says will show "zero tolerance" for Muslim clerics who preach violence and recruit young men for jihad, or holy war.

In just a week, two imams out of about a dozen threatened with either expulsion or losing their French nationality were sent back to Algeria.

Reda Ameuroud, 35, an imam expelled on Friday, was arrested more than two weeks ago in what authorities called "a preventive anti-terror operation" in a Paris neighbourhood that is home to a mosque known for attracting radicals.

Another Algerian, Abdelhamid Aissaoui, 41, was banished from France on July 23.

He was an "occasional imam", who had been sentenced to four years in prison for participating in an attempted attack in 1995 on a high-speed train near Lyon, organized by Algeria's Armed Islamic Group (GIA).

French authorities have zeroed in on a dozen imams, most of them from North Africa but also some from Turkey, who are preaching in and around cities with large immigrant populations like Paris, Lyon and Marseille.

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Joke: In Jerusalem

Joke: In Jerusalem
by Joe Katzman at August 5, 2005 06:34 AM

In Jerusalem, a female CNN journalist hears about a very old Jewish man who has been going to the Wailing Wall to pray twice a day, everyday, for a long, long time. So she goes to check it out. She goes to the Wailing Wall, and, sure enough, there he is! She watches him pray and after about 45 minutes, when he turns to leave, she approaches him for an interview.

"I'm Rebecca Smith from CNN. Sir, how long have you been coming here to pray at the Wailing Wall?"

-- "Almost 40 years. Twice per day, every day."

"40 years! That's amazing! What do you pray for?"

-- "I pray for peace between the Christians, Jews, and Muslims. I pray for all the hatred to stop. I pray for all our children to grow up in safety and friendship."

"And how do you feel after doing this for 40 years?"

-- "It's like I'm talking to a frickin' wall!

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Roots of terrorism reach into the past

Roots of terrorism reach into the past
By Harout H Semerdjian

Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing.

The roots of Islamic terrorism are not in the founding of the modern nation-state of Israel or in the US-led war in Iraq, as some wrongly assert. These events have merely fueled worldwide Islamic terror in the name of Allah, or God, and once again exposed the hostile face of Islamic fundamentalism. The recent acts of international terrorism are a modern-day demonstration of the deadly magnitude of terrorist objectives, particularly as they transpire on North American and European soil. What we are experiencing today, however, is not a new phenomenon in world history.

With the birth of Islam in the 7th century came its steadfast dissemination, often through violence and jihad, or holy war. Over centuries, millions have converted to Islam through good faith while others have done so through subjugation and force under the ultimatum of the medieval sword. On Western soil, this form of terror is largely a new reality to cope with and is now even deemed a threat to the very existence of civilization.

The eminent French writer Victor Hugo once appropriately remarked that "If a man has his throat cut in Paris, it's a murder. If 50,000 people are murdered in the East, it is a question." For centuries entire indigenous populations in the Middle East and elsewhere have been exterminated in the name of religion. While the patterns of such events are not exactly the same as what we are witnessing today in the form of Al-Qaeda-inspired violence, the thought process behind the systematic and orchestrated murder of innocents is. In the last 200 years, such sadistic acts have been further exacerbated by the advent of nationalism. Unfortunately, the breadth and scope of these crimes have been ignored by European powers due to a combination of short-term interests and short-sighted policies, often yielding tragic results.

The first people in the modern-era to collectively fall victim to Islamic terror were the Armenians of the Islamic Ottoman Empire. What is today the eastern portion of the Republic of Turkey was for three millennia the homeland of the Armenians. This land that had nurtured generations of these people 2,000 years before the Turkic invasions of the 11th century, became a distant land for them almost overnight in 1915. The outcome was one of the worst quantitative measures of terror and genocide in human history, resulting in the massacre of 1.5 million people and the destruction of an astounding 4,000 Christian churches and monasteries. An entire people was systematically targeted and annihilated on the grounds of their religion and what it represented in the confines of the Islamic empire.

While this forgotten genocide, long ignored by the West, was a calculated result of Turkish nationalism and racist policies of Turkification, Islam was the ideological weapon for mass annihilation and slaughter. "Whoever kills seven Christians will go to heaven," Islamic clerics and town criers would call out. For backward, rural Kurdish and Turkish religious communities, killing gavour (infidel) Armenians was an opportunity for salvation, while for the Turkish government it was the ultimate weapon for genocide.

This is the same logic and method recently employed by Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other deadly Islamic terror groups to incite their people against peaceful populations. Religion is a powerful ideology, and ideology has proven to be the single most destructive element in history. Today's Turkey - a member of NATO - is considered a strategic US ally in the Middle East. It is in this very context of alliance that the United States should expose this dark chapter in world history and require Turkey to own up to its Ottoman past, and hence secure a more reliable and responsible partner in the region. This is particularly important if this partner is said to be committed to fighting extremism and terrorist-prone elements within its own borders and in surrounding regions.

In Israel today, Islamic terror against the Jewish "infidels", as Islamists have long labeled them, has claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians. Afghan Mujahideen, the Islamic world's favored religious fighters, have long been known to assist the struggles of Islamic countries and regimes. Recently, Azerbaijan hired hundreds of such mercenaries to fight the Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. These very mercenaries were later exported to Chechnya to fight against Russians in the name of Islam. In Africa, the Islamic Janjaweed militias of Sudan are annihilating thousands of indigenous Sudanese in Darfur.

Needless to say, the pinnacle of recent Islamic terror for the West was September 11, on the very soil of America - the nation that has been a global safe haven over the years to refugees fleeing war, ethnic conflict and religious discrimination, including large numbers of Muslims. Despite being a prime target of terror, America still continues, though often controversially, to aid and assist Arab and other Muslim countries. This is primarily because America distinguishes Islamic extremists and terrorists from Islamic moderates, who understand that the real message of Allah as one of peace.

Islam is a noble religion based on respect, love, charity, good morals and values. In fact, the Koran calls the Christians and Jews, the two other Abrahamic faiths, the "Peoples of the Book" who ought to be protected. During the Turkish genocide of Armenians, it was the Muslim Arabs of the Levant and Mesopotamia who honorably gave shelter to the homeless and ravaged survivors. Islam has given the world a tremendous amount of knowledge, piousness and wisdom. Meantime, however, exploiters of the religion have unleashed an incredible degree of havoc on peaceful populations in the name of their faith. What we have witnessed among certain Muslim regimes over the past century is nothing more than an abuse of Islam for reasons of expedience and convenience. Their actions have been atrocious, immoral, and bellicose acts of desperation to dominate and dictate.

The war that rages today within our own borders is a new, globalized variant of international terrorism. This latest extent of Islamic terror, quite ironically, has been advanced by modern, Western technology. This is a clear contradiction of the terrorists' struggle against modernization - and hence a clear sign of convenience of choice by the fighters as well as an indication of the incoherence of their jihad.

The events of the last century, and particularly in the last decade, should embolden the West's commitment to fighting worldwide terrorism. This, however, cannot and should not be done without careful consideration of the historical development of today's problems. The way Islam has been exploited in the past has not been rectified one iota by the inability of the international community to call a spade a spade, or for that matter, a genocide a genocide. Truth has over and again been sacrificed to the expediency of political alliances and short-term interests, and thus the collective sense of being "beyond reproach" has prevailed in many countries where those who mastermind mass violence have lived. Herein lies the root of the reprehensible thinking that a people, a race, or a country "have gotten what they deserved" upon completion of a violent or terrorist act. Ironically, the same expediencies mentioned above may lie at the very root of the terrorist problems we are encountering today. US President George W Bush has rightly demonstrated increased determination in countering and fighting terrorism; hopefully he can match that resolve with an equal will to understand its real causes, and to remedy some of its most blatant manifestations through clear recognition.

We need to strengthen this effort by promoting education and knowledge about historic and current issues of vital importance. The key in countering current acts of violence lies in understanding and absorbing lessons of history, and helping to set the historical record straight. Our fortitude and capacity to acknowledge past acts of terror will assist our current efforts in countering terrorism. Additionally, our findings and know-how in this regard should be exported abroad in defense of commonly upheld and applied standards of humanity. We are not there yet - neither in reality nor in the perception of the majority of our counterparts in the international community. Our global partners in this effort deserve our assistance and support, as well as the chance to benefit from our own introspection.

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Rushdie urges Islamic reformation

Rushdie urges Islamic reformation

Rushdie argues the Koran should be seen as a historical document
Islam needs to be reformed to bring it into the modern era, the Indian-born Muslim novelist Salman Rushdie argues.
A broader interpretation of the Koran would lead to better relations and cut alienation, he writes in the Times.

This would also combat jihadist ideologies that led to the 7 July London terror attacks, Rushdie argues.

Rushdie spent years in hiding because an Islamic fatwa ordered his death over allegedly blasphemous passages in his book The Satanic Verses.

The former Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued the religious edict calling for his execution in February 1989.

The Islamic Reformation has to begin here, with an acceptance that all ideas, even sacred ones, must adapt to altered realities

Salman Rushdie

In his comment piece for the Times, Rushdie says Muslims in some parts of Britain lead lives separated from the rest of the communities.

In such insular circles, "young men's alienations can easily deepen", he argues.

"What is needed is a move beyond tradition - nothing less than a reform movement to bring the core concepts of Islam into the modern age.

"A Muslim Reformation to combat not only the jihadi ideologues but also the dusty, stifling seminaries of the traditionalists, throwing open the windows of the closed communities to let in much-needed fresh air."

He also argues that the Koran should be studied as a historical text rather than treated as "infallible".

21st Century

This has rendered all scholarly discourse impossible, he says.

"If, however, the Koran were seen as a historical document, then it would be legitimate to reinterpret it to suit the new conditions of successive new ages.

"Laws made in the seventh century could finally give way to the needs of the 21st.

"The Islamic Reformation has to begin here, with an acceptance that all ideas, even sacred ones, must adapt to altered realities."

The novelist's forthcoming tale, Shalimar the Clown, is about a young Muslim boy who is guided by a radical mullah to become an Islamic terrorist.

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Ankawa: Christian enclave ties future to life outside Iraq

Ankawa: Christian enclave ties future to life outside Iraq 13.8.2005
By Luke Baker



ANKAWA, Kurdistan-Iraq, Aug 12 (Reuters) - It looks much like any other Iraqi town, until you notice the number of shops selling alcohol, the young women walking the streets at night in jeans and tight T-shirts, and the church spires.

Ankawa, a town of about 15,000 people just outside the capital of the northern Kurdish region, is almost entirely populated by Christians and has become a bastion of that declining -- some say dying -- community in mainly Muslim Iraq.

Legend says Ankawa was founded in the 2nd century by Saint Thomas the Apostle. It is one of the oldest Christian settlements in Iraq, a land that has deep roots for several Christian denominations, including Chaldeans and Assyrians.

In the early 1990s, Iraq's Christian community was estimated at more than one million with large populations in Baghdad, Basra and the northern city of Mosul.

But since 1991, and particularly over the past 2 1/2 years, the community has fallen into disarray. Christians are fearful religious violence after churches were bombed and Muslim militants targeted Christian-owned alcohol shops.

Many Christians have sought refuge abroad.

Father Youssef Sabri, a priest at St Joseph's Chaldean church, maintains broad connections across the Christian community in Iraq and says the numbers may now have dwindled to 600,000 or less out of a total population of around 27 million.

Far away from most of the bombs that plague the country, Ankawa has emerged as a refuge for Christians seeking to escape violence. It has also become a jumping off point for those looking to flee Iraq.

SWEDISH HONEYMOON

Around 250 families have come to Ankawa from Baghdad, Mosul, Samarra and other towns in the past year, according to Sabri, while hundreds more have left, moving to Sweden, Australia, Canada, Britain and the United States.

"People here say, 'Rather Ankawa than Baghdad'," said Father Tariq Choucha, another Chaldean priest in the town. "But what they really want is a visa to go abroad and stay there."

In Ankawa, Iraqis who have fled the violence of Baghdad can relax and plan the next stage of their journey, knowing that at least they will not have to take the dangerous road to Baghdad's airport.

As well as alcohol stores, Ankawa has several restaurants, an ice-cream parlour, an Internet cafe and antiques shops. There are two churches and three chapels.

Foreign security companies in the area have set up bases in the town, finding the lifestyle more relaxed than conservative Arbil, the region's capital. Young men and women can walk the streets together, and their dress is as relaxed as in Europe.

Because of the possibility of attack, and the presence of foreigners, security is tight but there have been no problems.

"It is a good community. We even get Arabs coming to visit," said Paulus Danha, 52, who owns an alcohol shop. Business is strong thanks to demand from the security companies and international non-governmental organisations, he said.

The town has also become richer thanks to remittances from abroad. There are 3,000 people from Ankawa living in Sweden, more than 2,000 in Australia and a similar number in Canada, according to Sabri.

Most of those who have left are young men, leaving behind a disproportionate number of young women. But rather than weakening the community, Sabri says it has worked out well.

"Now we see the young men coming back to find wives," he said, introducing a 26-year-old Iraqi now living in Stockholm and his bride-to-be, a trainee doctor from Ankawa.

While anxious about Iraq's wider Christian community, Sabri, who lived in the United States for 13 years and returned to Iraq after the war in 2003, sees some reason to hope.

"It's good for the young people for now if they are abroad and secure, but eventually I think they will come back," he said. "The community is strong and Ankawa is where their hearts are."

Reuters

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New Iraq Constitution Must Protect Christians

The fate of millions of Iraqis hangs in the balance as politicians appear poised to introduce a new constitution for the country.

This constitution represents freedom for the Iraqi people from more than 30 years of oppression and injustice under the Ba'ath Party and marks the birth of a new society based on equality.

The constitution is not merely words on paper. Rather, its application is what will truly define it and will make Iraq a free and democratic country, a rarity in the Middle East.

Its success will be measured not in the amount of time it takes to finish, not in the number of votes it receives, and not in the successful party who adopts its principles, but in its application.

It is when the human rights of an individual, regardless of religion or ethnic background, are protected by this constitution that we can declare it successful and democratic.

It is when an Assyrian (also known as Chaldean or Syriac) woman living in her homeland in northern Iraq is free to wear a Christian cross around her neck and knows that she has just as much right to life as the Shiite woman who wears the Islamic veil.

For it is the Assyrians, the indigenous Christian people of Iraq, who most need this constitution to be successful.

It is they who have been butchered, not only under Saddam Hussein's rule, but also by the Ottoman Empire of Turkey and the Kurds for generations, simply because of their separate religious and ethnic identity.

It is they who, to this day, are singled out and treated as less than human; when their churches are destroyed, their women forced to wear the Islamic veil, their villages uprooted and their businesses targeted by extremists.

Amnesty International has noted many of these injustices, which also include assassinations of political leaders and the slaying of nuns and priests. This constitution will not only be necessary to secure the basic human rights of the Assyrians but is essential for their survival in the country.

As the indigenous people of Iraq, we have suffered from the forced Arabization drives of Saddam's regime. Further back in time, our people were killed alongside the Armenians and Greeks during the 1915-1918 genocide by the Turkish and Kurdish forces of the Ottoman Empire, the first recorded genocide of the 20th century.

Close to 750,000 Assyrians, or two-thirds of our population at that time, were slaughtered in what is internationally recognized as the Armenian genocide.

Yet again, more than 3,000 villagers were massacred in 1933 in Simile, north of Iraq by the Iraqi army. Attacks targeting our people are still being carried out today.

Between August and October of 2004, more than nine churches were bombed in two separate incidents. Many parishioners were killed and others injured during these terrorist attacks.

Because of these attacks and constant threats, rapes and abductions, more than 40,000 Assyrian Christians have fled Iraq for Syria.

It is now obvious why this is such a crucial time for the Assyrians of Iraq.

Will the constitution acknowledge people who suffered under the former Iraqi regime, other than the Kurds and Shiites? Will it guarantee seats for our people in the National Assembly and give us appropriate representation?

Will it ensure that we no longer remain a voiceless community that has been forcibly kept as an under-represented part of the Iraqi population?

Given the magnitude of the brutality against Assyrians, it is crucial that our rights to practise our religion and teach our Syriac language be guaranteed. It is also necessary that the Assyrians secure an administrative region in Iraq as stated in the Transitional Administrative Law, Article 53(D). This law guarantees the administrative, cultural and political rights of our people and other minority groups in Iraq.

Assyrians now stand at the crossroads. We do not want history to repeat itself. We need to remind ourselves that although it is the majority that rules in a democracy the voices of the minority cannot be ignored.

By Alda Benjamen
Toronto Star

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US to Learn to Train Imams from Turkey

US to Learn to Train Imams from Turkey
By Suleyman Kurt
Published: Friday, August 26, 2005
zaman.com


American authorities have begun to investigate the Turkish system for training imams for US citizens and the Muslims in Europe.

US Foreign Ministry Assistant Adviser Matt Bryza said: ‘We, as Americans, do not know how to train imams; but Turkish Religious Affairs do. They may help both us and Europe.’ Bryza, who came to Ankara for meetings with the Foreign Ministry and economic foundations and have made a surprise visit to Turkish Religious Affairs yesterday and was informed about training imams. Bryza came together with Religious Affairs vice Director Asst. Prof. Mehmet Gormez and said for the religious affairs ‘impressive.’ It is reported that the issues ‘inter-religions dialogue’, ‘religious pluralism’ and the ‘struggle against extremism’ were discussed during the meeting and the US diplomat emphasized that Turkey is the most successful country among the secular democratic Muslim countries.


The American diplomat, referring to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, emphasized the atmosphere of terror in the world and added there is an ideological problem to be faced. Bryza explained his statement saying, ‘Training the imams is a part of the issue. We, Americans, do not know how to do it; but Turkish Religious Affairs do. We want to cooperate with our allies in order to help Muslim immigrants in Europe, who have lost their connections with their traditions. Issues like traditional and scientific learning, tolerance, which constitute stealth against extremism’ religious affairs may help us and Europe. It has a lot to help this Muslim society in the Western World.’ He also said that all these issues can be evaluated in the frame of Broader Middle East Project (BMEP).


Matt Bryza met with Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and authorities of the ministry in Ankara. The issues concerning both sides about the presence of PKK in Northern Iraq were discussed during the meeting. Matt Bryza made an explanation after the meeting and said: ‘I am glad to see that the tension in our mutual relations is overcome. We know that we have common strategic interests with Turkey. We also know that there are technical differences in the approaches to the issues; however our strategic directions are the same.’


Bryza reminded that they take common steps with Turkey for abolishing the presence of terrorist organization PKK in Northern Iraq and emphasized that the PKK is common problem of Turkey, Iraq and US at the same time; he also noted that there are important political and legislative developments in Iraq to solve this problem. The American Diplomat said that some other steps are taken in Europe for this topic and summarized these steps saying: ‘We have experienced some developments in Europe to finish the presence of PKK in Europe. There will be legal arrangements in Europe about militants and supporters of PKK. We are trying to put them into place with our European friends and Turkey.’


'Active' work against PKK


The American Diplomat replied a question about the timing of a military operation against PKK and said that the primary actions will come from the governments of Turkey and Iraq. Bryza said: ‘If US is accepted as responsible for solving the problem alone, this situation will damage dominance and unity of Iraq. There is not a magic button to solve the problem. It is a complex problem. Military operations are not a solution alone for PKK. Legitimate struggle and preventing their financial sources is also important. We have not worked before as much as we are working on this topic today. I do not say why it was so in the past; but we are interested in the criminal, social, economic and all aspects of the PKK problem at the moment. I cannot say when we can get decisive results of this struggle now. We are working actively. As soon as the cooperation continues we will see concrete results.

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Laws punish conversion from Islam

Laws punish conversion from IslamBy Julia Duin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
August 29, 2005
A court case involving three Indonesian housewives who have been jailed for offering Sunday school lessons to Muslim children of prostitutes in west Java has global significance for anyone who wishes to convert.
Shariah, or Islamic law, demands the death penalty on those who do, based on a saying of Muhammad: "Whoever changes his Islamic religion, then kill him."
Enforcement of this rule varies widely. A few Islamic societies merely shun the convert; others remove all civil liberties from the apostates; their children are taken away, their marriages dissolved, their family inheritance lost and their right to burial in a Muslim graveyard removed.
In Iran, Hamid Pourmand, a lay leader in the Assemblies of God church and an Iranian army colonel, was imprisoned in February for having converted to Christianity 25 years ago. One son has since fled the country; his wife and younger son have been evicted from their home and both are destitute in Tehran while Mr. Pourmand serves out a three-year sentence.
Hindus in India have passed anti-conversion laws in response to conversions to Christianity and other religions by untouchables. The state of Gujarat threatens to fine and/or imprison anyone who intentionally or unintentionally converts another.
The parliament in Sri Lanka, which is 69 percent Buddhist, is considering an anti-conversion bill that carries a 5-to-7-year sentence for those whose actions, whether intentional or unintentional, influence a religious conversion.
Christianizing children
When three Christian housewives living in a fundamentalist Islamic area about a three-hour drive west of Jakarta were accused of indoctrinating Muslim children, the community erupted in rage.
Their court case has been in process since June, simultaneous with the forced closings of 60 churches in central and west Java in the past year by radical Muslim groups. Thirty churches were closed in the past month.
Former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has become involved, siding with the Christians. Known for his religious tolerance, Mr. Wahid chairs an Islamic group, Nadhlatul Ulama.
"The matter should be investigated more thoroughly, so that innocent people are not sacrificed," he said in a May 26 letter to Kepada Yth, police chief of the Indramayu district, where the women were arrested.
To date, his letter has had little or no effect.
The Indramayu district, in which the dispute began, is known as a center for prostitution in Java and the site of the Zaitun Islamic Boarding School, the largest Islamic madrassa in Southeast Asia.
Even there, a federal law was in effect mandating that public schools provide religious instruction for children of non-Muslims. When officials from a public school in mid-2003 asked three Christian women in the sub-district of Harguelis to teach the rudiments of Christianity to the few Christian children in the area, they complied.
'Happy Week'
The women -- Dr. Rebecca Laonita Amdari, 47, a Chinese physician and pastor; Ratna Malabangun, 39; and Ety Pangesti, 43, the latter two Javanese -- all belonged to the evangelical, charismatic Church of the Tabernacle of David, also known as the Gereja Kristen Kemah Daud (GKKD).
Their ministry, called "Happy Week," met in Dr. Amdari's home starting Sept. 9, 2003, drawing 14 Christian children and 10 Muslim children. Several of the young people were children of prostitutes and thus were either under the care of a grandparent or had little or no supervision. The three women gave T-shirts, books and food to the children and taught some of the older ones how to read.
But when some of the Muslim children began to sing Christian songs at home, this attracted the attention of the local branch of the MUI (Majelis Ulama Indonesia), the Indonesian Council of Muslim Clerics. They told the church to close the school Dec. 24, 2004.
Instead, it was moved to another home, and this past March, the children were taken to Mini Indonesia, a theme park, with several parents as escorts.
Again, one of the Muslim parents complained and MUI charged the women with heresy and Christianization. The Happy Week ministry was shut down April 14 and the women were jailed May 16.
They were charged with violating the country's 2002 child-protection law that forbids "deception, lies or enticement" to cause a child to convert to another religion.
This case, charging Christians with the criminal act of Christianizing children, is a first for Indonesia.
"The churches around the country are terrified at the outcome of this trial," said Jeff Hammond, the Australian founder of Bless Indonesia Today, a Christian foundation operating out of Jakarta. "If the ladies are found guilty, then any Christian worker that has a Muslim child -- even with parental permission -- attending a Sunday school or a church picnic, outing or even if they just give cookies to a Muslim child, they could be arrested with enticement to convert."
None of the children had changed their religion as a result of the Sunday school. However, on the first day of the trial on June 30, Mr. Hammond said, 150 young men carrying banners from a group known as Laskar Izzul Islam crowded into the courtroom, shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great") for 30 minutes and holding banners with slogans such as "Totally Wipe Out the Apostasizers."
A bigger crowd showed up July 7 when some of the children, ages 10-12, were brought in to testify, said Mr. Hammond, who attended the hearings. Children were brought in through screaming mobs.
"Clearly, they were terrified," said Mr. Hammond. "One child was almost hysterical; others were crying. The fear, trauma and intimidation were so obvious that Judge Hasby asked for the children to be take outside, calmed down and then to be brought in one by one, accompanied by a parent."
The children said they were given no money, but were asked to become Christians and were taken on field trips. All had been asked to get parental permission to be in the Sunday school. Those who had not were asked to withdraw.
Criminalizing conversion
"We are aware of this case," said a spokeswoman for the Indonesian Embassy, who asked not to be named, "but the only information we've found on it are from American Web sites."
However, the July 28 issue of the Jakarta Post mentioned the trial in an article about MUI's efforts to keep any churches from opening in heavily Muslim areas.
"We are proud to report that there is not one single church in [the district of] Cilegon to this day. And this is how we intend to keep it," the newspaper quoted one MUI group as saying.
The Becket Fund, a nonpartisan interfaith public-interest law firm based in Washington, said the growing number of anti-conversion laws worldwide are undermining the efforts of faith-based aid groups seeking to respond to damage wrought by the Dec. 26 tsunami and the more recent monsoon rains in Southeast Asia.
"The chilling effect of Sri Lanka's proposed anti-conversion laws, India's laws, and similar efforts to criminalize Christianity and faith-based relief efforts in Southeast Asia will inevitably cut off the very lifeline that sustains the growth and redevelopment of the region," said Jared N. Leland, media and legal counsel for the fund, which is dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions.
According to an article on the trial in the July 25 London Times, 10,000 Christians were killed in Indonesia between 1998 and 2003, mostly in central Sulawesi and the eastern Maluku islands, 700,000 forced to flee villages in those areas and 1,000 churches were burned by Muslim mobs.
Of Indonesia's 210 million inhabitants, 88 percent of Muslim, 8 percent Christian, 2 percent Hindu and 1 percent Buddhist.
The trial, which has hearings only on Thursdays, is set to end by mid-September. The prosecution, which rested its case Aug. 11, wants the women imprisoned for three years and fined 1.5 million rupiah, about $170.
The Rev. Eduar Moniyong, moderator of the GKKD churches in Indonesia, issued a statement Aug. 14 saying the case "represents an evil precedent for all Christians in Indonesia."
Not only were court officials and the judge terrorized by the militants, he said, rendering a just verdict impossible, but the three teachers were guilty of acts of kindness toward some obviously extremely poor children, not a desire to convert.

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Moslems Censor American Speech

MOSLEMS CENSOR AMERICAN SPEECH
James Atticus Bowden

Opinion Editorials, VA
Sept 1 2005

Right after 9-11 Moslems insisted on being called Muslims. Woe unto
the American who used the former name. Recently, the Mohammedans won
a coup getting a conservative talk show host, Michael Graham, fired
from WMAL-AM, an ABC Radio affiliate. The Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR), otherwise known as the 'Corrupting America for
Islamic Rule', will expand bias bullying to censor the truth on other
stations and generally throughout public speech.

Graham said, "Because of the mix of Islamic theology that-rightly
or wrongly-is interpreted to promote violence, added to an
organizational structure that allows violent radicals to operate
openly in Islam's name with impunity, Islam has, sadly, become a
terrorist organization. It pains me to say it. But the good news is
it doesn't have to stay this way, if the vast majority of Muslims
who don't support terror will step forward and reclaim their religion."

He added, "If the Boy Scouts of America had 1,000 scout troops, and 10
of them practiced suicide bombings, then the BSA would be considered
a terrorist organization. If the BSA refused to kick out those 10
troops, that would make the case even stronger. If people defending
terror repeatedly turned to the Boy Scout Handbook and found language
that justified and defended murder - and the scoutmasters in charge
simply said 'Could be' - the Boy Scouts would have been driven out
of America long ago."

That cost Graham his job. Over 15,000 protest calls to support him
didn't help. The Muslims got Graham for telling the truth. It's
going to get a lot worse. More Americans must speak in public with a
lot more of the painful truth of Islam. This historical truth is so
politically incorrect it shouts down the public pandering from the
President down to not dare offend oh-so-sensitive Muslims.

Like, Islam is a (or do they insist it is 'the'?) Religion of Peace.
If Islam is a Religion of Peace then Aztec Paganism was the Religion
of Mercy. Muslims are behind the Communists, but ahead of the Nazis,
for mass murders, individual martyrdom and religious war killing.
Roman Catholicism's Spanish Inquisition is cited as a counter-vailing
Christian horror, but it's nothing (estimates of 32,000 deaths,
but the actual records indicate about 2,000 deaths) compared to body
count that begin when Mohammed ordered the massacre, genocide, of a
Jewish tribe just 5 years after starting his religion (627 A.D.)

Muslim armies killed, raped, and destroyed more in their conquests
against Christians, Pagans and Hindus than all the Crusades put
together. Even during the 'Golden Age' of Islam of the 10-13th
centuries, there was mob violence, forced conversions, mass murder
and expulsions against Christians and Jews from Spain to Iran. Ask
the Armenians about Muslim tolerance in the 2oth Century. With this
century in its infancy, how many hundreds of thousands of Christians
have been killed in the Sudan, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Kosovo, Iraq,
Egypt, Pakistan, Philippines and Indonesia? What religion did the
child murderers of Beslan, Russia proclaim last September? Have
Americans no eyes, no ears, no memory, no history of facts?

If Graham was fired for lightly grazing the truth about Islam, who
will get a microphone or camera to tell these greater truths?

Like, Islam is NOT an Abrahimic religion equal to Judaism and
Christianity. Muslims will say they're people of the 'Book' and point
to Koranic verses to support the claim. But, Muslims have other verses
and teach to the contrary. Moreover, why would the God of the Jews and
Christians dictate in the Koran that Muslims should persecute, kill
or make the Jews and Christians pay taxes and be second class citizens?

And Islamic Civilization is 800 years behind Western Civilization. By
any measure that you mark Islam is as far behind the West as the
Germanic Tribes were behind Rome. Islamic Civilization is barbaric
compared to West. Truth isn't Islamophobia.

Claiming the Koran is more than the truth, that the very pages are
holy, fits a religion that borrowed from the paganism of Baal -
from the black stone Ka'aba to their old moon god symbol and name
of Allah. It's what you expect when an illiterate Mohammed makes up
a religion/state/society from what he hears of paganism, Judaism,
and Christianity.

History must be 'outed', like Mohammad consummating the marriage
of his last additional wife when she was 9 years old. Pedophile for
Prophet? Islam is the peace of submission for followers, the enforced
peace of suppression, and the final peace of the dead victims.