c. 1999 Religion News Service
Controversial Web site against abortion shut down
(RNS) A controversial Web site that depicted doctors providing abortions as criminals has been pulled off the Internet.
The absence of the Nuremberg Files site was called”a temporary setback”by Neal Horsley of Carrollton, Ga., its creator. He told USA Today he expects it to return shortly.”It will probably be Wednesday (Feb. 10) at the earliest,”he said.”Maybe Friday.” On Feb. 2, a Portland, Ore., jury ordered anti-abortion activists held responsible for listing the doctors on the site to pay $107 million in damages to the doctors and clinic operators, who had sued them. The jury said the lists constituted illegal threats of violence against four doctors and two clinic operators.
MindSpring Enterprises, an Internet service provider based in Atlanta, confirmed it stopped service to Horsley and the site.”We evaluated it … and determined it was not consistent with our appropriate use policy,”said Sam DeSimone, executive vice president of MindSpring.
The site was shut down on the same day that Horsley announced that soon it would feature real-time video from cameras set up outside clinics.
Maria Vullo, an attorney for the doctors, praised MindSpring for its action.”I’m absolutely thrilled that they took the appropriate step in acting to protect the lives of doctors,”she said.”I would hope another company would not put those files on the Internet.” Horsley developed the site from information supplied by a magazine published by Advocates for Life Ministries, a Portland-based defendant in the lawsuit.
World Council of Churches urges intervention in conflict in Congo
(RNS) The World Council of Churches has urged the intervention of the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity to help end the ongoing civil war in Congo-Brazzaville.
More than a month ago, an uneasy peace that was established in October 1997 collapsed when militias supporting the former president and prime minister began fighting militias loyal to current President Sassou Nguesso.
Thousands have been killed and 100,000 to 150,000 people have fled into nearby forests, the WCC stated.
Based on this information and pleas from church leaders in the region, WCC General Secretary Konrad Raiser wrote to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and President Jacques Chirac of France, the former colonial ruler of Congo-Brazzaville.
Raiser told Annan of his agency’s”deep concern”about the conflict.”Remarkably, most church leaders have chosen to remain in the country, as close as possible to their communities, in the hope that circumstances will soon allow for them to retake their ministry of peace, tolerance and national reconciliation,”Raiser wrote.”It is in their name, and giving expression to their urgent concerns, that I write in the hope that their and other voices of the people of Congo-Brazzaville can be heard and responded to at the table of the Security Council and in other international forums.” Raiser urged Chirac to lead France in helping mobilize international concern about the crisis.”In view of the steadily deteriorating situation, we strongly hope that France will intensify its role as a peacemaker in the country and bring about greater involvement on the part of the international community,”Raiser said.
Canadian writer and newspaper fined for anti-Semitism
(RNS) A governmental human rights tribunal in Canada has fined a controversial columnist and his newspaper $2,000 after finding them guilty of fomenting hatred against Jews.
The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal found that Doug Collins, who works for The North Shore News, wrote four columns that convey the message that Jews are”selfish, greedy and manipulative”and have”conspired to control government institutions and the media.” One of the columns mocked Steven Spielberg’s movie,”Schindler’s List,”referring to it as”Swindler’s List”and arguing it was propaganda produced by Hollywood Jews to exaggerate the Holocaust and make money.
Collins, a 78-year-old World War II veteran who insists he is not anti-Semitic, denounced the human rights tribunal’s decision as”ridiculous”and”a direct attempt to enforce political correctness.” The North Shore News, which is distributed free to more than 80,000 homes in the upper-middle-class suburb of North Vancouver, has been ordered to publish a summary of the tribunal’s decision and to stop publishing statements that are likely to expose Jews to hatred or contempt.
The newspaper and Collins, who now writes only occasionally for the publication, also must pay $2,000 to Harry Abrams, a Jewish man who complained about the columns, all of which were published in 1994. The payment is to compensate Abrams”for injuries to his dignity and self-respect.” North Shore News managing editor Timothy Renshaw said he was disturbed by the decision, which marks the first time in Canada a journalist has been censured by a human rights board.
Both Collins and the newspaper refused to defend themselves during the tribunal hearing. They are now considering challenging the constitutionality of the section of the 6-year-old British Columbia Human Rights Code banning hate speech by appealing the tribunal’s decision to the province’s Supreme Court.
Free-speech advocates, including the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, also say they fear the”chill”on free expression that could result from provincial human rights provisions, which forbid hateful comments about groups based on such ethnicity, religion or gender.
However, the tribunal’s decision was celebrated by Canadian Jewish groups, including B’nai Brith Canada, which acted as an intervener in the tribunal. The British Columbia legislature dominated by the New Democratic Party introduced the controversial hate speech law into its human rights code in the early 1990s out of concern the province was becoming a haven for militant racists.
Indian officials say double murder not religiously motivated
(RNS) Local officials in the eastern India state of Orissa said the murder of a Christian brother and sister appears not to be connected to the recent wave of violent anti-Christian attacks in the region.
Police said that after attempting to rape the married woman Sunday (Feb. 7), unidentified assailants killed the 19-year-old, who was gathering food in the forest. The woman’s brother, who had accompanied her, was killed when he tried to protect his sister, police said. The victims were from a local tribe.
The victims were not targeted for their faith, said authorities, eager to calm increasing Hindu-Christian tensions in India. “There is absolutely nothing communal in the killing of the young woman and her brother. They incidentally happen to be Christians. It is an outright crime,”Orissa Home Secretary S.C. Hota told Reuters news agency.
Officials also hoped to appear responsive to national and international criticism that has been leveled against the government in the wake of violent crimes against Christians in the predominantly Hindu country.
In January, an Australian-born Christian missionary and his two sons were burned alive when the vehicle in which they were sleeping was set on fire in Orissa. In recent weeks, militant Hindus in the western state of Gujarat have also attacked Christians and churches.
Christians make up just over 2 percent of India’s population of nearly 1 billion people. Hindus make up 82 percent, Muslims 12 percent. Other sizeable faiths in India include Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism.
Vatican report closes book on Swiss Guard murder case
(RNS) The Vatican said Monday (Feb. 8) that it was closing the case of a Swiss Guard who gunned down his commanding officer and the officer’s wife before turning the gun on himself last year.
A 10-page report on the incident that rocked the small city-state concluded that no evidence existed to suggest that anyone else had been involved. The report described how an investigating magistrate accepted the recommendation of a judge that the case be closed.
The incident occurred last May 4, when Cedric Tornay, 23, a vice-corporal in the military force that guards the pope, shot dead newly appointed guard chief Alois Estermann and his wife in their Vatican apartment.
The confrontation occurred”in a fit of madness”because Tornay had been overlooked for a military decoration, said the Vatican.
The soldier then shot himself dead.
On Sunday, Tornay’s mother, Mauguette Baudat, accused the Vatican of covering up the truth and said she has documents which prove her son was not responsible.
In response, a Vatican spokesperson said,”The pain of a mother is understandable … but a very detailed investigation leaves no room for an alternative hypothesis,”reported Reuters news service.
Suggesting that Tornay had been mentally unstable, the Vatican report said an investigation into the possibility of others being involved found no evidence to support such a finding.
The report said,”the conclusion has been reached that the Estermanns were killed by vice-corporal Cedric Tornay, who then took his own life with the same ordinance pistol.” Quote of the Day: the Dalai Lama of Tibet
(RNS)”Except for a few ignorant fools, who would ever believe the false statements and propaganda by China?” _ The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual and political leader, telling supporters in India to give in to Chinese pressure for them to denounce him rather than face punishment for stubbornly maintaining their public devotion to him. His comment was reported by the Associated Press Monday (Feb. 8).
IR END RNS
