c. 1999 Religion News Service
Muslims criticize article on Koran research
(RNS) American Muslim groups Thursday (Jan. 7) strongly criticized a recent Atlantic Monthly magazine article about scholarly research into the origins of the Koran, the Islamic holy book that orthodox Muslims consider divine revelation.
The article _”What is the Koran?”by Atlantic Monthly staffer Toby Lester and published in the magazine’s January issue _ recounts admittedly controversial theories by scholars who maintain that the Koran is of human origins. For orthodox Muslims, that concept is blasphemous and undermines Islam’s claim to religious truth.
At a Washington news conference, representatives of several Muslim defense groups labeled the article an attack on Islam and the Muslim community. Insisting they did not seek to stifle academic inquiry, they maintained the article misrepresented the Koran and Islam, stereotyped Muslims and failed to quote respected orthodox Muslim scholars.
Azizah Y. al-Hibri, president of Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, called the article”hostile to Islam”and”highly speculative.”In a statement, al-Hibri said she found the article”deeply offensive.” Hesham Reda, Washington representative of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, called the article”a promotion of the attitude of it’s really us against them. … It’s trying to discredit the most important document that Muslims base their lives on.”Aly R. Abuzaakouk, director of the American Muslim Council, said the article was”calculated to inflame and incite the Muslim community.” In a statement, Cullen Murphy, managing editor of the Boston-based magazine, called the article”a journalistic account (that) scrupulously avoids endorsing any claims or rendering any judgements.”Murphy said Lester’s piece covered”a significant strand of scholarship; a strand that has clear parallels with the respectful scholarship on the Bible (which The Atlantic has also written about, in articles that closely reflect Lester’s article in scope and tone.)”
Anti-abortion methods theme of Oregon trial, Fla. suit
(RNS) A Web site that targets doctors who perform abortions is the subject of a trial that opened today (Jan. 7) in Oregon.
Meanwhile, a Florida abortion clinic owner has sued two online services claiming they provided anti-abortion activists with personal information about visitors to her clinic.
The Portland, Ore., trial centers on a Web site called”The Nuremberg Files”and whether it is a threat to physicians or a protected form of free speech, USA Today reported.
The trial is the result of a suit by the Portland Planned Parenthood chapter, a Portland clinic and five doctors who sought $200 million in damages from Advocates for Life Ministries, the American Coalition of Life Activists and other individuals who disseminate information about the Web site and distribute fliers and wanted posters criticizing abortion providers.
Monica Miller of Milwaukee, the leader of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society and a former defendant, said the plaintiffs”want to suppress pro-life speech”that groups like hers use to”expose the reality of abortion.” The plaintiffs believe the Web site and posters could incite violence that is banned by the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinics law.”Sites like Nuremberg are a threat to doctors because the anti-abortion movement in the United States follows up … with violence,”said Bonnie Jones, an attorney for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Law and Policy.”These are not words in isolation. They are typically followed up with murder.” On the Web site, the names of four doctors and two clinic workers who have been killed since 1993 are crossed off. One of those names is Barnett Slepian, an Amherst, N.Y., doctor who provided abortions and was murdered by a sniper in his kitchen on Oct. 23.
The Web site is located at http://www.christiangallery.com/atrocity.
The Florida suit, filed this week in Orlando, names CompuServe and TML Information Services, which anti-abortion activists allegedly used to get names and addresses from license plate numbers of cars driven to the clinic.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction to stop the activities of abortion opponents who observe the Aware Woman Center for Choice clinic from a house across the street in Melbourne, Fla., the Associated Press reported.”Heaven knows we’ve been intimidated many, many times,”said Patricia Baird Windle, the clinic’s owner on Tuesday.
Visitors to the clinic have received letters from anti-abortion opponents. In one case, the activities learned the identity of a clinic visitor, trailed her to a hospital and also followed her in a department store, the suit states.
The lead defendant in the suit, anti-abortion activist Meredith Raney, declined comment. A CompuServe spokeswoman said she was not aware of the lawsuit and couldn’t comment on it. A lawyer for the clinic said Compuserve has stopped providing the information and TML Information Services no longer permits Raney to use its services.
Six evangelical groups mapping global evangelical churches
(RNS) Six evangelical Christian organizations are pooling their resources in an effort to identify every evangelical church in the world.
The”Church in Habitat”project, coordinated at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., is a combination of new computer technology and traditional personal contact.
The other partners are the Jesus Film Project, Campus Crusade for Christ, Wycliffe Bible Translators, DAWN (Discipling a Whole Nation) and the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, reported Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The six groups are combining their efforts to”find out where the churches are located, so we can find out where new churches need to be planted,”said Ed Pruitt, project administrator and a master of divinity student at Southeastern.
Last year, Pruitt visited 12 countries to get in touch with researchers who are compiling data on evangelical churches. During the next three years, he intends to make trips to about 120 countries.”Our goal is to have 80 percent of the world mapped in three years, not including the U.S.,”he said.
Information about the churches is entered in a computer database at the seminary. The project, which is funded by an anonymous donor, already includes data on more than 50,000 churches in nations such as Thailand, India, Canada, Spain, Malaysia, Belgium and Guatemala.
Other aspects of the project include producing maps detailing the location of the churches as well as whether people groups in particular regions have access to the Scriptures or the”Jesus”film.”Once we find out where the churches are and the languages that are being spoken in the church, that will clue us in to other information we need, such as the extent of the concentration of a people group speaking a certain language in an area,”said Pruitt.
This information, in turn, will assist missions agencies in targeting groups that do not have access to the Gospel in their language.
The”Churches in Habitat”maps can be accessed through the Web site of Southeastern Seminary’s Center for Great Commission Studies at http://www.greatcomm.org.
Jewish, Christian religious leaders urge Clinton censure
(RNS) A group of Jewish and Christian religious leaders has sent a letter to the Senate urging it to censure President Clinton and forgo a lengthy trial that could result in the president’s removal from office.”Our shared religious traditions require us all to be mindful of punishment with penitence, and healing with compassion,”the Jan. 6 letter said. “In this spirit, we ask that the Senate not thwart the indicated will of a great majority of American citizens who understand the wrongs of the president’s actions, but do not believe there has been a subversion of our government.” The letter was delivered on the eve of the initiation of the Senate trial _ the formal delivering of the two articles of impeachment, the swearing in of Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist to preside over the proceedings, as well as the swearing in of the 100 Senators who sit as jurors.”Issues of wrongdoing such as President Clinton’s clearly have religious implications, as does the nature of leadership,”said Rabbi Richard Levy, president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, who helped draft the letter.”It is imperative that religious figures be heard in these discussions,”he said in a statement.”Based on our understandings of the diverse traditions of the various movements of Judaism and Christianity, we together urge the Senate to censure the president so that the people are not punished for his wrong.” In the letter, the religious leaders said the country can”learn from biblical precedent that when biblical figures failed, they were punished for their wrongdoings, but the people were not deprived of their leadership.””With God’s help, may you (Senators) who are our elected representatives overcome anger and partisanship, and lead us with wisdom and perspective,”the letter said.”Censure the president, yes, and lift us to a higher way, so that as a united people, we may pursue a path of justice.” In addition to Levy, other signers of the letter included Bishop Craig Anderson, president of the National Council of Churches; the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the National Council of Churches; Rabbi Seymour Essrog, president, The Rabbinical Assembly; Rabbi Charles Kroloff, vice president, Central Conference of American Rabbis; Rabbi Paul J. Menitoff, executive vice president, Central Conference of American Rabbis; and Rabbi Joel Meyers, executive vice president, The Rabbinical Assembly.
Priest and two catechists killed in Angola
(RNS) A Roman Catholic priest and two church teachers have been”barbarously killed”in the same war-torn area of Angola where two United Nations-chartered planes have been shot down in recent days, the Vatican said Thursday (Jan. 7).
In a brief announcement, the Vatican said the Rev. Albino Saluhaku and two teachers of the catechism, presumably laity, were killed Wednesday (Jan. 6) in the diocese of Huambo. It gave no other details.
Government and rebel forces have been fighting for weeks at Huambo _ rebel-held territory about 350 miles southeast of Luanda, the Angolan capital.
Two Hercules C-130 transport planes with a total of 23 people, most of them U.N. personnel, were shot down in the outskirts of Huambo on Dec. 26
and Jan. 2.
Heavy fighting has kept U.N. investigators from reaching the wrecks, and both the government and the rebel National Union of the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) have denied responsibility, each accusing the other of downing the planes.
The Vatican announcement said that Monsignor Aldo Cavalli, the apostolic nuncio, or ambassador, in Angola”communicated to the Vatican Secretariat of State this morning that yesterday night, Jan. 6, the Rev. Albino Saluhaku, a member of the clergy in the diocese of Huambo, and two catechists, his collaborators, were barbarously killed.”
Quote of the day: Gabrielle Whelan, Livermore, Calif., deputy city attorney
(RNS)”Our position is that a public library should offer everything under the sun to the public. Libraries in general should not be put in the position of being a censor.” _ Gabrielle Whelan, deputy city attorney of Livermore, Calif., responding to a suit to force the city to adopt a policy forbidding minors from using computer terminals without parental permission, quoted in USA Today on Jan 4.
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