c. 1999 Religion News Service

Update: Christian-Muslim strife in Indonesia death toll up to 24

(RNS) Christian-Muslim violence continued in Indonesia for a third straight day Thursday (Jan. 21), raising the death toll to at least 24 and forcing nearly 3,000 people to flee their homes.

Rioters reportedly fired flaming arrows at mosques and churches. At least 10 houses of worship and more than 70 other buildings were set ablaze.

The worst violence occurred on Ambon Island, 1,400 miles northeast of Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, where 22 people died. Another 134 were injured in Ambon, 102 of them seriously, the Associated Press reported.

About 90 percent of Indonesia’s population is Muslim, making it the world’s most populous Muslim nation. The violence _ fueled by worsening political and economic turmoil that has fueled Indonesia’s ethnic and religious divides _ has occurred in areas with sizeable Christian populations.

The violence reportedly began when Muslims attacked a Christian on Ambon Island after accusing him of being drunk and insulting Islam. Islam forbids the drinking of alcohol.

Zimbabwe’s Canaan Banana faces jail term on homosexual rape conviction

(RNS) The Rev. Canaan Banana, the 62-year-old Methodist minister and former president of Zimbabwe, has been sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment after being convicted of 11 counts of homosexual rape and indecent assault.

But the judge suspended nine years of the prison term because of Banana’s age and poor health, Ecumenical News International reported Monday (Jan. 18). The judge also said Banana could appeal.

Banana, who was active in Zimbabwe’s struggle for independence and was its first post-independence president, has long maintained his innocence. ENI said he left the courthouse without making any statement.

Banana fled Zimbabwe briefly last year just before being found guilty of the charges and surfaced in South Africa. He returned to Harare to face sentencing in December after diplomatic intervention by South African President Nelson Mandela.

Zimbabwe has stiff laws against homosexual acts, which it terms an”unnatural offense.” Ordained in 1962, Banana has been a principal and chaplain at various Methodist schools. He served more than two years in prison in the late 1970s for his support for black majority rule in Zimbabwe. He was a professor of theology at the University of Zimbabwe when the investigation of his alleged homosexuality began in 1996.

In 1989, he was a member of the high-profile”eminent persons’ group”organized by the World Council of Churches to persuade Western nations to institute economic sanctions against then white-ruled South Africa.

ACLU fights government over Internet porn law

(RNS) The federal government has told a U.S. District Court that it wants to make public the financial details of Web-based companies fighting a new law aimed at blocking children from accessing sexual material on commercial Internet sites.

The law is under attack by the ACLU and a dozen plaintiffs, including some of the companies whose financial details the government wants to make public.

In November, U.S. District Court Judge Lowell Reed issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the act, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton last year.

The law, which imposes penalties of up to six months in prison and $50,000 in fines for commercial Web sites that make sexually explicit material available to minors, would require businesses to erect electronic screens, such as credit card registration systems, to verify the age of online visitors.

Justice Department lawyers said they planned to attack the ACLU’s contention that the cost of complying with the law poses an unreasonable financial burden on companies that operate Web businesses, Reuters reported.

ACLU lawyers said the financial details were”trade secrets”and not relevant to the case.

Reed said he would hold a closed hearing on the issue, perhaps on Friday (Jan. 22).

Stamp issued to honor Malcolm X

(RNS) Malcolm X, the black nationalist and civil rights activist who was once a target of government investigators, is about to be honored with a U.S. postage stamp.

Postal Service Governor S. David Fineman unveiled the 33-cent stamp at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem on Wednesday (Jan. 20).

Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Neb., was assassinated in a Harlem ballroom in 1965.

Fineman described Malcolm as”a modern-day revolutionary who openly fought for the end of oppression and injustice.”He was a visionary, a man who dreamed of a better world and dared to do something about it,”he added.

He joined the Nation of Islam in 1952 but in 1964 had a falling out with Nation founder Elijah Muhammad and he began a splinter organization. A year later he was murdered.

The stamp, which went on sale Thursday, is part of the Black Heritage series that also includes stamps honoring Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman and W.E.B. DuBois.

Pope appeals for an end to spiraling violence in Kosovo

(RNS) Pope John Paul II called Thursday (Jan. 21) on Serbian leaders to”put an end to the spiral of violence”in the province of Kosovo and resolve their differences with ethnic Albanians by dialogue.

The pope made the appeal for peace in Kosovo _ his second in two days _ in a telegram to Archbishop Franc Perko of Belgrade, president of the episcopal conference of Yugoslavia.”Profoundly grieved by the worsening of the situation in the region of Kosovo, I feel the duty to express my paternal nearness to all persons tested by the recent tragic events,”the pontiff said. He apparently referred to the mass killings of at least 45 ethnic Albanians in the village of Racak.”Once more, I implore those responsible for public life to put an end to the spiral of violence and to again seek the way of constructive dialogue in the respect of the inalienable rights of every human person,”he added.

On Wednesday, John Paul spoke at the end of his weekly general audience of his concern over the”ferocity and ruthlessness”of combat in Kosovo and also in Sierra Leone, where Roman Catholic missionaries and church leaders have been abducted and some remain held hostage.

The pope said he prayed that mercy would replace hate,”reawakening the consciences of those who guide the destinies of the people and moving the spirits of all to purposes of peace.”

Quote of the day: Baylor University professor Ralph C. Wood

(RNS)”A healthy dose of Christian disbelief or `holy skepticism’ would serve as a much-needed antidote to the soft-core spirituality that saps much of contemporary Christianity, especially in its evangelical expression. … The church of our time needs a theology that repudiates all saccharine substitutes for the hard thinking that Christian faith requires.” _ Ralph C. Wood, University Professor at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education (Oct. 16, 1998) on sentimental Christianity.

DEA END RNS