c. 2000 Religion News Service
American Jews Asked to Wear Blue Ribbons for Israel
WASHINGTON (RNS) American Jews are being asked to wear blue ribbons to show their solidarity with Israel as peace talks with Palestinians languish and violence between the two sides continues.
United Jewish Communities hopes the blue ribbons _ similar to the ubiquitous red AIDS ribbon and pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness _ will show support for the Israeli military and the hope for peace.
“The blue ribbon will encourage people to ask questions,” said Robert Schrayer, chairman of the UJC’s United Jewish Appeal Federation Campaign. “It will increase awareness.”
Rabbis will be asked to promote the blue ribbons in their Sabbath services, particularly around Hanukkah, which celebrates the victory of the Maccabees’ fight against their Hellenistic culture nearly 2,000 years ago.
“As we celebrate the victory of the Maccabees and the restoration of Jewish rights and worship in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, we will affirm our solidarity with the people of Israel,” Schrayer said.
UJC is sponsoring the campaign with the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Muslim Detainee Released After Three Years on Secret Evidence Charges
(RNS) A Palestinian professor who has spent the last three years in jail on secret evidence charges was freed on Friday (Dec. 15) after heavy lobbying from members of Congress and the Muslim community.
Mazen Al-Najjar spent 1,307 days in jail on suspected links to terrorist organizations in the Middle East. Neither he nor his lawyers were allowed to see the evidence against him, a legal move that is allowed under 1996 anti-terrorism legislation.
Al-Najjar’s release had become a top public policy goal for the U.S. Muslim community, which feels that the secret evidence law unfairly targets immigrants and Muslims.
The government had tried to keep Al-Najjar detained, but an immigration judge ordered his release earlier this month. Attorney General Janet Reno put a hold on his release until she could review his case and gave approval for him to be released Friday.
Al-Najjar’s family broke into tears when he walked out of the doors of the Manatee County (Fla.) Detention Center. “It’s a great day for justice and a sad day for arrogance and oppression,” the 43-year-old professor said upon his release, according to the Associated Press.
Still, Al-Najjar’s legal nightmare might not be over. In a statement issued before his release, Reno said Justice Department officials “anticipate he could be deported from the United States soon.”
Al-Najjar, who has lived in the United States since 1981, has been in the country illegally for several years since his student visa expired. He has been teaching at the University of South Florida, and government officials allege that the Islamic Committee for Palestine at the school has ties to the Islamic Jihad, which has sponsored numerous terrorist attacks in the Middle East.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Pope Thanks Entertainers for Spreading the Christian Message
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope John Paul II, an actor and playwright in his youth, has thanked the world’s entertainers for helping to spread the message of Christianity by “speaking to the hearts of people.”
The 80-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff addressed thousands of actors and actresses, acrobats, clowns and street musicians who celebrated the Jubilee of the World of Entertainment on Sunday (Dec. 17) at an outdoor Mass in St. Peter’s Square.
It was the last of a series of gatherings that has brought such diverse groups as politicians and taxi drivers, young people and the disabled, athletes and scientists to Rome to mark Holy Year 2000. Holy Year will end on the Feast of the Epiphany, Jan. 6.
“A new evangelization that does not involve your world, the world of entertainment, so important for the formation of mentality and customs, is unthinkable,” the pope said. He has made the new evangelization a major goal of Holy Year observances.
“I think here of so many initiatives that repeat the biblical message and the very rich patrimony of the Christian tradition in the languages of form, sound and images through the theater, film and television,” John Paul said. “I think as well of those works and those programs not explicitly religious that nevertheless are able to speak to the hearts of people, arousing amazement, questions and reflections.”
Speaking for all those assembled, Italian comedian Alberto Sordi hailed “the great cooperation between art and the church.” But Sordi said a priest taught him many years ago that being a budding actor was not compatible with the role of altar boy.
“Seeing the people in front of me, it seemed like being on a stage,” Sordi said. “I got a big slap from the priest, who told me, `These things are not done. You can do them in the theater if you become an actor but not here.’
“Well, that miracle came true,” Sordi told the pope. The actor, who also is 80, is one of Italy’s most beloved movie stars.
As a young man in his native Poland, John Paul acted in an underground theater group during World War II and wrote several plays himself before becoming a priest.
_ Peggy Polk
Oxfam Urges U.N. Not to Strengthen Anti-Taliban Sanctions
(RNS) The British humanitarian aid agency Oxfam has added its voice to the chorus of relief groups urging the U.N. Security Council not to strengthen sanctions against the ruling Taliban movement in Afghanistan.
“Oxfam today urges the U.N. Security Council to reconsider plans to tighten sanctions on Afghanistan, in the light of the growing humanitarian crisis in the country,” the group said in a statement, the Washington Times reported. “The draft U.N. proposal … threatens to deepen this already desperate humanitarian crisis.”
A proposal submitted by the United States and Russia to the Security Council earlier this month calls for an arms embargo against the Taliban movement, though opponents of the Islamic movement are exempt from the embargo.
Years of civil war between the Taliban and ousted Afghanistan President Burhanuddin Rabbani has ravaged the former Soviet client state and led about 200,000 Afghans to flee the country, according to a U.N. report. The proposed sanctions would have the greatest impact on poor Afghans, who are also facing the country’s worst drought in three decades, the report concluded.
Aid workers have expressed concern that new sanctions could spark anger from the Taliban and among the Afghan population, as did sanctions imposed last year that prompted thousands to protest in the streets.
“We are concerned about a possible violent reaction,” one U.N. official told Reuters. “People cannot differentiate between the political side of the U.N. and its humanitarian one and the (non-governmental organizations).”
The Taliban, which has applied its strict interpretation of Islamic rule over some 95 percent of the country, has vowed to shut down any non-humanitarian U.N. offices if the sanctions are approved, though they have promised to protect relief officials.
The World Food Program, the largest food agency in Afghanistan, has said the sanctions could hinder food delivery to the agency’s aid recipients, as many as 5 million people.
The United States hopes the proposed sanctions, which would also close Taliban missions located overseas and prohibit its officials from traveling abroad, will pressure the Taliban into turning over Saudi expatriate and alleged terrorist Osama bin Laden.
U.S. officials suspect bin Laden, operating from within Afghanistan, has been coordinating terrorist activity around the world, and may have been involved in the October bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. But the Taliban has said those charges are unfounded, and has refused to permit his extradition.
_ Shelvia Dancy
Sixty Injured, Seven Arrested During Haider Visit to Vatican
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Clashes during a controversial visit of Austrian extremist Joerg Haider to the Vatican to present a Christmas tree to Pope John Paul II left dozens of people injured and seven protesters arrested.
Ignoring protests by opponents of Haider’s anti-immigration views, the pope received the right-wing Haider in a delegation of 250 dignitaries from the southern Austrian province of Carinthia at a Vatican audience Saturday (Dec. 16) and thanked them for the “precious gift” of the 80-foot fir tree.
“In its flowering in the spring, maturity in summer, fruits in autumn and death in winter, the tree recounts the mystery of life,” John Paul said. Extending the metaphor, he said that like trees, men need roots, which can be found in faith in God.
Before what the Vatican described as a “pastoral audience,” the Roman Catholic pontiff met briefly with Haider, who is governor of Carinthia, and wished him good morning in German. No reporters were admitted, and even the Vatican’s official photographer was barred.
John Paul made no comment on Haider’s views in the text of his address to the group, but noted the Vatican had accepted Carinthia’s offer of a tree three years ago. Haider became a figure of controversy in elections last February when his nationalist Austrian Freedom Party joined Austria’s governing coalition, and he became provincial governor.
At the end of the audience, papal aides distributed the pope’s message for the World Day of Peace, which strongly upholds the rights of immigrants and urges dialogue between cultures.
Several thousand demonstrators clashed with police, pelting them with stones and other objects at two locations several blocks from the Vatican. Many Jewish merchants turned off their shop lights as the lights of the Christmas tree were lit in St. Peter’s Square.
Authorities said 26 police officers and 30 demonstrators were injured and seven protesters were arrested on assault charges.
_ Peggy Polk
Quote of the Day: Zhen Chuanlian
(RNS) “God isn’t in the church. God is in our hearts. Christmas is in our hearts. They can take away the church, but they can’t take away our faith.”
_ Chinese Christian Zhen Chuanlian speaking out against the government’s destruction of some 500 temples and churches as part of a crackdown on unauthorized religious activity. Chuanlian was quoted in the Washington Post.
DEA END RNS
