c. 2000 Religion News Service
Islamic Advocacy Group Issues Warning About `Offensive’ Book
(RNS) An Islamic advocacy group has warned Muslim parents about a book aimed at middle-schoolers called “The Terrorist” it believes contains inaccurate and offensive information about Muslims.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations asked Muslim parents to contact the book’s publisher, Scholastic Inc. of New York, to state their concerns.
According to CAIR, the novel by Caroline Cooney focuses on an American student at a private school in London who seeks revenge for the death of her 11-year-old brother after he is killed by a package bomb.
Among the content CAIR considers offensive is a teen-age Muslim girl’s description of a man in his 50s who plans to marry her and will not permit her to use money, books or television. A few pages later, the book describes the Muslim faith in this manner: “Islam. You thought that religion was a pact between you and God, but it wasn’t. … Men who hated women. Men who wanted women literally locked in their clothes and their homes.”
CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad said he is particularly concerned because the material is in a book that was assigned reading for students rather than a book that might be accessible to adults who choose to read it.
“To top off this offensive and stereotypical material, the author reveals that `The Terrorist’ was in fact the girl who is trying to escape the `living death’ of a Muslim marriage,” he said. “The girl killed the heroine’s brother just to obtain his passport. So even the `good’ Muslims are bad.”
CAIR requested that Scholastic recall the book because it is “targeted at a captive audience of impressionable middle-school students.”
In response, Judy Corman, Scholastic’s senior vice president of corporate communications and media relations, emphasized the book is a novel and said the company does not plan to recall it.
“Taking the book as a whole, as a novel is intended to be considered, we believe the book represents a contribution to the dialogue about commonly held attitudes and preconceived notions,” Corman wrote.
She noted the main character is saved by a male Muslim classmate, the closest friend of the main character. She described the author as a “well respected writer” of about 60 books for young adults.
“We are sorry that you find portions of the book to be offensive,” Corman’s letter continued. “We believe, however, that your concerns about this fictional work do not warrant a recall of the book.”
Pope Appeals for Peace in Congo, Return of Archbishop to Bukavu
(RNS) Pope John Paul II issued a “sorrowful appeal” Wednesday (Feb. 16) for peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and called on pro-Rwandan forces to allow the archbishop of Bukavu to return to his post.
Addressing his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, the pope expressed concern about the situation in Bukavu and said, “At the same time, I also raise a sorrowful appeal for the swiftest application of the Lusaka peace accords, asking the Lord for unity and reconciliation for that beloved nation.”
“Worrying news continues to arrive from the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” the Roman Catholic pontiff said. “In recent days Monsignor Emmanuel Kataliko, archbishop of Bukavu, has been impeded by local authorities from returning to his diocese.
“It is a serious violation that sadly wounds all Catholics,”the pope said.
The missionary news agency Fides reported earlier that Kataliko had left his diocese to attend a meeting of the Permanent Committee of the Episcopate of the Congo in Kinshasa. It said pro-Rwanda soldiers barred his return on Saturday (Feb. 12) and sent him to Butembo, his native city.
Relations between the Vatican and Rwanda have been severely strained by the government’s decision to try priests for taking part in the 1994 genocide in the Great Lakes country.
Fides said Kataliko was declared “persona non grata” because of his defense of human rights and his opposition to foreign interference in Congo.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls on Monday issued a statement demanding the “immediate return” of the archbishop, who he said is “particularly appreciated for his apostolic courage in defending the rights of all.”
The spokesman said the Vatican Secretariat of State would use diplomatic channels “to remedy such a regrettable episode that gravely injures the rights of the church.”
Book Charges WCC Was `Infiltrated’ by Communist Intelligence Agencies
(RNS) At the height of the Cold War, the World Council of Churches was “infiltrated” by agents of Eastern European intelligence agencies and one of its former presidents was a KGB agent, according to a new book published in Germany.
The book, “National Protestantism and the Ecumenical Movement: Church Activities During the Cold War,” with sections written by different authors, charges that Metropolitan Nikodim, a prominent figure in the Russian Orthodox Church and elected a WCC president in 1975, worked for the KGB. Nikodim died in 1978 while in Rome.
The book relies on KGB files opened in 1992 for its allegation.
Mikhail Gundyaev, who represents the Russian church at the Geneva headquarters of the WCC, rejected the charge and said the allegation was “impossible to imagine,” reported Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency.
Gundyaev said he would not reject the possibility that “some of the people in our church” cooperated with the intelligence agency of the former Soviet Union. However, he said that although he had not seen the KGB files, he absolutely rejected the allegations about Nikodim.
“Metropolitan Nikodim undertook great work to preserve the church from the influence of the atheist regime,” he told ENI. He said Nikodim’s work toward WCC membership for the Russian Orthodox denomination was “to preserve the existence of our church.”
The WCC said it was not council practice to comment on individuals who had been active in the organization with the endorsement of their member churches.
But a spokeswoman for the ecumenical agency told ENI that it had given the book’s authors “unrestricted access to its archives,” adding that they had not “done justice to the extensive body of source material available to them.”
Tutu Mediates Scottish Episcopal Church Dispute
(RNS) Mediation by retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu has apparently resolved the festering _ and very public _ dispute between Scottish Episcopal Bishop Neville Chamberlain of Brechin and the provost of his cathedral in Dundee, the Rev. Miriam Byrne.
Byrne, a twice-married former Roman Catholic nun, was appointed to the post at St. Paul’s Cathedral in September 1998 after her predecessor, the Rev. Michael Bunce, was convicted of embezzlement.
However, the new provost upset traditionalists in the cathedral congregation and was also accused of spending too much money on improvements to her home.
Last September, Chamberlain asked her to resign after transferring all diocesan services and events away from the cathedral, but she refused.
In January the bishop suspended her and threatened her with 69 charges in an ecclesiastical court. Byrne and two members of the cathedral vestry sued the bishop in the civil courts to recover a fund of $360,000 which an anonymous donor had given for the restoration of the cathedral but which the bishop had frozen.
At the instigation of Bishop Richard Holloway of Edinburgh, primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the two flew to Atlanta, Ga., last week for a two-day meeting with Tutu at Emory University.
As a result of the meeting, Byrne was reinstated, and Chamberlain was in Dundee’s cathedral Sunday when she conducted her first service there since her suspension. The two also agreed to halt their various legal proceedings.
“Of the 6 billion people on this planet, no one has had more experience of conflict resolution than Archbishop Tutu, and no one, I felt, could better help us in our immediate problems than he,” Chamberlain said on his return to Scotland.
“Talks with Archbishop Tutu focused on the themes of acknowledgment, penitence, self-awareness and forgiveness. The process of healing at St. Paul’s is not going to be easy. Forgiveness is not cheap, and the outcome may be difficult for some.”
For her part, Byrne said, “I am delighted that it has been possible for both the bishop and I to move to a point where we can provide a worthwhile example to demonstrate that intractable and profound differences can be solved by discussion.”
In a joint statement, the two said the process of resolution and reconciliation would involve a number of trained facilitators and would begin in Lent, which this year begins March 8.
Quote of the Day: Rabbi Joseph Wolf of Portland, Ore.
(RNS) “The issue is hospitality … about people opening their hearts to others. We must demand a cessation of this assault on kindness perpetrated against people of faith doing God’s work.”
_ Rabbi Joseph Wolf of Congregation Havurah Shalom in Portland, Ore., speaking in support of Sunnyside Centenary United Methodist Church in Portland, whose meals program for the homeless has been limited by a city official’s ruling. He was quoted in a Tuesday (Feb. 15) report of United Methodist News Service.
DEA END RNS
