c. 2004 Religion News Service Mideast Muslims Offer Prayers for Arafat’s Health JERUSALEM (RNS) An official at the Wakf Islamic Trust at the Temple Mount, or Haram al-Sharif, said Thursday (Oct. 28) that large numbers of Muslims in Israel and the Palestinian territories are taking it upon themselves to pray for the health of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who is reportedly very ill. Adnan Husseini, the director of the Wakf, told RNS that “I am sure that all the people in Palestine are praying for the president to be better.” Husseini said that, to the best of his knowledge, local Islamic leaders have not called on Muslims to say a special prayer for Arafat “because Islam does not work like this.” Rather, Husseini said, “many Muslims have prayed for Arafat’s well-being all along.” Arafat, 75, is critically ill, according to Palestinian officials. While there have been reports that he is suffering from everything from the flu to cancer, the precise nature of his illness remains unknown. _ Michele Chabin Rabin Remembered at Event in Israel JERUSALEM (RNS) Religious and secular Jews gathered in Jerusalem on Wednesday (Oct. 27) for a “Day of Dialogue,” an annual event established to honor the memory of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated nine years ago by a religious Jewish extremist opposed to the Oslo Peace accord. Spearheaded by Gesher, an organization devoted to bridging the gap between religious and secular Jews, the daylong event brought together Israelis from every part of the religious and political spectrum. This year’s gathering took place just hours after Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, voted to remove Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip. The issue of “disengagement” from settlements is extremely divisive in Israel, and some legislators have warned that it could lead to civil war. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who for decades supported the settlements but recently did an about-face, has reportedly received numerous death threats, much as Rabin did prior to being murdered. Against this backdrop, dozens of religious and secular Jews sat together around tables and studied texts dealing with conflict, authority, leadership and dissent. One group read the Book of Maccabees in which the High Priest Mattityahu sparked the civil war against Hellenized Jews who followed pagan ritual. They then examined how Mattityahu claimed the authority to take the law in his own hands, declaring, “Whoever is for God, follow me.” Rabbi Daniel Tropper, Gesher’s founder and director, told RNS that this year’s event was particularly important, due to the national schism over the settler withdrawal and whether religious soldiers may refuse military orders to evacuate the settlers if their rabbis order them not to. “The entire week leading up to the (Knesset) vote was fraught with tension between religious and secular over issues of rabbinic approval of the disengagement plan and refusal to serve. Having the Day of Dialogue the day after the vote is an important opportunity for reconciliation,” Tropper said. _ Michele Chabin U.S. Muslim Advocate and Scholar Sharifa Alkhateeb Dies of Cancer (RNS) Sharifa Alkhateeb, a scholar and educator who founded the North American Council for Muslim Women, died of pancreatic cancer in Ashburn, Va., on Oct. 20. Alkhateeb, who was 58, was a “forceful and determined personality who did the work and got the job done” on issues from advocacy for Muslim women to education for Americans about Islam, colleagues from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee recalled in a statement mourning her loss. Religiously traditional, Alkhateeb prayed five times a day and covered her hair with a scarf. But Alkhateeb, whose parents were Yemeni and Czech, often wore pants and other Western attire. Last month, Alkhateeb became the first woman to receive a Community Service Award from the Islamic Society of North America. Alkhateeb worked tirelessly in the educational arena, co-authoring the Arab World Notebook, a teachers’ guide to Arab culture, and producing educational videos for children, as well as presiding over the Muslim Education Council. Born in Philadelphia, Alkhateeb attended the University of Pennsylvania at age 16, embracing feminism and the practice of wearing the hijab, or headcovering, at the same time. After college, Alkhateeb edited the Marmaduke Pickthall translation of the Quran, which was published in 1977. She then moved to Saudi Arabia, where she taught and worked as a journalist. She returned to the United States in 1988, moving to Northern Virginia, where she undertook various educational and advocacy roles, including founding the North American Council for Muslim Women. Among her notable achievements was a study, sponsored by the Department of Justice, which found that between 10 percent and 12 percent of Muslim families experienced episodes of domestic violence. Alkhateeb was buried in Falls Church, Va., on Oct. 21. She is survived by her husband, three daughters and a grandson. _ Holly Lebowitz Rossi Museum of Biblical Art to Open in Spring NEW YORK (RNS) An art gallery at the American Bible Society in New York City has closed but will reopen next spring as an independent museum with a new name: the Museum of �MDBR�Biblical Art (MOBIA). The new institution, inhabiting space recently occupied by The Gallery at the American Bible Society, will be the first scholarly museum of art and the Bible in the United States, said Ena Heller, who has served as the gallery’s director and will head the new museum. MOBIA hopes to create a space that explores “the meaning of religious art and artifacts in culture,” though the museum’s work will continue to be grounded in the biblical traditions of Christianity and Judaism, the museum announced. The new museum will still be based within the American Bible Society’s building in Manhattan, located on Broadway near the city’s Lincoln Center arts complex, though space for the new facility will be enlarged and expanded to include additional exhibition room and an educational center. A second gallery will be constructed. While the ABS is funding the planned expansion and renovations, the new museum will be independent of the ABS as its own nonprofit corporation and will have its own board of directors. The decision to become an independent institution was prompted in part by a desire to raise the gallery’s profile and expand its educational mission, Heller said. As it is now, New York City public school groups have been reluctant to visit the gallery because of concerns about patronizing a “religious institution.” “There is still this hurdle of (people viewing) `biblical art,’ especially in New York, which is such a secular city,” Heller told Religion News Service. “Teachers have not wanted to run into problems related to church and state issues.” An opening exhibition at the new museum, scheduled to begin May 12, 2005, will examine themes surrounding the Bible and self-taught artists of the American South. A companion show will examine the early history of the Bible in North America. The gallery opened in 1998 and has mounted exhibitions that have explored biblical themes from a variety of cultures and contexts. The ABS itself was founded in 1816 by a group of New York philanthropists and focuses its current work on biblical translation, publication and distribution. _ Chris Herlinger Gospel Singer Yolanda Adams Advocates for Children at D.C. Conference WASHINGTON (RNS) Between stops on a concert tour, gospel singer Yolanda Adams made a side trip to this city to address one of her pet causes: advocating for children. “I know what it’s like for kids to come to school and not have things to wear,” said the former schoolteacher in Houston’s inner city, who addressed a conference on health disparities facing racial and ethnic minority children. “I know what it’s like to take my own money and provide supplies because God had blessed me.” The Grammy-winning artist served as keynote speaker of a three-day conference sponsored by the Office of Minority Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She told a luncheon crowd of about 150 that they should call on members of Congress to help children gain better access to health care. “I know they’re fighting over war and who’s going to be in office,” she said. “But the thing is, we have to make them accountable and let them know that we are in for a terrible future if we continue to forget our children.” Adams said all Americans should be involved in aiding young people they encounter who are in need. “God will hold us accountable for every child that does pass our way,” she said. “Whether you believe it or not, he will.” Adams, who has been involved in children’s advocacy for years, said it comes naturally from her time as a second- and third-grade teacher in the 1980s and early 1990s. “It’s easy for me to be a child advocate,” she told Religion News Service. “Because I know the importance of caring for children and when you care for them, how they just rise to the occasion.” _ Adelle M. Banks Quote of the Day: French Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy (RNS) “What is dangerous is not minarets, but cellars and garages which conceal clandestine groups. We need to choose between mosques that are in the open, where we can be sure the rules of the Republic will be respected, and the secrecy on which extremism has prospered for too long.” _ French Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, in a new book in which he proposed state funding for mosques. He was quoted by Reuters. MO/PH END RNS