c. 2005 Religion News Service

On Way to Mosque, Stampede Kills Hundreds of Iraqis

(RNS) In the largest Iraqi loss since a U.S.-led coalition invaded the country in 2003, between 600 and 1,000 Muslims died in a stampede during a Shiite religious pilgrimage in Baghdad early today (Aug. 31).

Some Iraqi government officials said they feared the number of dead could eventually exceed 1,000.

The deaths came as thousands of Shiite pilgrims made their way over a crowded bridge toward the Kadhimiya mosque in the northern Baghdad suburb of Kazmain.

Iraqi Defense Minister Saadun al-Dulaim told Iraqi TV that “a certain scream caused chaos in the crowds,” leading to the stampede, in which many were crushed to death. Bridge railings collapsed and other pilgrims fell or jumped to their death in the Tigris River below, according to the BBC.

According to Reuters, two top Shiite officials blamed insurgents for the attack, claiming they had deliberately spread a rumor that a suicide bomber was among the crowd, thus sparking the panic.

But al-Dulaim said most of the deaths were not related to insurgent activity, according to the BBC. He said seven or eight civilians were killed in an insurgent mortar attack earlier in the procession.

Hussein Hirji Walji, president of the Organization of North American Shia Ithna-Asheri Muslim Communities, said that under Saddam Hussein’s rule few Shiite pilgrims had been allowed to visit the mosque and its surroundings.

“Obviously that area is not equipped to handle large numbers of people, resulting in this disaster,” he said from Minneapolis. Walji said the Shiite community in the U.S. would hold special prayers for the victims of the tragedy.

Worshippers in Iraq were marking the martyrdom of Imam Musa al-Kazim, the seventh imam in the Twelver Shiite tradition. Shiites believe that Imam Musa and his grandson were buried at the Kazmain shrine.

Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari has declared three days of mourning for the victims, according to Reuters.

In Washington, the largest U.S. Muslim civil rights group issued a statement.

“We offer sincere condolences to the loved ones of all those who died or were injured in this tragic incident and pray that the people of Iraq will one day be able to live in peace and security,” said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

_ Andrea Useem

Poll Shows Democrats Losing Effort to Appear Religion-Friendly

WASHINGTON (RNS) Democrats are losing their effort to convince voters that they take religion seriously, especially among independent voters who say the party has become less “friendly” to religion, according to a new Pew poll.

At the same time, voters seem concerned that religious conservatives among Republicans, and secularists among Democrats, have too much sway in the two parties. Independents seem more concerned about religious conservatives in the GOP than secularists among Democrats.

The poll by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that fewer than one-third of voters see the Democrats as “friendly” to religion _ down from 40 percent last year. The drop has been sharpest among independents, down to just 24 percent from 43 percent last year.

The GOP continues to be seen as friendly to religion by 55 percent of Americans, a figure that has changed little since 2003.

Roughly one-third of both Republicans and Democrats say religious conservatives and secularists have too much power within their parties, and core loyalists in both parties are equally critical of the other.

Two-thirds of those surveyed said liberals have “gone too far” in trying to keep religion out of schools and government. Respondents were more evenly split _ at about 45 percent each _ on whether Christian conservatives have “gone too far” in trying to impose their religious values on the country.

Bare majorities of about 52 percent said Republicans are more concerned with protecting religious values and that Democrats are more concerned with preserving individual freedoms.

The poll of 2,000 adults, conducted July 7-17, has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Orthodox Want Church Built on Site of Russian Tragedy

BESLAN, Russia (RNS) Russian Orthodox Church officials are proposing that a church be built in the ruins of Beslan’s School No. 1, where 331 people, more than half of them children, were killed a year ago in the worst terrorist attack in modern Russian history.

Bishop Feofan of Stavropol and Vladikavkaz met with President Taimuraz Mamsurov of North Ossetia, where Beslan is located, to discuss the proposal last week. The plan would see a church built around the school’s shattered gymnasium, where nearly 1,200 people were held captive after armed militants seized the school on Sept. 1, 2004, and demanded that Russia end its 10-year campaign to crush a separatist movement in nearby Chechnya.

After a 53-hour siege, Russian forces stormed the school amid gunfire and explosions.

Debate has been raging over what to do with the ruins of the school, which remain largely untouched from a year ago. Many Beslan residents want to see the school maintained in its current form as a memorial to the victims. Some say building a Christian church on the site would send the wrong signal in Beslan, which is home to many Muslims.

“This is not a good idea, many people are opposed to this,” said Julietta Bassieva, a member of the Beslan Mothers’ Committee, a support and lobby group for families of the victims.

Three days of official mourning were scheduled, beginning with a candlelight vigil for the victims early on Thursday (Sept. 1). Ceremonies were scheduled across Russia.

Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II was scheduled to lead a requiem service for the victims in Moscow on Thursday. In a statement, Alexei called on Russians to pray for survivors and families of the victims.

“On these commemoration days of sorrow, when all of us join in mourning, the Russian Orthodox Church expresses her profound sympathy and spiritual support to the people who lost their loved ones,” the statement read. “Sympathy and prayers will help them overcome the pain of the loss and give them the strength to live.”

_ Michael Mainville

Israel’s Supreme Court Forbids Destruction of Settlement Synagogues

JERUSALEM (RNS) Israel’s Supreme Court issued an interim stop order Tuesday (Aug. 30), forbidding the government from destroying synagogues in settlements Israel evacuated.

The stop order will remain in effect at least until Sunday (Sept. 4), when the court will convene for a second time to discuss the future of the synagogues in Gaza and the northern West Bank, which were slated for destruction along with the settlements’ other buildings.

Israel evicted 9,000 Jewish settlers in a six-day military operation that began on Aug. 15.

On Aug. 23 the court ruled that the army could destroy all 30 synagogues and eight yeshivas and seminaries, as long as all portable items _ from pews to stained-glass windows _ were first salvaged for use in new synagogues.

At the time, the army expressed concerns that extremist Palestinians would desecrate the synagogues once Israel relinquishes the abandoned territory to the Palestinians in the coming weeks.

Reflecting the sensitivity of the issue, the court decided to reconvene following an appeal by Israeli’s two chief rabbis.

Rabbis Shlomo Amar and Yona Metzger, who head the chief rabbinical council, ruled Aug. 25 that the army’s planned destruction of religious institutions would violate Jewish law and perhaps motivate Jews to stop fighting for former synagogues confiscated throughout the world.

Instead, the rabbis said, the government should insist that the Palestinian Authority protect the synagogues, a pledge that would be enforced by guarantees from several international governments.

_ Michele Chabin

Quote of the Day: Family Research Council President Tony Perkins

(RNS) “The Air Force seems to be fighting perceived religious intolerance with actual religious tolerance _ ultimately telling the military chaplaincy how to pray.”

_ Tony Perkins, president of the Washington-based Family Research Council, criticizing new Air Force guidelines on religious tolerance.

MO/RB END RNS