c. 2006 Religion News Service
Despite Global Islamic Outrage, French Editor Defends Cartoons
PARIS (RNS) Despite global Islamic outrage that led to the firing of his colleague, a French editor is defending his newspaper’s decision to print cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
“This isn’t about hurting or provoking anybody,” France Soir editor-in-chief Serge Faubert said during a Thursday (Feb. 2) interview on France Info radio. “This is about upholding a right to allow us all to live together _ and that is of the liberty of expression, the freedom to say and write what each one of us wants to say, obviously while respecting the law.”
Faubert’s unapologetic remarks came only a day after the newspaper’s French-Egyptian owner, Raymond Lakah, fired managing editor Jacques Lefranc after the paper printed all 12 caricatures, which first appeared in a Danish publication.
A number of other newspapers in Europe also published them Wednesday, in similar gestures that appeared uncoordinated. On Thursday, the BBC broadcast images of the cartoon, ostensibly to help viewers understand the nature of the debate.
The actions increased anger among Muslims. Two armed Palestinian groups threatened to target French, Norwegian, Danish and German citizens in the Gaza Strip and West Bank because newspapers from their countries had published the cartoons.
The images depict Muhammad in different poses, including one in which he is wielding a sword with a black bandanna over his eyes. Two women in burqas stand behind him. Muslims consider any images of the Islamic prophet to be blasphemous.
But journalists in Europe say the real issue is freedom of the press.
The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders has staunchly defended the right to publish the cartoons. However, the group’s head, Robert Menard, said just because a publication has the right to publish doesn’t mean it should.
“We’re in a crazy situation,” Menard said in a telephone interview Thursday. “All the measures, all the decisions made on one side or another are radicalizing things … pushing them toward more verbal violence, more threats. We must absolutely calm things down.”
_ Elizabeth Bryant
Jordan’s King Seeks Interfaith Effort to Confront Extremism
WASHINGTON _ Speaking to thousands of evangelical leaders Thursday (Feb. 2), King Abdullah II of Jordan called on Christians, Jews and Muslims to work together in the fight against religious extremism.
“At this point in history, our service to God, our countries and our peoples demands that we confront extremism in its myriad forms,” the Muslim head of state said at a luncheon following the National Prayer Breakfast.
“To overcome this common foe,” he said, “we must explore the values that unite us, rather than exaggerating the misunderstandings that divide us.”
Abdullah, who also said a prayer for the Middle East at the annual breakfast, was the keynote speaker at a luncheon attended by about 3,000, most of them evangelical Christian leaders.
Abdullah drew on the texts of both the Quran and the Bible to make his points, noting that Judaism, Christianity and Islam all call for a love of God and a love of neighbor.
“In our generation, the greatest challenge comes from violent extremists who seek to divide and conquer,” he said. “Extremism is a political movement, under religious cover. Its adherents want nothing more than to pit us against each other, denying all that we have in common. We must therefore heed the words of the New Testament: `Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”’
The king cited examples of “extremist bombings in the Islamic world” and said “indigenous innocent Muslims” are among the victims.
“Such wanton acts demonstrate that extremist terror is not indicative of a clash between civilizations; rather it is an attack upon civilization,” he said, drawing applause.
The comments were a continuation of efforts by Abdullah to foster relations with other faith groups. In January, he held his first meeting with Catholic leaders from North America and Europe who support the Catholic Church in the Holy Land. In December, he spoke in Athens, Greece, about the importance of dialogue between Christianity and Islam. And last September, he spoke at Catholic University and met with Jewish and Muslim groups during a trip to Washington.
The Embassy of Jordan distributed a pamphlet that said the king’s goal is “to establish full acceptance and goodwill” among Muslims, Christians and Jews.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Religious Conservatives Praise Bush’s Commitment to Ban Cloning
WASHINGTON (RNS) Conservative Christian groups say they are heartened that President Bush promoted legislation to ban human cloning in his State of the Union address Tuesday (Jan. 31).
“Any time the president uses the bully pulpit to endorse specific measures, we’re optimistic that it will have an impact,” said Carrie Earll, bioethics analyst for the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Focus on the Family.
In his speech, Bush described human cloning as “the most egregious abuses of medical research” and called for a ban on the controversial procedure “in all its forms.”
Bush supports the Human Cloning Prohibition Act introduced by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., in March. The bill would ban the creation of embryos through cloning and impose criminal and civil penalties on offenders.
The House of Representatives for the last two congressional sessions has voted overwhelmingly to ban all human cloning, but the legislation is stalled in the Senate.
Earll said Focus on the Family opposes human cloning not only because an embryo is destroyed to obtain stem cells for research but also because of the serious health risks posed in reproductive cloning. According to the science arm of the U.S. Department of Energy, the risks include death, deformity and disability in the baby.
Earll said her group will continue to lobby for the bill’s passage.
Tony Perkins, president of the Washington-based Family Research Council, has also pushed for a ban, and thanked Bush for his statement.
“We cannot exist in a just society until we recognize, as the president stated, `Human life is a gift from our creator _ and that gift should never be discarded, devalued or put up for sale,”’ Perkins said.
But some see an opportunity in cloning to enhance and lengthen life.
The Biotechnology Industry Organization, a secular group of companies, distinguishes between human cloning techniques used for research and reproductive cloning.
It opposes reproductive cloning but supports human cloning techniques for research _ especially when used to create stem cells _ “because it has been demonstrated over and over that that technique in that context holds a lot of promise to eventually treat and cure many diseases,” said spokesman Michael Werner.
_ Enette Ngoei
Vatican Announces Pope Will Visit Poland in May
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI plans to visit Poland in late May, making stops at his predecessor’s birthplace and the Auschwitz death camp, according to the Polish bishops’ conference.
Conference secretary Bishop Piotr Libera of Katowice, Poland, told an annual assembly of bishops Tuesday (Jan. 31) that Benedict will visit Warsaw, Poland’s capital; Krakow, where John Paul II was archbishop; and Wadowice, the town where the former pontiff was born as Karol Wojtyla in 1920.
Benedict, a German who enrolled in the compulsory Hitler Youth organization as a teenager, will also visit the Nazi death camp in Auschwitz, where more than a million Jews died between 1940 and 1945.
Benedict is also expected to visit two Catholic shrines: a Marian shrine in Czestochowa and the centuries-old shrine of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, which John Paul visited as a child.
The visit to Poland, Benedict’s second trip outside Italy, is scheduled for May 25-28, Libera said. The Vatican has not confirmed the dates or the details of the trip.
_ Stacy Meichtry
Quote of the Day: Religious Broadcaster Pat Robertson
“I’ve been doing TV for years and years. And the problem is, I ad-lib.”
_ Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, explaining in a Thursday (Feb. 2) interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” why he suggested the United States should assassinate President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and later implied Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s stroke was God’s punishment for giving up the Gaza Strip. He was quoted by the Associated Press.
MO/PH END RNS
