c. 2006 Religion News Service

Christian Peace Activists to Stay in Iraq Despite Kidnappings, Murder

(RNS) The North American peace activist group Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) says it will continue its work in Iraq despite the murder of one of four team members abducted in January.

The body of American Quaker peace activist and CPT brigade member Tom Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, Va., was discovered Thursday (March 9) in Baghdad by U.S. troops. His death was announced Friday.

The peace activist apparently had been tortured before his death, officials said. No reason has been given for his murder.

“Our work continues,” Kryss Chupp, a spokeswoman for the peace activist organization said in an interview Monday (March 13).

The fate of the other three team members remains unknown. Chupp said the CPT will remain in Iraq “to greet our missing team members when they are released.”

She said despite Fox’s murder, the organization remains hopeful that the other three _ Norman Kember, 74, of Great Britain and James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, both of Canada _ will be released.

Fox and the others traveled to Baghdad in November to work with Iraqi peace groups in defense of Iraqi prison detainees and their families.

The four were abducted Nov. 26, and a group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness Brigades has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings. The group threatened to kill the peace activists unless Iraqi detainees in U.S. and Iraqi prisons were immediately released.

The kidnapped activists have been seen on several videotapes, though the last one, broadcast March 7, did not show Fox.

Fox’s life and death are being marked in vigils and religious services.

“In response to Tom’s passing, we ask that everyone set aside inclinations to vilify or demonize others, no matter what they have done,” CPT said in a statement.

CPT is committed to non-violent action in conflict zones, such as Iraq. The group has offices in Chicago and Toronto and was organized in 1984 by Mennonites, Brethren and Quakers _ members of the traditional peace churches.

_ Chris Herlinger

Canadian Catholic Leaders Again Defend Gays, Scold Vatican

TORONTO (RNS) For the second time in less than two weeks, Canadian Catholics in positions of religious authority have lashed out at the Vatican over its treatment of homosexuals.

On Feb. 26, 19 Roman Catholic priests in Quebec published a letter in a Montreal daily newspaper in which they strongly denounced the Vatican’s opposition to same-sex marriage and the ordination of gay men.

In the latest case of public dissent, representatives of more than 200 Canadian religious orders wrote to Canadian Catholic bishops, criticizing the church for being unwelcoming to homosexuals and unwilling to give women decision-making roles.

The 26-page letter from the Canadian Religious Conference, released Thursday (March 9), represents monks, nuns and priests in religious orders. It accused the bishops of having a “clerical mentality,” adding that it regretted the bishops’ lack of independence from the Vatican.

The missive came as the Canadian bishops prepare for a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI later this year, an event that is scheduled once every five years.

The document takes issue with church teaching on divorce, contraception, homosexuality and assisted suicide.

“We regret,” says the CRC, “the holding up of an ideal that leaves little room for advancement and progress; the defense of principles that do not reflect human experience (divorce, contraception, protection against AIDS, alleviation of suffering at the end of life).”

The writers also expressed regret at the “the legalistic image of the Catholic Church _ and of our Canadian Church _ its rigidity and its intransigent stands on sexual morals; its lack of openness regarding access to the sacraments for divorced and remarried Catholics, its lack of compassion for them; its unwelcoming attitude towards homosexuals.”

The letter calls on bishops to “create opportunities for discussion and discernment; engaging in the questions and problematic situations raised in today’s society: …the place of women in the church, marriage between persons of the same sex, assisted suicide.”

The conference expressed hope that the church “will position itself closer to the major issues of the world: impoverishment, inequalities, rights and roles of women, defense of the disenfranchised, respect for the environment and the safeguarding of humanity.”

_ Ron Csillag

Anglicans Retreat on Divestment in Israel, But Jewish Group Still Angry

LONDON (RNS) The Church of England appears to be backing away from a proposal to sell off its stake in companies doing business with Israel, but the shift hasn’t impressed the American Jewish Congress.

A Feb. 6 vote by the Church of England’s General Synod targeted the church’s $4.4 million holding in U.S. machinery giant Caterpillar Inc., whose bulldozers have allegedly been used by Israel’s army to destroy Palestinian homes in the occupied territories.

But the church’s powerful Ethical Investment Advisory Group recommended March 7 that the church hold onto its stake, since “there are no current or projected sales by Caterpillar equipment for use by the Israeli government.” The advisory group reserved the right to “revisit” that decision if direct sales began.

That failed to soothe ruffled feathers at the American Jewish Congress, which said in a Wednesday (March 8) statement that the advisory panel’s action smacked of “half a loaf (being) better than none.”

“But this is a stale loaf indeed,” said American Jewish Congress President Paul S. Miller.

Neil Goldstein, American Jewish Congress executive director, said, “The concept that cooperation in Israel’s war against terrorism is morally repugnant shows that the Anglican Church has lost its moral compass.”

The general synod’s vote, which was backed by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, came in response to a call by the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East for the Church of England “to disinvest from companies profiting from the illegal occupation, such as Caterpillar Inc., until they change their policies.”

A spokesman for Caterpillar told the British Broadcasting Corp. that its products were sold to the U.S. government, which in turn sold them on to Israel.

“We clearly have neither the legal right nor the tangible ability to regulate how customers use their machines,” the spokesman added.

_ Al Webb

Report Tries to Explain Increasing Violence Among Muslims in France

PARIS (RNS) Growing violence among Muslims in France, which exploded in last fall’s riots, is being largely fanned by a lack of political and social opportunities, according to a newly published report.

Paradoxically, says the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, “it is the exhaustion of political Islamism, not its radicalization, that explains most of the violence, and it is the depoliticization of young Muslims, rather than their alleged reversion to a radical kind of communalism, that ought to be cause for worry.”

France was shaken by a wave of arson attacks and rioting in late October and November. Much of the violence was blamed on disenfranchised Muslim youths living in tatteredsuburban housing projects.

Alongside the violence, authorities also fear the rise of religious extremism among an estimated 6 million Muslims in France, Europe’s largest Islamic community. Police have made a rash of arrests of suspected Islamic militants over the past few years, and reportedly foiled a number of terrorist plots.

The Crisis Group suggests traditional Islamic social and religious groups carry little weight these days in France _ and had almost no influence during the fall riots. It criticizes the popular, conservative Union of Islamic Organizations of France, for example, for currying favor with French authorities at the expense of its members.

“The end result was to alienate the organization’s social base, especially its youth, which no longer felt adequately represented by leaders they believed had been co-opted by the government,” the report said.

Like the riots, the missionary Salafist branch of Islam is also filling the vacuum among some French Muslims, as a form of political expression, the Crisis Group said. One worrying offshoot, it says, is the rise of home-grown jihadism.

The report is the first of an upcoming series on Islam in Europe by the Crisis Group, an independent think tank focusing on preventing and resolving conflicts.

The organization offered a number of recommendations in its report, ranging from reducing discrimination and curbing police abuses in underprivileged neighborhoods, to giving a greater voice and representation to Muslims in France.

_ Elizabeth Bryant

Surveys Show Nearly Half of Americans Have Negative Views of Islam

(RNS) In recent months, Jihad Shoshara and a group of Muslims he is active with in Chicago have organized forums against domestic violence, donated Thanksgiving turkeys to poor families, and campaigned against violence in Darfur, the war-torn region in Sudan.

Despite these efforts, Shoshara said he is not surprised that two recent polls suggest that nearly half of Americans have negative views of Islam.

Shoshara said a “stream” of negative news associated with Muslims _ from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to sometimes violent Muslim protests against cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, has overwhelmed efforts at outreach and dialogue.

“It’s a big challenge to try and change an impression of a religion one person at a time. But that’s the slog that American Muslims find themselves in,” said Shoshara, 36, who’s also organizing an interfaith conference on hunger. “To a degree, someone who only sees cable news and has no other experience with Muslims, I can see how they would take away a negative impression of Islam.”

A study released Thursday (March 9) by the Washington-based Council on American Islamic Relations found that 43 percent of Americans believe Islam teaches hatred, and that 24 percent believe Muslims value life less than other people. The survey of 1,001 people, conducted in November, showed that a third of Americans believe Muslims want to impose their faith on others while 17 percent thought it was OK to put Muslims in jail. Those most likely to have negative views of Muslims were older, politically conservative and less educated.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll released Wednesday found that 46 percent of Americans have a negative view of Islam, up 7 percent from the months immediately after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

A third of the 1,000 people polled said Islam encourages violence against non-Muslims.

The Washington Post-ABC poll was done March 2-5, on the heels of the cartoon protests. Sam Aboelela, who organized a “Progressive Muslim” meet-up group in New York, said perceptions would have been negative even if the protest didn’t happen.

“There’s something negative in the news every night about Muslims. If it weren’t the cartoon controversy, it would have been something else,” he said.

_ Omar Sacirbey

Quote of the Day: Vision America President Rick Scarborough

(RNS) “Let’s get something straight here: rolling a house with toilet paper is a prank. Torching nine churches is NOT a prank.”

_ Rick Scarborough, president of Vision America, a Texas-based conservative Christian organization, commenting on federal investigators’ description of the motive behind a series of recent church fires in Alabama. He was quoted by EthicsDaily.com.

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