c. 2006 Religion News Service
Six Muslims Charged in U.K. Cartoon Riots
LONDON (RNS) Six Muslims have been charged in connection with angry demonstrations in London more than three months ago over cartoons published in Europe lampooning the Prophet Muhammad.
The six face charges ranging from soliciting to murder and stirring up racial hatred, to organizing a procession without written permission from police. If convicted, they could spend several years in British prisons.
The Feb. 3 demonstration was one of a series of protests _ several of them violent _ around the world that left more than 50 people dead and scores injured after the 12 cartoons ridiculing Islam’s prophet were published in Denmark, Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
One of the dozen caricatures that drew particular Muslim ire depicted the prophet wearing a turban shaped like a bomb.
In London, furious Muslims denounced the cartoons as blasphemous and besieged the Danish embassy, waving banners and placards demanding the beheading of “those who insult the prophet” and “massacre those who insult Islam.”
Others read “Europe your 9/11 will come” and “be prepared for the real Holocaust.” One protester was dressed in the belt of a suicide bomber while a 20-month-old child wore a bonnet bearing the slogan, “I love al-Qaeda.”
Authorities said some of the slogans amounted to threats and intimidation, and police used film footage and audiotapes from the London demonstration to chase down the six Muslim men whom they charged.
Among the six, Abdul Muhid faces two charges of soliciting to murder, while Mizanur Rahman and Uman Javed face one charge each. Rahman and Javed, along with Abdul Rahman Saleem, were also accused of stirring up racial hatred.
Anjem Choudary was charged with organizing a procession without written permission from the police, and Omar Zaheer was accused of racially aggravated disorderly behavior.
Trial dates for the six men have yet to be set.
_ Al Webb
Theologians Protest Rice Speech at Boston College
(RNS) Two theology professors at Boston College have launched a protest against the scheduled May 22 commencement address by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, saying her “practical moral judgment” contradicts Catholic teaching.
Theology chairman Kenneth Himes and professor David Hollenbach issued a letter to the university’s faculty on May 2 that objects to an honorary degree for Rice, which has been standard university practice for commencement speakers for 130 years.
The letter reads: “On the level of both moral principle and practical moral judgment, Secretary Rice’s approach to international affairs is in fundamental conflict with Boston College’s commitment to the values of the Catholic and Jesuit traditions and is inconsistent with the humanistic values that inspire the university’s work.”
The letter also makes mention of the late Pope John Paul II’s disapproval of the war in Iraq.
“We didn’t want to let this event pass without raising very serious questions about Secretary Rice receiving a degree,” Hollenbach said in an interview. “Her judgments about specific policies in Iraq are in conflict with Roman Catholic tradition.”
Himes and Hollenbach claim that 175 faculty members have added their names to their document, but they declined to release the names publicly. A letter from students sharing their position was also issued to the school newspaper.
“I’m really surprised and shocked and a little bit upset by it,” said one of the letter’s co-signers, senior Tony Coppola. Coppola said his primary outrage is with what he called “a fickle administration,” that he says supports some Catholic teaching stances, such as abortion and gay rights, but ignores others, like the Vatican’s stance on Iraq.
The State Department would not confirm or deny that Rice has accepted the university’s invitation, even though school officials say her appearance is set.
Meanwhile, philosophy professor Paul McNellis and political science professor Marc Landy vocally protested the dissent over Rice. “I think it’s grotesque,” Landy said. He in turn wrote his own letter encouraging faculty not to sign Himes and Hollenbach’s document.
“This is the secretary of state of the United States,” Landy said. “She is the second most important executive officer. She represents our country and therefore one would expect her to be courted with a generous welcome. … This is an honor.”
(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)
Landy said “the invitation is from (BC president) Father William Leahy, as fine a priest and as fine a Jesuit and as fine a full commander of Catholic doctrine as compared to these critics. I deny that they have religion on their side.”
Boston College spokesman Jack Dunn said the university respects the differences of opinion, and if need be will allow protesters to picket in a designated area outside of the ceremony grounds.
“Catholic means universal, and we recognize that there are varying perspectives among Catholics and Catholic clergy which is welcomed at a university,” Dunn said. “But we feel strongly that at a university that values free expression that we should not censor a speaker whose views may be unpopular with some on campus.”
_ Piet Levy
Sister Rose Thering, Advocate for Jewish-Christian Ties, Dies at 85
(RNS) Sister Rose Thering, a Roman Catholic nun internationally recognized for fighting anti-Semitism and improving ties between Catholics and Jews, has died. She was 85.
Thering died of kidney failure Saturday (May 6) while living at the Siena Center of the Sisters of St. Dominic in Racine, Wis. Thering returned to her native state after she retired last year from Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., where she was professor emerita of education and the namesake for the Sister Rose Thering Endowment for Jewish-Christian Studies.
“For a half century she was an uncommon, inspired voice of reconciliation and dialogue among Christians and Jews,” said Monsignor Robert Sheeran, Seton Hall’s president.
“Her support for the nation of Israel, her determination to root out anti-Semitism wherever it exists, and her commitment to educating new generations about the evils of the Holocaust form her lasting legacy.”
Thering was born Aug. 9, 1920, in Plain, Wis., the sixth of 11 children in a German-American Catholic family. Raised on her parents’ farm, she joined Racine’s Siena Center at 16, training to become a nun in the Sisters of St. Dominic. As a teacher, Thering discovered religious texts that portrayed Jews as Christ-killers. Those depictions, appalling to her, were the subject of her doctoral dissertation at St. Louis University in 1961.
A year later, the study was used by Cardinal Augustin Bea to draft portions of the Vatican document “Nostra Aetate,” which ruled that Christ’s death “cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today.”
Thering’s crusade continued in gestures big and small. She led more than 50 excursions to Israel sponsored by Seton Hall, where she taught for 36 years. She received more than 80 humanitarian awards, and was the first woman to be given the Anti-Defamation League’s Cardinal Bea Interfaith Award in 2004.
She was the subject of “Sister Rose’s Passion,” a short documentary nominated for an Academy Award in 2005. She presented a menorah to Pope Paul VI in 1974, and wore a Star of David fused to the cross around her neck.
“She was a one-woman wrecking crew,” said Rabbi James Rudin, senior inter-religious adviser for the American Jewish Committee, and a friend of Thering’s for 36 years. “What she helped wreck was 2,000 years of the teaching of contempt, which was built into so much of Christian teaching. … I can only describe her as an original, and there will never be another like her.”
Thering is survived by six siblings, two brothers and four sisters. Her funeral is scheduled in Wisconsin on Tuesday.
_ Piet Levy
Poll Says Pets May Go to Heaven, Even If You Might Not
(RNS) Whether you’ll get to heaven might be an open question, but as far as Fido is concerned, he’s probably a shoo-in.
A new Washington Post poll found that 43 percent of Americans believe pets can go to heaven, and of those people, nearly all (93 percent) said “people’s pets can go to heaven even if their owners do not.”
The remainder of the 1,000 Americans surveyed weren’t so sure pets would stroll through the pearly gates _ 28 percent gave a definitive no, 22 percent were not sure and 7 percent do not believe there is a heaven.
The poll did not indicate whether respondents think certain species are more likely to go to heaven than others, or whether undomesticated fauna are eligible in addition to pets.
The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Dan Paden, a researcher with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals who also has a master’s degree in theology from Boston College, said that while PETA does not take positions on religious issues. “I think it’s a shame that half of believers still don’t see animals as individuals with souls who were created by God and will end up enjoying paradise with him.”
Paden said a more important question is whether someone’s “treatment of animals prevents him or her from joining God in paradise.”
In 2001, ABC News conducted a similar survey with spiritual Web site Beliefnet.com. That survey also found that 43 percent of respondents believe pets can go to heaven.
The ABC poll also compared the responses of pet owners to non-pet owners. The number of pet owners who believe pets can go to heaven was 9 percentage points higher than that of non-pet owners.
_ Anne Pessala
Quote of the Day: Alabama Methodist Pastor John Tanner
(RNS) “Dan Brown has given the church a gift. More people in the world will be talking about Jesus on May 19 than ever before.”
_ The Rev. John Tanner, pastor of Cove United Methodist Church near Huntsville, Ala., commenting on Dan Brown, best-selling author of “The Da Vinci Code,” which will premiere as a movie on May 19.
KRE/JL END RNS
