c. 2006 Religion News Service

North American Muslims Call for Release of Israeli Soldiers

(RNS) Muslim advocacy groups in the United States and Canada are urging the militant group Hezbollah to free two Israeli soldiers captured in a cross-border raid July 12 _ but added that the release should be preceded by a cease-fire and lead to the release of thousands of Arab prisoners in Israeli jails.

“All prisoners should be released by all parties, and that includes the two Israeli soldiers being held by Hezbollah, but also the many Palestinians and Lebanese who are being held in Israeli jails without charge,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations.

According to B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, Israel held 794 Palestinian prisoners without charge at the start of this year.

“It appears that an Israeli life and Israeli freedom is much more valuable than Palestinian life. We have to achieve a situation in which everyone’s freedom and every life is considered equal,” Hooper said.

Larry Lowenthal, executive director of the Boston chapter of the American Jewish Committee, said a prisoner exchange would represent a capitulation to Hezbollah.

“Anything that emboldens Hezbollah is counterproductive,” Lowenthal said.

But the Toronto-based Muslim Canadian Congress urged Israel and Hezbollah to come to a cease-fire that could lead to the release of the captured Israeli soldiers and an eventual prisoner exchange between the two warring parties.

“While the MCC acknowledges that Hezbollah’s capture of two Israeli soldiers was a dangerous provocation and condemns the action, it notes that the kidnapping of combatants and civilians did not start with Hezbollah or Hamas. Kidnapping has been an Israeli practice for a long time,” the statement said.

A recent survey found that nearly a quarter of Canadians said they had negative views of Muslims, compared to only about 10 percent of those who had negative views of Christian and Jews. Feelings ran hardest in Quebec, where 40 percent of respondents in the French-speaking province said they had negative views of Muslims.

The survey, conducted by the Association of Canadian Studies July 11-16, comes after an March 2006 ABC-Washington Post study found that 46 percent of Americans have a negative view of Islam.

_ Omar Sacirbey

European Union Approves Stem Cell Funding, Vatican Fumes

LONDON (RNS) The European Union agreed to continue funding embryonic stem cell research, but only after accepting a compromise forced by a coalition of mainly Roman Catholic countries to ban human cloning and projects that destroy human embryos.

The action Monday (July 24) at an EU ministers’ meeting in Brussels cleared the way for adoption of the 25-nation bloc’s $65 billion research and development programs from 2007 through 2013 _ but only with severe strictures in the field of stem cell science.

Germany led a coalition of mostly Roman Catholic EU members, including Italy, Poland, Austria, Lithuania, Slovakia, Luxembourg and Malta that hammered out a deal which forbids allocating European money for research that involves destroying human embryos. Italy, a predominantly Catholic nation, voted for the measure after initially opposing it.

Stem cells can develop into any human tissue and may have medicinal value in the treatment of a range of ailments from cancer and diabetes to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, according to medical scientists. Monday’s action allows the EU to fund research using embryos that would otherwise be discarded, such as those from fertilization clinics.

The European action puts the EU at odds with the United States, where President George W. Bush last Wednesday (July 19) vetoed a bill that would have allowed the expansion of federal funding for stem cell research.

The vote also placed the EU at odds with the Vatican, whose official newspaper blasted the decision.

In its headline, the Vatican daily L’Osservatore Roman referred to the decision as “the macabre product of a twisted sense of progress.”

The Vatican remains fiercely opposed to any stem cell research that results in the destruction of human embryos. Church teaching holds that life begins at the moment of conception.

_ Al Webb and Stacy Meichtry

Gospel Music Sales Mark Double-Digit Increase in First Half of 2006

(RNS) Sales of gospel music albums climbed 11.6 percent in the first half of 2006, compared to the same period in 2005 _ the first time album sales have increased since 2002.

In the six-month period ending July 2, 2006, gospel music albums sold 17,952,000 compared to 16,085,000 for the same period in 2005, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

“It is especially good news that the growth extends to a wide diversity of albums and styles, suggesting that the inspiring and compassionate message that unifies all gospel music is resonating in our culture today,” said John W. Styll, president of the Gospel Music Association, in a statement announcing the sales trend.

Legal downloads made up a greater portion of the total music sales, according to Nielsen, with 502,000 albums downloaded in the first half of 2006, up from 191,000 albums downloaded in the first half of 2005.

The top-selling albums for the first half of 2006 were: 1. “Precious Memories” by Alan Jackson; 2. “Hero” by Kirk Franklin; 3. “Flyleaf” by Flyleaf; 4. “WoW Gospel 2006” by various artists; 5. “Lifesong” by Casting Crowns; 6. “Piece of My Passion” by Juanita Bynum; 7. “Testify” by P.O.D.; 8. “WoW Hits 2006” by various artists; 9. “Coming Up to Breathe” by MercyMe; 10. “Wherever You Are” by Third Day.

_ J. Edward Mendez

Quote of the Day: Connie Statz, Catholic laywoman from Minnesota

(RNS) “That really hurt me more than anything else, because that’s part of being Catholic. That’s part of the sacrament.”

_ Connie Statz, 50, who attended the 19th annual National Catholic HIV/AIDS Ministry Conference in mid-July at Loyola University Chicago, describing how she still feels rejected 13 years after being told by a priest at her rural Minnesota church that her AIDS diagnosis prevented her from drinking wine at Communion. She was quoted by the Chicago Tribune.

DSB/PH END RNS