c. 2006 Religion News Service
State Department Softens Language on Saudi Religious Freedom
WASHINGTON (RNS) The U.S. State Department on Friday (Sept. 15) released its annual list of nations where religious freedom is threatened and immediately drew fire for changing its description of Saudi Arabia.
Despite being a key U.S. ally, Saudi Arabia has been listed as a “country of particular concern” regarding religious freedom since 2004. The Middle Eastern country, which provides the U.S. with about 15 percent of its crude oil imports, has objected to its inclusion in the report in past years.
This year, however, the State Department omitted the statement: “Religious freedom does not exist in Saudi Arabia,” which had been included in the previous eight years’ reports, said Dwight Bashir, a senior policy analyst for the independent U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
“It sends the message that there is some form of religious freedom,” in Saudi Arabia, Bashir said, “but things have have not really changed.”
While the Saudi government has talked about permitting broader freedom for religious minorities, such as Shiite Muslims, there has been little action to back up the rhetoric, according to Bashir.
Even the State Department’s report states that the Saudi government “enforces a strictly conservative interpretation of Sunni Islam and Muslims who do not adhere to it can face significant society discrimination and serious repercussions at the hands of the … religious police.”
But the report also states that Saudi Arabia has taken steps, such as revising school textbooks “to weed out disparaging remarks towards religious groups” and curbing “harrassment of religious practice.”
Israel, another U.S. ally, was chastised in the report for constructing a wall that “limited access to sacred sites and seriously impeded the work of religious organizations that provide humanitarian relief and social services to Palestinians.” Israel was not listed as a “country of particular concern.”
(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)
Those that were include:
_ Burma, where an authoritarian military regime infiltrates and monitors the “activities of virtually all organizations.”
_ China, where “the government’s respect for freedom of religion and freedom of conscience remained poor.”
_ Eritrea, in which authorities “continued to harass, arrest and detain members of independent Evangelical groups.”
_ Iran, where “there was further deterioration of the extremely poor status of respect for religious freedom.”
_ North Korea, where defectors “allege that they witnessed the arrests and execution of members of underground Christian churches.”
_ Sudan, where the government places restrictions on Christians in the northern part of the country.
_ Vietnam, where clergy and organized religious groups “at variance with State laws and policies” are restricted.
_ Daniel Burke
Forum: Post 9/11, Security and Religious Officials Improving Relations
WASHINGTON (RNS) Five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, officials from the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice say they’re working more with Muslim, Sikh and Arab communities to improve relations and address matters of safety and civil rights.
“Our country is more secure today because law enforcement and America’s Arab, Muslim, Sikh and South Asian communities are working more closely together,” said Daniel Sutherland, officer for civil rights and civil liberties at the Department of Homeland Security at a forum Friday (Sept. 15).
Brett Hovington, director of community outreach for the FBI, said he hopes relations will continue to improve so that people at the grass-roots level are willing to share information that might be helpful in terrorism-related investigations.
“They can be engaged with their government,” he said. “They can still be who they are. They can still practice the religion that they want to practice. But it’s up to everyone to take a responsibility in fighting the war on terrorism.”
Ahmed Younis, national director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, cited town hall forums at mosques and other locations as ways to build partnerships between Muslims and law enforcement officials. But he also noted the difference in their roles.
“We are not law enforcement experts,” he said. “We are experts in counter-extremism. We are experts in … fighting bad theology with good theology.”
Muslim and Sikh leaders said after the forum that meetings in Washington and across the country with authorities have enabled them to bring up specific concerns, from profiling to requests that Sikh men remove their turbans during airport security checks.
“We might not always agree but at least they see our point of view,” said Imam Mohamed Magid of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society in Sterling, Va.
_ Adelle M. Banks
IRS Revokes Tax-Exempt Status of Anti-Abortion Group
WASHINGTON (RNS) The Internal Revenue Service has revoked the tax exemption of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue West, which two years ago said it wanted to sink Sen. John Kerry’s bid for the White House.
While the IRS does not provide information on its reasons for revoking a tax exemption, the group Catholics For a Free Choice filed a complaint against Operation Rescue West in 2004, accusing the anti-abortion group of electioneering.
During the Democratic Party’s convention in 2004, Operation Rescue West placed an ad in The Wanderer, a conservative Catholic weekly, that asked readers to offer tax deductible donations to help “defeat (John Kerry) in November and enable President Bush to appoint a pro-life Supreme Court Justice.”
Nonprofit organizations, such as Operation Rescue West, which was also known as Youth Ministries Inc., are tax-exempt as long as they do not advocate for the election of particular political candidates.
Frances Kissling, president of Catholics For a Free Choice, said she hopes “the revocation of Operation West’s tax-exempt status will sends a clear message to tax-exempt groups that think they are above the law.”
Operation Rescue West has reorganized and is now simply Operation Rescue, Cheryl Sullenger, the group’s outreach coordinator, told The New York Times.
“Losing our tax exemption doesn’t have much of an effect on us, one way or another. We have learned some lessons through this whole thing, and I think we’re in a better place now than we were before the IRS investigation,” Sullenger said.
_ Daniel Burke
Mass Honors Trio of New Orleans Archbishops
NEW ORLEANS _ Catholic leaders from around the country converged on St. Louis Cathedral on Thursday (Sept. 14) as the Archdiocese of New Orleans celebrated the first time in its history with three living archbishops.
Archbishop Philip Hannan, 93, who led the church in New Orleans from 1965 to 1989, celebrated 50 years as a bishop. Archbishop Francis Schulte, 79, who presided here from 1989 to 2002, celebrated 25 years. Schulte’s successor, Archbishop Alfred Hughes, 73, also celebrated 25 years as a bishop.
The papal nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, paid tribute to the three priests during a Mass lasting more than two hours. Also in attendance were Cardinal Adam Maida of Detroit, Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia and more than 30 bishops and archbishops from across the country.
In addition to having three living archbishops for the first time since the first bishop arrived in New Orleans in 1793, the city is the only place in the United States that claims that distinction, church officials said.
The procession of bishops filed in to Mass to the tolling of the cathedral bells, with Hughes carrying the ornate staff that belonged to the first bishop of New Orleans, Luis Penalver y Cardenas, who served until 1801.
“It’s truly historic that we have three living archbishops that remain in the diocese where they served,” said the Rev. William Maestri, spokesman for the archdiocese, who said retired bishops often return to their hometowns or move closer to family and friends.
“I think it’s very important in light of Katrina because so many people have left by choice or by circumstance,” Maestri said. “I think it says a great deal about New Orleans and how when people come to New Orleans, they fall in love with the city. I think that’s an important witness to the rest of the country.”
Hannan, originally from Washington, D.C., took the helm of the New Orleans archdiocese in the aftermath of Hurricane Betsy in 1965. He served as the principal celebrant of Thursday’s Mass, using his remarks to highlight the emergence of hope from the hardships of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
“God can change vice into virtue,” Hannan said. “During those great tragedies, he prepared a number of people to be examples to us and to be heroes.”
_ Mark Waller
Episcopal, Lutheran Bishops Launch Push on Anti-Poverty Goals
NEW YORK (RNS) The presiding bishops of the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) issued are urging parishioners to recommit themselves to the cause of eradicating global poverty and hunger by supporting the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The pastoral letter, released Thursday (Sept. 14), hopes that U.S. Episcopalians and Lutherans will collaborate on a national grass-roots effort in support of the goals, which have been adopted by nearly 200 U.N. member states, including the United States.
The targeted goals “reflect the reality that the resources, strategies, and knowledge to end global poverty exist if only the moral and political will can be built,” Frank T. Griswold of the Episcopal Church and Mark S. Hanson of the ELCA wrote in their letter.
“Christians must play a key role building this will and holding governments accountable for promises made.”
“We hope that by reflecting together on the challenge of global poverty, our communities may be called into deeper conversation, collaboration and advocacy on this urgent topic,” the presiding bishops wrote in support of the larger grass-roots effort, called “ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History.”
In a joint interview on Friday at the Episcopal national offices in New York _ just four days after commemorations of the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks _ Griswold and Hanson said the goals could serve to build what they termed “a new global security based on hope.”
Hanson said an overseas religious leader had told him recently that, in the years since 9/11, the international perception of the U.S. had changed from that of an “`exporter of hope to an exporter of fear.”’
A more visible embrace of the millennium goals, Griswold said, “would be a way of presenting ourselves, as a country, in a more hopeful light.”
The fight against poverty, both bishops said, could also be a point at which conservatives, liberals and moderates both within and outside the church could find a common cause of purpose. People of all political and theological stripes, Griswold said, “really do care about the world in which we live.”
_ Chris Herlinger
Quote of the Day: Megachurch Pastor and Author Rick Warren
(RNS) “This idea that God wants everybody to be wealthy. There is a word for that: baloney. It’s creating a false idol. You don’t measure your self-worth by your net worth. I can show you millions of faithful followers of Christ who live in poverty. Why isn’t everyone in the church a millionaire?”
Megachurch pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren, commenting to Time magazine about the belief that God wants prosperity for Christians.
KRE/JL END RNSEditors: To obtain photos of New Orleans’ three living archbishops in fourth item, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.
