c. 2006 Religion News Service
Williams Says Anglican Stand on Gays Will Not Be Debated
(RNS) Anglican leaders will not reopen debate on a resolution that condemns homosexuality and discourages the blessing of same-sex unions at their next meeting in 2008, according to the archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of world Anglicanism.
In 1998, representatives from the Anglican Communion’s 38 provinces approved a resolution that rejects homosexual acts as “incompatible with Scripture,” and advises against the “legitimizing or blessing of same-sex unions.” The Lambeth Conference meet every 10 years in England.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has “ruled out (for the time being) reopening of the resolution … on human sexuality from the previous Lambeth Conference,” according to a statement from the archbishop’s office.
Williams has, however, “emphasized the `listening process’ whereby diverse views and experiences of human sexuality are being collected and collated in accordance with that resolution,” the archbishop’s spokesman, James Rosenthal, said in a statement. There will be time at the 2008 conference “for this to be presented and reflected on,” according to Rosenthal.
Factions within the Anglican Communion and its U.S. branch, the Episcopal Church, have been bitterly divided over homosexuality. Rifts between liberals and conservatives were exacerbated in 2003, when V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, was elected bishop of New Hampshire.
Because the Episcopal Church’s soon-to-be presiding bishop supports gay rights, conservative Anglicans, especially in the Global South, have said they will not recognize her at future meetings. Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will become the head of the Episcopal Church at a ceremony in Washington on Nov. 4.
_ Daniel Burke
Dobson Responds to Armey, Calls Him a `Very Bitter Man’
WASHINGTON (RNS) Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, who was called “a bully” surrounded by “thugs” by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, has described Armey as a “very bitter man.”
In an article on the Fox News Web site, Dobson countered the attacks the Armey has made against him in television appearances, press interviews and a statement he posted on his Web site, http://www.FreedomWorks.org.
“Armey’s targeting of me in his criticism of evangelical Christians came straight out of the blue,” Dobson said in his article. “… He `made up’ or imagined many of the incidents that he has attributed to me.”
Dobson denied Armey’s claim that he said Armey was “not a good Christian,” saying someone’s Christian faith does not depend on a person’s own “goodness.”
And, countering Armey’s assertion that Dobson favors “big government,” Dobson cited many policies he has rallied against, including the government “monopoly of schools,” government-funded “art” and taxpayer supported “family planning” organizations.
“Where has this man been?” Dobson said. “I have fought all of those policies tooth and nail, notably while in his presence.”
Dobson came up with three reasons for Armey’s “phony accusations,” including lingering resentment over Dobson’s support for Rep. Steve Largent’s challenge of Armey for the House leadership job in 1998. He also denied Armey’s charge that Dobson threatened 30 GOP congressmen in 1994 if they did not “deliver” votes for Christian conservatives.
He also said that Armey is livid because the press is reporting Armey is quietly working with the American Civil Liberties Union.
“Either Dick Armey has forgotten most of what I said or he has become a very bitter man,” Dobson said. “Or maybe there is another possibility. He could be trying to reposition himself as an erstwhile Republican leader by discrediting the religious right, hoping to step into the vacuum after the upcoming election. Come to think of it, that may explain everything.”
_ Chansin Bird
Fareed Named Head of Islamic Society of North America
(RNS) The Islamic Society of North America has named Muneer Fareed, an Islamic studies professor at Wayne State University in Michigan, as its new secretary-general, the second-highest position in what is arguably North America’s largest Islamic organization.
The election of Fareed, who is about 50, comes barely two months after ISNA elected Ingrid Mattson, a Canadian convert, as the organization’s first female president. Fareed’s election was viewed by at least one observer as a step that completes a momentous transformation for ISNA.
“It’s a generational handover. I think ISNA is trying to make a point here,” said Ebrahim Moosa, an Islamic studies professor at Duke University. “This will help ISNA reach out to many more constituencies. If you wanted a dream team, you’ve got one now.”
Fareed succeeds Sayyid M. Syeed, ISNA’s secretary-general since 1994, who will head ISNA’s new Office of Interfaith and Community Alliances in Washington. Mattson succeeded Muhammad Nur Abdullah. Syeed and Abdullah were considered two of the Muslim American community’s eldest statesmen.
Fareed studied Islam at Darul Uloom Deoband in India, one of the largest Sunni seminaries in the world, as well as in his native South Africa, Saudi Arabia, and at the University of Michigan, where he earned a Ph.D. in Islamic studies. He came to the United States in 1989, settling in Detroit where he served as an imam while teaching.
As a well-traveled, classically trained scholar who is also comfortable in American culture, Fareed is expected to further integrate ISNA into American society but keep the group grounded in fundamentals.
“He brings both practical knowledge of lived Islam as well as a depth of scholarship to this position,” Mattson said in a prepared statement. “Dr. Fareed has a good understanding of the challenges faced by youth.”
Fareed has written extensively about the Islamic concept “ijtihad,” or reinterpretation, which many scholars see as a key bringing modernity to Islamic societies.
“Will we simply remake classical institutions, or will we take into consideration the changes that modernity and colonialism have wrought on Muslim society, and engage in a new form of ijtihad to establish new institutions based on these changes?” he said to the Chronicle of Higher Education in 2005.
_ Omar Sacirbey
Women Protest Tunisian Ban on Headscarves
WASHINGTON (RNS) Twenty-four-year-old Mina Osiruphu-El skipped out on work Wednesday (Nov. 1) _ not to play, but to advocate as a Muslim woman on behalf of Muslim women half a world away.
Osiruphu-El stood outside the Tunisian embassy with other Muslim Americans in a demonstration decrying Tunisia’s ban against women wearing the hijab, or Islamic head covering.
“To tell us you can’t wear it, it’s like you’re taking a part of me,” said Osiruphu-El, a health center worker in Baltimore. “It’s an act of worship as a Muslim woman to wear our hijab.”
The rally was organized by the Muslim American Society, a grass-roots educational and religious organization based in Virginia. A 1981 law prohibits women in Tunisia, a Muslim-majority country on the Mediterranean coast of Africa, from wearing Islamic dress in schools and government workplaces.
But in a long-running struggle between Islamic groups and the government, debate over the ban has been heating up in the last month with reports of public persecution of women wearing headscarves.
“The Tunisian government has been most active now _ they’ve really enforced this thing,” said Mahdi Bray, the society’s executive director. “Women are literally being undressed in public.”
According to Bray, women wearing headscarves are being denied travel documents, employment and access to health care.
Reports that women wearing headscarves in schools and universities are being harassed and forced to remove the covering have been denied by Tunisian authorities. The BBC has reported instances of Tunisian women being stopped in the street by police asking them to remove their headscarves and sign a paper vowing to no longer wear them.
Government officials have cited the headscarves as a sectarian dress used by some Muslims to push political agendas.
“It really hurts me as a Muslim woman to know that another Muslim woman somewhere in the world like me is being prohibited from wearing something that God has told her she should wear,” Osiruphu-El said.
_ Rebecca U. Cho
Catholic Politician Disqualified Because of Pope Campaign Ads
CHENNAI, India _ A Roman Catholic politician was disqualified Tuesday (Oct. 31) as a member of the Indian parliament by the court in the southern state of Kerala because he campaigned in 2004 by “misusing” the names of Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa.
The Kerala court voided the election of P.C. Thomas and installed his closest rival, P.M. Ismail, a Marxist candidate, as his replacement. Thomas, who was described as a former state secretary of the Catholic Congress, had won the seat by just 529 votes in a three-way race.
Ismail had filed a complaint challenging Thomas’ election to Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament. The court found Thomas guilty of violating a law that prevents candidates from appealing to voters on the basis of religion.
Ismail had accused Thomas of “corrupt practice” after he circulated a campaign flier to the Catholic community that contained photos of himself, the late Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa.
The Kerala high court, however, stayed its verdict for 30 days to allow Thomas to appeal his case to India’s Supreme Court, which Thomas has said he intends to do.
_ Achal Narayanan
Quote of the Day: Former President George H.W. Bush
(RNS) “The message I tried to convey as president and the same gospel I try to preach today is that there can be no definition of a successful life that does not include service to others.”
_ Former President George H.W. Bush, speaking Oct. 26 at the centennial celebration of Louisiana College in Pineville, La. He was quoted by Baptist Press.
KRE/PH END RNS
