c. 2007 Religion News Service

Presbyterians clear Citigroup in Israel/Palestine probe

(RNS) The Presbyterian Church (USA) has removed Citigroup Inc. from its list of businesses probed for possible ties to violence and oppression in the Palestinian territories, saying it found no “improprieties.”

The Louisville, Ky.-based denomination had looked into whether the financial conglomerate was helping terrorist groups launder money. The church’s Mission Responsibility Through Investment Committee announced the end of its investigation of Citigroup at its meeting Nov. 8-10.

The committee continues to scrutinize four other companies to determine if their dealings with Israel and Palestine comply with the church’s peacemaking policies. Those companies are: ITT Industries of White Plains, N.Y.; Motorola Inc. of Schaumburg Ill.; United Technologies Corp. of Hartford, Conn.; and Caterpillar Inc. of Peoria, Ill.

In a controversial move, the Presbyterian Church, which counts 3 million members in the U.S., promised in 2004 to divest from companies it believed contribute to violence in Israel and Palestine. Under pressure from conservatives and Jewish groups, the church changed plans in 2006, and now works to ensure that its money “be invested only in peaceful pursuits.”

_ Daniel Burke

Police drop plan to `map’ Los Angeles Muslims

LOS ANGELES (RNS) After an angry outcry from Muslim leaders, the Los Angeles Police Department on Wednesday (Nov. 14) canceled plans to create a “mapping” database on local Muslim communities to help pinpoint possible Islamic extremists.

“When they are talking about mapping gang areas, Mafia areas, it’s erroneous to transfer that model and then map a mainstream community,” said Salam Al-Maryati, executive director of the Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council.

“They are mapping criminal areas, and so when they say they want to map us, already they’re treating the Muslim community as suspects, not partners.”

The LAPD’s proposed Muslim mapping became a flashpoint earlier this month after the American Civil Liberties Union and Muslim groups publicly condemned it as a type of racial profiling.

Police officials dropped the plan after initially defending it. Police Chief William Bratton scheduled a Thursday meeting with local Muslim leaders to ease tensions and open up dialogue.

“We’re seeking to increase the engagement with these communities, not antagonize,” Bratton said in a radio interview. “Mapping has a very positive connotation in policing. Unfortunately it’s equated sometimes with the term `racial profiling.”’

Muslim leaders said mapping would be especially problematic because ethnicity and religion blend so easily in America, with Muslims and Jews both coming from Iran or Arab Muslims and Arab Christians emigrating from the same predominantly Muslim countries.

“Most Muslims live around non-Muslims,” Al-Maryati said. “There are no Muslim neighborhoods in Southern California.”

Al-Maryati said his office has successfully developed relationships with police agencies, including the FBI, but added that Muslims are afraid of being stereotyped as terrorists.

“Everybody wants to open up in the mosques,” he said, but added, “they don’t want their names and their addresses put on a law enforcement database.”

_ David Finnigan

Tanzania education program wins $1 million prize

WASHINGTON (RNS) The Catholic founder of an education program for refugees from central Africa has won a $1 million prize for his humanitarian work from Catholic University and The Opus Foundation.

The fourth annual Opus Prize went to Brother Constant Goetschalckx, a member of the Brothers of Charity who began the AHADI International Institute in Tanzania 10 years ago.

Goetschalckx’s program offers high school- and college-level education to 26,000 refugees every year. It began when refugees from war-stricken Congo, Rwanda and Burundi began to pour into Tanzania.

The other two finalists, who will receive $100,000 each, were the Rev. John Adams, president of SOME (So Others Might Eat) in Washington, D.C., and the Homeless People’s Federation Philippines, represented by the Rev. Norberto Carcellar, its executive director.

“These social entrepreneurs are transforming the lives of some of the world’s most vulnerable and destitute by providing them with education, opportunities and hope,” said Amy Sunderland from the Opus Prize Foundation. “They are demonstrating that change is possible.”

_ Heather Donckels

Quote of the Day: Presidential candidate Mitt Romney

(RNS) “The way things are achieved in my church, as I believe in other great faiths, is through inspiration from God and not through protests and letters to the editor.”

_ Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, describing the Mormon Church’s 1978 decision to admit blacks to full membership. Romney, who had advocated a change in church policy, was quoted by The New York Times.

KRE/PH END RNS