c. 2005 Religion News Service
New Jersey Attorney General Bans Religion as Sole Profiling Factor
(RNS) New Jersey authorities cannot use “ethnicity, religious affiliation, or religious practice” as the sole factor in determining whether to investigate someone for possible terrorist activity, according to an order by state Attorney General Peter Harvey.
The written order, released Tuesday (Dec. 20), is a response to allegations raised this fall that New Jersey’s Office of Counter-Terrorism targeted suspects in terrorism investigations solely because of their Muslim faith or Arab heritage.
“The citizens of New Jersey rightfully expect that all lawful and appropriate means will be used to thwart terrorists,” Harvey noted. “The impermissible use of such stereotypes would ultimately undermine our counter-terrorism efforts by alienating significant segments of our society.”
The directive applies to all 51,500 police officers in the state, including counter-terrorism agents, and builds upon a similar order Harvey issued in June prohibiting police from targeting suspects based solely on the color of their skin.
Police, however, can still use race and religious identifiers when they are advised to “be on the lookout” for a specific suspect.
State Police initially raised questions about whether Counter-Terrorism agents were profiling Muslims after an internal audit found 140 questionable reports they had entered into a crime-fighting database known as the Statewide Intelligence Management System, or SIMS. Counter-Terrorism Director Sidney Caspersen has vigorously denied the profiling accusation and said the reports were simply incomplete.
Muslim groups voiced support for the directive.
“It shows a desire to return to being a people of law … where your actions trigger law enforcement activities, not race, religion or any of those other things about you,” said Yaser ElMenshawy, chairman of the Majlis Ash-Shura of New Jersey, a council of mosques and Islamic organizations based in Newark.
_ Rick Hepp
Death of Baha’i Prisoner Marks `New Wave of Persecutions’
(RNS) An Iranian prisoner has died after being held for 10 years on charges that he had converted from Islam to the Baha’i faith, the Baha’i International Community says.
According to the New York City-based group, Zabihollah Mahrami’s Dec. 15 death marks the start of “a new wave of persecutions” of the faith’s followers.
Iran became the target of international criticism in January 1996, when the country’s Revolutionary Court sentenced Mahrami to death on charges of “apostasy,” a legal term used in Iran to signify the abandonment of Islam.
The Baha’i faith, which originated in Iran 150 years ago, upholds many Islamic tenets but opposes Islam’s use of an organized clergy. The faith claims 5 million members in 191 countries worldwide, including thousands in Iran where it is officially considered “a misleading and wayward sect.”
In a statement, the Baha’i International Community’s United Nations office said that at least 59 Baha’is have been arrested, detained or imprisoned so far this year _ a sharp increase from figures of the last several years.
Mahrami’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment following protests by several foreign governments. Iranian officials later said that he had been imprisoned for spying for Israel rather than for his religious convictions.
Mahrami held a civil service job in the years leading up to the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, when he and other Baha’is were purged from the country’s government. He was earning a living installing Venetian blinds when he was arrested in 1995.
Mahrami was a lifelong Baha’i, but he was accused of converting from Islam when a civil service colleague told a newspaper that he had converted in an effort to prevent him from losing his job, the Baha’i group said.
Bani Dugal, the Baha’i community’s principal representative to the United Nations, told Baha’i World News Service that in the Yazd prison Mahrami received numerous death threats and was forced to perform arduous physical labor.
“In this light there should be no doubt that the Iranian authorities bear manifest responsibility for the death of this innocent man, whose only crime was his belief in the Baha’i faith,” Dugal said.
_ David M. Barnes
Residents Hope Intelligent Design Ruling Dims Spotlight on Town
DOVER, Pa. (RNS) The initial reaction in this York County community to a federal court decision on the intelligent design issue: Glad it’s over. Get the media out of town.
Not long after U.S. Middle District Judge John E. Jones III ruled Tuesday (Dec. 20) that the school district’s intelligent design policy promotes religion and violates the U.S. and Pennsylvania constitutions, Robert Maul, 85, sat in the warmth of his pickup truck and contemplated the six-week trial.
He was fed up with the whole question of intelligent design, which contends the universe and many living things are so complex that they must have been created by an intelligent, higher being.
“They should have just left it the way it was, like when I went to school,” said Maul, a lifelong Dover resident. “I’m not in favor of what they were trying to swing here.”
Dover Area High School students said they were tired of reporters asking them what they thought.
“Every day, there’s like 50 reporters hanging around,” said Shawn Mitchell, 15, a 10th grader at the school. The New York Times, Newsweek and even Rolling Stone joined legions of local media outlets.
The Dover Area School District has been the subject of national news coverage and occasional lampooning since the school board passed a policy last year requiring district administrators to inform ninth-grade science students about intelligent design.
Board members who supported intelligent design were voted out of office in this year’s election. One of those who lost his seat, David Napierskie, said he thinks Jones’ ruling went too far.
“I think his decision is another (indication) of how everything is becoming anti-religious in this country,” he said. “I’m waiting for the ACLU to have the Constitution declared unconstitutional.”
But Judy McIlvaine, one of the candidates who successfully challenged the intelligent design slate on the board, expressed relief.
“I think that Judge Jones has done U.S. students a favor with his well thought-out, definitive and sweeping decision. Now they can learn science as science and not have to have it mixed with something that is not science.”
_ T.W. Burger
Pope Benedict XVI Recalls `Fright’ Upon Being Elected
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI recounted on Thursday (Dec. 22) the shock he felt upon being elected pope, describing his decision to accept the office as an act of obedience.
Addressing the Roman Curia in a year-end review of Vatican events, Benedict said his selection in the Sistine Chapel came as a complete surprise tinged with “fright.”
“Such a task was completely beyond anything I could have ever imagined as my vocation,” Benedict said. “It was only as a great act of faith in God that I could obediently give my `yes’ to this selection.”
Benedict has rarely discussed his election at length. Shortly after his election in April, however, he compared the votes cast in his favor to a falling “guillotine.”
Benedict appeared reluctant to include his succession of John Paul II among the major events he ticked off Wednesday, giving brief mention to the event following lengthy reflections on World Youth Day, held in Cologne, Germany, last August, and the more recent 40th anniversary celebration of the Second Vatican Council reforms.
“Must I still recall that April 19 of this year?” Benedict asked, referring to the day of his election.
Benedict instead focused his comments on praise of John Paul, noting that “no pope in history has been able to visit all the world and speak directly to men of all continents as he did.”
Benedict said John Paul’s final decline served as a lesson in “suffering that is neither theological or philosophical theory but the fruit of his personal journey of suffering.”
Reflecting on World Youth Day, Benedict underscored the solemnity of the Sunday Mass that closed the Cologne festivities.
“For all those who were present, the intense silence of those million youths remains unforgettable, a silence that united us and raised us up when the Lord in the Sacrament was placed on the altar,” Benedict said.
Turning to the Second Vatican Council, held from 1962 to 1965, Benedict said it “redefined the relationship between the faith of the church and certain essential elements of modern thought.”
_ Stacy Meichtry
Embryonic Stem Cell Opponents Hail New Adult Stem Cell Law
(RNS) Christian leaders who have opposed embryonic stem cell research are praising the enactment of a new law that will enhance the collection of adult stem cells.
President Bush signed the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005 in a ceremony at the White House on Tuesday (Dec. 20).
“This is wonderful news for the many thousands of suffering patients who can benefit from umbilical cord blood stem cell treatments,” said Richard M. Doerflinger of the new legislation. He is the U.S. Catholic bishops’ expert on bioethics.
“We are grateful to Congress and the president for enacting this legislation without further delay.”
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who began developing the bill in 2001, welcomed the passage of the legislation, which intends to prevent hospitals from discarding umbilical cords that he said have “achieved remarkable breakthroughs” in disease treatment. The law calls for authorization of $79 million for the collection and storage of cord blood stem cells.
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, who attended the signing ceremony in the Roosevelt Room, called the law an “important victory for ethical research.”
Carrie Gordon Earll, senior analyst for bioethics at Focus on the Family Action, welcomed the alternative to the more controversial use of embryonic stem cells that involves destruction of embryos.
“Best of all, no life is lost in the collection of these stem cells and many patients will benefit from this effort,” she said in a report posted on Focus on the Family’s e-newsletter Citizen Link.
Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, agreed.
“This legislation will provide significant funding to advance stem cell research, with all of its enormous promise to alleviate human suffering, without using U.S. taxpayers’ money to sacrifice the lives of unborn human beings in order to harvest their stem cells,” Land told Baptist Press, his denomination’s news service.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Muslim Travelers Asked to Report Cases of Border Profiling
(RNS) An Islamic civil rights and advocacy group is urging Muslim travelers to Mecca and a Toronto conference to report cases of profiling by United States border agents.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations said it is “concerned that American Muslim travelers returning to the United States will be singled out” by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials for security checks “based solely on their attendance at both religious events.”
CAIR has also set up a civil rights hotline and has made a downloadable “Border Incident Report Form” available on its Web site.
The advisory, released Tuesday (Dec. 20), comes after CBP agents at Los Angeles International Airport detained two British Muslim leaders en-route to speak (Saturday) Dec. 17 at the Muslim Public Affairs Council’s annual convention.
But it was last December’s detainment of almost 40 American Muslims returning from a conference in Toronto that prompted the advisory, CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said. The travelers were returning in automobiles from a three-day “Reviving the Islamic Spirit” conference but were stopped for up to 6 1/2 hours at the Buffalo-Canadian border where they were interrogated, fingerprinted and photographed without explanation, according to CAIR.
“If they did it last year, we have no reason not to believe they’ll do it again this year,” Hooper said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials are defending their actions.
“As the frontline border agency, it is incumbent upon CBP officers to verify the identity of every individual (regardless of ethnicity or religion) entering the United States,” said a statement released by CBP in response to the advisory. “Our CBP officers are expected to treat everyone entering and exiting our country with the utmost respect and professionalism.”
This year’s Toronto conference, scheduled for Dec. 23-27, features about 20 speakers, including Tariq Ramadan, a prominent Islamic scholar from Switzerland who U.S. authorities barred last year from entering the country to take a teaching post at the University of Notre Dame.
Although the travel advisory was extended to Muslims making the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage that Muslims are required to make once in a lifetime, Hooper said he was not sure if there were any complaints from pilgrims returning from Hajj last January.
Prosecutor Seeks Perjury Evidence in Intelligent Design Case
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (RNS) A federal prosecutor said testimony in the Dover Area School District’s intelligent design case is under review to determine if perjury charges should be pursued.
U.S. Middle District Attorney Thomas A. Marino said Wednesday (Dec. 21) that the decision will take time because there is “a lot of reading to do” to determine if the statements rise to the level of a crime.
“I want to question a couple of people who were present,” he said. They will not include Judge John E. Jones III, who presided over the case, he said.
Marino’s comments came a day after Jones struck down the school district’s policy of telling ninth-grade biology students Darwin’s theory of evolution is not fact and intelligent design is an alternative explanation of the origin of life.
In his opinion, Jones accused some of those who testified during the six-week trial in Harrisburg of lying, singling out former board members Alan Bonsell and William Buckingham, the leading proponents of the policy.
Both men testified during the trial, which ended last month, and both gave sworn statements in depositions on Jan. 3. During the trial, Jones and lawyers for parents opposed to the policy confronted the men about the discrepancies and evasiveness in their answers to questions about their motivations and efforts to raise money for a pro-intelligent design textbook, “Of Pandas and People.”
During the trial, after questioning by Jones and lawyers, Bonsell and Buckingham acknowledged that Buckingham raised money for the books in his church, then wrote a check for $850 to Bonsell’s father, who bought the texts and donated them to the school district. Neither man disclosed the transaction in his deposition.
“The inescapable truth is that both Bonsell and Buckingham lied at their Jan. 3, 2005, depositions about their knowledge of the source of the donation for `Pandas’ …” Jones said in his ruling. “This mendacity was a clear and deliberate attempt to hide the source of the donations by (Bonsell and Buckingham) to further ensure that Dover students received a creationist alternative to Darwin’s theory of evolution.”
In an interview, Buckingham called Jones a liar and denied making false statements. Bonsell has said he “tried to be as truthful” as he could.
_ John Beauge and Bill Sulon
Thief Takes Collection from Altar After Christmas Eve Mass
EDISON, N.J. (RNS) The Grinch stole Christmas _ at least in one Catholic church.
Someone stole close to $8,000 in cash and checks from the collection basket at The Church of the Guardian Angels just after a crowded Christmas Eve Mass on Saturday (Dec. 24) afternoon, according to police and church officials.
“I don’t know how someone does this and lives with their own conscience,” Monsignor James Moran said. “We do have programs for the poor and needy.”
The large, brown wicker basket filled with donations had been placed on the altar during the service and was left there while Moran went to the front door to greet parishioners after the standing-room-only service.
When he returned to the altar about 20 minutes later, the basket was in precisely the same spot beneath the brightly colored stained glass windows and the soaring wooden ceiling. But it held only some coins, Moran said.
Close to 900 people attended the Mass, the biggest of the year. The church depends on the collections to pay for a variety of expenses, such as maintenance bills, insurance and salaries.
Moran announced the theft to stunned parishioners at midnight Mass and yesterday, warning those who left checks to cancel them. There were audible gasps in the audience as he relayed the news. Many members have been attending since the church was founded in 1962.
“I told the people God will get the person,” he said.
Margaret Reilly of Edison, along with her three children, were among those attending Mass on Christmas morning. “Everybody was a little shocked,” she said. “People do get robbed, but you don’t expect that to happen in church or on Christmas.”
Moran hopes the church will still get most of the money if parishioners write new checks. But he estimated that $2,000 in cash was taken.
“Losing that big a percentage of the Christmas collection will certainly have a dire impact on our budget this year,” he said.
From now on, the collection basket will be locked in a closet, he added.
“I pray that the person has a change of heart and will return the money,” he said. “It’s disappointing our society has become like this. Some just want to live very God-less lives.”
_ David Schwab and Sue Epstein
New York City Warns Jews About Health Risk of Circumcision Ritual
NEW YORK (RNS) A clash between a religious ritual and public health concerns has escalated with a city Health Department letter warning Jewish communities about practicing an aspect of circumcision.
The ritual, called metzitzah b’peh, or sucking blood from an infant’s penis to clean it after circumcision, puts babies at risk for getting herpes, Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden wrote in a Dec. 13 open letter to Jewish media and leaders.
“Because oral herpes is common (most adults have it), and because it is spread by infected saliva through breaks or cuts in the skin, metzitzah b’peh can directly expose circumcised infants to the herpes virus,” Frieden noted.
Type-1 herpes causes common cold sores in adults. But since babies’ immune systems are immature, neonatal herpes can be life-threatening, he said.
The Health Department’s board is considering whether to require doctors to report all cases of babies who contract herpes.
Some rabbis, however, do not believe the circumcision ritual puts infants at risk and said the Health Department shouldn’t interfere.
“I think it has no basis,” said Rabbi Romi Cohn, a Staten Island and Brooklyn-based rabbi who says he has not seen a single infection among the 15,000 circumcisions he has performed throughout the region.
According to tradition, he said, whoever does the circumcision must use sterilized equipment, undergo routine blood tests and be healthy and clean. The person must visit the family three days before the procedure to talk with the parents and make sure they are living a moral life.
Problems ensue, Rabbi Cohn said, when practitioners do not follow these guidelines.
The rabbi said metzitzah b’peh is an integral part of circumcision, a ritual that is thousands of years old. He added that from a health standpoint, “there are more important things to be concerned with,” such as whether the instruments used are sterile.
But Frieden’s letter outlined a variety of studies and recent incidents tying metzitzah b’peh to neonatal herpes.
“There is no reasonable doubt that the practice of metzitzah b’peh (`suction by mouth’) has infected several infants in New York City with the herpes virus, including one child who died and another who has evidence of brain damage,” the letter stated.
In one previously reported case, a Staten Island baby who was circumcised in November 2003 was diagnosed with genital herpes 12 days later and had to be hospitalized for three weeks.
The Health Department’s letter comes after months of discussions with Orthodox Jewish leaders following an investigation into three cases of neonatal herpes among circumcised babies in November 2004 _ all of which were traced to one rabbi _ and two additional cases in 2005.
Since 1988, Frieden’s office has documented at least seven infants who contracted the disease after circumcision.
Frieden said some wanted to ban the metzitza b’peh outright, but he said
“educating the community through public health information and warnings is a more realistic approach.”
_ Lisa Schneider
Quote of the Week: `NunBun’ Owner Bob Bernstein
(RNS) “They went right for the bun. What the heck they are going to do with it, I can’t imagine. It’s sure not something anyone would eat. I hope they do eat it. It will teach them a lesson.”
_ Bob Bernstein, owner of the Bongo Java coffee shop in Nashville, on the theft of the famous “NunBun,” a cinnamon bun that was discovered in 1996 and preserved for its uncanny resemblance to the late Mother Teresa of Calcutta. The bun was stolen from Bernstein’s coffee shop on Christmas day. He was quoted by the (Nashville) Tennessean newspaper.
MO/RB END RNS
