c. 1999 Religion News Service
American Muslims back NATO military strikes in Kosovo
(RNS) American Muslim groups _ concerned with the welfare of Kosovo’s Albanian Muslims _ have strongly backed NATO’s air attacks against Serbian targets in Yugoslavia.
The Kosova Task Force U.S.A., which includes more than a dozen American Muslim organizations, called the NATO attacks”long overdue.”(Kosova is the Albanian spelling for Kosovo.)
Abdul Malik Mujahid, the group’s national coordinator, urged the military campaign to continue until Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic”agrees to stop his aggression (against Kosovar Albanians) and to allow freedom and independence for Kosova and its people.” In a statement, the task force said”Milosevic is a ruthless dictator who is obviously not interested in a peaceful settlement to this conflict. Representatives of the Kosovar people have shown their willingness to abide by a peace agreement that offers freedom from Serbian aggression. They deserve America’s support.” Several American Jewish groups also backed the NATO attacks, which began Wednesday (March 24).
The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, in a letter to President Clinton, said”we share your view that the U.S. and our allies must take firm steps to prevent further violence in the (Balkans) region.”The Reform group said that”as people who still live in the shadow of their own experience with genocide, we know all too well the cost of inaction in the face of `ethnic cleansing.'” The American Jewish Committee called the NATO attacks”a necessary step to arrest the violence directed by Belgrade against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, and it has our support.” However, opposition to the attacks was voiced by several Christian and interfaith peace groups.
Washington-based Sojourners, a socially liberal evangelical group, said”the U.S.-led air strikes in Kosovo will not solve the region’s problems … On the contrary, air strikes threaten to not only increase hostilities, put both Serb and Albanian civilians at risk, and damage the possibilities for peace in the region, but carry the risk of expanding the violence even beyond its current confines.” Fellowship for Reconciliation, an interfaith group that promotes nonviolent solutions, said the bombing is likely to”strengthen extremists in Serbia and Kosova and greatly weakens the forces of moderation in Albanian and Serbian communities in Kosova, and the democratic opposition within Serbia.” The National Council of Churches’ church world service unit also urged an end to the bombing. The agency, the NCC’s humanitarian assistance ministry, urged the United Nations Security Council instead”to pursue a peaceful settlement to the longstanding (Kosovo) conflict.” In a letter released prior to the start of the NATO offensive, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), noted that”Presbyterians, like all people of good will, are of different minds”concerning the rightness of the military action.
However, he said,”Presbyterians believe that a non-violent and just solution to international conflicts is always better than a violent solution.” Speaking in Washington Thursday, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the former leader of the Anglican Church in South Africa, said he hoped the South African example of apartheid foes and supporters now living together might someday help the opposing parties in Kosovo.”We want to express our deepest sympathy, but then we want to say that there are ways we have to learn to live together,”he said.”Everything must be done to bring an end to all of the killing.” Overseas, qualified support for NATO’s offensive was voiced by the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales. British planes were among those from NATO that attacked the Serb targets.
However, the churchmen said Thursday that their support was based on the military strikes leading to negotiations that result in a just and lasting peace.”It was particularly painful just before Easter to be faced once again with the grim reality of military conflict in the Balkans,”said the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey.
At the Vatican, Pope John Paul II was reported to be working behind the scenes to seek a halt to the air strikes. Vatican chief spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the pope was following the situation”with deep concern.” Navarro-Valls said the pope was in contact”with the parties involved, inviting them to return immediately to the road to dialogue and to find solutions that are honorable for all.” The spokesman called the NATO strikes”a defeat for humanity.”
Bernice Edwards, Lyons’ co-defendant, pleads guilty to tax evasion
(RNS) The former public relations director of the National Baptist Convention, USA, pleaded guilty Thursday (March 25) to two federal tax evasion charges, a month after she was acquitted of state racketeering charges.
Bernice Edwards faces up to 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.
Federal prosecutors dropped 25 additional charges, including fraud, extortion and money laundering.
Edwards also agreed to pay back taxes owed to the Internal Revenue Service, the Associated Press reported.
Edwards’ plea follows a separate agreement reached between federal prosecutors and the Rev. Henry J. Lyons, her co-defendant and the former president of the prominent African-American denomination. Lyons resigned from the NBCUSA presidency March 16 and pleaded guilty to five federal tax evasion and fraud counts the next day in exchange for the dropping of 49 other charges against him.
Lyons was convicted Feb. 27 by a Florida jury of grand theft and racketeering for swindling millions from corporations seeking to do business with members of the denomination and of misusing funds meant to aid burned black churches. He faces three to seven years in prison on the state charges. He is due to be sentenced March 31.
Edwards, who has been alleged to be one of Lyons’ mistresses, was acquitted of the racketeering charges.
Prosecutors said Lyons and Edwards diverted the money from the corporations to fund lavish lifestyles that included luxury cars, expensive homes and diamond jewelry.
Edwards agreed to pay nearly $200,000 in taxes and forfeit luxury items she and Lyons purchased.
Her lawyer, David Weisbrod, said Edwards feels”some sense of relief.”
Former office manager for O’Hair arrested on firearms charge
(RNS) A former office manager for Madalyn Murray O’Hair, the prominent atheist who has been missing since 1995, has been arrested on a firearms charge.
A lawyer for David Roland Waters, who was arrested Wednesday (March 25) by federal agents, said the man also has been implicated in O’Hair’s alleged murder.
Waters, 52, was charged by agents from the Internal Revenue Service, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms with being a felon in possession of 119 rounds of ammunition, said Daryl Fields, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in San Antonio, Texas.
Agents also have been questioning three other people about O’Hair’s mysterious disappearance, the Associated Press reported.
Patrick Ganne, Waters’ attorney, said federal officials told him Waters was implicated by others who were interviewed.”I’ve been in touch with the assistant U.S. attorney, and he said a bunch of people are rolling over on him and implicating him in the murder of the O’Hair family,”Ganne told the San Antonio Express-News.
Federal prosecutors declined to discuss the allegation. They have not said whether they think O’Hair was murdered.
O’Hair, the founder of American Atheists Inc., became famous when she took credit for a suit, already filed, that ultimately removed the Bible and sponsored prayer from public schools in the early 1960s. If she is still alive, she would be about 80.
She disappeared with her granddaughter Robin Murray O’Hair and son Jon Garth Murray in September 1995. A hastily-written note was found on the door of their Austin office telling staff members that an emergency had arisen.
If convicted on the firearms charge, Waters could face up to 10 years in federal prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.
Previously convicted of felony theft in 1994 and murder in 1965, Waters now is on probation after pleading guilty to stealing $54,000 from the O’Hair family’s atheist organizations.
A second Guatemalan judge quits case probing bishop’s murder
(RNS) A Guatemalan judge presiding over an investigation into the slaying of a Roman Catholic bishop has resigned, citing threatening phone calls he has received.
Judge Henry Monroy Wednesday (March 24) became the second judge in less than three months to quit the case of Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi.
In April 1998, the bishop was bludgeoned to death in his garage shortly after he gave a report blaming the military and pro-government death squads for the majority of human rights violations during Guatemala’s civil war, which ended in 1996 after 36 years.
Some rights groups and church leaders have accused the courts and prosecution of ignoring the army’s possible role in the killing.
Monroy was not specific about when he received the threats, who he believed made them or what was said, the Associated Press reported.
Magda Perez Arana, a lawyer, will be Monroy’s temporary replacement on the bench and will take over overseeing the case.
In January, Jorge Figueroa Medina, Monroy’s predecessor, resigned from the case after the defense made a motion accusing him of bias.
Monroy ordered the release Feb. 17 of Roman Catholic priest Mario Orantes, the only suspect under arrest in the case.
Wiesenthal Center collects hate group Internet sites on CD-ROM
(RNS) The Simon Wiesenthal Center has released a CD-ROM that exposes 1,426 Internet Web sites it says promote hate.
The Los Angeles-based center said the sites include those that are racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi, anti-Catholic, anti-Moslem and violently anti-abortion.
Noting the large number of sites, the center’s associate dean, Rabbi Abraham Cooper said,”This doesn’t necessarily mean that we have more members in these different groups. But the Internet does two things; it gives them (racists) a sense of empowerment and an unparalleled, unpredecented opportunity for marketing themselves, unencumbered, 24 hours a day.” Cooper said that in 1995 _ the same year the Oklahoma City federal building was bombed _”there was exactly one hate site on the World Wide Web. By the end of 1997 there were 600 and now this report lists almost 1500. It’s mainly the lunatic fringe. But the World Wide Web has provided the cement to bring racist skinheads together into a movement.” The center is sending 10,000 free copies of its”Digital Hate 2000″CD-ROM to police departments nationwide, plus others in Canada, France and Argentina. The report required 14 months of research in North and South America and Europe, the three continents with the most Internet users.
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan’s 1995 Madison Square Garden speech can be heard at a Swedish-based site, along with other anti-Semitic statements.
Another site targets students doing reports on the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Initially filled with basic information about King, it actually is tied to former Louisiana Ku Klux Klansman David Duke.
The Wiesenthal Center says it does not favor Internet censorship, but instead wants Internet providers to exercise scruples about which sites they will carry.”We need some good citizenship online and aware parents and aware teachers,”Cooper said.
Internet companies, he added, should mimic newspapers that refuse to accept advertising from hate groups.”Just because it’s a new technology doesn’t mean everything goes,”he said.
Sexual assault charges dropped against Wales archbishop
(RNS) Roman Catholic Archbishop John Ward of Cardiff, Wales, will not be prosecuted in connection with allegations that he sexually assaulted a girl in 1960 and 1961 when he was working as a parish priest in London.
British police said there was insufficient evidence to charge Ward with any crime, effectively clearing him of the charge.”I welcome the decision of the Crown Prosecution Service,”Ward said.”I am pleased that the allegations are seen to be without foundation. I was never charged with any offense, and I have always vigorously protested my innocence.” The decision was also welcomed by Cardinal Basil Hume, archbishop of Westminster, who said he personally had never doubted that Ward was innocent of the allegations made against him.
Catholic bishops in England Wales welcome Pinochet ruling
(RNS) Roman Catholic bishops in England and Wales have welcomed the House of Lords ruling that the former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet is not immune from prosecution for alleged human rights abuses during his last years in power.
Wednesday (Match 24), Britain’s highest court, the Law Lords, ruled that Pinochet can be prosecuted in the United Kingdom for crimes committed after Dec. 8, 1988, when torture became a crime under the International Convention Against Torture signed by 112 nations, including Britain, Spain and Chile.
In what has been seen as a landmark ruling, the Law Lords concluded that the convention makes torture an international crime that may be prosecuted in any of the nations that signed the document.
Bishop David Konstant of Leeds, chairman of the bishops’ department of international affairs, said:”We welcome this highly significant legal judgment. It is our belief that cases concerning grievous offenses against human rights must always be subject to appropriate legal process, and we repeat the church’s insistence that human rights are inviolable.”
Quote of the Day: Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt Jr.
(RNS)”It is our hope that those who have perpetuated racism and who profit from the same in power positions within the church will now repent and show fruits of repentance. Those who have been wronged must not sulk in self-pity or revenge, but must offer forgiveness in a spirit of love to those who honestly ask for the same.” _ Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt Jr. of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, speaking at the Seventh Consultation of Methodist Bishops earlier this month in Atlanta, which sought to foster dialogue between three predominantly black denominations and the mostly white United Methodist Church.
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