America's pluralistic impulse toward tolerance having theological consequences as "Christians" abandon Jesus as the only way to heaven
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Church/Default.aspx?id=150084
America remains a deeply religious nation, but a new survey finds most Americans don't believe their tradition is the only way to eternal life -- even if the denomination's teachings say otherwise. The findings, revealed Monday in a survey of 35,000 adults, can either be taken as a positive sign of growing religious tolerance, or disturbing evidence that Americans dismiss or don't know fundamental teachings of their own faiths.
Among the more startling numbers in the survey, conducted last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: 57 percent of evangelical church attenders said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life, in conflict with traditional evangelical teaching. In all, 70 percent of Americans with a religious affiliation shared that view, and 68 percent said there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their own religion.
"The survey shows religion in America is, indeed, 3,000 miles wide and only three inches deep," said D. Michael Lindsay, a Rice University sociologist of religion. "There's a growing pluralistic impulse toward tolerance and that is having theological consequences," he said.
Earlier data from the Pew Forum's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, released in February, highlighted how often Americans switch religious affiliation. The newly released material looks at religious belief and practice as well as the impact of religion on society, including how faith shapes political views. The report argues that while relatively few people -- 14 percent -- cite religious beliefs as the main influence on their political thinking, religion still plays a powerful indirect role.
The study confirmed some well-known political dynamics, including stark divisions over abortion and same-sex "marriage," with the more religiously committed taking conservative views on the issues. But it also showed support across religious lines for greater governmental aid for the poor, even if it means more debt and stricter environmental laws and regulations.
By many measures, Americans are strongly religious: 92 percent believe in God, 74 percent believe in life after death, and 63 percent say their respective scriptures are the word of God. But deeper investigation found that more than one in four Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants, and Orthodox Christians expressed some doubts about God's existence, as did six in ten Jews. Another finding almost defies explanation: 21 percent of self-identified atheists said they believe in God or a universal spirit, with eight percent "absolutely certain" of it.
"Look, this shows the limits of a survey approach to religion," said Peter Berger, a theology and sociology professor at Boston University. "What do people really mean when they say that many religions lead to eternal life? It might mean they don't believe their particular truth at all. Others might be saying, 'We believe a truth but respect other people, and they are not necessarily going to hell.'" Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum, said that more research is planned to answer those kinds of questions, but that earlier, smaller surveys found similar results.
Nearly across the board, the majority of religious Americans believe many religions can lead to eternal life: mainline Protestants (83 percent), members of historic black Protestant churches (59 percent), Roman Catholics (79 percent), Jews (82 percent) and Muslims (56 percent). By similar margins, people in those faith groups believe in multiple interpretations of their own traditions' teachings. Yet 44 percent of the religiously affiliated also said their religion should preserve its traditional beliefs and practices.
"What most people are saying is, 'Hey, we don't have a hammer-lock on God or salvation, and God's bigger than us and we should respect that and respect other people,'" said the Rev. Tom Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. "Some people are like butterflies that go from flower to flower, going from religion to religion -- and frankly they don't get that deep into any of them," he said.
Beliefs about eternal life vary greatly, even within a religious tradition. Some Christians hold strongly to Jesus' words as described in John 14:6: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Others emphasize the wideness of God's grace. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the "one church of Christ ... subsists in the Catholic Church" alone and that Protestant churches, while defective, can be "instruments of salvation."
Roger Oldham, a vice president with the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, bristled at using the word "tolerance" in the analysis. "If by tolerance we mean we're willing to engage or embrace a multitude of ways to salvation, that's no longer evangelical belief," he said. "The word 'evangelical' has been stretched so broadly, it's almost an elastic term."
Others welcomed the findings. "It shows increased religious security. People are comfortable with other traditions even if they're different," said the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance. "It indicates a level of humility about religion that would be of great benefit to everyone."
More than most groups, Catholics break with their church, and not just on issues like abortion and homosexuality. Only six in ten Catholics described God as "a person with whom people can have a relationship" -- which the church teaches -- while three in ten described God as an "impersonal force."
A Study Of The American Jew
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/995825.html
One can learn many things from the new PEW study on religion in America, but my interest is mostly the things one can learn about the Jews. What I like about the way this new study is presented, is that one can compare the different religions on various matters. Here are some of the things I found:
American Jews do not have as many children as believers of other religions. 72% of Jewish homes do not have children at all according to this study. This is probably due to the fact that many of them marry late. And anyway, Jews are older: 22% are 65+, the second highest percentage of all religions, 29% are 50-64, again, second highest of all religions. At the ages 30-49 the Jewish community has the lower percentage of all: 29%.
We know that Jews make more money than people of other religions, and the extent to which this is true is quite impressive. 46% of Jews make more than $100,000 a year, Hindus are a close second (43%) but the next group (Orthodox) is well behind (28%). If one looks at education, it is Hindus first (48% with post graduate degrees) with Jews second (35%), Buddhists third (26%) and the rest well bellow.
The number of Jews who are absolutely certain that there's a god is fairly low, 41%. Only Buddhists and Unaffiliated have even less certainty. 10% do not believe in god, the third highest percentage (also third, following the unaffiliated and the Buddhists). Only 31% say that religion is very important to them, the lowest percentage except for the unaffiliated.
28% say religion is not important to their lives (again, only the unaffiliated rank higher). No wonder that Jews rank low on attendance of religious practices and frequency of prayers. Amusingly, Jews are like Buddhists in the sense that only few of them believe that their religion is the only true religion.
53% of Jews want the U.S. to be involved in world affairs (Mormons rank second with 51%, the rest well bellow). 47% are Democrats, second only to black churches, but only 38% call themselves liberals (39% are moderates, 21% conservatives). And Jews seem to be the most reluctant group when the role of government in keeping morality is discussed: 22% say government should do more to protect morality, the highest ranking group except for "other faiths"), 71% want government to do even less (again, second to other faiths).
Messianic Jews to protest 'discrimination'
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1214132688698&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
A contingent of about 300 Messianic Jews from the US will protest this weekend against what they call Israel's discriminatory immigration policy against Jews who believe that Jesus is the messiah.
The Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations, an umbrella body for about 80 US congregations, is holding a three-day conference in Jerusalem that starts Thursday.
During the conference a number of issues will be discussed - including the recent public burning by haredim of New Testaments distributed by missionaries in Or Akiva, a bomb attack that seriously wounded the son of well-known Messianic Jew in Ariel and the attempt to disqualify a Messianic Jewish high school girl from this year's International Bible Quiz for Jewish youth.
"We are planning to call on the Israeli government to address the problem of discrimination against Messianic Jews who wish to make aliya," said Rabbi Russ Resnik, executive director of the US-based Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations.
"Messianic Jews see Israel as the place of our past, from the earliest visit by Abraham to the modern rebirth of the Jewish state. And it is the place of our future, which will culminate in the messiah's return," Resnik said.
"We are avid supporters of Israel in the present, and that's why we brought our conference here. But we are also concerned about recent expressions of violence against Messianic Jews."
Messianic Jews include all people with Jewish ancestry who identify as Jewish but who believe that Jesus is the messiah, Resnik said.
Like Reform Judaism, Messianic Jews recognize both matrilineal and patrilineal descent. Orthodox Judaism recognizes only matrilineal descent.
There are an estimated 12,000 Messianic Jews living in Israel, most of whom made aliya under the Law of Return. There are about a quarter of a million Messianic Jews living in the US.
According to the Law of Return, anyone with a Jewish parent or grandparent is eligible for automatic Israeli citizenship. The law was designed to turn Israel into a safe haven for any Jew in the world who would have suffered persecution under the Nazi regime's Nuremberg racial laws.
In principle, the Law of Return grants automatic citizenship to all descendants of Jews, regardless of religion.
Nevertheless, in 1962 the Supreme Court ruled that Daniel Rufeisen, a Polish Jew who converted to Catholicism and became a Carmelite monk, could not be granted citizenship under the Law of Return. The court based itself on "common sense" criteria, assuming that the average person would agree that Rufeisen was not Jewish.
The Chief Rabbinate argued at the time that Rufeisen should be considered a Jew since according to Halacha a Jew can never repudiate his or her Jewishness.
Since then the Supreme Court has ruled that Messianic Jews whose mothers are Jewish can be denied Israeli citizenship. In contrast, those who are Jewish solely through their fathers cannot be denied citizenship. This is based on an interpretation of a 1970 amendment to the Law of Return.
"An absurd situation is created in which Messianic Jews have to prove they are not Jewish in order to make aliya," said Calev Myers, a Messianic Jewish attorney who specializes in immigration cases. "The Law of Return as envisioned by David Ben-Gurion was originally created to ensure that if you are Jewish enough to die in Auschwitz you are Jewish enough to be granted automatic Israeli citizenship. But that is no longer true."
Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, head of the Ataret Yerushalayim Yeshiva and a leading religious Zionist leader, said Messianic Jews should not be considered Jews.
"It is true that a lot of righteous people were persecuted and murdered by the Nazis," Aviner said. "But that does not make them Jewish."
He said that Messianic Jews living in Israel should be marginalized and distanced from Jewish communities.
"Those people are proselytizers. They should not be allowed to have an influence on Jews who might be too weak to resist," Aviner said.
Resnik admitted that he wanted to spread the word about the "good news of the messiah" among the Jews.
"People need to hear that message. But just because it is such a vital message does not mean that everything goes. Our way is by showing solidarity with the Jewish people, by being part of the people," he said.
McCain endorses California initiative protecting traditional marriage
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/mccain.endorses.california.initiative.protecting.traditional.marriage/19895.htm
Republican presidential candidate John McCain has endorsed a ballot initiative in California to overturn the recent state court ruling legalising same-sex "marriage".
"I support the efforts of the people of California to recognise marriage as a unique institution between a man and a woman, just as we did in my home state of Arizona. I do not believe judges should be making these decisions," the Republican presidential candidate said in a statement, according to ProtectMarriage.com.
McCain's support for traditional marriage was welcomed by conservatives and pro-family groups especially at a time when many of them remain unsure of the Arizona senator and his stance on social issues.
But McCain is slowly winning the hearts of evangelicals and conservative leaders as polls show him head-to-head with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
On Thursday, McCain met privately with several conservative leaders in Ohio to talk about social issues, including embryonic stem-cell research, judges and gay "marriage". Although McCain was not their first choice for the Republican nomination, some are rallying behind him against Obama.
Participants of the private meeting said the Arizona senator indicated he would take seriously their requests that he choose an anti-abortion running mate and would talk more openly about his stance supporting traditional marriage, according to The Los Angeles Times.
After that meeting, a lot of hearts were changed, Phil Burress, who led Ohio's anti-gay-marriage ballot measure in 2004, the Times reported. "We realized that he's with us on the majority of the issues we care about."
McCain had opposed a federal constitutional amendment preserving traditional marriage, saying he believes states should decide the issue. His announcement supporting the California Protection of Marriage initiative, however, would indicate to many evangelicals that he is on their side when it comes to the core social issues.
"As a leader in the United States Senate and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Senator McCain's position will be an important factor to millions of Californians," ProtectMarriage.com chairman Ron Prentice commented. "We are honoured to have the support of Senator McCain."
Although Prentice also invited Obama to endorse the ballot initiative, his wife, Michelle, delivered a speech Thursday indicating that he would most likely not hop on the traditional marriage bandwagon.
Obama will fight for equal rights for gays just as he fought to help working-class families overcome poverty, she said at a Manhattan fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee's Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council, according to The Associated Press.
McCain is continuing his more aggressive push to reach out to his party base as he is scheduled to meet with the Rev Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, on Sunday. He said he also hopes to meet influential evangelical Dr James C Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family.
Dobson this week accused Obama of distorting the Bible and espousing a "fruitcake" approach to the US Constitution.
Bolton: Israel Will Strike Iran if Obama is Elected
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/bolton_israel_iran/2008/06/25/107224.html
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton believes Israel will stage a raid against Iran's nuclear facilities if Democratic nominee Barack Obama wins the upcoming presidential election in November.
Bolton, often labeled a resolute neo-conservative, believes the Israeli attack would take place sometime between the day after Obama's win and his inauguration on January 20 of next year.
In an interview with FOX News, Bolton says, "I think if they are to do anything, the most likely period is after our elections and before the inauguration of the next President."
Bolton reasons Israel won’t be able to hold off a strike on Iran any longer than that given the Illinois senator's intended foreign policy toward the Islamic Republic.
"I don’t think they [the Israeli government] will do anything before our election because they don’t want to affect it,” he says, adding, “They’d have to make a judgment whether to [strike] during the remainder of President Bush’s term in office or wait for his successor."
Bolton points to Obama’s statements in which he says he would engage Iran in direct talks and take the military option for dealing with Iran's quest for nuclear weapons off the table, a position he believes will further embolden Tehran to build a nuclear bomb.
In a related interview with The Telegraph, Bolton says he believes Arab countries will support an Israeli strike, effectively ending Iran's nuclear ambitions, while publicly denouncing it.
Their reaction, he tells the British paper, "will be positive privately. I think there'll be public denunciations, but no action."
Bolton thinks Israel may consider postponing the attack, however, if Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., emerges as the victor in the presidential race. He says McCain's stance on Iran “is far more realistic than that of the Bush administration.”
Bolton doubts Iran would respond immediately with a counterstrike of its own, partially because Tehran would fear an American reprisal.
Earlier this month, Israel held a massive air force exercise over Greece that U.S., Israeli and Greek sources later confirmed was a test run for a strike on Iran's main uranium enrichment plant.
Obama plans visits to Europe, Mideast this summer
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080628/D91J3HOO0.html
WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama plans to visit Europe and the Middle East this summer. Obama's presidential campaign tells The Associated Press that likely Democratic nominee will visit Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and the United Kingdom.
The trip comes as the first-term senator from Illinois tries to convince voters that he has the foreign policy experience to be president.
Obama also has said he intends to go to Iraq and Afghanistan this summer. His campaign would not say if those planned stops are part of the trip announced Saturday.
Obama's advisers would not disclose the dates of his travel to Europe and the Middle East, citing security concerns.
Gun Lobby Quickly Sues To Overturn Chicago Ban
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/supreme.court.handguns.2.757471.html#strategic
CHICAGO (CBS) ― A U.S. Supreme Court decision has been the talk of the nation on Thursday. A handgun ban in Washington, D.C. has been struck down by the high court.
As expected, strong reaction has been pouring in on both sides of this emotional issue.
Gun control advocates like Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley were outraged, while gun rights activists have already sued to overturn a similar ban in Chicago.
The 5-4 ruling specifically struck down a ban on handguns in Washington, D.C. The court ruled that the District of Columbia's 32-year-old ban on handguns is incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment.
The decision goes further than even the Bush administration wanted, and leaves most gun laws intact, but could invalidate Chicago's.
Chicago has a similar ban on handguns and within minutes of the high court's ruling, the Illinois State Rifle Association began the court fight to get Chicago's ban overturned as well.
In Chicago, unless your gun was purchased before the ban went into effect in 1982, it is illegal to possess a handgun within city limits. Only police officers, aldermen and a handful of others are exempt from the ban. While other firearms can be registered, under current law, handguns cannot be registered and are considered illegal.
But gun rights advocates hope to change that. The Illinois State Rifle Association filed a lawsuit with just that purpose in mind at 9:15 a.m.
"We want to overturn this ban. It's pretty onerous. It takes the right of self-defense away from every Chicago citizen," said Richard Pearson, director of the Illinois State Rifle Association.
The National Rifle Association also plans to file lawsuits in Chicago and several suburbs, as well as San Francisco, challenging handgun restrictions there based on Thursday's outcome.
Illinois State Sen. Kirk Dillard said at least one-third of the households in his hometown, Hinsdale, have guns, one of the highest percentages in the state. He hailed the Supreme Court decision, saying, "I think the ruling today is good news. The criminals have guns, but law-abiding citizens should not have their rights jeopardized."
As pleased as Dillard and other suburban Republicans in DuPage County were with the Supreme Court ruling, in Chicago it was a very different story among top democrats.
Mayor Daley, a proponent of strict gun control laws, wasn't happy about the Supreme Court ruling, calling it "a very frightening decision."
"If they think that's the answer ... they're greatly mistaken. Then why don't we do away with the court system and go back to the Old West, you have a gun and I have a gun, and we'll settle it in the streets if that's they're thinking."
"It is frightening that America loves guns," the mayor said, "and to me, I think this decision really places those who are rich and those are in power, they'll always feel safe. Those who do not have the power do not feel safe, and that's what they're saying. If you're elected officials, you feel safe. You cannot carry a gun into a federal building. You cannot carry a gun into a federal court. So they're setting themselves aside, and really, they're saying to the rest of America that the answer to all the constitutional issues is that we can carry guns. And I just don't understand how they came to this thinking."
Gov. Rod Blagojevich said, "the decision of Supreme Court today is very scary and it's a big blow to those of us who believe in common sense gun laws … so they ain't always right and on this case, they're wrong again."
Some experts said the Supreme Court left room for local handgun controls in Chicago and suburbs such as Morton Grove and Oak Park, to survive, but only after a significant rewrite.
Gun control activists Pam and Tommie Bosley hope strict gun control laws stay in place. They have been on a door-to-door anti-violence crusade ever since their 18-year-old son Terrell was shot and killed leaving a South Side church two years ago.
"We doin' it for these guys, the little guys and for you all, that's why we're out here I can't bring my son back," Tommie Bosley said as he lobbied neighbors on the South Side.
Pam Bosely said, "We protected him as much as we could, but as you say, he's not here, so with the guns out on the streets, there's no way you can save and protect your children."
Tommie Bosely said, "I think what's going to end up happening ultimately is you're going to have private citizens who are not equipped to use handguns taking the law into their own hands."
But gun rights supporters say that's exactly what some people are forced to do already -- defend themselves -- and guns can help them do that.
Alan Gottlieb, of the Second Amendment Foundation in the state of Washington, told reporters that Chicago's handgun ban has failed to stop violent crime.
That has been one of the mantras of the gun lobby.
But a supporter of Chicago's law responded that facts are stubborn things, noting that murder and other gun violence here are far lower than a decade agoe, claiming Mayor Daley's stringent gun enforcement deserves much credit.
Maria Ramirez couldn't agree more. She wears her son's picture close to her heart. It's all she has of him; 16-year old Matthew Michael Ramirez died in 2006 after someone pulled a trigger.
"I don't want another mother to wake up like I do...look in son's bed, praying it's a bad dream," Ramirez said. "These guns that are gotten legally in the first place end up becoming illegal on the streets."
Her black market sales fear was a concern for law enforcement, too. The people on the frontlines already respond to thousands of gun related calls every year.
"If the result of this ruling is more guns on the street it's going to make it more challenging for law enforcement," Daley said, predicting an end to Chicago's handgun ban would spark new violence and force the city to raise taxes to pay for new police.
Pearson said "I say that's probably untrue." Pearson said he believes crime only rises with gun laws like Chicago's "because criminal element knows people don't have a firearm for self defense."
That's one reason he was prepared to fight for an individual's Second Amendment rights. "Sure, I think it's an uphill battle … freedom always is."
Pearson predicted that the fight that began with the filing of a lawsuit against Mayor Daley and the city at 9:15 a.m. Thursday would take between 18 months and two years to resolve. He said that if the Illinois State Rifle Association loses its lawsuit, it would appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
But Chicago's Corporation Counsel Mara Georges said the city shouldn't have to defend its gun law, because the Supreme Court's ruling doesn't apply here.
"Our ordinance continues to be valid law. The Supreme Court did not say that the Second Amendment right to bear arms extends to state and local governments and in fact, there's Supreme Court precedent that it does not."
The U.S. Supreme Court had not conclusively interpreted the Second Amendment since its ratification in 1791. The amendment reads: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
The basic issue for the justices was whether the amendment protects an individual's right to own guns no matter what, or whether that right is somehow tied to service in a state militia.
Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for four colleagues, said the Constitution does not permit "the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home."
In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that the majority "would have us believe that over 200 years ago, the Framers made a choice to limit the tools available to elected officials wishing to regulate civilian uses of weapons."
He said such evidence "is nowhere to be found."
Gun rights supporters hailed the decision. "I consider this the opening salvo in a step-by-step process of providing relief for law-abiding Americans everywhere that have been deprived of this freedom," said Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a leading gun control advocate in Congress, criticized the ruling. "I believe the people of this great country will be less safe because of it," she said.
With an epidemic of gun violence in Chicago this year, Daley and other officials and activists have been lobbying for stricter state gun laws.
But some defenders of gun rights say just the opposite of Mayor Daley, arguing instead in favor of the theories of economist John Lott, now of the University of Maryland.
The onetime University of Chicago professor argued in his 1998 volume, More Guns, Less Crime, for a statistical correlation between laws allowing people to carry concealed handguns and a drop in crime rates. Lott theorized the crime rate dropped because criminals were deterred by the possibility of confronting an armed victim.
Lott also claimed the Chicago gun ban was to blame for an increase in crime.
Critics of Chicago's gun ordinance also say the law already aims to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, and that law-abiding citizens should be allowed to possess any firearm they desire.
The Washington, D.C., gun ban was taken to the Supreme Court by way of the case of Dick Anthony Heller, 65, an armed security guard. He sued the District of Columbia after it rejected his application to keep a handgun at his home for protection. His lawyers say the amendment plainly protects an individual's right.
North suburban Morton Grove was the first municipality in the country to enact a handgun ban, in 1981, according to the Encyclopedia of Chicago. The ban survived a court challenge, and the Chicago ordinance proposed by Ald. Edward Burke (14th) passed the following year, in the wake of assassination attempts on President Reagan and Pope John Paul II.
Evanston passed a handgun ban later in 1982, and Oak Park in 1984, among other municipalities.
Before Thursday, the last Supreme Court ruling on the topic came in 1939 in U.S. v. Miller, which involved a sawed-off shotgun. Constitutional scholars disagree over what that case means but agree it did not squarely answer the question of individual versus collective rights.
Believers in the Pews--and the Polling Booth
http://www.newsweek.com/id/142538
The more religiously active an American is, the more likely he is to vote Republican--unless he's black. That fact emerged in the second part of a Pew Forum study on the landscape of religious life in the United States, released this June.
The first part of the survey, released in February, showed that religion in the United States is both diverse and remarkably fluid--44 percent of Americans have switched their religious affiliation or denomination (or abandoned organized religion altogether). The new part, which looks at how religion informs American social and political values, further highlights religious diversity in the United States, underscoring the variety in patterns of belief and worship. "We have the tendency to believe that all members of one affiliation are the same, or that all people that frequently attend religious services are the same," says John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum and a professor of political science at the University of Akron. "But that's not the case. There is greater diversity."
Despite the country's religious multiformity, however, black Americans are the most consistently religious--and religiously active--ethnic group in the country. More than 90 percent of black Americans surveyed reported having a religious affiliation, and more than six in 10 said they were members of historically black Protestant churches. Moreover, black Protestants are among the most religiously involved Americans--85 percent say religion is very important in their lives, and more than half say they attend worship services at least once a week.
Rev. Cecil (Chip) Murray, the influential former pastor of the First A.M.E. Church in Los Angeles, credits high levels of African-American religious involvement with the "heritage of the black church" and its importance in building the African-American community in the aftermath of the Civil War. Black churches show people that "you may not have money, you may not have houses or land, but you have value," says Murray.
Other religious groups that report similar levels of religious involvement--specifically Mormons and white evangelical Christians--tend to vote for Republicans. And the more a Mormon or white evangelical prays or goes to Sunday services, the more likely he or she is to come out for the GOP. The same holds true for members of less ideologically conservative religious groups, including those that tend to be more liberal than the general American population, such as Jews--47 percent of Jews who attend weekly services vote Democrat, in contrast to 69 percent of those who do not attend services every week. Religious attendance matters, Green says, because when people attend services they encounter other people, and these interactions inform political values "whether it is something the pastor said or because you had coffee with a friend after worship."
Still, black Protestants remain loyal Democrats, regardless of how important religion is to an individual's life--77 percent of black Protestants said they vote Democratic, whether they attended weekly services or not. Prominent intellectual and activist Cornel West points out that this is largely due to the black community's historic ties to the Democratic Party, specifically during the civil-rights movement. "It's a matter of principle," West says. "Not just a matter of partisanship." This staunch support exists despite some black churches' conservative views on social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. While the survey finds that those with high levels of religious commitment tend to oppose abortion and public acceptance of homosexuality, black Protestants remain steadfast Democratic voters. West and others believe that this is because for members of black churches and of the black community in general, "issues of economic and social justice tend to supercede issues of abortion and same sex-marriage." In other words, issues of equality and civil-rights continue to override any moral qualms black Christian voters may have with Democratic politics. That can only be good news for Barack Obama, a churchgoing black Protestant himself.
Presbyterians Advance Gay Clergy Proposal - Reject Fidelity Within Covenant of Marriage Between A Man & Woman or Chastity In Singleness
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080625/presbyterians-advance-gay-clergy-proposal.htm
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) moved forward Tuesday with proposals that would allow for practicing gay clergy while rejecting one that would have redefined the definition of marriage.
In a 41-11 vote Tuesday night, the Committee on Church Orders and Ministry recommended to the 218th General Assembly – the denomination's highest governing body – that it delete wording in the ordination standard that requires "fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness."
The ongoing debate over ordination requirements in the PC(USA) began Monday morning in a public hearing before the committee. Some members of the committee did not return to the meeting room after a dinner break Tuesday evening when a decision was set to be made, according to the Presbyterian news service from the General Assembly, which is meeting in San Jose, Calif., this week.
The Rev. Emily McColl, who opposed the overture, or resolution, said she was "so saddened by their absence that my heart can hardly stand it."
Debate over whether non-celibate gays and lesbians should be ordained has gone on for more than 30 years in the 2.3 million-member church. The 2006 General Assembly sparked controversy and confusion when it adopted an "authoritative interpretation" of the ordination standard, which some said gave leeway to local and regional governing bodies to ordain practicing gay ministers.
Earlier this year, however, the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission – the church's highest court – upheld the "fidelity/chastity" ordination standard. The court ruled that although church officials are allowed to express disagreement with the wording or meaning of provisions of the constitution, they are not permitted to disobey those behavioral standards.
Supporters of gay rights are pushing this week, during the biennial meeting, an amendment to the standard. The Boston presbytery submitted an overture, or resolution, calling for the deletion of the "fidelity/chastity" requirement. It also offered replacement wording that "reaffirms standards that are important to us in our ordination questions," as overture advocate the Rev. Roderick MacDonald stated.
McColl said approval of the proposal would mean that they will no longer be considered Reformed in their understanding of biblical interpretation and theology.
And the consequences can be severe, some said.
"Churches won't wait for the ratification votes [by the presbyteries] but will leave immediately, though I hope they won't," said committee member David Reimer, according to the news service.
McColl expressed hope that congregations that could not tolerate another debate over ordination standards be allowed to "graciously leave" the denomination, as reported by the news service. A motion urging a gracious and pastoral response to congregations seeking to leave the PC(USA) was approved.
Congress Draws Criticism Over First Pro-Gay Caucus
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080617/congress-draws-criticism-over-first-pro-gay-caucus.htm
Conservative and pro-family groups spoke of an outrage Friday after a coalition of Republican and Democratic lawmakers joined to create the House’s first Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Caucus.
Democrats Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin – the only openly gay members of Congress – were key backers of the new caucus and were successful in gathering bipartisan support for the new initiative.
Altogether, 52 House representatives signed on as members of the new caucus, including two Republicans.
House members and supporters of the new measure were optimistic of their future plans and what they said was their mission “to achieve the extension of equal rights” for all regardless of “sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.”
“With a Democratic majority in the House, we now have both the opportunity and the responsibility to move towards legal equality for people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. This caucus will play an important role in helping shape the strategy by which we do this,” said Congressman Barney Frank in a statement.
Peter LaBarbera of the conservative Americans for Truth, however, blasted the decision by lawmakers to promote what he said was the homosexual agenda.
“It's just unbelievable that there are this many congressmen who are promoting homosexuality," LaBarbera said in a statement.
But worse, according to LaBarbera, are the inevitable consequences that would result because of the lack of organization and power among pro-family groups to oppose the agenda of gay advocates.
“Pro-Gay supporters have 'earned' this extraordinary total: 52 congressmen coming right out and saying, 'We are going to vote for homosexuality and transsexuality in Congress," he said.
Survey shows Californians less religious than rest of nation
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-faith24-2008jun24,0,1595990.story
Californians, long known for their propensity to buck convention, have apparently done it again: A national survey released Monday revealed that they are less religious and less certain about the existence of God than the nation as a whole.
Residents of the Golden State do not pray as much as people in other parts of the country. They are less inclined to take scripture literally. And they are likelier to embrace "more than one true way" of interpreting their religious teachings.
Fifty-nine percent of them say that homosexuality should be accepted by society, compared to 50% of people nationwide who hold that view, according to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey.
And while 71% of the nation is "absolutely certain" of the belief in God, only 62% of Californians say so -- a difference that reflects similar attitudes in other states on both coasts.
"The West Coast generally is less religiously observant, less certain about religious beliefs," said John Green, a senior fellow with the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, which produced the survey. "It was settled last," Green added. "It has been growing fairly rapidly and has a unique amount of dynamism" in its societies.
The survey, based primarily on interviews in English and Spanish with a representative sample of more than 35,000 adults during 2007, is the Pew Forum's second report this year.
It explores the religious beliefs and practices of Evangelical Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Mormons, Muslims, Buddhists and others, probing their attitudes about abortion, homosexuality, the environment, government and foreign policy.
An initial Pew Forum survey in February found that Americans are switching religious affiliations in ever-growing numbers while still believing in God, or cutting ties to organized religion altogether.
The newest report confirms past research showing the United States as an overwhelmingly religious nation. But it also reveals a vast diversity of opinion among religious groups as well as within traditions.
Americans, the report found, are not particularly dogmatic about religion even as they embrace it in their lives.
Seventy percent believe that "many religions can lead to eternal life"; 57% of Evangelicals feel that way, as do 79% of Catholics.
More than two-thirds of Americans, meanwhile, say there is more than one true way to interpret their religious teachings. Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses were the only two groups that significantly disagreed with that view.
Among the survey's other findings:
* Ninety-two percent of Americans believe in the existence of God or a universal spirit, even as many shun weekly worship services; 41% who are unaffiliated say religion "is at least somewhat important in their lives," and seven in 10 of the unaffiliated say they believe in God.
* Fifty-eight percent of Americans say they pray privately every day, and 74% believe in life after death.
* Thirty-one percent of Americans say they receive "a definite answer to a specific prayer request" at least once a month.
"History testifies that religious faith is very important to Americans," Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl said in a statement from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. "At every juncture of our past, Americans have called upon God for guidance, protection and direction."
California -- home to large numbers of Protestants, Catholics, Jews and other groups -- resists these trends.
While 63% of adults nationally believe that their holy books are the word of God, just 53% of Californians think so.
Similarly, 56% of Americans say religion is "very important," while the figure in California is 48%.
Californians also are more likely to believe that scriptures were written by man rather than God. And they pray less than those elsewhere -- 33% attend religious services at least once a week, compared to 39% for the nation.
California stands out for another reason. One of its signature industries and locales, Hollywood, appears to be a corrupting influence in the eyes of at least some Americans. Forty-two percent say they feel their values are threatened by "Hollywood and the entertainment industry"; 56% say they are not threatened.
If California appears less religious than the rest of the nation, there are good reasons, says J. Gordon Melton, Santa Barbara-based author of "The Encyclopedia of American Religions."
Successive generations of East Coast migrants have settled here since World War II, their connections to organized religion more tenuous than the people they left behind.
The more recent arrival of devout, predominantly Catholic immigrants from Mexico and Central America has not balanced the larger numbers of Americans from the East, he said. And many of the Spanish-speaking newcomers, undocumented and living in the shadow economy, often go uncounted in official reports, Melton said.
California trails other parts of the country in its Evangelical presence, Melton said, but has growing numbers of adherents of non-Christian traditions -- including Hindus, Buddhists and others. Their religions, which often take hold in metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles or San Francisco, do not always subscribe to a single holy book as in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
"California is certainly leading the trend in generating new religions and sending them off to the rest of the country," Melton said. "The pluralism is a function of toleration levels. That is a peculiarly California way."
Sick Bees Could Lead to Higher Food Prices
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/399616.aspx
CBNNews.com - CAPITOL HILL - Farmers and businessmen have been telling lawmakers on Capitol Hill that food prices could rise even more unless the mysterious decline in honey bees is solved.
In the words of North Carolina grower Robert Edwards: "No bees, no crops." He said he cut his cucumber acreage in half because of the lack of bees available to rent.
About three-quarters of flowering plants rely on birds, bees and other pollinators to help them reproduce. Experts say bee pollination is essential and is responsible for 15 billion dollars annually in crop value.
Scientists don't know how many bees have died -- or why. Possible explanations include pesticides, a new parasite, poor nutrition, contaminated water supplies and the need to move bees long distances for pollination.
The House Appropriations Committee today approved $780,000 for research on the disorder and 10 million dollars for bee research.
Life on the fringes of U.S. suburbia becomes untenable with rising gas costs
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/24/business/exurbs.php
Suddenly, the economics of American suburban life are under assault as skyrocketing energy prices inflate the costs of reaching, heating and cooling homes on the outer edges of metropolitan areas.
Just off Singing Hills Road, in one of hundreds of two-story homes dotting a former cattle ranch beyond the southern fringes of Denver, Phil Boyle and his family openly wonder if they will have to move close to town to get some relief.
They still revel in the space and quiet that has drawn a steady exodus from U.S. cities toward places like this for more than half a century. Their living room ceiling soars two stories high. A swing-set sways in the breeze in their backyard. Their wrap-around porch looks out over the flat scrub of the high plains to the snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains.
But life on the distant fringes of suburbia is beginning to feel untenable. Boyle and his wife must drive nearly an hour to their jobs in the high-tech corridor of southern Denver. With gasoline at more than $4 a gallon, Boyle recently paid $121 to fill his pickup truck with diesel. The price of propane to heat their spacious house has more than doubled in recent years.
"Living closer in, in a smaller space, where you don't have that commute," he said. "It's definitely something we talk about. Before it was, 'We spend too much time driving.' Now, it's, 'We spend too much time and money driving."'
As the realization takes hold that rising energy prices are less a momentary blip than a restructuring with lasting consequences, the high cost of fuel is threatening to slow the decades-old migration away from cities, while exacerbating the housing downturn by diminishing the appeal of larger homes set far from urban jobs.
In Atlanta, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Minneapolis, homes beyond the urban core have been falling in value faster than those within, according to analysis by Moody's Economy.com.
In Denver, housing prices in the urban core rose steadily from 2003 until late last year compared with previous years, before dipping nearly 5 percent in the past three months of last year, according to Economy.com. But house prices in the suburbs began falling earlier, in the middle of 2006, and then accelerated, dropping by 7 percent the past three months of the year.
Many factors have propelled the unraveling of U.S. real estate, from the mortgage crisis to a staggering excess of home construction, making it hard to pinpoint the impact of any single force. But economists and real estate agents are growing convinced that the rising cost of energy is a primary factor pushing home prices down in the suburbs - particularly in the outer rings.
More than three-fourths of prospective homebuyers are more inclined to live in an urban area because of fuel prices, according to a recent survey of 903 real estate agents with Coldwell Banker, a national brokerage.
Some proclaim the unfolding demise of suburbia.
"Many low-density suburbs and McMansion subdivisions, including some that are lovely and affluent today, may become what inner cities became in the 1960s and '70s - slums characterized by poverty, crime and decay," said Christopher Leinberger, an urban land use expert, in a recent essay in the Atlantic Monthly.
Most experts do not share such apocalyptic visions, seeing instead a gradual reordering.
"It's like an ebbing of this suburban tide," said Joe Cortright, an economist at the consulting group Impresa in Portland, Oregon. "There's going to be this kind of reversal of desirability. Typically, Americans have felt the periphery was most desirable, and now there's going to be a reversion to the center."
In a recent study, Cortright found that house prices in the urban centers of Chicago, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Portland and Tampa have fared significantly better than those in the suburbs. So-called exurbs - communities sprouting on the distant edges of metropolitan areas - have suffered worst of all, Cortright found.
Basic household arithmetic appears to be furthering the trend: In 2003, the average suburban household spent $1,422 a year on gasoline, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By April of this year - when gas prices were about $3.60 a gallon - the same household was buying gas at a rate of $3,196 a year, more than doubling consumption in dollar terms in less than five years.
In March, Americans drove 11 billion fewer miles on public roads than in the same month the previous year, a 4.3 percent decrease. It was the sharpest one-month drop since the Federal Highway Administration began keeping records in 1942.
Long before the recent spike in the price of energy, environmentalists decried suburban sprawl as a waste of land, energy, and tax dollars: Governments from Virginia to California have in recent decades lavished resources on building roads and schools for new subdivisions in the outer rings of development while skimping on maintaining facilities closer in. Many governments now focus on reviving their downtowns.
In Denver - a classic American city with snarling freeway traffic across a vast acreage of strip malls, ranch houses and office parks - the city has seen an urban renaissance over the past decade.
A planned $6.1 billion commuter rail system has been going in over the past four years, drawing people downtown without cars, while crystallizing swift sales of densely clustered condos near stations.
Coors Field, the intimate, brick-fronted baseball stadium for the Colorado Rockies, has transformed the surrounding area from a desolate area into trendy Lower Downtown, a neighborhood of restaurants and microbreweries in restored warehouses. Along the Platte River, new condos set on a park strip offer an arresting tableau of glass, steel, and futuristic geometry, attracting throngs of buyers at rising prices.
"This is a city where it's fun to be in the center," said Tim Burleigh, 56, who sold his house in the suburbs and now walks to Rockies games from his downtown condo.
To Denver's Mayor John Hickenlooper, $4 gasoline offers a useful push forward on such plans.
"It can be an accelerator," he said during an interview inside the imposing, column-fronted City Hall. "It's not going to be the dagger in the heart of suburban sprawl, but there's a certain inclination, a certain momentum back toward downtown."
Elizabeth is the archetype of a once-rural community sucked into the orbit of the expanding metropolis, its ranchlands given over to porches, picket fences and two-car garages.
Megan Werner, 39, a mother of three, moved here five years ago from a suburb closer to Denver, where the houses were packed together. She and her husband bought a home set on a 1.5 acre, or 0.61 hectare, lot in the Deer Creek Farm subdivision. The space justified her husband's 40-minute commute.
"We wanted more than a postage stamp," she said, as her 5-year-old daughter walked barefoot across the driveway.
It used to cost her about $30 to fill her Honda minivan with gas. Now, it's more like $50, and she coordinates her trips - shopping in town, combined with dance lessons for her kids. But she has no thoughts of leaving.
"I can open up my door, and my kids can play," Werner said.
For others, though, new math is altering the choice of where to live. Houses are sitting on the market longer than years past. "The pool of buyers is diminishing," said Jace Glick, a realtor with Re/Max Alliance in Parker, next to Elizabeth.
Juanita Johnson and her husband, both retired Denver school teachers, moved here last August, after three decades in the city and a few years in the mountains. They bought a four-bedroom house for $415,000.
Last winter, they spent $3,000 just on propane to heat the place, she said. Suddenly, this seems like a place to flee.
"We'd sell if we could, but we'd lose our shirt," Johnson said. On a recent walk, she counted 15 "For Sale" signs. A similar home nearby is listed below $400,000.
"I was so glad to get out of the city, the pollution the traffic, the crime," she said. Now, the suburbs seem mean. "I wouldn't do this again."
Consumer Confidence Plummets
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121431191157999655.html?mod=fpa_mostpop
American consumers, battered by falling home prices and soaring gasoline prices, are at their gloomiest in decades, raising fears they might cut back on spending later this year and tip the economy into a recession.
Consumer confidence plunged in June to its lowest level since 1992, and home-price declines accelerated in April, according to data released Tuesday. The renewed signs of economic weakness underscored why Federal Reserve policy makers, who wrap up a two-day meeting Wednesday, are likely to hold the target for their benchmark interest rate steady at 2%.
The Conference Board, a New York-based business research group, said consumer confidence dropped to 50.4 in June from 58.1 last month. The scale -- which uses as its benchmark a 1985 level of 100 -- peaked most recently at 111.9 in July 2007. Consumers' expectations of the economy six months ahead plunged to the lowest levels since the board began conducting its surveys in 1967.
The economic pullback since last year has been led by slumping home construction and flattening business investment. But growth has remained marginally positive: The economy grew at a 0.9% annual pace in the first quarter of this year and will likely post a similar gain in the current April through June period. That's largely because consumers, whose spending makes up two-thirds of U.S. economic output, have remained resilient.
But the latest evidence of slumping confidence and tumbling home prices suggests that Americans' willingness to keep spending is being tested, and the odds of avoiding economic contraction have dropped. (Economists note, however, that consumers' behavior does not always follow what they say about their confidence.)
"The final quarter of 2008 could be a big mess," said John Lonski, chief economist at Moody's Investors Service. He noted a host of risks to growth through early next year: rising prices of goods and services, continued pain in the housing market, and a possible slowdown in consumer spending once the impact of federal economic-stimulus checks fades. "That might be when we finally observe back-to-back quarterly declines" in gross domestic product, which typically signify recession, he said.
In St. Louis, Companion, a small chain of bakeries and cafes, has already seen its restaurant clients trim back their orders and its regular customers visit less frequently. "There seems to be so much uncertainty, people are just getting spooked," said Companion's co-owner, Josh Allen. Meanwhile, he said, because the price of flour has risen sharply, he charges $3 for a baguette now, up from $2.50 six months ago.
In Washington, Leonel Quijano, a 21-year-old electrician, said he's already changed his buying habits. "A lot of things that I used to buy, I don't," he said. "I don't go out as much as I used to. Instead of going to a bar I'll stay home and get a six-pack."
Consumer glumness is being fueled by an acceleration of home-price declines. Prices of single-family homes in 20 major cities dropped by 15.3% in April from the year before and are now back to 2004 levels, according to the Case-Shiller home price index released by Standard & Poor's. The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and tracks prices of homes purchased with their mortgages, said home prices were down 4.6% in April from the previous year, the lowest level since its tracking began in 1991.
The S&P/Case-Shiller index shows larger price declines in part because it tracks metropolitan areas where prices are more sensitive than in rural locations. Ofheo, on the other hand, may understate the weakness because it tracks only so-called agency-backed mortgages, which exclude homes purchased with subprime loans.
Both surveys show that price declines vary sharply by region. Las Vegas and Miami continue to have the largest one-year drops, of 26.8% and 26.7% respectively. Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Tampa, Fla., have also seen declines of more than 20%, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller data.
Other regions are faring better. In eight areas -- including Boston, Dallas, Denver, Portland, Ore., and Seattle -- prices either rose or stabilized in April from the month before. "If there is anywhere to look for possible improvement, it would be that the pace of monthly declines has slowed down for most of the markets," said David M. Blitzer, chairman of S&P's index committee.
In Chicago, Sergei Mirkin thinks the time to sell is near. The biologist, who moved to Boston a year and a half ago, held onto his old condo but says he's preparing to put it on the market next spring. "The Chicago housing market seems to be on its way to recovery," he said, noting that several other units in his building have recently sold. The home price indexes don't track condo sales, but the S&P/Case-Shiller data show that home prices in Chicago rose in April by 0.1% from the month before.
Yet across the U.S., potential buyers remain wary. According to the Conference Board, 2.2% of respondents say they intend to purchase a home in the next six months, a 25-year low. Consumers also ratcheted back on plans to purchase cars and major appliances, and fewer said they intended to take a vacation over the next six months.
Worries About Growth
Worries about economic growth are likely to cause the Fed to announce it's holding interest rates at 2%, according to analysts. Low rates could help the economy, by making the cost of borrowing lower for companies looking to invest in their businesses or families interested in buying homes.
But low rates can also stoke inflation at a time when companies and consumers are already noting the sting of rising prices. United Parcel Service Inc. said Monday that an "unprecedented increase" in fuel-costs and the weak economy would hurt its second-quarter earnings. Dow Chemical Co., meanwhile, announced Tuesday its second round of price hikes in a month, saying it will charge as much as 25% more for some products starting July 1.
Bill Hardin, 70, lives in Alton, Ill., and works as a Transportation Security Administration officer at nearby Lambert-St. Louis International Airport in Missouri. He sees first-hand the myriad surcharges now imposed by airlines, and also feels the pain at gas pumps since he drives 25 miles each way to work. "I'm just bent," he said of the higher prices. "Your take-home pay goes down because fuel is more expensive."
Utilities Being Cut Off In Record Numbers for Families Who Can’t Afford To Pay Bills
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2008-06-23-utility-bills-shut-off-disconnect_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
As skyrocketing food and gasoline prices strain budgets, utilities are disconnecting many more customers who fall behind on their bills, and even moderate-income households are getting zapped.
Electricity and natural gas shutoffs are up at least 15% in several states compared with last year. Totals for some utilities have more than doubled.
"We're seeing a record number of shutoffs," says Mark Wolfe, head of the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association, which represents programs that subsidize energy bills.
An NEADA survey this month shows 8% of four-member households earning $33,500 to $55,500 have had their power turned off for non-payment. "It's hitting people in the suburbs with two cars and two kids," Wolfe says.
The disconnects are rising as warm-weather power bills increase, some state moratoriums on winter shutoffs expire, and rates are climbing in many states.
Service is typically restored within days after customers work out payment plans, but even brief outages can pose a health hazard on sweltering days. Still, customers typically pay the mortgage and car payment before utility charges, as they can usually buy more time from the power or gas company.
In Pennsylvania, PPL Electric Utilities disconnected 7,054 customers through April this year, up 168% over the same 2007 period. PPL won't shut off customers until they owe at least $250 and will first try to work out a payment plan, says spokesman Ryan Hill.
Duke Energy in North Carolina is averaging about 11,000 shutoffs a month, 14% above last year. That's an annualized rate equal to nearly 10% of its 1.4 million residential customers, though Duke spokeswoman Paige Sheehan says some households may be shut off more than once. She says unpaid bills are ultimately borne by all other customers through higher rates.
Disconnects are up 27% for Peoples Gas in Chicago, 14% for Southern California Edison and 56% for Detroit Edison, according to utilities or regulators. In Michigan, where home foreclosures are soaring and the unemployment rate is the USA's highest, more than one in five Detroit Edison customers were behind in their electric bills in May.
Some help is available. The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) is providing $2.5 billion in fiscal 2008, but funds are depleted. Congress may kick in $1 billion more. States add $2 billion but strapped ones such as Rhode Island are scrapping aid.
Ginger Hall, 34, got a shutoff notice from her Sacramento power company in March when she racked up about $500 in overdue bills after a broken furnace forced her to use electric heaters. She paid the debt with help from LIHEAP. Hall, who is married with four children, says their $45,000 household income is normally sufficient, but not with food and gas prices soaring. "You can't have your utilities getting shut off, but when they double each month, it catches you off guard. You have to juggle and make it work," she says.
'Christian Woodstock' Kicks Off With Focus On Honoring the Word of God & Sanctity of Life
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080625/-christian-woodstock-kicks-off-expects-huge-crowd.htm
The 30th Creation Festival, dubbed a “Christian Woodstock,” kicked off Wednesday with music, teaching and activities scheduled to jam pack the four-day event.
Thousands of believers, mainly young people, are flocking to the campgrounds of Agape Farm in Mount Union, Pa., for the major annual music festival where alcoholic beverages and drugs are not allowed and the dress code is “modesty.”
Several stages at the festival are featuring popular Christian music artists, including Newsboys, Switchfoot, TobyMac, Hawk Nelson and Chris Tomlin, just to name a few. But Creation ’08 is about more than music, organizers say.
“Creation is also about honoring the Word of God,” they state on their Web site.
Every year, tens of thousands of people attending the festival hear messages that challenge and inspire them in their faith walk. Among the speakers this year is the Rev. Rob Schenck, president of Faith and Action, who will speak out in favor of life.
Schenck said he will give this year’s pro-life message in the context of the Scripture passage Psalm 139 and the recent hit movie “Juno,” a film about a pregnant 16-year-old who realizes the importance of life and decides not to abort her baby.
"Creation has always been a highlight for me," Schenck said of the festival, which features dozens of Christian bands, sports activities, and live public baptisms.”
"Few places pack so much spiritual energy into such a compact period of time. The kids and adults who attend Creation get their spiritual batteries recharged while they also have a lot of fun. Hundreds will come to Christ, renew their Christian commitments and experience a deeper sense of calling on their lives,” he added.
Schenck, also part of a network of people “who share a common concern about the moral integrity of our American culture,” will speak Saturday on the final day of the festival.
This year’s Creation Festival is being held on June 25-28 and is expected to draw as many as 50,000 visitors.
“Hundreds of thousands of people have been spiritually enriched and made life-changing decisions for Christ and we give God all the glory,” according to the festival Web site. “The Creation Festival is all about changing lives and glorifying our Creator. Our prayer for at Creation '08 is that people will be changed, restored, and challenged to serve the Lord and to make a difference in this world.”
Smile! More and more, you’re on camera
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25355673/
After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, local governments across the country set aside concerns over privacy and installed surveillance cameras in public streets and plazas.
Now — even after a damning report by the head of London’s extensive surveillance network and with little evidence that the systems work — police in many cities are trying to add thousands more cameras to their networks.
“‘Cameras Everywhere’ continues to be the best description of the trend in the video surveillance market,” security market analysts J.P. Freeman Co. said in a report in 2006 that estimated that a quarter of major U.S. cities were investing in the technology.
Two years later, the trend shows no sign of slowing. Officials in many cities are eager to take advantage of money from state and federal security agencies to install the cameras on street corners and intersections, and in cities that already have dozens of cameras, officials are seeking real-time access to thousands more in schools, transit facilities and private businesses:
* In Washington, Mayor Adrian Fenty consolidated monitoring of more than 4,800 video cameras in his emergency management office this spring, including more than 3,500 in public schools and more than 700 inside public housing hallways.
* In Chicago, whose network of nearly 700 neighborhood cameras is widely considered to be the most sophisticated in the nation, police in March took over monitoring more than 4,500 units in the public schools. They added hundreds of transit cameras on the city’s buses last year.
* Rochester, N.Y., police announced a program last week to install 50 more cameras across the city, paid for with state money.
* Seattle officials approved a plan this month to expand the use of cameras in the city’s parks, at a cost of $400,000.
* In Kansas City, Mo., police expanded their camera surveillance beyond the downtown entertainment district last month, adding cameras along a corridor that has been plagued in recent years by gangs, violent crime and drug deals.
* And in Austin, Texas, the police chief has called for round-the-clock camera surveillance across the city before the end of the year.
J.P. Freeman said the domestic market for such systems last year had doubled over five years, to $9.2 billion, and estimated that it would more than double again by 2010, to more than $21 billion.
‘The eye of Big Brother’?
Privacy activists have always resisted the cameras, and they find the enthusiasm to expand the programs especially troubling.
“It really does become the eye of Big Brother,” said James C. Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project.
“If you could just even keep it focused on the narrow area that the government says it’s going to, it would be a different story, but we know that every time the government opens the door, however slightly, it’s going to keep pushing until it gets that door open all the way.”
The American Civil Liberties Union has opposed public cameras in many cities, arguing in a position paper titled “Bigger Monster, Weaker Chains” that they were creating an American “surveillance society.”
“To the extent that these cameras are there to protect the public safety, it’s fine, but once they cross that threshold of getting into areas where people have a reasonable expectation of privacy, they can expect to be challenged,” said Redditt Hudson, manager of the Racial Justice Initiative for the ACLU’s Eastern Missouri affiliate.
Privacy advocates face a difficult task, however: overcoming the push for cameras by an energetic coalition of police agencies and community activists motivated to try almost anything to reduce violent crime.
“So far, I’ve been stopped by two citizens who have thanked me and said they’ve been praying for these,” said Kansas City police Sgt. Patrick Rauzi, head of the city’s camera project.
They are people like Lauri Turner, owner of the Hatbox Haberdashery in Austin, who said her shop had been the victim of crime more than a half-dozen times. “I don’t care about the perpetrator’s rights anymore, at all,” she said.
Melanie Anderson, a mother of young children in Rochester, said with relief that she could go to the store “without people asking you if you want drugs.”
“All these young guys aren’t hanging on the corner anymore,” Anderson said.
Little evidence to bolster backers
By and large, police agencies enthusiastically back public surveillance cameras, saying they deter would-be criminals and make it easier to prosecute crimes.
But there are few statistics to back them up. Nearly seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks spurred cities to deploy the networks in significant numbers, no systematic national research has been undertaken to assess their effectiveness.
“There is little if any information available to us that surveillance cameras actually reduce crime or lead to higher convictions,” Nick Licata, the only member of the Seattle City Council to vote against the city’s plan to install more cameras in its parks, wrote this month in a newsletter to his constituents.
Licata noted that he had supported the plan when it was introduced in May, but he said he changed his mind after Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville, head of London’s Metropolitan Police, reported that the city’s network of near-ubiquitous public cameras had been “an utter fiasco.”
“Only 3 percent of crimes were solved by CCTV,” or closed-circuit television cameras, Neville said in an address to the Security Document World Conference last month. “There’s no fear of CCTV.
“Why don’t people fear it?” he asked. “The cameras are not working.”
In light of the evidence — or the lack of it — other officials are starting to have second thoughts. Fenty, for example, was forced to implement his plan by issuing emergency rules after a majority of the D.C. Council took steps to block it.
Police officials in San Francisco, meanwhile, have delayed approving installation of new cameras pending a final study from researchers at the University of California, who said in a preliminary report this spring that the city’s 68 anti-crime cameras had failed to deter street crime. Where the cameras had any impact, the interim report said, they simply moved crime down the street or around the corner.
“There are piles of studies that show the greatest deterrent to criminal and uncivil behavior in public parks is through active social programming and the presence of police or similar official personnel,” Licata said in his newsletter.
Where should crime go?
Lois Frankel, mayor of West Palm Beach, Fla. — which started using 13 cameras this year and plans to install 12 more — agrees with Licata on that point, saying video surveillance “is not a replacement for good police work.”
But that doesn’t mean they aren’t a worthwhile “tool in the toolbox,” she said.
Rochester Police Chief David Moore echoed that assessment. He welcomed plans to install about 50 more cameras in the city but said he was also beefing up street patrols, because criminals usually moved elsewhere.
Indeed, critics and some researchers make a point of the tendency of cameras to simply relocate crime.
“The real issue for us is that once you put cameras in one area, what happens is crime doesn’t stop, it just moves a little bit,” said Rebecca Burnhart, policy director for the ACLU in Texas. “That creates an incentive to put cameras on the next street and the next street and the next street.”
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo, who has tangled with Burnhart over the city’s cameras, doesn’t understand why some would consider that a problem. If cameras chase criminals around, he said, “so be it.”
“I really believe in my heart that if you keep the heat on the criminal element, that eventually they get tired of your city, and they’ll move somewhere else,” Acevedo said.
He added: “We have lost our innocence in terms of the number of people that are getting killed and injured out here.”
First American to Head Vatican High Court
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/400634.aspx
CBNNews.com - ST. LOUIS - An archbishop who tussled with singer Sheryl Crow, college basketball coach Rick Majerus, and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry over their support for abortion rights has been named as the first American to lead the Vatican supreme court.
Archbishop Raymond Burke, an expert in church law and perhaps the most outspoken of conservative U.S. bishops, will likely be made a cardinal after his appointment Friday. The supreme court is traditionally headed by a cardinal.
Burke's disputes with public figures drew attention to the archdiocese in his 4 1/2 years here, which seemed to surprise the affable church man who grew up in rural Wisconsin.
"I've been frustrated, and bothered that the impression of me has been quite negative. as unpleasant, arrogant," Burke said Friday, reflecting on his time here. "I've tried to be a good shepherd for the flock."
Burke's new appointment shows that Pope Benedict XVI has a great amount of respect for U.S. bishops, said the Rev. Thomas Reese, senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.
It comes on the heels of Benedict's naming William Joseph Cardinal Levada, former archbishop of San Francisco and Portland, Ore., as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
"This is more power than Americans have ever had in Rome," Reese said.
Roman Catholics in St. Louis clearly are split between those who are glad and those who are sorry he's going.
Some see him as a champion of orthodoxy who represents a refreshing return to church values. Others view him as sorely lacking as a pastor, an unbending stickler for the letter of the law. His targets said he fought them using arcane, medieval church codes they could barely decipher.
"I've been getting phone calls since 6 o'clock this morning from parishioners singing 'Ding, dong, the archbishop is gone,"' said the Rev. Marek Bozek, who, along with his parish board, were excommunicated by Burke after a long-simmering dispute over control of St. Stanislaus Kostka's assets.
Burke also excommunicated three women for participating in a women's ordination that is forbidden by the Roman Catholic Church.
"Catholics in St. Louis are exhausted after 4 1/2 years of constant scandal and control by Archbishop Burke," Bozek added.
Yet other Catholics defended Burke, who turns 60 on Monday.
"We're sad about it," said the Rev. Karl Lenhardt, who was invited here by Burke to establish a place where the Latin Mass could be celebrated. "But we are convinced that work in his new capacity will be good for the universal church. We can't be surprised that the Holy Father has called him."
Burke said he would move to Rome in late August to head the supreme court, which resolves jurisdictional disputes among various Vatican tribunals and hears procedural appeals on marriage annulments.
Benedict and his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, have complained for years that local tribunals grant an excessive number of annulments.
Reese said the court has a very narrow focus on procedural issues and rarely tackles substantive issues.
In 2004, Burke caused a stir by saying he would deny Communion to Kerry because of the Massachusetts senator's stance supporting abortion rights.
Last year, Burke indicated he would so the same for then-Republican front-runner Rudy Giuliani. He also protested Crow's appearance at a benefit for a Catholic children's hospital over her support for embryonic stem cell research.
In January, Burke called on Saint Louis University, a Jesuit school, to discipline Majerus for publicly supporting abortion rights.
"Every pro-choice Catholic Democrat politician should be very nervous," Reese said. "He made his name in the U.S. by denying Communion to pro-choice politicians.
"If he gets that view articulated strongly in Rome, he could become the voice for having that position for the universal church."
Bozek, the Polish priest, said Burke could well be on his way to a future papacy.
"With this office, he will be named cardinal in the very near future, and as cardinal he will have the chance to run for pope two or three times in his lifetime," he said.
"He may well become the first American pope."
Canada to boycott Durban II as “anti-Semitic, anti-western hatefest”
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5378
Prime minister Stephen Harper said Canada has every reason to expect the follow-conference to be a repeat of the Durban I which purported to combat racism. Addressing an Ottawa ceremony awarding him the B’nai B’rith Gold Medallion for humanitarianism, Harmer condemned Zimbabwe’s election Friday an “ugly perversion of democracy” and promised strong measures against Mugabe for stealing the election.
Calling Israel a friend an ally, Harper stressed Canada’s unshakable support for its right to exist and self-defense as well as support for a two-state solution in the Middle East. Canada, he noted, was the first country to suspend relations with the Hamas-led government in Palestinian and has “refused to be bullied into signing on to one-sided international resolutions against Israel.”
Past recipients of the Gold Medallion are David Ben Gurion and US presidents Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy.
New Vancouver School Policy: Parents Refused Right to Pull Kids from Pro-Homosexual Lessons
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08062512.html
The Vancouver school board has announced that it intends to enforce the B.C. Ministry of Education's policy that forbids parents from removing their children from the classroom during pro-homosexual discussions.
The school board announced their staff-recommended decision this past Friday. A spokesman for the board said, in the board's defence, that the board was simply falling in line with Ministry guidelines.
"We're expected to do that (enforce the policy) by the (Education) ministry, so it's not something we've initiated of our own volition," said Ken Denike, a Vancouver school board trustee, according to Canwest News.
"It's a very touchy subject," he admitted, saying that the board expected some backlash from disgruntled parents. "It has to be handled sensitively. It's going to be difficult."
The province of British Columbia has been subjecting its curriculum to a complete revamp in the last several years, largely under the supervision of a homosexual "married" couple, Murray and Peter Corren.
In 1999 the Correns filed a human rights complaint against the B.C. Ministry of education, alleging that the Ministry's curriculum didn't adequately "address issues of sexual orientation." Subsequently the Ministry made a settlement with the Correns in the form of a contract that gave the couple an unprecedented level of control over the development of the province's revamped, pro-homosexual curriculum. Under the Correns direction, a host of new and redesigned courses in various subject areas that include positive portrayals of "alternative sexualities" have been introduced in B.C.
One aspect of the new curriculum that the Correns insisted on was a stipulation that B.C. parents could not choose to remove their children from the classroom during discussions on homosexuality - a stipulation that, in the end, the B.C. Ministry of Education agreed to.
Currently, therefore, parents are only permitted to pull their children out of health classes that deal with "alternative sexualities." However, pro-homosexual material appears all throughout various courses in the new curriculum, and not only in the health classes. And even in the case of the health classes, children who do not attend are still required to learn the material either at home or through independent study, and to prove that they have learned it.
The Catholic Civil Rights League (CCRL) has been fighting the new curriculum, and in particular its Draconian opt-out prohibition, since it was first announced that the province would be reworking the curriculum with the Correns.
The League has pursued a letter-writing campaign asking the various schoolboards around the province to state whether or not they intend on enforcing the Ministry's prohibition on parents pulling their children from classes they deem offensive. As of this past March 22, responses from districts representing almost half the province's school population indicated that they would not compel students to attend classes over the objections of their parents.
"In the end," said Sean Murphy, a director for CCRL, in March, "only two districts in the province seem clearly willing to enforce the coercive section of the Corren Agreement."
The Vancouver school board, however, has now added itself to the list of boards who have thought it expedient to deny parents their right to act as the primary educators of their children, in the name of political correctness.
Ed Da Vita, a spokesman for the CCRL, told the National Post about the Vancouver board's recent decision to enforce the policy, "The problem now is that controversial subject matter can be brought up any time, anywhere, and there is no reasonable alternative delivery available for that."
Britain: Christianity 'could die out within a century'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2160495/christianity-'could-die-out-within-a-century'.html
More than half of Britons think Christianity is likely to have disappeared from the country within a century, according to a survey.
Research by the Orthodox Jewish organisation Aish found that just over a third of people thought religions like Christianity and Judaism would still be practiced in Britain in 100 years' time.
Although four in 10 people said they would choose to be a member of the Christian religion, almost the same number said they would rather practice no religion at all.
Buddhism however, proved more attractive than both Islam and Judaism, and was chosen by nine per cent of those questioned.
Aish UK's executive director Rabbi Naftali Schiff said the results of the YouGov poll of 2,000 people were alarming.
"It clearly demonstrates that religion, including Judaism, is becoming unattractive to the British public.
"At Aish we know that Judaism provides real meaning and enrichment to one's life. Whilst we have attracted many disinterested Jews back to Jewish identity it is clear there is much work to be done."
Research published earlier this year suggested that church attendance is declining so fast that the number of regular churchgoers will be fewer than those attending mosques within a generation.
According to Religious Trends, an analysis of religious practice in Britain, the huge drop off in attendance means that the Church of England, Catholicism and other denominations will become financially unviable.
In contrast, the number of actively religious Muslims is predicted to increase from about one million today to 1.96 million in 2035.
Father's Day cards banned in Scottish schools for fear of offending lesbians
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2176315/Father's-Day-cards-banned-in-Scottish-schools.html
Thousands of primary pupils were prevented from making Father's Day cards at school for fear of embarrassing classmates who live with single mothers and lesbians.
The politically correct policy was quietly adopted at schools "in the interests of sensitivity" over the growing number of lone-parent and same-sex households.
It only emerged after a large number of fathers failed to receive their traditional cards and handmade gifts.
Family rights campaigners last night condemned the policy as "absurd" and argued that it is marginalising fathers, but local authorities said teachers need to react to "the changing pattern of family life".
An Office for National Statistics report in April found that one in four British children now lives with a lone parent - double the figure 20 years ago.
The Father's Day card ban has been introduced by schools in Glasgow, Edinburgh, East Renfrewshire, Dumfries and Galloway and Clackmannshire.
Tina Woolnough, 45, whose son Felix attends Edinburgh's Blackhall primary school, said several teachers there had not allowed children to make Father's Day cards this year.
Mrs Woolnough, a member of the school's parent-teacher council, said: "This is something I know they do on a class-by-class basis at my son Felix's school. Some classes send Father's Day cards and some do not.
"The teachers are aware of the family circumstances of the children in each class and if a child hasn't got a father living at home, the teacher will avoid getting the children to make a card."
The making of Mother's Day cards and crafts, in the run-up to Mothering Sunday, remains generally permitted.
But the Father's Day edict follows a series of other politically correct measures introduced in primary schools, including the removal of Christian references from festive greetings cards.
Matt O'Connor, founder of campaign group Fathers For Justice, said: "I'm astonished at this. It totally undermines the role and significance of fathers whether they are still with the child's mother or not.
"It also sends out a troubling message to young boys that fathers aren't important."
Alastair Noble, education officer with the charity Christian Action, Research and Education, said: "This seems to be an extreme and somewhat absurd reaction.
"I would have thought that the traditional family and marriage are still the majority lifestyles of people in Scotland. To deny the experience of the majority just does not seem sensible."
Local authorities defended the change, saying teachers needed to act "sensitively" at a time when many children were experiencing family breakdown and divorce.
"Teachers have always had to deal with some pupils not having fathers or mothers, but with marital breakdown it is accelerating."
In Error and Apostate - The Anglican Division Looms
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080625/in-error-and-apostate-the-anglican-division-looms.htm
The world-wide Anglican Communion has been skating on thin ice for decades now, skirting disaster only by an infinitely creative arrangement of compromises. Now, with the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops coming in just a few weeks, a group of 300 conservative Anglican bishops is meeting in Jerusalem. Their meeting will make history, and may well define the ultimate breakup of global Anglicanism.
The Global Anglican Future Conference [GAFCON] featured an address by Dr. Peter Akinola, Archbishop of Nigeria, on Sunday evening. Archbishop Akinola has emerged as one of the most courageous and theologically committed leaders of worldwide Anglicanism.
In his address, delivered as something of a keynote for the event, Archbishop Akinola declared that "a sizable part of the Communion is in error and not a few are apostate." This gets to the heart of The Anglican dilemma. The issues now separating liberals and conservatives within the global Anglican Communion are no longer matters on which compromise can be reached. To the contrary, the doctrinal and theological explosions connected to the issues of human sexuality and biblical authority have distilled the fundamental issues down to what is considered non-negotiable by both sides. Conservatives are unwilling to surrender biblical authority and the liberals are unwilling to surrender their determination to normalize homosexuality and other liberal causes. In reality, the division has already happened - all that remains is the final form of the division.
As Archbishop Akinola lamented, doctrinal "revisionists" have attempted to create a new religion in the place of historic biblical Christianity. In his words: "Clearly the bedrock of the revisionist perspective is the humanist, rather than theological approach. This is the crux of the problem: they are going in the opposite direction from what Biblical orthodoxy demands, and with such a mindset, a meeting-point with those who are labeled conservatives – who have chosen to stand where the Bible stands, becomes a very remote possibility."
As Ruth Gledhill of The Times reported, Archbishop Akinola expressed frustration that Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams had arranged the upcoming Lambeth Conference in such a way that dealing with the fundamental issues would be virtually impossible. "Rejecting all entreaties, Lambeth Palace chose not to be bothered about that which troubles us; decided to stick to its own plans and to erect the walls of the 2008 Lambeth Conference on the shaky and unsafe foundations of our brokenness," he said.
Meanwhile, Archbishop Peter Jensen of the Australian archdiocese of Sydney described the Anglican breakup as tragic. Nevertheless, Dr. Jensen insisted that the issue of truth was more important than the imperative of unity. "We're not dealing with the secular world here, we are dealing with the Christian church, and the Christian church has a constitution which is the Bible," he said.
In his address, Archbishop Akinola described how many Anglican believers around the world, especially in Africa, view the liberals in Western churches:
"Having survived the inhuman physical slavery of the 19th century, the political slavery called colonialism of the 20th century, the developing world economic enslavement, we cannot, we dare not, allow ourselves and the millions we represent to be kept in a religious and spiritual dungeon."
"We will not abdicate our God-given responsibility and simply acquiesce to destructive modern cultural and political dictates."
Even as the meeting began in Jerusalem, observers were warning that the day of the Archbishop of Canterbury's spiritual leadership over the Anglican Communion "is over." The GAFCON meeting produced a plan for a new fellowship of more orthodox Anglican churches. As Ruth Gledhill explains:
The new fellowship for orthodox Anglicans would have a leadership of six or seven senior conservative bishops and archbishops, such as the Bishop of Pittsburgh, the Right Rev Bob Duncan, who chairs the US Common Cause partnership that acts as an umbrella for American conservatives, Archbishop Henry Orombi, Primate of Uganda, and the Church of England's Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali.
The aim is not to split with the worldwide Anglican Communion, which counts 80 million members in 38 provinces, but to reform it from within.
Formal ties will be maintained with the Archbishop of Canterbury but fellowship members will consider themselves out of communion with provinces such as the US and Canada.
There are orthodox and faithful Christians in the American and Canadian churches, but those in leadership in those churches have steadfastly refused to stop an onward march into theological and ecclesiastical disaster.
Jerusalem was a controversial location for the GAFCON meeting. But, after all, the famous "Jerusalem Council" of the early church was held there as recorded in Acts 15:6-21. In that council, the apostles and elders of the early church met and reached the consensus that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is for both Jews and Gentiles, and that Gentile converts to Christ were not required to first become, in effect, Jews.
Perhaps we are seeing before our eyes what we should have anticipated - that Jerusalem is a good place to remember what the Gospel is.
Religious groups gaining higher profile at UN
http://www.times-herald.com/religion/Religious-groups-gaining-higher-profile-at-UN--494185
Editors' Note: This article originally appeared in "One Country," newsletter of the Bahá'à International Community, and is republished with permission of that publication. This is part one. Part two will be published next Saturday.
The United Nations is working with religious groups in new ways.
What has changed, according to Hilario G. Davide, permanent representative of the Philippine Mission to the UN, and others, is the emergence of a new understanding that closer collaboration with religions is critical to a wide range of UN efforts, not only in development but also to the UN'S main mission of promoting peace and security.
"If we are to go over the statements of the more than 80 high-level personalities who attended the High-Level Dialogue on Interreligious and Intercultural Understanding and Cooperation for Peace (in October)," said Davide, "we will note that several speakers alluded to the importance for the interaction between the UN system and the faith communities in the discharge of the three pillars of the UN goals, namely, the promotion of peace, development and human dignity."
"One of the conclusions that could be drawn," he added, "is that the partnership between and among governments, the UN system and religious NGOs or faith communities is no longer an option but a necessity."
New initiatives are emerging from a wide range of issue areas, involving many UN bodies and agencies. One new element is a focus on practical steps beyond mere talk.
For example, at the Alliance of Civilizations' first major meeting, held in Madrid on Jan. 15-16, participants issued a list of "major outcomes" that announced a series of concrete actions. These include a $100 million Global Youth Employment Initiative and a multimillion dollar Media Fund, both defined as efforts to support the Alliance's focus on the relationship between Western nations and predominantly Muslim populations and, specifically, efforts to reduce factors that contribute to extremism.
The UNDP's new initiative with the ARC on climate change aims also at concrete action. Under the terms of that initiative, Baha'i, Buddhist, Christian, Taoist, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Muslim, Shinto, Sikh and Zoroastrian leaders will be invited to commit their communities to projects that address climate change and the protection of the natural environment in "practical ways" -- from "forestry conservation to organic farming schemes to introducing, promoting and financing alternative energy sources," according to the ARC.
The December 2007 General Assembly resolution likewise encourages governments to "identify areas for practical action in all sectors and levels of society for the promotion of interreligious and Intercultural dialogue, tolerance, understanding and cooperation."
The Tripartite Forum, which focuses on dialogue, can also lead to action, said Davide. "Before a treaty is agreed by member states, it generally takes a number of years of discussions, negotiations and consultations before consensus is arrived at," he said. "It is, therefore, not a waste of time for governments to deliberate on how to harness the partnership of religious communities in the achievement of UN goals no matter how long is the process of consultations."
The discussion at the "informal, interactive" segment of the High-Level Dialogue in October reflected many of the new ideas needed to promote religious dialogue -- as well as some of the thorny issues that lie ahead.
The segment brought together some 20 non-governmental speakers representing a variety of cultures and religious traditions, including representatives from the Baha'i faith, Christianity Hinduism, Islam, Jainism and Judaism.
Participants included Dr. Paul Knitter of Union Theological Seminary, Gamal I. Serour of the International Islamic Center for Population Studies and Research at the Al Azhar-Centre in Egypt, Sohan Lal Gandhi of the Anuvrat Global Organization in India, Fatima Ahmed of Zenab for Women in Development in Sudan, Steven Rockefeller of Earth Charter International in the United States and Mitra Deliri of the Baha'i International Community.
"The religions are part of the problem," said Knitter. "They are a source of conflict and violence among nations and ethnic groups." The solution, he suggested, lies in "a model of an egalitarian community of communities, in which the unique validity and value of each community, each religion, are affirmed and engaged, but no religion claims to be superior or dominant."
General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim said while "cultures and religions are being pulled ever closer together by a web of telecommunications and economic links" these encounters also "reveal deep-rooted misunderstanding.
He continued, "We have the unrivaled opportunity to replace intolerance and discrimination with understanding and mutual acceptance. Open and sustained dialogue, respect for freedom of expression and freedom of religion or belief is fundamental to this endeavor."
Deliri focused on the situation in Tanzania, where she resides. There, she said, "large Christian and Muslim populations" have found a way to live together peacefully, "side-by-side," often intermarrying and attending each other's religious festivals.
"It is a living example of religious pluralism," she said. "This coexistence did not come about by accident but rather as a result of the vision and deliberate action of Tanzanian leaders, dating back to the country's first president."
Deliri also pointed to religious freedom as a key to tolerance, saying that governments must work to create a climate where freedom of religion or belief is clearly upheld in law and in practice.
"Such a climate must be free from incitements to violence or hostility in the name of religion," she said. "Where contentious opinions about religions are expressed, it is the responsibility of the state to provide for right of reply."
Bulgarian Extremists Attack Gay Parade With Rocks
http://www.newsmax.com/international/bulgaria_gay_parade/2008/06/28/108249.html
SOFIA, Bulgaria -- Extremists throwing rocks, bottles and gasoline bombs have attacked the Bulgarian capital's first gay pride parade.
Police say they prevented the extremists from harming the 150 or so people in the procession through Sofia. No serious injuries have been reported.
Police say they detained about 60 people for harassing the parade participants.
Gays face widespread hostility in Bulgaria and opposition to Saturday's parade has been fierce. The far-right Bulgarian National Union had called for "open resistance" to the gay pride parade with a campaign featuring posters that say: "Be Intolerant, Be Normal."
Bulgaria's influential Orthodox Church said the march should be banned as it undermines the country's Christian traditions.
U.S. and EU near deal on sharing data
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/27/america/privacy.php?page=1
WASHINGTON: The United States and the European Union are nearing completion of an agreement that would allow law enforcement and security agencies to obtain private information - including credit card transactions, travel histories and Internet browsing habits - about people on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Seeking to improve information-sharing to fight crime and terrorism, government officials have been meeting since February 2007 to reach a pact. Europe generally has more-stringent laws restricting how governments and businesses can collect and transfer personal data, which have led to high-profile disputes over American demands for such information.
Negotiators have largely agreed on draft language for 12 major issues that are central to a "binding international agreement" making clear that it is lawful for European governments and companies to transfer personal information to the United States, and vice-versa, according to an internal report obtained by The New York Times.
But the two sides are still at odds on several other matters, including whether European citizens should be able to sue the United States government over its handling of their personal data, the report said.
The talks grew out of two conflicts over information-sharing after the September 2001 terrorist attacks. The U.S. government demanded access to customer data held by airlines and a consortium, known as Swift, that tracks global bank transfers.
American investigators wanted the data to look for suspicious activity. But several European countries objected, citing violations of their privacy laws. Each dispute frayed diplomatic relations and required difficult negotiations to resolve.
American and European Union officials are trying to head off future confrontations "by finding common ground on privacy and by agreeing not to impose conflicting obligations on private companies," said Stewart Baker, the assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security, who is involved in the talks. "Globalization means that more and more companies are going to get caught between U.S. and European law."
Paul Schwartz, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said such a blanket agreement could transform international privacy law by eliminating a problem that has led to negotiations of "staggering" complexity between Europe and the United States.
"The reason it's a big deal is that it is going to lower the whole transaction cost for the U.S. government to get information from Europe," Schwartz said. "Most of the negotiations will already be completed. They will just be able to say, 'Look, we provide adequate protection, so you're required to turn it over."'
But the prospect that the agreement might lower barriers to sending personal information to the U.S. government has alarmed privacy-rights advocates in Europe.
While some praised the principles laid out in the draft text, they warned that it was difficult to tell whether the agreement would allow broad exceptions to such limits.
For example, the two sides have agreed that information that reveals race, religion, political opinion, health or "sexual life" may not be used by a government "unless domestic law provides appropriate safeguards."
But the agreement does not spell out what would be considered an appropriate safeguard, suggesting that each government may decide for itself whether it is complying with the rule.
"I am very worried that once this will be adopted, it will serve as a pretext to freely share our personal data with anyone, so I want it to be very clear about exactly what it means and how it will work," said Sophia in 't Veld, a member of the European Parliament from the Netherlands who is an outspoken advocate of privacy rights.
The Bush administration and the European Commission, the EU's executive body, have not publicized the talks. But in a little-noticed paragraph deep in a joint statement following a summit meeting between President George W. Bush and European leaders in Slovenia this month, the leaders hailed their progress.
Issued June 10, the statement declared that "the fight against transnational crime and terrorism requires the ability to share personal data for law enforcement," and it called for the creation of a "binding international agreement" to facilitate such transfers while also ensuring that citizens' privacy is "fully" protected.
The negotiators are trying to reach accord on minimum standards for the protection of privacy rights, like limiting access to the information to "authorized individuals with an identified purpose" for looking at it. If a government's policies are "effective" in meeting all the standards, any transfer of personal data to that government would be presumed lawful.
For example, European law sets up independent government agencies to police whether personal data is being used lawfully and to help citizens who are concerned about any invasions of their privacy. The United States has no such independent agency. But in a concession, the Europeans have agreed that the American government's internal oversight system may be good enough to provide accountability for how Europeans' data are being used.
About half a dozen issues remain unresolved, the report said. One sticking point is what rights European citizens would have if the U.S. government violates data privacy rules or takes an adverse action against them - like denying them entry into the country or placing them on a no-flight list-based on incorrect personal information.
European law generally allows those who think the government has mishandled their personal information to file a lawsuit to seek damages and to get the data corrected or expunged. American citizens and permanent residents can also generally file similar lawsuits under the Privacy Act of 1974, but that statute does not extend to foreigners.
The Bush administration is trying to persuade the Europeans that other options for correcting problems - including asking an agency to correct any misinformation through administrative procedures - are satisfactory. For now, the EU is holding to the position that its citizens "require the ability to bring suit in U.S. courts specifically under the Privacy Act for an agreement to be reached on redress," the report said.
But the Bush administration does not want to make such a concession, in part because it would require new legislation. The administration does not want to have to request congressional approval of the final agreement, several officials said.
David Sobel, a senior counsel with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to data-privacy rights, predicted that it would be difficult to persuade the Europeans to drop their demand. He said that the administration's depiction of the process of correcting mishandled data through agency procedures sounded "very rosy," but the reality is that it is often impossible, even for American citizens, to win such a fight.
Officials said it remained unclear when the agreement could be completed. But there are several pressures encouraging negotiators to sprint to a finish. Bush administration officials would like to resolve the problem before they leave office next January.
And European Commission officials who support the agreement may have an easier time getting it approved now, legal analysts said, before Europe completes internal reforms that would give the European Parliament - which has been skeptical about security measures that could infringe on civil liberties - greater authority to block it.
In addition, businesses that operate on both sides of the Atlantic are pushing to eliminate the prospect of getting caught between conflicting legal obligations.
"This will require compromise," said Peter Fleischer, the global privacy counsel for Google. "It will require people to agree on a framework that balances two conflicting issues - privacy and security.
"But the need to develop that kind of framework is becoming more important as more data moves onto the Internet and circles across the global architecture."
French President Calls For Jerusalem To Be Divided
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3559811,00.html
Speaking at a Bethlehem press conference Tuesday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Jerusalem should be divided, and called on Israel to dismantle the West Bank security fence.
After meeting Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Sarkozy said that Jerusalem is holy to Jews, Christians, and Muslims. "Can Jerusalem be held by one side alone? I don't think so," he said.
"The separation fence will not bring security to Israelis forever," the French leader added. "The Israelis should secure themselves through a peace agreement with people who believe in peace, like the Palestinian president…there is no doubt that the best road to peace is through a diplomatic agreement."
However, despite Sarkozy's declarations, Palestinian sources told Ynet that neither France nor the European Union are expected to play a special role in the near future in promoting the peace process with Israel.
Still, the French president said Tuesday that France will make great efforts in order to remove the obstacles to peace between the sides. However, he noted that neither France nor the EU can make peace on behalf of Israel and the Palestinians.
A senior Palestinian source told Ynet later, "As Sarkozy said, the French and the Europeans are here to help with everything they can, particularly in diplomatic terms and in building Palestinian Authority institutions, yet not when it comes to involvement in controversial matters."
Arab World nuclear race / Who has what, and from where
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/995511.html
Israel is following with interest the closer nuclear ties France is forging with the Arab world. The Foreign Ministry has declined to go on the record on the issue, but ministry officials say that though they are concerned about the matter, they do not oppose it.
They say it is better for Israel that France is supplying nuclear technology to Arab countries and not nations less friendly to Israel, such as Russia or China.
So who has what?
Morocco: Advancing a civilian nuclear program with France.
Libya: Canceled its military nuclear program in 2003. Libya and France signed an agreement to cooperate on civilian projects.
Egypt: Developing a program for an energy reactor and negotiating a cooperation agreement with the U.S. and France.
Saudi Arabia: Signed a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with the U.S.
Syria: Interested in developing nuclear activity within an "Arab framework," in cooperation with Turkey.
Jordan: Rapidly advancing an energy nuclear reactor and negotiating its erection with France.
United Arab Emirates: Signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with France at the beginning of the year.
Last Saturday, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon signed a cooperation agreement on nuclear issues with his Algerian counterpart while touring the North African country. Algeria has been suspected in the past of conducting a nuclear project for military purposes.
France is also in close contact on this subject with other North African and Arab countries, as well as states in the Persian Gulf.
Officials in the government are concerned about the nuclearization, even if in most cases it is for civilian purposes and not for arms.
"The French are ready to supply this technology anywhere, as long as they are being paid. They would sell a nuclear reactor to Israel, too, if it expressed an interest," a source at the ministry said.
The officials said France also wants to be seen as a leader in the regional developments in the Mediterranean and Europe.
France is trying to persuade Algeria to support, or at least not oppose, the Mediterranean Union set to be established in Paris next month.
Arab nuclearization began in recent years mainly in response to Iranian nuclearization. Dr. Ephraim Asculai, a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, told Haaretz yesterday: "Why are Arab countries waking up all of a sudden about the nuclear issue? Clearly Arab countries are worried about Iran. This is not their response, but rather a statement: 'We are here.'"
The sale of nuclear technology by France can provide a livelihood for many of its people. Asculai says billions of dollars are invested in the building of a single reactor, money that no country would scoff at easily.
The Arab nuclear awakening, as well as the search for alternatives to oil, has aroused the major nuclear powers to look for business possibilities. In addition to France, Russia, the United States and China, other powers such as Germany are courting the Arab countries. Iran, for its part, is trying to appear as though it is taking under its wing Muslim countries interested in moving ahead in this area.
In his last visit to Algeria, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad discussed the nuclear issue extensively. But it should be remembered that not every agreement on nuclear cooperation matures into the establishment of reactors or full implementation. Declarations of intent do not necessarily obligate the parties.
Among those expressing themselves on the nuclear issue is King Abdullah of Jordan, who told the Washington Post last week at the Petra Conference that Jordan would be quicker than other Arab countries in obtaining nuclear energy.
He said that Jordan's goals were entirely civilian. Jordan was considering placing nuclear energy in the hands of a civilian firm to decrease concerns, he said.
In Syria, which officially denies that the facility bombed in September was nuclear, Oil Minister Sufian Alao said recently that his country would move ahead on joint nuclear activities with Turkey, as reported by Turkey's Anatolian News Agency.
The extent of Syria's cooperation with North Korea and Iran in the nuclear realm is disturbing to many, and no single answer is forthcoming. Syrian President Bashar Assad says his country wants to develop a nuclear program "in an Arab framework," meaning with other Arab countries under the umbrella of the Arab League.
Egypt uses the nuclear issue to prove its advanced patriotic activities, with promotion of the issue associated with President Hosni Mubarak's son, Gamal Mubarak.
Saudi Arabia has raised the issue in various forums and is holding talks with the U.S. and France. The Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes most of the Arab states in the Persian Gulf, has declared that it would promote cooperation on this issue.
According to Asculai, a number of Arab states have poor scientific infrastructure that will make it difficult for them to develop independent nuclear programs. He says technical difficulties will block the Gulf states from building a nuclear reactor.
"A nuclear reactor for energy must be profitable only if it produces a great deal of electricity. For the countries to collaborate on this issue, they will have to upgrade the infrastructure for delivering electricity," he said.
Algeria: Advancing a nuclear program for civilian purposes with France and Iran. It has several facilities that are suspected of being used in the past for military purposes.
Israeli Prime Minister Olmert Holds On To Power At Least Until September
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080625/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_politics
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert staved off a key coalition partner's threat to bring down the government, giving him at least a few more months to pursue peace agreements with the Palestinians and Syria. But the last-minute deal could bring his political demise later this year.
In a pre-dawn agreement reached early Wednesday, Olmert's Kadima Party told the Labor Party that it will hold primary elections by Sept. 25. The primary is likely to oust Olmert as Kadima leader.
The Kadima pledge prompted Labor to rescind its support for a motion to dissolve the parliament, which had been expected to pass within hours.
The deal came a month after Olmert's popularity was dealt a severe blow by a U.S. businessman's testimony in a corruption case against the Israeli leader. The businessman said he handed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Olmert in cash-stuffed envelopes, in part to finance a lavish lifestyle that included a penchant for fancy hotels and cigars.
Labor's leader, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, threatened after the dramatic court testimony to force new elections unless Olmert resigned or agreed to Kadima primaries.
Wednesday's compromise allows both Olmert and Barak to save face. Olmert can remain in office and keep his coalition intact, while Barak can tell supporters that he is forcing Kadima to change its leader.
Kadima officials say Olmert has not ruled out running in the party primary, hoping to clear his name after a cross-examination of the American businessman, Morris Talansky, slated for July 17. But opinion polls show Olmert to be extremely unpopular — both within the party and among the general public — and unlikely to win.
His likely successor would be Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni or Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz.
Livni, the chief peace negotiator with the Palestinians, is expected to push forward with U.S.-backed efforts to reach a final peace deal before President Bush leaves office next January. The more hawkish Mofaz, a former military chief, would most likely slow down or break off the talks with both the Palestinians and Syria.
The Labor-Kadima deal, which was overwhelmingly approved by Kadima members later Wednesday, came after hours of intense talks overnight.
Although Wednesday's vote was considered only a preliminary move under parliamentary rules, Olmert had threatened to fire any government minister who supported the motion.
Such a move would have left Olmert without a parliamentary majority and begun a process that was expected to bring elections by the end of the year. Currently, elections are scheduled in 2010.
Speaking on Israel Radio on Wednesday, lawmakers Tzahi Hanegbi of Kadima and Eitan Cabel of Labor said the primary would be completed by Sept. 25. But Cabel said he was concerned that Israel's political and security volatility could upset the process and somehow leave Olmert in place.
Political analyst Hanan Crystal said the looming Kadima primaries will not prevent Olmert from pushing the international community for tougher action against Iran for its nuclear program. Israel believes Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons.
Olmert will also persist in efforts to resume official peace talks with Syria. The two nations are currently holding indirect talks through Turkish mediators. Israel also could launch a broad military campaign in Hamas-controlled Gaza if a fragile truce doesn't hold.
"Ehud Olmert has what he wants, the big political exit he wanted, with Iran, with Syria and with Gaza," Crystal told Israel Radio. "He is the legitimate prime minister for the entire summer."
Exclusive: Gaza truce buckles, captured soldiers deal stalled
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5379
Friday morning, June 27 – Day 8 of the putative Gaza ceasefire – saw a mortar bombardment of Nahal Oz and Kfar Azza and Shear Hanegev, after five missiles on three consecutive days cut it short.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that negotiations for the release of three captive Israeli soldiers are stalled after becoming entangled in the Gaza truce breakdown and Israel’s government crisis. Most of all, progress is blocked until Hizballah gains the finance ministry in the government Fouad Siniora is trying to build.
Regarding the Gaza truce, our sources report Hamas’ failure to bring fellow Palestinian groups to heel for holding their missile and mortar fire on Israel. The Iran-backed Jihad Islami wants Israel pay for every IDF counter-terror hit on the West Bank, while the Fatah armed wing is bent on undermining the authority of the rival Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni’s call for Israel to respond to the truce violation “militarily and immediately”, echoing vice PM Haim Ramon, is seen as part of their campaign for the ruling Kadima leadership in the forthcoming primary.
In any case it falls on deaf ears. Prime minister Ehud Olmert’s authority is waning in his last weeks in office, while defense minister Ehud Barak remains immovably opposed to engaging Hamas in effective military action.
Olmert promised the families of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, kidnapped by Hizballah two years ago, and Gilead Shalit, captured two weeks earlier by Hamas, to put Israel’s final offers to the vote in cabinet Sunday, June 29. But, although Israel’s acceptance of Hizballah’s terms has been quietly conveyed to the German mediator, it may be too late. Hizballah has had time to pile its demands for ending the Lebanese government crisis on the backs of the Israeli captives.
Gaining command of the Lebanese treasury will give Iran’s Shiite proxy broad control the country and its armed forces – a prize which makes the internal debate in Israel over whether or not to include the Nahariya murderer Samir Kuntar and 100 jailed Palestinians in the Lebanese package irrelevant.
Hizballah has made the prisoner swap a lever for imposing its will on the shape of the new Lebanese government and the French and German facilitators; pumps out teaser reports of an imminent deal to keep the pressure up.
The machinations in Beirut override any Israeli-Hizballah prisoner transaction.
The Palestinians holding Gilead Shalit in the Gaza Strip - and committed to an informal truce - are keeping an eye on Beirut. Picking up on Israel’s bargaining weakness, they will try hard to stand up to Egypt and delay their consent to release the Israeli soldier until such time as their ally, Hizballah, attains its objectives in Beirut and is ready for a deal with Israel on Regev and Goldwasser. Shalit is also now a high card in restraining the shaky Olmert government from military action against Palestinian truce violations.
Report: Hamas gears up for West Bank takeover
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2008/me_hamas0264_06_23.asp
Hamas plans to use the current ceasefire with Israel to take over the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, a report said. The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs said in a report that Hamas would use the temporary ceasefire to bolster its presence in the West Bank. The report, authored by Jonathan Dahoah Halevi, asserted that Hamas wants to capture the position of chairman of the Palestinian Authority, now held by Mahmoud Abbas.
"An important objective for Hamas is winning the Palestinian presidential election, which will be held when Mahmoud Abbas finishes his term of office in December," the report, titled "The Hamas Interest in the Tahdiya with Israel," said. "The lull will permit Hamas to prepare the field to take over from Abbas." [On Sunday, Israeli military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Hamas plans to exploit the lull to smuggle weapons and shatter the embargo on the Islamic regime. Yadlin said Hamas would not impose the ceasefire on Palestinian militias in the Gaza Strip.] The report said Hamas could argue that according to Palestinian law, administrative authority should be relayed to the chairman of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
Hamas has an overwhelming majority in the PLC, also chaired by a Hamas member. Abbas's term ends on Dec. 5, 2008. In contrast to the Israeli government's assertion, the report said Hamas did not agree to a temporary lull, or tahdiya, out of distress. Halevi said despite heavy Israeli attacks, the Hamas regime maintained law and order in the Gaza Strip, suppressed the opposition, and won broad support for its policies. "For Hamas, the lull in the fighting will permit the movement to prepare the field to take over from Abbas, thereby complementing its military takeover of Gaza," the report said. "Hamas's challenge is also the motivation behind Abbas's desire to talk to Hamas about reaching an understanding about new elections, and it explains why Hamas has rejected the suggestion."
The report said the six-month ceasefire would also enable Hamas to expand its military buildup. Hamas was said to be seeking longer-range missiles to match the deterrence of the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah in Lebanon. "Israel has acknowledged Hamas, albeit unwillingly, as the de facto ruling power in Gaza," the report said. "Israel's acceptance of the ceasefire is a blow to the international war on terror and gives immunity to Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza, including Al Qaida affiliates."
Israel on the Iran Brink
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121417597798795327.html?mod=rss_Today
Israel isn't famous for welcoming public scrutiny of its most sensitive military plans. But we doubt Jerusalem officials were dismayed to see news of their recent air force exercises splashed over the front pages of the Western press.
Those exercises – reportedly involving about 100 fighters, tactical bombers, refueling planes and rescue helicopters – were conducted about 900 miles west of Israel's shores in the Mediterranean. Iran's nuclear facilities at Bushehr, Isfahan and Natanz all fall roughly within the same radius, albeit in the opposite direction. The point was not lost on Tehran, which promptly warned of "strong blows" in the event of a pre-emptive Israeli attack.
The more important question is whether the meaning of Israel's exercise registered in Western capitals. It's been six years since Iran's secret nuclear programs were publicly exposed, and Israel has more or less bided its time as the Bush Administration and Europe have pursued diplomacy to induce Tehran to cease enriching uranium.
It hasn't worked. Iran has rejected repeated offers of technical and economic assistance, most recently this month. Despite four years of pleading, the Administration has failed to win anything but weak U.N. sanctions. Russia plans to sell advanced antiaircraft missiles to Iran and finish work on a nuclear reactor at Bushehr, though spent fuel from that reactor could eventually be diverted and reprocessed into weapons-usable plutonium. Chinese companies still invest in Iran, while the U.N.'s chief nuclear inspector, Mohamed ElBaradei, has repeatedly downplayed Iran's nuclear threat.
As for the U.S., December's publication of a misleading National Intelligence Estimate that claimed Iran had halted nuclear weaponization signaled America's own lack of seriousness toward Iranian ambitions. Barack Obama is leading in the Presidential polls and portrays as a virtue his promise to negotiate with Iran "without precondition" – i.e., without insisting that Tehran stop enriching uranium. All the while Iran continues to enrich, installing thousands of additional centrifuges of increasingly more sophisticated design while it buries key facilities underground.
No wonder Israel is concluding that it will have to act on its own to prevent a nuclear Iran. Earlier this month, Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz, a former army chief of staff, warned that "if Iran continues with its program for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack." Other officials distanced themselves from those remarks, but September's one-shot raid on Syria's nuclear reactor ought to be proof of Israel's determination.
An Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear sites would of course look nothing like the Syrian operation. The distances are greater; the targets are hardened, defended and dispersed; hundreds of sorties and several days would be required. Iran would retaliate, with the help of Hezbollah and Hamas, possibly sparking a regional conflict as large as the 1973 Yom Kippur war.
Mr. ElBaradei predicted this weekend that such an attack would turn the Middle East into a "ball of fire," yet his own apologies for Iran and the West's diplomatic failures are responsible for bringing the region to this pass. They have convinced the mullahs that the powers responsible for maintaining world order lack the will to stop Iran.
Israelis surely don't welcome a war in which they will suffer. Yet they have no choice but to defend themselves against an enemy that vows to obliterate them if Iran acquires the weapon to do so. The tragic paradox of the past six years is that the diplomatic and intelligence evasions offered in the name of avoiding war with Iran have done the most to bring us close to this brink. Appeasement that ends in war is a familiar theme of history.
Mossad Chief Empowered to Prepare Groundwork for Iran Strike
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1355
By extending the Mossad director, Meir Dagan’s tenure for another year until the end of 2009, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has put in place a vital constituent for a possible eleventh-hour unilateral strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities.
In his six years on the job, the 61-year old external intelligence has proved his covert mettle in a variety of counter-terror operations, graduating most recently to a highly successful intelligence coup leading up to the demolition of Syria’s North Korean plutonium reactor in al Kebir last September.
Appointed by former prime minister Ariel Sharon in 2002, Dagan’s first four years as the Mossad’s tenth chief were dedicated to counterterrorism rather than tracking Iran’s nuclear activities or monitoring Iran’s burgeoning strategic ties with Syria and Hizballah.
From mid-2006, the former general shifted the agency’s priorities to include these targets, while the Mossad continued to show its fearsome counter-terror paces in Damascus, Beirut and other Arab capitals.
Not all the Mossad’s operations have seen the light of day, but it has been credited in the past two years with hits against high-profile Hizballah, Hamas and Jihad Islami operatives in Syria and Lebanon.
The operation against Syria’s plutonium reactor last year was one of the most complex operations ever performed by the Mossad. For the Israeli raiders to put the facility out of commission and lift out the evidence of a working nuclear collaboration between Syria, Iran and North Korea, they needed from the Mossad precise data on the facility’s inner and outer defenses.
It had to include the air defense systems in place across Syria, the whereabouts of the materials and equipment the Israeli team was assigned to appropriate from the site and transfer to the United States, and the nature and numbers of the Syrian, Iranian and North Korean personnel present.
It was not until April 2008, seven months later, that the US Central Intelligence Agency released news of the operation in Washington, providing graphics attesting to the depth of Mossad’s penetration of the of the most secret and well-protected facility in Syria.
Examination of those visuals attested to one or more agents having been planted solidly enough in the Syrian nuclear project to have photographed the different stages of the reactor’s construction and the North Korean equipment installed there – a feat which drew the respect of Dagan’s undercover colleagues in the West.
The other outstanding feature of the Al Kebir operation was one that has come to be associated with the spy chief’s method of operation: No leads or clues were left for the Syrian, Iranian and North Korean investigators to find –even after the photos were published.
His spy or spies proved untraceable.
Dagan, a hands-on spymaster, demonstrated this skill earlier in the operation to eliminate one of the longest-running and most dangerous enemies of Israel and America, the head of Hizballah’s special security apparatus, Imad Mughniyeh, in Damascus on February 12. It followed similar methods in the preceding two years - usually explosives planted under a driver’s seat or headrests of vehicles driven by Hizballah, Hamas and Jihad Islami operatives. Neither Hizballah nor Syrian intelligence has been able to prevent these liquidations or catch the hit-teams.
The intelligence operation for aborting Iran’s aspirations to acquire a nuclear bomb would undoubtedly ratchet up the Mossad’s targets for its most formidable mission ever. It would be undertaken in the full knowledge that a nuclear bomb in the hands of the Islamic Republic of Iran would constitute the most dangerous threat to Israel’s survival in 60 years of statehood, as well as a menace to the free world.
It would be up to Meir Dagan, a Holocaust survivor born in the Soviet Union, to rise to the Mossad’s motto: "Where no counsel is, the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors there is safety" (Proverbs XI/14)
The Mossad chief has his critics at home. In Israel’s clandestine agencies, some find his style excessively individualist, secretive and highhandedly confined to fields which he finds interesting rather than objectively important to national security. He is faulted with shunning the close collaborative relations traditional in the undercover world. The Mossad’s structure is also said to be antiquated and in need of an extensive overhaul, although it recently launched a website for recruitment.
But Dagan has the full trust of his boss, the prime minister.
The timing chosen for extending the Mossad chief’s tenure – early summer of 2008 – is indicative. Israeli intelligence estimates the summer months are critical for acting against Iran’s nuclear advances, especially uranium enrichment which Iran refuses to forego. If it is not stopped by September or October of 2008, it will be too late; Iran will have crossed the threshold to the last lap of its military program.
Israeli intelligence and its armed forces have three months to finish the job which has long been in preparation.
Iran's 'Nightmare Scenarios' Are Mulled in Washington
http://www.nysun.com/foreign/irans-nightmare-scenarios-mulled/80568
An attack on the U.S. 5th Fleet, exploding Saudi oil refineries, and a Hezbollah operation against a soft target in the Americas, Asia, or Europe. These are scenarios America's intelligence analysts are now poring over as Israel signals its preparedness to deal with Iran's race for the A-bomb.
The disclosure Friday in the New York Times of Israel's aerial training mission earlier this month over the Greek Mediterranean prompted America's intelligence chiefs to task analysts with developing contingency plans — or what one called "nightmare scenarios" — if the Israelis were to send their F-15s and F-16s to Iran's known nuclear enrichment facilities. While the training exercise was known at the time to American intelligence, the fact that Israel and America chose to make the mission public escalated the already high tensions between Tehran and Jerusalem.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, speaking on Al-Arabiya television over the weekend, said an Israeli attack on Iran's enrichment facilities would turn the Middle East into a "ball of fire." Interviews with current and former national security officials in America suggest that Washington and its allies in the Middle East are bracing for unconventional and conventional attacks from Iran in response to such an Israeli action.
Possible scenarios include:
* A terrorist attack on the Saudi oil port of Ras Tanura, an export point for oil bound for Asia. Saudi and American officials have in the past disrupted Al Qaeda plots on the facility, such as an attack on the Abqaiq oil processing plant near Dammam, Saudi Arabia, that killed two guards.
* A naval assault on the U.S. 5th Fleet in the Persian Gulf. Iran still has warships equipped with Russian-designed Shkval torpedoes that it could fire at American vessels. Another possible attack would be suicide boat sorties similar to the one that bombed the USS Cole.
* The commencement of a new round in the war between Hezbollah and Israel, with Hezbollah firing its Shihab missiles into Haifa and possibly the northern suburbs of Tel Aviv.
* Hezbollah or Iranian intelligence terrorist operations on soft targets, such as shopping malls and community centers, in third countries and possibly even America.
* A renewed effort to stir an uprising in Iraq through Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army or the special groups controlled by Iran's Revolutionary Guard.
While Europe, America, and other allies increase economic and diplomatic pressure on Iran, Israel is privately making it clear that it seeks to prevent Iran from even testing a nuclear device, as North Korea did in 2006. Most Western intelligence agencies agree that Iran's enrichment tests at Natanz have increased the odds of Iran mastering the technology necessary to create a test explosion.
In February, the director of national intelligence, Admiral John Michael McConnell, told the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that Iran could be between six and 12 months away from mastering the technology needed for a nuclear device but not a warhead or bomb. Later in that hearing, he conceded that weapons analysts differ on the matter, providing a range of dates for nuclear fuel cycle mastery between 2010 and 2015, and adding that America's knowledge of the matter was incomplete.
The former deputy commissioner for counterterrorism for the New York City Police Department, Michael Sheehan, said his office had prepared for an Iranian response in New York the last time "there was a lot of saber-rattling on this," in 2005. He outlines some of his thinking in his new book, "Crush the Cell: How to Defeat Terrorism Without Terrorizing Ourselves."
In an interview, Mr. Sheehan said: "We very much considered how would the Iranians potentially respond to an American or Israeli attack. My thinking then and now is that Iran, in my view, is very rational. They will react in a very carefully and considered way, and I believe they will react with some sort of direct action by Iranian intelligence services or through a surrogate like Hezbollah."
Mr. Sheehan, who also served as one of President Clinton's ambassadors for counterterrorism, said that both the FBI and the NYPD have expelled Iranian intelligence officials from New York. He said he would not disclose details of possible targets considered in 2005, and he stressed that the faction of Hezbollah that carries out attacks in foreign countries, such as Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia or the Jewish Cultural Center in Buenos Aires, is controlled by Iranian intelligence and not the political party and militia in Lebanon known as Hezbollah.
Asked whether Iran would attack the U.S. 5th Fleet, Mr. Sheehan suggested that the Iranians would be beaten, noting that the Navy would be on the highest alert should Israel attack Iran. A former chief of the Iran-Hezbollah office at the FBI's counterterrorism division, Kenneth Piernick, yesterday said he would guess that the Iranians would attack targets in the Persian Gulf.
"It seems to me the Iranians would have a greater power thrust closer to their borders. Our folks in Iraq and the Gulf will have their hands full. The Strait of Hormuz would be a target. They have made their demonstrations there in the past," he said. He added: "I would imagine my former colleagues are looking at Hezbollah's capabilities, but I have been away from the bureau for too long to speak on that now."
In the past, Admiral McConnell has testified that Hezbollah has operatives in America. The network from Hezbollah was first disclosed in a series of federal prosecutions against the group's illicit fund raising. In some cases, individuals who were primarily raising money for the organization were found to have trained with the organization at the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon.
A former senior counterterrorism official for both Presidents Clinton and Bush, Roger Cressey, said yesterday that it might not be in Hezbollah's interest to do Iran's retaliatory bidding. "As much as Iran is Hezbollah's state patron, it is unclear whether Hezbollah would take operations at the behest of Iran inside the United States," he said. "That is not necessarily in Hezbollah's state interest right now."
A more likely scenario, Mr. Cressey said, would involve Hezbollah operatives attempting to terrorize softer targets in South America, Europe, or East Asia.
"There are other targets they could hit," he said. "You can't discount those scenarios."
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief threatens to hit US, Israel, block Persian Gulf if attacked
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5383
DEBKAfile reports: The Guards commander, Mohammad Ali Jafari issued Tehran’s toughest and most explicit threats yet in response to recent reports of Israeli preparations to strike Iran’s nuclear installations.
This week the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullent and Chief Naval Operations chief, Adm. Gary Roughead were in Israel to discuss coordination on the Iran front.
Hinting at an American attack, Jafari said: “If there is a confrontation between us and the enemy from outside the region , definitely the scope will reach the oil issue,” said the IRGC commander to the Iranian Jam-e Jam newspaper.
After this action (of imposing controls on the Gulf waterway), the oil price will rise very considerably,” he said. The Iranian general’s words may push rocketing oil prices even past the current $143 record per barrel, energy experts calculate.
Jafari clearly differentiated between Iran’s responses to possible American and Israeli attacks. The oil weapon would be applied against the former – “and this is among the factors deterring enemies,” he said.
“Israelis know if they take military action against Iran… the abilities of the Islamic and Shiite world, especially in the region, will deliver fatal blows.” He noted that Israel was in range of Iranian missiles.
He said Iran’s “allies in the region” could also retaliate, referring to those living in “Lebanon’s heartland of South Lebanon,” without naming Hizballah.
US forces were “more vulnerable than the Israelis” because of their troops in the region. “Iran can in different ways harm American interests, even far away.”
Jafari warned Iran’s neighbors not to let their territory be used.
“If the attack takes place from the soil of another country ... the country attacked has the right to respond to the enemy's military action from where the operation started," he said.
Exclusive: Iranian put on trial as Israeli spy as war fever grips Tehran
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5384
The Iranian statement Saturday, June 28, claimed he was run by the Israeli Mossad and “instruments” they gave him were presented to the “revolutionary court.” The statement does not identify the suspect, elaborate on the charges against him, or disclose when his secret trial began.
The court held its last hearing Saturday and will publish its verdict next week. He was defended by an attorney.
DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources report Iranian official circles have beome obsessed with suspicions of infiltration by Israeli and American undercover agents to prepare impending attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities. There have been claims in the past of spies hiding in strategic places ready to guide incoming heavy American bombers to targeting those facilities. Iran also fears enemy agents have penetrated its nuclear research centers to gather “crucial” strategic data.
These alarms have raised concerns for the safety of the 4,000-years old Jewish community of Iran, whose numbers have dwindled to 17,000 to 20,000. While every Iranian immigrant is offered a $10,000 Jewish Agency grant, few have taken it up. Eight years ago, 13 Iranian Jews from Shiraz and Isfahan were accused of spying for Israel and sentenced to long prison sentences which were commuted under heavy international pressure.
The former sole Jewish legislator in the Iranian majlis, Morris Mo’tamed, reported in an interview to Hizballah’s Al Manar television some months ago that a number of Iranian Jewish citizens had paid visits to Israel to see relatives and perform religious duties.
Analysis: Resurgent Taliban in twin threat to Afghanistan and Pakistan
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5380
Friday, June 28, the Pentagon in Washington warned that “Islamist guerrillas” had “coalesced into a resilient insurgency” in Afghanistan and are likely to “maintain or even increase the scope and pace of their terrorist attacks.”
DEBKAfile’s military sources note that this assessment flies in the face of the CIA director’s optimistic remarks a month ago.
In its first comprehensive report on Afghan security, the Pentagon said insurgent violence had continued to climb despite efforts to capture and kill Taleban leaders. The Afghan army and police were nowhere near able to shoulder the brunt of the war on terror. As of March, only one battalion and one command center were capable of operating independently without US-led NATO support.
Defense secretary Robert Gates again blamed the Pakistan government for fueling the violence by holding talks with Taliban chiefs and their Pashtun tribal sympathizers in the border districts. “Taliban and al Qaeda are freer now to cross the border,” he said. They can build new terrorist units and arm and train them undisturbed in their tribal sanctuaries.
Also Friday, Democratic Senator Joseph Biden announced a $15 billion aid bill for Pakistan over 10 years to promote further steps on the road to democracy.
Simmering Afghan-Pakistan animosity took a turn for the worse this week when Afghan intelligence officials accused the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) of planning and funding the Taliban assassination attempt against Hamid Karzai at a military parade in Kabul on April 27.
Islamabad denied the charge, but the facts drawn by DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources from this and other allegations, which prompted Karzai’s threat to send troops across the border to kill terrorists, point to a new development: The ISI’s support for the Taliban – with or without sanction from the powers-that-be in Islamabad – has returned to its old level. Seven years ago, before the US-led invasion of Afghan deposed the Taliban rulers, Pakistan intelligence backed the Islamist extremist rulers and their allies, al Qaeda.
At the same time, a Pakistan army spokesman announced Saturday, June 28, that a military operation by the paramilitary Frontier Corps is “imminent” against Taliban extremists threatening their main northwestern city Peshawar in the Khyber tribal region.
Khyber is also the main route for US military supplies to neighboring Afghanistan.
Pakistan therefore faces an acute Taliban peril of its own.
Saudis smash five Al Qaeda cells plotting attacks on oil facilities
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5385
On June 26, Riyadh announced that 520 suspected terrorists were held after raids across Saudi Arabia this year. This is the biggest haul of terrorists ever netted in the oil kingdom. Many of the detainees are accused of ties with al Qaeda leaders abroad.
DEBKAfile’s counter terror sources report that one cell consisted entirely of foreign nationals from Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Morocco and Kenya. This one, located in the oil-rich Eastern Provinces, was suspected, according to Gen. Mansour al-Turki, the Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman, of plotting attacks on oil refineries, infrastructure and security headquarters. Had they succeeded, they would have thrown Saudi oil production in disarray and caused mayhem on the world’s oil markets.
One detainee carried a recorded message from al Qaeda’s No. 2 Ayman al Zawahir on the memory card of a cell phone calling for donations. The cells were built up quietly and systematically during a period when terrorist activity appeared to have been quelled. According to our terror experts, it is far from sure that al Qaeda is not hatching a fresh batch of cells in the kingdom or in nearby North and East Africa to take the place of the captured terrorists.
Islam's Growing Influence In The UN - Islamic Block Looking For UN Security Council Seats
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200806/FOR20080623a.html
Islamic nations should be represented in an expanded U.N. Security Council "in proportion to their membership of the United Nations," according to foreign ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
In a resolution passed at a meeting in Uganda last week, the ministers pointed to size of the Islamic bloc in the international community, noting that its members make up "one-fifth of the world population."
Any proposal to reform and enlarge the U.N. Security Council "which neglects the adequate representation of the Islamic Ummah [community] in any category of membership ... will not be acceptable to the Islamic World," they said.
"The OIC's demand for adequate representation in the Security Council is in keeping with the significant demographic and political weight of the OIC member states."
The Security Council currently has five permanent, veto-wielding members -- the U.S., Britain, France, China and Russia -- and 10 non-permanent members that serve for two-year periods. Various proposals under consideration to reform the institution include expanding it to have more seats in both categories, earmarked for various geographic regions.
One model suggested by an expert panel appointed by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, for instance, would establish six new permanent seats - two each for Africa and Asia, and one each for Europe and the Americas.
An alternative model discussed by the panel would add no permanent seats, but create a new, semi-permanent tier of eight seats -- two each from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, occupied for four-year stints, and subject to renewal.
Neither of the models put forward envisages seats earmarked for non-geographic groups, such as a bloc of Islamic nations.
The resolution passed in Uganda leaves unstated exactly how many seats in an expanded Security Council the OIC would want set aside for Islamic states, but to satisfy the demand of being represented "in proportion to their membership of the United Nations," it could arguably press for 30 percent of the seats. (Of the 192 U.N. member-states, 56 are OIC members. An independent Palestinian state would push the number up to 57.)
The bloc, which has been in existence since the 1970s, in recent years has come to wield increasing clout in the international community. In U.N. agencies where it holds significant membership, critics have accused it of trying to promote Islamic interests at the expense of broader ones.
At the Human Rights Council, for instance, they charge that the OIC has protected allies, ganged up against Israel, and pushed measures limiting freedom of expression when it comes to criticizing Islam. Free speech advocacy groups in recent months have publicly voiced concern about the OIC's growing influence in the U.N.'s top human rights watchdog.
The OIC enjoys a built-in advantage at the Human Rights Council because more than half of the body's seats are reserved for the African and Asian regional groups, home to most Islamic states. Of the current council members, a full one-third are OIC members.
At the OIC meeting in Uganda, the foreign ministers reaffirmed that OIC member states should use their membership in key U.N. bodies like the Human Rights Council "to protect and promote the interests of the Islamic world."
Much of the OIC's expanded role in international affairs has come about as a result of a "new vision" initiative outlined in a 10-year program of action adopted in 2005 which calls on member states to coordinate effectively in all regional and international forums to protect and promote their collective interests.
OIC secretary-general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu updated the Uganda gathering on other achievements in expanding the group's influence, including the establishment last year of an OIC ambassadors' group in Washington, D.C., and plans to open a mission in Brussels, seat of the European Union.
Last February, President Bush announced the appointment of a U.S. special envoy to the OIC. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the following month named the envoy as Sada Cumber, a Pakistan-born Texas businessman.
Pious Islam & A Mark on the Forehead
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7469221.stm
The zebiba used to be the mark of an elderly Muslim man, the fruit of a lifetime's devotion, but it is increasingly seen on the faces of young Egyptians.
Literally meaning "a raisin", the zebiba is a patch of hardened skin where the forehead touches the ground during Muslim prayers.
Some welcome the trend as a sign of devotion, others say it is ostentatious piety.
Worse still there are fears public displays of faith like the zebiba and the hijab, or headscarf, are spilling over into vigilantism.
Liberals or Christians who don't conform in the workplace or on the street say they are being harassed.
Gift from God
A practising Muslim's forehead is meant to touch the ground at least 34 times a day - in symbolic submission to God's will - which could add up to more than a million prostrations in a lifetime.
But over the past few decades, as more and more Egyptians turned to religion, the zebiba began appearing among young men as the veil did among young women.
But not every Muslim gets one, and opinions vary as to where it comes from. It could something to do with skin-type, or created artificially, or come from particular kinds of matting. Others believe it is a gift from God.
Many young Egyptians I asked believe some kind of light will emanate from the prayer mark on their foreheads on the Day of Judgment, marking them out as truly devout.
One of Egypt's greatest living and most popular poets, Abdelrahman al-Abnoudi, has another explanation - in times of crises people turn either to drugs or to religion.
Egyptians have always been religious, he adds, but since being religious has also become fashionable, people now press their foreheads against the ground a little harder to acquire the appearance of a devout Muslim.
Dalia Ziada of the American Islamic Congress - an non-governmental organisation based in Cairo - says some men deliberately pray on straw mats, and rub their foreheads until they eventually develop the zebiba.
Relentless rise
The increased public display of religious devotion is part of a wider phenomenon, affecting what women wear, and what people read or watch on their television screens.
The relentless rise of political Islam over the past few decades has succeed in rolling back significant parts of Egypt's secular tradition.
For radical Islamist politicians, like Magdi Hussein, that is a move in the right direction, away from the Westernisation which started over two centuries ago with the French and British invasions.
He sees the the zebiba phenomenon in the context of government-inspired "darwasha", an atmosphere of unpolitical religious devotion which goes against the Islamists' self-professed aim of reforming society and fighting corruption and despotism.
But Mr Hussein refuses to acknowledge that the increased public display of piety has had any downsides.
Intimidation
Egyptian women and Liberals I spoke to tell a different story. A Coptic doctor, who did not want to be named, told me she had been spat upon in broad daylight for not wearing the veil.
A young Muslim engineer, Shahinaz, who refuses to cover her hair, said she has become scared of intimidation.
"I was driving home one evening and had to stop next to a girls' school. Suddenly the girls - all of whom were veiled - surrounded the car and start banging on the windows and screaming: 'Infidel! Apostate!' I was terrified."
Dr Sayyed al-Qimni, one of Egypt's best known liberal writers and historians, says society has been hijacked by a very conservative brand of religion, which he characterises as Saudi Wahhabi Islam.
"There are now 13,000 religious schools in Egypt that produce terrorists, like the Taliban madrassas in Pakistan. At religious schools they teach children that Muslims who do not pray should be killed."
There is no doubt that in one way the Islamists are winning their struggle to increase the role religion plays in social life and public debate in this country.
The question now for Egypt is what kind of Muslim society it is going to be - one that is at peace or at war with modern values.
Russian bombers step up provocative flights - 18 incursions in past year
http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/jun/26/russian-flights-smack-of-cold-war/
Russian bombers have stepped up provocative flight exercises off the Alaskan coast, reminiscent of Cold War incursions designed to rattle U.S. air defenses.
U.S. Northern Command, which protects North American airspace, told The Washington Times that TU-95 Bear bombers on 18 occasions the past year have skirted a 12-mile air defense identification zone that protects Alaska. The incursions prompted F-15s and F-22 Raptor fighters to scramble from Elmendorf Air Force Base and intercept the warplanes. The last incident happened in May.
The venerable propeller-driven TU-95 came to symbolize the Cold War, as did its counterpart, the U.S. B-52 Stratofortress.
"They have flown close enough to deem it necessary to ID and monitor them," said Maj. Allen Herritage, a base spokesman. "They come. We ID. We go back to our base. They go back to their base." Elmendorf is headquarters for the Alaskan region of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
Air defense identification zones are military boundaries designed to guard the U.S. and Canada against attack. To enter the zones legally, pilots must file flight plans with air controllers. Russian bombers do not file flight plans, so U.S. and Canadian jets are required to scramble to identify the planes and warn them away from the area.
"They have not been filing a flight plan and that is the problem," Maj. Herritage said.
Moscow's sophisticated show of force has some in the Pentagon paying more attention to the long-term goals of a Russian military, which is being rebuilt with proceeds from the country's huge oil and gas revenues. NORAD is more sensitive than ever to wayward aircraft, given the Sept. 11 attacks by hijackers and the lack of military coordination at the time to track, and perhaps destroy, the planes.
Adm. Michael G. Mullen, the Joint Chiefs chairman, talked on Monday of "the challenges we have with a resurgent Russia" while addressing Pentagon workers at a town-hall-style meeting.
Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., chief of NorthCom, said earlier this month that "I think the Russians are not a near-term military threat," while noting they had "renewed" military flights over the polar region. This is the route U.S. or Russian bombers would travel to bomb the other's country.
"I think we do have to make sure, you know, post-9/11 world, that we never let an unidentified aircraft come into our airspace, and that we determine who they are and what they're doing, and if it is a Russian aircraft on a training mission, we allow them to continue to do their job," Gen. Renuart said on WUSA-TV's "This Week in Defense News."
Although Gen. Renuart downplayed the incursions, other air-power authorities said Vladimir Putin, as Russian president, began flexing his military's muscle last year as a message to Washington.
"Putin is trying to get the military rejuvenated and trying to show they are a military power," said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas G. McInerney, who commanded NORAD's Alaska region. "He's doing it for a whole host of things. It's really muscle-flexing."
When told that 18 Russian incursions had been reported in 12 months, Mr. McInerney said, "That's a lot."
Mr. Putin, who relinquished the presidency in May and is now prime minister, has been at odds with President Bush over NATO expansion and the invasion of Iraq. At times, he has made strong anti-U.S. statements that stirred Cold War memories.
A NorthCom statement to The Times said, "Russia has indicated in open press reporting its intention to proceed with navigation and operational training."
Mr. McInerney said the incursions are the most sophisticated since the Cold War. He made the assessment based on an Air Force briefing he received last fall at Elmendorf.
The retired general called the exercises "coordinated attacks coming into our air defense identification zone. They are very sophisticated attack training maneuvers. These incursions are far more sophisticated than anything we had seen before."
He said the Russian army air force is launching Bear bombers from Tiksi on the Arctic Ocean and Anadyr in Siberia. They are flying against the air defense identification zone from both the polar caps and from the south. The Air Force statement said it has "monitored Russian aircraft taking off from a variety of air bases across their country."
U.S. calls on N.Korea to come clean on uranium
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/us.calls.on.nkorea.to.come.clean.on.uranium/19903.htm
North Korea still has not responded to U.S. suspicions of proliferating nuclear technology and enriching uranium for weapons, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Saturday.
On Thursday, secretive North Korea delivered a long-delayed list of its nuclear activities, as it was required to do in a six-way disarmament-for-aid deal. The inventory mostly outlined Pyongyang's programme to produce arms-grade plutonium.
"Thus far we don't have the answers we need on either," Rice said in a joint news conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan.
She said that she expected the North to live up to its obligations under the deal, and "at the end of this we have to have the abandonment of all programmes, weapons and materials".
Christians on trial for spreading faith to Muslims
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D91H7BNG0&show_article=1&catnum=0
Two men who converted from Islam to Christianity went on trial Wednesday on charges that they illegally promoted the Christian faith in Algeria.
Rachid Mohammed Seghir, 40, and Jammal Dahmani, 36, were already convicted in absentia for illegal practice of a non-Muslim religion in 2007 but asked for a new trial, as Algerian law allows, their lawyer said.
They are charged with praying in a building that had not been granted a religious permit by authorities and are also accused of trying to spread the Christian faith among Muslims, the court said.
Their defense lawyer said she felt confidant that her clients would not be incarcerated.
"Things have taken a good turn, and it's good sign this affair will be solved," Khelloudja Khalfoun told The Associated Press on the phone from Tissemsilt, about 155 miles southwest of Algiers, the capital.
The trial was adjourned until July 2, the court said. The verdict was expected then. The men are free in the meantime.
Algeria's constitution allows freedom of worship. But a 2006 law strictly regulates how religions other than Islam can be practiced.
The law is viewed as primarily targeted at Protestant faiths, which have become increasingly active in Algeria. It provides for sentences of up to five years in prison and a $15,570 fine for anybody trying to incite a Muslim to convert to another faith.
The Open Doors Christian activist group said the two defendants are evangelical Christians who were first prosecuted when Bibles were found in one of their cars in 2007 during a routine checkpoint.
Open Doors says Protestant missions have faced growing obstruction in Algeria, where 99 percent of the 34 million people are Muslim. The U.S. government estimates the Christian and Jewish population at 1 percent.
Algeria has a tradition of tolerance of other religions but went through a decade of near-civil war between the secular army and radical Islamist groups in the 1990s. Religion is a sensitive political issue in the country.
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