AUSTRALIAN PRAYER NETWORK NEWSLETTER

* MOSQUE PROJECTS MEET OPPOSITION ACROSS THE UNITED STATES

* ISLAMIC INTOLERENCE IS DEVOURING PAKISTAN

* BURMA WAR CRIMES PANEL GATHERS STEAM

* JUDGE CONSIDERS PAYALYSIS PUNISHMENT

* U.K. CATHOLIC ADOPTION SERVICE TOLD TO ACCEPT HOMOSEXUALS OR CLOSE

* FIRST CHIRSTIAN CHAPEL IN QATAR MAY HELP OPEN DOORS FOR
A CHURCH IN SAUDI ARABIA

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MOSQUE PROJECTS
MEET OPPOSITION ACROSS THE UNITED STATES

While a high-profile battle rages over a mosque near ground zero in
Manhattan, heated confrontations have also broken out in communities
across the country where mosques are proposed for far less hallowed
locations. In Tennessee, Republican candidates have denounced plans
for a large Muslim centre proposed near a subdivision, and hundreds
of protesters have turned out for a march and a county meeting. In
California members of a Tea Party group took dogs and picket signs to
Friday prayers at a mosque that is seeking to build a new worship
centre on a vacant lot nearby.
In Wisconsin, Christian ministers led a fight against the opening of
a mosque in a former health food store bought by a Muslim doctor. At
one time, neighbours would object to the mosques on the
basis of concerns over traffic, parking and noise, the same reasons
they might object to a church or a synagogue. But now the gloves are
off. In all of the recent conflicts, opponents have said their
problem is Islam itself. They quote passages from the Koran and argue
that even the most Americanized Muslim secretly wants to replace the
Constitution with Islamic Shariah law.
These local skirmishes show there is now widespread debate over
whether, to uphold America ¢â‚¬â„¢s democratic values, Muslims should have
the same religious freedoms enjoyed by other Americans.  ¢â‚¬Å“What ¢â‚¬â„¢s
different is the level of hostility, ¢â‚¬  said Ihsan Bagby, associate
professor of Islamic studies at the University of Kentucky.  ¢â‚¬Å“It ¢â‚¬â„¢s one
thing to oppose a mosque because traffic might increase, but it ¢â‚¬â„¢s
different when you say these mosques are going to be nurturing
terrorist bombers, that Islam is invading, that civilization is being
undermined by Muslims. ¢â‚¬ 
Feeding the resistance is a growing cottage industry of authors and
bloggers  ¢â‚¬” some of them former Muslims  ¢â‚¬” who are invited to speak at
rallies, sell their books and testify in churches. Their message is
that Islam is inherently violent and incompatible with America. But
they have not gone unanswered. In each community, interfaith groups
led by Protestant ministers, Catholic priests, rabbis and clergy
members of other faiths have defended the mosques. Often, they have
been slower to organize than the mosque opponents, but their numbers
have usually been larger.
The mosque proposed for the site near ground zero in Lower Manhattan
cleared a final hurdle before the city ¢â‚¬â„¢s Landmarks Preservation
Commission, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg hailed the decision with a
forceful speech on religious liberty. While an array of religious
groups supported the project, opponents included the Anti-Defamation
League, an influential Jewish group, and prominent Republicans like
Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker.
A smaller controversy is occurring in Temecula, about 60 miles north
of San Diego, involving a typical stew of religion, politics and
anti-immigrant sentiment. A Muslim community has been there for about
12 years and expanded to 150 families who have outgrown their
makeshift worship space in a warehouse, said Mahmoud Harmoush, the
imam, a lecturer at California State University, San Bernardino. The
group wants to build a 25,000-square-foot centre, with space for
classrooms and a playground, on a lot it bought in 2000.
Meanwhile a two-year study by a group of academics on American
Muslims and terrorism concluded that contemporary mosques are
actually a deterrent to the spread of militant Islam and terrorism.
The study was conducted by professors with Duke ¢â‚¬â„¢s Sanford School of
Public Policy and the University of North Carolina. It disclosed that
many mosque leaders had put significant effort into countering
extremism by building youth programs, sponsoring antiviolence forums
and scrutinizing teachers and texts. Radicalization of alienated
Muslim youths is a real threat, Mr. Bagby said.

Source: New York
Times

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ISLAMIC INTOLERENCE
IS DEVOURING PAKISTAN

Islamic intolerance is escalating unchecked across Pakistan as
Islamic fundamentalism cultivates hatred which is then fuelled by the
impunity the perpetrators enjoy. As chaos and lawlessness escalate,
religious intolerance and hatred are unleashed without restraint, and
the situation for Christians deteriorates. While the Pakistani
military may be winning the territorial conflict, the war for the
Pakistani psyche may already have been lost. The Taliban’s “social
project of producing a radicalised Pakistan attracted to literal and
intolerant interpretations of faith is flourishing.”
On 14 June, Samuel John, a Christian psychology professor at the
University of Peshawar, was savagely bashed outside his home by a
group of five students for refusing to convert to Islam. When his
wife rushed to his aid, she too was beaten. Both required
hospitalisation, with the professor in a critical condition. The
police refuse to register a First Information Report (FIR), and John
continues to be threatened with death unless he converts to Islam or
leaves the University.
On 13 July 2010, Dr. Abdul Jabbar Meammon, his driver, another Muslim
doctor and two other men, beat, tortured and gang-raped Christian
trainee nurse Magdalene Ashraf at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical
Centre, Karachi, SindProvince. In an effort to cover up their crime,
the three Muslim men then attempted to kill Magdalene by throwing her
out of a window on the hospital’s 4th floor. While Magdalene survived
the attack, she is in a critical condition with serious head and
shoulder injuries.
Pakistan’s devastating floods are the result of unprecedented
monsoonal rains AND bad governance. Pakistan has one of the highest
rates of deforestation in the world. Pakistan today has less than 5
percent forest cover. The floods have wiped out millions of homes
and, according to TIME magazine, some 17 million acres of
agricultural land have been submerged, and more than 100,000 animals
have perished. A humanitarian crisis of monumental proportions has
resulted.
Aid is not reaching marginalised minority Christians. The people’s
anger, hunger and desperation, provides Islamic militant groups with
a phenomenal window of opportunity. As TIME magazine notes, it will
be difficult, even suicidal, for the government to crack down on
Islamic fundamentalist and militant groups when these groups are
extending aid and assistance to the displaced and are receiving
donations from the “urban middle class of Punjab, who are turning
increasingly to religious conservatism”.
Rafia Zakaria (a US-based attorney) says that while the Pakistani
army might be having some military successes against the Taliban,
examples of societal radicalisation abound, a notable one being the
lack of public outcry against the persecution of minorities who do
not fit into the idealised mould of the Sunni Muslim Pakistani
citizen.” Zakaria notes not only the persecution of religious
minorities, but also the banning of Facebook (deemed blasphemous) was
supported by 70% of Pakistanis.

Source: Religious Liberty
Monitoring

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BURMA WAR CRIMES
PANEL GATHERS STEAM

President Obama supports the creation of an international commission
to investigate war crimes allegedly committed by the ruling military
junta. The commission would aim to put Burma on a path to achieve
credible elections and promote national reconciliation. Wes Flint
with Vision Beyond Borders says the regimes human and religious
rights record is questionable, targeting as it does the Arakan, Chin
and Karen people, many of whom are Christians.  ¢â‚¬Å“The Burmese army is
not bashful about it: their goal is to exterminate the Karen people,
to wipe them off the face of the earth. ¢â‚¬ 
Flint is not optimistic that an inquiry will stop the wholesale
murder of the Karen. He says  ¢â‚¬Å“the UN has made similar promises during
the past 20 years. ¢â‚¬  The impact of this could have an interesting
effect on the harassment of the Karen. It comes in advance of the
November 7 elections. Flint says they ¢â‚¬â„¢re already seeing an increase
in the oppression against believers.  ¢â‚¬Å“As the elections are coming
soon, this increased persecution is going by unheard and unknown, ¢â‚¬ 
although Washington may also be considering tightening sanctions
against the junta in an effort to short-circuit the campaign.
In the meantime, refugees are still coming from Burma.  ¢â‚¬Å“They ¢â‚¬â„¢re
fleeing across to the Thailand side for safety and refuge. But
unfortunately, many of these children are in the jungle, and they ¢â‚¬â„¢re
in remote areas in the jungle where they have no provisions. There ¢â‚¬â„¢s
no clothing, there ¢â‚¬â„¢s no blankets, there ¢â‚¬â„¢s no mosquito netting. ¢â‚¬  Flint
says Vision Beyond Borders is responding to these needs.  ¢â‚¬Å“We just
shipped a container, and it arrived in Bangkok just a few days ago.
It is loaded with Bibles and with clothing to help the Karen people.
They ¢â‚¬â„¢re living on what ¢â‚¬â„¢s available in the jungle. ¢â‚¬ 
More than the encouragement their team gets from the physical help,
it ¢â‚¬â„¢s important to pray for the believers. The hope of Christ sustains
many of the Christians. Flint says,  ¢â‚¬Å“Be in fervent prayer for peace,
that the UN would step in and do their job, and that the Lord would
have a victory through this terrible tragedy. ¢â‚¬  The worst part of this
tragedy is that there is so much apathy surrounding it. Few people
know what ¢â‚¬â„¢s happening or the scale of the destruction. Flint says,
 ¢â‚¬Å“Be a voice for those who are there who really have no
voice.”

Source: Intercessors
Network

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JUDGE CONSIDERS
PAYALYSIS PUNISHMENT

A Saudi judge has asked several hospitals in the country whether they
could damage a man’s spinal cord as punishment after he was convicted
of attacking another man with a cleaver and paralysing him.
Abdul-Aziz al-Mutairi, 22, was left paralysed and subsequently lost a
foot after a fight more than two years ago. He asked a judge in
north-western Tabuk province to impose an equivalent punishment on
his attacker under Islamic law. He said one of the hospitals
responded, saying it was possible to damage the spinal cord, but the
operation had to be done at a more specialised facility.
Saudi newspapers report that a second hospital declined, saying it
could not inflict such harm. Saudi Arabia enforces strict Islamic law
and occasionally doles out punishments based on the ancient legal
code of an eye for an eye. King Abdullah has been trying to clamp
down on extremist ideology, including unauthorised clerics issuing
odd religious decrees. The query by the court highlights the delicate
attempt in Saudi Arabia to balance a push to modernise the country
with interpretations of religious traditions that critics say are out
of sync with a modern society.
Saudi newspaper reports said the assailant was sentenced to 14 months
in prison for the attack, but was released after seven months, in an
amnesty. They said the attacker then got a job as a teacher in a
university. “We are asking for our legal right under Islamic law,”
the victims brother said. “There is no better word than God’s word –
an eye for an eye.” He said he had a copy of the response from King
Khaled Hospital in Tabuk province to the court’s request, saying the
operation could be done.
Human rights group say trials in Saudi Arabia usually take place
behind closed doors and without adequate legal representation.
Amnesty International expressed concerns over the reports and said it
was contacting Saudi authorities for details. “We are very concerned
and we will appeal to the authorities not to carry out such a
punishment,” said Lamri Chirouf, the group’s researcher on Saudi
Arabia. Such measures are against international conventions against
torture and international standards on human rights.

Source: Intercessors
Network

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U.K. CATHOLIC
ADOPTION SERVICE TOLD TO ACCEPT HOMOSEXUALS OR CLOSE

A Catholic adoption service could close after losing a battle over
discrimination against same sex couples. Catholic Care applied to be
able to refuse adoption applications from same-sex couples. But the
charities regulator found against them. Catholic Care said “We are
very disappointed with the outcome. We will now consider other
possible ways we can continue to support families seeking to adopt
children from us.” In the UK since 2008 adoption agencies have not
been able to discriminate against same sex couples and Christian
agencies have had to also follow suite.
The Commission said, local authorities are confident that the
children previously placed by Catholic Care would find other adoptive
parents through other agencies. We are therefore satisfied that the
interest of children will be protected. ¢â‚¬  Catholic barrister Neil
Addison was not surprised by the outcome:  ¢â‚¬Å“What Catholic Care were
asking for was the prohibition of same-sex adoption. That
was directly discriminatory on the grounds of sexual orientation and
was never going to be agreed to ¢â‚¬ . Catholic Care bosses hope to
decide on its future soon.

Source: Premier Christian
Media

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FIRST CHIRSTIAN CHAPEL IN QATAR MAY HELP OPEN DOORS FOR A CHURCH IN SAUDI ARABIA

St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church has opened its doors in the Arab
state of Qatar. The small chapel is being seen as a real step forward
in the dialogue of Christians’ freedom to worship within an Islamic
country. Now overcoming even more seemingly insurmountable odds, the
Vatican is reportedly negotiating “for permission to build the first
church in Saudi Arabia”. Top Vatican spokesman Father Federico
Lombardi said a Catholic parish in this key Islamic country would be
“an historic achievement” for religious freedom.

Source: Intercessors
Network

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