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February 2007 E-Bulletin
6 February 2007
Coming Events
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
'Forum: Spirituality, Civil Society And The Status Of Women'
Chair: Joyce McMillan. Respondent: Richard Holloway. Speakers: Dr Cecelia Clegg (Christian), Rabbi Nancy Morris (Jewish), Farkhanda Chaudhry (Muslim) and Ravinder Kaur Nijjar (Sikh). Venue: Martin Hall, New College, The Mound, Edinburgh. Time: 7pm onwards. Event Description: Four women from different traditions, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh speaking personally (not representatively) on what the status/power relations between men and women should be in contemporary civic society and how their own spiritual/religious tradition bears on it helpfully or unhelpfully. Richard Holloway will offer a response to the contributions. Jointly organsided and hosted by the EICWS and HCA. Cost: Admission Free. Everyone Welcome. Contact: Neill Walker, , 0131 331 4469. Further details.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
CAIRS: Further dialogue with Judaism
Registration essential by February 15. Further details from previous E-bulletins and from the leaflet. (pdf, 200kb)
Thursday, March 1, 2007
The 2007 Middle East Festival Lecture with Jean Vanier ‘Spirituality and the Civilisation of Love.’
Welcome by Councillor Rev Ewan Aitken, Council Leader, The City of Edinburgh Council. Chair: Rev Prof Frank Whaling. Jointly hosted by The Middle East Festival, L’Arche, Faith and Light, and The City of Edinburgh Council. Venue: Usher Hall, Lothian Road, Edinburgh. Time: 7pm-9.30pm. Doors open at 6pm. Cost: £9/£7 (Concessions). Contact: Usher Hall Box Office, 0131 228 1155, or online.
Wednesday, March 7 - Thursday, March 8, 2007
Two-Day International Conference: Spirituality and Community
An invitation is extended to members of faith and spiritual organizations and communities, educators and students, chaplains, members of the organizations of civil society and the general public to consider participation at the following high level multi faith and spirituality conference in Edinburgh on 7 and 8 March 2007. Full conference details. Conference Flyer and Conference Registration Form. Contact: Neill Walker, 0131 331 4469.
News items
End the Occupation: Justice for the Palestinians
Report on Enough! Rally – Friends’ House, London, 30 January 2007 by Paul Renshaw
Tuesday evening, the main meeting chamber at Friends House housed a packed launching rally called by the broad-based Enough! Coalition. This followed the launch of the Campaign at Westminster earlier in the day.
Tony Benn set the tone in inimitable style. “I’m 82 now, and I’ve given up protesting. I DEMAND justice.” The cause is justice and humanity, which will be seen in the end of the occupation, the tearing down of the wall and the effective combating of Palestinian poverty. It was a “Trevor Huddleston moment”. He was very clear. The struggle is not a religious one. There will be no peace in the Middle East until the Israel-Palestinian question is properly settled. The people in the West, particularly in the USA and UK are, I understood him to say, demoralised by government-instilled fear tactics and misled by the media. While human rights are being abused and more lives lost, he claimed that we are witnessing a denial of what is happening.
Dr. Manuel Hassassian, the Palestinian Delegate-General in London, followed. He described Zionism as an ideology that “negates the presence of others”, based on an unsustainable “garrison mentality”. He said that 4000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the 2nd Intifada. He asked why the practice of Palestinian democracy should be the collective punishment of the people. “In response, while Europe fiddles, Palestinians starve” (I paraphrase). He claimed that Israeli pressure is designed to prevent the emergence of a Palestinian consensus, and hence the perpetuation of the official Israeli claim that there is “no partner for peace” – a strategy which the US is doing nothing to oppose. Dr. Hassassian warned that if Palestinians have nothing left, they will act with desperation. He felt that going back to the Road Map was still a possibility, but Israel must be persuaded that a military solution is impossible.
Sharif Omar, a farmer from Jayyous, an EAPPI site of solidarity, then spoke from the local situation. He first recalled UNSCR 181 and its awarding of 49% of the land of Palestine to the Jews, which the Palestinians could not accept for demographic as well as political reasons. (Israelis were still less than 23%).
War followed that resulted in Israel occupying 78% of the land of Palestine. “It was clear from the first moment that they wanted the land – and land without people.” The Israelis then used Ottoman and British Mandate law to “legally” acquire land from which Palestinians had fled. He described some of the problems faced by a farmer with land on the other side of the wall – the permit system which is specific to a particular gate, where denial of a permit is the Israeli response if anyone in the family has been in jail for any reason. This and many other issues are impoverishing villages like Jayyous. He criticised Western NGOs that were trying to ameliorate the situation rather than helping the Palestinians confront it. By 2020, he claimed, Palestinian population growth will have become a serious political factor – a “fact on the ground”, as the Israelis might say, though Sharif Omar didn’t use those precise words.
Yonathan Shapira was introduced as the leader of the 27 IDF helicopter pilots who, 3-4 years ago, came to consider that what they were being ordered to do over Gaza constituted war crimes and signed a petition to that effect – with consequences, of course. He spoke as someone from a strong military family background who, over a period of years, came to realise that Israeli actions towards the Palestinians were inconsistent with Jewish values. He was now against violence from any quarter, and against the “criminality” of the Israeli government. After spending some time helping victims of suicide bombers, he and his fellow “combatants for peace” also realised that they had to do something positive towards Palestinians. Hence contacts were set up, not without considerable difficulty, with members of Fatah. He concluded by talking about the need for sanctions and the isolation of the Israeli regime.
Betty Hunter, GS of the PSC, called on Enough! members to get stuck in and make a difference. The 9 June demonstration needs 100,000, not 10,000 to be on the streets! More information about this and other events will be available on the Enough website.
Betty quoted John Dugard, the UN Special Rapporteur, who told the UN General Assembly that it was time for the Security Council to assert responsibility for finding a solution in view of the failure, in his view, of the Quartet. (See UN News Centre, 20.10.2006) I don’t suppose this is Enough! Coalition policy yet.
A UNISON speaker concluded the proceedings but I was on my way to catch a train.
NB. Two of the scheduled speakers – Mona el-Farra and Zakaria Abu Harbid - were unable to leave Gaza, even via Rafah.
Further details are to be found on the Enough website.
Muslims are now getting the same treatment Jews had a century ago
Today's anti-Muslim racism uncannily echoes earlier anti-semitism - both minorities abused as an alien security threat writes King's College, London, law lecturer, Maleiha Malik.
Migrants fleeing persecution and poverty settled with their children in the East End of London. As believers in one God they were devoted to their holy book, which contained strict religious laws, harsh penalties and gender inequality. Some of them established separate religious courts. The men wore dark clothes and had long beards; some women covered their hair. A royal commission warned of the grave dangers of self-segregation. Politicians said different religious dress was a sign of separation. Some migrants were members of extremist political groups. Others actively organised to overthrow the established western political order. Campaigners against the migrants carefully framed their arguments as objections to "alien extremists" and not to a race or religion. A British cabinet minister said we were facing a clash about civilisation: this was about values; a battle between progress and "arrested development". All this happened a hundred years ago to Jewish migrants seeking asylum in Britain.
Jews and now Muslims have been and are the targets of cultural racism: differences arising from their religious culture are pathologised and systematically excluded from definitions of "being British". Both anti-semitism and anti-Muslim racism focus on belief in religious law to construct Jews and Muslims as a threat to the nation.
Guardian, February 2, 2007
‘We are all being labelled terrorist suspects’
Faith leaders in the Midlands last night called on the community to remain united after nine men were arrested over an alleged plot to kidnap a member of the armed forces.
Allah Ditta, founding member of the Alum Rock Islamic Centre, in Birmingham, said he feared the "diverse" community would be "picking up the pieces" of the high-profile arrests for years to come.
He said: "Community leaders work hard together to build relationships and then raids like this take things back years. I just wish the police could have been more discreet because at the moment it's just suspicion. At the moment, the whole of the community are labelled as terror suspects."
Father Allan Townsend, priest in charge of the Alum Rock Parish, said: "I work very closely with my Muslim brothers and sisters. I do not want this to alter that in any way. I hope the community will not judge all Muslims who live in this area by what has happened today. The majority of residents live in harmony."
The Herald, February 1, 2007
Little Mosque on the Prairie is global TV talking point
A new Canadian television series, 'Little Mosque on the Prairie', has attracted worldwide media attention since its debut on 9 January 2007 - writes Kristine Greenaway for Ecumenical News International (ENI).
Ekklesia, January 31, 2007
German Muslims question motives of Protestant document
Four Muslim organizations in Germany have called off a meeting with Protestant leaders planned for February 2007, saying there is a need for "considerable explanation" about recently-published church guidelines urging greater clarity in Christian-Muslim relations reports Ecumenical News International (ENI). Ekklesia, February 2, 2007
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