Israeli lawmaker destroys copy of the New Testament

JERUSALEM -- Calling the Christian faith’s New Testament a “despicable book,” a right-wing Israeli lawmaker tore up a copy of the biblical text and threw it in a trash can as one of his aides took pictures that he later released to Israeli media.

Lawmaker Michael Ben-Ari, of the far-right National Union Party, blamed Christianity and the New Testament for the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe that led to the slaughter of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust.

The copy of the New Testament had been sent to Israeli lawmakers by the Bible Society of Israel in an attempt to foster goodwill among the religions, according to a report Tuesday in Israel’s Maariv newspaper, which also published the photo of Ben-Ari destroying the book.

“Sending this book to [Knesset members] is a provocation, and the appropriate response is to send this book and what it represents to the rubbish bin of history,” Ben-Ari was quoted as saying. The Knesset is Israel's parliament.

Other lawmakers condemned the act as intolerant and disrespectful. Those who also received copies of the New Testament either ignored the gift or returned them, Maariv reported.

Ben-Ari is no stranger to controversy. He is a former member of the ultra-nationalist Kach Party, which Israel banned for supporting racism and violence against Arabs. His recent application to visit the United States was denied by American immigration officials, who cited their right to ban “terrorists” from entering the country. 

ALSO:

Bomb kills at least 12 Shiites in Pakistan's tribal area

Gaza Christians protest what they call forced conversion to Islam

Nelson Mandela, South Africa's legendary leader, celebrates 94th birthday

-- Edmund Sanders

Photo: Israeli lawmaker Michael Ben-Ari, right, shown with a fellow conservative at a rally Sunday in Nazareth over proposals to expand the military draft in Israel, has triggered controversy by tearing up a copy of the New Testament sent to him and other legislators by the Bible Society of Israel. Credit: Ahmad Bharabli / Agency France-Presse / Getty Images.

 

 

Gaza Christians protest what they call forced conversion to Islam

GAZA CITY -- Scores of Christians in the Gaza Strip organized a sit-in Tuesday at the Greek Church of Gaza to protest what they call the "kidnapping” of five Christians by an unknown Islamist group seeking to forcibly convert them to Islam.

A smaller protest was held Monday at the church in which Christians, who have long complained of persecution in Gaza, demanded that Hamas, which controls the seaside territory, return the five individuals.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights said in a statement Tuesday that the five people had met with their family members and affirmed that they had not been forced to convert.

Family members of the five Christians believe the young man, a woman and her three children are being held against their will by a Hamas lawmaker, and say that it is impossible that they have changed their beliefs.

"If my son is not kidnapped, why don't they just let him go home with me?" asked Huda Amash, mother of Ramez Amash, 25, the missing young man. “My son was brought up as a Christian. His love of Jesus is strong enough to keep him Christian. He cannot change his beliefs all of a sudden."

The Hamas police, however, said the five people had not been kidnapped and that they have converted to Islam voluntarily and without any pressure. Hamas officials said the individuals are staying with a Muslim family under the protection of the police.

Christian leaders in Gaza say there are about 1,500 Christians in Gaza, down from about 3,500 in 2008.

ALSO:

New 'Mahdi malware' cyber spy attack on Iran disclosed

Rights group: Chavez government intimidates foes in Venezuela

London Olympics security contractor called 'incompetent' by panel

-- Ahmed Aldabba

Photo: Hana, left, and Huda, parents of Palestinian Ramez Amash, hold a picture of their son in their home on Tuesday. Credit: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images

Italian priest created an interfaith refuge in Syria

An Italian Jesuit who was recently expelled from Syria  for criticizing the government’s crackdown on the uprising there had spent three decades in the country, creating a small oasis of peace and interfaith dialogue.

I met Father Paolo Dall’Oglio in 2010.  I had traveled from the States to visit my daughter, Merrit, in Damascus, where she was spending the summer studying Arabic at one of several language centers in the Syrian capital. A few weeks earlier, one of Merrit’s housemates had visited Deir Mar Musa, the ancient monastery Father Paolo had restored and reopened, and she was eager to return.

So several of us traveled the 50 miles from Damascus to Mar Musa, then joined backpackers, pilgrims and tourists from many lands in making the long climb up a series of stone steps to the clifftop monastery high above the Syrian desert.

At the top, along with a splendid view, we found a very special place.

U.S. nuns meet with Vatican over its critique of their work

VATICAN CITY -– Top doctrinal officials at the Vatican met Tuesday with Roman Catholic nuns from the United States who are seeking to mitigate a harsh Vatican judgment of the organization they represent.

Statements from both sides described as open and cordial the meeting between two senior Vatican officials and the American nuns who have been accused of promoting "radical feminism."

The controversial assessment has prompted a large show of support for the sisters. But the Vatican reiterated Tuesday that it expects the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) to change its ways to energetically promote church doctrine “as faithfully taught through the ages.”

LCWR President Sister Pat Farrell said in a statement that “it was an open meeting and we were able to directly express our concerns” to Cardinal William Levada, who heads the Vatican’s doctrinal office, and Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain, the man chosen to oversee reforms ordered by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Pope's former butler questioned by Vatican court over documents

This post has been corrected. See the note below for details.

VATICAN CITY -- Paolo Gabriele, the former butler of Pope Benedict XVI, underwent official interrogation Tuesday for the first time since he was arrested May 23 for allegedly stealing confidential documents from the papal apartment.

Gabriele, 46, is charged with aggravated theft and is being held in one of four cells under control of the Holy See’s internal police force, a judge from the Vatican tribunal told reporters at a news conference. The judge, Paolo Papanti-Pelletier, said Gabriele could face from one to six years in prison if convicted.

Gabriele remains the only person charged in the case of confidential letters and documents that found their way outside Vatican walls and into television exposés, newspaper scoops and, more recently, a bestselling book.

Meanwhile, developments in the explosive saga continue in nearly daily installments in the Italian press, usually based on interviews with unnamed purported leakers, top-ranking clergy and others in the know about a bitter power struggle acknowledged by insiders and outside observers alike.

During a weekend trip to Milan for an International meeting on the family, Benedict was seen smiling and always close to his second-in-command, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

The cardinal has been painted in the leaked reports as being an inept manager of the Vatican apparatus, of stacking the Curia administration with people close to him and obstructing efforts to clean up Vatican government and finances.

Fugitive from 1995 sarin gas attack on Tokyo subway captured

She moved from year to year, for fear someone would recognize her. She cut her long hair and donned scholarly glasses. But when Japanese police finally caught up with Naoko Kikuchi after 17 years on the run, one of the last remaining suspects from the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway expressed relief that her life on the lam had come to an end.

Kikuchi, now 40, was intercepted by police Sunday as she returned to her home in Sagamihara, a city less than 20 miles southwest of the Japanese capital where she is accused in the murders of 13 subway passengers and the poisoning of 6,000 others.

Kikuchi immediately acknowledged she was the fugitive and told police she was weary of hiding and evading detection, the NHK network reported, quoting Tokyo Metropolitan Police.

“I had to hide my identity and used an alias all these years while I was on the run. Now I'm arrested and I don't have to do that anymore. I feel relieved,” police quoted Kikuchi as saying.

Rights groups slam death-by-stoning sentence for Sudanese woman

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Human rights groups have called for Sudan to abolish death by stoning as prescribed legal punishment after a young woman convicted of adultery was ordered executed by a Sudanese court.

The woman, Intisar Sharif Abdallah, who is married, give birth five months ago and is currently being held, with her baby, outside Khartoum, according to Human Rights Watch.

"No one should be stoned to death, and imposing this punishment on someone who may be a child is especially shocking," said Daniel Bekele, Africa director for Human Rights Watch.

Abdallah's age has not been verified, although Sudanese rights groups suggest she may be under the age of 18. Under Sudanese law, a minor cannot be sentenced to death, and a defendant is entitled to a lawyer in court.

A statement by Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA), a women’s rights group following the case, said Abdallah admitted guilt after she was beaten and tortured by her brother, who instigated the case against her. The conviction is based solely on her admission under duress, according to rights groups.

The organization quoted Abdallah's lawyer as saying that she initially pleaded innocent, but changed her plea. Although Sudanese legal authorities have given her age as 20, SIHA said she is between 15 and 17.

SIHA said after she initially denied the charge the case was thrown out of court. She was then repeatedly beaten and tortured by her brother, confessed to adultery and was returned to court where she was convicted.

"She is understood to be deeply traumatized and is without access to suitable psycho-social support. Her newborn child is also with her in prison whilst she is shackled at the ankles, struggling to nurse him. Her co-accused, having maintained his denial of adultery, has therefore not been charged and now walks free," the SIHA statement said, adding that her lawyer was only allowed to see her after she had been convicted and sentenced to death.

"Abdallah did not even receive the benefit of protections in Sudan’s own laws," said Bekele, of Human Rights Watch. “Authorities should drop the charges and free her immediately."

Amnesty International issued an urgent request for people to send letters to Sudanese authorities before July 6, calling for the execution to be halted.

"It is clear that the punishment of stoning is designed to cause the victim grievous pain before leading to death. Such methods of execution specifically designed to increase the suffering of victims are of particular concern to Amnesty International, as an extreme and cruel form of torture," the Amnesty International statement said.

Bekele said the case underscored the need for Sudan to reform its legal system in accordance with human rights standards.

"The court relied solely on her coerced confession to convict and sentence her in a single court session, while the man alleged to have committed adultery with her denied the charges and was released," a lawyer working with SIHA told Human Rights Watch, Bekele said.

He said pro bono lawyers in Sudan had launched an appeal.

Sudanese courts have sentenced several women to death by stoning in recent years, but the sentences have been overturned on appeal. Other countries where sharia law is practiced and allow the sentence of death by stoning include Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, parts of Nigeria, Iraq, Indonesia and Somalia.

ALSO:

Nigeria Islamic group Boko Haram spreads fear far and wide

South African President Zuma, gallery settle case over painting

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor gets 50 years for war crimes

-- Robyn Dixon

Pope admits 'sadness in my heart' over latest papal scandal

VATICAN CITY -- For the first time since his butler was arrested on suspicion of stealing papal correspondence, Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday publicly discussed the scandal churning inside the Vatican, admitting “sadness in my heart” while accusing some in the media of painting a false picture of the Holy See.

The pope used his regular Wednesday audience in St. Peter’s Square to pledged his “trust and encouragement” to his closest aides, referring evidently to those who have been depicted in leaked documents as being embroiled in a power struggle in the scandal now dubbed “VatiLeaks.”

In front of several thousand people gathered in the sunny square, the pope said, "Rumors have multiplied, and been exaggerated by some media in a gratuitous manner” that has given “an unrealistic image of the Holy See.”

He said he wanted to “renew by trust and encouragement in my closest advisers and to all those who in silence and with a spirit of sacrifice help me daily in carrying out by ministry.”

Germany braces for clashes between Islamists, right-wing activists

BERLIN -- Days after a bloody street battle led to more than 100 arrests, authorities in Germany's biggest state braced for the possibility of more violence Tuesday between a right-wing political party and an Islamic group.

Police in historic Cologne, the largest city in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, were preparing for a tense standoff as Salafi Islamist activists planned to protest a campaign rally in front of a mosque by the anti-Islam party Pro NRW.

The potential clash of demonstrations follows an outbreak of violence whose scale has caught Germany by surprise.

On Saturday, 29 police officers were injured, including two with serious knife wounds, and 109 Salafi Islamists were arrested in the former West German capital of Bonn after members of Pro NRW provoked the Salafists with mocking cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.

On Monday, Pro NRW held smaller rallies in three other cities in North Rhine-Westphalia.

"We will not tolerate these attacks on the constitutional state and our police officers and will increase our pressure on both Pro NRW and the Salafists as much as possible," North Rhine-Westphalia's governor, Hannelore Kraft, told the newspaper Bild. "That means denying entry to Salafists who are known to be violent, as well as preventing Pro NRW from showing any more anti-Islamic cartoons."

Salafism is a movement within Sunni Islam that advocates a return to an earlier form of Islam. Only a radical minority of Salafists advocate violence, but the German intelligence service has said that nearly all violent jihadists in Germany have had prior contact with Salafists. German Salafists attracted national attention last month by launching a campaign to hand out 25 million free copies of the Koran.

Authorities have forbidden more than 100 Salafists from entering Cologne and have said they won't allow Pro NRW to demonstrate near the mosque. But efforts to prevent Pro NRW from using offensive images were complicated by two court rulings Monday that displaying cartoons of Muhammad was protected free speech.

"We will allow peaceful protest against the campaign event," Cologne's police chief, Michael Temme, said on Tuesday. But, he warned, "we will swiftly and systematically oppose any form of violence."

Muslim leaders in Germany have condemned the attacks on police in Bonn.

"Reacting to these provocations with violence is not the way of peace-loving Muslims because it is un-Islamic and moreover plays into the hands of the right wing," the Central Council of Muslims in Germany said Monday in a statement.

Provocation is a deliberate part of Pro NRW’s strategy. "It is of course part of the campaign," Pro NRW general secretary Markus Wiener told the German magazine Der Spiegel. "We are a party that is critical of Islam, and we wanted to show our standpoint."

Germany, with 4 million Muslims, is one of the few European countries with a sizable Muslim minority that has not seen the rise of a powerful national anti-Islam political party. Pro NRW received only about 1% of the vote in the last statewide election in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2010 and is fielding candidates in this Sunday's election.

The country's largest far-right party, the National Democratic Party, has never come close to the 5% hurdle needed to gain representation in the German parliament, though it has been represented in several state parliaments in the former East Germany.

ALSO:

French, German rifts show already

Pain now or pain later? Europeans prefer putting it off

Al Jazeera closes Beijing bureau after reporter expelled

-- Aaron Wiener

Photo: Members of the far-right anti-Islam party Pro NRW protest outside a mosque Monday in Bielefeld, Germany. Credit: Thomas Starke / Getty Images

Saudi Arabia sentences hard-line cleric to five years in prison

BEIRUT-- Saudi Arabia has jailed a hard-line cleric who once called for demolishing the Grand Mosque in Mecca and rebuilding it to prevent mixing between the sexes at Islam's holiest site, local media reports say.

The news website Aleqt.com said Yousuf Ahmad was sentenced to five years in prison for "disobedience" to the ultraconservative kingdom's rulers and "incitement" against them.

The kingdom arrested Ahmad last July after he called for the release of political prisoners, media reports said. Some reports said he was arrested after posting a YouTube video in which he criticized King Abdullah and top Saudi officials for the practice of detention without trial.

Authorities also slapped a five-year travel ban on Ahmad and fined him the equivalent of thousands of dollars. Ahmed has appealed the ruling, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency.

The New York-based rights watchdog Human Rights Watch says thousands of people receive unfair trials or face arbitrary detention in Saudi Arabia.

Over the years, Ahmad has created a stir on more than one occasion for making controversial statements. Back in 2010, he earned notoriety when he reportedly suggested that the Grand Mosque be replaced with a new shrine consisting of up to 30 floors that would be strictly divided between men and women.

He has also suggested to Arab news outlets that only Muslim maids be allowed into the kingdom for work and that they must be segregated from men to prevent illicit mixing between the sexes.

And he earned a reputation for being a campaigner against women's employment. When Saudi Arabia's leading supermarket chain, Panda, broke a national taboo a few years ago by employing female cashiers in one of its branches, Ahmad called for a boycott of Panda.

After the incident, Saudi Arabia's top cleric publicly ordered Ahmad to stop issuing religious edicts without authorization.

ALSO:

Saudi activists fight through their fear

Mideast upheaval knocks Saudi Arabia off balance

Gunfire continues in Syria despite scheduled cease-fire

--Alexandra Sandels