EU-DIGEST

Labels: Burka, EU, France, Islam, Religion

Labels: Christmas, Religion, Turkey

What if we face up to the fact that, unlike the U.S. government, Mother Nature doesn’t do bailouts?” Sallie McFague asked an audience at Harvard Divinity School (HDS). In last month’s session, McFague was quoting New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman, while offering her own analysis of the current dual crises rocking the globe, one financial and the other environmental. Both, said the theologian in residence at the Vancouver School of Theology, are the product of greed. “The same insatiable desire for more, more money, more energy … underlies both of these planetary disasters. But while the world’s economy appears to be crawling back to life through substantial governmental interventions, the outlook for the environment, she said, is bleak.

Religion can play a role in numerous ways, McFague suggested. It can help people, particularly city dwellers, connect with the concept of space and place, an understanding that their environment is derived directly from the Earth. What lies behind all construction, the foundation of every city, she said, is nature, “that encompassing and mysterious term for everything that is.” By replacing the traditional Christian concern with time and history with a notion of space and place, she said, there can be a new focus on Earth rather than heaven, on bodies and their basic needs, rather than on “interpretation, meaning, and eternal salvation.”

Labels: Pollution and the environment, Religion

Dancing Particles - Antidote to Monotony - by Simon Jacobsen

Every year, at the conclusion of the Jewish holiday season, the Jews begin reading, as they always do, the Torah anew. Its opening verse is perhaps the most famous line ever stated: In the beginning God created heaven and earth. Why do they read the same chapter year after year? Once they learned that the universe was created by God, why do we need to be reminded of this fact every year anew? The answer is both simple and profound.

One of our greatest enemies is monotony. Nature abhors a vacuum, and so do we humans. Many of our problems originate from the wearing effects of boredom and routine. At some point, repeating the same activity again and again dulls our spirits, and we become desperate for something, anything, that will relieve our tedium and fill the hungry vacuum, whether it be healthy or not. We need that rush of excitement, that chase, that high that will make us feel alive again.

Labels: Religion, the Torah, the Universe

God, creation, science, religion: the conflicts - by Tom Chivers

While the Bible never explicitly states the age of the Earth, many Bible scholars attempted to deduce it using the dates and ages of its characters. And while there were problems with this approach – the chronology becomes confused after King Solomon – several attempts nonetheless came up with strikingly similar figures. The Venerable Bede suggested that the Earth was created in 3952BC, while Johannes Kepler and Sir Isaac Newton said 3992BC and 4000BC respectively. The most famous, however, was the Ussher chronology, put forward in 1650 by the Archbishop of Armagh, James Ussher. With almost comical precision, it claimed that the first moment of creation was in the evening of 22 October, 4004BC. Scientists point out that all of these dates would mean that the planet came into existence a full thousand years after the domestication of the guinea pig. Radio dating using lead ores suggests the Earth is around 4.54 billion years old, while the age of the Universe has been put at around 13.7 billion years.

Note EU-Digest It is scientifically impossible to create "something" (the Universe) out of "nothing". This leads to the conclusion that something "super natural" must have happened.

Labels: Religion

Pastor Tullian Tchividjian - Getting back to basics

EU-Digest

Christianity : what is fashionable these days?

“Christianity is radically uncool,” says south Florida's 2000 member Coral Ridge Presbyterian church senior pastor Tullian Tchividjian. “Indeed, if what’s fashionable in society is what interests you, then true Christianity won’t. It’s that simple.” Tchividjian says that today many Christians feel that in order to reach the world, they must become just like the world. Many evangelical leaders believe that Christianity needs to fit into the broader culture to make it more relevant and palatable. But in his critically acclaimed book, Unfashionable, the 36-year-old grandson of Billy Graham goes against popular notions and commonly held beliefs, arguing for just the opposite. Unfashionable was inspired by what Tchividjian’s calls "his own experience" in his early twenties, as he awakened one Sunday morning with an aching head and empty heart after years of running away from faith.

Labels: Christianity, Religion

Is the glass half empty or half full? - A fifth of Europe Union will be Muslim by 2050 - by Rick Morren

Statistics show that last year, five per cent of the total population of the 27 EU countries was Muslim and that rising levels of immigration from Muslim countries and low birth rates among Europe's indigenous population will increase that figure to 20%. The report also noted that data gathered from various sources indicated that Britain, Spain and Holland will have an even higher proportion of Muslims in a shorter amount of time.

Should this, as many right wing politicians and more radical Christians proclaim, be a reason for concern? It all depends if you consider the glass half empty or half full. Those of us who look at every issue with the pessimistic "half empty glass" attitude will obviously find all kinds of reasons to "cry wolf". On the other hand the "half full glass" folks will actually be far more optimistic about this trend, and usually also life in general. They are also the people who do not judge other people by their religion, the colour of their skin, their culture or their sexual preference. They are also the ones who are realizing that immigration is the only way the EU can survive over the long haul.

The question which arises is what can we do about making change happen? For starters, if we take all religious groups in the EU together who believe in one God, and remove the stigma of religious doctrine out of the discussion, we probably can count on 70 percent of the EU population who basically think along the same lines when it comes to believing in a Higher Being. So the suggestion would be that instead of hiding in their comfortable Churches, Mosques and Synagogs, religious leaders in the EU should be encouraged to play a far more active and creative role in helping immigrants integrate into the EU.

The importance is not what is being instructed from Mecca, Jerusalem or Rome, but rather to follow a more enlightened vision, whereby denominations actually become part of the European integration process. It means working together, instead of jealously protecting their "religious turf", or only providing lip service to the idea of eucomenical cooperation. For those of us who belong to religious denominations it might be good to remember that God has no permanent representative on earth, but rather that he lives in all of those who believe. Organized religion and their political counterparts can not be allowed a free hand in deciding the future of Europe based on religious doctrine.

Labels: EU, Integration, Islam, Politics, Religion

Turkey - Obama's Two Dollars and Turkey - by Soner Cagaptay

It is a tough economy, but if President Barack Obama has $2 to invest in Turkey, I would suggest that he put one buck into consolidating Turkey's liberal democracy, and the other into moving forward the country's European Union accession, for a non-European Turkey would be a big loss for Washington. Since the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, came to power in Turkey in 2002, Turkey's media has been transformed for the worse. The government has used legal loopholes to confiscate ownership of independent media and sell it to its supporters. In 2002, pro-AKP businesses owned less than 20 percent of the Turkish media; today pro-government people own around 50 percent.

Not only has Turkey's media ownership been transformed with a pro-government bent, but media freedoms have been eroded as well: according to Freedom House's freedom of press index reports, Turkish media is less free today than it was in 2002, slipping from 100 in 2002 to 103 in 2008. As Turkey ought to be moving toward the EU, its record on media freedoms should have improved significantly since 2002, not stagnated. Something is not right in Turkey today. Mr. Obama ought to put his money into Turkey's free media since, without a free and independent media, as well as the accompanying freedoms, Turkey risks looking more like Russia, and nobody, neither the EU nor Mr. Obama, wants two Russia's on Europe's eastern frontier.

There is no longer a grey area in which Turkey can position itself. Turkey will either become an EU member and part of the West, or fold into the "Muslim world," as per al-Qaeda's vision. This is already a risk, with the number of Turks who identify as Western decreasing, especially among the youth. Mr. Obama ought to invest in Turkey's EU accession in order to keep Turkey Western and to consolidate its liberal democracy. All it takes is two bucks from Obama's wallet. Hard as times might be, this is not the time for Washington to lose Turkey, or let go an important ally.

Labels: AKP, Democracy, Religion, Turkey

Fifty-seven varieties of religious experience

The human mind, wrote the French theologian John Calvin, “is a permanent factory of idols”. We are instinctively religious, Calvin believed, but because we are unable to perceive God according to His nature, we invent inferior deities to suit our needs – a “great crowd of gods” that sweeps in wherever human intelligence is at work. For Calvin, the sovereignty of God and the truth of scripture were objective facts. The problem was the human mind, which was variable, error-plagued and hopelessly perplexed.

Labels: Religion

Political Surf reviews Bill Maher’s anti-religious ‘Religulous’ - by by Doug Gibson

Bill Maher’s “Religulous,” a film screed against religion, is very funny and has a lot of truth to it. It is a fact Religion is pretty screwed up. Maher, who hosts an HBO talk show, grabs at a lot of low-hanging fruit to mock the dysfunctional branches of faith. Among his targets is a group, called Answers in Genesis, that opine dinosaurs were horses for early man. Other easy targets including a rapping suicide bombing enthusiast, radical Islamics and Jews, and a dimwitted evangelical U.S. senator. Those are the lazy parts of “Religulous,” where Maher, who is a very intelligent debater, ties his foils into frustrated, rhetorical knots. Of course, he has the advantage — he demands proof. The others rely only on faith. One can’t help but feel that one reason Maher despises faith is that he doesn’t know anyone he would deem as cool who believes. It would have been interesting had Maher tried to examine faith, and its relationship to theology and religious belief. But “Religulous” won’t tread into the serious. It’s designed to mock those who believe in Christ, virgin births, “magic underwear” or take the Bible seriously … you get the picture. It’s manna for the religion of atheism, of which Maher is a high priest … even if he won’t admit to any “faith.” Among his targets is a group, called Answers in Genesis, that opine dinosaurs were horses for early man. Other easy targets including a rapping suicide bombing enthusiast, radical Islamics and Jews, and a dimwitted evangelical U.S. senator. Those are the lazy parts of “Religulous,” where Maher, who is a very intelligent debater, ties his foils into frustrated, rhetorical knots. Of course, he has the advantage — he demands proof. The others rely only on faith. One can’t help but feel that one reason Maher despises faith is that he doesn’t know anyone he would deem as "cool" who believes. It would have been interesting had Maher tried to examine faith, and its relationship to theology and religious belief. But “Religulous” won’t tread into the serious. It’s designed to mock those who believe in Christ, virgin births, “magic underwear” or take the Bible seriously … you get the picture. It’s manna for the religion of atheism, of which Maher is a high priest … even if he won’t admit to any “faith.”

How interesting it would have been had Maher tried to learn why Foster agrees with him and still believes in God. That, apparently, is too much for pop atheism — and Maher — to tackle.

Labels: Bill Maher, Commedy, Religion

Church of England attempts to broaden appeal with songs by U2 and prayers for Google - by Jonathan Wynne-Jones

Christian services that feature DJs, songs of the Irish band U2 and prayers for the chief executives of Google and Wal-Mart are being promoted by the Church of England. The ideas for alternative-style worship are part of an initiative launched by Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to appeal to the younger generation. They are set out in a new book compiled by the Church's Fresh Expressions programme, which aims to boost church attendance with more relevant and exciting services.

One Holy Communion service promoted in the book, called Ancient Faith, Future Mission, begins with the congregation being shown a video clip from the YouTube website about a United Nations anti-poverty campaign. Worshippers are told that "our planet is messed up" and that "things are not right". A psalm is recited in "beat poetry" style to the accompaniment of African Djembe drums, and prayers are said "for the corporate world, for influential CEOs who oversee billion-dollar industries". The prayers go like: "We pray for John Chambers of Cisco Systems, Bill Gates of Microsoft, Dr Eric Schmidt of Google Inc, H Lee Scott Jr of Wal-Mart Stores and others who have already made commitments to justice." However, traditionalists have criticised the unorthodox services as "pointless" and "shallow", and have warned that experimenting with Church tradition would do more harm than good.

Labels: EU, Religion, U2

Gay people don't need marriage - by Mark Simpson

Miss California, a practizing Christian, was last week denounced by Miss America gay judge Perez Hilton on his blog as "a dumb bitch" and unworthy of the Miss America crown because she gave the "wrong" answer to his chippy question about gay marriage. Like most Americans – including the current Democratic president of the United States – she believes that marriage is "between a man and a woman". Boo! Hiss! Rip her to shreds! President Obama expressed the exact same view during the Presidential Election: "I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. Now, for me as a Christian, it's also a sacred union. You know, God's in the mix." Of course, instead of being scorned as a bigot and a dumb bitch, Obama was handed the Mr America crown by liberals and probably most gay voters. But I suppose that being president of the United States is a rather less important title than Miss America. Branding Christians and traditionalists "bigots" for being Christians and traditionalists and thus none too keen to fundamentally revise the definition of marriage is a highly unattractive exercise in liberal self-righteousness that makes Miss America look quite sophisticated.

New ways of living and loving require new institutions. Or in the words of the famously unmarried Galilee carpenter and fisher of men: put new wine into new wineskins. And keep the flippin' Pharisees out of it. Or else you'll end up with a tacky mess.Fully-recognized, open-to-all civil unions are a secular institution that helps to shore up a fragile secular society. And make no mistake, it is secularism on which most of the – historically very, very recent – freedoms enjoyed by lesbians and gays are based, along with those of women. Note EU-Digest: If you are Gay or Lesbian and profess to be a believer in the Christian or Muslim faith you better brush up on your Bible and Koran. The bottom line remains, if you can't make babies together or at least try and make it happen as man and a woman, you might be o.k to the secular world, but you ain't doing what you were created for. Even Darwin would have told you so. So dear Gays and Lesbians, go for the civil union, and be happy ever after.

Labels: Gay and Lesbians Community, Marriage, Religion, US

U.S., Canada Show More Interfaith Cohesion Than Europe - by Adam Sitte

In its first annual report on the state of faith relations in countries spanning four continents, Gallup and the Coexist Foundation find that Americans and Canadians more likely than European respondents surveyed to be classified as "integrated."Gallup defines "isolated" respondents as those who are unlikely to be members of any particular faith group and who tend to believe in the truth of their perspective above all others. They do not want to know about other religions. They also neither respect nor feel respected by those of other faiths. "Tolerant" individuals have a "live-and-let-live attitude toward people of other faiths, and they generally feel that they treat others of different faiths with respect. However, they are not likely to learn from or about other religions. "Integrated" respondents as those who go beyond a "live-and-let-live" attitude and actively seek to know more about and learn from others of different religious traditions. They believe that most faiths make a positive contribution to society. Furthermore, integrated people do not only feel respect toward people from other faith traditions, but they also feel respected by them.

When asked about the meaning of integration, strong majorities of British, French, and German Muslims and the general populations in their respective countries agree that mastering the national language, having a job, and getting a better education are critical components of integration.

Labels: Canada, EU, Religion, US

Food during Easter around the world - by Karen Herzog

If your family is Polish and keeps the traditions of Poland, you may serve kielbasa, considered indicative of God's favor and generosity, in addition to ham, a symbol of joy and abundance.The Greeks and Portuguese serve round, flat loaves marked with a cross and decorated with Easter eggs. Syrian and Jordanian Christians have honey pastries. After an Easter dinner showcasing lamb, Germans may eat lamb-shaped cake. Europeans generally enjoy sweet breads, cakes, cookies and chocolate rabbits to end the Lenten period of traditional abstinence. The French are known for gorgeous chocolate bunnies, and also for chocolate fish. The poisson d'avril isn't directly related to Easter but is part of the Easter season, starting April 1, when children use a paper version to play April Fools' tricks, according to www.chocolateatlas.com.

Dessert for Easter doesn't have to be a pastry or candy. One of the best-known Lent and Easter desserts in Mexico is a Mexican bread pudding called capirotada. It usually consists of toasted French bread, cheese, milk, butter, peanuts and raisins. It is soaked in syrup that includes water, brown sugar, cinnamon and a variety of other ingredients. Easter for Greek families would not be complete without hard-boiled eggs, traditionally painted red on Holy Thursday. The red eggs signify the blood of Christ, and some are baked into twisted sweet-bread loaves or distributed on Easter.

You also may display on your Easter table red beet horseradish (symbolic of the bitter passion of Christ), lamb-shaped butter (a reminder of Christ's goodness), eggs (symbolic of the Resurrection) and babka, a sweet bread symbolic of Jesus, "the bread of life." You won't forget the salt, regarded as a necessary element of life.

Labels: Christianity, Easter, Food, Religion, Tradition

I Owe, Therefore I Am: Why Struggling Against the Banks is a Holy Obligation - by Peter Laarman

It’s been a long time since anyone paid attention to old Ben Franklin’s preachments on fiscal prudence: “If you would know the value of money, go try to borrow some; for he that goes a-borrowing goes a-sorrowing.” “Never forget that credit is money.” “Necessity never made a good bargain.” As Matt Taibbi explains in Rolling Stone, the Paulson-Geithner approach to “fixing” the credit crisis amounts to giving the banks direct access to the rest of the US taxpayers money, via taxes we will be paying as far as the eye can see, along with all of the money they have already been extracting via their ongoing predatory lending. It’s one thing for Geithner to say “we’re not Sweden” in explaining why the US government still declines to take the big banks public with full public oversight. He has yet to explain why he is letting the banks take the government private—and thereby take all of us into permanent captivity.

Economic fair play is written in Jewish and Christian DNA: Jesus said to his bankers--the money changers in the Temple courtyard--"It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer'; but you are making it a den of robbers." (Mathew 21:13) Muslims say much the same thing: "Allah will deprive usury of all blessing, but will give increase for deeds of charity" (Quran 2: 276).

Labels: Economy, EU, Financial Reforms, Religion, US

President Obama's Easter card - by Bobby Amadeus

There is a card currently for sale at Target in the US that displays a proud picture of the US highest elected official, President Obama, with the words “On Easter, there is nothing more important than HOPE!” Bobby Amadeus writes: "reading it, I actually paused to reconsider my impression of the man because he is right.

On Easter (as well as any other day), “there is nothing more important than HOPE!” So when I saw the card on the rack proclaiming “On Easter, there is nothing more important than HOPE!” I slowly picked up the card, opened it, and read the inside: HOPE the EASTER BUNNY visits you… HOPE you get TONS of CANDY…HOPE you get LOTS of CHOCOLATE… After reading the inside, I paused again. I took a deep breath. I put the card back on the shelf."

Note EU-Digest: "It is amazing to see to what length some of the Christian churches and also those of other denominations in America are still going to put politics into their sermons. For some reason especially the conservatives in US religious communities have come to the believe that Christ belongs only to them. How wrong they are".

Labels: Barack Obama, Easter, Politics, Religion, US

Fethullah Gülen's Grand Ambition - Turkey's Islamist Danger - by Rachel Sharon-Krespin

As Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) begins its seventh year in leadership, Turkey is no longer the secular and democratic country that it was when the party took over. The AKP has conquered the bureaucracy and changed Turkey's fundamental identity. Prior to the AKP's rise, Ankara oriented itself toward the United States and Europe. Today, despite the rhetoric of European Union accession, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has turned Turkey away from Europe and toward Russia and Iran and reoriented Turkish policy in the Middle East away from sympathy toward Israel and much more toward friendship with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria. Anti-American, anti-Christian, and anti-Semitic sentiments have increased.

Behind Turkey's transformation has been not only the impressive AKP political machine but also a shadowy Islamist sect led by the mysterious hocaefendi (master lord) Fethullah Gülen; the sect often bills itself as a proponent of tolerance and dialogue but works toward purposes quite the opposite. Today, Gülen and his backers (Fethullahcılar, Fethullahists) not only seek to influence government but also to become the government.

Labels: Fethullah Gülen', Islam, Radical, Religion, Turkey

When Jesus met Buddha - by Philip Jenkins

Was Buddha a demon - While few mainline Christians would put the matter in such confrontational terms, any religion claiming exclusive access to truth has real difficulties reconciling other great faiths into its cosmic scheme. Most Christian churches hold that Jesus alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and many also feel an obligation to carry that message to the world's unbelievers. But this creates a fundamental conflict with the followers of famous spiritual figures like Mohammed or Buddha, who preached radically different messages. Drawing on a strict interpretation of the Bible, some Christians see these rival faiths as not merely false, but as deliberate traps set by the forces of evil.

Knowing other faiths firsthand grants believers an enviable sophistication, founded on humility. We could do a lot worse than to learn from what we sometimes call the Dark Ages.

Labels: Buddha, Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Religion

Ethnic food at NDIC Almere

Special EU-Digest report on Places of Worship

The Netherlands - Almere: A Christian Church where Nourishment of the Soul and Soul Food go Hand in Hand

New Day International Church (NDIC), an English language Christian Church, which opened its doors in Almere only 15 months ago, believes that nourishment not only includes the Word of God, but also good food. The Church which counts some 100 plus members recently started a bi-monthly "potLuck" Cafe program after its Sunday Worship Service. It calls this "New Day Cafe". The difference with other cafe's is that the food at "New Day Cafe" is free and voluntarily supplied by the members of the congregation - a rainbow mix of people from 16 different countries. The result, a spectacular variety of ethnic food specialties. Certainly a great incentive to visit NDIC, but that is not the only incentive. Peter and Nancy van der Meyden, the pastoral leaders and their organizational team say their objective is seeking to serve the international community in Almere by providing a growing relational and supportive network; an inspiring and contemporary Sunday morning church experience; and many resources (pastoral care, teaching, relevant literature, etc.), to help people connect faith to life. "We want visitors to NDIC to find this to be an inclusive environment they can feel comfortable with", says Pastor Peter van der Meyden.

All this adds up to the special character of Almere, a brand new city, to the northeast of Amsterdam, built on ocean reclaimed land during the early seventies. Its ambitious planners at the time envisioned a suburban living environment for commuters to the nearby capital Amsterdam, Schiphol airport and the very richy "Het Gooi" area. Currently, over 176,000 people live in Almere — one of the fastest growing cities in the Netherlands. The Dutch government recently announced plans for it to become the fourth largest city in the country, housing more than 400,000 inhabitants. It is also a very internationally flavored city with approximately a quarter of Almere’s citizens originating from outside the Netherlands, representing a variety of ethnic, cultural, social and religious backgrounds. Only 5 percent of these inhabitants come from Western European or US heritage. Places of worship in Almere also include Mosques and prayer centers for the Muslim community.

Almere is also a very open spaced community. According to the local government, there are on average 420 homes per square kilometers, compared with 1,930 homes per square kilometer in the four largest cities of the Netherlands - Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht. Even though it is still looked down on by citizens of most "cozy, old-style, and traditional" Dutch cities, Almere is already viewed throughout Europe, and by most of its own inhabitants, as a leading example of a successful new and modern designed city. It certainly has a great deal to offer people who seek a suburban lifestyle in a central easily accessible location. Innovative ideas like the NDIC Cafe ( http://www.ndic.nl) just seem to materialize spontaneously on a daily basis in this surprising bustling new Dutch city.

Labels: Almere, EU, Religion, Soul Food, The Netherlands

RCCG leader speaks hope to 60,000 Christians assembled in London - by Maria McKay

The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God was in London last night to reinvigorate Christians for mission and cast off doom and gloom in the midst of the credit crunch. Speaking ahead of the event, Pastor Enoch Adeboye told Christian Today it was imperative that believers look to God to help them through difficult times. Pastor Adeboye said he believed Europe was on the brink of a major revival. Festival of Life has grown to become the largest all night non-denominational gathering of Christians in Europe, gathering tens of thousands year-on-year since it first began in 1996. The night features preaching, worship and prayer for revival.

Labels: Britain, Christians, EU, God, Religion

Sandra Samuel and Moshe Holtzberg escape from Chabad House in Mumbai

An EU-Digest editorial on the dramatic events at the Rohr Chabad House in Mumbai

Sandra Samuel and Moshe Holtzberg - The Mumbai Miracle: God lives in all

Last Thursday, as the world watched the horrors unfolding in Mumbai, many of us saw Moshe Holzberg being carried out of the Rohr Chabad House by Sandra Samuel (44), an Indian nanny who had worked at the Jewish community center for years. She had found Moshe crying beside his parents’ bodies, drenched in blood. The parents, his mother Rivkah Holtzberg, 28, was an Israeli citizen, while his father, Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, 29, had dual American and Israeli citizenship. They had come to Mumbai in August 2003 to operate a home for the Jewish community, where travelers could get a kosher meal, attend Shabbat services, and relax in a library filled with a variety of works, including many books even some by Woody Allen and manuscripts on Jewish philosophy.

Last week their lives on earth abruptly ended, when they were executed in their home by a highly trained, tightly knit, and well-financed, ruthless group of Islamic militants.

When the attack on the Rorh Chabad House began last Wednesday, Sandra Samuel heard explosions and gunshots on an upper floor of the center and locked herself and fellow employee Zaki Hussein in a downstairs utility room. Late Thursday morning, she heard Moshe screaming, ran upstairs, eluded roaming gunmen, even stared some of them down, and found the child beside the bodies of his parents, carried him downstairs, and brought Moshe to safety. Mr. Hussein helped Ms. Samuel conceal Moshe, as the three escaped from Rorh Chabad House.

Sandra Samuel now continues to help care for Moshe Holtzberg in Israel. Her emigration from India was expedited when the Israeli government declared her one of the “Righteous Among the Nations” and issued her an immigration permit. Recipients of this honor, awarded by a special commission headed by a Supreme Court Justice in Israel, include Oskar and Emilie Schindler, Raoul Wallenberg, and Corrie ten Boom. People and groups that receive this title, have risked their lives to save others, many during the Holocaust. Sandra Samuel is the first citizen of India to receive this honor.

As dramatic as this report may sound, it underscores the fact that God does not belong to any religion, but that he lives in all of us. Moshe Holtzberg and Sandra Samuel are a living proof of that, and as difficult as this is to say, also in those militants, who decided not to kill Moshe, after they killed his parents.

Labels: God, India, Israel, Moshe Holtzberg, Mumbai, Religion, Sandra Samuel, Terrorism

Vatican - Pope's comments seem to throw cold water on worth of interfaith dialogue

No one who knows anything about Pope Benedict XVI believes he is ever going to be enthusiastic about interfaith discussions if they put the various faiths involved on equal footing -- if, in other words, an underlying assumption of such talks is that Islam, or Judaism, or Buddhism, or whatever, is as valid a way of expressing human understanding of God as is Christianity. In Benedict's mind, that is simply not the case: The pope, make no mistake, is Catholic.

Benedict praised a forthcoming book about Christianity, saying it "explained with great clarity" that "an inter religious dialogue in the strict sense of the word is not possible." In theological terms, he added, "a true dialogue is not possible without putting one's faith in parentheses." His comments were contained in a letter to Marcello Pera, the author of the new book, "Why We Must Call Ourselves Christian," which argues that Europe should stay true to its Christian roots. That's a point Benedict has made many times, even as Europe at once grows more secular, and more religiously diverse.

Note EU-Digest: Faith is not what the Pope or any other religious leader tells us, but faith is what you feel in your heart. Religious "man-made" doctrine has been a curse to the world, history proves that.

Labels: EU, Pope, Religion, Religious tolerance, Vatican

CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM MARRIAGES

Gé Speelman of Utrecht University in the Netherlands spoke on Christian-Muslim marriages during the Graz European Ecumenical Assembly in 1997. By clicking on the above link you can read a shortened version of her paper. The Muslim partner is often confronted with what most people around him think is natural, obvious, self-evident; he/her is the other, the one who has to prove him/her self. Many Muslim partners find they have to defend their faith against attacks which associate Islam with intolerance, backwardness and irrationality. In reaction, many Muslims become very much aware of their cultural and religious heritage. As one Muslim man said: “I would never have known so much about Islam if I had stayed at home and married an Egyptian girl.”

Another factor is that interfaith partners are seen as representatives of their communities. The Turkish Muslim represents the “terrible Turks” who have shaped the history of so many Eastern European countries. The German wife is the “imperialist European” whose community has been responsible for so much repression and bloodshed. Many problems in an interfaith marriage are exactly the same as those experienced by many other couples. But in their case, family and friends are looking out for problems; when they occur, they are defined as arising from differences in culture. A Dutch woman said she did not want to recognize the serious communication problem in her relationship because she was determined to prove to those who said it would never work that her marriage was fantastically successful. The partners had put off talking about their problems until it was too late.

Loved ones want to be more than merely “that Christian”, or “that Muslim”. Of course, they are also “a Christian” and “a Muslim” – much of what we are ties up with our religious traditions. German theologian Ulrich Dietzfelbinger, who described, in a lecture he gave in 1989, his relationship with his Turkish Muslim wife. He describes his tendency to reduce the differences in their beliefs to minor points, the pull to reduce their faith to the lowest common denominator. “After all, we both believe in Almighty God.” In the end, he recognizes that this way of reducing their differences is a way of denying them, leaving both partners with very little faith at all. What he learns is that one should not try to make the other the same as oneself. With new eyes he looks at the doctrine of incarnation. It is strange that God has community with a human being (and therefore with all human beings) in such a way that God is in his/her utmost being qualified by that humanity, while at the same time human beings are not deified and God remains God. Is there not in this strange incarnation something analogous to his marriage, where only love is the guarantor that he respects his partner as being inalienably other, different, and yet at one with himself? Maybe we should just let this question stand.

Labels: Christian, EU, Marriage, Musllim, Religion

Religion vs science: can the divide between God and rationality be reconciled? - by Paul Vallely

''A clergyman in charge of education for the country's leading scientific organisation – it's a Monty Python sketch," pronounced Britain's top atheist, Richard Dawkins, recently. The problem was that Reiss, as well as being an evolutionary biologist and population geneticist, is a non-stipendiary priest in the Church of England. When he said recently that science teachers should answer questions about creationism if pupils asked them he was deemed to have been advocating the idea that British schools should teach the idea that the world was magicked up (complete with fossils and ancient geology) just 6,000 years ago – and then tell pupils to make their own minds up between that and the theory of evolution to which the overwhelming scientific evidence points.The idea that science and religion are incompatible is a fairly recent import into contemporary culture. It has been given huge credence by the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. The pronounced motivation of Islamic fundamentalists in 2001 hammered home that some people are prepared to inflict outrageous acts of inhumanity in the name of religion.

Labels: Britain, evolution, Religion, Science

Labels: EU, Religion

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For the complete report from the Telegraph click on this link

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the French first lady, taunted one of the country's most senior women politicians about her failure to seduce President Nicolas Sarkozy, a new book claims.Following a New Year's Eve dinner at the Elysée, Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy and Miss Dati were walking in the palace's private apartments when the then Miss Bruni is said to have pointed at Mr Sarkozy's bed and said: "You'd have loved to occupy it, wouldn't you?" The book says the women "who were just getting to know each other, were also learning how to detest each other". Miss Dati a Muslim and France's Justice Minister was a close friend of Mr Sarkozy's ex-wife, Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz, who called her "my little sister" - making the new Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy dislike her even more.

Two decades ago Rachida Dati, a French daughter of north African immigrants, got married to a man that she barely knew. It was not quite an arranged marriage. It was a marriage "to please her family". She immediately regretted her decision. She persuaded her Algerian husband to agree to an instant annulment. Rachida Dati was in her early twenties at the time and making her way as a young lawyer and businesswoman in Paris. Through hard work, as a law student and by taking menial jobs, she had already fought her way clear of her impoverished, immigrant family of 11 brothers and sisters just north of Lyons. Two decades later, Mme Dati is France's first senior minister of north African origin. She is a protégée of President Nicolas Sarkozy. She has been catapulted without previous experience – and her enemies insist without any political skills – into one of the most senior and potentially explosive jobs in French government.

Her political career is threatened by her response to a national debate over how much French law should be influenced by its minorities, based on a court decision that reflects Ms. Dati's own experience as a young Muslim woman struggling to make her way out of a ghetto north of the French city of Lyon. The controversy began last week when a Paris newspaper revealed that a court in the northern city of Lille had annulled the marriage of a Muslim couple because the bride, 20, had lied to her husband, 32, about her virginity. The judge did not cite the couple's religion or the bride's previous sexual experience but ruled that, under the French civil code, the young woman had breached the marital contract by being untruthful about what her husband considered "an essential quality decisive for [his] consent." Feminists, philosophers and politicians of all stripes have united to condemn the decision as a step backward for equality and a dangerous step toward incorporating religious beliefs into the laws of a proudly secular state. Note EU-Digest: Lying, if it is about one's virginity or something else, remains a lie, and has nothing to do about one's religion in order for the lie to qualify as a lie. Mme Dati is on the right track. President Sarkozy said calls for justice minister Rachida Dati to resign over comments she made about a Muslim marriage annulment amounted to a ‘baseless lynching’.

Labels: Cécilia Sarkozy, EU, France, justice, Rachida Dati, Religion

For the complete report from TIME click on this link

Tony Blair's Leap of Faith - by Michael Elliot

On May 30 in New York, Blair, 55, formally unveiled The Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which, among other things, is dedicated to proving that collaboration among those of different religious faiths can help address some of the world's most pressing social problems."Faith is part of our future," Blair says, "and faith and the values it brings with it are an essential part of making globalization work." For Blair, the goal is to rescue faith from the twin challenges of irrelevance—the idea that religion is no more than an interesting aspect of history—and extremism. Blair and those working with him think religion is key to the global agenda.

"You can't hope to understand what's happening in the world if you don't know that religion is a very important force in people's lives," says Ruth Turner, 37, formerly a top aide to Blair in 10 Downing Street, who will head the foundation. "You can't make the world work properly unless you understand that, while not everyone will believe in God or have a spiritual life, a lot of people will." Blair, she says, has been thinking about these issues "for decades and decades and decades." Over time, says Blair of the foundation's work, "this is how I want to spend the rest of my life."

Labels: Britain, EU, Middle East, Religion, Tony Blair

Tension between Christianity and science exists only for propagandists-by Richard Lucas

The myth of "tension" between science and Christianity rests on just two episodes. The Catholic Church's rejection of Galileo's heliocentrism was a mistake by the Church leaders of the time. The dispute over the sufficiency of undirected natural processes to produce the startling complexity and diversity of life is ongoing, and is a genuine academic debate (although some evolutionists behave more like inquisitors than scientists). Huge numbers of scientists were and are Christians, experiencing no tension at all, and I have never met a Christian who does not hold science in high regard. The "myth" is propagated as common knowledge by secularists and scientists rejecting the moral guidance of the Church. If the Catholic Church has blundered in scientific matters on occasion, how many times have scientists blundered in scientific matters?

Labels: Christianity, Religion, Science

Tourism - Europe's Can't-Miss Cathedrals - by Rebecca Ruiz

Upon entering the dimly lit Notre Dame for the first time, the 19th-century architecture critic Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc heard organ music and thought it was emanating from the sky framed by the Parisian cathedral's rose stained glass windows.While today's visitors may not experience the same reaction, the towering spires, impressive arches and historic relics of many European cathedrals are nothing short of awe-inspiring. And since there are thousands of them, it's often difficult to determine which are must-sees.

Labels: Christianity, EU, Europe, European Culture, European Tourism, Religion

Is the Catholic Church a cult?

To many Christians, the Roman Catholic Church is an enigma -- a mysterious ecclesiastical system of laws, rituals, and religious orders. For centuries there have been angry denouncements from Roman Catholics against Protestantism for the schism created by the Reformation, and from Protestants against Roman Catholicism for its theological errors and its claim to be the only one true church. Out of this controversy, charges have arisen that Roman Catholicism is not truly Christian, but is in fact, the largest and oldest "Christian" cult in the world.

The Christian Research Institute, (CRI), founded by the late Dr. Walter Martin, is regarded by many as the foremost authority on cults and the occult. The also see themselves as experts on what constitutes Biblical theology. CRI has produced position papers on Roman Catholicism, addressing some of the doctrines with which they are in disagreement. They have stopped short, however, of acknowledging Roman Catholicism as a cult. They are, in fact, adamant in their defense of Roman Catholicism as an orthodox Christian religion. In this regard, they have come against others for their insistence that Roman Catholicism meets the criteria of a cult. The Roman Catholic Church claims that salvation is by grace through the shed blood of Christ on the cross. But in practice and other teachings, how true is their affirmation of that crucial doctrine?

Historically, Roman Catholicism has maintained that Jesus merely made the way open for salvation. But to enter into that salvation, one must live in obedience to the authority of the papacy. In addition, Jesus' provision for salvation not being complete, the Church offers other means to assure one's salvation. It is through the Roman Catholic Church alone that salvation in its fullest sense can be attained.

Another sign of a cult is its exclusivity and insistence that it alone holds the authority as God's only true church. Rather than acknowledge that the true Church is comprised of individuals bound to God the Father through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, a cult looks upon the organization itself -- that is, the hierarchical structure -- as the Church. This is true of Romanism.

Although the Roman Catholic Church admits today that God's grace is active in non-Catholic Christians, non catholics are referred to as "separated brethren" (which the Roman Church, through its ecumenical movement, hopes to some day bring into fellowship under its authority). According to Romanism, unless we acquiesce to this movement toward "unity," we remain outside the graces of the Church, regardless of how much in God's grace we live. "For it is through Christ's Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help towards salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained. It was to the apostolic college alone, of which Peter is the head, that we believe that Our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant, in order to establish on earth the one Body of Christ into which all those should be fully incorporated who belong in any way to the people of God" (Vatican Council II, p. 456). "Whatever way we look at the Catholic Church the only thing one can conclude: they are a cult."

Labels: Catholics, Christianity, Cults, EU, Religion

Why religious people are against gay marriage. - By Steven Waldman

It's hard to overstate just how upset religious conservatives are about gay marriage. Gary Bauer's e-mail newsletter about the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling declared, "Culture Wars Go Nuclear." Brian Fahling of the American Family Association said it was "on an order of magnitude that is beyond the capacity of words. The Court has tampered with society's DNA, and the consequent mutation will reap unimaginable consequences for Massachusetts and our nation." A new poll from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found, not surprisingly, that opposition to gay marriage and homosexuality is highest among the most religious.

Labels: Gay Rights, Religion

God's Crucible' examines how Islam shaped Europe (David Levering Lewis) by Lisa Montanarelli

In "God's Crucible," Levering Lewis explores Islam's seminal role in shaping Europe. From 711 to 1492, emerging Europeans shared a landmass with a far more sophisticated Islamic civilization. This Muslim world transmitted its own innovations and much of classical culture to Europe. Yet traditional "Western Civ" courses skip blithely from Rome to the Renaissance, barely footnoting Islam. "God's Crucible" opens with the Muslims' meteoric conquests. For the first six centuries of the Common Era, denizens of the Arabian Peninsula stood on the sidelines as imperial Rome and Iran exhausted themselves in "history's longest demolition derby," leaving a Fertile Crescent power vacuum. After Muhammad died in 632, the newly converted Muslims roared out of Arabia "motivated as much by the spoils of war as by religious zeal ... ancient greed soldered to a new ideology." They gave their adversaries a choice: convert to Islam, don't convert and pay a head tax, or fight. Upon hearing these terms, many potential foes sheathed their swords. Within 15 years of the Prophet's death, Muslims had vanquished Persia, whittled down Byzantium and built an empire whose size rivaled imperial Rome's at its height.

Labels: Islam, Religion

The Netherlands: Violence fear over Islam film - by Jason Burke

The Dutch government is bracing itself for violent protests following the scheduled broadcast this week of a provocative anti-Muslim film by a radical right-wing politician who has threatened to broadcast images of the Koran being torn up and otherwise desecrated. Cabinet ministers and officials, fearing a repetition of the crisis sparked by the publication of cartoons of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper two years ago, have held a series of crisis meetings and ordered counter-terrorist services to draw up security plans. Dutch nationals overseas have been asked to register with their embassies and local mayors in the Netherlands have been put on standby.

From her self-imposed exile in Washington, Hirsi Ali last week criticized the new film as 'provocation' and called on the major Dutch political parties to restart a debate on immigration that has split Dutch society in recent years, rather than leave the field to extremists.Job Cohen, the left-wing mayor of Amsterdam, echoed Hirsi Ali's words and called for a debate 'so that the moderates can make themselves heard'.

Note EU-Digest: Hirsi Ali is to be complimented for her stand on this issue. Freedom of expression includes the right to offend, but certainly not the right to provoke violence. If Wilders suggests that tearing up the Koran (or the Bible for that matter) would be a good idea, it could probably pass as freedom of expression. On the other hand if he says that the Koran (Bible) must be torn up, or used as toilet paper, he is overstepping the boundaries of freedom of expression and decency and indirectly inciting violence as a result of that statement. Many people feel that Mr. Geert Wilders, the maker of the film, should be taken into court if his film results in violence or death. The same as would apply to anyone who would kill Mr. Wilders as a result of his film. The tactics applied by Mr. Geert Wilders, a populist-conservative politician, are very similar to those that were applied by the Nazis against the Jews. These kind of tactics do not belong in todays Europe.

Labels: EU, European Unity, Geert Wilders, Religion, The Netherlands

Science Could Support Spiritual Beliefs- by Mani Bhaumik

Some questions we've posed persistently through the ages have remained largely unanswered: Why are we here? Is there a purpose to our lives? Is there a Creator who brought us here? All of us have asked these questions sometime in our lives. That's when we have traditionally turned to spirituality to find the answers. However, since we live in the age of science that pervades our daily lives, it would be essential to ask: Can science support our belief in spirituality? Those who followed spirituality down the ages did so with blind faith. Why? Because their experience showed that spirituality enriched their lives. But blind faith invariably gets mixed up with some false and undesirable beliefs such as superstitions and dogmas that can lead people down a thorny path.

The question then begs itself: Could it be that our consciousness is a fundamental reality which is intertwined with the universe itself? Is physicist Freeman Dyson right when he says: "The universe in some sense must have known that we were coming?" Quantum physics and modern cosmology support the oneness of all spiritual traditions, popularly known as God. However, the God that science supports is an abstract entity akin to Brahmn, which manifests itself through us. When we realise our oneness with God, our minds acquire a laser-like focus and we instinctively know the purpose of life.

Labels: Religion, Science

Religion in Europe - The discovery of tolerance

From the book by Benjamin Kaplan - A typical Protestant view of European religious history might go like this. In medieval times, the Roman Catholic church grew increasingly corrupt and impervious to criticism. Then came the Reformation, with its new breath of freedom and tolerance. After a brief fightback that culminated in the ghastly Thirty Years War in 1618-48, Europe moved smoothly towards the Enlightenment and today's ideal of secular tolerance. It was all quite unlike, for example, Islam and the horrors of the Ottoman empire. Most of this conventional picture is entirely wrong, as this splendid book by Benjamin Kaplan shows. Certainly, the medieval Catholic church continued to stamp heavily on heresy, but Enlightenment Protestants were often also deeply intolerant, not only of Catholics but also of each other (Mr Kaplan's book opens with the burning of Servetus, a noted Spanish Protestant, in Calvin's Geneva). It took more than 150 years after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 for most Europeans even to grasp the concept of religious tolerance. Well into the 19th century, the Ottomans were far more hospitable than the rest of Europe to religious minorities.

One striking discovery is that there was more religious freedom in the 16th century than after the wars of religion ended a century later. The author tells of the widespread use of Auslauf, whereby Protestants were able to worship outside a Catholic city's walls; of the clandestine yet accepted Catholic churches in the Netherlands known as Schuilkerken; and of the practice of Simultaneum, the sharing of churches between Protestants and Catholics in such places as Biberach and, later, Augsburg. That sensible arrangement would be hard to imagine today.

Labels: EU, Religion

Islamic Like Me: When The Veil Is A Threat - Danielle Crittenden

My series about my adventures in a Saudi burka generated a lot of fascinating comments by Huffposters. Yesterday I replied to those who insisted that our Western culture was more sexually oppressive than the burka. Today I'll deal with the frequently-made-observation by readers: If a woman wants to wear a burka in a democratic society, what's it to us?" Go to the link to the Huffingtom Post at the beginning of this EU-Digest report to read all four parts of Danielle Crittenden series and the subsequent debates. Also to see a video of her experience, which appeared in Canada's National Post.

Labels: Burka, Islam, Religion

Why Christ was removed from Christmas by Merchants: "The naughty truth about Christmas" - by Sandro Contenta

When the Three Wise Men visited baby Jesus, they brought luxury goods: gold, frankincense and myrrh. Loaded with symbolism, perhaps, but certainly superfluous when a blanket would have done just fine. Some 2,000 years later, devout readers of the New Testament story lament the loss of the piety and Christian values the wise men embodied. All that remains, according to the often-heard refrain, is excess. You don't have to be religious to recognize the supremacy of consumerism, particularly at this time of year. The facts speak for themselves: In Canada last December, Canadians spent $28.7 billion shopping, excluding purchases in the automotive sector. Per capita, that's $874 for each consumer, well above the monthly average of $630 for the rest of the year, according to Statistics Canada.
You will also find the same exorbitant figures the US and Europe. By comparison, church attendance in Canada and much of the Western world has plummeted. Shopping malls, as everyone knows, are the new temples. An Angus Reid poll last week found 85 per cent of Canadians surveyed believe Christmas has lost its "spiritual meaning." "Christmas is the quintessential celebration of our entitlement to abundance. So how are you going to fight that?" says University of Illinois marketing professor Cele Otnes, who has researched Christmas gift buying.Merchants have jumped on the Christmas bandwagon in Japan, Hong Kong, and northern India, and are increasingly catering to the holiday in Beijing, says Russell Belk, a marketing professor at York University. The results are sometimes curious, like the Tokyo department store that decorated its Christmas tree with red women's panties or the one that displayed a crucified Santa Claus.

And yet, despite the righteous doom and gloom, the excessive behaviour feels right. What would Christmas be without the binge eating and the maxing out of credit cards? Certainly not the kind of feast it has been for millennia. "I don't think Christmas has ever been primarily celebrated as a Christian holiday," says historian Stephen Nissenbaum, author of the acclaimed book, The Battle for Christmas. "Christmas has never been controlled by Christians. It has never been Christianized. They didn't control it when it was carnival and misrule, and they don't control it now that it's corporate capitalism," he says. To a certain extent, some Christian churches have only themselves to blame for complaints of how Christmas is celebrated. The trouble began early in the 4th century, when the Roman church picked Dec. 25 as the day to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, although nothing in the Bible suggests that date. The church was piggybacking on a well-established festive period. The pagan midwinter festival in ancient Roman times, Saturnalia, celebrated a time of abundance. The harvest was in, the new wine and beer was ready to drink, and the air was cold enough for animals to be slaughtered and meat preserved, "What you've got is a combination of an unusual amount of leisure time, because the men had finished their work, and plenty of food and drink. That's a very combustible mix – and it combusted," says Nissenbaum, a professor at the University of Massachusetts. The result was several days of wild outdoor partying in late December, what Nissenbaum says might today strike us as a sexually charged blend of Mardi Gras, Halloween and New Year's Eve.

Labels: Christianity, Religion

Labels: EU, Religion

In a Europe torn over mosques, French city offers accommodation - by Molly Moore

CRETEIL,France - On a recent Friday, 200 Muslim worshipers crowded into a former carpentry workshop in Creteil for noon prayers. The men knelt on red carpets in a first-floor hall, the women squeezed into the tiny administrative office upstairs.But next June, Creteil Muslims are scheduled to move into a new, $7.4 million mosque with room for more than 2,500 worshipers. The nearly finished building, with its 81-foot minaret, stands on a knoll overlooking the town's picturesque lake, within sight of City Hall and the local police station. The mosque will make Creteil something of an exception in Europe. From London to Cologne to Marseille, governments and residents are fighting the rise of minarets on their skylines in campaigns that underscore cultural, religious, and ethnic divides within a continent undergoing its most dramatic demographic change in half a century. Islam is now Europe's second-largest religion after Christianity, and its fastest-growing. But Creteil's city government is helping Muslims build and finance what will be one of France's largest new mosques.

Labels: EU, Islam, Religion

The Netherlands: Majority of parties in Dutch Parliament say NO to the wearing of head scarfs by some police officers

A motion presented by the PVV party in the Dutch Parliament last week against the wearing of headscarfs by members of the police was accepted by a large majority of parliamentarians, including the government coalition party CDA, and opposition parties SP, VVD, D66, SGP, the Party of the animals and the Verdonk fraction. The SP noted during the discussions that this guideline should be applied to all forms of religious expression by civil servants and government officials in the Netherlands.
The Christian Union which voted against the motion said they voted against the motion because of its narrow wording. The Christian Party stated to be against the wearing of all religious symbols by the police because the police are required to convey an independent and neutral image when dealing with the Public.

When asked what the Government's next step would be following this Parliamentary motion, Mrs. Guusje Ter Horst, Minister of Internal Affairs (PVDA- Labour Party),said she could not comment on the issue, because her department is still working on establishing a dress code for the police. She said "the advice that was given to her by the Equal Treatment Commission was that the wearing of symbols of religious faith should only be banned if there is a strong case for it, because it could lead to people being banned from working for the police because of their religious beliefs."

Editorial note: Editorial note: The Parliament is correct to ban the wearing of headscarf's by public officials and consequently any statement by the Dutch Equal Treatment Commission to water down this ruling by the parliament is totally inappropriate in a secular society like the Netherlands. There can be no compromise on this issue which has all to do with religion and nothing with culture. Any form of religious expression by a Dutch government official, wherever he or she might be working, should not be tolerated. Let us not forget that the salary of those ( including Parliamentarians) in Dutch Government service is paid by the Dutch taxpayers. These taxpayers represent a variety of beliefs and cultures. The only identification a Dutch Government official should have is that he or she is a citizen of the Netherlands (EU). We hope Mrs. Guusje Ter Horst will make sure to follow the advice of the Parliament.

Labels: Council of Europe, Head Scarfs, Police, Religion, The Netherlands

Crumbling French churches spark unholy row

The village church and its steeple have dominated the skyline of rural France for centuries, surviving feuding warlords, foreign invasion and the upheavals of the French Revolution. But as local mayors look to the future, some are thinking the unthinkable and threatening to demolish the crumbling churches they have to fund, prompting cries of sacrilege from a heritage lobby that says the French way of life is under attack. Hundreds of 19th-century edifices face the wrecker's ball or wilful neglect, a crisis that reflects deeper shifts in society including the exodus from rural areas and falling church attendance, as well as spiraling upkeep costs.

Labels: EU, France, Religion

Switzerland - Christianity Gets on Many People's Nerves - by Hans Küng

Religion can co-exist with democracy. The leading architects of Europe, from Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer to Robert Schuman and Alcide De Gasperi, were all pious Christians. The reason why Islam has more problems with democracy than Christianity is that Islam, in contrast to Christianity and Judaism, had no Reformation and Enlightenment, leaving out a few special circles. If you want to help there, you have to support the moderate powers and isolate the radical ones. The most foolish thing to do is to go against those people with armies. That's as stupid as going against the mafia with fighter jets.

Then there are others who don't want to know about other religions.For one, the fundamental Christians who take everything the Bible says literally and say they don't need any other religions. Then there are the very secular people, dogmatists of laicism. They get worked up simply when the word religion is mentioned, and they think that we should not talk about it in schools. They have issues with the fact that religion, again, is a powerful factor in world history.

Labels: EU, Religion

Eighty percent of young people between 13 and 24 say that believing in God makes them happier

Some 80 % of the American kids who believe in God say that their belief has made them happier. Only 60% of "non-believers" young adults polled said that they felt happy.

Labels: EU, Religion, US

"Gods Warriors": Raging Fires - by Cynthia Fuchs

In Jerusalem, Christiane Amanpour stands on a rooftop as the camera pans toward her. In this “ancient city filled with sacred meaning” for Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, she and her Special Investigations Unit crew will explore the different and similar ways that these three religions approach such meaning. Amanpour, as usual, does not back down from difficult questions. She opens her six-hour report—airing over three nights on CNN—by noting that Jerusalem, the “so-called city of peace, has been torn by centuries of war.”

This much is well known, of course. Amanpour’s thesis, however, may be less familiar. The fears and rages that drive the conflicts are born of similarity more than difference.

In "God's Muslim Warriors," on the other hand, we get yet more reporting on the murder of Dutch director Theo van Gogh three years ago by a Muslim extremist, as well as a visit to former Islamic radical Ed Husain, whose story of disaffection with the Muslim cause as preached by London extremists has been told many times in the media. There's also a mostly pointless digression on the Iran-Iraq war, as well as a strange visit to some Iranian clerics who believe in a "hidden imam" (we even get a glimpse of a Web site on the topic they created for kids).

The multipart series, which unfolds over three nights starting Tuesday, features one of the network's stars, chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, so it's getting more publicity than CNN usually gives to its documentary efforts.

Labels: Religion

Europe with or without God

For these past four years, Europeans, including, obviously the people of these islands, have been talking and reading quite a lot about the drafters of the European Constitution; These drafters and their associates would do well to refer to the founding fathers of Europe, Alcide De Gasperi from Italy, Robert Schuman from France, and Konrad Adenauer from Germany.

All these causes are at the diocesan level, with only that of Konrad Adenauer at its earliest stage. Chiara Lubich, founder of the very active Focolare movement, and one of the lay auditors at the Synod in Rome, told The Tablet (UK) that with the opening of the three causes, " this project of a united Europe rests upon a rock". She further explained: "I think that the European Union is a design not only of human beings but also of God".

Note EU-Digest: God is omni-present everywhere-if we like it or not. Religious doctrine however can not be part of the political process in a multi-cultural and secular society.

Labels: EU, EU CONSTITUTION, Religion

"A Strange Feeling" - by by Michael P.F. van der Galiën

"During my stay in Turkey, I have visited several mosques. Last week Friday and today I did not just visit mosques: I went there with a Muslim and joined the men in prayer. Some of my Christian brethren might be shocked by this, but I did not have a big problem with praying with Muslims and praying like they do. In fact, I found the praying to be… comforting. I obviously prayed to God as in the Christian God, and I did not silently pray the same prayer the Muslims prayed: I prayed to the Christian concept of God and chose my own words / thoughts… But it was comforting nonetheless. When praying, I was - today and last week friday as well - overwhelmed by a very positive, peaceful feeling. Or perhaps peaceful or positive energy is the best word to describe this feeling."

Labels: Christianity, EU, Islam, Religion, Turkey

Is Europe waiting for Churchill or Godot? - by Fjordman

"Europe is now at one of those famous crossroads where the course of history could go either way. Given the weakness of Europe and the rapid expansion of Islam, it would be foolish to discount the possibility that Muslims could win this. However, I happen to think that another possibility is that Islam not only will lose the battle for Europe, but could become destroyed as a global force during this century. Maybe in some strange way, Europe needs to go through a period of colonization and de-colonization herself, to get rid of her post-colonial guilt complex?

Sharia is worse than war. I have hard claims that European civilization will not survive the century. A century is a very long time, remember that. Would anybody (except Churchill) in 1906, when Europe really was strong and powerful, have predicted that Europe would now be in the process of being overpowered by Algerians, Africans Moroccans, Turks and Pakistanis? Things change. They can change for the worse, but they can also change for the better. If we do get another world war, which appears increasingly likely, this could finish off what remains of European civilization for good. But it could also, theoretically, have the opposite effect, where the shock waves could create a different kind of Europe from the decadent, nihilistic Europe we see now. A Christian revitalization, for instance. Yes, this could happen. Stranger things have happened before. Our ancestors, better men and women than us, held the line against Islam for more than one thousand years, sacrificing their blood for the continent. By doing so, they not only preserved the European heartland and thus Western civilization itself, but quite possibly the world in general from unchallenged Islamic dominance. The stakes involved now are not less than they were then, probably greater."

Labels: Europe, Immigratation, Religion

Europe's Sharia law: "How to Break the stranglehold of archaic religious laws and abuses"

"Europeans are learning that just defining 'moderate' Muslims as those who do not want to blow things up is not enough. 'Non-violent' Muslim extremists who want to replace Western laws with Islamic sharia law, and democracy (rule by man-made law) with theocracy (rule by God's law, as interpreted by Islamic clergy and jurists) may actually pose a more serious threat to Europe. A poll last year in Britain showed that four out of 10 British Muslims want sharia law introduced into parts of the country.

Sharia law conflicts with Western law in several key areas. First, it considers blasphemy -- saying or writing negative things about Islam -- as a crime punishable by death. A second area is apostasy, the 'crime' of abandoning a religion. A direct challenge to the very concept of freedom of religion, apostasy too is punishable by death under sharia law. Muslims are enjoined to do their best to spread Islam, but it is a one-way street -- no one can opt out. The impact of this is to stifle free speech and action among Muslims. Women's rights are a third and most important area of conflict.Muslim women in Europe often pay with their lives in so-called honor killings carried out by other family members. Their crime: adopting a modern lifestyle or showing interest in a non-Muslim man. In many parts of the world women are harassed and assaulted if they do not cover themselves. There are now places, even in Europe, where non-Muslim women have begun to cover their head to avoid being molested.

The majority of Europeans including European Muslims want sharia law to be outlawed in the secular EU. The fact that it is being tolerated so far has nothing to do with freedom of religion, but rather by political expediency. There should be no misunderstanding possible. Sharia law is a religious dictate which stifles democracy, freedom of speech and freedom of action. Instead, European advocacy groups should embrace, protect and encourage Muslims who want to modernize their religion. Muslim Reformers can do the same for their religion what Martin Luther's Reformation movement did in the 1500's on behalf of the Christian faith, break the stranglehold of archaic religious laws and abuses."

Labels: EU, Muslims, Religion, Sharia law

Christians Who Don't Celebrate Easter: What Do They Know? - by Jerold Aust

Easter is considered the most important religious festival in today's Christianity. "The Easter feast has been and still is regarded as the greatest in the Christian church, since it commemorates the most important event in the life of its Founder" (The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 1986, Vol. 2, "Easter"). Every spring, the anticipation and excitement of Easter is electrifying for many people. Churches prepare elaborate Easter programs that illustrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Parents take time to color Easter eggs and hide them so their children can hunt for them. Given its popularity, one would think that surely this observance is found in God's Word. Television advertisements and commercial businesses also get very involved with Easter as they offer colorful Easter baskets, Easter costumes and chocolate rabbits to celebrate this great religious event. Many churches advertise outdoor Easter sunrise services, with any and all invited. But what do bunnies and colored eggs have to do with Jesus' resurrection? So where exactly did Easter and its customs come from? Why do hundreds of millions of people celebrate the holiday today? Some cite Acts 12:4 in the bible as authority for celebrating Easter. But there's a problem in that Easter isn't really mentioned there at all. The King James Bible translators substituted "Easter" for the Greek word Pascha, which means "Passover." "The word [Easter] does not properly occur in Scripture, although [the King James Version] has it in Acts 12:4 where it stands for Passover.

The name Easter, comes not from the Bible. Instead its roots go far back to the ancient pre-Christian Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar, known in the Bible as Astarte or Ashtoreth. The desire to bring heathens into the Catholic Church without forcing them to surrender their idolatrous celebrations "may have led the ecclesiastical authorities in the past to assimilate the Easter festival of the death and resurrection of their Lord to the festival of the death and resurrection of another Asiatic god which fell at the same season . . . the Catholic Church probably consciously adapted the new festival [of Easter] to its heathen predecessor for the sake of winning souls to Christ. "As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains in the section titled the Liturgical Year: "at the Council of Nicaea in 325, all the Churches agreed that Easter . . . should be celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon . . . after the vernal equinox".

Surprisingly, the celebration of Easter didn't finally win out until A.D. 325, nearly 300 years after Jesus Christ's death and resurrection! Up until this time, many believers had continued to commemorate Jesus' death through the biblical Passover as Jesus and the apostles had instructed (Luke 22:19-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26). Now, however, with the power of the Roman Empire behind it, the Catholic Church enforced its preference for Easter. Those who wished to continue to observe the biblical Passover had to go underground to avoid persecution.

If Jesus were in the flesh today, would He celebrate Easter? The simple answer is No. He does not change. "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever," as Hebrews 13:8 tells us. Jesus never observed Easter, never sanctioned it and never taught His disciples to celebrate it. Nor did the apostles teach the Church to do so. Today, Jesus would observe the biblical Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread as Scripture teaches and as He practiced and taught (John 13:15-17; 1 Corinthians 5:7-8). In fact, He specifically said that He anticipated observing the Passover with His true followers "in My Father's kingdom" after His return (Matthew 26:26-29)."

Labels: Christianity, Easter, Europe, Religion

Jews Under Attack in Norway - by Filip van Laenen

The Norwegian newspaper Vårt Land reports that a Jew was assaulted by Arabs in the streets of Oslo last Saturday. In response, The Mosaic Community in Oslo has sent out a recommendation to its members to leave the kippah at home, or cover it under a cap. It is also warning its members against speaking Hebrew in public. During the past few days the Community has received several threats and other unpleasant messages.

Cartoonist Finn Graff published an anti-Israeli cartoon in the popular Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet. The cartoon shows Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as a Nazi commander in the concentration camp of Auschwitz. The scene comes from the movie Schindler's List, in which the commander shoots down a random Jew from his balcony.

Labels: Judaism, Religion

Barely half the French population describe themselves as Catholic, according to a recently released poll, sparking a leading religious publication to declare France "no longer a Catholic country".The number of atheists has risen sharply to 31 per cent from 23 per cent in 1994.

French Catholicism, while suffering during the Revolution, did not begin its real decline until 1905, experts say, when pre-war France was declared a secular state, all funding of religious groups was stopped and religious buildings were declared the property of the state. The poll showed that only 10 per cent go to church regularly — mainly to Sunday mass or christenings. Of the 51 per cent who still call themselves Catholics, only half said they believed in God. Many said they were Catholics because it was a family tradition.

Labels: Catholics, Elections, France, Religion

Ex-Muslims get threats after forming society in Germany

A group of former Muslims in Germany who have formed a society of atheists have been sent threatening letters, have been pronounced fit for death and have been given police bodyguards. Mina Ahadi, an Iranian-born woman, founded the society in Cologne with 10 sympathizers several weeks ago and called it the National Council of Ex-Muslims. At the end of February she called a news conference in Berlin to publicly pronounce herself non-Islamic.

The police have assigned plainclothes bodyguards to protect her ever since.

Labels: Germany, Islam, Religion

Labels: Europe, Integration, Religion

Christians, Jews & Muslims break bread - Residents meet for open dialogue session- by Stephen Witt

They came to find common points of humanity, not to debate politics, war or religion.Such was the purpose recently for the event ‘Speaking Across Differences,’ where about 150 Muslim, Christian and Jewish residents of Downtown Brooklyn and Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill gathered in the cafeteria at the High School for International Studies, 284 Baltic Street. “The reality is that change doesn’t happen with big, grand, global statements but happens in small increments on a human level,” said Marcia Kannry, founder and president of the non-profit Dialogue Project, Inc., which put the event together.

“Part of the methodology of ‘Speaking Across Differences’ involves a disciplined decision to listen to what somebody else has to say. It is a belief that when we hear others speak that we will recognize the fact that we share more in common with the others than we think we do,” he added. For more information on the organization, log onto www.thedialogueproject.org

Labels: Religion

Europe and America Are in Grave Danger – So Are You ! - says Dr. Ted Baehr, Publisher of MOVIEGUIDE

HOLLYWOOD, CA — " The mass media of entertainment based in Hollywood has infected the Western world with the radical, atheist political correctness that is eating away at the faith and values of entire countries like a terminal cancer.

The mass media is the problem ; it has a great effect on your family. In fact, the mass media creates the culture that greatly influences the behavior of your family, children, grandchildren, and the whole world.

Thus, ultimately, the mass media is the main cause as to why Europe, America, your family, your children, and the whole world are in grave danger from secular atheists, radical liberals or "progressives"."

Labels: Religion

Islam Could Become Europe's Dominant Religion, Experts Say - by Kevin McCandless

As the Anglican Communion continues to fight over homosexuality and as church attendance plummets, experts say that Islam is well on its way to becoming the most dominant religion in Europe.

According to Christian Research, a British think tank, only 6.3 percent of the British population in 2005 attended Christian services on a weekly basis. But while church attendance on the continent reportedly shows a similar decline, the level of Muslim religious participation and the Muslim population itself has exploded.In November, a study by the Spanish magazine Alba said that more mosques and prayer centers have been built in France than churches over the last century, with over 4,000 mosques currently serving the largest Muslim population in Europe.David Masci, a senior research fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, said Thursday it was difficult for many Muslim immigrants to accept the secular nature of countries like Holland.However, he added that the Pentecostal and Evangelical strains of Christianity were showing a revival in Europe, spurred on by an influx of immigrants from Africa and Asia. Though he didn't believe that Muslims would become the majority in Europe, he said he did see Muslims and Evangelical Christians eventually working together to achieve common goals, in areas such as curbing abortion laws and same-sex marriages.

Labels: Religion

Kerls to Assume New Leadership Role in Europe for Evangelicals

"John Kerl had dreamed for 30 years of ministering in Europe, but he and his wife, Letha, twice said “no” when the Department of World Mission of the Evangelical Covenant Church asked them to go. “We were actually commissioned in 1988 to spend one term in Mexico and then go to Europe once it opened,” John says. Despite being offered opportunities across the Atlantic Ocean, the couple remained where they were because “we were fully committed to the ongoing work of the Covenant in Mexico.” Two years ago they began to sense their time in Mexico was ending, and God was calling them to Europe. Recently, they answered the third World Mission request to change continents.

The Kerls have been selected as the new regional coordinators for mission ministries in Europe. As coordinators, they will care for and supervise missionary personnel, help with strategic planning, and continue to develop partnerships with national churches.“Our biggest transition will be moving from a culture very open to the gospel into one that in recent years has been quite closed,” John says. Europeans have become increasingly secular, and most consider Christianity to be irrelevant, he adds. New opportunities for evangelism are presenting themselves, however, including the large influx to Europe – especially Spain – of people from Latin America. “We are especially interested in the Esparcidos Project (The Scattered People Project), which focuses on Latin Americans who have settled in Europe,” John says. His ability to speak French also will help in other areas of Europe.

Labels: Religion

NETHERLANDS: MINISTER DOWNPLAYS 'FUSS' OVER MUSLIM CABINET MEMBERS' NATIONALITY

The new Dutch justice minister, Ernst Hrisch Ballin, has played down a reported row in the Netherlands over the dual nationality of the country's first Muslims cabinet ministers. The man, Nehabat Albayrak and Ahmed Aboutaleb, who are both Dutch passport holders also have Turkish and Morocacan passports respectively. "All my colleagues in the government are Dutch," Ballin said on Dutch television, adding that calls for an end to dual nationality - such as have been made by rightwing opposition parties - are redundant. Ballin added he was "extremely displeased" at the "unpleasant tone" of comments made by members of rightwing anti-immigration hardliner Geert Wilders' opposition Party for Freedom (PVV). In the Dutch parliament last week they criticised the dual nationality of Albayrak and Aboutaleb, saying they should have been required to choose Dutch nationality.

Albayrak and Abolutaleb are the new Dutch cabinet's secretary for social affairs and state secretary for justice, respectively. Both men are members of the Labour PvdA party, and Aboutaleb is credited with helping immigrants find jobs as well as pushing for more immigration.Right-wingers in the Netherlands want to see an end to dual nationality.

Labels: Religion