Tag: Religious Freedom

New Egyptian Charter enshrines Sharia Law – Please pray for Coptic Christians

Peanut Gallery: This article accurately describes the ideological struggle taking place in the streets of Cairo… between Islam and Secularism.

“Egypt is Islamic, it will not be secular, it will not be liberal,” thousands of Morsi supporters chanted Friday after the funeral of two men killed in clashes earlier this week. Witnesses say the violence began when Islamists attacked an anti-Morsi protest camp outside the presidential palace.

“Bottom line, this is a struggle between ideologies — the Islamic ideology moving with a clear plan with public support, and the secularists,” said pro-Morsi demonstrator Khaled Omar, his head bandaged from Wednesday’s fighting. “We are defending Islam, which people want.”

Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood are “fast-tracking” the Islamification of Egypt… and they will not be denied. The article is well worth the read to see what’s at stake in Egypt. It does not bode well for Christian communities in the Middle East.

Please pray for Coptic Christians and the new Coptic Pope who are trying to navigate these treacherous waters.
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In articles explicit and vague, Egypt draft constitution allows widespread use of Islamic law – Fox News/World Link

CAIRO – One of Egypt’s most prominent ultraconservative Muslim clerics had high praise for the country’s draft constitution. Speaking to fellow clerics, he said this was the charter they had long wanted, ensuring that laws and rights would be strictly subordinated to Islamic law.

Sheik Yasser Borhami
Sheik Yasser Borhami

“This constitution has more complete restraints on rights than ever existed before in any Egyptian constitution,” Sheik Yasser Borhami assured the clerics. “This will not be a democracy that can allow what God forbids or forbid what God allows.”

The draft constitution that is now at the center of worsening political turmoil would empower Islamists to carry out the most widespread and strictest implementation of Islamic law that modern Egypt has seen. That authority rests on the three articles that explicitly mention Shariah, as well as obscure legal language buried in a number of other articles that few noticed during the charter’s drafting but that Islamists insisted on including.

According to both supporters and opponents of the draft, the charter not only makes Muslim clerics the arbiters for many civil rights, it also could give a constitutional basis for citizens to set up Saudi-style “religious police” to monitor morals and enforce segregation of the sexes, imposition of Islamic dress codes and even harsh punishments for adultery and theft — regardless of what laws on the books say.
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Violence continues in the streets of Cairo – Fox News Video – click here
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The spiraling crisis is threatening to turn into an outright fight for the identity of post-revolutionary Egypt, splitting the nation between those who want an Islamic state and those who oppose it, two years after the fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

For Islamists, the constitution is the keystone for their ambitions to bring Islamic rule, a goal they say is justified by their large victory in last winter’s parliamentary elections. President Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood, has rejected opposition demands that he cancel a Dec. 15 nationwide referendum on the draft.

riots in cairo“Egypt is Islamic, it will not be secular, it will not be liberal,” thousands of Morsi supporters chanted Friday after the funeral of two men killed in clashes earlier this week. Witnesses say the violence began when Islamists attacked an anti-Morsi protest camp outside the presidential palace.

“Bottom line, this is a struggle between ideologies — the Islamic ideology moving with a clear plan with public support, and the secularists,” said pro-Morsi demonstrator Khaled Omar, his head bandaged from Wednesday’s fighting. “We are defending Islam, which people want.”

The opposition is determined to stop the draft, and thousands marched for a third straight day Friday on the palace.

The Brotherhood is “unleashing its gang chanting jihadi slogans, as if they are in a holy war against the infidels,” said businessman Magdi Ashri, who opposes Morsi. “Their agenda is to monopolize power in Egypt, whatever it takes.”

Egypt’s Islamist-dominated Constituent Assembly debated the draft for months, until most liberal members — and all the Christian ones — walked out Continue reading “New Egyptian Charter enshrines Sharia Law – Please pray for Coptic Christians” →

Azerbaijan’s Official Religious Leader: “I Do Not Know What Freedom of Conscience Is”

Peanut Gallery: “As far as the east is from the west“… that’s how far this guy’s thinking is from mine.

Is he a thug, out for himself; or does he actually represent Islamic thinking in an unguarded moment? No way to know… certainly some Islamists think this way.

At any rate, freedom of religion is not coming any time soon to Azerbaijan under this guy’s leadership.

What surprises me is that the West is shocked by his statements. That’s how little we understand the East’s thinking.

Please pray for Christians in Azerbaijan.

Note: here is a link to Open Doors‘ assessment of Azerbaijan- click here. It’s not good.

Azerbaijan’s Official Religious Leader: “I Do Not Know What Freedom of Conscience Is”

BAKU. November 14, 2012

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“They say freedom of conscience, freedom of religion. I have been the Sheykh-ul-Islam [formal title of Azerbaijan’s religious leader] for 33 years and still do not know what conscience is. Even till now, I could not figure out the full meaning of the words ‘freedom of conscience’”, said Allahshukur Pashazada, the head of Caucasus Muslims Office.

His controversial revelations came at the international conference titled “Freedom of religion and belief: Legal, political and public aspects” at the Human Rights Institute of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences.

He later clarified his position by saying that “everyone has his/ her own beliefs, and it is hard to put a name to it”. “It is hard to know what conscience is”, Mr. Pashazada said, adding that he is saddened by the fact that when some positions of “those who sit abroad” and some decisions of leaders in foreign countries contradict the values and laws of Azerbaijan, they criticize Azerbaijan.

“There are limits to everything in the world. Human rights, religious freedom, freedom of conscience have limits too. When those limits are breached – the human rights are violated”.

Responding to criticism of Azerbaijan’s record on rights and freedoms by the international community, he said that the relations between state and religion in Azerbaijan are on a very high level. “During my leadership period in Azerbaijan, especially after the independence, I have seen a lot of change, progress. I think Azerbaijan can be an example of tolerance to the entire world”, said Mr. Pashazada.

Allahshukur Pashazada has led the Caucuses Muslims Office since the Soviet times (a.k.a. as Sheykh-ul-Islam or Grand Mufti). He has been active in praising Azerbaijan’s ruling Aliyev regime and its policies. During his recent trips to the US sponsored by the Azerbaijani government, he met with the US government officials and members of Congress and participated at events where he also promoted the Azerbaijani government’s image.

Azerbaijan’s record on religious freedoms has been a subject of criticism. Reports by international organizations, media and foreign governments, including the US State Department’s annual human rights report, cite serious violations of freedom of worship and persecution of religious communities.

Many see Mr. Pashazada as a loyal agent of the regime, rather than an authentic spiritual leader, whose main task is in enforcing government’s directives on religious affairs.

A recent investigative report by Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) revealed that Pashazada’s family owns large business interests in Czech Republic, where other corrupt Azerbaijani oligarchs and ruling Aliyev family also have business holdings. (Azerireport, Radio Liberty)

Papal Nuncio: Threats to Religious Freedom Emerging in Western Democracies- Public Catholic

Papal Nuncio: Threats to Religious Freedom Emerging in Western Democracies

November 14, 2012 By Rebecca Hamilton 12 Comments

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano CNA
South Bend, Ind., Nov 12, 2012 / 07:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).

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– Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano has told the University of Notre Dame that there is a concrete “menace” to religious liberty in the U.S. that is advancing in part because some influential Catholic public figures and university professors are allied with those opposed to Church teaching.

“Evidence is emerging which demonstrates that the threat to religious freedom is not solely a concern for non-democratic and totalitarian regimes,” he said. “Unfortunately it is surfacing with greater regularity in what many consider the great democracies of the world.”

The apostolic nuncio, who serves as the Pope’s diplomatic representative to the U.S., said this is a “tragedy” for both the believer and for democratic society.

Archbishop Vigano’s Nov. 4 speech keynoted the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Church Life conference. He discussed martyrdom, persecution, and religious freedom, with a particular focus on the United States.

He cited Catholics’ duties to be disciples of Christ, not elements of a political or secular ideology. He lamented the fact that many Catholics are publicly supporting “a major political party” that has “intrinsic evils among its basic principles.”

“There is a divisive strategy at work here, an intentional dividing of the Church; through this strategy, the body of the Church is weakened, and thus the Church can be more easily persecuted,” the nuncio said.

Archbishop Vigano observed that some influential Catholic public officials and university professors are allied with forces opposed to the Church’s fundamental moral teachings on “critical issues” like abortion, population control, the redefinition of marriage, embryonic stem cell research and “problematic adoptions.”

He said it is a “grave and major problem” when self-professed Catholic faculty at Catholic institutions are the sources of teachings that conflict with Church teaching on important policy issues rather than defend it.

While Archbishop Vigano noted that most Americans believe they are “essentially a religious people” and still give some importance to religion, he also saw reasons this could change.
He said that the problem of persecution begins with “reluctance to accept the public role of religion,” especially where protecting religious freedom “involves beliefs that the powerful of the political society do not share.”

The nuncio said it is “essential” to pray for a just resolution to religious freedom controversies, including the controversy over the new federal mandate requiring many Catholic employers to provide morally objectionable insurance coverage for sterilization and contraception, including some abortion-causing drugs.

The issues that the Catholic bishops have identified in this mandate are “very real” and “pose grave threats to the vitality of Catholicism in the United States,” Archbishop Vigano said.

The nuncio also discussed other religious liberty threats.

He cited a Massachusetts public school curriculum that required young students to take courses that presented same-sex relations as “natural and wholesome.” Civil authorities rejected parents’ requests for a procedure to exempt their children from the “morally unacceptable” classes.

“If these children were to remain in public schools, they had to participate in the indoctrination of what the public schools thought was proper for young children,” the archbishop said. “Put simply, religious freedom was forcefully pushed aside once again.”

Catholic Charities agencies have also been kicked out of social service programs because they would not institute policies or practices that violate “fundamental moral principles of the Catholic faith.” (Read more here.)

Please pray for: Bishop Tawadros new pope of Egypt’s Coptic Christians | BBC

Peanut Gallery: Please pray for Bishop Tawadros who has been chosen the new pope of Egypt’s Coptic Christians, becoming leader of the largest Christian minority in the Middle East… to be enthroned in a ceremony on November 18.

“You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.  And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”  2 Timothy 2.1-3 NKJV

Watch the moment in the ceremony when a blindfolded boy picked the name out of a bowl –

Bishop Tawadros has been chosen as the new pope of Egypt’s Coptic Christians, becoming leader of the largest Christian minority in the Middle East.

His name was selected from a glass bowl by a blindfolded boy at a ceremony in Cairo’s St Mark’s Cathedral. Three candidates had been shortlisted.

The 60-year-old succeeds Pope Shenouda III, who died in March aged 88.

He succeeds as attacks on Copts are on the increase, and many say they fear the country’s new Islamist leaders.

The other two candidates were Bishop Raphael and Father Raphael Ava Mina. They were chosen in a ballot by a council of some 2,400 Church and community officials in October.

Bishop Tawadros has studied in Britain

In God’s hands

Their names were written on pieces of paper and put in crystal balls sealed with wax on the church altar.

A blindfolded boy – one of 12 shortlisted children – then drew out the name of Bishop Tawadros, who until now was an aide to the acting leader, Bishop Pachomius.

Bishop Pachomius then took the ballot from the boy’s hand and showed it to all those gathered in the cathedral.

Strict measures were in place to make sure there was no foul play during the televised ceremony: the three pieces of paper with candidates’ names were all the same size and tied the same way.

Copts say this process ensures the selection is in God’s hands.

Bishop Tawadros will be enthroned in a ceremony on 18 November.

Continue reading the main story

More on: Choosing a New Coptic Pope » First Thoughts | A First Things Blog

Peanut Gallery: I confess, I’m fascinated by the papal selection process of the Coptic Orthodox Church. It’s not so much the candidate vetting to narrow the final choices down to three. It’s the God-directed final selection by lot at the hand of a random child that I find  both amazing and inspiring.

It’s so unlike the political lobbying and manuevering that I’ve witnessed in the church over the years. And this selection is so much more important in the total scheme of things… given the tenuous position of Christians in an emerging Islamic Egypt.

That’s why I’ve re-posted this article from First Things… to add additional information… and to encourage you to pray for the Coptic Church and their soon-to-be-revealed new Pope.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done
On earth, as it is in heaven!

See full article below –
Choosing a New Pope
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Mark Movsesian

In Egypt this weekend, the Coptic Orthodox Church will select its 118th pope. The new pope will succeed the late Shenouda III, who led the Coptic Church—a venerable and long-suffering communion, and the largest Christian church in the Middle East today—for forty years. The selection process, which is codified in Egyptian civil law, tracks ancient custom and is quite fascinating.

According to Eastern Christian practice, only monks—that is, celibate priests attached to a monastic brotherhood—may become pope. Continue reading “More on: Choosing a New Coptic Pope » First Thoughts | A First Things Blog” →