JANUARY LINKS 2008
(External links on this page are to articles that are outside of our control, they may expire or change) |
Kenyan children pray for their country, ask for rain -- and it pours - January 29, 2008
"Father, our country is in trouble. We pray for peace to come," an 11-year-old boy prays. "Protect us, Father. Teach people to love one another and not to fight anymore."
For the last two weeks, Sprenkle says, children in this small slum area have gathered to pray for their country. "The church's pastor says the children started gathering on their own, so he let them in the church. The daily prayer meeting now attracts more than 200 children ranging in age from three to 17."  |
Keeping Faith in China - January 6, 2008
At an underground church service in China, you pray as quickly as you can - and hope the police do not come running in. BBC News reported that at the end of an alleyway in the north of Beijing, 40 Chinese Christians gathered in a small classroom. At the beginning of the service, they bowed their heads and prayed.
Their priest, Zhang Minxuan, stood in front of them. Twenty years ago he was a barber with no interest in religion. Then he got into trouble with the Communist Party and was jailed. After that he became a Christian. Since then he has led an underground church and been detained numerous times. |
HUGE PRO-LIFE DEMONSTRATIONS IN SPAIN AHEAD OF ELECTIONS
20/01 Australian Prayer Network Newsletter | On the last Sunday of 2007, more than one-and-a-half million Spaniards demonstrated in favour of the traditional family in the centre of Madrid. Spain was once one of Europe's most conservative countries, however, since the election of Prime Minister Jose Zapatero shortly after the Madrid train bombings, the government has earned a reputation of having some of the most liberal, anti-family laws in Europe.
In two months, another general election will be held to determine if Zapatero will continue in office. "These atheist, irreligious governments want to make us believe that our life has no meaning and that isn't true," said Kiko Arguello, organizer of the event. |
PHILADELPHIA BOY SCOUTS TO LOSE HISTORIC BUILDING FOR NOT ACCEPTING HOMOSEXUALITY
20/01 Australian Prayer Network Newsletter | The Philadelphia council of the Boy Scouts of America will lose the lease on its historic premises for its refusal to bow to pressure from the homosexual lobby to accept homosexual members and leaders. The city has told the Scouts they will be evicted if they cannot come up with US $200,000 a year "market value" rent for the land on which their building sits. The famous Beaux Arts style building was built and paid for by the Scouts, and turned over to the city with the understanding that the Scouts would be allowed to remain in it rent-free "in perpetuity."
The Philadelphia Daily News says the attack on the Scouts, and their moral stand, comes at a time in Philadelphia when the city suffers a murder a day, "but City Hall thinks Public Enemy No. 1 is the Boys Scouts of America." |
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Unis told to root out extremists
22/01 Alexandra Frean - the Australian |
BRITISH university leaders have agreed to inform the police of any extremist behaviour by students or visiting speakers that they suspect may lead to terrorism.
A new “tool kit” for universities issued today by Bill Rammell, the Universities Minister, advises universities to draw up a national watch list of guest speakers who should be banned from speaking on campus. It also suggests that universities consider setting up multi-faith chaplaincies instead of separate prayer rooms for different faiths, to promote integration and prevent pockets of extremists forming.
Where they are allowed, Muslim chaplains should be trained to support vulnerable students who are being groomed, bullied or harassed by violent extremists so that these concerns can be passed to the police.
Mr Rammell was adamant, however, that Muslim students – particularly those coming from overseas – did not have the right to demand special treatment from British universities.
“Britain technically is a Christian country with many secular features. It’s those two things. It’s not anything else. If you expect that you would have the same response to your faith needs in Britain as would happen within a Muslim or Islamic country, (you) would be disappointed,” he said.
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Jailed teddy bear teacher off to China
02/01 Nick Butterly for The Age | The British schoolteacher jailed in Sudan for allowing her students to name a teddy bear Mohamed is looking for a new adventure - in China. The 54-year-old mother of two was freed from a Sudanese jail last month after British officials helped her secure an early release from a 15-day sentence for insulting Islam.
Gibbons says she now hopes to teach children in China and will take a new teddy bear, called Barnaby, for her new pupils. "I've been to China on holiday before and loved it," Gibbons told Hello! magazine. "Besides which, I know I'm the most notorious teacher in the world at the moment but I'm hoping that perhaps no one has heard of me there. |
Malaysia: Catholics allowed to use the word Allah
1/01 Herald Sun | MALAYSIA has renewed the publishing permit of a Catholic newspaper, reversing an earlier ban forbidding non-Muslims from using the word Allah after the move stoked fears of a rise in hardline Islam. The Government earlier this month ruled that the term Allah, long used by Christians in Malaysia to refer to God, could no longer be used by non-Muslims.
... The ban meant that the publisher of the Kuala Lumpur-based Herald - the Catholic Weekly could lose its publishing permit if it failed to drop the word Allah in its publication. The row had threatened to further strain race and religious relations in Malaysia, where many non-Muslims believe their rights are being trampled by the Muslim majority.
But newspapers today reported that the country's internal security ministry had renewed the permit of the Catholic paper, with no restrictions, quoting its editor, Father Lawrence Andrew. |
EGYPT: Rape victims 'must have abortions'
1/01 World News Australia | Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning has ruled that any woman who becomes pregnant as a result of rape must undergo an abortion.
The Islamic Research Council of Cairo-based Al-Azhar has declared immediate terminations are essential to maintain "social stability".
... The independent Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights says an average of two women are raped every hour in Egypt.
Experts say many factors contribute to high levels of rape and sexual harassment, including rising unemployment, the huge cost of marriage and the fact that sex outside marriage is forbidden. |
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