Unpopular Arab Thoughts That All Arabs Have Thought

Escalating Oppression Seeks to Destroy Coptic Christians

JERSEY CITY, NJ, Mar. 20 /Christian Newswire/ — The U.S. has turned a blind eye to Coptic Christians, as they continue to suffer human rights abuses under Egypt’s regime. In lieu of the escalating violence and oppression against the Copts, the American Coptic Union is asking Congress to intervene on behalf of those victimized, and impose economic sanctions against Egypt. Since the current U.S. foreign policy appeases Egypt’s regime actions against Coptic Christians, it will inevitably endanger America’s interests in Egypt and the Middle East because the eventual eradication of Coptic Christians in Egypt will cause the U.S. to lose its political leverage in the region.

Recent Acts of Violence, Oppression and Subjugation

Murder of Copts by Muslims in Cairo
On March 9, 2007, two Coptic Christians were killed by Muslims in Imbabah, Cairo. Atta Attia and his son Magdy, were gunned down in front of their home by a group of Muslims who were waiting to murder them. The District Attorney investigating the case did not prosecute any of the Muslim attackers, but rather accused Attia’s second son, Essmat, of carrying a weapon, even though no weapon was found. As usual, the Egyptian authorities sought to protect the perpetrators and punish the victims.

Muslims Raid Christian Village in Armant, Qina Province
Christian villages have become the target of systematic persecution and violence by the Egyptian authorities. The most recent of these attacks was on February 22, 2007, when Muslims raided a Coptic Christian village in Armant, Upper Egypt. As a result, many homes and businesses belonging to Christians were set on fire and destroyed.

Report by Compass Direct

Report by United Press International

Direct threats against Copts in the US by the Patriarch and Egyptian Government
As a result of the American Coptic Union’s growing support against Article 2 of Egypt’s Constitution, Shenouda III, (the current disputed Patriarch on behalf of Egypt’ regime and the Muslim Brotherhood), publicly warned Copts against calling for the cancellation of Article 2. Shenouda has said that he fully endorses Article 2.

Shenouda’s message is disturbing because Article 2 calls for the implementation of Sharia Law as the main source of legislation in Egypt. This law seriously discriminates against Christians, women and non- Muslim minorities, thus encouraging violence against them. Copts have been targeted by Muslims for increased attacks as a result of Article 2.

Shenouda has also publicly supported the Muslim takeover of Jerusalem, and has called for America to stop supporting Israel. He has said publicly that the Al Aqsa Mosque should be protected by Muslims and must be taken from the Jews.

The American Coptic Union questions Shenouda’s motives, as his fiery speeches have only served to spread increased hatred against Copts, and have created an even greater anger among , Christians, Catholic, and Protestant, and Jews. And while aligning himself as a sympathetic and vocally active supporter of Egypt’s Arab Muslim agenda, Shenouda has done nothing to protect his flock. He has, instead, aligned himself with despicable actions perpetrated by the Egyptian government by cooperating in the cover up of numerous crimes against the Copts. He has also flagrantly compromised the safety and future security of the Copts by shamelessly aiding and abetting the Egyptian government in its forward movement to destabilize and eradicate the Coptic culture in Egypt, through continued persecution, fear and infiltration.

Egypt’s Persecution of a Muslim Sympathizer with Israel
During the recent espionage trial of Muhammed Ghunaim Al Attar, a Canadian Egyptian Muslim who was communicating with Israeli Jews, Mr. Hussein Abdu Ghany, Al Jazeera’s Cairo correspondent, said “According to Egyptian official sources this trial is a warning to the Copts in the US.” Not only was Al Attar arrested, but warrants were issued to three Israelis who were associated with him as well. Al Attar’s trial was understood to be a confirmation of this treat by Egyptian authorities against Coptic activists.

AHN Media Corp. Global News: Egypt Forbids Christians to Make Easter Pilgrimage to Israel as Egyptian Stands Trial as Spy For Israel

United Press International reports that the Egyptian government has banned Coptic Christians from traveling to Israel.

Another Coptic Bishop to be exiled by Egypt
Destroying the Coptic culture and religion is an ongoing process by the Egyptian government. Last month, Bishop Kerrolus of Nagah Hamadi, in Upper Egypt, was sent to a trial to excommunicate and exile him from his diocese. Many of his followers attended the trial to protest this action.
Bishop Kerrolus is the sixth bishop to be excommunicated and exiled. The other five are:

Bishop Armonious of Luxor,
Bishop Taklah of Deshnah,
Bishop Bafnatious of Samalutt,
Bishop Mina of Al Mina,
Bishop Mittias of Al Mahallah

With the help of Shenouda, Egypt’s regime has adopted a policy of excommunication and exile for these bishops who were helping their own parishioners and actively seeking to stop the forced conversion of Coptic Christians into Islam.

The American Coptic Union believes that Bishop Kerrolus’ involvement in the release of two kidnapped Christian girls by Muslim men in April of 2006 is the reason for his eventual excommunication and exile.

While living in Egypt, George Bebawi, a respected Coptic professor and dean of the Indiana Orthodox School for Christian Studies, was also exiled for his outspokenness against the Egyptian Patriarch. Dr. Bebawi, a popular figure among the Copts in both the U.S. and Egypt, has recently accused Shenouda of heresy and of spreading the teachings of Islam.

Egypt Continues to Include Article 2 in its Constitution
Despite the call by millions of Christian and moderate Muslims in Egypt to get rid of Article 2 from the constitution, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has joined forces with the Muslim Brotherhood to fight hard to include this article. .

The American Coptic Union implores the U.S. government to stop the Egyptian government from the continued violence and subjugation against the Coptic Christians before their presence in Egypt is completely destroyed.

http://compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&lang=en&length=long&idelement=4780&backpage=summaries

http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20070214-015459-9320r

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7006709348

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/egypt_bans_easter_pilgrimage_to_jerusalem/20070308-101725-9436r/

The $124 billion supplemental appropriation is a good bill
to oppose. I am pleased that many of my colleagues will
join me in voting against this measure.

If one is unhappy with our progress in Iraq after four
years of war, voting to de-fund the war makes sense. If
one is unhappy with the manner in which we went to war,
without a constitutional declaration, voting no makes
equally good sense.

Voting no also makes the legitimate point that the
Constitution does not authorize Congress to direct the
management of any military operation - the president
clearly enjoys this authority as Commander in Chief.

But Congress just as clearly is responsible for making
policy, by debating and declaring war, raising and equipp-
ing armies, funding military operations, and ending
conflicts that do not serve our national interests.

Congress failed to meet its responsibilities four years
ago, unconstitutionally transferring its explicit war power
to the executive branch. Even though the administration
started the subsequent preemptive war in Iraq, Congress
bears the greatest responsibility for its lack of courage
in fulfilling its duties. Since then Congress has obedient-
ly provided the funds and troops required to pursue this
illegitimate war.

We won’t solve the problems in Iraq until we confront
our failed policy of foreign interventionism. This latest
appropriation does nothing to solve our dilemma. Micro-
managing the war while continuing to fund it won’t help
our troops.

Here’s a new approach: Congress should admit its mistake
and repeal the authority wrongfully given to the executive
branch in 2002. Repeal the congressional sanction and
disavow presidential discretion in starting wars. Then
start bringing our troops home.

If anyone charges that this approach does not support the
troops, take a poll. Find out how reservists, guardsmen,
and their families - many on their second or third tour
in Iraq - feel about it.

The constant refrain that bringing our troops home would
demonstrate a lack of support for them must be one of the
most amazing distortions ever foisted on the American
public. We’re so concerned about saving face, but whose
face are we saving? A sensible policy would save American
lives and follow the rules laid out for Congress in the
Constitution - and avoid wars that have no purpose.

The claim that it’s unpatriotic to oppose spending more
money in Iraq must be laid to rest as fraudulent.

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We should pass a resolution that expresses congressional
opposition to any more undeclared, unconstitutional,
unnecessary, preemptive wars. We should be building a
consensus for the future that makes it easier to end our
current troubles in Iraq.

It’s amazing to me that this Congress is more intimidated
by political propagandists and special interests than the
American electorate, who sent a loud, clear message about
the war in November. The large majority of Americans now
want us out of Iraq.

Our leaders cannot grasp the tragic consequence of our
policies toward Iraq for the past 25 years. It’s time we
woke them up.

We are still by far the greatest military power on earth.
But since we stubbornly refuse to understand the nature of
our foes, we are literally defeating ourselves.

In 2004, bin Laden stated that al-Qaeda’s goal was to
bankrupt the United States. His second in command,
Zawahiri, is quoted as saying that the 9/11 attack would
cause Americans to, “come and fight the war personally on
our sand where they are within rifle range.”

Sadly, we are playing into their hands. This $124 billion
appropriation is only part of the nearly $1 trillion in
military spending for this year’s budget alone. We should
be concerned about the coming bankruptcy and the crisis
facing the U.S. dollar.

We have totally failed to adapt to modern warfare. We’re
dealing with a small, nearly invisible enemy - an enemy
without a country, a government, an army, a navy, an air
force, or missiles. Yet our enemy is armed with suicidal
determination, and motivated by our meddling in their
regional affairs, to destroy us.

And as we bleed financially, our men and women in Iraq die
needlessly while the injured swell Walter Reed hospital.
Our government systematically undermines the Constitution
and the liberties it’s supposed to protect - for which it
is claimed our soldiers are dying in faraway places.

Only with the complicity of Congress have we become a
nation of preemptive war, secret military tribunals,
torture, rejection of habeas corpus, warrantless searches,
undue government secrecy, extraordinary renditions, and
uncontrollable spying on the American people. The greatest
danger we face is ourselves: what we are doing in the name
of providing security for a people made fearful by
distortions of facts. Fighting over there has nothing to
do with preserving freedoms here at home. More likely the
opposite is true.

Surely we can do better than this supplemental
authorization. I plan to vote no.

By Ali Sina

One of the most obvious mathematical mistakes of the Quran can be found in the division of the inheritance.

The laws of inheritance are spread out in several Suras. One can find references to them in Al-Baqarah(2), Al-Maidah(5) and Al-Anfal(8). But the details of these laws are spelled out in the Surah Nisa (4).

Q. 4:11
“Allah (thus) directs you as regards your Children’s (Inheritance): to the male, a portion equal to that of two females: if only daughters, two or more, their share is two-thirds of the inheritance; if only one, her share is a half. For parents, a sixth share of the inheritance to each, if the deceased left children; if no children, and the parents are the (only) heirs, the mother has a third; if the deceased Left brothers (or sisters) the mother has a sixth. (The distribution in all cases (’s) after the payment of legacies and debts…”

Q. 4: 12
“In what your wives leave, your share is a half, if they leave no child; but if they leave a child, ye get a fourth; after payment of legacies and debts. In what ye leave, their share is a fourth, if ye leave no child; but if ye leave a child, they get an eighth; after payment of legacies and debts…”

Q. 4:176
“If it is a man that dies, leaving a sister but no child, she shall have half the inheritance: If (such a deceased was) a woman, who left no child, Her brother takes her inheritance: If there are two sisters, they shall have two-thirds of the inheritance (between them): if there are brothers and sisters, (they share), the male having twice the share of the female. Thus doth Allah make clear to you (His law), lest ye err. And Allah hath knowledge of all things.”

Despite the fact that it says “Allah made them clear”, these laws are far from clear.

Verse 4:11 says that if a man has only one daughter, she gets half of the inheritance irrespective of other heirs. But since the same verse says that the portion of the male is twice that of the female, her brother is supposed to get all the inheritance. Isn’t this a discrepancy? Certainly there is an error in how this law is written. Yet the problem is aggravated further when the share of other heirs like parents and wives are taken into consideration.

There are cases when the total of the shares assigned to the heirs exceeds the patrimony. Take for example the following.

According to the above verses, if a man dies leaving behind a wife, three daughters and his two parents,

His wife’s share of his inheritance is 1/8. (In what ye leave, their share is a fourth, if ye leave no child; but if ye leave a child, they get an eighth)

His daughters would receive 2/3 (if only daughters, two or more, their share is two-thirds of the inheritance;)

and his parents each will get 1/6 of his inheritance. (For parents, a sixth share of the inheritance to each, if the deceased left children;)

When you add all these fractions the sum is more than the total of inheritance.

Wife1/8 = 3/24
Daughters 2/3 = 16/24
Father 1/6 = 4/24
Mother1/6 = 4/24
Total = 27/24

Now take another example. Say a man is survived by his wife, his mother and his sisters.

The wife receives 1/4 of the inheritance, (In what ye leave, their share is a fourth, if ye leave no child;)

the mother 1/3 (if only one, her share is a half. For parents, a sixth share of the inheritance to each, if the deceased left children; if no children, and the parents are the heirs, the mother has a third;)

and the sisters 2/3. (If there are two sisters, they shall have two-thirds of the inheritance (between them)

When we add up these fractions they too are more than the total.

Wife1/4 = 3/12
Mother 1/3 = 4/12
Sisters 2/3 = 8/12
Total = 15/12

In the above examples, the shares apportioned to the heirs exceed the total of the inheritance. In both cases the total of the inheritance sums to exactly one BEFORE taking into account the wife’s share.

What should be done if a man has two wives, one with children and the other without children? Does the one with children receive 1/8 and the one without children 1/4? And is this justice?

Now suppose a woman dies leaving a husband and a brother:

Husband receives half (In what your wives leave, your share is a half, if they leave no child.)

Brother receives everything (If (such a deceased was) a woman, who left no child, Her brother takes her inheritance.)

Does this mean that the parents, sisters and husband do not get anything? In that case where is the justice and if they do how can the brother get everything?

Husband, (1/2) = 1/2
Brother (everything) = 2/2
Total = 3/2

This verse does not specify that the brother gets everything only when there are no other heirs. It just says when there are no children he gets everything. In the same verse it says that if a man dies leaving a sister, she gets half. What will happen to the other half?

Here is another example: A woman leaves behind a husband, a sister and a mother.

Husband, (1/2) = 3/6
Sister (1/2) = 3/6
Mother (1/3) = 2/6
Total = 8/6

We can conclude that the Quran in matters of inheritance is very obtuse. It is so obtuse that Shiites and Sunnis practice this law differently. For example:

If a man leaves a wife and the two parents, the Shiits will give the wife 1/4 and then distribute the remainder as 1/3 for the mother and 2/3 for the father, i.e. they will receive 1/4 and 1/2 of the original estate (see #2741). Sunnis give the wife 1/4, the mother 1/3 and the father as the nearest male relative the rest, i.e. 5/12. As one can witness, the Quran is anything but clear.

In order to solve these problems the Islamic doctors of law have devised a complex “science” called “Al-Fara’id”. It contains rules of “Awl” and “Usbah,” and the laws of “Usool” of the Fara’id, the laws of “Hajb wa Hirman,” and many other issues relating to this matter.

The laws of “Awl” (accommodation) deals with cases when the inheritor’s shares exceed or “overshoot” the sum of the total inheritance. In such case the shares are adjusted to accommodate everyone. This is how it works:

Wife1/8 = 3/24 is changed to 3/27
Daughters 2/3 = 16/24 is changed to 16/27
Father 1/6 = 4/24 is changed to 4/27
Mother1/6 = 4/24 is changed to 4/27
Total = 27/24 27/27

and for the second case,

Wife1/4 = 3/12 is changed to 3/15
Mother 1/3 = 4/12 is changed to 4/15
Sisters 2/3 = 8/12 is changed to 8/15
Total = 15/12 15/15

Thus the problem is solved thanks to human ingenuity but the portions are not the same as indicated in the Quran. Each party has to waive part of his or her share in order to make this law work. This is a clear case in which the words of Allah needed human intervention in order to become applicable.

There are yet cases when the shares of the inheritors do not sum to a whole 100% and there is a surplus left.

Take for example a man who dies and leaves his wife and his parents.

Parents 1/3 = 4/12
Wife 1/4 = 3/12
Total = 7/12

Who will receive the balance 5/12 of the inheritance?

The following are other cases that after the distribution, there is a surplus of Inheritance::

scenario fund distributed surplus
Only a wife: = 1/4 3/4
Only a mother: = 1/3 2/3
Only a daughter = 1/2 1/2
Two daughters = 2/3 1/3
Only a Sister = 1/2 1/2
A mother and a sister = 1/3 + 1/2 = 5/6 1/6
A wife and a mother = 1/4 + 1/3 = 5/12 7/12
A sister and a wife = 1/2 + 1/4 = 3/4 1/4

In all these cases and many other combinations there is a surplus. What will happen to this surplus? Who will inherit it?

To deal with this problem the law of “Usbah” comes to effect. This law is to regulate the unclaimed shares, which have no corresponding people to receive them. Of course if the Quran was clear with no errors, there would have been no need for all these “sciences” and amendments.

The law of Usbah is based on the following Hadith.

Sahih Bukhari 8. 80. 724
Narrated Ibn ‘Abbas:
The Prophet said, “Give the Fara’id (the shares of the inheritance that are prescribed in the Qur’an) to those who are entitled to receive it. Then whatever remains, should be given to the closest male relative of the deceased.”

According to this law, a man who dies and is survived by only his daughter with no other close male relative except a second cousin, his daughter will receive half of his inheritance and the other half will go to the man’s second cousin. This seems quite unfair to the daughter, but it would be especially unfair if the man had a needy aunt or a female first cousin that would receive nothing because they are of the wrong gender.

Now suppose that a man has no other heir except his wife and a distant male relative. The wife will receive 1/4 and the distant male relative gets the balance, i.e. three times the inheritance that his widowed wife gets. Is this justice?

What if the deceased has no male relative at all? What will happen to the rest of his inheritance? What happens in the reverse case when a wife has no relatives? The husband will receive half of her inheritance; who will get the other half?

Note that in the Quran there is no priority for the distribution of the inheritance. In nowhere it says “first give to these and from what is left, give to those”. Even if we had to reinterpret these laws and prioritize them in the order that they are mentioned, it still does not work because in that case, each subsequent inheritor will have his or her share shrunk. Also in most cases the total inheritance will never be used up.

This is the fallacy in which Mr. Sami Zaatari engages. In an attempt to refute this article Mr. Zaatari wrote: “If A [ the deceased] left a widow or widower, the widow’s or widower’s share would first be calculated as in the first half of verse 4:1″

Mr. Zaatari must show us this instruction in the Quran. There is no provision in the Quran to pay certain inheritors first and divide the rest among other heirs. The fact remains that the Quran in matters of the division of the inheritance is wrong mathematically.

The obtuseness of these laws of inheritance is further emphasized in the following example. Consider the case of a man with only one daughter and 10 sons. According to the Quran, the daughter receives half while all the sons must share among themselves the other half. So each will receive not more than 1/20 of the inheritance. But this would contradict the other ruling that a male is to receive twice the share of the female.

Of course for 1400 years Muslims have practiced Islam and somehow they managed to make these confusing laws work. How they did it? They reinterpreted, adjusted and compromised to make sense of these nonsense laws. They put all the inheritance in a pool and gave to each male child twice the share of their female siblings. This solution, though satisfies one of the ruling of the Quran about the inheritance, it contradicts the other.

Despite all these incongruencies and errors the real problem with these laws is not the fact that they do not add up. The problem is in the inherent injustice that they embody. A fair minded person cannot avoid but to question, why daughters should receive half of what the sons receive? Why sisters receive less than brothers? And why a widower is entitled to double the share than a widow? Why the Quran states “to the male, a portion equal to that of two females”? (4:11). Think of a man with four wives. All the wives have to share the ¼ of his wealth, if he has no children and 1/8 if he has. In the first case each wife will receive 1/16 of the inheritance and in the second case 1/32. How a woman who may not be young enough to remarry can survive with such meager share in a male dominated society as Islamic countries? On the other hand a man who loses all his four wives will inherit half to ¼ of every wife’s wealth. Isn’t this the formula to enrich the men and impoverish the women? It is easier to forget the mathematical errors of the Quran than forgive its injustice.

The verse (4:175) claims that “Thus doth Allah make clear to you (His law), lest ye err. And Allah hath knowledge of all things.” As we saw, the above laws are anything but clear. They do not add up, the portions are not clearly defined, and the shares are distributed unfairly. It is up to Muslims to decide whether Allah, does not have the “knowledge of all things”, cannot add simple fractions, is confused and unfair or that the Quran is mistaken, and Muhammad was not a prophet of God. It is one or the other. You decide.

http://secularislam.org/blog/post/SI_Blog/21/The-St-Petersburg-Declaration
(Very interesting link, the new ‘moderate Moslem’ manifesto, but didn’t they release one in Holland back in the cartoon days?)

http://secularislam.org/blog/post/SI_Blog/12/Irshad-Manji-announces-Secular-Islam-Summit-on-CNN-Headline-News

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isQu0hAAZRI (Irshad, cute but doesn’t know what she’s talking about if she thinks she can interpret Islam the way she wants to)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTG96tOpkoI (Ibrahim Hooper, a joke of a Moslem–do Arab Moslems wear prayer caps 24/7? Talk about “trying to prove yourself.” Gah!)

http://www.mindsafari.org/

“The ecumenical delegation’s acceptance of President Ahmadinejad’s soothing assurances about peace and good will was absurd.” — Mark Tooley, IRD Director of UMAction

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 /Christian Newswire/ — A coalition of liberal religious leaders just returned on Sunday from a week long “bridge-building” trip to Iran. They met with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the hopes of averting U.S. military action against Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The Iranian president, who has denied the Holocaust and threatened to incinerate Israel, assured the trusting church officials that he is against nuclear weapons. Organizers of the trip were the Mennonite Central Committee and American Friends Service Committee. Ahmadinejad invited the religious officials to Iran after having met with many of them in New York last September. The delegation included representatives of the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church, and the National Council of Churches, among others.

IRD UMAction Director Mark Tooley commented:

“The ecumenical delegation’s acceptance of President Ahmadinejad’s soothing assurances about peace and good will was absurd. The Iranian dictator, who presides over a vicious Shiite theocracy, has publicly prophesied for an apocalypse that concludes with the destruction of non-believers. Presumably he did not discuss his genocidal plans with the church officials, and presumably they did not bother to ask.

“Supposedly Ahmadinejad told the 13-member delegation his government ‘Iran has no intention to acquire or use nuclear weapons’ yet his foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki has reiterated that his country would never suspend uranium enrichment. (AP)

“The ecumenical statement released included, ‘We believe it is possible for further dialogue and that there can be a new day in U.S. – Iranian relations.’ Perhaps the ecumenical delegation should have sung Kumbaya with the Iranian president. For over 30 years, officials from these church groups have never failed to meet an anti-American dictator they could not trust and even admire. If they made any impression on Ahmadinejad at all, these church officials must have only confirmed his stereotypes about naïve and gullible Americans.”

The Institute on Religion and Democracy, founded in 1981, is an ecumenical alliance of U.S. Christians working to reform their churches’ social witness, in accord with biblical and historic Christian teachings, thereby contributing to the renewal of democratic society at home and abroad.

CAA Appeals for International Intervention
MIDLAND, Texas, Mar. 1 /Christian Newswire/ — CAA learned that a severely persecuted house church leader from Xi’an, Shangxi province was denied protection by the United Nations High Commissioner Office in Thailand. Elder Lei Wensen and his family members were severely persecuted by the Chinese security for their leadership in the house church movement in China. CAA president Bob Fu received a letter for help from elder Lei Wensen on January 26, 2007. After a thorough investigation, CAA has verified elder Lei’s claim that he and his family indeed had been persecuted for their independent Christian faith as House Church leaders in China. We believe elder Lei Wensen and his family members will face harsh persecution from the Chinese government if they are forced to return to China from Thailand. We have been able to communicate with Rev. Larry Pan of Los Angeles who was the applicant Mr. Lei Wensen’s pastor in China.

In an open letter to UNHCR, Rev. Bob Fu asked the UN body to act quickly before elder Lei’s situation gets worse. “We urge you to reconsider your previous decision and grant elder Lei and family members in Thailand refugee status so that they can be protected by UNHCR before they resettle in the USA.”

China Aid Association, Inc. was established in Pennsylvania in 2002 and is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization. In addition to collecting documents and materials related to Chinese law and government policy toward religion in China, CAA also issues news releases on cases of religious persecution in China and carries out other advocacy on behalf of persecuted religious believers in China, and provides humanitarian relief and supplies, including Christian materials, to persecuted members of underground Protestant churches in China. CAA supports the broad principle of freedom of religion for all believers in China, and aspires to conduct activities which protect the civil rights of believers from all religions.

Letters of concern can be sent to:
UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES
Branch office for Thailand
Telephone: 2801716/2811671/2829161
Fax: +66 2 280 0555
Email: thaba@unhcr.ch
P.O Box: 2.121, Rajamnam
Bangkok 10200, Thailand

SOURCE HERE

In his latest exclusive column, A Petition to Free 27 Million Slaves, in WorldNetDaily TODAY, Chuck Norris talks about how we can solve this worldwide problem.

“A few years ago, National Geographic reported that there are 27 million slaves in the world today — more than any other time in human history. What can be done to free them? Be a ‘Wilberforce’ or ‘Newton’!” Norris says.

Norris has starred in more than 20 films and the long-running TV series, “Walker, Texas Ranger.” He has written for WorldNetDaily on a number of hot-button topics, including: abortion, his old friend — and opponent — Bruce Lee, Bob Dylan’s true hero, the biggest threat to America, and Pearl Harbor. Norris writes a weekly column exclusive to WorldNetDaily.

While the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the UK will soon be celebrated around the world, slavery has mushroomed, as there are now over 27 million people in bondage worldwide.

See: http://WorldNetDaily.com

WorldNetDaily is an independent news company. Founded by Joseph and Elizabeth Farah in May 1997, it is now a leading Internet news site in both traffic and influence and has launched popular columns by Bill O’Reilly, David Limbaugh and others into national syndication.

New Resources for 200th anniversary of Abolition of U.K. and U.S. Slave Trade
NEW YORK, Feb. 26 /Standard Newswire/ — The Wilberforce Project — a partner with Bristol Bay Productions whose motion picture Amazing Grace starring Ioan Gruffud as William Wilberforce and Albert Finney as John Newton was released on Friday (February 23)– is developing a new documentary for television, THE BETTER HOUR and other creative resources to satisfy new interest in this hero of history, William Wilberforce, and the abolition of the Transatlantic slave trade in 1807, whose 200th anniversary is this year.

The TWC Films television documentary, The Better Hour: William Wilberforce, A Man of Character Who Changed The World ( www.thebetterhour.com) co- sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation and The Wilberforce Project is targeted for Fall 2007 broadcast in the U.S. and U.K. The film will focus on the character and legacy of British Parliamentarian William Wilberforce. (DVD available next November.)

A book for faith communities entitled Creating The Better Hour with its built-in study guide provides information on the life and legacy of William Wilberforce in concert with the lessons they provide for working for social change today. The book contains reflections and conversations to support each of its twenty-two chapters as well as a recipe for Better- Hour gatherings. (Available in September.)

A study book for schools entitled The British Abolitionists and Their Influence provides an overview of the British abolition movement and how it affected other movements, especially those in the United States. The book contains excerpts from original documents never before located in one resource. (Available in September).

Available now: An audio CD entitled Engaging The Culture–Changing The World: Lessons from William Wilberforce is a series of four 27 minute talks on the following topics: (a) the change from the self-indulgent world of the late eighteenth century to the seeds of Victorian England, (b) the ten ways that Wilberforce achieved change with issue campaigning, (c) Wilberforce’s spiritual discipline, (d) and how to be a contemporary Wilberforce. Available now under Resources at www.thebetterhour.com.

William Wilberforce, as a Member of Parliament, was directly responsible not only for the legislation abolishing the British Slave Trade two centuries ago, but he also influenced similar legislation in the U.S. In the view of many, Wilberforce was the father of the modern human rights movement, of the women’s suffrage movement, of universal education for the poor, of the first child labor laws, of prison reform, of a more humane penal code, as well as a founder or participant in sixty-nine philanthropic societies in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century England.

“William Wilberforce’s political career merits attention and imitation,” said Chuck Stetson, chairman of the Wilberforce Project. “Although Wilberforce’s name may be virtually unknown today, in 1858, Abraham Lincoln acknowledged that his was a name known by ‘every school boy in America.’”

The abolitionist and civil rights hero, Frederick Douglass saluted the energy of Wilberforce as the factor “that finally thawed the British heart into sympathy for the slave, and moved the strong arm of government in mercy to put an end to this bondage. Let no American, especially no colored American, withhold generous recognition of this stupendous achievement—a triumph of right over wrong, of good over evil, and a victory for the whole human race.”

“In 1833 when Wilberforce died, the free Blacks in America were urged by their leaders to wear black armbands for thirty days as a sign of mourning,” added Stetson. “In 1856, America’s first historically black university located near Dayton, Ohio was named Wilberforce University.”

The theatrical movie and these new creative resources bring the lessons and legacy of William Wilberforce into sharp focus, and they show how strong motivation and community action can bring about “a better hour” for all human kind.

Wilberforce Central is a private, non-profit alliance established to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the British and the U.S. slave trade (1807- 2007) with an examination of the legacy of William Wilberforce and the Clapham Group, and how we can learn from them lessons which relate to modern issues and the making of “The Better Hour” in our world today.

“Today Islam is responsible for almost all of the human sufferings from war, persecution, and poverty, particularly in the country of Sudan.” — Former Sultan Ali El-Shariff
MEDIA ADVISORY, Feb. 26 /Christian Newswire/ — Former Sultan Ali El-Shariff and Pastor George Saieg, founder of Arabic Christian Perspective, will be available for interviews on Saturday March 3rd, 10:00am - 12:00pm at a to-be- announced location, call 866-533-6659 for details.

Former Sultan Ali El-Shariff comments on Islam and Sudan:

“Today Islam is responsible for almost all of the human sufferings from war, persecution, and poverty, particularly in the country of Sudan.

“Since the 1983 start of the civil war in the southern Sudan more than 4 million people have been displaced, and an estimated over 2 million have been killed because Islam has declared the Holy War (Jihad) (Qur’an 9:5) against the non-Muslim black indigenous people. Islam is responsible for more than 100,000 children either killed or sold as slaves in Muslim homes. Islam is responsible for raping and kidnapping more than 50,000 women during the war (Qur’an 4:3). Islam is responsible for cutting hands and feet of hundreds of innocent people because Islamic laws were applied; bringing shame and infirmity to many families for the rest of their lives. Islam is responsible of abusing millions of women every day through beating, atrocious treatment and emotional deprivation because of the Islamic teaching (Qur’an 4:34).

“It is a shame for any African American to embrace Islam which makes them a participant in these disgraceful acts. It is a shame to embrace Islam to enforce the practice of slavery, abuse of women and children and to humiliate human kind through persecution, poverty and destruction. Unfortunately, Islam always has two faces. The Islamic missionaries always present the peaceful, respectful and the nice face of Islam. The fact is, there is a real violent face of Islam that Muslims in North America try to hide. It is a shame for anyone who embraces Islam without thinking, asking questions or reading about the true face of Islam. Islam is responsible today for the destruction of lives and cultures. Sudan is a vivid example. Why would you want to be a Muslim and participate in their wicked ways?”

The Former Sultan Ali El-Shariff and Pastor George Saieg founder of Arabic Christian Perspective will be available for interview on Saturday March 3rd at 10:00 am - 12:00 pm at a to-be-announced location, call (866) 533-6659 for details.

By Robert Fisk
The Independent, February 27, 2007

Out of the frying pan, into the historical fire. If only
our leaders read history. In 1915, the British swept up
from Basra, believing that the Iraqis would reward them
with flowers and love, only to find themselves surrounded
at Kut Al-Amara, cut down by Turkish shellfire and cholera.
Now we are reinforcing NATO in that tomb of the British
Army, Afghanistan.

Hands up any soldiers who know that another of Britain’s
great military defeats took place in the very sands in
which your colleagues are now fighting the Taleban. Yes,
the Battle of Maiwand - on July 27, 1880 - destroyed an
entire British brigade, overrun by thousands of armed
Afghan tribesmen, some of whom the official enquiry into
the disaster would later describe as “Talibs.” The Brits
had been trying to secure Helmand province.

Sound familiar? Several times already in Helmand, the
British have almost been overwhelmed.

This has not been officially admitted, but the Ministry
of Defense did make a devious allusion to this last year
- it was missed by all the defense correspondents - when
it announced that British troops in Helmand had been
involved in the heaviest combat fighting “since the Korean
War.” The Afghans talk of one British unit which last year
had to call in air strikes, destroying almost the entire
village in which they were holding out. Otherwise, they
would have been overrun.

Gen. Burrows had no close air support on 27 July, 1880,
when he found himself confronting up to 15,000 Afghan
fighters at Maiwand, but he had large numbers of Egyptian
troops with him and a British force in the city of
Kandahar. Already, the British had cruelly suppressed a
dissident Afghan Army - again, sound familiar? - after
the British residency had been sacked and its occupants
murdered. Britain’s reaction at the time was somewhat
different from that followed today.

Britain’s army was run from imperial India where Lord
Lytton, the viceroy, urged his man in Kabul - Gen.
Roberts, later Lord Roberts of Kandahar - to crush the
uprising with the utmost brutality. “Every Afghan brought
to death, I shall regard as one scoundrel the less in a
nest of scoundrelism.”

Roberts embarked on a reign of terror in Kabul, hanging
almost a hundred Afghans.

The commander of the rebellious Afghans was Ayub Khan,
whose brother was forced to abdicate as king after the
Kabul uprising. When Ayub Khan re-emerged from the deserts
of the west - he marched down from that old warlord
territory of Herat toward Kandahar - the luckless Burrows
was sent to confront him. Almost a thousand British and
Indian troops were to be slaughtered in the coming hours
as Ayub Khan’s army fired shells from at least 30 artillery
pieces and then charged at them across the fields and dried-
up river at Maiwand.

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The official British inquiry - it was covered in red cloth
and ran to 734 pages - contains many photographs of the
landscape over which the battle was fought. The hills and
distant mountains, of course, are identical to those that
are now videotaped by “embedded” reporters in the British
Army.

Outgunned and outmaneuvered, the British found themselves
facing a ruthless enemy. Col. Mainwaring of the 30th Bombay
Infantry wrote a chilling report for the authorities in
Delhi. “The whole of the ground… was covered with swarms
of ‘ghazis’ and banner-men. The ‘ghazis’ were actually in
the ranks of the Grenadiers, pulling the men out and hack-
ing them down with their swords.”

The wreckage of the British Army retreated all the way to
Kandahar where they were besieged, until rescued by Gen.
Roberts himself, whose famous march of 10,000 troops from
Kandahar - a distance of 300 miles covered in just 20 days
- is now military legend.

History, it seems, haunts all our adventures in the Middle
East. Who would have believed that after the British
reached Baghdad in a 1917 invasion, they would face an
insurgency which, in speed and ruthlessness, was an almost
exact predecessor to the rebellion which the British and
Americans would confront from 2003? Lloyd George, then
prime minister, stood up in the House of Commons to insist
that the British occupation force had to stay in Iraq.
Otherwise, he warned, the country would be plunged into
civil war.

Sound familiar? One of the greatest defeats of British
forces anywhere in the world had occurred more than four
decades before Maiwand, on the Kabul Gorge in 1842, when
an entire British Army was wiped out by Afghan fighters
in the snow.

The sole survivor, the famous Dr. Brydon, managed to out-
horse two armed Afghans and ride into the British compound
in Jalalabad.

So now the British are to reinforce Afghanistan yet again.
Flying by Chinook to Kandahar will not take as long as
Roberts’s 20 days.

British soldiers are unlikely even to enter Kandahar’s
central square. But if they do, they might care to look
at the few ancient cannon on the main roundabout: all
that is left of Roberts’s artillery.

BUDAPEST, Hungary, Feb. 5 /Christian Newswire/ — Biblical Family Advocates is amazed that Switzerland’s highest court would even consider such a case which opens the door for the mentally ill to kill themselves with the help of doctors.

In an article dated Feb 2nd, 2007 titled ” Swiss may expand assisted suicide law,” one is left questioning the mental stability of the court itself when they advocate suicide for the mentally ill.

“I was actually stunned by the development because it not only takes advantage of the mentally ill, but it could very well lead to forced euthanasia of mentally ill patients.” So says Phil Magnan, Executive Director of Biblical Family Advocates, an organization dedicated to Biblical morality. “We have already seen the forced euthanasia of thousands who did not want to die in the Netherlands. This ruling by the high court in Switzerland opens a huge door for abuse.”

According to the article, the high court’s ruling stated that “It must be recognized that an incurable, permanent, serious mental disorder can cause similar suffering as a physical (disorder), making life appear unbearable to the patient in the long term.”

Magnan continued, “Is it not mental illness to seek to kill your self? Why would a doctor not seek to alleviate suffering using more compassionate methods of “doing no harm” to a patient? Doctors will continue to lose their identities as care givers and healers if they are allowed to kill their patients.”

Biblical Family Advocates pleads with the medical community to reconsider its goals to alleviate pain by advocating the death of those who suffer. They should instead use proper pain management as well as treating the mentally ill with loving family relationships. This situation also calls for churches to take a more pro active role in ministering to those with serious mental conditions with prayer, spiritual transformation and understanding.

MEDIA ADVISORY, Feb. 4 /Christian Newswire/ — Two African children die needlessly every minute; 3000 children die daily.

FACT 1: A Child Dies Every 30 Seconds
The World Health Organization says that a million people die each year from Malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. Adults who contract Malaria often remain sick for life, but small children are apt to die from the disease - 90% of the deaths due to Malaria are children.

FACT 2: Expensive Failures
It is well published that traditional approaches to African problems of disease, poverty and corruption, have been expensive ($50 Billion) and ineffective to the point of nearly no progress. The World Bank again proposes to spend hundreds of millions to combat Malaria.

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GOAL: 1 Dollar to Save 1 Child
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Christian Newswire

ONTARIO, Calif., Feb. 24 /Christian Newswire/ — Former Sultan Ali El-Shariff and Pastor George Saieg, founder of Arabic Christian Perspective, will be available for interviews on Saturday March 3rd, 10:00am - 12:00pm at a to-be- announced location, call 866-533-6659 for details.

The following comments are from Pastor George Saieg, founder of Arabic Christian Perspective.

A Call for African Unity:

African Americans choose this day which side you are on. Will you side with your Black Sudanese brothers who are being killed in genocide of Holocaust proportions, or will you side with those who oppress them and who sold you into slavery?

Former Sultan Ali El-Shariff has forsaken Islam and his earthly kingdom to stand in unity with his Black African brothers. Will you join with him in calling for an end of the genocide, or will you join Islam, the religion that sold Black African Americans into slavery and is selling Black Sudanese into slavery today.

A Call for Christian Unity:

The Bible tells us that those who love the Lord are one body, and when one member of the body suffers, we all suffer too. Under the intense persecution mandated by Islam many faithful Christian martyrs have chosen death and suffering than denying Jesus as their Lord. Some Christians escaped death by paying a heavy tax, others loving this world rather than the next, renounced their faith under threat of death and became Muslims, damning themselves and their offspring to a dark existence. How painful it must have been for these weak apostates, to see their children grow up to be just like their misguided enemies.

This cycle can be broken, Ali El-Shariff was a Sultan in Sudan, but like Moses he left his earthly kingdom for a heavenly one, and like Moses he seeks to lead his people to freedom. Let us stand in support of our brother in his assault against the gates of Hell. Jesus promised that these gates could not stand against His church, let us therefore go forth boldly loving not our own lives and for the sake of our brothers and sisters endure all hardship.

Event Details:

Brother Ali El-Shariff will speak on Saturday March 3rd at 7:30pm at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church 224 West California Street, Ontario, CA 91762

The Former Sultan Ali El-Shariff and Pastor George Saieg founder of Arabic Christian Perspective will be available for interviews on Saturday March 3rd at 10:00am- 12:00pm, call for location.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 /Christian Newswire/ — America’s newest Christian network, GOD TV today announced that it will be screening world-renowned Evangelist, Reinhard Bonnke’s latest mass crusade - LIVE from West Africa to the USA and across the globe next week. (February 22 – 25, 2007)

This is the first time that an evangelistic broadcast of this magnitude has been attempted, and will mean beaming a signal from Oshogbo, Nigeria to GOD TV’s broadcast HQ in Jerusalem, Israel and from there onto 15 satellites to reach the four corners of the earth.

Evangelist Bonnke, who heads up Christ for All Nations (CFaN) is known throughout the world for his passionate preaching and fiery crusades which draw crowds of hundreds of thousands of people - now millions more will be able to join in by way of television.

The LIVE broadcasts can be watched daily on DIRECTV channel 365 or via webstreaming at www.god.tv from Thursday February 22 through Sunday February 25 at 11.45 am Eastern. They will also be available on GOD TV’s other six regional channels worldwide.

“It is a privilege for us to take such an extraordinary event around the globe,” said GOD TV co-founder, Wendy Alec, who heads up programming, “Never has the message been more needed or the results so remarkable!

“CFaN has received more than three million decision cards for Jesus Christ in one mass crusade, can you imagine the response next week as we harness the power of the media with the passionate preaching of Reinhard Bonnke. I believe it is going to set millions of hearts alight.”

Christ for all Nations is primarily known for it’s crusades in Africa and other third world countries but also seeks to inspire and equip Christians worldwide for evangelism through conferences, literature, videos and television.

Established in the UK in 1995 by Rory & Wendy Alec, GOD TV is available to 125 million homes worldwide, on a multiple satellite platform and is presently looking at increasing its distribution in America through it’s attendance at this month’s annual NRB Convention.

About CFaN: www.cfan.org
It is now over 30 years since Reinhard Bonnke founded the international ministry of Christ for all Nations (CfaN), which currently has offices in the United States, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, Africa, Singapore, and South America. Since the start of the new millennium, through a host of major events in Africa and other parts of the world and with a goal of seeing 100 million souls record a decision for Jesus Christ in this decade, some 42 million have already responded to the Gospel call.

About GOD TV: www.god.tv
One of the world’s fastest-growing faith-based media organizations in the world - GOD TV - was founded in the UK in 1995 by Christian media pioneers Rory & Wendy Alec. Today the network beams a broad spectrum of international programming free-to-air from it’s global broadcast center in Israel. The only Christian broadcaster to transmit from Jerusalem to the nations of the world, GOD TV’s powerful signal is carried via multiple satellites into 125 million connected television homes. This represents a potential viewing audience of 440 million people who can watch 24-hours-a-day. GOD TV maintains studios in the UK, USA and Israel, as well as regional outreach offices in England, Germany, Denmark; South Africa, India, Hong Kong and Florida. GOD TV’s central office is situated in Washington, DC. GOD TV also finances projects in developing countries including water projects, hospitals and orphanages through its charity arm, Angel Aid.

Contact: Jeffrey Levinson, GOD TV North America Regional Office,
375 Douglas Ave Suite, 1008, Altamonte Springs, FL 32714.
Telephone (407) 862-5084, cell (386) 547-3533, fax (407) 8628156, e-mail; jlevinson@god.tv,

GOD TV Central Office:
Suite 905, 1730 M Street, NW, Washington DC, 20036, USA
Tel: 001 202 223 4023, Fax: 001 202 223 4027. Web: www.god.tv

GOD TV Broadcast HQ:
PO Box 7159, Jerusalem 91071, Israel

International offices: Africa, Asia & Middle East, Europe, Scandinavia, UK & Ireland

Angel Christian Television Trust, Inc is a Not-For- Profit Florida Corporation with 501 ( C ) ( 3 ) tax- exempt status from the IRS.

Christian Newswire

Read it HERE.

Two weeks of nothing, then my inbox gets slammed. Thanks, friends!

“This case has the potential to make a horrible judicial edict that suggests that the only thoughts and words allowed in a public workplace are those that support the homosexual agenda.” — Attorney Richard Ackerman

TEMECULA, Calif., Feb. 14 /Christian Newswire/ — On Thursday morning, in a special session being held at the Stanford University Law School campus a critical First Amendment case is being argued before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The case deals squarely with the issue of whether Christians have a right to use neutral language in the workplace to talk about same-sex marriage and other issues at the forefront of national debate.

Attorneys Scott Lively and Richard D. Ackerman will be arguing the case before the Ninth Circuit on behalf of an African- American Christian woman who was threatened with termination at her job with the City of Oakland. The City of Oakland claims that references to the “natural family, marriage and family values” constitute hate speech which is scary to city workers. The Ninth Circuit panel of judges includes two women and one man.

Back in February of 2005, United States District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled the city of Oakland had a right to bar two employees from posting a Good News Employee Association flier promoting traditional family values on an office bulletin board. According to the lawsuit, gay and lesbian city workers had already been using the city’s e-mail, bulletin board, and written communications systems for promoting their views to other workers, including the plaintiffs.

Plaintiffs, Regina Rederford and Robin Christy posted the flier in response to an e-mail to city employees announcing formation of a gay and lesbian employee association. The two responded with a promotion of their own — the start of an informal group that respects “the natural family, marriage and family values.”

But supervisors Robert Bobb, then city manager, and Joyce Hicks, then deputy director of the Community and Economic Development Agency, ordered removal of the flier, stating it contained “statements of a homophobic nature” and promoted “sexual- orientation-based harassment,” even though it made no absolutely no mention of homosexuality.

A July 2003 lawsuit by Rederford and Christy claimed the city’s anti-discrimination policy “promotes homosexuality” and “openly denounces Christian values.”

U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker dismissed the case in February 2005, ruling the two women did not have their First Amendment rights violated and that federal anti-discrimination protections afforded to gender, race, and religion did not apply to the women plaintiffs.

City Attorney John Russo said in a previous statement the city “will fight vigorously to defend the policies and practices which protect employees from any form of discrimination.” Attorneys for the plaintiffs say they fails to see how it is that mere references to “the natural family, marriage and family values” can amount to discrimination when such words could have just as easily been used by same-sex marriage advocates in describing related issues.

Messrs. Lively and Ackerman said the case is significant, because a decision against the employees could silence debate about homosexuality and related issues in the entire Western United States since the Ninth Circuit controls a large region of the United States and its rulings are binding on millions of employees whose speech is subject to punishment by employers who promote agendas that defy Judeo- Christian values.

The flier in question was posted Jan. 3, 2003, on an employee bulletin board where a variety of political and sexually oriented causes are promoted. Titled, “Preserve Our Workplace with Integrity,” the entire text said:

Good News Employee Associations is a forum for people of Faith to express their views on the contemporary issues of the day. With respect for the Natural Family, Marriage and Family values.

If you would like to be a part of preserving integrity in the Workplace call Regina Rederford @xxx-xxxx or Robin Christy @xxx-xxxx

The flyer was removed the same day, however, by order of Hicks.

In a memo announcing a newly revised workplace anti-discrimination policy, Hicks noted recent incidents of employees “inappropriately posting materials” in violation of that policy. At the time she noted, “Specifically, flyers were placed in public view which contained statements of a homophobic nature and were determined to promote sexual orientation- based harassment.”

Attorney Richard Ackerman says, “This case has the potential to make a horrible judicial edict that suggests that the only thoughts and words allowed in a public workplace are those that support the homosexual agenda. The city of Oakland has interpreted this district court’s ruling to mean that Christianity has no place in our society and should be subject to punishment. I want to believe that our Supreme Court will ultimately decide this case on the values and instructions set forth in motion by the nations Founders.”

Richard Ackerman, whose public-interest law firm Ackerman, Cowles & Lindsley represents the two women, said this case has drained significant financial and time resources because of the fight put up by the City of Oakland in defending its aggressive censorship of the plaintiffs. The Pro-Family Law Center has been funding the case from donations made by Christians and others for the defense of the First Amendment and family values. According to Ackerman, protecting the most basic rights of Rederford has cost thousands of dollars to litigate. Abiding Truth Ministries, also founded by Scott Lively has assisted in underwriting the costs on appeal.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 /Christian Newswire/ — A 14-year-old German boy has decided to undergo a sex change, making him the youngest patient in history to receive this extreme procedure. The young boy Tim, who prefers to be called “Kim,” has wanted gender reassignment surgery since he was 12 and claims to have considered himself female since age two. Concerned Women for America (CWA) is saddened that doctors and parents have fostered this young boy’s gender confusion and are allowing him to go forward with the surgery.

“This poor kid’s situation really undercuts the homosexual lobby’s deceptive equality-fluff and hyperbole,” said Matt Barber, CWA’s Policy Director for Cultural Issues. “It casts a bright light on the truly destructive, bleak and evil nature of the homosexual agenda. Has our world completely lost all sanity? That parents would allow their child to be treated like this is mind-boggling.

“Rather than addressing the emotional or chemical problems responsible for Tim’s gender confusion, his parents and doctors have bought into the homosexual lobby’s PC puffery hook, line and sinker. They’re about to rob him of his ability to father a child, and render him horribly disfigured and further confused. It’s not just a tragedy. It’s a travesty.”

Concerned Women for America is the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization

Would require all parties in Establishment Clause cases to pay their own legal fees
WASHINGTON Jan. 29 /Standard Newswire/ — U.S. Senator Sam Brownback today reintroduced the Public Expressions of Religion Act, which would prevent activist groups from using a 1970s-era civil rights law to recover attorney’s fees when they sue local cities and towns in cases related to public displays of religion and faith.

“It is not fair for taxpayers to pay the legal bills for groups like the ACLU,” said Brownback. “Currently many small towns comply with the demands of the ACLU rather than risk going to trial and paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to the ACLU if they lose the case.”

Today, legal activist groups recover hundreds of thousands of dollars from state and local governments based on a provision of the 1976 Civil Rights Attorney Fees Awards Act, which was intended to assist underprivileged plaintiffs in obtaining legal representation in civil rights cases. If legal activist groups win a lawsuit related to the Constitution’s Establishment Clause, the 1976 law entitles them to compensation for costs incurred in litigating the case.

Brownback continued, “The legislation I introduced today would still allow plaintiffs with legitimate claims to have their day in court. However, it would prevent local cities and towns from being coerced into settling claims out of a fear of huge monetary losses.”

For example, when several groups won a case in Alabama to remove a Ten Commandments display from the Alabama Supreme Court building, taxpayers were forced to pay the groups’ attorneys nearly $550,000.

The Public Expressions of Religion Act would require parties in Establishment Clause cases to pay their own attorney’s fees.

Brownback is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and is the ranking member on the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights.

Standard Newswire

From Viewpoint. Amazingly enough, they inserted an advertisement for Ginsu Knives between the sections. What are they trying to say, hmmmm??!

Revolt Builds Against Bush’s Iraq Policy
by Jim Lobe

In the first step toward what some believe could eventually
lead to a constitutional crisis, a key Congressional
committee approved a nonbinding resolution here Wednesday
formally dissenting from President George W. Bush’s plan
to send some 21,000 more troops to Iraq.

The 12-9 vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
which came less than 14 hours after Bush appealed in his
State of the Union address for Congress to give his plan
“a chance to work,” sets the stage for a broader debate
next week when a majority of the full Senate is also
expected to voice its disapproval of the president’s
course, albeit possibly in a somewhat milder form.

Wednesday’s resolution, which drew the backing of all the
Democrats on the Committee, as well as its one Republican
cosponsor, Sen. Chuck Hagel, declared that deepening US
military involvement in Iraq at this time is “not in the
national interest of the United States.”

“It’s an attempt to save the president from making a
significant mistake with regard to our policy in Iraq,”
said the committee’s new chairman and the principal author
of the resolution, Sen. Joseph Biden, who also insisted
that, despite its timing, it was “not an attempt to
embarrass the president (or) to demonstrate (his)
isolation.”

But, less than 24 hours after Bush’s appearance before both
houses of Congress and a glittering array of other top US
officials and the foreign diplomatic corps under the
Capitol dome, most analysts agreed that he probably made
very few, if any, converts and that the Congress, including
a growing number of Republicans, is likely to move over
the coming weeks to try to force a change in US policy.

“We think Congress is going to pass this or a similar
resolution and then move to a vigorous debate over how to
use its powers under the constitution to impose its will,”
said Jim Cason, an analyst at the Friends Committee on
National Legislation (FCNL), an antiwar lobby group.

“What’s driving this in part is that the growing perception
that Bush is clinging stubbornly to a failed policy,
convinced that he’s right and completely unwilling to
consider major alternatives such as the (bipartisan) Iraq
Study Group (ISG) report (that called for a gradual
withdrawal of US combat troops over the next 15 months).
People are getting really angry and worried about that.”

Indeed, mainstream US media coverage of Bush’s State of the
Union address, while careful to balance the critics with
the president’s supporters, underlined the degree to which
support for Iraq policy - already near record-lows -
appears to have plunged even further over the past few
weeks and that opposition to what is called Bush’s “surge”
of troops into Iraq has risen sharply.

This was highlighted Monday when the ranking Republican on
the Senate Armed Services Committee, John Warner, presented
his own bipartisan resolution that, while somewhat softer
in tone than the one approved by the Foreign Relations
Committee, stated flatly that the Senate “disagrees with
the ‘plan’ to augment our forces (in Iraq) by 21,500.”

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“The American G.I. (soldier) was not trained, not sent over
there - certainly not by resolution of this institution -
to be placed in the middle of a fight between the Sunni
and the Shia and the wanton and incomprehensible killing
that’s going on at this time,” Warner, whose ties to the
military brass are perhaps the strongest of any sitting
senator, told reporters in announcing his proposal.

“Mr. President, go back and look at all the options,”
declared Warner in what to most Capitol Hill veterans was
seen as a highly unusual departure from his normal courtly
and aristocratic mien. His candor was evidence of a growing
exasperation that has been coursing through Republican
ranks since the party lost control of Congress in last
November’s elections and particularly over the last two
weeks since he announced his plans to add to the 132,000
US troops already in Iraq.

Indeed, in recent days, public opinion surveys have shown
that confidence in Bush’s handling of Iraq is at record
lows and that his overall approval ratings have reached
their nadir - in some cases within just a few percentage
points of the level former President Richard Nixon reached
just before his resignation. The most recent polls have
also shown that a growing majority has greater confidence
in Congress’ judgment about what to do in Iraq than the
roughly 30 percent who believe the administration can do
a better job.

Biden, Hagel and the other cosponsors of the resolution
approved by the Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday have
made clear that they hope to sit down with Warner and his
cosponsors over the coming week to determine whether they
can come up with a common bill that would command the
broadest possible bipartisan support.

Warner’s resolution, which is more deferential toward
Bush’s war-making powers as “commander-in-chief” than
Biden’s, is also more specific in defining rules of
engagement for US forces in Iraq in ways that would
reduce their role in policing or intervening in sectarian
violence. It also prescribes more specific benchmarks for
the Iraqi government to meet in order to maintain high
levels of US military and economic aid and calls for
Washington to become more engaged in regional efforts to
contain and reduce the ongoing violence in Iraq.

The resolution is indeed based on many of the
recommendations submitted last month by the ISG, whose
co-chairs, former Secretary of State James Baker and
former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton, and other members
have been quietly lobbying Congress since Bush quickly
rejected key parts of their report - notably reducing
the US combat role in Iraq and engaging Syria and Iran
in regional stabilization efforts.

Biden and Hagel have also expressed strong disappointment
at Bush’s failure to embrace the ISG’s recommendations,
so a compromise between the two factions - which together
would command the support of all but one Democrat and at
least a dozen of the Senate’s Republicans - is likely.

As both resolutions are not binding on Bush, who has
already indicated that he will proceed with his “surge”
regardless of what Congress does, however, the big question
here is: what happens after their approval?

Led by Sen. Russell Feingold, a fast-growing minority of
Democrats has said they will back legislation cutting off
all funds for the war if Bush does not heed Congressional
opinion, while others, including several presidential
candidates, such as Biden, Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen.
Barack Obama, say Congress should impose limits on the
number of troops who can be deployed to Iraq or strict
conditions on how and when and for what purposes money
appropriated by Congress can be spent in the war, which
is currently costing the US Treasury roughly eight billion
dollars a month.

While precedents for these kinds of congressional actions
were established in the 1970s and 1980s, the Bush White
House - and particularly Vice President Dick Cheney’s
office - is likely to resist any such constraints on the
grounds that they believe that the president’s power to
wage war as commander-in-chief is virtually unlimited. In
their view, the only way that Congress can legally limit
that power is for it to cut off all funding.

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BAKERSFIELD, Calif., Jan. 22 /Christian Newswire/ — Phil Walker, President of International Christian Ministries (ICM) recently traveled to three different North Africa and Middle East Countries. In one country he taught leaders from four countries including Iraq. What follows is a plea for help from a Christian brother in Iraq for his family. He and his family are one of the thousands of other believers trapped in an almost impossible situation.

“Tuesday at 3:45 pm, me and my family were about to be killed. An unknown armed people attacked the street where I live and the shops which are beside my house. Thousands and thousands of bullets were randomly shot; no body believed what was going on. We just tried hard to hide somewhere in the house that looked safe. This thing lasted for 30 minutes. We thought we will never see the sun again. After some minutes of silence I opened the door to find 5 bodies in front of my house door. There was more than 12 people killed and 40 injured; some of the cases were very serious. They tried to kill every thing that was moving in the street at those minutes. I and my son John came to our house from the grocery shop, just 15 minutes before. If we were late a little bit there is no doubt that we were killed. More than 20 shops in my neighbors were smashed and some of the owners were killed.

Since Tuesday, I was not able to leave my house. The children are shaken from the fear and don’t want me to leave them. No one is able to go to school. We have had a serious shock. The situation is so bad in these days that more than 500 people were killed and injured during these days because of several attacks and bombings.

Besides all the killing, we have electricity for only one hour a day and it’s so hard to afford for the gasoline for generators. We are spending very hard days and dark cold nights.

Please I ask you and the brothers there to pray for us and for our safety.”