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Religion - April 2009

Sunni-Shiite Tensions Flare in Egypt-Hizbullah Dispute

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[From http://bibimeialonga.blogspot.com] DEVELOPMENTS 

Abdel-Magid Mohammed has had a busy two weeks.  On April 8th, Mohammed, who is Egypt’s public prosecutor, announced he and his staff were interrogating fifty operatives detained on Egyptian soil for allegedly spying for Hizbullah and conspiring to destabilize the Egyptian state.  As details of the operatives’ intent emerged, and the number charged with spying for Hizbullah narrowed from fifty to nine, the flames of political discord between Arab powers were fanned.  Though the arrests occurred months before, their public revelation now has heightened tensions between Shiite Hizbullah, its patron Shiite state Iran, and Sunni Egypt.

The claims against the detained Hizbullah operatives are concerning to the Egyptian government not just because of the inherent Sunni-Shiite tension, but equally if not moreso because of what they suggest about the ambitions of Hizbullah, and by proxy Iran, for the Red Sea region.  Hizbullah claims its operatives in Egypt were merely present to support Gazan Palestinians. Yet Egypt has accused the detained operatives of recruiting members on behalf of Hizbullah in Egypt to target Israeli tourists. More broadly, at least one analyst asserts that Hizbullah operatives in Egypt seek to install an “infrastructure of violence” in the Red Sea through operations that target Suez Canal traffic and destabilize Egyptian towns bordering the Sinai and crossing to the Gaza Strip.

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A Crisis of Christianity: Why China’s most explosive religious movement worships underground

Annie Cho Archive
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[From acandidworld.net]DEVELOPMENTS 

In one of her last actions as Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice signed a statement identifying China as one of the worst violators of religious freedom in the world.  Yet Christianity appears to be exploding in China, and some say that the atheist state of China may be home to more Christians than any other place in the world. According to estimates by Chinese and foreign scholars, there may be anywhere from seventy to 300 million Chinese Christians—membership eclipsing that of the Communist Party itself.1  Yet, the Chinese government only recognizes 21 million “government-approved” Christians who attend churches operated and controlled by the state’s religious body.  

Most of China’s Christian millions belong to house churches, informal gatherings of usually twenty-five or fewer worshippers involving services in a non-public setting, such as a private home.  Though the government’s attitude toward these house churches has vacillated between tolerance and outright censorship, there have been reports of persecution and crackdowns intensifying in the days leading up to and following the Olympics. In late 2008, the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs released a statement banning religious activities organized by the China Federation of Christian House Churches.  This may be the latest harbinger of what may happen to China’s unregistered house churches and raises the question of whether the government will allow the peaceful rise of a largely “underground” and seemingly unstoppable religious movement in China.

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Chile’s Secular Triumph Challenges Catholicism

Catherine Fisher Archive
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[courtesy of www2.canada.com & Reuters] DEVELOPMENTS

 
Chile’s cultural and political history have shaped a nation that has long been considered one of South America’s most socially conservative and religiously homogeneous, in which the Catholic Church´s stronghold over Chilean law and society was unquestioned for decades. Yet the role of religion in Chile is evolving. Chile has entered an era of secularization, which is driving changes both in social norms and in government policies.  

The changing role of religion is perhaps best observed in Chile’s populace. The country’s youth, referred to as "the children of the democracy," have broken strongly with “the children of the dictatorship” – those who lived under Pinochet’s regime. Chilean youth have resolutely rejected many of the Catholic-inspired notions that previously defined standards of behavior, particularly those related to chastity. This amounts to Chile’s sexual revolution, where young adults are defying Catholicism’s prohibitions on pre-marital sex and birth control by “having sex earlier and testing the borderlines with their sexual conduct,” according to Dr. Ramiro Molina, director of the University of Chile’s Center for Adolescent Reproductive Medicine and Development.

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Western Europe and Its Muslim Minority: An Unbreakable Cycle of Alienation and Mistrust?

Annie Verderosa Archive
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There is still tension in the suburbs...DEVELOPMENTS 

The majority of Western Europe today is a secular, nominally Christian society.  In recent years, however, the growth of Islam as a minority religion has introduced significant changes to Western European culture and society.  As a result of immigration and demographics, Europe’s Muslim population has tripled over the last thirty years and is predicted to continue growing at a similar rate over the coming decades.  It is estimated that there are currently between fifteen and twenty million Muslims living in the European Union, representing 4-5% of its total population.   

Until recently, many European countries viewed this as a temporary phenomenon, and governments did little to smooth the new immigrants' path into society.  The resulting tension has led to vibrant debate over Islam’s compatibility with European values, particularly democracy, freedom of speech, and women’s rights.  Yet the question of tolerance – and ultimately, integration – reaches far beyond religion.  Many European nations are dealing with the cultural, ethnic, religious, and linguistic diversity that comes with immigration for the first time.  For both sides, learning to accommodate differing beliefs and practices is exacerbated by discrimination, social exclusion, and concerns over terrorism.  

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Religion is Key to Conflict and Peace in Northern Uganda

Michael Poffenberger & Maria Presley Archive
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Ugandan Camp - Penn Law International Human Rights AdvocatesDEVELOPMENTS

The most violent hotspot in Africa right now is not the Darfur region of Sudan. Nor is it Somalia or Zimbabwe. The deadliest place in Africa today is in northeastern Congo, where the elusive Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), an insurgency that originated in northern Uganda in the 1980s, is wreaking havoc on defenseless Congolese communities. Since September 2008, LRA fighters have attacked dozens of villages and towns, killing over 1,000 civilians and displacing close to 200,000.

Over the years, international media coverage of the conflict has been devoted to the fighting’s religious dimensions. News outlets typically portray the LRA as being driven by a desire to lead Uganda based on the Ten Commandments. Additional attention has been given to Kony’s disturbing use of traditional, Christian, and even occasionally Muslim rituals to brainwash the children his fighters abduct and force to fight. Though there is ample reason to believe that Kony’s religious motivations are more strategic than genuine, the religious dimensions of the conflict’s history must be addressed to achieve sustainable peace.

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