It will initially be a simple static page where we will have links to other diversified tools on the Internet, to make it much more difficult for those who seek to silence us.
Our web page here, RealCourage.org, that has been our home since February 2009. Individuals have repeatedly tried to hack and shut down our web site hosted here, and we have been migrating over to another web site, a new hosting provider, and different WordPress blog, as some of our readers already have seen from our Facebook, Twitter, and other postings.
We have attempted to withstand attacks by those against our universal human rights. Regardless of whether issues here get resolved, we will stop using this web page as our main point of contact due to individuals that have managed to disable it in August. I will be sharing more specific information on this with the public in the near future.
But to those who seek to silence the voice of our universal human rights, you should know that you will not succeed.
While much of America faces a darkest night on our shared human rights today, R.E.A.L. remains confident that together we can work towards a brighter day.
We are not discouraged. We remain Responsible for Equality And Liberty. It always a good day to be responsible for equality and liberty.
On August 6, 2010 and August 13, 2010, the Texas-based Operation Save America (OSA) Christian group held protests in front of a Bridgeport, Connecticut mosque, stating that “Islam is a lie,” and that the group sought to protest Muslim mosques throughout the month of Ramadan. The OSA Christian group leader told the Connecticut Post “This is a war in America and we are taking it to the mosques around the country.”
Connecticut: Interfaith Religious Groups Seek Harmony Between Religions - Reverend Kate Heichler (ICSW Web Site) and Rabbi Joshua Hammerman (Temple Beth El Web Site)
At its website, the Interfaith Council of Southwestern Connecticut states:
“Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 6:30 p.m. Interfaith Prayer Vigil in support of Muslim communities in Fairfield County, on the grounds of First Congregational Church, 1 Walton Place, Bedford Street, Stamford. All are welcome to gather peacefully with members of our Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh communities – and people of other religions who choose to join in – to lift voices in prayer for peace, respect and collaborative ministry in the Stamford area and Southwestern Connecticut. For more information contact Kate Heichler (kateheichler@gmail.com) or Mark Lingle (marklingle.pastor@gmail.com).”
Equal Rights Amendment (E.R.A.) - The Time Has Come NOW!
We still have the open issue of the Equal Rights Amendment (E.R.A.) that has not yet been ratified and which needs the attention of American government leaders, American government representatives, and the women and men of the American public.
So we will be at the White House on Women’s Equality Day, urging President Barack Obama to make women’s full Constitutional equality a priority in his administration!
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.), United4Equality LLC, and local area chapters of the National Organization for Women (N.O.W.) will jointly hold a protest and candle light vigil at the White House on Women’s Equality Day to urge our president to remember that once again this year, half of the nation still does not yet have full Constitutional Equality. We will have candles – and we will hold this rain or shine! We urge you to join us!
— National Women’s History Museum – Senior Vice President, Ann Stone
— Sewall Belmont House & Museum – Lead Docent, Erin Dexter
— Business & Professional Women USA – Immediate Past President and Bowie Councilwoman, Honorable Diane Polangin
— Coalition of Labor Union Women – Executive Director, Carol Rosenblatt
— Event Hosts – United For Equality, Responsible For Equality & Liberty
— Open Mike for Women on their views about Women’s Rights in America Today
Tell President Obama We Will Continue to Shine a Light for Women's Constitution Equality
Event Logistics and Contacts:
Date: Thursday, August 26, 2010 — in front of north side of the White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC
— 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM – Rally for Women’s Equal Rights at Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House, across from Lafayette Park
— 8:15 PM to 9:30 PM – Candlelight Vigil and Remembrance of Women Leaders in front of White House at Lafayette Park and Pennsylvania Avenue.
Public Transportation encouraged: On-street parking is not available near the White House, and use of public transportation is strongly encouraged. Parking is available in parking lots near the Metro Center station or Farragut North or Farragut West Metro Stop, and then either walk (or use the subway for a short few stops if parking at Metro Center) from a nearby metro stop – see details below.
Restrooms/Public telephones: The nearest restrooms and public telephones to the White House are in the Ellipse Visitor Pavilion (the park area south of the White House) and in the White House Visitor Center. Restrooms or public telephones are not available at the White House.
Lafayette Park in the Direction of the White House - Keep Walking to the Lafayette Park Sidewalk facing the White House
Parking Options Near White House: — 15th and 17th Streets are the ‘bordering’ streets East and West.
— To the West, (NY Avenue-E)/F/G Streets sometimes has parking on the street
— Pennsylvania Avenue between 17th and 18th may have parking and there are parking garages in this block of Pennsylvania Avenue
— Best chance for parking is in the Metro Center area as people are heading home from work, but be careful if you park in a garage to check to see what time it closes.
– Parking lots that we have seen within a few blocks of Metro Center near to Freedom Plaza (and National Theater) include:
– PMI
— 1220 E Street, NW – Enter on E Street between 12th and 13th Streets
— 424 11th Street, NW
— 1325 G Street, NW – Enter on G Street between 13th and 14th Streets
– QUICK PARK
— 1301 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW – Enter on 13th Street between E and F Streets
FARRAGUT NORTH METRO STATION to WHITE HOUSE Walking Directions:
1. Exit station through CONNECTICUT AVE & K ST NW entrance.
2. Walk a short distance S on Connecticut Ave NW.
3. Walk straight on 17th St NW.
4. Walk approx. 1 block S on 17th St NW.
5. Turn left on I St NW.
6. Walk a short distance E on I St NW.
7. Turn right on Connecticut Ave NW.
8. Walk approx. 1 block S on Connecticut Ave NW.
9. Bear right on Jackson Pl NW.
10. Walk approx. 1 block S on Jackson Pl NW.
11. Turn left on Pennsylvania Ave NW.
12. Walk approx. 1 block E on Pennsylvania Ave NW.
— Reverse Directions back to Farragut North
Republican Congressional candidate Ron McNeiltold the school children about Islam “That religion is against everything America stands for. The freedom and liberty and if you girls who are out here were Muslims today you don’t have the rights that you have as American citizens and Christians. You’ve got a separate religion and it’s plan is to destroy our way of life and our lives then you’ve got to think differently about it.”
Florida: Congressional candidate Ron McNeil tells children that Islam is "against everything America stands for" (Photo: Ron McNeil for Congress Web Site)
Remarking on the planned 51 Park Place Islamic Center, Ron McNeil also sought to have Christians “walk” on the planned Islamic center, stating “I’m totally against it. If I had my way it’d be pretty much over my dead body to build a mosque there. The Muslims will have that place to gloat about for years if they get their way and it was the Muslim religion that caused the problems we had on 911. It was extremist. It probably didn’t represent their exact religion but the very fact they want to build something right there in the shadows of ground zero is ridiculous.” (Actually, it is two NYC blocks away on Park Place.)
Others have condemned his views asking him “when was the last time you actually read the Bill of Rights?” And another stated “I’m a Republican, but I will never vote for a man that tells teenagers a mosque should be… built nine stories under the ground so citizens and Christians can walk above it. I am a Christian and a Republican and I still find his speech choice of words disgusting for a man running for public office.
No other candidates at the Candidate forum had any remarks on the subject.
However, one of the children in attendance spoke up to challenge Congressional candidate Ron McNeil’s views.
Student Doug Reed challenged Ron McNeil’s comments, publicly asking McNeil “What gives you the right or the federal government the right to tell Americans that they cannot build a institution or building in a certain place?”
When McNeil replied “That religion is against everything America stands for.” Doug Reed asked a different question “Where is it our place to tell them that they’re wrong and that their religion is bad. It’s not our place as Christians, I believe.”
Florida Student Doug Reed Challenges Anti-Islam Congressional Candidate Asking What Gives Anyone The Right to Deny Freedoms or Say Someone Else's Religion is Wrong (Screenshot WJHG Video)
Congressional candidate Ron McNeil replied “It’s our place as Christians to stand up for the word of God and what the bible says.”
The Northwest Florida News also reported the comments of Bay County Islamic Society spokesperson, Hashem Mubarak, where he told the news that “If we’re going to say hateful statements, inflammatory statements for political reasons, this is wrong and this is actually against the American values. Christianity actually is for love and understanding and he does not apparently represent that with what he said. I really demand that Mr. McNeil make an apology of what he said or we would be happy to discuss with him and have a dialogue and maybe educate him.”
At another one of the 9/11 attack sites, the Pentagon in Washington DC, a daily Islamic prayer service has been held in November 2002 by the Office of the Pentagon Chaplain, whose mission is “meeting the spiritual needs of the Pentagon.” Neither of the Pentagon chaplains are Muslim, and according to the AP, the Friday Muslim worship service at the Pentagon is ” run by an imam from a local mosque.”
Mission of Office of Pentagon Chapel (Photo: Pentagon Web Site)
At the Pentagon Interfaith Chapel, it has a stain glass window, inscribed “United in Memory,” designed by a veteran. But the memory of 9/11 is intended to be unifying for the armed forces of all religions, races, and identity groups, rather than a source of division.
Pentagon Chapel Near 9/11 Attack: "United in Memory" as All Religions Worship Together (Photo: Pentagon Web Site)
AP reports: “Muslims pray daily at Pentagon’s 9/11 crash site.” In the AP report, it states that: “Americans are debating bitterly the proposed building of a mosque near New York’s ground zero, but for years Muslims have prayed quietly at the Pentagon only 80 feet from where another hijacked jetliner struck. Pentagon officials say that no one in the military or the families of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has ever protested. They describe the 100-seat chapel as a peaceful place where some 300 to 400 Pentagon employees come to pray each week. The chapel hosts separate weekly worship services for Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Mormons, Protestants, Catholics and Episcopalians.”
The goal of the Pentagon chaplain office, which runs the chapel, is to ‘provide assistance and support for the religious, spiritual and morale needs of all service members and employees,’ said Army spokesman George Wright. In 2001, hijacked American Airlines flight 77 flew into the west side of the Pentagon, plowing through three of the building’s five office ‘rings’ and killing 184 people. As part of its massive renovation and to honor victims in the attack, the Pentagon opened the chapel in November 2002.”
“The chapel includes no religious symbols, except Catholic holy water at the door; religious accouterments are brought in for various worship services. Wright said that Muslim employees can gather for a daily prayer service Monday through Thursday, and attend a Friday worship service run by an imam from a local mosque. Two in-house Army chaplains run the chapel, neither of which are Muslim. Col. Daniel Minjares is associated with the Church of the Nazarene; his deputy, Lt. Col. Ken Williams, is Southern Baptist. Wright said the chaplains provide religious services for their denomination, but can provide services such as grief and marital counseling to employees of any faith.”
“Police found the Ministry of the Interior in the deposed government led by “Hamas” movement in the Gaza Strip yesterday morning on a child of 12-year-old hanged and hung in a tree in the courtyard of her family’s home in the town of Qarara north-east of Khan Yunis in the southern sector.”
“Police began investigating the murder of the girl child that her body was transferred to Nasser hospital in the city, to see if they committed suicide or hanged.And raised the murder of innocent child a great discontent in the sector, especially in the month of Ramadan. Abound in the sector female homicide against the backdrop of allegation to tarnish the “family honor”. Alleges that the families of murdered often they committed suicide to avoid falling under the law, knowing that the death sentence against the background of “family honor” of between six months to three years.”
The Indonesian Jakarta Post reported on the rejection of the violence against the Christian Church by Muslim leaders. In the Jakarta Post report stated that “Hasyim Muzadi from 40-million-strong Islam organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) deplored Tuesday the assault on religious freedom.”
At Interfaith Conference, International Conference of Islamic Scholars (ICIS) secretary-general and Nahdlatul Ulama former chairman Hasyim Muzadi (center) Speaks (Photo: JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
The Indonesian Jakarta Post reported that Indonesia Islamic leader Hasyim Muzadi said: ‘We reserve our rights as citizens to practice our beliefs. No one can forbid us to worship, including the government, let alone our own community,’ Hasyim said during a dialogue between Muslims and Christians at the HKBP Church on Tuesday. Hasyim said that people should differentiate between worship activities and administrative issues such as legal licenses. ‘For administrative matters, let’s leave [licensing] to the congregation and the government,’ he said. ‘[Regarding worship activities], the government should protect followers of any religion so they can perform their rituals without the threat of violence.’ He called on diverse communities in the neighborhood to learn more about religious tolerance. ‘Let’s build together a harmonious inter-religious life,’ he said.”
International Conference of Islamic Scholars (ICIS) secretary-general and Nahdlatul Ulama former chairman Hasyim Muzadi
The Post also reported that “As many as 1,500 members of Solidarity Forum of Interfaith Harmony (FSKUB) staged a rally Sunday in front of the State Palace, expressing their frustration over a series of religious violence recently in related to a construction of a religious house. ‘It is an appropriate expression from a minority group which has been conflicted with a certain public organization,’ the Islamic Liberal Network (JIL) leader Ulil Abshar Abdala told kompas.com.”
Indonesia Muslim Activist Ulil Abshar Abdalla Respects Christian Frustrations in Seeking Religious Freedom (Photo: Wikipedia)
The Post reported that the assembly was “an act of peaceful protest against the state’s silence toward the persecution of religious minorities.”‘
Indonesian Muslims joined the protest with the Indonesian Christians seeking religious freedom, including Muslim legislator Eva Kusuma Sundari.
Indonesia Muslim Legislator Eva Kusuma Sundari Stands in Solidarity with Christians for Religious Freedom (Photo: Facebook)
According to the Jakarta Post, “Legislator Eva Kusuma Sundari, who joined the protest, condemned the government’s lack of action in handling the matter. ‘I urge the President to show his leadership. Authorities, including the police, the Home Ministry and the Religious Affairs Ministry, will follow their leader. And they are the actors who can solve this issue.. The President did not dare act because the Islam Defenders Front [FPI] was formed and nurtured by his seniors in the military. Police were also too scared. This is the last term of his presidency; he should dare to raise his voice to overcome this problem.”
In Indonesia, protests and attacks on Christian churches continue to escalate. On Sunday, August 8, 2010, an attack on members of a Christian Church in the Bekasi, West Java area ended in violence. The attack was made on worshipers at the HKBP church in Pondok Indah Timur at Mustika Jaya district, Bekasi, West Java, before worship services had started at 9 AM that Sunday. Reports stated that about 20 individuals were injured, most of whom were women worshipers.
One Jakarta Post reported stated, “‘The police did not do anything when the mob started throwing stones and hitting and kicking us,’ HKBP Filadelfia minister Pietersen Purba said. However, Bekasi Police chief Adj. Comr. chief Iman Sugianto blamed the victims. ‘We have warned the congregation not to hold their services in the area, because residents do not want them to do so, but they did not follow our instructions,’ Iman told The Jakarta Post.”
Islam Defender Front (FPI) Protesters (Photo: Jakarta Post)
According to multiplereports by the Jakarta Post, HKBP church members were attacled by a mob which included members of the “Islam Defender Front (FPI),” while Indonesian police were “unable” to stop the attacks. One Jakarta Post report states “‘We hadn’t started our church service when in all of a sudden FPI masses occupied the church service location by forcing their way through police barricade,’ Hendrik Siagian, a guide of HKBP church members, said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com. Hundreds of police officers had actually been on a stand-by to help secure the church service, but they turned out to be unable to stop the FPI masses from entering the church service area.”
According to the Jakarta Globe, “The HKBP’s church house was sealed by authorities in June as part of an agreement between Bekasi Mayor Mochtar Muhammad and Murhali Barda, the leader of the Bekasi chapter of the FPI.”
The Indonesian Jakarta Post reported on the protests and violence against the house of worship on August 8, 2010, that “For months, Christians in the industrial city of Bekasi have been warned against worshipping on a field that houses their shuttered church. They’ve arrived to find human feces dumped on the land and sermons have been interrupted by demonstrators chanting ‘Infidels!’ and ‘Leave now!’But last week, tensions finally exploded. Twenty worshippers were met by 300 Islamic hard-liners, many of whom hurled shoes and water bottles before pushing past a row of riot police. The mob chased down and punched several members of the group. ‘The constitution guarantees our right to practice our religion!’ Yudi Pasaribu of the Batak Christian Protestant Church said, vowing to return every Sunday until their request for a place of worship, made more than two years ago, is approved. ‘And we want to do that on our own property, in our own church.'”
“In a rare show of force, hundreds of police showed up to protect the Batak Christians on Aug. 8. But they made little effort to stop FPI members as they got increasingly vitriolic. ‘The Batak Christians deserve to be stabbed to death,’ yelled Murhali Barda, who heads the FPI chapter in Bekasi. ‘If they refuse to go home we are ready to fight.’ An argument broke out between Barda and three female members of the congregation. The hard-liners shoved and started punching them. All the while, men chanted from a truck and clerics made speeches saying ‘Leave. … We will not let you perform prayers here!’ The crowd, made up largely of children, cheered in response: ‘God is great!'”
On August 13, COMPASS news reported that police and government official joined forces with a mob “to close a church in North Sumatra Province on July 30, with church leaders forced to promise never to hold services at the site.” COMPASS reports that “The Rev. Leritio Panjaitan of the Binanga HKBP (Huria Kristen Batak Protestant) Church on the Gunung Tua-Sibuhan Highway in Siboris Dolok Village, Sipirok, North Sumatra Province said government officials and mobs threatened to burn the facility if worship continued there. Pastor Panjaitan said rejection of the church was aided by the presence of a Quranic boarding school, Darul Hasnah Madrassa, which appeared in the vicinity six months ago. ‘I have received information that the leader of that madrassa [Islamic school], Dr. Gong Matua Siregar, has incited citizens to reject the presence of the church,’ Pastor Panjaitan said. She said that a local government official admitted to her that the head of the madrassa had pressured him to close the church. Pastor Panjaitan added that the church had applied for a building and worship permit long ago but that authorities had not acted on it, and that all necessary administrative requirements had been fulfilled. ‘At this time, we haven’t decided if we are going to move to another place,’ Pastor Panjaitan said. ‘But temporarily, the congregation will worship by moving from house to house.'”
On the Binanga HKBP web site, a leader is quoted as stating “The government should be put in order regarding the use or development permit places of worship such as church building, but no one in this world who can arrange or give permission on a person’s right to worship according to the belief that he had because someone may do his worship of God that he worship, anywhere, anytime with no one is entitled to regulate, license or banned it because it was the essential rights of human and religious rights.”
Image from HKBP Sipirok Web Site (http://hkbpsipirok.blogspot.com/)
The Indonesian Jakarta Post previously reported that Indonesians of diverse religions “demanded that President Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono take a firmer stand in the name of the nation’s credo, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity) by taking action to stop attacks on churches.” Izzan Budi, a student at Parahyangan Catholic University in Bandung, West Java told the Jakarta Post that “Recent attacks on church congregations may be too small an issue for the President to take notice of and respond to, but it reflects the tip of the iceberg of a larger looming conflict that threatens religious harmony in the country.” One Jakarta Post commentator, reflecting on the differences between the actions of the Indonesian president on the church protests and the U.S. president on the Park Place Islamic center debate, asks “Can we trade Yudhoyono for Obama?”
The Indonesian Jakarta Post reported on the rejection of the violence against the Christian Church by Muslim leaders. In the Jakarta Post report stated that “Hasyim Muzadi from 40-million-strong Islam organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) deplored Tuesday the assault on religious freedom.”
Interfaith Christian and Muslim Leaders Speak Out for Religious Tolerance, Freedom, Condemn Attacks - International Conference of Islamic Scholars (ICIS) secretary-general and Nahdlatul Ulama former chairman Hasyim Muzadi (center) Speaks (Photo: JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
The Indonesian Jakarta Post reported that Indonesia Islamic leader Hasyim Muzadi said: ‘We reserve our rights as citizens to practice our beliefs. No one can forbid us to worship, including the government, let alone our own community,’ Hasyim said during a dialogue between Muslims and Christians at the HKBP Church on Tuesday. Hasyim said that people should differentiate between worship activities and administrative issues such as legal licenses. ‘For administrative matters, let’s leave [licensing] to the congregation and the government,’ he said. ‘[Regarding worship activities], the government should protect followers of any religion so they can perform their rituals without the threat of violence.’ He called on diverse communities in the neighborhood to learn more about religious tolerance. ‘Let’s build together a harmonious inter-religious life,’ he said.”
On August 16, 2010, a group of around “1,200 people supported a Sunday service near the National Monument Park in Central Jakarta, in an act of peaceful protest against the state’s silence toward the persecution of religious minorities. “Legislator Eva Kusuma Sundari, who joined the protest, condemned the government’s lack of action in handling the matter. ‘I urge the President to show his leadership. Authorities, including the police, the Home Ministry and the Religious Affairs Ministry, will follow their leader. And they are the actors who can solve this issue.. The President did not dare act because the Islam Defenders Front [FPI] was formed and nurtured by his seniors in the military. Police were also too scared. This is the last term of his presidency; he should dare to raise his voice to overcome this problem.”
The Indonesian Jakarta Post also reported that the “Islamic Community Forum (FUI), with which FPI is affiliated, was reportedly behind the fifth attack on the HKBP Pondok Timur congregation last week, leaving up to 20 people injured. Rev. Erwin Marbun from the solidarity forum urged the government to take action to settle any religious issues, including the HKBP Pondok Timur case. ‘We want a really fair solution, not just moving the wound. Bekasi administration has in fact already offered a substitute site for the HKBP Pondok Timur congregation, but it is too far away for them. The government has to act as a mediator for both sides,’ he said.”
The Indonesian Jakarta Post reports that “Many uneducated and poor people join hard-line religious or ethnic-based mass organizations to be part of a collective identity, experts say. Acts of violence carried out by hard-line groups have escalated around Greater Jakarta, with churches, residents perceived as non-native Jakartans and opposing gangs becoming prime targets.”
The Indonesian Jakarta Post reported in an editorial “Religious intolerance and Indonesia’s future” by Elwin Tobing that “Tempo magazine in 2006 reported that between 1996 and 2005, about 180 churches were destroyed, burned or closed by force. The recent attack on HKPB church members in Bekasi and the forced closure of more than two dozen churches in West Java have added to the growing list. Compared to only five similar cases for a half century, from 1945 to 1996, the recent number appears very disturbing. No society can survive long where religious intolerance is permitted to thrive.”
The editorial also states“religious freedom, which encompasses the freedom for others to practice their religious beliefs and build their house of worship, constitutes the very heart of human rights.” (emphasis added).
Surely this is a global message that applies not just to Indonesia, but also to America, and all of the world.
Responsible for Equality and Liberty (R.E.A.L.) supports our universal human rights to freedom of religion, freedom of worship, and freedom of conscience for all people of all faiths. Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
We urge those who promote hate and intolerance to unburden the hate from their hearts.
Yewangoe Andreas (Andrew Yewangoe), Chairman of the Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI), recently spoke in support of religious freedom and freedom of worship for people of all faiths in an interview with BBC Indonesia. In the interview, Yewangoe Andreas condemned an assault on a Christian church in West Java and efforts to deny others freedom of religion and worship. Furthermore, in the translated interview, the Christian leader states that those who seek to deny freedom of religion and freedom of worship for all people do not respect that nation’s Constitution.
BBC's Heyder Affan spoke with Chairman of PGI Andreas Yewangoe, the end of July in Jakarta (Photo: BBC)
“Government crackdown against violators of the rights of freedom of worship is the key to stop the attack places of worship, such beliefs Chairman Indonesian Communion of Churches, PGI, the Reverend Andrew Yewangoe. In a BBC interview to show people of Indonesia, the Reverend Andrew Yewangoe said his heart was always disturbed each rights violations that happened to freedom of religious worship. Andreas Yewangoe, 65 years, responding deeply assault case of a church in Bekasi, West Java, recently, which he termed as an example of indecisiveness local government officials. “And when there is a conflict (between people of different religions) is addressed with a less strict measures, it actually indirectly, the government rather not appreciate that freedom,” he asserted. According to the old priest who engaged in the activities of this inter-religious dialogue, local government officials should be able to find a way out when there is a case involving the rights of freedom of worship of this run. ‘Not just for Christians, but in other places if there are Muslims or Hindus, Buddhists into trouble. They must facilitate and find a way out if there is a problem,’ said Nobel degree in theology at the Vrije University, Amsterdam, 1987. Andreas was born in West Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara, the worry if problems like this allowed to affect the authority of the state. ‘And when this church attacks continue to occur, it is not impossible state authority would be undermined by these groups,’ he explained. In latest developments, PGI has been reported this church attack the problem to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, after he felt the report previous cases are not taken seriously by the authorities under it.
“Although the group that attacked the church in Bekasi cited using the attributes of Islam, Andreas denied if the case of Islamic-Christian confrontation. ‘We do not want this happening as if the conflict between Christians and non-Christians,’ said Petronella Lejloh husband, this. According to his reasoning, the relationship between Muslims and Christians has been almost no problems. ‘What then is the problem, is when other aspects of entry, such as political or economic aspects,’ said the father of two children who claimed to have a Muslim family. Instead, he referred to the perpetrator’s right to religious freedom as ‘a person lacking respect for the constitution’ or ‘does not respect the constitution.’ This he made clear repeatedly since the rights of religious freedom in Indonesia has been secured and protected by the Constitution of 1945.”
…
“As supreme leader of the organization Fellowship of Churches of Indonesia, PGI, which collects about 80 percent of Protestants in Indonesia, Andreas claimed to have established communication with leaders of other religious organizations. ‘Not only limited dialogue, but also personal relations with leaders of intimate enough Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Muhammadiyah, and other Islamic organizations,’ he said.”
In Pakistan, Christian woman Rubina Bibi and her 1 and 1/2 year old son Yashwa have been freed from prison after Additional and Session Judge Mohammad Asghar Khan in Wazirabad district set her free in Gujranwala, Punjab. She has now arrived in Lahore, according to various Christian mediasources. On July 19, 2010, two Pakistan Christian brothers were shot to death in the street in broad daylight on the Faisalband Court House steps, after being exonerated of blasphemy charges, which are often used to falsely accuse others to settle personal grudges or to oppress religions minorities.
Pakistan Christian woman Rubina Bibi and her 1 and 1/2 year old son Yashwa Freed From Prision (Photo: COMPASS)
According to the CLASS press release, “A Pakistani Christian woman and her infant son, who spent nearly six months in prison on a false charge of blasphemy, have won a bid for their freedom. Gujranwala session judge, Mohammad Asghar Khan, yesterday [Wednesday, 11 August, 2010] dropped charges against Rubina Bibi who had been accused of blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed by a local Muslim shopkeeper following a dispute over a food product (butter) she had bought and tried to return.”
“Ms. Bibi was arrested in March and would have faced the mandatory death penalty if convicted under section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code. The 25-year-old mother of three spent almost six months in Gujranwala jail with her one and a half year old son, Joshua, but was released late yesterday following the judge’s ruling. Ms. Bibi’s accuser had recently offered to settle the matter out of court if she converted to Islam.”
“CLAAS has been providing legal aid for Ms. Bibi since her arrest, and supporting her family throughout the ordeal. She was denied bail several times and Muslim extremists groups reportedly tried to influence the outcome of the case against her. Ms. Bibi and her family, including her husband and two other children, have been moved to an unknown location for their safety.”
“Nasir Saeed, Director of CLAAS-UK said, ‘Although CLAAS has a life-saving track record, in this case I am very happy as Rubina is only 25 years old and even her one and half year old son was imprisoned with her, which was very unfair. We are grateful to everybody who has been praying for Rubina’s release. Rubina has been cleared of blasphemy charges in a very short period of time and we all know that normally these cases take years and years to be settled.'”
“CLAAS campaigns for Pakistan’s blasphemy laws to be amended and ultimately repealed, as they are often used to settle personal grudges against Christians and other religious minorities.”
Pakistan Christian woman Rubina Bibi and her 1 and 1/2 year old son Yashwa Freed From Prision (Photo: Continental News, COMPASS)
