Malaysia: Another church vandalised in Malaysia — 11th church attacked
— Grace Global Prayer Church
Year: 2010
Egypt: US State Dept: US concerned at Coptic Christian arrests in Egypt
Egypt: US State Dept: US concerned at Coptic Christian arrests in Egypt
— Acting US State Dept Spokesman Mark Toner: “The United States is deeply concerned by today’s arrests of individuals traveling to the Egyptian town of Naga Hammadi to express support for those tragically killed and injured during’ the celebrations”
— “According to publicly available evidence, those arrested included bloggers, democracy and religious freedom advocates”
Egypt: Voice of the Copts Advises Against Egypt Travel
Egypt: Voice of the Copts – “due to the gravity of Egyptian instability, Voice of the Copts advises anyone planning to visit Egypt to cancel his/her trip.”
Egypt security court to try suspects in Copt killings
Greece: Arsonists attack Crete synagogue
Greece: Arsonists attack Crete synagogue
— Jerusalem Post: “The Etz-Hayyim Synagogue in the Greek city of Hania on the island of Crete has been targeted by arsonists for the second time in three weeks, police said on Sunday.”
We Have A Responsibility
We Have A Responsibility
August 28, 2009
Robert E. Lee Memorial, Arlington, Virginia
(Video Link)
We are here today at the Robert E. Lee Memorial to remember a historic day, August 28, 1963. On that historic day, 46 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and thousands of black Americans gathered together down the hill at the Lincoln Memorial calling for the equal rights and liberty that were guaranteed to them in our founding Declaration of Independence that defines who and what we are as a nation.
While Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said on August 28, 1963 – “I Have A Dream,” on this August 28 – we must say “We Have A Responsibility”… to ensure equality, liberty, universal human rights, and a commitment of love to one another. We have a responsibility to rebuild our society with a commitment to making the human rights of equality and liberty our first priority, never our last.
We have a responsibility to allow our nation to heal from the divisions that we once had, and put an end to the unhealthy practices of those who seek to reopen old wounds that should have healed decades ago. We have a responsibility to challenge those who seek to parade about and wax nostalgic over our past differences and our hate towards one another. We must heal as one nation, undivided, and indivisible – with common bonds of human rights and human dignity. The pride we must seek is in our future together in shared equality and liberty.
We are not North and South, free states and slave states, abolitionists and slave masters, Union and Confederacy – that war has been over since August 20, 1866. We are only one nation, one people, one flag, and one United States of America. While our history of the past is important, what truly matters is the future that we will make together.
We have a responsibility to our children and to our children’s children – to offer them something new to be nostalgic about – not over our past differences – but about how we were willing to grow and mature as a people and nation, so that we could release our past differences, and promote symbols of unity, of equality, and of liberty together.
We have a responsibility to challenge those who would use symbols of division to continue to spread hate and to challenge our shared values of equality and liberty. Reverend Timothy James of the Disciples of Christ recently stated that “for African Americans the confederate flag is a system of terror, oppression, separation, and racism.” We shouldn’t need to be reminded of this. We have seen the use of the Confederate symbol of division used over and over again in our nation. We have seen the Confederate symbol of division used by the Ku Klux Klan. We have seen the Confederate symbol of division used by white supremacist organizations. Most recently, we have seen the Confederate symbol of division in the tragic terrorist attack in June on the Holocaust Memorial Museum. In Virginia and throughout our nation today, there are over 90 Neo-Confederate hate groups that use that symbol of our past divisions to spread hate and to attack our shared values of equality and liberty.
We have a responsibility to reach out for our future together. We have a responsibility to urge those who cling to our divisions of the past to heal and join us as a united and free people, with equality, liberty, and justice for all.
We have a responsibility to make such unity on equality and liberty a priority in our lives and in our children’s lives.
We have seen the need for such a renewed priority to challenge the racial hate that continues to be unashamedly promoted in public platforms in Virginia.
We have seen the need for such a renewed priority for equality to challenge the spreading of racial hate to children here in Virginia.
We have seen the need for a renewed priority of building our common bonds to challenge the growth of groups that promote the values of the Confederacy here in Virginia today.
Our children deserve better than this. Our nation must be responsible for better than this.
We need to decide – right now – that we will not let the disease of our past divisions and of racial hate to spread to another generation.
We need to decide – this day – that will once and for all bring an end to this disease and to this war among ourselves, and embrace the peace, the harmony, the justice, and the equality – that must be the legacy that we hand down to the next generation.
Forty-six years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood down the hill and spoke of his dream. Now it is time for us to make that dream our responsibility and our legacy as a nation.
To do so, we need a new commitment to symbols that will unite, rather than divide us. We need a new symbol of human rights that all those who come to our nation’s capital will see up on the hill when they stand where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood forty-six years ago today. We need a symbol that does more than remind us of our past, but points to our future together.
So we propose, on this historic day, that right here where are standing now at the Robert E. Lee Memorial – we create a new monument.
We propose that we create a new monument not to any man or to any woman – but a monument to every man and every woman. We propose that we create a new monument that doesn’t recognize just one race or ethnicity, but a monument to every race and every ethnicity. We propose the creation of a new monument not to any human being, but a monument to all human beings. We propose the creation of a new monument that truly represents the very idea of America itself – a commitment to equality, liberty, and universal human rights for all people.
We have a responsibility.
We have a responsibility to all those who need hope and inspiration.
We have a responsibility to all those who seek justice.
We have a responsibility to set an example for our children, their children, and the world.
We have a responsibility to make certain that all those who come to our nation’s capital never fail to understand the idea of America that is greater than all of our leaders and history combined.
We have a responsibility and a historic opportunity to challenge our government to create a new monument on this hill overlooking Washington DC – so that all those who visit can look up towards the sky and say – THAT is what America is really about – our universal human rights of equality and liberty.
We have a responsibility to Equality And Liberty.
Why the Islam4UK Ban Misses the Point
The UK government has “banned” the anti-democracy extremist group Islam4UK.
Not suprisingly, Islam4UK’s Anjem Choudary seeks to simply rename their group, and plans to continue the extremist promotions of the group under another name.
This was predictable. Some have called for futher actions, including removing the British citizenship from Anjem Choudary.
I think there must be another focus.
Even if you strip this one person of their citizenship, silence them temporarily, you will still not have begun to deal with the real issue. Too many focus on Anjem Choudary as the “most hated man in Britain.” How does this further a useful dialogue on human rights?
Of course, it doesn’t, because too many have not yet realized that defense of our universal human rights are the strongest offense against any extremist ideology and their adherents.
No matter what the UK government does with Islam4UK and Anjem Choudary, there will be another and another and another to take their place. Muting, imprisonment, even hate, does not counter ideas. In a struggle of ideas, you can’t use counterterrorism tactics, you can’t use gag orders, and you can’t use demonizing to effectively challenge ideas. Even if the ideas are ones of extremism and hate.
You need to fight ideas with other ideas.
In July 2008, I met with the UK Home Office RICU’s representative in Washington DC. I urged him to reconsider RICU’s approach, and learn from the U.S. human rights movement in challenging white supremacism in their country during the 1960s. I believe that extremism, like white supremacism, must be acknowledged as an identity-based supremacist ideology that defies equality, defies liberty, and defies our universal human rights. The lesson to learn here is that we must be consistent in how we approach any supremacist ideology in the public, the media, and the government. That is the thing I believe too many still have not yet learned.
We need to fight extremism and supremacism by defending our universal human rights, honestly, freely, openly – and fearlessly.
I believe that our goal must be to be consistently Responsible for Equality And Liberty.
Shen Yun: Performing for Human Rights and Freedom in China
The Shen Yun Performing Arts group will be making a human rights statement through dance, music, and art at the Washington DC Kennedy Center as part of its continuing 2010 world tour throughout the United States, Canada, UK, Europe, and the world.
The upcoming Washington DC performance from January 19 through 24 will provide a show which combines such dance (traditional Chinese dance, ethnic and folk dance, story-based dance), music (a live orchestra and solo musician singers), and art of incredible costumes and backdrops for hours of spellbinding entertainment. The Shen Yun Performing Arts group has been entertaining audiences around the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The Shen Yun Performing Arts show’s focus is on entertaining its audience and giving many their first exposure to such traditional and ethnic dance and music from China.
Video of Shen Yun Performing Arts Audience Reactions
新唐人電視台 http://www.ntdtv.com
While the majority of the Shen Yun show focuses on Chinese cultural and ethnic stories, music, and dance, other more contemporary story-based performances, included as part of the Shen Yun performance, also have inspirational messages on the importance of our shared universal human rights and human dignity. As one individual told me, “this is how they express themselves on human rights – through their music and through their dance.”
The totalitarian oppression of 1.3 billion by the Communist Chinese government is hardly something any human being could ignore in any legitimate portrayal of Chinese life and culture. Portraying stories about life in Communist China, the Shen Yun Performing Arts show includes inspirational stories of how Chinese people are oppressed but find the strength to have courage to be true to themselves and their beliefs.
They include performances praising the Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) group’s goals of “truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.” The Falun Dafa have been oppressed, imprisoned, and tortured in Communist China for their beliefs. While such stories were told in dance, the message was very clear, as dancers with jackets appliqued with the Communist hammer and sickle emblem (recognized universally as representing Communism) attacked dancers representing Chinese families and those who sought freedom of expression and belief. One dance tells the story of a family divided, beaten, and a mother killed for her beliefs by Communist thugs, but whose family’s beliefs are ultimately rewarded in the afterlife. Another story tells of an activist who is beaten by Communist thugs for displaying the sign “Falun Dafa is good,” but who remains courageous. These stories mirror the real life oppression of the Chinese people in Communist China today, a story that the world must hear, and a story that the world must never forget.
While Chinese people with a wide variety of backgrounds, religions, and beliefs suffer in over 1,000 Laogai forced labor concentration camps today (holding 6.8 million), with continuing forced, coerced abortion and abandonment of its children, mistreatment of human beings, and with the oppression of freedoms for Chinese people of all beliefs, any legitimate Chinese performance on human life in China today must not fail to mention human rights.
Having seen this performance ourselves, R.E.A.L. is pleased to commend the Shen Yun Performing Arts on their artistry, talent, and their unceasing courage to honestly portray Chinese culture, Chinese life, Chinese hopes, and Chinese challenges to the world to see. We urge others to see the Shen Yun Performing Arts show for themselves, with upcoming shows in 2010 in many cities in the United States. The Shen Yun Performing Arts also plans 2010 performances in Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland, Denmark, Holland, Norway, Czech Republic, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, and New Zealand.
Some arts reviewers have been critical of Shen Yun’s inclusion of such story-based dances and music, which are the vast minority of their three hour show on Chinese cultural dance and music. One arts reviewer has been critical that contemporary Chinese songs were “peppered with words like ‘oppression’ and ‘injustice.'” I ask such critics, would they have also been critical of a Jewish performing arts group in the 1930s that included stories about the oppression of Jews under Hitler? When did free people start dismissing the performing arts when they point out oppression and injustice?
Such criticism by some of the limited and graceful inclusion of human rights topics in the Shen Yun performances is appalling. What type of artistic expression demands that we can talk about oppression and injustice against all people in every form of entertainment, unless it happens to about oppression and injustice towards the 1.3 billion people in Communist China, one fifth of the world’s population?
One can only imagine if arts reviewers had criticized more specific and more directed human rights messages in entertainment such as Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator,” “Schindler’s List,” the music of the American civil rights movement,” “A Raisin in the Sun,” and “To Kill A Mockingbird,” among many examples In fact, history has shown that human rights issues continue to find their way into every form of media – theater, movies, music, and television. The Shen Yun Performing Arts cultural dance and music performance demonstrates that there are no national boundaries to this growing trend of representing human rights in entertainment as part of human expression.
In every form of human expression, from dance to YouTube videos, from music to poems, from books to blogs, from Twitters to protests in the streets, the march for human freedom and human rights presses on.
The choice is not whether love, human rights, and human freedom will ultimately win over hate, supremacism, and totalitarianism. The only real choice is the one we will make as to what we will be doing when the great wave of human rights movements are sweeping the world.
As those who are oppressed sing with hope and fearlessness for their beliefs, will we listen?
The Shen Yun Performing Arts group is counting on your conscience to hear their message.
The Shen Yun web page for the upcoming Washington DC performance, also urges “For all press, advertising, sponsorship, and ticketing inquiries related to these performances, please call 202-449-9480, or email dc_tickets@ntdtv.com”
Human Rights Activists Celebrate a Night of Chinese Culture of Freedom
On January 2, 2010, R.E.A.L. supporters and other human rights activists from the Voice of the Copts, Pakistan Christian Congress, and Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) attended the Shen Yun Performing Arts show in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Epoch Times reported on this and on our comments at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music.
I accompanied Falun Gong’s Lisa Tao and others from the Washington DC area to the Shen Yun performance in Philadelphia. At R.E.A.L.’s December 10, 2009 press conference at the National Press Club on Human Rights Day, Lisa Tao and Jin Pang told of the torture of their families in Communist China because of their beliefs. Lisa told of her father was “tortured to death” by the Communist Chinese government, and of her own torture. Lisa told the press and the audience on December 10 how “I was also frequently beaten, and many times I was close to being beaten to death.” Jin Pang told of the imprisonment and torture of her mother and her aunt. Her mother and aunt were part of 10,000 Falun Gong supporters arrested during the Beijing Olympics. During the DC press conference, Lisa told of estimates that the Communist government has killed 80 million people, and she told of the countless others tortured, imprisoned, and abused by the Chinese Communist government.
But like during our protest of the 60th anniversary of the Communist Chinese government at the PRC embassy on September 30 (October 1 Beijing time), Lisa does not tire or get discouraged. She glows from the power of hope, love, and freedom that her beliefs have taught her. It is something that the Communists could never take away from her. She found extraordinary strength in her faith and in her belief in human freedom.
On our trip together to see the Shen Yun performance in Philadelphia on a bitterly cold January night, she does not notice the chill, as we stopped together to get a fish sandwich at a nearby McDonalds. (Meantime, I am bundled with layers of clothing and a heavy sweater.)
Quietly, just like Lisa Tao regularly protests at the PRC embassy without publicity or the press, Lisa Tao is also waging a daily battle for human freedom in Communist China. That night Lisa shared with me her efforts that day alone in helping Chinese people to find the courage to stand up and defy the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). From the United States, Lisa calls people in Communist China on the telephone and tells them about Falun Dafa and also encourages them to stand up against the CCP. She is part of a “Quit CCP” movement of Chinese people who publicly renounce their support for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
That day alone, Lisa Tao convinced 10 new people to publicly Quit the CCP. Her efforts won’t be recorded in any local news media. But she has the quiet confidence and satisfaction of someone who is living the courage of her convictions.
The Quit CCP movement states that over 66 million Chinese have left the CCP since December 2004. Public individual statements are posted on the Quit CCP campaign web site. Every day, Lisa Tao and freedom fighters around the world seek to extend a hand to other Chinese people who are lifting themselves up out of oppression.
The march for freedom – for human beings around the world – is just getting started. But every day, there are new members joining that march and taking up the cause.
We share their commitment to universal human rights, and to being Responsible for Equality And Liberty.
Love Wins.
U.S.: Human Rights Activist Says Shen Yun an Eye Opener
U.S.: Human Rights Activist Says Shen Yun an Eye Opener — R.E.A.L’s Jeffrey Imm at Philadelphia, PA Shen Yun Performance
ChinaAid Urges Other American and Western Companies to Join Google Against Communist Censorship
ChinaAid’s Response to Google’s Stand for Internet Freedom
— “ChinaAid urges other American and Western companies join with Google in standing up against China media censorship, to preserve the basic human right to freedom of speech.”