Date: Tuesday 19 July 2005
Subj: Uzbekistan: Karimov's war for the status quo.
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal.
Uzbekistan is poised on the brink of disaster. President Islam Karimov is fighting a war for the status quo. The status quo however, involves government corruption and repression, resulting in poverty and absolutely misery for most of Uzbekistan's 88% Muslim population. Meanwhile, radical Islamic groups, both socialist and jihadist, entice disgruntled, disenfranchised, poverty-stricken Uzbeks with the promise that an Islamic state would provide them with justice. In the absence of any other option – there is no viable secular political opposition – Uzbek citizens are increasingly aligning themselves with radical political and militant Islamic groups which they see as their only hope as they rise up against their government. This is fast becoming a war between Islam and the status quo.
The only path likely to circumvent an Islamic revolution or a drawn-out and bloody civil war, the path of reform, is not on the agenda. While Uzbekistan's Islamic groups have demonstrated that they are prepared to use lethal force to advance their agenda, the Karimov regime has likewise demonstrated that it is prepared to use lethal force to crush dissent. (Link 1)
None of this bodes well for Uzbekistan's Christian minority who are unfortunately caught up on the edge of the whirlwind as Karimov represses all religion indiscriminately.
In 1999, the USA used its Freedom from Religious Persecution Act (which links religious liberty to trade and aid) to positive effect in Uzbekistan. Today however, Karimov's regime is finding support for its indiscriminate heavy-handed repression in the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) which was formed in 2001 to enable Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan to co-ordinate activities, in particular security. The SCO has since extended observer status to India, Pakistan and Iran. So why should Karimov be concerned with Western condemnation of its lack of transparent democracy, openness, free media, human rights and religious liberty? The SCO, which one commentator describes as "a huddling of harried elites", will support Karimov as he represses religion as violently and pervasively as he sees fit.
Christians in Uzbekistan are experiencing escalating persecution due to increasing Islamic zeal and increasing government repression of religion. Forum 18 has extensive coverage of the escalating persecution of the Church in Uzbekistan.
As the totalitarian Karimov finds supportive allies in Russia and China, Uzbekistan's Christians may find that their allies, Western advocates of religious liberty, are increasingly without leverage.
---------------------------------------------
THE POST-SOVIET STATUS QUO
Adolat Najimova, a EurasiaNet partner from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) writes, "The lives of ordinary Uzbeks are extremely difficult, with high unemployment, particularly in rural areas; there are villages in the country that are virtually devoid of males, in part a result of forced migration in pursuit of wages. Local observers cite widespread corruption, accusing government officials of enriching themselves at the expense of the public.
"The majority of Uzbeks try hard to make ends meet despite Uzbekistan's huge potential; it is among the largest producers of cotton and gold in the world. Meanwhile, most sectors of the economy are controlled by a small circle of people who might best be categorized into clan-like structures. The middle class has all but disappeared in Uzbekistan over the course of the past decade."
Najimova writes that human rights abuses are widespread, torture is systematic, and there is "no secular opposition in the country, and international observers have dismissed last December's parliamentary elections as a farce. The country's parliament remains firmly subordinate to the president. There is no truly independent media..." (Link 2)
Uzbekistan has clearly not yet lifted its roots out of the Soviet system.
UZBEKISTAN'S ISLAMIST THREAT: ISLAM vs STATUS QUO
The two main Islamic movements threatening the status quo in Uzbekistan are the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU; which is linked to al-Qaeda and fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001) and Hizb ut-Tahrir (which blends Wahhabi theology with Leninist structures and strategy).
The IMU, which has waged considerable terror in Uzbekistan, enacted its first suicide bombings in Uzbekistan, in the capital Tashkent, in March 2004. While Hizb ut-Tahrir claims to be non-violent, its strategy does aim to culminate in Islamic revolution. Some socialist Islamists have grown impatient with Hizb ut-Tahrir and have split to follow jihadist methods.
The finer details of Uzbekistan's Islamist movements are intensely complicated and information is conflicting. But the Islamist threat is not to be underestimated. These groups aim to establish an Islamic state across Central Asia and they thrive on instability and discontent. President Karimov is within reason to fear an Islamic revolution or a IMU coup in Tashkent. However, at the same time he is doing much to accelerate the likelihood of such an event.
President Karimov refuses to acknowledge (or does not care) that his policies are fueling social anger. In the absence of any openness or liberty, there is no opportunity to discuss, let alone vent. The regime's injustices, corruption, elitism, brutality and repression are catalysts for radicalisation within the majority Muslim population.
Reporter Adolat Najimova told EurasiaNet, "Some observers assert that the lack of avenues for grievances or participation in political and social life pushes many young Uzbek men and women to join the ranks of radical Islamic groups; the result can be a vicious circle: increasing numbers of people attracted to such religious groups promising to deliver justice, and increasingly harsh responses by the government." (Link 2)
REFORM IS THE ONLY VIABLE OPTION
Only reform, in particular openness and economic reform that eases social pain, offers any hope that civil war or Islamic revolution can be prevented in Uzbekistan. It is widely believed that that the genuine pro-Western reforms implemented in Kyrgyzstan after the "Tulip Revolution" (24 March 2005) will circumvent the Islamist threat there.
But unlike Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan was ripe for "revolution" (regime change). As Christopher Walker writes in a EurasiaNet Commentary (14 July 2005), "Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan in many ways represent the region's 'low hanging fruit' for political change. Each featured a comparatively open political environment, in which opposition parties could build popular support and agitate against the respective governments. In comparison, other states in the region -- most notably Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, which have stifled all forms of domestic dissent -- present far stiffer challenges for those seeking change." (Link 3)
This is why the situation in Uzbekistan is so diabolical. Uzbeks are highly agitated by increasing totalitarianism, repression and entrenched corruption, and by the lack of justice, human rights, freedoms, employment, information and well being. Uzbeks are desperate for change, but there is no viable secular opposition, only radical Islamists who are actively winning hearts and escalating their efforts.
Tanya Malcolm, a Central Asia analyst with the Eurasia Group, and Ganijon Kholmatov, an independent political analyst based in Osh (Kyrgyzstan) both told RFE/RL that escalating authoritarianism is fueling the extremism in Central Asia. Kholmatov believes a lessening of religious restrictions, and an opening up of public debate has lessened the appeal of banned, extremist groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir in Kyrgyzstan. (Link 4)
Unfortunately, while Karimov needs to implement economic reforms in Uzbekistan urgently to circumvent civil war or Islamic revolution, it appears he is determined to wage his war for the status quo. Karimov is bolstered by the fact that he has found Russia's President Vladamir Putin and China's President Hu Jintao (both using similar methods to fight the same war in their own nations) to be strong allies.
And Russia and China are bolstered by having the Karimov regime in Uzbekistan as an ally. As NATO has expanded to incorporate the Baltic states, and as the US has set up bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to fight the "War on Terror", Russia has become encircled. Russia and China are both unhappy about Washington's presence in their backyard. There will probably be some quid pro quo here – Russian and Chinese support for Karimov's authoritarian, human rights-abusing regime in exchange for Uzbek pressure to remove US bases and influence from Central Asia. And Uzbekistan does not need to fear that a US withdrawal from the region might leave a power vacuum for Islamists; Uzbekistan will appeal to the Shangai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) for support or assistance in dealing with any problem stemming from religion.
Most analysts believe that Karimov cannot win this war, as the protests will eventually get beyond the scope of government control. Chris Seiple writes for the Foreign Policy Research Institute, "If these demonstrations [as in Andijan, 12-13 May] were coordinated, possibly by extremists, they would be almost impossible for the government to put down. It required the presence of both the president and the interior minister to restore order in Andijan, and they cannot be everywhere at once." (Link 5)
The question is, how far will Russia or China go to preserve the status quo in Uzbekistan?
Uzbekistan is poised on the brink of disaster. A worst case scenario could have the Ferghana Valley looking like Chechnya. The stage is set for Christians in Uzbekistan to be facing an increasingly difficult season. We must pray for the Church, and pray for God to intervene and keep Uzbekistan from going over the edge.
- Elizabeth Kendal
Links
1) 'I don't know why they opened fire. They killed the unarmed citizens of Andijan'
Rustam Iskhakov in Andijan, Uzbekistan, 16 May 2005
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1484703,00.html
2) UZBEKISTAN: PRESIDENT KARIMOV’S LIMITED OPTIONS
EURASIA INSIGHT. By Adolat Najimova, 21 May 2005 http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/pp052105.shtml
3) THE FORMER SOVIET UNION’S NEXT WAVE OF DEMOCRATIZATION
Christopher Walker 14 July 2005, A EurasiaNet Commentary
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/civilsociety/articles/eav071405.shtml
4) Kyrgyzstan: Banned Hizb ut-Tahrir Faces Dwindling Appeal, Internal Divisions
By Gulnoza Saidazimova, Prague, 27 April 2005 (RFE/RL)
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/4/E01B2B2F-007E-4941A983-404CC2CA3D8D.html
5) UNDERSTANDING UZBEKISTAN
by Chris Seiple, 1 June 2005
http://www.fpri.org/enotes/20050601.centralasia.seiple.uzbekistan.html
SEE ALSO
Uzbekistan: Is The Country Headed For Regime Change?
By Jeffrey Donovan, RFE/RL, 30 June 2005
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/06/5f2fb89e-7b80-469e-826d-3e6956c475f4.html
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Monday, July 4, 2005
Zimbabwe: Operation Murambasvina
Date: Monday 4 July 2005
Subj: Zimbabwe: urban renewal or social engineering?
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal.
ZIMBABWE: URBAN RENEWAL OR SOCIAL ENGINEERING?
Is Operation Murambasvina an urban renewal project that has been disastrously mismanaged by an uncaring dictator, OR, an attempt at social engineering by a murderous regime that is prepared to use government-engineered famine to decimate its opposition? One thing is certain, the Church is being drawn into the front-line of this battle, and the cost could be high.
-----------------------------------------------
President Robert Mugabe has unleashed a tsunami-like wave of destruction upon Zimbabwe's urban poor, who also happen to be those who generally do not support Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF. The demolitions commenced on 23 May under the auspices of "Operation Murambasvina" (Operation Restore Order). It is estimated that some 300,000 homes and have been demolished, leaving some 1.5 million homeless. So far three children have died after being crushed in their homes. Others have died from exposure. More than 30,000 people have been arrested.
The world was quite oblivious to this tragedy until recently when images of bulldozers, security police, burning homes, and mothers and children sitting amidst rubble were secretly recorded and smuggled out of Zimbabwe and broadcast around the world. (This film and other images and articles can be found at: link 1)
The extent of the devastation is now well known. What is still unclear is what is REALLY happening in Zimbabwe, for other details indicate that this operation is indeed much more than a badly handled urban renewal project, and really is a Mugabe/Zanu-PF war against opponents. It appears that, in the light of the recent Velvet, Rose, Orange and Cedar "revolutions", Mugabe and his Zanu-PF are merely engaging in a little "revolution"-prevention, by shattering, impoverishing, dispersing and possibly even killing-off the opposition before it can get organised.
DIDYMUS MUTASA
Three years ago, when Didymus Mutasa was Zanu-PF's Secretary for Administration and in charge of food distribution, he commented regarding food distribution to the opposition, "We would be better off with only 6 million, with our own people who support the liberation struggle. We don’t want all these extra people."
In April 2005, after his election victory, Mugabe appointed Didymus Mutasa to be his Minister for State Security. This role puts Mutasa in charge of the Central Intelligence Organization (Mugabe’s secret police) and in charge of Operation Murambasvina. (Link 2)
On top of this, Mutasa's Ministry for State Security is now in charge of food distribution, although Mutasa claims that there are no food shortages in Zimbabwe. When a journalist recently challenged Mutasa with reports from Zimbabwean Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube that people are starving to death in Bulawayo, Mutasa replied, "The cleric [Ncube] has a psychological disease and he needs to have his head examined because he is a liar." (Link 3)
RE-EDUCATION CAMPS AND SPIES
Christina Lamb reports for Times On Line that those left homeless by Operation Murambasvina are being "herded into re-education camps and told they can have a housing plot only if they swear allegiance to the party of President Robert Mugabe. Those who refuse are loaded into trucks and dumped in remote rural areas, far from their own homes, where food is scarce. Human rights workers say they are being left to die in what they believe is a deliberate strategy by the Mugabe regime to exterminate opponents." (Link 4)
Another Zimbabwean writer comments, "Indeed there are stories coming out of people being trucked out to re-education camps. We saw such camps during the early stages of the farm invasions where farm workers were often exposed to this political re-education. Now it seems the same technique is being used on the urban poor. People are forced to recant and become members of the ruling party before they receive any guarantee of a new home or of food relief. It is almost impossible to credit that this is happening in Zimbabwe in the year 2005 but all the evidence seems to be pointing that way: a Pol Pot type operation to empty the towns and force the poorest of the poor back into the countryside where they will starve to death without government assistance, which we all know they will not get unless they chant the party slogans and sing the party songs." (Link 2)
Harare correspondent Dumisani Muleya said in an opinion piece published in "Business Day" (Johannesburg, 22 June), "The scenario is almost like a theatrical revival of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution or Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge rampage. The political philosophy and motives are similar." (Link 5)
Zim Online reports, "A Zim Online news crew touring Caledonia Farm, converted into a holding camp for thousands of families evicted from their shanty homes in and around Harare, met several agents of the state's dreaded spy Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). They said they were at the camp to 'monitor the mood' of the families and also to keep a record on who visits them especially non-governmental organizations or members of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party, adding that this was being done only as a security precaution." (Link 6)
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CHURCH DEEPLY IMPACTED AND THREATENED
----------------------------------------------------------------------
All church ministries that operate amongst the poor have been deeply impacted. Their clinics, shelters, orphanages and chapels have been bulldozed and torched along with everything else. (for two reports/testimonies: see link 7)
Churches are defying the orders of the regime and providing shelter, food and blankets to the homeless. The National Pastors Conference, representing over 100 Christian pastors, has demanded that President Mugabe "engage in a war against poverty and not against the poor". The immense scale of this humanitarian catastrophe is stretching the churches.
In 1945, Deitrich Bonhoeffer was executed in a German concentration camp for protesting the injustice and evil of Hitler's murderous Nazi regime. His commitment to discipleship compelled him to act, and he paid with his life. It might not be long before Christian leaders in Zimbabwe, in confronting the evil and inhumanity of the ruling powers, find themselves incarcerated or on a death-list on account of their principled Christian words or actions. It is indeed the Church's calling to be "yeast" in society. As Bonheoffer noted, "To flee into invisibility is to deny the call." As such, the Church's call puts it on a collision course with Mugabe and the Zanu-PF.
Bulawyo's courageous Archbishop Pius Ncube is a long-time open critic of the Mugabe regime. In an interview from the Vatican with Britain's Channel 4, he testified that Mugabe keeps him under tight surveillance. "Mugabe goes around intimidating people, anyone who dares talk is followed, next is torture, next is demonisation or humiliation. I'm standing for the truth and I trust in God. I'm under surveillance myself, my phones are tapped, I've been followed by car, I've even been followed by plane. An aeroplane was following me right from town to a mission station about 140km away, for two hours I was being followed through dust roads." (Link 8)
Archbishop Ncube also compares the present situation in Zimbabwe to that of Cambodia under Pol Pot. Archbishop Ncube expects that many of those exiled into rural areas without food will perish. Likewise, Methodist bishops in South Africa have warned that the situation is "a complete recipe for genocide".
Compelled as the Archbishop is by his commitment to discipleship, he says he has no option but to speak out. "I am aware of the dangerous situation of speaking up but that is the only thing I can do -- to speak up for the people. I'll go back there. I am so angry. I am ready to stand before a gun and be shot."
Godfrey Magwenzi, the charge d'affairs and deputy head of the Zimbabwean Consulate in London, told Channel 4 News that nobody in Zimbabwe took Archbishop Ncube seriously. 'The sewage and filth that spills out of that man's mouth should shame and embarrass all men of the cloth,' he said." (Link 9)
- Elizabeth Kendal
Links
1) Kubatana.net
http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/urbdev/050601evictdex.asp?sector=URBDEV
2) Should Blair phone Mugabe?
The Zimbabwean, 25 June 2005
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/24-june-2005/should-blair-phonr.html
3) Zimbabwe officials break ranks over food crisis
By Staff Reporter, 26 April 2005
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/food15.12571.html
4) Mugabe policy branded 'new apartheid'
Christina Lamb, 12 June 2005
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1650991,00.html
5) Echoes of Mao, Pol Pot in Mugabe's Clean-Up Blitz
Business Day (Johannesburg) OPINION
By Dumisani Muleya, 22 June 2005
http://allafrica.com/stories/200506220647.html
6) Government plants spies among evicted families
Zim Online (SA) 20 June 2005
http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=12127
7) Where is the outside world?
http://allafrica.com/stories/200506170703.html
The Harrowing Period in Sakubva
http://allafrica.com/stories/200506170702.html
8) Channel 4 Interview with Pius Ncube
Bishop: Mugabe another Pol Pot?
By Jon Snow, 25 June 2005
http://www.channel4.com/news/special-reports/special-reports-storypage.jsp?id=283
9) Zimbabwean archbishop says he's ready to die in defense of people
By Simon Caldwell, CNS, 24 June 2005
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0503743.htm
Subj: Zimbabwe: urban renewal or social engineering?
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal.
ZIMBABWE: URBAN RENEWAL OR SOCIAL ENGINEERING?
Is Operation Murambasvina an urban renewal project that has been disastrously mismanaged by an uncaring dictator, OR, an attempt at social engineering by a murderous regime that is prepared to use government-engineered famine to decimate its opposition? One thing is certain, the Church is being drawn into the front-line of this battle, and the cost could be high.
-----------------------------------------------
President Robert Mugabe has unleashed a tsunami-like wave of destruction upon Zimbabwe's urban poor, who also happen to be those who generally do not support Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF. The demolitions commenced on 23 May under the auspices of "Operation Murambasvina" (Operation Restore Order). It is estimated that some 300,000 homes and have been demolished, leaving some 1.5 million homeless. So far three children have died after being crushed in their homes. Others have died from exposure. More than 30,000 people have been arrested.
The world was quite oblivious to this tragedy until recently when images of bulldozers, security police, burning homes, and mothers and children sitting amidst rubble were secretly recorded and smuggled out of Zimbabwe and broadcast around the world. (This film and other images and articles can be found at: link 1)
The extent of the devastation is now well known. What is still unclear is what is REALLY happening in Zimbabwe, for other details indicate that this operation is indeed much more than a badly handled urban renewal project, and really is a Mugabe/Zanu-PF war against opponents. It appears that, in the light of the recent Velvet, Rose, Orange and Cedar "revolutions", Mugabe and his Zanu-PF are merely engaging in a little "revolution"-prevention, by shattering, impoverishing, dispersing and possibly even killing-off the opposition before it can get organised.
DIDYMUS MUTASA
Three years ago, when Didymus Mutasa was Zanu-PF's Secretary for Administration and in charge of food distribution, he commented regarding food distribution to the opposition, "We would be better off with only 6 million, with our own people who support the liberation struggle. We don’t want all these extra people."
In April 2005, after his election victory, Mugabe appointed Didymus Mutasa to be his Minister for State Security. This role puts Mutasa in charge of the Central Intelligence Organization (Mugabe’s secret police) and in charge of Operation Murambasvina. (Link 2)
On top of this, Mutasa's Ministry for State Security is now in charge of food distribution, although Mutasa claims that there are no food shortages in Zimbabwe. When a journalist recently challenged Mutasa with reports from Zimbabwean Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube that people are starving to death in Bulawayo, Mutasa replied, "The cleric [Ncube] has a psychological disease and he needs to have his head examined because he is a liar." (Link 3)
RE-EDUCATION CAMPS AND SPIES
Christina Lamb reports for Times On Line that those left homeless by Operation Murambasvina are being "herded into re-education camps and told they can have a housing plot only if they swear allegiance to the party of President Robert Mugabe. Those who refuse are loaded into trucks and dumped in remote rural areas, far from their own homes, where food is scarce. Human rights workers say they are being left to die in what they believe is a deliberate strategy by the Mugabe regime to exterminate opponents." (Link 4)
Another Zimbabwean writer comments, "Indeed there are stories coming out of people being trucked out to re-education camps. We saw such camps during the early stages of the farm invasions where farm workers were often exposed to this political re-education. Now it seems the same technique is being used on the urban poor. People are forced to recant and become members of the ruling party before they receive any guarantee of a new home or of food relief. It is almost impossible to credit that this is happening in Zimbabwe in the year 2005 but all the evidence seems to be pointing that way: a Pol Pot type operation to empty the towns and force the poorest of the poor back into the countryside where they will starve to death without government assistance, which we all know they will not get unless they chant the party slogans and sing the party songs." (Link 2)
Harare correspondent Dumisani Muleya said in an opinion piece published in "Business Day" (Johannesburg, 22 June), "The scenario is almost like a theatrical revival of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution or Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge rampage. The political philosophy and motives are similar." (Link 5)
Zim Online reports, "A Zim Online news crew touring Caledonia Farm, converted into a holding camp for thousands of families evicted from their shanty homes in and around Harare, met several agents of the state's dreaded spy Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). They said they were at the camp to 'monitor the mood' of the families and also to keep a record on who visits them especially non-governmental organizations or members of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party, adding that this was being done only as a security precaution." (Link 6)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
CHURCH DEEPLY IMPACTED AND THREATENED
----------------------------------------------------------------------
All church ministries that operate amongst the poor have been deeply impacted. Their clinics, shelters, orphanages and chapels have been bulldozed and torched along with everything else. (for two reports/testimonies: see link 7)
Churches are defying the orders of the regime and providing shelter, food and blankets to the homeless. The National Pastors Conference, representing over 100 Christian pastors, has demanded that President Mugabe "engage in a war against poverty and not against the poor". The immense scale of this humanitarian catastrophe is stretching the churches.
In 1945, Deitrich Bonhoeffer was executed in a German concentration camp for protesting the injustice and evil of Hitler's murderous Nazi regime. His commitment to discipleship compelled him to act, and he paid with his life. It might not be long before Christian leaders in Zimbabwe, in confronting the evil and inhumanity of the ruling powers, find themselves incarcerated or on a death-list on account of their principled Christian words or actions. It is indeed the Church's calling to be "yeast" in society. As Bonheoffer noted, "To flee into invisibility is to deny the call." As such, the Church's call puts it on a collision course with Mugabe and the Zanu-PF.
Bulawyo's courageous Archbishop Pius Ncube is a long-time open critic of the Mugabe regime. In an interview from the Vatican with Britain's Channel 4, he testified that Mugabe keeps him under tight surveillance. "Mugabe goes around intimidating people, anyone who dares talk is followed, next is torture, next is demonisation or humiliation. I'm standing for the truth and I trust in God. I'm under surveillance myself, my phones are tapped, I've been followed by car, I've even been followed by plane. An aeroplane was following me right from town to a mission station about 140km away, for two hours I was being followed through dust roads." (Link 8)
Archbishop Ncube also compares the present situation in Zimbabwe to that of Cambodia under Pol Pot. Archbishop Ncube expects that many of those exiled into rural areas without food will perish. Likewise, Methodist bishops in South Africa have warned that the situation is "a complete recipe for genocide".
Compelled as the Archbishop is by his commitment to discipleship, he says he has no option but to speak out. "I am aware of the dangerous situation of speaking up but that is the only thing I can do -- to speak up for the people. I'll go back there. I am so angry. I am ready to stand before a gun and be shot."
Godfrey Magwenzi, the charge d'affairs and deputy head of the Zimbabwean Consulate in London, told Channel 4 News that nobody in Zimbabwe took Archbishop Ncube seriously. 'The sewage and filth that spills out of that man's mouth should shame and embarrass all men of the cloth,' he said." (Link 9)
- Elizabeth Kendal
Links
1) Kubatana.net
http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/urbdev/050601evictdex.asp?sector=URBDEV
2) Should Blair phone Mugabe?
The Zimbabwean, 25 June 2005
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/24-june-2005/should-blair-phonr.html
3) Zimbabwe officials break ranks over food crisis
By Staff Reporter, 26 April 2005
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/food15.12571.html
4) Mugabe policy branded 'new apartheid'
Christina Lamb, 12 June 2005
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1650991,00.html
5) Echoes of Mao, Pol Pot in Mugabe's Clean-Up Blitz
Business Day (Johannesburg) OPINION
By Dumisani Muleya, 22 June 2005
http://allafrica.com/stories/200506220647.html
6) Government plants spies among evicted families
Zim Online (SA) 20 June 2005
http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=12127
7) Where is the outside world?
http://allafrica.com/stories/200506170703.html
The Harrowing Period in Sakubva
http://allafrica.com/stories/200506170702.html
8) Channel 4 Interview with Pius Ncube
Bishop: Mugabe another Pol Pot?
By Jon Snow, 25 June 2005
http://www.channel4.com/news/special-reports/special-reports-storypage.jsp?id=283
9) Zimbabwean archbishop says he's ready to die in defense of people
By Simon Caldwell, CNS, 24 June 2005
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0503743.htm
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Australia: Victims of Victoria's Religious Tolerance Law.
Date: Thursday 30 June 2005
Subj: Australia: Victims of Victoria's Religious Tolerance Law.
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal.
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AUSTRALIA: VICTIMS OF VICTORIA'S RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE LAW
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Victoria's Racial and Religious Tolerance (R&RT) Act has already produced many victims. The first victim has been the religious harmony that was pervasive throughout Victoria (a south eastern state of Australia) before the Act's implementation. The R&RT Act was not needed, and now that it has stirred tensions and produced a queue of litigants at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), the Victorian state Labor government believes the R&RT Act will fix the problems the Act created in the first place. (Link 1)
The R&RT Act has given rise to several complaints but the case that has caught the world's attention is that of The Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV) vs Catch the Fire Ministries and pastors Danny Nalliah and Daniel Scot. Using the Victorian R&RT Act, the ICV took Catch the Fire Ministries and pastors Nalliah and Scot to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) on charges of vilification of Muslims. After a lengthy and expensive court case, they were found guilty and convicted on 17 December 2004.
The charges arose when three Western Muslim "reverts" attended an "Insights into Islam" seminar run by Catch the Fire Ministries in March 2002, where Daniel Scot, an expert on Islam, was the speaker. As Mr Scot told TIME magazine (4 July issue), the aim of the seminar was to help Christians "understand Islamic beliefs and culture and, after the September 11 attacks, why some Muslims engage in terrorism".
The three "reverts" attended the seminar on the advice of May Helou, a member of the ICV who was at the time employed by Victoria's Equal Opportunity Commission to assist in education about the R&RT Act.
This case has set a precedent that vilification (saying or writing things that incite hatred, contempt or ridicule) of a religious belief or practice may be regarded as equivalent to vilification of the people who believe or follow that religion.
The case has also demonstrated just how fragile justice can be when religious disputes are decided in secular courts. Daniel Scot was deemed to be "not credible" simply because the judge did not believe (and in some cases, understand) his teaching. Amongst other issues, the judge deemed Scot "not credible" and guilty of vilification on the grounds that he was frequently referring to Wahhabi, literal interpretations of the Koran, which are not, in the judge's personal opinion, relevant to the 21st Century. As noted by one observer, "This development represents a dangerous limitation on freedom of speech and the capacity of Christians to take up the cause of the persecuted church."
UPDATE: REMEDY – PASTORS ORDERED TO APOLOGISE
On Wednesday 22 June 2005, Judge Higgins of the VCAT handed down his "remedies" (penalties) to Catch the Fire Ministries and pastors Nalliah and Scot.
The religion editor of The AGE (Melbourne), Barney Zwartz, reports, "Judge Michael Higgins, of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, yesterday [22 June] ordered Christian group Catch the Fire Ministries, Mr Scot and Mr Nalliah to publish apologies for comments made at a Melbourne seminar in March 2002, and in a newsletter and website article.
"Judge Higgins said the pastors were otherwise of good character, but their passionate religious beliefs caused them to transgress the law. He ordered them to publish apologies on their website, in their newsletter and in four advertisements in Melbourne newspapers and to promise not to repeat the vilification anywhere in Australia. But this order could be defied as early as Monday [27 June], when Mr Scot begins a two-week seminar on Islam in Brisbane."
Daniel Scot points out that it was primarily his quotes from Koran that had been deemed to vilify Muslims, therefore it would very difficult to obey the judge's order not to repeat the vilification without a Koran that has been suitably edited. "I told the judge earlier," Scot informed The AGE, "you haven't provided me with a new Koran with the illegal verses removed, so I have to use the same Koran. He doesn't say which parts I quoted are illegal, he is asking a very vague thing."
Scot told TIME magazine's Elizabeth Keenan that he believes his real offence was "talking about the parts of the Koran that Muslims want to hide from people".
Nalliah and Scot have vowed to go to jail rather than publish newspaper apologies, the wording and size of which have been ordained by the tribunal and will cost AUD$68,690 (USD$52,740). Scot will not suspend his teaching seminars. "You don't compromise truth for fear of jail," Scot told The AGE. Likewise Nalliah told The AGE that he would not surrender "freedom of speech to a law which is sharia law by stealth".
The AGE reports, "The pastors' lawyers have already appealed against the verdict to the Supreme Court, claiming that the act is unconstitutional and that Judge Higgins made errors and showed 'irredeemable bias'. The case will be heard next month [July]."
------------------
NEW CASES
------------------
THE INCARSERATED CHILD-ABUSING WITCH
vs
THE SALVATION ARMY, CORRECTIONS VICTORIA, AND ALPHA COURSE
Robin Fletcher, a professed and practising witch who is serving a 10-year prison sentence for the sexual abuse of two under-age girls in 1998, voluntarily attended an ALPHA course in Ararat prison. The course was run by a Salvation Army chaplain. Fletcher lodged complaints against the Salvation Army, Corrections Victoria (prison managers), and CMC Australasia Pty Ltd (the distributors of the ALPHA course in Victoria) on the grounds that the course vilifies witches, Wiccans and pagans. (Link 2)
THE OCCULT ORDER
vs
THE CHILD RIGHTS CAMPAIGNER
The occult group Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) has made a complaint against psychologist Dr Reina Michaelson (1997 Young Australian of the Year) and her organisation, Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Program (CSAPP), for vilification of members of OTO.
OTO national officer David Bottrill and member Brent Gray claim Dr Michaelson has vilified and misrepresented OTO through an Internet article linking the society to paedophilia, satanic rituals, and animal and child sacrifices, all of which are promoted in the OTO text "The Book of the Law".
The complainants testify, "What is contained on the website could incite hatred and lead to violence against members of the OTO." Dr Michaelson meanwhile contends that OTO's text, The Book of the Law, contains "talk of blood rituals using children, eating flesh, the sacrifice of a child, the killing and torture of others and uninhibited 'love' without restraint", and as such, promotes illegal activity and violence against children.
The Herald Sun (Melbourne) reports that Ordo Templi Orientis was founded in Germany in 1902. Members follow the religion of Thelema, as taught by occultist and mystic Aleister Crowley.
Dr Reina Michaelson is presently in the Maldives working with child victims of the Tsunami. She will face the VCAT upon her return. (Link 3)
--------
VICTIMS
--------
Amir Butler, the head of the Australian Muslim Public Affairs Committee, says that there are Muslims who welcome debate, and he does not want to see the R&RT Act used to prevent it. Amir Butler, told TIME magazine, "If Muslims rush to the courts, some people will get the impression we can't respond to the arguments and think there must be some truth in them. The only way to fight offensive ideas is to confront them intellectually. Legislation cannot make bad ideas disappear."
Social religious harmony, two Christian pastors (who have been continuously misquoted and vilified in the media), The Salvation Army, Corrections Victoria, ALPHA, and a child rights advocate, and those who desire open debate are all victims of this "religious tolerance" law. But the greatest tragedy in this drama is that Victorians stand to lose their openness, their religious openness, and with it, their religious liberty to stand up as Christian apologists and evangelists, confronting evil and error, and engaging with the lost on matters of life and death.
------------------------
The most comprehensive, regularly updated coverage of these cases can be found at the Saltshakers website. This includes a highly recommended, detailed paper entitled "Religious Vilification laws in Victoria - Background to the law and cases ", prepared by Saltshakers' Research Director Mrs Jenny Stokes in June 2005 as a background paper for a Christian Legal Society seminar.
- Elizabeth Kendal
rl-research@crossnet.org.au
Links
1) Free speech farce
Andrew Bolt (Associate Editor - Herald Sun). 24 June 2005
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/printpage/0,5481,15708881,00.html
2) Dump this law now
Andrew Bolt (Associate Editor - Herald Sun). 27 April 2005
http://heraldsun.news.com.au/printpage/0,5481,15095082,00.html
3) Child rights crusader faces lawsuit
Kate Uebergang, tribunal reporter. 31 May 2005
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/printpage/0,5481,15461960,00.html
Subj: Australia: Victims of Victoria's Religious Tolerance Law.
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal.
------------------------------------------------------------
AUSTRALIA: VICTIMS OF VICTORIA'S RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE LAW
------------------------------------------------------------
Victoria's Racial and Religious Tolerance (R&RT) Act has already produced many victims. The first victim has been the religious harmony that was pervasive throughout Victoria (a south eastern state of Australia) before the Act's implementation. The R&RT Act was not needed, and now that it has stirred tensions and produced a queue of litigants at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), the Victorian state Labor government believes the R&RT Act will fix the problems the Act created in the first place. (Link 1)
The R&RT Act has given rise to several complaints but the case that has caught the world's attention is that of The Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV) vs Catch the Fire Ministries and pastors Danny Nalliah and Daniel Scot. Using the Victorian R&RT Act, the ICV took Catch the Fire Ministries and pastors Nalliah and Scot to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) on charges of vilification of Muslims. After a lengthy and expensive court case, they were found guilty and convicted on 17 December 2004.
The charges arose when three Western Muslim "reverts" attended an "Insights into Islam" seminar run by Catch the Fire Ministries in March 2002, where Daniel Scot, an expert on Islam, was the speaker. As Mr Scot told TIME magazine (4 July issue), the aim of the seminar was to help Christians "understand Islamic beliefs and culture and, after the September 11 attacks, why some Muslims engage in terrorism".
The three "reverts" attended the seminar on the advice of May Helou, a member of the ICV who was at the time employed by Victoria's Equal Opportunity Commission to assist in education about the R&RT Act.
This case has set a precedent that vilification (saying or writing things that incite hatred, contempt or ridicule) of a religious belief or practice may be regarded as equivalent to vilification of the people who believe or follow that religion.
The case has also demonstrated just how fragile justice can be when religious disputes are decided in secular courts. Daniel Scot was deemed to be "not credible" simply because the judge did not believe (and in some cases, understand) his teaching. Amongst other issues, the judge deemed Scot "not credible" and guilty of vilification on the grounds that he was frequently referring to Wahhabi, literal interpretations of the Koran, which are not, in the judge's personal opinion, relevant to the 21st Century. As noted by one observer, "This development represents a dangerous limitation on freedom of speech and the capacity of Christians to take up the cause of the persecuted church."
UPDATE: REMEDY – PASTORS ORDERED TO APOLOGISE
On Wednesday 22 June 2005, Judge Higgins of the VCAT handed down his "remedies" (penalties) to Catch the Fire Ministries and pastors Nalliah and Scot.
The religion editor of The AGE (Melbourne), Barney Zwartz, reports, "Judge Michael Higgins, of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, yesterday [22 June] ordered Christian group Catch the Fire Ministries, Mr Scot and Mr Nalliah to publish apologies for comments made at a Melbourne seminar in March 2002, and in a newsletter and website article.
"Judge Higgins said the pastors were otherwise of good character, but their passionate religious beliefs caused them to transgress the law. He ordered them to publish apologies on their website, in their newsletter and in four advertisements in Melbourne newspapers and to promise not to repeat the vilification anywhere in Australia. But this order could be defied as early as Monday [27 June], when Mr Scot begins a two-week seminar on Islam in Brisbane."
Daniel Scot points out that it was primarily his quotes from Koran that had been deemed to vilify Muslims, therefore it would very difficult to obey the judge's order not to repeat the vilification without a Koran that has been suitably edited. "I told the judge earlier," Scot informed The AGE, "you haven't provided me with a new Koran with the illegal verses removed, so I have to use the same Koran. He doesn't say which parts I quoted are illegal, he is asking a very vague thing."
Scot told TIME magazine's Elizabeth Keenan that he believes his real offence was "talking about the parts of the Koran that Muslims want to hide from people".
Nalliah and Scot have vowed to go to jail rather than publish newspaper apologies, the wording and size of which have been ordained by the tribunal and will cost AUD$68,690 (USD$52,740). Scot will not suspend his teaching seminars. "You don't compromise truth for fear of jail," Scot told The AGE. Likewise Nalliah told The AGE that he would not surrender "freedom of speech to a law which is sharia law by stealth".
The AGE reports, "The pastors' lawyers have already appealed against the verdict to the Supreme Court, claiming that the act is unconstitutional and that Judge Higgins made errors and showed 'irredeemable bias'. The case will be heard next month [July]."
------------------
NEW CASES
------------------
THE INCARSERATED CHILD-ABUSING WITCH
vs
THE SALVATION ARMY, CORRECTIONS VICTORIA, AND ALPHA COURSE
Robin Fletcher, a professed and practising witch who is serving a 10-year prison sentence for the sexual abuse of two under-age girls in 1998, voluntarily attended an ALPHA course in Ararat prison. The course was run by a Salvation Army chaplain. Fletcher lodged complaints against the Salvation Army, Corrections Victoria (prison managers), and CMC Australasia Pty Ltd (the distributors of the ALPHA course in Victoria) on the grounds that the course vilifies witches, Wiccans and pagans. (Link 2)
THE OCCULT ORDER
vs
THE CHILD RIGHTS CAMPAIGNER
The occult group Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) has made a complaint against psychologist Dr Reina Michaelson (1997 Young Australian of the Year) and her organisation, Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Program (CSAPP), for vilification of members of OTO.
OTO national officer David Bottrill and member Brent Gray claim Dr Michaelson has vilified and misrepresented OTO through an Internet article linking the society to paedophilia, satanic rituals, and animal and child sacrifices, all of which are promoted in the OTO text "The Book of the Law".
The complainants testify, "What is contained on the website could incite hatred and lead to violence against members of the OTO." Dr Michaelson meanwhile contends that OTO's text, The Book of the Law, contains "talk of blood rituals using children, eating flesh, the sacrifice of a child, the killing and torture of others and uninhibited 'love' without restraint", and as such, promotes illegal activity and violence against children.
The Herald Sun (Melbourne) reports that Ordo Templi Orientis was founded in Germany in 1902. Members follow the religion of Thelema, as taught by occultist and mystic Aleister Crowley.
Dr Reina Michaelson is presently in the Maldives working with child victims of the Tsunami. She will face the VCAT upon her return. (Link 3)
--------
VICTIMS
--------
Amir Butler, the head of the Australian Muslim Public Affairs Committee, says that there are Muslims who welcome debate, and he does not want to see the R&RT Act used to prevent it. Amir Butler, told TIME magazine, "If Muslims rush to the courts, some people will get the impression we can't respond to the arguments and think there must be some truth in them. The only way to fight offensive ideas is to confront them intellectually. Legislation cannot make bad ideas disappear."
Social religious harmony, two Christian pastors (who have been continuously misquoted and vilified in the media), The Salvation Army, Corrections Victoria, ALPHA, and a child rights advocate, and those who desire open debate are all victims of this "religious tolerance" law. But the greatest tragedy in this drama is that Victorians stand to lose their openness, their religious openness, and with it, their religious liberty to stand up as Christian apologists and evangelists, confronting evil and error, and engaging with the lost on matters of life and death.
------------------------
The most comprehensive, regularly updated coverage of these cases can be found at the Saltshakers website. This includes a highly recommended, detailed paper entitled "Religious Vilification laws in Victoria - Background to the law and cases ", prepared by Saltshakers' Research Director Mrs Jenny Stokes in June 2005 as a background paper for a Christian Legal Society seminar.
- Elizabeth Kendal
rl-research@crossnet.org.au
Links
1) Free speech farce
Andrew Bolt (Associate Editor - Herald Sun). 24 June 2005
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/printpage/0,5481,15708881,00.html
2) Dump this law now
Andrew Bolt (Associate Editor - Herald Sun). 27 April 2005
http://heraldsun.news.com.au/printpage/0,5481,15095082,00.html
3) Child rights crusader faces lawsuit
Kate Uebergang, tribunal reporter. 31 May 2005
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/printpage/0,5481,15461960,00.html