IRFN (March 25-April 3): Chinese Government Introduces Rival Panchen Lama

Apr 3, 2009

Feature: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Permanent Representative to the U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice announced on March 31 that the United States will seek a seat this year on the United Nations Human Rights Council with the goal of working to make it a more effective body to promote and protect human rights.  The full announcement can be read here.

1.  India: Supreme Court Rules Against Muslim Schoolboy

NEW DEHLI – A Supreme Court ruling that dismissed a Muslim boy’s case against his school after he had been expelled for wearing a beard, saying it would not allow the “Talibanization” of the country, has drawn mixed reactions from Indian Muslims, The National reported on April 1.
 Justice Markandeya Katju, a member of the Supreme Court bench that delivered the verdict on Monday, said: “We don’t want to have Taliban in the country.  Tomorrow a girl student may come and say that she wants to wear a burqa–can we allow that?”  Mohammad Salim, 16, a former Grade 10 student at Nirmala Convent Higher Secondary School in the Bidisha district of Madhya Pradesh, was expelled in December 2008 when he refused to obey orders to shave off his beard.  Being clean-shaven is mandatory for all students at the school.

The boy’s family filed a petition in Madhya Pradesh’s highest court, which ruled in favour of the school. They then brought their case before the Supreme Court in New Delhi this month.  While many students and teachers support the verdict, others believe that is represents Islamophobia as evidenced by Mr Katju’s references to the Taliban in relation to the case.

Aziz Mubaraki, a Muslim community leader in Kolkata, said the judge’s comments were “unpleasant and painful.”

2.  Egypt: Baha’i Villagers Attacked in Homes

CAIRO – Dozens of Muslim villagers have attacked the homes of members of the minority Baha'i religion in southern Egypt, hurling firebombs and denouncing them as "enemies of God," human rights groups said April 2, the AP reported on April 2.  The attacks began March 31 after a prominent Egyptian media commentator denounced a Baha'i activist in a television appearance as an "apostate" and called for her to be killed. After five days of violence, calm returned Wednesday to the village of Shouraniya, located about 215 miles south of Cairo. No one was injured in the attacks.  The village's 15 Baha'i residents were forced to leave, and police have prevented them from returning, rights groups said.  Egypt's Interior Ministry confirmed the attacks and said police have made arrests.  But it denied that police stopped the Baha'i residents from returning to their village.  "This is just an incident, and we are investigating," ministry spokesman Gen. Hamdi Abdel-Karim said. He declined to provide more details.  During the violence, the attackers shouted "No God but Allah" and "Baha'is are enemies of Allah" as they hurled stones through windows, a group of six Egyptian human rights organizations said in a joint statement. On Tuesday, assailants also threw fire bombs, damaging five homes, they said.  In Egypt, where the majority of the country's nearly 80 million people are Sunni Muslim, the Baha'i faith is not recognized as an official religion. The head of Al-Azhar, Egypt's dominant religious authority, has also declared it a "sacrilegious dogma."

3.  Saudi Arabia: Cleric Threatens Secession Over Treatment of Shiites

AWWAMIYA – A cleric's threat of secession has brought a swift government crackdown in this poor, radical Shiite town in Saudi Arabia's increasingly restive religious minority heartland atop the Sunni kingdom's main oil reserves, the AP reported on April 1.  Cleric Sheik Nimr al-Nimr threatened to break away if Saudi authorities don't treat Shiites better. "Our dignity has been pawned away, and if it is not ... restored, we will call for secession," al-Nimr said during Friday prayers last month.  "Our dignity is more precious than the unity of this land."  Since that incendiary sermon, more than 35 people have been arrested in a government crackdown and al-Nimr has gone into hiding.  Police have set up checkpoints on the roads leading into Awwamiya, one of the Shiite area's poorest towns. Other Shiite leaders have distanced themselves from al Nimr's comments, though they say the government must address growing Shiite anger over discrimination and poverty, which they warn could break into unrest.  Al-Nimr's words were triggered by a confrontation in late February 2009 in the holy city of Medina, when Shiite pilgrims were visiting a cemetery containing the graves of revered Shiite figures. The pilgrims said Sunni religious police videotaped female pilgrims — an affront to their modesty — and then refused to hand over the tapes or destroy them.  Officials accused the pilgrims of performing rituals offensive to other worshippers and authorities, and scores of Shiites were injured or jailed in the confrontations. Following a brief meeting between King Abdullah and a Shiite delegation, the detainees were released.

4.  China: Government Introduces Panchen Lama

BEIJING – China has pushed a young monk, the Panchen Lama, into the spotlight in an effort to show that it governs Tibet with a benign hand, the BBC reported on March 31. Officials have launched a vigorous propaganda battle over recent weeks, to demonstrate that Tibetans are thriving under Beijing's direction. The man China selected as its Panchen Lama, the second most important figure in Tibetan Buddhism, has been at the forefront of this campaign. Tibet expert Professor Robert Barnett, of New York's Columbia University, says this is part of China's efforts to undermine the appeal of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism. "He will never really replace the Dalai Lama, but his role confuses the picture and can gradually be used to weaken the Dalai Lama's standing," he said. The Dalai Lama's choice of Panchen Lama - a young boy called Gedhun Choekyi Nyima - was rejected by China, and disappeared soon afterwards.  China's choice, Gyaincain Norbu, has been largely kept from public view since his appointment at the age of five. Foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said on Tuesday that China hoped he would help maintain the country's "territorial integrity."  The Panchen Lama has made three high-profile forays into the spotlight over the last few weeks to coincide with Serfs' Emancipation Day last Saturday. This is a new holiday introduced by China to mark the day on which the Dalai Lama's rule in Tibet was officially dissolved - a day China celebrates as the start of the liberation of ordinary Tibetans.

5.  Morocco: Government Clamps Down on Expressions of Shiite Islam

RABAT – The Moroccan government has begun a clampdown on what it sees as threats to the kingdom's religious and moral foundations, with Shiite Islam and gays particularly targeted, The Daily Star reported on March 25.  On March 21 the Iraqi Baghdad school was closed down, with the Education Ministry declaring that the "educational system ... was contrary to the provisions of private schooling" in Morocco.  "This decision," a ministry statement said, "follows a complaint made by an Iraqi citizen ... against the school's headmistress," who was accused of expelling three children "for confessional reasons" and of propagating "a particular religious practice."  This was a reference to Shiite Islam. Morocco overwhelmingly observes the Sunni Malekite form of the religion.  The independent Arabic-language newspaper Al-Jarida Al-Aoula has reported that dozens of people suspected of having Shiite sympathies have been arrested since March 20 in Tangiers in the north, Essaouira in the south and Ouyazze 120 kilometers north of Rabat. Foreign Minister Taeib Fassi Fihri recently attacked Moroccan associations seeking to develop Shiite Islam in the country with the backing of Iran.  "Morocco cannot accept that activities of this type be conducted, directly or indirectly, or via a so-called non-governmental organization," he told AFP, criticizing an "attack on the foundations" of the country and on the "cement" of Malekite Islam.