IRFN (May 4-12): Yemen Ministry to Shut Down Schools Linked to Terrorism

May 12, 2009

Feature: The Becket Fund’s Angela Wu is featured in Today’s Zaman, where she discusses religious freedom in the international community, and the different relationships between religion and state extant in particular nation states.  Link here for full article. 

1.  Yemen: Ministry to Shut Down Schools Linked with Terrorism

SAN’A – As part of the ongoing movement to curb terrorism in the country, the Ministry of Endowment and Guidance started a new field survey to review the current curricula at private schools, the Yemen Post reported on May 10. 
The ministry plans to shut all schools, believed to breed and graduate terrorist elements, especially when there have been increased recruitment for youth in these schools. 
In this regard, Minister of Endowments and Guidance Judge Hamoud Al-Hitar pointed out that his ministry is currently reviewing the position of all religious schools nationwide and estimated in 2005 to be 4,568 schools and religious centers, some of which belong to the Ministry. According to the plan set by the ministry, all reviews will be finished by the end of May and the committees are expected to study and revise the curricula of each school to see whether they are compatible with Islamic teachings. 
Putting special emphasis on reviving the mosque’s message, Al-Hitar mentioned that they have worked towards building the capacities of preachers in a way that helps spread moderate thinking and behavior.

2.  UK: Muslim Chef Sues Over Pork Request

LONDON – Hasanali Khoja, a Muslim chef, is suing Britain’s largest police force, claiming he suffered religious discrimination because he was expected to cook bacon and pork sausages for breakfast, The National reported on May 9. The case has caused outrage in the British press and has been seized on by far right political parties, being branded “the madness of multiculturalism” by the British National Party. Mr Khoja, whose claim is being backed by both the Association of Muslim Police and the National Black Police Association, says he was refused permission not to handle pork when he took a job as catering manager at a police headquarters in west London.

Instead, he said his supervisor suggested he wear gloves when preparing a “999 breakfast” – a policeman’s favorite that includes bacon, pork sausages and black pudding, which is made from pigs’ blood. The Metropolitan Police has had an uneasy relationship with Muslims in recent times. Tarique Ghaffur, an assistant commissioner with the force and the UK’s highest ranking Muslim police officer, last year accused the force of racial discrimination. He retired last November after receiving compensation.

3.  UK: Queen’s Trinity Cross Honor Deemed Unlawful by Privy Council

LONDON – The Trinity Cross of the Order of Trinity, an honour established by the Queen, has been declared unlawful after Muslims and Hindus complained that its Christian name and cross insignia were offensive, The Times reported on May 8. The Trinity Cross was established in 1969 and took precedence over all other decorations except the Victoria Cross and George Cross.  Questions were raised, though, about the overtly Christian nature of the words “Trinity” and “Cross” and the use of a cross insignia, which led to some of those nominated refusing to accept the decoration.  The Privy Council in London has ruled that the decoration is unconstitutional because it discriminates against non-Christians. Five British law lords said that the creation of the honor breached the right to equality and the right to freedom of conscience and belief. The legal case had been brought by groups representing Trinidad and Tobago’s Muslim and Hindu communities, which account for about 30 per cent of the Caribbean islands’ population of 1.3 million.

4.  Vietnam: Thai Ha Pilgrimage Proceeds Despite Police Efforts

HANOI – The Thai Ha pilgrimage proceeded despite police efforts to prevent the religious event from taking place, AsiaNews reported on May 5.  Police had initially attempted to stop the faithful from the Thai Binh diocese, situated 11km south of the capitol of Hanoi, from reaching the Thai Ha parish, in their celebration of the golden nubile of the Redemptorists.  Authorities had threatened bus rental companies against leasing vehicles to Catholics for the religious event.  Authorities are reported to have acted against the worshipers, as they feared that once the Catholics reached Hanoi, they would join protests against the current defamation of Redemptorists by the media. Police accused Bishop Francis Nguyen Van Sang of being behind the protest and asked him to cancel the pilgrimage, because they believed it to be politically motivated.  The bishop rejected all accusations, saying instead that the pilgrimage was exclusively religious and that he would lodge an official complaint against the police.  “The announcement I made [to the faithful] about the pilgrimage was legal in the eye of the law and the Church,” he said.

5.  France: Closed Trial of French Jew Causes Outrage

PARIS – For the Jewish community in France, the decision to bar journalists from the trial of gang members accused of kidnapping and torturing a 23-year-old French Jew to death has struck a raw nerve, the JTA reported on May 4.  The Paris court's April 29 ruling adds insult to injury, French Jews say, by further suppressing what many believe was the motive for the murder of Ilan Halimi: anti-Semitism. “It was the law of silence that killed Ilan Halimi,” said Francis Szpiner, a lawyer for the Halimi family. “And it has imposed itself again.”  Halimi was abducted in late January 2006, and was held and tortured for more than three weeks before his broken body, burned and stabbed, was dumped near railway tracks in a suburb south of Paris. He was found on Feb. 13, 2006 and died on the way to the hospital.  The killing prompted a mass demonstration of solidarity with the Halimis, mostly from the Jewish community, and against anti-Semitism several days later in Paris.  Many, including the victim’s mother, criticized the police for their refusal to investigate the possibility that the kidnapping was anti-Semitic in nature.