As Libya, Al Qaeda and the UN fly by - UPDATE

The UN General Assembly voted unanimously today (March 1st) to suspend the Qaddafi regime's seat on the Human Rights Council.

Praise God.

Details . . . >>

 

(Left to right) Hillel Neuer - Executive Director, UN Watch

Mohamed Eljahmi, Libyan Dissident
Tom Melia - Deputy Executive Director, Freedom House

February 21, 2011: Working closely with Libyan dissident Mohamed Eljahmi — who sounds the alarm on massive atrocities being committed by the Qaddafi regime — UN Watch spearheads an international appeal by 70 human rights groups to remove Libya [from the UN Human Rights Council].

The plea for UN action is covered around the world.

Three days later, the EU requests a special session of the Human Rights

Council, but fails to contest Libya’s council membership.

UN Watch urges world leaders to block UNHRC resolution praising Libya's human rights record

Report hailing Gaddafi's human rights record scheduled for adoption in

current session

GENEVA, February 28, 2011 -- UN Watch, which heads the Global NGO Campaign

to Remove Libya from the UN Human Rights Council, called on US Secretary of

State Hillary Clinton and EU foreign minister Catherine Ashton, who are

today addressing the 47-nation body in Geneva, as well as UN rights chief

Navi Pillay, to urge the council president to cancel a planned resolution

praising Libya's human rights record, scheduled to be adopted in the current

session.

Despite having just voted to suspend Libya from its ranks (expected to be

finalized by the UNGA tomorrow), the UN Human Rights Council, according to

the agenda of its current session, is planning to "consider and adopt the

final outcome of the review of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya." According to the

council's timetable, the lengthy report hailing Libya's human rights record

will be presented on March 18, and then adopted by the council at the end of

the month.

And a grand terror network sees itself becoming increasingly irrelevant, as Scott Shane writes in Sunday's New York Times :

For nearly two decades, the leaders of Al Qaeda have denounced the Arab world’s dictators as heretics and puppets of the West and called for their downfall. Now, people in country after country have risen to topple their leaders — and Al Qaeda has played absolutely no role.

In fact, the motley opposition movements that have appeared so suddenly and proved so powerful have shunned the two central tenets of the Qaeda credo: murderous violence and religious fanaticism. The demonstrators have used force defensively, treated Islam as an afterthought and embraced democracy, which is anathema to Osama bin Laden and his followers.

So for Al Qaeda — and perhaps no less for the American policies that have been built around the threat it poses — the democratic revolutions that have gripped the world’s attention present a crossroads.

Will the terrorist network shrivel slowly to irrelevance? Or will it find a way to exploit the chaos produced by political upheaval and the disappointment that will inevitably follow hopes now raised so high?

Hidden Christians of Japan

Came across this very interesting tidbit of (living) history as it relates to contemporary Japan (and elsewhere) earlier today:

The hidden Christian communities in Sotome and the Goto Islands, which have undergone disintegration in recent years, now find it all but impossible to faithfully observe the calendar of annual events. On Ikitsuki Island, however, the hidden Christians continue to observe an astounding number of traditional events. Still, in the communities that have ceased to have a permanent official executor of religious ceremonies, the meaning of traditional doctrines has been completely forgotten, and the faithful cling exclusively to the hollow rituals that have been made holy by virtue of the martyrdom of ancestors.

The faith of the kakure kirishitan, therefore, while exhibiting various features that are apparently Christian, is essentially a religion of Japanese nature that has been reabsorbed into the background of Japanese folk beliefs and now has little in common with the world-view of modern Christianity. This may be called the tragic result of the persecution of Japanese Christians by a heathen government, but from another point of view, it is the inevitable outcome of the attempt by a foreign religion to sink roots in Japan. It is clear that for a new culture, ideology, philosophy or religion to prosper in the hearts of the common people, it must harmonize and amalgamate with the existing cultural system, not destroy or ignore it.

Buddhism, which has become the religious mainstay of Japan, is a excellent case in point. Although a "foreign religion" originating in India, Buddhism lost no time in blending with Shintoism--the basic faith of the Japanese people--after its introduction to this country in the sixth century. In other words, by accepting ancestor worship it was able to sink roots and prosper in the hearts of the Japanese people. Needless to say, however, Japanese Buddhism now differs widely from the original form of the religion.

The history and customs of the hidden Christians of Nagasaki remain as another rare and invaluable example of the amalgamation of a foreign religion into the native culture of Japan and, in a larger sense, of the ever-difficult encounter between East and West.

Read more here.

Journeyman Pictures has a documentary (excerpted from a couple of years ago) here.

A book (or two; not by me) is forthcoming on this significant subject as well.

Freedom from religion, too?

Why not?

The changing face and place of religion as covered by certain media outlets recently has not only Arab patriarchs and dictators thinking twice.

Paul Haggis, noted screenwriter, producer, director and now Scientology apostate says in an article in The New Yorker:

“For ten months now I have been writing to ask you to make a public statement denouncing the actions of the Church of Scientology of San Diego,” Haggis wrote. Before the 2008 elections, a staff member at Scientology’s San Diego church had signed its name to an online petition supporting Proposition 8, which asserted that the State of California should sanction marriage only “between a man and a woman.” The proposition passed.

As Haggis saw it, the San Diego church’s “public sponsorship of Proposition 8, which succeeded in taking away the civil rights of gay and lesbian citizens of California—rights that were granted them by the Supreme Court of our state—is a stain on the integrity of our organization and a stain on us personally. Our public association with that hate-filled legislation shames us.” Haggis wrote, “Silence is consent, Tommy. I refuse to consent.” He concluded, “I hereby resign my membership in the Church of Scientology.”

Frank Schaeffer, noted author, Christian and "religious right" apostate in the Huffington Post writes:

What do you think the reaction would be from "respectable" conservative religious and political leaders if -- since 1982 -- over fifty American couples had been convicted of murdering their children in "Muslim religious rituals?" What would Glenn Beck be saying?

Yet according to the New York Times there have been at least 50 convictions in the United States since 1982 in cases where medical treatment was withheld from a child for "religious reasons." And there have been hundreds more cases that weren't brought to trial out of over solicitous "respect" for religious freedom and parents' rights.

And that's just the killings in the name of God done in the Evangelical/fundamentalist and so-called charismatic community where medical care is withheld from children while parents "trust God" to heal them. That doesn't even touch the bizarre world of other American cults, tax-deductable cults that is...

While The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reveals in a survey recently (the Summary of Key Findings can be found here) that, apparently, "many Americans struggle to answer basic questions about faith, even their own."

Atheists and agnostics reportedly "scored best," overall, on the various questions.

Can I hear an - "IRONIC?!"
Or, at least a - "THAT'S SAD!"

And ABC News with Diane Sawyer in a report by Dan Harris and Maggy Patrick last evening notes:

America is the most developed nation when it comes to religion. It has a dynamic, competitive religious marketplace -- which means it has winners and losers.

According to a report by the National Council of Churches (NCC), the biggest losers are the mainstream Protestant churches -- the Presbyterian Church, Methodists and Lutherans are all showing a dip in membership.

While each of them are down just a few percentage points (the data was compiled in 2009 and reported to the council in 2010) the declines have reached into the double digits over the last decade. Some of them are responding with ad campaigns.

"I think one of the things about mainline is that because it was the dominant church for so long, it took for granted that it would be publicly valuable," said Rev. Serene Jones of the Union Theological Seminary. "To suddenly find yourself no longer the big guy on the block, meaning you suddenly have to start figuring out who you are and explain yourself."

The NCC 2010 report summary can be found here.

So, yes, by all means, freedom from religion, too.

Especially, as religion continues (everywhere?) to figure out, exactly, WHO and WHAT it is.

Oh, and please continue to add to that mixture: "What can you do for me?"

No doubt, JFK (among others?) must surely be spinning under (blissful?) eternal flames:

And lest anyone not notice, how about Ronald Wilson Reagan versus Ron Reagan, (Jr.)?

What a dialogue that might have been (is or was)!

Until next time . . . be good to each other.