RATIONALIST INTERNATIONAL Bulletin # 33 16 March 2000 _______________________________________________________ Editor: Sanal Edamaruku Address: P.O.Box 9110, New Delhi-110091, India. Telephone: +91-11-2253255, Fax: +91-11-84539526 E-mail: edamaruku@yahoo.com _______________________________________________________ IN THIS ISSUE: o Pope's Mea Culpa -- a PR-stunt o Taslima Nasreen in India o Nigeria: Introduction of Islamic law sparks riots o Kuwait: Two writers face jail sentence for blasphemy o Iran: Student leader on death row tortured o France: Ethics Committee breaks taboo on Euthanasia o Pakistan: Allah's special offers for jehadis! _______________________________________________________ POPE’S MEA CULPA -- A PR-STUNT ------------------------------ Exactly two years have passed today, since Pope John Paul II launched his great apology drive for the past “errors” of the Roman Catholic church. One more reconfirmation of the new course took place on last Sunday, when he celebrated public penitence in St. Peter’s Basilica. Meeting with harsh criticism since the beginning, the papal apology has meantime developed somewhat more precise outlines. “We ask forgiveness for divisions between Christians”, the Pope said, “for the use of violence in the name of truth, and for the diffidence and hostility against followers of other religions”. According to a document by the Vatican’s international theological commission, the historical sins are classified into seven categories, including divisions within Christianity, proselytising by force, the inquisition, anti-Jewish prejudices, sins against minorities, women and human rights. The Pope’s Mea Culpa successfully avoids too close contact with the historical truth and has to take the criticism to be a mere PR stunt. Nothing was for example heard again of the conference, scheduled for last October and proudly announced by the historical-theological commission of the Vatican, for which allegedly 50 renowned historians had been invited to scrutinise the bloody work of the Inquisition in Spain. But the Pope’s project to square accounts with history before the new millennium dawns is not just superficial, but it is pure hypocrisy. While crocodile tears are shed about the victims of the Holocaust, John Paul does not hesitate to beatify his predecessor Pius XII who collaborated with German, Italian and Croatian fascists during the second world war and rescued them after their defeat. But the Vatican’s soft corner for mass murderers did not end there. The youngest known example, the case of Father Athanase Seroma, shows what the papal Mea Culpa is worth. Father Athanase Seroma played a leading role in the 1994 genocide that devastated Rwanda and is currently hiding under the name Don Anastasio Sumba Bura in northern Italy. He has, according to many eyewitnesses, organised the Nyange genocide, in which between 2000 and 2500 Tutsi refugees were killed from April to July 1994. The African Human Rights group which made a 22-page report about the events in Nyange in which Father Seromba, among other priests, has been involved, found that several of them are now living in Italy. They have asked the Pope more than half a year ago to launch an inquiry into the matter, but never received any reply. May be, some decades later, the then pope may appear with a new apology! ------------------------------------------------------- TASLIMA NASREEN IN INDIA ------------------------- Since threats of Islamic fundamentalists make her return to her beloved country for the time being impossible, Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen has discovered Calcutta as her substitute home and - after Dhaka - her favourite city to live in. Calcutta has the same language and culture and appears her to be more open and progressive. It was in Calcutta that some months back the first part of her autobiography “Amar Mayebela “(My Girlhood) appeared in Bengali language. The Indian government granted the author a visa and arranged security and enabled her to visit Calcutta for the first time since she had given her famous interview to The Statesman there in 1994 which sparked fundamentalist mass demonstrations in Bangladesh. During the last six years, Taslima had repeatedly applied for an Indian visa, but her applications had been rejected by the authorities. When she accepted the invitation of the Indian Rationalist Association to inaugurate the First International Rationalist Conference at New Delhi in December 1995 and announced her arrival, organisers, delegates, media and even police security forces waited in vain for her, because her visa was delayed “for technical reasons” till it was too late. After this the author had tried several times in vain to attend the Calcutta Book Fair. On way from Calcutta to Paris, where she is living and working on the second part of her autobiography since a few months, Taslima stopped over at Mumbai last week to release the Marathi edition of her novel “Shod” and gave an interview to Maria Abraham. SOME QUOTATIONS: About the threat of fundamentalists against her: “I am a writer and it is my duty to fight against fundamentalist forces.” “I have seen fundamentalists in my country who wanted to kill me, burn me alive, execute me by hanging. .... I don’t care because I know that people who believe in human rights and freedom of expression are in majority. I know I have their support and solidarity, they have all come together. I am very proud of India, it is the world’s largest democracy, it is not a fundamentalist country that I should be scared...” About India and Calcutta: “Calcutta is very inspiring, a very cultured city. I have many friends and people who love me there.’’ “Indian culture is so rich, I am so proud of it.” About European organisations supporting her: “There is no organisation in particular, but all democratic governments in Europe that believe in human rights and freedom of expression support me. Also my friends and a lot of people. I have lived in many cities of Europe and I got support from various organisations and ordinary people.” About feminism becoming “unfashionable”: “If you believe in humanism, then you believe in feminism, fighting for women’s rights. Women are oppressed in most countries... I am proud to say that I am a feminist. The western countries very cleverly started a propaganda to make feminism a negative word.” About her faith: “I do not believe in any religion. Humanity and good work is the only faith I believe and preach.” (The interview appears in The Week, on 19 March 2000) ------------------------------------------------------- NIGERIA: INTRODUCTION OF ISLAMIC LAW SPARKS RIOTS AND MASSACRES --------------------------- The introduction of Islamic Sharia law in three of the northern states of Nigeria last month has sparked brutal riots and massacres in the country. In riots in Kaduna and other northern towns, hundreds of Ibos from the south, who are almost all Christians, have been killed by local Hausas, who are almost all Muslims. In reprisal, the predominantly Christian Ibo population of the southeast harassed the Hausas living among them. Centre of the violence in the southeast was the town of Aba, where according to witnesses more than three hundred Hausas were massacred. Their shops and houses were burnt down. Hausas, who tried to flee the city by car, were stopped, dragged out and killed. Hundreds took refuge in the Aba police station. The news of the massacre in Aba sparked panic among the Ibos in the north of the country. Thousands tried to flee in crowded buses and cars to their southern homeland in fear of reprisals from the Hausas. Ethno-religious tension has been rising in Nigeria, the most populous state at the South coast of West Africa, since the election of President Olusegun Obasanjo in last May ended fifteen years of military rule in the country. Obasanjo is a Christian Ibo from the southwest and his election marked a powershift from the predominantly Muslim north. In an emergency meeting of Nigeria’s 36 governors presided by the President, the legislation has meantime been annulled and the Sharia law is withdrawn. Former South-African president Nelson Mandela visited Nigeria to assist negotiations and bring peace to the country. ------------------------------------------------------- KUWAIT: TWO WRITERS FACE JAIL SENTENCE FOR BLASPHEMY ---------------------------- Kuwaiti writer Laila al-Othman and poetess Alia Shuaib, attacked by religious fundamentalists for allegedly insulting Islam, have been convicted under Kuwait’s publication law to suspended jail sentences. The writers have declared that they stand by their works and that neither the fundamentalists nor the verdict could scare them. The verdict, in tune with fundamentalist denunciations, casts doubts about Kuwait’s officially presented image as a modern and liberal state. ------------------------------------------------------- IRAN: STUDENT LEADER ON DEATH ROW REPORTS ABOUT TORTURE ---------------------------- Akbar Mohammadi, one of the student leaders arrested and accused for stirring violent unrest during the demonstrations in last July, is facing execution. In a letter to judiciary chief Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi, he complains that he is being tortured and violently beaten since his arrest. As a result, he writes in the letter, he had gone deaf in his right ear, lost two nails of his left foot and suffered from kidney pain. Against the orders of the prison doctor he was not brought to the hospital and continued to suffer. The letter, written in Teheran’s Evin Jail, where Akbar Mohammadi is currently held, and sent to his family in northern Iran, was published in several reformist newspapers. The student-led demonstrations in Teheran and other cities in July 1999 were the most serious protests against the theocratic state since the left wing and secular opposition had been crushed after the revolution in 1979. They were sparked by the passing of a restrictive press law by the Iranian Parliament, which struck directly at the independent papers shaking the base of the liberal reformist movement. The July demonstrations, marching for more democracy and secularism in Iran and for the first time criticising the spiritual leader and the Islamic system, were unitedly condemned by the entire state leadership - including President Khatami - and beaten down in a massive show of force by security forces and Islamic volunteers. ------------------------------------------------------- FRANCE: NATIONAL ETHICS COMMITTEE BREAKS TABOO ON EUTHANASIA -------------------------- France’s National Ethics Committe has released its euthanasia report after three years of preparation. In its carefully worded recommendations, the committee admitted that under certain circumstances euthanasia might be permissible. Avoiding any demand to change the existing legislation, it stated that “a kind of euthanasia exception could be imagined” and aimed at finding ways to save physicians who assist suicide from persecution. Euthanasia is legally banned in France, but mercy killings are a reality in the hospitals and public opinion is in favour of a relaxation of the ban. The National Ethics Committee is an influential government sponsored body with conservative lining whose members represent a broad cross section of society including the churches. Its euthanasia report, though kept in rather vague and careful terms, is seen as path breaking for reforms. ------------------------------------------------------ PAKISTAN: ALLAH’S SPECIAL OFFERS FOR JEHADIS! ----------------------------------- A booklet, said to be prepared by the psychological operation branch of the Pakistani army, is circulated among its soldiers at the “line of control” between Pakistan and India. It propagates “jehad” (holy war) against India, which is said to be the will of Allah, and points out in detail which benefits will be enjoyed by those who participate in the jehad: - One who kills one kafir (non Muslim) will not go to hell ever and there will be no shortcomings in his prosperity as regards to wealth and good food. - One who suffers dust and pollution due to a battle waged by a holy cause will receive the equal amount of fragrance in heaven. - One who remains awake for one night of a jehad can earn what would otherwise be available after three hundred years of dedicated worship of god only. By doing a mere 24 hours of guard duty all sins will be forgiven. - Even if one dies during jehad one will not feel more pain than caused by a mosquito or an ant. _______________________________________________________ Rationalist International Bulletin # 33 may be reproduced, forwarded or quoted from, by recipients, if they wish. 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