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RATIONALIST INTERNATIONAL
Bulletin # 44 (20 August 2000)
IN THIS ISSUE:
EQUAL RIGHTS IN NORWAY!!
CREDIBILITY OF UNITED NATIONS AT STAKE: CHARLATANS, PREACHERS, FAKES AND PHONIES IN UN SUMMIT FOR "WORLD PEACE" A motely crowd of spiritual frauds, charlatans, godmen, preachers, yogis, mullahs and bishops are expected to descend on New York in the coming week. For the first time in the 54 year history of United Nations a summit of so-called spiritual leaders will be held at UN headquarters from August 28. The summit will be inaugurated by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and will last for four days. The conference is largely financed by media mogul Ted Turner. The sponsors include organizations like the Modi Foundation and the Hinduja Foundation. One Mr Bawa Jain is the New York based co-ordinator of the event. Bawa Jain said that the purpose of the summit is two-fold. The "spiritual leaders" would sign a united peace resolution and create an international advisory council of religious and spiritual leaders. This is expected to be a permanent body working with the United Nations. The speakers in the Peace Summit include Indian monk Sadhvi Ritambara, who had played a key role before and after the destruction of the Babri mosque in 1992, provoking violence and death of thousands in religious riots. Interestingly, the supreme leaders of the Hindu faith, the four Sankaracharyas have refused to participate in the summit, as their faith does not allow them to cross the sea. The chiefs of Jain religion have backed out as their religion does not allow them to fly. It is still unclear whether Maharishi Mahesh Yogi will try to reach New York by yogic flying or some other fakirs over flying carpets! Satya Narayana Goenka, a proponent of Vipassana meditation who will attend the peace summit claimed while announcing his participation: "Vipassana can be called the practical quintessence of all religions." Even before the curtains can go up on the UN Spiritual Summit for "world peace", it has created its own separate conflict. Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader and the god-king of the Tibetan Buddhists was not invited to attend the summit as the Chinese government opposed his participation. Dalai Lama is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Bawa Jain who holds the august office of the secretary general of the summit had admitted that China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, had made it clear it would not approve of inviting Dalai Lama. Senator Jesse Helms, chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has criticized the omission of Dalai Lama, saying the United States must not condone such "weak-kneed behaviour by the United Nations". Richard Holbrooke, the Republican Senator from North Carolina, in a strongly worded letter to the US ambassador to the United Nations, said he was dismayed that the Tibetan leader and winner of Nobel Peace Prize had been excluded. Succumbing to the pressures, the organizers belatedly invited Dalai Lama to give the key-note address at the closing session on August 31, which will be held outside the UN, at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. Dalai Lama declined the invitation. Many prominent leaders including the former archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, have criticised the omission of the Dalai Lama and questioned the credibility of the summit. The irony that the leaders of the religions which caused world's major conflicts and annihilations in pursuit of their faiths and the defenders of ignorance and oppressive belief systems who block human progress --in company of faith healers, fakirs, charlatans and gurus-- are presented to the world as the new guarantors of peace has shaken the very credibility of the United Nations. SANAL EDAMARUKU HONORARY ASSOCIATE OF RPA AND NZARH Sanal Edamaruku, Secretary General of Indian Rationalist Association and President of Rationalist International, has become Honorary Associate of the London based Rationalist Press Association (RPA). The RPA is one of the oldest and most respected rationalist organizations in the world and has made a silent revolution by publishing a wide range of classical and contemporary rationalist works in its famous "Thinkers€ â’ ’¹ Library", which reached and encouraged like-minded people in many countries. It was the example of the RPA which inspired Sanal Edamaruku back in 1980 to found Indian Atheist Publishers, which is today the largest freethought publishing house in Asia. In June last year, the RPA celebrated its hundredth anniversary at Birmingham. Over the last century, some of the most respected thinkers and scientists have associated themselves with the RPA. The list of Honorary Associates includes names like Bertrand Russell, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Joseph McCabe, H.G. Wells and - among the contemporaries - Francis Crick, Noam Chomsky and Richard Dawkins. Together with Sanal Edamaruku, Susan Greenfield, Laurie Taylor and Nobel Prize Winner Amartya Sen have been announced as new Honorary Associates.
The New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists, established in 1927 and another stalwart among the rationalist organizations in the world, has also included Sanal Edamaruku in the list of its prominent Honorary Associates. EQUAL RIGHTS IN NORWAY!! Did you ever doubt that the Norwegians who do not belong to the Lutheran Evangelical church, the official state religion of this modern kingdom, enjoy equal rights with the church members? Here is a humorous note from Norway. The Oslo city council recently allowed Muslims to make their call for prayers from roof tops. Humanists also get equal rights! Now they are also allowed to announce meetings and make proclamations. Responding to the new decision, the Norwegian Heathen Society has decided to announce meetings using loud speakers on house tops, reports the Queensland Humanist. The Norwegian Pagan Society will broadcast excerpts from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Earlier only Christians had the right to ring Church bells to summon the faithful for prayer - and disturb the Sunday morning tanquility. Pluralism par excellence!
€ © Rationalist International. The recipients of the Rationalist International Bulletin # 44 are authorized to publish, post, forward or reproduce articles and reports from this bulletin, acknowledging the source, "Rationalist International Bulletin # 44". If you wish to invite your rationalist friends to receive Rationalist International Bulletin (it's free), please ask them to send a blank message from their address to rationalist-subscribe@egroups.com or you may send their email addresses to <HQ@rationalistinternational.net>.
How to contact Rationalist International? Postal Address: Rationalist International, P O Box 9110, New Delhi 110 091, India. Phone: +91-11-2253255, Fax: +91-11-84456201 (note the change in fax number), Email: info@rationalistinternational.netSanal Edamaruku, President of Rationalist International, can be contacted at: Edamaruku@rationalistinternational.net |