RATIONALIST INTERNATIONAL |
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Bulletin # 61 (21 January 2001) |
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IN THIS ISSUE AFGHANISTAN: DEATH PENALTY FOR CONVERSION ANTONY FLEW NOW HONORARY ASSOCIATE GERMANY: NAZI FORCED LABORERS IN CHURCH INSTITUTIONS INDIA: CONFISCATED MAGAZINE BACK IN MARKET |
AFGHANISTAN: DEATH PENALTY FOR CONVERSION
Taliban rulers of Afghanistan have imposed death penalty for anyone who converts from Islam to another religion and for any non-Muslim proselytizing. The pronouncement was officially made in the Taliban run Radio 'Shariat' by its supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. "The enemies of Muslims are trying to eliminate the pure Islamic religion throughout the world", he said on the radio. Omar charged other faiths, especially Christianity and Judaism, of trying to convert Muslims and of seeking to demonize pure Islam practiced by Taliban. Claiming that it was part of implementing pure Islam, the Taliban have earlier outlawed women from working and stopped schooling for girls beyond the age of eight. Men are not allowed to shave as it also is against pure Islam.
ANTONY FLEW NOW HONORARY ASSOCIATE
We are pleased to announce that Professor Antony Flew, veteran rationalist, philosopher, author and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Reading, has joined Rationalist International as Honorary Associate. Born in 1923 in the UK, Antony Flew was in the war service during the Second World War as a State Scholar in Japanese at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London (1942-43). He joined Oxford as an exhibitioner and later became Casberd Scholar of St. Johns College. Obtained first class Honors in Litterae Humaniores ('Greats') in 1947, and was awarded the University Prize in Philosophy - the John Locke Scholarship in Mental Philosophy - in 1948. B.A. (Oxon.) in 1947, which was converted into M.A. in 1949 and D.Litt. (Keele) in 1974. He was lecturer in Philosophy at University of Oxford (1949-50), University of Aberdeen (1950-54) and Professor of Philosophy at the University Kelee (1954-74) and the University of Reading (1973-82). Since then he has been Visiting Professor in several universities. Professor Antony Flew has authored 23 titles including 'God and Philosophy' (1966), 'Evolutionary Ethics' (1967), 'An Introduction to Western Philosophy' (1971), 'The Presumption of Atheism' (1976), 'A Rational Animal' (1978), 'Darwinian Evolution' (1984), 'Atheistic Humanism' (1993) and 'Philosophical Essays of Antony Flew' (1997).
GERMANY: NAZI FORCED LABORERS IN CHURCH INSTITUTIONS
Last July, the Catholic church had to officially admit that it had used forced laborers in Nazi Germany. The embarrassing confession, following Pope John Paul II's propagandist repentance exercises on the occasion of the millennium's end, was decorated with two promises: to provide financial compensation for the victims and to reveal the historical facts.
Since then some 4.85 million Dollars compensation have been paid - which is even less than the bare minimum wages for an average of 100 forced laborers during the war time. Regarding the announced account of the events, the Catholic church keeps mum and boycotts investigations. Since most of the forced laborers had been used in the institutions of the strongly Catholic south of the country, the northern dioceses even try to wash their hands and deny that there have been any forced laborers working for them at all. But records of city administrations and documents in archives outside church control give a different picture. The Diocese of Osnabrueck for example, despite all "research efforts" could not find a single case of forced labor. According to the register of the local Caritas group, however, there have been at least 14 forced laborers working in the city's Marien Hospital alone. The Hildesheim Diocese produced three possible cases, out of which finally only in one name and origin of the person concerned could be identified. Old records of the city administration of Hannover, in contrast, show that during these years 72 foreigners hailing from The Netherlands, Hungary, France, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Latvia and Russia have been working in the church institutions of Hannover alone, which is a rather small part of the Hildesheim Diocese.
It was not enough for the Catholic church to use and exploit forced laborers in its institutions. It tried even to extract money from the helpless victims. Documents reveal that the Nazi Reich Minister for Churches made several unsuccessful attempts to protect the forced laborers from this additional tyranny. In a statement in March 1943, he urgently warned church offices to obey his decrees of November 1938 and October 1939, in which he had ruled that no church taxes were to be demanded from "foreign workers temporarily employed in the Reich". The decrees, however, were widely ignored by the church.
INDIA: CONFISCATED MAGAZINE BACK IN MARKET
India, unlike its neighboring countries in South Asia, does not have a blasphemy law. Nevertheless, at times, local authorities under the influence of powerful religious groups may mobilize police to harass and trouble authors and disturbing publications. They find convenient clauses from the Indian Penal Code suiting the purpose. The Indian Rationalist Association, in defense of Freedom of Speech and Expression, has fought and supported hundreds of such cases successfully seeking legal remedies in courts. Experience shows that biased decisions normally don't stand the review of the next instance.
The case of T V Ramana Murthy, 35-year-old editor of Vijaya Viharam, a Telugu language magazine, is a good example. Following the publication of an article criticizing Prophet Mohammed for his marriage with the former wife of his stepson, Andhra Pradesh police accused the editor of "promoting enmity between religious groups, and maliciously outraging the religious feelings of Muslims." The controversial article extensively quoted from "The Light of Truth", a book containing questions and answers in matters of Hindu faith by Swami Dayananda Saraswati, a fanatic Hindu zealot who lived in North India in the 19th century and founded the Hindu sect "Arya Samaj".
On 14 December, police raided the office of the publication and confiscated the December issue of the magazine. The editor went into hiding and approached the High Court. The response of the court was fast. On the 8th day of the ban, on 22 December 2000, the High Court of Andhra Pradesh delivered the judgment to return back the confiscated copies and the magazine reappeared next day in the bookstalls of Hyderabad. Since the court was closed for Christmas holidays, the writ petition seeking anticipatory bail for the editor was considered only after the opening of the court on 16th January. Subba Rao Maradani, leader of the Hyderabad Rationalist Forum informs that the editor was granted bail on 18th January 2001.
The recipients of Rationalist International Bulletin # 61 may publish, post, forward or reproduce articles and reports from this bulletin, acknowledging the source, Rationalist International Bulletin # 61. 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 address to HQ@rationalistinternational.net To visit the archive of the past issues of Rationalist International Bulletin, please click here. How to contact Rationalist International? Postal address: Rationalist International, P O Box 9110, New Delhi 110091, India. Phone: +91-11-2253255, Fax: +91-11-914456201 (please note the change in fax number), Web Site: www.rationalistinternational.net Email: info@rationalistinternational.net Honorary Associates: Prof. Mike Archer (Australia), Katsuaki Asai (Japan), Prof. Colin Blakemore (UK), Prof. Vern Bullough (USA), Dr. Bill Cooke (New Zealand), Dr. Helena Cronin (UK), Prof. Richard Dawkins (UK), Joseph Edamaruku (India), Prof. Antony Flew (UK), Christopher Hitchens (USA), Prof. Paul Kurtz (USA), Lavanam (India), Dr. Henry Morgentaler (Canada), Dr. Taslima Nasreen (Bangladesh), Steinar Nilsen (Norway), Prof. Jean-Claude Pecker (France), James Randi (USA), Dr. G N Jyoti Shankar (deceased, USA), Barbara Smoker (UK), Prof. Harry Stopes-Roe (UK), Prof. Rob Tielman (The Netherlands), David Tribe (Australia) and Prof. Lewis Wolpert (UK). Sanal Edamaruku, President of Rationalist International, can be contacted at Edamaruku@rationalistinternational.net |