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Dutch police to get tough on anti-semitism at pro-Gaza rallies

Friday 01 August 2014

Public prosecutors in Amsterdam and The Hague are to be extra alert for anti-semitic statements at pro-Gaza and other demonstrations in the coming days.

The decision follows criticism of the lack of police action at a rally in The Hague during which some demonstrators were chanting ‘death to Jews’. Two people have since been arrested.

There has been a rise in anti-semitic incidents in the Netherlands since fighting flared up again in Gaza, and Jewish groups have complained that officials are not taking them seriously enough.

However, justice ministry officials will now monitor demonstrations and use interpreters on the ground to monitor speeches and chants. Jihadist flags and face-coverings will also be banned under certain circumstances.

Violence

On Friday, a demonstration against police violence will be held in The Hague and there have been reports supporters of the Muslim extremist group IS (formerly Isis) may be present.

On Sunday, some 5,000 protestors are expected at a pro-Gaza rally in Amsterdam.

‘Nazi symbols, Hitler salutes and burning flags will not be tolerated,’ an Amsterdam police spokesman told website nu.nl. ‘The same applies to the ISIS flag. Demonstrators may not carry it.’

Attack

Meanwhile, police in Amsterdam say they are investigating an attack on a Jewish woman living in the east of the city who hung an Israeli flag from her balcony.

Seraphina Verhofstadt-Makker says she was hit in the face and stomach by three men wearing Palestinian scarfs on Tuesday.

Police are looking for witnesses to the attack and say the men may have traces of red spray paint on their clothing. Verhofstadt-Makker used the paint to protect herself.

Disgusting

MPs from across the political spectrum condemned the incident. Labour MP Ahmed Marcouch (PvdA) said it was ‘disgusting’.

Elbert Dijkgraaf of the fundamentalist Christian group SGP said: 'It is unbelievable how much hatred of Jews is coming to the fore these days. Sad, shocking and all the more reason to come down hard on anti-semitism.’

Earlier another building carrying the Israeli flag had what news agency ANP described as a ‘fire bomb’ thrown at it and the owners were sent a threatening letter.

In The Hague, a driving school owner is being sought by police after placing a film on Facebook in which he describes Zionists as zombies. In the film, the man says ‘these zombies should be shot dead’ and shoots in the air several times with a pistol.

Facebook has since removed the video as hate speech.

© DutchNews.nl

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2014/08/dutch_police_to_get_tough_on_a.php [with comments]


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Dutch Mosque Leaders Call For Tolerance Towards Jewish 'Brothers' Despite Gaza Tensions


cybergabi via Getty Images

By Yasmine Hafiz
Posted: 08/01/2014 11:20 am EDT Updated: 08/01/2014 11:59 am EDT

As tensions rise in the Middle East, mosque groups in the Netherlands are calling for tolerance from their congregations, specifically for Jewish "brothers of the holy book," according to Dutch weekly magazine Elsevier [ http://www.elsevier.nl/Nederland/nieuws/2014/8/Moskeeen-roepen-moslims-op-tot-tolerantie-jegens-Joodse-broeders-1569812W/ ]. The Council of Mosques and the Union of Moroccan Mosques Netherlands expressed their concern about recent incidents of anti-Semitism [ http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2014/08/dutch_police_to_get_tough_on_a.php (above)] most likely connected to emotions running high about the current Gaza conflict.

A spokesman for the mosque groups told Elsevier that they weren't trying to ban criticism of Israel. However, those criticisms "should not be a license for anti-Semitic or anti-Muslim statements or actions." According to the NL Times [ http://www.nltimes.nl/2014/08/01/mosque-leaders-call-jews-brothers-ask-calm/ ], the Council of Mosques is a coalition of mainly Turkish mosques.

Muslims consider the faiths of Christianity and Judaism to be "people of the book [ http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/faithpeople.html ]," united by a common belief in the Abrahamic god. By appealing to religious commonalities, the mosque leaders hope to stem some of the local hostilities ignited by the volatile conflict. The NL Times reported that the spokesperson said that "all mosques in The Netherlands are in agreement about a course of action that will speak to a relationship of brotherhood between Islam and Judaism, the Qur’an and the Torah."

Interfaith relations all over the world are being strained [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/31/israel-gaza-interfaith-muslim-jewish_n_5638602.html ] by the current conflict. Interfaith activist Imam Shamsi Ali told Huffington Post reporter Jaweed Kaleem that the current situation in Israel and Palestine poses a real challenge to dialogue. "It's the 800-pound elephant in the room when we [Muslims and Jews] get together," he said. "We can't be hijacked by our emotions. We can't throw fire on fire."

Copyright ©2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/01/mosque-tolerance-jewish_n_5641559.html [with comments]


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Iraqi Christians' nightmare


Iraqi Christians pray during Sunday Mass in Baghdad.
(Photo: Ahmad al-Rubaye, AFP/Getty Images)

Thanks to ISIS persecution, Mosul is without Christians for the first time in 2,000 years.

Kirsten Powers
6:14 p.m. EDT July 29, 2014

Iraq's Christians are begging the world for help. Is anybody listening?

Since capturing [ http://time.com/2852097/iraq-mosul-extremists/ ] the country's second largest city of Mosul in early June, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has ordered Christians [ http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28381455 ] to convert to Islam, pay jizya taxes levied on non-Muslims, or die. The extremist Sunni group is also persecuting and murdering [ http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/07/19/iraq-isis-abducting-killing-expelling-minorities ] Turkmen and Shabaks, both Muslim religious minorities.

Human rights lawyer Nina Shea [ http://www.hudson.org/experts/376-nina-shea ] described the horror in Mosul to me: "(ISIS) took the Christians' houses, took the cars they were driving to leave. They took all their money. One old woman had her life savings of $40,000, and she said, 'Can I please have 100 dollars?', and they said no. They took wedding rings off fingers, chopping off fingers if they couldn't get the ring off."

"We now have 5,000 [ http://reliefweb.int/report/iraq/thousands-christians-flee-mosul-malteser-international-provides-health-care-kurdish ] destitute, homeless people with no future," Shea said. "This is a crime against humanity."

For the first time in 2,000 years [ http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-christian-purge-from-mosul-1405984542 ], Mosul is devoid of Christians. "This is ancient Nineveh [ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/19/world/middleeast/isis-forces-last-iraqi-christians-to-flee-mosul.html ] we are talking about," Shea explained. "They took down [ http://en.abouna.org/en/content/vatican-newspaper-decries-%E2%80%98caliphate-brutality%E2%80%99-mosul-cathedral-becomes-mosque ] all the crosses. They blew up the tomb of the prophet Jonah [ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/24/isis-militants-blow-up-jonah-tomb ]. An orthodox Cathedral has been turned into a mosque [ http://en.abouna.org/en/content/vatican-newspaper-decries-%E2%80%98caliphate-brutality%E2%80%99-mosul-cathedral-becomes-mosque ]. ... They are uprooting every vestige of Christianity." University of Mosul professor Mahmoud Al 'Asali, a Muslim, bravely spoke out [ http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/world-news/detail/articolo/iraq-irak-irak-35380/ ] against ISIS' purging of Christians and was executed.

Lebanon-based Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan [ http://en.radiovaticana.va/storico/2012/09/13/lebanon_patriarch_ignace_youssef_joseph__iii_younan/en1-620537 ], who heads the Syrian Catholic Church, called the crisis "religious cleansing" in an interview. "I want to tell American Christians to stand up, wake up and no longer be a silent majority. American-elected representatives need to stand up for their principles on which the U.S. has been founded: the defense of religious freedom ... and respect for human rights."

Mosul's Christians have fled to Kurdistan, which is providing refuge [ http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/7/22/fleeing-christiansiniraqtakerefugewithkurds.html ]. Going back to Mosul is not an option: ISIS has given their houses and businesses away. There is nothing to go back to even if ISIS left.

Virginia Republican Rep. Frank Wolf has taken to the House floor three times in the past week to plead for action [ http://wolf.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/wolf-continues-to-speak-out-about-genocide-of-christians-and-religious ] from the U.S. and world community.

Wolf told me, "The Kurds have done a good job, but they are bearing the burden. President Obama should thank and encourage the Kurds for protecting the Christians. He also needs to provide (humanitarian aid), including funds for water and food."

Though many Iraq War boosters have claimed that keeping U.S. troops there would have avoided this atrocity, Shea pointed out that a million Christians left Iraq [ http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/07/19/Christian-Holocaust-Underway-in-Iraq-as-USA-and-World-Looks-On ] in the decade before ISIS' purge campaign. The U.S. invasion "did not benefit the Christians at all. Back in 2007, jihadists moved into Baghdad's Christian Dora neighborhood [ http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jun/27/world/fg-christians27 ] and did just what they are doing in Mosul now. We had 100,000 troops on the ground and we pushed them out, but the Christians never got back their property."

Patriarch Younan concurred, telling me, "Christians used to live (peacefully) and get educated. But since the invasion in 2003, there is…no safety."

Copyright 2014 USA Today

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/07/29/kirsten-powers-iraqi-christians-nightmare/13329557/ [with comments] [also at http://www.religionnews.com/2014/07/30/commentary-anyone-answering-christians-cries-help-mosul/ (with comments) and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/31/islamic-state-christian-persecution_n_5634967.html (with comments)]


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State Department report: Religious persecution makes migrants out of millions


Secretary of State John Kerry released the 2013 annual report on international religious freedom at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on July 28, 2014. Flanking Kerry is David Saperstein, left, President Obama’s nominee to serve as ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, and Tom Malinowski, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor.
Photo courtesy U.S. Department of State


Turkmenistan lies to the north of Iran and Afghanistan in Central Asia.
Public domain image

Brian Pellot
July 28, 2014

(RNS) And then there were nine. Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Monday (July 28) that Turkmenistan has joined the State Department’s list of worst religious freedom offenders.

The State Department’s “Countries of Particular Concern” list had remained static since 2006, when eight countries — Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan — were designated as CPCs.

Justifying the addition of Turkmenistan, Kerry cited reports of people detained, beaten and tortured for their beliefs, prohibited from wearing religious attire and fined for distributing religious materials.

Turkmenistan, a mostly Sunni Muslim country in Central Asia, once part of the Soviet Union, forbids private worship and greatly restricts foreign travel for pilgrimages and religious education.

All religious organizations in the country must register with the government, and Shiite Muslim groups, Protestant groups and Jehovah’s Witnesses have all had their registration applications denied in recent years. Jehovah’s Witnesses, whose beliefs prevent them from fulfilling mandatory military conscription, face particular harassment.

This edition of the State Department’s annual religious freedom report [ http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/religiousfreedom/index.htm#wrapper ] focused heavily on discrimination, impunity and the displacement of religious minorities.

“In 2013, the world witnessed the largest displacement of religious communities in recent memory,” the report said. “In almost every corner of the globe, millions of Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and others representing a range of faiths were forced from their homes on account of their religious beliefs. … Communities are disappearing from their traditional and historic homes and dispersing across the geographic map. In conflict zones, in particular, this mass displacement has become a pernicious norm.”

CPCs were not the only offenders named. Kerry cited anti-Muslim sentiments in Europe and a poll from last year showing that nearly half of the local Jewish populations in some European countries had considered emigrating to escape anti-Semitism.

The report summary also names Syria, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Iraq, Bangladesh, Indonesia, India and Nigeria for failing to protect vulnerable religious communities, which often face violence, discrimination and harassment.

Kerry called the report “a clear-eyed objective look at the state of religious freedom around the world,” adding “it does directly shine a light in a way that makes some countries – even some of our friends – uncomfortable.” He called for the CPC designations to be grounded in real action that can help change reality on the ground.

Although sobering, this year’s report is not without positive developments.

Kerry mentioned Pakistani Muslims who formed human chains to protect Christian worshippers after a church bombing in Peshawar and a Jewish neighborhood watch team that helped Muslim leaders in London ensure safe access to mosques after a series of attacks.

In April, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent watchdog panel created by Congress to review international religious freedom conditions, recommended [ http://www.religionnews.com/2014/04/30/religious-freedom-uscirf-swett-syria-burma-egypt-iran-china-saudi-korea-nigeria-iraq/ ] that the State Department add Turkmenistan, Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Vietnam and Syria to the list of CPCs.

U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, a Virginia Republican and one of Congress’s staunchest advocates for a robust U.S. American foreign policy on religious freedom, said that while it makes sense to add Turkmenistan to the list, the report must be backed by a plan to address the persecution described within it.

“My concern about the report is that it doesn’t lay out a strategy on the continued problems in China, in Vietnam,” he said, noting that the Chinese government is still detaining 2010 Nobel laureate and human rights campaigner Liu Xiaobo.

“It’s one thing to say you have a problem,” Wolf said. “It’s another thing to say what as a nation you’re going to do about it.”

USCIRF’s April report also recommended that the vacant post of ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom be filled quickly after Suzan Johnson Cook left that role in October [ http://www.religionnews.com/2013/10/28/suzan-johnson-cook-defends-work-religious-freedom-explains-left/ ].

Hours before Kerry’s press conference on Monday, President Obama announced plans to tap [ http://www.religionnews.com/2014/07/28/rabbi-saperstein-nominated-u-s-ambassador-religious-freedom/ ] Rabbi David Saperstein as the next ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. Saperstein stood by Kerry’s side as the report’s key findings were discussed but refrained from speaking or answering questions from the audience.

• READ: Quick approval in order for Saperstein as religious freedom ambassador
http://marksilk.religionnews.com/2014/07/28/quick-approval-order-saperstein-religious-freedom-ambassador/

• LISTEN: RNS Editor-in-Chief Kevin Eckstrom and Rabbi Saperstein on anti-gay discrimination
http://stateofbelief.com/extended-interviews/exemptions-and-the-executive-order-david-saperstein-extended-interview-video-and-transcript/

© 2014 Religion News LLC

http://www.religionnews.com/2014/07/28/state-department-report-religious-persecution-makes-migrants-millions/ [with comments]


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