Don’t expect justice from God, says Bill Millward
The World Council of Churches is the bete noire of Christian Zionists, for reasons that become clear in the second paragraph of this letter to the editor of Challenge Weekly, New Zealand’s Christian newspaper (August 29, 2011, edition). But it is the last paragraph, which states that “the Almighty may not be too concerned about . . . social justice”, that is most interesting.
Most religious people, and Muslims in particular, see justice, which has been defined as “the application of fairness to moral situations”, as one of the attributes of God. Indeed, it is difficult to conceive of a universal God, as opposed to a primitive tribal deity, who would be unjust — and favor one party not on the basis its rightness or claim to fair treatment, but on its racial, religious or other status.
Gaddafi’s murder only ‘disturbing’ and ‘distasteful’
If you’re searching for a suitable adjective, Mr Rasmussen, how about “illegal”? Thanks to the Israelis and the Americans, we are now so inured to murder and assassination that the issue of the legality of summarily executing someone hardly arises. It’s as though an extra-judicial killing is now to be judged on a scale of unpleasantness, and described, euphemistically, as a “death” — like a death in a traffic accident, which simply occurs. Presumably, if Gaddafi had been cleanly dispatched, without all that blood (and without a knife up his rear end), his killing would have been more acceptable.
Al-Awlaki assassination another blow to the rule of law
My letter to the Manawatu Standard, published on October 6, 2011. Of course, the United States Administration resorts to all sorts of devices and dodges to put a “legal” stamp on its blatantly illegal act (see New York Times article ). Even in this deeply cynical age, it’s shocking to see Obama violate the Constitution he has sworn to uphold.
Crescent International, March 2010
Last month’s edition of Crescent International contained articles headlined “Colonization of the Muslim mind”, “Selling the daughter of the Ummah [Aafia Siddiqui] to predators”, “Gitmo thrives despite Obama’s much-trumpeted promise”, “Will the West ever accept the concept of Islamic human rights activist”, “Internal enemies of the Ummah”, and “Zionist encroachments in Central Asia”.
I was particularly interested in the article on Islam and human rights, by Fahad Ansari. He says that “During my many years working at the Islamic Human Rights Commission, several valuable minutes were wasted every morning deleting hate mail which often described the organization as an oxymoron or a contradiction in terms before descending into a volley of Islamophobic and racist abuse”.
Even more shocking is the revelation that “Early last month, Gita Sahgal, chief of the gender unit at Amnesty International . . . publicly condemned in the national media Amnesty International’s working relationship with former Guantanamo Bay detaineee Moazzam Begg and his human rights organization, Cageprisoners”.
In the latest issue of Australia/Israel Review, satisfaction is expressed over the departure of Mohammed ElBaradei as director-general of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency and his replacement by the more pliant Yukiya Amano of Japan. Presumably, the Israelis will now have less difficulty in building a consensus for war with Iran.
Miriam Bell’s article from the same edition of AIR is above.
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