News, Prophecy and other

[Shammu]

Priests have been accused of seducing women in their churches or encouraging young people to engage in sinful acts. Father Pierre has already won four court cases for libel against defendants who had spread rumors that he routinely watches porno films with young people. To protect himself, he now maintains the best possible relations with the local Turkish hierarchy, routinely paying visits to the chief of police, the governor and the mufti. "It helps," he says.

Sixteen-year-old Oguz, Andrea Santoros's suspected murderer, is currently being held under high security at the Trabzon prison. Four bodyguards have been assigned to the boy to prevent him from harming himself or being silenced by others. He has refused to make any statements.

Was Oguz truly trying to avenge the humiliation of Muslims who saw the Danish cartoon controversy as an affront to their prophet, as his family claims? Or was the murder the work of the Mafia, which was incensed over the church's practice of giving shelter to Russian prostitutes? Or perhaps the boy, apparently a loner, was a willing tool for nationalist extremists.

According to his family, Oguz, a high-school student, had recently become "very religious." "He prayed five times a day," says his brother Alpaznar. His father, who runs a dental laboratory in Trabzon, claims that he first heard about the Muhammad cartoons from his son. "He was very upset, but I told him that it was none of his concern."

The father, pale and bald, is constantly jumping up from his chair, nervously rubbing his hands. He doesn't have a photo of his son, holding up a newspaper clipping instead. "I feel bad for the boy," he says, sounding almost as if "the boy" weren't his own child.

Closed for a month

Oguz apparently spent most of his time in an Internet café in a small shopping center in downtown Trabzon. "He was especially fond of strategy games," says the owner, Senol Sahin, adding that the boy had recently become very aggressive. "He would send me e-mails in which he used vile language. I even hit him once for doing it." Sahin believes the boy is "easily influenced."

On the morning of the murder, Oguz apparently came home and asked for directions to the Santa Maria Church. Then, according to his father, he left the house with his younger brother. The murderer must have known his way around, because the churchyard one passes through to reach the church lies in the middle of a group of buildings, and is in full view of half a dozen apartments, many displaying the Turkish flag in their windows.

The priest's young Italian housekeeper, startled by the shots, claims that she saw a silhouette, and that it was that of a man, not a boy.

The church remained closed for one month. Meanwhile, Bishop Padovese has sent two lay assistants and a visiting Polish pastor to Trabzon, so that the church can be kept open at least two or three times a week for the few Christians who still live in Trabzon.

Fear Prevails after Priest's Murder

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 Iraq-Press-Mubarak Mubarak had better halt infiltration of armed Egyptians into Iraq: Iraqi press
Ilam, April 16, IRNA


Reacting to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's last week anti-Shi'a remarks, some Iraqi dailies in their Saturday edition, too, advised him to halt infiltration of armed Egyptians into Iraq to boost Iraq's security.

Quoting some parts of Iraqi daily Al-Ishtar, the Iraq TV in its Saturday Night "Meet the Press" program said, "Rather than launching an anti-Shi'a, anti-Iranian campaign that would do no more than fueling sectarian hatred, the Egyptian President had better halt the infiltration of armed Egyptian into Iraq in order to boost security in our country."
Another Iraqi daily, the Baghdad-based "Al-Mouten" ( Motherland), too, was quoted in the program as saying, "Hosni Mubarak's remarks reminds us of Saddam Hussain's words, because the former Iraqi president, too, on numerous occasions used words as bullets against the Iraqi Shi'as."
Al-Mouten added, "It seems like the Egyptian President badly misses the petro-dollars he used to receive from sales of the Iraqi oil during Saddam's tyrannical rule, which is the reason he has started propagating against the majority Shi'as in Iraq and the Shi'as in entire Middle East today!"
In Egypt, President Mubarak himself finally in an interview with Al-Akhbar (The News) daily on Saturday asked to be excused by the Iraqi nation, claiming that "My remarks in my interview with that Dubai-based TV had been misquoted."
Mubarak further emphasized, "From our point of view there is no difference among the Kurds, the Arabs, the Shi'as and the Sunnies." He added, "What I said in that interview is what we have said before too, and that is the fact that the Iraqi Shi'as feel attached o Iran religiously, but not politically."
Mubarak had said in an interview with Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television Saturday "there is effectively a civil war underway now." But an angry Iraq hit back at Mubarak, who also enflamed Shi'as across the region when he said their loyalties lay first with Shi'as Iran.

"The comments have upset Iraqi people who come from different religious and ethnic backgrounds and have astonished and dismayed the Iraqi government," said Jaafari.

President Jalal Talabani said the "accusations against our Shi'a brothers are baseless and we have asked our foreign minister to talk to Egypt about this."
On Monday, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari called his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Abul Gheit and urged him to "reduce the damage done by Mubarak's remarks and help improve relations between the two countries", a ministry statement said.

Mubarak had better halt infiltration of armed Egyptians into Iraq: Iraqi press

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Pentecostal Movement Celebrates Humble Roots
L.A.'s Azusa Street to Mark Centennial of Fast-Growing Religion Centered on Holy Spirit

By Marshall Allen
Religion News Service
Saturday, April 15, 2006; B09

LOS ANGELES -- One hundred years ago, a series of boisterous revival meetings in a converted stable on Azusa Street launched a global movement that overcame differences in class, gender and race to unite around the belief that the Holy Spirit still works miracles.

Today, there are about 600 million Pentecostal and charismatic Christians whose roots are in the Azusa Street revival. They make up the fastest-growing segment of Christianity, thriving especially in the Southern Hemisphere, with their beliefs having an impact on nearly every Christian denomination.

The 100th anniversary will be celebrated worldwide, with thousands expected to participate in an Azusa Street Centennial in Los Angeles from April 25-29.

But what is now known as the Pentecostal movement had humble beginnings.

It started in early 1906, not on Azusa Street, but in a small house at 214 Bonnie Brae St. There, a black pastor named William Seymour, 35, preached for several weeks about baptism in the Holy Spirit, the belief that Christians can receive empowerment beyond their first baptism to heal, prophesy and speak in a spiritual language called tongues.

On April 9, 1906, the first person from the group spoke in tongues. Then another, and soon several spoke in tongues. It was considered evidence of being baptized in the spirit.

The believers saw it as a modern-day fulfillment of Acts 2:4, the biblical passage in which the Holy Spirit descends on the disciples after Christ's crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. That night in Los Angeles, several others in the African American congregation spoke in tongues.

Word spread and crowds became so large that services were held outside, with Seymour using the house's front porch as a pulpit, according to Cecil M. Robeck Jr., professor of church history and ecumenics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.

"This was no quiet demonstration; it was full of noisy manifestations, shouts, speaking in tongues, moaning, and singing in tongues that undoubtedly would have frightened any uninitiated within audible range," Robeck wrote in his new book, "The Azusa Street Mission & Revival."

Seymour moved the group to a ramshackle building used to shelter livestock at 312 Azusa St. in working-class Los Angeles. There, on the sawdust-covered dirt floor of the Apostolic Faith Mission -- popularly known as the Azusa Street Mission -- thousands of people came to worship at three services a day, seven days a week for almost three years.

The congregation met in the round, with Seymour facilitating the interactive gathering from the center of the room. The meetings were in the style of the black church, with hand-clapping, foot-stomping and shouting. But, at the height of the Jim Crow era, they included blacks, whites, Hispanics and Asians from the Los Angeles melting pot -- up to 1,300 people at a time.

Newspaper reporters covered the rowdy meetings, and the reviews were less than flattering.

Believers were described as "Holy Rollers," "Holy Jumpers," "Tangled Tonguers" and "Holy Ghosters."

Christians from other traditions were also critical, saying the movement was hyper-emotional, misused Scripture and lost focus on Christ by overemphasizing the Holy Spirit.

Undeterred, the Pentecostal Christians were motivated to share their faith with urgency. According to Robeck, they considered salvation a personal experience and expected physical healing and other miracles to occur when the Gospel was preached.

Believing the Second Coming of Christ was imminent, Azusa Street missionaries were sent throughout the world. And Evangelists from other countries traveled to the mission to experience the revival before bringing it to their own congregations.

Robeck said social factors contributed to the movement's spread. Los Angeles was in the middle of a wave of immigration, and people in the midst of such change were desperately seeking answers. Seymour preached a message of empowerment that appealed to them.

While the mainstream media ridiculed Azusa Street, Frank Bartleman, an evangelist, kept a diary of what he saw and experienced. His vivid accounts, more than 500 in all, were published in Christian newspapers across the country. The Azusa Street mission also published a newspaper, the Apostolic Faith, which was distributed to 50,000 people, some of them overseas.

"That spread curiosity around the world and brought pilgrims from around the world," said Vinson Synan, dean of the school of divinity at Regent University in Virginia Beach, who has researched Azusa Street history.

Services continued to be racially mixed, with Bartleman writing that "the color line was washed away in the blood of Jesus."

Synan points out that having a black man, Seymour, in charge "with white men under his authority" was considered miraculous.

"From that day on I would say Pentecostalism has had more crossing of ethnic boundaries than any movement in the world in Christianity."

Pentecostal Movement Celebrates Humble Roots

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Messianic Fervor Grows Among Iran's Shiites
Many, including the president, pray for the Mahdi's return to defeat evil. Western critics fear such beliefs may lead to irrational policies.
By John Daniszewski
Times Staff Writer

April 15, 2006

JAMKARAN, Iran — Each Tuesday, thousands of people arrive here at dusk by car and bus. Beneath the twinkling lights of the blue-tiled mosque, they sit on carpets, following prayers broadcast over loudspeakers: families, pilgrims from distant provinces, young men frantic with expectation, women hoping for cures.

The devout make their way to the back of the shrine. There, they write their hopes, dreams and prayers onto slips of paper that they drop into two wells — one for the men, one for the women. They pray, eyes squeezed shut, until moved along politely by mosque workers.

For many devout Shiite Muslims, this is a place of miracles — the place of the Mahdi, the messiah. From lowly carpet weavers to Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, devotion to the Mahdi and anticipation of his return appears to be crescendoing in Iran.

Particularly on Tuesdays, the day most associated with the Mahdi's blessings, the night here is filled with fervent prayers, a reflection of the ardent faith that gave rise to the Islamic Revolution, and which conservative supporters of Ahmadinejad hope will sustain the nation in any confrontation with the West over Iran's nuclear program.

All Muslims await the appearance of the Mahdi; the largest branch of Shiites, those known as Twelvers, await his return.

To the majority of Shiites, the Mahdi was the last of the prophet Muhammad's true heirs, his 12 righteous descendants chosen by God to lead the faithful.

The Mahdi, the Twelfth Imam, the Imam of Our Times, was born Muhammad ibn Hasan and went into hiding around 878. Shiites believe he maintained contact with representatives until 941, when all communication from him ceased. When the time is ripe, they teach, he will reappear and, along with Jesus, will lead Muslims in a struggle to rid the world of corruption and establish justice. The Mahdi ordered a shrine built in Jamkaran nearly 1,000 years ago, Shiite teachings hold.

It would be a caricature to paint the whole country as caught up in messianic fervor. Even among the clergy, there are many who treat the Mahdi's return as figurative rather than literal. But at a time when many here believe that Iran, and by extension its brand of Shiism, is under threat by the West, the Mahdi can be a useful symbol for the government to rally the people.

For Iran's opponents in Washington and elsewhere, the talk of the Mahdi's return, with its apocalyptic overtones, causes worry. Some critics of Iran fear that religious zeal might overcome reason when it comes to setting the nation's policies.

Ahmadinejad's particular attention to the Mahdi in his speeches and actions — soon after taking office, he allocated $20 million to improve and enlarge the Jamkaran Mosque complex — has been noted by Western critics.

So, too was Ahmadinejad's appearance in September before the United Nations General Assembly, when he said a prayer calling for the Mahdi's return: "O mighty Lord, I pray to hasten the emergence of … the promised one … the one who will fill this world with justice and peace."

Belief in the Mahdi energizes many of the 8 million to 10 million pilgrims who come annually to Qom, the seminary city two hours south of Tehran that is considered among Iran's most holy places. The Jamkaran Mosque stands just outside Qom.

"A prayer in the Jamkaran Mosque is almost like going to Mecca," said Adel Safr, a cleric with the Qom mosque's international department. He helps receive foreign visitors in a room ornately decorated to resemble a garden.

"According to some of the sayings, if someone comes each week, 40 times in 40 weeks, he can be worthy to meet the Mahdi when he returns," Safr said.

Visiting the shrine, he said, was "a reaffirmation to say to him that we are still with you — we came because we believe the Mahdi is caring and that he is going to cleanse the world of injustice and corruption."

To Safr, a 34-year-old who has been studying in Qom for four years, the troubles that have racked the Persian Gulf region in recent years could be portents of the Mahdi's return.

Just as some Christians see warfare in the Middle East as reflections of Biblical prophecy, some in Iran see a religious pattern in recent events.

The destruction of an important Shiite shrine in Samarra, Iraq, the Mahdi's birthplace and where he went into hiding, and the sectarian violence in that country are seen as fulfillments of prophecies about the conditions in which he would reappear.

"This is why Mr. Bush has put divisions in Saudi Arabia and Iraq — to kill the Mahdi and make Jesus the messiah," Safr said. "I am serious. There have been speeches in the Pentagon about it."

For others, the shrine is a place for more personal prayers, a source of solace and hope for believers coping with poverty, health problems, or family or social difficulties.

"Ninety percent of people coming here have lost all their hope in the security of the world and want to grab onto their last chance, and they find it here," said Majid Haidari, 27, from Khosan.

"This is their ultimate connection to God, and they realize that they are in the right place."

"I want God to give me a child, and I am very hopeful," Haidari said. "All those who are worthy, they receive their wishes."

In a black chador, Akram Mirzails, 43, walked along the tree-shaded pavement among those people dropping letters to the Twelfth Imam into the wells.

She carried what looked like a rainbow-colored feather duster as a symbol that she was a worker and advisor at the Jamkaran Mosque, helping pilgrims with directions and hints for their devotions.

Visits to the mosque have climbed steadily, she said.

"It has a very, very high spiritual movement," she said. "Everyone is waiting for an appearance of the Imam because they feel there is a connection and they can feel his sacredness here."

"We have visitors from as far away as Pakistan, India, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. In the last few years, I don't know why, people more and more are drawn to this location on Tuesday nights, even those who are not religious."

And there are many instances of healing, she asserted. Just that evening, she said recently, a 13-year-old who had been ill stood up, suddenly cured.

"People were crying. You could not even hear the loudspeaker," she recounted.

"When the Imam appears, he will display many, many miracles," she predicted. "I myself have seen some already. Other people sometimes see or feel a guiding presence."

As she walked away, a new crowd of supplicants made their way to the well, and the din of the crowd and the loudspeakers rose once more.

Messianic Fervor Grows Among Iran's Shiites

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Gay activists plan rally in Williamsburg
By Frank E. Lockwood
HERALD-LEADER RELIGION WRITER

The University of the Cumberlands -- which has drawn national attention for expelling a gay student -- is under attack simply for upholding scriptural teachings on homosexuality, Kentucky Baptist Convention President Paul Chitwood said today.

The overwhelming majority of the convention's 790,030 members back the Southern Baptist school's decision to expel 20-year-old Jason Johnson, Chitwood said. "I personally am 100 percent supportive," he said.

The Louisville-area preacher spoke out on the same day that gay rights activists announced plans for a protest rally near the school's Williamsburg campus next week.

Representatives of the Kentucky Collegiate Coalition, which represents gay-lesbian-bisexual-and-transgendered students, said people from nine Kentucky schools will participate on Wednesday. It's unclear if Johnson, who was in New York for media interviews yesterday, will attend.

The uproar over Johnson's expulsion -- which has been covered by CNN, National Public Radio and others -- doesn't surprise Chitwood or other prominent Baptists.

"The liberal portion of the media and entertainment industry... as well as gay rights activists have pushed so hard to normalize the gay lifestyle," Chitwood said. "Anyone that objects to that lifestyle is demonized and attacked ferociously and that's exactly what we're seeing here."

Hershael York, a Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor and former Kentucky Baptist Convention president, questioned the attention Johnson has received.

"I'm seeing incredibly sympathetic media coverage given to a young man who in my opinion did an unreasonable thing," York said. "He went to a Baptist school knowing that this (behavior) is completely inconsistent with the Baptist faith."

Johnson, a Lafeyette High School graduate, was kicked out after he shared details about his dating life on his Xanga and MySpace.Com Web sites.

The school's 2005-2006 handbook warns that "any student who engages in or promotes sexual behavior not consistent with Christian principles (including sex outside marriage and homosexuality) may be suspended or asked to withdraw."

Critics say the school unfairly discriminates against gays and lesbians.

Officials at the university have said nothing since releasing a brief statement last week that, among other things, said students who don't accept the school's standards can go to "San Francisco and the left coast or to many of the state schools." But York says the school's rules bar "extramarital sexuality" for all students -- gay or straight.

"We believe that sexuality is to be expressed only in the context of marriage between a man and a woman," he said.

Johnson wasn't kicked out because he was gay, but because he publicly advocated conduct incompatible with Christian teaching, York said. "He made a decision and he has reaped the consequences of that decision."

Even so, York said the university's stand on sexuality may make it more difficult for the school to get government funds. The debate over Johnson's expulsion has become tangled up with the state budget, which makes $11 million in state money available to the university for a pharmacy school and scholarships. Some groups and legislators have urged Gov. Ernie Fletcher to veto the funding.

"I always hate to see Baptist schools take anything from the government," York said. "The minute you allow government money in, government control comes in."

Gay activists plan rally in Williamsburg

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  Russia covets China nuclear deals
By David Lague International Herald Tribune
SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 2006
BEIJING For most of the two decades since the Chernobyl disaster, Russia's nuclear construction industry languished as engineers labored to apply the lessons learned from the accident to improve reactor design and safety.

Power stations that were already under construction in Russia at the time of the 1986 accident went into service but no new plants were started.

Now China's ambitious drive to generate more electricity from nuclear energy is accelerating the revival of a once mighty technical giant.

A Russian nuclear technology exporter, AtomStroyExport, has begun testing the first reactor it has built in China at the Tianwan nuclear power plant in Jiangsu Province.

The general manager of the company's representative office in Beijing, Valeriy Kurochkin, said this unit would begin commercial operation in October.

A second reactor and turbine unit now under construction at the Tianwan plant, located outside the city of Lianyonggang, is scheduled to begin supplying power for the local utility next year.

The company is also optimistic that China will use Russian technology in the construction of two more reactor units at the Tianwan plant.

"The safe and reliable operation of the first unit now under commissioning at the Tianwan nuclear power plant will determine the future of Russian companies in the Chinese nuclear power market," Kurochkin said in an interview.

Orders to build nuclear power plants in India and Iran have also allowed Russia to continue developing its nuclear engineering capability while domestic construction stalled.

Moscow has also thrown its weight behind the Russian nuclear industry's drive to win contracts with Chinese power utilities. On a visit to Beijing last month, President Vladimir Putin of Russia said future cooperation on energy between the two sides should include his country's involvement in the construction of new nuclear reactors.

Ulrik Stidbaek, an electricity market expert at the Paris-based International Energy Agency, said that China's plans to expand its nuclear power sector could make it the fastest-growing market for reactors in the world and that Beijing had already shown it was prepared to embrace Russian nuclear technology.

"All in all, I think China is definitely one of the most, if not the most, important markets at the moment," he said. "That is even more so for Russia."

AtomStroyExport is now locked in a three-way contest with Areva of France and the U.S.-based Westinghouse, a unit of Toshiba, to secure an $8 billion contract to build four advanced reactors for the Chinese power industry.

However, most industry analysts believe the Russian company is a distant third in the running for the contract to build the reactors - two in Guangdong Province and two more in Zhejiang Province.

Kurochkin, a four-decade veteran of Russia's nuclear power industry, refused to comment on speculation surrounding the bidding. But he pointed out that Areva and Westinghouse had both offered to supply reactors that were not yet in commercial operation.

"As far as I know, no decision has been made yet," he said. "But our participation in this tender competition shows our wish to take part in further development of the nuclear power industry in China."

Kurochkin said that his company's existing foothold in China with an advanced reactor design could lead to further orders if China continues to invest heavily in nuclear power.

The accident at Chernobyl in what is now Ukraine killed scores of people and could lead to the eventual deaths of up to 4,000 others who were exposed to radioactive contamination, according to a report last year from an international panel of experts.

Some nuclear energy specialists believe that the flawed design of the Chernobyl reactor had contributed to an accident that unfairly tarnished the image of the entire Russian nuclear industry.

They say that Russian technicians had also produced some safe and reliable reactors and that the continued development of these superior designs means that Russia now offers some of the safest and most advanced reactor design and technology in the world.

Ian Hore-Lacy, a spokesman for the World Nuclear Association, a London- based nuclear industry lobby group, said that the reactors installed at Tianwan were close to leading-edge Western designs.

"They are very good units," he said. "I would be happy to live next door to one of them."

However, Hore-Lacy said AtomStroyExport would need to offer lower prices to offset the Western edge in technology.

Russia and China signed a contract to build the two Tianwan reactors in 1997 as part of growing energy cooperation between the two countries.

Up to 150 Russian companies and suppliers along with 600 engineers and nuclear specialists are now working on the Tianwan site in a joint effort with the Chinese nuclear industry that recalls the period before 1960, when China depended heavily on its then Communist neighbor for advanced technology.

Kurochkin declined to disclose the Tianwan contract price but he said that it had involved Russian government financing.

He said the 1,060-megawatt Tianwan units were among the most advanced in the world and very close to the so- called third-generation Western designs.

"Actually, this project includes all the technical characteristics of third-generation plants to some extent," he said.

AtomStroyExport was offering a similar design in competition with the third-generation reactors that Areva and Westinghouse were offering China, he said.

No third-generation reactors are yet in operation in any country.

The resurgence of Russia's reactor construction industry comes at a time when the need to curb greenhouse gas emissions has led to what has been described as a global "renaissance" for nuclear energy.

This, combined with a drop in the stocks of nuclear fuel from decommissioned Soviet-era atomic weapons, has led to sharply increased prices for uranium, which is used to power reactors.

China is at the forefront of this revival as it seeks to satisfy its energy- hungry economy and reduce dependence on the coal-fired power plants that are contributing to the air pollution choking major industrial and urban areas.

There are now nine reactors operating in China and plans to add up to fifty new units, including the two at Tianwan. The investment for all of these projects has been estimated at $50 billion by 2020 in industry publications and reports in the official Chinese media.

Senior Chinese officials say that the share of electricity generated from nuclear power should increase from about 2 percent to more than 4 percent by 2020. Some Chinese industry experts have forecast that nuclear power could account for more than 30 percent of electricity generation by 2060.

After decades where utilities around the world placed very few orders for new reactors, the upcoming Chinese contract is particularly important for Areva and Westinghouse.

For the winner, the opportunity to build a third-generation design could provide a springboard to further business in the United States and Europe.

Beijing had been expected to announce its decision earlier this year, but negotiations are still under way on the terms and degree of technical transfer that the bidders are prepared to offer.

The Chinese authorities have demanded that the bidders share advanced nuclear technology as part of Beijing's efforts to develop its domestic nuclear power industry. A report in the French daily Les Échos last month suggested that Areva was out of contention for the contract because it had refused to meet China's demands to hand over technology for one of its reactors.

Areva has refused to comment on the reports but insists that it is still in the running. The newspaper also reported that Westinghouse had offered to sell the plans for its AP1000 reactor and earn an annual royalty from the power plants.

Industry analysts believe that politics will have a major bearing on Beijing's decision, with the Bush administration lobbying strongly for Westinghouse and the French government backing Areva.

If Westinghouse were to win the order, some analysts suggest that this would be announced when President Hu Jintao of China visits Washington this month. A deal of this size would assist Beijing in its efforts to counter growing U.S. resentment over an annual $202 billion trade deficit with China.

Russia covets China nuclear deals

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 Enemies enraged by Muslims' advancement, independence and solidarity: President
Tehran, April 16, IRNA

Ahmadinejad-Muslims-Enemies
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here on Saturday that the Islamic World's enemies get enraged seeing the advancement, independence, and solidarity of the Muslims.

Ahmadinejad made the remark in a meeting with the Sudanese Parliament Speaker Ahmad Ibrahim al-Taher, adding, "Wherever the hearts and minds of the Muslim nations get closer to one another they try to sow the seeds of discord and that is because they favor a dependent Islamic World under their severe hegemony."
The Iranian President further emphasized, "The enemies are incessantly looking for opportunities to weaken the independence of Islamic countries and the solidarity within the Islamic World." He proposed, "The best way for encountering their countless plots is to keep up the campaign against them and to keep on resisting." The President considered Palestine as the "frontline for Islam's campaign against global oppression, led by the United States and Israel", arguing, "It has been over sixty years now that the world powers have forged an illegitimate regime, harming the Islamic solidarity."
He reiterated, "Supporting the new Palestinian government and the Palestinian nation's Intifada provides a golden opportunity for revival of Islamic solidarity around the globe, and to boost the campaign against the global oppressive power and its allies." Ahmadinejad said that the comprehensive advancement of the Muslim nations, including the Islamic Republic of Iran's advancement in its peaceful nuclear program, pave the path for victory of the Islamic Ummah," noting that "This achievement belongs to the entire Islamic World, as well as all free and independent nations."
Referring to the blessed birth anniversary of the Holy Prophet of Islam (PBUH) and his lifestyle, that was entirely at the service of boosting Islamic solidarity at global scale, he said, "Taking lessons from that grand personality and following him in all aspects of life is the mankind's only way towards embracing well being in this world and eternal salvation in the Hereafter.

The President during the meeting also repeated Iran's strong will to strengthen comprehensive ties with all Muslim governments and nations, particularly with Sudan.

The Sudanese Parliament Speaker, too, during the meeting congratulated Iran for joining the world nuclear club, expressed delight over attending the International Qods Conference and said that holding such gatherings is a very effective way for solving the problems with which the Islamic World is entangled.

Ahmad Ibrahim al-Taher also appreciated the thoughtful remarks made by the IRI Supreme Leader and by President Ahmadinejad at the opening session of the conference titled "Assisting the Palestinian Nation".

He said, "The Great Satan, resorting to all its facilities, including its media power, the military forces, and its psychological warfare, is after creating crises throughout the Islamic World, weakening the Islamic countries, aggrandizing the existing problems in them, poisoning the world public opinion about Muslims, interfering in Islamic countries, and strengthening its hegemony there."

Enemies enraged by Muslims' advancement, independence and solidarity

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 Palestinian prime minister: U.S. leads 'unholy alliance'
Hamas-led government vows it will survive cuts in Western aid

Friday, April 14, 2006; Posted: 2:28 p.m. EDT (18:28 GMT)

GAZA CITY (CNN) -- The United States is leading an "unholy alliance" to undermine democratic elections that put Hamas at the helm of the Palestinian Authority, partly by denying millions of dollars in aid to the new government, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Friday.

Speaking to supporters at a pro-government rally, Haniyeh said, "The Palestinian people will not give up their government no matter how many sacrifices we have to make."

The rally was one of many Hamas-organized demonstrations Friday that brought out thousands of Palestinians throughout the West Bank and Gaza to show their support for the financially strapped government, The Associated Press reported.

Western nations cut funding to the Palestinian Authority after Hamas won parliamentary elections in January and formed a Cabinet last month.

The AP reported Friday that the U.S. government apparently is stepping up pressure on Hamas by barring Americans from doing most business with the Palestinian government.

In a memo obtained by the AP, the U.S. Treasury Department said "transactions with the Palestinian Authority by U.S. persons are prohibited, unless licensed." The memo said the decision was based on "existing terrorism sanctions," according to the AP.

Hamas, which calls for Israel's destruction and which the United States and European Union list as a terrorist organization, has refused to meet Western demands to renounce violence and recognize the Jewish state's right to exist.

Haniyeh vowed the government will stay in place for its full four-year term.

"We are prepared to eat salt and olives, and we will not bow our heads, but to God almighty, because we are faithful and because we take our responsibility seriously," he told supporters at the Gaza City rally. "We will not betray our people or back down."

Many of the men in the audience wore green baseball caps; green and white are the colors of the Hamas flag.

Often sounding more like a minister than a political leader, Haniyeh said, "When we see all these alliances and this blockade and these threats to cut off aid to poor people, poor people who have been oppressed for decades, our only refuge is to seek God's protection and strength."

The United States, European Union and Israel have cut direct funding to the Hamas-led government that assumed power March 30, although humanitarian aid is to be donated through nongovernmental organizations.

Several thousand Palestinians protested in Nablus in support of the government, the AP reported, but government employee Hassan Tubaila, 40, told the news agency that he was losing patience as he waited for his overdue salary.

"Today we see a great demonstration. Maybe in a week, we shall see an even greater one, against the government, if we don't get our salaries," he told the AP.

The Palestinian Authority has said it is facing an economic crisis because Israel has halted the transfer of taxes and fees it collects for the authority, and the United States has asked Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to return $50 million in unspent funds to prevent it from falling into the hands of Hamas.

Haniyeh said Hamas is committed to making reforms, but the new government has started out with "an empty treasury."
Reaching out to Arab League

The leader said Palestinian ministers are touring Arab capitals in an effort to raise money, and Hamas has contacted the Arab League and other groups to ask for financial help.

"We are not afraid of poverty," he said. "God will provide."

"The pressures and the threats aim to take away our strength and our authority so our powers will crumble. Our strength, our rights will not crumble. They will not succeed," he said, referring to critics.

Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Palestinian Authority Cabinet, told the AP the trip "is part of opening new windows and doors for the government, especially to get political and financial support. It is an attempt to break the international isolation" on the government.

Last week, the United States pledged to increase humanitarian aid to the Palestinians but said it will cut off all assistance for building projects in the Palestinian territories. That cut in funding will affect public infrastructure improvements, employment training and economic development projects.

However, under a policy change approved by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, overall humanitarian assistance will rise by 57 percent to $240 million over several years.

Most of the U.S. aid will go to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which cares for Palestinian refugees. The agency will receive about $130 million, or a 30 percent increase.

In all, $411 million in U.S. aid will be canceled or suspended out of concern the money could help the new Palestinian government, the State Department said. Of that amount, $165 million remains under review by the Bush administration.

The EU pledged to give Palestinians $143 million in emergency aid before the formation of the new government. The EU said the money would pay for energy and utility bills, health and education programs and the payroll of the Palestinian Authority, an EU official said. None of the money is direct government aid.

Funds for health and education will go to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, and utility costs will be paid to utility providers, both Israeli and Palestinian, once the Palestinian Authority presents those bills.

The EU's intention, an official for the group said, was to ease the pressure on Abbas as he tries to shape the policies of a new government headed by Hamas.

Abbas belongs to the long-ruling Fatah party, which Hamas roundly defeated in elections.

Palestinian prime minister: U.S. leads 'unholy alliance'

[Shammu]

Christian Left rejects Hamas boycott
George Conger, THE JERUSALEM POST    Apr. 14, 2006

Leaders of the Christian left in Europe and the US are backing calls by the patriarchs and heads of churches in Jerusalem for the EU and the US to resume aid to Hamas.

On April 11, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches [WCC] , Dr. Samuel Kobia, wrote to the chairman of the Council of the European Union, Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, asking the EU to exercise "respect for the democratic mandate given" to Hamas and to allow "time for the new government to find its feet and demonstrate its intentions." The WCC warned of "of increasing suffering and new dangers to peace ahead" as a consequence of "decisions being taken these very days by the EU and other members of the Quartet."

At its April 10-11 meeting in Luxembourg, the EU Council confirmed that it was "reviewing its assistance to the Palestinians" because of Hamas's failure to commit itself to "non-violence, recognition of Israel's right to exist and acceptance of existing agreements."

The head of America's Episcopal Church, Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, released an Easter letter on April 13 warning that "an impending humanitarian tragedy is unfolding" in Palestine.

In a "plea to both the relevant government bodies of the world and to our church membership," Griswold asked that "all necessary aid be made available through non-government and, where possible, through government structures" to the Palestinians.

Griswold chided US and EU policy of withdrawing from working with Hamas, saying, "Unilateral action does not lead to reconciliation" and that a "breakdown of the infrastructure of Palestinian society at this moment can only lead to further chaos, lawlessness and deep suffering."

The letters of support followed lobbying by Palestinian Christian leaders of their Western counterparts. On Wednesday, the patriarchs and heads of the Christian churches of Jerusalem released an Easter letter stating that it was "not permitted to boycott a people on whom oppressions and injustices were and are imposed." The "international community" had failed to "put an end to these oppressions," which had led to "violence, terrorism and the humiliation of the human person."

Instead of boycotting Hamas, the church leaders asked the "international community to seize the opportunity of this phase in history of the conflict in order to try seriously to put an end to the suffering of our land and of all its inhabitants."

While Hamas's response to the Christian left's call for support is unknown, in a radio interview broadcast on April 6, the No. 2 man on its parliamentary list, Muhammad Abu Tir, argued that the Episcopal Church was secretly controlled by Jews.

"Even the churches where the Americans pray are led by Jews who were converted to Christianity, but they were converted to keep controlling the Americans," Abu Tir told syndicated radio host Rusty Humphries.

"I made a study and I know very well that all this radicalism in some parts of the Christianity, [including] the Anglicans who are being led by Bush, is because of the control of Zionists," Abu Tir concluded.

Christian Left rejects Hamas boycott

[Shammu]

Few Reassured Over Chernobyl's Impact

By MARA D. BELLABY, Associated Press Writer Sat Apr 15, 12:15 PM ET

KIEV, Ukraine - With every cough and sore throat, every ache and pain, Valentyna Stanyuk feels Chernobyl stalking her.

"It's only a matter of time," she said as she waited for a thyroid test at a mobile Red Cross clinic in her village of Bystrichy, 150 miles west of Chernobyl.

The tests came back clean, but that's little reassurance to this 54-year-old or to millions of others who live in parts of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia that were heavily irradiated when the nuclear reactor exploded 20 years ago, spewing radioactive clouds over Ukraine and much of Europe for 10 days.

The April 26, 1986, disaster forced the evacuation of large swaths of some of the Soviet Union's best farmland and forests. The radiation spread far enough to be detected in reindeer meat in Norway and rainfall in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. It shocked most European countries into a generation-long freeze on building nuclear plants. In so starkly exposing the failings of the communist system, the world's worst nuclear accident may even have hastened the collapse of the Soviet Union five years later.

And the effect on the health of the people exposed to its invisible poisons? That is the most heatedly debated legacy of Chernobyl.

"There is so much that we still don't know," said Dr. Volodymyr Sert, head of a team of Red Cross doctors who canvass Ukraine's rural Zhytomyr region in search of thyroid abnormalities — one of the few health problems that all scientists agree is linked to Chernobyl's fallout.

"The most important thing we can do is reassure people that they aren't being forgotten," he said.

After the explosion about 116,000 residents were evacuated from a 20-mile zone around the plant. Some 5 million others in areas that got significant fallout were not evacuated.

Over the years, reports and rumors have spoken of thousands of these especially vulnerable people dying from radiation. But a September report by a group of United Nations agencies concluded that the accident wasn't nearly as deadly as feared.

Fewer than 50 deaths have been directly linked to radiation exposure as of mid-2005, the report said. A total of 4,000 of the 600,000 "liquidators" — workers who were hastily mobilized to clean up the accident site — are likely to die from radiation-related cancers and leukemia, it predicted. That's far below the tens of thousands many claimed were fatally stricken.

The researchers found that thyroid cancer rates have skyrocketed among people who were under 18 at the time of the accident, but noted more than 99 percent survive after treatment.

It said there was no convincing evidence of birth defects or reduced fertility, and most of the general population suffered such low radiation doses that the scientists decided not to make predictions about deaths, except to say that some increase — less than 1 percent or about 5,000 — might be expected.

Venyamin Khudolei, director of the Center for Independent Ecological Expertise at the government-founded Russian Academy of Science, disagrees with the findings.

In the part of Russia most heavily hit by the fallout, mortality rates have risen nearly 4 percent since the explosion, indicating the Chernobyl toll in Russia alone could be calculated at 67,000 people, he said. His findings are cited by the environmental watchdog group Greenpeace, which on Tuesday (April 18) is to issue a report on Chernobyl's consequences.

A spokesman for Greenpeace International's main office in Amsterdam, Omer ElNaiem, said the report will use data from various sources, some hitherto unpublished, which "will indicate a rise" over the U.N. report's casualty estimates.

Other experts point to studies which show increases in everything from schizophrenia among the traumatized liquidators to breast cancer.

The U.N. report suggested that people in heavily affected areas were gripped by "paralyzing fatalism" that induced them to see themselves as victims and blame Chernobyl for every ailment, even those caused by smoking or drinking.

That outraged Ukrainian officials.

"I am speechless that we can allow this blasphemy in front of the graves of those who died," said lawmaker Borys Oliynyk.

Researchers trying to determine death tolls — and predict deaths still to come — don't have an easy task. Soviet-era attempts to cover up the chaotic and often inhumane response made it difficult to track down victims. Lists were incomplete, and Soviet authorities later forbade doctors to cite "radiation" on death certificates.

The rural regions affected are impoverished and unemployment is high. Alcohol abuse is rampant, diets poor. It's hard to distinguish Chernobyl-related health problems from a more general post-Soviet malaise, scientists said.

"I'm sure we'll see claims of thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of deaths, but again we checked, we checked all the research, all the files," Didier Louvat, a radiation waste expert with the
International Atomic Energy Agency, said by telephone from Vienna.

"The explosion was very concentrated around the facility and the fallout was spread in great plumes that went high into the atmosphere and crossed Europe, diffusing the concentration ... It could have been much worse."

About 1,000 people — plant personnel, military conscripts, firefighters from the Kiev region, emergency workers — bore the brunt of the inferno, and 134 were officially confirmed as suffering from acute radiation syndrome.

One person died during the explosion and his body has never been recovered. The U.N. report says that another 28 died from radiation sickness in 1986, and 19 of those suffering from radiation syndrome died between 1987-2004 but not all the deaths were necessarily caused by radiation. The rest remain alive.

Wearing no masks or protective suits, dozens of firefighters were deployed. While the bosses sheltered underground, plant workers recall, people stood around awaiting instructions, breathing poisoned air as they watched smoke burst from the reactor's exposed core.

The disregard for human life persisted. Natalya Lopatyuk, the widow of a plant worker, said that as she was being evacuated, she saw groups of young conscripts sunbathing while waiting for orders.

Cont'd next post

[Shammu]

Radiation burns "tear at the skin and look something like a volcano erupting on the body," said Oleksandr Zelentsov, head of the Kiev-based International Organization for People with Radiation Disease. The victims' bodies were considered so radioactive that family members were told not to touch them and they were buried in double-layered lead coffins.

Such high radiation doses, however, were short-lived. The last people diagnosed with acute radiation syndrome — three firefighters extinguishing a cable fire — fell ill at the end May 1986, Zelentsov said. One is dead, one suffered a heart attack and is in serious condition and the third is healthy, Zelentsov said.

The Chernobyl plant now is a cracked hulk in the eerie "dead zone." The last of its four reactors was taken out of service in 2000 and the main activity is to shore up the concrete-and-steel "sarcophagus" that covers the destroyed reactor.

But radiation infects a vast stretch of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia — in the soil, in the berries and mushrooms, in the firewood needed to heat homes.

Oleksandr Nabok, 21, has never been near the nuclear station, some 60 miles from his village, but he was recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer. "I never thought about Chernobyl until I got this news," he said in a Kiev hospital as he awaited surgery.

He is one of more than 5 million people who live in areas deemed contaminated but habitable, far removed from the villages circling the plant that were considered so irradiated that they were bulldozed under grave-like mounds of dirt. There, isotopes with half-lives of 24,390 years came to rest.

In Nabok's village, experts say, the biggest concern was radioactive iodine.

People suffer from a lack of iodine in this region, so when the radioactive iodine was released, their thyroids gobbled it up; children's thyroid glands work most actively, putting them at greatest risk. Many ingested the iodine in milk from cows that had grazed on radiated fields.

Accounts vary, but experts agree that between 4,000 and 5,000 people, children when the explosion happened, have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer in Ukraine and Belarus — making it the single biggest Chernobyl-related medical problem. At least nine have died. Before the accident, the illness was so rare that in most years only about 10 children were diagnosed with it.

The numbers keep growing. The main spurt was expected to come around this time, but no one knows whether this is the beginning of the peak or its end.

"We cannot tell a patient that after a certain time, cancer will not appear," said Halyna Terehova, an endocrinologist with the Kiev Institute of Endocrinology.

The U.N. report found that the high anxiety levels persist and even appear to be growing among people such as Stanyuk who live in zones affected by contamination. "It is scary, you try not to worry about it," said Valentyna Yanduk, whose face brightened into a smile after the Red Cross doctors gave her 12-year-old son Ihor's thyroid the all-clear. Technically he's not considered part of the risk group — he wasn't even born at the time of the explosion — but his mother worries.

"For 20 years, these people have been living as victims instead of survivors," Louvat, the IAEA radiation expert, said. "We need to be telling them: 'Look, you survived this.'"

Few Reassured Over Chernobyl's Impact

[Shammu]

Not All in Iran Back President's Rhetoric

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer Sat Apr 15, 3:56 PM ET

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's success in producing enriched uranium for the first time may have increased national pride, but hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is annoying predecessors by claiming the achievement in his name alone.

And others, including some among the president's supporters, worry his tough rhetoric is intensifying international anxiety over the nuclear program and worsening the country's isolation.

On Tuesday, Ahmadinejad announced that Iran successfully enriched uranium using 164 centrifuges, a significant step toward the large-scale production of a material that can be used to fuel nuclear reactors for generating electricity — or to build atomic bombs.

Iran insists it is interested only in the peaceful use of nuclear power, but the United States and others suspect the regime wants to develop weapons and are demanding a halt to enrichment activities.

Since his announcement, Ahmadinejad has been even more defiant in defending his country's decision to press ahead with its nuclear program over the U.N. Security Council's objections.

Ahmadinejad rebuffed a request Thursday by Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, that Iran suspend uranium enrichment, saying Tehran will not retreat "one iota."

To those upset by that stance, he said, "Be angry at us and die of this anger."

A day later, he turned up the heat in anti-Israel rhetoric that has brought international condemnation, calling the Jewish state a "rotten, dried tree" that will be annihilated by "one storm." He previously angered many world leaders by calling for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Such talk has some in this conservative Islamic nation concerned.

"The more Ahmadinejad confronts the international community, the more power he may show to his public in the short term but deny Iran a good life among world nations in the long term," said Hossein Salimi, a professor of international relations in Tehran.

For now, it's a minority opinion. The president's tough talk resounds with many Iranians.

"Ahmadinejad is a source of pride for resisting the U.S. and defending Iran's nuclear rights," said Ali Mahmoudi, a regular attendee of Friday prayers in this strongly religious nation.

Still, the president may have alienated potential allies with this enrichment announcement because he didn't cite former Iranian leaders or thank them for their efforts in the program.

"Ahmadinejad spoke as if production of enriched uranium was his work. He didn't mention that it was the outcome of more than two decades of clandestine work by previous governments," said political analyst Saeed Leilaz.

In an apparent show of displeasure, ex-president Hashemi Rafsanjani tried to take some of the glory from Ahmadinejad by announcing the enrichment step several hours ahead of time.

Reformist Mohammad Khatami, who preceded Ahmadinejad as president, publicly reminded Iranians that the nuclear achievement was "the outcome of efforts by competent Iranian scientists, a process that had begun by previous governments."

Even some of Ahmadinejad's supporters are starting to question his tactics.

"Ahmadinejad has forgotten why he won the presidential vote. The needy voted for him because he promised to bring bread to people's homes but nothing good has been done to improve living standards," said Reza Lotfi, a student at Tehran University.

Mansour Ramezanpour, a construction worker, questioned why the government hasn't done more for the weak economy.

"Previously, I went to work four days a week. Now, not more than two days. Recession is everywhere," he said.

But Ahmadinejad appears determined to make the most of the nuclear card to bolster his standing among his people. It was no coincidence that he announced Iran had enriched uranium on April 9 — the date that the United States severed ties with Iran in 1980.

He and other top leaders see the nuclear program as a level to get the United States to recognize Iran as a "big, regional power" and deal with it on that basis.

"The key problem between Iran and the U.S. is that Washington treats Iran as a non-grownup person. The Iranian leadership is very unhappy with this. Tehran wants America to treat Iran as a regional superpower," Leilaz said.

On Wednesday, Ahmadinejad sent a clear message that Iran expected to be treated as a peer.

"Today, our situation has changed completely. We are a nuclear country and speak to others from the position of a nuclear country," he said.

Not All in Iran Back President's Rhetoric

[Soldier4Christ]

PETA stages 'crucifixion' at cathedral

Rights group raises ire of church, officials in Vienna

The edgy animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals stirred controversy in Vienna on Good Friday with a protest to symbolically "crucify" three activists wearing animal masks outside the city's famous Catholic cathedral.

The blood-smeared activists each carried a cross as nearby protesters in the square outside St. Stephen's Cathedral held signs with messages such as "We suffer and die for your sins of nourishment."

Bruce Friedrich, spokesman for PETA in the U.S., told WorldNetDaily causing offense was not the goal, but if there are any objections they should be about suffering animals, not "street theater."

"Words and images aren't offensive to God," he said. "What is offensive to God is the satanic treatment of God's creature by factory farms and slaughterhouses."

PETA said it wanted to capture the attention of consumers who ignored the suffering of animals, but the local parliamentary representative condemned the protest.

A spokeswoman for Ursula Stenzel of the conservative People's Party called it a "mockery of a religious community on one of the most important days of the Christians."

"The action would be more blasphemy than animal protection," said Angelika Mayrhofer-Battlogg, according to the South African news service News24.com.

St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna

The Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna, News24 reported, called the action a "completely unacceptable falsification of the religious dimension of Good Friday."

The statement said that while PETA may have good intentions, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was not suited "to transport secondary messages."

Also, the square outside St. Stephen's, built in the 12th century, was a "sensitive" place.

Friedrich pointed out Pope Benedict spoke out against abuses in factory farming when he was a cardinal, but the PETA spokesman believes the church "could speak out more voiciferously" and should be on the "forefront" of protests.

But why pick on Christians and the Catholic Church with such a provocative demonstration?

"There's no intention to pick on anyone," Friedrich replied. "We attempt to raise anyone's awareness that eating meat is a violation of all religions, the spirit of compassion that infuses all religions."

Friedrich added that, "As a Roman Catholic myself, what I find offensive is that Christians would deny God's creatures their every desire and need and cause them to suffer."

Meanwhile, in Sydney, Australia, a PETA billboard ad depicting a bloody, crucified lamb was refused space this Easter, The Australian newspaper reported.

PETA has been running an international campaign against sheep mulesing in Australia, the surgical removal of folds of skin from the backsides of sheep to prevent the painful and sometimes fatal condition of fly strike.

But PETA said the "lamb on a crucifix reminds us that these gentle animals are mutilated, tormented and killed every day in Australia for nothing more than very un-Christian greed."

"If Christ were here, he would show mercy to these lambs, so we're asking the Australian government to follow his compassionate example and bring an end to these two hideous abuses."

[Shammu]

I went back and checked, both Pastor Roger, and I both missed this important news.
==================================================================

Iran opens 1st 'embassy' in Palestinian territories
Headquarters to promote Tehran's interests, apocalyptic world battle of 'good' vs. 'evil'
Posted: March 5, 2006
10:10 p.m. Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

JERUSALEM – Iran has opened an "ideological embassy" in the Palestinian territories to espouse Shia Muslim beliefs – including Islam's waging of a final, apocalyptic battle against "evil" – and to help spread Iranian theocracy and rule throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip, WND has learned.

Although Tehran has long financed Palestinian terror organizations, the opening of its office here marks the establishment of Iran's first official agency in the Palestinian areas, senior Palestinian security officials said.

"We want the Palestinian people to be exposed to the Iranian heritage and Shia principles. [Our goal is] to reinforce the relations between the Islamic republic of Iran and the Palestinian people. We are part of the Iranian Islamic project in the Middle East," Muhamad Gawanmeh, director of Iran's new Shia Council in Palestine, said in an interview.

Gawanmeh is a member of the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad terror group and has spent several years in Israeli prisons. He opened the council's headquarters in Ramallah, and said there are plans to expand Iranian offices to several other major Palestinian cities in the West Bank and Gaza with official sanctioning from Tehran.

The council, which recently also opened an office in Egypt, claims to already have a membership of several thousand Palestinians.

Gawanmeh said Iran's Shia Council will not be involved in "military operations," but will promote Iranian theocracy to the local population and serve as a conduit for Tehran's interests in the area.

"We want the council to be a gate for the Palestinian people to receive the help of Iran and the Shiate world. We already have large numbers of members and supporters," Gawanmed said.

He said the council seeks to espouse Shia Muslim ideology in the Sunni-dominated Palestinian territories, including the belief in the return of the Twelfth Imam to lead an apocalyptic world battle against "evil."

Shia Muslims believe Muhammad's family – the 12 Imams – were the best sources of knowledge about the Quran and Islam and were the most trusted carriers and protectors of Islamic tradition. They believe in a dynasty of Islamic authorities and promote a hereditary class of spiritual leaders they believe have divine powers.

Sunni Islam in part follows the teachings of Islamic caliphs who proclaimed leadership after Mohammed's passing but were not blood relatives of Muhammad. The caliphs interpreted important parts of Muhammad's hadith – or tradition – that Shias reject.

Sunni Muslims make up about 85% of Muslims all over the world. The largest sect of the Shias, called The Twelvers, believe there were 12 imams after Muhammad and that the last one, Imam Mahdi, still lives, but he cannot be seen until Allah determines it is time to prepare the faithful for Judgment Day.

The Twelvers count Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad among their faithful. They believe Imam Mahdi will return to lead the forces of righteousness against the forces of evil in a final, apocalyptic world battle.

Some Mideast analysts fear Ahmadinejad may be pursuing nuclear weapons in part to precipitate the final, Mahdi-led battle. In a speech in Tehran in November, Ahmadinejad reportedly said his main mission is to "pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance." His cabinet has reportedly given $17 million to the Jamkaran mosque, site of a well at which Shia Muslims believe Mahdi disappeared over a thousand years ago.

The council's Gawanmeh went on to credit Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal's recent visit to Tehran with strengthening official Palestinian ties to the Iranian leadership and emboldening Iran to sanction the opening of its new Palestinian office.

"Now that Hamas was adopted by Iran, who announced a huge financial support to Hamas and to the Palestinian people, and now that Hezbollah is facing a Zionist-American conspiracy to disarm, we decided that this is the most suitable moment to declare the foundation of our council in Palestine and to start acting publicly," Gawanmeh said.

Israel says Iran uses the Lebanese-based Hezbollah militia as a conduit to channel funds to Palestinian terror groups, including Islamic Jihad, which took responsibility for every suicide bombing since several Palestinian groups agreed to a truce with Israel last year.

Iran last week pledged financial support to Hamas to replace an expected halt of European and U.S. aid to the new Palestinian government.

Media reports said Iran would give as much as $250 million to the PA, but Hamas officials said no actual amount had been discussed.

Hamas chief Meshaal, in Tehran eleven days ago for a round of talks with Iranian officials, said Iran would have an increased role with the PA.

A senior official from the PA's Fatah-linked intelligence branch told WND: "Iran is playing a very negative role in the PA. Aside from its meetings with Hamas leaders and its financial support, we are worried the new office in Ramallah is Iran's attempt to infiltrate the PA territories through religious organizations that will adopt a very radical Shia Islam."

[Shammu]

Newspaper Editor Fined for Publishing Cartoons of Prophet Mohammed

Created: 14.04.2006 19:33 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 19:33 MSK


The editor-in-chief of a newspaper in the Russian city of Vologda has been ordered by a court to pay a fine of 100,000 rubles (about $3,600) for publishing cartoons of Prophet Mohammed.

The prosecutors demanded to give Anna Smirnova a two-year suspended sentence.

On February 15, Nash Region (Our Region) newspaper published a material on the cartoon scandal. It reprinted several cartoons of Prophet Mohammed published in the Danish press.

The prosecutors instigated a criminal case on the article of arousing national, racial or religious hatred in office. Later, the governor of Vologda region, Vyacheslav Pozgalev, brought apologies to Moslems in connection with the material in the newspaper. The paper was closed by it owner, Severinform information holding.

The hearing against Smirnova started on April 4. Psychological and religious experts invited to the court said the material insulted Moslems’ religious feelings.

Newspaper Editor Fined for Publishing Cartoons of Prophet Mohammed