"Two Faces of America - Both Real" by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
4) Responses from civil society organizations
a) Amnesty International has released a new report, "Central Asia - No Excuse for Escalating Human Rights Violations" in which it warns the international community of a possible deterioration in the human rights situation as governments use the 'war against terrorism' as an excuse to further undermine respect for human rights. The report covers the situation in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and looks into implications of pressure on these countries by the Chinese government. The report and country briefings are available on request and from: .
b) Amnesty International has issued a new report on China: Fight against Terrorism is No Excuse for Repression. The Chinese government's call today for international support in its crackdown on domestic "terrorism" raises fears that repression of Muslim ethnic groups in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region will increase and that the dismal human rights situation in the region will further deteriorate. See http://www.aiusa.org/news/2001/china10112001.html. Another new Amnesty report entitled Afghanistan: A History of Abuse against Civilians documents human rights abuses committed under the Taleban's rule. Available from: http://www.aiusa.org/issuebrief/afghanistan10112001.html.
c) Yet another recent document by Amnesty International focuses on arms transfers and military aid to Afghanistan. Amnesty has campaigned against the sending of arms and related supplies to armed factions of Afghanistan and appeals now to the government of Pakistan to make every effort to halt such transfers from its territory, and to the government of Saudi Arabia to halt financial support from its residents. See: http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/2001/afghanistan10162001.html.
d) Amnesty's website includes a wealth of other human rights resources, including the text of a letter from Amnesty International to President Bush, and reports on human rights concerns in the USA and the world.
e) The website of the Canadian Center for International Cooperation includes reflections, analyses, positions and actions taken by CCIC and its members in response to the events of 11 September.
f) CIVICUS has collected statements issued by civil society organizations around the world on reactions to the events of 11 September as well as information about campaigns and action plans.
5) Humanitarian concerns
a) ACT International Warns against Linking Humanitarian Airdrops and Military Actions. Geneva, October 15, 2001. ACT International, a worldwide network of churches and related agencies, today warned against the link between humanitarian airdrops and the US-led military strikes against Afghanistan. Elaborating on the position of ACT's Executive Committee, the director of the ACT Co-ordinating office, Thor-Arne Prois, said that the airdrops were jeopardizing the credibility of humanitarian aid in the region and were not an effective means of meeting the desperate needs of the people of Afghanistan. Available from: http://act-intl.org/news/dt_nr_2001/nrafghan0501.html.
b) While the influx of refugees from Afghanistan into Pakistan has not risen dramatically since the first US air strikes were launched Oct. 7, Church World Service Pakistan/Afghanistan reports, hundreds of refugees are still crossing the border daily. For an overview of the Church World Service: Pakistan/Afghanistan Emergency: Revised CWS Emergency Appeal, please visit http://www.cwserp.org/reportview.php3?entry=242.
c) For a situation report by CWS issued on September 20 regarding the Pakistan/Afghanistan Emergency, please visit http://www.cwserp.org/reportview.php3?entry=238.
d) A report from the UN's Sub-Committee on Nutrition can be found at: http://acc.unsystem.org/scn/Publications/RNIS/rnis34.pdf. The current issue (available in .pdf format) has information on Afghanistan.
e) According to a recent report on Tajikistan issued by FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP) after a joint FAO/WFP mission to the country, Tajikistan is facing serious food shortages for the second straight year, leaving one million vulnerable people in remote areas in need of food assistance. Tajikistan is a neighbour of Afghanistan.
f) For the latest on work being done by ACT International's members and local partners working in the region, please see: "Dateline: People flee city of Jalalabad: Mansehra, October 16, 2001" by Rainer Lang. "People are angry and afraid of the bombing", says Ahmad Shah, who fled the city of Jalalabad in Afghanistan recently, ending up in a refugee camp in the town of Mansehra, in the north of Pakistan. ACT member Church World Service (CWS) provides health care for 60,000 people in nine refugee camps near the town. The camps were established more than 20 years ago after the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
g) Action by Churches Together (ACT) International has revised its preliminary appeal for Afghanistan, to match a new target of over US$ 17-million. The revision was done to streamline the network's emergency response in the area. Funding to date, either received or pledged, stands at US$ 3-million - 18% of the target amount.
h) The World Food Programme reports that it is nowhere close to having enough aid in place in Afghanistan to feed the 7 million people in dire need of help. According to the WFP deputy executive director, "Our present capacities indicate we can move 15,000 to 20,000 metric tonnes in the immediate future. But to meet the necessities it would mean distributing over 50,000 metric tonnes mostly inside Afghanistan." See http://www.reliefweb.int.
i) UNHCR reports that as of 15 October, it had received only $12 million in cash contributions of the estimated $50 million needed to care for a possible influx of 400,000 new Afghan refugees. The World Food Programme reported that it has received less than 6 percent of its appeal for $257 million, despite generous pledges. UNICEF has received only half of the $36 million it is seeking to assist vulnerable children in and around Afghanistan. See: http://www.un.org/News/dh/latest/page2.html.
6) Summaries of intergovernmental responses
In a closed session, the United Nations Security Council discussed the future government of Afghanistan and a possible UN role. Members of the Security Council exchanged views with UN secretary-general Kofi Annan and his top envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi. Mr Brahimi was reappointed earlier this month to oversee the UN's overall humanitarian and political work in Afghanistan. Among other tasks, Mr Brahimi will manage peacemaking activities involving the warring parties and others concerned, with a view to facilitating a fully representative, multi-ethnic and broad-based government. See: http://www.un.org/News/dh/latest/page2.html.
7) Resources for worship
a) A sermon preached by the Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church, at St. Paul's Cathedral, in Burlington, Vermont is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/presiding-bishop/postings/092301ser.html.
b) On 11 October, His Holiness Pope John Paul II offered the following prayer:
O God, Almighty and Merciful,
He who sows discord cannot understand you,
He who loves violence cannot welcome you:
Watch over us in our painful human condition
Tried by the brutal acts of terrorism and death;
Comfort your children and open our hearts to hope,
That our time may again know days of serenity and peace.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
b) Philip Yancey, editor of Christianity Today, shares his
personal reflections on the events of the last month "Where is the church when it hurts? If the church is doing its job - binding wounds, comforting the grieving, offering food to the hungry - I don't think people will wonder so much where God is when it hurts. They'll know where God is: in the presence of his people on earth."
c) Latin-rite patriarch Michel Sabbah gave a homily on 17 September in Jerusalem entitled "Hatred and Death... cannot build the Kingdom of God." Available at http://www.paxchristi.net.
d) Brother Roger, who leads the community at Taizé, wrote this prayer: "Holy Spirit, however powerless we may be, enable us to bring peace where there are oppositions and violence, and to make a reflection of God's compassion visible through our lives. Yes, enable us to love and to express it by the lives we lead." Available, together with other reflections from: http://www.taize.fr.
e) Gabriel Fackre has written a reflection entitled "On binding up wounds and resisting the powers" which explores the question 'what do we do with the wrath of God?' Available at: http://www.ucc.org/911/100501a.htm.
f) The Church of the Brethren has set up a new website on issues related to the 11 September attacks. Brethren Press has a compilation of resources geared toward worship and nurture under the heading "The Way of Peace".
g) A number of US churches and ecumenical organizations have expanded their websites to include resources for responding to the aftermath of the 11 September attacks, including: The American Association of Pastoral Counsellors. An on-going on-line dialogue has been opened at the United Church of Christ website. The Presbyterian Church USA is engaging in theological reflection on radical evil, repentance and just war. Other websites with resources for reflection and worship include: American Baptist Churches in the USA, the United Methodist Church and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
8) Resources for reflection and study
a) The World Alliance for Christian Communication (WACC) produces a regular Action bulletin with recent articles on reactions from 11 September. WACC Media Development will soon dedicate more in depth attention to issues around media coverage of the post-11 September events.
b) Peter Sederberg, professor at the South Carolina Honors College and the author of "Terrorist Myths: Illusion, Rhetoric, and Reality", has written a reflection entitled "They Want War" which analyzes the use of the rhetoric of war.
c) The Coalition for Global Solidarity and Social Development has a
website with a number of resources available. Recent postings include articles by Kai Frithjof Brand-Jacobsen, Johan Galtung and Dietrich Fischer, and Michel Chossudovsky as well as an interview with Noam Chomsky by Radio B92 in Belgrade.
d) Viva Rio in Brazil provides information on campaigning for peace in light of the 11 September events. The website has information in both Portuguese and English.
e) In Terrorism and the Clash of Civilizations, Jyoti Sahi of the Art Ashram India, writes: "The events of the last week have raised many questions which relate to the way in which we understand history, and the impact on its course of that psychic energy which we call Terror. Recently many leaders in the West, both in the United States of America, and also in Europe, have been talking in terms of a clash between cultures. What exactly do they mean by this idea of war that characterizes the differences between civilizations? The concept of Civilization has developed out of the Greek and Roman understanding of the City State, and the values which should uphold civil society. These values are essentially human, and so one would suppose that Civilizations cannot be opposed to each other : they can only enrich each other, because the human values which they represent are based on harmony and peace. If civilizations are the natural expression of civil society, which is the condition under which human beings can interact and grow without fear of injustice, then how do we understand the fact that there are different forms of civilization? Here we have to again refer back to the way in which civil society was understood by the great thinkers of the past. Here the binding factor is supposed to be "Religion" which itself is a term that indicates that which binds, or orders, by establishing mutual relationships of trust and cooperation." For the full text of the article, see: http://www.asianchristianart.org/news/article6.htm.
f) To read news accounts from South Asia, see http://www.dawn.com with news from Pakistan and http://www.hindu.com from India.
g) The Barnabas Fund e-mail news service provides short urgent news briefs and prayer requests for suffering Christians around the world. Recently they reported on increased persecution of Christians in light of the events of 11 September. Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, international iirector of the Barnabas Fund commented, "the situation is extremely serious and demands urgent attention. Never in living memory has the situation for Christian minorities in the Islamic world been so precarious." To receive updates, contact: info@barnabasfund.org.
h) To see articles about the impact of the attacks on Latin America or to subscribe to Informe Latinoamericano.
i) Peaceworkers provides a free e-mail service which provides nonviolent perspectives on issues of the day. Their most recent mailing includes the open letter by eight Nobel Peace Prize laureates, as well as an article entitled "Some Clarifications on the Use of Violence and 'Jihad' in Islamic Teaching." See their website at: http://www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org.
j) Nick Cohen's article "Bread not bombs" is very critical on how the current war in Afghanistan is being conducted. "The bombing of Afghanistan must stop (...) this war is a moral and political disaster. Its worthwhile ends are unattainable. Its means are self-defeating. The choice before America and her supporters in Britain is to back off or inflict a famine on Afghanistan which will kill tens, maybe hundreds of thousands and take the case for a just war with them." Full text available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4276875,00.html.
k) The International Crisis Group has published a briefing paper entitled Indonesia: Violence and Radical Muslims, which provides a detailed assessment of recent violence by radical Muslim groups in Indonesia and analyses the potential for radicalism to spread. "The US-led air strikes against military targets in Afghanistan - accompanied by inevitable civilian casualties - have outraged public opinion in largely Muslim Indonesia and presented President Megawati Soekarnoputri's government with a huge dilemma. Megawati recently completed a successful visit to the US and obtained President George W. Bush's support for increased economic assistance as well as a relaxation of restrictions on military cooperation. Although the Indonesian government condemned the 11 September attacks and 'pledged to cooperate with the international community in combatting terrorism', it has refrained from endorsing the current US-led military campaign. On the one hand, the government does not want to prejudice its economic relationship with the US but, on the other, it cannot afford, in the new democratic era, to ignore the sentiments of a large part of its population. " To download the PDF report, see: http://www.crisisweb.org/projects/asia/indonesia/reports/A400455_10102001.pdf.
l) Dick Bell and Michael Renner have written "A New Marshall Plan? Advancing Human Security and Controlling Terrorism" which argues that rich countries must approach the inequities of the world with the same determination that the United States brought to bear in Europe under the Marshall Plan. "For the sake of comparison, let's assume that the United States will spend an additional $100 billion on military actions in the next 12 months. What could we buy if we matched this $100 billion military expenditure dollar-for-dollar on programs to alleviate human suffering. A 1998 report by the United Nations Development Programme estimated the annual cost to achieve universal access to a number of basic social services in all developing countries: $9 billion would provide water and sanitation for all; $12 billion would cover reproductive health for all women; $13 billion would give every person on Earth basic health and nutrition; and $6 billion would provide basic education for all. Available at: http://www.worldwatch.org/alerts/011009.html.
9) Calls for Action
a) Pax Christi USA calls upon its members and all who yearn for healing and peace, to join them each Friday in fasting from violence and for peace in the USA and in the world. See http://www.paxchristi.net.
b) There are many ways to support the Church World Service Emergency Response Program in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Go to http://www.cwserp.org/help/ to see what you can do.
c) The Christian Vocational Training Centre in Peshawar, Pakistan asks for prayers in the aftermath of the attacks on Afghanistan. Website.
d) Various groups are supporting a "National Scarves for Solidarity Day" in which women, regardless of their faith, wear scarves or hats covering their hair. Like friends who shave their heads in solidarity with cancer patients, women everywhere will wear the hijab (scarf) in solidarity with Muslim women facing discrimination and xenophobia. The hijab is worn outwardly to show the inner hijab of compassion, honesty and love, which is carried in the hearts and souls of Islamic men and women alike. For more information, see http://www.womensenews.com/article.cfm/dyn/aid/660 and a link explaining the significance of the hijab is http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/humanrelations/womeninislam/whatishijab.html.
World Council of Churches (WCC)
and the