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Illustrated guide courtesy of Maeril (@itsmaeril).
Olympia faith leaders take stand against hate crimes
Five local congregations have announced the Olympia Charter for Compassion
By Andy Hobbs / The Olympian
November 10, 2016
The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honor the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.
Olympia’s faith leaders are calling on local residents to join them in taking a stand against hate crimes and race-related violence.
Representatives from five local congregations have announced the Olympia Charter for Compassion, which outlines a set of civic values “that we hope the larger community will adopt as a standard of behavior and as a tool for dialogue as we seek to live together in a way that nurtures the well-being of all people.”
The charter was prompted by several recent crimes in which the victims were targeted because of race or sexual orientation, said the Rev. Amy Walters LaCroix of First Christian Church. She cited examples in downtown Olympia such as the Sept. 4 assault of a woman who was leaving a charity drag show and the Aug. 16 stabbing of an interracial couple by an alleged white supremacist.
Clergy on Twitter: A Sermon in 140 Characters
More ministers, priests and rabbis see Facebook, Instagram and other social media as a core part of ministries; posting on martyrs and movies
By Clare Ansberry / The Wall Street Journal
November 8, 2016
Social media is as much a ministry as visiting the sick in hospitals. “It’s where we need to be,” Bishop Coyne says. “It goes to the core of spreading the good news.”
Every morning, Burlington, Vt., Bishop Christopher Coyne wakes at 5:30 in his rectory home, prays, reads Scripture, and comes up with the day’s first tweets. By 8 a.m., his followers on Twitter and Facebook know the day’s saint and gospel reading and the latest news from the pope. In the evening, the Catholic bishop often posts again — a short video of his visit to a school or a picture of dinner, like the pork cutlets with a cherry-tomato-and-caper sauce that he recently made. For him, social media is as much his ministry as visiting the sick in hospitals. “It’s where we need to be,” he says. “It goes to the core of spreading the good news.”
After arriving at a new post in Olympia, Wash., Episcopal Bishop Greg Rickel, a former hospital administrator with a master’s degree in communications, hired an internet strategist to update church websites and a young hipster communications director to offer classes on Twitter for clergy and set up Facebook pages for small rural churches. Bishop Rickel blogs about gun violence and the Central American refugee crisis, and posts his sermons on his webpage, below a picture of him taking selfies with children. His goal, in part, is to reach those 35 and younger. “We have to learn their language and the world they live in,” says the 53-year-old bishop, whose Facebook home page features a picture of him with his surfboard.
We Feel You, America
It’s lonely at the bottom
By Mairav Zonszein / +972 Magazine
November 9, 2016
With the election of Donald Trump as president, a lot of progressive Americans must be feeling what we here in the Israeli Left have felt for a long time: outnumbered, unwanted, frustrated, and alone.
For a while now, I’ve been writing about how lonely it is to be a leftist in Israel, to be part of the minority that opposes the occupation and 50 years of discrimination and human rights violations, a minority that insists on challenging fundamental aspects of this government’s policies and this society’s values. About how it has become increasingly dangerous and radical simply to speak one’s mind, as the notions of equal rights and human rights have become derogatory terms, and as open criticism and dissent is explicitly silenced. How scary and frustrating it is to see the values and issues I believe in consistently voted down and publicly delegitimized.
What the success of Netanyahu — who was elected first in 1996 on the back of the Rabin murder and a campaign of incitement against the Left, and to his fourth term in 2015 again on the back of incitement against Palestinians citizens — and the success of Trump — who incites against or insults just about everyone — prove is that democracy is not a bulwark against inequality, racism, violence, oppression, and sexism. On the contrary, it is all too easy for people to democratically elect to do horrible things.
American Muslims After the Election
Please join our brothers and sisters at the Muslim Association of Puget Sound (MAPS) for this important event.
| Date: | Friday, November 18, 2016 | ||
| Time: | 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. (refreshments and social at 6:30 p.m.) |
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| Location: | Muslim Association of Puget Sounds (MAPS) 17550 NE 67th Ct Redmond, WA 98052 |
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| Cost: | Free (register here) | ||
| Information: | Event website | ||
| Questions: | 425-861-9555 manager@mapsredmond.org |
Agenda
- The Political Maqasid and Its Application Today
Prof Jasser Auda, Founding Director of Al-Maqasid Research Centre in the Philosophy of Islamic Law & Al Shatibi Chair of Maqasidi Studies, International Peace College of South Africa - Countering Extremism Online — Immunizing the Youth!
Dr Houda Abadi, Carter Center, Associate Director, MENA Region Projects – Conflict Resolution Program - Being American and Being Muslim — Lessons from South Africa
Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, Founder Director of the World for All Foundation & Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Al Waleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University
Tent of Nations Update
https://coit.smugmug.com/Israel-Palestine/Tent-of-Nations-2014/i-mLHqrxQ/A
From Beth Moore and Bill Plitt / FOTONNA
November 9, 2016
Following a recent refusal by the Military Court in the West Bank to grant permits to the Nassars for building two structures on their farm, one for a cave for volunteers and one for a machine shop, a demolition order was received by Daoud from the Military Court. It could mean that the two buildings would be demolished at any time by the military. Daoud feels he cannot be away from the farm at such a tenuous time.
Dear Friends,
We heard from Daoud Nassar early this morning, that due to urgent developments on the farm, he has decided, with great regret, that he will not be able to be present for the tour in Colorado this next week.
One of the constraints under which Palestinian’s operate is the requirement to obtain permits to build structures on their land. They follow the law and try to obtain the necessary permits, but they are never forthcoming. Daoud and his family have chosen a path of non-violent resistance, and move ahead to build structures on their land — many of them in underground caves. When this is discovered either by the Israeli military, or the occupation government (COGAT) demolition orders for the structures are ordered. There are some 30 demolition orders on structures on the Nassar’s land. Continue reading “Tent of Nations Update”
APN Statement at UN Security Council
Americans for Peace Now Statement Delivered at the United Nations Security Council
By Lara Friedman / Americans for Peace Now
October 14, 2016
The full statement can be viewed as a pdf here.
Watch the full testimony here.
View the post-meeting press conference here.
Distinguished members of the Security Council,
As a representative of Americans for Peace Now — an organization that is committed to Israel’s existence and its future — it is not easy for me to speak before this body today.
It is not easy because while this forum will focus in large part on human rights violations by Israel, there are states represented here whose own human rights records are abysmal. There are even states in this forum that still do not recognize the existence of Israel, 70 years after that nation’s birth and despite its membership in the UN’s General Assembly.
It is also not easy for me to speak here today because of the deteriorating political climate in Israel as far as democracy is concerned. For some time now we have been witnessing an ugly campaign against courageous Israeli human rights and civil society NGOs — carried out by reactionary groups in Israel and by the Israeli government itself. Campaigns that target the legitimacy of NGOs like our Israeli sister organization, Shalom Achshav — Peace Now.
These groups are being targeted because their work reveals facts that some prefer to hide — facts that challenge the official Israeli government narrative.
Yet, I am here today because this institution is too important to boycott or ignore. The Security Council is the most important international body in existence today.
It would be irresponsible to miss an opportunity to argue our cause in front of it. It would be unpardonable to allow ourselves to be silenced by the cynicism of some of this body’s member states, whose hatred of Israel may blind them to Israel’s legitimate needs and fears. And it would be inexcusable to allow ourselves to be silenced by the disapproval of some who today equate speaking unpleasant truths about Israeli policies with national betrayal.
I am here today because the cause that we work for every day is too important to allow anyone to silence us.
Horowitz Threatens to Sue UCLA Student
David Horowitz threatens to sue student for op-ed condemning ‘hate’ posters
By Annie Robbins / Mondoweiss
November 4, 2016
“For Palestinian students and allies like myself, the experience has been all too surreal. Because of my activism for Palestinian human rights, I have been placed on an online blacklist — an anonymous website ran by students and “concerned citizens” — that is trying to prevent me from being employed, and that blacklist provides the Freedom Center with the information needed to launch its hateful campaign of intimidation. Ever since my name was listed on the posters, I have been followed, bullied and harassed on social media. Like other students, this has caused me to worry for my safety. This experience has also caused me a great deal of psychological trauma, and I worry about my well-being.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled David Horowitz the “godfather of the modern anti-Muslim movement” two years ago and last month called him the “premier financier of radical anti-Muslim extremism” in its Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists. So did David Horowitz threaten to sue the SPLC? Nope. But he’s threatening to sue Robert Gardner, a UCLA senior and member of Students for Justice in Palestine over an op-ed he wrote in The Daily Bruin, UCLA’s student newspaper.
Gardner said Horowitz was leading a “hate organization” because of posters his Freedom Center had put out targeting Palestinian solidarity activists. Gardner wrote his op-ed as a response to Horowitz’s latest campaign, plastering posters on university campuses targeting Palestinian activists by name. Gardner was featured in an L.A.Times exclusive last August describing Sheldon Adelson’s multi million dollar efforts to combat the “exploding pro-Palestinian movement on campuses” — those who support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).
[Continue reading here . . . ]
Jerusalem Bans Muslim Call to Prayer
Israel bans Muslim call for dawn prayer from 3 mosques in Jerusalem
Middle East Monitor
November 5, 2016
The events in Abu Dis came a day after a number of Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement of Pisgat Zeev protested in front of the house of Israeli Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barakat over the “noise pollution” caused by the Muslim call to prayer.
Israeli authorities reportedly banned the Muslim call to dawn prayer from being made from three mosques in the Jerusalem district town of Abu Dis today, according to local sources.
Lawyer Bassam Bahr, head of a local committee in Abu Dis, told Ma’an that Israeli forces raided the town just before the dawn prayer this morning.
According to Bahr, Israeli forces raided the Al-Rahman, Al-Taybeh and Al-Jamia mosques in the town, and informed the muezzins, the men responsible for the call to prayer — also known as the athan, which is broadcast five times a day from mosques — that the call for dawn prayer through the loudspeakers was banned.
Bahr added that the forces did not provide any reason for the ban, and also prevented locals living in the eastern part of the town from reaching the Salah Al-Din mosque for dawn prayers.
Website Targets Student Activists
Illustration by Daniel Greenfeld / The Village Voice
A Shadowy Website Targets Student Protesters With “Classic McCarthyism”
By Aviva Stahl / The Village Voice
October 28, 2016
“The major way that McCarthyism worked was not because the government went in and punished people for the speech that they engaged in,” explains Corey Robin, a professor of political science at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center whose name and photo are also featured on the site. “The bulk of it was precisely through these contacts amongst private employers and universities and non-state institutions that would sanction individuals for their speech.”
This past July, Thomas DeAngelis discovered that a bizarre website had placed his name and photo next to claims that he was “whitewashing terrorist violence and calling for more.” The site lists where he goes to school and what he’s studied, includes a lengthy description of his political activity, and even links to his Facebook page and Twitter handle.
DeAngelis, 23, is a first year doctoral student in the Earth and Environmental Sciences program at the CUNY Graduate Center and a longtime activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The profile on his political activities was posted to CanaryMission.org, a website that publishes the names, photographs, and biographical information of students engaged in Palestine activism across the United States.
The website, which was launched in May 2015, now contains profiles of over 600 individuals, most of them people of color. The site targets students and professors at universities across the U.S., in addition to a small number of people employed by Jewish Voice for Peace and other Palestine advocacy groups. [As of this writing, more than 1,000 US university faculty have signed a letter opposing CanaryMission.org here, AgainstCanaryMission.org.]
[Continue reading here . . . ]
[See related article here about harassment of SJP on campuses.]
HolyLandJustice.org 
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