December 22, 2010-January 10, 2011
December 22, 2010
Kosovo (Hat tip to JihadWatch via Julia Gorin)
Protestant pastor says his community has faced hardship and intolerance from Muslims.
December 26, 2010
Iran
In the early morning hours after Christmas day, the Iranian government arrested 25 Christians in Tehran and other locations. They also planned to detain sixteen others, but were unable to locate them. There are also unconfirmed reports that the authorities have arrested over 50 other Christians. According to BBC Persian, the Governor of Tehran has vowed to arrest more evangelical Christians. More HERE.
December 28, 2010
Pakistan
A strike will be held to protest against the "conspiracies" of present rulers to repeal the blasphemy law.
Nigeria
A pastor and the five other Christians were killed in the Dec. 24 attacks on Victory Baptist Church in Alemderi and a Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) congregation in Sinimari by the outlawed Islamic Boko Haram sect opposed to Western education. More HERE. Update HERE.
December 29, 2010
Malaysia
Catholic church officials were told to remove crucifixes and to avoid hymns being sung when Prime Minister Najib Razak attended the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur's Christmas tea party last Saturday
The World Roundup of Major Christian Persecution in 2010
December 30, 2010
Iraq (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
At least two Christians were killed and 12 people wounded in a series of attacks on Christian homes in Baghdad. More HERE (Hat tip to AtlasShrugs) .
January 1, 2011
Egypt (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
A bomb killed at least 21 people outside a church in the Egyptian city of Alexandria early on New Year's Day and the Interior Ministry said a foreign-backed suicide bomber may have been responsible. Dozens of people were wounded by the blast, which scattered body parts, destroyed cars and smashed windows. More HERE. And HERE.
The police investigation into a New Year's church bombing that killed 21 people is focusing on a local group of Islamic hard-liners inspired by al-Qaida, Egyptian security officials said Sunday. Update HERE. And HERE.
Egyptian security guards withdrew an hour before the car explosion that went off in front of Saints Coptic Orthodox Church in Alexandria that killed 21 and injured 96 parishioners. According to church officials and eyewitnesses, there are many more victims that are still unidentified and whose body parts were strewn all over the street outside the church. The body parts were covered with newspapers until they were brought inside the church after some Muslims started stepping on them and chanting Jihadi chants. Video Here (Hat tip to GatesofVienna)
January 3, 2011
Egypt
A religious edict signed by a Mauritanian cleric linked to Al-Qaeda' s late leader in Iraq and posted to jihadist websites appears to legitimise the deadly New Year's Eve attack on a church in northern Egypt. Update. (Hat tip to JihadWatch) Pope Shenouda ended his spiritual mediation at St. Bishoy Monastery in Wadi Notroun to go back to the Cathedral's headquarters in Abbasiya on Sunday, meanwhile mulling whether or not to cancel Coptic Christmas celebrations. Some church leaders requested that the Jan. 7 Coptic Christmas celebrations be cancelled after the bombing of a church in Alexandria that left 21 dead and 97 injured.
Italy/European Union
European Union aid should be tied to respect for human rights in countries where Christian minorities are under attack, an Italian Foreign minister said Monday after a New Year's Day church bombing in the Egyptian city of Alexandria that killed 21 Coptic Christians. More HERE.
Russia (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
Unidentified attackers set a church ablaze with a grenade in Russia's mainly Muslim North Caucasus late on Sunday, media reported, in the latest act of violence in a region where Moscow is struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency.
Germany (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
Bishop Anba Damian, head of the Coptic Church in Germany, told a German newspaper that he had asked the government for special protection out of fear his church's followers would be targeted. "Before Christmas, the internet was full of threats against us," he said. "The police have warned us several times of the danger of attacks by radical Muslims. . . ."
Afghanistan
A judge told Shoaib Assadullah that if he did not renounce Christ within one week he would face up to 20 years in prison or even be sentenced to death. Shoaib was arrested on Oct. 21, 2010, when he gave a man a Bible.
January 4, 2011
Pakistan (Hat tip to AtlasShrugs)
A Pakistani politician, who had become a leading opponent in recent weeks of a court decision in November to sentence a 45-year-old Christian farm laborer, Asia Bibi to death for blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad, was assassinated. More HERE. (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
Update HERE. And HERE.
January 5, 2011
Egypt
A recent message posted on the al-Shumukh website and others considered close to Al-Qaeda addressed themselves directly to Coptic pope Shenuda III who was warned of "imminent new strikes" against Egyptian Copts. One message on a forum promised that "we will strike you all in a new attack. We have warned you as Allah is my witness." Update HERE.
January 6, 2011
Egypt l
A bomb was found under stair way of Saint Antonius Church in Il Minya (Upper Egypt).
USA/MidEast (Hat tip to persecution.org)
As the 21st Century enters its second decade, two millennia of Christian presence in the Middle East might be eclipsed by the end of the century.
January 7, 2011
France/MidEast
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday that Christian minorities in the Middle East are victims of "religious cleansing", following deadly attacks on churches in the region.
USA
Anti-Christian crimes are being downplayed by the media while Islamaphobia gets prominent news coverage even though the FBI hate crime statistics, for 2009, found that 8.4 percent of the 1,575 victims of anti-religious crimes were attacked because of anti-Islamic bias. In contrast, 71.9 percent of the victims were Jews.
Indonesia
An Islamic radical group is threatening to disrupt a Catholic gathering on religious freedom.
Europe (Hat tip to persecution.org)
Four EU countries, Hungary, Italy, France, and Poland, urge European action against anti-Christian violence.
January 8, 2011
Australia
The Weekend Australian says it understands the four churches were among a list of more than 60 Coptic Orthodox churches worldwide that were targeted by the unnamed Islamic extremist group.
Sudan (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
Christians in North Sudan have fear of persecution if South Sudan votes to secede.
January 10, 2011
Indonesia
Government officials in West Java Province blocked one church from worshipping, and Islamic groups pressured authorities to seize the property of another during the Christmas season.
Italy/World-wide
Christians in Iraq, Egypt and Nigeria have been killed in churches, in Pakistan a blasphemy law has become an "excuse to cause injustice and violence" . . . The list of violations and attacks on religious freedom delivered today by Benedict XI to the representatives of 180 countries and international organizations that have diplomatic relations with the Holy See, touches hundreds of millions of people around the world.
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Monday, January 17, 2011
The Party of Knowledge and the Party of Ignorance
January 14, 2011
There is a false dichotomy about Islam. Some think that only conservatives are critical about Islam and the liberal/progressives/
Islam has little to do with left/right and liberal/conservative split. Islam is another axis and does not share the normal political divisions. Now it is true that the Democrats are the current benefit of Islamic support, but during Bush’s first election, Muslims in Florida claimed it was their support that tipped the election to Bush. Muslims have voted for both parties.
Although there are more conservatives who are critical of Islam than liberals, the correlation is not so strong as to be useful. There is another political axis that predicts whether someone supports or criticizes Political Islam. That axis is knowledge, knowledge about the doctrine and history of Political Islam.
Whether a Kafir (non-Muslim) supports or criticizes Islam is not classical left/right politics, but knowledge. There are two separate Kafir parties—the Party of Knowledge and the Party of Ignorance.
The Party of Knowledge has learned about the political doctrine and political history of Islam and knows about words such as jihad, Sunna, dhimmi and Kafir. Members of the Party of Knowledge know that the Koran is a dualistic document and contains "good" and "bad" verses that are both true. The Party of Knowledge also knows that the biggest key to understanding Islam is knowing Mohammed, not the Allah of the Koran.
The Party of Ignorance draws its arguments from what Muslims say about Islam. They use the voice of Muslims to repeat apologies for Islam. The Party of Ignorance is always attacking the members of the Party of Knowledge with insults, put downs, mocking tones and allusions to the Party of Knowledge being bigots and hate-speechers. In short, the Party of Ignorance repeats what Muslims say and uses personal attacks against the members of the Party of Knowledge. Knowledge is evil; ignorance is good.
The true foundation of the Party of Ignorance is that they absolutely refuse to read any of the biography of Mohammed, the Sira, nor his traditions, the Hadith. The Party of Ignorance holds the Koran in high esteem, but no one in the Party of Ignorance has any understanding of it. Since it is impenetrable it must be profound. Since it is not understood, it can mean anything you want to project onto it.
What are we to call the members of these two parties? Derivative names such as Knowers and Know-nothings suggest themselves, but there is already a classical set of names taken from Islamic doctrine. Members of the Party of Knowledge are Kafirs and members of the Party of Ignorance are dhimmis. Naturally the Kafirs know who they are and the dhimmis have not clue as to what their name means. Poetic justice?
A dhimmi is a creature created by Mohammed when he subjugated the Jews of Khaybar. Dhimmis can live under Sharia law, because they have agreed to never publicly oppose Islam and practice their beliefs in private. Today, the name dhimmi refers to an uncritical apologist of Islam.
How does this play out in real life? Here is the language of the Kafirs: Koran, Sira, Hadith, and Sharia. Their language uses terms like Sunna and abrogation. Kafirs use details about the history of jihad and the dhimmi.
Dhimmis quote a Muslim or an apologist professor. But the favorite dhimmi talk is about how Kafirs are stupid and evil. Dhimmis always move away from the subject of Islam as soon as possible and start deprecating/trashing Christians and Western culture. Dhimmis tend to never use technical words such as jihad, but use words such as terrorist. Just as soon a terrorist is mentioned, then comes the example of that Christian terrorist, Timothy McVey. Of course, he was a self-avowed atheist, but that matters little to a dhimmi. The only Islamic history the dhimmi knows is a censored version of the Crusades and the fabricated Golden Age of Islam.
Analytic thought brings up the question of a Muslim being in the Party of Knowledge. There are two types of people in the Party of Knowledge—Kafir and Muslim. How do we distinguish them from each other? Simple, how does a Muslim and a Kafir react to Kafir suffering? One fine day, Mohammed sat beside his 12 year old wife and watched as jihadist beheaded 800 male Jews. For a Muslim, this was as day of joy and triumph. The Kafir sees the deaths of 800 Kafir Jews as a war crime and an act of evil.
There are two types of people in the Party of Knowledge, but only one kind of person in the Party of Ignorance. If you are confused, then you are a member of the Party of Ignorance.
There is a false dichotomy about Islam. Some think that only conservatives are critical about Islam and the liberal/progressives/
Islam has little to do with left/right and liberal/conservative split. Islam is another axis and does not share the normal political divisions. Now it is true that the Democrats are the current benefit of Islamic support, but during Bush’s first election, Muslims in Florida claimed it was their support that tipped the election to Bush. Muslims have voted for both parties.
Although there are more conservatives who are critical of Islam than liberals, the correlation is not so strong as to be useful. There is another political axis that predicts whether someone supports or criticizes Political Islam. That axis is knowledge, knowledge about the doctrine and history of Political Islam.
Whether a Kafir (non-Muslim) supports or criticizes Islam is not classical left/right politics, but knowledge. There are two separate Kafir parties—the Party of Knowledge and the Party of Ignorance.
The Party of Knowledge has learned about the political doctrine and political history of Islam and knows about words such as jihad, Sunna, dhimmi and Kafir. Members of the Party of Knowledge know that the Koran is a dualistic document and contains "good" and "bad" verses that are both true. The Party of Knowledge also knows that the biggest key to understanding Islam is knowing Mohammed, not the Allah of the Koran.
The Party of Ignorance draws its arguments from what Muslims say about Islam. They use the voice of Muslims to repeat apologies for Islam. The Party of Ignorance is always attacking the members of the Party of Knowledge with insults, put downs, mocking tones and allusions to the Party of Knowledge being bigots and hate-speechers. In short, the Party of Ignorance repeats what Muslims say and uses personal attacks against the members of the Party of Knowledge. Knowledge is evil; ignorance is good.
The true foundation of the Party of Ignorance is that they absolutely refuse to read any of the biography of Mohammed, the Sira, nor his traditions, the Hadith. The Party of Ignorance holds the Koran in high esteem, but no one in the Party of Ignorance has any understanding of it. Since it is impenetrable it must be profound. Since it is not understood, it can mean anything you want to project onto it.
What are we to call the members of these two parties? Derivative names such as Knowers and Know-nothings suggest themselves, but there is already a classical set of names taken from Islamic doctrine. Members of the Party of Knowledge are Kafirs and members of the Party of Ignorance are dhimmis. Naturally the Kafirs know who they are and the dhimmis have not clue as to what their name means. Poetic justice?
A dhimmi is a creature created by Mohammed when he subjugated the Jews of Khaybar. Dhimmis can live under Sharia law, because they have agreed to never publicly oppose Islam and practice their beliefs in private. Today, the name dhimmi refers to an uncritical apologist of Islam.
How does this play out in real life? Here is the language of the Kafirs: Koran, Sira, Hadith, and Sharia. Their language uses terms like Sunna and abrogation. Kafirs use details about the history of jihad and the dhimmi.
Dhimmis quote a Muslim or an apologist professor. But the favorite dhimmi talk is about how Kafirs are stupid and evil. Dhimmis always move away from the subject of Islam as soon as possible and start deprecating/trashing Christians and Western culture. Dhimmis tend to never use technical words such as jihad, but use words such as terrorist. Just as soon a terrorist is mentioned, then comes the example of that Christian terrorist, Timothy McVey. Of course, he was a self-avowed atheist, but that matters little to a dhimmi. The only Islamic history the dhimmi knows is a censored version of the Crusades and the fabricated Golden Age of Islam.
Analytic thought brings up the question of a Muslim being in the Party of Knowledge. There are two types of people in the Party of Knowledge—Kafir and Muslim. How do we distinguish them from each other? Simple, how does a Muslim and a Kafir react to Kafir suffering? One fine day, Mohammed sat beside his 12 year old wife and watched as jihadist beheaded 800 male Jews. For a Muslim, this was as day of joy and triumph. The Kafir sees the deaths of 800 Kafir Jews as a war crime and an act of evil.
There are two types of people in the Party of Knowledge, but only one kind of person in the Party of Ignorance. If you are confused, then you are a member of the Party of Ignorance.
Bulletin of the Oppression of Women
December 13, 2010 - January 14, 2011
December 13, 2010
Sudan
Sudan investigates case of woman seen being flogged on YouTube clip.
Malaysia
A 14 year old bride defends her controversial marriage.
December 14, 2010
Iraq
A 15 year old teenager rebels.
December 16, 2010
Sudan
Forty thousand Sudanese women are subject to police whippings for moral transgressions, a figure that came to light after a video was circulated on the Internet, which showed the public thrashing of a Khartoum woman.
Iran
Iranian woman 'was sold for sex to fund husband's drug addiction.
December 18, 2010
Pakistan
Christian and Hindu girls are raped and forced to convert to Islam. A 9 year old is raped by a Muslim.
December 19, 2010
UK
Asylum seeker who left girl, 12, to die after hit-and-run can stay in UK.
Saudi Arabia
A Saudi woman has fled the Kingdom in the company of some of her brothers after her father's refusal to allow her to marry became a legal case of "uqouq" - parental disobedience.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi authorities have ordered a local man to deport his Chadian wife for breaking the foreign marriage law although they have two children and his wife is pregnant again.
India
A woman was murdered by her husband after he suspected her of having an extramarital affair.
December 20, 2010
Bangladesh
Two people have been arrested after the death of a Bangladeshi woman who was publicly caned for allegedly having an affair with her stepson.
US (Hat tip to SultanKnish blog)
Islam was born out of child abuse and rape.
December 21, 2010
UK
A Harry Potter actress fled her home after her father and brother threatened to kill her for going out with a Hindu man.
December 25, 2010
Saudi Arabia
Saudi women, who cannot take the driver's seat in the conservative kingdom, want to be given driving licenses at home so they can drive abroad.
December 30, 2010
Saudi Arabia
Rapist of 17 girls blames it on the devil.
Saudi Arabia
A Saudi woman who claims her husband threw her out of the family home because she refused to give him her salary has been denied accommodation at a women's shelter.
December 31, 2010
UAE
A woman's life is worth half of a man's - even in the womb.
US
Iowa woman marries 'devout Muslim virgin', embraces Islam, and then discovers his first wife.
January 3, 2011
Afghanistan (hat tip to JihadWatch)
Fleeing violent husbands lands Afghan women in prison.
Kurdistan (hat tip to JihadWatch)
Thirteen Iraqi Kurdish women's rights activists fear for their lives and have complained to the police after a well-known Mullah has accused them of "blasphemy and demoralizing Kurdish society".
January 4, 2011
Burma
Three Muslim men have been arrested by security forces in Maungdaw Township on the western Burmese border after they abducted and raped two teenagers.
January 5, 2011
UK
Police and social services have been accused of fuelling a culture of silence which has allowed hundreds of young white girls to be exploited by Asian men for sex. More HERE. And (Hat tip to GatesofVienna) HERE. And HERE. And (Hat tip to NewEnglishReview) HERE.
Sweden (hat tip to TheReligionofPeace)
Kurdish poet receives death threat after a poem he wrote about women's rights was published in the Kurdish part of Iraq.
Saudi Arabia
There are no women on the Sports Committee of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce says the Chairman.
Saudi Arabia
An Indonesian house maid who has accused her female Saudi employer of stabbing, beating and burning her appeared in court for the first time on Wednesday and showed her wounds.
January 6, 2010
Germany
Young Muslim women are often forced to lead double lives in Europe.
Denmark (Translation by and Hat tip to IslaminEurope)
Honor killings, blood feuds account for 20% of refugees in Denmark.
Ireland
Muslim girls are covertly prepared for forced marriage. Yet the feminists stay silent.
January 7, 2011
Somalia
Al-Qaida-linked militants in war-torn southern Somalia have banned unrelated men and women from shaking hands, speaking or walking together in public.
Saudi Arabia
A 23-year-old unmarried woman was awarded one-year prison term and 100 lashes for committing adultery and trying to abort the resultant fetus after 'confessing' to being gang raped.
Ireland
Ireland's first recorded honor killing.
Tunisia
A number of Tunisian women feel forced to adopt religious practices in attire and behaviour. Experts, however, question the legality and Islamic authenticity of the phenomena.
USA
Update on on the Buffalo Muslim man charged with beheading his wife.
January 9, 2011
UAE
A maid is killed trying to flee her employer.
January 10, 2011
India
Muslim men sexually target Hindu and Sikh girls as well as white girls.
Kuwait
A wife files a report against her abusive husband and is hacked to death with a meat cleaver.
Jordan
A powerful Islamist movement called on the labour minister to step down after he issued permit to allow Jordanian women to work in nightclubs in contradiction with what the group says conservative values.
UK
'Trust' teacher molested girls during lessons on the Koran.
Iran
Iran has enforced a stricter Islamic dress code at a number of universities including a ban on female students wearing long nails, bright clothes and tattoos. More HERE. (hat tip to JihadWatch)
January 12, 2011
Australia
Four men and three boys have been charged with raping a woman at Bendigo in central Victoria.
Malaysia
A religious school teacher has been arrested for allegedly fondling a 14-year-old girl.
January 14, 2011
Saudi Arabia
Most husbands find it hard to announce the news that they have taken a second wife, despite the fact such marriages are a way of life for some Arab and Muslim families.
December 13, 2010
Sudan
Sudan investigates case of woman seen being flogged on YouTube clip.
Malaysia
A 14 year old bride defends her controversial marriage.
December 14, 2010
Iraq
A 15 year old teenager rebels.
December 16, 2010
Sudan
Forty thousand Sudanese women are subject to police whippings for moral transgressions, a figure that came to light after a video was circulated on the Internet, which showed the public thrashing of a Khartoum woman.
Iran
Iranian woman 'was sold for sex to fund husband's drug addiction.
December 18, 2010
Pakistan
Christian and Hindu girls are raped and forced to convert to Islam. A 9 year old is raped by a Muslim.
December 19, 2010
UK
Asylum seeker who left girl, 12, to die after hit-and-run can stay in UK.
Saudi Arabia
A Saudi woman has fled the Kingdom in the company of some of her brothers after her father's refusal to allow her to marry became a legal case of "uqouq" - parental disobedience.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi authorities have ordered a local man to deport his Chadian wife for breaking the foreign marriage law although they have two children and his wife is pregnant again.
India
A woman was murdered by her husband after he suspected her of having an extramarital affair.
December 20, 2010
Bangladesh
Two people have been arrested after the death of a Bangladeshi woman who was publicly caned for allegedly having an affair with her stepson.
US (Hat tip to SultanKnish blog)
Islam was born out of child abuse and rape.
December 21, 2010
UK
A Harry Potter actress fled her home after her father and brother threatened to kill her for going out with a Hindu man.
December 25, 2010
Saudi Arabia
Saudi women, who cannot take the driver's seat in the conservative kingdom, want to be given driving licenses at home so they can drive abroad.
December 30, 2010
Saudi Arabia
Rapist of 17 girls blames it on the devil.
Saudi Arabia
A Saudi woman who claims her husband threw her out of the family home because she refused to give him her salary has been denied accommodation at a women's shelter.
December 31, 2010
UAE
A woman's life is worth half of a man's - even in the womb.
US
Iowa woman marries 'devout Muslim virgin', embraces Islam, and then discovers his first wife.
January 3, 2011
Afghanistan (hat tip to JihadWatch)
Fleeing violent husbands lands Afghan women in prison.
Kurdistan (hat tip to JihadWatch)
Thirteen Iraqi Kurdish women's rights activists fear for their lives and have complained to the police after a well-known Mullah has accused them of "blasphemy and demoralizing Kurdish society".
January 4, 2011
Burma
Three Muslim men have been arrested by security forces in Maungdaw Township on the western Burmese border after they abducted and raped two teenagers.
January 5, 2011
UK
Police and social services have been accused of fuelling a culture of silence which has allowed hundreds of young white girls to be exploited by Asian men for sex. More HERE. And (Hat tip to GatesofVienna) HERE. And HERE. And (Hat tip to NewEnglishReview) HERE.
Sweden (hat tip to TheReligionofPeace)
Kurdish poet receives death threat after a poem he wrote about women's rights was published in the Kurdish part of Iraq.
Saudi Arabia
There are no women on the Sports Committee of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce says the Chairman.
Saudi Arabia
An Indonesian house maid who has accused her female Saudi employer of stabbing, beating and burning her appeared in court for the first time on Wednesday and showed her wounds.
January 6, 2010
Germany
Young Muslim women are often forced to lead double lives in Europe.
Denmark (Translation by and Hat tip to IslaminEurope)
Honor killings, blood feuds account for 20% of refugees in Denmark.
Ireland
Muslim girls are covertly prepared for forced marriage. Yet the feminists stay silent.
January 7, 2011
Somalia
Al-Qaida-linked militants in war-torn southern Somalia have banned unrelated men and women from shaking hands, speaking or walking together in public.
Saudi Arabia
A 23-year-old unmarried woman was awarded one-year prison term and 100 lashes for committing adultery and trying to abort the resultant fetus after 'confessing' to being gang raped.
Ireland
Ireland's first recorded honor killing.
Tunisia
A number of Tunisian women feel forced to adopt religious practices in attire and behaviour. Experts, however, question the legality and Islamic authenticity of the phenomena.
USA
Update on on the Buffalo Muslim man charged with beheading his wife.
January 9, 2011
UAE
A maid is killed trying to flee her employer.
January 10, 2011
India
Muslim men sexually target Hindu and Sikh girls as well as white girls.
Kuwait
A wife files a report against her abusive husband and is hacked to death with a meat cleaver.
Jordan
A powerful Islamist movement called on the labour minister to step down after he issued permit to allow Jordanian women to work in nightclubs in contradiction with what the group says conservative values.
UK
'Trust' teacher molested girls during lessons on the Koran.
Iran
Iran has enforced a stricter Islamic dress code at a number of universities including a ban on female students wearing long nails, bright clothes and tattoos. More HERE. (hat tip to JihadWatch)
January 12, 2011
Australia
Four men and three boys have been charged with raping a woman at Bendigo in central Victoria.
Malaysia
A religious school teacher has been arrested for allegedly fondling a 14-year-old girl.
January 14, 2011
Saudi Arabia
Most husbands find it hard to announce the news that they have taken a second wife, despite the fact such marriages are a way of life for some Arab and Muslim families.
CPJ: Ugandan magazine raided, questioned over Museveni cartoon
Police in Kampala arrested the director and editor of the monthly newsmagazine Summit Business Review on Tuesday in connection with a caricature of President Yoweri Museveni that appeared on the cover of the October issue. Director Samuel Sejjaaka and Editor Mustapha Mugisha were released on bond but face continued interrogations, Sejjaaka told CPJ.
Police raided the magazine’s office Tuesday morning, confiscated Mugisha’s computer, and detained the editor, Sejjaaka said. When Sejjaaka came to the police station to inquire as to Mugisha’s status, the director was detained for refusing to write out a police statement, he told CPJ. After being released on bond, the two were ordered to report to the political crimes division of the Criminal Investigations Department on Wednesday and again today, Mugisha said.
No charges have been brought. Police told Sejaaka the caricature “embarrassed” the president. The cover of the magazine’s October edition featured a cartoon of Museveni blowing out the candle on a cake in the shape of Uganda for the country’s 48th Independence Day celebrations. The cartoonist, Fred Senoga Makubuya, is based in the United States, Mugisha told CPJ.
The article that accompanied the cartoon detailed Museveni’s electoral dominance, arguing that the opposition parties remained too divided to challenge the ruling party. Presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled for February.
Police would not explain why they were taking action three months after the edition was published, although officers noted the caricature was being used by opposition candidates in campaign rallies, the journalists told CPJ. Security agents also pulled down roughly 10 advertising billboards in Kampala that displayed the cartoon, according to local journalists. The magazine caters to Ugandan business executives and maintains a neutral political stance, Mugisha told CPJ.
“The arrest of two independent journalists just one month before elections is deeply disturbing,” said CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes. “Public figures in a democracy should not resort to the police to shield themselves from media criticism. All legal action against Samuel Sejjaaka and Mustapha Mugisha should be dropped immediately.”
In August 2009, police arrested and interrogated three journalists from the private bimonthly The Independent after the magazine published a cartoon spoofing Museveni’s controversial decision to reappoint members of the embattled electoral commission to supervise the 2011 general election. In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that the electoral commission did not follow its own standards and allowed irregularities in the electoral process in favor of the ruling National Resistance Movement party.
In Chikhwawa searching for democracy’s local meaning
BY RICHARD CHIROMBO
June 14, 1993: Heavy political clouds enveloped the horizon, as voters kicked through the rotting one-party dictatorship door to beckoning multiparty democracy huts. Malawians felt that the rains would be too heavy for a single roof, and sought shelter in a multiplicity of political huts.
The political rains fell heavily in May 1994, when the electorate voted for political change. In the euphoria that followed, the bitter past was quickly forgotten- so much so that the violence (burning of losing Malawi Congress Party Land Rovers and property in Salima and other districts), corruption, questionable public tendering processes, political appeasement, monopoly of State-run media, diversion of development projects from opposition strongholds to ruling party zealots’ abodes, among other creeping tendencies, tasted sweet.
Sixteen years down the line, however, the huts seem to have quickly evolved into some form of desolate wildernesses, forcing voters in such districts as Chikhwawa onto the unkempt road-of-common sense in search of simple answers.
“We were made to understand that democracy means the power to participate in political and development activities. So far, this has not been the case: the ordinary man and woman can still not get his or her voice heard,” said Andrew Mantchichi from Chikhwawa Central constituency.
When citizens lose the prospect of a response from those in authority- councilors, Members of Parliament (MPs), District or City Assembly officials, Cabinet Ministers and Heads of State and Government- it is called participation without power.
“This (Participation without power) breeds voter apathy,” said Noel Msiska, Coordinator for the Southern Region chapter of Civic and Political Space Platform (CPSP) - a grouping of civil society organizations working in the area of human rights, governance and democracy.
That is not all. Even when citizens enjoy the power of participation, the challenge is that policy-makers and political leaders assume that rights of participation carry with them the ‘automatic’ prospect of tangible benefits- the truth, on the other hand, is that this is work half done. The task at hand is to establish which modes of participation, in fact, bring real development rewards, and to whom?
This realization has spurred Christian Service Committee, Association for Progressive Women and Church and Society-Blantyre C.C.A.P. Synod- CPSP member organizations in the Southern Region- into action as part of a Danish Church Aid initiative to build religious and community leaders’ capacity in readiness for next year’s Local Government Elections (LGE). And the findings were shocking.
After years of multiparty politics in Malawi, Chikhwawa people are yet to find the real meaning of democracy. At Chikhwawa National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) offices earlier this month, religious leaders struggled to make local sense of democracy.
Chikhwawa Pastors Fraternal chairperson, Hussein Nguwo, blamed it on unpleasant experiences people have come to associate democracy with. When experiences are generally painful, they cease to be the ‘greatest teacher’; instead, they become a distraction and burden.
Over the years, Chikhwawa communities have learned to dismiss such burdens, leaving a litany of problems unresolved, he noted.
“One of the reasons is that voters are disappointed in Members of Parliament (MPs), most of whom prefer urban areas to their rural constituencies. People believe that councilors will be no different.”
It is a challenge that calls for consulted efforts, meaning: media practitioners, policy makers, political parties, development partners should continue their role of making common sense out of difficult-to-comprehend issues and providing technical and financial support; while religious leaders should continue to pray for rains, offer spiritual food, visit hospitals and prisons- they should also preach politics, responsible politics.
“With renewed hope, we can rejuvenate voters’ interest in development and politics again.” said Nguwo.
It is a step that begins with voters developing real interest in the Republican Constitution. Unfortunately, according to Msiska, the Constitution remains an elite’s domain, leaving ordinary citizens in the shadow of ignorance. Constitutions can, sometimes, become principle causes of conflicts, too. They have, throughout the history of civilized politics, provided the ground for rallying cries from communities in general, and communities of interest.
Msiska said the word Constitution, susceptible to great latitude of interpretation, would be but imperfectly understood if we supposed that people attach the same meaning to it.
“This has never been the case,” Msiska said, adding that varying levels of literacy render it impossible to land on common grounds. Even with equal qualifications, people will still fall for different tastes.
In addition to this observation, constitutions have also been employed to achieve various objects. In monarchies, constitutions were sold as implements for attaining ‘national development’; same with representative regimes, where they sought to safeguard similar ‘development’ goals, promising respect for fundamental rights; while in one party states, they propagated the policy of ‘reform’ as the object, Msiska noted.
‘Everywhere, at least, the constitution means change and trouble. However, in our case, it has largely buttressed national consensus and solidarity.”
Like all guidelines, the Constitution must also embrace two important principles: the ability to challenge accepted social mores and the latitude to make mistakes. More related to this is the principle that elected leaders must respect the generally held consensus to protect certain values while being free to challenge their (the values’) continual validity.
In so doing, there will be mistakes. As has been the experience in Malawi- on such issues as the Third Term attempt by former President Bakili Muluzi, abuse of power by the opposition during President Bingu wa Mutharika’s first (2004-2009) term, Democratic Progressive Party’s current dominance in parliament culminating in rubber-stumping of controversial bills including one to modify the National Flag- someone at some stage is bound to take a step too far.
The challenge to most Malawians, says Pastor Velias Bwanamali of Kasinthula Assemblies of God, lies in failure to respect the right of others to ‘go a step too far’, saying it is through mistakes that human beings get the best out of themselves.
In Malawi, summary judgement of politicians has become an obsession, and Bwanamali is worried. He said it was apparent that anger is taking the place of reason, offering no chance for reflection on the meaning of such issues as democracy, human rights and responsibilities.
Not all things need serious reflection, though. Some things are too obvious to be unclear, said Limbani Chipembere, Programmes Officer for Church and Society-Blantyre C.C.A.P Synod. Take, for instance, the issue of voters, monitors, candidates, and an independent electoral body- every election needs them.
The other factor is that every election has conflict built into it because elections are borne out of politics, which is a form of positive conflict- competition to achieve the common good.
Chipembere notes, however, that some seemingly obvious issues warrant reflection. One of these pertains to our voting system, the First-past-the-post. Because one can ride at the back of a single vote, the country has voter apathy sanctioned in the system.
During the 2000 LGE, for instance, political analysts faulted the electoral calendar for perpetuating the trend, yet voter apathy had been a notable feature in the 1999 Parliamentary and Presidential Elections. The argument was that, during the 2000 LGE held in November (coinciding with the onset of rains), voters narrowed their focus to their bellies and maize granaries- never ballot boxes.
The term elections’ ‘hung-over’ also cropped in. Analysts noted that just the preceding year (1999), people were on the non-paid-for lines again, voting for a Head of State and Government and MPs. The disputes that ensued after announcement of the Presidential results might have angered many, forcing them to fold the hand that stretches into the ballot box.
Just this year, during the By-Elections held in Dowa and Mangochi, voters preferred to stay home, again. The DPP MPs elected will still walk down the narrow road to the New Parliament Building in Lilongwe to represent the few who voted for the ‘many’, thanks to First-Past-the-Post system.
“This trend should spur us into reflective action. I have the feeling that MPs or councilors elected by a few do not carry much authority; ideally, the more voters turn up, the more authoritative one feels,” Chipembere said.
It is a perception shared by Vincent Chibowa, Advocacy and Communications Officer for Christian Service Committee (CSC). He said religious leaders have more influence over their congregation members, increasing the likelihood of getting voters back to the voting lines- it is merely a question of stirring the spirit that convinces target beneficiaries to stand their ground on long subsidized farm inputs’ queues.
Stirring that spirit could entail the use of a bottom-top approach in community development plans. Chibowa felt that the tendency to force development policies on people could have contributed to voter apathy.
“We need to be open-minded. Leaders should not come with preconceived ideas but strive to solicit real contributions from grassroots communities,” he said.
With open minds, organizations such as NICE have started uncovering some of the challenges. What comes clear at Chikhwawa NICE Resource Centre are issues of illiteracy, lack of accountability and transparency, difficulties to reach out to elected representatives, among others.
It seems that Chikhwawa women are left behind in terms of reading culture. From January 2009 to May 2010, the percentage of female readers has never exceeded 15 women out of every 100 males, with the lowest registered mark being 7 per cent. On the other hand, male readers always surpass the mark of 85 per cent. These are people who visit the NICE District Library, Ndife Amodzi, Chikhwawa Prison, Mtera and Sangano resource centres.
How can people who do not value reading get the right information to make informed decisions? The trend could be food-for-thought for civil society organizations advocating for 50-50 representation of women in politics and decision-making processes.
The situation is made complicated by the general inaccessibility of MPs. In the absence of councilors, MPs have come to be regarded as the first-line of call for community members, some of whom have reduced the role of an MP from law maker to coffin-buyer. Chikhwawa has registered some success in accountability levels because each Traditional Authority, Paramount Chief and Senior Chief has their mobile number publicly displayed.
But community members complained over MPs. Legislator for Chikhwawa North, Grain Malunga’s, number is missing. Same with MP for Chikhwawa South Joseph Tembo: his number, too, is missing; they are inaccessible when out of Chikhwawa.
The case is different with Chikhwawa Central legislator, Bernadetta Mlaka Maliro. Instead of furnishing only one mobile number, she has provided two.
Every society, perhaps, gets the ruler it deserves.
Chikuli fills development gaps with unity
RICHARD CHIROMBO
Their problems are their common strength, a multiplicity of souls
united in purpose. Each one knows everyone else, too.
That explains why two smiling under-aged boys dutifully throwing
twelve tiny pieces of pork into a thick, brownish liquid that passes
for cooking oil at Chikuli Trading Centre, while their peers drink
from the gourd of knowledge at Chikuli Primary School, just a stone
throw away- are a blur in Group Village Headman Makunje’s clear
picture of the future.
“I know them (the boys) by their names; (I know) their problem, too.
We are trying our best to solve such community problems as preventable
school drop outs, material poverty, HIV and AIDS proliferation,
hunger, poor physical infrastructure.
“We also know that we will have problems that are beyond our control,
mainly because our challenges are many,” said Makunje.
Chikuli, located in Blantyre West Constituency, is an apparent victim
of the ‘Blantyre-syndrome’ (the bright mind-colours associated with
the name Blantyre), chips in Gloria Kampayi, from Group Village
Headman Sitande in the area. She says Chikuli was supposed to be urban
in location, but remains rural in circumstance, making life unbearable
for most community members.
And the challenges are just too many. Take, for instance, the dusty
road from Chileka International Airport to Chikuli Trading Centre; it
introduces the first-time visitor to the fact that the area is yet to
get connected to the highway of civilization.
While the slippery nature of the road during the rainy season pits
community members against high transport fares and time efficiency, it
is the lack of electricity that pains Village Headwoman Chinkhandwe.
“We are not very far away from the Blantyre Central Business District,
yet we are not yet connected to the national electricity grid. This is
retarding development as investors cannot invest in an area without
electricity,” said Chinkhandwe.
She also bemoans the proliferation of HIV and AIDS in her area, a
development that has seen her tiny village produce at least four
child-headed households. Most girls, too, are taking towards the way
of the night, turning their “precious bodies into disposable
commodities, thereby exacerbating challenges posed by the HIV and
AIDS pandemic”.
Because 90 per cent of her subjects depend on subsistence farming,
hunger replaces full granaries when the rains fail, perpetuating
material poverty in the population.
Chinkhandwe is not alone in insinuating that life has largely been
reduced to a search for the basics in Chikuli, as four other
traditional leaders from the area of Traditional Authority Kunthembwe-
namely, Group Village Headmen Makunje, Sitande, and Kadikira; and
village headman Nkhumba- add their voice of concern.
One of the pressing needs in their areas, all united by the ordeal of
having Chikuli as the only full primary school, is the lack of a
school feeding programme to carter for less privileged children.
Duncan Kawerama, head teacher for the school, confides that hunger
kept some pupils out of school when their classmates were busy writing
examinations, culminating in swift contrasts between class attendance
registers (which are impressive) and examination attendance rolls
(poorer than 2009).
“This is a very big challenge in deed,” said Kawerama.
Out of the 1,500 pupils enrolled with the school, each and every one
of whom deserves a turn in 10 ramshackle toilets available at the
school, over half is in problems of sorts: ranging, as Parents
Teachers Association chairperson Alick Msowoya enthuses, from empty
stomachs among pupils from grand-parent led and child-headed
households; lack of material resources, including uniforms and money
contribution towards community/school development initiatives;
teen-age pregnancies, as girls opt for easy ways out; an escalated HIV
and AIDS prevalence rate; and high drop out rates, as some children
resort to playing roast-pork, vegetables, flitters, and tomato traders
at the booming Chikuli Trading Centre.
Another challenge is that of high class repetition rates. A story is
told of a girl who remained stuck in Standard Four for six solid
years, prompting a local NGO called Mwayi Trust to come up with a
Home-work Centres’ initiative.
It is an initiative that keeps 18 year-old Gloria Kampayi busy- but
not too busy to disturb her Form 3 studies at Chikuli Community Day
Secondary School (CDSS). Under the programme, introduced by
Australian-born Sandra Trevethan, secondary school students help ‘
class veterans’ in neighbouring primary schools over-come learning
impediments.
Pastor James Mbewe, who ministers at United Pentecostal Church in
Blantyre but also doubles as a Trustee for Mwayi, said the initiative
is working wonders in eight schools. Among others, students from
Chikuli CDSS bail pupils from Chikuli primary out of the muddy waters
of failure, a remedy reciprocated by Chigumukire CDSS students who
administer academic diagnosis at Chigumukire primary; Andiseni
secondary students help those from nearby St. George Academy; while
those from Chilangoma CDSS lift pupils from Chilangoma primary school
up.
“The programme has, since 2009, proved successful to slow learners. As
we all know, the teacher-pupils’ ratio in most schools in Malawi is
too high, making it difficult for teachers to help slow learners out.
We are working with teachers, who act as patrons in the centres,
secondary and primary school goers, and have over 40 peer educators,”
said Pastor Mbewe.
But this does nothing to erase the fact that long-distances to Chikuli
Primary school, flooded rivers during the rainy season, lack of junior
primary schools, poor road network infrastructure and the general lack
of role models keep most children out of school, casting thorns in the
way of future success.
Ever-heard of 50 year-old orphans? Forget about textbook definitions
of orphans (for instance, convicted individuals who play the ‘I am
orphaned’ mercy-card at 21 years during court mitigation are quickly
dismissed by Malawian courts) and get into the basics of life’s little
lessons in Chikuli.
Traditional leaders Kadikira, Makunje, Sitande, Nkhumba and
Chinkhandwe claim that their subjects are “all (regardless of age)
orphans”, in a way, citing the pulling out of most civil society
organizations from their areas.
In 2007, such charity organizations as Save the Children, Oxfam,
Goal-Malawi, Blantyre Synod and Development Aid from People to People
provided vital services, including nutrition supplements, home-based
care tools, and HIV and AIDS counseling. No more.
So, John Kunthembwe –Community AIDS Committee chairperson in Makunje
Village- no longer goes about distributing Vitamin D tablets and other
nutrition supplements . Home-based care initiatives, nursery school
lessons, physical fitness courses, and Chikuli youth programmes are
all gone.
However, community members continue to do their best: starting with
the construction of two toilets at Chikuli Primary, provision of
unpaid for services in the Home-work Centres Initiative, counseling
sessions for girls at Chinkhandwe’s court, and the formulation of
community neighbourhood watch groups to prevent crop and property
theft.
All these efforts quicken the flow of community members’ blood; but so
do the waters in Dambo, Chikowa, Mkokodzi, Msuma, Namisu and Chosweka
rivers flow faster during the rainy season- blocking the way of pupils
from Nthawira and Chasokera village, on the other side of Dambo river,
to Chikuli Primary school.
“This is the one part we cannot do something on. We cannot manage to
construct metallic bridges across these rivers and, so, need local
government’s intervention. We want our pupils to go to school,” said
Makunje.
Their problems are their common strength, a multiplicity of souls
united in purpose. Each one knows everyone else, too.
That explains why two smiling under-aged boys dutifully throwing
twelve tiny pieces of pork into a thick, brownish liquid that passes
for cooking oil at Chikuli Trading Centre, while their peers drink
from the gourd of knowledge at Chikuli Primary School, just a stone
throw away- are a blur in Group Village Headman Makunje’s clear
picture of the future.
“I know them (the boys) by their names; (I know) their problem, too.
We are trying our best to solve such community problems as preventable
school drop outs, material poverty, HIV and AIDS proliferation,
hunger, poor physical infrastructure.
“We also know that we will have problems that are beyond our control,
mainly because our challenges are many,” said Makunje.
Chikuli, located in Blantyre West Constituency, is an apparent victim
of the ‘Blantyre-syndrome’ (the bright mind-colours associated with
the name Blantyre), chips in Gloria Kampayi, from Group Village
Headman Sitande in the area. She says Chikuli was supposed to be urban
in location, but remains rural in circumstance, making life unbearable
for most community members.
And the challenges are just too many. Take, for instance, the dusty
road from Chileka International Airport to Chikuli Trading Centre; it
introduces the first-time visitor to the fact that the area is yet to
get connected to the highway of civilization.
While the slippery nature of the road during the rainy season pits
community members against high transport fares and time efficiency, it
is the lack of electricity that pains Village Headwoman Chinkhandwe.
“We are not very far away from the Blantyre Central Business District,
yet we are not yet connected to the national electricity grid. This is
retarding development as investors cannot invest in an area without
electricity,” said Chinkhandwe.
She also bemoans the proliferation of HIV and AIDS in her area, a
development that has seen her tiny village produce at least four
child-headed households. Most girls, too, are taking towards the way
of the night, turning their “precious bodies into disposable
commodities, thereby exacerbating challenges posed by the HIV and
AIDS pandemic”.
Because 90 per cent of her subjects depend on subsistence farming,
hunger replaces full granaries when the rains fail, perpetuating
material poverty in the population.
Chinkhandwe is not alone in insinuating that life has largely been
reduced to a search for the basics in Chikuli, as four other
traditional leaders from the area of Traditional Authority Kunthembwe-
namely, Group Village Headmen Makunje, Sitande, and Kadikira; and
village headman Nkhumba- add their voice of concern.
One of the pressing needs in their areas, all united by the ordeal of
having Chikuli as the only full primary school, is the lack of a
school feeding programme to carter for less privileged children.
Duncan Kawerama, head teacher for the school, confides that hunger
kept some pupils out of school when their classmates were busy writing
examinations, culminating in swift contrasts between class attendance
registers (which are impressive) and examination attendance rolls
(poorer than 2009).
“This is a very big challenge in deed,” said Kawerama.
Out of the 1,500 pupils enrolled with the school, each and every one
of whom deserves a turn in 10 ramshackle toilets available at the
school, over half is in problems of sorts: ranging, as Parents
Teachers Association chairperson Alick Msowoya enthuses, from empty
stomachs among pupils from grand-parent led and child-headed
households; lack of material resources, including uniforms and money
contribution towards community/school development initiatives;
teen-age pregnancies, as girls opt for easy ways out; an escalated HIV
and AIDS prevalence rate; and high drop out rates, as some children
resort to playing roast-pork, vegetables, flitters, and tomato traders
at the booming Chikuli Trading Centre.
Another challenge is that of high class repetition rates. A story is
told of a girl who remained stuck in Standard Four for six solid
years, prompting a local NGO called Mwayi Trust to come up with a
Home-work Centres’ initiative.
It is an initiative that keeps 18 year-old Gloria Kampayi busy- but
not too busy to disturb her Form 3 studies at Chikuli Community Day
Secondary School (CDSS). Under the programme, introduced by
Australian-born Sandra Trevethan, secondary school students help ‘
class veterans’ in neighbouring primary schools over-come learning
impediments.
Pastor James Mbewe, who ministers at United Pentecostal Church in
Blantyre but also doubles as a Trustee for Mwayi, said the initiative
is working wonders in eight schools. Among others, students from
Chikuli CDSS bail pupils from Chikuli primary out of the muddy waters
of failure, a remedy reciprocated by Chigumukire CDSS students who
administer academic diagnosis at Chigumukire primary; Andiseni
secondary students help those from nearby St. George Academy; while
those from Chilangoma CDSS lift pupils from Chilangoma primary school
up.
“The programme has, since 2009, proved successful to slow learners. As
we all know, the teacher-pupils’ ratio in most schools in Malawi is
too high, making it difficult for teachers to help slow learners out.
We are working with teachers, who act as patrons in the centres,
secondary and primary school goers, and have over 40 peer educators,”
said Pastor Mbewe.
But this does nothing to erase the fact that long-distances to Chikuli
Primary school, flooded rivers during the rainy season, lack of junior
primary schools, poor road network infrastructure and the general lack
of role models keep most children out of school, casting thorns in the
way of future success.
Ever-heard of 50 year-old orphans? Forget about textbook definitions
of orphans (for instance, convicted individuals who play the ‘I am
orphaned’ mercy-card at 21 years during court mitigation are quickly
dismissed by Malawian courts) and get into the basics of life’s little
lessons in Chikuli.
Traditional leaders Kadikira, Makunje, Sitande, Nkhumba and
Chinkhandwe claim that their subjects are “all (regardless of age)
orphans”, in a way, citing the pulling out of most civil society
organizations from their areas.
In 2007, such charity organizations as Save the Children, Oxfam,
Goal-Malawi, Blantyre Synod and Development Aid from People to People
provided vital services, including nutrition supplements, home-based
care tools, and HIV and AIDS counseling. No more.
So, John Kunthembwe –Community AIDS Committee chairperson in Makunje
Village- no longer goes about distributing Vitamin D tablets and other
nutrition supplements . Home-based care initiatives, nursery school
lessons, physical fitness courses, and Chikuli youth programmes are
all gone.
However, community members continue to do their best: starting with
the construction of two toilets at Chikuli Primary, provision of
unpaid for services in the Home-work Centres Initiative, counseling
sessions for girls at Chinkhandwe’s court, and the formulation of
community neighbourhood watch groups to prevent crop and property
theft.
All these efforts quicken the flow of community members’ blood; but so
do the waters in Dambo, Chikowa, Mkokodzi, Msuma, Namisu and Chosweka
rivers flow faster during the rainy season- blocking the way of pupils
from Nthawira and Chasokera village, on the other side of Dambo river,
to Chikuli Primary school.
“This is the one part we cannot do something on. We cannot manage to
construct metallic bridges across these rivers and, so, need local
government’s intervention. We want our pupils to go to school,” said
Makunje.
Finding the woman’s place in Mwanza
RICHARD CHIROMBO
The Mwanza woman’s experience is one of a survivor who has never flourished.
It is one painful realization to have come home to gender activists in
the district, prompting them to ask the tough, immoral question:
Should we bank our hopes on disaster, and reap from the cup of
catastrophe?
National disasters have done it elsewhere in Africa- call it the
unintended benefit of a bad experience- and tilted life in favour of
the long-suppressed woman. In Rwanda, for instance, the death of more
men than women in that country’s darkest period of civil war opened a
plethora of opportunity for women that others turned to the roads,
truck driving; many more chose the mechanical and electric engineering
path, among others- tasks hither to reserved for men.
For Emma Kaliya, chairperson for NGO-Gender Support Network (NGO-GCN),
Malawi needs more of ink and paper (with which to formulate requisite
gender empowerment policies and protocols) than the smoking gun or
astray arrow to win the woman’s right place in society.
“Implementation of gender policies holds the key to Malawi’s success,
along with the realization that men have an equal role to play. Gender
is about both men and women,” says Kaliya.
It may be slow, and painful at times, but the destination is clear,
she says. This slow pace down the women empowerment mile is clear in a
Southern African Development Community (SADC) Gender Protocol 2010
Barometer for Malawi, compiled by Kaliya herself through the Malawi
Human Rights Resource Centre.
SADC set aside 28 targets- among them, constitutional and legal
rights; economic empowerment; governance, in terms of both
representation and participation; education and training; Gender-based
violence; peace building; health, HIV and AIDS; media, Information,
Communication and Technology- to be met by 2015.
So far, Malawi has sent out mixed signals. The country scored 57 per
cent in this year’s SADC Gender Protocol Barometer, points slightly
higher than the regional average of 54 per cent.
The good part is that the country has been lauded by the regional body
for coming closer to meeting education and training targets. A score
of eight out of 10 is a mark too high for other SADC member states; a
feat repeated in the target area of governance, where Malawi’s
performance in improving women’s roles in political processes is
matched by a handful other countries.
But that is all there is to Malawi’s walk towards women empowerment as
the country remains far much behind in meeting targets for increased
productive resources, employment and economic empowerment. Scores
ranging from two to six are a smack in gender activists’ faces.
“We need to renew our commitment,” she adds.
But gender activism does not end at putting in place strategic
policies, and renewing commitment. It means much more than that, chips
in Loyce Kachepa, Mwanza District Coordinator for Women’s Legal
Resources Centre (WOLREC).
The path of WOLREC’s efforts in Mwanza- and such districts as Salima,
Zomba, Neno, Mangochi, Mzuzu and Balaka- is always strewn with
Malawi’s other common challenges: high poverty levels, estimated by
the SADC Barometer at 65.3 per cent of the 13 million-plus population;
a less impressive adult literacy rate of 62 per cent, with fewer women
than men able to read; impoverished female-headed households, where 34
per cent of households are female-headed.
Experience has shown that female-headed households tend to be poorer
due to gender disparities in education, resources and access to
opportunities, points buttressed by the 2006 HIV.VAW Survey Report.
“We must look beyond mere activism and inculcate the spirit of a
rights-based approach to development. After all, Section 30 of the
Malawi Constitution makes it clear that everyone, including women, is
entitled to development. It is high time people started demanding
development, instead of being over-grateful when public officials due
their rightful role: bringing social-economic development,” says
Kachepa.
A rights-based approach is the sure way women could begin to view such
efforts as the 50:50 Women Empowerment campaign as repayment of a
public debt policymakers have defaulted on for many years, she adds.
“Women deserve to be in decision-making positions; it is not something
up for discussion, it is a right.”
It is this kind of boldness that forces Maggie Sundu, Gender Desk
Officer at the Association for Progressive Women (APW) in Mwanza, to
declare that (in the spirit of the 50:50 campaign) there is but only
one ‘political party’ in Malawi.
“And such a political party is the woman; the Malawian woman.”
Sundu says this is the reason NGOs have been campaigning for the
woman’s vote in either Presidential, Parliamentary and Local
Government elections. The Democratic Progressive Party, United
Democratic Front, Malawi Forum for Unity and Development, People’s
Transformation Party, Malawi Congress Party, Malawi Democratic Union,
Malawi Democratic Party may be there in the wards and constituencies,
yes; but when there is a lonely woman fighting for a political slot,
the woman is the political party.
This is a point that has pitted gender activist against gender
insensitive political parties.
Noel Msiska, acting executive director for APW remembers going to
Rumphi in the Northern region prior to the 2009 Parliamentary
elections.
“One political party sent emissaries to ask us the question: ‘which
political party is this?’. We said we were fighting for the promotion
of women, but members of most political parties got none of it. The
Malawian woman deserves better,” says Msiska.
Of all the places in Malawi, Mwanza district qualifies for one that
has kept the woman in the kitchen much longer than necessary. While
the country has been moving slowly, but upwardly, towards empowering
the local woman (in the 1994 General Elections, 10 women Members of
Parliament made it to the August House; in 1999, 18 women; 2004, 26;
and 2009, 42 women), Mwanza is yet to have a female councilor.
Yet, during the 2000 Local Government Elections, the Southern (where
Mwanza is) and Central region scored higher (at 30 per cent women
representation) and the Northern region lower, at 10 per cent, the
Mwanza woman was totally counted out.
Phillip Mponda Banda, District Community Development Officer- a
position falling under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Community
Development- has a clear picture of the problem.
The Mwanza man, says Mponda Banda, has so many ways of building
self-confidence, esteem and asserting himself in the largely male
chauvinistic society.
Take, for instance, the bicycle he uses to ferry charcoal or people at
Mwanza Central District. When he uses the bicycle to eke a living, he
has so many people (the passenger) to talk to, and this builds his
confidence.
Other men take to Bawo, where politics, social and economic talk
dominates discourse. At the football pitch, it is not only goals he
talks of; he often indulges in political and general leadership
debate.
During political campaigns, in church meetings: the Mwanza man plays
the leading role.
“All the time, the woman is in the kitchen, or in the garden
performing back-breaking manual work. All she thinks of is feeding her
family, taking care of the children, and obeying the husband-
especially for those married under dowry customs. All this has left
women behind, and has not been good for Mwanza,” says Mponda Banda.
Mponda Banda still hopes for the better, however. He takes comfort
from the Millennium Development Goals, Malawi Growth and Development
Strategy and National Gender Policy- all of which encourage women
empowerment.
He also hopes that, one day, Mwanza Central and Mwanza West (the
district’s only constituencies) will have women at the top. However,
Mponda Banda urges people not to confuse gender activism with
feminism, saying gender activism is all about women and men working
alongside each other.
“In other words, it means that where there is a man, a woman should
be. This can be achieved by analyzing the needs of people involved,
and channeling more resources towards the disadvantaged (equity).”
But there is a danger for Malawi; the country only has two chances to
meet the SADC 2015 Gender Protocol targets: Local Government Elections
slated for 2011, and the 2014 presidential and Parliamentary
Elections.
It is Malawi’s most challenging task.
The Mwanza woman’s experience is one of a survivor who has never flourished.
It is one painful realization to have come home to gender activists in
the district, prompting them to ask the tough, immoral question:
Should we bank our hopes on disaster, and reap from the cup of
catastrophe?
National disasters have done it elsewhere in Africa- call it the
unintended benefit of a bad experience- and tilted life in favour of
the long-suppressed woman. In Rwanda, for instance, the death of more
men than women in that country’s darkest period of civil war opened a
plethora of opportunity for women that others turned to the roads,
truck driving; many more chose the mechanical and electric engineering
path, among others- tasks hither to reserved for men.
For Emma Kaliya, chairperson for NGO-Gender Support Network (NGO-GCN),
Malawi needs more of ink and paper (with which to formulate requisite
gender empowerment policies and protocols) than the smoking gun or
astray arrow to win the woman’s right place in society.
“Implementation of gender policies holds the key to Malawi’s success,
along with the realization that men have an equal role to play. Gender
is about both men and women,” says Kaliya.
It may be slow, and painful at times, but the destination is clear,
she says. This slow pace down the women empowerment mile is clear in a
Southern African Development Community (SADC) Gender Protocol 2010
Barometer for Malawi, compiled by Kaliya herself through the Malawi
Human Rights Resource Centre.
SADC set aside 28 targets- among them, constitutional and legal
rights; economic empowerment; governance, in terms of both
representation and participation; education and training; Gender-based
violence; peace building; health, HIV and AIDS; media, Information,
Communication and Technology- to be met by 2015.
So far, Malawi has sent out mixed signals. The country scored 57 per
cent in this year’s SADC Gender Protocol Barometer, points slightly
higher than the regional average of 54 per cent.
The good part is that the country has been lauded by the regional body
for coming closer to meeting education and training targets. A score
of eight out of 10 is a mark too high for other SADC member states; a
feat repeated in the target area of governance, where Malawi’s
performance in improving women’s roles in political processes is
matched by a handful other countries.
But that is all there is to Malawi’s walk towards women empowerment as
the country remains far much behind in meeting targets for increased
productive resources, employment and economic empowerment. Scores
ranging from two to six are a smack in gender activists’ faces.
“We need to renew our commitment,” she adds.
But gender activism does not end at putting in place strategic
policies, and renewing commitment. It means much more than that, chips
in Loyce Kachepa, Mwanza District Coordinator for Women’s Legal
Resources Centre (WOLREC).
The path of WOLREC’s efforts in Mwanza- and such districts as Salima,
Zomba, Neno, Mangochi, Mzuzu and Balaka- is always strewn with
Malawi’s other common challenges: high poverty levels, estimated by
the SADC Barometer at 65.3 per cent of the 13 million-plus population;
a less impressive adult literacy rate of 62 per cent, with fewer women
than men able to read; impoverished female-headed households, where 34
per cent of households are female-headed.
Experience has shown that female-headed households tend to be poorer
due to gender disparities in education, resources and access to
opportunities, points buttressed by the 2006 HIV.VAW Survey Report.
“We must look beyond mere activism and inculcate the spirit of a
rights-based approach to development. After all, Section 30 of the
Malawi Constitution makes it clear that everyone, including women, is
entitled to development. It is high time people started demanding
development, instead of being over-grateful when public officials due
their rightful role: bringing social-economic development,” says
Kachepa.
A rights-based approach is the sure way women could begin to view such
efforts as the 50:50 Women Empowerment campaign as repayment of a
public debt policymakers have defaulted on for many years, she adds.
“Women deserve to be in decision-making positions; it is not something
up for discussion, it is a right.”
It is this kind of boldness that forces Maggie Sundu, Gender Desk
Officer at the Association for Progressive Women (APW) in Mwanza, to
declare that (in the spirit of the 50:50 campaign) there is but only
one ‘political party’ in Malawi.
“And such a political party is the woman; the Malawian woman.”
Sundu says this is the reason NGOs have been campaigning for the
woman’s vote in either Presidential, Parliamentary and Local
Government elections. The Democratic Progressive Party, United
Democratic Front, Malawi Forum for Unity and Development, People’s
Transformation Party, Malawi Congress Party, Malawi Democratic Union,
Malawi Democratic Party may be there in the wards and constituencies,
yes; but when there is a lonely woman fighting for a political slot,
the woman is the political party.
This is a point that has pitted gender activist against gender
insensitive political parties.
Noel Msiska, acting executive director for APW remembers going to
Rumphi in the Northern region prior to the 2009 Parliamentary
elections.
“One political party sent emissaries to ask us the question: ‘which
political party is this?’. We said we were fighting for the promotion
of women, but members of most political parties got none of it. The
Malawian woman deserves better,” says Msiska.
Of all the places in Malawi, Mwanza district qualifies for one that
has kept the woman in the kitchen much longer than necessary. While
the country has been moving slowly, but upwardly, towards empowering
the local woman (in the 1994 General Elections, 10 women Members of
Parliament made it to the August House; in 1999, 18 women; 2004, 26;
and 2009, 42 women), Mwanza is yet to have a female councilor.
Yet, during the 2000 Local Government Elections, the Southern (where
Mwanza is) and Central region scored higher (at 30 per cent women
representation) and the Northern region lower, at 10 per cent, the
Mwanza woman was totally counted out.
Phillip Mponda Banda, District Community Development Officer- a
position falling under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Community
Development- has a clear picture of the problem.
The Mwanza man, says Mponda Banda, has so many ways of building
self-confidence, esteem and asserting himself in the largely male
chauvinistic society.
Take, for instance, the bicycle he uses to ferry charcoal or people at
Mwanza Central District. When he uses the bicycle to eke a living, he
has so many people (the passenger) to talk to, and this builds his
confidence.
Other men take to Bawo, where politics, social and economic talk
dominates discourse. At the football pitch, it is not only goals he
talks of; he often indulges in political and general leadership
debate.
During political campaigns, in church meetings: the Mwanza man plays
the leading role.
“All the time, the woman is in the kitchen, or in the garden
performing back-breaking manual work. All she thinks of is feeding her
family, taking care of the children, and obeying the husband-
especially for those married under dowry customs. All this has left
women behind, and has not been good for Mwanza,” says Mponda Banda.
Mponda Banda still hopes for the better, however. He takes comfort
from the Millennium Development Goals, Malawi Growth and Development
Strategy and National Gender Policy- all of which encourage women
empowerment.
He also hopes that, one day, Mwanza Central and Mwanza West (the
district’s only constituencies) will have women at the top. However,
Mponda Banda urges people not to confuse gender activism with
feminism, saying gender activism is all about women and men working
alongside each other.
“In other words, it means that where there is a man, a woman should
be. This can be achieved by analyzing the needs of people involved,
and channeling more resources towards the disadvantaged (equity).”
But there is a danger for Malawi; the country only has two chances to
meet the SADC 2015 Gender Protocol targets: Local Government Elections
slated for 2011, and the 2014 presidential and Parliamentary
Elections.
It is Malawi’s most challenging task.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Professor Peter Arthur Mutharika is Malawi's next president
Zachimalawi is pleased to predict that proposed Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Presidential candidate, Professor Peter Arthur Mutharika, will become Malawi's next president in 2014, after the expiry of elder brother, Bingu's, constitutional two terms in office.
This was revealed to Zachimalawi two months ago in a dream, a dream that re-appeared to re-assert its authenticity last (Monday) night, January 10, 2011, around 2 o'crock in the morning.
It is the first time 'spiritual' forces have intervened on the question on Peter's candidacy in 2014, putting to rest fears and optimism that the professor could as well be on the road to the New State House.
The most perculiar thing about both dreams- which confirmed that Peter is set to become Malawi's next president- is the proposed DPP Presidential candidate carried this Blogger (in the dream) from one corner of the Town Hall (Victoria) Hall in Blantyre to another, and handed over this bewildered Blogger in the hands of Government Minister Anna Kachikho- who received me (just as Peter) smiling.
That means the Blogger is set to become a Minister (it was not clear which one) in Professor Peter Mutharika's government after 2014 (it was not specified when).
Zachimalawi thus declared, without fear of contradiction, that Peter will become Malawi's next president (come what may), and that he will soon declare his interest to stand for the ruling DPP. His current claims to the contrary (that it's only DPP zealots forcing him to stand, and that he has not made up his mind) are all part of the game called politics.
Zachimalawi also wishes to declare that- because the heavens have declared their support for Peter)- this Blog will cease to exist if this Zachimalawi prediction (call it prophecy) does not come to pass.
Surely, surely, Professor Peter Mutharika is Malawi's next president after 2014.
I don't know what that means for opposition political parties.
We wish Peter Mutharika good luck as he positions himself to become the country's next head of state. He will become the first president to take over from a brother!
Just to buttress this point. Zachimalawi has had five dreams the past six months (some of them good, some painful) and they all happened. One of the dreams was the source of my sadness the whole month of December 2010. In that dream, I cried that such a thing (which is of a personal nature) should not happen, but it happened on December 4.
However, it is a previlege to know of things that are to happen in future. And one such thing is Professor Peter Arthur Mutharika's ascention to the greatest seat in the land.
Zachimalawi takes no sides; Zachimalawi is but a messenger.
The winds will come from the East for Peter Mutharika, and ferry him to the South East, to his Presidential seat.
Zachimalawi has said so..
Tell African leaders: stay the course of ensuring MDG 2 without de-funding higher education
Targeting: Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (President of the Republic and Head of State of Liberia), Mamadou Tandja (Président de la République du Niger et Chef de l’Etat), King Mswati III (King of Swaziland), see more...Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (President of the Republic and Head of State of Liberia), Mamadou Tandja (Président de la République du Niger et Chef de l’Etat), King Mswati III (King of Swaziland), Abdoulaye Wade (Président de la République du Sénégal), Colonel Muammar Gaddafi (Leader of the Great 1st September Revolution of the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya ), Paul Kagame (Président de la République Rwandaise), José Eduardo dos Santos (Presidente da República de Angola), Laurent Gbagbo (Président de la République de Côte d’Ivoire), Mohamed Abdelaziz (Président de la République Arabe Sahraouie Démocratique), Joseph Kabila (Président de la République Démocratique du Congo), Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (President of the Republic of Uganda), Pedro Verona Rodrigues Pires (Presidente da República de Cabo Verde), Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (Président de la République Tunisienne), Dr. Fradique Bandeira Melo de Menezes (Presidente da República de São Tomé e PrÃncipe), Omar Hassan Ahmed Elbashir (President of the Republic of The Sudan), Girma Woldegiorgis (President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia), Isaias Afwerki (President of the State of Eritrea), Rupiah Bwezani Banda (President of the Republic of Zambia), Denis Sassou-Nguesso (Président de la République du Congo), Amadou Toumani Touré (Président de la République du Mali), King Letsie III (King of Lesotho), Mwai Kibaki (President of the Republic of Kenya), Mohammed Hosny Mubarak (President of the Arab Republic of Egypt ), Pierre Nkurunziza (Président de la République du Burundi), Blaise Compaoré (Président du Burkina Faso, Président du Conseil des Ministres), François Bozizé (Président de la République Centrafricaine), Idriss Deby (Président de la République du Chad), Bingu Wa Mutharika (President of the Republic of Malawi), Abdelaziz Bouteflika (Président de la République Algérienne Démocratique et Populaire), Armando EmÃlio Guebuza (Presidente da República de Moçambique), Paul Biya (Président de la République du Cameroun), Hifikepunye Pohamba (President of the Republic of Namibia), Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh (Head of State of the Republic of The Gambia), Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe (Président de la République Togolaise), Robert Gabriel Mugabe (President of the Republic of Zimbabwe), and Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (Président et Chef d’Etat de la République de Guinée Equatoriale )
Started by: IDUKA CORPORATION
“Contrary to the conventional wisdom that basic education is sufficient for African development, higher education builds the intellectual capital required for sustainable development.” — Suzanne Grant Lewis, Partnership for Higher Education in Africa
African Leaders need to know that their constituents care about education and support their commitment to the Millennium Development Goal (MDG 2) of achieving universal primary education for all by 2015. However, that cannot happen at the expense of higher education.
Rwanda’s recent decision to reallocate a large percentage of its higher education budget to the primary education sector is not the model to follow if we are serious about accommodating the newly enrolled primary school aged children, eradicating poverty and unleashing Africa’s full potential.
According to the UNESCO, a total of 1.2 million additional teachers are needed in the region to reach the internationally agreed goal of getting all children into primary school by 2015. Without continuing investment in higher education we will not be able to train these new teachers and ensure that, by 2015, all children have access to and complete primary education that is free, compulsory and of good quality.
Adding to the pressure is the impact of the global financial crisis that is forcing many poor countries to make further cuts to higher education. The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) reported earlier this month that “Mozambique’s education sector, which has made remarkable progress over the past 10 years, narrowly avoided having to cut 20% of its education funding and reduce by half its new school building programme following a last minute and much welcomed bail-out by the World Bank which provided $56 million.”
If we are to meet the MDG 2, we must stand up against drastic money-saving measures, including enlarging classes, closing schools, laying off teachers, and imposing further cuts to higher education.
You can help protect and revitalize higher education in Africa! Ask African leaders to strengthen higher education by signing this petition now. We will deliver this petition to the: Heads of State of the African Union, AU Chairperson, AUC Chairperson, AU Human Resources, Science and Technology Commissioner, and AU Head of Education Division on January 30-31, 2011 at the 16th Assembly of Heads of State and Government to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
CALL TO ACTION: Spread the word far and wide! Make sure to post a link on your social network sites by clicking on the Facebook and Twitter buttons under "Recruit Supporters". It is also important that you click on the Email button to send this forward action alert to your friends, family members and colleagues.
Started by: IDUKA CORPORATION
“Contrary to the conventional wisdom that basic education is sufficient for African development, higher education builds the intellectual capital required for sustainable development.” — Suzanne Grant Lewis, Partnership for Higher Education in Africa
African Leaders need to know that their constituents care about education and support their commitment to the Millennium Development Goal (MDG 2) of achieving universal primary education for all by 2015. However, that cannot happen at the expense of higher education.
Rwanda’s recent decision to reallocate a large percentage of its higher education budget to the primary education sector is not the model to follow if we are serious about accommodating the newly enrolled primary school aged children, eradicating poverty and unleashing Africa’s full potential.
According to the UNESCO, a total of 1.2 million additional teachers are needed in the region to reach the internationally agreed goal of getting all children into primary school by 2015. Without continuing investment in higher education we will not be able to train these new teachers and ensure that, by 2015, all children have access to and complete primary education that is free, compulsory and of good quality.
Adding to the pressure is the impact of the global financial crisis that is forcing many poor countries to make further cuts to higher education. The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) reported earlier this month that “Mozambique’s education sector, which has made remarkable progress over the past 10 years, narrowly avoided having to cut 20% of its education funding and reduce by half its new school building programme following a last minute and much welcomed bail-out by the World Bank which provided $56 million.”
If we are to meet the MDG 2, we must stand up against drastic money-saving measures, including enlarging classes, closing schools, laying off teachers, and imposing further cuts to higher education.
You can help protect and revitalize higher education in Africa! Ask African leaders to strengthen higher education by signing this petition now. We will deliver this petition to the: Heads of State of the African Union, AU Chairperson, AUC Chairperson, AU Human Resources, Science and Technology Commissioner, and AU Head of Education Division on January 30-31, 2011 at the 16th Assembly of Heads of State and Government to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
CALL TO ACTION: Spread the word far and wide! Make sure to post a link on your social network sites by clicking on the Facebook and Twitter buttons under "Recruit Supporters". It is also important that you click on the Email button to send this forward action alert to your friends, family members and colleagues.
Is Symon Vuwa Kaunda ready to go to battle with ministry officials?
How are you Hon. Symon Vuwa Kaunda?
Minister of Information and Civic Education, Symon Vuwa Kaunda; Claims his ministry has some 'rotten' apples.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Malawi is fine
The keep are still smiling, too.
But many things, meaning commodities, are crimbing the mountain trees. Don't know what to expect this year.
Really.
But many things, meaning commodities, are crimbing the mountain trees. Don't know what to expect this year.
Really.
Tend My Flock
If you ask a Christian leader why he does not speak out on Islam, you get some version of: My duty is to tend to my flock, to help them become better Christians. My job is not to oppose Islam.
What if a Christian leader actually took the advice to tend to his flock? Start with the image of tending the flock. This is a Christian image of Christ tending to the flock, the church, a warm pastoral image of lambs and no violence. Jesus is the Good Shepherd.
There is a common abbreviation, WWJD, what would Jesus do? This should be a living question in a Christian's mind. An even more important question is: What did Jesus do? It turns out that we have detailed accounting of Jesus debating and criticizing religious leaders. Even a causal observation of the gospel accountings shows two things. Jesus knew more about the subject under debate than anyone in the room. He also stood up in public and private and confronted error, even against leadership.
What would it mean if a Christian leader tried to follow Christ's example of knowing the subject? It would mean that the leader would know the Koran and the Sunna of Mohammed. He would be able to comment on the great themes of the Koran and know it as a story. He would know the Sira, the life of Mohammed, and have detailed knowledge of the Hadith. He would know the history of the Christian dhimmi. He would know what happened to the Seven Churches of Asia mentioned in Revelation. He would know how Egypt, Turkey, North Africa, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon all went from being Christian to Islamic. This is not difficult work for a scholar. It can be done in six months with present books. Just reading Mark Durie and Bat Ye'or's The Third Choice, would give them a running start. He would know more than 90% of all Christian leaders.
Once you get your knowledge, you need one more quality, courage. A leader would stand in public and discuss the truth of the facts of Islam. According to political correctness and multiculturalism, that would not be nice, since someone might disapprove or become upset. Nice people do not confront others. That is not nice. The modern Christian prefers the Gospel of Nice to the Gospel of Christ. As a result of the Gospel of Nice, the Christian leader does not need courage.
Does tending the flock include being able to give fact-based advice to the Christian woman who comes to him and asks if it all right to marry a Muslim? Tending the flock would mean knowing the doctrine of wife-beating found in the Sharia, Koran and Hadith. The nice thing to do is saying, "Sure marry the Muslim. We worship the same god." That is nice, but it is a lie. That nice lie is the one that many shepherds have given their flock.
Tending the flock would mean being able to teach a Christian who is flirting with Islam the truth about Islamic doctrine. But if the leader is ignorant, how can they refute Islamic arguments for the Christian to convert?
What if the flock extended beyond the limits of the boundaries of the church building? Tending the flock would include the suffering of Christians in Africa and the Middle East. A good Shepherd would tell of the murder, rape and abuse perpetrated by Islam to Christians on a daily basis.
Would the idea of a larger flock mean inviting persecuted Christians to speak to the congregation? Should the persecuted be recognized and prayed for at church? The current nice policy is to never mention the martyrs or the oppression of the Christians in Muslim countries.
The Black Church is hemorrhaging young males to Islam. If tending the flock meant seeing the flock large enough to include the black church, then a true Shepherd would be able to give guidance to the black leaders and educate them about the cruel Islamic doctrine of slavery still in existence. Tending the flock would include the story of Mohammed as a retail and wholesale slave trader, a man who owned white slaves, Arab slaves, black slaves, and sex slaves. The wise Shepherd would tell the story of how Islam enslaved a million white Christians and murdered 120 million Africans in the process of running the Islamic slave trade on the Mediterranean coast, the east and west coast of Africa. Of course, talking about Islam and slavery is not nice. And besides, it would marginalize all that white guilt about slavery in America. The Christian leader can bemoan that history and wallow in guilt, since that is considered nice. But to talk about the 1400 year old Islamic slave trade active in Africa today would require both knowledge and courage, and that is not nice.
A Christian leader would be able to see that the Great Commission of preaching the gospel would include converting Muslims to Christianity, increasing their flock. Preaching the Gospel to Muslims may be in the Gospel of Christ, but it is excluded from the Gospel of Nice. As a result, Christian leaders avoid the Great Commission when it comes to Islam in the West.
We will never defeat Political Islam as long as our Christian leaders see their job as being nice. Some of Islam's biggest supporters are our ignorant religious leaders. Although this article has focused on Christian leaders, let be a public record that Christian leaders are ahead of Jewish leadership. If Christian leadership is tragic, then Jewish leadership is pathetic.
A piece of advice to Christian leaders: be a real shepherd, don't just be nurturing and caring, but be a defender of the flock as well. Stop being nice. Be like the Good Shepherd, be wise, and be courageous.
What if a Christian leader actually took the advice to tend to his flock? Start with the image of tending the flock. This is a Christian image of Christ tending to the flock, the church, a warm pastoral image of lambs and no violence. Jesus is the Good Shepherd.
There is a common abbreviation, WWJD, what would Jesus do? This should be a living question in a Christian's mind. An even more important question is: What did Jesus do? It turns out that we have detailed accounting of Jesus debating and criticizing religious leaders. Even a causal observation of the gospel accountings shows two things. Jesus knew more about the subject under debate than anyone in the room. He also stood up in public and private and confronted error, even against leadership.
What would it mean if a Christian leader tried to follow Christ's example of knowing the subject? It would mean that the leader would know the Koran and the Sunna of Mohammed. He would be able to comment on the great themes of the Koran and know it as a story. He would know the Sira, the life of Mohammed, and have detailed knowledge of the Hadith. He would know the history of the Christian dhimmi. He would know what happened to the Seven Churches of Asia mentioned in Revelation. He would know how Egypt, Turkey, North Africa, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon all went from being Christian to Islamic. This is not difficult work for a scholar. It can be done in six months with present books. Just reading Mark Durie and Bat Ye'or's The Third Choice, would give them a running start. He would know more than 90% of all Christian leaders.
Once you get your knowledge, you need one more quality, courage. A leader would stand in public and discuss the truth of the facts of Islam. According to political correctness and multiculturalism, that would not be nice, since someone might disapprove or become upset. Nice people do not confront others. That is not nice. The modern Christian prefers the Gospel of Nice to the Gospel of Christ. As a result of the Gospel of Nice, the Christian leader does not need courage.
Does tending the flock include being able to give fact-based advice to the Christian woman who comes to him and asks if it all right to marry a Muslim? Tending the flock would mean knowing the doctrine of wife-beating found in the Sharia, Koran and Hadith. The nice thing to do is saying, "Sure marry the Muslim. We worship the same god." That is nice, but it is a lie. That nice lie is the one that many shepherds have given their flock.
Tending the flock would mean being able to teach a Christian who is flirting with Islam the truth about Islamic doctrine. But if the leader is ignorant, how can they refute Islamic arguments for the Christian to convert?
What if the flock extended beyond the limits of the boundaries of the church building? Tending the flock would include the suffering of Christians in Africa and the Middle East. A good Shepherd would tell of the murder, rape and abuse perpetrated by Islam to Christians on a daily basis.
Would the idea of a larger flock mean inviting persecuted Christians to speak to the congregation? Should the persecuted be recognized and prayed for at church? The current nice policy is to never mention the martyrs or the oppression of the Christians in Muslim countries.
The Black Church is hemorrhaging young males to Islam. If tending the flock meant seeing the flock large enough to include the black church, then a true Shepherd would be able to give guidance to the black leaders and educate them about the cruel Islamic doctrine of slavery still in existence. Tending the flock would include the story of Mohammed as a retail and wholesale slave trader, a man who owned white slaves, Arab slaves, black slaves, and sex slaves. The wise Shepherd would tell the story of how Islam enslaved a million white Christians and murdered 120 million Africans in the process of running the Islamic slave trade on the Mediterranean coast, the east and west coast of Africa. Of course, talking about Islam and slavery is not nice. And besides, it would marginalize all that white guilt about slavery in America. The Christian leader can bemoan that history and wallow in guilt, since that is considered nice. But to talk about the 1400 year old Islamic slave trade active in Africa today would require both knowledge and courage, and that is not nice.
A Christian leader would be able to see that the Great Commission of preaching the gospel would include converting Muslims to Christianity, increasing their flock. Preaching the Gospel to Muslims may be in the Gospel of Christ, but it is excluded from the Gospel of Nice. As a result, Christian leaders avoid the Great Commission when it comes to Islam in the West.
We will never defeat Political Islam as long as our Christian leaders see their job as being nice. Some of Islam's biggest supporters are our ignorant religious leaders. Although this article has focused on Christian leaders, let be a public record that Christian leaders are ahead of Jewish leadership. If Christian leadership is tragic, then Jewish leadership is pathetic.
A piece of advice to Christian leaders: be a real shepherd, don't just be nurturing and caring, but be a defender of the flock as well. Stop being nice. Be like the Good Shepherd, be wise, and be courageous.
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