Bishop rejects South Sudan president’s day of prayer as a political move

Pretoria, South Africa, Jul 25, 2018 / 05:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The South African Catholic Bishops’ Conference decried Wednesday a recent series of taxi driver murders and encouraged the government to bring the criminals to justice.  

“It is clear that there is a serious problem in the Taxi Industry that needs an immediate response,” the bishops wrote July 24.

“AS [sic] the Catholic Church we implore the government, the relevant authorities and the taxi associations to destroy this demon of viciousness and slaughter.”

Rivalries between taxi associations in South Africa have occurred in the past. Reportedly, tensions develop between groups of taxi drivers aiming to access particular routes. Minibus taxis are among the country’s most popular forms of transport.

One driver was killed July 24 in Springs, 30 miles east of Johannesburg. Another was shot July 23 in Alexandra, immediately north of South Africa’s largest city.

A massacre occurred July 21, when members of Ivory Park Taxi Association from Gauteng province were attacked on the way back from a colleague’s funeral. The minibus was shot up on the R74 road between Colenso and Weenen in Kwa-Zulu Natal.

In the attack, 11 people were killed immediately and another died later at hospital, according to Times Live. Three men were also critically injured and only two men escaped unharmed.

Another driver had been killed July 19 in Johannesburg, and in Cape Town, 10 were killed in one weekend in May.

“For years now the Taxi Industry in the country has been mired in violence, resulting in killings, including the killing of the innocent people who depend on taxis for transport,” wrote the bishops.

Taxi services are a major source of transportation in South Africa, the bishops said, noting that the service “is in danger of being clouded in an aura of criminality.”

“The church believes that the government is capable of addressing the problem and uprooting it totally if it could concern itself with ruling the country, putting the lives of ordinary people on the top of their agenda.”

“It is not enough for those in power to condemn taxi violence. It is time that serious and radical measures should be put in place to make South Africa a safe place to live in.”

The bishop offered their condolences to those affected by the violence and encouraged all citizens to co-operate with the authorities.

“We convey our sincere condolences to the victims of violence and crime in the country. We invite all citizens to co-operate with the security authorities in identifying and rooting out murderers.”

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CNA Staff, May 1, 2020 / 12:09 pm (CNA).- The Turkish foreign ministry on Wednesday rejected Turkey’s inclusion in a report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, charging that the report comes from a “biased mindset”.

“The report contains baseless, unaccredited and vague allegations as in the past years while trying to portray isolated incidents as violations of religious freedoms through far-fetched accusations,” Hami Aksoy, a spokesperson for the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said April 29.

“The importance attached by Turkey to protect religious freedoms, including those of religious minorities, is expressed at the highest level by our Government officials. Our authorities make it clear that any harm to the religious freedoms of our citizens will not be tolerated,” Aksoy added.

In its 2020 report, USCIRF recommended that the State Department add Turkey, as well as 10 other countries, to a “Special Watch List” of countries where abuses of religious minorities are taking place, but not at a level as severe as in those designated as “countries of particular concern.”

The commission wrote that “religious freedom conditions in Turkey remained worrisome” in 2019, “with the perpetuation of restrictive and intrusive governmental policies on religious practice and a marked increase in incidents of vandalism and societal violence against religious minorities.”

It cited the Turkish government’s prevention of the election of board members for non-Muslim religious groups and its limitations on the election of the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople.

The report added that Alevis, a group related to Shia Islam and the country’s largest religious minority, “remained unable to gain official recognition for their gathering houses (cemevleri) as places of worship or to exempt their children from compulsory religious classes, despite European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rulings finding that these policies violated Alevis’ rights.”

According to the US commission, Turkish religious minorities “expressed concerns that governmental rhetoric and policies contributed to an increasingly hostile environment and implicitly encouraged acts of societal aggression and violence.”

The report also drew attention to the permission given for a museum, that was originally a Greek Orthodox church and later a mosque, to be reconverted into a mosque. It noted also that president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called for the same thing to happen to the Hagia Sophia, which has the same history.

USCIRF also said the Turkish government has “continued to dismiss, detain, and arrest individuals affiliated with, or accused of affiliation with, the U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, for alleged complicity in a July 2016 coup attempt or involvement in terrorist activity.”

Gülen has lived in the US since 1999, and is considered a terrorist by the Turkish government.

The Turkish foreign ministry charged that Gülen’s mention in the report “amounts to deliberately turning a blind eye” to the coup attempt, and added: “We invite the US authorities to earnestly examine the evidence we have provided” about the Gülen movement “and to engage in effective cooperation in line with the spirit of alliance in order to reveal the true nature of this terrorist organization.”

Aksoy added that the recommendation of adding Turkey to a “special watch list” for religious freedom “is a clear indication of the biased mindset behind it and the circles under whose influence it was drawn up.”

“In the report that is supposed to include global trends that threaten religious freedoms, the Commission does not mention a single word about xenophobia, Islamophobia and discrimination on religious grounds that is on the rise in the West and the US,” Aksoy stated.

“This clearly reveals that the purpose of the report is not to protect religious rights and freedoms. It is clear that the Commission, which has been accused of being anti-Muslim in the past, has drawn up this report based on its unwarranted agenda and priorities under the influence of circles that are hostile to Turkey, rather than objective criteria. We recommend the authors of this report to look in the mirror and engage in self-criticism.”

Earlier this year, Turkish authorities arrested a Syriac Orthodox priest on terrorism charges after he provided bread and water to members of a Kurdish separatist group that has been deemed illegal.

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Ismailia, Egypt, Nov 24, 2017 / 11:25 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Terrorists attacked a mosque on Egypt’s Sinai peninsula during Friday prayers, killing 235 people. The incident was condemned by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the US bishops’ conference.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the Nov. 24 attack on al-Rawda mosque in Bir al-Abed, located about 75 miles northeast of Ismailia.

Cardinal DiNardo stated that “I join with my brother bishops in unequivocally condemning the monstrous terrorist attack on innocent people at prayer in Egypt. Terrorist acts can never be justified in the name of God or any political ideology, and the fact this attack took place at a Mosque, a place of worship, is especially offensive to God.”

The Church in the US “mourns with the people of Egypt at this time of tragedy, and assures them of our prayerful solidarity,” he added.

“We join with all those of good will in prayer that these acts of terror and mass killings – these acts of grave evil – will end and will be replaced with genuine and mutual respect for the dignity of each and every person.”

The mosque, associated with Sufis – followers of a form of Islamic mysticism – was bombed and hit with gunfire. Hundreds more were wounded in the attack.

The Sinai peninsula has been the site of an Islamist insurgency since 2013, when the Egyptian military ousted President Mohamed Morsi, who was backed by the Muslim Brotherhood.

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