Notes on Church-State Affairs

 

By David W Hendon

Publication: Journal of Church and State
Author: Hendon, David W
Date published: October 1, 2010

Azerbaijan

The Nisami District Court convicted Farid Mammadov of evasion of military service even though he said that he was willing to do alternative service available under the constitution. Mammadov will appeal the judgment to the Baku Court of Appeal.

Belarus

Authorities have imposed a second fine on New Life Church in Minsk for alleged "environmental damage." The two fines are the equivalent of U.S. $89,300. The church's lawyer Sergei Lukanin said the church would not pay.

Egypt

There was an unsuccessful attempt on the life of a man who was born Muslim but converted to Christianity. Maher el-Gowhary secretly converted thirty-six years ago, but this became public in 2008. When he tried to change his religion on his identification documents, a court ruled against him. He and his daughter have sought to emigrate unsuccessfully and have sought international attention for their plight. Radicals called for attack on el-Gowhary, who also goes by the Christian name Peter Athanasius.

Iran

According to the Farsi Christian News Network, fifteen recent converts to Christianity were arrested in Masshad, Khorassan Province, on July 18, 2010. The report said that thirteen were released after signing promissory notes and posting bail.

Japan

A web site dedicated to stopping kidnapping and forced conversions of religious minorities began a petition drive asking the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission to initiate hearings in the U.S. Congress. There are charges that police refuse to help victims on the grounds that the incidents involved are only family matters or that they even collaborate in the actions.

Morocco

Morocco has expelled a number of foreign Christians in recent months, bringing attention from the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in the United States. In response to criticism the Moroccan ambassador said that all the people involved were trying to convert Moroccan Muslims, but the defenders of the expellees said that the government had failed to provide them with evidence for the charges.

Nigeria

Eight Christians were killed near the northern city of Jos on July 18, 2010. Houses and a church were also burned in Maza. The perpetrators appear to have been Muslim Fulani herdsmen.

North Korea

Asia News, a Christian publication, reported that three underground church leaders were executed by North Korea. Altogether twenty-three people appear to have been arrested in May with twenty of them being sent to a labor camp.

Pakistan

Gunmen killed two Christians accused of blasphemy as they were being taken from a courtroom to jail. A policeman was also seriously wounded. The charges were based on comments supposedly made about Mohammed in photocopied pamphlets.

Russia

Authorities took several actions against Jehovah's Witnesses. On July 9, 2010, prosecutors raided a meeting. Though prosecutors found no criminal violation, they collected information on the beliefs and activities of twenty people. In another action authorities prosecuted an eighty-five-year-old World War II veteran for producing and distributing "extremist materials." He said that his age and health would not have allowed the activities at the times specified in the charges. On July 23 the Local Religious Organization of Jehovah's Witnesses of Gorno-Atlaysk appealed a judgment of the Supreme Court of the Altay Republic to the European Court of Human Rights. The ruling declared eighteen of the Witnesses' publications "extremist." The ruling resulted in the revocation of the permit to distribute the journals. In August authorities brought charges against Maksim Kalinin, a Jehovah's Witness elder in the Volga republic of Mari El. The first conviction of a reader of Muslim theologian Said Nursi occurred on August 18. The Nishny Novgorod District Court found Ilham Isalmi guilty under the extremist laws. He was sentenced to ten months' detention, suspended for one year. During that time he will not be able to change his place of residence and must be available for contact by authorities. Pastor Artur Suleimanov was killed in the Dagestan region as he was leaving the Hosanna House of Prayer in Makhachkala. Suleimanov was a convert from Islam. A Russian businessman who runs a dairy company that employs about six thousand people told his employees that he would fire anyone who had an abortion or anyone who was "living in sin" who refused to get married. Vasily Boiko, now known as Boiko-Veliky or Vasily the Great, set a deadline of October 14, 2010, which is a Russian Orthodox holiday associated with the Virgin Mary called the Feast of the Intercession. He also blamed Russia's drought and a rash of fires on the lack of faith among Russians. A government official said Boiko's threat to his employees may violate Russian labor laws.

Turkmenistan

Authorities raided a Protestant summer camp for Protestant youth. They threatened people involved and confiscated personal Bibles.

Ukraine

The Kyiv (Kiev) administrative court rejected the application of a Muslim woman who wanted to be photographed wearing the head covering called the hijab. Susanna Ismailov, a lawyer from Bakhchisaray in the Crimea, claimed that she should have the right to do so in a democratic state.

United States

Religion and the 201 0 Election

Exit polls by the Pew Research Center in the elections of November 2 showed that voting trends among American religious groups continue to follow familiar patterns, although there were a few surprises that help to explain the GOP's gains. A majority of white Protestant voters cast ballots for Republican candidates, while "religiously unaffiliated voters" generally favored Democrats. The biggest shift in the recent election occurred among Catholics, where a majority voted Republican after having favored Democrats by double-digit margins in the past two congressional elections. Perhaps most significant are the Pew Center findings that 69 percent of white Protestants voted for Republicans in congressional district elections compared with only 29 percent who favored Democratic candidates, while religiously unaffiliated voters favored Democrats over Republicans by 66 to 32 percent. Overall, the GOP made gains among all these groups compared to the 2006 elections.

Continuing Controversies over Mosque Construction

Thirty-five cities across the United States have encountered some type of community resistance to plans by Islamic groups to construct mosques or Islamic centers. Despite these conflicts, the Associated Press reports that there are cities such as Philadelphia where planned mosque construction has proceeded with little or no protest. Some of the objections voiced to the construction projects have included concerns about noise, traffic congestion, and property values, while other cornmunity groups have cited fears over terrorism and Islamic law. Most of the cities where objections are being voiced are located in the Eastern half of the United States with a few cities in California also experiencing resistance to proposed mosque construction.

American Views of Islam

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reports that polls conducted this year show the number of respondents expressing favorable views of Islam has dropped in the last five years, but a slight majority (42 to 35 percent) say that Islam is no more likely than other religions to encourage violence. Also, a growing percentage of Americans are convinced that President Barack Obama is a Muslim, while the percentage of those believing he is a Christian has fallen. Pew reports that as of August 2010, 18 percent believe that the President is Muslim, compared with 11 percent in March 2009; there has been a 14 percent drop in the number who believe he is Christian in the same period, from 48 to 34 percent.

In a related story, the Christian Science Monitor reports that a hearing has been set for November 7 in federal court in a lawsuit filed by the father of Anwar al-Awlaki with the backing of the ACLU to determine whether the Obama administration can use lethal force against the native-born American who is a leader of AI-Qaeda in Yemen. The suit is in response to press reports that al-Awlaki is on the "kill list" of Americans deemed threats to national security. U.S. government attorneys are not responding to the "kill list" reports but claim that federal judges lack authority to overturn decisions in matters of war issued by the executive branch and that al-Awlaki's father does not possess standing sufficient to proceed with the case.

Taxpayer Standing in Establishment Clause Cases

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on November 3 in the case of Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn, et al, that concerns the right of taxpayers to bring lawsuits challenging violations of the Establishment Clause based solely on their standing as taxpaying citizens. Decisions in two recent cases have restricted rights to sue on Establishment Clause claims. In Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation (2007), which charged that certain elements of the Bush administration's Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives violate the Establishment Clause, the Court determined that citizens do not have standing to sue based simply on their identity as taxpayers when federal funds are not disbursed through specific legislative initiatives. Three years later in Solazar v. Buono, a case involving the display of a cross in the Mojave National Preserve, the federal government argued that taxpayers lack standing to sue in cases involving religious displays on federal lands; however, the Supreme Court did not rule on the issue of standing in that case.

The Winn case involves an Arizona tax credit program that allows credit for donations that go to organizations providing scholarships for students at private religious or secular schools. Taxpayers challenge the constitutionality of the program under the Establishment Clause because many of the organizations to which donations are directed provide scholarships solely to schools that are religiously affiliated. The program was initiated in 1997, and today it enables Arizona taxpayers to allocate up to five hundred dollars of their state income tax charges to a "state tuition organization," which then uses the funds to provide scholarships for private schools. The Baptist Joint Committee has filed a brief urging the Court to allow taxpayers standing to sue in such cases on the basis of Establishment Clause violations.

"Pulpit Freedom Sunday" a Misnomer

J. Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee, declared the Alliance Defense Fund's "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," an organized event on September 26 to encourage American ministers to challenge the "moral qualifications" of candidates in the November elections, a "misnomer" because it ignores the existing freedom of pastors and other religious officials to speak out on social and political issues. Walker noted that "preachers are perfectly free to interpret and apply scripture as they see fit, speak out on the great moral and ethical issues of the day, and urge good citizenship practices, such as registering to vote and voting." According to IRS regulations, however, churches may risk their tax-exempt status by telling church members how to vote. Revocation of tax-exempt status by the IRS has been rare, and some see "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" as a means of initiating a challenge to the IRS so that groups like ADF favoring unlimited political speech from the pulpit can marshal their legal resources to have a court rule against all restrictions on churches. AJl nonprofit organizations that are incorporated under 501(c)(3) status, including many hospitals, museums, libraries, and charitable organizations, operate under the same restrictions on political speech.

Sossamon v. Texas

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in a case concerning Harvey Leroy Sossamon, a prisoner in Texas who was not allowed access to a facility for worship with symbols and furnishings that he deemed necessary for the free exercise of his religion. Sossamon is basing his challenge on the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) of 2000 that was enacted to protect the religious rights of, among others, individuals in government custody. The act also seeks to protect religious freedom in the context of zoning restrictions and legislation involving landmarks.

Organizations such as American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Baptist Joint Committee, the American Jewish Committee, and the Interfaith Alliance Foundation have signed on to a brief in the case insisting on the free-exercise rights of prisoners and their right to seek damages against the state under federal law when their rights are violated.

Uzbekistan

Authorities detained and held ten Protestants for five days and confiscated some Bibles and songbooks. Meanwhile trials began for nine accused members of the Nursi Muslim movement.

Venezuela

President Hugo Chavez and Cardinal Jorge Urosa quarreled over the political direction of the country and the role of the church. Urosa criticized government failure adequately to investigate a scandal over spoiled food supplies and accused Chavez of moving the country toward a Cuban-style dictatorship. In a speech to the National Assembly, Chavez called Urosa a "troglodyte" and said that he would rather have Monsignor Mario Moronta as head of the Venezuelan Church. Urosa claimed that Chavez was unjustly mocking him in public and that Chavez's comments were unbecoming of the president. Chavez has said that Jesus would not approve of Urosa and would have him whipped. He has the government reexamining relations with the Vatican.

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