WASHINGTON -- A year after the Department of Homeland Security stopped deportations to Haiti for humanitarian reasons, the agency is being urged back off its recent resumption of deportations on the grounds that civil unrest, cholera and slow earthquake recovery make Haiti too dangerous.
The Egyptian uprising has dominated the headlines in Israel over the past weeks.
As anti-government demonstrators continued to press for the removal of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak Feb. 4, NCR spoke with Adam Keller, a founding member of the Israeli peace organization Gush Shalom and editor of The Other Side, a bi-monthly newsletter documenting the struggle for Israeli/Palestinian peace.
VIEWPOINT
“[The Haitians] got together and swore a pact to the devil ... ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other.”
When I heard Pat Robertson quoted in the news immediately following Haiti’s Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake, I imagined his theology to be an extreme anomaly, akin to Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church and its “God hates fags” campaign. Little did I suspect that I would be in Haiti three months later, working side by side with an American missionary who shared Robertson’s perspective.
Southern Sudan has voted to secede from the northern part of the country, an official tally of votes for the historic Jan. 9-15 vote is expected to reveal today.
Final results for the vote are due this afternoon. Christian S.N. Lewis was in the country during the vote as part of a reporting trip to Africa. She filed this report for NCR two weeks ago, when the results of the election were still unofficial.
PERTH, Australia -- Australia's Catholic bishops praised the Australian and Afghanistan governments for signing a deal they hope will be "a shift away from ineffective and cruel policies of deterrence to control forced migration."
The two governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding Jan. 17 with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
In a Feb. 4 statement, the Australian bishops' Migrant and Refugee Office expressed the hope that the agreement represents "a more proactive approach which addresses the underlying issue of war and instability in Afghanistan."
The bishops said that people smuggling activities cannot be controlled by returning unsuccessful asylum seekers to Afghanistan.
"The message is lost on people who are desperate and have no other choice," the statement said, and urged the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Chris Bowen to guarantee "beyond doubt" that those who are returned to Afghanistan will be protected from violence and persecution.
"Australia is paving the way for the rest of the international community to start sending refugees back to Afghanistan. To do so would likely escalate the situation," the statement said.
ROME -- Christians and Muslims are involved together in the democracy and reform movements bubbling up around the Middle East and members of both communities will gain from their success and suffer if they are violently suppressed, said a leading Lebanese Muslim scholar.
With demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt, simmering unrest in Yemen and government changes in Lebanon, "I am both worried and hopeful," said Muhammad al-Sammak, adviser to the chief mufti of Lebanon and secretary general of Lebanon's Christian-Muslim Committee for Dialogue.
Al-Sammak, whom Pope Benedict XVI invited to speak to the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East in October, met with journalists Feb. 4 at the Rome headquarters of the Community of Sant'Egidio, a lay organization active in interreligious dialogue for peace.
"It is true that the situation of Christians in the Middle East is not good," al-Sammak said, adding that the region's governments must do more to protect the religious minorities in their midst.
Moroug Badawy, a 24-year old graduate student of engineering, lives in the Egyptian city of Alexandria with her husband, six-month-old son, and their extended family.
NCR spoke with her Wednesday, shortly after the mostly peaceful demonstrations across Egypt devolved into violence.
Even with the recent outbreak of violence on the streets of Cairo, demonstrators calling for the removal of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will “not be silenced,” says Philip Rizk, a filmmaker and blogger who has been assisting foreign journalists in their coverage of the unrest.
Rizk, who has been working with a Swiss TV crew, spoke to NCR today after he had been holed up in an office for fear of his safety.
Following is NCR's interview with Rizk, which caught him recovering from the events of the day and looking ahead to tomorrow, which protesters have set as the deadline for Mubarak to step down.
The conversation has been edited for clarity.
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NCR: Can you tell me what’s happening to you? Why do you think protestors came to your door?
On the ninth day of the uprising in Egypt, NCR spoke with Husam el Nounou -- public relations coordinator for the Gaza Community Mental Health Project and a human rights activist living in Gaza City -- and asked for his views on the unrest in the country next door.
As reports came in that President Obama today asked Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak through diplomatic channels to step aside, NCR spoke with Gene Sharp, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and renowned scholar of nonviolent struggle.
Following is that interview -- which covered the origins of power, the vulnerabilities of dictatorships, and important signs coming from the Egyptian military. The conversation has been edited for length.
For an interview Claire Schaeffer-Duffy had with Egyptian expert John Esposito yesterday, see: Egyptian uprising 'far beyond what people expected'.
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NCR: Egypt is described as a security state, one in which the government relies heavily on its security apparatus for stability and legitimacy. These are not exactly ideal conditions for popular resistance. How could something like what we are witnessing in Liberation Square come about under a regime that has such a strong security apparatus?
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