In several countries the actions of the extremist fundamentalists and the reactions on it by others triggered further reactions by Muslims.
In the predominantly Muslim country Nigeria, where Boko Haram also sows terror Muslims of the wrong following do have problems but also Christians. The government says at least 45 churches have been set on fire
in the West African nation in protests over French
cartoons lampooning Islam’s prophet.
Earlier this month a terror attack 12 Christians found their death in a church where bars
set ablaze by protesters angry about the portrayal of the Prophet
Muhammad in the French news weekly Charlie Hebdo. Amid the violent
protests that first began on Friday last week, an other 10 people found death.
Niger’s government in a statement promised that those responsible for the arson and deaths will be sought and punished.
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Looked at by Marcus Ampe from a Christian viewpoint.
De wereld bekeken vanuit een Christelijke visie door Marcus Ampe
Saturday 7 February 2015
Thursday 5 February 2015
Stemming in de Kamer over een resolutie tot erkenning van Palestina
Vandaag stemt de Kamer over een resolutie tot de erkenning van
Palestina. Oppositiepartijen Groen en SP.A dringen aan op een
voorwaardelijke erkenning. Beide linkse partijen noemen de resolutie die
nu op tafel ligt 'een zwaktebod'. Ze vallen over de voorwaarden die
opgelegd worden en vinden dat onvoldoende druk gelegd wordt op Israël.
Zowel Dirk Van der Maelen als Wouter De Vriendt schreven een opiniestuk voor Knack.be waarin ze hun reserves bij de huidige resolutie uit de doeken doen.
>Dirk Van der Maelen: 'Meerderheid heeft beslist om keuze voor Palestijnse zelfbeschikking over te laten aan Israël'
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Zowel Dirk Van der Maelen als Wouter De Vriendt schreven een opiniestuk voor Knack.be waarin ze hun reserves bij de huidige resolutie uit de doeken doen.
'De regering maakt de erkenning afhankelijk van 'de evolutie van het overleg tussen de lidstaten van de Europese Unie' en 'het bestaan van een volwaardige Palestijnse regering met gezag over het hele Palestijnse grondgebied'. Voorwaarden waaraan enkel voldaan kan worden als de Israëlische regering meewerkt.
>Dirk Van der Maelen: 'Meerderheid heeft beslist om keuze voor Palestijnse zelfbeschikking over te laten aan Israël'
+
Groen zal de N-VA een wisselmeerderheid aanbieden om samen met de oppositie over te gaan tot de onvoorwaardelijke erkenning van een onafhankelijke, Palestijnse staat. Iets waar volksnationalisten toch gevoelig aan zouden moeten zijn.'> Wouter De Vriendt: 'Groen wil wisselmeerderheid vormen met N-VA voor erkenning onafhankelijke Palestijnse staat'
Tuesday 3 February 2015
When you don't know what to do and hate yourself
Hefner Publications (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Everyone has to undergo certain afflictions, be it growing up with lots of falling down, with or without much love and heart break, gain and loss.
It can well be at certain moments that you do not like yourself, that you do not like the other, that you do not like a certain situation. Know that it are moments which can come over you, creating doubt, creating questions, making you fearful, making you not sure, sometimes even causing pain.
Each day is different and can have us feeling different, looking at things in a different way. Often the way we look at things or the way we feel things depends on the way we are willing to place ourselves in the context and how we want to relate to what is happening.
The best thing to tackle life is first getting to know yourself and making yourself prepared and willing to see and cope with the good and bad elements in yourself. Loving yourself is 'primordial'.
From Scriptures you can learn that you too are created in the image of God and as such should have qualities which the Creator has Himself also and has been willing to share with you. He has given His Word and His knowledge to share with the whole world and you can make use of it. It can strengthen you and give lots of advice to make the best out of life.
The Bible is there to be used and to fill your life with certainties on which you can build.
when you are willing to come in humbleness to the Most High, He is willing to listen to your soft voice, to your wishes, to your hopes and see your dreams. As God's only begotten son told "Knock and the door shall be opened", "Ask and it shall be given", but never forget to ask that it shall be God His will that shall come over you and fulfil your life according to His Wishes.
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Find also to read:
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Related articles
- What Does the Bible Answer? (secretstolife.com)
as absurd as it may sound, every answer to every question you have about life will come out of reading the Bible. Look closer at what I just wrote. Every question you have about life is not necessarily in the Bible but will come out of you reading the Bible. - The State of the Bible (reflectionsintheword.org)
This year’s research reveals that skepticism toward the Bible continues to rise. For the first time since tracking began, Bible skepticism is tied with Bible engagement. The number of those who are skeptical or agnostic toward the Bible—who believe that the Bible is “just another book of teachings written by men that contains stories and advice”—has nearly doubled from 10% to 19% in just three years. This is now equal to the number of people who are Bible engaged—who read the Bible at least four times a week and believe it is the actual or inspired Word of God. - Hungry For God... Starving For Time by Lori Hatcher (create-with-joy.com)
The Bible teaches – and Jesus affirmed – that man does not live on bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. In other words, we need daily spiritual nourishment from God’s Word in order to withstand the challenges and temptations that bombard us on a daily basis.
But what happens when our lives become so busy – our schedules so overcrowded – that we don’t have time to feast on God’s Word? What happens when we want to meet with God but feel we just don’t have the time?
- The Pain of Life, the Supreme Goodness of God, and the Joy of the Psalmists (tonyreinke.com)
The psalmists of the Bible found joy in the presence of God: an overwhelming sense that, wherever one found oneself, and whatever one’s circumstances, God is there — and God is good. The joy may be expressed, as the Psalms frequently enjoin, with music and dance and boisterous shouts. It may find voice in a quiet prayer of assurance: “When I awake, I am still with thee.” In any case, the psalmists repeatedly speak of discovering in the Eternal not only their provision and protection but also their heart’s delight: - American Voices: Cake Shop Accused Of Religious Discrimination For Refusing To Write Anti-Gay Slur On Bible Cake (joronomo.com)
A bakery in Arizona is facing a religious discrimination complaint after refusing to comply with a customer’s order to decorate a cake shaped like a Bible with the words “God hates gays” and an image of two men holding hands with an “X” over it. - Friday's Feature: Bible Question, Answer and Discussion (worldeventsandthebible.com)
Tuesday 27 January 2015
January 27 - 70 years ago Not an end yet to genocide
Photo of the Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, taken by a United States Army Air Force plane, August 25, 1944. Crematoria II and III are visible. For reference as to the date of the photo and what it shows, see The Case for Auschwitz by Robert Jan van Pelt, 2002, Indiana University Press, ISBN 0253340160, page 175. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Serbian 1990 War camp |
Luckily for humankind not yet any genocide took place in the form or magnitude as the German extermination camps. We luckily never saw any more such torture and horror coming over one specific race or group of people.
The Caucasian race and Germans and extreme right people should shame themselves and sink deep into the ground that their ancestors could bring such a terrible fear over one group of people. For the Jewish people, it is the largest Jewish cemetery in the world, a cemetery without graves and still many families are not sure where their ancestors found their death and are put into the ground.
HKP survivor Pearl Good points to Plagge’s name on the Wall of the Righteous at Yad Vashem |
On 27 January of 2015 many international leaders shall come together in the afternoon, going along the fortified walls, barbed wire, platforms, barracks, gallows, gas chambers and cremation ovens of the largest of the concentration camp complexes created by the Nazi German regime, which show the conditions within which the Nazi genocide took place in the former concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest in the Third Reich.
The Nazi policy of spoliation, degradation and extermination of the Jews was rooted in a racist and anti-Semitic ideology propagated by the Third Reich.
According to historical investigations, 1.5 million people, among them a great number of Jews, were systematically starved, tortured and murdered in this camp, the symbol of humanity's cruelty to its fellow human beings in the 20th century.
A few of those who saw the liberating soldiers coming closer to the camps where at that time still not sure what was going to happen with them and for sure could not count on it they would survive it. It is known that also many died in a few weeks time after coming out in the world of the living again, when they became ill of the food they ate after their liberation.
Having been many times between life and death those survivors would continuously have to live with a huge nightmare and many still find themselves today crawling on the barrack floor or through the mud, because they no longer could walk. Many of them also remember how they just kept thinking, I must survive, I must survive.
What we commemorate today should be printed in the minds of many generations to come. We may not be at ease thinking that what was unprecedented in human history, this mass killing motivated by the perverse, race-based ideology of the Nazis, who sought
to track down and kill every last Jew and any others they considered to
be inferior, would not happen again.
Humankind may have come united to overcome the Nazi menace but everywhere we see the (Neo-)Nazi spook turning up again. Today, we
see many similarities with the period coming up to the 1940ies. The economical but also political crisis's and pressure form all sides against immigrants. Not much yet seems to have changed for the minorities which everywhere often face bigotry.
We can not ignore that sectarian tensions and other forms of intolerance are on the rise. Since two years in Belgium and France we have seen a growing amount of anti-Semitic attacks. In several countries in the West it happens that Jews are being killed solely because
they are Jews.
Those who belong to Christianity should make it very clear that all people, believers, non-believers and other-believers are all created in the image God. They should react against those who torture or kill others because of different beliefs. they also should demand from their governments and from those countries where there is inequality that the rights of humans shall be respected.
Vulnerable communities around the world continue to bury
their dead while living in fear of further violence.
The mission of the United Nations was shaped by the
tragedy of the Second World War and the Holocaust. We want to see that their commitment to
protect the vulnerable, promote fundamental human rights and uphold the
freedom, dignity and worth of every person shall be worked out fully.
It is good to see that for the past decade, the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach
Programme has mobilized students and educators around the world to help them achieve these goals.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message on the occasion of
the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the
Holocaust:
From the ashes of the murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau and other death camps arose the words “Never Again” – spoken as shorthand for our collective responsibility to act in the face of genocide."The violence and bias we see every day are stark reminders of the distance still to travel in upholding human rights, preventing genocide and defending our common humanity.
We must redouble our efforts to eradicate the deep roots of hatred and intolerance. People everywhere must unite to stop the cycles of discord and build a world of inclusion and mutual respect.”
Janice Kamenir-Reznik who like many Jews who grew up in the 1950s, internalized a deep sense of responsibility to safeguard the memory of the Shoah – so that the world would understand anti-Semitism’s dangers and prevent Jewish persecution in the future.
He says:
Yet, when I heard about atrocities in faraway places like Cambodia and Rwanda, the notion that I could do something – that I should do something – never materialized in my head. My mindset shifted because of one man, Rabbi Harold Schulweis – with whom I co-founded Jewish World Watch. As he changed my perspective, Rabbi Schulweis dramatically changed my life – and saved thousands of others.How many of our generation had not heard "Plus jamais" or "Never Again". this they said already after the first World War and repeated it as if they saw the summit after the second World War.
We must confess that our industrialised world did not manage to avoid the horrors of the Holocaust to be followed by genocide after genocide, atrocity after atrocity – from Cambodia to Rwanda, from Darfur to Congo. Since 1945, 46 genocides have claimed the lives of tens of millions.
In 2004, at 80-years-old, Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis founded an organization – a movement – that has become one of America’s largest and loudest anti-genocide groups. In the decade since that Rosh Hashanah, Jewish World Watch has been at the forefront of advocacy efforts that helped to bring about pressure to end the genocide in Darfur, drive the most lethal militias out of Congo, and create broad awareness among governments and global corporations about the threat of emerging genocides around the world.
Regarded as the most influential synagogue leader of his generation led the Conservative Valley Beth Shalom (VBS) in Encino for nearly 45 years, introducing significant innovations in synagogue life while also insisting upon connecting the Jewish world with the larger community worldwide through foundations, outreach organizations and, his most successful program, developed late in his life, Jewish World Watch.
Rabbi Ed Feinstein, his friend and successor as senior rabbi at VBS said about Harold Schulweis who died in December at his home after a long struggle with heart disease, that he
"was a public intellectual who redefined what it is to be a Jew, an author and passionate orator who met injustices and suffering with action,”In 2004, Schulweis delivered a sermon at VBS on the Jewish high holidays calling for a Jewish response to genocide. He challenged the congregation:
“We took an oath, “Never again!” Was this vow to protect only Jews from
the curse of genocide? God forbid that our children and grandchildren
ask of us, ‘Where was the synagogue during Rwanda, when genocide took
place and eight hundred thousand people were slaughtered in one hundred
days?’”
Schulweis’ concern for genocide around the world, led him to reach out to the large Armenian population in his San Fernando Valley neighbourhood after his 2004 sermon at VBS on the Jewish high holidays calling for a Jewish response to genocide.
He had challenged the congregation to take an oath, “Never again!”and not only to protect Jews from the curse of genocide.
The Jewish World Watch and the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (JFR) (originally called the Institute for Righteous Acts) provides monthly financial support to some 500 aged and needy non Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. The Foundation preserves the legacy of the rescuers through its national Holocaust teacher education program.
Such education programs and us remembering what happened in the 1930-1940ies but also using those awful memories to warn those living today that we always should be at the look out to avoid such disasters coming over humankind.
Janice Kamenir-Reznik, Esq., President and Co-Founder of Jewish World Watch – a multi-faith coalition representing hundreds of thousands in the fight against genocide and mass atrocities, says:
We live during a time in grave need of Rabbi Schulweis’ message. From Congo and Sudan, from Iraq to Syria, from Burma to the Central African Republic, we are called to take the words “Never Again” and turn them into action. In his memory, let us continue to breathe life into the best of our Jewish values to create a better world.
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- Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945) (UNESCO/NHK)
- Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945) (UNESCO/NHK)
Find also to read:
- Holocaust Survivor Eva Kor Explains How to Stay Hopeful During Tough Times
The fact that I have overcome so much adversity in my life helps me to have hope during tough times. I believe if I could survive Auschwitz, if I could survive crawling on the barrack floor between life and death, I could probably survive anything. Basically that is the way we gain confidence in our ability. When we overcome one difficulty and one hardship, we can build on that when any other hardship comes along in life. I also like the fact that people who hear me speak can tune in and feel inspired. They see that I could do it, and they realize they can overcome whatever they are trying to overcome too. That is helpful to realize, that maybe each of us can help others overcome by sharing our stories. - Turning ‘never again’ into action: the legacy of Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis
- Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis, ‘Rabbi of Rabbis’ and world-renowned Jewish leader, dies at 89
- Black page 70 years Release – commemoration Auschwitz
- Zwarte bladzijde 70 jaar bevrijding – Herdenking Auschwitz
- 2012 mensenrechten rapport – 2012 Human Rights report
- Vredesweek 2012 en Responsibility to Protect (R2P)
- De Vredesweek vraagt Internationale Gemeenschap Verantwoordelijkheid te nemen
- Malaysia requires sole use of God's title for Muslims
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Related articles
- Yad Vashem to Give Keynote at UN for Holocaust Remembrance Day (israelnationalnews.com)
Chairman of Yad Vashem Avner Shalev will deliver the keynote address at the United Nations event marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 70th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The event at the UN General Assembly will take place with the participation of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Israel's President Reuven Rivlin, survivors and liberators. - Bittersweet Freedom (adl.org)
People rarely consider what happened to the anti-Semitism that was at the root of the Holocaust once the war ended. There is sometimes an assumption that anti-Semitism ended with the war or that it was greatly diminished. In fact, this is never the case when genocide occurs. The hatred and prejudice still exist, but their manifestation is not always blatantly obvious. In the case of the Holocaust, the world felt a collective sense of shame in facing the images of survivors, which was a strong inhibiting force against the blatant expression of anti-Semitism. Today, decades later and with new generations rising, the erosion of that sense of shame has become a key factor in the surge of anti-Semitism. That’s why education is more important now than ever.
After liberation, the survivors of Auschwitz were free to walk out of the camp, and were essentially on their own to make their way back to their communities and learn if their former homes and valued possessions were still there. Many of the young women who survived the camp travelled together in small groups, sometimes for long distances. Sleeping in barns, sheds or outside in the woods, they were frequent victims of violent sexual assaults from marauding soldiers, attacks from which some did not survive. They were targeted for two reasons – because they were women and because they were Jewish.
The liberation of Auschwitz is clearly a critically important event in the history of the Holocaust and one that should hold an important place in our collective memories. But we also need to be mindful that anti-Semitism did not magically disappear with the liberation of the camps or the signing of the peace treaties. Today, anti-Semitism has reached to all-time highs across Europe and our memories need to be tempered with a renewed vigilance to continue to fight anti-Semitism and all forms of prejudice, from subtle stereotypes and Holocaust “jokes” to violent hate crimes against people perpetrated - Auschwitz's lessons for Japan (japantimes.co.jp)
We also need to learn from the process of post-World War II reconciliation in Europe that eventually led to creation of the European Union. In East Asia, historical issues still cause schisms between Japan, on the one hand, and China and South Korea, on the other.
To overcome this situation, education plays an important role. The government should not shy away from teaching children the reality of Japan’s modern wars and letting them consider what lessons they should learn.
About a quarter of some 6 million Holocaust victims were killed in Auschwitz, located in what is now Oswiecim, Poland. Ninety percent of them were Jews. Other victims included Poles, Gypsies, Soviet prisoners of war, homosexuals, Jehovah’s witnesses and other people of various nationalities.
- Auschwitz survivor: Returning to camp about 'revenge' (usatoday.com)
Men and boys were placed in one line, while women and girls were led to another when they arrived at the camp in Oświęcim, Poland. Ganz was just 15 at the time.
"I asked a German soldier why we were being separated and he said, 'You've had a long journey. You need to take a shower,'" Ganz, now 86, recalls. "That's when the selection began."
- Ed Miliband on 'moment' he discovered horror of grandfather's murder in Nazi camp (dailymail.co.uk)Ed Miliband only discovered his grandfather died in a Nazi concentration camp six months ago, he revealed this morning.The Labour leader said today's Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations were 'really emotional' for him and other Jewish families affected by the genocide.He said his family had not talked much about the Holocaust growing up and had only discovered the truth about his grandfather after visiting Israel last year.
- Auschwitz survivors gather to mark 70th anniv. of liberation (panarmenian.net)
About 300 Auschwitz survivors have gathered at the site of the former Nazi death camp to mark the 70th anniversary of its liberation, BBC News reports. The commemoration will be held at the site in southern Poland where 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, were killed between 1940 and 1945. It is expected to be the last major anniversary event that survivors are able to attend in numbers.
- News story: British Embassy commemorates the International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Thessaloniki, Greece (gov.uk)
Joined by the President of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki David Saltiel, the British Ambassador John Kittmer laid a wreath on behalf of the members and observers of IHRA at a ceremony that took place at the Holocaust Memorial. Earlier on the day, representatives of the diplomatic corps in Greece received a tour at the Jewish Museum and historic sites in Thessaloniki, such as the ‘Monastiriotes’ Synagogue, the Baron Hirsch neighbourhood near the Railroad Station, where the city’s Jews were deported from to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps, and the University, the site of the old Jewish Cemetery.
Addressing an evening event that took place at Makedonia Palace Hotel, the British Ambassador said:
Each year this day people around the world commemorate a brutal crime unique in human history. We recall and mourn innocent victims who were murdered in Nazi death camps. On this International Holocaust Remembrance Day, I would like to stress the meaning of our obligation: Never to forget.’ - Auschwitz liberation anniversary raises difficult questions for local residents [Photo report] (ibtimes.co.uk)
The anniversary raises painful questions for residents of Oswiecim, the town in Poland where Nazi occupiers created one of the most relentless extermination machines in history.
How could their parents go about their daily business when such inhumanity was taking place just the other side of a barbed wire fence? How much did they know of what was going on?
"Of course people knew what was going on," said Bogumila, who lived through the occupation as a child. The mass extermination of prisoners and the incineration of thousands of bodies, she said, were no secret.
- Hundreds set to mark Holocaust Memorial Day (dorsetecho.co.uk)
A Service to mark Holocaust Memorial Day will take place in Weymouth today.
Holocaust Memorial Day is the annual day of remembrance for the victims and survivors of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur and Tibet.
- Video: Aerial video of Auschwitz-Birkenau (bbc.co.uk)
Drone video shows the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp as it is today - 70 years after it was liberated by Soviet troops. The camp in Poland is now maintained as a World Heritage Site and is visited by thousands of tourists and survivors every year.
Auschwitz was the largest camp established by the Germans during World War II. More than a million people - the vast majority of them Jews - died there between 1940, when it was built, and 1945, when it was liberated by the Soviet army.
Monday 26 January 2015
Britten: gelovig maar weinig praktiserend
BRUSSEL (KerkNet/The Tablet) – Volgens een studie in het 'Journal of Belief and Values' zijn Britten steeds minder praktiserend. Maar zij blijven wel geloven in de kernpunten van christendom, waaronder God, leven na de dood, hemel, hel en zonde. 28.6% van de ondervraagden gelooft in de hel, terwijl dat aantal in 1981 26.2% bedroeg. Het aantal mensen die geloven in leven na de dood blijft stabiel op 44%.
De studie stelt vast dat het geloof van vrouwen uitgesproken traditioneler is dan dat van mannen. Mensen met hogere opleiding zijn minder gelovig. Volgens de onderzoekers contrasteren de resultaten van de studie scherp met het dalende kerkbezoek. Zij voorzien dat het aantal praktiserenden ook de komende jaren telkens met bijna 1% blijft dalen, tot 8% van de bevolking in 2025.
De studie stelt vast dat het geloof van vrouwen uitgesproken traditioneler is dan dat van mannen. Mensen met hogere opleiding zijn minder gelovig. Volgens de onderzoekers contrasteren de resultaten van de studie scherp met het dalende kerkbezoek. Zij voorzien dat het aantal praktiserenden ook de komende jaren telkens met bijna 1% blijft dalen, tot 8% van de bevolking in 2025.
(Kerknet)
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Communiceren in verbondenheid
Map, municipality belgium Verviers (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
COMMUNICEREN IN VERBONDENHEID
Na Parijs en Verviers: een ORBIT toolkit
BRUSSEL (KerkNet/Orbit) – In tijden van terreur en angst, spraakverwarring en beeldvorming over de andere, is het belangrijk de dialoog gaande te houden. Effectief communiceren kan alleen als met rust én nuance.
Naar aanleiding van vragen na de terreurdaden in Parijs (7/1) en alles wat daarop volgde, heeft ORBIT vzw (voorheen Katholiek Multicultureel Samenwerken/KMS) een overzicht opgesteld met gespreksstof, bruikbaar in het onderwijs en vormingswerk, in politiek en maatschappelijk debat, maar ook in beleidskringen. Dit overzicht is uiteraard niet volledig. Het is onmogelijk alle interessante opinies en teksten die nu verschijnen samen te brengen. Orbit tracht een goede selectie te maken, waarbij verschillende invalshoeken aan bod komen.
Naar aanleiding van vragen na de terreurdaden in Parijs (7/1) en alles wat daarop volgde, heeft ORBIT vzw (voorheen Katholiek Multicultureel Samenwerken/KMS) een overzicht opgesteld met gespreksstof, bruikbaar in het onderwijs en vormingswerk, in politiek en maatschappelijk debat, maar ook in beleidskringen. Dit overzicht is uiteraard niet volledig. Het is onmogelijk alle interessante opinies en teksten die nu verschijnen samen te brengen. Orbit tracht een goede selectie te maken, waarbij verschillende invalshoeken aan bod komen.
(Kerknet)
Links |
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Naar het werkmateriaal |
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Recordaantaal kerkuittredingen in Duitsland
RECORDAANTAL KERKUITTREDINGEN IN DUITSLAND
BRUSSEL (KerkNet/RadVat) – In 2014 is het aantal kerkuittredingen in de Duitse katholieke en evangelische Kerk sterk gestegen. Dat blijkt uit een enqêute van Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) bij verantwoordelijken van de katholieke bisdommen en de evangelische Landeskirchen. Bij de katholieke Kerk lag het aantal kerkuittredingen zelfs hoger dan in het 'recordjaar' 2010, toen het schandaal van het seksueel misbruik in volle hevigheid uitbarstte.
Specialisten schrijven de sterke stijging toe aan de hervorming van de kerkbelasting op kapitaaldragers. Sinds januari wordt bij kapitaaldragers van banken en verzekeraars het bedrag van de kerkbelasting meteen geïnd. Vele christenen menen ten onrechte dat het een nieuwe belasting betreft. De voorzitter van de Evangelische Kerk van Duitsland (EKD), Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, zegt dat de kerken zich de vraag moeten stellen of zij hierover wel goed hebben gecommuniceerd.
Specialisten schrijven de sterke stijging toe aan de hervorming van de kerkbelasting op kapitaaldragers. Sinds januari wordt bij kapitaaldragers van banken en verzekeraars het bedrag van de kerkbelasting meteen geïnd. Vele christenen menen ten onrechte dat het een nieuwe belasting betreft. De voorzitter van de Evangelische Kerk van Duitsland (EKD), Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, zegt dat de kerken zich de vraag moeten stellen of zij hierover wel goed hebben gecommuniceerd.
(Kerknet)
Oproep tot dialoog tussen de strijdende partijen in Oost-Oekraïne door paus Franciscus
Paus Franciscus maande zondag aan tot een hervatting van de dialoog tussen de strijdende partijen in Oost-Oekraïne en het staken van elke vorm van vijandigheid. Franciscus reageerde in zijn angelustoespraak op de raketaanval op de Oost-Oekraïense havenstad Marioepol.
Gisterochtend kwamen raketten neer in een woonwijk en een mark. Enkele gebouwen vlogen in brand. Er vielen twintig vielen en meer dan tachtig gewonden. President Jatsenjoek van Oekraïne riep westerse bondgenoten en de VN-veiligheidsraad op tot actie. Rusland schendt volgens hem met de aanval gemaakte afspraken en het internationaal recht.
De paus werd vanmorgen vergezeld door een jongen en een meisje van de jongerenafdeling van de Katholieke Actie in het bisdom Rome, die vandaag haar Karavaan van de Vrede afsluit, een jaarlijkse manifestatie voor de wereldvrede.
Gisterochtend kwamen raketten neer in een woonwijk en een mark. Enkele gebouwen vlogen in brand. Er vielen twintig vielen en meer dan tachtig gewonden. President Jatsenjoek van Oekraïne riep westerse bondgenoten en de VN-veiligheidsraad op tot actie. Rusland schendt volgens hem met de aanval gemaakte afspraken en het internationaal recht.
De paus werd vanmorgen vergezeld door een jongen en een meisje van de jongerenafdeling van de Katholieke Actie in het bisdom Rome, die vandaag haar Karavaan van de Vrede afsluit, een jaarlijkse manifestatie voor de wereldvrede.
(Kerknet)
Abdelhamid Abaaoud brain of Molenbeek's network dismantled in their hideaway at Verviers
Verviers (Belgium), the "Grand'Poste" (1904/1909 - Architect: Van Hoecke). Nederlands: Verviers (België), de "Grand'Poste" (1904/1909 - Architect: Van Hoecke). Walon: Vèrvî (Bèljike), li Grand'Poste (1904/1909 - Âchitèke: Van Hoecke). (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
After one year having been in Syria it seems he is now back in Europe, but nobody seems to know where he went to after he was last seen in Greece. In any case he has earned pages in the international press, cause of his actions and the raid in Verviers last week. He has emerged as a prime suspect in what Belgian authorities say was an imminent terrorist operation thwarted by raids on Jan. 15 on an extremist hideaway in the east of Belgium and nine homes in Molenbeek, after the terrorist attacks in France on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
It is known that about 450 people left Belgium to go to fight in Syria for the Jihad and to support ISIS.
Estimates of the number of foreigners in the Islamic State, or ISIS, vary, but of the more than 31,000 fighters the C.I.A. estimated in September to be active, as many as half came from foreign countries, according to the International Center for the Study of Radicalization in London and the Soufan Group in New York. The overwhelming majority are men from Arab and other Muslim countries, drawn to jihad by religious zeal, a chance to fight the decadent West and the lure of excitement in otherwise dreary lives. But the flow of non-Muslim or non-religious recruits from the West, and their use in some of the most grisly actions, is a new and worrying phenomenon.(NYT)
For moths there where investigations going, already before the Paris attack, and as a result of the findings Belgian investigators knew that the terrorist where going to attack several police stations in Belgium and that it was time to act. Therefore on January 15 the Belgian police raided a house in the eastern city of Verviers, near the German border. The two terrorist suspects killed in that police raid were both from Molenbeek, Belgium’s second poorest area with a youth unemployment rate of 40 percent, and a place where next to the nearby Vilvoorde, lots of Muslim have found sympathy for the Islamic cause.
In Molenbeek, a Brussels district, a heavily immigrant borough with 22 mosques known to the local officials — more than four times the number of churches — could be found the origins of the network dismantled in their hideaway at Verviers.
Sunday January 25 it was also decided that the refugees who were taken in to Belgium would not be welcome again after they would have gone to fight in Syria and would loose all their rights which were freely given to them, on their return form the battlefield.
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Read more:
Belgium Confronts the Jihadist Danger Within
Being Charlie 1, Being Charlie 2, Being Charlie 3, Being Charlie 4, Being Charlie 5, Being Charlie 6,Being Charlie 7, Being Charlie 8, Being Charlie 9, Being Charlie 10, Being Charlie 11
It’s beautiful to watch the spread of #JeSuisCharlie across the world,
Where do we stand in the backdrop of Charlie Hebdo Massacre ?,
Charlie Hebdo, offensive satire and why ‘Freedom of Speech’ needs more discussion
NYTimes.com Special Series: Inside the Jihad
When Jihadists Come Home
Islamic State Praise Paris Attackers as 'Heroic Jihadists'
The Danger of Foreign JihadistsAmericans wrongly informed about situation in Europe
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- Two suspects died Thursday as counter-terror police searched a series of locations tied to people they believe were intent on launching terror operations in Belgium, officials said.
No police or civilians were hurt after suspects opened fire with automatic weapons at a location in Verviers, Belgium, Magistrate Eric Van der Sypt said. However, besides the two suspects killed, one suspect was injured, he said. - 2 dead in raid on suspected terrorist cell in Belgium (stripes.com)
- General :: RE: Police terror raids leave 2 dead belgium (911forum.org.uk)
The terror threat level in Belgium has been raised to three - the second highest, Mr Van der Sypt said.
Witnesses in Verviers reported hearing heavy gunfire for several minutes and at least three explosions.
Witness Marylou Fletcher told the BBC: "We were going back from shopping and saw the police cars. We thought there was an accident then we heard something blowing up. There were a lot of gunshots.
"My children cried. They are just terrified."
The area around the train station has been cordoned off and reports on social media say there is a heavy police presence in the town centre.
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