Kuwait plans to build synagogue

The Britain-based architect Eric Kuhne has announced plans to build a "City of Silk" in Kuwait as the country's own take on the historical Silk Road. The planned city is to lie on the northern shore of Kuwait Bay (most urban development in Kuwait so far has been concentrated to the south of the bay), and is to be 200 sq. km in size. According to Kuhne, the City of Silk is "the largest single real estate development in the Middle East."

In the commercial section of the city, which is to be crisscrossed with canals, there are plans to build a 1,001-m tall tower recalling the One Thousand and One Nights. At the top levels of the tower, there are plans to build three side-by-side houses of worship: a mosque, a church and a synagogue. The idea behind the move is to highlight the "unity" of the monotheistic religions (Arab Times).

It's great news if freedom of worship is to be increased in Kuwait, but I still wonder how the opening of a synagogue would play out, especially if there's yet another humanitarian disaster in Palestine around the time when it is inaugurated.

US political scientists deny anti-Semitism accusation

John Mearsheimer, of the University of Chicago, and Stephen Walt, of Harvard University, who recently co-wrote a book entitled The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, have become the object of a storm of criticism. Their book alleges that US policy on the Middle East is, in many ways, shaped by a lobby that represents right-wing Israeli interests. They are careful not to equate this lobby with American Jews in general.

Nevertheless, Abraham Foxman, the director of the Anti-Defamation League, has accused Mearsheimer and Walt of spreading "classic anti-Semitic canards". Indeed, so incensed is Foxman by the arguments presented in The Israeli Lobby, that he has written his own book, The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control, as a rebuttal.

According to Walt, "Reasonable people can disagree and one of the reasons we want to have a discussion is to get issues out in the open so people can talk about them." The historian Tony Judt, while disagreeing with some aspects of the book, has praised the authors for what he called their "enormous act of intellectual courage" in furthering the debate on the role of the Israeli lobby in the US (BBC).

Is the Pope coming to Quebec next year?

Marc Cardinal Ouellet, the Archbishop of Quebec and the primate of the Catholic Church in Canada, is planning to organise an open-air mass attended by 100,000 people in Quebec City next year as part of it's 400-anniversary celebrations. He has asked Pope Benedict XVI to attend and preside over the mass.

Ouellet said that the mass "will certainly be the culmination of our efforts to re-evangelize Quebec". He explained that "there is a need in Quebec to reconnect with our Christian roots and to revive the Catholic identity" (Windsor Star).

I think, though, that it would take more than a mass to "re-evangelize" Quebec, which has turned into a highly secular society in the last few decades. Big events such as this one may attract the public's attention for a few days or weeks until the next major headline comes along, but if the Church is serious about reviving Quebec's Catholic identity, etc., it has to show its relevance to people's lives, something it has, to some extent at least, failed to do since the Quiet Revolution.

Lukašenka in hot water over anti-Semitic comments

Belarus and Israel are in the middle of a diplomatic spat over controversial comments made recently by Belarusian President Aliaksandr Lukašenka (Lukashenka) about Belarusian and Israeli Jews.

Speaking to Russian journalists in Minsk on 12 October, Lukašenka declared,

If you have been to Babrujsk [Babruysk], did you see what state the city is in? It was scary to walk into it, it was a pigsty. It was largely a Jewish city; you know how Jews act towards the place they live in. Take a look at Israel; I have been there, for one.... Under no circumstances do I want to hurt them, but they do not really make sure that the grass is mowed like in Moscow, among the Russians, or Belarusians. What a city it was.... We fixed it up, and we say to Israeli Jews: Come back, guys. I told them: Come back with money.

Five days later, the Israeli ambassador to Belarus, Zeev Ben-Arie, protested in no uncertain terms, saying that "in these comments, one can hear echoes of a myth that I had hoped had long been buried by the history of enlightened mankind, about poorly dressed, dirty, foul smelling Jews, an anti-Semitic myth." Ben-Arie also said he hoped that "Belarusian cities would reach the level of Israel's municipal services and social services in general."

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni accused Lukašenka of anti-Semitism, saying

It is the responsibility of world leaders to battle anti-Semitism, which rears its ugly head in various places around the world, not promote it. Anti-Semitism reflects first and foremost on the community in which it appears, and on its leaders.

On 18 October, the Belarusian ambassador to Israel, Ihar Liaščenia (Liashchenia), issued a statement reminding Israelis that "during the last five or six centuries, Jews in our region did not feel as protected and safe anywhere as they did in the Belarusian lands.... This good attitude towards Jews, which has become traditional, persists in modern Belarus as well."

Regarding Babrujsk, Liaščenia remarked that the residents of the city,

with the help of the state, were trying to host the republic-wide harvest festival in a decent manner. The renewed, rebuilt city of Babrujsk is, among other things, a homage to many generations of members of the Jewish community whose native city this was.

"Belarus and anti-Semitism are mutually exclusive ideas," Liaščenia concluded (Белорусские новости).

One can't envy poor Liaščenia his duty of restoring calm after Lukašenka's gaffe. After all, Lukašenka managed to squeeze three typical anti-Semitic stereotypes into one statement: that Jews are allegedly dirty, that they allegedly have no attachment to the place they live in, and that they are simultaneously rich. That Liaščenia managed to turn Lukašenka's words around and portray the restoration of parts of Babrujsk as a homage to Jews is a credit to his quick thinking, or that of others in his embassy or the Belarusian foreign ministry.

Liaščenia is right on one thing. Belarus has historically been a highly tolerant place towards minorities (for instance, there were mosques in operation in Belarus centuries ago, while even in modern-day Greece and Slovenia, the very existence of mosques is a controversial issue). It remains tolerant to this day. However, as Lukašenka's words show, we Belarusians (yes, I am one) have some way to go towards living up to the image of tolerance we always congratulate ourselves with.

Shi'ite flag flies over Basra police station

There are conflicting reports over the fate of a base in Basra that was recently evacuated by British forces. In theory, the Iraqi Police, which the British shared the station with, were supposed to take over control. However, there have been reports that the Mahdi Army, a Shi'ite militia, has taken over the base. Trying to refute those reports, a British Ministry of Defence spokesman said that a green Shi'ite flag was now flying over the base, rather than the black (and also Shi'ite) Mahdi Army flag (BBC).

So, even if the Iraqi Police is now in charge of the base, they are flying a sectarian flag, rather than a national one. This makes me wonder, at least for a moment, if the "Coalition of the Willing" is setting Iraq up for something like what was seen in Palestine and India in 1947-48, even if unintentionally.

Hadrian's statue found in Turkey

Archaeologists working in the ruins of the Roman city of Salagassos, located in modern Turkey, have found pieces of a huge statue of Emperor Hadrian (Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrianus, 76-138), who ruled the Roman Empire from 117 to 138. Salagassos was declared the "First City" of the Pisidia province by Hadrian, as well as a centre for the official cult of the emperor.

The recently uncovered statue would have stood 4 or 5 m tall. It was one of many statues to Hadrian erected in the city, which also had a temple dedicated to the emperor (BBC).

Indian president-elect retracts statement on the veil

Pratibha Patil, who has been elected India's first female president, recently told a group of Muslims that the veil had first come into use in India to protect Indian women from Mughal invaders. She retracted her comments after they drew protests (BBC).

I'm glad President-elect Patil is wise enough to have taken her words back, instead of starting out with half-hearted apologies, the way some other famous people have done in recent years after offending Muslims with ill-informed statements.

Orša holds an "Orthodox" birthday

The Belarusian city of Orša (Orsha) is currently celebrating the 940th anniversary of its founding. The celebration is entitled "An Orthodox Christian Orša" a "spiritual and educational" fair called "An Orthodox Christian Belarus". Several Orthodox parish choirs were due to perform at the Orša Centre of Culture.

The festivities, which stretch over several days, also include art exhibitions, a conference entitled "Orša in the Historico-Cultural and Religious Development of Belarus", an air show, horse rides, a Medieval reenactment, and a concert (BELTA).

The question is: why are the celebrations emphasising only one aspect of Orša's diverse religious heritage, and creating the impression that the city has been entirely Orthodox for the 940 years of its existence? What about the fact that Orša became a centre of Calvinism in the 16th century? What about the city's rich Catholic and Jewish history?

I don't know if Aliaksandr Lukašenka (Lukashenka) is personally responsible for the decision to marginalise non-Orthodox groups from Orša's celebrations, but he has certainly set the tone of the official promotion of Orthodoxy in the country, a position only a third of Belarusians agreed with in a 2002 poll (while 67% of the population is Orthodox). Interestingly enough, the President describes himself as an "Orthodox Christian atheist".

King Herod's tomb allegedly discovered

Ehud Netzer, an Israeli archaeologist based at Hebrew University, has claimed to have discovered the tomb of King Herod I (74 BCE - 4 BCE), who ruled Judaea under Roman suzerainty from 37 BCE to 4 BCE.

According to the Gospel of Matthew, Herod ordered the Massacre of the Innocents, that is, the killing of all children under two years old, in Bethlehem.

Herod also expanded the Second Jewish temple, and enlarged Jerusalem's city walls.

Although his tomb may well have been discovered, Herod's body was not found inside. It is thought to have gone missing in the 1st century CE.

The tomb allegedly belonging to Herod is on the West Bank, south of Bethlehem (BBC).

Controversial subjects avoided in British schools

A report commissioned by Lord Adonis, a junior minister in Britain's Department for Education and Skills, shows that some British schools avoid teaching historical subjects such as the Holocaust and the Crusades, for fear of generating adverse reactions among Muslim students. The British government is now planning to draw up guidelines to tackle the issue (BBC).

I think it's a shame when the fear of controversy prevents a frank discussion. If British school authorities fear that Muslim students would be offended to hear about topics such as the Holocaust, that is all the more reason to discuss these topics. If you are incapable of maintaining your calm in the face of historical evidence, chances are you are not very likely to be a productive citizen. And I thought that the major task of a school is to produce citizens who are well informed and productive.