Iraq's Christian Liquor Stores Attacked

THE NEW YORK TIMES, May 22 — In a region of the world where alcohol is mostly illegal — banned because it conflicts with the Koran — Iraq was once an oasis, The New York Times reported. But the place is drying up.

Saddam Hussein closed Basra's discos and bars in the 1990s in an attempt to burnish his image as a good Muslim, although he allowed local Christians to keep their liquor stores open.

Now those Christians are the victims of vigilante attacks by newly dominant Shiites; firebombs, shootings and warnings of worse have rained down upon Christian liquor-store owners since the fall of secular-minded Saddam, the paper noted.

“They told me, ‘If you don't close the shop in an hour, we'll destroy it.’ I closed,“ one shop owner said.

Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Gabriel Kassab of Basra has advised all 150 liquor-store owners in that city to shut down for their own safety, according to the Times.

Archbishop Kassab said harassment of non-Muslims has worsened since the war; for instance, Christian women are frequently accosted for leaving the house without Islamic garb.

French Republic Attacks Church at U.N. Meeting

CATHOLIC FAMILY AND HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTE, May 19 — The government of France, which has been officially anticlerical more or less since 1789, has weighed in against religion at the United Nations, the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute reported.

The Catholic lobbying group was stunned to hear a French delegate at a U.N. debate assert that religious — and even moral — concerns have no place in U.N. debates.

The subject at hand was abortion, specifically the application of the National Abortion Federation, a trade association of abortionists, which was applying to the U.N. for status as a nongovernmental organization. The delegate from the Holy See pointed out the federation “does not respect life. It destroys life in its budding stages, when it most needs our protection.“

Arising in outrage, the French delegate to the meeting accused the papal ambassador of injecting “moral” and “religious” criteria into proceedings of the United Nations.

Russian Orthodox Church Assumes Czarist Privileges

FORUM 18 NEWS, May 27 — The Russian Orthodox Church is taking on many of the trappings of an official state church, suggested a report by Forum 18 News out of Oslo, Norway.

“There has been a steady increase over the past seven years in concordat-style agreements between the Russian Orthodox Church and various organs of state,“ the report said.

It noted the Orthodox Church is routinely granted preferential status in prison ministries, allotted government money to rebuild some of the many churches once destroyed by the communists and designated to give talks to local police. An Orthodox chapel has even been built alongside the Ministry of Internal Affairs building in Moscow, the site reported.

Such privileges for the Orthodox are seen by some as a threat to the religious liberties of Catholics; however, they mirror the Church-state arrangements traditionally sought by popes for Western countries.