Christian Today report– Australia’s most senior Orthodox rabbi resigned this morning from two top posts in the community after a royal commission into child sex abuse heard that he called the father of three abused boys a “lunatic”.

Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant resigned as president of the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia, which is resolutely conservative on issues such as gay marriage. He also resigned as a general manager at the leading charity Jewish Care Victoria and lost his place on the Victoria Police multi-faith advisory committee.

In a text to Australian Jewish News, he had said that Zepheniah Waks, the father of 17 sons including whistleblower Manny Waks and two others who were abused, was “killing” the Chabad community.

He sent the text as Zephaniah Waks was telling the commission how his family was ostracised and bullied after detailing the abuse that was endured at Chabad’s yeshivah centre in Melbourne.

In the text, Klugant continued: “Zephania is attacking Chabad, he is a lunatic on the fringe, guilty of neglect of his own children. Where was he when all this was happening?”

Manny Waks, who has felt able to speak out because he has left the community, welcomed the resignation.

He told The Guardian: “I hope this is his first step towards educating himself about child sexual abuse and that he can contribute towards being a part of the solution to it from now on.

“But he is unfit to hold any leadership position. As he holds several high-profile positions within the Yeshivah community, I feel he should resign from them all.”

The director of the Sydney Yeshivah centre, Rabbi Yosef Feldman, also resigned last week after his evidence caused offence to child sex abuse victims and members of the Jewish community.

The commission has been investigating how schools, churches, sports clubs and government organisations responded to allegations and instances of child sexual abuse since 2013.

Eighteen months ago the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia issued a statement on child sexual abuse timed for Yom Kippur, begging forgiveness from victims and condemning cover-ups.

Source: Christian Today

Christian Today report– The United Nations Security Council on Sunday demanded Iranian-backed Houthi militia in Yemen withdraw from government institutions, called for an end to foreign interference and threatened “further steps” if the violence does not stop.

The United Nations has warned that Yemen is collapsing. Shi’ite Muslim Houthi fighters have sidelined the central government after seizing the capital Sanaa in September and expanding across Yemen, which borders oil giant Saudi Arabia.

Al Qaeda and other Sunni Muslim militants have since stepped up attacks. Yemen is home to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, one of the global network’s most active arms, which has carried out attacks abroad.

The 15-nation Security Council unanimously adopted a British- and Jordanian-drafted resolution on the crisis on Sunday.

The Gulf Cooperation Council, a six-nation bloc comprising energy-rich Gulf states, had urged the Security Council to adopt a resolution under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which allows decisions to be enforced with economic sanctions or force. The approved U.N. resolution is not under Chapter 7.

The council declared its readiness to take “further steps” if the resolution is not implemented by parties in Yemen. In November, the council imposed sanctions on Yemen’s former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and two Houthi leaders.

It “deplores actions taken by the Houthis to dissolve parliament and take over Yemen’s government institutions, including acts of violence.”

DEMAND FOR NEGOTIATIONS

It demands the Houthis engage in good faith in UN-brokered negotiations on a political settlement, withdraw their forces from government institutions, releaseYemen’s president, prime minister and other cabinet members from house arrest and stop undermining the political transition and the security of Yemen.

The Houthis started off as a revivalist group for Yemen’s Zaydi Shi’ite Muslim sect in the north of the country, before morphing over the past decade into a revolutionary movement with national ambitions, and an ally of Iran.

The resolution “calls on all member states to refrain from external interference which seeks to foment conflict and instability and instead to support the political transition.”

It “demands that all parties in Yemen, cease all armed hostilities against the people and the legitimate authorities of Yemen and relinquish the arms seized fromYemen’s military and security institutions.”

Tens of thousands of Yemenis demonstrated in several cities on Saturday against the rule of the Houthi movement as clashes between Houthis and Sunnis in a southern mountainous region left 26 dead.

The Security Council called on all parties to ensure the security of diplomats and diplomatic premises. Saudi Arabia, the United States and other western countries have closed embassies due to fears of worsening violence.

Source: Christian Today

Christian Today report– Police shot dead a 22-year-old Danish-born gunman on Sunday after he killed two people at a Copenhagen synagogue and an event promoting free speech in actions possibly inspired by an attack on the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, authorities said.

Spy chief Jens Madsen said the gunman was known to intelligence services prior to the shooting and had probably acted alone. Police said he had a record of violence, gang-related activities and weapons possession.

Two civilians – a synagogue guard and a film-maker – were killed and five police were wounded in the two separate attacks in the Danish capital on Saturday and Sunday.

Witnesses said the gunman had fired up to 40 shots at a cafe hosting a free speech event with Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who has received death threats for depicting the head of the Prophet Mohammad on a dog.

The gunman then moved on to a nearby synagogue where the guard, protecting a young girl’s confirmation, was gunned down.

On Sunday, thousands of Danes left a sea of flowers by the city’s ornate 180-year-old synagogue.

“We are a small nation and such things don’t happen here,” 28-year-old student Frederikke Baastrup said, reflecting a widespread sense of shock in a country that prides itself on its reputation for safety and social tolerance.

Police cordoned off several sections of a predominantly immigrant neighbourhood and took away several people for questioning, witnesses said.

Danish media widely reported the gunman to be . Reuters could not confirm his identity and police declined to comment.

ON ALERT SINCE PARIS ATTACKS

Danish media said El-Hussein had been jailed for stabbing a 19-year-old man in the leg on a Copenhagen train in 2013, and was freed a few weeks ago.

Danish authorities have been on alert since Islamist gunmen killed 17 people in three days of violence in Paris in January that began with an attack on weekly Charlie Hebdo, long known for its acerbic cartoons on Islam, other religions and politicians.

“Denmark and France are the same nations, feeling the same sadness but also the same will to resist, fight and defeat terrorism,” French President Francois Hollande said.

“They hit the same targets, they hit what we are, what we represent, the values of freedom, the rule of law, that all citizens, whatever their religion, should be able to enjoy.”

Madsen said the attacks appeared to have been inspired by the Paris attacks.

But police said they did not believe the suspect had received training in jihadist camps in the Middle East.

The man had two handguns on him when he was killed and the police search later found an automatic weapon that may have been used in Saturday’s attacks.

The gunman’s primary target was likely to have been the free speech event with Vilks.

Dozens of bullets were fired in quick succession, probably from an automatic weapon, according to a recording of the event obtained by Danish TV2.

Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said the attacks were terrorism but said this was not the start of a war between the West and Islam.

“When you mercilessly fire deadly bullets at innocent people taking part in a debate, when you attack the Jewish community, you attack our democracy,” Thorning-Schmidt said outside the synagogue. “We will do everything possible to protect our Jewish community.”

CARTOONS

Denmark became a target of violent Islamists 10 years ago after the publication of cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammad, images that led to sometimes fatal protests in the Muslim world. Many Muslims consider any representation of the Prophet blasphemous.

Vilks stirred controversy himself in 2007 with drawings depicting Mohammad’s head on a dog, triggering death threats.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said such attacks were likely to continue, and that Israel would welcome European Jews who chose to move to there.

Witnesses said French ambassador Francois Zimeray had just finished introducing the cafe event, entitled “Art, Blasphemy and Freedom of Expression”, when the assailant opened fire.

The venue was heavily guarded by police, who fired back, but the attacker nevertheless escaped.

Vilks sheltered on the floor of a cold room at the back of the cafe with one of the event’s organisers.

He has lived under Swedish police protection since 2010 and two years ago an American woman was jailed for 10 years in the United States for plotting to kill him.

Like other European governments, Scandinavian leaders have been increasingly concerned about the radicalisation of young Muslims travelling to Syria and Iraq to fight alongside violent jihadist groups such as Islamic State.

Authorities have also been worried about possible lone gunmen like Anders Behring Breivik, the anti-immigrant Norwegian who killed 77 people in 2011, most of them at a youth camp run by Norway’s ruling centre-left Labour Party.

Source: Christian Today

CNN report– In a new propaganda video released Sunday by ISIS, the militant group claims to have beheaded over a dozen members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority on a Libyan beach.

The highly produced video shows an apparent mass execution with jihadists in black standing behind each of the victims, who are all are dressed in orange jumpsuits with their hands cuffed behind them.

The five-minute video, released by the terror group’s propaganda wing al-Hayat Media, includes a masked English-speaking jihadi who says, “The sea you have hidden Sheikh Osama bin Laden’s body in, we swear to Allah, we will mix it with your blood.”

Then on cue, all the victims are pushed to the ground and beheaded.

ISIS has imposed its brutal rule on the large areas of Iraq and Syria that it controls, but the beheadings of the Egyptians appears to have been carried out by an affiliate of the militant group in Libya.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi confirmed in a statement that Egyptian “martyrs” had fallen victim to terrorism and expressed his condolences to the Egyptian people.

El-Sisi called for an urgent meeting of the Council of National Defense and declared seven days of official mourning.

Twenty-one Egyptian Christians were kidnapped in the Libyan coastal city of Sirte in two separate incidents in December and January. Officials said all of them had been killed.

El-Sisi said Egypt reserves the right to retaliate for the killings, according to the state-run website Ahram Online.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Sunday after the grisly video emerged.

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“The secretary offered his condolences on behalf of the American people and strongly condemned the despicable act of terror,” the State Department said. “Secretary Kerry and Foreign Minister Shoukry agreed to keep in close touch as Egyptians deliberated on a response.”

The White House also condemned the attack, saying ISIS’ “barbarity knows no bounds.”

“This wanton killing of innocents is just the most recent of the many vicious acts perpetrated by ISIL-affiliated terrorists against the people of the region,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement, using an alternative acronym for ISIS.

Members of the U.N. Security Council strongly condemned what they called “the heinous and cowardly apparent murder” of the 21 Egyptians.

“This crime once again demonstrates the brutality of ISIL, which is responsible for thousands of crimes and abuses against people from all faiths, ethnicities and nationalities, and without regard to any basic value of humanity,” the U.N. statement said.

Coptic Christians are part of the Orthodox Christian tradition, one of three main traditions under the Christian umbrella, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Copts split from other Christians in the fifth century over the definition of the divinity of Jesus Christ.

Copts trace their history to the Apostle Mark, the New Testament figure who they say introduced Christianity to Egypt in A.D. 43. Egypt holds a special place for Coptic Christians because, according to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus’ family fled there shortly after his birth to escape King Herod, who was calling for the execution of all Jewish boys younger than 2.

The largest group of Copts in the world is still in Egypt, where they make up between 8% and 11% of the nation’s 80 million citizens, most of whom are Sunni Muslims.

In the United States, there are approximately 90,000 Copts organized under 170 parishes, according to the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the United States.

Source: CNN