Appeals for prayers, intervention and support for the suffering peoples of Middle East and North Africa from Kurdish Muslims and Christian Chaldeans

 August 2014

Esteemed Religions for Peace Colleagues: 

Warm greetings. 

Adding to the great sufferings of peoples in the Middle East-North Africa Region are the currently unfolding events in Iraq. 

H.E. Sheikh Majid Hafeed, an Iraqi Kurdish Muslim and Honorary President of Religions for Peace International, has contacted our International Secretariat strongly calling for intervention and support to protect the Yazidis in the town of Sinjar, northern Iraq.  

They are currently undergoing an attack by the ISIS / ISIL terrorist group.  Sheikh Majid reports to us that thousands have been massacred, hundreds of thousands have fled and their homes and shops have been looted and burned.  You will find Sheikh Majid's appeal (in Arabic) here. 

His Holiness Louis Raphael Sako, the Christian Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon and a Co-President of Religions for Peace International, has also contacted us with an urgent appeal for the 100,000 Christians who have fled their homes toward the Kurdish cities of Erbil, Duhok and Soulaymiya.  You will find Patriarch Sako's appeal here. 

In response, Religions for Peace is transmitting these appeals to the President of the United Nations Security Council, urging that the Security Council take appropriate measures to protect these innocent people. 

In addition, allow me also to request that all members of Religions for Peace around the world hold these suffering peoples in their prayers.  Let each of us pray in accord with her or his own tradition in solidarity with all across this region who are struggling to bear unbearable suffering. 

Yours in solidarity for Peace,

Dr. William Vendley

Secretary General

Religions for Peace

RELIGIONS FOR PEACE--the world's largest and most representative multi-religious coalition-advances common action among the world's religious communities for peace. Religions for Peace works to transform violent conflict, advance human development, promote just and harmonious societies, and protect the earth. The global Religions for Peace network comprises a World Council of senior religious leaders from all regions of the world; five regional inter-religious bodies and ninety national ones; and the Global Women of Faith Network and Global Interfaith Youth Network. 

777 United Nations Plaza I New York, NY 10017 USA I Tel: 212 687-2163 I Fax: 212 983-0098

www.rfp.org 

The Network's Note:The area of the warfare mentioned above is in one of the oldest parts of human history in the world.  War has diminished and eradicated much of this evidence. Readers will remember the looting of the National Museum of Iraq in 2003.  Readers will also recalled the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyah in 2001.  The heritage of these ancient civilisations are not only informative and precious to the peoples in whose regions they are situated.  They are precious to all of us.  The references used in the production of these antiquities are references to all of humanity.  Human life to-day is of vital importance to all of us.  So is our shared and ancient histories.

Non-stunned slaughter in Australia: Rally to-night at MCG to send the message to Primary Industries Ministers

As you know, a big decision will be made this week when primary industries ministers from around the country meet in Melbourne to decide whether to close the loophole on non-stunned slaughter in Australia.

I'm writing to invite you to an important rallyorganised by Animals Australia on Thursday evening at the MCG, where the ministers are due to discuss their decision on this issue. Already 14,000 Animals Australia supporters have written to these ministers imploring them to show mercy and remove the exemptions that are allowing some abattoirs in Victoria and South Australia to cut the throats of fully conscious sheep. We need your help to send one last and all-important reminder as the ministers arrive for their dinner meeting, that caring Australians are depending on them to make the right decision.

• Where: Gate 2, Melbourne Cricket Ground
• When: 5:45pm, Thursday, 27th October (finishing 7pm)
• What to bring: Just yourself, we will have plenty of posters for people to hold
• More information: Call the Animals Australia office on 1800 888 584

Miss, of all the cruelty I have seen inside abattoirs, non-stunned slaughter of animals represents the single greatest cause of distress, pain and suffering I have born witness to.

Fortunately we understand that several ministers are already of the opinion that non-stunned slaughter is unacceptable, which means there is real hope to end this brutal practice in Australia. This rally may be the tipping point that gets the others over the line.

Please join our experienced campaigners for a peaceful gathering on Thursday evening and help us ensure that all animals in this country are extended this most basic legal protection.

I hope you can join us, Lyn White Campaign Director

P.S. You may be aware that the official meeting of the primary industries ministers will be held on Friday morning. We are rallying at their Thursday evening dinner meeting as it is expected that their position will be determined at this time. I hope you can attend, but even if you can't, you can have your say on our website right now.

HYPOTHERMIA AND HEARTBREAK: SUFFERING AND VOYEURISM AT DANDENONG POLICE STATION

This word scares the living daylights out of me -

ever since the events of 18 September 2009.

When I - and a lot of others - thought about hypothermia,

we thought of a scene like this...

Who would think it possible to get the first symptoms

sitting, singing and chatting with a group of people

around this...

But that is what happened to me one September evening

on a property 15 minutes out of Bungendore, near Canberra.

I thought I was going to die.  So did my friends.  The paramedics were called. I am a diabetic and, when told of this, the paramedics believed my symptoms were consistent with a hypoglycaemic attack.  They gave me an injection and sweet stuff out of a tube and I began to come around - although I felt I had been run over by the No. 10 bus.  Next morning, I went to the GP in Bungendore.  He checked for everything - and everything was OK.  He also became the first in a line of medicos to tell me that, whatever it was, it could not have been a hypoglycaemic attack because that was impossible due to the medication I was on. IT NEVER HAPPENS, they all said.

Eventually, a specialist diagnosed hypothermia with a great deal of certainty - even though she wasn't present at the time.  I have come across two cold climate people who, when I tell them the story and the symptoms, nod knowingly when hearing of the hypothermia diagnosis.  So there you are.  Since coming from the tropics to live in Melbourne six years ago, I have never acclimatised to the cold and its - more likely than not -accompanying gloom.  Now, since the events of last year, I am terrified of the cold and of being cold.  Absolutely, appallingly, horrifyingly terrified.

So please imagine my horror and my heartfelt empathy when I read this story in The Age to-day relating to hypothermia and a man who had been held in police custody in Dandenong and then chucked out into outer darkness where there was nothing but the gnashing of voyeuristic police teeth.  

Who were the police who looked on so callously at the suffering of this man?  Blood relatives of the guards in Nazi concentration camps? Had they been trained in Abu Ghraib?  Clearly, they have flunked Human Rights 101.  Clearly, they should get due process and procedural fairness - and then be sacked.  Not demoted, sacked. 

They should be sent to where bad policemen and policewomen go

 and from where they can never return ever to harm or hate people again.

Related Reading:

Hypothermia Frostbite And Other Cold Injuries: Prevention, Recognition, Rescue, and Treatment

Hypothermia - Wikipedia entry
Interpreter hails probe into death

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• What is Hypothermia (Low Core Body Temperature)? Signs & Symptoms (healthhype.com)