How about Secularist Award for Secular Singapore?!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4BPhcas-Co&

Christians Pressed as Pakistani Military Battles Taliban

Residents flee Swat Valley where fight rages with Islamist insurgents.

By Michael Larson

ISTANBUL, Pakistani Christians in Swat Valley are caught between the Taliban and Pakistan’s military as it assaults the stronghold where sharia (Islamic law) rules.

Nearly 15,000 troops have been deployed in the picturesque Swat Valley in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and neighboring Afghanistan. Troops came after months of peace negotiations collapsed between the Taliban Islamist insurgents who have imposed sharia in the valley and the central government last month. Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis have fled the war-ravaged area for fear of a full military assault.

On May 10 (Sunday) the army ordered residents to flee Swat Valley during a lull in fighting. Aid groups estimate that as many as 1.3 million could be displaced by the fighting, according to The Guardian.

Christians are particularly vulnerable in the mass exodus. Working as poor day laborers, they occupy the lowest rung of the social ladder and have little money for costly transport or to stock up on resources before fleeing.

“Christians are poor, and like in any conflict, the prices of transportation and commodities skyrocket,” said Ashar Dean, assistant director of communication of the Church of Pakistan Peshawar diocese. “Some had to go on foot to flee the valley.”

The Taliban had ratcheted up pressure on Christians, other religious minorities and liberal Muslims in Swat to live according to Islamic fundamentalist norms. They were forced to grow beards and don Islamic attire for fear of their safety in an attempt to blend in with Muslim residents of Swat.

Many Christians also fled for insufficient funds to pay the jizye, a poll tax under sharia paid by non-Muslims for protection if they decline to convert to Islam.

In February the Pakistani government ceded control of Swat valley to the Taliban, who imposed their version of sharia and established clerical rule over the legal system. But Christians had seen warning signs long before the formal sharia announcement. In the past year the Taliban burned or bombed more than 200 girls’ schools in Swat, including one that housed a Catholic church.

Religious minorities live in a precarious situation in the Muslim-dominated country. The legal system informally discriminates against non-Muslims, and in recent years Christian villages have been ransacked by Muslim mobs incited by dubious reports that a Quran had been desecrated.

The Taliban’s attempts to spread out from Swat into neighboring areas, however, have increased feelings of insecurity among the nation’s 3 million Christians.

“The threat of the Taliban is a hanging sword above the necks of Christians,” said Sohail Johnson, chief coordinator of Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan. “Christians could be in the situation where they would have to accept Islam or die.”

Swat Christians Flee

Approximately 40-60 Christian families lived in Swat as congregants at the Church of Pakistan. But since Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani on April 8 announced a military mission into Swat, nearly all have fled to nearby districts.

Most are in refugee housing in Mardan in the NWFP. They stay in a technical school owned by the Church of Pakistan, a congregation composed of Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists and Lutherans

The school dismissed its students for the school year early to make room for the refugees. Opening its doors to the displaced Christians was necessary due to government inaction toward religious minorities, said Yousaf Benjamin of the National Commission for Justice and Peace.

“The government is giving protection to Muslims, but the Christians are through waiting for their services,” he said.

Similar measures are being employed in hundreds of schools. To provide for the massive influx in refugees, the Pakistan government ended the school year early in districts near Swat and opened the schools to refugees for temporary housing. Teachers are also assisting in the humanitarian relief effort, Benjamin said.

Some Christians have complained of facing discrimination in refugee camps. Government relief workers forbade Christians, Hindus and Sikhs from setting up tents or eating with Muslim refugees, according to online news site Christian Today.

But ultimately Christians will not be able to return to Swat Valley unless the Taliban threat is completely removed, Christian relief groups said. Their possessions and property will otherwise always be under threat.

“Christians will face terrible persecution if the Taliban is not controlled by the government,” Johnson said. “They will easily attack churches, schools and other Christian institutions.”

Rehman Malik, the interior minister, said Pakistan’s military operation would continue until the last Taliban fighter had been ousted. Since April 8, government troops have killed an estimated 751 militants.

There are believed to be 5,000 Taliban militants in Swat Valley. The government hopes to minimize civilian casualties through precision air strikes and delivering emergency humanitarian aid.

Pakistan’s government has come under harsh national and international criticism for its negotiations with the Taliban and ceding control of Swat. They fear the Taliban could seize control of the nation’s nuclear weapons.

Choice of speech site affirms Egypt’s importance in world
By SAMEH SHOKRY
Eygypt's ambassador to the United States

The White House recently announced that President Barack Obama will deliver his much-anticipated address to the Muslim world from Egypt in early June. This decision has been warmly received and appreciated by Egyptians, Arabs and the Muslim world at large. Some may wonder why President Obama chose Egypt rather than other attractive venues.

In my view, President Obama chose to address the leaders and people of the Muslim world from the very heart of the old world. His decision reflects an understanding of Egypt’s rich civilization and its valuable contributions to intellectual thought and cultural exchange throughout the millennia. Along with its promotion of international tolerance, understanding and reconciliation in the modern world, these factors make Egypt the springboard of U.S. engagement in the Middle East.

Moreover, Egypt has long been the locomotive for political, economic and social development in the modern Middle East. It was in Egypt that the region saw its first constitution, its first parliament, and indeed the first to embody the institutions of a modern nation state, all of this dating to the early 19th century.

Thirty years ago, Egypt became the first Arab country to sign a peace accord with Israel and established the framework by which other Arab states and Israel have created their own peace. To this day, Egypt continues to work toward fostering a lasting peace between its neighbors, brokering a permanent cessation of hostilities in Gaza, holding Palestinian unity talks and confronting radical ideology within its own borders. In many ways, Egypt is the arbiter of peace and the force of moderation in the Middle East.

With more than 500 newspapers, journals and magazines and an estimated 162,000 bloggers, making up 30 percent of Arab bloggers worldwide, political discussion and debate within Egypt about the future of the Arab and Muslim world is extensive, and tends to set the tone for such debate among Arabs and Muslims.

Beyond the politics of the Middle East, Egypt is the Arab world’s largest and most populous nation. Long at the center of Islamic intellectual thought and learning, Egypt’s tradition of religious tolerance and cultural diversity embodies the ideals and values of moderate Islam. The Al Azhar University in Cairo is considered among the oldest seats of Islamic learning and has historically embodied the tradition of moderation and tolerance that characterized Egypt’s religious heritage. Egypt is also home to the largest and one of the oldest Christian communities in the Middle East, making it a melting pot of religions and civilizations.

Egypt’s broad efforts at economic liberalization have also been recognized by global leaders. For the third year in a row, Egypt has been named the top economic reformer in the Middle East by the World Bank’s Doing Business project. This year, Egypt was also named one of the top 10 global reformers, and when many countries are seeing their economies contract, Egypt is expecting sustained growth.

Bilaterally, the United States and Egypt have enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship for decades. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently stressed from Cairo that the United States considered Egypt one of its most important partners.

As President Obama eloquently put it, America “is not and will never be at war with Islam.” His initiative comes at a very opportune time, and Egypt, America’s longstanding friend and ally, is eager to work with the U.S. in advancing the causes of peace and stability in today’s troubled world, and mending current relations between the West and Islam.

Sameh Shoukry, Egypt’s ambassador to the U.S. since September 2008, spoke in Kansas City last week.