GordonMoyes.com

It is so easy these days when we live in a multi-racial society to assume that because different races have fundamentally different beliefs, we cannot work together on common social issues. Some Christians always react with fear, expecting the worse and making it more difficult for the others to live in this country. But Bethlehem this Christmas is showing the way.

In TIME magazine (Thursday, Nov. 08, 2007) a perceptive article called “Indecent Exposure” by writer Carla Power caused worldwide discussion. It touched on two of the basic differences faced by people living with Western and Islamic cultures and of the causes of tension between them.

Julie Bushey Trevor, writing in the Burlington Free Press, November 6, 2007, states, “In my lifetime I have witnessed the bravery of countless women who have risen to the challenge of ending the oppression of women worldwide. It is puzzling to me why at this time in our history, when women in this country in particular have made tremendous gains in their own status, they have willingly stalled their work toward freedom for certain women; especially the violent oppression of the Women in Islam.”

According to the November 2007 edition of Barnabas Aid, Christian twins, Andrew and Mario Medhat, are in danger of being effectively forced to convert to Islam. The boys’ father converted to Islam voluntarily some years ago and divorced their Christian mother, with whom the boys continued to live.

A report on 22nd October 2007 states that the unauthorized dig of a trench by the Moslem Waqf on the Temple Mount had a thin silver lining: Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) personnel monitoring the trench-digging have, for the first time, found traces of the First Temple built by Solomon. This is of great significance.

While best known for its pyramids and ancient civilisations, Egypt has played a central role in Middle East politics in modern times. Its three wars with Israel in 1948, 1967 and 1973, then its eventual peace with its adversary in 1979, have seen Egypt move from being a warring nation to become a key representative in the peace process.

Circumcision, as supporters call it, or female genital mutilation, as opponents refer to it, was suddenly a ferocious focus of debate in Egypt this summer. A national campaign to stop the practice has become one of the most powerful social movements in Egypt in decades, uniting an unlikely alliance of government forces, official religious leaders and street-level activists.

Governments of many colours seek to rewrite history. The school textbooks of Japan make it appear that the Japanese invasions of China, the Philippines, the Pacific Islands and South East Asia with their consequent barbaric treatment of prisoners of war did not happen. The adverse events, the Holocaust and the defeat of Germany rarely make German school textbooks. Today the same editors are at work on the schoolbooks in the Middle East.

I have visited the towns and irrigators along the Darling and Murray Rivers. So much water is taken out by the great cotton farms of South East Queensland that parts of the Rivers are dying. Government regulations enforce leaving some environmental flow to just keep them alive.

Late last year, I raised in Parliament the issue of female genital mutilation. International and domestic agencies have roundly denounced this practice, with one advocacy group describing this practice as akin to torture. Reports had come to my attention that had indicated that in New South Wales at least 40 women are treated at Sydney’s Auburn Hospital alone every year as victims of this practice. Legislation is in place in this State prohibiting the carrying out of this practice however, no prosecutions have been initiated against any of those involved.