Plans for First Mixed Catholic and Protestant School in Northern Ireland

Approved.

Northern Ireland’s first shared education campus for Catholic and Protestant schoolchildren has been granted planning approval.

Up to six schools with 3,700 pupils are expected to be based at a former Army barracks in Omagh, Co Tyrone, Stormont’s power-sharing government revealed today. The relic of the region’s 30-year conflict is to be transformed into a 126-acre development to educate the next generation together…

SDLP Planning Minister Alex Attwood said: “The new campus will be at the forefront of shared education in Omagh and the North.”

Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers this week said renewed efforts should be made to tackle sectarianism which has characterised much of the region’s past. The Stormont Executive is still considering a cohesion, sharing and integration strategy…

Rest here.

HT

Archaeology after the Arab Spring

The transformative political events in the Middle East over the past two years have had, among many other unexpected outcomes, profound effects on the direction of research in Near Eastern archaeology.  War and civil unrest act as both a carrot and a stick, forcing the cessation of fieldwork in some areas, while promoting new investigations in places that might otherwise have gone unexplored. The geopolitics of the post-Arab Spring world are changing where we are able work, and by consequence they will shape the research questions we investigate, as well as the regions where future generations of scholars will likely specialize.  But the present moment of realignment is far from unique—our discipline has been shaped from the beginning by the tumultuous political history of the Middle East…

Worth a read over at The ASOR Blog.

 

Egyptian Mosque Turned into Torture House for Christians

Fox News:

Islamic hard-liners stormed a mosque in suburban Cairo, turning it into  torture chamber for Christians who had been demonstrating against the ruling  Muslim Brotherhood in the latest case of violent persecution that experts fear  will only get worse.

Such stories have become increasingly common as tensions between Egypt’s  Muslims and Copts mount, but in the latest case, mosque officials corroborated  much of the account and even filed a police report. Demonstrators, some of whom  were Muslim, say they were taken from the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in  suburban Cairo to a nearby mosque on Friday and tortured for hours by hard-line  militia members.

“There is no longer anything to hold them back. The floodgates are  open.” – Shaul Gabbay, University of Denver professor on Egypt’s Muslim  Brotherhood.

“They accompanied me to one of the mosques in the area and I discovered the  mosque was being used to imprison demonstrators and torture them,” Amir Ayad, a  Coptic who has been a vocal protester against the regime, told MidEast Christian News from a  hospital bed.

Ayad said he was beaten for hours with sticks before being left for dead on a  roadside. Amir’s brother, Ezzat Ayad, said he received an anonymous phone call  at 3 a.m. Saturday, with the caller saying his brother had been found near death  and had been taken to the ambulance.

“He underwent radiation treatment that proved that he suffered a fracture in  the bottom of his skull, a fracture in his left arm, a bleeding in the right  eye, and birdshot injuries,” Ezzat Ayad said.

Officials at the Bilal ibn Rabah Mosque said radical militias stormed the  building, in the Cairo suburb of Moqattam, after Friday prayers.

“[We] deeply regret what has happened and apologize to the people of  Moqattam,” mosque officials said in a statement,  adding that “they had lost control over the mosque at the time.” …

 

President Obama in Israel

From President Obama’s speech on arriving in Israel:

President Peres, Prime Minister Netanyahu, and most of all, to the people of Israel, thank you for this incredibly warm welcome. This is my third visit to Israel so let me just say tov lihiyot shuv ba’aretz.

I’m so honored to be here as you prepare to celebrate the 65th anniversary of a free and independent State of Israel. Yet I know that in stepping foot on this land, I walk with you on the historic homeland of the Jewish people…

Rest here.

Turks Consider Reopening Hagia Sophia as a Mosque

Neo-Ottoman aspirations?

In a surpise move, a  commission of the Turkish Parliament last week accepted a petition from a  Turkish citizen to reopen the Hagia Sophia as a place of worship for  Muslims.

Details in The Washington Times here.

 

Seeking the Peace of Jerusalem—or a Piece of Jerusalem?

There is no end of controversy about Jerusalem, old and new.  Archeology has become a full-fledged battlefield in the dispute over who has the superior claim to the city, Jews or Muslims…

Read on here.

 

A Future for the Archaeology of Jerusalem

The present excavators in ancient Jerusalem consider their work relevant to their own community, but not to that in whose back and front  yards they are digging, i.e. the Palestinian inhabitants of the Old City and nearby villages. They prefer to see only a distant past, thus helping their political sponsors imagine an Arab-free Jerusalem. In such a setting, the very act of talking about the past has to be decolonized. If ethical practice demands that archaeologists enter into a meaningful dialogue with the local community, then we surely must avoid settler and government agendas and discourses like the plague, stop taking their money,  and actively concern ourselves with the present and the contemporary past, i.e., the archaeology and ethnography of the inhabitants of the historical basin itself.

Read the rest of the paper by Raphael Greenberg who is Associate Professor in Archaeology University of Tel Aviv over at The Bible and Interpretation here.

 

Syria: Nothing But A Field Of Ruins

So has warned Pope Benedict XVI:

Pope Benedict XVI has urged diplomats to supply urgent aid to Syria to relieve civilian suffering, while expressing hope that Jerusalem would become `’a city of peace and not of division.”

Benedict addressed urgent crises around the world in an annual speech to diplomats Monday. Starting with the Middle East, `’that privileged region in God’s plan,” the pope warned that continued conflict in Syria will leave `’nothing but a field of ruins.”  The pope said he hoped Israelis and Palestinians will commit `’to peaceful coexistence.”

Addressing the economic crisis closer to home, the pontiff called on the European Union to make `’farsighted” and `’difficult” policy decisions favoring growth.

He called on policymakers to monitor closely the disparity between rich and poor as they do differences in bond market yields.

 

Baron Williams of Oystermouth

The Lord Bishop Dr  Druidish-something Master Rowan Douglas Williams, FBA, FRSL, FLSW, and now, add, The Lord Baron of Oystermouth. Titles… The British sure know how to do it!

Peerage for the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury:

Peerage for Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury upon his retirement from the See of Canterbury

The Queen has been pleased to confer a peerage of the United Kingdom for Life on the Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dr Rowan Williams Lord Archbishop of Canterbury upon his retirement from the See of Canterbury.

Notes for editors:

1. Rowan Williams was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 2002, having previously been Archbishop of Wales.

2. Rowan Williams will be created a Baron for Life by the style and title of Baron Williams of Oystermouth in the City and County of Swansea.

3. The Prime Minister retains the right to nominate up to ten people for Life Peerages each Parliament. These are awarded to people who have given significant public service.

A Life Peer, by the way, is:

In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage, whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Nowadays life peerages, always of baronial rank, are created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and entitle the holders to seats in the House of Lords, presuming they meet qualifications such as age and citizenship. The legitimate children of a life peer take the privilege of children of hereditary peers, being entitled to style themselves with the prefix ‘The Honourable’.

Oops, I forgot to add ‘The Honourable’ to his list of titles above. I don’t think they could fit in anymore, even if they wanted to!

 

South Africans Urged to Continue Praying for Nelson Mandela

SABC:

The Presidency says South Africans must continue to pray for former president Nelson Mandela. Yesterday President Jacob Zuma visited Mandela at the Pretoria hospital where he is still being treated. It was Zuma’s second visit to the statesman.

The international icon has been in the hearts and minds of South Africans since his admission to hospital two weeks ago.

Mandela was first treated for a recurring lung infection. He later underwent a procedure to remove gallstones.  However, the Presidency says the former president continues to respond well to treatment.

Presidential spokesperson, Mac Maharaj says: “President Zuma assured him of the love and support of all South Africans, young and old, and the whole world. We urge South Africans to continue praying for our beloved Madiba during this period. Our hearts are with the whole family and relatives.”

It is believed that members of the Mandela family also visited him yesterday. Doctors said they would only discharge Madiba when he has made made sufficient progress.

Well wishes continue to stream in from around the globe…