Burma: Refugees learn to' love your neighbour'
In 2011 the Burma Army broke a 17-year ceasefire in Kachin State, displacing over 120,000 innocent civilians. Many fled to refugee camps where food and healthcare is limited and the risk of trafficking is high. In these places of despair, Partners Relief and Development has been working with local organisations to train and equip volunteers to lend a helping hand. The volunteers are themselves refugees helping their fellow refugees. Partners says these volunteers live by one rule, ‘Love your neighbour’. Already 150+ volunteers have been trained. Altogether they are caring for nearly 8,000 internally displaced person's . Those who need food receive it. Those who are sick are cared for. Community is brought into a thrown-together refugee camp in the midst of tensions as a coalition of 15 civil society organizations call for the army to withdraw. See also:
Bangladesh: Christian school attacked
Hundreds of extremist Islamists attacked a Christian school in Bangladesh in response to locals who were outraged by rumours stating the school was forcing Muslim children to convert to Christianity. The school welcomes children of all faiths. A spokesperson from Love Bangladesh Mission said the mob of about 200 people didn’t injure the children but 12 of its 14 members of staff were badly beaten. Millions of Bangladeshi students attend madrasas that were established in the 1970s, soon after Bangladesh became independent from Pakistan. There are two kinds- private Quomi madrasas and state-sponsored Alia madrasas. Some madrasas are hidden in secrecy and viewed with suspicion for their links with militant Islam. The furious mob’s ‘most wanted’ was Michael Robin Mondol, who is in charge of both the school and church. They were calling his name loudly, but the staff managed to hide him.
Kenya: al-Shabab – growing concerns
At midnight on Monday al-Shabab Somali militants killed 36 non-Muslims after separating them from Muslim workers. The victims were captured while sleeping in their tents at a quarry in Kormey. al-Shabab carried out the attack because of the presence of Kenyan forces in Somalia. There is growing concern in Kenya about security in regions bordering Somalia after a spate of similar attacks. Borders with Somalia and Ethiopia are dominated by largely Muslim Somalis. Many of those killed came from the south of Kenya where Christians predominate. These attacks affect the economy and social make-up of the region as most of its workers - skilled and unskilled - are non-Muslim Kenyans. Many Christians, including nurses and teachers, fled the area after a bus attack last week. A presidential adviser has warned that al-Shabab is trying to fan a religious war. Christian leaders have publicly accused Muslim leaders of not doing enough to tame radicalism within their ranks.
Israel: Tension is rising
Attacks in Jerusalem are continuing to increase. Examples are a firebomb at Jerusalem’s ‘co-existence’ school, the foiling of a Hamas cell’s planned attack in the West Bank, and cars and vans are being used more and more as weapons to ram into pedestrians by militant Palestinian organizations. The open-ended cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip was partially undermined by a Salafist terror group that fired their own rockets into Israel. The Gaza war has not solved any problems. Hamas is still shooting test rockets into the sea and want to repair the damaged tunnels. Behind the scenes the Palestinians plan to bring a resolution to the UN Security Council that requires Israel to withdraw from the ‘occupied territories’ by November 2016. The pressure on nations to take a stand on one side or the other grows. In October British Parliamentarians voted to support the recognition of a Palestinian State. See:
