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Marrakesh Declaration: Muslim Countries Should Ensure Rights for Religious Minorities

This could be a very important development.
See this Christianity Today article for the full story on the Marrakesh Declaration (Declaration website). Muslim leaders affirm the rights of religious minorities in Muslim majority nations. Pakistan, we are looking at you. Time to release Asia Bibi.
 

In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate

Executive Summary of the Marrakesh Declaration on the Rights of Religious Minorities in Predominantly Muslim Majority Communities

25th-27th January 2016

WHEREAS, conditions in various parts of the Muslim World have deteriorated dangerously due to the use of violence and armed struggle as a tool for settling conflicts and imposing one’s point of view;

WHEREAS, this situation has also weakened the authority of legitimate governments and enabled criminal groups to issue edicts attributed to Islam, but which, in fact, alarmingly distort its fundamental principles and goals in ways that have seriously harmed the population as a whole;

WHEREAS, this year marks the 1,400th anniversary of the Charter of Medina, a constitutional contract between the Prophet Muhammad, God’s peace and blessings be upon him, and the people of Medina, which guaranteed the religious liberty of all, regardless of faith;

WHEREAS, hundreds of Muslim scholars and intellectuals from over 120 countries, along with representatives of Islamic and international organizations, as well as leaders from diverse religious groups and nationalities, gathered in Marrakesh on this date to reaffirm the principles of the Charter of Medina at a major conference;

WHEREAS, this conference was held under the auspices of His Majesty, King Mohammed VI of Morocco, and organized jointly by the Ministry of Endowment and Islamic Affairs in the Kingdom of Morocco and the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies based in the United Arab Emirates;

AND NOTING the gravity of this situation afflicting Muslims as well as peoples of other faiths throughout the world, and after thorough deliberation and discussion, the convened Muslim scholars and intellectuals:

DECLARE HEREBY our firm commitment to the principles articulated in the Charter of Medina, whose provisions contained a number of the principles of constitutional contractual citizenship, such as freedom of movement, property ownership, mutual solidarity and defense, as well as principles of justice and equality before the law; and that,

The objectives of the Charter of Medina provide a suitable framework for national constitutions in countries with Muslim majorities, and the United Nations Charter and related documents, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are in harmony with the Charter of Medina, including consideration for public order.

NOTING FURTHER that deep reflection upon the various crises afflicting humanity underscores the inevitable and urgent need for cooperation among all religious groups, we

AFFIRM HEREBY that such cooperation must be based on a “Common Word,” requiring that such cooperation must go beyond mutual tolerance and respect, to providing full protection for the rights and liberties to all religious groups in a civilized manner that eschews coercion, bias, and arrogance.

BASED ON ALL OF THE ABOVE, we hereby: Call upon Muslim scholars and intellectuals around the world to develop a jurisprudence of the concept of “citizenship” which is inclusive of diverse groups. Such jurisprudence shall be rooted in Islamic tradition and principles and mindful of global changes.

Urge Muslim educational institutions and authorities to conduct a courageous review of educational curricula that addresses honestly and effectively any material that instigates aggression and extremism, leads to war and chaos, and results in the destruction of our shared societies;

Call upon politicians and decision makers to take the political and legal steps necessary to establish a constitutional contractual relationship among its citizens, and to support all formulations and initiatives that aim to fortify relations and understanding among the various religious groups in the Muslim World;

Call upon the educated, artistic, and creative members of our societies, as well as organizations of civil society, to establish a broad movement for the just treatment of religious minorites in Muslim countries and to raise awareness as to their rights, and to work together to ensure the success of these efforts.

Call upon the various religious groups bound by the same national fabric to address their mutual state of selective amnesia that blocks memories of centuries of joint and shared living on the same land; we call upon them to rebuild the past by reviving this tradition of conviviality, and restoring our shared trust that has been eroded by extremists using acts of terror and aggression;

Call upon representatives of the various religions, sects and denominations to confront all forms of religious bigotry, villification, and denegration of what people hold sacred, as well as all speech that promote hatred and bigotry;

AND FINALLY, AFFIRM that it is unconscionable to employ religion for the purpose of aggressing upon the rights of religious minorities in Muslim countries.

Marrakesh

January 27th, 2016

UK Charity Commission Now Evaluating Claim that £8.2 Million May Be Missing From Gospel for Asia UK

GFA LOGOJust a day after the UK Charity Commission announced that it is considering a probe of Gospel for Asia, another claim has been added to the list.
According to former auditor Jason Watkins, over £8 million does not show up in India in public reports there.
This is similar to my findings regarding GFA in the US. GFA claims to send an amount to India, but the Indian field partners have disclosed much less than the U.S. claim.
Recently, GFA in the U.S. received the strongest sanctions allowed by law from the Office of Personnel Management due to violations of OPM guidelines for charities participating in the Combined Federal Campaign. In Canada, the charity authorities have received complaints from a former board member who said he was dismissed illegally. Now, the UK charity government watchdog office may add the UK to the list of government probes.

Thomas Nelson Contract: Mark Driscoll’s Real Marriage Advance Was $400,000

Cash
Image courtesy of sheelamohan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Wenatchee the Hatchet has a copy of the 2011 agreement between Mark and Grace Driscoll’s LLC (On Mission, LLC) and Thomas Nelson to publish Real Marriage. Dusting off my Mars Hill sources, I conclude it is legit. In it, we learn:

-The Driscolls received an advance of $400,000.

-The book had a working title of “A New Marriage with the Same Spouse.”

-The contract calls for the Driscolls to pay for corrections. I wonder if they did since corrections due to citation errors had to be made.

-Mars Hill could have gotten thousands of books through Driscoll at an 80% discount. Instead, Mars Hill’s contract with Result Source called for the church to purchase 11,000 copies at an adjusted retail price so the numbers would count toward the New York Times best seller list. According to this contract, those royalties went to the Driscolls via On Mission.

It is hard to escape the conclusion that being the pastor of a church willing to develop a marketing campaign for your book (see that also at WtH) which includes a preaching series (with research done by consultants) and full support from a marketing team (paid for by tithes) is a really sure way to become wealthy.

This reminds me of the qualms expressed by the Communications Team at Mars Hill Church in 2011 before the executive elders committed church money to the Real Marriage campaign.
RMGiving1pager
Mark Driscoll isn’t the only one who found financial gain in megachurch service. David Jeremiah does something like this once a year.

Some Smart People Think He's Coming Soon But Don't Set Dates: Gateway Church Teaches About the End Times

Lots of end times teaching these days. September seems to be an important month. Jimmie Evans is an apostolic elder at Gateway Church and he has had a lot to tell the flock there about the end time. Since Summer, he has had them all ready for the end but September is about over. In fact, a website he referred them too is now down, possibly because nothing’s happening.
Here’s an excerpt of one of the videos followed by the transcript where he points people to a date at the same time he says he isn’t setting a date.

But let’s look at another way we can prove it and that is by counting the years…If we’re in the end times and there are 6,000 years of human history followed by a thousand year millennial rule of Christ, we should be somewhere around the year 6,000. Let’s look at this in several ways. Let’s look at three calendars. First, let’s look at our Gregorian Calendar. This is the year 2015 on the Gregorian Calendar. We have a solar calendar and Israel has a lunar calendar well that’s 2015 AD. That’s since Jesus was killed. Well, how many years were there before Jesus? Well, thankfully in Luke chapter 3 there’s a genealogy that goes from Jesus to Adam. We know exactly how many generations were between Jesus and Adam and Bible scholars say there were 4,000 years in the Old Testament. So let’s do some deciphering. (Jimmy holds up 4 fingers then 2 more) Four plus two equals six. K. So If we’re supposed to be around the year 6,000, according to the Gregorian calendar we’re around the year 6,000. Give or take a few years.
Okay, Jewish civil calendar. K, the Jews have two calendars. The civil calendar and the religious calendar. According to the Jewish civil calendar this is the year 5,775. Now remember, they don’t have AD and BC. They just have from creation. So 5775 which would tell us that there’s 25 years left until 6000 comes. The only problem is there’s a lot of disputes about that calendar. And we know historically that there were changes made to it and a lot of Jews dispute 5775 being correct. But again, it’s close to 6000.
But there’s a Jewish religious calendar. The civil year of the Jews begins in the Fall, the religious calendar begins in the Spring. And there’s a group. I’m gonna tell you about this group and I’m gonna give you a disclaimer here in just a minute. Torahcalendar.com. These are Messianic Jews who don’t believe that the Jewish Civil Calendar is correct and they are very intelligent people and they have done exhaustive research trying to find out what year is this since creation. The actual year since creation that we’re living in. K, and they believe in the 7,000 year calendar of God. So they took scripture, history, science and astronomy not astrology, astronomy. And they took all of those things exhaustively and looked at what year it is. By the way, NASA has the lunar or all the activity of the moon for thousands of years. So scientifically you could, their calendar’s a lunar calendar. So they looked at the Bible, history, science and astronomy of all that’s happened and here’s what they believe. After all of their study, and this is on their website, they believe that they year 6000 ended in March of this year. They believe we are living in the year 6001, according to their religious calendar. And this is my disclaimer, they believe that Jesus is returning in September. So when you go to that website. I’m I’m giving you a warning that they write it down, they have the date that Jesus is going to return.
Listen, I don’t ever set dates for two reasons. First of all, when people set dates, people stop living their lives. Okay. The second thing is when that day comes and goes you get your ya know you get disappointed and become cynical. Cause I’ve lived to see a lot of dates set that people said Jesus is going to come on this date. Whenever someone tells me they know when Jesus is coming I always have the same answer, ‘I hope you’re right’. But I’m not going to live any differently just because you say you know when Jesus is coming. So this is a smart group of Jews. That they wanted to know what the right calendar is. They did exhaustive research. You can see their research on their website. And they believe we are living just after the end of the year 6000 and Jesus is about to return. I don’t set dates. But be ready whenever Jesus comes, okay.