AUSTRALIAN PRAYER NETWORK NEWSLETTER * CLONING BILL EXPECTED TO GO BEFORE PARLIAMENT NEXT WEEK * AUSTRALIAN MOSQUES ALLEGED TO BE STILL TEACHING JIHAD * RELIGION ON THE WAY BACK INTO SCHOOLS ----------------------------------------------- CLONING BILL EXPECTED TO GO BEFORE PARLIAMENT NEXT WEEK With the vote on this issue expected next week pressure to have it defeated intensifies. Senator Kay Patterson has now put up her bill on cloning and embryonic stem cell research. Her bill bans reproductive cloning or the implantation of any 'created' embryos.It would however allow 'therapeutic cloning' or the insertion of a person's genetic material into a donated egg. The bill also allows the use of genetic material from more than 2 people, and the use of "precursor cells from a human embryo or a human foetus to create an embryo". The Bill would allow the creation of animal-human hybrids using a human sperm to fertilise an animal egg "for the purposes of testing sperm quality". Dr David van Gend, spokesman for Australians for Ethical Stem Cell Research said, "Senator Patterson's Bill does more than just allow the unethical cloning of human embryos with their destruction in mind. It allows scientists to create animal-human hybrid embryos, it allows scientists to create human embryos with more than two genetic parents, and it allows scientists to create human embryos where one of the parents is an aborted human foetus. Under her Bill aborted baby girls could become mothers of human embryos that will themselves be killed for research! Jim Wallace, Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby says "Unless we oppose this strongly we will be faced with an increasingly utilitarian approach to life and a significant weakening of the principle of the sanctity of life that has underpinned much of the best of the humanity of Western and Christian society."Mr Wallace has asked all Christians to support the efforts of those opposing this Bill by signing an electronic petition and/or sending a letter to a Federal Parliamentarian expressing opposition to the proposed legislation. This is important as members of Parliament have been given a conscience vote on the issue with many known to be wavering as to how they should vote. To electronically sign the petition and/or send an email to a Parliamentarian, go to the website http://www.makeastand.org.au/ and follow the prompts. It is very easy with almost everything done for you. By inserting your postcode, your MP is identified. If there is more than one MP who covers that postcode, select the right one. You can choose to send a carbon copy (cc) to your State Senators just by ticking a box. Write a note to them, in your own words and click send. There is even a website you can go to to obtain points that you could include in your email. It is http://www.cloning.org.au/ Source: Compiled by APN from various sources. ----------------------------------------------- AUSTRALIAN MOSQUES ALLEGED TO BE STILL TEACHING JIHAD The recently reported teachings undertaken at Lakemba Mosque in Sydney by Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali highlight that radical and unacceptable teaching is still taking place in Australian Mosques under the covering of the Arabic language. As non Muslims are not allowed in the Mosques, unless there is an inside informer present willing to report these matters, non Muslim Australians would never know what is being preached. This makes a recent warning by Dr Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based terror analyst, much more pertinent. Dr Gunaratna maintains that in Sydney and Melbourne there are still Muslim clerics preaching violence to young and impressionable followers. These clerics in their mainstream teachings keep such lectures quiet now, he claims. "This means that the most likely form of attack in Australia is internal" he said. Speaking on Macquarie radio, Dr Gunaratna said: ""It's to a very small group. Less than one per cent of the Muslims in Australia support extremism and violence, so it's a really tiny minority that is involved in this." When asked if the threat was real, Dr Gunaratna said: "It is a significant threat."The Prime Minister, John Howard, did not reject the claims made by Dr Gunaratna, and admitted there were concerns about sections of the Muslim community. Howard said on Macquarie radio: "I never talk about any information I have, but suffice to say that we continue to worry that there is a section of the Islamic community, a very small section, that is not serving the interests of anybody with some of the things that they've had to say.""...I think we have to be realistic enough to recognise that if people are going to incite others to do evil things they will find a way of doing it to escape attention. But the more open you make the links between all sections of the community and the mainstream of the community, the better able we are to ensure that, as far as possible, acts of violence and anti-social behaviour don't occur."Usman Badar, who is president of the University of New South Wales Muslim Students Association declared recently that: "Western values are not worthy of human subscription..... Democracy sounds nice enough but not to a Muslim....Sovereignty is for none but Allah." Badar said of secularism that "it relegates Allah to the margins of public life and places human beings above him. This, to put it blatantly, is as blasphemous as it gets.....The overriding commitment of a Muslim is to Allah, and Allah alone."Such teachings denigrate democracy, secularism, and man-made law, and are prerequisites on the road to jihad, polluting the minds of youth with wrong ideas. Mosques may still pose a problem, but the threat is all around. Source: Compiled by APN from various media reports ----------------------------------------------- RELIGION ON THE WAY BACK INTO SCHOOLS Every Australian school will be eligible for a $20,000 grant to employ a chaplain - on condition the government is happy with its choice. Prime Minister John Howard said his scheme to promote pastoral care and spiritual guidance for students would be open to all public and private schools. The scheme would be entirely voluntary and was not designed to favour any one religion, he said.Schools will apply to the Education Department to take part in the program and will receive the funding once the government has approved their choice of chaplain. "Each individual chaplain will need to be formally approved by the government because we're going to provide funding," Mr Howard said. " It will, I believe, fill a very significant gap in the services available to school students."The chaplains will be expected to provide pastoral care and spiritual guidance and support, comfort, advice in family breakdown situations, support for students grief-stricken by the loss of friends in tragic accidents or the loss of family members."The prime minister defended the government's right to veto the appointment of certain chaplains. "Clearly as the paying authority, we're not going to license and support some activity that would not be acceptable to the mainstream of the Australian community," he said. "We reserve the right to say 'no' to somebody who's plainly unacceptable, whatever that person's background may be."Mr Howard said he thought Islamic and Jewish schools would be just as enthusiastic about the chaplaincy program as Catholic and Protestant schools. Asked if the program crossed the boundaries of church and state, Mr Howard stressed it was an entirely opt-in scheme and schools did not have to take part. Labor said it supported the chaplaincy program because it would help to create a safe and supportive environment in schools. Opposition education spokeswoman Jenny Macklin said chaplains already were working in many Australian schools, but Mr Howard's new scheme must not favour people of any one faith. "Any new chaplaincy program must be flexible enough to take into account the diversity of religious beliefs in our school systems," she said.As could be expected Greens senator Kerry Nettle labelled the chaplaincy program a "stupid political stunt addressing a non-existent problem". "The proposal is discriminatory to the extent that it is Christian focused." This news follows on from the recent announcement by the Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop that Australian history taught in our schools would be required to examine religion's influence in our development as a nation.Ms Bishop said that the Catholic-Protestant divide which defined Australian pre-war society together with the bitter conscription referendum of 1916-17 were possible subjects for the curriculum. Aboriginal spiritual beliefs and their impact on mainstream society (as seen in the Olympics opening ceremony) are also believed to be under consideration.Examinations of the Muslim and Jewish religions, the Christian Bible and the Koran may also form part of the curriculum. "Religion has played a key role in many aspects of society including the legal system, many charitable organisations, the education sector, government and much more," Ms Bishop said. "It would not be possible to explain fully the development of Australian society without including religion in the history curriculum." Source: Compiled by APN from various media reports. Have you visited our Web Site? http://www.ausprayernet.org.au/ You can print this e-mail with formating at the following web-address: http://www.ausprayernet.org.au/newsletter/PrintNewsletter.php?e_id=00000001119
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