THE TANDEM PROJECT

http://www.tandemproject.com.

UNITED NATIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS,

FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR BELIEF

Separation of Religion or Belief & State

SOMALIA

UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW

Call to Jihad

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Issue: Somalia – Call to Jihad & the Universal Periodic Review.

For: United Nations, Governments, Religions or Beliefs, Academia, NGOs, Media, Civil Society

Review: A Call to Jihad, Answered in America, by Andrea Elliott, New York Times, Sunday 12 July 2009. This Sunday New York Times article is an update to several Reviews on Somalia by on The Tandem Project website under Issues: www.tandemproject.com. This full article with extended excerpts is available on page two.

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights records of all 192 UN Member States once every four years. UPR Introduction and News:

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/UPRMain.aspx

After each UN Member State’s Universal Periodic Review they have four years before their next UPR cycle to implement the National Reports on human rights obligations and responsibilities; recommendations by UN Member States, NGOs, civil society and other stakeholders.

THE TANDEM PROJECT FOLLOW-UP

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process is an opportunity for UN Member States, NGOs and civil society to support genuine and inclusive dialogue, protection and promotion of Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the 1981 UN Declaration on the Elimination of all Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief.

The Somalia Universal Periodic Review will be held in the eleventh UPR Session in September 2011. The Tandem Project Follow-up is preparation for the Somalia Universal Periodic Review in advance of the Somali appearance before the UN Human Rights Council in 2011.

• Proposal: There are two generally understood definitions of the word Jihad; holy war in defense of Islam, and individual striving to live a moral and virtuous life. The Tandem Project Follow-up invites Muslims to consider international human rights standards on freedom of religion or belief in defense of Islam, as an alternative addition to the general definition of Jihad as holy war.

Jihad: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jihad

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CALL TO JIHAD

The New York Times: A Call to Jihad – Answered in America, Sunday 12 July 2009.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/us/12somalis.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print

Excerpts: MINNEAPOLIS – The Carlson School of Management rises from the asphalt like a monument to capitalist ambition. Stock prices race across an electronic ticker near a sleek entrance and the atrium soars skyward, as if lifting the aspirations of its students. The school’s pluck motto is ‘Nowhere but here.’

For a group of students who often met at the school, on the University of Minnesota Campus, those words seemed especially fitting. They had fled Somalia as small boys, escaping a catastrophic civil war. They came of age as refugees in Minneapolis, embracing basketball and the prom, hip-hop and the Mall of America. By the time they reached college, their dreams seemed with grasp: one planned to become a doctor; another, an entrepreneur.

But last year, in a study room on the first floor of Carlson, the men turned their energies to a different enterprise. “Why are we sitting around in America, doing nothing for our people?” one of the men, Mohammed Hassan, a skinny 23-year-old engineering major, pressed his friends.

In November Mr. Hassan and two other students dropped out of college and left for Somalia, the homeland they barely knew. Word soon spread that they had joined the Shabaab, a militant Islamist group aligned with Al Qaeda that is fighting to overthrow the fragile Somali government.

Mr. Hassan’s interest in the Islamist movement dovetailed with his own religious transformation, friends said. In the fall of 2007 he began downloading sermons onto his iPod and soon was attending the Abubakar mosque…He began talking of joining the movement as early as February 2008, around the same time that a friend from the mosque –Mr. Maruf, the former gang member-left for Somalia.

While Somali nationalism had initially driven the men, a friend said, their cause eventually took on a religious cast. They became convinced that Somalia’s years of bloodshed were punishment from God for straying from Islam, the friend said. The answer was to restore the Caliphate, or Islamic rule.

Months have passed since the older members of his group completed their training in Somalia. Lately, they seem ‘hardened’ and at times radical, a Minneapolis friend said.

The students are among more than 20 young Americans who are the focus of what may be the most significant domestic terrorism investigation since Sept. 11. One of the men, Shirwa Ahmed, blew himself up in Somalia in October, becoming the first known American suicide bomber. The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert M. Mueller, has said Mr. Ahmed was ‘radicalized’ in his hometown in Minnesota.

The country they had fled, on the eastern tip of Africa, was embroiled in a civil war that had left it without a functioning government since 1991. A generation of Somalis grew up in the overcrowded refugee camps of northern Kenya, where malaria, scorpion manifestations and hunger took their toll. Tales of America sustained them. Clean water was said to flow freely in kitchens, and simple jobs like plucking chickens paid handsomely.

Proof came in the cash sent by a first wave of refugees who had arrived in the United States in the early 1990s. Minneapolis, with its robust social services and steady supply of unskilled jobs, quickly became the capital of their North American Diaspora.

When they ended their shifts as cab drivers or janitors, many Somalis retreated from American life. They had transformed a blighted stretch near the Mississippi River into a Little Mogadishu, commandeering a grim collection of cinderblock buildings known as the Towers.

If American citizens are joining the Shabaab, the potential threat domestically is serious…I think they could be commissioned to come back. Or they could do it on their own because they are philosophically aligned with the Shabaab or Al Qaeda.

For many older Somalis in Minnesota, the deepest mystery is why so many young refugees would risk their lives and futures to return to a country that their parents struggled to leave. The mother of Burhan Hassan had been trying to persuade him to escape to the United States Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya said his uncle, Osman Ahmed…But he finally agreed to leave, and in late May his mother wired him about $800, Mr. Ahmed said. Ten days later, on June 5, she picked up the telephone to learn that her son was dead.

He had been shot in the head, a stranger on the phone told Mr. Hassan’s mother. Some of the boy’s relatives suspect that he was killed to prevent him from cooperating with the American investigation.

* The Tandem Project International List Serve is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

WEBSITES, CONFERENCES, REPORTS

Disclaimer: Information on governments and non-governmental organizations is from websites for public distribution unless copyrighted. Recommendations are the opinions of The Tandem Project and not endorsed by governments and non-governmental organizations.

Genuine dialogue on human rights and freedom of religion or belief calls for respectful discourse, discussion of taboos and clarity by persons of diverse beliefs. Inclusive dialogue includes people of theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any religion or belief. These are United Nations categories in General Comment 22 on Article 18, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Human Rights Committee (CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.4).

General Comment 22 on Article 18 clarifies the intersection of human rights and freedom of religion or belief as a guide for peaceful cooperation, respectful competition and resolution of conflicts. This UN document must be read as a prerequisite to understanding The Tandem Project recommendations to governments and non-governmental organizations. Click to open:

http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/9a30112c27d1167cc12563ed004d8f15?Opendocument

General Comment 22 on Article 18 is of primary importance to an understanding of the need for international-national-local integrated approaches to human rights standards on freedom of religion or belief.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Google: Somalia: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Somalia&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g1g-s2g7

Google is the best source for a quick Internet review of Call to Jihad in Somalia. This link includes articles, newspaper stories, Youtube, conferences, websites and other sources. For in-depth research, academic searches in libraries and other sources are necessary.

Somalia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia

UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): Somalia;

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/countries/AfricaRegion/Pages/SOIndex.aspx

Somalia News archives, reports by Independent Expert on Somalia, Status of Ratifications and other important OHCHR information. During 2006-2007, OHCHR was involved in the country through a human rights advisor to the United Nations Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS). OHCHR also provided substantive support to the Independent Expert appointed by the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights in Somalia. During 2008-2009, OHCHR will continue to provide advice to UNPROS on the political and human rights situation in the country, in order to facilitate the human rights action taken by both offices, and to strengthen the capacity of the UN Country Team to integrate human rights into their programs. For the latest news releases and statements on Somalia, click to open the link above.

Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center; www.abuubakar.org,

“Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center is an institution dedicated to the betterment of Muslims and society at large. AAIC draws its strength and guidance from the Holy Qur’an and the authentic Sunnah (traditions) of Prophet Mohammed. Efforts to establish Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center (AAIC) was initiated in 1998 to help meet the needs of the Muslim community in the Twin Cities. The Center now serves the largest Muslim Community in Minnesota, and provides various social services including marriage and family counseling, food shelf, dispute arbitrations, etc. Most importantly, the center represents the source of spiritual strength for the community members.”

The Minneapolis Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center has been accused of encouraging the recruitment of young men to go to Somalia as suicide bombers. The leaders of Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center deny this accusation. Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center held a community dinner to “get to know your neighborhood mosque” and a seminar about how suicide is prohibited by Islam attended by hundreds of Somali youth. They have been quoted in the Minneapolis paper as asking what more the mosque can do. “There’s nothing secret going on, there are not two separate messages going out, the Quran says you can’t kill yourself. If you do, you’re going straight to hell.” (See: Attachment).

• Recommendation: Propose the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center hold a public forum on the general uses of the word Jihad and preparation for the Somali Universal Periodic Review in 2011. Propose an alternative human rights education project with their youth for the Somali Universal Periodic Review in 2011. (Tandem Project Proposals). Exchange ideas with AAIC for a spiritual guidance program based on Islam, human rights and freedom of religion or belief.

Minnesota Council of Churches; http://www.mnchurches.org

The Minnesota Council of Churches is a community of communions who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. As a statewide ecumenical agency formed in 1948, it has brought together mainline Protestant denominations in Minnesota for over half a century. The Minnesota Council of Churches was founded on the principle of collaboration from the start. The mission of Unity and Relationships program of the Minnesota Council of Churches is to manifest the Unity of Christ in the world and to build bridges of understanding between Christians and those of other faiths. They live out this mission through several on-going programs including Muslim-Christian Dialogue, Twin Cities Interfaith Network and Links to Interfaith Organizations.

• Recommendation: Propose Minnesota Council of Churches Unity and Relationships programs on Muslim-Christian Dialogue and the Twin Cities Interfaith Network assist in preparing the Somali Universal Periodic Review in 2011 and United States of America Universal Periodic Review in 2010 (The Tandem Project Proposals). Propose they ask the Minnesota Muslim network of mosques and the Twin Cities interfaith network to be part of this project.

Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs; http://www.hhh.umn.edu/index.php

The Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs was founded in early 1977 to recognize and honor Senator and Vice President Hubert Humphrey, a legislator and statesman recognized internationally for his contributions to improving the well-being of humanity. The Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs Policy Areas appropriate to this issue is: Global Policy, Politics and Governance, Public and Non-profit Leadership. The Institute is located on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota adjacent to the Carlson School of Management. The Center for Democracy and Citizenship (CDC) formerly located for over two decades in the Humphrey Institute Policy Area on Politics and Governance was transferred to Augsburg College in July, 2009. The connection with the Humphrey Institute will remain strong.

• Recommendation: Propose to the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs that programs on Global Policy, Politics and Governance, Public and Non-profit Leadership assist in preparing for the Somali Universal Periodic Review in 2011 and the United States of America Universal Periodic Review in 2010 (The Tandem Project Proposals). Propose they include existing programs with the Carlson School of Management and Augsburg College.

Augsburg College; http://www.augsburg.edu/

Augsburg College is a college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). While Augsburg is a Lutheran college, students come from many different faith traditions and 40 countries. The Core Curriculum combines liberal arts with major course work in 48 departments and programs. There are 6 graduate programs for Master’s degrees. Augsburg is a fully accredited academic institution of higher learning. No matter what your religious background, you are invited to explore your faith and beliefs at Augsburg, where spiritual inquiry is very much a part of everyday life. The Center for Service, Work and Learning is committed to helping develop the skills, habits of mind, and values that are the foundation for life choices, career success, and active citizenship. The Center for Democracy and Citizenship (CDC) formerly located in the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota became an official part of Augsburg College in July 2009.

• Recommendation: Propose to Augsburg College that the Center for Service, Work and Learning, Center for Democracy and Citizenship, Nobel Peace Prize Forum, departments of religion, international relations and student affairs assist in preparation of the Somali Universal Periodic Review in 2011 and United States of America Universal Periodic Review in 2010 (The Tandem Project Proposals). Exchange ideas on existing Augsburg dialogue and programs with Minneapolis Somalis.

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA); http://www.elca.org/

The ELCA has nearly 10,500 congregations in 65 synods with nearly 5 million members across the U.S. Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. ELCA is a member of the global “family” of 140 Lutheran member churches of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in 79 countries with 68 million members worldwide. The ELCA Global Mission (GM) unit is responsible for missions outside the United States. The GM Companion Synods Program pairs ELCA Synods with companion church bodies and dioceses around the world. The ELCA Ecumenical and Inter-religious Relations (ER) unit works on grass-roots efforts with local congregations, ecumenical multilateral dialogues and interfaith discussions. With a regional office in the ELCA in Chicago, Illinois, LWF promotes its mission with the ELCA including the LWF Office of International Affairs and Human Rights. The ELCA Churchwide Assembly will meet August 17-23 in Minneapolis to consider 144 Memorials from the 65 Synods. Memorials are requests from the church’s synods that ask for churchwide assembly action on significant policy issues.

• Recommendation: Propose the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and Lutheran World Federation (LWF) U.S. regional office assist in preparation for the Somali Universal Periodic Review in 2011 and the United States of America Universal Periodic Review in 2010. Propose the St. Paul Area Synod and Minneapolis Area Synod, through the Global Mission Companion Pairing Program, pair with synods of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY); www.eecmy.org. The Ethiopian Church has established programs with ELCA. Propose a joint program with the ELCA on the Universal Periodic Reviews for Ethiopia and Somalia and follow-up for solutions to conflicts based on religion or belief.

U.S. State Department; http://www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/index.htm

The State Department Office of International Religious Freedom has the mission of promoting religious freedom as a core objective of U.S. Foreign Policy. Headed by Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, it’s Office Director and staff monitor religious persecution and discrimination worldwide, recommend and implement policies in respective regions or countries, and develop programs to promote religious freedom. In October 1998, President Clinton signed into law (PL 106-55) the International Religious Freedom Act, passed unanimously by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The law mandates an Annual Report to Congress on International Religious Freedom. The Tandem Project uses these Annual Reports as sources of information for Universal Periodic Reviews & Freedom of Religion or Belief. Here are excerpts from the U.S. State Department International Religious Freedom Report on Somalia:

“The country has an area of 246,200 square miles and a population of approximately 8.3 million; however, population figures are difficult to estimate since the last census was completed in the 1970s and the instability of the country makes it impossible to collect this data. Citizens are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslims of a Sufi tradition. There also is a very small, extremely low-profile Christian community, and small numbers of followers of other religions. The number of adherents to strains of conservative Islam and the number of Islamic schools supported by religiously conservative sources continued to grow.”

“There was active violent conflict among militia groups, the TFG, and the Ethiopian National Defense Forces during the reporting period. Some of the militia groups were aligned with al-Shabaab, which the U.S. Secretary of State designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization on February 29, 2008: ” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2007/90220.htm

• Recommendation: The mission of the U.S. State Department is to represent the United States of America’s foreign policy concerns. With respect to Somalia, there will be two reports before the Somalia Universal Periodic Review in 2011 and one before the United States of American Universal Periodic Review in 2010. The United States is now a member of the UN Human Rights Council. This gives the U.S. State Department a voting opportunity to promote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenants. The Tandem Project suggests the U.S. State Department, religions or beliefs, academic institutions, places of worship, NGOs and civil society consider preparing model local-national-international integrated approaches to Freedom of Religion or Belief for both Universal Periodic Reviews (See: USA Example): Universal Periodic Review & Freedom of Religion or Belief

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THE TANDEM PROJECT PROPOSALS

Proposals for constructive, long-term solutions to conflicts based on religion or belief:

(1) Develop a model local-national-international integrated approach to human rights and freedom of religion or belief, appropriate to the cultures of each country, as follow-up to the Universal Periodic Review. 1. (2) Use International Human Rights Standards on Freedom of Religion or Belief as a rule of law for inclusive and genuine dialogue on core values within and among nations, all religions and other beliefs, and for protection against discrimination. (3) Use the standards on freedom of religion or belief in education curricula and places of worship, “teaching children, from the very beginning, that their own religion is one out of many and that it is a personal choice for everyone to adhere to the religion or belief by which he or she feels most inspired, or to adhere to no religion or belief at all.” 2.

Documents Attached:

Somailia - Call to Jihad & the Universal Periodic Review

Somalia - Universal Periodic Review & Freedom of Religion or Belief

Somalia to Minneapolis - Foreign Ways & War Scars Test Hosptial

UN Human Rights Law on Freedom of Religion or Belief

Standards: http://www.tandemproject.com/program/81_dec.htm

1: USA Example: Universal Periodic Review & Freedom of Religion or Belief

2: Mr. Piet de Klerk, Ambassador At-Large of the Netherlands on Human Rights, 25 year Anniversary of 1981 UN Declaration on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Prague, Czech Republic.

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United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, at the Alliance of Civilizations Madrid Forum said; “never in our lifetime has there been a more desperate need for constructive and committed dialogue, among individuals, among communities, among cultures, among and between nations.”

Genuine dialogue on human rights and freedom of religion or belief calls for respectful discourse, discussion of taboos and clarity by persons of diverse beliefs. Inclusive dialogue includes people of theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any religion or belief. The warning signs are clear, unless there is genuine dialogue ranging from religious fundamentalism to secular dogmatism; conflicts in the future will probably be even more deadly.

In 1968 the UN deferred work on an International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Religious Intolerance because of its complexity and sensitivity. In forty years violence, suffering and discrimination based on religion or belief has dramatically increased. It is time for a UN Working Group to draft what they deferred in 1968, a comprehensive core international human rights treaty- a United Nations Convention on Freedom of Religion or Belief: United Nations History – Freedom of Religion or Belief

The challenge to religions or beliefs at all levels is awareness, understanding and acceptance of international human rights standards on freedom of religion or belief. Leaders, teachers and followers of all religions or beliefs, with governments, are keys to test the viability of inclusive and genuine dialogue in response to the UN Secretary General’s urgent call for constructive and committed dialogue.

The Tandem Project title, Separation of Religion or Belief and State (SOROBAS), reflects the far-reaching scope of UN General Comment 22 on Article 18, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Human Rights Committee (CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.4). The General Comment on Article 18 is a guide to international human rights law for peaceful cooperation, respectful competition and resolution of conflicts:

http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/9a30112c27d1167cc12563ed004d8f15?Opendocument

Surely one of the best hopes for humankind is to embrace a culture in which religions and other beliefs accept one another, in which wars and violence are not tolerated in the name of an exclusive right to truth, in which children are raised to solve conflicts with mediation, compassion and understanding.

We welcome ideas on how this can be accomplished; info@tandemproject.com.

The Tandem Project is a non-governmental organization (NGO) founded in 1986 to build understanding, tolerance and respect for diversity, and to prevent discrimination in matters relating to freedom of religion or belief. The Tandem Project has sponsored multiple conferences, curricula, reference materials and programs on Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion - and 1981 United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief.

The Tandem Project is a UN NGO in Special Consultative Status with the

Economic and Social Council of the United Nations