Archives 2009

Nature Neuroscience
Published online: 29 March 2009 | doi:10.1038/nn.2296

Enhancing the contrast sensitivity function through action video game training

Renjie Li¹, Uri Polat², Walter Makous¹ & Daphne Bavelier¹

Introduction

Contrast sensitivity, the ability to detect small increments in shades of gray on a uniform background, is one of the main limiting factors in a wide variety of visual tasks¹. Unfortunately, it is one of the aspects of vision that is most easily compromised. This problem affects thousands of people worldwide, including those with professional activities requiring excellent eyesight, aging populations² and individuals who are clinically evaluated for vision problems such as amblyopia³. Although deterioration of the optical quality of the eye can decrease contrast sensitivity³, optical changes alone cannot account for the diverse array of situations in which the CSF is compromised. Instead, neural factors also appear to be at work. It may therefore be possible to develop interventions that enhance the CSF through neural plasticity. Such an intervention would be of great clinical benefit as a complement to the standard clinical approaches, which are mainly directed at enhancing the optical quality of the eye.

Sizeable performance improvements, brought about through brain plasticity, have been documented in various aspects of vision after training⁴. Yet identification of a training regimen that can improve the CSF, or contrast detection, has remained elusive. Training-induced improvements have been reported for contrast discrimination⁵ but not for contrast detection^{6, 7}. In addition, the documented improvements are typically restricted to the trained stimulus, limiting their practical and theoretical value. The CSF per se has proven difficult to improve. There are some indications that radiologists may exhibit enhanced contrast sensitivity⁸, but the causal effect of experience remains to be established. Studies that directly address training-induced changes in contrast detection show improvements only when using experimental conditions that are known to produce poor performance, such as testing away from fixation or using diagonal orientations^{9, 10}. Yet, to be clinically relevant, CSF improvements need to be documented in foveal vision and with cardinal orientations, where human performance is at its best. To the best of our knowledge, CSF improvements under these optimal conditions have not previously been demonstrated. Here, we identified action video game playing as an efficient tool to enhance the CSF.

Expert action video game players (VGPs) were compared to gender- and age-matched non–action game players (NVGPs) in a CSF procedure¹¹ (Fig. 1a and Supplementary Note 1 online). Because we were interested in the effect of gaming on everyday eyesight, participants were tested binocularly with their current eye prescription. We were interested in whether vision, which should not be far from optimal under such conditions in young adults, may be further heightened by action video game practice. The VGP group showed enhanced contrast sensitivity as compared with the NVGP group, and this population difference interacted with spatial frequency, indicating a greater group difference at intermediate and higher spatial frequencies than at the lowest spatial frequency (Fig. 1b). A similar spatial-frequency dependency has been reported in the aging and in the amblyopia literature and has been attributed to changes in cortical processing rather than to alterations of peripheral, eye-related factors. We propose that the changes that we observed after action game playing also reflect cortical plasticity, but for the better in this case.

Figure 1: Improved CSF as a result of action video game experience.

(a) The CSF was assessed at five different spatial frequencies (1.5, 3, 6, 9 and 12 cycles per degree) by using a two-interval forced-choice procedure in which subjects had to decide which of two intervals, each marked by the presence of four peripheral cross-hairs, contained a Gabor patch. Unlike in the typical clinical procedure, the size of the Gabor patch was scaled with frequency so that the space constant of the Gabor was equal to one period of the grating at all frequencies. A trial consisted of a 30-ms Gabor signal and a 30-ms blank screen, separated by an 800-ms interval. Participants were asked to indicate which 30-ms interval marked by the cross-hairs contained the Gabor signal¹¹. Contrast of the Gabor was modulated in 0.1-log-unit steps following a 3-up–1-down staircase to find the 79% threshold. (b) Contrast sensitivity as a function of spatial frequency in VGPs (n = 10) versus NVGPs (n = 10) and in the action-trained (n = 6) and control-trained groups (n = 7) pre- and post-training. VGPs showed higher contrast sensitivit
y (plotted in log units) than NVGPs (group effect: F_1,18 = 9.37, P = 0.007, partial eta squared (_p²) = 0.34). This group difference was greater at intermediate and higher spatial frequencies (F_4,72 = 2.48, P = 0.05, _p² = 0.12). In the training experiment, the action-trained group showed a significant improvement in contrast sensitivity as a result of training, whereas no such change was noted in the control-trained group (pre/post group interaction: F_1,11 = 5.65, P = 0.04, _p² = 0.34). Curves were obtained by smoothed interpolation between data points. Error brackets are s.e.m. ^*P < 0.05, ^**P < 0.01.

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To unambiguously establish the causal effect of action gaming, we conducted an intensive training study (50 h over 9 weeks) on a small sample of NVGPs. Training consisted of one of two conditions: each trainee played either experimental, action video games (action group played Unreal Tournament 2004 by Atari and Call of Duty 2 by Infinity Ward) or a control, non–action video game (control group played The Sims 2 by Electronic Arts). Like the experimental games, the control game was chosen to be visually complex and engaging, but it differed by having a slower pace and by not requiring precise, visually guided aiming actions (Supplementary Note 2 online). A few days before and after the training period, participants’ CSFs were assessed as described above. Action-trained participants improved significantly more than the control-trained participants (P = 0.04), establishing the causal effect of game playing and ruling out any interpretation of these results in terms of a simple test-retest improvement. In addition, the use of another video game–trained group as a control group ensured that all participants received equal contact with experimenters, limiting any possible social attention effect, such as the so-called Hawthorne effect. Finally, the use of a video game as control training also ensured that the control group, like the experimental group, was engaged in a stimulating video game–related activity. The size of the effect, albeit small in log units (0.16–0.2), represented a large percentage improvement (43–58%) and was extremely robust across the population (Supplementary Note 3 online) .

To further confirm a change in contrast sensitivity, we evaluated the integration time for contrast detection at an intermediate spatial frequency (6 cycles per degree) by measuring contrast sensitivity as stimulus duration varied. The contrast sensitivity–duration reciprocity function is well fit by an exponential saturation function representing the response of a linear low-pass filter¹². Critical duration is defined as the exposure duration at which the contrast sensitivity reaches 90% of its asymptotic value and reflects the time constant for contrast sensitivity (Fig. 2a). A shorter critical duration indicates greater sensitivity, with less overall energy being necessary for detection to occur. As predicted, VGPs showed a significantly shorter critical duration than NVGPs (Fig. 2b, P = 0.02). A training study confirmed the causal effect of action game playing in the reduction in integration time (Fig. 2b and Supplementary Note 4 online).

Figure 2: Improved critical duration as a result of action video game experience.

(a) Contrast sensitivity (plotted in log units) at 6 cycles per degree as a function of display duration (10, 20, 30, 60, 120 and 180 ms) for VGPs (n = 7) versus NVGPs (n = 9), and the action-trained (n = 13) and control-trained groups (n = 9) pre- and post-training. Curves are maximum-likelihood fits of the exponential saturation function log(CS) = log(CS_max) – ae^-t/, where t is the time in milliseconds, CS_max is the asymptote, a is the amplitude and is the time constant. Exponential fits to the individual data were good (VGP, r² = 0.99; NVGP, r² = 0.98). (b) Critical duration was shorter in VGPs than NVGPs (group effect: F_1,14 = 6.60, P = 0.02, _p² = 0.30); in the training study, the action-trained group showed reduced critical duration post-training, whereas the control-trained group did not (pre/post group interaction: F_1,20 = 6.35, P = 0.02, _p² = 0.24). Error brackets are s.e.m. ^*P < 0.05, ^**P < 0.01.

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Playing action video games resulted in an enhanced CSF and a shorter integration time for contrast sensitivity. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to identify a training regimen that improves performance over nearly the entire CSF in adults. These improvements were induced in central vision in young, healthy adults, supposedly at the prime of their visual abilities. This is of practical importance when driving at night or under degraded conditions, as well as during activities such as reading, which are known to correlate with CSF at 6 cycles per degree^{< a href="http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nn.2296.html#B13">13}. More generally, our results establish that time spent in front of a computer screen is not necessarily detrimental to vision. The positive effect remained months and even years after training, indicating long-lasting gains (Supplementary Note 5 online). Although the mechanism of this generalized enhancement remains to be elucidated, potential candidates for such perceptual learning include sharpening, gain enhancement or template retuning through feedback and/or lateral connections¹⁴.

Our results reveal previously unsuspected plastic potentiality in the adult visual system. We found that the benefits of action video game playing are not restricted to attentionally demanding situations (Supplementary Note 6 online), in which the target has to be selected from among distractors¹⁵. Instead, improvements generalized to a visual skill as basic as detecting a single low-contrast Gabor patch. Video game training, therefore, may become a useful complement to eye-correction techniques that are routinely used in the clinic to improve eyesight. Although the underlying cortical plasticity that is induced is likely to be most beneficial for central deficits such as amblyopia, video game playing may also compensate to some extent for optical and retinal defects by retraining the visual cortex to make a better use of the information that it receives, however degraded. Notably, our data establish that not all video games induce such a benefit, calling for special care in the choice of a clinically relevant training regimen.

Note: Supplementary information is available on the Nature Neuroscience website.

March 31, 2009

* Hadith: Prayer Lights Up a Home
* CAIR-Chicago Condemns Hate Speech by IL GOP Candidate
o Racist Freeper Actually GOP Candidate (Wonkette)
* CAIR-LA: Japanese-American, Muslim Youth Exchange
o CAIR-LA: Museum of Tolerance: Intolerant?
* CAIR-OH: Tracked by Spies and Informers
* CAIR-CAN: Muslims Call for ‘Consistent’ Stand on Free Speech
* MI: Archbishop Meets with Muslims at Mosque (Detroit News)
* CA: UCLA Students Launch Campaign to Add Mideast Category

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HADITH OF THE DAY: PRAYER LIGHTS UP A HOME – TOP

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “The voluntary prayers of a man in his home are a light. Whoever wishes should light up his home (with prayer).”

Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 2, Hadith 2

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CAIR-CHICAGO CONDEMNS HATE SPEECH BY IL GOP CANDIDATE – TOP

(CHICAGO, IL, 3/31/09) – A number of religious and civil rights groups today held a news conference to condemn intolerant and hateful remarks made by Rosanna Pulido, the GOP candidate for the 5th congressional district seat.

“Ms. Pulido’s statements under the blog moniker “Chicagolady” contain vicious remarks maligning groups such as Catholics, Mexicans, Muslims, immigrants, and gays,” said Ahmed Rehab, Executive Director of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Chicago. “All Americans including Pulido are entitled to a free opinion; by the same logic, we are entitled to oppose bigotry, particularly from those seeking leadership positions within our country.”

Speakers at the news conference included Juan Salgado, Board President of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights; Reema Ahmad, Government Affairs Coordinator of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Chicago; Junaid Afeef, Executive Director of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (CIOGC); Jane Ramsey, Executive Director of Jewish Council of Urban Affairs; Father Larry Dowling from Priests for Justice for Immigrants; Shayla King, NAACP student chapter president, Loyola University of Chicago.

CONTACT: Catherine Salgado, Communications Director, ICIRR, E-Mail: csalgado@icirr.org, 312.332.7360 x 235; Reem Rahman, Communications Coordinator, CAIR-Chicago, 217.493.0912; E-Mail: communications@cairchicago.org

SEE ALSO:

ANONYMOUS RACIST FREEPER IS ACTUALLY… REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE TO REPLACE RAHM – TOP
Wonkette, 3/31/09

In early March, a gal named Rosanna Pulido won the Republican primary for the upcoming special congressional election in Illinois’ District 5, Rahm Emanuel’s former kingdom. She will lose. But not before making the funnies! She was the founder of the Illinois chapter of the Minutemen, because she *hates* the Mexicans. Once in a CNN interview she described John McCain as “just another politician that acts as if he was elected to represent the Mexican government.” Well maybe he was! AND YET, her most delightful comments came under the name “chicagolady” on the Free Republic website, where she wrote hilarious racist blather for five years until being recently outed…

Oh and she hates the Muslims too, but probably only because she thinks they’re Mexicans. Here she jokes about how funny the Muslims look when they pray to their Mexican God:

It reminds me of my dog, smelling buts…

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JAPANESE-AMERICAN, MUSLIM YOUTH TO PARTICIPATE IN LEARNING EXCHANGE – TOP
‘Bridging Communities’ initiative to culminate in 40th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage

(LOS ANGELES, CA, 3/31/09) Beginning February 21, some 40 high school students from Southern California will learn about the Islamic and Japanese cultures, with topics ranging from ethnic identity, culture/religion, civil rights activism, and experiences following the Pearl Harbor and 9/11 attacks.

The series of cultural program are the fist of their kind in the Southland, and serve to connect youth from the Japanese-American and American Muslim communities. The program is being organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations Greater Los Angeles Area (CAIR-LA), the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California (ISCSC), Japanese American Citizens League – Pacific Southwest District (JACL-PSW) and Nikkei for Civil Rights & Redress (NCRR).

Some of the participants come from the cities of Claremont, Walnut, Corona, Rancho Palos Verdes, Yorba Linda, and Anaheim. Muslim participants are available for media interviews upon request.

WHAT: Bridging Communities Program, a four-day program meant to teach Muslim- and Japanese-American high school youth about each other’s heritage and experiences.
WHEN: On Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 21, March 14, April 4, April 25
WHERE: Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, Islamic Center of Irvine, Little Tokyo, and Manzanar a former Japanese American internment camp

The last day of Building Communities program will culminate in a trip to Manzanar National Historic Site. The Manzanar pilgrimage is intended to raise awareness of civil rights abuses in America’s past with the aim of preventing them from being repeated. Formerly known as “Manzanar War Relocation Center,” the central California site was one of ten internment camps that held more than 10,000 Japanese-American men, women, and children during the war. This year will mark the 40th anniversary of Manzanar Pilgrimage.

“It’s important for Muslim and Japanese youth to learn from each other’s struggles in efforts to advance the cause of civil rights in our nation,” said Affad Shaikh, civil rights manager at CAIR-LA.

SEE: Pilgrimage to Manzanar

Last year, CAIR-LA organized a group of more than 100 Muslims from Southern California to participate in the Manzanar visit. A documentary was subsequently made about the visit and the bonds that were formed between members of the Muslim and Japanese American communities.

SEE:CAIR-LA Documentary of 2008 Manzanar Pilgrimage

CAIR, America’s largest Muslim civil liberties group, has 35 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

CONTACT: CAIR-LA Communications Manager Munira Syeda, 714-776-1847, 714-851-4851; E-Mail: info@losangeles.cair.com

SEE ALSO:

CAIR-LA: MUSEUM OF TOLERANCE: INTOLERANT? – TOP
Osma Dossani, al-Talib (Muslim Student Newsmagazine at UCLA), 3/30/09

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which has built the Museum of Tolerance here in LA, has been issued the permit to build a Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem. There is some tension behind this because the site includes a Muslim cemetery.

“This issue ought to be judged with knowledge,” said Ran Boytner, an Israeli-born archaeology professor here at UCLA. After interviewing the opposing sides, namely the Museum of Tolerance and the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Los Angeles, with the additional help of Ran Boytner, the truth finally emerged.

Ran Boytner affirmed that the site they are going to build on is a Muslim cemetery. “It’s definitely a Muslim cemetery, there’s no question about that,” Boytner stated. He said that it was partially covered by a parking lot sixty years ago, and while the reasons for the building of that car park are nebulous, the fact is that there is a car park there that is on top of human remains.

CAIR also confirms that the site of the new museum is also the site of a Muslim cemetery there. This is the whole reason they are against it. Munira Syeda, a representative of CAIR-Los Angeles, said, “We never said, ‘don’t buil
d,’ we just want it to be moved elsewhere. Not doing so will further the tension and animosity between Muslim and Jewish communities. Companions of Prophet Muhammad and other famous Muslim scholars are said to be buried there. So, obviously the site has a special religious significance for Muslims, aside from having archaeological value.”

She said that the concept of the museum will be a good thing, holds good intentions, yet the location of it must be reassessed. Both Boytner and Syeda noted that for a Museum of Tolerance to stand atop the final resting place of Palestinians would not be tolerant and even hypocritical. (More)

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CAIR-OH: TRACKED BY SPIES AND INFORMERS – TOP
Julia A. Shearson, Cleveland Indy Media Center, 3/30/09

[Julia A. Shearson is executive director of the Cleveland Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.]

The February 26, 2009 revelation in the Los Angeles Times that FBI domestic intelligence informant and ex-convict Craig Monteilh and others were paid handsomely to spy on Muslim Americans in their houses of worship in Southern California should come as no surprise. Such domestic intelligence gathering has a history in the United States.

The annals of modern domestic surveillance in America are contained in the massive 1976 Church Committee Reports of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The reports, drafted by the Senate in the wake of the Watergate scandal, should have ended domestic intelligence abuses, but in the post-9/11 climate, their warnings and descriptions of crimes against liberty go unheeded.

The chapter entitled “The Use of Informants in FBI Domestic Intelligence Investigations” begins: “Men may be without restraints upon their liberty; they may pass to and fro at pleasure: but if their steps are tracked by spies and informers, their words noted down for crimination, their associates watched as conspirators—who shall say that they are free?”

This quote was borrowed from Sir Thomas May, the nineteenth-century author of The Constitutional History of England. May railed against the use of such spying practices by “continental despotisms” and claimed that “the freedom of a country may be measured by its immunity from this baleful agency.”

The Church reports, available on the Internet, are worth reading today in light of the FBI’s consolidation of domestic intelligence powers in the waning days of the Bush administration. Indeed, the December 1, 2008, issuance of the new investigative guidelines by Attorney General Mukasey was a major step in reconstituting the FBI as the United States’ premier domestic intelligence agency with the Department of Homeland Security and the Joint Terrorism Task Forces as their force multipliers on the ground.

We may be safer now because of this, but at what price for liberty? The new post-9/11 domestic intelligence regime, coupled with immense power, information technology, lack of congressional curiosity and lax Department of Justice oversight, has put our Bill of Rights in peril.

In short, the FBI has been sent headlong into what former vice president Cheney calls the “tough, mean, dirty, nasty business” of keeping the country safe from terrorists. But the problem is the FBI cannot serve two masters: it cannot both serve the Constitution and get into the domestic intelligence trenches. History proves this. (More)

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CANADIAN MUSLIMS CALL FOR ‘CONSISTENT’ GOVERNMENT STAND ON FREE SPEECH – TOP

(OTTAWA, Canada, March 31, 2009) – The Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) in an open letter today to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney, called on the federal government to adopt a “consistent” position on free speech and foreign speakers entering Canada.

In its open letter, CAIR-CAN highlighted that virulent anti-Muslim American writer Brigitte Gabriel is slated to speak in Toronto on April 2, 2009 to a prominent Jewish organization, whereas other foreign speakers, on the grounds of hateful commentary, have been denied entry.

“To be clear, we fundamentally value freedom of speech and expression in Canada as enshrined in our Charter of Rights & Freedoms. We are not calling for Ms. Gabriel to be denied entry into Canada but for a consistent standard to be applied by the Government of Canada at all times. When foreign nationals are selectively banned from entry into Canada for their commentary it sends the message that freedom of speech and hate speech are arbitrarily measured,” wrote CAIR-CAN Executive Director Ihsaan Gardee.

“Canadian Muslims and their fellow citizens of conscience are deeply concerned about the nature and content of the message Ms. Gabriel intends to communicate at her scheduled speech in Toronto on April 2, 2009. As such, we respectfully request that your office takes steps to make sure her speech is carefully monitored by local authorities and, if it does contravene the hate-speech laws governing Canada, take appropriate legal action,” Gardee added.

Gabriel, whom the New York Times has called a “radical Islamophobe”, has publicly said “every practising Muslim is a radical Muslim” and that a “practising Muslim, who believes in the teachings of the Koran, cannot be a loyal citizen to the United States of America.”

SEE: Brigitte Gabriel: ‘Islam Is the Problem’
SEE ALSO: ‘Obsession’ Stars Have Lectured at U.S. Military Colleges; U.S. Navy Uses Film

CAIR-CAN is a national, not-for-profit, grassroots organization with a vision to be a leading voice that encourages Muslim civic engagement and the promotion of human rights.

CONTACT: Ihsaan Gardee, CAIR-CAN Executive Director, 613.254.9704; 613.853.4111

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MI: ARCHBISHOP MEETS WITH MUSLIM LEADERS AT DEARBORN MOSQUE – TOP
Gregg Krupa, Detroit News, 3/31/09

Imam Sayid Hassan al-Qazwini, the head of the Islamic Center of America, welcomed Archbishop Allen Vigneron to the largest mosque in the country today, as the new leader of 1.4 million Catholics in Metro Detroit continues to make good on his vow to foster interfaith relations.

“So many of us here today are bound by the word of God, and we look to Abraham as one of our fathers in faith,” Vigneron said. “I am almost overwhelmed by your words of welcome and warmth.”

Vigneron’s trip to the landmark mosque on Ford Road is at least the third by an Archbishop of Detroit, including Adam Cardinal Maida’s visit in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. His visit is still recalled with fondness by many Muslims in Metro Detroit.

“We welcome you to Dearborn, the Muslim capital of the West, as I call it,” Qazwini said. “God says in the Quran, ‘You will certainly find the nearest in friendship to those who say they are Christian.’ Jesus and Mohammad are none other than but two channels to God. Let us open our houses of worship to each other.” (More)

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UC URGED TO EXPAND ETHNIC LABELS – TOP
Middle Easterners at the L.A. campus want to see alternatives to ‘white’ and ‘other’ on university forms.
Raja Abdulrahim, Los Angeles Times, 3/31/09

Nicole Salame, 19, was filling out an application to UCLA last year when she got to the question about race and ethnicity. She thought a mistake had been made.

“I read it five times and was like, where is Middle Eastern?” the freshman recently recalled. “Is it on the other page, did it get cut off? I thought they forgot.”

Her Lebanese-born mother told her Arabs are considered white, but Salame didn’t believe her. Her high school counselor told her the same thing.

“It did not make sense to me, it’s so far-fetched,” said Salame, who ended up checking “Other.”

For years the federal government has classified Arab Americans and Middle Easterners as white. But confusion and disagreement have led some stude
nts to check “Asian” or “African,” depending on what part of the Middle East they came from. Some, like Salame, simply marked “Other.”

Now several UCLA student groups — including Arabs, Iranians, Afghanis and Armenians — have launched a campaign to add a Middle Eastern category, with various subgroups, to the University of California admissions application. They hope to emulate the Asian Pacific Coalition’s “Count Me In” campaign, which a few years ago successfully lobbied for the inclusion of 23 ethnic categories on the UC application, including Hmong, Pakistani, Native Hawaiian and Samoan.

The UCLA students said having their own ethnic designation goes beyond self-identity and has real implications for the larger Arab and Middle Eastern communities. (More)

Internet ripoffs cause 265mn loss Indians fifth largest victims

Internet rip-offs cause $265mn loss, Indians fifth largest victims

Internet-based rip-offs jumped 33 percent last year over the previous year, causing a loss of $265 million to the victims, with the fifth largest number of complaints coming from India, according to a new report.

Internet-based rip-offs jumped 33 percent last year over the previous year, causing a loss of $265 million to the victims, with the fifth largest number of complaints coming from India, according to a new report.

Americans filed 275,284 reports (92.4 percent), claiming to be ripped off on the Internet, the highest number reported since the Internet Crime Complaint Centre, a partnership of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Centre, began keeping statistics in 2000.

Canada came a distant second with 1.77 percent complaints followed by Britain (0.95 percent), Australia (0.57 percent) and India 0.36 percent.

“This report illustrates that sophisticated computer fraud schemes continue to flourish as financial data migrates to the Internet,” said Shawn Henry, the FBI’s assistant director of the cyber division.

At $265 million the total dollar loss from such crimes was $26 million more than the price tag in 2007, the Centre said. For individual victims, the average amount lost was $931.

The dollar loss has been on a steady increase since 2004, while the number of cases referred to law enforcement has decreased steadily since that same year.

Henry said the figures show the need for computer users, in businesses and in homes, to be wary and use sound security practices while using the Internet.

The centre said the top three most frequent complaints were about merchandise that wasn’t delivered or payment that wasn’t received, Internet auction fraud and credit/debit card fraud. Other scams include confidence frauds such as Ponzi schemes, cheque fraud, the Nigerian letter fraud and identity fraud.

One popular identity fraud scam used during 2008 involved sending e-mails crafted to appear as if they had been sent by the FBI. Sometimes the scammers went so far as to say the mailings were from FBI Director Robert Mueller himself, according to the centre.

The e-mails would ask the recipient for personal information, such as a bank account numbers, claiming the FBI wanted the information to look into an impending financial transaction.

One variation of the scheme, according to the centre, was to send an e-mail saying the recipient is entitled to lottery money or an inheritance and the funds can be moved as soon as bank account information is supplied.

The FBI has issued warnings about such scams in the past and Monday’s report included a new one: “The FBI does not contact US citizens regarding personal financial matters through unsolicited e-mails.”

Islamic law protects Muslims from downturn – MarketWatch

Islamic law protects Muslims from downturn

Last update: 7:43 p.m. EDT March 30, 2009
SACRAMENTO, Mar 30, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) — The U.S. economic downturn is taking less out of American Muslims who follow an Islamic law against paying or charging interest, observers note.
The Sacramento Bee reported Monday that as a group Muslims also have been somewhat protected because they are barred from investing in banks and mortgages, which have experienced a big hit in the marketplace.
“If everybody was Shariah-compliant, there would be no recession,” said Farouk Fakira, who moderated a discussion on Islamic finance at Sacramento’s Masjid Annur last week.
Shariah prohibits usury, which often took advantage of desperate people who needed to feed or protect their families, said Imam Muhammed Abdul Azeez of Sacramento Area League of Associated Muslims. “There’s an element of exploitation here.”
About one-fifth of the Sacramento area’s 50,000 American Muslims follow Islamic rules of finance, said Irfan Haq, an economist and president of the Council of Sacramento Valley Islamic Organizations.
“Muslims in general have been much less affected by the recession because they’re very cautious and conservative in matters of finance and take a longer-term view of life,” Haq was quoted as saying. “They want to invest their funds in a way that pleases God so they can sleep peacefully — they care about the afterlife.”

www.upi.com

Copyright 2009 by United Press International End of Story

Al Jazeera English – News

Poor Afghans fail to benefit from funding

Years of war and violent conflict has left many families in Afghanistan deeply disturbed by the reality of life in their country.

With security deteriorating and a massive loss of life, displacement and destruction have become the norm for many Afghans.

Al Jazeera’s Todd Baer has more from the capital, Kabul.

More from: AljazeeraEnglish

alJazeera Magazine – Israel’s hidden plans to take over Jerusalem

Israel’s hidden plans to take over Jerusalem
30/05/2007 06:12:00 PM GMT Comments (15) Add a comment Print E-mail to friend

By Amina Anderson

For 40 years, Israel has been trying to tighten its grip on Jerusalem and its holy sites. But using weapons only couldn’t help this plan. That’s why the Israelis decided to use concrete to achieve their target.

Since 1967, East Jerusalem has been occupied by the Israelis, who started building lives for themselves until today. As soon as the area was captured, the Israeli government devised plans to build neighborhoods to connect the Israeli enclave of Mount Scopus, which holds the Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital, with Jewish populated west Jerusalem.

From the mid 1970’s until the 1980’s, Israel has been mainly concerned with building the Jewish neighborhoods of Neve Yaakov, Gilo and Ramot Allon in East Jerusalem. Israel also expanded the boundaries of East Jerusalem from two square miles to 27 square miles.

“The plan was very simple: to get hold of the area and to consolidate control over the area, creating urban facts,” said Meron Benvenisti, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem in the 1970s. “It was exactly like a military strategic plan to take hold of the high ground, empty land and build there.”

At the Jerusalem Institute Think Tank, Kimhi, the head researcher also said: “All those areas were looking over Jerusalem … all of them were army positions, so it was quite easy for the government to enter the shoes of the Jordanians that left and expropriate it”.

Israel expansion episodes continued. In the 1980s, the government started building a string of West Bank settlements just outside the Jerusalem, including the vast hilltop enclave of Maaleh Adumim, which created a ring around East Jerusalem.

Along the way, Israel refused to take any complaints regarding the violation of the international law, claiming that it’s working on an unoccupied land. Moreover, the Israelis were making sure that the original Arabs are allowed no building permits, which drove them out of the city.

As a final episode, Israel now resumes the journey they started 40 years ago. Settlement construction began again; extensions are being developed in Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and only the finishing touches remain for a police station in an area known as E1.

Apartments in the Muslim and Christian quarters of the old city are now being sold and major projects are being planned in other Arab areas.

“If you have Jewish life east of the Old City, obviously it’s going to make it harder to divide the city,” said Daniel Luria, a spokesman for the Ateret HaCohanim group, which settled 1200 Jews near East Jerusalem holy sites.

Even though Arabs face major difficulties in obtaining authorization for construction, “View of Zion” complex easily issued all the required papers. Now this complex is expected to hold 395 apartments, a hotel, shopping center and a sports club, where sales are already conducted to mostly Jews residing in the United States.

The project forced Arabs to build illegally risking evacuation and legal penalties every minute.

Despite the fact that many Israeli are claiming that this new complex would improve the neighborhood and that it is only intended for the overall wellbeing, Arab residents are concerned over another Israeli project that further disrupts their lives.

The Palestinians are being isolated by Israel’s towering concrete wall along the West Bank, which cut off tens of thousands of Jerusalem’s Arab residents. While the Israeli government is claiming that the Arabs are drawing the wrong conclusions, Palestinians remain skeptical about where they will end up if the Jewish community continues to grow in East Jerusalem.

Therefore, Palestinians remain helpless while the Jewish settlers take more steps to cement their control over the occupied territories.

“You get angry. But what can we do?” Mervat Zayeha, a Palestinian who resides in East Jerusalem, asked, looking at the construction. “It is not in our hands.”

Source: AJP

alJazeera Magazine – American Christians keeping the fast of Ramadan

American Christians keeping the fast of Ramadan
14/09/2007 12:05:00 AM GMT Comments (125) Add a comment Print E-mail to friend

To our Muslim brothers and sisters everywhere:

All praise and thanks be to the one God whom we all worship, who has called you to worship Him after the manner of al-Islam, and us to worship Him according to the gospel of Jesus, whom both faith traditions hail as the Messiah: it is our deep wish that God strengthen you in your devotion to God, your love of God, and your trust in God during this month of Ramadan, and that everything that you do for His sake may be pleasing to Him.

We have joined you in keeping the fast of Ramadan this year, as a freewill offering to God accompanying our prayer for peace, justice, and a spirit of love to grow among the peoples of the Abrahamic religions.

It is our desire that all over the world, if God so wills, Muslim, Jew and Christian can learn to stand together in brotherhood in the sight of their Creator, and encourage one another in faithfulness and good deeds. But we are mourning many of the deeds of our government and our people, as they continue to involve themselves in the affairs of Islamic peoples, and the lives of Muslim detainees held at United States facilities, without sufficiently caring or understanding what they are doing to the people whose lives they affect.

To our sorrow, we see many American Christians trusting, supporting, and following policy-makers whose guiding principle seems to be “let us do evil, that good may come of it,” as if they did not know that our own scripture explicitly condemns it (Romans 3:8). In repenting our own complicity in this, we hope to lead our brother and sister Christians into repentance.

Our power to make the world’s leaders humble themselves, question their own behavior, and let their hearts be turned, seems very small. And yet we draw hope from our certainty that we are listened to by the true Ruler of this world, the Turner of Hearts, who sees everything and holds all power.

This month we curb our natural appetites during daylight hours to be more mindful of the One to whom we must return, the Highest, our Helper.

We perceive, sadly, that many American Christians lack understanding of what it means to be a Muslim. How better to change that than for some of us to join the Muslim world in its Ramadan fast?

We also hope that such self-restraint as we gain from the fast might help restore a spirit of self-restraint to the worldly culture of the industrialized nations, in however small a way, for on our learning self-restraint now seems to depend the saving of the world from ruin.

Advised by Jesus himself to fast privately and without open display (Matthew 6:16-18), we make ourselves available for responses to this communication but without identifying ourselves individually by name. May God comfort you, sustain you in hope, and bestow on you every blessing.

Ramadan Fasters of Christ
christsfasters@aol.com

alJazeera Magazine – Israel’s persecution of Christians

Israel’s persecution of Christians
11/05/2008 10:44:00 AM GMT Comments (41) Add a comment Print E-mail to friend
Instead of Christian worshippers, armed Israeli soldiers crowded the entrance to the Church.

By Dr. Elias Akleh
Instead of Christian worshippers, armed Israeli soldiers crowded the entrance to the Church.

Greek Orthodox Christian celebrations of Saturday’s Holy Fire and Sunday’s Easter in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem late April were violated and spoiled by aggressive interruptions of Israeli army and police.

Instead of Christian worshippers, armed Israeli soldiers crowded the entrance to the Church. Instead of lighted candles, police batons were raised. Instead of musical bands playing their instruments, Israeli soldiers brandished their automatic weapons, and instead of celebrating, Palestinian Christians were confronted by Israeli police, were beaten, and many were arrested.

Since the early hours of the day hundreds of armed Israeli forces descended on the old city of Jerusalem, erected steel barriers closing its gates, established checkpoints within the city’s narrow streets leading to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and installed closed captioned video cameras to monitor worshippers.

The Old City was, again, under occupation by Israeli military and police. Palestinian Christian worshippers from West Bank, from Gaza Strip, from 1948 occupied Palestinian cities, and even local Jerusalemite Palestinian Christians were denied access to the church of the Holy Sepulcher and to the St. Jacob Church to celebrate Easter.

They were told that they had to obtain a military permit in order pray in the church. Many Christian worshippers, who insisted on performing their religious rights free from any military restrictions as they had done throughout the many past generations, tried to force their way through the Israeli barriers, but were met with savage beating, with tear gassing, and with arrest.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate denounced the Israeli measures denying Christian
worshippers access to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Official spokesman to the
Patriarchate father Issa Misleh said the Patriarchate denounces the measures taken by the
Israeli security forces against Christian worshippers during Holy Saturday celebrations.

Father Misleh said, “The manner in which the Israeli police officers dealt with worshippers heading to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Greek Orthodox Monastery to perform religious duties has gone beyond limits. Thousands of worshippers where forbidden to walk in the streets of the old city and many of them, including women and elderly civilians, were physically assaulted.”

The Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III, himself, criticized the Israeli suppressive measures stating: “I refuse such actions against my congregation. The Greek Orthodox Church will cooperate with the rest of the Churches in joint action to put a stop to what happened today and to guarantee the Religious freedom for the people”.

Church officials explained that praying is the right of all the people and no one has the right to prevent worshippers from conducting their ritual and religious duties especially in the City of Jerusalem.

The following press release was issued by different local Christian organizations criticizing the measures taken by the Israeli forces during the religious celebration, where Christians were harassed, singled out and prevented from worshipping freely in violation of the “Status Quo Law” that has existed for hundreds of years to regulate the different religious celebrations

“The Laity Committee in the Holy Land/East Jerusalem

26 April 2008

Christians Harassed in Jerusalem during Orthodox Easter Celebrations

During the Orthodox Easter celebrations, Palestinian Christians were denied their right to worship freely in Jerusalem; they were not allowed to arrive to the Orthodox Patriarchate where celebrations normally take place, and they were not allowed to reach the St. Jacob Cathedral near the Christian Quarter of the Old City.

Since the early hours of the day, the Israeli police had set up barricades at the Gates of the Old City, and when Christian worshipers arrived the Israeli police started shouting at them and pushing them, and there was an incident when the police threw tear gas and beat the Christian worshipers with clubs.

It was obvious that Christians were singled out, compared to Jewish worshipers who arrive in hundreds of thousands to celebrate Pesach in Jerusalem.The number of Palestinian Christians who arrive to the Old City for Easter does not exceed two thousand persons, and this is a manageable number that can be accommodated.

Moreover, there is no need for the police to interfere anyway, because the celebrations have been going on smoothly throughout the years, and there has never been an incident of violence or damage that warrants the closure.

The worshipers were stunned to see that a statement had been circulated by the police and posted on the wall of the Patriarchate, saying that whomever wants to worship in St. Jacob Cathedral must have a permit. This is indeed a flagrant violation of the rights of Christians to worship freely, and what makes the violation more dramatic is that it took place in Jerusalem on a holy day.

The presence of Christians in Jerusalem’s Old City, and the celebration procedures, are part of a Law that has been in place since 300 years. That law, known as the Status Quo Agreement, regulates the celebrations, and according to that Law, Christians have the right to access the Patriarchate and St. Jacob Cathedral. Preventing worshipers from entering is a violation of the Status Quo Agreement.

Such violations by the police should stop. The steps taken against Christians are illegal. We call upon the Consulates, Embassies, Christian organizations, and human rights organizations, to intervene immediately, so the harassment of Christians in Jerusalem will stop.”

Religious freedom has been restricted by the Israeli military since its illegal occupation of the city. Jerusalem, a holy city for the three major religions has been off limit to the local Muslim as well as Christian Palestinians but not to Jewish Israelis.

Pictures of Muslim worshippers kneeling in prayer behind the Israeli military checkpoints have been widespread in media resources all over the globe. Christian worshippers have no better luck, unfortunately media does not capture their hardships except in the major Christian celebrations such as Easter and Christmas.

Christian Palestinian Jerusalemites suffer the most because Israel is adopting a silent policy of evacuating Jerusalem from its Christian citizens to make it a Jewish-only city.

While Muslim and Christian religious freedom is severely restricted by the Israeli government, Jewish Israelis are given the ultimate religious freedom to the point of intoxication.

Jewish Israeli worshippers are given free access to the narrow streets of the Old City. They rush through the streets chanting and dancing loudly without any respect to the feelings of the local citizens. They smash the goods of any open Palestinian shops. Palestinians learnt to close their shops and stick to their homes during such extravagant Jewish celebration. Israeli worshippers spend most of the day and night dancing and drinking alcohol and blatantly provoking Palestinian residents of the city.

Armed Israeli soldiers can also been seen during these Jewish religious celebrations. Yet their presence is
not to secure order and peace, but to protect the tumultuous and mostly drunken extremist Jewish Israeli worshippers from any Palestinian reaction to their provocations and disturbances of peace.

Palestinian Jerusalemites had barely forgotten the insulting provocations of the religiously extremist Jewish Israelis and the harassment of Israeli forces a week before the Jewish celebration of their Passover. In contrast, Christian Palestinians are denied access to their holy places during one of their holiest day of the year.

The presence of hundreds of Israeli armed soldiers and police forces in the city is clear evidence that Jerusalem is an occupied Palestinian city. The Israeli claim of securing religious freedom to worship and to have easy access to the holy places for the followers of the three religions in the city of Jerusalem is a mere propaganda.

The suppressive measures of the Israeli forces against peaceful Christian worshippers during Easter are clear contradictions to this claim. These suppressive measures indicate a deliberate form of religious persecution that stems from the extremist religious ideology of God’s chosen people and the rejection of all others (Goyims).
Source: AJP

alJazeera Magazine – Holy Land lost

Holy Land lost
10/07/2008 02:02:00 PM GMT Comments (27) Add a comment Print E-mail to friend
As Israeli settlements grew, the Palestinians lost freedom of movement

By Dr. James Zogby

As Israeli settlements grew, the Palestinians lost freedom of movement

The very words “The Holy Land” evoke powerful images. But the pictures that come to mind are rapidly disappearing from the landscape.

The occupation of the West Bank, once a military and political reality that dominated the lives of Palestinians, has become concretized: with massive housing projects connected by ribbons of highways; a wall and barbed wire barrier wending its way from North to South, cutting through villages, encapsulating others; and hundreds of checkpoints – all overtaking and transforming the once open terrain.

Raja Shehadeh has described all this in vivid detail in his most recent book, “Palestinian Walks: Forays Into a Vanishing Landscape.” A hiker from a young age, Shehadeh tells his story in a novel way.

Detailing six walks he has taken in and around his home in Ramallah during the last 30 years, he invites his readers to witness the transformations that have occurred, that increasingly circumscribed his movements, and marred his beloved land.

In his early years, Shehadeh set out roaming the hillsides to discover the life his parents and grandparents lived. The hills of the West Bank, once described by Western travelers as desolate and barren, come to life in Shehadeh’s narrative.

Dry one season, yes, but in the spring they were covered with flowers and new life. Conforming to this rough environment, generations of Palestinian farmers adapted their lives to the seasons and mastered these hills, naming every spring, wadi and cliff, and cultivating olives, grapes and family plots.

It was the world they knew and the land they loved.

As they defined the land, it, too, defined them, shaping Palestinian culture and social relations for generations.

This is what Shehadeh saw, in the beginning. The cycle of life, at one with its environment, that had existed for millennia. It was the Holy Land we know from picture postcards, lithographs and biblical stories.

But it is being lost, and this is a tragedy – not only for the Palestinians, but especially for them.

“The biography of these hills is in many ways my own, the victories and failures of the struggle to save this land also mine. But the persistent pain at the failure of that struggle would in time be shared by Arabs, Jews, and lovers of nature anywhere in the world. All would grieve, as I have, at the continuing destruction of an exquisitely beautiful place.”

As the book progresses, the landscape changes, because of the ever-increasing intrusions of the occupation. Walks became more difficult and, in some cases, fraught with danger.

“The other day I had to plead with a soldier to be allowed to return home. I told him that I really did not know a curfew had been imposed on Ramallah. I was away all day and hadn’t listened to the news. ‘I’m tired,’ I said, ‘please let me through.’ Oh, the humiliation of pleading with a stranger for something so basic.”

“How unaware many trekkers around the world are of what a luxury it is to be able to walk in the land they love without anger, fear or insecurity, just to be able to walk without political arguments…without the fear of losing what they’ve come to love, without the anxiety that they will be deprived of the right to enjoy it.”

As settlements grew (there are now almost a half million Israelis living in settlements in these occupied lands), not only did Palestinians lose ancestral lands and agricultural areas, they also lost freedom of movement, their way of life, and their hope for the future.

“The [settlement] master plan viewed our presence here as a constraint and was aimed at preventing ‘undesirable development.’ By creating new human settlements where none existed, connecting them with roads and isolating existing ones, it would not only strangle our communities but also destroy this beautiful land, and in a matter of a few years change what had been preserved for centuries.”

Jerusalem, too, was impacted. At first, cut off from the rest of the West Bank by a ring of settlements and a maze of highways, and now by a meandering and oppressive wall, the heart has been excised from the rest Palestine. Both the city, itself, and its once surrounding communities have suffered. The impact has been economic, social, cultural, and psychological.

“As we descended toward East Jerusalem…I realized that the beautiful Dome of the Rock was no longer visible. It was concealed by new construction. This was by design. Not only had Israeli city planners obstructed the view of this familiar landmark – they had also constructed a wide highway along the periphery of Arab East Jerusalem, restricting its growth and separating it from the rest of the city. Highways are more effective barriers than walls in keeping neighborhoods apart. Walls can always be demolished. But once built, roads become a cruel reality that is more difficult to change…

“No visitor would now sigh, let alone fall on his knees as many a conqueror and pilgrim in the past had done, upon beholding the Old City nestled in the hills. Now contorted, full of obstructions, walls and ugly blocks, it is a tortured city that has lost its soul.”

There is much more to “Palestinian Walks.” Woven through the narrative are stories of the author’s family, and accounts of legal challenges to land confiscations (Shehadeh is a famed human rights lawyer.) This is not an explicitly political book, filled with diatribes and prescriptions. Nor it is a hopeful book.

“As our Palestinian world shrinks, that of the Israelis expands, with more settlements being built, destroying forever the wadis and cliffs, flattening hills, and transforming the precious land that many Palestinians will never know.”

But it is real, and it is disturbing, and deserves to be read by everyone who calls that land Holy.

— Dr. James Zogby is president of the Arab American Institute. For comments or information, contact James Zogby.

Source: Middle East Online

alJazeera Magazine – Wake up, Christians, or lose the Holy Land

Wake up, Christians, or lose the Holy Land
30/03/2009 05:00:00 PM GMT Comments (51) Add a comment Print E-mail to friend
(smith.edu) Western Christendom doesn’t really give a damn about the Holy Land and its people.

By Stuart Littlewood

A British man recently applied to the Church of England to have his baptism into the Christian faith cancelled. Five months, he argued, was too young to decide his religious fate. Now 56, he’s against the indoctrination of children in any religion.

In Spain, I read that the mayor of El Borge has written to the local bishop asking for his baptism to be deleted and his name removed from Church records. He too considers baptism to be a dubious practice because of the age at which it is carried out. Other Spaniards are reported to want out of the Christian faith.

Logging off from the Church has crossed my mind also, but for different reasons. For me it’s the realisation that western Christendom doesn’t really give a damn about the Holy Land and its people, and couldn’t care less that it is being stolen by Zionists who are unwilling to live there in harmony with other faiths. These violent intruders want the entire place for themselves – exclusively – and they are willing to murder, pillage, destroy, ethnically cleanse, and stoop to all manner of inhuman crimes to snatch it, in the name of worldwide Jewry.

Most people in the West, including Christians in their leafy suburbs, turn a blind eye. They are possibly ignorant, but more likely they are misinformed by those who have a twisted view of the scriptures and now swell the ranks of Zionist sympathisers while still posing as devout Christians. The hang out in groups like Christian Friends of Israel and Anglican Friends of Israel, which are part of the wider Friends of Israel network that has its stooges embedded at all levels in our political, business, religious and social fabric.

The Holy Land is at the very centre of the Christian Church’s teachings. It is Christianity’s raison d’être. The Catholic Church at least keeps a considerable presence there, serving Christian and Muslim alike, and resists as best it can Israel’s continual encroachments on its freedom. The dozen or so patriarchs and heads of Christian churches in Jerusalem also speak out strongly from time to time.

But few people in the West seem to realise how seriously Israel’s notorious ‘administrative’ controls disrupt the life and work of the Church. How many are aware that no Muslim or Palestinian Christian living outside Jerusalem is allowed to visit the Holy Places in the Old City? This goes for priests, too, although the Israeli military may, when it suits their mood, grant permits restricted to certain entry points and limiting the duration of stay. These bully-boy tactics make pastoral work a nightmare and participation at major religious occasions well-nigh impossible.

The freedom of the Church was set out in the Fundamental Agreement between the Holy See and the State of Israel in 1993 (but never ratified by the Knesset, I’m told). Buried deep within this document is the clause: The State of Israel recognizes the right of the Catholic Church to carry out its religious, moral, educational and charitable functions, and to have its own institutions, and to train, appoint and deploy its own personnel in the said institutions or for the said functions to these ends.

It turns out to be another worthless promise from a regime that ignores countless UN resolutions, disregards International Court of Justice rulings, is contemptuous of human rights and Geneva Conventions, yet claims to be a western-style liberal democracy sharing our values.

Last week the Israeli authorities deployed police reinforcements to prevent the Palestinians from holding cultural events in East Jerusalem to mark the city’s designation as the 2009 “capital of Arab culture”. East Jerusalem, as everyone knows, is officially Palestinian territory and includes the Old City. Palestinians naturally regard it as the capital of their future state; but the Israelis – unlawfully – claim it is their “eternal and undivided capital”. They intend to make their cruel grip on it permanent.

Criticise Israel in the US and you’ll lose your job. Criticise Israel in the UK and the Jewish establishment and their quasi-Christian friends hurl accusations of anti-semitism. Dare to support the victims of Israeli aggression and you’ll get banned by the freaky Canadian government and vilified, like George Galloway.

The Israelis’ game is clearly to hinder and paralyse Christianity in the Holy Land. It is a process that has been going on for a very long time. When Palestine was under British mandate, Christians accounted for 20 per cent of the population. Sixty-one years of hostilities, dispossession, interference and economic ruination have whittled their numbers down to less than 2 per cent. At this rate there will soon be no Christians left in the land where Christianity was born.

And what is the head of our Anglican Church doing? Last November, while Israel was meticulously planning its blitzkrieg against Gaza’s civilians (including the Christian community) and their democratically elected government, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, joined the Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, in a visit to the former Nazi camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland to demonstrate their joint solidarity against the extremes of hostility and genocide.

“This is a pilgrimage not to a holy place but to a place of utter profanity – a place where the name of God was profaned because the image of God in human beings was abused and disfigured,” said the Archbishop. “How shall we be able to read the signs of the times, the indications that evil is gathering force once again and societies are slipping towards the same collective corruption and moral sickness that made the Shoah possible?”

The signs are there to plainly see, Dr Williams. Evil has indeed gathered its forces again and, as you surely noticed, certain societies have already slipped into the moral cesspit. Look no further than the hell-hole that the Holy Land has been turned into by the Israeli occupation.

So when can we expect a pilgrimage by the Archbishop and the Chief Rabbi to sniff the stench of profanity in the Gaza Strip? And what do they have to say about the relentless theft and judaisation of Jerusalem, I wonder?

Back in the days of the Crusades the Archbishops of Canterbury included Christian men of action like Baldwin and Hubert Walter, who donned armour and took up their sword to fight the good fight (as they saw it) for their belief in the Holy City and what it stood for. Times are different now, but unless the Western Church shows firmer leadership and more grit it will lose the Holy Land and more of its followers will renounce their baptism.

— Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation.
Source: Middle East Online