Concern is mounting in the Netherlands as the country prepares for a film about the Koran by a far-right populist known for his hostility to Islam. It reached the point last Friday that Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende publicly appealed for restraint. A former Malaysian ambassador in The Hague has said the reaction could make the 2006 Danish cartoon controversy look like “a picnic.”

Geert Wilders, who wants to ban the Koran as a “fascist” book and has warned of a “tsunami of Islamisation” in the Netherlands, has proceeded with the film despite warnings from the Dutch justice and foreign ministers. (We blogged on this last November when the warnings came). It’s not clear when it will be broadcast, but it is expected soon. Wilders has denied reports that it will be shown on Friday Jan. 25. There is already a spoof on YouTube.

The last Dutchman who made a film critical of Islam, Theo van Gogh, was murdered by an Islamist radical in 2004. That unleashed a violent anti-Muslim backlash in the Netherlands. Caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in a Danish daily sparked off violent protests in the Muslim world.

With that in mind, the Dutch government has been considering the possible reaction this time around and what to do about it. According to media reports, “these include quick evacuation of Dutch citizens from Muslim countries. The government is expecting riots, flag burnings and boycotts, and has informed municipalities and police to be ready for such eventualities.” Last Saturday, about 200 Christians from various churches met in Zwolle to pray “for calm and tolerance” when the film comes out.

Ehsan Jami, a Dutch-Iranian who launched a Committee of Ex-Muslims last September, has said he is working on a film about the life of Mohammad due out in February or March.

The Danish cartoon controversy was a frontal clash of cultures, with European editors and officials saying free speech was inviolate and Muslim leaders calling for punishment for blasphemy. The Dutch prime minister tried to strike a balance between these views on Friday, saying:

“The Netherlands has a tradition of freedom of speech, religion and beliefs. The Netherlands also has a tradition of respect, tolerance and responsibility. Unnecessarily offending a certain belief or group has no place in that.” He said the government wanted “a free and unhindered debate, and respect in dealing with each other flow from both traditions, and the cabinet shall uphold both traditions and calls on everybody to do so.”

All this concern swirls around a film that nobody has yet seen and whose title is not even known. Tariq Ramadan, the Swiss-born Muslim academic who now teaches in Rotterdam, called it “a movie-provocation about which everybody is talking while nobody knows anything!” He added: “Silence will be the best response.”

Are we headed for another head-on clash? Or do you think that Muslims and non-Muslims in Europe have moved towards better cooperation when one side feels provoked?

It’s amazing what you can do with Google Earth. Some Australian artists have used it to create some clever images of biblical scenes. Click here to see “God’s-eye view” shots of Noah’s Ark beached on Mount Ararat, the crossing of the Red Sea and the crucifixion of Jesus.

Their fourth image is supposed to show the Garden of Eden, but I don’t think it makes it. Where’s the naked couple? Or the serpent? Do those trees look like fruit trees?

Hat-tip to Jewcy.com for the link.

JACKSONVILLE, Florida - Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney felt he may have had a little extra help when answering a reporter's question on one of the most delicate subjects of his campaign -- his Mormon faith.

Asked for his view on the influence of religion on the race for the White House after Mormon voters turned out in force in Saturday's Nevada nomination contest that he won, he replied, "I'll let other people take a look at those things."

A loud thunder clap interrupted his next sentence.
"Wow," he said, looking up. "Maybe HE wants to say something."

He said exit poll numbers showed that he would have won in Nevada even without Mormon support.

"There will always be some people whose vote will be shaped by the faith of the candidate. I don't think that is the majority of the people," he said. "That's just part of the American experience."

About 170,000 people in Nevada, or 6.8 percent of its population, are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the formal name of the Mormon religion headquartered in neighboring Utah.

Television networks reported that voter surveys at polls in Nevada showed that Mormons made up 26 percent of those attending Republican caucuses, with 95 percent of them voting for Romney, who won 51 percent of the total Republican vote.

"If not a single Mormon had turned out, Mitt Romney would have still won the caucuses in that state," said Romney's spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage

- Photo credit: REUTERS/Mark Wallhesier. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks at the start of his Florida swing in Jacksonville January 19, 2008, after winning the Nevada primary.

(Corrects spelling of Mormon in 6th paragraph)

Residents of Rotterdam will find something unusual in their mailboxes next week — a book by a local Dutch Holocaust survivor recalling the wartime Nazi occupation of their city. Isaac Lipschits wrote it as a letter to his mother and entitled it Onbestelbaar (Undeliverable). That’s the “return-to-sender” message the Dutch Post Office stamps on letters whose recipients cannot be found. The author’s mother is untraceable because she was murdered in Auschwitz on January 15, 1943.

The publisher Uitgeverij Verbum plans to send 250,000 free copies of the book to all Rotterdam households — and make it available as a PDF download on its website — on January 24, three days before the international Holocaust Day marking the liberation of the death camp on January 27, 1945. It took the initiative with three Dutch groups devoted to honouring Holocaust victims and opposing racism — the Loods 24 Committee, the Netherlands Auschwitz Committee and the Holocaust Memorial Foundation.

“With this free distribution of the Holocaust book, the sponsors want to encourage Rotterdamers to read the 76-page book and think about anti-Semitism and discrimination,” the Dutch news agency ANP wrote. “Rotterdam Mayor Ivo Opstelten will hand over the first copy of the book at City Hall to the author during the Auschwitz Memorial 2008 ceremony on January 23. Opstelten has also written the foreword to Onbestelbaar.”

The publisher’s website describes the book as follows:

“Isaac Lipschits was born in Rotterdam and grew up there (in Agniesenstraat 59b) until he had to go into hiding in 1942. His father ran a market business. His parents let Ies (his nickname) and his younger brother hide, and thus the two brothers were able to survive the war. The rest of the family died sorrowful deaths in Eastern Europe. In his book ‘Onbestelbaar,’ he writes a letter to his mother telling her what happened to him and the rest of the family. The result is a powerful indictment of injustice and the persecution of the Jews, as well as a call for respect. With its striking simplicity, ‘Onbestelbaar’ is a book for everyone, young and old, for minorities, Muslims, Jews or Christians, for believers and non-believers, those who are politically aware and those who are not…”

Lipschits was born in 1930 in Rotterdam. After the war, he became a professor of contemporary history and taught at several universities in the Netherlands and Israel. Now retired, he was the initiator of the Digital Monument to the Jewish Community in the Netherlands that went online in 2005 to preserve the memory of all Dutch victims of the Holocaust.

DALLAS - The Family Research Council (FRC), an influential conservative lobby group with strong evangelical ties, has issued a "Values Voter Guide For 2008 Presidential Candidates."

Self-styled "values voters" are religiously motivated social conservatives -- usually evangelical Protestants or conservative Catholics -- who cast their ballots for candidates sharing their moral outlook such as opposition to abortion rights and gay marriage.

These voters are a key base for the Republican Party and, while groups such as the FRC do not endorse specific candidates, conservative Republicans tend to be the main beneficiaries of their activism.

Distribution of voters' guides, detailing the positions of candidates on key issues such as stem cell research, are a core activity for such groups.

The FRC's presidential voting guide, issued late on Thursday, says it has "drilled down on the issues important to the family."

Among other things, it asks whether candidates "support Medicaid-funded abortions," what form of stem cell research they would allow federal funding for, and whether they would support a constitutional amendment "to define and protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman."

It says Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Hillary Clinton supports Medicaid-funded abortions and opposes a constitutional amendment that would effectively bar gay marriage.

Former Arkansas Governor and Republican candidate Mike Huckabee -- the emerging favorite of religious conservatives -- would, according to the FRC voter guide, "veto any bill to provide federal civil rights protection on the basis of sexual orientation."

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage

-- Photo credit (top): Reuters/Rebecca Cook. Mike Huckabee, a favorite of religious conservatives, campaigns in Warren, Michigan, Jan 15

-- Photo credit (bottom): Reuters/Phil Klein. Hillary Clinton, a former first lady, speaks at the University of California Santa Barbara, Jan 17

French Muslims have become more observant in recent years, according to a new survey.

Thirty-nine percent of Muslims surveyed by the polling group IFOP said they observed Islam’s five prayers daily, a steady rise from 31 percent in 1994, according to the study published in the Catholic daily La Croix.

Mosque attendance for Friday prayers has risen to 23 percent, up from 16 percent in 1994, while Ramadan observance has reached 70 percent compared to 60 percent in 1994, it said.

Read the whole news story on it here in English.

In French, you can find the full results of the survey “1989 – 2007 Enquête sur l’évolution de l’Islam de France” from the IFOP polling group.

Nicolas Sarkozy’s serial taboo-breaking is getting him into hot water. Anybody following the news these days knows about his roller-coaster love life, which has hurt his popularity ratings in a country where Monsieur le Président is supposed to be more discreet. Now his challenge to France’s laïcité — a word signifying both the separation of church and state and the taboo against bringing religion into public affairs — is provoking a backlash. What especially seems to have got his critics going is the fact that he not only praised religion in a speech in Riyahd on Monday but also counted his Saudi hosts among those Muslims “who struggle against fanaticism and terrorism, those who appeal to the basic values of Islam to combat the fundamentalism that negates them.” The fact he was also trying to sell nuclear power plants and other big-ticket French export items to Muslim countries during the same trip did not go unnoticed in his detractors’ comments.

The issue came up during parliamentary questions in the National Assembly on Wednesday (click here and search for Glavany for the exchange in French). Now criticism is coming in from the left and the right of the political spectrum, as well as in editorials. Jean Bauberot, a professor of the history of laïcité, told the Catholic daily La Croix he was worried that Sarkozy was pursuing a “lay Catholic civil religion” that might define France as a Catholic nation rather than a secular one.

True to form, Sarkozy broke with the presidential tradition of staying above the fray and shot back at his critics in an aside during a speech on Thursday about economic policy: “I know people accuse me of being much too interested in religion … I am not questioning the secular system.”

One of the things that strikes me is that Sarkozy seems to be going beyond not only the normal French politician’s way of talking about faith (i.e. ignoring it) but also the usual comments we hear from American politicians. Some French have said that he’s speaking like an American politician. Sure, we’ve heard some quite clear comments about God and faith from former Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee or from Mitt Romney in his “Faith in America” speech. But most U.S. politicians seem to talk about faith without getting too specific about, for example, who God is for them. Being too specific carries with it the risk of pinning yourself down too much and alienating voters who don’t have the same view.

In his Riyadh speech on Monday, Sarkozy talked about “… the one God of the religions of the book … the transcendent God who is in the thoughts and hearts of everyone … God who does not enslave man but free him … God who is the rampart against the enormous pride and folly of mankind … God who, beyond all the difference, never stops sending manking a message of humility and love, a message of peace and fraternity, a message of tolerance and respect…”

Do you think Sarkozy, by being so specific in talking about God, goes beyond the kind of civil religion echoed in most U.S. political speeches? We know he likes America (that in itself amounts to breaking a taboo in France!). But is he now going even a step further than most American politicians would?

DALLAS - There is a lot of talk of a looming recession in the United States but evangelical churches — which some would regard as a “growth area” of the economy in recent years — seem to be weathering the storm.

According to the National Association of Evangelicals – a loose-knit group that reporesents about 30 million of America’s 60 million evangelicals — churches under its umbrella brought in more money in 2007 than they did in 2006.

“Responses to the monthly Evangelical Leaders Survey during the first week of January 2008 reported that more than 60 percent of evangelical ministries received more money in 2007 than in previous years. Twenty-seven percent of organizations were about the same as the previous year. Twelve received less income,” the NAE said.

The NAE’s “Leaders Survey” is a different question posed each month to 100 members of the NAE board of directors and includes heads of evangelical denominations with about 45,000 local churches.

“Among the majority reporting increased income the most typical amount was five percent over the previous year although some were as much as 50 percent under special circumstances. Most did not indicate the size of the increase but just that finances were strong and growing,” the NAE said.

But one theme it identified was a growing reliance on large tithes from key donors. It said some ministries were getting the same funds but often from fewer donors.

Does this point to a slow-down in the growth of the flock after years of swelling numbers, often at the expense of mainline denominations? Or does it suggest that the less affluent members have less money to give and the more fortunate are stepping up to the plate?

Both questions will be interesting to probe in the year ahead. Evangelicals thrive on growth — they place much emphasis on the conversion experience and believe it is their duty to spread the Gospel — and like all churches they also depend on the goodwill of their members for financial support.

For the first time since Pope Benedict’s election in 2005, the Vatican has issued a speech he did not read. The Pope was to have visited Rome’s La Sapienza University on January 17 but student demonstrations (the kind that would have made anyone who was alive in the 1960s nostalgic) forced him to change his plans.

A small number of students and professors accused the Pope of being against science, citing a speech he made in 1990 when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. The students and professors argued that that speech showed he would have supported the church’s heresy trial against the astronomer Galileo in the 17th century. The speech did not, in fact, state that and the Vatican promptly said the protesters had misunderstood it.

As pictures from the university showed, the protest appeared to be more against a man accused by some Italians of interfering in politics with his positions against gay marriage and abortion, and his opposition to proposed legislation that would give unmarried couples more rights. While many Italian students do not like Benedict, Italian media reports said most believed he had a right to speak, even if he would be booed. A large group of students turned up at the Pope’s weekly audience on Wednesday with banners saying “If Benedict doesn’t come to La Sapienza, La Sapienza will come to Benedict” and “Students with the Pope.” One held up an Italian flag with the slogan “Viva il Papa.”

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarciscio Bertone wrote a letter to the rector of the university explaining that the the pope would not show up because he could not be assured “a dignified and tranquil welcome“.

On the eve of the event that was not to be, the Vatican decided to release the text — which in itself hardly deserved such controversy. The speech is a long philosophical discourse on faith, reason, the search for truth and the reasons why a pope should speak at a university. Benedict said he was speaking as Bishop of Rome rather than as a professor (which he said he was doing at Regensburg in 2006, where he made the famous speech that upset many Muslims).

He cited philosophers down the ages, from Socrates in ancient Greece, St Thomas Aquinas in the Middle Ages and contemporary thinkers John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas (as well as Jesus Christ and Pontius Pilate). Many professors might have had difficulty following such an erudite speech, let alone the students who were ready to throw eggs if he had come to deliver it.

One phrase they might perhaps have appreciated was his admission that his own intellectual family had not always got things right: “Various things said by theologians in the course of history or put into practice by Church authorities have been shown by history to be wrong.” If he had gone to the university despite the protests, he might have added an impromptu comment that students sometimes err too.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was their champ in Iowa, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney did well with them in Michigan, and the latest Pew poll shows Huckabee in a narrow lead for their affection ahead of a fourth rival Arizona Sen. John McCain.

Conservative evangelicals, a key Republican base, have still not quite unified around one single presidential candidate -- leaving the party's White House nomination up for grabs.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center, which involved the polling of over 1,500 adults from Jan. 9-13, found that among conservative evangelical Republicans, Huckabee had the edge with 33 percent versus 25 percent for McCain. Romney was fourth with just 12 percent.

But in Michigan where Romney -- a native son to the state -- had a thumping victory on Tuesday night, some exit polls suggested he even edged ahead of Huckabee, who came in third overall,  for their support.

Huckabee's victory in Iowa was largely attributed to his connection with evangelicals there -- but that was a state where many voters got to see the candidates in person and so was tailor-made for the Baptist preacher's  folksy style, which goes down well with the church-going crowd.

In Michigan, the poor economy there seemed to perhaps weigh most heavily with evangelicals whom some conservative activists have dubbed "values voters."

What do all of these polls suggest?

"I would say this suggests that Huckabee still has work to do," said the Pew's Scott Keeter.

"McCain is regarded as a very conservative candidate. The evangelicals, while they do value the religious dimension they share with Huckabee, have a  social conservatism that is very consistent with McCain's on the issue of abortion. He's not out of step with them on a range of issues," he said.

McCain's Vietnam war-hero status and tough-guy talk and experience in areas of national security also resonate with many evangelicals -- and he has the lead in most polls of South Carolina, which holds a crucial "first-in-the-South" Republican primary on Saturday.

But count on Huckabee to make a big bid for the substantial evangelical vote there.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

-- Photo credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst (Romney campaigning in South Carolina), Rebecca Cook (Huckabee during a campaign stop in Michigan on Tuesday).