2 of 4

Yemeni attacker attempted to kill a fifth worker
There's little news from Yemen since the arrest of Abed Abdul-Razak al-Kamil, but The Washington Post reports today that there were nearly five victims instead of four. After wounding pharmacist Donald W. Caswell, Kamil "aimed his gun at a Filipino hospital employee, but the weapon did not fire."

The Times of London reports that Yemeni authorities believe Kamil "is a former member of the country's Islamic opposition party, Islah, but deserted it because he thought it too soft in its war against the West and America."

Other than that, most new stories focus on the victims and the growing threat against missionaries around the world.

"With the rise of religious politics, missionaries come into the cross hairs of Muslim and Hindu fundamentalists," Bernard Haykel, assistant professor of Middle Eastern studies and history at New York University, tells The New York Times. "Certainly as the Arab and Muslim world has become more radicalized Islamically, people have become more aware of missionaries and more irritated by them."

In another development, Associated Baptist Press reports that the hospital was already in turmoil:

The attack came one day before the hospital was scheduled either to close or be turned over to another entity. … Last July the People's Charitable Society, a local Muslim charity, offered to assume control of the hospital, which IMB officials called "an answer to prayer." As the Dec. 31 deadline for the transfer approached, however, no plans were announced and the transfer appeared unlikely. Hospital administrators made plans to close the facility. But in a Dec. 22 memo, administrator Koehn told staff members the transfer to the People's Charitable Society would indeed take place "on or about [the] 28th or 29th of December."

The IMB planned to continue to pay the salary of hospital personnel, including IMB representatives, who wanted to work under the new ownership, but only until the end of their current contracts and only if the new Muslim charity approved, according to the memo.

Most IMB personnel were making plans to leave Yemen or transfer to new jobs elsewhere in the country. But four of the 13—including the three killed—planned to stay. IMB spokeswoman Anita Bowden said the IMB is not commenting on the status of the transfer.

Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention, will be posting several articles on the fallout throughout the rest of the week.

Happy New Year
No Weblog tomorrow. No new article postings, either. We'll be back Thursday.

Missions and ministry:

• It takes a village to raise a house | In a sort of suburban barn-raising, people here are building Gracia and her three children a house for Christmas (USA Today)
  
  
• Telling the world about the Christ of Christmas | Missionary zeal has sent American Christians overseas since before the Civil War (The Washington Times)
  
  
• Priests order last supper at red light diner | Paris loses one of its more unusual culinary landmarks this evening when Le Bistrot du Curé, an outpost of Christian kindness and good cooking amid the streetwalkers, sex shops and neon-lit peep shows of Pigalle, opens its doors for the last time (The Guardian, London)
  
  
• Christian, Muslim women promote peace in Maluku | When GPP Maluku began its job, it faced strong opposition from Christian and Muslim youths (The Jakarta Post)
  
  

next page... |  2 of 4

share this page

December (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46