Charity?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/02/aid-workers-accused-of-trying-to-convert-muslim-refugees-greek-camp-detention-centre-lesvos-christianity

The Guardian

Aid workers accused of trying to convert Muslim refugees at Greek camp
Asylum seekers held at detention centre on Lesbos describe Christianity conversion forms seen by the Guardian as insensitive

Patrick Kingsley in Moria, Lesvos
Tuesday 2 August 2016 06.00 BST Last modified on Tuesday 2 August 2016 07.57 BST

Christians working in Greece’s most notorious asylum detention centre have tried to convert some of the Muslim detainees, who have been held under the terms of the EU-Turkey migration deal.

On at least two occasions in recent months, aid workers have distributed conversion forms inside copies of Arabic versions of the St John’s gospel to people held at the Moria detention camp on Lesbos.

The forms, seen by the Guardian, invite asylum seekers to sign a statement declaring the following: “I know I’m a sinner ... I ask Jesus to forgive my sins and grant me eternal life. My desire is to love and obey his word.”

Muslim asylum seekers who received the booklet said they found the aid workers’ intervention insensitive.

“It’s a big problem because a lot of the people are Muslim and they have a problem with changing their religion,” said Mohamed, a detainee from Damascus. “They were trying this during Ramadan, the holiest Muslim month.”

A second Syrian, Ahmed, said: “We like all religions, but if you are a Christian, and I give you a Qur’an, how would you feel?”

Detainees alleged that the forms were distributed by at least two representatives of Euro Relief, a Greek charity that became the largest aid group active in Moria after other aid organisations pulled out in protest against the EU-Turkey deal. The camp is overseen by the Greek migration ministry, but aid groups perform most of the day-to-day management.

Euro Relief said it disapproved of the distribution of conversion materials, but added it could not rule out the possibility that individual aid workers had distributed the booklets themselves.

Euro Relief’s director, Stefanos Samiotakis, said: “I have already taken action, so that our volunteers know very well that they should not distribute any kind of literature. Our code of conduct … says clearly that this is something they simply cannot do and if somebody does we are going as an organisation [to] take disciplinary actions.”

The Greek migration ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

The situation is the latest consequence of the closure of a humanitarian corridor between Greece and Germany, and the subsequent enactment of the EU-Turkey deal.

Between January 2015 and March 2016, about a million asylum seekers had been allowed to move onwards through the Balkans after landing in Greece from Turkey. But in March, Macedonia shut this humanitarian corridor by closing a crossing point on the Greek-Macedonian border.

A few days later, the EU agreed a deal that could see all those landing in Greece after 18 March deported back to Turkey, in a deal that rights groups say contravenes international law.

The moves have stranded up to 57,000 asylum seekers in Greece – most of them on the mainland, and a few thousand detained on Greek islands such as Lesbos, in overcrowded camps like Moria.

Detainees and rights activists have criticised the squalid conditions inside the camps, where inmates are often without electricity, running water is not always on, baby milk formula is sometimes unavailable and the asylum application system is inscrutable and slow.

In several camps, the frustration has led to riots, with many of detainees speaking of a general sense of fear, lawlessness and hopelessness.

“We see violence almost every day,” said Fatima, a Syrian detained inside Moria with her husband and three-year-old daughter. “We don’t feel safe here, we don’t feel comfortable here.”

EU states are supposed to relocate the vast majority of those who arrived in Greece prior to the EU-Turkey deal but progress has been slow, with just a few hundred moved elsewhere in the continent, and aid groups are preparing for the possibility of most of the 57,000 being stuck in Greece for the long term.

On this day in 1990 Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.

In 1990 Iraq accused Kuwait of stealing Iraqi petroleum through slant drilling, although some Iraqi sources indicated Saddam Hussein's decision to attack Kuwait was made a few months before the actual invasion.[1] Some feel there were several reasons for the Iraqi move, including Iraq's inability to pay more than US$14 billion that had been borrowed to finance the Iran–Iraq war, and Kuwaiti production of a large amount of petroleum which kept revenues down for Iraq.[2] When the Iran–Iraq War broke out, Kuwait initially stayed neutral and also tried mediating between Iran and Iraq. In 1982, Khomeini openly attempted exporting the Iranian Revolution to Kuwait. As a result, Kuwait supported Iraq in order to prevent Iranian hegemony in Kuwait. In 1982–1983, Kuwait began sending significant financial aid to Iraq. Kuwait's large-scale economic assistance to Iraq often triggered hostile Iranian actions against Kuwait. Iran repeatedly targeted Kuwaiti oil tankers in 1984 and fired weapons at Kuwaiti security personnel stationed on Bubiyan island in 1988.[3] During the Iran–Iraq War, Kuwait functioned as Iraq's major port once Basra was shut down by the fighting.[4] However, after the war ended, the friendly relations between the two neighbouring Arab countries turned sour for several economic and diplomatic reasons that culminated in an Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

By the time the Iran–Iraq War ended, Iraq was not in a financial position to repay the US$14 billion it borrowed from Kuwait to finance its war and requested that Kuwait forgive the debt. Iraq argued that the war had prevented the rise of Iranian hegemony in Kuwait. However, Kuwait's reluctance to pardon the debt created strains in the relationship between the two countries. During late 1989, several official meetings were held between the Kuwaiti and Iraqi leaders but they were unable to break the deadlock between the two.

The invasion started on 2 August 1990, and within two days of intense combat, most of the Kuwait Armed Forces were either overrun by the Iraqi Republican Guard or fell back to neighboring Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The Emirate of Kuwait was annexed, and Saddam Hussein announced a few days later that it was the 19th province of Iraq.

1. Gause, F. Gregory, III (2005). "The International Politics of the Gulf". In Louise Fawcett. International Relations of the Middle East. Oxford: The University Press. pp. 263–274.
2. Cooper, Tom; Sadik, Ahmad (16 September 2003). "Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait; 1990". Air Combat Information Group Journal. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
3. "Iran reportedly fires on Kuwaiti island", Lakeland Ledger, 30 March 1988
4. Stork, Joe; Lesch, Ann M. (1990). "Background to the Crisis: Why War?". Middle East Report. 167 (November–December): 11–18.