Countering Home-Grown Terrorists in Australia: An Overview of Legislation, Policy and Actors Since 2001

This article explores the impact of counter-terrorism legislation and policy in Australia. In particular it explores how legislation facilitated prosecution and conviction of persons involved in home-grown terrorism, including analysis of investigation and prosecution policy surrounding the ul-Haque and Haneef cases. Particular attention is given to the terrorism trials involving Benbrika & Ors and Elomar & Ors. What makes these trials intriguing is the fact that most of those convicted could be more easily described as more vulnerable than menacing. Sentencing of those convicted was cognate with no policies for rehabilitation. The small number of convictions under the legislation when considered against the increased funding of counter-terrorism, loss of traditional rights and privileges and Australia’s involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq raises issues about adequate policy setting in this area

Protecting Ecosystems, Culture, and Human Rights in Chile Through Indigenous and Community-Conserved Territories and Areas

In environmental conservation circles around the world, the contributions of indigenous peoples and local communities to the sustainable maintenance of ecosystems and natural resources are being given increased attention. Whether for cultural, spiritual, economic, or other purposes, the use of traditional and local knowledge of habitat and resource management is slowly making its way into the modern environmental movement, and is being incorporated into the dominant conservation paradigms. These managed areas, known as Indigenous and Community-Conserved Territories and Areas, or ICCAs, are defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as “natural and/or modified ecosystems containing significant biodiversity values, ecological services and cultural values, voluntarily conserved by Indigenous peoples and local communities, through customary laws or other effective means”. The ICCA concept constitutes a new way of thinking about environmental protection which incorporates preserving the human rights of indigenous peoples, which are explicitly enshrined in international law. After spending eight months working with a human rights NGO in Temuco, Chile, the author has focused on the ICCA concept for his capstone project, as it provides a solid combination of his practicum work and personal interests. Through participatory research and collaborative efforts of his Chilean and indigenous Mapuche colleagues, the author answers the research question, “What are the major benefits of ICCAs, and what are the principal barriers to their broader support and effective legal recognition in Chile?” Based on his findings, the author outlines a comprehensive project proposal that seeks to address the underlying issues that have served to marginalize indigenous peoples in Chile. Furthermore, the proposal also supports the appropriate legal mechanisms required to give ICCAs – and their indigenous and local stewards – formal recognition under Chilean law

Finding the Catholic Thing : Catholic Studies Should be catholic

Catholic studies programs seem to be springing up like mushrooms all over the country\u27. Typically, these programs involve the awarding of a certificate or a minor, and in some cases bachelor\u27s and master\u27s degrees. They range from well-funded and highly developed enterprises such as the program at the University of Saint Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to modest interdisciplinary programs such as the one at Santa Clara University in California. Not only Catholic universities, but some secular ones as well, are in the process of establishing some kind of Catholic studies program or chair. Some of these programs signal a healthy reinvigoration of Catholicism and interest in the Catholic faith tradition at a time when many people inside and outside the church question some of the directions taken by the Catholic church in the past few years. In many places, these programs are attracting students who are eager to learn more about their faith and to delve into it more deeply, even in places where there already seem to be many excellent existing resources for the study of Catholicism. The existence of these programs is already generating a cottage industry involving conferences, publications, research grants, and academic working groups at national academic meetings of theologians and religious scholars

Music of the Invisible: Messiaen’s Saint Francis

Saint Francois d\u27Assise, Olivier Messiaen\u27s only operatic work, received its world premiere in Paris in 1983. It has rarely been performed since, partly because of the sheer scope and audacity of the project, but also because of its subject matter--faith itself. This fall, the San Francisco Opera, newly directed by Pamela Rosenberg, gave the opera its U.S. premiere in its namesake city. It was a brilliant gamble, possibly opening a new operatic door in America. This is an opera unlike any other--an unabashed paean to music, to nature, and to the mystical path to joy seen in the figure of Francis (sung movingly by baritone Willard White)

Decreasing Resistance to Change in the Form of Food Selectivity for Children with Autism

Repetitive and restricted response patterns are a core symptom of autism spectrum disorder, and resistance to change is a behavioral subcategory of these symptoms. Food selectivity, consumption of a limited variety of foods and liquids or rigidity during mealtime routines, is a common change-resistant behavior of children with autism that may increase the child’s risk for severe health problems such as obesity and additional learning and behavior problems (Freedman, Dietz, Srinivasan, & Berenson, 1999). Unexpected changes in routines or in the environment can cause behavioral outbursts that are disruptive or potentially dangerous to the child, caregiver, or property and increase caregiver stress. In the current investigation, we used a matching law conceptualization to treat the change-resistant feeding behavior of seven children diagnosed with autism and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. We increased consumption of healthy target foods and assessed whether the treatment generalized to nontargeted foods

Theology in the Light of Human Suffering: A Note on “Taking the Crucified Down from the Cross

The writings of Jon Sobrino on suffering are so extensive, the theme so pervasively represented in virtually all of his works, that it is difficult to know where to start delineating a theology of suffering in his works . Sobrino himself does not identify any one part of his work as a theology of suffering per se. Still, there are certain fundamental motifs that recur throughout his writings and that lend to them a coherence and consistency that allow us to take the measure of his contribution to theological reflection on suffering. This project is probably best undertaken in retrospect, as we survey Sobrino \u27s vast corpus, and as we reflect with gratitude on all that this great theologian has given us to consider on the topic of suffering. I will demonstrate here that the attempt to articulate Sobrino\u27s theology of suffering will take us directly into his theology of the cross and resurrection-his theology of the paschal mystery - for this is where his fundamental reflections on suffering are to be found. I wish to consider Sobrino\u27s approach to suffering in three stages. First, I will examine Ellacuria\u27s metaphor of the crucified people:\u27 I will then show how Sobrino develops this metaphor in his own work, particularly in his theology of the paschal mystery. Finally, I will suggest that the praxis of resurrection gives concrete form to the summons to remove the suffering poor from their crosses. The whole of Sobrino\u27s theological treatment of suffering, I will argue, can only be seen within the framework of the paschal mystery, both cross and resurrection. Eschewing a theodicy removed from Christology, Sobrino\u27s theology from suffering is an integral moment of his Christology and leads to a central insight into suffering: that the power of God\u27s love wants to bring it to an end

Between Earth and Heaven: The Dialectical Structure of Ignatian Imagination

The theology of liberation has by now entered the common lexicon not only of theologians, but of many people who have until recently expressed little interest in theology.1 It is a theological genre or, better, a movement issuing out of and responsive to the experience of the poor and suffering of history, based upon a conviction that the Gospel has direct pertinence to the concrete human condition. It calls for a liberating practice as the way salvation is to be realized in history. A theology of liberation understands the Gospel as a divine challenge to any exercise of political and economic power that would threaten the very survival of human beings. The Gospel itself calls for a transfiguration of the earthly city and human history into an image of the kingdom of God. Thus, a theology of liberation moves in two directions: toward the fulfillment of human history in the absolute freedom of eternal life, and the working out of salvation within history itself