The Words of the Davies Family

UPF Rally Friday, July 14 - Willem van Oranje, Union of Utrecht and Dr Hak Ja Han Moon

Christopher Davies
July 13, 2006

The UPF Rally planned for Friday July 14 will go ahead as planned, but Dr Hak Ja Han Moon will not be attending: the IND have succeeded in delaying UPF appeals that she be granted entry so that the court hearing in Amsterdam on Thursday will probably not result in a decision in time for Friday.

She has accordingly altered her schedule and plans are being made for her to visit the Netherlands after her tour of Africa, UPF-NL members saying, "IND have won the battle, but will not win the war."

One positive result of this disgraceful behavior by the government department that caused the collapse of the Dutch government/cabinet is that UPF has gained many new friends, similarly outraged at the abuse of the Schengen system, contempt by the IND for the Dutch legal system and the human rights of the Dutch UPF supporters as well as Dr Moon and her husband themselves - an action which is damaging the image of the Netherlands throughout the world - and the disrespect for freedom of thought and religion, fundamental to the proud tradition of the Netherlands.

On Sunday, the UPF-NL rally organizers held a service and meeting in Utrecht. UPF-NL Secretary General Willem Koetsier read an article he wrote over 25 years ago to mark the 400th anniversary of the Union of Utrecht - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_Utrecht - http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unie_van_Utrecht_%28geschiedenis%29 . Entitled "De Betekenis van Vrijheid", it is pasted below and shows that UPF's concern for freedom of religion goes far back before the current difficulties.

UPF's main group in Europe promoting Religious Freedom is FOREF (Forum for Religious Freedom), a human-rights organization, originally started in Austria. It is now a European NGO, committed to safeguarding the most important pillar of our democracy, the right to freedom of belief and conviction and the right to free public expression thereof. - http://www.religiousfreedom.info - there has been a problem with this link, which is to the English section, the original site, mainly in German, is at - http://www.religionsfreiheit.at/ .

FOREF's equivalent in the US is the International Coalition for Religious Freedom - "a non-profit, non-sectarian, educational organization dedicated to defending the religious freedom of all, regardless of creed, gender or ethnic origin. ICRF acknowledges with gratitude that, at the current time, it receives the bulk of its funding from institutions and individuals related to the Unification Church community". - www.religiousfreedom.com

In the Netherlands, there is an archive group FOREF-NL = http://groups.yahoo.com/group/foref-nl and there are more links at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/foref-nl/links - which may not be accessible unless you have a Yahoo ID - easy to get - just go to http://mail.yahoo.com and click on Sign Up underneath Sign In box.

Invoking Willem van Oranje. UPF-NL organized a peaceful presence in the Binnenhof in Den Haag on Tuesday and Wednesday and plans to continue on Thursday with committee member Jan van Winden dressed as Willem van Oranje - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_the_Silent.

As the Dutch Wikipedia reports: "Een van de bekendste uitspraken van Willem van Oranje was: Ik kan niet goedkeuren dat vorsten over het geweten van hun onderdanen willen heersen en hun de vrijheid van geloof en godsdienst ontnemen. Deze woorden werden uitgesproken op 31 december 1564 in de Raad van State. Met deze woorden werd het conflict met de koning van Spanje (Filips II) onder woorden gebracht. "De lijfspreuk van de prins was Je maintiendrai. In het laatst van zijn leven gebruikte de prins deze uitdrukking met een toevoeging: Je maintiendrai l'honneur, la foy, la loi de Dieu, du Roy, de mes amis et moy (Vertaling: Ik zal de eer, het geloof en de wet van God, van de Koning, van mijn vrienden en mij handhaven). - http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_van_Oranje.

The purpose of this action is both to promote the Friday event and protest at the abuse of religious freedom. For more information, you can call Jan van Winden and Jonathan van der Stok.

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