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Government steps up outreach to foreign envoys, explaining its achievements in the region home to Muslim minorities
China’s counter-terrorism and de-radicalisation efforts in its far western region of Xinjiang should be applauded for creating a new method of tackling the problem, a senior diplomat told foreign envoys last week.
China is stepping up its diplomatic outreach over controversial detention camps in the heavily Muslim region, inviting more foreign diplomats to visit as it seeks to head off criticism from Muslim-majority nations and at the United Nations.
Exclusive: Activists urge embassy to ‘tell us if they’re alive or dead’ amid claims of inaction by Canberra
Seventeen Australian residents are believed to be under house arrest, in prison or detained in China’s secretive “re-education” centres in Xinjiang, the Guardian can reveal.
The 17 cases – 15 Australian permanent residents and two on spouse visas – have been collected by Nurgul Sawut, an advocate for Uighurs in Australia, through interviews with their family members.
Show of public Christian worship considered largest ever seen on the Arabian peninsula
Marivic Sorita’s eyes filled with tears as she spoke of her daughters back in the Philippines. She has seen them only three times in the 11 years she has worked as a housemaid in Abu Dhabi. Her eldest, now 21, had recently completed her studies “thanks to the sacrifice” Sorita has made by the separation, sending almost all her salary back home.
Maybe one day, when her 14-year-old daughter has also finished her studies, Sorita will be able to go back to Manila and be reunited with her family. But for now, she was enjoying a rare day off work for what she described as a “very, very special” occasion.
Almost one-third in UK see rift, finds survey ahead of pope’s visit to Arabian peninsula
Large numbers of people in Christian-majority countries in the west see a fundamental clash between Islam and the values of their nation, according to a survey.
However, significantly fewer people in the Middle East and North Africa view Christianity in the same way.
As the first leader of the Catholic church to visit the Arabian peninsula, Francis knows his contact with Muslims will be as important as the mass he hosts for the Christian minority
Pope Francis’s visit to the United Arab Emirates this week will be greeted enthusiastically. Some 120,000 people are expected to turn out for his mass in a sports stadium in Abu Dhabi – as many as turned out in Dublin when he travelled to historically Catholic Ireland last year. The first visit by a pontiff to the Arabian peninsula, the birthplace of Islam, highlights the complications of the religious situation in the Middle East, and more widely the issues of Christian-Muslim relations.
There may be as many as 2 million Christians in the Middle East today. Despite nearly 16 years of war and sometimes brutal persecution in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq, many remain in the lands that were the cradle of Christianity. In part this is because it is still made as hard as possible for them to leave the region. The Christians of Iraq have largely been driven from their homes by persecution, as have some of the Christians of Syria, where a number have taken the side of the Assad dictatorship. But they have ended up in refugee camps rather than reaching notionally Christian Europe.
Result raises hopes of an end to decades of violence including attacks by Isis-inspired groups
People in the Muslim-majority southern Philippines have voted by a landslide to create a new autonomous region covering five provinces and three cities, a result the government hopes will bring peace to a war-torn part of the country and address issues that lure recruits to Isis-inspired groups.
On Friday, the election commission declared the Bangsamoro Organic Law plebiscite “ratified”, four days after the vote was held. Almost 1.6 million voted yes, while 250,000 voted no.
The next 15 megacities #5: Tourist flock to the Xi’an’s ancient Muslim area – but reports from elsewhere in China of crackdowns and re-education camps are setting nerves on edge
The streets of Xi’an’s Muslim quarter are bustling. Tourists from all over China and the rest of the world throng the small stalls and restaurants for delicacies such as yangroupaomo lamb stew, roujiamo lamb burgers, persimmon cakesand “smoked ice-cream” – a bowl of puffed cereal dipped in liquid nitrogen.
There has been a Muslim community in the capital of Shaanxi Province – at the eastern end of the old Silk Road in central China – since the seventh century. During the Tang dynasty, when the city was called Chang’an, travelling Muslim merchants and some soldiers from central and west Asia made it their home. Many married Chinese Han women, and their offspring became known as Hui, now one of China’s 56 ethnic groups.
Pristina badly needs a new mosque – but Turkish attempts to court the young Balkan state with investment and advocacy is making some uneasy
It is six years since Islamic leaders and government officials laid the cornerstone of Pristina’s new central mosque – a slab of stone now hidden beneath weeds in a parking lot.
Pulling back the weeds reveals it is covered with bright red graffiti – death threats to Kosovo’s chief mufti, along with the words: “No Turkish mosque or there will be blood.”
The urgency of this #MeToo moment, especially its potential disruption of normative social behavior toward women, has led to the challenging of inter-communal attitudes including those expressed by religious institutions. Congregants from diverse establishments of faith, including Christians and Jews , have come out in opposition of not only the repression of sexual abuse victims but against clerical power structures.
This week's State Department ministerial on international religious freedom has been a well-orchestrated, if hastily organized, event with a sense of common purpose rarely seen in the current administration. It prominently features the work of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, as bipartisan a body as you'll find in Washington these days.
The Trump White House on Wednesday will host its first iftar, a meal shared by Muslims during Ramadan, after failing to host the dinner last year. Iftar is the dinner Muslims eat at sunset after fasting all day during Ramadan.
The Supreme Court has so far had little to say about Donald Trump's time as president, even as the nation has moved from one Trump controversy to another. That's about to change.
Chapter 73 of the Qur'an, "The Robed" , contains what is probably the earliest Islamic injunction to turn the other cheek. 8. Remember the name of your Lord and devote yourself to Him wholeheartedly- 9. the Lord of the East and the West.
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has answered those who denounced as anti-Semitic his recent "Jews are my enemy" quote with another broadside, this time tweeting a video clip where he says "The Jews have control over those areas of government" - in referring to the FBI.
The U.S. Muslim population will double in approximately 30 years, growing from 3.45 million to 8.1 million, according to projections from The Pew Research Center. The projected growth numbers for the U.S. Muslim population come from a study that Pew conducted to find out how many Muslims actually live in the U.S. The Muslim population in the country has skyrocketed since Pew first conducted a study of American Muslims in 2007, growing at a rate of 100,000 per year since 2011, due to immigration and high fertility rates.
Ahead of Austrian national elections Sunday, the question is less whether the country will swing rightward under the next government and more about how sharp that turn will be, with voters set to reward two major parties that have exploited fears of immigration and Islam. Chancellor Christian Kern is vowing to take his center-left Social Democrats into the opposition if defeated and a handful of small parties are struggling to clear the 4 percent hurdle needed to get seats in parliament.
Does Saudi speech show better or worse side of Trump? #tellusatoday During a speech in Saudi Arabia, President Trump encouraged Muslim nations to fight "Islamic extremism." Check out this story on USATODAY.com: https://usat.ly/2qJF4CD The Saudis and other world leaders have Trump's number.
This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: Trump is leaving Friday for his first foreign trip, to the Mideast and beyond, and aides had hoped the disarray at home would have been calmed if not resolved by takeoff time.
Vice President Pence toured Southeast Asia's largest mosque on Thursday during a visit to Indonesia, calling the Muslim-majority nation's tradition of following a moderate form of Islam "an inspiration to the world." ... "In your nation as in mine, religion unifies, it doesn't divide," he added.
Fueling the hysteria on the part of politicians like Steve King and Geert Wilders, a blockbuster new report details how a lack of Christian fecundity may leave the earth to others. Controversial right-wing Congressman Steve King made headlines in March when he tweeted his support for anti-Muslin Dutch politician Geert Wilders saying , "Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny.