Category Archives: Religion

Oliver Dowden reportedly reveals preferred choice for next Tory leader – UK general election live

Posted on by

Deputy PM says Victoria Atkins is ‘star’ and is one of only people he could see leading Tory party

Meanwhile Rishi Sunak is expected to tell voters today that “If just 130,000 people switch their vote and lend us their support, we can deny Starmer that supermajority,” PA reports.

Keir Starmer has said a big majority would be “better for the country”, as the Tories continue to urge voters to proceed with caution and not hand Labour a “blank cheque”.

Continue reading...

At least 116 killed in crush at Hindu gathering in northern India, say officials

Posted on by

Most of the dead are women or children, say officials, with suggestions a dust storm created panic as thousands were leaving a prayer meeting in Hathras, south-east of Delhi

At least 116 people, most of them women and children, have been killed in a crowd crush at a Hindu religious gathering in northern India, and more than 80 others were injured, local police have said.

The crush happened when thousands of devotees tried to leave a prayer meeting, or satsang, with a local religious leader in Hathras district, Uttar Pradesh state. “The attendees were exiting the venue when a dust storm blinded their vision, leading to a melee and the subsequent tragic incident,” Chaitra V, a divisional commissioner of Aligarh city in Uttar Pradesh, told Agence France-Presse.

Continue reading...

‘Here I found respect for who I am’: the French citizens who choose to leave

Posted on by

Scores of highly qualified French citizens from Muslim backgrounds have left the country in recent years

Even as she climbed up the corporate ladder in France, Ophélie Rizki’s after-work routine remained unchanged. Each evening as she got into her car to drive home, she would make a beeline for her headscarf, feeling herself slowly becoming whole again as she covered her hair.

She had never been explicitly told that she couldn’t wear her hijab at work, nor had she asked. But as politicians in France continued to spar over headscarves, two decades after parliament voted to ban them in school, she worried about the impact that choosing to keep her hair covered would have on her career. “You don’t ask the question, you know it’s not something you can do,” she said.

Continue reading...

Louisiana families file lawsuit against Ten Commandments display in schools

Posted on by

Human rights groups also back filing which aims to block state’s new law forcing public schools to showcase text

Several Louisiana families backed by human rights groups have lodged a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block the state’s new law forcing public schools to display the Ten Commandments.

The suit was filed with the US district court in Baton Rouge on Monday at the start of what is expected to be an epic legal battle that could end up before the US supreme court. Christian nationalists have been itching for this fight, hoping to destroy the country’s longstanding separation of church and state.

Continue reading...

At least 1,300 hajj pilgrims died during extreme heat, Saudi Arabia says

Posted on by

Riyadh says more than four-fifths did not have permit to make pilgrimage to Mecca, where temperatures hit 51.8C

At least 1,300 people have died during the hajj pilgrimage, which took place during intense heat, Saudi Arabia has said, adding that most of the deceased did not have official permits.

“Regrettably, the number of mortalities reached 1,301, with 83% being unauthorised to perform hajj and having walked long distances under direct sunlight, without adequate shelter or comfort,” the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

Continue reading...

Egypt to prosecute travel agents for ‘fraudulent’ hajj trips

Posted on by

PM orders 16 companies to be stripped of licences amid hundreds of deaths, many attributed to extreme heat

The Egyptian prime minister, Mostafa Madbouly, has ordered 16 tourism companies to be stripped of their licences and referred their managers to the public prosecutor’s office for illegally facilitating pilgrims’ travel to Mecca, the cabinet has said.

The order came after various countries reported more than 1,100 deaths, many attributed to high heat, during this year’s hajj.

Continue reading...

Texas Republican vows to pass bill on Ten Commandments in public schools

Posted on by

Dan Patrick pledges to emulate Louisiana with bill that would force schools to display Ten Commandments

A leading Texas Republican has pledged to emulate Louisiana by passing a bill that would force public schools to display the Ten Commandments.

Dan Patrick, Texas’s lieutenant governor, said on Friday he would pass Bill 1515 mandating the biblical stricture in all classrooms, in the next session of the state senate, the upper legislative chamber over which he presides.

Continue reading...

‘They’re trying to divide us’: Muslims in France voice fears over rise of far right

Posted on by

People in Lyon say country at dangerous juncture in snap elections after National Rally’s EU parliamentary gains

They marched through the narrow streets of Lyon’s medieval old town, about three dozen of them, emboldened after the French far-right gains in the European elections. Masks covering their faces, they wound past the hidden passageways that provided cover for the resistance during the second world war, chanting: “We are fucking Nazis” and “Islam out of Europe”.

For some in this French city, last week’s far-right demonstration, captured on video, was a chilling reminder of just how much is at stake in the snap parliamentary elections that could see the French far-right lead government.

Continue reading...

One man’s desperate search for wife as more than 1,000 hajj pilgrims die in extreme heat

Posted on by

Hoda Nagib and her husband had walked 20km in the baking sun in Saudi Arabia while on Mecca pilgrimage

Hoda Nagib and her husband had walked 20km in the baking sun in Saudi Arabia when she told him that she needed to rest. The couple, who are in their 60s, had just scaled Mount Arafat, along with thousands of other white-robed pilgrims on the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, where temperatures as high as 51.8C have been recorded in the shade in recent days.

Nagib’s husband left her to perform a ritual known as the stoning of the devil. When he returned she had disappeared, their neighbour Walaa Roshdy explained.

Continue reading...

Ten Commandments to be displayed in Louisiana public school classrooms

Posted on by

Law passed requiring text to be displayed in every public school classroom, although lawsuits against it are expected

Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom under a bill signed into law by the Republican governor, Jeff Landry, on Wednesday.

The GOP-drafted legislation mandates that a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” be required in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities. Although the bill did not receive final approval from Landry, the time for gubernatorial action – to sign or veto the bill – has lapsed.

Continue reading...

Search for missing pilgrims continues after hajj heat deaths

Posted on by

Relatives seek news of missing loved ones after hundreds reported dead as temperatures hit 51.8C in Saudi Arabia

Friends and family of missing hajj pilgrims have been searching hospitals and pleading online for news, fearing the worst after hundreds died during the annual rites in Saudi Arabia.

Arab diplomats on Tuesday told Agence France-Presse at least 550 pilgrims had died this year, the majority due to heat-related illnesses after temperatures reached 51.8C (125F) in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city.

Continue reading...

China has renamed hundreds of Uyghur villages and towns, say human rights groups

Posted on by

Report finds that religious, historical and cultural references have been removed in crackdown by Beijing

Hundreds of Uyghur villages and towns have been renamed by Chinese authorities to remove religious or cultural references, with many replaced by names reflecting Communist party ideology, a report has found.

Research published on Wednesday by Human Rights Watch and the Norway-based organisation Uyghur Hjelp documents about 630 communities that have been renamed in this way by the government, mostly during the height of a crackdown on Uyghurs that several governments and human rights bodies have called a genocide.

Continue reading...

More than 550 hajj pilgrims die in Mecca as temperatures exceed 50C

Posted on by

At least 320 of the dead are from Egypt and Saudi officials report treating more than 2,000 people for heat stress

At least 550 pilgrims have died during the hajj, underscoring the gruelling nature of the pilgrimage which again unfolded in scorching temperatures this year.

At least 323 of those who died were Egyptians, most of them succumbing to heat-related illnesses, the two Arab diplomats coordinating their countries’ responses told AFP.

Continue reading...

Megachurch pastor and ex-Trump adviser admits child sexual abuse

Posted on by

Robert Morris, of Greenway church in Dallas, accused of sexual abuse of girl in 1980s, beginning when she was 12

A Texas evangelical pastor and former spiritual adviser to Donald Trump has confessed to sexually assaulting a young girl in his past.

Robert Morris, a founding pastor of the Dallas-based Gateway megachurch, was accused by an Oklahoma woman of sexual abuse in the 1980s, beginning when she was 12 and continuing until the age of 16.

Continue reading...

At least 14 pilgrims die during hajj pilgrimage amid soaring temperatures

Posted on by

Jordanians died in Saudi Arabia after suffering heatstroke, said officials, with temperatures reaching 47C in Mecca

At least 14 Jordanian pilgrims have died while on the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia as temperatures soar in the kingdom.

Jordan’s foreign ministry said “14 Jordanian pilgrims died and 17 others were missing” during the performance of hajj rituals. It said its nationals had died “after suffering sun stroke due to the extreme heatwave” and that it had coordinated with Saudi authorities to bury the dead in Saudi Arabia, or transfer them to Jordan.

Continue reading...

Queensland Labor shelves reforms to stop faith-based schools discriminating against gay teachers

Posted on by

Exclusive: Disabled people, DV victims also at risk after broken promise to pass new anti-discrimination laws, advocates say

The Queensland government will renege on its promise to pass new anti-discrimination laws before the October state election – a move advocates say will leave women fleeing domestic violence, people with disabilities and members the LGBTQ+ community at risk.

Guardian Australia revealed on Monday that the state government was considering watering down reforms proposed by a review of the 33-year-old act.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

‘Heartbreaking’: fire destroys historic Toronto church and rare paintings

Posted on by

Destroyed artefacts in St Anne’s Anglican church include unique paintings by Group of Seven art collective

An early morning fire at a Toronto church has destroyed both a historic site and rare paintings by an acclaimed group of Canadian artists, leaving the city reeling from a “heartbreaking” loss.

Fire crews responded on Sunday to a blaze engulfing St Anne’s Anglican church, a national historic site in the city’s Little Portugal neighbourhood.

Continue reading...

Blessed are the leaks: Italian home plays host to another ‘weeping’ statue

Posted on by

Figurine sits in front garden of family that previously claimed to have seen tears of blood from another statue

In the front garden of the Gregori family home on the outskirts of Civitavecchia, a port city close to Rome, is a well-curated grotto containing a tiny, rusting statue of the Virgin Mary surrounded by plants and flowers. The figurine was bought from a souvenir shop at the Catholic pilgrimage site in Medjugorje, Bosnia.

In late April, as a group of pilgrims huddled around the grotto to pray, the statue purportedly exuded a scented oil. It was not the first time it was said to have sweated oil, but the moment, filmed by some of those present and shared on social media, reignited fascination in Italy over claims of the supernatural, pitting believers against naysayers. The story was all the more intriguing because the Gregoris were the protagonists of another mysterious weeping statue case in the mid-1990s.

Continue reading...

Narendra Modi loses aura of invincibility as predicted landslide fails to materialise

Posted on by

Exit polls had projected overwhelming victory for the BJP and an even stronger mandate for India’s strongman

India’s elections may return Narendra Modi to power for a third term but Tuesday’s results did not have the flavour of victory for the strongman prime minister.

Indeed, as the early counts of the votes began to roll in, it was clear this was going to be one of the most humbling moments for Modi and his Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) in over a decade.

Continue reading...

Texas curriculum overhaul would increase biblical content in elementary schools

Posted on by

Two million Texas kids could see new curriculum emphasizing Bible stories to instruct them in the ‘American cultural experience’

Texas elementary school students would get a significant dose of Bible knowledge with their reading instruction under a sweeping curriculum redesign unveiled on Wednesday.

From the story of Queen Esther – who convinced her husband, the Persian king, to spare the Jews – to the depiction of Christ’s last supper, the material is designed to draw connections between classroom content and religious texts.

Continue reading...