The far-right French presidential candidate Éric Zemmour appeared to be put in a headlock by a protester at his first campaign, days after he formally declared his candidacy in a video highlighting his anti-migrant and anti-Islam views.
Videos online appeared to show Zemmour being grabbed by a man at the heated rally near Paris on Sunday, during which anti-racism activists were also reportedly attacked. He was later reported to have suffered slight injuries
Continue reading...In this quasi-religious programme, ‘working the steps’ is the remedy for any problem, but for me the cracks soon started to show
Eight of us sat together in a circle in a wooden shed, an outbuilding at a large country house, somewhere in the south of England. The door was ajar, and spring light flooded the room. “Can anyone name any treatment methods for addiction, other than the 12 steps?” asked a counsellor.
“Cognitive behavioural therapy?” offered a patient.
Continue reading...Government accused of having emboldened extremists after lynching of Sri Lankan in Sialkot
A mob in Pakistan tortured, killed and then set on fire a Sri Lankan man who was accused of blasphemy over some posters he had allegedly taken down.
Priyantha Diyawadana, a Sri Lankan national who worked as general manager of a factory of the industrial engineering company Rajco Industries in Sialkot, Punjab, was set upon by a violent crowd on Friday.
Continue reading...Proposed amendments to Sex Discrimination Act may not be enough to see legislation pass lower house this week
The Morrison government has struck a deal with some moderate Liberal MPs to support its contentious religious discrimination bill, agreeing to make immediate changes to protect gay students from discrimination in religious schools.
But the proposed amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act, which were negotiated between Queensland MP Angie Bell and the attorney general, Michaelia Cash, may not be enough to win over all moderate MPs and see the bill pass through the lower house this week.
Continue reading...I had impressed Mr Priamo with my passion for winning. In questioning his certainty I learned the eternal value of doubt and ambiguity
Even before I entered his class, I knew Mr Priamo, the sixth-grade teacher at my Catholic elementary school, as the small, powerfully built man who strutted the hallways, and especially the gymnasium, with the ease of an athletic star. In golf shirts and trousers that pulled too tight at the rear, he appeared to be in perpetual motion – an illusion enhanced by his booming voice and jangling keys, the storm of gum-chewing and cologne that encircled him. It was my first encounter with a kind of masculine drag, an adult embodying a role so fully and so well it was impossible to tell where that bit ended and the real person began. Having crafted my own persona as a low-key academic prodigy, I watched him as a cub might regard the leader of a rival clan.
The prospect of submitting to the instruction of someone as brash and sports-metaphor prone as Mr Priamo intrigued me. He was my first male teacher – a relief, following a year in which two female co-teachers (eager to prove a point, it seemed to me, about wanting something too badly) had denied me the top scholastic prize, breaking a three-year streak. Though useless on the track and the basketball court, I impressed Mr Priamo due to the stealthy resolve with which I secured and guarded my standing in his class. Among the first things I learned under his tutelage was that to share a passion for winning is to share a lot.
Continue reading...Guidelines promoted use of ‘holiday season’ instead of Christmas and advised against saying ‘man-made’
An internal European Commission document advising officials to use inclusive language such as “holiday season” rather than Christmas and avoid terms such as “man-made” has been withdrawn after an outcry from rightwing politicians.
The EU executive’s volte-face over the guidelines, launched by the commissioner for equality, Helena Dalli, at the end of October, was prompted by an article in the Italian tabloid il Giornale, which claimed it amounted to an attempt to “cancel Christmas”.
Continue reading...Secret documents urge population control, mass round-ups and punishment of Uyghurs
Excerpts from previously unpublished documents directly linking China’s crackdown on Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in Xinjiang province to speeches by the Chinese leadership in 2014 have been put online.
The documents – including three speeches by Chinese president Xi Jinping in April 2014 – cover security, population control and the need to punish the Uyghur population. Some are marked top secret. They were leaked to the German academic Adrian Zenz.
Continue reading...Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, was widely condemned after calling for the establishment of “one religion” in the US.
Religious freedom is enshrined in the first amendment to the US constitution, which says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”.
Continue reading...A new stage production aims to tell the Sufi poet’s story beyond his aphorisms – and challenge assumptions about Islam and the Middle East in the process
He is everywhere and nowhere. The words of Jalal al-Din Rumi are found on sunset images pasted on Instagram and coffee mugs sold on Etsy; his poems have been featured in recordings from Madonna and Coldplay and he is reputed to be the bestselling poet in the US. Rumi’s observations and aphorisms on life may be endlessly cited – “You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the entire ocean in a drop” – but few in the west know him as anything more than a bearded Sufi mystic.
“Rumi has become a mystical, almost deified figure,” says Nadim Naaman. “The reality is that he was the opposite of an untouchable deity.” Naaman, a British Lebanese singer, actor and writer, has collaborated with the Qatari composer Dana Al Fardan to create Rumi: The Musical. “Our approach was to take the man out of the myth,” says Al Fardan, “and to present him as human being.” This is the second time Naaman and Al Fardan have brought a beloved Middle Eastern poet to the London stage. Their 2018 show Broken Wings, which is returning to London in the new year, was based on a novel by the Lebanese poet and writer Kahlil Gibran. It was the success of that production that convinced them there may be an appetite for a musical that delved into the life of Rumi.
Continue reading...Seen by their guardians as sacred, Ethiopia’s church forests are protected and cared for by their priests and their communities. Photographer Kieran Dodds has brought together his images of these oases and the story of the country’s spiritually driven conservation movement in a new book, The Church Forests of Ethiopia
South of the Sahara, and just north of the Great Rift Valley in landlocked Ethiopia, the Blue Nile flows from Lake Tana, the largest lake in the country. Radiating out from the sacred source is a scattering of forest islands, strewn across the dry highlands like a handful of emeralds. At the heart of each circle of forest, hunkered down under the ancient canopy and wrapped in lush vegetation, are saucer-shaped churches – otherworldly structures that almost seem to emit a life force. And in a sense they do.
Ethiopia is one of the fastest expanding economies in the world today and the second most populous country in Africa. The vast majority of people live in rural areas, where the expansion of settlements and agriculture is slowly thinning the forest edge by cattle and plough.
Continue reading...Conference in Lourdes recognised that church had allowed abuses to become ‘systemic’
Senior members of France’s Roman Catholic hierarchy knelt in a show of penance at the shrine of Lourdes on Saturday, a day after bishops accepted the church’s responsibility for decades of child abuse.
But some of the survivors of the abuse – and lay members supporting them – said they were still waiting for details of compensation and of a comprehensive reform of the church.
Continue reading...Diwali is one of the most popular festivals in Hinduism and is celebrated by Hindus all over the world. It is also known as the festival of lights
Continue reading...With millions of followers, the stance of some Apostolic church leaders threatens to undermine fight against Covid
Hymnal melodies reverberate around the hillside in Kuwadzana, a Harare suburb. On a blisteringly hot Saturday, members of the Apostolic church, dressed in white, hum and sing together.
Songs, long prayers and a little Bible reading punctuate the outdoor service. It’s a spectacle for passersby.
Continue reading...Footage shared on social media blamed for igniting violence between communities that left seven dead, buildings torched and many living in fear
It was early morning when Achintya Das, a 55-year-old teacher in the city of Cumilla in Bangladesh, was woken by the ringing of his mobile phone. On the other end of the line was a fearful, stricken voice. Come quickly, the local told him, something very grave had happened. A Qur’an had been found in the shrine they had recently erected for the upcoming Hindu festival of Durga Puja. The Islamic holy book had been placed on a statue of the Hindu god Hanuman.
Das, a Hindu who organised the festival in Cumilla, felt dread rise up in him at the news of the desecration of Muslim holy scripture in their shrine. “It didn’t even take me a second to understand the gravity of the situation. I rushed there immediately,” he said.
Continue reading...Joe Biden held an unusually long meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican and gifted him a 'command coin' sometimes awarded to soldiers and leaders. 'You are the most significant warrior for peace I've ever met,' the US president told the pope. Citing what he said was a tradition linked to the coin, he joked: 'Next time I see you, if you don't have it, you have to buy the drinks'
Continue reading...Pope Francis has urged world leaders to offer 'concrete hope' to future generations. In a special message for BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day, before the Cop26 summit in Glasgow next week, the pontiff said climate change and Covid-19 had 'raised numerous doubts and concerns about ... the way we organise our societies'. These global crises could only be overcome through 'a renewed sense of shared responsibility for our world', he added
Continue reading...Religious groups seek to force girl to give birth as intervention of the Catholic church questioned
The fate of an 11-year-old girl who became pregnant after being raped by a family member has unleashed a fierce debate between human rights activists and the Catholic church in Bolivia, as religious groups seek to force her to complete the pregnancy and give birth.
The girl was impregnated after being repeatedly raped and suffering other sexual abuse by the father of her stepfather in the town of Yapacaní, in Bolivia’s eastern Santa Cruz region.
Continue reading...Pontiff calls for ‘rethink on future of our world’ in special message recorded on eve of global summit
Pope Francis has urged world leaders to take “radical decisions” at next week’s global environmental summit in a special message recorded for BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day.
Leaders attending the Cop26 conference in Glasgow must offer “concrete hope to future generations”, the pontiff said.
Continue reading...Fabindia brand ad taken down after BJP claims use of Urdu was offensive to Hindu majority
Released just as festival season is kicking off across India, it looked like your average advert for festive attire. Models posed, resplendent in red and gold, showing off the newest collection by Fabindia that was said to “pay homage to Indian culture”.
Yet, in just a matter of hours, the poster had sent convulsions through India. A boycott was called against Fabindia, a staple brand in the country, and by the end of the day the advert had been taken down after it was deemed offensive to Hinduism by members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) and right-wing Hindu groups.
Continue reading...Spiritual guide Domingo Choc Che was tortured and burned by neighbors who accused him of witchcraft – and advocates say Christian churches are stoking prejudice
In meetings, Domingo Choc Che was quiet and reflective, speaking up only once others had said their piece. But he would come alive when he entered the jungles of Guatemala’s northern Petén department, sharing his knowledge of traditional medicines with anyone who wanted to learn.
“He was more at ease with plants,” said Mónica Berger, a sociologist and anthropologist at the University of the Valley of Guatemala who worked closely with Choc Che, a member of the indigenous Maya Q’eqchi community.
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