Category Archives: Religion

Ex-pope Benedict XVI accuses opponents of wanting to silence him

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Comments in authorised biography also associate gay marriage with the Antichrist

The former pope Benedict XVI has accused opponents of wanting to silence him, while associating gay marriage with the Antichrist and attacking humanist ideologies in an authorised biography published in Germany.

The 93-year-old, whose original name is Joseph Ratzinger, said in Benedict XVI – A Life he had fallen victim to a “malignant distortion of reality” in reactions to his interventions in theological debates.

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Uganda megachurch criticised for choir tour as children stranded by Covid-19

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Watoto church investigated over decision not to pull out as 48 children are among those stuck abroad due to border closures

The Ugandan government has launched an investigation into the activities of a megachurch in Kampala after seven members of its internationally renowned children’s choir were diagnosed with Covid-19 following an overseas tour.

The country’s child affairs minister, Florence Nakiwala Kiyingi, told the Guardian the Internal Security Organisation was investigating Watoto church for allegedly breaching child labour laws, taking the children out of the country without permission and putting them at risk by not cancelling the tour as coronavirus cases escalated and countries closed their borders.

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Fears for Nigerian humanist held for blasphemy in sharia state

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Mubarak Bala, head of humanist association, taken to Kano after Facebook posts criticising Islam

A prominent Nigerian humanist accused of blasphemy has been arrested and taken to the northern city of Kano, according to figures close to him.

Mubarak Bala, the president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, was taken from his home on 28 April in neighbouring Kaduna state and taken to Kano, where a warrant for his arrest was issued, Leo Igwe, a fellow Nigerian humanist and human rights advocate, said.

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Turkish students increasingly resisting religion, study suggests

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Young people likely to challenge Islam and see themselves as less religious than previous generations

Twenty-two-year old Esra, from Mersin, is even more bored than usual this Ramadan. Universities are shut and Turkey has taken the unusual step of placing under-20s, as well as over-65s, under a night-time curfew, because many Turkish families live in intergenerational households.

As a result, Esra can’t see any of her friends. And a few days into the Muslim month of fasting, like many young people, she is now feeling even more suffocated by the religious restrictions imposed by her pious parents.

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India should be placed on religious freedom blacklist, US panel says

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Commission says religious minorities face ‘increasing assault’ under Narendra Modi but state department unlikely to take action

A US government panel has called for India to be put on a religious freedom blacklist over a “drastic” downturn under the prime minister, Narendra Modi, triggering a sharp response from New Delhi.

The US commission on international religious freedom recommends but does not set policy, and there is virtually no chance the state department will follow its lead on India, an increasingly close US ally.

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Ramadan TV dramas signal shift in Arab-Israeli relations

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Two popular Middle Eastern series stir surprise with pro-Israel messages backed by Saudi Arabia

Nightfall during Ramadan in the Middle East is drama time, when Arab soap operas accompany evening feasts with fare of feuds, historical heroes and villains and forbidden love. This year though, programmers have broached new ground using the popular shows to highlight a normalisation with Israel.

Two series broadcast across the region in the first three days of the Muslim holy month have stirred both surprise and contention – one by daring to explore the Jewish history of the Gulf, the other by suggesting that Israel may not be an enemy and that Palestinians have been ungrateful for Saudi Arabia’s support.

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Blasphemy to be decriminalised in Scottish hate crime bill

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New law will also offer wider protection against race, sex, age and religious discrimination

The Scottish government has published a bill that would decriminalise blasphemy, more than 175 years after the last case was prosecuted.

The devolved administration in Edinburgh said the continued criminalisation of blasphemy, which falls under hate crime laws, “no longer reflects the kind of society in which we live”.

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Ramadan begins amid coronavirus restrictions as Trump ‘disinfectant’ theory dismissed

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Countries with Muslim populations wrestle with best way to observe holy month amid outcry over US president’s latest suggestion

The governments of nations with large Muslim populations were divided on coronavirus restrictions as Ramadan began, with with some easing lockdowns while others enacted travel bans.

As the Muslim holy month was set to begin, US health experts rushed to warn against Donald Trump’s suggestion of exploring the use of UV light on people and injecting disinfectant as a way of combatting coronavirus.

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Two Muslim students face ‘bogus’ charges of inciting Delhi riots

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Lawyers say pair were peacefully protesting against Indian citizenship act

Delhi police have been accused of slapping two Muslim student activists with “bogus” charges of conspiring to incite the recent riots, the worst religious violence in India’s capital for decades, and in which the police were accused of being complicit.

Meeran Haider and Safoora Zargar, students at Delhi’s Muslim-majority Jamia Millia Islamia University, were charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, which is usually reserved for terrorist activity and means they can be held for six months.

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‘New hope’: Queen reassures nation in first Easter message

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Monarch’s speech is said to be her contribution to those marking occasion at home

The Queen has sought to reassure the nation that “coronavirus will not overcome us” in her first Easter audio message.

The monarch, who is supreme governor of the Church of England, acknowledged this Easter would be different but said “by keeping apart we keep others safe”. She said “Easter is not cancelled” and the “new hope and fresh purpose” of the festival was needed more than ever.

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Cardinal George Pell writes about suffering, jail and coronavirus in News Corp piece

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Cardinal writes in the Australian that ‘God-fearers’ are better able to deal with evil and suffering than atheists

Cardinal George Pell has used an Easter opinion piece to argue “God-fearers” are better able to deal with evil and suffering than atheists, pointing to his own experience of “13 months in jail for a crime I didn’t commit”.

Pell was released from prison on Tuesday after Australia’s high court quashed five convictions for child sexual abuse, over allegations he assaulted two choirboys at a Melbourne cathedral in the 1990s.

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George Pell’s accuser issues rallying cry to sexual abuse survivors in wake of verdict

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Witness J says he is glad the legal process is over, but the saga does not define him

The man at the heart of the failed case against Cardinal George Pell has issued a rallying cry to sexual abuse survivors.

He said he would hate to think that anyone might not report to the police because of his outcome.

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Pope Francis decries ‘unjust sentences’ after cardinal George Pell acquitted

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Vatican praises Australian cardinal for having ‘waited for the truth to be ascertained’

Pope Francis has recalled the “persecution that Jesus suffered” and has prayed for those who suffer “unjust sentences” hours after Australia’s highest court acquitted cardinal George Pell of child sexual abuse.

The court in Canberra quashed convictions that Pell sexually assaulted two choirboys in the 1990s, allowing the 78-year-old former Vatican economy minister to walk free from jail, ending the most high-profile case of alleged historical sex abuse to rock the Roman Catholic church.

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George Pell appeal: cardinal faces final high court decision – latest news

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Cardinal Pell’s child sexual assault conviction was upheld in the Victorian court of appeal. Now the high court will rule on whether he will stay in jail or walk free. Follow live updates

High court to decide cardinal’s fate

George Pell will not be in the court registry in Brisbane this morning. He is at Barwon Prison and will be informed of the judgment by his legal team.

We are now within 10 minutes of the judgment being delivered in Brisbane. We should have the news for you shortly after that.

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Calls to seal off ultra-Orthodox areas add to Israel’s virus tensions

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Rules enforcement highlights problem of getting message across to minority community

It wasn’t a typical police operation. Two Israeli officers were to go undercover, although not posing as drug dealers or arms traffickers. For this particular assignment, they were to disguise themselves as ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Their mission on Friday was to bust an illegal gathering in a synagogue. People were praying together, a practice that is now against the law in the era of the coronavirus. Once the officers got inside to confirm the crowd, more units barged in and dispersed people.

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Titus Trust settles with ‘bash camp’ abuse victims

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Boys’ lives were blighted after sadistic beatings by John Smyth more than 40 years ago, successor group admits

A Christian organisation whose forerunner ran holiday camps that led to boys being beaten sadistically has reached a settlement with three men and acknowledged that “lives have been blighted”.

The Titus Trust has expressed “profound regret” for the abuse carried out by John Smyth QC and has apologised for “additional distress” caused by the way the trust responded to the allegations.

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Divided Delhi under lockdown: ‘If coronavirus doesn’t kill me, hunger will’

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India’s shutdown is catastrophic for Muslims driven from their homes by sectarian carnage and now without food or shelter

It wasn’t possible for Mohammed Idrish to watch Narendra Modi’s address to the nation last Tuesday exhorting 1.3 billion Indians to stay at home. His TV was looted along with everything else in his home in Delhi during the recent anti-Muslim riots in the Indian capital.

When Idrish, a carpenter, heard about Modi urging Indians to stay at home to stop coronavirus spreading, he shook his head again and again. “I don’t understand … I don’t understand. Doesn’t he know we have no home?”

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We need to be physically distant, but we need to share our collective pain | Tim Costello

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The wave of illness and death brought on by coronavirus is only beginning. How do we prepare for the sadness that will be thrust upon us?

• Join Tim Costello as he gives the inaugural Australia at Home lunchtime briefing at 1pm

Like many people, I am re-reading The Plague by Albert Camus. I haven’t picked it up for years.

“The first thing the plague brought to our town was exile ... It was undoubtedly the feeling of exile – that sensation of a void within which never left us ... they drifted through life rather than lived, the prey of aimless days and sterile memories, like wandering shadows that could have acquired substance only by consenting to root themselves in the solid earth of their distress.”

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The Sultan’s Trail was good practice for lockdown | Adrian Chiles

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My experience on the Sultan’s trail found that two Christians, two Muslims, a Jew and two atheists could live peaceably together, although the mountain scenery seems a lifetime away now

Back in early autumn I went on a pilgrimage from Belgrade to Istanbul with six others to film a television programme that airs on Friday. At the best of times, the mountains of Bulgaria would feel a lifetime away, but now it all feels so much further.

I took part because I enjoy talking about faith, and love walking. Our route was part of the Sultan’s Trail, a long-distance footpath from Vienna to Istanbul. It marks the 16th-century marches taken by Suleiman the Magnificent and his Ottoman armies as they conquered Belgrade and most of Hungary before the Viennese held out against them. The trail is styled the “path of peace”, along which all cultures and religions can come together.

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The isolated tribes at risk of illness from Amazon missionaries

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As evangelical Christians use their influence with Brazil’s government to cast their net ever wider, indigenous people vulnerable to common diseases face a growing threat

A radical group of evangelical Christian missionaries set on converting every last tribe on Earth has raised fears that deadly diseases – and even the coronavirus – will spread in the Brazilian Amazon. The group has based its newly bought helicopter right beside a reserve with the world’s highest concentration of isolated indigenous groups, who have little resistance to common illnesses.

There are more than 100 isolated indigenous groups in Brazil, all highly vulnerable to common diseases such as measles and flu, and 16 of them live in the same reserve in the Javari Valley, a vast, remote area the size of Austria. Covid-19 could wipe out any of them.

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