Ms Ann Clark, who is the Vice President of the Association, informed, "The Association received a complaint and it was investigated. Mr Patel is no longer a member of the Wellington JP Association Read more

Muriel Newman says she was unaware of derogatory and xenophobic remarks towards Muslims on a Facebook group. Read more

Less than a week after the Christchurch massacre, Morrison replied, "I don't know if Australians understand Islam very well … and that can often lead to a fear of things that you don't understand."

The Prime Minister's response reflects two myths about Islamophobia:

• that it is about a lack of understanding, and
• that it is primarily about fear.

This reflects an egregious misunderstanding of anti-Muslim feeling ― one that denies the deeply entrenched racial logics that serve to render Muslims inherently "other" and therefore incapable of sharing in equal belonging as Australian citizens.

One of the earliest definitions of Islamophobia described it as "unfounded hostility towards Islam" with practical consequences of "unfair discrimination" and exclusion "from mainstream political and social affairs."

The 1997 report from a London-based racial equality thinktank, the Runnymede Trust, helpfully contrasted "open" and "closed" views of Islam.

"Open" views see Islam as internally and historically diverse, interdependent with other faiths and cultures, and sincere.

"Closed" views see Islam as monolithic, separate from society and manipulative.

Islam and Muslims are often seen as a monolithic bloc that is unresponsive to new realities, with separate and conflicting values.

At worst, Islam and Muslims are seen as backward, irrational, aggressive and engaged in a "clash of civilizations" incompatible with "the West."

Claiming that Islamophobia is only about fear distracts us from seeing it for what it really is: a form of racism with historical and cultural depth and a hydra-like manifestation.

Like antisemitism, Islamophobia is a form of racism. And racism never stands still. It shifts throughout history and resurfaces in new and familiar vile guises. Underlying its historical mutations and forms is a shared racial logic that marks others as different and inferior.

It's tempting to dismiss the Islamophobia-as-racism argument by saying that it is merely "playing the race card" or that Islam is not a "race."

But that misses the point that racial categories have always been fabrications ― alongside the notion of "racial purity" ― that serve to legitimise control and subjugate inferior "others."

The deeper point, whatever language we use, lies in the need to understand how groups and identities come to be categorised in ways that render them inferior and unequal.

Racism lies most powerfully below the surface in ordinary opinions and activities.

Take the flourishing of online anti-Muslim and antisemitic jokes.

Simon Weaver argues that these jokes work rhetorically by supporting a "race truth" that maintains and reinforces a "racist commonsense."

They work because of background racial stereotypes of the "Muslim terrorist" or "greedy Jew." Continue reading

• Ryan Williams is Lecturer in Studies in Religion in the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry at the University of Queensland and a Visiting Fellow at the Centre of Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge.

But you'd be mistaken to think that the decline has to do with Archbishop Viganò's charge that Francis had covered-up for Cardinal McCarrick.

The poll was taken before that story broke.

According to the poll's author, much of the dissatisfaction with the pontiff has to do with his welcoming approach toward migrants.

Even before Viganò's bombshell accusation, Italians were already distancing themselves from the Vatican.

In a sense, the Catholic Church in Italy set itself up for rejection.

In the months leading up to the March election, it doubled down on its policy of greater openness to immigrants whether legal or illegal.

In a dozen different ways, Church leaders let it be known that refusal to welcome the migrant was, in effect, a rejection of Christ.

Yet voters ignored the Church and voted in large numbers for the anti-immigration parties. And there is no sign that they've regretted their choice.

According to recent polls, many practicing Catholics prefer the hardline immigration policies of the new Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, to those of Pope Francis.

As an Ipsos poll reveals, support for Salvini doubled in four months among Catholics who attend Mass at least once a week.

The director of the Ipsos Research Institute said, "There is a clear difference between a significant part of Catholic opinion and the hierarchy of the Church."

A moment's thought will reveal that Catholics are not only rejecting the hierarchy's policy on immigration, but also its policy on Islam.

Italians and other Europeans are not terribly concerned about immigrants from Poland, South America, India, and the Philippines.

They're worried about immigrants from Muslim countries.

With good reason.

Despite numerous attempts to keep it quiet, it's no secret anymore that the influx of Muslim migrants into Europe has resulted in a giant crime wave.

And the situation in Italy is not nearly as bad as it is in other countries such as Germany, France, Belgium, England, and Sweden.

In many parts of Europe, stabbings, rapes, acid attacks, and pitched battles between police and migrant gangs are daily occurrences.

One can surmise, therefore, that Italy is not the only country where respect for the Church has fallen sharply.Continue reading

• Image: Huffington Post

The three anti-Muslim videos were posted by the deputy head of a British far-right group who has been convicted of a hate crime.

Trump's actions drew criticism from many quarters, including the British government at 10 Downing Street, which said Trump was "wrong" to promote the group's "hateful narratives." Read more

Auckland Muslim Syeda Fouzia, who helped start the campaign "We Want Halal KFCs Back In New Zealand", believes delivering halal food "is not that difficult".

However, her views have met a backlash after she received a barrage of hate mail. Continue reading

Church leaders in Poland say the event was purely religious and "the key objective of this manifestation is to pray for peace."

During a mass celebrated on the border, the archbishop of Krakow, Marek Jedraszewski, called on believers to pray "for the other European nations to make them understand it is necessary to return to Christian roots so that Europe would remain Europe."

Not everyone saw the event as purely religious, however.

Many viewed it as a spiritual weapon against the "Islamisation" of Europe. Others have concerns the prayer chain could be seen as endorsing the state's refusal to let in Muslim migrants.

A leading Polish expert on xenophobia and extremism, Rafal Pankowski, saw the prayer chain event as a problematic expression of Islamophobia.

He says it comes at a time of rising anti-Muslim sentiment in Poland, even though the country's Muslim population is tiny.

"The whole concept of doing it on the borders reinforces the ethno-religious, xenophobic model of national identity," said Pankowski, who heads the Never Again association in Warsaw.

The date selected for the human prayer chain - 7 October - was the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. This year's anniversary marks the 1571 Christian victory over the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Lepanto.

Source

• France 24
• ABC
• Daily News
• Radio Poland
• BBC
• Image: Church POP

It is now more than two months since they were forced to take refuge at St Peter Claver cathedral in the town of Bangassou after attacks by the mostly Christian anti-Balaka militia. Read more

As a result, at the beginning of the 17 century some people thought that coffee in some way represented an anti-Christian beverage, a "bitter invention of Satan."

They said the pope should condemn and forbid it for Christians. Continue reading

Ebubekir Ozture, director of the Muslim umbrella group Contact Organ Muslims and Government, called Wilders comments "reprehensible."

"Moroccans and Muslims are accustomed to such outbursts from Wilders, whose Party for Freedom is riding high in opinion polls less than a month from the election," he said.

Wilders received what he calls a "political" conviction last year for inciting discrimination and insulting a group for anti-Moroccan. He had made the comments around the time of local elections in 2014.

He now says Moroccan youths are making the Netherlands unsafe.

He then qualified the comments, saying they didn't apply to all Moroccans.

"Dutch values are based on Christianity, on Judaism, on humanism.

He said he sees Islam as an ideology that poses an existential threat to core European values.

In his view, the Dutch have tolerated high levels of immigration without demanding cultural assimilation for too long.

"It is not the first time and probably won't be the last time," that Wilders has used such language, Ozture said.

"He has said worse things about Moroccans and Muslims. As crazy as it sounds, people are a bit used to it from him."

Source

• National Catholic Reporter
• The Philadelphia Tribune
• Image: Snopes.com