The request includes broadcasts on the anniversary of the Christchurch mosque attacks and during two major Islamic festivals, Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr.

The decision comes after Mayor Tory Whanau introduced a proposal earlier this year to review noise limits for both music venues and religious broadcasts.

As part of the review, the Wellington City Council is exploring whether mosques and other religious buildings should be allowed to use loudspeakers for public calls-to-prayer.

Community concerns addressed

Some community members voiced concerns regarding how often and how loud these broadcasts would be, with one anti-Council leaflet urging Wellingtonians to "take back your city!"

However, documents from the Council clarify that the call-to-prayer would last only about one-and-a-half to two minutes and would not be a neighbourhood-wide broadcast.

Instead, the sound would be contained to the mosque forecourt using a sound system for the benefit of those attending.

"We can commemorate the events that happened on that day and mosques won't have a noise restriction, much like church bells" Mayor Whanau said when addressing concerns on Newstalk ZB.

Proposal goes to Council for approval

Councillors discussed the proposal at Thursday's Environment and Infrastructure Committee meeting.

Under the current plan, the call-to-prayer broadcasts would not require resource consent as long as the sound is kept to two minutes or less.

However, any future request to broadcast the call on a regular basis would need Council approval.

"Should the intent change in the future and mosques seek to broadcast call-to-prayer on a more frequent and regular basis, resource consent would be required" Council documents confirm.

Mayor Whanau also noted that broadcasting the call-to-prayer multiple times a day would "probably not" be reasonable, reassuring concerned residents that daily broadcasts are not on the agenda under current rules.

The Council will make a final decision after Thursday's meeting but, for now, the proposal aims to allow limited, respectful broadcasts during significant Islamic events.

Source

NZ Herald

France's unique approach to "laïcité" — loosely translated as "secularism" — has been increasingly stirring controversy from schools to sports fields across the country.

The struggle cuts to the core of how France approaches not only the place of religion in public life, and also the integration of its mostly immigrant-origin Muslim population, Western Europe's largest.

Signs of faith barred

Perhaps the most contested ground are public schools, where visible signs of faith are barred under policies seeking to foster a shared sense of national unity.

That includes the headscarves some Muslim women want to wear for piety and modesty, even as others fight them as a symbol of oppression.

"It has become a privilege to be allowed to practice our religion," said Majda Ould Ibbat.

She was considering leaving Marseille, France's second-largest city, until she discovered a private Muslim school, Ibn Khaldoun, where her children could both freely live their faith and flourish academically.

"We wanted them to have a great education, and with our principles and our values," added Ould Ibbat, who only started wearing a headscarf recently.

He teen daughter, Minane, hasn't felt ready to.

Her 15-year-old son, Chahid, often prays in the school's mosque during recess.

Navigating French culture and spiritual identity

For Minane, as for many French Muslim youth, navigating French culture and her spiritual identity is getting harder.

The 19-year-old nursing student has heard people say even on the streets of multicultural Marseille that there's no place for Muslims.

"I ask myself if Islam is accepted in France," she said in her parents' apartment, where a bright orange Berber rug woven by her Moroccan grandmother hangs next to Koranic verses in Arabic.

Minane also lives with the collective trauma that has scarred much of France — the gripping fear of Islamist attacks, which have targeted schools.

They are seen by many as evidence that laïcité (pronounced lah-eee-see-tay) needs to be strictly enforced to prevent radicalisation.

Minane vividly remembers observing a moment of silence at Ibn Khaldoun in honor of Samuel Paty, a public school teacher beheaded by a radicalised Islamist in 2020.

A memorial to Paty as a defender of France's values hangs in the entrance of the Education Ministry in Paris.

Secularism - pros and cons

For its officials and most educators, secularism in public schools and other public institutions is essential.

They say it encourages a sense of belonging to a united French identity and prevents those who are less or not religiously observant from feeling pressured, while leaving everyone free to worship in private spaces.

For many French Muslims, however, and other critics, laïcité is exerting precisely that kind of discriminatory pressure on already disadvantaged minorities.

The see it as denying them the chance to live their full identity in their own country.

Amid the tension, there's broad agreement that polarisation is skyrocketing, as crackdowns and challenges mount for this French approach to religion and integration.

While open confrontations are still numbered in the dozens among millions of students.

It has become common to see girls put their headscarves back on the moment they exit through a public school's doors.

"Laws on laïcité protect and allow for coexistence — which is less and less easy," said Isabelle Tretola, principal of the public primary school whose front gate faces the door to Ibn Khaldoun's small mosque.

She addresses challenges to secularism every day — like children in choir class who put their hands on their ears "because their families told them singing variety songs isn't good."

"You can't force them to sing, but teachers tell them they can't cover their ears out of respect for the instructor and classmates," Tretola said.

"In school, you come to learn the values of the republic."

Secularism is one of four fundamental values enshrined in France's constitution.

The state explicitly charges public schools with instilling those values in children, while allowing private schools to offer religious instruction as long as they also teach the general curriculum that the government establishes. Read more

• Giovanna Dell'Orto is a freelance journalist for Associated Press and Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Mass, University of Minnesota.

Whanau was on air at the time talking to The Platform's Sean Plunkett.

"The Platform has received quite a bit of feedback regarding the district plan vote Thursday on the broadcast of the Call to Prayer" Plunkett said to Whanau.

Plunket understood the council discussion to broadcast the Call to Prayer was originally in the name of Whanau, however it was switched to Councillor Rebecca Matthews.

When Plunket sought confirmation on where the idea came from, Whanau told him to talk to her office.

Pressed, Whanau said "Jesus Christ Sean, umm, I'll come back to you."

Civil harmony

On Wednesday, Wellington Councillor Nicola Young also discussed broadcasting the call to prayer with Heather du Plessis-Allan on NewtalkZB Drive.

In a respectful conversation, Young said she feels allowing calls to prayer would make Wellington the laughingstock of New Zealand - and would be offensive to most people.

"Because New Zealand is a secular country ... I think we're the third-most atheist country in the world" she says.

"Why would we start having prayers being broadcast?

"A lot of people would find it incredibly offensive" she told du Plessis-Allan.

When asked about the Capital's church bells, Young said "They play once, on a Sunday, which is rather different from five or six times a day, every day.

"Allowing mosques to broadcast their call one day a week and churches to ring their bells once a week would be ridiculous" she said.

"We have to stop this."

She refers to the Education Act 1877 which speaks of harmony and keeping religion private.

People are outraged, she says.

Sort out the water leaks and fix the sewers

Feedback suggests the Council should focus on infrastructure rather than "distractions" like this.

Young calls the Mosque's "Call to Prayer" request a distraction for the Wellington City Council saying such issues aren't what they need to consider.

The City Council should stick to its municipal role, things like dealing urgently with water and sewage infrastructure Young suggested.

Local Mosques reportedly asked the council to change noise control regulations so they can play calls to prayer over outdoor speakers as is done in Muslim countries.

Investigation underway

The Wellington City Council voted to use ratepayers' money and instructed the council officials to investigate how calls to prayer could be made.

It wants to know if changes to noise rules would need to be made to enable the request.

A council spokesperson says any rule changes would be subject to public consultation.

• NewtalkZB
• The Platform

"There are a number of reasons," Ayaan Hirsi Ali said when she announced her new spiritual direction.

She's been a Muslim, a lapsed Muslim, an atheist and - now - a lapsed atheist. The vacuum left by the vanishing of a spiritual dimension to her life needed filling.

Ali says she came to Christianity both as part of a spiritual journey and as a response to the "nihilistic vacuum" of the modern world.

She could see the reality that writer GK Chesterton put so clearly: "When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything,"

Spiritual journey

Born into the Muslim faith, Ali has long been a prominent critic of Islam. As a young girl in Somalia she suffered female genital mutilation.

In 2002 she renounced her Muslim faith and declared herself an atheist. Since then, she has been a vocal critic of many Muslims' "extremist violence and intolerance".

Her 21-year period as an atheist is now officially over, she says.

She has announced that she now considers herself a member of the Christian religion.

In an essay published on British website UniHerd, Ali wrote that she turned to Christianity in part "because I ultimately found life without any spiritual solace unendurable — indeed very nearly self-destructive."

Why Christianity?

"Atheism failed to answer a simple question: What is the meaning and purpose of life?" she said.

She argued that "the void left by the retreat of the church" in the modern world "has merely been filled by a jumble of irrational quasi-religious dogma."

As for seeking 21st century solutions - she says there is "no need to look for some new-age concoction of medication and mindfulness" to address these present crises: "Christianity has it all."

She also feels a global responsibility too, which influenced her decision to embrace Christianity.

"Western civilization is under threat" from multiple fronts including Russia and China, "global Islamism and woke ideology" her essay says.

"We endeavor to fend off these threats with modern, secular tools: military, economic, diplomatic and technological efforts to defeat, bribe, persuade, appease or surveil.

"And yet...we find ourselves losing ground."

Ask instead - "What is it that unites us?"

Ali says she became a Christian convert because upholding the Judeo-Christian tradition is the only credible answer.

That's because its legacy includes an "elaborate set of ideas and institutions designed to safeguard human life, freedom and dignity."

Source

• CNA
• unherd.com

The Vatican said the pope would visit the Gulf island country off the Arabian peninsula to take part in the Bahrain Forum for Dialogue: East and West for Human Coexistence.

In 2019, Francis visited Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, the first pontiff to visit the Arabian peninsula and say a Mass there.

Bahrain is about 70% Muslim.

The announcement gave no details of the programme. Continue reading

Rather than Remembrance services, this year the Muslim community decided to mark the occasion differently.

Whanau Trust spokesman Rashid Bin Omar said Islamic Awareness Week aimed to spread peace, unity and love as opposed to the attacker's aim to spread hate.

"The terrorist utterly failed.

"Three years later, here we are standing in the same mosque to honour the shuhaha (deceased), continue their legacy and remember the aroha and empathy that we received from the entire [country]."

The week marking the terror attack anniversary includes an Islamic art exhibition, speakers, children's events, peace walks and feeding the hungry.

In a speech launching Islamic Awareness Week at the weekend, Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel reminded attendees of the Call to Prayer one week after the attack, when thousands in the wider community came, uninvited, to show their support.

"It was the most powerful expression of solidarity I have ever witnessed."

Dalziel said she hoped Islamic Awareness Week and Unity Week would become permanent fixtures on the Christchurch calendar.

Injured victim Hisham Al Zarzour - who still suffers pain from his hand injuries suffered that day at An Nur Masjid - supported the awareness week.

"It would give more open thinking. It's a good way to stay together. When you don't know about [Islam], there's sometimes not good ideas."

Al Zarzour was still haunted by that day, and he tried not to remember.

"We can remember the people, but for me to remember the 15th of March day....I live with the memories in my dreams almost every night.

"Because of that, I try to avoid thinking of the bad things, but the good things in my head and try to see the positive things happening."

On March 15, 2019, self-proclaimed white supremacist Brenton Tarrant killed 51 Muslim people and injured dozens more at two Christchurch mosques.

The time since then has seen the exchanging of numerous community initiatives showing support and solidarity.

Source

• Stuff
• Image: IQNA

Caritas NZ says the pilgrims are in Glasgow to pray and to press world leaders for strong action at COP26 - the 26th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Religious leaders representing Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist and Baha'i traditions are offering prayers and calls for concrete actions.

The 31 October to 12 November conference is the first requiring countries to honour their Paris accord commitment to submit new, more ambitious plans to environmentally-damaging emissions.

Caritas NZ says the global Catholic charity has three critical targets it wants to see COP26 progressing:

• Strong emissions cuts to keep the 1.5C target alive
• More climate finance that is targeted and more readily accessible to the most vulnerable communities, equally shared between mitigation (cutting emissions) and adaptation. Finance to address Loss and Damage already incurred by the poor must be stepped up, recognising the ecological debt owed by richer countries to poorer ones.
• Tackling climate change in an integrated way, including protection and restoration of ecosystems and prioritising the needs of the poor in a just transition, in line with Laudato Si'.

During the conference, Caritas will hand over its "Healthy Planet, Healthy People" petition along with other messages from faith-filled activists and leaders from around the world.

Several hundred people gathered in the vicinity of the Scottish Events Centre when the conference opened, to pray for world leaders at the conference.

"We remind governments of their commitments made in Paris in 2015 to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees," says a multifaith declaration read at the event and signed by more than 50 religious leaders from Scotland and the United Kingdom.

Another multifaith statement asks "governments to swiftly and justly transition the global economy from fossil fuels toward renewables and compensate communities already affected by climate change."

"Across our doctrinal and political differences, we know that we must change our ways to ensure a quality of life which all can share, and we need to provide hope for people of all ages, everywhere, including future generations. To offer hope in the world we need to have confidence that those in power understand the vital role they have to play at the Glasgow COP26."

Scottish Catholic Bishop Brian McGee says the interfaith group is offering prayers for world leaders. It also expects to exert pressure on them to deliver on public demands for an urgent response to the climate crisis.

"Certainly that's what a lot of people have been doing. That is contacting the politicians and explaining to them that this is really, really important and we have to do something here," he says.

McGee says Catholic action at the climate summit shows love of God's creation and those suffering the impacts of global warming.

Pope Francis's "extraordinary leadership" in widening the ecological question beyond conservation has widened the way we look at creation and people suffering the impacts of global warming, McGee says.

"It's about how we treat people. It's about justice in all its forms."

Source

• La Croix
• Caritas
• Image: Caritas Internationalis

While that anonymity is not without its downsides, one of its real benefits is that people can express who they really are and what they really think about a variety of issues.

Particularly interesting to those who study American religion are the social media communities that have cropped up among those who have left their religious traditions to convert to a new religion or left faith behind entirely.

Former evangelical Protestants identify themselves on Twitter with hashtags such as #exvangelical and #empty the pews.

On Reddit, a constant stream of Mormon leavers talk about their experience in leaving the church on the subreddit r/exmormon, which boasts some 200,000 users.

No group of spiritual refugees is more organized, perhaps, than the Ex-Muslims of North America.

Founded in 2013 as a nonprofit with the goal of standing for the rights and dignities of those who leave Islam, EXMNA raises and spends funds to better understand its members' experiences.

Three years ago the group surveyed its membership, and the results offer a fascinating glimpse into not only the factors that make it more likely someone will leave Islam, but the challenges those leavers face.

Before digging into the results, it's necessary to note that this survey was collected using a convenience sample: Those surveyed were not randomly recruited, but were collected from EXMNA members. Additionally, as these results represent the experiences of EXMNA and not all of those who leave Islam in North America, the data relies on people who leave Islam as they move into adulthood and have often suffered a steep cost for their apostasy in terms of their social, emotional and financial lives.

According to the survey of these people, defection from Islam happens at a very young age for many. When asked "How old were you when you left the faith?," 16% of the sample indicated that this occurred when they were 16 years old or younger. Rates of defection rose dramatically as respondents moved into their late teens.

By 18 years old, nearly a third of EXMNA members had left Islam behind, and that percentage increased to 54% by age 21. Just four years later, three-quarters of respondents said that they were no longer followers of Islam.

Thus, the likelihood of leaving Islam appears to be at its highest when young people's lives are the most unsettled. As teenagers and 20-somethings seek to earn a degree, get a job and possibly find a life partner, their attachment to the religion of their youth begins to wane. The EXMNA data tells a complicated story about these young people's fidelity to Muslim doctrine and practice.

About half the sample indicated that they drank alcohol before they left the faith and only 45% said that they prayed "as often as possible" or "all the time" when they were still Muslims. These numbers fall largely in line with other surveys about the behaviours of young Muslims. It's also notable that over half of the sample said that they were engaging in premarital sex while still Muslims — something that is doctrinally forbidden for followers of Islam and is looked down upon by members of the community.

Certainly, some of this has to do with the fact that many respondents left the faith as young people, but the data shows that some were only loosely tied to Islam even when they still considered themselves a Muslim.

The exception is the practice of avoiding pork consumption. Scholars have noted elsewhere that the prohibition against pork consumption is one of the deeply ingrained behaviours and, indeed, about 9 in 10 ex-Muslims said they never ate pork products when they were attached to Islam.

The data also makes clear that leaving a religion is more than ending certain ways of life. It leads to a cascade of implications that can impact all aspects of the apostate's life, often negatively, and often most powerfully in their relationships.

Two-thirds of EXMNA respondents reported that they hid their deconversion from some people in their lives, while 62% said that they lost friendships. Forty-five per cent of the sample indicated that they had been ostracized by some members of their family, and 30% said that they lost financial support as well.

Just about 1 in 5 ex-Muslims said that they were kicked out of their home once they renounced Islam and about 1 in 7 reported that they were physically abused.

Suffice it to say that leaving a faith group is never an easy transition, but it is one that more people than ever are making, in almost every faith. It's long been said that understanding religion is key to understand any society, but today understanding the push and pull of conversion and deconversion may be the most important key to understanding America's future.

• Ryan Burge is an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, a pastor in the American Baptist Church and author of "The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, And Where They Are Going."
• First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

Four members of the family were killed by a driver on 6 June and a nine-year-old boy was seriously injured.

Police say killing the family was a deliberate act. They believe the family was targeted because of their Muslim faith.

The 20-year old driver of the vehicle that ploughed into the family has been arrested and faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.

Responding forcefully to the killings, the Canadian Catholic Bishops' Conference (CCCB) is condemning religious violence in Canada and specifically hatred against Jews and Muslims.

Speaking for the conference, CCCB president Archbishop Richard Gagnon says the bishops "adamantly object to all forms and expressions of hatred and they strongly denounce the recent violence seen in Canada against the Jewish People and Muslims, for which there can be no possible justification ever."

There has been "a disturbing rise in harmful and violent acts against the Jewish People and Muslims" in recent weeks, including "offensive slurs, prejudice, hostility, and even terror claiming lives," he says.

The bishops are appealing to "the minds and hearts of the Catholic faithful, and all people of goodwill, to denounce antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all similar forms of extremism and violence against fellow human beings of all faith traditions."

They are also asking Catholics to promise to pray for:

"An increase in tireless, sincere and constructive dialogue, greater understanding, social harmony, and mutual respect, in order that Canadians from all backgrounds, faith traditions and cultures may live not as strangers or adversaries, but peacefully as brothers and sisters."

The Catholic Church will work with the Muslim community to root out hate, one of the bishops has vowed.

"I am horrified by the hate-motivated killing of an innocent Muslim family," he says.

"I unconditionally condemn acts of hatred and violence. People of all faiths, and all people, should always feel safe, everywhere in our country."

He went on to say that the Catholic community in the victims' hometown of London Ontario is offering its support "to our Muslim brothers and sisters, pledging to work together with them to end crimes of hate.

"I ask the faithful of the diocese to keep the family of those killed and their community in our prayers, asking God to bring them comfort in this time of grief and to grant the full recovery of the survivor."

Political leaders in the Canadian House of Commons are also condemning the allegedly premeditated hate crime.

"We cannot allow any form of hate to take root," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. "We must confront the ugly face of hatred.

"We know we need to look truth in the face, this hatred does exist in our country."

Source

• Catholic News Service
• Image: The Globe and Mail

I suppose the church really committed to dialogue and positive engagement at the Second Vatican Council, with the famous declaration on the relationship of the church to non-Christian religions, "Nostra Aetate."

There's a paragraph in there dedicated to Islam and opening up possibilities for good, positive relationships.

Of course, that was prefigured by some important historical figures in the church, who found positive ways to engage with Islam. St. Francis of Assisi is one of the key figures here.

While churches and mosques have been built for centuries in close proximity to each other, the relationship between those who worship God inside these sacred houses of prayer has not always been as close.

Pope Francis taking the name of Francis of Assisi when he became pope was in many ways a statement of intent with regard to openness to the Muslim world.

I think that's now being seen very clearly. But you could point to several other people in the Catholic tradition who have been very open to the Muslim world; who have overcome some of the prejudices of their age and who reached out.

If you were to do a kind of whistle-stop tour between Pope Paul VI and Pope Francis, how would you characterize the popes' interactions with Muslims?

Pope St. John Paul II was a towering figure in Christian-Muslim relations.

He is known in the Muslim world as somebody who was unprecedented in his outreach to the Muslim world.

He visited many Muslim countries; said very positive things about the Muslim tradition; famously kissed the Quran.

It was an important moment, and he attracted a huge amount of criticism from the Catholic world for having done this. But he was a real pioneer of interreligious relations and especially in the worlds of Islam and Judaism. So his efforts represent a high point.

The papacy of Benedict XVI is a time of more strained relationships with the Muslim world, of course.

Coinciding with 9/11 geopolitically, it included the Regensburg lecture, which was perceived at the time as something of an attack on Islam.

It was actually much more an attack on Western secularism. But people interpreted it in an opportunistic way.

It led to a certain amount of damage.

I think there were hurt feelings in the Muslim world, Muslims wanting to understand why the pope was joining in the sort of Islamophobia so apparent in much of the Western world at that time.

That was something of a low point.

But then, of course, Pope Benedict visited the Blue Mosque in Turkey and had that extraordinary moment when he stood in a moment of prayer there.

That was thought to have saved the situation, something of a diplomatic triumph.

Francis has right from the beginning struck a very different tone.

The agenda before Pope Francis was above all focused on religious freedom; what the Vatican calls reciprocity. In other words, "We Christians allow you Muslims to come to our countries and worship freely. Why don't you do the same for us?"

Pope Francis is convinced that suasion and warmth and encounter and mutual understanding can in the long term actually change relationships.

With Francis, there is a desire to understand religious extremism in all its forms, so you get this acknowledgement, right from the beginning of his pontificate, in "Evangelii Gaudium," where he refers not just to religious fundamentalism as a phenomenon you find in other religions but also in Christianity.

And I think that's been quite a helpful thing to have pointed out because it means that the enemy if you like, is not Islam.

It's a certain kind of extreme Islam, but you don't find that Christianity is free of extremism either.

Certainly, I think the last few years— if you have been watching what's going on in the United States—would bear that out.

You see an extraordinary politicization of Christianity in the name of a certain political agenda, which is not exactly the same but it is reminiscent of the way that Islam was hijacked by radical Islamism.

And while Pope Benedict was keen to detect that as evidence of a fundamental problem in Islam, I think Francis would be saying, "Well, actually, this is a weakness present in all religions, including our own, and this is something we have to combat together." Continue reading

He's bringing together all the things he wanted to say over the last seven years, and there's an obvious connection with the Human Fraternity document that he signed with the Grand Imam of al-Azhar Al Sharif on February 4, 2019, in Abu Dhabi," Cardinal Michael L. Fitzgerald M.Afr., told Americain this exclusive interview during his recent visit to Rome where he met the pope.

The English-born cardinal, 83, is a leading expert on Islam and Christian-Muslim relations and a member of the society of the Missionaries of Africa—popularly known as the White Fathers.

He discussed the encyclical and the Human Fraternity document with America at the Pontifical Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies in Rome, where he was once rector.

After that assignment, he was called by John Paul II to work at the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, first as secretary and then as prefect for four years until Benedict XVI, in an unexpected move, assigned him as nuncio to Egypt and delegate to the Arab League (2006-2012).

Pope Francis made him cardinal in 2019 and told journalists he did so "as an act of justice."

Cardinal Fitzgerald noted that Francis took inspiration for the encyclical not only from St. Francis of Assisi but also from the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Ahmad Al-Tayyeb.

Indeed, "Francis reveals he was ‘stimulated'—that is the word he uses in Italian—by the Grand Imam", the cardinal said. "And that expression caught my eye, because there is no precedent in church history for a pope drawing inspiration from a Muslim in writing an encyclical."

He recalled Francis's own words about his and the Imam's meeting on the Human Fraternity document, which he mentions eight times in the encyclical: "This was no mere diplomatic gesture, but a reflection born of dialogue and common commitment."

The cardinal remarked, "all that's significant", as is "the fact that a Muslim—Judge Ahmed Al-Salam—was one of the presenters of Fratelli Tutti, at its launch in the Vatican."

"This is something that Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar agree on. This is a theological principle, so they were doing theology together."

The cardinal, who studied in Tunisia and Egypt, and worked in South Sudan, Cairo and Jerusalem, considered it "important" that both the encyclical and the Human Fraternity document emphasize that "we are all one family, and that this fact is based on our common origin from God, because God has created all people together."

He remarked: "This is something that Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar agree on. This is a theological principle, so they were doing theology together."

He recalled that "the Qur'an does [say] that we all come from one single stock, and we are all in Adam and the whole of humanity, before actually being created, has accepted God as God, as their Lord. But they have to be reminded about this, and that's the whole thrust in Islam.

We are all Muslims when we are born because we have all accepted God as our Lord" but, he remarked, "That doesn't come in the encyclical, of course."

He noted that "while Muslims refer to God as the Creator God, the Merciful God, they do not refer to God as Father.

They would object to that, because the word ‘father' for them has a sort of sexual connotation, and so that would not be worthy of God."

But, he remarked, the fact that Pope Francis and the Grand Imam "were able to produce this document on human fraternity without referring to God as father shows that this is fine."

He drew attention to the similarities in the Human Fraternity document and ‘Fratelli Tutti', and noted that while the pope speaks of a "desensitized" human conscience in the encyclical, Francis and Al-Tayyeb use the even stronger term "anesthetized" in the Abu Dhabi text.

The African missionary cardinal emphasized that, in the Human Fraternity document, Pope Francis and the Grand Imam issued "the condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and expressions."

He said it's "significant" that Francis quoted those same words in Fratelli Tutti (paragraph n.283), that make clear that "we should not support terrorism in any way, neither financially nor by attempts to justify it in the media."

"When the pope and the imam are saying this together, this has more weight, and it is noticed." Continue reading

The cross-party parliamentary revolt is causing deep concern in government, where there are fears that judges and human rights campaigners could be empowered to throw UK-China trade relations into turmoil.

The moves are being led by the former cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith but have broad cross-party support.

Under the proposals, human rights campaigners would for the first time be able to seek redress in the UK courts for cases of alleged genocide, instead of the issue being determined at the UN, where deep political divisions mean those committing war crimes can in effect act with impunity. Read more

The Hagia Sophia dates to the sixth century, and for almost a millennium was one of the Christian world's most magnificent and well-known churches, carrying forward the traditions of both the Roman and the Byzantine Empires.

It was first converted into a mosque when the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453, but was then fashioned into a museum by modern Turkey's founding father, Kemal Atatürk, following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in World War I.

Atatürk sought to create a secular Turkey that could flourish in the modern world. That required bridging historical divisions, which meant that the Hagia Sophia would be neither a church nor a mosque.

As a museum, it would attract visitors from around the world, serving as both an embodiment of Turkish history and a symbol of forward-looking cosmopolitanism.

By overturning Atatürk's founding vision in this respect, Erdoğan is trying to signal a fundamental change in direction for the country.

After all, it is not as though Istanbul suffers from a scarcity of massive, magnificent, historically significant mosques. Those designed by the Ottoman master architect Sinan reside just nearby.

For more than a decade, Turkey was on track to adopt democratic reforms and align itself with the rest of Europe, even overhauling its constitution and beginning formal accession negotiations with the European Union in 2005.

The country's transformation at the time was both impressive and deeply inspiring to those of us watching from the outside.

But those hopeful days are gone.

Instead of modernizing and moving closer to the rest of Europe, Turkey under Erdoğan has been sinking into the mire of the Middle East.

This fundamental change has many causes, and cannot be placed at the feet of one man.

The country's official dialogue around the Kurdish question has collapsed, and in the summer of 2016, segments of the military, part of the secretive Gülen movement, attempted to stage a coup.

Once a key ally to Erdoğan, the Gülenists' attempted power grab tilted the country in a decidedly more authoritarian direction.

Erdoğan quickly started centralizing government functions and consolidating his own power with a widespread purge of the state and society, followed by a constitutional amendment establishing a presidential political system.

Complicating matters further, the civil war that has been raging in Syria since 2011 increasingly spilled over the border, dragging Turkey into the conflict in numerous destructive ways.

But, for all its faults and recent disappointments, Turkey is still a country where elections matter, and Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) has gradually suffered a loss of popular support. Continue reading

• Carl Bildt was Sweden's foreign minister from 2006 to 2014 and Prime Minister from 1991 to 1994, when he negotiated Sweden's EU accession.

Rehema Kyomuhendo, 24, was talking on the phone one night to a Catholic friend of her dad, Sheikh Hussein Byaruhanga Husain, when he woke up and attacked her, she told Morning Star News.

She claimed he began "beating me up with blows, slaps and kicks", while a source close to Rehema told the publication he then reportedly lit fuel from a jerrican and burned her.

Rehema was taken to hospital having suffered serious burns on her leg, stomach, rib area, near her neck and on part of her back, the source said. Read more

In 2020 however, these traditions will not be able to happen. Read more

They returned to Christchurch this month after spending three months in Kabul and Jalalabad equipping 51 people with the means to earn a living through their own micro-enterprises. Read more

This time, the debate erupted after a far-right politician asked a woman who was accompanying her son and other children on a school trip to a regional council headquarters to remove her headscarf when entering the building.

It is a reminder that, for all our progress, Islamophobia is still rife - in France, and right across Europe.

As a Muslim woman who wears a headscarf, it is really frustrating and obviously upsetting to face discrimination just for following the tenets of my faith. I know too well the pain of experiencing Islamophobia first hand in the UK.

I have been verbally abused and harassed by members of the public just because my faith is visible to them.

The Muslim mother targeted in this instance was also left in tears, in front of her child, after being publicly humiliated by Julien Odoul, a member of Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) party, who said he was acting on behalf of "secular principles in the wake of killings by a radicalised extremist".

This excuse is unacceptable.

There is nothing in French law that stipulates that women are not allowed to wear the hijab in or outside school gates while accompanying classes on outings.

What happened was this: a woman wanted to take part in her son's school trip was deliberately victimised in an attempt to keep visible Muslims out of sight and deter Islamic integration into French society.

Remarkably, many ministers of Emmanuel Macron's centrist government-backed the stance of the politician, claiming defence of French secularism.

Luckily, others within the same government quite rightly disagreed, citing that this position goes against the religious tolerance that "laïcité" is supposed to defend.

But the political defence of religious tolerance in France is laughable given that formal restrictions have already been placed on wearing religious symbols.

France has had a long history of political controversies surrounding the hijab, resulting in a legal ban on wearing a hijab in classrooms and government offices in 2004.

More worryingly, a recent opinion poll found that two in three French people are in favour of prohibiting parents accompanying kids on school trips from wearing visible religious symbols - but this attitude restricts individuals from expressing their true identity.

France has the largest population of Muslims in Europe (approximately 10 per cent of the population), and yet this large minority now feel they are being asked to hide themselves away.

It is so frustrating for visibly Muslim women to have to keep justifying their right to wear what they want in accordance to their faith; to be judged and made to feel that we are in support of acts of terror when we denounce it and are completely against it.

Many Muslim women in France have told me that they are often subjected to Islamophobic abuse on their daily commute and some have not taken jobs in teaching because the rules surrounding the profession would require them to compromise their religious beliefs.

I myself have been asked to take off my hijab when I was on holiday in France.

France became a secular state when it officially separated itself from the church in 1905 to abide by a set of national principles.

The country purports to be neutral in matters of religion, therefore not conferring privilege on any particular religion or set of beliefs.

However, what the modern French government has failed to realise is that their idea of secularism is restricting human rights, and is now being abused as a shield for discrimination and Islamophobic abuse. Continue reading

• Tasnim Nazeer is an award-winning journalist, author and producer

The report, "Singled Out: Islamophobia in the Classroom and the Impact of Discrimination on Muslim Students," is based on a statewide survey of about 1,500 Muslim students between 11 and 18 years old.

It was released Wednesday (Oct. 16) by the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR.

The organization found that 40% of participating students experienced some form of bullying because of their religion. That's down from the 53% in 2017 who reported being bullied — either verbally insulted or abused — for being Muslim. Read more

The Jewish community has asked that some of the donated money is used for interfaith activities to foster a greater connection between the Jewish and Muslim communities.

"Our faith has a shared Abrahamic tradition and Jews and Muslims have both suffered persecution and racism historically, and unfortunately still do today,'' says Stephen Goodman of the New Zealand Jewish Council.

"The Jewish community, both in New Zealand and overseas, wanted the victims of the mosque attacks to know that we see them, we empathise with them, and we support them.''

A great proportion of the money donated was raised by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh in the United States of America, who lost 11 members of their community in a deadly synagogue shooting in October last year.

The New South Wales Jewish community also donated money, along with the American Jewish Committee and the New Zealand Jewish community.

The money has been pooled together to form the Abrahamic Fund.

It will be used mainly for counselling and support services, medical treatment, financial planning services, education and vocational training for the victims of the mosque shootings and their families.

"We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims of the Christchurch massacre and we extend our hand in friendship in calling for an end to racism, an end to anti-semitism, an end of Islamophobia, and an end to bigotry in all its forms,'' said visiting New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies Chief Executive Vic Alhadeff.

Ibrar Sheikh, from the Federation of the Islamic Associations NZ (FIANZ), says the Muslim community is very grateful for the support shown by the global Jewish community.

Source

ccc.govt.nz

rnz.co.nz

Image: Screenshot: tvnz.co.nz