The study was conducted in 2023 by researchers from Massey University and funded by the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand and the New Zealand Islamic Think Tank.

It followed several discussions between government and Muslim organisations following the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks. Read more

Reuters could not establish if the place was currently functioning as a mosque.

Within minutes of reporters arriving, four men in plainclothes showed up and took up positions around the site, locking gates to nearby residential buildings.

The men told the reporters it was illegal to take photos and to leave.

"There's no mosque here … there has never been a mosque at this site," said one of the men in response to a question from Reuters if there was a mosque inside. He declined to identify himself.

Minarets on the building's four corners, visible in publicly available satellite images in 2019, have gone.

A large blue metal box stood where the mosque's central dome had once been. It was not clear if it was a place of worship at the time the satellite images were taken.

In recent months, China has stepped up a campaign on state media and with government-arranged tours to counter the criticism of researchers, rights groups and former Xinjiang residents who say thousands of mosques have been targeted in a crackdown on the region's mostly Muslim Uyghur people.

Officials from Xinjiang and Beijing told reporters in Beijing that no religious sites had been forcibly destroyed or restricted and invited them to visit and report.

"Instead, we have taken a series of measures to protect them," Elijan Anayat, a spokesman for the Xinjiang government, said of mosques late last year.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Wednesday some mosques had been demolished, while others had been upgraded and expanded as part of rural revitalization but Muslims could practice their religion openly at home and in mosques.

Asked about restrictions authorities put on journalists visiting the area, Hua said reporters had to try harder to "win the trust of the Chinese people" and report objectively.

Reuters visited more than two dozen mosques across seven counties in southwest and central Xinjiang on a 12-day visit during Ramadan, which ended on Thursday.

There is a contrast between Beijing's campaign to protect mosques and religious freedom and the reality on the ground. Most of the mosques that Reuters visited had been partially or completely demolished.

China has repeatedly said that Xinjiang faces a serious threat from separatists and religious extremists who plot attacks and stir up tension between Uyghurs who call the region home and the ethnic Han, China's largest ethnic group.

A mass crackdown that includes a campaign of restrictions on religious practice and what rights groups describe as the forced political indoctrination of more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslims began in earnest in 2017.

China initially denied detaining people in detention camps, but has since said they are vocational training centres and that the people have "graduated" from them.

The government says there are more than 20,000 mosques in Xinjiang but no detailed data on their status is available.

Some functioning mosques have signs saying congregants must register while citizens from outside the area, foreigners and anyone under the age of 18 are banned from going in.

Functioning mosques feature surveillance cameras and include Chinese flags and propaganda displays declaring loyalty to the ruling Communist Party.

Visiting reporters were almost always followed by plainclothes personnel and warned not to take photographs.

A Han woman, who said she had moved to the city of Hotan six years ago from central China, said Muslims who wanted to pray could do so at home.

"There are no Muslims like that here anymore," the woman said, referring to those who used to pray at the mosque. She added: "Life in Xinjiang is beautiful." Continue reading

Islamic State that ruled Mosul from 2014 to 2016, damaged or destroyed every church in the city including the 19th century built "Our Lady of the Hour" Church, popularly called Al Saa'a Church.

Currently, the church is being rebuilt through a partnership between UNESCO, the United Arab Emirates, and the Dominican order.

Established in the 19th century, the Our Lady of the Hour Church was the base for the Catholic parish in northern Iraq and Kurdistan. Read more

Hisham El Zeiny has lived in New Zealand for 21 years but is unable to buy his own home, partly because paying or receiving interest is forbidden in Islam and the country's banks don't offer alternative finance options.

The 66-year-old, a former imam of the El Noor Mosque who now works as a cooking and Arabic tutor, said Muslims view the process of making money through lending as "usury". Read more

Their vision of an inter-religious gathering to show their support was realised in Paris last Saturday, when they joined with Catholics and Christians of other religions in song and prayer.

The celebration of inter-faith togetherness was organised by Christian movement Efesia as part of its "Together with Mary" inter-religious group.

President of Efesia, Gerard Testard, said he was delighted to see "our Muslim friends come as if visiting a wounded person."

Paris' Auxiliary Bishop Denis Jachiet represented Catholics, Anouar Kbibech, Vice-President of the French Council of Muslim Worship, represented the Sunni Muslims, while Sheikh Mohamed Ali Mortada represented Shiites.

Jachiet reminded the gathering that the "Notre-Dame is much more than the cathedral of the Catholics of Paris."

Ghaleb Bencheikh, who is an Islamologist and president of the Foundation of Islam in France, shared similar sentiments.

"There will be a first physical reconstruction but also an intangible reconstruction, that of the nation," he said.

In Kbibech 's opinion, this second aspect has already begun.

"Today's meeting symbolises three levels of fraternity: between believers of the same religion, between believers of all faiths and with humanity," he said.

People from the Shiite community are positive about the event.

"We had organized an event around Mary just before the fire, at the Shiite mosque in La Courneuve, with our friends from Efesia. At a meeting, after the disaster, we asked ourselves how we could show our support for the Christian community," one said.

Another commented: "We have come for the union between Muslims and Christians. We want peace in France. We too are with Our Lady". She was "touched" and "sad" when she saw images of the burning cathedral.

Yet another said: "[Notre Dame is] a symbol. When people come to Paris there is the Eiffel Tower, it's true, but Notre-Dame is even more important".

Jachiet was of a similar opinion, saying "Notre-Dame is much more than the cathedral of the Catholics of Paris."

After more than an hour of prayers, songs, readings from the Gospel according to St John and suras from the Quran about the "human gathering," two doves were released.

Source

• La Croix
• Image: La Croix International

Irish Bishop Kevin Doran says he has come across people - some of whom classify themselves as traditional Catholics and faith-filled people - who say "oh well, these Muslims are putting our civilisation at risk and they pose a threat to us".

He said there's an "implication" that because people are Muslim they are more likely to be terrorists.

Doran's comments were made in the wake of what he described as a "savage attack" on the two mosques in Christchurch on 15 March, that left 50 people dead.

"All of us, of whatever religious tradition, can identify with what that might mean for a congregation gathered to worship," he said.

Doran said it was wrong of people to demonise Muslims for the actions of terrorism that claims to be inspired by Islam.

"To define a whole category of people, or a whole nation, or a whole religious group as being in some way more prone to terrorism than any other group is irresponsible," he said.

Doran said in his experience, Muslim people living in Irish society do so "peacefully and participate fully".

"We have large numbers of Muslim children in our Catholic schools, and they contribute to the ethos in many ways.

"One of the interesting things about Muslims is that, while they are of a different faith, they tend to have a level of commitment to faith that in many ways we might well sit up and pay attention to," he noted.

In February, Doran spoke out after a disused hotel that had been going to house refugees was damaged. The house had been burned in an apparent arson attack.

Not only had the alleged arson caused "significant upset to parishioners," Doran said it was "all the more disturbing since it is suggested that the fires are a response to the proposed use of the hotel to house refugees."

"Militant opposition, expressed in the destruction of property, is simply not consistent with the Gospel," he said.

Source

• Catholic News Service
• The Irish Catholic
• Image: Crux Now

Turkey, which is a majority-Muslim country, says China's mass repression of its Uighur Muslim ethnic minority is a "great shame for humanity". Read more

Traditionally, in the days leading up to Ash Wednesday, Catholic cities in Germany hold huge street celebrations. Parades and parties provide revellers with a last binge of drinking, dancing and singing before the 40 days of fasting in Lent. Read more

At the same time, President Trump announced plans to eventually relocate the US Embassy to the holy city.

Pope Francis responded to the change in US policy, saying he wants the "status quo" to remain.

He says he is "profoundly concerned" about recent developments concerning Jerusalem.

He declared the city a unique and sacred place for Christians, Jews and Muslims and that it has a "special vocation for peace."

He appealed "that everyone respects the status quo of the city," according to UN resolutions.

"I pray to the Lord that its identity is preserved and strengthened for the benefit of the Holy Land, the Middle East and the whole world ...

"... and that wisdom and prudence prevail to prevent new elements of tension from being added to a global context already convulsed by so many cruel conflicts," he said on Wednesday.

Others have expressed concern about Trump's decision.

The Middle East has strongly objected to the move.

Carefully worded rebukes have also flowed in from US allies.

The US position in 1947 held that Jerusalem was a corpus seperatum: an internationally controlled entity that belonged to neither Arab nor Jew.

Bit by bit this view has altered. Firstly it adopted a policy of "limited internationalisation", while still opposing both Arabs and Israelis claiming Jerusalem as their capital.

Nonetheless, Israel has sought to claim Jerusalem as its capital.

Following the six-day war in 1967, a new policy was adopted.

This held that neither Israelis nor Arabs could claim Jerusalem as their capital.

The Vatican has long sought an internationally guaranteed status for Jerusalem that safeguards its sacred character for Jews, Muslims and Christians.

Francis spoke by telephone on Tuesday with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, after President Donald Trump forewarned Abbas of his decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The Vatican said the call with Francis was made at Abbas's initiative.

Source

• The Washington Post
• The Washington Post
• National Catholic Register
• La Croix
• Zenit
• JSTOR
• Image: Time Magazine

Image:

Some customers have threatened to boycott Tesco because of advertising scenes showing a Muslim family exchanging gifts. Others say the Muslims' inclusion is "very wrong".

Those who support the "Everyone's Welcome" ad are using social media to explain why it's "wonderful to share the day with everyone," regardless of their faith.

One supporter of the adverts says his family celebrates Christmas each year with their Muslim friends.

We give our Muslim neighbours' kids Christmas presents, and they give presents to ours. We share food.

"They don't come to church, but then again we don't go to the mosque when they have us over for Eid. Gift-giving is something everyone can get involved in."

A person against the ad's said: "I object strongly to your anti-Christian Xmas advert - how dare you politicise our festival in order to appease lefty political correctness.

"You have lost me as a customer now, you should rethink your advertising campaign, British people still live here."

Tesco is defending its position, saying the advertisement aims to promote diversity.

"Everyone is welcome at Tesco this Christmas, and we're proud to celebrate the many ways our customers come together over the festive season."

The supermarket says its Christmas campaign "will celebrate the many ways we come together at Christmas, and how food sits at the heart of it all."

Many Muslims joined the online flurry explaining why they enjoy the festive season.

One woman wrote: "I am Muslim and I love Christmas.

"It's so nice and it's also cultural. I just love the tastes and smells."

Source

• Independent
• Huffington Post
• Finance.co.uk
• Image: Cilisos

Islam is projected to grow more than twice as fast as any other major religion over the next half century because of a higher fertility rate. While Christianity will remain a dominant global religion, it will lose majority religious status in countries such as the United Kingdom, France and Australia.

Such a dramatic change raises questions about whether global conflicts between radical groups and Western nations with Christian majorities will become more inflamed in the decades ahead.

"The very rapid growth of population, combined with limited opportunities even for the educated young people, but particularly for less educated ones, has created social and therefore political tensions and that has fueled things like immigration to Western countries, political upheaval," says David Voas, professor of population studies at England's Institute for Social and Economic Research.

The world's two largest religions will be near parity by 2050. Christians are predicted to be 31.4% of the planet's population vs. 29.7% who follow Islam, researchers say. Christians made up the same 31.4% in 2010; Muslims 23.2%.

"We can be quite confident that Muslims are going to grow rapidly in the decades ahead," said Conrad Hackett, demographer and lead author of the report.

The engine of growth for both Christianity and Islam will be sub-Saharan Africa where high fertility and large Muslim and Christian populations will increase global numbers for both religions, Pew demographers say.

Christianity will remain the dominant religion for the United States but lose some of its share to the unaffiliated - those who claim no particular religion or who are atheists or agnostic. By 2050, one in four Americans will fall into this non-religious category, up from 16.4% in 2010, the analysis shows. Continue reading

Sources

• The Nation article by Gregg Zoroya, an editorial writer at USA Today.
• Image: Life in Saudi Arabia

While hatred for and visceral fear of Muslims began long before President Trump's campaign hatched, his odious rhetoric and reckless decisions promise a potentially horrifying climax.

Given Trump's intentions for a "Muslim ban" and the fury his followers harbor for Islam, the backdrop for Islam in America right now consists of white nationalist fliers on college campuses, grisly hate crimes, tenuous civil liberties and profound suspicion.

Friends and family fear that anything appearing remotely "Muslimy" will provoke malice. There are also concerns that the "clash of civilizations" sought by Trump's advisers will embolden groups like the Islamic State, which seek those disaffected by the West as recruits.

Trump's presidency has become a moment of reckoning for the country's 3.3 million Muslims as their faith finds itself embattled, besieged by uncertainty and under duress.

Muslims face a temptation to embrace victimhood and retreat, but also a solace, as Islam has been in a similar place before.

In the dusty pages of old Sunday school books are the stories of early Muslim communities that thrived when their faith was beset with challenges.

Propelled forward by the universal themes of justice, equality and solidarity that form the Koran's bedrock, their enlightened struggle resonates under Trump's presidency.

Born in 610, Islam's call for social and economic reform became a radical response to the growing inequities in the city of Mecca.

Long honored tribal ideals had perished as wealth became disproportionately concentrated in the hands of a few oligarchs who controlled the city and all of its political, religious and economic affairs.

Prophet Muhammad sought to topple this entrenched social order with Islam's unprecedented message of equality, which embraced Mecca's indigent and marginalized.

Those who chose to convert to Islam in its nascent stages voluntarily chose to oppose this status quo despite the great personal cost.

Many sacrificed their lives, abandoned lives of privilege, severed bonds with family members, endured persecution and ignored ridicule because they were called to a purpose far greater than themselves. Continue reading

Sources

• The Washington Post, article by Jalal Baig, an oncologist and a writer in Chicago.
• Image: Time

The requiem Mass, was led by the city of Rouen's archbishop, Dominique Lebrun and afterwards Father Hamel was interred with a private burial ceremony.

The archbishop told mourners that after his throat was slit, Hamel pushed one of his attackers with his feet, saying: "Get away, Satan."

At the funeral Hamel's sister, Roselyne, told the congregation her brother had been a man of "mercy and love.

She said Father Hamel's message to everyone would be: "Let us learn to live together. Let us be the workers and artisans of peace, each one in his own way."

The marked difference between ISIS members and other Muslims was also evident at Mass last Sunday, attended by hundreds of Muslims in both Italy and France.

In an unusual joint statement, a group of more than 40 Muslim professionals said French Muslims must move from the shadows to front and center, and take action because those representing Islam have lost touch with the young.

"We were silent because we learned that in France religion is a private affair," the signers wrote, referring to the secular values France prizes and the French model of integration by which citizens forego their cultures of origin for Frenchness.

"Now we must speak because Islam has become a public affair and the current situation is intolerable."

Source

• Breitbart
• NZ Herald
• RadioNZ
• The Guardian
• Image: VoaNews

The question "Who do you say I am?", in reference to Jesus, was put to Mr Trump by evangelical commentator Cal Thomas in the US.

The exchange was published in transcript form on Mr Thomas's website.

After Mr Thomas put the question a second time, Mr Trump gave the following answer.

"Jesus to me is somebody I can think about for security and confidence," Mr Trump said.

"Somebody I can revere in terms of bravery and in terms of courage and, because I consider the Christian religion so important, somebody I can totally rely on in my own mind."

The first time the question as to who Jesus is was put to Mr Trump, he stumbled a little.

"I will be asking for forgiveness, but hopefully I won't have to be asking for much forgiveness," he began.

"As you know, I am Presbyterian and Protestant."

He then said it was "deplorable" Syrian Muslims could come to the US so easily compared to
Syrian Christians, before concluding, "I'm going to treat my religion, which is Christian, with great respect and care".

The exchange comes ahead of Mr Trump's speech to 500 evangelical leaders in New York later this month.

Meanwhile, the Archbishop of Canterbury has agreed with Pope Francis that Mr Trump's plan for building an anti-immigrant wall is not Christian.

Archbishop Justin Welby was asked by a UK MP whether he thought a policy of treating an entire religion as suspect and banning them from a county - a reference to Mr Trump's policy on Muslims - was unchristian.

The archbishop said in reply: "It is certainly not a Christian thing to do nor is it a rational thing to do."

Sources

• Religion News Service
• Telegraph
• Cal Thomas
• Image: Washington Times

Cardinal Kurt Koch, who leads ecumenical relations for the Vatican, made the comments at an interfaith meeting in the United Kingdom, the Catholic Herald reported.

Cardinal Koch also said that Christians should not try and convert Jews and should view Judaism as a "mother".

"We have a mission to convert all non-Christian religions' people [except] Judaism," he said.

He reportedly added that this extended to jihadis responsible for persecuting Christians in the Middle East.

The cardinal said Christianity and Judaism shared a special relationship.

"It is very clear that we can speak about three Abrahamic religions, but we cannot deny that the view of Abraham in Jewish and the Christian tradition and the Islamic tradition is not the same," he said.

"In this sense we have only with Jewish people this unique relationship that we do not have with Islam."

On Monday, Pope Francis held a 25-minute meeting with Ahmad el-Tayeb, the grand imam of al-Azhar University in Cairo.

This was the first meeting between a Pontiff and the grand imam since the university suspended formal dialogue in 2011.

The university took exception to what it called Pope Benedict XVI's focus on Christian suffering in the Middle East when many Muslims were suffering too.

This was on top of Benedict's 2006 Regensburg speech which many saw as linking Islam with violence.

On Monday, Pope Francis sat to the side of his desk facing the grand imam rather than behind his desk as he customarily does when meeting with a visiting head of state.

Vatican spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, said the conversation between the two included a discussion about "the great significance of this new encounter within the scope of dialogue between the Catholic Church and Islam".

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• Express
• The Tablet
• Image: Catholic Herald

The growth and regional migration of Muslims, combined with the ongoing impact of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other extremist groups that commit acts of violence in the name of Islam, have brought Muslims and the Islamic faith to the forefront of the political debate in many countries.

Yet many facts about Muslims are not well known in some of these places, and most Americans - who live in a country with a relatively small Muslim population - say they know little or nothing about Islam.

Here are answers to some key questions about Muslims, compiled from several Pew Research Center reports published in recent years:

How many Muslims are there? Where do they live?

There were 1.6 billion Muslims in the world as of 2010 - roughly 23% of the global population - according to a Pew Research Center estimate. But while Islam is currently the world's second-largest religion (after Christianity), it is the fastest-growing major religion.

Indeed, if current demographic trends continue, the number of Muslims is expected to exceed the number of Christians by the end of this century.

Although many countries in the Middle East-North Africa region, where the religion originated in the seventh century, are heavily Muslim, the region is home to only about 20% of the world's Muslims.

A majority of the Muslims globally (62%) live in the Asia-Pacific region, including large populations in Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Turkey.

Indonesia is currently the country with the world's single largest Muslim population, but Pew Research Center projects that India will have that distinction by the year 2050 (while remaining a majority Hindu country), with more than 300 million Muslims.

The Muslim population in Europe also is growing; we project 10% of all Europeans will be Muslims by 2050. Continue reading

Sources

• Pew Research Center, from an article written by Michael Lipka, an editor focusing on religion at Pew Research Center.
• Image: Wikipedia

Former Bishop John Gray shocked visiting Jews in Christchurch last month when he told them the Holocaust "should have taught you a lesson".

Gray, who was head of the Maori Anglican diocese in the South Island, also attacked Muslim speakers.

He asked what they were doing about the "slaughter of innocent people" by Muslims "under the banner of ISIS and al Qaeda".

The Anglican Church apologised and Gray was demoted from his role as vicar general to Maori Anglican Diocese in Aotearoa.

He initially retained his title of bishop.

Now he has lost that title, a much more serious demotion.

Continue reading

But here's what's less visible — the online backlash against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, by young Muslims declaring their opposition to rule by Islamic law, or Shariah, and even proudly avowing their atheism.

Nadia Oweidat, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, who tracks how Arab youths use the Internet, says the phenomenon "is mushrooming — the brutality of the Islamic State is exacerbating the issue and even pushing some young Muslims away from Islam."

On Nov. 24, BBC.com published a piece on what was trending on Twitter.

It began: "A growing social media conversation in Arabic is calling for the implementation of Shariah, or Islamic law, to be abandoned.

"Discussing religious law is a sensitive topic in many Muslim countries.

"But on Twitter, a hashtag which translates as ‘why we reject implementing Shariah' has been used 5,000 times in 24 hours.

"The conversation is mainly taking place in Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

"The debate is about whether religious law is suitable for the needs of Arab countries and modern legal systems. Dr. Alyaa Gad, an Egyptian doctor living in Switzerland, started the hashtag.

" ‘I have nothing against religion,' she tells BBC Trending, but says she is against ‘using it as a political system.' "

The BBC added that "many others joined in the conversation, using the hashtag, listing reasons why Arabs and Muslims should abandon Shariah. ‘Because there's not a single positive example of it bringing justice and equality,' one man tweeted. ... A Saudi woman commented: ‘By adhering to Shariah we are adhering to inhumane laws. Saudi Arabia is saturated with the blood of those executed by Sharia.' " Continue reading

• Thomas L. Friedman in The New York Times

Thomas L. Friedman became the The New York Times' foreign affairs Op-Ed columnist in 1995.

The forces fighting Israel are essentially the same as those trying to remove Bashar al-Assad in Syria and those seeking to take over Afghanistan on the borders with Russia - radical Sunni jihadists, most notably the group ISIS who look back to the tradition of the conquering caliphate.

Their sworn enemy is not primarily the liberal West or the imperial United States, but instead Catholic and Orthodox Christendom.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed leader of the Islamic State stretching from Iraq to Syria, has called on Muslims to rally behind his pan-Islamic project:

"Rush O Muslims to your state. It is your state.

"Syria is not for Syrians and Iraq is not for Iraqis. The land is for the Muslims, all Muslims.

"This is my advice to you. If you hold to it you will conquer Rome and own the world, if Allah wills."

This should come as no surprise to anyone.

For decades Sunni jihadists have waged war on Christian oriental communities across the Middle East and North Africa, while other Islamic extremists are fighting Russian Orthodoxy in the Caucasus and throughout Central Asia.

In novel and frightening ways, this pits the militant strands of Sunni Islam not only against the more traditional forms of Sufism, including the Alawites in Syria, but also the remnants of Christendom.

I shall return to the importance of Christendom in due course. But first, a number of points need to be made about the contemporary global geopolitical situation.

The end of Westphalia and the rise of "neo-medievalism"

To begin with, we are witnessing the death throes of the Westphalian system that was dominated by national states and transnational markets, in which great powers could simply buy off small countries and rule by proxy. Continue reading

Sources

• ABC Religion and Ethics
• Image: The Telegraph
• See also: Christendom at War, in Catholic Vote and Persecution of Christians by ISIS contradicts idea of a Caliphate in The Conversation.

Spokesman Mohammed Sareem said the group had formed because a former government minister overseas has been accusing Muslims of being part of the 2006 coup.

"We urge politicians to keep religion out of politics," Mr Sareem said.

He is the managing director of Suva Car Rentals.

Former politicians had also charged that Muslims were endangering the lives of others, he added.

Mr Sareem said members of Fiji's Muslim community are in government because of their achievements.

"They are not there to represent the Islamic community in Fiji, we were born and bred here in Fiji, we call this place our home and all we want is to live peacefully in Fiji," he said.

Meanwhile, Archbishop Peter Loy Chong of Suva said last month that the upcoming General Election on September 17 will define the nation's future.

Archbishop Chong urged Fiji Catholics to make informed voting decisions for the betterment of the country.

Speaking at a workshop at St Joseph's Secondary School in Suva last month, he said that while the Church is apolitical, it has a responsibility to inform its members to make wise decisions.

"The Catholic Church recognises that the political decisions of the Fijian people in the election will define the future of our nation," Archbishop Chong said.

He said the Church would contribute towards building a better Fiji.

"The Catholic Church, therefore, wishes to contribute to building a better Fiji by helping our Catholics make a well-informed political decision based on the Scriptures and the teachings of the Church."

"The Church is not an expert in politics," the archbishop said.

"Rather, the Church is an expert in the gospel of Jesus Christ and whatever that pertains to the promotion and protection of the human person as a son and daughter of God."

Sources

• Fiji Live
• Fiji Times
• Image: Fiji Live