Fijians were recently recruited by the Taliban says Federal Administered Tribal Areas Research Centre‘s director administration and research Mansur Khan Mehsud. He was speaking to the Fiji Times from Islamabad in Pakistan. Mehsud says that foreigners are coming from a more diverse number of countries than in years past. “A few months ago, we even welcomed some (two Read more
Papua New Guinea is the new frontier for the expansion of Islam in Oceania says Fr. Franco Zocca SVD, a missionary in Goroka and scholar of Islam at the Melanesian Insitute. Islam arrived in Papua New Guinea about 35 years ago, when a mosque was opened near Kimbe, West New Britain. Islam was officially registered Read more
Two weeks ago the Christchurch-based Al-Noor Charitable Trust announced it had bought the former St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School in South Dunedin and intended to open a boarding school for about 100 year 11-13 boys by 2014. It will be known as An-Nur Kiwi Academy (AKA), it will be the South Island’s first Islamic (Moslem) Read more
I have previously written about the Catholic Church’s need to be realistic about its property needs — in terms of schools, churches and presbyteries. If a property is no longer needed or the revenue generated from its sale would be a better use of the asset, assuming it’s not going to be disproportionately detrimental to Read more
History was made in Majuro last week with the official opening of a newly built mosque for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Located in the downtown section of the capital, directly across the street from the courthouse, the new mosque was blessed and then people enjoyed food as part of the celebration. The opening included reading Read more
Believe it or not but a funny thing happened at the 16th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Tehran last month. When the new Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi, denounced the “oppressive” Syrian government, it didn’t go down so well with the pro-Assad Iranians. So, local journalists decided deliberately to mistranslate “Syria”, in Farsi, as “Bahrain”, prompting Read more