In the run-up to the trip, many in and outside the Vatican warned that the visit was not timely. They feared for the pope's security and feared that the visit's various events would be hives of COVID infections.

Despite the risks, Iraqis wanted him to come. Popes going back to St. John Paul II have been trying unsuccessfully to visit Iraq. There has not been and probably never will be a good time to visit Iraq.

Inside Iraq, it was harder to find people opposing the papal visit. The government wanted to show, by hosting such a high-profile world leader, that Iraq is safe and open for business.

Christians wanted their pastor to comfort them and showcase their great suffering. Muslims wanted him because they see him as someone who respects Islam and promotes reconciliation and peace.

Long after the COVID-19 pandemic is forgotten, Christians and Muslims will look back at the papacy of Francis as a turning point in their relationship. After the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), popes began reaching out to dialogue with Muslims.

John Paul II met and prayed with Muslims. And although Pope Benedict XVI's missteps temporarily interrupted dialogue, Francis has been extremely successful in improving relations.

Francis hopes that rather than being part of the problem, religion can become part of the solution in the Middle East. At Ur, the birthplace of Abraham, he told an interreligious gathering, "Hostility, extremism and violence are not born of a religious heart; they are betrayals of religion."

For most Iraqis, the high point of the pope's visit was his 45-minute meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf, the third holiest pilgrimage site for Shiite Muslims after Mecca and Medina.

Al-Sistani, who almost never meets with foreign dignitaries, is considered the most influential leader of Shiite Muslims.

Francis had already met with leading Sunni Muslim leaders, such as Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar in Egypt, with whom in 2019 he signed a document on human fraternity. Reaching out to both Muslim communities has been a priority for the pope.

Many had hoped that the pope and al-Sistani would also sign a joint statement; they didn't, but doors have been opened for future talks and dialogue. In any case, a picture is worth a thousand words.

After the meeting, the Vatican said that the pope had "stressed the importance of cooperation and friendship between religious communities for contributing — through the cultivation of mutual respect and dialogue — to the good of Iraq, the region and the entire human family."

The pope also praised al-Sistani "for speaking up — together with the Shiite community — in defence of those most vulnerable and persecuted," and for standing up for the dignity of human life.

Al-Sistani, for his part, issued a statement saying Christians should "live like all Iraqis, in security and peace and with full constitutional rights."

He affirmed the "role that the religious authority plays in protecting them and others who have also suffered injustice and harm in the events of past years."

The pope's visit was given positive coverage in the Iraqi media and in other Muslim countries, including Iran.

A major Iranian newspaper referred to the two leaders as "standard-bearers of world peace" and to the meeting as "the most effective event (in the history of) dialogue between religions."

Iraqi Christians also welcomed the meeting with al-Sistani, which they hoped would lead to better treatment of Christians in Iraq, who lived peacefully under Saddam Hussein but have been suffering in Iraq since the American invasion in 2003.

John Paul II predicted this when he tried to talk President George W. Bush out of the war.

Matters got even worse with the rise of the Islamic State group, which waged genocide against Christians, Shiites and others who did not share its beliefs.

As a result, the Christian population of Iraq fell from 1.4 million in 2014 to only 300,000 today.

Church leaders feared that without a papal visit, this exodus of Christian refugees from Iraq would continue.

The pope's visit highlighted the suffering of Iraqi Christians and tried to give them hope. In the Assyrian Catholic cathedral in Baghdad, where nearly 50 people were killed in a 2010 terrorist attack, he appealed for "forgiveness, reconciliation and rebirth" in Iraq.

"We are gathered in this Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation, hallowed by the blood of our brothers and sisters who here paid the ultimate price of their fidelity to the Lord and his church," Francis said.

"Christians are called to bear witness to the love of Christ in every time and place. This is the gospel that must be proclaimed and embodied in this beloved country as well."

Whether the papal visit will stop the exodus of Iraqi Christians and encourage refugees to return remains to be seen, but the community clearly welcomed the pope's visit and the attention it brought to their plight.

"Now is the time to rebuild and to start afresh, relying on the grace of God, who guides the destinies of all individuals and peoples," the pope said in Qaraqosh, a Christian town in Iraq's Nineveh Plains, which was devastated during the war with the Islamic State group. "You are not alone! The entire church is close to you, with prayers and concrete charity."

The pope also called on all Iraqis to work together for peace and criticized countries selling arms to the combatants.

"The religious, cultural and ethnic diversity that has been a hallmark of Iraqi society for millennia is a precious resource on which to draw, not an obstacle to be eliminated," the pope reminded Iraqis.

"Iraq today is called to show everyone, especially in the Middle East, that diversity, instead of giving rise to conflict, should lead to harmonious cooperation in the life of society."

This pope has been willing to take risks, even with his own life. Sadly, some during the visit did not wear masks or keep a social distance.

Time will tell whether the increase in infections is significantly greater than what would have occurred anyway.

Francis was warned against going to the Holy Land at the beginning of his papacy.

He was warned against going to Myanmar and, most recently, against going to Iraq.

Since all of these trips were successes, he is showing that his instincts are way better than his critics'. He was also lucky this time with no surprising sex or financial scandal to distract the media from his message.

This pope clearly likes to travel and his trips have proved to be very good for the church and humanity.

But it was obvious that his sciatica was causing him pain when walking during the visit. How many more trips does he have in him?

Granted his successes in promoting religious freedom, peace and interreligious understanding, let us hope for many more trips.

• Thomas Reese SJ is a senior analyst at Religion News Service, and a former columnist at National Catholic Reporter, and a former editor-in-chief of the weekly Catholic magazine America. First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

'Modest fashion' has been a defining style for the past decade.

The trend for oversize silhouettes and loose layers has united fashion fans, religious and secular; it has been in part an attempt by western brands to buy into the lucrative market of Muslim consumers.

This shift has also seen the headscarf become increasingly acceptable, even covetable, in western fashion, with Nike, Uniqlo, Liberty, Tommy Hilfiger and Dolce & Gabbana among the brands selling scarves overtly tailored for use as hijabs in recent years.

Islamic dress, however, remains a lightning rod for controversy.

Hijab bans are continually discussed in France, while Switzerland is to hold a referendum on burqas this week, even as governments worldwide encourage the use of face masks.

China, too, has persecuted women for wearing the hijab.

In fashion, nothing has illustrated the tension as clearly as the story of Halima Aden, the trailblazing hijab-wearing Muslim model who was celebrated as an icon of inclusivity when she made her debut at Kanye West's New York fashion week show in 2017, then walked for Alberta Ferretti and Maxmara in Milan.

Aden appeared on magazine covers, including British Vogue, and won major commercial contracts. Carine Roitfeld described her as "a different beauty", saying she was "drawn to her instantly".

Her inclusion was a win-win for the western fashion industry, which slapped itself on the back for doing a service to diversity while also attracting a profitable new audience.

But two months ago, Aden announced that she was quitting the fashion industry because she felt the work had compromised her religious beliefs - particularly those concerning the hijab.

In a series of emotional posts to her 1.4m followers on Instagram Stories, she showed a range of pictures of the way she was styled, with hats and various accessories used to meet the technical requirements of covering her hair (on one occasion, this included pairs of jeans) and said that she had felt deeply unhappy about them.

She contrasted these images with photographs wearing coverings she was comfortable in, covering her ears, neck, shoulders and chest.

"Looking back now, I did what I said I would never do," she wrote, "which is compromise who I am in order to fit in."

Aden's high-profile declaration magnified deeper issues within the "modest fashion" concept and sent shock waves through the world of Muslim influencers and models, for whom she had become a kind of unofficial figurehead.

"Halima's words caused a huge ripple in our community. Everyone was talking about it," says influencer Sebina Hussain, an influencer also known online as Sebinaah, who works with brands including Viktor & Rolf and Swarovski.

"For as long as I can remember, the media has portrayed women in hijab as oppressed. That is until modest fashion came along and the conversation for some-part has shifted," says Hussain.

This shift has, according to Hussain, left those adopting a less commercial look behind.

"I've experienced it first-hand, how differently people treat me when I go out in an Abaya and no makeup versus an outfit from the high street and a face full of makeup."

In her work as an influencer, she has had to speak out when concepts do not align with her values. "Many times I've worried I am being a nuisance and the brand may not want to work with me again".

Although so far, her clients have always taken her concerns on board, this ties into "a huge pressure on Muslim women to look more western in any situation.

The pressure is to want to appear more ‘normal', to wipe away this negative stereotype associated with women in hijab," she says.

Aden, too, said she felt this pressure.

In her case, as a 19-year-old newcomer to the fashion industry, she said she felt "too scared to speak up" on photoshoots.

She noted being called "frumpy" when opting for a more traditional hijab and said she felt pressure to look more "sexy".

She asserted that the fashion industry - with its paucity of Muslim stylists - didn't understand the hijab within a religious, rather than aesthetic, context. Continue reading

With all due respect to French leaders, I think they could start by reviewing the implications of laïcité.

At this time, they have much to say about "Islamic terrorism". Worse, some of the language they are using is the language of warfare and of terrorism itself.

Obviously, there can be no justification for what was done in Nice. But in wanting to explain the causes of such violence they are looking no further than Islam.

In a recent BBC Hardtalk programme, Stephen Sackur interviewed French professor of sociology and political advisor, Dominique Schnapper, who explained what she called the French form of secularism, which she assured us is superior to what we find in Britain and USA.

Most of us accept the separation of Church and State, including agencies of the State, and rightly. But laïcité goes further by including "the public sphere" with the State. Consequently, religion is mainly for the private sphere.

According to the Professor, curtailing the scope of religion in the public sphere gives people freedom!!

I suggest, on the contrary, that the State and the public forum are not the same; the public forum belongs to the people, to society.

It is where minds meet to be enriched by each other; it is where proper integration takes place.

Relegating religion and cultural diversity to the private sphere prevents integration! In fact, it is a recipe for creating ghettos! I would have thought this was obvious, though she did mention that she would not expect the English to understand!

I suggest that institutions dedicated to health care, social welfare and education, though administered by the State, are also not agencies of the State: they too belong to society, to the people, and therefore should be allowed to reflect society, including its pluralism, and not have to avoid or banish religious and cultural expressions.

Perhaps they should be called "State-run" institutions, not "State institutions".

The professor points out that the French understanding of secularism is a "product" of the French revolution and its rejection of previous forms of authoritarianism (of aristocracy and Church).

True, but that makes it a form of push-back, and a product of negative experience. It needs to move beyond its origins, and become positive. But that requires dialogue at every level, which is what laicite inhibits!

She is surely justified in allowing criticism of other people's views, including religious views, and she is right to say that criticising people's views is not necessarily insulting the people who hold them. But somewhere there is a line between critique and mockery?

It seems to me mere sophistry to say that mocking what is sacred to other people is not disrespecting those people.

Pope Francis' latest encyclical letter (especially chapter 6) is spot on where he talks of the crucial role of dialogue and need for greater respect and kindness within cultures and within politics.

It is within a culture of genuine respect for others, kindness and dialogue, that we instinctively know the difference between critique and mockery, between fair comment and incitement, between free speech and hate speech…

Schnapper is genuinely concerned that some kind of aberration seems to have taken place within Islam. But might she also need to ask whether there is some kind of aberration within the French form of secularism?

• Bishop Peter Cullinane, Bishop Emeritus, Diocese of Palmerston North, New Zealand.

Steve Bielski says he would not accept Muslims or any non-Christians praying at the council because they believed in different gods.

Councillors were discussing a proposal to invite members of different faiths to open meetings with a prayer, a job that's traditionally been done by local Christian leaders.

Bielski told RNZ he only said those things because the press was not present and it was in the confidence of the meeting.

But he stood by his comments.

"Obviously if I said it there, and if it's not twisted and everything like that I would stand by it because that's exactly what it is.

I tell you what, there is a lot of things said when the press are not there because we have the confidence to talk about some things," he said.

Fellow councillor Shane Casey witnessed the outburst at last month's meeting.

"A councillor was not happy that we were considering bringing in other faiths.

The councillor's mannerism was agitated and upset and was quite adamant the council should only be opened by, you know, a Christian group.

Casey said he does not agree with Mr Bielski. He said however, that everyone was entitled to their opinions and how they feel.

In 1989 the Manawatu District Council adopted a prayer addressed to "Almighty God" but without reference to any religious denomination.

The Council changed its policy and from 17 December 2009. Since then the Council meetings have been opened with prayer by members of the Feilding Christian Leaders Association on a rotational basis. They use their own prayers.

Last year, Local Government NZ president Dave Cull said councils were free to open meetings how they choose.

Source

• rnz.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• Image:

China's ambassador to the U.K., Liu Xiaoming, has denied a BBC investigation's findings, which concluded that Muslim children in the Uighur-majority region of western Xinjiang are being systematically separated from their parents.

The extensive investigation, commissioned by the BBC and led by leading German researcher Adrian Zenz, has found that more than 400 Uighur children in a single township have lost both their parents to prison or China's vast network of internment camps.

Chinese authorities have describe the camps as vocational education training centers aimed at curbing terrorism. But U.S. officials say that between 1 million and 3 million Uighurs have been arbitrarily imprisoned in "concentration camps" where detainees are indoctrinated and even tortured.

Just as China began detaining Uighur adults en masse, authorities also began rapidly rolling out construction of thousands of military-style full-time boarding schools for Uighur children, Zenz found.

This "weaponization of education and social care systems" is critical to "the region's hair-raising political re-education and transformation drive," he wrote, and seems to be a pre-emptive measure against the potential fallout of China's "war on terror" against Uighur resistance.

"Increasing degrees of intergenerational separation are very likely a deliberate strategy and crucial element in the state's systematic campaign of social re-engineering and cultural genocide in Xinjiang," Zenz wrote.

In southern Xinjiang, Chinese authorities have spent about $1.2 billion on building and upgrading kindergarten facilities, including large-scale expansions of dormitory space and extensive security measures.

In 2017 alone, the number of children enrolled in Xinjiang's kindergartens spiked by more than half a million. Muslim minority children comprised over 90 percent of that jump, per publicly available government statistics.

In these schools, Uighur and other local languages are largely banned. State directives order schools to focus on "thought education."

"Xinjiang's schools have become like the colonial boarding schools used by the United States, Canada or Australia, to assimilate native ethnic populations," Zenz concluded in his report.

"China has declared war on faith," Sam Brownback, ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom, said June 21 at an event introducing the 2018 International Religious Freedom Annual Report.

"We've seen increasing Chinese government abuse of believers of nearly all faiths and from all parts of the mainland."

Brownback also excoriated reports that Chinese authorities have subjected prisoners of conscience to forcible organ harvesting, which he said "should shock everyone's conscience."

The reports came from an independent tribunal initiated by the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China, which confirmed long-standing allegations that China is forcefully harvesting the organs of marginalized people in prison camps, sometimes when patients are still alive.

"It is no longer a question of whether organ harvesting in China is happening. That dialogue is well and truly over," said Susie Hughes, the group's executive director.

On June 17, the tribunal reported that "forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale," making practitioners of the beleaguered Falun Gong spiritual movement one of the country's main sources of organs. China banned the Falun Gong in the 1990s and has smeared the meditative discipline as an "evil cult."

While Chinese officials announced the country would stop taking organs from executed prisoners in 2014, the tribunal concluded that the practice is still taking place.

The tribunal found that it was possible that Uighur Muslims' organs have been sold against their will to the billion-dollar transplant industry.

Citing a lack of evidence that China has dismantled the infrastructure used for its organ transplantation industry, as well as the country's inability to explain its organ sourcing, the tribunal said, the massive scale of the "concerted persecution and medical testing" of Uighurs suggests that "evidence of forced organ harvesting of this group may emerge in due course."

The tribunal determined that it was "beyond reasonable doubt" that China is committing "crimes against humanity" and urged international courts to investigate whether the crimes rose to the level of genocide.

Forced organ harvesting, the tribunal wrote, "is of unmatched wickedness even compared — on a death for death basis — with the killings by mass crimes committed in the last century."

• Aysha Khan is a Boston-based journalist reporting on American Muslims and millennial faith.

He doesn't see himself as a role model for young Muslims but said if he can inspire anyone to follow their dreams and stick to their beliefs then he would be proud of that.

He says Muslim athletes such as All Black Sonny Bill Williams are great because they bring the topic of religion and sport to the forefront.

"He has been fantastic in terms of creating that awareness around religion and sport. Generally relating awareness for all religions."

Patel has played cricket since he was a child and never encountered major issues when practising his faith.

"Everyone is really respectful of what everyone believes in," he says.

But having chosen a sport that takes up the better half of a day, cricket and Islam is a juggling act.

Setting his alarm for prayer at 6am probably won't make him the perfect room-mate on tour.

" You don't really want to disturb your room-mates or disturb their routine, but overall everyone has been really accommodating and understanding," he said.

He prays five times a day, visits the mosque once a week and once a year fasts for an entire month.

Fasting is more of a mental challenge for him than a physical one, but Patel's belief helps him through it and he has never found it alters his on-field performance.

Patel has finished as the highest wicket-taker in New Zealand's Plunkett Shield in the last three seasons and has just been included in the Test squad bound for the UAE to play Pakistan in a three-game series this December.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• crictracker.com
• Image: indianexpress.com

The had the meal just after the sunset at 5.10pm.

As a practising Muslim observing Ramadan, which coincidentally finished on Saturday evening, he feels the fasting process is beneficial to his mind and body as well as his spiritual well-being.

Muslims do not eat during the hours of daylight during Ramadan.

After being named in the Blues team to play the Lions, Williams said he found the fasting easiest.

"It's just when I have to train. Getting through the field-based footy is easy, and I just push back the weights until I break fast."

The fact that Ramadan occurs in the winter in New Zealand means the hours of daylight are not as long as they are in the northern hemisphere.

"But thank God in New Zealand, in this part of the world, we only fast nine hours a day - 10 hours max. In Europe and some parts of the world it's 16-18 hours. That's pretty tough.' says Williams.

"The first week is the toughest, but after that the body starts to get used to it. I just try and do the best I can."

Williams showed no ill effects of not eating or drinking anything during daylight hours when he played on in the test on Saturday or when his Blues team upset the Lions in their second tour match two weeks ago.

The former league player, has been a sometimes controversial figure for his single-mindedness and willingness to forge his own path in life.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• dailytelegraph.com.au
• Image: radionz.co.nz

Employers find it okay to employ Buddhists and Hindus but are wary of hiring Muslims, an AUT study has found.

Indian Christians in the research faced the least barriers, and acknowledged the benefits derived from having westernised names, a Western dress sense and fluency in English.

More than 200 people were interviewed for the research. Some Muslim employees said they faced racial comments or queries linking them to terror attacks and many said they experienced discrimination because of their faith.

"Women with veils and/or burqas are viewed with general curiosity and avoidance ... it is also difficult for men with beards," said the report.

The research for a book entitled Work and Worship by AUT Professor of Diversity Edwina Pio investigated the impact of minority religions in the New Zealand workplace.

Source

• New Zealand Herald
• Image: focus-coaching.co.uk

The leaders of France's Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists published a joint statement Wednesday saying the debate could fuel prejudice and add to the confusion in the times preceding the election.

Backers of the debate say it's aimed at discussing France's secular traditions, and how to accommodate Islamic customs.

Amid the criticism, the UMP's plans have been scaled back. The current idea is to hold a limited roundtable instead of a full-day debate.

The debate would have come the week before a law goes into effect banning face-covering Islamic veils such as the burqa or niqab anywhere in the streets of France.

France's religious leaders praised as a "precious achievement" and as "one of the pillars" of national accord, the 1905 law which separates church and state.