A Christian has been inaugurated as governor of Jakarta. This is the first time such a thing has happened for 50 years. There have been weeks of protests against it from Islamic hardliners. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama is also the first person from the country’s tiny ethnic Chinese minority to become leader of Jakarta. He was sworn in Read more
Muslim leaders have reported a spike in racial abuse aimed mostly at women and children, many walking to and from school. In his address on Wednesday the Prime Minister of New Zealand, John Key, stressed that of those few individuals on a security watch list none are representative of New Zealand’s Muslim community as a Read more
The persecution of Christians by radical Islamic groups in Syria over the past two years has been appalling—and largely ignored. I suppose I should wear it as a badge of honour. My first death threat over my new book, Hatred: Islam’s War on Christianity (Signal, 2014)—was sent to me a couple of weeks ago. Apparently Read more
The president of the Federation of Islamic Associations (FIANZ), Anwar Ghani, is calling on the Prime Minister for a meeting after contacting his office 10 days ago. On Sunday Ghani told ONE News his organisation contacted the Prime Ministers office in hopes of a private meeting to raise concerns and to tell John Key to Read more
What is Hajj? The annual Hajj pilgrimage is one of the world’s largest gatherings, as hundreds of thousands of people flock to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, to participate in one of Islam’s five pillars of faith. Muslims from all over the world will gather together for five days to pray as one community, celebrating their history Read more
There is a growing world-while backlash against Muslims following the atrocities carried out by the ISIS insurgents. But local Muslims are making it plain that they have no sympathy with what is happening in the Middle East. “In Islamic prophecy, a woman tied up a cat and did not feed it until it died and Read more
As the Holy See looks into the possibility of a papal visit to Turkey and while some are speaking of a religious war, twisting Ratzinger’s Regensburg speech to create a contrast between the two Popes, it is worth remembering those key moments of silence, which Benedict XVI spent inside Istanbul’s Blue Mosque The two minutes Read more
Atheist Richard Dawkins has argued that the niceness of ordinary churchgoers has helped enable religious fundamentalists to become suicide bombers. The Telegraph in the United Kingdom reported Dawkins saying moderate Christian and Muslim believers had inadvertently paved the way for extremists. Dawkins said ordinary believers do this by being “so nice” that people do not Read more
As the current conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine continue to dominate international headlines, it is worth stepping back and taking a longer view. 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 Read more
Des pétitions circulent pour s’opposer à la construction de la mosquée de Papeete, et Gaston Flosse, élu de la République, Président de la Polynésie française autonome, a annoncé samedi qu’il aurait signé une pétition lancée sur une page Facebook (“Pas de mosquée à Tahiti“) mais aussi une pétition pour l’expulsion de l’imam Hicham el Berkani, Read more