The Muslim community is being targeted by a pamphlet’s malicious misinformation, says the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand (FIANZ). The pamphlet claims Wellington City Council wants mosques to broadcast the Islamic Call To Prayer throughout the city. The Better Wellington campaign group behind the pamphlet expected 80,000 of them to be delivered this Read more
Christian persecution is systematic in Russian-occupied Ukraine, the US Helsinki Commission heard in Washington last week. Russia’s government also persecutes other faith communities in the war-torn country. Desecration, violence Ukrainian military chaplain Mark Sergeev was a youth pastor until Russian troops seized his home town. Sergeev said that Russian troops terrorised him and his nine-year Read more
Over 85 percent of Muslims living in Aotearoa believe Islamophobia exists in this country, and more than half have experienced discrimination, according to the first baseline study of Muslims in New Zealand. The study was conducted in 2023 by researchers from Massey University and funded by the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand and Read more
Police in Indonesia have arrested four men for attacking Catholic students praying the rosary. The alleged Muslim attackers and others mobbed 12 students while they were conducting a traditional house-to-house rosary service on 5 May. For many Indonesian Catholics the month of May is special, a time to visit Marian grottos and shrines to pay Read more
Muslim youths in California schools are bullied at double the rate of students across the nation, according to a report by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. 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 Read more
Religious bigotry in Pakistan schools is forcing Christian parents to give their children Islamic names – according to a bishop there. Bishop Samson Shukardin of Hyderabad told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that Christian children and other faith minorities were using different names to prevent them from being subjected to abuse. Read more
Many religions, including Christianity, are being targeted and demonised through new laws regarding issues like euthanasia, abortion and attempts to force priests to break the seal of the confessional. New South Wales Liberal MP Julian Lesser spoke out at a St Thomas More Society meeting saying, while preparing for the upcoming religious discrimination debate in Read more
“We are not going to rely exclusively on our Filipino Catholic immigrants. We are going to do the bloody work ourselves,”. said regional economic development minister Shane Jones a recent speech on unemployment. Given a chance to roll those comments back a few minutes later, Jones did the contrary, saying the Catholic Church had done Read more
Police Commissioner Mike Bush wants to see if there is a case for hate-crimes legislation in New Zealand, and is prompted by an incident in Huntly. A woman threatened and abused a Muslim woman sitting quietly in her car. Bush wants more research to establish whether there is a need for hate-crimes legislation. He is Read more
Religious freedom is an oxymoron for three quarters of the world, according to US ambassador David Saperstein. The U.S. State Department warned that religion-based terrorists as well as some governments across the globe are threatening the liberties of religious minorities. “One of the best ways to deny these murderers their victory is by ensuring that Read more