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11,375 | aljazeera--2019-03-30--Irans referendum and the transformation to an Islamic Republic | 2019-03-30T00:00:00 | aljazeera | Iran's referendum, and the transformation to an Islamic Republic | Qom, Iran - The year was 1979. An Islamic revolution had just overthrown Iran's powerful US-backed king, and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was now in charge of what for centuries had been an ancient empire. In the months after Khomeini seized power, Iran's revolutionaries began the difficult work of rebuilding government institutions using Islam as a roadmap. The first major act of the new leaders was to hold a referendum. On March 30 and 31, the shaky leadership asked all Iranians over the age of 16 a simple yes or no question: should Iran be an Islamic Republic? Looking back, it may seem strange to ask that of a country that had just experienced a successful Islamic revolution. But even though Mohammad Raza Pahlavi - the shah of Iran - was gone, Iranians remained divided about what they wanted the future to look like. At the time, the Islamic Republic of Iran was far from a foregone conclusion. In one of his first speeches after returning from exile, before the revolution had taken hold, Khomeini seemed to know he would have to put his leadership claim to some kind of vote. "I must tell you that Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, that evil traitor, has gone. He fled and plundered everything. He destroyed our country and filled our cemeteries. He ruined our country's economy," Khomeini said. "I shall appoint my own government. I shall slap this government in the mouth. I shall determine the government with the backing of this nation, because this nation accepts me." But even after Pahlavi's removal, revolutionaries were hit by infighting, the new government was still suppressing anti-revolution dissent in parts of the country, and just weeks before the referendum tens of thousands of women marched in the streets of Tehran to protest against a new mandatory veil law. For Khomeini and his supporters, the referendum was a way to legitimise their rule. Nearly 99 percent of Iranians voted in favour of abandoning Iran's old constitution and using Islam as the blueprint to write a new one. The vote and its results were scrutinised by critics all over the world. But in December, Iranians voted again in favour of ratifying their new Islamic constitution. Today, defenders of the Islamic system of government point to the referendum as a democratic mandate for Iran's current theocratic system. It's one of the lesser known events of 1979, but the referendum was a pivotal moment that fused religion and politics, and transformed Iran's legislative landscape. Iran's transformation from empire to Islamic Republic began in Khomeini's hometown of Qom in the 1960s. One too many fiery speeches admonishing the royal family forced him into exile in 1964. He spent 15 years away from home, much of it in another city of religious scholars - Najaf in Iraq. But that didn't stop him from criticising the shah of Iran for making concessions to Western powers that he saw as a violation of Iranian sovereignty. He smuggled letters and bootleg cassette tapes into Iran, using an underground network of mosques and seminaries. His speeches, played in homes around the country, became the bedrock of the revolution to come. Mahmoud Mohammadi Yazdi is the caretaker of Khomeini's family home in Qom. He was one of Khomeini's students and a young man at the time of the revolution. He was with him during his exile in Najaf and says Khomeini's primary motivation was to improve the lives of ordinary people. "He was perfect in every way," Yazdi said. "Everyone liked him." Khomeini's followers remain fiercely loyal. At his request, Yazdi risked his own life to return to Iran as part of a first wave of the revolution. "We all accepted whatever he said," Yazdi said. "Two years before the revolution, he wanted someone to come to Iran [and] he said it is dangerous but there is no one to go but me. I told him if he is OK with it, I would go. "I came here and I faced hardships, but it was not a big problem. I was arrested here in Qom and later I was released. But if [the authorities] knew why I was there, they would never have let me go. We believed what we were doing was the right thing. We all thought the same way; it was just for God and Imam [Khomeini]." Khomeini was becoming much more than a champion for common people. His revolution changed him as much as it changed Iran, transforming him from dutiful cleric to monumental political figure. He may have considered his actions at the time to be a spiritual calling. But the wheels he set in motion decades ago made religion a right of passage for modern-day Iranian political life. Getting anything done in the capital, Tehran, often means getting the blessing of clerics who oversee elected officials. In place for 40 years, this system has made Qom, Iran's religious heartland, one of the most important cities in the country. "If before the revolution, very few young people were interested in entering [Islamic seminaries], today many youths that would have been educated in universities in the past are entering [Islamic seminaries]," said Seyyed Ali Mousavi, a professor in one of Qom's many religious institutions. Before the Islamic Revolution, Mousavi said, religious scholars were primarily concerned with how Iranians conducted their spiritual lives. After 1979, their public role changed drastically. "After the [1979 Islamic Revolution], other than their social role, clergies took on political roles," he said, adding, "not just in parliament, they even entered other branches of government. So, they became more influential. "Today, the impact of seminaries and clergies on the social space of Iran, as well as politics, is greater than in the past. It has meant clergies have dual roles, and that both have been expanded. Firstly, in society and secondly in the ruling class." For Iran's younger generations, religious study has become a precursor to any ambitions of government work. The city is filled with young men and women in their 20s, hoping to someday climb the political ladder in the capital. One seminary student running between classes was clear in his assessment about the value of a religious education in modern-day Iranian politics. "The most important issue in any society is its ideology," he said. "The ideology of Islam is the best and the clerics of Qom have the right ideology. So, because it is where the clerics are, Qom is Iran's most important city." | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/iran-referendum-transformation-islamic-republic-190330210626860.html | 2019-03-30 21:27:43+00:00 | 1,553,995,663 | 1,567,544,683 | education | religious education |
13,064 | aljazeera--2019-05-21--Jokowi declared Indonesia president Prabowo readies challenge | 2019-05-21T00:00:00 | aljazeera | Jokowi declared Indonesia president; Prabowo readies challenge | Jakarta, Indonesia - Losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto is to legally challenge the official result of Indonesia's election as hardline conservative groups threaten street protests after incumbent Joko Widodo was confirmed as the winner of last month's vote. The Indonesian Election Commission announced the official results in the early hours of Tuesday morning, bringing forward by more than 24 hours an announcement that had been expected on Wednesday. The commission's count showed Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, and his running mate, Ma'ruf Amin, had received 55.5 percent of the votes, compared with 44.5 percent for Prabowo and his running mate, Sandiago Uno. The results closely resemble the unofficial "quick count" results carried out by independent election observers on election day last month. But the official witness from Prabowo's team refused to sign the statement of the official results, while campaign spokesman Danhil Anzar Simanjuntak told Al Jazeera that Prabowo's team did not accept the outcome. "Officially, we are rejecting the results of the presidential election," Simanjuntak said on Tuesday morning. "Structural, systematic, massive and brutal fraud has taken place, and it has not been dealt with justly." He declined to go into details about the alleged fraud. Widodo won more than 85 million votes of the 154 million cast on April 17 in the world's third-largest democracy, the commission said. His party also emerged the winner in the parliamentary elections that took place at the same time. Prabowo's side said initially they would not take legal action, but legal director Sufmi Dasco Ahmad told reporters on Tuesday that the team would take their case to the Constitutional Court. Under electoral law, they have three days to lodge the complaint. Prabowo lost a similar challenge to the results after losing the previous presidential election in 2014. Supporters of Prabowo have said they are planning to hold a rally on Wednesday outside the commission's office in the capital, Jakarta, to protest against the results. They have called themselves the Brotherhood of 212 Alumni, in reference to the December 2016 protests against Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, the first ethnic Chinese governor of Jakarta who was accused and later found guilty of blasphemy. Members of the group include the Islamic Defenders' Front, known by its Indonesian initials as FPI. During his campaign for the presidency, Prabowo, a former general who has been accused of human rights abuses, found significant support among conservative groups. Accusations that Jokowi was not a true Muslim ran rampant. Hoaxes alleging that the president would remove religious education in schools, forbid the call to prayer and legalise extra-marital sex and same-sex marriage if returned to power appeared to resonate among voters in the world's largest Muslim-majority country, even though the claims were false. "Their movement wants the public to think that Islamic leaders, or leaders supported by Islamic groups, will not win [in elections] because of the fraudulent practices of state actors and the incumbent president," said Titi Anggraini, the executive director of the Association of Elections and Democracy (Perludem). "They want to present themselves as wronged." The election commission said there was no evidence of systematic cheating in the election, while independent observers have said the poll was free and fair. In his first comments since the announcement of the official results, Jokowi tweeted his gratitude to those who had voted for him. "Thank you for having faith in us and giving us a mandate," he wrote in Indonesian. "We will turn your trust into development programmes that are fair and equitable." Jokowi later told reporters his government would be "the leaders and protectors of all Indonesians". Dina Afrianty, a research fellow at La Trobe University Law School in Melbourne, said Prabowo's position appeared weak. "The threat of protest appears genuine, but the call to object to the election result carries far less credibility than the 212 protests," she told Al Jazeera. "This continuing effort to mobilise people power seems to be running out of steam, and appears to be part of an increasingly desperate and hopeless campaign to impugn the election result." In fact, major groups such as Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia's two largest Muslim mass organisations, have distanced themselves from the protest calls. "This is an important move by Muhammadiyah," Afrianty added. "Many of its members were previously sympathetic to the 212 [movement], and also broadly in the Prabowo camp. However, this time, Muhammadiyah's leadership has advised its members that respecting the election outcome is part of their obligation as Muslims to 'command right and forbid wrong'." There was heightened security across Jakarta on Tuesday with a heavy police presence at the commission's offices and the National Monument, a popular gathering point for protests. The Indonesian Police put out a warning over fears of attacks by an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) splinter cell known as Jamaah Anshurat Daulah (JAD). Foreign missions, including Australia and the United States of America, have issued safety warnings for Wednesday, citing heightened risks of "terrorism". At least 30 individuals have already been arrested over the past week for allegedly planning an attack on the Elections Commission office, located in the heart of Jakarta's business district. The suspected attackers planned to use remote-detonated devices to cause mass casualties in the crowds, police said during a press conference on May 17. Police announced that multiple pre-assembled explosives and additional bomb-making materials were found during raids. Among those arrested were seven people who had returned from Syria. More than 40,000 police and military personnel are being deployed in the capital this week to protect the city from potential violence. The number includes thousands relocated from other parts of Indonesia. Meanwhile, multiple Chinese-Indonesian women in Jakarta told Al Jazeera privately that they planned on staying at home on Wednesday for their own safety, amid fears of a repeat of 1998's violence during the fall of then-President Soeharto when minority Chinese-Indonesians were targeted by rioters. Perludem's Anggraini believes that even if this week's protests are small in size compared to the 212 protests, which attracted millions of people, they must be seen as part of a larger movement. "The May 22 protests have a long-term goal," she said. "It's a political investment in future electoral contests. There will be 269 regional elections in 2020, and another presidential election in 2024. Both will be incredibly competitive." | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/jokowi-declared-indonesia-president-prabowo-readies-challenge-190521053354338.html | 2019-05-21 07:33:55+00:00 | 1,558,438,435 | 1,567,540,316 | education | religious education |
16,093 | aljazeera--2019-09-25--Free but not free Tortured ex-Bagram inmates struggle to cope | 2019-09-25T00:00:00 | aljazeera | 'Free, but not free': Tortured ex-Bagram inmates struggle to cope | Karachi, Pakistan - Hamidullah Khan, born and raised in Karachi, was 15 years old and off on a great adventure. Days earlier, he had run away from his family while they were on a trip to their ancestral village of Ladha, in Pakistan's northwestern district of South Waziristan. Accompanied by a Muslim scholar who had mentored him - the two had met at a market near Ladha - he was heading to a religious school in neighbouring Afghanistan, to, as he puts it, pursue his interest in getting a religious education. It was 2008, and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) armed group was fighting Pakistani forces from its stronghold of South Waziristan, while the Afghan Taliban were - as they still are - battling the US-led NATO coalition in neighbouring Afghanistan. The war needed soldiers, on either side of the border. Two days into the journey, Khan was beginning to lose his resolve. They had spent all their time trekking or camped out on rocky mountainsides, with no schools in sight, he says. Suddenly, one night, a helicopter appeared over the village they were camped near, in Afghanistan's eastern Khost province. Days earlier, NATO forces had shelled the area, and the appearance of the helicopter panicked residents, who began to run out of their homes. Khan fled too and happened upon an Afghan army checkpoint. "I thought this is my chance to be rid of [the cleric]," he says. "I went to the soldier and asked him how I could get home." It would be six years before he made it back to Karachi. Arrested by the Afghan soldiers at the checkpoint, he was handed over to the US military who detained him without formal charge, access to legal counsel or recourse to challenge his detention, in the country's infamous Bagram prison. Today, it has been five years since 43 Pakistanis - including Khan - were released and repatriated from the Bagram facility. For many, the scars of the torture and abuse they allegedly suffered at the hands of US and Afghan forces continue to haunt them, while reported harassment by Pakistani security agencies and police under anti-terrorism legislation has crippled their ability to lead a normal life. Built by the United States in the 1950s, Bagram Airfield, located about 50km (31 miles) north of the Afghan capital, Kabul, was expanded into a large detention facility after the US-led invasion of the country following the September 11 attacks in 2001. At its height, the facility held more than 3,200 detainees without formal charge or access to legal recourse, most of them Afghans. The detainees included dozens of citizens of other countries, referred to as "Third Country Nationals (TCNs)", some were captured in Afghanistan, others as far afield as Somalia or Iraq. In 2005, the New York Times obtained a classified US military report that documented the deaths of two prisoners at Bagram due to torture. Since then, allegations of widespread torture and abuse at the facility - including beatings during interrogations - have regularly surfaced from prisoners who were released either during or after a 2014 handover of the facility to the Afghan government. When contacted by Al Jazeera about this story, a US Department of Defense spokesperson said since Washington no longer controlled Bagram, this reporter would have to file a freedom of information request for any further details. For the TCNs, the handover brought the first ray of hope for release that they had seen in years. Legally, the Afghan government ruled it could not hold them without formal charge, prompting the repatriation of most of the remaining 60 or so to their home countries within months. Of those, at least 43 were Pakistanis like Hamidullah Khan, according to Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), a Pakistani legal aid organisation that represents several former detainees. On Wednesday, JPP released a new report detailing the allegations of abuse by prisoners and accounts of how they have struggled to reintegrate since being released. The Pakistani prisoners were held without charge, for as long as 11 years in one case, with many alleging physical and mental abuse while in Afghan and US custody. "They took me to a place called the 'black jail'," says Khan, now 26, sitting on the floor at his home in Karachi. "It was very harsh. We had no idea of time [there]. "They would beat me. They would bang my head against the walls while moving me. When they took me for a shower they would beat me or kick me," he says, demonstrating the motions with his hands. For Haleem Saifullah, who was captured by Afghan police in 2005 in the eastern district of Zabul while on his way home to Karachi from collecting a family debt, the abuse was even worse. "They beat me with guns, gun butts, with ropes and other things," he says, recalling how he was interrogated by Afghan forces at a US-run facility in Zabul district. "I was beaten for 10 days … I was in such bad condition that I was praying to Allah for death." After being handed over to US forces, Saifullah alleges that he was subjected to sleep deprivation for more than 10 days. "The Americans, they would not let us sleep," he said. "They would keep me standing, and pour cold water on me … they would make noise [to keep me awake]. They had a metal bar which they would strike against the bars of the cell in order to keep us awake." At Bagram, both Khan and Saifullah said that, aside from physical abuse, they were forced to live in difficult conditions and were often mistreated by guards. In cramped communal cells housing more than 20 detainees, they said, the guards would keep the rooms extremely cold in the winter, using air conditioning, and so hot as to be "unbearable" in the summer. "It used to be so cold that my bones would hurt," said Khan. If someone complained, former detainees told Al Jazeera, a disciplinary report would be written and sent to solitary confinement in a cell no larger than a moderately sized coffee table, a practice called "segregation". "When they took us to segregation, it would be for 40 or 45 days," said Saifullah. "The minimum time was for 28 days, for completely mundane things." US military regulations state that the duration of segregation for detainees "[would] not normally be for a period longer than 30 days", according to 2013 US Department of Defense memo on detention operations in Afghanistan. Saifullah, Khan and Fazal Karim - another Pakistani detainee who was released and repatriated in 2014 - told Al Jazeera they were not informed of their rights or the specific charges against them until years into their detention. "There was nothing," says Khan, simply, when asked if he knew what law or system he was being held under. "They would never talk about our release, nor would this enter our minds." Lawyers representing former detainees from Pakistan and other countries say the November 2001 executive order signed by US President George W Bush that authorised the US to hold "enemy combatants" without charge provided few rights for detainees or rules on how they were to be treated. Sarah Belal, the executive director of JPP, called the resulting legal memos and policies that flowed from that document "a freakish manifestation of whatever was left over of the law". "International humanitarian law and international [conflict] law categorically failed in this scenario," she told Al Jazeera. "All these exceptions were carved out, and compromises were made." For example, the US declared the war in Afghanistan a "non-international armed conflict" - a designation agreed to later by the International Committee of the Red Cross - meaning large sections of the Geneva Conventions were no longer applicable to those detained by US forces in its so-called "global war on terror", depriving them of guarantees of rights, protections and liveable prison conditions. For detainees, this often meant that they did not hear the accusations against them until years into their detention, when they were finally presented before US military Detainee Review Boards (DRBs), theoretically for a chance to prove their innocence. "About four years after I had been arrested, I was told during a [DRB] that the Afghans had told the US forces that I was captured in a battle," says Khan. Khan alleged that local translators had mistranslated a written statement made and signed early in his detention. That statement was written in Pakistani Pashto, a dialect different from the Pashto spoken in Afghanistan. "When we would say that we have not done something, [the translators] would say that we are confessing," said Khan. "What I had written, he translated it as me confessing to being captured in battle." In 2011, he says, he was finally able to gain access to translators who spoke his dialect, who then verified to US authorities that his "confession" as translated into English was not accurate. At this point, he had already spent three years detained and being interrogated by US officials, who, based on that document, believed him to have confessed to being a member of the Afghan Taliban. Saifullah, held for nine years, said he had a similar experience with mistranslated statements that made it appear that he had confessed his guilt. "In the beginning, we had no idea [what was in our files]," he said. "We would deny something and [the translator] would say we confessed to it during interrogations." Asked if this allowed Khan or Saifullah to demand release at the time, Belal said there were no rules for that under US detention policy. "There is no legal system. There's nothing. This is not a court, this did not have prescribed rules," she said. Another lawyer, who represents three TCNs who were held at Bagram, confirmed the unclear and unfair process. "When they were held by the US, they did not need to be charged with a crime," said the lawyer, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. "They were just held without hearing." It "was not clear" what constituted fair grounds or evidence for detention or release by US forces, the lawyer said. For many, however, even when release came, it was not without cost. Saifullah, now 35, sits on a small bed, the only piece of furniture in his two-room apartment in an illegally constructed working-class settlement in Karachi's Metroville area, his clothes stained with sweat. "Since I have returned, I have driven a rickshaw, I have run a push-cart, sometimes doing this, sometimes doing that, but because I am on the Fourth Schedule everything is disturbed," he says. "They can call me at any time. They track my mobile location. It's difficult for a man to work." The Fourth Schedule is part of Pakistan's Anti-Terrorism Act, which gives the police wide-ranging powers to detain, question and restrict the movements of people suspected of links to armed groups. Most of the detainees repatriated from Bagram in 2014 were placed on the Fourth Schedule, and several served prison sentences upon their return, ranging from several months to up to three years. Saifullah spent six days in police custody without charge as recently as this month, he says, a result of tightened security following threats by armed groups in Karachi. Such detentions were "routine", and made it impossible to find regular work, he said. Other former detainees also said it was difficult to make ends meet when they could be called up to report to the police at a moment's notice. Khan says his scars from Bagram run far deeper than affecting his ability to earn a living for the family of six he supports. He has nightmares, he says, and often finds himself forgetting what he is doing, where he is, or why. His father, the family patriarch, passed away soon after his return. The experience left him shaken. "I had never known in life how much sugar costs, how much flour costs … it was a huge burden [to support the family]," he said, pointing out that he had been detained when he was just 15. "I have to take care of everyone, I have to run the whole house. And often I would think maybe it would be better to be in [Bagram], where I had a certain kind of life." For Saifullah, he found it "very strange" to adjust back to being a free man after nine years in detention. "Sometimes I would call out 'cell guard!' [when] I wanted water," he says, of the months after his release. "My family members would laugh, saying this isn't Bagram, you are home." At night, he would dream of Bagram. "Sometimes when I was sleeping I would dream that I was in Bagram, and that that was my home. It was very strange, this stayed with me for a long time," he says. "Sometimes I felt like I was dreaming, that none of this was real." For others, the cost Bagram has extracted is even higher. "Before he went [to Bagram], he was perfectly fine," says Fazal Naeem, Karim's younger brother. "[When he returned] it was somewhat bad, but now [his mental state] has gotten much worse." Karim speaks erratically, flitting from subject to subject and often repeating himself. He chews on tobacco as he speaks, talking one moment about how he "wants to forget it all", and in the next narrating stories of abuse or how he attempted to escape the prison. His brother Naeem sits next to him, watching for any sudden violent movements, he says. For all three former detainees, the inability to find steady work seemed an abiding concern. Sitting in his dilapidated flat, green paint peeling off the walls, Saifullah spoke of how he had accrued more than 300,000 Pakistani rupees ($1,900) in debt since his release. He married soon after his return, fathering four children. Each of them, he says, died because he was not able to afford hospital treatment for them when they were ill. "We are free, but we are not free," he says. "We have only stress [in our lives]. Sometimes I wonder if it would be better to still be in [Bagram]." Asad Hashim is Al Jazeera's digital correspondent in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim. | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/free-tortured-bagram-inmates-struggle-cope-190924175324451.html | 2019-09-25 05:39:52+00:00 | 1,569,404,392 | 1,570,222,258 | education | religious education |
21,239 | bbc--2019-01-18--Pence condemns offensive LGBT criticism of his wifes job | 2019-01-18T00:00:00 | bbc | Pence condemns 'offensive' LGBT criticism of his wife's job | US Vice-President Mike Pence has called criticism of his wife's decision to resume teaching at an anti-LGBT school "deeply offensive". In an interview with a Catholic TV network, Mr Pence said it amounted to an "attack" on religious education. The school that Mrs Pence chose bars staff from engaging in or condoning "homosexual or lesbian sexual activity" and "transgender identity". She previously taught art there for 12 years while Mr Pence was in Congress. Many US social conservatives cite their religious beliefs to justify opposition to gay marriage. Mr Pence, a Christian evangelical, told Eternal Word Television Network on Thursday: "My wife and I have been in the public eye for quite a while. We're used to the criticism. "But I have to tell you, to see major news organisations attacking Christian education is deeply offensive to us." According to a teaching application for the Immanuel Christian School - the private school in Springfield, Virginia, that Mrs Pence chose - employees are required to sign a pledge opposing LGBT lifestyles. "I understand that the term 'marriage' has only one meaning; the uniting of one man and one woman," teachers are required to affirm. In an agreement with parents on their website, the school says they can "refuse admission" or "discontinue enrolment" of a pupil if "the atmosphere or conduct within a particular home, the activities of a parent or guardian, or the activities of the student are counter to, or are in opposition to, the biblical lifestyle the school teaches". Mr Pence told the TV network on Thursday that there is "a rich tradition in America of Christian education, and frankly, religious education broadly defined". "We celebrate it," he said, adding: "We'll let the other critics roll off our back, but this criticism of religious education in America should stop." After the decision was first announced on Tuesday, the second lady's spokeswoman Kara Brooks said in a statement: "It's absurd that her decision to teach art to children at a Christian school, and the school's religious beliefs, are under attack." Before becoming vice-president, Mr Pence expressed support for the controversial practice of gay conversion therapy. As governor of Indiana he signed a bill that critics said amounted to state-sponsored discrimination of LGBT people. But supporters of the legislation said it simply upheld religious beliefs. Mr Pence became the first vice-president to speak at the openly anti-LGBT Family Research Council's annual conference in 2018. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46924489 | 2019-01-18 17:00:31+00:00 | 1,547,848,831 | 1,567,551,876 | education | religious education |
24,059 | bbc--2019-03-14--China foreign investment How doing business will change | 2019-03-14T00:00:00 | bbc | China foreign investment: How doing business will change | China is rushing through a foreign investment law in an apparent attempt to placate Washington as negotiators try to dig the world's two largest economic powers out of an ongoing trade war. But will it work? The 3,000 or so delegates to China's annual National People's Congress (NPC) will endorse the new law on Friday. They don't oppose legislation. That's not how it is done here. When a vote is taken there are normally only a handful who vote against. Some of them potentially for show, because 100% "yes" votes one after another would look ridiculous. If there is pushback against a draft bill and amendments made, this happens well before the NPC sits, at a series of standing committee meetings behind closed doors. The process can take years. This time it took three months. The Chinese government appears to have rushed through the investment law as an olive branch to the US amid trade war negotiations. However, many in the business community here in China see this law as a kind of sweeping set of intentions rather than a specific, enforceable set of rules. They fear it could be open to different and changing forms of interpretation. The big-ticket items it is said to address, in terms of the concerns of foreign companies, include intellectual property theft, the requirement for international firms to partner up with a local entity, and unfair subsidies to Chinese companies. It will also address the preferential treatment in awarding contracts to Chinese companies, and forcing foreign firms to hand over their technological secrets as the price of entry to the massive Chinese market. But this law isn't going to help everyone. There is a "black list" of 48 sectors that will not be open to foreign investment or, in some cases, not open without conditions or special permission. For example, there is a complete ban on investing in fishing, gene research, religious education, news media, and television broadcasting. Partial investment is allowed in oil and gas exploitation, nuclear power, airlines, airport operation, and public health, amongst others sectors. Non-renewable energy automobile production will require partnerships for a few years but then be phased out. For industries not on the list, the principle is that foreign companies will receive the same treatment as their Chinese counterparts. But should foreign companies also be wary? One of the provisions will include a requirement for the local subsidiaries of international firms to report various details of their operation to Chinese officials. This could include performance indicators relating to labour relations, overall staffing numbers, pollution records and the like. That sounds fine except that foreign companies have asked for - and not received - legal guarantees that this data will not be passed on to their Chinese competitors. Then there is the promised complaints procedure should you seek redress following any perceived violations of the new law. If this system is run through the normal Chinese courts, which routinely guarantee results favourable to the Communist Party, then to many this would not seem like a satisfactory enforcement mechanism. One part of the law specifies that there is to be a ban on "illegal government interference" in the activities of foreign business. The further you go up the government ladder the more implausible it would be to win in such a dispute. Over the years we have reported on many cases of foreign businesspeople, especially ethnic Chinese, who have been sent to prison on highly questionable charges following a commercial dispute with a local business person who enjoys the backing of low-level Communist Party cadres. Those here with long memories know this and are approaching the new law with an understandable level of caution. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47550559 | 2019-03-14 00:15:36+00:00 | 1,552,536,936 | 1,567,546,263 | education | religious education |
24,957 | bbc--2019-03-30--Pope calls on Moroccans to fight fanaticism | 2019-03-30T00:00:00 | bbc | Pope calls on Moroccans to fight fanaticism | Pope Francis has called on Moroccans to fight fanaticism during a visit to promote inter-faith dialogue. He was met at the airport by King Mohammed VI and driven to the capital Rabat, where he gave a speech. The pontiff is to meet migrants and Muslim leaders, and hold a Mass for the country's small Roman Catholic community this weekend. The Vatican considers the papal visit a continuation of last month's historic trip to the United Arab Emirates. Islam is the state religion in Morocco. To a crowd of thousands, Pope Francis said it was "essential to oppose fanaticism" and for the faithful to "live as brothers". He defended "freedom of conscience" and "religious freedom" as fundamental for human dignity, and said it was "necessary" to make the "appropriate preparations of future religious guides". Since 2015, 1,600 young Moroccans are estimated to have been radicalised and joined jihadists fighting for the Islamic State group. King Mohammed said the key to tackling radicalisation of young people was to increase religious education. The spiritual leader of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics was invited to the North African nation by its king, Moroccan authorities said, as part of the "development of inter-religious dialogue". But Christians - who make up less than 1% of the country's 33 million people - say they are not allowed to worship openly and face discrimination. Under the penal code, you can be put in prison for trying to convert a Muslim to Christianity. The pontiff is also visiting a school for imams and a migrant centre run by a Catholic charity, as Europe and North Africa continue to wrestle with the issue of migration. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-47759565 | 2019-03-30 16:59:15+00:00 | 1,553,979,555 | 1,567,544,658 | education | religious education |
32,406 | bbc--2019-11-08--Turkish religious authority's video prompts sexism outcry | 2019-11-08T00:00:00 | bbc | Turkish religious authority's video prompts sexism outcry | A video shared on Twitter by Turkey's top religious authority to warn against mobile phone addiction has triggered accusations of sexism and stirred debate about gender equality. The Presidency of Religious Affairs' (Diyanet) video, released on 6 November, shows a woman serving tea to her husband, who is seen staring at his mobile phone without paying attention to her. She also brings him two pieces of cake and a fork as he drinks his tea and seems unaware of her presence. After sitting on a sofa next to her husband, she texts him: "If only you paid more attention to your wife!" The husband then sits next to her and shares his cake. A caption reads: "Don't look at your phone. Look at your wife's face instead!" The video prompted anger on social media about its portrayal of the role of women in Turkey, which ranked 130 out of 149 countries in the World Economic Forum's 2018 Gender Gap Report. "The woman brings tea. The woman brings cake. When will we completely destroy these stereotypical role models? Especially in this day and age... The year is 2019," journalist Menekse Tokyay tweeted on 6 November. • Women not equal to men, says Erdogan "In my opinion, the ugliness here is not just that the man is constantly looking at his phone. It is also that he is having the the woman constantly serve him. I hope this critical message from the Diyanet is against this male-dominated culture too," wrote commentator Mustafa Akyol. Booker Prize-nominated Turkish author Elif Shafak has also joined the debate, appealing to Turkish women to reject the message. Turkish feminist group Mor Dayanisma shared an altered screen shot of the video on its Instagram account on 7 November, quoting the wife as saying: "Don't look at your phone, get up and pour your own tea." Hours after the video was released, Diyanet head Ali Erbas said the authority "was open to criticism". "But it is upsetting when the criticism turns into insults and attacks," he tweeted. It was not clear if he was referring to the criticism over the video. Other commentators praised the video, which was released as part of a series of family-themed clips. Turkey's ultra-conservative Yeni Akit newspaper hailed the video as "meaningful" on its website. "I really liked it. We must be attentive. Women and men [should] nurture each other in all kinds of ways. This is the only way for marriage to endure," said one Twitter user. Pro-government columnist Hilal Kaplan took aim at critics of the video, suggesting that feminism should not look down on women who chose to be housewives. Some pointed to divorce rates in Turkey, which have risen in recent years according to the country's official statistics agency. "[People ask] why divorce rates are going up. This is one of the reasons. There is no conversation with your spouse, no attention," another Twitter user said. Turkey founded the Diyanet in 1924, a year after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, to manage all mosques and oversee religious education. The religious affairs authority often comes under fire from government critics due to its expanding budget under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. President Erdogan has often said he aims to "raise religious generations". The Diyanet triggered controversy in 2018 when it said girls as young as nine could marry. BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50347694 | Fri, 08 Nov 2019 14:39:05 GMT | 1,573,241,945 | 1,573,258,072 | education | religious education |
43,892 | bbcuk--2019-10-03--Sex education Right to remove pupils from class set to end | 2019-10-03T00:00:00 | bbcuk | Sex education: Right to remove pupils from class set to end | Parents are set to lose their right to remove their children from sex and relationship classes under Welsh Government plans. Education Minister Kirsty Williams said she was also "minded to" abolish the right to remove children from religious education (RE) lessons. The plan will be put to an eight-week consultation. In a previous consultation, 89% of respondents backed the right of parents to take children out of the classes. But Ms Williams said it had always been an "anomaly" that pupils could be withdrawn from certain subjects. The proposed measure will be brought in along with the new curriculum, which will be introduced in primary schools and the first year of secondary in 2022, before being rolled out up to 16-year-olds in 2026. The revised approach for relationships and sexuality education (RSE) will be "fully inclusive of all genders and sexualities and meets the needs of LGBTQI+ learners", Ms Williams has previously said. It will place an emphasis on forming and maintaining healthy, happy and fulfilling relationships, giving pupils a much broader understanding of sexuality. Ms Williams said all teaching would be developmentally appropriate and parents would be kept informed about what they were learning. "I am minded to ensure all pupils study RE and RSE in the new curriculum, just as they will study science, maths and languages," she said. "Children should be provided with access to information that keeps them safe from harm and allows them to navigate the world in which we live… "It must be easy for parents to engage in dialogue with schools about this and other parts of the curriculum." Sian Rees, director of the Evangelical Alliance in Wales, said they wanted parents to retain the right to take their children out of RSE lessons. "We believe that age isn't an indication of maturity and that these conversations are conversations that should perhaps be occurring within the home," she said. "The [new curriculum] framework as it stands is very vague. We would ask the minister to provide more clarity and explanation as to what exactly she would like teachers to cover." Abdul-Azim Ahmed, deputy general secretary of the Muslim Council of Wales, said it was important to maintain trust between parents, the state and schools. "A move that withdraws the right for parents to withdraw their children may undermine that trust," he said. "[With religious education] there's a well-established curriculum... so removing the right to withdraw there may be less controversial because parents know what's anticipated. "That's less clear when it comes to relationship and sexuality education where the guidance is still being developed." On Monday, the Welsh Government's advisers on domestic violence said lessons about sexuality and relationships should be compulsory in schools. Teaching on issues related to relationships and sex is usually delivered through personal and social education, which is part of the curriculum for seven to 16 year olds. Younger children are taught about relationships as part of the foundation phase. All secondary schools are required by law to provide the sex education element to pupils, and primary schools can teach it if they wish. Jane Cope, a mother of two teenage children from Caerphilly, said: "I don't feel that it should be mandatory that all children should have to attend [sex education], but it should also perhaps be provided to those children in a safer zone with somebody from their own culture that can speak to the children." Sarah Day, who has three children, said: "I think that part of the curriculum is just as important as maths, science, English, IT. It's part and parcel of how we live our lives. "It should most definitely stay, it's how the school engages with parents who may have an issue with their child accessing that part of the curriculum." | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-49879797 | 2019-10-03 06:39:37+00:00 | 1,570,099,177 | 1,570,221,729 | education | religious education |
64,963 | birminghammail--2019-07-25--LGBT teaching row blamed on academisation and broken school system | 2019-07-25T00:00:00 | birminghammail | LGBT teaching row blamed on academisation and 'broken' school system | Academisation and a 'broken' education system have been blamed for the on-going LGBT teaching row in Birmingham. Education and diversity expert Dr Karamat Iqbal has claimed the controversy shows that the city has 'gone backwards' when it was once a leader in the field of multi-faith teaching. The consultant, who runs Forward Partnership, has compared the dispute to the Trojan Horse affair in 2014 , arguing that a 'community disconnect' between parents and schools has been a driving force in both situations. Dr Iqbal called for greater partnership working and says while schools should have the 'final say' the voice of the community should not be excluded. But he says a 'particular problem' with the move towards more academies is that school governing bodies are not as 'representative' as they should be. " Quite a number of governing bodies will have people who may have certain skills, but may not be local people representing a local voice," he said. He called for the bodies to have proper roles for parents, religious leaders, community activities, MPs and councillors claiming that politicians in particular are increasingly 'not allowed to speak' despite the fact they are well placed to express a 'community view'. Further, Dr Iqbal emphasised the need for greater understanding around religious literacy. He said: " I would advocate a city-wide programme on religious literacy so we all understand the importance of religion, what it means for different people for different communities. "There are people who do and don't have religious beliefs and we need to understand both. "It's not preaching at them. It's not telling them to believe it, it is simply understanding that if one person says 'I'm religious' and the other says 'I'm not', we are a society that has freedom for both and we need to understand . "The key thing is we as a city need to take on board this religious literacy because it will continue to impact on issues." But asked about who should be tasked with leading such a programme he admitted the solution was no longer straight-forward. Dr Iqbal said: " There was a time when there were schools and local authorities. "If it was a one-school issue you would go to the school, if it was more than one school you would go to the local authority and they would deal with it as an area-wide thing . "We have a broken system. Local authorities have suffered from cuts and they have been shifted aside in the current education system." He added that the council could still take the lead on such a scheme if it was funded sufficiently and said the city's Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE) could have a role while Birmingham's religious schools should be consulted as to how they approach LGBT and other equality issues. Dr Iqbal expressed particular disappointment over the current controversy where the religious beliefs of many Muslim parents have clashed with primary schools' will to promote LGBT and the Equality Act. He highlighted that Birmingham was one of the first to teach about different religions in the 1970s and 1980s, whilst groups such as the Muslim Liaison Committee would often produce various publications around different aspects of teaching. He said: " Birmingham education was a leader when it came to multi-faith Religious Education, English as a second language and addressing under-achievement. "What happened here was emulated by others including central government. "It's sad to see it all forgotten. We've gone backwards. "Many of the current teachers in post- academisation schools are not even aware of the pioneering practise of the past." | [email protected] (Carl Jackson) | https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/lgbt-teaching-row-blamed-academisation-16646938 | 2019-07-25 15:55:34+00:00 | 1,564,084,534 | 1,567,535,795 | education | religious education |
73,657 | breitbart--2019-09-27--Pope Francis Endorses Essay Trashing US Conservative Christians | 2019-09-27T00:00:00 | breitbart | Pope Francis Endorses Essay Trashing U.S. Conservative Christians | On Thursday, La Civiltà Cattolica journal released the transcript of a meeting between Pope Francis and a group of 24 Jesuits on September 5, 2019, during his recent trip to Mozambique in which the pope suggested that certain Evangelical Protestants in the United States “cannot really be defined as Christian.” “Two important articles in Civiltà Cattolica have been published in this regard. I recommend them to you. They were written by Father Spadaro and the Argentinean Presbyterian pastor, Marcelo Figueroa. The first article spoke of the ‘ecumenism of hatred.’ The second was on the ‘theology of prosperity,’” the pontiff said. “Reading them you will see that there are sects that cannot really be defined as Christian. They preach Christ, yes, but their message is not Christian,” the pope said. “It has nothing to do with the preaching of a Lutheran or any other serious evangelical Christianity.” In the first essay recommended by the pope, the authors, who are both friends of Francis, slammed conservative Christians in the U.S. as ignorant, theocratic, Manichean, war-mongering fanatics. For the “Evangelical right,” the authors proposed, the panorama of threats to the American way of life “have included modernist spirits, the black civil rights movement, the hippy movement, communism, feminist movements and so on. And now in our day there are the migrants and the Muslims.” The authors did not hesitate to suggest that many Evangelicals are southern racists who reject climate change. “Another interesting aspect is the relationship with creation of these religious groups that are composed mainly of whites from the deep American South,” the article stated. “There is a sort of ‘anesthetic’ with regard to ecological disasters and problems generated by climate change. They profess ‘dominionism’ and consider ecologists as people who are against the Christian faith.” Throughout the essay, the authors criticize a string of exclusively Republican presidents as being tainted by the teachings of Evangelical Protestantism. The list of those mentioned includes Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and, of course, Donald Trump. One of the most serious evils of American Evangelical Christians, the article stated, is “the defense of religious liberty,’” which takes the form of “a direct virtual challenge to the secularity of the state.” The authors went on to denounce the ecumenical alliance between conservative Catholics and Evangelical Christians who align behind certain moral issues in the public square. “Some who profess themselves to be Catholic express themselves in ways that until recently were unknown in their tradition and using tones much closer to Evangelicals. They are defined as value voters as far as attracting electoral mass support is concerned,” the article asserted. This poisonous alliance over shared objectives “happens around such themes as abortion, same-sex marriage, religious education in schools and other matters generally considered moral or tied to values,” the essay claimed, which unite Catholics and Evangelicals in “the nostalgic dream of a theocratic type of state.” At the time of its publication, the article triggered an avalanche of critical responses denouncing the ignorance and political ill-will underlying the essay. Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, for instance, wrote a sharp criticism of the essay, saying that the authors were guilty of “dumbing down and inadequately presenting the nature of Catholic/evangelical cooperation on religious freedom and other key issues.” “Dismissing today’s attacks on religious liberty as a ‘narrative of fear,’” as the La Civiltà Cattolica article does, Chaput said, “sounds willfully ignorant.” In his critique of the article, Dr. Samuel Gregg called the article “disturbing,” while lamenting the tacit anti-Americanism and “distinctly amateur grasp of American religious history.” As Dr. Gregg noted, to describe “Marxism-Leninism, Islamist jihadism, or National Socialism” as evil is not evidence of a Manichaean worldview. “It is simply recognition that some ideas are indeed wicked and lead to many people, even nations, engaging in gravely evil acts.” Moreover, Gregg wrote, if one looks at statements put together by various scholars and intellectuals involved in movements such as Evangelicals and Catholics Together, “they contain not a shred of theocratic aspiration.” “The ecumenical discussion between those involved in these endeavors have led over time to genuine fruit in terms of clarification of points in common, removing misconceptions, identifying real doctrinal road-blocks, and identifying areas where practical work to promote the common good can be pursued together,” Gregg observed. It is not a theocratic nostalgia that leads Evangelical and Catholic Christians in America to make the argument that “unborn human beings are entitled to the same protections from the unjust use of lethal force as any other human being, or that religious liberty is more than just freedom of worship, or that parents are entitled to insist that their children not be subjected to the nonsense of ‘gender theory’ at school,” Gregg added. The published criticisms of the original article by serious scholars, both Christian and secular, ended up being so numerous they could fill a book. The article was eventually dismissed as simply an embarrassing attempt at political propaganda by overly zealous Italian and Argentinian clerics who were completely out of their depth. Which could lead one to wonder what Pope Francis could possibly be thinking when he dredges up this ill-begotten essay out of the swamp of oblivion to recommend it as a useful aid for understanding America’s complex religious landscape. | Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D. | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/breitbart/~3/IJOXyf03cDs/ | 2019-09-27 09:34:30+00:00 | 1,569,591,270 | 1,570,222,061 | education | religious education |
81,642 | cbsnews--2019-01-28--Trump backs push for Bible classes in schools | 2019-01-28T00:00:00 | cbsnews | Trump backs push for Bible classes in schools | President Trump appeared to endorse efforts by legislators in several states to allow public schools to offer Bible classes. "Numerous states introducing Bible Literacy classes, giving students the option of studying the Bible. Starting to make a turn back? Great!" Mr. Trump tweeted Monday morning after "Fox and Friends" ran a segment on the topic. Christian lawmakers in six Republican-controlled state legislatures across the country are pushing for legislation that would allow public schools to offer elective classes on the New and Old Testaments. The push by conservative legislators in Florida, Indiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Virginia and West Virginia has stirred some controversy. Critics of the proposals, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), argue that public school classes on the Bible would jeopardize the separation of church and state enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution. Alabama, Iowa and West Virginia have also considered Bible literacy bills, but all of the measures were voted down, according to the Fox News report. But in Kentucky, Republican Gov. Matt Bevin signed legislation in 2017 to allow public school students to take Bible and Hebrew scriptures classes. A year ago, in January 2018, the ACLU of Kentucky expressed concern to the Kentucky Board of Education after an Open Records Act investigation found that many courses violated constitutional requirements that say that religious texts used in classrooms must be secular, objective and not promote any specific religious view. The ACLU said it found "public school teachers using the Bible to impart religious life lessons" and use of Sunday school lessons and worksheets for source material. These are not academic approaches to objective study of the Bible and its historical or literary value, the ACLU pointed out. In June 2018, the Kentucky Board of Education approved standards for the classes, but the ACLU was still worried about what was being taught in Bible literacy courses. "Without more specific guidance, we fear some classrooms will once again be filled with preaching, not teaching," the organization wrote in a statement last August. "The ACLU-KY reminds students and parents that 'Bible Literacy' courses may not promote religion or a particular religious viewpoint, test students on matters of religious faith, nor be designed to instill religious life lessons." "Religious education is best left to parents and churches, not school or government," the ACLU added. Evangelicals and other Christian groups were an integral part of the president's electoral coalition during the 2016 election and have largely remained supportive of his administration — particularly because of his stance on social issues like LGBT rights and abortion, and his appointment of conservative judges to the Supreme Court. | null | http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-backs-controversial-push-for-bible-classes-in-schools/ | 2019-01-28 19:07:29+00:00 | 1,548,720,449 | 1,567,550,524 | education | religious education |
117,422 | conservativehome--2019-02-14--Interview Look this is a Christian country says Hinds But he adds that the cap on new faith sc | 2019-02-14T00:00:00 | conservativehome | Interview. “Look, this is a Christian country”, says Hinds. But he adds that the cap on new faith schools’ admissions should stay. | Damian Hinds says that as Conservative Education Secretary, the post he has occupied since January 2018, “there are always arguments to be won”, and you have to face up to the “forces of small-c conservatism”. He adds that “if you stand still, you will go backwards”. But Hinds, described by his fellow parliamentarians as a man who has entered the Cabinet on merit, has an aversion to extravagant language and cannot be regarded as a publicity seeker. In this interview, he sets out to show how reasonable his policies are. When he declares “this is a Christian country… it still has, at the core of its institutions, traditions which are rooted in the Judaeo-Christian tradition,” his tone is studiously reasonable. Hinds defends his refusal to lift the 50 per cent cap on faith-based admissions for new free schools by insisting there are there are “good community and integration reasons” for keeping it. His decision has angered the Roman Catholic Church, to which he himself belongs. Before becoming a minister, he opposed the cap, and his appointment raised hopes in Catholic circles that he would use his power to sweep it away. The Education Secretary instead says his “number one priority” is “to bear down on workload for teachers”, so fewer of them leave the profession. He wants to accelerate the academies programme and urges ConHome readers to come forward as governors. On Brexit, he says the Prime Minister has reached “a very good deal”, a point which tends to be forgotten amid “legitimate” concerns about the backstop. He observes that rapid progress is needed, and declines to say whether the Cabinet would continue to “hold their nerve” if the Prime Minister informed ministers she could only get concessions on the backstop at the EU summit on 21st March. A paradox of his career is that he has risen higher than his good friend and contemporary Jacob Rees-Mogg, while remaining much less well known. ConHome: “How did you beat Jacob Rees-Mogg and become President of the Oxford Union?” ConHome: “I think actually our readers are intensely interested. You were in the same college…” Hinds: “We were in the same college [Trinity College, Oxford].” ConHome: “I’m not suggesting the Pope had anything to do with it.” Hinds: “Actually, Jacob was the first person I met at university, literally the first person. It’s one of those things you do when you arrive, and you have all the first years in a room, and I turned to the bloke next to me and said ‘Hello, I’m Damian’, and it turned out to be Jacob. “He wasn’t dressed the same as all the other undergraduates. He just happened to be standing next to me. And we’ve been friends ever since. “And the answer to your question about elections. As you know, there are lots of undergraduate elections, and I was lucky enough on that occasion. There’s not much more to it than that.” ConHome: “Well actually, oddly enough, the most candid thing Boris Johnson ever wrote about politics was an essay about how to become President of the Oxford Union, in a book, The Oxford Myth, edited by his sister, Rachel. “He said that what you need is ‘a disciplined and deluded collection of stooges’ who will get the vote out for you in their respective colleges.” Hinds: “‘Stooges’ is one of those words you only ever actually hear in student politics.” ConHome: “Michael Gove has admitted he was a Johnson stooge in those days. So you too had a collection of disciplined and deluded stooges? They weren’t deluded in your case.” Hinds: “Lovely people. Actually there were three of us in that election, all three from the same college, and I think that was very, very unusual.” Hinds: “Stephanie Young, now Stephanie Tyrer. That was a very unusual set-up. There were many other elections that Jacob won while we were undergraduates, but on that occasion I was lucky enough to come out on top.” ConHome: “And did you enjoy being President?” ConHome: “And who were your most famous visitors?” Hinds: “I had the summer term. My favourite visitors, we had Alvin Stardust, who also sang, and Will Carling, the Rugby player.” ConHome: “And who are your political heroes?” Hinds: “It’s so clichéd to say Mrs Thatcher is your political hero, but point me to the person on our side of the Chamber who wouldn’t say that. “As it happens, I’m a child of the Eighties [he was born in 1969], grew up in Manchester, it was a difficult time, proper divides in politics, and in the earlier part of that period I was a Leftie. “I came to my realisation aged 16, 17 and joined our party, so I’ve got a reasonable pedigree given I’m now 49. But it was a realisation rather than something automatic.” ConHome: “And how did you realise?” Hinds: “Well I think the Eighties was an amazing time to grow up, partly because there was so much politics. Everything from the Iron Curtain and communism versus capitalism through the Miners’ Strike and privatisation. “Some things we got wrong as well as some things we got right of course. But as a teenager you couldn’t help but be politically very conscious of what was going on around you. “And I came to the conclusion, first of all that I was a very lucky boy, coming from a strong family and going to a good school [Saint Ambrose College, a Roman Catholic grammar school]. “But I came to the conclusion that the way to make more boys and girls lucky boys and girls was to have a strong economy with enterprise but also with social responsibility, and with people looking out for each other. And sometimes we got on the wrong side of that, towards the end of the 1980s, of course, in terms of how people perceived us.” ConHome: “And of her predecessors, of whom there are 39 including William the Conqueror?” Hinds: “Are there only 39, all the way back to 1066?” ConHome: “Yes, it’s not that many. Of course there were various people like Queen Victoria and George III..” Hinds: “…who upped the average. Wow. I didn’t realise that. So I’m not going to profess to have a favourite monarch, other than of course Her Majesty. I do think the Queen is just so off the scale of amazingness and a role model for us all.” ConHome: “When I put the same question to your predecessor but one, Nicky Morgan, she said Henry VIII. But when I and her special advisers expressed amazement, she switched to Elizabeth I.” A division bell rang, and Hinds went off to vote. When he got back, the interview continued with a question about Brexit. ConHome: “If Theresa May came back to Cabinet and said, ‘I can get something on the backstop, but not until the EU summit on 21st March,’ would you be happy to hold your nerve until then?” Hinds [after a pause]: “I think the Prime Minister needs all of us to be behind her in this. Only she can know the exact dynamic of the negotiation, and exactly what is the best route forward. “I won’t rehearse all the stuff about we need to get a deal, because clearly we do – I say clearly, it’s clear to me we absolutely do. Clearly already time is very short, and we need to make good and rapid progress. “Obviously there are real worries about the backstop and it’s very legitimate for people to have worries about that, and legitimate to be seeking assurances. “It is also true, and we must remember to keep saying it, that the deal overall is a very good deal. There’s been so much talk about the relatively I’m not going to say small issues that sometimes we don’t talk about the thing itself.” ConHome: “But would you hold your nerve, and would your Cabinet colleagues hold their collective nerve, until 21st March?” Hinds: “I think everybody is holding their nerve.” ConHome: “Now on education, how important is it for an Education Secretary to be talked about? There have been some, people like Tony Crosland, who’ve gone on the offensive, who have been talked about – since Rab Butler, there’s been Crosland, Thatcher, Baker, Blunkett, Gove, and probably a few others, probably people like Boyle. Do you think that’s important, or not really?” Hinds: “I actually think what’s really important is for the system to be working well, not letting down any of our children anywhere, and for the person doing my job, and all our ministers, and the whole department, to be making sure that happens. “And sometimes that does require, and it certainly did when Michael [Gove] was doing this job, a bold and vociferous and constant presence, at other times less so. “But there are always arguments to be won in this sphere, because there are forces of small-c conservatism – which is definitely not the same as our Conservatism – in the education world. “And as a Conservative Education Secretary, you need to be facing up to those. If you stand still, you will go backwards.” ConHome: “Would it be fair to say you’re more focussed on heads and teachers than on parents?” Hinds: “It wouldn’t be fair to say I’m more focussed on heads and teachers. But without heads and teachers the parents would be very upset. “And we have had a problem in the last few years with making sure we have enough teachers. So we haven’t recruited quite enough, and we’ve had too many leaving. And the biggest reason they leave is because of workload. “So I’ve made my number one priority to bear down on workload for teachers. Which turns out to be not nearly as simple a task as people might expect. “Because although in a popular image there’s all these forms that you’re making teachers fill in, I’ve tried very hard to find those forms and they basically don’t exist. “It’s a much more endemic, complex set of circumstances that makes teachers work on average 50 plus hours a week, which again is much more than people would expect to hear. “And I think from a parent’s point of view they don’t want to know that teachers are spending a huge amount of time other than teaching their children. It’s all the other stuff.” ConHome: “If it’s not form-filling, what is it?” Hinds: “The three biggest things are very large amounts of lesson-planning…” Hinds: “No, not necessarily. It depends on what you do. Obviously I want teachers planning lessons. And schools do much better lesson-planning than when we were at school, and that is a very good thing. “But if you are producing lesson-plans because you think the Ofsted inspector is going to see them, and stockpiling ring binders full of these things – this does happen in many schools, this is not a productive use of time. ConHome: “Another problem is that good teachers are intelligent and capable people. If the economy’s doing well, they can go off and do other things.” Hinds: “That’s true. If you’ve got four per cent unemployment that’s a bad time for anybody to be recruiting, because it’s a very competitive market. But I just say our vacancies are more important than everybody else’s.” ConHome: “You did a piece on ConHome saying you firmly believe in academies. But are they being created quickly enough, do you think? Do you have enough sponsors? Or has your department been gradually reducing the financial incentives?” Hinds: “Well it shouldn’t be about financial incentives. It is possible to help with the costs of conversion, but actually the big advantage of being an academy is about autonomy, and about being able to combine with other schools. “We’ve just passed a really important milestone of more than half the children in the state sector being in academies, which is a great thing. We’re still seeing more coming forward for conversion. I would like to see that pace continue and accelerate. “We also need more people, I hope ConHome readers will step up to this, to be governors and trustees. When you’ve got a devolved system, with lots of autonomy, the role of a governor can become a much bigger thing. “And the academies programme is now for the first time since early Blair under threat from the Labour Party. It was originally a Blair invention. “Michael Gove and Nick Gibb put turbo-chargers under that programme, massively increased the numbers, and actually I hear from Members of Parliament on all sides what a difference academisation has made.” ConHome: “You gave a speech the other day about children’s character. How do you build children’s character without some ethical or religious input?” Hinds: “Well I don’t think you do do it without some ethical input. I distinguish character and resilience from values and virtues, but they go together. So character and resilience, I talk about ‘believe you can achieve’, “be able to stick with the task in hand’, ‘understand the link between the effort I put in today and the reward I do or might get in the future’, ‘being able to bounce back when things go wrong’. “All those things would also make you a really good criminal, and I don’t want you to be a criminal. So I also want you to be grounded in friendship, kindness, community spirit, all those values. “Some people will get those through a religious education, others will get it through a non-religious but still an ethically based education.” ConHome: “So what in your opinion is the role of Christianity in politics, both generally and for you personally? I asked Nicky Morgan this.” ConHome: “She said the Anglican Church is very important to her.” Hinds: “Well the Anglican Church is very important to me too. I’m going to go a wee bit further. Look, this is a Christian country. I mean these days it is a multicultural country as well, and there are many different faiths represented, and vast numbers of people who have no religious faith. “But it still has, at the core of its institutions, traditions which are rooted in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. And in Parliament you find – I’ve never actually done the maths, but it’s always felt to me that there’s a disproportionate number of people of some religious faith. Not necessarily Christian, but some religious faith. “We start every day with Prayers, this little segment of the day, three minutes, the only part which is not broadcast, and I think whether people are Anglican or some other denomination, or an atheist, actually the majority of Members of Parliament I think appreciate that as a moment of reflection and thinking about the day ahead, thinking about why we’re here. “Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the Chaplain, does this prayer about remembering not to put personal self-interest in the way of what we do.” ConHome: “What’s your view of free schools? It’s gone a bit quiet on free schools.” Hinds: “We’re still doing this. We’ve got hundreds in the pipeline. Free schools are a type of academy, but brand new. They’ve brought a great deal of innovation. By bringing something different to an area, they create diversity and choice and a bit of competition with other schools.” ConHome: “Is the Catholic Church still opting out of free schools – they were very cross, weren’t they, about the admissions cap?” Hinds: “And that is still there. We’ve got a 50 per cent cap on faith-based admissions for new free schools. But they can now – and others can as well – open new voluntary aided schools.” ConHome: “Why have you got the cap on free schools?” Hinds: “There are good reasons for wanting to be able to ensure diversity in school provision. But the voluntary aided school route has always been there. The process for application is different from that for a free school, it has to have the backing of the local authority, but it’s been around since 1944 and has worked well. “It’s mostly associated with the Catholic Church but actually there are Anglican VA schools as well, and indeed other faiths. It’s actually never technically stopped being possible to open a VA school. There just wasn’t any money available.” ConHome: “But is there a lobby within the Conservative Party against lifting this cap on faith-based admissions to free schools? Is that part of the trouble? “Because oddly enough, you seem to be standing up for the more traditional socialist way of doing things, even if it goes back to 1944. The Labour Party would have less to disagree with – local democratic control and all that.” Hinds: “Free schools came in under the Coalition Government and there is obviously a reason why they came in as they did, and they’ve been a great addition to the schools system, including by the way having schools of religious character coming in, but with a cap of 50 per cent when oversubscribed. “There was one large denomination which did not feel able to open free schools, which was the Catholic Church. And I was keen that every denomination should be able to open new schools. And of course the voluntary aided route isn’t only open to them, but it is open to them.” Hinds: “There’s a round of applications that’s just happening as we speak.” ConHome: “I still don’t understand why you refused to get rid of this cap. You don’t need legislation. You can decide, can’t you?” Hinds: “There are good community integration reasons why the cap is as it is.” Hinds: “It applies to all faiths, in the same way that the opportunity to open a voluntary aided school applies to all faiths. We don’t make things specifically for individual religions.” ConHome: “But would that be a worry, that you would then get some purely Muslim schools?” Hinds: “There are purely Muslim schools, there are Jewish schools, there are Catholic schools, there are Anglican schools and they all play an important role. The key thing is that there is no significant religion in this country that wants to be able to open faith schools and can’t.” ConHome: “I still haven’t got to the heart of your objection to lifting the cap.” Hinds: “As I say, there are good community and integration reasons.” Hinds: “It means it is right, and this is why the system was set up as it was initially, to be able to say, ‘Yes, we want to be able to have faith schools, but we also want to be able to have multiple ways, this is one of the ways, to make sure that we have full integration of communities. And that’s one of the ways we do it.” ConHome: “And did you change your mind about this? Were you in favour of lifting the cap?” Hinds: “If you looked hard, I think you would probably find a record of me somewhere in Parliament speaking about the cap before I was in a ministerial position.” Hinds: “I wasn’t aware of all the considerations at the time.” | Andrew Gimson | https://www.conservativehome.com/highlights/2019/02/interview-look-this-is-a-christian-country-says-hinds-but-he-adds-that-the-cap-on-faith-school-admissions-should-stay.html | 2019-02-14 06:40:21+00:00 | 1,550,144,421 | 1,567,548,528 | education | religious education |
146,095 | drudgereport--2019-04-04--Corporations special interests wrote bills Politicians introduced them 10000 times | 2019-04-04T00:00:00 | drudgereport | Corporations, special interests wrote bills. Politicians introduced them. 10,000 times... | Each year, state lawmakers across the U.S. introduce thousands of bills dreamed up and written by corporations, industry groups and think tanks. Disguised as the work of lawmakers, these so-called “model” bills get copied in one state Capitol after another, quietly advancing the agenda of the people who write them. A two-year investigation by USA TODAY, The Arizona Republic and the Center for Public Integrity reveals for the first time the extent to which special interests have infiltrated state legislatures using model legislation. USA TODAY and the Republic found at least 10,000 bills almost entirely copied from model legislation were introduced nationwide in the past eight years, and more than 2,100 of those bills were signed into law. The investigation examined nearly 1 million bills in all 50 states and Congress using a computer algorithm developed to detect similarities in language. That search – powered by the equivalent of 150 computers that ran nonstop for months – compared known model legislation with bills introduced by lawmakers. The phenomenon of copycat legislation is far larger. In a separate analysis, the Center for Public Integrity identified tens of thousands of bills with identical phrases, then traced the origins of that language in dozens of those bills across the country. Model bills passed into law have made it harder for injured consumers to sue corporations. They’ve called for taxes on sugar-laden drinks. They’ve limited access to abortion and restricted the rights of protesters. In all, these copycat bills amount to the nation’s largest, unreported special-interest campaign, driving agendas in every statehouse and touching nearly every area of public policy. The investigation reveals that fill-in-the-blank bills have in some states supplanted the traditional approach of writing legislation from scratch. They have become so intertwined with the lawmaking process that the nation’s top sponsor of copycat legislation, a member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, claimed to have signed on to 72 such bills without knowing or questioning their origin. For lawmakers, copying model legislation is an easy way to get fully formed bills to put their names on, while building relationships with lobbyists and other potential campaign donors. For special interests seeking to stay under the radar, model legislation also offers distinct advantages. Copycat bills don’t appear on expense reports, or campaign finance forms. They don’t require someone to register as a lobbyist or sign in at committee hearings. But once injected into the lawmaking process, they can go viral, spreading state to state, executing an agenda to the letter. •Models are drafted with deceptive titles and descriptions to disguise their true intent. The Asbestos Transparency Act didn’t help people exposed to asbestos. It was written by corporations who wanted to make it harder for victims to recoup money. The “HOPE Act,” introduced in nine states, was written by a conservative advocacy group to make it more difficult for people to get food stamps. •Special interests sometimes work to create the illusion of expert endorsements, public consensus or grassroots support. One man testified as an expert in 13 states to support a bill that makes it more difficult to sue for asbestos exposure. In several states, lawmakers weren’t told that he was a member of the organization that wrote the model legislation on behalf of the asbestos industry, the American Legislative Exchange Council. •Bills copied from model legislation have been used to override the will of local voters and their elected leaders. Cities and counties have raised their minimum wage, banned plastic bags and destroyed seized guns, only to have industry groups that oppose such measures make them illegal with model bills passed in state legislatures. Among them: Airbnb has supported the conservative Arizona-based Goldwater Institute, which pushed model bills to strike down local laws limiting short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods in four states. •Industry groups have had extraordinary success pushing copycat bills that benefit themselves. More than 4,000 such measures were introduced during the period analyzed by USA TODAY/Arizona Republic. One that passed in Wisconsin limited pain-and-suffering compensation for injured nursing-home residents, restricting payouts to lost wages, which the elderly residents don’t have. “This work proves what many people have suspected, which is just how much of the democratic process has been outsourced to special interests,” said Lisa Graves, co-director of Documented, which probes corporate manipulation of public policy. “It is both astonishing and disappointing to see how widespread ... it is. Good lord, it’s an amazing thing to see.” The impact of model legislation is undoubtedly larger than the 10,000 copied bills identified by USA TODAY/Arizona Republic. Because the investigation relied on matching identical text, it flagged instances where legislators copied model legislation nearly verbatim, but it did not detect bills that adapted an idea without using the same language. Sherri Greenberg, who spent 10 years in the Texas Legislature and is now the Max Sherman Chair in State and Local Government at the University of Texas at Austin, said bills used to spring from lawmakers’ experiences, constituents, or lobbyists representing long-established industries. Model legislation has flourished as gridlock in Congress forced special interest groups to look to the states to get things done, she said. Not all model legislation is driven by special interests or designed to make someone money. Some bills were written to require sex offenders to register with law enforcement, while others have made it easier for members of the military to vote or increased penalties for human trafficking. Charles Siler, a former external relations manager for the Goldwater Institute, which has pushed copycat bills nationwide, said it's a fast way to spread ideas because with little modification lawmakers can adapt it to their state. “It’s not inherently bad, one way or the other," said Siler, who now works for a political action committee. “It depends on the idea and the people pushing it. Definitely people use model legislation to push bad ideas around." Allison Anderman, managing attorney at the pro-gun-control Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said model bills are simply how the system works now. “This is how all laws are written,” she said. “You’d be hard-pressed to find a law where a legislator sits in a chamber until a light bulb goes off with a new policy.” The Asbestos Transparency Act sounds like the kind of boring, good-government policy voters expect their representatives to hammer out on their behalf to safeguard public health. Better transparency was one reason Colorado state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg said he introduced the bill in 2017, and again last year, at the urging of a tort reform group called the Colorado Civil Justice League and backed by insurance companies, including Nationwide Insurance. “Whenever you add transparency to the mix, it helps all consumers,” said Sonnenberg, a Republican. But the bill had nothing to do with requiring companies to disclose to consumers what products contained asbestos or informing those who had been exposed to the cancer-causing mineral how to get help. It, in effect, cast corporations as victims of litigation filed by people harmed by asbestos. The model bill requires people battling the asbestos-triggered disease mesothelioma to seek money from an asbestos trust, set up to compensate victims, before they can sue a company whose product might have caused their cancer. That process can take months or even a year. Many mesothelioma victims die within a year of their diagnosis. Their families can still sue on their behalf, but for far less money. “I can tell you for a fact that families don’t have time for all these hoops they want you to jump through,” said Chris Winokur, whose husband Bob was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2015 and died nine months later. “They’re trying to make it more difficult to sue.” Bob Winokur, who worked for the U.S. Forest Service and served as mayor of Fort Collins, Colorado, never pinpointed where he came in contact with asbestos. And he never filed a claim to help pay his medical bills. The disease progressed too rapidly to allow it, even without the additional requirements proposed by the model bill, Chris Winokur said. The model legislation was the work of corporations seeking to limit their exposure to billions of dollars in litigation associated with asbestos. Insurance companies Nationwide, AIG, Travelers, Hartford and CNA Financial Corp. together hold more than half the nation’s asbestos claim exposure totaling over $870 million. USA TODAY/Arizona Republic found the Asbestos Transparency Act, a product of the American Legislative Exchange Council, an industry-supported model bill factory, has been introduced in at least 17 states since 2012. It became law in at least 11 states. Sonnenberg, the lawmaker who introduced it in Colorado, said he didn’t write the bill and relied on “my experts” to explain it during a February 2017 hearing. One of those experts was Mark Behrens, who logs thousands of miles a year testifying before lawmakers about ALEC's model asbestos legislation. He has done so in at least 13 states, where he was billed as an objective authority. Behrens is an attorney with Shook, Hardy and Bacon, which represents companies in complex civil litigation. He is a co-chairman of ALEC’s Civil Justice Task Force and is a paid consultant for the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform, an arm of the nation’s largest business lobby, which has the stated goal of reducing litigation. During the hearing, Behrens testified: "The only thing the legislation does is accelerate the timing of when the trust claim is filed. It's not putting any new burdens on plaintiffs." A Democratic legislator pressed Behrens on why the 26-page bill needed technical language that could confuse victims trying to be compensated. She called it, "a gift to defendants," before voting against it. Sonnenberg told USA TODAY he didn’t know Behrens worked for the Chamber of Commerce when he called him to testify. “I just knew they were experts and they indeed understood the legal issues and process much better than I,” he wrote in an email. Behrens said the Asbestos Transparency Act seeks to hold wrongdoers accountable, while exonerating innocent companies paying for harm they didn’t cause. “These companies don’t get a vote; all we can do is make our case,” Behrens told USA TODAY. “I don’t care who I’m there for, I still have to be credible and honest.” Graves said special interests have "so-called experts who aren't neutral. They go around the country and testify about those bills as if they're good for that state or even as if they're products of that state." Colorado lawmakers rejected the Asbestos Transparency Act in 2017 and 2018, and Sonnenberg said he doesn't plan to introduce it this year. “It would be wise,” he said, “for someone with a better understanding of these types of issues to carry the bill in the future.” Bill Meierling, chief marketing officer and executive vice president of ALEC, said supporters of the asbestos model believed it did create more transparency, "but it's up to each individual state to choose how they would name" the bill when they copy ALEC's model. USA TODAY found more than 4,000 bills benefiting industry were introduced nationwide during the eight years it reviewed. More than 80 of those bills limit the public's ability to sue corporations, including limiting class-action lawsuits, a plaintiff's ability to offer expert testimony, and cap punitive damages for corporate wrongdoing. "No citizens are saying, 'Hey, can you make it harder to sue if ... low-paid (nursing home) orderlies happened to kill or injure my parents,' " Graves said. "That's not a thing citizens are clamoring for. But you know who is? The nursing home industry, and big business in general." Many of the bills USA TODAY found were copied from models written by special interests were couched in unremarkable or technical language that obscured their impact. Bans on raising the local minimum wage were dubbed "uniform minimum wage" laws. Changes to civil court rules to shield companies from lawsuits were described as "congruity” or reforms to make laws consistent. Repealing business regulations was disguised under the term "rescission." A moderate Republican from the Philadelphia suburbs shows how copycat bills in some states set the legislative agenda. Rep. Thomas Murt has sponsored more model legislation than any other state lawmaker in the nation, according to USA TODAY's database. Murt, whose biggest campaign donors include the Pennsylvania Republican Party and labor unions, said he was stunned to learn that he was listed as a sponsor on 72 bills substantially copied from model legislation from 2010 to late 2018. “I had no way of knowing unless it’s put in the … memo,” Murt said of the bills he helped sponsor. Murt’s situation highlights how critical bill titles and summaries are – especially when it comes to copycat legislation – because lawmakers, even sponsors, often don’t read bills. Had Murt probed further, he would have seen the bills he signed onto came from ALEC, its liberal counterpart ALICE, the State Innovation Exchange, Council of State Governments, Goldwater Institute and other groups that specialize in writing copycat bills. They dealt with cities’ ability to take action against blighted properties, prohibitions on businesses banning guns in employees' vehicles, and a call for the U.S. president to be elected by popular vote, among many others. USA TODAY provided Murt with a list of all 72 bills, 13 of which became law, and asked questions about his support for them. He was the primary sponsor of only one: a ban on smoking in workplaces written by the liberal State Innovation Exchange. Murt said he would reconsider his support for two of the bills that were copied from ALEC, after learning more about their impact. One was a call for a constitutional convention to curb federal spending, backed by the controversial Koch brothers conservative political network. The other was a bill protecting Crown Cork & Seal from asbestos liability. "I would be suspect of such a proposal," Murt said of the constitutional convention model. "But bear in mind that when that co-sponsor memo was circulated, I'm sure it never mentioned the Koch brothers, because for some people that would have been a show-stopper." Murt also said he would never support limiting asbestos victims' ability to sue. USA TODAY interviewed more than 50 sponsors of model legislation nationwide. Half said they knew they had sponsored model legislation. But 20 legislators said they didn’t know the source of their bill or claimed they wrote at least part of the bill. Five insisted the bill was their own work, even though the wording of each included multiple passages that matched model legislation nearly verbatim. Almost all of the sponsors defended the practice of copying model legislation or had no opinion of it. In Michigan, Republican state Sen. Joe Haveman said he worked with a lobbyist from a Lansing law firm to draft his state’s version of the law aimed at shielding Crown Cork & Seal from asbestos liability stemming from a corporate merger in the 1960s. The law firm, Clark Hill, has donated $1,800 to his campaigns since 2012, according to state records. Haveman said he had no issues with relying on model bills and said even though Crown Cork & Seal is not a Michigan company, he said he saw it as a “fairness issue.” He said he was approached by a lobbyist and agreed with the bill when he saw a draft. “It really had nothing to do with my passion for anything. They had to do this in all 50 states,” Haveman said. "Somebody targeted me, and I had to do it.” It’s not just legislators circulating copycat bills. In Pennsylvania, the nonpartisan service that drafts all bills for the state Assembly – the Legislative Reference Bureau – frequently copies directly from model legislation, said director Vincent DeLiberato. But the legislator ultimately decides whether to use it, he said. In Wisconsin, the Legislature’s nonpartisan legal staff is similarly tasked with converting lawmakers’ ideas into bills. A March 1, 2017, email to that staff from the office of Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos requested that an attached document be “drafted as stated.” The document contained the Campus Free Speech Act, which prevents universities from blocking controversial speakers and imposes penalties on students, including expulsion, for disrupting such events. The measure, written by the Goldwater Institute, is a reaction to liberal protesters at Middlebury College, UC-Berkeley, University of Florida and other campuses who have disrupted speeches by conservative commentator Ben Shapiro and white supremacist Richard Spencer, among others. Vos did not respond to questions about the origin of his bill, which was copied nearly verbatim from Goldwater's model. It didn’t pass, but the ideas were incorporated in new university rules adopted by Wisconsin. USA TODAY’s algorithm found the same model was introduced in 13 states, becoming law in Arizona and North Carolina. A similar version passed in Colorado. The relationship between groups writing model legislation and the lawmakers introducing them is a marriage of convenience, experts said. Special interests give lawmakers fully conceived bills they can put their names on and take credit for. And those special interests can become dependable donors to their campaigns. Conservative groups like ALEC nurture those relationships at annual conferences where lawmakers and corporate lobbyists discuss policy and mingle over meals and drinks paid for by corporate sponsors. This arrangement is particularly appealing to new lawmakers, said Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, an assistant professor at Columbia University who has studied the influence of ALEC and other conservative groups. His research showed less-experienced lawmakers are more likely to use copycat legislation. They “know they are conservative, they know they are pro-business, but ... they don’t really know what it means to translate that into different bills,” he said. “These networks are able to fill in what it means to be a conservative Republican who wants to support business.” Meierling, ALEC's chief marketing officer, said there are checks and balances on corporate influence within the organization "just like our government structure." Companies join ALEC because they want feedback and insight from a variety of legislators, he said. "Sure they (companies) are going to share their perspective, but a legislator is there to represent their constituents and if they don't they'll be held accountable at the ballot box," Meierling said. "ALEC ... has proven it’s an asset to society." Progressive groups, meanwhile, have failed to replicate conservatives’ success because they’ve not invested in facilitating the relationships between lawmakers and special interests, Hertel-Fernandez said. “What ALEC does is more than provide the model bills: They provide relationships. They approach you when you are first elected and build these enduring social connections with you at recurring events that happen every year,” he said. “You really need that social connection in addition to the model-bill resources that you’re getting, the research help.” “Countless American lives will be saved. ... I don’t want to say thousands because I think it’s going to be much more – hundreds of thousands,” President Donald Trump said at a signing ceremony for the national “Right to Try” bill in May 2018. “It is such a great name. From the first day I loved it. It’s so perfect: Right. To. Try.” With the stroke of a pen, Trump made a bill that had circulated in statehouses for four years the most successful copycat bill in history. Not only did it pass in 41 states, it also had conquered Congress. The version passed by Congress allows terminally ill individuals a right to try experimental medications that have not been fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The bill’s title left the public with the impression it was spurred by a groundswell of patients demanding lifesaving treatment. Instead, it was a focus group-tested name, coined by a consultant to a for-profit corporation. That corporation, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, a chain focused on alternative cancer treatments, wanted access to experimental drugs. Right to Try illustrates another finding of USA TODAY’s investigation: Some copycat bills amount to little more than marketing and posturing, with organizations behind them highlighting a perceived problem and then offering a solution with little or no measurable impact. The point is seemingly to score political points, draw attention to the organization behind the model, and raise funds off the effort. Former Goldwater President Darcy Olsen parlayed this campaign into the book “Right to Try.” In it, she said Cancer Treatment Centers of America approached Goldwater for help addressing a “national medical emergency”: the government blocking terminally ill patients from receiving potential lifesaving treatments. When asked, Goldwater could not produce any of those patients. Chuck Warren, corporate consultant to Cancer Treatment Centers of America, said he came up with the bill’s name. Goldwater and CTCA paid for focus groups to make sure the name struck the right chord. “It was always our favorite name and it was the name that resonated the most with focus groups,” Warren said. While the marketing was cutting edge, its policy largely had been implemented decades earlier. Alison Bateman-House, an assistant professor of medical ethics at New York University’s Langone Health, said Right to Try is “an effort to address a problem that did not actually exist.” Patients have been able to access experimental drugs since the 1970s, she said. Through the FDA’s compassionate-use program, about 1,000 patients a year have gained access to non-approved drugs in recent years. The FDA approves more than 90 percent of those requests, often within days and, in emergencies, sometimes more quickly. “The Goldwater Institute was taking advantage of a very heart-rending and sympathetic issue to push for their pet policy, which is basically to roll back regulations,” Bateman-House said. “They did pick a winner of a name. ... Unfortunately, it’s a lie.” It’s unclear how many people have received experimental drugs through Right to Try. Bateman-House said she’s heard of two. Goldwater points to those same two patients, and a Texas doctor who ran a trial involving 200 patients. Goldwater CEO Victor Riches said those were only the individuals who informed his organization about their success using the law. Riches said Goldwater crafts legislation it sees a need for in Arizona, where it's based. It then considers the “exportability” of its model legislation to other states, he said. Goldwater’s strategy for Right to Try was to get it passed in as many states as possible to pressure Congress to enact a version, Riches said. “When you are in 41 states and you've had literally thousands of legislators, Democrats and Republicans alike, it is hard for the federal government not to take notice,” he said. It’s even harder to pin down what problem the American Laws for American Courts bill is solving. The model bill, which was introduced in legislatures 53 times during the past eight years, mandates judges' rulings be void if based on a foreign law or doctrine that violates the rights granted to U.S. citizens under the Constitution or state law. Even backers struggle to identify situations where this has occurred. “This is a solution looking for a problem,” said Ahmed Abdelnaby, an engineer who testified against the bill last year at the Idaho Legislature because he felt it fomented hate against his Muslim faith. While proponents are unable to cite court cases where U.S. law has been supplanted by Sharia or some other doctrine, those lobbying for it collected about $206 million in donations between 2008 and 2013, according to a study released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations and University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Race and Gender. “They wouldn’t be doing it if they weren’t making a buck,” said Robert McCaw, government relations director for CAIR. Minnesota state Rep. Steve Drazkowski, who co-sponsored similar legislation in 2016, said some people fear Sharia law will be applied in the U.S., but he does not. Drazkowski also pushed a bill in 2011 to declare English as the official language of Minnesota and prohibit conducting routine business in foreign languages, including driver’s license exams. The bill was strikingly similar to model legislation by a group called ProEnglish, which calls itself the “nation's leading advocate for official English.” The Saint Paul Pioneer Press editorialized that Drazkowski was using it to ensure his reelection by “pandering to the mostly conservative and card-carrying residents of … the paranoid states of America.” Drazkowski said he is aware of ProEnglish but couldn’t remember where he got the language for his English-only bill. “The use of these model bills is not the end of the world,” he said, noting that immigrants are more successful when they learn English. “The idea that one organization or group is somehow controlling legislation or legislators or states, that’s a fallacy.” For Susan Edwards, it seemed like a godsend when Arizona lawmakers introduced a bill to create a new kind of school voucher for students with disabilities. With the money – funded by dollars taken from a recipient’s local district school – the mother of two children on the autism spectrum could send her kids to a private school where they would receive specialized attention they wouldn’t get elsewhere. With a sympathetic group of students as the face of the legislation, Democrats and Republicans rallied behind the 2011 bill which borrowed language from the Goldwater Institute, ALEC, and American Federation for Children, the pro-school choice group founded by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Edwards’ opinion of the program, however, changed drastically as legislators later introduced bill after bill to give vouchers to more students, culminating in lawmakers approving them for all students. None of those bills, however, guaranteed Edwards’ sons and others with disabilities could keep their vouchers as more students were added. She didn’t know it at the time, but lawmakers were drawing their ideas from model legislation. Edwards said she realized in retrospect that students with disabilities were used as a Trojan horse to put on the legislative agenda a fringe idea that was part of a much bigger campaign. In the years that followed, 19 other states debated 93 nearly identical proposals based on model legislation. They became law in Florida, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina and Tennessee. "Every single, little expansion, if you look at who's behind it, it is the people that want to get that door kicked open for private religious education," Edwards said. "All we (families with disabled students) are was the way for them to crack open the door.” Riches, Goldwater's CEO, said starting the Empowerment Scholarship Account voucher program with a small group of students and expanding it was the best approach. "When you are talking about a big idea, a new idea, usually the best way of approaching it is to wade into it and demonstrate it can work on a smaller level and then grow it from there,” Riches said. The groups behind Arizona’s move toward universal vouchers, however, were shown in indisputable terms that the public opposed their ideas. It was only the most recent example of model legislation that didn’t reflect the will of voters, USA TODAY/Arizona Republic found. Model-legislation factories have increasingly proposed what are known as "preemption" bills. These laws, in effect, allow state legislators to dictate to city councils and county governing boards what they can and cannot do within their jurisdiction—including preventing them from raising the minimum wage, banning plastic grocery bags, and destroying guns. USA TODAY’s algorithm found more than 100 such bills had been introduced on an expanding array of topics. Kansas stopped local efforts to require restaurants to list calories on their menus. Arizona and New Hampshire prevented local regulations on home rentals. Airbnb has lobbied against home-sharing restrictions, often with the Goldwater Institute's assistance. One model pushed by ALEC and the Goldwater Institute prohibits local jurisdictions from creating occupational licensing requirements. It reflects conservatives’ and libertarians’ belief that job licensing stifles competition and hurts the economy, and should only be required when it involves health and safety. Drazkowski, the Minnesota representative, said he introduced such a bill “so you don’t have a patchwork kind of discombobulated mess of different ordinances from one community to the next.” But Riches said his group stopped promoting similar model legislation because of the public outcry. “We found very quickly that you bring people out of the woodwork when you try to get rid of occupational licenses,” he said. “What I would refer to as the status-quo crowd.” Goldwater returned with another that allows anyone who's been harmed by occupational regulation to sue for damages, including harm that occurred before the law was enacted. It was introduced in at least five states and passed in Arizona. But Riches acknowledged no one has used it to file suit, and the only beneficiary he can point to is a person with ties to the administration of Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a vocal supporter of occupational licensing restrictions. Because preemption bills have almost exclusively been advanced by Republicans, many of whom rail against the excessive mandates of Washington, D.C., critics see such legislation as the height of hypocrisy. "There's real ... hypocrisy in many of these so-called conservative legislators trying to rip away local control when they preached for years that a government that's closest to you ... is most responsive to you," said Dawn Penich-Thacker, who campaigned to overturn Arizona's school-voucher expansion with a public vote. Penich-Thacker saw a similar disregard for the will of voters when within hours of Arizonans’ vote to overturn universal school vouchers, the Goldwater Institute and American Federation Children declared they would continue to feed their model proposals to state lawmakers. Bills to modify Arizona's voucher program were soon introduced. One bore a striking resemblance to model legislation from the Heartland Institute, granting vouchers to any parent who feels their child is unsafe or being bullied at school. Edwards, the voucher supporter-turned opponent, noted that just like the first Arizona bill granting vouchers to children with disabilities, Bolick had sympathetic victims—kids who'd been bullied—to help sell her bill. “It really does seem like you are fighting against the tide,” Edwards said of the influence of model legislation and the groups behind it. “They are ignoring the vote of the people.” A letter to the editor appeared in The Arizona Republic defending renewed efforts to expand the voucher program despite defeat at the ballot box. The letter’s author, Scott Kaufman, wasn’t a concerned parent, or even an Arizona resident. He had sent his letter from the Washington, D.C., suburbs, from a model-bill factory: the American Legislative Exchange Council. | null | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DrudgeReportFeed/~3/ZeVhrCd_ayc/ | 2019-04-04 19:31:39+00:00 | 1,554,420,699 | 1,567,544,090 | education | religious education |
195,500 | fivethirtyeight--2019-12-12--Millennials Are Leaving Religion And Not Coming Back | 2019-12-12T00:00:00 | fivethirtyeight | Millennials Are Leaving Religion And Not Coming Back | Millennials have earned a reputation for reshaping industries and institutions — shaking up the workplace, transforming dating culture, and rethinking parenthood. They’ve also had a dramatic impact on American religious life. Four in ten millennials now say they are religiously unaffiliated, according to the Pew Research Center. In fact, millennials (those between the ages of 23 and 38) are now almost as likely to say they have no religion as they are to identify as Christian. . For a long time, though, it wasn’t clear whether this youthful defection from religion would be temporary or permanent. It seemed possible that as millennials grew older, at least some would return to a more traditional religious life. But there’s mounting evidence that today’s younger generations may be leaving religion for good. Social science research has long suggested that Americans’ relationship with religion has a tidal quality — people who were raised religious find themselves drifting away as young adults, only to be drawn back in when they find spouses and begin to raise their own families. Some argued that young adults just hadn’t yet been pulled back into the fold of organized religion, especially since they were hitting major milestones like marriage and parenthood later on. But now many millennials have spouses, children and mortgages — and there’s little evidence of a corresponding surge in religious interest. A new national survey from the American Enterprise Institute of more than 2,500 Americans found a few reasons why millennials may not return to the religious fold. (One of the authors of this article helped conduct the survey.) • For one thing, many millennials never had strong ties to religion to begin with, which means they were less likely to develop habits or associations that make it easier to return to a religious community. • Young adults are also increasingly likely to have a spouse who is nonreligious, which may help reinforce their secular worldview. • Changing views about the relationship between morality and religion also appear to have convinced many young parents that religious institutions are simply irrelevant or unnecessary for their children. Millennials may be the symbols of a broader societal shift away from religion, but they didn’t start it on their own. Their parents are at least partly responsible for a widening generational gap in religious identity and beliefs; they were more likely than previous generations to raise their children without any connection to organized religion. According to the AEI survey, 17 percent of millennials said that they were not raised in any particular religion compared with only five percent of Baby Boomers. And fewer than one in three (32 percent) millennials say they attended weekly religious services with their family when they were young, compared with about half (49 percent) of Baby Boomers. A parent’s religious identity (or lack thereof) can do a lot to shape a child’s religious habits and beliefs later in life. A 2016 Pew Research Center study found that regardless of the religion, those raised in households in which both parents shared the same religion still identified with that faith in adulthood. For instance, 84 percent of people raised by Protestant parents are still Protestant as adults. Similarly, people raised without religion are less apt to look for it as they grow older — that same Pew study found that 63 percent of people who grew up with two religiously unaffiliated parents were still nonreligious as adults. But one finding in the survey signals that even millennials who grew up religious may be increasingly unlikely to return to religion. In the 1970s, most nonreligious Americans had a religious spouse and often, that partner would draw them back into regular religious practice. But now, a growing number of unaffiliated Americans are settling down with someone who isn’t religious — a process that may have been accelerated by the sheer number of secular romantic partners available, and the rise of online dating. Today, 74 percent of unaffiliated millennials have a nonreligious partner or spouse, while only 26 percent have a partner who is religious. Luke Olliff, a 30-year-old man living in Atlanta, says that he and his wife gradually shed their religious affiliations together. “My family thinks she convinced me to stop going to church and her family thinks I was the one who convinced her,” he said. “But really it was mutual. We moved to a city and talked a lot about how we came to see all of this negativity from people who were highly religious and increasingly didn’t want a part in it.” This view is common among young people. A majority (57 percent) of millennials agree that religious people are generally less tolerant of others, compared to only 37 percent of Baby Boomers. Young adults like Olliff are also less likely to be drawn back to religion by another important life event — having children. For much of the country’s history, religion was seen as an obvious resource for children’s moral and ethical development. But many young adults no longer see religion as a necessary or even desirable component of parenting. Less than half (46 percent) of millennials believe it is necessary to believe in God to be moral. They’re also much less likely than Baby Boomers to say that it’s important for children to be brought up in a religion so they can learn good values (57 percent vs. 75 percent). These attitudes are reflected in decisions about how young adults are raising their children. 45 percent of millennial parents say they take them to religious services and 39 percent say they send them to Sunday school or a religious education program. Baby Boomers, by contrast, were significantly more likely to send their children to Sunday school (61 percent) and to take them to church regularly (58 percent). Mandie, a 32-year-old woman living in southern California and who asked that her last name not be used, grew up going to church regularly but is no longer religious. She told us she’s not convinced a religious upbringing is what she’ll choose for her one-year-old child. “My own upbringing was religious, but I’ve come to believe you can get important moral teachings outside religion,” she said. “And in some ways I think many religious organizations are not good models for those teachings.” Why does it matter if millennials’ rupture with religion turns out to be permanent? For one thing, religious involvement is associated with a wide variety of positive social outcomes like increased interpersonal trust and civic engagement that are hard to reproduce in other ways. And this trend has obvious political implications. As we wrote a few months ago, whether people are religious is increasingly tied to — and even driven by — their political identities. For years, the Christian conservative movement has warned about a tide of rising secularism, but research has suggested that the strong association between religion and the Republican Party may actually be fueling this divide. And if even more Democrats lose their faith, that will only exacerbate the acrimonious rift between secular liberals and religious conservatives. “At that critical moment when people are getting married and having kids and their religious identity is becoming more stable, Republicans mostly do still return to religion — it’s Democrats that aren’t coming back,” said Michele Margolis, author of “From the Politics to the Pews: How Partisanship and the Political Environment Shape Religious Identity.” in an interview for our September story. Of course, millennials’ religious trajectory isn’t set in stone — they may yet become more religious as they age. But it’s easier to return to something familiar later in life than to try something completely new. And if millennials don’t return to religion and instead begin raising a new generation with no religious background, the gulf between religious and secular America may grow even deeper. | Daniel Cox | https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/millennials-are-leaving-religion-and-not-coming-back/ | Thu, 12 Dec 2019 11:00:38 +0000 | 1,576,166,438 | 1,576,153,225 | education | religious education |
225,002 | frontpagemagazine--2019-01-17--Media Attacks VP Pence039s Wife for Working at a Christian School | 2019-01-17T00:00:00 | frontpagemagazine | Media Attacks V.P. Pence's Wife for Working at a Christian School | It's not just Senator Kamala Harris, the Democrats have swung into an open war on religion under the guise of social justice. Take today's attack on Karen Pence for working as an art teacher at a Christian school. Or as the hysterical HuffPo headline has it, "Karen Pence Is Working At A School That Bans LGBTQ Employees And Kids ". The Washington Post, the Daily Beast and other social justice clickbait tabloids joined in the hate. Their problem is that the school is religious. And [has the expected](https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/16/karen-pence- christian-school-1104090) moral code of a religious educational institution. > In Immanuel Christian School's "parent agreement," it states that the school can refuse admission to an applicant "if the atmosphere or conduct within a particular home, the activities of a parent or guardian, or the activities of the student are counter to, or are in opposition to, the biblical lifestyle the school teaches." > > The agreement also lists disqualifying qualifications, including "heterosexual activity outside of marriage (e.g., premarital sex, cohabitation, extramarital sex), homosexual or lesbian sexual activity, polygamy, transgender identity, any other violation of the unique roles of male and female, sexual harassment, use or viewing of pornographic material or websites, and sexual abuse or improprieties toward minors as defined by Scripture and federal or state law.” In sum, what the United States and the West considered basic morality for quite a few centuries. Karen's school isn't telling people outside it what to do. It is creating a "safe space" for religious people to live out their values. This isn't Moral Majority stuff. Instead it's the Left that is going to war against people who have religious values. This is the same phenomenon as the attack on Orthodox Jewish schools and Catholic schools in New York[ that I wrote about earlier.](https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272379/send-your-son-leftist- school-or-government-will-daniel-greenfield) The Left used its control of culture war to win the culture war. But it isn't stopping or slowing down. And it's working to outlaw religion as a way of life. | Daniel Greenfield | https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/272574/media-attacks-vp-pences-wife-working-christian-daniel-greenfield | 2019-01-17 05:13:00+00:00 | 1,547,719,980 | 1,567,552,122 | education | religious education |
228,160 | globalresearch--2019-02-21--Education and the Capitalist Myth of Equality of Opportunity | 2019-02-21T00:00:00 | globalresearch | Education and the Capitalist Myth of Equality of Opportunity | We commit a big fallacy when we assume that our educational accomplishments are our individual achievements. We like to believe that we are born with a certain innate talent that makes us intellectually superior to all the rest. But the fact of the matter is that our innate talents aren’t all that different. Some people are born with genes that make them grow to being six-feet tall, whereas others are a few inches shorter; these are all minor differences of genetics, nevertheless. The difference of innate intelligence amongst people belonging to all races is quite similar. It’s our environment, family, culture and educational institutions which are primarily responsible for our cognitive abilities and critical faculties. In this regard, capitalism works like outdated monarchy: a person born in a rich and educated family is by default a prince; he has access to all the modes of learning: such as parental guidance, best educational institutions, books, libraries and internet; peer pressure as a motivation, and intellectual discussions and debates with well-informed teachers, family members and close friends further hone one’s cognitive abilities. A poor peasant, on the other hand, lacks the wherewithal to educate himself and his children to that level. Thus, when the neoliberals blame the uneducated for their lack of education, they are actually blaming the victims for their misfortunes. They ought to blame the structural injustices and the capitalist system which engenders social stratification and consequent inequality of educational opportunities. It bears mentioning, however, that I’ve written this article in the context of the Third World’s stratified educational systems where we have markedly different educational institutions that impart elementary education to the children of the elite and the masses. The public schools of the developed world provide quality education to all the citizens, irrespective of their social class, because in a country like the UK, the budgetary allocation for public education is more than $50 billion for a population of 65 million, while in a Third World country, like Pakistan, the education budget is roughly $5 billion for a population of more than 200 million. Thus, equality of opportunity, which is directly linked to the equality of education, has been ensured in the developed world, but not in the Third World. In the Third World developing countries, especially in Pakistan, there are four distinct types of educational institutions that impart elementary education to citizens: Firstly: The elite English-medium schools that offer courses in O/A Levels, and Junior and Senior Cambridge. The quality of education in such institutions is quite good, but their tuition fee and other expenses are so exorbitant that only the upper middle class can admit their children in such schools. Secondly: The Urdu-medium public and private sector schools that cater to the educational needs of the children of the middle and lower middle classes. Though such institutions are often misrepresented as “English-medium,” because the textbooks are in English, the lingua franca in such schools is generally Urdu; and their quality of education is average, at best. Thirdly: The government schools that are run by the provincial education departments. The tuition fee in such schools is quite nominal and so is the standard of education that they impart. Such institutions cater to the educational needs of the children of the poor classes. Fourthly: The religious seminaries, or madrassas, that are funded by the Islamic charities and endowments, and that impart religious education to the children of the poorest of the poor. These petrodollars-funded madrassas offer the kind of incentives which are lacking even in government schools, like free boarding and lodging, meals for the poor students, free of cost books and stationery; and some generously funded madrassas even give monthly stipends to their students. The poor folk who admit their children in madrassas, in a way, outsource the upbringing of their children to the madrassas; because, for all practical purposes, such children are raised by religious clerics. Regardless, in today’s complex world, without education, people are not equipped to survive. For instance: if I go to China and I don’t understand the Chinese language, I’ll be needing a tour guide with me all the time. Similarly, those of us who can’t read and write, they can survive due to their traditional social networks in villages, but not in modern cities. And the innumerate who can’t do math, they cannot succeed in business. If you want to register a property or a vehicle to your name, and you don’t know the law and the understanding of how the system works, you can run into a lot of trouble. Therefore, education is imperative for survival in today’s complex world. Biological evolution is based on the cardinal principle of natural selection and the survival of the fittest; thus, fitness to the environment is the only law that ensures our survival. But that fitness is bestowed upon us by nature; and like I have argued earlier, that in today’s complex, man-made world, every newborn child is unfit to survive until he gets proper education. More to the point, the lack of fitness of an individual, or a social group, is not their fault, it is the fault of the society as a whole. If you are fortunate enough to have been born in upper middle class family, by default you will be equipped with all the necessary tools that are required for survival and progress; but if you have not been properly educated to understand and deal with today’s complex modern societies, then you will remain an unfit peasant. Finally, and in a nutshell, equality of opportunity, which is the fundamental axiom of the modern egalitarian worldview, is directly linked to the equality of education, or at least, the equality of educational opportunities. In the capitalist neoliberal societies of the Third World, however, only the children of the upper classes get proper education which is essential for upward social mobility, whereas the children of the masses get barely sufficient education which might be enough for becoming clerks and technicians, but as far as honing one’s cognitive abilities and critical faculties are concerned, their optimal potential is not realized. Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc. Nauman Sadiq is an Islamabad-based attorney, columnist and geopolitical analyst focused on the politics of Af-Pak and Middle East regions, neocolonialism and petro-imperialism. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research. | Nauman Sadiq | https://www.globalresearch.ca/education-and-the-capitalist-myth-of-equality-of-opportunity/5669198 | 2019-02-21 14:10:17+00:00 | 1,550,776,217 | 1,567,547,753 | education | religious education |
228,280 | globalresearch--2019-02-27--Does Pakistan Have the Capability to Eradicate Terrorism | 2019-02-27T00:00:00 | globalresearch | Does Pakistan Have the Capability to Eradicate Terrorism? | Not only Washington, but Pakistan’s “all-weather ally” China, which plans to invest $62 billion in Pakistan via its China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects, has also made its reservations public regarding Pakistan’s continued support to jihadist groups. Thus, excluding a handful of far-right Islamist political parties that are funded by the Gulf’s petro-dollars and historically garner less than 10% votes of Pakistan’s electorate, all the civilian political forces are in favor of turning a new leaf in Pakistan’s checkered political history by endorsing the policy of an indiscriminate crackdown on militant outfits operating in Pakistan. But Pakistan’s security establishment jealously guards its traditional domain, the security and foreign policy of Pakistan, and still maintains a distinction between the so-called “good and bad Taliban.” Regarding Pakistan’s duplicitous stance on terrorism, it’s worth noting that there are three distinct categories of militants operating in Pakistan: the Afghanistan-focused Pashtun militants; the Kashmir-focused Punjabi militants; and foreign transnational terrorists, including the Arab militants of al-Qaeda, the Uzbek insurgents of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and the Chinese Uighur jihadists of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). Compared to tens of thousands of native Pashtun and Punjabi militants, the foreign transnational terrorists number only in a few hundred and are hence inconsequential. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is mainly comprised of Pashtun militants, carries out bombings against Pakistan’s state apparatus. The ethnic factor is critical here. Although the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) like to couch their rhetoric in religious terms, but it is the difference of ethnicity and language that enables them to recruit Pashtun tribesmen who are willing to carry out subversive activities against the Punjabi-dominated state apparatus, while the Kashmir-focused Punjabi militants have by and large remained loyal to their patrons in the security agencies of Pakistan. Although Pakistan’s security establishment has been willing to conduct military operations against the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), which are regarded as a security threat to Pakistan’s state apparatus, as far as the Kashmir-focused Punjabi militants, including the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, and the Afghanistan-focused Quetta Shura Taliban, including the Haqqani network, are concerned, they are still enjoying impunity because such militant groups are regarded as “strategic assets” by Pakistan’s security agencies. Regarding the question does Pakistan have the capability to eliminate terrorism from its soil, Pakistan is evidently a police state whose civic and political life is completely dominated by military and affiliated security agencies. In order to bring home the military’s absolute control over Pakistan’s politics, an eye-opening incident that occurred last November is worth noting. On the evening of November 2, Maulana Sami-ul-Haq was found dead in his Rawalpindi residence. The assassination was as gruesome as the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul a month earlier on October 2. He was stabbed multiple times in chest, stomach and forehead. Sami-ul-Haq was widely known as the “Godfather of the Taliban” because he was a renowned religious cleric who used to administer a sprawling religious seminary, Darul Uloom Haqqania, in Akora Khattak in northwestern Pakistan. During the Soviet-Afghan War in the 1980s, the seminary was used for training and arming the Afghan jihadists, though it is now used exclusively for imparting religious education. Many of the well-known Taliban militant commanders received their education in the seminary. In order to understand the motive of the assassination, we need to keep the backdrop in mind. On October 31, Pakistan’s apex court acquitted a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, who was accused of blasphemy and had been languishing in prison since 2010. Pakistan’s religious political parties were holding street protests against her acquittal for several days before Sami-ul-Haq’s murder and had paralyzed the whole country. But as soon as the news of Sami-ul-Haq’s murder broke and the pictures of the badly mutilated corpse were released to the media, the religious political parties promptly reached an agreement with the government and called off the protests within few hours of the assassination. Evidently, it was a shot across the bow by Pakistan’s security establishment to the religious right that evokes a scene from Francis Ford Coppola’s epic movie The Godfather, in which an expensive racehorse’s severed head was placed into a Hollywood director’s bed on Don Corleone’s orders that frightened the director out of his wits and he agreed to give a lead role in a movie to the Don’s protégé. The entire leadership of the religious political parties that spearheaded the campaign against the release of Asia Bibi and hundreds of their political workers have been put behind the bars on the charge of “disturbing the public order” since the assassination. In the manner thousands of religious protesters who had been demonstrating against her acquittal were treated by the security agencies brings to the fore the fact that Pakistan’s military wields absolute control over its jihadist proxies. Thus, cracking down on terrorist outfits operating in Pakistan, particularly on Kashmir-focused Punjabi militant groups, is not a question of capacity but of will. What further lends credence to the conclusion that Pakistan’s security establishment was behind the murder of Sami-ul-Haq is the fact that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a close associate of the Taliban’s founder Mullah Omar, was released by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies in October and was allowed to join his family in Afghanistan. Baradar was captured in a joint US-Pakistan intelligence-based operation in the southern port city of Karachi in 2010. His release was a longstanding demand of the US-backed Kabul government because he is regarded as a comparatively moderate Taliban leader who could play a role in the peace process between the Afghan government and the Taliban. He is currently leading the Taliban delegation in the negotiations with the US Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad in the capital of Qatar, Doha. Furthermore, Washington has been arm-twisting Islamabad through the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to do more to curtail the activities of militants operating from its soil to destabilize the US-backed government in Afghanistan and to pressure the Taliban to initiate a peace process with the government. Under such circumstances, a religious cleric like Sami-ul-Haq, who was widely known as the “Godfather of the Taliban,” becomes a liability rather than an asset. | Nauman Sadiq | https://www.globalresearch.ca/pakistan-terrorism/5669887 | 2019-02-27 14:17:43+00:00 | 1,551,295,063 | 1,567,547,100 | education | religious education |
289,926 | lifesitenews--2019-10-11--Beto O’Rourke pledges to penalize churches that oppose gay ‘marriage’ | 2019-10-11T00:00:00 | lifesitenews | Beto O’Rourke pledges to penalize churches that oppose gay ‘marriage’ | LOS ANGELES, October 11, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) -- Robert “Beto” O’Rourke, a Catholic and presidential candidate for the Democratic party, called for churches and religious institutions to lose their tax-exempt status if they oppose same-sex “marriage.” Joining other Democratic candidates in defending their respective LGBTQ platform stances on Thursday evening during a CNN televised town hall, O’Rourke said, “There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone … that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us.” As the audience cheered, O’Rourke continued, saying, “And so as president, we are going to make that a priority, and we are going to stop those who are infringing upon the human rights of our fellow Americans.” At the CNN LGBTQ Equality town hall, co-sponsored by the pro-LGBTQ Human Rights Campaign, O’Rourke also said that efforts to help people overcome unwanted same-sex attractions, dubbed as “conversion therapy” by critics, “should be illegal" because it is "tantamount to torture" of children. "We will ensure that there are penalties stiff enough, enforcement vigorous enough to make sure it does not continue,” he added. O’Rourke took a step further in the direction of stripping churches and charities if they oppose same-sex “marriage” than Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ). When asked what he would do as president, Booker said there would be “consequences” for churches and religious institutions, stopping short of ending tax-exemptions. He did not say outright whether they would lose their exemption status. When asked whether “religious education institutions should lose their tax-exempt status if they oppose LGBTQ rights,” the senator replied: “We must stand up as a nation to stay that religion cannot be an excuse to deny people health insurance, education, or more,” apparently broadening the issue to include private employers. “You cannot discriminate, he said, “….I’m going to make sure that I hold them accountable.” Conservative Republican and former business executive Herman Cain tweeted on Friday, “Does your church preach the Gospel? Then Beto O’Rourke wants to take away it’s tax-exemption.” LEMON: Let's talk about something that also doesn't get enough coverage, and it's controversial, and I'm talking about conversion therapy, which is a widely discredited practice that seeks to change a person's sexual orientation or possibly their gender identity. LEMON: Should this be illegal? And if it is illegal, what should the punishment be? O'ROURKE: It should be illegal. As president we will seek to outlaw it everywhere in this country. In my opinion, this is tantamount to torture, a torture that we're visiting on children who are absolutely defenseless. And so we're going to make sure that whatever the penalty is, it is steep enough to dissuade anybody from entering into this practice or being able to torture kids with the kind of impunity that we have seen so far. And we're also going to recognize that these kind of practices, in addition to the immediate torture that that child or that person feels, also adds to other challenges that we have. When we look at homeless youth in America, 40 percent identify as LGBTQ in America right now. When we look at those who age out of the foster care system right now, some of them subject to these conversion therapy practices, their outcomes in life are not what they should be in part because of the practices that we've allowed so far. So, yes, we will outlaw it, and, yes, we will ensure that there are penalties stiff enough, enforcement vigorous enough to make sure that it does not continue. LEMON: Let me ask you this. At the center of all -- many of these issues, most of these issues is religion. So, you know, when you say you're going to do laws, you're going to -- how do you change people's minds about religion? Because that's what's really telling people, preaching to young people that they're wrong, that what they are is an abomination, that they're not supposed to be the way that God created them. So how do you deal with that? O'ROURKE: What does that do to your head and your conception of yourself and what you think is possible for you in your life when someone has labeled you as defective or less than? Not only is that terrible for you, it is terrible for all of us in this country and the potential that we are losing out on right now. I remember in the El Paso City Council -- this was more than 10 years ago -- we wrote an ordinance, passed it, that offered health care benefits to the same-sex partners of city employees, very controversial idea at the time. And your question about religion, I was born and raised a Catholic, and there was a Catholic priest at the lectern during the call to the public telling me that what I was doing was welcoming an abomination to God. And he and I really got into it at that podium, a very politically unpopular position for us to take in the council. It sparked recall elections and citizen-driven petitions. But I knew it was the right thing to do, not just for those city employees, but for any child who is reading the newspaper, watching TV, or who wanted to know what those in positions of power and public trust thought about them. And what we were saying from the El Paso City Council is you're every bit as important, every bit as valuable, every bit as much an American and a human being as anyone else and we're going to treat you the same as everybody else. So defying the religious condemnation that I received from a Catholic priest, as a lifelong Catholic, defying the polls and the politics of the moment, and just doing the right thing because it was the right thing to do. Allow the politics to catch up. That's my philosophy. | null | https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/beto-orourke-pledges-to-penalize-churches-that-oppose-gay-marriage | 2019-10-11T17:20:00+00:00 | 1,570,828,800 | 1,570,831,347 | education | religious education |
332,483 | nationalreview--2019-09-23--Will the Supreme Court Nix Montanas Anti-Catholic Blaine Amendment | 2019-09-23T00:00:00 | nationalreview | Will the Supreme Court Nix Montana’s Anti-Catholic ‘Blaine Amendment’? | School choice and religious liberty are on the docket. As a second-grader, Raelyn Sukhbir used to cry every night. She was being bullied “unmercifully” in the public school she was attending. Life at home was miserable because the poor girl was so anxious and despondent — which had her parents worried about how bad things might be all the rest of the time, when she wasn’t home. Raelyn “did not want to be around other kids and was clingy whenever we would visit friends,” her mother told lawyer Andrea Picciotti-Bayer. “She did not want to participate in any activities or sports.” Her father, a retired army veteran who was injured in Afghanistan, talked to the teachers and administrators, but there was no improvement. Brittany and Kyle Sukhbir had heard good things about the nearby St. Mary’s Catholic school — that it had a “zero tolerance policy” against bullying. Picciotti-Bayer writes that “the Sukhbirs did not think that they could afford private school, but the daily bullying simply became too much for Raelyn to bear.” They contacted the school just before Christmas, and Raelyn spent a day trying on the school. “Every single teacher knew her name, and every student was excited to meet Raelyn and play with her,” her mother said. Two years later, the girl is transformed. She’s not shy and reserved anymore, but outgoing. She fully participates in the life of the school, including sports. “St. Mary’s is teaching self-confidence and kindness,” her mother reports. She’s thriving academically, and even the Sukhbirs’ family life is better. “Now that Raelyn is no longer crying when she comes home from school, we can really enjoy being together,” Brittany says. Brittany works as an office manager at a local physical-therapy clinic, and Kyle works in North Dakota on an oil field two weeks of every month. Their combined salaries would not cover tuition for Raelyn, now eight, and their son, five-year-old Wyatt. She used to think that “St. Mary’s was only for rich kids,” she says. “But I now know that that is 100 percent not the case.” Knowledge of tuition assistance from the school or other widely available helps from private and public sources could help save other families from similar situations. “My kid would not be the kid she is today if we did not have the scholarship supports to send her to St. Mary’s,” Brittany notes. Raelyn “really has flourished into an amazing child.” Piccioti-Bayer interviewed Brittany Sukhbir and other parents of children benefiting from tuition assistance, for an amicus brief just filed at the U.S. Supreme Court by the Catholic Association Foundation. The brief is in support of a challenge to a decision by the Montana supreme court that religious schools cannot benefit from public tuition aids — not even from tax credits for people donating to private scholarship funds. (The Institute for Justice is representing moms of Montana.) The case, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Taxation, has the potential to remove the anti-Catholic Blaine amendments that remain in many state constitutions. Such a decision could change children’s lives in America. Other parents profiled by Piccioti-Bayer include Christina and Justin Schye, who had sent three children to public schools. Their nine-year-old with Down syndrome needed something else, they concluded. His public-school situation was “traumatic.” By contrast, when he went to St. Francis school, some eighth-grade boys would wait for Kellan’s arrival every morning, giving him “hugs and high-fives” as he entered school. He was immediately a welcome part of the community, and his needs were attended to. If he needed extra time, including time for eating lunch, he would get it. School staff and families of students rallied for him when he competed in this first Special Olympics. (The teacher arranged the transportation, and parents even chipped in to get pizza for him and for all the three second-grade classes who came to cheer him on.) The flexibility and love at St. Francis for Kellan is a “huge blessing” for the whole Schye family. “We have peace of mind now that Kellan is where he belongs,” his mother says. Some but not all of the parents Piccioti-Bayer interviewed are Catholic. Catholic schools serve all. In some settings, such as Montana, the students are mostly non-Catholic. Parents choose these schools because of they are staffed by educators with a missionary, vocational approach. The families Piccioti-Bayer talked with experienced religious education as the leaven it is — communities where human dignity is respected and served in gratitude for the gift of life. It worth a prayer not only that this case winds up a win for religious liberty and school choice — for families across the country who shouldn’t be deprived of giving their children the best chance at a good life — but that it is a reinvigoration of Catholic education and our collective need for it. In their book Lost Classroom, Lost Community: Catholic Schools’ Importance in Urban America (2014), Notre Dame law professors Margaret F. Brinig and Nicole Stelle Garnett make the case that, statistically, when a Catholic school closes, social capital, “the web of connections and trust between people,” declines. Catholic schools have been closing, and we see the deterioration in our culture. Let’s do everything we can to ensure that families have access to the good ones in operation. A Supreme Court win here for these Montana families would be no small dose of hope for family life, freedom, and the health of our nation. This column is based on one available through Andrews McMeel Universal’s Newspaper Enterprise Association. | Kathryn Jean Lopez | https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/supreme-court-case-anti-catholic-blaine-amendments/ | 2019-09-23 10:30:39+00:00 | 1,569,249,039 | 1,570,222,396 | education | religious education |
340,176 | newsbusters--2019-01-18--Pentagon Reporter Compares Extremist Pence to Farrakhan KKK | 2019-01-18T00:00:00 | newsbusters | Pentagon Reporter Compares ‘Extremist’ Pence to Farrakhan, KKK | The Mr. & Mrs. Mike Pence hate train has been receiving quite a few guests onboard in the last week, what with Huffington Post and several CNN anchors insisting that the Second Lady is a homophobic bigot for working at a devout Christian school. Now that VP Mike Pence has come to her defense, more lefties are calling him an “extremist” who exists in the same camp as actual hate-peddlers like Louis Farrakhan and the Ku Klux Klan. Kevin Baron, Pentagon reporter and executive editor of Atlantic Media site Defense One continued the anti-Pence fever on Friday afternoon with a series of tweets blasting Mike Pence and his wife as religious “extremists” existing on the “fringes” of society. Baron trashed Pence’s statements from an interview with EWTN reporter Lauren Ashburn, during which he defended his wife and his Christian faith, which have come under another wave of nasty lefty insults. Pence told Ashburn, “To see major news organizations attacking Christian education is deeply offensive to us. I mean we have a rich tradition in America of Christian education, and frankly religious education broadly defined. We celebrate it. The freedom of religion is enshrined in the constitution.” Well to Baron, all of those self-evident truths presumably induce some intense eye-rolling. “Rich history” be damned, the reporter characterized the Vice President’s rhetoric as “extremist” and tweeted, “Pence’s double standard is pretty basic. Praises ‘moderate’ Islam but practices extremist Christianity.” Concerning the “Islam” comment, Baron was referring to a 2017 statement of Pence’s, in which the Vice President praised Indonesian Islam for its efforts to promote “peace” and a more “unified” nation. One can presume that Baron’s observation of a double standard involves seeing Pence praise a version Islam that doesn’t maim ideological dissenters, while worshipping a God Who teaches that homosexuality is not a natural lifestyle. Clearly there’s an appropriate distinction here on Pence’s part, but for lefty ideologues like Baron, not celebrating homosexual acts is tantamount to throwing homosexuals off of parapets, etc. It’s this kind of unwieldy logic that’s tearing America’s social fabric apart, but such is a small price to pay in order to be able to throw playground insults at your political enemies. Still, Baron wasn’t finished. Instead of just pointing out some fallacy on the Pence’s part, the reporter couldn’t resist stooping low in order to equate the vice president and his wife (and Jerry Fallwell Jr., for good measure) with some of the lowest dregs of society He tweeted: “So, America is great because even extremists like the KKK and Fallwell [sic] and Farrakhan get to exist on the fringes, as long as they don't hurt anyone. And the rest of us are free to decide whether to adopt their preachings or keep them on fringe, where VP and SLOTUS Pence live”. Real nice. Christians thrown in with murderers, liars, and thieves. It’s one thing to disagree with the Christian stance on sexuality — that’s expected if you want to work in media — but to equate a man who values biblical traditions including forgiveness of enemies and love for the sinner, with one who calls his enemies “satanic” and “termites” to be eradicated, is a whole new hate ballpark. Maybe Baron should start wondering where he stands next to Farrakhan. | Gabriel Hays | https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/gabriel-hays/2019/01/18/pentagon-reporter-compares-extremist-pence-farrakhan-kkk | 2019-01-18 20:30:00+00:00 | 1,547,861,400 | 1,567,551,957 | education | religious education |
349,734 | newspunch--2019-11-06--Satanist Ministry Plans To Teach ‘Tenets Of Satanism’ To Tennessee School Children | 2019-11-06T00:00:00 | newspunch | Satanist Ministry Plans To Teach ‘Tenets Of Satanism’ To Tennessee School Children | A Satanist ‘children’s ministry’ in Tennessee has announced plans to teach the tenets of Satanism to students who don’t want to study the Bible and would prefer to worship the devil. Knox County officials say they are considering a program that will allow students to miss class for Church-sponsored bible study, with local school board members preparing to vote on the proposed program. But the Satanist group responded to the proposal by launching the Satanic Children’s Ministry of Knoxville, because they believe schools should not promote religion, and if they do, all religions should be represented, including devil worship. If Bible Release Time is approved, SCMK plans to implement its own Satanism Release Program for students who don’t want to attend the bible study. Daily Mail report: A spokesperson for the group said in a written statement the organization was legitimate and that between five to 10 children were initially expected to take part if the plan went ahead, but there ‘may be more people interested’ than initially thought. The group, who says five people are on its board, refuses to identify itself ‘due to threats of violence’. The Knox County School Board will vote on the Bible Release Time program in December. The program would fall under a Tennessee statute that excuses students to attend an hour-long released time course in religious moral instruction if authorized by the local school district. ‘We would prefer that the school board vote down any policy written for religious release programs but if they do not, we are prepared to roll out a program,’ a spokesperson for the group told DailyMail.com on Tuesday. ‘We have the financial backing and volunteers needed to make it happen.’ Superintendent Bob Thomas reportedly agreed to a trial run at Sterchi Elementary School after the Elgin Foundation and The Church at Sterchi Hills proposed the idea. The Elgin Foundation already sponsors several bible release programs across East Tennessee, including in Anderson, Roane, Scott and Union counties. ‘We just educate churches and schools in the legality of it,’ Executive Director Tim Rogers told WVLT. ‘We ask schools to just simply accommodate schools parents who would participate in that.’ In a statement announcing its answer to the bible program, SCMK said: ‘The Elgin Foundation and The Church at Sterchi Hills will broadcast that their program is “opt-in” and children do not have to attend. They do not announce that their goals are to promote proselytization in our public classrooms by teaching children to do this for them. ‘They will send the kids back with toys, candy, and propaganda to help them achieve these goals. This creates problems in the classroom not just for us as Satanists but also any Muslim, Jewish, Hindu or atheist child in the classroom as the children involved in the Bible Release Time are taught to challenge the beliefs of their classmates and promote that their god is the one true god. ‘We do not send our children to schools to be converted by outside religious organizations. We send them to get a state-approved education.’ The statement continued: ‘Satanic Children’s Ministry would prefer not to introduce our own program. We do believe in separation of church and state; however, if another religion is allowed to introduce a program to indoctrinate children, we feel the need to step up and ensure our children have their own program to attend. ‘Our children would already be losing precious instructional time due to the schools accommodating Elgin’s program, so we might as well sign them out and allow them to receive their own religious education focusing on the tenets of Satanism. ‘Our preferred outcome is that all parents of Knox Co realize the importance of keeping religion out of public schools completely. ‘It is in the best interest for all children to keep these programs out of school all together and in homes and churches where they belong. They create divisiveness among students based on their religion creating conditions that are optimal for bullying.’ The statement concluded by calling on Knox County residents to contact their local schools and school board representatives about blocking the implementation of release time programs. The SMKC spokesperson told DailyMail.com that many Knox County teachers have expressed support for the organization and its intentions. ‘They may not be for the actual program, but they seem to appreciate the fact that it is shining a light on the problem with allowing one church to have their religious release program in the school,’ the spokesperson said. ‘From our conversations, it sounds like many teachers at Sterchi Elementary are against the program as it takes away from their instruction time. ‘The school completely rearranged the class schedule to make room for The Church at Sterchi Hill’s Bible Release Program and that alone seem like a promotion of a religion within the school. ‘The overwhelming majority of people we have talked to are against a policy allowing release programs, but the principal at Sterchi Elementary and certain school board members – against their constituent’s wishes – are pushing for it.’ SMKC has said that if the bible release program is approved, it fully intends to follow through with its own version. ‘Our goal is to teach children the empathy, compassion, and kindness that the tenets [of the Satanic Temple] promote,’ the spokesperson told DailyMail.com. ‘We initially thought we would just be signing out our own children with this program but amid the outrage, we have learned the interest in our program extends beyond our families.’ SMKC has repeatedly asserted that it is not affiliated with The Satanic Temple or the Church of Satan and said that the majority of its members do not believe in a literal Satan, but see him as a symbol of free thought. The group announced on Thursday that it had filed for 501(c)3 non-profit status. A spokesperson said it would not release the form until the organisation was approved and legally obligated to do so. ‘We need time for the outrage to die down.’ When asked about SMKC’s proposal, Elgin Foundation Executive Director Tim Rogers told DailyMail.com: ‘We trust that the public school boards in our area will respect the right of parents to have their children released from school for religious and moral instruction under the guidelines of state and federal law.’ The Church at Sterchi Hills and Knox County Superintendent Bob Thomas did not immediately return DailyMail.com’s requests for comment. DailyMail.com also reached out to Knox County School Board members about how they plan to vote on the issue. Virginia Babb of District 4 responded: ‘I have never supported the Bible release program and it has nothing to do with the Satanic Ministry wanting to offer their own program. ‘Should a policy be passed allowing for Bible Release than I support any organization who meets the criteria of the program to be able to offer it.’ Other board members did not return request for comment, but WVLT reported that Susan Horn of District 5 and Terry Hill of District 6 are planning to vote to approve the bible program, while Evetty Satterfield of District 1 is undecided. It is unclear which way the remaining five board members are leaning. | Baxter Dmitry | https://newspunch.com/satanist-ministry-plans-teach-tenets-satanism-tennessee-school-children/ | Wed, 06 Nov 2019 21:53:00 +0000 | 1,573,095,180 | 1,573,081,391 | education | religious education |
383,861 | npr--2019-02-11--Turks Examine Their Muslim Devotion After Poll Says Faith Could Be Waning | 2019-02-11T00:00:00 | npr | Turks Examine Their Muslim Devotion After Poll Says Faith Could Be Waning | Turks Examine Their Muslim Devotion After Poll Says Faith Could Be Waning Turkey has been governed for most of the past two decades by a party steeped in political Islam. So when a pollster recently surveyed personal beliefs, there was a finding that stood out: Levels of piety were flat, or even declining, compared with a decade ago. The apparent shift is not seismic, but it has Turks talking about where their country is headed. The survey, by the pollster Konda, is a follow-up to a similar poll in 2008, and the company broke down the results from each side by side to illustrate the comparison. While some see changes a decade later as a natural progression, Turkish analysts say the shift could be a backlash, especially among the young, against a religious president and his push to form what he calls a "pious generation." The percentage-point change for many of the questions is not dramatic: Respondents identifying as "pious" slid from 13 percent in 2008 to 10 percent in 2018, and those choosing "religious" dipped from 55 to 51 percent. Figures for "nonbeliever" and "atheist," which barely registered in 2008, are now at 2 and 3 percent, respectively. There was, however, a significant drop in respondents calling themselves "religious conservative," from 32 to 25 percent. And those who say they fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan declined from 77 to 65 percent. Other social customs could also be changing. According to the poll, the portion of respondents saying a man and a woman should have a religious marriage to live together was still in the large majority, but it fell 5 percentage points to 74 percent. So why does the percentage of self-described faithful seem to be declining at all, even when voters keep re-electing political leaders who infuse their devout Muslim beliefs into their policies? Analysts say President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party started out with a strong focus on the economy, which was a major draw for the electorate. Over time, his administration's use of the state to promote religion became more strident. In an official video in 2017, Erdogan celebrated the booming growth of state-funded Imam Hatip religious schools like the one he attended as a boy. At the time of the video, the schools were teaching some 1.3 million students across Turkey. "From here, the mayors were raised," Erdogan said, adding that "the members of parliament were raised, the ministers and the prime ministers were raised and even the presidents were raised" with a religious education. Busra Cebeci, a 25-year-old journalist, is from a Turkish generation that has had only one leader for most of its members' lives. Erdogan came to power, first as prime minister, in 2003. Speaking to NPR at an Istanbul cafe, Cebeci explained that she was raised to believe a headscarf is proper attire for a Turkish woman and that when she was a teenager, she put it on without protest. But she began to have questions. She recalls practicing for a school performance one hot May afternoon several years ago and worrying about getting overheated. "I remember it was really hot," she says. "So I said to my mom, 'Maybe I should take this scarf off,' and she started yelling at me. I didn't take if off." When she went away to college in Konya, a conservative Turkish city with a large student population, she remembers long talks with her friends about taking off their scarves. Then one day, she made a decision. "I would look in the mirror, and I wasn't seeing myself," she says. "One day I went inside, I took off the scarf and walked out without it. And that was my first day." She says it took two years for her father to speak to her again, but eventually her parents got used to it. The recent lifestyle survey does not suggest a majority are changing their headscarf customs specifically, but it does mark a slight reduction in women who say they wear any head cover at all. Analysts say declining religious behavior in Turkey despite the government's attempts to promote it should not come as a surprise. The government's "very active and costly efforts to promote religiosity" don't appear to be having much effect, Murat Somer, a professor of political science and international relations at Istanbul's Koc University, said in an email to NPR. In general, he said, "government control and state provision of religion usually alienate people from religiosity." While the survey notes a slightly higher portion of respondents who regularly pray, those who say they fast during Ramadan dropped 12 percentage points. Somer says he has also noticed that public religious acts such as attending Friday prayers appear to be continuing steady, while more private acts such as fasting are down. He explains this as religion "becoming more publicly expressive but at the same time more shallow in Turkey." Analyst Soner Cagaptay at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy says just as modern Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, forced post-Ottoman Turkey onto a secular, pro-Western path, Erdogan has elevated Turkish and Ottoman traditions over Western values, and piety over secularism. Erdogan has said he aims to create a "pious generation" that will "work for the construction of a new civilization." That, Cagaptay says, is generating a backlash among young people. "And I think the polls are showing that because Erdogan replaced the power of authority with his own identity of this conservative, religion-loving politician, a lot of young Turks are reacting to it," he says. If these polls indicate a real trend, Cagaptay says, it could mean Erdogan's push to create a more religious Turkey is backfiring. "So I think that Erdogan maybe is ironically making Turkey less religious, when he thought that he would make it more religious with himself on top," he says. Again, that's less religious, not majority secular. "I don't hate Islam," says journalist Cebeci. But she adds, "I haven't become secular because I quit [wearing] the headscarf; I was already becoming secular while still wearing it. My reaction was toward the government policies, trying to create a new, conservative generation — that's what I was against." Cebeci believes a resistance to the push toward piety will continue to grow. She says her decision to take off her own headscarf, for instance, was a result of other women supporting her. "When women show this kind of solidarity, I think it will continue," she says. "A woman who can't find the courage to take off the scarf, if she sees this, she may find the courage to do it." | Peter Kenyon | https://www.npr.org/2019/02/11/692025584/turks-examine-their-muslim-devotion-after-poll-says-faith-could-be-waning?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news | 2019-02-11 12:00:28+00:00 | 1,549,904,428 | 1,567,548,945 | education | religious education |
384,052 | npr--2019-02-20--As Pope Holds Sex Abuse Summit US Catholics Not Hopeful For Bold Moves | 2019-02-20T00:00:00 | npr | As Pope Holds Sex Abuse Summit, U.S. Catholics Not Hopeful For 'Bold Moves' | Pope Francis has called Catholic leaders from around the world to the Vatican this week for a meeting about clergy sexual abuse. **Gregorio Borgia/AP** ****hide caption**** ****toggle caption**** Gregorio Borgia/AP Pope Francis has called Catholic leaders from around the world to the Vatican this week for a meeting about clergy sexual abuse. Gregorio Borgia/AP Never in the history of the Roman Catholic Church has a pope ordered bishops from around the world to come together and consider how many priests abuse children sexually and how many church officials cover for the abusers. The scandal of clergy sex abuse has deep roots in church history, but church leaders have been notoriously reluctant to acknowledge it and deal with the consequences. Not surprisingly, when Pope Francis summoned more than 100 bishops to a meeting in Rome to address the "Protection of Minors in the Church," the announcement raised expectations that it could mark a turning point in the Church's lagging response to the ongoing clergy abuse crisis. The three-day meeting begins Thursday. In the weeks that followed the Pope's announcement, however, U.S. Catholics in particular have become disappointed over [his characterization](https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2019-01 /holy-see-press-office-meeting-protection-minors-communique.html) of the summit as a gathering that will merely feature "prayer and discernment," hardly an ambitious vision for what could have been a momentous event. "That offers little solace to American Catholics who feel their own church is in need of reform," says Kathleen Sprows Cummings, director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame. "I think the bold moves that a lot of people are going to want to see are very unlikely to happen." The scourge of clergy sex abuse became evident in the United States much earlier than in other countries, and U.S. Catholics have progressed further in their determination to deal with the crisis. Under pressure from abuse survivors and their advocates, numerous dioceses have publicly identified hundreds of priests credibly accused of sexual misconduct, in order to warn communities that might otherwise not know of their record. Such scrutiny has extended to U.S. bishops, especially after an [explosive grand jury report](https://www.npr.org/2018/08/14/636855561/report-reveals- widespread-sexual-abuse-by-over-300-priests-in-pa) in 2018 on the abuse of more than 1,000 children by Catholic clergy in Pennsylvania. The report revealed that bishops in the state "weren't just aware of what was going on; they were immersed in it. And they went to great lengths to keep it secret." In response, U.S. bishops prepared a new set of reforms, including the formation of a special commission to review complaints against bishops who fail to take action to prevent abuse. The bishops' plans were thwarted in November, however, when Pope Francis said he wanted to deal with the abuse crisis on a global basis and announced his plans for a summit. "We were ready for some proposals, [but] the proposals were not received well by the Holy See," says Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the archbishop of Houston and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "So we were disappointed. But we continue to work, and we hope the [Rome] meeting will be of help." **Survivors demand action** With Pope Francis taking the reform initiative away from U.S. bishops, he now faces the demands of abuse survivors on his own. One group, Survivors' Network of Those Abused by Priests, drafted [a letter](http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_delivers_letter_to_papal_nuncio_dc_feb19) to the pope demanding action. Having initially focused individually on abusive priests, the group has now redirected its attention to bishops who have allowed priests under their jurisdiction to go unpunished. Clergy abuse survivor Becky Ianni (right) delivers a letter to the Vatican Embassy in Washington, D.C., addressed to Pope Francis. **Tom Gjelten/NPR** ****hide caption**** ****toggle caption**** Tom Gjelten/NPR Clergy abuse survivor Becky Ianni (right) delivers a letter to the Vatican Embassy in Washington, D.C., addressed to Pope Francis. Tom Gjelten/NPR "There must be a zero-tolerance policy not only for the abuser, but for those who enable abuse as well," the group said in its letter. "Those people to me are the bigger criminals," says SNAP board member Becky Ianni, who hand delivered the letter to the Vatican Embassy in Washington, D.C. "They covered up abuse, and they allowed more and more children to be put in harm's way. That breaks my heart." Ianni, who was sexually violated by her family priest as a 9-year-old girl, says she and her fellow survivors never had much faith that U.S. bishops would take effective action on their own. "The pope is in control," she says. "Cardinals and bishops can't control each other, so if something is going to happen, it's going to have to come from Pope Francis." There is scant evidence, however, that the Pope is prepared at this week's summit to propose any new accountability measures directed at bishops or cardinals. "If this meeting were to have any real impact, it would require Pope Francis to come in and lay down the law and say, 'This is what you've got to do. Go home and do it,'" says Father Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and frequent commentator on Vatican developments for the Religion News Service. "But that's just not his personality. He's a pastoral pope. He's not the sheriff of the Catholic Church." **Opportunity for education** Instead, Vatican aides say the pope sees the Rome summit as an opportunity for "catechesis," or religious education, for the bishops in attendance from around the world. "The goal is that all of the bishops clearly understand what they need to do to prevent and combat the worldwide problem of the sexual abuse of minors," [according to Vatican Spokesman](https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican- city/news/2019-01/holy-see-press-office-meeting-protection-minors- communique.html) Alessandro Gisotti. Given that Catholic bishops outside the U.S., especially in the Global South, have lagged in their recognition of the abuse crisis, that goal is likely to mean that American Catholics won't find much satisfaction in the aftermath of the Rome meeting. A suggestion from Cardinal Blase Cupich, the Archbishop of Chicago and one of the summit organizers, that the Catholic leadership in the U.S. should align with other church leaders in the world brought a sharp response from Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org. "This would be a step backwards," Doyle says. "It would undo years of slow but real progress. While the U.S. bishops' norms need improvement, they are by far more effective than the norms of any other bishops' conference we've studied." The U.S. reform agenda in response to the clergy abuse crisis has actually moved beyond demands of the church leadership, with more attention to the role that civil law enforcement might play. Several state attorneys general have initiated their own investigations of abuse cases and are demanding that church authorities turn over relevant records. Against that background, the Rome summit may have minimal importance for efforts in the United States to deal with the clergy abuse crisis. "I would love for the church to commit to saying, 'We're going to find out what happened and come to a reckoning of this,'" says Notre Dame's Kathleen Sprows Cummings. "I don't see that happening, and at this point, I think we have to look to the civil authorities to do that." | Tom Gjelten | https://www.npr.org/2019/02/20/696051008/as-pope-holds-sex-abuse-summit-u-s-catholics-not-hopeful-for-bold-moves?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news | 2019-02-20 13:02:46+00:00 | 1,550,685,766 | 1,567,547,926 | education | religious education |
404,267 | pamelagellerreport--2019-10-18--Islamic Schools for Girls “a Finishing School for Child Brides” | 2019-10-18T00:00:00 | pamelagellerreport | Islamic Schools for Girls “a Finishing School for Child Brides” | In Islam, Muhammad is the “perfect model.” And Muhammad’s favorite wife Aisha was 6 when he married her, 9 when he consummated the marriage, hence …… Ill-equipped private madrassas in Assam ignore child rights, junk formal education; girl students often end up as child brides By: Firstpost • Sep 18, 2019 (thanks to The Religion of Peace): The Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (ASCPCR), in a recent survey, has raised a red flag over blatant violation of child rights, and of the provisions of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009 in madrassas (schools of Islamic education). The survey comes at a time when the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development is working on a road map to introduce reforms in madrassas with the aim of bringing them at par with the national educational curriculum. The ASCPCR survey was conducted by a three-member team of the commission led by its chairperson Sunita Changkakoti in private madrassas in two districts of Assam — Dhubri and South Salmara. Both these districts, some 250 kilometres away from Guwahati, are dominated by the Bengali-origin Muslim community. In a statement, it said, “The team of ASCPCR, during the visit to the madrassas, observed that although there are a number of madrassas for boys and girls, a majority of them are functioning with multiple violations of child rights. The team recorded multiple cases of corporal punishment, violations of the RTE Act, 2009 among the private madrassas.” The shocking reality inside the dark rooms of the madrassas led the commission to suggest shutting down of certain madrassas for gross violation of child rights and the RTE Act. “There are gross violations of child rights, especially against girl children. The students are not provided with basic facilities. The banat madrassas (women madrassa) keep the girl children in confinement. The food is of bad quality. There is a huge chance of sexual violations and above all, children are deprived of formal education,” Changkakoti said. Dhubri is the least literate district in Assam with 58.34 percent literacy rate, as per the 2011 Census. The number of madrassas in India, which came into being with the advent of the Muslim rulers in the subcontinent, has gone up from some hundreds in the 1950s to over 8 lakh in the 2000s, according to various reports. Despite widespread suspicions that such institutions encourage a fundamentalist mentality, they have increased in number in Assam’s char areas. (Char is the Assamese word for sandbar.) Ill-equipped private madrassas in Assam ignore child rights, junk formal education; girl students often end up as child brides A private Madrassa in Agamani block of Dhubri district in Assam. Photo credit Khalilullah SK Started as a means of ensuring education to the marginalised communities as a viable substitute for government schools, the private madrassas in Assam do not follow the standard formal education system. Away from any kind of government regulation, these non-registered schools house hundreds of children in tiny plots in unhygienic conditions and deprive them of formal education, consequently disconnecting them from the outer world, the commission observed. “There are many reasons why a lot of madrassas have been coming up, although they cannot provide the kind of education needed for a person to secure a job. One of the reasons for this is the lack of government-run schools in char areas. The students have to travel 14-20 km to go to school. In most of the cases, they have to cross the river. As these madrassas provide free education and meals, the parents send their kids to these madrassas,” said Illias Rahman Sarkar, a child rights activist from Dhubri district. As per the records of the State Madrassa Education Board, the oldest in the country, there are 614 recognised madrassas in Assam. However, the number of privately-run madrassas are in thousands, said Sarkar. “In my area in Golakganj, you would find four-five madrassas within the radius of five kilometres. Those who pass out from private madrassas have no option other than to become daily wage earners or maulanas (religious teacher). So they would establish more madrassas to survive on donations from the people of the society,” he said. Masud Zaman, an advocate, who is associated with the legal cell of the Assam State Jamiat Ulema-E-Hind in Dhubri district, however, felt that madrassas were acting as a place for the betterment of lives children in the char areas. “Who goes to a madrassa? Obviously the poor people. The madrassas are providing free education and free meals. We cannot expect world-class facilities there because they are dependent on donations from society. At least these children are learning something in the schools. These schools prevent them from roaming around in an idle manner and committing crimes in that process,” Zaman said. However, he also agreed that these private madrassas have become businesses in these districts more than institutes of religious education. In most cases, madrassas are set up in a small cluster with mud huts and tin roofs by the donation from local villagers. The 29-year-old Mariyam Bibi is a daily wage labourer in Guwahati. She belongs to Kamlakhar village of Golakganj revenue circle in Dhubri. Mariyam was 13 years old when she got married to one Marham Ali from Barpeta district. “I was studying at a madrassa in my village. When I got enrolled I was eight years old. After five years of studying there, my mother said I had become ready for marriage,” she said. Mariyam’s 14-year-old daughter, a student of a banat madrassa also got married in the same district. Changkakoti said that the girls’ madrassas were acting as grooming centres for minor girls to get married by the age of 13-14 years. “During our visit to banat madrassas, it was observed that girls are groomed in such a way where they do not have any interest in formal education, they do not have any dream to become anything in life other than maulana and they are interested in getting married as soon as finish their course. The madrassas are depriving the girls of experiencing the big world outside. A girl gets enrolled in the madrassas at the age of 7-8. They study a four-year course on religion. After that they are considered to be fit for getting married,” the ASCPCR chairperson said. Sarkar, who is actively working towards the eradication of child marriage from Dhubri, seconded this. He claimed that the banat madrassas are like the finishing schools for child brides in the district. “The parents of a girl child want to get the girl married off by the age of 13-14. So they send their children to banat madrassas. As soon as the girl takes the religious education for two-three years, she is considered to be fit for marriage. So this is another reason why banat madrassas are so popular here,” he said. Changkakoti also expressed the high possibility of sexual violence in banat madrassas. “In banat madrassas most of the teachers are male and they have all the access to the rooms of the girl students. The girls do not know anything outside their religious education. They do not have any sex education. The female teachers are also submissive. What happens inside would never be reported,” she said. She also said that not only girls, but there are high chances of a sexual offence against boys also. “In many madrassas, there are boys from the age of five-six to 18-19 years. So there is every possibility of sexual harassment by elders. No one has sex education,” the ASCPCR chairperson said. Rahman recalled an incident where a minor girl was sexually assaulted and impregnated by a maulana in one of the banat madrassas of Raniganj area in Bilashipara sub-division of the district some seven months back. However, he chose not to speak much about it. “If I speak against the madrassas I will face the rage of my people here,” he said. The Right to Education Act 2009, which makes formal education compulsory for children up to the age of 14, has been grossly violated by the private madrassas of the state. Apart from religious education to students, the madrassas are not interested in linking themselves with the state board of education. The commission in its report said, “The team recorded multiple cases of corporal punishment, violations of the RTE Act, 2009 among the private madrassas. It was also observed in the madrassas for girls that the girls were not allowed to interact with the outside world, keeping them confined inside the premises only. Even in madrassas for boys, some of them were found to be only providing religious education to the children, depriving them of the state education curriculum.” The team which visited some madrassas during the celebration of Teachers’ Day on 5 September said the private madrassas although took part in the celebration did not know the significance of the day. “The students would say they do not like to learn science and math. They would not want to become anything than a maulana. This is a very sorry state of affair. What would they become once they are out of it? Not everyone in these schools can become a maulana. These students will become frustrated in later part of life and contribute to the high rate of crime in such areas,” said Changakakoti. Though Section 17 of the Right to Education Act banned corporal punishment more than a decade back, the maulanas of the madrassas have defended the practice corporal punishment to discipline students. Rakibul Islam Ahmed, who used to be a maulana in a banat madrassa named as Al-Madrassadul Islamia in Golakganj of Dhubri district, said, “There are some boys who are very naughty. In our house also our parents sometimes beat us for not studying. In madrassas, the situation is the same. We beat them at times to teach them.” Zaman also advocated this school of thought. | Pamela Geller | https://gellerreport.com/2019/10/islamic-schools-child-brides.html/ | Fri, 18 Oct 2019 16:32:53 +0000 | 1,571,430,773 | 1,571,438,249 | education | religious education |
410,075 | pinknewsuk--2019-06-26--Children should learn about stable and healthy same-sex relationships guidance says | 2019-06-26T00:00:00 | pinknewsuk | Children should learn about ‘stable and healthy same-sex relationships’, guidance says | Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world Government guidance for relationships and sex education says children should learn about “stable and healthy” examples of same-sex relationships. The finalised guidance was published on Tuesday (June 25) for relationships and sex education, which will become be mandatory from September 2020 in schools in England. The guidance, which comes amid continued unrest at teaching over LGBT+ issues, makes clear that all pupils “should be taught the facts and the law about sex, sexuality, sexual health and gender identity in an age-appropriate and inclusive way.” It adds: “All pupils should feel that the content is relevant to them and their developing sexuality. “Sexual orientation and gender identity should be explored at a timely point and in a clear, sensitive and respectful manner. “When teaching about these topics, it must be recognised that young people may be discovering or understanding their sexual orientation or gender identity. “There should be an equal opportunity to explore the features of stable and healthy same-sex relationships. “This should be integrated appropriately into the RSE programme, rather than addressed separately or in only one lesson.” The guidance acknowledges that people will have “a range of opinions,” but makes clear: “The starting principle when teaching each of these must be that the applicable law should be taught in a factual way so that pupils are clear on their rights and responsibilities as citizens.” The document does provide leeway for schools ”to explore faith, or other perspectives, on some of these issues in other subjects such as Religious Education.” In a release, Education Secretary Damian Hinds said: “Our new guidance is clear that children should leave school having learnt about LGBT relationships. “Children will of course find out about all sorts of things, including the diversity of our society, anyway – the question is where and how is it best to do so – in class, on the internet, or in the playground. “I would strongly encourage schools to discuss with children in class that there are all sorts of different, strong and loving families, including families with same-sex parents, while they are at primary school. “There is no reason why teaching children about the society that we live in and the different types of loving, healthy relationships that exist cannot be done in a way that respects everyone.” Stonewall chief executive Ruth Hunt praised the guidance as “a real, positive step forward for LGBT inclusion in England’s schools.” She added: “Teaching about the diversity that exists in the world means children from all families feel included and helps every child and young person understand that LGBT people are part of normal, everyday life.” Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers said: “The Secretary of State has now made it abundantly clear that it is appropriate to teach primary-age children that there are different kinds of relationships, and that not every family is the same.” He added: “We agree that diversity and equality are a matter of fact and a matter of law and learning about equality and diversity is not optional.” | Nick Duffy | https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2019/06/26/children-learn-stable-healthy-same-sex-relationships-guidance/ | 2019-06-26 15:50:23+00:00 | 1,561,578,623 | 1,567,537,989 | education | religious education |
411,855 | politicalite--2019-01-03--MOSQUE RAIDS China Stands FIRM On Islam CLOSING Multiple Mosques | 2019-01-03T00:00:00 | politicalite | MOSQUE RAIDS: China Stands FIRM On Islam CLOSING Multiple Mosques | CHINA is standing firm on the spread of Islam, closing THREE mosques according to reports. The totalitarian ruling communist party has taken a tough line on Islam and China says that the Mosques conduct ‘illegal religious education’. Islamic crescents and domes have been removed from mosques, religious institutes are now required to fly the national flag. China is an atheist country. However, it does allow the practice of religions in places of worship pre-approved by the ruling party. The mosques were located south-west China and were raided by 100 police officers last Saturday, according to reports. The raid in the villages of Huihuideng, Sanjia and Mamichang was coordinated by the Weishan County Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee to ‘protect harmony and stability in the religious domain’ said officials. ‘The mosques were illegally established and conducted illegal religious education in violation of China’s Regulation on Religious Affairs,’ the statement said, adding that the decision to raid the three mosques came after the government’s outreach programmes failed to deter such ‘illegal religious activities’. In the far west region of Xinjiang, following violent attacks by radical Muslims, many Muslims have been detained prisons where they are urged to denounce Islam and profess loyalty to the ruling party. What do you think? Comment below. | Staff Writer | https://www.politicalite.com/latest/mosque-raids-china-stands-firm-on-islam-closing-multiple-mosques/ | 2019-01-03 21:23:53+00:00 | 1,546,568,633 | 1,567,554,118 | education | religious education |
437,363 | rawstory--2019-03-18--Betsy DeVos promotes plan to hand over billions in federal tax credits for private religious and h | 2019-03-18T00:00:00 | rawstory | Betsy DeVos promotes plan to hand over billions in federal tax credits for private, religious, and home schooling | Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has been touring the country to promote her plan to hand over billion of dollars in federal tax credits to dramatically expand the number of students attending private schools, religious schools, or even being homeschool. The program, part of a bill in Congress, would be funded through private donations in exchange for tax credits. In other words, tax dollars would effectively be paying for the program, as those dollars will have to be made up by taxpayers. Secretary DeVos’ “Education Freedom Scholarships” program would continue the Trump administration’s blurring of the lines between church and state. Just last week Sec. DeVos announced the Dept. of Education will no longer ban religious organizations from being funded with taxpayer dollars for secular projects. The Dept. of Education claims up to $5 billion annually could be allocated, but Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who spoke at an event with DeVos to roll out his bill to support the program (video below), said it would be $10 billion. The reception in Sec. DeVos’ stop in Iowa appeared less than enthusiastic. “Pitching her proposal to fund scholarships for private school and home-schooled students, federal education secretary Betsy DeVos met behind closed doors Friday with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and other state leaders and lobbyists,” Iowa’s Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports. The paper notes that Waterloo Community Schools’ Superintendent Jane Lindaman was “the lone public education representative invited to participate,” and described her as being “concerned.” “I was surprised by the imbalance of people at this meeting today,” Lindaman told The Courier. “Out of 14 people, I was the only public school advocate. I quickly realized the responsibility and, quite honestly, the burden of speaking for the hundreds of thousands of kids who are in public education in Iowa.” Here’s a local news report from Alabama last month that features Sec. DeVos and Senator Ted Cruz, a big home schooling advocate, promoting his bill and the Secretary’s program. Cruz endorses the federal government effectively paying for private and religious education, calling it a “civil rights issue.” | David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement | https://www.rawstory.com/2019/03/betsy-devos-promotes-plan-hand-billions-federal-tax-credits-private-religious-home-schooling/ | 2019-03-18 19:58:09+00:00 | 1,552,953,489 | 1,567,545,837 | education | religious education |
446,334 | realclearpolitics--2019-01-29--When Will Rising Tide of Bias Against Christians Stop | 2019-01-29T00:00:00 | realclearpolitics | When Will Rising Tide of Bias Against Christians Stop? | The rising tide of intolerance against Christians in the U.S. has found a new platform for persecution — the spouses of public service officials. Karen Pence, her husband Vice President Mike Pence, and by proxy the current administration, have been accused by the media of “making a statement” against LGBT people because Mrs. Pence has chosen to teach art at a Christian school. The question was even raised as to whether taxpayers should continue to pay for her Secret Service protection. This is part of a striking and alarming trend — a trend that uses a religious litmus test to determine if individuals are fit for public service and demands that those in office deny their conscience and beliefs. Freedom of religion is a First Amendment right set forth by our Founding Fathers, not some new conservative fad adopted since the Trump administration came into office. Using a religious litmus test as a prerequisite to serve in office is unconstitutional, yet the current list of examples of this trend is too long: Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.) said of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, Catholic “dogma lives loudly within you”; the Christian views of Russell Vought, the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, were called Islamophobic by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.); Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) repeatedly asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during his confirmation hearing, “Is gay sex a perversion?”; and most recently Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) challenged federal judicial nominee Brian Buescher about his ties to the Knights of Columbus, an international Catholic service organization with almost 2 million members. More examples can be cited, especially with regard to our Senate Judiciary Committee. This trend has now spread to accusing the spouses of our public servants of bigotry and hate for their religious beliefs, and it must stop. Immanuel Christian School, where Mrs. Pence works, is an institution that has educated children and served the community in Northern Virginia for 43 years. All people are welcome; however, the school asks that its applicants be followers of Christ and adhere to certain standards of conduct regarding sex and marriage. These are the same standards of conduct that have been part of the teachings of Catholicism, Judaism, and Islam (to name just a few religious faiths) throughout their long histories. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 5.8 million elementary and secondary school children (pre-K through 12th grade) are enrolled in private institutions, making up more than 10 percent of all school enrollment in the U.S. Particularly important to note is that about 67 percent of these have a “religious orientation or purpose.” The majority of these religious educational organizations are Roman Catholic and African Methodist Episcopal, but the list also includes Greek Orthodox, Jewish, Islamic, Seventh-Day Adventist, and more. Are these 23,000 religious educational institutions, which consist of almost 336,000 teachers, 4 million schoochildren and their parents and families, also bigots, or could it possibly be that they hold and live by their moral and religious beliefs? Should we scrutinize the teachers, students, and standards of conduct of each of these schools as well? | <a href="/authors/penny_nance" data-mce-href="../../authors/penny_nance">Penny Nance</a>, RealClearPolitics | https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/01/29/when_will_the_rising_tide_of_bias_against_christians_stop_139302.html | 2019-01-29 13:05:25+00:00 | 1,548,785,125 | 1,567,550,329 | education | religious education |
457,631 | redstate--2019-08-07--Vice President Pence Calls on the Nation to Turn to God in the Aftermath of Evil Mass Shootings | 2019-08-07T00:00:00 | redstate | Vice President Pence Calls on the Nation to Turn to God in the Aftermath of Evil Mass Shootings | On Tuesday, as Americans continued to process the terrible mass shootings which occurred over the weekend, Mike Pence called on the nation to turn its heart toward God. Speaking to the Alliance Defending Freedom in Arlington, the Vice President referenced a remark by the Commander-in-Chief: And how do we do that? Perhaps it’s through communication with a higher power: Pray for everyone hurt — the victims and the nation, broadly: Belief in God is a strength, he explained. It binds us: Horrifically, the tragedies in Texas and Ohio left over 50 wounded and registered a death toll of — as of August 6th — 31. It’s certainly a grave wound to the American soul. And no answers to “why” could possibly suffice. But Mike pointed out that, historically, the country’s houses of worship have served as places of comfort — though times are certainly changing: “From the American founding, voluntary associations — churches, synagogues, places of worship, and religious education — have been at the center of American communities and they are the wellspring of American strength. But as you all know well, we live in a time where we’ve seen people driving religion from the public square and it’s even become fashionable for many in the media and popular culture to mock religious belief.” For those of you who prone to agree, consider the Vice President’s call to help heal the national hurt: “Let’s pray for the people of El Paso and Dayton. As we pray, let us resolve to act to make our communities safer. Let us resolve that we will do our part to ensure that our heritage of family and faith and freedom is renewed and preserved for this generation and the next. “God bless the people of El Paso and Dayton and God bless all of you here to defend faith and freedom for the American people. And may God bless America.” See 3 more pieces from me: Mario Lopez Claims Small Children Shouldn’t Choose Their Gender. What’s Worse – That Or His Christian Faith? WATCH: Student Suspended For Posting Bible Verses Near Gay Flags Says Faith Is Unwelcome At School Christian Revival: This Season, Donald Trump Brings Faith In God Back To The Presidency And please follow Alex Parker on Twitter and Facebook. Thank you for reading! Please sound off in the Comments section below. If you have an iPhone and want to comment, select the box with the upward arrow at the bottom of your screen; swipe left and choose “Request Desktop Site.” If it fails to automatically refresh, manually reload the page. Scroll down to the red horizontal bar that says “Show Comments.” | Alex Parker | https://www.redstate.com/alexparker/2019/08/06/vice-president-pence-calls-nation-turn-god-aftermath-evil-mass-shootings/ | 2019-08-07 01:06:06+00:00 | 1,565,154,366 | 1,567,534,682 | education | religious education |
478,734 | russiainsider--2019-09-08--Patriarchy Preserves Families Feminism Destroys Them | 2019-09-08T00:00:00 | russiainsider | Patriarchy Preserves Families, Feminism Destroys Them | When feminism intrudes, the child becomes an idol, the woman becomes his priestess, and the man becomes an economic appendage. As a result, the entire family structure is destroyed. Archpriest Sergei Rybakov, associate professor of theology department at Ryazan State University, chairman of the religious education department of the Ryazan diocese, answers the question: “Why does the modern family break up?” "A lot depends on how the the hierarchy is setup. Previously, families had a patriarchal structure, in which a wife traditionally came to her husband each morning to request a blessing for the day. She also brought the children, who would receive blessings from their father. He would bless each of them with his right hand. This is the patriarchal way of the Orthodox family.” “But then, due to spiritual impoverishment and the influence of liberal ideas, the man ceased to be recognized as a patriarch. As a result, a modern woman rarely fulfills what the apostle has commanded — not to teach, but to learn from her husband at home (1 Timothy 2:12; 1 Corinthians 14:35). There is no one to learn from now, and worldly wisdom is not enough. The soul of the woman remains hungry, and thus a kind of madness begins. She desires to seize power in the family. The child is often used as an excuse." "And thus there is a restructuring of the entire family. The child becomes the head of the family, who is served by the mother. The child becomes an idol, the woman becomes his priestess, and the man becomes an economic appendage. As a result, the entire family structure is destroyed, and the man leaves the family to find a place where he feels more comfortable. Thus the family falls apart.” “This is confirmed by statistics: Where patriarchy is preserved, there are fewer divorces. The patriarchal family is more stable, and is immune to all sorts of difficulties. If there are fewer divorces, it means that a greater number of families acquire an understanding of the correct dispensation of the family, although it may be done with great difficulty." "Meanwhile, where there is a matriarchal approach to raising children, feminism breeds feminist women who are not ready to become wives and mothers, and feminist men who are not ready to become responsible husbands and fathers. So until the pedagogical attitude is changed — through intentional education about the Orthodox family — the situation will continue to be senseless.” Here in Russia, this website is currently the only source of income for the Gleason family and the Silva family. Both families now live in Russia, and they appreciate your support. To keep the Russian Faith website running, a recurring donation of even $15 or $25 per month would be a huge blessing. | null | https://russia-insider.com/en/culture/patriarchy-preserves-families-feminism-destroys-them/ri27459 | 2019-09-08 12:09:00+00:00 | 1,567,958,940 | 1,569,330,755 | education | religious education |
481,166 | shareblue--2019-09-11--GOP congressman We have mass shootings because we dont teach kids not to covet | 2019-09-11T00:00:00 | shareblue | GOP congressman: We have mass shootings because we don't teach kids not to covet | Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) told House colleagues that teaching the Bible in schools is the only way to stop gun violence. And he blamed the rise in suicides and mass shootings on politicians teaching children to desire stuff. At a House Judiciary Committee markup on Tuesday, lawmakers considered legislation to address gun violence through "extreme risk protection orders" (red flag laws that allow courts to temporarily arm those deemed a violent threat to others or themselves), limits on high-capacity magazines, and new restrictions on gun ownership for those convicted of hate crimes. All three measures passed, but Gohmert was not happy. "I would just submit to you that we can use these words and try to craft laws," he argued. "But people will continue to kill themselves at a higher and higher alarming rate. And there will be continuing these mass shootings we didn't use to deal with." He then implied that the solution to these problems is religious education in public schools. "Perhaps there was something good when children in school were taught that you shouldn't covet, you shouldn't be jealous, you shouldn't kill, that those are things you should not do," Gohmert continued. "And today we have more politicians encouraging jealousy, covetousness, and we've divided the country and it needs to stop. That will do more than any of these bills in taking away constitutional rights." It is unclear which public education system Gohmert is referring to. Schools still teach kids commonly accepted norms, including that they should not kill or take that which does not belong to them. Indeed, the statewide school curriculum in his own state of Texas mandates that all kindergartners be taught things like "the foundation for responsible citizenship," "basic human needs and ways people meet these needs," and "the purpose of rules and the role of authority figures in the home and school." Published with permission of The American Independent. | Josh Israel | https://shareblue.com/louie-gohmert-mass-shootings-texas-republican-jealousy-children/ | 2019-09-11 20:00:34+00:00 | 1,568,246,434 | 1,569,330,480 | education | religious education |
491,076 | slate--2019-10-04--This Supreme Court Term Will Launch a Conservative Revolution | 2019-10-04T00:00:00 | slate | This Supreme Court Term Will Launch a Conservative Revolution | After Brett Kavanaugh joined the Supreme Court in October 2018, most of the justices seemed eager to do whatever they could to keep SCOTUS out of the limelight. Less than two weeks earlier, Christine Blasey Ford had declared on live TV that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her as a teenager; Kavanaugh, in response, accused Democrats of orchestrating a “grotesque character assassination” driven by “pent-up anger about President Trump” and “revenge on behalf of the Clintons.” The Supreme Court’s legitimacy rests in large part on the perception it is a nonpartisan institution, but Kavanaugh joined the bench engulfed in a toxic cloud of political rancor. In the year after the ugly confirmation hearing, the justices mostly kept their heads down, ducking many controversial cases for no apparent reason. They decided only two bona fide blockbusters, throwing partisan gerrymandering claims out of federal court and blocking the census citizenship question. Meanwhile, they dodged cases about Dreamers, abortion, religious freedom, and discrimination, effectively deciding not to decide. But the Supreme Court has amassed far too much power to avoid any contentious issue for long. As Congress remains deadlocked and the White House melts down, SCOTUS has become the only fully functioning branch of the federal government. It has taken on the role of policymaker, obligated to resolve many of the battles that engulf the political branches. Republicans understand this fact, and it is a key reason why they fought so hard for Kavanaugh’s confirmation. With lawmakers paralyzed, momentous disputes wind up at the Supreme Court. And now, thanks to Kavanaugh’s vote, many of these battles will be decided by a 5–4 conservative majority. A slew of potentially earthshaking cases has already piled up on the court’s docket for the upcoming term. Multiple transformative decisions will come down in June, thrusting the court into the middle of the 2020 presidential campaign. And the full impact of Kavanaugh’s appointment will become clear as the court is dragged further to the right. This jurisprudential bloodbath will heighten the stakes of the 2020 race, amplifying the power of the president and the role of the judiciary in the most explosive political fights of the day. Potentially earthshaking cases have already piled up on the court’s docket for the upcoming term. The term will begin with a bang, with oral arguments over whether states can abolish the insanity defense. Four states have outlawed this defense—which allows defendants with mental illnesses to acknowledge their crime but argue a lack of culpability—even though it’s been a universal feature of criminal law for most of American history. Without Justice Anthony Kennedy’s moderating influence on Eighth Amendment jurisprudence, the conservative bloc may bless the abolition of the insanity defense, ensuring that more people with mental illnesses are locked up in prison without access to appropriate treatment. A day later, the court will hear arguments in three cases that ask whether federal law prohibits employment discrimination against LGBTQ people. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars workplace discrimination “because of … sex.” And it is impossible to discriminate against LGBTQ people without taking sex into account. Consider an employer who fires a man for marrying a man but does not fire a woman for marrying a man. This discrimination is inherently based on sex: change the male employee’s sex and he wouldn’t be fired. Now consider an employer who fires a trans woman because she is trans. That termination turns on her sex—the fact that she does not identify as a man. There is another reason why it would be bizarre to subtract LGBTQ employees from federal protections. The Supreme Court has ruled that sex stereotyping—punishing workers for failing to confirm to gender norms—is a form of sex discrimination prohibited under Title VII. Discrimination against gay people rests on the ultimate sex stereotype: the belief that men should only be romantically involved with women, and vice versa. Discrimination against transgender people, too, is rooted in sex stereotyping—a belief that individuals should conform to the sex they’re assigned at birth as well as the attendant gender norms. Dozens of lower court judges, including numerous Republican nominees, have reached these conclusions with ease. But there is little reason to be optimistic that the new conservative majority will agree. Conservative advocacy groups, including some that supported Kavanaugh’s and Gorsuch’s confirmations, have lobbied against an LGBTQ-inclusive interpretation of Title VII. So, too, have a number of congressional Republicans who endorsed both justices. There is also the possibility that the conservative justices on the bench today hold anti-LGBTQ beliefs that will cloud their analyses of the issue. A 5–4 decision along ideological lines excluding LGBTQ employees from Title VII seems disturbingly probable. A week later, SCOTUS will hear arguments in a seemingly dry clash over executive power. In theory, the case asks only whether the Constitution’s appointments clause applies to Puerto Rico’s Financial Oversight and Management Board, which Congress created to restructure the island’s debt. If so, the president must nominate each member of the board and obtain Senate confirmation. But this case could be a Trojan horse that strips U.S. territories and the District of Columbia of home rule. If the appointments clause applies to the Puerto Rico board, it may also apply to territorial governments more broadly. That would give the president of the United States the power to choose the governors of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa. He could also select high-ranking executive officials in each territory—as well as the D.C. mayor. Residents of U.S. territories and D.C. could no longer elect their own leaders. If the court hands down a sweeping decision, Trump, facilitated by a GOP-controlled Senate, could seize control over every territorial government. The next day, the court will hear a dispute over whether states can prosecute immigrants who use false Social Security numbers. Immigrant rights advocates argue that the federal government has sole authority to charge this crime, but red states are trying to seize the power to punish unauthorized immigrants themselves. A few hours later, the justices will take on a case about Lee Boyd Malvo, who was 17 years old when he helped John Allen Muhammad murder 10 people during the “D.C. sniper” shootings. Malvo, who regrets his actions, is serving life in prison, but he has sought resentencing under SCOTUS precedents that sharply limit juvenile life without parole. In Kennedy’s absence, the conservative majority may roll back those decisions and give states leeway to keep juvenile offenders behind bars until they die. In November, the hits will just keep coming. On Nov. 12, Trump’s attempt to rescind Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, will finally come before the court. (The justices punted this case for months last term to avoid deciding it in 2019.) President Barack Obama created DACA to let certain undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children live and work here legally. The Trump administration tried to wind it down—but DACA’s defenders argue that it did so illegally, on the mistaken premise that the program is unlawful. A majority of the court may rule that Trump has discretion to reverse his predecessor’s policy however he wants. It could also take a leap forward and declare that DACA itself is unconstitutional. Either decision would trigger a humanitarian crisis, placing 800,000 Dreamers in danger of deportation. That same day, the court will hear arguments in Hernández v. Mesa, a truly horrific case. The facts are ghastly: In 2010, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed an unarmed 15-year-old Mexican boy across the border. His family argues that the Constitution’s prohibitions on such police brutality provide them with a right to damages. If the court rules against them, it could strip everyone—citizens and undocumented immigrants alike—of the ability to sue federal law enforcement for misconduct. And recent precedents suggest that the conservative justices are prepared to slam the door on such claims. One day later, the justices will consider Comcast v. National Association of African American–Owned Media, a potential atomic bomb for race discrimination law. Section 1981, a federal statute first passed in the wake of the Civil War, guarantees racial minorities the right “to make and enforce contracts.” This rule is expansive: It applies to independent contractors, unlike Title VII, and bars race discrimination in retail, education, and public accommodations. A federal appeals court ruled that, to win under Section 1981, plaintiffs need only prove that race was one factor in their mistreatment. Comcast wants to defang law by requiring plaintiffs to prove “but-for” causation—meaning they would not have faced discrimination but for their race. The conservative justices favor this stringent standard, which would compel plaintiffs to uncover evidence of blatant racism. Since that evidence almost never exists, a decision importing “but-for” causation into Section 1981 could kneecap the law. In December, the court will hear arguments in a Second Amendment case for the first time since 2010. It will decide whether New York City’s strict gun laws—which bar residents from traveling with firearms unless they’re going to a city shooting range—is unconstitutional. The court will say it is. In the process, it will bring the right to bear arms out of the home and into the streets, setting the stage for a future decision that creates a constitutional right to public-carry. (New York City has already repealed the law in question and argues that the case should be dismissed; the plaintiffs vigorously disagree.) When the court returns from the winter holidays, it will hear another landmark case: Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. This case is, at bottom, an effort to force states to fund religious education. The plaintiffs argue that once states subsidize private schools, they must also subsidize parochial schools. It appears that the conservative justices agree with that proposition, even though it directly violates the constitutional separation of church and state. If the court sides with the plaintiffs, the roughly 30 states that use vouchers or tax credits to support private schools would have to open up their programs to religious schools. Taxpayers, by extension, would be compelled to fund the exercise of religion. Guns, immigration, executive power, police brutality, criminal justice, race discrimination, church-state separation, LGBTQ rights—what other issue could the Supreme Court possibly take on to make this term more incendiary? Ah, yes: abortion, of course! Sometime in 2020, the court will hear June Medical Services v. Gee, a challenge to Louisiana’s targeted regulation of abortion providers (or TRAP law). The state passed a stringent law that compels these providers to obtain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital—a virtually impossible task that provides no health benefit to women. In 2016’s Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, the Supreme Court struck down an identical law. Kennedy provided the fifth vote. After he stepped down, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Louisiana law, defying Whole Woman’s Health. In February, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked the Louisiana law by a 5–4 vote, sparing the states’ clinics, which were prepared to shutter. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the liberals; Kavanaugh dissented. Roberts likely voted to freeze the law to remind lower courts that they cannot ignore binding precedent. But he dissented in Whole Woman’s Health and is no fan of abortion rights. The Supreme Court will now have to decide whether a constitutional right to abortion access still exists in a post-Kennedy world. Do not expect Roberts to side with the liberals this time around. He may not have wanted the 5th Circuit to overrule Supreme Court precedent. But he may be happy to overturn Whole Woman’s Health himself, giving states the green light to regulate abortion clinics out of existence. The justices may prefer to avoid the grimy political arena, but over the next eight months, the court will take center stage. As these decisions come down, the court will inevitably become a flashpoint in the presidential campaign. Liberal voters will demand to know what Democratic presidential hopefuls plan to do about the judiciary, and candidates will embrace court packing with more enthusiasm. As the new majority launches a conservative revolution in constitutional law, ushered in by Kavanaugh’s elevation to the bench, Democrats will learn, over and over again, how much damage Trump has inflicted on the progressive project. And they will be forced to contend with a wildly powerful judiciary poised to obstruct progressive reforms while shattering liberal precedent. The Supreme Court is not yet in the forefront of the 2020 race. By the time this term is over, traumatized Democrats may struggle to talk about anything else. Perhaps Democrats will espouse a vision of progressivism that is less reliant upon the judiciary for success. They may conclude that it is not healthy for a democracy to depend so extensively on the rule of five justices in Washington. | Mark Joseph Stern | https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/supreme-court-term-preview-conservative-revolution.html?via=rss | 2019-10-04 09:58:00+00:00 | 1,570,197,480 | 1,570,633,616 | education | religious education |
504,704 | sottnet--2019-08-10--Deranged mind Israeli military rabbi says Palestinians should be enslaved - for their own good | 2019-08-10T00:00:00 | sottnet | Deranged mind: Israeli military rabbi says Palestinians should be enslaved - for their own good | Keep that in mind when you hear of IDF activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. A prestigious religious institute for Israeli army officer candidates is embroiled again in anti-human rhetoric. A rabbi at the school has been exposed ( Hebrew ) calling for the enslavement of Palestinians. The text was discovered by blogger/lawyer Yair Nehorai, who's been documenting the scandalous teaching of the Bnei David religious college rabbis for over a year.Rabbi Eliezer Kashtiel,, was lecturing about "slavery and the position of workers according to Judaism", andThere are races in the world and nations that have genetic attributes, and that demands that we [the Jewish people] will think of how to help them. The fact that someone is your inferior is not a reason to deride him or eliminate him, but help him. Yes, there are differences between races and that's precisely the reason who should offer aid. Just as we know there are genetic defects within society, for instance when a child is, alas, born with a defect. Is that a reason to deride him? To taunt him, insult him? No. It calls for helping him."When I see that, in the moral, intellectual, personal fields, I reach much greater achievements - then it is my duty to aid him. Not leave him poor and helpless, but to lend him my hand and say 'come',, be a partner in my success. [...] Do you know how it is today? A prosperous country sees a backwards country, and it turns it into its garbage heap. This is how it is today. There are countries in Africa, backward countries, and what do the superpowers do? They make it worse for them."[...] If occupation means to humiliate you, to deride you, to taunt you, to eliminate you - than it is bad. But if occupation means 'I am successful, come to me', I am calling you to join a partnership, why are you alone, why are you apart from me, I want to occupy you, to merge you - then you'd be a part of a great success.You live such miserable life. Come be my slave, see what life you'll have, to what spiritual and ethical stage [you'll climb...]."[...] There's an objective genetic defect here, what can you do?..."The rabbi's undated comments on slavery were first reported in April but in much abridged form. The full comments were lately published by Nehorai.There's more - plenty more - where this came from, but presumably you'll have dinner sometime, so I'll spare you.Bnei David (or as I prefer to call them, Bnei Eli; those of you with a biblical education may get the joke*) is considered the flagship of the National-Religious education system. The college was created in the late 1980s, when rabbis noted with alarm that yeshiva students who join the army often "take off the yarmulke" and become secular, and "the sector" loses votes, souls and money. Eli was the first of the "military colleges": the point is to subject ex-yeshiva boys to another year of indoctrination, so they'll be "strengthened" when they join the army. As part of the deal with the army, these cadets - who join the army a year later in life than other Israelis - are trained by the colleges to become officers. The format was considered successful both by the army and the rabbis, and many other such colleges were created; a small minority of them are secular. Bnei David's founder, Eli Sadan, won the Israel Prize (the highest civil honor) in 2016, mostly due to his work in Bnei David.They derided women soldiers, gay soldiers, and secular soldiers. The unending geyser of embarrassment caused the army to remove one rabbi - Yigal Levinstein, deputy principal of Bnei David - from any contact with the army; this necessitated his removal from that position (though he still lectures there). The idea of removing Bnei David from the list of colleges supported by the military was entertained for a short while, but was dropped due to the political power its rabbis wield.Unfortunately for Bnei David, they posted hundreds of lectures on Youtube. This means that, assuming you have the stamina to watch two hours of religious ranting, it's a goldmine. Yair Nehorai, who is advocating religious freedom, has been exploring this goldmine for a while now. This latest expose came afterThey're suing Nehorai for 700,000 NIS (about $200,000) and 1,000,000 NIS (about $315,000), respectively.A lot of officers in the IDF went through Bnei David or other colleges of its ilk. This is the indoctrination they went through.*As for the joke, see 1 Samuel 2:12: "Now the Sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the Lord" and the few verses following. | null | https://www.sott.net/article/418334-Deranged-mind-Israeli-military-rabbi-says-Palestinians-should-be-enslaved-for-their-own-good | 2019-08-10 20:08:25+00:00 | 1,565,482,105 | 1,567,534,480 | education | religious education |
524,592 | sputnik--2019-02-08--Achievers Not Loners Leaked Docs Reveal Backgrounds of Saudi Daesh Recruits | 2019-02-08T00:00:00 | sputnik | Achievers, Not Loners: Leaked Docs Reveal Backgrounds of Saudi Daesh Recruits | The study, which was published on Tuesday, reviewed leaked documents from the terror group in 2016 that included an overview of 759 Saudi recruits who joined the terror group between 2013 and 2014. "By analysing [Daesh's] own records and focusing on those pertaining to individuals hailing from a country that has always been targeted and regarded as the ultimate prize for terrorist groups and organisations (namely Saudi Arabia), this study represents an important step in increasing contextual knowledge," the report states. "Such knowledge is vital when dealing with a phenomenon as intricate as terrorism and a process as complex as radicalisation." Recruitment documents included a set of 23 fields for applicants to answer, which the study noted were not all filled in. Interested parties were asked to provide their name, blood type, marital status, educational qualifications, prior employment, travel history, name of recommenders, speciality, level of religious knowledge, point of entry into Syria and past jihadi experience, among other data. Although most of the Saudi recruits were young, they weren't primarily teenagers and adolescents. Half of the recruits in the sampling were between the ages of 20 and 24, and 22 percent were between 25 and 29. The youngest recruit clocked in at nine years of age, and the oldest was born in 1958, suggesting he was either 55 or 56 when he joined the group. Seventy-three percent of the applicants were single, and 18 percent were married, of which 68 percent had children. The majority of the recruits had just one or two kids. One individual jotted down that they had eight children back home. Having been given the option to indicate whether they had basic, intermediate or advanced knowledge of Islam, 58 percent of the Saudi recruits reported having basic knowledge. As Saudi students are given religious education courses from elementary to high school, according to the report, a basic knowledge of Islam could seemingly be assumed in anyone with even a low-level education. Thirty-four percent indicated they had an intermediate knowledge of Islam, while another 8 percent claimed advanced knowledge. Researchers found that unlike European recruits, who have tended to be either high school dropouts or unemployed, Saudi recruits held jobs as religious police, imams and soldiers for the Saudi military, among other positions. Only 15 percent were unemployed. Of the 759 recruits, 337 (44 percent) had a high-school level of education, and 119 (15 percent) had obtained a bachelor's degree. Five individuals had either a master's or doctoral degree. Only 150 (19 percent) of the recruits were dropouts. "This data demonstrates that the Saudi contingent does not consist of educational underachievers, which can lead to the argument that they were not lacking in socio-economic opportunities," the report states. "In fact, this group was, on average, better educated than the general Saudi labour force." "The second observation is that the majority of fighters that dropped out evidently did so in order to make their way to Syria. We may infer that they believed strongly in the cause and were frustrated enough to risk their future by dropping out of college to join the fight in a foreign conflict-torn land," the study explained. Additionally, the majority of the recruits (625) volunteered to join the terror group as fighters. Just 71 signed up to be suicide bombers, and only 44 volunteered for inghimasi operations, otherwise known as a kamikaze attackers. The report explains that "inghimasi operations are distinct from suicide bombings in the sense that ‘their success does not necessitate the perpetrators' death." Although the largest number of Saudi recruits came from Riyadh, the highest ratio of recruits per the region's population came from the province of Qassim, just north of the country's capital. It's suggested in the report that the number of recruits from Qassim was a result of a spike in the presence of terrorist groups in the province. | null | https://sputniknews.com/society/201902091072262528-study-daesh-terror-group-background/ | 2019-02-08 21:27:04+00:00 | 1,549,679,224 | 1,567,549,239 | education | religious education |
546,247 | sputnik--2019-10-09--Norwegian Terrorism Researcher Sees 'Very Low' Risk in Bringing Home Daesh Widows, Children | 2019-10-09T00:00:00 | sputnik | Norwegian Terrorism Researcher Sees 'Very Low' Risk in Bringing Home Daesh Widows, Children | Norway's leading terrorism researcher Thomas Hegghammer, who previously warned of the threat that jihadists represent, has sparked a debate by suggesting that reclaiming Norwegian Daesh* women with children from camps in Syria is not challenging in terms of security. “I don't see any security problem with taking back children with their mothers. It is not a hundred percent risk-free, but I would say that the risk is very low,” Thomas Hegghammer, a research fellow at Defence Research Institute and the University of Oslo, told national broadcaster NRK. As of today, there are four mothers with Norwegian citizenship being detained at the al Hol and al Roj camps in Syria, with a total of six children. All of them have at some point asked for assistance to return to Norway. So far, no male jihadists with Norwegian citizenship have been found alive in Syria or Iraq. According to the local Kurdish authorities, Daesh women have established Sharia courts in the camp in order to punish and kill other women. Furthermore, Daesh women are reportedly involved in religious education, propaganda and recruitment. When NRK visited al Hol in June, it reported about unsanitary conditions. It was also obvious that many wholeheartedly supported Daesh. Hegghammer admitted that there is no perfect solution to the problem. Bringing home the children together with their mothers is both “ethically sound” and not challenging in terms of security, he suggested. “We should bring the children home and together with the mothers, for the sake of the children,” Hegghammer said. “The risk of course is not zero. Most women are said to sympathise with Daesh. But they will be handled by a system that takes this into account. The fact that vigilante violence occurs in a camp with 70,000 people is not surprising,and does not mean that everyone in the camp poses a deadly threat,” he added. However, the right-wing Progress Party, which is part of the Norwegian “blue bloc” government with the Conservatives, is against retrieving Daesh women to Norway, citing considerable risks. While the children may get assistance in returning to Norway, their mothers must stay. “When it comes to the Daesh mothers, these grown-ups who have travelled from Norway to fight the values we stand for. Now they want protection from the values they wanted to fight. We think it is not right for Norwegian taxpayers to pay for their return in a rather expensive operation,” Justice Minister Jøran Kallmyr of the Progress Party said. Around 6,000 women from around the world have joined Daesh, according to estimates provided by the think tank ICSR at King's College in London. The same think tank estimates that around 600 of them have since returned to their respective countries. Most European countries have been reluctant to assist Daesh women in returning, despite pleas to take back their citizens from local authorities. Thomas Hegghammer is the author of several books, including “Jihadi Culture”, “Jihad in Saudi Arabia” and most recently “The Caravan: Abdallah Azzam and the Rise of Global Jihad”. * Daesh (IS/ISIS/ISIL/“Islamic State”) is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia and other countries | null | https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201910091076994500-norwegian-terrorism-researcher-sees-very-low-risk-in-bringing-home-daesh-widows-children/ | Wed, 09 Oct 2019 10:50:05 +0300 | 1,570,632,605 | 1,570,632,003 | education | religious education |
573,626 | tass--2019-11-14--Tatarstan leader discusses multicultural dialogue at Dubai summit | 2019-11-14T00:00:00 | tass | Tatarstan leader discusses multicultural dialogue at Dubai summit | KAZAN, November 14. /TASS/. President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov shared his experience in develpoing multinational and multireligious tolerance with the participants of the World Tolerance Summit in Dubai, said the presidential press service on Thursday. “The Council under the President of Tatarstan on multinational and interreligious relations is working in the republic. We adopted a concept on national state policy. A scientific and expert council operates on the basis of Kazan Federal University. And of course, in our affairs we rely on our muftiate and metropolis which allows us to ensure peace, harmony and stability," said Minnikhanov. The president noted that in total about 4 million people live in Tatarstan — representatives of 173 nationalities. According to him, the republic has extensive experience of muslims and orthodox christians living side by side. They have a mutual understanding them, he noted. A lot of mosques and cathedrals were lost during the Soviet period. Since the 90s to the present day, a number of religious sites are still being restored, noted the president. "But our main task was to prepare people, theologists, who could properly build this system. At present, the Tatarstan Metropolis and the Spiritual Administration of Muslims make a huge contribution to strengthening tolerance and stability in the republic. All events in Tatarstan are held with the participation of our main religious figures," he added. According to the Tatarstan leader, the republic simultaneously restoring both Muslim and Orthodox shrines. For example, the Kul Sharif Mosque and the Orthodox Annunciation Cathedral are located on the territory of the Kazan Kremlin. The republic's fund for the revival of historical and cultural monuments did an enormous job to restore Ancient Bolgar and the island city of Sviyazhsk. Work on recreating the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God is underway, the Bolgar Islamic Academy was opened. The republic pays special attention to issues of religious education. "People can be swayed by different beliefs. Thus, we make sure that the system of Islamic and Orthodox education is structured and that various harmful trends do not cause any problems," said Minnikhanov. The II World Tolerance Summit is being is held in Dubai on November 13-14 bringing together representatives of various states, religious institutions, educational institutions, cultural associations, non-governmental organizations and influencers. The summit is dedicated to tolerance and cultural understanding aimed at strengthening peace and mutual understanding between people. Special attention will be paid to enhancing cooperation to ensure security and stability all over the world. | null | https://tass.com/society/1089163 | Thu, 14 Nov 2019 22:00:01 +0300 | 1,573,786,801 | 1,573,820,521 | education | religious education |
575,689 | tass--2019-12-23--Moscow seeks Egypt’s explanations over arrest of Russians on extremism charges | 2019-12-23T00:00:00 | tass | Moscow seeks Egypt’s explanations over arrest of Russians on extremism charges | MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. Moscow will seek from Egypt explanations for the arrest of Russian nationals suspected of an involvement in the activity of Islamic State (outlawed in Russia) and extremist activity, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a session of the Federation Council upper house of the parliament on Monday. "We have appealed more than 20 times with official notes, with the request to supply information about the reasons for the arrest, but there has been no response to any of the appeals. Verbally, they say the probe is classified, and our staffers are not allowed to attend any questioning, or court sessions held behind closed doors," the foreign minister said. "We have appealed 24 times with a request to ensure consular access to our nationals, and only two requests were satisfied. We will first of all seek explanations for the reasons why they have found themselves in this situation," the top diplomat said. Lavrov said that Russia is also seeking assistance from the Egyptian foreign and justice ministries to establish the whereabouts of Ingushetia Region’s student Dugiyev, who went missing in 2018. "A new note was sent a month-and-a-half ago, there has been no reaction as of yet. Our colleagues say that they know nothing about him. We will continue seeking attention to that subject," the foreign minister added. Lavrov said that during the next contacts with the Egyptian counterpart, he would hand over "a new detailed official letter in this respect". Russian nationals arriving in Egypt to receive religious education, were detained in Cairo in August 2018. Later, some of them were released. However the fate of five natives of Russia’s Ingushetia remained unknown. News came in April 2019 that five Russian nationals - four natives of Ingushetia, and a female native of Kyrgyzstan - were facing extremism charges. | null | https://tass.com/politics/1102517 | Mon, 23 Dec 2019 15:32:56 +0300 | 1,577,133,176 | 1,577,146,878 | education | religious education |
598,011 | thedailycaller--2019-01-21--Conservative Pundits Hit Back Against Trending ExposeChristianSchools | 2019-01-21T00:00:00 | thedailycaller | Conservative Pundits Hit Back Against Trending ‘#ExposeChristianSchools’ | Several prominent conservatives rose to defend the merits of religious education against the torrent of anti-Christian sentiment unleashed under the Twitter hashtag “#ExposeChristianSchools,” which was trending on the social media platform over the weekend. The hashtag, which garnered tens of thousands of tweets, became a platform for many users to express their animosity toward Christian schools, with many offering anecdotes of allegedly negative or traumatic experiences they had while attending one. (RELATED: Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu Accuses Pence Of ‘Cloaking Your Hate’ In Christianity) Self-proclaimed “exvangelical” writer Chris Stroop — who claims to have started the other popular hashtag #EmptyThePews — likewise took responsibility for coining “#ExposeChristianSchools,” tweeting Friday, “Hey fellow Christian school grads, let’s tell [Vice President Mike Pence] and [conservative writer David French] how traumatizing those bastions of bigotry are. Use the hashtag #ExposeChristianSchools.” “Mike Pence @VP asks ‘what kind of anti-Christian bigot would keep us from being anti-gay bigots?’ The problem w/the #ExposeChristianSchools hashtag is that these homophobic schools aren’t Christian – they’re Evangelical Supremacist,” actor John Fugelsang tweeted. Others, including several prominent conservative pundits, responded by defending religious learning and offered examples of how they believe a Christian school helped them. “I was surrounded by people who cared about me as a human being, not just a student. I got a top notch education that allowed me to graduate magma [sic] cum laude undergrad and w honors from law school. It wasn’t perfect, but there was a high standard and love,” wrote Fox News host Shannon Bream. “Apparently #ExposeChristianSchools is trending in the US,” wrote Fox News contributor Pete Hegseth. “Let’s start a real one: MOST of today’s PUBLIC (or government) schools are PC-obsessed, safe-space, leftist indoctrination fortresses that utterly FAIL our kids & our country. #ExposePublicSchools” “Of all the disgusting, disgraceful, horrifying, anti-American hashtag campaigns I’ve seen on this platform #ExposeChristianSchools is the most egregious. Anyone promoting this atrocious garbage should hang their heads in eternal shame,” wrote Fox News commentator and former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino. The hashtag skyrocketed against the backdrop of the social media pile-on that occurred when a group of MAGA hat-wearing boys from an all-male Catholic high school in Kentucky allegedly taunted a Native American veteran at the Lincoln Memorial on Friday. The boys, who were in Washington, D.C. to attend the March for Life, were berated by major media figures on Twitter, some of whom have since apologized as a fuller picture of the event has emerged. (RELATED: The Real Story Behind The Catholic School Boys And Their Dust Up With A Native American Veteran) The escalated hostility also takes place in the wake of last week’s attacks against second lady Karen Pence for having accepted a part-time teaching position at Immanuel Christian School in Springfield, Virginia, where students and employees are expected to obey traditionally biblical standards of sexuality and gender. (RELATED: Pence Defends Wife Against Media Attacks) The liberal media’s onslaught against his wife prompted Vice President Mike Pence to condemn the attacks on Christian education as “deeply offensive” and something that “should stop,” in a Thursday interview with EWTN. (RELATED: CNN’s John King Questions If Karen Pence Deserves Secret Service Protection) | Jon Brown | https://dailycaller.com/2019/01/20/conservative-pundits-hit-back-trending-exposechristianschools-hashtag/ | 2019-01-21 01:11:19+00:00 | 1,548,051,079 | 1,567,551,577 | education | religious education |
606,790 | thedailycaller--2019-10-11--Democratic Candidates Speak Out On Christian Faith’s Compatibility With LGBTQ Issues | 2019-10-11T00:00:00 | thedailycaller | Democratic Candidates Speak Out On Christian Faith’s Compatibility With LGBTQ Issues | • Democratic candidates criticized the Christian faith’s compatibility with LGBTQ issues Thursday night at CNN’s Los Angeles LGBTQ forum. • The candidates discussed a variety of topics related to LGBTQ issues. • None religion is used in that way, to Democratic candidates showed almost unanimous agreement on LGBTQ issues at Thursday night’s CNN forum in Los Angeles as they zoned in on the Christian faith’s compatibility with LGBTQ issues. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro highlighted aspects of their faith and discussed how they believe faith embraces the LGBTQ community. Warren described how she grew up understanding that the basis of her faith is love and that there were a lot of different people who “do a lot of different things who look different from each other, who sound different from each other, who are from different kinds of families.” “The hatefulness frankly always really shocked me, especially for people of faith because I think the whole foundation is the worth of every single human being,” Warren said. (RELATED: Trans Woman Hijacks Microphone At LGBTQ Town Hall Q&A, Sounds Off On ‘Anti-Blackness’) Booker slammed Christians who use religion as a justification for discrimination. The New Jersey senator discussed growing up in a household where his parents told him that people used religion to discriminate against African-Americans. “So for me, I cannot allow as a leader that people are going to use religion as a justification for discrimination,” Booker said. “I can respect your religious freedom, but also protect people from discrimination and as I said in an earlier answer.” He added that his faith “as well as his American values” will make him fight “every front” against LGBTQ discrimination. Buttigieg said Christians who use their religious beliefs against LGBTQ people make “God smaller.” “It, to me, is an insult not only to us as LGBTQ people, but I think it’s an insult to faith to believe that it could be used to hurt people in that way,” Buttigieg said. The South Bend mayor also added that his faith blossomed even more through his marriage with his husband Chasten Buttigieg. “I really feel that that marriage moved me closer to God and I wish the VP could understand that,” he added, saying he does not believe that being gay is “a sin.” Castro weighed in on faith as well, discussing how it taught him that “we should all love one another. Love your neighbor.” Several candidates also discussed their willingness to decriminalize HIV transmission. Warren said she is committed to fighting for the decriminalization of HIV transmission. “When you have a federal law that conflicts with the state law, then the federal law takes precedence,” she said. “In the same way that we have passed federal laws to protect people from being discriminated against — and you don’t have to rely on state law — we can do the same thing here on decriminalization.” O’Rourke said “they should” decriminalize HIV transmission, including when it’s undetectable. “I think the goal has to be equal treatment.” The candidates discussed a variety of other issues related to the LGBTQ movement within the United States, particularly whether religious institutions that do not oppose LGBTQ teaching or same-sex marriage should lose their tax-exempt status. Booker dodged directly answering whether religious education institutions should lose their tax-exempt status if they opposed LGBTQ rights. “Whether you’re a school and are providing health care for folks, whether you are a bakery. You cannot discriminate,” Booker said. “Fundamentally, no. So again, we must stand up as a nation to say that religion cannot be an excuse to deny people health insurance, education, or more. This cannot happen. And I will make sure that I assert the laws to make sure.” (RELATED: Booker Promises To ‘Go After Schools’ That Deny LGBTQ Students Equality) “That is a process, and I’ll make sure I will hold them accountable. If it means losing your tax status,” Booker added. However, O’Rourke immediately responded “yes,” he would require religious institutions to lose their tax-exempt status for such an offense. “There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone or any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us,” he said. (RELATED: Biden: ‘We Allow The Homophobes’ To Control The Agenda) “And so, as president, we’re going to make that a priority, and we are going to stop those who are infringing upon the human rights of our fellow Americans.“ Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected]. | Mary Margaret Olohan | https://dailycaller.com/2019/10/11/democrats-faith-lgbtq-cnn/ | Fri, 11 Oct 2019 05:15:46 +0000 | 1,570,785,346 | 1,570,796,835 | education | religious education |
638,910 | thedailymirror--2019-10-10--Primary school bans kids dressing up for Halloween because it's not 'inclusive' | 2019-10-10T00:00:00 | thedailymirror | Primary school bans kids dressing up for Halloween because it's not 'inclusive' | A primary school has banned kids from dressing up for a Halloween party - over fears it's not 'inclusive'. The decision was made after some members of the parent council said they want St David's RC Primary School, Edinburgh, to be more 'inclusive'. The Catholic school shares a campus - including a shared dining hall - with the non-denominational Pirniehall Primary School, where children are allowed to dress up . Issues began last year when it is said, the night before Halloween, parents were advised not to send their children to school dressed up. This year, parents avoided the short notice and asked in advance of the holiday - only to be met with the same response. As an alternative to the Halloween celebrations, the parent council has organised an ‘Autumn Dance’ next month. The parent council said "children would be able to dress as they wished" and claimed it will "not put any additional strain on family budgets and be inclusive of all students". But one angry parent told the Edinburgh Evening News that there were "only two" parents in attendance at the parent council meeting. They said: "St David's Primary is situated right next to Pirniehall Primary School. "Last year it was so lovely to see the other kids from Pirniehall having fun and ours weren't allowed to because we were told the decision had been made by the parent council to not let the kids dress up because 'some families don't celebrate Halloween.' “I felt so sad for the kids. No religion or politics should interfere with children. “It feels like back to the dark century where children have no voice and parents can decide everything they do for them." The school is described on its website as "multicultural, friendly and inclusive" and does teach religious education other than Catholicism. The furious parent added: "Throughout the year the children are taught about other religions; they go to mosques, they learn about celebrating Ramadan and more. "I am shocked, we are living in Edinburgh one of the most tolerant cities in the UK, but we have been told our children can't celebrate Halloween at school because 'it's not our culture'. "How is it that this decision has come down to two parents?" It is understood that in an email the chair of the parent council said: "It was felt that any event organised for Hallowe'en would not be inclusive of all children at the school. "The costs involved for parents would put strain on family budgets. “Sadly, the issue of Halloween has become quite contentious and this also played a part in our decision. "As a parent council we should always look to be neutral and non-controversial." A council spokesman has defended the position and said: "Parents councils take account of different views when making decisions about after school activities in order to meet the needs of as many families as possible.” | [email protected] (Paul Rodger) | https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/primary-school-bans-kids-dressing-20551493 | Thu, 10 Oct 2019 11:33:22 +0000 | 1,570,721,602 | 1,570,713,374 | education | religious education |
700,552 | theguardianuk--2019-05-21--Divided Oldham Inside the school that defies Farages narrative | 2019-05-21T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | ‘Divided Oldham’? Inside the school that defies Farage’s narrative | Eighteen years ago two teenagers had an argument over a game of cricket in Oldham, with the dispute spilling into the worst violence the mill town has experienced in its modern history. Three nights of ethnically motivated riots followed, as hooligans from both sides burned barricades and fought police with petrol bombs. Those were dark days in Oldham. Since then politicians have periodically used the town as an example of a divided Britain – most recently Nigel Farage, who told an audience in Pennsylvania that Oldham had entire streets split along racial lines. But one institution, at least, is changing the narrative. The Waterhead academy, which has sought to bring the town back together, has won the annual Accord Inclusive Schools Award for its ambitious contribution to improving community cohesion in the town. The 1,300 pupil academy was formed in 2010 by merging two ethnically homogeneous secondary schools – the predominantly Asian Breeze Hill school and the mainly white British Counthill school, using a strategy of engineered integration in an attempt to dissipate racial tensions. The new school moved on to its current campus in 2012, an area where the large majority of residents are white. Many of its pupils are drawn from monocultural primary schools; its intake is 33% white British pupils and 46% of south Asian heritage. Erin, 15, a white pupil, moved to Oldham four years ago from Canada. She sits with her friends Hamra, Emaan and Grace. While the riots took place the year before the girls were born, they are all aware of the effects on their hometown. Their school is a symbol of hope, they agree. The girls live in different parts of the town and, had it not been for their school, they would not have mixed. However, when Erin started at Waterhead in 2015, she was “buddied up” with Hamra. Teachers plan where children sit so pupils from different ethnicities mix. Hamra and Erin are now best friends, regularly visiting each other’s homes. “There were not that many Asians in my school in Canada, so it was a completely new experience meeting people from different cultures. I’ve been to Hamra’s to get my henna done during Eid and I have learnt about Ramadan,” says Erin. “Hamra would also come to my home almost every day after school.” Erin remembers the first time she tasted Hamra’s grandmother’s dhal. “It was absolutely delicious. I made my mum buy it from Tesco.” Hamra and Emaan, who identify as British, say they have learnt about Erin’s life in Canada. Emaan says: “We feel proud that we are part of something bigger than just a school. As a school we are part of society.” Grace adds: “We are integrated inside and outside of school, which is making people realise that we should come together.” The headteacher, James Haseldine, admits the school still has its issues. It is currently rated as requiring improvement by Ofsted, and Haseldine is the fifth headteacher in its relatively short history. When the idea for the school was suggested in 2007 there were numerous protests. “People were scared”, says Haseldine. “They were worried that the children would start another riot if brought together. You had something very extreme happen in the community and then there was a very extreme move to try and address that. It was very much a political decision, because following the riots local politicians and communities were under a lot of pressure to get things sorted out.” Alison Taylor, one of three vice-principals at the school, worked at Counthill during the riots and dealt with its aftermath. “There was real certainty that it would go badly wrong,” she says. “There was talk of it being an experiment and that really hit a nerve, because you don’t experiment with children’s futures.” The school established a faith forum to advise on religious and cultural issues. Representatives were drawn from faith groups and those of a non-faith background. It also sought to ensure that the diversity of its intake was fully reflected across its activities, including assemblies, celebration of festivals and religious education. It has also used sports and art to bring pupils together. When the children were still on separate sites, staff spent a year working with more than 150 students on a production of Oliver. “This was the first time that they really mixed and started to see that as normal – it gave us an idea of exactly what could be achieved,” Taylor says. Haseldine is proud of the school’s achievements but it comes with its pressures. In the past year a growing Romanian community and number of new families have moved into the area. “We have found ourselves having to find these families dentists and doctors and intervening in overcrowded houses. This is well beyond our remit but there is this massive vacuum in public services,” he says. “I think we go above and beyond in what we offer to families. We have a real community ethos.” After the riots, the Home Office commissioned a report led by Prof Ted Cantle. His findings criticised the level of ethnic segregation between local schools, as did the Ritchie report, commissioned by Oldham council and the Greater Manchester police. Now Cantle has congratulated the school on its award, saying Waterhead has shown that the “prophets of doom are wrong and people do actually want integrate”, and called for other schools to embrace a similar approach. He says: “The Waterhead Academy has shown that it is possible to create a mixed school in a very segregated environment – and that parents also support change when they are fully involved. Others now need to be reminded of their statutory duty ‘to promote community cohesion’ and to devise integration plans.” Meanwhile, the chair of the judging panel and of the Accord Coalition, Rev Stephen Terry, says the school will “serve as a powerful example about the capacity for schools to transform and to leave a legacy of integration not division”. Taylor says Waterhead will always be a symbol of what happened. “We have a team that understands these communities and where they have been and nobody wants to go back to that place,” she says. “We’re very much about looking forward, but being mindful of what has been. | Nazia Parveen | https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/21/divided-oldham-inside-school-defies-farage | 2019-05-21 06:00:37+00:00 | 1,558,432,837 | 1,567,540,319 | education | religious education |
718,817 | theguardianuk--2019-12-22--Torah on Tyne: how Orthodox Jews carved out their very own Oxbridge | 2019-12-22T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | Torah on Tyne: how Orthodox Jews carved out their very own Oxbridge | On a residential street in Gateshead, an unexpected sound drifts from open windows. It is the murmurings of hundreds of young men as they read aloud from the Torah or explore the meaning of the religious texts. Not so long ago, the soundtrack of this city on the river Tyne was the noise of heavy industry: shipbuilding, engineering, coalmining. It was all gone by the 1980s and 90s and, like so many other places, Gateshead struggled with unemployment, deprivation and loss of identity. Now it is home to the fastest-growing strictly Orthodox Jewish community in the UK, fuelled by the reputation of its educational establishments and cheap housing. There has been a Jewish presence in the north-east since the late 19th century but most communities have shrunk or disappeared. “This is the only [strictly Orthodox Jewish] community outside London and Manchester that is growing, thriving, dynamic and forward-looking. It’s expanding day by day,” said Joseph Schleider, who has lived in Gateshead all his life and is the community’s historian. The regular community of several thousand people, concentrated in a grid of streets in the neighbourhood of Bensham, is swollen in term-time by 1,500 students from all over the UK and abroad. About 350 study at the Gateshead Talmudical College, the most prestigious of the community’s numerous religious educational establishments, which is producing the next generation of rabbis and scholars. “Gateshead is the Oxbridge of the UK Jewish community,” said Rabbi Shraga Feivel Zimmerman, a New Yorker known to his congregants simply as “the rov”, meaning notable rabbi. Since he arrived from Brooklyn in 2008, the community has doubled in size. “I hope I’ve helped the community to adapt to make it fertile ground for growth.” Gateshead was “quite a distance in miles, culture and mentality” from Brooklyn, said Zimmerman, but he came for the “unique opportunity to lead a community”. “England is a very conservative place and resistant to change in many ways. If you come from the outside, you have a fresh perspective.” The rabbi is credited with turning the community to engage with wider society. Links between the community and Gateshead council, the local further education college and other mainstream institutions have been nurtured. But Zimmerman is conscious of the potential downside of rapid growth. “One seeks a positive dynamic while still retaining a sense of community. Everyone here still knows each other, shares in each other’s celebrations, grieves together. We don’t want to keep doubling every 10 years,” he said. At the yeshiva, as everyone calls the Talmudical College, young men between the ages of 16 and early 20s study and debate religious texts in pairs for about 12 hours a day. They live in dormitories, have no access to smartphones, television or mainstream newspapers, and limited internet access. “This is a serious time of study,” said Rabbi Gershon Miller, a senior member of staff. “There are prayers at 8am and study [in English, Yiddish and Hebrew] goes on until 10pm or later.” Infractions of the code of behaviour are rare. “No one is being watched or monitored. You get a little fraying at the edges from time to time, but for most this is the lifestyle they want to pursue.” Nineteen-year-old Dovid Belovski, a Londoner in his second year at the yeshiva, said: “It’s intense, I can’t deny that. But I came here to be challenged, I never expected it to be easy. It’s the foundation for my life.” Studying at the Gateshead yeshiva may also improve a young man’s marriage prospects. The college’s graduates are considered a high-status catch by ultra-Orthodox parents seeking a match for their daughters. But, said David Schleider, who runs a youth club for boys in the community, “not everyone is cut out to be a rabbi or a teacher. We want to encourage those who aren’t to be skilled up while maintaining a full religious lifestyle. We have a very good relationship with Gateshead College, which provides culturally sensitive and accessible training.” In Orthodox Judaism, women cannot become rabbis, but bright girls are encouraged to teach. About 450 girls aged 16-plus – more than a quarter from abroad – are enrolled at the Jewish Teachers’ Training College in Gateshead, which offers A-levels in maths, biology, biblical Hebrew, computer science and art, as well as teacher training. Another girls’ seminary in the community has a more vocational focus, offering courses in information technology, health and childcare. A 2015 study by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research said the average birth rate among ultra-Orthodox women was seven, compared to 1.98 for mainstream Jewish women. A group of women community leaders in Gateshead, who all work outside the home, acknowledged the challenges of large families but spoke assertively about being fulfilled professionally, religiously, and as mothers and home-makers. One consequence of the expanding community is the growing number of businesses owned and run by strictly Orthodox Jews. Kosher bakery goods, milk and meat are produced locally. Blooms, a food takeaway that opened a few years ago with the blessing of Rabbi Zimmerman, is Jewish-owned but is partly staffed by young Geordie women who blithely talk through the requirements of kosher food preparation in between gentle banter with their ultra-Orthodox customers. Low house prices have helped the community to grow. One man who moved to Gateshead from north London a few years ago bought a six-bedroom house for £150,000. “It needed a lot of work but in London it would have cost at least £1m,” he said. Four years ago, the community completed its first social housing project, consisting of 12 four- or five-bedroom houses for rent. “Housing here is significantly cheaper than in London or even Manchester. But lots of families are low-income households, in receipt of benefits, and we tend to have bigger than average families. So there is a big demand for large affordable homes,” said Shlomi Isaacson of the Jewish Community Council of Gateshead (JCCG). Antisemitism appears to be less prevalent than in other places with high ultra-Orthodox Jewish populations. Nevertheless, the yeshiva has 80 CCTV cameras plus security guards. Most incidents fall into the “low-level antisocial antisemitism” category, said Jonathan Klajn, also of the JCCG. “It’s par for the course for someone to drive down the road, roll down their window and shout expletives at us. We’re uncomfortable with the security presence, but it’s a deterrent.” He added: “We rub along fine with the local Muslims.” The JCCG and representatives of Gateshead council meet regularly to discuss the needs of the community. “We recognised the culture and lifestyle of our Orthodox community is quite different to other communities,” said Dave Andrew, who has liaised on behalf of the council for the past 10 years. “Communication is the key, given that many households don’t engage with mainstream or social media so we need to ensure they get to hear what’s happening. This is not an insular community, but the reason for that perception is that it’s a community that helps itself at every life stage from the cradle to the grave.” Rabbi Zimmerman – who answers about 500 emails a week seeking guidance on Jewish law and practice – also rejected the suggestion of insularity, saying the community was independent and self-sustaining. “In former times, children grew up and left, they moved on to a larger world,” he said. “Now it’s a realistic option to stay.” | Harriet Sherwood | https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/22/gateshead-torah-on-tyne-britains-orthodox-jewish-community | Sun, 22 Dec 2019 06:35:07 GMT | 1,577,014,507 | 1,577,017,351 | education | religious education |
719,570 | theguardianuk--2019-12-30--China jails underground pastor Wang Yi for nine years for inciting subversion | 2019-12-30T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | China jails underground pastor Wang Yi for nine years for inciting subversion | A Chinese court has sentenced the pastor Wang Yi to nine years in prison on charges of inciting subversion of state power and illegally operating a business. Wang was among dozens of churchgoers and leaders of the Early Rain Covenant church detained by police in December 2018. Most were subsequently released. The church is one of China’s best-known unregistered Protestant “house” churches. Chinese law requires that places of worship register and submit to government oversight but some decline to do so and are called house churches. China’s constitution guarantees religious freedom but since Xi Jinping became president six years ago the government has tightened restrictions on religions seen as a challenge to the authority of the Communist party. The government has cracked down on underground churches, both Protestant and Catholic, and has rolled out new legislation to increase oversight of religious education and practices, with harsher punishment for practices not sanctioned by authorities. According to the statement posted on the website of the Chengdu court in the western province of Sichuan, Wang has also been deprived of his political rights for three years and 50,000 yuan (£5,460/US$7,160) of his personal property was confiscated. China also sentenced Nobel peace prize winning dissident Liu Xiaobo in 2009 to 11 years in prison on charges of inciting subversion of state power. Liu died in prison in 2017 after he was denied permission to leave China for treatment for late-stage liver cancer. | Reuters in Shanghai | https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/dec/30/china-jails-underground-pastor-wang-yi-for-nine-years-for-inciting-subversion | Mon, 30 Dec 2019 07:04:33 GMT | 1,577,707,473 | 1,577,708,668 | education | religious education |
739,516 | theindependent--2019-01-08--Parents in Essex are withdrawing children from RE lessons over objections to Islam | 2019-01-08T00:00:00 | theindependent | Parents in Essex are withdrawing children from RE lessons over objections to Islam | Parents in Essex are withdrawing their children from religious education lessons on Islam and stopping them from visiting mosques on school trips, a report for the council has found. The trend has been uncovered in the area of Thurrock, a former stronghold for Ukip supporters, where a new report warns of "integration issues" within the local community. The report, from the standing advisory council for religious education (SACRE), a body that advises on RE in schools, calls for the “nature and extent” of withdrawals to be investigated. It says: “Parents have objected to the teaching of Islam and withdrawn children from lessons and visits to places of worship. “The outcome for those children, who arguably are those that most need to be taught about Islam, are no longer being taught about it." It added: “It is not clear whether or not this is a widespread issue in Thurrock, but it is clear that SACRE needs to investigate. The report adds that tackling hate crime remains a priority in Thurrock – where the highest number of offences have been against Muslim victims - but still some schools have experienced “tensions”. Thurrock had the fourth highest percentage of people who backed Brexit – with 72.3 per cent of the electorate voting to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum. During the 2017 general election campaign, former Ukip leader Nigel Farage visited the constituency with the party’s then candidate Tim Aker, who is also an MEP. But in January last year, all 17 Ukip councillors in Thurrock resigned from the party and formed a new group, Thurrock Independents, which now the official opposition to the Conservative majority. Census data from 2011 reveal that just 2 per cent of the population in Thurrock is Muslim. The standing advisory council for religious education (SACRE) is due to address Thurrock Council on Wednesday about their concerns over Islamophobic parents pulling children out of RE lessons. A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain told the Thurrock Gazette: "In ever increasingly diverse society, it is more crucial than ever to learn about each other’s faith and cultures, and help foster better understanding between communities. “In particular, as hostility towards Muslim communities remains widespread and more young people are brought up with inaccurate views about Muslims, we believe visits to mosques are an important way to help resolve misunderstandings." The report comes after teachers warned in April last year that parents were increasingly abusing the right to withdraw their children from religious education lessons due to their prejudices. Members of the ATL section of the National Education Union (NEU) called on the government to take steps to prevent parents from selectively withdrawing youngsters from RE classes. The Commission on Religious Education also recently called for the right of parents to withdraw their children from RE to be reviewed amid concerns about racist or Islamophobic motivations. | Eleanor Busby | http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/essex-re-islam-children-religious-education-thurrock-a8717251.html | 2019-01-08 14:48:42+00:00 | 1,546,976,922 | 1,567,553,424 | education | religious education |
753,806 | theindependent--2019-04-02--All home schooled children to be registered amid radicalisation fears under government plans | 2019-04-02T00:00:00 | theindependent | All home schooled children to be registered amid radicalisation fears under government plans | All home-schooled children will be registered amid fears that young people are increasingly going “missing” and could be radicalised despite large opposition from the home education community. Education secretary Damian Hinds is launching a compulsory register of all children not educated in school to help councils identify when they are at risk of harm or if their education isn’t good enough. The move comes after the children’s commissioner warned earlier this year that 60,000 children are now educated at home, with the number of home-schooled children having doubled in four years. Schools watchdog Ofsted has previously warned of an increasing number of young people attending illegal schools, under the guise of home education, leaving them vulnerable to radicalisation. Now parents who educate their children at home will be made to register with their local authority despite fears from the home education lobby that their children will be forced back into school. The government says it helps local authorities spot young people who may be receiving a solely religious education, attending an unregistered school, or not receiving an education at all. Mr Hinds said: “The term ‘home education’ has now acquired a much broader meaning than it used to. It is now a catch-all phrase, used to refer to all children not in a registered school. “So whilst this does include those actually getting a really good education at home, it also includes children who are not getting an education at all, or being educated in illegal schools where they are vulnerable to dangerous influences – the truth is, we just don’t know.” Anne Longfield, the children’s commissioner, said: “It is vitally important that we know that all children are safe and that they are receiving the education they deserve to help them to succeed in life.” Amanda Spielman, chief inspector of Ofsted, added that a new register would make it easier to detect and tackle the serious problems of “off-rolling”, as well as illegal schools. Last month, police chiefs and London mayor Sadiq Khan called for an end to “off-rolling” – where schools persuade parents to take their children off the register – as they linked it to knife crime. But Mike Wood, who runs website Home Education UK, argued that there is no “heightened risk” for children that are educated at home, adding that the government should reduce off-rolling in schools rather than “attacking” home educators. He said there are huge concerns among the community about increased council intervention and parents being told how to teach their children. “Local authorities have a very poor record of how home education works. They expect to see something like school at home and that is not what we do,” Mr Wood said. He added that a lot of families are “very concerned” about the possibility of being forced to put their children back into school following a council intervention. A public consultation on how the register will work, as well as the consequences for parents who fail to register their children, will be open until 24 June. Under the proposed measures, local authorities will be required to increase support for home-educating parents, with teaching resources or financial contributions to exam fees. Cllr Anntoinette Bramble, chair of the Local Government Association’s children and young people board, said: “Councils fully support the rights of parents to educate their children in the best way that they see fit, and the vast majority of parents who home educate their children do a fantastic job, and work well with their local council to make sure that a good education is being provided. “For the minority of children where this is not the case, councils need to be able to check a child’s schooling, to make sure they are being taught a suitable and appropriate education in a safe environment.” The LGA is calling on the government to change the law to give councils the powers and appropriate funding to enter homes to check a child’s schooling. She added: “Councils are keen to support families to make sure children get the best possible education, wherever they receive this. However, with children’s services facing a £3.1bn funding gap by 2025, it is vital that any additional responsibilities for councils are properly funded.” We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads. | Eleanor Busby | https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/home-schooling-department-education-damian-hinds-radicailation-illegal-schools-offrolling-a8849841.html | 2019-04-02 04:58:26+00:00 | 1,554,195,506 | 1,567,544,314 | education | religious education |
760,061 | theindependent--2019-05-17--Why do some people believe in God | 2019-05-17T00:00:00 | theindependent | Why do some people believe in God? | It’s a funny thing “having” a religion: I have one but I don’t use it – it’s like my physics GCSE. There is belief in my family background but I was never raised to take it seriously. We had distant cousins who were religious but we just thought they were crazy. One day though, when I was six, I did tell my mother that I had decided to believe in God. She said that this was fine and asked whether I wanted to continue the family tradition of Judaism. I staunchly confirmed this and she said that she was pleased and asked if, as chef, she could assist me in observing the dietary restrictions. At this point I had a few follow-up questions. At the same moment as she finished explaining about sausages, by complete coincidence I had an epiphany of renewed atheism and I fell to kissing it and promised never to flirt with other thought systems again. But even though I had no daily use for my Judaism, I was particular about the distinction. I reckoned I shared 96 per cent of my morality with Christians in the same way as I shared 96 per cent of my DNA with chimpanzees: we are indeed similar but I didn’t really want to sit through their tea parties. When I was 10 years old, Mr Halton taught religious education. He was among the last of a military generation who were put out to pasture this way – their training on the battlefield could continue to find expression in firing bits of the New Testament, selected for inaccessible archaism, at the heads of the enemy. When we were inattentive, he would grasp our ears and pull us up onto our feet and then onto our tiptoes, whispering grave threats. You may call such a practice barbaric. I say that it made me the man I am: suspicious of Applied Christianity and protective of my ears. When I was 12, at my next school, the RE tutor Mr Jackson was far and away the most talented educator in the place. He peaced out the whole Judeo-Christian drone and went straight to the Hindu gods, then veered Egyptian, tacked Sumerian and did a Norse barrel roll. What a guy. Years later a fellow pupil told me that this dynamic and memorable teacher with the light in his eyes had been discovered to have falsified his professional qualifications and been sacked by the governors. Go figure. I enjoyed those tales in the spirit of mythology but I felt pity for all the humans – ancient and modern – who, thrown into this life, had in their existential vertigo created a Creator to have created them. Francis Bacon wrote: “I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal Frame, is without a Mind. And therefore, God never wrought Miracle, to convince Atheism, because his Ordinary Works convince it.” Human desire for the universe to make sense as an intentional creation is deep – but not so deep that it had no beginning. Humans were not always religious. Some 50,000 years ago we lived together as hunter-gatherers in small communities that tracked each other’s contribution to the common weal – that was morality enough. We used tools and developed a sense of agency: “Tharg took my nut-breaking rock, maybe on purpose. If Tharg takes my stuff again I will know it is on purpose and I will bite Tharg extra hard, then Tharg will stop. I do not care for Tharg.” From this useful habit of mind – imagining the intentions of others – grew Animism: we projected intentionality on to the natural world, seeing spirits in trees and water. Nature’s mysteries could be explained relatably as the mercurial intentions of the sprites. To this day we project intention on to disorganised phenomena, just as we see a human face in the fenestration of a house – we’re wired to do it and should not really be playing the stock market. I thought Bitcoin wanted to keep going up and I wish it had told me it had changed its mind. Agriculture brought forth cities and we now lived among strangers, whose individual contributions we could no longer track. Propagating a shared belief in watchful, punitive deities kept people honest – and we successfully upscaled, organised religion burgeoning in tandem with the city state. Legal and economic systems have evolved also, but have not fully replaced the function of religion as societal glue. Indeed capitalism may be heading for crisis in our secular world, because rising inequality doesn’t square with our millenia-old expectations of social life and we have no other overarching narrative. For most of my life I have thought religion is all just anthropology, stultifying at best, but I have over the years met some impressive people who apply it more conscientiously than my RE teacher Mr Halton, and I am sometimes almost wistful that I cannot in adulthood acquire belief. It is indeed a wonder that there is both a colourful sunset and a human mind calibrated to find it beautiful, a pairing so fathomlessly lucky that it suggests design. “It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth Man’s Mind to Atheism; But depth in Philosophy, bringeth Men’s Minds about to Religion.” I know I keep quoting Francis Bacon but he makes good points – and I am crazy about Bacon. | Dan Antopolski | https://www.independent.co.uk/arts/religion-god-faith-belief-dan-antopolski-a8913136.html | 2019-05-17 10:55:00+00:00 | 1,558,104,900 | 1,567,540,518 | education | religious education |
764,299 | theindependent--2019-06-29--UK to deport aspiring astrophysicist 23 to Pakistan where she faces death or forced marriage to co | 2019-06-29T00:00:00 | theindependent | UK to deport aspiring astrophysicist, 23, to Pakistan where she faces death or forced marriage to cousin | A 23-year-old woman who has won offers to study astrophysics at some of Britain’s most prestigious universities, after living more than half her life in the UK, is to be deported to Pakistan, the country of her birth, where her father is demanding she marry her older cousin. Disobeying him could see her ostracised or even killed for violating her family’s “honour”, she fears. The woman, who spoke exclusively to The Independent, and whose identity is being concealed to protect her safety, had her bid for asylum rejected in February. Officials claimed there was not sufficient evidence she was at risk. She has lodged an appeal and is awaiting the outcome of the hearing held this month. Sairah Javed, her solicitor, said the Home Office based its earlier rejection on its belief that her father, who had worked as a Pakistani civil servant, did not fit the profile of an abuser. And in the event she felt unsafe, it had advised her to seek protection from the Pakistani state, Ms Javed said. “She would be returning to a country where her father is seen to be her guardian and is allowed to make every and all decisions for herself; where she would have limited to no freedoms on her own life decisions,” Ms Javed said. “If she says ‘No’ to the prospect of a forced marriage, there are concerns in relation to honour killings. If he seeks [her] out and calls police to intervene, police will assist him.” A report into the woman’s case shown to The Independent highlighted how forcing women into marriage was a common custom that is largely unchecked by the state – despite the practice being illegal. It was undertaken by Dr Farhaaan Wali, an academic at Bangor University and immigration and asylum consultant. In the report, he said the consequences of refusing a forced marriage were, in many cases, fatal. One in five murders in Pakistan were said to be attributed to an honour killing – over 90 per cent of which are committed by a close family member, including fathers and brothers. “Honour killing has become a common social practice in which women are targeted by family members to avenge dishonour,” the report read. “In terms of [this young woman], there is a strong likelihood that she could become a victim of honour killing, as she is refusing her parent’s marriage command.” Even if she was not killed, the report said it would be difficult for her to find housing or employment as these often required a male guardian. “As a single woman [she] would struggle to survive, which increases the risk of harassment and exploitation.” In the UK, the 23-year-old’s prospects are bright. She has an educational scholarship and has been offered a place to study astrophysics at King’s College London, Bristol University, Sheffield University and Queen Mary University. “I consider myself British, I’ve adapted to the culture, I feel more westernised, I live here,” she said. Memories of her life in Pakistan are few, but she does remember her father. “I try to forget those memories, I didn’t have a good time,” she said. “Whatever I remember, I link back to him.” Born in Islamabad, she first came to the UK in 2007 when she was 11, along with her parents, sister and brother. She said her father was different in the UK; the abuse was largely mental, rather than physical. “He was scared of the authorities here,” she said. “He wasn’t physically abusive towards us, he used to mentally torture us. “He was constantly telling us: ‘You guys will see what I’ll do when we return to Pakistan.’” She said her father came through with his threats when the family returned to Pakistan in 2011, trapping her in the house when she tried to visit her maternal grandmother. “He locked me and my sister in my room ... and he went and did the same thing to my mum,” she said. They escaped to their maternal grandfather’s house. But, she said, the threats escalated and eventually they all fled back to the UK in 2012, where her mother claimed unsuccessfully for asylum on the basis of domestic violence. In 2017, the young student was prompted to make her own bid for asylum after her father wrote letters – including one to the Pakistani courts – in an effort to marry her and her younger sister off in Pakistan. The letter revealed the father’s desire to get custody of his three children - all of whom are now legally adults – and remove them from western influences. He wrote: “I am totally against modern education being given in United Kingdom and desirous that my kids become familiar with religion and have religious education.” He said it was also against his religion, tradition and culture to allow his daughters to stay at home unmarried. He continued: “Attaining the age of majority we arrange their marriages without any delay. When my daughters were not adult, I promised with my elder brother to marry them with their younger sons.” His daughter said the thought of being married to her cousin or disobeying her father filled her with fear. “In Pakistani culture if you don’t obey your father, his honour would be affected,” she said. “They can go to any extent, they can physically abuse you and kill you in the name of honour. “I grew up here, I want to feel safe, I want to live in an environment where I can make my own decisions.” The Home Office refused to comment on the 23-year-old’s case because it “would be inappropriate to comment on cases where legal proceedings are outstanding”. It said anyone seeking asylum needed to establish they had a well-founded fear of persecution or that their circumstances would put at risk their ability to live freely, and safely, as stated under Article 3 of the Human Rights Act. The Home Office said decision makers took into account “all available evidence provided by the claimant in light of published country information, which covers country specific issues relating to gender-based harm”. | Corazon Miller | https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/pakistan-asylum-seeker-uk-home-office-immigration-honour-killing-a8968996.html | 2019-06-29 13:32:00+00:00 | 1,561,829,520 | 1,567,537,567 | education | religious education |
772,448 | theindependent--2019-10-03--Parents in Wales to lose right to remove children from sex education classes | 2019-10-03T00:00:00 | theindependent | Parents in Wales to lose right to remove children from sex education classes | Parents’ right to remove children from relationships and sexuality education (RSE) classes in Welsh schools could be scrapped under government plans. Families could also be stopped from taking pupils out of religious education (RE) lessons by the Welsh government. It comes as protests against LGBT+ lessons continue to take place outside schools in Birmingham. Kirsty Williams, education minister in Wales, said she was minded to ensure all young people are required to study RE and RSE in the new curriculum – which will be LGBT+ inclusive. “It has always been an anomaly that children could be prevented from attending certain subjects,” Ms Williams said. In a consultation by the government earlier this year, more than four in five (88.7 per cent) of respondents said they wanted parents’ right to withdraw children from lessons to be retained. Some respondents suggested home schooling could increase if the right was removed. The Welsh government has launched an eight-week consultation on the plans. Relationships education in primary schools and sex education in secondary schools will become compulsory in England from 2020. The announcement prompted a widespread campaign against the plans - including protests at two primary schools in Birmingham But parents in England will retain the right to withdraw children from sex education until the age of 15. The Welsh government is also proposing to change the name of RE to "Religions and Worldviews". Kathy Riddick, coordinator of Wales Humanists, welcomed the move to include different religions and humanism in RE. But she called for parents’ right to remove children from RE to remain. “We have grave concerns about parents losing their right to withdraw their children from RE in faith schools where they could be subjected to a heavy-handed religious instruction that enforces a particular faith-based perspective,” she said. | Eleanor Busby | https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/sex-education-classes-school-parents-lessons-wales-lgbt-religious-a9138246.html | 2019-10-03 12:12:19+00:00 | 1,570,119,139 | 1,570,221,714 | education | religious education |
783,946 | theirishtimes--2019-01-31--Why are Catholic schools so popular at a time of increased secularisation | 2019-01-31T00:00:00 | theirishtimes | Why are Catholic schools so popular at a time of increased secularisation? | In Ireland, and around the world, as Catholic schools are celebrating their annual celebration of Catholic Schools Week, it may surprise readers that today there are more than 28,000 Catholic schools in Europe are educating over 8,500,000 pupils. Today almost one-third of primary and secondary students in Europe are in schools under the aegis of the European Committee for Catholic Education (CEEC). Gone are the monologue schools for Catholics of times past but instead, throughout Europe, Catholic schools are now multicultural spaces where students of all faiths and none are made welcome to hear the hopeful message of the gospel presented in a relevant way that plugs into the continual search for meaning that continues to imbue all of humanity. This diverse nature and progressive character of Catholic schools is exemplified by a CEEC meeting, taking place in Brussels this week, to coordinate our forthcoming symposium to address inter-cultural and inter-religious practices in Catholic schools in Europe. This vital subject is highlighted in a world-wide project for Catholic schools called “Je Peux!, I can!, Yo puedo!” in which schoolchildren from all over the world seek to meet the challenge of Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical letter, Laudato Sí, on the care for our common home. Education in Europe is a national competency and thus operates under the conventions of the European Council and the European Court of Human Rights, and most countries have a majority of State schools. However, it is interesting to note that of the 47 member states of the European Council which includes Russia and Turkey, there are only two countries, France and Macedonia, where there is no religious education in State schools. In all of the other countries education about religion is seen as an essential feature of culture and citizenship, as well as a bulwark against fundamentalist and extremist philosophies from whatever quarter they emerge. Even in France, almost 20 per cent of the population attend non-governmental Catholic schools which contract to meet the State’s requirements in teaching the national curriculum, have autonomy to employ Catholic teachers and to educate pupils in the Catholic faith as part of the characteristic spirit/ethos of the schools, and are funded by the State to almost the same level as French public schools. Indeed, it is not just in Ireland and in France that Catholic schools receive public funding to almost the level of the public school system but it is a consistent feature of State policy in most European countries, from Portugal in the west to Hungary in the east, and from Malta in the south to Lithuania in the north, and it reaches equality in Scotland and in the Netherlands where Catholic schools receive exactly the same funding as public schools. But this is not what one would expect to hear in 2019. Why then are Catholic schools so popular around the world and in particular, at a time of increased secularisation throughout Europe, why do they remain so? Research indicates that there are four characteristics of Catholic schools that resonate with parents: (a) they have an academic structure and culture which is sometimes referred to as ‘bookishness’; (b) they create strong internal communities; (c) they have devolved governance and autonomy; and, of course, (d) they have the inspirational Gospel message which gives the school community a sense of mission and purpose. Noting that European civil society inhabits the space between the State, the market place, and the family, research also suggests that the voluntary independent sector is ideally placed to create partnerships to combine the best of these elements. Thus, the education in voluntary Catholic schools – such as we have in such large numbers in Ireland north and south - will never be simply to further the ends of the State, nor simply to meet the demands of the market, rather they will continue to provide an informed evaluation of all of the gifts inherent in each individual to enable their contribution to the common good. In April 2017, Pope Francis published Educating to Fraternal Humanism which deals with the Catholic Church’s position on global inter-dependence and the common destiny of all peoples on Earth. The chapter headings of Humanising education, A Culture of Dialogue, Globalizing Hope, For a True Inclusion and Co-operation Networks speak to his belief that there has never been a more important time to challenge the assumptions of those who would suggest that religion should be considered a thing of the past, both alien and irrelevant. In a speech later in 2017 Pope Francis emphasised that Europe is made up of people, and not statistics and institutions, and that community rather than individualism must be re- discovered. He concluded, “Person and community are the foundation of the Europe that we, as Christians, want and can contribute to building. The bricks of this structure are dialogue, inclusion, solidarity, development and peace.” As we in Ireland celebrate this year’s Catholic Schools Week, with the theme ‘Celebrating the work of our local Catholic Schools’, we do so within that European and world-wide understanding that although our schools are local, the challenges facing society are universal. In application this means that Catholic schools have an important role to challenge society to evolve as a civilisation of love and to do so by finding solutions to the moral and other dilemmas that face States and society on this shared Earth of ours. Paul Meany is a former principal of Marian College, Dublin (1988-2017), and is chairman of the Le Chéile Education Trust. | null | https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/why-are-catholic-schools-so-popular-at-a-time-of-increased-secularisation-1.3777895 | 2019-01-31 17:41:36+00:00 | 1,548,974,496 | 1,567,550,130 | education | religious education |
785,946 | theirishtimes--2019-04-06--Scaremongering and fear The Dublin Catholic school row | 2019-04-06T00:00:00 | theirishtimes | Scaremongering and fear: The Dublin Catholic school row | Outside the gates of Catholic national schools in the affluent suburbs of Malahide and Portmarnock this week, there was only one topic of conversation among parents. Fear, uncertainty and anxiety have been coursing through school communities on foot of a Department of Education request that one Catholic school out of eight in the area should divest its patronage. “I’m not a holy Joe by any means, but this isn’t something any of us wants,” said one mother of two, waiting outside St Oliver Plunkett’s national school in Malahide with her buggy. “My child is happy here. There’s a sense of community. I don’t see why we should have to change.” Another mother of three, who describes herself as an occasional churchgoer, is also fearful of how changes could impact on her two children at the school. “My child has been learning religion, so are we just going to suddenly stop that? What about the nativity play, the Holy Communion and Confirmation. Will that all stop?” A grandfather, waiting to collect his two grandchildren, says anxiety over the divestment debate is affecting the pupils. “My granddaughter was asking her parents the other day: ‘Will I still be a Catholic?’ It’s just not right the way all this is being handled.” The department’s move is part of a wider plan to increase access to multidenominational schools for parents. At present, 90 per cent of primary schools are under Catholic control. But so far, the process has been marked by a blizzard of scaremongering and wildly inaccurate claims over what may happen to schools if taken over by a nondenominational or multidenominational patrons such as Educate Together. Much of it has been circulated on parents’ WhatsApp groups and school social media platforms, as well as at information meetings and in school correspondence. In the case of Oliver Plunkett’s, the parents’ association warned that a change in ethos could spell the end of the school carol services, garden fetes, healthy eating programmes and its Book Buzz school reading programme. It also highlighted the potential consequences of a narrow vote in favour of divestment. “To avoid another Brexit-type disaster, we implore you to attend the meeting. This is your opportunity to raise your questions/concerns,” parents were told. At Scoil an Duinnínigh on the Feltrim Road in Swords, parents were warned that references to God such as “dia duit” may not longer be permitted, while music with religious references would not be allowed. St Sylvester’s Infant School in Malahide warned there would be “no more Christmas concerns, no more Halloween and Easter celebrations”, while grandparent assemblies and St Patrick’s Day celebrations would be cancelled. The sheer volume of misinformation prompted Minister for Education Joe McHugh to issue a rebuke to school authorities along with a warning to cease issuing claims that have no basis in fact. “It is a bad example to be setting, particularly for those of us working to educate our young people,” McHugh said. “Just to be clear – Christmas will not be cancelled. Neither will any typical school holiday like Easter or St Patrick’s Day. Pancake Tuesday won’t be banned. Nor will holidays or celebrations associated with the ancient Celtic/pagan festival of Halloween,” he said. The controversy has highlighted flaws with the divestment process and challenges facing the State in promoting greater choice for parents in a system dominated by the Catholic Church. Some 95 per cent of primary schools are under the control of churches, and 90 per cent of those are under the patronage of the Catholic Church. Almost everyone – including the churches – agrees that placing so much control of primary schools in the hands of religious denominations is out of step with the needs of an increasingly diverse society. Few, however, are willing to concede control. It is seven years since plans to pave the way for the divestment of schools from religious ownership were announced in a blaze of publicity. The report of the Forum for Patronage and Pluralism, established by former minister Ruairí Quinn, recommended that religious schools in about 28 areas divest to multidenominational patrons. Progress has been slow and divisive: only about 13 have completed the divestment process to date. There have been a range of obstacles, such as local resistance to change, parental fears and opposition from local bishops. In the few cases where divestment has occurred, they have tended to involve schools where enrolment was declining or where parents had lost confidence in schools for a combination of reasons. The glacial pace of progress prompted Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin in recent times to criticise elements of the church for “dragging their feet” over the issue. To help speed the process up, a new divestment model – rebranded as a “reconfiguration process” – was drawn up two years ago by the department. While the old model required a school to be closed down and re-opened, the revamped process envisages “live transfers” of patronage. However, this new process has come in for heavy criticism from parents on all sides of the debate. Laura Mulvey, whose daughter attends Scoil an Duinnínigh, wants her school to remain under its Catholic ethos but says she is frustrated at not being able to get clear answers over the divestment process. “The lack of information and clear and transparent answers to parents’ questions are causing stress and anxiety in both children and parents of children in the school,” she says. Under the process, parents are being asked to vote on whether to remove their school’s Catholic patronage without any idea of who might take over. There is also no input from multidenominational groups such as Educate Together, the State-run Education and Training Board or the gaelscoil patron An Fóras Pátrúnachta. In this information vacuum, there has been no shortage of evidence of scaremongering over the implications of what might happen. David McAlinden, whose daughter attends one of the schools being canvassed for divestment in Malahide and is in favour of divestment, feels the process is deeply unfair. He says parents were told that if they voted to change, but are unhappy with the available options, there would be no way back. “It strikes me that this process, together with a not insignificant amount of misinformation, has been cynically engineered to obtain a particular result for the diocese,” he says. Progress after the Ruairí Quinn announcement seven years ago proved achingly slow and divisive, partly due to local opposition and because it involved having to wait for a school to either close down or amalgamate. The late Prof John Coolahan, who chaired the forum, said the absence of a “stick” to wield against the Catholic Church was another key flaw. The Richard Bruton system of “live transfers”, devised two years ago, was to speed up the process. The department, which devised the process in consultation with Catholic Church representatives, says it is aimed at reflecting the wishes of parents and the school community and is not aimed at forcing change on any school. McHugh has signalled that he is open to reviewing this process once a pilot phase in a total of 16 areas has been completed this summer. But school management sources say this process is once again set up to fail and is still under too much church control. They say a revamped approach will be required, to give parents more certainty over what they are voting for – by allowing for joint patronage or for the gradual transfer of patronage, along with guarantees over access to religious education or sacramental preparation outside school hours. Fr Gerry O’Connor, who has chaired numerous school boards of management and has been involved in the attempted divestment of a Catholic school, says many parents still feel a strong connection with the ritual of the church. “There are threshold moments in people’s lives that many still want to rejoice and the Church ones still connect on a level that, perhaps, secular versions don’t,” he says. Divestment, he says, sounds like a very good idea in theory, but many parents feel a strong attachment to their local school. He gives the example of the Ballyfermot area, where parents of children in 10 Catholic schools (and no alternative) took part in a series of votes. No school wanted to divest, so the status quo remained. “You’re dealing with parents, teachers and the wider community. It can be very hard to get all three to move in one direction. It’s so much easier in a greenfield or start-up school. While Archbishop Martin has tried to push divestment, it can get very complicated at a local level.” An irony in the current debate is that what seems like a radical move in some quarters – breaking the link between church and State in education – would in fact be a return to the original vision for our primary school system. The “Stanley letter” of 1831 – a letter from the chief secretary of the British government to the Duke of Leinster, then Dublin’s leading nobleman – is widely considered as the foundation for the national school in Ireland. Stanley’s vision was that these schools would be non-denominational and religious instruction should be separate. Within a few decades, however, the power of the various churches ensured the vision was not realised and national schools became denominational in character. Almost 190 years later, it seems the State is still grappling with how to find a satisfactory model which best meets the needs of its young citizens. | null | https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/scaremongering-and-fear-the-dublin-catholic-school-row-1.3850573 | 2019-04-06 05:00:00+00:00 | 1,554,541,200 | 1,567,543,784 | education | religious education |
786,449 | theirishtimes--2019-04-22--Archbishop Diarmuid Martin The church is imprisoned in its past | 2019-04-22T00:00:00 | theirishtimes | Archbishop Diarmuid Martin: ‘The church is imprisoned in its past’ | The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, turned 74 on April 8th. He has a year to go before submitting his letter of resignation to Rome, as required of all Catholic bishops when they reach 75. The two auxiliary bishops in Dublin must submit their resignations to Rome even sooner – Bishop Ray Field turns 75 next month with Bishop Eamonn Walsh following in September. Archbishop Martin, the most influential Catholic prelate in Ireland, is 15 years in his role this month, having succeeded Cardinal Desmond Connell. He is 20 years a bishop and next month marks a half century since his ordination. Does he think he will be allowed to stand down? “You never know that,” he says. “At the moment there’s quite a delay on [the appointment of] bishops in Ireland. One thing I would not want is that there would be a vacuum or that there would be a prolonged period of speculation.” He says the big change will not be him and his auxiliary colleagues moving on but rather the “realities of the diocese”, which are “changing enormously”. “Others might say that may be a little time in which people can stand back and reflect and ask the questions: Where should we be going? What sort of bishop do we need? But I think there are too many serious problems that have to be addressed from the pastoral, personnel, financial situation – you can’t allow that to drag on.” He acknowledges Cardinal Connell was persuaded to stay on for three more years after turning 75. “I think it wasn’t a good thing,” he adds. The archbishop may stay in Dublin post-retirement, in which case he would need to look for new accommodation in the city. “My mother always said that if she could get an apartment in Nelson’s Pillar, that would be her choice,” he smiles. As to whether his period as archbishop had been overshadowed by the abuse issue – as it was for Cardinal Connell who once said the abuse issue had devastated his ministry – Archbishop Martin responds: “Cardinal Connell always focused on himself an awful lot. I don’t do it in that same sense. “You’d be very foolish not to say it has done immense damage to the church. And it isn’t that the enemies of the church picked on it. It’s done immense damage to so many individuals and we still don’t know the full story.” Was the church in Ireland now imprisoned by that past? “You can’t whitewash it. The church has to re-find its future. The church is imprisoned in its past – not just by the abuse thing – in a whole culture and that culture doesn’t respond any more to the realities. Therefore you’ve to find creative ways of moving out and they’ll be very, very different. And they won’t satisfy a lot of people.” He is concerned about those “cultural warriors” in the church who are resistant to change. “Saying ‘let’s restore what we had before and let’s be there, let’s be aggressive and let’s close our ranks’ – that isn’t the answer.” Where schools are concerned, the archbishop worries “that you’ll have Catholic schools and other schools and that they’re almost hostile in their values, whereas what we need is an education system which respects difference but also fosters dialogue and contact rather than shouting at one another.” He says Educate Together is a movement he respects and “there’s been a maturity in their response, but you could end up in a situation where you’d have more non-Catholic schools to simply be against Catholicism. That isn’t the answer either.” On divestment, he says that all the projects about divestment have failed. “I’m not getting involved in the blame game. What’s emerging more and more is that all our understandings of what would happen were a little bit too naive.” What should happen is that “in a number of areas you’d get schools and you’d identify, for the duration of five or six years, a primary school. Over that period of time you’d make a gradual shift from one system to another. That would also have to apply to teachers. There’d be a long-term evolution.” He says there are now more members of the Government under the age of 45 than he has priests aged under 45. “The main body of believing Catholics and Catholic leadership belongs to a generation that is over 45, whereas the creativity in Irish society is coming now from another generation, and we’re not making the inroads.” That says there are two churches in Dublin devoted to young people – at St Paul’s (Arran Quay) and the University Church on St Stephen’s Green, which is “quite unique” and there is a “vibrancy in the parishes”. But the church has “to find a way in which young people not only begin to develop their belief, but their ability to take part in society inspired by that belief. We’re not generating that.” He welcomed Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s proposal for a new covenant between church and state in Ireland, mentioned in his address to Pope Francis at Dublin Castle last August. However, he is “not too sure it was a thought-out idea”. What is needed “is a culture of dialogue and respect within society in which nobody is demonised and where people bring a contribution that is recognised”. There is, he says, “a tendency growing in Irish political life of removing the real role of civil society in general, not just the church; that voluntary organisations who receive funding from the State end up working for the State rather than being an expression of citizens coming together in their own way”. It was also the case that “we have a substantial number of believing Catholics who are feeling that the religious education they had received is no longer providing them with the answers or the ability even to enter a dialogue about the evolving reflection of what our world is. “This is where we need a more vocal group of Catholics who can take part in the overall reflection of society precisely as believers, not as lobbying groups or bickering groups. Our schools should be doing that. We haven’t produced an intellectual Catholic leadership in recent times,” he says. “Irish Catholicism was always a little bit cut off from the mainstream connections in Europe.” He was critical of the apostolic visitations sent by Rome to reform the Irish church after publication of the Ryan and Murphy reports into child sexual abuse in 2009. “There was somehow the idea that the Irish church could be reformed from outside. That’s not the case. The visitation was not very well planned.” What irks him was that there was “a three-year period in which the natural progress that should have been taking place in the Irish Catholic Church – home-grown and home-led – was put in the freezer. It delayed reform.” As to whether two Irish seminaries – at Maynooth and the Irish College in Rome – are sustainable, he says “probably not”. He is interested in new forms of priestly formation. In Dublin “one seminarian, for various reasons, is now living in a parish and going to theology. We formed a small group to accompany him on that. It would be better if we had two or three.” Are 26 Catholic dioceses in Ireland too many? “The revision of dioceses in any country is a problem. In Italy, the pope has almost thrown his hands up in despair at that. There is a problem in the west of Ireland. There’s a great sensitivity there but there’s depopulation there as well.” On the idea of amalgamating of dioceses, the archbishop says there is no way around it. Relations with the other churches are going well. “We do a lot of good things together. The theological dialogue should be on the things that separate us.” If they focused “on the things that unite us and develop and foster them – and there’s been a huge progress in that – then we have to start looking at where are the things that divide us.” They have “to start looking at some of the theological questions and at learning from the other side”. In his 15 years as Archbishop of Dublin, what has stood out for him? “Obviously dealing with some of the child sexual abuse and particularly the meeting with victims. If I were to look at an event, remember that [March 2011] service of repentance we carried out in the Pro-Cathedral.” There was an atmosphere of tension there. “I always remember when it was over, sitting in the Pro-Cathedral were four couples, crying. I waited at the door and they came and said ‘good evening’. I didn’t ask them any questions. They didn’t ask me any questions. These were people with their own story.” There was also the 2012 Eucharistic Congress, the pope’s visit, the World Meeting of Families last August. And parish communities. “For example, the pilgrimage to Lourdes every year with those 200 young people was an interesting experience.” Was he disappointed at the turnout for Pope Francis last August? “You couldn’t but be,” he says. However some events during the visit worked very well. “I went to bed on the Saturday night very happy after bringing the pope to Seán MacDermott Street.” It was “a parish that was devastated by drugs, and it is. I had a lot of difficulty.” There were security problems but Archbishop Martin was determined it would happen. There was also the event in the Pro-Cathedral (“You had 800 people that normally wouldn’t have been in contact”), the event with Br Kevin Crowley of the Capuchin Centre, and the Croke Park concert. But from the Sunday morning,with publication of the Vigano letter criticising Pope Francis, “it was downhill”. Government and security people were warning that Phoenix Park was “going to be like climbing Croagh Patrick to get there. That, to the sort of people who were going to come, elderly people or people with families, put them off. Then it started to rain.” But the archbishop was impressed by turnout on the streets of Dublin. “There were more people there than on St Patrick’s Day and it was genuine enthusiasm. In a lot of parishes people stayed and watched on screens. Maybe the idea of the big event is a thing of the past in Ireland.” He spoke to Pope Francis after his meeting with abuse survivors on the Saturday evening. “I talked to him in the car about the victims and he was genuinely moved. The first thing he said to me was: ‘I’ve written my notes and I’m going to rewrite the things tomorrow [for the Phoenix Park Mass].’ If you read it, it was quite strong. If I’d said some of those things in the past, Cori [Conference of Religious of Ireland] would have kneecapped me.” He adds: “I would have been shot – by the church. [The pope] talked about exploitation of children. If you look at the phrases, they are very strong.” | null | https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/archbishop-diarmuid-martin-the-church-is-imprisoned-in-its-past-1.3867528 | 2019-04-22 00:00:00+00:00 | 1,555,905,600 | 1,567,542,165 | education | religious education |
786,995 | theirishtimes--2019-05-15--Parents leaving it to schools to prepare children for sacraments | 2019-05-15T00:00:00 | theirishtimes | Parents leaving it to schools to prepare children for sacraments | Ireland is unique in its dependence on schools in preparing for the sacraments. And, as any primary school teacher will tell you, preparation for Communion or Confirmation isn’t just a one-day affair. There is response learning, singing, church visits, procession practice, wardrobe fittings and photoshoots. All of this takes far more than the 30 minutes designated daily for religious education in the national curriculum. Then there’s the wider question of whether the sacraments are at risk of becoming a social rather than a religious event. Many teachers say they have noticed a deterioration in children’s religious knowledge over the years. Some talk of how they end up having to re-teach students how to receive Communion in their Confirmation year. One recalls a recent First Holy Communion ceremony where the amused congregation were unaware of when to sit, stand or kneel at any point during the Mass. It’s clear that many parents are not engaging with church practices – though they expect it of their schools. Society, generally, is also changing fast: more than a third of marriages are civil rather then religious, while census figures indicate that about a fifth of families of parenting age describe themselves as non-religious. Yet, we have a primary education system where 90 per cent of schools remain under the control of the Catholic Church. It is against this backdrop that Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin last year announced plans to consult teachers, parents and parish personnel to “improve the preparation and celebration of the sacraments”. Sacraments, he said, were not just “conveyor belts” or “social occasions” but “they are fundamentally moments of faith”. The result – based on a survey of 1,800 school principals, teachers, parents, parishioners, clergy and parish workers in the archdiocese – reveals a strong demand for parents and local parishes to play a much greater role in preparing children for sacraments. All are saying that passing on faith is primarily the responsibility of the home, with the support of the parish – as well as the school. The archdiocese says it is to hold meetings with parishes shortly to reflect on these findings. Speaking to The Irish Times earlier this year, Archbishop Martin said schools in general felt religious formation should be outside schools and “we’re working on that”. “For instance, this year everybody who wanted to be confirmed had to write, make a formal application addressed to me, again to emphasise that Confirmation isn’t a school subject, it’s a faith subject,” he said. One obvious solution is to do what many multi-denominational schools have been doing for years: establish an “opt-in” system of sacramental preparation. This can involve classes which take place outside school hours either in the school premises or in local parish facilities. While it might end up in fewer children completing the sacraments, from the church’s point of view it could result in a higher proportion of more committed Catholics. Another approach may involve parish programmes which aim to boost parental involvement by encouraging them to bring their children to Mass with them in the months leading up to Communion or Confirmation. Taking sacramental preparation out of the school day, however, is unlikely to be the end of the debate over religion in the education system. While at present up to half an hour of each primary school day is allocated to religious education, a survey by the Irish Primary Principals’ Network found that the vast majority of principals felt less time should be spent on teaching religion in the classroom and more on subjects such as maths, English and physical education. This, no doubt, will be a debate for another day. | null | https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/parents-leaving-it-to-schools-to-prepare-children-for-sacraments-1.3892398 | 2019-05-15 02:00:00+00:00 | 1,557,900,000 | 1,567,540,606 | education | religious education |
794,438 | themanchestereveningnews--2019-02-01--Investigation launched into Salford charity after serious concern about unaccounted funds | 2019-02-01T00:00:00 | themanchestereveningnews | Investigation launched into Salford charity after 'serious concern' about unaccounted funds | A Salford charity is under investigation because of "serious concern" about substantial unaccounted funds. The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into The Bersam Trust "to look into concerns over potential misconduct and mismanagement in the administration of the charity." The inquiry was started on January 14th. The charity, which operates from the Salford area, aims to provide children with a strictly orthodox Jewish religious education and advance orthodox Jewish practice. The Commission has examined the charity’s annual accounts and obtained records from the charity’s bank account. In a statement the watchdog said it found "significant discrepancies between the financial activity recorded in the accounts and the values of funds entering and leaving the charity’s bank accounts, raising serious concern. "The Commission’s accountancy analysis also identified that comparative figures in the accounts do not match those in the previous year’s accounts and differences are not supported by explanation from the Independent Examiner. "The Commission has therefore taken protective regulatory action to freeze the charity’s bank accounts." The inquiry will examine the governance, management and administration of the charity and will focus particularly on: The Commission previously had regulatory concerns with Trust regarding governance issues, and provided regulatory advice and guidance to the trustees in the form of an action plan. The inquiry will also examine the extent to which the trustees have complied with previously issued regulatory guidance. According to the Trust's accounts its income for the financial year ending March 31st 2017 was £303,308 and its spending £170,150. For the previous four years the figures were: March 2016, income £358,469, spending £66,347; March 2015, income, £650,797, spending, £116, 213; March 2014, £289,286, income, £59,316; March 2013, income, £75,835, spending, £17,930. The Trust is based in Merrybower Road, Broughton Park, Salford. It says its policies are to "further the observance of orthodox Judaism, to encourage and support the advancement of orthodox Jewish religious education, to establish all institutions required by the orthodox Jewish community and any other charitable activities." In official documentation the Trust adds: "The policy of the trustees is to distribute most of the income received in accordance with the objectives of the trust but leaving a cash balance at their discretion to fund unexpected demands and appeals." The MEN has attempted to contact the Trust. | Neal Keeling | https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/investigation-launched-salford-charity-after-15760970 | 2019-02-01 19:01:49+00:00 | 1,549,065,709 | 1,567,549,985 | education | religious education |
916,285 | theseattletimes--2019-09-04--Greek authority rules against recording of faith at school | 2019-09-04T00:00:00 | theseattletimes | Greek authority rules against recording of faith at school | ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s independent privacy authority has ruled it unconstitutional and illegal for school authorities to keep records of pupils’ religious faith. The non-binding decision by the Data Protection Authority made public Wednesday follows complaints by an atheist group and human rights activists. The complaints had targeted the listing of schoolchildren’s faith on end-of-school certificates, on an internal Education Ministry portal and on declarations non-Greek Orthodox parents must sign to exempt their children from otherwise obligatory religious education classes. Although the government is not obliged to implement the decision, failure to do so could prompt legal action by citizens or rights groups. Greece stopped the listing of religious faith on state identity cards in 2000, despite strong opposition from the powerful Orthodox Church of Greece. | The Associated Press | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/greek-authority-rules-against-recording-of-faith-at-school/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all | 2019-09-04 19:57:53+00:00 | 1,567,641,473 | 1,569,331,529 | education | religious education |
929,475 | thesun--2019-01-20--RE teacher ditched by husband after police probe into inappropriate relationship with schoolgirl | 2019-01-20T00:00:00 | thesun | RE teacher ditched by husband after police probe into ‘inappropriate’ relationship with schoolgirl, 17 | A MARRIED religious education teacher was ditched by her husband after she was probed over claims of an “inappropriate” relationship with a schoolgirl aged 17. Cops quizzed mum-of-one Lynsey Craw, 33, after complaints about how close she got to the pupil, and she was charged. She is believed to have been suspended from a Fife school during the probe and split from her husband soon after the accusations surfaced. But the charge was dropped following a review into the case by the procurator fiscal. A source said: “People were shocked when they heard the allegation. "It got a number of parents asking questions.” The teen is said to have discussed the claims with her parents after they were alerted. LYNSEY Craw is the latest married female teacher to hit the headlines over an alleged relationship with a pupil. Eppie Sprung Dawson, then 27, was struck off after she was caught semi-naked with a 17-year-old in a car in 2012. Sprung Dawson, of Dumfries, was put on the sex offenders list after admitting bedding Matthew Robinson. But she dodged jail after a court heard she was abused as a teen. In 2014, Bernadette Smith, 35, also avoided prison over her fling with a 16-year-old — as they only snogged. The mum of three, of Denny, near Stirling, admitted stripping half-nude and cuddling in bed with pupil Gary Ralston. A sheriff gave her a community sentence after agreeing her “humiliation was complete”. Craw, of Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire, is understood to have been absent from school for months after the authorities got involved — and Fife Council would not say whether she is still an employee. The RE Miss is thought to be a keen musician and has worked with pupils at the Fife Music Festival. Her estranged hubby said: “We are over, it is nothing to do with me. She doesn’t live here any more.” Police Scotland said: “We investigated a report of inappropriate behaviour received in May 2018. “A 33-year-old woman was charged in connection and a report was submitted to the procurator fiscal in August.” A spokesman for the Crown Office said: “After consideration of the facts and circumstances, and all the available admissible evidence, Crown counsel instructed that there should be no proceedings.” Fife Council said: “We cannot discuss individual circumstances of any employee, either current or former.” We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368 . You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours. | rmains | https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8241483/married-r-e-teacher-inappropriate-relationship-teenage-schoolgirl/ | 2019-01-20 22:48:35+00:00 | 1,548,042,515 | 1,567,551,648 | education | religious education |
975,067 | thesun--2019-07-30--How many godparents can you have who can be godparents and do they need to be christened to be one | 2019-07-30T00:00:00 | thesun | How many godparents can you have, who can be godparents and do they need to be christened to be one? | GODPARENTS often play a big part in a child's life or, at the very least, turn up with gifts on their birthday. Here we look at whether at how many a kid can have and what their rights are... Traditionally, Christian children have three godparents in total, though they can have as many as the parent wants. Girls usually have two godmothers and one godfather while boys have two godfathers and one godmother but there is no hard and fast rules nowadays. Non-practising Christians can have as many or as few as they like, though it is customary to have at least one godfather and one godmother. Blood relatives and members of the family can be chosen to be the child's godparent. Having godparents is thought to date back to the second century, when baptisms became widespread. When a child is born parents will often turn to close family members or friends and ask them to be a godparent to their child. Traditionally, godparents were responsible for ensuring a child's religious education and helping them develop their faith. But in modern times, the individual is chosen by parents to take a general interest in the kid's wellbeing and development, not necessarily with a religious aspect. This is not a legal appointment and, should anything happen to the parents, godparents would not automatically become responsible for that child. While traditionally there was a religious aspect to being a godparent there is not set rule about whether or not the godparents have been christened or not. This though also depends on the church the baby is being christened into. Some strict churches may ask that all the godparents have been christened in order to fulfil their role, or others may be happy to perform the service if only one person has. Some may not even bother. Godparents play an important role in christenings, according to Church of England Christenings. "In the christening service, you will make some big promises to support your godchild throughout their life," the website states. They often bring the infant to the font to be baptised and in countries such as Latvia, it is the godparents who also choose a name for the child. Christening gifts are traditionally silver, such as a silver spoon or rattle but here, too, this tradition is fading and all kinds of presents can be given. We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368 . You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours. | Jay Akbar | https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6716177/how-many-godparents-christening/ | 2019-07-30 20:35:41+00:00 | 1,564,533,341 | 1,567,535,348 | education | religious education |
1,027,368 | thetorontostar--2019-07-06--China locks down Xinjiang a decade after deadly ethnic riots | 2019-07-06T00:00:00 | thetorontostar | China locks down Xinjiang a decade after deadly ethnic riots | ISTANBUL - A decade after deadly riots tore through his hometown, Kamilane Abudushalamu still vividly recalls the violence that left him an exile. On July 5, 2009, Abudushalamu was hiding with his father on the 10th floor of an office tower in Urumqi, the capital of China’s Xinjiang region that is home to the Turkic Uighur ethnic minority. By a park, he spotted a bus on fire. Then he heard a crack as a motorcycle nearby exploded. Hours later, when he and his father stepped out to sprint home, he saw crowds of Uighurs stabbing Han Chinese in front of a middle school. The bodies of half a dozen people lay scattered on the streets — just a fraction of the estimated 200 killed that night. Abudushalamu and tens of thousands of other Uighurs now live in Turkey, cut off from friends and family back home. Analysts say the Urumqi riots set in motion the harsh security measures now in place across Xinjiang, where about 1 million Uighurs, Kazakhs and other Muslims are estimated to be held in heavily guarded internment camps. Former detainees have told The Associated Press that within, they are subject to indoctrination and psychological torture. Abudushalamu was just 9 years old when the riots took place. At the time, he knew he was witnessing something terrible, but he never imagined where the following years would lead. “I thought Han and Uighur people could be at peace,” he said. “The camps? I never thought that would happen.” Weeks before, Han workers killed at least two Uighur migrants in a brawl at a toy factory in Shaoguan, an industrial city in China’s coastal Guangdong province. The Han workers were angry about the alleged rapes of Han women by Uighur men, though a government investigation later concluded there was no evidence such an assault had taken place. Images and videos of the brawl quickly circulated among Uighurs back in Xinjiang, including gory scenes of what appeared to be a Han Chinese man dragging a dead Uighur by his hair. The videos enraged many Uighurs long upset with the Han-dominated government that took control of their region following the Communist revolution in 1949. The litany of complaints was long: heavy restrictions on religious education, discrimination against college-educated Uighurs looking for jobs, subsidies and benefits for Han migrants to settle on lands once owned by Uighurs. Among the most odious were threats from state officials of fines or even jail time if parents didn’t send their young, unmarried daughters to work in factories in inner China . “Hashar,” a program that forced farmers to pave roads, dig ditches, and clear land for crops for the government for no pay fueled further resentment. The killed Uighur workers had been on a state employment program, sent more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) from home. For many, their deaths crystallized everything that was wrong about Beijing’s heavy-handed interventionist policies — and the belittling racism they felt they were subjected to by the Han Chinese. The images spurred Urumqi students to organize a protest on July 5 demanding a government investigation. Demonstrators were stopped by police in the late afternoon, and tensions mounted until officers opened fire, Uighur witnesses say. Two students present at the protests told AP that they were shot at. One recalled that as he turned and ran, bullets whizzed by his head and others around him dropped to the ground. Furious Uighurs attacked Han civilians on the streets. An estimated 200 people were killed — stabbed, beaten or burned alive in the melees that followed. Uighurs smashed storefronts, overturned cars and buses and set some ablaze. Abudushalamu hid with his family for days as mobs of Uighurs and Han killed each other in cycles of bloody revenge. When they stepped outside a few days later, the streets were eerily empty, Abudushalamu said. Then the police arrived and started shooting. “Two maybe SWAT team (members) came after me and shot at me,” said Abudushalamu, now 19. “The bullet went through right behind my right ear. I’m lucky I’m still alive.” In the days after the violence on July 5, 2009, Beijing had sent in thousands of troops to restore order. For weeks, they fired tear gas, raided businesses and swept through Uighur neighbourhoods to arrest hundreds, many of whom were punished with decades in prison. The entire region of 20 million people was cut off from the internet for months in an attempt to curtail use of social media. Normality had returned, but Xinjiang was never quite the same. Ethnic divisions hardened. Han Chinese avoided Uighur neighbourhoods, and vice versa. Many Han Chinese steered clear of the whole of the region’s south, home to most of Xinjiang’s Uighurs, because they believed it was too dangerous. Experts say that July 5 and the subsequent crackdown was a “turning point.” “From that moment on, China took a very hard-line position toward the control of religion and the control of minority ethnic groups in the region,” said Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International’s regional director for East and Southeast Asia. “It increased dramatically its security operation. That really is what led to the situation today.” In the following years, a series of violent terror attacks rocked Xinjiang and elsewhere. Dozens of civilians were hacked to death at a busy train station in China’s south. A Uighur drove a car into crowds at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Forty-three died when men threw bombs from two sports utility vehicles plowing through a busy market street in Urumqi. When newly appointed Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Xinjiang in 2014, bombs tore through an Urumqi train station, killing three and injuring 79. In a Xinjiang work conference shortly afterward, Xi called on the state to integrate different ethnicities and remould religion to ward off extremism. “The more separatists attempt to sabotage our ethnic unity, the more we should try to reinforce it,” state media quoted Xi as saying. China’s ethnicities, Xi said, could and should be united like “the seeds of a pomegranate.” Already tight limits on religion, culture, education and dress tightened even further, with restrictions on long beards and headscarves and the detentions of prominent Uighur academics and literary figures who were widely considered moderate advocates of traditional Uighur culture. After a new party secretary was appointed to take control of Xinjiang in 2016, thousands began to vanish into a vast network of prison-like camps. Beijing calls them “vocational training centres” designed to ward off terrorism and root out extremist thoughts, but former detainees describe them as indoctrination centres which arbitrarily confine their inmates and subject them to torture and food deprivation. That same year, Abudushalamu’s father had taken him to Turkey to study at a boarding school and then returned to China. The following June, he stopped responding to messages, and Abudushalamu never heard from his father again. Abudushalamu finally discovered his father’s fate last year when an acquaintance in Turkey told him he saw his father in an internment camp. He says he has now heard of more than 50 family members that have been detained in Xinjiang. Researchers estimate the camps now hold 1 million or more Uighurs and other members of Xinjiang’s ethnic minorities. Abudushalamu says there is no reason for authorities to “train” his father, a successful businessman who speaks nine languages. “It’s delusional,” he said. “Why does he still need to be ‘educated?’” Associated Press journalists Kiko Rosario in Bangkok and Yanan Wang in Beijing contributed to this report. This report has been corrected to show that Abudushalamu stepped out of his father’s office the night of July 5, not a few days later. | Dake Kang - The Associated Press | https://www.thestar.com/news/world/middleeast/2019/07/05/10-years-after-deadly-riots-chinas-xinjiang-under-lockdown.html | 2019-07-06 00:43:51+00:00 | 1,562,388,231 | 1,567,536,689 | education | religious education |
1,046,643 | truepundit--2019-01-22--Catholic Priest Slams March for Life as Repulsive and Futile | 2019-01-22T00:00:00 | truepundit | Catholic Priest Slams March for Life as ‘Repulsive and Futile’ | A Prominent American Priest Has Dissed The Washington March For Life As “repulsive And Futile,” Denouncing The Pro-life Event As “basically A Gathering For Many Right-wing Anti-abortion Hardliners.” Franciscan friar Father Daniel Horan, a pro-LGBT priest and professor who will be speaking at the upcoming Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, took to Twitter this weekend to bash the March for Life and condemn without trial a group of white Catholic high school boys as “racists” for supposedly “taunting” a Native American man beating a drum. Father Horan was one of the many voices from the Catholic Left who joined the mainstream media lynching of students from Covington Catholic High School this weekend, rashly judging them as racists without bothering to ascertain what actually happened, simply because some of the boys were wearing MAGA hats. While the Jesuit-run America magazine claimed that a small group of Native American demonstrators had been “surrounded by a much larger band of teenagers” and that the boys had “heckled” and “mocked” elder Nathan Phillips, video footage told a different story. – READ MORE | Staff | https://truepundit.com/catholic-priest-slams-march-for-life-as-repulsive-and-futile/ | 2019-01-22 13:24:32+00:00 | 1,548,181,472 | 1,567,551,415 | education | religious education |
30,351 | bbc--2019-09-01--UK MPs plan legislation to stop no-deal Brexit | 2019-09-01T00:00:00 | bbc | UK MPs 'plan legislation to stop no-deal Brexit' | Tory minister Michael Gove has refused to say whether the government would abide by legislation designed to stop the UK leaving the EU without a deal. Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer told the BBC MPs would introduce a bill seeking to do that when Parliament returns this week. But asked if the government would abide by this if it succeeded, Mr Gove said: "Let's see what the legislation says." Cabinet minister Mr Gove also said "some" food prices "may go up" and "other prices will come down" in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Meanwhile, the EU's lead Brexit negotiator has rejected Boris Johnson's demands for the controversial Irish backstop to be scrapped. The UK is due to leave the EU on 31 October, with or without a deal. The prime minister says he is willing to leave without one rather than miss the deadline, which has prompted a number of opposition MPs to unite to try and block a possible no deal. Sir Keir told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "The legislation is intended to ensure we don't leave without a deal, that will require an extension. "The length of the extension is secondary, frankly. We have simply got to stop us leaving without a deal." Labour's shadow chancellor John McDonnell told Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday that plans to block a no-deal Brexit will be published on Tuesday. He said the "ultimate goal this week" was to "ensure Parliament can have a final say". But when asked if the government would abide by legislation preventing a no-deal Brexit, Mr Gove, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "Let's see what the legislation says. "You're asking me about a pig in a poke. "And I will wait to see what legislation the opposition may try to bring forward." Sir Keir responded on Twitter, saying Mr Gove's response was "breathtaking", adding: "No government is above the law." Any new law has to pass through all stages of both Houses of Parliament. This would usually take weeks, but it could be done in as little as three days this week. However, the bill could be challenged by the government and fall at any stage. It could fail to achieve enough support from either MPs or peers in votes held in the Houses. This could be a tight timetable as there are as few as four sitting days before Parliament is suspended. This is due to happen between Monday, 9 September, and Thursday, 12 September, under plans announced by the prime minister. Boris Johnson says he asked for the suspension in order to hold a Queen's Speech - which sets out a list of laws the government hopes to get approved by Parliament - on 14 October. Another hurdle for any bill could come in the House of Lords. Although opponents to no deal have a large majority, peers wanting to block a piece of legislation could talk and talk until there is no time left. However, opposition parties and those who are against a no-deal Brexit are split on their aims. Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran said her party's aim this week was to achieve an extension to Article 50 - the process by which the UK leaves the EU - and then a further referendum. "We stand by our Stop Brexit stance but we do that via a People's Vote and that's step one," she told Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday. Although Sir Keir suggested an Article 50 extension will be needed under the legislation plan, Labour has been clear that it wants a general election. And while former justice secretary David Gauke wants to avoid no deal, he has said he "doesn't want to do anything to facilitate a Jeremy Corbyn government". "Indeed, one of my worries about a no-deal Brexit is it will create the chaos in which Jeremy Corbyn could win a general election," the Conservative Party MP told Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday. However, Mr Gauke said he is minded to put the national interest first if he were forced to choose between disobeying the party whip in a vote to prevent a no-deal Brexit. Referring to reports that Tories who oppose a no-deal option could lose the party whip - which means they would effectively be expelled from the party - he said: "Sometimes there is a point where you have to judge between your own personal interests and the national interest. "And the national interest has to come first. But I hope it doesn't come to that." Mr Gauke said he will meet the prime minister on Monday to hear what his plan is to deliver a Brexit deal. Pressed on whether there would be shortages of fresh food in a no-deal Brexit scenario, Mr Gove said: "Everyone will have the food they need." He added: "No, there will be no shortages of fresh food." When asked if food prices would increase, Mr Gove replied: "I think that there are a number of economic factors in play. "Some prices may go up. Other prices will come down." He said that freedom of movement will end "as we understand it", but added that the EU Settlement Scheme was "working well". But trade association the BRC (British Retail Consortium) said Mr Gove's claims on potential fresh food shortages were "categorically untrue". "The retail industry has been crystal clear in its communications with government over the past 36 months that the availability of fresh foods will be impacted as a result of checks and delays at the border," a statement said. Northern Ireland Retail Consortium director Aodhán Connolly also said Mr Gove's claim was not true. Meanwhile, the government's "Get Ready for Brexit" campaign and portal has been launched on its website. Individuals or businesses can answer questions on it on topics including whether they propose to travel to the EU or export to Europe, and it then returns results which suggest how to start preparing for Brexit. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49541942 | 2019-09-01 18:01:58+00:00 | 1,567,375,318 | 1,569,331,684 | politics | government policy |
42,974 | bbcuk--2019-08-29--Brexit Does suspension slam brakes on NI legislation | 2019-08-29T00:00:00 | bbcuk | Brexit: Does suspension 'slam brakes' on NI legislation? | Parliament is set to be suspended next week in order for the government to hold a Queen's Speech - laying out its policy agenda - in October. But the controversial move does not just make it harder for MPs to block a no-deal Brexit. When a Parliament is suspended - or prorogued - all outstanding bills going through the legislative process are effectively killed off. So what could that mean for laws relating to Northern Ireland? After Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his decision to suspend Parliament, the Labour MP Jess Phillips took to social media to say she was concerned about what it would mean for a flagship piece of legislation relating to domestic abuse. It was introduced by Theresa May in the last days of her premiership but has not moved through most stages of the Parliamentary process yet. The bill would bring in the first ever statutory government definition of domestic abuse to include economic abuse and controlling and manipulative non-physical abuse. Crucially, it would also be extended to Northern Ireland to allow coercive control to become an offence in the region for the first time. That's because Northern Ireland has been without its own government for more than two years now, with no ministers in place to pass any laws through the devolved institutions. Former Stormont justice minister Claire Sugden, who had backed the move to extend the law to Northern Ireland, said it would be an "insult" to victims if the bill was lost in "brinkmanship". "We've waited too long and this needs to happen now to prevent further victims," she said. "The prime minister talks big about improving people's lives through his fresh domestic agenda and if he means it then he must prioritise this bill. "A new broom won't sweep away the issues that continue to destroy lives." She added that if the bill fell in Westminster, it could be picked up by a future Stormont executive, but that required the two main parties to "put aside their party politics". Asked by BBC News NI if Number 10 would commit to ensuring the bill was part of the next programme for government, the Home Office said the government was "determined to continue with the work done so far on legislating to support the victims of domestic abuse". In recent months, the government has also been under pressure to pass legislation through Westminster to provide compensation to victims of historical institutional abuse (HIA). The HIA Inquiry was set up by Stormont leaders in 2013 to investigate allegations of abuse in children's residential homes run by religious, charitable and state organisations. Since the inquiry ended two years ago, 30 survivors of historical institutional abuse have died and payments have been stalled due to the lack of devolution. Conservative MP Simon Hoare, the chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, said on Thursday the looming suspension effectively "slams the brakes" on attempts to bring the laws through Westminster. Last week, victims and survivors met the Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith and said he told them he was looking for a "slot" in early autumn to bring it to Parliament. Margaret McGuckin from the abuse victims' group Savia, said the government's decision to prorogue Parliament had "scuppered" that. "It is heartbreaking and outrageous, that is no way to run a government - but we are not stopping," she said. "I have written to the secretary of state and Simon Hoare to put through the legislation [in] early September before Parliament is suspended." For its part, the government has already committed to bringing through legislation to provide redress to victims, if Stormont is not restored before the end of 2019. But victims have said they cannot wait any longer and want the law fast-tracked through Parliament. Since Wednesday's announcement of impending prorogation, questions have also been raised about whether it could affect potential law changes regarding same-sex marriage and abortion laws in Northern Ireland. In July, the government passed a bill that will legalise same-sex marriage and liberalise abortion laws on the condition that Stormont is not restored by 21 October. Ultimately, that has already become law and will not be affected by the suspension of Parliament, which will resume on 14 October when the government holds its Queen's Speech. The government has committed to changing the laws on those two matters - as well as introducing a pension for victims of the Troubles - and there's no suggestion at the moment that that legislation would be delayed. The other question about 21 October is what happens regarding the government's obligation to call a Stormont assembly election if devolution isn't restored by 21 October. The law gives the Northern Ireland secretary the power to order an extension and push back that requirement to 13 January 2020. Given mid-October will be fraught in Westminster as the Brexit deadline of Halloween looms large, talk of restoring Stormont or an assembly election could be well down the agenda. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-49510181 | 2019-08-29 12:49:30+00:00 | 1,567,097,370 | 1,567,543,589 | politics | government policy |
1,099,631 | westernjournal--2019-02-03--Pope seeks dialogue on first papal trip to Arabian Peninsula | 2019-02-03T00:00:00 | westernjournal | Pope seeks dialogue on first papal trip to Arabian Peninsula | The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press story prior to publication. Therefore, it may contain editorial bias or may in some other way not meet our normal editorial standards. It is provided to our readers as a service from The Western Journal. VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is seeking to turn a page in Christian-Muslim relations while also ministering to a unique, thriving island of Catholicism as he embarks on the first-ever papal trip to the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam. While Francis is building on two of his priorities with his Sunday-Tuesday visit to the United Arab Emirates — promoting interfaith dialogue and visiting the Catholic peripheries — diplomatic protocol will likely dictate that he leaves other concerns behind. The Emirates’ support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, which has caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and the UAE’s problematic record on human rights and labor violations at home will likely will get a pass — at least in public. Francis is travelling to Abu Dhabi to participate in a conference on interreligious dialogue sponsored by the Emirates-based Muslim Council of Elders, an initiative that seeks to counter religious fanaticism by promoting a moderate brand of Islam. It’s the brainchild of Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the revered 1,000-year-old seat of Sunni Islam learning that trains clerics and scholars from around the world. It will be the fifth meeting between Francis and el-Tayeb, evidence that Al-Azhar’s freeze in relations with the Holy See sparked by Pope Benedict XVI’s 2006 comments linking Islam to violence has thoroughly thawed. In a video message to the Emirates on the eve of his trip, Francis paid homage to his “friend and dear brother” el-Tayeb and praised his courage in calling the meeting to assert that “God unites and doesn’t divide.” “I am pleased with this meeting offered by the Lord to write, on your dear land, a new page in the history of relations among religions and confirm that we are brothers despite our differences,” Francis said. In a statement Saturday, Al-Azhar described the upcoming meeting as “historic” and praised the “deeply fraternal relationship” between its imam and the pope, which it said even includes birthday greetings. Francis and el-Tayeb are to address the “Human Fraternity Meeting” Monday that has drawn not only Christian and Muslim representatives but hundreds of Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and other Christian faith leaders. It’s all part of the Emirates’ “Year of Tolerance” and its effort to show its openness to other faiths in a region otherwise known for severe restrictions on religions outside of Islam. “It’s something new for the Muslim world, that within the discussion of dialogue, they’re talking about interreligious dialogue across the board,” beyond basic Christian-Muslim relations, said Marco Impagliazzo, president of the Sant’Egidio Community, a Rome-based Catholic organization active in interfaith relations who will be attending the conference. Francis’ other main initiative in Abu Dhabi is a giant Mass on Tuesday in the city’s main sports arena that is expected to draw some 135,000 people in what some have called the largest show of public Christian worship on the Arabian Peninsula. There, Francis will see firsthand a Catholic community that is big, diverse and dynamic, at a time when the wider Mideast has seen an exodus of Christians fleeing persecution at the hands of the Islamic State group and others. Of the over 9 million people now living in the UAE, around 1 million are Emirati while the rest are foreigners drawn to the oil-rich federation to work in everything from white-collar finance to construction. The Catholic Church believes there are some 1 million Catholics in the UAE. Most are Filipino and Indian, many of whom have left behind families for work and can face precarious labor conditions, which human rights groups regularly denounce. “The church has a unique role because it becomes home,” said Brandon Vaidyanathan, chair of the sociology department at Catholic University in Washington, who grew up in Dubai. “It becomes a place of belonging” in a country where foreigners can live, work and practice their faith but will never gain citizenship. Vaidyanathan, who converted from Hinduism to Catholicism while living in Dubai, said the Emirates’ religious tolerance is commendable given the trends of the region. He noted the “unprecedented” nature of the government’s invitation to Francis, its donation of lands for churches and even a recent decision to rename a mosque “Mother Mary of Jesus.” Yet he pointed to the difference between freedom to worship and true religious freedom. Crosses, for example, can only be displayed inside churches, proselytizing for faiths other than Islam is banned and Muslims are forbidden from converting. Francis will likely focus on issues of religious freedom and fraternity in his public remarks. Unlike all his other foreign trips, he will not deliver a political speech. Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said the reason was to give greater emphasis to his speech to the interfaith conference. He dodged a question about whether Francis would raise Yemen’s yearslong war in his private talks with the sheikh. The UAE is deeply involved in the Saudi-led war in the Arab world’s poorest country, where tens of thousands have been killed and millions face food and medical shortages. “I don’t know if the Holy Father will confront it publicly or privately, but certainly on many occasions, even recently, he has underlined the need to search for peace in particular to guarantee the humanitarian rights of the population, especially children,” Gisotti said. Aid groups working in Yemen hope Francis won’t just rely on his past appeals, but will use his visit to bring his message to the Emirati leadership. CAFOD, the overseas aid group of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, recently joined a coalition of British humanitarian organizations in appealing for Yemen’s limited cease-fire to hold so that humanitarian aid can reach the most vulnerable. “We have confidence in the greatness of the pope to be our advocate and the advocate for the Yemeni people,” said Giovanna Reda, CAFOD’s head of humanitarian programs for the Middle East. The Associated Press contributed to this report. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards. | AP Reports | https://www.westernjournal.com/ap-pope-seeks-dialogue-on-first-papal-trip-to-arabian-peninsula/ | 2019-02-03 06:57:49+00:00 | 1,549,195,069 | 1,567,549,799 | religion and belief | interreligious dialogue |
1,038,637 | thewashingtonstandard--2019-12-04--Pope Francis: Christian Fundamentalists Are “A Scourge” | 2019-12-04T00:00:00 | thewashingtonstandard | Pope Francis: Christian Fundamentalists Are “A Scourge” | Why does it seem like virtually everyone wants to attack Christian fundamentalists these days? Two weeks ago, Pope Francis made some extremely controversial remarks, but those remarks really didn’t get much attention from the mainstream media. Of course if the Pope had targeted the LGBTQ community or some other favored group, it would have instantly made headlines all over the globe. But he didn’t. Instead, Pope Francis specifically attacked fundamentalists, and in today’s world that is considered to be perfectly okay. The following comes from the official transcript of the remarks that the Pope made on the 18th of November… Ostensibly, these remarks apply to fundamentalists from all religions. But by mentioning Argentina, the Pope made it exceedingly clear who his real target was. There aren’t any “Muslim fundamentalists” or “Hindu fundamentalists” in Argentina. The fundamentalists that he was referring to are the Christian fundamentalists in Argentina, and in the very next sentence he denounced such people as “a scourge”. Of course “a scourge” is another way of saying “a plague”, and what do we try to do to “a plague” when one breaks out? That is something to think about. And although the term “fundamentalist” is now sometimes used to refer to other religions, from the very beginning it has always been a Christian term. The following comes from the Encyclopedia Britannica… So what is a “Christian fundamentalist”? Well, it is basically someone that believes the Bible is literally true, that believes that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again, and that believes that Jesus is coming back someday. In other words, the Pope considers millions upon millions of American Christians to be a plague that is infecting our planet. During those same remarks on the 18th of November, the Pope also once again pushed his “interreligious cooperation” agenda… As I said during the World Conference of Human Fraternity: “There is no alternative: we will either build the future together or there will not be a future. Religions, in particular, cannot renounce the urgent task of building bridges between peoples and cultures. The time has come when religions should more actively exert themselves, with courage and audacity, and without pretence, to help the human family deepen the capacity for reconciliation, the vision of hope and the concrete paths of peace” (4 February 2019). Our religious traditions are a necessary source of inspiration to foster a culture of encounter. It is fundamental for there to be interreligious cooperation, based on the promotion of sincere and respectful dialogue that goes towards unity without confusion, maintaining identities. But a unity that transcends the mere political pact.” This Pope has become increasingly aggressive in his efforts to foster unity among the various major religions of the world. Last month, he held a much publicized meeting with Thailand’s supreme Buddhist patriarch Somdej Phra Maha Muneewong. That historic meeting was held at Bangkok’s famous Ratchabophit Temple, and the Pope met with the Buddhist patriarch directly in front of a 150-year-old gold statue of Buddha. The Pope even removed his shoes as a sign of respect for the Buddhist temple. Pope Francis also brought a gift for the Buddhist patriarch. It was a copy of a document entitled “Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together” which the Pope and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar both signed in Abu Dhabi last February. The following is what Vatican News had to say about the exchange of this gift… “Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together” sounds like an innocent title, but it is actually a loose blueprint for uniting the various religions of the world. For example, at one point in the document it specifically says that the fact that there is such a diversity of religions in the world has been “willed by God in His wisdom”… In other words, this document is saying that God is pleased with all of the religions of the world and that they exist because it was His will for them to do so. And the document concludes with an appeal for “reconciliation and fraternity” among the various religions of the world in order that “universal peace” may be achieved… In conclusion, our aspiration is that: this Declaration may constitute an invitation to reconciliation and fraternity among all believers, indeed among believers and non-believers, and among all people of good will; this Declaration may be an appeal to every upright conscience that rejects deplorable violence and blind extremism; an appeal to those who cherish the values of tolerance and fraternity that are promoted and encouraged by religions; this Declaration may be a witness to the greatness of faith in God that unites divided hearts and elevates the human soul; this Declaration may be a sign of the closeness between East and West, between North and South, and between all who believe that God has created us to understand one another, cooperate with one another and live as brothers and sisters who love one another. This is what we hope and seek to achieve with the aim of finding a universal peace that all can enjoy in this life. On the political front, globalism may have lost some momentum, but in religious circles it is steaming right along. The push for a one world religion is happening right out in the open, and very few people seem alarmed by it. | Michael Snyder | https://thewashingtonstandard.com/pope-francis-christian-fundamentalists-are-a-scourge/ | Wed, 04 Dec 2019 21:24:02 +0000 | 1,575,512,642 | 1,575,504,061 | religion and belief | interreligious dialogue |
214,322 | france24--2019-02-03--Pope calls for Yemen relief on his way to first papal trip to Arabian Peninsula | 2019-02-03T00:00:00 | france24 | Pope calls for Yemen relief on his way to first papal trip to Arabian Peninsula | TIZIANA FABI / AFP | Pope Francis waves as he boards a plane at Fiumicino airport on February 3, 2019, on his way to a three-day visit to the United Arab Emirates. Pope Francis made an urgent appeal for an end to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen on Sunday as he embarked to Abu Dhabi, where he is seeking to turn a page in Christian-Muslim relations while also ministering to a thriving island of Catholicism. Francis called for the urgent observation of a limited cease-fire reached in December and for food and medicine to get to Yemen's people, who are suffering the world's worst humanitarian crisis. He made the appeal at the Vatican before boarding a plane to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has been Saudi Arabia's main ally in its war in Yemen -- a way to avoid embarrassing his hosts with a public call while in the region. "The people are exhausted by the long conflict and many children are hungry, but humanitarian aid isn't accessible," Francis said in his noontime Sunday blessing. "The cries of these children and their parents rise up" to God. Francis is travelling to Abu Dhabi to participate in a conference on interreligious dialogue sponsored the Emirates-based Muslim Council of Elders, an initiative that seeks to counter religious fanaticism by promoting a moderate brand of Islam. It's the brainchild of Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Egypt's Al-Azhar, the revered 1,000-year-old seat of Sunni Islam that trains clerics and scholars from around the world. In a video message to the Emirates on the eve of his trip, Francis paid homage to his "friend and dear brother" el-Tayeb and praised his courage in calling the meeting to assert that "God unites and doesn't divide." "I am pleased with this meeting offered by the Lord to write, on your dear land, a new page in the history of relations among religions and confirm that we are brothers despite our differences," Francis said. In a statement Saturday, Al-Azhar described the upcoming meeting as "historic" and praised the "deeply fraternal relationship" between its imam and the pope, which it said even includes birthday greetings. Francis and el-Tayeb are to address the "Human Fraternity Meeting" Monday that has drawn not only Christian and Muslim representatives but hundreds of Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and other Christian faith leaders. It's all part of the Emirates' "Year of Tolerance" and its effort to show its openness to other faiths in a region otherwise known for severe restrictions on religions outside of Islam. "It's something new for the Muslim world, that within the discussion of dialogue, they're talking about interreligious dialogue across the board," beyond basic Christian-Muslim relations, said Marco Impagliazzo, president of the Sant'Egidio Community, a Rome-based Catholic organization active in interfaith relations who will be attending the conference. Francis' other main initiative in Abu Dhabi is a giant Mass on Tuesday in the city's main sports arena that is expected to draw some 135,000 people in what some have called the largest show of public Christian worship on the Arabian Peninsula. There, Francis will see first-hand a Catholic community that is big, diverse and dynamic, at a time when the wider Mideast has seen an exodus of Christians fleeing persecution at the hands of the Islamic State group and others. Of the over 9 million people now living in the UAE, around 1 million are Emirati while the rest are foreigners drawn to the oil-rich federation to work in everything from white-collar finance to construction. Some one million Catholics in UAE The Catholic Church believes there are some 1 million Catholics in the UAE. Most are Filipino and Indian, many of whom have left behind families for work and can face precarious labour conditions, which human rights groups regularly denounce. "The church has a unique role because it becomes home," said Brandon Vaidyanathan, chair of the sociology department at Catholic University in Washington, who grew up in Dubai. "It becomes a place of belonging" in a country where foreigners can live, work and practice their faith but will never gain citizenship. Vaidyanathan, who converted from Hinduism to Catholicism while living in Dubai, said the Emirates' religious tolerance is commendable given the trends of the region. He noted the "unprecedented" nature of the government's invitation to Francis, its donation of lands for churches and even a recent decision to rename a mosque "Mother Mary of Jesus." Yet he pointed to the difference between freedom to worship and true religious freedom. Crosses, for example, can only be displayed inside churches, proselytizing for faiths other than Islam is banned and Muslims are forbidden from converting. Francis will likely focus on issues of religious freedom and fraternity in his public remarks. Unlike all his other foreign trips, he will not deliver a political speech. Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said the reason was to give greater emphasis to his speech to the interfaith conference. He dodged a question about whether Francis would raise Yemen's yearslong war in his private talks with the Emirates' ruler. The UAE is deeply involved in the Saudi-led war in the Arab world's poorest country, where tens of thousands have been killed and millions face food and medical shortages. "I don't know if the Holy Father will confront it publicly or privately, but certainly on many occasions, even recently, he has underlined the need to search for peace in particular to guarantee the humanitarian rights of the population, especially children," Gisotti said. Aid groups working in Yemen hope Francis won't just rely on his public appeals, but will use his visit to bring his message to the Emirati leadership in person. CAFOD, the overseas aid group of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, recently joined a coalition of British humanitarian organizations in appealing for Yemen's limited cease-fire to hold so that humanitarian aid can reach the most vulnerable. "We have confidence in the greatness of the pope to be our advocate and the advocate for the Yemeni people," said Giovanna Reda, CAFOD's head of humanitarian programs for the Middle East. | NEWS WIRES | https://www.france24.com/en/20190203-pope-calls-yemen-relief-way-first-papal-trip-arabian-peninsula-abu-dhabi-uae | 2019-02-03 13:01:26+00:00 | 1,549,216,886 | 1,567,549,797 | religion and belief | interreligious dialogue |
215,005 | france24--2019-03-30--Pope Moroccan king declare Jerusalem common patrimony of three religions | 2019-03-30T00:00:00 | france24 | Pope, Moroccan king declare Jerusalem ‘common patrimony’ of three religions | Handout, Vatican media, AFP | Morocco's King Mohammed VI (right) and Pope Francis during their meeting at the Royal palace in Rabat, on March 30, 2019 Pope Francis on Saturday joined Morocco's King Mohammed VI in saying Jerusalem should be a "symbol of peaceful coexistence" for Christians, Jews and Muslims, on the first day of a visit to the North African country. The spiritual leader of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics was invited by King Mohammed VI for the sake of "interreligious dialogue", according to Moroccan authorities. In a joint statement, the two leaders said Jerusalem was "common patrimony of humanity and especially the followers of the three monotheistic religions." "The specific multi-religious character, the spiritual dimension and the particular cultural identity of Jerusalem... must be protected and promoted," they said in the declaration released by the Vatican as the pontiff visited Rabat. The Moroccan king chairs a committee created by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to safeguard and restore Jerusalem's religious, cultural and architectural heritage. The joint statement came after US President Donald Trump's landmark recognition of the disputed city as capital of Israel, which sparked anger across the Muslim world, especially from Palestinians who see Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. Improving relations with other religions has been a priority for the Argentine pontiff, whose papacy has been marred by clergy facing a wave of child sex abuse allegations. Addressing thousands of Moroccans who had braved the rain to attend the welcome ceremony, Francis said it was "essential to oppose fanaticism". He stressed the need for "appropriate preparation of future religious guides", ahead of meeting trainee imams later on Saturday. Catholics are a tiny minority Morocco, where 99 percent of the population is Muslim. The king is revered across West Africa as "commander of the faithful". Speaking at the ceremony at the Tour (or tower) Hassan mosque and nearby mausoleum in Rabat, the monarch also voiced opposition to radicalism. "That which terrorists have in common is not religion, it's precisely the ignorance of religion. It's time that religion is no longer an alibi... for this ignorance, for this intolerance," he said. Francis rode to the ceremony in his Popemobile, passing rows of Moroccan and Vatican City flags and an estimated 12,000 well-wishers who packed the esplanade. Buildings had been repainted, lawns manicured and security stepped up ahead of the first papal visit to Morocco since John Paul II in 1985. A 17-year-old was arrested after trying to throw himself onto the king's limousine to seek the monarch's help, the police said. Some 130,000 people across Rabat watched the first stage of the pope's visit, which was beamed onto giant screens, officials said. After stopping by the royal palace, Francis and Mohammed visited an institute where around 1,300 students are studying to become imams and preachers. There they heard from a French and a Nigerian student of the institute, which teaches "moderate Islam" and is backed by the king. In Morocco, where Islam is the state religion, authorities are keen to stress the country's "religious tolerance" which allows Christians and Jews to worship freely. But Moroccans are automatically considered Muslim, apart from a minority who are born Jewish. Apostasy is socially frowned upon, and proselytising is a criminal offence. Those who try to "rock the faith of a Muslim or to convert him to another religion" risk a prison term of up to three years. After years in the shadows, since 2017 the small number of converts have called openly for the right to live "without persecution" and "without discrimination". Around 30,000 to 35,000 Catholics live in Morocco, many of them from sub-Saharan Africa. The pope finished his Saturday schedule by meeting migrants -- including children dressed in colourful hats -- at a centre run by Catholic humanitarian organisation Caritas. "Everyone has the right to a future," said Francis, who has throughout his papacy highlighted the plight of migrants and refugees. He criticised "collective expulsions" and said ways for migrants to regularise their status should be encouraged. Caritas centres in Rabat, Casablanca and Tangiers welcomed 7,551 new arrivals in 2017, according to the charity, helping migrants access services. The number of people taking the sea route from Morocco to Spain has recently surged as it has become harder for them to pass through Libya. Rabat claims to have a "humanistic" approach to migration and rejects allegations by rights groups of "brutal arrest campaigns" and "forced displacement" to the country's southern border. On Sunday, the pope will celebrate mass at a Rabat stadium with an estimated 10,000 people attending. | NEWS WIRES | https://www.france24.com/en/20190330-pope-morocco-king-declare-jerusalem-common-patrimony-islam-christianity-judaism | 2019-03-30 17:08:27+00:00 | 1,553,980,107 | 1,567,544,710 | religion and belief | interreligious dialogue |
76,046 | breitbart--2019-11-20--Exclusive: Philippine Monsignor: Christian Survivors of Jihad Carry a Faith 'Tested by Fire' | 2019-11-20T00:00:00 | breitbart | Exclusive: Philippine Monsignor: Christian Survivors of Jihad Carry a Faith 'Tested by Fire' | The tiny Christian minority in Jolo, Philippines – a majority-Muslim area in an overwhelmingly Catholic nation – has seen renewed energy in its churches now that its faith has been “tested by fire,” Monsignor Romeo S. Saniel, vicar administrator of the Vicariate of Jolo, told Breitbart News in an interview on Tuesday. Jolo’s Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cathedral was partially destroyed on January 27, when jihadists, later identified as a couple from Indonesia, detonated suicide bombs minutes apart inside, killing 22 people and wounding 111. It was the latest in years of violent attacks Saniel had witnessed or experienced while caring for the Christians of Jolo – including a failed assassination attempt he survived because the gun touching his head jammed when the assailant pulled the trigger. Saniel told Breitbart News he is now endeavoring to help rebuild the cathedral and bring spiritual and economic support to the survivors of the attack. The Catholic Church is also working to help improve educational and economic opportunities for all residents of Jolo, holding on to the belief that economic desperation can attract young Muslims to jihadist ideology. Saniel spoke with Breitbart News in anticipation of several events to bring awareness to the dangers facing Philippine Christians in Muslims territories, and other Christians who live as minorities, in the United States this week. The first, “Listening to Survivors of Religious Persecution: The Call for Religious Freedom,” will take place Wednesday at the United Nations, hosted by Aid to the Church in Need, a papal charity of the Catholic Church that supports persecuted Christians globally. Aid to the Church in Need will also host a Night of Witness event – to pray, reflect, and listen to the victims of Christian persecution – at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, on Saturday. Saniel highlighted the resilience of the Christian faith in Jolo – located in an autonomous Muslim region where, he says, Catholics amount to about three percent of the population – even in the face of bombs going off during Mass. “The bombing and the persecution sometimes … can create a lot of blessings in disguise in our lives,” he said. “The number one blessing is, we have been persecuted in this community but really remained steadfast in our faith. I believe the faith of our minority Christians has been tested by fire and we have a deeper commitment to the life of the church and the life of following Jesus today.” “Some are exposed to so much danger, but they don’t walk away and they still witness the Christian faith that they have,” he added. Young Christians, he noted, have particularly experienced renewed enthusiasm in their faith. “There are so many young people now who are in the Church in spite of the fact that they are victims of the bombing, but they are back in the Church and they make it so alive, and I really appreciate the energy of the young people,” he said. Saniel noted that those who attacked the cathedral were foreigners and that, for decades, the vast majority of Philippine Muslims accepted the existence of Christians among them. Most of the southern island of Mindanao, where Jolo is located, is predominantly Christian; nationally, Catholics make up 86 percent of the population. But the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao is an exception, a nation-within-a-nation in which the rules of living as a Christian in the Philippines elsewhere do not apply. “In Jolo … we are only four percent, three percent Christians, 97 percent are Muslims in our area, so we are a small minority and we feel that we have been persecuted because of our faith,” Saniel told Breitbart News. “But the majority of the Muslims in our area are friendly and very open to dialogue and witnessing of our religion, except a small minority now we call the Wahhabists or the violent extremists. They are threatening us and attacking us and our churches.” Wahhabism is a fundamentalist strain of Sunni Islam originating in Saudi Arabia and disseminated widely through radical clerics and terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. The Islamic State’s affiliate in the Philippines, Abu Sayyaf, took responsibility for the January cathedral bombing. Abu Sayyaf’s largest temporary victory was the siege of Marawi, the largest Muslim city in the country, in May 2017. President Rodrigo Duterte announced the death of the head of Abu Sayyaf, Isnilon Hapilon, in Marawi in September, effectively ending the siege. “We have the influence of the foreign Wahhabists when they attacked Marawi city … of the remnants now are in Jolo,” Saniel noted. “According to intelligence, some of them are Westerners … the suicide bombers who attacked our cathedral were identified as Indonesians.” Mindanao has for decades struggled against higher poverty levels than the wealthier islands to the north and hosted a Muslim insurgency for decades, organized by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The MILF, who prioritized self-governance, joined with Duterte to fight Abu Sayyaf and foreign jihadis, its leaders warning of a coming wave of jihadists from the collapsing Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in 2018. While MILF fighters may have come to peace under Duterte, years of conflict between Muslim separatists and the government has made much of Mindanao dangerous to Christians for decades. Saniel noted that, as a newly assigned priest in the region, he survived an assassination attempt by sheer luck – or the grace of God. “When I was distributing Holy Communion to the Christians of Jolo, two young boys were walking behind me and I felt the .45 caliber muzzle in the back of my head, and I heard ‘click,’ but the gun jammed, so I was saved,” he said. “I think the Lord is the reason why I was saved from the attempt. Since then, I have been working for interreligious dialogue, establishing good relations with our Muslim brothers and sisters, and giving a platform to also prevent the recruitment of these violent extremists in our area.” Saniel said that, since the bombing, many Muslims living around the cathedral “are more compassionate and merciful to us, and they are extending help, they are expressing their desire to help us in whatever way they can.” He also credited President Duterte with helping the Christian minority there and offering extensive security to prevent another bombing. Duterte has received criticism from international aid groups for feuding with the nation’s Catholic leadership, who have in turn condemned his violent anti-drug policies in the country. Duterte has countered with police evidence that drug trafficking has enriched and empowered jihadis to attack Christian communities. He has, more often, dismissed Catholic leaders and encouraged people to kill them. Saniel’s experience offers an alternative to the international headlines on the bombastic Duterte. “Since the bombing of the cathedral, our president has been very friendly to us,” Saniel said. “He has visited the church many times. He has given us assistance through the military. Also, he has visited the place many times.” “I feel he treats us differently from the people of Manila because we are minority Christians and we are victimized and so our president has a softer heart and [is helping] rebuild our churches and the lives of Christians and making sure we are also secure through the military,” Saniel added. Duterte is the first president in Philippine history from Mindanao. For Saniel, the priority in the aftermath of the bombing is the security of his Christian congregation. He says that, among the policies the Church will use to promote peace will be the development of “social economic projects” and closer ties with local Muslims, to better empower them to reject foreign jihadis. The programs include as their goals “helping the Muslims become better Muslims, establishing schools, cooperatives, livelihood programs, and we also take care of our small minority Christians. so we have a strong bond with the majority of Muslims who are moderate and most of them are in government and in governance and they are graduates of our Catholic schools,” he said. | Frances Martel | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/breitbart/~3/3JPkqZCubtw/ | Wed, 20 Nov 2019 00:17:50 +0000 | 1,574,227,070 | 1,574,251,679 | religion and belief | interreligious dialogue |
143,207 | drudgereport--2019-02-04--Pope warns against fake news | 2019-02-04T00:00:00 | drudgereport | Pope warns against 'fake news'... | Pope Francis delivers his speech during an Interreligious meeting at the Founder's Memorial in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Feb. 4, 2019. Pope Francis arrived in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. His visit represents the first papal trip ever to the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Latest on Pope Francis’s visit to the United Arab Emirates (all times local): Pope Francis and the grand imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in Sunni Islam, have signed a statement with their hopes for world peace and human understanding. The two signed the document Monday night during the pope’s visit to the United Arab Emirates. It is the first papal visit ever to the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam. The document describes itself as being in the name of “all victims of wars, persecution and injustice; . and those tortured in any part of the world, without distinction.” It also decried modern “signs of a ‘third world war being fought piecemeal.’” The United Arab Emirates is deeply involved in the Saudi-led war in Yemen, which faces widespread international criticism for airstrikes killing civilians and the conflict pushing the country to the brink of famine. The document says: “We resolutely declare that religions must never incite war, hateful attitudes, hostility and extremism, nor must they incite violence or the shedding of blood.” The statement also says countries have a duty to establish a concept of “full citizenship.” The UAE relies heavily on foreign laborers who have no path to naturalization. The head of Sunni Islam’s highest seat of learning has told an audience that includes Pope Francis and hundreds of other religious figures from around the world that Islam is a religion of peace that values human life. At an event Monday evening during the first-ever papal visit to the Gulf, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the head of Al-Azhar, quoted numerous Quranic verses about the value of life, including one that says: “Whoever kills a person it is as though he has killed all mankind. And whoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved all mankind.” The grand mufti said all faiths denounce terrorism in all its forms and that acts of terrorism are carried out by criminals, not by true believers of God. The sheikh said that after the 9/11 attacks the media made Islam look like a “bloodthirsty” religion and that Muslims paid a heavy price for the acts of a few. He spoke after the Muslim Council of Elders and the pope met for an interreligious dialogue that recognized efforts by the pope and al-Tayeb to foster peace. Pope Francis has asserted in the first-ever papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula that religious leaders have a duty to reject all war and commit themselves to dialogue. Francis concluded his landmark speech to an interfaith gathering on Monday by saying: “God is with those who seek peace. From heaven he blesses every step which, on this path, is accomplished on earth.” Speaking in Italian at the Abu Dhabi Founder’s Memorial, Francis cited the conflicts in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Libya in calling for leaders to resist the “floods of violence and the desertification of altruism.” The UAE is involved in the conflicts in Yemen, Syria and Libya. Speaking to a gathering of imams, muftis, ministers, rabbis, swamis, Zoroastrians and Sikhs, Francis said: “Human fraternity requires of us, as representatives of the world’s religions, the duty to reject every nuance of approval from the word ‘war.’ Let us return it to its miserable crudeness.” Pope Francis has called out the dangers of so-called “fake news” amid ongoing propaganda campaigns across Gulf Arab countries. Francis made the comment in a speech Monday night, saying: “Young people, who are often surrounded by negative messages and fake news, need to learn not to surrender to the seductions of materialism, hatred and prejudice.” The boycott of Qatar by Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates has seen such propaganda published since its start in June 2017. The crisis began after Qatar’s state-run news agency was hacked and fake items were published. In the time since, slanted or one-sided coverage in the dispute has been common in both Arabic- and English-language media outlets. Pope Francis is visiting the UAE on the first papal trip ever to the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam. Pope Francis has condemned all violence committed in God’s name, telling an interfaith meeting in the first papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula that religious leaders must be beacons of peace and promote the dignity of all God’s children. Francis warned that unless people of different religions come together to promote “concrete paths of peace,” the future of humanity itself will be in doubt. He warned: “We will either build the future together or there will not be a future. The time has come when religions should more actively exert themselves, with courage and audacity, and without pretense, to help the human family deepen the capacity for reconciliation, the vision of hope and the concrete paths of peace.” At the highlight of his 40-hour visit to Abu Dhabi on Monday, Francis also called for full religious freedom in this majority Muslim region, where restrictions are placed on non-Muslim expressions of faith. Pope Francis has met with a group of Muslim elders at the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi in what the Vatican says was a “particularly cordial and fraternal” encounter. The Vatican says the private meeting lasted about 30 minutes, and was followed by a visit of the mosque alongside Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the seat of Sunni learning. Francis later paid homage at the tomb of the founder of the Emirates. The Vatican says that during the meeting Monday, Francis and the participants “emphasized the importance of the culture of encounter to reinforce the commitment to dialogue and peace.” Francis is making the first-ever trip to the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam, in a bid to strengthen ties with the Muslim world. Human Rights Watch is urging Pope Francis to use his visit to the United Arab Emirates to press its rulers about serious human rights violations in the war in Yemen and their repression of critics at home. The rights group released a letter on Monday at the start of the first-ever papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula. HRW says the Saudi-led coalition backed by the UAE has bombed Yemeni homes, markets and schools indiscriminately while impeding humanitarian aid from reaching desperate Yemenis. The New York-based watchdog also says that the UAE authorities have targeted critics, political dissidents and human rights activists with arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances. HRW called in the letter on the pope to lead international pressure to hold the UAE leadership accountable. It says that “despite its assertions about tolerance, the UAE government has demonstrated no real interest in improving its human rights record.” Abu Dhabi’s powerful crown prince says he and Dubai’s ruler were “delighted” to meet Pope Francis for a meeting amid the pontiff’s trip to the United Arab Emirates. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan tweeted pictures of the meeting on Monday in what he described as “our homeland of tolerance.” Sheikh Mohammed tweeted: “We discussed enhancing cooperation, consolidating dialogue, tolerance, human coexistence & important initiatives to achieve peace, stability and development for peoples and societies.” He did not elaborate. Pope Francis arrived in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. His visit represents the first papal trip ever to the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam. Pope Francis has assured the people of the United Arab Emirates of his prayers and “the divine blessings of peace and fraternal solidarity.” Francis signed a book of honor on Monday at the presidential palace in Abu Dhabi, where he met for private talks with the Emirati capital’s powerful crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in the first-ever papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula. Frances wrote in his characteristic tiny script, in English, of his “gratitude for your warm welcome and hospitality.” The Emirates put on a remarkably grandiose welcome for Francis, complete with an artillery salute and military flyover by a country that is now at war in Yemen, where the UAE backs a Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Pope Francis has arrived at the presidential palace to officially start his historic visit to the United Arab Emirates as canons boomed and a military aircraft flew over trailing the yellow and white smoke of the Holy See flag. Guards on horseback escorted Francis’ tiny Kia car to approach the palace where a marching band, complete with bagpipers, was on hand on Monday for a red carpet welcome at the massive, domed structure in Abu Dhabi. The capital’s powerful crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, was to welcome Francis, the first pope to visit the Arabian Peninsula. The highlight of Francis’ day comes on Monday afternoon when he is to meet privately with a group of Muslim elders and then addresses faith leaders in a show of religious tolerance in a Muslim region known for its restrictions on religious freedom. His 40-hour trip to Abu Dhabi culminates on Tuesday with the first-ever papal Mass on the Arabian Peninsula — a gathering expected to draw some 135,000 people in a never-before-seen display of public Christian worship here. Pope Francis is opening his historic visit to the United Arab Emirates by meeting with the federation’s leader and a group of Muslim elders. After that, he will address an unprecedented gathering of faith leaders in a show of religious tolerance in a Muslim region known for its restrictions on religious freedom. Francis’ speech to the gathering on Monday evening is the highlight of his brief, 40-hour visit to Abu Dhabi. His trip culminates on Tuesday with the first-ever papal Mass on the Arabian Peninsula. It’s expected to draw some 135,000 people in a never-before-seen display of public Christian worship here. Francis arrived in the Emirati capital late Sunday and was greeted by Abu Dhabi’s powerful crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. | null | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DrudgeReportFeed/~3/rFXKKflII10/0ddb190d6c3d46a0be910aadf61e3564 | 2019-02-04 18:55:40+00:00 | 1,549,324,540 | 1,567,549,721 | religion and belief | interreligious dialogue |
289,839 | lifesitenews--2019-10-05--Pope Francis doesn’t understand Islam | 2019-10-05T00:00:00 | lifesitenews | Pope Francis doesn’t understand Islam | October 4, 2019 (Turning Point Project) — "Is the pope Catholic?" used to be a punch line. Now, sometimes, you almost have to wonder. Of course, I'm not suggesting that Pope Francis is a secret apostate or a Masonic agent. It's just that he seems dissatisfied with certain Church teachings. What apparently rankles him most are Catholic claims to exclusivity. For example, the belief that all men are saved through Christ can be looked upon as an impediment to interreligious harmony. Francis, for whom interreligious harmony is a top priority, seems to see it that way. Many of his statements seem to suggest he has abandoned the idea that Catholics should seek to convert others to the Faith. On one occasion, for example, he referred to proselytism as "solemn nonsense." Francis appears to believe that each religion provides its own path to heaven. If that's so, then people are best served by going deeper into whatever faith they already belong to. Thus, Francis once advised a group of Muslim migrants to read the Koran in order to find direction in their lives. As he wrote in Evangelii Gaudium, Francis believes that all religions have "shared beliefs." Where those beliefs don't overlap so neatly, he seems perfectly happy to blur the lines. A good example is the Abu Dhabi Declaration on "Human Fraternity" signed by Pope Francis and Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, in February. Of particular concern is the statement that "the pluralism and the diversity of religions ... are willed by God." That's quite a concession for Francis to make, as it contradicts Christ's claim that "I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me" (Jn. 14:6). As Swiss bishop Marian Eleganti puts it, "the unique and universal mediation of Jesus Christ is eclipsed in the Abu Dhabi Declaration." Just so. But there are many other problems with the document besides God's supposed endorsement of a variety of contradictory religions. In their commitment to inclusion, the drafters of the document — mostly Catholics, one assumes — end up saying things that are true neither of Catholicism nor Islam. Contrary to the evidence, the Declaration assumes that the one common religion already exists in nascent form, and that the teachings and values of all religions are essentially the same. Thus, "the values of tolerance and fraternity ... are promoted and encouraged by religions." And, therefore: "These tragic realities [hate, extremism, and violence] are the consequence of a deviation from religious teachings." Terrorism for example, "is not due to religion ... it is due rather to an accumulation of incorrect interpretations of religious texts." If that's so, how is it that so many Muslims in so many different parts of the world interpret Koranic texts in exactly the same way — namely, as a justification for jihad? How would you interpret: "Then, when the sacred months are over, kill the idolaters wherever you find them" (Koran 9:5)? There are over a hundred similar texts in the Koran. By contrast, there are very few texts of the love-thy-neighbor-as-thyself variety. In fact, Catholic apologists for Islam are reduced to citing the same three Koranic verses over and over because there just aren't that many to pick from. As it happens, the Document on Human Fraternity begins with a paraphrase of the most frequently cited verse: "Whoever saved a human life shall be regarded as having saved all mankind" (5:32). Unsurprisingly, there's no mention of the very next verse: Pope Francis and other Catholic apologists for Islam claim that terrorist leaders simply misunderstand Islam. If that's the case, then the very first person to misunderstand Islam was Muhammad himself, who commanded that the hand of a thief be cut off. The Life of Muhammad — which, after the Koran and the Hadith, is considered the most important source of Islamic truths — is essentially a record of Muhammad's jihadist exploits. Approximately two-thirds of its 800 pages detail Muhammad's jihad raids, his beheading of captured prisoners, his slave trading, his endorsement of rape and sex slavery, and his use of torture. Did Muhammad misunderstand Islam? For that matter, does Grand Imam el-Tayeb misunderstand Islam? Yes, he did sign the Document on Human Fraternity — but Muhammad signed the Treaty of Hudaibiya with the Meccans, too. That was a great PR stunt, but it wasn't worth the paper it was written on. El-Tayeb doesn't misunderstand Islam, though Francis appears to. He must be acquainted with the darker aspects of Islam, and yet he seems sure that they have nothing to do with "true" Islam. Such an approach helps to burnish Islam's image. But what does it do for Catholics? Primarily, it misinforms them. Readers of the Document on Human Fraternity will be left with a false impression of the Muslim faith. They will come away with the conviction that Islam is a member in good standing of the fraternity of great humanitarian religions. In short, they will conclude that there's nothing to worry about. This impression won't be left to chance. A multi-faith committee has been set up to ensure that the principles of the document will be spread throughout the world. What this means in practice is that Arab leaders will set up a few Potemkin Village–like centers to ostensibly study human fraternity, while the Catholic Church will rush appropriately adapted versions of the one-world religious humanism into every Catholic seminary, university, high school, and kindergarten on the planet. Catholics are already badly misinformed about Islam. The Abu Dhabi statement, once it is widely disseminated, will only serve to reinforce their naïveté. That, in turn, will leave them unprepared for the next step in what has become a predictable progression. The next step is Islamization. That's not a word one hears very often, especially in polite Catholic circles. But some Catholics can't afford to be polite. Fr. Valentine Obinna told Crux that, in Nigeria, Fulani Muslims killed almost 9,000 Christians and other non-Muslims in a recent three-year period, as part of a program for the "Islamization of Nigeria." President Buhari and those in power turn a blind eye to the activities of the Fulani and Boko Haram, he said, because they "want to make sure the whole country becomes a Muslim country." Apparently, President Buhari — a member of the Fulani ethnic group — didn't get the message from Abu Dhabi. Otherwise, he would understand that Islam is a religion of peace, love, and human fraternity. On the other hand, perhaps the elderly president has a firmer grip on Islamic principles than does Pope Francis and his advisors. If so, he would understand that the Islamization of Nigeria is not a deviation from the teachings of Islam; it is very nearly the first principle. As Muhammad said, "I have been commanded to fight against people till they testify that there is no God but Allah" (Sahih Muslim 1:33). Indeed, the whole purpose of Islam on earth is to bring the House of War (i.e., non-Muslim territory) under the rule of the House of Islam. Islamic teaching mandates not only that Nigeria be Islamized, but also Europe, Canada, the U.S., and the entire globe. Only at that point, from an Islamic point of view, can peace and human fraternity be achieved. Buhari understands that. El-Tayeb understands it. Catholics can't allow themselves to be misinformed on this point. The astonishing ignorance of these basic teachings on the part of Pope Francis and his advisors doesn't make for a more harmonious world: it makes for a more dangerous one. Those who buy into their fantasy view of Islam are in for a rude surprise when they encounter the real thing. This article originally appeared in the September 25, 2019 edition of Crisis. It is published here with permission from the Turning Point Project. | null | https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/pope-francis-doesnt-understand-islam | 2019-10-05T00:12:00+00:00 | 1,570,248,720 | 1,570,541,300 | religion and belief | interreligious dialogue |
290,336 | lifesitenews--2019-11-21--Abp Viganò decries Pope-approved plan to build ‘Abrahamic’ religious site with Muslims, Jews | 2019-11-21T00:00:00 | lifesitenews | Abp Viganò decries Pope-approved plan to build ‘Abrahamic’ religious site with Muslims, Jews | ROME, November 21, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has denounced plans approved by Pope Francis to erect a monument to “Human Fraternity” uniting Islam, Judaism and Catholicism, calling it “a Babylonic enterprise, designed by the enemies of God.” The “House of the Abrahamic Family” (pictured below) will house a mosque, a synagogue, and a church symbolically united on one foundation. In a Nov. 19 article published by Italian journalist Aldo Maria Valli on Duc in Altum, Archbishop Viganò writes: “In the garden of Abu-Dhabi the Temple of the World Syncretic Neo-Religion is about to arise with its anti-Christic dogmas. Not even the most hopeful of the Freemasons would have imagined so much!" The “House of Abraham” project was presented to Pope Francis at the Vatican on November 15, during an audience with the Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb, Sheik of Al-Azhar (main photo), members of the Abu Dhabi goverment, and representatives of the Higher Committee for achieving the goals contained in the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together, signed last August. Here below is an English translation of the article by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, published with the kind permission of Aldo Maria Valli. This is how the Supreme Pontiff Pius XI expressed himself in the opening of his 1928 encyclical Mortalium animos, signed on the day of the Epiphany, when the Church remembers three wise Magi from the East, leading an endless processional caravan guided by a shining star that appeared in the firmament, when on earth the Son of God came in the flesh, the Only Savior, the center of the cosmos and of history. Ninety-one years later, on Friday 15 November 2019 — as reported by Vatican News — Pope Francis received in audience the Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb, accompanied by various personalities and representatives of the University of Al-Azhar and the Higher Committee, all inspired by the desire to give form and concreteness to the contents of the Document on the Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together, sealed last August in the wake of the historic Emirate Declaration, and signed by the Pontiff and the Imam during the Year of Fraternity. With regard to the aforementioned Document, His Excellency Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, as representative of the United Arab Emirates, had previously declared (Vatican News, 21 September 2019) that “in a world in which there are so many things that divide, the Emirates are committed to unite. Like a beacon of light, they wish to bring light into a dark world, bringing to light this document, the most important one signed in recent times”; as if to say that “the Light of the East” that has dawned upon us from on high like the Sun (Lk 1:78) is now eclipsed by a new “Luminous Lighthouse.” The talks of the Vatican meeting were cordial, with words and expressive gestures of an already well-established friendship: let us remember that this is the sixth meeting between the Pontiff and the Great Imam. The Latin American warmth has thus prevailed over the long and rigid “frost” between the Apostolic See and that of the highest body of Sunni Islam. The meeting also offered the opportunity to present to the Pontiff a unique project whose concept has been presented through plans and 3D reconstructions. Sir David Adjaye Obe is the creator of this architectural project, which will rise in the opulent and extravagant Abu Dhabi. It is the House of the Abrahamic Family, a sort of New Tent of Universal Brotherhood that evokes that other Tent of Reception in which the Old Testament Patriarch hosted three mysterious Angels (cf. Gen 18), the prefiguration of the Trinitarian God who was fully revealed to the legitimate Abrahamic posterity through faith in Jesus Christ. Abrahamic Family House is therefore the name of this structure that will house a synagogue, a mosque and a church, naturally dedicated to the Poverello [St. Francis of Assisi]. Sir David’s project envisages the three different places of worship united by unique foundations and placed inside a garden, evoking a New Eden, a Gnostic and Masonic re-edition of the paradise of the First Creation. As explained to Pope Bergoglio, this “structure ... will serve as a place of individual worship, but also for dialogue and interreligious exchange.” In fact, a fourth building is also planned, the headquarters of the Centre for Studies and Research on the Human Fraternity, whose objective, which is inferred from the Abu Dhabi document, will be to “make the three religions known.” The ceremonies for the presentation of the Human Fraternity Award will also take place here. The building of the House of the Abrahamic Family seems like a Babylonic enterprise, designed by the enemies of God, of the Catholic Church and of the only true religion capable of saving man and the whole created from destruction, both present and eternal and definitive. The foundations of this “House,” destined to give way and crumble, precisely where, at the hands of the same builders, the Only Corner Stone is incredibly about to be removed: Jesus Christ, Savior and Lord, on whom stands the House of God. “Therefore,” warns the Apostle Paul, “let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (1 Cor 3:10) In the garden of Abu-Dhabi, the Temple of the World Syncretic Neo-Religion is about to arise with its anti-Christic dogmas. Not even the most hopeful of the Freemasons would have imagined so much! Pope Bergoglio is thus proceeding to a further implementation of the apostasy of Abu Dhabi, the fruit of the pantheistic and agnostic neo-modernism that tyrannizes the Roman Church, germinated from the Council document Nostra aetate. We are forced to recognize it: the poisonous fruits of the “springtime of the Council” are before the eyes of anyone who no longer lets himself be blinded by the prevailing Lie. Pius XI had alerted us and warned us. But the teachings that preceded Vatican II were thrown to the winds as intolerant and obsolete. The comparison between the pre-conciliar Magisterium and the new teachings of Nostra aetateand Dignitatis humanae — to cite only those — shows a terrible discontinuity, which we must note, and which urgently needs to be amended as soon as possible. Adjuvant deo... Let us listen to the words of the Supreme Pontiff Pius XI, when the Popes used to speak the language of Truth, chiseled with fire in diamond: “For which reason conventions, meetings and addresses are frequently arranged by these persons, at which a large number of listeners are present, and at which all without distinction are invited to join in the discussion, both infidels of every kind, and Christians, even those who have unhappily fallen away from Christ or who with obstinacy and pertinacity deny His divine nature and mission. Certainly such attempts can nowise be approved by Catholics, founded as they are on that false opinion which considers all religions to be more or less good and praiseworthy, since they all in different ways manifest and signify that sense which is inborn in us all, and by which we are led to God and to the obedient acknowledgment of His rule. Not only are those who hold this opinion in error and deceived, but also in distorting the idea of true religion they reject it, and little by little, turn aside to naturalism and atheism, as it is called; from which it clearly follows that one who supports those who hold these theories and attempt to realize them, is altogether abandoning the divinely revealed religion … During the lapse of centuries, the mystical Spouse of Christ has never been contaminated, nor can she ever in the future be contaminated, as Cyprian bears witness: "The Bride of Christ cannot be made false to her Spouse: she is incorrupt and modest. She knows but one dwelling, she guards the sanctity of the nuptial chamber chastely and modestly” (Mortalium animos). “Today more than ever … the Church needs strong and coherent doctrines. Amid the dissolution… the compromises become more and more sterile, and each of them takes away a shred of truth… Show yourself then… who you are in the end, convinced Catholics…! There is a grace tied to the full and integral confession of faith. This confession, the Apostle tells us, is the salvation of those who make it, and experience shows that it is also the salvation of those who understand it.” (Dom Prosper-Louis-Pascal Guéranger, The Christian Meaning of History). Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI recently broke his silence by making public his sorrowful plea for the Church in this troubled hour of its history: “Even today our faith is threatened by reductive changes to which worldly fashions would like to subject it, in order to take away its greatness. Lord, help us in this our time to be and to remain true Catholics — to live and die in the greatness of Your truth and in Your divinity. Give us always courageous bishops who may guide us to unity in faith and with the saints of all times, and who show us how fittingly to act in the service of reconciliation, to which our episcopate is called in a special way. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us!” | null | https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/abp-vigano-decries-pope-approved-plan-to-build-abrahamic-religious-site-with-muslims-jews | 2019-11-21T15:21:00+00:00 | 1,574,367,660 | 1,574,380,947 | religion and belief | interreligious dialogue |
290,494 | lifesitenews--2019-12-04--UK bishop allows pagan Hindu festival to be celebrated on Catholic church grounds | 2019-12-04T00:00:00 | lifesitenews | UK bishop allows pagan Hindu festival to be celebrated on Catholic church grounds | WIMBLEDON, UK, December 4, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – A London Catholic parish allowed a Hindu group to hold a “Diwali” pagan festival in its parish hall next to the church. The local archbishop defended the decision after a parishioner complained, but has also decided to review policy after LifeSiteNews reached out for comment. On October 12, Sacred Heart Church in Wimbledon hosted the “Diwali Mela” festival which was put on by a group that aims to “promote and encourage” Indian culture. Diwali, called a “festival of lights,” is the most important Hindu religious festival of the year. Key rituals generally include lighting candles and often include worshipping Hindu pagan deities including Lakshmi (goddess of prosperity) and Lord Ganesha (god of intelligence). The Hindu religion holds itself to be the universal religion for the whole world. Promotional material for the festival in the Catholic parish hall included colorful pictures of Hindu deities and children dressed up as Hindu deities to act out Hindu myths. A member of the Catholic parish contacted the archbishop of Southwark, John Wilson, one month prior to the event to express concern about the event. In an email obtained by LifeSiteNews, the parishioner wrote: “Ecumenism, dialogue and hospitality notwithstanding, I can’t see how hosting a pagan festival on Church property is not contrary to the First Commandment.” The first of the Ten Commandments given by God to Moses in the Old Testament states: “I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” The author of Psalms points out that “all the gods of the pagans are demons” (Psalm 95.5). “If we ourselves have not faith in Christ and manifest our indifference to paganism by hosting this festival, then we should expect Mass attendance to decline in our country,” the parishioner added. Archbishop Wilson, responding to the parishioner a week and a half later, indicated that he was satisfied that the event was “cultural” and not “religious” and pointed the parishioner to Church documents about “interreligious dialogue.” In an email obtained by LifeSiteNews, the archbishop stated: “I have contacted the Parish Priest, Canon John Clark, who offered the following response after seeking clarification from the Hall Secretary: ‘The Mela is a purely cultural event open to all who would like to come along. This is the third Mela and all have been held here without any problems. We have approached the organising committee of the Mela and they have confirmed that it is a cultural not a religious event. They have made a summary of the programme for the day and none of it has a religious element. I enclose a copy of their response for your benefit. As far as I know their Mela is not operated by a commercial company. We have a number of contacts with the Hindu community as they often hold their wedding receptions and birthday parties here.’” The archbishop continued: “Canon Clark also forwarded to me the response of the person organising the event: ‘Thank you for the call, I am attaching the poster for the event. It’s open to all and is organised for all. Mainly kids’ activities, food stalls and merchandise stalls. Kids’ activities include but not restricted to face painting, henna, and such. Food stalls for a feast of Indian food and non-alcoholic drinks. Merchandise stalls like decorative things for around the house or clothes. There’s no religious programme or activity intended. Actually an afternoon with family to enjoy with kids having fun and eating good food!’” Archbishop Wilson concluded his letter, stating: “We must always be faithful to Christ and the teaching of His Holy Catholic Church.” He added: “Alongside this, we must also pursue genuine friendship and dialogue with people of other religious traditions, in the service of the common good, as enunciated in the teaching of the Church and by St John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.” LifeSiteNews reached out to Archbishop Wilson asking if allowing a pagan religious festival on Church property undermines the Church’s claim that she alone offers the true religion and provides the only path to the Kingdom of God by means of her carrying on the work of Jesus. The Church is committed to proclaiming the fullness of the Catholic Faith in Christ as the Saviour of the world. If I didn’t believe this I would not belong to the Church, nor spend my life trying to be a witness to Christ so that others might also know, love and serve Him. This is not mutually exclusive with seeking to sustain good and friendly relationships with people of different cultures and religions. This sense is expressed in the annual messages for Divali [sic] by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the Bishops Conference of India. Indeed, it is often with people of other religious traditions that we find common voice in defending the values of human life and the family. In this particular situation, there appears to be a disagreement between the organisers of the event, who have hired the hall for the past three years without incident, and the person who raised a complaint this year. There also seems to be a difference concerning the understanding of what is cultural and what is solely and explicitly religious. When I sought clarification from the organisers of this event, I was told: “It’s open to all and is organised for all. Mainly kids’ activities, food stalls and merchandise stalls. Kids’ activities include but not restricted to face painting, henna, and such. Food stalls for a fast of Indian food and non-alcoholic drinks Merchandise stalls like decorative things for around the house or clothes. There’s no religious programme or activity intended. Actually an afternoon with family to enjoy with kids having fun and eating good food!” It was explained that it is called a Diwali Mela, a festival in the sense of a ‘fair,’ rather than an explicit religious celebration. The church hall is available for social and community use and there was not, and should not, be any compromise of any Church property consecrated for divine worship. LifeSiteNews then asked how the Archbishop would respond to Catholics in the parish and in his diocese who are scandalized by the decision to allow this pagan festival to take place on Church property. He replied: I have received one formal complaint from a parishioner about the hire of the church hall at Sacred Heart Parish in Wimbledon for a Divali [sic] fair and I am obviously sorry if anyone feels scandalised by this. In this context, the Catholic Church has a profound witness to give in our diverse society. First, to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and the beauty of the Catholic Faith. Second, secure in our identity and mission, to the importance of interfaith friendship, without compromising any truths of that Faith. I want all the parishes in our Diocese to be evangelising communities. I think we do this by positively proposing the truth we hold dear in a way that is respectful and engaging. As Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI reminded us, the Church grows by ‘attraction,’ ‘just as Christ draws all to himself by the power of his love.’ We are currently reviewing the documentation used for the hire of non-consecrated Church property. The “Diwali Mela” festival, which ran on October 12 as scheduled, is hosted by a group called the “Social Spark Hub.” The group states on its website that it was founded in 2015 to “promote and encourage the Indian Culture” with the primary goal to “help children learn about different customs, religious and cultural beliefs.” This year, the group became part of the “Kailash Narain Mehrotra Foundation,” a registered UK charity. The Foundation states that its charitable object is to “advance religious harmony” specifically by “spreading Sanatan culture and Sanatan religious scriptures” and “encouraging observance and celebration of Hindu festivals.” “Sanatan” is another word for the Hindu belief system. Both "Social Spark Hub" and the “Kailash Narain Mehrotra Foundation” list the same contact phone number on the UK’s Charity Commission website. Advisor to Archbishop: Hindu deities are ‘just manifestations of the divine’ The parishioner went on to respond to the archbishop’s original email, providing evidence from social media posts by “Social Spark Hub” that the group does, in fact, include a religious dimension to the “Diwali” event, including putting on a play at a previous festival in the same location called a “Ramleela", this particular one depicting the Hindu god Ram's life. The parishioner noted that “Ramleelas” are considered by Hindus to be a religious event in the same way that Christians would consider a Nativity or Passion play to be a religious event. The parishioner wrote to the archbishop: “We should love the sinner but hate the sin. Hindus violate the First Commandment with their pagan worship, but they are not culpable, because they do not know Christ. We do know Christ, so we are without excuse. We should of course treat all Hindus with the utmost Christian Charity, but this does not mean allowing them to use the Sacred Heart Parish Hall to celebrate Diwali. It cannot be compared with holding a birthday party in the hall.” The following day, the parishioner unexpectedly received an email from Deacon Jon Dal Din, who appears to have a special role within the archdiocese as advisor on interreligious dialogue. Deacon Dal Din was listed in 2015 as “Director of Westminster’s Interfaith agency.” The email, intended for Archbishop Wilson, appears to have been accidentally sent to the parishioner. The Deacon appears to be responding to the Archbishop’s request for guidance on how to deal with the parishioner’s concerns. In an email obtained by LifeSiteNews, the deacon told the archbishop: “I think you have far more important things to do than waste time responding to these letters.” “My understanding of a [Diwali] Mela is that it is an Indian cultural event and celebration, although there may be a religious element involved, in the same way that many people celebrate Chinese New Year and people of all faiths and cultures celebrate Christmas,” the deacon wrote. “It is interesting how [the parishioner] has highlighted selected texts from the Hindu group and not others. I doubt [the parishioner] read the texts you attached. [The parishioner] quotes Pope Benedict. I fear [the parishioner] has a narrow view of mission, evangelisation, proclamation and dialogue. All must be done in a spirit of Love. Jesus’ new Commandment,” he added. Deacon Dal Din in his email went on to quote at length a talk Pope Francis gave during his September 2019 visit to Africa where he answered questions about evangelisation and proselytism. During his talk, the Pope said he felt “bitterness” when he was introduced to Catholics who had converted from other religions. Deacon Dal Din said, “[The parishioner] continues to call Hindus pagans. Well perhaps they are, from [the parishioner’s] perspective, because they are not Christians. [The parishioner] would probably feel the same if Sacred Heart were to offer Iftar to the Muslim community during Ramadan. [The parishioner] does not realise that Hindus believe in one God. Their deities are just manifestations of the divine, as indeed, all humans and creation itself are manifestations of the divine.” “Allowing Hindus to celebrate Diwali Mela in the Church Hall is part of Dialogue of Life, being a good neighbour. Jesus did not mix only with the virtuous, but with sinners and outcasts. Like Pope Francis he reached out to the poor and those on the peripheries,” he stated later in the email to the archbishop. Archbishop Wilson’s decision to allow the Hindu festival to run on Church property comes at a time when many Church leaders, including Pope Francis, have signaled that the Catholic Church may not contain the fullness of God’s revelation and may not be the only sure path established by God to reach the Kingdom of Heaven. In February of this year, the Pope claimed in a joint statement with a Grand Imam that a “pluralism and diversity” of religions is “willed by God.” Despite backlash from concerned Catholics around the world, which included criticism from priests, bishops, and cardinals, the Pope has not recanted this statement. The Pope also alarmed Catholics around the world when he participated in events surrounding the recently concluded Amazon Synod in Rome that included the worship of the pagan idol "Pachamama." | null | https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/uk-bishop-allows-pagan-hindu-festival-to-be-celebrated-on-catholic-church-grounds | 2019-12-04T16:20:00+00:00 | 1,575,494,400 | 1,575,504,157 | religion and belief | interreligious dialogue |
290,553 | lifesitenews--2019-12-09--Pope Francis petitions UN for new annual secular celebration of ‘human fraternity’ | 2019-12-09T00:00:00 | lifesitenews | Pope Francis petitions UN for new annual secular celebration of ‘human fraternity’ | ROME, December 9, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — In the latest sign of the importance Pope Francis attributes to his contentious Abu Dhabi interreligious initiative, he has now united with the Grand Imam of al-Azhar Mosque in Egypt, Ahmed el-Tayeb, in petitioning the United Nations to declare February 4 the annual World Day of Human Fraternity, the Vatican has announced. February 4 is the anniversary of Pope Francis’s controversial joint declaration with the Sunni Grand Imam, seen by its critics as promoting religious indifferentism. In a message delivered last week to United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, at the UN headquarters in New York, the Pope also invited the United Nations to organize, together with the Holy See and Al-Azhar University in Cairo, a World Summit on Fraternity, to be held in the near future. The message was presented on December 4 to the UN Secretary-General by Christian, Muslim and Jewish members of the “Higher Committee on Human Fraternity,” established in August to achieve the objectives contained in the “Document on Human Fraternity and Living Together,” signed by Pope Francis and Ahmed el-Tayeb in Abu Dhabi, on February 4, 2019. While the document laudably condemns “all those practices that are a threat to life such as genocide, acts of terrorism, forced displacement, human trafficking, abortion and euthanasia,” it has also incited considerable controversy for its assertion that “the diversity of religions” is “willed by God” apparently in the same way as race, sex, and language. Critics of this statement, such as Bishop Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary of St. Mary in Astana, Kazakstan, have said it is tantamount to “promoting the neglect of the first Commandment” and is a “betrayal of the Gospel.” “However noble such aims as ‘human fraternity’ and ‘world peace’ may be, they cannot be promoted at the cost of relativizing the truth of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and of His Church and of undermining the first Commandment of the Decalogue,” he said in an interview with LifeSite following news of the establishment of the multi-faith “Higher Committee.” Committee chairman, Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, together with its secretary, Muslim Judge Muhammad Abd al-Salam, led the delegation at the December 4 meeting at the UN headquarters in New York. Vatican News reported that Guterres “expressed his appreciation and willingness to take part in the initiative, stressing the importance of working for the whole of humanity.” He also appointed Adama Dieng, UN special adviser for hate speech and the prevention of genocide, as UN representative to follow up on the proposed activities and work with the Committee. In a September 27, 2019 interview, Dieng said that while there is no official definition for hate speech, the United Nations understands it to mean “any kind of communication in speech, writing or behavior, that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are, in other words, based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, color, descent, gender or other identity factor.” The World Day of Human Fraternity was discussed on September 11, 2019, at the first meeting of the “Higher Committee on Human Fraternity” at the Vatican. In a similar initiative, the following day, September 12, Pope Francis invited representatives of the main religions and international organizations such as the United Nations to gather at the Vatican on May 14, 2020 for the signing of a “Global Pact for Education” for a “new humanism.” | null | https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pope-francis-calls-fornew-secular-feast-of-human-fraternity | 2019-12-09T18:14:00+00:00 | 1,575,933,240 | 1,575,936,116 | religion and belief | interreligious dialogue |
290,758 | lifesitenews--2019-12-24--When Pope Francis embraced an anti-Semite, and the media didn’t mind | 2019-12-24T00:00:00 | lifesitenews | When Pope Francis embraced an anti-Semite, and the media didn’t mind | December 24, 2019 (Turning Point Project) — John Cornwell's 1999 smear of Pius XII, Hitler's Pope, became a best-seller, lauded by reviewers and excerpted in major magazines. Cornwell portrayed Pope Pius as an anti-Semite, a supporter of Hitler, and an enabler of the Holocaust. None of this is true, of course. Eugenio Pacelli despised Hitler, denounced Nazi ideology on numerous occasions, and – according to historian Martin Gilbert – was responsible for saving the lives of thousands of Jews. During the German occupation of Rome, hundreds of Jews were housed within the Vatican, 3,000 found sanctuary in Castel Gandolfo, and at Pius's request, Roman convents and monasteries hid 5,000 Jews. The book's calumny was captured in the cover photo, which shows Cardinal Pacelli leaving a government building and being saluted by two German soldiers. All meant to insinuate that Pope Pius XII has just emerged from an important meeting with Hitler. But the picture was taken in 1927, long before Hitler came to power. Nuncio Pacelli was leaving a reception for German president, Paul von Hindenburg, and the soldiers were members of the Weimar Republic, not the Third Reich. Pacelli never met Hitler. Indeed, when Hitler visited Rome in 1938, Pacelli, along with Pope Pius XI, publicly snubbed him by leaving town. No photo of Pope Pius XII with Hitler exists. If it did, the world press would probably feature it on a regular basis along with stories condemning Pius for anti-Semitism. Jump ahead to the present, and what do we find? Why, it's a photo of Pope Francis kissing a well-known anti-Semite. No need to go digging to find it. In fact, there are several photos taken on several occasions of the pope embracing the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayyeb. Yet, the Grand Imam's anti-Semitic views are no secret, and the pope must surely have been aware of them. During the Second Intifada, al-Tayyeb said that "The solution to Israeli terror lies in the proliferation of suicide attacks that spread terror into the hearts of Allah's enemies." He added, "the Palestinians have the right to blow up everything they want." Why, then, isn't an outraged press running the photo on the front pages accompanied by captions such as "Pope embraces anti-Semitic Imam"? The short answer is that they're not outraged — at the pope or the Grand Imam. The media, of course, does display outrage at anti-Semitism when it arises among groups or individuals considered to be white nationalists, Christian extremists, alt-right, or just plain conservatives. But other groups and individuals seem exempt from charges of anti-Semitism. When leftists, liberals, and Democrats express anti-Jewish sentiments, the mainstream media tends to look the other way. The other exempt group is Muslims. They can't be blamed because...well, because it's a part of their culture. Besides, considering all the evils that the Jewish State has visited upon Palestinians, it's perfectly understandable that Muslims would respond with anti-Jewish sentiments — or, so the reasoning goes. Since liberal journalists tend to favor Palestinians in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and since they are very sensitive to cultural differences, it's not surprising that the Grand Imam, too, is given a free pass on his anti-Semitism. Pope Francis also gets a pass because the liberal press correctly perceives him to be a fellow liberal. So, even if they thought the embrace of al-Tayyeb to be unfortunate (which they don't), it would be quickly forgotten in light of all of Francis's good deeds on behalf of the environment, the poor, migrants, and world peace. Indeed, the signing of the Abu Dhabi "Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together" would by itself, for liberal media, be enough to absolve both men of any prejudicial thoughts. The media is friendly to Francis because he's part of the club of bien-pensants who only wish well for the world. The proof of their protective attitude toward Francis is that, although Francis's papacy is possibly the most scandal-ridden in modern history, with new scandals emerging on a weekly basis, most of the media has never looked deeply into the myriad charges. The most serious charges have to do with cover-ups for abusive prelates in which Francis has been directly involved. How has the media responded to these cover-ups? Basically, with a cover-up of their own. Not that the press doesn't run stories about the abuse cover-ups, but they are strangely restrained and muted stories, often blaming "conservatives" for using the scandals to oppose the pope. By-and-large, they assign only minimal responsibility to Pope Francis. Just as the media wants us to believe that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam, it would also have us believe that the abuse crisis has nothing to do with Francis even when some of his closest collaborators are implicated. Compare this to the media feeding frenzy that followed the 1963 premier of Rolf Hochhuth's play "The Deputy" — which vilified Pope Pius XII as a Nazi collaborator. For the next four decades, one sloppily researched book after another portrayed Pius as an anti-Semitic Nazi sympathizer. The slur has never really gone away. It hangs heavily in the air waiting for the next scandalous book about the man who supposedly welcomed the Holocaust. As I wrote five years ago, "the 'Hitler's Pope' campaign was highly successful, with the result that the calumny against Pius is now almost universally accepted by the opinion-making elites and by plenty of average citizens as well." Despite the fact that there now exist a number of well-documented books refuting the "Hitler's Pope" myth, there have been, as far as I know, no retractions or apologies by those who helped spread the myth. The myth has been so widely disseminated, that few know that, in the years after World War II, Pius XII was considered a hero by Jews throughout the world. And fewer still are aware that he was actually involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler. The media seems to have a double standard about popes. They'll believe anything derogatory about the pope who was known to be a staunch defender of tradition and doctrine, and they'll forgive everything for a pope who shares their own liberal views. On the one hand, they're eager to display a "fake news" photo of Pius in what appears to be a compromising position; on the other hand, they're quite willing to ignore a photo of Francis embracing a contemporary anti-Semite. None of this is meant to suggest that Francis himself is anti-Semitic, but it does suggest a certain carelessness on his part. Pope Pius XII knew enough not to give photo ops to Hitler. But Francis doesn't seem to understand that there is a problem with showering affection on a man with pronounced anti-Semitic views, so long as they are promoting interreligious relations. Unlike Pius, he doesn't seem to appreciate the gravity of his office or the responsibilities that go with it. He does seem, however, to understand that the media will put a positive spin on just about anything he does. So, perhaps, he thinks he can afford to be careless. This article originally appeared in the December 14, 2019 edition of The Catholic Thing. It is published here with permission from the Turning Point Project. | null | https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/when-pope-francis-embraced-an-anti-semite-and-the-media-didnt-mind | 2019-12-24T16:05:00+00:00 | 1,577,221,500 | 1,577,232,117 | religion and belief | interreligious dialogue |
433,880 | prisonplanet--2019-11-22--Pope Francis Cites Fictional French Epic to Prove Christians Are Violent | 2019-11-22T00:00:00 | prisonplanet | Pope Francis Cites Fictional French Epic to Prove Christians Are Violent | ROME — Pope Francis trotted out a scene from the 11th-century French epic poem La Chanson de Roland this week to prove Christians have tried to convert Muslims by the sword, just as Muslims have done to Christians. “A scene from The Song of Roland comes to me as a symbol, when the Christians defeat the Muslims and line them up in front of the baptismal font, with one holding a sword,” the pope told an Argentinian interreligious dialogue group Monday. “And the Muslims had to choose between baptism or the sword. That is what we Christians did,” he declared. It did not take long for the French themselves to cry foul, reproaching the pontiff both for besmirching one of their most beloved pieces of epic literature and for using a fictional narrative to illustrate a point about how Christians supposedly behave. “La Chanson de Roland is obviously not a historical chronicle of events, but an epic poem, a chanson de geste, the oldest and most complete manuscript, written in Anglo-Norman, and dates back to the early twelfth century, four centuries after the facts it is supposed to recount,” wrote Vini Ganimara Thursday for the French Catholic news site Riposte Catholique. The Song of Roland was indeed inspired in part by a historical event, namely Charlemagne’s expedition to Spain in 778, Ganimara observes, but this expedition to Spain was actually undertaken at the request of several Muslim governors of Spain, in rebellion against the Emir of Cordova. This article was posted: Friday, November 22, 2019 at 5:08 am | admin | https://www.prisonplanet.com/pope-francis-cites-fictional-french-epic-to-prove-christians-are-violent.html | Fri, 22 Nov 2019 10:08:13 +0000 | 1,574,435,293 | 1,574,424,288 | religion and belief | interreligious dialogue |
560,627 | tass--2019-01-30--Russian Orthodox Church head calls on religious leaders to help resolve Karabakh conflict | 2019-01-30T00:00:00 | tass | Russian Orthodox Church head calls on religious leaders to help resolve Karabakh conflict | MOSCOW, January 30. /TASS/. Orthodox and Muslim representatives can help politicians to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said at a meeting with Sheikh ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade, head of the Muslim Board for the Caucasus and co-chair of the CIS Interreligious Council, and Azerbaijan’s delegation. "Had everything depended on clerics, I think we would have solved the issue long ago. But it does not hinge upon just us, so this joint opinion will have a favorable effect on politicians, urging them to solve the issue peacefully and for mutual satisfaction," the Russian Orthodox Church’s head said. The highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh (Mountainous Karabakh) is a mostly Armenian-populated enclave inside the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan. It was the first zone of inter-ethnic tensions and violence to appear on the map of the former USSR in February 1988. Then, the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region declared independence from Azerbaijan, a republic within the Soviet Union at the time. In 1992-1994, hostilities broke out in the region between pro-Baku forces and Armenian residents, which resulted in the Nagorno- Karabakh’s de facto independence. In 1994, a ceasefire was reached but the relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia have been strained since then. Russia, France and the US co-chair the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which attempts to broker an end to hostilities and the conflict. In other media | null | http://tass.com/society/1042501 | 2019-01-30 14:07:45+00:00 | 1,548,875,265 | 1,567,550,224 | religion and belief | interreligious dialogue |
573,626 | tass--2019-11-14--Tatarstan leader discusses multicultural dialogue at Dubai summit | 2019-11-14T00:00:00 | tass | Tatarstan leader discusses multicultural dialogue at Dubai summit | KAZAN, November 14. /TASS/. President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov shared his experience in develpoing multinational and multireligious tolerance with the participants of the World Tolerance Summit in Dubai, said the presidential press service on Thursday. “The Council under the President of Tatarstan on multinational and interreligious relations is working in the republic. We adopted a concept on national state policy. A scientific and expert council operates on the basis of Kazan Federal University. And of course, in our affairs we rely on our muftiate and metropolis which allows us to ensure peace, harmony and stability," said Minnikhanov. The president noted that in total about 4 million people live in Tatarstan — representatives of 173 nationalities. According to him, the republic has extensive experience of muslims and orthodox christians living side by side. They have a mutual understanding them, he noted. A lot of mosques and cathedrals were lost during the Soviet period. Since the 90s to the present day, a number of religious sites are still being restored, noted the president. "But our main task was to prepare people, theologists, who could properly build this system. At present, the Tatarstan Metropolis and the Spiritual Administration of Muslims make a huge contribution to strengthening tolerance and stability in the republic. All events in Tatarstan are held with the participation of our main religious figures," he added. According to the Tatarstan leader, the republic simultaneously restoring both Muslim and Orthodox shrines. For example, the Kul Sharif Mosque and the Orthodox Annunciation Cathedral are located on the territory of the Kazan Kremlin. The republic's fund for the revival of historical and cultural monuments did an enormous job to restore Ancient Bolgar and the island city of Sviyazhsk. Work on recreating the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God is underway, the Bolgar Islamic Academy was opened. The republic pays special attention to issues of religious education. "People can be swayed by different beliefs. Thus, we make sure that the system of Islamic and Orthodox education is structured and that various harmful trends do not cause any problems," said Minnikhanov. The II World Tolerance Summit is being is held in Dubai on November 13-14 bringing together representatives of various states, religious institutions, educational institutions, cultural associations, non-governmental organizations and influencers. The summit is dedicated to tolerance and cultural understanding aimed at strengthening peace and mutual understanding between people. Special attention will be paid to enhancing cooperation to ensure security and stability all over the world. | null | https://tass.com/society/1089163 | Thu, 14 Nov 2019 22:00:01 +0300 | 1,573,786,801 | 1,573,820,521 | religion and belief | interreligious dialogue |
576,989 | theamericanconservative--2019-09-25--How Much More Christian Blood Must Our Interventions Spill | 2019-09-25T00:00:00 | theamericanconservative | How Much More Christian Blood Must Our Interventions Spill? | Back in June, Islamic militants in Burkina Faso entered a village, forced everyone to lie face down on the ground, found four people wearing crucifixes, and summarily executed them. It was the second time in as many months that Islamists had singled out and murdered people wearing Christian imagery. At least 20 Christians in Burkina Faso have been killed in 2019 across five attacks that have targeted Christian communities. “The trouble began three years ago,” reports The Washington Post, when Islamic militants began trickling in from neighboring Mali. Many of them carried weapons stolen after the 2011 collapse of Libya, which, we should remember, was caused by a U.S.-led NATO intervention. As we never seem to learn, American foreign adventurism has been terrible for the global Christian population. The president of the Episcopal Conference of Burkina Faso and Niger, Bishop Laurent Dabiré, warned in June that local Christians were in danger of “elimination” because of continued attacks by Islamic militants. “Their main target appears to be the Christians and I believe they are trying to trigger an interreligious conflict,” Dabiré noted. Christians are only 20 percent of Burkina Faso’s population, and the threat to African Christians by Muslim extremists connected to instability farther north is not unique to there. It has been observed in Mali, the Central African Republic, Niger, and Nigeria. It has included kidnappings, rapes, executions, and the beheading of a 77-year-old Spanish nun in CAR. “Africa is a continent where violence against Christians is exploding,” Cardinal Dieudonne Nzapalainga told the German media outlet Deutsche Welle. So…Libya. Eight years after the NATO intervention, the country is still a chaotic mess of competing violent militias. Millions of Libyan refugees now reside in other countries. Thousands of Libyan civilians, soldiers, and mercenaries from neighboring countries have been killed. Nor can we forget Benghazi, where Islamic militants dragged the body of a U.S. ambassador through the streets. Now we can add to that list the violence and persecution of Christians 1,500 miles away. Imagine the war in Ukraine causing tremors of violence in London. We remain a nation with one of the most vocal Christian political communities in the West—still one third of America’s citizens deem her a Christian nation. One would think we would steer clear of conflicts that disproportionately harm Christians of other lands, especially where they are already vulnerable minorities. Yet we still invaded Iraq in 2003, and it’s proven disastrous for the ancient, venerable Christian community there. Before the invasion, approximately 1.4 million Christians lived in Iraq. Today, there are fewer than 250,000, an 80 percent drop. Though the Islamic State, the greatest existential threat to the survival of Iraqi Christianity, has largely been neutralized (for now), new threats from Muslim ethnic militias remain. Power vacuums, it would seem, cause distress for minority groups. The Islamic State—whose creation can be traced back to instability set off by the invasion—have persecuted, abused, and murdered plenty of Christians in neighboring Syria. The Christian population of Syria, similar to that of Iraq, dropped from 1.7 million in 2011 to below 450,000 today. ISIS’s influence is still felt there. We could also add to the list the state of Israel, to whom the United States gives billions of dollars every year. Estimates made by the British during their colonial rule in 1922 put the Christian population of Palestine near 10 percent, and near 8 percent in 1946. Yet huge numbers of Arab Christians fled or were expelled from Jewish-controlled areas of Mandatory Palestine during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Elias Michael Chacour, a former archbishop of Akko, Haifa, Nazareth, and All Galilee of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, recounts in his book Blood Brothers how Yishuv forces expelled Christians from his village in Palestine. They then executed many of the village’s Christian men. Also relevant is Vietnam. The United States encouraged hundreds of thousands of Catholic Vietnamese to flee communist North Vietnam in the 1950s for safety in South Vietnam. The South became a haven for religious liberty, and the Catholic population there flourished, until Washington endorsed the execution of Christian South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963. After South Vietnam’s 1975 surrender to the communists—precipitated by America’s withdrawal of military and financial support—the persecution of Christians increased multifold. For example, then-archbishop of Saigon Nguyen Van Thuan was arrested and imprisoned—he would spend 13 years in prison, nine of which were in solitary confinement. Yet while the United States’ record on protecting vulnerable Christian minority communities around the world is a disgrace, we are reticent to learn the relevant lessons. Senior members of the administration have been eager to pursue new military interventions. If it’s not conservative hawks demanding that we crush America’s enemies, it’s self-righteous liberal do-gooders like Samantha Power, who never see an international crisis that doesn’t merit U.S. involvement. Power, we should also remember, supported the Saudi intervention in Yemen—now among the worst humanitarian disasters of this century—during her time in the White House. Whatever the character, and whatever the political party or ideology, the same thing always happens. Military adventurism inevitably causes instability, which immediately puts vulnerable communities—be they Christian, Yazidi, or Muslim—at greater risk. Thanks to a long, seemingly unlikely series of events, Christians in Burkina Faso now die because eight years ago we decided to bomb Moammar Gaddafi’s totalitarian regime out of existence. In the ensuing chaos, guns and militants flowed out of Libya across the African continent. How many more times must we do this before we learn our lesson? Casey Chalk is pursuing a graduate degree in theology from Christendom College and is senior writer for Crisis Magazine. He covers religion and other issues for The American Conservative. | Casey Chalk | https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-much-more-christian-blood-must-our-interventions-spill/ | 2019-09-25 04:01:41+00:00 | 1,569,398,501 | 1,570,222,210 | religion and belief | interreligious dialogue |
656,740 | thedcclothesline--2019-05-13--Vatican Wishes Happy Ramadan to Those Who Continue to Slaughter Christians | 2019-05-13T00:00:00 | thedcclothesline | Vatican Wishes Happy Ramadan to Those Who Continue to Slaughter Christians | Editor: I grew up Catholic and actually attended a Catholic High School Seminary for 3 years. This is not a Catholic Pope. He is trying to destroy the Church. What devious plan might follow is anyone’s guess, but it surely looks like Armageddon is upon us. -Dean Garrison Why doesn’t he speak in defense of his flock? Outreach is all well and good but Ramadan is theseason of jihad — pure terror for non-Muslims living in Muslim countries. ‘Jihad Is the Best Part of Worship’: Jihadis Gear Up for Ramadan The month of Ramadan, which began this year on May 5, is “a month for strengthening the spiritual bonds we share in Muslim-Christian friendship,” reads the message from the Vatican’s office of interreligious dialogue bearing the title “Christians and Muslims: Promoting Universal Fraternity.” “We Muslims and Christians are called to open ourselves to others, knowing and recognizing them as brothers and sisters,” the text states. “In this way, we can tear down walls raised out of fear and ignorance and seek together to build bridges of friendship that are fundamental for the good of all humanity.” “We thus cultivate in our families and in our political, civil and religious institutions, a new way of life where violence is rejected, and the human person respected,” reads the message, which bears the signature of Bishop Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. Our religions invite us to “remain rooted in the values of peace; to defend the values of mutual understanding, human fraternity and harmonious coexistence; to re-establish wisdom, justice and love,” the text says, citing a joint declaration signed by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam Ahmed a-Tayyeb in Abu Dhabi this past February. That same declaration brought down heavy criticism on the pope particularly due to the assertion that the plurality and diversity of religions “are willed by God in His wisdom,” just as God wills a plurality of colors, sexes, races, and languages. A number of Catholic theologians raised objections to the statement, insisting that it seemed to suggest that either God actively wills error, or that all religions are equally valid paths to God. The existence of a variety of colors, races, and languages in humanity is very different from a variety of contradictory claims about God’s identity and way of acting, they said. In early April, Francis walked back the earlier statement, clarifying that in reality God only permitsthe existence of many religions without actively willing it. The Vatican’s Ramadan message steers clear of such theological swampland. “We are encouraged, therefore, to continue advancing the culture of dialogue as a means of cooperation and as a method of growing in knowledge of one another,” the message says. The text also reaffirms the importance of religious liberty and the right of all people to worship God in freedom. “In order to respect diversity, dialogue must seek to promote every person’s right to life, to physical integrity, and to fundamental freedoms, such as freedom of conscience, of thought, of expression and of religion,” it states. “This includes the freedom to live according to one’s beliefs in both the private and public spheres. In this way, Christians and Muslims – as brothers and sisters – can work together for the common good.” Pamela Geller is the President of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), editor-in-chief of Geller Report and Amazon best selling author of the here FATWA: Hunted in America , The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America and Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance. COMMUNITY LINKS: Visit Our Sister Site for Articles Not Seen Here | Browse our Store for Conservative Gifts & Apparel | Join Our Free Speech Social Media Network | Pamela Geller | https://www.dcclothesline.com/2019/05/13/vatican-wishes-happy-ramadan-to-those-who-continue-to-slaughter-christians/ | 2019-05-13 16:00:25+00:00 | 1,557,777,625 | 1,567,540,807 | religion and belief | interreligious dialogue |
673,390 | thegatewaypundit--2019-02-03--JUST IN Pope Francis Arrives in Abu Dhabi First Pontiff to Visit Birthplace of Islam | 2019-02-03T00:00:00 | thegatewaypundit | JUST IN: Pope Francis Arrives in Abu Dhabi – First Pontiff to Visit Birthplace of Islam | The Pope’s trip to the Arabian Peninsula is historic; he is the first Pontiff to visit the birthplace of Islam. The Associated Press reported that Pope Francis is seeking to turn the page in Christian-Muslim relations. Pope Francis will also hold a giant Mass on Tuesday which is expected to draw 135,000 people in what many are calling the largest show of Christian worship on the Arabian Peninsula ever. More from the AP: Francis traveled to Abu Dhabi to participate in a conference on interreligious dialogue sponsored the Emirates-based Muslim Council of Elders, an initiative that seeks to counter religious fanaticism by promoting a moderate brand of Islam. It’s the brainchild of Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the revered 1,000-year-old seat of Sunni Islam that trains clerics and scholars from around the world. In a video message to the Emirates on the eve of his trip, Francis paid homage to his “friend and dear brother” el-Tayeb and praised his courage in calling the meeting to assert that “God unites and doesn’t divide.” “I am pleased with this meeting offered by the Lord to write, on your dear land, a new page in the history of relations among religions and confirm that we are brothers despite our differences,” Francis said. | Cristina Laila | https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/02/just-in-pope-francis-arrives-in-abu-dhabi-first-pontiff-to-visit-birthplace-of-islam/ | 2019-02-03 19:06:10+00:00 | 1,549,238,770 | 1,567,549,765 | religion and belief | interreligious dialogue |
810,848 | themoscowtimes--2019-11-22--Islam and Orthodox Christianity Have the Same Values, Putin Says | 2019-11-22T00:00:00 | themoscowtimes | Islam and Orthodox Christianity Have the Same Values, Putin Says | The conference, titled "Orthodoxy and Islam — Religions of Peace," aimed to promote interethnic and interreligious dialogue between Russia and Kyrgyzstan. Orthodox Christianity and Islam are based on the same fundamental values, President Vladimir Putin said in an address to a religious conference in Kyrgyzstan. "Islam and Orthodox Christianity, just like other world religions, are based on fundamental humanistic values that are of enduring importance — on mercy and love for one’s near, justice and respect for human beings," the state-run TASS news agency quoted Putin as saying Thursday. The address, which was read out to the conference by Russian Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Nikolai Udovichenko, pushed for cooperation between government agencies and religious organizations to bolster "civil peace and accord" between the two countries. The Russian president added that it is "essential" to preserve these ties for future generations and to “[enhance] the role of religious organizations in protecting and promoting spiritual, moral and family values.” Islam is Russia’s second-largest religion behind Orthodox Christianity and its Muslim population is expected to more than double in the next 15 years. The majority of Kyrgyzstan's population is Muslim. | null | https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/11/22/islam-and-orthodox-christianity-have-the-same-values-putin-says-a68279 | Fri, 22 Nov 2019 13:45:16 +0100 | 1,574,448,316 | 1,574,470,441 | religion and belief | interreligious dialogue |
1,099,737 | westernjournal--2019-02-04--The Latest Pope condemns violence in Gods name | 2019-02-04T00:00:00 | westernjournal | The Latest: Pope condemns violence in God’s name | The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press story prior to publication. Therefore, it may contain editorial bias or may in some other way not meet our normal editorial standards. It is provided to our readers as a service from The Western Journal. ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Latest on Pope Francis’s visit to the United Arab Emirates (all times local): Pope Francis and the grand imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in Sunni Islam, have signed a statement with their hopes for world peace and human understanding. The two signed the document Monday night during the pope’s visit to the United Arab Emirates. It is the first papal visit ever to the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam. The document describes itself as being in the name of “all victims of wars, persecution and injustice; . and those tortured in any part of the world, without distinction.” It also decried modern “signs of a ‘third world war being fought piecemeal.'” The United Arab Emirates is deeply involved in the Saudi-led war in Yemen, which faces widespread international criticism for airstrikes killing civilians and the conflict pushing the country to the brink of famine. The document says: “We resolutely declare that religions must never incite war, hateful attitudes, hostility and extremism, nor must they incite violence or the shedding of blood.” The statement also says countries have a duty to establish a concept of “full citizenship.” The UAE relies heavily on foreign laborers who have no path to naturalization. The head of Sunni Islam’s highest seat of learning has told an audience that includes Pope Francis and hundreds of other religious figures from around the world that Islam is a religion of peace that values human life. At an event Monday evening during the first-ever papal visit to the Gulf, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the head of Al-Azhar, quoted numerous Quranic verses about the value of life, including one that says: “Whoever kills a person it is as though he has killed all mankind. And whoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved all mankind.” The grand mufti said all faiths denounce terrorism in all its forms and that acts of terrorism are carried out by criminals, not by true believers of God. The sheikh said that after the 9/11 attacks the media made Islam look like a “bloodthirsty” religion and that Muslims paid a heavy price for the acts of a few. He spoke after the Muslim Council of Elders and the pope met for an interreligious dialogue that recognized efforts by the pope and al-Tayeb to foster peace. Pope Francis has asserted in the first-ever papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula that religious leaders have a duty to reject all war and commit themselves to dialogue. Francis concluded his landmark speech to an interfaith gathering on Monday by saying: “God is with those who seek peace. From heaven he blesses every step which, on this path, is accomplished on earth.” Speaking in Italian at the Abu Dhabi Founder’s Memorial, Francis cited the conflicts in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Libya in calling for leaders to resist the “floods of violence and the desertification of altruism.” The UAE is involved in the conflicts in Yemen, Syria and Libya. Speaking to a gathering of imams, muftis, ministers, rabbis, swamis, Zoroastrians and Sikhs, Francis said: “Human fraternity requires of us, as representatives of the world’s religions, the duty to reject every nuance of approval from the word ‘war.’ Let us return it to its miserable crudeness.” Pope Francis has called out the dangers of so-called “fake news” amid ongoing propaganda campaigns across Gulf Arab countries. Francis made the comment in a speech Monday night, saying: “Young people, who are often surrounded by negative messages and fake news, need to learn not to surrender to the seductions of materialism, hatred and prejudice.” The boycott of Qatar by Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates has seen such propaganda published since its start in June 2017. The crisis began after Qatar’s state-run news agency was hacked and fake items were published. In the time since, slanted or one-sided coverage in the dispute has been common in both Arabic- and English-language media outlets. Pope Francis is visiting the UAE on the first papal trip ever to the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam. Pope Francis has condemned all violence committed in God’s name, telling an interfaith meeting in the first papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula that religious leaders must be beacons of peace and promote the dignity of all God’s children. Francis warned that unless people of different religions come together to promote “concrete paths of peace,” the future of humanity itself will be in doubt. He warned: “We will either build the future together or there will not be a future. The time has come when religions should more actively exert themselves, with courage and audacity, and without pretense, to help the human family deepen the capacity for reconciliation, the vision of hope and the concrete paths of peace.” At the highlight of his 40-hour visit to Abu Dhabi on Monday, Francis also called for full religious freedom in this majority Muslim region, where restrictions are placed on non-Muslim expressions of faith. Pope Francis has met with a group of Muslim elders at the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi in what the Vatican says was a “particularly cordial and fraternal” encounter. The Vatican says the private meeting lasted about 30 minutes, and was followed by a visit of the mosque alongside Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the seat of Sunni learning. Francis later paid homage at the tomb of the founder of the Emirates. The Vatican says that during the meeting Monday, Francis and the participants “emphasized the importance of the culture of encounter to reinforce the commitment to dialogue and peace.” Francis is making the first-ever trip to the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam, in a bid to strengthen ties with the Muslim world. Human Rights Watch is urging Pope Francis to use his visit to the United Arab Emirates to press its rulers about serious human rights violations in the war in Yemen and their repression of critics at home. The rights group released a letter on Monday at the start of the first-ever papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula. HRW says the Saudi-led coalition backed by the UAE has bombed Yemeni homes, markets and schools indiscriminately while impeding humanitarian aid from reaching desperate Yemenis. The New York-based watchdog also says that the UAE authorities have targeted critics, political dissidents and human rights activists with arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances. HRW called in the letter on the pope to lead international pressure to hold the UAE leadership accountable. It says that “despite its assertions about tolerance, the UAE government has demonstrated no real interest in improving its human rights record.” Abu Dhabi’s powerful crown prince says he and Dubai’s ruler were “delighted” to meet Pope Francis for a meeting amid the pontiff’s trip to the United Arab Emirates. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan tweeted pictures of the meeting on Monday in what he described as “our homeland of tolerance.” Sheikh Mohammed tweeted: “We discussed enhancing cooperation, consolidating dialogue, tolerance, human coexistence & important initiatives to achieve peace, stability and development for peoples and societies.” He did not elaborate. Pope Francis arrived in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. His visit represents the first papal trip ever to the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam. Pope Francis has assured the people of the United Arab Emirates of his prayers and “the divine blessings of peace and fraternal solidarity.” Francis signed a book of honor on Monday at the presidential palace in Abu Dhabi, where he met for private talks with the Emirati capital’s powerful crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in the first-ever papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula. Frances wrote in his characteristic tiny script, in English, of his “gratitude for your warm welcome and hospitality.” The Emirates put on a remarkably grandiose welcome for Francis, complete with an artillery salute and military flyover by a country that is now at war in Yemen, where the UAE backs a Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Pope Francis has arrived at the presidential palace to officially start his historic visit to the United Arab Emirates as canons boomed and a military aircraft flew over trailing the yellow and white smoke of the Holy See flag. Guards on horseback escorted Francis’ tiny Kia car to approach the palace where a marching band, complete with bagpipers, was on hand on Monday for a red carpet welcome at the massive, domed structure in Abu Dhabi. The capital’s powerful crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, was to welcome Francis, the first pope to visit the Arabian Peninsula. The highlight of Francis’ day comes on Monday afternoon when he is to meet privately with a group of Muslim elders and then addresses faith leaders in a show of religious tolerance in a Muslim region known for its restrictions on religious freedom. His 40-hour trip to Abu Dhabi culminates on Tuesday with the first-ever papal Mass on the Arabian Peninsula — a gathering expected to draw some 135,000 people in a never-before-seen display of public Christian worship here. Pope Francis is opening his historic visit to the United Arab Emirates by meeting with the federation’s leader and a group of Muslim elders. After that, he will address an unprecedented gathering of faith leaders in a show of religious tolerance in a Muslim region known for its restrictions on religious freedom. Francis’ speech to the gathering on Monday evening is the highlight of his brief, 40-hour visit to Abu Dhabi. His trip culminates on Tuesday with the first-ever papal Mass on the Arabian Peninsula. It’s expected to draw some 135,000 people in a never-before-seen display of public Christian worship here. Francis arrived in the Emirati capital late Sunday and was greeted by Abu Dhabi’s powerful crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The Associated Press contributed to this report. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards. | AP Reports | https://www.westernjournal.com/ap-the-latest-pope-condemns-violence-in-gods-name/ | 2019-02-04 15:31:13+00:00 | 1,549,312,273 | 1,567,549,724 | religion and belief | interreligious dialogue |
178,375 | eveningstandard--2019-06-27--Woman arrested and charged with aposcontrolling behaviourapos for telling bodybuilder husband to | 2019-06-27T00:00:00 | eveningstandard | Woman arrested and charged with 'controlling behaviour' for telling bodybuilder husband to tidy the house | A woman has told how she was arrested and charged with “controlling behaviour” after asking her husband to help out around the house more. Valerie Sanders, 58, from Catterick, North Yorkshire, said she was “treated like a criminal” for asking bodybuilder Michael, also 58, to spend a bit less time at the gym and a bit more time hoovering. Mrs Sanders, a cleaning firm boss, said she had left notes for her him to do chores around the home they shared, but was stunned when police were called in. Two vans and four officers reportedly turned up at the house to arrest her, taking her to a police station where she is said to have spent 17 hours in a cell. The following day, Mrs Sanders was charged with “coercive or controlling behaviour”, a law usually used to protect vulnerable women. Her case was thrown out this week before it went to trial, after what the shocked wife described as 14 months of “hell”. “It’s outrageous it ever got to court,” Mrs Sanders told the Sun, insisting: “I’d leave a note asking him to vacuum parts of the house and clean the patio doors. We have two miniature dachshunds. But he would spend four hours cleaning his car – so of course I complained. “Surely it isn’t controlling behaviour otherwise every married couple would be in court?” But her husband, who she first met online, hit back: “I’m not sure if she should have gone to court or not. That was not my decision – but she was controlling. She was constantly on at me.” The case was listed for trial at Teesside crown court on Tuesday but was dismissed before a jury was sworn in. Mrs Sanders’ not guilty plea was accepted in return for a two-year restraining order. The CPS announced the decision to drop the case, saying: “We prosecute cases where there is sufficient evidence of coercive and controlling behaviour. "In this case, after a key witness decided to no longer support the prosecution, we concluded there was no longer sufficient evidence.” The couple are now divorcing. Mrs Sanders said: “17 hours in a prison cell broke my love for him. It’s such a relief it is all over.” | Harriet Brewis | https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/wife-bodybuilder-husband-controlling-behaviour-charge-a4176921.html | 2019-06-27 08:19:00+00:00 | 1,561,637,940 | 1,567,537,833 | sport | bodybuilding |
255,600 | instapundit--2019-01-27--MUSCLE SCIENCE Muscles May Preserve A Shortcut To Restore Lost Strength Muscle physiology lore | 2019-01-27T00:00:00 | instapundit | MUSCLE SCIENCE: Muscles May Preserve A Shortcut To Restore Lost Strength. “Muscle physiology lore … | MUSCLE SCIENCE: Muscles May Preserve A Shortcut To Restore Lost Strength. “Muscle physiology lore has long held that it is easier to regain muscle mass in once-fit muscles than build it anew, especially as we age. But scientists haven’t been able to pin down how that would actually work. A growing body of research reviewed Friday in the journal Frontiers in Physiology suggests that muscle nuclei — the factories that power new muscle growth — may be the answer. Rather than dying as muscles lose mass, nuclei added during muscle growth persist and could give older muscles an edge in regaining fitness later on, new research suggests.” | Glenn Reynolds | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pjmedia/instapundit/~3/XqPydPKQVmU/ | 2019-01-27 02:00:33+00:00 | 1,548,572,433 | 1,567,550,621 | sport | bodybuilding |
268,762 | instapundit--2019-10-12--EW. Professional Cyclist Shares Shocking Pictures of His Leg Muscles. I’ll stick with lifting, tha | 2019-10-12T00:00:00 | instapundit | EW. Professional Cyclist Shares Shocking Pictures of His Leg Muscles. I’ll stick with lifting, tha… | EW. Professional Cyclist Shares Shocking Pictures of His Leg Muscles. I’ll stick with lifting, thank you. | Glenn Reynolds | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pjmedia/instapundit/~3/lyZbaokxR_4/ | Sat, 12 Oct 2019 00:00:24 +0000 | 1,570,852,824 | 1,570,883,704 | sport | bodybuilding |
335,587 | naturalnews--2019-04-16--Study reveals how vitamin E protects skeletal muscles | 2019-04-16T00:00:00 | naturalnews | Study reveals how vitamin E protects skeletal muscles | (Natural News) Aging is a complex biological process, and it’s one that can even lead to several muscular disorders. Recently, scientists from the U.S. and Taiwan focused on how age changes the health of our skeletal muscles and how vitamin E may be used to mitigate those changes. Our skeletal muscles are the most common of the three types of muscles in our body, the others being cardiac and smooth muscles. They are voluntary, meaning they are under our conscious control. They are attached to our bones and they allow the movement of our body parts. One of the effects that aging has on our skeletal muscles is sarcopenia, or the loss of muscle strength and mass. It comes from several causes which the scientists have identified as: The researchers attribute these problems to: Mother Nature's micronutrient secret: Organic Broccoli Sprout Capsules now available, delivering 280mg of high-density nutrition, including the extraordinary "sulforaphane" and "glucosinolate" nutrients found only in cruciferous healing foods. Every lot laboratory tested. See availability here. The researchers also examined the current literature discussing sarcopenia, and it suggests to them that vitamin E may be able to reduce the effects of that disorder. It appears that the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of vitamin E molecules may lessen skeletal muscle dysfunction due to age, while at the same time enhancing muscle regeneration. Previous researchers have already done preclinical and human experimental studies which show that vitamin E supports: A few human cross-sectional observational studies reveal positive links between levels of serum tocopherol (vitamin E in the blood) and muscle strength. The researchers would like to see more long-term clinical trials, but they see promise in the potential of Vitamin E in protecting skeletal muscle. | Jose Lopez | http://www.naturalnews.com/2019-04-16-vitamin-e-protects-skeletal-muscles.html | 2019-04-16 02:30:57+00:00 | 1,555,396,257 | 1,567,542,826 | sport | bodybuilding |
368,760 | newyorkpost--2019-01-17--James McAvoys muscles are the only strong thing in weak Glass | 2019-01-17T00:00:00 | newyorkpost | James McAvoy’s muscles are the only strong thing in weak ‘Glass’ | M. Night Shyamalan, who specializes in twist endings, has no shortage of haters, but he’s managed to pull off some good ones almost as often as he’s botched it. His 2015 grandparent horror show “The Visit” was a sick, fun ride and 2016’s “Split,” though flawed, made great use of James McAvoy as a multiple-personality kidnapper. So, after revisiting 2000’s decent “Unbreakable,” I had medium-high hopes for “Glass,” which promised to tie in the characters from that movie and “Split.” My optimism lasted about an hour, when I realized the film had nothing to say and nowhere to go. Its third act is so hopelessly inept, I’d have preferred the writer/director just default to a “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” ending, unceremoniously wrapping the film mid-scene: For the Pythons, it was lack of funds; here, it’s lack of anything resembling creativity. Marie Kondo would toss it out for not sparking joy. And to think what could have been! McAvoy ably provides most of the entertainment, scrolling through the cast of characters in his head, including a 9-year-old boy, a matronly British woman and an animalistic killer who goes by the Beast. Still, as Shyamalan should know, the more you show a monster, the less scary it is. Eventually, you’re reduced to remarking on how ripped McAvoy has become, and worrying a little about his bulging neck muscles snapping like worn elastics. Then there’s Samuel L. Jackson as Elijah Price, a k a the mastermind Mr. Glass, confined to a wheelchair and nonstop sedatives — not a particularly dynamic part. Bruce Willis reprises his now-grizzled David Dunn, unwitting hero. They’re collectively imprisoned at a mental hospital of sorts by a therapist (Sarah Paulson) aiming to cure all three by convincing them they’re not super-beings. Anya Taylor-Joy returns as the abduction victim who survived the Beast, and Luke Kirby (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) is wasted in a nothing role as an orderly. The film tries to be clever by going meta: Once again, it’s rooted in Mr. Glass’ conviction that superheroes are real, and it repeatedly name-checks comic-book tropes that are reflected, languidly, in the movie’s own plot. But in the end, all it really reveals is a onetime visionary’s glass now half — no, let’s go with mostly — empty. “Glass” aims to tie together the stories of 2000’s “Unbreakable” and 2016’s “Split.” Here’s a refresher on its three main characters. In “Unbreakable,” Willis plays the sole survivor of a deadly train crash — who subsequently discovers he’s, well, unbreakable. With the help of a mysterious mentor (see next person on list), he gets in touch with his inner Superman and learns to embrace his gifts. Born with bones so brittle they break while he’s still in the womb, Elijah Price grows up to be a fragile, obsessive comics collector who devotes his life to searching for real-life superheroes. He seeks out David Dunn — who learns Elijah may be a villainous mastermind. In “Split,” we meet Kevin and his 23 other personalities, who emerged in the aftermath of his abusive childhood. He kidnaps three teen girls, whom his personalities warn about the emergence of his scariest side, “The Beast.” | Sara Stewart | https://nypost.com/2019/01/17/james-mcavoys-muscles-are-the-only-strong-thing-in-weak-glass/ | 2019-01-17 16:54:09+00:00 | 1,547,762,049 | 1,567,552,085 | sport | bodybuilding |
474,559 | rt--2019-02-10--If I can do it you can 75 yo bodybuilder defies the aging odds VIDEO | 2019-02-10T00:00:00 | rt | ‘If I can do it, you can’: 75 yo bodybuilder defies the aging odds (VIDEO) | These days most 75-year-olds are settling into retirement and putting their feet up, not honing their perfectly toned bodybuilding frame and beating world records for pull-ups. One septuagenarian is seriously bucking that trend. Iris Davis, an international bodybuilding champion and personal trainer from Georgia, became a world record holder for performing 21 pull-ups in a row on her 74th birthday. Davis has racked up 11 bodybuilding titles over her 50-year career – a career that started after the depressed Irish-born fitness guru uprooted her life to move to the US following the death of her first child and husband. Female bodybuilding is more popular than ever today, but Iris considers herself a trailblazer in the scene, given that during the 1960s most gyms in the US were still barring women from membership. Ruptly caught up with the 75-year-old trainer as she led a workout class at the Beach Bodies Health & Fitness centre near Melbourne, Florida on Friday. The pensioner showed she’s far from retirement as she performed several impressive workout techniques and flexed her award-winning muscles. “It’s never too late, I have women who start training with me when at age 70. Within two years they’re all bulked up and beautiful and fit and toned and strong,” said Davis, in a message to inspire others her age to get back in the gym. “I tell people if I can do it, you can do it.” Like this story? Share it with a friend! | RT | https://www.rt.com/usa/451146-female-bodybuilder-iris-davis/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS | 2019-02-10 17:49:00+00:00 | 1,549,838,940 | 1,567,549,008 | sport | bodybuilding |
503,900 | sottnet--2019-07-26--Strength training might come at the expense of endurance muscles | 2019-07-26T00:00:00 | sottnet | Strength training might come at the expense of endurance muscles | , so that during strength training endurance muscle fiber number is decreased. Researchers at the University of Basel's Biozentrum have more closely investigated this factor, from the group of myokines, and demonstrated that it is produced by the muscle and acts on both muscles and synapses. The results published in PNAS also provide new insights into age-related muscle atrophy.Fitness clubs are booming: New gyms are springing up like mushrooms. More and more people are striving to build up and strengthen their muscles. But what exactly happens in the muscle during training? In their recent work, Prof. Christoph Handschin's research group at the Biozentrum, University of Basel, has more closely studied strength muscles and the myokine brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which plays an important role in the formation of strength muscle fibers.Handschin's team has demonstrated thatGenerally, it is differentiated between two types of muscle, depending on the type of fibers they are made of:Christoph Handschin's team has now studied the hormone-like neurotransmitter from the myokine family in the. Myokines are released by the muscle during contraction. "It is interesting that BDNF is produced by the muscle itself and not only exerts an influence on the muscle. At the same time, it affects the neuromuscular synapses, which are the junctions between the motor neurons and muscle," explains Handschin.This remodeling of the neuromuscular synapses during strength training results in the body developing more strength muscle fibers. "However, strength muscle growth occurs at the expense of the endurance fibers.clarifies Handschin. This makes BDNF a factor proven to be produced by the muscle itself and to influence the type of muscle fibers formed.The new knowledge gained about the myokine BDNF also provides a possible explanation for the decrease in endurance musculature seen as a result of strength training. This correlation is already being taken into account in the training plan for high performance sports. Particularly inMoreover, in a follow-up study, the research group showed that | null | https://www.sott.net/article/417408-Strength-training-might-come-at-the-expense-of-endurance-muscles | 2019-07-26 11:18:15+00:00 | 1,564,154,295 | 1,567,535,783 | sport | bodybuilding |
534,742 | sputnik--2019-05-28--Russian Female Tennis Player Stuns Media With Her Muscles PHOTOS | 2019-05-28T00:00:00 | sputnik | Russian Female Tennis Player Stuns Media With Her Muscles (PHOTOS) | Vitalia Diatchenko, a 28-year-old Russian tennis player who recently took on Serena Williams during the French Open, has apparently managed to attract no small amount of attention to herself, and not just because of her skill. Despite losing the match to her famous opponent, Diatchenko caught the eye of Yahoo Sports Australia who noticed how the athlete’s arms, while appearing “quite skinny while she’s relaxed”, display their true form when Diatchenko serves her shots. "As you can see, the young Russian is welding some serious guns", the media outlet remarked, with a number of netizens appearing equally impressed. Even though she managed to prevail in the first set 6-2, Diatchenko proved unable to triumph against Williams and lost the final two sets 6-1 and 6-0. | null | https://sputniknews.com/viral/201905281075423511-tennis-player-biceps-power/ | 2019-05-28 18:46:00+00:00 | 1,559,083,560 | 1,567,540,046 | sport | bodybuilding |
545,679 | sputnik--2019-10-03--In Love With Curvy Fit Body Female Ex-Bodybuilder Embraces Glam Model Lifestyle | 2019-10-03T00:00:00 | sputnik | 'In Love With Curvy Fit Body': Female Ex-Bodybuilder Embraces Glam Model Lifestyle | A 25-year old former bodybuilder from Germany named Nadine Kerastas has undergone a spectacular transformation after she ditched her fitness regimen in order to become a glamour model. According to the Daily Star, the one-time bodybuilder now makes a tidy profit via her social media presence and even managed to become a Playboy Playmate. As Nadine explained to the newspaper, she started doing bodybuilding while dealing with an illness caused by a tick bite, when doctors advised her to join the gym in order to take her mind off the pain. "I went to the gym and my body changed more and more and I felt better and better with it. My coach became aware of me and asked me if I would be interested in championships and I saw it as a chance to focus on other things instead of my illness," she said. "I started with it and was successful very quickly. I started on many competitions around the world and was five years an International IFBB Bikini Competitor. It was a hard time but I loved it. I was very disciplined and a control freak with my meals and my training." However, she eventually grew tired of this lifestyle and ditched it in order to embrace her curves and, eventually, to take on a modelling career. "After I decided to stop with competitions, I got a curvier body and I loved it, so I concentrated on my modelling career with a body with more curves but fit too and I went to Los Angeles for a photoshoot. That has since that my life changed completely," Nadine said. "Everybody loved me so much with my curves and my Instagram was like an explosion. Then I was published in big magazines and was Covergirl & Playmate for Playboy, then FHM etc." Now, Nadine boasts a 1.3 million-strong Instagram audience and claims that she can earn over £2,000 (about $2,480) per shoot, noting that she “worked really hard” to achieve this and that it is a “full-time job” which requires one “to be active every day and create new ideas and content for your fans and interact with them.” All in all, she said that she says that leaving all the fitness competition stuff in the past was the right choice, fully embracing her appearance and lifestyle. "I love my abs and waist. I feel very happy with my look. I don’t miss my hard- trained body, I’m so in love with my curvy thick fit body now and that I can eat my ice cream sometimes. Be in love with your life and do what makes you happy. Because at the end of the day, it’s you that has to live your life," Nadine stated. | null | https://sputniknews.com/society/201910031076955755-in-love-with-curvy-fit-body-female-ex-bodybuilder-embraces-glam-model-lifestyle/ | 2019-10-03 15:20:56+00:00 | 1,570,130,456 | 1,570,221,735 | sport | bodybuilding |
609,349 | thedailyecho--2019-02-05--After bodybuilding on a fruit only diet vegan Owen is tackling an 89 mile race | 2019-02-05T00:00:00 | thedailyecho | After bodybuilding on a fruit only diet, vegan Owen is tackling an 89 mile race | OWEN Gayle likes to take on a challenge. He began competing in full contact martial arts competitions at the age of just five, but things have moved on a lot since then. He's a former taekwondo champion with more than 40 fights under his belt a former Mixed Martial Arts fighter, and has numerous races, including two marathons and one longer distance race under his belt. The co-owner of Move Training Centre in Southampton, Owen has also pushed himself with his diet, adopting the palaeolithic or caveman diet for five years, and sitting down to six meat meals a day, before turning vegan and even experimenting with trying to build muscle while only eating fruit! He's currently in training for his latest challenge, an 89 mile overnight 'ultra' race in Snowdonia on February 22. "I like to take on difficult physical challenges," says the 33-year-old from Regents Park, Southampton. "I find it really motivating. I like to do things that people say are impossible, that no one could do." This led him to follow a fruitarian diet, eating only fruit and nuts, from January to August last year, while attempting to gain muscle mass. "I was already following a plant-based diet, and you hear about the variations on this, like raw and fruitarian," he says. "When you look at pictures of fruitarians, they often look very thin, almost malnourished. I wanted to see if I could use my background in fitness and training to put on muscle while following that diet." While Owen did succeed in putting on 3 kilos of muscle while reducing his body fat by almost 3 percent, his health suffered. "After two to four weeks I became really tired, and had to take really long sleeps of at least two hours in the afternoons," he says. "I had my blood tested regularly and by August my B12 levels had become really low. They wanted to put me on an immediate course of injections, but as it was a result of my diet, I just changed that." Owen returned to his regular vegan diet, which he has been following since 2013, and his health returned to normal. He's now set to embark on his next challenge, an ultra race, covering 89 miles, in Snowdonia on February 22. Competitors are given up to 48 hours to complete the race, but Owen is hoping to cross the finishing line in half that time. In preparation for the race, Owen has been going on regular 30 to 40 mile runs, and ran up and down Mount Snowdon twice in four hours, with time to take a few photos while he was at it. "I found the training difficult at the beginning because I'm not a runner, and I was going out almost every day, but now I feel ready for the competition," he says. Owen is fundraising for ARC Goa, an animal rescue centre in India, and has already reached his modest fundraising target of £300. He was attracted to the charity in part due to an increased awareness of and interest in animal welfare issues, since he became vegan. So what is next for Owen? "Maybe some more ultras, maybe mountain climbing," he muses. Whatever it is, Owen is sure to find something to push him physically and mentally. There's just the small matter of a race of almost 90 miles, with half of it run in the dark, to get through first. * For more information and to make a donation, visit www.gofundme.com/OGARC | null | https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/17409086.after-bodybuilding-on-a-fruit-only-diet-vegan-owen-is-tackling-an-89-mile-race/?ref=rss | 2019-02-05 09:04:11+00:00 | 1,549,375,451 | 1,567,549,552 | sport | bodybuilding |
625,928 | thedailymirror--2019-02-15--Bodybuilding Tinder date became controlling monster who poured kettle over girl | 2019-02-15T00:00:00 | thedailymirror | Bodybuilding Tinder date became 'controlling monster' who poured kettle over girl | A steroid-using weightlifter subjected his ex-girlfriend to horrific domestic abuse - pulling her hair, spitting at her and even pouring a kettle over her head. Body builder Garth Rees even broke into Bethan Thomas-Rees' home before “ramming” her dressing gown into her mouth and saying: “Try screaming now.” Now Bethan has bravely spoken out against the 22-year-old, who she met on dating app Tinder, after he was jailed over the abuse dished out to her and another woman. Bethan was smitten with the "charming" Rees when they first met, but says he turned into a monster when they moved into together just four months later. Vicious Rees would "fly off the handle over the smallest inconvenience" and violently assault Bethan, she told The Sun. "Garth had total control over me. He loved dictating who I could be friends with and he'd fly into a rage if I did something he didn't like," she said. One day he fractured her ribs and told her she "deserved' the beatings he was dishing out. Bethan said he spat in her face and called her "fat and ugly". Eventually Garth met someone else and they split up - but the abuse didn't stop there. In fact after a failed bid to win her back he broke into her parental house. After she heard a loud bang she ran downstairs to find him in the hall shouting "You ruined my life, now I'm going to ruin yours" before punching her. Bethan added: "He accused me of messaging his new girlfriend and poured the kettle over me – thankfully the water was cold. "I screamed as he dragged me to the floor, stuffing the cord of my dressing gown in my mouth. "He then stole my phone and ran out in the street before a passerby called police." Rees, 22, of Bridgend admitted two counts of controlling or coercive behaviour and was jailed for 16 months as well as being given a five-year restraining order from Bethan and the other woman. Sentencing him at Cardiff Crown Court last year, Judge Jeremy Jenkins said: “Your behaviour demonstrates that you are a man of ungovernable temper – a bully who picks on people physically weaker than yourself.” The court heard he met Bethan on Tinder in July 2017. Janine Davies, prosecuting, said she initially found him “caring and friendly” but he became aggressive following an argument later that year. Prosecutors said Rees turned “threatening and violent” after they moved in together in December, telling Ms Thomas-Rowlands: “Look at the size of you. If I wanted to kill you or hurt you I would.” The court heard he made derogatory comments and called her a “slut”. Three months later she described him pulling her off a bed by her ankles, pulling her hair, spitting at her, and strangling her. Prosecutors said on another occasion he pulled her off a sofa then threw her against a wall and punched her in the chest, fracturing two of her ribs. When she asked why he said: “It’s the only way to make you shut the f*** up.” The court heard they separated in April as a result of his behaviour. She went to speak to him a month later and he punched her after she received a message from a man. Prosecutors said he turned up at her home in July and banged on her door, accusing her of sending messages to his new girlfriend Lily Mainwaring. Ms Davies said he lifted her up by her dressing gown then pinned her against the wall by her throat and “rammed” the dressing gown into her mouth and said: “Try screaming now.” The court heard he grabbed her phone and took it to the bathroom where he held it under running water. She tried to calm him down but he held his forearm across her neck and spat at her. Ms Thomas-Rowlands managed to attract the attention of a passer-by and used their phone to call the police. The court heard he had a previous conviction in 2015 for causing criminal damage to his father’s car. Rees, 22, from Hafan-Y-Bryn in Bridgend, admitted two counts of controlling or coercive behaviour. Stephen Robson, defending, accepted there was “jealousy” and said his client was diagnosed with depression. He accepted Rees was abusing steroids and suggested he had suffered an “emotional breakdown”. Judge Jenkins described the offending as “callous and repeated violence” over a prolonged period of time. Rees held his head in his hands as he was jailed for 16 months. Brave Bethan said: "I was sorely disappointed by his sentence. "He's a danger to himself and to the public – and I don't think he'll ever change." | Liz Day | https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/bodybuilding-tinder-date-became-controlling-14002170 | 2019-02-15 05:09:42+00:00 | 1,550,225,382 | 1,567,548,433 | sport | bodybuilding |
644,239 | thedailyrecord--2019-02-07--I might as well be done for murder Bodybuilder kissed bloodied hammer as he rained blows on OAP | 2019-02-07T00:00:00 | thedailyrecord | 'I might as well be done for murder' Bodybuilder kissed bloodied hammer as he rained blows on OAP | A pensioner feared she would die after a bodybuilder kissed a bloodied hammer and told her "I might as well be done for murder" as he rained blows on her head. Cancer survivor Michelle O'Donnell, 72, was helpless on the floor as handyman Perry Redmond battered her in a rage because she had no money to lend him . Redmond, 50, who lived in a camper van, first hit the petite woman with a heavy frying pan before returning to her home armed with a hammer. Forcing his was in the 6ft 3ins thug dragged the 5ft 1in tall woman around by her hair while hitting her and demanding she begged for her life. Despite suffering skull fractures, two broken ribs and a collar bone, severe facial injuries including smashed teeth, and hand and arm wounds, Mrs O'Donnell managed to escape. And when police arrived he told them "I put my hands up, I done it. I nearly killed her, I don't regret what I have done. I know I've hit an old lady." Mrs O'Donnell, of Kent, was taken by air ambulance to Kings College Hospital in London where she had five hours of surgery and still suffers panic attacks and flashbacks ten months on. Speaking for the first time after Redmond was jailed for 22 years for attempted murder she spoke how she befriended her attacker. The former professional singer said: "I thought he was a nice guy and even let him stay here while he was working for me because he was sleeping in a camper van." The divorcee said it was when he asked to borrow money that Redmond turned nasty. She said: "I told him I didn't have any on me, which I didn't, and he went off but returned in a very aggressive state and just went berserk. "He got into the house and first hit me around the head with a heavy frying pan before leaving. "But then soon returned and forced his way back in armed with a hammer and dragged me around by my hair while hitting me. "I am only 5ft 1ins and he's 6ft 3ins and a body builder and must be at least 16 stone so I had no chance of fighting him off. "He ordered me to beg for my life and I remember thinking that this is the moment I was going to die. "I managed to get out into the road, hoping that a passing car would stop but I think it was neighbours who called the police." When officers arrived, Redmond, from Boughton-under-Blean, was still in the street and made the comments. But he later claimed he regretted saying what he had and said he had been drinking all day, was in a " bit of a rage" and a "red mist" descended on him. On the week of the attack, Mrs O'Donnell had just been given the all clear from bowel cancer. She said: "I should have been celebrating but then this happened to me. "I don't think I'll ever get over it and it has just made me more edgy and much less trusting of people, which is sad. "He's clearly a very dangerous individual who needs to be locked up." But she thanked police for ensuring Redmond faced justice, doctors for saving her life and her friends and family including her twin sister Francine who she used to sing with in a duo called the Downie Twins. "Everyone has been wonderful and I couldn't have got through it without them," she said Redmond had denied attempted murder but was convicted following a trial at Canterbury Crown Court . Judge Heather Norton ruled after his release, Redmond should serve a further five years on licence, adding he posed a "significant risk of serious harm" to others. Speaking after case Detective Inspector Chris Greenstreet said: "This was one of the most savage attacks I have come across in my time as a police officer and it is a miracle the victim survived. "The impact on her cannot be understated and it has affected her terribly. But I hope the outcome of the investigation brings her some small comfort." | dailyrecord | https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/i-might-well-done-murder-13965069 | 2019-02-07 10:46:28+00:00 | 1,549,554,388 | 1,567,549,338 | sport | bodybuilding |
655,073 | thedailyrecord--2019-12-22--Abused wife hits out after bodybuilder ex gets ‘slap on wrist' after her three-years of hell | 2019-12-22T00:00:00 | thedailyrecord | Abused wife hits out after bodybuilder ex gets ‘slap on wrist' after her three-years of hell | A woman subjected to a three-and-a-half year campaign of abuse by her bodybuilder ex-husband has slammed prosecutors over their handling of the case against him. Rebecca Larkin suffered threats of violence and verbal abuse during her marriage to Imran Asif. Asif, 32, was handed a two-year supervision order and told to wear a tag for four months after being convicted of abusing Rebecca. But she is furious the Crown Office did not pursue assault charges against Asif, of Govan, Glasgow. The Crown said there was a lack of evidence but Rebecca, 28, said crucial evidence including text messages, CCTV and medical reports on her injuries were not used. She lodged a complaint but Crown officials wrote back to tell her it had not been upheld. She said: “I’m disgusted at how I, as a victim of domestic abuse, have been treated. “Imran walked away with a slap on the wrist after making my life hell. I feel so let down by the justice system.” The couple met in 2013 through social media and were married the following year. Rebecca says her husband quickly became controlling and aggressive. The mum-of-one claims he threatened her with a knife and kicked in the bathroom door when she locked herself inside after she refused to make him food. However, the allegation that Asif threatened her with a knife was deleted from the charge against him. Asif had also faced an allegation that he pursued Rebecca with a blade as she carried their son but this was deleted from the list of charges. Rebecca added: “He admitted in court that he attacked the bathroom door with a knife and kicked the door off the hinges but the line about holding a knife at me was removed. “My question is, ‘Why was he kicking in the bathroom door?’” Asif admitted behaving in a threatening and abusive manner towards Rebecca at addresses in Glasgow and Kilwinning, Ayrshire, between January 2014 and August 2017. He repeatedly shouted, punched and kicked walls and doors, took radiators off walls, repeatedly struck a door with a knife and uttered threats of violence. The thug also admitted to striking a door and causing it to hit Rebecca on the body while she was pregnant. At his sentencing at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court last week, he was also given a two-year non-harassment order banning him from contacting or approaching Rebecca. A letter sent to Rebecca by prosecutors stated: “In this case, there was insufficient evidence about the assaults you reported to the police and for that reason the case did not proceed with charges of assault against the accused.” The Crown Office said: “The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service takes a rigorous approach to crimes of domestic abuse. “Decisions to prosecute are taken after consideration of the individual facts and circumstances of each case and where there is sufficient, admissible evidence of a crime and it is in the public interest to do so.” The Sunday Mail put the claims made by Rebecca to Asif. He said: “There were only certain things I got convicted of that were true. “People can tell you whatever they want but it’s not what I got convicted of.” | [email protected] (Jennifer Hyland) | https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/abuse-thugs-victim-slams-prosecutors-21142685 | Sun, 22 Dec 2019 04:30:00 +0000 | 1,577,007,000 | 1,577,017,417 | sport | bodybuilding |
709,485 | theguardianuk--2019-09-05--Rafael Nadal flexes muscles to reach semis and remain on course for fourth US Open title | 2019-09-05T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | Rafael Nadal flexes muscles to reach semis and remain on course for fourth US Open title | Rafael Nadal overcame a spirited challenge from Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman to win 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 in the US Open quarter-finals on Wednesday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium, staying on course for a fourth title at Flushing Meadows and 19th major championship to move within one of Roger Federer’s all-time record. The second-seeded Spaniard squandered double-break leads in the first and second sets, but recovered to win each of them with exquisite shotmaking and his trademark steel before closing out the match after two hours and 47 minutes. “When he is under confidence he’s very difficult to stop,” Nadal said after reaching the semi-finals of a major tournament for the 33rd time. “Of course I made some mistakes, but I’m super happy the way I accepted the situation and I accepted the challenge. Here I am in the semi-finals. It’s super important to me. It means everything.” Nadal led 4-love in the opener before an abruptly wayward forehand enabled the 5ft 7in Argentine to level at 4-all, prompting chants of “olé, olé, olé” from the rollicking late-night crowd in Queens. It was the same for the second set, where a sudden glut of misfires from the forehand side allowed Schwartzman to push it to 5-all from 1-5 down. But the muscular Mallorcan, who pounded 35 winners and broke serve eight times, was able to clamp down on the critical points in each session to stake a commanding two-sets-to-none lead over the 27-year-old from Buenos Aires. “Like a lion in the jungle,” Schwartzman said. “He’s a fighter. He knows how to play the important moments every single time. I played [him] eight times, and every important moment he played better than me.” The 33-year-old Nadal was visited early in the final set by the trainer, who spent the changeover rubbing cream into his left forearm. He spent the next several games flexing the other forearm on the baseline, but fears of cramping were quickly dispelled as he won the last four games on the trot to wrap up a competitive but straightforward third and book a spot in the last four, where he will be the betting favourite to add to his 2010, 2014 and 2017 titles at the season-ending major. “Physically I am fine,” said Nadal, who has reached the semi-finals of all four majors in the same year for the second time in his career and first since 2008. “Today was a very heavy day. Big humidity. I am this kind of player where I sweat a bit. Sometimes under these conditions it’s tough, but honestly I am happy that I had some critical moments at the end of the second and the beginning of the third.” After both Federer and top-seeded Novak Djokovic were eliminated in upsets earlier in the week, Nadal’s win on a humid New York night ensured at least one of the sport’s Big Three would be represented in the semi-finals for a 62nd consecutive grand slam tournament. The world No 2 advances to a Friday meeting with 24th-seeded Matteo Berrettini, who outlasted Gael Monfils in a five-set thriller earlier on Wednesday to become the first Italian man to reach the US Open semi-finals since 1977. The winner of their match will face either fifth-seeded Daniil Medvedev or 78th-ranked Grigor Dimitrov in Sunday’s final. “Berrettini is having a great year,” Nadal said. “He’s in semi-finals, winning a lot of good matches, so what you can expect in a semi-finals of a grand slam match? You can’t expect an easy opponent. You can’t expect an easy match.” | Bryan Armen Graham at Flushing Meadows | https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/sep/05/rafael-nadal-us-open-quarter-final | 2019-09-05 05:11:36+00:00 | 1,567,674,696 | 1,569,331,283 | sport | bodybuilding |
802,577 | themanchestereveningnews--2019-07-01--Prison officer who plotted to smuggle steroids into jail walks free as judge says she was groomed | 2019-07-01T00:00:00 | themanchestereveningnews | Prison officer who plotted to smuggle steroids into jail walks free as judge says she was 'groomed' by bodybuilder inmate | A besotted prison officer got involved in a plot to smuggle anabolic steroids behind bars after she fell for an inmate who had set up a drugs racket from his cell. Sally McGrath, 25, agreed to sneak the bodybuilding drug into the jail after she began a secret nine month romance with convicted crack cocaine dealer Ashley Keany. The officer an operations instructor at Category B Garth Prison near Leyland, Lancashire, also sent 32-year old Keany explicit pictures of herself which he kept in his cell and swapped lovey-dovey texts after he apparently illegally acquired a mobile phone. One message McGrath sent to Keany read: ''Ok babes, I’m going now, love to you. I have been feeling reluctant about bringing the steds home for him. How much money am I taking to your nana’s?” Police uncovered the racket after McGrath was found smuggling illegal tobacco into the 900-inmate prison during a search by prison colleagues. Officers raided her home and found cylinder packages containing Testosterone propionate in her bedroom, along with £1,700 cash in £50 notes and a number of mobile phones which proved she was in contact with Keany - who was serving eight years for conspiracy to supply crack. A diary was found in Keany's cell containing her bank details and statements showed multiple amounts being deposited into and withdrawn from her account under the reference “AK”. In a statement McGrath said: ''I have let myself and others down. Looking back I put myself and my work colleagues in danger and I didn’t think about the effect on them. I am full of regret for what I have done.” McGrath's career in the Prison Service is now in ruins after she was given a 21-month sentence suspended for two years having pleaded guilty to transferring criminal property and attempting to being a list A article into prison. Keany - currently at Doncaster prison - admitted similar charges and was jailed for 42 months. Burnley Crown Court was told the discovery of the racket emerged when McGrath, of Longton, Preston was searched as she arrived for work on November 29 2017. Prosecutor Peter Barr said: “She had wraps of cylinder shaped items in her coat pocket which contained tobacco which is a prohibited item and a search was conducted at her home address. ''In her bedroom there were further wraps containing tobacco as well as two 60ml cylinder shaped packages containing testosterone propionate. Also found in her bedroom was £1,700 in cash. This was described as being in high denominations, namely £50 notes. “Also found was a love letter addressed to Keany, which included his prisoner identification number. A number of mobile phones were seized from her possession. "Messages and photographs indicated that she was in a relationship with Keany. The texts identified that both of them made an arrangement for items to be brought into prison, and that there would be payment for those items. “An expert police drugs officer who examined the phones helped to establish the different colloquial terms used on the text messages. "He said there was a conversation where McGrath said: “Ok babes, I’m going now, love to you. I have been feeling reluctant about bringing the steds home for him. Another message read: “How much money am I taking to your nana’s?” ''The officer said “steds” is a reference to “steroids”. In another message, Keany said: “Yee how big is them steds?” and McGrath replied: “Two little bottles of Bio Oil, not big”. The officer assumed this meant the liquid was the size of a bottle of Bio Oil. As a result of the search on McGrath’s address, a search was also conducted at Keany’s cell in prison. “A number of explicit photos of McGrath were found as well as a diary which included a bank account number and sort code of her bank account. Officers made enquires to obtain the bank details and statements held by McGrath. “Two platinum accounts as well as an Instant Saver bank account were discovered. These statements identify themselves as there are a number of deposits and withdrawals with no legitimate explanation to explain them. "The references were made out as “AK”. There were a significant amount of withdrawals and deposits. “Officers involved in the mobile phone extraction also found another mobile phone in McGraths’s car which was parked in the car park. These messages between them were saved on her phone as “Ash 2” and these messages showed a relationship between them and an arrangement for a transfer of steroids in prison. “Her involvement was through peer pressure or influence. There was an abuse of her position of trust in her employment in the prison service. It is impossible to say what the underlying offence was and what the money was going to be used for.” Keany had 85 offences on his record. He had been a leading member of a gang which supplied heroin and crack cocaine from the banks of the River Ribble at the Avenham Park in Preston in 2013. He and ten others were jailed for as total of 80 years in 2015 after police secretly filming drug deals taking place in broad daylight, with one woman buying crack as she wheeled a young child in a pushchair. Officers discovered a loaded gun hidden in the base of a tree. In mitigation for McGrath, who now works as a lorry driver, defence lawyer Nina Graham QC said: “She was a young woman in confusion and she was reluctant to believe his overtures to her were not genuine. "She had a naive attitude towards him and she did not want to get him into any trouble. Her role was that she did what she was asked and she was someone who was misguided by the emotional pressures she was under. “The money going through her account was also coming out, it was not going to her. She was a conduit. Her benefit was not financial but she thought it was emotional. She was a very young, immature and vulnerable young woman. Miss Graham added: ''She had been in an abusive relationship and she had very little training. She was an operations instructor, somebody who supervises workshop activities. "She had very little support, low rated pay, and she would be in a room with several inmates, she tells me one time there were 30, four of which were serving time for murder. “She was encouraged by one of the offenders, who didn’t come across as violent, this defendant was polite, kind and caring of her. She fell hook, line and sinker for it, whether it was genuine or not is not for me to say. “She relied on that as a crutch throughout her difficulties of her job and her personal difficulties. At the very least it must have been clear to any inmate or staff member that this was not robust. She was targeted and she succumbed. She was unsupported, scared, manipulated and emotionally tied. “She decided she met the love of her life and started thinking about the future. What was in her mind was an idealised fantastical relationship. She had dreams of their future together spending time together walking a dog, and sat in the sofa drinking tea. She accepts she was foolish.'' In mitigation for Keany, Sharon Watson said: “He accepts he manipulated and used Miss McGrath to his own advantage but he did have genuine feelings for her. They were looking to build a future together and buy a house and she had been asking him if he was saving money. “He is clear that he is deeply sorry and ashamed for the position she finds herself in. He accepts he is central to her downfall and he regrets that very much.'' Sentencing Judge Sara Dodd said: “You both played a leading role but Ashley Keany you expected sufficient financial gain. Drugs are a valuable commodity in prison and that will have been known to you. ''There is no doubt you were the driving force behind the offences. You used and manipulated Miss McGrath as you requested her to bring prohibited items into prison, you called it 'blagging her'. "She was particularly vulnerable. Sally McGrath, you did what you did out of infatuation. You were, in fact, groomed.'' McGrath was also ordered to complete 240 hours unpaid work. | [email protected] (Amy Walker, Simon Smith) | https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/ok-babes-love-you-besotted-16511600 | 2019-07-01 08:46:07+00:00 | 1,561,985,167 | 1,567,537,376 | sport | bodybuilding |
917,959 | theseattletimes--2019-11-16--AP PHOTOS: Spanish bodybuilders compete for national crown | 2019-11-16T00:00:00 | theseattletimes | AP PHOTOS: Spanish bodybuilders compete for national crown | ESTEPONA, Spain (AP) — In the sunshine outside a large convention center in the southern Spanish city of Estepona, some very fit-looking people in scanty clothing applied fake tans and rehearsed statuesque poses. They all had one thing in mind: to win Spain’s annual national bodybuilding championship. This year’s 51st edition, organized by the Spanish Bodybuilding Federation, drew more than 500 contestants from across the country. It took place over two days. Most of the contestants came with other members of their clubs or teams. They helped apply the fake tans, directed poses and gave last-minute tips to the contestants. The center buzzed with people getting ready, resting on mats or exercising. Contestants did push-ups, lifted weights, drank protein shakes and ate from lunchboxes. On the stage, a presenter entertained the audience, and loud techno music was played to encourage contestants during performances. Men and women, sorted by weight or height, smiled broadly at the panel of judges while presenting their best poses. Backstage, the next group of nervous contestants waited to walk onto the stage. Some did last-minute exercises to pump up their muscles, others posed in front of a mirror. There was not much interaction among them — all were completely focused on making an impression on the judges and reaching the final round. Five couples took part in a Couples’ Bodybuilding competition. The first round consisted of posing as the judges ordered; then it was time for each couple to perform a chosen routine. There were some basic dance moves, interspersed with calculated poses rehearsed to perfection, all to the rhythm of music. Long hours of hard training combined with a strict diet and the determination to be the best in the country drive these athletes, day after day and month after month. | JAVIER FERGO | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/ap-photos-spanish-bodybuilders-compete-for-national-crown/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all | Sat, 16 Nov 2019 00:48:43 -0800 | 1,573,883,323 | 1,573,905,763 | sport | bodybuilding |
966,137 | thesun--2019-06-19--Best foam rollers seven of the best self-massage devices to to ease out those muscles | 2019-06-19T00:00:00 | thesun | Best foam rollers – seven of the best self-massage devices to to ease out those muscles | NOTHING ruins a workout more than when the body is tied up in muscle knots– which is why foam rollers have become the fitness fan’s favourite new accessory. Far from being the fad many dismissed them as being a few years back, they’re now considered crucial in helping recovery and muscle growth. Deep-tissue massages are now a mainstay in most gyms and training centres, and fitness fans are bound to have seen them in many shapes and sizes strewn around, but which is the right type to have at home? Beginners tend to favour the soft, long variety, but while others get the ‘ah factor’ through a more intense session with a denser roller. Our pick of the best foam rollers will help you find the perfect one for you to roll with. Nothing breaks the fitness flow more than having to click and pause through a ‘How To’ video on YouTube. That's why you’ll love the Near Field Communication (NFC) tech built into this roller, guiding you through all the relevant exercises and instructions to match your pace. Made from high-density EVA material, its raised edges ensure judder-free relief in breaking down knots and loosening muscle joints. If you’ve ever had to work with a chewed-up, warped out of shape roller, you’ll be after one that can withstand the wear and tear of regular use. Despite using less foam than previous versions yet twice as firm, the TriggerPoint Grid’s hollow core provides even more durability and is built to last a lifetime. For those in need of a roller capable of supporting heavier weights, go for the TriggerPoint Grid 2.0. It may look like a torture device, but an absolute dream-stick for those who like their physiotherapist to show them no mercy. The extra-hard foam spikes press harder than most rollers, working their way around bones and deep into muscle attachments. Not for the faint-hearted. For those who want to inject some fun and energy into their warm-up and cool-down routine, this vibrating roller comes with four settings to dramatically help boost range of motion. A handy USB port means you can charge your phone to keep that high-intensity playlist running. A foam roller workout helps increase blood flow to muscles and mobilise your joints in preparation for the run. After the session, it aids in reducing tension both in body and mind – ideal to speed up that all-important recovery. Made with recycled stainless steel cased in Non-toxic EVA foam, the Mobot is great at targeting trigger points and leaving the body feeling loose and supple. Available in a range of colours and styles, this cute little roller (the most popular size is just 0.7 litres) also twins as a fab water bottle! Not everyone will be after an intense rolling session. If you’re injured or, say, pregnant, you may even risk putting undue pressure on the spine or bruising a muscle with the traditional cylindrical variety. With four ergonomic zones designed and contoured to fit your body and target difficult to reach trigger points, the Rollga gets the job done with minimal effort. Guaranteed to help you discover your “aah” spot! Save yourself the expense of a spa treatment to recover from your hotel gym workout by taking your roller with you! Folding away at just 1.85” thick, this is easily the most portable roller on the market. And yet, it’s surprisingly firm, with its multi-angle foam isolating knots and relieving muscular trigger points with ease. Also great for those who love to yoga on the go. Fancy taking up cycling this year? Check out our selection of the best road bikes you can buy. Enjoyed our roundup of the best foam rollers? Check out our fantastic health and fitness recommendations, on our dedicated health and fitness page. We’re dedicated to finding the best products at the best prices, so head over to the Sun Selects page for more recommendations. This article and any featured products have been independently chosen by The Sun journalists. All recommendations within the article are informed by expert editorial opinion. If you click a link and buy a product we may earn revenue: this helps to support The Sun, and in no way affects our recommendations. | Shihab S Joi | https://www.thesun.co.uk/sun-selects/8466271/best-foam-rollers/ | 2019-06-19 10:50:15+00:00 | 1,560,955,815 | 1,567,538,735 | sport | bodybuilding |
968,994 | thesun--2019-06-28--Coronation Streets Shayne Ward shows off his muscles in tight shirt after dramatic weight loss | 2019-06-28T00:00:00 | thesun | Coronation Street’s Shayne Ward shows off his muscles in tight shirt after dramatic weight loss | CORONATION Street's Shayne Ward has shown off his muscles in a tight shirt after his dramatic weight loss. The actor has transformed his look after signing up to a personal trainer 13 weeks ago. Speaking on This Morning today, the 34-year-old revealed he wanted to look trim for future roles after leaving the cobbles behind. He said: "That's why I'm getting myself into great shape, hopefully. "You look to putting it out there to Line of Duty.... I'm throwing it out there. "It's probably already been filmed, but I love the show. Or the Bodyguard." He added: "It's always good to be camera ready." Shayne is thought to have lost more than three stone over the last three months, although he didn't reveal the total today. Fans first noticed his transformation when he picked up a gong at the British Soap Awards for Best Single Episode. His character Aiden Connor committed suicide in the long-running soap and his performance was praised by his industry peers and viewers for his powerful performance. Got a story? email [email protected] or call us direct on 02077824220. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours. | Amanda Devlin | https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/9394720/coronation-street-shayne-ward-weight-loss/ | 2019-06-28 14:47:46+00:00 | 1,561,747,666 | 1,567,537,715 | sport | bodybuilding |
973,864 | thesun--2019-07-24--Im a size 8 bodybuilder and my husbands a 5XL couch potato but if people stare Ill give them some | 2019-07-24T00:00:00 | thesun | I’m a size 8 bodybuilder and my husband’s a 5XL couch potato but if people stare I’ll give them something to worry about | THEY say opposites attract – but does marital bliss really exist when one half is madly in love with working out? A warring couple from North Yorkshire made headlines last month for divorcing after she said his obsession with bodybuilding drove her mad – and she was prosecuted for “controlling behaviour”. What is it really like to be with someone hooked on the gym? JENNY FRANCIS meets three couples who have very different ideas about how to keep their relationships fit and healthy. MUM-of-four Samantha Brander, 33, has been a gym obsessive for a year. She lost 5st, became a size 8 body-builder and now trains twice a day and enters competitions. Samantha, of Stirling, is married to Campbell, 34, a primary school teacher who is a size XXXXXL. She says: "In 2017 I worked in a bakery, weighed 13st and had never set foot in a gym. But I reached a point when I knew I needed to change. In March 2018 I hired a personal trainer. Within a month I was going to the gym seven days a week. I had met Campbell at school and I wasn’t overweight back then. But Campbell has always been large. He’s a wonderful person, his size never bothered me. We began dating when we both worked at Burger King. We have Owen, 11, Calvin, nine, Lexi, seven and Poppy, four, and used to enjoy nights in with takeaways. Now Campbell’s lucky if I sit down for ten minutes. He has taken on extra responsibility with the kids, ensures the fridge has my special dietary needs and knows I get moody from sore muscles. I’ve made huge lifestyle changes but he struggles with having time to get fit. I’m so tired, so go to bed before him. I don’t mind that he doesn’t join me in the gym but I worry about his health. I’d never force him, but have suggested he tries my personal trainer. He’s agreed. I feel so great having lost weight but sometimes feel bad he hasn’t been able to. No one stares at us in the street and my friends never make comments. If they did, I’d give them something to stare at. It shouldn’t matter we look 7 different if we love each other. Campbell says: “When she started working out it was a big change but I loved that she had a new hobby. I’ve always been much bigger than her, so it’s just been the way we are as a couple. I struggle to eat healthily as I work long hours and put a lot into my job as a teacher. “I think because I’ve always been big, I’ve never got along with sport or exercise. I don’t have much time to cook healthy meals or go to the gym. I play computer games to relax. “People see us as little and large but we work because we love each other. We never get nasty comments, not that I’ve ever heard. Seeing her on stage competing makes me so proud, as it’s so different to my world.” TRAIN technician Richard Birchmore spends four hours a day in the gym. The 46-year-old size XL, of Braintree, Essex, competes in strongman contests and eats 6,000 calories a day. His partner Jacqui Maizels, 53, a recruitment consultant, is a size 16. She says: "I work full-time and have two older children from a previous relationship. We met on Tinder three years ago. I could tell he was fit but had no idea about the extent of it. My ex-husband wasn’t a gym-goer, so it was all new to me. I don’t exercise. The only thing I do at weekends is go for a walk. Sometimes I do feel like I’m single as he’s never at home. He works ten-hour shifts and goes straight to the gym. Most days he gets home at 10pm, so I have dinner by myself. When we first started living together I had to get used to having little room in the fridge, as it’s filled with chicken, veg and eggs. My favourite weekend activity used to be getting a takeaway and eating it on the couch, but that’s banned when Richard is home. He has an “approved foods” list and cake isn’t on it. He drops his sweaty workout kit everywhere, which means I’m always picking up after him. When we are together he hands me the muscle rub. His constant training means his sex drive is low. He often gets moody and snappy but I’ve learnt to leave him to it. My friends think it’s funny that I’m dating a guy so keen on the gym. They squeeze his muscles, which is a bit weird. I love his body. Underneath his hard exterior he’s a softie." Richard says: “I’m addicted to working out. I spent 22 years in the Navy and when I left I needed something to keep me fit, so I started power lifting. “Three-hour workouts are normal for me. In one competition I pulled a 12-tonne double-decker bus. I eat six times a day. Two chicken-based meals, one fish-based, one steak and the others a mixture. Sometimes I go on a water diet. It’s perfect Jacqui’s not into exercise. It would never work if we were both so busy and strict. "When she bakes I can only look on with envy. She puts up with my diet and grumpiness and doesn’t moan when I fall asleep while she’s trying to tell me about her day. I love her body and how chilled she is. She’s perfect.” PLUS-size pageant contestant Megan Goldberger, 21, only dates men with muscles. The size-22 retail worker from Cardiff has been with nightclub DJ Manny Karmengele, 23, for seven months. She says: "I always go for muscly, fit guys who take care of themselves. When we connected on Instagram I fancied him instantly as he was a bodybuilder. A guy with big muscles can protect me and make me feel safe – that’s the turn-on. It comes at a cost though, as Manny’s lifestyle is extreme. As a DJ he sometimes doesn’t finish work until 6am, but instead of coming to bed for a snuggle he goes for a run. After a run he goes to the gym for at least an hour. I text him in the day because that’s my one window of opportunity to get a response before he heads back to the gym. We don’t see each other half as much as I’d like. I have to book date nights with him two weeks in advance, and even when I do, he’s always super-tired, which means we don’t often have sex. I have always eaten what I want and don’t enjoy exercise at all. I used to worry about my figure but I’ve learnt to love my body and don’t intend spending hours in the gym to change it. I love eating out but it can be tricky, as Manny is obsessed with what he eats. I’m so proud of how committed he is to attaining the perfect body. People find our relationship strange as we are so different. Some people definitely stare at us but dating him makes me feel even more sexy." Manny says: “I have always been into fitness, but over the past few years I’ve stepped it up. The gyms I go to are open 24 hours so I can fit my training around work. Bodybuilding is my major priority and I have to date a girl who understands that. “I give Megan my schedule in advance and she’s happy to fit in around me. If I dated girls obsessed with the gym like me, we’d never see each other. Her curves are sexy and I love how carefree she is.” | FIONA NIMONI | https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/9577792/im-size-8-husband-5xl-perfect-fit/ | 2019-07-24 23:24:15+00:00 | 1,564,025,055 | 1,567,535,967 | sport | bodybuilding |
993,999 | thesun--2019-12-30--Conor McGregor shows off incredible body transformation as UFC star looks jacked with bulking muscle | 2019-12-30T00:00:00 | thesun | Conor McGregor shows off incredible body transformation as UFC star looks jacked with bulking muscles ahead of return | CONOR MCGREGOR showed off his incredible body transformation as he continues to make final preparations for his UFC return against Donald Cerrone. The Notorious makes his highly-anticipated return to the Octagon against veteran Cowboy on January 18 having not fought since his submission loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov in October 2018. The Dublin southpaw will make his comeback at welterweight at UFC 246, having only fought at 170lbs twice, losing to Nate Diaz and then winning the rematch in 2016. McGregor is gearing up for a big year with a rematch against bitter rival Khabib as well as Jorge Masvidal following his comeback against Cerrone. And the former two-weight UFC champion's hard work appears to be paying off after he shared a picture of his dramatic transformation online. McGregor uploaded a topless picture to flaunt his jacked muscles with the caption: "Who the f**k is that guy?" SunSport previously reported how fans were left fearing he has piled on too much muscle and will once again struggle with his fitness. McGregor is notorious for his heavy hands that guided him to featherweight and lightweight belts. But the Irish star has long been accused of having cardio problems, having fatigued in bouts against Diaz and in his boxing debut against Floyd Mayweather. And on his latest picture, one commented: "Looks like he's gonna get tired." Another said: "I just see a guy who will gas if his opponent survives a round." A third added: "Hope he's been working on his cardio as well! If not it's gonna be a bad night." UFC boss Dana White has admitted he has allowed the former two-division champion to return at 170lbs and still be next in line for Nurmagomedov’s 155lbs title next. Returning at welterweight also opens the door for McGregor to face Jorge Masvidal - who in November beat Diaz at UFC 244, winning the ‘Baddest Mother F***er’ belt. And the Irish star seemed to take a thinly-veiled dig at the rest of the division bt tweeting: "Weight cuttin p*****s". | Joe Brophy | https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/10639198/conor-mcgregor-body-transformation-ufc-return/ | Mon, 30 Dec 2019 10:58:58 +0000 | 1,577,721,538 | 1,577,708,720 | sport | bodybuilding |
998,152 | thetelegraph--2019-02-03--Israeli mosque prayer caller fired over bodybuilder photos | 2019-02-03T00:00:00 | thetelegraph | Israeli mosque prayer caller 'fired over bodybuilder photos' | A prayer caller at a mosque in the Israeli city of Acre is appealing for his job back after being fired over photos posted online of him in a revealing outfit at a bodybuilding contest, he says. Ibrahim al-Masri said he lost his job as chief muezzin of the Al-Jazzar Mosque after local officials came upon the photos of him at the state bodybuilding championship in 2017. "Each sport has a specific type of clothing. Football has its own, tennis has its own, swimming has its own. Same thing for bodybuilding," Mr Masri said, referring to the wire-thin briefs competitors typically wear. "I never dreamed this would happen. Because I know that Israel is a democratic country, and if someone makes a mistake, they can fix it," Mr Masri said. "But to fix a mistake with another mistake? It’s not right." Around 20 percent of Israeli citizens are Arab. Mosques and other non-Jewish religious institutions are supervised by local officials who report to the Interior Ministry. | Reuters | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/02/03/israeli-mosque-prayer-caller-fired-photos-bodybuilder-outfit/ | 2019-02-03 17:26:52+00:00 | 1,549,232,812 | 1,567,549,763 | sport | bodybuilding |
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