by Jean-Michel Berthoud, swissinfo.ch The Catholic Church in Switzerland dealt with apartheid “hesitantly” and allowed itself to be influenced by business interests, a church-commissioned study has found. Historians looked into the church’s approach to South Africa’s racial segregation regime between 1970 and 1990 and found “a cautious and rather hesitant […]
A dead pig and four pig heads were buried on the site of a future mosque in an anonymous anti-Islam attack, police said. The attackers sent anonymous letters to the media in the region near the mosque site in the town of Grenchen in canton Solothurn. In the letter they […]
By Rami G. Khouri, The Daily Star, Lebanon After an extended stay in the United States that allowed me to speak with Middle East specialists and interested citizens in many cities, I sense a new theme that broadly defines American attitudes to developments in the Middle East: perplexity. Of course, […]
UNITED NATIONS: A Palestinian bid to win full membership of the United Nations came one step closer to collapse Friday when a Security Council committee failed to reach agreement on the issue. The development left it up to Palestinians, who have so far been unable to secure the nine votes […]
By ASSOCIATED PRESS BANGKOK: Thailand’s ailing king — the world’s longest-reigning monarch — recently suffered a health problem that caused him to temporarily lose consciousness, his daughter revealed, linking the incident to stress over the country’s flood crisis. News that the health of 83-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej took what Princess […]
Dawn Editorial Sponsored by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, the study concludes that many textbooks foster intolerance against religious minorities, particularly against the Hindu community. As a result of this “teaching discrimination”, the likelihood increases that violent religious extremism will continue to grow in the country, weakening religious […]
Source: BBC A group of armed men have stoned and shot dead a woman and her daughter in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, security officials have told the BBC. The officials blamed the Taliban, who they said had accused the women of “moral deviation and adultery”. The police said two men had […]
Source: BBC A US military court has convicted an American soldier of three counts of premeditated murder for leading a rogue “kill team” in Afghanistan. Sgt Calvin Gibbs, 26, admitted cutting and keeping fingers from corpses as war trophies, but said he was returning enemy fire and did not set […]
The preliminary results are out and it shows the Komodo National Park as one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature, according to the New7Wonders Web site. The list, given in alphabetical order, […]
As the Southeast Asian Games opened with an extravagant ceremony at Sriwijaya Stadium in Palembang on Friday, the real party began at a still-unfinished venue on Cipule Lake. Hours before the Rp 150 billion ($16.8 million) opening ceremony started, Indonesian athletes earned the country’s first two gold medals in rowing […]
At the height of his cricket glory days, Imran Khan would visualise winning, standing on the podium, cup held aloft and propelling Pakistan to victory. Last weekend, standing before a sea of supporters in Lahore, he had a similar epiphany about his political career. “As I stood there, watching them, […]
CAIRO—An Egyptian provincial court barred former members of ousted President Hosni Mubarak’s party from running for parliament, circumventing the country’s reluctant military leadership. The ruling marks the latest sign that the Egyptian public is taking matters into its own hands when it comes to boxing out the former regime. The […]
by Zahid Maqbool, Hill Post Srinagar: In a culture where party culture is looked down upon, social networking sites in this Himalayan region is not only helping people to connect but it has also become an alternate platform for holding celebrations, including religious ones. Popular social networking sites are Facebook, […]
Source: Hillpost Accra : From just two dozen people in the mid 1970s to 3,000 families now, Hinduism is spreading in Ghana and has also made its way into neighbouring Togo. Hindu worship began to grow in Ghana after African spiritual leader, Essel ji, was initiated by Swami Krishnanda ji […]
Source: Qantara For the past 20 years, the Indonesian NGO DIAN/Interfidei has been engaged in interdenominational dialogue. The organization has also tried to include atheists, Confucians, and even fundamentalists in its activities – with various degrees of success. Anett Keller reports from Yogyakarta “Everything began with anger,” recalls Daniel Dhakidae, […]
Source: Qantara Indonesia enjoys a democratically elected government, yet social pressure on the country’s media to adopt conservative Islamic positions is steadily growing. Observations and an assessment by Andy Budiman In recent years, we have witnessed a global resurgence in religion. This renaissance of faith came suddenly and took us […]
Source: Spiegel Intenational A new study has revealed that thousands of young women and girls in forced marriages seek help every year in Germany. The vast majority of victims come from Muslim families, and many have been threatened with violence or even death. The numbers involved are much higher than previously […]
By SYED FAISAL ALI | ARAB NEWS MAKKAH: The new ablution point constructed in front of King Abdul Aziz Gate or Gate No. 1 of the Grand Mosque has provided much sought after relief to pilgrims who want to perform wudu (ablution), said many pilgrims. “Earlier we had to go […]
By REUTERS ZURICH: Swatch Group SA will cut supplies of watch movements to competitors to force them to invest in their own production and choke off exports to Asia where they may be used to make fake Swiss products, its Chief Executive Nick Hayek said. His comments are the latest […]