A woman’s movement challenging a centuries-old practice of denying women entry into the most sacred areas of worship in Hindu temples and Muslim shrines is generating a heated debate across India.
Tag: religion
TEHRAN — Repeating something Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, said years ago — long before Iran’s latest clash with Saudi Arabia — Moussa reveals much about the current mindselt in the streets and cafés of the Iranian capital: “With the Great Satan we could forgive and forget,” he says. “But with the Ibn […]
PARIS — For the first time since the end of the Third Reich, Mein Kampf has been republished in Germany. With copyrights having expired on Jan. 1, the Institute of Contemporary History of Munich has released a critical, annotated edition of the only book written by Adolf Hitler, first published in 1925. And it’s a […]
DAKAR — A cartoon of an early 20th-century Senegalese Muslim leader has sparked a nationwide uproar, with the vignette criticized by civilians and political leaders alike. The Paris-based African news magazine Jeune Afrique published a cartoon of Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba, founder of the Mouride Brotherhood, last week in which a passing Westerner asks why the […]
Even as Belgium has emerged as a hub of Islamic terror networks, a Belgian Muslim is the theatrical toast of the town as he tackles jihad, racism and culture wars with humor.
“The Jews’ great concern,” reads the Thursday headline in French daily Aujourd’hui en France, above an image of a man wearing a skullcap. It comes after a teenager attacked and wounded a Jewish teacher who was wearing the traditional headgear Monday in Marseille, southern France. France is debating whether it’s still safe for members of […]
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Buddhist Incense
The only thing missing from this picture of a Buddhist temple on the island city-state of Singapore is the intense scent of incense these worshippers were burning.
Both private and public French organizations are trying to strike the right balance between respecting beliefs among Muslim employees and keeping company welfare in mind.
In anticipation of international sanctions on Iran being lifted at the beginning of 2016, European executives are chomping at the bit to do business there. But how will a market economy play with the Islamic regime?
The most friendly of pontiffs, Argentine-born Pope Francis has yet to speak to just-elected President Mauricio Macri. Maybe a rude remark by one of Macri’s aides is to blame.
MUNICH — The conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) party in the southern state of Bavaria wants Germany to ban the burqa. But the toughest opposition to the proposal may come from what is otherwise a natural CSU ally: local business leaders. Should a ban be implemented similar to the one France approved in 2010, it […]
BANGALORE — Here in the Indian capital of global call centers, the Dalai Lama was the feature guest at the Arab-Asian Chamber of Commerce” Peace for Economy conference. In an interview with La Stampa on the sidelines of the conference, the highest authority of Tibetan Buddhism extended an olive branch to the West’s current Enemy […]
Muslims are supposed to save water, Christians and Jews energy. In the past, we blamed those ideologies for ecological crises.
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The Lord’s Way
This Orthodox bishop in the Greek city of Patras was on his way to St Andrew’s Cathedral, the largest church in the country.
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Pope Kicks Off First Trip To Africa In Kenya
Thousands of people braved heavy rain on Thursday to take part in Pope Francis’ open-air mass at a university campus in Kenya’s capital on the pontiff’s first visit to Africa. The front page of Nairobi-based daily The Star, featured the pope’s arrival on Wednesday, where he was welcomed by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. In his […]
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Miraculously Spared
The baroque Merced church is something of a curiosity in Antigua, Guatemala, a city famous for its ruins of colonial churches: It held up admirably well after a series of devastating earthquakes in the 18th and 19th centuries, after which the capital was moved from Antigua to its current location, Guatemala City.
-Analysis- PARIS — The Nov. 13 attacks that saw jihadists slaughter at least 129 people in Paris raise two crucial questions: Who ordered these attacks? And who carried them out? The answer to the first is ISIS, the so-called Islamic State that spreads terror, slaughters Muslims and non-Muslims, destroys treasured monuments inherited from centuries and […]
There are signs that the reaction to Friday’s massacre may unite the country, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, in a more lasting way than the Charlie Hebdo attacks did in January.
Bangkok and other urban areas in Thailand are home to some 8,000 refugees who have fled religious persecution in their home countries. But since the deadly shrine bombing in August, the government has been harassing and arresting illegal immigrants.
Paris Match, Oct. 15, 2015 In an exclusive interview with glossy French magazine Paris Match conducted at his modest apartment in the Vatican, Pope Francis bemoaned greed and the “idolatry of money” that’s driving the world to ruin. The magazine, whose covers more commonly feature celebrities and royals, was invited to the Casa Santa Marta, […]
Church leaders believe Christian missionary work is endangering civil peace as ever more Muslims emigrate to Germany. Limiting proselytizing is a radical break from 2,000 years of practice.
Since the gradual reduction of subsidies from Rome to diocese in the Democratic Republic of Congo, vicars have turned to the faithful to ensure survival of parish churches.
I’ve always thought that the best aspect of religion was art — be it music, architecture or painting. Enough to inspire stubborn unbelievers like me.
Far from rigid Koranic institutes, this new private school in central France is as much about smart boards as religious values. It is also trilingual: French, Arabic and English.
While lawmakers wage political battles every day about how much religion the government should impose, ordinary Israelis, both religious and secular, are surprisingly unified on the notion of keeping the government out of their private lives.
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The Bishop’s Beard
I could never have been a Greek Orthodox bishop: True, the black cassock and the “chimney-pot” style hat look good — but I like to keeep my beard trimmed.
BOGOR — The oldest Buddhist temple in Bogor, West Java, is a silent witness to religious tolerance in the area. Five men gather inside the temple, whose doors are always open for people from different religions to come inside and pray. Sitting behind statues of a Buddhist goddess, the men engage in their weekly communal Koran study group. After the evening prayer, they move to the temple’s kitchen to enjoy tonight’s dinner. “We’ve been doing this for three years now, every Thursday night. It’s a routine,” says Epul Saefullah, who leads this evening’s Koran reading. “At first people asked, “But […]
A German exodus from the church may be chalked up to a small bookkeeping change to federal tax rules. It begs some big questions.
The Church is hugely wealthy and exempt from almost all taxes. But its charitable works are crucial in Greece, ravaged by financial crisis and an inept public sector.
HOLON — “The Bible is great raw material — an eternal soap opera …” The most famous story ever told is the latest subject matter for one of Israel’s best-known satirists, 52-year-old Israeli artist and illustrator Ze’ev Engelmayer. With the opening of his exhibit at Holon’s Israeli Cartoon Museum, Calcalist spoke with Engelmayer about his […]
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Being Gay And Muslim In France
MARSEILLE — Saïd* carries the dishes to the living room table as guests arrive in dribs and drabs with more food in their arms. The atmosphere is cheerful as greetings, kisses and the latest family news are shared with smiles. Earlier in this just-concluded holy month of Ramadan, the members of the Homosexual Muslims of […]
The new series “The Jewish Alley,” set in the early 1950s, is being shown to Egyptian audiences during the Ramadan TV season. Its creator explains why it matters now.
La Stampa takes on big questions in Muslim world with Sunni Islam’s highest authority, who was at a conference in Italy, his first trip to Europe since taking his post in Cairo.
It’s been two decades since the flight of many Kashmiri Hindus after an insurgency targeted them. Now even Kashmir Muslims want them to return.
In this traditionally Catholic province, government authorities are quietly removing the prelates who stayed loyal to the Vatican.
DEIR EZ-ZOR — As soon as ISIS fighters fully seized Deir ez-Zor, they made a number of draconian changes, one of which was to close schools. After a lengthy period, during which teachers were required to attend training courses in Islamic education, the schools reopened. The city’s schools are no longer housed in public buildings. Residents instead have volunteered their houses as classrooms and supplies, such as desks and boards, have been moved there from the schools. The curriculum has been modified — many subjects were omitted, while others were added — and the number of schools is limited, as […]
VILLENEUVE D’ASCQ — Envelopes and calendars, decorative stickers, headscarves, prayer rugs and small copies of the Koran: Samia el-Alaoui Talibi, 54, has her car’s trunk packed full of gifts. A trained mathematician, she’s one of the only Muslim women in France to work as a prison chaplain. The presents she brings are for the convicts […]
-Essay- PARIS — Once again, the Nepalese are burying their dead and tending to their wounds. It’s impossible to rebuild for now while everything is still so wobbly. Between the houses that disappeared, the villages erased, the roads cut, the survivors are trembling — for the present suffering as much as for the colossal task […]
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Balinese Balancing
Religious offerings are important on the Indonesian island of Bali. Long processions of women can be seen threading their way to the Hindu temples, carrying towers of flowers, fruit, cakes, meats and eggs on their heads, often for long distances.
LONDON — At London’s Ladbroke Grove Tube station, a very steep set of stairs leads down to street level. If you turn right at the foot of the stairs it is only a short stroll to the famous Portobello Market and the even more famous Nottinghill, with its pubs and clubs, designer shops and cream […]