For the past 50 years, religion has been a key element in Moroccan diplomacy with its African neighbors. Now it’s part of the fight against Islamic terrorism on the continent.
Tag: religion
After the head of a kindergarten near Munich announced plans to tie the knot with her girlfriend, her work contract was terminated. LGBT activists (and parents) are outraged.
It’s an untold story that offers hope during troubled times in Europe, the Middle East and beyond. Anna Boros survived the Holocaust thanks to a courageous Egyptian doctor.
MUMBAI — Thirty-five-year old Praveen Kumar worked as a deliveryman at a slaughter house, carrying meat to retail markets around Mumbai. But last month, he lost his job when the slaughterhouse was shut down following the state government’s new ban on beef. “Here I was earning about $7 a day, and life had become much easier. I was able to keep my wife and three children happy,” he said. “But with this ban now I can’t even afford two proper meals for my family and my children may also have to leave school because I can’t pay the fees.” Selling […]
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Evening Cleansing
The sun setting on Varanasi’s Dashashwamedh Ghat added a certain majesty to these Hindu pilgrims’ ritual ablutions in the Ganges.
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Buddha Watching
In the heart of the Kathmandu valley lies one of the most sacred and oldest Buddhist pilgrimage sites. At the top of the Swayambhunath dome, or stupa, Buddha is looking in all four directions. At this particular moment, I was hoping it meant a special protective glance over these two Nepalese cleaners, standing dangerously close […]
In a middle-class home in southern France live a survivor of World War II, her daughter and granddaughters. All three generations are Jewish, but both past and recent history dictate a certain reticence of their identity.
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What Now For Charlie Hebdo?
PARIS — The odd collection of people visiting the building today includes cartoonists and anti-bomb experts. Also in attendance is the new director of Charlie Hebdo, Riss, whose right arm has been in a sling since one of the bullets fired by the Kouachi brothers shattered his shoulder blade before coming out behind his shoulder. […]
It’s not important whether Islam is “a part of Germany,” as the country is debating. Fascism once was utterly German. The real question is, will Muslim leaders accept reason and freedom as the central values of society?
One month after the nation-changing attacks on the French satirical magazine, a look at the daily life of a Muslim religious leader of good faith.
Thanks to the French-language website Hip Hop We Trust, created by the collective of graphic designers We.ch, religious hip hop devotees can sample audio recordings of texts from the Bible, the Torah, the Koran or Buddhist scriptures with top French and U.S. rappers such as 2Pac, Eminem, RZA, IAM or NTM. “”This is my sound, […]
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Mini Brides
For their First Communion, these German mädchen were still dressed as little brides, before albs became more customary.
-OpEd- PARIS — Although the time for emotion and indignation about the recent terrorism in France is barely over, the moment for deeper reflection has arrived. What needs serious consideration, without prejudice or exaggeration, is the French way of dealing with cultural pluralism. The link between this subject and recent events is plain to see. […]
A satirical comedy about an alien who comes to earth and questions religious dogma has found an enemy among many of India’s Hindus. A new view after the Charlie Hebdo killings.
ISTANBUL — Instead of discussing the Paris massacres and the ties between Islam and terrorism, Turkey has instead been focused on “Islamophobia.” Someone not following the news could mistakenly believe, based on the debate here, that there had been a violent attack against Muslims in France instead of a jihadist terrorist attack against journalists, Jews […]
The discourse of East and West, and specifically Islamic East and Christian West, is flawed and implicitly destined for conflict. A view from Latin America as Paris burns.
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The Candlelit Path To Nirvana
It only seems fitting that to achieve Nirvana — or, as it is sometimes referred to in the West, “enlightenment” — some Buddhists would turn to burning candles. This woman picked the right place to pray: The ancient city of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka was the center of Theravada Buddhism for many centuries.
This thing called freedom lives in its most extreme form in satire, which by definition can never be blasphemy.
JERUSALEM — I was walking down Via Dolorosa — the Way of the Cross in Jerusalem. In front of me were three young Germans. They found the whole thing laughable, and kept confirming this to each other by pointing out all the stupid details. “Here, look, we’re at the next station. What does it say […]
Nicknamed the “atheists’ cafe,” police say there was evidence of devil worship at the shop. Twitter users are now mocking Cairo authorities, asking when the war on vampires begins.
Chile has the largest Palestinian population outside the Arab world. This neighborhood in Santiago is bound by a singular mix of history, soccer and headlines coming out of Gaza.
WALIKALE — They swapped their firearms for spades, machettes and hoes. Until very recently, the young people here used to be members of armed groups in Congo’s North Kivu that boasted names such as Kifua Fua (Stuck-out Chest) or Raia Mutomboki (Revolutionary People). But on this Saturday in early November, they are repairing a road […]
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Stairs And Saris
These students’ colorful saris contrasted nicely with the white marble of Ranakpur’s Jain temple, dedicated to Adinatha, the founder of Jainism.
REGENSBURG — A day in the life of Sister Lydia: 4:45 a.m.: get up. 5:40 a.m.: prayer, 30 minutes. 6:15 a.m.: Divine Office, 30 minutes. 7 a.m.: Holy Mass. 7:45 a.m.: breakfast. 8 to 11 a.m.: work. 11 a.m.: Divine Office, 30 minutes. 11:30 a.m.: Lunch followed by kitchen work and rest. In the afternoon: […]
The idea of today’s neuroscientists and radical secularists that human beings are nothing more than cell matter is not only arrogant, it is a theory that is self-defeating to the core.
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Give And Take
No, these monks are not giving food to destitute people, quite the opposite. In Thailand, the giving of alms is not considered charity — it is part of a two-way relationship: The community feeds and clothes the monks, who in return have a responsability to support the community spiritually.
A Turkish immigrant playwright in Germany explores the meaning and theater of a religious rite that divides modern society.
A somewhat unusual event was held over the weekend in a park in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, called “I want to touch a dog.” The idea was organized through Facebook in order to introduce Muslims to dogs, and more than 800 people attended, Asia One reports. Many came to see and be near the dogs, and […]
Exclusive: A historian has identified Pope Francis’ birthplace in Buenos Aires, after false reports of where he was born circulated following his election last year.
One slipped away, the other killed his way out of ISIS after witnessing too much brutality from the jihadist group. But as they tell their dramatic stories, sharp differences emerge.
After militants serve time in Guantanamo or Saudi prisons, the kingdom tries to ease them back into society with a mix of carrot, stick and religion.
Will Divine Providence, or “Bible roulette,” play a role in the outcome of next month’s Brazilian elections?
TEHRAN — Every evening, Youseph walks by the mosque in Tehran’s Fatemi Square. Before heading towards his house, he looks up at the portraits of Ayatollah Khomeini and Iran’s current Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that are on the walls of the building. Then he crosses the street and descends the hill to where he lives. […]
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The Nun And The News
This nun walking under St. Peter’s Square’s colossal colonnades was looking at copies of L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s official newspaper founded in 1861. Zooming in, I was able to see that the front page was about Pope John XXIII’s encyclical Mater et Magistra on the topic of Christianity and social progress — written four years […]
Designers in Poland are giving religious T-shirts and other products a hipster makeover, mixing pop culture with the Bible to create a uniquely 21st-century look.
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Nirvana Starts Young
Nepalese prayer wheels come in all shapes and sizes. This one wouldn’t quite fit in my luggage, so I brought a smaller one back home.
Protests over the weekend in major European cities to support the people of Gaza were fertile ground for a growing movement of anti-Semitism.
The construction of Pakistan’s next tallest building in Karachi is seen by the country’s Hindu minority yet another attack in this Muslim-majority country of 180 million.
To be honest, with such strange feet, I’m not surprised Buddha preferred to lie down … To give you a rough idea of the size of this reclining Buddha in the Wat Pho temple, there’s a man at the bottom left corner of the slide.
VATICAN CITY — To the priests who invited him to take a vacation with them, the late Cardinal Alberto Idelfonso Schuster of Milan replied, smiling, that there would be plenty of time for that in the afterlife. Pope Francis — the Jesuit whose agenda would wear out any 40-something — seems to be inspired by […]