Religion News Australia 2015 - 8 (Mar 8

Religion News Australia 2015 - 8 (Mar 8 - 15)

(15 March 15)
by Greg Spearritt

Religion News Australia

March 8 - 15, 2015

Religion news stories from Australia

(Research: Greg Spearritt)

anglican church / international stories / islam / religion & society

ANGLICAN CHURCH

New Town's St John's Anglican Church combines history with modern day services (ABC News)
Mar 14 - St John's Anglican Church's Senior Minister Bill Stewart is trying to blend the congregation's history with contemporary services.

INTERNATIONAL STORIES

Catholic Church

Vatican receives ransom demand for Michelangelo letters stolen nearly 20 years ago (ABC News)
Mar 9 - The Vatican says it has received a ransom demand for the return of two rare documents written by Renaissance master Michelangelo that were stolen from its archives nearly 20 years ago.

Pope declares jubilee in powerful reform signal (The West Australian)
Mar 14 - Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis on Friday marked the second anniversary of his election by declaring a jubilee year that will be interpreted as a powerful signal of his commitment to reforming the Church.

Islam

Germany says Muslim teachers can wear headscarf unless disruptive (The West Australian)
Mar 13 - Berlin (AFP) - Germany's top court said Friday that Muslim teachers can wear the Islamic headscarf in class as long as it doesn't disrupt school activities, in a ruling likely to revive emotional debate.

Italy seeks to block regional "anti-mosque law" (The West Australian)
Mar 14 - Rome (AFP) - The Italian government has moved to block new building regulations for Lombardy which would make it virtually impossible to build any new mosques in the northern region, officials said Friday.

Judaism

Warsaw museum celebrates Jewish life (The West Australian)
Mar 13 - Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett stresses the mantra of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews: "This is a museum celebrating the lives of those who lived in Poland for 1000 years. The Holocaust was not the only chapter of Jewish life in Poland, nor was it the end."

Religious Violence

‘Jihadi John’ apologises to his family (The Courier-Mail, Brisbane)
Mar 9 - MOHAMMED Emwazi has reportedly apologised to his family for the problems he has caused them after being unmasked as Islamic State executioner ‘Jihadi John’.

Islamic State jihadists returning from Iraq sparks rejuvenated terror threat from Indonesia (ABC News)
Mar 11 - One of the leading experts on south-east Asian extremist groups is warning that jihadists returning from Iraq and Syria could rejuvenate terrorism in Indonesia.

Video presents 10-year-old boy as Islamic State executioner (news.com.au)
Mar 11 - HE’S just a boy.

Street preacher and ISIS supporter Abdul Salam Mahmoud reportedly killed in Syria (Brisbane Times)
Mar 11 - An Australian street preacher has reportedly been killed in a regime stronghold in Syria that has been a focal point of rebel fighting.

Iraqi forces pause in battle to drive Islamic State from Tikrit (The West Australian)
Mar 13 - BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Frustrated by guerrilla tactics from Islamic State militants, Iraqi forces paused for reinforcements on Friday in a major offensive to take back the city of Tikrit.

200 witchdoctors arrested in Tanzania crackdown (The West Australian)
Mar 14 - Dar es Salaam (AFP) - Over 200 people have been arrested in Tanzania as part of a nationwide crackdown on witchdoctors linked to a wave of albino attacks and murders, police said Thursday.

Also: Tanzania cracks down on albino attacks (Brisbane Times)
Mar 13 - Dar es Salaam: More than 200 people have been arrested in Tanzania as part of a nationwide crackdown on witchdoctors linked to a wave of albino attacks and murders.

Children rescued from Boko Haram so traumatised they have forgotten their names (Sydney Morning Herald)
Mar 14 - Nairobi, Kenya: After years in a Boko Haram camp, the children had forgotten their native language. They couldn't even remember their names.

Kurdish fighters hold funeral for Australian ex-soldier killed fighting Islamic State militants (ABC News)
Mar 14 - Kurdish fighters in northern Syria have held a funeral for Australian recruit Ashley Johnston, who was killed during an assault against Islamic State fighters last month.

Luring children to fight in Syria is like paedophiles grooming victims, say experts (Brisbane Times)
Mar 14 - Australian kids are being lured to the Islamic State by recruiters who operate in the same way as paedophiles grooming their victims, experts say.

Iraqi Kurds say Islamic State used chlorine gas against them (Brisbane Times)
Mar 15 - Erbil, Iraq: Iraqi Kurdish authorities say they have evidence that the so-called Islamic State used chlorine gas against their fighters in northern Iraq in January.

Other

China accuses Dalai Lama of 'profaning' Buddhism by signalling end to reincarnation (ABC News)
Mar 11 - A bizarre dispute involving the Dalai Lama and the Chinese Communist Party has broken out at China's annual meeting of parliament.

Utah gays, Mormons agree on LGBT anti-discrimination law (The West Australian)
Mar 13 - Los Angeles (AFP) - New legislation to protect gays went into effect in Utah, after approval of a compromise bill backed by the state's homosexual community and religious advocates, including its powerful Mormon bloc.

ISLAM

Muslim leaders call for access to Queensland jails to help de-radicalisation (The Courier-Mail, Brisbane)
Mar 9 - MORE sheikhs and imams must be allowed into prisons to deliver de-radicalisation messages and prevent the state’s jails becoming breeding grounds for Islamic extremism.

Muslim community leader blames Islamic State's slick propaganda for luring Sydney teens (ABC News)
Mar 9 - A Muslim community leader says an attempt by two Sydney boys to head to Syria to fight for Islamic State is proof that not enough is being done to counter the extremist group's slick propaganda.

'Britain's white jihadi' actually a gifted Aussie school dropout called Jake now fighting for Islamic State (Sydney Morning Herald)
Mar 9 - The Islamic State recruit the UK media decried as "Britain's White Jihadi" in December, proclaiming he was a "major coup for the terrorist group", is actually a skinny, baby-faced boy from Craigieburn in Melbourne's northern suburbs, and his non-Muslim family is worried sick about him.

Jay-Leighsa Bauman faces court, accused of online abuse of lawyer Mariam Veiszadeh (Brisbane Times)
Mar 11 - An Ipswich woman alleged to have subjected a prominent Australian Muslim woman to a barrage of religious hate online has made her first appearance in court.

Countering Muslim radicalisation demands strong measures (Brisbane Times)
Mar 11 – (Opinion: Anthony Whealy) Radicalisation of young Muslim men (and perhaps women) is a burning current topic in Australian society.

Australian 'white jihadi' teen Jake Bilardi involved in Islamic State suicide bombing: report (Brisbane Times)
Mar 12 - A Melbourne schoolboy who travelled to the Middle East to fight with Islamic State has reportedly been involved in a suicide bombing in Iraq.

Also: Aussie teen's perplexing path from online radicalisation to violent death (Brisbane Times)
Mar 12 – (Opinion: Editorial) Jake Bilardi, the Melbourne teenager believed to have been killed in Iraq this week in the cause of the Islamic State, was the most plausible – and at the same time – the most improbable of candidates for radicalisation.

Also: Joining jihad: Australians who have gone to fight in Iraq and Syria (Brisbane Times)
Mar 12 - Joining jihad: Australians who have gone to fight in Iraq and Syria.

Also: How Islamic State used social media to report alleged death of Melbourne teen Jake Bilardi (Brisbane Times)
Mar 12 - In the early hours of Thursday, a photograph appeared on Twitter showing a young man behind the wheel of a white four-wheel-drive on a dusty street in an unnamed city.

Ex-jihadists could be used to counter extremist message (Sydney Morning Herald)
Mar 14 - Reformed jihadists who have been to the Middle East and returned home disillusioned could be used as poster boys and girls to combat the tidal wave of extremist propaganda on the internet.

Reclaim Australia "anti-Islamisation" march to hit Brisbane streets (Brisbane Times)
Mar 14 - Organisers of next month's Reclaim Australia march in Brisbane say they just want a peaceful event to "have their voices heard" as they campaign against "extremism", including halal.

RELIGION & SOCIETY

Backlash after anti-marriage equality ad debuts on Mardi Gras night (Sydney Morning Herald)
Mar 9 - Broadcaster SBS pulled the Australian Marriage Forum's anti same-sex marriage television advertisement from its Sunday night telecast of the 37th Sydney Mardi Gras.

'Submission' to my husband allows us both to flourish in our marriage (Sydney Morning Herald)
Mar 9 – (Opinion: Sarah Colyer) Recent articles in this newspaper about evangelical churches' "oppressive" doctrine of male headship reveal a complete failure to understand the Christian psyche.

Churches should fund research into domestic violence within their ranks: Christian group (Brisbane Times)
Mar 13 - Church groups should fund a study into the prevalence of domestic violence within their ranks and clerical responses to it, according to a proposal by the country's leading independent Christian research and media organisation.