Religion News Australia 2016 - 16 (Apr 17

Religion News Australia 2016 - 16 (Apr 17 - 24)

(23 April 16)
by Greg Spearritt

Religion News Australia

April 17 - 24, 2016

Religion news stories from Australia

(Research: Greg Spearritt)

abuse / arts & entertainment / education / international stories / islam / politics / religion & society

ABUSE

Student given sedative before being raped by priest at Sunbury boarding school, court told (ABC News)
Apr 19 - A Catholic priest drugged a student with a sedative-laced soft drink before raping him in his office at a boarding school in Melbourne's outer north-west almost 30 years ago, a court has been told.

Blind-reported child sex abuse cases may be reopened after hundreds not investigated (ABC News)
Apr 20 - Hundreds of cases of child sex abuse going back decades may be reopened after the Catholic Church publicly abandoned a controversial practice known as blind reporting.

Neerkol orphanage probe raises systemic abuse issues (Sydney Morning Herald)
Apr 22 - Sadistic nuns at a notorious Queensland orphanage dished out abuse in a toxic environment that festered due in part to inadequate government scrutiny, supervision and training, a royal commission has found.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

When Waleed Aly met Susan Carland (The Australian)
Apr 22 - Waleed Aly was 16 and living with his parents when Susan Carland, also 16 at the time, knocked on his door.

EDUCATION

Fire engulfs building at Wesley College, Glen Waverley (The Age, Melbourne)
Apr 20 - A fire that ripped through ten classrooms at an exclusive Melbourne school was caused by an electrical fault.

The horrifying religious instruction classes planned for Qld schools (Brisbane Times)
Apr 21 - This semester's planned religious instruction classes ask 10-year-old's to act out a beheading.

Generate Ministries to reap $4m from National School Chaplaincy scheme in 2016 (Sydney Morning Herald)
Apr 24 - Evangelical Christian groups continue to dominate funding granted in the National School Chaplaincy scheme, earning millions of dollars despite new rules imposed by the NSW education department.

INTERNATIONAL STORIES

Catholic Church

Vatican’s suspension of major PwC audit exposes internal rift (The Guardian, Australia)
Apr 22 - The Vatican has suspended its first audit by a major accounting firm in a move that raises new questions about the Catholic church’s commitment to cleaning up its finances.

Islam

Swiss halt Muslim family's citizenship process after refusal to shake hands (The Guardian, Australia)
Apr 20 - Switzerland has suspended the citizenship process for the family of two teenage Muslim brothers after the boys’ refusal to shake hands with their female teachers sparked a national debate over religious freedoms.

#HijabDay: European students don headscarves to promote tolerance. It didn't go that well (Sydney Morning Herald)
Apr 22 - "France got 99 problems -- But hijab ain't one," one poster held aloft by French student activists read Wednesday.

Latvia wants to ban full-face veils, for all three women who wear them (Sydney Morning Herald)
Apr 23 - Zaube, Latvia: With her niqab, a face-covering Islamic veil that reveals just the wearer's eyes, Liga Legzdina stands out amid pine trees, grasslands and wood-paneled cottages in the Latvian hamlet of Zaube.

Religious Violence

Jihadis plan to bomb resorts (The Australian)
Apr 20 - European security services have warned of Islamic State plots to attack Mediterranean beach resorts.

Islamic State could steal Pakistan's nuclear weapons and make 'dirty bomb', defence analysts warn (ABC News)
Apr 21 - The mounting concern of an Islamic State presence in Pakistan has put the spotlight on the security of the country's nuclear arsenal.

Ultra-Orthodox Jew Yishai Schlissel guilty of gay hate stabbings (The Australian)
Apr 21 - An Israeli court yesterday convicted an ultra-Orthodox man of murder and six counts of attempted murder over stabbings at a Jerusalem Gay Pride parade last July that killed a 16-year-old girl.

Bangladeshi professor killed in suspected Islamist attack (ABC News)
Apr 21 - Unidentified attackers hacked to death a university professor in Bangladesh, police said, adding that the assault bore the hallmarks of previous killings by Islamist militants of secular and atheist activists.

Islamic State offers $50 a month to fighters - but more if they own sex slaves (Sydney Morning Herald)
Apr 23 - Washington: The base salary offered to the worker named al-Jiburi was a pittance, just $US50 a month. But even the cash-challenged Islamic State knew it had to do more to sustain the loyalty of a man with nine mouths to feed.

ISIS executes 250 girls for refusing to become sex slaves (news.com.au)
Apr 23 - ISLAMIC State militants have reportedly executed 250 women after they refused to take part in sexual jihad.

Islamic State ‘wires’ entire suburbs to blow, senior army official reveals (news.com.au)
Apr 24 - IT is well understood that the Islamic State is a new kind of enemy, but the head of the Australian forces at Iraq’s Camp Taji, north of Baghdad, describes a new kind of war – albeit one with echoes to the past.

Also: Islamic State mines kill dozens of civilians returning to Ramadi (Seven News)
Apr 24 - BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Explosives planted by Islamic State have killed dozens of Iraqi civilians who returned to Ramadi despite warnings that much of the western city remains unsafe nearly four months after its recapture from the militants.

Other

Governor rejects push to recognise Bible as 'official state book of Tennessee' (The Age, Melbourne)
Apr 18 - Los Angeles: The official rock of Tennessee is limestone.

Fortescue Metals Group loses Peter Meurs to the Mormons (The Age, Melbourne)
Apr 18 - It took something special to lure former Worley Parsons executive Peter Meurs away from the board of Fortescue Metals Group.

Melting pot of beliefs in Colombo (Seven News)
Apr 18 - In the middle of a Colombo street, four shirtless men are beating drums as a rush of people surge past them.

How my camera helped me re-focus on my faith (The Guardian, Australia)
Apr 22 – (Opinion: Jim Grover) One Friday afternoon in late summer of 2014, I walked into a church that I had never entered, even though it is just around the corner from my home of 17 years, in Clapham, south London.

ISLAM

Grand mufti sues News Corp's Daily Telegraph for defamation (The Guardian, Australia)
Apr 23 - The grand mufti of Australia is suing Sydney’s Daily Telegraph for defamation over two stories and a front page it ran in the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks depicting him as the three “unwise” monkeys.

POLITICS

Bob Baldwin 'embarrassed' after attending 'anti-muslim' meeting (Sydney Morning Herald)
Apr 23 - A federal MP who attended a protest meeting for a group linked to Reclaim Australia says he was "embarrassed and disappointed" that the event had an "anti muslim" agenda.

Scott Morrison tells Australian Christian Lobby budget will focus on tax and jobs (The Guardian, Australia)
Apr 23 - Jobs, economic growth and tax reform will be priorities in thecoming federal budget, the treasurer, Scott Morrison, has told a conference of the Australian Christian Lobby.

RELIGION & SOCIETY

Divided Melbourne: when the archbishop turned St Patrick's Day into propaganda (The Guardian, Australia)
Apr 22 - Fourteen Australian recipients of the highest Commonwealth military honour, the Victoria Cross, are mounted on grey charges.

Faith: The journey begins with language (Brisbane Times)
Apr 23 – (Opinion: Gary Heard ) Learning to speak another language is a challenging exercise, but the older one is, the more difficult the challenge.

From the Archive…

Religion News Australia 2016 – 15 (Apr 10 - 17)

Religion News Australia 2016 – 14 (Apr 3 - 10)

Religion News Australia 2016 – 13 (Mar 27 – Apr 3)

Religion News Australia 2016 – 12 (Mar 20 - 27)

Religion News Australia 2016 – 11 (Mar 13 - 20)

Religion News Australia 2016 – 10 (Mar 6 - 13)

Religion News Australia 2016 – 9 (Feb 28 – Mar 6)

Religion News Australia 2016 – 8 (Feb 21 - 28)

Religion News Australia 2016 – 7 (Feb 14 - 21)

Religion News Australia 2016 – 6 (Feb 7 - 14)

Religion News Australia 2016 – 5 (Jan 31 – Feb 7)